00:00:05
All rise. >> Jury entering? >> Please proceed. >> Kill or be killed. Kill or be killed.
00:00:21
Kill or be killed. >> Defense calls as its first witness Virginia Vertetis. >> This was a case about a woman who shot
00:00:37
and killed the person attacking her. Patrick Houlihan. >> Prosecutor's position is my client
00:00:46
murdered Houlihan in cold blood. >> They were the only two people in that house [snorts] that night. One of them
00:00:57
is dead and one of them is on trial for his murder. >> 911, what's your emergency?
00:01:03
>> Somebody was breaking into my house. >> Police arrive on scene at 10:07. >> I shot the [ __ ] coming in my
00:01:09
house and he's dead. Oh my god, he's dead. >> They see Patrick laying there motionless, dead.
00:01:17
>> Is there anybody else IN THE HOUSE? >> WHO else is in the house? >> I was here alone.
00:01:20
>> Who else is here? >> They see the gun, a .38 caliber. She was immediately handcuffed
00:01:29
then placed into a patrol car. >> This defendant tried to orchestrate a story to make herself look like a
00:01:39
victim. >> She calls 911 and she lies. So, what happened? We have to know who these people are.
00:01:51
Who was Patrick Houlihan? Who is Virginia Vertitas. >> I know Virginia Vertitas. I've spent
00:02:03
hundreds of hours with her. She had a high-paying corporate job, and she gave it up and went to teaching. All
00:02:11
the parents would ask for her because she was such a great teacher. A loving mother, loving daughter.
00:02:22
To me, she got mixed up with the wrong man. >> This is a guy that retired as a police
00:02:28
[music] officer, was working on security for construction sites. Everybody loved this guy. Everybody
00:02:36
loved this guy. He beat the hell out of her. He choked her. He looked her straight in
00:02:43
the eyes and said he was going to kill her. >> I didn't >> [laughter] >> do anything wrong.
00:02:48
He beat me like that. >> Look at the evidence. I have this woman's life in my hands.
00:02:58
>> This is the moment of truth. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. We'll see whether the defendant was telling the
00:03:06
truth. >> [laughter] >> Why did you kill him? >> Because he was going to kill me.
00:03:49
>> I'm like jumping out of my skin. Someone's life is in my hands. >> This case is a monster.
00:03:57
>> It's a tremendous weight on on my shoulder. >> I just want this to start. >> Defense attorneys Ed Bilinkas and Sarah
00:04:05
McArdle are on edge as Virginia Vertetis' murder trial begins. >> I can't sleep anymore. Uh, I'm literally
00:04:13
bouncing off the walls. If I lose, she'll spend the rest of her life in jail. >> It's been 3 years since Patrick
00:04:21
O'Houlihan was shot to death in Virginia's home in Mount Olive, New Jersey. >> My client is not guilty.
00:04:29
She killed Patrick Gilhooly in self-defense. >> But it won't be easy for Bilinkas to
00:04:36
prove that. >> It's a difficult case. There's a lot of things that we need to address.
00:04:41
>> 911, what's your emergency? >> Starting with Virginia's 911 call. >> Somebody was breaking into my house.
00:04:48
>> One of the biggest challenges for the defense is what Virginia said on that call.
00:04:53
>> She makes up a story. She lies. >> I didn't know who was coming in my house. I was scared.
00:04:59
I thought I was dead. >> No one was breaking into her house on the night of March 3rd, 2014.
00:05:05
>> Big problem for her. >> She was with Patrick O'Houlihan, her on-again, off-again boyfriend of more
00:05:12
than 5 years. >> There's a legitimate reason why she did what she did. >> There is only one person who can explain
00:05:20
it. >> How are you doing today? >> Okay, just very nervous. >> But it's a big gamble.
00:05:27
>> It's always a risk to put a defendant on the stand. >> Even riskier because Virginia, severely
00:05:33
depressed and anxious, >> [music] >> is now heavily medicated. >> If you didn't put her on, the jury would
00:05:39
never know what happened that night. >> Do you still love Patrick Gilhooly? >> Objection, Judge.
00:05:43
>> I'll allow it. >> Yes. >> Their story began in 2008. >> How did you meet him?
00:05:57
>> I met him online. match.com >> Patrick was divorced. His two daughters are here in court.
00:06:04
>> Patrick You Houli was not perfect, ladies and gentlemen. By no means. >> He was, as prosecutor Matt Troyano, a
00:06:12
complicated man. >> He drank too much and too often. But he had a big heart. He worked hard.
00:06:23
He was loved by his family and friends. And he loved them. >> Patrick was working in private security,
00:06:30
including a stint as a bodyguard for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt after he had retired as a cop.
00:06:38
>> It was a good relationship. He was a very attentive. >> When Virginia met Patrick, she had been
00:06:44
unlucky at love. She'd married three times in search of it. The first time she had married young and it didn't
00:06:52
last. She had fallen hard for husband number two, Scott Vertitas, also a police officer.
00:06:59
>> Oh, she loved him very, very much. >> Virginia's mother, Craney Colehofer, says when the couple's children, Kelly
00:07:06
and Billy, were young, Virginia left a high-paying job at AT&T to become a teacher so she could spend more time
00:07:13
with them. >> Virginia would do just about anything for her children, wouldn't you?
00:07:17
>> Absolutely. >> She was a marvelous mother. >> But she says that marriage collapsed
00:07:22
when Scott cheated on Virginia. >> That tore her world apart. Just tore her world apart.
00:07:29
She was never the same after that. >> She's has a history of abandonment from men.
00:07:35
>> Jim Faulkner was Virginia's husband number three. >> I met her on match.com. >> That was [music] back 2004,
00:07:43
4 years before Patrick. >> She had her master's degree, working on her doctorate, so she was very smart and
00:07:49
she knew what she wanted. She wanted this perfect life, this uh white picket fence and a happy
00:07:58
family. >> But he says the relationship was volatile, and whenever he tried to leave, Virginia begged him to come back.
00:08:06
>> She sent me 100 roses. She did everything in her power to get me back. She said she'll do whatever it takes,
00:08:15
and we even went to therapy. >> Do you get the impression that it's very difficult for Virginia to be without a
00:08:22
man? >> Yes, she has to have somebody at all times. >> The marriage to Jim didn't last either,
00:08:30
and soon Virginia was back on match.com. >> I saw email that she was dating somebody.
00:08:37
>> Patrick O'Hooley. >> Yeah. >> And that relationship was also volatile. >> We broke up a lot.
00:08:44
>> How many times had you broken up over the years? >> Countless. [music] I can't even tell you
00:08:48
how many. >> They fought a lot, she says. Patrick was unfaithful, at other times jealous.
00:08:54
>> He did not like me talking to other men. It made him feel humiliated. >> They even fought over taxes because
00:09:02
Patrick hadn't paid his in years. But mostly, she says, they fought about his drinking.
00:09:10
>> When he was drinking, he was terrible. He was terrible. >> Virginia says there were several times
00:09:16
when Patrick was drinking that he was violent with her. >> Pushed me down on the bed. He shoved me
00:09:22
into a wall. He threw me on the floor. >> A couple of times, this was towards the
00:09:26
end, I would see bruises. They would be on her arms or her legs or whatever, and
00:09:32
I would say, "Virginia." She goes, "Oh, I'm just clumsy." >> But Virginia never reported any of these
00:09:38
alleged incidents to police. >> But you're convinced that he was abusive to >> Oh, I am absolutely convinced that he
00:09:45
was abusive to her. >> Why do you think then she stayed with him? >> Every time I ask her those same
00:09:50
questions, "I love him." But I would say, "There's no but, Mom. I love him." >> Why did she remain silent? She had
00:10:02
various medical issues. >> Virginia struggled with an autoimmune disease. 3 months before the shooting,
00:10:09
she went on disability from her teaching job. >> She was weak, vulnerable. Ghoulie took
00:10:16
advantage of that. >> And the defense says there's a bigger reason Virginia didn't report anything.
00:10:22
>> Throughout the entire relationship, Patrick Ghoulie had thrown up in her face when he abused her, "I'm a cop.
00:10:30
They're never going to believe you." >> And that is the reason, says the defense, [music] that Virginia panicked
00:10:37
the night she shot Patrick and then [clears throat] lied about it. >> The cops come running in, "Get down! Get
00:10:44
down!" At that point in time, while she's on 911, she's thinking to herself, "After all of the beatings,
00:10:55
over the years that he beat her and what he said to her, they're never going to believe you."
00:11:03
>> [laughter] >> She makes up a story. She lies. >> On the stand, fighting through the haze
00:11:11
of medications, Virginia tries to convince the jury she is now telling the truth.
00:11:18
The couple argued that night as they had many times, she said, but this time was
00:11:23
different. >> I never saw his eyes look like that before. He said, "I'm going to [ __ ] kill you,
00:11:32
you I was scared to death. I ran up the stairs and ran into the master bedroom. I went over to the bed and I reached
00:11:44
under the mattress and I grabbed the gun. I just kept shooting. I quickly looked
00:11:52
and he was still on the stairs, so I just kept shooting down the stairwell. >> So, what led up to [music] that horrible
00:12:00
fight? >> She's the ex and I'm the new, so probably there's going to be a disgruntle [music] there.
00:12:22
>> A few weeks before Virginia Vertita shot and killed Patrick O'Hooley, trouble was brewing in their rocky
00:12:30
relationship once again. This time, over [music] this woman. Colleen Roper had been seeing Patrick
00:12:41
and when Virginia discovered it, she wasted little time contacting her. >> I was getting prank hang-ups on my
00:12:48
phone. >> Can you approximate how many prank calls you received? >> Three or four.
00:12:52
>> I'd like to direct your attention to February 4th, 2014. Do you recall whether or not you had received some
00:13:01
communication on Facebook? >> I was getting friend requests. I didn't know who this person was cuz I'm very
00:13:07
selective about who I'm friends with on Facebook. So, I said, "Who Who are you?"
00:13:11
>> Colleen says Patrick had told her about Virginia, but had been less than truthful and said she was an
00:13:17
ex-girlfriend. Believing him, Colleen sent Virginia this message back. >> I'm under the impression that two of you
00:13:25
broke up. Please don't friend me again. I didn't do anything to you. >> Sorry. >> Take your time.
00:13:35
>> And she text me back something like, "Do you think sleeping with my boyfriend of
00:13:39
6 years isn't doing anything to me?" And I said, "No, not if it's over." >> Virginia's response? She told Colleen
00:13:47
she had slept with Patrick that very morning. Patrick was so angry, he broke up with Virginia via text. "We are done.
00:13:57
So done. Wish you luck. Find someone else. You can do it. Good luck." A week later, they had another heated
00:14:06
text exchange after Patrick accused Virginia of contacting Colleen again. Patrick left Virginia this angry
00:14:14
voicemail. >> Hey, psycho psycho woman. I'll call your mother up. >> Yet fighting was part of their
00:14:20
relationship, and Virginia and Patrick kept communicating. But [music] the defense says in the weeks before the
00:14:26
shooting, Virginia had bigger problems on her mind than Patrick O'Houli. She had petitioned the school board to
00:14:33
return to work, and they had voted against her. >> I was very upset. I was ready to go back
00:14:39
to school, and I missed the kids. >> Virginia also missed her own children. Kelly was away at college, and Billy,
00:14:47
then 16, had recently decided to move in with his father. Virginia had shared her distress of her
00:14:55
son with her therapist on March 3rd, the morning of the shooting. >> [snorts] >> It was just really tough to talk about
00:15:03
Billy. I was heartbroken. >> Later that day, around 6:00 p.m., Virginia texted Patrick asking if he was
00:15:12
coming over, and he showed up a half hour later. Ed Bilinkas says Patrick had sex on his mind when And went over
00:15:20
there. >> He had taken Viagra. Which not based on personal experience, you're going to find out takes a while
00:15:28
to kick in. So, it had to have been planned. >> And the evidence shows that Patrick
00:15:34
mixed it with something else that night. >> How drunk was Patrick O'Folly on March
00:15:39
3rd, 2014? >> Crazy drunk. >> What, almost three times the legal limit? >> limit, absolutely.
