[dramatic music]
- The El Modena wrestling team,
we were one of the best teams in the state.
Diego was definitely in line to be captain.
- He was popular in school.
He was starting to work. He was a responsible kid.
And he said he was gonna meet up with a friend,
and that was basically the last time we saw him.
- It wasn't like Diego not to show up to school
or to wrestling practice.
- But let's face it-- a 17-year-old with hormones
kind of wants to walk on the wild side.
- We started thinking, "Oh, hopefully he didn't get mugged.
Hopefully nothing happened."
- A resident heard what he believed to be
two popping sounds going off...
from an area near where the body was located.
- Extremely tragic to find out your missing loved one
is now our murder victim.
Diego had been seeing--
had an on-again-off-again relationship.
- It was an odd relationship
between a 21-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy.
- She explains to us that for some time,
he had become extremely jealous.
- For the police, it raised flags for them.
There was bad blood, but could that lead to murder?
* *
- The city of Orange stands out to me
from the rest of Orange County because it is so diverse.
You have, within five miles, a lot of different people,
a lot of different languages, different cultures.
- The city of Orange, California, is quite unique.
The city has embraced its historic roots.
It's kept a lot of its historic buildings and homes.
- Orange is primarily known for the weather,
the parks, the trails, sporting activities.
- Baseball, basketball, football--
sports are huge there,
and especially your high-school sports.
- But even in a land
where elite athletics are par for the course,
not everyone's high-school tale
ends with homecoming cheers.
- The city of Orange is more of a residential area--
not a lot of high crime,
not a lot of big sensational murder cases.
But on November 10, 2003,
a couple of high-school kids who were playing hooky--
they decide to head up to this secluded part of Orange
up on Hi Top Lane in Orange Park Acres,
and what they noticed there is kind of this dark blob
in the driveway.
When they get closer, they are horrified at what they find.
* *
- My name is Dan Salcedo.
I was a full-time homicide investigator
with the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
During the after new hours of November 10th,
a call comes into the Sheriff's Department
that there's a deceased male in Orange Park Acres.
The area itself is multimillion-dollar
equestrian homes,
so it's very remote, desolate.
- My name is Susan Kang,
and I was the former chief of staff
for the Orange County District Attorney's office.
When law enforcement arrive, they see the victim,
at this point a John Doe, laying in the pool of blood.
They believe that the body was a young male,
either in his teens or early 20s.
- We had two spent cartridges
from what appeared to be an automatic weapon.
We had broken lighter.
There was coagulated blood in the area,
which means that he had expired many hours
previous to our arrival.
Part of the shock in this case
was our decedent was shot and then burned.
The indication is possibly somebody's
trying to cover up the crime scene,
hoping that he was gonna be burned beyond recognition.
- Investigators were not able to find any identification
on this body, therefore, he is labeled a John Doe.
- At the time, we did a neighborhood canvass,
which really didn't produce anything.
The coroner's office shows up.
They do a in-place body examination,
and the decedent is transferred
back to the coroner's office.
A postmortem examination is conducted, an autopsy.
And it indicated that he had been shot in the forehead,
and there was also a projectile in his mouth.
So somebody literally put a gun in his mouth
and fired a single round.
- With no solid leads from eyewitnesses
and little to be gained from the coroner's report,
police focus their efforts on identifying the victim.
- The approach was, via the media,
asking for the public's assistance.
And I also met with an officer
from the Orange Police Department
who did composite sketches.
So we are gonna render a sketch of our decedent
and offer it to the public,
and hopefully somebody would be able to identify him.
- Sheriff Mike Carona pleads with the public
for any information they could provide,
to help them solve this gruesome crime.
- A resident heard what he believed
to be two popping sounds
or firecrackers going off from an area
near where the body was located.
That same resident, after hearing the popping sounds,
then heard a vehicle leaving the area.
- When you get a murder and you have a victim
who's not yet identified,
it makes it kind of tough to go forward with the investigation.
You're hoping on the public to maybe call in some information,
teletypes about missing persons,
other law enforcement agencies.
- As the composite sketch of John Doe's image
flickers on screens across the county,
one family in the stunned city of Orange
has spent the last 48 hours
dealing with a mystery of its own.
- I get a phone call advising me
there's some family members at the coroner's office
believing that our decedent, yet to be identified male,
was possibly their nephew, Diego Gonzalez.
