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A woman's lifeless body is rushed to a hospital in New York after two strangers found her unconscious at a subway station. As detectives dig into the victim's past, they uncover a complicated polyamorous romance proving that not all is what it seems.
Transcript
00:10She wanted a family more than anything.
00:14Her goal was finding a maid, finding a partner,
00:17having kids, and building a home.
00:20But like a lot of the girls that I grew up with,
00:23she was looking for love in all the wrong places.
00:29She was brutalized, beaten, lacerations to her head, her face.
00:35There was blood casting on the TV, on furniture, on the walls.
00:41The individual female that brought her in said that they found her.
00:44We have a video canvas team out at the location
00:47where she said she was picked up.
00:48The story just did not add up to that point.
00:51We have to know what the truth is and dispel all these lies.
00:55That's when her story changed from her being this innocent person.
00:59They became a throuple, a three-way relationship.
01:02Human characters, you get jealous of somebody,
01:05and that's going to become a problem.
01:22December 3rd, 2013.
01:26Queens, New York.
01:27It's 10.30 a.m. on a quiet Tuesday morning at Jamaica Medical Center.
01:34When a cry for help sends emergency workers rushing to the aid of two people.
01:40They're screaming and they're carrying this woman.
01:44She was brought into the ER.
01:45She was unconscious.
01:48The woman who brought her in is saying they were driving towards the train station
01:52and they saw this woman laying there bleeding on Suffern Boulevard.
01:56Very busy intersection in Queens.
01:59They brought her in as Good Samaritans, basically.
02:02She had massive head trauma.
02:04She looked like she was possibly shot.
02:05So the hospital staff in the emergency room immediately takes her into the emergency entrance
02:11and attempts to treat her.
02:14But it's pretty apparent very quickly that she was deceased at that time.
02:20Based on her body temperature, which was like 88 degrees at the time when she was brought in,
02:24that she was deceased for three or four hours already.
02:28They had found identification on this woman and they identified her as 38-year-old Cheryl Outerbridge.
02:35Any time a hospital receives any sort of victim of any violence, deceased or in bated condition,
02:41the police are notified.
02:43And once they declare Ms. Outerbridge deceased, detectives have to make a notification of the family.
02:50I was at work and my older sister was calling back to back.
02:53So I stepped away for a second and that's when she told me that Cheryl had been killed.
03:00And we were both like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that.
03:03Like, you know, like we still in shock, like this can't be.
03:07And I'm like, are they sure?
03:09Everybody loves her.
03:11It never made sense to me.
03:18Growing up in 1970s Harlem, Cheryl Outerbridge was known for her vivacious personality from a young age.
03:27Cheryl was very smart.
03:29Cheryl was very cunning.
03:30She was quite creative.
03:33She was one of the smartest people I know.
03:36And if I'm not mistaken, I think she scored a perfect on her GD.
03:41The skies was the limit for her.
03:44She was able to do whatever she wanted to do.
03:46And she chose to be a banker, so that's what she did.
03:49And, you know, she switched her mind, didn't want to do that no more.
03:52And then she worked at a call center for a while, doing telemarketing.
03:56She wanted a family more than anything, because the fact that she didn't grow up with a solid, stable family
04:03household.
04:03I think that her goal was mostly finding a mate, finding a partner, having kids, and like, building a home.
04:12That is one girl who loves kids.
04:15She loves neighbors' kids, the people across the world kids, and she's love kids.
04:23In 1995, Cheryl began dating an old friend from the neighborhood, and was thrilled when she later found out she
04:30was pregnant.
04:31In September 1996, she gave birth to her first child, a son.
04:36She's a good mother.
04:37I mean, she seemed happy.
04:40I was young at that time.
04:41In my mind, oh, they're in love to have a baby.
04:44You know, when she started getting older, and you're like, you don't have to be in love to have a
04:46baby.
04:48At some point, they broke up.
04:50And then she moved on to another relationship where she had two more children.
04:54But that relationship fizzled out really quickly, too.
04:57So now Cheryl's a single mom of three kids.
04:59It was still a struggle.
05:01She was trying to take care of kids, but it was hard.
05:05While her children eventually went to live with their fathers for more stability, Cheryl relocated from Harlem to Queens.
05:13She was working at call centers at that point.
