[tense music]
- [Anchor] Investigators aren't saying
how the woman died, but are calling the death suspicious.
- An elderly woman was murdered
and her death was horrendous.
Both of her hands were nearly severed, completely off.
That, right there, is what you did.
- That ain't what I did.
I'm telling you.
- [Detective] You can tell me Martians did it.
- I don't know who did it.
- We have (bleep) lie versus forensic evidence that you did.
- Whatever you wanna say, man.
I'm done talking, that's it.
[tense music]
[phone rings]
[sirens blaring]
- When I arrived at the scene, I met with several
of the other detectives.
I was told that there were some suspicious circumstances
surrounding the death
of the victim.
So as you made entrance into the back door of the residence,
the victim was laying in a pool of blood.
The victim had both of her hands
nearly severed completely off, and she did look like
she had been struck in the head.
- Lying next to her was her cane.
The cane was dented in
and that weapon was most likely the cause
of the head injury.
This is a violent and traumatic death.
Somebody waited 'til she was alone
and violently slaughtered her.
[tense music]
She said that Mary kept to herself,
stayed in the house most of the time,
but she was passionate about going to church
and she was passionate about her faith,
and helping people that needed help.
We learned that her husband had passed away
about four years earlier.
- Mr. Kovacik, the neighbor, took it upon himself
to kinda monitor her, take care of her, get her mail.
On this particular morning, there was fresh snowfall
so he went over and shoveled the sidewalk
and when he couldn't make contact with the victim,
he looked inside.
He saw Mary Martinchuk laying on the dining room floor
in a pool of blood.
- When we start to piece the scene together,
it's easiest for us to work from outside in.
We found some tire impressions in the driveway,
and shoe impressions accompanied
some small droplets of blood.
- [Sean] When we looked inside, we did locate
one almost complete bloody shoe print.
- It seemed to be the same footprint
that we found in the snow outside.
When we were searching the kitchen,
we located Ms. Martinchuk's log of her blood sugar.
- That morning at 8:20,
she had logged that she had taken her insulin
and the time that we got the call was after 11.
So we had a very small window when this crime occurred.
In the living room,
there were some void patterns in the dust
on the entertainment stand,
and we were able to find some receipts
indicating that she had purchased a TV and a DVD
the previous year.
So we knew we had some missing items,
and we also couldn't locate the victim's purse.
Finally, we collected pieces of evidence
that we submitted for DNA analysis.
- There were definitely two schools of thought.
One was that this was a home invasion robbery
that had gone wrong, and the second theory
was that Mary had been killed by somebody
that she was intimately familiar with
because of the brutality of the attack.
A week after the murder, we received a call
from the Ashtabula City Police Department.
They let us know that the man named Jose Reynoso
had located Ms. Martinchuk's purse
on the morning of the murder sitting in the street
about 12 miles away from Ms. Martinchuk's home.
- The purse was turned over
to the Ashtabula Police Department,
but not linked right away to our murder.
- Very close to a high drug trafficking area
so it was very possible
that the person that killed Ms. Martinchuk did so
for valuables that they were gonna later exchange for drugs.
Detective Ward and I recovered the purse,
and then we went to speak to Mr. Reynoso at home.
- Jose said that he worked 12 hour shifts,
and on the morning of the murder,
he claimed to have left work around 11.
However, when we met with his employer,
we learned that he got off of work at 7:15,
so that was a red flag.
We couldn't rule out the fact that this person,
who is seemingly a good samaritan,
might be actually involved in the murder.
- Jose.
This should only take a couple minutes,
and just to go through the timeline again.
If you can just start to think back to the day
that you found the purse, did you drive to work that day?
- Yeah, yeah. - Okay.
Drove the Taurus?
- Yeah. - Okay.
And afterwards, where did you go, after work that day?
- After, shoot, man.
Me and my girl, we sit around at the house
from there 'cause she live upstairs, you know?
Let me stay there with her.
- Do you remember seeing the purse when you passed there?
- No, 'cause see, I turned, you know, I pull into, you know,
the driveway, whatever.
I walk in, you know, say hi to my girl.
