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.
I'm home!
Sean, honey.
Maureen.
Frank. Somebody help me with these groceries.
Sean, turn that music down.
It's not gonna help me memorize the periodic table.
You always do fine. Stop worrying. Where's your sister?
Oh, not again!
Where'd your father go?
B- line tenants said there's no hot water.
He's fixing the boiler, I think. I think he's in the shop.
I wish they'd buy a new boiler.
Frank?
Oh, my God.
Frank?
Oh, God. Oh, God, Frank.
Oh, God. Oh, God, oh, God.
Hey, it goes with the job these days.
The Super stops a break-in, he gets his head bashed in.
Looks like he's been moved. Who touched the body?
When we showed up, the wife was holding him like a baby.
She won't let go. I think she was in shock.
McKinnon, Frank, 44. Heard a noise, came out with a hammer.
Everybody's got to be a hero.
Broke the window trying to get the security bar.
Every piece of glass, even slivers. Everything goes into Forensics.
Did anybody get inside?
Doesn't look like it. He was in the boiler room. When he came out...
they were probably still working the door.
He should've gone back in. His tool kit had a knife in it.
At least he'd have a chance.
Should've gone back in and called 911.
Why'd he go out by himself? I mean, why didn't he call me?
This is Detective Briscoe.
Mr. McKinnon's son, Sean. Hi, Sean.
You know, if I'd worked on the boiler like he wanted, I mean...
none of this would have happened. I could have...
Sean, why don't you take care of your mom. Okay?
ME says one blow did the job. Crackhead?
Makes you mad, makes you strong. Tell you one thing...
if we don't get good prints, goes to the three-day and dies.
Sean! Excuse me, please. Sean!
Hey, that's my sister. Let her in. What's going on?
What the hell is this?
Oh, honey. Uncle Ned, why are you here? What is this?
There was a break-in and your father tried to stop them.
So, where is he? Is he okay?
Oh, my God! Oh, no!
No. Please!
There's only been two robberies in, I don't know...
a couple of years.
Okay, so as far as you know, he was well-liked...
no problems with anybody in the neighborhood.
I never heard any. I mean, the building was crazy about him.
Just this morning he was here fixing the sink.
I mean, most Supers, you have to open your wallet first.
Frank wouldn't take a dime.
Nancy, it's Frank McKinnon.
Some burglars beat him up. He's dead.
Oh, my God!
It was around 9:30. Were you home?
Did you hear any noise, maybe shouting?
Who listens? The whole city shouts.
Wait, 9:30...
Yeah, I was coming from the video store. I did hear an argument.
I thought it was 2A, the Horowitzes.
Him and his brother-in-law again.
Nancy, darling, they went to the country on Wednesday.
Oh, you're right. Okay, but you heard two men yelling, right?
Yeah, but I thought it was Nat Horowitz. I didn't even look.
No prints on the door, unusable partials on the hammer.
Similar M. O. In the neighborhood?
Fire escapes, windows, but no basements.
Break-in at 9:30.
That's not a pro.
Crackheads or kids.
Gets hit with his own hammer. Now...
if I was the kind of kid who broke into buildings, I'd probably be armed.
I got to admit, the same thing occurred to me.
A gun, at least a knife.
Hey, you want to look for holes, I got one as big as my kitchen.
Noisy boiler room, the guy's hammering...
and he hears glass break in the hall?
Talk to Forensics. I'll run a family, see if anything pops.
Suppose this guy broke into his own building?
Oh, sure. He forgot the key. Blood on the broken glass.
The ME also sent over a sample of the victim.
How close? It's perfect.
It's the same blood. What?
Well...
maybe it's one of our guys did it...
got the victim's blood on his gloves before he picked up the glass?
Maybe.
Medill.
Your Lieutenant calls.
Yeah, Logan.
For what?
Frank McKinnon's daughter's got a juvenile record.
Criminal Possession Four. Okay.
She got a counselor?
Maureen had a big coat.
Went through Macy's, filled it with gold...
lipsticks, and enough clothes for an army.
I had an uncle who had a coat like that. He used to load up the pockets with ashtrays.
The boy Maureen hangs with, ashtrays aren't on his list.
Mitchell Lewis, 16, truant, runaway, possession three, juvenile assault.
Just the kind of kid I'd like for my daughter.
