Guilty Until Innocent | Juan Catalan — Transcript

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1. 0:00another thing I'd love to get to this  dodger game tomorrow night I called
2. 0:03everybody on did yeah nothing nothing  everybody at Dodger Stadium top to
3. 0:08bottom nobody's got tickets it's going  to be some game I know I want to go to
4. 0:17Los Angeles California Dodgers Stadium  May 12th 2003 56,000 people fill the
5. 0:25stadium to the brim it's an exciting  game between Home Team the Los Angeles
6. 0:30Dodgers and visiting team the Atlanta  Braves the game is tied 4 to 4 and fans
7. 0:36are on the edge of their seat as  the game enters its ninth inning
8. 0:43but little do they know that 20 miles away  in Sun Valley a murder has been commited
9. 0:56a young girl by the name of Martha Puebla has  has been found on the side of the road just
10. 1:02outside her house she's been shot multiple times  in a driveby shooting and is pronounced dead at
11. 1:08the scene she was only 16 the police don't  get there in time and her Killers get away
12. 1:17but they didn't go unseen an eyewitness  catches a look at one of the killers and
13. 1:22gives a description to the police he describes  the suspect as a male between the ages of 19
14. 1:28and 25 he about 5'8 to 5' 10 in height he was of  Hispanic descent had short hair a bulky build and
15. 1:37a mustache the police create a sketch of the  suspect and begin their investigation [Music]
16. 1:48a few months later the police  find their suspect his name
17. 1:52is Juan Catalan he is arrested  just outside his place of work
18. 1:56taken to the police station placed in  a jail cell and is charged with murder
19. 2:03but when they arrive at the station  Juan professes his innocence
20. 2:08you guys got the wrong person you're  literally identical to this that's
21. 2:13not me it's sure looks a lot like you  that's not me please do not do this
22. 2:19to me dude we're not doing much to you  people have said that it's you what do
23. 2:24you have to say well what can I do can I  take a lie detector test or something no
24. 2:31but wait what evidence do the police have  against Juan Catalan to Warrant an arrest
25. 2:36well for one he looks like the police sketch  described by the witness and the LAPD have
26. 2:42witnesses at the scene who pointed him out in a  picture lineup but what reason would Juan have to
27. 2:47kill Martha well it actually has something to do  with Martha herself on May 1st 2003 over a week
28. 2:55before her death Martha Puebla was to testify in  court against a man named Mario he was a member
29. 3:01of the vine land boys a local Street gang out  of Los Angeles Mario was convicted of being an
30. 3:07accessory to a murder that happened a few weeks  prior the testimony by Martha worked and Mario
31. 3:13was sentenced to life in prison but the thing  is Mario just so happens to be the brother of
32. 3:21Juan Catalan the story is is that after Mario was  sent to prison Juan wanted to get back at Martha
33. 3:28so he killed her that night as a form of Revenge  for locking up his brother at least that's the
34. 3:34story given by the LAPD the story that Juan gives  however is a lot different he says that he didn't
35. 3:42kill Martha Puebla because on the night of her  murder he was at the baseball game mentioned
36. 3:48earlier No One Believes him however you expect  me to believe that but this is his story and
37. 3:55he is determined to prove it but in order to do  that he must first provide hard evidence to the
38. 4:01court that he was at the game at the time of  murder does he still have his ticket he does
39. 4:10but that doesn't prove that he went to the game  or that he stayed the whole time were there any
40. 4:15witnesses to prove that he was at the game there  were he didn't go alone he went with his daughter
41. 4:22his cousin and one of his friends however the  testimony from his daughter isn't enough and
42. 4:28his cousin and friend they don't want to testify  one is up against the Sun Valley district attorney
43. 4:34they have a high conviction rate and due to fear  that they might get charged for the murder as
44. 4:39well his cousin and friend don't testify to help  Juan but his cousin doesn't abandon him instead
45. 4:47he helps Juan out by getting him a lawyer his  name is Todd Melnik he doesn't believe that
46. 4:54Juan is a murderer and is willing to do anything  to prove his innocence and fight for his freedom
47. 5:04so the physical evidence mentioned earlier  is not enough to help Juan and others are
48. 5:10too afraid to testify so Todd needs to  find Hard Evidence himself that proves
49. 5:15Juan was at the ball game maybe someone else  saw him there that day and if not that what
50. 5:22about the TV cameras at the stadium not  only do they film the game but sometimes
51. 5:27they film audiences in the crowd which get  shown on TV or even on the Jumbo Tron it's
52. 5:32a stretch but it might be their best bet Todd  gets access to the footage from the game that
53. 5:38day and begins scouring through hours of footage  looking for one man in a sea of 56,000 people
54. 5:48what happened was Fox TV had you know broadcast  the game so I had to go through every frame that
55. 5:54they showed of every scene of the of the crowd  in order to see if I could find Juan and I did
56. 5:59because I knew where he was sitting but the  uh resolution wasn't high enough for me to
57. 6:03figure out you know that that was him um or  for the you know the court to know that that
58. 6:07was him meanwhile things aren't going well for  Juan because of the crime he is being charged
59. 6:15for he has been placed in super max security  prison the most secure level in prison only
60. 6:21accompanied for the highest risk most dangerous  criminals the criminals there don't take kindly
61. 6:27to Juan he is being accus accused of murdering  a child and despite his pleas for not committing
62. 6:33the crime the inmates there still make him a  Target there is the possibility that he could
63. 6:39die in prison before he even makes it to court  but even if he gets to court it's not over for