You know, (bleep) for a little bit.
- Okay.
- I remember we went and got cigarettes, you know,
as soon as we walk in, her grandpa's like,
"Is that a purse out there?"
You know, my girl's like, "Where? Where?"
You know, so she look out the window, she's like,
"Honey, look, there's a purse out there."
So we walk toward it, I pick it up and I hand it to my girl
and they call the cop, you know?
- Right. - Because that don't look right.
And a couple days later, you know,
'cause her grandma, she always read the newspaper, you know,
she's like, freaking out, "Baby, look, this is the lady
that we found the purse.
She's dead."
I'm like, "Holy (bleep)."
- Do you remember what condition the purse was in
when you found it, like, was it muddy?
Was it torn? Was it wet?
- No, it wasn't wet.
I mean, I grabbed it and handed to her.
I didn't went through inside.
I mean, the outside was dry like, you know, normal purse.
- [Detective] So how does your schedule work?
- Like, our boss, he let us, like,
he knows I'm going to a bad situation and I need money.
So he's like, "I'll tell you what,
I'll let you work 12 hours."
- All right. - "Seven days a week."
By the time I get home, a little bit after 11.
- He gave the statement
that he left work at 11 that morning,
but we know that he actually left work at seven.
That's a problem.
- [Detective] Normally, you're out at 11?
- Yeah.
- But think back to the day that you found the purse.
Your time card said that
you were out Sunday morning at 7:15.
[tense music]
- You know, that's it, I might be wrong.
You know, there's some days that there's like,
nothing going on.
Our boss, "Just go home for a day, you know, get some sleep."
- All right.
- I might be wrong with the time, but most of the time,
like, every day there's just barely days I get out at seven.
- And afterwards, you go to her house
and you didn't make any stops in between, right?
- Mm...
Yeah, but I can't remember, to be honest with you.
- Is there anything at all
that you could remember that might help us?
- Whenever we grabbed the purse, there was no cars at all.
Just whoever did it, we just missed it.
[clock ticking]
- All right.
Man, I was hoping that you remember something.
Nobody picked you up, drove you around anywhere?
- No, I don't got a whole lot of friends.
- During the interview,
we did check the tire tread on Jose Reynoso's vehicle
and concluded that it was not those tires
that left the tread pattern in Mary Martinchuk's driveway.
And when comparing Jose Reynoso's shoe prints
to the bloody shoe pattern that we found in the dining room,
we were able to eliminate him based on the shoe size.
- [Detective] Let's get you back home.
- Okay.
[tense music]
- At some point, our victim scratched the suspect
and I don't believe there's any better evidence.
There was also DNA on the doorknob, the cane,
the coaxial cable from the back of the television.
Now we just have to find who left that profile there,
and that's a lofty task 'cause we have no idea who it was.
[tense music]
- We're able to eliminate them very quickly,
but when we exhaust the most likely contacts,
then we have to cast a little bit of a wider net
and to become really imaginative in finding the murder.
- We knew that Mary was missing a TV and a DVD player
so we looked at the receipts.
I learned that two employees from Griffith's Furniture
went to Mary Martinchuk's residence
about eight months earlier to unbox
and hook up the TV and DVD player.
- We felt that the workers would be potential suspects.
- I was able to get statements from them
and get DNA from both of those individuals.
[tense music]
After several months of getting nowhere,
we finally got a break.
[siren blaring]
[pensive music]
- Mary was an independent woman.
She was active in her church and she loved to volunteer.
Mary loved to bake and one activity that Mary took part in
at her church was a holiday cookie exchange.
She would bake a set of cookies
and these cookies would be boxed up
and brought to the senior citizens in the community
to enjoy during the holidays.
This crime was definitely shocking to Ashtabula County.
It was frightening for people to learn
that Mary had been killed, and that she was home alone
when this horrific crime happened to her.
[tense music]
- Tommy Richter from Griffith's Furniture
was identified as the source of the DNA
on the evidence collected from the murder scene.
And I thought to myself, after months of getting nowhere,
I'm gonna finally get this thing solved.
