Trial 4 (2020): Season 1, Episode 3 - Three Trials - full transcript
[dramatic music playing]
[police talking over radio]
[reporter] John Mulligan, Boston
detective, was shot five times in the face
then robbed of his service weapon.
[officer] Detective Mulligan
was a veteran Boston police officer,
a much-decorated Boston police officer.
When cops get killed,
the loyalty of the police
to each other is en-- enormous,
even if they know the cop is a bad cop.
So, they're going to manipulate
witnesses and evidence,
and we knew we were against forces
that were stronger than other cases.
[Rosemary Scapicchio] Acerra, Robinson,
and Brazil, so when you keep seeing
the same officers' names
popping up all the time,
all of that
started to raise red flags for us.
[reporter] Detective Walter Robinson
mourns for his friend, John Mulligan.
Uh, John Mulligan was a, uh,
hard-working, dedicated police officer.
One of the finest gentlemen
that I've ever known,
and I've known him for over 23 years.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rosemary] Acerra and Robinson kept
popping up on the most important parts
of the case.
Instead of having
homicide detectives, it's them.
That raises an eyebrow to everybody
'cause they were drug cops.
They weren't homicide cops.
And so the question is A,
why are they so involved.
Uh, and B,
why is homicide letting them do this?
Why is homicide basically
letting them poach their case?
It didn't make any sense.
[upbeat music playing]
[soft piano playing]
I got arrested and this is where--
where they brought me.
I was at Nashua Street from 1993 to 1995.
Somebody's banging on the window.
That's how we communicated, and
so we called it sky-- like, skywriting.
You would write,
but you would, like tap,
like tap the side of the window
to-- to-- to finish your word.
You know, I had never been in jail before.
I didn't know what to expect.
I didn't know what to think.
Um, I didn't even know how to turn
the lights on and off, you know?
Like, my experience here
was the realization beginning to set in,
like, I'm not having no control
of what was going on in my life,
you know what I mean?
It's like, scar-- and that's scary too.
And [stammers] it seemed to have gotten--
It just, like-- just over the years--
just like, just worse.
Just worse and worse.
[somber music playing]
[Dennis Harris] For the record,
it's September 26th, 1993.
We are currently
at Area E-5 in West Roxbury.
The speaker is Detective Dennis Harris
of the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Present is Detective Walter Robinson
of Area E-5.
The individual being interviewed here
is a Ms. Rosa Sanchez.
Rosa Sanchez was
a 19-year-old, young, Hispanic woman,
and she ended up being the only witness
who said that she saw Sean Ellis
in that parking lot
in suspicious poses that night.
When she was first contacted,
she contacted some police officer
who then got Acerra involved
because Acerra knew her.
Acerra brought her to the police station
to give a statement.
[Kenneth Acerra] Okay, Rosa.
If I could bring you back to once
you arrived at Walgreens.
3:05 in the morning?
[Rosa Sanchez] Yes.
I was walking towards Walgreens,
I saw the cop in the car sleeping.
There was a Black male
crouched next to the car.
He looked towards me…
then he looked down real quick…
and I just walked in real fast.
It took, like, 20 minutes
trying to find the soap.
I paid for my stuff.
I went out.
I seen the same guy that was crouched.
He was with another guy on the phone.
[Dennis] Were these two guys
together at the phones?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Dennis] Did you make an observation
of the detective once again?
[Rosa] He looked the same
as I had seen him the first time.
Later, after Sean was arrested,
Acerra brought her to the police station
to look at photographs.
My name is Richard Ross.
I'm a detective assigned
to the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Presently with me, Rosa Sanchez.
Rosa, we're here at homicide unit,
and Detective Kenny Acerra
and Detective Walter Robinson
brought you here voluntarily
to look at some pictures tonight, correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
-[Ross] Okay.
Detective Acerra, as it turned out, was…
His girlfriend was her aunt,
"her" being Rosa Sanchez.
There was a family relationship
between Acerra and Sanchez.
Did it raise a red flag? No.
I mean, we get information
come in from a lot of people,
a lot of policemen
bring in information and stuff.
They may know somebody,
maybe a family member who knows.
They bring them in.
By the way,
she was in this room with Detective Ross,
who was showing her the photos,
but Robinson and Acerra
remained in the room
while she was doing these IDs.
[Ross] And I showed you an array
of eight colored photographs
of Black males,
-isn't that correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Ross] And you looked at them
for a short period of time,
maybe five minutes or so.
[David Duncan]
Sean Ellis was in this photo array.
She did not pick out Sean Ellis.
She did point to somebody else
and said, "This person stalked me,
you know, I don't know how long before."
And instead of taking that array away
and putting another array together,
they cover the picture and they say,
"Don't consider that picture."
"Now, look at the remaining photos and
tell us whether or not you see the guy."
And so now she knows
the guy must be there
because that's the message they're sending
to her. The guy must be there.
[Ross]
Now, when you looked at those pictures,
was there anybody in there
that you recall identifying?
[Rosemary] So, she picks another guy
who's not Sean.
And at that point,
uh, they end up taking her downstairs.
Um, and having-- She has a conversation
with Acerra and Robinson.
[police siren blaring]
[Ross] Did you have a conversation
with the officers?
[Rosa] With Walter, yes.
Then Robinson, I think,
comes running back up and says,
"She can pick him out."
So, she's alone in the car
with Acerra and Robinson
for two, three minutes
and suddenly, she can pick him out.
And he lives with [stammers] her relative?
Come on.
[Ross] This person here,
you point to photograph number 402 538.
-Is that correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Ross] Okay.
To me, it's just really sloppy police work
uh, that-- that you would show
a-a potential witness the same photo array
three different times
until they finally get the person
that you want them to get in that array.
[officer] Uh, Mitty? Kenny? Anybody?
Would you get the witness,
and escort the witness down, please?
Person number six, step forward.
May the record reflect that person number
six has been identified by the witness.
Sean Ellis.
[Rosemary]
After this identification happens,
uh, Phyllis Broker,
who is the prosecutor in the case.
Uh, and this is a picture
of ADA Phyllis Broker.
Uh, she was the prosecutor
who prosecuted Sean.
She had some concerns
about Acerra and Robinson's involvement
in this case.
And they were concerning enough to her
that she requested
that they both do a statement under oath
as to how the identification happened.
And they were pissed.
Like don't-- "How dare you doubt us
about the story we've been telling?"
They don't wanna do
the statement under oath,
but they're required to.
And they ultimately do it, both of them.
[officer] We're here
in the offices of the homicide unit
with Detective Walter Robinson.
-Mitty, you're also known as Mitty, right?
-[Mitty] Yes.
[officer] Mitty, did you participate
in making up any arrays on this case?
[Mitty laughing]
[chuckling] Get the…
Are you serious?
[laughing continues]
That was beautiful, honest to God.
No, I love it. You got me.
Will you put on a real tape and let's go?
-[officer] This is on.
-[Mitty] Okay.
-No, I didn't.
-[officer] Okay.
Detective Acerra, one question.
Did you tell Rosa Sanchez
which picture in the array
was the suspect?
[Acerra] No.
[officer] Is it fair to say,
you did not know which picture
in which array was the suspect?
-[Acerra] No, I did not.
-[officer] Okay.
[Rosemary] Right after
they gave a statement under oath,
they each contacted the Boston
Police Officers Detectives Union,
who were furious,
uh, that a homicide prosecutor,
uh, would ever ask a detective
to give a statement under oath.
Uh, it had been unprecedented.
It had never happened before.
Her boss,
who was Ralph Martin at the time,
got a letter from the Detectives Union
saying basically,
"You better take her off this case."
"This is bullshit."
Yeah, at that time, unions were considered
to be much more powerful politically.
The Globe wrote about this tension
between particularly Phyllis,
the chief homicide investigator,
and Martin's office
in the Boston Police Commanders.
Ralph Martin, to his credit, uh,
didn't take Phyllis Broker off the case.
Um, and, um, Acerra and Robinson
sort of rode the wave, uh,
didn't get exposed.
[indistinct chatter]
This case will be prosecuted
by Phyllis Broker to my left,
who is the chief of the Suffolk County
District Attorney's Homicide Unit.
So, Rosa Sanchez was one
of the prosecution's critical witnesses.
And that was the subject of an effort
to suppress her identification of Sean,
um, on the grounds
that it was tainted by--
in particular by her interaction
with Detective Robinson and Acerra.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] The prosecution's key witness
picked Sean Ellis out of a photo array.
His lawyer wants the statement dismissed
from the upcoming trial
because the witness first picked out
two other men before identifying Ellis.
His lawyer says the police
unduly influenced the young lady.
She's with a Boston police officer,
as I've said in my motions.
She's with a Boston officer
who happens to be, uh,
the, uh, father of her relative
that lives with her aunt,
that knows her, you know,
uh, uh, uh, very well,
and I think that there should have been
somebody else besides him with her.