- My name is Vanessa Gonzalez,
I'm Diego Gonzalez's sister-in-law.
On November 9, 2003, Diego had left to go run,
and he had told his mom
that he was gonna meet up with a friend after running,
so he was probably gonna be home late that day.
He didn't show up the morning.
So it was just trying to figure it out-
where he was at first.
- Diego's parents, Maria and Felix,
got worried because their son did not come home
on November 9th on a Sunday evening.
This is unusual for Diego, a responsible kid,
so they alerted the authorities.
- We started thinking, "Hopefully nothing happened."
So we started driving ditches, driving hills,
driving everywhere, just to see if he had fallen,
or anything had happened to him.
- Diego's family was very proactive.
They took pictures.
They canvassed the neighborhood.
They knocked on doors,
and they tried to ask as many people as possible
what happened to Diego so that they can bring him home.
* *
- After searching desperately for the missing 17-year-old,
Diego's family starts to see the same reports
as the rest of Orange County.
- The Gonzalez family is watching TV,
and they see Sheriff Mike Carona
talk about this grisly crime
that has occurred up in Orange Park Acres,
and the family was wondering,
"Could this have any connection to Diego?"
- Diego's uncle called
and said, "I don't want to scare you,
but I saw on the news--they can't identify this person."
* *
I just remember sitting in the morgue,
them putting the pictures of him.
[sighs]
[somber music]
I'm sorry.
[sniffles]
[voice breaking] It was Diego.
* *
- My name is Daniel Coates.
In 2003, I was wrestling coach
and a counselor at El Modena High School.
The El Modena wrestling team,
we were one of the best teams in the state.
Diego was definitely in line to be captain.
He was just--he was such a special young man,
and he was a funny young man.
And then his heart, he had a heart of gold.
- He was a good kid.
He had a part-time job
to help out his family at a grocery store.
- He loved being an uncle to my daughter.
And he would always play around with her.
She loved him, too.
- Diego was known to his friends
and to his family as sort of a gregarious guy.
He seemed to be friends with everyone.
- The mystery surrounding Diego Gonzalez's murder
leaves detectives bewildered.
Who would want to harm the athlete with a heart of gold?
- Most murders occur between people that know each other
and people who have feelings for each other.
It was a natural bridge or natural next step
for police officers to interview people
that were close to Diego.
And that would've been Darlene Dominguez.
- We follow up on his last-known activities,
which led us to his high school,
El Modena High School.
- Diego had a girlfriend. Her name was Darlene.
Darlene was a beautiful young lady.
- She tells investigators that the fling that Diego had
was something that was clearly in the past.
[dramatic music]
- The loss of 17-year-old star athlete Diego Gonzalez
rocks the city of Orange, California.
Investigators work overtime to figure out
who shot the popular student to death.
- We follow up on his last-known activities--
who had information, where he had gone,
who his associates were,
which led us to his high school,
El Modena High School, where we interviewed
classmates, teachers, counselors.
- Diego had a girlfriend. Her name was Darlene.
Darlene was a beautiful young lady--dark, curly hair.
She helped Diego an awful lot in the classroom,
and Diego worked hard.
She tutored him and studied with him.
And that's what everyone admired about...
- We interviewed Diego's girlfriend, Darlene Dominguez,
who indicated to us that she and Diego
had just ended their relationship
about a week prior.
- Diego met Darlene in high school,
I think when he was a sophomore?
Diego and Darlene were always together.
They would go out together to the movies
and the malls all the time.
He had fun with her, and so he was always with her.
- Darlene, she mentions that, yeah,
they had their ups and downs, but she really thought
that they were going to move to a next level.
- Investigators ask Darlene about her whereabouts
on that Sunday night.
And she tells investigators she was with her family
the entire night.
The investigators confirm that with family members,
and so they believe she has a solid alibi.
- With Diego's ex-girlfriend off the hook,
friends and loved ones turn to one another for comfort,
as they gather to remember the beloved sports star.
- To describe the candlelight vigil--
at the front of the school, there's a sign that says
"El Modena High School," and right in front of that,
I would say at least 30, 40 candles were lit.
People sitting there talking, and then as the night
kind of went on, you know, people were coming up,
crying.
Just--it was a beautiful experience,
but it was a very painful experience also.
- My daughter knew that everybody was crying,
everybody was sad.
Her question was, "Well, what happened?
Why are you guys crying?"
