The Interrogator (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - You Know What Time It Is - full transcript

♪

Waters:
When I walk in an interview
room, I'm walking into darkness,

And I'm the light
in the darkness.

Okay. Here we go.

Here's the first lie.

I see the body,
and I was in shock.

There were no eyewitnesses.

Detective waters finds ways
to get people to talk.

So, at that point,
we've got five suspects.

I never walk into any interview
room expecting a confession.

I'm expecting
to get to the truth.



Houston, texas --
america's fourth largest city.

I served as
a homicide detective

With houston's finest
for over 23 years.

I've investigated
over 400 murders,

And solved 90%
with a confession.

Once I have a suspect
in the room,

I don't quit until I get
justice for the victims.

I am homicide detective
fil waters.

In all of my experience
as a homicide detective,

I have come to find that
no matter who the victim may be,

They are someone
to somebody else.

They are someone's sister,

Someone's mother,
someone's friend.

And so, my job as a homicide cop
is a simple one --



I've got to find
the right person

Who's done
the wrong thing,

And make sure there's
a measure of justice served.

♪

It was a Saturday morning,

And I woke up really early
that day to go to work.

Aracely worked at a sam's club
that was close to her home.

Her sister, aidee, her two
girls, lived with aracely.

And the night before,

Aidee went out to celebrate
with her friends

For her 30th birthday.

She decided to dress up.

She was like, "oh, why not?
Just going to dancing,

And I can celebrate
my birthday with friends."

And I remember,
telling her to have fun,

And just come back safe.

Aracely said that, when
she walked out of her apartment,

She saw that there was a body of
a woman laying on the sidewalk.

♪

Her hand had been
over her face.

And aracely took her hand,
and moved it,

So that she could
see her face.

Compean:
It was my sister.

♪

♪

On that morning --
June 19, 2010--

In those dark moments,
I received a call

From the homicide division
intake desk,

Regarding a single white female
who had been found

In an apartment complex
shot one time.

So, now I've got to
get prepared, mentally,

For what I'm
about to approach.

♪

When I looked her,
the first thought

That I had in my head about her
was she looked like a doll,

Laying on the sidewalk,
that a child had dropped.

She was so small, and so petite,
laying there about 20, 25 feet

From the front door
of her apartment.

She is an obvious victim
of a gunshot wound

In the right side
of her throat.

Now, looking around
her body,

We see what might be
a scuffle of some kind,

And then, we see those imprints
walking away from her body.

And there is no purse presence,
which is significant.

So, the next step was
counting on aracely

To give me more information
about what was in that purse.

But at the scene,
aracely was so shaken

That I think she had
a hard time

Even telling me
what her name was,

Let alone trying to
articulate to me

What aidee carried
around in her purse.

I was in shock, so I was having
a hard time to say anything.

I just told him that
we found my sister.

If one can imagine the shock,
of finding a body,

And then,
what aracely did,

Realizing she's looking into
the face of her sister.

I'm not sure how any of us
would handle that.

Aidee and her sister, aracely,
were originally from mexico,

And they moved
to the united states

When they were
in elementary school

Aidee had married,
and had two beautiful children.

She was a loving mother,
hard-working.

She had everything
going for her.

And at the time
of her death,

She and her husband
were divorced.

When [indistinct]
she was always with me.

We were best friends, so...

Waters: She was a hostess
at a local restaurant.

She just purchased
a new car.

She's getting ready to look at
purchasing a house.

She is beginning to live
the american dream.

But the great tragedy
is that her life ended.

It's my responsibility
to canvass the apartments.

So, we start
knocking on doors.

And an 8-year-old little boy
tells me that

He woke up early
in the morning --

Around 4:30--

And had heard a gunshot,

And then, heard a car
driving away

At a high rate of speed.

That gives us a time frame

For when the shooting
may have occurred.

The night that aidee went out
to celebrate her birthday,

The girls had gone
to stay with their dad.

Waters: She left the two
children with her ex-husband

But he certainly
has an alibi.

He's got the two children.

So, he's eliminated
from the mix fairly quickly.

Aidee was single.

She had had
some boyfriends.

