00:00:08
akeem marino came forward and confessed
00:00:11
to the rape and murder of a restaurant
00:00:13
worker i did this awful crime and i was
00:00:15
alone but this man chris ochoa had
00:00:18
already confessed to that crime and was
00:00:21
serving a life sentence
00:00:24
i pleaded guilty and confessed
00:00:27
one of them was lying
00:00:29
to find out who and why
00:00:31
scientists look once more at the
00:00:34
forensic evidence
00:00:38
[Music]
00:00:49
so
00:00:51
[Music]
00:00:56
[Applause]
00:01:03
austin texas the state's capital city
00:01:07
twenty-year-old nancy de priest lived
00:01:09
here with her husband todd and 15 month
00:01:12
old daughter sylvia
00:01:15
she was so very friendly and and very
00:01:17
open
00:01:19
to anyone
00:01:20
she just she just loved people she was
00:01:22
just like a people person
00:01:25
nancy was a waitress at a pizza hut
00:01:27
restaurant
00:01:29
on october 24 1988
00:01:32
she arrived for work at 7 a.m
00:01:36
her job was to get the pizza dough ready
00:01:39
for lunch before the rest of the
00:01:40
employees arrived
00:01:42
[Music]
00:01:43
the manager of the restaurant called
00:01:46
several times that morning to make sure
00:01:48
everything was all right but there was
00:01:50
no answer
00:01:52
when he stopped by the restaurant around
00:01:54
9 30
00:01:56
he found nancy slumped under the
00:01:58
bathroom sink nude and barely alive
00:02:02
she had been shot in the back of the
00:02:04
head
00:02:08
was rushed to the nearest hospital
00:02:10
my son-in-law said mom there's there's
00:02:13
been a robbery
00:02:15
they shot nancy
00:02:17
i said todd how how bad is she hurt he
00:02:20
broke down and he said
00:02:22
mom she's on life support
00:02:25
nancy died later that day
00:02:28
without regaining consciousness
00:02:31
i began to scream i i was i was totally
00:02:35
hysterical
00:02:36
the murder occurred before the
00:02:38
restaurant opened so there were no
00:02:40
witnesses to the crime
00:02:42
the austin police department found no
00:02:45
signs of forced entry at the restaurant
00:02:49
the motive appeared to be robbery since
00:02:51
money was missing from the safe
00:02:54
on the floor of the bathroom police
00:02:57
found a 22 caliber shell casing from the
00:02:59
murder weapon and nancy's autopsy
00:03:02
revealed she had been sexually assaulted
00:03:07
two weeks later
00:03:08
investigators got their first break in
00:03:11
the case
00:03:12
two employees from another pizza hut
00:03:15
restaurant 22 year old chris ochoa and
00:03:18
19 year old richard danzinger went to
00:03:20
the restaurant where nancy had been
00:03:22
murdered
00:03:24
so we ordered a beer and he toasted to
00:03:26
the memory of nancy
00:03:28
the nancy the priest
00:03:31
we won't forget you to me i found it
00:03:33
kind of strange
00:03:34
nancy's co-workers quickly informed
00:03:37
authorities
00:03:38
ochoa and dan zinger were later
00:03:40
questioned by police
00:03:42
he started grilling me about what i know
00:03:44
about this murder and this rape and
00:03:48
i told him nothing we went round and
00:03:50
round for a couple hours i don't
00:03:52
recall how many hours
00:03:54
but he said at one point he said you
00:03:56
know what
00:03:58
we know you're not capable of this but
00:04:00
we know you know you you know you know
00:04:02
something
00:04:04
detective hector polanco at the time a
00:04:07
12-year veteran of the force took over
00:04:10
the interrogation
00:04:12
one point he showed me
00:04:13
pictures of death row he showed them to
00:04:15
me said this is well you will live there
00:04:18
until you die
00:04:20
so i still kept on saying i don't know
00:04:21
anything
00:04:23
richard danzinger and his girlfriend
00:04:26
donna angstad were also questioned
00:04:29
they were absolutely horrible to me uh
00:04:31
one time
00:04:32
hector polanco
00:04:34
pounded his fist on the table and i
00:04:36
thought he was coming across to grab me
00:04:37
i came up out of my chair and hit the
00:04:39
wall behind me it scared me so bad
