00:00:11
Oh, pa. Spread the toes. Yes. Try and keep your chest lifted at quarter reach. >> Katherine had a wonderful ballet base.
00:00:23
She would take jazz class. She would take theater, dance class, any kind of dancing just to [music] be a dancer. I
00:00:29
remember being really interested in her right away. She was [music] dancing in one of the
00:00:35
studios. We started talking. The very next day, she called me. I was just like blown away. I'd never really had someone
00:00:42
be that kind of interested in me like that. >> I don't really know what to say. >> She came home on vacation for a few
00:00:49
weeks. I met her in the parking lot, spoke to her, and she just seemed real nice and I was like, "Wow, you know, I
00:00:54
never seen this girl before. You know, she's beautiful." We definitely liked each other. She accepted me for who I
00:01:00
was. >> She became my best friend. I told her everything. >> We were best friends.
00:01:04
>> She wanted to be friends with everybody. She needed people and she needed to be
00:01:08
around someone that she felt cared about her. >> I loved her deeply and I I would do
00:01:14
anything for her. I loved her. I would have did anything for her. [snorts] [music]
00:01:21
>> You have a young girl who comes from Ohio to New York. >> Welcome to 40 seconds for yourself.
00:01:26
a young girl trying to fulfill her dreams, trying to make it in New Big City. >> You have to pay the rent. You have to
00:01:33
work several hours a day, and then you have to dance several hours a day. It's grueling. It's tough. And not
00:01:40
everybody's going to make it. >> Things with her apartment and money and everything was really tight. [music]
00:01:46
>> Not a lot of people knew what she did to pay her rent. >> You get concerned for someone who feels
00:01:51
the need to do that. You could work one or two [music] days a week, make as much
00:01:55
as a person would make a normal week at a full job. >> She would hide some things from [music]
00:02:00
me because she would know that I wouldn't approve of them. She wouldn't want me to be ashamed of her.
00:02:06
>> She said [music] she was living with someone, an ex-boyfriend. She tried to kick him out several times.
00:02:11
>> I had moved out for a few weeks kind of to give us both space to clear our heads
00:02:15
and we both came to the conclusion that we could still live together. Their relationship was [music] strictly
00:02:21
platonic. They were friends. >> As far as I knew, you know, they were friends. >> We loved each other. We always were
00:02:28
thinking about each other. >> The day I met him, he actually had said that he had been seeing Catherine since
00:02:32
[music] August of the year before. >> I know from the conversation that I had with him, that it was the first time he
00:02:39
found out that we were intimate. >> I heard him out, but I told her and she denied it.
00:02:44
>> He called me up and he was like, "You better not see her anymore." remember a
00:02:48
few incidents where she was a little worried. I told Catherine to get a restraining order.
00:02:52
>> The news watch never [music] stops. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed
00:02:57
to death. >> With 16 years as a police officer, never in my life have I ever seen anything so
00:03:01
[music] violent. My name is Detective Steven Gats and I was the lead investigator on the
00:03:09
Katherine Wood homicide. >> She was just such a beautiful person and I think that's why I fell in love with
00:03:16
her. I felt like she was my angel. >> David and Paul were our two main suspects.
00:03:28
>> Death of a dream. Every 7 [music] 8 9 10year-old that goes and sees a Broadway show, all they can
00:04:08
think about is, "Oh, I'm going to be up there someday." Some children never lose that fantasy.
00:04:15
>> Katherine Woods was one of them. >> It was her dream. It's what she wanted to do. She wasn't going to be happy
00:04:22
until she reached her goal, which was to dance on Broadway. She just looked like
00:04:28
a dancer, looked like a star. >> Katie Miller and Catherine met as children in a Columbus, Ohio dance
00:04:35
studio. With her big [music] smile and personality, Catherine was the image of the all-American Midwestern girl.
00:04:43
>> You can't take your eyes off her. And it comes through in her dancing and in her
00:04:48
personality. Were other girls that she would dance with a little jealous. >> I would say I was. Sometimes it'd be
00:04:54
like, well, wait a minute. I'm here, too. Catherine's father, John Woods, the well-known director of the Ohio State
00:05:04
University marching band and a music professor, had hoped his oldest child would follow him into music. I would
00:05:11
think in the Woods family, don't you have to play an instrument? >> Well, we like to see that. [laughter]
00:05:18
>> But Catherine made it clear all she wanted to do was dance. >> For some people, dancing is like
00:05:24
breathing. I mean, why would I do anything else? I want to I need to dance. >> She told me that if she didn't leave
00:05:32
now, she never would. She had these taken. >> In the summer [music] of 2002, when
00:05:38
Catherine was just 17, her father and mother, Donna, drove her to New York. They were filled with hope and anxiety.
