Dateline Originals - 13 Alibis - Ep. 2: 1000 Miles Away

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

The murder case against Richard Rosario was based on two eyewitnesses. But Rosario claims there are more than a dozen people who can prove he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. Dan Slepian packs his bags and heads to Florida to speak with some of those alibi witnesses. Along the way, he also meets Rosario’s wife and two children.This episode was originally published on May 16, 2019. 

So last episode, I visited the Bronx street where 17-year-old George Colazza was murdered to learn the details of the 1996 crime. And he turns and shoots the kid point blank. He goes, what's up, man? And it's bang. Where was he shot? Shot in the face. Shot right above the lip.

And I visited Richard Rosario in prison, the man who was convicted of killing George. Rosario insisted he was completely innocent, and that he gave the police the names and numbers of 13 people who he said could confirm he was in Florida, not the Bronx, during the murder. I'm innocent. And I'm always be innocent, no matter what the justice system does. I'm Dan Slepian, and this is 13 Alibis. In the months after I met Richard Rosario, I start collecting as much as I can about his case.

Thousands of pages of trial transcripts and court filings. Here's what I learned. The case was based entirely on those two eyewitnesses, the victim's friend Michael Sanchez and the porter Robert Davis. No physical or forensic evidence was ever found against Rosario, and neither was a murder weapon. I also learned Rosario was telling me the truth about at least two things. He did turn himself in that night, and he did give a statement to police,

naming 13 people who he said could confirm that he was in Florida. He also gave them a bus ticket, showing he had just returned from Florida. Now, I was really eager to find those alibi witnesses. So in November 2014, I packed my gear and headed to Florida. And I recorded every step of the trip. So here we are in Florida. We just got here. Was he really down here on June 19, 1996, when this murder was happening in the Bronx. I'm in Jupiter, Florida, heading to the first two names on Rosario's list of alibi witnesses, John Torres and his wife,

Janine. Your destination is ahead on the left. They live at the end of a quiet street, a nice ranch house surrounded by palm trees. I called earlier, so they're expecting me. Hey, Dan. How you doing, Jack? I wonder how they'll possibly remember a single day nearly two decades earlier. You don't like cameras. I interviewed Janine first. You don't want to be on camera. She just got home from the medical office where she works. She's wearing dark blue scrubs, standing behind a counter in her kitchen.

Why are you talking to us? I know he was in my house, so I can't live with myself knowing if there's any way I can help him. At least to just tell the truth. She says she'll never forget both Richard Rosario and the month of June 1996. I was pregnant with my first son. We were living in a small apartment. Richard was down from New York, staying with us. Janine tells me her husband John and Rosario were friends

and that she didn't like it. And you remember clearly him staying with you? Yeah. Yes, trust me, I remember that. Why do you say it that way? Because I did not want him in my house. They were always out, hanging out, partying. But even though she feels that way about Rosario, Janine says she knows he was in her living room on June 19, 1996.

And there's a specific reason why she remembers. She was just hours away from going into labor with her first child. You were home on the 19th? Well, I went to my doctor's office, and when I came back home, it was like midday. He was on the sofa with my husband, and I was telling him that the doctor wants me to go to the hospital. Midday. I get goosebumps when I hear that, because it was midday on June 19th that the crime happened in New York. And Janine says she's certain Richard Rosario was in her apartment in Florida, just as Rosario claimed in his statement to police. I didn't know where my sofa was, where my TV was, where the bedrooms were.

He was sitting on my sofa, and I remember telling Richie, got, who, like his wife, says he clearly remembers that day back in 1996. As I talk to John, he's in his work clothes. A uniform. The kind with a badge and a gun. That's because he's a Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy. A cop. This is your squad car? Right.

