.
- In the criminal justice system,
sexually based offenses
are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives
who investigate these vicious felonies
are members of an elite squad
known as the Special Victims Unit.
These are their stories.
- Get home by 11:00, Ceranda, for your little brother.
I'm working midnights all week.
Your baba too.
- I'm never late for you, Meme.
Plus I have to finish a term paper tonight.
- Call on your way home.
Une te dua.
- Love you too, Meme. - Mm-hmm.
- ♪ Yeah
[hip-hop music]
♪ I got black, I got white, what you want? ♪
♪ Hop outside a Ghost and hop up in a Phantom ♪
♪ I know I'm 'bout to blow, I ain't dumb ♪
♪ They try to take my flow, I take they [...] for ransom ♪
♪ I know that I'm gone
♪ They see me blowin' up, now they say they want some ♪
♪ I got two twin [...], turn you to a dancer ♪
♪ I see two twin opps, leave 'em on a banner ♪
- Hey, Lonnie. Lonnie.
Elevator's out again, man. Can you help me up the stairs?
- I'm sorry, I can't. I'm late as it is.
- Guess I'll be here when you get back.
- ♪ I got the Fendi, Prada when I hit Milan ♪
♪ I needed me a die or rider, I need me the one ♪
♪ I started from the bottom
♪ You could see the way I stunt ♪
♪ I want all the diamonds, I want that [...] ♪
♪ To weigh a ton, the opps, they tryna ♪
♪ Line me 'cause they hate the place ♪
- You staying away from that girl?
- [sighs] Yeah.
- Hook up with her again,
you do the full pound, belly-down, upstate, yeah?
- Yeah, it's a little late
to try to scare me straight, all right?
- ♪ I know they want a taste
♪ I know they want my downfall ♪
♪ Are you laced?
♪ I got black, I got white, what you want? ♪
♪ Hop outside a Ghost and hop up in a Phantom ♪
- Late again, Lonnie?
At 15 an hour?
I'm docking you 25 cents a minute.
- I'm sorry, Zamir, the subway was--
- Subway my ass.
You live a half block down at that hell house.
I learn things over here.
- It's not what you think.
- All right, quit flirting and start working.
- ♪ I got black, I got white, what you want? ♪
♪ Hop outside a Ghost and hop up in a Phantom ♪
♪ I know I'm 'bout to blow, I ain't dumb ♪
[motorcycle engines revving]
♪ I got two twin [...], turn you to a dancer ♪
♪ I see two twin opps, leave 'em on a banner ♪
♪ I got two thick thots, wanna link the gang, yeah ♪
- Hey! Short eyes.
We've got our eyes on all of you.
- ♪ I know I'm 'bout to blow
[engines revving]
♪ I know that I'm gone, they see me blowin' up ♪
♪ Now they say they want some ♪
[engines roar, retreat]
♪ I see two twin opps, leave 'em on a banner ♪
♪ I got two thick thots, wanna link the gang, yeah ♪
♪ I got black, I got white, what you want? ♪
♪ The Chanel or Balenciaga, Louis and Vuitton ♪
♪ She know I got the Fendi, Prada when I hit Milan ♪
- Whoa, hey.
I'm on break. I'll walk you to the bus.
- I'm okay, thanks.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. There's--
there's a lot of bad dudes around, Ceranda.
Come on, I'm not like them.
- Excuse me.
- What, you don't wanna be seen with me?
- Numbnuts.
Punch out for your break.
Take the garbage on your way out.
[suspenseful music]
♪
- Please, St. Anthony,
help me to find some way to stop my sinful urges.
Thank you.
Amen.
[rats chittering]
[muffled screaming]
[dramatic music]
♪
[indistinct radio chatter]
- We're looking for a missing 17-year-old girl?
- Yeah, Ceranda Zajmi.
She never came home from her job
at a local pizzeria last night.
- Night watchman found her wallet and her cell.
No cash, no cards.
- Okay, and they are doing a grid search
and called SVU because...
- A SRO on the corner.
Pedo motel.
- Pedo motel? Come on, Fin.
- That's what the neighborhood watch apps are calling it.