00:04:42
donna said she and richard were together
00:04:44
in donna's apartment at the time of the
00:04:47
murder i took a lie detector test and
00:04:49
they told me i flunked it
00:04:52
two days later
00:04:54
chris ochoa confessed to the rape and
00:04:57
murder of nancy de priest
00:05:00
i did it
00:05:01
i pleaded guilty
00:05:04
and there was
00:05:06
i can't describe it
00:05:08
he also revealed that his friend richard
00:05:11
danzinger was his accomplice
00:05:15
ochoa said he and danzinger entered the
00:05:18
restaurant with keys the two had
00:05:20
obtained
00:05:23
they found nancy alone preparing pizza
00:05:26
dough
00:05:31
after ordering her to remove the money
00:05:33
from the safe
00:05:34
ochoa said he and danzinger bound gagged
00:05:38
raped and shot her
00:05:41
[Music]
00:05:45
ochoa said he was the one who pulled the
00:05:48
trigger
00:05:50
when the dna results came back from the
00:05:53
lab
00:05:54
police had even more proof that ochoa
00:05:56
and danzinger were the killers
00:06:03
chris ochoa not only confessed to the
00:06:05
rape and murder of nancy de priest he
00:06:07
became the state's star witness against
00:06:10
his friend and co-worker richard
00:06:12
danzinger
00:06:14
nancy's family was relieved that the
00:06:16
case was concluded quickly
00:06:19
not so much satisfaction i didn't i
00:06:22
didn't feel that
00:06:23
i guess relief
00:06:26
that they weren't going to be able to do
00:06:27
it to someone else
00:06:29
bolstering ochoa's confession was the
00:06:32
dna evidence a blood sample from
00:06:35
christochoa matched the dna from semen
00:06:38
on the victim's vaginal swab i examined
00:06:42
a vaginal swab specimen from nancy de
00:06:45
priest dna was extracted from
00:06:47
spermatozoa on that swab and then
00:06:51
dna typing was done using a single gene
00:06:55
that we had available at that point in
00:06:58
time
00:06:59
and
00:06:59
a result was obtained from that gene
00:07:02
that was actually compatible
00:07:04
with chris ochoa and about
00:07:07
10 to
00:07:09
16 percent of the population
00:07:13
statistically there were three million
00:07:15
other texans who might have shared the
00:07:17
same genetic marker
00:07:19
but this wasn't the only forensic
00:07:21
evidence
00:07:22
a brown hair found in the restaurant
00:07:25
bathroom
00:07:27
was microscopically similar to
00:07:29
danzinger's
00:07:31
richard danzinger pled not guilty and
00:07:34
insisted he was innocent
00:07:36
but the strength of ochoa's confession
00:07:39
and the forensic evidence were too great
00:07:42
the jury deliberated just seven and a
00:07:45
half minutes
00:07:46
and found richard danzinger guilty of
00:07:49
aggravated sexual assault he was
00:07:51
sentenced to life in prison
00:07:55
in return for his testimony chris ochoa
00:07:58
avoided the death penalty but he was
00:08:00
sentenced to life in prison
00:08:03
they were nice that i would sit in my
00:08:05
bed crying to god
00:08:07
why
00:08:12
why
00:08:16
oh
00:08:17
i would ask him
00:08:20
i'm tired god
00:08:22
tired
00:08:24
[Music]
00:08:26
i was very tired
00:08:28
and at
00:08:30
some point i wouldn't end it all
00:08:34
life in prison was even harder for
00:08:37
richard danzinger
00:08:40
after three years behind bars
00:08:44
danzinger was assaulted by another
00:08:46
inmate who mistook him for someone else
00:08:49
danzinger was kicked in the head with
00:08:51
steel tipped boots
00:08:53
he survived
00:08:55
but suffered permanent brain damage
00:08:58
it's just what's happened to him is
00:09:00
horrible
00:09:01
he's going to need care for the rest of
00:09:02
his life
00:09:04
but the story doesn't end
00:09:06
there eight years later
00:09:09
austin police received a letter from
00:09:11
akeem moreno who was serving three life
00:09:14
sentences in another texas prison for a
00:09:17
string of robberies and sexual assaults
00:09:20
mourinho claimed that he
00:09:23
was the one who raped and murdered nancy
00:09:25
de priest
00:09:29
mourinho claimed he had undergone a
00:09:32
