- 6 hours ago
When a beloved teenager is gunned down while hanging out with his friends, Tulsa Homicide Detectives depend on the public to help identify the suspects from security video.
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00:05The following program documents a real homicide case, the investigation, the pursuit of justice,
00:12and the lasting impact on the loved ones left behind.
00:38First responders arrive at an apartment complex and find a young man shot multiple times.
00:50EMTs rush the victim to the hospital, but on the way, he dies.
00:56Can we all see what happens?
00:58I saw two bullets running that direction.
01:01He ran into that building right there.
01:03We need all four quarters covered right now.
01:06Frank 314 to all units responding.
01:08Lock this unit down.
01:09Let's go.
01:15Don't squeeze.
01:16Don't squeeze.
01:17If anyone's injured, bring yourself no.
01:23The suspects are nowhere to be found.
01:29Please don't let this be real.
01:32Please.
01:37For those most affected by a homicide, the first 48 is just the beginning.
01:43He immediately pulls that gun up, starts shooting multiple times.
01:47And it just looked cold-blooded to me.
01:50Don't squeeze.
01:51Nothing was adding up as to why someone would murder Pedro.
01:54This is the story of the fight for justice.
01:57If he did not shoot, it was either going to be his life or Pedro's life.
02:01Show me where you fell in fear for your life.
02:04What he said didn't line up.
02:05In the weeks, months, and years after the first 48.
02:10I needed to know why was my son murdered.
02:20Lacey and I are heading to Southeast Tulsa in reference to a homicide that just went out.
02:27When you get to homicide, it's kind of like the pinnacle.
02:30And it was my dream since I was about six years old.
02:33Primarily due to watching the Manson murders and the Hillside Strangler case back then.
02:38I just remember telling myself that I want to be a homicide detective when I grow up.
02:44I hope I have a lot of witnesses. Hopefully that's one right there.
02:47All right, let's do this.
02:58What's happening?
02:58The victim is Pedro, F-E-D-R-O, last name Givens.
03:0618-year-old Pedro Givens Jr., nicknamed Man Man, was the youngest of 15 siblings.
03:13He was visiting his sister who lived in the complex.
03:17Pedro was a recent graduate of Union High School and was on the track team.
03:21He was a kid, really, a young adult.
03:24And now you're going to have a family that's missing Pedro forever.
03:28We knew that we have a tremendous amount of responsibility to solve this case.
03:35What we have is the victim sitting here with three females.
03:38One of them was his girlfriend.
03:39Okay.
03:39Two males walk up, like right around in here.
03:44They engage in a conversation that probably doesn't last for more than 10 seconds.
03:50And according to the witnesses, the suspect pulls out a pistol and shoots him.
03:56Federal was shot three times in the chest.
03:59It's very rare to have a homicide where it's completely strangers.
04:04Based on the fact that there was that interaction, told me that they probably were at least acquainted with one
04:09another.
04:09We need video from that complex.
04:12I think Lieutenant Watkins was in the office.
04:15Okay.
04:16Witnesses who were with Pedro during the shooting will be taken to homicide.
04:21We are going to go downtown and we're going to start doing our interviews.
04:28I was hopeful.
04:29These are going to be the people that are going to help me identify the shooter.
04:33All right.
04:34First of all, thanks for your patience.
04:37White and Lansdowne interview a 16-year-old friend of Pedro's.
04:41Your mom, your little sister.
04:44When you have young witnesses, you want to make them as comfortable as possible because they are about to relive
04:51probably the most traumatic thing they've ever experienced.
04:55You were there, you witnessed something horrific.
04:58Tell me what happened.
05:00We all like sit at the little benches because that's where we hang out every single day.
05:04The witness says she was sitting under the gazebo with Pedro, his girlfriend and another friend.
05:10We saw the boy in the gray hood and then his friend.
05:14When a black male in a gray hoodie and a white male approached them.
05:19And they walked up to us and then they asked Pedro, they were like.
05:28Take your turn.
05:29They were like, are you friends with so-and-so, but I don't know what he said.
