- It was a brutal killing...
Of a beloved man that shocks his queens community.
- He was screaming,
"they're killing me, they're killing me."
[tense music]
- Where the body was, it was a large amount of blood.
- This individual was hit in the head with a claw hammer.
Also there was knurl marks from the pipe wrench
Across the face.
- This was a brutal murder.
- There are no witnesses found,
No new leads are being developed.
- When the case goes cold...
- Pressure on the police heats up.
- We wanted to take the case directly to the mayor.
- There were a number of us that said,
"this is it. We've had enough."
- The gay community
Had put so much pressure on law enforcement,
It actually changed that investigation.
- The lieutenant, george byrd,
Decides that he's going to go undercover.
- And what did I learn?
There was hatred for the gay community.
"let's exterminate 'em, let's get 'em out of here."
- We wanted justice for julio.
[ominous music]
[tense bassy music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- 1990. It was a year of record homicides.
I was a sergeant then,
And the city was under siege with crime.
But one murder in particular
Helped shape the nypd for decades to come.
It was the vicious and brutal killing of julio rivera.
♪ ♪
[siren wailing]
It happened in jackson heights, queens,
Known as one of the most culturally diverse
Neighborhoods in new york city,
If not the world.
But back in the day,
Not everyone was welcomed with open arms.
And on a hot summer night,
A violent attack shone a harsh light on hate.
♪ ♪
[train tracks clacking]
♪ ♪
- This was the July 4th weekend in 1990.
Julio was my close friend and, you know, life partner.
I had seen him 20 minutes before and we said good night.
And he went one way and I went the other.
[suspenseful music]
And I had met another friend on my way home.
We were talking, and five minutes later,
Some guy comes running down 78th street screaming,
"they're killing somebody in the schoolyard.
They're killing somebody in the schoolyard."
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it was julio.
[ominous music]
And when we ran up the street to see what was going on...
I saw julio. He was about to pass out.
The blood was just coming from all over.
Just covered in blood.
And I went over to him
And I said to him, "julio, it's alan.
Do you know who did this to you?"
And he shook his head no from side-to-side.
♪ ♪
- While his friend ran to call an ambulance,
Alan clung to julio.
- I held him and reassured him that he was gonna be fine,
That he was definitely gonna make it, just hang on.
[sirens wailing]
- An ambulance arrives within minutes of the 911 call,
And rush him to nearby elmhurst hospital.
[respirator hissing]
- They made every effort possible to save him.
[steady tone droning]
He did expire at the age of 29.
♪ ♪
- It's nearly 4:00 a.M.,
And with an assault victim now deceased,
Officers and homicide detectives
From the local 115 precinct
Are at the scene of the attack...
The schoolyard of ps 69,
A place that was already on the cops' radar.
- Ps 69 is known for, like, a low-level
Quality of life type of crime location.
There's drug dealing that goes on there
And some prostitution that would take place there.
The dark schoolyard is sort of the perfect place for a crime.
[indistinct radio chatter]
- Officers cordon off the area
And begin their search for evidence.
♪ ♪
- Where the body was,
There was a large amount of blood,
A smashed bottle that possibly indicated a fight.
- It's pretty clear that mr. Rivera was engaged
In some kind of a violent struggle.
[indistinct radio chatter]
♪ ♪
- But other than a smashed bottle,
There was no other evidence to go on.
Their best bet is to find a witness.
- Police conducted an area canvas.
They're hoping to first,
Identify someone who might have seen or heard something.
But at this particular point, there are no witnesses found.
♪ ♪
- It's now after dawn.
As the officers wrap up the scene,
Alan sack, who just left the hospital,
Faces the terrible task
Of delivering the devastating news.
♪ ♪
- Monday July 3rd, I'm getting ready to go to my job...
[phone ringing] and the phone rings.
And it's alan sack,
And he says, "peggy, I have some bad news for you
Regarding julio."
♪ ♪
And when he said julio's dead...
You hear it, but it's an echo.
