In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate, yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
I told you, this has to stop.
Please, just leave me alone.
Emily,
everyone's waiting to toast you.
You okay?
Gotta keep the bad energy far away, right?
Okay.
Emily!
Great work, Emily!
You're brilliant!
I wanna thank you all for coming tonight,
my fellow free thinkers,
my passionate positivists. - Yes!
Tomorrow we get to share so many of the ideas
we've discovered together.
We get to help even more people embrace holistic wellness.
Here's to long, healthy lives ahead.
All right, what have we got?
Female, mid-30s,
gunshot to the back of the head.
Name is Emily Starr.
Close range, huh?
MLI said there was some stippling on the scalp
from the powder burns.
Time of death?
Body temp indicates between 10:00 and midnight.
Any witnesses?
A clerk at the bodega around the corner remembers hearing
a loud noise around 10:45 and seeing someone
rush from the scaffolding in a puffy tan coat with a tote bag.
- Man? Woman? - He couldn't say.
Perp had a hood and scarf on.
Guessing because of the scaffolding, no cameras?
Nothing functioning around here.
Thanks.
What have we got?
Right. Wallet, phone.
That's a pretty nice purse.
Emily Starr.
"Your Amazing Life."
Just got cut short.
How long had you been working for her?
Three years.
Emily was a wellness influencer?
TikTok and all that?
It started that way.
About ten years ago, she beat stomach cancer--
naturally.
She started a vlog about it, that caught on,
and pretty soon, she was recommending
homeopathic remedies for sleep issues, skin problems.
A few years ago she opened the center here
because so many of her followers
wanted to work with her in person.
Does Emily have any family that we should be notifying?
No--her mom split when she was young,
and her dad died of lung cancer.
That's what got her started on her health journey.
Emily was killed on 10th and 27th.
You know what she was doing there?
She was walking home from her book party here.
- Did she leave alone? - Yeah.
Were there any problems at the party?
Any arguments?
No.
It was a great night.
But she did get a call that kind of rattled her.
- Do you know who from? - No.
She stepped away to take it and looked worried.
The ME says the slug pulled from the vic
was from a.22 caliber.
The grate sweeps have not found a murder weapon,
so where are we at with this menacing conversation?
According to Emily Starr's cell records,
between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.,
she got seven calls from the same number.
And?
The number traces to
Skylar Gibson.
Oh, she's another health influencer.
And judging by her social media posts--
#backstabber, #snake--
she's not a fan of Emily Starr.
She also texted Emily an hour before she was killed.
"Watch your back, bitch."
That doesn't sound healthy.
Emily and I used to be friends,
roommates for a couple years.
We planned to write a wellness book together.
And what, she went off on her own?
She wrote her book without even telling me.
Then last week I got my hands on an early copy,
saw my recipes, my pose sequence.
And that ticked you off?
The wellness market is a $2 trillion industry, detectives.
We all want a piece.
This was a serious business dispute.
"Watch your back, bitch"?
That doesn't sound very businessy.
Mm-mm.
You got an alibi for last night?
I was leading an online breath class--
the whole thing was recorded.
I never stepped foot outside this building until 11:00 p.m.
Look, I'm sorry she's dead, truly.
Okay.
But can you think of anyone who might want to kill her?
Well, her ex, Zane, loved her too much.
Trolled her after the breakup.
Dude had anger issues.
And I'm betting he didn't like that Emily wrote about him.
In her new book?
Chapter 13, "Cleansing Yourself of an Evil Ex."
Hi, Zane.
We're just gonna play a little show and tell, all right?
I'm gonna show you a video,
you're gonna tell me what the hell you're doing.
Sit down.
That's you at Emily's book party two nights ago,
trying to get in, while that nice gentleman with the iPad
is telling you to take a hike.
That piss you off? - No!
I-I just wanted five minutes of her time.
I wanted to make amends.
Make amends for trolling her online for a year?
Look, I'm a better man now, okay?
I--I'm getting married next month,
and I credit Emily for motivating me
to get my act together.
