00:00:00
[ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ [ Somber music plays ] ♪♪ -I was, uh, with
the prosecutor's office
00:00:13
for 30 years, and this was
my last trial in my career. Being a prosecutor has a --
has a lifelong effect on you.
00:00:25
There has to be some way
to come back to humanity and... put the violence aside.
00:00:34
This was
an aggravated murder case. The victim's name
is Gloria Choi. -She was a hard-working mom,
a good role model,
00:00:43
and Gloria's parents talk about
how she was kind of their angel. She spent most of her life
00:00:49
working in the family business
of running hotels. -She came off
very shy and quiet,
00:00:56
but she was nothing of those. [ Chuckles ] She was passionate about
her family and her son,
00:01:03
had hopes and dreams
for herself. -What we know, is there were four calls
placed to law enforcement
00:01:12
in the final 48 hours
before she was killed. This person continues
to stalk her,
00:01:18
has slashed her tires, has stolen thousands of dollars
worth of property. She called for help,
00:01:24
and she was deprived of help that she's entitled to
under the law time and time again.
00:01:31
-The evening that she was
murdered, she was going home, actually, just taking
a break to eat dinner.
00:01:37
He was right behind her
when she left. -[ Engine starts ]
-He knew everywhere she went.
00:01:42
♪♪ -He forced her vehicle
off the road. She doesn't know at that point
who this is,
00:01:54
and she's not able
to drive anymore. ♪♪ -And he approaches
her vehicle, and she notices he has a gun.
00:02:07
♪♪ -All of a sudden,
we heard a rapid fire, about 7 or 8 shots... -[ Gunshots ]
-...and he just unloaded.
00:02:18
And I was just in shock
and saw him disappear. And I then ran over
and called the police.
00:02:24
♪♪ ♪♪ -So in all, 14 shots...
-[ Camera shutter snapping ] ...just riddles her car
with bullets, right?
00:02:40
-He's close range. He's shooting right through
her driver's side window. -She should have been protected.
00:02:49
And she wasn't. -Do you blame the police for not taking better care
of your friend?
00:02:55
-I do blame the police
for not taking it seriously. -You have a perpetrator
who's escalating.
00:03:02
Any law enforcement officer
who is following the training would know this woman was
in incredible danger.
00:03:08
♪♪ [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ -On January 2nd, 2022,
00:03:59
Gloria Choi placed that
anguished call to 911. ♪♪ -Yeah. -Seconds later... -...multiple shots are fired.
00:04:17
The audio is too graphic
to play in full. It lasts about two minutes, and dispatchers are trying
to make sense
00:04:24
of what they just heard. ♪♪ [ Siren wails ] Officers from
the Lakewood Police Department
00:04:34
in Washington
arrive within minutes. -One of the officers
that approached you can see him trying
to get to her quickly
00:04:42
and the doors are locked. -Former Pierce County Prosecutor
Greg Greer describes what
first responders did.
00:04:49
♪♪ -They bust out a rear window... ...smartly, wisely, so they
can preserve the evidence
00:05:00
and they're able to
extricate her pretty quickly. -And did you see them
pull out the victim at all?
00:05:08
-I did, yeah. -Terry Estvold gave police
a detailed description of what he witnessed.
00:05:16
-And I was probably
30 feet away and they put her on the ground and worked on her hard
for several minutes.
00:05:24
-Had to be hard
for you to witness that. -It's terrible and I -- it still
bothers me a lot to this day
00:05:29
just thinking about it. -Gloria was pronounced dead a short time later
at a nearby hospital.
00:05:38
Brieanna Eberly
soon heard the news that her best friend
had been killed, but she couldn't
quite accept it.
00:05:46
-And I repeatedly, repeatedly called Gloria's phone
over and over again, no answer, no answer, no answer,
00:05:53
and then I called her dad. And then he finally answered. And I remember asking him,
"Is it true?
00:06:02
"Is she gone? Is it true?"
