(Operator speaking)
(Woman speaking)
(Operator and woman speaking)
(Woman speaking)
Officer: Put your hands in the air!
He was going nuts, he went freaking nuts,
the guy with the gun went freaking nuts.
He's ready to blast away anyone that walked up to that truck.
Officer: Right.
Stephen Tripp: I've never done anything like this before.
I've gone over the situation many times in my head,
and I firmly believe that
there was nothing I could have done differently.
My name is Larry mcmillan.
I'm a criminal defense lawyer,
and I represent Stephen Tripp
who's charged with attempted murder in the first degree.
He's looking at life in prison.
According to Mr. Tripp, he was out driving one night
and found himself in a violent driving exchange
between motorcyclists and himself.
It became almost like a dance
between the motorcyclists and Stephen,
as they were trying to corral or cut him off
and as he was trying to elude or evade them.
Ultimately they came to a stop
at a traffic light on hallandale beach boulevard.
Stephen's account is that
the female motorcyclist starts to scream at him
and confront him from the passenger side.
Simultaneously, the male motorcyclist gets off his motorcycle,
approaches the driver's side door.
Stephen hears a loud bang.
We believe that was the victim striking the door.
And as a result of that, Stephen instinctively fires two shots.
They struck the victim, which resulted in severe injury and permanent disability.
In the state of Florida,
a person is entitled to use deadly force
if they reasonably fear that their life is in peril.
And that's exactly what I believe happened in this situation.
The male motorcyclist was attacking Stephen,
and Stephen was merely defending himself.
Stephen: I'm accused of something that is very serious
and, on the surface, would seem like a very violent thing.
My life right now has been put on hold for two years.
I can't go out of the state of Florida...
Burning up all my savings because I can't get a job.
Looking at the charges and everything, okay, and what happened to the other man,
I'm looked at as a person who
tries to hurt people or wants to hurt people,
whereas in reality, I do stay calm.
As long as you're not aggressive toward me, I'm not aggressive.
Larry mcmillian: What I'd like to do is I'd like to talk to Stephen
about the actual circumstances as what he recalls
occurring that early evening back in August of 2019.
Larry: Stephen. Come into my office.
Right over here to the left. Come on in.
They have you charged with attempted first degree murder,
- meaning it was your desire... - Right.
Objective to kill him
which is punishable by life imprisonment.
The victim describes you as weaving in and out of traffic,
irrational driving,
and you came within six inches of striking
the victim's wife's motorcycle.
Do you recall that?
Stephen: That, I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know.
I'm saying I don't think I did it.
When I first saw the motorcycle, he pulled in front of me,
when he pulled in front of me, I went to the right,
I swerved to the left Lane, he swerved to the left Lane,
hit the brakes again, I swerve to the middle Lane.
He cut in front of me again. They kept on chasing me.
I don't know what they're going to do when they catch me.
Then when we got to Dixie highway,
the traffic stopped, and I couldn't get away from them.
What are you thinking at that point?
I've got a full-on attack.
They're going to make sure I can't get away.
And so I reached down for my pistol, okay.
There's this huge bang on my driver's side.
That scared me.
And I turn that way
and when I turned around, the door swung open, he was right there.
I turned around and fired at him.
The prosecution's theory is that
the victim was merely approaching just to let you know
you need to be more cautious and careful
in the manner in which you drive.
If they're boxing me in and trying to stop me, why are they doing that?
There's no point other than the fact that
they're going to try to hurt me or kill me.
Sorry, sometimes this gets a little intense for me.
I hate it when I get emotional.
Man, I hate it. God!
When we get too much into this and talk too much
it really, it gets intense. (Chuckles) Sheesh.
Oh, man, I'm sorry. Gosh!
It gets intense.
(Sniffles) I'm sorry.
Larry: When we present this in court,
we've got to establish
his actions that evening were completely justified
because he felt that his life was in jeopardy.
But this is a real case with real injuries.
There were gunshots and the person was shot multiple times.
And reasonable minds can differ on similar facts.
