Dateline NBC - The Plot Thickens

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

A Hollywood stuntman is shot four times in his own home and left to die. Who would want him dead?  And the most stunning twist in this Dateline classic is what didn’t happen. Josh Mankiewicz reports. Originally aired on NBC on September 28, 2012. 

You know when they tell you your life passes before your eyes? You think about everything that happened in your life and you wonder, am I ready to die? He was a Hollywood stuntman, but this was no Hollywood stunt. This is a hit. Shot four times and left dying on the floor. Somebody definitely wanted him dead. Will you be able to solve the mystery of who wanted him dead and why? You'll meet lots of possible suspects. Oh my gosh. Including his ex-wife,

an actress once married to movie mobster Joe Pesci. But she had a strong alibi. Do you know who shot Garrett Warren? I don't know. And that's only the start of a twist in this Hollywood mystery. This is one of those stranger than fiction kind of things. Certainly nobody would write a script like this. The most stunning twist of all was what didn't happen. My mom said to me, don't you f***ing die. That hit me harder than the bullets. My mom never swore.

I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Tonight, as they say in Hollywood, the plot thickens. Here's Josh Mankiewicz. Ready, and action! Action! Action! It ranks second only to money as the single most important word in Hollywood. And in L.A., where life and art are often the same thing, there's a real-life drama

that rivals any action movie with a plot that includes all the elements of classic film noir. A mystery featuring an assassin, a femme fatale, a Hollywood star, and a stuntman who takes the fall. And as for the money, we'll get to that. Let's start with the biggest name on the marquee, Joe Pesci, famous for his roles as a cold-blooded killer. This drama would co-star Pesci's ex-wife, Claudia Harrow, a model and actress who appeared along with Pesci in the gangster film Casino. The supporting cast includes Claudia's brother, Manny Harrow, not an actor but an actual tough guy who did time in prison and who harbors a terrible secret in his past. And finally, Claudia's second husband, Garrett Warren, a Hollywood stuntman and martial arts expert. A man very familiar with danger. Fade in.

Early evening, in the quiet town of Westlake Village, California, outside of L.A. Stuntman Garrett Warren heard a knock on his door and a voice on the other side asking about his new silver Volvo parked in the driveway. Garrett answered. Then comes our first plot twist. Three shots into his body. One more into Garrett's right eye. The daredevil's luck had run out.

I called and his mother answered the phone. Screaming, crying, just distraught. Wally, Wally, you're not going to believe what happened. What? You know, Garrett's been shot. Wally Crowder was a fellow stuntman and Garrett's good friend. Garrett was one of those men that you could count on. You hear in life that you're very lucky if you have five friends or you can count a friend on one hand. Garrett was that friend to me. Wally's been in the business for more than 40 years.

Garrett Warren was probably the finest fight man you could ask for. I had hired him on several shows, got to know him, watched his expertise. Phenomenal athlete, stuntman. You've probably seen Garrett Warren's work, you just didn't know it. In Charlie's Angels, doing a spin with Lucy Liu. And doubling for Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Team during an explosion. But his friend Wally says Garrett's personality was not what you might expect. Garrett was a very focused individual.

People think of stuntmen as, oh, daredevils, crazy people. That's the last person I want on my job. I want the very best at what they do. But towards the end of 1997, Wally says that focus shifted the minute Garrett Warren met Claudia Harrow. Beautiful, beautiful woman. We just wanted Garrett to be happy. He had found somebody that he seemed like he genuinely loved and wanted to start a life with. There was something special about her. I think people who got to know her,

she just has a beautiful soul. And I think men were attracted to that as much as to her beauty. Claudia's good friend, Julie Ariscog, remembers when Claudia and Garrett first got together. One day she says to you, I met this guy. Yes, and she was very excited. I was always a big fan of Garrett's. He was sweet, he was funny, and she just seemed so happy with him. And, you know, I should say, actually, Joe and I both were very supportive. By Joe, she is referring to Claudia's ex-husband,

a character actor who became a star by playing mafia tough guys, Joe Pesci. It sounds like her marriage to Joe Pesci didn't end badly. Not at all. Not at all. They're like family. You know, they're very, very close. Claudia stayed close to Joe Pesci even after she started dating Garrett, who came from a different part of the movie business. Garrett loved action and adventure, but when he met Claudia, he was ready to settle down. We felt that this would be the gal that Garrett would end up with. No more dating, no more running around. I'm going to end up with Claudia. Garrett and Claudia were married less than a year after they met. In the beginning, I think it was a very good relationship.

