Law & Order (1990) s24e20 Episode Script
Sins of the Father
1
In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate,
yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys,
who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
[TRAIN WHIRRING]
Hey!
Hey, Leo.
Mr. Tatum.
We just got you back on the road.
What's going on?
What's going on is,
you sold me a bum camshaft.
By the time I got back to Throggs Neck,
my car's spewing white smoke.
I want a new part,
and I want my money back!
Look, we'll make it right, but
free work, you know,
it's not a great business plan.
I got folks that need to get paid.
Maybe I should call immigration.
They can explain
that predicament to them.
Excuse me?
You say "white smoke"?
Yeah, smoke that is white.
What you saw was not smoke.
It was steam.
It means you have water
in your combustion chamber.
Nothing to do with your camshaft.
Did you buy gas when you left here?
- So what if I did?
- At a discount gas station?
They sold you bad gas.
Your problem is with them, not Mr. Leo.
Who is this guy?
I don't understand
what he's talking about!
T-this is Sunny.
He's telling you to get
the hell out of here.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
He's just nicer about it than I am.
[SIRENS WAILING]
There's a burn pattern around the wound.
No stippling, though.
So he was killed execution-style,
like he knew his killer.
- Any weapons?
- No.
No cameras back here either.
- How about a name?
- Sun Zhen.
His ID's on him.
Wallet's still there,
a little cash inside.
So we're probably not looking
at a robbery.
Maybe, except there's
no cell phone in evidence.
That's the victim's boss.
He confirmed he had a phone
on him, but it ain't here.
Maybe there's something
on the phone worth hiding.
Yeah.
Boss called 911?
Mr. Brooks.
How you doing, sir?
Detective Riley. This is Detective Shaw.
Can you tell us what happened?
I-I was finishing up around back
with a late customer,
and I heard a shot.
And I knew Sunny was working
in here, so I hurried over,
and I saw some guy running away.
- Can you describe him?
- He was about my height.
Black hoodie [STAMMERS]
Funky green design on the back.
I wish I could tell you more,
but it was dark,
and he was running fast,
and he got a-a pretty good
head start on me.
Okay.
Well, what can you tell us
about the victim?
You know, I-I hired Sunny
a-a few months back.
Uh, he's a great kid.
He worked his tail off.
He'd take any hours I'd give him.
He didn't share a lot,
but I think he had
some serious money problems
something about a-a sick sister
in and out of the hospital.
All right, thanks.
Well, not the easiest life.
Not the easiest death either.
♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
What have we got?
Still no sign of the victim's phone.
I'm trying to crack his cloud,
but no luck on that either.
Forensics are back
on the slug we pulled from the vic.
Had some unique striations
and deformities.
Sure looks like our murder weapon
was a Sig Sauer of some sort.
Anything else?
We figured out that Sunny's father
went back to China in a hurry.
He was a member
of an immigrant money club.
They pool their funds.
They gave each other no-interest loans.
It actually works pretty well for a time
until someone runs off
with the whole pot,
like Sunny's father did
stole 40 grand.
Which is unheard of in this community.
These clubs are based on honor, trust.
So you think somebody maybe
came after Sunny to collect a debt?
Mahjong's supposed
to be a brain booster.
Helps keep the mind sharp,
prevents memory loss.
Oh, is that a factoid or a suggestion?
[CHUCKLES] If you want
to pull up a chair,
- I can handle this.
- Oh, easy, partner.
I'm not that much older than you.
Here she is.
Ms. Tan?
Ms. Tan, we need to ask you
some questions.
Too busy. Come back later.
Do we get any priority if we mention
that you are running an illegal
casino in the middle of Queens?
Ooh, I see.
You are here to meet your monthly quota
to harass Chinese people.
No, this is a murder investigation.
So we can talk here or the precinct.
"Murder"?
Sunny Zhen. He's dead.
[GASPS]
♪
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Nobody here would hurt Sunny.
We loved him like our own son.
His father ran off with a lot
of money your money.
Our club's money, yes.
And there was no one more hurt
by that than Sunny.
Shame it crushed him.
He gave us every spare dime he had
to pay his father's debt
until Sunny lost his job.
Thought he worked at the auto garage.
Sunny was a chemist.
He was a graduate student
at Hudson University.
Then he lost his job
and his student housing, too.
He was in a very bad way.
He worked at the garage
just to scratch by.
So why did he lose his job?
The university accused him of
stealing secrets for the Chinese.
Was Sunny a spy?
♪
Answer's no.
I cannot tell you what
Sunny Zhen was working on.
Our work is related
to national security.
Pentagon pays the bills.
That comes with rules.
- So maybe you want to ask them.
- We're asking you, Dr. Chen.
You hired him as a grad student.
You recruited him to your program.
You trained him in polymer chemistry.
He gets accused of being
a spy for the Chinese,
and then someone executes him.
Now, we're trying to find out why,
and you're hiding behind
a grant from the Pentagon.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't think that I
You tell us, Doc.
That's the whole point.
Just because
somebody calls the university to report
that Sunny was a spy
does not make it true.
So you think the tip was bogus?
Yes. Of course I do.
If this country ever suffers
a chemical attack
and you survive,
Sunny Zhen would be
on the list of people
you would want to write
a thank-you note to.
That's the work that we do here.
Sunny was a brilliant chemist.
All he wanted to do was save lives
American lives.
So why not fight for him?
You've got tenure.
You're not going anywhere.
Because it's 2025.
The university is not going
to risk federal funding
to stand up for an immigrant
who is even accused
of giving proprietary
information to the Chinese.
The accusation is all it takes.
A real profile in courage, huh?
It's a profile in reality.
So why would somebody call in a tip
falsely accusing
Sunny Zhen of being a spy?
Turns out Sunny Zhen
was not a spy after all.
The university nor the Feds
could corroborate
any of the claims
that were made against him.
There's no evidence Sunny was
in touch with anybody in China,
including his own father.
Okay, so if Sunny wasn't a spy,
why was someone claiming he was?
- It's just a weird thing to do.
- Revenge.
There was this other grad student
this guy Eli Randall
was pumping out papers
with incredible numbers,
like, groundbreaking stuff.
If they were true.
But Sunny Zhen is the one who
figured out that they weren't.
So he brought his concerns up
to Dr. Chen,
because when you're dealing
in chemical warfare
- You can't fudge the data.
- Right.
So Dr. Chen fires Eli Randall,
and then the next day,
"somebody" calls the university
and claims that Sunny Zhen is a spy.
Well, maybe the phony chemist
got Sunny fired.
It wasn't enough, and he killed him.
I buy it.
Pick him up.
It's not what you think!
We don't go off of what we think.
We go off of what we know.
We're the cops.
So, for instance, we know
that you moved back in with your parents
after Dr. Chen kicked you
out of the lab.
We also know that your father
has three registered firearms,
one of which is a Sig Sauer
same make as the murder weapon.
No, no, no, m-my dad keeps
his guns in his safe.
His fingerprint is
the only thing that opens it.
We also checked your smartwatch.
