(suspenseful music playing)
(telephone ringing)
(911 operator speaking)
(man speaking)
(911 operator speaking)
(policewoman speaking)
-(911 operator speaking) -(policewoman speaking)
Sakai: It was a normal school day.
Woke up, went to school, was on time.
Reporter: Gunfire on the far edge of canyon springs high school.
An 18-year-old shot and killed
At the baseball field at the school.
Sakai: After hearing the gunshots,
We ran the same way everybody else ran.
Reporter: 16-year-old sakai kayin-french,
Booked for murder with a deadly weapon,
And possession of a dangerous weapon on school property.
Ryan: We don't want an innocent kid to go to prison
For a crime that he didn't do.
Sakai: You gonna fight it and fight it,
Until you can't fight it no more.
(suspenseful music playing)
Ryan: My name is ryan helmick.
I'm a criminal defense lawyer here in las vegas.
And I represent sakai french.
Sakai is being accused of first-degree murder
For the killing of an individual named dalvin brown.
This incident occurred on 9-11-2018
On the school grounds of canyon springs high school,
Sakai french was 16 years old at the time of this alleged crime.
What happened was one of sakai's friends was getting jumped after school
By three individuals, including dalvin,
Who was the victim in this case.
They were stomping him, they were punching him.
And so, at some point, with multiple people around,
Somebody pulls out a gun
And shoots, uh, dalvin, and ultimately kills him.
The prosecutor's position, in a nutshell,
Is that sakai brought a gun to the school,
And when he saw his friend getting beat up by three other individuals,
He shot one of them and killed him.
Our position is the complete opposite.
That sakai never had a gun.
And that, yes, he was there,
When the fight took place,
But he was not the individual
That pulled out a gun and shot dalvin.
Sakai is a great kid.
He doesn't seem at all like an individual,
Who would do what he's being charged with.
This is a kid who's got his whole life ahead of him.
And I'm going to do everything I can
To keep him from going to prison.
(somber music playing)
Sakai: I would say, of course, going in there at 16,
It definitely matured me at an early age.
Unfortunately, I had no choice.
It's a lot of injustice in there,
And you would be surprised what...
People would get away with in here.
But it was just like almost taking it one day at a time.
For 19 months.
I was a good kid. I always obeyed the rules.
But I was always the one that was the type to...
"I'm never going to go to jail and get in trouble."
I've never even stole from a local candy store.
But now I am charged with murder
And possession of a firearm on school property.
Which, the penalties for that could be life in prison.
Saying that feels unreal, 'cause it's like...
It's... I don't know.
Yeah.
I am currently on high-risk house arrest,
So I have a six o'clock curfew.
There are certain places that I'm not allowed to go.
Malls, I'm not allowed to be in, um, parks.
I'm inside a lot.
It takes a toll, yeah. Definitely.
It's...
Yeah, it's difficult.
(typing)
Ryan: There was no murder weapon found in this case.
There was no forensics.
There is literally zero physical evidence
To tie sakai as the one who was the shooter.
In a nutshell,
This is a case of misidentification.
Eyewitness testimony being flawed.
-How you doing? Good. -Sakai: All right.
Ryan: And, today, I'm meeting with sakai.
We're going to get into a lot of details,
Which is going to help us develop the story of the case,
And ultimately build our defense.
I do it to put myself there with sakai,
So I can kind of visualize everything,
And get a full understanding of the entire picture.
The prosecution's position in this case is that you were the shooter, right?
That's why you have been charged with shooting dalvin brown.
Their position is that you...
You were worried about your friend, anthony, getting into a fight
And that you came to school with a gun, um, in order to protect him.
Take me through the part when you get to
Canyon springs high school and then we'll kind of go from there.
Okay, so arriving at canyon springs,
Um, I was with a friend of mine.
Our plan was to meet the cheerleaders
-That were supposed to be practicing after school. -Ryan: Mmm-hmm.
So I mean, you guys are trying to hang out with...
Uh, uh, some girls, right?
Yeah.
We stopped briefly and we talked to anthony.
He briefs us as far as, that multiple individuals that had a problem with him.
Ryan: Mmm-hmm.
Sakai: The day before, it was a facebook status
That had indicated that um, they were going to jump him.
He did kind of express to us that he did feel unsafe.
We did advise him to maybe try to switch his route.