Not a lovely boy.
Maureen's okay, just takes her anger out on herself.
Who doesn't?
Says her brother's smart.
One genius in a family is enough.
And there was a problem at home.
Something about her father.
Is that a problem?
Half the kids in America don't get along with their parents.
Not like this. Maureen's run away a couple of times.
She won't tell me. She might have told Mitchell.
What am I hearing? Daddy was a little too close to the daughter?
Could make her run away, look for protection.
Mitchell had a scream-out with Dad. Dad called the cops.
Myself, I needed help, I wouldn't pick Mitchell.
No, we'll pick him. For today, at least.
Where can we find him?
They don't need me at home.
Your dad was killed last night.
I don't have to be home to cry.
She don't need you for nothing. She needs you, though, Mitch.
Just so she can get busted again.
Where were you last night? With me.
Till I got home. You taking me in?
'Cause we're going back to the crib, and you ain't invited. Later.
I'm sorry, I don't know what this is about.
We understand that Mitch didn't get along with your husband.
No, Frank didn't like him.
We never thought he was right for Maureen.
Look, is all this necessary?
My sister really needs her rest.
We happen to know that Maureen ran away a few times.
So if there's anything you want to tell us, I think now is the time.
Wait. You think Mitch killed Frank?
I mean, they argued a couple of times, but...
What about?
I told you. Frank wanted Maureen to stop seeing him.
All right, now. Your daughter says he was with her last night.
Could there be a reason that she'd protect him?
Good Lord, she thinks she loves the kid.
Even if he killed her father?
I don't know.
I can't talk about this. I just don't know what she'd do.
Gentlemen, please.
Is your son around?
With a friend. Sandy Resnick.
She lives over on Central Park West, 341.
You should leave Sean alone. He has an important chem test tomorrow.
He's studying?
His father was just murdered. His father wanted him to study.
He has early admission at Princeton.
He fails chem, they might withdraw the acceptance.
Hey, my mom just called. What's this about my sister?
You know her boyfriend?
Mitch.
Well, yeah, I met him.
Yeah, you see him last night?
Oh, no. I know what you guys are thinking,
but that kid? I mean, he...
He couldn't have done it. We heard he was angry at your dad.
Yeah, but...
No, I don't think so.
Sean, let me ask you something.
You were in your room studying.
Your father's outside having a fight...
but your window's right on the alley...
and you didn't hear anything?
Look, I don't know why you guys are doing this, but...
I was in the kitchen awhile and the radio was on.
I'd have gone out if I'd heard something.
Yeah. Good luck on that test.
Holes just keep getting bigger.
The mother says maybe the daughter's boyfriend did it...
but she won't give you enough to move.
Yeah, and admit her husband's doing their daughter?
We gave her a chance. She'll dance on his grave before she tells us.
Hell, she'll jump in it before she tells us.
Something here doesn't play. Loved by his tenants. Sweetest guy on earth.
Is that the picture of a guy who molests his child?
None of this plays. McKinnon's Mr. Clean...
he doesn't take tips, lives in a basement apartment.
How's he afford to pay prep school tuition for the kid?
We don't know enough about this man. Let's ask somebody who might.
I own that building 16 years. Frank McKinnon's been with me 11.
Anybody that honest, you got to wonder.
That's a lovely view of human nature.
Calling a Super crooked is like calling the sky blue.
McKinnon?
He wouldn't steal cheese from a rat.
Sounds like he's practically a friend of the Tooth Fairy's.
He was soft on the tenants.
He fixes things they should have paid for.
The only thing I worried about...
liability insurance. I wondered.
Maybe he drank a little bit.
So did I, but it didn't make me a bad insurance risk.
Bet you didn't break as many bones as he did.
What? Accidents.
Four, five times in the hospital.
I mean, it's got to be the bottle, right?
Which hospital?
February, cracked collarbone. He slipped on the ice.
April, steam from the boiler. First degree burns on his back.
Who stands backwards at a boiler that long?
The admitting nurse wanted to know, too.
Cooked that bad, he'd have to be against a hot pipe a good minute.
July, he's in again. Cracked ribs. Fell off a ladder.
I admitted him.
If that man fell off a ladder, then I got hit by a truck and stubbed my toe.
Well, people do fall off of ladders.