64. 6:46him the prosecution has been assigned her name  is Beth Silverman but she goes by a different
65. 6:53name the sniper a name that she has gotten due  to her reputation of sending people off to death
66. 7:00row she has never lost a murder case and she  doesn't intend on this one being her first
67. 7:08do you think that Juan Catalan has  any kind of a legitimate Alibi at all
68. 7:14no
69. 7:20Todd continues to search through the footage  of the baseball game but ends up with nothing
70. 7:27he needs a different approach he talks with Juan  and tries to see if he can remember anything from
71. 7:33that day that can help his case Juan remembers  specific things about the game such as plays
72. 7:38by certain team members and how the Dodgers  choked that day losing to the Braves 11 to 4
73. 7:44none of this would help in court though but  he does remember something unique that day
74. 7:50not far from where he was sitting he remembers  seeing actor and comedian Bob Einstein in the
75. 7:55crowd with a bunch of TV cameras filming him and  the people around him Todd took this information
76. 8:01and went back to Dodger Stadium and talked with  the media relations departments sure enough Juan
77. 8:07was correct there was a film crew there that  day it was a crew from the television Company
78. 8:13HBO and not far from where Juan and his friends  were sitting they were filming an episode of the
79. 8:19American sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm maybe while  filming they got a glimpse of Juan at the game
80. 8:27it was a long shot but it might be the only  way to prove his innocence and save him from
81. 8:32Death Row the episode that they were filming  was the carpool lane of season 4 episode 6
82. 8:39at the time it had not aired and was still in  production Todd managed to get in contact with
83. 8:43the producers of Curb Your Enthusiasm and they  agreed to let him look over the footage he was
84. 8:49back to what he was doing before scouring through  hours of footage looking for one man in a sea of
85. 8:55people but this time his search would be  greatly narrowed down he checks one tape
86. 9:05Juan's not there he checks another tape
87. 9:09Juan's not there he checks another tape
88. 9:31again Juan's not there after hours of searching  through and rewatching the footage over and over
89. 9:39again he still has found no trace of Juan on  camera things seemed hopeless but Todd doesn't
90. 9:47give up this is the best chance they got at  saving Juan's life he checks another tape
91. 9:59[Music] finally after months of searching they  have it definitive proof that Juan really was
92. 10:30at the game but it doesn't end there Todd checks  another tape and there's Juan again Todd checks
93. 10:36another tape and there's Juan again in total  he now has three pieces of video evidence of
94. 10:43one at the Dodgers game Todd gave Juan the good  news took the footage from Curb Your Enthusiasm
95. 10:49and brought the evidence to court ready to  prove to everyone that Juan is indeed innocent
96. 11:00but despite the evidence in Juan's favor the  prosecution still tries to charge him the crime
97. 11:08against Martha Puebla was reported at 10:43  p.m. but the actual murder happened at 10:32
98. 11:14p.m. and the footage of Juan at the Dodgers game  was between 8:55 and 9:15 p.m. they argue that
99. 11:23even with the footage he still could have made  it to the crime scene with that amount of time
100. 11:27the time it takes to get from Dodgers Stadium  to Sun Valley is about 20 to 25 minutes Todd
101. 11:33needed to once again find evidence that Juan  was at Dodgers Stadium but this time within
102. 11:39a certain time frame luckily he didn't need to  look that far for evidence Juan remembered one
103. 11:45last thing he did that night shortly after  the game ended he made a phone call to his
104. 11:50girlfriend before giving his cousin a ride home  Todd managed to get a hold of Juan's cell phone
105. 11:56provider and they were able to pinpoint that Juan  did receive a phone call within the vicinity of
106. 12:01Dodgers stadium that night at 10:12 p.m. there's  no way he could have made it to the crime scene in
107. 12:08that amount of time with all the video evidence  from Curb Your Enthusiasm and the phone records
108. 12:13gathered Todd presented it to the court and  finally in January 2004 after being in jail
109. 12:22for almost 6 months Juan Catalan was found  innocent and was finally free to go [Music]
110. 12:47but that just leaves a few loose ends remember  the pictures of Juan from earlier by the witnesses
111. 12:53well these photos were actually faked two  detectives assigned to the case admitted
112. 13:00that they delivered false evidence against Juan  Catalan in an attempt to charge him for a crime
113. 13:06he did not commit a few years later in March 2007  Juan would find himself back in court he filed a
114. 13:13civil case against the detectives the city of Los  Angeles and the LAPD suing them for misconduct
115. 13:20false imprisonment and defamation of character  he won the case and received a settlement of
116. 13:26$320,000 it doesn't make up for what was done  to him but at least he got some form of Justice
117. 13:35what do you think of those two detectives  now you know it took a while to uh forgive
118. 13:43them for what they did but I want to say  out of all honesty that I do forgive them
119. 13:50for what they did you forgive them yes no  one should walk around with with hate in
120. 13:55them you know that's poison in our bodies  that you know it doesn't hurt the person
121. 14:01you hate it hurts yourself and it eats away  at your soul so you know I sit here with you
122. 14:07Liam today honestly saying that you know  I don't have any hate in me towards them
123. 14:14but what about Martha Puebla well she  would also receive Justice in July 2008
124. 14:21the police found the men who were responsible  for her death they were each charged with life
125. 14:26sentences with no possibility of parole these  men are serving life Martha Puebla received
126. 14:33Justice and Juan Catalan had his life saved  and it was all thanks to Curb Your Enthusiasm
127. 14:58[Music]