WEBVTT
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starting at two ninety nine a month. You'll also get
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When a homicide investigation begins, the public expects police and
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prosecutors to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if
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the evidence points back at one of their own. But
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in the months after Daniel Mendoza was killed, many people
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in Las Vegas began to wonder whether the system had
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followed the evidence or whether it had simply chosen which
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officer was willing to prosecute.
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One Metro officer sat behind bars facing a murder charge,
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while the other officer admitted he drove the truck, left
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the scene, handled the gun, waited more than a day
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to come forward, and still walked out of police headquarters
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as a witness but not a suspect. Before a jury
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had ever heard a word of testimony, the city of
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Las Vegas was already asking the question that would hang
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over this case for years. Why was only one of
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them in handcuffs?
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Hi, and Welcome to Sins and Survivors, A Las Vegas
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True crime podcast where we focus on missing persons, on
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self cases, and the number one cause of homicide in
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the Las Vegas area domestic violence. I'm your host Sean.
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And I'm your co host John.
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This week we are bringing you part three of our
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series on the murder of Daniel Mendoza. We strongly recommend
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that if you haven't heard parts one and two yet,
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you go back and start there. To find those, visit
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sinspod dot com, Slash one twenty nine for Part one
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and sinspod dot co one thirty for Part two. In
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part one, we talked about Las Vegas in the mid
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nineteen nineties, a city booming so quickly that it's infrastructure,
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the neighborhoods, and the police department we're all struggling to
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keep up. We also introduce you to Daniel Mendoza, a
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twenty one year old man from mckeller Circle who was
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working two jobs, planning to marry his girlfriend, Carmen, and,
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according to his family, try to build a better future.
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We also talked about Ron Mortenson and Christopher Brady, two
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Las Vegas Metro officers assigned to the Southwest Area Command,
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and the troubling allegations that later surfaced about the way
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they had treated people in minority neighborhoods. We ended Part
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one on the night of December twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six,
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when Mortenson and Brady spent the evening drinking, drove into
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Daniel's neighborhood, and six shots were fired from Brady's blue
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Dodge pickup truck. Daniel Mendoza was hit in the chest
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and died outside.
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Of his home. In Part two, we followed the first
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thirty six to forty eight hours after the shooting. Officer
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Chris Brady said that Mortenson was the shooter. Mortensen said
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that Brady was the shooter. Each man told a version
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of events that made himself less responsible than his partner.
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When we left off, Mortenson had been arrested and charged
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with murder, while Christopher Brady had become the state's most
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important witness. However, Brady had also admitted to handling Mortenson's gun,
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cleaning it, and store it in his bathroom cabinet. Brady's
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truck that he drove during the drive by was processed
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by Metro but never impounded. It was returned to him
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within days and before Mortenson's defense could fully inspect it.
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The custom seat from inside the truck had been removed
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and sold, The truck had been repainted, the window tint
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had been stripped away, and even the clutch and carburetor
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had been adjusted. The clothing Brady had been wearing that
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night had also been washed before it was processed. This
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would raise questions was it intentional tampering, careless destruction of evidence,
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or something Brady and his supporters would have described more innocently.
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No matter what the answer was, key evidence connected to
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the fatal drive by shooting had changed, and the officer
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who had control over it was not the officer sitting
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in jail.
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The public reaction was immediate. At first glance, the fact
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seemed almost impossible to reconcile. The realization that two police
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officers had driven into a neighborhood just to terrorize minorities
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in the unhoused since shockwaves through the city. To civil
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rights leaders and the residents of mckeller Circle, this wasn't
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an isolated case of rogue policing or a tragic accident.
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It was a targeted hate crime. Community activists gathered outside
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city Hall carrying signs that asked Who's policing the police
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and warned that a police badge is not a permit
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to kill. NAACP and other community leaders pushed back against
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the idea that Daniel's alleged gang ties could somehow explain
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away the shooting or make his death less worthy of outrage.
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Chester Richardson, speaking for the local NAACP, called the shooting
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a hate crime and told reporters, you don't have two
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white males who come out of their way to come
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into this neighborhood to harass minority youth. This was spawned
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by hate. Richardson also rejected the attempt to reduce Daniel
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to a label. To hell with the fact he was
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a gang member. He said, he was a human being
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who did not deserve the fate that was dealt to him.