00:05:47
>> She had never lived away from home. I mean, this was a true coming of age, going to the biggest city in the United
00:05:56
States and going to start putting a career together >> once you get upstairs. >> For the next 3 years, Catherine seemed
00:06:05
to thrive in New York, taking dance, voice, and acting lessons. And on a visit back home, Catherine found love.
00:06:14
>> Met her at a pool hall. David Han, then a 20-year-old rap musician, was selling
00:06:20
his CDs in a parking lot when he met Catherine. You started off as friends. >> Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:26
>> Did you ever think you'd end up dating her? >> I wasn't sure. I I I felt chemistry. We
00:06:31
definitely had liked each other. >> Weeks later, David moved to New York to be with her and pursue his career.
00:06:38
>> I think we fed off each other. I know I really fed off her. In many ways, they
00:06:44
were an unlikely couple. Catherine grew up in middlecl class comfort with her parents and two younger siblings. David
00:06:52
was raised in foster homes. Being with Catherine made you feel that you had a family again.
00:06:58
>> Yeah, she made me feel confident about myself. I looked up to her so much almost in a way as a parent.
00:07:06
>> How serious were you and Catherine? >> We're real serious. married as far as I'd say we thought about it.
00:07:12
>> But sometime in 2005, the relationship became strained. Catherine was paying David's bills and the money [music] was
00:07:20
tight. Finally, she broke it off with David. Although she allowed him to remain living in the apartment,
00:07:28
>> she told me she wanted him to move out, but she didn't want to kick him out cuz
00:07:33
she would feel bad. >> We still got along. We were still friends. We were best friends. When you
00:07:38
first started dating Catherine, did you know she was living with David? >> Um, no, not at first.
00:07:44
>> Catherine was 20 years old when she met 24year-old Paul Cortez, [music] a trainer at her gym.
00:07:52
>> By early 2005, Paul says they were dating. >> Do you think David knew you existed?
00:07:58
>> I I don't think so. I think, you know, in that situation when one is just breaking up with someone else and, you
00:08:07
know, and you're seeing someone new, I I don't think I I wouldn't think Catherine
00:08:12
would tell him about me. >> That summer, Paul unexpectedly [music] showed up at the apartment while David
00:08:20
was there and told David that he had been dating Catherine for almost a year. >> How did he react?
00:08:28
>> He was upset. He was surprised, >> but Paul got a surprise as well. >> Did you realize that David still thought
00:08:36
they were boyfriend girlfriend? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's what he told me. And I was like, "Okay, well that's not
00:08:42
good." >> Later, David called Paul. >> How would you describe the tone of that call?
00:08:47
>> Oh, he was definitely angry. He was upset. >> Did he threaten you at any point?
00:08:51
>> Yeah, he was like, "Don't see her again or else." >> And what was that or else?
00:08:55
>> I don't know. I don't know what the or else was. [music] For the next four months, Catherine
00:09:00
continued to live with David [music] and secretly date Paul. But according to Katie, Catherine was still searching for
00:09:08
true love. She'd say, "Why do I always get these guys? Why can't I find Mr. Wright who rides up on a on a horse and
00:09:17
comes and picks me up and we go riding off into sunset?" One week after Katie last spoke with Catherine,
00:09:27
Catherine was dead. [music] On the night of November 27th, 2005, Katherine Woods was getting ready to go
00:09:43
to work when David Han says he left their apartment to pick up his car. >> How long were you gone?
00:09:49
>> 20, 30 minutes. When he returned, David says he [music] made a chilling discovery. It
00:09:58
>> was a bad scene. There's blood everywhere. So, it was bad. My first instinct is to call 911.
00:10:08
>> Baby girl. Captain. Captain. Baby girl. Oh my goodness. I don't know what happened.
