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It's the thing that most people would fear, to be home, asleep in your bed, and have intruders
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come in and do the unthinkable. I felt like a hand being placed on my mouth. I started telling him, please don't kill me, please don't kill me
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An attack in the night I was like really freaking out, I was like, what's going on, what's going on?
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A mother murdered Looked like two ghosts had just committed the ultimate crime He lived to tell police a harrowing story
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Was it true? He's the only one who survived, he's practically unharmed They treat me like a suspect or a witness?
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They are treating me like a suspect. Now, an undercover plan to solve the mystery.
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Are you stepping out of the car right now? Who was the real mastermind? We all stopped breathing for about ten seconds.
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I wanted to be wrong. I really wanted to be wrong. The American Dream. so many of us want it.
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The loving family. The honest job. The home you can afford. The idea that you can start over here.
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And in this new country, that better life will be yours. This is a story about that dream.
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About a family that worked for it. Won it. And then, what happened to them? Now we're in emergency.
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This wasn't part of anyone's dream. How could it happen in this safe, gated community?
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In this home they'd worked so hard to have? And who deserved it less than this woman?
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My mom brought the heart to the family. Ryan Gurgis was the baby of the family, spoiled rotten by his mother, Ariette.
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We couldn't function without my mom. My mom was like the chef in the household, counselor.
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The full-service mom. Oh, yeah, she did it all. Yeah, she was a really, really nice sweet lady.
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She was one of those mothers who showed her love through food. Her cakes were legendary,
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Making every birthday that much more special, says her older son, Richard. She made this really good upside-down pineapple cake.
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It was phenomenal. I always remember cake and ice cream at the birthdays. Growing up, Richard was inseparable from his mom.
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Was she like the other moms that your friends had? No, I think she was a bit more on the conservative side.
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Conservative because of where she came from. Ariette Gurgis was born in Egypt and then came to the US when she was 29 years
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old. Her family settled in Northern California. Ariette led a comfortable all-American life. But cultural ties are strong and in 1980 Ariette was called
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back to Egypt to meet a nice young man named Magdy. When my mom went out there and ended up meeting them she like I mean she really liked them. Years later she
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would reminisce about how their romance blossomed. In Egypt, you really can't just go out like on
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dates and stuff. So they went together to the movie theater. And then when it got real dark,
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my dad reached over and gave her like a kiss in the cheek, which was a very big deal. Yeah,
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for her it was. Yeah, I think that almost sealed the deal. It wasn't the American way of falling
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in love. But Ariat seemed happy. She and Magni married just two weeks later in Egypt and moved
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together to California. In 1981, Richard was born. Five years later came Ryan. Richard was delighted
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to have a brother to play with and to watch over. So you were his protector, big brother? Yeah, I
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always kind of keep an eye on him. I love my brother with all my heart. How'd you and your
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brother get along? Like best friends. I always looked up to him. Their dad was the classic
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hard-working immigrant. Magdy earned his license to become a respiratory therapist,
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then put in endless hours to keep a roof over his family's head and clothes on their backs.
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He came from a really poor country, so for him, it was like to come here, he was like working real hard to try to build things up and try to establish a life.
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Magdy emphasized education, teaching both his sons math at an early age. He strove and saved
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to help them all prosper. And they felt he would do anything to keep his family safe.
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You didn't want your family to get pushed around? Not at all. Not at all. It took many years of hard work, saving, and investing.
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But Magdy finally put together enough money to buy this home in a gated community in the city of Westminster,
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a quiet town in Orange County, California. The Gurgis family was well on its way to living out the dream Magdy and Arriet had worked
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so hard to build. But then on September 29 2004 all of it came crashing down Ryan Gurgis then 17 was out with friends and stayed out later than he was supposed to When did you get home Like 1 to 1 that night I slid the back door open and I went upstairs
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His dad was not at home. His brother at work. His mom asleep. I remember I was fixing up my iPod dock and I fell asleep to music that night.
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Next thing I know, I hear a door open, and first instinct was that maybe it was my brother.
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His older brother, Richard, his best friend and protector coming home. Or so he thought.
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But it wasn't Richard. Kind of look back, and then that's when I felt like a hand being placed on my mouth.
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And it was a hand with some type of cotton glove. Can you see who this is? I noticed it was a black male that was heavyset.
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I was yelling for my brother and my mom to help me, and I was really scared. Ryan says he fought the intruder.
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I bit down on the hand, and I rolled off the bed, and then I popped up, and I was shoved into the wall.
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He was telling me to shut up and calm down. The man put duct tape over Ryan's mouth and started taping his hands and feet together.
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And right after that, a second suspect comes inside and he starts making threats to me like, don't get your mom's killed, don't get your mom's killed.
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Don't get your mom killed. That had to be terrifying to hear. Yeah, yeah, I was really terrified.
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What did you think was going on? I didn't know what was going on. I thought maybe it was like a robbery or something.
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A terrifying situation was about to get much worse. Through the hallway I saw my mom yelling, take anything you want, take anything you want.
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And then after that I just noticed that the guy was taking my mom away, like towards her bedroom.
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Ryan's attacker dragged him into the closet, but then noticed the duct tape was slipping around Ryan's hands.
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I heard him taking some shoestring off of one of my shoes. Using the shoelace, the man tied Ryan's hands behind his back.
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Through the closet door, Ryan pleaded with his attacker. I started telling him, please don't kill me, please don't kill me.
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And I started praying, and during that time, he was like, I know your circumstances.
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I know what you're going through. I'm not going to kill you. I know your circumstances. Strange as those words sounded, Ryan found them somehow comforting.
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And then after that, like, I started feeling a little bit of a sense of relief. But then Ryan heard a sound that would come to haunt him.
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I heard, like, a cutting of a sheet, so I thought he was, like, cutting my sheets up.
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I didn't know, like, what was going on. And what was going on was worse than anything he could have imagined.
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They're like, don't make me have to kill you. I will kill you. A panicked call to 911 and another to his brother.
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I was like really freaking out. I was like, what's going on? What's going on? What really happened inside that house?
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Oh my God. Oh my God. Ryan Gurgis had just been through a terrifying ordeal. Two men breaking into his home in a gated community in the middle of the night.
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Both black guys, and they're really huge to me. And, like, their whole persona just was, like, gangsters and, like, thugs.
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You'd never seen them before? Never, ever. They tied him up, threw him in a closet,
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but not before he saw one of the men drag his mother into her bedroom. He says he thought he heard the men walk out, thought he heard a car drive away.
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But for a few more moments, Ryan sat in that dark closet, heart thumping, afraid, he says, to come out.
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It was now or never. Ryan says he managed to untie himself and grabbed his cell phone.
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I went down the hallway. I looked to the right really quickly. I noticed that the door was in a closed position.
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To your mother's bedroom? To my mother's bedroom. Why didn't you check on her? I wanted to get out of the house as fast as possible and then come back with help.
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You had to be thinking, that's my mom in there. I've got to go see how she is. The whole time I was like, I need to get out of this house and come back with someone
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because I already got overpowered by myself. He ran outside the house and called 911.
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What happened? Two black guys just jumped in my house and they just farted the damn **** out of me.
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They're like, don't make me have to kill you. Don't make me have to kill you. Don't make me have to kill you.
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I will kill you. Don't get your mom killed. Ryan called his dad, Magdy. He was shocked and asked two things.
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If Ryan was okay and where Ariette was. And Ryan didn't know. Ryan also called his older brother, Richard,
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who was working the night shift at the Queen Mary Hotel. What did Richard say when you called him?
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He questioned if I was all right. He questioned where's mom. He also questioned, who do you think it is?
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Is it someone you know, Ryan? Why would Richard think that you might know the people who had broken the house?