Got the GPS off of that,
so we found out that you were outside
of Sunny Zhen's apartment
two days before the murder.
I did not do this, okay? I swear.
Okay, look,
I did go over there,
but it was to patch things up.
Guy gets accused of murder,
all of a sudden, he's Gandhi now, huh?
It's the truth, okay?
Look, Sunny and I both lost our jobs.
The reality is,
I had a financial cushion.
Sunny didn't.
I will be fine. Sunny was not.
And I heard that he was
struggling to make ends meet.
I knew that his sister was
sick, and I felt responsible.
Because you were responsible.
I-I couldn't keep up.
The rest of the grad students
were really smart, okay?
And the pressure to succeed
was crazy, and
- I fudged some data.
- You did way more than that.
You ruined Sunny Zhen's life
because he was smarter than you,
and you couldn't take that, could you?
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
And I hate myself for it.
But that's why I went over
there to patch things up.
So a couple nights ago,
I went over to his apartment
to bring him some money.
Really? How much you give him?
Nothing. I didn't get that far.
And why is that?
Sunny wasn't alone.
Not alone, like with a woman?
He's having a party?
What does that mean?
When I got there, he was out front
with this dude leaning against a car.
And so I went over to them,
and the guy he was with waves me off,
tells me to take a walk.
And I'm like, who the hell are you?
And
the guy flashes a gun at me.
For real, okay?
And he tells me to get the hell
out of there, so I did.
What'd this guy look like?
It was really dark, and, um
I-I-I was really scared.
I mean, I'm pretty sure he was Hispanic.
What about the dude's car?
You know the make and model?
Randall said the guy who threatened him
was driving a red BMW
with tinted windows.
Now, this same car outside
of Sunny Zhen's building
two days before the murder.
Did you get a look at the driver?
We did not, but we ran the plates.
Came back to Ernesto Ruiz.
Who's that?
Nobody, not even a parking ticket,
but check out who his daddy is.
Antonio Ruiz.
Drug dealer.
The one and only.
We went after him a bunch of times
in my days in Narcotics
just couldn't pin him down.
Okay, can you tell me
what all this has to do with Sunny Zhen?
Ruiz likes to cook his own fentanyl.
Okay, so we have a murder
victim who was a chemist,
who was fired, needed money,
and happened to be
in possession
of a very special skill set.
That would have been
very valuable to a drug dealer.
Okay.
Go find Ernesto Ruiz.
Ernesto Ruiz came to us last year
through Teach for America.
He's a godsend to staff and students.
You do know who his father is?
Sure. People talk.
But sometimes the apple
does fall far from the tree.
My understanding is Ernesto has money
and doesn't even need to be here.
His heart is called to serve.
Can I just ask what this is about?
No.
Okay.
Nice.
Mr. Ruiz, I'm so sorry to interrupt.
These gentlemen need to speak with you.
[SCHOOL BELL RINGING]
- ALL: Bye, Mr. Ruiz.
- All right, see you later.
- Bye.
- Bye.
Make sure you study for tomorrow's quiz.
- Oh!
- Yeah.
- [SIGHS] Can I help you?
- Yeah.
We are investigating a murder.
A murder? Who who died?
A man named Sunny Zhen.
And this
is your car parked
outside of his building
two days before the murder.
That's my car, but I've never
heard of that name before,
and I wasn't there.
Uh, sometimes I loan my car to friends.
- [CHUCKLES]
- That's convenient, isn't it?
Sure is.
Kind of gives you an excuse
for anything, doesn't it?
All right, I'll bite.
Who'd you loan your car to?
- [SIGHS]
- Come on, man.
We have an eyewitness
that puts you there,
says that you threatened him with a gun.
What? That's ridiculous.
How about this? Is this ridiculous, too?
That's two blocks from the murder scene.
15 minutes later,
Sunny Zhen was dead, so
what, you loan your car out
that night, too?
I have nothing to do with this,
and I'm not saying another word.
Better call a sub.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Hey, look, we need a warrant
for Ernesto Ruiz's vehicle.
It's a BMW that was seen
in the area of the murder.
We got to scrub it for evidence
before he wipes it down
or dumps it off a bridge or something.
So you're saying you think
he's good for this?
All we know is that we
don't have enough to hold him.
On one hand,
he's a middle school teacher
doing the Lord's work and all that,
and he's got no criminal history,
no history of violence,
but his dad is a major dope pusher.
And the guy he was talking
to, Sunny Zhen a chemist.
So you think he is
in the family business?
I mean, it works for me.
We also have an eyewitness, Eli Randall,
who picked him out of a six-pack.
So let's start with a search warrant,
and we'll impound Ruiz's vehicle.
Thank you.
[DOOR CLICKS]
Lou, we got something for you.
Crime lab found traces of
Sunny's blood in the red BMW.
Okay, good.
They also found DNA evidence
of somebody else in the car.
Omar Nuñez pride of the South Bronx,
also Ernesto Ruiz's first cousin
and a documented foot soldier
of Ernesto's father, Antonio.
He's got a long sheet, this guy
violent, most recently did two years
for distribution of a
controlled substance fentanyl.
And when Sunny Zhen was killed,
his boss said that
the suspect fled the scene
in a black sweatshirt with
a green emblem in the back.
Okay, confirm with the boss
that the pattern is the same.
H-hold on, Lou. Check this out.
One more thing.
So that
That's a Sig Sauer,
same manufacturer as our murder weapon.
Well, arrest him.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Omar Nuñez, a quick word.
NYPD! Stop!
- NYPD!
- Stay where you are!
NYPD! Stop!
[GRUNTS, GROANS]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
- Where you going, Omar?
- You got somewhere better to be?
- Hands.
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
♪
You know we got an eyewitness
that puts you at the murder scene
in this sweatshirt?
Yo, I lost that sweatshirt
a long time ago.
Must've been somebody else
your "witness" saw.
Well, our forensics team
said the murder weapon
was a Sig Sauer
a lot like that one there.
Now, we didn't find that
in your apartment,
which I'm guessing you already knew
because you ditched it
someplace, didn't you?
We found your burner phone, Omar.
It was sitting right there
on the countertop
next to a pack of cigarettes
and a box of condoms.
Yeah, so you ain't got
to say nothing to us, bro.
This phone
is going to do all the singing.
[PHONE THUDS ON TABLE]
You recruited Sunny to cook fentanyl.
He changed his mind. He wanted out.
He even sent you a text.
We got that right here. Look.
"I saw what I saw.
I can't do this anymore."
Three hours later,
you put a bullet in his head.
So, tell us, what did he see?
What did Sunny Zhen see
that he wasn't supposed to see?
Don't know nothing about this, man.
Come on, man, this ain't
looking good for you, bro.
We have all the receipts.
We know who your boss is, too, Omar.
You want to give us Antonio Ruiz,
things might look
a little bit better for you.
Why don't you tell us
what Antonio's been up to
or maybe his son Ernesto?
Yeah, how about that?
Is Ernesto involved in this?
Nah!
Ernesto got nothing
to do with this, man.
Y'all leave his ass out of it.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR, DOOR CLICKS]
Yeah, we're done here.
