In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate, yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
I'm sorry.
That's bold,
killing somebody with all these windows here.
This time of night, this neighborhood,
everybody's asleep by the 10:00 news.
Bet you anything not a single witness.
I'll take that bet. What you got?
DOA is Alexander Lockett, owner of the house.
911 call came in at 12:09 from a neighbor,
who heard multiple gunshots.
- Any witnesses? - None so far.
CSU found a wallet and cell phone inside his suit jacket.
Anything missing from inside the house?
Not that we could tell.
It doesn't seem like a robbery.
Unless the killer was looking for something specific.
What do you got?
Shot three times in the chest at close range.
Shell casings are here, 9-millimeter.
Alexander Lockett,
chief revenue officer at Finley Madison.
The department store.
I was just there buying a present for my wife.
It's our anniversary. - Oh, yeah?
- Place was a ghost town. - Yeah.
Brick and mortar retail is dead.
No offense.
Alexander Lockett was divorced.
Got a grown daughter, Melinda.
She's living in Ohio. She's en route.
What about the ex-wife?
They split up a decade ago.
She's a diplomat posted in Australia.
Confirmed with the state department
that she hasn't been back home all year.
The guy was a boy scout, former colonel in the army.
Served in Iraq.
Moved into the private sector ten years ago.
Hit it big as an executive
at a mall brand department store, Finley Madison.
Neighbors all say he was a stand-up guy.
Lived alone, but he was friendly and respectful.
Well, somebody wanted him dead.
I mean, a swanky place like that,
he must have had Fort Knox-level security.
He's got cameras covering the backyard,
but the security system's log shows the footage was deleted
via the app on Lockett's phone at 12:10 a.m.
Right after his neighbors heard shots.
Do we have anything on the gun?
We're canvassing the area for the murder weapon,
and we're also looking for any video we can find.
You know, that guy is awfully dressed up
for a midnight smoke under the stars.
I wonder where he came from, who he was with.
Financial workup just came in.
Shows where Lockett's credit card was last used.
Alex is a regular.
Great guy. Really generous tipper.
He lives--
lived in the neighborhood.
Do you know who he was here with that night?
Yeah, the woman he's been seeing for a while.
- What time did they leave? - Which one?
They left at different times.
Different times?
None of my business, but something was off.
They're usually very lovey-dovey,
but a place like this, you can't help
but notice raised voices.
They definitely argued until she ran out.
And Lockett didn't go after her?
No, he sulked over his whiskey and then paid.
This girlfriend, you got a name?
Yeah, she's the one that made the reservation.
I can't believe he's dead.
Who would do something like that to him?
Can I ask you
how long you two had been seeing each other?
Four months, but it felt like longer.
We were making life plans together.
He was gonna introduce me to his daughter.
Does Melinda know?
She's been notified. Yes, ma'am.
I understand you and Alexander
got in a fight last night.
We had an argument.
Disagreement in a relationship is normal.
It's healthy even.
Well, I guess that depends
on what the argument is about, right?
Well, Alex had been under a lot of stress lately,
and last night, he was in a particularly dark mood.
But when I asked him what was wrong, he refused to tell me.
I chose to remove myself from the situation.
Obviously, I regret that now.
I know you said that Mr. Lockett
didn't share his feelings with you last night,
but do you have a theory about what was bothering him?
Not specifically, but it--
it definitely had something to do with work.
Employees all loved Alex.
He was tough but fair.
And he cared, like, for real.
He worked hard to keep people employed,
but not his fault the company is failing.
So you don't know anybody who would have wanted to hurt him?
Well, I didn't say that.
Yesterday, Sonya Chakrabarti, the CFO, ripped him--
had words with him.
- What kind of words? - Excessively harsh ones.
It was more like a verbal MMA fight, really.
Here's Alex's office.
Looks more than verbal to me.
Before Sonya stormed out of his office,
she grabbed a glass paperweight and threw it at him.
Just missed his head.
What do you think she was so mad about?
I think they were having an affair.
- Why do you say that? - She kept yelling at him.
"I'm sick of all the secrets," or something like that.
This Sonya Chakrabarti, where's her office?
Second door on the right, but she's working from home today.
- Sonia Chakrabarti. - Where are you headed?