Why the sudden need to unburden yourself?
I mean, do you really think she would have
wanted you at her big night?
I heard her on the radio this week.
She was reading from her book.
It's a bit about me, and I sounded awful.
So I went to apologize,
and then they wouldn't let me in, so I left.
Where'd you go?
Just a bar I know. It's a mile north of the event.
Hey, Zane's alibi holds.
Got surveillance from outside the bar.
He leaves six minutes after the shot was fired.
Okay.
Is that a city bus coming up 10th Ave
from the direction of the shooting?
It is, which means that it passed
by the area of the shooting just minutes prior.
Did you pull the dash cam?
Mm-hmm, and look what it found
a few blocks north of the shooting.
You run facial rec?
No luck. The face isn't visible enough.
But the figure does match the description
we got from the witness, minus the tote bag.
So the shooter must have ditched the tote bag
between the shooting and here.
Do you have a map of the area?
Yeah.
Okay, see right there?
That passageway that the shooter's coming out of,
that's a dead end.
So the shooter ducked in and ducked out.
Call the SRGs.
I'm sure there's a couple of dumpsters in that alley.
The gun was still in the tote bag,
so it wasn't contaminated with any trash.
- Any prints? - Nothing on the weapon.
But when we test-fired it, we found something interesting.
See those grooves?
Yeah. Any match in NIBIN?
Primer pin markings on this casing
are an exact match to a bullet pulled from a convenience store
armed robbery six years ago.
What happened to that gun?
According to the file, it was never recovered.
But they did get the shooter.
Got a conviction based on video.
Who was the shooter?
Eric Domingo,
from South Ozone Park.
Some narcotics priors.
Any idea where he is now?
Looks like he was up at Mid-State
but was released a month ago.
NYPD!
Domingo, open up!
NYPD!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, officers!
Stand back! Stand back!
- I-- - You stand back!
There's nothing in the house, I swear.
All right, check the back room.
Make sure it's clear.
You're not gonna find anything.
We're not interested in your dope.
We wanna talk about Emily Starr.
I don't know what you're talking about.
That surprises me, 'cause she was killed
by the gun you used in an armed robbery
a few years ago.
And we also have a bullet from it
that pierced the skull of a 34-year-old woman.
Holy--
So you wanna tell us where you were two nights ago,
around 10:45?
You mean Thursday night?
Yeah.
That was my recovery meeting.
Yeah, yeah, at St. Mary of Ascension.
Talk to Father Romano.
There were ten of us.
He had us praying, praying to stay clean.
It was from 9:00 to 11:00.
So how did your gun end up as a murder weapon
while you're talking to God?
Hey, look,
my girl pawned it while I was in.
She needed the cash.
Clayton Boyce?
You're law enforcement?
That is correct.
We're here about a gun a New York City pawn shop
resold you a few months ago.
Sounds like an illegal firearm
and an illegal transaction, which I would not partake in.
That's so funny.
That's exactly what the pawn shop guy said to me
right before I threatened to have the ATF shut him down.
I got rights.
I don't have to speak to you.
Oh, we got rights too.
We got rights to get a warrant for all your records,
every transaction.
I mean, if you sold one single keychain without sales tax,
the state has the right to revoke your business license.
And that's after we exercise our right
to get your FFL yanked.
Listen, that.22 revolver was used in a murder.
If you help us find out who bought it,
we may just get too busy chasing down our suspect...
We get very focused.
And we just don't have any time
to look into your bookkeeping.
At the gun shows, people show up with cash
looking for something under the table.
Some sellers unload stuff out back.
You got a place and date for this gun show
where this.22, which you know nothing about,
disappeared?
Falling Rock Gun Show, ten days ago.
There's no list of gun show attendants,
but we managed to get parking lot video.
We ran 122 plates.
Any matches to anyone on Emily Starr's contact list?
Nothing.
But three were rental cars, so we looked
at video of those drivers.
Two show their faces in broad daylight.
