♪
NARRATOR: Secrets are like a ticking time bomb.
Especially the juiciest ones.
Especially in a college town.
Eventually, secrets?
They will explode.
And that's exactly what happened in Columbia, Missouri,
on June 5, 2004.
That's when, in the middle of the day, Jesse Valencia is found dead.
NEWSCASTER: Police found Valencia's body on East Campus,
neck wrung, throat slashed by a serrated knife.
JOHN WOHRLE: I just remember thinking to myself, like,
"It can't be true."
♪ There is nothing I can do ♪
NARRATOR: The murder sends shockwaves
through the town of Columbia
and the University of Missouri campus.
Everyone is a suspect.
RANDY BOEHM: Jesse's throat is slit.
That's very personal.
So it's very likely we're looking
for a person who knows Jesse.
♪
- Investigators were brainstorming, "What happened here?"
♪
NARRATOR: It's just the beginning of a college crime conspiracy,
filled with sex, lies, corruption...
OFFICER: Police. Open up.
NARRATOR: ...and the secret that forever changes
the lives of everyone involved.
♪
WOHRLE: If Jesse had something he needed to say
he was gonna say it.
But somebody will go to the extreme to protect a secret.
♪
NARRATOR: But that secret is also the thing
that ultimately brings Jesse's killer to justice.
♪
MAN 1: She solved her own murder from behind the grave.
MAN 2: The fitness app on the phone,
it was overwhelming evidence.
♪ Haunted by the visions ♪
♪ That I've seen with my own eyes ♪
♪ And the only way to find you ♪
♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪
♪
MAN 3: She did help catch this killer.
♪
♪ You got something to hide ♪
NARRATOR: Summer 2004. Columbia, Missouri.
♪ I see trouble ♪
♪
♪ Hey ♪
The University of Missouri is rocked
when a student's body is discovered off campus.
♪
JEFF WESTBROOK: My name's Jeff Westbrook.
I was an investigator in the Columbia Police Department
in Columbia, Missouri.
MAN: Jeff Westbrook, take one.
[siren wails]
WESTBROOK: I was actually the first responding investigator.
There were some residents in one of the houses
and when they walked out, they saw the body and called 911.
[shutter clicking]
NARRATOR: The corpse is naked
save for a pair of boxers.
It's clear the throat's been slit.
- When the other investigators arrived,
we were brainstorming, "What happened here?"
[siren wailing]
NARRATOR: With no clothes or identification,
investigators have no way of knowing
who the victim is or how he got there.
[police radio chatter]
♪
WESTBROOK: We started knocking on doors.
We had a picture just of his face
and we said, "Do you recognize this person?"
Is it someone that you've ever seen before?
And in talking to someone, we discovered
the young man's name was...
♪
Jesse Valencia.
♪
NARRATOR: Jesse was a 23-year-old history major
going into his senior year at Mizzou,
the University of Missouri.
He was openly gay and a vocal advocate for social justice
who dreamed of becoming a lawyer,
after leaving his small town of Perryville, Kentucky.
♪
LUPE VALENCIA: I'm Lupe Valencia
and I'm Jesse's stepfather.
It's been 18 years and, uh--
[voice breaking] I just can't really talk about it.
Jesse did not deserve to have what happened to him happen.
Well, no one does, but he sure didn't deserve it.
[inhales and exhales deeply]
Yeah.
♪
NARRATOR: Jesse's family and friends were so proud of him,
knowing that he came from such humble beginnings.
LUPE: Jesse grew up in a barn much like this.
He loved riding horses.
Jesse, he was just full of life.
Just go, go, go.
If you'd met, Jesse you would love him.
Very proud of Jesse.
♪ Don't go telling anyone you saw ♪
♪ I've got a mind to keep you in the dark now ♪
NARRATOR: When Jesse arrived at the University of Missouri
in the fall of 2002,
he made tons of friends both on and off campus.
♪ Another day is over ♪
♪ Another light is gone ♪
♪ I feel the dark side comin' on ♪
♪
NARRATOR: Jesse was loved.
