08x26 - Letter Perfect

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NARRATOR: When an otherwise healthy young man d*ed

mysteriously in his sleep, investigators

assumed the su1c1de note explained why.

It told the tale of heartbreak, deception, and jealousy.

But it told an experts in forensic linguistics

something entirely different.

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Early one morning in , an emergency medical team

responded to a call from a Raleigh, North Carolina

apartment.

There, they discovered a young man unconscious in bed.

A closer look revealed he was dead.

JOHN D. BUTTS, MD: This man had no evidence of head trauma,

chest trauma, any other injury that

might explain why he was dead.

He was otherwise a seemingly healthy young man.

NARRATOR: The victim was -year-old Michael Hunter,

a recent college graduates with a successful career

as a computer programmer.

His roommate told police he found Michael unconscious

when he tried to wake him up to go to work.

The emergency medical team report

stated that he appeared to have gone to sleep

and never woke up.

PAT KARNES: When I found out Michael had d*ed,

that was very devastating.

He was just my sunshine, because we had been through a lot

together, Michael and I. And, um,

so when I found that out, uh, I didn't know how I could go on.

NARRATOR: The official autopsy was conducted two days later.

JOHN D. BUTTS, MD: The Initial examination

revealed no intrinsic medical condition that would explain

his death and no evidence of any injuries

that might have any bearing on his death.

-At that point, a conversation was

made with the chief medical examiner for the state of North

Carolina, which determined that perhaps there should be

some additional, um, toxicology studies done.

NARRATOR: Toxicology tests of the victim's blood

told a different story.

Michael had traces of two different cold medicines

in his system, diphenhydramine and hydroxyzine.

He also had a lethal dose of lidocaine.

JUDGE EVELYN HILL: This is a substance that is injected.

This is not a substance that you take over the counter.

You hear about people accidentally taking ant poison

or children accidentally taking medication.

This is not.

NARRATOR: Lidocaine is an anesthetic

and is sometimes used in emergency medical situations

to stabilize heartbeat.

BRENT MYERS, MD: It works very rapidly such

that those irregular heartbeats can become normal again very

quickly, even before you arrive at the hospital,

for example, if you're in an ambulance.

NARRATOR: It was a problem.

The emergency personnel were certain

that they did not inject anything

into Michael in their resuscitation efforts.

PAT KARNES: They said that they did not administer

any lidocaine because Michael was gone

and they knew that there was no need to-- to try to do that.

-I would find it very unusual for there

to be lidocaine in the system of someone that

was not undertaken for resuscitation.

NARRATOR: Investigators wondered how

lidocaine entered Michael's system.

Then, Michael's family learned about their son's secret,

a secret that started to bring everything into focus.

Michael Hunter's death devastated his family.

And it wasn't until his funeral that his parents learned

the secret their son had been hiding

the truth about Michael's sexual orientation.

PAT KARNES: I had no idea.

I guess I was real naive or something,

but I had no idea that, uh, Michael was gay.

NARRATOR: Sadly, these revelations

on top of Michael's death proved too great for his father Jim.

PAT KARNES: He could not accept the fact that somebody could

k*ll his son and then he could do nothing about it.

And so this just put him in a depression

that he could not and did not come out of.

And he k*lled himself.

NARRATOR: And now Michael's mother mourned the loss

of both the son and the husband.

PAT KARNES: It was just-- just devastating.

But because of the support, I mean, we just pulled together.

And that's-- the support is what got us through.

NARRATOR: Michael had two roommates, Garry Walston,

a landscape architect, and -year-old Joseph Mannino.

SARAH AVERY: He was a medical student at the University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

had completed his fourth year of medical school,

but had not yet taken the licensing exam in North

Carolina to be licensed as a physician.

-Well, it was an unconventional relationship

because, I think, in any sense of a relationship,

there are typically only two people involved.

And having a third person involved, I think,

brought in a dynamic that was very different

and maybe in some ways very exciting.

But it also created problems that I don't think any of us

would have anticipated.

NARRATOR: In almost every sense of the word,

the three roommates considered themselves to be life partners.

SARAH AVERY: All three men had a h*m* love

triangle as-- as they describe it.

They actually exchanged rings and promised to, um,

remain faithful to each other, and, uh, that

was their-- that was their living arrangement.

NARRATOR: But it wasn't long before problems

developed among the three.

The main problem was that Michael Hunter hadn't been

getting along with Joseph Mannino.

GARRY WALSTON: Mike and Joe started not getting along

with each other, which was difficult for me

because I didn't have a problem with either one of them.

NARRATOR: Eventually, Garry and Michael

decided Joseph Mannino had to go.

GARRY WALSTON: We told Joe basically

that he was gonna have to move out.

That was I think like a week before Mike was k*lled.

NARRATOR: Previously, all three shared the same bed.

Now Joseph Mannino was relegated to sleep on the living room

sofa until he found another place to live.