[reporter] The judge will decide by Monday
whether to suppress any of the statements.
The trial will start shortly after that
within the next two or three weeks.
The motion to suppress the identification
was denied,
uh, which means that, at trial,
they would be able
to present the identification.
That was a huge loss.
Um…
That was-- that was a huge loss.
[sad music playing]
[reporter] The trial to determine
who killed Boston police detective
John J. Mulligan, opens today
on this chilly January morning
at the Suffolk County Courthouse.
The defendant, Sean Ellis,
is one of the two young men
accused of shooting the detective
five times in the face
in a Walgreens parking lot 16 months ago.
When the trial commenced,
it was January of 1995.
And I remember it was winter. Cold.
By the time the case
actually got to the courthouse,
I was actually the courthouse reporter.
Detective Mulligan's brother,
Richard Mulligan, was there with his wife.
Detective Mulligan's son was there.
[indistinct chatter]
Mrs. Ellis was there.
[Mary Ellis] The first trial,
my family and I
would go into the courtroom.
Um, there was a wall of policemen.
[Norman Zalkind] Cops would fill
the courtroom, you know.
It's one of the most difficult cases
you could ever have.
It's a police killing. It's a horror case.
This is a Black man, white police officer.
Of course it's race.
Is race the only thing?
It's one of the factors.
[Sean Ellis]
As I headed to trial, I was petrified.
As soon as I walked
in the courtroom itself,
like, all I heard was the sound
of, like, cameras and the flicker,
and that really bothered me.
Like, it was upsetting.
It was overwhelming.
Um, it was just a bad feeling.
It was just like, just--
just a bad feeling.
I tried not to even look at Sean.
I wanted to look at him.
There was times
I might have got a little glance at him,
but his face was so sad.
[indistinct chatter]
I knew that it wasn't about me,
that it was more about that cop.
As a 19, 20, 21-year-old kid
that had no experience with the legal
system, that had no background in law,
I knew I was on trial
for the murder of a Boston cop,
but to, like, process that,
I wasn't able to process that at the time.
I mean, we came down to a theory
that Terry Patterson shot Mulligan,
that Sean Ellis
didn't have anything to do with it,
didn't know it was going to happen,
and that then he took the gun
from Terry Patterson
because Terry Patterson told him to.
That was our theory.
And the reason that we decided, I think,
on Terry Patterson is interesting.
They had fingerprints, right?
They had these five simultaneous swipes
on the car door
that they matched to Terry Patterson.
We basically embraced it
and said, "No prints of Sean Ellis
anywhere on this."
You know,
"All you see is Terry Patterson's prints."
They don't have Sean's prints.
It's not there.
If you have the fingerprints,
you'd say, "Wow."
It's not there.
I knew someone else had been arrested
and his fingerprints,
that person's fingerprints,
were on the window, the side window,
the driver side window of the car,
not Sean Ellis'.
The prosecution said
that these two guys came to the Walgreens,
and they saw a cop sleeping,
and they wanted
to get his service revolver,
and that they drove out,
drove around to another street,
walked back, um, shot him and killed him.
That it was a joint venture,
and it didn't matter which one did it.
They're both guilty.
-That was their theory of the case.
-Pretty simple, straightforward theory.
And so the linchpins of that
were fingerprints on the car
for Terry Patterson,
the car itself, which they found,
which was Terry Patterson's,
Rosa Sanchez,
and the gun, which they eventually found.
Sean Ellis then took both
the murder weapon and the officer's weapon
and hid them.
[reporter]
Phyllis Broker, the assistant DA,
says a witness will testify
to seeing Ellis crouched by Mulligan's car
before the shooting.
Rosa Sanchez never saw anything.
She was basically
being manipulated by her uncle.
With a witness like that,
you're not gonna get her to admit,
"Oh, yeah,
he put the screws on me to do this,"
so you just highlight for the jury
everything that says to them,
that's what he did,
you know, whether she says it or not.
It wasn't like
we were attacking her as a vicious liar,
no, because she was a pawn.
[Phyllis Broker] Good afternoon.
Could you tell us your name?
[Rosa Sanchez] Rosa Sanchez.
[Phyllis] Ms. Sanchez, the man you saw
crouching by Detective Mulligan's car,
do you see him in court?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Phyllis] Will you point to him?
Before you saw the defendant Sean Ellis
crouching by the car,
had you ever seen him before?
-[Rosa] Yes.
-[Phyllis] When had you seen him?
-[Rosa] In a bus.
-[Phyllis] When did you realize that?
[Rosa]
The same day I heard about Mulligan dying.
[Phyllis] Nothing further, Your Honor.
[Norman] You were brought over
by Detective Acerra?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] You've known Detective Acerra
for quite a while?
[Rosa] Yes.
-[Norman] In fact, he knows your mother?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] Well, you knew your…
What about your aunt, Lucy DelValle?
She lived with him, didn't she?
[Rosa] Yes.
-[Norman] She had a child with him, right?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] And you knew the child?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman]
You would see him at family functions?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] And, in fact, he was the officer
that brought you down
for the photo show-up?
[Rosa] Yes.
The witnesses I recall
were police officers
talking about identifying Sean Ellis
and that process,
and the young woman was related
to one of those police officers.
That seemed strange to me.
It seemed fishy.
The other witness who stands,
um, strongly in my memory
was someone called Uncle Dave.
Uncle David is Sean's uncle,
uh, his mother's brother.
It was Detective Brazil
who approached him,
so they started asking Uncle David
for information about any conversations
that he may have had with Sean.
David Murray brought to the police
that he had taken his nephew
out in a field or a backyard or someplace
and pressed him to answer questions
about what had happened
at Walgreens that night.
And then he told the police
what Sean had told him.
[Daniel Keeler] We're present
in the Homicide Office
at 273 D Street in South Boston.
Present is the speaker,
Sergeant Detective Daniel Keeler.
Also present is detective John Brazil,
each assigned to the Homicide Unit.
And we are presently speaking
with David Murray.
Can you describe what happened with Sean?
Tell me what happened.
[David Murray] I asked Sean to be honest
with me and tell me what happened.
[Keeler] And what did he say?
[Murray]
He was in Walgreens getting Pampers.
When he came out of the Walgreens,
the car wasn't there.
His friend, Terry Patterson, said,
"Come on, Sean. Come on. Let's go."
Then he started to run.
Only when he got to the car,
Sean said, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Patterson said, "I shot someone.
I shot someone."
And then, um, he passed him two guns.
[Keeler] "Passed him two guns."
Those were his words?
[Murray] Yeah.
[Keeler] Did you offer to Sean
that he might have some problems
with the evidence that we had?
[Murray] Oh, yeah.
[Keeler]
What did he do when you said that?
[Murray] He said,
"But I didn't shoot him."
[Keeler]
"Uncle David, but I didn't shoot him."
But earlier, he had mentioned to you
that Terry said, "I shot him."
-[Murray] Yes, he did.
-[Keeler] Okay.
I got a little flak from the family
when I told them I had to testify.
They were kind of forcing me to testify.
Only thing to do is go along with it
because I have no choice. I had no choice.
David got much pressure
because he had just came home
from doing a 14-years bit
for house evasion.
He was out on parole.
I think once he started talking to them,
he didn't think
they was going to dig into his past
and pressure him.
It was uncomfortable.
Uh, I was nervous. Uh…
I got a whole bunch of questions
coming at me.
[Phyllis] Keep your voice nice and loud
and tell us your name.
[Murray] It's David Murray.
[Phyllis]
Do you know the defendant Sean Ellis?
[Murray] Yes, I do. He's my nephew.
[Phyllis] Sir, are you the same
David Murray who, on June 3rd, 1982,
was convicted
of entering a dwelling, being armed,
and making an assault therein
with intent to commit a felony
and for which you received
a 15-to-20-year MCI Walpole sentence?
-[Murray] Yes, I am.
-[Phyllis] Did you have any conversation
with the defendant, Sean Ellis,
about the murder of Detective Mulligan?
[Murray] Yes, I did.
[Phyllis]
What did he say and what did you say?
[Murray] He told me, upon leaving
Walgreens, he went out the door
and Terry Patterson
was yelling at him, "Come on. Come on."
Sean replied,
"What's going on? What's wrong?"
-And Patterson started running.
-[Phyllis] What else did he say?
[Murray] Sean told me
they ran across the parking lot,
and they got into the car by the bushes.
Upon getting into the car,
Terry threw two guns.
He told me
his prints might be on the guns.
Sean was worried about Patterson
fingering him as the triggerman.
[Phyllis] Nothing further, Your Honor.
[Norman] Sir, I want to hear
from you everything
the defendant Sean Ellis told you,
and everything
you said to him in conversation
about the murder
of Detective John Mulligan.
What did he say?
[Murray] He said he didn't do it.
He didn't do it.
That's when he started crying.
[Norman] What did he say?
