All language subtitles for After The Fire

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( BIRDS CHIRPING )

( BACKGROUND CHATTER )

ROBIN: Going back to the campus, it didn't feel good.

To me, that campus is--is all about sadness.

( BACKGROUND SHOUTING )

MIKE MORRIS: Here we are

in a dormitory full of freshman college students

in their firsthome-away-from-home.

And they go to sleepon Monday night,

the 18th of January, year 2000,

and are dreaming their little 18 and 19-year-old dreams

and not knowing,'cause they couldn't know,

that they were about to face

the first real crisisof their lives.

Different students reacted in different ways.

Some acted as cowards and some as heroes.

It was just one night,

it was just likeany other night

and it changed drastically for a number of individuals,

and that could happen tonight, that could happen tomorrow,

that could happen any day.

MIKE: No one who was involved in this case in any way

will ever forget it.

It is so senseless

that it was an actof just pure stupidity

and pure cowardice.

JOE KAROL: Lord, we keep the anniversary

of the death of our brothers, Frank, and John-- today.

We pray for all thosewho were injured.

CANDY KAROL: When Joe and I go to church every Sunday,

and during church when you say the "Our Father,"

there's a part in there about forgiveness.

I can't forgive themfor taking our son.

( HELICOPTER WHIRRING )

TV NEWS: The fire in a freshman dorm left three dead

and sent 54 students to area hospitals.

This is a--a huge tragedy.

We don't know a whole lot yet.

TV NEWS: Investigators say the fire started

at about 4:30 this morning on the third floor

of the commons area of a freshman dorm

called Boland Hall.

( SIRENS WAILING )

I remember getting the calland it's burned into my memory.

( SIRENS WAILING )

I can't remember, like,

trying to sit up on a gurneyand look around.

I...

( CRYING )

( SIRENS WAILING )

I was looking for Frank.

I figured he got out.

ROBIN GABY FISHER: Shawn and Alvaro

had only known each other a--

a few weeks when the fire took place.

They didn't havea whole lot in common

except for their backgrounds.

Both were from New Jerseyinner cities,

both were from lived-in families,

underprivileged neighborhoods

with families who struggled to meet ends,

and they were assigned to room together.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

ROBIN: Both Shawn and Alvaro

were the first in their families to go to college.

Neither could afford college

and they really struggled to help their boys get there.

Shawn was raised by a single mother

whose dream, she told him from when he was a little boy,

was that he go to college and have a college experience.

Alvaro's parents came here from Colombia.

They spoke very little English.

SHANY LLANOS: Me and my brother were very close.

He was into sportsas well as I was, so we were--

we had a very, like,a lot of things in common.

I have always felt that my brother and my mom

had been the family strength.

I couldn't even imaginemy life without my brother.

SHAWN: January 18th, 2000

was just a regular, normal night on Seton Hall's campus.

I know there was a big basketball game

going on off campus.

SHAWN: St. John's was, like,

our rival basketball competitors and we beat St. John's,

and we hadn't done so in a couple of years.

The whole campus was just, you know, full of excitement

and feelin' real good that we had conquered our rivals.

It's college, you know.

We're havin' fun, you know.

People play music all night and run up and down the halls

and so it definitely seemed like a regular school night to us.

ALVARO LLANOS: It was getting late

and I decided I needed to study for a class,

for a calculus class.

I went back to my dorm and, you know, started studying

and ended up falling asleep with my book open.

I still had my clothes on.

The dormitorywas these freshmen's

first home away from home

and the presumption is that they'll be safe,

and the reality was that they weren't.

( CRICKETS CHIRPING )

( BIRD CAWING )

( FIRE ALARM BELL )

SHAWN: It was about 4:30 in the morning.

I heard the alarms going off in the building

and just kind of casually got up and said, you know,

"It's another false alarm."

As I approached the door and opened it...

a big cloud of smoke came through

and it just kind of like smacked me in the face

and I turned around and looked at Al and said,

said, you know, "This is-- this is the real deal."

If anyoneentered that hallway,

regardless if they werelow to the floor or not,

they were in serious trouble.

ALVARO LLANOS: I remember him being in front of me until,

like, a couple seconds later, he disappeared.

SHAWN: I couldn't see anything.

I started to feel the heat.

It just was excruciating.

ALVARO: The heat was so hot that,

you know, it was burning--

you felt it burning your skin and your hair and I was--

I was scared for my life.

As soon as I got to the doorway,

I felt like a big patch like a fireball...

I guess a ceiling part was falling

and it fell on my back.

That's when I ended up catching on fire.

( SIRENS WAILING )

As we're pulling uptowards Boland Hall,

I see it wasall these students

actually physically runningaway from the building.

It was almost like maybe there was a shooter there.

That's why the panic in these kids', students', faces.

There's kids in all the windows hanging out the windows

and dark, black smoke comin' out from over their heads.

ROBIN: The fire was raging

and Angie, Alvaro's girlfriend,

lived on first floor and all she could think about is,

"Where is he? Where is he?"

And other students were trying to pull her out

because the fire was closing in.

The only thing that got her out of there

was suddenly this boy, who she described as just black

and didn't even look human,

started rolling down the stairs who was on fire

and she became so terrifiedshe didn't know at that moment

that that was her boyfriend.

CAPTAIN O'CONNOR: We're making our way in.

This student is coming out and I could not tell you

if it was a boy or a girl,

completely burnt, smoking, no hair,

their face was completely blackened.

I cannot imaginehow these kids made it.

MIKE: Parents were flocking to the campus

to find their children

because they knew by this time that there had been deaths

but they didn't know who had died.

Parents wanted to put their hands on their children

to know that they were not the dead,

that they were still alive.

CHRISTINE SIMONS: Well, when I heard

that three had died already and I couldn't find Shawn,

that's when I really got scared

and started crying and everything.

When I went and asked the residence assistants

about Shawn Simons and the way he said,

"Oh, yes. Ken Simons," I screamed.

I guess I was beginning to

really to startthinkin' the worst.

MIKE: Parents were-- were lined, I believe,

behind a rope line

and one of the parents of one of the boys who'd died

had been with his son the night before

at a basketball game

and knew that his son was wearing a certain t-shirt

with a pattern on the front.

Jeffrey Cartwright of the Prosecutor's Office,

who was leading the investigation,

was emerging from the Medical Examiner's Office,

when the fatherof one of the boys called out,

desperate for information,desperate to know whether

one of the dead were--was his son,

"Did he have a certain--

this certain patternon his t-shirt?"

And Cartwright,he flinched at that

and regretted doing it,

for at that moment, the father fell to his knees...

and said,"My life is over."

And to a certain degree,it was.

( RADIO CHATTER )

ROBIN: This was the worst catastrophe

on the largest scale

that St. Barnabas had ever handled.

In the emergency room, kids were crying,

parents were screaming,

nurses were crying,

doctors were shouting orders.

It may have been organized, but it was absolute chaos.

EILEEN GEHRINGER: Just the sheer amount of numbers

of students that I sawthat were waiting to be seen,

covered in soot, crying,

parents looking for their children,

the volume of people that were milling around.

Well, when the doctorsand the nurses

first saw Shawn and Alvaro,

they knew that these werecritically burned children

who were near death.

Both of themhad large injuries,

third-degree burns.

Both of them had smoke inhalation.

ROBIN: They came into the emergency room,

teams descended on them,

and everything had to work so fast

that there wasn't even time to grab a piece of paper.