So, I asked aracely
a question --

What kind of conflicts
was they having?

Do you know of anyone,
period?

And without hesitation,

Aracely named
a possible suspect --

Humberto madrigal.

Humberto was aidee's boyfriend
in that time.

They were together
for a year.

But the problems start
when aidee

Decided to break up
with him.

Waters:
This is a great lead.

Humberto was infatuated
with aidee.

Now, I want to find out
about his background.

So, I find a police report
that is related to aidee.

♪

The report we find
says humberto

Shows up at the apartment.

He starts knocking on the window
in the middle of the night.

She was sleeping.
He was knocking.

He got upset, and he started
knocking more and more.

She was like,
"oh, my god."

He makes entry
into her bedroom.

Aidee gets in the closet,
shuts the door.

Humberto,
he starts looking for aidee.

Compean: 5 to 10 minutes
she was hiding.

But he didn't find her.

Waters: He was charged
with criminal trespass.

Compean:
We're trying to do everything
to get this guy away from us.

My sister changed
her cellphone number.

And we tried to look for
another apartment complex,

But we had to finish
the contract with them.

We even tried to buy
a house together.

She was really scared
of everything that was going on.

I was like,
"how this is gonna end?

Because he
needs to stop."

The most dangerous time
of an obsessive relationship

Is when the pursued
makes the decision that,

"I am no longer
going to be the victim

In this relationship."

Not every time does it end
in an explosion,

But too many times
it does.

At this moment, humberto is
the most likely suspect.

We've got a lot of smoke.

And now, we've got to go see
if we've got a fire.

♪

Waters: On the west side
of houston, aidee reyna

Was returning to her home
after celebrating her birthday,

When she met her death.

♪

I was fil walters' partner

In the murder investigation
of aidee reyna.

She had a boyfriend
named humberto.

He had broken into
her apartment on one occasion,

And her being shot there
outside the apartment,

It gave detective waters
something to to go after,

And pursue
as a potential suspect.

Waters: We have a good idea
of where he lives,

Which is not terribly far away
from aidee.

And one of the doors that
I knock on belongs to maria,

And she is the wife/girlfriend
of humberto's brother, omar.

When I asked her
where humberto

May have been
on the early morning hours

June 19th

She talked about
humberto had gone

To some bar hopping,
came home at 3:30.

And omar, her husband,
picked him up,

And took him to work
at 6:30.

So, there's a three-hour
window there.

Obviously, that falls well
within the timeframe

Of when we know
aidee was was murdered.

So, it is possible
that he could have done it.

Now, maria offered
to bring humberto

To the homicide division
for an interview.

Humberto feels more comfortable
speaking spanish,

So I'm going to bring in another
detective to do the translation

In this interview.

After aidee had broken up
with humberto,

She starts to see
other people.

[ speaking spanish ]

His demeanor
was so lowkey.

One could say he's doing that
because he was involved.

So, that's what I start to
get pretty tough with him.

[ speaking spanish ]

Still, there is no response.

I'm thinking, "my gosh,"
you know,

"he was obsessed
with her.

But now,
is he affected by

The gravity of what
the situation is

And what I'm saying
to him?"

[ gunshot ]

He just denied everything.

So, I'm gonna try to collect
some evidence from him.

At the crime scene, they were
able to take some shoe imprints.

Waters: And I look at the bottom
of his shoes.

They are a similar pattern

To what I saw
in the dirt at the scene.

And we're gonna have
those shoes analyzed.

Maybe aidee's dna
on the shoes.

But at that point in time,

I was starting to sense
from humberto that his denials,

Which are pretty strong,
may be accurate.

I may not be looking
at my suspect.

But right now,
you're the best one I got.

I enter every investigation
that "I'm gonna solve."

So, solve-ability is a frame
of mind, a lot of times.

And there are times where
you hit the wall.

Compean: I was like,
"what's going on?"

My sister died
30 days ago."

I believed it was humberto
the whole time,

And I'm afraid of him
doing something to me.

Waters: I made a commitment
to aracely that I was going to

Do everything
that I could possibly do

To bring her sister's killer
to justice.

Compean: A letter came in
from the bank,

Saying that my sister's
overdrafted her account.