How could anyone want to hurt him?
And now with his murder,
everyone in Columbia wants this case solved.
Everyone wants to know,
"Is there a killer lurking outside the university or on campus?
Who is the murderer among them?"
♪
Turns out Jesse just lived seven houses down the block
from where they found him
in a house that's been converted into apartments.
Investigators could tell there had been a struggle.
MAN: Take one.
BOEHM: My name is Randy Boehm.
♪
And I'm the former chief of the Columbia Police Department.
We did find a neighbor who was in the adjoining apartment
who does remember something going on that evening.
[light buzzing]
♪
MORLEY SWINGLE: My name is Morley Swingle.
I was the elected prosecutor of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
The person that lived next door, Christopher Kepner was his name,
and he came home drunk about 3:00 in the morning.
And he said, "I went to bed.
Sometime during the night, I heard arguing."
[indistinct yelling]
Christopher Kepner said, "I got up and I pounded on the wall
and I said, "Shut up over there."
"And then it went deathly quiet and I never heard any more noise."
NARRATOR: It seems a fight started
in Jesse's apartment and branched out.
♪
Because his body was found down the street,
his murderer probably chased him,
yet no one on the street heard as much as a whimper.
Jesse's apartment offered more clues.
[camera shutter clicks]
- One of the things that we discovered in his apartment
was a used condom.
[camera shutter clicks]
And so that was collected for DNA evidence.
NARRATOR: Did Jesse hook up with the wrong person?
Or did he know his killer?
Was this a lover's quarrel that went violently wrong?
♪
[police radio chatter]
The sergeant on the scene puts officer Steven Rios in charge
of guarding Jesse's apartment.
And medical examiner Valerie Rao
has Jesse's body transported to the coroner's office.
It's clear from the autopsy that Jesse put up a hell of a fight.
♪
- There was heavy bruising across his collar bone area
and there was significant bruising in the middle of his back
between his shoulder blades.
♪
They also took DNA from Jesse's fingernails.
Jesse had a shaved chest,
yet they found arm hairs
that were not Jesse's lying on his chest.
NARRATOR: The medical examiner concludes
that the knife used to slice Jesse's throat
had a serrated blade.
The killer was so brutal,
he severed both of Jesse's jugular veins
and nicked his vertebrae.
♪
BOEHM: Jesse's throat is slit.
That's very personal.
It's unusual for that to be a stranger-related homicide.
[camera shutter clicks]
So it's very likely we're looking for a person
who knows Jesse.
♪ Little drops of doubt dripping down ♪
♪ From my brain to my heart ♪
MAN: John Wohrle, A-B camera marker take one.
WOHRLE: My name is John Wohrle.
I am childhood friends of Jesse.
♪
When I heard Jesse was dead,
I immediately thought to myself, "Who did he make mad?"
'Cause if he had something he needed to say
or a way that he felt, he was gonna say it.
♪ Change my mind ♪
♪ Show me there's a way we'll make it out alright ♪
NARRATOR: Someone knows something.
Someone has a secret. But who?
♪ vocalizing ♪
♪ Won't you show me something? ♪
And then... [telephone ringing]
...just hours after the autopsy... [ringing continues]
...investigators get a call.
♪
It's about a party a day earlier...
OFFICER: Police. Open up.
NARRATOR: ...and an arrest that unlocks
a shocking secret that shakes this small town to its core.
♪
NARRATOR: Within 24 hours
of Jesse Valencia's body being found,
a college friend of his named Krystle Loyland calls investigators.
Krystle informs them
that Jesse had attended a party at her house the night before.
♪ But I never thought of time like that ♪
♪ It's marching on but I'm standing still ♪
SWINGLE: Krystle Loyland had been
hanging out with friends
on that last night of Jesse's life,
and he had come by.
♪
She had said he seemed happy and carefree.
♪ You got me beggin' for love ♪
♪
♪ electronic music playing ♪
- Jesse was always the life of the party.
He loved being the center of attention.
He loved being the one generating good times for people.