They put out an alert that five sex offenders
moved into that building.
It's a block away from the Tirana Pizza.
- One of those creeps might have followed her.
- All right, so we wake up everyone in that hotel?
- Let's dial it back.
Look, I know that people don't believe it,
but S.O.'s on the registry
have one of the lowest recidivism rates.
- Only takes one.
- How about we start with finding the girl, okay?
We need security footage.
Have we contacted the owners of the lot and the warehouse?
- We're working on it, but it's Shabbos, so--
the owners of that fortune cookie factory
are Orthodox Jews and won't answer the phone
until after sundown. - All right, got it.
So let's keep trying.
Also, let's run the phone
and the wallet for prints.
Find out who was last with her.
Chaplain al-Khabeer.
- We only seem to meet
at difficult times, Captain Benson.
This is Mr. and Mrs. Zajmi, dear friends.
They need to know firsthand
we're doing all we can to find Ceranda.
- We are.
So can I ask you,
has your daughter ever come home late before?
- No, never.
She babysits her little brother when we work nights.
- Okay. Does Ceranda have a boyfriend?
- No boyfriend, never in trouble.
All she does is study.
We were going to surprise her today.
We just found out that she won a scholarship
to Brown University.
- And what about her job at the pizzeria?
Has she ever mentioned a customer
or a coworker harassing her?
- If she ever did,
I would've raced down there with a baseball bat.
- I'm sure there's no trouble at work.
Elira's cousin is the owner.
- He was the first person I called.
Zamir said she was fine when she left.
- Okay.
- Ceranda works till 10:00.
That's the last I heard from her.
Her mother called, all upset, around midnight.
- So she clocks out at 10:00.
This guy does too.
- Lonnie Liston, yeah, that's his dinner break.
He's supposed to get an hour and come back.
- Supposed to. Did he?
- Yeah, but late, out of breath.
He asked if he could walk her to the bus stop.
She said no.
He insisted, she shut that down.
If he did something to Ceranda, I'll never forgive myself.
- Why's that?
- I believe in second chances because New York gave me one.
I knew Lonnie was on parole when I hired him,
but I was gonna fire him
as soon as I found a replacement.
- Why?
- Few days ago, an anonymous caller
asked if I knew the Black kid I hired
was living in that pedo motel down the block.
- Lonnie Liston, NYPD.
- What's going on? - Mind if we come in?
- You can't come in. You need a warrant for that.
- I look like a bellhop to you?
You're on parole.
Your ass still owned by the state.
I can do whatever I want to.
- Unless you want us to call your PO.
- Look, I didn't do anything.
- Your rap sheet says you confessed
to sexual misconduct with a minor.
Want to tell your side?
- There was no misconduct, I just took the plea.
Look, you blow it at a trial
in the 'burbs, you do upstate time.
- Uh-huh. - It's the truth.
[stammers] What's this about?
- You know a Ceranda Zajmi?
- Little Ceranda from the pizzeria?
Like I told my boss last night,
I don't know what happened to her.
Is she okay?
- We don't know. You tell us.
She never made it home.
- Yeah, and your boss said that you were working her,
wanted to walk her to the bus stop.
- Yeah, I was worried about her.
Out there by herself, this neighborhood?
- Who's this?
- Girl I used to know.
- The underage one you pled to messing with?
- I had to take the plea.
Look, Black teen with a white girlfriend?
The jury would never believe me.
- Uh-huh.
- Look, I didn't touch Ceranda!
All right? I swear.
- Then where'd you go last night
on your lunch break, Lonnie?
- Back here to my room.
- Alone?
- Or with Ceranda? - No.
- Look, man, we get it, all right?
Ceranda's your type-- young, cute, white.
You know, you try to hit on her, she says no,
then you make your play anyway.
- Well, I didn't do anything to Ceranda
except offer to walk her to the bus!
- Are you telling us the truth, Lonnie?
- I am. Every word.
- Better hope she shows up.
Alive.
[door slams shut]
- Thank you. I got it.
[helicopter blades whirring]
- Carisi, we haven't found anything yet.
- Well, I was asked to show the flag.