And he... ...he said, "Yeah, she's gone." ♪♪ -Greer took us to the scene
and walked us through
00:06:16
what he learned
from investigators. -This would have been
gravel shoulder. And somewhere in here,
00:06:23
he pinches her vehicle off and she's no longer able
to -- to move forward. He's blocking her.
00:06:30
♪♪ -Gloria says the man
is her boyfriend but does not give a name. -He gets out of the vehicle
00:06:42
and if you've heard
the 911 call, she describes exactly
what -- what he's doing.
00:06:48
♪♪ -Greer says
the shooter was standing next to Gloria's
driver's side window. The door was locked.
00:06:59
-He's not trying to talk to her,
he immediately starts -- -He's there to kill her.
He is there to kill her.
00:07:04
-After firing nine
.40 caliber bullets through the door
and window of Gloria's truck,
00:07:10
Greer says the shooter
begins to drive away. As he does,
Gloria's truck moves forward
00:07:17
until it hits a utility pole, as shown in this
police animation. Greer believes the truck moved
because Gloria's foot
00:07:25
was no longer applying
pressure to the brake. -He doesn't know
whether she's alive or not,
00:07:31
is what we believe
is going through his mind, because the vehicle's
no longer where it was,
00:07:36
that's 60 yards west of where it
was when he first shot her. -The shooter makes a U-turn
00:07:42
and comes back around
to Gloria's truck. He pulls his truck alongside so that his driver's side window
is now next to hers,
00:07:51
and this time he does not bother to get out of his car,
Greer says. -And he rolls his window down,
five more shots
00:07:58
just to make sure. Nine wasn't enough,
five more. Then after he's finished that,
he immediately takes off.
00:08:05
-After firing 14 shots and hitting Gloria
at least ten times, prosecutors say the shooter
disappears into the night.
00:08:14
[ Siren wails ] The first big break in the case came from one of the first
officers at the crime scene.
00:08:23
-One of the officers,
she notices this lanyard that's on Gloria,
and then she sees her name
00:08:27
and that hits her hard. -Gloria's lanyard was
from a nearby Holiday Inn, where she was the manager.
00:08:35
Just days earlier, that officer
took a report from Gloria after she called 911. Gloria said her ex-boyfriend
had been following
00:08:44
and harassing her,
and now they had a name -- Billy Rickman. -And that becomes a lead...
00:08:54
...to understanding
what happened. -Greer says
a detective subpoenaed Rickman's phone records.
00:08:59
Even without having his phone, police were able to read
his text messages. -At one point,
he says where he is,
00:09:08
and it's the Home Motel. -The detective rushed
to the motel, which is a six-minute drive
from the murder scene.
00:09:16
Greer says the desk clerk
told the detective that days earlier, Rickman attempted to sign in
with a fake name,
00:09:22
but the clerk insisted
on proof of identity. -We have him
on surveillance video getting back to the motel.
00:09:31
-That was after the shooting,
says prosecutor Coreen Schnepf. -He appears in a hurry,
00:09:37
he gets out of his vehicle,
and he immediately starts wiping down the side
of the vehicle that might have
00:09:43
any kind of evidence
of gunpowder residue. You can see him on the phone. He's contacting people.
00:09:52
-She says investigators
began checking surveillance from several businesses
in the area
00:09:58
and got another break
at a nearby car rental business. -This picture is very clear.
00:10:06
-Enterprise had great video. -Here, there's no denying who
that is looking at that, yeah.
00:10:12
Rickman rented a Chevy Colorado
using his real name. It is the same vehicle
in the motel video
00:10:19
and the same
vehicle police believe Rickman used to run
Gloria off the road. The Lakewood police put out
an alert for Billy Rickman,
00:10:29
but in the days that followed,
he was nowhere to be found. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -She was a part of my family,
00:10:53
and my whole family knew her,
and they loved her. -With Billy Rickman on the run,
00:10:57
police questioned
Gloria's friend Brieanna Eberly about Rickman's relationship
with Gloria.