spiritual awakening while incarcerated
00:09:35
and wanted to set the record straight
00:09:37
i did this awful crime and i was alone
00:09:44
mourinho said the el paso police
00:09:46
department had the gun he used to kill
00:09:49
nancy de priest
00:09:50
they had taken it when he was arrested
00:09:53
on an assault charge
00:09:56
homicide detective manuel fuentes was
00:09:58
assigned to investigate mourinho's story
00:10:02
i got a call from el paso police
00:10:03
department and the detective there said
00:10:05
you're not going to believe this but
00:10:07
that gun is hasn't been destroyed we
00:10:09
still have it in evidence
00:10:11
scientists compared mourinho's
00:10:13
22-caliber handgun to the bullet removed
00:10:16
from nancy priest
00:10:18
the ballistic examination did not reveal
00:10:20
a match
00:10:22
it appeared there wasn't much more to
00:10:25
investigate
00:10:27
two years later akeem marino tried once
00:10:30
again
00:10:31
i want to thank speaker laney for your
00:10:33
this time he sent a letter to then
00:10:35
governor george w bush with a copy to
00:10:38
the prosecutor's office
00:10:40
i told him basically the same thing that
00:10:42
i had
00:10:44
that i committed to murder in 88 at the
00:10:46
pizza hut
00:10:47
and that uh there was two innocent men
00:10:49
who i did not know
00:10:51
locked up for it
00:10:53
this time
00:10:54
detective fuentes visited chris ochoa in
00:10:57
prison
00:10:58
once again ochoa repeated what he had
00:11:01
been saying for 10 years that he and dan
00:11:05
zinger had acted alone
00:11:07
am i told uh yeah yeah you're right i
00:11:09
did it
00:11:11
so you know what just let me do my time
00:11:14
and he said
00:11:15
as far as he knew there wasn't a third
00:11:17
person involved it was just him and
00:11:18
richard
00:11:19
that killed nancy the priest
00:11:22
so there was little more authorities
00:11:24
could do especially since ochoa's dna
00:11:27
matched semen found at the crime scene
00:11:32
it would take one more year
00:11:34
before one of these men finally
00:11:38
changed his story
00:11:42
[Music]
00:11:44
for almost 11 years chris ochoa
00:11:46
continued to maintain that he and
00:11:48
richard danzinger were responsible for
00:11:50
the rape and murder of nancy de priest
00:11:55
but one year after ricky moreno wrote a
00:11:57
letter to the governor's office saying
00:11:59
he murdered nancy de priest
00:12:01
chris ochoa changed his story
00:12:05
did you kill nancy de priest oh no ma'am
00:12:14
his confession had been coerced
00:12:17
he said he was physically assaulted
00:12:20
threatened and denied access to an
00:12:22
attorney during police questioning
00:12:25
a female detective and hispanic
00:12:26
detective she came in and i asked her
00:12:30
you know can i have an attorney
00:12:33
and she got real upset i said you can't
00:12:35
have one until you're officially charged
00:12:37
in search for help
00:12:39
ochoa contacted the wisconsin innocence
00:12:42
project
00:12:43
a group that investigates cases in which
00:12:46
they believe an innocent person has been
00:12:48
wrongfully convicted
00:12:50
i told him please help me
00:12:53
i don't know who else to turn to
00:12:55
you know i think one of my closing lines
00:12:57
was that i told them i've lost faith in
00:13:00
the system
00:13:03
but i haven't lost faith in myself but
00:13:06
the founder of the innocence project
00:13:08
john pray
00:13:09
wasn't sure what to think
00:13:12
we called up
00:13:13
chris's attorney
00:13:14
to get his side of things and say
00:13:17
sometimes the attorneys say i am
00:13:19
concerned about this case and
00:13:21
he may be innocent unfortunately in this
00:13:23
case we got the complete opposite the
00:13:26
chris's attorney told us we are totally
00:13:28
wasting our time on this case he is very
00:13:30
guilty
00:13:32
and if chris ochoa was innocent
00:13:35
why did dna tests place him
00:13:38
at the scene of the crime
00:13:41
12 years earlier
00:13:42
test could only analyze one gene from
00:13:45
nancy dupree's vaginal swab the gene
