NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system
the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups,
the police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
SCOTT: You've got two kids, ten years of marriage.
You run off with this yoga instructor you barely know...
She not just a yoga instructor, Scott. She owns the studio.
Oh, well, that changes everything.
Look, enough with the lectures. I don't need it.
Especially from my kid brother.
You are gonna break Paula's heart,
and in five years you're gonna end up with exactly what you already have.
And that is if you're lucky... Scott, shut up.
Hey, you wanted my advice, I'm giving it.
No, no, no, look. Over there.
Oh, God.
OFFICER: Female victim, late twenties. If she had ID, it's gone.
Body was found by those two over there.
They're brothers. One of them has got wife trouble.
That's original. Yeah.
She could've been killed somewhere else, dumped here. Thanks.
Hey, why don't you get a canvas started? Maybe somebody saw something.
Washerwoman hands. Come again?
It's a condition due to prolonged immersion in the water.
Means she was in the soup for several days at least.
Well, the bridge is over there, the Throgs Neck. Maybe she was a jumper
and she got brought in by the tide.
Found something else.
Gunshot wound.
You need to order an autopsy to confirm whether or not it was self-inflicted.
Well, you think she shot herself before or after she jumped?
I heard about a guy once, jumped off a building,
got hit by a stray gunshot on his way down.
Coroner didn't know whether to rule it a suicide or homicide.
What about Our Lady of City Island?
Oh, homicide.
The absence of tattooing, smudging, or burn indicates
the shot was fired from several feet away.
Cause of death, a single 9mm gunshot wound to the right temporal lobe.
She looks like an angel.
A fallen angel, maybe. Blood alcohol level was.20.
I also found traces of marijuana, ecstasy, and dimenhydrinate.
Dramamine.
Well, at least she didn't get seasick.
I think I might be able to help you with an ID.
I found this ring on her toe.
There's an inscription on the inside.
It's Greek to me.
Psi Kappa Gamma. She's a sorority girl.
Don't look at me.
I didn't even learn how to apply lipstick until I was 25.
Well, it looks like you got the hang of it now.
Thank you, Detective.
Oh, my God. That's Julie.
ED: Julie... Julie Eastman.
What happened? What happened to her?
That what we're trying to find out.
How well did you know Miss Eastman?
She graduated in '97.
I was a year behind her.
What can you tell us about her?
Julie was serene. She never looked off balance. Knew just what to say,
just how to dress.
She was a little intimidating actually.
Julie was from Nebraska.
She grew up on a small dairy farm.
Do you know if she had any family we could notify?
We have all her contact information on file.
We wanted to keep Julie closer to home,
but how can you argue with a four-year scholarship?
When that acceptance letter came in the mail,
Julie couldn't pack her bags fast enough.
They say sons leave, but daughters are yours forever.
I kept waiting for her to come back home.
She never did.
Julie had Dramamine in her system.
Did she mention anything about going on vacation or on a boat trip?
Julie kept us out of her private life.
She never introduced us to any of her friends, boyfriends.
MRS. EASTMAN: She was embarrassed, Don.
She didn't think we were sophisticated enough.
What did Julie do after she graduated college?
A little of this, a little of that, and she landed
a job with Nelson Woburn.
BRISCOE: The real estate firm?
Apparently, was doing quite well. Thought she had a real future there.
I'm not sure I buy that "girls stay home" theory.
My two couldn't wait for the ink to dry on their high school diplomas
before they moved out.
And what happened after they were gone?
Oh, we'd hear from them when they needed cash.
Funny thing is, no matter how much they suck out of you,
you're always ready to give them more.
Then in the end, you wind up in the dark, like the Eastmans.
Well, maybe somebody down at Nelson Woburn can shed some light.
Eve Harrington, I used to call her.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The poor girl's dead.
No love lost, huh?
Well, she'd walk into your office with this innocent, corn-fed smile,
and leave with six of your clients.
That must've made her pretty popular.
Hey, that's the business, right?
What about her personal life?
(SCOFFS) TMI, frankly.
"Too much information."
She was right in the next cubicle.
The phone was practically glued to her neck.
Was she seeing anybody?
Adam something.
He's a big-time sports agent at Haas Sports Management.
This is him?
Yeah, shaved head.