00:15:46
>> I unzippered his pants. Yeah. >> According to Virginia, after a failed attempt at sexual intimacy that evening,
00:15:54
Patrick grew frustrated. >> And he kind of pushed me away and unzippered up his pants and put his belt
00:16:01
back on. >> Virginia says she left Patrick sort of dozing off on the floor and went to get
00:16:06
firewood at the 7-Eleven. But when she returned, he was gone. >> They finally connected on a telephone
00:16:13
call and he was screaming at her and ranting and raving about you why did you leave me? You didn't tell me and she's
00:16:21
trying to calm him down and she finally convinces him to come back. >> Virginia left open the front door and
00:16:28
while she was in another room, she heard him slam and shatter the storm door. Dropping glass on the mat inside.
00:16:37
>> When he came back to the house, he was a raving lunatic. >> So, this is Virginia's home.
00:16:43
>> We asked Belinkas [music] to take us through what he says happened in the house next.
00:16:49
Patrick eventually calmed down, Belinkas says. But they soon started arguing again.
00:16:56
>> And that started the rage that to me was building up inside of him. She sees that, she gets up and she starts to walk
00:17:03
away from him. >> But then Virginia, says Belinkas, made a fatal mistake and said to Patrick,
00:17:10
>> [music] >> "At least I pay my taxes." >> Do you think that line is what set everything off? At least I pay my taxes.
00:17:19
>> You know, that's when he comes after her. >> The defense believes that earlier that
00:17:23
evening, Patrick had discovered an IRS form that Virginia had filled out to turn him in for unpaid taxes.
00:17:35
>> And where did the physical altercation actually take place? >> here as she was entering the foyer. He
00:17:42
grabs her from behind. She's trying to get away and he pushes her up against the front door.
00:17:50
He grabs her by the throat and starts choking her. He looks her dead in the eye and says, "I'm going to
00:17:57
kill you, you >> After fighting on top of the broken glass in the foyer, Balinkas says
00:18:04
Virginia managed to escape and ran upstairs to her bedroom, where she grabbed the gun she says Patrick had
00:18:12
left under the mattress. >> She reaches under. She grabs the gun. She runs out here. She sticks the gun
00:18:19
around the corner and starts firing. >> The defense says Virginia, fearing for her life, shot at Patrick. The first
00:18:28
shot missed. >> The second shot is to the hand as he's reaching up maybe to try to stop or grab
00:18:34
the gun. The next shot goes to the neck. And the third shot is the one that hit his arm.
00:18:43
He's starting to come down. He gets a shot in the back. It goes through out and out his chest. He's starting to
00:18:50
collapse and his body lurches forward and that's when he gets the last shot. He's fatally wounded and he collapses.
00:18:58
And that's where he died, right here. >> Virginia told the jury she sat frozen in
00:19:06
fear before walking over to him prone on the floor. >> I am. I sat down next to him.
00:19:15
And I kept shaking him. Patrick, please wake up. Please wake up. >> [snorts] >> And he wasn't waking up.
00:19:28
>> She was lying to the jury under oath. >> The state contends that Virginia's story
00:19:35
about what happened in the house that night is full of holes. >> Oh my gosh. >> In my office, I keep a wall of people
00:20:01
that have been killed [music] or the victims of some crime, and it does become personal. I think it should.
00:20:09
>> Prosecutor Marc Traiano can't help becoming invested in murder cases, especially when he believes the victim
00:20:16
has been [music] dragged through the mud. >> Basically, her defense is blame the
00:20:21
victim. >> Oh, yeah. And it's hard. It's a very one-sided argument because, you know,
00:20:26
Patrick's not there to defend himself. >> You were angry. >> No, not angry. >> That's why Traiano felt pressure to
00:20:32
prove to the jury that Virginia was a real aggressor that night. It sounds like what you're saying is
00:20:40
Virginia Vertetis is a liar. >> It's a good way to say it. >> The truth, Traiano says, is that
00:20:46
Virginia was obsessed with Patrick. She simply couldn't accept that the relationship was over. Why do you
00:20:53
believe that Virginia Vertetis shot and killed Patrick Kaholek? >> Because she was having problems, you
00:20:59
know, with her son. She was having issues with work, and Patrick, the person that really she felt closest to,
00:21:07
was just up and leaving her. >> And the proof, he says, is in the texts sent after that February 4th breakup
00:21:14
over Colleen. >> Do you recall saying to him things like, "There won't be another relationship.
00:21:20
I'll be dead first." >> Yes. >> Troiano says Virginia tried to get Patrick back by playing on his sympathy.
00:21:28
She claimed she had multiple sclerosis. >> At that time, did you specifically know
00:21:34
that you had MS? >> I specifically believed I had MS. >> I understand that. But you didn't tell
00:21:41
him that you believe you had it. You told him, in fact, that I do have it. >> Yes.
00:21:45
>> But when that tactic didn't work, Troiano says Virginia tried to lure him with sex.
00:21:51
>> Did you ever ask him to come and say that it was just friends with benefits? >> Yes.
00:21:57
>> By March 3rd, Patrick may finally have had enough. His friends and family say
00:22:01
he went to Virginia's that evening to end things with her once and for all. >> May have a seat, sir?
00:22:08
>> Patrick's brother, Paul Gahooly. >> And he said to me that, "This is it. I can't do this anymore." And he also said
00:22:15
to me that he wanted to discuss with her some tax situation. >> But that testimony seems to support the
00:22:21
defense theory. And attorney Abel Lankas seizes on this. >> And why would he talk about that tax
00:22:28
situation with my client if you know, based on your conversation? >> On prior conversations, he had told me
00:22:34
that he was worried about Virginia talking to the IRS about a tax situation. >> Belinkas says it's more proof [music]
00:22:42
that it was Patrick's unpaid taxes that sparked the fatal fight. >> He'd beaten her that night. He had
00:22:48
threatened to kill her that night. >> But was there a physical fight that night at all? Matt Troiano doesn't buy
00:22:55
it. He charges that Virginia's injuries are self-inflicted. And shows the jury what he says appears
00:23:04
to be Virginia scratching herself in the interrogation room video. >> So, when the state says that she created
00:23:13
those injuries, what do you say? >> Bull crap. You know, how about the injury to the throat? When did she
00:23:19
create that? >> If she did one, she did all. >> You believe that? >> Patrick O'Houlihan was a big guy. If
00:23:27
what she says is true, she would have looked beat up really, really bad. >> And if Patrick had broken the glass
00:23:37
storm door in anger and struggled with Virginia on [music] top of the shards of glass, why doesn't Virginia have cuts
00:23:45
and slashes? >> You know, you hear about essentially this death struggle that happens in the
00:23:50
middle of this foyer, but there's no cuts from glass. There's none of that. >> And Triano says he knows why.
00:23:58
>> Patrick didn't break that glass. I don't think that the evidence supports that at
00:24:02
all. >> This is the glass from the exterior storm door? >> Triano called forensic expert Howard
00:24:07
Ryan to the stand to explain to the jury why Virginia's story about Patrick breaking the glass storm door couldn't
00:24:15
be true. >> There's generally three types of glass we deal with. They're all going to do
00:24:18
certain things. >> For starters, Ryan says storm doors are not that easy to break.
00:24:27
To test the state's position, we hired Jim Molinaro who works with Howard Ryan at Forensic Training Source.
00:24:35
>> So, are almost all storm doors now that are used made of tempered glass? >> Yes.
00:24:40
>> What makes tempered glass different? >> Tempered glass is stronger than regular
00:24:44
glass. Generally speaking, it's about four times stronger. >> When the defendant says that she heard
00:24:49
the door break after Patrick O'Houlihan slammed it, what's your first reaction to that?
00:24:55
>> The likelihood of that happening, I wouldn't expect that to happen. >> Okay, do you want to try?
00:24:59
>> We can give it a try, yes. >> Okay. We tried slamming it over and over again.
00:25:08
And when that didn't work, we tried kicking it. Do you believe that if and when she says
00:25:17
that door, she heard the door break before the shooting? >> No. And you see them right here.
00:25:22
>> Even giving Virginia the benefit of the doubt that Patrick somehow managed to
00:25:26
break the storm door, forensics appeared to disprove that, too. Howard Ryan explained that during the shooting, one
00:25:34
of the bullets went through both the front door and the glass storm door. Emanating from the bullet hole were
00:25:41
something called radio lines, and these are telltale clues. >> Radial fracture lines will only occur on
00:25:52
the first break of the window. >> Using a set of doors similar to the crime scene, we asked Jim Molinaro to
00:25:59
show us what happens to an unbroken storm door when it's hit by a bullet. Now, you're not going to be actually
00:26:06
firing the gun. >> No, I'm going to turn this over to Jeff Brannon from the Gwinnett County Police
00:26:10
Department. Eyes and ears in place, everybody behind the 15-yd line. >> You ready to go look?
00:26:27
>> Let's go take a look. >> Oh my gosh. >> You can see they point directly to where
00:26:32
the bullet perforated the glass. >> I mean, this looks almost identical to the photos in evidence.
00:26:38
>> Yes, exactly. We couldn't have asked for better results. >> Just to see what the bullet hole would
00:26:43
look like if the glass was already broken, like Virginia said it was. >> All right, range is hot.
00:26:48
>> We had Officer Brannon shoot the door again. But what is not here that we saw with
00:27:02
the very first shot? >> You don't have the production of any radio fracture lines emanating out from
00:27:08
where the bullet went through the glass. >> All this is proof, the state says, that
00:27:11
the bullet was the only thing that broke the glass that night, that Patrick never
00:27:16
shattered it in a rage. But what are they believe happened right before the shooting?
00:27:22
>> Jury entering? >> Patrick's own daughter, Jennifer Gaholly, says she heard everything.
00:27:30
>> I heard my dad screaming, "She's hitting me. She's hitting me. Stop. Stop." >> Mr. Troiano, call your next witness.
00:27:50
>> Yes. At this time, the state will call Jennifer Gaholly. >> Jennifer was going to be the star
00:27:54
witness in the case. >> Do you know an individual by the name of Virginia Vertetis?
00:27:59
>> I do. >> And do you see Ms. Vertetis in court here today? >> I do. >> Could you identify her, please?
00:28:04
>> She's sitting at the table right over there. >> Stipulation, she's identified my client.
00:28:07
>> Jennifer Gaholly, Patrick's older daughter, was as close to an eyewitness as the prosecution had.
00:28:15
>> Jennifer, I'd like to direct your attention to March 3rd, 2014. Do you recall that day?
00:28:21
>> I do. >> Do you recall where you were that >> That night, Jennifer got three calls
00:28:28
from her father in just 4 minutes, right before he was shot. >> The first phone call, when I picked up,
00:28:34
he was screaming, "She's hitting me. She's hitting me." And I kept hearing him screaming, "Stop.
00:28:39
Stop." He called me again. I just heard yelling. I didn't really hear words. >> The phone calls prove, Troiano says,
00:28:47
that Patrick was not attacking Virginia. It was the other way around. >> Did you communicate with your father
00:28:55
again? >> I said, "Dad, I'm coming." He's like, "It's too far. You won't get here in
00:29:01
time." And the next thing I know is I heard three loud shots. I heard him say, "Holy Who is shooting?"
00:29:11
>> [snorts] >> And the phone call went dead. I'm just sorry. He was sorry. >> That was the last [music] phone call
00:29:21
Patrick O'Houlihan ever made. But he didn't just call Jennifer those three times. He also made three other
00:29:30
phone calls to friends in those same 4 minutes before he was shot. Patrick's phone was later found in his
00:29:38
pocket, which is why defense attorney Ed Belinko says most of those calls were actually pocket dials. But they go to a
00:29:47
number of different people. >> Okay, they go to a number of different people, but there's no real
00:29:51
communication between any of those calls. You know, I made three pocket dials yesterday.
00:29:57
>> Pocket dials would suggest that Patrick's hands were free to attack Virginia.
00:30:03
The defense calls legendary pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht to buttress their case. >> He's been involved in cases like
00:30:12
John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Elvis Presley. >> In this case, Dr. Wecht draws a jury's
00:30:23
attention to the wound on Patrick's right hand, which Wecht says was caused by the first bullet to hit him.
00:30:31
>> shot that was fired as Mr. O'Houlihan was reaching up with his right hand would fit in with that grazing gunshot
00:30:39
wound of >> And that, says the defense, suggests Patrick was coming up the stairs towards
00:30:45
Virginia just as she described. >> My opinion is that Mr. Houli's uh right hand was reaching up toward Ms. Vertis.
00:30:56
>> It is almost physically impossible for that to have happened that way. >> So, how do you believe that Patrick
00:31:05
sustained that bullet graze wound on his hand? >> that he was on the phone with his
00:31:09
daughter, he was going down the steps, and he had a phone up to his ear, and the bullet came right past.