But this one, the one with the hat down, scarf up--
Trying to hide.
That car was rented to a Roger Massey
from Darien, Connecticut--
52, married, works for Capstone Insurance.
Why don't you run the rental plates through the MTA
and see if that car was anywhere near Manhattan
the night of the murder? - Mm-hmm.
And, uh, does this guy have any link to Emily?
He's not on her client or follower list.
Looks like he came in over the Triborough at 8:18 p.m.
Went back over the bridge at 11:52 p.m.
That's an hour after the murder.
Let's call in a warrant.
What in the hell is going on here?
We have a warrant to search your premises.
Step aside, sir.
Thank you. - Search for what? Why?
Mr. Massey, your rental car was in Pennsylvania last week
at a gun show where we believe you purchased a weapon
used in a recent murder.
Murder? Pennsylvania?
Well, that's not possible.
My wife was only using the rental for errands
while hers was in the shop.
Someone else must have used it.
Carol, come down!
They're here about the rental car.
Rental car?
Hey, we found this in the garage trash,
bagged a few times.
We sprayed luminol. It's got blood spatter on it.
Blood?
What in the hell is going on here?
Mrs. Massey, is that your jacket?
Roger, say nothing.
- What? - Just say nothing.
All right, let's go. We're taking them both in.
- He--he did nothing wrong. - That's okay. Come on.
We're gonna let the DA make that call.
You have the right to remain silent, do you understand?
Anything you say can and will be used against you.
Do you understand? - Roger, it's okay.
Say nothing.
Nothing.
Neither the wife nor the husband is talking?
No, not a peep, and they both have lawyers on the way.
But I did call the insurance company where Roger works,
and they say he was in the office
on the day of the gun show.
Also, there was only one person in the surveillance video
of the rental car, who matches her build.
All the evidence points to the wife being a single shooter,
wearing the jacket that was found at the Massey house
with the victim's blood.
I mean, Carol's DNA is all over it.
Why does a suburban wife
execute a 30-something influencer?
We pulled the phone records.
It seems like Roger called her twice, five months ago.
And then she stopped answering his calls.
What about her?
She have any contact with the victim?
She reached out a few times in the weeks before the murder,
but the calls always went to voicemail.
So maybe the husband had an affair with Emily Starr,
and the wife got jealous?
Motive is iffy here.
But we can prove that she bought the gun the week before,
and then she shot the victim in the back of the head?
I think any grand jury in town will say yes.
So...
cut the husband loose,
charge the wife with murder two.
So what's the connection
between Carol Massey and Emily Starr?
'Cause other than some unanswered phone calls,
I don't see that she sent any emails to the victim.
No, no, but here's a flurry of emails
with someone named Lauren Hope in the month before the murder.
Subject, uh, "Why won't you listen,"
and "Stop ignoring me."
Email address is at Hudson University.
Hmm.
Well, according to her social media,
Lauren Hope, age 20,
used to live in Darien, Connecticut,
before she went to Hudson.
Oh, used to be tagged in her photos as Lauren Massey.
She's the couple's daughter?
Is there a Lauren Hope in Emily's records?
Lauren Hope.
Oh, just last year she spent 14 grand on Starr's workshop.
Three-day cleanse.
That is a lot of money for green juice.
She also paid weekly rent to stay at Starr's center
last winter, over the holidays.
Guessing Mom didn't like that.
This email to her daughter says,
"Emily Starr only wants your money,"
and "the woman is dangerous."
So, rebellious kid changes name,
blows through thousands on fringe wellness regimen?
Mom kills to shut it down?
It's not perfect, but it's the beginning of a narrative.
An illegally purchased handgun a week before the murder,
the victim's blood on the defendant's jacket,
emails detailing Carol Massey's anger
at her daughter's spending at Emily Starr's center--
the state has a preponderance of evidence
linking Carol Massey to this horrific crime...
which ended the life
of an innocent young woman.
Everything Mr. Price said, absolutely true.
The evidence against my client is crystal clear.