[Murray] I asked him again
to be honest with me
and to tell me,
you know, what was going on.
Again, he kept saying,
"I didn't do it, Uncle."
They pressured David
into making the testimony that he made
to help their case.
Okay?
Just like poor Tia,
she had the little boy,
that they could threaten
to take the child.
[sinister music playing]
[John Ellement]
I remember Letia's testimony.
She was Sean's girlfriend at the time.
And I remember
how reluctant she looked to be there.
That was the last place
she ever wanted to be
was on that witness stand,
um, testifying against Sean,
but it's-- but I recall her testimony
as the thing
that bridged, uh, Sean and two guns.
But I don't completely blame her
in that period
because she was just a kid,
an inexperienced kid.
She maybe thought
she was helping Sean,
but it hurted him in the long run.
[somber music playing]
I remember seeing you first
coming out of my house on Floyd Street.
-Yeah, but we didn't talk.
-We didn't talk 'cause I was shy.
-You was shy?
-Absolutely.
I seen you with Nate,
I think Keisha, and Pepsi.
-It was Nate and Pepsi.
-It was all of us.
And I approach Nate,
and I'm like, "Yo, who's that girl?"
-That's not how it happened.
-It is.
I walked down the street first,
and y'all was on the porch and you said--
That was that night.
-That's that day.
-It was nighttime.
It was day because I had my son out.
He was a baby. [chuckles]
My memory is clear.
It was summer, and I remember seeing you,
saying, "Oh, man, she's fine."
And so, I tried to talk to you, right,
but I had a speech problem,
so it kind of caused me to be reserved.
-Mm-hm.
-I gave you my number and everything.
-I remember that.
-Yeah.
It might not have been
love at first sight for you, right,
but for me, it was love at first sight.
I can tell you this over and over,
it's never gonna change.
Only thing I know is it was like
that stutter because you were stuttering
and I was like,
"What is wrong with this guy?"
-Listen.
-[chuckles]
I asked Nate, I said,
"Yo, Nate, like, hook us up."
And then that's how that happened,
and then the rest came to pass and…
The police were harassing me,
um, every day.
Every day, all day.
It was so bad that I went outside one day
and asked if they wanted breakfast
and coffee, but it was sarcastic.
They hounded her for days. They…
I would go to the store
and look down the street,
her house was surrounded.
They literally intimidated that child.
She was a child then. She was only 19.
Eighteen or 19 years old
with a little baby.
[Letia Walker]
Phyllis Broker, the DA at the time,
she asked if I could come in
to have, you know, like, a talk with her,
but she was very friendly at first.
After we spoke a little bit,
I remember her saying, you know,
"If you're scared," um, you know,
"we could move you.
We could get you a house."
"If you need money, we'll--
we'll help you live."
"We just want you to be okay."
Only thing they told me
was that Sean was gonna hurt me
if I didn't basically move and change
my name and all this weird stuff.
Sean's not going to hurt me.
He shelters me, like, he protects me.
He's not gonna hurt me.
Because I didn't say
what she wanted me to say
or act as though, you know,
act how she wanted me to act,
it was like,
"We could take your son."
So, I was like, "But I didn't do anything.
There's no way you could get him taken."
She said,
"I have the power to take your son."
[exhales]
Being that young,
again, worrying about my child, um…
I couldn't let that happen. Um…
Other than that,
they didn't really prep me,
but I just knew what she was trying to do.
[soft piano playing]
I remember being at the courthouse…
and being asked
to take my fingerprints
in, like, this little room.
And they just did it for the record.
That was it.
And me, I don't have anything to hide.
Okay, take my prints.
Um, that was it.
I found out that the-- they claimed
that my prints was on the weapon.
All I remember was seeing my name,
and I was stressed out,
and I was like, "Here we go."
I said that. I said, "Here we go
with the lies because all I did
was give them my fingerprints."
This is crazy how I gave 'em my prints,
and now, all of a sudden,
the girlfriend of Sean Ellis' prints
are on whatever,
clip, weapon, gun, whatever,
and I was stressed out.
The day I testified in the first trial,
it was a weird feeling, um…
I didn't want to look at no one.
I didn't want to talk. I was very rude
to everybody asking me questions, um…
and it's crazy 'cause I don't remember
none of the questions that she asked me,
but you know what I do remember?
Her being so red as she's talking to me.
I remember her being so red
that it was actually, um, unreal.
[Phyllis Broker] How many guns?
[Letia Walker] Two or three.
I'm not-- Oh. I don't remember.
[Phyllis] What did they look like?
[Letia] It was one black gun,
and it was a little silver gun
with a white handle.
[Phyllis] Now, at any point in time,
did you touch those guns or those clips?
[Letia] Yes.
-[Phyllis] Where were they in your house?
-[Letia] In my room, under my end table.
-[Phyllis] Who put them there?
-[Letia] Sean.
All I will say about the whole thing is
for all these…
if there were guns in my room…
and for a lot of "people" or whatever
to have handled these guns…
my prints are the only ones on it.
That doesn't make any sense,
so I will leave that there.
[melancholy music playing]
Tia said that I [stammers]
brought two firearms to her house
and hid them under a nightstand
in her room or something.
There is no truth to it.
I never [stammers] had the cop's gun
nor the murder weapon.
I was in love with Tia,
and Tia was in love with me.
She wouldn't intentionally
do anything to hurt me,
but I also know that it's like
[stammers] if she's being threatened,
and she has to do stuff
to protect her-- herself and her son
at the time,
then she was, like, she'll put that first.
And so, like, me looking at her,
like, as a young child is--
which is what I was,
like, this-- there's forgiveness there.
There'll be no evidence
that anybody sees Sean Ellis
killing or robbing Officer Mulligan.
That's a clear, absolute fact.
Nobody sees it.
Just because
Terry Patterson murdered Mulligan
doesn't mean
that Sean Ellis murdered Mulligan.
Thank you, Norman.
[judge]
Mr. Foreman and members of the jury,
you've heard
the closing summations or arguments.
As I've said, and I'm now
going to instruct you on the law
that you're to apply to the facts
that you find in this case
in arriving at your verdicts.
I will continue to indicate to you
throughout the course
of these instructions
until you get sick and tired
of hearing me say it,
even if the defendant
didn't himself shoot Officer Mulligan
and take his weapon,
but that it was Patterson
who in fact did those things,
the defendant nevertheless
was there present as a joint venturer,
and therefore is as guilty
as Patterson would be
if those are the facts
that you find in this case.
[soft music playing]
[Catherine Hunt]
At the start of deliberations,
the foreman stated,
"We have to come to a conclusion here,"
and somebody asked, "Well, why?"
"Because we have a dead cop."
It was intense,
and certainly racial-issue overtones
were there.
Early on in our deliberations,
we-- we did all agree
we should just see where we stood
in terms of what people were thinking,
guilty, not guilty.
And it was either a majority to convict
or very, very close,
so we started going through it.
We felt that we should
go through all the evidence
and not just rush to some conclusion.
So, as we began our deliberations,
we were all aware that the principle
under which Sean Ellis was being tried
was one of joint venture.
Here's-- here's a young man
who could've just been with his buddy
who was going to steal some guns.
He's in the store buying diapers
and he comes out,
"What the hell? You killed a guy?"
Did he think
he was just going to take his guns,
and then all of a sudden,
the other person, Terry Patterson,
just went nuts and killed someone?
How does one prove that his mind was there
where the other person's was?
When we told the judge
we couldn't come to a conclusion,
he told us, "Keep trying," so we did.
[Sean] All I remember was him just
telling the jury to keep deliberating,
and I remember feeling like he was trying
to force them to find me guilty.
I was scared to death.
Like, my life is on the line.
To me, it was pretty much clear,
um, so I was kind of wondering
what was taking them so long.
[police siren blaring]
We were in court every day,
so I remember just being there,
just sitting all day in the bullpen.
People smoking cigarettes,
playing cards, just talking, getting on,
but I'm sitting there stressed
because my jury is out deliberating,
and I don't know what's gonna happen.
If you're there,
you sit there for eight hours
day after day, after day, after day.
It's, um, something you're aware of,
the passage of time,
like, how long these people
have been discussing it.
[reporter] What's been the worst part
of the waiting for you?
The not knowing
what the outcome is going to be.
We deliberated a total of eight days,
and it was fascinating that people
who had come in with a preconceived notion
that this has to be a guilty verdict,
and they felt that way
after the evidence had been presented,
but after we talked
and discussed this whole principle…
How can you really prove this?
…people changed their minds
and went from thinking guilty
to not guilty.
So, we were at a point
where I think it was either nine to three
or ten to two not guilty.
And we kept trying
to change people's minds
or get to a unanimous decision.
And so I said to this one man,
"Are we ever going to get to a point
where you will change your mind?"
And he said, "No."
I said,
"Then we're done here. We're done."
"You won't change your mind.
We have to have a unanimous decision."
