Original subtitles

(upbeat music) (crowds cheering)

- [jeff] his stage name is mikey p

And my stage name is ekoh.

- Yep. (mikey beatboxing)

- We were making a name and getting a buzz going.

Everything was bright on the horizon.

- The caller reported a male covered in blood,

Laying in the parking lot in front of the bar.

- You see some type of exchange going.

There may be a drug deal going on.

- I didn't believe it.

And I said, no, that's impossible.

- We don't know if this involves a love triangle.

- Mikey's ex-girlfriend started dating an mma fighter.

- The vehicle had been left running

And the interior had been set on fire.

- Finding the bloody shoes,

I would say that's finding a needle in a haystack.

- I was so mad that god would do this.

How could you do this again?

(music crescendos) (mikey beatboxing)

(pulsating theme music)

(edgy upbeat music)

- [narrator] under the neon lights of las vegas,

There are thousands of people hustling every day

To make a name for themselves.

- Las vegas is a place that you go to get discovered.

You never know who's gonna be there.

Everyone comes to vegas.

- [narrator] and the shows in vegas

Have become just as big of a draw to the city,

As its casinos.

- Vegas has always had the biggest artists on the planet.

The biggest rappers, the biggest pop stars,

The biggest country stars.

It's tough.

You know, for anybody trying to make a name out here is,

You gotta work, I think, extra hard.

- [narrator] but in sin city,

The path to pursuing your dreams

Can quickly become a nightmare.

On Wednesday, March 30th, 2011,

A 911 call comes in just before midnight

From the tenaya creek brewery,

A bar located in the northwest part of town.

- My name is frank coumou,

I was a chief deputy district attorney

Here in the clark county district attorney's office.

The tenaya creek brewery is in

A relatively very good part of town,

That had almost zero crime.

- My name is dean raetz.

I joined the las vegas metropolitan police department

In 1991.

The caller reported a male covered in blood

Laying in the parking lot

In front of the bar.

One of the patrons came out to check for a pulse,

But no one knew what exactly had happened.

The victim was laying face down.

First responders encountered

A bullet wound in the lower back.

They also found a bullet wound in the back of his head.

At that point, they realized that medical intervention

Would not produce any results.

Homicide detectives are dispatched.

- [narrator] as the brewery parking lot

Becomes an official crime scene,

Las vegas metro pd quickly works

To recover any evidence left behind at the shooting.

- At this point, I was assigned

To document the scene with our crime scene analysts.

There was some cash on the ground near the victim,

Only a few dollars.

The question arises on whether there was a robbery.

We don't know if the victim was holding cash

And just dropped it when they were shot,

Or if somebody had gone through pockets

And grabbed a wad of cash and inadvertently dropped some.

- One of the interesting things that was found

Was a cigarette butt underneath the victim.

He must have fallen on a cigarette that had fallen down.

- We didn't know if the victim was a smoker or not

Or if it was dropped by the suspect,

But it had a longer ash than

Somebody who was trying to put a cigarette out.

So because the cigarette had partially burned,

We were hopeful that it was involved in the incident

And cigarettes are a good source of dna.

We knew the victim had been shot multiple times.

However, there were no cartridge cases

Recovered at the scene.

So, we believe that we were looking for a revolver.

- The revolver expels the bullet out of the cartridge,

The case remains in a cylinder,

And we found absolutely not one single case.

- We found a driver's license

In the name of michael portaro.

The driver's license matched the victim's face

And he had his last name

Tattooed across the top of his back,

So this was confirmation of his identification.

(mysterious music)

- [narrator] also found in michael's pockets

Is his cellphone,

Which is collected so detectives can begin

A records request on it.

But what is unclear is how and why michael

Ended up in an empty parking spot.

- We were able to do a dmv search

And determine the vehicle that michael portaro owned

Was a gray 2006 nissan altima,

But it was not in the parking lot.

Nobody saw or heard anything.

However, there was cameras on the building,

So we're hopeful that security cameras capture everything

In up to the minute detail.

- [narrator] as investigators

Scrutinize the security footage,

They get their first break.

- On the video, we see the gray sedan pull

Into the driveway of the brewery parking lot.