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Well, he felt like I was the one that got tied up and things like that, and they came into my room.
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So he just was, like, questioning, like, Ryan, is it something having to do with you?
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Like, what's going on? Did they have a personal vendetta on you or anything? As you'll see, that's a question that would come up again.
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after Ryan call Richard left work and drove to the house but the police tape was already up and they wouldn let him through I was like really freaking out I was like what going on What going on
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And, you know, and I was asking them, I was like, where's my mom at? Where's my mom at?
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Police took Richard and Ryan to the station. The boys were surprised to find themselves split up and sitting in separate interview rooms.
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Ryan's hands were bagged to preserve any evidence. but before detectives could ask too many questions
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Richard asked one of his own Can I put on my mom, please? Before we go on, please
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I deserve that So we have a murder investigation Oh, no, she's not I didn't hear that
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Ryan says he didn't know what was happening right then but he could tell it was bad
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Oh my God. Oh my God. I just hear like a scream. And I'm like, what just happened?
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It sounds like Richard, my brother, and he is screaming to the top of his lungs.
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No, she's not. She's not. You can't see Richard. You can just hear him. I could just hear him in another room and he's going hysterical.
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I've never heard him scream like that in my whole life. Oh my God. Does my little brother know?
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Police soon told Ryan the same awful news, that their mother, Ariette, had been murdered.
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Now the cops started asking questions, and that wasn't all they did. Police took your fingerprints?
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Police took my fingerprints, cotton swabs, DNA, you name it, they did it. They're treating you like a suspect or a witness?
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They are treating me like a suspect at this point. Did you have a chance to check on your mom before you ran the house?
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No, I didn't want to chase after me or anything, so I just ran out of the house.
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I had to pass by my mom's room. You had to pass by your mom's room to get downstairs?
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Yeah, I didn't even look. I just ran as fast as I can. Richard was facing questions that were slightly different, but just as skeptical.
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What I'm asking is, why would someone pick your house and break it down? I don't know, man. I wish I knew.
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I don't know. Cops take your fingerprints? Yeah. And your DNA? Yeah. Did you think to yourself, they're looking at me as a suspect?
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Yeah, it was scary. I've never been in that situation with the police. But the detective's focus seemed to linger on his brother Ryan.
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This wouldn't be like directed against him that you know of. I mean, I don't know, dude.
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I don't know, the first reaction I had when he called me was I was like, man, was it one of your friends that's going to break in or something?
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That was your first reaction? My first reaction was that. As police continued their questioning, one question stood out above all.
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Why would these two thugs come into your house, basically not hurt you, and then really brutally kill your mother
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and leave behind a witness. Yeah. This investigation was about to take a turn that no one expected.
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Looked like two ghosts had just walked in and committed the ultimate crime. DNA and CSI.
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What will the evidence reveal? Ryan Gurgis was attacked in his own home and, hours later, given the worst news imaginable.
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While he had managed to escape, his mom, Ariette, had not. She was dead, all of which begged a pressing question.
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Why would they kill her and leave me? Police and even his own brother were asking the same thing.
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How many murders did you get in Westminster? Not that many, really. Sonia Baeste was a deputy DA in Orange County, California.
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The Ariette Gerges case landed on her desk. It's a nightmare. It's the thing that most people would fear, to be home, the sanctity of your home, asleep in your bed,
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and have intruders come in and do the unthinkable. Police found Ariette's body near her bed.
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She'd been stabbed multiple times. that odd tearing sound Ryan said he heard? Investigators believed it was the sound of the knife
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ripping through the mattress as Ariette's killer slit her throat. Was that knife found at the scene?
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It was not. James Wilson was a patrol officer at the time of the murder. Wilson says the details of the crime scene
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pointed to something other than a home invasion robbery, in part because nothing appeared to have been stolen.
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This was not a burglary in which she was sort of collateral damage. Definitely not.
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Cash was in plain sight. Jewelry, too. Even Ryan's iPod and new dock, all untouched.
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The house wasn't even rummaged through as if they were looking for something. What's more, this was a gated community.
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The killers would have needed a gate code to get in. It just starts getting more interesting as to who could have done it.
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Crime scene investigators collected mounds of evidence. And, surprisingly, with all that blood, not a single trace of unknown DNA.
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All the DNA results matched the people who lived in the house. Ariette, Magdy, Richard, and Ryan, the witness who, for some reason, was left alive.
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Two guys come into the house beat up Ryan tie him up and then kill Ariette in a brutal hands way and leave no trace That what it looked like It looked like two ghosts had just walked in and committed the ultimate crime
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It seemed improbable, and it encouraged detectives to look closely at Ryan. He claimed to be a victim, but was he really?
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Police learned the friend he was with the night of the murder had offered Ryan a knife for protection,
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just hours before Ryan's mother was brutally killed with a knife, a knife that had not been found.
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They also learned Ryan smoked marijuana, and not just at the occasional party. He smoked every day.
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And he wasn't just smoking. I was helping out someone, like, Like selling in like narcotics or something?
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What kind of narcotics? Marijuana. Police found small amounts of marijuana in Ryan's room, along with a bong, baggies, and tinfoil.
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And there was more, like the description Ryan had given detectives about the two suspects.
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Both male blacks. They were large. He said that they acted like they were from a gang.
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but that was something that we still didn't know 100% sure if that was true or not.
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Claiming two black men committed the murder seemed almost too convenient and more troubling.
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If Ryan had been beaten by gang members much bigger than he was, why didn't he look like it?
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There's no question that if Ryan had been in a serious duking it out fight with a couple of guys
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that he would have ended up much more battered than he was. If those guys wanted to hurt them worse than they did, definitely so, yes.
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And remember, Ryan had told police that one suspect said, I know your circumstances. I'm not going to kill you.
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Was that true? And if so, what did it mean? And then there was the issue of Ryan claiming to have left the house
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before he so much as took a peek into his mother's bedroom. Did that strike anybody's eye?
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I think so. As a detective, you have to consider why somebody would do that. Soon, detectives found out Ryan had more dark secrets than they'd realized.
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He's the only one who survived. He's practically unharmed. New questions for Ryan and a new clue.
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Had he received a warning before the attack? He popped up, like, better watch her back. I know where he lived.
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Investigators looking into the savage murder of Ariat Gurgis naturally took a hard look at the only other person known to be in the house when she died,
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her 17-year-old son, Ryan. He's the only one who survived. He's practically unharmed.
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He was selling the small amount of drugs. We had to pursue that. Police still had a lot of questions about Ryan's story,
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but they hadn't yet found any evidence to suggest he killed his mom. For now, at least, they had to take him at his word.
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Until you can find a reason not to believe that person, you kind of have to go with what they have to say unless they start lying to you.
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As far as you knew, Ryan was not lying. As far as I knew, yes. But the investigation was just starting, and police could not discount another possibility,
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that Ariette was killed because of Ryan. Detectives learned that a year before the murder, Ryan had confronted another kid at school
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who hadn't paid him for some weed. Later, that kid's friends jumped Ryan. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would spark a homicide, but I'm guessing you've
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seen homicides that were sparked by a lot less. It is typical for especially gang-related homicides
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to be something just as small as that. Remember, Ryan described his assailants as sounding like
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gang members. And then there was this bombshell, a message Ryan received on his AOL instant messenger
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just weeks before the murder. He brought it to detectives' attention during his interview.
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You better watch your back. I know where you live. This is it. And it's like, I've never even seen this person before.
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That's why they haven't really, like, pay attention to it. You know what I mean?
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Ryan told police he had chalked it up to a prank. Now it seemed like key evidence.
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Except, Ryan had not saved the message. No way to tell now who had sent it. Any idea who was wrong?
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No. AOL able to help you with any of that? No. A frustrating dead end. But by now, police were looking at other possibilities.