I mean, I might crack a couple of ribs.
Mr. McKinnon had no bruises. No scratches. Just the ribs.
I asked him, "Somebody hurting you?" He was polite enough.
But he said I should mind my own business.
Four times in 18 months. Nobody is that accident-prone.
All I know is somebody killed my husband and you can't tell me who did it.
All right, did your husband have any friends...
or business associates who had a reason to put him in the hospital?
You calling my father some sort of criminal?
Sean.
My husband worked hard.
5:00 in the morning till 10:00,11:00 at night.
He was tired, he had accidents.
But you think your daughter's boyfriend had a grudge against your husband, right?
I didn't say that. You did.
Do you have any more questions?
We have to make arrangements for my husband's funeral.
You know, all we got is a bunch of hunches...
and an accident-prone dead guy.
Yeah, I think we got the wrong hunch.
Maureen's boyfriend had one lousy fight with her father.
That's a long way from killing him.
Yeah, two days ago, the mother steers us toward the boyfriend.
Two minutes ago, she backs off.
Sure, she goes along with anything we say.
She doesn't want us to get anywhere.
You know what else bothers me? Both kids.
Their father gets his skull crushed. Where are they?
She's off with Mr. Juvenile Record.
He's at his girlfriend's, studying.
Who in hell studies for a test the day after your father is killed?
You got trouble with this kid? What?
I mean, you're both Irish.
You made it as far as detective...
he's making it all the way to the Ivy League.
Hey, the trouble I have with this kid is...
he was the only one home when it happened.
Let's work this through.
They say somebody broke in. We say maybe nobody broke in.
You see the problem?
Nat Horowitz fights with his brother-in-law all the time.
I don't know, I just assumed.
But it was definitely two voices. Men's voices.
Well, I really wasn't paying attention. I think it was two.
One was shouting really loud.
Mrs. Kroll, are you sure you didn't hear any words clearly?
No, just shouting. Later, they were throwing things at each other.
Elaine Horowitz told me last year Nat threw a lamp.
This time, it sounded like glass.
Wait a minute. Now, you didn't say anything about glass breaking.
Well, it was about half an hour later.
I was on the fire stairs in the back hallway.
My husband won't let me smoke in the apartment.
Mrs. Kroll, I'm gonna run this by you one more time.
You heard shouting. Then a half-hour later, you heard glass breaking?
Yes. I thought it was Horowitz.
Is the woman reliable?
Unless she was smoking dope on those back steps instead of cigarettes.
Yeah, I don't think she lost track of half an hour.
And I don't think anybody beat him up and then broke in.
Well, fellas, I'll buy no burglars.
In fact...
I'll buy there was no one there at all.
Somebody stop me before the train crashes.
We're about to say Frank McKinnon was killed by his own son.
I won't stop you.
I just want to know who smashed the window.
No question.
This glass was knocked out. From the inside.
You just discovered this? I'm not Columbus. I wasn't looking.
Ask me sooner, I find it sooner.
Glass is tensile.
You want to know which side it was hit from...
match a piece on the ground with one left in the frame...
check for radial fractures.
So, the kid broke the window, realized he screwed up...
and then moved the glass back inside.
And, got some of his father's blood on it.
Kills his old man, cleans it up and waits for Mom to come home.
That is cold.
Yeah, but Dad was in the boiler room. Now...
why would he go outside to stop a break-in that didn't happen?
What's the basement floor made of? Cement.
Get us a guy with Luminol. We're gonna spray.
Well...
I guess that's not cranberry juice.
Straight line.
He was dragged the whole way.
Dead end, fellas.
Spray the pipe.
Right.
Well...
he hits him here, drags him out.
You think the mother knows?
I don't know.
But did you notice the daughter the last time we were in the building?
Unhappy. And scared.
You keep coming after me. I was with my boyfriend. I don't know anything.
Okay, look, all we want to know is what happened to your father.
We don't think you or your boyfriend had anything to do with it.
I'm gonna ask you a question, okay?
Did your brother get along with your father?
Did they ever fight sometimes?
I don't know what you mean.
Well, he was there that night. But he says he didn't hear anything.
He said he was in the kitchen.
Maybe he wasn't telling the truth.
What do you think happened?
I don't- You know what I think?
I think you don't believe him either.
