- 2 days ago
A Plan to Kill - Season 2 - Episode 06: Desert Grift
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00:10it was a big news story wealthy palm springs art dealer missing there was no signs of force
00:20nothing was thrown about but his mercedes was not in the garage it's suspicious when you have a
00:26missing person and all of a sudden their home is being sold out under them we would be like what
00:34the hell how can this be another twist then witnesses tell me he was murdered and gave me a
00:41handwritten map that's where they dumped the body the location where these bones were located was
00:47exceptionally remote it was unbelievable to me the elaborate scheme and plan that these guys went
00:55through i was in shock the plot was very complex he was the next target and what they dubbed operation
01:03craigslist in the county jail he did make a phone call and the only thing he said was run
01:34it became very popular with the celebrity crowd in the 40s and 50s we're so close to hollywood 100
01:44miles away so you had people that came out here for the sun and fun and away from paparazzi and
01:51that's
01:51why we have so many good stories about the stars being here the festival of lights is a christmas parade
02:02that is held every year in palm springs it happens on the first weekend of december and brings the whole
02:10community together my good friend clifford lambert really loved the christmas parade but that year clifton
02:20show up he was very well known in the gay community so when he didn't show up to that christmas
02:27parade
02:27his close friends were very concerned because that was his favorite thing
02:35i was cliff's hairdresser and i had some friends and clients in the salon and i remember somebody
02:44telling me that they had seen cliff at his favorite haunt just down from his house having dinner with
02:50somebody on december 4th but they hadn't heard from him or hadn't been able to get a hold of him
02:55afterwards so we started putting things together and it was alarming
03:04on december 12 2008 a missing person's report came across my desk by the name of cliff lambert
03:11reading the report i noticed that his longtime friend edward had reported him missing hadn't heard
03:17from him for a couple of days first thing you do if a missing person try to call them and
03:21see if they're
03:22okay and give him a call and his voicemail box was full i started conducting a more thorough investigation
03:30contacting friends see if anybody's heard from him nobody has over the next several days the police
03:38department spoke to many of us asking if we knew of anybody that might harbor any resentment towards cliff
03:46and i couldn't think of anybody i'm still expecting him to show up but a couple of days went by
03:55and i
03:55spoke with his friend edward again who had the key to the house so he allowed me to enter the
04:01house and
04:02there was nothing unusual there was no signs of force nothing was thrown about everything was in the right
04:12place his friend explained that the rose royce was still in the garage but his mercedes was missing
04:18i didn't notice that his mailbox had like mail protruding out and there was papers on front of the door
04:25but that in itself isn't suspicious he could have been gone for the weekend and not told anybody
04:32a few days it goes by and cliff doesn't show up we sent out the press release
04:39we were hoping that would turn on some information on him but it didn't
04:45remember social media wasn't a thing so if we put it out now we would be getting more people saying
04:51i knew cliff i saw him at this party there's no way he'd go missing you know things like that
04:57but we didn't have those kind of tips or clues
05:02at this point i need to speak to his friends and learn all i could on cliff lambert
05:09cliff was born in st louis missouri he had the biggest dreams and ambitions he was going to be
05:17a celebrity cliff is a fascinating individual you have to think about who he was and the time period
05:24that he grew up in by all accounts he was out through most of his life he ended up getting
05:31a job
05:33on a radio show and that afforded him to create relationships with a lot of celebrities
05:41and later he ended up going into the art world he had actually worked to create this process where
05:51famous pieces of art could be available basically as posters and that was how he made his money
05:58cliff lambert lives a very expensive lifestyle when you would walk into his house people described it
06:05like walking into versailles cliff was a person that liked to have others around him he would have dinner
06:16parties he was happiest when he was in a relationship he had a boyfriend for a very long time 12
06:24years or so
06:26and his name was travis and cliff really loved him and wanted him to carry his last name
06:31so travis hobbs became travis lambert they were both really happy with that
06:38but then in 2007 travis died in a drowning accident in the swimming pool
06:47cliff was just beside himself he was just devastated and i don't think he ever really got over it
06:56cliff was very lonely and in 2008 it actually drove him to
