Dateline Originals - 13 Alibis - Ep. 4: He Was Scared

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Talking to a murder victim’s family is a tough thing to do, but Dan Slepian needs to find out more information about Jorge Collazo in his search for the truth. Collazo’s sister tells Dan she’ll never forget the day her little brother was killed. And, she reveals a surprise about what happened just two weeks before the murder – a lead that could have been critical.This episode was originally published on May 16, 2019. 

It was nearly a year into my investigation, and given what I've now learned, it was time to contact the family of the victim, George Colazzo. It's really a tough thing to do, especially when I'm going to bring up information they might not want to hear. But they have a right to know what I'm up to, and I need to find out more information about George Colazzo. I find one of George's sisters living in North Carolina. I send her an email and then give her a call. It's Dan Slepian. How are you?

She's hesitant to talk on the phone, but says she'll be in New York in a few months and would rather meet then. So we set a date. I had no idea the curveball that was coming. I'm Dan Slepian, and this is 13 Alibis. In the spring of 2015, Wanaka Kalatso, Georgia's sister, came by NBC News where we met in a conference room. I'm so glad that you came. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Wanaka is kind and polite, but I can tell she isn't exactly thrilled to meet with me. She seems compelled to be here, but clearly doesn't want to be here. She starts telling me about George and how she adored her little brother, and she's here to make sure someone speaks for him.

So you brought a picture of George. She pulls out a well-worn photo with creases in it. It's a picture of George and his siblings. He died the day after my 20th birthday. The much-loved baby boy of four older sisters. He played football. He played Little League for years. He loved it. We loved going to his games to watch him. She says she'll never forget the moment she heard what happened. She was at work and called home. Her father answered the phone. You said your brother's been shot. I don't know how bad it is, but I just need you to get here.

That's like the worst, the worst feeling. But if there was any silver lining for Wanaka in those first weeks, she says it was that a suspect was quickly in custody. And you feel a relief, but you don't want to be sure at the same time that they get the right person. But just hearing they had the right person was not enough for Juanica and her sister. I felt like I needed more. My sister, Thayana, she felt like she needed more. So in the months after her brother's murder,

Juanica and her sister decided to face the man accused of it and went to visit Richard Rosario in Rikers Island Jail, where he was being held awaiting trial. We told him who we were, and she said, we just really want to talk to you and just see what you have to say. His body language is, oh, and he just, like, looked this. He just couldn't look at us. He's like, I didn't do it. I was in Florida.

Like, just very, like, and he just, that's all he would say. He should have just been like, I did not do this. Like, I'm sorry this happened, but it was in Florida. Like, just very, like, and he just, that's all he would say. He should have just been like, I did not do this. Like, I'm sorry this happened, but it was not me. Those words never came out of his mouth. It was just a... An angry denial. Yes. So it wasn't what he was saying,

it was how he was communicating. Correct. And that day, my sister and I decided, yeah, they're had the right person. I ask Richard about this when he calls me. We have a prepaid call from an inmate at a state correctional facility. Richard? Yeah.

Hi. How do you do, ma'am? I tell Rosario what Wanica said about meeting him. She said that she went to go visit you when you were arrested originally. Do you remember that? She says that you did not give her any condolences. She said that you wouldn't look at her in the eye, that you were rude, you were mean to her, and kind of convinced her that you were guilty. All I know is I'm in prison for a crime I didn't commit. come off as angry, but, you know, it wasn't necessarily towards them.

All I know is I'm in prison for a crime I didn't commit. I can see how they can misconstrued that as me being angry towards them. Whatever he did during that visit convinced Wanica and her sister that he was guilty. I believe he did it. I don't think he's innocent at all. Knowing she felt that way made what I had to do next really uncomfortable. I needed to know what she would make of all those alibi witnesses who said Rosario was in Florida. I played her the interviews I did with them. That's how I know that he's innocent.

Because he is innocent. He was here. No doubt in your mind? No doubt in my mind. I don't believe it. Nope. These are all people that knew him. I also show her what eyewitness Robert Davis told me, that after he picked Rosario's mugshot, the cops told him he'd picked the right guy. They did say that. The cops did tell me that. Again, she's not buying it.

