Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I made a dumb move.

I made a dumb, dumb, dumb move.

- Tonight on "The First 48: Critical Minutes"...

- We look back at three investigations

where forensic evidence played a pivotal role

in cracking the case.

- Fingerprints are the key to solving a man's brutal murder.

- Then...

- Handprint's a mixture.

It's her blood and a mixture of his bloo.

- A woman's stabbing leave detectives hoping for DN.

- Did you have anything to do with her murder?

♪ ♪

- And ballistics could be a turning point

in a deadly street fight.

- These guns match up.

- It's game on right now.

- Oh, boy. - Oh, man.

- See that? - Yeah.

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

- Forensics play a extremely important role

in solving a homicide case.

With all of the forensic capabilities

that are out there now, it's almost impossible

to go anywhere and not touch any surface

and not leave a fingerprint or DNA evidence.

It's very, very difficult to go untraced in this day and time.

♪ ♪

Between the garage and the front of the Suburban.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: 41-year-old Donald Frye

was married for 15 years.

♪ ♪

He leaves behind three young children.

♪ ♪

narrator: Investigators believe Donald

was shot once at close range.

♪ ♪

- OK. - That's fine.

- Yeah. - OK.

- What I want to do is just talk to you in reference...

narrator: Sergeant Sidney Miller

speaks with Donald's wife, who called 911.

- She says between 9:30 and 9:45, he leaves.

He's got the movies in his hand, and I asked her...

narrator: According to his wife,

the last time she saw Donald alive

was when he left in his BMW

to return DVDs at a nearby store.

- After he leaves, she goes to sleep,

and she wakes up sometime after that

and noticed he's not here.

So she's looking around the house.

She noticed him outside.

♪ ♪

narrator: The wife said she found Donald around 1:00 a.m.,

but investigators believe he was shot earlier.

- I asked if anybody would want to hurt him.

No, no. Don't have a clue.

♪ ♪

narrator: Miller heads to the store to see

if they have surveillance video.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: CSI lifts several fresh fingerprints

from Donald's silver BMW.

♪ ♪

- Looks like the complainant is an innocent victim.

He was just shot in his driveway.

It's a real tragedy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back at Homicide.

- Were you able to pull it? - No, not yet.

♪ ♪

- Miller just got back, and he was able to retrieve a video.

♪ ♪

- Pulling in.

♪ ♪

Top is down, which attracts attention, you know?

♪ ♪

He gets out.

He gets back in the car.

It appears that he's by himself.

♪ ♪

Do you see anybody following him?

♪ ♪

Now, there were some good prints on that vehicle, though.

♪ ♪

I hope that reveals something.

Let me call CSU.

Is there's somebody there that can run those fingerprints

from that BMW?

♪ ♪

- I marked 16 unique characteristics

on the fingerprint,

and I just submitted the search through AFIS,

and it's currently searching, waiting for it to come back.

♪ ♪

- Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

We got a hit on the fingerprint.

It comes back to a guy named Giovanni Mora.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sergeant Craig Clopton

does a background search.

♪ ♪

- All righty.

narrator: 18-year-old Giovanni Mora is on parole.

- He got out May the 20th, 2010 for robbery.

- Wow.

narrator: Only 16 hours into the investigation,

Viramontes has gotten a lucky break.

- Tomorrow, we're going to go ahead and reach out

to Giovanni's parole officer

to see when he's scheduled to come in.

Hopefully, we'll be able to make contact with him then,

you know, instead of having to go look for him.

♪ ♪

narrator: The next day...

- I'm trying to get some info on a guy.

Last name is Mora, M-O-R-A.

narrator: Sergeant Sidney Miller contacts

Giovanni's parole officer.

- We actually need to talk to him.

When does he report next to you?

♪ ♪

OK, thank you, bye-bye.

According to her, he's been having some problems

keeping his appointment, so.

- It looks like picking Giovanni up

at the parole office is not going to work.

