08x01 - Dessert Served Cold

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: a man died
in his home

After a long history
of heart disease.

It was assumed that this was
the cause of his death.

A few weeks after the funeral,

Rumors surfaced that the death
was no accident.

When the body was exhumed,

Scientists needed to know

Whether the dead
could tell tales.

[ Siren wails ]

Narrator: on a january night
in 1990,

A woman called for
an ambulance,

Saying her boyfriend

Was unconscious
and barely breathing.

Emergency personnel
were at the home

In westport, massachusetts,
within minutes.

We arrived
on the scene,

Went into the house,
and we found a male...

Sitting in a chair.

He was just kind of
slumped forward, unresponsive.

Narrator: the man's girlfriend
said he had a long history

Of heart trouble.

Man: as soon as
I took his robe apart,

I saw that he had a scar
from a past cardiac surgery,

Which indicated that he had
had a bypass surgery

At some point in time.

And we began cpr.

Narrator: but the cpr
brought no response.


Was pronounced dead

An hour later
at a nearby hospital.

Because of his heart disease,

The local medical examiner

Decided not to perform
an autopsy.

Man: mr. Alfredo had

A long history
of severe heart disease

Which necessitated

A surgical correction
of his blocked coronary arteries

In the heart,
a coronary bypass procedure.

So at the time of his death,

He had every reason to die
from his heart disease.

Narrator: richard alfredo
was buried

Four days after his death.

All of his assets,
worth about $25,000,

Went to his estranged wife
and children.

Alfredo's girlfriend,


Continued to live in the house
the couple shared,

Along with her two children
from a previous marriage.

Nothing seemed
out of the ordinary.

Until westport police officer
mike roussel

Started hearing rumors.

Roussel: we heard rumors
that mr. Alfredo's death

Was due to poisoning.

And this was just facts

That we couldn't prove
at that time,

Was just information,
and as a police department,

We had the obligation
to start looking into this.

Narrator: the rumors
emanated from some students

At a nearby high school.

Richard alfredo's girlfriend,
christina martin,

Had a 14-year-old daughter,
teasha,

Who attended
westport high school.

Teasha allegedly told
school friends

That alfredo had made
sexual advances towards her

On numerous occasions.

And she admitted

That she and her mother
were angry about it.

Roussel: the teenagers
were telling us

Miss martin was trying to locate

Anything that would
take the life of mr. Alfredo.

Narrator: investigators
now wondered

Whether they made a mistake

Burying the body
without an autopsy.

Narrator: four weeks
after richard alfredo's death,

Rumors circulated that his death
was no accident.

The daughter of alfredo's
girlfriend, teasha,

Allegedly told friends

That alfredo had made
sexual advances towards her.

And she also said that
her mother

Put the drug lsd
in alfredo's gelatin dessert

In an effort to k*ll him.

Roussel: they made the jell-o,

They made it
in two separate dishes.

They ate jell-o, but his dish
was kept to the side.

They fed him the jell-o,
then went out of the house.

And they came back and he was
basically dead at that time.

They called rescue
and he was transported

To st. Luke's hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.

Narrator: lsd is
a powerful hallucinogen

Known on the street
as acid.

A dose, or hit,
usually comes in tablets

Or in liquid
soaked into paper.

A single drop
can cause hallucinations

For 6 to 10 hours.

Roussel: we've been told
by people that have taken lsd,

You're seeing all kinds of
different things --

Animals running
across the room at you,

Things crawling up the wall,
things crawling on you.

So, you know, it would've
put him in a position

Where he had no idea
what was going on.

Narrator: and lsd can also cause
a rapid increase

In heart rate.

A local drug dealer

Admitted selling


To a small group,

Which included alfredo's
girlfriend, christina,

And her daughter, teasha.

Roussel: they identified
miss martin

As sitting in the vehicle

And they brought
the dr*gs to her

And they left the area
at that time.

Narrator: during
police questioning,

Christina denied buying lsd

Or giving richard alfredo
any harmful substances.

Roussel: miss martin
was trying to locate

Anything that would
take the life of mr. Alfredo.

No matter whether it was
some type of a medication

Or pills or --

She even tried to get
some of the teenagers to,

If they would take him out
with a w*apon.

She was going to provide
the g*n for them,

Which was one of
mr. Alfredo's g*ns.

Narrator: to see if lsd
had caused alfredo's death,

The medical examiner
exhumed his body

Six weeks after the funeral.

In a living person,

Lsd leaves the body
within 36 hours of use,

But in a dead person,

The drug can stay
indefinitely,

Although the embalming process
can complicate matters.

Weiner: the process of embalming
is such that

All the blood in the body
is removed

And replaced with
embalming fluid,

A preservative.

So that any attempt
at trying to find poisons

Is hampered because there is
no blood left in the body.

Narrator: but they found some
other tissue samples to test.

Weiner: there was some urine,

There were some
intestinal contents,

There were
some stomach contents.

Narrator: the samples were sent
to two different labs

For testing,

The state crime lab

And another,
private, laboratory.

Dr. Louis amoruso performed
the testing at the private lab

And used what is called
a radioimmunoassay test,

Or ria.