Oh, my gosh. They soon had a beautiful daughter, Kyla. Look at the hairdo. The new couple enjoyed being parents. I love you guys. But happy scenes like this one did not last. Claudia and Garrett couldn't make it work. It was a series of events.

It just wasn't the right marriage. Once the relationship started going south, it went fast. Less than two years after their wedding, Claudia and Garrett split up for good. Divorce is never easy, but in the long run, it was two parents trying to figure out a way to live and both see their children. Garrett went back to his old life as a stuntman, back to the set and the world of make-believe.

So then how did his life go from playing dead to bleeding out on the floor of his home, shot four times at close range. Somebody definitely wanted him hurt or dead at that time. Okay, but who? Mark Gaiman, then a detective with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, said investigators looked at every angle, remembering how the gunman at first asked Garrett about his brand new Volvo.

They wondered if this could be road rage, someone Garrett had tangled with on one of LA's freeways. Mr. Warren is a stuntman. Yes. I'm guessing maybe he doesn't always drive the speed limit or use his blinker when it's time to change lanes. That could be possible. Or it could be personal. Could have been an ex-business partner, or if it was somebody he was dating that was jealous, maybe an ex-husband or an ex-boyfriend. There was an array of possibles on who could have done this. Possibilities that led from the bloody crime scene to the bright lights of the movie business,

all the way to the parts of L.A. that the tourists never see. So who did want Garrett Warren dead? There seemed to be an entire cast of suspects. Detectives especially wanted to talk to Garrett's ex-wife, Claudia. When we return, getting ready to say goodbye to a friend. I'm gonna lose my friend. He's not gonna make it. And you should get ready to be amazed as the plot thickens. Fade in. Northridge Hospital. Daytime. Wally Crowder rushed to the bedside of his buddy Garrett Warren, a movie stuntman who'd been shot with real live bullets. I run into Garrett's mom and realize I'm going to lose my friend. He's not going to make it.

Garrett was in critical condition. All these things run through your head, the time you spent together, the things that maybe you should have said that you didn't. It was rough. Shot three times in the body and once through the eye, all at close range. Hard to imagine anyone surviving it. Ready for our second twist? It's one that neither Garrett's family nor the gunman saw coming. Thank God I'm still here. I mean, I was very fortunate. I was very lucky, very blessed. To the surprise of the doctors treating him, Garrett Warren pulled through,

and he lived to tell the story of the night he was almost murdered. A flashback as vivid now as it was then. Here's bullet one. To be honest with you, when a bullet hits you, you don't really know that it hit you. It's not like you see in the movies. And as I slipped to the side and it hit me center mass, it went right in front of my chest,

passed by my heart, and is now stuck in my rib cage right here. And it's still there. Then bullet two. So I looked down, I looked back up, and here came another one. And I slipped my head to the side. And when that happened, the bullet hit me here in the neck and went straight out my back. Bullet number three. Then I realized, okay, this is for real.

So I went to close the door, and he shot center mass at me. And when he did, I was turned sideways, and he hit me here in the hip, and it went straight out my back and past my hip. That one hurt. You know, that one hit my bone. If that sounds gruesome, then hang on for what's next. I fell back behind my door to the ground, and then he walked in and put the gun to my head.

And when the gun was placed to my head, the first thing i did was when i saw him squeeze the trigger i flinched just like this like a fighter would and as i did this the bullet hit me here in the eye went straight through my eye and came out my ear and got stuck in the wall behind my head those are some pretty good reflexes yeah i mean but if it was the matrix it wasn't good you know that's like keanu going back and the bullet actually hitting him. So as much as I moved, I still got hit. Somehow, the bullet that went through Garrett's head missed his brain. You know when they tell you your life passes before your eyes? It doesn't pass before your eyes.

You run through it. You think about everything that happened in your life, and you wonder, did I do anything wrong and did I not make up for it? Am I ready to die? At the time of the shooting, Garrett's mother was at his home helping with baby Kyla. Garrett's mother ran to see what was happening

and the gunman took two shots at her, but he missed. And then, out of bullets, he fled. I looked at her and I said, you know, I love you, Mom. I'll see you on the other side. My mom said to me, don't you f***ing die. I was shocked. That hit me harder than the bullets. My mom never swore. And here she was, she shook me, and she says, don't you f***ing die. You've been a fighter all your life. Fight one more time for me.

