00:00:06
a man died in his home after a long
00:00:09
history of heart disease it was assumed
00:00:11
that this was the cause of his death
00:00:14
a few weeks after the funeral rumors
00:00:17
surfaced that the death was no accident
00:00:22
when the body was exhumed scientists
00:00:25
needed to know whether the dead
00:00:27
could tell tales
00:00:31
[Music]
00:00:56
oh a january night in 1990 a woman
00:01:00
called for an ambulance saying her
00:01:02
boyfriend was unconscious and barely
00:01:04
breathing
00:01:06
emergency personnel were at the home in
00:01:08
westport massachusetts within minutes we
00:01:12
arrived on scene went into the house
00:01:14
we found a male
00:01:17
sitting in chair he was just kind of
00:01:19
slumped forward unresponsive
00:01:23
the man's girlfriend said he had a long
00:01:25
history of heart trouble
00:01:27
as soon as i took his robe apart i saw
00:01:30
that he had a scar from a past cardiac
00:01:32
surgery
00:01:34
which he indicated that he had a bypass
00:01:36
surgery at some point in time
00:01:38
and
00:01:39
we began cpr
00:01:42
but the cpr brought no response
00:01:46
61 year old richard alfredo was
00:01:48
pronounced dead an hour later at a
00:01:51
nearby hospital
00:01:53
because of his heart disease the local
00:01:56
medical examiner decided not to perform
00:01:58
an autopsy
00:02:00
mr alfredo had a long history of severe
00:02:04
heart disease which necessitated a
00:02:08
surgical correction of his block
00:02:12
coronary arteries in the heart a
00:02:14
coronary bypass procedure
00:02:17
so at the time of his death he had every
00:02:19
reason to die from his heart disease
00:02:25
richard alfredo was buried four days
00:02:27
after his death
00:02:29
all of his assets worth about twenty
00:02:31
five thousand dollars went to his
00:02:33
estranged wife and children
00:02:36
alfredo's girlfriend 39 year old
00:02:39
christina martin continued to live in
00:02:41
the house the couple shared along with
00:02:43
her two children from a previous
00:02:45
marriage
00:02:47
nothing seemed out of the ordinary
00:02:50
until
00:02:51
westport police officer mike roussell
00:02:53
started hearing rumors
00:02:56
we heard rumors that mr alfredo's death
00:02:59
was due to poisoning
00:03:01
and this was just facts that we couldn't
00:03:04
prove at that time was just information
00:03:05
and as a police department we had the
00:03:08
obligation to start looking into this
00:03:10
the rumors emanated from some students
00:03:12
at a nearby high school
00:03:15
richard alfredo's girlfriend christina
00:03:17
martin had a 14 year old daughter tisha
00:03:20
who attended westport high school
00:03:23
tisha allegedly told school friends that
00:03:25
alfredo had made sexual advances towards
00:03:28
her on numerous occasions
00:03:31
and she admitted
00:03:33
that she and her mother were angry about
00:03:35
it
00:03:36
the teenagers were telling us miss
00:03:38
martin was trying to locate
00:03:40
anything that would take the life of mr
00:03:42
alfredo
00:03:44
investigators now wondered whether they
00:03:47
made a mistake burying the body without
00:03:50
an autopsy
00:03:52
[Music]
00:03:57
four weeks after richard alfredo's death
00:04:00
rumors circulated that his death was no
00:04:03
accident
00:04:04
the daughter of alfredo's girlfriend
00:04:06
tasha allegedly told friends that
00:04:09
alfredo had made sexual advances towards
00:04:12
her
00:04:13
[Music]
00:04:15
and she also said that her mother put
00:04:17
the drug lsd in alfredo's gelatin
00:04:20
dessert
00:04:21
in an effort to kill him
00:04:24
they made the jello they made it two
00:04:26
separate dishes
00:04:27
they ate jello but his dish was kept to
00:04:29
the side
00:04:30
at that time they fed him the jello and
00:04:31
then they went out of the house and they
00:04:33
came back and
00:04:34
he was basically dead at that time they
00:04:36
called rescue and he was transported to
00:04:38
saint luke's hospital where he's
00:04:39
pronounced dead
00:04:43