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They dug deeper into the American dream the Gurgis family seemed to be living and interviewed the man of the house, Magdy.
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How did you feel about your wife? Sir, I'm really devastated. We lived together for 24 years.
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She's the mother of my kids. He really didn't have any vices. He didn't spend any money on any hobbies of any sort.
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So he was a guy who went to work and went home. But their father wasn't just a hard worker, said his sons.
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He was more like a workaholic. I think my mom felt neglected. He wasn't affectionate towards her.
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It was like all he would do was just work. I played sports, like, all my life, and he never, ever came to watch
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Any sports that I played? A lot of the childhood, a lot of me growing up, I can remember a lot about my mom,
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but I don't remember a lot about my dad. It's not because I don't want to, it's because he just wasn't there.
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He would come, go to sleep, get up, go back to work, come, go to sleep, get up, go to work.
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That was because for Magdy, they said, the American dream was all about the green.
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He was work, work, work. Money, money, money. Exactly. Exactly. After a rare outing to the beach one day, Ryan says he and his father dropped by McDonald's.
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I asked him if I could borrow a dollar so I could grab a 99-cent burger. And not only did he ask for that dollar back, he also asked for the tax money on it.
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What kind of father asks his 13-year-old son to reimburse him for a $1 hamburger?
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My father, he was always trying to hustle someone for some type of money. It didn't take Prosecutor Sonia Baeste long to learn about Magdy's obsession.
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This is the United States. Everybody goes to work. Everybody tries to make money.
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Everybody tries to provide for themselves or their family. He's different? Yes. He's very different.
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He's in a category of very few people who have an unhealthy relationship with money.
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It drives everything that they do. We're not talking about penurious or thrifty.
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No. We're talking about squeezing every dollar until it bleeds. Yes. His sons describe Magdy as not only obsessed with work and money, but also a strict disciplinarian.
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Did you love him? Yeah, I did love him. Were you scared of him? Yeah, from when I was a kid.
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Yeah, I felt like there was a thin line and I didn't want to cross anything. The brothers say they saw what could happen when they crossed that line.
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One night when Ryan was 14 and came home past curfew, they say Magdy simply lost it.
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He threw me on the floor and he started kicking me and my brother had to pull him off of me.
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Your brother kind of shielded you a little bit, didn't he? He did. He did. Sounds like you were closer to your brother than you were to your father.
00:26:13
Very much so. Ryan rebelled, staying out late, smoking weed. Richard was more dutiful, but he too felt his father's wrath.
00:26:25
A punch, a kick, you kind of name it, depending. I would find that the sooner I would cry, the sooner that it would stop.
00:26:33
It's a tough lesson to learn from your dad. Yeah, he was a very harsh person, which made it more fortunate that I had my mom in my life,
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because she was like the complete opposite. As tough as he was on his sons, they say Magdy was just as tough on his wife.
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Ryan and Richard say they never saw their father hit their mother, but they say they heard the yelling, and they did see the bruises.
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We never ever called 911. It was just like we had that sense of fear that we didn't want to cross the line.
00:27:06
You were more afraid of what your dad would do to you if you did call 911 than what might happen to your mom if you didn't?
00:27:13
Yeah, yeah. So the boys stayed quiet, but a storm was brewing. In the end, Ariette would give investigators their best lead.
00:27:28
I really felt like my mom was, like, empowered. A transformation and a confrontation.
00:27:34
There's no going back. And so the life you had before was never going to be the same.
00:27:41
As investigators worked the murder of Ariette Gurgis, they heard disturbing information from her sons.
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Most disturbing by far was what happened seven months before the murder in February 2004,
00:28:07
on the eve of Magdy and Ariette's 24th wedding anniversary. So she starts talking to Magdy.
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Can we go out to dinner? That's what starts this fight. Doesn't sound like it was a very long fight.
00:28:22
No. He punches her in the face. Richard remembers arriving home that evening and seeing his mom.
00:28:31
She looked very subdued. Her face was swollen. her nose was still like bleeding so I went upstairs and I confronted my dad.
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What was his response? He told me to stay out of it. But Richard, in nursing school at the time, worried his mom could have a concussion or worse.
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He rushed her to the emergency room. They had kept their family secret for so long.
00:28:57
But that was about to change. The nurse asked her like what happened. And your mom said?
00:29:03
My mom told her that, you know, he punched me in the face. That started the whole cascade.
00:29:10
Police went to the Gurge's home and arrested Magdy. That was really scary. That was scary? Not thrilling?
00:29:19
It was terrifying. Not the moment you'd been waiting for? No, no, no, no, no. There was no point of return.
00:29:26
Somehow I knew immediately after that that it was like... There's no going back.
00:29:31
There's no going back. And so the life you had before... Was never going to be the same.
00:29:36
A court issued a protective order, and Magdy moved out of the house he'd worked so hard for,
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to an apartment complex he and his brother owned nearby. After more than two decades of marriage, it seemed Magdy and Ariette were headed for divorce.
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It was a thought that seemed to terrify Ariette I think she was scared and had a lot of cold feet About striking out on her own in the world Exactly Arriet was totally dependent on Magdy
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She'd never written a personal check. Didn't even know their mortgage was paid off.
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She would express to me like, you know, I wish all this would just not be here. Or I wish, you know, everything could go back to the way it was.
00:30:19
Magdy, too, seemed frightened. And perhaps chastened. He was definitely trying to get back with my mother.
00:30:26
Did it seem like your mom was wavering at all? Yeah, there was a limbo period where my mom was considering taking him back.
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Richard, who had stepped up during his father's absence as the man of the house,
00:30:41
overheard a strange conversation between his parents. He was like, oh, you know, I love you.
00:30:47
Had you ever heard your dad say I love you to your mom? I can't really recall that.
00:30:53
Until that conversation when he needed something from her. Yeah. What did Magdy need?
00:31:00
It turned out he was more worried about himself than anyone else. A domestic violence conviction might cost him his respiratory therapist license,
00:31:10
which would cut off his income. And Magdy knew a divorce would force him to split his hard-earned money with Ariette.
00:31:19
He had his back to the wall. Yeah. So Magdy came up with a plan, a letter, in which Arriet would say she wasn't sure what happened,
00:31:28
that her injuries could have resulted from a fall. Magdy and Arriet weren't speaking at the time,
00:31:35
so Magdy convinced Richard, the dutiful older son, to transcribe the letter and persuade Arriet to
00:31:42
sign it, thus getting her husband off the hook. Do you feel bad at all trying to get your mom to
00:31:49
change her story of something that you knew she was telling the truth about? Yeah, back then I kind of felt like I was just trying to help.
00:32:00
And maybe the price of saving your family is convincing your mom to lie about something
00:32:06
that you know is true. He really just manipulated me. He knew his mother had mixed feelings about the breakup of her marriage.
00:32:15
Richard told himself he was doing the right thing. I was trying to support my mom. At the same time, I still felt that he was my dad. So I felt really pulled.
00:32:25
Ariette agreed to sign the letter. Magdy, no doubt, breathed a sigh of relief. But then came his preliminary hearing, in which Ariette did something quite unexpected.
00:32:37
She took the witness stand and she told the truth. She felt that enough was enough.
00:32:45
So she went and she really laid everything out. Not just about the night Magdy gave her a black eye and bloodied her nose,
00:32:54
but about abuse Ariette described as stretching over two decades. Did your dad feel betrayed?
00:33:01
My dad was like, I can't believe what she said up there. Ariette Gurgis had finally stood up for herself.
00:33:09
It might have been the manifestation of her own American dream. Ariette hired a divorce attorney and began planning a new life.
00:33:18
I really felt like my mom was, like, empowered. She just wanted to be happy, you know, that she felt like there was happiness, like, coming.