This is it. I interview him outside, standing in front of his police car. My son was born on June 20, 1996, and they're claiming that Richard killed someone on June 19, 1996, which that's physically impossible because he was in my house when we were leaving for my wife to go to the hospital to be induced. I'm looking at him, talking to him,

June 19th, June 20th. It is 1,000% impossible for Richard to have committed that crime. There's no way. He can't be in New York and Florida at the same time. The night he turned himself in, he gave a statement to the police and gave them alibi names and addresses and phone numbers, including yours. Did anybody ever call you? Not a single phone call. Not a single phone

call, not a letter. At the time, John wasn't an officer yet. He was 21 and unemployed. He says it wasn't until more than a year later, sometime shortly before the trial, when Rosario's attorney called, asking John and his wife Janine to testify. And they did. I testified at Richard's trial, but it just fell on deaf ears. They didn't believe anything that I said or that anyone was saying when they were telling them that he was in Florida. All I'm thinking is, wow, this is a cop telling me this. At the end of our conversation, John does something that would stay with me. He asks his son to join us, the one who was born the day after the murder.

This is my oldest son. John's son is nearly 20. He's standing next to his dad, and even though he's leaning on the police car, he still looks about an inch taller than his father. The scary part about it is this is how much time has gone by that Richard's been in jail, you know? From the time that he was born, this is how long it's been. As I drive off, I'm trying to figure out what to make of all of this. John and Janine seem so credible to me. But 12 jurors obviously didn't believe their testimony. And Rosario testified too.

But the jury didn't believe him either. Prosecutors painted him as a liar, saying Rosario failed to disclose that a couple of months before the murder, he'd been in jail for a few weeks in Florida on a robbery charge, a charge which was later dropped. Obviously, there's more to this story, and as I'm hearing it all, I know it's important to keep an open mind. These are the kind of things that, you know, when you're out on a story like this and you're following facts and you're on a journey to look for the truth, you constantly have to be talking to yourself not to be biased and not to let emotion take over and to stick with the facts.

The next day, I continue down the list of Rosario's alibi witnesses, the ones who never testified at his trial. Along the way, I make a stop. All right, so we'll be there in about 30 minutes. Is that okay? Three other people live in Florida who I'm hoping can help me learn more about Richard Rosario. His family. They tell me to come by. Nice house. Hello. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I'm Dan. Minerva. Minerva is Rosario's wife. Yes, I did say wife. She stood by him for 25 years, even though Rosario has been behind bars for 20 of them.

Shortly after Rosario went to prison, Minerva and her kids moved down to Florida to be closer to her parents. She greets me with a kind smile and a big hug. She works for an insurance company and lives in a beautiful home along a suburban street where she's had to raise their two children, Amanda and Richard Jr., on her own. She tells me she and Rosario met when they were teenagers. Actually, I was in a pizza shop and he walked in and he claimed me as his wife. What was your first reaction when you saw him? He wasn't my type. I was like, I can't believe that he just said that. How dare he? But he just has this charisma about him. And from that moment on, we were together. A year later, Amanda was born. She was

barely four when her dad was arrested. Now she's a 23-year-old aspiring musician. What was it like for you growing up and everybody's dad is everywhere? It was horrible. I went to a small school. I'm sorry. And we had father-daughter dances, and that wasn't fun. Not being able to go and not being able to tell people why you couldn't go.

So it was hard. Amanda's brother, 21-year-old Richard Jr., sits across from her. It strikes me how much he looks like his dad. He was two when his father was sent away he tells me a story that how as a young child he would pretend his dad was a cartoon hero who fought crime like when i was a kid and stuff i used to imagine my dad would be a power ranger because i didn't know what to think he pulls up his sleeve and shows me a big power ranger tattoo on his forearm i was was just like, might as

well just say he's the dude I see on the TV screen that I think is cool. It really helped me a lot to just think that my dad was just out there fighting crime, basically. The irony of that is not lost on me, and hearing it is heartbreaking, especially if his father was wrongfully convicted, which is what Rosario's wife Minerva believes happened. I'm like, that's impossible. You know, he was in Florida. I thought it was insane. At the time, she and Rosario were living in New York,

and she remembers wiring money to him in Florida. There's no question you remember that? Oh, yeah, definitely. I remember it because I was funding his fund here in Florida. And she says there's a specific reason why she remembers when she wired that money. I remember he received the funds and then he called me to tell me that he was going to go to the hospital because his friend's wife had the baby. Minerva's story about the birth of the baby matches up with what I heard the day before from John Torres and his wife Janine. But of course, there's a million reasons why Rosario's wife would want to back

up her husband. So what about all those other people on Rosario's list of witnesses? About a half hour away, I meet up with Margarita and Fernando Torres. So where are we? Tell me where we are right now. My son used to live here, and we met Richard over here. You've already met their son, Sheriff's Deputy John Torres. His father, Fernando, says he also remembers seeing Richard Rosario in Florida on that special day for his family. If my grandson had not been born on the 20th of June, this would be nothing to me. And his memory appears to be clear.

