- 2 days ago
Court TV’s David Scott sits down with Benjamin Delgadillo, a drug dealer who admits he followed a violent street code the night he forcibly tattooed and killed Younis Alhassinyani.
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00:00Every day before I brush my teeth, I pick my pistol up.
00:11That pistol was mandatory.
00:13Especially the life I was living, it was mandatory.
00:16The killer was a hardened drug dealer and lifelong gang member.
00:20You also called yourself Ag Town's Grim Reaper.
00:25Yeah.
00:26And what did you mean by that?
00:28I mean, that's pretty self-explanatory, too.
00:33The victim was a struggling young man with a drug addiction who ran afoul of his dealer.
00:38That's a nice-ass word.
00:40The punishment began with torture.
00:42I started tattooing his back.
00:44And blacking it out.
00:45Now I'm mad.
00:46And ended with cold-blooded murder.
00:49The switch is flipped.
00:50Yeah, so now there's no way to unflip it.
00:52From the vicious world of street gangs and drugs, a killer talks for the first time.
00:57There's a code to that life, right?
01:01How you pay respect, command respect.
01:04Mm-hmm.
01:05If they see any type of weakness in you, you're not going to last long.
01:10It's over with.
01:11And opens a new window into a brutal crime that took a young man's life.
01:15Is that the gun you used to kill him?
01:18Or...
01:19So for about a few hundred dollars and some disrespect, you're willing to torture, torment him.
01:30For future references, keep it 100.
01:33This s*** don't happen to you.
01:34Ultimately, murder a man for acting like a junkie, when you're the one who turned him into a junkie.
01:43How do you account for that?
02:14Arlington, Texas.
02:44A mix of everything and everyone.
02:47The rich, the poor, and the middle class.
02:50Whites, blacks, browns, even Kurdish refugees,
02:55who built a strong community here after fleeing genocide in Iraq for a chance at the American dream.
03:01But for one immigrant family, those hopes were dashed
03:05when a young man got caught up in the dark underbelly of the drug trade
03:08and paid for it with his life.
03:12I'm here to find out why.
03:14Good morning.
03:19Good morning.
03:22How are you doing, Benjamin?
03:23I'm good. How are you?
03:24Benjamin Delgadillo is serving a 50-year sentence for the torture,
03:29abduction, and murder of 22-year-old Eunice Alhassan Yanni in February 2021.
03:36First time talking about the case publicly?
03:38Yeah, I ain't talking about my case. Nothing.
03:40Right, because there was no trial.
03:42No trial, no nothing.
03:44Delgadillo pleaded guilty to murder, but left the victim's family and the public with many unanswered questions.
03:51Today, he's agreed to talk for the first time about the crime and the gang code he says was behind it.
03:58We wanted to talk to you to try and understand the mindset and motivations behind your actions in this case.
04:07Does that make sense?
04:08Yeah.
04:09Why did you want to talk to us?
04:12I mean, it's an opportunity for both sides, really.
04:15Y'all can understand what really happened that day, and I could have a chance to voice and tell y'all the truth.
04:24You want to say your piece?
04:26I mean, yeah.
04:26Yeah.
04:27Okay.
04:28Delgadillo is deemed so dangerous by prison authorities that he's not only seated behind glass,
04:34but inside a metal cage as an extra precaution.
04:37And you're in here doing 50 years for your part in this crime, right?
04:44Far more than anyone else implicated in the case, right?
04:48Do you feel like you took the fall for this murder?
04:51Mm-hmm.
04:53I don't really necessarily say I took the fall, but I guess I'm just the one who got stuck with it.
04:59Interesting.
04:59Okay.
05:00We're going to get into the case in a moment, but I want to take a moment to learn a little more about your background, okay?
05:06Okay.
05:07You're from the south side of Arlington.
05:09Okay.
05:09Right?
05:10Yeah.
05:10Grew up born and raised there.
05:11Mm-hmm.
05:12What was that neighborhood like?
05:13You know, I really grew up with a little single mama struggling.
05:17Mm-hmm.
05:17So by the time I grew up and I was around like 11, 12, I went out there and tried to help my mama.
05:25On the streets?
05:26Yeah.
05:27So I started going out, selling drugs, robbing people.
05:31How old were you?
05:3112, 11.
05:3311 years old?
05:34Yeah.
05:34And you're out there in the streets robbing people?
05:36I mean, that's the only thing I knew.
05:37How did you know it?
05:38Who turned you on to that life?
05:40You know, the people I grew up around, you know, that was the culture, that was the lifestyle.
05:45Gangs, drugs, stuff like that.
05:48So I became a gang member about the age of 12.
05:52Which gang?
05:52I'm Five Deuce.
05:55Five Deuce is an affiliate of the Crips gang that originated in Los Angeles and now has a large membership in Texas.
06:03Delgadillo says he's been a member for most of his life.
06:05Most of us know very little about the life of a street drug dealer or gang member.