He's dead? He's dead?
♪ ♪
It's difficult to-to...
To absorb.
It's difficult to absorb.
♪ ♪
[somber music]
Julio was a lot of fun.
♪ ♪
He was so extraordinarily handsome.
He looked like a really,
Really good-looking freddie mercury.
And that was his era, you know?
He always was true to himself.
Julio wanted to share his gay life with us.
♪ ♪
Julio's family are puerto rican.
They lived in what we call the projects in the bronx.
The bronx had to be a tough place for julio to grow up.
His homosexuality became more and more evident.
Julio was definitely
Made fun of and ridiculed and harassed
To the point that he was not going to school a lot.
Julio had to learn how to hold his own.
♪ ♪
I absolutely know that julio wanted to get out.
He, of course, discovers the gay community in queens
And moves to jackson heights.
Julio was happy to find life in jackson heights,
And beloved by anyone who had time to spend with him.
When we found out that julio was murdered,
It's devastating to hear news like that.
It's crushing.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Back at the 115 precinct,
Detectives have little to go on.
But by late morning,
The medical examiner submits an autopsy report,
And the results are disturbing.
♪ ♪
- The medical examiner notes
Numerous facial and head injuries
Indicative of being assaulted, blunt trauma.
Some of those wounds are consistent
With being struck with a claw hammer.
- And then he suffered from a single stab wound to the back,
Where it punctured his lung,
Which they deemed to be the fatal blow.
♪ ♪
It's a vicious, violent crime.
♪ ♪
- Results from a toxicology test
Are also included in the medical examiner's report.
It offers detectives a possible motive.
- Cocaine was found in his bloodstream.
It's pretty significant in this case
That the homicide was probably
The result of something to do with narcotics.
- The detectives knew that
Around ps 69, there was lots of drug sales going on.
It was a easier conclusion to come to
That it was drug-related.
♪ ♪
- But alan and other friends who knew julio
Weren't buying the drug theory.
- Alan never, never thought this was a drug deal gone bad.
He knew julio well.
So the idea that julio
Was mixed up in that kind of activity
Was just ridiculous.
But what was much more likely
And much more common was
Violence against gay men in that area.
- It was the community who knew that they were being attacked
And that this was not what had happened.
♪ ♪
- They just try to slough me off,
But they weren't getting rid of me,
'cause I used to go there twice a week.
- And when they don't respond,
You have to elevate the pressure.
- Lieutenant byrd went undercover.
Pulled up in his own motorcycle and walked in the bar.
You don't want people to know that you're a cop.
- He went out with the intentions of killing somebody.
[tense bassy music]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- The morning after the gruesome assault
That led to the death of julio rivera,
Police in the 115 precinct have no solid leads to go on.
All they have is a toxicology report
And a working theory that drugs may have led to the attack.
♪ ♪
- Unfortunately, the police at the 115 precinct
Dug in their heels.
They were like, "no, no, we know what this story is.
"we know this is an area of illicit activity.
We're following what makes the most sense to us."
- But julio's friends are ready to push back.
- I told the detective assigned to the case
That I know that julio, at the age of 29,
Was slaughtered in the schoolyard
Blocks from here
For no other reason except the fact that he was gay.
♪ ♪
- Devastated and angry,
Alan reaches out to the only organization in new york
Focusing on anti-gay hate crimes.
Called the anti-violence project,
He reaches matt foreman.
- For many years,
We'd seen wave after wave
Of anti-gay crimes,
And the summer that julio was murdered,
We went for 13 consecutive weeks
Where a gay person or a lesbian person
Was hospitalized as the result
Of an anti-gay or lesbian attack.
[indistinct chatter, whistle blowing]
- New york city in 1990
Was the epicenter of the aids pandemic.
Public fear and ignorance of the disease
Was being turned into hate and violence.
- The aids crisis contributed to anti-gay violence
Because of the demonization of people with aids
By the church and politicians.
"oh, they're causing this deadly disease.
They're disease-spreaders."