Ceranda's folks go to the same mosque
as the NYPD Islamic chaplain.
- Imam al-Khabeer. He was here with them.
- Well, the mayor's office just wants to make sure
we're giving Ceranda the same priority
we would a Christian or a Jewish teen.
- Of course, of course.
What?
- How's your friend Stabler doing?
- You know, talked to him a few times,
but you know.
- He's got a rough road.
- Yeah.
I'm worried for him.
- I don't know if it's the healthiest thing
for him to be investigating his own wife's murder.
- Do you wanna tell him that?
What?
- The Eighth Floor's been asking me what went on with him
when he broke into your interrogation room.
- Oh, my God.
- I will always have your back.
Just make sure you're watching yours too.
- Okay. Thank you. - Okay?
- Hey.
- Checked the security tape at the motel.
Lonnie Liston lied. - About what?
- He told us that he came back to his room during his break,
but unless he climbed through a window,
he was never there.
He doesn't show up on footage
until after the pizzeria closed at 2:00 a.m.
[phone buzzes] - A false alibi for the hour
Ceranda disappeared, and he has a history?
- Kat. They found something.
Come on, let's go.
- Dog walked right past all of this junk,
got to the van, and stopped.
The handler found the body.
- So she's gone.
[sighs]
- She's so young.
- It never gets easier.
- I'll call Homicide.
.
- The head wound was shallow,
maybe from a brick or a rock.
- We didn't find anything near the body,
but they're still canvassing the lot.
- So cause of death?
- Blunt force trauma to the back of the skull.
As I said, from a brick or a rock.
Hasim, you're late.
- Sorry.
Anybody else tired of six feet apart in the coffee line?
- Sergeant Khaldun, you two know each other?
- Yeah, Homicide's been so busy,
I got transferred there two months ago.
Light, two sugars?
- You remembered.
- Homicide?
Our captain said that we were keeping the case.
- So did my captain, but 1PP wanted somebody
with ties to the Muslim community
to keep eyes on it.
So are we looking at sexual assault?
- Not clear.
No vaginal trauma or semen.
The scratches on her arms and thighs
could be from the perp trying to take her clothes off.
- So no DNA?
- Not even under her nails.
- Have the lab check her clothes for touch DNA.
- Oh, gee, I wouldn't have thought of that.
So happy for a continuing education.
- Any suspects?
- Aside from a motel
full of sex offenders across the street?
- Yeah, whole neighborhood's up in arms.
- Don't blame them-- half these guys
were dumped from the Upper West Side
after that neighborhood went nuts.
- You should know that one of the motel parolees
worked with Ceranda, and he may have been
the last to see her. - Lonnie Liston.
He's on the registry
for sexual misconduct with a teenager,
and he lied to us about his alibi.
- He lied? - Yeah.
- Good, he's violated his parole.
So you picked him up? - He's under surveillance.
He's not going anywhere.
Our captain got burned earlier this year.
- Oh, that video of her arresting the wrong guy
in the park? That went viral.
Ceranda had scratches.
Have CSU check everyone at the motel for her DNA.
Anyone hesitates, then we violate them.
protestors: Whoa, whoa!
Sex offenders gotta go!
Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Sex offenders gotta go!
- They've been out there all morning.
They hate us.
Anything bad happens, they blame us.
- A girl was sexually assaulted and murdered two blocks away.
- Not by me.
You check my yellow sheet?
They accused me of doing little boys.
Now, I don't do nothing.
I just pray to St. Anthony,
help me find a way to stop the urges.
- Where were you when you got your urge surge last night?
- I was right here. Watching TV.
- What were you watching?
- "Bad News Bears."
You could ask Frank. He's right down the hall.
He was yelling at me it was too loud.
- It's bad enough to be labeled a sex offender in prison,
but you get out, you do your time,
and they still won't leave you alone.
- Does that make you angry, Frank?
- I'm no pedophile.
I like triple-plus size senior ladies
like my late Aunt Rose.
You just dissolve into them like a waterbed
until the world just disappears.
- Okay, um... [clears throat]
Frank, where'd you disappear to Friday night
between 10:00 and 11:00?