It's similar to the test used
at sporting events

To screen athletes

For the presence of
performance-enhancing dr*gs.

Dr. Amoruso
took a sample of lsd,

Then mixed it with
a radioactive compound,

Then added samples
from alfredo's body.

If lsd were present
in alfredo's body,

He would have formed antibodies
to fight it.

Those antibodies will bind to
the radioactive lsd sample,

Producing a positive result.

Both the private lab
and the police lab

Found two dr*gs present
in alfredo's system.

One was diphenhydramine,

A common over-the-counter
cold medication.

The other was lsd.

Amoruso: the more important
compound,

As far as we were concerned,

Was lsd

Because there are
no prescriptions for lsd,

And that would indicate
something that

Would not be found
except under illicit conditions.

Weiner: lsd causes the heart
to beat more vigorously.

The stresses placed
on the very diseased heart

Caused a fatal heart attack.

Thereby the cause of death,

Heart disease
and lsd poisoning.

Narrator:
richard alfredo's death

Was no longer considered
an accident,

It was now m*rder,

A heart attack brought on
by acute lsd intoxication.

When police went to arrest

Christina martin
and her daughter, teasha,

They found that they had both
fled the country.

Roussel: miss martin
leaving town

Led us to believe that

She definitely had
some involvement in his death.

That's what made us look
even more closely to her,

Even though we were
on that track anyway.

Narrator: telephone records
indicated

They fled to montreal,

Where they were apprehended.

Reporter: is it true?
Did you do it?

Narrator: christina martin
was charged with

First-degree m*rder.

No charges were filed
against her daughter, teasha.

At the trial,
prosecutors presented

The toxicological evidence of
lsd in richard alfredo's system

And a drug dealer testified
that christina was present

When he sold lsd
to teasha's high-school friends.

That was all
the prosecution needed.

Christina martin was convicted

Of first-degree m*rder

And sentenced to

Life in prison.

And that's where
the case stood

For seven long years.

That is, until it came up
for a routine appeal,

Where christina's lawyer found
something in the case file

He wasn't supposed to see.

Narrator: christina martin

Had served seven years
in prison

For the m*rder
of her boyfriend,

Richard alfredo,

Before her case came up
for a routine appeal.

Christina's new lawyer
was a public defender,

Kevin mahoney.

His first task

Was to go to the courthouse
to pick up the case file.

Mahoney: while I was standing
at the counter,

Waiting for the evidence to be
brought to me by the clerk,

I struck up a conversation
with the gentleman next to me,

Who wound up being
an assistant d.a.

He says, "counselor, you're
representing miss martin?"

I said, "yes."

Narrator: the assistant d.a.
Told mahoney

To look very closely
at richard alfredo's

Official cause of death.

Mahoney: well, I was stunned
that a prosecutor

Would make
such an admission to me.

I definitely took it
as a red flag

And this is something
I should follow through with.

[ Chimes ]

Narrator: this was
the first m*rder case

Mahoney ever handled,

And he read every page
of transcript

Of christina's first trial,

Paying particular attention
to anything related to

How richard alfredo had died.

[ Siren wails ]

Mahoney: the transcript
was so fascinating,

I couldn't put it down --
it was like a great novel.

At first blush, it seemed that
the evidence was overwhelming

Because these toxicologists,

These chemists
are getting in there

And they're testifying that
there's massive amounts of lsd.

Jesus, it didn't sound good.

Narrator: but then,
he came across this document,

Richard alfredo's
death certificate,

Stating the cause of death as
acute lsd intoxication.

Mahoney made a telephone call
to dr. David benjamin,

A highly respected
clinical pharmacologist.

Benjamin: there had never been
a case reported

Where a person had died

From the direct effects
of lsd,

So right away, that allegation
was inconsistent with

A whole body of
scientific information,

Dating back to the mid-'60s.

That's a 30-year period
of time.

Narrator: and dr. Benjamin
noticed

Another potential discrepancy.

The ria test was designed
to work only

On fresh urine samples,

Which the medical examiner
didn't have

After the body was autopsied.

The labs tested tissue samples

And degraded blood,

All of which
had been embalmed.

Benjamin: I called
the manufacturer and I asked,

"Do you have any experience
with using this test

"In samples other than
fresh urine,

"In particular forensic samples
obtained from exhumed bodies

Or from dead people?"

And they said,
"absolutely not."

Narrator: and even if the urine

Tests positive for lsd,

The ria test is only
for screening.

Any positive results
must then be retested

To confirm the results.

On the ria test kit outer box,

The manufacturer
makes this clear.

It states that all ria results
are "preliminary"

And that
a "specific alternative"

Must be used to get
"a confirmed analytical result."

Even the scientist who conducted
the original ria test

For the prosecution

Agreed with that assessment.

Amoruso: in order to say
with 100% certainty

That it was lsd
that was present in the body,

One would have to go to
a confirmatory test.

The gold standard,

Or the test that is considered
to be the most dependable,

Is the one that's called

Gas chromatography-
mass spectrometry.

Narrator: for whatever reason,
christina martin's first lawyer

Never questioned
the test results.