05:35Mm-hmm.
05:35And Pedro, he was like, yeah, and that's when the boy began to turn around.
05:40He started shooting.
05:44The shooter was specifically looking for Pedro to ask him about a specific person, which tells me this was premeditated.
05:52Have you ever seen any of these two boys before?
05:57Okay.
05:58Good.
05:59Good.
06:00Do you know their names?
06:02No.
06:03I'm pretty sure.
06:05They live in Green's in Bedford.
06:07She thinks the suspects live in the apartment complex across the street from the crime scene.
06:13How do you know that they live over there?
06:15It was either last week or the week before the boy in the gray hood.
06:18He came over there and he gave Pedro a handshake like they were cool.
06:21And I was like, who is that?
06:23And he said it was the eighth grader that lives over there in those apartments.
06:27Okay.
06:27Is that the individual that you saw shoot today?
06:30Yeah.
06:31Pedro told her that the shooter was a student at Union High School.
06:36Do you know he was having issues with somebody?
06:39No.
06:40He was friends with everyone, like literally.
06:43Okay.
06:45Do y'all know if he made it, everything was good or...
06:47He did not make it.
06:48Oh, no.
06:49Yeah, he's passed away.
06:55I know.
06:59The worst part of this job is to give a death notification.
07:02If you're not affected by that, then you probably shouldn't be doing this job.
07:07I've broken down after interviewing people before.
07:10And in this particular case, it was just absolutely heartbreaking.
07:13I'm sorry.
07:14But at the end of the day, I have a job to do.
07:22All right, sweetie.
07:23Three hours in.
07:25I thought that Pedro's girlfriend would probably be my best bet in telling me if Pedro knows the suspects or
07:32not.
07:33Tell me what happened.
07:35We were all sitting at the table.
07:37And these two teenagers came up.
07:42They asked Pedro.
07:44They came in.
07:46Somebody.
07:50And Pedro was like, yeah, why, what's up?
07:55And then the teenager shot him.
08:01And ran off.
08:05Pedro, had he told you that he'd had any issues with anybody?
08:10No.
08:11I heard a lot of very positive things about Pedro.
08:14He was well-liked at school.
08:16I was a little bit puzzled as to what might have transpired to make somebody want to do this.
08:22You know his condition?
08:26He ended up passing away.
08:31She was clearly devastated.
08:33And in shock.
08:35Dear, I'm so sorry.
08:38There were now two witnesses who did not know who the suspect was or who his friend was.
08:45Yeah, we're very sorry.
08:48Nothing was adding up as to why someone would want to just cold-blooded murder Pedro.
08:53What was going through my mind is the potential of, could this be gang-related?
08:57Is there an issue over a girl?
08:58We just didn't know.
09:01Five hours after Pedro was gunned down.
09:05I tried downloading an hour in every direction.
09:09Lieutenant Watkins delivers the surveillance footage from the apartment complex.
09:13I'm going to pull this in closer so I can kind of see.
09:17We wanted to see where they came from, what they were wearing, what direction they went afterwards.
09:23Anything that we could get to possibly figure out who these two suspects are.
09:29There's three chicks sitting here.
09:30And then there's the victim standing around this pole.
09:37Here it is.
09:40Two guys that walk up.
09:47There's going to be Pedro right here without his shirt on.
09:50And it looks like the black male in the gray hoodie is talking to him.
09:55There he goes.
09:56He's pulling out the gun.
10:00Super brutal.
10:01The shooter immediately pulls that gun up and starts shooting multiple times.
10:06And it just looked cold-blooded to me.
10:22I remember when he first came home.
10:26Man.
10:27He was so little.
10:31I did foster care for a while.
10:33And so Sony called me and asked me if I would consider taking the baby.
10:37She said it was a little boy.
10:39I was like, oh, my.
10:40Yes.
10:41I am all-boy mom.
10:42Yes.
10:44Coming in, he had a lot of health challenges.
10:46He was addicted to methamphetamines.
10:49But I was up for a challenge.
10:51I told him, you know what, he was a blessing.