[somber music]
- In jackson heights, alan had arranged a meeting
At the popular gay bar, the magic touch,
Led by matt foreman for julio's loved ones.
- Alan sack called me and said, "peggy,
I want you to be a part of this."
Well, that's the first time I met matt foreman.
- Julio's family and friends
Were not used to dealing with hate crime.
This was a murder of a loved one.
But coming from the anti-violence project,
Where you see hate crimes just cascading every weekend,
It was clear to us the murder itself was,
You know, classic case of overkill.
♪ ♪
- Matt is told that the police focused on ps 69
As a place to cop drugs, but in jackson heights,
It's also known for something else.
- The block or two around ps 69 was a gay cruising area.
So it was a place where if you want to go out
And beat up a gay person, that's where you go.
Everyone knew that.
The viciousness of the crime and where it occurred
All led to the opposite assumption
Of the police department.
This was a hate crime.
We all came away thinking,
"we've gotta do something here.
We want to focus on justice for julio."
[tense music]
- Over the next several weeks,
Matt and alan went to work on law enforcement.
- We called at the nypd,
Wrote letters to the commanding officer
Of the 115 precinct, and basically got no response.
- Went over to the 115 precinct and said,
"so what kind of progress are you making?"
They just try to slough me off.
But they weren't getting rid of me,
You know, 'cause I used to go there twice a week.
[somber music]
- The case did come to a bit of an investigative lull,
However, by no means closed.
No new leads are being developed,
So the gay community's very frustrated
In regards to this crime.
- With the nypd, when they don't respond,
You have to elevate the pressure.
[tense music]
[siren wailing]
We decided we were gonna have a March in jackson heights.
And we knew that that would be
The first lgbt March in jackson heights.
- Lgbtq people didn't March in queens.
They were afraid of being exposed,
They were afraid of being seen by potential gay-bashers.
- But when it struck home and it was julio,
There were a number of us that said,
"this is it. We've had enough."
[tense music]
- There had been a lot of outreach
To other gay and lesbian groups.
Matt had put out, like, you know, an apb.
"we want you to participate in this demonstration."
♪ ♪
- 15 minutes before it's about to start...
And you hear the 7 train
Coming up on the tracks above ground.
You can hear the rumbling underground.
- And all of a sudden, the train comes in...
And hordes of people
Are pouring out of this train station.
[uplifting music]
- This sea of gay men and lesbians.
And there's, like, hundreds and hundreds of people
That never met julio,
That never heard the name julio rivera.
♪ ♪
- Alan and matt are breathing this sigh of relief
That we really do have strength in numbers.
They showed up.
All: No more violence! No more violence!
- It was the outrage over
A murder of someone in your community.
♪ ♪
- An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us.
- The site of the spot
Where julio rivera had his life stolen away from him.
The strategy behind doing the March was
Increase pressure on the police department
And raise greater awareness in jackson heights
To find out if there were any witnesses,
If anyone knew anything.
All: No more violence!
- After the vigil,
Then people really started to get more and more involved.
All: No more violence! No more violence!
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- But even with the jackson heights community
Now fully engaged, two more months pass
With no new movement on the case,
So they brought their anger
To the doorstep of the mayor of new york, david dinkins.
[whistling and clapping]
♪ ♪
- We want to take the case directly to the mayor.
Because ultimately,
He's in charge of the police department.
- We stormed gracie mansion.
All: David dinkins, don't you know?
Homophobe killed julio!
David dinkins, don't you know?
- And there are about 300 of us.
There was red paint, signifying blood.
And so take signs, you know?
[tense music]
"100 days have already passed. Who killed julio rivera?"
[all chanting]
♪ ♪
- Mayor dinkins was finally aware
Of the fever pitch outrage over the case of julio rivera.
♪ ♪
- Once the gay community made its point
And really managed to put pressure and build awareness,
The police started to respond, finally.
[dramatic music]
- The tireless work of the activists paid off,
And now at the direction of the mayor,
The queens da's office and their best lieutenant,
George byrd, is assigned to take a fresh look at the case.