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There needs to be a public outcry. One of the
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reasons we wanted to share the story is because this
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case was never only about what happened inside Brady's truck.
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It was also about what Daniel's life was worth after
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he was gone, and whether the system would treat his
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death the same way it would have treated the death
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of someone the public found easier to mourn. All of
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that was churning with the national undercurrent of police brutality
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and accountability and the protests and riots that had spread
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from Los Angeles to Las Vegas just a few years earlier.
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Las Vegas was also struggling to cope with the ongoing
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community fear of gangs, except now that fear had grown
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as residents became afraid gangs would retaliate against officers or
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anyone as revenge for what happened to Daniel. But Daniel's friend, Alberto, said,
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the only thing we want is justice to be served,
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for him to be prosecuted, to be judged under the
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law just like police do us. Many were demanding equal
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protection under the law and for the officers to be
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held to the same standard as anyone else. Inside Metro,
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the pressure was building to a boiling point. The administration
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knew that if they mishandled this, the city could erupt.
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Sheriff Gerry Keller acknowledged the shock inside the police department.
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He said that to his knowledge, Metro had never before
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had one of its own officers charged with murder, and
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that the arrest shook the agency to its very heels.
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The initial public statements from Metro also reveal how quickly
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the narrative had begun to form. Officials said they had
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no evidence, at least at the time, showing that Brady
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had participated in the shooting itself or that he knew
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that Mortensen had intended to shoot. They described Brady as
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someone who failed to report the incident quickly enough, but
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not as someone who had committed the homicide. One official
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said that Brady believed the shots were fired into the air,
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and that Brady's car had some mechanical issue that made
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it harder for him to drive away. At the time,
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that was the version the public was being asked to accept.
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Brady was irresponsible, possibly negligent, may be guilty of poor judgment,
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but not a perpetrator. But that explanation did not satisfy everyone.
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Six shots had been fired into a crowd outside of
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a residential building. Daniel Mendoza had been hit in the heart,
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The truck had sped away. Brady had not stayed to
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check whether anyone had been hurt or killed. He waited
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more than a day to report what he knew, and
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when he finally did come forward, he did so with
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his father, a veteran Metro detective, beside him. Brady was
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not simply a young officer who walked into headquarters alone.
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He was the son of Michael Brady, a respected former
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homicide detective with decades inside of Metro. Early news coverage
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did not even release Christopher Brady's name right away, because
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officials said that he was being treated as a witness
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and identifying him could endanger his life. However, his identity
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did not stay secret for long. Sources confirmed that the
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driver of the pickup was the son of a former
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Metro homicide detective, and that connection became part of the
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public conversation almost immediately. One of the first public pressure
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points in the case was the question of whether Brady
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could be charged as an accessory. District Attorney Stuart Bell
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publicly acknowledged that his office was looking at the issue,
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but he emphasized that the legal standard was not simply
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whether people were angry, or whether Brady's behavior looked suspicious,
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or even whether or not he had done something morally wrong.
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Prosecutors would have to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
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On January twenty second, nineteen ninety seven, admid ongoing protests,
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Christopher Brady officially resigned from the force. Mortensen too had resigned,
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but he was sitting in a jail cell awaiting trial.
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His attorney, Frank Kremen, had tried to preserve the evidence
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he hoped would clear his client or damage Brady's credibility
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as a witness. However, as we mentioned earlier, Brady had
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altered the truck and laundered his clothes before the defense
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had a chance to have their experts examine the evidence.
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The layout of the cab of the truck mattered and
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demonstrating to a jury which officer was telling the truth.
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The question of whether Brady could have leaned across the
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console was critical to the case. The clothing mattered because
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it could have contained gunshot residues or other evidence that
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might have helped clarify who fired the gun. The defense
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was eager for any and all evidence that could back
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up Mortenson's version of events, but the ballistics report from
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bullets and casings collected at mckeller Circle were also not helpful.
