- A beloved young man is brutally killed...
In the close-knit community of spanish harlem.
- Jason was stabbed more than 50 times.
- Boom, boom, boom, continuous stab wounds.
- I was scared the neighborhood was gonna kill me.
[siren wails]
- A possible lead inside law enforcement.
- We were leery of the parole officer.
We were like, "this isn't right."
- Zero forensic evidence and no leads.
- No one saw anything, heard anything.
We have no fingerprints, no dna, nothing.
- But a stash of personal photographs provides
An unexpected clue.
- There were two individuals.
They were in maybe 80 to 90 of those photos.
- Those people are not from my neighborhood.
I know my neighborhood. They're not from there.
- Something bad is here.
- Conflicting statements...
- Your boy is here,
And he's telling us you did it.
He goes, "no, I held him down."
- And a ghastly confession.
- A really heartless killing.
- I'm just like, "wow. These people are evil."
[dramatic musical sting]
[tense bassy music]
♪ ♪
[light, ambient music]
[siren wails]
- Hey. - [laughs]
- Spanish harlem, in the northeast of manhattan,
Is one of the most culturally diverse communities
In new york city...
Especially in the summertime,
When the streets are full of life--music playing,
Everyone sharing food and the latest gossip.
[tense music]
But for me, it also brings
To mind the haunting case of jason adams.
Jason was a beloved neighbor and a role model
For the neighborhood children.
[siren wails]
But one Friday in the fall of 1998,
A friend of jason's makes a frantic 911 call.
[siren wails]
- We were notified before 9:00 in the morning,
And we went out immediately on it.
[siren wails]
[indistinct radio chatter]
When we got to jason's apartment,
We talked briefly with the 911 caller.
He told us jason asked
To call him in the morning to wake him.
They were supposed to hang out that day.
[phone rings]
But jason didn't answer the phone.
[phone ringing] so that worried him
Because he had called repeatedly.
So he went to jason's apartment
And got some pennies from his pocket
And started throwing them up at the window
And starts calling up to him from the street.
Again, no answer.
The lobby door was locked,
So the friend waited for someone to come out,
And he then went in the building.
He proceeded up the stairs to jason's apartment
And he noticed the door came open.
[door creaks]
So right away he knew something was wrong.
He went in cautiously, calling jason's name.
He looked into what was jason's bedroom,
And he could see jason's foot
And the whole bed and the floor covered in blood.
- He backed out of the apartment
Without touching or really moving the body
And/or disturbing anything and called 911.
- He had no idea as to who possibly could have done
Such a thing, and he was pretty shook up by what he saw.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Jason was found partially nude,
Facedown on his bed.
It was a very bloody scene.
The medical examiner was just shaking his head.
- There were numerous stab wounds visible
As soon as you entered the room.
- I personally lost count after 40.
[dark music]
It was all come-- boom, boom, boom,
Continuous stab wounds.
All the stab wounds were posterior--
On his back and the rear of him,
The back of his head, the back of his chest,
His lower back, his buttocks, and his legs,
But there were no defense wounds.
That means that he was ambushed from behind,
So he never had a chance to fight back.
♪ ♪
- Jason was stabbed more than 50 times.
That's an indication of some kind of rage.
- It was a passionate thing.
There was overkill.
- It was impossible to have walked in this apartment
And left the apartment without having gotten blood
On at least the bottom of your sneaker or shoes.
- And yet there was no trail of blood
Leaving the apartment.
And there were no prints other than the victim's.
- As to the time of death,
We didn't really have a precise time,
But from the state of rigor mortis,
We believe that the murder had happened
In the early-morning hours
Or the evening before the body was discovered.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Jason's friend knew the apartment,
Had been in it before,
And he noticed right away that the tv was missing
And some other electronic equipment
From the usual place where they would be.
But the fact that there was so many stab wounds
Was an indication that it was more than a robbery.
It lends support to the idea
That this was someone who knew the deceased
And was angry enough to engage
In 50 stab wounds.
- The crime scene checked the locks.
He had, like, four locks on the door.
It's a new york apartment.
The locks were all intact.
That indicates to us
That he let his assailant in or the assailant had keys.