What's not clear?
Why Carol Massey had to commit this horrific crime.
Well, I'll tell you-- because Emily Starr is not,
as Mr. Price would have you believe, an innocent woman.
She was instead a deadly, imminent threat
to the defendant's daughter, Lauren Massey.
20-year-old Lauren nearly died under Emily Starr's
so-called care
and would have died
had Carol Massey not acted.
My client only killed Emily Starr
to save her daughter's life.
This was an incontrovertible defense of others.
Objection.
Your Honor, this is unfair surprise.
Chambers.
Emily Starr was unarmed when she was shot.
We're not saying she was a threat to Carol Massey.
She was an imminent threat to Lauren.
Who was nowhere near the crime scene.
Your Honor, Lauren Massey has not responded to us,
but we can confirm that she was 3 miles
from the shooting that night. - Is this true?
It's irrelevant to our defense.
Your Honor, Lauren Massey suffers from
acute lymphocytic leukemia.
She won't respond to Mr. Price
'cause she was in the hospital,
finally receiving proper medical care.
Uh, Your Honor, Section 35.15, New York State Code,
mandates that defense of others can only be invoked
to stop the use of unlawful physical force against someone.
Physical harm was a component.
Emily Starr made Lauren Massey forsake
lifesaving medical treatment.
But her advice wasn't unlawful,
and the defendant was too far from her daughter at the time
of the shooting to possibly meet
the reasonable belief standard
that her daughter's death was imminent.
Your Honor, we will present science to show her death
was imminent.
Due to Emily Starr's reckless remedies,
Lauren Massey was on the brink of death
until her mother intervened.
I'll allow.
The defense is totally meritless,
but we need to be ready for whatever accusations
they throw at the victim.
So what did Emily Starr actually say about cancer?
"Juicing cleanses the body of toxins and fights disease,"
and "Rebalancing the body's pH level can kill cancer."
pH level. That is a nice touch.
So Emily Starr peddled in unproven remedies,
and a teenager ended up dangerously sick.
Yeah, but Emily didn't use physical force against Lauren.
It doesn't meet the legal standard of the defense.
It may not matter to the jury.
Defense is gonna have a field day presenting
Emily's homeopathic nonsense.
They will go for jury nullification
and force us to defend her pH juice cleanses.
Nolan, just so you know,
I don't think homeopathy is nonsense,
and I'm gonna bet there are a few jury members
who are just like me.
I actually followed Emily Starr.
You can't just dismiss an entire field.
As it pertains to this case,
the defense will paint Emily Starr
as a deadly snake oil saleswoman,
and they will argue that the stakes for Lauren Massey,
who is battling a serious leukemia, were life and death.
It's not gonna be hard for the defense
to garner sympathy for the mom of a cancer victim.
Okay.
So we remind the jury
that this is about free speech,
that it's about guarding care options
they may very well want.
We defend Emily's integrity
and we make damn sure she's sympathetic as well.
Healing others was her life's calling.
She wanted people to know they had choices
outside of the establishment.
How did she help you?
I was an addict.
Opioids.
She walked me through detox,
gave me natural remedies for the pain,
sat with me through the worst of it.
Did Emily ever prevent you getting a second opinion
from a real doctor?
No, but I've honestly been so healthy
it hasn't even crossed my mind.
I owe everything to her guidance.
Nothing further.
How much did Emily's guidance cost?
I can't say exactly.
Ballpark. Last year,
how much did she make?
I mean, you had access to her business statements.
- It was around 700,000. - Wow.
But her company earnings allowed her
to grow her platform, reach more people.
How much money did Emily make off Lauren Massey,
the defendant's daughter?
I'm not sure.
Your Honor, I'm handing over what has been marked exhibit A,
Lauren Massey's payment records to Starr Serenity Center.
Would you read aloud the total amount?
$23,204.
23,000.
Was that for high-tech machines, CT scans,
MRIs, cutting-edge medicine?