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Metro forensic analysis tied Mortensen's sig sour to the six
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cartridge cases found at the scene, as well as a
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bullet in the laundry room door, a bullet fragment, and
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a bullet jacket. Mortenson's fingerprint was found on the slide
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of the gun, but Brady's fingerprints were not found anywhere
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on the sig hour. This seemed to directly refute Mortenson's
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versions of events that night. He had claimed Brady had
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grabbed and used his gun in the shooting. The bullets
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found that the scene matched his story. The sig sour
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was the only weapon used, but without Brady's fingerprints, it
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was not conclusive based on that evidence alone who had
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pulled the trigger. Prosecutors continued to maintain that they had
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the right man, and from their perspective, Brady's story was
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fully supported by the physical evidence and by witnesses.
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The defense would argue that Brady had been protected, that
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Metro had gone to great lengths to protect the son
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of a long time detective, and that evidence had been
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allowed to shift in a way that benefited Brady in
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the entire police force. Caught in the middle of all
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that was Daniel Mendoza's family. While lawyers argued about access
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to Brady's truck, while prosecutors debated charges, and while activists
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stood outside of city Hall asking who was policing the police,
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Daniel's father was still living with a simple devastating fact
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that his son was gone. We're going to pause here,
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but when we come back, we're going to share one
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of the most remarkable moments in the entire case that
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happened in late April nineteen ninety seven, just before the
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trial began. Ramone Mendoza turned forty nine years old on
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April twenty sixth, nineteen ninety seven, almost exactly five months
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after Daniel was killed. Ramon had spent months hearing his
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son described in public as a gang member, a victim,
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and the center of a massive controversy. He had watched
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his son's death become part of a large argument about policing, race,
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and accountability. Ramone had also filed a civil suit against
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the officers in Metro, trying to force answers through the courts.
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But during the weekend of his forty ninth birthday, he
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did something unexpected. He invited several Las Vegas Metro police
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officers into his home. The invitation came after Ramone's mother,
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Maria Ubin, overheard Ramone talking with an officer and learned
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that the officer was from Mexicali, the same city in
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northwest Mexico where the Mendoza family was from Maria told
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the officers to come over because it was possible they
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could all be related. Four officers came to the Mendoza
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home for Ramone's birthday. They stayed for about an hour,
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sharing tacos, burritos, and other traditional Mexican food with the family,
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and according to the officers who attended, no one talked
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about the shooting specifically. The conversation was centered on Daniel.
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Ramone showed them photos of Daniel in his Little League
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uniform and talked about his jobs at Carl's Junior and
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the coffee shop near UNLV. He shared that Daniel was
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planning to get married and showed how he was a
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young man that had his whole future taken away from him.
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Lieutenant Gary Schofield, who worked in Daniel's neighborhood and attended
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the gathering with the other officers, later said he was
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stunned by the invitation. He said the Mendoza family would
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have every reason to categorize all officers as bad, but
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they did not. He said joining Ramon for his birthday
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was a great honor. After hearing Ramone talk about Daniel,
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Schofield said he learned a side of Daniel he had
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never heard before. He said it was quite moving. He
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explained that he knew that Daniel had been affiliated with
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a local gang, but he also said that being hooked
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up with a gang does not mean someone as a
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bad person. It's a small statement, but in the context
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of this case, it mattered, because one of the ugliest
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themes running through the public response to Daniel's death was
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the idea that his alleged gang ties somehow reduced the tragedy,
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as if a young man's mistakes or associations could make
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his killing less worthy of grief. Ramon did not ask
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people to pretend Daniel had been perfect. He did not
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ask people to ignore the reality of their neighborhood. What
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he wanted was the people involved in his son's death
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to be held responsible. Through his attorney, he said he
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had always believed that the people involved should be called
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to take responsibility for their crime, but he did not
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hold resentment toward the entire police department. Ramon was still
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trying to make people see the person behind the case.
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Daniel a son who had hopes and dreams, and now
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those dreams were gone. Two days after his birthday, on
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April twenty eight, nineteen ninety seven, the trial began.
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Before we get into the opening statements, there's something we
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want to share that comes up a few times in
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the record, but given the facts of the case, we're
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00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:40.919
not sure how relevant it is to the trial. According
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00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:43.879
to newspaper reports, Ron Mortensen was six foot two and
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00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:47.360
weighed two hundred and twenty pounds. In contrast, Brady was
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00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:50.120
five foot nine and weighed one hundred and sixty five pounds.
