[suspenseful music playing]
[door slams]
[door opens]
Someone is screaming and pleading for help.
We find a male subject in a pool of blood.
The victim had been shot twice.
[gunshots]
There's evidence of torture.
[woman] What happened here?
A video was located.
[man screaming]
One of the most chilling videos I've ever seen.
He had a new boyfriend.
He's askin' for an attorney right off the bat.
Blood is identified
on the steering wheel of the vehicle.
[woman] We're fighting very hard, day in and day out,
to try to chase every lead we possibly can.
What else can we look at? Who else can we talk to?
We have to find the killer.
[gun fires]
[Tish] Everyday in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides,
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case, detectives must reconstruct
that critical timeline.
The minutes and hours containing evidence
that can help unlock the mystery,
and catch the killer.
[upbeat music playing]
St. Petersburg, Florida,
in the heart of Florida's west coast.
Nicknamed "The Sunshine City,"
it's a popular hub
for retirees and vacationers alike.
[Ed] St. Pete is a wonderful city.
Very modern, uh, restaurants, shops, cultural things to do.
Very diverse population, and a very nice place to live,
to raise a family.
[Tish] But in 2011,
just four days before Christmas,
the peaceful paradise is shaken
by a terrifying 9-1-1 call.
[call ringing]
-[intense music playing] -It appears to be a male caller
screaming for help.
Terrified.
The thing that stands out about that phone call is
just the dread that was in the call.
We don't get 9-1-1 calls like this everyday.
Dispatchers were frantically asking
"Who are you? Where are you located?"
[Tish] But before they can get the man's name or address...
[dial tone sounds]
...the line suddenly goes dead.
[Amy] We had no idea where he was located.
[siren wailing]
So, time is of the essence,
and that's where we have to act
and we have to act fast.
[Tish] Deputies trace the call
to a neighborhood in Pinellas County.
But they're unable to pinpoint the exact address.
[Amy] We know that the call is coming from a cellphone.
We are frantically trying to figure out,
"Where do we have to go? How can we help this person?"
And, "Where are they?"
It's like a needle in a haystack.
[Tish] But just after 11:00 a.m.
they get a tip that might save the man's life.
Within a couple of hours of the first 9-1-1 call,
we received a second phone call
from a woman by the name of Yadira Guzman.
She's out of state on vacation, visiting family.
Yadira's asking for us to check on her roommate,
who she believes might be in danger.
[dramatic music playing]
So she provides us an address,
in the very same area of the 9-1-1 call.
[Ed] When the deputies arrive, they knock on the front door
and receive no response.
So the deputies then
check the perimeter of the residence.
When they come upon a side rear door,
uh, and window.
Uh, they notice the glass is broken on the window,
and the backdoor is slightly ajar.
Which, all is indicative of,
something is definitely not right here.
[Tish] It's a potentially dangerous situation
for deputies at the scene.
[Amy] Deputies draw their guns and announce,
"Sheriff's office! Sheriff's office!
Is anybody there?"
And they don't hear anything.
As deputies make their way slowly through the home,
they walk by this bathroom
and something definitely catches their attention.
There are signs of blood all over the place.
[Tish] But there's no sign of any victim.
They follow a trail of blood down the hallway.
[Amy] The deputies see that there is a door open,
and they find a male subject laying in a pool of blood.
They check for a pulse or any sign of life.
There's none.
[Tish] The victim is identified
as 21 year old, Landy Martinez.
We learned that Landy Martinez is a Cuban immigrant
who moved to America with his family.
Landy didn't have much as a kid.
So when he moved to America, this was like,
the best country in the world to him,
and appeared to be a very good person.
[Tish] Detectives Ed Judy and Amy Plourde
are assigned to the case.
[Ed] Detective Plourde, she's just a go-getter.
She's very smart, very good detective.
Ed Judy is one of my mentors.
He shaped me as a police officer,
and as a homicide detective.
And we're feeling this case.
We have a 21-year-old young man,
who had good relationships.
He had a good home with good friendships.