10:53And three months, those withdrawals was over with.
10:57And he was a happy boy that we prayed that he would be.
11:02Always had a smile.
11:03He loved people.
11:06I remember one girl at the school in Federal walked to her and said,
11:10Man, come on, you ain't got to sit over here by yourself.
11:12She got up and she went over and sat with him.
11:14And they sat at the table with her friends and she said she laughed and she laughed.
11:18She said that he didn't know that she had intentions of going home and killing herself
11:23because of what was going on at home.
11:26She called me to tell me how he changed her life and just his friendship.
11:30He had just graduated from high school.
11:33And before he could decide on going to college, it was taken from him.
11:40The night that Fedro was shot, my mind could not wrap around that he wouldn't be here.
11:47That he was gone.
11:49He saw that gun, but he had nowhere to go.
11:52He couldn't turn, he couldn't walk.
11:54Within that length of time, you destroy the whole family.
11:58Gone way too soon.
12:09Five hours into the investigation.
12:15It's just cold blooded, man.
12:18This video proved to be pivotal because it shows what happened.
12:22And it doesn't appear that Fedro did anything to instigate this.
12:30The shooter is this black kid in a gray hoodie.
12:35It looks like the white kid might be wearing a Batman t-shirt.
12:39We'll have to try to figure out who these cats are.
12:44Then...
12:44Our caller picked it up and put it in this picture bag.
12:48A resident of the complex found a gray hoodie in a drainage ditch
12:52100 yards from where Fedro was shot.
12:55That looks really close.
12:57Let's take it over to the crime scene people.
13:00The sleeves had kind of been pulled into the sweater,
13:03which means somebody pulled it off in a hurry.
13:06Man, I love it.
13:07I automatically thought this suspect had just killed somebody.
13:11He was trying to change his appearance
13:13because he didn't want police to be able to identify him.
13:17That could be what he was wearing.
13:25Fifteen hours after Fedro's shooting.
13:28We were not getting anywhere as far as getting to an ID.
13:32So we reached out to the school.
13:36We wanted to see if maybe a school resource officer knows the suspects
13:39based off the pictures that we had from the video surveillance.
13:51Okay.
13:52I've got a name according to the security guys here.
13:55One that could potentially be our guy that's the white kid.
13:58School security officers provide an address for an 18-year-old student
14:03who could be the suspect in the Batman shirt.
14:06We really hoped that we were going to be able to identify this person
14:10and then we would be able to identify the shooter.
14:13I feel things moving, moving and shaking.
14:21The team heads to the possible suspect's address.
14:25How you doing?
14:29Okay.
14:31We're working a homicide that happened on Friday down the street.
14:34We've been told that your son might have been there when it happened.
14:38I'm like, I'm like shaking.
14:41Ryden shows the mother a still of the teenager wearing the Batman shirt
14:45in the surveillance video.
14:47Can you tell me the location?
14:49I have Life 360.
14:50I can track right where they were Friday.
14:53What time?
14:54Say 7 to 7.30.
14:567.05.
14:57Mm-hmm.
14:58Looks like he was out north.
15:01Oak Ridge Hills.
15:02Her son was 15 miles from the crime scene at the time of Fedro's shooting.
15:08Thank you, ma'am.
15:12We follow up on all these leads.
15:14None of them actually pan out.
15:16And you have somewhat of a story as to what happened.
15:19But you're no closer to figuring out who your suspects are.
15:23I was frustrated.
15:25We had to go back to the drawing board.
15:26And you got to get out there and you got to look for video.
15:29As the first 48 slips away.
15:31Pulled eight hours of video.
15:33It's more footage from the complex where Fedro was shot.
15:38There's a likelihood that they're on foot in the vicinity earlier.
15:42Looking for a white kid wearing a Batman shirt and a black kid wearing a gray hoodie.
15:46Okay.
15:53Here's two guys that are pretty close match to what we're looking for.
15:56Three hours before the crime.
15:58Walking northbound.
16:00White male and a black male.
16:02Size is correct.
16:03Okay.
16:06What's up?