♪
NARRATOR: Jesse showed up with two men
Krystle hadn't met before.
A guy named Eric Thurston and his roommate Ed McDevitt.
Krystle says Eric left the party around 2:30 in the morning.
And Jesse left with Ed around 3:00 a.m.
♪
- So we knew that around 3:00 a.m. that morning,
that he was still alive.
NARRATOR, Investigators track down Ed and Eric,
the two people who were last seen with Jesse
and bring them in for questioning.
♪
WESTBROOK: We had 'em both in separate interview rooms.
We wanted to see what each individually,
independently had to say about their whereabouts that night.
SWINGLE: When they brought Eric Thurston in,
he gave one of the more interesting interviews
that the detectives had ever had,
because when they sat him down
and told him that Jesse Valencia was dead,
his response was, "Well, I could kill a person.
♪
But I didn't kill him."
That is such a bizarre statement
that immediately it ratcheted him up higher
on the list of suspects.
NARRATOR: Eric also tells investigators
that he and Ed used to be together,
but had recently broken up.
But now, Ed and Jesse are dating.
SWINGLE: They looked hard at Eric Thurston
'cause they thought, well, maybe Eric Thurston was jealous
because Ed was seeing somebody else.
NARRATOR: That somebody else being Jesse Valencia,
who appears to have been killed in a crime of passion.
Eric tells investigators that after he left Krystle's party,
he met a guy named Kevin and they spent the night together.
♪
They're going to need to track down this Kevin
and confirm the alibi.
[police radio chatter] [telephone rings]
♪
Meanwhile, down the hall...
investigators question Ed McDevitt.
SWINGLE: When they interview Ed McDevitt,
Ed was visibly distraught
and was just the opposite of Eric Thurston.
WESTBROOK: He was upset, crying.
Ed said that he had met Jesse
approximately two days prior at a local night club.
♪ Huh, just ride with me ♪
♪ Go coast to coast if you fly with me ♪
♪ We ain't worried about the hate or the rivalries ♪
♪ We can dance to the night, go slide with me, yeah ♪
♪
WOHRLE: Jesse, he was a beautiful person.
Guys would notice him, girls would notice him,
like, everybody was always looking at him.
NARRATOR: Ed McDevitt was no different.
One look, and they were hooking up that night at Jesse's place.
♪ dance music playing ♪
Ed confirms that the condom police recovered from Jesse's apartment
was from this first encounter.
SWINGLE: And then on Friday night,
Ed saw him again at that party.
NARRATOR: After Jesse and Ed left Krystal's party together,
they chatted on the sidewalk outside her house.
SWINGLE: Jesse wanted Ed to come home with him
but Ed said, "No, I have to go to work at 6:00 in the morning."
He was a chef.
And so Jesse ended up walking home by himself.
♪ Don't let the sun go down ♪
♪
NARRATOR: Ed tells the investigators
that when he got home, he went right to bed.
And that's his alibi for when they think Jesse was murdered.
It's not a strong one.
♪
SWINGLE: The knife that cut his neck had a serrated blade.
So the one thing that worried them about Ed McDevitt
was he was a chef who had access to a lot of knives.
[camera shutter clicks]
NARRATOR: Before they release Ed and Eric,
investigators ask for and receive DNA samples
that might connect them back to the crime.
That DNA could break the case wide open.
But it'll take several agonizing weeks to get the results.
Then, the police receive an anonymous call that turns the investigation on its head.
♪
- One of the tips that we get says that
Jesse Valencia was having a relationship
with a married Columbia police officer
at the time of the crime.
Whoever called mentioned
that this Columbia police officer was married
and had a young child.
SWINGLE: Making the police department realize
we have to look into the possibility that maybe it's one of our own.
♪
BOEHM: We did not have any openly gay male officers.
And so it's a police officer who may have that relationship
on the side away from his family.
♪
We can't discount the fact that it might be someone
who just has a beef with the police department
trying to cause a problem.
But you don't know that until you follow the lead.
[siren wailing in distance]
NARRATOR: The anonymous tip gains more credibility
when investigators bring 21-year-old Andy Schermerhorn in for questioning.
