Latest / Crime and Horror / Missing cell phone helped solve his murder

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Missing cell phone helped solve his murder · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In the fall of 2009, a very anxious college student
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: was sitting inside of a crowded lecture hall in Southern California,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: listening to his professor give a talk, when suddenly the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: doors to the building opened up and in walked three
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: campus police along.
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  Speaker 2: With a man in a suit. And so everybody goes quiet,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the professor as well.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: And these men, they walk down to the front and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: they whisper something to the professor, at which point the professor,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: who looks confused himself, he goes to the podium leans
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: into the mic and he looks up at the anxious
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: college student. And the professor just says, they want to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: talk to you. But before we get into today's story,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right
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  Speaker 1: place because that's all we do. And we upload two, three,
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  Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
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  Speaker 1: to you, please invite the like button to come with
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you on a really long, fun road trip. And after
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you get out on the road, eventually, when they have
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to use the bathroom, pull over at a rest stop,
• 1:01
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  Speaker 1: weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: morning of Thursday, October 22, 2009, a 41-year-old man named
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Damon Nicholson opened the double doors to a hotel ballroom
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: in Laguna Beach, California. Damon was an event planner at
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the hotel, and today he was giving a tour to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a recently engaged couple who wanted to use the space
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: for their wedding. So event planning was like the perfect
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: job for Damon, because he loved a good party and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: he'd always been great with people.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And in fact, by the time he'd shown this couple.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: The ballroom and then led them out onto the veranda
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to show off the hotel's amazing beachfront views, they were
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: all chatting and laughing like they were longtime friends. And
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the couple was now dead set on using the space.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Just then, Damon felt a cell phone buzz in his pocket.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So he politely excused himself, he stepped away, and when
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: he pulled his phone out, he saw he had gotten
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a text message from a college student who he had
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: just recently begun dating.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: The guy's name was Alan Caulfield.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: And Alan was texting Damon just to make sure they
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: were still on for their date that night. After reading
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this message, Damon found himself not really sure how to respond.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: After all, I mean, right now he was feeling really
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: tired because the night before he had been out late,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: having a good time. And actually the night before that
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: as well, he'd been out late. So he's like really
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: tired from all the partying he was doing. Laguna Beach
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: was known for having this really big gay community and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Damon liked to date around quite a bit. He'd grown
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: up in a much more conservative family, and his sexual
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: orientation had always been a source of a lot of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: pain in his life. But here in Laguna Beach, he
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: felt fully accepted and free, and he was really enjoying
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: his life. But his lifestyle could also get kind of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: wild sometimes, with partying so hard and, like, He even
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: got involved in some of these anonymous group sex parties.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, he really was just living it up.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: And in fact, this week, in addition to being tired
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: from all the partying he had been doing, also all
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: this staying out late and partying had gotten him behind
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: on his work. And so in seeing this text from Alan,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: he's thinking not only physically do I sort of feel
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: depleted and don't really feel up for another night of that,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: but also like I really need to be responsible and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: like do my work tonight. But he really liked Alan.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to give off the impression that, you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: he wasn't interested. And so he ultimately was like, you
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: know what?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I'll go out with him.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So Damon just sent a text confirming the date back
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to Alan. And then he put the phone back in
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: his pocket and walked over and continued the tour. Later
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that same night, around 10 p.m., Damon stood on the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: porch of his first floor apartment, watching Alan's car pull
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: away from the curb. They'd spent a few fun hours together,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: but Damon had actually cut the night short. He had
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed, you know, having his time with Alan, but
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: even though it was late, he did need to get
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: some work done.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: And so he figured that's what he would do before
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: going to bed.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So Damon watched Alan's car disappear around the corner, and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: he turned and went back inside of his apartment, leaving
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the sliding glass door open just a few inches. Then
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: he walked over and sat down on the couch. He
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: opened up his laptop, and it took him a minute
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to sort of get focused again.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: But once he did, he in the zone, and he
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: sort of lost track of time.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And he'd been working for a while when he heard
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: footsteps out on the porch outside. And he looked up
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: just as the door slid open. At 2.30 p.m. the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: next day, a woman named Lindsay Scott got out of
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: her car and walked over to Damon's apartment. Lindsay worked
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: with Damon at the hotel, and she was worried because
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: he hadn't shown up to work that morning. So now,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: after calling him multiple times with no response, Lindsay had
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: decided to just go over to Damon's place and just
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: check on him during her break. As she stepped onto
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the porch, Lindsay saw the sliding glass door leading into
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Damon's apartment was open. But Lindsay actually was not that
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  Speaker 1: surprised because she had been to parties at Damon's place
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  Speaker 1: and she knew he had this kind of open door
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: policy where his friends would just drop by unannounced.