00:11:03
Brieanna had known Gloria
since 2018, when she hired her to help out
at the Oyo Hotel,
00:11:10
which was owned
by Gloria's parents. -She wanted to
please her parents to the best of her ability.
00:11:16
She was their lifeline. She did it all
and she did it all with grace. Absolute grace.
00:11:23
-Gloria was the single mother
of a seven-year-old. -It was all about her kid. She was very fierce
when it came to her son.
00:11:32
-And in May 2021, Billy Rickman checked into
the hotel from California, a mystery man with
a larger-than-life personality.
00:11:42
Brieanna says
it didn't take long for Rickman to notice Gloria. -Gloria was coming
into the office,
00:11:49
he walked up
and introduced himself. He's like, "You're very pretty." And she goes, "Well, thank you."
00:11:57
She walked away
and he's like, "Who's that?" And I'm like,
"Her name's Gloria, stay away."
00:12:03
-But Rickman did not
"stay away," and before long,
the two were texting a lot. -She liked the way
he talked to her
00:12:12
and the things that
he said to her. All she wanted to do
was be loved by somebody.
00:12:17
-"And Rickman made it seem
like he could be that guy," says Meaghan Driscoll,
the Choi family's lawyer.
00:12:24
-He really came across
as this nice guy, love-bombed her,
meaning he's giving her gifts
00:12:30
and kind of showering her
with kindness. -Weeks after meeting her,
Rickman sent Gloria this text.
00:12:38
♪♪ ♪♪ -How was he with her son? Gloria's friend, Jacob Blue. -What she liked about Rickman
00:13:01
is that he had a lot
of masculine energy that he was showing him. -Billy and her son
had a very instant connection
00:13:08
because he was like
a kid himself, you know? -Within weeks, Gloria
and Rickman became a couple,
00:13:15
and he began staying in
her apartment at the Oyo Hotel. Brieanna says Gloria's father
00:13:21
did not approve
of the relationship. -And her parents
basically drew a red line and said he can't be staying
here at the hotel anymore.
00:13:31
-Gloria's father
wanted him to move out. -And Rickman went
and approached her parents
00:13:37
and told them,
he's not going anywhere and that Gloria is now his, and if they don't like it,
they can leave.
00:13:45
-Wow. -Her dad basically
gave her an ultimatum. She could stay on
as the manager,
00:13:54
or she could leave and she chose to leave. -Gloria, her son, and Rickman
moved to an apartment
00:14:03
in the town of Tumwater
in September 2021, and her heartbroken parents
chose to sell their hotel.
00:14:11
♪♪ That's when Gloria
took a new job as manager of the Holiday Inn
Express in Lakewood,
00:14:20
right next to Tacoma. -She was still very happy
with what she had, but it didn't last long,
that happiness.
00:14:29
-Gloria told Brieanna
that Rickman had big dreams, but no way of
making them come true.
00:14:35
-And Gloria's like, "Well,
who's going to fund all of this? You're not.
You don't have a job.
00:14:41
"Get a job," you know? And he refused. -So was he asking her for money? -Oh, yeah. He drained her.
00:14:49
She bought everything. -Within weeks, Gloria saw
a different side of Rickman. She told Brieanna he was
often mean, angry, and insecure.
00:15:01
Gloria also told Brieanna that
Rickman was drinking to excess and using cocaine and marijuana.
00:15:09
What did you tell her? -Uh, "Leave." "Run away." -Gloria chose to stay
with Rickman,
00:15:16
but two months later,
in November, Jacob says he got
a troubling call. -She did express that he
would become physical with her,
00:15:25
push her around,
throw her around, and that she didn't feel safe just breaking things off
with him.
00:15:34
-Jacob told Gloria she needed
to leave him immediately. But Gloria said she was
afraid that might trigger
00:15:40
something inside Rickman. -She didn't know how
she was going to leave Billy. She was scared to leave him.
00:15:47
-What scared her? -Possessiveness. He knew everywhere she went. -She felt that he was
tracking her every move.
00:15:55
-She found a tag... ...in her car. -An AirTag?