Fuller: Approximately 45 minutes
after aidee's death

On the morning
that she was killed,

Her debit card is used
at a gas station,

Where $500
had been debited out.

Roberts: This would renew
the chase, here,

Because detective waters
didn't have a suspect

Other than humberto.

It's an extremely,
extremely hot lead.

It is the biggest clue
that we've gotten yet.

One month after day
had been gunned down, aracely,

Her sister,
had new information for us.

Compean:
A letter came in saying

Aidee's gonna have
an overdraft in her account.

So, I went to the bank,
and told them "it's not possible

Because my sister
passed away."

Aracely tells me that
my aidee's debit card

Has been overdrawn
after she's murdered.

That was huge.

We have these little
seminal moments, and boom.

Here it is.
This is starting to go.

Approximately $2,000
was taken out of the account.

The card was used
45 minutes after the murder.

Over a period of
14 or 15 hours,

There's 19 separate
transactions.

Roberts: There was a racetrack
gas station.

There was a texaco.

There were walmarts.

This card was used to to
purchase or withdraw money from.

Fuller: Detective waters
starts to go to those locations

With the hopes that
he's going to find video

That will show
who's using the debit card.

Waters: So, what's the best
place to start?

At the beginning.

The first transaction, $500,

Drawn from a racetrack
gas station.

Make contact
with the racetrack.

They have a system that
overrides itself every 10 days.

So, we're shot there.

Move on to the next one --

Texaco station,
$300 withdrawal.

That video system
has been replaced most recently.

We have no video there.

End up going to the purchase
of murphy's gas,

Which is in front of
one of the walmarts.

And then, we get a purchase
inside that walmart.

And then we get a purchase
at another walmart.

So, we hit
the goldmine.

We've got
a very good video system,

And we are able
to track purchases

In the stores
at the particular cashier

Where the card
has been used.

Fuller: In the first video,
it was one male

That was using the card,
and that was not humberto.

It was a black male,
medium build,

And he was wearing a red shirt
and khaki shorts.

There's also another camera
angle that shows a black male

With the khaki pants
and the red shirt

Getting out of
a black pontiac.

Fuller:
But they were unable

To get the license plate
of that vehicle.

Waters:
And at another walmart,

We see a group of individuals
who walks in,

And makes purchases,

And that same black male
with the red shirt

And the khaki pants
is in this group.

We track them
to the store.

We track them
to the exit.

And now, they're getting into
a green saturn.

And there's actually a license
plate on that green vehicle.

Waters: That was a thing
that blew this case wide open.

You know, if you want to use
the football analogy,

We're making
some first downs now.

And I'm pretty pumped up
about it, at this point.

Roberts: Fil knows these people
are using aidee's credit card.

And his initial thought was
humberto was a suspect.

So, it's conceivable
that humberto

Still could have
committed the murder.

He could have gave her
information to someone else,

Or sold it to him
for money.

So, at that point,
you've got humberto

And you've got three black males
and a black female.

Now, you have five suspects.

The license plate came back
to being registered to a woman

By the name of
"tierra davis."

Tierra davis did resemble
the woman

That was in
the second walmart video.

♪

♪

Suddenly, things started
happening rapidly.

Pearland p.D. Made a traffic
stop on that green saturn,

And had taken a male by the name
of "hughe baldwin" into custody.

So, we immediately head down
to pearland p.D.,

And interview hughe.

Roberts: Hughe actually
identified himself

As the person
in the video.

And he also identified tierra
has the female in the video.

We told we need to talk
to tierra,

And hughe was
readily available.

"I'll go pick her up.

I'll bring her to you,
and you guys can talk to her."

So, now,
the dots were connecting

Waters: Tierra readily admitted
to using the card.

She had purchased some things
for shajuana pope,

Who was hughe baldwin's sister.

And what kind of a car do you
think shajuana pope drives?

A black pontiac...

...We see the black male
with the red shirt

And the khaki pants
getting out of.

Roberts: Tierra looks at
the picture, and says,

"yeah, I think
that's kendrick."

Kendrick baldwin.

Waters: Kendrick baldwin's
mother is shajuana pope,

The registered owner
of that black pontiac.