So we wanna solve this case.
Landy's body is found
slightly in a open closet door.
[Amy] He's wearing a white T-shirt and underwear,
and nothing else.
And the body of the victim is completely soaking wet.
It's almost like he'd just come out of a swimming pool.
[Amy] And right near Landy's body,
are two shell casings of .380 caliber.
The victim had been shot twice.
[Amy] One in the chest,
and one in the back of the head,
just behind the left ear.
[Ed] The medical examiner is able to tell us
uh, very early on,
that the cause of death was gunshot wounds,
and that the manner of death would be homicide.
[Tish] The question now is
"Why was this young man killed?"
Detectives look to the crime scene for answers.
[Amy] One of the things we find on scene
is multiple pieces of duct tape
where Landy's body is located.
[Ed] And on his ankles, you can see tape residue,
and then there were tape residue
on both of his wrists.
[Tish] This evidence suggests that Landy was bound
before he was murdered.
But when and where?
[Amy] We're taking a look at the bathroom.
We found multiple things in here
that definitely made us raise our eyebrows.
We've got a knife on the counter.
There's towels with blood on them
on top of the toilet.
They noticed that there's some duct tape
in the bathroom.
And we located one cloth gardening-type glove
stuffed into the shape of a ball.
But there was only one glove.
[Rob] Also inside the sink is a bottle of drain cleaner,
that's sitting in the sink upside down.
And we see that,
the shower doors are completely askew.
They're off-track.
They're not where they should be.
That's definitely indicative
of a potential struggle that occurred in this location.
So, what happened here?
What occurred in here?
[Tish] To find out, detectives will need to piece together
the last 24 hours of Landy Martinez's life.
They start with his landlord, Carlos.
Carlos provides us a very key piece of information,
telling us that, the night before,
on December 20,
Landy gets home from work,
sometime around 11:30 p.m.
Carlos tells us that he talked to Landy that night
after work when he got home,
and that everything appeared to be great.
[Ed] And the day of the homicide.
Carlos tells us that he left for work
at approximately 0600 hours on this day.
That Landy was at the residence, uh,
sleeping in his bedroom.
[Tish] This tells detectives
that on the morning of the murder,
Landy was possibly surprised by an intruder.
[Amy] There's actually a broken window
right next to the door.
There's obvious signs
that there is damage to a door that is ajar.
[Ed] It has signs of pry marks,
as if forced entry was used to get into the house.
[Tish] Detectives suspect that the intruder
may have found Landy still in bed
and overpowered him.
[Amy] And a struggle occurred between him and the killer.
And Landy was bound by duct tape
via his wrists and his ankles.
[Tish] And it's likely, Landy's killer then
forced him into the shower,
damaging the door in the process,
and drenched him.
That's where the water came from.
That's how he got so wet from the shower.
[Amy] And we're thinking,
he escaped to go to that back bedroom,
possibly to make that 9-1-1 call.
[Tish] Investigators suspect that Landy ended the call
when the killer caught up to him.
[Amy] And he was shot twice...
[gunshots]
...with a .380 caliber handgun.
[Tish] But there's one thing that puzzles detectives.
Where is his phone?
Uh, if he called 9-1-1, where is his phone at?
Did the killer take it with him?
Is it somewhere hidden?
We're looking all over the place.
And, lo and behold!
We actually locate his cellphone
in between the mattress and box-spring of the bed,
just feet away from Landy's body.
But the phone is locked.
And so, we don't know if that phone might
potentially belong to the victim
or potentially a suspect.
[Amy] It's extremely frustrating.
Everything in our gut is telling us
that there's something on this phone,
and we need to know what it is.
[Tish] While forensic technicians attempt to unlock
the contents of the phone,
detectives broaden their search
to other rooms in Landy's house.
-[dramatic music playing] -In the living room,
something odd catches their eye.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Ed] There's a pool table. And on that pool table,
is a large 65-inch flatscreen TV,
resting diagonally
like it had been unscrewed and taken off the wall.