00:13:48
called dq alpha
00:13:51
but by the year 2000 the accuracy of dna
00:13:55
testing had advanced to a level where 10
00:13:58
genes could be analyzed
00:14:00
the dna testing that i'm doing today is
00:14:04
more complicated
00:14:06
harder to interpret
00:14:08
more discriminating
00:14:11
the wisconsin innocence project asked
00:14:14
local prosecutors to send nancy dupree's
00:14:17
forensic samples for more sophisticated
00:14:20
dna testing which they did
00:14:23
twelve years after nancy de priest's
00:14:26
murder
00:14:27
karen scalise compared chris ochoa's
00:14:30
blood dna
00:14:32
to the vaginal swab taken from the crime
00:14:35
scene
00:14:36
i sort of went oh my god and just
00:14:39
immediately double checked it to myself
00:14:42
just to make sure additional dna testing
00:14:45
was also done by ed blake who had
00:14:48
performed the original dna test a decade
00:14:52
earlier when that work was done
00:14:55
ultimately chris ochoa
00:14:58
richard danzinger
00:15:00
and nancy dupree's husband were all
00:15:02
eliminated
00:15:04
as the source of the spermatozoa from
00:15:06
nancy de priest
00:15:08
but there was still the issue of
00:15:09
mourinho's gun
00:15:11
detective fuentes decided to send it to
00:15:14
another lab the southwest institute in
00:15:16
dallas for more tests
00:15:19
the shell casing without a doubt
00:15:21
matched the gun that we got from aqui
00:15:24
marino
00:15:25
and this was the shell casing that was
00:15:26
found inside
00:15:28
the pizza hut so now we had dna
00:15:30
and we had a bullet or a shell casing
00:15:32
that was ejected at the crime scene that
00:15:33
matched the the gun that we got from
00:15:35
akeem moreno
00:15:37
as a last step
00:15:39
prosecutors compared akeem marino's dna
00:15:42
to the semen from nancy de priest's
00:15:44
vaginal swab
00:15:46
it matched
00:15:48
just as mourinho said it would
00:15:51
everybody says they're innocent in
00:15:52
prison
00:15:54
but yeah some of us are actually are
00:16:00
akeem marino's confession includes
00:16:03
a chilling account of what happened the
00:16:05
day nancy the priest was murdered but it
00:16:08
also answered
00:16:09
many questions
00:16:11
i was wearing a workman's uniform with a
00:16:14
false name on it
00:16:16
and i knocked on the side door
00:16:21
and miss dupris came up and unlocked the
00:16:23
door just before the restaurant opened
00:16:27
once inside
00:16:29
mourinho held nancy at gunpoint and
00:16:31
demanded the restaurant's money
00:16:37
[Music]
00:16:40
then
00:16:41
we went to the restroom
00:16:43
where i disrobed her then assaulted her
00:16:45
one time
00:16:47
after that i told her that i was going
00:16:49
to handcuff her to the
00:16:51
plumbing underneath the sink and leave
00:16:52
her there
00:16:58
she got underneath the sink i shot her
00:16:59
in the back of the head one time with a
00:17:01
22
00:17:02
firearm
00:17:04
but he made the mistake
00:17:06
of leaving the shell casing behind
00:17:10
i was looking for that shell and i
00:17:11
couldn't find it anywhere
00:17:13
after that i went back got my bag packed
00:17:15
my stuff up and i left
00:17:18
mourinho says nancy reminded him of a
00:17:21
female guard he knew from prison a woman
00:17:24
he detested
00:17:26
when i came out not only did i intend to
00:17:28
kill a whole bunch of blacks and
00:17:29
mexicans but i told myself the first
00:17:31
white woman i ran across that looked
00:17:33
like i was gonna blow her brains out and
00:17:34
that's exactly what i did
00:17:39
[Music]
00:17:43
but the bigger question is why chris
00:17:46
ochoa would repeatedly confess to a
00:17:49
crime he didn't commit
00:17:52
you have to be a psychologist i'm not
00:17:53
it's hard for me to conceive
00:17:55
in fact when i first met mr ochoa's
00:17:58
attorney
00:17:59
uh mr dan's
00:18:00
attorneys when they first brought me
00:18:02
back the first thing i asked him was
00:18:04
what in the world made ochoa confess
00:18:07
most people will come and tell me i
00:18:08