You know, years later, things can become confusing. And imagine for somebody his age, how it can get. Again, she's not buying it. But even though she believes Rosario is guilty, listen to this. Because he was scared. He knew something was going to happen. She wasn't surprised her brother was killed. She insists her brother's murder was not the result of a random altercation and that the police and prosecutors got the theory of the crime wrong. I'm like, are you guys like, this is so ridiculous. Ridiculous, she says, because George actually told her he was a target, that he knew someone was after him, which is the reason why, she says, George was found told her he was a target, that he knew someone was after him,

which is the reason why, she says, George was found with a gun in his jacket when he was killed. The only reason why he had that gun was because he was scared and he felt like maybe he could scare somebody off with it. He knew something was going to happen to him because he slapped that girl. Wait a minute. What girl? Juanica tells me just two weeks before her brother's murder, George slapped a girl from the neighborhood who he thought was disrespecting him. That's the first thing that came to your mind? That's the only thing he was scared of. Tell me exactly what he told you.

He said, we went to her job, and she said some nasty stuff to me, and I smacked her. And she said she's going to take care of me for that. She said those words to him. You're absolutely convinced that she's involved? Absolutely convinced. She's part of this. I know she's part of this. Wanaka didn't remember more details about the woman, including her name. But this slapping incident sounds like it could be important. But Wanaka says it was a lead that detectives did not thoroughly investigate. No one ever interviewed you guys? No.

The cops never interviewed? And asked you about your brother's past? Nope. Never. Nobody in your family? No. Was Wanaka right? Was her brother's murder not random after all?

Was George Colazzo actually a target? You guys, this is so ridiculous. Who has a getaway car on something that's random? His sister is adamant that the official theory of the crime is wrong. And she's not the first person I've heard say that. So what is your gut telling you about this? It wasn't random. That's my, I don't think it's random.

Months earlier at the crime scene, former detective Bobby DeLarado thought the same thing. To me, it looks like a hit. It looks like a setup. Meaning that George Colazzo was targeted to be killed. Yes. Bobby says his first clue was the same thing Wanaka mentioned, that getaway car parked at the corner. So they pull up and they just happen to get the corner spot. A perfect place to wait until George showed up. Let's play the scenario out. If I'm sitting there, I can see you. Bobby points to where the getaway car was. So just say if you're

laying in wait, you go, here they come. Let's go. And it appears they may have been laying in wait. According to police reports, a hot dog vendor on that block said he saw two men hanging around earlier that morning and even told the passerby to be careful that the men had guns. And then there was that bump that supposedly started it all. It's not like you're walking in a tight area, okay? We're standing in a big open parking lot. You know, you're not walking where it's like, you know, it's Manhattan. You're bumping into people all the time.

It's almost like you had to go out of your way to bump into each other. It's a wide open spot. And Bobby says the way George was killed speaks volumes. He shot once in the face, point blank, okay? This was personal. It was face to face. What he means is that someone wanted only George dead, which is why Bobby believes that Michael Sanchez was not shot.

The shooter let the eyewitness live. They're together, okay? Why you shoot one and you don't shoot the other? So if Bobby's right and it was a hit, that means there was a plan. And that's why there's one key person he'd want to know more about. The main eyewitness, Michael Sanchez. If it's a hit, then you have to know that the victim was going to be at that location where you parked your car. I'm just saying Sanchez to me

is not out of the realm of suspicion. He's a guy you'd want to know more. Yes. To Bobby, all these facts seem logical, obvious. So could it be that Michael Sanchez was the key to this whole crime? I knew I had to find him. It took a long time to get his number, but eventually I reach him.

Hello? Hi, Michael. This is Dan Slepian. I'm a producer with NBC News. How are you? I'm good, but this News. How are you? Right away, he tells me he's at work and asks me to call back in an hour. I try a few times, but he never answers. Give me a call when you get a chance. I just want to just chat with you a little bit and let you know. And I keep trying. And trying. To this day, I've never heard back.

To leave a callback've never heard back. Maybe he just doesn't want to talk to me about a horrible memory. And to be clear, he has never been implicated in this crime and might not have anything to do with it at all. But to run with Bobby's theory for a moment that Sanchez might know more than he told police, consider this. Remember that slapping incident the victim's sister told me about? He was scared. He knew something was going to happen to him because he slapped that girl. The one that happened two weeks before her brother's murder? This is where the plot thickens. You know, Mikey's girlfriend. Wanaka told me that girl, the girl who got slapped,

was Michael Sanchez's girlfriend at the time. Could that have been a motive for George's murder? I went back through the police reports and found the original detectives actually knew about this. The girl's name is Lamari Leon. In fact, it was Michael Sanchez who told them about her. It's all documented in their reports. In his interview with police, Sanchez said that his friend George and his girlfriend Lamari did not get along. I want to speak to Lamari Leon myself.

