(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] In 1986, a young man is brand new to San Diego,
having just driven across country in his new car
in search of job opportunities.
Though he's here looking for work,
he's open to new experiences.
And on his first day in town,
he makes a new friend, Stacy Littleton.
The next morning, Cyrus's body is found on a rural road.
- He was likely dumped and dragged
from his shoulders and head area.
- [Narrator] As the city experiences
a drastic increase in violent crime and murder,
the resources to hunt down Cyrus's killer become limited.
The case gets shelved and 30 years go by.
But a rookie cold case detective, Troy DuGal,
is determined to find justice.
- I took that on as kind of a challenge.
- [Narrator] With almost no evidence remaining in the case,
it would take a single glove and a lot of determined
police work to finally bring justice to a killer
who's walked free for over three decades.
- The unsolved ones we have to send up.
- And approach these cases in a way outside the box.
- Let the world know,
those out there that did commit a murder,
there are people that are coming after you.
- There's just a lot of good people
trying to do the right thing.
- Because it's something
that you have to be passionate about.
- Solve this, bring some peace to the family at least,
just doing my job.
- [Narrator] It's just after 7:00 AM
on a Saturday morning in the city of Lemon Grove,
located in San Diego County.
And most residents are still asleep,
but for anyone up and about
looking to get an early start on the weekend,
the last thing they expect to find along
this quiet stretch of dirt road is a body.
(dramatic music)
- He was wearing clothing
and his shirt was up above his head
and he was wearing pants and he was wearing socks,
but his shoes were missing.
- [Narrator] Detectives arrive at the crime scene
and begin with trying to identify the victim,
whose face is covered.
- The fact that his shirt was up
over his head was unusual.
- The victim has several stab wounds
and his throat has been cut,
which is likely the cause of death.
Given the method of execution,
the detectives make a key observation.
There is a distinct lack of blood at the crime scene.
However, they note the dirt on the victim's clothes.
- [Troy] He was likely dumped and dragged
from his shoulders and head area, placed on the ground,
and right above his arms was a single black motorcycle glove
that was just laying there in the dirt.
- [Narrator] The presence of the lone glove is strange.
It may have belonged to the victim,
or possibly worn by the killer.
Detectives photograph the glove.
Then check the body for a wallet or any form of ID,
but none can be found.
The victim's shoes are also missing,
indicating that this may be a robbery gone wrong,
a case where the victim tries to fight back
and is stabbed to death as a result.
- But detectives also note
tire impressions near the body.
The lack of blood at the crime scene and the presence
of these tire tracks could indicate the victim
was killed at another location.
The killer then transports the body here
and dumps it along this dirt road.
(police sirens blaring)
- [Narrator] From about the mid-80s to 1995,
San Diego County saw an increase in homicides
and violent crime that climbed above the national average.
- I didn't know this myself growing up in San Diego,
but homicides in the 80s were very high.
That's one of the problems with this case.
The homicide detectives and the homicide unit were flooded
with homicides more than the subsequent years.
- [Narrator] Some people linked this
to the growing meth problem
and increased violence among rival gangs in that area.
But what is certain is that homicide detectives
during this period have more cases
on their plate than they can possibly clear.
- As a result,
detectives aren't able to devote the amount of time
and attention they would like to in solving a case.
Follow-up interviews don't always happen.
Witnesses aren't as thoroughly canvased as they could be.
And potential suspects aren't as deeply investigated
as they need to be.
- [Narrator] While today,
San Diego is known for its bustling downtown,
its shopping, restaurant and craft beer scenes,
as well as its pristine beaches,
it was still developing in the 80s.
- There isn't much to do after dark.
Horton Plaza is built in 1985
and begins attracting some nightlife,
but for the most part,
downtown shuts down at the end of the business day.
However, people manage to find a party
and have fun wherever they can.
- [Narrator] On October 10th, 1986,
the day before the body is found,
a young man named Cyrus Jefferson meets Stacy Littleton
and gets invited to the hotel room
of Stacy's girlfriend, Echo, to party.
(dramatic music)
There, he meets Echo's friend, Lori.
- According to the statements of Lori and Echo,
they all partied, drank beer, smoked marijuana,
played cards, just a hotel party with 20 year old kids.
At some point in the day, closer to the evening,
both ladies say that Stacy and Cyrus leave.
- [Narrator] This is the last time
the two women will see Cyrus Jefferson.