- It really just does start the clock ticking
for us to try and figure out if there's a motive,
and trying to figure out if he had an accomplice,
and trying to see if he's responsible
for other crimes that are similar to this.
- We start digging into his criminal history.
Tommy was a 49-year-old general laborer and he was divorced.
He was no longer employed with Griffith's Furniture.
- He floated from job to job,
he was most likely at this time unemployed.
- We learned that he was a severe crack cocaine user,
known to steal from people he knows to support his habit.
- So this told us that it was very possible
that Tommy Richter killed Ms. Martinchuk
so he could steal the television to get money
to buy more drugs.
[tense music]
- It was determined that I would interview him,
and Detective Cleveland would monitor from an adjacent room.
In this particular case, we have DNA,
but a confession that ties up any loose ends.
Tommy Richter was very cooperative
when we brought him in and talked to him months earlier.
So my plan was to kinda explain to him
that this case has gone cold,
and lay a little bit of information on the table
and see if Richter will bite.
How you doing? - Sir, thank you.
- Okay, all right.
We're bringing in all the witnesses.
Anybody that had contact with Ms. Martinchuk,
anybody that had been at her house.
- What is her name? - Ms. Martinchuk.
- Martin? - Martinchuk.
We're just trying to go back and rehash all this information
and see if there's something that we missed, okay?
- Oh, sure.
- When I talked to you the last time,
you confirmed that you did go there
with one or two other guys.
- One, it was Matt that I was there with.
- All right, and what were you and Matt
taking over there at the time?
- Delivering a TV,
and I think that was it, I'm not sure.
A television, I remember taking the television there.
I do remember that.
- [Sean] And Matt hooked it up?
- Matt hooked it up, yes, yes.
See, I was like that,
see, there was, especially televisions and things like that
because you have to do all the, you know,
program and all that stuff, and Matt,
he was really good at it it. - Yeah.
- So what I did is helped carry the TV in
and just open the box, put it up, everything like that.
They hook it up, programmed it, we're gone.
- Okay. - That's about it.
- [Sean] And you're adamant
that you been to her house one time?
- One time.
One time.
- What was the reason for leaving Griffith's?
- I don't really have no reason that I left Griffith's.
There was really no reason that I did.
- Did you quit or did they terminate?
- I quit.
- In doing this investigation, talked to some people,
they said that there might be some substance abuse problems.
- Yeah, I did, I did have substance abuse issues.
- [Sean] Okay, how long have you been clean now?
- Uh...
Months, I'm not really sure.
- Several months? - Several months.
- Several months? - Several months, yes.
- And what was your drug of choice?
- Cocaine.
- As crack or powder?
- [Tommy] I prefer powder.
- And had you ever done crack?
- I've tried it before, but it wasn't for me.
- Okay, I mean, 'cause the reason I'm asking
is your work history is kind of reflective
of somebody that's had an addiction.
They'll get a job and they'll stay clean for a while,
and then they'll fall off,
and then they'll end up losing their job.
- Yeah. - Is that kinda what...?
- No, at that time, I was going through a divorce.
I was married, going through a divorce,
and this was one real rough time and I left Griffith's.
- I knew he was lying about his substance abuse problems,
and these little lies are starting to add up.
So I wanted to kinda shift gears here
and start really focusing on the crime.
Tommy, have you been in trouble before?
Any criminal history, anything like that?
- Lemme think.
No.
- Any misdemeanor arrests, thefts, or anything like that?
- [Tommy] Misdemeanor arrests, thefts?
No, no thefts or anything like that.
- Getting back to the delivery of the TV
at Martinchuk's house, we've got some issues.
Okay? - Okay.
- And we need to address those.
We've got some evidence pointing at you for this crime.
I think you have some explaining to do here.
Now, just talking to you, you seem like a decent guy,
but Tommy, you're at this lady's house.
Items came up missing.
- Oh, man, you can't do this to me.
[tense music]
- We have evidence pointing at you.
Everything comes back to you.
- What's the bottom line here?
- Well, the bottom line is we're investigating murder.
An elderly woman was murdered, and her death was horrendous.
I can't even imagine what she went through.
- Really? - I mean, it's unfathomable.