I have a plane to catch. What's this all about?
We need to ask you some questions
about Alexander Lockett.
I'm not saying a word without my lawyer.
In that case,
it looks like you're missing your flight.
I assure you, I was not having an affair
with Alex Lockett.
Yeah, we saw the crater you left in his office wall.
You've got a good arm.
You were tired of being his little secret.
You wanted to go public, but he broke it off.
That would make anybody angry.
Why must men always reduce a woman down to sex?
My client is the chief financial officer
of a Fortune 500 company, Detective.
A position I take very seriously.
So why the yelling match?
Fraud.
I discovered that Alex had secured
a $300 million bank loan from the company.
As CFO, isn't that something you should have handled?
Exactly. That's why I was upset.
He went behind my back.
Any reason why?
He inflated the company's earning projections,
wanted to make sure the bank said yes.
So you were upset?
Upset enough to throw a heavy object at him?
That's correct.
But I didn't kill him, for God's sake.
But the truth is,
I really liked Alex.
He was a good man.
Just in over his head, if you ask me.
Meaning what?
Meaning he wasn't cut out for the corporate world.
Didn't like all the politics.
Just did what the CEO told him.
Why on Earth would I murder Alex?
To cover up financial crimes that you made him commit.
Any exposure could lead to an SEC investigation, fines.
Maybe you're looking at jail time.
Guy like you, you don't want.
Except there was no crime.
We found video of you on Alexander's block
less than an hour before he ended up
with three bullets in his chest.
You just couldn't be sure he'd keep his mouth shut.
I went there to calm Alex down,
assure him Sonya's hysterics had no merit.
You scammed $300 million with made up numbers.
You call that no merit?
Projections are made up numbers by definition.
What we did was perfectly legal.
There's no law against being optimistic.
So why cut your CFO out of the loop?
Because she has no financial imagination.
So I told Alex to handle it. Simple as that.
So Alexander had the imagination.
No, but he followed orders.
He was former army, a good soldier.
I knew I could count on him.
Alex was alive and well
when I left his house a little before midnight.
Feel free to verify with my driver.
Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen,
I have a company to run.
It's Dixon.
We need to get back to the crime scene.
What's up?
Alexander's daughter just got there.
She says something is missing from his brownstone.
I'm not the kind of person
who can just sit around and wallow,
so I figured I'd start putting together
the outfit my father would want to be buried in.
That's when I discovered it was missing.
You're saying it was a medal.
A Distinguished Service Cross.
That's one of the highest commendations there is.
It was in honor of his service
as the base commander of Camp Victory in Iraq.
It meant a lot to him.
And you're sure it was stolen?
Yes, it was framed on the wall right here.
Nothing else is missing or out of place?
No, just that.
Do you know of any reason
why someone would want to take that?
No, it wasn't worth a lot of money or anything.
It doesn't make any sense.
So if the medal was stolen by whoever murdered Lockett,
that must mean his death is somehow related
to his military career.
Yeah, and we think we know how.
Yee went through traffic cam videos
from Lockett's neighborhood
from around the time of the murder.
Now, she cross-referenced veteran records
with vehicle registration records and got a hit.
A brown and tan truck shows up multiple times
in the 20-minute window before Lockett was shot.
Just circling the block
while the CEO is inside with Lockett.
It's registered to a Shane Risner.
36. Single. Spotty employment records.
Spotty because Risner was dishonorably discharged
from the army back in 2008.
And guess what?
The court martial was signed
by none other than U.S. Army Colonel Alexander T. Lockett.
So our vic DD'ed this guy?
And that stain follows you around for life.
You lose your VA benefits,
don't qualify for unemployment, can't get a loan.
So this Shane Risner is just looking for revenge.
Mm.
Let's go find him.
Police. Open up.
What's going on?
We'll looking for Shane Risner.
You're a little late.
Why is that? He take off somewhere?
No, he died three days ago.
Shane Risner died by suicide
a day before Lockett was murdered.
The system hadn't updated yet.
That's why we didn't know.
He OD'd on meds and left a note.
So who the hell is driving around in the truck?
Don't know. The traffic cams
didn't get a clear shot of the driver's face.
I'm guessing it was somebody close to Risner,
who blamed Lockett for the suicide.