[Tish] They discover it's not the only thing
that's out of place.
We see evidence on scene,
of bags packed with electronic equipment.
Various things that could be pawned for money.
There's also money found.
[Tish] This evidence leaves detectives wondering.
"Was Landy Martinez's murder
the result of a bungled burglary?"
Instead of an intruder surprising Landy in bed,
maybe Landy woke up and surprised the intruder.
[Ed] Sometimes burglars are
interrupted in the middle of the burglary,
which can lead to a violence.
[Amy] So we're trying to find out,
do we have a burglar who may have hit this house?
[Tish] If that's true,
detectives suspect there may be potential witnesses.
[Amy] We need to have detectives go door-to-door,
and make contact with people to find out,
"Has anything odd occurred today?"
"Have you seen anything? Have you heard anything?"
[Ed] Several neighbors have reported two individuals
who were going door-to-door soliciting magazine sales.
They were both described as Hispanic.
In their late-teens, early-twenties.
[Rob] Both individuals were seen leaving the area
at a hurried pace,
headed eastbound down the street
where this happened.
[Amy] And it was at the same time that
we received the 9-1-1 calls,
around ten in the morning.
[call ringing]
[Tish] It's a promising lead,
but it raises an important question.
[Amy] That leads us to think
that we may be looking for more than one killer.
[suspenseful music playing]
So, did these magazine sales kids
have something to do with Landy's murder?
[gunshot]
-We need to find these kids. -[gunshot]
-[suspenseful music playing] -[Tish] Detectives suspect the murder of Landy Martinez,
may have been due to a bungled burglary.
-They believe two young magazine salesmen... -[gunshot]
...may be responsible.
[gunshot]
[Michael] On the day of the homicide,
-several of the neighbors reported, uh, two young males -[knocking at door]
going door to door, attempting to sell magazines.
The neighbors thought that that was somewhat suspicious.
We don't know whether these are people just checking
to see if someone is home,
or maybe burglarize homes.
But we were lucky to develop a lead
with one of the witnesses,
who had obtained a card
with the information of the company.
[Tish] Detectives reach out to the sales company,
to confirm if they had assigned
two young men to Landy's neighborhood.
They said their business model involved employing
high school and college students
to solicit magazine sales.
[Amy] And we find out that
they did dispatch two young adults
in the vicinity at the time of the murder,
to try to sell magazines to various residences.
They were able to provide us with the names
of the individuals that would have been in our area
at the time, uh, this offence occurred.
Could they be our killers?
[dramatic music playing]
[Tish] Detectives bring them in for questioning
and interview each separately to see if their stories match.
It doesn't take them long to get to the truth.
They did not have any involvement in the murder,
and they also did not see anything suspicious
during this time.
[Amy] They appeared to be telling the truth.
And they tell us that they were trying
to get money for college,
so we cleared them at the time.
[Tish] Detectives are left wondering
who else could have robbed and murdered Landy Martinez?
They revisit the autopsy report
for any new details that might lead
to the perpetrator's identity.
[Amy] The medical examiner found two gunshot wounds,
and they see that there's other injuries to Landy.
One is a laceration right between his eyes.
Near his eyebrow.
The other is bruising and defensive wounds
in the areas of his hands,
and forearms and wrists.
We also found evidence of chemical burns
in Landy's body,
in the areas of his eyes, his nose and his throat.
[Tish] The autopsy report reveals
that these chemical burns were caused by the drain cleaner
found in Landy's bathroom.
We suspect that the drain cleaner
was used to torture Landy,
in the bathroom area of the residence.
This was a horrible fact to find out.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Tish] And it raises a puzzling question.
Why would a burglar torture Landy Martinez
before killing him?
When there are elements of torture found,
it could speak to an element of sadism
on the part of the perpetrator.
So this person may have not wanted to just kill Landy,
he wanted Landy to suffer.
[Amy] Now we're starting to wonder,
maybe it wasn't a burglary that had gone bad.
Maybe this was planned.
[Ed] This is a personal attack.