- I was here in my room.
Killing roaches.
Eating chips, drinking grape soda.
I was here! Just me and Rose.
Check the damn security video! - I will.
I also need to check your arms and your fingernails.
- You told me you went to your room on your break.
I checked the video. No sign of you.
- Must be a mistake.
- But I do see you returning at 2:00 a.m.
after you were done for the night.
Where'd you go on your break, Lonnie?
- Oh, no, you're--you're right.
I should've told you before.
I just been so cooped up at work
that I decided to go for a walk.
- Mm-hmm. Where?
- [sighs] I went to the park.
- Anybody see you?
Listen, man. You need to help yourself.
I mean, if you were out hooking up or copping drugs,
I don't care about that.
- No, man, is that what you think?
I was walking, all right? By myself.
- Boss said you came in late, out of breath.
- I didn't do anything to Ceranda, all right?
- Stop it, man.
I don't believe you.
And those people out there?
They don't believe you, either.
- Look, I'm not like that, right?
I'm no rapist! - Keep saying that.
- Look, the girl who accused me,
she was 15, all right, and I turned 18!
We were in love. [stammers]
She was white, and her parents
couldn't stand her being with me.
- Yeah, every con's got a stir-bug story.
But you need another one.
Stay here.
CSU's gonna check you out.
- No, I can't. I--I gotta go to work.
Oh, you don't have a job anymore.
And if I were you,
I wouldn't go out there.
protestors: Sex offenders gotta go!
Hey, hey! - The Dyckman Knights are sick
of this war on our wives,
mothers, sisters, and daughters!
- Lonnie Liston changed his alibi.
Now he says he was out walking.
- Okay, any hits on surveillance?
- We're waiting on the footage, but--
- I know, I know. It's the weekend.
1PP is asking what's taking CSU so long.
I said, "You try finding a bloody rock
in a rubble-filled lot."
- Politicians are using our neighborhood
as a dumping ground for homeless,
the mentally ill, sexual predators!
- Elvis is alive, and he's here.
Great. - Elvis?
- That's Elvis Baktashi.
He's a community activist,
rabble rouser, White Pride vigilante.
- And now this ghetto thug who already raped a young girl
is a suspect in the rape and murder of Ceranda Zajmi.
The politicians are useless.
- He's got his own YouTube channel.
Every time someone's assaulted, he stirs the pot.
- The DA's office has become a babysitting service
for recidivist scum!
- Okay, guys, where are we on the model?
Look, with Elvis inflaming things,
if anybody in there is... [phone ringing]
good for this, we gotta get them out.
- Everything we have so far is circumstantial.
- Okay, CSU found a brick on a lot at 148.
Blood and hair.
- Any luck, Lonnie Liston's DNA is on it.
You can arrest him then.
- But if the cops or politicians
won't protect girls like Ceranda
or get rid of these predators,
then we, the people, will!
Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Sex offenders gotta go!
Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Sex offenders gotta go!
[protestors chanting]
- I don't blame the neighborhood.
The state moves these guys around
in the middle of the night?
- Without telling the locals
or the precinct.
Look, even though we know that it's "statistically safe,"
registered sex offenders,
they just scare the hell outta people.
- Yeah, they do, but these guys have done their time.
They have to live some place. - I know.
- And vilifying them, and it's a very thin line
from neighborhood watch to vigilantism.
- Okay, speaking of which, how are we doing
on the suspects from the motel?
- It's irising down. Frank and Manny are both out.
- Security cams verify they were in the motel all night.
- Plus their MO is not teen girls.
Donald Wilson is a child rape video freak,
but he's wheelchair-bound from a jailhouse beatdown.
Carlos Arena likes pubescent girls,
but he has a solid alibi on video at his warehouse job.
- Okay, which brings us back to Lonnie Liston.
What's his prior?
- He's on parole for the sex assault
of a teenage girl.
- He claims it was a "Romeo and Juliet" story.
- Isn't that possible?
- You'd be amazed how many statutory rapists
use Shakespeare as a character witness.
CSU check him out? [phone buzzes]
- They did. Not a scratch on him.