16:08Hey, Nathan found some video.
16:10Really?
16:11Nathan thinks they headed down the street towards a convenience store.
16:14There's a convenience store straight up the street.
16:17Which, that's what kids do is they go to the convenience store to go get a drink or something.
16:22This is perfect.
16:23I'm five minutes away from there.
16:25I'm going to go over there right now.
16:26All right, bye.
16:28We were hoping for any kind of video footage that's going to show a better picture of what they look
16:33like.
16:3720 minutes later.
16:41White texts Detective Nathan Schilling.
16:44Fingers crossed.
16:45Fingers crossed.
16:49It is a Batman shirt.
16:53There's our suspect.
16:54I was super excited.
16:56It clearly showed who they were.
16:58But we still needed to identify them.
17:01So there was a lot of pressure there.
17:16I sent it all to Union Public Schools security guys and said, who is he?
17:21Once we had the quote your video, we had to go back to people at the school.
17:25We just had to keep talking to people who could possibly know who these people are.
17:31Oh, here we go.
17:33Union High School sends the name and yearbook photo of a student they believe is the black male in the
17:39video.
17:42Oh, that's pretty close.
17:43We may know who the shooter is, a guy by the name of Caleb Pelton.
17:49He's 16.
17:50He'll be 17 in a few days.
17:53Caleb Pelton's last known address is located across the street from the crime scene.
17:58I was happy that we had a name, but we didn't have enough for arrest warrant.
18:04We needed the eyewitnesses to identify him at that point.
18:07An hour later.
18:09We're going to meet with one of the witnesses and Jeff's going to show them these photo lineups.
18:15Lansdowne and Detective Jeff Gatwood head out to meet Fedro's girlfriend.
18:19I think it's back here.
18:26Oh, there you are.
18:27Go and have a seat, sweetie.
18:34I've got a series of pictures here.
18:35There's like six of them.
18:36Okay.
18:37If anybody jumps out at you, let me know.
18:40Okay.
18:42Just look at each one and take your time.
18:44Okay.
19:05Fedro's girlfriend positively identified Caleb Pelton.
19:08It's almost a feeling of relief.
19:11We have more than enough for arrest warrant.
19:15Two hours later.
19:17We're getting ready to execute a search warrant.
19:20Patrol's going to pull up and call him out.
19:24The team heads to Caleb's apartment.
19:27We wanted to retrieve the gun, a cell phone, any kind of evidence related to the crime.
19:32And we were hoping that we would find Caleb there as well.
19:39Tulsa police, search warrant.
19:40Coming to the door, coming in your hands.
19:43There's a level of anxiety.
19:45We have to get him in custody.
19:47We don't want us to be harmed.
19:48We don't want him to be harmed.
19:51We want to be as careful as we possibly can.
19:54Since no one answers, detectives enter the apartment using a key they got from the manager.
20:05Is he in custody?
20:07Yeah.
20:09We found an apartment that looked like they left in a hurry.
20:12And we didn't find any gun.
20:13We didn't find any ammunition.
20:15And we didn't find any clothing that matched what he would have been wearing.
20:22I saw a ring doorbell directly across from Caleb's apartment.
20:28The day of the murder, 6.39, they leave.
20:33The shooter, he's wearing a hoodie.
20:36And then at 7.24, they're coming back without the hoodie on.
20:45Caleb is missing his hoodie that he was wearing when he left, which matched the hoodie that we had found.
20:52And we had the other kid that was wearing the Batman shirt.
20:54It was a very, very good video.
20:56It was a good piece of evidence to find.
20:59That's really good information.
21:01Oh, that's perfect.
21:05We're going to turn this over to the Warrant Squad.
21:07We're going to try to find Caleb at that point.
21:10We already knew Caleb's dad lives in California.
21:13And so our Fugitive Warrants guys reached out to the agency out there.
21:18They find people that don't want to be found.
21:24They found somebody that looked like Caleb Pelton, and they felt confident enough to be able to make contact.
21:3118 days after Fedro was killed.
21:35Caleb Pelton has been placed in custody in California.