And I looked at her, and I said, all right, you got it. I'm not going to go. I'll stay. As Garrett ran through his life, he looked back on his failed marriage to Claudia Harrow. It was true love. It was the things that poetry was written about. You know, the thing that movies were made of. Hi, Daddy. What's up? That brief marriage produced their daughter, Kyla. And even though the marriage didn't last, the bond both parents felt with Kyla surely did. My daughter's being born was amazing, was the most amazing part of my life, and it's probably one of the greatest things that I can leave as my legacy, I guess.

But when the marriage broke up, there was a nasty fight over who would get custody of Kyla. In the midst of it, Claudia made perhaps the worst accusation you can make. She claimed Garrett had sexually molested their daughter. After a thorough investigation, a family court judge ruled that there was no evidence of abuse. But it was shortly after that that the gunman showed up at

Garrett's home. So naturally, detectives brought in Claudia for questioning. It was just another road that we went down, you know, during the investigation. You know, it's like, hey, could it be an ex? Claudia was cooperative. She didn't appear to have any ties to the shooting, and she had a strong alibi for that evening. She even expressed concern for Garrett. Investigators were satisfied she wasn't involved. So they kept talking to Garrett, who'd gotten a glimpse of the man who shot him. It was very difficult to decipher what his ethnicity was

because I was looking through a little peephole in my door. Not somebody you knew? No, never knew him before. As Garrett recovered from his wounds, the sheriff's department tried to piece together some theories. I'm guessing detectives asked Garrett if he was carrying on with somebody else's wife or girlfriend. Yes, everything was being looked at in his life,

in his lifestyle, his business. An exciting high energy lifestyle. From the gym he owned to the film circles he ran in, Garrett Warren had no shortage of adventures. But investigators received a tip suggesting that Garrett also had enemies. Lost Hill Sheriff's Station received an anonymous letter just kind of advising that there were some people involved at the gym that Garrett was having some kind of relationship with. People that might be of interest to detectives that they might want to question these people. Detectives checked out every name that came up. They followed up on every lead, but they hit a dead end at every turn. Depressing?

Very depressing. Sometimes you just need that one break. You need a phone call that somebody wants to really give up some information, give us another road to go down, give us another adventure to try. It took almost two years before that break arrived. That's when police in another county, searching a car for drugs, instead found a note and a photo that would make clear just what kind of danger

Garrett Warren was facing. Coming up, was Garrett Warren's would-be killer about to try for take two? I'm scared to death someone's going to come back and finish him. When Dateline continues. Close-up. Garrett Warren. The stuntman was gunned down in his own home, but lived to tell the tale.

He knew his would-be killer was still on the loose, and Garrett was looking over his shoulder. I have a bulletproof vest on. I've invested whatever money I possibly can into all sorts of security around my house. I'm scared to death someone's going to come back and finish it. Did you think there was ever going to be an arrest? No. I actually gave up on it and thought, eh, you know what, chalk it up to experience and move on with your life, and that finish it. Did you think there was ever going to be an arrest? No. I actually gave up on it and thought, eh, you know what? Chalk it up to experience and move on with your life, and that's it. And you did move on with your life.

I did. A year after his shooting, Garrett still faced multiple surgeries and painful rehab. He was back at work as a personal trainer at the gym he owned. And that's where he met Issa. She was also a client of mine that I was the personal trainer to. So while we were first training, she said, you know, I really like you, would like to date you. And I said, well, I have a rule, I don't date clients. So Issa quit the gym.

And she came back saying, okay, well, I'm not in your gym anymore, I'm not your client, so let's date. They married in December of 2002, two years after the shooting. Maybe the happiness brought along by Garrett's second wife made it easier to get along with his first, Claudia. The anger that had marked their divorce had faded. We're back to our visitation schedule again, back to shared custody, and we're on speaking terms terms and we're actually friendly. It was about 18 months after Garrett was shot when detectives got that lucky break.