- When I get an investigation, I start from the bottom
As if it was a cold case.
I'm like a pit bull.
I get on a case, I don't let go.
♪ ♪
- Finally, a witness came forward.
- The eyewitness saw three people fleeing the location,
Two of them being skinheads.
- If you're in a gay community
And you see skinheads in your area,
You know it's trouble.
♪ ♪
[tense bassy music]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- After public outrage
And pressure on the mayor of new york,
The queens district attorney
Has directed lieutenant george byrd
To throw everything he's got
Into finding out who killed julio rivera.
♪ ♪
- Once we got to the district attorney's office,
Lieutenant george byrd went after this case
With unrelentless pursuit.
♪ ♪
- When I got involved in this particular case,
I reached out to the gay community
And also the area in which this crime took place.
I was able to talk to them in such a way
That they were comfortable enough
And they would trust me, okay, to do the right thing.
And because of that,
Information started to flow in my direction.
Changed the whole case.
[tense music]
- After nearly five months since julio's murder,
They get the break they've been hoping for.
- We needed witnesses.
And finally, a witness came forward.
The gay community pushed them forward to come in.
♪ ♪
- A gentleman by the name of tony aris
Who happens to be a gay male prostitute,
He provides some key details,
Which is very helpful to investigators.
♪ ♪
- Tony explained to me that the night of the incident,
Tony was working that night, the cruising area.
Men would come in in cars. He'd get picked up.
They would have their transaction in the vehicle,
And tony would get right back in the street.
♪ ♪
- Tony tells lieutenant byrd
At approximately 2:00 a.M. On July 3rd,
He noticed julio rivera at ps 69.
♪ ♪
- He saw julio rivera go back to this alcove...
♪ ♪
Where he was approached by one individual.
And this individual had long hair.
- Tony's attention turns to another trick.
15 minutes pass and he's back.
- He just finished with a client,
And now, he sees three males
Leave this alcove, running.
Two of them were skinheads.
Two of them were wearing doc marten boots.
One had a tattoo,
A double-headed eagle on his arm.
The one with the longer hair was the individual
He saw talking to julio.
♪ ♪
One was carrying a hammer and one was carrying a wrench.
♪ ♪
These were weapons that match the wounds on the deceased
Based on the autopsy report.
♪ ♪
- Armed with this new, vital intel on potential suspects,
Police are eager to canvas jackson heights
For any leads on known skinhead gangs in the area.
- There was word in the street
That there was a group of skinheads
Who were trying to establish
A form of control in jackson heights,
And they were known as dms.
Doc martens skinheads or death machine skinheads.
Never heard of 'em, didn't know anything about 'em.
♪ ♪
- Dms was not on the nypd gang unit's radar,
But when they search for signs of them in jackson heights,
They find them.
- You would see tags
On buildings, on fences, on schools.
Dms, dms, dms.
♪ ♪
- Doc martens skinheads have marked their territory,
And lieutenant byrd wants to meet them face-to-face.
♪ ♪
- Detectives learn that dms,
That hangs out in jackson heights
Sections of queens,
And frequent an establishment
Or a bar in queens known as kennedy bar.
- So in order for me
To find out what this was all about,
How could I get in there?
[suspenseful music]
- Lieutenant george byrd decides
He is going to go undercover within kennedy's bar.
[whistling and chatter]
- At kennedy's, everyone knows who comes in or out.
Dms has staked its claim here, and going in undercover
Could mean putting his life on the line.
- I have a harley-davidson.
When you pull up to a place on a motorcycle
Wearing a jean jacket...
♪ ♪
Park it right in front of the place,
Get off the bike, throw your helmet down on the ground...
Walk in the door, everybody loves you.
♪ ♪
And that's what I did.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
- Lieutenant byrd settles in at the bar
And keeps his ears open.
♪ ♪
He spies a man with a tough, skinhead look
And casually starts a conversation.