21:40He lawyered up.
21:41He's not interested in speaking.
21:44Oh, he has changed his appearance.
21:48Caleb is charged with first-degree murder.
21:51He'll be extradited back to Oklahoma, where he's going to face the consequences.
21:57We got Caleb, but we still needed to talk to the white guy that was with him.
22:00He was right there the whole time.
22:03The Batman shirt kid, if he helped, he could potentially be an accessory after the fact.
22:08We really needed to identify this person and find out what their involvement was.
22:14Two days later, Tulsa PD released the Ring video, asking for the public's help identifying the kid in the Batman
22:22shirt.
22:25I'll start looking at this.
22:27All right, bye.
22:29We got a Crimestoppers tip in.
22:32A tipster has information on the white suspect.
22:36I just found him on Facebook.
22:38He looks like our kid.
22:40The second suspect is 18 years old.
22:44He lives in Broken Arrow.
22:46Perfect.
22:48They head to his last known address.
22:51We go to the uncle's house, and he gave me the dad's number, which was great, because I was able
22:56to call the dad.
22:58Let's see what dad says.
23:01Hey, my name is Jason White.
23:04I'm a homicide detective with the Tulsa Police Department.
23:07And I was looking to speak to your son.
23:12My son, about what?
23:14About a homicide that he watched happen.
23:17Okay.
23:18I'm gonna stick him up and hit you in.
23:23Appreciate it, bye.
23:2920 minutes later.
23:32Okay.
23:35I'm glad we're here today.
23:36Okay.
23:38This is a freaking huge deal.
23:41I want you to tell me 100% of the truth.
23:43You stood next to somebody that just killed somebody.
23:46That's important.
23:48Either you knew that this was gonna happen, or this came as quite a surprise.
23:51I just want the whole story.
24:05Tell me everything that happened.
24:08The one thing that I want to hear is I want to hear why.
24:10And I'm really hopeful that he's gonna be able to tell me that.
24:14Earlier that day, me and Caleb, we smoked.
24:18Water, no bag.
24:20He says, okay, I think I know this dude.
24:23Caleb's friend says as they were walking through the apartment complex, Caleb spotted the victim sitting under the gazebo.
24:31So we walked up, and the dude gave him handshake.
24:36Caleb doesn't give him handshake bags, so then I kind of knew there was something going like some tension.
24:42He asked, you know, somebody.
24:44I didn't hear the name.
24:46He says, yes.
24:47He was just kind of standing there.
24:49He was just struggling a few times.
24:53So I started running up towards the tree.
24:56He says he called a friend to pick him up.
24:59You guys get back to the apartment.
25:01There has to be some discussion about what's up.
25:04The only thing he said was, like, did I tell you that?
25:06That was when I happened.
25:07I was like, nah.
25:08He asked me to pee on his hands, and I was like, I'm not peeing on his hands.
25:14Something to do with gun residue or something.
25:16Okay.
25:18Caleb wanted him to urinate on his hands.
25:21Kind of an odd request, but it's in the internet.
25:25I've never heard of that before, and I haven't heard it since.
25:29What did he do with the gun?
25:31I don't know.
25:33Okay.
25:34Did you see him with the gun before you guys went over there?
25:38Did he ever tell you why?
25:42He was confirming things for me.
25:44He had confirmed Caleb had a gun.
25:47And I learned he didn't know that he had this gun.
25:50He didn't know why this had happened.
25:53He didn't even know any of the people that were there.
25:56Why didn't you call the cops?
25:58You stand there and watch a murder like this, and you didn't call us.
26:06I really hope that this is going to be an opportunity for you to change everything in your life.
26:12I really do appreciate you coming down here.
26:14Sure.
26:16I was super disappointed with this kid by not coming forward.
26:19But mere presence alone doesn't mean that you take the ride for murder.
26:24His story was plausible.
26:25It's possible that he did not know that this was going to happen, and I have no reason to doubt
26:29what he said.
26:31I think he's going to make for a pretty good witness.
26:33He's going to be able to say for sure, all right, he's the shooter.
