- 1 day ago
Homicide: New York - Season 3 - Episode 04: Your Eyes Or Your Life
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23:50I came up to New York to go to a small fashion school it was Saturday afternoon
23:55and I heard a knock on the door I opened the door and he put his hand on my face
24:00like that I think kind of pushed me back you could feel the anger you knew he was
24:06just a ball of rage he raped me I think twice and I'm part of the memory is
24:13something that sort of gets muddled or lost or locked away he wanted to take my
24:21bank card and get money and then he said I don't trust you I'm gonna have to tie
24:26you up or kill you but I said I'll get you scarves you know and so I had to walk
24:30by the door to go get the scars it's a tiny studio apartment but he let me have
24:36that much distance which was rare because he was on me something said to me get
24:42out get out get out you got one chance take it I ran out screaming he was
24:49inches behind me and I ran into the super I don't know what I said I was raped
24:54he's right behind me or something like that super caught him and someone else
24:59caught him and then held him for the police
25:08we had a call that the uniform had a perpetrator under arrest he gives his name Matias Reyes and
25:17without being asked or prompted he says I did it he was an 18 year old quiet 5 foot 10
25:25dark complexion
25:27once the detectives were interviewing him they kind of realized that this could
25:31be the perpetrator from the previous rapes and the homicide so we have a DA come
25:36down they're beginning to see that the pattern is coming together and he may be
25:43involved in the homicide all of them involved young women all of them
25:47involved either a ruse or a push-in all of them occurred within a 20 block area all of
25:55them involved the use of a knife robbery and rape
26:01they wanted me to come down to the station immediately to identify just to take a look
26:06at a lineup that's all they said just one glimpse and I knew who it was I was shaking with
26:12fear it was
26:13a visceral reaction there was no doubt that this was a guy no doubt I remember hearing that he was
26:24arrested and I had to go meet the detective seeing him was shocking he was wearing the same shirt that
26:36he
26:36wore and it was very concrete like I knew that was him he told detectives that he made love to
26:45these girls he's a sick individual he says that he committed multiple rapes but Reyes denies any
26:56involvement with the Lourdes Gonzalez homicide and at that point Reyes is shown a sketch that had been put
27:06together from the children of Lourdes Gonzalez Mateus looks at it and the detective says look
27:15familiar and Mateus says yes it looks like me and looked at the detectives and said I'm fucked
27:24Mattias Reyes begins to give a confession to the murder of Lourdes Gonzalez we get it on video at
27:34times he would rant and rave really angry and other times he was remorseful say mommy screaming and she
27:44was like tossing me and screaming he says that Lourdes Gonzalez she grabbed the knife but she was shaking
27:52she was scared he says that he took the knife off her and that's how he had eventually killed her
27:59when this occurred I had a nine-year-old and a one-year-old so I could relate to the
28:06need to protect your
28:07children you have to feel for her that the idea that someone could be so brutalized to be stabbed
28:15nine times it made me sick Matias Reyes he's someone who has impulsive rage he's a ticking time bomb he
28:24was formerly charged with four counts of rape first degree sodomy burglary and assault with a deadly
28:32weapon and one count of homicide locally 18 year old Matias Reyes is charged with a series of brutal
28:39rapes on Manhattan's east side one of which ended in murder when I saw he murdered Lourdes and that's
28:45what hurt the most was that I was alive and she was not I remember receiving the news and feeling
28:57a sense
28:58of relief I remember seeing in the papers he got caught when I seen the picture I remember him
29:09so I already knew that that was him I get a phone call from my sergeant she says Irma does
29:19Matias Reyes
29:20ring a bell to you I go yeah on April 17 1989 I had his name as a possible suspect
29:28on a case that I had
29:29involving a rape that occurred in Central Park on 106th Street on the east side my case in Central Park
29:36was two
29:37days prior to the Central Park jockey case we interviewed the victim and one thing that she
29:44noticed was that he had fresh stitches on his chin back then in 1989 a lot of the hospitals used
29:51to have
29:51a log in the emergency room who came in and what they came in for so what we did was
29:57we went to every
29:58hospital we checked the log there was one guy who has fresh stitches on his chin and the name on
30:04that
30:04particular entry was Matias Reyes I did background checks he had no criminal record at all there was
30:12no photo on file for him there was nothing and then my boss pulls me off the case and puts
30:18me into the
30:18child abuse team I had no choice so I was kind of a little pissed off so it's like the
30:25case just just died