And took Risner's truck to go and kill him?
Well, how else do you explain the coincidence?
I've got something.
I was able to access the anti-theft device
on Risner's truck.
It's on the move, heading east onto 80 outside Newark.
All right, I'll contact Jersey State Police
and Essex County Sheriff's Department.
Target vehicle has parked
in the Saint Teresa's parking lot on 44th.
Hold on.
I know that guy.
That's Shane Risner's associate.
They served together in Iraq.
Vincent Martinez.
It's got to be him.
This has got to be Risner's funeral.
Oh, we need to grab him now. - No. Hey, Frank.
Frank, no, no, no.
Look, you and I can go in there and keep eyes on Martinez,
and we can wait for a discreet moment to approach after.
- Discreet? - Yeah.
This guy is murder suspect number one.
We don't know if he's armed,
whether he's going in there to shoot up the place.
He's not gonna shoot up the place.
It's a veteran's funeral.
- So? - So?
Frank, my brother's in the military.
My father was.
These funerals matter,
so let's just try to show them some respect, huh?
- Discreet. - Discreet.
Damn it.
NYPD! Stop!
Sergeant Martinez, you're under arrest
for the murder of Alexander Lockett.
Discreet enough for you?
I'm telling you, I had nothing to do
with Colonel Lockett's death.
Shane Risner's father said
you bought Shane's truck from him.
The same truck that was parked
outside the colonel's house
the night he was killed--
your former commanding officer.
Sergeant, you're looking at murder two.
25 to life.
I'm telling you, it wasn't me.
The night before last, I was at a bar
with some buddies from the unit.
Millie's.
We used to go there with Shane
before his lungs were so shredded
he could barely leave the house.
Shane was sick?
He was dying.
Pulmonary fibrosis.
Suicide was just a shortcut,
but you can't put that in the obit.
You guys were in Iraq.
Burn pits.
Army burned all kinds of nasty-ass stuff.
And we'd just breathe in the smoke,
day in and day out.
And now, we all got problems.
You blame Lockett for that?
I don't blame anybody for anything.
And I was at the bar till closing.
Look, I know you guys got a raw deal over there,
but, Sergeant, it was your truck.
If you weren't driving, who was?
I don't know anything about that.
CSU found blood in the truck.
It's a DNA match. Alexander Lockett.
Well, that explains why Martinez ran.
No, his alibi is airtight.
He was at that bar, Millie's, all night.
There's video of him.
He couldn't have killed Lockett.
I bet he knows who did.
I've been running the prints CSU lifted
from the interior of the truck.
Three latents from the driver's side door
belonged to a Luke Fallon.
He served in the same unit as Risner and Martinez.
At the funeral, there was a picture at the entrance.
There was three guys:
Martinez, Risner, and the third guy.
That's the third guy.
Fallon has a registered gun, a SIG Sauer P365.
That's a 9-mil.
Same caliber used to kill Lockett.
All right. Let's bring this guy in.
His address is in New Jersey, but his Metro card
was just used 19 minutes ago to board a Q39 bus in Sunnyside.
Queens.
Where's he going?
I think I know.
Luke Fallon, NYPD. Show me your hands.
Show me your hands!
Keep them up.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, put that hand up.
Put that hand up.
What do you know?
Lockett's medal.
I just got a call
from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense
looking for a status report
on the case against Colonel Alexander Lockett's killer.
That's an impressive level of investment.
Lockett retired almost a decade ago.
Active service or not,
the army notices when a decorated war hero
is brutally murdered.
What did you tell them?
That justice will be served.
I assume you agree. - I do.
Even though you can't place Fallon at the murder scene.
I can come close.
I can put him in the truck,
where Lockett's blood was found on the night of the murder.
How?
I'm gonna call Vincent Martinez.
I thought Martinez wasn't interested in cooperating.
He wasn't
until I threatened to charge him with accomplice to murder.
He'll be a hostile witness.
Mr. Martinez, how do you know the defendant?
We were stationed together in Iraq.
Camp Victory, just outside Baghdad.
We served on the same unit from 2006 to 2008.
And did you see the defendant on September 27,
the day that Alexander Lockett was murdered?
I don't know.
You don't know if you saw him or not?