They take him,
secure him, restraining the hands and the feet.
And torture him and eventually kill him.
[gunshot]
This shows that
there's an extensive amount of time here,
uh, whereas, if it was a burglary,
they're gonna take the stuff and they're gonna go.
[Tish] This evidence suggests
it's possible Landy knew his attacker.
So, we need to dig
and find more about Landy's life
to find anything of evidentiary value.
[Tish] Detectives begin with the person who made
the second 9-1-1 call,
Landy's roommate, Yadira Guzman.
She was very emotional, very upset, uh, at his demise.
[Amy] Yadira Guzman is close friends with Landy.
They actually met
because they work together in the medical industry,
as certified nursing assistants.
[Tish] Yadira also shared that Landy was openly gay.
And just before he was murdered,
he had started seeing a man named Jonathan Galicia.
[Ed] Jonathan Galicia was, uh, Landy's new love interest,
that was in the developmental stages.
Yadira tells detectives that
Jonathan called her in the morning of his murder,
and he expressed concern for Landy.
Since Jonathan is a boyfriend to Landy,
maybe he's able to provide us with an investigative lead.
[Tish] Detectives call Jonathan
to hear what he has to say.
[phone beeping]
And they're surprised by his response.
When he's initially contacted, he does ask,
uh, if he needs an attorney.
This is an odd statement.
If you've done nothing wrong, you don't need an attorney.
And then he's asking for an attorney
right off the bat.
So, that does set off
an alarm bell, uh, for investigators.
[Tish] Jonathan agrees to an interview
about his boyfriend's murder.
We know through previous investigations,
that your significant other, your paramour,
may well be the perpetrator.
[gunshot]
So, Jonathan is quite possibly
the person that we're looking for.
He's emotional, upset,
what you would expect to see
if you were told that a loved one was deceased.
[Amy] Jonathan told us he met Landy
about a month before.
They have spent a ton of time together,
and Jonathan is absolutely enamored with Landy.
[Tish] But before Landy was killed,
Jonathan worried that Landy's feelings
weren't mutual.
[Amy] Jonathan tells us that,
he's concerned that Landy is being deceitful,
because he's talking to his ex-boyfriend.
[Tish] A man named Jose Adame.
[Amy] Jonathan confronts Landy about his jealousy issues,
over Landy with his ex-boyfriend,
and Landy does his best to reassure Jonathan
that he's in love with him.
[Ed] We learned of a three-way phone call that occurred
the night before Landy is murdered.
Landy wants to reassure Jonathan,
that he is not interested in Jose.
[Amy] So Landy tells him,
"I'm gonna do a three-way phone call
with my ex-boyfriend,
and on that phone call, you're gonna hear
how I don't love him anymore."
[Tish] And at midnight, on December 21,
just hours before his murder,
-Landy places the three-way phone call, -[call ringing]
that includes himself, Jonathan,
and his ex-boyfriend, Jose.
[Rob] And during that phone call,
he's telling Jose, that he found a new boyfriend,
that he was really happy with him,
that he loved him and just wanted to make sure
that he understood that the relationship
between he and Jose is over with.
[Amy] Jonathan claims
that the phone call ended on a positive note.
[Tish] Detectives ask Jonathan his whereabouts
after the phone call ended.
Jonathan tells us, he went to bed
because he had to work in the middle of the night.
His shift began somewhere around 3:00 in the morning.
He went to work for about a three to four hour
period of time, where he gets off work
around seven, and as he gets off work,
he allegedly texts Landy.
[message tone]
[Amy reading]
[narrator] Jonathan then reveals something surprising.
Landy responds, that he wants to break up.
But he gets a text message
back from Landy's phone saying
that Jose is the love of his life,
that he wants to get back with Jose.
[Amy] So here Jonathan is wondering,
"What is going on here?
I had a boyfriend and now
my relationship is over?"
So we're now looking at Jonathan
and wondering, "How jealous were you?"
Did Jonathan murder Landy?
