Exclusive: Convicted murderer Christopher Porco sits down with John Gray to talk about new motion in — Transcript

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1. 0:02I think our system is by far the best in
2. 0:05the world but it's flawed you know we're
3. 0:07nobody's perfect and the system is only
4. 0:09as good as you know the people in it
5. 0:12and it makes mistakes
6. 0:15um they made one here tonight an
7. 0:18exclusive jailhouse interview convicted
8. 0:20killer Christopher Porco opening up
9. 0:21about his trial his defense and life on
10. 0:24the inside good evening thanks so much
11. 0:26for joining us I'm John Gray and I'm
12. 0:28trishna begin the Porco family named
13. 0:31known All Too Well to so many in this
14. 0:33region tied to a brutal ax murder an
15. 0:36extensive trial and an even longer legal
16. 0:38challenge after the original verdict was
17. 0:40reached 16 years ago well tonight we
18. 0:42bring you an exclusive here on news 10
19. 0:44as the man arrested and tried for the
20. 0:46crime speaks only with us about the case
21. 0:48first though we do want to revisit the
22. 0:50events of that horrific day in 2004 and
23. 0:52what came next
24. 0:55November 15 2004 Peter Porco is found
25. 0:58murdered in his Del Mar Home his wife
26. 1:00Joan badly injured but clinging to life
27. 1:02both of them attacked with an ax while
28. 1:04they slept from the start police did not
29. 1:06feel this heinous crime was random we're
30. 1:08still looking at the case from the
31. 1:12perspective that the individual who was
32. 1:15involved in this attack knew his victims
33. 1:18within hours their son Christopher Porco
34. 1:20a student at the University of Rochester
35. 1:21is brought in for nearly six hours of
36. 1:24police questioning his yellow Jeep
37. 1:25impounded by the authorities in the days
38. 1:28and weeks to come it's clear he is the
39. 1:30focus of the murder investigation but
40. 1:32police are tight-lipped I'm not going to
41. 1:34comment on that for the next year police
42. 1:36and prosecutors slowly build their case
43. 1:38and November of 2005 almost exactly one
44. 1:41year since the attack Porco was indicted
45. 1:43and arrested for the crime due to an
46. 1:45abundance of pre-trial publicity the
47. 1:47cases moved downstate to a court in
48. 1:49Orange County with a trial getting
49. 1:51underway in June of 2006. prosecutors
50. 1:54allege that Christopher who was at odds
51. 1:56with his parents over finances and
52. 1:57caught in several lies drove from
53. 2:00Rochester to Del Mar in the middle of
54. 2:01that night attacked his parents and then
55. 2:03raced back to school the key evidence
56. 2:05against him his mother's head nod to
57. 2:07police at the crime scene confirming
58. 2:09Christopher was the killer a neighbor
59. 2:11seeing his yellow Jeep right in the
60. 2:12home's driveway the night of the crime
61. 2:14the home security system being disarmed
62. 2:16by someone who knew the secret Family
63. 2:18Code and pork goes bad at times criminal
64. 2:21Behavior prior to the attacks after
65. 2:24weeks of testimony and hundreds of
66. 2:25pieces of evidence it took the jury less
67. 2:27than six hours to convict him his
68. 2:30attorney Terry Camden filed an appeal
69. 2:31attacking the trial and the outcome on a
70. 2:34number of fronts most notably the jury
71. 2:36being allowed to hear testimony about
72. 2:38Joan corkos nodding her head when she
73. 2:40was so horribly injured and has no
74. 2:42memory of the event the information the
75. 2:45evidence concerning the nods should not
76. 2:47have been allowed into this case
77. 2:49now for the last seven years I've
78. 2:52corresponded with Christopher Porco in
79. 2:53prison even making the three-hour trip
80. 2:55up north to dannemora to sit with him
81. 2:57and talk for hours he has new lawyers
82. 2:59and says they've uncovered new evidence
83. 3:01in his case which they are unveiling for
84. 3:03the first time tonight from his arrest
85. 3:05to trial to time Behind Bars he's never
86. 3:07broken a silence until now
87. 3:10I mean I'll ask you the obvious question
88. 3:12again Chris did you do this crime I
89. 3:15didn't I had nothing to do with this
90. 3:17um I've said that from day one and it's
91. 3:22the truth 16 years after a jury
92. 3:24convicted Christopher Porco of the
93. 3:25brutal acts murder of his father Peter
94. 3:27and attempted murder of his mother Joan
95. 3:29he is for the first time speaking
96. 3:31exclusively with News 10 about regret
97. 3:33hope and life behind those imposing
98. 3:36Prison Walls the weeks go by very
99. 3:38quickly and so it's easy for years to
100. 3:41kind of go by too
101. 3:42you know when you think about what's
102. 3:44happened in the past 16 years outside of
103. 3:46here
104. 3:48um you know George Bush was president