26:37At this point, we're making sure that the case is buttoned up and it's good to go.
26:42And that the district attorney's office has everything that they need.
26:50When I first became involved in the case, it had been filed, but Caleb was in California, and he was
26:56pending extradition.
26:58It was about six months before we were able to get Caleb transported back from California to Oklahoma in order
27:05for us to start the process in Oklahoma.
27:0712 months before trial.
27:10I felt confident in our evidence that we could show what happened.
27:14Here's the security footage at the apartment complex.
27:18The video showed Caleb walk up and shoot Phaedro Givens three times and flee.
27:25There were the three girls that were Phaedro's friends that were there at the gazebo with him when this shooting
27:32happened.
27:33And then there was Caleb's friend that walked up with him.
27:37There was concerns because all three of the teenage girls, anytime we would talk to them about the case, they
27:44would start crying.
27:46They were too scared to watch the video.
27:49And so there was concerns if they were going to make it through their testimony without having an emotional breakdown.
27:59I was the lead defense attorney representing Caleb.
28:03When we first got the discovery, it was very clear Caleb was the one who pulled the gun and shot.
28:11That was the cold, hard fact of the case.
28:14The shooting was on video, which is never good.
28:17The big question throughout the whole process of this case is why did this happen?
28:21And the only person who could explain what happened and why it happened was Caleb.
28:27After reviewing the case, Phaedro's girlfriend mentioned to the Tulsa Police Department that Phaedro was potentially associated with a gang
28:34in Tulsa.
28:44From the very get-go, Caleb told us that he knew Phaedro.
28:49He didn't know him personally, but he had heard about him and he knew him to be dangerous.
28:53You see Caleb and his friend walking.
28:57Phaedro approaches them.
28:59Caleb, he doesn't know what is on that table, if it's a weapon, but he knows Phaedro to be dangerous.
29:05Caleb thought that if he did not shoot, that it was either going to be his life or Phaedro's life.
29:12We believed he acted in self-defense and he should walk out of the courtroom acquitted of first-degree murder.
29:27This is the second interview of Phaedro's girlfriend.
29:31Detective White and Detective Lanzon asked about gang activity.
29:35Was he getting into it with any other gang members that you know about?
29:46Okay.
29:47So he got into it with somebody on Snapchat about gang stuff.
29:51I don't find it very convincing just because he had a Snapchat beef with somebody that that makes him a
29:58blood.
29:59No, definitely not.
30:00There's nothing that she knows specifically that puts him in a gang.
30:04It sounds like he hangs out with people that might be associated.
30:09But we knew this would be something that they would try to press on.
30:13Yeah.
30:15About a week before the trial, we filed a motion asking for the court to give us the gang certification
30:23report from the Tulsa Police Department regarding Phaedro.
30:27I contacted the Tulsa Police Department's gang unit.
30:31There was no gang sheet.
30:33They didn't have anything on Phaedro.
30:35And the judge essentially denied their motion.
30:38It was a setback in our strategy.
30:41We're not going to be able to call a TPD officer to testify yet.
30:44Phaedro's a certified member of a certain gang.
30:47And so we had to figure out another way to show the jury that Phaedro was dangerous.
30:54Here's another part of the interview of Phaedro's girlfriend.
30:57And she says some interesting stuff here.
31:00Let's talk about your relationship with Phaedro.
31:03Did anything unusual happen between the two of you in the last month?
31:07Nothing.
31:09I know from talking to Detective White, he spoke to people at Phaedro's school.
31:13So I knew that there were some rumors out there.
31:16I'm going to bring up a situation.
31:18How about you sticking a gun in your mouth?
31:26Tell me the certain chances as to what happened on that deal.
31:29You know, just, you know, he grabbed his friend's gun and he was like,
31:35if somebody could just map that he gets short, then like what he would do to the person.
31:40So he just used me as to.
31:43Like the gang bag?
31:44Yeah.
31:46It certainly goes to their position that he was dangerous and that supports their self-defense claim.