[narrator] At the end of 2011,
Pinellas, Florida sheriff's detectives
discovered that Jonathan Galicia
was jilted by his boyfriend, Landy Martinez
just hours before Landy was murdered.
Is it possible that Jonathan is responsible
for the torture and homicide of Landy?
Jonathan is definitely a suspect in
this investigation.
Jonathan is the new boyfriend,
so most likely, Landy is murdered
by someone that he knows.
[narrator] If Jonathan did murder
his boyfriend, Landy,
it's also likely Landy would have fought back
before being killed.
So detectives look for evidence
of a struggle on Jonathan's body,
cuts, bruises or abrasions.
We ask him to submit
to being photographed and we observed
anything that we can on his face,
his neck, his arms, his hands.
[Amy] He is very cooperative
and he doesn't appear to show any signs of injury.
[narrator] But before investigators rule him out
as a potential suspect,
they need to confirm Jonathan's alibi
at the time Landy was murdered.
[Detective Ed Judy] Jonathan Galicia worked in a warehouse
and we were able to obtain
video surveillance from that business
which showed him working right before the murder.
And when Jonathan got off work,
he did send a text to Landy.
[Amy] But it doesn't tell the whole story
because were you texting from the house
where Landy was or were you texting from home
like you claimed to be?
[narrator] To find out, detectives contact
Landy's cellphone provider.
[Rob Snipes] The cellphone company use cellphone towers
that will triangulate
to the location of that phone at the time
these calls and text messages were made.
[Amy] And we confirmed that he was
definitely 60 miles north at the time
all these text messages occurred between this phone and Landy's.
[Ed] Jonathan Galicia is at his house
in Hernando County,
so we know that his phone
was not at the crime scene
at the time this offence occurred.
[narrator] Jonathan Galicia is eliminated as a suspect.
But he does point investigators
in a whole new direction.
Detectives now turn their attention
to Landy's other ex-boyfriend,
Jose Adame.
[Ed] Landy was recently in a relationship with Jose Adame.
That relationship ended
approximately a month before the murder.
That's an excellent lead.
[narrator] To gather more background on Jose,
detectives start with Landy's roommate, Yadira,
to find out what she might know about Jose.
Jose is from North Carolina
and he met Landy just over a year before online.
In the beginning, they had a great relationship.
They had fun together, and they moved in together
very shortly after dating,
and they appeared to be this average,
normal couple in love.
[narrator] But Yadira says it wasn't long
before Landy had serious concerns
about his relationship with Jose Adame.
Landy had actually found out
that who he thought Adame was
and who Adame actually was,
were two totally different people.
[Ed] Jose had some previous run-ins with law enforcement,
with aggression towards individuals, including, Landy.
[narrator] Their volatile relationship eventually reaches a breaking point,
and Landy tells Jose he needs to move out.
[Michael Bouchard] Adame wasn't working.
So he was really relying on Landy
as his financial support
and as you can imagine, when Landy says,
"Hey, I don't want to go out with you anymore,"
Adame's place of reside is gone,
any financial considerations
that he was getting from Landy are gone.
[narrator] Yadira tells detectives that the jilted Jose
found a way to get revenge on Landy.
[Amy] Jose was in possession of this red Acura SUV.
However, the SUV is actually
in both Landy's name and Jose's name.
When that relationship ended, Jose left
and he moved out and he took this vehicle.
[Amy] And he would purposely get red light tickets
and he was trying to do this
so that Landy would get all these tickets
and rack up all these fees,
which could potentially harm Landy
by suspending his license
if he doesn't pay these fees.
[Ed] So Landy's getting traffic citations in the mail,
which he is responsible for.
[Amy] So he knows he's got to stop Jose.
It's gone too far.
[Amy] He goes to the DHSMV
where he says, "I need to remove Jose Adame
from this title and vehicle registration
and I want it just in my name."
[narrator] But Landy still has one big hurdle to overcome.
He needs to get the car back in his possession.
[Ed] Jose was located in North Carolina
at his mother's residence.
