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Olympic Boxer Félix Verdejo Gets Life for Throwing Girlfriend off Bridge · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In April 2021, an Olympic athlete, you know, a literal
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: national sports hero, injected a 27-year-old pregnant woman with a
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: tranquilizer specifically designed for large farm animals.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just staggering when you hear it out loud
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It really is. And to understand how a beloved public
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: icon turns into a methodical killer, you really have to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: look at the terrifying psychology of what we could basically
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: call the public figure defense. Right. And I should say
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: right at the top, We are dealing with some incredibly
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: dark themes today. We're talking about severe domestic violence, the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: coercion of reproductive choices.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Very heavy, very sensitive topics.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And looking at the facts laid out in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this People magazine report, it is very difficult not to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: just react with pure visceral anger. But, you know, our
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: mission for this deep dive is to look at this methodically.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Which is crucial, yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We need to understand how the system failed here, how
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a localized true crime nightmare expanded into a massive societal reckoning. Okay,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: let's unpack this. Who are we actually talking about here?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: So we are examining the case of Felix Verdejo Sanchez.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: If you follow international sports, specifically boxing, I mean, this
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: is a name that once carried an immense amount of weight.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Prestige, national pride, all of that. Exactly.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Verdejo was an elite fighter. He represented Puerto Rico
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: in the 2012 Olympic Games. He was this highly celebrated
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: public figure with, you know, very lucrative endorsements.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: A real golden boy image.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yes. But we aren't looking at his athletic career today.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: We are looking at how his life is now entirely
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: defined by a federal life sentence handed down in November
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: of 2023. Right. And that sentence followed the murder of
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Kishla Rodriguez-Ortiz and her unborn baby.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: And just so you, the listener, know where we're coming from,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: we are going to impartially explore the timeline of events here,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the psychological collapse of a public idol, and the resulting
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: cultural fallout, exactly as they were captured in the journalistic record. Right.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Our goal isn't to editorialize, but to lay out the facts.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So we know he was this highly visible, highly celebrated athlete.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: But how do you get from a PR panic to
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: actual brutal violence? I mean, does that happen overnight?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It's rarely overnight. It's a buildup.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Take us back to where this tragedy was actually set
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in motion, because there's this massive clash here between this pristine,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: carefully managed public image and, well, a very complicated private reality.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the crisis really begins at the intersection of his
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: public brand and his private infidelity. You see, Verdejo was
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: a married man. Okay. He had his family, his wife,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: his young daughter, and his status as a wholesome, dedicated Olympian.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: But he was also maintaining a relationship with Kishla Rodriguez-Ortiz.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And the real catalyst for the entire chain of events
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: is that Kishla became pregnant.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Which, I mean, in the grand scheme of human history
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: is a complicated personal situation. But it's not the end
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of the world.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: People navigate infidelity and out-of-wedlock pregnancies every single day without
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: resorting to murder.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: They do, yeah. But most people do not view themselves
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: as a walking, breathing corporate enterprise. According to the reporting,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: which cites Kishla's mother, Kila Ortiz Rivera, speaking to the
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: newspaper El Nuevo Dia, Verdejo absolutely did not want this
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: pregnancy to continue.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Right. He was vehemently against it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The mother stated that Verdejo explicitly threatened Kishla and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: heavily pressured her to get an abortion.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And his reasoning for that is what's really chilling, right?