-Mm-hmm. She's the one that
told me about it later on.
00:16:06
-And Gloria suspected
there were other hidden Apple AirTags in her truck. Are you concerned
for your friend at this point?
00:16:13
-Absolutely. -In November 2021,
just six months after they met. Brieanna says Gloria made up
her mind to leave Rickman.
00:16:23
-She looked at me dead in the face and said,
"I'm leaving." And I asked her,
you know, "What's your plan?"
00:16:30
She goes,
"I'm going to go to my parents." -Her parents welcomed Gloria
and her son into their home.
00:16:36
♪♪ But it was not so easy
to get rid of Rickman. He had borrowed Gloria's truck
and refused to give it back.
00:16:47
So, on November 28th, Gloria went to
the Tumwater police to file a report
about the truck
00:16:54
and while she was there,
she told the officer taking the report about Rickman. "When Billy is sober,
he is calm,
00:17:02
but when he drinks he has
a short fuse and is very angry. I wish him well,
but choosing to not be
00:17:09
a part of his life anymore for the safety and stability
for my son and I." Attorney Meaghan Driscoll,
who represents the Choi family,
00:17:19
said it was clear
the Tumwater officer believed Gloria was at risk. The officer reported
that Rickman was potentially
00:17:26
tracking Gloria
with Apple AirTags, owned numerous firearms, and appeared to be
extremely manipulative.
00:17:34
-He actually becomes
really concerned for her and her safety, so the officer actually tells Gloria
and tells the court
00:17:42
to issue a domestic violence
no-contact order. -Almost immediately,
Rickman was arrested
00:17:49
for taking Gloria's truck, and he agreed to
this recorded interview. -Rickman was jailed for three
days for taking Gloria's truck
00:18:19
and on December 1st, 2021,
he was brought before a judge who slapped him with
a strict no-contact order.
00:18:27
But Brieanna says
the order did not faze Rickman. The day he got out of jail, he told Brieanna he was
unconcerned with the legalities.
00:18:37
-He didn't care. He was like, "So?" "I'm still going to
talk to her." ♪♪ ♪♪ -In early December 2021,
00:19:03
Gloria Choi was back
living with her parents, hoping she had rid herself of
Billy Rickman once and for all.
00:19:10
But Brieanna said
Rickman had other ideas as he told her the day
he got out of jail
00:19:15
for taking Gloria's truck,
which had been returned to her. -Billy showed up at my place
00:19:21
and he's like,
"I need your help." And he begged me to talk to her
about getting back together.
00:19:29
He said that he would change. He, you know,
would stop drinking. He would be
a better person to her.
00:19:34
And in the back of my mind,
I'm like, "no." -You didn't believe him then?
-I didn't.
00:19:39
-And what's your understanding
of a no-contact order? -No-contact order means
you can't come in contact
00:19:44
with that person. Text, phone calls, physical
location, anything of that sort. -And if you do, what happens?
-You go to jail.
00:19:53
-Brieanna told Rickman
that he'd be arrested if he broke any
of those conditions.
00:19:58
But two weeks later,
she got a call from a friend telling her Gloria
was hiding from Rickman
00:20:03
in the bathroom
of this coffee shop. Brieanna wasted no time
getting there. -As I was pulling in,
00:20:11
I saw Billy Rickman's car was parked over there. We made eye contact. I went to the bathroom
and knocked on the door
00:20:21
and she opened it. She knew that Billy was here. -It was another
reminder to Gloria
00:20:27
that Rickman seemed to be
tracking her every move. And you said she was
very emotional
00:20:33
and locked into the bathroom. -She was petrified.
She was crying. She was shaking.
00:20:38
She refused to come out
until she knew he was gone. -It's not clear
if police were ever called.