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  Speaker 2: So Lindsay just poked her head through the open door
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and called out for Damon.
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  Speaker 1: When he didn't answer, she stepped inside immediately frozen shock
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: at what she saw. And right away, she turned, ran
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: out of the apartment, she grabbed her phone, and she
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: called 911. About 30 minutes later, Detective Larry Bammer of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the Laguna Beach Police Department parked his car outside of
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Damon's apartment building. It was a small building, and it
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: was located about a block away from the beach.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: And this was a pretty quiet area.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: In fact, in Bammer's experience, this area really didn't see
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: much crime at all. And a homicide, like the one
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Bammer had been brought in here to investigate, was basically
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: unheard of. Bammer made his way over to the building.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: He ultimately climbed up the steps to the wooden porch.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: He ducked under the yellow crime scene tape that was
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: blocking the doorway, and he stepped inside of Damon's apartment.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: The small apartment was already crowded with crime scene techs
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: who were taking photos and dusting everything for prints, and
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  Speaker 1: the body of a man was slumped over right on
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  Speaker 1: the couch, fully dressed and also partially covered in pillows.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Bammer walked over to get a better look, and when
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: he did, he realized he actually recognized the victim. It
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: was Damon Nicholson, the event planner who for years had
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: coordinated the police department's annual Christmas party. Bammer shook his
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: head because, you know, in his experience, Damon had always
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: seemed like a really nice guy. You know, he couldn't
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: think of, you know, how he could get wrapped up
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: in something that would turn into him getting murdered. But,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: you know, Bammer was here to do a job, and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: so despite the personal connection, he leaned in and got
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: to work. And right away, he noticed that the back
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of Damon's head was covered with blood, like he'd been
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: struck with a blunt instrument. But there were no obvious
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: contenders for the murder weapon anywhere in sight. Like, nobody
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: had brought anything up that could have been used to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: kill him. Additionally, Bammer didn't see any blood anywhere else
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in the room he was in, aside from obviously the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: blood on the victim and also on the couch. So
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: that likely meant Damon likely died where he was right now. Next,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Bammer looked at the throw pillows that had been piled
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: up on Damon's legs. From how they were positioned, it
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: was obvious that Damon had not put them there himself.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Bammer knew that killers sometimes covered up the victim's bodies.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: It was usually a sign of shame or remorse after
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the fact. So that could mean that the killer knew
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Damon personally, and after killing him, they felt bad and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: covered him up or something. But the pillows were definitely
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: not definitive by any means. Once he'd seen enough of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the body, Bammer walked around the rest of the apartment
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: before ultimately making his way over to the forensic team lead.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And she confirmed that there were no signs of forced entry,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and that according to the woman who had called 911,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Scott, the door had been open when she arrived.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Lindsay had also said.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: That Damon had a habit of leaving the door open
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: whenever he was home, which meant that any stranger could
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: have seen.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: The open door and wandered in off the street.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Now, the apartment didn't appear to have been ransacked or anything,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: but there was a pile of loose garbage sitting in
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the middle of the kitchen floor, right next to the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: trash can. The lid was lying on the floor beside
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the can, and there was no trash can liner inside.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: It was like an empty trash can. So, Detective Bammer
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: guessed that what likely happened here is the killer took
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the liner that had been in there, pulled it out
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of the can, dumped out the contents, but then used
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that same bag, probably to hold the murder weapon or
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: maybe some bloody clothes, and brought it with them on
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: their way out. And then also, despite the police not
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: being able to know what actually had been in the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: apartment before the attack, it did look like a few
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: things had been taken. For example, there was a computer
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: mouse that was on the coffee table. but no computer
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: or laptop anywhere in the apartment. And also the forensics
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: team had not found Damon's cell phone anywhere. So it
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: looked like the motive maybe could have been robbery. But
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that bothered Bammer, because robbery was impersonal.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And those pillows.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Piled on Damon's legs and his body, those felt personal.