One nurse literally was writing Alvaro's condition

on her-- on her scrubs.

DR. HANI MANSOUR: Well, they were in distress.

They were thrashing,they were in pain,

they didn't knowexactly what happened

and if they aregoing to survive.

Shawn was absolutelyfighting for breath.

He had severesmoke inhalation.

ROBIN: There were doctors and nurses laying across him,

holding him down;

others were trying to shove this tube down his throat

so he could breathe before his throat closed up

and he couldn't breathe,

and as a result there was bloodjust flying everywhere,

and he was fighting them

and they were trying to hold him down,

and it was really a matter of life and death.

DR. MANSOUR: Alvaro was the worst-looking one.

Al, from the beginning,

we didn't think that he was going to make it.

CHRIS RUHREN: Al's skin

was opening in second and third degree burns.

His skin was off of his face, his arms, his chest, his legs.

Essentially a person's bodyis melting away from them.

ROBIN: There were nurses in tears

when they saw Alvaro especially.

There was one nurse who went out to meet him

and touched his head and said she felt like

that would be the last touchhe ever felt

because she didn't thinkhe'd probably even make it

out of the emergency room.

Shawn, his hands were charred

and you could just see the bone.

They thought right away

that his hands might have to be amputated that very first day

and they were fightingto save his hands.

CHRIS: It's really "are they going to make it through this"

and how do you convey that message to their family,

that they were healthy just five minutes ago

and now they're on death's door.

CHRISTINE: And I'm thinkin', once I get up to the hospital,

I'm gonna see Shawn sitting up in a chair

with a sheet wrapped around him waiting to see the doctor.

So, I'm still notthinking the worst.

I'm just thinking that I've justgot to have time to see him.

Mrs. Simons was--

was brought in to see Shawnearly on before he was--

he was wrapped up.

CHRISTINE: He was connected up

with all these plugs and everything,

but I went over and I start talking to him,

but he didn't respond to me.

I rubbed his head,and when I rubbed his head,

all of the hairjust fell off on the pillow,

all of his curls.

He had beautiful, curly hair.

All of a sudden, I start feeling dizzy.

They had to put me in the bed for awhile,

give me medication.

I panicked.Yes, I did.

Yes, I did.

EILEEN: Al's condition was worse than--

than Shawn's as far as the amount of surface area

that was burned.

It was obvious, you know, he just,

from head to toe there wasgoing to be such disfigurement.

SHIRLEY LLANOS: I went in and my mom was like,

"We're not going to cry,"

because he could probably hear us.

You can't cry.

And I rememberthat when my dad fell,

he fell on his kneesand he just started sobbing,

and then I just started sobbing,

and then my mom was telling us to please, like, you know,

get out of the room because he could hear us.

It was really difficult for meespecially because, you know,

that was my younger brother.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

( SIRENS WAILING )

TV NEWS: The fire in a freshman dorm left three dead

and sent 54 students to area hospitals.

Investigators say the fire started

at about 4:30 this morning on the third floor

of the commons area of a freshman dorm

called Boland Hall.

Firefighters found two of the deceased in this area.

A third victim was found in one of the rooms.

Yeah, this is 2-1-4responding to Seton Hall...

I remember getting the call.

It was probably approximatelyabout five in the morning

and they advised me that there was a dormitory fire

at Seton Hall.

They didn't have many details so basically I got my gear,

I hopped in my vehicle,

and started driving towards the scene.

As we started walking down the hall, it kind of,

you know, looked like a bombed-out building.

There was pieces of ceiling tiles,

ceiling frames, wiring, just dark soot still,

the layer of smoke in the air.

Black, charred devastation.

All fire scenes are--are the same.

They're justcarbonized holes.

JOHN FRUCCI: It was tremendously hot and still smoky.

I remember almost searing my hair

as I gravitated towards the lounge.

The victims were not removed when I got there.

They were still in place where they were.

MIKE: One of the three students that died,

he was discovered.

There was an outline of where he lay

as the soot from the fire settled after he fell

and there is, in this haunting photo,

just the outline of a young life lost

and it's ghostlike.

JOHN: When you do a-- a fire investigation,

you startfrom the least damaged

and then you goto the most damaged.

MIKE: There were three heavily wood-framed sofas

in that dormitory, and of the three,

the couch on the west wall had heavier burn damage,

more charring than either of the other two,

so they workedon the presumption

that that wasthe point of origin

and they began their work there.

It was treated like an archeological excavation,

that they removed debris layer-by-layer,

sort and sift each layer as they go.

JOHN: We ruled out a lot of accidental causes,

so that left, to me, two causes:

either smoldering cigaretteor an intentionally-set fire.

CHIEF JEFF MARKEY: There was a disturbance

right before this fire,

so I was suspicious immediately.

We locked this down.

Whoever set this fire, if it was indeed arson,

that we were going toprotect this evidence

and we were going to make surethat somebody

was going to be heldaccountable for this.

ROBIN: The parents on that first night

just wanted any information, anything about their boys.

Would they live?

Would they die?

And Dr. Mansour said that he felt at such a loss

because he--he just couldn't tell them

whether they'd live or die,and in fact he thought they--

they both may well notmake it through the night.

Well, there was a little waiting room

outside of the Burn ICU.

Mrs. Llanos in particular would just stare at the clock

and it would seem,she would say,

as if the clock never moved.

SHIRLEY: She would sit in the waiting room for hours.

If they were doing treatment on him,

she was always there,always there

and it was like as if timewas just standing still.

But it's liketime's not going anywhere.

It's like I'm stuck.

The hand is stuck on a certain time

and it's not moving

because there's nothing you can do

but just sit there and wait and wait and wait.

( BEEPING )

( CLOCK TICKING )

ROBIN: The very first thing they do

is take these burned patients into the tank room which--

which patients callthe torture chamber.

They did explain to usthe tank room

and how it's scalingoff the skin and--

and I mean,I couldn't even imagine

how painful it would be.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

ROY BOND: It's gotta be like you're handcuffed

or duct-tapedinto a situation

that you can'tget yourself out of.

They're not able to say,"I'm in pain, please stop."

You have to clean these wounds.

You have to see how extensive they-- they are burned.

The most sufferingis during the scrubbing.

This is where the suffering-- this is where--

what we have the--

the "silent scream" that occurs.

ROBIN: I actually saw Alvaro at one point,

in a deep coma,

and I actually watched one timewhen he-- he went like that.

He still felt the pain.

( BEEPING )

It is a brutal, brutal place.

If we give themtoo much painkillers,

then we have to dealwith the complications

related to the painkillers.

They are toxic.

So, even though he was heavily sedated,

he was still there.

He was still aware, in a way, without being able to react.

EILEEN: When you would turn Shawn or Al,

or you would do something that was unpleasant,

they would bite down on the end of the tracheal tube

that was keeping them alive and you'd just know

that they want to tell you something

and you know this is what you have to do,

this is your job, but you just constantly say,

"I'm so sorry.I'm so sorry," you know,

and you're just using4X4 gauze and--

but to them it feels like a,oh, steel-wire brush.

DR. MANSOUR: Sometimes, you know,

when you are doing the work

and you are concentrating on the work, you--

you forget that you have a human being there,

and this is where we have toalways remind ourselves that,

"Just a moment.Are we really hurting him?

Did he get enough sedation?"

( BEEPING )

ROBIN: For three months, Alvaro just lay in a coma.

He was wrapped like a mummy.