00:10:12
>> Is she there? >> Yeah. There's blood everywhere. I don't even know if she's alive. I'm scared to
00:10:16
look at her. Catherine was on the bedroom floor face down in blood. I didn't know if it was an accident or
00:10:33
what it was. I really didn't know. I just was really in shock. >> Catherine had been stabbed [music] 20
00:10:41
times, her throat cut twice. >> It was a brutal scene. The manner in which she was killed was absolutely
00:10:49
horrible. [music] >> Did you find any weapon? >> No. >> New York City police detective Steven
00:10:56
Gets led the investigation. >> To be honest with you, the first thing that I remember thinking to myself was,
00:11:01
"This girl is dead on her floor in her bedroom and she has a family out there and they don't even know that she's
00:11:08
dead." Catherine's mom and dad were 500 miles away at home in Columbus when three
00:11:18
police officers arrived. >> I [music] said, "How bad is it?" And he said, "It's bad." And I said, "Is she
00:11:25
dead?" And he said, "Yes." Once I heard [music] she was dead, I was in shock and have trouble remembering
00:11:32
some of that conversation. Wins News Time 5:43. An aspiring Broadway dancer found stabbed to death
00:11:43
nearly decapitated in her Upper East Side apartment last night and police are interviewing the boyfriend who called
00:11:47
them to say he found her. >> At the precinct, police began grilling David Han. >> I really just couldn't believe it was
00:11:56
happening. I kept asking God in my head, you know, why is this happening? >> Detective Get says the killer left what
00:12:02
appeared to be a bloody handprint on a bedroom wall and several bloody bootprints in the apartment, including
00:12:09
one left on Catherine's back. What size of shoe left those prints? >> I believe it was estimated at a 10 and a
00:12:19
half. >> And what size of shoe does David H wear? >> 10 and 1/2. Did the police [music] at first accuse
00:12:26
you? I mean, did they say, "Come on, David." >> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> And what did you say to them?
00:12:32
>> I told them, "No, you have the wrong person. You have the wrong person. I would never never hit that girl.
00:12:39
Not at all. I loved her. I would have did anything for her." >> As the interrogation wore on, David
00:12:48
showed little emotion or grief. >> I couldn't even cry. Even afterwards, the detectives were asking me, "If you
00:12:54
love this girl so much, why are you not crying?" Look at him. I don't know. I really don't know.
00:13:02
>> Now to a murder investigation on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A 21-year-old woman found dead in her
00:13:07
apartment on East 86 Street. >> The brutal end to a beautiful young woman's life and dreams was the lead
00:13:13
story that morning. Iette Cortez heard it on the radio as she was getting ready for work. and they mention a dancer,
00:13:22
Katherine Woods. >> When Avette saw Catherine's picture in the paper, she recognized her instantly.
00:13:28
Her face was there. I bet [music] is Paul Cortez's mother. She knew her son had been seeing
00:13:45
Katherine Woods, which is why the rest of the story [music] sent her into a panic.
00:13:51
>> Wood's boyfriend is still here inside the 19th precinct station house where he's being questioned by police.
00:13:57
>> They just kept on mentioning the boyfriend being held and I didn't know what that meant.
00:14:02
>> Well, you didn't know whether they were referring to Paul >> exactly, but I tracked him down. He was
00:14:07
at work. He didn't even realize what was happening. Evette went to the health club where Paul was working to break the
00:14:13
news to him. >> She told me that um that Catherine was uh killed the night before
00:14:23
just like my I just buckled. I I I remember just kind of sitting on this stoop right almost outside of the club
00:14:31
and and um I just couldn't believe it. I was just in complete shock. Later that day, the police called Paul
00:14:41
and brought him in for questioning. [music] >> How would you describe Paul Cortez?
00:14:46
>> Quiet. He came to the precinct with his mother. He seemed like a very nice person.
00:14:55
>> As police were questioning Paul Cortez in one room of the precinct and David Han in another, they were learning
00:15:01
something else about Catherine's life that could have a bearing on her death. In the months before Katherine was
00:15:08
murdered, she was working as a dancer in a topless club. For the tabloid press, [music] it was
00:15:16
suddenly a sensational story. For investigators, [music] it opened up a whole other line of possible motives and
00:15:24
suspects. >> Probably the sweetest girl that's ever walked in here or the most innocent.
00:15:29
Yeah, definitely. I think >> Chloe hired and managed the dancers at a club called Privilege.