00:33:25
Instead, the next month, she was murdered. And to investigators who heard Ariette's story, it now seemed obvious her husband, Magdy, was the prime suspect.
00:33:36
Everything pointed at Magdy. Except for the fact that phone records proved that Magdy was at his own apartment when Ryan called him that night.
00:33:47
And according to the only witness, two black men committed the murder. And there was still the question of why that witness, Ryan, was left alive.
00:33:58
And just a few days after his mother was killed, the rebellious son, Ryan, received another anonymous message on his computer.
00:34:09
How did you like your gift? LOL. LOL. How did you like your gift? Yeah. An aha moment for police.
00:34:20
A new look at that old interrogation of Ryan. You say you bit this guy? Yeah. He had to take off the glove to put on the tape.
00:34:30
Could it lead to the break they'd need? Investigators were zeroing in on Magdy Gurgis
00:34:49
as the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Arriet. The two had been going through a domestic violence case and were divorcing.
00:34:58
You know, he's an obvious suspect, but that doesn't mean he did it. No matter how noxious he may have been during the marriage,
00:35:04
maybe he's not the guy that you're looking for? Sure. You have to explore every possibility.
00:35:10
Especially after the couple's son, Ryan, received a taunting message on his computer days after the murder.
00:35:18
How did you like your gift? LOL LOL. It didn't make any sense to me. Police looked into it, but just as with the threat Ryan received weeks before the murder,
00:35:30
they weren't able to track down the sender of those messages. In hindsight, you wish some more work had been done on that?
00:35:37
Yes. Older brother Richard also came under scrutiny. Richard had sort of stuck up for, maybe even covered for his father during the domestic violence investigation.
00:35:49
Did you guys think he might be doing that again? Initially they believed it was a possibility yes Soon after the murder the brothers left Westminster and moved to Northern California And they did so without telling Magdy
00:36:06
As police continued to dig, Richard and Ryan say they worried. Whoever killed their mom was still at large and knew Ryan was a witness to the crime.
00:36:17
I have recollections. I have nightmares. I also give chills. I don't like to be at home by myself.
00:36:25
I have trouble sleeping. I mean, the list goes on. Ryan and Richard say they had a growing suspicion their father was responsible for their mother's murder.
00:36:35
They said they were too scared to confront him. But in the months that followed, the investigation seemed to stall.
00:36:43
Seems like you had a lot of leads that kind of hadn't gone anywhere. We had a lot of paths that we went down.
00:36:53
Yes. Remember, there was no physical evidence linking Magdy to the murder. Ryan said it was two black men who'd broken into the house and killed his mom.
00:37:05
Police had never found those men or any trace they ever existed. And those threatening messages to Ryan?
00:37:15
Still no idea who sent them either. Was there a point where you thought maybe this won't ever be solved?
00:37:20
It's hard to think that way when you desperately want to solve it. But yes. And so the years rolled by.
00:37:30
Richard became a critical care nurse. Ryan, the self-admitted stoner, says he stopped smoking.
00:37:37
He was working toward a bachelor's degree in business and had started his own events and entertainment company.
00:37:43
Magdy would have been proud of his boys if he knew how far they'd come. But Richard and Ryan say they never once got a call from him in all those years.
00:37:54
And they made no effort to contact him. The brothers did call the Westminster Police Department again and again,
00:38:02
urging detectives to investigate their father. And each time, they heard the same response.
00:38:09
You know, we're still looking into it, but we don't have any new leads. There's nothing depressing.
00:38:15
It was. They made endless calls, enlisting family and friends to write America's Most Wanted.
00:38:23
And they raised a $55,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspects.
00:38:30
All of it led to nothing. How many other cases you do in those years? A lot of murders.
00:38:37
But something about this one stuck with you. Absolutely. Was there something about Ariadne that made you not want to quit?
00:38:43
You don't ever want to quit on any case. But I think that the fact that she came so close to being an independent woman,
00:38:55
to standing up for herself, to being the kind of mother that she wanted to be to those boys.
00:39:00
And she did everything right. And she died on our watch. It was a terrible feeling.
00:39:07
Terrible feeling. It was 2010, nearly six years after the murder, when Richard made another of his many phone calls to the Westminster PD.
00:39:19
This time it was James Wilson who answered. He'd been a patrol officer at the time of the murder,
00:39:25
but in the intervening years, had worked his way up to detective. I really didn't have very good answers for him.
00:39:32
What's going on with my mom's case? What are you guys doing on my mom's case? and I know there's nothing really going on in his mom's case,
00:39:39
so I just started looking into it. Out of guilt? I think an obligation, really. You know, this is one of the reasons that you become a police officer,
00:39:45
is to help people like that. And as Detective Wilson poured through the mountain of evidence on the case,
00:39:51
he came across that interview detectives had with Ryan right after the murder. Reading through the transcripts, he saw a key detail that no one had noticed.
00:40:03
You say you bit this guy? Yeah. On the hand, was it on the hand or through a glove or...?
00:40:08
I think it was through a glove, but he had to take off the glove to put on the tape.
00:40:14
Ryan was telling detectives the intruder took his gloves off before handling the duct tape
00:40:21
and also the shoelace used to tie him up. You don't have to be detective to think, well, maybe that might have some DNA on it.
00:40:29
Detective Wilson checked to see if the shoelace had ever been tested. It had not.
00:40:36
So he sent it off to the county crime lab. And sure enough, one afternoon, eight years after Ariette's murder,
00:40:45
Detective Wilson's phone rang. Crime lab did call me and told me that they got a hit.
00:40:51
And no one could have predicted the name police were given. It had to be our suspect.
00:40:58
wasn't even in our computer. A whole new suspect. Who was this guy? Did you know where he was?
00:41:05
I knew exactly where he was. It was 2012, eight years after the murder of Ariette Gurgis,
00:41:25
when Detective Wilson got his first solid break. Home Invaders had tied up Ariat's son, Ryan, with a shoelace.
00:41:34
The detective submitted the shoelace to the crime lab, hoping for a long-shot DNA hit.
00:41:41
And now, the results were in. It had to be our suspect, or at least one of our suspects.
00:41:47
And the name the crime lab gives you for the DNA hit is? Anthony Bridget. Was that name in any of the case files?
00:41:54
No. Not someone who had been talked to at any stage in this investigation It wasn even in our computer our in computers has ever been a person that been contacted by the police And yet the DNA proved Anthony Bridget was the attacker who had tied up Ryan
00:42:10
Detective Wilson entered Bridget's information into a computer. So who is he? He's a member of the Trace 57 Crips.
00:42:18
The Crips, one of the most notorious and violent gangs in the U.S. And Mr. Bridget, street name Little Shotgun, was by any standard a professional criminal.
00:42:32
He had numerous violent conduct, including prior conviction for manslaughter. So this was no novice.
00:42:41
Long, violent rap sheet. Absolutely. Bridget also had a drug conviction. And remember, Ryan Gerges admitted he sometimes dealt weed.
00:42:52
Could Ryan and Anthony Bridget have known each other? Is that why Richard immediately wondered if Ryan was the target of the attack?
00:43:01
Police considered that theory and dismissed it. In fact, for police, Anthony Bridget and his gang affiliation confirmed Ryan's story.
00:43:12
For one, Bridget matched Ryan's account that the man who tied him up seemed like a gang member.
00:43:17
It looked like he was one of those guys that just came out of the pen and stuff.
00:43:21
And I just, like, wanted revenge on someone. And two, Bridget's prior booking photos matched the sketch Ryan had given police.
00:43:31
And so investigators developed a different theory about Bridget's involvement. He had the resume that you would expect the intruders who came to kill Arya to have.
