07x38 - House Call

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: a well-known doctor was brutally att*cked

In his home.

Investigators discovered

That telephone traffic near the victim's home

Increased substantially within seconds of the crime.

Those calls,

Tracked with a sophisticated forensic computer program,

Uncovered an international conspiracy.

Dr. Louis davidson was one of the most respected pediatricians

In st. Petersburg, florida.

At years old, he was head of pediatric emergency medicine

At the bayfront medical center.

It was all about the patient --

The baby, the toddler, the child.

He treated them each with utmost respect.

Um...never a snide comment.

And he gave % of himself to each child.

And he was so smart, he was almost scary.

Narrator: on january , ,

Dr. Davidson finished his work at the hospital

And headed home to get some sleep.

Dr. Davidson's girlfriend stopped by his apartment

Later that day, and this is what she saw.

She had her own key to the apartment,

And she used her key to enter the apartment.

And as she walked in, she saw this crime scene,

Where stuff was just spewed all over the place.

She walked back and found him in the tub.

Narrator: dr. Davidson was dead in the bathtub.

He had been beaten and apparently drowned.

Hartzig: I knew right away

That this wasn't an ordinary su1c1de or anything like that --

That this was definitely a brutal crime scene.

Narrator: detective mike celona was assigned to the case.

His identity is concealed

Because he's now working undercover.

The master-bedroom closet had obviously been gone through --

Clothing pulled off hangers, thrown on the floor.

However, one of the items that was still in the closet

Was a garment bag,

And in the bottom of the garment bag was $, in cash.

Narrator: meaning, the motive wasn't robbery.

The crime scene had been staged to make it [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]appear[/span]to be robbery.

Davidson's girlfriend told police

That the doctor had been receiving

Strange telephone calls at home over the past several weeks.

Sometimes, they'll come at : in the morning.

Sometimes, : in the morning.

She says that someone calls and then hangs up,

Looking just to see

If there was somebody home in that apartment.

Narrator: investigators found

Their first piece of forensic evidence

On a tile floor in the doctor's apartment.

Tile floors are very conducive to leaving evidence,

Especially shoeprints.

Narrator: tile is flat and nonporous --

A perfect template for prints.

So technicians dusted the area...

And just as they expected, a shoe impression appeared.

Next, they used a gel pad

And pushed the adhesive onto the print,

Which fixes the dust in position for later analysis.

Procissi: it was amazing to me

That that shoeprint was preserved.

Normally, that shoeprint could have been destroyed

In many different ways by detectives and officers

And paramedics going in and out of that residence,

But somehow that shoeprint survived.

Narrator: the impression was sent

To the fbi in washington, d.c.,

To their footwear impression department.

There, the print was compared

To the thousands of shoe impressions on file.

Fbi experts noticed it was a size sneaker and was new.

Their comparisons revealed

It was a voit brand shoe -- a relatively obscure brand.

But homicide investigators needed

More than one shoe impression to find the k*ller.

Narrator: investigators were still processing the crime scene

When news of dr. Davidson's death was released to the media.

It was on the news,

And just the way he died... Was...

So horrific that it was like... Too hard to grasp.

It was like being in some bad movie, but it was real.

Everything that people look for

In a sort of a juicy, almost a soap-opera-style story

Was there in this particular m*rder case.

Narrator: the doctor's co-workers could think of no one

Who would want to harm him,

But investigators discovered

That dr. Davidson was going through a divorce.

His wife, denise,

A former finalist in the miss jamaica beauty pageant,

Was asking for custody of their -year-old daughter --

Something the doctor was resisting.

When police told denise that her husband had been m*rder*d,

She appeared to have information

That hadn't yet been released to the media.

Here is denise davidson, asking the detectives

That are telling her

Her husband was found m*rder*d in his apartment,

"Well, was it a robbery?"

Narrator: now suspicious,

Police placed denise davidson under -hour surveillance.

Man: we're thinking that it was a pager she had called.

Narrator: three days later, denise made an unusual trip.

Celona: she walks in and goes to a western union.

Now, obviously, when she leaves, we walk in right behind her

And determine that she's using western union

And she sends a money transfer --

A $, money transfer.

Narrator: denise had used an alias for the transfer --

Pauline white.

The money was sent to a robert gordon in miami.

It's being sent by a pauline white,

Which is not denise davidson's name.

It's obvious that's a different name.

Fictitious address, fictitious phone number...

But we watched her send it.

Narrator: robert gordon was an acquaintance

Of miami nightclub owner leo cisneros,

Who also happened to be

Denise davidson's current boyfriend

And the father of her unborn child.

Cisneros allegedly had ties to jamaican drug trafficking.

Flight records indicated

That leo cisneros flew to jamaica

On the day of dr. Davidson's m*rder.

And telephone records indicated

That denise davidson made numerous calls to robert gordon

On the morning her husband was m*rder*d.

Celona: between : in the morning

And : in the morning -- a two hour period --

There are telephone calls made

From denise davidson's house to robert gordon's pager.