- An individual by the name of army dan,
Who was dressed in army-type clothes,
He was a skinhead, a part of the dms scene.
I was trying to ascertain from him what he knew
Just in casual conversation.
If I would've identified myself,
The walls would've gone up
And the information would've stopped.
- After a few drinks, army dan starts talking
And the case finally breaks open.
- Army dan tells him he may have some information
About the rivera homicide.
[dramatic music]
- And he was very free with information.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Working undercover, lieutenant byrd
Has dms member, army dan, right where he wants him.
[suspenseful music]
- Army dan was a great informant to me
Because he was giving me all the,
You know, workings of dms.
I found out that dms
Was made up of different ethnic groups,
So it wasn't like a white supremacist group.
That wasn't the case.
Dms was established as trying to keep jackson heights
A certain type of place.
They did not want this influx of gay people coming in.
They're kind of bragging about
This individual who was murdered
Or killed in jackson heights.
[ominous music]
- Lieutenant byrd has heard enough.
The following day,
Army dan is brought into the station house for questioning.
He is told he is a suspect in the murder of julio rivera,
So he better talk.
- Army dan's questioned extensively,
And denies any knowledge of the crime.
They continue to press him,
Continue to go at him a little bit,
And finally, he says
That the crime was committed
By three particular individuals, dms members,
And he discloses the identity of those individuals as
Esat bici, as dan doyle, and erik brown.
The eyewitness saw
Three people fleeing the location.
- Army dan tells me that there was a party that took place
The night julio was found murdered
At an individual's house by the name of danny doyle.
[tense music]
So danny doyle was there and erik brown,
And esat bici-- they called esat "ed."
They drank and they were there for a period of time.
♪ ♪
Toward the end of the party,
Now it's, "let's go out, let's go do something for dms."
♪ ♪
- Army dan says that's all he remembers.
Detectives release him
And turn a laser focus on these new suspects.
- Investigators decide they're gonna bring in
Esat "ed" bici, dan doyle, and erik brown.
- All three suspects are known locals and were easy to find,
But when they are brought in for questioning,
All three have suspiciously changed their appearance.
- Esat bici has grown out his hair.
Dan doyle as well.
Erik brown, who was described as having longer hair,
Has sort of cut his hair,
Trimmed it down, and dyed it another color.
- They didn't want to be out in jackson heights
Looking like they did.
- Erik brown was a bright kid. College student.
20-year-old daniel doyle was the son of an nypd detective.
- 18-year-old esat bici is of albanian descent,
Fully embraced the skinhead movement.
Esat bici also has a large, double-headed eagle tattoo,
Albanian-style flag tattooed on his arm.
♪ ♪
- This tattoo matches
The eyewitness description perfectly.
Detectives are sure they got the right guys,
But when they interview each separately,
They're all in lockstep with their answers.
- All three individuals deny any knowledge
Of having any affiliation or any part of any role
In the julio rivera homicide, and at that point,
Disclosed nothing else.
- With no hard evidence to keep them,
All police could do was treat them as suspects,
Get their mugshots and prints, and let them go.
♪ ♪
- Enough time had passed by
That they felt like, "we got it made."
You know, "no one's really gonna make a case against us.
They don't have any evidence. They don't have anything."
- But our attitude was we're not gonna make it that easy.
We go back to our eyewitness at the crime scene, tony aris.
- In order to get an id,
I did a photo array.
And the photo array's made up of six photos.
Esat bici in one of them,
Danny doyle in another one,
And erik brown in the other one.
♪ ♪
Tony aris picked out all three.
- Lieutenant byrd now has two witnesses
Who have given him positive ids on the alleged killers,
But if the case goes to trial, he knows he needs more.
- If you're prosecuting a case,
You need to have enough evidence to win your case.
I had what I had, but I didn't have enough.
- He wanted a confession,
But as soon as they were told they were suspects,
Esat bici and erik brown had lawyered up.
Danny doyle was his only hope.
- Danny doyle's father was retired law enforcement.