White dudes shouldn't shave their heads.
BONNIE: What's he gonna do? He's going bald.
How serious were they?
Hot and heavy at first, but I got the feeling she was getting ready to break it off.
She said she was gonna drop the bomb over the weekend.
This past weekend?
Apparently, he was a little quick on the trigger in bed, if you catch my drift.
HAAS: Adam Makris.
He was due back from a trip a few days ago.
I tried him on his cell phone a few times, but he must not be getting a signal.
BRISCOE: This trip wouldn't happen to be on a boat, would it?
Darryl Ridgeway, one of our clients, threw a birthday party in Southampton.
Darryl Ridgeway, the quarterback?
Adam and Julie sailed out with him to the Hamptons last weekend.
Kind of chilly for a boat trip, isn't it?
It's a 60-foot Uniesse yacht. It's nicer than my apartment.
Besides, Darryl always marched to his own beat.
Yeah, like walking away from a $23 million contract.
He said his head just wasn't into football.
Wanted to follow a spiritual path.
BRISCOE: Whatever that means.
Well, like I said, he's unconventional.
Like, how many football players do you know
who speak four languages, read philosophy, and run with the bulls at Pamplona?
Guy sounds brilliant, except for the part about the bulls.
Think we could meet him?
He got a place in the city. My secretary has the address.
And I'll have Adam call you when he gets back.
I won't hold my breath.
Darryl Ridgeway had a Glock 9mm registered to his name.
The same caliber that killed Julie Eastman.
Have you located him yet?
I think we're gonna need an APB to do that.
Or scuba gear. We talked to Ridgeway's doorman.
He hasn't seen him for a week.
So, the only thing we know for sure is Adam Makris
and Darryl Ridgeway were on the boat with our victim.
And that they were supposed to sail back from Southampton four days ago.
What are we doing to find the boat?
Coast Guard's working on that.
Well, while you're waiting for your ship to come in,
go talk to Ridgeway's family before the press does.
Are you sure this girl was on Darryl's boat? I've never heard of a Julie Eastman.
Me neither.
What about you, Shawn?
I can't keep track of all the women in Darryl's life.
You're not suggesting he had anything to do with this girl's death?
ED: No, we just need to ask him a few questions.
Darryl would never hurt anyone.
We're not saying he did.
HOWARD: Probably on his way to Aruba.
Since he quit playing, he doesn't have a job or any responsibilities to bind him.
Howard, the police wouldn't be here if there wasn't something wrong.
You're just covering all the bases, right, Detective?
Right.
BRISCOE: When was the last time you heard from him?
We called him on his birthday.
He sounded fine.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
The girl that was murdered,
ecstasy was found in her system.
Do you know if your son took any drugs?
ANSWERING PHONE: Briscoe.
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Not Darryl.
I didn't even take aspirin that night.
You were at Darryl's party?
Yeah.
Well, did you notice any trouble? Anything unusual?
I didn't stay long. Wasn't exactly my crowd.
BRISCOE: Okay, thanks.
Hey, Ed...
That was the Coast Guard. They found the boat.
Fisherman called in off our Marine Assistance Broadcast.
She was anchored in a cove near Port Washington.
Looks like she'd been there a couple of days.
We found the dinghy hauled up on shore.
Killer probably used it to get away.
There a Long Island railroad station in Port Washington.
And from there, it's a straight shot to Penn Station
and the rest of the country.
Detectives.
Beck, how the hell did you get here?
Patrol car.
I found a few bullet holes here.
That looks like blood.
Yeah, from the spatter you can tell that one of the victims was prone when shot.
One of the victims?
Preliminary testing indicates two different blood types.
Two?
At least two. Come here.
Look. It's a forensic smorgasbord.
BRISCOE: And somebody spilled the gravy.
The lab confirmed three different DNA samples from the boat,
one of them matching Julie Eastman.
Have you tried matching the other two blood samples against Makris and Ridgeway?
CSU took hair fibers from their apartments this morning.
We're waiting for the results.
Latent also lifted a dozen or so prints from the boat. They're running them now.
See if something hits.
What about the people that were at Ridgeway's party?
Any of them have access to the boat?
Well, we're working on it. There over 50 names on that list.
Then why are you standing around, talking to me?
"I dwell in possibility."