SARAH AVERY: Garry and Michael had formed a duo

that they did not want Joe involved in.

And so things basically fell apart,

and Joe found himself the odd man out.

NARRATOR: Since Gary was out of town when Michael d*ed,

Joe Mannino became the prime suspect.

As a medical student, Mannino would

have had easy access to lidocaine.

And he certainly knew how to give an injection.

Investigators wondered whether the breakup of the love

triangle might have given him a reason to k*ll.

W. ALLISON BLACKMAN: No one knows

what happened in the apartment that night

except Joe Mannino and Michael Hunter.

And Michael's dead so he can't tell us.

NARRATOR: When questioned, Joe Mannino gave police

an unexpected piece of information.

He admitted that on the night Michael d*ed,

he had given him an injection of antihistamines

for his migraine headache.

Antihistamines are an accepted but not

common treatment for migraine pain.

These were the same dr*gs found in the toxicological test.

W. ALLISON BLACKMAN: He says that, I

did give him a sh*t to relax him.

I didn't give him any other sh*ts.

I asked him directly did he give him a sh*t of lidocaine.

He said no.

Maybe he did have a migraine.

I don't-- I don't know.

And, um, Joe did give him something to put him to sleep,

make him sleep sounder.

NARRATOR: It was a violation of medical ethics,

as well as North Carolina law, for a medical student

to administer dr*gs without a licensed doctor present.

This admission immediately put Mannino's career at risk.

SARAH AVERY: He would have completely thrown away

his efforts to become a doctor.

He would never have been licensed.

NARRATOR: And investigators discovered

another possible clue, a typed letter on the computer desk

among Michael Hunter's things.

GARRY WALSTON: I started reading them,

and they were what can best be described

as drafts of su1c1de letters.

NARRATOR: The letter, allegedly written by Michael

before his death, said that he suspected that he was HIV

positive and was going to k*ll himself.

REENACTED VOICE OF MICHAEL: I will

use some medications I found in Joe's black bag.

Please don't blame him.

Forgive me.

NARRATOR: All investigators had to do

now was confirm that Michael Hunter

had actually written the letter.

And for that, they turned to forensic linguistics.

Suspicions about Michael Hunter's death

grew even darker when the su1c1de note surfaced.

It was unsigned, found on the floppy disk

among Michael's belongings.

Investigators wanted to confirm that Michael had indeed written

the note and turned to Dr. Carole Chaski, an experts

in the field of forensic linguistics.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: Here was a document,

which was purely electronic.

It was simply a computer file left on a diskette.

There was nothing, uh, physical in the sense

of ink or handwriting or paper that was available.

It was almost in a-- in a sense pure language.

NARRATOR: Linguistics is not so much the study of what

a person says, but how they say it.

How people combine words to make phrases and sentences

is known as syntax.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: We think what makes

individuals' use of language distinctive

is the pattern of simple and complex phrases

which one individual uses versus the pattern

of simple versus complex that another individual uses.

NARRATOR: Dr. Chaski was given known writing samples

from Michael Hunter and asked to compare

them with the su1c1de note.

Using the new computer program called ALIAS,

or Automated Linguistic Identification of Authorship

System, Dr. Chaski reduced each document

to its most basic component, the individual words.

The program then rebuilt each phrase from scratch

and analyzed how the words were used in relation to each other.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: We can get frequencies of how many simple

versus how many complex phrases of each type, noun, verb,

adjective, and so forth, are in the document.

NARRATOR: In the su1c1de note, Dr. Chaski

found a distinctive use of conjunctions, words

like "and" or "but."

These were used not to combine phrases,

but used in large sentences.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: That pattern is the conjoining

for sentences and not for smaller things.

NARRATOR: The note also contained

a distinctive use of adverbs.

Instead of using just one adverb,

the writer had a habit of combining them.

This pattern was not found in Michael's known writing

samples.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: So given the situation of how

the statistical results turned out,

I can conclude that Michael Hunter definitely

did not write those su1c1de notes.

NARRATOR: She then analyzed known

writing samples from Joe Mannino.

CAROLE E. CHASKI: In the su1c1de notes,

we see more complicated adverbs than simple ones.

And that's the pattern that we find in Joseph Mannino's

writing, more complicated adverbs than simple ones.

The su1c1de notes were not written by Michael Hunter

and most likely were written by Joseph Mannino.

I think the family could conclude that not only were--

were the su1c1de notes phony and concocted,

but that the claims within them were also spurious.

NARRATOR: Michael's family never believed

their son committed su1c1de.

PAT KARNES: I knew Michael didn't write the letters.

I knew Michael didn't-- didn't commit su1c1de.

And so I was very thankful for the, uh, linguistic forensics

for proving what I knew all along,

that Michael did not write it.

-I think the letters were probably one of the first real

red lights for me that said, you know,

you're-- none of this is making sense anymore.

The theory that Michael Hunter k*lled himself

was further discredited when a blood test

revealed he was not HIV positive.