All you could seewere his eyes

and his fingertipsand his toes.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

We essentially take awayyour whole identity

when you come inas a burn patient,

so we are breathing for you, we are giving you your fluids,

we are making sure your heart is beating

the way we want it to;

we are making sure you are putting out

what we need you to put out,

so you pretty muchhave no control anymore.

We are in controlof your body.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

SHANY: It became extremely difficult

for my mom because she became desperate

and wanted to see something from him,

some type of movement,a blink of an eye,

just to know that--that he was okay.

SHIRLEY: My mom, she was very strong,

but she did not want to leave his side

because in casehe would open his eyes,

she wanted to be there.

( BEEPING )

ROBIN: These mothers just would sit

by their children's bedside for weeks without knowing

whether they were going towatch their child die.

( BEEPING )

CHRISTINE: You hear all these sounds

and everything of the buzzers

of everything that's going onand whatnot

and then they would take him out of the room.

I would just sit therewith that empty space

and I felt helpless.

Mothers are supposed to protect their children regardless

and I felt like I was letting Shawn down

because I'm in a position right now

where I can't do anything for him

and I really felt that I wasletting him down as a mother.

It's very sad because, again,his whole face

and his whole identityis going to change,

but what doesn't change is the inside of them

and that's very difficult for people to realize.

MIKE: It's enormously frustrating to know that a fire

that killed three, injured 56 - five terribly -

was set by someoneand you don't know who it is.

We had two witnesses,both ear witnesses,

and they har--they described it as a--

a ripping of paper noise,so we questioned the people

"what would be the loud tearing noise?"

and we came to the conclusion it was the bulletin board.

MIKE: And no one was coming forward with any information

about who set it.

The first real indicator

was an interviewwith one of the defendants.

JOHN: Shawn Ryan was one of the students on the floor.

He was coming in like everybody else for interviews.

The subject of the lounge comes up

and the pulling down the paper,

and we knew there was something more there

and then we got tothe breaking point.

"Okay, I tore the paper down,but I didn't set it on fire."

This electrifiedthe interviewers.

How did this student know that there was paper

that was set on fire?

This brought the first suspicionto Shawn Ryan.

The belief in the room was that he absolutely knew

how and by whom this fire was started

and was wrestling with himselfat that moment

whether to confessor whether to conceal.

And that was the last time that we ever spoke to him

without his counsel.

MIKE: According to a fraternity brother,

Ryan and LePore told him that they had been sleeping

until the sound of the fire alarm.

That contradicted the subsequent statements

of both Ryan and LePore who said they were awake

up until the timeof the fire alarm

and there was one interesting news interview

with Joseph LePore where he's describing...

...smoke, I see peoplehanging out of the windows,

and there was justa lot of smoke.

Whereas anyone else that wasanywhere near that fire scene

had a face that had beenblackened by the soot.

You couldn't even see ten in--

ten inchesin front of your face.

One of the thingsthat went through our heads

was the gall of this young man,actually taking to the camera

minutes after participating in that deadly blaze.

We also thoughtit was good evidence

that he was lying.

* Oh oh oh oh oh dulcis Virgo Maria *

JOE KAROL: We had to have a closed coffin and we--

that last nightthat we talked about it earlier,

when we saw himthat Monday night,

that wasn't just the last timewe saw him alive,

that was the last timewe saw him, period,

because we couldn't havean open coffin.

JOANNE: And for us, we--

we went through the tragedyfrom four o'clock in the morning

when we first gotthe first phone call

that there was a fire,

to identify something of him that was left

and it was difficult.

It was a very difficult day.

CANDY KAROL: It was extremely important

that they get to the bottom of this.

Just to know the dedicationthat they would have to find out

who murdered our sonwas very important.

MIKE: Yes, it must have been very difficult

for the parents to watch their sons being buried

knowing that someonehad killed them

and not knowing who it was.

It would be impossibleto digest the grief

of burying your 19-year-old son anyway,

but that was just salt in the wound.

I believe God does not equip us

to absorb the blow of our children pre-deceasing us.

JOANNE: It's a nightmare

that parents don't want to think about.

To lose a childis the worst.

CANDY: I cannot and will never, ever forgive them.

Even though I know God tells me I should,

the human part of me comes out and says,

"No, I can't forgive themfor taking our son."

( EERIE MUSIC PLAYING )

ROBIN: I've never witnessed that much pain,

that much suffering.

Shawn and Alvaro suffered so horribly.

The unit was just-- it pulsed with pain.

It really did.

Skin grafting is extensive surgery,

and it's very delicate surgery,

and initially we're grafting to cover the wounds.

CHRIS: They would borrow some skin from their thighs

or, in Al's case, an area that wasn't burned.

Now you have another patchof an area

that is an open piece of skin

and eventually that has to heal as well.

The extent of injury that Al--that Al had,

to turn him,it took several of us

just to gently roll him on his side

and to do his back, which was horribly burned,

and just keep saying you're sorry

and just feel terrible as to what you have to do,

but you're comforted in the factthat what you're doing

is going toultimately help them.

( BEEPING )

Dr. Mansourhas been the driving force

here at the Burn Center.

He's always had a very soft spot for the children

and these were two children that were admitted

and their suffering is-- touches him very deeply

and he does anythingthat he can to--

to eradicate that.

His first burn patient,he was a child

and he was growing upin Beirut

and he heardthis horrible scream,

as he describes it,

and he asked the nurse, "What is that?"

and-- and the woman said, "That's a burned patient,"

and Dr. Mansour said,"Well, why don't you help him?"

and she said,"There's nothing we can do

except wait for him to die."

DR. MANSOUR: When I saw these massive burns,

it ignited this distress that I had

when I heard that nobody'sdoing anything to help him

because they couldn'tdo anything to help him.

He never, ever forgotthat sound of that patient

and so, as he grew up, he--he decided

that that was something he needed to do

and that he was going to helpburn patients.

The job in the Burn Unit,

I can't imagine more thana handful of people in the world

could or would do it.

ROY: To work here,

you have to be physically and emotionally strong

because of what you're dealing with every day,

I mean, again, pain.

I mean,there's no pain like that

anywhere else in this hospitalthat I've seen.

These burn nurseshave had to cradle

burned babiesto their death.

They say the kidsare the worst

and you can see when a kidcomes into the Burn Unit,

they can, you know,they hold it together

'cause they're so strong,but afterward, they fall apart.

Alvaro's girlfriend Angie was 18 years old.

He was her first real boyfriend,she was his first girlfriend.

They were very much in love,young kids in love.

SHANY: I was extremely close to Angie.

We would tell each other our secrets.

I remember when this happenedto my brother,

we would stay up late at nighttalking and crying,

talking about my brother.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

Angie would-- just wantedto touch him so much

and the only partthat she could touch

were his toes,and so she would take cream

and she would just cream his toes

and just massage his toes

just so she could touch part of him.

SHIRLEY: Angie used to write him letters and, like,

put a kiss on it and it was, like,

just all over his room.

CHRISTINE: She stayed out of school for two weeks

and she was up at that hospitalevery day, every second.

SHIRLEY: She never went out with her friends.

She spent her days at his bedside,

and when she wasn't at his bedside,

she was translating between the doctors and his parents.

CHRISTINE: She would bring music up to the--

into the room to let him listen to the different musics

and everything and she was just always there for him.

We did all think that thisis gonna be tough for her,

you know.