- Detectives needed to know if jason had any enemies
In the neighborhood or anybody that had a grudge
Or any kind of vengeance against him.
- Detective wagner and his partners
Begin to canvass the building and nearby neighborhood.
We learned jason adams grew up
In the projects--wilson houses off of 1st avenue.
- I'm from the wilson housing projects.
There was drug dealing, people using the drugs,
But jason-- he wasn't selling drugs.
He wasn't doing drugs-- such a good man.
He was the helping hand.
I remember I was about five years old,
And the elevator's always broken down,
And he just grabbed me.
I looked back--"who's this?"
I thought it was my older brother--no, it was jason.
And he'll pick me up 12 flights of steps.
- As an adult, jason moved up one block
Into his apartment on east 106th street
And found work at manna house,
A local community center that teaches music and dance.
- Jason was the building porter.
He took care of all the building issues,
Taking out the trash, sweeping the hallway,
If there's a spill or something...
He always wanted to help and uplift.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- I caught up with a very important person
At manna house.
How do you like working at manna house?
- I enjoy it a great deal.
It's just been a privilege to be able to work
In my neighborhood and be able to enhance the area
By keeping it clean and also associating
With some nice people who come back and forth through here
At the manna house program.
- I met jason livin' on that same street.
Right around the corner on 105th street,
There was this old candy store,
And he worked there as well.
He was like a mr. Rogers
But a real-life mr. Rogers, you know?
- There was times he gave us two bucks, four bucks
For some pizza.
He was like the pope. [chuckles]
The pope for us kids in harlem.
- People in the neighborhood are pretty decent people.
It's just that some of them might be misguided
And misdirected.
Some of them giving up to their surroundings
And figure that they can't do any better,
But you got to keep pushing.
You can't give up. You can't give in.
- He was happy he obtained a ged,
And he saw himself as our role model.
He's the hardworking man in the neighborhood.
Everyone loved him.
- Detectives could find nobody who could point their finger
At anybody who jason had ever had a problem with
That could potentially lead to something like this.
- So why was this person killed,
Especially that brutally?
♪ ♪
- As detectives continue to canvass into the evening,
Fear and rumors fly through the neighborhood.
[siren chirps]
- I was 17 years old.
They were questioning people in my building.
It was like a movie.
I was scared.
I felt like the neighborhood was gonna kill me.
♪ ♪
- It was just something you cannot imagine.
Now you had to be careful
Because you didn't know who you were gonna encounter,
Who was gonna do what to you.
- That's when my attitude of "don't trust"...
Began.
Don't trust no one.
- It's getting on late at night.
My partner and I were kind of at wits' end
As far as canvassing
And trying to locate anybody
That might have seen him or heard something
That might've happened.
So then we return to jason's apartment.
We went in a little more in depth.
And so we find personal papers,
And what we ended up finding a lot of
Were snapshots.
They were scattered throughout the apartment.
We ended up recovering two garbage bags full
Of personal snapshots.
Let's say 200 photos.
- We will use those photographs
To try to identify the friends and acquaintances
And anybody that might have been connected to him
To try to determine who killed him.
- Then as we started packing up,
We find a card belonging to a parole officer
In the bronx.
But we found out that jason had never been arrested.
No one in his family had been arrested.
They were all stand-up citizens.
We were perplexed by it.
We could not make sense of it all--
The ferocity and the fierceness of this crime
To someone who was so saintlike,
And why he had this parole officer's card.
It even had a little tinge of blood on it.
- Coming up...
- Oh, my god.
Here comes this guy.
He's a notorious cop fighter.
He tells us, "I saw jason
"with two guys who I know were bad,
And I told him, 'don't hang with these guys.'"
- He trusted the wrong people.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- 34-year-old murder victim jason adams
Never had any kind of run-in with the law,
But we found a blood-spattered business card
In his wallet belonging to a parole officer.
- We couldn't understand why he had
This parole officer's card.
So immediately we had gone
To see this parole officer in the bronx.
♪ ♪
Originally, he's very helpful.
He has us sit down-- very polite.
We asked him, "this is your card?"
"yeah."
"well, do you recognize this individual?"
And we showed him jason's picture.
"no."