00:31:17
>> But if the prosecution is right, how did Patrick's phone get back into his pocket?
00:31:23
>> I think she put it there. >> Virginia did have plenty of time, [music] he points out, because she
00:31:29
didn't call 911 for 25 minutes. >> Not 25 seconds, not 2 and 1/2 minutes, 25 minutes. [snorts]
00:31:41
>> Virginia's explanation, she says she couldn't find her cell phone, and the battery on her landline was dying.
00:31:50
But the state believes she was really using that time to clean up and place Patrick's phone in his pocket,
00:31:58
staging a scene that would match the lie she told police. >> Somebody was breaking into my house.
00:32:05
>> Police say they found her bedroom shower wet and a single pair of pink pajama
00:32:10
pants in the washer, which was running. >> Patrick Houli left a .38 caliber loaded
00:32:19
revolver underneath your mattress. >> Yes, he always had it under the mattress. >> Most important, Triano is determined to
00:32:26
pin Virginia down on where she got the gun. She claims Patrick left it there in the
00:32:32
spring of 2012, 2 years before the shooting, and it had been under her mattress ever since.
00:32:40
>> Did he leave it there because he forgot it or did he leave it there because you
00:32:45
wanted it? >> He left it there. He knew I was worried. He knew I didn't like being alone.
00:32:51
When he when um Oh god, I just lost my train of thought. >> Sitting in the courtroom, Patrick's
00:32:59
younger daughter, Heather, hears this and then realizes she has proof that Virginia's story can't be true. She
00:33:09
calls the prosecutor that night after court. >> And I told her that well, you can't just
00:33:14
tell me this. I can't testify about it. >> Heather, do you recognize this photo?
00:33:18
>> Yes, I do. >> You have to testify. >> She brings in a picture taken when her father was still alive.
00:33:24
>> What is that photo of? >> Uh that's a photo of my father's first gun that he had when he was a cop.
00:33:29
>> And when did you take that photo? >> August of 2012. >> All right. And do you recall where you
00:33:33
took that photo? >> In Staten Island at my mother's house where I was living at the time.
00:33:37
>> That puts the gun 50 miles from Virginia's house months after Virginia said she had the gun hidden under her
00:33:45
mattress. >> Maybe took the gun, maybe cleaned it, maybe brought it back. >> But Troiano thinks she stole it.
00:33:55
Two weeks before the shooting, cell tower data traced Virginia driving from New Jersey to Patrick's home in Staten
00:34:02
Island when he wasn't there. She says she never went inside. >> It's just your testimony that you didn't
00:34:09
have a key for that apartment. >> Yes. >> The defense is now struggling and Ed Bilinkas is frustrated because the rules
00:34:17
of evidence limit what he could tell the jury about an incident in Patrick's past.
00:34:23
>> He was suspended from the New York Police Force for beating his first wife. >> Newspaper articles from 1996 tell the
00:34:33
story of an alleged assault where Patrick slammed his then wife's head against the wall and the sink. But all
00:34:42
the jury heard was this. >> He told me that at one point he hit his wife, got in trouble with the police,
00:34:50
but that he really just got a slap on the wrist. >> Patrick was charged with misdemeanor
00:34:56
assault and suspended without pay. The charges were later dropped. >> Let me tell you something. If you put
00:35:03
your hands on a woman once, you can do it again. >> But what would the jury think?
00:35:11
>> We heard voicemails, we read text messages. He had a temper. >> It's a huge undertaking.
00:35:36
There's a lot of responsibility that's on you. You feel the weight of the world.
00:35:40
It's very nerve-racking. >> As prosecutor Matt Troyano prepared for closing arguments, he reviewed crucial
00:35:48
evidence in the case. The storm door, Heather Gahooley's photo of the gun, and then there was this, Patrick's car
00:35:59
key fob. It was found in pieces throughout the house. Troyano thinks he knows how it got that
00:36:06
way. >> My theory is she just takes it and she breaks it herself. The way to keep him there was to break
00:36:12
that key fob. >> But it was just a theory. There were no fingerprints [music] and no DNA on the fob. So Troyano didn't
00:36:20
know whether he'd be able to make that argument to the jury. >> All rise. We're ready for summations, Mr.
00:36:28
Belinkas. >> But during the defense's closing argument, Troiano saw his opportunity.
00:36:33
>> Who broke the key fob? >> Ed Belinkas offered the jury his theory of how the key fob may have been broken.
00:36:40
>> Prosecutor's position is there was no signs of a struggle, but there's a broken key fob.
00:36:46
>> And that gave Troiano the opening he needed. >> Do you know what you can't do after the
00:36:51
key fob's broken? You can't drive your car anymore. >> If Patrick couldn't use his car to leave
00:36:56
the house, then that would explain the six calls he made in the minutes leading up to the shooting.
00:37:03
>> Patrick O'Houlihan had to call somebody to pick him up. He wasn't going anywhere if this was
00:37:08
broken. >> The defense is hoping the jury will believe that Patrick was a violent man.
00:37:15
>> The evidence is clear that my client was in fear of her life. If she didn't kill
00:37:20
him, he would have killed her, period. >> Patrick O'Houlihan does have at least one incident in his background. Doesn't
00:37:28
that make you wonder if in fact there was some kind of physical altercation with Virginia?
00:37:34
>> No. No. I will be as emphatic as I can be. No. There was an incident with his wife
00:37:40
a very long time ago, and that wife, who was his ex-wife at the time of the trial, sat through that trial every
00:37:47
single day. >> This is not self-defense. This is a murder. >> I was in the office, and somebody said
00:38:03
they have a verdict. You got to let everybody know. You got to get the family. >> All rise.
00:38:09
>> Good morning, everyone. Please be seated. >> After almost 7 hours of deliberations,
00:38:14
>> the jury has reached a verdict. >> I'm getting more nervous. >> All right, let's get the jury, please.
00:38:19
>> I was definitely not confident at all. >> Madam forelady, with regard to count
00:38:24
one, what is the verdict of the jury? >> Guilty. >> Oh my gosh. >> Guilty of first-degree murder.
00:38:33
>> We will now take a individual polling of all the jurors. >> I prepared them for the worst. I think
00:38:40
that they were probably expecting the worst. So, when it turns the other way, it felt good. It was emotional.
00:38:49
>> All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, your service in this case is complete. I
00:38:53
hope you found it to be a rewarding experience for you. Perhaps you >> I felt really comfortable with, you
00:39:01
know, our decision. >> We spoke to three of the jurors after the verdict. John Hoover, Gina Samara, and Patty Mew.
00:39:09
>> Did any one of the jurors believe that it was self-defense? >> No. >> No. >> Not one.
00:39:15
>> No. >> No. >> And they say the key fob was critical. >> Do you believe that she broke it so
00:39:22
[snorts] he couldn't leave? >> I really do. I really do. Cuz we actually took all the pieces in the jury
00:39:28
room. >> And put it back together. >> all back [clears throat] together. >> It wasn't broken. It was
00:39:32
>> not one broken piece. Down to the battery. Put the whole thing back together.
00:39:36
>> And what did that say to you, Patty? >> It looked like it was intentionally taken apart.
00:39:42
>> Not letting him get away. Not letting him start the car and get away. >> This is State of New Jersey versus
00:39:50
Virginia Vertetis. Matter is on for sentencing before the court. May I have >> Two months after the verdict,
00:39:56
>> My name is Paul Dehouli, Patrick's brother. >> Patrick's family addresses the judge at
00:40:01
Virginia's sentencing. >> Patrick will not be there to walk his daughters, Jennifer
00:40:07
and Heather, down the aisle when they marry. >> One of the statements comes from the
00:40:13
woman he allegedly attacked all those years ago. >> [music] >> Can I get your name for the record,
00:40:17
please? >> It's Teresa Higgins, and I'm going to be reading on behalf of my daughters,
00:40:21
Jennifer and Heather Gillooly. >> Patrick's ex-wife, the mother of their children.
00:40:27
>> Our father will never be able to hear us wish him another happy birthday or another happy
00:40:32
Father's Day. Our father will never again get to hear "I love you, Daddy." >> [snorts]
00:40:40
>> Miss Rothe does please stand for a moment. On the charge of first-degree murder in
00:40:45
the >> Virginia was sentenced to 30 years in prison. >> You must serve the full 30 years in
00:40:51
prison without the possibility of parole. >> Do you [music] think you will at some
00:41:03
point see Virginia walk out of prison? >> Before I die, I hope so. >> Her mother, Cranny, is helping with her
00:41:11
appeals. >> One of the things she keeps telling me is, "Mom, don't leave me." >> [snorts]
00:41:17
>> And I hope I don't have to before she gets out. >> And now Virginia, who feared
00:41:24
abandonment, could spend the [music] rest of her life alone. >> [music] [music] [music]
00:42:20
>> Coles and my husband have an emergency. >> I'm in the PARKING LOT OF PLANET FITNESS
00:42:25
IN KINGSTON. I was looking for my husband and I found HIM IN HIS CAR. AND I DON'T KNOW IF HE'S BREATHING.
00:42:32
>> OKAY, MA'AM, I need your address, please. >> Thomas Coleman was dead in a vehicle in
00:42:36
a parking lot of a fitness plaza. >> The car was sitting here? >> Yes, [snorts] actually this particular
00:42:43
spot right in front of us. There was nothing in the car that would suggest anything of him being attacked
00:42:50
or anything obvious of physical trauma. >> When I was told that my father died, everything I had ever known changed in a
00:43:01
second. My dad was an amazing father to four kids and a great man. At first, we thought it was a heart
00:43:12
attack, something natural but sudden. >> After the autopsy, we knew something was
00:43:20
wrong. >> Something happened to him. >> The doctor labeled it as acute midazolam poisoning.
00:43:27
>> Poisoning? >> Yes. >> Midazolam? What is midazolam? >> It's a conscious sedative.
00:43:32
>> It's used in hospital settings, also in dentist office who do oral surgery. There was no reason for it to be in his
00:43:41
system. >> Is it like that that you change your mind and go this is homicide? >> Basically, yeah.
00:43:47
We knew Coles had video on the corner of their building. Told him I need this video. Once you pull it up real quick,
00:43:52
we'll take a look at it and see if there's any cars that meet him there. And uh sure enough, there's a car that
00:43:59
pulls in, parks first. >> So, he shuts the car down. >> This is uh Tom Coleman's car pulling in
00:44:05
right there. It's 4:54 a.m. >> Our victim, Tom Coleman, pulls up side by side. >> That was basically holy [ __ ]
00:44:15
>> Somebody had knowledge of literally speaking with our victim that morning. >> See the white SUV here leaving.
00:44:25
>> We started thinking with the circle of people close to Tom Coleman, and the only person with the white SUV was uh
00:44:33
Gilberto Nunez. >> They suspected Gil Nunez, who was my dad's best friend, who we had met,
00:44:41
who we knew. It was shocking. >> It's emotional for you. >> Of course, very emotional.
00:44:48
Because Tom was my best friend, truly. >> We had Nunez come meet us for an interview.
00:44:53
>> I know you had met with Tom at Planet Fitness earlier this morning. >> No. >> I know you were there. I'm pretty sure
00:45:01
>> you know, I wasn't there. But like I said it over a hundred times, well, I wasn't there.
00:45:05
>> You gave him a drug that you had access to. >> Mr. Nunez, his profession was a a
00:45:10
dentist. >> Hello. I'm >> [music] >> Dr. Gilberto Nunez. Besides treating my patients with
00:45:16
dignity and and doing everything [music] I do for them, I just like to serve people, but not to hurt anybody.
00:45:23
>> You fed him something that killed him. Yes, you did. >> I'm innocent. I haven't done anything
00:45:28
wrong. This is a murder case. >> It's not murder. >> [music] >> It was unusual. This individual, the way
00:46:09
he was positioned in the car and where he was parked, it was unusual. >> On November 29th, 2011, Detective
00:46:16
Michael Thomas answered the call when 44-year-old Tom Coleman was found dead in his car.
00:46:24
>> He was actually in the driver's seat, but yet he was laying almost flat as you
00:46:29
would as if uh you were sleeping. >> It was in the Kingston Planet Fitness parking lot in Ulster County, New York.
00:46:37
>> Wasn't parked near building. That's the strange thing. If you're going to go work out in the morning, you're going to
00:46:40
park close to the building. >> The car's location caught the attention of fellow Detective Brian Reedy
00:46:47
and Lieutenant Kyle Berardi. >> I think we were intrigued, interested. This whole case was odd.