00:15:36
>> I looked at her and I'm like, "What is this girl doing here?" Because she looks
00:15:39
like the girl next door. She needed to have money to live on. >> Catherine, who worked under the name
00:15:49
Ava, danced nights so she could audition and attend classes during the day. She hid that part of her life from her
00:15:56
parents. >> Would you tell your parents if you were doing that? I mean, I certainly wouldn't
00:16:01
tell my parents, >> but Catherine did confide in friends from home like Katie Miller.
00:16:07
>> I just was like, you know, this isn't you. This isn't what she's like, I know.
00:16:11
I know. >> Was Catherine having trouble with one of the customers? If so, she never
00:16:19
mentioned it to anyone. Katie spoke with Catherine the week before she died. >> And did she seem worried about anything?
00:16:27
Not at all. Um, afraid of anyone? >> No. >> Six hours after Paul Cortez and his mother Evette arrived at the police
00:16:36
precinct, they were allowed to leave. >> They just let the two of you go. >> Mhm.
00:16:42
>> And did you think it was over then? >> Absolutely. >> It wasn't though. >> No.
00:16:51
Police discovered that Paul, like David, wears a 10 and a half size shoe. And there's more. A serious [music] problem
00:17:00
with a written statement Paul gave to police detailing what he did the day of Catherine's murder. Where did Paul say
00:17:08
he was at the time Catherine was murdered? >> He said he was home in his apartment.
00:17:14
According to detective Gats, Paul told police he was making calls at his apartment a mile and a half away from
00:17:20
Catherine's. But when police set out to verify his story, Paul's cell phone [music] records indicated something
00:17:27
else. Paul called Catherine a dozen times shortly before 6:00 [music] p.m. the evening she was killed. If he had
00:17:34
been home, his calls would normally go through a cell tower in his neighborhood. Instead, some of those
00:17:41
calls were handled by a tower just two blocks from Katherine's apartment. >> Did at any time, Paul say to any officer
00:17:49
that he was in [music] Catherine's neighborhood when she was murdered? >> No. Paul always had
00:18:05
goals and that ambition [music] to strive for them. >> Iette Cortez always believed her son
00:18:12
Paul was going places. >> He's just does so much with his life and [music] to live vicariously through all
00:18:19
his accomplishments. Evette was a single mom when she was raising her three children in a tough
00:18:26
neighborhood in the Bronx. >> That's my poy. >> Paul, her youngest, earned scholarships
00:18:32
at some of New York's most prestigious prep schools. >> I don't mean to ask a personal question,
00:18:37
but could you have really afforded to send him to these private schools on your own?
00:18:41
>> Of course not. >> He actually had to win those [music] spots. >> Absolutely. He worked really hard for
00:18:47
everything that he has. But it meant Paul had to rise before dawn each day for the 2-hour ride to school. He
00:18:55
>> was this tiny [music] little thing carrying a book bag that was probably twice his weight in his little suit.
00:19:01
>> He didn't just thrive academically. Paul also stood out on the stage, starring in high school productions of
00:19:10
Pippen [music] >> and Westside Story. He has done such amazing pieces [music] that it blows me away.
00:19:25
>> Paul got a scholarship at Boston University where he majored in theater, the first in his family to get a college
00:19:32
[music] degree. He sounds like in some ways he was really kind of the future of your family, the hope of your family.
00:19:39
>> Absolutely. We always saw him that way. At 24, Paul replaced show tunes with rock.
00:19:50
>> He was the lead singer and lyricist for a New York band, Monolith. [music] >> He's got a great voice. He's a fantastic
00:20:01
singer >> and he had lots of ideas. [music] >> Paul also had a day job. He worked as a
00:20:12
trainer in the gym where he met Katherine Woods. >> She was playful. That's what I liked
00:20:18
about her. She's really like open and you could see like a compassion in her eyes and I I love that about her.
00:20:26
>> Within a couple of months, Paul and Catherine were dating. >> We would just talk to each other [music]
00:20:31
all night for like hours on end, just about everything. aspirations, [music] you know, our our dreams, our, you know,
00:20:39
how much we cared about each other. And >> but when Paul learned [music] Catherine
00:20:44
was dancing on the side in topless clubs, he insisted that she stop when you told her you didn't want her dancing
00:20:52
in these clubs, how did she react? >> Well, basically like, uh, you know, I know what you're saying, but it really
00:20:58
isn't any of your business, and I I'm going to be careful, and nothing's going to happen [music] to me. But in April
00:21:04
2005, something did happen while Catherine was working at Privilege. >> In the middle of the night, Catherine
00:21:11
called me and she was crying and she was like, "Please come. Please come here." >> Paul went to the club to get her.