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: It is. It provides this very stark window into his psychology. Yeah.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: He didn't just cite personal unreadiness. He allegedly told her
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: that he had his family, he was a boxer, and
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: he was a public figure. Wow.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: So he was literally weighing his brand against a human life.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly that.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: It's like it reminds me of corporate embezzlement.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: How so?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Well, the CEO isn't initially trying to destroy the entire company, right?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: They're just trying to cover up, say, a $ 10, 000 accounting
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: error to keep the shareholders happy.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Right, just a quick fix.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but to cover the error, they create fake shell companies,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and then they forge documents, and suddenly they've committed $ 10
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: million in federal wire fraud.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Oh, I see what you mean.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Firdejo treated this pregnancy, this human life, like an accounting
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: error that he was desperately trying to wipe off his
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: public balance sheet.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: That corporate analogy is actually highly accurate here because it
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: really captures the mechanism of the escalation.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: When a person reaches the level of an Olympic athlete,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: especially in a sports crazed culture, they are often commodified
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: from a very young age.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Right. They become a product.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yes. Their value in their own eyes to their sponsors,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to the promoters and to their fans is is inextricably
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: dependent on maintaining a very specific narrative.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: The golden boy narrative.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Verdejo wasn't just protecting a marriage. He was protecting
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the business of being Felix Verdejo.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: But I have to push back on that a little bit.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, go ahead.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: We see athletes survive scandals all the time. A paternity suit,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: an affair, it's tabloid fodder for a month, maybe lose
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a minor sponsorship and then you win your next fight
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and everybody just forgets.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Sure, that happens often.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Right. Why did he view this specific situation as such
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: an apocalyptic threat? Why not just pay child support and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: move on?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Well, it has to do with the specific nature of
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the pedestal he was on in Puerto Rico. Boxing in
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Puerto Rico isn't just a sport. It is a profound
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: point of cultural identity.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It's massive there.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: It really is. The fighters who represent the island on
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the global stage, especially at the Olympics, they are elevated
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to the status quo. of national heroes.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Like royalty, almost.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They're expected to embody strength, honor, family values. And
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the psychological architecture of a person who has been told
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: they're basically a god since they were a teenager is
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: inherently fragile.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Because they're surrounded by people who never tell them no.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Yes. They become completely insulated by yes-men. And when you
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: are that insulated, the threat of a scandal doesn't just
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: feel like a social embarrassment.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: What does it feel like?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: It feels like an existential threat to your very identity.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: He just couldn't conceive of a reality where he was
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a flawed man who made a mistake.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So it's that glass house effect. He was so obsessed
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: with the outside looking in, he decided to just demolish
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the entire interior of the house.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: And I want you, the listener, to really imagine the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: psychological weight of being Kishla in this scenario. You are
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: 27 years old. You're pregnant.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: A very vulnerable position to begin with.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And you are receiving an ultimatum. from an elite
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: athlete who possesses vast physical strength, immense wealth, and basically
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: total societal backing.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly intimidating.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: When a man like that looks at you and says,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I am a public figure, he isn't just explaining his
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: PR strategy. He is wielding his power.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: He's using it as a weapon.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Right. He is reminding you of how small you are
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: supposed to be in comparison to his empire.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate assertion of dominance, really.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: And when that psychological coercion failed to achieve the result
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: he demanded.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Because she didn't just back down.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Right. When Kishla refused to simply disappear and terminate the pregnancy,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: the situation escalated from an ultimatum into a meticulously planned
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: physical horror.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And the timeline of that escalation is what we need
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to look at next. Because the facts of April 29,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: 2021 show us exactly what was behind that bronze statue.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And it was incredibly dark.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: It was methodical, cold-blooded intent. How exactly does this unfold,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: according to the authorities?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: The sequence laid out by the U.S. Attorney's Office is
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: clinically terrifying. Yeah. I mean, it demonstrates a massive amount
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: of premeditation.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Walk us through it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: On the morning of April 29, Verdejo did not just
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: happen to run into Kishla and, you know, lose his
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: temper in the heat of the moment.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: It wasn't an accident. No.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: The prosecutors stated that Verdejo, working with an accomplice named
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Luis Antonio Cadiz-Martinez, lured Kishla into Verdejo's vehicle, which was
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: a Dodge Durango.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Let's stop right there. The word lured. That implies she
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: thought she was meeting him for a conversation, right?
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Perhaps to discuss the pregnancy or maybe under the guise
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of some kind of peaceful resolution. She willingly stepped into
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: that enclosed space under false pretenses.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: She did. And once she was inside the confined space
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: of that SUV, the violence was immediate. The report states
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: that Verdejo punched her.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: God. And we really have to contextualize that.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: We do. This is a man whose literal profession, honed
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: at the Olympic level, is to inflict blunt force trauma
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: with his hands.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Punching a 27-year-old pregnant woman in the front seat
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: of a car is an act of overwhelming instantaneous incapacitation.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It's devastating force. But the physical assault was only the
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: first step. He then injected her with a highly specific
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: drug cocktail.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: And this is where the details get so disturbing you
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: almost want to look away.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough to hear.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: The autopsy determined she was injected with fentanyl, which, you know,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: we hear about all the time, but also xylosine.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Right. Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid, notorious for
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: causing respiratory depression. It basically shuts down your breathing.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Right. It's lethal on its own.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: But xylosine requires a deeper look. It is a powerful non-opioid, sedative, analgesic,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: and muscle relaxant that is strictly used in veterinary medicine.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Wait. Strictly veterinary?