Neither Lori nor Echo know where Stacy and Cyrus are headed.
But when Stacy returns to the hotel later to party,
he's alone and Cyrus's whereabouts are unknown.
On October 11th, 1986,
hours after a body is found in Lemon Grove,
the Sheriff's Department gets a strange phone call
from a man named Henry.
Henry claims he came into possession of some goods
and believes a crime took place.
- He doesn't want nothing to do with this.
He now has a bloody spare tire and tools
from what he knows is a car where a murder likely occurred.
- [Narrator] The Sheriff's Department tracks down the car
that Henry says the tools come from.
- And they pop the back hatch and there's blood in there.
- The Sheriffs realize they'll need
to get a full story if they're going to uncover
what happened in the car.
To do that,
they'll need to speak to Henry and whoever had the car last,
which just happens to be Lori and a man named Michael.
- [Narrator] Officers keep a post on the car while Henry,
Lori, and Michael are brought in for questioning.
- They interview Michael and Lori,
right away know that they have a big problem.
- [Narrator] While detectives over in Lemon Grove
are beginning their investigation
into the murder of an unidentified man,
Lori is in custody telling officers how she came into
possession of a car where a murder may have occurred.
- The story that Lori provides
to the Sheriff piques his interest.
She says the car belongs to a man she just met named Cyrus
and that she hasn't seen him since last night.
Suddenly the Sheriff realizes that he needs
to call in homicide detectives.
- [Narrator] It doesn't take long for departments
to coordinate and homicide detectives
to learn the identity of their John Doe.
His name is Cyrus Jefferson.
With the identity of their victim revealed,
detectives have one less question,
but there's still a long assorted chain of events
to sort through if they have any hope
of finding out who murdered Cyrus Jefferson.
(dramatic music)
Cyrus Jefferson is new to the city
of Lemon Grove in San Diego County,
but it's his first day in town
and he's already made a friend in Stacy Littleton.
Stacy brings him around to meet his girlfriend and hang out.
After a few drinks and some cards,
Stacy and Cyrus take off to run an errand.
But several hours later, when Stacy returns,
he has Cyrus's car, but no Cyrus.
And when friends later find blood in the back of the car,
they suspect Stacy may have killed Cyrus.
Cyrus is new to the San Diego area,
originally hailing from Louisiana.
He's been working hard at a pizza joint
saving up money to buy a car.
Meanwhile, his younger sister Sidra
has been awarded a scholarship and gone off to college
at Louisiana State University.
- He's trying to figure himself out.
He decides he doesn't want to just stay in Louisiana,
he wants to look elsewhere.
He had an aunt that lived in San Diego.
He called his aunt and he said
"hey, I want to come out there.
I wanna see what's ahead of me, what potential there is".
That's what brought him from Louisiana to San Diego
on that trip across America was he was growing up,
he was 20 years old, he had a reliable car,
he was just doing pizzas.
He knew he could get a job doing pizzas in San Diego,
so he reunites with his aunt and then he says
"hey, I'm gonna go get my car washed".
So he leaves the house to go get his car washed.
She expects him to come back, but she doesn't see him.
That was the last time the family saw Cyrus.
But fortunately for law enforcement,
the story continues because we know who he ended up with.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Lori states that she's hanging out
in a hotel room with her friend Echo
and Echo's one year old infant
when Echo's boyfriend Stacy comes over to party
with a new friend he allegedly
just met at the park named Cyrus.
The group spends the afternoon in the hotel room,
drinking beer, smoking weed, and playing cards.
getting closer to evening,
Lori states that Stacy and Cyrus leave,
though she doesn't know where they're going.
- They don't really care because Michael has been
in contact with them and Michael's gonna come over.
Echo was actually interested in Michael,
which sounds a little convoluted
because Stacy and Echo had a relationship.
- [Narrator] While Stacy and Cyrus are gone,
the two women await the arrival of Michael.
- So about three hours later,
Stacy comes back to the hotel
and he's driving Cyrus's Honda Civic.
They ask where Cyrus is and he says
"oh, he let me use his car".
That's the end of that.
Michael shows up, Michael comes in,
Stacy says "I'm gonna take Echo to the beach.
We're gonna go down and party
at the beaches like 1:00 in the morning.
(dramatic music)
While they're at the beach, they smoked marijuana.