00:20:47
Three days later, Brieanna said
that Gloria told her that Rickman confronted her
in the Capital Mall
00:20:54
while she was shopping
with her son. Brieanna said Gloria told her
that Rickman pleaded with her
00:20:59
to drop the no-contact order... ...but she refused. -He was putting himself
in her path
00:21:07
so that he could rekindle
the lost relationship. -That lost relationship,
says prosecutor Coreen Schnepf,
00:21:14
was on Rickman's mind
when he made these cell phone videos
directed at Gloria. -You can see the videos
that he created
00:21:21
to try and make her feel bad
about leaving him. ♪♪ -Prosecutors say
everything came to a head
00:21:37
on the last two days of 2021. It started on December 30th, when Rickman
sent Gloria an email
00:21:45
after he spotted her with
Jacob Blue at a coffee shop. And I guess Rickman did write
an email to Gloria that read,
00:21:53
"You left me for another guy,
wow." -Correct. -The email was sent
in real time, and Gloria began getting
calls from a blocked number.
00:22:02
When she answered,
Rickman was on the line yelling at her,
according to Jacob. -He believed that this
Jacob Blue was a --
00:22:10
you know,
potential boyfriend. -They moved on
to a sushi restaurant, but Gloria was becoming
increasingly bothered
00:22:17
by the headlights of a car, which were pointed
at the restaurant. And Jacob says Gloria believed
Rickman was behind the wheel.
00:22:25
-She says, "I know that car, and I know that
it's watching us right now." And she got
really uncomfortable.
00:22:32
-Jacob says they left
the restaurant and discovered someone
had stolen their computers
00:22:38
from Gloria's truck. They also discovered one of
her truck's tires was slashed. Gloria called the police
and asked for their help.
00:22:47
It was the first
of four calls about Rickman over a 48-hour period. ♪♪ ♪♪ -Okay.
00:23:08
-And did Gloria express that
she thought it was Rickman? -She was confident
it was Rickman.
00:23:14
-Gloria told police that only Rickman knew
the truck's keypad code to gain entry.
00:23:19
She gave them a description
of his black BMW and told the officer about
the no-contact order.
00:23:26
The officer said he left
Rickman a voicemail message letting him know the police
wanted to speak with him.
00:23:33
Gloria and Jacob
then drove to the Holiday Inn to retrieve Jacob's Jeep. And that's when Jacob discovered
00:23:40
that two of his tires
had been slashed. -This is a snowy night.
There's snow on the ground.
00:23:46
-Gloria took
this cell phone video following the footsteps
she thought were Rickman's.
00:23:52
♪♪ -Because Gloria managed
that Holiday Inn, she was able to get
the surveillance footage.
00:24:03
These videos have never been
seen by the public before now. -We see a man come in
00:24:09
and sneak in
through the shadows. He comes up to my jeep and he punctures both my tires
00:24:15
and -- and walks off. -They called police
a second time and gave them the video.
00:24:21
Both Jacob and Gloria
identified the man as Billy Rickman
by his distinctive walk.
00:24:27
But officers said
the video was not clear enough to make an arrest. -And the police were like,
"I'm sorry.
00:24:33
Without us being
able to see his face, there's really not
a whole lot to go off of.
00:24:38
Not much we can do." -The next day was
December 31st, New Year's Eve. Jacob returned to his Jeep
with two new tires.
00:24:48
That's when he
and Gloria discovered the other two tires
were now slashed. That prompted
a third call to 911.
00:24:56
♪♪ Once again,
the surveillance footage showed the man Jacob and Gloria believed was Rickman
slashing the tires,
00:25:10
but police again said
the video was not clear enough for them to make
an identification.
00:25:18
Then on New Year's Eve,
there was a fourth call to 911, this time by the desk clerk
at the Holiday Inn.
00:25:26
He spotted
the tire slasher again, puncturing the tires
on Jacob's Jeep. The desk clerk chased after him,
recording this video
00:25:37
at the
same time he was calling 911. ♪♪ -Police say Rickman was driving
that same Chevy Colorado
00:25:49
when he ran Gloria off the road, murdered her, then escaped into the night. ♪♪ ♪♪
00:26:08
-Billy Rickman was able
to elude police for four days
until January 6th, 2022. That's when prosecutor
Greg Greer says
00:26:18
law enforcement
tracked his phone to Humboldt County
in Northern California, where Rickman turned up drunk
at a relative's house.