No more questions for my client.
♪
We have a decent case against Omar,
but so far,
he is unwilling to cooperate.
Then we need to try harder.
Omar's a grunt, a soldier.
Antonio Ruiz is the real deal.
5,000 New Yorkers died last
year from a fentanyl overdose.
We have an opportunity
to make a real statement here,
to punish one of the perpetrators
and get some of that garbage
off the street.
Obviously, we would like that, too.
But Omar isn't willing to flip.
We talked to his attorney
this afternoon.
What about Antonio's son Ernesto?
- We have a case against him?
- [SIGHS] Mm, not really.
What does that mean?
It means we can put Ernesto's car
in the neighborhood
where the murder took place
around the time of the murder,
but we can't necessarily
put Ernesto there.
And we also know
from Omar's burner phone
that he lied to Ernesto
about why he needed a ride
on the night of the murder,
so even if he was there
You really believe this kid is innocent?
We can't prove otherwise.
We're trying to nail
the father, I get it,
but there's a world
in which Ernesto is guilty
of nothing more than being
a drug dealer's son.
There is a bigger prize
to be won here, guys.
Take another run at Omar.
- Sam.
- Yeah?
What's going on?
You seem determined to stick up
for this Ernesto Ruiz.
Yeah, he's a schoolteacher.
He's got no record,
but his car was at the scene.
We do have reason to think
he might have been involved.
Yeah, I know.
I just I don't think it's
[SIGHS]
In my family, I was "the project."
The whole family organized
around one thing me
getting me a good education,
pushing me to the top
so that eventually I can pull
everybody up with me.
Yeah, okay, that's the beauty
of the American immigrant experience.
I'm not looking for a medal.
I'm just trying to tell you that
Do you know what paid for all of this?
Uh, uh, yeah.
I thought your father ran
a Lebanese restaurant.
Do you have any idea
how much baba ghanoush it takes
- to pay for law school?
- No. I'm guessing a lot.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
Well, the restaurant
never made any money.
But the sportsbook my father
ran out the back door
well, that did pretty well.
Now here I am public servant,
making good on that promise
to my family.
That was my father.
So, yes, immigrant stories
are beautiful
but they can be complicated, too.
I spoke with Omar's lawyer again.
They're still not
interested in cooperating.
So we move forward.
Good news is, our case is strong.
Who knows? Maybe he'll get cold feet
when he sees all the evidence
we have against him
and the prospect of spending
the rest of his life in prison
begins to set in.
Nolan, Sam, we need to talk.
- About what?
- Omar Nuñez.
He's dead.
♪
7:24 a.m., just another day.
[GRUNTS] [OVERLAPPING SHOUTING]
Guy shaved his toothbrush into a knife.
Kid died before he got
to the operating table.
Wow.
Now we just need to figure out
if it's connected
to Sunny Zhen's murder or
If prison is just a violent place.
Correct.
Here's what I can tell you on that.
The guy who killed Omar is doing life
no history of mental illness,
never committed an act of
violence before on the inside.
Did he say anything after the attack?
One thing, one thing only.
He claimed he'd been beefing with Omar
from a fight on the basketball court.
- That was a lie.
- How do you know?
We maintain a record of every step
these guys take in this place.
These two men had never been
on the yard together
at the same time, not once.
As far as we can tell,
the first time they ever met,
this guy put a knife in Omar's eye.
It's pretty clear that was a hit.
Antonio Ruiz is obviously concerned
about what was going to
come out in court.
All right. Thank you.
Had the warden at Rikers
pull the visitor log.
Get this the inmate who killed Omar
hadn't had a visitor
in four months until yesterday
when his daughter shows up
for the first time in a year.
That would be, uh, quite a coincidence.
You went to go visit your father
the day before the murder.
- So?
- [SCOFFS]
So it is of note that
after not seeing your father
for a year, you go to visit him,
and then he kills somebody the next day.
What, it's a crime
to visit my father in prison?
Ms. South, you know how much
money you had in your account
Monday morning?
- A couple hundred bucks.
- $87.
You know how much you had
at the end of the day?
$5,087, which means that you
went down to the bank
and you deposited five racks in cash.
So, no, it's not a crime to go
visit your father in prison,
but it is a crime
to be an accessory to murder.
If, for example, somebody paid you
five grand to pass
your father a message.
Where'd you get the money?
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[LAUGHING] I don't know.
Enough of this. Let's go.
Go? Go where?
- We're going to jail, Melanie.
- No!
Your kid's gonna be born in prison.
- Is that what you want?
- No.
No, no, please, please, I just
I wasn't in a position to
turn down that kind of money.
Well, here's the position you're in now.
Last chance
where'd you get the money,
and what did they want in return?
♪
Our killer's daughter
visited him at Rikers
before the murder,
gave him a two-word message
Omar Nuñez.
And she says this guy, Alfred Arroyo,
paid her to deliver the message.
[EXHALES] It's a long sheet,
not a nice man.
Yes, and according to Narcotics,
he is a documented lieutenant
of Antonio Ruiz
and also did time at Fishkill
with the guy who killed Omar Nuñez.
You got a ping order on Arroyo?
Just came in.
Riley and Shaw are on it
somewhere near Mott Haven.
Okay, our boy's pulling over.
[DISTANT SIRENS WAILING]
♪
There's Arroyo.
[GEAR CRANKS]
Arroyo!
NYPD! Hands up!
Let's do this nice and easy.
Get on the ground.
Get on the ground!
Hey! Gun! Gun!
2-7 Squad. 10-13, 10-13, shots fired.
♪
[GUN CLICKS]
- Riley!
- I'm good!
[GRUNTS]
Advance!
♪
Suspect down.
[SIRENS APPROACHING]
[POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Nothing of note in Arroyo's apartment.
How much weight we got?
About 12 pounds, give or take.
[WHISTLES]
Uh-oh.
Car's got OnStar
which means if we track the GPS
Find out where this guy got these drugs.
[VEHICLE DOORS CLICK]
♪
Careful.
Well, it's clear.
♪
- [WHISTLES]
- Jesus.
Okay.
M30 pills.
Thousands of them.
- This is a major operation.
- Yeah.
- Door number three?
- Mm-hmm.
♪
[SIGHS]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
Weights.
Check that out.
♪
[SIGHS]
[REPORTERS CLAMORING]
- How many?
- That makes 13.
Dear God.
♪
So far, we've been able to ID
6 out of the 13 bodies.
They're all junkies, sex workers,
undocumented immigrants.
All people who lived
on the margins of society.
People who could disappear.
And one her family
reported her missing,
said that she's been hanging
out with two Latino guys.
They asked her if she wanted to party.
She got in the car. They drove off.
Never saw her again.
We showed them photos of Omar Nuñez
and Alfred Arroyo.
They ID'd them as the two men.
And both of these guys
work for this man.
Antonio Ruiz.
And these are all overdoses?
Fentanyl mixed and cooked
with the same chemicals
that Omar Nuñez and Sunny Zhen acquired.
And we know from their texts
that they were trying
to cook something new
a bigger, stronger type of fentanyl.