07:05create a profile on craigslist to begin looking for somebody to fill that void
07:20our first big break didn't come through until i received a phone call at my desk from a real estate
07:26agent over in san francisco inquiring about mr lambert and his residence in palm springs
07:33he expressed that he had a client in san francisco that had a power of attorney
07:39that a house was gifted to him and he wanted to do what he called a fire sale
07:46the real estate agent was suspicious that when he ran mr cliff lambert's name he came back as a missing
07:52person
07:54so at that point i called my partner detective who does do fraud and property crime simon mann
08:00and asked him to come on board with this investigation
08:06it's suspicious when you have a missing person and all of a sudden their home is being sold out under
08:14them
08:15we received documents from the agent that pertained to cliff's home here in palm springs
08:22and there was a deed and a power of attorney with the name of kashal nerula from san francisco
08:31who is kashal nerula in san francisco and why is he trying to claim ownership of cliff lambert's house
08:38this was essentially the big break that led me to believe that there was something more nefarious was
08:43going on there is a name that has no bearing on the residence itself and there's a huge distance
08:53gap between palm springs and san francisco but this point i'm asking is kashal nerula involved in cliff
09:02lambert's disappearance we're looking for proof of life and oddly enough there are transactions
09:12on cliff's bank account like somebody went on a spending spree when we learn who the thumbprint
09:18belonged to and what happened to this man it was terrifying for us
09:35cliff would always stay in touch with friends always let somebody know when he would be out of town
09:46but this time none of that happened we were all just very concerned
09:53at this point in the investigation there wasn't much to go on other than the fact that we have
09:59someone with the power of attorney signed by cliff lambert to kashal nerula in san francisco and he's
10:06trying to sell mr cliff lambert's house below market value but at this time instead of interviewing
10:12kashal nerula i want to get more information about him i want to know everything i can about who he
10:18is
10:19that way i'm not going in blind
10:24so i called the san francisco police department and spoke to an investigator in their fraud unit
10:29and immediately when i said the name kashal nerula it was like an alarm that went off
10:35on the phone because kashal had so many charges in san francisco for fraudulent activities
10:43nerula was arrested a year prior he had been locked in jail in the county
10:48but at this time kashal nerula is out of jail kashal nerula is a convicted con man very very good
10:59looking
11:00dressed impeccably he would tell people that he was the prince of nepal and that he was exiled
11:08kashal nerula had undertaken a con scheme where he conned someone out of over four hundred thousand
11:14dollars worth of artwork he ended up stealing three hundred thousand dollars approximately
11:20worth of jewelry in order to pay the restitution for his art theft scheme
11:26and in 2007 kashal nerula was responsible for swindling someone out of half a million dollars in
11:32hawaii he was a prolific fraudster but does he have any involvement in disappearance of cliff lambert
11:45i'd asked the real estate agent if they could pause any sales because there is suspicious
11:50factors behind the disappearance then the real estate agent continued to tell me that an attorney
11:56by the name of david replugal from the bay area he had done this deal between mr nerula and mr
12:03cliff
12:04lambert and that mr nerula took on the part of attorney
12:11so there's still no signs of cliff i'm looking for proof of life
12:17and i found that there are transactions on cliff's bank account after he was reported missing
12:25it looked like somebody went on a spending spree in san francisco
12:30they were buying chocolate clothes computer products it looked like somebody was having a good old time
12:39but when i received surveillance photos from atms it was not cliff lambert nowhere near cliff
12:46lambert there's a picture of a hispanic male on all these transactions i take a little clip of that
12:53and i send it to the san francisco police department and the investigator up there immediately
12:59identifies these pictures is danny garcia
13:04and says he was also involved in fraudulent activities with nerula
13:15and danny garcia they've been under investigation by san francisco police department amongst other
13:21police departments up in the bay area for many scams in which to defraud people out of their belongings
13:28they are essentially part of a like a ring of con men so now we had one more name one
13:36more person of interest
13:39with the names now i go back to mr lambert's good friend who reported a missing and asked if he
13:46recognized any of the names and lo and behold he did recognize danny garcia
13:51and stated that danny garcia was a boyfriend of mr lambert but they have parted on bad terms
14:00several months before the disappearance
