In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented by two separate
yet equally important groups-
the police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
What do you have there, Louis?
Just an old bike.
Why do they think this is a trash can?
- A trash can... - Hey, Homes!
That's my bike.
Am I gonna have to come down there
and get my bike back?
[Boys laughing]
You gonna be all right down here, don?
They're just foolin' around. No worries.
See you later.
Excuse me! Sir!
There's something in the water down here.
Where?
In the net.
[Coughing]
DPW worker Louis Valdez called it in.
Says he knows the guy, name's don Heller.
"Watershed management."
There could be a city vehicle somewhere upstream.
Call his job, get a plate number,
and get a bolo out.
Body's been in the water overnight.
Four or five stab wounds to the torso.
Defensive wounds are dominant on the right arm.
Attacker could be a lefty.
You're the one who found the body, Mr. Valdez?
A girl on skates was the first one to see him,
uh, from the bike path.
- Where'd she go? - Where'd she go?
Um, I turned around, she was gone.
How did you know Heller?
I see him here all the time,
testing the water, and...
Yeah? Did you see him yesterday?
Yesterday?
Uh, around 4:00 at the creek, near Centinela.
You notice anything unusual?
Anything unusual?
Some gang kids were yelling
stuff at us from the bridge.
Uh, one of them threw a rock at him.
You think you'd recognize any of them?
Nah, I was too far away.
You know, I...
I shouldn't have left don there by himself.
It's not your fault, sir.
Thank you.
My grandfather used to fish in this creek when he was a kid.
Yeah, now the kids hunt.
Sync by Adriano_CSI www.addic7ed.com
Don was always home by 7:00.
I tried calling him all night.
I called the hospitals.
I- I just can't believe...
Did he ever mention any trouble at the creek?
No. He was just an engineer.
He was the sweetest man.
Why would they do this to him?
We'll have someone drive you home now, Mrs. Heller.
Five stab wounds to the right side of the chest and abdomen,
one edge of the knife was serrated.
Murder weapon turn up?
No. We don't even have a crime scene yet.
He was probably stabbed upstream
and carried down toward the ocean overnight.
A witness saw bangers giving him a hard time near Centinela.
Centinela's no man's land.
Culver city boys to the east, Venice 13 to the west.
About all they have in common is they like to
go down to Ballona creek and drink and get high.
They found Heller's truck,
two miles from Ballona creek at Marco place.
Venice 13 turf.
Ignition's popped.
We might get prints in here.
I got water samples from the creek,
date and location on the stickers.
This last sample was taken at Berryman street at 4:24 P.M.
Hey.
It's Heller's.
And there's blood.
We got ourselves a crime scene.
This isn't gang turf.
They must have dumped the truck
outside of Venice 13's front yard
just to throw us off the scent.
Every few days, don signed out a truck
and headed over to Ballona creek to take water samples.
Anything controversial about his work?
Not unless you consider clean water controversial.
Did Heller ever bust anybody for dumping in the creek?
Oh, sure. Couple years ago,
there were high levels of mercury in the water.
On his own time, don figured out this shop that made neon signs
was dumping waste water.
Had the EPA shut them down.
This is his car. [Alarm chirps]
You need anything, just ask.
Thank you.
I got searches on his GPS
for 5708 Western Avenue three days ago.
Week before that, 3600 Leimert boulevard.
South central.
That's nowhere near Ballona creek.
Gotta wonder where he's dipping his test tube.
Seen this guy around?
All right, thank you.
Strike three.
I don't know about your pibil,
but I'm already starting to regret this carne asada.
[Chuckles] Cowboy up, amigo.
So this was your first beat, huh?
Yeah, mostly drugs and prostitutes
till the block was torched during the riots.
I'm not seeing why Heller was here.
Can't be for the fine dining.
Some people like grease.
Maybe his wife can tell us why he was here.
South central?
I've lived here 15 years, I've never even been.
Did Mr. Heller have any family down there,
or a colleague, maybe an old school friend?
No.
I can't imagine what he was doing there.
[Telephone rings]
People keep calling.
I guess they mean well.
[Rings]
Look at this.
He downloaded this from the web.
Women murdered in south central.
This one is 1987, '89, '91.
This one is from 1990.
"The victim, an unidentified black female in her 20s,
"was found stabbed to death in an alley behind...
Behind the 3600 block of Leimert boulevard."
One of the addresses in Heller's GPS.
1989-Sherry conlon, 18,
found in the alley behind west 57th and Denker,
multiple stab wounds.