In addition, the amount of lidocaine in Michael's body

would have incapacitated him within seconds

and would have k*lled him within two minutes.

This made the possibility of su1c1de even more unlikely.

BRENT MYERS, MD: This is not a take a handful of pills,

lay down on the bed, wait or

minutes for an effect type of drug.

This is very rapid onset.

So it would be very unusual for someone

to have enough time to clean up, if you will,

after this type of injection.

-The needle would have remained in his arm.

And if for some reason it didn't, it

would have fallen to the floor.

NARRATOR: No needle was ever found

in Michael Hunter's bedroom.

When confronted with the forensic linguistics,

Joe Mannino changed his story.

He admitted writing the su1c1de note.

And he also said that Michael had complained

of a migraine headache the night before he d*ed.

So he injected him with lidocaine to ease the pain.

Mannino claimed the overdose was an accident.

W. ALLISON BLACKMAN: Joe was very calm.

He would be talking to you and then cry for a second.

And then he'd talk to you again, which is very suspicious to me.

If I was mourning over somebody, I'd be mourning the whole time,

not just in spurts.

NARRATOR: Now, it would be up to a jury to decide what really

happened the night Michael Hunter d*ed.

In , Joe Mannino was charged with first degree m*rder

in the death of his former partner Michael Hunter.

SARAH AVERY: Joe Mannino had everything to live for.

Had a bright future in front of him.

He was a couple of weeks away from graduating

from the University of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill with a medical degree.

Um, he was on his way to a residency

and just had a very bright future ahead of him.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors believed Mannino was a spurned lover

in a love triangle And k*lled Michael Hunter

with a lethal injection of lidocaine

so he alone would be with Garry Walston.

Mannino claimed Hunter asked him for an injection

to help him with this migraine headache

and that he accidentally gave him too much lidocaine.

Garry Walston, the former partner of both the victim

and the accused, didn't believe it.

GARRY WALSTON: Mike had a history of migraines.

And they were pretty bad at times.

And Joe would occasionally offer to give

him something that would help him.

And Mike always refused.

NARRATOR: There were medical cases where lidocaine had been

used in small amounts to treat migraines.

Mannino claimed he only meant to administer enough

of the drug to ease his friend's pain.

But prosecutors said Mannino k*lled Michael Hunter

and then concocted the su1c1de note

to make it look like Hunter k*lled himself.

When that didn't work, Mannino had

no choice but to say it was an accident.

JUDGE EVELYN HILL: He might have been smart

as far as his learning was, but people who commit crimes,

especially like this, normally don't think ahead.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors said Hunter's

death was premeditated m*rder.

They argued that Joe Mannino had planned the k*lling for weeks.

They said he waited until the third roommate, Garry Walston,

was out of town on business.

Then, after Michael Hunter was asleep, snuck into his room

and injected him with a lethal concoction

of cold medicine and lidocaine.

JUDGE EVELYN HILL: Joe went in there,

filled up a syringe with lidocaine,

and very slowly and carefully inserted it into Mike's arm,

and he pushed the syringe.

And then he removes the syringe, and before he

walked out of the room, Mike was dead.

NARRATOR: Investigators naturally

asked if Michael would have felt the injection if he was asleep.

BRENT MYERS, MD: It is certainly conceivable

that a well-trained hand could place that needle

and not awaken you from sleep.

And then slowly administer the drug ,

and you may never wake up from that.

NARRATOR: But was Joe Mannino capable of m*rder?

GARRY WALSTON: It was hard for me

to believe that he would have done something like that.

But there were undeniable facts involved.

I mean, Mike was dead.

He was there with him.

He was the only person there with him.

He was the only person with the means.

So there were undeniable facts that

pointed to him that I couldn't ignore.

NARRATOR: After a three-week trial,

Joseph Mannino was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison

and will never be able to practice medicine.

Some of the jurors believed it was possible

that Michael Hunter agreed to the lidocaine injection.

JUDGE EVELYN HILL: The issue the jury struggled with was,

did Mike consent or not?

Joe said he consented.

All of Mike's friends said he didn't.

He would never have.

And of course, Mike couldn't tell us.

-I was a little surprised, um, a little angry, you know.

A lot angry.

Um, I mean, because it-- it was like this single act

had left a path of destruction a mile wide for so many people's

lives, my family, Mike's family, Joe's family.

And I just felt like the punishment

didn't fit the crime.

-It was over.

Uh, nothing that they could do to Joe

would bring Michael back.

And, um, I just-- I just wanted to get on with our lives.

NARRATOR: Though questions remain about the verdict,

forensic examination of the su1c1de letter was invaluable.

GARRY WALSTON: I think the forensic linguistics helped set

the groundwork for proving that Joe was involved

in Mike's death and was covering it up.

-The linguistics in this case was the first time

I've known it's ever been used in any kind of a police

investigation to assist in making an arrest.

I think it was a great tool that should

be used on a daily basis.

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