Look, it doesn't matter.
My father is dead, so just leave us alone.
This has been very hard for my sister and the kids.
Oh, please, sit down.
I'm sure that Catherine...
you know, told you everything she knows.
All due respect to you, we don't think that's the case.
What are you suggesting?
I'm suggesting that Mr. McKinnon was in the hospital four times last year.
Was your sister's husband a violent man?
No.
How about Sean?
He ever hit his father?
Well, I mean, you know, once in a while...
You know how families are. Tempers flare, you know.
Where I come from, it was the father who used the strap.
There was this reception, the Princeton Club.
It was for applicants and their parents.
I went in Frank's place.
Catherine said I'd make a good impression...
because I'm an accountant.
When we got home that night...
Frank was upset.
He said, "I'm a Super and proud of it."
And Sean said, "Oh, a Super. That would really help me get in."
Frank was shouting.
Sean told him to shut up.
And then, Frank went right over to the boy...
right in his face and he said, "Go ahead...
"do it in front of your uncle. Take a pop at me.
"Let him see what this family is really about."
Sean was gonna hit him.
I had to separate them.
I thought you said your sister told us the truth.
Yeah, well, maybe I'm not as sure as I used to be.
Broken collarbone, cracked ribs.
You were beating him up pretty regular, weren't you?
Let's give the kid a chance, Lennie.
Maybe you can explain this, Sean.
You think I hit my own father?
We heard you almost hit him in front of your uncle.
What he do this time, huh? Something must have made you mad.
I don't know what you're talking about. Somebody broke in.
No, actually, Sean, nobody did.
You see, what happened was this.
Somebody dragged his body out from the boiler room outside.
You didn't like your old man, did you?
Why? 'Cause he was a Super? 'Cause he didn't go to Princeton?
I loved my father.
Well, maybe you can tell us about the broken window
'cause it turns out...
somebody knocked it out from the inside.
That doesn't sound like a burglary to me. You know what I mean?
Pretty smart move, Sean.
But you didn't know we could prove that, did you?
Gentlemen...
Roger Easton, Sean's lawyer.
What's he doing here?
Well, for openers, we think he killed his father.
Under pressure here?
You can't find the street scum who did it, so you go after this boy?
I want him out of here, now.
Take a break, Counselor. Maybe, we'll give you a ride to central booking.
Mike.
Parents beating their kids is pretty common. But the other way around?
How often does that happen? So this kid's the exception to the rule.
He's ashamed of his father? As a motive, it sounds like sidewalk psychology to me.
Look, I don't care what it sounds like. You don't buy the motive?
Go with the physical evidence. Who broke that window?
Who the hell dragged McKinnon's body down that hall?
The physical evidence makes me ready to believe the motive.
Even if I am ready to believe it, I don't know if a jury is.
We have enough to indict.
Okay. Go ahead.
Sean McKinnon...
you're under arrest for the murder of Frank McKinnon. Excuse me.
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you do, say, can and will be...
used against you in a court of law.
"Docket number 680641...
"People of the State of New York v. Sean McKinnon.
"Charge is murder in the second degree."
How does the defendant plead?
Not guilty, sir.
All right.
Young man, nobody calls me sir anymore.
Ms. Kincaid?
The People request reasonable bail.
While there's no risk of flight - There's also no record.
Bail is to secure appearance at trial, Ms. Kincaid, not to punish.
Mr. Easton?
Your Honor, the McKinnon family have limited means.
High bail would be a terrible hardship.
Death was a terrible hardship for the victim.
Meanwhile, your client looks quite respectable.
You'll get a bond. $50,000, short date. Next?
You're making a mistake. The boy's a victim.
Sir, he's walking around and his father is six feet under.
Mrs. McKinnon is prepared to admit that her son killed her husband.
I tried to stop him.
It's a couple of years now.
Sean was only defending himself.
Your husband was abusing your son? He hit him.
He hit me, sometimes...
my daughter.
My husband was a very angry man.
Sean says...
He told me...
he was studying...
and his father was in one of those moods.
He came after him.
Mrs. McKinnon, when did your son tell you this?
Ben, this is not the time to look for an accessory charge.
I couldn't believe Sean had done it.
When he told me, I knew...
that I was at fault.
I should have stopped Frank.
He picked on Sean so much.