06:13What's it like to be in that kind of life?
06:16Like, when you first start off, I mean, yeah, it's exciting.
06:20But, you know, being in the street, selling dope, shooting, getting shot at, that's scary, you know?
06:27Like, I mean, you think it's fun until bullets flying past by, you see your partners dropping, getting shot.
06:34And there's a code to that life, right?
06:38A kind of street code about how you act, how you pay respect, command respect.
06:42Mm-hmm.
06:43Respect gonna get you a long way.
06:45You respect people, they're gonna respect you.
06:47How important is it to project an image of strength in that game?
06:52Oh, it's very important.
06:53And if they see any pushover, any type of weakness in you, you're not gonna last long, it's over with.
07:02On social media, Delgadillo openly promoted his business and his brutality.
07:06It was his brand.
07:08You advertised yourself as BDA.
07:12What does that mean, BDA?
07:13BDA, all right.
07:14So, BDA, that's a neighborhood clique.
07:17That's my neighborhood clique.
07:19That's, you know, we in the world of BDA 241.
07:21I got it, you know, tatted all on me.
07:24It stands for BAT that action.
07:26So, I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory.
07:30Emphasis on the action.
07:31Yeah, we BAT that action.
07:33You also called yourself Ag Town's Grim Reaper.
07:38Yeah.
07:40And what did you mean by that?
07:42I mean, that's pretty self-explanatory, too.
07:46Were you, in fact, as ruthless as that suggests?
07:49Uh, I mean, I already signed for my time, so, I mean, I myself wouldn't speak on myself, like, my actions.
07:59I would have somebody else speak on me.
08:02That sounds like a yes.
08:03I guess, yeah.
08:05Everyone uses nicknames, right, to avoid government names, right?
08:10What were yours?
08:11My first one, Puppet.
08:13I had got that, like, 10 years old.
08:17I had got that name, though, because, hey, go tell him what to do.
08:21Go tell him what to do.
08:21He's going to do it.
08:22As soon as you tell him, he's going to go do it.
08:24So, they had me, like, little strings.
08:25Oh, Puppet on a string?
08:26Yeah.
08:26You were also known to always carry a gun.
08:31Yeah.
08:31Right?
08:32Yeah.
08:32Did that start at 11 years old?
08:34I mean, yeah.
08:36Once they put that first pistol in my hand, you know what I'm saying, every day before I brush my teeth, pick my pistol up.
08:42Then I'm going to go take care of what I, that pistol is mandatory.
08:46Especially the life I was living, it was mandatory.
08:48Required equipment.
08:49Mm-hmm.
08:49At 11 years old.
08:51And were you, even at that age, ready to use it if you had to?
08:56I told myself I was.
08:58I told everybody else I was.
09:00Nobody really knows until it's that time.
09:04Delgadillo became a full-time gun-slinging drug dealer.
09:08Meth, coke, heroin, etc.
09:11But his own drug of choice was something known as bars.
09:15I was so hooked on them bars.
09:17I was a bar baby for real.
09:18But, like, I got introduced to them, like, 13, 14, young.
09:24As I understand it, it's basically two large doses of Xanax kind of melded together.
09:30It looks like a bar.
09:31Yeah.
09:31Right?
09:32Yeah.
09:33Everything just feels amazing.
09:36Everything feels good.
09:38Slow.
09:38Everything just...
09:39Slow down the game?
09:41Mm-hmm.
09:43Delgadillo was high on Xanax in early 2021.
09:46When he says he nodded off in the backseat of a car after selling meth to Eunice Al-Hasanyani.
09:53When he woke up, his customer was gone.
09:56And so was his supply of drugs.
09:59That's when the trouble began.
10:00How long had you known Eunice?
10:05Probably not even six months, really.
10:07Did you know he was struggling to get clean?
10:10Yeah, I did.
10:12I did.
10:14Eunice was born and raised in Texas, but his parents were refugees from Kurdistan and part
10:19of an ethnic group persecuted in their homeland in northern Iraq.
10:23His family had recently sent him to Kurdistan in the hopes of kicking the drug habit he picked
10:29up in Texas.
10:31But now he was back in Arlington, and so was the habit.
10:36Looking back on my life now, like, a lot of the people that I did a lot of deals with,
10:42I really shouldn't have been, like, dealing with them because I seen I was really hurting
10:48them more than I was helping them.
10:49You could see that?
10:50Yeah.
10:50Or you can see that now, you mean?
10:52I knew it was wrong when I was doing it.
10:54You did?
10:55I knew everything I was doing was wrong.
10:55So you knew the difference between right and wrong?
10:58Yeah, it's just, it's just, I've been so caught up into this so long, it's just, it's
11:05not about what's right and what's wrong anymore, it's about me taking care of myself.
11:10Delgadillo estimates Eunice stole about $1,000 worth of drugs from him.