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Since the two men were in a truck at the
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time of the shooting, it's not clear how much their
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00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:57.519
bills were noticed by witnesses or taken into consideration by
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00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:01.120
the jury. However, it's important to know that Ron Mortensen
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00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:04.000
wore glasses. He wore them the night of the murder,
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00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:07.759
and he was wearing them during the trial proceedings. During
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opening statements, the prosecution did not attempt to sugarcoat anything
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that happened that night. Chief Deputy District Attorney William Coot
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00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.159
told jurors that Brady and Mortenson had been drinking together
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00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.440
in celebration of Mortenson's thirty first birthday, and then took
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00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.200
a break from bar hopping to drive around poor neighborhoods
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00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:26.559
and harass the kind of people they often ran into
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on the job. According to Coot, before they even got
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into the vehicle, the two men had been talking about
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00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:35.000
what he described as their hatred of dopers, bangers, and
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00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:39.519
screwball people. They argued that when the truck pulled up
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00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:42.639
to mckeller's circle, Brady was the driver and Mortensen was
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00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.399
the passenger who fired the gun. For the state, the
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case came down to the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony.
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00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:52.399
The passenger window of the truck was facing Daniel's apartment building.
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Witnesses saw a gun come out of the passenger window,
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00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.519
and the shooter was a white man in the passenger
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00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:01.559
seat who was wearing glasses. All of the bullets came
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00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:05.559
from Mortenson's gun. Mortenson's defense attorney knew the case was
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00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:08.399
going to come down to which officer the jury believed.
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00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:12.200
Defense attorney Frank Creeman told jurors that it was not
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00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:15.480
Ron Mortenson who committed that act that night, but Christopher Brady.
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00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:18.440
From the start, the defense wanted to make it clear
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00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:22.000
that the individuals conducting the investigation had relationships with the
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00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.440
Brady family and accused the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
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00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:30.679
of going to great lengths to protect Christopher Brady. As
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00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:33.159
we described last week, when Brady came forward with his
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00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:35.519
story to his father, Mike Brady, who was a long
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00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:39.759
standing and well respected detective within Metro, the lead detective
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00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:44.799
on the homicide investigation was Detective Brent Becker. Becker knew
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00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:48.320
Mike Brady because they conducted surveillance together back in nineteen ninety.
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00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.519
The defense team had a laundry list of facts that
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00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:55.480
pointed to Brady as being the guilty party. Brady admitted
295
00:15:55.519 --> 00:15:58.360
he drove the truck, he handled the gun after the shooting,
296
00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:02.000
he washed his clothes and fundamentally altered the truck before
297
00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:06.360
the defense team could examine them. Brady, despite being an officer,
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00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:08.879
fled the scene after the shooting and never stopped to
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00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.279
see if someone had been hurt. He didn't report the
300
00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:14.600
shooting immediately. He waited more than thirty six hours before
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00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:17.960
coming forward. The defense knew that Brady was going to
302
00:16:17.960 --> 00:16:20.120
be the star witness, and they wanted to start out
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00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:22.720
the case by planting the seed that Brady was the
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00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.279
shooter and his testimony shouldn't be taken at face value.
305
00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:30.840
The prosecution called several eyewitnesses that had been with Daniel
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00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:34.240
that night at mckeller Circle. Andrew Luhan was sitting in
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00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:37.080
the passenger seat of a car with Luis Ramon Martinez
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00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.919
when the shooting happened. She estimated she was about twenty
309
00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:42.799
feet from the truck. She testified she could see there
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00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:45.440
was a driver and a passenger in Brady's truck, but
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00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:47.320
no one was sitting between them, and no one was
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00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.559
in the bed. She saw the passenger side window, and
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00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:53.519
she saw her friend Eduardo Rodriguez walking toward the truck,
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00:16:53.879 --> 00:16:55.399
and then she saw a gun come out on the
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00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.200
passenger side. Luhan's testimony was helpful to the state because
316
00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.159
she specifically said she did not see anyone's arm reach
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00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:05.359
across from the driver's side. She said the gun appeared
318
00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:09.880
right there at the passenger window. She testified, here's the window,
319
00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.240
and I saw it come out right there. I didn't
320
00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.559
see anybody's arm reach over. According to Andrea, the driver
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00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:18.119
was sitting behind the wheel, looking calm and normal. Her
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00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:20.920
testimony was not perfect, and the defense could point out
323
00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:24.200
its limitations, but it supported the prosecution's basic theory that
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00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:27.200
the gun came from the passenger side, not from Brady
325
00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:32.039
leaning across the cab. Luis Ramon Martinez also testified in
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00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:34.960
late December, he had viewed a photo lineup array and
327
00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:38.920
identified Mortenson's photo as the passenger in the truck. However,
328
00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.920
the next day he viewed a physical lineup where he
329
00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:46.359
failed to select Mortenson. During his testimony, he said he
330
00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.759
was somewhere around fifty to sixty feet from the truck,
331
00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:51.119
and he acknowledged that the lighting was much better on
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00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:53.279
the passenger side than it was on the driver's side.