That's Darryl in a nutshell.
And Emily Dickinson, right?
Yeah, he got interested in her poetry
after Sports Illustrated described his past completions
as tiny ecstasies set in motion.
He came here looking for a Roberts Brothers first edition
with original gilt and silver white cloth boards.
It's the feel of the cloth spine,
the look of the marbled end papers.
Darryl doesn't experience anything halfway.
Sounds like your experience with him isn't limited to books.
(LAUGHS) Darryl and I don't play for the same team.
And I'm not talking about football. We're just friends.
Okay. So, uh, what can you tell us about the party?
It was a weekend of free flowing ideas between diverse and curious minds.
Sounds like my last birthday party.
So the ideas flow more freely with a little bit of ecstasy?
Well, X expands thinking and promotes feelings of closeness with others.
Is this before or after your spinal fluid dries up?
So, you're saying that this party was just one big love-in?
For most of the people there.
But not everybody.
Darryl's girlfriend was a real downer.
I mean, it was his 30th birthday and she was on his case all night.
BRISCOE: About what? I don't know.
I was trying to stay away from the negative energy.
That bitch!
She says she's gay, but that doesn't stop her from
flirting with my boyfriend all night long.
Well, was Darryl flirting back?
With her and every other woman at the party.
Must've made you mad.
I spent two months planning this party for him.
When was the last time you saw Darryl, Amanda?
Sunday night. Why?
That was the last time anybody else saw him.
What about Shawn? His brother?
I saw Darryl and Shawn on the boat together.
After the party they were gonna sail back to Manhattan together.
ED: Was there anybody else on board?
Just Adam and his, uh, girlfriend, what's her name.
Julie.
(CELL PHONE RINGING)
So, you stayed behind because you were still angry about the flirting?
I'd had enough. Hello?
Were Shawn and his brother getting along all right at the party?
Shawn was high. And he kept trying to pick a fight with Darryl,
and Darryl just brushed it off.
Okay. Okay, thanks. He had a really hard time putting his foot down
where his brother was concerned.
Well, if you think of anything else.
That was the lab. The blood samples from the boat matched both
the DNA of Makris and Ridgeway.
Hardly earth-shattering news.
They also got a hit on a print.
Shawn Ridgeway.
He had a handful of priors, and one of them was for assault.
So, what do we tell the Ridgeways first?
That one son's probably dead, or the other one's probably a murderer?
Are you sure?
ED: We found Darryl's boat. There was blood on it that matches his DNA.
But you haven't found him. I mean, you haven't found his...
No, not a body.
We need to ask your son Shawn a few questions.
Shawn? Why?
His criminal record contained his fingerprints,
and we found matching prints on Darryl's boat.
Well, he's been on Darryl's boat lots of times.
I know, ma'am, but he lied to us about being on it this time.
Don't go making excuses for him, Miriam.
He's our son. Darryl's our son.
So help me, if Shawn... Howard.
Mr. Ridgeway, if you know anything.
Please, Howard, don't. Don't. Please.
We got this, this morning.
ON ANSWERING MACHINE: Mom, it's Shawn.
Um, listen.
You're gonna hear some things, some
horrible things, and I want you to know I didn't do it.
I didn't do any of it.
I don't know if you'll see me again.
Take care of yourself.
I love you.
Bye.
Let him rot.
Where does he live?
Who knows?
Please,
find him.
No. Ridgeway.
If I had an address, I wouldn't be talking to you.
I've been looking at your boy's sheet.
Assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession.
Yeah, couple grams of heroin.
Yep, but look who he got collared up with.
Oh, his dealer.
Find the dealer, find the junkie.
Was it something we said?
Your P.O. Sends his regards, Tyrone.
Hey, just talking up the Kournikova Variation, officers.
You see, if they're pushing the "C" pawn,
Jimmy's gotta hit him on the King side, that's all.
Yeah, that great. You take in any chess tournaments with this guy recently?
Never seen him before.
Try again. You got collared with him. He's one of your regulars.
Regular what?
Come here. Hey!
Hey, come on, man. You can't do that!
Look, man, I watch Court TV, all right? You ever heard of probable cause?
Court TV ever teach you about a Terry Stop, Tyrone?
