All language subtitles for Murder.360.S01E09.First.Response.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FLUX

Why would someone want
a hero in our community dead?

Everything looked like
it was a robbery gone bad.

However, we did kinda think
that there was something

that just wasn't right
about this case.

They couldn't find
anybody with a motive.

The person comes forward

and says he's been hearing
that someone's been

asking around to find a hit man
to kill William Walker.

When that story broke,
it took my breath away.

This whole thing was
a ruse from the start.

We have a monster here.

And she kept repeating,
he's going to kill me.

And he shoots my daughter.

That's about
the only time in my career

that I just wanted
to shoot him.

You can run.

You can't hide.

Being a first responder, you
leave your house in the morning

and, you know,
you're not sure if you're

going to come home at night.

Whether you're a fireman
or policeman,

it's a dangerous job,

and you never know
what's around the corner.

William Walker
joined the Cleveland

Fire Department in 1998.

He spent 15 years
with the department

and was a member
of the elite Rescue Squad 4,

which meant he was highly
trained and highly skilled

in some of the department's
most dangerous rescues.

I would work with him
on Squad 4 four days a week.

Very, very proud guy.

He--he was a go-getter.

He was fun, intelligent,

knew how to communicate
very, very well.

You know, he was a character.
He was.

I loved being around him.
He was a good guy.

We both worked part-time
at an arena

where the Cleveland Cavaliers
played.

And William Walker was just
a really, really nice guy.

In August 2013,
I attended a ceremony in which

William Walker was promoted
to lieutenant

at the mayor's office
in Cleveland.

He was a very
well-respected firefighter.

And the fact that
he was promoted

showed that he was
a great firefighter

and well-respected
not only in the community,

but within the ranks.

In 2005, Will meets Uloma.

She's a single mother
with a 9-year-old daughter

from a previous relationship.

The two of them start dating.

He talked of her often.

She was, you know,
in love with Will.

He's been married before.

He has two children.

In fact, Will's kids
say they kind of

see Uloma as a second mother.

She was providing
home health care

for prominent families
in Cleveland,

which means
she was a caregiver,

a job that requires a
lot of compassion.

If you're not involved
with firefighters and nurses

and docs, it's crazy.

There's nothing like it.
It is a second family.

William Walker found out
that Uloma had cancer.

So he says, hey,
let's get married.

That way you can get it
on my insurance and we

could take care of all
your medical issues.

They had been dating for
quite a while, and that

for her to receive the
treatments that she needed,

she needed more solid
health insurance.

William and Uloma's
neighborhood

is on Cleveland's East Side.

William Walker took care
of his neighborhood

just like any policeman
or fireman

would take care of their
neighborhoods in the city

that you work for.

Cleveland is a fairly
large city situated

on Lake Erie in the Midwest.

It does have its challenges,
like every big city.

While I was
covering crime there,

we had upwards
of 120 homicides one year.

Unfortunately, Cleveland
has been listed in the top ten

crime-infested cities,
or highest crime rate,

for a number of years.

And we were trying to get
crime to go on a down slide,

but it's a never-ending battle.

Uloma and Will have now
been married for four months.

They're packing up the house
because they bought a property

outside of the city,
and they're going

to move there and retire.

At about 8:00 p.m.,
William and Uloma

were packing their home
when Uloma sent William

to a local
fast food restaurant.

When William returned, he was
ambushed outside of his home

and shot multiple times.

Lieutenant Walker was
gunned down as he was opening

the side door to his home.

First responders on scene
were people

who knew Lieutenant Walker,

who were with the
fire department and the EMS,

who had worked closely
with them.

My brother Dave was on duty
at Station 17 that night,

and one of the
Arson investigators

took a phone call.

And he said to Dave, he goes,
Will Walker was just shot.

Dave called me and he says,
Will just got shot.

He's going to Metro.

I pulled into Metro,
parked the car,

ran into the emergency room,
and that's

where the scene unfolded.

It was surreal.

This isn't what you expect
to happen to this guy.

I'd say maybe a dozen
or so firefighters

in the emergency room.

And we could see him,
he was in Trauma Bay 1.