It was hard to explain to a three-year-old.
And, of course...
[somber music]
Her crying, you know, just--
just broke my heart, too.
And explaining that she was not gonna see him anymore.
So it was hard.
- There was anger,
but then there was just this feeling of,
"Okay, what are we gonna do to keep this community together?"
Because there were a lot of people who wanted revenge.
There were a lot of people who wanted to find out who did this
and take care of it themselves,
which was not the right thing to do.
- It's obvious to investigators
that Diego was popular and loved
within the high-school community,
making who would want him dead even more of a mystery.
Detectives turn to the Gonzalez family
for any other leads.
They reveal that there was another woman in Diego's life.
- Diego had been seeing--
had a on-again-off-again relationship
with a female who was a student,
had since graduated from El Modena,
by the name of Veronica Paz.
[dramatic music]
- When Diego started working at the grocery store,
he met Veronica there, and she was a little older
and flirted with him a little bit.
Diego never saw Veronica as a serious thing.
He still was with Darlene at that time.
- The relationship between Diego and Veronica Paz
was a casual off-and-on sexual relationship.
But it was an odd relationship between a 21-year-old woman
and a 17-year-old boy.
That's a lifetime.
Four years is a lifetime in that age bracket.
- I believe Diego started spending time with Veronica
was because she was--
[sighs] She basically seduced him.
And Diego had an age-appropriate relationship
with his girlfriend, Darlene.
Yeah, but let's face it-- a 17-year-old with hormones
kind of wants to walk on the wild side.
And I believe Veronica kind of gave that to him.
- According to a couple of friends of Diego's,
they were seeing each other in a dating relationship,
but they didn't appear to be very serious,
nor was it something ongoing.
* *
- She flirted with him,
and, of course, he wanted that female attention
in a way that he hadn't had it before.
Diego was going to college.
We had great things planned for his future,
so being in a relationship with an older woman
at that time was a no-no.
- Diego's brother Omar tells Detective Salcedo
that on the evening of Sunday, November 9th,
he was talking with Diego on the phone, when Diego says,
"Hey, I'm getting a call, and it's from Veronica Paz."
And he tells his brother Omar,
"I'm gonna go jog to the end of the block,
and she's gonna pick me up."
* *
- Investigators are eager to speak
with the older woman
who might have been among the last people
to see Diego alive.
- Detectives go to the grocery store to talk to Veronica,
and all they tell her is that they're looking
into a possible incident involving Diego.
- I make contact, identify myself to her,
advising her that we are conducting a investigation
into the current whereabouts of Diego Gonzalez,
who she indicated she was familiar with,
but also told us she had no idea where he was
or who he was last with.
- Veronica Paz tries to be helpful,
and she says that she wants to find out who did this to Diego.
- We indicate to her that we had information
that he had left his house to meet with her.
[dramatic music]
* *
- It's been just two days
since Diego Gonzalez's brutal murder
in idyllic Orange, California.
Investigators have their eyes
on the 17-year-old's alleged workplace romance
with the older woman who may know something
about his death.
- Veronica Paz is a young woman that Diego had been having
a very casual sexual relationship with.
- At the police station,
Veronica Paz says the last time she saw Diego
was at the grocery store where they worked together.
- Veronica was very complacent, cooperative,
trying to do whatever it took to help us
find out what happened to Diego.
She said she had no knowledge of where he was,
even denying that she had called him to meet up.
- Eager to help,
Veronica goes on to detail her timeline
on the night Diego was killed.
- She told us who was she with, what she was doing.
She says she's at the residence of her friend Kim Gomez.
She leaves about, I believe,
1:30 in the morning to go back home.
She's not with anybody else.
- Veronica is upset.
She doesn't know what happened to Diego,
and she's concerned.
- As Veronica offers up any information
she thinks might help,
she mentions something at the end of her interview
that changes the equation.
- Veronica says she became an acquaintance of his
and somewhat dated him because of their knowing each other
from the supermarket where they both worked.
She indicating that, no, she was not dating Diego.
She, in fact, was dating a gentleman
by the name of Brandan Perry.
* *
- She tells them a little bit more about the relationship
between her and Brandan Perry.
They would have
an off-again-on-again relationship.
And during the off times,
Veronica would go date other people,
and that made Brandan jealous.
- Brandan Perry is a young man
that Veronica knew since middle school.