11:14There was meth, uh, what I had, uh, some exos, heroin, some weed, like, a whole bunch, just
11:22a whole bunch of little, little, little amounts of everything.
11:26But he says it wasn't really about the product or the cash.
11:30See, so the, the whole situation, like, it wasn't really behind the money, it was behind
11:35him doing what he did.
11:37Like, I felt you disrespected me, you played me, like, I, that's really where it was.
11:41And the disrespect is a serious offense in that life.
11:45Yeah.
11:45Not only did he stick you with the debt, but he makes you look bad.
11:48Yeah, because if I have this image that everybody knows, oh, he don't play with him, eh.
11:53Right.
11:54Okay, so now he's not this big, bad person he was, he's not untouchable how he said he
11:58was, he's not this.
11:59Let's go try him.
12:00Because you can't show weakness, right?
12:03And so you can't let it stand.
12:05Mm-hmm.
12:09Top out session.
12:11So if you got some money, you want to do the same, come through.
12:15Cool.
12:15I don't know.
12:16I need tattoos as you want.
12:17Top out for $500, all you can take.
12:22Two weeks after that drug theft, Delgadillo found himself at, of all things, an all-night
12:27tattoo party in the home of a woman Eunice was dating, Erica Perez.
12:32It could be your whole mother's body.
12:34Who's ready?
12:35Unfortunately for Eunice, he showed up too.
12:38I didn't know he even knew them, but, but yeah, like I'm getting my tattoos done and
12:43then, uh, knock on the door, they open the door, it's Eunice.
12:49I ain't know this whole time Eunice and Erica is, uh...
12:54A couple.
12:54Yeah.
12:55Yeah, yeah, so I ain't know that.
12:57So I'm like, oh, okay, okay.
12:59But I'm not tripping on it, you know?
13:01Me, I'm not tripping.
13:03That's cool.
13:04Stage is set now.
13:05Yeah.
13:05Right?
13:06Walk me through what happened that night.
13:09This is the turning point.
13:12I'm getting tattooed.
13:13I even give them some drugs to go do.
13:15Here, boom, go do that.
13:17You want, you want to get high?
13:17Go get high.
13:18Boom.
13:19I see too much movement in my peripheral.
13:22Too much movement.
13:23I got a backpack with some dope over there.
13:26That's when I see it again, the movement.
13:29So I look, but this time when I look, he grabbed my bag.
13:34Eunice?
13:35Yeah.
13:35He grabbed my bag, tried to take off running with it.
13:38I knew it.
13:38So this is a second offense.
13:40Yeah.
13:40So if I felt disrespected the first time, felt played the first time, this time you're
13:44doing it in front of me.
13:46I had already hopped up, pushed the tattoo artist off of me and ran.
13:50I ran behind him.
13:50I had my gun.
13:51So by the time I run up behind him, he's trying to unlock them hoes, I put my gun on him.
13:56Hey.
13:56You must have been pissed off at that point.
13:58I was mad.
13:59Hell yeah, I was mad.
14:00That's really what this whole situation was.
14:02Delgadillo says his reputation as a drug dealing gangster had been twice tested by Eunice
14:08and was then at stake.
14:10According to the code, you have to act.
14:12Yeah.
14:13So he crosses a line.
14:14You can't let it stand, right?
14:17Yeah.
14:17You can't be the dealer who got punked by some small-time junkie, right?
14:24So by the street code, right, what would be the punishment for an addict who steals repeatedly
14:34from his dealer?
14:37That's the question.
14:38Yeah.
14:39What's the answer?
14:41The answer begins with torture and ends in murder.
14:45So, me, I want to embarrass you.
14:50I want to make sure that you remember me for the rest of your life.
14:54Hmm.
14:55Scarred him for life.
14:57Yeah.
14:58Who wants to get tattooed by, um, one of Arlington's best tattoo artists?
15:15On the night of February 1st, 2021, Erika Perez hosted a gathering.
15:22It was a tattoo party where people pay a flat fee to be inked up all night by a local artist.
15:28He had did the, uh, tattoos on the back of my head.
15:30So I had already had got some work from him.
15:33So I was like, okay, uh, you're pretty good.
15:36You're decent.
15:37Which ones did he do?
15:38Can you show me?
15:38Yeah.
15:39He did the whole back of my head.
15:41Oh, he did all of that?
15:44Yeah.
15:45Mm-hmm.
15:46So he did the whole back of my head.
15:48Mm-hmm.
15:48And then, so, I mean, I knew he was pretty decent.
15:51Delgadillo might have gone for the tattoos, but when one of his customers showed up, too,
15:56the night took a dark turn.
15:58It was Erika Perez's boyfriend, Eunice Alhasiniani, who had robbed Delgadillo of his drug supply.
16:04And now the code of the streets required that Delgadillo retaliate.
16:08Some people would have just killed him.
16:12Yeah.
16:12Right there and then?
16:13Yeah.