So we've got quite a task.
Stephen: This house was vacant for five years before I bought it.
The first thing I did was started tearing out the walls,
pulling all the flooring out,
and then that way I was able to rebuild the whole entire inside.
Before the arrest, I was doing commercial building.
So my business was doing rather well
and I've been running this business for more than 20 years.
But with the arrest, I couldn't leave the area.
I couldn't travel to bid on projects.
So everything stopped.
The business completely shut down.
(Bird cawing in distance)
I had 12 people who depended on me on a full-time basis.
And you're helpless because you can't take care of the guys.
How do you explain this to the guys that we just don't have any more work?
I'm hoping that later at the trial,
I can go back to the life that I knew
and start getting a job again
and that all the evidence will come out
and show that I acted reasonably.
Stephen's case comes down to a matter of credibility.
Whether Stephen's version is more credible
or the motorcyclists are more credible.
Body camera is essential because
it details the events immediately following this incident.
- (Siren blaring) - (Indistinct conversation)
Woman 1: Who would do that? Woman 2: I don't know.
Paramedic: He's got a second one on his stomach.
Officer 1: Okay. Get on your knees.
Officer 2: Put your hands on top of your head.
Officer 1: Twenty down for 210 through the air for me.
I've got the shooter over here.
Larry: Let's check out pellarito's testimony.
He's the motorcyclist that was riding
in the same direction with the victim.
Officer 1: So what did you see, sir?
I'm not part of that group.
- I was just riding alongside them. - Officer 2: Right. Yup.
The biker got off, walked up,
walked up to the passenger side
and just yelling at him.
And the guy takes out a pistol. Boom. Boom. Boom.
And then I walked up to the truck...
Dude, take it easy. Take it...
He's got the pistol out and he's pointing it at me.
He came around and pointed it at me.
The guy was frickin' nuts.
He was ready to blast away anyone that walked up to that truck.
Officer 2: Right.
He seems to be really moved by what he saw.
That's powerful testimony right there.
Let's look at one of these other videos.
Woman: Do you know how many times he might have fired his gun?
Samantha: Twice. It was the first time in the arm.
And then he fell to the ground
and then he shot him in the stomach.
Woman: Okay.
Samantha: And then the first time he got hit, he fell down
and then he shot him when he was laying down.
She describes it as two deliberate shots
and separated by some time frame.
I think they're going to try to highlight that as execution style.
And I think the state is really going to key on this testimony
that this supports attempted first-degree murder.
The jury's initial impression, looking at these videos,
they're going to be staring at Stephen
and Stephen is going to be in hot water.
If they believe these people,
then Stephen is going to state prison for the rest of his life.
- Let me show you this room over here. - Jan Tripp: Okay.
Stephen: I'll leave your bag here then, I guess.
I'm really just here to support him any way I can.
Steve tries to put on a tough exterior
and act like, "I'm Superman," he does that all the time.
But you can see the stress sort of building.
Steve is starting to talk a lot faster.
I can tell that he is starting to feel an anxiety of what's going to happen.
It's nice to have my sister coming down to help me with the moral support,
because not everybody has family
and/or people who have family sometimes don't always help.
Jan: I mean, it's just the whole thing is upsetting and stressful.
He's never been arrested in his life.
He's never had anything like this happen.
So how do you feel about it? Like, are you nervous?
Of course, there'll be lots of nervousness there.
That's without a doubt, you know,
because there's so much at stake.
You know, of course, my biggest fear is going to prison.
That's my biggest fear of all.
Larry: This case hinges on the testimony of the witnesses,
and we need to impugn or impeach
the credibility of those witnesses
to show the judge
that those witnesses could not have seen what they're describing.
Let's talk about Samantha and Jose salas.
Samantha is convinced that she had
an unobstructed, clear view from the passenger seat.
All right. So Stephen's car then stops,
would you say some, somewhere near here, Larry?
Exactly.
David donet Jr.: This would be Mr. Indelicato, kind of like a half a length behind him.