is a powerful hallucinogen known on the
00:04:45
street as acid
00:04:48
a dose or hit
00:04:50
usually comes in tablets or in liquids
00:04:53
soaked into paper
00:04:54
a single drop can cause hallucinations
00:04:57
for six to ten hours
00:05:00
we've been told by people that have
00:05:01
taken lsd it's you're seeing all kinds
00:05:04
of different things uh animals running
00:05:07
across the room at you
00:05:08
things crawling up the wall
00:05:10
things crawling on you so you know it
00:05:13
would have put him in a position where
00:05:15
he had no idea what was going on
00:05:19
and lsd can also cause a rapid increase
00:05:22
in heart rate
00:05:32
a local drug dealer admitted selling 30
00:05:34
doses of lsd to a small group which
00:05:37
included alfredo's girlfriend christina
00:05:41
and her daughter tisha
00:05:44
[Music]
00:05:47
they identified miss martin is sitting
00:05:48
in the vehicle and they brought the
00:05:50
drugs to her and they left the area at
00:05:52
that time
00:05:54
during police questioning christina
00:05:56
denied buying lsd or giving richard
00:05:58
alfredo any harmful substances
00:06:02
miss martin was trying to locate
00:06:04
anything that would um
00:06:07
take the life of mr alfredo um no matter
00:06:10
whether it was some type of a medication
00:06:12
or pills or um
00:06:14
she even tried to get some of the
00:06:16
teenagers to if he would they would take
00:06:17
him out with a weapon being uh she was
00:06:20
going to provide the gun for them which
00:06:21
was mr alfredo's guns
00:06:24
to see if lsd had caused alfredo's death
00:06:28
the medical examiner exhumed his body
00:06:31
six weeks after the funeral
00:06:34
in a living person
00:06:36
lsd leaves the body within 36 hours of
00:06:39
use
00:06:40
but in a dead person the drug can stay
00:06:44
indefinitely
00:06:45
although the embalming process can
00:06:47
complicate matters
00:06:50
the process of embalming
00:06:52
is such that all the blood in the body
00:06:55
is removed
00:06:56
and replaced with embalming fluid a
00:06:59
preservative
00:07:01
so that
00:07:02
any attempt at trying to find poisons is
00:07:06
hampered because there is no blood left
00:07:08
in the body
00:07:10
but they found some other tissue samples
00:07:13
to test
00:07:15
there was some urine
00:07:17
there was some intestinal contents
00:07:20
there were some stomach contents
00:07:23
the samples were sent to two different
00:07:25
labs for testing the state crime lab and
00:07:28
another private laboratory
00:07:30
[Music]
00:07:32
dr louis amoruso performed the testing
00:07:35
at the private lab and used what is
00:07:37
called a radio immunoassay test or ria
00:07:43
it's similar to the test used at
00:07:45
sporting events to screen athletes for
00:07:47
the presence of performance-enhancing
00:07:50
drugs
00:07:50
[Music]
00:07:52
dr amoruso took a sample of lsd then
00:07:57
mixed it with a radioactive compound
00:08:00
then
00:08:01
added samples from alfredo's body
00:08:05
if lsd were present in alfredo's body
00:08:08
he would have formed antibodies to fight
00:08:10
it
00:08:12
those antibodies will bind to the
00:08:14
radioactive lsd sample producing a
00:08:17
positive result
00:08:19
both the private lab and the police lab
00:08:22
found two drugs present in alfredo's
00:08:25
system
00:08:26
one was diphenhydramine
00:08:29
a common over-the-counter cold
00:08:31
medication
00:08:33
the other
00:08:34
was lsd
00:08:36
the more important compound as far as we
00:08:38
were concerned was lsd because there are
00:08:40
no prescriptions for lsd and that would
00:08:42
indicate something that would
00:08:44
not be found except under illicit
00:08:46
conditions
00:08:47
lsd causes the heart to beat more
00:08:51
vigorously the
00:08:53
stresses
00:08:54
placed on the very diseased heart
00:08:59
caused
00:09:00
a fatal heart attack
00:09:03
thereby the cause of death heart disease
00:09:06
and lsd poisoning
00:09:09
richard alfredo's death was no longer
00:09:11
considered an accident