So these 13 people were all guinea pigs?
Seems that way.
They were all taking
an experimental drug,
so they were either going
to end up very high or dead.
Now, we know that the man
behind this is Antonio Ruiz.
Problem is, we just can't prove it.
Then why don't you let us
take a crack at that?
Press is going nuts.
My phone's been ringing off the hook.
People want answers
the mayor, the AG, the governor, me.
I went over the texts
that were recovered from
Omar Nuñez's burner phone.
I think I might've found
a foot in the door.
Yeah? What's that?
We use the son to get to the father.
Ernesto? The schoolteacher?
No, Ernesto, the son of the drug dealer
who kills his rivals
and associates alike
and experiments on human beings.
An hour before the murder of Sunny Zhen,
Omar asks Ernesto for a ride.
"Yo, take me to Washington Heights.
"This dude ripped off my girl,
sold her a fake necklace.
Got to go bitch-slap this" person.
Omar used more colorful language.
"Get my girl's money back."
And Ernesto said yes, gave Omar a ride,
which means Ernesto was aware
of a predicate crime
before Sunny Zhen's murder?
In fact, he laughed it off.
When Omar said he was gonna
go bitch-slap someone,
Ernesto replied, "TMI, LOL.
Okay, pick you up in 10."
That makes Ernesto guilty
of felony murder.
[LAUGHING] I mean, it's aggressive.
Felony murder statute is obviously meant
to punish real accomplices,
not necessarily someone who
unwittingly gave his cousin
a ride to bitch-slap someone.
If we do this, Ernesto is gonna be
the only one held accountable
for Sunny's murder.
Ernesto.
Not Omar, not Antonio Ernesto.
And for what, for giving
his idiot cousin a ride?
Ernesto knowingly participated in
a felony that had fatal consequences.
- That's the law.
- Technically speaking, yes.
But this so-called predicate crime
shaking down some guy who
supposedly sold fake jewelry
- it was a lie.
- I know.
Omar made the whole thing up.
He lied to Ernesto.
But that doesn't matter legally.
But it does matter ethically.
Omar never mentioned Sunny Zhen.
He never mentioned drugs,
and he certainly never mentioned murder.
Sam, we just hauled 13 people
out of that damn river.
We need to pull on every lever we have
to take down the man responsible.
I get it, I do, but
we've looked into this hard,
and there's zero evidence
that Ernesto
is actually involved zero.
Are we really okay punishing Ernesto
for his father's sins?
We don't have a choice.
We need to squeeze Ernesto
as hard as we can.
[SIGHS]
You guys can't do this.
You can't just show up at my school
and pull me away like we're
in some Third World country.
Let's go.
That's my place of employment.
I have relationships there
with teachers and parents.
Okay, listen,
we needed to do this quietly.
Truth is, we're trying to keep you safe.
Safe from what? What is this?
Take a seat.
But I had nothing to do with
that man Sunny getting killed.
I've never met him.
I've never heard of him.
I-I didn't even know that this happened
until you told me it happened.
If we move forward and win the trial,
you would spend the rest
of your life in prison
Unless you're willing to cooperate.
- "Cooperate"?
- We need you to wear a wire.
- What the hell do you need
- We want your father.
My father?
Help us procure evidence against him,
and we will drop
the felony murder charges.
No. No. Hell, no.
I'm not gonna help you concoct
some case against my father.
"Concoct"? No, we're not
asking you to do that.
We're simply asking you
to help us procure evidence,
evidence that will hold him
accountable for murder.
What the hell did you just say?
- You heard me.
- He's not a killer.
Are you really that naive,
or delusional?
Look,
I know he's not a saint,
but he's not a killer.
The only ones who die in that life
are the people who deserve it.
So your cousin Omar
he deserved it?
What?
Your father had him killed in prison.
No.
No.
That's
That's impossible.
Me and Omar grew up together.
He would never have somebody
killed in the family, never.
You're wrong.
We have strong evidence
that proves that your father
ordered that hit.
But
that's not really why we're here.
This is why we're here.
13 bodies, Ernesto.
No, don't look away.
Look at your father's handiwork.
You need to understand who he is.
He used them to test fentanyl.
And if they died, so what?
He just threw them away like trash.
Those bodies were dumped in the water
behind some storage containers
where we found a fentanyl lab.
Now, those containers are in a lot
that was purchased back in January
by a company called VexCore.
We need to prove that
your father owns VexCore.
Fine.
I'll do it.
But to prove you wrong.
[LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING]
♪
- Ernesto!
- Hey.
Hi! Oh! Hi.
- How are you?
- Look at you!
- No date?
- Uh, no, mami.
- We, uh we broke up.
- Oh.
Well, you can do better, so much better.
Look at you. You're so pretty.
Oh, my God.
Your father is at the grill
because he doesn't want to talk
to anybody, as usual. [LAUGHING]
- You, he will talk to you.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Okay.
♪
¿Cómo estás, papá?
Hey, mi'jo. Let me make you a plate.
All right, we got a positive
on Antonio Ruiz.
All units, stand by. Get ready to move.
You know, I'm gonna go use the restroom.
- It was a long drive.
- Okay.
♪
[PANTING LIGHTLY]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Ernesto.
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Bank statements. Here we go.
Okay, he found something.
♪
No.
No, no, no.
Now get out of there, kid.
[DOOR CLICKS]
Found what you were looking for, mi'jo?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
We got to get Ernesto out of there.
I agree, but let's let Antonio talk.
Maybe he incriminates himself.
Why don't you show me
what you just took?
What the hell have you done?
What are you talking about?
Did you have Omar killed?
Did you test your drugs
on actual people?
♪
Answer me!
Show me what you just took.
Dios mío.
What have you done,
my stupid little boy?
It's okay. It's okay.
[SMOOCHES]
- [BREATHING SHAKILY]
- It's okay.
What have you done? What have you done?
- [SHOUTING]
- All units, move. Go, go, go!
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
- You were my only son!
- [GRUNTS]
- My only boy!
- On the ground!
- For you!
- Hey! On the ground!
Aah! [GRUNTS]
I got you. I got you.
How could you do this to me?
- No, no, no, no, no!
- Ernesto!
- Here, take him.
- Ma'am.
After everything I've done
for this family?
- Take him! Take him!
- For you, Ernesto!
- You can't be here!
- Antonio! Mi vida!
Ernesto! [HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
The goal is complete anonymity.
You'll get a new last name,
new birth certificate,
and check in with
the U.S. Marshals once a year.
Other than that, you're a free man.
You really think you can keep me alive?
We do the best we can.
But there are two golden rules
in Witness Protection.
Never contact your family.
Don't come back home.
[SCOFFS]
It's up to you, Ernesto.
You don't have to do this.
No. Let's do it.
We'll have someone
take you to the airport.
But I want to see my mother first.
She was supposed to be here.
You said you were gonna call her.
- Ernesto
- I just
I want to see her before I go.
We called her.
Unfortunately, she's not coming.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
[BREATHES SHAKILY]
In the criminal justice system,
the people are represented
by two separate,
yet equally important groups:
the police, who investigate crime,
and the district attorneys,
who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
[TRAIN WHIRRING]
Hey!
