(MAN 1 SPEAKING ON POLICE RECORDING)
(MAN 2 SPEAKING)
(MAN 1 SPEAKING)
(MAN 2 SPEAKING)
GERRY: For 18 years, I was a victim.
I was kidnapped, the guy was pointing a gun at me.
The Government's theory in this case is that you shot and killed Danny.
I'm not a criminal! I'm a victim of a crime.
GERRY: They called me a cold-blooded killer.
They're just using me because they haven't got anybody else.
Oh, my God.
If he gets convicted, it's basically a death sentence.
My name is Nicholas Wooldridge.
I'm a criminal defense attorney.
I've been practicing law for the past 20 years,
and I represent Gerry Gage.
Gerry Gage is charged with murder
with use of a deadly weapon.
His sentence could be 20 to life.
This crime occurs on August 31st of 2005.
Gerry worked at DLC Construction and he was general manager.
He shows up to work. He's the first one to arrive.
He gets out of his truck, and gets up to the front of the building, and he's grabbed.
There's a man with a ski mask with a gun.
Gerry's tied up, bound, gagged, blindfolded, with duct tape,
and put into the back of his truck.
About an hour and a half later, Gerry's boss, Danny Cates,
the owner of the construction company,
when he gets to work,
those same guys that kidnap Gerry,
these same guys attempt to kidnap Danny.
It appears that he got into a fight with them.
The boss got away from them and went to hide in the back office.
These people pursue him.
They fire three shots through the door,
and then fire three more shots at the boss and they kill him.
Now those kidnapping killers leave.
And Gerry's ultimately able to get out of how he's tied up,
and he escapes out of the truck
and comes back to the business,
and there's his boss, Danny, dead.
The cops come. They interview Gerry.
They believe him. They list him as a victim,
and they start investigating.
But the case goes cold.
Then about eight years pass and there's a new detective on the case.
Now we're talking 2013,
Gerry is 70 years old.
And Gerry starts to become a little bit inconsistent in his interview.
And so, the police suspect that Gerry must know something.
But the case goes cold again.
Then another detective takes over in 2018.
Unfortunately Gerry tells him more inconsistent things,
and so, at 76 years old,
they decide they're going to arrest him and charge him with murder.
The government's theory is that Gerry either shot and killed Danny,
or that Gerry assisted the killers in some way.
This case is important to me because it is my belief
that a major injustice has occurred.
They've charged an innocent, vulnerable victim
with one of the most serious crimes we have in our criminal justice system.
GERRY: It's 2005. I was 62-years-old.
My wife and I were both looking forward to retirement.
Life was basically good.
Then it all changed.
The incident itself was extremely traumatic for me.
I was the victim.
But, the more the police interviewed me,
the more I realized I was becoming a suspect.
They arrested me and took me to jail.
I'll never forget that day, ever.
I'm locked up, and these are my bars.
Frankly, I feel like a caged animal.
I'm just so angry about being treated like a criminal.
I've always respected the police
all my life.
I feel betrayed.
I'm about ready at the end of my rope.
NICK: This is probably one of the most interesting cases I've had.
I haven't had a client who's also a victim in the case.
This is a totally new frontier for me.
Gerry.
-Nicholas. Okay. -How you doing? Pleasure.
Thank you for coming down here today.
I wanted to go over a few things with you. All right?
-Mm-hmm. -First, I just want to start off with
how long did you work at DLC?
I started sometime in
-2000. -Okay.
And then when they closed the office around 2006 is when I left.
How did you and Danny get along?
We got along fine. We never had any problems.
All right, I want to take you back
to August 31st, 2005.
What time do you get to the office?
I usually get there around 4:30 in the morning.
But this day I went a little bit earlier, about 3:30.
Parked up front, and as I was approaching the front door, I was...
grabbed.
And they duct taped my mouth, and my eyes,
and they tied my hands behind my back.
I think they were zip ties.
These guys that grabbed you,
were you able to see what they look like?
No. I saw one.
Uh... He was standing over the hood of his truck,
and with a gun on me. He had a ski mask on.
I was scared as hell.
I never had a gun pointed at me.
They put me in the back seat of my truck, face down with my hands behind my back.