You mean this guy, who was a saint,
Never been in trouble,
None of his family's ever been in trouble,
Has your card amongst his belongings?
There's even blood on it.
And your answer to me is,
"well, a lot of people have my cards"?
Okay.
[foreboding music]
We couldn't believe it.
At which point he said, "gentlemen, I have work to do.
Can you please leave?"
And we did.
But we looked at each other.
Again, we were like, "this isn't right."
It bothered us.
We don't know the extent
The parole officer might be involved in this,
If he is involved at all.
It's something we have to keep in mind.
♪ ♪
[siren wails]
- Wagner and his partner
Decide to keep an eye on the parole officer.
But for now, they return to the precinct
And begin to sort through the 200 personal photographs
Documenting jason's life.
This is the best lead we have to find whoever did this.
- A bunch of detectives-- we were taking turns
Breaking down the photos into some sort
Of semblance of order, some groups.
And we could tell, well, these are the guys dressed
In the housing-maintenance uniforms.
All right, so those are his coworkers.
And the family would come in and help us.
"oh, no, he's a cousin."
Okay, put him in the family pile.
And some of the photos that we found
Were of males naked from the chest up.
It was fairly well-known among the people that knew jason
That he was gay.
- But none of the pictures he had of anybody
Could indicate if any of the people were
In a relationship with him.
We ended up with a pile of unknowns,
And in that pile of unknowns, there was two individuals.
They were in maybe 80 to 90 of those photos.
♪ ♪
No family or other friends or coworkers
Could identify these two individuals.
♪ ♪
- Those people are not from my neighborhood.
I know my neighborhood. They're not from there.
You know, this is the '90s, spanish harlem.
Everybody stuck to their street.
Everybody from 106th street knew everybody,
And I've never seen them with jason.
- No one could identify 'em.
These are mystery people.
- The rape kit came back negative.
There was no dna evidence found
Other than the deceased's own dna.
- No one saw anything, heard anything
That would help us in our case.
♪ ♪
- It's now ten days into the investigation,
And with so little to go on,
Detective wagner decides to attend jason's funeral.
[bell tolling]
- The funeral had a lot of people there.
It was a sad day.
The neighborhood just became sad,
Like a cloud went over.
- It hits home because jason was from home,
From the neighborhood, the community.
It did put a void in me.
[somber music]
- To lose somebody like that,
It shook the whole neighborhood,
Not just 106th street,
But, like, all of 1st avenue, just everybody.
Everybody was just quiet.
♪ ♪
- I was there not only because it's for me
To show solidarity and respect to the family
And let the family know, we're working
On your loved one's case,
But you want to identify everyone there.
- Wagner's presence fuels new rumors
About the two strangers
Pictured in jason's photographs,
And the detectives are now looking for them
At the funeral.
- Someone that knew jason had to do this.
I would ask myself if this person is here,
'cause if you knew him
And if you was his friend or anywhere around him,
You would have to attend the funeral, right?
If you don't attend the funeral,
You're hiding something.
Yeah, I felt like something bad is here.
- But the two mystery men do not show,
And wagner leaves the funeral with no new leads.
It's over a week since jason's passing,
And the question of, "who could commit
Such a cold-blooded killing, and why?" lies heavy.
So detectives resort to a second canvass
Of jason's neighborhood.
[dramatic music]
- We had to go out very early in the morning
To catch the people going to work.
Then we had to come back in the afternoon
To catch the people coming home from work.
We spoke to hundreds of people.
Again, nothing.
We got nothing.
- But then out of the blue, detective wagner gets a break.
We're leaning on a car opposite the entrance to his building,
And my partner notices a guy coming around the corner
From 1st avenue.
And he goes, "oh, my god."
Here comes this guy, and we know him
For years.
He's a notorious cop fighter.
Every time he'd get arrested,
He'd fight the cops.
He's coming to talk to us.
We look at each other-- "that's weird,"
But we're gonna listen.
And he tells us, "listen, guys.
"you know how I feel about you,
But jason I know since we're little"--
You know, he puts his hand down to his knee--
"since we're this high.
"and I saw jason with two guys
"who I know were bad.
And I told him, 'don't hang with these guys.'"