14:06in april of 2008 cliff told me that he met somebody from san francisco on craigslist and his name
14:15was daniel garcia he described him as something different than he normally likes he said this boy
14:21is hispanic and he has dark hair daniel came to the desert a handful of times to visit cliff
14:30to see if they might get along or if there was a spark
14:36but daniel ended up making it clear that he was looking for an investor for a new business he wanted
14:44to
14:44open meaning that he wanted his money cliff told him that's it this is done and he would have to
14:52leave
14:56at this point all i knew is that danny garcia was a connection to cliff lambert
15:01but how was that related to cliff's disappearance
15:07then on january 7th i get a phone call from cliff's neighbor that there is a u-haul truck in
15:13front of
15:13cliff's house
15:16frank comes to me and he tells me simon there's somebody at cliff's house with the u-haul they're
15:23trying to leave we need to go get the u-haul i advise our patrol officers to quickly respond as
15:31somebody is trying to move the items out as i'm driving towards the downtown area to get to his house
15:38i notice a u-haul truck driving southbound away from the direction where the house would be
15:45so between myself frank and patrol we tactically start setting up units to go intercept all the
15:54vehicles that are leaving is cliff there is cliff not there are we going to find somebody who shouldn't
16:04be there cleaning out this house clifford lambert was missing and we've received a phone call
16:23there's somebody at cliff's house with the u-haul trying to clean out his home it's suspicious
16:29and then i get another call from detective browning saying hey i got this u-haul driving south away from
16:37cliff lambert's house
16:40i pull over the u-haul truck simultaneously officers are arriving on scene at cook's house
16:48i get on scene and i find a person talking to one of the patrol officers
16:55and as i approach he identified himself as miguel bustamante and he said we were hired to do a job
17:03but it didn't look like movers it looked like miguel bustamante at cliff's home trying to steal all the
17:13contents of the residence a lot of cliff's property personal items of value art and we can't verify that
17:23any of this property was legitimately given to miguel and his crew by the actual owner clifford lambert
17:30so miguel bustamante was detained at the scene and taken to the jail now we have one more prince of
17:39interest in this case within an hour or so of miguel bustamante being arrested for the burglary
17:49he called for detectives he wanted to talk to us here we go yeah you know i'm detective browning
17:57and i was told that you wanted to talk to us what is it that you want to volunteer and
18:03tell us
18:09okay i got to palm springs yesterday in the morning so i went to hire a few mexicans we come
18:15from the two
18:16people driving the u-haul trucks were in fact just hired so they were not charged our main concern now
18:23is
18:23trying to get to what he knows about cliff lambert okay this is what i know okay this guy in
18:30here name
18:30is danny garcia the boyfriend of of cliff lambert he's on over here name is crucial neruda these two
18:41guys have been working together okay for me that was huge that we never released the names of the
18:46people involved in this case now we have information that there is some kind of connection between danny
18:52garcia kashal nerula and miguel bustamante so we're up to three people associated with this missing
19:00person's case with no sign of cliff his initial comments were that cliff lambert owed the cartel money
19:08they took him to mexico it's a crazy story i did not believe whatsoever that cliff was in mexico and
19:21it was abducted for the cartel so they went the mexicans and cliff all went together yes yes yes
19:34he proceeded to volunteer information that he had lambert's mercedes in his possession in daly city
19:41in his apartment complex so we had daly city police department go to the residence and it was there
19:51so now we had cliff lambert's vehicle we're hoping that we'll turn on some information on what happened
19:57to cliff lambert cliff lambert's mercedes was brought back to palm springs for processing the technicians
20:05were able to find traces of blood in the trunk but it was inconclusive at the time because it was
20:12very
20:12minute so we obtained a search warrant to inspect cliff's house we recovered cliff's toothbrush his
20:25hairbrush his fingerprints and we uploaded it into codis the database in missing persons cases so that it
20:36can be used at a later time once law enforcement was able to do forensic testing of his house they
20:44found
20:44the presence of blood however it didn't result in any dna findings it was inconclusive as to person
20:53but it tested positive for blood so it was enough to write a public cause declaration to continue the
21:02investigation into all the suspects identified in this case also we did book miguel for the burglary
21:11and we asked the court that he be held in the county jail into his arraignment
21:22a lot of cliff's friends would talk to each other trying to come up with scenarios where he may have