00:26:27
-This relative did not want
Mr. Rickman staying with him. This relative offered to take
Mr. Rickman to a nearby casino
00:26:36
and put him up
at the casino in a hotel. -Rickman's relative,
driving his black BMW,
00:26:42
was stopped by tribal police, and they contacted
the California Highway Patrol, who rushed to the scene.
00:26:49
Police say Rickman,
as seen in this dash cam video, shoved his relative
out of the driver's seat
00:26:55
and onto the pavement,
gunned the engine and took off. -He's got enough
of a head start
00:27:01
and they actually
don't find him. They -- they lose him. -Rickman wandered around
in the darkness
00:27:07
for about five hours
on the wet, cold night before being found
and taken into custody.
00:27:14
-Mr. Rickman is soaking wet,
freezing cold, hypothermic. -Rickman was charged with
aggravated first-degree murder
00:27:23
and pleaded not guilty. Some 250 miles south, a woman who says
she knew firsthand
00:27:31
just how dangerous Rickman was received a phone call. -The officer from the Oakland
Police Department called me,
00:27:39
and when I answered the phone,
she told me Billy's been arrested. -This is Aja Houle,
00:27:44
who had filed a police report
about Rickman. She says Rickman
forced her into prostitution
00:27:50
and sexually assaulted her when she was
a 14-year-old runaway living in Oakland in 2005.
00:27:57
-I'm a survivor
of human trafficking and Billy Rickman
was my trafficker. -Aja says
she endured years of abuse
00:28:05
before she nearly was killed
after Rickman choked her with a strand of
Christmas tree lights.
00:28:11
-Like, I could not breathe. Like, it was very scary. I was terrified. -She escaped to San Francisco.
00:28:19
-It was one of the best
moments of my life, but also one of
the most terrifying because I felt free,
00:28:26
but I also felt so much fear because I had crossed him and I knew what
he was capable of.
00:28:33
-Shortly after leaving, Aja called a girlfriend
who was living with Rickman. -He took the phone out
of her hand when I called her
00:28:40
to check on her once and said, "Bitch, if I ever find you,
I will [mouths words] kill you."
00:28:45
And I knew that he meant it. I never, ever
saw that as a threat. Like, I saw that as a promise
because he would.
00:28:50
He would kill me. He was livid. -Aja says she always
wanted justice, but it was only while
completing her education
00:28:58
and pursuing a master's degree
in public affairs from the University
of California at Berkeley,
00:29:03
that she found the courage
to file that report with the Oakland Police. It detailed multiple alleged
incidents of Rickman's abuse,
00:29:11
including hitting her
with closed fists on the face and body and causing her
to sustain a black eye,
00:29:19
bruises and cuts to the face. -I wanted him held
accountable for what he did. -Oakland police put out
an arrest warrant for Rickman
00:29:27
in 2021 in Alameda County, but by that time
he had left California. Washington state prosecutors say
they never saw the warrant.
00:29:37
-I was angry and upset
because he could have been stopped beforehand. I blamed myself
in some kind of way.
00:29:45
-But Aja still wanted to help. She emailed the prosecutors
working on the Gloria Choi murder
and offered to give them
00:29:52
information about Rickman. But prosecutors demurred, saying they wanted to keep their
case focused on Gloria's murder.
00:30:01
-That wasn't really part
of our case, so we didn't follow up
on that particular element.
00:30:08
-Rickman's trial
for the murder of Gloria Choi began in November 2023, before a jury of nine men
and three women.
00:30:17
Gloria's family were too
devastated to attend the trial. -They moved out of town
without a word,
00:30:26
and we didn't get to
say goodbye. But I understood why. -Prosecutor Greer wanted the
jury to understand why as well.
00:30:36
So he played
Gloria's 911 call in its entirety right after
the opening statements.