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Yes. Okay. It is meant for large animals like horses
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: and cattle.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: That is just horrifying.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It lowers the heart rate and central nervous system activity
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: to a dangerously low degree. It is absolutely not approved
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: for human use anywhere.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: But wait, I have to challenge the intentionality of that
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: specific drug for a second. You are framing this as
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a highly calculated bespoke chemical assault. But isn't it true
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: that right now on the street, almost all the illicit
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: fentanyl being sold is being cut with xylosine?
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, that is true.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: It's called Trank on the street. So is it really
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a calculated choice by Verdeo to psychologically dehumanize her with
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a horse tranquilizer? Or is it much more likely that
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: this was just the street drug his accomplice managed to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: buy the night before?
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: That is very astute pushback. You are absolutely right about
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: the realities of the underground drug supply right now.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Right, it's everywhere.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: It is highly probable that they purchased street-level fentanyl that
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: was already adulterated with xylosine. However, the intent behind its
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: application in this context is what really matters.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: They did not give her a drug for a recreational high.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: They utilized a massive central nervous system depressant, whether they
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: knew its exact chemical makeup or just knew it as
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: a knockout drug, to entirely strip her of her physical agency.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Just completely paralyze her.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. In a highly resourced, non-recreational context, injecting an unconsenting
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: pregnant woman with an illicit street sedative, is a disposal tactic.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: A disposal tactic?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Wow. It treats the human body as a problem to
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: be medically neutralized.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, I see your point. Whether he read the chemical
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: label or not, the mechanism of the act is total eradication. Yes.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And the physical mechanics of what they do next proves
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that disposal mindset beyond a shadow of a doubt. Because
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: they don't just drug her and leave her somewhere.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: No, they don't. The prosecution detailed that after incapacitating her,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: they bound her with metal wire.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: With wire.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: And they didn't just tie her hands, they tied her
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: to a cement block.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Which requires preparation. You don't just happen to have metal
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: binding wire and a cement block sitting in the passenger
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: seat of your Dodge Durango.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: No, you definitely don't.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: That implies a trip to a hardware store or maybe
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: a construction site prior to the meeting.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's textbook premeditation.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It implies you woke up that morning knowing you were
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: going to sink a human being into a body of water.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Precisely. The preparation of the wire and the weight is
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the ultimate legal indicator of premeditation here.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So what happens next?
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: They then drove the vehicle to the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: in San Juan. Now, this is a massive, highly visible
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: toll bridge that spans the San Jose Lagoon.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: So they're out in the open.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Yes. They pulled over, removed her from the vehicle, and
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: threw her off the bridge into the water below.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Just dumped her. But even then, the aggression wasn't satiated.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And here's where it gets really interesting and just deeply shocking.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: What court?