00:43:43
The kind of guy you'd hire to commit murder. That's right. and they suspected the person who hired him was Magdy Gurgis.
00:43:53
But of course, there was no proof of any of that. I'm guessing one of the things you did pretty early on was subpoena Magdy's bank records.
00:44:02
Oh, yes. Looking for that big chunk of money that he took out a few days before his wife was killed.
00:44:10
You could hope, but... But it wasn't there. It wasn't there. Well, maybe he's innocent.
00:44:15
Maybe he's just careful. Careful? Perhaps. But in what universe would Magdi Gurgis and Anthony Bridget's paths cross?
00:44:28
One way to find out, they could ask Anthony Bridget. Did you know where he was? I knew exactly where he was.
00:44:37
He was in Soledad State Prison. Prosecutor Balleste and Detective Wilson decided to pay him an unannounced visit.
00:44:45
And there you are in a little room. Yes. A table like this one between you. And you say?
00:44:52
I want to talk to you. And he's a little surprised, right? He's a little surprised, yes.
00:44:58
But Anthony Bridget was hard to rattle. He's been involved in gang-related homicides in the past.
00:45:06
Pretty experienced at the prison system. So saying to him, hey, the guy that hired you, Magdi Gurgis, just rolled over on you, that's not going to work.
00:45:18
Right. This is not a virgin. Exactly. But they did get something. You said to him, I have your DNA in a murder scene.
00:45:27
Yes. And he said, where? He said, where? Not, I haven't committed any murder. Did you ask him whether he knew Magdi?
00:45:35
No. We never got that far. Here's what Bridget didn't know. The prosecutor and the detective didn't really care what he said.
00:45:46
Their target was Magdy Gurgis, and all they wanted was to prove a connection between him and Anthony Bridget.
00:45:54
That's why, before they left Orange County, they'd set up a wiretap on Magdy's phone.
00:46:01
He was back living in the house where his wife was murdered. He even had a new girlfriend.
00:46:06
And now investigators listened to see if Bridget would tip off Magdy. I was hoping that at least my visit would inspire him in some way.
00:46:16
Didn't happen. No, it didn't. So, game over? Are you stepping out of the car right now?
00:46:24
No. It was just starting. A return to the scene of the crime. What's up, man? A dramatic confrontation at Magdy's house.
00:46:36
Check it out, ma'am. I'm home. I'm locked up in the pen right now. Who were these men? And what did they want?
00:46:43
January 30, 2013. The home where Ariad Gurgis had met her awful death was suddenly once again the scene of an unexpected confrontation.
00:47:08
I saw my n*********. Two men showed up on Magdy Gurgis' lawn. Let me holler at you for a few ticks.
00:47:15
Let me holler at you for a second. And it was all caught on camera. Check it out, man.
00:47:22
My homie locked up in the pen right now. Police approached him about him killing your wife or you in this **** house.
00:47:29
Interesting because prosecutors Sonia Baeste and Detective James Wilson had just returned from visiting Crips gang member Anthony Bridget in prison. They suspected Magdy
00:47:40
had hired Bridget and another as yet unknown man to kill Ariette. And now, apparently, here were a
00:47:49
pair of gangsters on Magdy's property. The more talkative of the two called himself D-Money, and money is what he wanted from
00:48:00
Agni. You know what I'm saying? We don't care about what the thing is. We want to get paid for it.
00:48:05
We're not going to say s***, you know what I mean? Good question. And who better to answer it
00:48:11
than D-Money himself? You're a born actor. I believe I am. He's not a gangster. He's an officer
00:48:19
from the Long Beach Police Department who was working undercover, which is why we're concealing
00:48:25
his identity. You a little nervous going in? Not at all, no. The role he played at Magdy's home that day was part of a war game Sonia and Detective
00:48:35
Wilson had set in motion even before they met Anthony Bridget. Tell me about this scheme.
00:48:42
You call it a scheme, I call it a plan. By any name, it was an attempt to trap Magdy.
00:48:50
The only way Anthony Bridget or somebody like him commits a crime like this is some kind
00:48:54
of gain, financial primarily. So you develop that kind of individual and you come up with a way in
00:49:02
which they were able to contact Magdy and demand more money. Let me holler at you for a few ticks.
00:49:08
In other words, these two undercover officers posing as gang members would approach Magdy and
00:49:13
hit him up for some hush money. Since investigators knew that money was Magdy's particular obsession,
00:49:19
they hoped they were about to strike a nerve. But they had to be careful. If the killers were working for Magdy,
00:49:28
it wasn't clear if he knew them directly or hired them through a middleman. So you couldn't have these guys claim
00:49:35
that they were the actual guys in the house? Correct. Because possibly he knew them?
00:49:40
Possibly he knew them. So you have them pose as friends of the guy in the house?
00:49:47
Yes. And he's now in jail. In prison, which is we knew that was true because Anthony Bridget was in prison.
00:49:56
And so his friends are, what, trying to leverage that knowledge into some extra money for them.
00:50:02
Correct. Operations like this are especially tricky. There's usually only one shot to get it right.
00:50:09
If the phony gangsters threatened Magdy, the sting wouldn't hold up in court and Magdy could walk free.
00:50:16
and at the same time, one thing had to be crystal clear. You want to make sure that everybody knows that we're talking about the crime that occurred
00:50:26
about his wife being murdered in that particular house. That couldn't be left ambiguous.
00:50:32
A risky plan and no guarantees it would work. True that a lot of DAs might not go for an operation like that?
00:50:41
Yes. Sonia wanted to win. She wasn't scared to fail. Did you think you were going to fail?
00:50:46
I was very nervous, to say the least. It had taken nine years to get to this moment.
00:50:52
A team of cops watched and videotaped as the undercovers approached Magdy. Are you stepping out of the car right now?
00:50:59
Everyone was on edge, except for the man cast in the role of D-Money. You had to be going over in your mind, like, you know, if he says this, if he does this, I'm going to...
00:51:12
No, things come out spontaneously. Really? You have to be quick. He say A, I say B. He say C, I say D.
00:51:19
You have to have something up there, and there's nothing you can rehearse, nothing you can write down.
00:51:23
Either you can do it or you can't. Still, there was cause for worry. While these officers looked the part, they had never done anything like this before.
00:51:33
Were you worried at all about sort of their acting ability? I was concerned. Too late now.
00:51:39
It was on. A surprise snafu His cell phone dials the number of the undercover And he told me he didn't answer the phone
00:51:51
An undercover officer misses the call And that was just the beginning I think we all stopped breathing for about 10 seconds
00:52:10
Magdy Gurgis didn't know it, but he was the target of a sting operation. He had just arrived home.
00:52:21
The undercover officers approached, and the camera was rolling. Check it out, man.
00:52:26
My homie locked up in the pen right now. Police approached him about him killing your wife or you in this house.
00:52:33
You know what I'm saying? We don't care about it. But the thing is, we want to get paid for it.
00:52:37
We're not going to say, you know what I mean? What's his reaction when you make it clear that you know about his wife's murder?
00:52:45
He appeared to be shot. You can tell it was something that he wasn't prepared for, and he never thought was going to happen.
00:52:51
We want five wrecks, 5,000. You know what I'm saying? We ain't going to say ****.
00:52:55
We ain't going to go to the police. We ain't going to say nothing else. You understand what I'm saying?
00:53:00
All right. Give me a call, man. Take my number. That's me. Call me tomorrow by 10 o'clock.
00:53:07
Don't worry. I'm D-money. Just give me a call tomorrow about 10 o'clock. 5,000. Hit me up tomorrow.
00:53:16
Almost as soon as it began, it was over. Magdy left standing there with D-Money's phone number,
00:53:24
with instructions to call the next day. And in terms of Oscar-winning performances, they did a pretty good job.