00:30:43
♪♪ -You could tell the whole
courtroom was, you know, different while that
was being played.
00:31:00
-The prosecution methodically
laid out its case to the jury with all the audio and video
evidence they'd collected.
00:31:08
-What you're about to see
is a compilation of information from
the defendant's cell phone,
00:31:15
as well as surveillance videos that we have
at the various locations. What you're going to see first
is some GPS coordinates.
00:31:23
-Schnepf says Rickman
could no longer follow Gloria after he slashed Gloria's tires
00:31:28
and put her truck --
with those AirTags -- out of commission. -As soon as he slashed
the tires on Gloria's vehicle,
00:31:35
he could no longer track her. -Rickman was forced to more
or less guess where Gloria was,
00:31:41
and in the days that followed,
Schnepf says, he spent a lot of time sitting
outside her parents house
00:31:47
where she was living. So all of this is breaking
this no-contact order, right? -Yeah, he --
probably every letter
00:31:54
of the the no-contact order
he violated. -He's just constantly
going back to her house.
00:32:00
-Back and forth. Back and forth. -Is she there,
is she at her house? It's crazy to see this
like this.
00:32:06
Sometime around 6 p.m.
on January 2nd, the night of Gloria's murder. Schnepf says Rickman
turned off his cell phone
00:32:14
and didn't turn it back on
until he was at the Home Motel immediately after the murder.
00:32:20
-The fact that
he doesn't turn his phone off, except for at the time point
of the murder,
00:32:26
helps us to show
that it was him. -To buttress their case, prosecutors put
Brieanna Eberly on the stand.
00:32:34
-I remember
looking over at him, seeing him look at her picture. He started to cry,
00:32:42
and I remember
it made me so angry. I had never felt
so furious in my life. Billy didn't just take
Gloria's physical life.
00:32:56
Billy took everything... ...took a daughter, a mother, a friend, a sister, a cousin.
00:33:06
He took it all in a blink
of an eye with no... ...no regard. -The loss of Gloria Choi
weighed heavily on Greg Greer
00:33:19
as the prosecution ended. He knew this was going to be
the last case of his career.
00:33:24
He was surveilling.
He was stalking. He was hunting that night. -Absolutely. -And Greg Greer was confident
he'd proven that to the jury.
00:33:35
♪♪ When it was time to present
Billy Rickman's defense, his lawyer did not call
any witnesses
00:33:49
and did not put Rickman
on the stand. He argued in his closing
that investigators failed
00:33:56
to look at any
other possible suspects, said prosecutor Greg Greer. -The defense tried
to make a case
00:34:05
that somebody else did it. -Rickman's defense attorney
told jurors that the police
investigation was incomplete
00:34:12
because Gloria never named
Rickman on her 911 call, and instead described the person
00:34:19
who hit her car only
as her boyfriend. ♪♪ -The trial lasted two weeks. It only took the jury
about two hours
00:34:31
to reach their verdict -- guilty of aggravated murder. Rickman was sentenced
to life in prison
00:34:38
without the possibility
of parole. -Law enforcement
didn't take any steps to locate or arrest Rickman in
the days before Gloria's death.
00:34:48
-Gloria's parents believe
Gloria should still be alive, says Meaghan Driscoll. She has filed
a wrongful death suit
00:34:55
on behalf of Gloria's son against the city of Lakewood
and its police department.
00:35:01
-They wanted accountability
for what happened to their daughter and their
sister and their loved one,
00:35:07
and they believed
that it was mismanaged and mishandled
by law enforcement. This woman was
deprived of justice
00:35:17
and should not have been killed. -Driscoll says one of
the ironies of the case is that the prosecution
used Rickman's
00:35:24
egregious stalking as evidence to help them secure
the homicide conviction. So that very same evidence
00:35:31
that was presented
in the homicide trial, you're now using your
wrongful death lawsuit
00:35:36
to show what you believe is
the Lakewood police not doing their jobs. -Right, I mean, this death was
incredibly foreseeable.