She's a young girl and she's 18 and there's a--

a boy in front of her that has his whole life changed.

CHRISTINE: We were at the hospital together so much

it's like we became one family.

We became roommates becausewe shared the same waiting room.

We did everything together.

EILEEN: And the families would sit together

and they would talk about the boys

and they kind of drew strengthfrom each other,

even with the language barrier,at times.

ROBIN: Mrs. Simons took it upon herself

to take Daisy and her husband under her wing

because they weremuch more vulnerable,

much more fragilethan Mrs. Simons.

We start talking to each otherabout our children before,

you know, the way it was, and--

and we really bondlike a family.

SHIRLEY: We grew very close to the Simons during the--

the time when they were both in a coma.

Like, we were constantly together, you know,

supporting each other,

helping each other in tough times.

There were times whereI would cry or my mom would cry

or Shawn's moms would cry

and we would just hug each other.

SHANY: When Shawn woke up and he was able to respond to us,

I do remember the excitement.

SHAWN SIMONS: I kind of looked around

and, I'm lookin' like, "Hey, where am I?"

I was very weak and I saw, you know,

a face come into my-- my eyesight,

and it was one of the nurses and she said, you know,

"You're all right."

Knowing that he wasalmost not gonna make it

to now he's gonna make it.

You know, that is, again, like the Fourth of July.

It's a great day.

After Shawn woke upin the tank room,

they brought himback to his room,

and now all the nursescan't wait until

Christine and Kenny,his parents, walk in,

and all the nurses are watching them and saying,

"Ooh, we have a surprise for you!"

CHRISTINE: I just screamed.

I was just so-- I was so happy.

I-I was just full of tearsbecause that was my Shawn.

My Shawn was back with me.

SHAWN: It just gave me that warmth that, you know,

she was-- you know, she was--she was there this time.

It wasn't this stranger.It was my mother.

CHRISTINE: The first words that came out of Shawn's mouth--

and I would never forget it--he said, "Mom, where were you?"

and-- and I cried.

I said, "Shawn,I never left your side.

I was always here with you."

Shawn really wanted tocommunicate with his mother.

He kept trying to talk,

but of course he had tubes down his throat

so he couldn't speak, and so a nurse ran

and got this page with the alphabet on it

and he pointed out "How's Al?"

CHRISTINE: I told Shawn, "He's in another room,"

but we never told Shawn the extent of Al's injuries.

ROBIN: Shawn used to fantasize

that Alvaro was going to walk through his door

and be even with himin his recovery and--

and challenge him to seewho could get better first,

and I actually think that got him through

a lot of very, very lonely, scary nights.

Shawn was always thinking about Alvaro.

He would ask all the nurses, "How's my roommate?"

and they'd say, "We're taking care of him.

He's fine," and he didn't believe them.

Instinctively he knewthat Al was in terrible shape.

Shawn, I didn't knowuntil he started to wake up,

that his concernwas not about himself,

it was about Alvaro.

"How's Al?How's he doing?"

I just remembered that,you know, my mother always said

that Al was two doors down.

I try my best every day to walk a little further

and when I got to the second room

that was down from mine, I kind of peeked in,

and I saw his parents

and that's how I knew that it was--

that it was Alvaro.

( BEEPING )

His full body was covered in gauze.

I was up and I felt like he shouldn't be like that.

( BEEPING )

CHRISTINE: He had become very, very angry

and we didn't understand why.

He was blaming himself for what happened to Al.

And one day I asked him, "Why have you been so angry?

That's not you,"

and then that's whenhe broke down and he told me.

SHAWN: My mother said to me,

"You have to be strong in order to, you know,

help him get through this,"

and from that day on, I just made it a--

a-- a effort to visit himevery day

and talk to him every day.

I needed to be there for him.

I just felt like we both had been through this, you know,

this fire together, and if I'm strong enough to--

to-- to get through it,

that he's strong enoughto get through it.

( BACKGROUND TALKING )

SHIRLEY: I was very happy

when Shawn finally opened his eyes and woke up.

I was happy for his family,

but at the same time I felt anxiety

because I wanted the same thingfor my brother

and I wish it could've happenedat the same time.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

The Llanoses felt certain

that they were going tolose their boy,

their pride and joy.

CHRIS: She was very emotional, very emotional,

and to me she had a very normal reaction

of a mother to a son.

You know, Al was the caretaker,we found out, in the house,

and now her caretakerwas not going to be there.

It was really toughfor a while.

Like, my dad had had a stroke.

He himself was in ICU.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

Our family had already

went through so much alreadythat this was just added on.

ROBIN: When Shawn finally saw himself,

his face was-- was pretty burned

and his hands were-- were--

were just completely disfigured.

He was angrythat his appearance had changed.

CHRISTINE: He just cried like a little baby

that first day that he looked in that mirror.

You-- you want to sit thereand cry with them

because you knowthat's what they want to do.

They, you know,"What happened to me?

Where's my face?"

DR. MANSOUR: Shawn's hands were very badly burned.

At the beginning,

we thought that maybe he's gonna lose some fingers.

SHAWN: The reason of the pins

was because my fingerswere bent like this

and it was to the point

where they needed tostraighten them out.

I think I had to keep them in there for, about,

maybe two weeks, and when they removed them,

it was, um, hey, it was just like,

they pull it out, you know,

and it was one of the mostpainful experiences

of being burned, you know.

Shawn had a difficult timetaking his gloves off,

the gloves that are used totry to prevent more scarring.

SHAWN: I almost at one point wanted to say,

"Hey, if I keep these gloves on for the rest of my life,

nobody's gonna, you know,notice that I'm burned."

ROBIN: His mother, his whole life,

told him that a woman judged a man by his hands.

He was absolutelydevastated by that.

SHAWN: It took, you know, my--

my occupational therapist, Catherine Ruiz, to tell me,

you know, that the less you wear your garment,

you know,the more comfortable

you're going to feelin your skin.

CHRISTINE: If you don't use those muscles and whatnot,

once they heal into a certain position,

you won't be able to use it.

SHAWN: It was painful.

It was days where I just didn't want to do it.

The repetitiveness

and that having to do it over and over and over again,

you know, not really seeing a big change.

ROY: To not be able to do

the things you were used to doing

has to be hard for any patient,

and for Shawn, it had to be equally hard

because he is 19 years old also,and here he is,

the simple things in lifehe can't do right now.

ROBIN: Things you take for granted:

picking up a coin off the floor,

holding your fork, holding a pencil.

SHAWN: You just get deterred, and-- and--

and, you know, just kind of want to give up.

CHRISTINE: He always would stare out the window

and I was asking him, "Shawn, what are you looking at?"

( CHUCKLING )

And he would always say to me,

"I'm trying to find a wayto get out of here."

( CHUCKLING )

But he just...

he-- he was just determinedto get out of the hospital.

MIKE: LePore and Ryan began to realize

that the investigation was focusing on them

and they clammed up.

We believed that the fraternity,

as a body, knew more than they were telling us,

and so it was an attempt to put pressure on them

that law enforcement was going to press against them

to break up the circled wagons.

We knew a lot of these peoplewe wanted to speak to

frequented that bar, so we figured,

"Okay, they're going to do the underage drinking bust.

Let's be ready to give out the subpoenas

for the people who are dodging us."

MIKE: We believed they knew from early on

about the involvement

of Shawn Ryan and Joseph LePore in this fire and that,

early on, had decidedto circle their little wagons

and protecttheir fraternity brothers

against law enforcement.