Her husband was abusive.
Mr. McKinnon was in the hospital several times.
For God's sake, so was Sean.
He broke his arm.
His father broke his arm.
We told the doctor it was a bike accident. He fell off his bike.
Sean was supposed to go to Europe...
he sang with a group at school.
His father beat him...
he was black and blue...
he couldn't go.
He gave him a black eye.
We lied and said...
it was an accident. Basketball.
Pity the poor child.
It's a good defense, and it works.
There is the possibility that she's telling the truth.
You didn't even want an arrest.
I hadn't met Catherine McKinnon.
It was weird. When you went out with Easton...
she kept saying how sad it was for her son.
But she never mentioned her husband.
Not even to complain about him.
I don't believe her. She's not on trial.
And if she's lying, they trumped us.
But if she's not lying, I don't want to prosecute an abused child.
Now, why didn't she go for help?
An abusive father, he can hold an entire family hostage...
but an abusive son? No, she'd have called somebody.
Sean McKinnon almost hit his father...
in front of his uncle. Now, that wasn't self-defense.
What do you think?
You want a deal?
You tell Easton, the kid has to see Olivet.
Are you so convinced he's guilty?
Check the mother's story.
And see if that kid was also in the hospital.
I never thought I'd hit him back.
How do you feel now?
I don't know. I mean...
what do you want me to say?
I feel bad?
Okay, I mean, I feel bad.
He was my father.
I'm sorry.
I didn't want this to happen.
I know.
When he beat me...
he was shouting...
about...
how I didn't respect him. And about...
About how I never brought friends home 'cause he was only a Super.
He didn't understand.
The way he let those tenants treat him. I mean...
he lived in the basement, as if that was all you should have.
Do you think he was ashamed of himself?
He thought I was ashamed, but...
he was projecting. I didn't care. I just...
I just wanted him to be proud of me.
Well, was he?
No, he wasn't.
It didn't matter how hard I worked. I mean, I...
I got into Princeton and everybody else was happy, except him.
He was depressed. He was angry.
Why was that?
He said...
I thought I was better than him.
And then a week after...
he showed up at school in work clothes. I mean...
you don't do that at Deardon.
Did that matter to you?
No.
Oh, no. I just...
I wanted to be different, you know.
I just wanted a different life.
I wanted more.
It's a great act, but he's a sociopath.
An ounce of doubt, I wouldn't testify.
Liz, the son beats the father up and the mother does nothing?
The woman is probably paralyzed.
If she admits how bad it is, she has to admit she raised a monster.
Then maybe we should be prosecuting her.
She's in denial. She wants to keep her family together.
Like with alcoholics.
Daddy passes out over dinner, we pretend he's just tired.
The cops were right. The McKinnons had a secret. They just got the wrong one.
I wish I could be as sure as you are.
Why don't you want it to be true?
Am I the patient here?
Ben, you're not alone.
None of us want to believe that kids beat up their parents.
Do you think that the father ever hit the kid?
It would make it easier to deal with, wouldn't it?
I think this kid doesn't want to be who he is...
and every time he looks at his father, he's reminded.
Maybe Mom sent him a message, the father's no good. So, he takes over.
Do you know what he told me? He pays the bills.
How many 17-year-olds do you know who take care of their family finances?
I don't know.
Is it that important?
It's a textbook sign.
Journal of Family Dysfunction.
"In most cases, the adolescent is ashamed of a parent's lack of social status.
"The child commonly takes over parental functions...
"determining how money is spent and paying bills.
"The parents, fearing the child, acquiesce."
A million cases a year of parent abuse.
I can't tell you why it happened in this family.
But I do know that Sean McKinnon has enough anger to blow this office apart.
The McKinnons are playing the press. Guess what?
The father's the villain.
That's what they'll do in court.
Sean McKinnon will make his own best witness.
The hospital only has X-rays of Sean's broken arm.
They don't prove how it happened. And the black eye?
Two stitches, they sent him home.
She told us that her husband hit the kid, right?
She told the hospital that it was a basketball game.
So, let's find out who he plays ball with, okay?
If we'd known Sean's dad was beating him...
I mean, maybe we could have helped him.
We all feel really bad about it.
Oh, he never told you?
No. Sean never talked about his father.
I guess now we know why.
Why are you asking me about this?