16:14By the street code, that would be acceptable?
16:17Yeah.
16:18Advisable?
16:19Yeah.
16:20What escalated the whole situation was Erika.
16:26Don't laugh.
16:27I'm not giving you props.
16:28I'm just saying.
16:28Delgadillo says Perez, who had also fallen out with Eunice that night, then threw fuel on
16:34the fire, goading Delgadillo to punish him for stealing.
16:38They were having an argument.
16:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:41Right?
16:42They were arguing.
16:43And at some point, she kind of throws him under the bus.
16:49Mm, yeah.
16:50And is Erika, she's watching, enjoying the show?
16:54She's the one who recorded it.
16:55Right.
16:56I ain't record none of that.
16:58We hear her on the recording, right?
17:00Shh, shh, shh.
17:02No.
17:03Ain't my bad.
17:03I'm not a professional tattooer.
17:05The loyalty hurts more.
17:06I grabbed a tattoo gun he had.
17:10I had my gun in one hand, tattoo in the other hand.
17:12You had your pistol in one hand and the tattoo gun in the other hand.
17:15Mm-hmm.
17:15Okay.
17:16So I had told him, lay down.
17:18He didn't want to lay down, but I made him lay down.
17:22Okay.
17:22Eager to humiliate Eunice, Delgadillo took offense at the hometown tattoo on the young
17:28man's back and began raking the tattoo gun over his victim's skin.
17:35You know, I'm from the South Side.
17:37He was from the South Side, too.
17:39He had a big old South Side tattoo on his back.
17:42He had on a red polo shirt.
17:44I just grabbed it, ripped it.
17:46You ripped it off, revealing this South Side tattoo on his back.
17:50I'm really from the South Side.
17:51Yeah, so that's when I started tattooing his back, the whole South Side.
17:58Say, what y'all, hombo?
17:58What you got right there?
18:00You know what I'm saying?
18:01Custom tattoo right here.
18:02That's custom?
18:03I don't know what that is.
18:05Hold on.
18:05Let me see that hair right there real quick.
18:07That hair pretty clean, though.
18:09Hell yeah.
18:10I blacked out the whole South Side, across his whole back.
18:14The whole back.
18:15Marked it off.
18:17That's a nice-ass word.
18:21I'm a real-ass in the South Coast.
18:24You better ask about me.
18:26I'm VDA.
18:28While I'm marking it off, he's complaining, begging me to stop, telling me to stop.
18:34It's painful, right?
18:34Yeah.
18:34He's telling me it's painful.
18:35For me and my state of mind, I'm not worried about how you feel.
18:41I'm worried about how you made me feel.
18:42Right.
18:43So you made me feel bad, so guess what I'm going to do?
18:45It's supposed to be painful.
18:46He didn't tell me it hurt, so I pick it up, stab it back down, stab it back down, jerk it around,
18:51making it as painful as I can for him.
18:53Do it a little soft.
18:55You said do it soft.
18:56What the hell?
18:56Do it soft?
18:57F***ing hurt.
18:58Yeah?
18:59Ow.
19:01Ow.
19:02Ain't my bad.
19:02I'm not a professional tattooer.
19:04Punishment fit the crime?
19:07At the time being.
19:08You advise him to keep it 100 so this don't happen to you for future references.
19:14I look for future references.
19:17Keep it 100.
19:18This s*** don't happen to you.
19:21You talking to him?
19:23You kind of messing with his head at this point?
19:25Or is this just to underscore the punishment, the humiliation?
19:31I mean, I guess you could say a little bit of both.
19:33Like, I'm trying to add to the punishment at the same time letting him know, like, you did this to yourself.
19:40This is what happens when you try to play with people.
19:42Like, you don't touch fire and expect not to get burned.
19:47He looks totally defenseless.
19:49Did he resist at all?
19:51No.
19:51No.
19:53He must have been terrified.
19:54My goal is to embarrass you.
19:58My goal is to make you suffer.
19:59My goal is for pain.
20:01But Delgadillo's torment didn't stop there.
20:05He then made a call to his supplier, Justin Salinas, a drug dealer rumored to have ties to Mexican cartels.
20:11So, it ain't over.
20:13Now it's early morning.
20:15You make a phone call.
20:16Yeah.
20:17To Mr. Salinas, right?
20:18What's that conversation like?
20:21I mean, it wasn't too much, too much to that car.
20:24I just called him, updated him.
20:25Was he upset?
20:26As upset as you were?
20:27For sure.
20:28Turns out Salinas had fronted the drugs Eunice stole from Delgadillo.
20:33So, he's making not just you look bad, but Mr. Salinas, too.
20:37Yeah.
20:38So, I had kind of picked up the phone.
20:41Hey, you remember you sent him to me?
20:42This is what he did.
20:43He tried it again.
20:44He did this, did that.
20:45So, this is where I'm at.