Nothing was ever produced.

No one ever spoke.

They hired extremely competent attorneys

who gave us the roughest time they could.

I was just surprisedthat they didn't want to help

solve a crimethat killed three people

and injured so many more.

Don't you want to help?

Don't you want to do something?

I mean, those are your fellow students.

MIKE: We hoped that one of them

might grow a conscience

and come forward and tell us what they knew.

We believe they walk aroundwith secret knowledge even today

and they'll have to carry that.

JOHN: Some of the other investigators from Homicide

had a, you know, an organized crime informant

that said they had someinformation regarding the case.

MIKE: In the moment of family crisis,

apparently one of the LePore family members

turned to Daniel Ricciardi,a man of an unsavory background,

for advice as to how to proceed with respect to

the criminal investigationinto Joseph LePore.

JOHN: The informant had said

that the mom had approached him

and said that the son had some type of involvement

in the fireand that was the offer--

information to give up.

Occasionallyyou have to, sort of,

make a deal with the devil,with the devil you know

to get a hold of the devilyou don't know.

MIKE: Once authorized by the court,

the investigation looked for an opportunity

to enter the home and place the listening devices

without, of course, the occupants of the home

being aware that the listening devices were placed.

SHERIFF FONTOURA: It's not what he knew.

I think this is what he was able to-- to--

to provide for us and,

whether it befirsthand knowledge

or secondhand knowledge,but to be able to--

to lead this investigation in--in-- in the right direction

and point tothe right individuals.

It's a big celebrationwhen you leave the Burn ICU.

All the nurses make a big deal when a patient's being released.

It is a big deal.

Everybody was in a celebratory mood and--

and Shawn's parents came.

SHAWN: It was exhilarating.

I mean, it was like the--

like the victory lap at a-- at a, you know,

an Indianapolis 500or something, you know.

CHRISTINE: When we was getting ready to leave,

he said, "Ma," he said, "I got one more thing to do."

He said, "I got to go and see Albefore I leave."

ROBIN: He was still in a coma

and he was still critically ill,

and Shawn...

broke down.

ROY: You could almost see tears in his eyes, you know,

while he was talking to him and--

and just like a friend would do a friend,

you know, say, "It's gonna be all right.

I'm here for you," you know,

"We're gonna get through this together."

That's nice to see.

CHRISTINE: He couldn't just leave Al

without going in the room

and talking to him,even though Al was in a coma,

but I guess he just feltlike he had to do that

and, you know, when he did,he came back out he--

he just cried like a baby but it was a relief for him.

SHAWN: And I just made a promise to myself

that every day that I came for, you know,

occupationaland physical therapy,

no matter how tired I wasand ready to go home

and lay down, you know,I had to go upstairs and--

and-- and see Al,you know, every day.

ROBIN: Alvaro was weeks into his recovery,

still in a coma,

but every day that he livedwas hopeful.

Matt and I got to the Burn Unit one morning

and it was as if someone had died.

CHRIS: This is a very severe turning point.

Alvaro crashed

and he was going into what we call ARDS,

which is Adult RespiratoryDistress Syndrome.

The lungs are essentiallyshutting down,

they're telling you they don'twant to take air in anymore,

and-- and he hada massive infection

and temperature is goingup to about 105.

It's-- it's not a good sign.

It's-- you know, we losepatients that have ARDS.

It's just an overwhelming assault on the lungs.

( BEEPING )

CHRIS: This was frightening.

It was frightening because you had to tell the parents

after a very longperiod of time,

"He's dying right nowin front of us

and we don't knowif we can save him."

SHIRLEY: When she found out that

it was a possibilitythat he could die,

I remember her going homeand sobbing

and she was like on her knees praying to God

asking Him to save her son.

And I remember that I still kept waiting

for my brother to walk through, like, ( SNIFF ) physically,

you know, the brotherthat I was used to seeing.

We all sat there and--and it was a death watch.

It was a death watch.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

SHIRLEY: So all she can do

is constantly be on top of the doctors.

She couldn't evenentertain the thought

that Alvarowas as sick as he was,

so she would findlittle things to focus on.

Her son was dying and she was asking questions like,

"Why does he have a small brown patch on his eyelid?"

I think one day they finally decided

she's got to understand how bad this really is.

She's got to face it because he may die anytime now.

She screamed and screamedand cried and-- and-- and--

and I've never seen anyoneever that distraught.

SHIRLEY: We would always pray,

but my mom would constantly pray and pray and pray

and because she said she felt in her heart

that God was going to pull through, you know,

like hoping for the best.

That's all that we could do at that time.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

When she thoughtthat he was going to pass away,

she told my grandmotherand my grandmother she took,

you know, the next flight that she could and she came,

but my grandmotherwas a very spiritual person,

very spiritual.

Her faith was, like,unbelievable.

She was talking to us in the room and she said,

"I don't want you guys to be upset with me

but I made a promise to God,

and I asked Him to please take my life

and to spare your brother's."

It was weird becausethe sicker my grandmother got,

it seemed like the better

my brother's state started to get.

She ended upgoing to the doctor

and they told her that she had pancreatic cancer

and then my grandmother ended up passing away.

ROBIN: After three months in a coma,

Alvaro started waking up.

No one expected it.

( BEEPING )

CHRIS: She was so excited.

She was so happy that he was doing that

and her whole persona, I remember,

that day just changed.

It was like she was--

she realized that he was inside the body,

he was inside the bandages,

and I think that washer realization that day,

that her boywas still in that bed.

It wasn't just a bunch ofbandages laying there.

ALVARO LLANOS: I remember just feeling weak

and, like, you know, everything's blurry.

It was-- it was-- you don't realize what's going on.

You're still confused.

And it was-- it was hardbecause, you know,

you want to talk to peoplebut you couldn't.

One of my biggest fearsis probably being buried alive,

trying to communicate and you really can't.

You're trying to say something to somebody and you can't.

You got an itch and you can't scratch

because you can't move.

ALVARO: And you feel like the walls are closing in on you

and you see your family walking out, walking back in,

and you want to know what's going on out there.

You want to be able to live your normal life

and just walk out and see

what's going onin the next room

or in the area thereand you get frustrated.

You, like,you feel trapped and--

and it's scarybecause you have--

you don't have the strengthor energy

or you're not healthy enoughto be living a normal life.

ROBIN: So, after a few days of Alvaro occasionally blinking

and people thinking he's coming back to life.

SHAWN: Al had woke up out of his coma

but I didn't know what they wanted to do

was almost kind ofplay a trick on me.

ROBIN: Shawn came up after physical therapy one day,

his outpatient therapy,

and he came up to the room and he walked in

and said hi to everyone and he looked over at Al

and he said, "How you doing, Al?"

and Alvaro said his first words,"Chillin',"

and Shawn said,"What did you say?"

and Alvaro said, "Chillin'."

SHAWN: I just kind of like broke down then and--

and it was just huge, you know, sigh of relief.

From that point on, I knew that, you know,

Al was going to get a lot better.

ALVARO: I could see in his face how--

you know, how happy he was,

you know, to see me upand, you know,

he was trying to talk to meabout sports

and everythingthat was going on.

SHAWN: You know, I think it was a victory

for not only for me and Al

but it was a victory for all the nurses

that had dedicated so many time, you know,

so much time to him and, you know, the doctors who,

you know, performed the surgeries and--

and for his family and-- and, you know,

for all our friends in the Seton Hall community.