In an unrelated case, San Bernardino police served a search warrant on a car belonging to a man named Miguel Quiroz. They were looking for drugs, but they found something else under the spare tire in Quiroz's trunk. It was a photograph of Garrett Warren with a circle drawn on it and Garrett's home address, which very few people knew. So detectives showed Garrett a six-pack, a photo lineup, that included a photo of Miguel Quiroz.

I'm looking at the pictures and I say, by all means, that's the guy I recognize. That's the guy that shot you? Yep. No doubt in your mind? No doubt in my mind. In 2003, detectives arrested Miguel Quiroz for attempted murder. He was neither a gangbanger nor a hired gun. Instead, he owned a pizza parlor. Then Sheriff's Detective Mark Gaiman. It seemed like he was your middle class, very nice guy that everybody in the community loved. And yet, Garrett was

identifying him as the shooter. Yes. Other than Garrett's ID of Kuros, there was nothing to suggest they had ever met. They'd ever done any business deal before? No. Kuros connected in any way to the gym? No. Any chance that he was driving a car near Garrett that night? No, none whatsoever. So what their connection was or why Mr. Kz would kill him, not clear. Yeah, there was no direct connection whatsoever. And as detectives soon learned, proving an attempted murder charge against Miguel Quiroz wouldn't be easy. Multiple witnesses said they saw and spoke to Quiroz at his pizza parlor on the night of the shooting. These witnesses weren't really beholden to Mr. Kuros in any way. They weren't members of his

family. They were just customers. Yes, they were. They were frequent customers of that establishment. Plus, he had the receipts. You know, he had rights on them. So it was pretty good alibis. And so, at Kuros' preliminary hearing, evidence pointed both ways. Witnesses put Kuros nearly 80 miles away from the scene of the crime on the night it happened. But then why did Kuros have Garrett's picture hidden in his car? How and why would Garrett finger Kuros as the shooter? Hoon Chun was the deputy district attorney brought in from the major crimes unit, and he knew he had more work to do. You got a guy stopped for drug charges.

Right. He's got a map hidden in his car of somebody who was nearly a murder victim. Sure. And a photograph of that guy. Right. And the guy picks him out. Right. So you think, what's the question, right? Aren't there people on death row for less than that? Sometimes there's more to a story than meets the eye, which is the case here. When we come back, investigators discover a picture of Garrett Warren and the man he accused of shooting him. This is one of those stranger than fiction kind of things. Certainly nobody would write a script like this. As the plot thickens.

Fade in. Los Angeles County, California. Garrett Warren was gunned down, shot four times in his own home, but somehow survived. It fit his character, really. A Hollywood stuntman, martial artist, and former fighter. Not only did he survive, but he was able to identify a shooter. A man who'd been caught with what looked like a hit note in his car. And they tell you his name is Miguel Quiroz. Yes. Did that name mean anything to you? Not at the time at all. It sounded, at first, like a strong case.

But the more law enforcement and prosecutor Hoon Chun investigated, the weaker it seemed to become. So you've done a lot of work, and mostly what you've done is help prove your defendant's alibi. Sure. So far, right? And eventually really prove the alibi that he didn't do this. Remember, multiple witnesses put Miguel Quiroz about 80 miles away from Garrett's home on the night of the shooting.

And then, like a scene from Columbo, came this latest twist, something the prosecutors saw during a court hearing. I'm noticing some things. First of all, Miguel Quiroz is left-handed. The shooter was described by the witnesses, the victim and his mother, as right-handed. And that's a little odd. Odd because what left-handed person would try to commit murder with the gun in his right hand? That's like out of a movie. Yeah, it's out of a movie, right. A script writer might do something like that, but in real life, this doesn't happen. It didn't make any sense. And then Prosecutor Chun saw a photo taken at a party, a barbecue. In this photo, you have Garrett Warren, and he is facing Miguel Quiroz, and they're kneeling down.

Their children are in front of them. We can tell from the scar on Garrett Warren's face underneath the left ear that this is post-shooting. We can tell from the ages of those children, as well as the Lakers championship T-shirt that Mr. Quiroz is wearing, that this is very shortly after the shooting. The two men were both guests at the same party after the shooting, but before Garrett made his eyewitness ID of Quiroz. So you think this is where Garrett knew Miguel Quiroz from? Right. You think that's why he identified him as the shooter, because he remembered him from this party? Right. Classic transference. To both the prosecutor and to Garrett, the photo explained the ID.