You know, and the family wants answers.
- Right, but how in the world is it pointing back to me,
is what I wanna know?
- I'm done beating around the bush.
I'm not laying my cards on the table.
We have evidence that points to you.
- Okay.
- [Sean] And you're saying you did not kill that lady?
- Oh, I'm saying I did not kill that lady.
- There was a little bit of nervous tone in his voice,
but I felt that he was waiting for this moment,
and he was trying not to overreact
and lay it on too thick.
I certainly didn't want to disclose
the location of the DNA evidence.
That might have caused him to shut down,
but I thought maybe a little bit more of information
would push him over the edge and tell us what happened.
I wanna be fair to you, you've been up front
and you've been cooperative with us.
- Absolutely, I don't have nothing to hide.
- I guess the question is, was there anybody else with you?
- [Tommy] During the delivery?
- No, no, no, during this crime.
- I wasn't in no crime.
There was no crime for me, man.
- Then how do you explain your DNA
being in areas of that house?
- I don't know what you're speaking of.
I was in...what we did, we went through the back door,
delivered a television, hooked it up, left.
That's it.
So what DNA you're speaking of
or anything like that is beyond me.
I don't know.
And the only person that was with me
in that house at all was Matt.
That's it.
- Which is very interesting,
for somebody that did most of the work there,
we didn't find any of his DNA.
- Huh.
He did do most of the work.
All I did is help unpack the television.
- From the time that you guys installed the television
to the time that this crime happened,
several months had gone by, right?
- Right. - Okay?
So the quality of the evidence
is gonna deteriorate in that timeframe.
However, yours was spot on.
It was right there, it was fresh.
- I don't know what you're speaking of.
That's the only thing I can tell you.
I delivered a (bleep) TV and that's it.
Other than that, I wasn't around that house.
- Never been there after?
- Never, ever, been there afterwards.
- [Sean] And never met that woman before in your life?
- Never met that woman before in my life
before the delivery of her television.
Never, never.
I wanna know what you're speaking of, really.
Just come out and tell me.
- [Sean] We're talking about a murder.
- I know. - And I'm looking at you.
The evidence points to you as the suspect.
- Right, what kind of evidence? - That's what I'm talking about.
- That's all I can tell you.
- All right, I'll be right back. - All right.
- At that point, I did feel like he wasn't going to disclose
that he had any involvement in this whatsoever.
Detective Cleveland approaches things
a little bit differently than I do.
He likes to get up close and personal with the suspects.
And I thought, well, you know what?
Let him take a crack at Tommy Richter and see what happens.
- Here's the deal.
Detective Ward, when he was talking to you,
I was watching, and I see that you're getting frustrated
that you're not sort of being told straight up
why you're being linked as a suspect in this crime,
and I think that you're entitled to an explanation.
- I hope so. - Okay.
So I'm gonna break it down to you
just like you've never seen it before.
Everything-- - What do you have on me, dude?
What are you saying that you have on me?
- Your DNA's all over the crime scene, buddy.
- Like what?
- All over the place.
- The only time I was in that house ever,
delivered television.
- Stop, we're past that.
This is why we have you here today,
and this is why we're talking to you today.
Your DNA is all over the place.
Your DNA is on doorknobs, your DNA is on her cane,
your DNA is on her body, your DNA is on where the television
used to be. - Whatever, man.
- No, no, we're done.
I'm not (bleep).
I'm not here to be sitting here in judgment of you,
I'm not here to be somebody
who is trying to be coy or smart with you,
or think that they're better than you.
Buddy, what we're doing right now here talking to you,
we do every week.
Stuff like this in Ashtabula County,
I don't know if you read the papers a lot,
there's a lot of murders that go on.
- No, I don't read the papers a whole lot.
- And you know why there's a lot of murders
in Ashtabula County?
'Cause there's a lot of drugs in Ashtabula County.
We have a county of a hundred thousand people
that are good, solid, decent people,
but when they get exposed to some poison,
it turns people into something that they're not.
I don't believe that the person that went in there and did that
had any intent in the world of hurting that lady.
- I don't know, man, I don't know nothing about that.