We did get a good address for him,

so we're going to try to go pick him up tomorrow.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team finds Giovanni

at his last known address.

He agrees to come to Homicid.

♪ ♪

- Of course, we're not disclosing anything.

- What I'm going to do right now

is tell him to tell us the story.

- That's good.

♪ ♪

- Good afternoon.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK.

- Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

- OK.

♪ ♪

- You know, in the beginning of this case,

the only thing the investigators had

was the victim laying in his driveway,

no witness accounts,

no camera footage or anything to lead them to the suspect,

but the best thing for the investigators

to be able to counter that with,

can you explain to me how yor fingerprints ended up

inside of this person's vehicle.

It's a game-changing moment in any investigation.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sergeant Craig Clopton

goes in with the lab results from the fingerprints

taken off the victim's car.

♪ ♪

- Oh, what's up, my man?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Yes.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: According to Giovanni,

on the night of the murder, he was driving around

with his friend, Little Bobb,

and the driver of the car.

♪ ♪

narrator: Giovanni says they spotted Donald in his BMW

and decided to follow him.

- What happened?

Y'all see him pull up to his house.

narrator: Giovanni says he and Little Bobby

approached Donald while he was sitting in his ca.

That's when Little Bobby pulled out a gun.

♪ ♪

narrator: Giovanni claims that Donald got out of his cr

and wouldn't give them his money or keys.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK, well, we need to find Bobby.

- Nah.

- All right, man.

♪ ♪

We're to be on the lookout for a white male,

17 to 20 years old.

He goes by the name Little Bobby.

♪ ♪

narrator: Minutes later...

- Deputy just called me.

He believes that the male we're looking for,

his name is Bobby Jones.

♪ ♪

This is a person who we believe is Little Bobby.

narrator: Bobby is 18 years old.

- You gonna show it to him? - Yeah.

♪ ♪

Is that Bobby?

- Yeah, that's him.

- OK.

♪ ♪

narrator: Two days later,

deputies find Bobby Jones, AKA Little Bobby,

with a second man, Bruce Taylor,

who they believe was the driver of the getaway car.

♪ ♪

- We received that tip, and so we acted upon it,

and it paid off.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sergeant Craig Clopton

goes in to interview Bobby.

♪ ♪

- OK, Bobby.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I don't--I don't think to--

♪ ♪

narrator: Bobby claims he didn't se

Giovanni shoot Donald, but heard the gunshot

and took off running.

- OK.

♪ ♪

- All righty.

♪ ♪

narrator: Deputy Juan Viramontes

and Sergeant Sidney Miller go to speak with Bruce Taylor,

the alleged driver of the getaway car.

♪ ♪

- How you doing, man?

♪ ♪

- I made a dumb move is what it was.

I made a dumb, dumb, dumb move.

narrator: Bruce admits to driving Giovanni

and Bobby to rob Donald.

He says he didn't see the shooting,

but claims Bobby admitted to him that he shot the victim.

♪ ♪

- Hold on tight, OK?

♪ ♪

All of them, including these two today,

put themselves there at the scene.

They all admitted to planning to rob the complainant.

♪ ♪

- You're charged, man, for capital murder.

- Capital murder?

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- It feels good that we were able to wrap it up.

The complainant's family deserves justice, you kno.

So all this we do is for them.

♪ ♪

- When you have a crime scene where

there's an extreme amount of blood,

and in this particular case, it was a stabbing,

the chances of recovering DNA is great

because more than likely, the suspect

injured himself while he was stabbing the victim.

♪ ♪

- I actually was starting my lunch,

and Sergeant Mangum came in and said, Brian, you're u.

♪ ♪

- Victim's going to be prone on her back

and with clothing only on the top of her body.

narrator: The victim is 54-year-old Linda Williams.

She was known as a generous person

and is survived by two adult daughters.

♪ ♪

- So you got two, three stab marks,

four on the upper chest.