- Larry: And Mrs. Indelicato comes down and she's here... - Okay.
Larry: Behind this person is Samantha and Jose salas,
and they are one, two, three,
the fourth vehicle removed from the actual incident.
So you have Jose, who's driving,
and you have his wife, Samantha, who's in the passenger seat.
David: Okay.
Larry: If you look at this and you look at how that truck is positioned,
I think there is no way that they would be able to see
where Mr. Indelicato was on the driver's side
and more importantly, what he was doing.
David: I'm thinking, at the time of the shooting,
there was at least two other cars in the way.
They don't see anything that happens.
Larry: This is the time stamp that's on the video
showing where these vehicles were
and what was happening at that exact time.
Samantha arrives at 45:44.
Then at 51... I mean, that's 16 seconds after Stephen
and 15 seconds after the indelicatos.
-That's a lot. That's a long time. -Hold on, it gets better.
Larry: Jose and Samantha salas's SUV comes to a stop
two seconds after the door opens in the shooting.
David: Not to mention at the time of the shooting,
if she's still driving, she would be even further back.
Larry: Exactly.
I think they could not have seen
what they testified that they saw.
(Music playing)
Stephen: In my abdomen, I have two very large tumors,
one that's a little bigger than a baseball,
one's a little smaller than a baseball.
The test that they did showed it to be definitively cancer.
It's this whole entire side, the right side
from the backbone around to the navel,
that's where most of the pain is.
When I sat down in the office with the doctor,
they said it's inoperable, it's untreatable.
There's nothing we can do but mitigate the pain.
That's why I'm pushing so hard to clear my name
and clear my family's reputation
because I don't have a whole lot of time.
If I ended up going to prison,
it would definitely be the end of my life,
because if I've only got 12 months left,
guess what? I'm going to die.
Larry: When Stephen shared his news,
he had told me, "I want you to do whatever you need to do
"to make sure that this case is brought to a conclusion before I pass,
"because I want my name cleared."
So we've moved forward with this case as quickly as possible.
I really have the motivation to win this case for Stephen,
um, and I don't want to lose it.
Larry: Understanding that Stephen's got a terminal diagnosis,
we have a limited amount of time.
The key question is about who the aggressor is
and the aggressor is the one who opened the door.
And that's what we really need to determine.
We have a short clip of video here
that shows the truck door opening.
This is Stephen.
That's his truck.
Here is the victim.
That's the motorcycle right there.
Now he's getting off.
You see him getting off the bike?
The video shows that door springing wide open
and immediately springing back, immediately.
You can see what appears to be indelicato's left arm,
reaching forward and coming back as the door opens.
The video evidence we have in this case
is pretty significant, um, but it's not complete.
It's black and white, grainy.
You can't quite see his hand on the door handle pulling it open.
And so for that reason,
I've asked Stephen to come down with the truck
so that we can go out and we can recreate the situation.
So I get a better understanding of how that door opens
and how Stephen was reacting inside that truck.
- Hey, Stephen. - Hey, Larry. How are you?
-How is it going? Good to see ya. -Fine.
This is the truck that you had August of 2019?
Yes, sir, that is correct.
Let's... let's take a look inside. So take a seat inside the truck.
Stephen: All right.
I take off my shoes, actually, to drive.
- It gives me more room. - Larry: Okay.
Show me what you do and what happens.
Stephen: My first thing was that when I looked in the mirror, okay,
I saw them all come up behind me.
That's when I reached down like this.
I'm looking down like this and I pulled it out, okay?
I pulled out the pistol and I've got it and I cocked it immediately, okay?
- So you hear the bang. - Stephen: Right.
And what do you do? Let's see how you move.
- You shift or what. - Bam!
Larry: You hear the sound from the driver's side?
Stephen: Like the door starts to open, okay?
The thing was when I turn, I just turn like this and fired at him.
Larry: I want to see you pull the handle to unlock
and then kick the door.
- Okay. - You know what I mean?
Yes, I think so.
