Innocent man facing the death penalty saved by Seinfeld creator | 60 Minutes Australia

it's no laughing matter what one catalan endured at the hands of the los angeles police he found himself on death row accused of a cold-blooded murder he didn't commit for the cops there was no presumption of innocence juan was the killer so in an extraordinary upheaval of justice it was up to the suspect to show he didn't commit the crime one catalan had to prove his own alibi that he was at a baseball game on the night of the murder and just when it looked like all hope was gone out of left field appeared his savior the famous hollywood funny man who created seinfeld please do not do this to me please i'm begging you do you look back on it and think why me sometimes sometimes i i think about that because i am a big believer in karma in fight in fate juan catalan has always been a hard-working law-abiding citizen i can't believe this like a bad dream until the police decided he was a murderer you guys are gonna put somebody innocent in jail for something they didn't even do his innocence was no defense and he became the victim of one of the great failures of the american justice system my thought was am i gonna die in here like why why why why is my life gonna end here juan was accused of the vicious killing of a 16 year old girl for six months he sat on death row in prison until a one in a million chance saved his life the series of events that had to happen to prove my innocence are mind-boggling almost literally like winning a lotto like your numbers have to come up in a row i'm getting goosebumps right now i'm just thinking about that [Music] [Applause] this is a story set in hollywood and it's literally made for it only in los angeles does a violent crime intersect with a major league baseball game two crooked cops just stop talking for a second and a popular tv series all right let's just watch the game it really is an amazing set of facts in a story for one all the dominoes fell the wrong way the dominoes fell the wrong way but then they all fell the right way [Music] it was august 2003 alma catalan was dropping her partner juan off to work in la's san fernando valley it was as ordinary a day as ever until i open the door out of instinct and i step out and you know right away you know he's got the gun right on me and i thought i was dead ten undercover police officers had come from nowhere violently pinned one to the ground and placed him under arrest what are they telling you nothing liam that's what you know made it more you know frustrating and you know i was furious i i asked for a explanation and none was given you guys got me scared dude what's going on do you have any idea why you're here too i have no idea you have the right to remain silent do you understand come on coral reds now yes to understand why the police acted so combatively you have to rewind three months earlier to the brutal point-blank slaying of a sixteen-year-old girl named martha puebla martha had been a police informant and in the first of many astonishing coincidences she was also the star witness in a court case where juan's brother mario catalan was a defendant juan says let's go let's go to my brother's hearing you know i i want him to see us there show him some support and that's the day that the marta puebla was testifying two weeks later when they murdered martha puebla at that point we were all suspects but you never met martha no that was the first time in my life i had ever seen her and the only time the one and only time do you think that's why you became a target in this a person of interest in the first instance because of your brother that's a a hard question to answer liam because you know my feelings from since the day i was arrested i just felt like i was being framed unlike juan mario was trouble a member of la's notorious vineland boys gang being related to mario was enough for juan to be the prime suspect in martha's murder he was arrested and sent to prison where he awaited trial how long did you spend in jail it was about six months what was the very worst part for you uh the worst part was being away from my family and you know even though i was looking at a possible death sentence i mean it felt like i was already halfway there because i was away from my family when martha puebla was shot she was standing here talking to her friend he panicked and ran off in that direction and in the process dropped his mobile phone that's how the police managed to track him down and found their only eyewitness he helped them to create an identicate picture but his only description was of a latino male with facial hair good the wrong person you're literally identical to this that's not me it sure looks a lot like you that's not me with the identicate picture homicide detectives martin pinner and jose rodriguez were so certain juan was the killer they didn't bother doing their job we can go down to downtown l.a and we'll pick out a hundred you know guys that look like that sketch no offense to you but there are a few latinos around that do look like somebody wrote in spanish this is the guy who i saw shot the girl so i'm like it's impossible please do not do this to me dude we're not doing much to you people have said that it's you what do you have to say well what can i do can i take a lie detector test or something no in his police interview the detectives bullied one and were clearly not interested in listening to anything he had to say if you're saying you didn't do it where were you what day was it i'm not gonna tell you you know how am i supposed to know how much also remember that you were there no i wasn't please guys there was a point when you were being questioned where you couldn't remember what you were doing on the night of the murder why was that they came to arrest me uh three months after the murder liam you know some people can't remember where they were three days ago so you know they're they're questioning me where were you three months ago i had no idea i don't know penner or rodriguez and nor would i ever want to and i would never work with them they were in my opinion to be kind they were totally incompetent both detectives to be vicious they were disgusting immoral detectives that had no right being on the job detective furman would you please resume the witness stand unlike pina and rodriguez mark furman was one of la's leading homicide detectives he's investigated thousands of murders including one that went down in history we the jury find the defendant orenthal james simpson not guilty of the crime of murder but in stark contrast to the o.j simpson case furman says the lapd had no corroborating evidence against juan catalan and it's clear he wasn't martha's killer when i hear him on the tape with the detectives when they're confronting him they're manipulating him in a way that you cannot do it's clear they've already made their minds up at the start of the conversation it's the kiss of death to investigate a case develop a theory make everything fit into the theory you're you're just dooming your as far as the police were concerned juan was guilty case closed in court the file was handed to beth silverman a prosecutor proud of her record of never losing a murder conviction she was out to get blood do you think that juan catalan has any kind of a legitimate alibi at all no forget the presumption of innocence things were bleak for one ready juan catalan spent a torturous six months on death row wrongly accused of murdering 16 year old martha puebla at van nuys courthouse he also spent countless hours in this chair with his lawyer todd melnick right beside him i mean you wouldn't have come back today it wasn't for us it's not exactly a happy place is it bittersweet more bitter than sweet but you know i can still see the judge there sitting there and district attorney and the detectives over there and it's not a pleasant memory police and prosecutors were convinced the case against juan was watertight he was the killer so in court he needed to present irrefutable evidence of his innocence one told the police the night of the murder he was at dodger stadium watching a baseball game with his seven-year-old daughter melissa but they didn't believe him he had to prove it so the first thing his lawyer todd melnick did was go to the videotape welcome back to the world series presented by youtube tv they shoot the game itself and then during commercial breaks they scan the stadium back and forth in a very wide shot i have the tickets hey larry i see you got a ticket yeah the seats really stink though baseball is a funny game and by pure happenstance comedian larry david the man who created seinfeld was filming an episode of his hit show curb your enthusiasm that night an even bigger coincidence of the 58 000 seats filming took place right alongside where juan was sitting no one knew it at the time but the wisecracking larry david was about to save a life [Applause] that's very unusual isn't it highly highly unusual so how many of those tapes todd did you go through i went through i think there were eight tapes we went through probably the first five tapes and there was no wand on it and of course everybody at curb said you're crazy you're never going to find your client on on a tape when there's all these people at the stadium and on the probably the fifth tape i think it was juan walked right into the camera shot and um the rest is history as they say oh man liam i thought i thought i was home i felt like you know that this is it we just found you know a holy grail to my defense and you know i was uh i was mistaken that wasn't that wasn't it the time code on the curb your enthusiasm vision read nine past nine the murder happened at 10 40 an hour and a half later theoretically juan did have enough time to drive home and then murder martha ford bronco possible so todd got a clue from la's most famous criminal case of all during the o.j simpson case i had learned that they had used cell tower pings in order to locate oj on that slow speed chase and that always stuck in my mind and he goes did you make any phone calls and i said yes i said alma called me when i was leaving the stadium i told her oh game's over we lost i'm walking out the stadium now you were just letting her know what time you were coming home yes the penny dropped and put you at the right place at the right time yes incredible so you know she uses that excuse now she goes you see don't ever say i'm bugging you like you always have to answer my calls don't miss my calls that fateful call was made at 10 13 pinged by the cell tower right alongside dodger stadium taking into account traffic congestion the judge accepted they'd be no way that juan could have been at the crime scene at the time of the murder after dancing with death juan was a free man from getting the tickets on the day of to being caught on camera what are the chances that out of you know 56 58 000 seats you know they're filming on my aisle you would probably have more chance of winning the lottery yes exactly right but you know i look at it like i did win the lottery because i got a new opportunity at life you know with my family i was so happy and grateful for that retired la detective mark furman was the lead investigator on the o.j simpson case he's happy his work on that case inadvertently helped prove juan wasn't a killer you must be pleased to know that there are people out there in this case todd milner as an attorney who's actually taken away something positive from the oj case and that's really hard to do to get anything positive out of that case which seems to be a never-ending monster that devours everything in its path uh but todd's a smart guy todd would have made a great homicide detective do you see any other parallels mark with the oj case or is it just the complete opposite we had so much evidence in the simpson case there was no evidence in juan's case to me that's the irony of the two um couldn't convict simpson with all the evidence and that juan there's a great possibility he might have been convicted he came very close to me he came very close and once you get in the system it is difficult to get out [Music] homicide detectives pina and rodriguez eventually admitted they set one catalan up to solve the case following the acquittal they were both reassigned posts within the lapd but never formally penalized for their conduct pinna is still a police officer to this day they've admitted that they set you up one of them is still a police officer mind-boggling isn't it frightening to think of that you forgive them yes you know hate is no one should walk around with with hate in them so you know i sit here with you liam today honestly saying that you know i don't have any hate in me towards them i am at the stadium that you can from now on and also you're a big fan of curb your enthusiasm now oh yeah i had no idea who larry david was baseball when i saw that the episode that they were filming there that date pull your thing up over there make yourself presentable that is hilarious and i'm not just saying that's my favorite episode by far because of you know that was the one but that guy's a comedic genius now you're the number one ticket holder that is funny he's he's very funny hello i'm tom steinfert thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on ninenow.com.edu as well as the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 2,806,410