05:17Anytime we were together, we'd catch up, joke, and we did go to different little clubs or bars together.
05:24And she did date frequently.
05:30Like a lot of the girls that I grew up with, including myself, we were all just pretty much looking
05:36for love in all the wrong places.
05:39If you ask me personally my opinion, I don't think any of the men was good for her.
05:43We was just trying to get her to come back to Manhattan.
05:48In my heart of hearts, I believe that that's what her plans was.
05:51But sooner or later, she was going to get up and go back to Manhattan.
06:00Sadly, Cheryl's lifeless body has just been brought to Jamaica Medical Center.
06:05The female individual that brought her to the hospital, her name was Devonnie Wilkerson.
06:11She told the hospital staff who they found her at the train station.
06:15Fabian Richards was at the hospital, too.
06:19Right out of the gate, the 103's detective squad handled it as a homicide case.
06:24They thought she was possibly shot because of the amount of trauma to her head.
06:28So initially, we look at it and say, hey, listen, we have to do interviews and figure out what's going
06:33on here.
06:35Was this a robbery gone wrong? Was this a stray bullet?
06:39The detectives had to rule out all possibilities.
06:43There are a lot of moving parts.
06:44We have a team at the hospital.
06:46And we have a video canvas team out at the location where she said she was picked up, where she
06:50possibly got assaulted.
06:52Archer Avenue is the major train station for anybody traveling from Long Island to Queens and to New York City.
06:58It is a major, major area.
07:00It's busy roads, a lot of storefronts, a lot of video cameras.
07:05We look at cameras.
07:07We started a video canvas immediately at the location where she said she was picked up.
07:13Surprisingly, detectives are unable to find any surveillance of Cheryl Outerbridge.
07:20Not one 911 calls received from that location to say that somebody got assaulted or somebody got robbed or somebody
07:26got shot.
07:27No video canvases confirming anything that happened there.
07:31How can somebody be shot in the head in the bright early morning of a busy intersection where people are
07:38coming in and out of the train and nobody sees or hears anything?
07:43They knew something was off.
07:49Detectives aren't certain if Devani is lying or simply mistaken about the location where Cheryl was found.
07:56So as the police are trying to figure out what's going on, they get a call from the hospital.
08:02They ran an x-ray on Cheryl's body and they discovered that she wasn't even shot.
08:08They did an x-ray and determined that there was no bullet or any exit wound.
08:12There was blunt force trauma to the head and multiple injuries.
08:15From her feet to the top of her head, she was brutalized, beaten, bruising, lacerations to her head, her face.
08:21She was just battered everywhere. You could possibly hit somebody. She was struck.
08:26So detectives are hearing all this new information about her injuries and what caused her death.
08:31And now their thoughts are she had to have known this person.
08:35It was definitely a personal attack on Cheryl.
08:37So now the detectives are going back to square one to figure out who could have done this to Cheryl.
08:45Coming up, police uncover a tumultuous relationship in Cheryl's past.
08:51She had some prior domestic violence in her life.
08:54Did he get violent again and did he ultimately kill her?
08:59And a polyamorous romance becomes the focus of the investigation.
09:04She says we were together, all three of us.
09:06She felt that he was falling in love with her.
09:10That's where the true jealousy and rage came out.
09:24In Queens, New York, police are investigating the brutal murder of 38 year old Cheryl Outerbridge.
09:31When it comes to physical violence, I'd say 99% of those cases, it's personal, meaning that it's somebody that
09:38they know.
09:38And a large majority of that, 99%, is domestic in nature.
09:45One of the first things we do, we call it the real-time crime center.
09:49The real-time crime center has a portal that they open up for us.
09:53So you give them the victims information.
09:55They take all that stuff.
09:57They run all the computer checks for the victim.
10:01We learned she had some prior domestic violence in her life from her ex-boyfriend and it was an order
10:05of protection.
10:07Police had went to Cheryl's residence at least three times in regards to her former boyfriend.
10:13He seemed okay at first.
10:15You know, he took care of her and everything, but they used to fight a lot.
10:19So, I didn't think that was good.
10:22In April 2011, Cheryl even had to run to a neighbor's house for safety.
10:28When police arrived at the scene, she had extensive injuries.
10:32Turns out that she had even a dislocated shoulder.