Andy is one of Jesse's former boyfriends.
SWINGLE: Andy Schermerhorn gave some blockbuster information.
He said, "I was at Jesse's house on May 14th
and we were in bed together having sexual activity."
Around 3:30 in the morning, there was a knock at the door
and Jesse answered the door
and there was a police officer in uniform.
♪
Andy Schermerhorn said,
"I got frightened and I stood up on the bed
and I was afraid something terrible was gonna happen."
And Jesse said, "No, it's okay, it's okay.
"He's cool, he's cool.
"And the police officer took off his gun belt
and put it on the cabinet and joined us in bed."
After it was over, the police officer looked at Jesse and said,
"This has got to be a secret."
And he did not give his name.
♪
NARRATOR: They ask Andy if he might be able
to identify the officer if he saw him again.
♪
SWINGLE: And Andy Schermerhorn said,
"I saw him out in the hall. It was that guy we passed in the hall."
♪
NARRATOR: The day after Jesse Valencia is found with his throat slit,
one of Jesse's former lovers has just stunned detectives.
He told them that one of their colleagues,
a police officer who he just passed in the hall,
had a sexual encounter with him and Jesse.
♪
♪ The light of the day ♪
♪ After midnight ♪
♪ All the bad things happen ♪
WESTBROOK: That was a shocking piece of information.
And so we went back, "Well, who did we walk past?"
And we walked past an officer by the name of Steven Rios.
NARRATOR: It's the same officer that was standing guard
over Jesse Valencia's apartment after his body was found.
♪ Bad things happen ♪
♪
- Steven Rios was a married Columbia police officer.
Young, in his 20s with a brand new child.
Had only been on our department two or three years at that time.
And by all accounts, doing a great job.
♪
NARRATOR: Investigators discover
that seven weeks earlier,
Steven Rios had arrested Jesse Valencia.
- On April 18th of 2004,
three of Jesse's friends, all females, were having a party.
And the police were called twice for noise violations at that apartment.
Jesse Valencia got between the girls and Officer Steve Rios
and said, "What's your probable cause for arresting my friends?"
NARRATOR: Rios arrested Jesse
and wrote him a ticket to appear in court.
[police radio chatter]
The charge, "obstructing a governmental operation."
♪
When Rios showed up for work on the day of the murder,
he didn't hide that he knew the victim.
SWINGLE: He said, "Yes, that's a person
"I had arrested six weeks earlier,
for obstructing a governmental operation."
♪
NARRATOR: But what alarms investigators
is that on the day Jesse was found dead,
Rios was assigned to stand guard over Jesse's apartment.
[camera shutter clicks]
Is it possible Rios went inside to tamper with evidence
that might expose him as Jesse's lover,
or maybe even as Jesse's killer?
BOEHM: On June 8th,
now three days after the fact, very odd thing happens.
Steven Rios comes to the police department,
goes to the sergeant in charge of the investigation and says,
"Hey, sergeant, I've heard about this tip that you got.
"You might hear my name,
but I want you to know it's not me."
SWINGLE: The detective, he'd already talked to Andy Schermerhorn
and so he said to Steven Rios,
Andy Schermerhorn said on May 14th
that you came by in uniform at 3:30 in the morning
and joined them for sexual activity.
And he said... "Sex?"
♪ Now it appears to be a point you're trying to make clear to me ♪
NARRATOR: Rios eventually admits
that he had sex with Jesse six times
since he had arrested him.
♪
The last time being a week before he was found dead.
- He said, "I didn't tell anybody 'cause I'm married
and my wife said she'd leave me if ever had an affair with anybody."
♪ What I heard about you I ain't hear it from you ♪
"We had sex, but no, I didn't kill him
and I have no idea who did or what happened to him."
♪
NARRATOR: Rios is placed on leave until he can be completely cleared.
He cooperates fully with investigators,
giving them permission to search his car and his house.
They find no evidence that links him to the murder.
- Even though Steven Rios admits to the relationship,
it doesn't necessarily mean that he's involved in the homicide.