After Alvaro startedreally regaining consciousness,

when he started talking a little bit,

he started asking his mother how he looked.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

A cardinal rulein the Burn Unit

is you never lieto the patient.

It's so traumatic then.

You can't tell him he looks fine when he's disfigured.

ALVARO: She was scared to hurt my feelings,

to tell me the truth.

She didn't want to hurt me.

ROBIN: The therapist got the mirror,

walked in, and said,

"Alvaro, it's time for you to see yourself,"

and he was terrified!

And the whole time Shawn'ssaying, "It's okay, buddy.

It's okay.You know, look at me.

I'm-- I'm burned too."

And Alvaro, finally, he looked in

and he had this stunned, numb look on his face

and he just stared.

ALVARO: It was very depressing seeing the bandages

and seeing all the bruises and, you know,

these weird marks on my face.

I was scared that, you know,would this ever improve,

will I go back to normal,

or will I look like thisfor the rest of my life?

It was emotionalas, you know,

and a tear dropped downfrom his eyes.

It was tough. It was tough for him,

it was tough for his parents,

it was tough for-- for everybody.

You know, I took off my maskat that point in time.

I said, "Al, look," you know,

"the same thing'shappened to me," you know,

and I think that wasa comforting, you know,

sight for him to see.

ALVARO: He showed me his-- his scars,

showed me how his scars healed

and that he was doing much better.

He was going tomake him better.

He was going to help him.

He loved Alvaro.

I could see the love growing between them.

It's incredible because we--we-- we share so much now

and we'll always be bondedfor life, you know.

We're always going to be survivors

and it's somethingI never, you know,

I never want to give up.

ROBIN: There wasn't one significant event

in Alvaro's recovery that Shawn wasn't there for.

Not one.

He insisted on being there for everything,

he made surehe was there for everything,

and Alvaro wanted him therefor everything.

JOHN: We knew we were on the right track.

All signs were pointing to these two guys,

that they were the ones who did it.

All those little pieces ofthe puzzle were put together,

presented to the grand jury.

Grand jury indicted basedon the evidence we presented

and then we, in turn,got arrest warrants.

I had personally been following LePore

from about four o'clock in the morning.

MIKE: On this particular day,

because of the report of the movements of LePore

going from bank to bank to bank,

the suspicion was that he was gathering money to flee.

JOHN: He panicked and went down a dead end.

MIKE: He tried to flee and in fact rammed a police car.

It was a relieffor a little bit,

but we knewthe difficult mount was coming

and that was to convict him and get him to trial.

For that brief second,hey, we-- we got him.

ROBIN: As if Al hadn't been through enough pain,

the burn recovery is so painful.

The stretching of his skin

because he wasso horribly scarred

this whole partof his body.

Roy had to stretch him

or he could've literally lost the use of his arms.

The scarred tissue,if you don't have any movement,

and once the scar matures,it gets tightened,

and you lose a range-- range of motion.

ROY: Sometimes I'd spend an hour in his room

stretching him out

and I could see him grimacing and kind of like

biting his teeth a little bit, but he took it.

ALVARO: He used to push me hard to, you know,

to make sure I don't lose that range,

so my body doesn't get tightand I can't live a normal life.

One of his concernswas hugging his girlfriend,

his family.

The only person he's huggin' at that time is me.

He also started to understand that

"this is not going to be as easy as I thought it was."

He's saying, "This hurts a lot, and I've got medication.

This still hurts," and I think he's realizing

this is not going to bea short haul,

this is going to bea long road.

SHAWN: Angie was-- was a saint for Al

and they made a beautiful couple.

You know, it was tough but she was there,

she definitely showed her commitment.

If, you know, a tear fell from his eye,

she was there to wipe it.

I think it was a partof his recovery as well.

We all wereworried about Angie

because this wasa young girl

who was dating this boyand she had to--

to realize the extent of his injuries

and that he had a long road ahead of him.

After awhileI started to notice that,

hey, you know,she wasn't around as much.

I would ask,you know, nurses,

you know, you know,"Did Angie come?"

SHIRLEY: Then I started to worry because I was, like,

he's gonna need her support and he loves her so much.

For her not to be there, it would be heartbreaking.

ROBIN: One day she finally just said,

"I'm a-- I'm a kid.

I'm-- I'm trying to live a life and I'm--

I'm here in this horrible placewatching my boyfriend die.

I can't do it anymore."

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

ROBIN: Spouses frequently left their burned spouses.

They just can't handle burns

and so they said to expect an 18-year-old girl

to stay with her boyfriendwho was so horribly burned,

it wasn't going to happen.

SHAWN: The world caught up to her.

She said, "Hey, you know, hey,

I need to get back into school and, you know,

I have my own personal life and-- and, you know,

I want to be here for Al,"

but for herself she had to move on

and she had to just-- just get on with her own life.

ALL: * Happy birthday to you

* Happy birthday dear Al

* Happy birthday to you

ROBIN: It was Alvaro's 19th birthday in May,

while he was in the hospital.

SHIRLEY: My whole entire family,

all of his friends came and,

you know, we had a cake for him with a candle.

It was another stepin our victory.

You know, it was--

it was a sense ofan accomplishment, you know,

and people had, you know,saw where Al came from

and where he was now.

SHANY: I guess just knowing that we were actually able

to celebrate his birthday,like, it actually happened.

He-- he woke up

and we're actuallycelebrating his birthday.

It was--it was just very emotional.

SHIRLEY: Very emotional because he pulled through

and very emotional for him

because it was a pointin his life

where it was almost likehe was starting over again.

( JUMBLED CHATTER )

SHAWN: Everybody was out in the waiting room so,

you know, I went to his room and I went to go, you know,

get him to bring him outto everybody,

and when I was in the room,he was in there writing.

ROBIN: And I can still see his--

his handwriting was shaking but he wrote

"Shawn, you are a good friend."

SHAWN: It was one of the craziest feelings I ever felt.

I mean, he--it just was so heartfelt and--

and, you know,I knew it was sincere

and it-- it-- it just showed that the bond

that me and Al had was-- was-- was a true bond.

ALVARO: Having him there, you know,

made it easier for me in the process.

He-- he gave me a lot of strength

and he'd been through all the situations I'd been through

and he was ahead of me recovery-wise

and just watching him

that he was getting backto normal, strong,

helped me get strongerand motivated

that I wanted to get backto a normal life like he is.

He's back to his.

ROY: You saw the camaraderie between the two of them,

and Alvaro wrote that.

It just reassured that that relationship was good.

Sometimes friends are friends

that don't talk to everybody every day,

but sometimes it's the things you say,

it's the things you do,

and the factthat he wrote that for us...

I mean, I watched some ofthe therapists around me,

you know, like,tears in their eyes

and, you know, it was like,"I don't believe he wrote that.

Why did he have to do that?

He knew we were going toget caught up in the moment.

He should've waited'til we were out of the room."

( BACKGROUND CHATTER )

SHIRLEY: And it was probably the best day he had

in the Burn Unit up to that point,

except that Angie was there and it was at, you know,

the end of their relationship.

( SPEAKING SPANISH )

There wereso many people around,

but the focuswas on him and Angie

and she was keptto the back.

Only Shawn joined her to try to make her feel better.

His family isolated her and she was very, very upset

and she finally decided--

she started crying and she waded through the crowd

and leaned over to Alvaro and-- and she said,

"You can see what your family's doing.