00:53:32
I think so. They did a great job. Now, police waited and wondered. What would Magdy do?
00:53:38
If he doesn't call, this all is for nothing. It's a done deal. The case is over.
00:53:42
More than eight years after the murder, here was the make or break moment. He was either going to ignore them,
00:53:50
he was going to contact them, or he was going to call the police and say, guess what I think the guys involved in my wife murder just came to the house Which is what an innocent person would have done Yes But he didn call the police
00:54:05
He did not. And he didn't ignore them. Very true. The next day, the surveillance team tracked Magdy driving.
00:54:13
And just at that time... His cell phone dials the number of the undercover. And I'm notified immediately by the wire room.
00:54:22
and they told me he didn't answer the phone. The undercover officer missed Magdy's call.
00:54:30
So I had to call the undercover. The target of the investigation is trying to reach you.
00:54:36
He was in a bad area for reception, so he had to move. That's like a nightmare. So we were hoping he called back.
00:54:43
The undercover, as usual, was confident. Why were you so convinced he'd call back?
00:54:50
Because if he called the first time, To me, in this type of deal, when you call the first time, you know, you're over the nervousness and they're going to call back.
00:54:58
And Magdy did call back. The surveillance team caught him on camera, this time from a place that doesn't get a lot of traffic in the 21st century.
00:55:07
We know he's at a pay phone. That got really interesting for me right there. I'm sitting in the car and the cell phone went on.
00:55:13
We let it ring a few times and answered the phone, you know. This is D-Money. What's going on?
00:55:18
You stopped by yesterday. Yeah, I came by yesterday, man. What's that? Problem is, my boy's locked down in the team like I told you yesterday.
00:55:32
We know what's going on. You know, my boy, you know, took care of a little business, you know.
00:55:38
So, you know, we're just trying to get paid just to keep it hush. You know what I mean?
00:55:45
And once he told me, hey, I thought I paid you guys everything, home run. You know, it's one of those feelings where you've known this all along, and then you actually hear it from him.
00:55:57
And so I think it was an overwhelming feeling of confirmation. And then, just as quickly, it all threatened to blow up in their faces.
00:56:11
Listen carefully. Who was the middleman? What? Who was the middleman? Middleman?
00:56:19
The undercover had no idea. Magdy had just asked a question that none of the investigators could answer.
00:56:27
When Magdy says, tell me who the middleman is so I know I can trust you, that was something the undercover officers, I think, weren't ready for.
00:56:34
No, I think we all stopped breathing for about 10 seconds. Investigators had considered the possibility that Magdy might have hired the killers through some third party.
00:56:44
And now this conversation seemed like confirmation that he had. But who was it? It seems to me that the middle man for this
00:56:53
would have to be somebody that Magdi really trusted. Somebody he knew well. He would have had to trust this person, yes.
00:57:03
Somebody who would stick up for him. Yes. Any thoughts on who that might be? I do.
00:57:10
I do. There was no way to tell the undercover that. So D-Money just stayed in character.
00:57:17
I don't, you know, everybody knows who the middle man was. I ain't worried about that.
00:57:24
People talking, people, because the information that I got, player, I can go to the police,
00:57:32
but I'm not. I'm just trying to get my money so I can go. So the conversation about hush money continued.
00:57:41
Magdy, true to form, haggled over the price. $5,000 ain't that much, man. It just goes to show the true character of this man.
00:57:57
I mean, here's a guy who will negotiate with thugs 10 years later because he feels like he already paid.
00:58:08
I mean, it's just, that's what I mean. He's not in the normal range of thrifty. What's that?
00:58:17
I have a name. Police probably had enough to arrest Magdy right then and there. But they waited.
00:58:25
Now you want to do the actual exchange of money. Got to get the money. That meant a second meeting.
00:58:31
But would Magdy even show up? And if he did, would he come with a plan of his own?
00:58:40
Nerve-wracking. And nail-biting. One more hidden camera moment. Sam, would you bring me a check?
00:58:47
No. Magdy Gurgis had just been caught on tape, apparently admitting to hiring thugs to kill his wife.
00:59:08
I thought you got... You got to do it, you got to do it. He seemed willing to pay even more to keep things quiet
00:59:14
and made a date to do it. I'm on me 1,500. What's that? 1,300 I have on me. The next day, officers secretly trailed Magdy leaving his home,
00:59:27
driving on the freeway, and pulling into this Home Depot parking lot, the meeting point chosen by Magdy.
00:59:35
Everybody's out of sight, except everybody's out of sight, plainclothes, unmarked vehicles, except us, the two of us.
00:59:42
I'm no police officer, but this is starting to sound like fun. Yeah, it's definitely fun.
00:59:46
It's a rush. it's I'll do it all over again. Prosecutor Sonia Baeste was nearby watching it all unfold Tell me what that was like Nerve It exhilarating Could you see Magdi Not at first
01:00:05
But soon enough, he came into view. The undercovers approached his car. What's up, my n****?
01:00:12
What's going on? What's up? Did you bring me a check? No. Cash. It's 15? Yes. So I took the envelope, basically snatched it from him, and counted the money right there,
01:00:23
and put it in the envelope. It was what, $15, $100 bills? $15, $100 bills. $15, $100.
01:00:29
It's going to be over. You ain't going to see us no more, man. All right, my friend.
01:00:33
Yeah, everything good? This? So this was not some sort of frightened little mouse who was doing what he was told by you guys.
01:00:41
This was a guy who was poised and kind of in control of the situation. Oh, yeah. I'm going to get it done, and this is going to be it.
01:00:48
And it'll be over. But before it was, the undercover dropped one more line to see if Magdy would bite.
01:00:57
What the f*** did your wife do so motherf***ing bad to you to make you want to kill her ass?
01:01:01
Jesus. He didn't take the bait. He almost did. Magdy probably thought he was home free.
01:01:10
But as he drove away, officers swarmed in. You arrest him, and you guys are all feeling like Wyatt Earp.
01:01:17
We're feeling pretty good, yes. Very good, actually. Ryan Gurgis, of course, had no idea any of this was happening.
01:01:27
He had moved back to Southern California and was completely unprepared for the call he received from Detective Wilson.
01:01:34
You come to the station, the cops bring you in, and they say... Your father has been arrested, and I couldn't be more happier.
01:01:43
I really felt like my dreams and my prayers have been answered. Richard, once their dad's loyal and trusted confidant, was not as thrilled.
01:01:55
I was happy that the arrest was made, but then on the other end of it, I mean, I was sad in a way, too, because even though I knew in my heart he had something to do with it.
01:02:07
It's still your dad. It's still my dad, and I always had some deeply wedged fantasy that maybe one day the cops would arrest someone else completely and end up actually telling us, like, you know what, your dad ended up not having anything to do with it.
01:02:25
You wanted to be wrong. I wanted to be wrong on that. I really wanted to be wrong.
01:02:30
Have a seat over there for me, Magdy. Sure. Detective Wilson. Hi. Detective Wilson brought Magdy to the station and sat him down in the interview room.
01:02:41
His tactic was an old one in small rooms like this. Play dumb and see where Magdy took him.
01:02:48
Basically what I need to know is what was going on in Long Beach there by the Home Depot Center.
01:02:54
Looks like there was a money transaction there or something going on. Can you explain that?
01:02:58
Two days ago, on Wednesday, around the 12th century, I was coming from Costco. I find two guys approaching me. I never saw them in my life.
01:03:17
They are black guys. This is the two. But his account differed in key ways from what Detective Wilson already had on tape.
01:03:26
I stand when they told me, your lady gets killed in this house, and you have to pay us five grand.
01:03:37
Otherwise, we're going to hurt you and hurt your kids. That's lie number one. There are no threats on the tape.