00:46:58
>> 1,800 miles away in Colorado, >> Tom is dead. And I couldn't process it. >> Tom's ex-wife Michelle could not believe
00:47:08
that Tom, who seemed healthy, had died. >> Never crossed my mind that it could be
00:47:13
anything other than something tragic health-related. >> Michelle and Tom had been divorced for
00:47:19
12 years, but they remained close. They had two children, Jillian, who was then 15, and Bradley, who was 17.
00:47:29
Michelle had to tell the kids their father was dead. >> I didn't know how I was going to say it.
00:47:37
So, I just figured just get it over with. >> You heard the words, >> Your dad is dead.
00:47:46
My immediate instinct was, "No. I'm going to call him and he will answer because he always has. He has to be
00:47:53
fine. [music] That's just he has to be. He just had a kindness about him. He was just always there for everybody.
00:48:04
>> Tom's mother Marie and his father Tom Sr. were proud of their son who had a doctorate in physical therapy.
00:48:12
>> You're raising somebody you have hopes and they fulfill those hopes and they become successful.
00:48:19
It's great. >> Tom was more focused on spending time with his family than with friends, but
00:48:25
he did have one very close friend, Gilberto Nunez. Nunez was going through a divorce, but
00:48:32
was still a devoted father. He met the Colemans at their kids school and soon Tom, Gil, and Tom's wife Linda all grew
00:48:43
close. >> I was looking for my HUSBAND AND I FOUND HIM IN HIS CAR and I don't know if he's
00:48:49
breathing. >> It was Linda who found Tom. After she learned he didn't show up for work, she
00:48:55
went out searching. Linda knew that Tom went to Planet Fitness most mornings, so
00:49:01
that's where she went. And it's where Gil went when he said he heard something bad had happened.
00:49:10
>> When he initially got there, he ran towards Thomas Coleman's vehicle. What happened? What happened? He's my best
00:49:16
friend. >> I didn't see anybody trying to do CPR. I didn't see anybody doing anything. So,
00:49:20
I'm like, "What What What's going on?" >> This is Nunez's only television interview.
00:49:26
>> And that's when I found out that Tom is dead. You know, there's nothing you can
00:49:29
do for him. >> He dropped to his knees. >> I was just really upset that, you know,
00:49:37
my best friend was was dead. >> Did it seem overdramatic to you? >> Overdramatic? Absolutely. 110%.
00:49:45
>> Gilberto Nunez is originally from the Dominican Republic. He is well-known in
00:49:51
Kingston. He's a volunteer firefighter with a thriving dental practice. >> Dr. Nunez is one of the best dentists
00:49:59
that I've ever worked for. >> Mary Ellen McManus spent 13 years as Dr. Nunez's dental hygienist.
00:50:07
>> I have never heard him raise his voice, be angry, or fly off the handle. >> But detectives had questions about
00:50:14
Nunez. They were still waiting for the final autopsy results, but they remembered something from the day they
00:50:21
met him. He arrived at the scene in a white SUV, and they believed that surveillance footage, though very
00:50:29
blurry, also showed a white SUV. >> Bells and whistles went off. >> It's very hard to see, but that's Tom's
00:50:38
car next to it in the nearly empty parking lot. So police called Nunez in for an
00:50:46
interview 3 days after Tom's death. >> We were just trying to figure out what happened.
00:50:51
>> At that point, it was an informational meeting, kind of seeing >> What can you tell us about Tom?
00:50:56
>> what he wanted us to know. >> And he wanted them to know a lot, especially about his love life and Tom's
00:51:04
wife. >> I don't know if you guys know, but anyway, um me and Linda we we have we have a
00:51:09
relationship. >> Sexual relationship, I'm assuming? >> Well, yeah. >> Police had heard rumors of an affair
00:51:14
between Nunez and Linda Coleman, but they hadn't confirmed anything. Turns out, they got all the help they
00:51:21
needed with that from, of all people, Nunez himself. >> I fell in love with his wife, and she
00:51:28
fell in love with me. >> He told them all about their 11-month liaison. >> And when was the last time you were with
00:51:34
Linda? >> Um Like you mean like intimately or or just >> Yes, both of you. >> No, intimately.
00:51:43
>> Intimately. >> Um well, like I don't know. 2 and 1/2, 3 weeks. >> 2 30 weeks.
00:51:48
>> This was a guy who was sitting with detectives saying, "Oh, by the way, I had an affair with the wife of the dead
00:51:55
guy." >> Oh, he's still in love with her, too. He >> Right. >> He wanted to make that clear.
00:51:59
>> So, that seems to me, anyway, to be to be unusual. Am I wrong here? >> Yeah, it is very unusual.
00:52:04
>> I didn't want to like keep something that I knew they were going to find out anyway, first to begin with, and second
00:52:10
will make me look like, you know, I'm not being honest with them about anything [music] I'm I'm saying to them.
00:52:15
>> Did it bother you that she was married? >> I guess at the time, no. >> This guy was your friend.
00:52:20
>> Yes, he was my friend. >> That's awkward. >> That is that is really awkward. >> It might have been awkward, but it
00:52:26
didn't stop Gil or Linda. [music] When they weren't together, they texted constantly, more like teenagers than
00:52:34
middle-aged lovers. >> Love you, I miss you, [music] I wish you were here. >> They celebrated anniversaries monthly
00:52:41
with cards like this from Linda to Gil, her little devil stud muffin. Did you urge her to leave her husband?
00:52:51
>> No, I wasn't, you know, we're not thinking or talking about that. >> We wanted to ask Linda about her
00:52:57
relationship with Tom and Gil, but she declined our request to be interviewed. Gil says the affair was going well and
00:53:06
kept going even after Linda's husband, the man he called his best friend, learned all about it.
00:53:14
>> Not my definition of a best friend. >> How did he hear about it? That is one of the most peculiar parts
00:53:20
of this case. >> Nothing kind of surprises us anymore, but that was definitely [music] at the
00:53:25
top of the list. >> I wanted to talk to him so I can explain to him that this is not something that I
00:53:46
plan on or something. It was just something that happened. >> Chances are pretty good you've never
00:53:51
heard of an affair quite like the one Dr. Gilberto Nunez >> [music] >> was having with his best friend's wife,
00:53:58
Linda Coleman. For one thing, Nunez wanted to tell his friend Tom Coleman all about it.
00:54:07
How did Tom Coleman find out about the relationship? >> Through Through me, actually.
00:54:11
>> You told him? >> Um not directly. >> Not quite directly. In July 2011, Tom and Linda Coleman both got text messages
00:54:21
from a number neither of them recognized. The messages told each of them that the other was having an
00:54:27
affair. The one saying Tom was cheating was a lie, but of course the one saying Linda was
00:54:34
cheating was the truth. So they they figured out all of these messages were coming from the same
00:54:40
phone. >> Yeah. >> And did they figure out who had that phone? >> Yes, they did.
00:54:45
>> And who had that phone? >> Gilberto Nunez. >> The unknown number was a burner phone
00:54:52
that belonged to Gil Nunez. He admitted sending the texts. He said he was feeling guilty about the affair and
00:54:59
that's why he told Tom. How did he react to that? >> Well, at first he confronted her one day
00:55:07
and said like I know you're having an affair, you know, with Gil and so she she acknowledged that and she
00:55:14
said yes, you know, having an affair. So probably like three four days or something he didn't talk to me. I tried
00:55:19
to call him. I tried >> Not surprisingly, the friendship was damaged. >> And I felt horrible because I was like
00:55:26
he was he actually he was my friend, you know, and and and I don't have too many
00:55:31
friends. >> A few days later, Gil says he went to beg Tom for forgiveness. >> I actually got on my knees and I said,
00:55:39
you know, I'm really, really sorry. >> You got on your knees literally? >> Yes, I did. I
00:55:43
literally did. So, he said, "Get up." So, I get up and he actually gave me a hug, you know.
00:55:48
>> Gave you a hug? >> He gave me a hug. >> Was that the reaction you were expecting?
00:55:51
>> No, I thought he was going to hit me. >> What's strange is Tom and Gil's friendship continued. What's even
00:55:58
stranger is the affair continued, too. And perhaps strangest of all, according to Gil, both relationships grew even
00:56:08
stronger. >> And from that moment on every time he'll ask me, you know, "Did you see Linda today?" And I would say,
00:56:15
"Yes." He would know that I was being honest to him, that I wasn't like, you know. And then we started getting like
00:56:21
more like closer together. >> You and Tom started getting closer? >> Because Tom and I came to a point where
00:56:27
we used to text a lot. A lot. I mean, hundreds of texts every day. >> The love triangle was news to the rest
00:56:35
of the Coleman family, who did not learn about the affair until after Tom's death.
00:56:42
>> Do you believe that he approved of this affair? >> That's one of the hardest things for me
00:56:46
to believe. And um Tom's not here to tell us. >> The man that I knew probably would have done anything to
00:56:54
keep his family together. And I I could understand where he was thinking it would work out in the end.
00:57:00
>> In fact, Tom did seem okay with things. In text messages, Tom and Gil called each other bro, and sometimes signed
00:57:09
off, "Love you." And in a text, Tom referred to Linda, his own wife, as Gil's girlfriend,
00:57:17
telling Gil, "Your girlfriend is baking." To which Nuñez responded, "Great. I love her so much."
00:57:26
>> People can say, you know, anything they want or feel whichever way they want,
00:57:30
but he was truly my best friend. >> Tom was not just Gil's friend, he was also his patient. And Gil told police
00:57:37
about Tom's medical history in that interview, 3 days after Tom's death. >> That I know he had sleep apnea.
00:57:46
>> Gil told detectives Tom suffered from sleep apnea that can cause people to stop breathing in their sleep.
00:57:54
>> It was something I shared trying to help them to maybe help the medical examiner
00:57:59
or something figure out what could have happened to him, you know, if it was a heart attack, if it was whatever the
00:58:04
case might be. >> In fact, the autopsy did note Tom suffered from an enlarged heart and mild
00:58:11
obesity. But 2 weeks later, the toxicology report came back finding that midazolam in
00:58:19
Tom's body. >> Did you use midazolam, huh? >> No. >> Dentists do though, right? >> Uh oral surgeons that do sedation do.
00:58:28
And there are some some dentists that they they specialize in sedation, but uh I I
00:58:35
never use midazolam. >> This is a general practitioner office. We don't use any sedation at all.
00:58:42
We don't even have nitrous oxide. >> Mhm. >> The amount of midazolam in Tom's system
00:58:47
would not normally kill somebody, but because there was no explanation for why the drug would be there, his death was
00:58:55
classified acute midazolam poisoning. >> I'm not a chemistry guy, but in terms of
00:59:03
that being a lot, no. Volume-wise, no. Um however, the effects are different on people that have medical conditions.
00:59:13
>> I mean, I guess the real question is is that enough to kill a guy? >> I think it is, yes, cuz
00:59:19
especially someone with sleep apnea it could shut down his respiratory system. >> But remember, it was Nuñez himself who
00:59:26
first alerted police to Tom's sleep apnea. >> You know, the sleep apnea always confirmed.
00:59:32
>> Okay. >> The midazolam in his system did change everything. >> Murray Weiss, who was a 48 Hours
00:59:38
consultant, has written about murder cases for decades. >> Police believed that Dr. Nunez met Tom
00:59:45
Coleman outside his gym, and while sitting with him and talking to him, gave him a cup of coffee that was laced
00:59:50
with the midazolam. >> The detectives would routinely have to eliminate other people who might have
00:59:57
access to midazolam? >> There was obviously people in echoes with every investigation.
01:00:02
>> People of interest. >> So, detectives also looked at other people in Tom's life, including his
01:00:09
wife, Linda, who worked at a local hospital. >> How long was she looked at? >> Quite some time. Family is always looked
01:00:18
at. Freddy always start close to home. >> Police still could not prove much about
01:00:45
Tom Coleman's death. How did that midazolam get into his body? If it was in a cup of coffee,
01:00:52
where was the cup? Was that Gilberto Nunez's white car next to Coleman's in the surveillance tape?
01:01:00
And why was Coleman's body found this way? >> His pants were undone and his fly was,
01:01:07
I think, partially down or not all the way down. That looked kind of staged. >> Police were thinking Gilberto Nunez
01:01:14
staged the scene to make it look like Tom was having a sexual encounter when he died.
01:01:21
By now, Nuñez was their only suspect. >> We looked at both equally, Linda and Gil.