"We're done."
So, we sent a note out, "We're hung."
[reporter] After 3 and a half days of
testimony and more than 60 hours
of deliberations, an emotionally
drained jury told Judge James McDaniel Jr.
it was hopelessly deadlocked
on murder and robbery charges.
The jury is deadlocked.
I take that to mean that no further
deliberations would be of any use,
so I'm gonna have this case
declared a mistrial.
In thinking back on this trial
or being asked
to-- to participate in this process,
it-- it was a huge thing
for me at the time.
[exhales]
[chuckles]
[breaking voice] It was a huge deal.
To… [chuckles]
[exhales]
[sniffles]
[clears throat]
When you're placed in a position…
[sniffles]
that a young man's life is in your hands,
you better believe it's a big, big deal.
It's a big deal.
And that doesn't leave a person,
whether it's [clears throat]
five years, 25 years, or 50 years.
[clears throat]
Excuse me. That will stay with me
for the rest of my life.
[sniffles]
[indistinct chatter]
[Sean] The jury was hung on a murder
charge and an armed robbery charge.
Both Norman and David felt-- felt
like the hung jury was like a victory.
They didn't have enough
to convince, um, 12 jurors
to a unanimous verdict.
I think they'll have serious problems
convincing another jury of the same thing.
They've the same problems.
We're not happy,
but we're going to go at it again.
And, um,
the jury obviously worked very hard.
Uh, that's to be respected and, uh…
That's not gonna deter us
from doing what we think we should do.
[Sean] I remember Ralph Martin
saying something along the lines
that he would continue to try this case
until he got a conviction.
I was almost, like, certain
that he was coming home.
Like, "I'm not worried about this.
This is nothing."
Um, his lawyers felt great about it.
They said he's gonna have
another trial, but…
you know,
they was kind of almost certain
that this would be okay.
Um…
But it wasn't.
[reporter 1] The murder trial
of Sean Ellis will be replayed
here at the Suffolk County Courthouse
beginning March 13th with 12 new jurors.
That means several more weeks
of anxious waiting and uncertainty
for the families of the defendant
and a murdered Boston police officer.
[reporter 2] Terry Patterson,
the other defendant,
his trial starts in four days.
[Ellement] It was obvious that the cases
against the men were different.
There was
no physical evidence of significance
that connected Sean to the crime.
During Terry's trial,
Boston Police and the Suffolk prosecutors
said that they discovered
Terry Patterson's fingerprints
on the door of the SUV.
So, very important difference
in terms of the evidence
against Sean Ellis and Terry L. Patterson.
So, during Terry's trial,
they brought the door in.
After they killed Officer Mulligan…
There was Detective Foilb,
testified about the fingerprints.
And then after he was done,
the door itself sat in the courtroom
for the rest of the trial
opposite the jury.
There's the door right there,
every single day.
[judge] Is the defendant
Terry L. Patterson guilty or not guilty?
[foreman]
Guilty. Guilty of murder, first degree.
The verdict came very quickly.
Life without possibility of parole.
I don't remember any specific emotion
from Mr. Patterson.
He was found guilty.
I was like, "Oh, shit," you know.
Terry never did anything.
We were to--
together that night, and we were.
I was concerned I wou--
I would be found guilty as well.
[melancholy music playing]
[David Duncan] Second trial,
we had the same, almost word for word.
Somebody on that jury
was asking for clarification
about what was joint venture,
and if they didn't think that Sean Ellis
knew that Terry Patterson had a gun,
was he guilty of joint-venture murder?
And the answer should have been no
and once again, the judge wouldn't do it.
[Raymond Mulvey] There was a lot
I wanted to know but wasn't allowed to.
I felt like the trial wasn't enough.
I felt like there should have been
another day or two
where there were more details given
about, you know, what had happened.
You know, what were the atrocities
that may have led up to it?
Was there a history with the victim
that we should have known about?
There was a history,
and you were allowed
a couple pages out of this history,
and you had to make a decision based on
a couple pages out of this history.
He had an uncle
that was being interviewed as a witness.
Um, and I tell you, the uncle was the one
that kept on trying to finish a sentence.
I don't know what the sentence was,
but he kept on getting shut down,
and they kept on turning to him, saying,
"Strike that from the record."
"Please only answer the questions
yes or no as they're presented to you."
And the uncle was one that, several times,
tried to actually poke through that.
I mean, I-- I walked away thinking,
"This guy was saying something
that would have, you know,
altered my opinion perhaps."
So, I think it was approximately
three days that we had deliberated
and by the end of that third day,
those that were gonna say no,
that was it.
"You can ask me again,
the answer's the same."
Um, and then it was after that
that we did a mistrial.
When I found out
that there was a second trial,
and it also ended in a hung jury,
I felt validation
that it wasn't just we who were confused
or unable to come to a conclusion.
Clearly, the prosecution
had not again proved its case
or had the defense
adequately proved their case.
So, again, there was no outcome,
which, yes, I think gave us all
some sort of level of satisfaction
that we hadn't blown it.
I was not convinced,
coming out of this case,
that the truth always came out.
There was a number of us
that were relieved
that when there was not a conviction
that we actually didn't make a decision
on this person's life.
It was going to be
potentially another case,
or another set of people
or whatever the DA was going to do.
[Sean]
Three murder trials in the same year.
For me,
physically, mentally, and emotionally,
to sit through three murder trials,
that is crazy.
I've never had three.
It's the only one I've had three.
And it happened
because it was a cop killing.
[Phyllis Broker]
Sean Ellis killed Officer Mulligan,
simply because Sean Ellis wanted that gun.
[Rosemary]
If you believe Rosa Sanchez's testimony,
the jury could conclude
that Sean was assisting in some way,
and then if you believe
that the guns were stolen
and that Sean had somehow
had possession of them,
then the story fits together.
[Sean] In the first trial,
the jury deliberated for eight days.
And then the second trial, the jury
deliberated between three and five days.
The last trial,
they deliberated for three hours.
[bailiff] Court, all rise.
[judge] Charges in the Sean K. Ellis case
for murder.
Is he guilty or not guilty, sir?
[foreman] Guilty.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] After the jury returned
with a first-degree murder verdict,
Sean Ellis breathed heavily
while the Mulligan family shed tears
after four trials,
two that ended in hung juries.
Get out of my face!
[Sean] I was sentenced to life in prison
with no chance of parole for the murder,
and I was sentenced to 30 to 40 years
for the armed robbery,
and I was sentenced to five to ten years
for possession of a firearm.
I heard it,
but I don't think
that when he read the sentence
it didn't compute in my head that
he was sentencing me to die in prison,
even though he said that
"I'm sentencing you
for the remainder of your natural life."
[sad music playing]
[Letia] Being as young as he was…
being as young as I was,
what the hell is next, for real now?
But they just sentenced
my boyfriend for life for a murder.
And I had to deal with it.
I had to deal with it, for real.
When they came back
with a guilty verdict…
that just took everything out of me,
just took everything out of me.
Lord, what am I going to do now?
They done found my son guilty
of a crime he didn't do.
How are we going
to undo what they done did,
and so I had that to deal with.
And again,
I was still messing with the crack,
trying to find an answer in the crack,
and realized that it wasn't giving me
no answers at all.
I had to start getting it together
to find out what we could do
to get my son out of jail.
[sniffles]
[inhales deeply]
[cries]
[sniffles]
[exhales deeply]
[Catherine] I found out that there
was a third trial, and he was convicted
and I thought, "How did that happen?"
And then I learned
that there was a woman on that third jury
that I actually knew.
So, after it was all over,
I got in touch with her
and said, "Let's talk about this."
And when we met,
the first words out of my mouth were,
"How could you find him guilty?"
And her response to me was,
"How could you not?"
Which-- I was floored with that.
So, of course,
then we started talking and analyzing,
bringing up certain evidence
and I said, "What about Uncle Dave?"
She said, "Who's Uncle Dave?
We didn't have any Uncle Dave."
So, clearly, through three trials
or the two preceding trials,
the prosecution rather had-- had learned
some things or made adjustments,
shall we say.
[Rosemary] As prosecutors,
they're not necessarily advocates
of the Commonwealth's position.
Their real goal is to seek justice,
that's their job,
not to get a conviction at all costs,
not to put someone away
who you think might have killed a cop,
but to-- to seek justice.
And so, do you start to ask yourself
as a prosecutor, ever,
when you have to try someone
three times in the same year,
um, whether or not this is really justice?
I don't think
anyone asked those questions.
[reporter] Sean Ellis was possibly
convicted in part by the work
of corrupt Boston Police Detectives
Kenneth Acerra,
Walter Robinson, and John Brazil.
The first two may have influenced
the testimony of a key witness
who saw Ellis at the scene of the crime.
It may be months before a decision is made
on whether or not
to grant Ellis a new trial.
For now, the prosecutors are convinced
that he received the right verdict
at his last trial.