I mean, my coach said something about me hitting him?
Last June, when he got a black eye?
That was an accident.
We were playing one-on-one.
His mother claims that his dad gave him the black eye.
No.
No, it was me. I mean, I was sorry, but I did it.
It swelled up. He went to the emergency room at St. Mary's.
Did Sean say it didn't happen?
Catherine McKinnon lied.
Yeah, she'll testify that she was confused. It was another black eye.
This whole story plays both ways.
The father had accidents...
the son was abused. Or the other way around.
But the father's not here to defend himself. So a jury...
could give this kid a college going-away party.
He kills his father, mother defends him.
Doesn't the sister have a stake in this?
Well, we scheduled her for a statement, she didn't come in.
She's staying at her uncle's. Should I try again?
Why? She never did anything before.
Why should she start now?
Before her father was just bruised. Now he's buried.
She wouldn't be comfortable at home right now.
I see.
She's having nightmares.
I don't want to talk to you.
Maureen, your mom says Sean had to protect you from your father.
Now is that true?
Your mom says your father hit all of you.
Mom wouldn't say that about Dad.
Honey, why would she make that up?
What did you let her in here for? Did your father ever hit you?
I wish I could tell you, but I wasn't there.
Yeah, why weren't you there?
Why wasn't somebody there?
I'm sorry, Maureen. I should have been.
Maureen...
your mother and your brother say your father beat you.
No! And that's why you got into trouble.
It was your father's fault.
No. It's not true.
My dad never hit me. He never hit anybody. It's not true.
Okay, okay.
My daughter's been in trouble.
She has a lot of problems. Your brother believes her.
He wasn't there when she was arrested.
He wasn't at the police station.
He didn't have to face the neighbors.
Mrs. McKinnon, maybe what the neighbors think isn't the issue here.
Please, don't do this to her. I mean, I know why she does this.
It's out of her control. She invented the whole story?
She wasn't doing so great at school.
So I help her out.
I help her out all the time, and she resents me for it.
Even my dad said to her...
getting mad at me wouldn't make up for the things that she's done wrong.
You let her send her brother to jail...
she'll live with it for the rest of her life.
Think what you're doing to her. What are you doing to her?
Catherine?
All Sean's hard work.
You're destroying him.
You don't think he played a part in that?
You're going to trial?
Who does a jury believe? A girl with a felony record...
or a young man brutalized by his father?
When he was admitted, Mr. McKinnon didn't say anything right away.
I was ready to call the police. And did you call them?
His wife told me not to. That I was wrong.
That it was an accident.
And how did you respond to that?
I said, "Believe what you want. Somebody hit this man."
Thank you.
Your witness.
Tell us, Dr. Henderson...
are you an expert in forensic medicine?
The man wasn't having accidents. Not in February, not in April.
Please, Doctor. Just answer the question.
I'm not an expert.
Oh. So, Mr. McKinnon could have had these accidents...
the kind that any building superintendent might have.
Isn't that possible?
Yes, it's possible.
Thank you. No further questions.
Catherine left a message on my machine and Maureen returned the call.
Her mother's putting a lot of pressure on her.
Did she go home? I don't think so.
I argued with her and she ran out of the apartment.
All this time, I knew something was wrong.
She's due to testify on Monday.
I tried. I told her I'd always be there.
That she could live in my apartment.
Well, she's been in trouble before. Where'd she go then?
I'm not gonna do it. Did your mother call you?
Her brother, too. Mitch.
Here's the headline, Counselor.
If she goes against her brother...
her mother says she can't come home.
I won't have anybody.
What, are you kicking me to the curb?
I can't live with you.
You gonna live with your brother?
He offed your old man. If you don't do this, he gets away clean.
Hey, Maureen, you know what your brother says about your father.
And that's what people are always going to believe.
He hit him all the time.
Whenever my dad talked back, Sean would hit him.
Did you tell anyone? My dad said it would stop.
My mom...
she said it was my dad's fault. He picked on Sean.
Was that true?
Dad would do anything Sean wanted. Anything!
Maureen, we've heard testimony that last February your father...
broke his collarbone.
Could you tell us how that happened?
Sean...
took $200 from my mom to buy clothes.
My dad said it was too much...
so Sean hit him.
With a tire iron.