10:35And then a year later in 2012, she called police again because her boyfriend had punched her.
10:41Like, I didn't know he had gotten physical worse several times.
10:45And, you know, she would go back.
10:47Let's look at the ex-boyfriend to see maybe if he's a suspect.
10:50We'll put his name in the portal.
10:51We'll do a workup on him.
10:53They're wondering, did he come back into the picture?
10:55Did he get violent again?
10:57And did he ultimately kill her?
11:03Police were able to catch up with him.
11:04And he swore up and down that he had nothing to do with Cheryl.
11:09And they hadn't seen each other for him to do anything to her.
11:12He was working overnight.
11:14And we have his punch racket.
11:15So, that door was completely closed.
11:17We don't have to worry about that.
11:19After their breakup in late 2012, he says that Cheryl quickly moved on.
11:30Detectives immediately reach out to Cheryl's friends and family for more information.
11:35I did hear that she had a new boyfriend.
11:40Cheryl was dating or having a relationship with Malik Wilkerson.
11:46That's when detectives receive an unexpected piece of information.
11:51Malik Wilkerson was married.
11:53She knew he was married.
11:56Detectives are stunned when they learn the identity of Malik's wife.
12:02Cheryl's boyfriend's wife was Devani Wilkerson.
12:04The individual female that brought her into the hospital.
12:11And the spidey sense goes up and says, okay, we're on something here.
12:14Let's dig down a little deeper.
12:16According to Cheryl's loved ones, Cheryl had met Malik Bishop Wilkerson three years earlier.
12:23And she wound up getting with Bishop.
12:25She didn't really go into how she met him.
12:28The moment I met him, I didn't like him.
12:31I didn't speak.
12:32I didn't smile.
12:33I didn't shake hands.
12:35He was married.
12:36So he just didn't sit well with me.
12:39We had her as a girlfriend and then he had his wife.
12:43And I didn't approve of that whatsoever.
12:46She just told me this was her boyfriend and that's his wife.
12:50And I'm saying to myself like, okay, but you know what?
12:54I can't judge.
12:55You never judge a book by his cover.
12:56You just gotta wait and see.
12:59To detectives, the fact that Devani Wilkerson knew the victim is a startling revelation.
13:07They're wondering if she knew more than what she let on for them to believe.
13:11Maybe Devani has something to do with Cheryl's death.
13:14We knew we had to dig in and speak to Devani.
13:21Detectives immediately travel to the Wilkerson's home in Queens.
13:25When they arrive, they're greeted by Devani, who says her husband Malik is away.
13:33We started speaking with Devani Wilkerson.
13:35That's when her story changed from her being this innocent person that she brought into the hospital that she didn't
13:40know, to knowing Cheryl.
13:43Detectives asked Devani why she lied about knowing Cheryl.
13:47She said that she didn't want to be looked at as a suspect or the bad guy.
13:52Devani says she knows Cheryl.
13:54She said she had no issues with Cheryl dating her husband Malik.
13:58Devani tells detectives that they were spending a lot of time together.
14:02They were going on trips together.
14:04They were hanging out together, shopping.
14:06They just spent as much time together as possible.
14:09And at some point, Cheryl actually moved in with them in Queens.
14:14She said that the night before Cheryl left the house, she just went out to the store.
14:20She never came back.
14:22Devani claims her husband tried calling Cheryl several times throughout the night.
14:28At one point, Cheryl did answer the phone and Devani says that they can hear men in the background.
14:33And Malik is assuming that the reason why she left was to go hang out with the guys.
14:39Malik and her became very worried.
14:41They were telling her to come home. They were asking where her location was.
14:44Cheryl refused to tell Malik where she was.
14:47So the next morning, Devani and Malik, they get in the car and they start searching around the neighborhood to
14:52try to find her.
14:54Miraculously by luck, Devani says they found her at the train station.
14:58She was spying on the ground.
15:00They were so concerned to know what happened to her, they piled her into the car and took her to
15:05Jamaica Hospital.
15:06Her husband Malik Wilkerson dropped them off at the hospital at approximately 10 o'clock.
15:12And Fabian Richards, a family friend, was also at the hospital for a brief amount of time.
15:18Again, where she said that the crime occurred or where they picked up Cheryl, the detective found nothing at the
15:24scene.