♪
NARRATOR: Rios claims he last saw Jesse
a week before he was killed.
So investigators return their focus to the people
who were with Jesse on the very night of his murder.
BOEHM: We did ask Erik Thurston and Ed McDevitt
if we could search their apartment.
Both of them agreed.
NARRATOR: They're looking for bloody clothing,
or a serrated chef's knife.
Any evidence that could potentially tie them to Jesse's murder.
- We did search and did not find any type of evidence
that we thought was related to the crime there.
♪
NARRATOR: Investigators are able to track down Kevin,
the hookup who was Eric Thurston's alibi for the night of the murder.
[ringing]
Kevin tells them that Eric was with him the entire night,
so Ed McDevitt's roommate is removed from the suspect list.
As for Ed McDevitt, he still has no alibi.
- Things were starting to really narrow down.
Ed McDevitt was a suspect, along with Steven Rios.
NARRATOR: The police don't want news
of the salacious affair to get out,
but someone leaks Steven Rios' name to the media.
- Being in the LGBTQI+ community,
I think sometimes
we're looked at differently.
We're looked at as a bad person,
an immoral person,
and I think the police were embarrassed by that.
NARRATOR: Rios' exposed affair humiliates him in front of family,
fellow officers, and his community.
And marks the start of a very messy, very public meltdown.
It begins when Rios buys a shotgun at Walmart
and contacts his colleagues to tell them he's going to kill himself.
SWINGLE: They put him in a mental facility
for mental health treatment
'cause they considered him a danger to himself or others.
[ringing]
WESTBROOK: The next day,
we were called by the facility,
and they said Steven Rios has escaped.
♪
[police radio chatter]
He's standing on a parking garage ledge,
threatening to jump off.
♪
[siren wailing]
NARRATOR: Is Rios feeling shame over having the affair?
Or guilt over having committed murder?
[waling continues]
♪
NARRATOR: If your deepest, darkest secret,
the one you'd do anything to protect
was revealed to the world,
how would you react?
♪ There's something I've been trying to hide ♪
For Columbia, Missouri, police officer Steven Rios,
it's threatening to jump from a four-story parking garage...
♪ I am falling ♪
...in full view of TV news cameras.
♪
♪ I don't wanna be saved ♪
♪
NEWSCASTER: Steven Rios threatened to commit suicide.
The reaction of a killer,
or a cheating husband who knew his life was over?
[police radio chatter]
WOHRLE: I was like, "Come on, you need to be a man
"and stand up and own what you did
and not coward out and do something like that."
[siren wailing]
- I was one of the officers assigned to talk to Steven on that ledge.
♪
And I said, "You don't wanna do this.
♪
Think about your son."
NARRATOR: For two hours,
Rios keeps officers at bay and spectators on edge.
WESTBROOK: Finally his field training officer
who was a close friend of his talked to him
and Steven came down off that ledge.
♪
[bystanders cheer]
And was subsequently transferred to a more secure mental health facility.
NARRATOR: Even with Rios threatening suicide,
the police have no probable cause to arrest him
for Jesse Valencia's murder.
And he's not the only suspect.
Ed McDevitt told police
he was asleep by himself at the time Jesse was murdered,
so he has no alibi.
♪
But Rios does.
- Rios said, "I got off work at three o'clock in the morning.
"I went upstairs and I drank some beer with other officers on the rooftop.
And then I drove home."
♪
- We talked to his wife and she goes,
"Yes, he came home between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m."
♪
And she remembered that...
♪
...because she'd been up with their baby at that time.
NARRATOR: When investigators follow up on Rios' alibi,
police dispatcher Leah Wooden tells them
she remembers Rios leaving the rooftop at 4:47 in the morning.
♪
Swingle: We actually had the police officers drive
to see how long would it take
to go from where Steven Rios was drinking beer after work
to Jesse's house.
And then from there to Steven Rios' home.
♪
NARRATOR: The entire drive takes only seven minutes.