The occupant was michael portaro.

The bartender stated that he did remember

Seeing a gray sedan pull into the parking lot.

The car stayed there for a while with the lights on,

But it appeared to the bartender

That the occupant of that vehicle

Was waiting for somebody.

- The videos speak loudly.

You see michael pulling up,

Making a couple of circles,

Almost as if he's doing a surveillance of the parking lot,

Then he backs the car in.

He's standing with the car running,

Waits for another car to show up.

You see him then walking up to the passenger side

And leans into the car,

And you see some type of exchange going.

The only rational belief

Is that there may be a drug deal going on.

- The white car then left the parking lot

And mike portaro went back to his vehicle,

Sat down behind the steering wheel,

But left his door open.

- In the background, you see an individual walking,

He's wearing a sweatshirt.

His head seems to be covered up.

You cannot make out the face,

But you can kind of give an identification

That it was a black male.

- Once he got to the rear of the portaro car,

Did an immediate 90 degree turn

And walked right up to the door.

There was some kind of struggle.

Because the resolution is so low on the camera footage,

We don't see everything that happened during the struggle.

But moments later, michael portaro is laying on the ground

And his vehicle is driving out of the parking lot.

At that point we did broadcast a bolo on the radio.

We are hopeful that a patrol officer

Somewhere in the valley

Will encounter the nissan,

Or identify whoever is driving it.

This person had something long and cylindrical,

It was white, hanging from his mouth.

We were hopeful that it was the cigarette

We found under mr. Portaro's leg

That we've sent for dna testing.

- [narrator] as detectives wait

For a hit on michael's car and the dna,

They have the heartbreaking task

Of notifying his loved ones.

- During the dmv lookup,

We were able to determine

That mike did live at home with his parents,

And we did make contact with the family

For the death notification.

- My name is cynthia portaro.

I'm mikey's mother.

It was 3:30 in the morning.

There was knocking at the door.

(hand knocks on door)

I said to myself, oh my gosh,

Mikey forgot his keys again.

And when I went to the door, it wasn't mike.

It was a police officer.

I knew if police come to the door,

That it's fatal.

And he said, can we come in?

I said, no, I wanna know who it is right now.

He said, it's michael.

(sad music)

And I didn't believe it.

And he handed me his driver's license,

And I just,

I lost it on the floor.

I just screamed.

- Making contact with the family of a murder victim

Is never easy.

They want to know what happened to their loved one

Just as much as we do.

And it's our job to help provide them with answers,

But part of our getting those answers

Is asking them questions as well.

- He asked me if mikey was out selling drugs

And I said, no, that's impossible.

He was always a trusted kid.

I mean, he never did anything bad to anybody.

Mikey was selling tickets to a concert

With his best friend jeff.

- We got a pretty good sense

That michael portaro was a clean-cut kid,

But in this case, parents don't know every aspect

Of their child's life.

And from the video, it did appear

That he could have been involved

In hand-to-hand transactions,

And so we made contact with jeff thompson.

- When I got to his parents' house,

I talked to investigators.

I remember being angry that mike's dead,

And the second emotion was guilt.

- Well, I felt like it was my fault.

(dramatic music)

- Mikey had at least $1,200 in cash.

The majority of that $1,200 was missing.

- Investigators are trying to figure out,

Do you have any enemies?

Your brain starts just reaching,

"is that person capable of that?"

- An anonymous caller calls in

And identifies an individual by name

As the person involved in this murder.

(dramatic music builds)

(pulsating theme music)

- [narrator] it's the morning after

22-year-old michael portaro was shot and killed

In a brewery parking lot.

And las vegas metro pd homicide detectives

Speak with friends and family

About his life and final moments.

(sad contemplative music)

- My name is jeff thompson.

Mike and I were making music together.

We would both come up with ideas for songs.

(mikey beatboxing)

♪ mikey p on the beatbox ♪

♪ paid all the money for your beat ♪

- And we would do the beatboxing and rap together.

So when the news was broke to me,

I was in a complete state of disbelief,

'cause I felt like it was my fault.

I got him involved with

This music thing in the first place

Which is the whole reason

That we're here selling these tickets.