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: The release from the U.S. Attorney's Office states that Verdeo
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: then jumped into the lagoon himself, and I'm quoting here,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: in order to finish murdering both victims.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That is the detail that completely dismantles any potential
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: defense narrative of, say, an accidental overdose or a crime
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: of sudden blinding passion.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Because he kept going.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If a crime is spontaneous, the perpetrator often experiences
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: immediate shock or panic. When the reality of the action
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: sets in, they flee.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: They run away. But here you have an agonizingly deliberate sequence. Luring, punching, drugging, binding, transporting,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: heaving over a bridge.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: All of which takes time.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: It takes immense physical effort and time. And then to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: look down at the water, see that the job might
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: not be entirely finished, and make the conscious physical decision
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to leap into the lagoon to ensure she dies. Yeah.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: That is not panic. That is the clinical execution of
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a perceived threat.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: And the sheer cruelty of it is locked in by
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the forensic pathology.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Right, the autopsy findings.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Her body was recovered on May 1st. And during the trial,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the pathologist testified to a fact that is just agonizing
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: to process. She was still alive when she was thrown
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: into the water.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. From a forensic perspective, that finding establishes the exact
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: cause and timeline of death.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: It differentiates between disposing of a corpse and actively drowning
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: a living person.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But from a narrative standpoint, for a jury sitting
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: in a courtroom listening to this, it makes the terror
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: completely visceral. It strips away all the clinical legal language.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: It means that despite taking a full force punch from
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: an Olympian, despite having fentanyl and horse tranquilizer pumped into
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: her veins.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Despite being tied to a block of cement. Right.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: She was still fighting. She was still alive as she fell.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: You hear that medical fact, and it is just impossible
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to remain objective about his state of mind.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: It forces everyone in the courtroom to recognize the victim,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: not as a piece of forensic evidence, but as a living,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: breathing human being who experienced unimaginable terror.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: It is the detail that guarantees the jury views the
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: defendant's actions as absolute barbarity.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: But as we look at this incredibly methodical timeline, the luring,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the driving, the bridge... It naturally leads us to a
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: massive glaring variable in this equation.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: The accomplice. Yes.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Verdeo was not alone in that car. There was a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: second man, Luis Antonio Cadiz Martinez. Right.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And the presence of Cadiz Martinez introduces a fascinating and
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: highly complex layer regarding the psychology of complicity.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Well, it brings up the diffusion of responsibility and the
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: actual mechanics of how this case was broken wide open
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: by law enforcement.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Because according to the prosecutors, he was fully involved. He
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: was there for the luring. He was present in the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Durango for the assault and the chemical injection, and he
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: actively helped carry her body and heave her off the bridge.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: He is entirely complicit in a premeditated murder.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: But then we have this massive paradox. According to the
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Associated Press, it was Cadiz Martinez who later made an
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: anonymous 911 call. Yes. And in that call, he is
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the one who provided the specific location of Kishla's body
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in the lagoon.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: It is a profound contradiction in human behavior.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: On one hand, you have active physical participation in a
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: binding and an execution. On the other hand, you have
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the act of whistleblowing.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: The sole mechanism that allowed the victim's family to recover
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: her body.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And allowed the police to begin unraveling the entire conspiracy.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I really want to dig into this breaking point. Because
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: if you are listening to this, ask yourself, if you
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: are willing to help tie metal wire around a pregnant woman...
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: What suddenly triggers your conscience to pick up a phone?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: That's a great question.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Did he snap out of some kind of psychological spell?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Was he just completely cowed by Verdeo's fame and physical
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: intimidation in the moment and then the horrific reality crashed
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: down on him later that night?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Sociologically, we often look at the concept of the diffusion
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: of responsibility in scenarios exactly like this.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: What does that mean exactly?
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: In the moment of the crime, an accomplice might convince
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: themselves that they lack moral agency. They tell themselves that
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: the primary aggressor, especially someone as famous, wealthy, and physically
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: imposing as an Olympic boxer, is the one truly in charge.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Like he's the boss, I'm just the employee.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Yes. They view themselves as merely an instrument of the
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: primary actor's will, not the one truly responsible for the outcome. Right.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It's the, I was just following orders defense, just applied
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: to a street-level crime instead of a military operation.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But once the act is complete, the adrenaline fades.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: And they are separated from that dominant figure, that diffusion
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: of responsibility evaporates.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: They're just left alone in a quiet room.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Yes. The accomplice is left alone with the stark, unvarnished
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: reality of what they have actively done. And for some,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: the psychological weight of that reality induces a genuine moral collapse,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: leading to a confession, or in this case, a 911 call.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: But let me offer a more cynical alternative here.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Is it possible there was no moral awakening at all?
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, is it possible he just realized how incredibly
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: sloppy the crime was?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Sloppy in what way?