And then I was there for two hours.
-Do you hear any gunshots? -Not a thing.
How were you able to get out of the zip tie?
Just the way they were tied. I was able to slip out.
I saw a co-worker go to the office.
So I walked back,
and he told me that Danny had been shot.
Is there any reason why somebody would wanna kill Danny?
Danny was kind of unique.
He was not the most polite person to our subcontractors.
I mean, he carried a gun in his briefcase.
Okay.
When do you believe police started treating you as a suspect in the case?
When I started seeing the second set of detectives.
Sometime after 2011.
They kept interviewing me.
During all these police questionings, did you ever hire a lawyer?
No I did not. I didn't think I needed one.
All I wanted to do was help.
Okay.
It appears you've done a lot of interviews with police, and you've been inconsistent.
Tell me about that.
I don't know, but there's a lot of things I forget.
Did the police ever have you take a polygraph?
There were two.
2006 and then 2019.
Did you pass 'em?
I was told I didn't.
And then they arrest me in 2019.
So that really concerns me.
I know. I... I...
I don't know what to say. The whole thing boggles my mind.
The problem with this case, is that I can see your memory has faded.
Not only that, but just the massiveness of this case.
Eighteen years of investigation.
So we cannot leave any stone unturned.
Your life depends on it.
Hm.
-Thanks for coming by. -Okay.
This case is going to be tough.
The prosecution believes that Gerry lied in his interviews,
and that he failed two polygraphs.
That's a sign of deception,
and therefore, he must have been the murderer or that he conspired to murder Danny.
If the jury believes this, I mean, then we're toast.
Then Gerry, Gerry's gonna die in prison.
Gerry, my client, is being charged with murder, with use of a deadly weapon.
One of the most serious charges that a citizen can be charged with
within the United States of America.
What's really central to the state's case, the government's case
is these inconsistencies from Gerry.
Over these hours and hours of interrogation.
And I really wanna go take a look at those.
-You ready to get started? -Yeah.
All right, Luke, what I want you to do is
I want to go to the first interview.
-Police got there right around six in the morning. -LUKE: Mm-hmm.
Gerry does this interview at 8:40 a.m.
I want to hear his account of how he's kidnapped.
NICK: Pause it right there for me.
So he says he's been
zip tied and duct taped. And he seems pretty clear on that,
but the police claim during subsequent interviews,
he states that duct tape was not used.
I want you to show me where in these interviews
he's talking about the duct tape?
2013. Yeah, let's go to that.
NICK: All right, stop it there.
This is a problem.
He's clear that he's duct taped nearly eight years prior.
Now his story is changing.
All right. The next thing the detective claims,
Gerry states he was originally tied with electric ties,
but in subsequent interviews, the story changes.
I want to hear what Gerry had to say about the electrical ties.
LUKE: February 22nd, 2019.
NICK: So. This one. LUKE: Okay.
LUKE: That's the small one. NICK: All right.
NICK: I mean, he was very clear in the first interview that he's zip tied.
Now he's uncertain.
We've got a big problem.
Looking at these interviews in isolation,
it looks a little tough.
I mean, we've got a lot of inconsistent statements.
And I know some jurors are going to have a problem with that.
GERRY: These are our last three trips.
2016.
This one. Remember that one?
-ANNA: Texas. -Yeah.
-GERRY: That's a good picture of us. -Very good picture.
This is the last trip we took. 2018.
-ANNA: Canada. -Yeah.
GERRY: We were doing a lot of traveling.
We were on the go constantly. The fact, that was our pattern of life,
-was just go. -Yeah.
Had a lot of good memories from that.
Lotta good memories.
ANNA: The last four years have just been difficult because we can't be us.
We can't go out together and have good times together.
And that's the 100% opposite of what our life was like before.
GERRY: The thing I really miss, is my freedom.
And around me here are pictures of places that we have been.
We look at them every day. I don't get tired of looking at them.
I just hope we can do it again.
NICK: One of the things about this case is that
Danny Cates, the victim, his family was very close.
And Danny's son, he actually worked for Danny at DLC.
Okay, Luke,
I want you to go through everywhere where Gerry is mentioned
within that interview with Danny's son.