15:24That would even corroborate that.
15:27It did not occur there.
15:29We knew we had to go at Devani a little harder because she was our target.
15:34So we're going to change the scene a little bit, bring her back to the 103 precinct and put her
15:39in a box and start a conversation with her.
15:42It's a little more difficult to talk to the police and lie to the police when you're in their house.
15:57Hours into the murder investigation of Cheryl Outerbridge, police have learned that Cheryl was involved with a married man named
16:06Malik Wilkerson.
16:07And Malik's wife, Devani, has just arrived at the police department for more questioning.
16:15We learned again that she's married to Malik, that they live in her father's house on the second floor in
16:23South Jamaica, Queens.
16:27Devani grew up in the same neighborhood that I grew up.
16:31She was a good girl, but she really didn't really talk much.
16:36She was more kept to herself.
16:40Devani moved away after elementary school going into middle school.
16:44And then we didn't see her for years.
16:47When she came back, she was married.
16:51She and Malik had been together since they were teenagers and been married for 10 years.
16:56She was a waitress at a restaurant in Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in Garden City, Nassau County, New York.
17:02She worked. She went to work every day. She came home.
17:05She loved her husband.
17:11But it seemed like that her attitude was completely different from what we're used to.
17:19She would scream and she would argue with people, cuss.
17:25And it was just like, this is a totally different person that I saw when she was a child.
17:33And it was just like, okay, what is the problem? What happened to you?
17:37How did you come back so angry and you was this sweet little girl that used to live on the
17:42block?
17:44You know?
17:45It's strange. It's really strange.
17:49Malik seemed more calmer than she was.
17:51But it was just something about them two together.
17:56They didn't mesh.
17:58I saw Cheryl, but I never spoke to her.
18:02I thought it was just a girl that was just coming by.
18:05You know, friends.
18:07Just coming by to see a friend.
18:12When detectives press Devani about her relationship with Cheryl,
18:16she begins opening up about its true nature.
18:20She finally breaks down and tells them a little bit more.
18:25Devani says, hey, listen, Cheryl, who was with Malik,
18:30we were together, all three of us.
18:33They were in love together in a polyagorous relationship.
18:40According to Devani, Malik met Cheryl in 2010.
18:44Eventually, he introduced the two women to one another.
18:49For Devani, her self-esteem must have been shot at this point in their marriage,
18:53and she would do anything to keep her husband.
18:56So Malik gets Cheryl and Devani to meet, and they hang out for a couple of weeks,
19:02and they get to know each other.
19:03And after a while, Devani tells detectives she really did like Cheryl too.
19:08After a while, the three of them became a throuple.
19:12They have this new third person to their relationship that is residing with them as,
19:18not as a wife, but as a third person in their three-person relationship.
19:23So they were really cohabitating, and it happened really quickly.
19:27They did this for quite some time, and they were enjoying themselves.
19:34Knowing she hasn't been honest from the start,
19:37detectives confront Devani about Cheryl's extensive injuries.
19:42Cheryl had lacerations on her face and her skull.
19:45She had bruising from the top of her feet up to her butt.
19:51I mean, it looked like lividity almost.
19:54Her body was a different color, because that's how badly she was beaten.
19:59Devani, it was brought to light the holes in the story
20:02and the physical abuse that occurred to Cheryl.
20:05And that's when she gave a little bit more to what happened.
20:09Devani says that on the night of December 2nd, there was an argument that ensued.
20:15She admitted at this point that Malik struck Cheryl a couple of times.
20:23They went to bed for the night.
20:27They got up the next day.
20:29Devani went to work.
20:31Malik was supposed to go to work with Fabian,
20:33and then Malik started getting nervous and called her and said,
20:37I don't think she's doing well, come home.
20:39And that's when they decided to go to the hospital and drop her at the hospital.
20:43According to Devani, Fabian decided to accompany them to the hospital.
20:48However, Malik left soon after dropping them off.
20:52She didn't know where Malik went at that time.
20:55I think she was giving enough information to keep herself out of it.
20:58Because when she was asked about calling 911,
21:01she stated she didn't want to be a suspect.
21:03Her second story started divulging that there was violence in that house that night,
21:07but it wasn't the full truth, obviously.
21:10We knew Cheryl was involved in a threesome relationship.