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Well, they committed a kidnapping in the defendant's own highly
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: recognizable vehicle.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: True.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: They stopped on a major trail bridge in a metropolitan area.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe he woke up the next day, realized there were
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: probably a dozen traffic cameras that caught them, realized he
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: And made that 911 call as a purely calculated preemptive
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: move for self-preservation.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: That is highly probable in the calculus of accomplices. The
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: race to the prosecutor's office is a well-documented phenomenon.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Who gets there first gets the deal.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When a conspiracy involves multiple people, the first one
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to cooperate is usually the only one who survives legally. Right.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: So whether driven by crushing guilt or cold, strategic self-interest
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: like this is going to be traced back to me.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I need an exit strategy. The result is the same.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: He provided the thread that unraveled Verdejo's entire life.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And his exit strategy played out exactly as you'd expect
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in the legal system.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It did.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Our source notes that Cadiz Martinez pleaded guilty last year
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to carjacking, resulting in death and killing an unborn child.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: He traded his testimony against Verdejo for a plea agreement,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and he is currently awaiting his own sentencing. He essentially
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: handed the federal government their entire case on a silver platter.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: He really did. He provided the location of the body,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the timeline, the motive, and firsthand eyewitness testimony of the
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: mechanics of the murder.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the trial itself. You have a
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: star witness. You have the recovered body. You have forensic pathology.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: You have a timeline. You would think this is an
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: absolute slam dunk for a jury.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: You would think so, yeah.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But how a federal jury actually processed this case in
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: July of 2023 is fascinating because it wasn't just a
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: blanket trial. emotional conviction.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: No, it was a highly meticulous, almost surgical evaluation of
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: federal law.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Let's get into that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: The trial took place in federal court, which has very rigid,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: highly specific jurisdictional requirements. The jury was composed of three
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: men and nine women. They were tasked with evaluating a
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: multi-count federal indictment.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Let's just pause on that demographic for a second. Nine
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: women and three men.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: It's a significant split.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: You have a heavy female majority and evaluating a case
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: where an elite, wealthy male athlete used his physical power
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: and societal status to methodically eradicate a pregnant woman who
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: threatened his public image.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: The tension in that room must have been palpable.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: The emotional temperature in that deliberation room had to be
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: incredibly high. It would be very easy for a jury
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: to just walk in, say he's a monster, guilty on
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: all charges, and walk out in an hour. But they
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: didn't do that.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: They didn't. They returned what is known as a fractured
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: or split verdict.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for us.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: The jury found Verdeo guilty of kidnapping, resulting in death,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: and guilty of causing the death of an unborn child.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: On those counts... They agreed the government proved every element
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: beyond a reasonable doubt. Okay. However, they were deadlocked, meaning
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: they simply could not reach a unanimous decision on two
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: other major charges. Which ones? Carjacking resulting in death and
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: OK, we need an ELI five on this. Explain it
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to me like I'm five, because this is where the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: legal system absolutely baffles the general public.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I get it. It sounds contradictory.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Right. How can you look at the evidence, agree beyond
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a reasonable doubt that this man kidnapped a woman and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: murdered her, but deadlock on whether a carjacking happened, the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: kidnapping happened in a car?
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: It comes down to the extreme specificity of federal statutes.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: OK, go on.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: To convict someone of a federal crime, The prosecution doesn't
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: just have to prove that something bad happened. They have
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: to prove every single element of the statute independently. Let's
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: look at the carjacking charge. The federal definition of carjacking
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: generally involves taking a motor vehicle that is moved in
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: interstate commerce from the person or presence of another by force, violence,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: or intimidation.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Ah, taking it from another person?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We know from the timeline that they lured Kisla
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: into Verdeo's own Dodge Durango.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: It was his car?
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Yes. The jury likely got bogged down in the legal
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: mechanics of the taking. Did they take her car? No.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Since it was his vehicle, does it legally meet the
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: threshold for a federal carjacking, even though a violent kidnapping
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: and murder occurred inside it? I see.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: So some jurors might have said you can't carjack yourself.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Precisely. Some jurors likely argued that you cannot carjack your
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: own vehicle, while others might have argued that by restraining
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: her inside it, the vehicle became an instrument of the crime.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: When the statutory language doesn't perfectly map onto the messy
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: reality of the crime, juries deadlock.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense. It's like building a case is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: like assembling a highly specific machine. You can prove the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: machine crushed someone, which is the kidnapping and murder. But
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the jury can still argue over whether a specific gear
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was technically a cog or a sprocket under the manual's definition.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: That's a very good analogy.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And what about the weapon charge? They used metal wire?
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a cement block, and horse tranquilizer. How is that not
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a weapon?
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Again, it hinges on the federal definition provided in the
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: jury instructions. Was the charge specifically regarding a firearm? If so,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: there was no gun.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Right. No gun was used.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: If the charge was possession of a dangerous weapon, the
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: defense might have successfully muddied the waters on whether a
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: cement block or binding wire meets the federal statutory definition
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: of a weapon in that specific context.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Or if they were just tools for restraint and disposal.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The deadlock is actually a testament to the integrity
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: of the jury system.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Really? How so?