333
00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:56.720
That detail became important because it explained why several witnesses
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00:17:56.759 --> 00:17:59.200
could describe the passenger much more clearly than the driver.
335
00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.160
Martinez said he saw the passenger and saw the passenger
336
00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:06.000
side window roll down. He said only a few seconds
337
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.880
pass between the truck parking and the window rolling down,
338
00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.720
and just five or six more seconds before he saw
339
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.559
a gun. He said the passenger stuck his head out
340
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.720
the window and pointed the gun while holding it with
341
00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:20.039
two hands. He clearly stated he only saw one gun
342
00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:22.319
and he did not see the driver lean across the
343
00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:24.759
passenger in the truck. He said it was the passenger
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00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:27.720
that fired because he was the one with the guns
345
00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:31.480
stuck out. Ruben Ramirez gave another version of the same
346
00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:34.839
basic picture. According to court records, Reuben was unable to
347
00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:38.519
identify Mortenson in a photographic lineup array on December thirtieth,
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00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:42.079
nineteen ninety six. However, he identified Mortenson in a physical
349
00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:44.880
line up the next day. He testified that he saw
350
00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:46.799
two people in the truck, but couldnot see the driver
351
00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:49.640
clearly because the passenger blocked his view and the lighting
352
00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:52.960
was better on that side. Ramirez said the passenger signal
353
00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.680
for people to come closer and then fired from the window.
354
00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:00.279
At trial, he identified Mortensen as the shooter. The Barto
355
00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:02.960
Rodriguez did not select a suspect from the photo lineup
356
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.759
arrays he was shown during the investigation, and he did
357
00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:09.119
not attend a physical lineup. At trial, he testified that
358
00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:12.920
the passenger waved people over, leaned on the door, pulled
359
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:16.200
out a gun without turning his body. Rodriguez was positive
360
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.720
the passenger pulled out the gun with his left hand,
361
00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:22.039
which the defense seized on as Mortonson is right handed.
362
00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:26.119
Rodriguez said he began to run away and then heard
363
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:28.759
someone say, hey, where are you guys going, followed by
364
00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:32.799
the shots. He made an in court identification of Mortensen
365
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:36.319
as a shooter. Again, there were weaknesses the defense could
366
00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:38.880
point to to raise doubts about what the witness had seen.
367
00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:41.799
Everything had happened quickly, it was late at night, it
368
00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:45.599
was dark, the lighting wasn't great, people were scared. Their
369
00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:49.759
identifications during photo arrays and lineups were inconsistent, and so on.
370
00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:53.640
But for the prosecution, even with those limitations or imperfections,
371
00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:57.039
it all led to the same conclusion. No one said
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00:19:57.079 --> 00:19:59.759
they saw Brady fire and again and again. The gun
373
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:04.359
was described as being outside of the passenger window. We're
374
00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:06.200
going to pause here for a second break, but we'll
375
00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:08.720
be right back with more of the eyewitness testimony from
376
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:09.960
the night of Daniel's murder.
377
00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:14.480
Finally, we want to share the testimony of Rose Orita.
378
00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:18.279
She was Daniel's friend and the nursing assistant who administered
379
00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.759
CPR after he was shot. At trial, she told the
380
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:24.240
jurors that she looked out of her apartment window when
381
00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:26.599
Brady's truck pulled up around one o'clock in the morning.