And if the girl's DNA was under his fingernails,
he washed that out.
- What about the brick CSU found?
- Tested positive for Ceranda's blood.
We're still waiting for touch DNA.
- Okay, so Lonnie lied, and he's got a prior,
but this is still all circumstantial.
- Maybe not.
Security footage from the junkyard.
Man on the run.
- Jamaica Community College jacket.
- That's Lonnie's jacket.
- We have enough now, Counselor?
- Pick him up.
[phones buzz] [phone chimes]
Something I should know?
- Yeah.
- Son of a bitch.
- Go. Now.
[dramatic music]
[indistinct radio chatter]
- Hey, how we doing?
- I thought there was supposed to be
a patrol car parked outside.
- They got pulled away at a fake Officer Down call,
and up it went.
- Hey. You had ten evacuees.
- I didn't see Lonnie, did you?
- You get everybody out?
- We're doing a secondary now.
- Ladder 6-4. Found one victim.
No EMS. Appears to be a cover-up.
Roll NYPD Arson.
- 10-4, Ladder 6-4. You're remaining on the scene.
♪
- It's Lonnie.
- They murdered him.
- They lynched him.
They goddamn lynched him.
.
- There was no smoke in his lungs?
So he'd stopped breathing before...
- Before he was set on fire.
They splashed gasoline on his corpse,
but by then, he'd been bound,
beaten, sexually mutilated.
- Cause of death was... - Asphyxiation.
He was strangled with an extension cord.
Multiple ligature marks.
They tried a number of times.
Whatever this kid might have done to that girl,
he didn't deserve to die like this.
- Nobody does.
- Thanks, Fin.
And you'll talk to Lonnie's parents?
Okay.
Arson confirmed that the fire
was initiated in Lonnie's room,
and gasoline was used everywhere else.
- They were trying to burn them all out?
- Well, as an afterthought.
They went in to kill Lonnie.
- Yeah, our problem is that
there's a long list of people that wanted him dead.
- There is, but Sergeant Khaldun
is on his way over to speak with Ceranda's family.
Checking alibis for the father and the uncle.
- On the news, they're saying Lonnie was tortured.
- How can they have that already?
- These days, fear travels fast.
- It's not fear.
It's racist vigilantism.
- Somebody in that motel heard something.
How many residents are still in the hospital?
- All of them.
- Smoke inhalation, burns?
- And they got nowhere else to go.
- I was in my room, I smelled the smoke,
and I got the heck out of there as fast as I could.
- Did you hear anything?
- You know, I had the TV up,
and, uh, I don't hear so good, you know,
even with these things.
But I did see three men running.
- Did you recognize them?
[louder] Recognize them?
Like maybe from the protest?
- They was wearing masks.
I'm sorry.
- That poor kid. [coughs]
He lived right above me.
- He did.
So you must have heard something.
- Yes, loud voices, screams.
They went on for a while, and then...
[coughs] Nothing.
- And you didn't call the police?
- [scoffs] Like they care.
- But you do.
The loud voices, could you make out
anything that they said?
- I know one of them was named Eduardo.
- Are you sure?
- Yeah, I heard another guy say,
"Light that Black boy up, Eduardo."
- Them bikers, they got what they wanted.
The second that cop car pulled out,
I heard them come back.
- What exactly did you hear?
- The choppers. They were loud.
- Motorcycle engines?
- They've been-- they've been driving by
ever since that girl got killed,
revving their engines, trying to scare us.
Last night, 10:00,
quiet.
- You sure it was 10:00?
- Yeah, the channel 5 news just came on.
You know, they usually like to say,
"It's 10:00, do you know where your children are?"
And when I heard that, I used to think
if parents listened...
I wouldn't have ended up in prison.
[knock at door]
- What?
- We need to talk to Elvis.
- Hey, boss!
Cops!
- What's this about?
- Arson at the SRO.
- Arson? Those skeeves all smoke.
- A young man was killed.
- A pedo? After that girl?
Karma.
But nothing to do with me.
- Well, then you won't mind letting us in
and going over your alibi?
- That ain't happening. - No?
- When God was giving out dolls, honey,
you must've thought he said "balls."