21:13They continued the relationship.
21:15And ultimately, human characters, you get jealous of somebody,
21:20and that's going to become a problem.
21:23Now we see kind of a motive, so now we're looking at Malik.
21:38After learning that 38-year-old Cheryl Outerbridge had been in a fight with married couple Devani and Malik Wilkerson
21:46the night before she died,
21:49detectives know the couple is key to solving the case.
21:53There was some sort of argument where there was some sort of violence at that house.
21:59Devani told us they had nothing to do with the crime,
22:01even though she admits that there was some sort of physical altercation.
22:05People that drop people at hospitals and don't stay was very weird, very odd.
22:10So we needed to speak to Malik.
22:13We knew what kind of car he was drove because of Jamaica Hospital and because Devani told us.
22:17The plate, we just got through background checks.
22:20Thank God New York City has license plate readings everywhere.
22:24We put basically a bulletin out, what's called an iCard, looking for him.
22:29And we put an alert on the car.
22:31Real-time crime center takes that plate number, puts the plate number in their portal.
22:34So if the car gets stopped or it hits one of the plate readers on the highways,
22:38they'll get a notification, hey this car is wanted by the New York City Police Department.
22:42We reached out to a couple locations in the Bronx where there was a couple of previous hits.
22:47But we didn't find him at that time.
22:52While Devani is held in custody, detectives begin digging into Malik's background.
22:58Malik had an extensive criminal record.
23:00Police found in Malik's background that he was arrested several times for drugs, for theft, and he was also arrested
23:08for assault.
23:11I've known Malik since I was 16 years old.
23:15I used to date him.
23:16I don't want to be in silhouette because Malik was abusive.
23:22Always combative, always fighting.
23:25He wasn't a good person.
23:26We're just going to say that.
23:28Wasn't a good person.
23:32There was one time I can recall.
23:35I just moved into my new apartment and he found out.
23:38And he tried to break in through my fire escape.
23:41I think it was like 2003, I didn't see him again.
23:44Probably like seven, eight years later.
23:48It was the summer of 2013.
23:51He's coming out of jail and he's searching for me and I let him come and visit.
23:56We got into an altercation and he didn't like what I said.
24:00In true form, his violent history told me he was going to put a bullet in my head.
24:07So, I mean, he's always been abusive.
24:12He's always been combative.
24:16I went into a domestic violence shelter and then me and my son was able to get away.
24:22It was a relief because it was a lot.
24:26Eventually, Malik moved on and fell in love with Devani.
24:30I've only known her through him and from the little bit of time that I've known her, she never was
24:37violent.
24:39I heard something happen through Cheryl on TV.
24:43I've known Cheryl.
24:45I knew her from being around the area, so I knew Cheryl and Malik was together.
24:53Over time, I started finding out that he was abusing Cheryl.
24:58I remember coming to New York one time and her not wanting to come, you know, or let me in
25:04the house or come downstairs because, from my understanding, her job was broke.
25:09Domestic violence, it's the craziest thing.
25:11People get beaten and destroyed by human beings and they seriously, in their mind, they still love them.
25:19I can change him.
25:23Cheryl, it talked to me about wanting to leave this relationship.
25:27I didn't know she was serious about it. She was serious about leaving them.
25:35Most major crimes that we investigated through my entire career, they have a background.
25:39They have criminal records.
25:41It's not unusual for somebody that commits a murder to have a background like Malik did.
25:46Devani had no criminal background.
25:49I mean, if you met her on the street and you talked to her, you'd be like, wow, this woman's
25:52got it together as a human being.
25:54Like, she's on point. You would never suspect of her being involved with a guy like Malik.
26:02You come from two different ends of the world, you know what I mean?
26:06Two different upbringings, different parenting, different relationships.
26:11She comes from a good background, good family, no real criminal record.
26:17It seemed like a squeaky clean, law-abiding citizen.
26:20I think he was manipulating both of them.
26:24Especially Devani, she had a nice house.
26:27I mean, he didn't have those things.
26:29You know, he was in and out of jail.
26:31And with all this information, knowing Devani's background is so clean, police were wondering, is she a victim of domestic
26:37violence as well?
26:38So they were also wondering if Devani was covering up for her husband.
26:42The guy like Malik, law enforcement's not his friend.