So Landy devised a plan where he contacted Jose,
told Jose that he missed him,
that he wanted to talk about
him getting back together.
This made Jose very happy, very excited
and Landy said, "Well, why don't you come down here.
Let's meet and have lunch together
and talk about our relationship."
[narrator] The two agreed to meet
in a restaurant parking lot,
but what Jose believes will be a reconciliation,
is really about Landy getting the car back.
Landy contacted law enforcement
requesting their assistance.
He anticipated that there was going to be an issue.
[Amy] And ultimately the deputies on scene
inform Jose that he needs to get his stuff out
and the car, in fact, needs to go back to Landy,
because Jose is no longer considered an owner.
So this absolutely came as a blindside to Jose.
He just spent hours driving south
from North Carolina to Florida,
in the hopes of reconciling with the love of his life
and only to find out
that he was there to get tricked.
[Keira Stockdale] And this may have been the only way
Landy could actually regain the automobile.
The problem is that from Jose's perspective,
he may have seen this as a public humiliation,
which, we know, can lead to rage.
[narrator] Detectives wondered,
is it possible Jose's rage escalated to murder?
[Ed] This, quite possibly, could lead to the motive
for this homicide.
[siren blaring]
[narrator] Detectives have just discovered
that two weeks before Landy Martinez was murdered,
he called deputies to help get his car back
from his ex-boyfriend Jose Adame.
Landy has completely terminated the relationship,
basically stranding Jose
without a vehicle, with shattered dreams
of the reconciliation of the relationship
and embarrassing him.
Is he going to become furious and angry
and potentially harm Landy?
[narrator] Detectives need to speak with Jose Adame.
But there's a problem.
[Amy] We have no idea where he is.
We look everywhere for Jose in Pinellas County.
We're doing everything we can to try to find him
because we need to talk to him,
but we can't find him anywhere.
It's extremely frustrating.
[narrator] As detectives continue their search for Jose,
they catch a big break.
Forensic technicians have finally unlocked
the cellphone that was found at the crime scene.
[Ed] And we were able to learn
that the phone, actually, belonged to Landy
based on the cellphone number.
[narrator] It was the same phone
that Landy used to make
his terrifying 911 call on December 21st.
[Landy speaking]
[narrator] But detectives are puzzled.
Why didn't Landy's killer take his cellphone
after he was murdered?
The cellphone was actually found
tucked between the mattress
and the box spring
in the room that Landy was found in.
There doesn't seem to be any other explanation
other than this having been done deliberately.
[narrator] Likely, by Landy himself.
[Michael Arntfield] It's quite remarkable that Landy,
after being tortured, has the presence of mind
after calling 911 to conceal his phone.
Because it's far-enough out of plain view
that his killer doesn't see it,
and what he's doing is, essentially,
future proofing one of the best pieces of evidence.
[narrator] The evidence Landy concealed
during his dying moments
breaks the case wide open.
We were able to obtain the contents of that phone
and we discovered a video
that was recorded on that phone.
[narrator] When detectives review it,
they are shocked by what they see.
This is, probably, one of the most chilling videos
I've ever seen.
[screams]
[Ed] It is the bathroom, inside the crime scene,
and Landy is seen on the video.
His wrists are duct taped together.
He is crying.
-[crying] -[Ed] He is pleading.
And he is definitely fearful for his life.
[shrieking]
[Amy] This video was taken
the same day of Landy's murder
and within the time frame of his murder.
[narrator] But who shot the video remains a mystery.
[Rob] It's clear that someone else is holding the cellphone.
Someone else is recording this.
[screams]
Whoever was recording it,
was very careful not to implicate themselves,
not to video themselves,
or speak during the video.
[narrator] As detectives watch the video,
they hear a clue.
[bleep]
He mentions Jose.
[shrieks]
This is one of the big breaks in the case.
On the recording, Landy tells Jose,
that he is sorry for everything he's ever done.
Everything was his fault
and that, Jose was great.
None of it was Jose's fault
and he was lucky to ever have Jose
in his life as a partner.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
And you would have to assume
that what he is saying, he's been instructed to say.