They had had a relationship since then.
In high school, he was the star football player
at a rival high school.
Brandan Perry is a year younger than Veronica.
So, when she graduates and leaves high school,
he kind of doesn't have the same motivation.
He gets into academic problems, and therefore he's no longer
able to play on the football team,
and Veronica sort of is losing interest because of that.
Also, Brandan doesn't have plans for his future
following high school.
- As police question Veronica Paz,
they find out that Brandan was upset
that Veronica was less interested in him.
His ego was bruised.
Brandan Perry's depressed, in that he realizes
that Veronica is looking for something bigger
and better than him.
And she was looking for the next star,
which was really Diego.
- Subsequent to Veronica giving us information
about Brandan Perry and her friend Kim Gomez,
we then follow up on those leads.
- Now detectives must figure out if Brandan Perry,
the former football hero turned has-been,
knew about Veronica's flirtations
with his up-and-coming replacement.
- Once Veronica gives us the information
about who she's currently dating,
we make contact with Brandan, and he voluntarily comes
to the Sheriff's Department for an interview.
Brandan's very cooperative.
In speaking with Brandan,
we confirm that he and Veronica
are in a dating relationship.
He made mention that Diego at that time,
in the summer of 2003, was at a party with Veronica,
and that's the only reason he knew who Diego was.
Said that he had nothing to do with Diego's disappearance,
had no idea what happened to him.
He said he was at a friend's house,
then went home, and remained at his house
by himself the remainder of the evening.
So we end our interview with Brandan.
- Veronica and Brandan
both seem helpful and forthcoming.
Still, investigators follow up to confirm the alibis
they gave for the night Diego was murdered.
- We follow up with Kim Gomez,
who confirms that Veronica's at her house.
There's nobody else there.
Brandan starts telling us
where he was and who he's with,
which leads off to Tommy Medina,
who we follow up with a interview later on.
- So Kim Gomez and Tommy Medina
are very cooperative with investigators,
and they do corroborate the fact
that Veronica and Brandan
came over to their house that night.
- With the alibis checking out,
detectives follow up with Diego's family
to confirm Brandan's claim that he and Diego
were at a party together that summer.
- When the investigators go back to Diego's brother Omar
and tell him about this Brandan Perry,
Omar confirmed that Brandan Perry and Diego
had an incident at a party.
- But we get information that it was a little bit hostile...
'cause Diego's at this party with Veronica
in the summer of 2003,
where Brandan is there with his friends.
And I don't know if he knew at the time Veronica and Diego
were dating or seeing each other,
but he certainly couldn't have been happy about it.
* *
If you talk to Brandan's friends,
it was Diego who was the agitator.
If you talk to Diego's friends,
it was Brandan who was the agitator.
- The two of them get into it, face-to-face, about to fight,
and one of Diego's friends brandishes a gun.
Then Brandan backs off with his friends,
but you definitely get the feeling
that there's unfinished business.
- So, for the police, it raised flags for them
that there was bad blood between Diego and Brandan.
Could that lead to murder?
* *
At this point, police have something,
and they start pressing-- they want details.
- I ask Veronica what she wants to talk to me about.
She says, "I want to tell you the truth."
- And what they tell investigators next is
is even more shocking.
[dramatic music]
* *
- Three days after El Modena High School
lost one of its most promising athletes,
police are keeping a close eye
on Diego Gonzalez's romantic rival, Brandan Perry.
There's been bad blood between the two
ever since the teens discovered they were involved
with the same older woman, Veronica Paz.
- We go back to Veronica for a second interview.
We told Veronica that we did interview Brandan.
Did she now have anything to give us any leads on?
She admitted she, in fact,
had a telephone conversation with Diego,
that he had called her wanting to get together with her
the night Diego goes missing, and she said, "No."
In fact, Diego had called her two times,
and each time she said, "No,"
that she did not want to get together with him...
and went on to repeat her same story,
that she was with Kim.
During the early morning hours of that Monday, November 10th,
she went home and stayed there by herself.
It's very rare-- at least the experience
I've had as a homicide investigator--
that somebody offers up information the first time.
It always seems to be they offer information
in bits and pieces.
- Now that Veronica's revealed additional details
about that night,
police speculate if something more happened
between her and Diego,
just like Diego's brother said.
- All the interviews we did with Veronica and Brandan
were happening back-to-back on November 12th.