Hey, Leo.
Mr. Tatum.
We just got you back on the road.
What's going on?
What's going on is,
you sold me a bum camshaft.
By the time I got back to Throggs Neck,
my car's spewing white smoke.
I want a new part,
and I want my money back!
Look, we'll make it right, but
free work, you know,
it's not a great business plan.
I got folks that need to get paid.
Maybe I should call immigration.
They can explain
that predicament to them.
Excuse me?
You say "white smoke"?
Yeah, smoke that is white.
What you saw was not smoke.
It was steam.
It means you have water
in your combustion chamber.
Nothing to do with your camshaft.
Did you buy gas when you left here?
- So what if I did?
- At a discount gas station?
They sold you bad gas.
Your problem is with them, not Mr. Leo.
Who is this guy?
I don't understand
what he's talking about!
T-this is Sunny.
He's telling you to get
the hell out of here.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
He's just nicer about it than I am.
[SIRENS WAILING]
There's a burn pattern around the wound.
No stippling, though.
So he was killed execution-style,
like he knew his killer.
- Any weapons?
- No.
No cameras back here either.
- How about a name?
- Sun Zhen.
His ID's on him.
Wallet's still there,
a little cash inside.
So we're probably not looking
at a robbery.
Maybe, except there's
no cell phone in evidence.
That's the victim's boss.
He confirmed he had a phone
on him, but it ain't here.
Maybe there's something
on the phone worth hiding.
Yeah.
Boss called 911?
Mr. Brooks.
How you doing, sir?
Detective Riley. This is Detective Shaw.
Can you tell us what happened?
I-I was finishing up around back
with a late customer,
and I heard a shot.
And I knew Sunny was working
in here, so I hurried over,
and I saw some guy running away.
- Can you describe him?
- He was about my height.
Black hoodie [STAMMERS]
Funky green design on the back.
I wish I could tell you more,
but it was dark,
and he was running fast,
and he got a-a pretty good
head start on me.
Okay.
Well, what can you tell us
about the victim?
You know, I-I hired Sunny
a-a few months back.
Uh, he's a great kid.
He worked his tail off.
He'd take any hours I'd give him.
He didn't share a lot,
but I think he had
some serious money problems
something about a-a sick sister
in and out of the hospital.
All right, thanks.
Well, not the easiest life.
Not the easiest death either.
♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
What have we got?
Still no sign of the victim's phone.
I'm trying to crack his cloud,
but no luck on that either.
Forensics are back
on the slug we pulled from the vic.
Had some unique striations
and deformities.
Sure looks like our murder weapon
was a Sig Sauer of some sort.
Anything else?
We figured out that Sunny's father
went back to China in a hurry.
He was a member
of an immigrant money club.
They pool their funds.
They gave each other no-interest loans.
It actually works pretty well for a time
until someone runs off
with the whole pot,
like Sunny's father did
stole 40 grand.
Which is unheard of in this community.
These clubs are based on honor, trust.
So you think somebody maybe
came after Sunny to collect a debt?
Mahjong's supposed
to be a brain booster.
Helps keep the mind sharp,
prevents memory loss.
Oh, is that a factoid or a suggestion?
[CHUCKLES] If you want
to pull up a chair,
- I can handle this.
- Oh, easy, partner.
I'm not that much older than you.
Here she is.
Ms. Tan?
Ms. Tan, we need to ask you
some questions.
Too busy. Come back later.
Do we get any priority if we mention
that you are running an illegal
casino in the middle of Queens?
Ooh, I see.
You are here to meet your monthly quota
to harass Chinese people.
No, this is a murder investigation.
So we can talk here or the precinct.
"Murder"?
Sunny Zhen. He's dead.
[GASPS]
♪
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Nobody here would hurt Sunny.
We loved him like our own son.
His father ran off with a lot
of money your money.
Our club's money, yes.
And there was no one more hurt
by that than Sunny.
Shame it crushed him.
He gave us every spare dime he had
to pay his father's debt
until Sunny lost his job.
Thought he worked at the auto garage.
Sunny was a chemist.
He was a graduate student
at Hudson University.
Then he lost his job
and his student housing, too.
He was in a very bad way.
He worked at the garage
just to scratch by.
So why did he lose his job?
The university accused him of
stealing secrets for the Chinese.
Was Sunny a spy?
♪
Answer's no.
I cannot tell you what
Sunny Zhen was working on.
Our work is related
to national security.
Pentagon pays the bills.
That comes with rules.
- So maybe you want to ask them.
- We're asking you, Dr. Chen.
You hired him as a grad student.
You recruited him to your program.
You trained him in polymer chemistry.
He gets accused of being
a spy for the Chinese,
and then someone executes him.
Now, we're trying to find out why,
and you're hiding behind
a grant from the Pentagon.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
You don't think that I
You tell us, Doc.
That's the whole point.
Just because
somebody calls the university to report
that Sunny was a spy
does not make it true.
So you think the tip was bogus?
Yes. Of course I do.
If this country ever suffers
a chemical attack
and you survive,
Sunny Zhen would be
on the list of people
you would want to write
a thank-you note to.
That's the work that we do here.
Sunny was a brilliant chemist.
All he wanted to do was save lives
American lives.
So why not fight for him?
You've got tenure.
You're not going anywhere.
Because it's 2025.
The university is not going
to risk federal funding
to stand up for an immigrant
who is even accused
of giving proprietary
information to the Chinese.
The accusation is all it takes.
A real profile in courage, huh?
It's a profile in reality.
So why would somebody call in a tip
falsely accusing
Sunny Zhen of being a spy?
Turns out Sunny Zhen
was not a spy after all.
The university nor the Feds
could corroborate
any of the claims
that were made against him.
There's no evidence Sunny was
in touch with anybody in China,
including his own father.
Okay, so if Sunny wasn't a spy,
why was someone claiming he was?
- It's just a weird thing to do.
- Revenge.
There was this other grad student
this guy Eli Randall
was pumping out papers
with incredible numbers,
like, groundbreaking stuff.
If they were true.
But Sunny Zhen is the one who
figured out that they weren't.
So he brought his concerns up
to Dr. Chen,
because when you're dealing
in chemical warfare
- You can't fudge the data.
- Right.
So Dr. Chen fires Eli Randall,
and then the next day,
"somebody" calls the university
and claims that Sunny Zhen is a spy.
Well, maybe the phony chemist
got Sunny fired.
It wasn't enough, and he killed him.
I buy it.
Pick him up.
It's not what you think!
We don't go off of what we think.
We go off of what we know.
We're the cops.
So, for instance, we know
that you moved back in with your parents
after Dr. Chen kicked you
out of the lab.
We also know that your father
has three registered firearms,
one of which is a Sig Sauer
same make as the murder weapon.
No, no, no, m-my dad keeps
his guns in his safe.
His fingerprint is
the only thing that opens it.
We also checked your smartwatch.
Got the GPS off of that,
so we found out that you were outside
of Sunny Zhen's apartment
two days before the murder.