Landy is in the tub, he is distraught.
His hands are visible and bound by duct tape.
But he made it a point to say that
Jose had nothing to do with this.
[narrator] The video strongly suggests
Jose was likely Landy's killer.
But because Jose himself
is neither seen nor heard on the recording,
detectives still need direct evidence
against him to press charges.
[Amy] We were able to get Jose's phone number
to try to find out where was Jose Adame
during the time frame of the murder.
And we find out
that we was actually in Pinellas County, Florida
and he was hitting off cell towers
not far away from where Landy was murdered.
So now we're able to obtain an arrest warrant
because there's more and more leading to Jose.
[narrator] But police still haven't been able to find him.
The only way that we can find him
is by his cell phone.
[narrator] Jose's cellphone records reveal
that the day after the murder,
he travelled 600 miles north from Florida
to spend Christmas at his mother's
in Hickory, North Carolina.
So we have good intelligence
that Jose has probably gone back
to the state of North Carolina where his family is located.
Now we need to close in on him.
[narrator] With no jurisdiction
to arrest Jose in North Carolina,
Florida detectives asked U.S. Marshals
to execute the arrest warrant against Jose.
But we were asking ourselves this question,
"When the U.S. Marshals get to North Carolina,
is he going to go quietly?"
[narrator] On December 27th, 2011,
less than a week after Landy Martinez's murder in Florida,
U.S. Marshals in North Carolina
track down the prime suspect.
The victim's ex-boyfriend, Jose Adame.
[Amy] We were able to arrest Jose Adame
on an arrest warrant and place him into custody
where we could sit down and talk with him.
[Ed] When we met him,
he was extremely emotional, upset.
He was actually vomiting
extensively, uncontrollably.
All signs of stress.
[Amy] Jose admits that he talked to Landy
on December 20th during that three-way phone call
sometime after midnight.
And he also claims he was in North Carolina
at the time of the murder.
[narrator] But Jose's cell phone records
tell detectives a different story.
There was actually information that put his phone
here in Pinellas County at that time
and not in North Carolina.
We actually confront Jose
with this information,
so that he can tell the truth.
[narrator] But Jose continues to deny
he had anything to do with Landy's murder.
He claims he's innocent.
Jose tells us he was stranded in Pinellas County
and that his family came down,
picked him up and brought him back to North Carolina
on December 17th, where he then remained.
[narrator] Detectives need to corroborate
Jose's story with his family.
So they travelled to Hickory, North Carolina,
to interview them.
[Ed] We'd interview the mother and seven sisters
that all resided in a mobile home.
[Amy] Jose's family told us,
that Jose has been in North Carolina
and was present at the time Landy was murdered.
[narrator] Every family member told detectives
the same story about Jose.
All except one.
[Ed] When we were leaving,
a young woman who was walking up to the mobile home,
she was able to provide crucial information
in this investigation.
[Amy] This young female
is identified as Jose's niece, Maria.
[Ed] She explained that she had driven
to Pinellas County, Florida to pick up Jose
in her mother's vehicle
and she drove him back
to Hickory, North Carolina.
But then she explained that the very next day,
Jose borrowed her mother's vehicle
and went back to Florida
the night before the murder.
And then, came back home
the following night, after the murder.
[narrator] It's a big break in the case.
Did Jose murder Landy in Florida,
then drive home to North Carolina?
If he did, then the vehicle he drove,
a black Chevy Trailblazer
may contain evidence to prove it.
[Ed] We obtained a search warrant
and we searched that vehicle.
[narrator] Inside, investigators find damning evidence
pointing to Jose as Landy's killer.
There was a cotton cloth glove
matching the glove that was found
inside the crime scene in the bathroom.
[Amy] And in this glove,
we find Landy's DNA on the outside
and we find Jose's DNA on the inside.
[Ed] Blood is identified
on the steering wheel of the vehicle.
And inside that driver compartment,
we find trace evidence
of Landy Martinez's blood.