The similarities and the
identification is striking.

And I am confident that
that's kendrick baldwin

That I'm looking at, in that red
shirt and those khaki shorts.

At this point,
they're thinking that

They're closing in
on the suspect,

The person using the card,
as being kendrick baldwin.

Roberts: We locate
a facebook account for kendrick.

And it was rather
ironic that,

Shortly after
the murder happens,

Kendrick changed his facebook
name to "trigga man."

Well, that obviously
kind of jumps out.

I mean, you see
a day or two later

That he calls himself
"trigga man,"

Potentially he's confessing,
inadvertently,

To being the trigger man
in this case.

Waters:
At this point, the roads are
all leading to kendrick baldwin.

Somebody had to hit me
in the face with a 2x4

To make me stop.

Waters: It's been seven weeks
since aidee reyna

That was gunned down
in front of her home.

We have a new suspect,

And his name is
kendrick baldwin.

And I am confident that
that's kendrick baldwin

That I'm looking at, in that red
shirt knows khaki shorts,

Using the card
of the victim.

Roberts: We believe it's him
in both videos.

He calls himself "trigga man" --
kendrick "trigga man" baldwin.

We make a cruise
at the apartment

Where we know kendrick lives,
with his mother,

Shajuana pope.

And lo and behold, what do
we find sitting in front of us?

A black pontiac --

The exact same black pontiac
we see on the video.

♪

We find kendrick
in the apartment.

We get kendrick in the car.

We pull out onto the street.

So, just by chance,
shajuana pope

Had walked to
the convenience store.

♪

And we stopped,
and spoke to her.

And she volunteered to come in,
and speak with us, as well.

We get them down to
the homicide division office,

I put shajuana pope
in one interview room,

And I put kendrick
and the other.

It's all about
relationships.

Now, as it turned out,
sergeant roberts -- bobby --

Had established a relationship
and a rapport with kendrick.

So, he conducts the interview
with kendrick,

And I go ahead and conduct
my interview with shajuana.

I showed her the picture
of the black male

With the red shirt
and the khaki pants

That we thought was her son,
kendrick baldwin.

Shajuana adamantly denied
that that was her son.

Well, what's the next
logical question for me?

"well, then, who is it?

That gumsure
looks like him.

She comes off with
something like "beto" --

And it wasn't the guy that was
running for senate in texas,

You know, running for president
it wasn't that beto.

He is kendrick's
good friend.

When she's telling my
it's not her son,

It's not kendrick.

My thinking is that bobby

Is going to sift through
the bullcrap, now,

And we're gonna come up
with a viable suspect.

I trust bobby.
He's a good homicide detective.

He's a good interviewer.

Roberts: What was
eye-opening was,

Kendrick talked about
aidee's murder,

And he just freely told me
who was involved.

I realize he's giving me
the shooter.

He's telling me
that seitrich buckner

Is the shooter --

You know, if he's
telling the truth,

And not trying
to play it off

That it's not him,
it's somebody else.

On June the 19th, seitrich
had gone to shajuana's house

For a family reunion.

Kendrick said that seitrich

Was walking through
an apartment complex,

And that, when aidee got out
of her car, he approached her.

Seitrich pointed a gun at her,
and told her

"you know
what time it is,"

Which was his way
of saying

"you're getting robbed
right now."

He said that seitrich
pointed a gun at her.

She either grabbed him,

Or she's yelling
"no, no" at him.

Seitrich told kendrick

That aidee fell to the ground
unconscious.

Kendrick, the way he
laid the facts out,

He was either the shooter
or he was telling the truth.

Bobby walks in the room,

And hands me a picture,
and walks out.

And the name on the picture
is "seitrich buckner."

And I look at
his picture.

And I'm like, "holy crap.

This looks like
kendrick baldwin's
twin brother."

It's starting to turn it
in a direction

From a domestic-violence
murder...

...To an aggravated robbery --

To a stranger-on-stranger
aggravated robbery.

So, now, humberto is being
eliminated pretty quickly.

We obtained a pocket warrant
for seitrich buckner,

For capital murder.

Waters:
The problem with seitrich
was that he was transient.