105. 3:49when I got here so
106. 3:50right Porco smile quickly Fades when we
107. 3:53discuss the murder trial and his
108. 3:55disbelief that it took a jury less than
109. 3:57six hours to send him away for Life
110. 4:00[Music]
111. 4:04guilty I think we were
112. 4:08overconfident I would say going in
113. 4:11and felt like there just wasn't enough
114. 4:14evidence and can kind of rely on that
115. 4:18having said that a criminal trial is as
116. 4:21much about narrative as it is about
117. 4:22evidence and
118. 4:24they've got to hand it to the
119. 4:25prosecution in my case they they told a
120. 4:28wonderful Story one that he and his new
121. 4:30legal team insist is pure fiction in
122. 4:33order for Christopher to have done this
123. 4:34uh which we of course adamantly maintain
124. 4:36that he did not
125. 4:38um he he would have had to complete in
126. 4:40these heinous acts in a very very narrow
127. 4:42time span
128. 4:44um and what his attorneys failed to do
129. 4:46is they failed to break that down and
130. 4:49when you break it down piece by piece it
131. 4:51doesn't fit and it doesn't fit because
132. 4:52it didn't happen they filed what's known
133. 4:54as a 440 motion arguing his conviction
134. 4:56should be vacated for ineffective legal
135. 4:59counsel unlawful seizure of evidence
136. 5:01used at trial the government suppressing
137. 5:03exculpatory evidence that would have
138. 5:05exonerated him and allowing a detective
139. 5:07with a personal bias against Porco to
140. 5:09work the case against him I don't blame
141. 5:11the police for initially suspecting me
142. 5:14um I don't blame them for
143. 5:16Prosecuting me even though they knew
144. 5:18there were real problems with the case a
145. 5:20big one they claimed the home security
146. 5:22system someone disabled at the night of
147. 5:24the murder using the family's secret
148. 5:25code prosecutors told the jury it was as
149. 5:28if Christopher dropped his wallet at the
150. 5:30crime scene the problem Porto's lawyers
151. 5:32argue is the search warrant for the
152. 5:34security data wasn't obtained until 11
153. 5:36days after police had already downloaded
154. 5:39it somebody either in the DA's office or
155. 5:41high up in the Bethlehem police
156. 5:43department realized that they didn't
157. 5:46have a warrant for information that they
158. 5:48believe was going to be critical what
159. 5:50goes team says jurors also never got to
160. 5:52hear about a potential Alibi witness a
161. 5:55female student at the University of
162. 5:56Rochester who said that Porco was on a
163. 5:58computer messaging her between midnight
164. 6:00and 12 30 a.m the night of the murders
165. 6:02now that's the exact time police say he
166. 6:04should have been on the Thruway racing
167. 6:06home to commit the crime her statement
168. 6:09was turned over to the defense but
169. 6:10allegedly buried in dozens of boxes even
170. 6:13during trial they were getting boxes of
171. 6:15stuff kind of haphazardly from the DA's
172. 6:17office and this material was it was
173. 6:20mixed in
174. 6:22in in thousands of pages of documents
175. 6:24they also say missing from all that
176. 6:26Discovery material police notes that
177. 6:28revealed a Bethlehem detective played a
178. 6:30major role in this investigation even
179. 6:32though Porco knew him and once dated his
180. 6:34daughter I didn't know that he didn't
181. 6:36like me porco's legal team also argues
182. 6:38his lawyer should have called their own
183. 6:39pathologist to dispute the time of death
184. 6:41of Peter Porco they've now hired
185. 6:43renowned pathologist Cyril Weck famous
186. 6:46for his role in the aftermath of the
187. 6:47Kennedy assassination he argues after
188. 6:50examining Peter porco's body temperature
189. 6:51and tissue samples the murder happened
190. 6:53hours later than prosecutors say no
191. 6:56earlier than 6 30 a.m too late for
192. 6:58Christopher to have done it for this
193. 7:00motion to work Porco must convince the
194. 7:02court that Terry kinlan and Laurie
195. 7:03Shanks two well-respected attorneys
196. 7:05dropped the ball several times in his
197. 7:07case I reached both by phone at their
198. 7:09winter home for comment they said well
199. 7:12we certainly hope Christopher porka was
200. 7:13successful in seeing his conviction
201. 7:15vacated we dispute any assertion that we
202. 7:18did not give him a full and vigorous
203. 7:20defense we live this case for 2 full
204. 7:22years and there was not a witness we
205. 7:24didn't pursue or a lead we didn't follow
206. 7:26in the effort to exonerate Christopher
207. 7:28much of what we're hearing in this 440
208. 7:30motion we have heard before but we wish
209. 7:32him success with his new legal team and
210. 7:35the courts Porco never took the stand in