20:46By choosing to call in Salinas, Delgadillo was setting Eunice up for even more violence.
20:52Why him, of all people?
20:54Because it seems like more than likely, it was going to be more trouble if he's involved.
21:01I mean, I don't know.
21:02Well, if I'm being honest, it's just, you know, it just seemed like he was in my circle.
21:09So, he seemed like he was one of the people to go to.
21:13It seems like you knew or should have known that...
21:16What was going to happen.
21:17That, yeah, if you alert him, right?
21:20Mm-hmm.
21:21I mean, you must have known that if he's coming out, he's going to be held to pay for Eunice.
21:28Yeah.
21:29Right?
21:29Yeah.
21:30Was there a point that you all decided you were going to take his life or what he had done?
21:36Do it soft?
21:48F***.
21:49Yeah?
21:50Ouch.
21:50After torturing Eunice Alhassan Yanni with a tattoo gun over a drug debt, Benjamin Delgadillo then called in the big guns.
21:58Three more drug dealers arrived, armed to the teeth.
22:01One of them, according to the record, is openly carrying an AK-47 of some kind.
22:08Yeah.
22:08He walks into the apartment with it?
22:10Yeah.
22:12So, now you got four men, armed, right?
22:21Pissed off.
22:22Yeah.
22:23Aggrieved and ready to act.
22:29You guys tell Eunice he's going for a ride home.
22:34Delgadillo says Salinas then confronted Eunice, painting a scene straight out of a gangster movie.
22:41Yeah.
22:42Before that, they talked, though.
22:44Like, they had, uh, Juju had sat down.
22:46Did you hear that conversation?
22:47He just sat down in front of him, started talking to him, telling him why he messed up.
22:52And, uh, why, like, certain things had to happen.
22:57By way of reprimand.
22:59I mean, like, at that point, uh, we didn't really just outright say what was going to happen.
23:04Nobody really just knew what was going to happen, but everybody had an idea.
23:08So, uh...
23:10Everybody had an idea, including Eunice, who pleaded for his life.
23:14What was he saying? Do you remember?
23:16He was just kind of really just throwing it out there, like,
23:20Hey, man, just let me make it, let me make it, go ahead, just...
23:23I ain't even got to do nothing, just open the door.
23:25Let me, let me walk out, just...
23:26I ain't gonna tell nobody nothing, I ain't, it's over with.
23:29So, Salinas tells him, how did you put it?
23:34Uh, we came to let you make it.
23:36Make it, meaning walk away.
23:38Yeah.
23:38Mm-hmm.
23:40Okay.
23:40Now, if armed drug dealers tell somebody, we're gonna take you for a ride home...
23:49Yeah.
23:49...and, you know, that person has just stolen drugs...
23:55Yeah.
23:55...it sounds like that means you're dead.
24:00Yeah.
24:01Is that fair, is that right?
24:04Yeah.
24:06By then, the tattoo party was over, and Eunice was dragged from the apartment by Delgadillo,
24:12Justin Salinas, also known as Juju, and two other men.
24:16Erica says, whatever y'all gonna do, don't do it here.
24:19You remember that?
24:20Yeah.
24:21Mm-hmm.
24:22And so you walk him out to the car, everybody gets in the car.
24:27Who's calling the shots now?
24:29Really, when we left that apartment, there wasn't really no talking, it was more silence,
24:37it was more actions, it was just more we knew what to do and what was going on.
24:42The less said, the better.
24:43Mm-hmm.
24:44What's the vibe in the car?
24:46You said no music, no talking.
24:47Yeah, just silence.
24:49And there's no clear destination, kind of driving around.
24:54Mm-hmm.
24:55Was Eunice pleading his case at all?
24:59Mm, not really.
25:00No, just quiet.
25:02I mean, at the beginning, I don't think he understood what he was getting himself into
25:07when he got into that car until, like, ten minutes into that car ride.
25:13Yeah, because I do vaguely remember him telling us, hey, why are y'all going this way?
25:20Y'all know I live this way.
25:21Where are y'all da-da-da?
25:22That was the clue.
25:23Yeah, and nobody said nothing.
25:25No radio, no music, no nobody's talking.
25:27Do you think that he just accepted his fate at that point?
25:31I don't know.
25:31Surrender?
25:31I guess he just realized there was really nothing he could do at that point, yeah.
25:36Finally, the car stops on the shoulder of the highway.
25:39What happens next?
25:43Juju hops out first.
25:46Eunice hops out.
25:47I'm in the backseat with him.
25:50As soon as he hops out, he tries to walk off.
25:52Tries to walk off.
25:53He gets shot.
25:57He got shot.
25:58Oh, God, I think they said he got shot in the throat.
26:00In the neck?
26:01Yeah, something like that.
26:02So, you heard the gunshot.
26:05Yeah.
26:05Did you see the gunshot?
26:07Yeah.
26:08You did?
26:08Mm-hmm.