And for some reason, when I saw him in the photo lineup, it clicked. And I said, that must be him. I recognize him. And obviously it wasn't him. So Garrett was wrong in picking Quiroz as the man who shot him. And that left prosecutors with two questions. Who did shoot Garrett? And since he had Garrett's photo and address in his trunk, could Kiros still somehow

be involved? Prosecutor Hoon Chun began to rethink the case. The defense attorneys agreed that we could talk to Mr. Kiros, and they let us talk to him. And the detectives and I keep coming back to this hit note, to where it's found. He doesn't know Garrett Warren, because remember, their interaction was very brief at that barbecue. Detectives kept after Quiroz. They knew that whoever ordered the hit really wanted Garrett Warren dead. Because here's one more twist.

The postmark on the note is from after the shooting meaning that it's not so much a hit note as a note explaining to someone how to go back and finish the job it's a re-hit if you want to call it that that finish the job note says chun started to unravel the mystery That was really kind of what broke the case open. That was, quite frankly, the lifeline we had on this case. The one unavoidable piece of evidence that finally cracked Miguel Quiroz. We go back round and round about this, and finally, he admits that he was one of the middlemen. Miguel Quiroz admitted that while he wasn't the shooter, he was in on the plot and that he was caught by his own carelessness.

He explained that that hit note had been sent directly to him, that he had put it under the spare tire in the trunk of his car and literally he said he had forgotten about it. So the reason you ended up finding that hit note under the spare tire in the trunk of Mr. Quiroz's car was that he put it there for safekeeping and then forgotten it? This is one of those stranger-than-fiction kind of things. Certainly nobody would write a script like this because they would have the kind of look that any self-respecting director or producer would have the look that you're having in any kind of Hollywood movie and saying, come on, that's ridiculous.

But people forget things. Disorganized crime. Yeah. Luckily for prosecutors, Miguel Quiroz had not sworn a blood oath to never rat on his friends. Quite the opposite. He rolled over like Lassie and cut a deal. He agreed to wear a wire and help collect evidence on his co-conspirators.

And so, as they say around here, the plot thickened. Coming up, the world's worst hitman. I apologize, but I'm not a good shot. As the plot thickens. Fade in. Los Angeles County, nighttime. A police informant wears a wire as he talks to a partner in crime.

I don't got to worry about you in any way. You don't got to worry about me. Yeah. You know what I'm like that. The informant, Miguel Quiroz, he's the pizza parlor owner turned small-time drug dealer, and the man found with a hit note in his car targeting Garrett Warren. Now, he was cooperating with investigators. Detectives already knew Quiroz wasn't the shooter. Quiroz told them the man who actually pulled the trigger was an old friend of his, named Jorge Hernandez. Heard here. I'm allowed to speak as long as you don't say nothing, I don't say nothing.

As part of his deal with prosecutors, Quiroz wore a body wire and approached Hernandez at a party. Quiroz said he hired Hernandez for $10,000 to kill Garrett Warren. On the tape, Hernandez makes clear that he didn't waste any of that money on transportation. I used my own car. Hernandez can be heard saying that he's sorry he didn't manage to kill Garrett Warren. I apologize, I'm not a good shot. And Hernandez made clear he was ready to try again. Just get the guns or whatever and we'll finish it off if that's what you need.

Speaking to prosecutor Hoon Chun, Quiroz explained his own involvement, that he'd been paid to hire Hernandez as a hitman. And he explained where the trail led. Mr. Quiroz told you that he didn't do it, but that he was in on the planning. Right. And that he did it at the behest of his friend, Manuel Harro. Correct. Manny Harro was Miguel Quiroz's longtime friend. They worked together in the pizza business and in the drug business.

And if the last name Harrow sounds familiar, it should. Manny's sister, Claudia, is Garrett Warren's ex-wife. Prosecutor Chun says that explains Mr. Harrow's involvement. And Manuel Harrow was doing this for his sister, Claudia. Who was married to Garrett. Who was once married to Garrett, but was at the time going through a very contentious divorce. On a scale of one to 10, this was an 11. This was about custody of their daughter. This was about custody of the daughter, exactly. And she had a

lot of antipathy that was expressed towards Garrett Warren. She said you were going to bleed, right? Yep. Generally, when one spouse says to the other, you're going to bleed, it's a sign there are bad times to come. You're right. Prosecutors believe they were beginning to understand the outlines of the plot to kill Garrett Warren. Infuriated by a bitter custody battle, they believed Claudia Harrow had set it all in motion.