Which means I can pat you down for a weapon
without PC if I feel my safety is being threatened.
You feel threatened, Lennie?
I'm shaking in my shoes, Ed.
Yeah,
it's not a weapon, but it will put you away for a couple of years.
Well, that is, uh, unless it doesn't belong to him.
Maybe he was just holding it for a friend?
Yeah, yeah. Look, I don't know what's in the packet.
Dude just asked me to hold on to it for him, all right?
Well, we could return it to him.
Look, man, he's shacked up in some dump with this girl on 21st and Lex, all right?
ED: Yeah? What's the girl's name?
Sharon something.
(SIGHS)
She's got a mouth on her, let me tell you.
The joint's ten degrees quieter with her gone.
Where did she go?
She pays a month in advance. I don't ask.
I haven't seen her in a couple of days.
If she's got anything illegal, I don't know about it.
His breathing's shallow.
Looks like Shawn threw himself a little going away party.
Yeah, we've got a possible overdose at the Battery Hotel.
And hurry!
"Docket number 578302,
"People v. Shawn Daniel Ridgeway.
"Three counts of Murder in the First Degree."
One pitch, three strikes.
Oh, forgive me, Mr. Wolchesky.
That was your last client. Third and long is more appropriate for this one.
Nah, that's his brother, Your Honor.
My client is...
About to plead. Isn't that right, Mr. Ridgeway?
Not guilty.
Across the board, Judge.
JUDGE: Talk to me, Ms. Southerlyn.
The defendant has been charged with the brutal death of three people,
one of whom was his brother.
The People request remand.
My client belongs in a hospital, not a prison.
For a drug overdose.
If Counsel needs a refresher course, heroin use is still illegal in this state.
The law can't allow one illegal act to mitigate the punishment for another.
You have to admit, Mr. Wolchesky, she's quick.
Defendant is remanded without bail.
(BANGS GAVEL)
Next.
I don't want to burn a hole in your client's pocket,
so what do you say to three counts of man one,
he serves the max, sentences to run concurrently.
What happened to the plea bargain discount?
I didn't kill my brother.
Look at it from my point of view, Mr. Ridgeway.
Four people got onto your brother's boat.
Three of them died.
You only have one body.
SERENA: And the blood samples of the other two.
Be that as it may, four people got on the boat, one got off.
The math's not that difficult.
I don't like boats.
They dropped me off in Greenport.
Darryl and everybody were fine.
Yeah, there is that pirate problem.
Don't laugh. That yacht guy, what's his name?
Pirates punched his ticket.
In South America. This boat was in the Long Island Sound.
You don't have a weapon. You don't have a witness.
Top that off with Darryl being Shawn's golden goose,
and you don't have much of a case.
I'll make it easy on you, Jack. Say, a couple of counts of assault,
Shawn does the next six months in rehab,
you don't lose face, everybody's happy.
I apologize in advance, Matt.
WOLCHESKY: For what?
All those courthouse steps you'll have to climb.
My nephew Andy played with Darryl Ridgeway
the year the Gators went 12 and one.
That son of a gun could throw.
Second pick in the draft. $20 million contract.
Makes you wonder.
Maybe he quit because he's tired of having his brain bashed in on a daily basis.
Actually, I was wondering what it would have taken for the Giants to sign him.
We can't explain why Shawn Ridgeway killed his kid brother.
My guess is Wolchesky will have the jury wondering the same thing.
I heard Shawn claim he didn't kill his brother. I never heard him say he loved him.
That the second oldest story in the Bible.
You might want to find someone who'll actually testify to that.
The first thing he does, is buy his mama a house.
The second is put dad on the payroll.
I was wondering more about his brother.
Shawn, right.
There's a real piece of work.
Darryl comes in one day, asks me if I can hire him. You know, mail room,
messenger, anything.
You did?
10% of 20 million, I'd hire his dog if he asked me.
I can assume that it didn't work out?
Well, we called Shawn a scout.
We sent him around to colleges, you know, give us a preview of the guys coming up.
Not to tell you your business, but Shawn Ridgeway is a heroin user.
Well, Darryl tells us he was also a hell of a two guard,
back in the day.
I figure, you grow up around Darryl, you got to be able to recognize talent.
Well, it sounds like some things don't run in the family.