21:29gone on his own and we were praying that one of them was true we still hadn't interviewed danny garcia
21:37still having interviewed narula we did have investigators from san francisco police department
21:42just kind of keep an eye on them they have no idea that we're on to them first i want
21:48to know exactly
21:48what happened to cliff lambert that gives me a lot more ammunition for the interviews of them
21:54at this time miguel bustamonte was still in the county jail i received a phone call from the
22:00investigator explaining to me that he did have an inmate who was cellmates with miguel bustamonte
22:05and had the truth on mr lambert's disappearance
22:11i went down to meet with the inmate see what he was referring to and he gave me a piece
22:16of paper with
22:17the names of danny garcia and kashal narula and it did have a handwritten map on there and according
22:26to the inmate he was told by miguel that's where they dumped mr lambert's body somewhere in the desert
22:33so detective men and i went and searched the area identified in the map
22:38i was pretty confident we had a murder investigation
22:42but it's very hard to prove up a homicide without a body
22:54we have a map at this point we have information that cliff lambert was killed a confession of an
23:04inmate to another inmate but to me that was pretty credible information now
23:09we searched for eclipse body for months using the map we drove up and down the freeway
23:18we were searching for anything that looked like a fresh barrel site
23:23but we were not able to find anything
23:30i prayed every night that he would just walk back in with a little smile on his face and a
23:39smirk
23:40said it's all right i'm okay don't worry about me i'm all right unfortunately it didn't unfold that way
23:48without cliff's body this case became about documents it was following the trail in bits
23:57and pieces of evidence and the case was so convoluted that it required additional evidence
24:04to corroborate everything that they've done up to this point
24:10i'm reviewing the power of attorney documents i noticed a notary stamp and now i'm thinking i need
24:16to speak to this person to see if cliff lambert did in fact signed his name and give kashaun
24:21narula part of attorney
24:26i'm a mobile notary and i get calls all day long for people that want a notary to come to
24:31them
24:31to their home or to their office i received a call on the 20th of december asking if i could
24:39go to a
24:40residence in a neighborhood called noe valley i grabbed my notary book and i got into my car and
24:45i drove to the location when i get to the address i rang one of the buzzers there was no
24:51answer
24:52and all of a sudden this guy comes up and grabs the bag from behind and he says give me
24:58the bag give me
24:59the bag and he's pulling me with the backpack and i'm being dragged down the sidewalk all of a sudden
25:07my head hits a telephone pole and i was in shock and i said get the away from me and
25:15he went like
25:15this and he walked down the sidewalk and i was like what was that and i called 911 and i
25:25told them
25:25what had happened and i stood in the street i was trembling i had never been so scared i was
25:33terrified
25:35a few days later my notary partner glenn calls me and says i just got a call from the palm
25:42springs
25:42police department and they want copies of your journal remember when we got a phone call from
25:48someone called kashul narula saying he would like to set an appointment for his friend cliff lambert
25:53and we met those guys late at night in a hotel and we notarized a bunch of power of attorney
25:59documents
25:59they want the signature and the thumbprints in your journal
26:05the person who put their thumbprint and signed the power of attorney should be cliff lambert so i asked
26:12if we could get that book analyzed and we got the results relatively quick but that thumbprint came back
26:18to david repugel david repugel's name was crucial because up until then he had claimed to be an attorney
26:27just brokering a deal for narula and cliff lambert to sell the house
26:33it was clearly the plan all along that someone was going to have to pose as cliff lambert in order
26:39to execute this power of attorney apparently david repugel later realized that he made a mistake
26:46leaving his own fingerprint as cliff lambert so he decided that the new plan is to hire somebody
26:57to get that notary book back by force if they were able to get that notary journal there would be
27:05no
27:06proof whatsoever that the thumbprint belonged to david repugel not to cliff lambert
27:15that event was a significant turning point in this investigation because it showed that david repugel
27:22was posing as clifford lambert it appears that the plan was to clean out all of cliff lambert's money
27:31as well as transfer the deed of his home into their control but there was no evidence that these con
27:40men definitively killed cliff lambert however with that information from the notary we're able to
27:49secure arrest warrants and search warrants for david repugel kashaun arula and danny garcia for