Narrator: investigators now believed

That denise davidson knew more about her husband's m*rder

Than she admitted,

And they asked the court

For permission to wiretap her telephone.

That order was granted,

But it didn't reveal what investigators hoped for.

[ [Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]telephone rings[/span]]

Man: [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]hello?[/Span] denise: [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]hello.[/Span]

[Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]hi, babe.[/Span]

[Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]i called western union,[/span]

[Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]and they said the money is[/span] [span tts:fontstyle="italic"] available to be picked up.[/Span]

Schaub: you gotta remember,

Denise davidson, from the beginning, knew

That her phones may be tapped,

So she was careful with what she said

And what she didn't say on the phone.

Narrator: then, police noticed an irregularity.

While leo cisneros was in jamaica,

Someone was using his cellphone in florida,

And those calls could be easily traced.

When someone makes a cellphone call,

The signal goes through a series

Of what are known as cell-site towers

Before it gets to an individual's phone.

Police can trace a cellphone call

By the identity of the towers the call uses.

All of this cell-tower and wiretap information

It then put into the aciss computer program.

Aciss stands for "augmented criminal investigations support system."

Aciss had not ever been utilized by our police department

For homicide investigations.

It had been utilized for numerous years

By the intelligence division, by the narcotics division,

Because they deal a lot

With telephone records, wiretaps,

Large amounts or volumes of people connected to one another.

Narrator: this computer analysis

Revealed an important piece of information.

Cisneros' cellphone was used

On the morning of dr. Davidson's m*rder

From [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]outside[/span] the doctor's apartment.

A few hours later,

Calls were made from this motel near dr. Davidson's apartment,

And the calls continued while the individual headed south

Along highway , route , all the way to miami.

The last call that day used a cell tower

A few blocks away from robert gordon's home.

Gordon was the man

Denise davidson had wired $, to

A few days after the m*rder.

When police visited the motel near dr. Davidson's apartment,

They discovered robert gordon had stayed there

Around the time of dr. Davidson's m*rder.

Celona: the maid recalls

That there was something left behind in that room.

One of their policies at the time was

That if there are items left behind by a customer,

They would put them in a bag with a card

That had the date and the room number where they were found,

And they'd put them in a storage closet.

Narrator: the bag contained a sweatshirt

And something investigators had been looking for

Since the day of the m*rder.

Schaub: and guess what else we've got.

We've got some shoes -- sneakers to be exact.

Narrator: the same size

As the impression found in the doctor's apartment.

Investigators hoped

This chance discovery would solve the m*rder.

Narrator: denise davidson had wired money

To robert gordon in miami

Just days after her husband's m*rder.

Informants in miami told police

That gordon had an associate, meryl mcdonald,

Who was with gordon in st. Petersburg

Around the time of dr. Davidson's m*rder.

During questioning,

Both denied any involvement in the crime.

They also denied owning

The sweatshirt and sneakers left in their motel room.

Technicians compared

The shoe impression found on dr. Davidson's tile floor

With the sneakers from the motel.

Both were size ,

Both were the obscure voit brand,

And both were identical in wear patterns.

The shoes matched gordon's shoe size.

Next, technicians analyzed the sweatshirt

And discovered a number of head hairs, facial hairs,

And some foreign fibers.

The facial and head hairs were found inside the sweatshirt --

Not uncommon when someone is taking the garment off

Over his head.

The hairs were unusual,

Since they contained a chemical dye.

A chemical analysis of that dye

Matched the dye found on the head and facial hair

Of the second suspect, meryl mcdonald.

Schaub: mr. Mcdonald made the mistake of coloring his hair.

The fbi lab was able to determine

That the type of color used on this strand of hair

Was consistent with the type of coloring

Mr. Mcdonald uses on [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]his[/span]hair.

Scientists also found blue cashmere fibers

On the sweatshirt.

Those fibers matched the victim's cashmere bathrobe.

Finally, and most damning, a dna analysis

Of blood found on the sweatshirt and sneakers

Was that of dr. Davidson.

One more nail has been put

Into the coffin of these two defendants --

These two men that were hired to k*ll,

That decided that money was more important than a life.

Narrator: but investigators had no solid proof

That denise davidson was involved in the m*rder plot.

She stood to inherit more than a half million dollars

From her estranged husband's life-insurance policy,

As well as gain full custody of their daughter.

During hours of police interrogation,

Denise insisted

She didn't know robert gordon and meryl mcdonald

And had nothing to do with her husband's m*rder.

Denise was under police surveillance

When she went to the western union office

To transfer money to robert gordon,

But she signed the receipt using an alias -- pauline white.

A forensic handwriting examiner

Compared the pauline white signature

To known handwriting samples of denise davidson.

He concluded the same individual signed them both.

Forensic technicians

Tested the receipts for latent, or hidden, fingerprints.

They stained the receipt with ninhydrin,

A chemical solution

That turns the amino acids in finger oils purple.

We have it processed for fingerprints,

And it's denise davidson's fingerprints

On that piece of paper.