30:28it's an unfortunate thing that the leadership of Special Victims Unit pulled Irma off this case and put it on
30:33another case
30:35but you have to remember this is 1989 and we're seeing tremendous big crime waves that are pushing our
30:43resources to the edge the name Matias you know it always stuck in my head when Sergeant McLaughlin called me
30:52that day and told me that that was the person who killed
31:01when she told me that it was the person that killed that mother in front of the kids
31:06it made me feel so horrible and it made me feel horrible for years and years I've always thought
31:13about them if I had caught him on that case I know that things would have been completely different all
31:23these other victims would have not been victimized those kids would have lost their mother and that's
31:28the part that bothered me the most you know cases were children are involved it's tough on detectives
31:45Irma as far as I'm concerned one of the best detectives I ever worked with she really cared about what
31:51she was
31:54doing you are looking at a man police believe as a rapist and a cold-blooded killer 18 year old
32:00Matias Reyes
32:03so I went into work that day when I got into the office I was shown a picture of him
32:08and when I see
32:09his picture I go that's Matias Reyes I know him I know him since he was a little boy like
32:13I knew him he worked
32:15around the corner from the two or three precinct in this bodega Reyes served coffee to cops from the
32:20nearby precinct I was in the two three from 1982 to 1987 so I saw him all the time I
32:30never knew what
32:30his name was but I just knew of him as the kid that worked in the store so nice I
32:34think it wait a minute
32:35I definitely bought Carlos and Tony to that store to buy them candy I know he wasn't there then but
32:42still oh that bothers me we did learn from talking to Irma Rivera that they had even identified a
32:53person by the name of Matias Reyes as the possible perpetrator in another case but unfortunately the
32:59victim left the state of New York and any attempt to find the victim was unsuccessful 89 it was kind
33:06of
33:06the frontier for the use of DNA we submitted DNA evidence samples from the three rapes and the
33:14fourth rape and homicide of Lordez Gonzalez to the FBI all of the cases matched the DNA of Matias Reyes
33:23and so Matias Reyes decided to plead guilty this sentencing hearing doesn't pass without incident
33:33Reyes ends up turning his rage on his defense lawyer and assaults him in open court
33:42like who would do that how could you sabotage yourself in that way but he couldn't control his
33:48violence he was sentenced to 33 in a third years eventually he became eligible for parole
33:57he has the option of coming out he has the option of coming out so how am I supposed to
34:02live a life
34:03knowing that he could potentially come out why at this point we think this is the end of the criminal
34:13reign of Matias Reyes but we were to learn later that there were other crimes that he committed that
34:21we did not know that he did 2002 Matias Reyes for the district attorney's office and wanted to speak
34:40to someone regarding some information he wanted to give them a man has come forward by the name of
34:46Matias Reyes he claims that he alone attacked and raped the woman in Central Park back in 1989
34:59Matias Reyes claims that he's involved in the 1989 Central Park jogger case it's not shocking and unusual for
35:08somebody to interject themselves in a media case whether they're involved or not the unusual piece
35:14of this was his claim to act alone by the time Matias Reyes came forward and said that he alone
35:22was
35:23responsible for the rape of Trisha Miley known as the Central Park jogger five other young men had been
35:30convicted and served long prison sentences for this crime they always said that they were innocent and
35:38always proclaimed it whenever possible and in fact one of them Corey Wise actually encountered Reyes
35:45in prison and had some kind of altercation and that may have contributed to why Reyes came forward
35:52eventually the NYPD decides to form a investigative task force that I led to look into Matias Reyes
36:01role in the Central Park jogger case we know that there was a John Doe's DNA in that case that
36:09was
36:09never identified so they've got DNA samples from Matias Reyes and matched them up Matias Reyes absolutely
36:17did rape the Central Park jogger Patricia Miley because it was his DNA that was recovered on the
36:25morning she was brought to the hospital I wish we had had a DNA data bank back in 89 90
36:34and 91 because
36:36that would have allowed us to connect all of these cases it's not just about convicting defendants it's
36:42also about exonerating the innocent so with the new information that Matias Reyes is the unknown DNA and
36:51that he says he acted alone the five defendants cases were vacated and rightfully so it's a people's
37:03victory I think that's what we have to draw from it unfortunately this will be a black mark on NYPD's
37:13relations with the black community for years to come I was happy for the five young men that were
37:21falsely accused but it really did nothing for me other than like rehash some emotions and feelings and