He walks me over to a parking lot about 100 feet away. And Richard walked over and greeted me right about here, and he told me that my daughter-in-law had just had the baby. It's hard not to believe Fernando. After all, he has a job that doesn't exactly condone lying. I'm an assistant pastor right now at the church. That's right. He's a pastor. And his wife, Margarita, says she also knows the truth. You're 100% sure that he was here? I'm 100% sure. They say they never heard a word from anyone until more than a year after Rosario's

arrest, when a lawyer called asking for their son, John. Some attorney called from New York and said that they wanted Johnny as a witness. During that phone call, Fernando says he offered to testify, but was told not necessary. He says, are you sure you don't want my testimony? He says, no, no, Johnny's testimony is good enough. And that was it. As a matter of fact, the only thing I heard was that he was convicted after that. I says, wow, how can they do that? I'm starting to think the same thing as I drive away. You know, I'm listening to these people, and they sound like they're telling the truth. I continue my way down Rosario's list and meet up with Shanoa Ruiz,

who was once a member of the Torres family. She was married to John's brother back then and lived next door to John and Janine. She says she saw Rosario on Florida the day the murder was happening in New York. Do you have a very specific recollection? My sister-in-law at the time was giving birth and Richard was there in the house when she was going into labor. Prior to his trial, did anybody interview you? No. Have you thought about this a lot over the years? Yeah. I mean, that's crazy. His life, his kids, not able to see him. I always play devil's advocate with myself to try and find a reason to be skeptical of what a witness tells me.

In this case, I'm thinking maybe because they're all in the same family that they're telling the same story. But then I meet this guy. My name is Michael Serrano. I'm a federal correction officer. I've been doing that for about 10 years now. Michael Serrano is friends with John Torres. And like everyone else I've spoken with down here in Florida, this is what he says about Richard Rosario. He was staying in Johnny's house and he was there celebrating the birth of Johnny's son. Okay. First a cop, then a pastor, now a federal corrections officer. This sounds like a bad joke. But if what they're all saying about Richard Rosario is true, it's definitely not funny.

When he was arrested, did you ever hear from anybody? Did anybody ever call you from the NYPD? Did a detective, did a lawyer ever call you and say, hey, was he down here? Negative. No. I was confused and increasingly concerned by all of this. Especially after speaking on the phone with two more names on Rosario's list, not related to the others, who insist he was in Florida. By the end of the day, my head is spinning. And the more people that we speak to, it becomes more troubling because

every person only supports the last that we spoke to. As I head to the hotel for the night, everything I learned is beginning to sink in. You know, you just look at this cumulative number of alibi witnesses. You know, if they're all mistaken, they're all mistaken together. Next right, onto I-4 West. If those people are correct, there's no way that Richard Rosario could have committed this murder. I can't stop thinking about the facts of this case. And I find myself thinking more

about my conversation with Rosario and how he described his life in prison. You know, I'm dealing with, you know, these prison guards. I'm dealing with the inmates. I'm having, you know, all type of angst about just being in a cell. So, you know, my family, my children, my life, right in front of me, just taken away. In all, I spoke with six people who told me they are certain Rosario is innocent. And it wasn't even hard to find them. So over the past 20 years, why didn't detectives or Rosario's own lawyers

ever go to Florida and do what I just did? It was time to track them down. This is your handwriting, right? Right. That's it. That's next time on 13 Alibis is a production of NBC News and Dateline NBC. It's produced and edited by Robert Allen and Grant Irving. Our music is by Nolan Schneider. If you like the podcast, please share it.