In our second interview with Brandan,
he now tells us that he, in fact,
was with Veronica on November 9th,
the night Diego goes missing.
And just short of midnight,
Veronica tells him that she's going out.
He doesn't really know with whom or where, but she leaves.
He then goes home, where he says
he remains the remainder of the night.
I ask him, had he been using his cell phone at all
during those early-morning hours?
He said he had, several times,
trying to find out where Veronica was,
trying to reach her.
- If Brandan suspected Veronica was out with Diego,
he may have followed her and taken out his jealousy
on an unsuspecting Diego.
- He's still cooperative.
You know, not trying to brush this off
or give us one-word answers.
And I ask Brandan specifically where he was.
I hand him a map
with the streets of Orange Park Acres
indicated on the map and a highlighter pen and ask him,
"Give me the best of your knowledge and recollection
"of where you were when you were making these phone calls
and just driving around by yourself
trying to find Veronica."
And he puts himself in Orange Park Acres,
the area where Diego was found, which is very odd,
because Brandan lives nowhere near Orange Park Acres.
- Brandan has just placed himself
near the scene of the crime
around the time Diego was killed.
But does that make him guilty of murder?
To find out, investigators get crafty.
- Brandan is adamant
that he had nothing to do with Diego's murder,
but police detectives use a technique.
They're holding up paper that they say are phone records,
and they confront Brandan, saying,
"Hey, we could find out if you were in the area
with your phone records."
Brandan hedges a little bit,
and he tells police officers,
"Well, maybe I was in the area working
"and detailing a client's car in the Hi Top area,
and maybe I could have been there."
- Now, when investigators ask Brandan who the client is
or where the client lived,
Brandan could not provide that information.
- Every time we talked to Brandan,
it seemed that we got more and more information
each and every time that we now had to go back,
re-interview them to clarify that information.
- So at this point,
police officers have something.
They start pressing. They want details.
Brandan Perry had an aggressive encounter
with the victim, Diego.
Brandan Perry is the one who placed himself at the scene.
At this point, police detectives feel
that they have probable cause to arrest Brandan Perry
for the murder of Diego Gonzalez.
* *
- Brandan is surprised that he has been placed under arrest,
and he therefore asks for an attorney,
which then cuts all communication off.
And police know that if they don't come up
with more evidence,
they are not gonna be able to hold him much longer.
- When Brandan was arrested
and they said that he murdered Diego,
my first thought was there was no way.
This little skinny guy? No way. No way.
He had a fight with Diego.
There must have been three or four other guys.
They must have shot him first.
There was no way that this guy got
into a one-on-one confrontation with Diego.
- Brandan Perry's own admissions get him arrested,,
but it will take investigative footwork
to keep him behind bars.
[siren wailing]
Before police can conduct
a search of Brandan's car and home,
the woman at the center of the case
shows up at the police station unannounced.
- So, three days after the crime, the murder,
when I'm sitting at my desk
and the security officer calls me and says
there's a female who just walked
into Sheriff's headquarters.
It's about 9:30 in the morning on the 13th--
says she wants to talk with me.
I ask who it is. He says, "Veronica Paz,"
which certainly catches my attention.
I go downstairs.
I ask Veronica what she wants to talk to me about.
- So Veronica is very emotional.
She's crying.
She's telling investigators,
"Do you know how hard this is for me to do this?
Do you know how hard it is for me to say this?"
She's very distraught.
- She says, "I want to tell you the truth."
[dramatic music]
- Authorities have arrested Brandan Perry
for the murder of high-school rival, Diego Gonzalez,
but the case is riddled with holes.
Will Veronica Paz, the woman at the center of their feud,
finally fill in the details
needed to bring justice for Diego's family?
* *
- I ask her to further explain what that truth is,
and she says that Brandan shot Diego.
* *
Sunday November 9th, after she left work and Diego left work,
he calls her and asks her if they can get together.
She says, "No."
With her at the time is Brandan Perry,
who becomes upset of who that phone call was from.
It's Diego trying to hook up with her.
- Brandan insisted at that point she call Diego back
and set up a meeting with him.
She knew at that point
that Brandan was going to confront him
and to beat him up for messing with Veronica.
* *
- Veronica tells detectives
that Brandan had reached a breaking point
and wanted to send a message to Diego.
- Veronica drives up to Diego's residence,
picks him up, and goes up to Hi Top Lane
for the purpose of them getting physical together.