First trip up to BC, they had a power forward there who was making all the local papers.
Shawn winds up with the kid, passed out in the basement of some frat.
So much for his scouting days.
Yeah, you fired him?
Adam did, actually, with Darryl's blessing.
And I felt for Darryl, too. I mean, how many mouths is one guy supposed to feed?
So Darryl supported Shawn?
Yeah, enough to keep his head in the clouds.
You're gonna put that piece of trash away forever, right?
Two kids come out of the same woman.
What are you gonna do?
I know how hard this must be, Mr. Ridgeway.
Just tell me what you want. I'll tell you anything.
Hey, I know when to cut my losses.
You have kids? I'm not married.
Don't listen to the gossip, Ms. Southerlyn.
Anyone tells you kids are a gift from God is dead wrong half the time.
For every success there's
one that surely disappoints.
From what I gathered, Darryl didn't feel that way about Shawn.
Let me tell you about Shawn.
He's like a three-legged dog that shows up at your back door.
He guilted Darryl into giving him money.
Did Darryl ever complain about it?
To me?
He wouldn't dare mention it.
I warned Darryl not to give that bum dime one.
It sounds to me like you think Shawn's guilty.
Don't you?
Shawn's sport was basketball.
His coach told me he'd never seen a kid shoot the three like Shawn.
And in high school, all the colleges were after him.
What happened?
Well, one day he just quit.
He just gave up.
Broke his father's heart.
It appears Mr. Ridgeway hasn't gotten over it.
Maybe Howard's too demanding, but it doesn't mean he doesn't love Shawn.
In his heart, he knows Shawn had nothing to do with Darryl's...
Mr. Ridgeway told me that Darryl was going to stop supporting Shawn.
Even if they did talk about it, I'm sure Howard took it the wrong way.
How's that?
Darryl was going to stop giving Shawn money.
Not to hurt him, to help him.
To keep him off drugs. It was out of love.
Shawn knew that.
He certainly wouldn't kill him over it.
Of course not.
This thing that looks like a bar code, that's a base pair sequence,
the identifying part of a DNA molecule,
taken from a sample of blood found on the deck of The Aurora.
Now, compare that
to this sample obtained from Darryl Ridgeway's last physical.
You'll see they match.
Meaning that the blood aboard the boat is that of Darryl Ridgeway.
Just as this sample matches a sample taken from Julie Eastman's blood,
and this sample matches a sample
taken from hair found in Adam Makris' electric razor.
And what would you conclude from all this, Dr. Beck?
That the blood on the deck came from Darryl Ridgeway, Julie Eastman and Adam Makris.
You did a fingerprint analysis of latents found on
Mr. Ridgeway's boat, didn't you, Dr. Beck? Yeah, of course.
How many sets did you find?
Twelve, including those of the defendant.
Assuming
there were in fact three victims here,
and that's a very large assumption
considering we only have one body,
that would leave eight other possible suspects aside from my client, isn't that right?
Witnesses only saw four people get on the boat.
When they left the Hamptons.
Certainly it's possible that they might have stopped along the way
to pick up other passengers, don't you think?
I guess.
I'd been seeing Darryl for almost a year.
Would you say you got to know his brother Shawn during that time?
Couldn't avoid it.
If he wasn't showing up uninvited, he was calling Darryl's cell.
Give me, give me, give me.
You're talking about money?
That's right.
And Darryl was a complete pushover.
I couldn't really understand it myself because Shawn was only going to buy drugs.
This didn't bother Darryl?
Of course it did.
But what really bothered Darryl
is that Shawn didn't even try.
I can't tell you how many jobs Darryl tried to get him.
Shawn's just one of those guys that wouldn't help himself.
What happened at the party?
Shawn showed up like always, with his hand out.
And for once, I was really proud of Darryl,
because for once, he said no.
What was Shawn's reaction?
He was angry.
In fact, Darryl had to drag him to the den, where they could talk it out in private.
Thank you.
JUDGE: You can continue your cross tomorrow, Mr. Wolchesky.
How about we talk?
I've got to admit, I'm not surprised, Mr. Ridgeway.
I saw what was going on in there.
So did I,
which makes me question the logic of my accepting a deal.
Nothing's a sure bet, Jack. You know that.