I don't know.
Yeah, I guess I saw him that day.
And did Luke Fallon ask
if he could borrow your truck that evening?
Mr. Martinez?
I have nothing to say.
Answer the question, Mr. Martinez.
I'm sorry, but no.
Answer the question,
or you'll be held in contempt of court.
- Mr. Martinez-- - You do what you have to do.
- Please, Your Honor-- - I'm serious, Mr. Martinez.
And so am I.
Then I find you in contempt.
Officer, take charge.
So what exactly are we hoping to find here?
Anything to salvage this case.
Oh, just that?
If we could find video or a witness
that saw Luke Fallon in Risner's truck that night,
then we could at least place him at Lockett's house
when the murder occurred. - We tried.
The only video that we could recover,
other than the traffic cam that was near Lockett's brownstone,
was off of an exit of Garden State Parkway at 12:58 a.m.
But the visor was down, so we couldn't see who was driving.
Well, that's less than an hour after the murder.
Is the exit the truck got off
the one closest to Fallon's house?
No, it's actually not. It's four earlier.
That means, presuming Fallon was the one driving,
that he didn't go directly home after killing Lockett.
Why? - Our theory:
that's when he was ditching the murder weapon.
It's close to the hospital where Shane Risner
was getting treatment for his pulmonary fibrosis.
His father told us that Fallon and Martinez
took turns taking him to his appointments
because he wasn't feeling well enough to drive himself, so...
When I was prepping Vincent Martinez,
he told me that sometimes after treatments
Risner asked to go to a park in the area.
Branch Brook Park?
That's it. That's the one.
He said Risner had difficulty breathing,
so he liked to sit on a bench
and enjoy the fresh air coming off the lake.
Detective, were you able to run a ballistics test
on the gun you recovered from the lake?
We were.
The striations on the bullets retrieved
from Colonel Lockett's body matched the rifling
and characteristics of that firearm.
Confirming that this is the gun
that was used to murder Alexander Lockett?
That's correct.
And is the gun registered?
Yes.
To Luke Fallon, the defendant.
Thank you, Detective.
We have no questions for this witness at this time.
Detective Shaw, you may step down.
- Thank you, Your Honor. - Prosecution rests.
Your Honor, the defense would like to inform the court
that we're filing a motion to change our plea.
To what?
Not guilty by reason of insanity.
Fallon now admits he shot Alexander Lockett,
just claims he wasn't in his right mind
when it actually happened.
They're going with a temporary insanity defense.
A variation thereof.
It turns out Fallon has a glioblastoma,
a brain tumor on his frontal lobe.
The defense is arguing it impacted his impulse control.
How did we not know about this?
It was diagnosed only a week before the murder.
He hadn't received treatment yet,
and by their account, hadn't told anyone,
including his attorney, until now.
That's strains credulity.
Judge thought so too
but ultimately accepted their change of plea.
Studies have linked glioblastomas
specifically to toxic exposure from burn pits.
So from Fallon's perspective,
Colonel Lockett was not only responsible
for his best friend's suicide but also for his own diagnosis.
That only strengthens his motive to kill Lockett.
But the defense has a neurooncologist
who will testify that the tumor is to blame for the murder
and impaired Fallon's ability to control his actions
and distinguish right from wrong in the moment.
That's not true, but it's good strategy.
Allows them to introduce the burn pits
and the tragic aftermath.
Paint the defendant as the victim.
In a way, he is.
Whether Lockett knew the burn pits were harmful or not,
he refused to get rid of them.
Now these guys are sick. I mean, real sick.
If I'm on the jury, I wouldn't convict
the soldier who got a brain tumor he didn't deserve.
You saying we should offer a plea?
No, absolutely not. This murder was premeditated.
I agree.
But Ms. Maroun's right.
The jury is gonna eat this up,
so make it clear to them what the defense is doing,
using the defendant's brain tumor
to emotionally manipulate them into ignoring the facts.
Glioblastoma is one
of the most aggressive types of brain cancer.
Unfortunately, it's almost always terminal.
And Dr. Simon, do we know what causes glioblastoma?
Likely a combination of factors.
Genetic predisposition, exposure to carcinogens.
Exposure like that inflicted upon soldiers
forced to inhale toxic smoke from burn pits?