would have never confessed that you know
00:18:09
what
00:18:10
don't tell me that
00:18:12
because you weren't sitting in that
00:18:13
chair ochoa said he was threatened with
00:18:16
the death penalty unless he confessed
00:18:19
a technique most law enforcement
00:18:21
interrogation experts say is improper
00:18:25
the law
00:18:26
fortunately or unfortunately allows
00:18:29
police officers to lie to individuals
00:18:31
being interrogated what they can't say
00:18:34
is if you don't confess to me you're
00:18:35
going to get the death penalty if they
00:18:37
knew that to be a lie or if you do
00:18:39
confess to me
00:18:40
i'll make sure you don't you don't go to
00:18:42
prison or you don't get charged on this
00:18:44
crime so they can lie about the evidence
00:18:46
and they can lie about other
00:18:48
circumstances having to do with the
00:18:49
interrogation but they can't tell lies
00:18:52
that could be regarded as promises or
00:18:54
threats ochoa said his confession
00:18:58
included details of the crime because
00:19:00
police showed him pictures of the crime
00:19:02
scene before his confession
00:19:06
off the top of my head i can't think of
00:19:07
a circumstance in which it would be
00:19:09
appropriate because it contaminates the
00:19:11
suspect and it means that if they are
00:19:13
innocent made the false confession
00:19:15
you'll never know
00:19:17
ochoa also says
00:19:19
he was threatened physically
00:19:21
look me up and down and say you're young
00:19:24
you're you've never been in jail you're
00:19:25
going to be fresh meat and they're going
00:19:26
to have you
00:19:27
i'll put you in the cell well they'll
00:19:28
have you and to me in my mind
00:19:31
that
00:19:32
triggered off well they're going to rape
00:19:33
me
00:19:33
[Music]
00:19:35
experts say the way to prevent
00:19:37
police-induced false confessions is to
00:19:39
videotape the entire interrogation
00:19:43
if a suspect later alleges police
00:19:46
misconduct in the interrogation room
00:19:49
the videotape can be evaluated if
00:19:52
chris's confession had been videotaped
00:19:54
from start to end
00:19:55
there is no way that this would have
00:19:57
happened first of all the police
00:19:59
officers undoubtedly would not have
00:20:00
acted as they did it would have been a
00:20:02
deterrent to their misconduct
00:20:05
currently only two states require all
00:20:07
suspect interrogations to be videotaped
00:20:10
alaska and minnesota
00:20:13
the austin police department changed its
00:20:16
policy
00:20:17
and now videotapes the interrogations in
00:20:20
all homicide cases
00:20:23
after 12 years in prison
00:20:26
on january 16 2001
00:20:29
chris ochoa
00:20:31
was a free man
00:20:34
two months later
00:20:36
richard danzinger was released to the
00:20:38
care of his family
00:20:41
because of the brain damage he sustained
00:20:44
as a result of the prison fight
00:20:46
richard danzinger will require
00:20:48
specialized care
00:20:50
for the rest of his life
00:20:53
sometimes i think about richard and he
00:20:55
you know i
00:20:57
i feel very bad i mean
00:21:00
because i was i didn't have the courage
00:21:03
to face up
00:21:05
whatever might come to me
00:21:07
so that they wouldn't go to prison
00:21:09
the officers involved in christochowa's
00:21:12
interrogation have all refused to
00:21:14
comment
00:21:17
i was a little kid they told me that
00:21:19
police officers would rather take care
00:21:21
of you to protect you
00:21:23
i thought that they couldn't do no wrong
00:21:26
i thought they were honest
00:21:28
but
00:21:31
i see that they
00:21:33
not all of them are
00:21:36
i lost my child i loved her so much i
00:21:39
miss her every day still
00:21:42
13 years i miss her every day
00:21:45
and chris
00:21:47
lost 12 years his youth his whole youth
00:21:51
richard dan singer is
00:21:53
brain damaged from a beating he received
00:21:56
in prison
00:21:58
he's still serving that life sentence
00:22:00
he'll serve it out
00:22:02
[Music]
00:22:12
[Music]
00:22:26
[Applause]
00:22:33
you