And I know from what Echo tells me
that Stacy had supplied a joint for them to smoke
and the joint was laced with PCP.
So when Echo smoked the joint, she got high on PCP.
- PCP, also known as Angel Dust,
is a hallucinogenic drug
taken for its mind-altering effects.
These effects include visual hallucinations,
sound distortions, and in some cases, violent outbursts.
- She had never smoked PCP before
and she literally lost her mind.
- [Narrator] When they get back to the hotel,
Echo is frantic.
- She was going crazy, she doesn't remember,
but she was making a scene
because this was like at four or five in the morning.
The police are called and Echo is taken into custody
for her own welfare.
- [Narrator] Police take Echo to a hospital
for a psychiatric evaluation
and to be kept and observed overnight.
What started as a party has turned into a nightmare.
- Stacy says "I want to go visit Echo in the hospital".
He's worried about his girlfriend,
but they have the baby there.
- [Narrator] Stacy still has Cyrus's car
and suggests they take it to the hospital.
Lori and Michael get in the car
and wait for Stacy and the baby.
- Both Lori and Michael
notice blood spatter on the headliner,
and more blood spatter in the backseat.
- [Narrator] They don't mention this to Stacy
when he arrives.
- When they get to the hospital, Stacy gets out of the car.
Lori and Michael start talking
about the blood spatter in the car.
Where is this kid, Cyrus? What's going on?
Michael starts looking around.
He turns around, it's a hatchback.
He turns around,
looks in the back and there's a pool of blood
on the spare tire in the far back of the car.
Michael's scared. Lori's scared.
They start to do their own assessment of the events
of the night and they're worried
that Stacy probably did something to Cyrus
because there was no one else involved.
- [Narrator] For detectives,
Lori recounts why neither she nor Michael
contacted police.
- Stacy comes back out and Lori
said she was very nervous to ask him,
but she said basically "what in the heck?
What is all this blood?"
And he said maybe someone got killed and they just zipped
their lips because they were scared to be very honest,
and they were drunk and they were high
and they weren't gonna call the police
because now they're inside of a car with blood.
So Stacy goes back to the hotel,
Michael leaves, and Lori is with Stacy.
- [Narrator] Once Stacy and Lori return to the hotel,
Stacy does something totally unexpected.
- Stacy says "hey, do you want this car?"
Lori had some difficulty with drugs
and she didn't have a job and he's offering to give her
this car and she doesn't have transportation.
Echo's in the hospital and Stacy's gonna leave on his own.
So she actually wants the car.
She wants away to get away from here.
- [Narrator] Stacy takes the baby back to the hotel
and leaves Lori with Cyrus's car.
- Lori drives to the East County of San Diego,
meets back up with Michael because
they want to talk about what the heck are they gonna do.
Now they've been in the car,
they're worried about their involvement.
- [Narrator] Both Michael and Lori are concerned
that they're now caught up in a crime,
possibly even a murder.
But with blood literally on their hands,
they fear they have nowhere to turn.
(dramatic music)
Cyrus Jefferson goes missing on his first day
in San Diego, and the last person to see him alive,
Stacy Littleton, now has his car,
and the car is covered in blood.
After a night of partying and a visit to the hospital
to take care of Echo,
Stacy gives the car to his friend Lori.
But this gift ends up being a curse.
As Lori now suspects,
she's caught up in the middle of a murder.
Lori and Michael have decided they need help,
but they don't see going to the police as an option.
- Michael decides to reach out to his friend Henry
who he admires, and Henry's a logical guy.
They drive the car over to Henry's house and they tell him,
"hey, first of all, we need to get rid of this car".
And he said "why?"
And they said "well, check this out".
And they pop the back hatch and there's blood in there.
- Henry's first thought is that Michael
and Lori have committed a crime,
and he threatens to call the police,
but Michael asks him to listen
while he explains the situation.
- Henry takes the time to hear the story,
and then Michael offers up and it's kind of arbitrary,
but Michael says
"hey, I'm gonna get rid of this car.
Do you want the spare tire and the tools right here?"
And Henry takes them because Henry
was a construction guy, and he took them, once again,
not the right action for somebody to do, but he did it.
- [Narrator] Feeling uneasy about the situation,
Henry contacts the police.
He agrees to come down for an interview.
Henry describes to detectives about feeling odd
about the exchange and being in possession
of items that may be linked to a murder.