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  Speaker 1: On top of that, killing someone with a blunt instrument
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: took a lot of strength and determination.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And in Bammer's experience, that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Was the kind of violence that typically came from a
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: serious grudge. someone with a personal connection to the victim.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: So Bammer couldn't be sure if Damon had been killed
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: by someone he knew or a stranger who had just
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: walked in off the street. It was like either one
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: really could have happened here. Either way, if the killer
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: had taken Damon's cell phone, they had made a huge
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: mistake because Damon's phone could be tracked. And if the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: killer still had it, it would lead Bammer right to them.
• 10:29
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• 10:32
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• 10:55
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• 10:58
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• 11:02
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• 11:05
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• 11:40
  Speaker 1: On October 25th, 2009, so two days after Damon Nicholson
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment, Detective Larry
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Bammer climbed into a dumpster right outside of an apartment
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: building about 20 minutes north of Damon's home in Laguna Beach.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Once inside, he crouched down and began sorting through the garbage.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Bammer had tracked Damon's missing cell phone to this apartment building,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: so he knew it had to be somewhere nearby. But
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: this building was enormous, and searching it unit by unit
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: would take days. And on top of that, it just
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: seemed unlikely that the killer would have led them straight
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to their home. There was a good chance that they
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: had realized the phone could be tracked and had dumped
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: it somewhere. So now, Bammer and a dozen other officers
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: were checking all the dumpsters before they resorted to going
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: inside and canvassing the building unit by unit. By this point,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for context, Bammer had reviewed the autopsy report for Damon Nicholson,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and it confirmed that Damon had died from multiple blows
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: from a blunt instrument, probably sometime between 1 and 3 a.m.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: On October 23rd.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: So in the very early morning hours of the same day,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the body was found. The forensic team had found fingerprints
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: inside of Damon's apartment, but they had found so many
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: different fingerprints from so many people that in essence, the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: fingerprints became useless.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: There was just too many of them.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: However, they had found DNA inside the lid of Damon's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: garbage can, which Bammer knew or assumed the killer had
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: very likely touched when they dumped out the trash and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: took the trash liner. Now, Damon and his team had
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: already sent that DNA sample to the crime lab for analysis,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: but those results would take a few weeks at least
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to come back. So in the meantime, finding Damon's missing
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: phone was the best lead. And so now Bammer was still,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: you know, knee-deep in trash, sifting through the dumpster when
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: he heard a door open nearby. He stood up and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: he turned to see this bearded man step out of
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: the apartment building and he's looking over at Bammer inquisitively.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Bammer showed the man his badge and explained the whole situation.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: And when he mentioned that they were specifically looking for
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a cell phone that they had tracked to this building,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the bearded man replied that he knew exactly where they
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: could find that phone.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Because he had it.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Minutes later, Detective Bammer followed the bearded man into a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: cluttered office on the first floor of the apartment building.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: The man, who gave his name as Rick Larson, explained
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that he was the building custodian. and that he actually
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: regularly checked the dumpsters to see if tenants had thrown
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: out anything good. Then he opened up the top drawer
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: of his desk, and he took out a cell phone
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: that he had found. And Bammer, when he saw it,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: he took out his own phone, and he called Damon's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: phone number. And sure enough, a moment later, the trash
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: can phone, the one that had been in Rick's desk,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: began to ring.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: So this was definitely Damon's phone.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: But now Bammer had to wonder if Rick's dumpster diving
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: story was true, or if it was just an excuse
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: to explain why he was in possession of a murdered
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: man's missing phone. So Bammer was pretty direct and just
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: asked Rick point blank where he'd been between 1 and
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: 3 a.m. on the morning of October 23rd. And Rick,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: when he heard this question, looked genuinely surprised and then
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: sort of worried.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And then he said he'd been here asleep in his
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: own apartment.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: But when Bammer pressed him on this, You know, asked him,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: is there anybody else out there who could verify that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: you really were here? Rick just shook his head and said, no,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: he'd been alone. Just a little while later, Bammer left
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the apartment building, but now carrying two bags. One bag
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: contained Damon's cell phone, and the other bag contained the
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: DNA kit with Rick Larson's sample in it. Now, it
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: would take time for the crime lab to compare Rick,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the apartment building custodian, his sample that they had just
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: gotten with to the DNA from the crime scene. But