Ready? Okay. I'm calling Lamari Leon. She declines to be recorded, but tells me Michael Sanchez was just a friend, and she has no idea who killed George or why he slapped her two weeks before his murder. She didn't have much else to say. Over the past 20 years, Richard Rosario has had a host of lawyers who believe in his innocence and have been fighting for his release, even appealing his case all the way to the United

States Supreme Court, All to no avail. But that didn't stop attorneys Glenn Garber and Rebecca Friedman from taking Rosario's case pro bono. Rebecca and Glenn run a non-profit called the Exoneration Initiative, representing people with claims of innocence. I meet up with them in their downtown office near City Hall. This case smells terrible, and it looks like a terrible injustice has occurred. You just have to, like, glance at the case

to understand how significant it is. What makes you guys think that you can do something different than every other attorney has done? What's the Babe Ruth comment? It's hard to beat someone who never gives up. And we're in the Bronx, by the way. Glenn and Rebecca needed a hook, something new, to convince a judge to grant Rosario another day in court.

I wonder about that slapping incident, something Rosario's original jury never heard about. I'm really intrigued by that. Now that, to me, seems like a little bit more of a motive than a random bump in the street. It didn't seem like the detectives vigorously investigated that, to me, seems like a little bit more of a motive than a random bump in the street. It didn't seem like the detectives vigorously investigated that, did they? It is my understanding that they did not do very much to follow up on it. The attorneys tell me they don't know much about it either, but believe they found something even

more important to win Rosario another day in court when they began to focus on a woman named Nicole Torres. Nicole Torres was a witness originally interviewed by the police at the scene of the crime who never testifies at trial. Nicole Torres went to school with both the victim George Colazzo and his friend Michael Sanchez. And according to a police report, she appeared on the scene just minutes after George Colazzo was shot. So the way the police report was written around Nicole Torres was as if she was an immaterial witness who didn't see anything and didn't hear anything. But that's not what Glenn and Rebecca heard when they spoke with Nicole Torres in person. So when you go speak to Nicole Torres recently, she tells you a completely different story than what the police reports

indicate. That's true. Correct. Nearly two decades after the murder, Nicole signed an affidavit swearing that police report was wrong. In fact, she now says she was right there and saw the whole thing. The gunman, the getaway car. She even heard what the killer said. She saw the killer jog up behind them and say, Hey, George, this is for you, before shooting George Clazzo in the head once. Then she saw him turn around and jog to an intersection where there was a car waiting. And Nicole told the attorneys something else that troubled them. So she did go to the

precinct the day of the crime and they interviewed her and showed her photo books and she didn't identify anyone. A few weeks later, the police detectives came back to her and they had a single photo of a male Hispanic and they asked her, is this the guy? His family's saying he's in Florida. Meaning they were showing a picture of Richard. Right, of course. Nicole did not identify Rosario. And when she didn't, she was never contacted again. Much of the police report from Nicole Torres' interview on the day of the crime is blacked out, redacted. But buried in the case file, Rebecca found an unredacted copy of that report that had been disclosed years after Rosario's trial.

When you receive the unredacted version, you see that she told the police Michael Sanchez said to her at the scene of the crime, he didn't see the shooter. So just to be clear, Nicole Torres is claiming she was an eyewitness to this crime, that she did not identify Rosario. And she says Michael Sanchez told her he did not see who the shooter was. But remember, Michael Sanchez was the first one who pointed to Rosario's picture

within hours of the shooting. That is a significant piece of information, and certainly a defense attorney would want to have that information so they can cross-examine Sanchez to show to a jury that he's not credible. So in addition to most of Rosario's alibi witnesses, none of this information was presented at his original trial. Glenn and Rebecca believe they now have enough to ask a judge to reopen Rosario's case once again,

to hold a hearing and call witnesses, and they file a motion in Bronx Supreme Court. The Bronx district attorney responded to the court, writing that his office voluntarily began a reinvestigation, and that both eyewitnesses remained steadfast that Rosario was the gunman. And in a footnote, the DA said Rosario's purported alibi evidence had already been exhaustively evaluated and rejected. So no one from the DA's office contacted the witnesses. Rosario's fate would soon be in the hands of a new judge. So we are waiting for the judge's decision to give us this hearing, and we're hoping he will do it, and we can call all the witnesses in

and establish Richard's innocence. And his family has new hope that they'll be reunited. For now, all they can do is wait. And while they do, Rosario and his family continue life with him behind bars. Hi, Dad. That's next time on 13 Alibis. 13 Alibis is a production of NBC News and Dateline NBC. It's produced and edited by Robert Allen and Grant Irving.

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