26:09I wasn't looking at him.
26:10I was looking more at the gun.
26:12And I seen just, boom.
26:14Burn out.
26:14What started with torture had escalated to murder.
26:19Delgadillo says it was Salinas who pulled the trigger,
26:22but murder charges against Salinas would later be dropped.
26:27What was your state of mind at that point?
26:28What were you thinking at that point?
26:32If I'm being honest, the only thing I was thinking about
26:34at that exact moment was just getting out of there.
26:38Flee.
26:39Flee the scene.
26:40I wasn't thinking about nothing else, if I'm being honest.
26:42Okay.
26:43You weren't feeling any remorse, any regret, any sympathy?
26:49Mm-mm.
26:50If I'm being honest now.
26:52Younes' body was left in a drainage ditch
26:56on the side of the highway.
27:01Before long, Delgadillo's name was on the lead detective's radar,
27:04and a police interrogation would blow the investigation wide open.
27:08You made a lot of strange decisions afterwards, interacting with law enforcement and the courts.
27:23I mean, yeah.
27:24Yeah, there's a lot of things I wish I would have done differently.
27:26The code of the street that led to Eunice's murder would once again come into play.
27:32Only this time, it would be Delgadillo breaking the rules.
27:36You did it to yourself.
27:37Yeah.
27:38Finally naming your accomplices one by one, right?
27:41Okay.
27:42Okay.
27:42What did they do?
27:44They shot me.
27:45Who did they?
27:47Justin Sheldon.
27:48So right here is the area where we found the blood splatter.
28:00You could see the blood come onto the guardrail,
28:04and there was actually a large pooling of blood that had been dried
28:07sitting right here on the other side of the guardrail.
28:10Detective Justin Coffey of the Euless Police Department
28:13got the call to investigate the discovery of a young man's body
28:17on the side of a Texas highway.
28:20TxDOT workers were doing bridge inspections that day,
28:24and they located a body in the ditch off of the service road.
28:30I was just asked to get there.
28:32The body belonged to 22-year-old Eunice Alhasiniani.
28:37A witness then came forward and reported seeing a suspicious white Dodge Challenger
28:41on the night of the murder.
28:43One of our witnesses actually was entering the freeway here at this entrance ramp.
28:48She was able to look down this service road
28:51and see a white Challenger parked at the barrier.
28:54That's when she saw the item being thrown from the vehicle
28:58later determined to be a body.
29:04We believe the Challenger would have been parked
29:06exactly right here where my truck is parked,
29:09and Eunice was shot here at this location
29:12and probably fell back across the guardrail.
29:15Leads poured in from Eunice's family
29:19and eventually the phone number for a drug dealer known as Puppet.
29:23Police traced the phone to Benjamin Delgadillo,
29:27and he was brought in for questioning.
29:28When I looked through his social media,
29:42he seemed like a pretty bad, pretty bad man.
29:45He, you know, a lot of photographs with guns,
29:48a lot of talk about being Ag Town's Grim Reaper.
29:51When I walked in that interview room,
29:59I really thought that Benjamin was going to give me the middle finger.
30:01I figured he was going to come in there and say,
30:03I'm not going to say a word.
30:05Just my surprise, Benjamin had no issues talking to me at all.
30:09Delgadillo did the one thing his gang forbids
30:30when confronted by the cops.
30:32He squealed.
30:34First, he confessed to torturing Eunice with the tattoo gun.
30:37And so where did the Southside beat come out?
30:42Because he had Southside tattooed on.
30:44Yeah, I'm Southside too, but it just,
30:47it was just, I guess it was in the moment, you know what I'm saying?
30:50I'm mad.
30:51I don't know what else to do, so I'm getting a tattoo on.
30:55Can I be honest with you?
30:56When I watched that video of you taking that tattoo gun and scratch
31:00just tattooed out, that was killing.
31:04Yeah.
31:04I saw a monster right there.
31:07Yeah.
31:07Not who I see right in front of me right now.
31:09I saw someone that was very angry.
31:12I love him.
31:13Very pissed off.
31:14I mean, that's very personal.
31:16Yes, sir.
31:16You set out to embarrass him, to torture him, to humiliate him.
31:22And I think you did that.
31:23And he was scared.
31:24Yeah.
31:25He didn't even raise up to you.
31:27He submitted to everything you said.
31:29Yes, sir.
31:29Right?
31:30Yes, sir.
31:30Is that fair to say?
31:31Yes, sir.
31:32Okay.
31:33Do it South?
31:34This hurt.
31:35Yeah?
31:35No.
31:37No.
31:38Ain't my bad.
31:39Have you watched that video yourself?
31:41Never seen it.
31:42You've never seen it?
31:43Never seen it.
31:44Oh.
31:44I guess it was just my anger.
31:46Kept building up, building up, building up, and then that's just what led to it.
31:50Were you more angry when you finished the torture than you were when you started it?