- I think the person that went in there
thought that she probably wasn't there
and went in there to take something
so that they could go buy drugs,
like happens every week here.
- It could possibly be, I don't know.
- And what I happen to know about her
is that she is a fiery woman,
and I think this fiery woman got into it
with the person that was there to take something,
and things got outta hand.
That's what I think.
But, you know what?
We won't know, and there's a lot different case
to be made for that than there is for somebody
planning to go in there and killing her deliberately,
but we don't know which one it is.
We agree that one's a lot more serious.
- I don't know either, I don't know either, man.
- But we don't know-- - I delivered a television.
That was it, so that's all I gotta say.
- We are past whether or not
you were involved in killing her.
We're done with that, we're past that.
The question what we're trying to determine,
is this something you've thought about and planned--
- Man.
- To slaughter this woman like that?
[tense music]
- Our job is to find the entire story
behind why somebody did something.
We want to know, is the reason that something happened
that they have a mental deficiency?
Is the reason that something happened
that they have an anger issue?
- I have no mental, I have no anger issue.
I have no mental issue, you know, anything like that.
- How long do you have clean?
How long do you have sober?
- Uh, months and months.
I, I, months.
- Do you go to meetings?
Are you working the program, is my question?
- No, no, I didn't feel like that I was that bad
that I have to go to the program.
I don't need anything.
- It's difficult interviewing.
People are suffering from addiction
because addiction is a disease of just lying.
Again, he was not at the point where he was used
to dealing with honest people.
So I thought that it was very important to let him know
that in this instance, we were interested in the truth.
What's the worst thing that you've done
while you were using?
Honestly, straight up, no (bleep).
This is what we're gonna do.
- Take my paycheck and spend it on something or whatever.
- This is what we're gonna do right now.
I don't think that you, as a man,
deserve to be told anything but 100% truth from this seat,
and me, as a man, I don't deserve anything
but 100% truth from your seat.
Understand? Shake on that.
- Oh, yeah, sure. - Okay.
So, did you ever steal from your aunt?
- My aunt? Yeah.
I've stole from my aunt.
- [Taylor] Or steal from your ex-wife?
- Some things, yeah. - All right.
You think that those are some things
that you've done because of your addiction?
- That's as far, yeah. - That are not glamorous?
- Well, there's a lot of things that people sold
or whatever to get money.
But murder, I mean, get outta here, man.
I don't wanna hear that (bleep), that's...
- This is what I think.
Part of my opinion is that you are a good man,
a good man polluted by some poison
for a short period in your life,
and out of some desperation and needing some money,
you put yourself in a situation that got out of control.
- No way, man.
Listen, man, I don't know what you're getting at,
you know, what's going on here.
- You do know what I'm getting at.
You need to work on getting past this.
You need to explain to me, because--
- Man, you ain't putting this (bleep) on me.
I'm telling you.
- No, no, no, this stuff is on you.
- No way, man. - This stuff is on you.
- No way.
- And you need to work on getting past this.
This is on you. - No how, no way.
- This is me officially telling you it's on you.
- No way, man.
- At that point, I wanted to go
in a radically different direction,
and that was getting to be more confrontational
instead of accepting.
Sometimes, that snaps people back to reality.
So, my question starts to be, is are you just somebody
who made a mistake one time,
or are you somebody who does this all the time?
- I didn't make a mistake anytime
as far as murder or whatever goes.
No how, no way.
- That, right there...
- What the hell? - Is her.
That. - I don't understand.
Oh, man, I see it now, yeah.
- That is what you did. - That ain't what I did.
- That is what you did. - That is not what I did.
Not what I did, man.
- You can shake your head, you can look away,
you can lie all that you want, but the facts don't lie.
- Man.
- The facts do not lie. - You're wrong, you're wrong.
You're wrong. - No, I'm not.
- You're wrong, man.
I didn't do anything like that.
I couldn't do anything like that.
I ain't do nothing. - You did.
- No.
- I will agree this, there is a possibility
that you could have been there with somebody else,
there to take a television with somebody else
and somebody else did this.
But you were at least there.
- I was not there.