26:45And most people like that, they're going to run.
26:47Because they don't want to be caught.
26:48And for some reason, they watch TV and think they can get away with it.
26:51Within the first 24 hours of the investigation, detectives apply for a search warrant on the Wilkerson's home.
26:59Our main concern was getting a search warrant for where they resided, because we knew that's where they lived and
27:03we knew that's where the crime occurred.
27:07Coming up, in their search for Malik, police learn of a promising lead out of state.
27:14Malik's vehicle, with a plate reader hit, was recovered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
27:19And detectives are confronted with the grim reality of Cheryl's last moments.
27:25A paint roller, we believe, was one of the weapons.
27:28Cigarette butts, burn marks, pipes, there was metal objects.
27:32This can't be real.
27:34This can't be real.
27:36Who is that malicious?
27:49Just over 24 hours after the murder of 38-year-old Cheryl Outerbridge, New York authorities are searching for Malik
27:57Wilkerson after taking his wife, Devani, into custody for the crime.
28:03Unfortunately for detectives, Malik is nowhere to be found, and they are concerned that he is armed and possibly dangerous.
28:10Looking for a person, you know, we want to see where his phone is, because wherever your phone is, usually
28:15you're attached to that phone, most times.
28:17The pen register is basically a warrant to track someone's cell phone.
28:22Incoming calls, outgoing calls, finding out in real time where somebody is, where they were when a crime occurred.
28:29As detectives await approval for the warrant to track Malik's phone, others work to locate the third person seen at
28:37the hospital, Fabian Richards.
28:40Fabian was also at the hospital for a brief amount of time.
28:43He was a witness. We knew we had to talk to him.
28:47My partners located him and brought him in.
28:50Eventually we speak to Fabian Richards, who happened to be a friend of theirs.
28:54Fabian knew the couple, Malik and Devani, for about a year, and Malik worked with Fabian.
29:00According to Fabian, on the morning of December 3rd, 2013, he showed up at the couple's house looking for a
29:08ride to work.
29:08He tells police what he found inside was frightening.
29:14Suddenly, here's Cheryl, all abused.
29:19They went to the hospital, so he took a ride to the hospital.
29:22He didn't question Malik about what happened. He just went along with what they were telling him.
29:27He said he stayed at the hospital briefly, he provided his name to the security guard, and then he got
29:32a ride home, he said.
29:34Fabian was nervous because he was brought into this at some point in the morning when he wanted to go
29:38to work.
29:39But Fabian's story lined up, he wasn't involved.
29:42He just happened to be a friend of theirs and showed up at the house that day to go to
29:45work, but somehow he got sucked into this.
29:50While the search for Malik continues, detectives secure a warrant to obtain physical evidence at their home in Queens.
29:58It was a house, a residential house, but it was split up into three apartments.
30:02They lived on the second floor.
30:04Our main concern was getting a search warrant for where they resided, because we knew that's where they lived and
30:08we knew that's where the crime occurred.
30:09So we entered the residence with the search warrant, and obviously we call a crime scene to investigate the scene.
30:20Going upstairs, it was a small apartment, two bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen, I believe.
30:25And it was very apparent immediately that the crime occurred in multiple rooms.
30:33And it was violent.
30:37There was blood casting on the TV, on furniture, on the walls.
30:42I believe it was on a ceiling. The bathroom had a lot of blood in it.
30:46There was definitely evidence of some kind of assault inside that location, which was consistent with Davani's statement.
30:53A paint roller, we believe, was one of the weapons.
30:57Cigarette butts, burn marks, pipes, there was metal objects.
31:03Looking at the evidence, this woman was tortured for an extended period of time.
31:07Crime scene's there, they photograph the entire residence.
31:10They mark every piece of evidence that they're going to take, they take close-ups of those objects, and they
31:14were sent to the land.
31:17I just wake up and one day I just see all police outside.
31:24That's it, a block full of police.
31:26And everybody was like, what happened, what happened?
31:30And nobody knew nothing.
31:35After recovering evidence at the Wilkerson's home, detectives give Davani one more chance to come clean.
31:43We spoke to Davani for the third time.
31:46The third interview with Davani is when the true jealousy and rage came out.
31:53Davani, again, shares with us that the relationship is pretty intimate.