We parted, we shook hands with him.
From there, he walked off and left.
Mm-hmm.
Sakai: So we continue along,
We kind of noticed a lot of activity,
Like a lot of verbal arguing.
Mmm-hmm.
Sakai: Upon approaching,
One male was kind of like scanning the crowd.
-Um, and that male was dalvin. -Mmm-hmm.
Sakai: He actually confronted my friend.
In regard to dalvin, did you know him?
No, I did not know dalvin.
Okay, did you know anything about him?
No.
It started off with a couple hits,
I would say the third hit,
-My friend was dazed at that point. -Ryan: Mmm-hmm.
Um, from there, we kind of noticed
It was commotion further back in the crowd.
It kind of caught everybody's attention
'cause it caught dalvin's attention, too.
Um, to where, that's actually what stopped him from fighting my friend...
-Ryan: Hmm. -...Is the commotion.
And he joins back in.
Now we can see that it is anthony on the ground getting jumped.
Hmm-mmm.
Sakai: Two to three seconds went by,
And all of a sudden we heard the gunshots.
What did you do next?
Um, I ran. Like everybody else.
Okay, so our position is, is that this was a case of mistaken identity.
That's really what this case is about.
There's no dna, there's no forensic evidence.
There's no gun that was found.
-Right. -There's nothing else, but witness testimony.
But one of the most damaging...
(sighs) parts of the case that we have to overcome
Is that there's three people that were there on the scene
That, uh, point the finger at you as being the shooter.
And one of them is anthony.
And what's difficult about him is that he's your friend, right?
-Sakai: Yeah. -That you have known since second grade.
Why do you think that he...
Pointed to you as the shooter?
I honestly don't know.
(somber music playing)
Today is Sunday dinner for sakai, me, and his siblings.
We try to gather as much as we can.
-What, what's up, what's up? -Deborah: Hey, hey. Hi.
We look forward to days like this,
And we try to keep it all positive.
You know, considering what our family right now is enduring.
-Hey! How's it going? -Hello! Good!
Come say hi.
That yellow thing is a pepper so you might want to avoid that.
(deborah laughing)
(piano music playing)
Heavenly father, we thank you for this food
That we are about to receive that nourishes our bodies. In christ. Amen.
All: Amen.
Deborah: When sakai had to go to jail,
Probably the hardest thing that we can go through,
Was not having him present for about 19 months.
If we can think back, 2018 at this time,
Raeanna: Hmm-mmm.
-Um... We weren't. -We weren't even cooking dinners.
-We weren't even eating. -Yeah.
-I don't even remember eating. -Taneah: Yeah, we were barely eating
It was like, "oh, he ain't eating no good meal,
-"we ain't gonna eat no good meal." -taneah: Right.
He's not celebrating a holiday, we're not celebrating a holiday.
Deborah: Buddy, you got to keep on smiling.
Keep that beautiful smile up,
And don't let nobody take your joy.
You've got to be able to smile through all the bs.
-Sakai: Yeah. -Deborah: Yup.
Man, that's the only thing I got to hold onto, is the smile.
-Deborah: Hmm-mmm. Yes. -Ricky: Can't nobody take that.
Taneah: Ain't nobody take that.
Deborah: They took my child away.
He was my baby, still.
And imagine, your child, 16 years old
And never been out your sight.
You know, he... I'm sorry.
I recall that, um, when he was released,
I felt like he was a total different person.
He began to go through, um, severe anxiety,
And have panic attacks.
We're still in a position that sakai can go back.
I feel like...
We're about to relive this nightmare again.
(indistinct conversation)
(tense music playing)
Today, I'm with, uh, my private investigator, wayne,
Who is an ex-homicide detective.
We're going to go interview some very important witnesses in this case,
Who have given interviews to the detectives.
This is very, very important because this case is all about witnesses,
As opposed to physical evidence or dna or anything like that.
This is a misidentification case.
It's the defense that we're going on...
And so we've got to talk to these people.
Today, we're searching for the truth.
Wayne: So right now we're driving out to meet anthony.
He's by far one of the most important witnesses
To the state's case, as well as ours.
Him and sakai were friends.
And he identifies him as the shooter.
We really kind of need to figure out
Why he ultimately identified his friend as being involved.
-Ryan: You ready? -Wayne: I'm ready for it. Let's do this.