Police dragged down the car in East San Diego County
near the hotel where the group partied.
- Detectives are beginning
to get a clearer picture of Cyrus's last day,
where he was, and who he was with.
But there's the unaccounted three hour period
when he was alone in the car with Stacy.
To fill in that time gap,
they're going to have to bring Stacy in
for questioning as a suspect.
- So they tow the car into evidence
and they process the car for evidence,
and they start the search warrant for Stacy's house.
They talk to Echo, they talk to Lori,
they talk to Michael, they talk to Henry,
and based on their statements, they get the search warrant,
they take Stacy into custody.
- [Narrator] Suspect Stacy Littleton is questioned,
but tells detectives that
he doesn't know what happened to Cyrus.
- Stacy says that Cyrus had received a paycheck.
I don't know how he had this paycheck that was $125.
Stacy was going with Cyrus to cash that paycheck.
- [Narrator] Stacy claims that afterwards,
Cyrus gave him his car.
When questioned about the blood,
he provides no explanation, but denies that he killed Cyrus.
- You have to remember
this is 1986 and there is no way of testing the blood
to verify the victims using forensics science.
As long as Stacy keeps his mouth shut,
there's nothing concrete
connecting the blood in the car to him.
- While it may seem obvious to detectives that
Stacy Littleton is involved
in the murder of Cyrus Jefferson,
they know that the District Attorney is going to need more
than just circumstantial evidence
and belief to convince a jury.
- [Narrator] For officers to make arrests,
they need a probable cause,
which is at least 50% likelihood
that the suspect has committed a crime.
(tense music)
- The problem with getting it into court
is you have to get beyond reasonable doubt.
Reasonable doubt is a much higher bar.
There is no percentage based on it.
But you're talking to 12 ordinary citizens
who may or may not know anything about law enforcement,
and you have to convince them that
the evidence you have, the statements made,
everything makes this guy,
beyond a reasonable doubt, the suspect.
That's the bar for the District Attorney.
That's why the District Attorney rejected the case.
- Without a witness or any further evidence,
detectives can only hypothesize about what happens
in the three hours between Stacy and Cyrus
leaving the hotel together and Stacy returning alone.
They have no choice but to release Stacy.
- [Narrator] A couple of days later,
Echo's mom goes down to the station
to retrieve Stacy's things that police took into evidence
during their search warrant.
- They collected all his clothes,
they went through his house, they collected evidence.
He's been cleared because the District Attorney,
they're not filing charges.
They could later file charges.
Property evidence checked with the homicide detectives,
for whatever reason,
whether the homicide detectives were too busy,
didn't think about it,
for whatever reason, I don't know,
they authorized the release of that physical evidence
from the property evidence room.
- [Narrator] Police have a viable suspect
in the murder of Cyrus Jefferson,
but without additional evidence or the resources
to pursue Stacy Littleton further,
detectives are forced to shelve it
while they deal with other cases.
- That's one of the problems with this case
or why this case ended up as a cold case,
is the homicide detectives in the homicide unit were
flooded with homicides more than the subsequent years.
- [Narrator] Detectives have good reason
to believe Stacy Littleton
brutally murdered Cyrus Jefferson.
But for now they have no choice
but to let their prime suspect walk free.
(dramatic music)
Detectives hear a story from Lori,
Michael, and Henry that all points to one suspect,
Stacy Littleton.
But Stacy denies having anything to do with Cyrus's murder.
But with no witnesses or substantial evidence,
the District Attorney fears that
a jury would acquit Stacy Littleton,
and they decide not to try the case.
It becomes a cold case for over 30 years.
(dramatic music)
- Well, I went to a Thanksgiving dinner,
and I knew I was slated to become
the next cold case detective.
And I sat next to my lieutenant and my lieutenant
is talking to me very friendly and he says
"hey, are you ready to come over to Cold Case?
You ready for that step?"
And he goes "I really need you to solve a case".
And I said "well of course, that's why I'm coming there."
And he said "no, you don't understand.
Cold cases are very hard to solve
and it's been a couple years
since this agency has solved one".
And he said "I know they're working hard,
I know that they're doing everything
they can to solve these crimes,
but we really need somebody in there gung ho
to get busy and get one solved".
I took that on as kind of a challenge, right?
So that was Thanksgiving, you go through Christmas,
I get the call, you're going to Cold Case.