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, Bammer did now have Damon's phone to
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: go through. He still wasn't sure if Damon had been
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: killed by a random burglar, or just a random stranger, period,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: or if maybe there was a personal component to the murder.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And so now he wanted to try to dig into
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Damon's personal life and find out who he'd been spending
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: time with before he was killed. And a way to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: do that was going to hopefully be through his phone.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: A few days later, just after lunch, Bammer sat inside
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of an interview room across from a professionally dressed man
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: with a big gauze bandage wrapped around one of his hands.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Bammer had spent the last few days reviewing Damon's phone
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: records and also his online dating profile. And by now,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: he knew that Damon had been seeing a number of
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: men before his murder. So Bammer was working through that
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: list of men and bringing them in one by one.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The man with the bandaged hand that he was interviewing
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: right now was a guy named Ethan Cooper. And from
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Damon's phone activity, Bammer knew that Ethan had gone on
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: a date with Damon just two nights before the murder.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Bammer did not need to tell Ethan that Damon was
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: dead because clearly Ethan already knew. I mean, as it was,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the murder was all over the news and it was
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: an especially big deal for Laguna Beach's gay community. So
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: by this point, it was like everybody knew, Ethan included.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: According to Ethan, His date with Damon a couple of
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: days before the murder had been pretty straightforward. They'd gone
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: out for drinks before heading back to Damon's place to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: watch a movie, and Ethan had wound up spending the
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: night there. At some point, Bammer asked Ethan about the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: bandage on his hand, and Ethan explained that.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: It was actually a spider bite. Bammer was surprised to
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: hear this.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, spider bites, especially spider bites that require huge bandaging,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: are pretty rare. And so he just asked to see it.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And Ethan clearly hesitated. But then he did unwrap the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: bandage and he held out his hand. And there definitely
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: was a big wound on Ethan's hand. It was right
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: in the center of his palm. But to Bammer, it
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: did not look like a spider bite or not like
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: any spider bite he had ever seen.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: It didn't even look like a puncture of any kind.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: It looked more like a cut, like a laceration.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: The kind of wound that someone might get during a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: life-and-death struggle with somebody else. Ethan must have read Bammer's face,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: because he quickly added that he had gotten this bite
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: before Damon was murdered, and that he'd actually shown the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: bite to his boss at work, who could vouch for him.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Bammer said he'd take down the number for Ethan's boss,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as well as contact info for anyone who could verify
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Ethan's whereabouts on the night of the murder. And while
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: he had Ethan there, he said he'd like to get
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a DNA sample, too. The next morning, Bammer was back
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: inside the interview room with the next person on his list.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: This time, it was a middle-aged man in glasses named
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Todd Daniels. From reading all their messages to each other
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: in Damon's cell phone, Bammer could tell that Todd and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Damon had been friends for years and that they had
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: seen each other the night after Damon's date with Ethan,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: which was one night before Damon was killed. When Bammer
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: asked Todd what he and Damon had done that night,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: so again, the night before Damon was killed, Todd seemed
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: really uncomfortable. Todd explained that what he had to say
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: about that night was extremely personal, but he was willing
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to share it with the police on the off chance
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: that it could be relevant. Bammer told him he really
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: couldn't make any promises in terms of what he did
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: with the information he was going to get, but he
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: would try to be discreet. So Todd, somewhat reluctantly, explained
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that he and Damon had not just been friends. They
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: had actually been sexually involved. They'd been hooking up casually
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: for years, and that their visits always tended to.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Go the exact same way.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Todd would show up at Damon's apartment and just let
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: himself in through the sliding door that was often just
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: left open.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Todd said that inside.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: The lights would all be off in the apartment, and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Damon would be waiting, wearing nothing but a ski cap
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: pulled all the way down to cover his face. Sometimes,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Todd said, it wouldn't just be him who was showing
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: up to meet up with Damon. Todd would bring other
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: partners to join in.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Basically, it was, you know, a non-existent. sex.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And Todd said he was pretty sure he was not
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the only one with this kind of arrangement with Damon.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Damon clearly did this with other men too. Bammer, after
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: hearing this, just sort of sat there in silence for
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: a moment. If Todd was right here, It meant that
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Damon had, you know, potentially for years been letting an
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: unknown number of strangers into his home. And that meant
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Bammer's pool of suspects had just gotten a whole lot bigger.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: On the morning of October 29th, so one week after