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: It proves that this jury of nine women and three
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: men did not just act on blind outrage. They parsed
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: the judge's legal instructions with intense objective scrutiny.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So they did their jobs. They convicted where the elements
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: were met, and they held the line where the prosecution's
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: specific statutory arguments were muddy.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. They followed the law to the letter.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, the convictions they did secure were enough. In
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: November of 2023, a federal judge handed down a life sentence.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: A life sentence, yes.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: But of course, in the American justice system, a life
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: sentence is rarely the final period at the end of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the sentence.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question, Ray. The source material notes
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: that Verdeo's attorney has officially filed an appeal in the
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: federal case. An appeal is a fundamental constitutional right designed
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: to ensure that the trial procedures, the admission of evidence,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and the jury instructions were all handled legally and fairly.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Which is how the system has to work. But man,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: you have to acknowledge how agonizing that is for the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: victim's family.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely agonizing.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: To have a confessed accomplice, recovery of the body, forensic pathology,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: a guilty verdict from a jury, and a life sentence
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: from a federal judge. And yet the procedural loops just continue.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It never really ends for them.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: It feels like an endless refusal by the perpetrator to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: simply accept accountability... But while the legal machinery grinds on
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in the background, the actual story here doesn't end in
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that courtroom.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't. To truly understand the impact of this case,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: we have to zoom out from the microcosm of the
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: federal courthouse to the macrocosm of Puerto Rico itself.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: The bigger picture.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Because this murder did not just shock the island. It
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: acted as an accelerant on societal wounds that were already burning.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Our source reports that the murder of Kishla Rodriguez-Ortiz
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: sparked massive island-wide protests regarding the treatment of women.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Thousands of people taking to the streets.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It evolved overnight from a singular true crime tragedy into
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: a massive political and social movement. The public outrage reached
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: such a fever pitch that the governor of Puerto Rico,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Pedro Pierluisi, was forced to take sweeping executive action.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Historic action, really.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: He declared a formal state of emergency for gender violence
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: And the declaration of a state of emergency is a
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: profound acknowledgement of a systemic failure. Right. But it is
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: the specific language the governor used to justify that declaration
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: that is so critical to our understanding of this case.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: What did he say?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: He didn't just point to Verdejo and say this is
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: an isolated incident committed by an evil man.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: He didn't use the lone wolf excuse.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: No. He indicted the entire cultural framework. He explicitly blamed
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: the tragedy on, and I'm quoting directly from his statement here,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: the consequences of systematic machismo, inequity, discrimination, lack of education,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: lack of guidance, and above all, lack of action.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Systematic machismo. I really want to unpack how that actually
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: manifests in the real world.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: It's a powerful phrase.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Because it's easy to throw around terms like toxic masculinity
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: or machismo as buzzwords, but the governor is saying it
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: is a literal system that gets women killed.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: How does the culture actually build the pedestal that allowed
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Verdeo to believe he could get away with this?
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: It manifests in a thousand small compounding allowances before it
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: ever escalates to murder.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Give me an example.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Systematic machismo is a cultural framework that inherently values male dominance,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: physical prowess, and public status over a female autonomy. When
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: a young man shows athletic promise, especially in a combat
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: sport like boxing, the community, the sponsors, and the media
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: often begin to insulate him.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Right. He gets special treatment.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Bad behavior is excused as boys being boys or the
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: fire of a champion. If a local hero is involved
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: in a domestic dispute, historically... law enforcement might handle it
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: differently than if it were an average citizen.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: They sweep it under the rug.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They might look the other way to protect his career.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: It's this invisible shield of invincibility. We see it across
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: all sports and entertainment globally.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: It's everywhere, yeah.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: It's this unspoken rule that if you can throw a
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: punch fast enough or throw a football far enough, the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: normal rules of human decency and legal accountability simply do
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: not apply to you. You are a VIP, and the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: people around you are just expendable collateral.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The governor's statement acknowledges that Verdeo did not materialize
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: out of a vacuum. He was manufactured by a culture
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: of inequity and bolstered by a catastrophic lack of action
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: by the institutions that were supposed to hold powerful men
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: accountable early on.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Which is why people were so furious.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: This specific case became the lightning rod for the protests
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: because it was the ultimate horrific convergence of all those
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: systemic failures. a beloved national icon literally weighing his public
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: brand against a woman's life and choosing his brand.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? The protests and the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: state of emergency where society finally standing up and demanding
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: that the shield be completely shattered.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: And you hear that demand echoed perfectly, almost aggressively, in
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the words of the Puerto Rico police commissioner, Antonio Lopez,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: following the sentencing.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Yes. Commissioner Lopez delivered a very stark public warning aimed
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: directly at the culture of celebrity impunity.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: What was his message?