01:03:46
Well, how did you get to be with them today? Yeah, they throw telephone numbers on the lawn.
01:03:54
Like on a piece of paper? It's a small piece of paper. It's a long one. Hit me up tomorrow.
01:04:01
Lie number two. The tape clearly shows Magdy taking the number. Then Detective Wilson asked Magdy the million-dollar question.
01:04:11
Why didn't you call us? You had a phone number. I was afraid about my kids and myself.
01:04:16
Are you scared of the police? Is that why? I mean, I don't know. It's not this case, but my wife's problem is not solved yet.
01:04:24
And Zikun said that the husband is a suspect. Those tears had no effect on Wilson, who now had Magdy on tape paying hush money.
01:04:37
And we know you pay them. Okay? Yes. Wilson bored in. I'm here to find out one thing.
01:04:45
What kind of person are you? Because right now, we don't know. Is Magdy the type of guy that's a hard, cold, calculated murderer that paid someone to kill his wife?
01:04:57
What kind of person are you? I'm just an innocent person. Just a simple person, believe me.
01:05:03
Magdy pleaded for sympathy. Detective Wilson was not sympathetic. I lost my wife.
01:05:09
But it's your fault. You hired somebody. I don't hire anybody. We recorded it. They recorded their conversations with these guys. I'm not lying.
01:05:18
I'm not lying. Let me tell you what they said. Talk like that. No, you guys are going to trap me and stuff.
01:05:26
No, no. Magdy had said the magic word, lawyer. He was done talking. There would be no confession.
01:05:34
You didn't expect that he was going to admit it. No, the lies were good enough for me.
01:05:38
Good enough to make the case. But Wilson thought he'd try one more time to crack Magdy.
01:05:44
This time, by making him face his own son. Ryan wasn't so sure at first. I called my brother as I normally do as a younger one,
01:05:55
and I told him what do you think He was like do you feel like you want to talk to him I was like yeah I want some questions answered So he walked into that little room and saw his father
01:06:06
for the first time in more than eight years. What's wrong with you? You forgot that?
01:06:15
You don't even look to Sam. And Ryan had a lot to say. You had a choice not to hurt me and Richard.
01:06:23
You had a choice not to hurt your wife. Why did you do that? I didn't hurt anybody.
01:06:28
What are you talking about? You didn't hurt us. Look at me right now. I'm looking at you.
01:06:33
I'm looking at you. I can't believe you, man. My son. Don't call me your son. I don't want to hear that.
01:06:42
You're a horrible person for what you do. I just want to let you know that you're a horrible person.
01:06:47
I didn't do anything. Yes, you did. I did not. Was it hard to tell your dad that you thought he was involved in your mom's murder?
01:06:55
Yeah, it was definitely very, very hard. It's hard for you to talk about it now.
01:07:00
Yes, it is. It is. And the person I had nightmares over was right in front of me, and I was scared.
01:07:10
And soon, Ryan would face his father again, this time in court. The killing of Harriet Gerges was because she interrupted a robbery or a drug transaction between Ryan and these two suspects.
01:07:29
A father-son showdown. But exactly who's on trial? The evidence suggests that he was involved with people that were dealing hardcore drugs.
01:07:46
March 2014. Magdy Gurgis had been sitting in jail for about a year after an undercover sting led to his arrest
01:08:00
for the murder of his wife, Ariette. It was a case prosecutor Sonia Baeste couldn't wait to try.
01:08:09
Nearly a decade in the making, and as it turned out, it would be her last. Sonia had been promoted to management.
01:08:17
It's my swan song, yes. So you wanted to go out with a win. Prosecutors don't like to lose.
01:08:23
Yeah, I've noticed that. Despite what you've seen, the case still wasn't a slam dunk.
01:08:30
There was no proof Magny knew the alleged killer, Anthony Bridget. No evidence he'd paid Bridget any money.
01:08:37
And while detectives had their suspicions about the involvement of a middleman, they still couldn't prove it.
01:08:42
And, as you'll see, even that undercover tape could be seen through a different lens.
01:08:51
On the eve of the trial, Richard and Ryan got ready for the big day. Their suits were pressed.
01:08:59
They reviewed their prior statements. And they weighed the consequences of what this moment meant.
01:09:06
I'm happy that we will get closure, but then it's just sad. It's like we lost our mom, and then in the same light, it's like we lost our dad, too.
01:09:14
Their only surviving parent, the one they'd lived in fear of for years, would be the one they had to face in court.
01:09:22
Part of me is scared of him, but also part of me wants to stand up and let my voice be heard after all these years.
01:09:29
So I want to be strong. And so the brothers walked into court together that first day of opening statements,
01:09:36
standing strong, united in their quest for justice for their mom. Magdy Gerges conspired to have his wife murdered.
01:09:46
She was an inconvenient woman to him. And people are disposable to this defendant.
01:09:53
Our cameras were not allowed to record witness testimony inside the courtroom where Sonia Baeste stacked up her evidence against Magdy.
01:10:03
She showed the jury how, in the months leading up to the murder, Magdy slowly drained his joint accounts with Ariette,
01:10:11
leaving her with almost nothing. And, Sonia said, the crime scene evidence showed
01:10:17
this wasn't just some random murder. It was about silencing somebody who defied him.
01:10:24
But then, on the witness stand, Richard, who had once helped his father persuade Ariette to back off her story,
01:10:31
now defied Magdy just as Ariette had done. Richard testified about the abuse his mom had suffered at his father's hands.
01:10:41
He testified about coming home and finding his mother battered and bruised. Richard recounted the story to the jury,
01:10:49
but it seemed he was really speaking to his father. We caught up with Richard after court.
01:10:55
It was really a good experience for me just to be able to actually finally face him face to face
01:10:59
and be able to look him in the eyes and actually, like, be able to confront him for what he's done.
01:11:04
But Magdy faced an even tougher confrontation from the words of his now-dead wife.
01:11:11
Ariat's testimony from the preliminary hearing in the domestic violence case had been saved,
01:11:16
and now the prosecution read it into the court record. How important was Ariat's testimony from the previous case?
01:11:26
It was huge. It was as if for an afternoon she just came back to life and took the stand.
01:11:35
Ryan would need to channel that same strength of his mother's for what came next.
01:11:41
He took the stand with Magdy just feet away, a father's eyes bored into his son.
01:11:48
I really felt like if he had me one-on-one, he would beat me down. He just wanted anything to get me to shut up.
01:12:00
This time, Ryan refused to keep quiet, telling the jury and his father about that terrible September night
01:12:07
when two men broke into his home, beat him up, and repeatedly stabbed his mother in the next room.
01:12:15
Then Ryan faced cross-examination, and defense attorney Rudy Lowenstein had already told the jury
01:12:21
that he planned to put Ryan on trial. The killing of Ariat Gerges was because she interrupted a robbery or a drug transaction or a collection of a debt of some kind between Ryan and these two suspects.
01:12:40
The defense argument, Ariat's murder was tied directly to Ryan's criminal activity.
01:12:47
I think that the evidence suggests that he was involved with people that were dealing hardcore drugs.
01:12:54
Ryan admitted that he smoked and sold weed. But Lowenstein told the jury Ryan was doing much more than that.
01:13:01
He pointed to the drug paraphernalia police found in Ryan's room, tinfoil, and what Lowenstein said was a pipe with white residue,
01:13:11
which he said was consistent with heroin and methamphetamine use, evidence that police had failed to test.
01:13:18
The defense said it showed Ryan's drug dealing was bigger than he'd let on. Then the defense directed jurors to those threats Ryan had received on his computer just weeks before the murder.
01:13:31
You better watch your back. I know where you live. And the taunting message that came after the murder.