But proving that wouldn't be easy. Investigators began by looking at how Claudia might have persuaded her brother to get involved in a murder. Detectives arrested Jorge Hernandez and Manny Harrow and charged them with attempted murder and conspiracy. When they questioned Manny, they learned about a secret of his that might explain why Manny would want Garrett Warren dead. I really didn't really talk about me getting molested until I was at least 22, probably. Manny told investigators he'd been molested as a child.

And remember, Manny's sister Claudia, during her divorce from Garrett Warren, claimed that Garrett had molested their daughter. Those allegations were thoroughly investigated. A judge said they were unfounded. But now investigators had to consider another plot twist. Because of something else Manny said, that not only had he been molested, but that the only other person in the world who knew about that secret was his sister Claudia. Being that I've been through certain things in my childhood as far as like molestation,

and my sister was the only one that I confided in and told her about my molestation thing that happened to me when I was younger. Had Claudia manipulated Manny by telling him only part of the story? Did she ever let you know that the judge, you know, someone independent in her child custody case, had found that the allegations that she was making against Garrett were false? Did she ever tell you that? She, I never asked and she never told me. So I think she knew how to hit the nerve that he was molesting her.

So I think she knew it was hitting the nerve that way because I never really talked about it. Manny said his sister's exact language was that she wanted Garrett taken out. I don't, I'm almost fine if you didn't use the word murder or kill. But it's like me telling you I want you to take him out. You know what that means, and that slang means take him out, meaning kill. Manny Harrow, a small-time criminal, was pointing the finger of guilt straight at his sister, an actress and mother who'd been married to Hollywood stardom and who had never had a problem with the law. It was hard to believe, except maybe for the intended victim of the murder plot,

who believed Claudia was behind it from the get-go. I knew there was only one person that wanted this done to me. He felt that way even as the investigation pointed in every other direction, until finally, five years after the shooting, detectives arrested Claudia Harrow. I did think to myself, you know, thank God, you know, finally I don't feel crazy anymore. But he was in for another shock. Prosecutors did not feel the case was strong enough because Manny Harrow had not agreed to testify against Claudia, and the DA's office declined to file charges. I'm thinking you probably hated that.

Yes, but that's not the worst of it. I was proud to call Garrow and tell him, guess what? I've arrested Claudia Harrow for hiring a hitman to kill you. And then you got to call him back and say? You're not going to believe it, but I got to let her go. 48 hours after detectives arrested Claudia, she was back on the street, completely free once again. But I guaranteed him that I would not stop. What would it take to write a new ending to this story with a new role for the beauty that investigators believed was their femme fatale?

Or would Claudia Harrow escape prosecution simply by denying she'd been involved? The bottom line principle is this. Lying isn't just about saying the words and mouthing the words. The words have to make sense. And when they don't make sense, you're going to have a problem. Lying's tougher than people think it is. Oh, it's a lot tougher than people think it is. When we come back,

Claudia Harrow tells her story. This is your day in the limelight. All right, God. See you. Close-up, Claudia Harrow. She once played a showgirl in a gangster movie. Once was married to a legendary movie gangster. Now she was accused of hiring a hitman in real life. Sheriff's detectives arrested her,

but Prosecutor Hoon Chun did not file charges, and Claudia was turned loose. Chun felt he needed stronger evidence. I did not think there was a filable case at that point. But Claudia's brother Manny changed that. He took a plea deal from prosecutors and finally agreed to testify against his sister. At some point, does somebody approach you about doing something, killing somebody? Yes. Okay. My sister, Claudia, approached me.

Claudia Harrow approached me. That made the difference. Detectives re-arrested Claudia Harrow. This time, the prosecutor charged her with two counts of attempted murder and one of conspiracy to commit murder. Claudia denied everything. Do you know who shot Garrett Warren? I don't know. Do you know why he was shot?