27:57essentially defrauding cliff lambert and taking in excess of three hundred thousand dollars from his bank
28:06accounts at this point we can't find danny garcia we think he's hiding out somewhere
28:13but we find out that kashaun arula david repugel will be in court because they had proceedings from
28:20prior events that repugel was representing narula on so we go to san francisco with warrants in hand
28:28we're at the hall of justice and i'm standing in the hallway where kashaun arula had his hearing
28:36when the court recessed they came out with everybody else and both repugel and narula were arrested
28:47later that day kashaun arula he's in the county jail in san francisco we monitor their phone calls
28:53so he did make a phone call to danny garcia and the only thing he said was run
29:00he hung up
29:12after arresting david repugel and kashaun arula
29:17narula did make a phone call tipping off danny garcia that were onto him so he was in the wind
29:26next we interviewed both narula and repugel they of course did claim not to know anything about
29:32cliff lambert or his murder but miguel gustamante told another person at the jail that he knew cliff
29:40lambert was murdered and taken out to the desert during our investigation we find that bustamante had
29:51a roommate by the name of craig mccarthy we found evidence that craig mccarthy worked at a medical center
30:03in san francisco so detective browning and i decided to go pay a visit and we found him so we're
30:10speaking to craig mccarthy to get understanding of what he knows first and when we started asking did
30:18miguel participate in the disappearance of cliff lambert and were you in palm springs with miguel craig's
30:26demeanor is very soft-demeanor is very soft-spoken that's when craig started telling us oh yeah we
30:32were hired to do a job by danny garcia so now we know that he was involved and we have
30:42one more suspect
30:44so we asked craig mccarthy if he knew anything about danny garcia's orabouts he says he's hiding out
30:51with his friend in sacramento so i put the warrant into the system that triggered sacramento to have
30:59a task force search for him his phone was pinged by the task force and they did in fact find
31:05him
31:05hiding in a closet in a friend's house where they took custody of him and several electronics that he
31:11was holding there he was arrested and what was surprising was that there was multiple amounts of
31:19hard drives laptops cell phones in his possession at the time they needed to be checked for any evidence
31:30i interviewed danny and he claimed that cliff was a good friend of his and cliff was going to help
31:37him
31:37invest into a software project that he had but i know that danny is lying to me because cliff lambert
31:45and danny left on bad terms daniel garcia is really the most critical element of this case he is the
31:53link to cliff lambert and also the link to everyone else that was involved in this case it took a
31:59very
31:59long time to inspect the data seized from these hard drives but it would help us to uncover what actually
32:09occurred in this scheme it was exceptionally complex there was financial evidence records credit card
32:19receipts there was also a lot of computer records that needed to be gone through what struck me was
32:26just the large scale of the entire operation that these individuals perpetuated in order to kill cliff
32:31lambert this plan dubbed operation craigslist was in play way before cliff went missing
32:44when cliff met danny online on a dating website cliff flew him down they spent six days together
32:50danny did what danny does and tried to pull a con on him cliff was not a dumb man he
32:55sent him home
32:57that's when garcia and narula decide that in order to gain control of cliff's estate that cliff
33:04must be killed sometime over the summer daniel garcia and cashel narula talked to david repogle
33:11they come up with this story that cliff lambert has inherited this large amount of money and some
33:18works of art which is a fictitious inheritance ruse to get cliff's signature
33:24in early fall cashel narula adapts this persona of a lawyer and he reaches out to cliff lambert
33:30about this new fortune then they create legal documents that will transfer power of attorney to
33:38cashul narula next they recruit two individuals miguel bustamante and craig mccarthy to act as the
33:45muscle who will actually kill cliff lambert so on december 4th miguel bustamante craig mccarthy
33:52cashul narula flew down from the san francisco area to palm springs they set up a deadly meeting
34:01hi mr lambert i'm reconfirming for 5 30 california time tomorrow evening and just looking forward to
34:08meeting with you and the next day they murder cliff in his home with cliff out of the way and
34:16the
34:17documents signed and notarized they now had full control and power to do whatever they wanted with
34:23his money his home basically his estate what these con men put together was a really diabolical plan
34:34daniel garcia kashal narula miguel bustamante david propogel and craig mccarthy were charged with
34:41murder as well as financial crimes that were related to the death of cliff lambert