01:01:28
>> Linda had passed a polygraph test. >> Eventually ruled out Linda. >> Linda and Tom's house was never
01:01:35
searched. A search of the hospital where Linda worked as an administrative assistant
01:01:41
found no missing midazolam. So, in February of 2012, 2 months after Tom's death, police
01:01:50
called Nuñez in again. >> We were just trying to to get the background and and had from somebody that was close with
01:01:59
him and >> But soon, the tone of the interview turned. >> I know you met with Tom at Planet
01:02:06
Fitness this early that morning. >> Like I've said, I wasn't there. >> No, I wasn't there. If I would have been
01:02:12
there, I would have said so. >> This was the first time you'd heard that you were a suspect?
01:02:17
>> Yes. >> If I look you dead in the eye, I tell you I know you were there. >> Then I'm telling you that you don't
01:02:22
know, because it's not true. >> I have you and your vehicle parked in the Planet Fitness parking lot with Tom
01:02:29
that night. >> They also had this surveillance video from local businesses showing what they
01:02:35
say is his car [music] driving on the way to the parking lot. >> You parked next to him, okay? You fed
01:02:42
him something that killed him to take him out of the picture hoping you would have Linda for the rest of your life.
01:02:48
>> No, I did not. Yes, you did. >> No, I did not. >> You're a liar. >> Nuñez never wavered
01:02:53
>> I didn't meet Tom that day. >> through nearly 7 hours of questioning willingly without a lawyer.
01:03:00
>> I was not there. I didn't think that I needed an attorney to just to speak, you
01:03:05
know, the truth. >> He quickly changed his mind when he found out that while he was being
01:03:10
questioned, police were searching his office and home. >> When I left and I went home, I found my
01:03:17
place destroyed. That's when really kind of like came into me that oh my god, these people
01:03:22
really believe that I did something to Tom. And the next morning I decided to get an attorney.
01:03:28
>> Investigators seized the office computer and files, but what really caught their
01:03:34
attention were two emergency medical kits. And when you open it up, what did you
01:03:40
see? >> Two two vials of midazolam. >> Midazolam, the drug found in Tom's body. The vials
01:03:47
in Nunez's office were full and unopened, and they did not have Nunez's fingerprints on them.
01:03:54
Neither did Tom's car. In fact, when police examined it, there was no trace of Nunez whatsoever.
01:04:03
>> No outside DNA, nothing absolutely out of the ordinary. >> Still, the police thought evidence
01:04:08
against Nunez was piling up. They believed he wanted Linda all to himself. And Linda gave them a strange email she
01:04:17
received months earlier from Nunez's mother. Supposedly, >> that was him claiming to be
01:04:25
>> His mother? >> His mother. >> His mother? >> Yeah. >> He was pretending to be his mother?
01:04:30
>> Yes. >> Sending his girlfriend messages? >> Yes. >> The email, which Nunez later admitted to
01:04:36
writing, pleaded with Linda to leave Tom saying Linda and Gil would only be happy
01:04:42
if they spend the rest of your lives loving each other. >> Any idea why he would have sent a
01:04:49
message pretending to be his mother? >> To break up the Colmans. >> Why would you oppose this your mother? I
01:04:56
>> Just the stupid things that that we do in life, you know. >> Can I tell you, doctor? I've done a lot
01:05:01
of stupid things in my life. >> Yeah. >> I've never sent a text saying I was my mother trying to get a woman to fall in
01:05:07
love with me. >> I understand that. >> So, was that manipulative? Was that obsessive?
01:05:12
>> No, I think I I probably was looking into getting a closer relationship, I guess,
01:05:20
between my mother and her. >> Police also learned from Linda that Gil did something possibly even more
01:05:27
preposterous. He gave her a letter from what he described as his contacts inside
01:05:33
[music] the CIA. Supposedly reporting on charges that Tom was having an affair. Police also found
01:05:41
this fake CIA ID on Nunez's computer. >> That was just like a stupid game. That's all it was. It's just It's a
01:05:49
stupid game. >> But detectives say it was all part of an elaborate plan. They say Nunez hired a
01:05:55
friend to pose as a CIA agent to presumably intimidate Tom. >> Well, that never happened. That never
01:06:03
happened? No. I did a lot of stupid things in the relationship, you know. >> It made Nunez look wacky, but not
01:06:09
necessarily guilty. >> That that doesn't make me a murderer. >> Police needed to prove that car in the
01:06:15
parking lot next to Tom's was Nunez's. >> When we're looking at vehicles >> So, investigators hired Grant
01:06:23
Fredericks. >> We're looking at physical characteristics that we can compare. >> Fredericks has spent decades analyzing
01:06:30
forensic video for law enforcement. >> This is [music] the We'll call it the suspect vehicle.
01:06:35
>> Okay. >> Police had that surveillance footage from businesses along a road leading to
01:06:40
the parking lot that showed a car they believed was the same one seen next to Coleman's. They could not find any video
01:06:49
of a car leaving Nunez's home. Still, they believed the car on the surveillance tapes was this car, a
01:06:57
Nissan Pathfinder that belonged to Gil Nunez. >> And I'm looking through this to try to
01:07:03
determine any features that would be consistent. >> Fredericks thinks he can identify the
01:07:09
car caught on the tapes with this database. >> This is like facial recognition. >> Yes.
01:07:16
So, this is a Pathfinder, which is the same make, model, and year of the Nunez vehicle.
01:07:22
>> This might be a Nissan Pathfinder, but Fredericks could not say it was Nunez's.
01:07:27
His car had decals. It also had emergency lights inside the car because he was a volunteer fireman.
01:07:35
>> And you don't see any of those on the surveillance. >> There just isn't enough resolution, so
01:07:39
we can't say whether or not those features exist. >> But Fredericks did notice something he
01:07:44
thought might be unique to the car in the surveillance tape, an unusual pool of light on the road coming from one of
01:07:53
the headlights. >> In most cases, you'll see [music] two uniform uh headlight patterns from most
01:07:59
vehicles. This was different. >> Fredericks specializes in what is called headlight spread pattern analysis. He
01:08:07
believes cars can be identified partly by their headlight beams. >> Is this [music] what you're talking
01:08:13
about? This is the pool of light right here? >> Yes. >> Fredericks needed to see if Nunez's car
01:08:17
projected the same kind of light pool as the car in the surveillance video. So, police got Nunez's car
01:08:25
>> This is the car that Dr. Nunez owned. >> Yes. >> And videotaped it driving along the same
01:08:31
route. Fredericks compared the headlight spread pattern with the vehicle on the surveillance tape. He compared two other
01:08:40
Nissan Pathfinders to see if their headlights projected that same pool of light.
01:08:47
They did not. And Fredericks feels he has enough to make a conclusion. It is bad for Nunez.
01:08:55
>> The science [music] says that the vehicle is indistinguishable from Dr. Nunez's
01:09:08
>> For years, we only knew 5% of what they knew. They were convinced [music] that Gil was
01:09:14
guilty. And at this point, I wasn't. >> You were not? >> Not really, no. >> For 4 years, Jillian Coleman didn't know
01:09:25
exactly what had happened to her father. The police weren't sharing any details with the Coleman family.
01:09:32
>> I didn't want to push them because I didn't want to aggravate them. >> How hard was it to be patient?
01:09:38
>> It was It was very hard. >> They'd all struggled with Tom's loss, but his son, Bradley, took it the
01:09:46
hardest, according to his mother, Michelle. >> The 1-year [music] anniversary came up
01:09:52
um in late 2012, and a few weeks later, Brad attempted suicide [music] with over-the-counter medications of sleeping
01:10:01
pills. And he said, "I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up with Dad." >> And what happened next?
01:10:11
>> 3 months later, he committed suicide. >> Bradley was just 18. The Colemans were now coping with two
01:10:20
deaths. But life went on for Gilberto Nuñez. He continued working and dabbled in online
01:10:29
dating, where on match.com, he met the woman who would become his new wife, Jamil.
01:10:37
>> I knew he was innocent, but it was always looming over our heads, over our relationship.
01:10:44
>> So, yeah. >> And then, what they feared would happen >> Out of the car. >> happened.
01:10:50
Just a year into their marriage, in October 2015, police arrested Gilberto Nuñez
01:10:58
and charged him with second-degree murder. He was also charged with forgery because of the fake CIA report and ID.
01:11:09
>> 40673 >> They're trying [music] to make a way out of no way and a case out of no case.
01:11:14
>> Nunez retained top New York City criminal defense attorneys Joel Char Gel and Evan Lipton.
01:11:20
>> Here's the detective at the scene. >> They got Nunez out on $1 million bail. He had spent 1 month in jail.
01:11:30
>> We don't believe that Tom Coleman was murdered. >> This case is about obsession.
01:11:38
>> In May of 2016, 4 and 1/2 years after Tom Coleman's death >> Gilberto Nunez was obsessed with Linda
01:11:48
Coleman. >> Gilberto Nunez's trial began. >> He used deception and he used manipulation to get Linda for himself.
01:11:58
>> Senior Assistant District Attorney Mary Ellen Albanese told the jury the only
01:12:03
person who would want Tom Coleman dead is Gilberto Nunez. >> Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
01:12:13
good afternoon. >> Char Gel's argument, Gil had no reason to kill his best friend who accepted the
01:12:20
affair. >> There was no bad blood between Tom and Gil, absolutely none. >> And Tom died, Char Gel says, of natural
01:12:32
causes. >> It may have been a heart attack because he had an enlarged heart. >> But Tom did have midazolam in his body
01:12:41
and police found those two unused vials of it in [music] Dr. Nunez's office. >> Midazolam that was found was an amount
01:12:51
that was too small to cause anyone's death. >> Except the prosecution argues it was
01:12:58
enough to stop someone from breathing if, like Tom, they had sleep apnea. But the DAs had no DNA or fingerprints
01:13:09
tying Nunez to the car. So they had to rely on Grant Fredericks and his headlight spread pattern analysis.
01:13:18
>> The vehicle was consistent in shape, color, uh the same kind of vehicle. It had the
01:13:24
pool of light and the timing matched perfectly. >> They matched. It was I remember sitting
01:13:29
there thinking, "Oh my god, he he it's true. He did it." >> It was so a lot of hocus pocus and in my
01:13:35
view junk science. >> Nunez did not take the stand, but the woman in the middle of the love triangle
01:13:43
did. Linda said she planned on staying with her husband and was working on their marriage.
01:13:50
>> She was still in love with Tom. She was in love with the the family. She wanted to keep that.
01:13:56
>> But emails Linda sent to Gil seemed to tell a different story. That her marriage was crumbling.
01:14:05
And that Gil was still very much in the picture. >> Did you get the impression that she
01:14:10
might break up with you after that meeting? >> No. No, not at all. >> It's a key point for the defense that
01:14:16
undercuts any motive for him to want to kill Tom Coleman because he didn't know that he was going to be dumped.
01:14:24
>> In fact, just the day before Tom died, he and Gil texted 62 times. Gil says the
01:14:30
texts were about a football game. Police recovered Tom's phone the next day and curiously all the texts were missing.
01:14:41
>> Did you delete those texts? >> No, [music] of course not. >> How did they How did these texts end up
01:14:45
being deleted? >> Well, you know, you tell me. They touched the phones. >> Do you believe that the police deleted
01:14:51
those texts? >> I do. To be honest with you, I do. It was not convenient for them to see that all me
01:14:58
and Tom were talking about was football. >> Police testified they were able to recover a few texts, and they were just
01:15:06
about the football game. And in an unexpected move, the last person the defense calls to the stand
01:15:13
was the police supervisor who oversaw the case against Nuñez. >> I think they're trying to undermine
01:15:22
the investigation. They're trying to undermine my oversight of the investigation by things that we didn't
01:15:28
do. >> One thing police didn't do was look into an unopened email Tom received on the
01:15:35
day he died. >> BeNaughty. >> It was from an adult website called BeNaughty.com.
01:15:44
>> It's a spam email, basically. >> If that had been followed up, I think that the investigation would have by
01:15:50
necessity taken a different direction. >> So, you match BeNaughty.com with the way
01:15:55
in which his body was found reclined and with his pants open. >> Something wasn't kosher.