She offered a full homeopathic regimen of juice,
herbal teas, enemas, exercise--
Were you aware that doctors, people with actual
medical degrees who study cancer,
had given Lauren an 85% to 100% long-term survival rate
if she underwent chemo and radiation?
But that if her cancer went untreated
by those tested therapies,
they estimated
that she had only a year to live?
I don't think--
Your Honor, Mr. Sirianni's questions
are outside the scope of the witness's testimony.
Withdrawn.
But...
just so I can completely wrap my head
around the finances,
true or false:
Emily Starr asked Lauren Massey
to pay her $23,000
to be killed slowly within a year?
- Objection. - Withdrawn.
Nothing further.
Get this-- "Influencer's followers
sing her holistic praises."
Emily Starr's subscribers list is growing.
Her followers are making TikTok testimonials.
After the defense painted her as a crook?
Guess all press is good press.
Not according to the oncology community.
They're up in arms about all this
anti-science wellness stuff.
They have officially denounced Emily, her center,
and 18,000 other TikTok influencers
whose cancer cures have no basis in science.
18,000? That's a lot.
Yeah, it is.
And that could be useful.
And when did you learn that Lauren had decided
on Emily Starr's so-called therapy?
Lauren missed a follow-up with her oncologist,
so I called her.
She said big business had caused her cancer.
She didn't want big pharma to profit off her treatment.
She told us she was changing her name
to reflect this new outlook--
Lauren Hope.
And, uh, she didn't want my dangerous
and doom-filled advice.
I was so confused.
And then eventually we found a credit card bill
for Starr Serenity Center and figured out
who Emily Starr was.
And what was the status of Lauren's cancer
during this time?
We didn't know.
But last June, we got a phone call from an ambulance.
Lauren had collapsed in a store.
At the hospital we got her an MRI,
and the cancer, it was all over her insides.
It was just eating her away.
And we thought this would snap her back to her senses,
but Emily told her it was a natural cleansing stage,
that what she needed was rest at the center.
My husband and I had four different oncologists
look at Lauren's scans,
and they all said the same thing--
that she would be dead within months.
Did you give this information to Lauren?
We couldn't.
Emily told her to avoid upsetting contact.
I couldn't find her at her dorm.
I didn't know if she was at the center or on a trip.
All I knew was that she was gonna die very soon.
Nothing further.
Mrs. Massey, um,
I--
I can only imagine how stressful it is
to have a sick child, and I applaud your efforts
to get her the best treatment.
Thank you.
She had chemo
and radiation, correct?
At the start, yes.
So your daughter was well-versed
in the care options available,
and yet she chose something else.
No, she was led to believe that this juice option
could be as effective as radiation and chemo.
And then Emily told her that she was better.
That--that's not a choice, that's a con.
You admit freely to shooting Emily Starr?
I do.
Right, because of the dangerous advice
she gave your daughter?
Yes.
Did you know, Mrs. Massey, that just last year,
over 18,000 wellness advisors
recommended alternatives to chemo and radiation?
Would you kill them all?
Those thousands didn't shut my daughter
away from her parents.
Is that what this is about?
Anger that Emily Starr assumed your role?
No.
Is that why you could think of no other remedy
but to shoot her?
I just went there to scare her,
to beg her to leave Lauren alone.
With a loaded gun that you had driven
across state lines to purchase?
Lauren needed treatment. She needed a doctor.
Emily walked away.
Her spell over my daughter, it needed to be broken.
My baby was gonna die. I wasn't gonna let that happen.
So, yes, I--I shot her.
Nothing further.
Let's adjourn for the day.
The jury knows the mom legally overstepped.
I'm just not sure they care.
She was very sympathetic.
What, you're assuming the jury
can't keep their emotions out of this?
No, I'm assuming they think the mother was suffering
some sort of extreme emotional distress
when she was confronted with how dangerously
her daughter's cancer had spread.
The girl was on the precipice of death.
Okay, Nolan, don't go soft on me.
Okay? Not now.
Look, I--I'm truly sorry for what that woman went through,
but no way did she lose her cool.