I laid the cards on the table.
I said to him, "look."
Either danny doyle was gonna
Take the fall for this by himself
Or he was going to work out
Some type of cooperation agreement
With the da's office.
What would be the best outcome for your son?
And at that point in time,
Danny doyle became available for me to interview.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tense bassy music]
[sirens wailing]
- Detectives have three positively id'd suspects
In the murder of julio rivera,
And the queens da's office and lieutenant byrd
Are doing everything they can to lock in their case.
Danny doyle is the key that they need.
- Okay, now mr. Doyle, I understand that
You have a statement to make to us this morning.
- Yes.
- Danny doyle took me through
Every step of the night of the party.
♪ ♪
- On the night of July 1st,
I had an informal gathering at my house.
People that I know.
After the party had disassembled,
I was left at the house with two of my guests.
Myself, erik brown, and ed.
- Before they leave, danny goes over,
Opens his father's toolbox, comes out with a claw hammer,
Comes out with a pipe wrench,
And somewhere, this little knife,
Thin-bladed knife.
He issues the weapons out.
- We ended up going to 34th avenue
Somewhere in the mid-70s.
- Why would you be taking weapons?
Why would you be carrying these things
If you were just gonna go out skipping along the highway?
♪ ♪
They had bad intentions when they left the house.
So basically, it was a hunting party.
- Approximately 10:00 to 2:00 that morning,
We then proceeded towards ps 69,
Which is on 37th avenue and 78th street.
- Ps 69, known cruising area, drug location,
And what do they see?
Julio standing there.
And danny doyle tells erik brown
To go up to that guy and tell him, "sex for drugs."
♪ ♪
They walk around to the alcove.
The other two come up out of the darkness
And now, they approach julio.
Bici hits him over the head with a beer bottle.
♪ ♪
The assault starts.
- What was the first thing that you did?
- I hit the guy with my fist.
♪ ♪
And I saw ed pull a carpenter's hammer
From his lower back.
♪ ♪
- What type of hammer was it?
- Clawed on one side and blunt on the other.
So ed's swinging the hammer.
♪ ♪
At this point, the gentleman was...
Was crouched over.
And he was standing, but he was bent over.
And ed started bludgeoning him with the hammer again.
♪ ♪
- How hard ed was hitting
This gentleman with the hammer?
- With full force.
- And when you say with full force,
What do you mean by that?
- As hard as he could.
♪ ♪
Erik pulled from his pant leg
A plumber's wrench.
♪ ♪
And at that point,
He swung it up and the guy was bent over
And it hit him somewhere in the facial area.
And he was swinging it
As hard and as fast as he could, it seemed to me.
Vigorously.
- And what did you do with the knife?
- I took the knife and I
Swung it down and it entered the guy's back.
- Danny doyle was the one who caused the final death blow.
♪ ♪
It was that one stab wound.
It basically punctured his lung.
♪ ♪
- The puncture caused him to bleed internally.
He was basically drowning in his own blood.
♪ ♪
- Danny doyle had admitted to murder
On tape and was arrested,
But what danny wouldn't admit to in his first statement
Is why they targeted julio.
The da's office wanted a clear motive.
- When you look at intent-- now again, my job, intent.
I've got to present this to a da
And they gotta present it to a jury.
Who had the most intent to hurt this person?
- Lieutenant byrd keeps danny talking
And safe until the trial.
As a cop's kid with a violent temper,
Byrd knew his days could be numbered at riker's island.
- But I had to take danny doyle out of a facility
Every day for his own protection.
So I had him and the whole time I had him,
I'm getting information. It's nonstop.
He told me that there was hatred,
Hatred for the gay community.
They didn't want to see this in their community.
So what do you do?
"let's exterminate 'em, let's get 'em out of here."
♪ ♪
There was no doubt about it in my mind it was a hate crime.
And so with that, we put that in his case
That this was a hate crime.