And we could see
the doctors, nurses,

and all the specialists
in there working on Will

for a gunshot wound.

They gave him everything.

They knew he was
a firefighter.

They did everything
that they humanly,

possibly could have done.

We had some pure promise
that maybe

Will was going
to survive this.

Because the way they
kept working him, I mean,

they could have called
that code a long time

before they actually did.

And the doc did come out,
and he came right to me.

We knew each other.

And he says, you want to go
say goodbye to Will?

And I said, absolutely.

So I walked in there.

I held his hand
for a short time.

I gave him a kiss
on the forehead

and told him I loved him.

And, I mean, the nurses
crying, firefighters crying.

It was a rough time.

I was one of the first
supervisors on scene.

I met with the Homicide unit.

At that time, William Walker
and Uloma, his wife,

had already been
transported to the hospital.

We searched the property and
we found four shell casings,

which was extremely helpful.

We also came up with a theory.

Detective Lynch and myself,
we noticed

that William Walker
pulled the car

to the back near the garage.

So what we devised is,
someone had to be back there

before William Walker
got there.

And it appeared that somebody
jumped out

from either the garage

or where the garbage cans were
behind the house

and, while William Walker was
putting his keys in the door,

surprised William Walker
and shot him four times.

So there are dozens
and dozens of homicides

each year in Cleveland,

but when a firefighter
is killed,

people definitely take notice.

The nature in which
William Walker was killed

was shocking.

The fact that he was off duty
outside of his home,

seemingly minding
his own business,

and then gunned down
viciously,

his homicide became
the biggest story in the city.

All eyes were on
the William Walker case.

Everyone wanted to know,
who did it?

We have to find out
what, why, who?

We already know where,
which is a good thing.

But we have to
find out the facts.

It didn't appear to be
a random attack.

The neighborhood had
one way in and one way out.

So anyone who was
in that neighborhood

had a reason to be there, or
at least some sort of intent.

So our job now is to start
interviewing witnesses.

So we have to interview Uloma
and find out

a little more about,
you know, what had happened,

what she had heard.

Yeah, yeah.

Right now, the way
we're looking at the case is,

Uloma is a victim
because her husband

was just shot and killed.

However, we did kind of think
that there was something

that just wasn't right
about this case,

and hopefully
it's going to come out

during the investigation.

Mm-hmm.

So interviewing Uloma, she
said that she was in the house,

and then she heard
William calling for help.

She finds William
laying on the ground

with a lot of blood.

And right away she calls 911
to report that

her husband has been shot.

She was hysterical,
and everything looked like

it was a robbery gone bad.

Some of those
first responders

who say just that she had
a fairly odd response,

in that she acted hysterical,
but then also

was kind of reserved.

And asked, you know,
is he still alive yet?

And in a way that
didn't settle well

with those first responders,

people who see these kind
of tragic things

regularly enough
to kind of know

how people typically react.

Detectives, of course,
were trying to establish

why someone would
want to kill him.

That was the big question
is, you know,

what was his
private life like?

And why would someone
want William Walker,

a hero in our community, dead?

I never knew there was
any strife at home with him.

He was a private guy.

He didn't speak
to anybody that I know

within our office of any issues
with his home life.

Now, when it comes to
in-depth information--

you know,
who necessarily liked who

or who may have had
a tense relationship--

we don't necessarily know
all of that.

That is kind of
some of the questions

that I ask
that it's like, you know,

did you get along well
with Lieutenant Walker?

Or were there,
you know, issues there?

There were never any problems
reported at the home.

He was an upstanding member
of the community,

and his neighbors
loved the fact

that they had
a lieutenant firefighter

living in their neighborhood.

We were clueless.

Number one,
it was Will Walker.

You know, that was
the guy you would

never expect to have an enemy.

I know of not a single guy
that had a grudge against him.

Our next progression is that
we have to get back out there

on the streets and we have
to knock on doors

because we don't have
any current leads.

The neighborhood he was in
was in a rougher part of town.

And he did his
civic duty there,

trying to change
that neighborhood.

He told us about drug dealers

that he got chased out
of the neighborhood.

They wanted to get out

of that neighborhood
that they were in.

They bought a little place
out in the country.