00:21:22
>> I had never seen her like that, just stumbling. And her eyes were just like pins. She She looked like she was on
00:21:32
drugs or really drunk. >> Catherine believed [music] a customer slipped drugs into her drink and that
00:21:39
she might have been molested. >> I told her, "I can't [music] have anything like that ever happen again."
00:21:47
>> When she told him she planned to go back to work, Paul went through her cell phone and found her father's telephone
00:21:54
number. >> It was in the morning, wasn't it? >> It may have been in the morning. Paul
00:21:58
called Catherine's father and told him where Catherine had been working and what had happened that night.
00:22:04
>> Did you tell her you were going to call her dad? >> No. >> When he told me as a father, I thought,
00:22:08
"Wow, you know, thank you for this information." And >> John took the next flight to New York to
00:22:13
confront his daughter. But Catherine told her father the story wasn't true. >> How did Catherine react to the fact you
00:22:21
called her parents? >> Oh my gosh, she was so mad. She was really mad. >> They broke up. Paul says, but not for
00:22:29
long. >> We realized that we loved each other. We always were thinking about each other
00:22:33
and and we got back together. >> But just how serious a relationship it was is in dispute.
00:22:42
>> Playing the best music on earth, monolith. >> Catherine did go to one of Paul's
00:22:46
performances that summer and he introduced her to his mom. >> He he did mention that he loved her.
00:22:55
Yet, apparently, Catherine never told her friends or family that she was even dating Paul.
00:23:00
>> If the two of you were in love with each other, why didn't she tell any of her
00:23:04
friends she was dating you? >> I don't know. I I thought she did. >> As for Catherine's other boyfriend,
00:23:13
David Han, P believed he was out of the picture. >> I had moved out for a few weeks. I went
00:23:18
to her friends. I met >> But in fact, David moved back in with Catherine not long before she was
00:23:23
killed. >> You didn't know that he had actually moved back in with her? >> No, I didn't.
00:23:27
>> She never told you. >> I believe that he loved her, but I do believe that there was [music] a certain
00:23:36
obsession there. Lead detective Steven Gets says Paul's obsession and jealousy is [music] plain to see in the journals
00:23:44
he wrote. And so is something else. The writings were very violent. Spoke about slashing people's throats.
00:23:55
>> Police point to some of the songs and poems Paul wrote as proof that he had a
00:23:59
deep-seated anger towards women [music] and Catherine in particular. At one point, Paul, you wrote, "She wipes clean
00:24:06
the shaft that cuts her throat and then Catherine's throat is cut. That's how she dies."
00:24:13
>> It's a poem. I mean, >> Paul says he wrote that poem 8 months before Catherine's murder after she told
00:24:19
him she had once been sexually assaulted at knife point. I >> mean, to say I was plowing this thing 8
00:24:25
months before, it's ridiculous. I didn't know what was going to happen to her that night.
00:24:33
You can take anything out of context and [music] make it sound the way you want it to fit and tailor it to your needs.
00:24:43
>> But the meaning of Paul's writings wouldn't have mattered at all if Paul could prove where he was when Catherine
00:24:49
was murdered. On the night that Catherine was killed, did you go to her apartment?
00:24:54
>> No. >> You love this woman. She had lied to you over those months. Did you in fact that night just snap and
00:25:04
kill her? >> No, I would never do that. >> Paul could have had an alibi. >> We had rehearsal scheduled for 6:00
00:25:13
[music] p.m. that Sunday night and uh Paul didn't show up. >> Alex RDE was one of Paul's bandmates in
00:25:21
Monolith. >> Was that normal? Did he? >> No, he usually showed up. >> So that night he just didn't show up at
00:25:27
all. >> No. Alex says Paul's performances have been getting erratic and he had planned
00:25:33
to ask Paul to leave the band that night. So, where was Paul? >> I called him around 8:00
00:25:41
and I asked him why he wasn't there and he said that he had overslept. >> One of the few times you'd ever miss a
00:25:46
practice happens to be at the time that Katherine is killed. >> I didn't go to rehearsal because they
00:25:52
were going to tell me, "You're [music] not part of the band anymore." And I didn't want to have that whole
00:25:57
conversation that night. >> Are you troubled though by the fact he didn't come to your rehearsal at 6:00
00:26:04
p.m. that very night? >> If he had come, then there would be no problem. [music] We would all vouch for
00:26:09
him. There would been no problem at all. It's like, no, he was with us. It's impossible.