- The da's office offers danny doyle a plea deal--
Manslaughter and a shorter sentence
In exchange for his full testimony,
Which includes testifying against esat and erik
In front of a jury.
Dan doyle takes the plea.
[siren wailing]
- Now at that particular time,
Hate crimes being described in the gay community
Really wasn't something widely talked about,
If ever talked about.
♪ ♪
- No one in the state of new york had ever
Been tried and convicted of an anti-gay hate crime.
The stakes for this historical trial could not be higher.
- Going into the trial, we were concerned.
There was always the possibility
That something could go wrong.
♪ ♪
[tense bassy music]
[suspenseful music]
- On November 3rd, 1991,
The trial against suspected killers, esat bici,
Erik brown, and danny doyle,
Begins at the state supreme court in queens.
With the help of danny's testimony,
Positive ids on all three, and esat's tattoo,
Prosecutors set out to prove
This was a crime motivated by hate.
♪ ♪
- Going into trial, dan mccarthy,
The da at that time,
Put together his group of prosecutors.
You're talking-- you got top guns here.
Danny doyle, we got him on the stand
And testified the truth.
♪ ♪
- For julio's family, the trial was the first time
They would hear the gruesome account
Of what happened on July 2nd.
- It was so horrific
To hear danny doyle describe
The details of the murder.
♪ ♪
During the trial, they introduce a claw hammer.
In order to prove that he was hit with a hammer...
♪ ♪
They measured the circumference
Of the hammer marks on his arms
As he's raising his arms to defend himself.
He was screaming,
"they're killing me, they're killing me."
I had no idea
That that's what happened.
It's beyond our comprehension to do that to a human being.
How do you do that?
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- The prosecution and the defense teams battle it out
For two weeks in front of judge and jury.
- The mood in the courtroom was always tense.
Would the pieces that the prosecution put together
Be enough to sustain a conviction?
[somber music]
- When both sides rested,
Family and friends in the gay community
Who rallied for justice waited with bated breath
As the jury deliberated for three solid days.
- I remember the verdict came back,
It was 10:00, 11:00 in the morning.
♪ ♪
Everybody's in the courtroom.
The jury stands up to give the verdict.
Guilty.
- Erik brown and esat bici are found guilty
Of second-degree murder, facing life sentences.
Danny doyle, after the plea,
Is sentenced up to 25 years in prison.
♪ ♪
- When the verdict came back guilty,
It was a monumental relief
And a monumental feeling of,
"we did get justice for julio."
♪ ♪
- The julio rivera case
Marks the first gay hate crime conviction
In new york state history.
[cheers and applause]
Later that night, friends, family,
And the lgbtq community in jackson heights
Marched again, only this time,
To mark this bittersweet victory.
[cheers and applause]
- There were storekeepers on 37th avenue
That lit candles outside their stores
And restaurants, straight-owned businesses.
This is really one of our own.
Julio wasn't alone.
As I look around, I think we were all here that night.
We've been here after that night,
The night of the candlelight vigil,
And we're here tonight.
[cheers and applause]
- Justice for everyone!
♪ ♪
- Julio's murder brought to the forefront
The violence against homosexuals
In our community and in our nation.
It was astounding,
And it brought more stories to the surface.
It allowed the police to take it more seriously.
There was a tremendous impact.
[bittersweet music]
- We all consider this as the case
Where we learned we needed to do better,
And we did.
This eventually led to an nypd unit specially trained
To investigate anti-lgbtq violence.
♪ ♪
- Our society's come a long, long way.
Law enforcement has come way, way past that.
I give the credit to the gay community.
Because they're the ones that pressured the mayor's office,
Pressured the police department,
So when the people stand up
And say, "hey," you know, "we're here," you know,
"what are you gonna do? We're not going away."
They gotta listen, and that's what happened.
Things got changed.
♪ ♪
- I think julio would be very pleased
That his suffering
And his murder led to
Such a tremendous impact
That it had on a community, a nation.
A world, really.
- It was a very big political victory
For the gay community,
And it was a very high price to pay.