Can't you?"

And he said, "I know you're leaving,"

and she said, "I have to go."

She literally fled to the elevator and-- and--

and he started crying because, he said,

that was really what he wantedmore than anything,

was to spend time with herand she was gone.

SHIRLEY: When she left, you could see the pain in his face

and his tears started to come down

and then I got very emotional,my sister got very emotional,

because we don't want tosee him like that.

He's already goingthrough enough.

We didn't want himto have added pain.

ALVARO: I wanted her relationship as a friend.

That's what I wanted.

I didn't care about, you know, being boyfriend-girlfriend

because at that moment,

I couldn't be a boyfriend to anybody because I had--

I had my own lifeto worry about

and get my life back to living,back to a normal life.

ROBIN: He could see her moving away and moving away

and he told her, "You know,

I really don't want to have you around

because it's distracting to me in my recovery,

so you don'tneed to come anymore,"

and the only reasonhe did that was to let her go,

to be kind to her,and he was heartbroken over it,

but that's justthe kind of a boy he is.

SHIRLEY: It was amazing when I saw that my brother

left the hospital and he came home

and my whole family greeted him at home

and my mom had cooked, like, his favorite meal.

They had set up the biggest room for him

and bought him, like, a new bedroom set

and he had all this love

and made it just so much more comfortable for him,

but it was just so exciting

just to have him thereafter so long.

ALVARO: It was hard when I first came home,

trying to, you know, get back to a normal life.

Everything was so hard.

You know, you feel like you're in a different body,

you're trying to do things that you used to do

and was so easy, so normal.

It's frustrating when you have your family helping you.

You don't want themto help you

and then you do want themto help you

and it gets frustrating.

SHANY: Almost every night,

I can hear my brother crying to my mom

saying that he's ugly now,that why did this happen to him,

saying that he didn'twant to live this way.

I would remember going into the room also

trying to console him, but I just felt like

there wasn't anythingI could say or do

to make him feel better.

ROBIN: He was by no means comfortable in his new skin,

his burned skin, for a very long time.

In fact, for a very long time,he hid in--

in his bedroom in Patterson,

and you would walk in the room

and it would be dark except for the--

the TV light because he was afraid to go out.

ROY: When you don't look like you used to look,

the questionis gonna always be is

"how will people accept me?"

ROBIN: I noticed with Alvaro when he would go out

and people would bestaring at him,

he'd pretend he didn't see

and would later say he knowseveryone stares at him.

Sometimes he would cry and say, "I'm so ugly."

I felt like everybodywas judging me

for the way I look.

ROY: Sometimes it's not what people say,

it's the look on your face that says a lot

and for these guys, they knew,

they'd already been in the mirror,

they'd already seen what they look like.

They can kind of read sometimeswhat other people are thinking

about how they must look.

SHIRLEY: Shawn actually gave him strength

and gave him hope,

and when my brother was down,he was there for him,

and he would tell himnot to give up.

Just having himby my side was, you know,

it was good for me,and even though sometimes,

we don't see each otherall the time,

but when we dosee each other,

we know we'll have this connection and--

and we just, you know, like a magnet,

we just attract each other and it, you know,

feels good to have him as part of my family.

SHIRLEY: What I admire the most about my brother

was that he didn't give up

and that he made the best out of the situation

and even though it frustrated him,

even though he had his moments where he would, like,

you know, cry and get depressed,

which, it would've happenedto any regular person--

but the fact that he--

he made himself strong enoughto overcome that.

But then as time went on, and with all the support--

the family support, support from Shawn,

from everyone,

just telling him and talking to him

and him realizing himself that there's more to life

than just how you look, he overcame that obstacle

and he started going out

and started feelingmore and more comfortable

and then that's howhe met his wife.

We laugh about itbecause we think about how

I didn't want togo out that night

and he also didn'twant to go out

and we were both kind offorced by our own friends.

And when Paula saw Alvaroacross the room,

she looked right past his scars and into his heart.

Ever since the first nightthat we did meet,

we were inseparable,

either through the phone or hanging out together.

And when he met her, like,you saw a whole different,

like, way about him,you know.

Like, he seemed more confident.

He wasn't so afraid.

JOHN: The indictments were felony murder,

aggravated arson, conspiracy,

witness tampering.

Their bail was setat $2 million cash,

no ten percent.

They would treatthe litigation,

when they would comeinto the courtroom,

like they wereat a sports bar--

laughing, joking, mocking at court officers--

which I interpreted to just be denial

that this is real at all.

JOHN: LePore, he was very arrogant,

and he was basically like,

"I'll be home before you get home."

And it wasn't untilthey saw the jury

that their attitudes changedand they became grave,

and shortly after that, um,they approached us with a plea

that includedState prison time.

JOE KAROL: For years, I dreamed of that moment

when I would be able to face them

and tell them in court what I thought of them,

and especially for the cowardice,

the denials, the lies.

I wanted to spill my gutsand tell them everything

that I thought of themface-to-face,

eye-to-eye, man-to-man,and I wasn't allowed to do that.

I was allowed to make a statement,

but the statement had to be made facing the judge.

CANDY: "I will never again hear him listen to his music.

"I will never again be able to hold him.

"I will never again be able to kiss him

and tell him goodnight."

But, Mr. LePore and Mr. Ryan,

eventually your judgment day will come

from the highest court,

and you will both see a jury

consisting of Frankie, Aaron, and John,

and on that day, justice will be served.

I would like to say

that these murderers should know

that the Ten Commandments say "Thou shalt not kill."

I hope that they think about that

every day and every night for the rest of their lives

and know that somewhere I will be out there

praying to God that they are eternally banished to hell

and you'll hear these words, "God damn them both,

God damn their families, God damn their prodigy,

and anyone who assisted them to commit these horrific acts."

JUDGE: Sir! Sir.

It was just so emotional,

and then, like,they were saying, like,

"How can you sit thereand smile and smirk

after you killed my brother?"

This is what they were telling--

this is what the guy was telling them.

I mean, the judge even had totell him to calm down

because he, like,ripped the paper up

and, like, threw it 'causehe was so upset and so hurt.

There was so much pain there.

Candy and I were seated

right next toAlvaro and his wife

and I could feel the paincoming out of them.

Al could not even get up to make his own statement.

His wife read it for him,

and our hearts were justbleeding for him.

PAULA LLANOS: My name is Paula Llanos.

I'm reading this. My husband wrote it.

( SNIFFING )

( SOBBING )

At one point,

one of the arsonistslooked over--

looked over toward Alvaroand actually smirked,

and it was hard to take.

It was like, "What are you thinking?

What are you thinking?"

SHIRLEY: It was very difficult for me

because seeing my brother there crying

and then seeing the people

that actually caused this to happen

to be there smiling, it was, like,

"How can you do that?

Like, do you realize the pain

you've caused him and the other victims,

and did you realize that because of what you did,

you killed three people,three innocent, young people,

you know,that were full of life?"

MIKE: Arson is the most difficult

criminal case to prove.

Only two percent of arsons result in a conviction,

either by a guilty verdict or a guilty plea.

TOMMY PUGLIESE: It was hard for them to pin the kids

to the actual incident,

I mean, outside of what they did and what they said

and what they didn't say and so on and so forth.

I mean, logistically we had to take it

because we always ran that risk

of them going to trialand then walking free.

It was not uncontroversial,

but I thoughtthat a very high value

had to be placed on the aspect of closure

brought by the open confession of the arsonists.