David: It's too slow, it doesn't make any sense.
Larry: Not only is it slow, but he's got his foot bracing the door.
The door doesn't spring back and close
- the way it did in the video. - David: Right.
So I don't think there's any way that happened.
Maybe it's like this.
Bang, boom,
and then he falls away to the left.
Yes, exactly.
Larry: All right. I think we got it.
That was fantastic.
After looking at the truck,
I think that Stephen didn't open that door,
and that he was completely justified in shooting.
I'm going over to visit some friends today.
Joey and marta helped me, you know, a lot of times
getting through things, somebody I could talk with.
When this thing happened with me two years ago and all,
it ended up that a lot of people automatically assumed
that I was a bad person.
I had this one guy and we'd known each other for 32 years, right?
And after this happened, I never heard from him again.
We always just said, "brothers from another mother."
And it turned out he wasn't a friend at all.
That's one thing, I guess, when you go through something like this
is that, you know, sometimes you're all alone at it.
Okay. Phew.
- How's it going, buddy? - How are you, pal?
- Good to see you. - You too. Definitely. Thank you.
Stephen: This is flan with cheese.
- I never heard of that. - I know. And neither have I.
Here's to health, good fortune to all.
Joey Blair: I've known Steve for about six years.
To me, everybody gets the benefit of the doubt.
- We all pray for you. - Thank you.
I mean, in every which way.
Stephen: Thank you.
I appreciate you and your friendship for that long.
- That was kind of why I'm bringing this over. - That's a given.
I'm glad to be his friend. I'm glad to be there for him.
I'll always be there for him.
It's a very small band of brothers.
And, you know, they say, keep your friends close.
Forget about your enemies, just keep your friends close.
Larry: I'm looking at John indelicato's injuries.
Essentially what we're seeing here
is just literally a stump where his left leg used to be.
You can see his right leg,
a portion of his foot has also been amputated.
The bullet that went into the midsection
also may have ricocheted off of a bone,
which then caused extensive internal bleeding.
There was then gangrene setting in on the, uh, the legs.
And that's why they had to amputate.
It just shows how deadly a firearm can be.
And it's going to be tough for the jury
to look at these pictures and weigh that.
He wasn't armed, um,
and he was merely approaching
to speak to him, to yell at him, to curse at him.
I think it's going to give the jury, judge significant pause
when they look at that and really think hard.
Is it reasonable?
Larry: I believe Stephen was afraid of Mr. Indelicato.
I believe that he was in fear for his life,
but I need to have more details
as to what motivated him to pick up that firearm.
I'm looking at a police report from a number of years ago.
And in this case, Stephen was the victim of an armed robbery and he was shot.
And I need to see if it would be somewhat similar
to what happened in this incident
so that we would be able to utilize it in this court.
I just need to know the details,
the facts, the circumstances as they occurred on this case.
We pulled up to the gas pump. When I got out of the car to get the gas,
all of a sudden he came from behind the car and he had the gun in his hand.
He steps out with the gun like this, okay, and has his hand like this.
And then he closes his hand and grabs me by the arm.
So then he says, "give me your wallet."
You know, we carried a gun.
I reached down, grabbed the gun
and fired over my shoulder. Okay?
And when I turned, as far as he fired,
he fired to shoot me in the chest.
That's when I saw the blood running down.
He fired to shoot me in the chest, but it shattered his wrist.
And as I stepped out of the car, he turned around and shot me again. Okay?
And then that time, he hit me through the leg.
I told my ex-wife to drive.
Then we left and I got her to drive me to the hospital.
Do you see any similarities between
what happened to you in '94 and what happened to you in 2019?
How can you not?
You know, how can you not remember you were already shot twice?
Stephen: I know that after '94,
I'm more aware.
- You realize you can be gone very quickly like that. - (Snaps fingers)
You realize that, you know, you don't have tomorrow necessarily.
I'm more conscious about trying to take evasive action
because, I mean, you know, you get shot twice
and each bullet's an inch away from killing you, you don't want to try for a third time.