And within a week or two I get this message,
call Sidra Jefferson about her brother's 1986 cold case.
- [Narrator] Cyrus's younger sister Sidra
has been calling the Cold Case division at least once a year
in an effort to keep her brother's case alive.
- So on a professional level, I was ready to go.
I was gonna solve every case that I touched,
but on top of that,
then I get the emotional part from the family.
That family is just amazing.
They're the sweetest people and this case kills them.
- [Narrator] Detective Troy DuGal doesn't want
to give Sidra any false hope
that her brother's case can be solved,
but he promises her he'll do everything
within his power to bring justice for Cyrus.
- First thing I did was I went down to the crime lab,
which was in the same building as the homicide unit
and I pulled all the evidence
that was available for this case and I reviewed it.
I opened every package, I looked at it,
I got a physical understanding of what evidence
I could lay in front of a jury.
I resealed it and then I went back and reviewed
the case again to see where that evidence came from,
what potential that evidence had.
And the glove was interesting to me from the very beginning.
I was like, why a motorcycle glove?
And the obvious answer is maybe somebody wore
motorcycle gloves to hide their fingerprints.
Because in 1986,
DNA was not an issue in law enforcement,
but fingerprints were a big issue.
So if you were wearing gloves,
it would hide your fingerprints.
I read through all the reports
and there was really no mention of the glove.
I looked through more of the photographs,
and they did collect the glove, but once again,
there was no mention of it, no testing of it.
And I started to just use my experience and training
and what I had seen in the past.
And I knew circumstantially from Cyrus's body position,
the fact that the shirt was over the head,
his arms were up, up above his head,
and then the motorcycle glove was above his arms,
not near his hands, didn't come off his hands,
it was just laying there.
- [Narrator] Something about the placement of Cyrus's body
and the shirt covering his face catches
detective DuGal's attention.
- So I made an interpretation that he was likely dumped
and dragged from his shoulders and head area,
placed on the ground, and then then either the suspect,
because of the dragging motion,
the shirt went up over the head or the suspect knew him.
And that'll happen where a suspect wants to cover the face
of a decedent because they have some consciousness
and they don't want to see the face
of the person they just killed.
- If Detective DuGal's theory is right,
the killer was known to the victim.
According to statements from the family,
Cyrus was new to the area
and didn't know anyone except for Stacy,
the friend he just made.
- If Stacy and Cyrus were in the car together,
then the tire tracks photographed
at the scene are likely from Cyrus's car.
Though nothing in the evidence file shows that
detectives confirmed that his car
was at the scene of a crime.
But as Detective Dugal tracks down
all the remaining evidence in the case,
he makes a grim discovery.
- The car, because there was no pending trial,
it sat stored forever and it was basically
sold to a towing company
and the towing company destroyed it.
So I lost my crime scene
from a cold case detective point of view.
So a lot of problems with the case.
- [Narrator] Detective DuGal also discovers
that days after Stacy Littleton is released from custody,
his girlfriend's mother goes down to evidence and requests
the items taken from his place in the search warrant.
DuGal is surprised to learn
that the evidence is released to Echo's mom,
but the destroyed car and missing clothes
aren't the only gaps in the case.
- I did notice a few issues.
When we process a suspect, we take many,
many photographs of the suspect from every angle,
and we definitely focus on hands
and body for injuries and stuff,
and we have the suspect hold their hands out
and flip them over and have their fingers displayed
so that we can see everything, so we can see injuries.
I noticed in the photographs of Stacy Littleton
that he had his hands together pinched
and actually overlapped.
That concerned me because he could be hiding an injury.
- [Narrator] With a lot of the evidence
in this case either released or destroyed,
it leaves DuGal with very little to go on 31 years later,
but he isn't deterred.
He has a hunch that the black motorcycle glove
may be a crucial piece of overlooked evidence.
- And I didn't know whose glove it was,
I didn't know why it was there,
but I had anticipated
that Stacy likely wore it to hide his fingerprints.
So that was a critical piece of evidence.
I knew then that I now had a potential piece of evidence
that could get us over the reasonable doubt.
- The glove is sent away to be tested for DNA,
a test that didn't exist back in 1986,
one which will hopefully blow the case wide open.
- [Narrator] Detective DuGal knows
he can't put all his hope in the glove
as it may not return any results.
He turns his attention to the witness interviews
and notices that they're surprisingly brief.