382
00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:29.640
At first, she thought the men in the truck were
383
00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:32.599
undercover officers. She turned to her friend and said, the
384
00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.799
narks are here. From the point of view of the
385
00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:37.880
friends that night, the men who pulled up in the
386
00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.720
truck were not random people who are looking to start trouble.
387
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:43.480
The group believed they were police officers, which is why
388
00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:46.079
they showed their hands to signal they were not armed
389
00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:49.160
and they didn't have any drugs. They were not a threat.
390
00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:52.279
As a side note here in the press, one of
391
00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:56.319
Daniel's friends made this point without hesitation and without pretending
392
00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:59.400
the neighborhood was something that it's not. He said he
393
00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.960
knew for sure the group of friends were not armed
394
00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.920
because if they had had guns, they would have fired back.
395
00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.640
Rosa testified that when she looked back out the window,
396
00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:10.799
the gun was already being pointed out of the truck.
397
00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:13.160
She saw the man duck his head out of the
398
00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:15.759
window and hold the gun with two hands near his forehead,
399
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.559
with his elbows resting on the window frame. Zorita said
400
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:23.480
the passenger was turned toward the side and that he smiled, laughed,
401
00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:26.440
and shot the gun. She said he wore little round
402
00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:29.880
glasses like the glasses she saw on Ron Mortensen in court.
403
00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:34.519
During her testimony, she identified Mortenson as the shooter, pointing
404
00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.319
at him at the defense table. The defense would point
405
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:41.519
out that there were other issues with her eyewitness identifications.
406
00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:46.240
Soerita did not identify anyone in the photographic lineups, and
407
00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:48.720
during the physical lineup, she narrowed her selection down to
408
00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:54.799
Mortenson and another person, but chose the other person. Mortenson's
409
00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:57.359
height and builds seemed to support her testimony, as he
410
00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:00.599
was significantly taller than Brady and had to duck out
411
00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:03.799
of the window. She also said she saw him holding
412
00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:07.000
the gun with two hands, defeeding any attempts to claim
413
00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:09.440
that the gun was actually being held by Brady out
414
00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:12.680
of the window and who was to the left of Mortenson.
415
00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:17.200
The state's firearms expert, Tory Johnson, added another layer of
416
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:21.279
evidence against Mortenson. Johnson identified the SIGs Hour as the
417
00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:23.839
gun that fired the rounds, while Detective Becker had previously
418
00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:26.960
confirmed that gun was registered to Ron Mortenson. As we
419
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.880
mentioned earlier, Mortenson's fingerprint was found on the slide of
420
00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:32.640
the gun, but Brady's prints were not on it. An
421
00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:36.079
expert testified that Mortenson's fingerprints would not necessarily have been
422
00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:39.480
disturbed by Brady later clearing the weapon, handling the grip,
423
00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:43.279
and pulling back the slide. Johnson testified that based on
424
00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:46.440
the ejection characteristics of the gun and the location of
425
00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:49.440
the shell casings, the SIG's hour must have been fired
426
00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:53.359
from outside the truck cab. He had examined bullet strikes
427
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.799
at the scene, including strikes on sheet metal, the electric box,
428
00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.160
and the laundry room doorway. Based on those trajectories, he
429
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.079
concluded the gun moved at least six feet during the shooting.
430
00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:07.160
That was important because it supported the state's argument that
431
00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:09.759
the truck was moving while the shots were fired. The
432
00:23:09.799 --> 00:23:12.400
truck was moving, the prosecution could argue that it made
433
00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:15.279
little sense to believe that Brady had leaned across a
434
00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:18.880
larger passenger, fired out the passenger window, and then returned
435
00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:23.039
to the driver's position while also accelerating away. The defense
436
00:23:23.079 --> 00:23:26.559
objected to part of Johnson's testimony, arguing that they had
437
00:23:26.599 --> 00:23:29.279
not been given proper notice that he would testify the
438
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:33.119
truck move during the shooting. The defense asked for a mistrial,
439
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:34.480
but the judge denied the motion.