Stephen: Within one month, the tumors have increased 50% in size.
The biggest tumor pushes against the back
and then the other one pushes against the liver,
which causes the fluid retention in the abdomen.
So it's the abdomen has gotten a whole lot bigger.
(Exhales)
It's out of my control of how I deal with my body.
The doctors have told me I can die tonight, tomorrow, whenever.
Nobody's really ever prepared for that.
And so that's where the stress comes in.
Because every day, I have to keep waiting
there's a possibility of me not actually making it to the trial.
After reviewing all of evidence that we have,
the police reports, the surveillance video, the body wear-camera video
and understanding Stephen's diagnosis,
I've been thinking about how to bring this case to a resolution more quickly.
And what I've concluded is I think it's best
and I prepared and filed what's called a "stand-your-ground" motion,
a motion to dismiss the case.
And if we are able to establish self-defense in this case,
Stephen is entitled to immunity.
So Stephen,
- the stand-your-ground motion has been filed. - Okay, right.
Technically what we're asking for
is we're asking judge Coleman to make a finding
that you should be immune from prosecution.
All right, okay.
Stephen: Whatever amount of time I do have left,
then I can go ahead and live my life.
That's my biggest thing.
- We have a hearing set. - Okay.
- The hearing is set for next Wednesday. - Okay.
- I'm confident. - Okay, that's...
I'm confident. But, Stephen, I can't predict the future.
Stephen: This is very poignant for me.
I feel even more confident,
that I don't have to just, like, act like
I did the right thing and say I did the right thing,
that by that law, that law will show I did the right thing.
If I can get through this, I can clear my family's name.
And so, you know, I want to die with my name intact,
my reputation intact. That's what I want.
Stephen: I was up at 4:00,
couldn't sleep at all last night.
There's a lot more anxiety.
If the worst-case scenario was to happen,
there's no way I'll ever make 25 years in prison.
Larry: The presentation is going to be the same as if we were in trial
and we were presenting it to a jury.
But we are presenting only to the judge.
And there's less likelihood
that we're going to be able to persuade him with passionate arguments.
- Does the state wish to call a witness? - Yes, your honor.
At this time the state will call Samantha salas.
How quickly did you perceive that this event unfolded?
(Samantha speaking)
Okay.
At the traffic light, you're in the center Lane, correct?
(Samantha speaking)
And you said you were 10 feet from the incident.
(Samantha speaking)
Larry: Can you look at the screen and tell me when you see he dismounts?
(Samantha speaking)
Larry: Do you see your car?
(Samantha speaking)
Larry: Your car's not there yet. Your car's not in the screen.
But you're telling us that you were right there within 10 feet
when he gets off the bike.
How's that possible?
(Samantha speaking)
See that.
Yes.
Can you identify that?
(Samantha speaking)
And that is what, seconds after this incident.
Very emotional and she's very emotional.
Larry: And you guys were all just milling about together,
over there waiting for the detective to come to take your statement?
(Samantha speaking)
And you guys are periodically discussing what happened.
Do you think that it's reasonable to say
that maybe some of the descriptions people were giving
is something that you incorporated into your memory?
Versus you actually seeing it?
I don't have any more questions. Thank you very much.
Judge: Thank you.
Stephen: The thing that I still have when I look at him is fear.
Because I'll always associate him with an attack.
- Judge: Your witness. - Prosecutor: Thank you, your honor.
You and Lori are riding on 95.
Did there come a point in time where there was
any specific vehicle that drew your attention?
Prosecutor: Okay, why did this white pickup truck
capture your attention at that point in time?
Prosecutor: Describe that.
Prosecutor: Did the pickup truck interact with Lori or cut Lori off in anyway?
(John speaking)
Prosecutor: Were you frustrated that this driver
could have killed one of the two of you?
When you stopped right behind him on the side,
you're going to approach for what reason?
(John speaking)
Did you open the door of the pickup truck?
Prosecutor: No further quetions.