All it takes is one juror who put a week's pay on the Jets last year
and thinks Darryl Ridgeway deserves to go the way of all flesh.
Murder two.
One count.
He does the max.
If you'd rather finish the trial.
Fine.
We left the party in the Hamptons around 4:00 in the morning
and took Darryl's boat out.
Who was on the boat, Mr. Ridgeway?
Me, Darryl, his agent, Adam Makris,
and Adam's girlfriend.
Her name was Julie Eastman, Your Honor.
JUDGE: Go on.
About an hour after we left the marina,
Darryl and I started fighting.
Things got out of hand.
I shot him with the gun that he kept on board.
Then I panicked, shot the others.
Threw the bodies overboard, along with the gun.
I took the dinghy to shore.
JUDGE: What were you arguing about?
Money.
Darryl said he wasn't going to give me any more.
Do you understand
that by accepting this plea, you waive your right to a trial?
I do.
Ms. Southerlyn?
The state has agreed to one count of murder in the second degree,
with the maximum sentence.
Is that how you understand it, Mr. Ridgeway?
Yes.
If there's nothing else, the plea is accepted by this court.
(BANGS GAVEL)
So, funny thing happened on the way to spend the money
that the Ridgeways paid me to defend Shawn.
The check bounced.
That's why I represent the good guys.
Let me finish, Jack.
$4 million was transferred out one week after the murders.
That's a civil matter.
Sue the Ridgeways.
I would. They appeared to be as shocked as I was.
Who else has access to the account?
Darryl Ridgeway.
It's his account, actually.
He may not be dead, Jack.
Mr. Ridgeway testified in open court that he murdered three people.
But in private he's always insisted
he wasn't even on the boat when the murders occurred.
And you believe him?
Well, to be honest, I didn't,
until his parents went to Darryl's cupboard and found it recently left bare.
Where was the money transferred to?
The transfer of funds were done electronically, by computer.
I assume the bank is working on tracing it.
It could've been bank error. It could've been a hacker.
It could've been reasonable doubt.
Justice demands a jury decide...
You had a jury.
Your client came to me and begged me to send them home.
We were all there. We all saw what was going down.
Shawn Ridgeway didn't have a shot in hell of walking out of that courtroom.
I'm certainly flattered you've come to me with your troubles, Mr. Wolchesky,
but I don't see why.
Appeal the verdict.
Your Honor, an appeal would take years.
My client could be sitting in a cell for something he didn't do.
All I'm asking is you set aside the plea bargain,
and let Shawn Ridgeway have his constitutionally guaranteed day in court.
First of all, he had it and decided, upon advice of counsel, to waive it.
Second, a long line of cases
holds that the discovery of potentially exculpatory evidence is not sufficient
in and of itself to vacate an uncoerced plea.
It was coerced. Scream "boo" loud enough, and my client will pass out cold.
I feel for him.
Would you be any more convinced
if he were particularly susceptible to duress?
That's ridiculous. Humor me.
Have your shrink talk to him.
That sounds like a plan.
You can't be serious.
He's not asking to go free. Just a new trial.
I can't see how a session with your expert will hurt.
I know how the system works. The great
Darryl Ridgeway was murdered, and the papers are already sticking a needle in my arm.
I'm looking at a conviction whether I did it or not.
But agreeing to toss your life away?
Where have you been? That happened years ago.
I'm just a piece of garbage trying to get off the heap.
Garbage?
Just ask Dad.
What about your mother?
I caused her enough pain already.
Is that why you accepted the deal?
Can't you understand?
She's already been humiliated enough.
Tell me about growing up.
What about it?
Why not start with your relationship with Darryl?
He was my kid brother.
We got along fine.
I know people think that I was jealous,
that I was a leech.
They didn't know anything.
It would be perfectly normal to be jealous.
His first game as a pro,
I couldn't believe it.
I was going crazy.
I felt like it was
me out there, and I felt like...
I felt like 50,000 people were screaming for me.
Did you wish it were you?
It wasn't me.
It could never be me.
I could play, you know. I could.
Colleges wanted me.
No, no one went to the hoop like me. That's what everyone said.
So what happened?
In high school, I averaged 22 a game.
Junior year, we played Old Bridge,
and I scored seven.
Dad walked out in the first half.
Disgusted.