[dramatic music playing]
[police talking over radio]
[reporter] John Mulligan, Boston
detective, was shot five times in the face
then robbed of his service weapon.
[officer] Detective Mulligan
was a veteran Boston police officer,
a much-decorated Boston police officer.
When cops get killed,
the loyalty of the police
to each other is en-- enormous,
even if they know the cop is a bad cop.
So, they're going to manipulate
witnesses and evidence,
and we knew we were against forces
that were stronger than other cases.
[Rosemary Scapicchio] Acerra, Robinson,
and Brazil, so when you keep seeing
the same officers' names
popping up all the time,
all of that
started to raise red flags for us.
[reporter] Detective Walter Robinson
mourns for his friend, John Mulligan.
Uh, John Mulligan was a, uh,
hard-working, dedicated police officer.
One of the finest gentlemen
that I've ever known,
and I've known him for over 23 years.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rosemary] Acerra and Robinson kept
popping up on the most important parts
of the case.
Instead of having
homicide detectives, it's them.
That raises an eyebrow to everybody
'cause they were drug cops.
They weren't homicide cops.
And so the question is A,
why are they so involved.
Uh, and B,
why is homicide letting them do this?
Why is homicide basically
letting them poach their case?
It didn't make any sense.
[upbeat music playing]
[soft piano playing]
I got arrested and this is where--
where they brought me.
I was at Nashua Street from 1993 to 1995.
Somebody's banging on the window.
That's how we communicated, and
so we called it sky-- like, skywriting.
You would write,
but you would, like tap,
like tap the side of the window
to-- to-- to finish your word.
You know, I had never been in jail before.
I didn't know what to expect.
I didn't know what to think.
Um, I didn't even know how to turn
the lights on and off, you know?
Like, my experience here
was the realization beginning to set in,
like, I'm not having no control
of what was going on in my life,
you know what I mean?
It's like, scar-- and that's scary too.
And [stammers] it seemed to have gotten--
It just, like-- just over the years--
just like, just worse.
Just worse and worse.
[somber music playing]
[Dennis Harris] For the record,
it's September 26th, 1993.
We are currently
at Area E-5 in West Roxbury.
The speaker is Detective Dennis Harris
of the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Present is Detective Walter Robinson
of Area E-5.
The individual being interviewed here
is a Ms. Rosa Sanchez.
Rosa Sanchez was
a 19-year-old, young, Hispanic woman,
and she ended up being the only witness
who said that she saw Sean Ellis
in that parking lot
in suspicious poses that night.
When she was first contacted,
she contacted some police officer
who then got Acerra involved
because Acerra knew her.
Acerra brought her to the police station
to give a statement.
[Kenneth Acerra] Okay, Rosa.
If I could bring you back to once
you arrived at Walgreens.
3:05 in the morning?
[Rosa Sanchez] Yes.
I was walking towards Walgreens,
I saw the cop in the car sleeping.
There was a Black male
crouched next to the car.
He looked towards me…
then he looked down real quick…
and I just walked in real fast.
It took, like, 20 minutes
trying to find the soap.
I paid for my stuff.
I went out.
I seen the same guy that was crouched.
He was with another guy on the phone.
[Dennis] Were these two guys
together at the phones?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Dennis] Did you make an observation
of the detective once again?
[Rosa] He looked the same
as I had seen him the first time.
Later, after Sean was arrested,
Acerra brought her to the police station
to look at photographs.
My name is Richard Ross.
I'm a detective assigned
to the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Presently with me, Rosa Sanchez.
Rosa, we're here at homicide unit,
and Detective Kenny Acerra
and Detective Walter Robinson
brought you here voluntarily
to look at some pictures tonight, correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
-[Ross] Okay.
Detective Acerra, as it turned out, was…
His girlfriend was her aunt,
"her" being Rosa Sanchez.
There was a family relationship
between Acerra and Sanchez.
Did it raise a red flag? No.
I mean, we get information
come in from a lot of people,
a lot of policemen
bring in information and stuff.
They may know somebody,
maybe a family member who knows.
They bring them in.
By the way,
she was in this room with Detective Ross,
who was showing her the photos,
but Robinson and Acerra
remained in the room
while she was doing these IDs.
[Ross] And I showed you an array
of eight colored photographs
of Black males,
-isn't that correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Ross] And you looked at them
for a short period of time,
maybe five minutes or so.
[David Duncan]
Sean Ellis was in this photo array.
She did not pick out Sean Ellis.
She did point to somebody else
and said, "This person stalked me,
you know, I don't know how long before."
And instead of taking that array away
and putting another array together,
they cover the picture and they say,
"Don't consider that picture."
"Now, look at the remaining photos and
tell us whether or not you see the guy."
And so now she knows
the guy must be there
because that's the message they're sending
to her. The guy must be there.
[Ross]
Now, when you looked at those pictures,
was there anybody in there
that you recall identifying?
[Rosemary] So, she picks another guy
who's not Sean.
And at that point,
uh, they end up taking her downstairs.
Um, and having-- She has a conversation
with Acerra and Robinson.
[police siren blaring]
[Ross] Did you have a conversation
with the officers?
[Rosa] With Walter, yes.
Then Robinson, I think,
comes running back up and says,
"She can pick him out."
So, she's alone in the car
with Acerra and Robinson
for two, three minutes
and suddenly, she can pick him out.
And he lives with [stammers] her relative?
Come on.
[Ross] This person here,
you point to photograph number 402 538.
-Is that correct?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Ross] Okay.
To me, it's just really sloppy police work
uh, that-- that you would show
a-a potential witness the same photo array
three different times
until they finally get the person
that you want them to get in that array.
[officer] Uh, Mitty? Kenny? Anybody?
Would you get the witness,
and escort the witness down, please?
Person number six, step forward.
May the record reflect that person number
six has been identified by the witness.
Sean Ellis.
[Rosemary]
After this identification happens,
uh, Phyllis Broker,
who is the prosecutor in the case.
Uh, and this is a picture
of ADA Phyllis Broker.
Uh, she was the prosecutor
who prosecuted Sean.
She had some concerns
about Acerra and Robinson's involvement
in this case.
And they were concerning enough to her
that she requested
that they both do a statement under oath
as to how the identification happened.
And they were pissed.
Like don't-- "How dare you doubt us
about the story we've been telling?"
They don't wanna do
the statement under oath,
but they're required to.
And they ultimately do it, both of them.
[officer] We're here
in the offices of the homicide unit
with Detective Walter Robinson.
-Mitty, you're also known as Mitty, right?
-[Mitty] Yes.
[officer] Mitty, did you participate
in making up any arrays on this case?
[Mitty laughing]
[chuckling] Get the…
Are you serious?
[laughing continues]
That was beautiful, honest to God.
No, I love it. You got me.
Will you put on a real tape and let's go?
-[officer] This is on.
-[Mitty] Okay.
-No, I didn't.
-[officer] Okay.
Detective Acerra, one question.
Did you tell Rosa Sanchez
which picture in the array
was the suspect?
[Acerra] No.
[officer] Is it fair to say,
you did not know which picture
in which array was the suspect?
-[Acerra] No, I did not.
-[officer] Okay.
[Rosemary] Right after
they gave a statement under oath,
they each contacted the Boston
Police Officers Detectives Union,
who were furious,
uh, that a homicide prosecutor,
uh, would ever ask a detective
to give a statement under oath.
Uh, it had been unprecedented.
It had never happened before.
Her boss,
who was Ralph Martin at the time,
got a letter from the Detectives Union
saying basically,
"You better take her off this case."
"This is bullshit."
Yeah, at that time, unions were considered
to be much more powerful politically.
The Globe wrote about this tension
between particularly Phyllis,
the chief homicide investigator,
and Martin's office
in the Boston Police Commanders.
Ralph Martin, to his credit, uh,
didn't take Phyllis Broker off the case.
Um, and, um, Acerra and Robinson
sort of rode the wave, uh,
didn't get exposed.
[indistinct chatter]
This case will be prosecuted
by Phyllis Broker to my left,
who is the chief of the Suffolk County
District Attorney's Homicide Unit.
So, Rosa Sanchez was one
of the prosecution's critical witnesses.
And that was the subject of an effort
to suppress her identification of Sean,
um, on the grounds
that it was tainted by--
in particular by her interaction
with Detective Robinson and Acerra.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] The prosecution's key witness
picked Sean Ellis out of a photo array.
His lawyer wants the statement dismissed
from the upcoming trial
because the witness first picked out
two other men before identifying Ellis.
His lawyer says the police
unduly influenced the young lady.
She's with a Boston police officer,
as I've said in my motions.
She's with a Boston officer
who happens to be, uh,
the, uh, father of her relative
that lives with her aunt,
that knows her, you know,
uh, uh, uh, very well,
and I think that there should have been
somebody else besides him with her.
[reporter] The judge will decide by Monday
whether to suppress any of the statements.