01:13:39
How did you like your gift? LOL, LOL. Did anybody follow up? Not really. No. They just said, oh, well, we know who did it.
01:13:47
Magdy did it. They focused on Magdy. They never left Magdy. Could the threats be the reason Ryan's friend offered him a knife?
01:13:56
The fact that he was offered a knife for his protection by his drug-dealing friend
01:14:03
just minutes or, at the latest, hours before the murder of his mother by someone using a knife
01:14:11
suggests to me that there was some reason for him to be afraid for his own safety in his own home.
01:14:18
The defense also attacked Ryan's credibility. Remember what Ryan told us, that one of the intruders said,
01:14:26
I know your circumstances. I know what you're going through. I'm not going to kill you.
01:14:29
It turns out Ryan did not tell that to the 911 operator. Why? The defense argued because those words were never spoken
01:14:39
and said Ryan made them up later to deflect suspicion from himself and his drug connections.
01:14:47
One thing was irrefutable and hard to explain, the defense told the jury. Ryan did not check on Ariette before he fled the house.
01:14:56
How does a young man whose mother has come to save him not look in and check to see whether or not he could save his mother before running out of the house What does that say about his character After two days of brutal cross Ryan says he felt dejected and betrayed
01:15:17
I feel like I'm getting backstabbed by my own father, that he's claiming that his son
01:15:21
is such a troubled dude. Take my number. Of course, the defense also had a huge problem.
01:15:27
Those videotapes of Maggie taking the phone number from the undercover. Get me up tomorrow.
01:15:34
Calling them the next day. I thought you got paid over the table. And then showing up with $1,500.
01:15:43
All of it made Magdi look very, very guilty. I would like him to get up there on the stand and try to explain what he meant when he said I already paid everything off.
01:15:55
It turns out the defense did have an explanation, and documents too, which might prove Magdy's innocence.
01:16:06
Would that undercover tape convict him or clear him? A defense surprise. He's playing along with them in order to be able to apprehend them.
01:16:17
And the verdict. Would that be a surprise too? This is it. I didn't want to let those boys down.
01:16:25
In spite of the damning testimony against Magdy by his own sons, defense attorney Rudy Lowenstein tried to show jurors
01:16:45
Magdy did everything to provide a better life for them and his wife, Ariette. His life was dedicated to his family and to making the American dream work for him.
01:16:57
He was an immigrant who came with nothing and made something of himself. Magdy had his flaws and he had done some bad things, the defense said, but he did not have Ariad killed.
01:17:08
But then, what to make of those undercover tapes and Magdy's apparent admission?
01:17:14
I thought you'd got three different things. Would Magdy take the stand to explain what he meant on those tapes?
01:17:23
No. Apparently, he felt he'd done enough talking. Instead, the defense attorney showed the jury evidence which he said proved Magdy was not guilty.
01:17:34
Magdy had written down the serial numbers of the $1,500 bills he had given the undercover officers.
01:17:41
and he tried to write down the license plate number of their vehicle, which, said the defense, cast that undercover video in a whole new light.
01:17:51
He's playing along with them in order to be able to apprehend them. And so when he says to them, just tell me the name of the middleman so I know I can trust you,
01:18:00
he's bluffing. He doesn't really know the name of the middleman. He's just trying to get that information out of them.
01:18:04
Absolutely. Loewenstein said the only thing Magdy was guilty of was trying to play detective Remember he been a suspect for 10 years The police have never left their vision of him as being the suspect And because of that he got to essentially solve the case on his own
01:18:24
What would the jury think? On the day of closing arguments, Richard and Ryan walked to court together.
01:18:31
They had brought something for prosecutor Sonia Baeste, a religious tile belonging to Ariette.
01:18:39
Sonia wanted me to bring an item from our mom and stuff to have right there that she could hold on to.
01:18:45
They learned the evidence-driven prosecutor had a superstitious side. She wanted to have something of Ariette's to touch during her last closing argument,
01:18:55
to channel Ariette's spirit and courage. She took the witness stand in a preliminary hearing and faced evil.
01:19:03
and for the first time in her life, stood up to him. She knew exactly what he would do to her for it.
01:19:15
He's done some bad things in his life, but he didn't hire anybody to murder Ariat Gerges.
01:19:27
He's innocent. There was nothing left to do now but wait. After nearly a decade, these final moments were perhaps the most excruciating.
01:19:38
I mean, this has been... There's a lot of anxiety built up right now. I'm just wondering when the verdict's going to come in this.
01:19:45
I mean, it's going to be like any moment. Sonia, already at her new job, waited for the phone to ring.
01:19:53
She had played the waiting game numerous times. It wasn't any easier this last time.
01:19:59
I didn't want to let those boys down. So, yes, I was probably a little bit more nervous than usual.
01:20:07
It was definitely agonizing. Every time we heard a ring or a buzzer, it really got us like, okay, did they get a verdict?
01:20:16
After two days, they finally heard it. Three buzzes. The jury had reached a verdict.
01:20:24
Were you worried there was going to be a not guilty verdict? The only thing that had worried me was all it takes is one person to not see things the way that everyone else sees it.
01:20:36
You'd never know what a jury's going to do? Never know what a jury's going to do.
01:20:40
All right, counsel, I'm going to bring the jury up. And when they filed back into the crowded courtroom, Ryan didn't look at his dad.
01:20:47
Instead, he held on to his brother. I was just embracing the moment that this is it.
01:20:56
This is all riding on this. We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant,
01:21:01
magnify Skirgis, guilty of the crime of felony, conspiracy to commit a murder. Oh, it hit us.
01:21:09
It's what we've been waiting for for nine and a half years. In the gallery, the brothers cried.
01:21:15
And as the hearing continued Richard sobs grew louder and louder until he couldn contain himself any longer I couldn hold myself back I was trying not to like say anything but it just was pouring out
01:21:31
I told him in Arabic, I was like, why, Dad, why? Why? Why, Dad, why? Like, I just, I still can't fathom the reason of why he would do such a thing,
01:21:41
why he would throw away our family, why he would throw everything away. What was Magdi trying to tell his son?
01:21:50
We'll never know. Magdi's thoughts at his sentencing were somewhat clearer. I have nothing to do with the killing of my wife.
01:22:00
I did to my best ability to work hard, secure future, and advise my kids not to get involved with all this gang activity or anything.
01:22:13
I'm not a bad father. Maybe I'm strict. But I love them. They're my kids. Magdy Gurgis was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
01:22:31
If Magdy had not taken the bait, if he'd gotten the phone number from your two undercover officers and thrown it away and just said,
01:22:39
I don't know who you are, I don't know what you're talking about, and if you call me again, I'm going to call the police, would he be in custody today?
01:22:46
Probably not. So he ended up giving you your whole case? His greed gave me my whole case.
01:22:57
Magdy Gerges had worked tirelessly to build the dream, and then, by his own hand, destroyed it.
01:23:05
Well, perhaps not all of it. These two brothers may have lost both their parents,
01:23:12
but they still had each other. That's my little bro. Hitman Anthony Bridget was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison.
01:23:25
The second intruder has never been identified. And despite investigators' suspicions, neither has the mysterious middleman.
01:23:34
You never found out who that was? Not yet. Been 10 years. That's true. Took me nine to get MagD.
01:23:41
You have to be patient in this line of work. There's still a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the remaining suspects.
01:23:50
Richard and Ryan hope someone will come forward. In the meantime, they're keeping their heads down and working hard,
01:23:57
just as their father always taught them to do. But they will do some things differently.
01:24:04
You picture yourself as a dad someday? I do. What kind of dad are you going to be?
01:24:10
I'm going to be the opposite of my father. I'm going to be there when my kids need me.
01:24:17
And that's the beauty of the American dream. There's always a new beginning, no matter where you came from.