I did not do this, okay? I swear.
Okay, look,
I did go over there,
but it was to patch things up.
Guy gets accused of murder,
all of a sudden, he's Gandhi now, huh?
It's the truth, okay?
Look, Sunny and I both lost our jobs.
The reality is,
I had a financial cushion.
Sunny didn't.
I will be fine. Sunny was not.
And I heard that he was
struggling to make ends meet.
I knew that his sister was
sick, and I felt responsible.
Because you were responsible.
I-I couldn't keep up.
The rest of the grad students
were really smart, okay?
And the pressure to succeed
was crazy, and
- I fudged some data.
- You did way more than that.
You ruined Sunny Zhen's life
because he was smarter than you,
and you couldn't take that, could you?
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
And I hate myself for it.
But that's why I went over
there to patch things up.
So a couple nights ago,
I went over to his apartment
to bring him some money.
Really? How much you give him?
Nothing. I didn't get that far.
And why is that?
Sunny wasn't alone.
Not alone, like with a woman?
He's having a party?
What does that mean?
When I got there, he was out front
with this dude leaning against a car.
And so I went over to them,
and the guy he was with waves me off,
tells me to take a walk.
And I'm like, who the hell are you?
And
the guy flashes a gun at me.
For real, okay?
And he tells me to get the hell
out of there, so I did.
What'd this guy look like?
It was really dark, and, um
I-I-I was really scared.
I mean, I'm pretty sure he was Hispanic.
What about the dude's car?
You know the make and model?
Randall said the guy who threatened him
was driving a red BMW
with tinted windows.
Now, this same car outside
of Sunny Zhen's building
two days before the murder.
Did you get a look at the driver?
We did not, but we ran the plates.
Came back to Ernesto Ruiz.
Who's that?
Nobody, not even a parking ticket,
but check out who his daddy is.
Antonio Ruiz.
Drug dealer.
The one and only.
We went after him a bunch of times
in my days in Narcotics
just couldn't pin him down.
Okay, can you tell me
what all this has to do with Sunny Zhen?
Ruiz likes to cook his own fentanyl.
Okay, so we have a murder
victim who was a chemist,
who was fired, needed money,
and happened to be
in possession
of a very special skill set.
That would have been
very valuable to a drug dealer.
Okay.
Go find Ernesto Ruiz.
Ernesto Ruiz came to us last year
through Teach for America.
He's a godsend to staff and students.
You do know who his father is?
Sure. People talk.
But sometimes the apple
does fall far from the tree.
My understanding is Ernesto has money
and doesn't even need to be here.
His heart is called to serve.
Can I just ask what this is about?
No.
Okay.
Nice.
Mr. Ruiz, I'm so sorry to interrupt.
These gentlemen need to speak with you.
[SCHOOL BELL RINGING]
- ALL: Bye, Mr. Ruiz.
- All right, see you later.
- Bye.
- Bye.
Make sure you study for tomorrow's quiz.
- Oh!
- Yeah.
- [SIGHS] Can I help you?
- Yeah.
We are investigating a murder.
A murder? Who who died?
A man named Sunny Zhen.
And this
is your car parked
outside of his building
two days before the murder.
That's my car, but I've never
heard of that name before,
and I wasn't there.
Uh, sometimes I loan my car to friends.
- [CHUCKLES]
- That's convenient, isn't it?
Sure is.
Kind of gives you an excuse
for anything, doesn't it?
All right, I'll bite.
Who'd you loan your car to?
- [SIGHS]
- Come on, man.
We have an eyewitness
that puts you there,
says that you threatened him with a gun.
What? That's ridiculous.
How about this? Is this ridiculous, too?
That's two blocks from the murder scene.
15 minutes later,
Sunny Zhen was dead, so
what, you loan your car out
that night, too?
I have nothing to do with this,
and I'm not saying another word.
Better call a sub.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Hey, look, we need a warrant
for Ernesto Ruiz's vehicle.
It's a BMW that was seen
in the area of the murder.
We got to scrub it for evidence
before he wipes it down
or dumps it off a bridge or something.
So you're saying you think
he's good for this?
All we know is that we
don't have enough to hold him.
On one hand,
he's a middle school teacher
doing the Lord's work and all that,
and he's got no criminal history,
no history of violence,
but his dad is a major dope pusher.
And the guy he was talking
to, Sunny Zhen a chemist.
So you think he is
in the family business?
I mean, it works for me.
We also have an eyewitness, Eli Randall,
who picked him out of a six-pack.
So let's start with a search warrant,
and we'll impound Ruiz's vehicle.
Thank you.
[DOOR CLICKS]
Lou, we got something for you.
Crime lab found traces of
Sunny's blood in the red BMW.
Okay, good.
They also found DNA evidence
of somebody else in the car.
Omar Nuñez pride of the South Bronx,
also Ernesto Ruiz's first cousin
and a documented foot soldier
of Ernesto's father, Antonio.
He's got a long sheet, this guy
violent, most recently did two years
for distribution of a
controlled substance fentanyl.
And when Sunny Zhen was killed,
his boss said that
the suspect fled the scene
in a black sweatshirt with
a green emblem in the back.
Okay, confirm with the boss
that the pattern is the same.
H-hold on, Lou. Check this out.
One more thing.
So that
That's a Sig Sauer,
same manufacturer as our murder weapon.
Well, arrest him.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Omar Nuñez, a quick word.
NYPD! Stop!
- NYPD!
- Stay where you are!
NYPD! Stop!
[GRUNTS, GROANS]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
- Where you going, Omar?
- You got somewhere better to be?
- Hands.
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
♪
You know we got an eyewitness
that puts you at the murder scene
in this sweatshirt?
Yo, I lost that sweatshirt
a long time ago.
Must've been somebody else
your "witness" saw.
Well, our forensics team
said the murder weapon
was a Sig Sauer
a lot like that one there.
Now, we didn't find that
in your apartment,
which I'm guessing you already knew
because you ditched it
someplace, didn't you?
We found your burner phone, Omar.
It was sitting right there
on the countertop
next to a pack of cigarettes
and a box of condoms.
Yeah, so you ain't got
to say nothing to us, bro.
This phone
is going to do all the singing.
[PHONE THUDS ON TABLE]
You recruited Sunny to cook fentanyl.
He changed his mind. He wanted out.
He even sent you a text.
We got that right here. Look.
"I saw what I saw.
I can't do this anymore."
Three hours later,
you put a bullet in his head.
So, tell us, what did he see?
What did Sunny Zhen see
that he wasn't supposed to see?
Don't know nothing about this, man.
Come on, man, this ain't
looking good for you, bro.
We have all the receipts.
We know who your boss is, too, Omar.
You want to give us Antonio Ruiz,
things might look
a little bit better for you.
Why don't you tell us
what Antonio's been up to
or maybe his son Ernesto?
Yeah, how about that?
Is Ernesto involved in this?
Nah!
Ernesto got nothing
to do with this, man.
Y'all leave his ass out of it.
[KNOCKING ON DOOR, DOOR CLICKS]
Yeah, we're done here.