- Get your hand off me.
- If I was you, I'd listen to her.
- Won't find nothing.
Never took a drug in my life.
I don't even allow beer in here.
- What about gasoline?
- Me and my crew were playing Murlan--
it's a card game-- when that fire broke out.
Guys, tell them where I was.
- Right here. Losing to me.
- Okay, anyone not in your gang who can confirm that?
- Yeah. NYPD.
- How's that?
- You see that box on the lamp post?
NYPD thinks we're not wise to it,
but your gang squad installed it
a month after we moved in.
- How you know that?
- They're gonna use a Con Ed truck as undercover,
they shouldn't gas it up at the precinct.
Anything happens in this neighborhood,
I know about it.
- Well, then, tell us who torched the SRO.
- I wouldn't tell you if I knew.
If someone did touch that place off,
the city should give him a medal.
- So the gang unit gave you the tape?
- Oh, only after we promised them
we wouldn't tip off Elvis.
- Wasn't he the one who told you about it?
- Yeah. What's your point?
- [scoffs] Fine.
- Elvis wasn't lying.
- So he and his boys enter their place
with pizza at 9:00.
They didn't leave until the fire department
got there at 10:30.
- On their bikes? - On foot.
The only bikes are these three guys
at 9:45 going past the clubhouse
towards the motel.
- They're wearing gaiters,
and these are different bikes than Elvis's crew.
Is there any way to ID them?
- Well, Frank told me he heard one guy
get name-checked as Eduardo.
- So they obviously obscured their plates.
We only had partials, but we do have
one possible match in that neighborhood.
Eduardo Alvarez.
- Okay, that's good enough to bring him in.
- How do you know that rapist
didn't feel guilty, try to strangle himself?
- Did he also tie his hands behind his back,
mutilate his own genitals, set himself on fire?
Look, we found a picture
of his body on your phone.
- Okay, well, none of that was my idea.
- Then get in front of this, Eduardo.
Who did what?
- All I did was help put him in the chair.
Pedos are heavy, man.
- Whose idea was it?
- I tell you, I get to walk out of here?
- Tell the DA you helped.
- It was Louie and Juan.
They wanted to get into that Dyckman Knights gang.
- Elvis Baktashi's crew?
- Louie and Juan watch all his videos.
Like Elvis says, cops do nothing.
We all gotta look out for our own.
- Where's Louie and Juan now?
- Street justice. An eye for an eye.
- They think they're heroes,
saving the city the cost of a trial?
They're criminals, plain and simple.
- He give up where to find his cohorts?
- With pride.
- Pick 'em up.
He said that they were inspired by Elvis Baktashi.
I mean, there's gotta be something
we can charge him with-- conspiracy?
- Stochastic terror?
Inciting others to harm those that you demonize?
But if you make that case, you end up making Elvis a hero.
- The lab called.
They got touch DNA on Ceranda's pants
and the brick that killed her.
"Random man not excluded."
- [sighs]
- So his DNA's not in the system?
- Liston's on the registry. We have his DNA.
- That means someone else killed Ceranda.
- It also means Alvarez and his friends
murdered an innocent kid.
- [sighs]
.
- Eduardo's buddies confessed?
- Louie blames Eduardo and Juan,
says he was just along for the ride.
- That's funny, Juan blames Eduardo and Louie.
- Three dimed mice.
Now they're all lying to each other
saying they didn't squeal.
- They say why they did it?
- To impress Elvis and his White Power gang,
just like Eduardo said.
- Elvis claims not to know who they are.
- So Lonnie Liston's murder is closed, but Ceranda--
- It wasn't Lonnie,
and whoever it was set Lonnie up.
Even wore the same school jacket that Lonnie wore.
- And timed the attack on Ceranda
the same time Lonnie took his break.
- How'd they know Lonnie wouldn't have an alibi?
- Well, either they got lucky,
or they lured him somewhere
that he didn't wanna tell us about.
I mean, we still don't know where he went?
- Well, so, I took a shot, and I ran Lonnie's MetroCard.
He was on a downtown A train at the time Ceranda was killed.