The trial will start shortly after that
within the next two or three weeks.
The motion to suppress the identification
was denied,
uh, which means that, at trial,
they would be able
to present the identification.
That was a huge loss.
Um…
That was-- that was a huge loss.
[sad music playing]
[reporter] The trial to determine
who killed Boston police detective
John J. Mulligan, opens today
on this chilly January morning
at the Suffolk County Courthouse.
The defendant, Sean Ellis,
is one of the two young men
accused of shooting the detective
five times in the face
in a Walgreens parking lot 16 months ago.
When the trial commenced,
it was January of 1995.
And I remember it was winter. Cold.
By the time the case
actually got to the courthouse,
I was actually the courthouse reporter.
Detective Mulligan's brother,
Richard Mulligan, was there with his wife.
Detective Mulligan's son was there.
[indistinct chatter]
Mrs. Ellis was there.
[Mary Ellis] The first trial,
my family and I
would go into the courtroom.
Um, there was a wall of policemen.
[Norman Zalkind] Cops would fill
the courtroom, you know.
It's one of the most difficult cases
you could ever have.
It's a police killing. It's a horror case.
This is a Black man, white police officer.
Of course it's race.
Is race the only thing?
It's one of the factors.
[Sean Ellis]
As I headed to trial, I was petrified.
As soon as I walked
in the courtroom itself,
like, all I heard was the sound
of, like, cameras and the flicker,
and that really bothered me.
Like, it was upsetting.
It was overwhelming.
Um, it was just a bad feeling.
It was just like, just--
just a bad feeling.
I tried not to even look at Sean.
I wanted to look at him.
There was times
I might have got a little glance at him,
but his face was so sad.
[indistinct chatter]
I knew that it wasn't about me,
that it was more about that cop.
As a 19, 20, 21-year-old kid
that had no experience with the legal
system, that had no background in law,
I knew I was on trial
for the murder of a Boston cop,
but to, like, process that,
I wasn't able to process that at the time.
I mean, we came down to a theory
that Terry Patterson shot Mulligan,
that Sean Ellis
didn't have anything to do with it,
didn't know it was going to happen,
and that then he took the gun
from Terry Patterson
because Terry Patterson told him to.
That was our theory.
And the reason that we decided, I think,
on Terry Patterson is interesting.
They had fingerprints, right?
They had these five simultaneous swipes
on the car door
that they matched to Terry Patterson.
We basically embraced it
and said, "No prints of Sean Ellis
anywhere on this."
You know,
"All you see is Terry Patterson's prints."
They don't have Sean's prints.
It's not there.
If you have the fingerprints,
you'd say, "Wow."
It's not there.
I knew someone else had been arrested
and his fingerprints,
that person's fingerprints,
were on the window, the side window,
the driver side window of the car,
not Sean Ellis'.
The prosecution said
that these two guys came to the Walgreens,
and they saw a cop sleeping,
and they wanted
to get his service revolver,
and that they drove out,
drove around to another street,
walked back, um, shot him and killed him.
That it was a joint venture,
and it didn't matter which one did it.
They're both guilty.
-That was their theory of the case.
-Pretty simple, straightforward theory.
And so the linchpins of that
were fingerprints on the car
for Terry Patterson,
the car itself, which they found,
which was Terry Patterson's,
Rosa Sanchez,
and the gun, which they eventually found.
Sean Ellis then took both
the murder weapon and the officer's weapon
and hid them.
[reporter]
Phyllis Broker, the assistant DA,
says a witness will testify
to seeing Ellis crouched by Mulligan's car
before the shooting.
Rosa Sanchez never saw anything.
She was basically
being manipulated by her uncle.
With a witness like that,
you're not gonna get her to admit,
"Oh, yeah,
he put the screws on me to do this,"
so you just highlight for the jury
everything that says to them,
that's what he did,
you know, whether she says it or not.
It wasn't like
we were attacking her as a vicious liar,
no, because she was a pawn.
[Phyllis Broker] Good afternoon.
Could you tell us your name?
[Rosa Sanchez] Rosa Sanchez.
[Phyllis] Ms. Sanchez, the man you saw
crouching by Detective Mulligan's car,
do you see him in court?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Phyllis] Will you point to him?
Before you saw the defendant Sean Ellis
crouching by the car,
had you ever seen him before?
-[Rosa] Yes.
-[Phyllis] When had you seen him?
-[Rosa] In a bus.
-[Phyllis] When did you realize that?
[Rosa]
The same day I heard about Mulligan dying.
[Phyllis] Nothing further, Your Honor.
[Norman] You were brought over
by Detective Acerra?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] You've known Detective Acerra
for quite a while?
[Rosa] Yes.
-[Norman] In fact, he knows your mother?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] Well, you knew your…
What about your aunt, Lucy DelValle?
She lived with him, didn't she?
[Rosa] Yes.
-[Norman] She had a child with him, right?
-[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] And you knew the child?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman]
You would see him at family functions?
[Rosa] Yes.
[Norman] And, in fact, he was the officer
that brought you down
for the photo show-up?
[Rosa] Yes.
The witnesses I recall
were police officers
talking about identifying Sean Ellis
and that process,
and the young woman was related
to one of those police officers.
That seemed strange to me.
It seemed fishy.
The other witness who stands,
um, strongly in my memory
was someone called Uncle Dave.
Uncle David is Sean's uncle,
uh, his mother's brother.
It was Detective Brazil
who approached him,
so they started asking Uncle David
for information about any conversations
that he may have had with Sean.
David Murray brought to the police
that he had taken his nephew
out in a field or a backyard or someplace
and pressed him to answer questions
about what had happened
at Walgreens that night.
And then he told the police
what Sean had told him.
[Daniel Keeler] We're present
in the Homicide Office
at 273 D Street in South Boston.
Present is the speaker,
Sergeant Detective Daniel Keeler.
Also present is detective John Brazil,
each assigned to the Homicide Unit.
And we are presently speaking
with David Murray.
Can you describe what happened with Sean?
Tell me what happened.
[David Murray] I asked Sean to be honest
with me and tell me what happened.
[Keeler] And what did he say?
[Murray]
He was in Walgreens getting Pampers.
When he came out of the Walgreens,
the car wasn't there.
His friend, Terry Patterson, said,
"Come on, Sean. Come on. Let's go."
Then he started to run.
Only when he got to the car,
Sean said, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Patterson said, "I shot someone.
I shot someone."
And then, um, he passed him two guns.
[Keeler] "Passed him two guns."
Those were his words?
[Murray] Yeah.
[Keeler] Did you offer to Sean
that he might have some problems
with the evidence that we had?
[Murray] Oh, yeah.
[Keeler]
What did he do when you said that?
[Murray] He said,
"But I didn't shoot him."
[Keeler]
"Uncle David, but I didn't shoot him."
But earlier, he had mentioned to you
that Terry said, "I shot him."
-[Murray] Yes, he did.
-[Keeler] Okay.
I got a little flak from the family
when I told them I had to testify.
They were kind of forcing me to testify.
Only thing to do is go along with it
because I have no choice. I had no choice.
David got much pressure
because he had just came home
from doing a 14-years bit
for house evasion.
He was out on parole.
I think once he started talking to them,
he didn't think
they was going to dig into his past
and pressure him.
It was uncomfortable.
Uh, I was nervous. Uh…
I got a whole bunch of questions
coming at me.
[Phyllis] Keep your voice nice and loud
and tell us your name.
[Murray] It's David Murray.
[Phyllis]
Do you know the defendant Sean Ellis?
[Murray] Yes, I do. He's my nephew.
[Phyllis] Sir, are you the same
David Murray who, on June 3rd, 1982,
was convicted
of entering a dwelling, being armed,
and making an assault therein
with intent to commit a felony
and for which you received
a 15-to-20-year MCI Walpole sentence?
-[Murray] Yes, I am.
-[Phyllis] Did you have any conversation
with the defendant, Sean Ellis,
about the murder of Detective Mulligan?
[Murray] Yes, I did.
[Phyllis]
What did he say and what did you say?
[Murray] He told me, upon leaving
Walgreens, he went out the door
and Terry Patterson
was yelling at him, "Come on. Come on."
Sean replied,
"What's going on? What's wrong?"
-And Patterson started running.
-[Phyllis] What else did he say?
[Murray] Sean told me
they ran across the parking lot,
and they got into the car by the bushes.
Upon getting into the car,
Terry threw two guns.
He told me
his prints might be on the guns.
Sean was worried about Patterson
fingering him as the triggerman.
[Phyllis] Nothing further, Your Honor.
[Norman] Sir, I want to hear
from you everything
the defendant Sean Ellis told you,
and everything
you said to him in conversation
about the murder
of Detective John Mulligan.
What did he say?
[Murray] He said he didn't do it.
He didn't do it.
That's when he started crying.
[Norman] What did he say?