There's also a fifth one on the right, right?

- Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

- Check her left rib cage.

It went all the way through.

Yeah, it looks like it punctured through

on the back of her skin.

Looks like we've got defensive wounds on the right wrist.

♪ ♪

Somebody was mad.

♪ ♪

- No.

narrator: The victim's cell phone is missing.

- With that many stab wounds, usually,

that indicates that we might be looking

at a personal relationship between our suspect

and our victim.

We're going to need to swab.

♪ ♪

Hopefully, we'll be able to get some DNA

and link our suspect that way.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Let's process the window.

♪ ♪

- We've been able to locate probably

about seven witnesses who were at least present outside.

♪ ♪

- What do you know about today?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Do you know who was in there?

- No.

♪ ♪

[phone rings]

- Whitworth, Homicide.

narrator: An anonymous caller has information

about a potential suspect.

- Oh, excellent.

Oh, there you are.

- I do.

♪ ♪

- Fighting? - Yeah.

But no one saw him exit.

He was the last person that was with her, with Miss Linda.

narrator: 30-year-old Ronald Moore

has prior convictions of breaking and entering,

robbery, and drug possession.

- Oh, and it looks like he just got out of jail the day

before Linda's murder.

narrator: Whitworth notifies Patrol

to be on the lookout for Ronald Moore.

♪ ♪

Later that day...

- What's up, man? - How you doing?

- Good. How are you? - Coming to deal with thi.

Hey, Ronald. I'm Brian. How you doing?

narrator: Patrol has picked up Ronald Moore

at a fast food restaurant.

He has agreed to speak with detectives.

- Let me grab me a cup of coffee.

You want me to warm it up?

- One minute?

- You got it, one minute.

♪ ♪

- All right.

♪ ♪

Ronald.

- Heya.

- OK, tell me what happened the day you got out of jail.

narrator: Ronald says that when he arrived

at the victim's house, she was playing cards

with a man in the back bedroom.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- I'm going ask you a question.

I want you to be honest with me.

Did you have anything to do with her murder?

♪ ♪

- Did you kill Mama Linda?

- Why are you getting all upset, man?

♪ ♪

- We've already talked to some people,

and we know that were arguing.

- You're lying right now.

- No.

♪ ♪

- You know, one of my greatest fears

when I was a Homicide detective was incarcerating somebody

or charging them for a crime that they didn't commit.

We often use DNA to prove that people

are responsible for a crime, but sometimes,

DNA can exclude someone as well.

♪ ♪

- Sit down. - Sit down.

- Man, I told you I was at my sister's!

- Take a breath, OK?

- Man, y'all got me so upset right now.

♪ ♪

- All right. Well, give me a second.

I'll be right back, OK?

♪ ♪

Thanks.

♪ ♪

There's something missing here.

I just don't know what yet.

narrator: Early the next morning...

- Because our witnesses aren't as good as I'd hoped,

the key to this case is going to be

DNA and fingerprint, any type

of biological evidence we can get.

[phone ringing] But--excuse me for a second.

Yeah, ma'am.

Oh, excellent.

narrator: Officers have recovered

the victim's cell phone.

- Y'all haven't touched it yet, have you?

Oh, good.

Thank you. All right, bye.

I'm going to do a subpoena for the phone records.

Unfortunately, getting those records can take weeks.

♪ ♪

narrator: Two months later...

- I just received Linda's phone records,

and it looks like the person who owns that phone

is a woman, and she just made a call on this phone

the day she was murdered, and it was the last conversation

that Linda had.

♪ ♪

My name is Detective Whitworth.

I'm working the homicide of Miss Linda Williams.

Do you know her?

narrator: She says she doesn't know Linda.

- Well, your phone numbers come up several times

on the records.

Do you mind coming down to Homicide and talking to us?

OK, great. Thank you.

♪ ♪

narrator: The woman arrives at Homicide.