Well,
get ready to contend
with another sympathetic witness.
Lauren Massey's out of the hospital.
Lauren, thank you for coming today.
I know it took a lot to get here.
It did.
But I'm just grateful to be alive,
and I owe it to my mother.
Lauren, the jury has heard about Emily Starr's regimen,
and there's been some speculation as to how and why
you came to follow her advice.
Could you tell us in your own words?
I hated being a girl with a disease.
Emily made it seem like
there was an easy way to get better.
The things the oncologist had told me
didn't seem real.
Emily preyed upon that,
then made sure hers was the only voice I heard.
Told me my cancer was gone.
Do you understand how crazy that is?
Did you show them the scans
of what was going on inside me,
the scans she prevented me from seeing?
Thank God for my mother,
or I wouldn't be here.
Thank you, Lauren.
Nothing further.
Lauren...
I know you have been through a lot
and clearly
love your mother very much.
I do.
And you express dismay that Emily had lied to you,
so I wanna give you a chance to be honest.
You were 19 when you decided to stop chemo
and follow Emily's health recommendations?
Yes.
Of legal age to make medical decisions for yourself?
Yes.
Did Emily ever tell you she had medical training?
No.
And you understood that your doctor
had recommended chemo and radiation?
Yes.
Did Emily Starr
ever lock you in a room?
No, but she restrained me
psychologically.
Told me to cut ties with anyone negative--
my parents, my doctor.
She said their fearmongering would make my cancer worse.
And you believed her?
When you're sick,
you want it to go away so badly.
Any liar can own you.
My actual doctor, he's not allowed to lie.
You all won't let him.
He had to tell me the treatment was going to be awful.
Why was Emily allowed to say anything?
It almost cost me my life.
I'm only better now because I finally saw the MRIs.
I saw proof that my cancer had gotten worse
under Emily's care.
In all of this,
my mother was the only person
willing to fight for me,
to save me.
Please,
don't punish her.
Nothing further.
Tough witness.
Push too hard and it backfires.
I can tell the jury feels really sorry
for the daughter and the mom.
And frankly, Sam, I'm--
I'm feeling it myself.
It doesn't justify murder.
A TikTok star convincing a teenager with cancer
to forgo life-saving treatment, that is bad enough.
But preventing the girl from receiving
critical medical information from an actual oncologist
after she collapsed?
All she did was tell Lauren to stay off email.
And to avoid speaking with her parents.
That's not free speech, Sam. That's coercion.
Emily Starr assumed a duty of care
when Lauren was at her center, and she violated it.
So what, now you're saying that the mother was reasonable
in believing that this was the only way
to save her daughter's life?
Reasonable? No.
Understandable?
Nolan, what happened to "the law is your compass"?
My mother died of breast cancer.
I'm so sorry. I--
The treatments, they were pretty brutal.
She'd always been high-octane.
She was a lawyer.
She was a damn good one.
She hated being so drained.
And then she started reading about homeopathic treatments.
Eventually, she fell for the hope pitch,
stopped chemo for a few months.
She got her hair back. She got some energy back.
But that cost her...
a year of her life.
When you are that sick, you are vulnerable.
Yeah.
But we need to get justice for Emily.
Yes.
But man one and 15 years is not a terrible outcome.
I'm not sure it's the just or appropriate outcome.
Well, you wanna risk losing this whole thing
to jury nullification?
I'll set up a meeting.
Man one is a good offer, Carol.
But it's an admission of guilt.
You killed an unarmed woman.
I saved my daughter's life.
And I stand by the fact that
Emily Starr's actions were deadly.
Mrs. Massey, I am sympathetic
to the horrible situation that you faced.
That's why we're here with an offer, a very fair offer.
If you decline,
the charge goes back to murder two,
which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years to life.
Think about Lauren.
Your daughter needs you.
I am thinking about Lauren,
and all the other Laurens out there.
Emily Starr's business is booming.
This is dangerous.
People need to know the truth.