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the murder, Bammer was at his desk still working tirelessly
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to get through all of Damon's contacts to figure.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Out like who's even in this suspect pool.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And so he leaned closer to his computer screen and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: he's reading all this information and he's just so frustrated
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: because it just felt like this was an overwhelming amount
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of work. Since his interview with Todd, the man who
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: brought up that Damon allowed strangers to come in and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: have sex with him, since that meeting, Bammer had spoken
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to more than a dozen men who had had casual
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: sexual relationships with Damon, including some with arrangements that were
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: in fact similar to the one that Todd had described. Now,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Bammer had already collected DNA samples for most of these
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: men he had spoken to, and he had sent those
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: samples off to the lab, along with the ones he'd
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: gotten from Rick and Ethan and Todd.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: But again, it's like, it's just a waiting game. You
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: gotta wait for the results to come back.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And it's like, the likelihood you're gonna find a match
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: is kind of low, because there's just so many people
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: now that comprise this pool. But Bammer now had another
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: lead that did seem really promising. He finally had more
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: details on a phone number that had called and texted
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Damon multiple times on the night he died. The number
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: belonged to a man named Alan Caulfield, and it looked
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: like Alan and Damon had been planning to see each
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: other on the night that Damon died. And so if
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that date had happened, if these two got together, it
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: would make Alan very likely the last person to have
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: seen Damon alive. So after reviewing his notes, Bammer picked
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: up his phone and he called Alan's number.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: When Allen picked up, Bammer explained.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: That he was a detective with the Laguna Beach police,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and he really needed to speak with Allen about a homicide.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: And Allen, without asking for any clarification about who had
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: been killed or really anything at all, he just stammered
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that he didn't think he could possibly have information about
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: anything like that. It was very obvious to Bammer that
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Allen did not want to be on this phone call.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: So before he could allow Allen to hang up, Bammer
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: just got right to the point and and asked if
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Alan had been to Damon.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Nicholson's apartment on the night of October 22nd.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Alan was silent for a long moment, and then when
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: he finally did reply, he just said that he was
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: not willing to answer that question. One morning in early
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: November of 2009, So just over a week after Damon
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Nicholson was murdered at his apartment in Laguna Beach, Detective
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Larry Bammer stood in an empty college classroom in San Diego, California.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: A young man named Alan Caulfield sat in a chair
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: in front of him, very nervously tapping his foot on
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the floor. Alan had not been willing to admit anything
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: over the phone with Bammer, but Bammer believed that he
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: had been with Damon on the night he was killed.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: And so that fact, combined with Alan's reluctance to talk
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: to the police... had pushed Allen to the top of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Bammer's suspect list. Bammer thought, you know, scaring Allen with
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: a public scene might rattle him and get him to
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: open up. So Bammer had made the 80-minute drive to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Allen's college and asked the campus police to pull Allen
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: out of class and bring him to an empty classroom
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to conduct the interview. Basically, rip him out of his
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: life and force him to confront a homicide detective.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: And so now, When.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Bammer asked the very rattled Allen if he had been
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to Damon's apartment on the night of October 22nd, Allen
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this time did not.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Try to put up a fight. Instead, he just shut
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: his eyes, and he nodded and said yes. He said
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: that he had.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Met Damon sometime around 8 p.m. that night, and they'd
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: hung out for a little bit, and then Allen had
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: left sometime around 10 p.m., and he had just driven
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: back home.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Bammer jotted the info down in his notepad, but inside
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: he's thinking to himself, okay, You know, if Alan's telling
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: me the truth, that meant he left Damon's apartment a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: few hours before Damon was killed. Because the autopsy said
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that Damon was killed sometime between 1 and 3 a.m.,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Alan's saying he was gone by 10 p.m. However, Alan
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: had been really cagey with Bammer on the phone. He
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: wouldn't give him any information. He was so quick to dismiss,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: you know, even talking to Bammer, and now Bammer had
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to drive all the way here and cause a scene
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: just to get him to what, admit to spending a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: couple of hours with Damon? If he had nothing to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: do with it, this should have been revealed very quickly.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And so at this point, Bammer was not totally sold
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: that what Alan had just told him was true. So
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: he asked Alan to just give them a DNA sample.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It would be the cleanest way to rule him out.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: And Alan, he paused and just stared at the floor