- And then he said he had served time with them,
That they were all incarcerated at the same time
At oneida correctional facility in upstate new york.
- Detective wagner pulls out one of the photos
Found in jason's apartment
And points to the two unknown men.
- He says, "these are the two guys.
"one of 'em's name's richie.
"richie especially is bad.
"the other guy, I just know he was upstate,
"so I know he was a convict,
But his name, I don't recall."
- We knew that this was likely a homicide
That was involving two people,
Given the number of stab wounds,
And that somebody was probably holding down
While another stabbed.
- So then we said to him, "richie who?"
And he said, "he's a spanish kid.
He used to work in foot locker on 3rd avenue."
[suspenseful music]
Okay, now we go to 3rd avenue.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives in spanish harlem have zero forensic evidence
In the murder of jason adams,
But after tirelessly canvassing the neighborhood,
11 days in, we finally catch a break.
A source has given us the first name
Of one of the two unknown men
Found in dozens of jason's photographs
And told us where this man used to work.
- We asked the manager in this foot locker...
"did you have a guy named richie used to work here?"
"sure. We fired him. He was horrible.
He started stealing stuff. We had to get rid of him."
Well, his name was richie rivera.
We put "richie rivera" into the database...
And we come up with a career criminal.
We obtain his photo, and sure enough,
His photo matched one of the unknowns.
♪ ♪
We find out richie's also on parole in manhattan
For a robbery.
We checked the name of his parole officer,
But it was not the name of the parole officer
In the bronx.
- We found out he was good at meeting his appointments
And coming in as scheduled.
So, given that, we felt confident
That he would show up for his parole appointment.
- Now we know that if anytime we need him,
We can pick him up.
Okay, that's good.
But first, we had to get the second guy id'd.
We don't go after an individual right away like that
When there's another individual involved,
Because, again, once you start making inquiries
About someone, it might get out on the street.
We don't know who he is, where he is.
What's his connection to him? He could be richie's brother.
Let's say it is richie's brother.
He's not gonna give him up.
And if richie knows we're after him, he's in the wind.
The streets talk.
♪ ♪
- The detectives knew the unknown second person
Was incarcerated with richie rivera
And our informant at oneida correctional facility.
♪ ♪
So the only recourse was to go and show those photographs
To corrections officers up there
And hope that one of them could identify him.
♪ ♪
[door buzzes]
- We ended up interviewing every co and supervisors
On the day shift.
- And everybody knew richie rivera.
- Yeah, he did loud time.
"loud time" meant that wherever
There was a scuffle or an outbreak
Or someone was screaming, richie was in the midst of it.
Every fight, every pushing and shoving.
We've done everyone that we could possibly do
On the first shift,
And we're still nowhere closer
To identifying the second individual.
♪ ♪
It's getting on late at night.
We've been up since maybe 4:30, 5:00 in the morning
With maybe having two or three hours' sleep.
You're going on adrenaline,
And that's when partners keep the other partner going.
You feed off each other's energy.
So now we wait
For the second shift to come in.
The cos start filtering in,
And maybe someone now can id him.
♪ ♪
And we're, like, 30 officers into the second shift.
And we're almost at the point
That we might have to talk to a couple of prisoners,
But we don't want to do that
Because that could blow the whistle
On what we're doing.
The 40th guy we spoke to on that shift
Says, "yeah, I know the guy.
His name is ralph, ralph marrero."
Ralph did quiet time.
He'd go to services on Sunday, religious services.
He minded his business.
We found out he, too, was on parole...
And the name of his parole officer
Was the name of the parole officer
That we found on the business card
That jason had.
♪ ♪
- The database shows that ralph's next appointment
With the parole officer is in six days,
A day before richie rivera's upcoming appointment
With his officer in a different part of town.
In a strategic move not to tip off ralph's parole officer,
Who had already given wagner a bad feeling,
We reached out to richie's officer
To match his appointment with ralph's.
- This way we had them both going
To their respective parole officers the same day,
So we can basically know where they are
At the same point in time.
One's all the way in the bronx,
And one's in manhattan
On west 40th street.
So it's gonna require different teams of detectives
Going different locations.
Me and my partner--
We'll wait for richie to show up in manhattan parole.