March 30th, we had a show the next day

And mike and I were out and we were selling tickets.

We were both super excited that day,

We were gonna make some money.

It was looking to be like one of

The biggest shows that we had played.

Everything was bright on the horizon.

- [narrator] despite spending the day together,

Jeff tells police he wasn't there at the brewery

When mikey was murdered.

- We had one stop left that we had to make,

But I had to go home.

So he dropped me off at home

And went to go make the last sale

To one of our friends

That just happened to be at tenaya creek brewery.

The investigators were trying

To get to the bottom of the story.

What was he doing?

Was he selling drugs?

No, mike was not doing any drug deals.

I know the type of person he was,

A good person, great person.

- [narrator] mikey's loved ones echo jeff's sentiment

And they go on to tell investigators

More about mikey's personal life.

- I have five children. Mike is three in line.

Mikey is pretty much the reason we found faith.

He had open heart surgery as a baby.

My husband and I prayed together.

That's where it all began.

- My name is joseph portaro.

I go by joe.

I am mike's little brother.

Mikey was everything you'd expect out of a big brother

And he showed me how to do everything I know.

- Mikey was a superstar athlete,

But he wanted something else.

(quick rap beats)

- Mike has always had an interest in music.

We were always into dancing

And learning new dance moves,

So it fit him really well when he started to do it.

- Mike was a incredible beatboxer

And a great dancer.

- [cynthia] go mikey, go! Woo!

- S'up?

- S'up?

So when I do a show, I would bring him on.

- First time I saw mikey perform,

I remember going with my whole family.

My grandma even came.

- He was the hype man.

- His stage name is mikey p.

And my stage name is ekoh.

- The two of them, together, were a dynamic duo.

They were powerful on stage.

- We were making a name and getting a buzz going

And figuring it out.

So when we were selling tickets for the show,

We were stoked,

Because the amount of tickets we were selling was crazy.

- Some of the information that thompson provided us

Was that mikey had at least $1,200 in cash,

Either on his person or in his car somewhere.

So we did know that

The majority of that $1,200 was missing

And had been taken.

One of the questions that was asked of thompson

Was whether or not they had any musical rivalries,

Or had had any altercations

With anybody else involved in the music scene.

- Investigators are trying to figure out,

Do you have any enemies?

They had the security footage, but I had no idea.

Your brain starts just reaching, like,

"is that person capable of that,

Or is that person capable?"

- And thompson told us no.

Through the interview with jeff thompson

And phone numbers dialed on mikey portaro's cellphone,

We identified the occupant of the vehicle

That michael had made initial contact with,

And we conducted an interview with her.

- [narrator] since authorities only have

The word of mikey's family and friends

That he was not conducting a drug deal that night,

Investigators have to find out for themselves

What mikey was really up to.

- The interview with that particular female

Confirmed the fact that money had exchanged hands

In that transaction

For the cd and the concert ticket.

There was no hand-to-hand deal involving narcotics.

- [narrator] and when mikey's autopsy results come in,

They only further debunk the drug deal theory.

- There was absolutely no drugs found in mikey's body,

No alcohol either.

Mikey was clean.

There was absolutely nothing that he was doing illegal

Prior to this particular unfortunate homicide.

- We knew it was not even close

To being anything about drugs.

Mikey was just trying to be a good guy

And promote his music.

- [narrator] the autopsy also confirms

Vital information about the gun

Used to murder mikey.

- [raetz] bullet fragments and bullets

That were recovered from mikey portaro's body

Were 38 caliber and were fired from a revolver.

- [narrator] so investigators now shift their focus

To anyone else in mikey's life

That may have had reason to harm him.

- In this case,

We were told about a recent breakup,

And they had just broken up

Within the last couple of weeks.

- Law enforcement looked into the ex-girlfriend of mikey.

She had gone back to her previous boyfriend

Who happened to be an mma fighter.

- Detectives explored the possibility

That mikey might have gotten caught up in a love triangle

Between his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend.

Did something happen?

Mma is a violent sport,

So learning that mikey's ex-girlfriend

Started dating an mma fighter

Piqued investigators' interest.

- It upset him pretty good.

- We were hopeful that this is a big lead.