He was really laying his head
wherever anybody would let him.

We tracked his phone
to his girlfriend's house,

And suffice it to say,
we've located seitrich buckner.

Roberts:
We asked to speak to seitrich.

They said "he's back there,
in the back room."

That's one of those moments
you're going, "holy crap.

I can't believe he's here."

So, we walk to the back room,
and sprawled out on the bed

Was a male who we found
to be seitrich buckner.

And I said, "would you mind
coming down with us?"

And his response was
"let me put my shoes on."

It's not uncommon
for people who,

For one,
believe their own lies.

He knows there was no witnesses
on the scene.

"they have nothing.

So, yeah, let's go talk
to them."

Waters: I watch him.

I want to see just how
he's sitting in that chair.

What's he doing?

Very calm.
So, what does that tell me?

He's ready to tell his story --
his version of the truth.

There was zero connection
between aidee,

Aracely,
seitrich buckner.

And so, with nothing
tying him to aidee

Or the crime scene,
getting him to open up

Is the only chance we'll have to
charge him with capital murder.

♪

Waters:
Close to two months after
aidee reyna was gunned down,

We have a new suspect --
seitrich buckner.

We've got seitrich buckner
identified as the black male

In the red shirt
and the khaki pants

Using the card of the victim,
aidee reyna.

But there was zero connection
between aidee

And seitrich buckner.

This is a stranger-on-stranger
murder

And the only way
to seal the deal

Is to go for the confession.

When I talked to seitrich,
knowing the fact

That he just
lays his head

Wherever someone will let him
lay his head,

He doesn't really have a home,
my preparation for this

Is to appeal to him
as a father figure.

Now, this is a good start,
because he's immediately

Making an admission,
telling me

"yeah, I had the card.
I used it."

I talked to him about
what I see on the videos.

I want him to know.

I'm telling him
the truth.

Do you remember
that red shirt

And those khaki shorts
you were wearing?

And you could see lights
going off, you know?

Okay. Here we go.
Here's the first lie.

He's offering up
a little bit of truth,

Which is the debit card,
and the use of it.

But what turns that little bit
of truth into a big old lie?

"I got it from a friend."

Well, no, you didn't.

I show him pictures
of the scene,

Because I wanted him
to understand

What he was
responsible for.

Aidee is never going
to hug her children,

And hold
her children again.

At that point,
I was starting to sense

That appealing to him
on an emotional level,

In terms of what he had done,
wasn't gonna work.

So, I'll change course,
and tell him

That kendrick told us

About what happened
to that young lady.

And, of course,
I got the look --

Kind of that
thousand-yard stare

That he didn't believe
what I was telling him.

And I'm just looking at him,
like, "that's kendrick, right?"

"yeah. But I don't believe
anything he's saying."

Well, the problem
for you, seitrich, is,

Is that I believe
everything he's saying.

I said "we can sit here
until the second coming,

And you're not gonna
be able to deny it anymore.

Here are your choices..."

I know that, when I get tired
of hearing myself talk

In the interview room,

That I have been in there
way too long.

But time is always on
the interviewer's side.

After four hours, he finally
just hangs his head.

Alright.
We're in the end zone,

And now it's time
to spike the football.

Right?

But I can't do that.

I'm sitting here going --
you know inside, I'm like,

"holy crap. There it is."
you know, "we got it."

But now,
we've got to go further.

Lift him up.
Tell him I'm proud of him,

And tell me what happened.

He was out hunting.

Roberts: "why would you
do such a thing?"

Seitrich's explanation was that
he didn't have any money,

That his baby's mama
gave him a hard time

About not supporting his son,
and he had some attorney fees.

Fuller:
Without that confession,

It would have been
near impossible to try.

We didn't have a lot
of physical evidence.

The gun was gone,
and so were the shoes.

So, it all rested on
detective waters' testimony,

The confession,

And his total devotion
to seeking the truth.

♪

♪

She's in my heart,
and she's not gonna go away.

Waters: I don't think you can
find a better definition

Of an innocent victim,
in aidee.

It's only people
that do what I do

That speak for the dead,
that give them voice.

He's taken it away,
and I'm giving it back to them.