440
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:37.839
We should go back to the truck and summarize why
441
00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:41.119
its design and layout was critical to both the prosecution
442
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:45.599
and the defense. As we described last week, Mortenson's description
443
00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:48.039
of the incident was that Brady had leaned all the
444
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:50.160
way over in the cab and shot out of the
445
00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:54.880
window using Mortenson's sig sour pistol. The state would argue
446
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.240
that that wasn't possible because the bench seat in the
447
00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:00.400
truck had a raised center console and Brady he could
448
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:02.240
not have come all the way across the front seat
449
00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:06.160
to reach out the window. However, Brady admitted to investigators
450
00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:08.039
that yes, he could reach the window if the center
451
00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:10.680
console seat was up, but according to him, it was
452
00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:14.000
down at the time of the shooting. From the perspective
453
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.799
of the defense, without the truck in its unaltered state,
454
00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:20.200
it couldn't confirm which explanation of the shooting was more credible.
455
00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:24.799
At trial on Thursday, May first, nineteen ninety seven, the
456
00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:28.200
court directed the prosecution to make every effort over the
457
00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:30.799
weekend to get that truck back in the same condition
458
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:33.359
it was. On the morning of December twenty eighth, nineteen
459
00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:37.960
ninety six, the court ruled that the defense's investigator could
460
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.920
be present at the restoration and ordered that the state
461
00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:44.759
had to notify the defense when the restoration was complete.
462
00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:48.839
The following Monday, May fifth, Metro crime scene analyst Daniel Ford,
463
00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:52.640
who had originally processed the truck, testified at trial that
464
00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:55.759
the custom seat had been reinstalled on the truck, and
465
00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:59.720
then the jury was allowed to access that truck. According
466
00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:01.599
to court records, the shape of the bench seat was
467
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:04.160
likely not as important as the defense believed it was.
468
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:08.079
All of the shell casings landed outside the truck, which
469
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.640
logically make it seem like the gun itself would have
470
00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:14.039
had to be all the way outside the window. However,
471
00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:19.039
the firearms expert testified that Sigsaur cartridges would be ejected
472
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:22.519
to the right and slightly forward, and the state conceded
473
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:25.160
that it could be possible for the shell casings to
474
00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.839
land outside the truck if the shooter had been Brady.
475
00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.799
The quote from the trial testimony was, I'm not here
476
00:25:31.880 --> 00:25:33.279
to tell you that you cannot do it the way
477
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:36.240
Ron Mortensen says Christopher Brady did it. I mean it
478
00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:39.720
can be physically done. I suppose to straddle yourself across
479
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.240
the seat, and to do it without the shell casings
480
00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:44.160
landing in the bed of the truck or in the cab.
481
00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:48.000
It can physically probably be done. By that point in
482
00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:50.960
the trial, the state had built its foundation. Five witnesses
483
00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:54.319
had identified Mortensen as the passenger and the shooter. The
484
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gun was registered to Mortenson. All the bullets found at
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00:25:57.440 --> 00:25:59.960
the crime scene came from that gun. All of the show,
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00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:02.880
all casings were found outside on the street, and the
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00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:05.559
car was likely moving as the shots were fired.
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00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.400
However, the case was never that simple, and it was
489
00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:11.519
never going to be that easy To secure a conviction.
490
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:14.599
The prosecution still had to rely on its star witness,
491
00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.839
Christopher Brady, who many already believe should have been sitting
492
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:21.599
next to Mortenson at the defense table. Next week, Brady
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00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:23.759
takes the stand and the trial will become what the
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00:26:23.799 --> 00:26:26.920
case has been from the beginning. Two police officers, one
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00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:30.319
dead young man, and two stories that both cannot be true.
496
00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:33.680
But Mortensen wasn't going down without a fight. He took
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00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:35.960
the stand in his own defense and claimed Brady grabbed
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00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:39.079
the gun, leaned across his chest and shot Daniel, later
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00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:40.359
saying I am evil.
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00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:43.799
Be sure you're following the show on whatever platform you're
501
00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:45.599
listening on, because you don't want to miss part four
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00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:49.640
of our series on the murder of Daniel Mendoza. Las
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00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:52.680
Vegas began bracing for a verdict that police feared could
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00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:54.680
spill out of the court room and into the streets.
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00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:58.640
Because this was never only about one shooting on McKellar circle.
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00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:02.680
It's a good remind that what happens here happens everywhere.
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00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:27.079
Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod dot com, slash subscribe for
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