At this point, we know
that Jose Adame had something to do
with Landy Martinez's murder.
[narrator] The detectives believe Jose
maybe hiding even more than his role in the crime.
[Amy] We recall listening to the chilling 911 call
where Landy Martinez screams out,
"They're going to kill me."
[Landy speaking]
If it was a singular person,
he would have used the word "he", not "they."
[Ed] So we realized that
we're looking for two perpetrators.
[narrator] Investigators pressed Jose to name his accomplice.
Jose's denying everything and not implicating anybody.
[narrator] But they know who might be able to help.
Jose's niece, Maria.
She provides the name of a young man
she says, accompanied Jose
on his trip to the victim's house,
Jose's nephew, Dylan.
Dylan was a 16-year-old high school student
and a relative of Jose.
[Amy] Detectives were able to get
a phone number for this Dylan
and in doing research of the phone data,
they actually found that during the time frame of Landy's murder,
they can pinpoint that Dylan was in Pinellas County at that time.
[narrator] But without any hard evidence,
detectives can't arrest or even detain the minor.
As we moved forward with this investigation,
we quickly find that there's evidence
that he fled to Mexico
and is no longer even in the United States.
[narrator] Since Dylan is a minor,
and outside of US jurisdiction,
he is safe from prosecution.
[Michael] For police, it's very frustrating
to have strong circumstantial evidence
of the existence of an accomplice,
especially in a crime as heinous as this,
who is just beyond your reach.
The state attorney's office
did not file charges on Dylan.
They focused and only filed charges on Jose.
[narrator] With the evidence obtained from the cellphone video,
Landy's friend's statements,
DNA on the glove in the Trailblazer
and Landy's phone recovered at the murder scene,
detectives can now piece together
the last 24 hours of Landy Martinez's life.
[Ed] We know that on December 20th at 11:30 p.m.,
Landy returns home from his job.
[Amy] At 12 a.m., Landy has a three way call
with Jonathan and Jose
and in that call, he tells Jose,
"It's over for good."
[narrator] Jose and his accomplice drive from North Carolina
to Landy's home in the Chevy Trailblazer.
[Ed] Between 7 a.m. and 7:30 in the morning,
Landy's house is broken into
by Jose and the second perpetrator
at which time they take him,
secure him,
and torture him.
[Ed] Jose shoots video of Landy's suffering
on Landy's own phone.
[Amy] They are forcing him to say things such as
he was wrong for ending this relationship with Jose.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
At 7:45 a.m., Jonathan texts Landy's phone,
telling him he loves him.
[message beeps]
And in response, receives messages
that, we believe, were sent from Jose Adame.
[message beeps]
[Ed] At 9:40 in the morning,
Landy is able to escape his bindings...
obtain his cellphone and make a 911 call
to report the attack.
[narrator] And before Jose and his accomplice
are able to subdue him,
Landy manages to hide his cellphone
underneath his mattress.
I think that he did that
to try and help investigators
solve his own case.
[Amy] Shortly after, Jose Adame and Dylan
enters the bedroom where Landy Martinez is
and shoots him twice, killing him.
[narrator] Detectives suspect that after Landy was murdered,
Jose and his accomplice attempted to rob Landy
of his TV and other valuables.
Fearing police were on their way,
they quickly abandoned the plan.
[Ed] And that's why they didn't get to load up
all of the property that they had stored
at the front door to steal. They just fled.
[narrator] In July, 2016,
Jose Adame is tried
for the murder of Landy Martinez.
[Amy] And Jose Adame is convicted
of first-degree murder
and sentenced to life in prison.
[Ed] This one's bittersweet because we did get
Jose who is the reason for this homicide
of Landy Martinez.
But we did not get the second perpetrator
which doesn't sit well with me,
even this many years later.
[Keira] This case is so tragic
because it remind us that
violence doesn't just occur
in the context of a certain type of relationship.
Gay men are equally as likely
to have violence occur in the relationship
and that resulted
in this ultimate torture and eventual murder.