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: for a second. And then he said, okay, whatever the
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: police wanted. he would do.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: About two weeks later, on November 17th, so just under
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: a month after Damon was murdered, Detective Bammer was back
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: at his desk reviewing the case files.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: And as he did, he.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Found himself constantly looking over at his phone, because the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: crime lab had told him to expect the long-awaited DNA
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: results any day now, and so he's anxiously waiting to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: see those results.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Bammer really hoped the crime.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Lab had found something useful, because his best lead in
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: this case had just completely fallen apart. Alan Caulfield, the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: cagey college student, had ultimately provided a fast food receipt
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: that placed him a good distance from Damon's apartment around
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the time the police believed Damon was killed. Now, this
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: was not an airtight alibi because the autopsy only gave
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the police a rough estimate for the murder time, which
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: was 1 to 3 a.m. So there was still a
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: chance that maybe Alan had doubled back later to kill Damon.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But for now, this fast food receipt was enough to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: push Allen a little bit down the suspect list. Meanwhile,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Todd Daniels, the middle-aged man who'd been hooking up with
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Damon for years, who described the anonymous group sex settings, well,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: he was looking even more suspicious. Now, Todd had seemed
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: really cooperative in his interview, but Bammer had recently learned
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: something potentially quite significant. Todd just so happened to live
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: in the exact same apartment building where Damon's stolen phone
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: had turned up. To Bammer, it just felt like there
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: was no way this could be a coincidence. However, Bammer,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: in addition to being suspicious of Todd Daniels here, he
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: was also really suspicious of Ethan Cooper, the man who
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: had that strange wound on his hand that he said
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: was a spider bite. Because following the interview where Bammer
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: met Ethan and saw the spider bite, he had contacted
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Ethan's boss. And the boss had said that Ethan told
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: him about that injury before Damon's murder.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: That was true.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: But the boss said he didn't call it a spider bite.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: He said it was a work injury. So to Bammer,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: it felt like the fact that Ethan seemed to have
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: changed the story about the injury felt off and in
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the context of What was being investigated, it felt very suspicious.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, there was also Rick Larson, the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: sort of forgotten-about building custodian who just so happened to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: have Damon's phone in his possession when the police tracked
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: it down. And although he claimed he had been alone
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: in his apartment at the time of the murder, he
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: still didn't have anybody who could actually vouch for him.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: So it was just sort of like his word against
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the timeline. Thinking about all this stuff just made Bammer's
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: head hurt. And it just reminded him how contradictory all
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the evidence in this case had been from the start.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: The phone being missing from the apartment and then somehow
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: found over at this apartment building suggested it had been stolen,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: which points to this.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Being a robbery.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: But the pillows piled up on Damon's body hinted at
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a personal motive. So not a random burglary, but a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: grudge maybe. Now, the unlocked door suggested crime of opportunity
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: slash stranger committing this crime. But all the people who
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: used that door or who knew about there being an
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: open door to Damon's place, they all had a personal
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: connection with Damon. They had a sexual history with him.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: So it didn't feel random. It felt like, you know, again, personal.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: It was like every time a lead took Bammer in
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: one direction, another one appeared to send him back the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: other way. And so now he was weeks into this
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: investigation and felt like he had no idea who did
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: it or why.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: It was like, was it personal? Was it random? Was
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: it a robbery? Was it a grudge? Nobody seems to know.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: And so Bammer was grappling with all this in his
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: head when his phone finally rang. Bammer grabbed it and
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: he answered it.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And he had this jolt of excitement when the caller
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: said they were with the crime lab, and they told
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: him that they have finished analyzing the DNA samples that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: he had submitted, and they had a match.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: As soon as.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Bammer was given the results of this test, he was
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: given the information of the person it matched, he hung
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: up and he ran a search on his computer. And
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: as he began to read, the frustration that had been
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: sitting on his chest just lifted, because he could see
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: it now. Every contradiction, every loose thread, every piece of
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: evidence that had seemed to point in different directions, they
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: had all.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: In fact, been pointing at the same person. He just
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: hadn't known it yet.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Based on evidence collected at the crime scene, witness testimony,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and a partial confession, this is what police believe happened
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to Damon Nicholson between the night of October 22nd and