She had a couple of dope busts.
1987-Milicent Taylor, 21,
dumpster behind 5309 Avalon,
multiple stab wounds, no record.
1990-Ggrace Bradshaw, 20,
Halldale and 49th, multiple stab wounds,
priors for dope and solicitation.
Four years, eight murders, one m.O.,
all within a half-mile of Western and Slauson.
Most of the victims were girls who ran the streets,
baseheads, prostitutes...
And somebody's daughters.
I don't remember any report back then
of a serial killer working the area.
Who was the lead investigator?
Bob reedy, southwest division, caught four of the cases.
He retired ten years ago.
I remember him.
We should reach out to him.
Does compstat have any open cases
with a similar m.O. After '91?
No. If it's the same killer, he stopped after '91.
Or he went to jail or the hospital
or took his act somewhere else.
Where was Heller?
Living in Glendale, single, teaching at Pomona college.
He started working for the city in 1997.
There's one more case from '91.
Same m.O., but the victim survived.
Diana Mcdermott.
She was left for dead in an alley behind Hoover street.
She gave a sketch of her attacker.
Doesn't look much like Heller.
Find her.
Give her an old DMV photo of Heller.
We find out what Heller had to do with these killings,
maybe it tells us who killed him.
I don't know.
It was so long ago.
I try...
I try not to dwell.
You know, he left me with 14 scars like this,
everywhere.
I can't have children.
Never been on a date.
Miss Mcdermott, we know how hard this is on you,
but maybe if you tell us what happened,
you'll remember his face.
I was 16.
I had a big fight with my father,
and I ran out of the house.
Went down to the corner store
and got myself a 40 of malt liquor
just to show how grown up I was.
This man drives up and says,
"it's dangerous out here.
Let me give you a ride home."
Like a fool, I get in.
He pulled into an alley...
And he starts telling me how pretty I was.
I was pretty.
I tried to get out of the car, but he put a knife at my throat.
He got on top of me,
and he pinned my arms down.
He felt me up while he was rubbing on himself.
He had my bra in his mouth, and he was sucking on it.
And I was praying that he wouldn't kill me.
He got done with his business,
and then he pulled me out of the car
and started stabbing me.
I don't remember anything else.
Can you see him now in your mind?
Yes.
I don't see him.
I'm sorry.
[Sniffles] It's been a long time.
But it'd be a good thing if he was dead by now.
[Helicopter hovering]
Time of death is less than 24 hours.
Who found her?
Shop owner taking out the garbage.
No I.D. On her.
So far, I count 12 stab wounds.
What kind of knife?
Single edge, serrated.
Looks like someone's come out of retirement.
Our working theory is Heller suspected someone he knew
was involved in the murders 20 years ago,
he started poking around.
The suspect caught wind of it, took him out.
Killing Heller might've been enough
to tickle the suspect's taste for blood,
put him back on the hunt.
So most likely, it was somebody Heller knew personally,
like a friend or acquaintance.
We're drawing up a list of males over 40
in his social and professional orbits.
What about our Jane Doe?
No hit on her prints, and she doesn't match
any missing persons report in the state.
Go wider. Put her photo on the Internet.
This guy's smart.
He knew enough not to leave a calling card on the victim.
We can thank the o.J. Trial.
Everybody got a primer on DNA evidence.
This guy was working before O.J.
And before the P.D. was pulling DNA off victims.
Maybe we can use today's technology
on yesterday's evidence.
Let's see, negative for semen,
negative for blood other than the victim's.
This is a mess.
Lot of this stuff's just thrown in here,
no tags, no way to tell what belongs to who.
"Sylvia Watson."
One woman's shoe, one push-up bra,
soda can, another bra.
The girl who survived, Diana Mcdermott,
she said her assailant sucked on her bra.
Maybe we can pull DNA off of that.
Even if we pull DNA off of them,
we don't know what belongs to who.
A defense lawyer would have a field day.
Sylvia was 19 when she was killed.
We lost her to drugs a couple of years before that.
After all this time, why are you asking about our girl?
We think we might have a lead on the person who killed her.
Oh, my God.
First we need you to identify some clothing
Sylvia might've been wearing when she was found.
Recognize either of these?
Yes. The pretty pink one.
I bought it for her at the k-mart on Crenshaw.
Who does that other one belong to?
One of the other girls.
What other girls are you talking about?
The other girls killed by the man
who killed your daughter.
The same man?
Well, how many girls did he kill?
Nine that we know of, including one three days ago.