31:54Yes, but it doesn't change the facts of what happened between Caleb Pelton and Phaedro.
32:00I expected that the strategy would be to try to smear Phaedro's character
32:05and try to shift the focus from what Caleb Pelton had done.
32:12A year and a half after Phaedro's death, the trial of Caleb Pelton begins.
32:18We were in a big courtroom and there was a large gallery full of people watching.
32:25About 90% of them were there in support of Phaedro.
32:29We wanted them to know Phaedro has a name, he has a face, and he has people that's here to
32:35support him.
32:37The entire courtroom was just tense because we're representing a 16-year-old and we're the holders of fate for
32:43the rest of his life.
32:44I just remember thinking what happened in his life for him to be sitting in that chair.
32:51After both sides give opening statements.
32:54We called all three of the girls who were eyewitnesses.
32:58They were definitely emotional on the stand.
33:00I mean, we had to take several breaks because they did break down.
33:04But all three of them pointed out, Caleb Pelton, that's the guy who shot Phaedro.
33:11But on cross-examination.
33:13My number one goal was to get across to the jury.
33:16Caleb was in fear for his life and he acted in self-defense.
33:20The defense starts with Phaedro's girlfriend.
33:23In the police reports there was a mention of Phaedro putting the gun in her mouth.
33:29And when I asked her about that, she admitted to that.
33:33That was shocking.
33:35I think it painted Phaedro as a flawed victim.
33:40And it just seemed like a lot of graphic violence for individuals who are going to high school.
33:48If the defense attorney is successful at painting the victim in a bad light,
33:53that is always a concern because the jury could have quit.
34:00The next day, the prosecution calls Caleb's friend, the boy who wore the Batman shirt, to the stand.
34:07He did not seem like he wanted to be a witness.
34:12The judge had to correct him a number of times.
34:16He didn't really strike me as a great witness.
34:21He testified that Caleb shot Phaedro and that was the most important thing.
34:27And afterwards, Caleb had asked him to pee on his hands to try to remove gunshot residue.
34:35This shows he had a guilty conscience.
34:38Caleb tried to do everything to cover up his involvement.
34:41Then the defense returns to the same allegation about Phaedro.
34:46Our main goal when we were cross-examining Caleb's friend was to get out that Caleb was receiving threats from
34:53people connected to Phaedro.
34:54According to Caleb's friend's interview with homicide detectives, the threats came after Phaedro's shooting.
35:01Why didn't you call talks?
35:04Why didn't you call talks?
35:04So, somebody's that happened, he was receiving messages by one of these people.
35:09I was like, there was another person that was going to kill his family.
35:12It's like, I'm not Caleb.
35:13And he was like, I don't know what he was missing.
35:15And it's just me because I don't know.
35:16I don't know if I can show both their shams today.
35:21Not only is Phaedro dangerous, but obviously the people he associated himself with were also dangerous.
35:26They are now making threats to Caleb's friend and Caleb for what happened.
35:32We wanted to be able to get that out to show the jury that Phaedro was dangerous.
35:38But things didn't go our way.
35:41I asked him if he had received threats from people associated with Phaedro.
35:46And his answer was, guess so, yes.
35:50Someone saying the word guess, it's problematic because then you're testifying to something you're not sure of.
35:55And so, because he wasn't sure who the threats came from, that was found to be speculative.
36:01The judge struck the entire testimony about the threat and told the jury that they could not consider it.
36:07I believed Caleb.
36:09I believed his story.
36:10I believed that he was innocent.
36:11And it is frustrating that wasn't going to be in the purview of the jury.
36:16The prosecution rests, and the defense calls their only witness.
36:22There's always a risk in putting your client on the stand, but Caleb believed he acted in self-defense.
36:29And it was important for the jury to hear it from Caleb.
36:34We had no idea what his story was going to be until he took the stand.
36:51When Caleb got up on the stand, he was nervous. He was a kid. He's soft-spoken. It was hard
36:58to hear him.
36:58I can't imagine being in his shoes when he was testifying, especially knowing that there is video evidence of him
37:08shooting somebody.