If Rios got home between 5:15 and 5:30, like his wife said,
that means he had between 20 and 35 minutes
of unaccounted for time.
But is that a large enough window to chase someone down,
kill them, then dispose of any evidence,
including a murder weapon?
BOEHM: We were not able to ever recover the murder weapon.
But we had several officers say that they remember
Steven Rios carrying a knife
similar to the one that we believe was used in the crime.
NARRATOR: Ed McDevitt, a chef,
also had access to a lot of knives,
but Ed's motive is unclear.
♪
Then, a week after the murder,
Jesse's best friend comes forward with a new and shocking insight.
♪
SWINGLE: Joan Sheridan said
when Jesse went to court on his first appearance
on his case for obstructing governmental personnel,
that was May 25th, the case did not get thrown out
like he thought for sure it would be.
[siren wailing]
♪
NARRATOR: Jesse was certain
that if he was sleeping with the officer who gave him the ticket,
he would of course pull some strings to get it dropped.
- He said, "If this case doesn't get thrown out,
"I've got a little secret the chief of police might wanna know."
♪
And so, that leads you to believe that it was possible
that the next time Officer Steven Rios rode up,
Jesse confronted him about, "Are you married?
"I have a little secret that the chief of police might wanna know,"
and that confrontation might have led to his throat getting cut.
♪
[groans]
BOEHM: So we have a motive.
Jesse Valencia had said
that he was going to come to our department
and tell me about the relationship with Steven Rios.
- Steven Rios had given all the power to Jesse Valencia
for Jesse Valencia to ruin him if Jesse wanted to.
♪
NARRATOR: The evidence is compelling,
but it's all circumstantial.
What the police need is some strong physical evidence
that links Jesse's murder to one of the prime suspects:
Steven Rios or Ed McDevitt.
♪ I know something that they don't ♪
Now, almost a month after Jesse was killed,
maybe they'll finally get their answer.
The results are back on the DNA collected at Jesse's autopsy.
Will they finally prove who killed Jesse Valencia?
♪ And I can't breathe ♪
♪
NARRATOR: A secret without facts
to back it up is just a rumor.
♪
Now, the science of DNA testing will reveal the facts
behind Jesse Valencia's murder.
- One of the most difficult times for us
was the period of time
where we don't have enough to arrest a suspect,
and so we're waiting for the DNA information.
In this case, it turned out to actually be very critical evidence.
♪
NARRATOR: The condom found in Jesse's apartment
has Jesse's and Ed McDevitt's DNA on the inside and outside.
- Not surprisingly, it corroborated with what Ed McDevitt had said
about the sexual activity that they had had.
NARRATOR: But they had also found DNA
under Jesse's fingernails.
Who did that belong to?
♪
- Underneath the fingernails of the dead young man
there was Steven Rios' DNA.
♪
NARRATOR: It's common in a physical assault
for the DNA of the attacker
to end up under the fingernails of the victim.
- Rios denied that there was any kind of a physical altercation.
And so the fact that there was DNA under the nails
turned out to be very critical information.
♪
NARRATOR: But there's more.
The arm hairs the medical examiner found on Jesse's chest?
Only one in 57 trillion people would match to those hairs.
And they match to Steven Rios.
♪
SWINGLE: So that was completely damning evidence.
The only thing he could not cover,
uh, was the DNA that he'd left on the body.
♪
BOEHM: I was so angry about it.
The last thing I wanted to do was get in front of a camera and say,
"We have arrested a Columbia police officer for homicide."
♪
But that's what we had to do.
I said, "I want y'all to understand that
we want this person to be in prison."
This person violated everyone's faith.
♪
WOHRLE: Hearing that it was a married police officer
he was involved with was,
like, just couldn't believe it.
Anybody who's in a position to where you serve other people, period,
would utilize that power to start the relationship
and not being open and honest about who he is as well,
the whole thing just feels gross to me.
♪
NARRATOR: Joan Sheridan had told investigators
that the first time Rios showed up at Jesse's apartment,
Jesse was seduced by the power of his uniform, badge, and gun.
Something Rios was counting on, and had done before.