I remember him
showing me pictures

of the house from
the back porch overlooking

the land he bought.

So he was--he was very much
looking forward to that move.

And that was what
was so hard about,

I think,
the initial investigation

for the Cleveland
Police Department,

was they couldn't find anybody
with a motive.

Just a few days
after the shooting,

there was a candlelight
vigil outside

of William Walker's home.

Hundreds of people came out.

There was fire engines
and police cruisers.

Friends, family,
neighbors, you name it,

all came out in support
of William Walker.

Oh, that was a well-attended
vigil to honor him.

And it wasn't just
firefighters there.

I mean, we--we stand
shoulder to shoulder

with the fire community,
but that was his community

that was out on the street
that day.

There was that many people.
They were hugging on us.

Yeah, Will was
that type of guy.

William was part of
the firefighter family,

so therefore Uloma was
also part of that family.

There was
an outpouring of support

from fellow firefighters,
who even chipped in

to help pay for Uloma's
living expenses

after William's death.

We let the investigators
do their thing.

They pulled out all stops
to try to find out

what happened to Will.

We stood back and we waited
for information

to trickle down
through our union.

They were probably
the best source

of communication and intel
on what actually happened.

There was nothing for a long,
long time of real substance.

Because it was a
stale, stale atmosphere

with the case for a long time.

They don't know where
to go with this investigation

until Crime Stoppers
and Cleveland Fire Department

offer a reward
for information leading

to whoever it was that killed
Lieutenant William Walker.

We sincerely
hope that someone

will step forward and provide
some information

to solve these
senseless crimes.

And eventually,
what the knocking on doors

and handing out flyers
did was,

I actually received a call

that had some information
about the shooting.

As a result of that,
a person comes forward

and says he's been
hearing that someone's been

asking around to find a hit man
to kill William Walker.

They gave a name:

Chad Padgett.

And Chad Padgett is the
boyfriend of Uloma's daughter.

They weren't sure if Chad
was the actual shooter,

but they knew that Chad was
involved in the shooting.

Uloma had a daughter
from a previous marriage

who was dating a Chad Padgett.

They were living
in the same home

as Lieutenant Walker.

According to him,
the night of the murder,

he was on
the West Side of Cleveland,

and he was watching
a football game.

While looking
at his phone records,

we see that he's actually
right in the area,

or at least his phone
is right in the area

of where the murder occurred.

Investigators found that
in the days before the murder,

Chad Padgett was
sending text messages

asking for a ham or a hammer,
which is slang for a gun.

And we also had other numbers
that he had been calling

the night of the murder.

Of course,
his girlfriend's number

is in there, Uloma's daughter.

However, we come up
with two new numbers.

We come up with the number
for a man

by the name
of Christopher Hein.

And we come up
with a number for a man

by the name of Ryan Dorty.

Investigators didn't know

which suspects
to be looking at.

The phone records came in,

especially the text message
records, that then gave them

a clear identity to who
the defendants were.

As a matter of fact,
Ryan Dorty was in jail.

Ryan Dorty is already
a convicted criminal

serving 15 years
for an unrelated robbery.

Dorty was low-functioning,
had a large criminal record.

A violent individual,
but someone who I don't think

had the intellectual
capacity to really

realize the depth and impact
of what he was doing.

Of course, he doesn't
want to tell us anything.

A major portion of this case
was the cell phone records.

We knew that
Christopher Hein,

he supplied the gun
in this case.

We could see
from his text messages

that he had bought and sold
and was involved

in dealing with firearms.

So what are we thinking now?

That someone hires
Chad Padgett

to kill William Walker.

So Chad Padgett doesn't
want to kill him,

so he gets ahold
of Christopher Hein.

He's able to get guns.

Christopher Hein
gets ahold of Ryan Dorty.

Ryan Dorty decides
he'll be more than happy

to kill William Walker.

So, Chad Padgett, we arrest
him after his interview.

Police get a DNA sample
from Chad Padgett,

and it turns out to be a direct
match to the shell casings

found in the Walkers' yard.

So we know now that
Chad Padgett had handled

the rounds that went
into the gun that

had killed William Walker.