01:16:02
>> If their theory is going to be that he met a lady from BeNaughty.com that drove
01:16:08
a white SUV and had access to Midazolam at 5:30 in the morning at Planet Fitness,
01:16:14
>> They ought to >> start playing a lot on that one if that's the case. >> Three weeks after the trial began, it
01:16:22
was time for closing arguments. >> This investigation started and ended with Gilberto Nuñez, and much about
01:16:30
Thomas Coleman remains unknown. >> Ladies and gentlemen, this man, Gilberto Nuñez, is not Thomas Coleman's
01:16:39
best friend. >> Prosecutors know they have only circumstantial evidence against Nuñez,
01:16:45
but [music] they say it's more than enough to convict. >> The evidence of the defendant's guilt is
01:16:52
overwhelming. >> I'm anxious and [music] I'm scared. I'm not going to say that I'm not scared.
01:16:58
>> With the case in the hands of the jury, Gilberto Nuñez can do nothing but wait.
01:17:04
Knowing if he is convicted, it could [music] mean life in prison. This is the most important day of
01:17:21
Gilberto Nuñez's life. The jury in his murder trial is deliberating. >> I'm scared and I'm anxious. In a split
01:17:29
second, my whole life can change. >> The rest of his life could be spent in prison if he's convicted of killing his
01:17:37
friend, Tom Coleman. >> I get up in the morning and I said to my wife, you know, this might be the last
01:17:42
time I sleep in my bed. We never know. >> It's out of our hands. We hope the jury
01:17:48
sees what we all see. >> After a 4-year investigation, a 3-week trial, and testimony from more than 50
01:18:00
witnesses, the jury reached a verdict in just 6 hours. >> I was thinking in that's a guilty
01:18:07
verdict. >> All right, jury entering. >> It feels like your heart is coming out of your chest. [music] My whole body was
01:18:13
shaking. >> Mr. Foreman, how say you to count one charging the defendant, Gilberto Nuñez,
01:18:19
with murder in the second degree? >> Find defendant not guilty. >> Is that verdict unanimous?
01:18:25
>> Yes, sir. >> Not guilty of murder. Tom Coleman's wife, Linda, is livid, believing her former lover got away with
01:18:36
murder. >> Psychotic, sociopath. >> You are officially, legally not guilty of murder.
01:18:50
>> Yes, I I knew it that I was innocent. My family knew it. But everybody now knows it.
01:18:57
>> So, what are you going to do now? >> Work. >> Let me understand this. You've just been
01:19:04
acquitted of murder. >> Yes. >> And just like that, you're going back to >> Yes.
01:19:09
>> drilling people's cavities? >> Yes, I'm going back to what I love to do. >> Open up an office.
01:19:14
>> So, when you heard the verdict, what did you think? >> I couldn't believe it. They shocked I
01:19:18
was shocked. >> Utter disappointment. >> The Colemans say the police did their jobs, but the jurors did not.
01:19:27
>> I felt like the jury betrayed us. >> Justice was not done. >> The words not guilty haunt me.
01:19:37
>> To me, there was holes in all of it. I don't think the midazolam is what killed [music] him.
01:19:42
>> The jurors say there were too many questions left unanswered, too much reasonable doubt.
01:19:48
>> What do you think caused his death? >> A enlarged heart, which is a ticking time bomb.
01:19:54
>> More natural causes than murder. >> Yes. >> But the jury did find Nunez guilty of
01:19:59
forgery because of the fake CIA documents. >> He was guilty. >> He was guilty. >> He did it.
01:20:05
>> For those convictions, Nunez is facing up to 14 years in prison. >> Are you ready for that?
01:20:13
>> You know, we haven't finished fighting. >> That's because there were even more
01:20:17
charges to come and potentially more prison time. While detectives were investigating
01:20:23
Nunez for murder, they found what they believe to be a false insurance claim for $8,400 that Nunez filed in 2014
01:20:33
and they accused him of lying on an application for a pistol permit. >> Jury selection is underway in the third
01:20:40
trial involving Kingston dentist Gilberto Nunez. >> The new charges meant two more trials
01:20:46
for Nunez over the next year. >> I'm scared about our future. I'm scared that he might go to prison. I'm scared
01:20:52
of for my children. >> Kingston dentist Gilberto Nunez is found guilty of perjury and making
01:20:58
>> He was found guilty in both trials and immediately taken into custody. In February of 2017,
01:21:07
nearly 8 months after he was acquitted of murder, Nunez was sentenced for those forgery, [music] insurance fraud, and
01:21:15
perjury convictions. >> Society deserves protection from his sociopathic, narcissistic behavior.
01:21:23
>> Prosecutor Mary Ellen Albanese argued for the maximum sentence, 25 years, while Nunez's attorneys fought for
01:21:31
leniency, presenting the judge with 130 letters from Dr. Nunez's supporters, friends, and former patients. But Judge
01:21:41
Donald Williams was unmoved. >> Tragically, you believe that society's rules do not apply to
01:21:53
you. I see no chance of rehabilitation. >> Nunez's sentence, 2 and 1/3 to 7 years
01:22:06
in prison. >> Obviously, he's deeply disappointed. We're going to file notices of appeal.
01:22:15
This was a very severe sentence. >> I like this picture, too. It's cute. >> For the Coleman family, there is some
01:22:25
comfort in knowing that even though Gilberto Nunez was not convicted of murder, he will spend time behind bars.
01:22:37
>> We've disrupted his life now. Just trying to get through it. Nothing is ever going to bring Tom back
01:22:47
or Bradley. >> And that is what Tom's daughter Jillian can never forget. She is now a college
01:22:54
student facing a life that has seen tremendous pain, but still holds tremendous promise.
01:23:02
>> It's hard not having them here, and I don't think that any verdict I mean, he could be
01:23:09
imprisoned for the rest of his life. Dad's still gone. My brother's still gone. I carry Brad with me every day. I
01:23:21
try to make dad proud every day. And I think that I do. >> [music] [music] >> Before all of this,
01:24:19
my my get a beautiful girlfriend, Taylor. They had friends, Mark. And sort of in the blink of an eye,
01:24:35
that's completely changed, you know? We can't bring Mark back. If we could, we would.
01:24:49
>> This story is about a very violent, very bloody murder involving three promising young people
01:24:57
just outside Washington, [music] D.C. >> It starts with some friends and a birthday dinner.
01:25:04
>> They're going to go out and celebrate. >> Montgomery County 911, what is the address of the emergency?
01:25:15
What is your name? >> Taylor Gold. >> The police get this 911 call. It's a little vague.
01:25:21
>> There's blood everywhere. >> What do you mean there's blood everywhere? What What happened?
01:25:26
>> I don't know. >> The police come into this efficiency apartment that's all bloody.
01:25:37
They see a dead guy with a lot of blood on him. They see his friend who's covered with
01:25:42
blood. And then they see the friend's girlfriend. She's got blood on her. >> Mark Waugh, the victim, was stabbed in
01:25:51
the neck, was stabbed in the chest, twice in his left shoulder, his jugular vein was cut.
01:25:59
Just brutal. >> I got a call that two subjects were coming. They were definitely not the usual cast
01:26:08
of characters at all. >> Mark Waugh, he's a first-year law student at Georgetown.
01:26:14
Rahul Gupta is Mark's friend from high school. He's got an engineering degree. And then there's Taylor Gold,
01:26:22
Rahul Gupta's girlfriend. She's got a biomedical engineering degree as well. >> Mark is dead.
01:26:32
>> What? >> Yeah. >> Taylor Gold. >> My god. >> You know, clearly she had been drinking.
01:26:38
Mr. Gupta had also been drinking. >> I don't know how Mark got stabbed. >> They can both remember up until a
01:26:44
certain point, but the crucial 45 minutes, nobody seems to remember anything. >> I remember what happened. I told you
01:26:53
everything I did remember. >> You're talking about a really small apartment. To say that you don't know
01:26:59
what happened when somebody gets killed violently is unbelievable. >> Somebody was murdered
01:27:07
in your joint. >> I know. >> Some people are going to do whatever they have to do in order to try to save
01:27:12
themselves. >> One of them had to do it. >> I really don't remember. >> I didn't believe her then, and I still
01:27:19
don't believe her now. And I don't know that we believed either one of them. >> I know my brother.
01:27:26
He didn't do this. >> [music] >> One of them did it. >> Oh my god. >> I'm Richard Schlesinger. Tonight on 48
01:27:44
Hours, what happened in apartment 1601? >> [music] >> When you came in the door,
01:28:13
how did you approach this place? >> Well, we're stacked up kind of like how we are now. One guy behind me.
01:28:18
>> Officer Dean Skiba was working the night shift in Montgomery County, Maryland
01:28:24
when he got the kind of call young police officers sometimes dream about and sometimes lose sleep over.
01:28:33
>> How bloody was this apartment that day? >> It's like a horror movie. You could see
01:28:37
it is up all over the wall, all over the ground. >> It was about 2:00 a.m. October 13th,
01:28:43
2013. Three successful 20-somethings arrived at this tiny studio apartment near Washington, D.C. Two of them lived here,
01:28:53
a grad student named Rahul Gupta and his girlfriend, Taylor Gold. They'd been bar
01:29:01
hopping for Rahul's 24th birthday and came home with a friend, Mark Waugh, who was a promising young law student.
01:29:10
But within about an hour, Mark Waugh would be dead, stabbed to death here on the floor.
01:29:19
>> He's He's here and I I need emergency right now. >> When Taylor Gold called the police,
01:29:28
she was drunk, at times incoherent. >> What is happening? >> know. >> When Officer Skiba and the other first
01:29:35
responders got to the scene, Taylor Gold met them at the door and stayed in the hall with police. He says
01:29:44
the first responders had no idea what they were walking into. [music] >> It was just a mess. Mark was laying
01:29:50
right here. >> Mark Waugh was dead. >> Gupta was laying right here. >> Gupta was covered in blood and drunk.
01:30:02
>> He kept rambling and talking in circles. >> But Skiba says he was startled by what
01:30:08
Gupta said next. >> I do remember him distinctly saying to me, "I caught my buddy and my girl cheating.
01:30:17
I killed my buddy." >> As drunk as he was, it was hard to know if Gupta's confession was believable.
01:30:26
He was handcuffed on the spot. >> What did you think about the woman? Was she a suspect?
01:30:32
>> Uh yeah, definitely. >> Because they also suspected Taylor, police handcuffed her as well.
01:30:43
Taylor and Gupta arrived at police headquarters at about 5:00 a.m. where veteran interrogator Detective
01:30:51
Paula Hammel met them. >> I'm Paula Hammel, detective with the police department.
01:30:56
>> They were both brought to headquarters as suspects. >> You can close your eyes.
01:31:04
>> As a mother of six, >> Hey Taylor. >> Detective Hammel had questioned her share of young people.
01:31:10
>> Taylor, can you help up for a minute? >> And she says it was clear in Gupta's and
01:31:15
Taylor's answers >> first name? R R >> that the haze of alcohol was obscuring the details.
01:31:23
>> They were the only people who were still alive and they were of no help. >> No help?
01:31:26
>> No help. >> I'm really not sure what happened between when we got there and when police got there.
01:31:34
>> They told strikingly similar stories about what they remembered, which was >> I don't know.
01:31:40
>> not much. >> It's kind of that I don't remember what happened. >> Hammel suspected they both knew more
01:31:48
than they were letting on. >> That apartment, there's not even like a separate bedroom or anything.
01:31:55
>> Somebody was murdered. >> I know. >> I mean, you have to have some explanation.
01:31:59
>> That certainly is something that you would remember for your life. >> Because he confessed, Rahul was still
01:32:07
the prime suspect. But Detective Hamill couldn't possibly have expected what happened when she turned up the heat on
01:32:14
Taylor. Listen to how Taylor answers when she's asked if she did it. >> Did you kill Mark?
01:32:23
>> I don't think so. >> She doesn't say no. She told police she didn't remember.
01:32:32
In his drunken confession at the scene, Gupta said he did it because he caught Taylor cheating on him with
01:32:40
Mark. But Taylor says she and Mark did nothing untoward. >> You did not have any kind of sexual
01:32:47
relationship with Mark? >> No. I can't imagine doing that. But if you find evidence otherwise, I'm not going
01:32:54
to deny it. >> Detective Hamill spent hours going back and forth between Taylor and Rahul and
01:33:04
getting very little. As the hours passed, Gupta was sobering up >> I found him like that.
01:33:14
>> and starting to back away from his confession. >> So if you don't remember, then then
01:33:20
there's the possibility that you did it. >> There is that possibility, but I I know
01:33:24
for a fact that I didn't do it. >> Was he frustrating you? >> Yes. >> I can't say what happened.