(wayne speaking)
Wayne: Holy smokes, man, I'm absolutely ecstatic.
Wow.
"wow" is really the only thing that I can...
I can describe right now.
So he tells us point-blank that despite a photo lineup,
Which would indicate from police
That he did identify sakai as the shooter,
He tells us today that absolutely did not happen.
He admits that his name was on the lineup.
But that, if anything, he does nothing more
Than identify sakai as his friend.
Somebody he knows.
The biggest thing that I took away from it
Is him specifically stating that the police threatened him
And scared him, uh, about being charged with something or be taken...
...Or being taken to jail if he didn't pick this person.
Which is completely improper for a photo lineup.
So they messed up big time in their investigation,
And scared a crucial witness into picking somebody,
Uh, only because he knew that person.
And it was huge that he said multiple times
That sakai was not the shooter.
It doesn't get more sensational than this.
You have a key prosecution witness
Who says that sakai is not the shooter.
And that, if anything were said to the contrary,
He is willing to go and testify, under oath,
That he did not witness sakai, uh, shoot the victim.
-That's absolutely huge. -And this is only one kid.
Wayne: Exactly.
(somber music playing)
He's a crucial witness for the prosecution,
Because he claims that he saw sakai shoot.
Okay, so now he says he never saw him fire the gun.
He doesn't know what direction the shots were even coming from.
-Wayne: That's true. -And the most important thing is that he agrees
That it's possible that somebody else could have shot the gun.
I guess, for me, I just didn't like the fact
That you have a witness who does identify sakai as holding the firearm.
-Ryan: Holding the gun, yeah. -Yeah.
Wayne: So the next person that we're going to go speak with
Is a crucial, uh, witness to the state's case.
He, uh, selects sakai from a yearbook,
Uh, and identifies him as being the shooter that day.
He is the other ace up the prosecutor's sleeve.
If he gets on board with the fact
-That he didn't see sakai shoot... -Wayne: Yeah.
Ryan: Then the prosecutor's case is significantly damaged.
Ryan: We just got done interviewing the witness.
He says he sees sakai have a gun at his side.
And sakai pulls up the gun when three people are running towards him.
You know, remember that...
That high, that "wow" that I felt
-When we interviewed that first witness? -(ryan sniffles)
Uh, at the end of the day, our last witness,
-Um, you know, it kinda brings me back to reality. -Ryan: Right.
Here's an individual that says, "yeah, you know what?
"I did see,
"uh, sakai with a firearm," and he's able to pull sakai
Out of a yearbook full of hundreds of people.
So we're right back to, you know, this case is not perfect for either side.
I've gone back and reviewed the audio recording
That anthony made to police, uh, during the initial lineup process.
And I learned something rather interesting,
Uh, that I'm anxious to share with ryan.
-Hey, my man. Good to see you. -Hey, good to see you, brother.
Wayne: So, this is the audio interview
-That police do with anthony during the lineup process. -Ryan: Right.
Wayne: So this is an important witness.
I'll go and play that for you.
(investigator speaking)
(anthony speaking)
(investigator speaking)
(anthony speaking)
Wayne: So if you heard, he says he doesn't recognize anybody in the photo lineup.
There's two photo lineups.
The first one, he says that he did not recognize anybody in the photo lineup.
That is, uh, validated
-With what you're hearing on the audio. -Ryan: Right.
Here's where it gets interesting.
If you listen to the very end before the recording... Stops,
Listen to what the investigator says.
(investigator speaking)
-"here's the deal." and guess what? -Ryan: "here's the deal."
The recording stops.
Wayne: This is the lineup in which he actually selects sakai,
But none of that's been recorded.
Why would you ever stop an audio recording in a murder investigation
With what clearly is a crucial witness?
And we know, from interviewing him,
That he was pressured into, uh, picking sakai.
This is the star witness...
-Ryan: Mm-hmm. -...In a murder investigation,
Who the prosecution intends to call,
Who's identified, allegedly, sakai from the photo lineup.
And there is no audio proof to substantiate
How the identification unfolded
In front of police.
Ricky: My business is a all-purpose cleaning service.
Working with my brother is pretty cool.
I get to hang out with my brother all day.
(engine starts)
Sakai: Me and all my siblings are close,
But me and my brother, I would say, yeah,
We definitely are closer than brothers, too.
Work is definitely a getaway.