00:09:13
it was now murder
00:09:15
a heart attack brought on by acute lsd
00:09:19
intoxication
00:09:21
when police went to arrest christina
00:09:23
martin and her daughter tasha
00:09:26
they found that they had both fled the
00:09:28
country
00:09:30
miss martin leaving town led us to
00:09:32
believe that she definitely had some
00:09:33
involvement in his death
00:09:35
that's what made us look even more
00:09:37
closely to her even though we were on
00:09:38
that track anyway
00:09:40
telephone records indicated they fled to
00:09:42
montreal
00:09:44
where they were apprehended
00:09:47
christina martin was charged with first
00:09:50
degree murder
00:09:51
no charges were filed against her
00:09:53
daughter tisha
00:09:55
at the trial
00:09:57
prosecutors presented the toxicological
00:09:59
evidence of lsd in richard alfredo's
00:10:02
system and a drug dealer testified that
00:10:06
christina was present when he sold lsd
00:10:09
to tisha's high school friends
00:10:11
[Music]
00:10:13
that was all the prosecution needed
00:10:16
christina martin was convicted of
00:10:19
first-degree murder and sentenced to
00:10:21
life in prison
00:10:23
and that's where the case stood
00:10:26
for seven long years
00:10:30
that is
00:10:31
until it came up for a routine appeal
00:10:34
where christina's lawyer found something
00:10:36
in the case file
00:10:38
he wasn't supposed to see
00:10:44
[Music]
00:10:46
christina martin had served seven years
00:10:49
in prison for the murder of her
00:10:50
boyfriend richard alfredo before her
00:10:53
case came up for a routine appeal
00:10:57
christina's new lawyer was a public
00:10:59
defender kevin mahoney
00:11:04
his first task was to go to the
00:11:06
courthouse to pick up the case file
00:11:09
while i was standing at the counter
00:11:10
waiting for the evidence to be brought
00:11:12
to me by the clerk
00:11:13
i struck up a conversation with the
00:11:14
gentleman next to me wound up being an
00:11:16
assistant d.a
00:11:18
he turns to me and he says council
00:11:20
you're representing miss martin i said
00:11:21
yes
00:11:23
the assistant d.a told mahoney to look
00:11:25
very closely at richard alfredo's
00:11:28
official cause of death
00:11:30
well i was stunned that a prosecutor
00:11:33
would make such an admission to me i
00:11:35
definitely took it as a red flag and
00:11:37
this is something i should follow
00:11:38
through with
00:11:42
this was the first murder case mahoney
00:11:45
ever handled
00:11:46
and he read every page of transcript of
00:11:49
christina's first trial paying
00:11:52
particular attention to anything related
00:11:54
to how richard alfredo had died
00:11:59
[Music]
00:12:03
the transcripts were so fascinating i
00:12:04
couldn't put it down it was like a great
00:12:06
novel at first blush it seemed that the
00:12:08
evidence was overwhelming because these
00:12:10
toxicologists these chemists are getting
00:12:12
in there and they're testifying that
00:12:13
there's massive amounts of lsd jesus
00:12:15
that didn't sound good
00:12:18
but then
00:12:20
he came across this document
00:12:23
richard alfredo's death certificate
00:12:25
stating the cause of death as
00:12:28
acute lsd intoxication
00:12:32
mahoney made a telephone call to dr
00:12:35
david benjamin a highly respected
00:12:37
clinical pharmacologist
00:12:40
there had never been a case reported
00:12:43
where a person had died from the direct
00:12:45
effects of lsd so right away that
00:12:48
allegation
00:12:49
was inconsistent with a whole body of
00:12:51
scientific information dating back to
00:12:54
the mid 60s that's a 30-year period of
00:12:57
time
00:12:59
and dr benjamin noticed another
00:13:01
potential discrepancy
00:13:03
[Music]
00:13:04
the ria test was designed to work only
00:13:08
on fresh urine samples which the medical
00:13:11
examiner didn't have after the body was
00:13:13
autopsied
00:13:15
the labs tested tissue samples and
00:13:18
degraded blood all of which
00:13:21
had been embalmed
00:13:23