No more questions for my client.
♪
We have a decent case against Omar,
but so far,
he is unwilling to cooperate.
Then we need to try harder.
Omar's a grunt, a soldier.
Antonio Ruiz is the real deal.
5,000 New Yorkers died last
year from a fentanyl overdose.
We have an opportunity
to make a real statement here,
to punish one of the perpetrators
and get some of that garbage
off the street.
Obviously, we would like that, too.
But Omar isn't willing to flip.
We talked to his attorney
this afternoon.
What about Antonio's son Ernesto?
- We have a case against him?
- [SIGHS] Mm, not really.
What does that mean?
It means we can put Ernesto's car
in the neighborhood
where the murder took place
around the time of the murder,
but we can't necessarily
put Ernesto there.
And we also know
from Omar's burner phone
that he lied to Ernesto
about why he needed a ride
on the night of the murder,
so even if he was there
You really believe this kid is innocent?
We can't prove otherwise.
We're trying to nail
the father, I get it,
but there's a world
in which Ernesto is guilty
of nothing more than being
a drug dealer's son.
There is a bigger prize
to be won here, guys.
Take another run at Omar.
- Sam.
- Yeah?
What's going on?
You seem determined to stick up
for this Ernesto Ruiz.
Yeah, he's a schoolteacher.
He's got no record,
but his car was at the scene.
We do have reason to think
he might have been involved.
Yeah, I know.
I just I don't think it's
[SIGHS]
In my family, I was "the project."
The whole family organized
around one thing me
getting me a good education,
pushing me to the top
so that eventually I can pull
everybody up with me.
Yeah, okay, that's the beauty
of the American immigrant experience.
I'm not looking for a medal.
I'm just trying to tell you that
Do you know what paid for all of this?
Uh, uh, yeah.
I thought your father ran
a Lebanese restaurant.
Do you have any idea
how much baba ghanoush it takes
- to pay for law school?
- No. I'm guessing a lot.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
Well, the restaurant
never made any money.
But the sportsbook my father
ran out the back door
well, that did pretty well.
Now here I am public servant,
making good on that promise
to my family.
That was my father.
So, yes, immigrant stories
are beautiful
but they can be complicated, too.
I spoke with Omar's lawyer again.
They're still not
interested in cooperating.
So we move forward.
Good news is, our case is strong.
Who knows? Maybe he'll get cold feet
when he sees all the evidence
we have against him
and the prospect of spending
the rest of his life in prison
begins to set in.
Nolan, Sam, we need to talk.
- About what?
- Omar Nuñez.
He's dead.
♪
7:24 a.m., just another day.
[GRUNTS] [OVERLAPPING SHOUTING]
Guy shaved his toothbrush into a knife.
Kid died before he got
to the operating table.
Wow.
Now we just need to figure out
if it's connected
to Sunny Zhen's murder or
If prison is just a violent place.
Correct.
Here's what I can tell you on that.
The guy who killed Omar is doing life
no history of mental illness,
never committed an act of
violence before on the inside.
Did he say anything after the attack?
One thing, one thing only.
He claimed he'd been beefing with Omar
from a fight on the basketball court.
- That was a lie.
- How do you know?
We maintain a record of every step
these guys take in this place.
These two men had never been
on the yard together
at the same time, not once.
As far as we can tell,
the first time they ever met,
this guy put a knife in Omar's eye.
It's pretty clear that was a hit.
Antonio Ruiz is obviously concerned
about what was going to
come out in court.
All right. Thank you.
Had the warden at Rikers
pull the visitor log.
Get this the inmate who killed Omar
hadn't had a visitor
in four months until yesterday
when his daughter shows up
for the first time in a year.
That would be, uh, quite a coincidence.
You went to go visit your father
the day before the murder.
- So?
- [SCOFFS]
So it is of note that
after not seeing your father
for a year, you go to visit him,
and then he kills somebody the next day.
What, it's a crime
to visit my father in prison?
Ms. South, you know how much
money you had in your account
Monday morning?
- A couple hundred bucks.
- $87.
You know how much you had
at the end of the day?
$5,087, which means that you
went down to the bank
and you deposited five racks in cash.
So, no, it's not a crime to go
visit your father in prison,
but it is a crime
to be an accessory to murder.
If, for example, somebody paid you
five grand to pass
your father a message.
Where'd you get the money?
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[LAUGHING] I don't know.
Enough of this. Let's go.
Go? Go where?
- We're going to jail, Melanie.
- No!
Your kid's gonna be born in prison.
- Is that what you want?
- No.
No, no, please, please, I just
I wasn't in a position to
turn down that kind of money.
Well, here's the position you're in now.
Last chance
where'd you get the money,
and what did they want in return?
♪
Our killer's daughter
visited him at Rikers
before the murder,
gave him a two-word message
Omar Nuñez.
And she says this guy, Alfred Arroyo,
paid her to deliver the message.
[EXHALES] It's a long sheet,
not a nice man.
Yes, and according to Narcotics,
he is a documented lieutenant
of Antonio Ruiz
and also did time at Fishkill
with the guy who killed Omar Nuñez.
You got a ping order on Arroyo?
Just came in.
Riley and Shaw are on it
somewhere near Mott Haven.
Okay, our boy's pulling over.
[DISTANT SIRENS WAILING]
♪
There's Arroyo.
[GEAR CRANKS]
Arroyo!
NYPD! Hands up!
Let's do this nice and easy.
Get on the ground.
Get on the ground!
Hey! Gun! Gun!
2-7 Squad. 10-13, 10-13, shots fired.
♪
[GUN CLICKS]
- Riley!
- I'm good!
[GRUNTS]
Advance!
♪
Suspect down.
[SIRENS APPROACHING]
[POLICE RADIO CHATTER]
Nothing of note in Arroyo's apartment.
How much weight we got?
About 12 pounds, give or take.
[WHISTLES]
Uh-oh.
Car's got OnStar
which means if we track the GPS
Find out where this guy got these drugs.
[VEHICLE DOORS CLICK]
♪
Careful.
Well, it's clear.
♪
- [WHISTLES]
- Jesus.
Okay.
M30 pills.
Thousands of them.
- This is a major operation.
- Yeah.
- Door number three?
- Mm-hmm.
♪
[SIGHS]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
Weights.
Check that out.
♪
[SIGHS]
[REPORTERS CLAMORING]
- How many?
- That makes 13.
Dear God.
♪
So far, we've been able to ID
6 out of the 13 bodies.
They're all junkies, sex workers,
undocumented immigrants.
All people who lived
on the margins of society.
People who could disappear.
And one her family
reported her missing,
said that she's been hanging
out with two Latino guys.
They asked her if she wanted to party.
She got in the car. They drove off.
Never saw her again.
We showed them photos of Omar Nuñez
and Alfred Arroyo.
They ID'd them as the two men.
And both of these guys
work for this man.
Antonio Ruiz.
And these are all overdoses?
Fentanyl mixed and cooked
with the same chemicals
that Omar Nuñez and Sunny Zhen acquired.
And we know from their texts
that they were trying
to cook something new
a bigger, stronger type of fentanyl.