(dramatic music crescendos)

(pulsating theme music)

(tense music)

- [narrator] while digging into hip-hop artist

Michael portaro's personal life,

Las vegas metro homicide detectives

Learn of a recent breakup

And a potential love triangle.

- Mikey had a girlfriend.

They liked each other a lot.

She would come to the house a lot

And she would come to his concerts,

Selling tickets before the show at the table

When people were coming in

And she was a nice person.

- Mike was the kind of boyfriend that girls dream about,

Very respectful and he was kind.

Mike and his girlfriend did eventually break up

A month or two before everything happened.

- She had gotten back with an ex-boyfriend,

But mike was never on bad terms with her.

- The boyfriend happened to be an mma fighter,

So law enforcement looked into that angle.

- Knowing that mikey had been involved in a recent breakup,

We obviously wanted to speak with that person

And she was interviewed three days after the murder.

She had described their relationship

As a little too fast for her,

So she broke it off.

- [narrator] detectives probe

For more information about the mma fighter boyfriend,

But several factors cast doubt on him as the killer.

- We determined that his skin tone

Was in fact much lighter than

What was depicted on the video footage of the incident.

And he was not in las vegas the night of the murder.

He had been in thailand.

We didn't have any reason to believe

That the former boyfriend

Had been involved in this at all.

(moody soft music)

- [narrator] less than a week into their investigation,

Detectives crossed one suspect off their list

While mikey's family waits for answers.

- That at the beginning was tough

Not knowing who did it.

Luckily we have a really good

Police department here in las vegas,

And our detectives were very adamant

On finding this person quickly.

- I just knew, from the time they came into the house,

That detective dean raetz was just a really hands-on,

"we're gonna get this done no matter what."

- [narrator] investigators soon get an update

On the dna from the cigarette butt

Found at the crime scene.

The dna does not match mikey,

Meaning the unknown profile could be his killer's.

In addition to the dna,

Investigators also get new information

On mikey's stolen vehicle.

- We got no results from the bolo,

But I did an entry into the national crime database

Listing michael portaro's car as being stolen

And also having been used in a homicide.

I received a return that that vehicle had been impounded.

- The city workers found the car in north las vegas.

The city of north las vegas

Is a separate municipality,

North of the city of las vegas.

- Most locals view north las vegas

As a little bit more rough of an area than las vegas itself,

And you could see why, maybe,

That caused the suspect to dump the car there.

- The vehicle was found in an empty lot.

It had been left running

And the interior had been set on fire.

When it was found, there was damage inside the vehicle,

But the vehicle was not destroyed,

Because the doors had all been closed

So the fire had in fact been smothered

Due to lack of oxygen.

We knew that the suspect was trying to destroy

Whatever evidence he might have left behind,

Just wasn't very smart in the way he did it.

- The failed car fire was good news for investigators,

Because they were hoping to find evidence inside the car.

- We know he touched the steering wheel,

We know he touched the gear shift,

So we're looking to see if we can get some dna evidence.

- [narrator] while they wait for dna results,

Investigators wonder whether mikey was randomly targeted.

They look at all carjackings

That may include similar elements to mikey's murder,

Including the use of a gun.

- When they had absolutely no suspects, no leads,

It's very incumbent on a homicide detective

To then start looking at all reported crimes

Involving armed robberies.

They look at any crimes

That may have occurred in the valley,

And also in the surrounding areas,

Involving an individual that matched

The description of the suspect

As they knew it from the video,

And whether or not a revolver was involved.

- We now want to see if there are any patterns.

So one of the things that we do

Is we do a search of stolen vehicles in the area.

What we find during this search,

Is we find that a vehicle

Of the same make and model

Was recovered earlier that day of the murder,

Less than a mile away from the tenaya creek brewery.

In fact, it was recovered

In an apartment complex

To the north on tenaya,

And we know that the suspect

Appeared to have walked southbound on tenaya,

When he came into the parking lot.

When we get the details of this incident,

We start thinking that we're on the right track.

We are hopeful that this victim

Will be able to visually identify the suspect.

(dramatic music builds)

(pulsating theme music)

(tense music)

- [narrator] nine days into the search

For the killer of las vegas

Rising hip-hop artist mikey portaro,

Homicide investigators learn about a carjacking

That occurred a few miles away from the murder.