Seems like a pretty emphatic no.
Come on.
The verdict is a toss-up at best.
I feel sorry for her, but I don't want anyone
to walk for a crime like this.
If the jury is leaning into sympathy and emotion,
let's play the game.
Meaning?
Emily had battled cancer herself, right?
She went through the same fear, same struggle.
You wanna call a rebuttal witness?
Someone to remind the jury that Emily had
legitimate personal reasons for her unusual recommendations,
that it wasn't about greed.
It was about choices that worked for her.
In her book, Emily writes about her cancer support group
back in Pennsylvania.
I'll find them.
I heard about the court case.
I've just been too busy to follow it all.
Oh.
I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me.
We're trying to paint a full picture of Emily.
It would be really useful to hear about her
back when she joined your support group.
Well, Emily, um...
bundle of energy and positivity.
It was really inspiring at first.
You know, a lot of us were battling depression,
struggling with our families.
I had just lost my consulting job
because I'd taken so much time off for treatments.
Couldn't stay on my feet.
Emily got me feeling hopeful again.
You said it was, uh, inspiring at first.
Did something change?
It's just...
we'd all jumped in, drinking her teas and juices
but also doing our treatments.
We felt a little better, but Emily--
she had adenocarcinoma.
Stomach cancer.
It's brutal.
But she never had any weight loss,
no abdominal pain,
never even got tired.
I mean, Emily Starr never did any wrong by me,
but don't you think that's strange?
Nope.
No evidence of any tumor tissue,
and not a single microscopic trace
of a cancerous cell in her body.
And the stomach?
Was in excellent shape.
You get a chance to talk to her diagnosing doctor?
No hospital within 200 miles of Emily's hometown,
where she says she was diagnosed with cancer,
has a record of ever admitting her for anything.
Well, then I'm gonna say she didn't beat cancer.
She never had it.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
Emily's whole foundational story was a lie?
Jury is gonna loathe her,
and quite possibly let the mom walk.
Wait, why does the jury need to know?
This doesn't meet the Brady standard.
Sam, we've been in court defending Emily's right
to share her theory of self-healing.
But it isn't exculpatory, and it sure as hell
doesn't give the mom the right to gun her down.
No, of course it doesn't.
But it does show that Carol Massey's mistrust
was warranted, that she was right to think
that she was full of crap.
And that, in my opinion, is favorable to the defense,
and quite frankly, the jury should know this.
And so should her followers sitting in court.
Nolan, like you always say,
our job is to follow the law.
And in my opinion, this information
is irrelevant to Carol Massey's defense.
It has nothing to do with her daughter's imminent death.
So you think we should just sit on it?
Yes.
We have to.
One thing is clear--
Carol Massey killed Emily Starr.
And despite her extensive efforts to get away with it,
she was caught.
Once caught, she couldn't contest the evidence,
so she told you
she had to do it because Emily Starr
was about to kill her daughter.
This young wellness influencer's
unconventional ideas were, according to Carol Massey,
tantamount to homicide.
Fortunately for you, she's made your job easy
because the law is crystal clear
about what it considers a legitimate defense of others.
The harm averted must be unlawful
and imminent.
In this case, neither standard was met.
The defense called no expert to testify
that Lauren was gonna die that night, or even that week.
More important,
Emily broke no laws
in advising Lauren.
In fact, for seven years as an active influencer,
not a single civil or criminal charge was brought against her.
You wanna know what unlawful physical force looks like?
It's this.
That is the person who needed protecting that night--
a young woman walking home from her own party
when a gun was put to her head.
And none of us could offer her that protection,
but we can
offer her justice.
It's okay to empathize and
to sympathize with Carol Massey.
I do.
But you cannot let her get away with murder.
Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
On the count of murder in the second degree,
we find the defendant...
guilty.
Members of the jury, we thank you for your service.
We are adjourned.
Mom!
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Mr. Price,
we wanted to thank you
for getting Emily justice.
As a great prosecutor once told me,
a good person killing a bad person
is still murder.