When I got home...
What happened when you got home?
One time Darryl wet his bed.
Dad sat him on the radiator.
He was six years old.
His screams woke me up.
I got out of bed,
took my baseball bat,
and smashed the TV.
It exploded.
He ran off to Mom,
while Dad beat the hell out of me.
Tell me why you quit playing basketball, Shawn.
If I didn't play, I couldn't score only seven.
I don't know what we're doing here, man. I'm a loser.
And there's nothing that you,
or anyone else can do about that, so...
The theory is that children in abusive or dysfunctional environments
assume rigid behavioral roles that enable them to
seem as healthy as everyone else.
Darryl was the family hero, while Shawn became the scapegoat l martyr.
The family pinned all their troubles on him, and he was willing to take the blame.
That was when he was eight years old.
You don't outgrow it, Jack.
His father put tremendous pressure on him to succeed in athletics.
An average performance was considered a failure.
How does all this have anything to do with his accepting a plea?
DR. SKODA: If you don't compete at all, you hasten the failure.
Shawn saw the trial ending disastrously, so he decided to
hang up the spikes, so to speak.
Which was a perfectly reasonable reaction.
The plea allowed him to assume and reinforce,
his role in the family system.
He admitted guilt to please his family?
Defined roles form a comfort zone for everyone involved.
What's not typical is to take that role with you when you leave.
He can't escape his role.
The family is comfortable seeing him as a failure, so he fails,
whether he deserves to or not.
I'm sorry, Jack, but
this particular family dynamic leads me to conclude that
Shawn Ridgeway is overly susceptible to duress.
I'd better see how the bank's doing tracing the missing money.
You're right. Four million was transferred to the Cayman Islands Bank and Trust.
Can you get the name of the account holder?
Unfortunately, the island folk take bank privacy laws very seriously.
So anyone that had Darryl Ridgeway's access code and PIN
could have directed the transfer?
It the downside of living in an online universe.
But our techs can often back trace the computer's origin.
It takes time, but... How close are they?
I'll get them on it right away.
This is the first I even heard the money was missing.
Are you saying $4 million is missing and they haven't called to complain?
It's a trace route program.
Same kind of software they use to nail Internet hackers.
So no matter where you are, this program can find you?
It can find your computer.
Scary, huh?
Depends who's looking for you, I guess.
So, you're thinking this Darryl Ridgeway guy is still breathing?
It's starting to look like that.
I figure his mom didn't report the money transfer to the bank
in order to give Darryl a head start getting to wherever he's going.
Here we go.
IP address 392.163.
That's a U.S. Location.
SERENA: So, he hasn't left the country yet?
Took about ten hops to complete the transfer.
Come to mama.
.1.104.
Short Hills, New Jersey.
Darryl Ridgeway's parents live in Short Hills, New Jersey.
So what you're saying is that the money transfer was all a hoax
to make us think that Darryl was alive?
Which, in effect, saves Shawn.
I called the bank.
Miriam and Howard Ridgeway are listed as joint tenants on all of his accounts.
I could charge them with obstruction, wire fraud, not to mention
as accomplices after the fact, and probably a dozen other felonies
if I put on my thinking cap.
The Nature Channel.
A baby bird falls from the nest
and Mom swoops down to catch it before it hits the ground.
Not a perfect analogy, Arthur.
Well, the jury is not going to split hairs.
A mother desperate to save her only living son?
This woman tried to cover for someone who killed three people.
By taking money out of her own account?
How did Judge Einhorn feel about Wolchesky's motion to set aside the plea?
She read Skoda's report and granted it on the spot.
I'm sure Wolchesky would agree in a heartbeat to reinstate the prior plea agreement.
I'm sure he would, too. Only that deal's no longer on the table.
I seem to recall a parable.
A feathered friend in the hand versus two in the pear tree?
I don't want to go to trial any more than Wolchesky,
but I intend to raise the stakes on not doing it.
That family systems thing that Skoda described, he said
Shawn had two roles, as loser and martyr.
I'll set up the meeting.
Three counts of murder two?
(SCOFFS) Whatever happened to justice tempered with mercy?
You can either accept my offer,
or watch your mother go to jail,
as an accomplice to three counts of murder,
among assorted other things.