And me, I'm not that type of person who is like,
"oh, I got to go to work again today."
I, actually, I look forward to it.
-(indistinct conversation) -(both laughing)
I was being hired on to the same police department
That just took my brother into custody.
My emotions were everywhere. I went from,
"they made a mistake", to "do I really want to work for this department?"
Um, are they not as thorough?
Like, how did this work?
How did this happen?
I have friends that worked in the same facility as sakai.
They all would come to me and...
Express to me how... He was being mistreated.
And that's the harsh reality about the justice system
When it comes to being in prison or being in jail.
I definitely hope my brother doesn't go to prison.
Not only because I enjoy working with him every day.
(chuckles nervously)
Mentally, I don't want it to get to him.
It was a lot of guys...
Broken from being incarcerated.
I definitely hope my brother doesn't become one of those statistics.
(suspenseful music playing)
Ryan: We received a piece of evidence from the prosecutor
In the form of a jail phone call.
It's a piece of evidence that is not favorable to us
In regard to what this individual claims that sakai said.
(inmate speaking)
This inmate says that they have the person
That killed dalvin in the jail with him.
Then he says, "french," which is sakai's last name.
(inmate speaking)
Ryan: He's claiming that sakai is saying that he "smoked" dalvin.
And so that's damaging for us.
This piece of evidence is serious enough for me
To now tell sakai that, "hey, you might want to think about a plea deal."
Going to trial, there's an element of risk.
You don't know how the jury is going to react
To this other inmate's statement.
Do I think some jurors will be negatively impacted by this?
Yes, I do.
Automated voice: Hello. This is a free call from an inmate
At clark county detention center.
This call is subject to recording and monitoring.
(inmate speaking)
Do you know the inmate
That was, um, talking, speaking about you?
Um, I know of him. Like, personally, no.
As far as being friends, no.
Deborah: And you guys were never housed together?
-Not at all. -Deborah: Wow.
I was moved out of there before he was even incarcerated.
The thing that worries me is how something
That dishonest can weigh down on your case.
That's, that's frightening.
Sakai: My lawyer and investigator are supposed to be seeing this guy.
Um, so really, we're just going to see what he says in a few days.
But it is another story that my lawyer has to unpaint.
It's another hurdle that's in the way.
(suspenseful music playing)
Today, me and wayne are going to go out to the prison.
We're going to interview the individual that was on the jail phone call.
Good to see you, my man.
You, too. Are you ready for a productive day?
This is crucial to the case, crucial to our defense.
It's very possible that we could go up there and he could refuse to talk to us.
But we have to try.
The prosecutor sent me a notice the other day
That they're going to use this individual, uh, to transport him to testify.
And so we've got to interview him
Just to be prepared on what he's going to say.
Wayne: So I've got to tell you, I thought that went rather well.
Ryan: I thought it went very well.
-Very surprised. -Very surprised.
The guy denies saying it.
So, and he basically doesn't want to cooperate with the prosecutor,
Doesn't want to testify.
This is a good day for sakai.
-Sakai: Hello. -Hey, sakai.
It's ryan and wayne.
Sakai: Hey, how you doing?
Yeah. Sakai. I got to tell you, it was a, it was a good visit.
He was very vocal.
His testimony intends to be that you two did not discuss the case.
You did not share any details.
Sakai: Okay. That, that's good. And I figured...
(sakai continues speaking)
Sakai: I'm very active with the facts and details of the case.
Now that ryan has been to the prison
And talked to the individual that was there,
I'm standing in the same position
As far as considering the plea deal,
Which would be really little to no interest.
Knowing what it's like being incarcerated,
It's really a place that nobody wants to be.
My biggest concern is going to prison.
So, currently, I am going to be going to trial.
Trial could be what sets me free or trial could be
My freedom being taken for the rest of my life.
(suspenseful music playing)
We have a very important meeting tomorrow.
It's called a "settlement conference."
It's almost like a mediation.
Sakai has rejected the plea deals
That have been given to us throughout this entire case.
But plea deals really start to, in my experience, come to fruition
At this particular point in time because the client is realizing,
"all right, you know, am I really going to risk
"possibly, you know, losing and doing a life sentence?"
Could we win? Absolutely.
Is it possible that we could lose?
That's also true.
You never know what the jury is going to do.
Sakai is a great kid.