01:33:29
>> tough for me to wrap my head around that? >> Sure. After several hours of interrogation,
01:33:36
Gupta was charged with murder and his parents hired defense attorneys Phil Armstrong and Jennifer Page.
01:33:44
>> The first statement your client makes to the police was a confession. How do you
01:33:48
get around that? >> People who are under stress do crazy stupid things. >> He says in this case, Gupta tried to
01:33:58
cover for Taylor. >> The bottom line is this, he's innocent. >> They agree his drunken confession is not
01:34:07
as revealing as his character. >> Rahul Gupta is a kind, mild-mannered man whose life's intent was to marry Taylor
01:34:18
Gold, have a family, and help society. >> The Guptas arrived in the Washington area from India in 1986
01:34:30
and built a successful printing business. They moved to the affluent suburb of McLean, Virginia.
01:34:41
Rahul met Mark Waugh in high school. Waugh was known as a quirky kid who loved to smile and loved to challenge in
01:34:50
school and in the great outdoors. >> Huge personality, always smiling, always joking, huge heart.
01:34:57
>> Before Mark Waugh started Georgetown Law School, he'd been a star debater in high
01:35:03
school and college. But Jason Peters met him years before that, in Cub Scouts. [music]
01:35:10
>> I remember sort of a funny, goofy character. >> A decade of campouts, cookouts, and
01:35:16
community service eventually made them both Eagle Scouts. >> He was a strong leader and someone that
01:35:23
you could really look up to. He prided himself on his leadership ability. >> Mark was just a really nice kid. He was
01:35:29
a really good friend for Rahul. >> [music] >> Gupta's older sister, Shireen, says
01:35:36
her brother was a loyal friend, too, because they'd been raised [music] to believe anything worth having was worth
01:35:44
working hard to keep. In fact, the Gupta family worked hard for everything, especially education.
01:35:52
Rahul was going for his second master's degree. >> Rahul is a really smart guy. >> Reporter Dan Morse, covering the murder
01:36:03
for the Washington Post, said everything about this crime was interesting. Especially the three people who were
01:36:11
there that night. >> There's Mark Waugh. No one can say a bad thing about the guy. You know, why would
01:36:17
anyone want to hurt him? And then there's Taylor Gold. >> He says Taylor showed immense promise,
01:36:24
too. She and Gupta had started dating as seniors at George Washington University
01:36:30
and moved in together after graduation. >> Did he ever talk to you about her? >> I asked him one time like
01:36:37
"Are you serious? You know, is do you think this is going somewhere?" And his reply was yes.
01:36:40
>> And you approved? >> Yeah, I mean I support him. >> Taylor helped out with some of Gupta's
01:36:46
bills while he paid for his studies. >> She works at the FDA. >> Nice government job. The three of them
01:36:53
all had these very bright futures ahead of them. >> And one of them still could have a
01:36:58
bright future. But not before police find out what happened in apartment 1601 and who did it.
01:37:08
>> I clearly I, you know, interacted with the body cuz I had blood on me. I just don't know when it happened.
01:37:31
>> We started figuring out that something was wrong when Rahul didn't respond to
01:37:34
any of our birthday wishes. >> It was the evening after Mark Waugh's murder and Shireen Gupta Rappaport says
01:37:41
her family still had no idea what had happened. In fact, they'd planned a dinner out to celebrate Rahul's
01:37:49
birthday, but Rahul and Taylor Gold never showed up. >> How worried were you? >> I mean, really worried.
01:37:58
Really worried because it just wasn't normal. We couldn't get him on the phone. We couldn't reach Taylor on her
01:38:03
phone. We knew there was something wrong. >> [music] >> Did you touch him? >> That part I don't remember.
01:38:13
>> At police headquarters, Paula Hammel spent about 8 hours talking to Gupta and
01:38:18
Taylor, but not getting anywhere. >> The blood on your hands and your feet, do you have any idea where that came
01:38:23
from? >> I assume from Mark. >> Hammel says Gupta was still trying to talk his way out of his confession.
01:38:30
>> I want to take this time now to say that I did not attack anybody. >> Gupta says he was zoned out on the
01:38:35
couch, drunk and stoned, and only looked up when he heard Taylor screaming. When he realized Mark was hurt, he says,
01:38:46
he tried to stop the bleeding. >> I came to him, and then I put a lot of pressure here,
01:38:52
and then I just sort of like hugged him. >> Gupta acknowledged he never actually saw
01:38:57
his best friend and his girlfriend doing anything improper. He only had a hunch.
01:39:03
>> Him and Tay would just made it seem like they were they had a thing going on. As
01:39:07
soon as I found that out, I just started doing my own thing. >> The brother that I know is very calm,
01:39:13
actually very calm person. >> But since he had confessed at the scene, Gupta remained the prime suspect.
01:39:20
Prosecutors Timothy Hagen and Patrick Maze would begin looking into his past. >> He was overly competitive,
01:39:27
confrontational. >> There was some talk about him having a temper. >> Yeah, not that I've seen.
01:39:33
>> You've never seen him mad? >> No. >> We know that he has a temper, and we know that that temper gets worse when he
01:39:38
drinks. >> They say it's a wonder Gupta and Taylor remember anything at all. >> You have the mix of alcohol and drugs.
01:39:46
[music] >> I smoked marijuana before I went out before I went out. >> Gupta and his friends went bar hopping
01:39:55
for his birthday, to three bars. Drinking for hours. Gupta, Taylor, and Mark were joined by
01:40:06
another friend, Josh White. >> And everyone agrees things started getting strange around midnight at this
01:40:14
bar, Buffalo Billiards, but they strongly disagree on crucial details. Along with the drinking, there was a
01:40:22
little flirting. One of the most important questions in this case is, who was flirting with whom? Taylor Gold said
01:40:30
Josh White was getting a little too friendly. >> Josh was texting me and it was really
01:40:36
weird and he was kind of hitting on me and um Josh was? >> Yes. >> But Josh White would later tell them it
01:40:43
was the other way around. >> She was saying that she was a little flirtatious to Rahul's friends. And I
01:40:49
just asked her like straight up like, "What's the deal? Like, you know, you're you're a little flirtatious." And she
01:40:53
said, "I could I couldn't do that to Rahul. You know, I love him very much." >> He says Mark walked up to them at
01:41:00
exactly that moment, overheard her say, "I couldn't do that to Rahul." And misunderstood.
01:41:09
>> It sounded like I was hitting on her. And so, he took that very badly. He was
01:41:13
pretty pissed off. >> Josh White says he tried to explain the misunderstanding to Mark and Rahul at
01:41:19
the bar, but things had gotten uncomfortable and Taylor wanted to leave. White went back to his place. Mark went
01:41:28
home with Gupta and Taylor. This is security video of the three of them walking through the lobby toward
01:41:36
the elevator. Not long before the bloody attack on Mark Wahl. >> Can you tell anything from the body
01:41:46
language of Rahul Gupta and Taylor Gold? >> She seems intoxicated. >> Does she seem mad?
01:41:53
>> I don't think so. I didn't see that. >> Does he seem mad? >> It's hard to tell.
01:42:00
>> To this day, prosecutors still aren't sure how Mark Wahl became the target of
01:42:05
this brutal attack. >> Was there ever any friction between your brother and Mark?
01:42:10
>> Not that I know of. >> But at one point, Mark texted a friend, apparently from the bathroom.
01:42:18
"My night is becoming historically awkward and I'm about to gnaw my hand off so I can
01:42:25
leave in the ambulance." >> He's just looking for an escape. >> So there was some drama going on in that
01:42:32
apartment. >> Absolutely. >> Because Gupta and Taylor both lived here, DNA and fingerprints wouldn't
01:42:38
help. But there were other bits of evidence that would. And the prosecutors say that's what
01:42:46
focused their attention on Gupta and away from Taylor. >> It's not possible that she physically
01:42:53
could have done it. >> Taylor is only 5'5" and 125 lbs. They were sure she isn't big enough to be the
01:43:01
killer. >> Mark is considerably larger than her. Was fighting back and she doesn't have a
01:43:06
mark on her consistent with being fought back. >> They also don't think she was bloody
01:43:11
enough. >> She has no blood on her face, no blood in her hair. >> Could she have washed up?
01:43:16
>> There are photographs that are taken within several minutes. Her hair is not wet
01:43:21
and she has her makeup on. >> And they say she behaved as anyone would who is confused and innocent.
01:43:28
>> How did she get blood on her hands? >> Contact with Gupta. >> On the 911 call, it does sound like
01:43:34
Taylor could be touching Gupta. >> He awkwardly both touched me. >> The prosecutors concede Taylor and Gupta
01:43:41
might have been in love once, but they say they were not at the time of the murder.
01:43:48
>> This relationship was not a good relationship. >> Rahul was just like, I just want to have
01:43:54
fun. It's my birthday. And then Taylor was like, we should just go. >> By the time police talked to Josh White,
01:43:59
they were already thinking that Rahul's birthday binge was an argument waiting to happen.
01:44:05
>> I'm just trying to find out what the happened. What the heck happened? >> Yeah, somebody got stabbed.
01:44:09
>> Great. >> So So Again, I I don't know. I didn't do it. >> Rahul still insists he didn't do it. But
01:44:23
now, for the first time, he says he knows who did. >> If you didn't stab him, then who did?
01:44:30
>> It happened >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> He said you had to done it cuz he didn't do it.
01:44:38
Oh my god. >> I'd say don't trust that Kayla girl. I just don't trust her. >> But I did not attack Mark. I did not
01:44:58
attack anybody. >> I think he felt like maybe he could talk himself out of whatever trouble he might
01:45:03
be in. >> I didn't stab anyone. >> Detective Paula Hammel, who spent hours interrogating Rahul Gupta, says when he
01:45:10
changed his story, she didn't change her mind. >> I believe that his initial statement was
01:45:17
as truthful as he could have been. And then I think he spent the rest of the time trying to get away from that.
01:45:22
>> There's no question that Rahul made false statements. >> Defense attorney Jennifer Page says
01:45:27
Gupta was drunk and disoriented and that's why he confessed to protect Taylor from being charged with the
01:45:35
murder. >> I think it's very difficult for people to believe that an innocent person would
01:45:41
implicate themself for any reason at any time to any degree. >> I think that he would definitely try try
01:45:49
to protect Taylor. >> I mean when you heard what he said to that first police officer who came in,
01:45:53
what did you make of that? >> Honestly, I didn't believe it. >> You didn't believe he said those words?
01:45:57
>> Correct. >> Co-counsel Phil Armstrong says as Gupta sobered up he quickly realized going to prison for
01:46:05
Taylor Gold wasn't a good idea. So, he started telling the truth. >> When they questioned him about what
01:46:13
happened, he was adamant that he had not done it. >> And Armstrong says the evidence backs up
01:46:19
his client starting with that surveillance tape from shortly before the murder. >> Mark was laughing. He and Raul appeared
01:46:28
to be interacting favorably. >> And they think if anyone was acting suspiciously that night, it was Taylor
01:46:35
Gold. Gupta's lawyers say Taylor only called 911 when Gupta ordered her to and she
01:46:44
wouldn't tell the operator much of anything. >> Okay, Taylor, are you there? Taylor,
01:46:49
hello? Hello? >> Taylor. >> Yeah. >> Yes, hello. I need you to talk to me. >> The defense says that tape reveals a lot
01:47:01
about Taylor and Gupta. >> You can hear him screaming, call 911. >> What is the address of the emergency?
01:47:14
>> He is bereft. He is sobbing. He is begging. >> No. >> This is inconsistent with somebody who
01:47:27
hated this man so much that he had to stab him 11 times. >> Page and Armstrong say Gupta did
01:47:33
everything he could to keep his friend alive. >> We know for a fact that he gave him CPR.
01:47:41
>> And they say that's why he's covered in Mark's blood. They argue much of the other forensic evidence at the crime
01:47:48
scene is meaningless as well because police were careless. >> Horrible mistakes were made.
01:47:57
>> And the lawyers think Taylor acted too deliberately that night considering she
01:48:02
claimed not to remember what happened. There is evidence that before the first responders could get there, she changed
01:48:10
her clothes. Not once, but twice. >> How did she get blood all over her legs, her hands, her dress?
01:48:19
>> How did the blood get on the dress? I mean, maybe maybe I was by Mark before all of that. I mean, I I have no idea.