Narrator: and police found evidence

That denise purchased a man's gray sweatshirt

And a pair of size voit sneakers

Just before her husband's m*rder --

Identical to the items found in the motel

With her husband's bloodstains.

Denise davidson not only denied

Any involvement in her husband's m*rder,

She now said she had evidence to prove it.

Pittman: how much stranger can this case get?

How many more twists can this case take?

Narrator: the forensic evidence

Clearly placed robert gordon and meryl mcdonald

Inside dr. Davidson's apartment during his m*rder.

The two people that were hired to do the k*lling --

Mr. Gordon and mr. Mcdonald -- didn't know the doctor at all.

The reason they took his life

Was strictly for monetary reasons.

Narrator: but just as police were about to arrest

The victim's estranged wife, denise,

The case took an unexpected turn.

Denise told police

That the real k*ller had called her home while she was away

And left a threatening message

On her telephone-answering machine.

Denise: [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]we're not available[/span] [span tts:fontstyle="italic"] right now,[/span]

[Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]so please leave your name[/span] [span tts:fontstyle="italic"] and your telephone number.[/Span]

[ [Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]beep[/span]]

[ [Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]woman speaking[/span]]

[ [Span tts:fontstyle="italic"]click[/span]]

Narrator: but police arrested denise anyway,

Just as she was about to board a flight to jamaica.

Celona: I approached her

As she sat there waiting for her flight to arrive.

She was very surprised when she saw me,

And her first words were,

"Detective celona, what are you doing here?"

Narrator: in october of , denise went on trial

For soliciting her husband's m*rder.

Denise took the stand in her own defense

And told the jury

About the threatening telephone call she received

From the person she says was the real k*ller.

But prosecutors were ready for her.

Woman: [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]you'll be sorry, denise.[/Span]

Narrator: investigators had traced that call

And discovered it had originated

From the store where denise worked.

And denise had been under police surveillance that day.

I could see in her eyes, she knew what was happening,

And it almost looked, at that time,

Like the air had just been taken out of her.

Narrator: prosecutors presented the jury

With this surveillance video

Showing denise entering the store

Shortly before the threatening call was placed

And leaving just after the call was completed.

When the state attorney directed the question to her

As to whether that was her voice on that tape,

She could only answer, "I don't think so."

She just listened to it and looked at it

And really gave no explanation

For who that phone call came from

And why it was made.

Celona: she was holding up pretty good with her lies

Through the first portion of her testifying.

But from that point on, everything was falling apart.

And I think the jury saw what [span tts:fontstyle="italic"]i[/span]saw,

And that was fear

In the eyes of a lady who hired two men to k*ll her husband.

Narrator: prosecutors believe

That denise asked her boyfriend, leo cisneros,

To k*ll her husband.

Instead, cisneros hired

Robert gordon and meryl mcdonald.

Leo cisneros, the boyfriend, had no courage.

He couldn't commit the crime himself,

So he hired the two scarecrows --

Robert gordon and meryl mcdonald --

Who he said didn't have a brain amongst them.

Narrator: the two tracked dr. Davidson for days

By calling his apartment.

And a witness said

They were at the hospital, dressed like doctors,

Trying to get dr. Davidson's schedule.

On the day of the m*rder,

Dr. Davidson was running two hours late

And didn't arrive home until :.

This explains why denise called robert gordon's pager times

Between : and : that morning --

Apparently concerned about why the m*rder was delayed.

[ Knock on door ]

When gordon and mcdonald knocked on the doctor's door,

He answered in his bathrobe.

In the scuffle,

Dr. Davidson's robe fibers and blood

Got on mcdonald's sweatshirt --

The one denise had purchased for him.

After drowning davidson in the bathtub,

Gordon left his shoe imprint on the tile floor.

And when mcdonald removed the sweatshirt,

He left evidence of his dye-colored head hairs.

For some unknown reason, gordon made the mistake

Of leaving the sneakers and sweatshirt behind

At his motel --

A motel identified through denise's telephone calls.

Prosecutors produced receipts

Showing denise had sent gordon and mcdonald a total of $,.

After a -week trial,

Denise davidson was found guilty of solicitation for m*rder.

She was sentenced to life in prison.

If I had one one-line description of denise davidson,

It would be, "she's a coldhearted bitch."

Narrator: robert gordon and meryl mcdonald

Were tried and convicted of first-degree m*rder.

They were both sentenced to death.

One of the more glaring ironies of the case is

That dr. Davidson, through his alimony payments,

Enabled his wife to hire

The hit men who ultimately k*lled him.

Narrator: denise's boyfriend, leo cisneros,

Who allegedly hired the hit men, has not been captured.

He is believed to be in jamaica or venezuela.

Investigators say

The mountain of forensic evidence against denise

Paints an unmistakable portrait of greed and premeditation.

Rush: the forensic technicians in this case

Did an excellent job.

They worked on this case tediously.

They were able to develop

Evidence that was not visible to the naked eye.

And because of their dedication,

They were able to use this evidence in court

To gain a conviction.

One thing I learned from this case is,

If you're going to commit a crime,

Be careful about today's technology.