Nine?
No one told us there were other girls.
No one told you there might be
a serial killer in your area?
No.
We thought Sylvia was killed by one of her drug friends.
Nine girls.
Was Sylvia the first?
No, sir.
There were four others before her.
Four?
And no one said a word?
We're very sorry.
Unbelievable.
There was a wolf loose and nobody told these people
to keep their girls safe at home?
The good old days, huh?
[Cell phone chimes]
Cheer up.
Retired Detective Bob Reedy just walked into rhd.
The Betty Basehead murders, we called 'em.
Once we saw the pattern, I caught all the cases.
You realized this was the work of a single suspect?
Yeah, based on the geography and the m.O.
Why not put the word out, huh?
Give the locals a chance to protect their own?
They didn't want people to panic.
One tip might've broken the case.
It wasn't my call.
Look, times were different then.
Height of the crack war.
O.D.S, crack whores, dealers, snitches.
We were drowning in bodies.
After the king riots,
the brass just pulled us off the case.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
Hey, nobody wanted to have anything to do with cops.
He's still at it, huh?
Don't sweat it.
"Slauson slasher."
Now he has a name. All we need's a face.
The lab found trace DNA from saliva
on Sylvia Watson's bra.
But no matches to the state databases or to CODIS.
So our suspect isn't in the database,
but maybe one of his relatives is.
You want to run a search for familial DNA?
If one of his cousins was arrested,
their DNA will be in the database.
If we find the cousin, maybe we find the suspect.
You'll need permission from the Attorney General.
I'll get on it.
For an identical match to the DNA sample from the bra,
I would need ten pairs of alleles...
These peaks here.
But since we are looking for close relatives of your suspect,
I set the search parameter to eight pairs of alleles.
Congratulations, you have one hit.
Brandon Duffy. Date of birth, 9-28-92.
He's 18.
He'll be thrilled to hear
he's related to the Slauson slasher.
Got it. Brandon Duffy.
Convicted of unlawful use of a vehicle in '08.
Joy riding. Sentenced to probation.
Let's go give him the good news.
Kid's living large.
That's what you get
when your dad's a successful architect.
You know, the dad's 53,
right in our suspect's age range.
We could scam some of his DNA,
see if it matches our suspect.
Or we could just ask for his cooperation.
Mr. Duffy?
Sorry to bother you.
I'm Detective winters, this is Detective Jaruszalski.
- Is there a problem? - No, no.
We just need your help in an investigation.
Some DNA found at a crime scene partially matches your son's DNA
taken when he was arrested a couple of years ago.
My son's a suspect?
No. He's not in any trouble,
but we need to eliminate
his male relatives as potential suspects.
And how would you do that?
By taking a DNA swab. We can do it right here.
Won't take but a few seconds.
You want my DNA? Not a chance.
I'm calling my lawyer.
You stay away from my son.
Your son smokes?
No, I do.
Thank you.
The lab pulled mark Duffy's DNA off his cigarettes,
but it's gonna take at least a week
to run it for a match to our suspect.
Apart from his father,
how many of the son's other relatives fit the profile?
Four males on his dad's side, two on his mother's.
None with priors, all upstanding citizens.
Except cousin Bob,
who has a thing for knives and young women.
Lieutenant.
Thanks.
Terrific.
Duffy filed for a restraining order against us,
and he's got the ACLU backing him up.
Mr. Duffy is not the only family member
who was harassed by the police, your honor.
His brother's trash was searched.
His brother-in-law's employer
was questioned as to his whereabouts.
The action was the result
of a search of databases for familial DNA,
which is why I'm here on behalf of the ACLU.
This is a controversial
new law enforcement tool, your honor.
It, by definition, targets innocent people.
It's a scientific fact
that the DNA found on one of the victims
is from an immediate male relative of Brandon Duffy.
Must they all endure suspicion and harassment by the police?
The police have the permission of the Attorney General's office
to search familial DNA.
That doesn't immunize it from my scrutiny.
I find the police conduct here extremely disturbing.
What's disturbing, your honor,
is the fact that a serial killer
has been out there for 20 years,
nine young women have been killed already.
The police are finally closing in on the suspect...
Nobody is stopping them, your honor,
as long as they don't trample on the rights
of innocent people.
Mr. Dekker, I'm issuing a restraining order
to stop all further testing of the Duffys' DNA
and to stop any further investigation or surveillance
of members of the family without probable cause.
[Whispering]
An appeal could take months.
By that time, the suspect could completely disappear.
Counselor,
you need to see this.
She was found three hours ago,
same area as the others.
Miss Caffey, I want to show you something.
I'm in a hurry.
Her name's Latanya Weaver.
Now she was found this morning near Slauson Avenue.
The next one's on you.
Latanya was a senior at Fremont high.
Average student, no history of drugs, gangs.
Last seen Thursday night walking home from a friend's.
I have a task force out canvassing her route home,
but so far, no leads.
Can we put any of Brandon Duffy's relatives
near the scene?
No. I had to pull the surveillance
to comply with the restraining order.
But we did find something in the public records.
In 2004, mark Duffy and his family were granted
an order of protection from Maria Cordero,
a 47-year-old latina living in Santa Ana.
Restraining orders, orders of protection.
Mark Duffy's got something to hide.
Mark Duffy?
No, my lawyer said I can't talk about that.
That was six years ago.
Please, Mrs. Cordero, we're investigating a murder.
Don't you want to help?
I don't know.
Mr. Duffy was very angry.
Why? What did you do?
I just wanted to see Brandon.
Their son? Why?
I have a daughter...
Angela.
When she was 17,
one night somebody come into her room through the window.
He raped her.
This was Brandon?
Oh, no, no, no.
This was almost 20 years ago.
Uh, we moved here after my husband died.
Angela got pregnant from the rape,
and we gave the baby to an agency for adoption.
Brandon was the baby.
The Duffys adopted him.
Yes.
Six years ago,
Angela discovered that she couldn't have children.
I was very sad.
I wanted to see my grandson.
I found him.
But Mr. Duffy wouldn't let me see him.
He didn't want Brandon to know how he was born,
from a rape.
So he got a judge to keep me away.
Brandon's adopted.
That takes Duffy and his relatives off the hook.
Mm-hmm. Mrs. Cordero, we're gonna need the names
of Angela's blood relatives, the men-uncles, cousins.
Please, I don't want any more problems.
I'm sorry.
Now that the Duffys are off the table,
we're looking for male relatives
of Brandon's biological parents,
his mom, Angela Cordero,
and his dad, an unidentified rapist.
The rape was never reported,
there was no investigation, no leads.
And the kid's grandmother won't cooperate.
Anyone else listed at Maria Cordero's address?
Just Angela.
Uh, but before they moved to Santa Ana in '91,
they lived in Los Angeles at 5864 Cimarron street.
Yeah, south central. It's the right neighborhood.
Anybody else listed at that address?
Let's see here. There's...
There's an Eduardo Cordero, died 1991.
That must have been Maria's husband.
That can't be our guy.
And there's Luis Cordero, three years younger.
Could have been his brother.
He'd be 54 now.
Where is he now?
Last known address for him is '93.
Where is he working?
Okay, last entry under his social security
is also 1993.
This is nice.
His last job, he was a janitor at rampart division.
Luis Cordero? Doesn't ring a bell.
Maybe if you had a DMV photo.
He didn't have a driver's license.
The city record says he worked the day shift.
I remember a Latino guy who cleaned the bathrooms.
His name might've be Luis.
He was really into the scanners we had back then,
listening to the radio calls.
We had a name for that guy- bunny man.
[Laughs] Yeah, right, bunny man.
After the punk band?
Echo and the bunnymen. What's the connection?
Well, this guy had some kind of verbal tic,
you know, a nervous thing
where he'd repeat the last thing you said,
like an echo.
How you doing, Mr. Valdez?
Okay. Just working.
Yeah? Any of those bangers been bothering you?
Bothering me? Nah.
Everything's cool.
I like your cleaning technique.
You ever work as a custodian?
Custodian?
I like the fresh air.
Like the air around rampart division?
Never worked there.
You know who did?
Luis Cordero.
You're gonna pay for this suit, Luis.
Get up.
Valdez is on medication.
Dutasteride "for benign prostatic hyperplasia."
Enlarged prostate.
I got one the size of a long island potato.
Huh. I got a beveled hunting knife
with a serrated spine.
Looks nice and clean. [Sniffs]
Bleach.
Bingo.
Trophy case.
The police found two bras bras stained with blood
matched to the latest two victims
and a knife consistent with that used on all of the victims,
including Mr. Heller.
There are a thousand of such knives in the city.
And for all anyone knows, my client found those bras
discarded in Ballona creek.
Your honor, Mr. Valdez has worked for the city
for over 25 years.
He's not going anywhere now.
Mr. Valdez has mastered hiding in plain sight, your honor.