Maybe this is something. Here we go.
Danny's son is talking about a conversation he had with Gerry
about the murder.
Gerry has a conversation where he tells him, "I thought they were just gonna rough him up."
What does that even mean though?
NICK: Well, I can tell you what the prosecutor's gonna say.
That there was a plan just to rough up Danny,
but things got out of hand, and they had to kill him.
What I want you to do next is, I want you to search Gerry's interviews.
Word search "rough."
And then we're going to see anywhere where that's mentioned.
LUKE: I found something.
Boom. 2013 interview.
All right, let me hear this.
(GERRY SIGHS)
NICK: Pause it.
The prosecutor is going to say,
Gerry must have known these guys
and that he believed they were just gonna rough him up.
I mean, when you look at Gerry though, I believe him.
It's really about, "They didn't kill me,
-"so I didn't think they were gonna kill Danny." -Mm-hmm.
-NICK: We're just gonna have to explain it. -Yeah.
NICK: We just have to frame it correctly.
-It's still a problem though. -Mm-hmm.
NICK: When I spoke with Gerry, it was my understanding
that Gerry and Danny got along really well.
But there's some evidence that we recently received
that suggests that that wasn't the case.
All right. I want to listen to the friend from California interview.
She talked to the detectives in August.
-Of 2006? -2006.
This is not good for us.
Danny had this big blow up with Gerry and wanted to clean house and get rid of him.
It's going to fall right into the state's theory,
that Gerry has a motive.
Yeah, that's a pretty clear connection for the prosecution to make.
In a murder case, motive means everything.
Did anybody else have anything to say about Gerry and Danny's relationship?
I mean, he interviewed a decent amount of people at DLC.
So, this audio is the bookkeeper at DLC.
And she talked to them, day after the murder.
(BOOKKEEPER SIGHS)
-She says Danny really respected Gerry... -Yeah.
-...and he worked hard for him. -Works hard. Yeah.
That doesn't sound like somebody who's about ready to get fired.
All right. Well, I like that...
-because this is somebody who actually works there. -Yeah.
Did the friend from California work there?
No.
-She never even met Gerry? -Mm-mmm.
-So, that's good. -Yeah.
It's been a long time since I've been back and seen my family.
Time is running out on me.
I get in touch with my sister Nancy quite frequently.
-(LINE DIALING) -(BEEPS)
Oh, there she is.
-I like your hair. -Yeah?
(CHUCKLES) How you?
-I'm good. -What's been happening?
We had birthdays, there was 4th of July,
-we missed you. -Well, I miss being there.
What's been happening with you?
I've got news.
I've got trial coming up.
Okay. Do you feel optimistic?
I don't know, but...
I don't have much faith in the trial.
The police think I did it.
It makes no sense.
You have to have a motive!
I'm not a criminal.
I'm a victim of a crime.
I know.
My whole concept of the legal system is
blown apart by this whole thing.
Well, when it does go to trial, I want to be there...
-I know. -...with you and Anna.
GERRY: I appreciate that.
You'll be the first one I call.
Take care.
-Okay, love you. -Love you, too.
-Bye, Ger. -Bye-bye.
It bothers me that it affects my family.
Eighteen years of worry and stress.
They're playing with my life.
And I can't do a darn thing about it.
I really need to be able to corroborate Gerry's account
of being tied up with the zip ties.
The police found three zip ties.
One found in front of the business
that looks to be too big to tie Gerry up.
The other zip tie is found on the front seat of Gerry's truck.
This one is also too big.
Then I've got this zip tie.
This is the only one that it could be.
But the detective claims it's too small.
I need to go look at the zip tie.
So right now, we are headed to
the Henderson Police Department evidence vault.
I've got to go pull the zip tie. I've got to see how big it is.
So, I pull the zip tie.
The width is a little less than four inches wide.
Let's see here.
That's it right there.
Then... six inches this way.
Right there. Just like the picture.
So, I mean, I fit in it.
But I'm not, no six-foot, 250lb Gerry.
Now the question is, I might fit in it,
but does Gerry fit in?
NICK: Right now we're heading to see Gerry.