30 minutes later, he was back
on an uptown train from Penn Station.
- So Lonnie did have an alibi.
- But he didn't trust me enough to tell me.
- Fin, you okay?
- No.
I assumed Lonnie was guilty 'cause he was in that rat trap.
- You weren't alone in thinking that,
and Lonnie wasn't straight with you,
and he was made to look guilty.
- No, I was on him from the jump.
I checked his single-bust record,
and I made him for dirty,
and I should know out of everyone
how many good kids that look like him
get done wrong.
- Ceranda was an innocent girl,
and you were trying to catch her killer.
- And because of me, another innocent kid
gets lynched for it.
- Fin, that is not on you.
- Yes, it is.
Now I gotta tell Lonnie's family
why they don't have a son anymore.
- First you tell us our son was tortured to death,
now you tell us you don't think he murdered that girl?
- We already told you that.
- I know. - And we are so sorry.
- He didn't rape that girl.
He didn't rape the girl he went to jail for.
- McKenna Jensen?
- That's right.
That's--that's her.
Those two were in love.
- But didn't she accuse him?
- Not her. Her stepfather.
He couldn't stand
that his blonde girl loved our son.
The day Lonnie turned 18, he called the cops on him.
- Why would the cops care?
- Because her stepfather, Roy Eastman,
is a parole officer.
And his brother's a Nassau County detective.
- That damn lawyer told us it was better to take a plea.
- I should've sold our house
if that's what it took to pay for a trial.
You saying my son was framed?
There's one man responsible.
- Eastman?
[sighs] He put your son in prison.
- And he wanted Lonnie to go back
before McKenna turned 17.
- And they could see each other legally.
- We'll take a look at Eastman.
- It won't matter.
My boy's gone.
- [sobbing]
[somber music]
♪
- Yeah, Dad, just do it, please.
Call me after.
I gotta go. Bye.
- Everything okay? - It's my father.
Something's going on.
It's too early in the day for him
to be slurring his words.
- Don't mess around with that.
You need to go, I can handle this.
- I told him to go to a doctor.
Guy's doing pretty well for a parole officer.
- A little too well.
- Roy Eastman?
- Go inside to your mother, McKenna.
- Maybe they're here about Lonnie.
- I said, go inside.
What did I just say?
Little outside your jurisdiction, huh, Detectives?
- Yeah, sorry to bother you at home,
but your stepdaughter's right.
We are here about Lonnie Liston.
- Aha. Heard about it.
I won't lie, I shed no tears.
Just gets released from prison,
and he rapes the first white girl
he gets next to, murders her?
- We're trying to close that out now.
The thing is, the MOs are different.
Ceranda, the New York victim,
she got her head bashed in.
Was Lonnie ever violent with McKenna?
- Yeah, son of a bitch would beat her up
then buy her things, you know?
A real pimp.
- But he only pled to sexual misconduct.
- Didn't wanna put her through a trial.
I got him off the streets.
- Look, it would help us close out the case.
If we could just hear that from her...
- You heard it from me. That's enough.
I don't want her thinking about him.
- We understand. Thank you.
- You know, what happened to that boy wasn't right...
But it was just.
- You believe a word he said?
- No.
He's a parole officer.
He has total leverage over all of his parolees.
It wouldn't be that hard to get one of them
to kill Ceranda and set Lonnie up.
- A parolee's DNA would be in the system.
- So maybe one step removed.
We need to run all of his parolees' DNA.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's a long shot, but maybe
we get a familial match.
- Yeah, Eastman's my parole officer,
but I don't know nothing about her.
- We think you're good for this, Antonio.
- No, Cap, I was working that night.
At a car wash.
Ask my boss.
- How do you know what night we're talking about?
- You keep lying, we're gonna tell Eastman,
and he's gonna violate you.
How much time you got left on your bid?
Six years?
- Look, don't call him, man.
I swear I didn't touch that girl.
- Okay.
The DNA on the murder weapon?
It led us to you.
- Not mine.
- No.
But we know it's someone related to you.
Your cousin? Your brother?
- We also know Eastman had leverage on you,
so this is gonna go one of two ways.