01:48:29
>> You had the wherewithal to change your clothes, yet you can't remember how you
01:48:33
got the blood on you. >> I'm telling you the truth. >> Gupta's lawyers say these photos show
01:48:38
Taylor could have been responsible. >> There were two very peculiar marks on her hand located just below the knuckle
01:48:49
of the little finger. If you stab someone with the knife with any reasonable degree of force,
01:48:56
it's possible that your hand will slide down the knife and it will hit the bottom of the handle.
01:49:01
>> Page and Armstrong say Taylor was strong enough to stab Mark to death despite her
01:49:07
size. >> And we asked the medical examiner, "Who could do this?" She said, quote, "Any
01:49:12
healthy adult." >> Police believe Mark Wahl fought his attacker, and the lawyers say there is
01:49:18
evidence that Taylor Gold was in a fight. Her fingernails were bloody and one was broken. One of her contact
01:49:25
lenses was stuck to the back of Mark's jeans and there was something else, long blonde hair just like Taylor's was found
01:49:36
on the murder weapon. >> Found wrapped around the knife, never tested. >> And it wasn't just on the knife, more
01:49:45
long blonde hair was stuck in a blood stain on the wall. And even in Mark Waugh's hand.
01:49:53
>> Clutched in his hand as he lies dead on the floor. >> The hair was never tested but it was
01:49:59
assumed to belong to Taylor Gold. But the prosecutors say it doesn't matter because she lived there.
01:50:07
>> There were strands of hair of hers throughout the apartment, in every room. >> There is [clears throat] a mountain of
01:50:12
reasonable doubt Rahul Gupta did not do it. >> Mark Waugh was stabbed by Rahul Gupta. What she did was most
01:50:20
likely nothing. >> The prosecutors say they became convinced Taylor Gold is innocent
01:50:26
largely because she admitted she could be guilty. >> I can't myself imagine doing that,
01:50:32
right? So I'm just confused cuz like I'm not trying to put the blame on the wrong
01:50:37
person. >> She's trying to be truthful in describing the fact that she does not have a memory of what happened in that
01:50:42
apartment. >> That gives her credibility in your >> It does. >> But the defense lawyers believe whatever
01:50:48
Taylor and Gupta said to police should not overshadow what they said to each other about 5 hours after they arrived
01:50:57
at police headquarters. In an unusual move, their interrogators brought them together
01:51:05
and left them alone to see what happened. >> That was probably the second time in 10
01:51:12
years that I had done it. Maybe one of them would say something that would make us go
01:51:18
Oh, did you hear that? >> What happened? What happened to Mark? >> This conversation could make the
01:51:22
difference between who goes home and who goes on trial for murder. >> Did you use that marker now?
01:51:46
>> Rahul Gupta and Taylor Gold had been talking to police for about 5 hours when
01:51:51
Detective Paula Hammel made that unusual strategic decision to let them talk to each other.
01:52:02
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> If Gupta was acting for the detectives, he was staying in character
01:52:13
in a performance with Taylor. >> Did you use that marker now? >> I don't think like I wouldn't do that.
01:52:21
Why would I attack someone? >> Gupta kept trying to blame Taylor. >> What happened between you two?
01:52:30
>> And she kept not quite denying that she did it. >> Did they have some conversation before
01:52:35
the police got there to say, "I'll say I don't know, you say you don't know." And
01:52:39
maybe they'll never find out. >> But the conversation between Taylor and Rahul at times sure sounded unscripted.
01:52:47
>> I want to poop. I want to eat. I'm hungry. Go out there and tell them that I want my lawyer and I want to get the
01:52:53
>> Hey. >> I need to go out of here, dude. >> And after that meeting, Taylor made what
01:52:58
sounds like another ambiguous remark to Detective Hammel. >> You know, if I did it, I don't I I him
01:53:05
to get hurt in this process. >> But after more than 5 hours at police headquarters,
01:53:12
Taylor was released. And Gupta was soon charged with murdering Mark Waugh. Why did you believe her and not him?
01:53:22
>> I don't know that we believed either one of them. But at the end of that day,
01:53:27
there was more evidence to support his being responsible for the murder than her.
01:53:32
>> Is there any chance that Rahul and Taylor did this together? >> No. I don't believe knowingly that they did
01:53:39
this together. >> A year and a half after Mark Waugh was killed, Dan Morse of the Washington Post
01:53:47
was in court to cover Rahul Gupta's murder trial. Cameras weren't allowed. >> Right away, you're sort of wondering how
01:53:56
this defense is going to play out. >> I want you to have the opportunity to answer this as directly as possible.
01:54:04
Did your brother Rahul Gupta kill Mark Waugh? >> No, he did not. >> And you're certain of that.
01:54:11
>> I'm 100% certain of that. >> But Gupta did confess to murder, even though he later changed his mind. So, in
01:54:20
opening arguments, his lawyers made some bold promises. They promised he would take the stand, and they promised to
01:54:27
show not only is he not the murderer, but Taylor Gold is. She isn't on trial, but she will be a
01:54:37
witness. And Gupta's lawyers will get to cross-examine Taylor. So, while prosecutors Timothy Hagen and
01:54:46
Patrick Mayze officially prosecute Gupta, they also have to unofficially defend Taylor.
01:54:54
>> Somebody who murders someone in this fashion, you would expect to be covered in blood. One person in that apartment
01:55:00
was covered in blood. Rahul Gupta. >> The defense maintains Gupta got the blood on him when he gave Mark CPR, and
01:55:09
they say Taylor had more than enough blood on her to be guilty. Including spots inside her dress and on
01:55:18
her bra. And Gupta's lawyers want the jury to focus on those blonde hairs on the knife and in Mark's hand.
01:55:28
>> What are the chances that there's going to be hair in the knife, hair in the hands, hair on the wall, and she says
01:55:35
she has no involvement in this case? >> How would Taylor Gold's blonde hair end up in Mark Waugh's hand?
01:55:42
>> Any number of possibilities. We're talking about a dirty apartment. We aren't talking about a clump of hair.
01:55:47
We're talking about a strand. >> Taylor wasn't much help in clearing anything up on the stand.
01:55:54
Even in front of a jury, she said she just didn't remember because she'd blacked out from all the drinking.
01:56:02
>> By the time she said it over and over again, it's somewhat credible. >> If she had done it, the easiest thing in
01:56:09
the world for her to do now was to point the finger at him. But she never does that.
01:56:15
>> Except on the stand, she finally says she did not kill Mark. She says she's not capable of it.
01:56:23
But from the beginning, there was a sense that if there was a bombshell in this trial,
01:56:29
it would come from Rahul Gupta when he took the stand. >> People were just hanging on this guy's
01:56:36
words, and it's a cliché, but you could have heard a pin drop. >> Gupta was calm and composed.
01:56:45
He testified that after arriving home, he'd argued with Taylor about whether she'd been flirting with Josh Wyatt at
01:56:52
the bar. And he told the jury something he hadn't told police. He said he tripped and hit his head
01:57:02
right before Mark was killed. >> When Rahul Gupta sat back up from falling, this entire event had gone on all around
01:57:11
him and that he hadn't noticed it. >> On cross-examination, Pat Mayes confronts Gupta
01:57:18
about how such a brutal attack could have happened in such a small space without him noticing.
01:57:25
And then Mayes launches an attack of his own, offering texts suggesting Taylor and Gupta's relationship was in trouble
01:57:34
and that he would never have confessed just to protect her. >> And then he hits him with these texts
01:57:41
about Taylor complaining about their sex life. And he's saying, "Well, you were willing to spend the rest of your life
01:57:47
in prison for this young lady that's complaining to you about your performance in bed?"
01:57:52
>> They cherry-picked a half a dozen texts over 2 years, and we gave them back very similar texts
01:57:59
that indicated they had a very loving relationship. >> We know that this was a rocky
01:58:03
relationship at best. >> Thank you. >> Mark. >> Gupta's lawyers think it's critical for
01:58:10
jurors to know that he maintained his innocence in that tape [music] discussion with Taylor.
01:58:18
But it won't work because in a potentially crucial decision, >> I don't know what happened.
01:58:25
>> the judge rules that the jury cannot see it. >> The guy who's on trial says, "I didn't
01:58:32
do this" to his girlfriend, "did you?" And she says, "I don't know." And the jury never got to hear it.
01:58:39
>> But the jury did get an earful of another recording. >> I have a free call from Rahul Gupta.
01:58:47
>> And that one could decide this case. >> Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah, I can. What happened?
01:58:56
>> [music] >> After nearly 15 hours in custody, Rahul Gupta made a phone call. He called his
01:59:14
father. >> Where are you? >> I'm in jail. >> Like most calls from most jails, this
01:59:21
one was recorded. Gupta told his father what happened in the apartment. >> What happened?
01:59:28
>> Like I got into a fight and he tried to get a knife and then I grabbed the knife.
01:59:36
>> It's hard to hear, but it sounded to lawyers on both sides like Gupta admitted holding the knife. The jury
01:59:44
will decide for itself. >> I grabbed the knife. >> He's still traumatized by what happened.
01:59:50
It doesn't make any rational sense. >> It doesn't unless he's telling his father the truth.
01:59:56
>> And he might be telling his father the truth if it weren't for the fact that all of the scientific evidence points in
02:00:01
the opposite direction. >> In their closing argument, prosecutors say the jury doesn't have to take their
02:00:08
word about Gupta being guilty. >> Who who who Who did you get into a fight with?
02:00:13
>> They can take Gupta's. >> Mark. >> It's the first and the last statements that he makes. And in between there, he
02:00:21
tries a number of different lies. >> The state has made a strong case against Gupta.
02:00:31
But Dan Moralis says on the witness stand, Gupta made a pretty strong case of his own.
02:00:38
>> I thought he might pull this off. >> How did he present himself? >> I thought he did really good. I mean, he
02:00:43
was Rahul, you know, he was him. >> As the jury begins to deliberate, the stakes for the prosecution could not be
02:00:50
higher. If Rahul Gupta is not convicted of murdering Mark Waugh, chances are nobody ever will be because the state
02:00:58
has already argued Taylor Gold is not the killer. The jury takes less than a day to
02:01:07
decide. >> A Montgomery County jury today found Rahul Gupta guilty of killing his best
02:01:13
friend. >> The verdict guilty. >> Our son, Mark, all I can say is a gift from God.
02:01:23
>> And the sentence, life in prison, is what Mark Waugh's family was hoping for.
02:01:30
>> His murder was a sin. Not just on his family, but on the community as a whole.
02:01:38
>> I mean, it was devastating. >> How do you deal with that? How do you absorb that?
02:01:45
>> [snorts] >> Um when you don't have a choice, you just do it. >> We feel very strongly he didn't get a
02:01:49
fair trial. >> Gupta's lawyers believe the judge should have allowed the jury to see that tape
02:01:57
of Gupta talking to Taylor >> What happened to Mark? >> I don't know. >> at police headquarters.
02:02:03
>> I don't know. I'm freaking out, okay? I don't >> This is important stuff that goes right
02:02:08
to the issue of guilt or innocence. >> Is Taylor Gold an innocent bystander in all of this?
02:02:15
>> Yes. >> Purely innocent. >> We believe so, yes. >> I feel comfortable that she wasn't held
02:02:19
criminally responsible in the murder. >> Detective Paula Hammel maintains Taylor
02:02:25
Gold is legally not guilty. But she believes Taylor may have played some role in what happened that night.
02:02:34
>> Ms. Gold could have set up an environment that caused Mr. Gupta to become upset.
02:02:40
I also still do believe that she was possibly involved in a relationship with the victim
02:02:45
behind Mr. Gupta's back. >> Taylor Gold did not want to discuss that night or anything else with 48 Hours.
02:02:54
She's getting an MBA and moving on with her life. >> Ms. Gold has something that she has to
02:03:00
carry for the rest of her life. >> Shreen Gupta Rapaport says Rahul does too. The family is doing what they can to
02:03:10
help him transition from life in this kind of institution to life in this kind. >> Rahul and us,
02:03:19
you know, we're determined to make the best of this, however that might be. I don't think we have a choice.
02:03:31
>> But Rahul is still in their lives. >> At the end of the day, I'm grateful that
02:03:35
I have my brother. You know, he's still somebody I can go and talk to. I can visit. I can write to
02:03:41
him. >> She says all the Guptas know that's more [music] than Mark Waugh's parents have.
02:03:50
>> While I can talk to my brother, you know, they can't talk to Mark. >> His death is a tragedy
02:03:59
that we must carry for the rest of our lives. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
02:04:54
>> Mhm.