The main things that I want to clear up is, first,
the zip tie.
Prosecution is claiming it's too small to tie him up.
So I've brought the zip tie with the same measurement,
and I just want to see, Gerry, can you fit in it?
Prosecution is claiming that
it's improbable that he could fit in the back of his truck,
because of how tall he is and his weight.
And Gerry's had the same truck
for the past 20 years.
So, I'm really interested to see if he actually fits back there.
Gerry, thanks for coming out, my friend.
-Appreciate it. -Nick.
A couple of things I want to do with you today.
I know it's not going to be comfortable
because it's going to be a little bit of reenactment kind of thing.
-I'll be all right. Let's get it done. -All right.
Now, one of the things they're saying is,
your story doesn't make any sense because it's improbable that
you would fit in the back of the extended cab portion of your truck,
based on your height and how big you are.
So, let's see if that's even... if they're right.
-This is the same truck? -Yeah.
It's the same truck I've had since '03.
Wow!
-And you're the same weight? -Yes.
-Okay. I want you to... yeah, imagine, -I'll try not to use my hands.
you just get pushed back here, all right?
See if you can fit in there.
(GERRY GROANS)
Not as easy as it was when I was 62.
You okay?
I was in there like this.
Well, Gerry, you fit, buddy.
(GERRY GROANS)
Wow.
-You okay? -Yeah, I'm fine.
-You fit back there. -Yes.
Did any of those detectives ever ask you
-if you actually fit back there? -No.
I can say that no, they didn't.
Instead they just write in their police report
that it's not probable that you would fit back there
-based on your height and your weight. -Correct.
Wow.
Okay. Next thing.
I have the exact measurement
of the only zip tie that could have been the one to have tied you up.
If you can fit in the zip tie, then our account makes sense.
If you can't fit in the zip tie, then we've got a little bit of issues.
This is the same type of zip tie that tied you up.
So, what I want to do is just, I want you to put your hands like this, okay?
Let me just double check the width.
This is it. Moment of truth.
Try to get out?
(GERRY GROANING)
Wow.
Well, I mean, that might look small...
-but it... -I got out.
You got out.
We've got four there.
We've got six here.
This is pretty huge in our case.
-Thanks for coming out, Gerry. -No problem.
So today, obviously, I think is a big win for us.
He fits in the back of his truck
and that zip tie, the one that they said was too small
for him to fit in? No, he actually fit
in the same zip tie. It wasn't too small.
We still got some issues. I mean,
I still have to be able to explain
why he's so inconsistent in his interviews,
but I'm feeling a lot better about the case right now.
NICK: One of the things that police claim is
that there are these new technological advances
that led them to Gerry.
The fact that there is forensic evidence can be a big problem for us.
So, what I'm gonna do right now is really just get into this forensic evidence
and see how bad it is for us.
All right. So, let's go through this.
The swabs from the steering wheel,
hairs...
This is a lab report on the DNA.
The results are inconclusive.
There's no evidence that his DNA is anywhere on Danny Cates.
I don't think we have anything to worry about with the DNA.
Here's more stuff.
We've got gunshot residue.
Gerry's name is mentioned here.
Man...
Gerry's got gunshot residue on his hands?
Oh, I don't like that.
How could he get gunshot residue on his hands
if he never fired a gun that morning?
The prosecution are going to be saying,
that means that Gerry shot Danny.
Pretty damning.
If there's GSR on his hands,
Gerry could go down.
(POLICE RECORDING PLAYING)
If the jury hears that Gerry had gunshot residue on his hand,
they could think that Gerry either shot Danny,
or was with the killers when they shot him.
-So, I've asked a colleague of mine... -Okay.
...to speak with some expert witnesses on gunshot residue...
All right, great. Thanks, man.
...and really see how bad it is for us.
Yo.
-RENO: So, I spoke with an expert... -What'd he have to say?
The killers left the building around 5 a.m.
And then we know Gerry walked into that room
where Danny was found around 5:30.
So about half an hour later.
Gerry had one microscopic particle on him.
Now for comparison,
the first guy in the room had 18 particles on him,
and the second guy in, has four.
So between the three of them, Gerry had by far the least.