Most of them lasting only about 20 minutes.
- The interviews were, in my opinion, good interviews,
but very short.
They didn't go into detail.
So if there was something that was open-ended,
if I'm doing an interview and somebody gives me an
open-ended statement saying "I went to 7-Eleven,
two hours later I was back at the hotel".
Well what you should do is go back
and say "tell me about those two hours".
- [Narrator] He decides to track down everyone
who gave statements in 1986
and re-interview them, this time more thoroughly.
Detective DuGal now faces the daunting task
of trying to track down everybody
who was there the night of Cyrus's murder over 30 years ago.
(dramatic music)
On October 11th, 1986,
the body of Cyrus Jefferson is discovered in Lemon Grove,
a small city in San Diego County.
All signs point to Stacy Littleton as the killer.
But with limited evidence and no eyewitnesses,
detectives have to let him go free.
Now, over three decades later,
detective DuGal is working the case for any clues
or statements that might have been overlooked.
But tracking down those involved
is proving to be harder than expected.
Detective DuGal's search for Henry, Michael, Echo,
and especially Lori is exhaustive.
- There's Lorraine, Lori. That was 2017.
She was homeless. I had to go find her in a tent.
None of this was easy.
- [Narrator] But eventually,
he's able to track them all down
and conduct new interviews with them.
- As I filled those gaps, the case got a little stronger,
not great,
just based on statements alone
would not have gotten us over probable cause.
But it definitely strengthened the circumstantial evidence
of the statements and the people remembered
because back then they were all young,
they were all together,
they realized there was a murder being investigated,
they were all scared and they were protective of each other.
Especially Henry, when he was interviewed back then,
told an absolute lie because
he was trying to protect Michael,
not knowing what Michael would say.
He didn't want Michael exposed at all.
Now 30 years later,
he hasn't even seen Michael in 30 years and now he's free.
His conscience is clear.
He's gonna tell me exactly what he remembers,
and he's no longer protecting friends.
And that helps. That helps in the 30 year old interview.
- [Narrator] Lori is likewise more cooperative
and less concerned about protecting her friends
now that three decades have passed.
- My interviews in 2017 were closer
to an hour for each person.
I had the advantage of hearing the old interview,
knowing the story,
being able to ask questions that would fill the gaps,
but also their memory, their recollection,
and their lack of desire to protect their friends
brought a bolder statement.
For instance, in 1986,
I think Lori said when Stacy came out of the hospital,
he said "maybe somebody got killed in here".
2017, she says somebody got killed.
Stacy told her somebody got killed.
Well, there was nobody else involved.
So now going back to what I need for court,
the statements got better.
That alone isn't the new thing that can make a cold case
better unless they admit to a confession
or hearing a confession.
- [Narrator] The statements provide a clearer picture
of what happened the day of Cyrus's murder
October 11th, 1986.
All signs point to Stacy Littleton as the killer,
but this is still insufficient for the DA to reopen the case
and try Stacy Littleton.
A piece of evidence, a confession,
or a witness is still needed.
Then in April 2017,
detective DuGal gets a phone call
that will change everything.
- And then the crime lab DNA gal calls me and she says
"Troy, you won't believe it, 30 years later,
I've got the DNA and the glove, and it's Cyrus and Stacy."
And now I've got this glove by the victim
with the suspect's DNA in it.
And that's awesome.
So there's my piece of evidence
that was just the golden nugget.
It didn't absolutely prove or disprove anything,
but it put Stacy in that glove,
and the glove was at the crime scene
where the body was dumped.
And there's a lot of explanation there.
How does that happen?
- [Narrator] Detective DuGal now believes
he has enough evidence to convince the DA
to go after Stacy Littleton.
- And I would constantly say
"this is what I got, here's the new stuff".
And he'd say "that ain't enough".
Here's the new stuff I had, ain't enough,
because he's working through his mind
that reasonable doubt that a jury has to get over.
And when I called him and said
I got that glove at the crime scene, Stacy's DNA,
he said "that's enough for an arrest warrant, let's go".
- [Narrator] Detective DuGal doesn't have to look far
to track down Stacy Littleton.
He's already serving time at San Diego County Central Jail
for drug and drug paraphernalia possession.
- Stacy waives his Miranda Rights
and decides to give Detective DuGal a statement.
- I go down to the jail
and I interview him and he gives me
a statement that differed from his 1986 statement.