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the early morning hours of October 23rd, 2009. The killer
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: climbed the steps of the porch outside of Damon's apartment
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: and found that the sliding glass door was open, just
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: like last time. So they turned back and sort of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: gestured to their accomplice, saying, like, hey, the plan's on.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: The killer then slid the door the rest of the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: way open and stepped inside the apartment.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: And immediately they spotted Damon on the couch. He was
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: sitting up. He was typing on his laptop on the
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: coffee table.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: But as the killer entered the apartment, Damon stopped and
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: turned around and looked right at them. And when Damon
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: looked at the killer, Damon smiled. But then, a second later,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the killer's accomplice also slipped through the door, at which
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: point Damon's smile vanished. And then before Damon could call
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: out for help or really do anything, the killer walked
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: over to the couch and lifted up the metal baseball
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: bat they'd brought along. Damon saw the bat and threw
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: his arms up over his head to defend himself, but
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the killer took one step to the side and swung
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the bat and struck Damon's skull. And then from there,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the killer wound up and struck Damon again and again
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: until Damon wasn't moving. He stood no shot. For a moment,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the killer just stood there, staring down at what they'd done.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Damon at this point was either dead or actively dying,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: but he was just slumped over on the couch. And
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: there was blood pouring out the back of his head.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: So the killer's like.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: In a daze.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: And then at some point, the accomplice, who was actually still,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you know, in the apartment, but they had stayed near
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the door, they were not close to the actual scene,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: they hadn't really seen what was going on, and they
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: called out to the killer, like, hey, what's going on
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: in there? And it kind of snapped the killer out
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: of their shock they were in, at which point the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: killer grabbed some throw pillows and put them on top
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: of Damon's body to try to obscure him from view.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Then at that point, the two of them, the.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Killer and the accomplice, just kind of hurried through the
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: apartment and grabbing Damon's laptop, his cell phone, and some
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: other electronics. In the kitchen, the killer spotted that trash
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: can and got an idea. They walked over and they
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: dumped the trash can out so all the contents are
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: all over the kitchen floor. But now, with this empty
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: trash can liner, they wrapped up their bloody baseball bat
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: to keep it from dripping all over the apartment on
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the way out. And then, a few minutes later, the killer,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: who now has this bloody bat in the bag in.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Hand, and the accomplice.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: left through the sliding glass door, completely oblivious to all
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the mistakes they'd made. Like, for example, leaving DNA on
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the trash can and also taking a cell phone that
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: could be tracked. When Detective Bammer got the name of
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the person whose DNA matched the DNA on the trash can,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: he immediately headed out to make an arrest.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: And where did he go?
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: He went straight to the apartment building where Damon's cell
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: phone had been found.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: But.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: He didn't go to the apartment of Damon's longtime casual
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: romantic partner, Todd Daniels, nor did he go to see
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Rick Larson, the building's custodian, who claimed to have found
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: the phone in the dumpster.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: It would turn out both.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Todd and Rick were completely innocent. And so, bammer, he
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: went to the apartment of this woman, whose son was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a guy named Matthew Dragna. He was 19 years old,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and his DNA was already in the police database from
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a previous burglary. Matthew and Damon's longtime casual romantic partner, Todd,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: they had started hooking up a few weeks before Damon's murder.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And when Todd went to see Damon on October 21st,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: two days before the murder, he brought Matthew with him
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: for a threesome as part of that anonymous sex routine
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: that Damon was known for. And while he was there
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: participating in this, Matthew, the 19-year-old, took note of Damon's
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: very open lifestyle and and the fact that he literally
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: left his door unlocked at night. And Matthew saw an opportunity.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: And so Matthew recruited a friend to help him rob
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: the place. And the next night, they came back. And
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: this time, when Matthew walked through the sliding glass door
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of Damon's apartment, he found Damon on the couch. And immediately,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: he decided to beat him to death so he would
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: not interfere with the robbery. Matthew Dragna was arrested on
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: November 18, 2009, and charged with Damon's murder. After a
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: very drawn-out legal battle, he eventually pled guilty to a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: lesser charge of manslaughter and burglary and got a final
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: sentence of just over 28 years in prison. As for
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Matthew's accomplice, who was a man named Jacob Quintanilla, he
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: was also convicted of manslaughter, but sentenced to just over
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: seven years in prison. Thank you so much for watching.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.