We finally are able to
speak with Uloma's daughter.

She wants to come in
and give us some information,

and she wants to cooperate.

And she actually is willing
to take a polygraph test.

Police interview
Uloma's daughter.

At the time of the murder,
she was only 17 years old.

It's typical protocol
to not name minors

unless they're being
charged as an adult.

And to have all this attention
being brought on you

could be very difficult
for a teenager.

And during the polygraph and
the information she provided,

she tells us the story
of what actually went on.

Her mother, Uloma, actually
wants William Walker dead.

She talks to her daughter
and asks if she has anybody

that would kill William Walker.

The interviews were key
at this point.

Chad Padgett gives
us Uloma's name

and tells us that Uloma
actually offered him

$10,000 to kill Will.

And Uloma also gave him $160

to purchase a gun
from Christopher Hein.

Christopher Hein,
he said he's certainly not

going to kill William Walker.

So now they got to
find somebody else.

Christopher Hein
gets ahold of Ryan Dorty.

Ryan Dorty decides
he'll be more than happy

to kill William Walker.

They decide
they're going to do this

on November 3rd of 2013.

She tells us that her mother
wanted William Walker dead.

And she wanted him dead
for the insurance money.

What we learned is that on
the night of November 3, 2013,

Uloma had sent William out
to go get some fast food

at a local restaurant.

While he was gone,
she told Padgett

to get ready
to commit the murder.

And that's when Dorty shot
him four times in the chest.

One message sent after
the murder said, we got a body.

Next, police subpoena
Uloma Walker's cell phone

and her financial records.

And they find out that she's
in deep financial trouble.

And one of the big reasons

was because she ran up
a lot of credit card debt

and she needed money
to pay off her credit cards.

William Walker, we believe,
had the understanding

that they had more money
than they actually had,

and wasn't aware of,
necessarily, all of the debt

that Uloma had brought
into this marriage

and then accumulated
in the short time

since they had been married.

Uloma was in this real tough
spot with a brand new house,

and she was going
to have to tell

Lieutenant Walker that they--

they financially
couldn't afford it,

that they couldn't stay in it.

She knows that Will has a
$100,000 life insurance policy.

She believed that there was
a large insurance policy

that she would get paid out on,
and then she would be able

to give Mr. Padgett
a cut in that.

So she comes up with a plan

that she's going to kill
William Walker.

All this information that
we hear about Uloma, we think,

we have a monster here.

Uloma's daughter was
only 17 years old.

She was a juvenile.

There's manipulation involved.

The mother manipulates her
and manipulates,

you know, anyone else
she can in this case to get--

she had a goal.

We also found out that
Uloma didn't have cancer.

This whole thing was
a ruse from the start.

From everything
the evidence showed us,

she didn't appear to have
breast cancer.

She wasn't treated
for any of that.

And he seemed to believe
that she did.

At least that's what he had
told co-workers and friends.

He rescues Uloma,
thinking she's dying

or maybe dying
of breast cancer.

And how she repays him is
by taking his life for money.

So of course,
we bring Uloma in.

She does an interview.

Okay.

She refused to admit any
wrongdoing or any involvement.

And with all the information
and evidence that we had,

we decide to charge Uloma
and arrest her that day.

We had no idea what
actually went down there

until the story broke.

And when that story broke,
it was huge.

It was huge.
It took my breath away.

Who would have ever
thought it was her?

Nobody did.
Nobody had an inkling.

It was heart-stopping.

She was very stoic
and didn't appear

to be someone who was charged
in her husband's murder.

Her defense was that she
had nothing to do with this.

These were these kids,
these young adults

that did not like how strict
Lieutenant Walker was.

They didn't like
how he was controlling her.

And they wanted him gone.

And they used their
friends to gun him down,

and that it was their
whole orchestrated event

that did this, that Uloma
had nothing to do with that.

We had been working on
essentially five defendants

and slowly getting
statements from them,

and then working out
plea negotiations.

Padgett, Hein, Dorty
and Uloma's daughter each agree

to take plea deals in return
for testifying against Uloma.

Padgett is sentenced
to 28 years,

Dorty gets 23 years,

and Hein is sentenced
to 18 years.