♪ ♪

narrator: She says her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Davis,

would sneak off with her phone.

♪ ♪

narrator: She says she hasn't seen Thomas in weeks.

♪ ♪

- Pull up Thomas Lee Davis and see who he is.

There he is.

♪ ♪

narrator: 41-year-old Thomas Davis

has served time for robbery and has misdemeanors

for resisting a public officer and larceny.

- I'm going to talk to him.

♪ ♪

narrator: Hours later, Whitworth tracks down Davis

at a nearby hospital where he is

being treated for an illness.

♪ ♪

- OK.

narrator: Whitworth swabs Davis's mouth for DNA.

♪ ♪

- I'm not sure if I believe him or not,

but I'm going to take the buccal standard that I took

from him, send it up to the lab and compare it

to the evidence.

♪ ♪

narrator: Just three days later...

- What you got, Brian?

narrator: Davis's lab results are in.

♪ ♪

narrator: Davis's DNA was on the victim's body,

as well as on the victim's discarded cell phone.

- The handprint?

♪ ♪

- Handprint's a mixture.

It's her blood and a mixture of his blood.

- That's good, Brian.

♪ ♪

- We're on the way to Baltimore.

A fugitive task force just apprehended Thomas Davis.

It's going to be a little over 300 miles.

We'll see what Mr. Davis has to say for himself.

♪ ♪

narrator: Davis is confronted with the evidence.

♪ ♪

He denies even knowing the victim.

He refuses to say any more.

♪ ♪

- I'm impressed we got as far as we did.

When I mentioned the DNA, he shook his head like,

oh, yeah, right, I know about that.

It was an evoke right there.

And we have enough evidence, I think,

where I feel comfortable.

I closed it, and I'm happy about that.

- All right. Well, let's get him home.

- Let's get him home.

narrator: Detective Whitworth shares the good news

with one of the victim's daughters.

- We did make an arrest of Mr. Thomas Davis.

He's going to be extradited to Charlotte.

- Thank you so much. You have a good night.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- When detectives find shell casings on the scene,

we do an analysis on them to determine

whether or not they were collected

from the same handgun.

What people don't know is that just like fingerprints,

the markings on the shell casing

are done with a firing pin,

and no two firing pins are alike.

♪ ♪

- We were called here in front of this strip club

on a shooting.

Not a lot to go on right now.

Does he have ID on him?

- Yeah.

His name is Darius Miller.

narrator: Darius Miller was the father of a baby boy

and the oldest of four brothers.

He was 19 years old.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, we got the silver casings back here

and the gold casing there.

narrator: Investigators find casings and projectiles

near the victim and in the street.

- At this point, we believe there's two shooters.

narrator: From bystanders, they learn

there was a gunfight between two groups of men.

- They were shooting at each other,

basically, during the argument, and ended up

striking this victim.

♪ ♪

narrator: Back at Homicide...

- What's our case number? 66...

narrator: Porras brings the case

to the lead investigators.

- Basically, all we have right now

is two groups kind of arguing back and forth

in front of the club.

It's kind of a whodunit.

♪ ♪

Got a pretty good view of everything that happened.

- Yeah.

narrator: The witness who called 911

said she was driving with a girlfriend

past the strip club at 3:00 a.m.

when she saw a group of men beating up Darius.

- Hmm. Before the shots were fired?

- What did this guy look like?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Were you working last night?

narrator: Larson calls the manager of the strip club.

- And you saw some of the fight?

narrator: He agrees to come in for questioning.

- All right, thanks.

Yeah, bye.

Their video surveillance system isn't working,

but the owner is going to see if they can retrieve something

from the hard drive for us.

♪ ♪

- What we want to do is kind of go through

what you recall that night.

narrator: He says that a group of men came to his club

after getting thrown out of another nightclub.

♪ ♪

narrator: The manager says he went inside

and didn't see who was shooting.

- Did they shoot the guy when he was on the ground

or when he was still standing up?