There's nobody up there. She knows the area quite well.
She asks him to get in the back seat with her.
- Things got hot and heavy,
and suddenly this loud noise on the car door.
Veronica tells investigators that that loud noise
at the window of the car was actually Brandan.
He rips open the door. He pulls Diego out of the car.
- Veronica tells investigators
she sees him pull this gun out.
She's surprised.
- She indicates there may have been some type of struggle,
she wasn't quite sure, but Diego goes down.
She hears a second gunshot, and that is the time we believe
Brandan went over to Diego...
and shot him in the mouth.
She says they each respectively get in their each car
and go down the hill.
- Veronica goes on to reveal
that the story didn't end there,
and what happened next has weighed heavily
on her conscience.
- Veronica thought that that was the end of it
after they both had left the crime scene.
But then she gets a phone call from Brandan,
ordering her to go back to the crime scene.
- Before they get there, they go to a gas station
and fill up two water bottles full of gasoline.
They go back up to where the body is,
they pour the gasoline on Diego's body,
and they set it off fire.
- So Veronica tells police
that when Brandan tries to light the fire,
it's a failed attempt because they're using diesel fuel,
and diesel doesn't light on fire the way gasoline would.
- Come to find out later,
they all got together after the murder
at Kim Gomez's house and talked about--
"This is what we tell the police
if they come around asking."
- Veronica tells her friends how scared she is.
And at that point, Brandan says,
"Well, all of us better get our stories straight
because it's likely police are gonna come asking questions."
* *
- So Veronica put all the blame on Brandan.
It was Brandan's plan to have Veronica lure Diego
to Hi Top Lane
for her to have sex with him,
if that needed to take place
in order to get Diego more vulnerable,
and that Brandan was going to beat Diego up,
but that's all she knew.
- While Veronica puts the blame squarely on Brandan,
police start to question if she's as innocent
as she's making herself out to be.
- She didn't believe
that Brandan was gonna come up there with a gun.
She just thought it was gonna be a fist fight.
We told Veronica, "How would that be?
"You knew getting him in the back seat
was gonna incapacitate him."
And she agreed with that. That was their plan.
There was no force or threat that she had to do it.
Certainly, in hindsight, without Veronica's cooperation,
at least Diego probably wouldn't be
a murder victim that night.
* *
- So Veronica has poured her soul out to the police.
The police at that point feel
that they have a lot more information to convict Brandan,
but that now they have enough information to arrest Veronica.
Veronica is shocked and upset and distraught
that she is now put under arrest,
when she was being so helpful to the police.
- After the information Veronica provided
about the murder itself and her knowledge of it
and obviously her participation in it,
she's arrested now for murder.
* *
Veronica initially had no idea why she was being arrested,
truly believing and downplaying her role
that she simply drove Diego up there.
She didn't pull the trigger.
She didn't get him out at gunpoint,
but she certainly was told several times,
numerous times by me and the other investigators,
that she had a major role in what happened
by getting Diego up there,
knowing well what's most probably gonna happen--
that he was gonna be shot and killed.
- When we heard they had made an arrest on Diego's case,
I felt a relief to know that they were captured
and that they didn't get away with what they did to him.
And now the tough part was, like, facing
the people that did this to him.
* *
- To build up the case against Veronica Paz
and Brandan Perry,
investigators turn once again to the couple's friends
who helped cover their tracks.
- Kim Gomez and Tommy Medina
are arrested for accessory to murder
because of the false statements they had provided
when first interviewed
and having knowledge of the crime.
- So Kim Gomez and Tommy Medina
are very cooperative with investigators,
and they do corroborate the fact
that Veronica and Brandan
came over to their house that night
and asked them to be their alibi.
Detectives inform Kim and Tommy
that Veronica has come forward with this story,
saying that it was Brandan
who planned the murder of Diego Gonzalez.
Investigators ask Tommy and Kim,
"Did Brandan and Veronica plan this murder together?"
And Tommy and Kim say, "No. Not quite."
[dramatic music]
* *
- Investigators are confident
that Brandan Perry and Veronica Paz
were both ultimately involved in Diego Gonzalez's murder.
As police build their case against them,
the couple's accomplices drop a bombshell.
- Tommy Medina tells investigators
that this murder had been hatched months before
by Veronica.
In fact, Veronica and Brandan
had actually gone out to the desert
to test out this gun that they were gonna use to kill Diego.