[Murray] I asked him again
to be honest with me
and to tell me,
you know, what was going on.
Again, he kept saying,
"I didn't do it, Uncle."
They pressured David
into making the testimony that he made
to help their case.
Okay?
Just like poor Tia,
she had the little boy,
that they could threaten
to take the child.
[sinister music playing]
[John Ellement]
I remember Letia's testimony.
She was Sean's girlfriend at the time.
And I remember
how reluctant she looked to be there.
That was the last place
she ever wanted to be
was on that witness stand,
um, testifying against Sean,
but it's-- but I recall her testimony
as the thing
that bridged, uh, Sean and two guns.
But I don't completely blame her
in that period
because she was just a kid,
an inexperienced kid.
She maybe thought
she was helping Sean,
but it hurted him in the long run.
[somber music playing]
I remember seeing you first
coming out of my house on Floyd Street.
-Yeah, but we didn't talk.
-We didn't talk 'cause I was shy.
-You was shy?
-Absolutely.
I seen you with Nate,
I think Keisha, and Pepsi.
-It was Nate and Pepsi.
-It was all of us.
And I approach Nate,
and I'm like, "Yo, who's that girl?"
-That's not how it happened.
-It is.
I walked down the street first,
and y'all was on the porch and you said--
That was that night.
-That's that day.
-It was nighttime.
It was day because I had my son out.
He was a baby. [chuckles]
My memory is clear.
It was summer, and I remember seeing you,
saying, "Oh, man, she's fine."
And so, I tried to talk to you, right,
but I had a speech problem,
so it kind of caused me to be reserved.
-Mm-hm.
-I gave you my number and everything.
-I remember that.
-Yeah.
It might not have been
love at first sight for you, right,
but for me, it was love at first sight.
I can tell you this over and over,
it's never gonna change.
Only thing I know is it was like
that stutter because you were stuttering
and I was like,
"What is wrong with this guy?"
-Listen.
-[chuckles]
I asked Nate, I said,
"Yo, Nate, like, hook us up."
And then that's how that happened,
and then the rest came to pass and…
The police were harassing me,
um, every day.
Every day, all day.
It was so bad that I went outside one day
and asked if they wanted breakfast
and coffee, but it was sarcastic.
They hounded her for days. They…
I would go to the store
and look down the street,
her house was surrounded.
They literally intimidated that child.
She was a child then. She was only 19.
Eighteen or 19 years old
with a little baby.
[Letia Walker]
Phyllis Broker, the DA at the time,
she asked if I could come in
to have, you know, like, a talk with her,
but she was very friendly at first.
After we spoke a little bit,
I remember her saying, you know,
"If you're scared," um, you know,
"we could move you.
We could get you a house."
"If you need money, we'll--
we'll help you live."
"We just want you to be okay."
Only thing they told me
was that Sean was gonna hurt me
if I didn't basically move and change
my name and all this weird stuff.
Sean's not going to hurt me.
He shelters me, like, he protects me.
He's not gonna hurt me.
Because I didn't say
what she wanted me to say
or act as though, you know,
act how she wanted me to act,
it was like,
"We could take your son."
So, I was like, "But I didn't do anything.
There's no way you could get him taken."
She said,
"I have the power to take your son."
[exhales]
Being that young,
again, worrying about my child, um…
I couldn't let that happen. Um…
Other than that,
they didn't really prep me,
but I just knew what she was trying to do.
[soft piano playing]
I remember being at the courthouse…
and being asked
to take my fingerprints
in, like, this little room.
And they just did it for the record.
That was it.
And me, I don't have anything to hide.
Okay, take my prints.
Um, that was it.
I found out that the-- they claimed
that my prints was on the weapon.
All I remember was seeing my name,
and I was stressed out,
and I was like, "Here we go."
I said that. I said, "Here we go
with the lies because all I did
was give them my fingerprints."
This is crazy how I gave 'em my prints,
and now, all of a sudden,
the girlfriend of Sean Ellis' prints
are on whatever,
clip, weapon, gun, whatever,
and I was stressed out.
The day I testified in the first trial,
it was a weird feeling, um…
I didn't want to look at no one.
I didn't want to talk. I was very rude
to everybody asking me questions, um…
and it's crazy 'cause I don't remember
none of the questions that she asked me,
but you know what I do remember?
Her being so red as she's talking to me.
I remember her being so red
that it was actually, um, unreal.
[Phyllis Broker] How many guns?
[Letia Walker] Two or three.
I'm not-- Oh. I don't remember.
[Phyllis] What did they look like?
[Letia] It was one black gun,
and it was a little silver gun
with a white handle.
[Phyllis] Now, at any point in time,
did you touch those guns or those clips?
[Letia] Yes.
-[Phyllis] Where were they in your house?
-[Letia] In my room, under my end table.
-[Phyllis] Who put them there?
-[Letia] Sean.
All I will say about the whole thing is
for all these…
if there were guns in my room…
and for a lot of "people" or whatever
to have handled these guns…
my prints are the only ones on it.
That doesn't make any sense,
so I will leave that there.
[melancholy music playing]
Tia said that I [stammers]
brought two firearms to her house
and hid them under a nightstand
in her room or something.
There is no truth to it.
I never [stammers] had the cop's gun
nor the murder weapon.
I was in love with Tia,
and Tia was in love with me.
She wouldn't intentionally
do anything to hurt me,
but I also know that it's like
[stammers] if she's being threatened,
and she has to do stuff
to protect her-- herself and her son
at the time,
then she was, like, she'll put that first.
And so, like, me looking at her,
like, as a young child is--
which is what I was,
like, this-- there's forgiveness there.
There'll be no evidence
that anybody sees Sean Ellis
killing or robbing Officer Mulligan.
That's a clear, absolute fact.
Nobody sees it.
Just because
Terry Patterson murdered Mulligan
doesn't mean
that Sean Ellis murdered Mulligan.
Thank you, Norman.
[judge]
Mr. Foreman and members of the jury,
you've heard
the closing summations or arguments.
As I've said, and I'm now
going to instruct you on the law
that you're to apply to the facts
that you find in this case
in arriving at your verdicts.
I will continue to indicate to you
throughout the course
of these instructions
until you get sick and tired
of hearing me say it,
even if the defendant
didn't himself shoot Officer Mulligan
and take his weapon,
but that it was Patterson
who in fact did those things,
the defendant nevertheless
was there present as a joint venturer,
and therefore is as guilty
as Patterson would be
if those are the facts
that you find in this case.
[soft music playing]
[Catherine Hunt]
At the start of deliberations,
the foreman stated,
"We have to come to a conclusion here,"
and somebody asked, "Well, why?"
"Because we have a dead cop."
It was intense,
and certainly racial-issue overtones
were there.
Early on in our deliberations,
we-- we did all agree
we should just see where we stood
in terms of what people were thinking,
guilty, not guilty.
And it was either a majority to convict
or very, very close,
so we started going through it.
We felt that we should
go through all the evidence
and not just rush to some conclusion.
So, as we began our deliberations,
we were all aware that the principle
under which Sean Ellis was being tried
was one of joint venture.
Here's-- here's a young man
who could've just been with his buddy
who was going to steal some guns.
He's in the store buying diapers
and he comes out,
"What the hell? You killed a guy?"
Did he think
he was just going to take his guns,
and then all of a sudden,
the other person, Terry Patterson,
just went nuts and killed someone?
How does one prove that his mind was there
where the other person's was?
When we told the judge
we couldn't come to a conclusion,
he told us, "Keep trying," so we did.
[Sean] All I remember was him just
telling the jury to keep deliberating,
and I remember feeling like he was trying
to force them to find me guilty.
I was scared to death.
Like, my life is on the line.
To me, it was pretty much clear,
um, so I was kind of wondering
what was taking them so long.
[police siren blaring]
We were in court every day,
so I remember just being there,
just sitting all day in the bullpen.
People smoking cigarettes,
playing cards, just talking, getting on,
but I'm sitting there stressed
because my jury is out deliberating,
and I don't know what's gonna happen.
If you're there,
you sit there for eight hours
day after day, after day, after day.
It's, um, something you're aware of,
the passage of time,
like, how long these people
have been discussing it.
[reporter] What's been the worst part
of the waiting for you?
The not knowing
what the outcome is going to be.
We deliberated a total of eight days,
and it was fascinating that people
who had come in with a preconceived notion
that this has to be a guilty verdict,
and they felt that way
after the evidence had been presented,
but after we talked
and discussed this whole principle…
How can you really prove this?
…people changed their minds
and went from thinking guilty
to not guilty.
So, we were at a point
where I think it was either nine to three
or ten to two not guilty.
And we kept trying
to change people's minds
or get to a unanimous decision.
And so I said to this one man,
"Are we ever going to get to a point
where you will change your mind?"
And he said, "No."
I said,
"Then we're done here. We're done."
"You won't change your mind.
We have to have a unanimous decision."
"We're done."