♪ ♪

- This is Sergeant Larson, Minneapolis Police Homicide.

narrator: Larson calls the first nightclub

that the men who attacked Darius

had been kicked out of before the shooting

and gets a potential break.

- All right, Vaughn, bye.

Everybody that comes into that club has to have ID.

It gets scanned, and they have a record of it.

Their system's phenomenal.

- If we get those scanned IDs, maybe we can find out

who's in the suspect group.

- I agree.

♪ ♪

narrator: The next morning...

- That's great.

Really appreciate it.

narrator: Larson gets good news

from the owner of the strip club

where the shooting occurred.

- Thanks. Bye.

They were able to retrieve the video from the strip club.

- Great.

♪ ♪

- Holy cow.

The guy with the gun right there.

narrator: The video shows a man with a gun

heading toward the spot where Darius was killed.

- This could be the guy that shot Darius.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- He's got the iron out. It's game on right now.

- Oh, boy. - See that?

- Yeah, see that. - Perfect.

- Let's see if we can ID this guy.

♪ ♪

Let's compare him to our booking photos that we have.

narrator: They compare photos from the video

to the mug shots of the men kicked out of the nightclub

before the shooting.

- Look at the tattoos here through his shirt,

on his chest.

- I agree.

He's got the same bushy hair,

just like the 911 caller described.

- His hair wasn't braided,

so he had a giant, bushy ponytail.

♪ ♪

- I think it's Jerrell Brown.

- Let's see what we've got on this guy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Thomsen looks up Jerrell Brown's

criminal record and gets a potential break.

- Jerrell Brown was arrested in Richfield

for a drive-by shooting about two months ago.

narrator: The report says tht Jerrell admitted to firing

his gun during the shooting.

- It doesn't look like he hit anything,

but they did recover a casing.

♪ ♪

Maybe he used the same gun.

- If these guns match up, I mean,

that's pretty good evidence against him.

♪ ♪

narrator: Thomsen and Larson head over

to the ballistics lab to compare casings

from the two shootings.

♪ ♪

- Hey, Kris. - What do you got?

narrator: They show Kris Reynolds,

the ballistics expert, the casing recovered

from the Richfield shooting.

- Let's take a look at it.

narrator: Reynolds compares the casing to one

found next to Darius's body.

- Definitely shares all the same class characteristic.

On the right, you have your casing from your homicide,

and on the left, you have the casing from Richfield.

- OK.

- So that looks pretty good to me.

narrator: The two casings look like

they were fired from the same gun.

- It's a big step in the right direction.

I think it's getting to be pretty solid.

Appreciate it, Kris. - Yeah.

- Thank you. - Hope it all works out.

♪ ♪

- Hey, it's Thomsen.

narrator: Thomsen calls the Violent Criminals

Apprehension Team to arrest Jerrell Brown.

- Appreciate it.

Bye.

♪ ♪

narrator: One hour later...

- You got here quick.

narrator: Jerrell is brought in.

- See what he wants to talk about this morning.

♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Well.

♪ ♪

- I guess it would have been nice for him to talk,

but we don't need him to talk in this case.

You know, we've got plenty to get him charged.

narrator: Four days after the murder,

Thomsen and Larson close their case.

- You know, I never really established a real motive

for the case other than a street fight

between the two groups.

It's a tragedy that, you know,

Darius lost his life because of it.

♪ ♪

- My baby was lovable, one of a kind.

This is his son, Tajveon.

We wish he was here.

We miss him so bad.

It's hard.

♪ ♪

- There are cases, a great number of cases,

where forensics seal the deal as it relates

to solving that homicide.

Sometimes, you don't have any witnesse.

Sometimes, the suspect is not forthcoming.

So the one day you get a call or to get a report that

basically says that there is a fingerprint of a person,

or there's DNA of a person,

and that person is in our system,

it's just some of the best news that

you've ever wanted to hear.

♪ ♪