I mean, that's really good that these other witnesses,
who are not suspects in this case,
they even had GSR on them.
Just being in a room where a gunshot was fired,
which all three of these guys were.
That can lead to you having microscopic particles on you.
This is great news. Good job, Reno.
(POLICE RECORDING PLAYING)
NICK: Police asked Gerry to submit to two polygraphs,
one in 2006,
and then another one in 2019.
And according to the police, Gerry failed both polygraphs.
The thing that puzzles me is that there were
no results, no data of the first polygraph.
We've already made a request to the DA's office,
and the response that I got was,
"You should ask Gerry.
"It is not state generated discovery."
Based on the email, it doesn't even seem like they know about it.
I mean, this is odd.
So I'm gonna word search these thousands of documents
of this 18-year investigation,
and hopefully find something that can lead me to the first polygraph.
There's over 350 mentions of polygraph.
It's like, nonstop. This case is ginormous.
Hold on one second.
Here's an email from the first detective
to Danny Cates' daughter.
The detective is responding to an email from her,
basically making demands on him to go do things.
He says,
"As far as contacting Gerry,
"that has been done.
"In fact, a couple of different times.
"And in fact, Gerry submitted to a polygraph and..."
He passed the polygraph.
So, all this time, law enforcement makes him believe
that he failed the first polygraph,
when in fact, he actually passed it.
They head screw him
for those six years of 2013 to 2019,
make him doubt his story,
his account of what happened to him.
And that could be a reason why there's inconsistent statements.
This is really important. This is shocking.
I got to tell the lead prosecutor in this case what I found.
This case should be dismissed.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
GERRY: Hello.
Yeah.
Hey.
What's happening?
Yeah.
-Wow. -That's big news.
Should I trust them?
GERRY: Okay.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
I wouldn't trust the DA as far as I could throw him.
I want to believe it.
But the DA was the one that said that I was a danger to the community.
-True. -So, I don't trust him.
I just don't trust him.
NICK: Today is a big day for Gerry and I.
What's at stake is Gerry's life.
I mean, this is everything for Gerry.
He's been waiting for four years.
I'm hoping that all the work that we've done,
every stone that we've overturned,
every little piece of evidence that we looked at,
that this is finally going to pay off,
and this is going to end for Gerry.
And that it really is going to be dismissed.
GERRY: I'm nervous.
I have... butterflies in my stomach.
I'm hoping this is going to be the end.
But, you never know.
Okay.
-NICK: Gerry? -Yeah.
-You all right? You okay? -Yeah.
-We're almost there, man. -Yep.
GERRY: All right, here we go.
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
Mr. DiGiacomo present on behalf of the state.
MARC DIGIACOMO: Thank you, Judge.
Part of the reason that Mr. Gage was charged by my office,
for this particular crime is that,
he has told a number of versions of events.
His original story is highly suspicious.
A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Wooldridge asked me
for the polygraph that Mr. Gage took in 2006.
And I said, "Look,
"Henderson Police Department
"says they don't keep records that far back."
Mr. Wooldridge, being Mr. Wooldridge, was not going to let it go.
There was additional searches, and ultimately
they did locate email that was sent from the detective
that indicated that Mr. Gage
had passed the polygraph in 2006.
Based upon that, I have a reasonable doubt
as to whether or not Mr. Gage is guilty.
So at this time, I'll move to dismiss.
Case dismissed.
Thank you.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
NICK: Congratulations. It's over, man.
You're finally free.
We can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Thank you. I don't know what to say.
-Thank you. -Absolutely.
NICK: This is a huge win.
I couldn't be happier.
The DA's office took a second look at this case,
and they really did the right thing.
And now I feel that Gerry finally gets this vindication that he deserves.
A recognition that
he is innocent,
just like we always believed he was.
Go, sail off into the sunset.
I'll take that to the sunset.
-Take that to the sunset, okay? -(LAUGHING)
-Thank you. -All right, my friend.
GERRY: I feel relieved.
And I'm happy for us.
And I feel like a new person.
A totally new person.
GERRY: It's going to start a new life.
And we're still together.
Okay, babe, let's head to the mountains.
(HORN HONKING)