After his first killing spree,
when he was known as Luis Cordero,
he took his mother's maiden name,
got a new social security number,
and started a new life as a DPW worker.
Remand without bail is the only way
to keep him in our sights.
Your honor, in a city that is rife
with pop stars and actors who have changed their names...
Please, Mr. Solomon.
Is that the best you can come up with?
Your client is remanded without bail until trial.
Mr. Dekker.
Oh, Mr. Duffy.
Look, we won't be bothering your family anymore.
You have to help us.
My son knows that he was adopted,
but we never told him how he was conceived.
That's gonna come out during this man's trial,
how he's related to Brandon, the rape.
I'm not sure I could prevent that.
It'll scar Brandon for the rest of his life.
That's why I stopped you before, from testing our DNA.
Mr. Dekker, can't you offer this man
some kind of a plea bargain, so there's no trial?
I'm very sorry, Mr. Duffy,
but I don't hog trade with a serial killer.
But then my son would never have to know.
I don't know what to tell you,
but I've got 11 murder victims and their families.
I have to speak for them.
Brandon Duffy was a juvenile
when his DNA was taken after his conviction for joy-riding.
The law at the time stated
that DNA could be entered into the database
only when there was an adult conviction.
Brandon was 15.
Fine. Let Brandon Duffy sue the county sheriff
who took his DNA.
His parents don't want money.
They want to preserve their son's privacy
and prevent the revelation that their son is a child of rape.
Say the boy's DNA was in the system in error,
what does it have to do with Mr. Valdez?
Your honor, my client only became a suspect
because the police found
Brandon Duffy's DNA in the database.
All the evidence that the police have recovered
stems from that tainted DNA match.
He's right, Mr. Dekker.
Without that boy's DNA,
the police would not have found Mr. Valdez,
or the knife or the clothing.
Please don't tell me
you're going to dismiss our entire prosecution
because some clerk hit the wrong key on his computer.
Facts are facts.
I'm dismissing the charges and releasing Mr. Valdez.
Hold on, your honor.
We have a victim who survived an attack by Mr. Valdez.
She may be able to identify him.
Before you put this maniac back on the street,
will you at least give us a chance
to put him in a lineup?
Mr. Dekker, you can have your lineup.
Okay, miss Mcdermott, take your time
and tell us if you see the man who stabbed you.
I don't know.
It was so long ago.
I'm sorry.
I can't be sure.
That's okay.
We'll get you a ride home.
You're a free man, Louis.
I want two cars on him 24/7.
11 murder cases blown out of the water.
What the hell's the ACLU thinking?
Forget that.
Judge Ridgeway just tossed all our evidence.
Time to start from scratch...
DNA from the bra worn by Sylvia Watson.
Legally, we have to pretend we don't know whose DNA that is.
Right. Unidentified DNA
sitting in a computer database, waiting for a match.
The trick is getting Valdez's DNA
back in the system legally.
We can.
If he gets arrested, he'll be swabbed.
His DNA will be run through the database automatically.
If he gets arrested again.
We have to make that happen.
We can't arrest him on a pretext.
Valdez has to actually do something.
Maybe he already has.
There's one victim here who's been overlooked.
- Luis is my brother-in-law, Angela's uncle,
but we haven't seen him since we moved to Santa Ana.
You and your husband shared a house with him till then.
Why did you move out?
After my husband died,
I didn't feel comfortable living with Luis.
Angela was young.
It wasn't proper.
Angela, I want to talk to you
about the rape 18 years ago.
What if I don't want to?
I can't force you.
But I think you could help us.
I think you could help us with many cases.
We just moved into this house.
I was, uh, in my new bedroom, sleeping.
I was 17.
I woke up, I was on my stomach.
This man was on my back,
raping me.
This man, what did he look like?
I couldn't see.
He pushed my face into my pillow.
I couldn't even scream.
Did he say anything?
Maybe you recognized his voice.
You did.
You did recognize his voice.
Angela,
all these women he's killed...
[Maria moans]
You could stop him.
Tell him, Angela.
Tell him.
He whispered in my ear.
It was like I was underwater,
but I could tell it was him.
It was uncle Luis.
What did he say to you?
He said, if I told my mother,
if I told the police,
he would kill me.
Angela refused to go to the police,
so I took her to the doctor.
She was bleeding.
What are you going to do?
The rape happened outside of our jurisdiction,
so I need you to report it
to the police here in Santa Ana.
Uh, how can I say it's him after all this time?