When detectives learn the details, they're intrigued.

- There is a difference in the two crimes,

In the fact that the victim of the carjacking was not shot.

So we went and spoke with the victim of that incident.

He was a security guard

At a local cardenas market in that area.

- [narrator] the victim, elvis canamaro,

Relays his terrifying ordeal to investigators.

- The victim was sitting behind the wheel of the vehicle,

On break in the alley behind the market

When he was approached by a black male

Wearing a hoodie with the hood up,

Who produced a silver revolver.

- The suspect had forced his way into the driver's seat,

Forcing the owner of the car

To move into the passenger side.

Fortunately for that owner,

He slipped out on the passenger side door and ran away.

(car screeches away)

What caught law enforcement's attention

Was the victim identified an individual

That seemed to match the description

From the suspect that we had

In mike portaro's surveillance video.

Second, the victim was very clear

That the individual who did this to him had a revolver.

- The reason why the revolver

Being used in this incident is significant,

Is because we knew michael portaro had been

Shot multiple times with a revolver.

- They found the car in a parking lot

Of a local apartment complex,

Just north of the

Tenaya creek brewery.

What was interesting to that first robbery,

Was it happened to be the same type of car, nissan altima.

- [narrator] after hearing that the cardenas carjacking

Involves the same type of vehicle,

Weapon and suspect description as mikey's murder,

Police are now connecting the two crimes.

- We are working on the assumption

That this suspect had stolen the car

And had it stashed in this apartment complex.

When the police recovered a car

And took his mode of transportation away from him,

He's out looking for another one.

- Although elvis canamaro provides investigators

With a general description of his attacker,

They still don't have a name

Or identity of someone to pursue.

- We were working on the assumption

That the two carjackings were connected,

But we don't have anybody that we are looking at

Or zeroing in at, specifically,

For our homicide investigation at that point.

So what we want to do is, hopefully,

Be able to identify somebody

Or a person of interest for our crime

And then take it to the other victim

To see if we'd be able to identify

Somebody for us in the future.

- [narrator] as investigators work

To develop their next lead,

Mikey's family holds services

To celebrate the life of the aspiring artist.

(sad contemplative music)

- We had a celebration of his life,

Maybe two weeks after.

There was about 1,100 people there

And probably about six or 700 watching online.

- It was both, you know, emotionally rough

And also, you have a sense of pride

For the person you knew,

That it's an auditorium packed full of people

Who cared about this guy.

- It was a rough day

To have to speak in front of all those people.

And rather than making it sad and upsetting,

I was very uplifting,

Because that's the kind of person that mike was

And everybody loved mike.

- We did a balloon release

And then his coach gave me his jersey.

It was a beautiful celebration.

- [narrator] while the family continues to mourn,

Weeks pass with no new suspects in sight.

- Almost six weeks after the murder,

We're at a standstill.

But as a common practice in investigations like this,

When we do not have a known suspect,

We use the media.

- Paul, portaro's family is now offering

A new reward in the case.

- His family is offering a $30,000 reward

For the arrest and capture

Of the man that is the son's killer.

- I remember doing a television thing with the sheriff,

Telling everybody that, you know,

Call this number, call this hotline.

- There's an incentive out there

For the public to come forward anonymously.

You get hundreds of these tips that come in

And you've gotta cull through all of 'em

To try to see one that has

Any type of information that you you can work.

- Luckily for investigators,

There was one tip that stood out from the others.

- So, an anonymous tip came in,

We don't know from who,

But law enforcement suddenly got a name

Of possibly the one who could have been

The perpetrator of mikey portaro's death.

Second, it also talked about a revolver that was used,

And it was a bonanza for law enforcement.

(dramatic music crescendos)

(pulsating theme music)

(tense music)

- [narrator] an anonymous tip

Has just given homicide investigators

The name of a potential suspect

In the 2011 murder of

Aspiring las vegas hip-hop star, mikey portaro.

- Almost six weeks after the murder,

An anonymous caller calls in

And identifies an individual by name

As the person involved in this murder.