37:10He testified that he knew Phaedra to be dangerous, that he knew him to carry weapons, and that he told
37:17drugs.
37:19You hear the defense making these statements, and you're sitting there thinking,
37:23Who are they talking about? That's not my son.
37:27Caleb tried to blame everything on his friend to say that he was the one that gave him the gun.
37:32He was the one that suggested peeing on his hands just to try to move the culpability over to his
37:39friend instead of himself.
37:41Staring at the possibility of life in prison, Caleb faces cross-examination.
37:47I really tried to press him. This is your last chance to tell what happened, to tell why you did
37:51this.
37:53Federal wasn't coming back, so now just tell us why.
37:58He had so much on the line, but he wouldn't say a word beyond it was a female.
38:05He killed someone over this story, and he's not willing to tell anybody what this story is.
38:13Caleb was very clear. He wanted to protect the person who was involved in the issue.
38:18I was surprised that Caleb wouldn't give the name of the person because of the stakes.
38:25It's his future. Could he walk away if there's a compelling reason?
38:31Part of Mr. Jertzma's cross-examination was having Caleb watch the video frame by frame.
38:38He asked Caleb, show me where Phaedra was being aggressive. Show me where you felt in fear for your life.
38:45The biggest point was for me to show to the jury what he said didn't line up with what it
38:51actually happened.
38:54Caleb was unable to show the jury when he felt in fear of his life.
38:59Caleb was confused, and I don't know that he understood what Jertzma wanted.
39:06After closing arguments, the jury leaves to deliberate.
39:11We had to decide if it was self-defense or not and understand how the law perceived what had happened.
39:18If the jury believes the defense attorney that Phaedra was the aggressive person here and that Phaedra was violent,
39:26the risk is that the jury could acquit Caleb.
39:31There was conversation from some of the jurors about what it would mean to send somebody who was 16 at
39:38the time to prison for the rest of their lives.
39:47It was very nerve-wracking. We were waiting, and Detective White, he was very reassuring to us.
39:54He came out, and I remember him coming out and said, I wouldn't leave and go too far because I
39:58don't think it's going to be that long.
40:01Less than an hour later.
40:04Jury came back guilty, murder in the first degree, and the sentence was, life in prison with the possibility of
40:13parole.
40:14The judge refused to give us a lesser included of manslaughter heat of passion, so their only option was first
40:22-degree murder life.
40:23They didn't have any other choice.
40:24I do not believe there was justice in this case.
40:29I thought this was a just outcome.
40:31He took someone's life, and I think a life sentence is completely fair.
40:36I looked at Caleb, and I seen him look at his mom, and it bothered me.
40:43My son is gone, and now another mother has lost her son to the system.
40:48The question I still ask myself today, why did he do it?
40:54Why was my son murdered?
40:57For Sandra, I wish we could have gotten her that answer of why this happened, why Caleb pulled that trigger.
41:06I hope for Sandra that having Caleb sentenced to life will help her start that healing process.
41:14But I don't know that she can ever fully heal in a situation like this.
41:30I was having such a hard time with Pedro's death, and I had been praying and praying, and one day
41:35I had a dream.
41:36I had the dream that he was in his black car, and when I walked out there, he opened the
41:41back door, and he looked at me with that smile, and he looked at me with that smile, and he
41:44said,
41:44Mama, Mama, I'm all right.
41:48And I woke up, and that's the best I had felt, and I don't know how long, because I was
41:54able to see that smile, and I was able to actually hear him tell me he was all right.
42:00Part of the peace that you get after a moment comes from the fact that we know that Pedro was
42:08not doing anything wrong.
42:12He made an impact. He didn't get to live long. We didn't get to enjoy him long. But at 18,
42:18he did a lot.
42:21His memory is still with us. His laughter is still with us. Who he is is still a part of
42:27us.
42:28He's gone, but I know he would want me to continue on.
42:31I'm writing a book called Good Grief. It's that we grieve, but there's a good way to do it.
42:36You need to be around your family. Those ones that are still there, go love on them. Go be with
42:42them.
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