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, seinfeld, jerry seinfeld, curb your enthusiasm, larry david, baseball, murder, death row, death penalty, innocent, guilty, true crime, los angeles, lapd, alibi

Id: 3V5Cj8d43Yw

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/bat_in_the_stacks]

There's something very seinfeldian about referring to Larry David as "famous funnyman".

[u/April_Fabb]

The story of Juan Catalan is incredible for many reasons, but I just can't get over the fact that the homicide detectives who set him up weren't even penalised. Apparently, one is still working with the LAPD.

[u/Cynical_Cyanide]

My question is - He lost 6 months of his life.

Did winning the case get him any payback at all? Especially if the cops admitted to setting them up? How on earth did his family get by without his income?

[u/latch_on_deez_nuts]

There’s a documentary on Netflix about this and it’s really good.

[u/fantastictangent]

Pre-tty, pre-tty good

[u/[deleted]]

the police were psychopaths

[u/TomSurman]

If innocent people keep ending up on death row, there shouldn't be a death row.

Which is to say, there flat-out shouldn't be a death row. Because there's no system perfect enough to avoid innocent people sometimes being convicted.

[u/Knyfe-Wrench]

You can't just yadda yadda a murder investigation

[u/okram2k]

Why not just say while filming an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm instead of Seinfeld creator?