I delivered a television.
Whatever you wanna say, whatever you wanna do.
- Nobody is gonna believe that.
12 people up there are not gonna believe your DNA--
- Man, get outta here.
I'm done talking right now, man, about this stuff.
That's ridiculous.
I delivered a television, dropped it off,
got in the truck, boom, gone.
Simple as that.
- It bothers me that you don't show any remorse.
- Get outta, man, get outta here.
No, I'm done.
- It bothers me that you don't show any remorse.
- Unbelievable, dude.
You're good at it.
You're good at your job, whatever.
But you ain't putting this on me.
No how, no way. - No, it's on you.
And your DNA is the last person's DNA on the doorknob.
How do you explain that? - Get outta here, man.
- Somebody doesn't come through--
- There ain't no way, there's no way.
- There is a way.
You are throwing your life away.
- I don't wanna hear this.
- [Taylor] You are throwing your life away.
You can get past this.
- That's-- [stammers] That's insanity, man.
This is crazy.
- Don't let this define you.
Get past this.
- What are you saying, man?
- [Taylor] I want to know exactly--
- I delivered a television, that's it.
So you can think and say what you want
or try to push this on me, it ain't happening.
There ain't no damn way.
- No, we're past that.
- Whatever you wanna say, man.
I'm done, I'm done talking.
That's it, that's crazy.
- Don't do this to yourself, please.
- [Tommy] Do what to myself?
Protect myself?
- Continue down this road of lies.
- Get outta here, man.
I'm done, I'm done.
I'm done, what's the next step?
- The next step is that you're under arrest
for aggravated murder.
[tense music]
- [Taylor] If you're finished,
then we'll take you back to the jail.
- I'm finished talking, but there's no way that I did this.
- Stand up.
- Come on, for real.
- I sat here and I promised you no (bleep) lies from me,
and that's what you're getting.
I'm here to sit here--
I will sit in this chair, listen to you,
and talk to you all day long.
You control how long that happens.
And you've said that we're done.
If you're done, then--
- There's nothing else I can tell you.
There's nothing else I can tell you.
- Tell me the truth.
- The truth is, okay, here's the truth.
You want the truth? - Yeah.
- According to you, you're saying prior to this,
I delivered a television and left.
That's it, that is the story I've got to tell you.
That is it, that's all there is to it.
- Why did you quit it?
- There's times I didn't even show up to go to work at all.
- Why?
- Slept in, just didn't feel good that day, whatever.
It was a delivery job.
It wasn't like it was any kind of, you know,
executive position or anything like that.
The delivery guy.
- It paid the bills, it gave you gas money.
- It paid the bills and paid the gas money.
Whatever I did in my life has nothing to do
with murdering somebody.
- No, it has 100% to do with murdering somebody.
- I didn't do it.
- I know that my time with him is short at this point.
I'm not getting through to him.
The close relationship that we had had earlier has eroded.
So at that point in time, it was important for us
to keep hammering home to him
that we're not gonna accept the lie.
We need to let him know what this next process
is going to look like.
You can disavow responsibility to stuff
to yourself all you want, but when you go
upstairs at that jail and you lay down tonight,
this is gonna be running through your head.
- Man, no way. - And you know what? It should.
- No how, no way.
No way, yeah, that this is (bleep) and crazy.
This is insane, man.
- [Taylor] No.
- [Tommy] I don't understand what you're--
- No, we're-- Okay, understand what I'm getting at.
You are being arrested for the murder of that woman.
- Right, I can't believe that.
- You have been read your rights,
and you're in a police station,
and they are telling you your DNA is on the body.
- Okay, and I'm telling you that I did not do that.
I'm telling you that I delivered a television.
I'm telling you--
- [Taylor] And you can tell me Martians did it.
- I don't know who did it. - And you know what?
We have (bleep) addict's lie
versus forensic evidence that you did.
And at the end of the day,
I don't give two (bleep) of what you tell me.
- Okay.
- You're getting charged with it.
It was important for him to know
that his lie's not gonna get him anywhere,
because at the end of the day, we have Tommy Richter's DNA
underneath Mary Martinchuk's fingernails.