00:26:13
He would have been 100 blocks away. We're convinced she knew this person and that this person knew her.
00:26:48
The two men who knew Kathern Woods best are both suspects. [music] But as days passed, Detective Steven
00:26:56
gets focused less on David Han and more on Paul Cortez. >> My feeling is if Paul Cortez had nothing
00:27:03
to do with this, then he had no reason to lie. >> Police say Paul hid from them the fact
00:27:10
that he was in Catherine's neighborhood at the time of the murder, leaving it out of his written statement.
00:27:17
in here. You never mentioned that you were right down in her neighborhood, just blocks from her house. Why not? I
00:27:23
>> I just remember that point just being a haze. Just I I was still in shock. I just found out that someone that I love
00:27:32
dearly was killed, that [music] I was a suspect for it as well. And I didn't know what to do or what what to think or
00:27:40
what to really put in. >> And then police got a big break. In the midst of this bloody crime scene,
00:27:49
they say they were able to isolate one single fingerprint. >> We were able to match that fingerprint
00:27:55
to Paul Cortez's fingerprint. >> Paul Cortez has been indicted [music] now on murder charges.
00:28:02
>> Paul Cortez was arrested and held [music] without bail. >> That person had nothing to do with the
00:28:08
Paul Cortez I know. >> Margarite Shannona had met Paul just a few months earlier on a yoga retreat. He
00:28:15
had been at my house a couple of weeks before Catherine was killed. And he was flirty. He was fun. He was warm.
00:28:23
>> She is so sure of Paul's innocence. She used her own money and borrowed thousands more to help pay for his
00:28:29
defense. >> Don't some of your friends say, "Margarite, why would you put yourself
00:28:34
out on the limb so much for this guy?" >> Yeah, some of my friends do say that. So, uh, they seem to fall into two
00:28:40
camps. The one camp thinks I'm crazy and the other camp thinks I'm a saint. Over
00:28:44
the next year, Margarite created a website to build support for Paul Cortez. >> Let's just go through like the DD5s
00:28:52
>> and helped hire lawyers. How confident are the two of you in this case that you'll be able to get Paul Cortez
00:28:59
acquitted? >> I'm confident. >> We believe we have somebody who's innocent. >> Defense attorneys Don Florio and Laura
00:29:05
Miranda. >> He has a very gentle, caring soul about him. I can't even imagine that somebody
00:29:11
like this could have committed um such a vicious crime. >> We really need to focus, you know,
00:29:17
because of her profession, she was exposed to so many people who could have done her harm.
00:29:22
>> They say there could be any number of other suspects that a customer from one of the topless
00:29:28
clubs could have killed Catherine. >> Catherine, baby girl. Catherine, baby girl. I'm scared to look at her.
00:29:35
>> They also believe police were too quick to clear David Han. David is the one who gave up his life.
00:29:42
He came from Ohio to live with this woman. Catherine [music] was kicking David out of the apartment. So, if
00:29:48
anyone had a motive, I'd say it was more David than Paul. Her reasoning, a neighbor testified
00:29:56
hearing [music] screams coming from Catherine's apartment about 20 minutes before David said he left the apartment.
00:30:03
But police investigated David's movements that night, and they believe he was out of the apartment for a much
00:30:10
longer time and couldn't have been there at the time of the murder. John Woods was the first person to take
00:30:22
the stand in his daughter, Catherine's murder trial. >> 14 months after Catherine's death, Paul
00:30:28
Cortez goes on trial for murder. The people's case is designed not to prove that Paul Cortez is the kind of person
00:30:35
who would have done this, but that in fact he was the person who did this. >> Manhattan Assistant District Attorney
00:30:42
Peter Castillo paints Paul Cortez as an obsessed boyfriend who didn't want to share Catherine with anyone else.