34:48and then in subsequent interviews craig mccarthy tells us he is wanting to cut a deal for a reduced
34:54sentence when we brought craig mccarthy down from san francisco to palm springs he gave a full detail
35:02about what happened on the night of the murder
35:09kashal met cliff at cliff's home around 8 30 pm craig and miguel were hiding in the back of the
35:19house
35:20this is where we have text messages between kashal narula and miguel bustamante that indicates
35:28kill him kill him kill him now and that was the signal for miguel and craig to enter the house
35:36so i'm standing right here miguel's right here
35:42so narula's like just just do the job it'll be okay it'll be done in the moment all right and
35:47he walks
35:48out he reenacted the entire murder on video when you start the first time initially it was here
36:08cliff is on his floor dead while kashal was cleaning the house miguel and craig
36:20wrap cliff in this rug and put him in the trunk of cliff's mercedes
36:28the next day they drove about 100 miles away from palm springs pulled off the side of the road
36:33buried cliff lambert in a shower gray and drove off to san francisco hoping that this body would never be
36:47found when the news broke that cliff had been murdered
36:53the whole thing was such a shock the details of how it happened in his own kitchen such a horrific
37:02crime
37:03it was heartbreaking the men that did this to cliff are sociopathic
37:13they're animalistic that they would just discard him without any remorse he deserved better
37:34any time you have a case where you don't have the body there's always a lingering issue of where is
37:41this person are they still alive and those are issues you have to overcome as a prosecutor
37:47fortunately however in this case daniel garcia kashal narula miguel bustamante david rapogo were
37:55convicted of all the charges and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
38:00craig mccarthy ended up pleading to a lesser sentence 25 years in state prison
38:06this was a group of monsters nefarious and diabolical from the get-go
38:12i was relieved some justice finally being served
38:26but then years later the da's office sent the news release to the station and we all just gasped
38:32it was what can this really be happening it's the case that just keeps on giving how can this be
38:40another
38:41twist
38:47four men convicted in the murder of clifford lambert have been granted a new trial
38:53an appeal filed on behalf of narula alleging comments judge david downing made in court proceedings
38:59that garcia secretly recorded on his court-issued laptop about narula having hiv and refusing to read his
39:07motions the fair and right thing to do was to give them a new trial because it was clear that
39:14the judge
39:14had some bias against them it was shocking that they captured the judge making some homophobic statements
39:22but the four top guys in this case were all going to get to be retried
39:30i was perplexed i thought okay a judge made an inappropriate comment but they were guilty of
39:38murder i can't help but feel angry with authorities it's been eight years since a jury found kashal
39:45narula and daniel garcia guilty of murdering palm springs retiree clifford lambert authorities never able
39:52to find his body then while the second trial was pending remains were found that were connected to
40:02cliff lambert i remember reading about a recovery of bones in the area of the five freeway i actually
40:14called la county sheriff can you please check the dna and see if it matches our missing person
40:23we received information that they had a presumptive hit for dna on some bones that had been located
40:31in castaic off the highway years beforehand it was great news for the second trial that
40:38what we had believed all along was in fact now supported in the evidence definitively that cliff lambert
40:45had been killed it was also exceptionally sad to see someone of cliff's stature left there buried alongside
40:57discarded items and trash absolutely gut-wrenching
41:04then unbelievably during the course of the retrial kashal narula was murdered by his cellmate
41:19who was murdered by his cellmate who was murdered by his cellmate who was murdered by his cellmate
41:22fortunately at the second trial all three of the defendants were convicted of all the charges
41:27and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
41:34to hear those three times guilty on every count was beyond reassuring because they were held accountable
41:46justice for cliff lambert would have been dying 95 years old in his bed and
41:50there's no way i can achieve that for him but i hope this is something
41:57this was a highly sophisticated plan and scheme to murder someone steal their identity transfer all
42:07their assets for their own personal financial gain
42:13for those of us that knew cliff and loved him it was just so sad and heartbreaking
42:24but i hope that people will remember cliff as a fun easy-going guy that loved to laugh
42:33he liked to do things for people he liked to make people smile and he was all around a good
42:40human being
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