Yes, studies have shown a clear correlation.
Glioblastoma incidence is very low among cancer types,
about 1 per 10,000 cases.
But for those who spent significant amounts of time
around the burn pits, it's astronomically higher.
During your evaluation of Luke Fallon,
what did he tell you happened
on the evening of September 27?
He reported an upsetting conversation
with his former base commander
and then experiencing a total blackout.
When he emerged, he had no memory
of pulling out or firing his weapon.
Dr. Simon, in your professional opinion,
was Luke Fallon's tumor responsible
for his shooting Alexander Lockett?
Yes, I believe Mr. Fallon had no ability to control
or understand the consequences of his actions at the time.
Thank you. No further questions.
Dr. Simon,
you testified that the defendant's tumor was to blame
for his losing control in the moment.
Is it also responsible
for Mr. Fallon asking Vincent Martinez
if he could borrow his truck on the night in question?
No, I can't see how it would be.
Is it responsible
for his driving to Alexander Lockett's home
with a loaded semiautomatic pistol?
No.
Did it make him drive around the block for 20 minutes,
waiting for Lockett to be alone,
and sneak onto his property with said gun?
No.
Thank you.
No further questions.
We knew those burn pits were deadly.
We'd wake up in the middle of the night unable to breathe,
choking on this thick cloud that smelled like...
They were burning medical waste,
chemicals.
We begged Colonel Lockett to do something.
I mean, guys were coughing up blood.
But the colonel's residence
is on the north end of the base,
upwind from the smoke,
so why should he care, right?
What happened on the night of September 27?
Shane had just killed himself.
I was upset.
This is Shane Risner?
The two of you were close, weren't you?
Closer than brothers.
There wasn't a day in the last two years
he wasn't in excruciating pain from the pulmonary fibrosis.
And he was wracked with guilt
about putting his family in debt with medical bills
because you lose your VA benefits
when you're dishonorably discharged.
His esophagus disintegrated.
It literally hurt for him to breathe,
so he...
I went over to the colonel's house
because I wanted him to know
what happened because of him.
And what did you do when you got there?
I confronted him. I wanted an apology.
I wanted him to say he was wrong,
but he refused.
He wouldn't even say the burn pits were bad.
I got angry,
and the next thing I remember,
I was standing over him holding my gun.
But I swear,
I never went there intending to hurt him.
Then why bring your gun?
I always have it on me.
After so many years in the service, it's second nature.
But I've never fired it outside of combat
and never would.
No further questions.
Let's break here for the day.
We'll resume in the morning for cross-examination.
Excuse me, Counselors.
Sergeant Major Bryce Crawford, Army Office of Public Affairs.
Do you have a moment?
I have been tasked with keeping tabs on this case,
for obvious reasons.
I can imagine.
I have something you need to see.
What am I looking at?
It's an after-incident report from 2008
involving Sergeant Luke Fallon.
Involving how?
The details of it are in there,
but the gist of it--
during a routine night patrol
in an area just outside of Baghdad,
Sergeant Fallon got in an argument
with three unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The fight got physical.
Sergeant Fallon discharged his firearm,
killing one of the civilians.
He's killed someone before?
Why wasn't this report
in Fallon's military personnel file?
Due to the sensitive nature of the army's presence
in that particular region at that time,
it was deemed classified.
Was he ever formally charged with anything?
He was sent home.
His time in the army was over.
And for reasons of national security,
the report was never made public knowledge.
But given its value in this case,
I've been authorized to declassify it.
This is helpful.
This directly refutes his claim he'd never fired his weapon
outside of active combat prior to having the tumor.
It also conveniently shifts the focus away
from the army's culpability surrounding the burn pits.
With all due respect, ma'am,
operational decisions are easy to criticize with hindsight.
At the time, the army had been
using burn pits for over 100 years.
But when the kind of waste you were burning changed,
your procedure for burning it should have changed too.
We know that now.
That's why we transitioned to using industrial incinerators.
What's important right now is winning the case
and using this document
to prove that Fallon isn't some noble martyr.
He's a trigger happy hothead
who responds to conflict with violence,
tumor or no tumor.
We got him, Sam.