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: He stated, It's law enforcement.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Attempting to reclaim the narrative, to explicitly state that the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: bronze statue can and will be torn down, melted down,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and put in a federal cell.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to look at it.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: But despite the political declarations, and despite the stern warnings
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: from the police commissioner, all of this sociological analysis... really
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: just pales in comparison to the actual human cost here.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: It does. At the center of all the legal jargon,
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the federal statutes, and the cultural reckonings is a family
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: that has been permanently shattered.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: The People magazine report includes a quote from Keshla's father,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Jose Antonio Rodriguez, speaking to reporters outside the courthouse after
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: the July verdict.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: What did he say?
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: He said, may he live the rest of his life
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: thinking about everything he did to my daughter.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is the raw, unvarnished reality of the aftermath.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It is a father condemning the murderer to the prison
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: of his own memory.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: It's a very different kind of sentence.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: The justice system provided a life sentence, which confines Verdejo's
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: physical body to a concrete box. But Jose Antonio Rodriguez
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: is invoking a different, far more profound kind of sentence.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: The psychological torment.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, of being forced to confront the sheer barbarity of
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: his actions for the rest of his natural life. stripped
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: of his fame, stripped of his wealth, stripped of the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: yes-men who enabled him, left with absolutely nothing but the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: reality of what he was. he did to Kishla on
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: that bridge.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: It brings all the disparate threads of this tragedy together.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: We started by examining the horrific, granular details of a
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: meticulously premeditated crime.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: The Dodge Durango. The metal wire. The cement block. The
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: veterinary tranquilizer.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: We analyzed the complete psychological collapse of an Olympian who
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: believed his public image was worth more than a human life.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And we navigated the fractured surgical verdict of a federal
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: jury dealing with complex statutes.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: And finally, we saw how an island-wide uprising forced a
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: government to confront its own systematic machismo. They all paint
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: a picture of a society that reached its absolute breaking point,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: a society demanding ultimate accountability.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: It is a profound shift from a simple true crime
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: narrative into a deep sociological reckoning. The reporting forces us
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to acknowledge that crimes of this magnitude do not happen
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: in isolation.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: They don't.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: They are fueled by cultural enablers, and their aftermath has
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the power to shift public policy and societal expectations forever.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: But before we close out this deep dive, we need
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to ensure we relay critical, actionable information that was provided
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: directly in our source material.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. The reporting strongly emphasizes that if you or
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Please take note of this.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Or you can go online to thehotline.org.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: And that's totally confidential, right?
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yes. The hotline is toll free, is strictly confidential, and
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: it is available 247 in more than 170 languages.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: And as we step away from this immensely difficult case,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I want to leave you with a lingering thought to consider.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: We talked extensively today about the governor's condemnation of systematic
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: machismo and the culture that enabled this tragedy. The question
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: that remains for all of us is this. When a
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: society idolizes its athletes to the absolute extreme, to the
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: point where those athletes genuinely believe their public image is
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: worth more than a human life, who is ultimately responsible
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: for dismantling that system.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: That is the big question.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Is it solely the burden of the justice system to
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: punish them after the atrocity has already occurred? Or is
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the responsibility equally shared by the culture, the media, the sponsors,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: and the fans who build those impenetrable pedestals in the
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: first place?
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: The tension between the pristine public monument and the flawed,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: sometimes dangerous human being inside it, it is a dynamic
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: that we all have a hand in creating.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on this incredibly intense deep dive.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It is not an easy topic to sit with, but
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: understanding the mechanics of how these tragedies occur is essential.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Keep asking the hard questions, keep looking past the pedestal,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: and we will see you on the next deep dive.