Mahoney: the defense attorney
at the trial

Was so incompetent
and his performance was so bad

That the judge
called him up to sidebar

And asked him,

"You're not doing very much
examination of these witnesses.

Is that intentional,
is that deliberate?"

And the attorney
tried to reassure the judge

And tell him,
"oh, don't worry,

It'll all come out
in my defense case,"

But it never did.

Narrator: if the scientific
tests were only preliminary,

Why wasn't a confirmatory test

Ever performed?

Kevin mahoney found the answer
to that question

In the evidence file --

Information prosecutors never
presented at the first trial.

Information prosecutors thought
would remain a secret.

Narrator: when kevin mahoney
examined the case file

From christina martin's
first trial,

He found an important
piece of evidence.

It was evidence that prosecutors
never presented

At the first trial.

Prosecutors had commissioned
a confirmatory test

On alfredo's tissue samples,

Using a gas chromatograph-
mass spectrometer.

It's a test that can identify
every substance in the sample.

Mahoney: that test detected
no lsd in any of the samples,

Even though they tested
and retested and retested.

They were desperate
to confirm

What they had learned from
the radioimmunoassay test,

But they weren't able
to do that.

Narrator: mahoney
discovered that

This exculpatory
forensic evidence was not given

To christina martin's
defense attorney

Before the trial.

This violated
a legal provision

Known as the brady doctrine.

Benjamin: the brady doctrine
says that

The prosecution has a duty
to turn over

All exculpatory evidence

To the defense

Without even
being asked for it.

In this case,
the prosecutor

Played hide the ball
with the exculpatory evidence.

The gas chromatography-
mass spectrometry evidence

Should have been disclosed
to the defense attorney.

It never was.

Narrator: this may explain why
an assistant d.a.

Told mahoney
to look carefully at

The official cause
of richard alfredo's death.

And this new forensic evidence

Was put before
an appeals court judge

Who was unusually qualified
for this particular case.

Mahoney: 99 out of 100 judges,

Eyes would have just glazed over
when they started hearing

"Gc mass spec"
and all this other stuff.

The judge in this case,
judge gordon doerfer,

Was a chemistry major
in college.

How lucky were we?

[ Giggles ]

Narrator: in his decision,
judge doerfer cited

"Defects in the scientific
evidence"

And the prosecution's
"failure to disclose

Critical exculpatory
evidence"

As grounds for
a new trial.

But prosecutors decided
not to retry the case.

Christina martin agreed
to plead guilty to manslaughter

In exchange for a sentence
of time served.

In other words, christina martin
was a free woman.

Moments after leaving
the courtroom,

Christina martin told the press
that, despite the plea bargain,

She had nothing to do with
her boyfriend's death.

I pleaded guilty
because of the plea bargain

And the chance that
I might go back to jail --

I didn't want that.

I would have liked to have had
this woman found not guilty,

But this is not the first person
in massachusetts

To say they did something

In order to get out of
being prosecuted.

When your feet are being held
to the fire,

You're going to do things
you really don't want to do.

Narrator: but if
christina martin was innocent,

Why did she flee to canada

Shortly after alfredo's death?

Mahoney: she may have had
a guilty conscience about

Some of the things
she was thinking about doing

And maybe some of the things
that she had done.

Plus there was also
the possibility,

With her daughter involved,

That her daughter might have
done some things

To this gentleman
without her knowledge.

Narrator: but while science
rules out lsd,

It reveals another possibility.

When alfredo's body
was exhumed,

The medical examiner found
groundwater in the casket.

The water, mixed with
the embalming fluid,

May have contaminated
the tissue samples.

Benjamin: basically,

Lsd has
a chemical structure.

And that chemical structure
is not unique to lsd --

There are many substances
in the body

And in nature in general

That possess
similar chemical structures.

Two of them that we would find
in the body

Would be the amino acid
tryptophan

And the neurotransmitter
serotonin.

There are also
ergot derivatives

That are in the grass
and in the ground

And in fungi
and fungal material

That could have been washed
into the coffin

When all of the water
seeped into the coffin.

Narrator: and the preliminary
drug test

Was supposed to be used

On fresh urine samples,

Not tissue samples.

Dr. Benjamin also believes
it may have been

The cold medicine,
diphenhydramine,

That alfredo was taking
for his cold

That caused his death,

Since it can increase
one's heart rate.

Benjamin: I will tell you
what reasonable doubt

Arose for me,
and that was, first of all,

Nobody dies from lsd.

They commit su1c1de,
but they don't have

Direct toxic effects
that lead to death.

Narrator: the original
prosecutor in this case

Refused all requests
for an interview.

Officially, prosecutors
still maintain that

Christina martin k*lled
richard alfredo.

Defense experts say
lsd has never k*lled anyone.

[ Bell tolls ]

Today, richard alfredo's
tombstone

Is not engraved with
the date of his death,

Perhaps a metaphor
for the uncertainty

That still exists
in this case.

Mahoney: bad science
and bad ethics

Resulted in miss martin
being sent to a prison cell.

It was good ethics
and good science

That got her out
of the prison cell.

So bad science put her in
and good science got her out.