The parole officer goes, "yeah, I'll let you know
When he comes in, no problem."
We grabbed a couple of plainclothes cops from 2-3
And sent them up.
Ralph's parole officer will have no idea
That we had stuck plainclothes officers
Waiting for ralph.
He's supposed to show around noon.
So now we wait.
We are feeling a little crazy,
'cause this is a one-shot deal.
- Coming up...
- We have no concrete evidence connecting richie rivera
To the murder.
- If he just started to run away from us,
We couldn't grab him.
But he gave me a name, and he said,
"I think ralph had killed jason."
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Detectives are closing in on two possible suspects
In the murder of jason adams--
Richie rivera and ralph marrero.
Both men have parole appointments today
In different parts of new york.
That's when we're hoping to nab them.
♪ ♪
- Ralph is supposed to show around noon in bronx parole.
The plainclothes officers are in the waiting room,
And they're dressed for the street.
No one really knows who they are and who they're not.
The same time, richie's parole officer,
The parole officer in manhattan is in contact
With us.
[phone rings]
- He calls and tells us richie has arrived...
Right on time.
- "okay, we'll be there to get him."
♪ ♪
Lo and behold, richie's there,
And he's sitting, not handcuffed.
He's not under arrest.
- That day richie rivera was attempting
To get a pass to see his mother in connecticut,
To leave the state.
- He didn't have any belongings with him,
But that doesn't mean he wasn't gonna leave
Parole with a pass, go get a suitcase, and bolt.
His parole officer told him, "I'm asking you to stay
"because detectives want to ask you some questions
About a friend of yours that was killed."
When we informed richie that a friend of his was killed
And he might know him,
He didn't have any emotion either way.
He was just inquisitive as to who.
"what friend?"
And we even showed him a picture
Of him and jason alone.
"oh, that's jason. He was killed?"
He said that he had no knowledge of it,
But he was willing to help us in any way he could.
So he agrees to come with us uptown
To talk about his friend.
♪ ♪
We made no mention of ralph to him.
[siren wails]
He was placed in an interview room,
No handcuffs.
- At this point, we have no concrete evidence connecting
Richie rivera to the murder
Other than that he was in the photographs.
That's not enough to do anything.
- We had no authority to place him under arrest.
If he just started to run away from us,
We couldn't grab him.
♪ ♪
Now, while this is going on, we are in contact
With the cops we put up in bronx parole.
But our second guy, ralph, never shows.
♪ ♪
But we're not gonna call the parole officer
Because we don't know what his relationship is
At this point.
- Hearing ralph is now a no-show,
Detective wagner and his partner assume the worst--
Someone tipped him off.
- So we dispatch a team
To what we know as ralph's last known address
That parole has for him.
They knock on the door.
He comes to the door.
Same thing--
"we believe he's a friend of yours.
He was killed."
They show him a picture of jason with him.
He showed a little emotion.
And he says, "that's my friend jason."
"well, we're trying to talk to all of his friends
"to get more info on jason, more background info.
"could you come to the office?
We want you to look at some pictures."
What they did notice-- that right by the front door
Was a small duffle bag...
With men's clothes in it...
Like somebody had packed a quick bag
'cause he's getting out of town.
He's hesitant, but he reluctantly went.
♪ ♪
- With ralph in one interview room
And richie in another,
Detective wagner and his partner have to decide
Which one of the two suspects they will take on.
Because ralph did quiet time while he was in prison,
We think he might be easier to break.
♪ ♪
- We're not going at him hard or anything
'cause he's not under arrest.
- Anyone can be questioned by police
But only for as long as they're willing to stay
If they're not in custody.
- After a few hours,
We started seeing ralph get a little more...
Uncomfortable.
He's getting angry and a little put-offish with us.
He's got his hands folded across.
You know, he's posturing and very adamant.
We don't want to become adversarial.
It's a little game. It's a dance.
But ralph is not providing us anything.
♪ ♪
- Then, unexpectedly, it's richie,
The loud-time guy in the other interview room,
Who starts to talk.
♪ ♪
- He never implicated himself
But said he knew a guy
That might have something to do with it.
And he gave a name.
He said the guy's name was ralph.