You let us worry about that.
But I promise you, you'll never have to face him,
you'll never have to testify,
but I need you to be strong now.
I need you to stand up for yourself.
1992?
Look, I'm happy to put a rapist behind bars,
but it took her 18 years to report it?
She was 17, and the rapist was her uncle.
He threatened to kill her if she reported it.
There are emergency room records
confirming vaginal injury.
A rape Kit?
I don't know.
You have nothing but the girl's word two decades later.
It's a dead loser before a jury.
Listen, Karen, this uncle,
he's the serial killer.
I'm sure you've read about him.
The one where you just lost all your evidence?
We'll get it back.
I just need you to prosecute him on the rape.
There's more than enough evidence
to get past a preliminary hearing.
The victim's credible.
Nice of the city to put a serial killer back on payroll.
Well, he's union and no conviction, so...
Our tax dollars hard at work.
[Siren approaching]
Here comes the Santa Ana cavalry.
Hands!
Don't move.
Get down.
It's like watching a cop movie.
Mm-hmm.
Now all we have to do
is wait for Santa Ana to put his DNA in the database.
[Chatter on police radio]
They finally I.D.Ed our Jane Doe.
Kelli Torneau, age 17, no family.
She was born in New Orleans.
Valdez's DNA just hit the database.
[Desk thuds]
Got him.
This is absurd, your honor.
You dismissed these murder cases last week.
Because the evidence then was based on a match
with DNA that had been put in the database in error.
Now the evidence against Mr. Valdez
is based on his DNA
that's been properly put into the database
subsequent to his arrest for rape.
An old rape case that Mr. Dekker
convinced orange county to use as a pretext
to arrest my client.
I did not rape my niece, your honor,
and I did not kill nobody.
Quiet, Mr. Valdez!
This was no pretext arrest.
There was medical evidence, and an I.D. By the victim.
The rape happened 18 years ago.
Prosecution is barred by the statute of limitations.
If defense counsel had done his homework,
he'd know that there's no clock on a sex crime against a minor
that went previously unreported to the police.
The victim here was 17.
She's right, Mr. Solomon.
And since prop 69 required a DNA swab from Mr. Valdez
after his arrest for rape,
our murder cases no longer go through a third party
or violate anyone's privacy.
He's got you there, Mr. Solomon, but good.
I'm denying your motion to dismiss.
All murder charges will stand.
I'll see you folks at trial.
Even if you win at trial,
we'll have this tied up with appeals
for the next ten years.
And with the ACLU on board,
we might have prop 69 declared unconstitutional,
or that dubious statute of limitations exception.
And the next time Mr. Valdez walks out of here,
it might be for good.
You do what you gotta do,
but I will be riding shotgun
with the Attorney General's office on the appeal.
Come on, Dekker,
a bird in the hand must be worth something.
You're not hearing me, Mr. Solomon.
This case is going to end
when your client receives a lethal injection
from the state of California.
A lethal injection.
Please, I'll stay in prison for as long as you want.
Okay. All right, Dekker, word on the street is
that the death penalty is not really your thing.
It's the law of this state, and I'm going to enforce it.
I was good when I took those pills.
I never hurt nobody.
But don Heller,
if he wasn't so nosy...
Nosy?
He found out that I changed my name,
and he asked me questions,
all the time, questions.
He just wouldn't leave me alone.
And I...
But-but I'll... I'll take...
I'll take those pills again,
and I'll be good again.
But, please,
just don't just let them kill me.
If you can convince a jury that you deserve mercy,
so be it.
But I'm going to show you the same mercy
you showed those women.
23 years ago,
a lone predator
began murdering young black women
in south central Los Angeles.
With a knife as sharp as wolves' teeth,
he tore his victims to pieces.
Young women whose deaths weren't covered on TV,
didn't make the front page of newspapers.
Young women whose murders
weren't given their proper due by the police.
With time, the evidence was packed away in boxes.
Murder books pushed to the back shelf.
The cases faded away.
The victims were forgotten,
by all except their families...
Until now.
We will prove that this man that sits before you,
Louis Valdez,
is one of the most vicious serial killers
in the history of this city.
And today, everyone will know the names of his victims.
Sherry Conlon.
Beverly Greene.
Sylvia Watson.
Milicent Taylor.
Marlena Treadway.
Grace Bradshaw.
Luanne Hicks.
Diana Mcdermott.
Don Heller.
Kelli Torneau.
Latanya Weaver.
Finally,
they will all have their day in court.