No, I don't know. But while there was evidence enough to charge Claudia, was there enough to convict her? You got Mr. Quiroz's admission. Right. And you got Mr. Harrell and Mr. Hernandez on tape. Right. But you don't have anything proving that Claudia Harrell set this in motion. We have the motive, the contentious divorce proceedings. We have the timing of this because what happens is that the judge finds the child abuse allegations to be false on April 12th, I believe, of 2000. The hit occurs about a month and a week after that, on May 20th of 2000. Okay, but all of that's circumstantial. I agree. I agree. Soon there was more. Prosecutors said the handwriting on the hit note matched Claudia Harrow's. And when they compared samples of

Claudia's letters to Garrett with the hit note, they noticed the misspelling of the word Agora, as in Agora Hills, the location of Garrett Warren's home. On the hit note found in Kuros' car, and on Claudia's letters, the word is misspelled the exact same way, A-U-G-O-R-A, instead of A-G-O-U-R-A. Claudia insisted she had never given any notes or maps to Miguel Quiroz. Did you ever give him anything on paperwork? No, not that I can think of and know. So if we had, say, someone's address written in your handwriting? I don't know. Not from me. I don't know. She claimed to know very little about what her brother, Manny Harrow, might have been up to. Why would your brother, who's never even met Garrett, want him killed?

I don't know. Why would he tell us that you're the one that asked him to be killed and helped arrange it? I don't know. Did you ever give your brother a large amount of money? No. Any amount whatsoever? I don't think I ever had a large amount of money. As we said, every Hollywood story eventually comes back to money. If Claudia Harrow paid somebody 10 grand to ice Garrett Warren, where did she get the cash? Detectives took a good look at her other ex-husband, tough guy actor Joe Pesci. Remember that party snapshot of Garrett and middleman Miguel Quiroz along with their kids? That was taken at the Hollywood Hills home of Joe Pesci.

We actually interviewed Joe Pesci, and we just wanted to ask if he gave her a large sum of money at that time. He denied that he ever gave her a large amount of money. There was no evidence to indicate that he had any involvement. Claudia Harrow said she wanted to do an interview with us, but we were not able to speak with her in jail. We spoke with her defense attorney, Tom Mesereau, best known for successfully defending Michael Jackson. The picture that's drawn of her is sort of this vengeful woman who would stop at nothing to keep her daughter away from her ex-husband. Whoever gave you that information doesn't know Claudia Harrow.

Mesereau says that if Claudia is guilty of anything, it is of having a career criminal for a brother. I believe Manny Harrow was angry about being abused and molested as a child. He was desperate to maintain his street credibility as a drug dealer. And then when he got caught, he tried to blame it on his sister to try and gain freedom for himself. Not only that, he said, but those hit notes allegedly written by Claudia? I am convinced these are forgeries. Claudia never wrote any hit note to anybody. Nobody ever talked to her about whacking someone or murdering someone or shooting someone. Mesereau was ready with those arguments and more, and who knows what a jury might have done.

Remember the movie My Cousin Vinny, where Joe Pesci played a lawyer who got his client acquitted of murder charges? Well, this movie didn't end that way. On the eve of trial, Claudia Harrow decided not to fight the charges. She pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted murder. She received a sentence of 12 years and four months. She's unlikely to serve all of it. Claudia's friend, Julie.

The deal she was offered, she'll be out in eight years and she gets to see her daughter grow up. And that's why she took it. And at her sentencing, Joe Pesci showed up to support his ex-wife. As for the others, Miguel Quiroz and Manny Harrow took plea deals. Quiroz got a three-year suspended sentence in return for his cooperation. Harrow was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He was released in June 2017. The hired gunman, Jorge Hernandez, was tried and convicted on charges of attempted murder and conspiracy. He's serving a sentence of 77 years to life. In total, Claudia Harrow served just more than nine years before being granted parole in August 2019. If Claudia did mastermind this attempted

murder, she ended up getting a very good deal. Claudia's brother Manny, who set it up, and the actual shooter, both pretty much got maxed out on their sentences. The amount of time you spend behind bars is nothing to, you know, what I believe will be eternity afterwards, you know, and I believe that, you know, we all pay one day, no matter what. You seem remarkably free of anger. I am, and everyone should be in this world. You know, she made a mistake. I've made mistakes. No one's perfect. Surprised? You shouldn't be. That trifecta of love, money, and murder isn't new to Hollywood. Neither are stories about beautiful women who turn out to be as tough as a $5 steak. And the men who somehow find it in themselves to forgive them.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.