♪ ♪
And he said, "I think ralph had killed jason."
- Now is the time for our guys to go back to ralph marrero
And press him hard.
- We said, "listen, whether you want to believe it or not,
"your boy is here,
And he's telling us you did it."
He says, "I don't believe you."
♪ ♪
- Detective wagner points to a one-way mirror
In back of the interview room.
- We pulled up the shade,
And there's richie with a legal pad
Writing out his whole statement.
Now ralph is really indignant. He gets loud.
We told him, "now, listen, what are you gonna do?
"you're gonna let him do this?
"'cause he's gonna be a witness.
He's gonna put you in jail."
He goes, "you got a cigarette?
I'll tell you everything you need to know."
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[siren wails]
- Richie rivera, one of the two suspects
In the horrific murder of jason adams,
Has told detectives the other man they have in custody,
Ralph marrero, was the one who stabbed jason to death.
Now it's the accused, ralph marrero,
Who is about to tell his version of what happened.
♪ ♪
- Ralph told us that richie came to him
With an idea to make some money.
They had befriended jason
In the last few months prior to jason's death,
And they had gone with jason to the bronx
To purchase a computer at a computer shop.
They helped him carry it upstairs.
They had gone to central park with him,
Took pictures, it looks like, outside of his apartment.
Basically they were courting him.
They were making him comfortable.
Ralph said he had been to the apartment a few times,
And nothing ever transpired other than hanging out,
Watching a movie.
♪ ♪
But that night apparently they went to jason's house
On the rouse that...
They would have sex with jason.
Ralph said, "this was the first time."
And he was very adamant in the fact
Of stating that he wasn't gay.
On this night, richie told him,
"we're gonna rob jason,
Half and half we'll go."
- Richie rivera was someone who was willing
To rob anybody who he thought he could rob.
- Ralph told us, "we had some wine,
And jason laid on the bed."
"me and richie got undressed by the bathroom"...
♪ ♪
"and left our clothes in the bathroom."
♪ ♪
Richie had a knife with him.
Then they grabbed socks
And put their socks on their hands.
That's why there were no fingerprints found.
♪ ♪
- Ralph marrero was pretty forthright
About how he held down jason
While richie rivera stabbed him multiple times.
- He said richie just went wild and crazy stabbing him.
I said, "why did he do this?"
He said, "I don't know why. He's crazy.
He just did it."
♪ ♪
And I asked ralph, "did you stab him at all?
I mean, you might as well tell me now if you did."
He goes, "no, I held him down."
♪ ♪
- One of the most chilling moments
Was when we asked, "what was jason doing
While richie rivera was stabbing him?"
And he said was telling richie, "why? Why?
Why me? Why are you doing this?"
And he put his head down...
And he said, "he was praying."
♪ ♪
- And then they went into the bathroom,
And they both got in the shower
And washed all the blood off.
They packed up the stolen property--
The computer, the cable box, all the stuff in garbage bags.
Then they left the apartment.
They took the knife, the socks, and the towel,
All of the evidence, in a bundle,
And richie threw the stuff down the sewer...
On the corner of 106th and 1st,
Which is about 50 feet
From the entrance to jason's building.
They took the stolen property to richie's girlfriend's.
We immediately call emergency service
To come to pull the sewer
To see if we could find the evidence.
♪ ♪
And there was another thing-- we asked ralph,
"why did jason have your parole officer's card?"
And ralph told us, "because I wanted to use jason
"as a character reference
'cause jason was gonna help me get a job."
♪ ♪
- Hearing ralph's account of jason's senseless killing
Is disturbing, even for long-serving nypd detectives.
To take hardened criminals like richie and ralph
Off the street, we need their statements to line up.
Richie told us it was ralph who killed jason,
But ralph says it was richie who stabbed jason to death.
- We now go at richie.
"listen, pal, you gave a nice statement.
"but ralph is here,
"and ralph told us a little something different.
What do you want to do now?"
♪ ♪
And he confessed.
♪ ♪
Richie admitted, "I brought the stuff
To my girlfriend's apartment."
We went out to the girlfriend's,
And sure enough, there's two garbage bags
Filled with jason's items--
The computer, the cable box, all the stuff.