Uloma's daughter
is sentenced to one month

in juvenile detention.

So going into the trial,
we had just one defendant

that we were trying,
Uloma Curry-Walker.

All four defendants testified
against her at trial.

And so that was part of
the plea negotiations prior to,

was we wanted that testimony.

The courtroom was filled
daily with family members.

And then someone from
the Cleveland Fire Department

was in that courtroom
for everything.

The prosecution argues that
Uloma was motivated by greed.

What did she
have to gain here?

She was in this
financial trouble,

that she thought that she was
getting this large payout.

And it made sense that
she had a reason

to have Lieutenant Walker
killed.

She would then be able to get
out of the debt that she had,

live in this nice new home
they had purchased,

and be rid
of Lieutenant Walker.

These were these kids.

They weren't the criminals

that were just
gunning people down

who they didn't like.

That wasn't in their
criminal history,

and it didn't appear to be
in their character.

The trial lasts
for just about two weeks.

And it takes jurors all of two
hours to reach their decision.

It's the first time
Uloma Curry-Walker has shown

any emotion,
but she breaks into tears

when the jurors
announce their verdict.

Uloma Walker
was sentenced to life

without the possibility
of parole,

which was the best thing
that could have happened

for us and all the hard work
that was done.

It doesn't bring back
William Walker,

but Uloma Walker will never
see the light of day again.

What we now know actually
happened in this case.

Chad Padgett and Ryan Dorty
get out of the vehicle.

Ryan Dorty goes
to the back of the house...

And sits and waits for
William Walker to come home.

Chad Padgett had already
been contacted by Uloma,

basically given some sort
of a code saying

that William Walker had left
and went to the restaurant

to pick up food.

With Ryan Dorty
in the back of the house,

Chad Padgett down the street
in the alley,

William Walker pulls into the
drive and gets out of his car,

goes up to put the keys
in the door to open the door

with the food in his hand.

Ryan Dorty comes from behind
the garbage cans at the back

of the house, confronts William
Walker, shoots four times,

and hits William Walker
with all four shots.

The food drops to the ground.

William Walker
drops to the ground.

Ryan Dorty runs up
to William Walker,

goes through his pockets
to make it look like a robbery

and leaves the scene.

So at this time,
Uloma believes

that her dream has come true.

And now that William
Walker is dead,

she'll be able to get out
of financial debt

and she'll be able
to move on with her life

with an extra
pocketful of money.

That someone is able to plan
this murder, it's unimaginable.

She had a plan
from start to finish.

To us, she's nothing
but a monster.

Just so rare that
you see a female defendant

for a murder-for-hire,
for something, like,

just for money, money issues
that were not

insurmountable money issues.

There was a wrinkle
in Uloma Curry-Walker's plan.

She was doing all
of this to get her hands

on Will Walker's $100,000
life insurance policy.

What she didn't realize was,
she and Will

had only been married
for four months.

Will hadn't had a chance
to change

his life insurance policy.

So the beneficiary on that
$100,000 life insurance policy

was actually
Will's ex-wife, Rita.

It was one of
the greatest losses

that I can recall
in my career on the job.

Working in such close proximity
with him every day

was the ticket.

You know, just the closeness
that you felt with him.

And he would just--you know,

we had desks that were
less than two feet apart,

and we were that close
to each other.

And he would mumble
something under his breath,

and I would hear it,
and it would just crack me up.

He is--he was--he's just
one of those guys

that he's just--the character
he was could laugh.

He'd have me howling,
laughing so hard.

We were in our office
one day and we're dancing.

We're salsa dancing
together, right?

We had somebody open up
the door, look in, and goes,

uh, we'll be right back.

And they closed the door.

You guys need some
alone time in there.

But yeah, he was a great man.

I miss him.

She took someone away
from us

that was a good person,
who was caring,

and all he wanted to do
was take care of people,

including her.

She took him away

and got nothing out of it

other than life in prison

without the possibility
of parole.

I can't explain
to you why a person

would do something like this.

Some glitch, some wire

that didn't hook up
to the right spot.

It seemed like every time
we turned around,

there was another body.

So within a 12-square mile,
you had nine victims.