31:57I would say, yeah, because now that I had actually had did what I had did, I'm already mad now.
32:06Now I'm mad.
32:07At first, I was trying not to get mad, so, you know, I'm not mad.
32:12I'm trying not to get mad.
32:13But now that I actually am mad, and I'm mad, now, like, what I'm going to do now that I'm mad?
32:19The switch is flipped.
32:20Yeah, so now there's no way to unflip it.
32:22Right, right.
32:23Because you could have stopped after the torture session.
32:28Yeah.
32:29That act, that torture, started a kind of momentum of violence, it seems.
32:35Like, it builds and builds.
32:38And then the way that violence begets violence, and it seemed to start when you put him on the table and tortured him.
32:46Is that fair, Benjamin?
32:48Mmm, I guess you could say that, yeah.
32:50Then, Delgadillo violated the same street code he blames Eunice for breaking, and snitched.
32:57It's Justin?
33:02Yeah.
33:03Okay.
33:04Who is Justin with?
33:06Adrian.
33:08What's your last name?
33:09Brothers.
33:10Brothers?
33:11Yes, I do.
33:12Mm-hmm.
33:13What did they do?
33:14They shot him.
33:15Who did they?
33:17Justin shot him?
33:18So that's Justin.
33:19Justin's slain is 10.
33:21Yes, sir.
33:22Juju.
33:23Yeah.
33:23And he had a Glock pistol, and you saw him shoot guns.
33:32Yes, sir.
33:34And wasn't he doing it?
33:38Was there a point that you all decided you were going to take his life or what he had done?
33:44Was it just understood that that had to happen?
33:48I guess you could say that it wasn't really no, no huddle up, no, hey, hey, let's talk about this.
33:55Hey, this is what we're going to do.
33:56It wasn't, nah, it was just, I, we seen how he was moving, he was moving.
34:01It wasn't really no words, no discussion.
34:03It was just, I, I guess it's always said this was going to happen.
34:05Delgadio still denies pulling the trigger that killed Eunice Al-Hasinyani, but he admits to being the one who sealed the young addict's fate.
34:15So torture, torment, murder.
34:19It appears to be a straight line started by you, this momentum, escalated by the other armed men who you called in, right?
34:32I mean, wasn't this all set in motion by you, Benjamin?
34:38Yeah, I mean, I, you, you could say that.
34:40I mean, in a way, I, I, I know I, I'm really the, the start and the cause of all this.
34:45For the man who created the violent momentum that night, justice would be swift and harsh.
34:51You made a lot of strange decisions afterwards interacting with law enforcement and the courts.
34:58I mean, yeah, yeah.
34:59There's a lot of things I would, I wish I would have done differently.
35:02Such as what?
35:04Really, I wish I would have just went from the start of my whole, my whole case.
35:09Would have just started off different the whole, the whole way through.
35:15Really, cause.
35:17Not talking?
35:17Yeah, I placed my, I, I, I, I, once I did that, placed myself on the scene, placed myself everywhere.
35:23It was, I handed myself a license.
35:26You did it to yourself?
35:28Yeah.
35:29Once he was actually in county jail, I think he began looking really long and hard about his role as a snitch.
35:37People who, who snitch in jail, people don't look at him very favorably.
35:42And he's going to have to live with these people for a long time.
35:47He ultimately did not testify at all.
35:52He took a deal with the DA's office.
35:53He opted to take 50 years rather than testify against his co-defendants.
35:59In that interrogation, you mixed a bunch of half-truths with lies, finally naming your accomplices one by one, right, to detectives.
36:10And then you refused to testify, right?
36:13Yeah.
36:14Why?
36:14Why did you refuse to testify?
36:16I mean, there's, there's just, you don't do that.
36:21I mean.
36:22By the code.
36:23Even if privately with detectives, you've already essentially snitched.
36:27I mean, yeah, like, I ain't finna, yeah, that's just something, mm-mm.
36:32They told you that would cost you more years if you didn't testify.
36:37Oh, yeah, they told me if I got, if I testified, they would, they would, time reduction, time this, time, give me, like, 20 years, something like that, man.
36:48I'm good.
36:49Can't do that.
36:49Can't do it.
36:50You're in here, doing 50 years for your part in this crime, right?
36:56Far more than anyone else implicated in the case, right?
37:01Do you feel like you took the fall for this murder?
37:05Mm-hmm.
37:06I mean, I mean, it all plays, it all plays out, like, I don't really necessarily say I took the fall, but I guess I'm just the one who got stuck with it.
37:20I guess we could say that.
37:23You better ask about me.
37:25I'm VDA.
37:26You said you knew the difference between right and wrong.
37:29Mm-hmm.
37:30Kill a man for acting like a junkie when you the one turned him into a junkie.
37:36How do you account for that?
37:45Yeah?
37:47Ow.
37:49Ow.
37:50What began as a sadistic punishment over a drug theft ended in the brutal murder of a young addict by his dealer.