Larry: We're convinced that John indelicato opened the door
but the video surveillance evidence is not completely conclusive.
As a result,
we've got to resort to an alternative strategy,
and that's to attack and undermine
the credibility of John indelicato.
Do you think on August 24th, 2019,
do you think he was aggressively trying to run either you or your wife off the road?
(John speaking)
Did it anger you?
Larry: You wouldn't say that you were upset or angry at all? Zero?
Larry: You previously testified that what the truck did
in your 40 years of riding a motorcycle,
you've never seen anybody cut off that severely?
Larry: Right?
And despite that being the worst incident of somebody being cut off in 40 years,
you didn't get upset at all?
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Larry: How many convictions do you have?
Larry: Isn't it, in fact, four?
Do you consider yourself a safe driver?
Is it a crime to race on the highway?
Have you ever raced on a highway?
Larry: I don't have any more questions.
(Indistinct chatter)
Larry: You okay? Examination...
Um, Mr. Tripp,
do you remember, um, Sunday August 28, 1994?
What... what ultimately happened?
(Stephen speaking)
Larry: Where were you shot?
Did that have an impact on your life from that point forward?
(Stephen speaking)
So you live with more of, what, of a heightened sense of awareness?
(Stephen speaking)
An awareness for what?
Larry: What is it that you're guarding against or looking out for?
Let's move forward to August 24th, 2019.
Why did you fire the gun?
And how did that make you feel?
(Chuckles nervously)
Larry: You don't want to what?
Larry: Um, thank you very much, judge. I don't have any more questions for him at this time.
Judge: Okay. Cross-examination.
Prosecutor: Thank you.
So let's talk about the date of incident that brought us here.
You didn't even know if it was a male or female. You didn't know who was there,
just your door open and you shot, right?
Prosecutor: Someone?
Prosecutor: Right. Could have been a child.
You don't know who was at your door.
Male, female, young or old.
And you shot. Correct?
(Stephen speaking)
Prosecutor: No further questions.
Prosecutor: There was zero testimony on either side
that the victim was armed in any way,
shape or form.
In order to assert immunity
in a stand-your-ground hearing,
you need to have imminent deadly force coming at you.
The defendant testified
that the door suddenly opened and he didn't even see what he shot.
How can you argue
that you were under such fear for your life,
if you don't even know who or what you shot?
Judge, this is not wild, wild west.
"I shoot whatever comes near my vehicle."
It is not, "I'm in fear because of a prior incident,
"so I'm going to shoot first and ask questions later."
And so,
the state is asking this court to deny the defendant's motion for immunity.
Larry: Stephen was cornered, attacked.
He reasonably believed that the use of deadly force
was necessary to prevent his death.
And in Florida,
you do not have to wait until a subject has hands on you
until there's actual harm.
You can shoot that person right there, judge.
Thank you very much for your time.
Larry: All right, judge. Thank you.
I think that we've done everything that we could do.
It's the burden of the prosecutor
to convince the judge that Stephen is not entitled to immunity
and that's a pretty high burden.
But if the judge denies our motion,
I think Stephen is probably not going to survive the second round of this.
Which will then mean his legacy will be forever known
as the person charged with attempted murder.
And now, it's just we wait.
Larry: So, um...
It's an eight-page document.
But all you really need to read is just the title of the document.
We have the judge's order granting immunity and dismissal.
Stephen: Hello? Larry: Steve.
I've got some great news for you.
The case is over.
The judge has declared you
immune from prosecution
and entered an order granting dismissal of the charges.
Effectively the prosecution of you has ended.
It's over.
Stephen: I really appreciate it.
Larry: See you soon, bye.
Stephen: It's hard for you to understand
all the stress that's been going on for two years,
and once it's finally over with,
it's hard to kind of, you know...
(Exhales)
It's hard just to let it go.
The relief that I'm finally free
and the rest of my life is not going to be spent in prison,
it is indescribable.
When somebody hears my name now, I'm no longer considered a killer.
I can spend the rest of my life or whatever time I have left
doing what I want to do.