00:35:47
And we know that
from the prosecution. We know that the jury
convicted him. This wasn't a mystery
of who did this or why.
00:35:54
Um, it was as foreseeable
as it was preventable. -You're focused
on Lakewood Police
00:36:00
and what they did
and did not do. So outline for us
what should they have done? Plain and simple.
00:36:09
-Plain and simple,
Lakewood PD should have found Rickman and arrested him
to protect Gloria.
00:36:17
[ Camera shutter snaps ] ♪♪ -My name is Russ Hicks. I'm a retired
law enforcement officer.
00:36:26
I was a lead instructor
for domestic violence for many years. -Russ Hicks was hired by
Driscoll as an expert witness,
00:36:33
in part because he has a
special connection to the case. -So I know they received
the proper training
00:36:39
because I was their instructor
at the police academy, and I taught the three officers
that were involved in this case.
00:36:46
-And Hicks says those
officers failed Gloria. One example --
one of the Lakewood officers
00:36:52
says he left a voicemail
for Rickman, which Hicks considers a mistake. -I think it conveys a message
00:37:00
that we're not taking
this seriously and we're not looking for you, just saying that
we'd like to talk to you.
00:37:04
-And the sad irony of it is when you call
a domestic violence perpetrator like Rickman, that actually
just escalates the danger
00:37:12
to the victim even more. -That officer says
he drove around looking for Rickman's BMW,
00:37:19
but Driscoll says there is
no police record of that. Driscoll also says
Gloria told the officer
00:37:25
she believed Rickman
was staying at a nearby motel. And as it turned out,
the Home Motel
00:37:31
is only a six minute walk
from the Holiday Inn. -It would have been
so easy to find him
00:37:37
because he was there
to be found. -Driscoll also says
officers failed Gloria by not following up
on the detailed description
00:37:48
of the truck
Rickman was driving, given to them by the desk clerk
at the Holiday Inn.
00:37:56
-In normal law
enforcement practice, they should send out a bolo
or be on the lookout
00:38:01
saying "This is a beige Chevy
Colorado, broken taillights. Look for this guy." They didn't do that.
He was half a block away.
00:38:10
-Some 48 hours before
her murder, Driscoll says Gloria
gave one of the officers a comprehensive
seven page document.
00:38:18
In it,
Gloria details the many times she said Rickman violated the no-contact order --
00:38:25
his emails, his calls
and a still frame from one of
the Holiday Inn videos. Even with that report in hand,
00:38:33
Driscoll says police took
no action. -They had everything they
needed and more to arrest him.
00:38:41
-In addressing the Choi
family's wrongful death lawsuit, a city lawyer told a judge
in January 2025
00:38:49
the police have
no obligation to go and arrest someone like Rickman
if he is not at the scene.
00:38:56
At that hearing, the judge asked
the city's lawyer... ♪♪ The city's lawyer answered,
"That's correct."
00:39:14
John Justice, the attorney
representing the city and the Lakewood
Police Department,
00:39:19
said he could not comment
on pending litigation. ♪♪ Tell me a little bit about
how she changed your life.
00:39:32
-She always reminded me
that I was a good person no matter what,
and that I was a good mom
00:39:39
because I doubted myself a lot. And she reminded me every day
that I was good. -How much did that
change you in your self-worth?
00:39:49
-So much. More than I could
probably describe. It gave me hope. ♪♪ -Prosecutor Greg Greer
retired in 2024.
00:40:03
He's still trying to,
in his words, find his way back to humanity
and forget the violence
00:40:10
that surrounded him
for so many years. But he's still haunted
by Gloria's last words
00:40:17
on that 911 call. -I did learn
the Korean language while I was in --
in the Air Force,
00:40:22
and I could hear very clearly
Gloria calling for her mother. -And what is the word
that you hear?
00:40:28
-It's "Eomma, Eomma" Um, and she's just
frantically -- desperation calling
for her mother.
00:40:37
Tells you a lot
about human nature. And yeah, it's one of the
saddest things you'll ever hear.
00:40:42
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