37:58You know, one of the things that separates criminal life from normal people is how cheap life can be, right?
38:08Mm-hmm.
38:08It seems to me that he was acting when he took your drugs, just like a junkie.
38:15Mm-hmm.
38:16Mm-hmm.
38:17And you all helped turn him into that junkie.
38:22Mm-hmm.
38:23So then once he acts like the junkie that you turned him into, you have to punish him, you have to kill him?
38:29I mean, for a few hundred bucks?
38:31Mm-hmm.
38:31And to maintain your image?
38:33Mm-hmm.
38:34Mm-hmm.
38:35Mm-hmm.
38:36Mm-hmm.
38:36Mm-hmm.
38:37Mm-hmm.
38:37Yeah.
38:37See, I grew up selling dope, hitting licks, stuff like that, because my mama grew up struggling, single parent.
38:48So now that's wrong for me trying to help my mama, which is right.
38:52But what I'm doing is wrong.
38:54Right.
38:54So y'all lock me up.
38:56Delgadio may now be locked up until he's in his 70s, far longer than the man he says actually shot Eunice, Justin Salinas.
39:04Ultimately, the state dropped all charges against Salinas, who was at the time convicted in an unrelated federal drug trafficking case and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
39:14And regardless of who actually pulled the trigger, Delgadio now takes responsibility for the murder.
39:20There is some poetic justice in your sentence in that, you know, none of this would have happened, at least that night, the way it happened, but for you.
39:32Mm-hmm.
39:32Right?
39:33Eunice was on his own downward spiral, but he wouldn't have been murdered that night if you didn't set in motion this chain of events,
39:43this momentum of violence.
39:45Mm-hmm.
39:46It was you who sealed Eunice's fate that night.
39:49You accept responsibility for that?
39:51I accepted my consequences.
39:54That's why I be speaking kind of the way I speak.
39:57I'm not really messed up about my situation because the whole situation happened because of me.
40:06So you accept it?
40:06I mean, I know what I did was bad, really bad, like, but I still don't feel that 50 is acceptable for what I did.
40:16Like, 20, 30, give me something I can do.
40:20Like, I caught this case when I was 20, 21.
40:23Like, nobody really thinks they're right state of mind, especially doing drugs and this lifestyle.
40:29You young.
40:30You f***ed up.
40:31You mess up.
40:32I just want a second chance.
40:34Just give me a chance.
40:35Something.
40:36Like, I can show you better than I can tell you.
40:37Like, that old, old peasy, old Benji, me, that's not me no more.
40:43Like, why should we believe that?
40:46Uh, I mean, it's not really, like, I tell a lot of people, I ain't really gonna tell you to believe me.
40:53I'm gonna show you.
40:54Do you have true remorse in your heart for Eunice and his family?
40:59If you would ask me truthfully if I would do anything different, do-do-do, I told you I can't say I would do anything different, but I do regret and I do feel bad for him passing away and dying.
41:11That was never really my intention, but it was really never meant to go that far.
41:16You got 50 years.
41:18Mm-hmm.
41:18Eunice's family got a life sentence.
41:20Yeah.
41:21Right?
41:21Yeah.
41:22Imagine how his mother feels every time the birthday comes around, every time the holidays comes around.
41:28So, how would your mother feel?
41:31And, I mean, I ain't gonna lie, like I said, I've thought about that, like, I did a lot of seg time, too.
41:37Mm-hmm.
41:37So, you know, I had a lot of time by myself, in my cell, to think about this.
41:41Mm-hmm.
41:41So, I thought about my case, I thought about what if it was me instead, not him, like, how my mama would feel, how my family would feel about this.
41:50That ain't no good feeling.
41:51Of course, Eunice Alhassan Yanni's family is devastated by his violent loss.
41:56They tried everything to help him rid himself of the drugs and dealers like Delgadillo.
42:02They tried hard, it sounds like, to save that man from himself and from you.
42:07Yeah.
42:08From y'all.
42:10Yeah.
42:11His mother showed up after you all kidnapped him.
42:14Did you know that?
42:15Mm-mm.
42:16That's how desperate she was to save him.
42:19The morning of the murder, the victim's mother and other family members mounted a rescue effort of their own, starting at his last known location.
42:30Eunice's mother forced her way into the apartment to check herself and didn't find Eunice there at all.
42:35She knew her son would always call her, always talk to her, and she hadn't heard anything from him.
42:42So she was pretty persistent.
42:45Her other family members continued looking for Eunice.
42:50But to his mother's eternal grief, it was too late.
42:5422-year-old Eunice Alhassan Yanni was already dead.
42:59A young son had been taken from her by the very men who fed and fed off of his addiction.
43:12A young son had been taken from her by the very men who fed and fed her by the very men who fed her by the very men who fed her by the very men who fed her by the very men who fed her by the very men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by the men who fed her by
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