00:30:50
>> Failure in love often leads to anger and murder. And that's that's precisely what
00:30:56
happened here, ladies and gentlemen. Castillo says that after months of Catherine seeing other men, Paul was
00:31:03
like a volcano ready to erupt. And on that night, Paul waited outside the apartment,
00:31:11
watched David leave, and then slipped in to kill Catherine. >> It's the defendant's persistent use of
00:31:22
his cell phone that puts him in hot water. here. >> Castillo introduces the phone records
00:31:28
that prove Paul was in Catherine's neighborhood, calling her numerous times right before she was killed. And then
00:31:36
the phone calls stop. >> He never ever ever calls Katherine Woods again. Is that a
00:31:44
coincidence? Is that why he stops calling her? Or is it because he already knows she's
00:31:53
dead and there's nobody to answer the phone? >> How do you explain that? >> And there's nothing to explain. I I
00:32:02
called her many times and I left messages and >> that was before 6:00. >> Yeah. And I figured after I left the
00:32:10
last message of, "Hey, call me when you get out of work." I figured that was it.
00:32:14
>> Did Paul have any injuries after? >> None at all. >> None. Was there any DNA of Paul's found
00:32:20
underneath Katherine's fingernails? >> Absolutely none. >> No DNA found in the apartment
00:32:25
whatsoever. >> There is little physical evidence that connects [music] Paul to the murder, but
00:32:31
what does exist is incriminating. >> His fingerprint is in her blood put there at the time of the murder, and
00:32:37
there is no innocent explanation for that. >> But the defense attorneys say there is
00:32:43
other evidence that points to someone other than Paul. And look at his hair. Take down your hair.
00:32:49
>> Unidentified strands of hair found in Catherine's hand that didn't belong to Paul and were never tested by police.
00:32:57
>> Catherine had hair in her hand. And there were hairs that were never tested for DNA.
00:33:05
>> The last piece of really critical evidence are the footprints. The footprints are undoubtedly left by the
00:33:10
killer. Those bloody footprints in Catherine's apartment, say the prosecutor, were left by a man wearing
00:33:17
Sketcher boots, size 10 and a half. Do you own any Sketcher boots? >> No. >> And police never found any,
00:33:26
but they did find a surprise witness. His name is Spencer Liberowitz. He knew Paul from the gym. Spencer testified
00:33:35
that he saw Paul at this bar the night Catherine was murdered and that Paul was wearing Sketcher boots.
00:33:43
>> Why would Spence say that? >> I don't know. I don't know why he would say that. Honestly, I don't.
00:33:49
>> Surprising testimony because a year earlier, Spencer told 48 hours that he had no memory of what Paul was wearing.
00:33:58
>> Did you get a close look at Paul? >> No. >> How was he dressed? Do you remember?
00:34:04
>> No. >> Paul claims that he was wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes. >> You're sure that that afternoon you were
00:34:12
wearing these Johnston and Murphy shoes? Shoes, not boots of any kind? >> And Paul's attorneys say they have video
00:34:21
that will prove it. This surveillance tape from a store that shows what Paul was wearing just [music] hours before
00:34:28
the murder. As the trial comes to an end, it's the evidence that the defense hopes will
00:34:36
convince the jurors that Paul Cortez is innocent of murder. Paul [music] Cortez stabbed Catherine 20
00:34:58
times. He slit her throat and then stabbed her larynx. [music] There is no doubt in my mind that he's a
00:35:07
monster. >> John and Donna Woods don't need to wait for the verdict. They are already
00:35:15
convinced Paul Cortez killed their daughter. >> Did you in fact kill Catherine Woods?
00:35:20
>> No, I didn't. >> But what will the jury think? I worry about everything that might give the
00:35:27
jurors [music] reason to doubt. >> For Paul's family, there's nothing but doubt. [music]
00:35:32
>> How can you have a crime scene with hair samples and not follow up on that? That
00:35:35
doesn't make sense to me. >> How could you brutally murder someone like that and walk away clean?
00:35:41
>> What do you think the verdict's going to be? [music] >> Not guilty. >> Not guilty.
00:35:44
>> Not guilty. >> Paul's lawyers are feeling confident, too. >> We think that there is no way that this
00:35:50
jury will be able to convict him. As one day of deliberations rolls into two, >> there could be a hung jewelry.
00:36:01
>> The pressure on everyone intensifies. >> I was very nervous. I couldn't concentrate.
00:36:06
>> I didn't really eat. I didn't really sleep. >> Anything and everything is a possibility
00:36:11
when it comes to the jurors. >> He's this creative person. He worked very hard with his life. He had no
00:36:17
history of violence. He had a loving family. >> [music] >> Behind closed doors, jurors were
00:36:22
fighting it out. >> I really thought he was innocent. >> Guilty. Especially with the fingerprint.