So these 13 people were all guinea pigs?
Seems that way.
They were all taking
an experimental drug,
so they were either going
to end up very high or dead.
Now, we know that the man
behind this is Antonio Ruiz.
Problem is, we just can't prove it.
Then why don't you let us
take a crack at that?
Press is going nuts.
My phone's been ringing off the hook.
People want answers
the mayor, the AG, the governor, me.
I went over the texts
that were recovered from
Omar Nuñez's burner phone.
I think I might've found
a foot in the door.
Yeah? What's that?
We use the son to get to the father.
Ernesto? The schoolteacher?
No, Ernesto, the son of the drug dealer
who kills his rivals
and associates alike
and experiments on human beings.
An hour before the murder of Sunny Zhen,
Omar asks Ernesto for a ride.
"Yo, take me to Washington Heights.
"This dude ripped off my girl,
sold her a fake necklace.
Got to go bitch-slap this" person.
Omar used more colorful language.
"Get my girl's money back."
And Ernesto said yes, gave Omar a ride,
which means Ernesto was aware
of a predicate crime
before Sunny Zhen's murder?
In fact, he laughed it off.
When Omar said he was gonna
go bitch-slap someone,
Ernesto replied, "TMI, LOL.
Okay, pick you up in 10."
That makes Ernesto guilty
of felony murder.
[LAUGHING] I mean, it's aggressive.
Felony murder statute is obviously meant
to punish real accomplices,
not necessarily someone who
unwittingly gave his cousin
a ride to bitch-slap someone.
If we do this, Ernesto is gonna be
the only one held accountable
for Sunny's murder.
Ernesto.
Not Omar, not Antonio Ernesto.
And for what, for giving
his idiot cousin a ride?
Ernesto knowingly participated in
a felony that had fatal consequences.
- That's the law.
- Technically speaking, yes.
But this so-called predicate crime
shaking down some guy who
supposedly sold fake jewelry
- it was a lie.
- I know.
Omar made the whole thing up.
He lied to Ernesto.
But that doesn't matter legally.
But it does matter ethically.
Omar never mentioned Sunny Zhen.
He never mentioned drugs,
and he certainly never mentioned murder.
Sam, we just hauled 13 people
out of that damn river.
We need to pull on every lever we have
to take down the man responsible.
I get it, I do, but
we've looked into this hard,
and there's zero evidence
that Ernesto
is actually involved zero.
Are we really okay punishing Ernesto
for his father's sins?
We don't have a choice.
We need to squeeze Ernesto
as hard as we can.
[SIGHS]
You guys can't do this.
You can't just show up at my school
and pull me away like we're
in some Third World country.
Let's go.
That's my place of employment.
I have relationships there
with teachers and parents.
Okay, listen,
we needed to do this quietly.
Truth is, we're trying to keep you safe.
Safe from what? What is this?
Take a seat.
But I had nothing to do with
that man Sunny getting killed.
I've never met him.
I've never heard of him.
I-I didn't even know that this happened
until you told me it happened.
If we move forward and win the trial,
you would spend the rest
of your life in prison
Unless you're willing to cooperate.
- "Cooperate"?
- We need you to wear a wire.
- What the hell do you need
- We want your father.
My father?
Help us procure evidence against him,
and we will drop
the felony murder charges.
No. No. Hell, no.
I'm not gonna help you concoct
some case against my father.
"Concoct"? No, we're not
asking you to do that.
We're simply asking you
to help us procure evidence,
evidence that will hold him
accountable for murder.
What the hell did you just say?
- You heard me.
- He's not a killer.
Are you really that naive,
or delusional?
Look,
I know he's not a saint,
but he's not a killer.
The only ones who die in that life
are the people who deserve it.
So your cousin Omar
he deserved it?
What?
Your father had him killed in prison.
No.
No.
That's
That's impossible.
Me and Omar grew up together.
He would never have somebody
killed in the family, never.
You're wrong.
We have strong evidence
that proves that your father
ordered that hit.
But
that's not really why we're here.
This is why we're here.
13 bodies, Ernesto.
No, don't look away.
Look at your father's handiwork.
You need to understand who he is.
He used them to test fentanyl.
And if they died, so what?
He just threw them away like trash.
Those bodies were dumped in the water
behind some storage containers
where we found a fentanyl lab.
Now, those containers are in a lot
that was purchased back in January
by a company called VexCore.
We need to prove that
your father owns VexCore.
Fine.
I'll do it.
But to prove you wrong.
[LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING]
♪
- Ernesto!
- Hey.
Hi! Oh! Hi.
- How are you?
- Look at you!
- No date?
- Uh, no, mami.
- We, uh we broke up.
- Oh.
Well, you can do better, so much better.
Look at you. You're so pretty.
Oh, my God.
Your father is at the grill
because he doesn't want to talk
to anybody, as usual. [LAUGHING]
- You, he will talk to you.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Okay.
♪
¿Cómo estás, papá?
Hey, mi'jo. Let me make you a plate.
All right, we got a positive
on Antonio Ruiz.
All units, stand by. Get ready to move.
You know, I'm gonna go use the restroom.
- It was a long drive.
- Okay.
♪
[PANTING LIGHTLY]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Ernesto.
♪
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
Bank statements. Here we go.
Okay, he found something.
♪
No.
No, no, no.
Now get out of there, kid.
[DOOR CLICKS]
Found what you were looking for, mi'jo?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
We got to get Ernesto out of there.
I agree, but let's let Antonio talk.
Maybe he incriminates himself.
Why don't you show me
what you just took?
What the hell have you done?
What are you talking about?
Did you have Omar killed?
Did you test your drugs
on actual people?
♪
Answer me!
Show me what you just took.
Dios mío.
What have you done,
my stupid little boy?
It's okay. It's okay.
[SMOOCHES]
- [BREATHING SHAKILY]
- It's okay.
What have you done? What have you done?
- [SHOUTING]
- All units, move. Go, go, go!
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
- You were my only son!
- [GRUNTS]
- My only boy!
- On the ground!
- For you!
- Hey! On the ground!
Aah! [GRUNTS]
I got you. I got you.
How could you do this to me?
- No, no, no, no, no!
- Ernesto!
- Here, take him.
- Ma'am.
After everything I've done
for this family?
- Take him! Take him!
- For you, Ernesto!
- You can't be here!
- Antonio! Mi vida!
Ernesto! [HANDCUFFS CLICKING]
The goal is complete anonymity.
You'll get a new last name,
new birth certificate,
and check in with
the U.S. Marshals once a year.
Other than that, you're a free man.
You really think you can keep me alive?
We do the best we can.
But there are two golden rules
in Witness Protection.
Never contact your family.
Don't come back home.
[SCOFFS]
It's up to you, Ernesto.
You don't have to do this.
No. Let's do it.
We'll have someone
take you to the airport.
But I want to see my mother first.
She was supposed to be here.
You said you were gonna call her.
- Ernesto
- I just
I want to see her before I go.
We called her.
Unfortunately, she's not coming.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
[BREATHES SHAKILY]