♪
SWINGLE: After I had filed the charge
against Steven Rios,
three women came forward
who said that Rios had also made
inappropriate advances toward them.
So it did seem like Rios was using his badge,
not just on Jesse Valencia for sex,
but potentially other people as well.
♪
NARRATOR: Steven Rios goes to trial
on May 17th, 2005.
At this point, there are no secrets left to hide.
Along with presenting the evidence,
prosecutors want the jury to hear
Jesse's own words from beyond the grave.
♪
SWINGLE: I went ahead and put Joan Sheridan on the stand
so the jury could hear that Jesse had made those comments that,
"The next time he comes over, I'm gonna confront him
"about the fact that my ticket hasn't gone away
"and that I have a little secret
the chief of police might wanna know... if it doesn't."
♪
NARRATOR: Rios takes the stand in his own defense.
He tells the jury that while he may be a liar and an adulterer,
he is not a murderer.
But will the jury believe him?
SWINGLE: Anytime a defendant testifies
all you have to have is one jury member believe him
and it would be a hung jury or a not guilty verdict.
NARRATOR: After four days of viewing evidence
and hearing testimony,
the jury gets the case.
They deliberate for 14 hours before reaching a verdict.
SWINGLE: Steven Rios testified
and the jury did not believe him.
And they came back with first-degree murder,
which was life without parole,
and another 20 years on the armed criminal action.
♪
Steven Rios used his badge for sex
and then he used his knife to shut the mouth of his lover forever.
♪
WOHRLE: The day that the verdict was given,
it was just a huge sense of relief
knowing that the person who did that
is not gonna be able to do that to another person.
♪ Would you catch me if I fell? ♪
♪
NARRATOR: Every tip and lead investigators received
about Steven Rios came about
because Jesse couldn't stop telling his secret.
And that's how he brought his killer to justice.
♪
BOEHM: No one was happier than we were.
Not only did this person commit a horrible crime,
but they violated everyone's trust
because they're the person you're supposed to go to for help
and yet they're the person who committed the crime.
♪
NARRATOR: Two years later,
with Rios in the South Dakota State Penitentiary
in Sioux Falls,
an appeals court rules that the secrets Jesse told Joan Sheridan
were inadmissible in court because they were hearsay.
They overturn Steven Rios' conviction.
Prosecutors now have to try Rios a second time
without that testimony.
SWINGLE: This time the jury came back
with second-degree murder
and they came back with armed criminal action again.
♪
Steven Rios got life in prison for the second-degree murder.
The difference is, on a first-degree murder,
he never would have gotten out.
♪
With second-degree murder, he could conceivably get out,
as an old man someday.
♪
WOHRLE: I came out right after high school at 18
and Jesse followed suit.
Our families were so supportive.
I believe if Steven would have had that,
I think the outcome would've been completely different.
♪
I hope now that while he's in jail,
he really thinks about hiding that secret, who he was.
And I hope that that is something
that's constantly on his heart moving forward.
Because you can't change who you are.
♪ I'm suffocating on my own words ♪
♪ Too afraid to let them know ♪
NARRATOR: Jesse's out, loud, and proud spirit
is probably doing cartwheels in heaven to know that today,
at least in the Columbia Police Department,
there are fewer secrets.
- For the first time, I have a gay man
who is our LGBTQ+ liaison from the police department
who is also our SWAT team commander.
That's not something you would have expected
even ten years ago.
♪
NARRATOR: It's a small step,
but one that would not have been lost
on the big-hearted social justice warrior
that was Jesse Valencia.
- If Jesse was still with us,
I think he would've been a really amazing lawyer.
He would fight for you, he would do anything he could to protect you.
That's how he was.
LUPE: That's what he would be working on.
Fighting for the little guy.
♪
That's what Jesse would want us to do.
♪
♪ I don't know where my head is sleeping ♪
♪ Have I lost my mind? ♪
♪
♪ But I know that I have a secret ♪
♪ That is only mine ♪
♪
♪ And the only way to find me ♪
♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪
♪