37:28memories did you attack the Central Park jogger yes it was on 2020 and I'm like what you know like
37:42what
37:43the fuck having the past resurface is like life telling you you know what this is always going
37:50to be there and there's no such thing as a fresh start I just got angry all over again the
38:01injustice
38:01that was done to the Central Park five needed to be undone but a parallel injustice happened to all of
38:09Matias Reyes's other victims and so in 2019 I wrote a piece for the cut called before and after the
38:16jogger I ended up speaking not only to Lourdes's children but I also spoke with the three women whose
38:25sexual assaults Reyes was convicted of these were the people who were written out of the story of what
38:33we now put under the umbrella of the Central Park jogger case she deserved her story to be told and
38:42what better way to tell it than with her kids I just I thank her for everything she did for
38:50me I always
38:53feel bad that she never got to meet what an amazing woman her mom was just the stories that I
39:01get from my
39:03brothers she was an amazing person regardless of whether she's here physically I feel like she's
39:10guided me this happened in 1989 so any sports I played that was my jersey number just paying homage to
39:20my
39:21mom I feel like she was just somebody put in my path to lead me to something bigger she told
39:33me to value
39:34education and make sure that I set a good example and I did and I kind of helped instill those
39:41things in
39:42my own kids I felt guilty I went to those stages of just being angry and blaming myself and blaming
39:55others
39:58it's done a lot of damage to me because it was just destroying me mentally
40:06anybody talks about the case that haunts you the case of Lourdes Gonzalez haunted me for years and
40:13years and years hi Carlos so nice to see you I'm sorry so it was important for me to meet
40:28Carlos this case
40:30bothered me so much I had his name on another case I want to apologize to you because I feel
40:36like if I
40:37had gotten him this would have happened I was never mad at her I would never want her to live
40:45life like that
40:46the only person I'm happy as this is Rez Rez deserves he deserves misery don't give your power away to
40:54him at all
40:55my life has been a mess I've been incarcerated in and out how many felonies you have I got I
41:04got
41:04three three gun possessions okay a homicide I became a product of the streets and there's always a beef
41:13and there's always retribution and I grew up wanting to destroy anything that destroys me or my family and
41:23there's a never-ending cycle your life is not over you can still do a lot yourself you know that
41:27your
41:29mother wanted to give you such a good childhood now it's your time to honor your mother and have a
41:35good
41:35manhood yeah I'm still striving for better I'm still a work in progress I'm on the path of of doing
41:46better and my mom deserves it
41:54I was aware that there were two other women victims survivors but we didn't get to meet we didn't get
42:02to talk so I wrote a letter and I said we all went through the same thing and it's absolutely
42:09horrible
42:09but it would be nice if we could be there for each other because only we know and understand what
42:15each of
42:15us has been through and we all decided to meet we get together multiple times over the years every
42:29year the date would come and I'd say forget what the date is forget what happened just go about your
42:34life forget forget forget forget and last year I thought why so I invited my friends for dinner and I
42:39had a fuck you I'm still here party I did Melissa Meg and I have this friendship we all are
42:49connected
42:49by this horrific story but we're also connected by love I thought to myself my god these other girls
42:58they went through the same thing I did yeah we have to become friends it was like revolutionary to meet
43:05you yeah having them I feel very lucky I don't know what I would have done without them
43:16Lourdes is one of us she is a fighter I've thought about her a lot I really felt for her
43:24and I really
43:24felt for her family Lourdes isn't here to speak so we wanted to kind of honor her and her family
43:34and
43:35to say that we never forgot Lourdes I want people to know her and be like she was more than
43:41just this
43:42little footnote Lourdes was important
44:30I don't think the NYPD or the city of New York ever saw this coming
44:42my aunt Joanne she worked in the north tower I'm like how the fuck am I getting up there to
44:47get her
44:47out of there 78th floor of a building that's on fire and I don't know how to get out of
44:53here
44:58the lieutenant says fucking run I see a bunch of EMS it was like we're gonna go back into the
45:06building there's people in there that need to be removed so I was like okay I'm not gonna have a
45:11fireman embarrass me so I'm gonna stay one thing about 911 it helped me get used to the smell of
45:17death
45:18you find out what you're really made of you find out what it is to be a team player you're
45:23not dead get to work
45:58you
46:01you
46:12you
46:13you
46:14you
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