211. 7:37his trial so 18 years and two months
212. 7:39after the horrific crime I asked him the
213. 7:41question the jury never got to hear did
214. 7:43he do it no I had nothing to do with
215. 7:46this whatsoever it's abhorrent it's it's
216. 7:49inconceivable also inconceivable to
217. 7:52Porco getting through all this without
218. 7:54one person's unwavering support it
219. 7:56sounds like your mom is still very much
220. 7:58in your corner and she very much she's
221. 8:01the toughest person you'll ever meet we
222. 8:03speak every day
223. 8:05um she has
224. 8:07borne the brunt of this without a doubt
225. 8:10so we've gotten through this together
226. 8:12really we're the support system for each
227. 8:15other
228. 8:15but she's endured much more than I ever
229. 8:18will Porco knows people in the capital
230. 8:20region think he's a killer it's a hurt
231. 8:22he says no Maximum Security Prison can
232. 8:25keep out still he insists he did not do
233. 8:27this and nothing will change that if
234. 8:30they offered you a plea right now to let
235. 8:31you walk out of here next week would you
236. 8:33plead guilty to doing this no as crazy
237. 8:35as that sounds I'm committed to to
238. 8:38seeing this through
239. 8:40what's going to be interesting in this
240. 8:41trishna is the head nod the Appellate
241. 8:43Court said should not have been allowed
242. 8:45in this trial but it was what they call
243. 8:46harmless error there was too much
244. 8:47evidence that he did it that they looked
245. 8:49at
246. 8:50um the interrogation he gave that was
247. 8:51not allowed in the trial if if some of
248. 8:53this other evidence gets knocked down uh
249. 8:55if they have an evidentiary hearing
250. 8:57based on this and they they say well you
251. 8:59know we're going to allow this but not
252. 9:00this stuff it could change the way they
253. 9:02prosecute this case and how much
254. 9:03evidence they would have against him a
255. 9:04lot of people watching the story might
256. 9:06also be wondering if you heard anything
257. 9:07from the former prosecutor in the case I
258. 9:10did I reached out to Mike McDermott
259. 9:11who's in a private practice now he was
260. 9:13the Ada who uh prosecuted this kind of
261. 9:16quote what he said now he said Mr porka
262. 9:17was represented by two of the capital
263. 9:19District's most dedicated accomplished
264. 9:21and passionate Advocates they zealously
265. 9:24challenge the prosecution at every turn
266. 9:25and secured several important rulings in
267. 9:27his favor few defendants received the
268. 9:29level of representation of Mr Porco
269. 9:31enjoyed at this trials Mike McDermott
270. 9:33saying it's nonsense he didn't have a
271. 9:35great attorneys who did a great job his
272. 9:37new lawyers say if you look at what they
273. 9:39fail to do and some of the things that
274. 9:41they missed and they think some of it
275. 9:42was deliberately uh kind of buried in
276. 9:44the in the evidence and that's why they
277. 9:46missed it somebody they said they they
278. 9:47feel they should have done that's what's
279. 9:49going to happen with the court now and
280. 9:50that's they filed this 440 Motion in
281. 9:52Supreme Court Albany County just today
282. 9:54all of that being said what does the
283. 9:56timeline look like now uh here's the
284. 9:59initial I read this three or three times
285. 10:00which took me many hours it's 214 Pages
286. 10:03this is the 440 motion there are
287. 10:05hundreds of pages that get attached to
288. 10:06all this in digital documents that
289. 10:09support they say a lot of what they're
290. 10:11saying here so you're looking at a
291. 10:13minimum of several months possibly a
292. 10:15year one of the appeals took about a
293. 10:16year so it could be many many more
294. 10:17months of him sitting in jail his legal
295. 10:19team now and his mother who fully
296. 10:21supports this is his mother Joan
297. 10:22believes he did not do this and and
298. 10:24she's behind him they may have to wait
299. 10:26you know months up to a year to hear
300. 10:28back from the court and then they could
301. 10:30either just vacate everything and say
302. 10:32this was unfair or they could say let's
303. 10:34have an evidential hearing to go through
304. 10:36some of these points and make sure he
305. 10:38did get a fair trial or they could say
306. 10:40everything's stands you stay in jail I
307. 10:42know you put a lot of research and time
308. 10:45into this trying to cover all of the
309. 10:46angles so thank you for bringing us the
310. 10:49story of course you're going to be
311. 10:50following this entire process I'll keep
312. 10:52on top of it I'll be curious what the
313. 10:53courts come back with after reading them
314. 10:54through all this great job thanks so
315. 10:56much John and