That report details how Luke Fallon shot
and killed an unarmed--
I know what it says.
Why are you showing it to me?
I know that you feel a sense of duty to Luke,
but he's a murderer who belongs in prison.
I'm sorry, Mr. Price, but that,
it's a bunch of crap.
I was there.
It wasn't a routine patrol.
Fallon was sent on a mission to recover stolen ordnance.
He was instructed to use deadly force
because the insurgents were armed.
But the intel was bad,
even worse that an innocent civilian was killed
because they were wrong about who took them.
You're saying they just wholesale lied?
Standard procedure.
Disavow.
Regardless of what that report says,
Luke Fallon was just following orders.
I don't feel comfortable using that report.
Because one soldier called its veracity into question?
Because I believe him.
For all we know, Vincent Martinez
could be the one lying,
trying, yet again, to protect his fellow unit member.
I'm pretty good at telling when someone is lying to me.
Don't you think it's a little too convenient
that this perfect piece of evidence
just fell from the sky at exactly the right moment?
Gift horses, Ms. Maroun.
The army failed to protect Fallon back then,
and now they're trying to distract from that fact
by impeaching his character with lies.
And they want to use us to do it.
The tragedy of his cancer diagnosis
doesn't change the fact that Luke Fallon committed murder.
I agree, but getting a guilty verdict with evidence--
We have no proof that the report is a lie.
I don't trust--
Nolan, this conversation is over.
If you can get the conviction another way, be my guest.
If not, you're using the report.
Are you pulling rank, Jack?
Damn right I am!
Understood.
You find anything?
Negative.
You?
Maybe.
I've been looking through
Alexander Lockett's military personnel file,
and I found something odd.
The week before he retired from service,
the army offered him a position back here in New York.
Cushy deal too. Title bump, good pay.
But he turned it down.
Maybe he'd already gotten a better offer
in the private sector.
No, I don't think so.
Mr. Fallon, yesterday you testified
that you never fired your weapon outside of combat.
Why did you make that distinction,
between using a weapon in combat versus not?
Because in combat, I'm operating under orders.
So if you're ordered to shoot someone,
you believe it changes your culpability
in whatever the outcome is?
Yes, because I don't have a choice.
I'm following the chain of command.
But you held Alexander Lockett responsible
for the negative impacts of the burn pit
suffered by you and your fellow soldiers.
That's different.
He was the one insisting that they be used.
He wasn't following orders.
He was giving them.
Your Honor, the prosecution is entering into evidence
People's Exhibit 27.
This is the official paperwork submitted by Alexander Lockett
when he retired from the army.
Were you aware why he left?
No, it happened after my tours were over.
He submitted a written statement
detailing his reasons for leaving.
"It has been my honor to serve our great nation,
"and I have nothing but the utmost respect
"for the brave men and women with whom I have served.
"It is on their behalf
"that I must leave the institution
"I have dedicated my life to.
"For four years, I have requested
"that my base be allowed
"to cease the utilization of burn pits
"for the disposing of waste,
"but repeatedly,
"these requests have been denied
"and I have been ordered
to maintain protocol."
Can you please read this passage aloud for the court?
"I have been forced
"to do something that I believe is harmful,
"and I can no longer in good conscience
"participate in a system
that does not protect those who so valiantly protect us."
You claimed that on the night of September 27th,
you confronted Lockett, and he refused to apologize,
but that's not what happened, is it?
I didn't know.
Objection.
Overruled. Sit down, Ms. Knight.
If you had confronted him,
he would have given you the apology you claim you wanted...
And explained
that he tried to honor his duty to protect you.
But you didn't even give him a chance to talk, did you?
You just did what you went there specifically to do.
Murder him.
I'm sorry.
I thought...
I'm so, so sorry.
Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
On the charge of murder in the second degree,
we find the defendant, Luke Fallon, guilty.
I can't thank you enough for clearing my father's name.
Well, now that the trial is over,
we'll make sure his Distinguished Service Cross
is returned to you.
I appreciate that.
If you'll excuse me.
Of course.
You were right.
Alexander Lockett tried to protect his men,
but he chose to follow the chain of command
and ended up dying for it.
He was a soldier, and he was following orders.
I get it.
Still not sure that makes it right.
No one ever said it did.