Either you're gonna tell us who you had do it,
or you gonna lose your parole.
Your ass or his.
[indistinct chatter]
- It's cold. Are they playing for money?
Which one is he?
Antonio.
- White jersey.
- Rollins, white jersey.
- Got it, copy that.
- Sam Johnson?
Hey! - What? What?
- You're under arrest.
- For what? - You don't know?
Just come with us. Grab your coat.
.
- This is all a mistake.
You know what I'm saying?
- No, I don't. Why don't you tell me?
- I was just supposed to grope this Ceranda chick
and frame that Lonnie Liston herb.
Antonio gave me the jacket to wear--
- What went wrong?
- She was bugging.
She started yelling, and I had gotten high
to calm my nerves,
so I got mad.
But she just really would not stop screaming.
- So what happened?
- Look, I begged her to chill.
She wouldn't.
So I grabbed this brick to hit her with
to get her to stop.
She went out like a candle.
- Then what?
- When I went to take off her pants,
she was already dead.
But it was by accident, you know,
so that's not really murder, right?
- Wrong.
- Why'd you pick this girl?
- It wasn't my idea.
I did it for Antonio. That's my half-brother.
Our mothers raised us together.
- Please don't ask for a lawyer.
- For Antonio, why?
- His PO was gonna send him back
to Attica for some nonsense
unless he did the girl and framed Lonnie.
I was just trying to help him.
- And then he rats you out.
- I know, man.
No good deed.
- "Good deed." Murdering Ceranda.
- We have enough to pick up Eastman?
- Yeah.
Wha--What did you tell me last year?
- "Make it hurt."
- 25 to life.
- I was just looking out for my daughter, man.
- By killing another girl
and getting Lonnie Liston killed?
- You and I both know I don't go down for either of those.
- I said let's go.
- McKenna!
Call my brother!
Tell him to get me a lawyer!
- Get in.
- You call the damn pope.
No way you're getting out of this one.
- Ah, that sounds great.
Ah, that sounds great.
Listen, I'll meet you there in an hour.
Yeah, me too.
All right, bye.
[knock at door]
- Hey.
- We got lucky with Eastman.
Recovered texts to Antonio,
cash withdrawals the day Ceranda went missing.
- This is great. This plus Sam
and Antonio's testimony, we can charge Eastman
with kidnapping and murder.
Thanks, Rollins.
- Mm-hmm.
I just got here.
What, you got a hot date or something?
- Uh, actually, there's, uh,
there's someone I, um--
look, Rollins, I--
[phone vibrating] I know you and I--
I just, I've been meaning to tell you--
- So sorry, uh, this is an Atlanta number.
I gotta take it. - Yeah, yeah.
- This is Amanda Rollins.
Yeah, I--I see.
Yeah, of co--of course.
I will see what I can do.
Thank you for calling.
- What--what is it? Everything okay?
- [voice breaking] Yeah, that was just--
that was his doctor.
My father, he--he had a stroke.
- Oh, my God. I'm sorry.
- They just said he's all alone there.
- What--what about his wife?
- She couldn't handle quarantine with him,
and they can't get ahold of her.
She's 25.
I mean, I guess we know how that goes.
- Okay, Amanda, you need to get on a plane to Atlanta.
- I can't.
Jesse, Billie, my job.
- I'll call your mom. She can watch the girls.
I'll tell Liv what's going on.
Come on, you--you need to go.
Okay? It's gonna be okay.
All right, come on.
It's gonna be okay.
Come on.
- Thank you for coming.
And thank you for clearing our son's name.
- You should know that Roy Eastman
is looking at serious time.
- McKenna called us.
She said the night it happened,
she and Lonnie met at Penn Station
during his meal break.
That they just had to see each other.
She said Lonnie made her promise
not to say she was with him
because he'd be violated.
But if she'd told the truth,
he'd still be alive.
- Um, Mr. and Mrs. Liston,
this is Elira and Edon Zajmi, Ceranda's parents.
- We're so sorry for your loss.
- And we are for yours.
- Both our children killed for no reason.
- No, for one reason.
They were killed because of hate.
[solemn music]
♪