We know that you transferred money out of Darryl's bank account
to make it look like he was still alive, Mrs. Ridgeway.
You did what?
Look, I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but...
Mrs. Ridgeway?
You tried to save him?
He killed Darryl.
Go ahead, tell him, Ma.
Tell him. Tell him you have two sons. Tell him you love us both the same.
Some things never change. WOLCHESKY: All right, all right.
Can we all take a deep breath here, please. Jack,
you're not really serious about this, are you?
Dead.
So, what's it gonna be?
You're a damn loser, is what you are.
Your brother wasn't enough for you.
I won't let you take your mother down, too.
Not a chance.
He's going to do whatever you want him to.
Howard, hold on.
Jack? Is there a little wiggle room here?
No!
For once in his useless life, he's going to do the right thing.
That's right. I will. I will.
You can shove the deal, Mr. McCoy. I'm going to trial.
And you'll rot in hell.
SHAWN: Yeah, there's a good chance of that.
Who knows? Maybe I deserve to die in jail, but I'll tell you what.
If I do,
it sure as hell won't be for killing anybody.
Do you know why Darryl quit playing ball?
Because he's just as screwed up as I am.
I mean, look what you created here, Dad.
Two screw-ups and a...
I love you, Ma.
I appreciate what you tried to do for me,
but it's just too damn little,
too damn late.
All these years, you could have done something.
I'll roll the dice at trial, Mr. McCoy.
Maybe I'll even win.
That'd be a real kick in the ass, wouldn't it, Dad?
Me, ending up a winner.
Yes, Darryl said he was going to stop giving me money.
But we talked it out,
and I agreed to go into rehab.
Which he would pay for?
That's right.
And this was decided at the party?
Yeah.
That's the way it was our whole life.
We'd argue, we'd fight, and then we'd hug, and it'd be over.
And after you hugged?
Darryl wanted to see the sunrise, so we continued the party on the boat.
That would be you, Darryl, Adam Makris, and Julie Eastman?
That's right.
As soon as we got on board,
Darryl was all over Julie.
Didn't matter that she came to the party with Adam.
Things like that never mattered to Darryl.
And what did you do?
I told Darryl, you know, you'd better back off
because Adam was getting pissed.
But, you know, he didn't listen.
Him and Julie went below deck to smoke some weed.
I tried to calm Adam down,
but he just kept on downing shots of tequila.
I wasn't feeling so well,
so they dropped me off in Greenport and
they sailed off.
I don't know what happened after that.
That's a very interesting story.
Why is it that no one's heard it before?
Well, in my mind, there was a chance that Darryl did the murders.
I wanted him to get away.
You were trying to protect your baby brother?
That's right.
If you wanted to protect him, wouldn't it have been better to stay on board,
and make sure that nothing happened?
Okay.
The Medical Examiner testified that in addition to Julie's blood,
he found samples of Darryl's and Adam's.
How do you explain that?
I can't.
Maybe whichever one of them did the murders
left his own blood to throw off the cops.
You mean either Adam or Darryl?
That's right.
Maybe they fought before the shooting.
I don't know. Could be anything.
I wasn't there.
This isn't your first time in a courtroom, Mr. Ridgeway, is it?
No.
I've been arrested before.
Could you be more specific?
Once for purchasing narcotics.
Once for assault.
Really? Who did you hit?
Guy who owed me money.
And where you arrested at the scene?
No.
What was your defense in the assault trial?
That I didn't do it.
And someone else did?
Have you reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
On the first count of the indictment,
Murder in the First Degree of Julie Eastman,
how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
On the second count of the indictment,
Murder in the First Degree of Adam Makris,
how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
On the third count of the indictment,
Murder in the First Degree of Darryl Ridgeway, how do you find?
We find the defendant guilty.
Counsel to pick a date for sentencing four to six weeks hence.
(JUDGE BANGS GAVEL)
At his sentencing, Shawn was still insisting on his innocence.
You've got to admire the old stick-to-itiveness.
All the evidence pointed to him, Arthur.
Well, then he must be guilty.
Unless a crime's caught on tape,
we can't ever be 100% on any verdict.
Well, for me, the test is, can I sleep at night?
I'll sleep after this one.
It depends. On what?
On how long it takes to pull the other two bodies out of the river.