So this tip identified brandon hill,

And further stated that brandon hill

Was recently arrested carrying a concealed weapon,

Which happened to be a revolver.

They also identified brandon hill's residence,

Which is in the same general area as the murder.

- [narrator] it's a detailed and compelling tip,

But detectives can't get an arrest warrant

Based solely on an anonymous call.

- We just concern ourselves

With trying to prove that

That information that was provided is correct.

So when the tip comes in,

I do a criminal history, a search on brandon hill.

And I'm able to confirm that

Brandon hill was encountered by officers

Close by the apartment complex

Where the car from cardenas market was recovered.

- [narrator] but after his concealed weapon arrest,

Brandon hill was released from custody

And is currently walking free.

So investigators begin to see

If the evidence supports hill being mikey's killer.

- We knew that a revolver was used

In the death of mikey portaro.

We also knew that

Elvis canamaro gave information

That it was a revolver that was used.

- I found the evidence impound for brandon hill's revolver

And requested that forensic testing be done

And compared to the ballistics evidence

That we recovered from the body of michael portaro,

And it ultimately comes back as a match.

Now we know that we're on the right track,

That we know we have the firearm,

We most likely have the right suspect as well.

- Firearms, like fingerprints,

They're unique.

So it ends up being of a huge moment

For law enforcement to discover that gun.

The detectives then made a photo lineup

Consisting of six photographs,

Including the photograph of brandon hill,

And then they go to elvis canamaro

To see if he can identify

Who committed the robbery on him.

Elvis canamaro had absolutely no hesitation.

He identified brandon hill.

- [narrator] with the deck of evidence

Stacking against brandon hill,

Police feel they have enough to make an arrest.

- A swat serves the search warrant on the residence

And brandon hill was taken into custody without any issue.

- Law enforcement, in the execution of the search warrant,

Seized on some tennis shoes.

Close examination of those shoes

Appear to be spattering of a red substance on the shoes,

And determined that it was blood.

- A request was put in for forensic testing,

Dna testing on those shoes.

Once I take custody of brandon hill,

I obtained his search warrant via a buccal swab,

Swabs on the inside of the mouth.

- [narrator] while detectives wait for the results,

They interview brandon hill.

- So when I start speaking to him,

We initially only bring up

The carjacking over at cardenas market.

Of course, he denies all involvement in that.

And then we ask him about

The gun that he was carrying

The night that he was arrested, a few weeks previous.

And he tells us that he bought that gun

In the parking lot of the apartment complex,

Where the car was recovered.

You say you're not involved in

The carjacking at cardenas market,

Yet you just told us that you bought that gun

In the same parking lot where police recovered that car.

He immediately lawyered up at that point.

Our discussion was over.

- [narrator] initially, police are only able

To charge brandon hill

With the cardenas market carjacking,

Which keeps hill detained

While forensic dna testing is completed.

While investigators eagerly await the test results,

Tragedy strikes the portaro family again

In September of 2011.

- It was about six months after my brother died,

My sister, christina,

She asked me if I wanted to go to ride the atvs

With her friend chandler,

But unfortunately I couldn't.

(phone ringing)

- My phone rang and it was her calling me.

And I said, "hi honey."

And then this man says to me,

"there's been an accident.

You need to get up to aspen road, right away."

All the way up there,

All I could think of was,

What if she broke her arm?

I was thinking all these things.

Never

What I was about to encounter.

And she had rolled the atv on her,

And it crushed her to death.

And there she was on the side of the road.

I wouldn't leave her side.

I was so mad

That god would do this.

How could you do this again?

- Yeah, it was really hard.

'cause of how close our family was,

It was really hard to lose another one after six months.

They always tell you that,

You know, time heals all wounds,

But it doesn't feel like that

When you're that close to your brother and sister.

- [narrator] with the portaros overcome by grief,

The detectives are more determined than ever

To get the family answers,

And soon they're alerted

That the dna results are finally in.

- The evidence against brandon hill was stacking up,

But we would need forensic evidence to match,

To prove that he did, in fact, kill mikey portaro.

We had the dna from the cigarette at the scene,

But it was an unknown profile at that point.

So I put in a request for dna evidence to be compared.

So, we are holding out hope, at this point,

That we're gonna get lucky with dna.

- If the dna results come back

As not a match for brandon hill,

Then investigators are back to square one.

(dramatic music builds)

(pulsating theme music)

- [narrator] months into the investigation

Of mikey portaro's murder,

Investigators have received dna results

That could either prove brandon hill is their killer,

Or send them back to the beginning.

- As a prosecutor, you're always hopeful

That dna will be found,

But it's a gamble.

- It turns out that the dna off the cigarette butt

That was under mikey portaro's leg,

Matched brandon hill.

And the blood droplets on those shoes

Came back to michael portaro.

- Finding the bloody shoes in a house

That mike portaro had absolutely no connection to,

I would say that's finding a needle in a haystack.

- In the surveillance video,

It looked like brandon hill smoking the cigarette

That ended up under mikey's body,

And wearing the shoes

That ended up with mikey's blood on them.

It was damning evidence.

- Once we got the dna matches,

We went down to the jail

And booked him back in for murder.

- When I heard that they had found mike's killer,

I wanted to confront him and ask him, why?

Why did you do this?

- The case was submitted

To the clark county district attorney's office

And we determined that we were

Going to seek the death penalty.

- [narrator] as the portaros wait for their court date,

They are faced with yet another family tragedy

When mikey's father, richard, dies from cancer.

- I thought I was gonna lose

Almost everybody in my family.

It kind of just felt like a plague,

And it just kept happening.

- Nine months after christina died,

I got a cancer diagnosis

And the doctor said that I had six months to live.

And I said, no, that's not gonna happen.

- My mom is a fighter,

So she did decide to fight the cancer

And she won the battle.

- I love family, family is everything,

And I wasn't going anywhere.

- [narrator] amidst all the family obstacles,

Four years have passed since mikey's murder

And his trial is finally on the horizon.

- The moment you seek the death penalty,

The case will just sit there and stagnate.

There is a lot of pressure that's put on a prosecutor.

Extremely valuable evidence

Came from that cigarette butt.

However, my biggest concern

Was the circumstantial evidence.

The video was valuable,

But it does not identify brandon hill.

We couldn't say that those were the shoes,

But we suspected that they were

The shoes worn by brandon,

Because of the blood.

- [narrator] in addition to the dna,

Ballistics and video evidence,

The prosecution presents the jury

With evidence that gives a glimpse

Into brandon's state of mind.

- Prosecutors showed the jurors

That brandon hill made social media posts

Before and after mikey's murder,

Implying that he wasn't afraid of using a gun,

And that his crimes were showing up on the news.

- February 20th, 2015,

The jury had reached a verdict.

- Brandon jay hill was found guilty

Of the shooting death of michael portaro.

- When I first went in the courtroom,

I wanted justice.

I wanted him to rot in hell, period.

But through the whole entire trial,

That word "death penalty" didn't reside in my soul.

Do I want more death surrounded by death?

- [narrator] after the verdict,

It's still two months until the sentencing.

With time to contemplate the ultimate outcome,

The portaro family is at a crossroads.

- I was getting ready to present my case

And to my big surprise,

My co-counsel tapped me on the shoulders

And said that cynthia wanted to talk to me.

And I did not know what was coming.

- I said, frank,

I need you to take away the death penalty.

He said, are you crazy?

- I actually tried to talk her out of it

Because we had come so far,

But we decided to honor cynthia's request.

He ultimately was sentenced to 40 years total,

With the possibility of parole.

- Brandon spoke to me, apologized,

Asked me to forgive him,

And I just felt god speaking to me

And so I said, I forgive him.

I told him, I said,

You have a chance to live,

Whether it's behind bars, wherever you're gonna go,

You have a choice to make

To better yourself and to help others.

(sad gentle music)

- There's never a day that goes by

That I don't think about him and miss him.

I have pictures around my house

And I make sure to show my son who his uncle is.

- The impact that he had on my life

Is present in everything I do.

Mike and I started this together.

I need to take it as far as I can.

- Today, I wish things were different.

You know, I wish I was that retiree

Playing golf with my husband.

I wish my other kids were here, but they're not.

And you have to make life work.

(gentle music)