So, we sent a note out, "We're hung."
[reporter] After 3 and a half days of
testimony and more than 60 hours
of deliberations, an emotionally
drained jury told Judge James McDaniel Jr.
it was hopelessly deadlocked
on murder and robbery charges.
The jury is deadlocked.
I take that to mean that no further
deliberations would be of any use,
so I'm gonna have this case
declared a mistrial.
In thinking back on this trial
or being asked
to-- to participate in this process,
it-- it was a huge thing
for me at the time.
[exhales]
[chuckles]
[breaking voice] It was a huge deal.
To… [chuckles]
[exhales]
[sniffles]
[clears throat]
When you're placed in a position…
[sniffles]
that a young man's life is in your hands,
you better believe it's a big, big deal.
It's a big deal.
And that doesn't leave a person,
whether it's [clears throat]
five years, 25 years, or 50 years.
[clears throat]
Excuse me. That will stay with me
for the rest of my life.
[sniffles]
[indistinct chatter]
[Sean] The jury was hung on a murder
charge and an armed robbery charge.
Both Norman and David felt-- felt
like the hung jury was like a victory.
They didn't have enough
to convince, um, 12 jurors
to a unanimous verdict.
I think they'll have serious problems
convincing another jury of the same thing.
They've the same problems.
We're not happy,
but we're going to go at it again.
And, um,
the jury obviously worked very hard.
Uh, that's to be respected and, uh…
That's not gonna deter us
from doing what we think we should do.
[Sean] I remember Ralph Martin
saying something along the lines
that he would continue to try this case
until he got a conviction.
I was almost, like, certain
that he was coming home.
Like, "I'm not worried about this.
This is nothing."
Um, his lawyers felt great about it.
They said he's gonna have
another trial, but…
you know,
they was kind of almost certain
that this would be okay.
Um…
But it wasn't.
[reporter 1] The murder trial
of Sean Ellis will be replayed
here at the Suffolk County Courthouse
beginning March 13th with 12 new jurors.
That means several more weeks
of anxious waiting and uncertainty
for the families of the defendant
and a murdered Boston police officer.
[reporter 2] Terry Patterson,
the other defendant,
his trial starts in four days.
[Ellement] It was obvious that the cases
against the men were different.
There was
no physical evidence of significance
that connected Sean to the crime.
During Terry's trial,
Boston Police and the Suffolk prosecutors
said that they discovered
Terry Patterson's fingerprints
on the door of the SUV.
So, very important difference
in terms of the evidence
against Sean Ellis and Terry L. Patterson.
So, during Terry's trial,
they brought the door in.
After they killed Officer Mulligan…
There was Detective Foilb,
testified about the fingerprints.
And then after he was done,
the door itself sat in the courtroom
for the rest of the trial
opposite the jury.
There's the door right there,
every single day.
[judge] Is the defendant
Terry L. Patterson guilty or not guilty?
[foreman]
Guilty. Guilty of murder, first degree.
The verdict came very quickly.
Life without possibility of parole.
I don't remember any specific emotion
from Mr. Patterson.
He was found guilty.
I was like, "Oh, shit," you know.
Terry never did anything.
We were to--
together that night, and we were.
I was concerned I wou--
I would be found guilty as well.
[melancholy music playing]
[David Duncan] Second trial,
we had the same, almost word for word.
Somebody on that jury
was asking for clarification
about what was joint venture,
and if they didn't think that Sean Ellis
knew that Terry Patterson had a gun,
was he guilty of joint-venture murder?
And the answer should have been no
and once again, the judge wouldn't do it.
[Raymond Mulvey] There was a lot
I wanted to know but wasn't allowed to.
I felt like the trial wasn't enough.
I felt like there should have been
another day or two
where there were more details given
about, you know, what had happened.
You know, what were the atrocities
that may have led up to it?
Was there a history with the victim
that we should have known about?
There was a history,
and you were allowed
a couple pages out of this history,
and you had to make a decision based on
a couple pages out of this history.
He had an uncle
that was being interviewed as a witness.
Um, and I tell you, the uncle was the one
that kept on trying to finish a sentence.
I don't know what the sentence was,
but he kept on getting shut down,
and they kept on turning to him, saying,
"Strike that from the record."
"Please only answer the questions
yes or no as they're presented to you."
And the uncle was one that, several times,
tried to actually poke through that.
I mean, I-- I walked away thinking,
"This guy was saying something
that would have, you know,
altered my opinion perhaps."
So, I think it was approximately
three days that we had deliberated
and by the end of that third day,
those that were gonna say no,
that was it.
"You can ask me again,
the answer's the same."
Um, and then it was after that
that we did a mistrial.
When I found out
that there was a second trial,
and it also ended in a hung jury,
I felt validation
that it wasn't just we who were confused
or unable to come to a conclusion.
Clearly, the prosecution
had not again proved its case
or had the defense
adequately proved their case.
So, again, there was no outcome,
which, yes, I think gave us all
some sort of level of satisfaction
that we hadn't blown it.
I was not convinced,
coming out of this case,
that the truth always came out.
There was a number of us
that were relieved
that when there was not a conviction
that we actually didn't make a decision
on this person's life.
It was going to be
potentially another case,
or another set of people
or whatever the DA was going to do.
[Sean]
Three murder trials in the same year.
For me,
physically, mentally, and emotionally,
to sit through three murder trials,
that is crazy.
I've never had three.
It's the only one I've had three.
And it happened
because it was a cop killing.
[Phyllis Broker]
Sean Ellis killed Officer Mulligan,
simply because Sean Ellis wanted that gun.
[Rosemary]
If you believe Rosa Sanchez's testimony,
the jury could conclude
that Sean was assisting in some way,
and then if you believe
that the guns were stolen
and that Sean had somehow
had possession of them,
then the story fits together.
[Sean] In the first trial,
the jury deliberated for eight days.
And then the second trial, the jury
deliberated between three and five days.
The last trial,
they deliberated for three hours.
[bailiff] Court, all rise.
[judge] Charges in the Sean K. Ellis case
for murder.
Is he guilty or not guilty, sir?
[foreman] Guilty.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] After the jury returned
with a first-degree murder verdict,
Sean Ellis breathed heavily
while the Mulligan family shed tears
after four trials,
two that ended in hung juries.
Get out of my face!
[Sean] I was sentenced to life in prison
with no chance of parole for the murder,
and I was sentenced to 30 to 40 years
for the armed robbery,
and I was sentenced to five to ten years
for possession of a firearm.
I heard it,
but I don't think
that when he read the sentence
it didn't compute in my head that
he was sentencing me to die in prison,
even though he said that
"I'm sentencing you
for the remainder of your natural life."
[sad music playing]
[Letia] Being as young as he was…
being as young as I was,
what the hell is next, for real now?
But they just sentenced
my boyfriend for life for a murder.
And I had to deal with it.
I had to deal with it, for real.
When they came back
with a guilty verdict…
that just took everything out of me,
just took everything out of me.
Lord, what am I going to do now?
They done found my son guilty
of a crime he didn't do.
How are we going
to undo what they done did,
and so I had that to deal with.
And again,
I was still messing with the crack,
trying to find an answer in the crack,
and realized that it wasn't giving me
no answers at all.
I had to start getting it together
to find out what we could do
to get my son out of jail.
[sniffles]
[inhales deeply]
[cries]
[sniffles]
[exhales deeply]
[Catherine] I found out that there
was a third trial, and he was convicted
and I thought, "How did that happen?"
And then I learned
that there was a woman on that third jury
that I actually knew.
So, after it was all over,
I got in touch with her
and said, "Let's talk about this."
And when we met,
the first words out of my mouth were,
"How could you find him guilty?"
And her response to me was,
"How could you not?"
Which-- I was floored with that.
So, of course,
then we started talking and analyzing,
bringing up certain evidence
and I said, "What about Uncle Dave?"
She said, "Who's Uncle Dave?
We didn't have any Uncle Dave."
So, clearly, through three trials
or the two preceding trials,
the prosecution rather had-- had learned
some things or made adjustments,
shall we say.
[Rosemary] As prosecutors,
they're not necessarily advocates
of the Commonwealth's position.
Their real goal is to seek justice,
that's their job,
not to get a conviction at all costs,
not to put someone away
who you think might have killed a cop,
but to-- to seek justice.
And so, do you start to ask yourself
as a prosecutor, ever,
when you have to try someone
three times in the same year,
um, whether or not this is really justice?
I don't think
anyone asked those questions.
[reporter] Sean Ellis was possibly
convicted in part by the work
of corrupt Boston Police Detectives
Kenneth Acerra,
Walter Robinson, and John Brazil.
The first two may have influenced
the testimony of a key witness
who saw Ellis at the scene of the crime.
It may be months before a decision is made
on whether or not
to grant Ellis a new trial.
For now, the prosecutors are convinced
that he received the right verdict
at his last trial.
[dramatic music playing]