We'll go over and we're gonna make arrangements
for you to go back there, stay put.
- You're wrong, sir.
It's all I'm telling you.
- Detective Cleveland and I spoke briefly
after he left the interview room.
I think we both agreed
that it was kind of pointless continuing on.
I said, "We're not gonna get our confession."
- We wanted to leave it at a place
where it's inviting for him to come back.
When you treat people with dignity,
they'll sometimes decide to come
and tell us the truth in a subsequent interview.
- Pssh, what the hell, man?
This is crazy.
- [Sean] All right, Tommy, I'm gonna take you back.
- Are you serious, man?
- [Sean] Stand up, turn around, put your hands behind your back.
- Oh, come on man.
- Turn around.
- We're happy to sit here and tell the truth
and talk to you, but...
- There's nothing else I can tell you.
That's the truth, that's the truth.
- Okay. - That's all I can say.
- If you feel later on
like there is something else you wanna talk to us,
you can write in that you'll talk to us.
Tommy Richter was escorted to the jail
and he was charged with aggravated burglary
and aggravated murder.
- There was no doubt that he was going to be convicted
due to that DNA evidence, but just convicting somebody
isn't the total determining factor of justice.
When somebody admits what they've done,
it helps families heal and move past.
So while we were hopeful that he might be honest with us
in subsequent interviews,
we certainly weren't counting on it.
[tense music]
- I received a call
from the corporal in the jail at the time,
and she indicated that Tommy Richter
wanted to speak to a detective.
Once I heard those words,
I escorted Tommy Richter from the jail
back into the interview room.
Corporal Anton said that you wanted to talk to a detective
concerning what happened.
I'm just gonna let you talk.
- Well, I don't really wanna get into, you know,
the details and all that stuff, but, you know,
I'm gonna plead guilty, you know?
- Okay.
And just for the record, we're talking about the murder
of Mary Martinchuk, correct?
- Yes, we are, sir.
- You were solely involved in her homicide?
Nobody else was with you, correct?
- Nobody else.
- When he's telling me that he did it and he acted alone,
I didn't wanna show my emotions, but I was elated.
But I gotta keep my composure.
I need to get as much information
out of him as possible.
You understand that when you do that,
the judge is gonna ask you the details.
- I'm not really wanting to get into no details.
It was just, um...it wasn't me, it was the drug.
It was me, but it was, you know what I'm saying?
- I understand that.
Some of the nicest, hardworking people I've ever met
were in here because of drugs.
- Oh, they're the devil.
It's a horrible, horrible thing.
This time in that cell just gave me time to, you know,
I just been thinking about it
and it's been giving me nightmares.
It's a horrible, horrible thing
and, you know, it really has been bothering me.
The night before you guys came--
- I'm not, listen, I'm not gonna pass, not passing judgment
and people make choices.
I have family members that have done time in prison
for killing people, and I talk to 'em on a regular basis.
- It's just embarrassing, I'm ashamed.
You know, like, sitting in there watching the, you know,
the lieutenant and all the other ones working,
normal citizens just working and doing the right thing,
and I just feel so like scum,
and it's just a horrible, horrible,
horrible, horrible thing.
And I'm so, so sorry and I'm willing to pay my life for it
or whatever I have to pay.
- Can I ask you a few questions?
You said you were by yourself when you went there.
- [Tommy] Yes, yes.
- [Sean] What was the reason why you targeted that house?
Because your familiarity to it? You knew...
- I just figured it was a snatch and grab thing.
I'm gonna go. - All right.
- You know, that was all it was.
There was no, you know, I didn't plan it for days.
It wasn't planned out, you know,
it was just was around that area.
I thought, oh, you know, I remember her.
You know, it wasn't like, man, I'm gonna come back
and get that some day.
- How did you get inside the house?
- The door was, I just knocked on the door
and she let me in.
- Did she recognize you, or?
- She didn't recognize me.
I didn't know if she was home or not.
I was just gonna break into the house
and, you know, whatever.
She was home, seen the purse there, knocked,
was gonna go in and get the purse.
Then one thing led to another.