I asked him specifically,
"why'd you stab him so many times?"
And he said, "I don't know.
Ralph stabbed him, too. We took turns."
- And then richie tells them something else,
Something disturbing.
- I had asked richie...
"had they done any of these before?"
I said, "the more you tell me, the more it's gonna help you."
And he said, "there's this guy. We're friendly with him.
And he's got a lot of nice stuff."
That's just what he said.
And I said, "yeah, and what were you gonna do?"
And he laughed.
Basically I took it as,
"you know what we were gonna do."
He never actually said, "we were gonna rob him."
I can't charge someone with a crime that hasn't happened yet.
I can't charge someone for thinking about doing a crime.
But maybe he was gonna be set up as well.
Maybe he would've been their next victim
Had we not grabbed them when we grabbed them.
♪ ♪
- The detectives' case would be much stronger
If they had forensics tying the suspects to the murder.
- We're looking for all the stuff
Richie and ralph threw down the sewer.
Emergency service is doing a dumpster search
For, like, three square blocks,
Checking numerous sewers.
But even though it was only a couple of weeks,
It had rained during that period,
And whatever was there wasn't there anymore.
Usually a confession is the icing on the cake,
But you already have a print,
You already have a hair or fiber, dna.
We had none of that.
Would we get the verdict?
We didn't know at this point in time.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[siren chirps]
- Detective wagner and his team
Have charged richie rivera and ralph marrero
With the murder of jason adams.
The case moves to trial.
- Although both defendants were charged with felony murder,
Murder in the second degree
In the course of committing a robbery,
My focus looking at the case
Was to think about who might be more morally responsible.
And because their statements implicated each other,
We decided they had to both be tried separately
And to try richie rivera first.
♪ ♪
- Richie rivera revises his initial confession
And pleads not guilty, which is not unusual
When a defendant faces a murder charge.
But soon after his arrest,
He had recorded an account of what happened that night.
That video is played in the courtroom.
- It was such a terrible case with so many stab wounds
That you naturally would think nobody would be wanting
To ever admit this.
But that was not the case with richie.
He described it.
What he admitted in the video statement
Showed a really heartless killing
Without absolutely no evidence of remorse at all.
♪ ♪
- I was disgusted.
I was disgusted.
He trusted the wrong people.
So that's where he went wrong.
- I'm just like, "wow. These people are evil."
And then you have jason,
Which is just, like, sent from god, you know?
He was just super trusting.
♪ ♪
- The jury was transfixed by the matter-of-fact account
That he gave in his videotaped statement.
Richie rivera was very willing to admit
How he went there to commit a robbery,
How he stabbed jason adams.
He described it
As if it was the plan from the beginning--to stab him.
♪ ♪
- It was never clear why richie and ralph killed jason.
We never got that answer.
♪ ♪
- The jury deliberated for a very short time.
They came back with a conviction
On all of the charges in the indictment...
Which was murder in the first degree,
Murder in the second degree, and the underlying robbery.
♪ ♪
And the judge in the case sentenced him
To life without parole.
♪ ♪
Ralph marrero chose to plead guilty
To murder in the second degree
And received a sentence of 15 years to life.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- In homicide investigations, we're the voice.
We speak for those who can't speak any longer,
But can we really bring closure?
We can't bring their loved one back.
The family will never forget.
The family will never forget birthdays.
They'll never forget the day it happened.
But hopefully it helps them move on a little,
Knowing someone was brought to justice.
- The damage is done.
They killed a childhood role model of east harlem,
Where I'm from.
I will never be relieved.
I'll just carry that weight.
- It was, like, bittersweet, you know?
He's gone, and he was only 34.
- What kind of keeps you spirited
And on a positive [indistinct]?
- Seeing people in the neighborhood
Who are doing something for themselves.
That influences me also to, you know, do the right thing
And know that I don't have to go in the other direction
That is not right for me.
- Jason's words, his attitude, his friendship affected me.
It will always be in my memory.
Always, always.
I'll always love east harlem and jason in it.
- Well, jason, you said you were very shy,
But you did a very good job. - [laughs]
- We appreciate that.
And just stand up once more, so that you can see
What a magnanimous person this is.
- [chuckles]
♪ ♪