He's 19 years old and he can face life in prison.
Hey, richard, raeanna, are you guys there?
How would you guys feel about that?
Ricky: Absolutely not.
Don't let them pressure you into that.
Keep your faith.
Raeanna: Yeah. Why not fight all the way to the end?
Sakai: True.
We ain't gonna go out like that.
You know, we can't.
Ricky: At the end of the day, we're going to fight this one to the end.
I mean, again,
We're going to follow what you want to do.
-So we ready to box it out. -Right.
-Ricky: Then box it out again, and box it out again, like... -Right.
-Ricky: We ready for it. -Sakai: Right.
-All right. Love you all. -Ricky: Love you, too.
Deborah: Okay.
-Bye. -Ricky: Bye.
If you make any decision, whether it's go to trial
Or to take a deal, you have to make that decision...
Selfishly.
It's, it's so much.
That's why I'm in, like, a harder position,
'cause it's so much to think about.
You know that we are 100 percent in support of whatever you decide.
We're here.
Ryan: Plea negotiations are very, very common.
The only reason that cases go to trial
Is because negotiations have failed.
Sometimes clients have a position that they want to take,
And as we get closer towards the trial date,
Things become to get more real.
No matter how strong of a case you have,
You can't guarantee that we're gonna, you know, win.
-Raeanna: Hi. -Ricky: Hi.
-What up, brother? -Sakai: Hi.
Feeling kind of anxious, kind of, I wouldn't really say nervous,
But it's kind of the first for everybody, really.
So it's just, I don't really know what to expect.
(suspenseful music playing)
Ryan: We had the settlement conference.
We got sakai voluntary manslaughter without the use of a deadly weapon
And the possession of a gun on school property,
Which is just a gross misdemeanor.
Ultimately, it's up to sakai,
But I would advise him that he should take the deal.
You have a tough case here
And you never know what the jury's going to do.
Sakai: Sitting down with the chief judge today,
She kind of just explained to me that even if it is looking good,
That it's always a risk that I could lose.
I am in a tough position.
Kind of undecided right now.
Especially with having less than 24 hours
To make the decision.
It's, it's tough.
Ryan: Today is the entry of plea,
So we're going to figure out whether sakai is going to accept the plea deal,
Or whether he is going to announce ready for trial.
I hope that he takes the deal.
There is a risk in regard to taking the case to trial.
It's always a bit of a gamble,
And if we lose, it's a life sentence,
(judge speaking)
Sakai felt that this was in his best interest
As opposed to rolling the dice and taking the risk
Of possibly being convicted of first degree murder.
Sakai: It was hard.
It was definitely hard.
Um, 'cause I just stood so strong on my position of not taking a deal.
But it left me in a position where, really, I had no choice.
Knowing that I do have a sentencing date,
It's like, I have to mentally prepare myself now to go back to that.
To go back to incarceration.
Ryan: After the settlement conference,
Sakai took the plea deal and it was a strategic move
That gave him a level of certainty
As to what he would be facing.
Since then, sakai's position
And role in the incident has changed.
(dramatic music playing)
Sakai: I am writing the letter that I have to read to the judge
'cause I am going to be speaking at my sentencing.
Tomorrow is going to be the first time
That I'm going to be allowed to really tell what happened.
You never can go wrong with the truth.
Judge: Let's go to the record on page 21.
C-335675. Sakai french.
(sakai speaking)
Your honor, I want you to get the full picture of what happened.
His best friend from second grade is on the ground
Getting beat up by three people,
And potentially, is in a position to get killed.
And so, at that particular time, sakai reasonably believed that it was necessary
To shoot the gun to help his friend,
The defense of others, your honor knows this very well.
The offense was made probation-able for a reason.
And your honor, that's what we're asking for.
(judge speaking)
Deborah: As a mother, to see my son in this situation that he's in,
It's heartbreaking.
There's no happy ending to any of this.
I'm not the only mother hurting.
Ryan: The judge ended up doing three to ten years.
That means he'll be eligible for parole after a year and a half.
This case was not black and white.
It was a very complicated case.
Sakai admitted that he was the shooter.
But he acted in the defense of others
Because his best friend
Since the second grade very well could have been killed.
The real world is sometimes complicated and messy,
And so can be the criminal justice system.
But ultimately, this was a very tragic case.
We have a young man who died and we can't forget that.