31:59Malik, Davani, Cheryl, together.
32:04At times, Davani, Malik, together.
32:07Malik, Cheryl, together, without Davani.
32:09So there's a whole big circle there.
32:12As the investigation went on, the more and more jealousy you saw from Davani.
32:17Basically, Cheryl was going higher in the pecking order of this relationship.
32:20It wasn't a 33% each relationship.
32:22Cheryl was a toy, an object, and she felt that Malik was falling in love with Cheryl.
32:30Davani then admits that she's the one that wanted Cheryl out of the relationship, but Malik wasn't ready for that.
32:36Tensions were flaring in the Wilkerson's house with Cheryl for some weeks, but on the night of December 2nd, that's
32:43when everything exploded.
32:45There was an argument, and at some point, Cheryl left because she was upset with them.
32:50Cheryl leaves the residence, and then Malik get pissed off that she left the residence.
32:55She wasn't allowed to leave, and they were calling her on the phone, and then at some point, the phone
33:01was answered.
33:02And what they heard in the background was she was with multiple men, is what they thought.
33:06Malik was mad that she was disobedient, and they thought that she was sleeping with guys.
33:14So they start doing the canvas. They start looking for her.
33:17They find her at the subway station.
33:20They pull her into the town and country, the car.
33:23So she got picked up and kidnapped at the train station, and bring her back to the residence, where they
33:30assault her.
33:33When the beating occurred, it was an interrogation. It was like having a war criminal in your house.
33:40Devani tells police that Malik went crazy, that he started to beat her, and just completely went crazy on her.
33:49Devani admits she soon joined the assault on Cheryl.
33:56During the course of the fight, Cheryl is calling Malik daddy, which incites Devani.
34:03And they drove her insane, because that's her daddy, not Cheryl's daddy.
34:07Devani tells police that she blew into a fit of rage and grabbed a bottle and broke it over Cheryl's
34:12head.
34:16That's when Devani says she spotted something even more unnerving.
34:21Cheryl recently got a tattoo with Malik's nickname on her belly.
34:26Malik's friends call him Bishop, or Bish for short.
34:29And Cheryl had gotten a tattoo that says Bish baby, and that enraged her, because that was the nickname that
34:35she had for her husband.
34:38Cheryl started to overstep her boundaries. She got the tattoo of the nickname.
34:42You're calling my husband daddy. You did too much. And she went off the rails.
34:47She admitted that she touched Cheryl with a cigarette, a lit cigarette multiple times, and burnt her.
34:53Devani says that they continued to beat her.
34:56They beat her profusely because she broke some unwritten law of disrespect and disobedience.
35:04And after a while, they just stopped, and then they went to bed.
35:10She probably wasn't even breathing at that time.
35:12So they left her on the floor at the apartment for dead.
35:17Devani was trying to put herself as minimally assaulting Cheryl.
35:22But once you cross that line of admitting you're doing anything to it, and then you line up the crime
35:26scene, she couldn't minimize it.
35:30I think she felt bad. I really do. She might have had a little remorse at that time.
35:34But again, she killed somebody, and she did something that was not human-like.
35:40What happened that night shouldn't happen to any human being.
35:43They destroyed her because of some fictitious set of rules that she didn't sign up for, except she loved these
35:49people, and she died for it.
35:52On December 4th, Devani Wilkerson is charged with assault and kidnapping, resulting in death.
35:59If somebody kills somebody, we want that person to serve justice.
36:02We want that person arrested. We want that person prosecuted.
36:08As the hunt for Malik intensifies, detectives finally get another hit on his vehicle.
36:15Malik's vehicle, with a plate reader hit, was recovered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
36:21Detectives secure a warrant on Malik's phone and pinpoint his location to a Pittsburgh apartment complex.
36:28We were able to track him down with our Regional Fugitive Task Force team.
36:32We contacted the Pittsburgh Homicide Unit and confirmed with them, giving them information, and set up a time of day
36:38for us to get out there.
36:40On December 7th, five days into the investigation, authorities move in for an arrest.
36:48He knocked on the door and he came out.
36:50He knew who he was, obviously.
36:52A lot of yelling and screaming at police, you know.
36:54So he came out and was arrested with that incident, and brought back to the Pittsburgh Police Department headquarters.