[gunshot]
- As far as Tommy knew, at least a couple months,
he thinks this all initiated
because of the confrontation at that party during the summer.
Diego's with Brandan's girl,
so there's that little male standoff.
Murder happened in November,
so three, four, five months it was being talked about.
- Veronica Paz's alibi, Kim Gomez,
tells police that Veronica
wasn't upset the night of the murder
and that she made it seem like
she was part of the planning of the murder of Diego.
She felt she was disrespected by Diego
because Diego would only call her for sexual encounters.
Veronica Paz, the popular OC girl,
did not appreciate being used for sex.
So she played to Brandan's jealousy
in order to hurt Diego.
- Thanks to Veronica and Brandan's cohorts,
detectives learn the sordid details of the planning
that went into Diego's murder.
- Tommy Medina provides us the information.
They set up some bottles,
and they proceed to shoot a handgun
that we believe was used in Diego's murder,
and we actually find expended cartridges.
We never found the gun,
but the cartridges matched up to the projectiles
that were removed at the autopsy from Diego.
And we also found through debit card activity
that Veronica had gone to Walmart
and purchased a box of ammunition.
- Detectives also find evidence
proving Veronica's intent
to be intimate with Diego that night.
- When investigators search Veronica's car,
they do indeed find receipts indicating
that she had purchased these condoms,
and they find that there is surveillance footage
that clearly shows it was Veronica
who was making this purchase on her debit card.
* *
- And despite providing critical information,
Kim Gomez and Tommy Medina
don't escape consequences for their role in the murder plot.
- In 2004, Kim Gomez and Tommy Medina
make a deal with the DA's office.
They plead guilty to being accessories
after the fact to a murder.
Tommy is sentenced to six days incarceration
and three years probation.
Kimberly is sentenced to six months incarceration
and three years of probation.
But both of them agreed to testify
against Veronica and Brandan.
* *
- The Orange County District Attorney's Office
charges Veronica Paz with first-degree murder,
with special circumstances of lying in wait,
which could get her the sentence of life
without the possibility of parole.
Brandan Perry is charged with first-degree murder.
* *
- On March 28, 2006,
just before Brandan's trial is set to begin,
Brandan says he will plead out to first-degree murder
as long as the death penalty is taken off the table.
* *
- Brandan Perry is sentenced to 25 years to life
with the possibility of parole.
- He also agrees to testify against Veronica.
- In 2006, more than two years
after that fatal night,
Brandan Perry is the star witness against Veronica Paz
as she stands trial for the devastating murder
of one of Orange, California's, favorite sons.
* *
- We went to Veronica's court date.
She was tough.
She looked at us like she wasn't upset.
Just made us feel angry that she didn't even care
if she took his life away.
You know, we just couldn't believe
that they did this brutal stuff
to a child trying to just finish high school
and have so many dreams.
It was just hard to think that anybody could do that.
- At the trial against Veronica Paz,
Brandan Perry takes the stand.
He tells the jury that it was really Veronica
who came up with the plan, and because he was jealous,
he went along with her evil plan.
* *
- On December 15, 2006,
three years after Diego was killed,
Veronica Paz is found guilty
of first-degree murder.
* *
- Veronica Paz is sentenced
to 25 years to life in prison,
but the Gonzalez family's quest for justice isn't over.
* *
- In 2008, two years after Veronica
was convicted of first-degree murder,
her case gets overturned due to a technicality
having to do with jury instructions.
Veronica makes a request.
She says she wants to make a deal now.
And she is now willing to plead guilty
to second-degree murder.
- Once Veronica pled guilty to second-degree murder,
her murder sentence was reduced of 15 years to life.
* *
- Although the bittersweet outcome
is not the one they were hoping for,
Diego's loved ones take comfort
in keeping his memory alive.
- She could say that she's sorry for what she did,
but...
[soft music]
It's just hard to forgive.
* *
I just, like, always have that baby face
in my mind of how he looked.
You imagine what he would be now, you know, mid 30s,
so he would've probably already been married,
would have kids.
* *
Every birthday of Diego or anniversary of his death,
we go to the cemetery, and we just...
pray for him and for us. [chuckles]
* *
We just try to remember funny episodes of Diego's life
and enjoy those moments.
Try to remember him as he was--
like, a great son and a great cousin and a great friend.
* *