00:36:27
>> At the beginning, the majority believed Paul Cortez was guilty. >> It was seven guilty, five innocent.
00:36:34
>> Four jurors sat down with us. They asked not to be identified by name, but they
00:36:39
were willing to give us a rare look back at the drama that was unfolding inside the jury room.
00:36:45
>> The first time in my life I've ever cried in public. I think >> three of the women thought the cops may
00:36:50
have gotten the wrong guy. For them, David Han, Catherine's other boyfriend, was a much better suspect. [music]
00:36:57
>> At first, I thought he was guilty. >> Actually, I thought he could have done it. I thought he was more likely the
00:37:03
type of personnel to do it rather than the defendant. >> Still, almost everyone on the jury was
00:37:08
concerned that Paul gave police the impression he was at home the night Catherine was murdered. He was in fact
00:37:15
just blocks away. That was so gripping for me. [music] You know, everybody looked at that.
00:37:23
>> Yeah, he lied on there clearly. >> They were even more bothered by the fact that Paul had no alibi for the time
00:37:29
Catherine was killed and never tried calling her after that. >> If you're that worried about her, you
00:37:35
would call, but he didn't call. >> As the hours wore on, two jurors stubbornly refused to convict. If they
00:37:45
didn't change their minds, there was going to be a hung jury and Paul Cortez could go free. And then they decided to
00:37:53
look at one more piece of evidence. This video, the video that Paul's defense put
00:37:59
into evidence at the end of the trial. It's the surveillance tape from the appliance store PC Richards, where Paul
00:38:07
Cortez had gone shopping just hours before the murder. >> I watched that clip by clip by clip.
00:38:13
Paul's attorneys say the video proves Paul was wearing these shoes that day, not these boots, which are similar to
00:38:21
what the killer wore. >> To me, it looked like the Johnston Murphy shoes. That's why I put it in.
00:38:27
>> But what did the jurors see? >> It was very clearly boots. The boots. It was boots there.
00:38:33
>> Right there. That's boots. >> Look at the back leg. Look how thick that sole is right there. Yeah.
00:38:39
>> The bulk of the shoe on top. That's the first thing I noticed. >> Boots usually have a bigger front. This
00:38:48
clearly had a bigger front. >> For the holdouts, it was the tipping point. This grainy, blurred video made
00:38:55
everything crystal clear. They believed Paul was wearing the Sketcher boots. >> That really [music] convinced me.
00:39:02
>> I couldn't hold on to my position any longer. And if I hadn't changed, it would have been a hung jury. The [music]
00:39:10
defense really gave us something against him. >> In a bitter irony, the evidence that
00:39:16
sealed Paul Cortez's fate came from his own defense lawyers. Either they are dumb or they are very careless.
00:39:24
>> They were the ones to help him hang. >> This just in to the WCBS newsroom. >> It was [music] a guilty verdict.
00:39:32
>> Guilty for Paul Cortez. After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury finds
00:39:38
Paul Cortez guilty of seconddegree murder. >> You're heart drops to your stomach and
00:39:44
then you just it just kind of obliterates you. >> What did you think the jury was going to
00:39:56
do? >> I thought at least they they would not be able to decide. What if I told you
00:40:03
that two individuals >> who were on the fence who might have hung the jury changed their mind
00:40:12
>> based on that videotape. >> It would be the mistake of our lives and it's terrible. You know, I'd feel
00:40:17
responsible for him being convicted. >> The verdict [music] changes nothing for Paul's mother, Evette.
00:40:28
>> Paul will always be my baby. I'll always be there for him and his oldest family.
00:40:37
>> But for Catherine's parents, John and Donna, the verdict comes as a relief. Although it is no consolation. There's
00:40:44
no happy ending to this. It isn't like [music] anybody really wins. We've lost a daughter and the Cortez
00:40:52
family will have lost a son. >> But loss is no longer what John and Donna Woods want to focus on. They want
00:41:05
to remember how much their daughter Catherine lived in her very short life. >> She was 20 years [music] old,
00:41:14
independent and strong and going after her dream. >> [music] >> With a little luck, she might have made
00:41:25
it. [music] >> [music] [music] [music]