37:05So Malik is arrested.
37:07He asked for a phone call.
37:09He reaches out to mom, explains to mom what's going on.
37:12Mom explains, listen, I hear what's going on.
37:15I've been reading your newspapers.
37:17Please let them know what the truth is, and dispel all these lies.
37:22There's no straightforward case.
37:23They're all different.
37:24They all take different twists and turns.
37:26But we want to bring closure to that family and make sure this person gets convicted and sent to prison
37:31for what they did.
37:44Police have charged Devani Wilkerson for her role in the murder of her romantic rival, Cheryl Alderbridge.
37:51The third person at the center of the thruple, Malik Wilkerson, has also just been arrested.
37:59When we finally got Malik, he waived his Miranda warnings, agreed to speak with us.
38:03Malik told us basically what Devani said, that Cheryl left the house, and they thought that she was having sex
38:10with multiple guys.
38:11They found her. They brought her home.
38:13He admits that it was some sort of physical altercation.
38:17He admits to hitting her in the head.
38:21And he gives a little more detail that Devani did.
38:24He admitted that when she fell after he punched her, she hit her head on the rocking chair.
38:30And that she was bleeding.
38:32And he said the next morning she was worse off than he thought.
38:35And that's when he called Devani.
38:37And he admitted or stated that he tried to give CPR.
38:41And then waited for her to come home, and then they went to the hospital.
38:45He said that it was an accident.
38:48He was trying to lessen the load of what he did.
38:53I don't think they planned to kill her that night.
38:55But I think their rage caused them to do what they did to her.
39:00After we were done getting his statement, we waited for the extradition to take place, and then we had to
39:05go back and fly him back for him to answer the charges.
39:09A murder charge is very difficult to stick on both Malik and Devani because it wasn't premeditated.
39:16So Devani and Malik were both charged with kidnapping with the result of a death.
39:22It's like, this can't be real.
39:24This can't be real.
39:27Who is that malicious to do something to another human being?
39:35In June 2014, Devani agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping charges.
39:40Devani Wilkerson is this very petite woman.
39:43And when she walked into the courtroom during the plea agreement, you know, her responses were, yes, no.
39:49And it was a very soft voice.
39:50So it was shocking to hear what she admitted that she did to someone that she claimed that she loved.
40:00A year later, Malik also pled guilty to kidnapping and assault charges.
40:04A judge sentenced them both to 20 years in prison.
40:09I don't think justice will serve.
40:11I think they should be in there for life.
40:14A life for a life.
40:15That's what I feel like.
40:21What they did to her and the relationship they had with her and the beating that they provided her to
40:27cause her demise is worse than 90% of the crimes I've ever seen.
40:33I believe jealousy came into here with Malik, who got jealous that he thought Cheryl was out there doing something
40:39that she shouldn't have been doing because Cheryl was his property.
40:42And, ultimately, I believe that Devani was nervous and jealous that Malik was falling for her and Devani was going
40:47to be out.
40:50The two of them should be in jail the rest of their lives.
40:52And, unfortunately, at some point, they're going to get out and they're going to be a couple again.
40:58That's the scary thing.
41:01I get upset just thinking about it because you look at a girl that you saw grow up some and
41:10now a girl that's in prison for something that shouldn't happen.
41:17The sad part about it is I don't think he loved her as much as she loved him.
41:22That's just what it was.
41:23He really was in love with Cheryl.
41:26He wasn't in love with his wife.
41:29I wasn't surprised at him doing something like that.
41:33No.
41:34That could have been me and I'm glad it wasn't.
41:38I'm glad I got away.
41:43It's amazing.
41:46Their sentence is almost over.
41:50The time you get is not enough.
41:53Because, and I hate to say it, you're a menace.
41:56That's how I see it.
41:57You're a menace.
42:00And menace to me don't need to be in the world.
42:04Why should you be free?
42:07Why should you be free?
42:08I just never understood that.
42:10All this time you guys were together and a tattoo sent you spiraling out of control.
42:17Nobody should have to suffer like that.
42:20She was a beautiful soul and she was the happy one for the most part until everything started crashing down
42:27on them.
42:28I still love her till this day.
42:32And I miss her.
42:35A lot.
42:36So hopefully I would break out the floor and start running.
42:49You're a man.
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