i called the manufacturer and i asked do
00:13:25
you have any experience with using this
00:13:27
test in samples other than fresh urine
00:13:30
in particular forensic samples obtained
00:13:34
from exhumed bodies or from dead people
00:13:36
and they said absolutely not
00:13:38
[Music]
00:13:39
and even if the urine tests positive for
00:13:42
lsd
00:13:43
the riaa test is only for screening
00:13:48
any positive results must then be
00:13:51
retested to confirm the results
00:13:56
on the ria test kit outer box the
00:13:59
manufacturer makes this clear
00:14:02
it states that all ria results are
00:14:05
preliminary
00:14:07
and that a specific alternative must be
00:14:09
used to get a confirmed analytical
00:14:12
result
00:14:14
even the scientists who conducted the
00:14:16
original ria test for the prosecution
00:14:19
agreed with that assessment
00:14:21
in order to say with 100 certainty that
00:14:24
it was lsd that was present in the body
00:14:26
one would have to go to a confirmatory
00:14:28
test the gold standard or the test that
00:14:31
is considered to be
00:14:32
the most dependable is the one that's
00:14:35
called gas chromatography mass
00:14:37
spectrometry
00:14:39
for whatever reason
00:14:41
christina martin's first lawyer never
00:14:44
questioned the test results
00:14:47
the defense attorney at the trial
00:14:50
was so incompetent
00:14:52
and his performance was so bad that the
00:14:54
judge called him up to sidebar
00:14:56
and asked him
00:14:58
you're not doing very much examination
00:15:00
of these witnesses is is that
00:15:03
is that intentional is that deliberate
00:15:06
and the attorney tried to reassure the
00:15:08
judge and tell them oh don't worry in
00:15:10
law come out in my defense case but it
00:15:12
never did
00:15:14
if the scientific tests were only
00:15:16
preliminary
00:15:18
why wasn't a confirmatory test ever
00:15:20
performed
00:15:23
kevin mahoney found the answer to that
00:15:25
question in the evidence file
00:15:27
information
00:15:28
prosecutors never presented at the first
00:15:31
trial
00:15:33
information
00:15:34
prosecutors thought
00:15:36
would remain a secret
00:15:43
when kevin mahoney examined the case
00:15:46
file from christina martin's first trial
00:15:48
he found an important piece of evidence
00:15:52
it was evidence that prosecutors never
00:15:54
presented at the first trial
00:15:57
prosecutors had commissioned the
00:15:59
confirmatory test on alfredo's tissue
00:16:01
samples using a gas chromatograph mass
00:16:04
spectrometer it's a test that can
00:16:06
identify every substance in the sample
00:16:11
that test detected no lsd in any of the
00:16:14
samples
00:16:15
even though they tested and retested and
00:16:17
retested they were desperate to confirm
00:16:20
the what they had learned from the radio
00:16:22
and osa test
00:16:23
but they weren't able to do that
00:16:27
mahoney discovered that this exculpatory
00:16:30
forensic evidence was not given to
00:16:32
christina martin's defense attorney
00:16:34
before the trial
00:16:37
this violated a legal provision known as
00:16:40
the brady doctrine
00:16:42
the brady doctrine says that
00:16:44
the prosecution has a duty to turn over
00:16:49
all exculpatory evidence to the defense
00:16:52
without even being asked for it
00:16:55
in this case the prosecutor played hide
00:16:57
the ball with the exculpatory evidence
00:16:59
the gas chromatography mass spectrometry
00:17:01
evidence should have been disclosed to
00:17:02
the defense attorney it never was
00:17:06
this may explain why an assistant d.a
00:17:09
told mahoney to look carefully at the
00:17:12
official cause of richard alfredo's
00:17:15
death
00:17:15
[Music]
00:17:16
and this new forensic evidence was put
00:17:19
before an appeals court judge who was
00:17:22
unusually qualified for this particular
00:17:25
case
00:17:27
99 out of 100 judges
00:17:29
eyes were just glazed over when they
00:17:30
started hearing gc mass back and all
00:17:32
this other stuff