I don't really wanna discuss it and talk about it.
It's just that it was just me, only me,
and um, that's really, you know, that's it.
The bottom line.
- And I know that this is out of character for you,
but I have to ask you this.
Did she do something to you to set you off?
[intense music]
[tense music]
- I know that's something
that nobody wants to rehash in your mind,
and I understand that, but just tell me what happened.
- I panicked, just flat out panicked.
I was scared and nervous as it was.
I wasn't right in my right mind.
She left the room, when she came back in,
it was like a startled thing
'cause I thought I was just gonna get it and go,
and that's when she grabbed onto me or whatever
and started screaming, and I just freaked,
and then I don't really wanna talk too much about it.
And I just did what I had to do
and got the hell up out of there, boom.
And we're here now today.
- Stop, just relax, okay?
Just, just calm down.
- Just calm down. - Good, I hope it is.
- You did something that's--
- Horrific, and it's disgusting.
- But you did something today that's...
It takes a big man to step forward and admit this.
- I know you are, I know you're sorry.
I know you're sorry.
Worst I ever had was I had crack cocaine problem,
You know, but I've never hurt anybody, man.
I can't even believe I did this to myself.
I can't believe I did it to my wife.
I can't believe I did it to that poor lady.
I can't believe that I did it to the people around me.
- I feel like he's being genuine,
and he was carrying this with him
since the day it happened for eight months,
but I'm also trying to get him to calm down
because I still need to get some information from him,
and it's evident that he doesn't wanna discuss the details.
- I can't speak very well about it,
but it was just me, sir.
It was just me.
It's done and I did it, and I'm so, so sorry,
and pass judgment on me whatever it may be, you know?
- I don't think any differently about you.
The first day I met you, like, ah, this isn't...
No, he's a nice guy, great guy, you know?
And when we got the results back,
I was a little bit taken aback, to be honest with you,
'cause I remember meeting you.
I remember, oh, he's a nice person,
and I don't think any differently of you now.
I mean, you made a bad choice.
If you weren't doing drugs,
you think this would've happened?
- [Tommy] Never in a million years.
- Can you tell me where you took the items?
What items did you take and where did you take them to?
- The items that I took,
I don't even know where I got rid of 'em at.
All I can tell you was it was an individual
along the road asking for the TV.
Boom, and that was it.
I'm sorry, there's nothing else I could say or do.
- There's not. - I'm sorry.
- [Sean] I'm not the person that you need to apologize to.
- I need to apologize to everyone, though.
I'm just ready for judgment.
I was totally out of control right then.
Just hit rock bottom, man.
Hit rock bottom.
I apologize and I'm sorry.
I hope to, you know...
I don't know what to say.
I'm just willing to give my life right now.
I'm done, I'm done.
I feel better, I got it off my chest
and let the, you know, hammer fall
and whatever the judge says.
- I was excited.
We finally got a confession from him.
I think the efforts that myself and Detective Cleveland
put in in the first interview paid off.
I think it did help Tommy make this decision to come forward
and be truthful about what happened.
All right. - Ahh.
- We treated him with respect.
So we left that door open for him to reach out and talk,
and he did.
[tense music]
- Ultimately, when Mr. Richter was found out,
that is when he confessed and has been very remorseful.
But I would want to say, your honor,
that this was a horrible crime
and this woman suffered tremendously.
- The outcome of this case was gratifying.
The confession, you know, how he worded it,
that was extremely important,
and I do feel justice was served at the end of the day.
- Tommy Richter is a drug addict.
He's somebody who made a terrible choice
because of his addiction,
and cost the life of Mary Martinchuk.
[birds chirping] [somber music]
- Mary lived in the same house for more than 20 years,
so she got to see a lot of the families
and their children grow up.
In the summers, she liked to take those children
to go and get ice cream.
She loved to volunteer and help the elderly
in need at the church.
Mary's death certainly was sad and a tragedy.
- But what's interesting is
Mary Martinchuk helped this investigation tremendously.
Her record keeping led us back to our suspect.
- She was independent in her 80s
up until the day that she died, and at the end of the day,
she definitely helped solve her own murder.