I had hoped that the two of them would take this moment to turn

and face the families and say, "I'm so sorry for what I did.

I cannot bring your son back. I wish I could."

JOE: Fifteen seconds to make a written, on yellow pad,

expression of so-called sorrowand all they said,

basically, was,"I'm sorry for your loss."

I'm sorry.

TV NEWS: LePore and Ryan were unemotional

through the sentencing.

Judge Fullilove said he was satisfied with the deal.

Many people who witnessed the emotional testimony

spoke of an "imperfect justice."

If justice is measured by the number of years

that they're doing behind bars,

then justice has not been received.

The reality is we have an imperfect system

that we work with

and that I am very, very satisfied

to see them walk away, handcuffed, to jail

and that that is a positive result,

given what we have here.

SHIRLEY: We just felt that they--

they needed to be reprimanded for what they did.

Here, they changed my brother's life forever;

you know, not only my brother's but Shawn's

and how about these families that lost their child

because of their prank?

That, to me, is not a prank.

That, to me, is murder.

ROBIN: Six months after Shawn's recovery,

he decided, against doctors' orders,

that he was strong enough to go back to school,

and he did,

and Alvaro insisted on being there right by his side.

ALVARO: That day I was-- I was there for Shawn,

it was Shawn's first day back at school.

SHAWN: Going back to school for the first time

was a little nerve-racking.

I was afraid, you know,

of how people were going tolook at me and treat me.

It felt good to have--

to be back in school,especially when Mr. Rodriguez

made me feel comfortable being back in school, too,

and at first it was a little, you know, weird

and, you know, I was a little nervous

but then I got comfortable with it.

When I saw themwalk in the room,

I was overcomeby the emotion,

and for a moment, I had to step out.

When I came backinto the classroom,

I wrote on the boarda few words that I--

I thought expressed a message -

"compassion," "valor," "sacrificio," "lealtad" -

that to me proved how the human spirit

can overcome any adversity.

The students were amazing too, they way they welcomed them.

It was really a celebration, and at the same time,

it was welcoming back an old friend,

or two old friends.

( BELLS TOLLING )

JOE KAROL: When they erected the bell tower,

and those three bells

who represent Aaron, Frank, and John,

that's a perpetual memory,

that's an everlasting memory that will be there for them.

The "Remember" stone in front of Boland Hall,

it goes to the extent of remembering all of the victims.

( BELLS TOLLING )

And I know when we go there every January 19th

for the memorial Mass,

and you hear those bells go off,it touches my heart.

SHIRLEY: The memorial service was ten years later and the--

the emotion in that room was overwhelming.

It is a day for all of us

forever etched in the historyof Seton Hall University.

JOE KAROL: It's a remembrance of all of us

who were there at the time,

and it's a lesson in remembrance

for those who weren't there at the time

but still attend the Mass.

This is wheremy life changed

and I wanted to be thereon the campus on that day

to see where I've come from and where I'm at now.

It's a great feelingwhen you have all these people

that remember that day and--and hopefully try to,

you know, make it into a positive light.

For me and forsome of the families,

it's more like a--a philosophy, really,

just to, you know, enjoy what you have,

enjoy the days that you're living

and enjoy the people that you know

and the people that you love and you can't stop.

You gotta keep going.

MIKE: The carnage of the innocent

can never be forgotten,

and I think one of the things

that makes it so memorable is that it was so senseless,

that it was an act of just pure stupidity

and pure cowardice, not malice,

that causedthis much carnage.

I thinkthat's one of the things

that gives the memoryof this fire

such staying power.

JOHN: The positive was the sprinkler laws.

Because of this tragedy,

all college dormitoriesin New Jersey

had to be sprinkled.

ROBIN: Unfortunately, it took the death of three boys

for laws to be made that mandate sprinklers

in universities across the country.

Mrs. Karol's like an angel

and they have fought relentlessly

to make sure that other peoplearen't hurt or killed

the way their own son is.

Personally, I-- I gained two boys that I love.

They're like my family.

Both Shawn and Alvaro visit colleges, college students,

and that way they keep their message alive.

( INDISTINCT CHATTER )

SHAWN: Hi, everybody.

My name is Shawn Simons,and this is my old roommate,

Alvaro Llanos,and we are...

ROBIN: People who are college students now,

many have not heard about the Seton Hall fire

and it's-- I know it's part of Shawn and Alvaro's mission

to make sure that they do know what can happen.

...going real fastout the door, the--

the ceiling just fellon top of me

and my whole jacketjust caught on fire.

Thank God there was two RA'scoming down the stairs

the same time this happened.

I-- I was rolling...

ROBIN: They-- they're the messengers and--

and people admire them and respect them for that.

( indistinct )

SHAWN: I looked at the friendship

between me and Al and--

and say, "Hey, we need to pass this on to other people,

and say, 'Hey, you know,we're just like you and,

you know, we've made it.'"

ROBIN: They became messengers for other burn patients,

especiallyyoung burn patients.

I saw Alvaro give one little boy actually

the will to live where there was no will to live.

EILEEN: They are resources for our social worker

to introduce them to other patients

that have either similar injuries

or maybe a little bit worse injuries than they had

and just to show them that, you know,

these boys were at your pointat one time

and look at them now.

They just have a sense of life to them

that's just inspiring.

I've gone to the hospitalwith Alvaro and Shawn

and I've seenhow a burn survivor

looks depressed inside,

and the second they see Alvaro and Shawn,

their eyes light up.

They look at themas hope that they--

they can have a lifeafter the fire.

ALVARO: All that comes from what I have,

you know, from being burned and--

and progressing with my life, hopefully they see that

and motivate them to, you know, try to work hard

and move on with their lifebecause there's--

you know,there's better days ahead.

( BIRDS CHIRPING )

ROBIN: Shawn and Alvaro chose to get through this

and they chose to fight through it and--

and as a result they have better lives now

than they did, somehow, before the fire.

ALVARO: I'm happy again, I'm-- I have a great life.

I have two beautiful kids, and a beautiful wife

and I'm living a normal life.

I try not to regretor look back at the past

and dwell on the past

because I have a future,you know.

Just keep going forward.

SHAWN: We became bigger men

than we probably would've been without it.

Our exterior being cracked

made us stronger men on the inside.

There's no reasonwhy we can't go through

anything else in life and--

and not be able to,you know, get through it.

PAULA: The most thing that I admire about Alvaro and Shawn

is their courage to live every day as regular people,

just to go outand be who they are.

CHINAIRE FIELDS: They're happy, they have families,

they love each other.

I don't believe that Shawn and Al's relationship

will ever be broken.

I think it's a veryinspirational story

on all levels.

There's a saying that I--like, I relate with my brother.

It's saying"my story has no value

if no one can hear it," and every time I hear that,

I always think of my brother because he has a story and--

and if people can hear it, I do think they--

they can get inspired from it.

CHRIS: I think that the Seton Hall fires

brought a lot of things to lightfor a very small community,

but yet a nation,

and I really thinkthat what it did

is it made people realize

that fire does not haveany prejudice,

it will get anyone,

and then the inspiration of these two boys,

that they were able to get through.

I think that people look at burn patients

a little bit differently.

Here is two young boys that are now

still an active part of the community.

It absolutely affected everyone.

It showed everyone you have to pull together in a tragedy,

and I think that's what our community did.

( MUSIC PLAYING )

( MUSIC FADES OUT )