00:17:34
the judge in this case judge gordon
00:17:36
dorffer
00:17:37
was a chemistry major in college
00:17:40
how lucky were we
00:17:45
in his decision
00:17:47
judge dorffer cited defects in the
00:17:49
scientific evidence and the
00:17:52
prosecution's failure to disclose
00:17:54
critical exculpatory evidence as grounds
00:17:58
for a new trial
00:18:00
but prosecutors decided
00:18:03
not to retry the case
00:18:06
christina martin agreed to plead guilty
00:18:08
to manslaughter in exchange for a
00:18:10
sentence of time served in other words
00:18:13
christina martin was a free woman
00:18:17
moments after leaving the courtroom
00:18:20
christina martin told the press that
00:18:21
despite the plea bargain she had nothing
00:18:24
to do with her boyfriend's death
00:18:27
i pleaded guilty because of the plea
00:18:29
bargain and the chance that i might go
00:18:31
back to jail i didn't want that i would
00:18:33
have liked to have had this woman found
00:18:35
not guilty but this is not the first
00:18:37
person in massachusetts to say they did
00:18:39
something in order to get out of being
00:18:41
prosecuted when your feet are being held
00:18:43
to the fire you're going to do things
00:18:44
you really don't want to do
00:18:47
but if christina martin was innocent
00:18:50
why did she flee to canada shortly after
00:18:52
alfredo's death
00:18:54
she may have had a guilty conscience
00:18:56
about some of the things that she was
00:18:57
thinking about doing and maybe some of
00:18:59
the things that she had done
00:19:00
plus there was also the possibility with
00:19:02
her daughter involved that her daughter
00:19:04
might have done some things to this
00:19:05
gentleman without her knowledge
00:19:09
but while science rules out lsd
00:19:12
it reveals another possibility
00:19:16
when alfredo's body was exhumed
00:19:19
the medical examiner found groundwater
00:19:22
in the casket the water mixed with the
00:19:25
embalming fluid
00:19:27
may have contaminated the tissue samples
00:19:30
basically
00:19:32
lsd has a chemical structure
00:19:34
and that chemical structure is not
00:19:36
unique to lsd there are many substances
00:19:39
in the body
00:19:40
and in nature in general that possess
00:19:43
similar chemical structures two of them
00:19:46
that we would find in the body would be
00:19:48
the amino acid tryptophan and the
00:19:50
neurotransmitter serotonin there are
00:19:53
also ergot derivatives that are in the
00:19:57
the grass and the ground and in uh fungi
00:20:01
and fungal material that could have been
00:20:03
washed into the coffin when all of the
00:20:05
water
00:20:06
seeped into the coffin
00:20:08
and the preliminary drug test was
00:20:10
supposed to be used on fresh urine
00:20:13
samples not tissue samples
00:20:17
dr benjamin also believes it may have
00:20:20
been the cold medicine diphenhydramine
00:20:23
that alfredo was taking for his cold
00:20:26
that caused his death since it can
00:20:28
increase one's heart rate
00:20:31
i will tell you what reasonable doubt
00:20:33
arose for me and that was first of all
00:20:36
nobody dies from lsd they commit suicide
00:20:39
but they don't have direct toxic effects
00:20:41
that lead to death
00:20:43
the original prosecutor in this case
00:20:45
refused all requests for an interview
00:20:49
officially prosecutors still maintain
00:20:51
that christina martin killed richard
00:20:53
alfredo
00:20:55
defense experts say lsd has never killed
00:20:58
anyone
00:21:00
[Music]
00:21:05
today
00:21:06
richard alfredo's tombstone is not
00:21:09
engraved with the date of his death
00:21:11
perhaps a metaphor for the uncertainty
00:21:14
that still exists in this case
00:21:17
bad science and bad ethics resulted in
00:21:20
miss martin being sent to a prison cell
00:21:23
it was good ethics and good science that
00:21:26
got her out of the prison cell so bad
00:21:28
science put her in and good science got
00:21:30
her out
00:21:33
[Music]
00:21:43
[Music]
00:21:50
so
00:22:00
[Music]
00:22:06
you