His 1986 statement was ludicrous, to be honest with you.
When he was arrested, he talked in 1986,
but he said in those hours he was gone,
they drove up to LA and met some gang member
who was selling drugs and that gang member gave him money.
But in 1986, one of the statements that Stacy says that
nobody else talks about is he says that Cyrus
had received a paycheck, whether that was mailed to him,
I don't know how he had this paycheck,
but Stacy said that Cyrus had a paycheck that was $125.
Stacy was going with Cyrus to cash that paycheck.
That brought money into the issue.
I believe the motivation for the murder unfortunately
was that cash and potentially the car.
And I think Stacy, once he got the car,
realized it is the scene of the crime.
So he wanted to get rid of the car and gave it to Lori.
- [Narrator] Detective DuGal notices a scar
on Littleton's hand and questions him about it.
- And when I ask him about the injury on his finger,
he shows me and he's got a scar on his pinky
that he was definitely hiding back then.
I asked him how he got that scar and he says
"I got the scar in a fight, I also broke my finger".
And I said "you got the cut and a broken finger in a fight.
Was that during the murder of Cyrus?"
And he goes "I don't know".
It wasn't "no",
it wasn't "I'll tell you about the fight that caused this".
It was "I don't know".
Does that make him guilty? No.
But all these things start piling up.
- [Narrator] Finally, detective DuGal moves onto the glove
containing Littleton's DNA.
- [Troy] It was golden because
he denies ever wearing a glove.
He never saw a glove.
Just a lot of "no", "wasn't me",
"I didn't do it", that kind of thing.
- Detective DuGal has now caught Stacy in a lie.
The DNA evidence proves that he did wear the glove,
the likely explanation being to cover up any fingerprints.
- [Narrator] Given Littleton's contradictory interview,
in combination with the new physical evidence against him,
detective DuGal is confident
that Stacy Littleton killed Cyrus Jefferson.
Detective DuGal calls Cyrus's sister Sidra,
finally with some good news.
- I called her and told her he was arrested
and then I asked her if I could go come visit her
and talk to her.
And she was thrilled.
People sometimes go
"well why is a detective flying to the victim's house?"
She was in Houston, Texas.
"Why are you going to the victim's family's house?"
Well she's got information for me still.
I have questions for her. I want more background on Cyrus.
I wanna know if anybody in the family
ever heard of Stacy Littleton.
A lot of questions and I wanna do that in person.
And there's a huge satisfaction
in sitting with the victim's family and saying
I did this, I worked hard,
and we've come to a conclusion
and all of us should be very happy.
She was thrilled.
- [Narrator] With the collection of new statements,
including Stacy's contradictory account,
as well as new physical evidence in the case,
the DA takes it to trial.
- On July 3rd, 2018,
after a two week trial and 11 hours of deliberation
over three days,
a jury convicts Stacy Littleton
of killing Cyrus Jefferson with a knife.
Stacy Littleton is sentenced on August 6th, 2018,
and receives a sentence of 25 years
to be served on top of the sentence
he's currently serving for drug possession.
- I think he spent two years, three years,
and he died in custody.
This case had the potential to be solved
obviously because I was able to solve it.
That doesn't mean that
other investigators couldn't solve this, they could.
The reason it was solved was timing,
Sidra's determination to call the homicide unit,
my availability to dive into the case,
because right after this case,
genetic genealogy became a very big issue
in the Sheriff's Department
and we changed our focus to the cold cases
which had genetic genealogy potential.
This one didn't.
So this one would've been not pushed aside,
but lowered on a priority
because it wasn't a genetic genealogy case.
So Sidra's right, God reached down and said
"let's solve this one".
- [Narrator] Due to the tireless work
of Detective DuGal and the DNA evidence found in the glove
that investigators preserved for over three decades,
Cyrus Jefferson's family finally has justice.
- I want the families of victims who have cold cases
to understand that there is a potential
for solving the case in the future.
I've solved many, and after that, I've solved five more.
So that's very rewarding for all those people
who had gotten no closure for many years,
and now the case comes to fruition and they find somebody,
or we know who the suspect is.
Sometimes in cold case, your suspect is deceased.
That happens.
It's happened to a couple of those five I solved.
And sometimes they're still alive and doing well,
and you would never guess that they committed
a murder 20 or 30 years ago.
(dramatic music)
(dramatic music continues)