And last April, we heard that your father was taken to the hospital...
with a burn on his back. How did that happen?
There was a vacant apartment...
upstairs.
And Sean wanted my dad to ask the landlord for it...
so we wouldn't live in the basement.
My dad said no.
Sean called him a coward.
He followed him to the boiler room...
and he pushed him against a pipe.
And I tried to stop him.
My dad was just screaming...
and Sean just held him there.
Maureen, even then, you didn't ask anyone for help. Why?
I was afraid.
Afraid of what?
I don't know.
That Sean would be taken away. My mom and dad would break up.
I didn't know what would happen.
Maureen, thank you.
Your witness.
Maureen, do you get along with your brother?
No.
Isn't it true you resent your brother?
That you feel he got everything from your parents and you got nothing?
No. So you're not envious of him?
That's hard to understand.
Did you run away from home several times?
I couldn't stand being there.
I couldn't stand - Your brother being so successful.
How much do you hate him?
Enough to invent things that aren't true?
Enough to make up these stories?
Objection. Enough to lie to this court?
Your Honor, he's quietly badgering the witness.
Sustained.
If your brother goes to jail, Maureen...
then you get all the attention that you want, isn't that right?
Your Honor. Withdrawn.
No further questions.
I've always said my husband was a good man.
When your husband was violent, did you consider professional help?
A psychiatrist, perhaps?
We wouldn't do that.
Sick people go to them. My husband wasn't sick.
Did your son ever hit your husband?
Sean never defended himself.
Only this...
This time.
Thank you, Mrs. McKinnon.
Your witness.
Mrs. McKinnon, a doctor testified...
that your husband's injuries were caused by assault and not by accident.
Is she lying?
Yes, she is lying.
Your daughter said that your son repeatedly attacked his father.
Is your own daughter lying?
Yes, she is lying.
Mrs. McKinnon, isn't it true that your son took control of your family...
and you couldn't stop him?
And can you give us one reason to believe...
that these witnesses are lying and you are telling the truth?
Because...
Because I am his mother.
But isn't that all the more reason...
for you to say anything at all to protect him?
Thank you.
No further questions.
It wasn't easy.
I still loved my dad.
Even though he beat you?
I didn't blame him for it.
He had a hard life.
He worked hard for us.
Tell us about that night.
He asked me to help him fix the boiler...
and I liked doing it.
It made me...
feel useful to him.
And I had this pair of pliers...
and...
I dropped them and he lost his temper...
like usual, out of nowhere.
And he swung at me.
He hit me in the arm and I fell down and then he hit me again.
I don't know what happened then. I...
I guess all those times he beat me.
I think I grabbed the hammer, and I must have hit him.
I don't remember it.
All I remember is the blood.
Thank you, Sean. No further questions.
Mr. McKinnon...
how did you feel after you killed your father?
I don't remember.
How did you feel when you dragged his body...
36 feet to the service alley?
How did you feel when you cleaned his blood off the hall...
and when you broke the window to make it look like a burglary?
I don't remember any of it.
Do you remember shoving him up against a steam pipe?
No!
Do you remember hitting him with a tire iron?
No!
Would you please tell the court...
what you wrote...
on your college financial aid application, under the heading...
of father's occupation?
Didn't you write Building Manager?
Why didn't you write Superintendent?
I wanted to get the scholarship. It sounded better than Super.
But you said you were not ashamed of your father...
and that he was jealous of you, right?
Yes, it wasn't my fault. It was something I had to live with.
Did you have to live with the fact that he paid for your prep school tuition?
And that he worked 12 hours a day...
to put expensive clothes on your back?
Hey, I worked hard, too. Did you?
I helped with the building.
I helped my sister out. I got into Princeton...
in spite of...
In spite of what?
Of what he was?
No, I didn't say that.
You claim that you loved your father. I did love him.
How do you show your love?
By hiding your father from your friends?
And by telling him that he's not worth anything?
You may call that love.
Most of us call that shame.
No further questions.
Has the jury reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
On the sole count...
of the indictment, murder in the second degree, how does the jury find?
We find the defendant guilty.
Two more months, he'd have gone to college.
Everything would have been fine.
It's scary.
No, what's scary is that if it hadn't been his father...
it would have been somebody else.
That much anger doesn't go away with a B. A. Not even from Princeton.