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.
08x01 - Dessert Served Cold
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Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.
Documentary that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness.