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City Confidential Season 14 Episode 7
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Short filmTranscript
00:00People were very emotional. A sort of crime in my community, the Haitian community,
00:24was unheard of. We canvassed the neighborhood. Nobody saw anything. Nobody heard anything.
00:34Nobody wanted to talk to us. And nobody would tell us anything. Like he just got emotional and
00:41he looked at me and he just said, I wanted him dead. I wanted him dead. This murder definitely
00:49broke the community. It made you look at people differently because like you just never know.
00:58I think that that was the trauma that we had to process that
01:04somebody actually intentionally murdered him.
01:12From the pulsating streets of big cities to Main Street USA,
01:16no neighborhood is safe from the unthinkable. These are the stories of innocence lost,
01:21of communities changed forever. This is City Confidential.
01:3722 miles north of Manhattan is Spring Valley, New York,
01:40a two square mile town with a colorful history.
01:47It all started in 1842, when a Scotsman stumbled into the area and fell in love with the hills,
01:54trees and creeks. Because it reminded him so much of home, he called it Scotland.
02:00A few decades later, New Yorkers discovered the tiny village and fell in love too.
02:05By the early 20th century, the town was renamed Spring Valley for the large spring on the outskirts of town.
02:13And soon, the quiet tree lined streets were filled with mom and pop shops,
02:18multi-family homes and new hotels that predominantly catered to tourists hoping to escape the city's summer heat.
02:25But after World War II, mega resorts sprouting up in the Catskills began luring vacationers farther north,
02:36and Spring Valley became a ghost town. But it didn't stay that way for long.
02:44Beginning in the 1960s, more than 6,000 Haitian refugees fleeing the ruthless dictator Papa Doc ended up in the U.S.
02:52They chose to live in Spring Valley because housing was cheaper than New York City.
02:59The proud, hard-working immigrants adapted quickly to life in the U.S.
03:05But they never forgot where they came from.
03:09Growing up in Spring Valley, the Haitian community was strong. It was tight-knit. It was vibrant.
03:16And when it was a special holiday that was pretty much focused on Haiti, the community came out.
03:23We're festive people. We like to have fun. That's when you see exactly what Spring Valley is like,
03:28and you've seen exactly what the core of the Haitian culture is like.
03:35By the 1990s, Spring Valley had the second-highest concentration of Haitians in the country.
03:42Locals loved living in a place that was far from home, but still felt familiar.
03:47People here valued family, friends, and neighbors above all else.
03:52And their faith was a unique blend of island and Catholic beliefs that blessed the good and punished the bad.
04:00But in the fall of 1994,
04:02there weren't enough gods in the world to protect them from the unspeakable evil that rocked their close-knit community.
04:22It's just before 9 a.m. on Friday, October 21st,
04:26when Spring Valley police receive a call from local resident Philemon Jean-Baptiste.
04:32She wants police to do a wellness check on her friend, 56-year-old Renee Charles.
04:38Officers immediately head to Renee's address on North Cole Avenue.
04:43It was a dead-end street. It was single-family homes, mostly Haitian, very quiet, very nice neighborhood.
04:50In my three years, I don't remember ever going there to respond to any crimes or anything else like that,
04:55just routine patrol.
04:59There were three cars parked in the driveway,
05:02and we noticed the body leaning up sideways against the car in the middle.
05:08The gentleman looked in his mid-50s to early 60s. He was well-dressed,
05:14and there was a large pool of blood under his body, and it was running down the driveway.
05:20When we checked for a pulse, he was cold, so he had been there for a while.
05:25The victim appears to be Renee Charles, and based on the amount of blood on his shirt and sweater,
05:32it looks like he was shot several times. His pants pockets are turned inside out,
05:37and there's no wallet. His house keys are nearby.
05:43Looks like he just was putting the key in the door, and he just fell backwards, possibly bounced off the car and fell to the ground.
05:51I wanted to make sure that there were no problems inside the house. I walked to the front of the house,
05:58knocked on the door, knocked on the side door. There was no response.
06:04We searched the house to make sure there was no other victims or anything else. The house was in order.
06:10The crime scene was contained in the driveway. It was a targeted crime.
06:16We couldn't understand why in such a safe neighborhood, somebody was executed going into their house.
06:21My aunt called and said, I need you to come down here. Something happened to your father.
06:34And so my sister, my brother and I, we get to the scene, and we see the yellow tape. And someone came up to us,
06:42and they said, kids, you know, in Creole, it's, you know, pizit, you know, that means child.
06:51Somebody killed your father. And we saw the car, we saw the blood, and it just felt so surreal. Like,
07:02it couldn't be happening. And we just went, we lost it.
07:09I was standing in the driveway when I saw a couple of young people running down the sidewalk.
07:17And the first person I met was his son, who was so traumatized that, you know, he's shaking,
07:24he's yelling, he's screaming. It was very hard to try to calm him down a little bit because we didn't
07:29want him to hurt himself or anything else like that. But there's really not much you can say to
07:34somebody like that at that point in time when their father was murdered in cold blood.
07:41Looking for answers, patrolman George Gibson immediately tracks down Philemon Jean-Baptiste,
07:47the woman who asked police to check on Renee.
07:50She was a little shaken. I asked her about her relationship with, um, Renee Charles,
07:57and she said that they had been friends for approximately 23 years at that time.
08:04Philemon says the last time she spoke to Renee was the night before. He was at the hospital
08:10tending to his 63-year-old wife, Georgina, who was battling stage 4 breast cancer.
08:15She said that she was concerned and just wanted to check and make sure that, you know, they were okay.
08:24Philemon says Renee told her things were fine and promised to call her first thing in the morning.
08:29He never did. When she tried to reach him, he didn't pick up. She phoned police. She says she has no
08:37idea who would have done this to Renee. And all across Spring Valley, everyone's having the same reaction.
08:43When the news just came out about when he's gone, people were very emotional. A sort of crime in my
08:58community, the Haitian community, um, wasn't heard of. Um, it was for the first time. Um, no one saw it coming.
09:10And, um, we did not have any reason to think about something like that.
09:21Renee was a pillar of the community. He did a lot. He had businesses and community,
09:26gave people money and people looked up to him. So it hit close to home.
09:31But despite the shock and fear seeping into every corner of the community, Spring Valley residents stay quiet.
09:43We canvassed the neighborhood. We knocked on doors, try to find out if anybody heard anything or saw
09:47anything. Nobody saw anything. Nobody heard anything. Nobody wanted to talk to us. And nobody would tell us anything.
09:55We're not going to talk to them.
09:59Haitians by nature do not volunteer themselves to be, uh, a witness or contributor to any crime information.
10:08Many of them lived under a dictatorship where it was dangerous to open your mouth.
10:16There was never anything good that was going to come out of the police.
10:22Cops realize they're up against an invisible wall of fear and distrust.
10:27And to solve this case, they'll need to find a way to crash through that barrier.
10:32Two hours after 56-year-old Renee Charles is found shot to death in his driveway,
10:48Spring Valley police sit down with a few of his grown kids to learn everything they can about Renee.
10:54They tell detectives their father was born in Port Salou, Haiti in 1938 to a devout Catholic family.
11:06Growing up, Renee had hoped to become a priest.
11:09But Papa Doc's militaristic dictatorship derailed his dreams.
11:13Unfortunately, at that time, the seminaries were under attack.
11:19And so you had people who were studying to be priests, but being murdered.
11:25And it was just, it was just a lot of stuff going on.
11:30So Renee chose a safer route.
11:32He began studying philosophy.
11:35While at school, he met Claire Deserre Fanor.
11:38They fell in love and married.
11:41But trying to build a family in Port-au-Prince was nearly impossible under Papa Doc's regime.
11:46So in 1969, the young couple immigrated to the United States.
11:53They settled in the thriving Haitian community of Spring Valley.
11:56And for the first time, everyone was safe.
11:59A year later, Renee founded the Rockland Haitian Center,
12:03an organization that helped others with immigration and legal issues.
12:07Because he knew the law and he knew the rules,
12:11he was able to work the system and get people to this country,
12:15when sometimes they tried every single option and they weren't able to do it.
12:20And he was sought after for his intelligence, his savviness,
12:23and his ability to make things happen when others failed.
12:28Renee was also a family man.
12:30He and his wife had four kids and they taught them the importance of their cultural heritage
12:35and why God should be central to their lives.
12:39The churches played a huge role in kind of grounding families, grounding our communities,
12:46where it made people feel like, you know, we know that we're here in a new country.
12:52But at the same time, it gave that sense of feeling like you're at home.
12:59Everybody went to church on Sundays. It was not an option for any of us.
13:02We, you know, that was just what we did every single week.
13:06And every Sunday, you would see Mr. Charles and you would see the children, the whole family.
13:13His life mission was really to serve others.
13:16We've heard stories time and time again, where my father would, maybe he'd have $10 in his pocket,
13:23somebody needed something for their family. He would actually give them the last of whatever he had.
13:29Someone even told us they had commented on a pair of shoes that he was wearing.
13:36And he actually took his shoes off and gave it to this, this gentleman.
13:41There was never a time that someone did not pull him to the side.
13:46Hey, Renee, you know, I need your help with this.
13:49We couldn't go anywhere without someone, you know, asking him for something. Or he knew everybody.
14:00Unfortunately, there was a downside to his compassion.
14:05He's always there for everybody. And it just sometimes felt like it wasn't always reciprocated to us.
14:12And we called him Poppy. So where's Poppy? Where is he?
14:18There was a period where I think my mom was just really very bitter about the whole situation.
14:26And so it did cause some friction growing up.
14:31In 1981, the tension bubbled over and the couple filed for divorce.
14:36A year later, Renee landed in the arms of a wealthy, well-respected local socialite and got married a second time.
14:46My father's wife's name was Georgina. We called her Gina. So Gina was a big part of our life.
14:54You know, she didn't have children of her own, but it was in a situation where we felt, you know, so close to her.
15:00Renee was happy for more than a decade. Then things turned tragic when Gina was told she was terminally ill.
15:12When she was in the hospital, my father was just going to visit her a lot. So that's what was preoccupying his time.
15:20He wasn't going to his office as much because Gina was dying. And so he was just there for her.
15:28So that was the big thing for him.
15:33Every day, Renee went to see Gina. Then he returned home at 8 p.m. every night like clockwork.
15:42From the outside, he was the poster child for the devoted husband standing by his dying wife.
15:48But life can be messy sometimes, and police soon realize upstanding Renee might have had a secret that got him killed.
15:58Just hours after discovering Renee Charles dead outside his home, Spring Valley police learned from his kids that there may have been more to the story of Renee's second marriage.
16:17We went to the hospital with two of my father's former colleagues to tell Gina that he was dead.
16:29And what was surprising is she seemed sad, but she didn't seem like she was shocked.
16:39Gina told Renee's kids that there was a part of their father's life that they didn't know.
16:47And it all revolved around his close relationship with his married friend, Philemon Jean-Baptiste.
16:53She made a comment that she knew that Philemon and my father were having an affair.
17:01In fact, she had mentioned that she had found a receipt for a ring that my father had given Philemon.
17:11I'm wondering how does she know that it was given to Philemon, but she was pretty intimate about letting us know that she knew something was going on.
17:22It felt so surreal.
17:29I'm trying to figure all of this out, trying to put all the pieces together.
17:35Our family was very close to her family because we used to think her children were our cousins because we were there all the time.
17:44So it was just kind of an extended family that we never really thought anything other than that.
17:52When Mildred shares the story with police, they realize an affair can have deadly consequences.
18:02They immediately make a hospital run to see what Gina has to say.
18:05But moments before they arrive, Gina dies, taking anything she may have known to the grave.
18:19Police shift their attention to the other side of the alleged affair.
18:23Philemon's been married for years.
18:25The affair was something that I just could not wrap my head around because of the type of person, you know, that he was.
18:50Mr. Charles was mild-mannered, he was so respectful, he was always with his family.
18:57Philemon attended to her children, her girls.
19:01She wasn't like a party person, she was really a family woman, a mother, a wife.
19:14It's hard to even imagine that she was an unfaithful wife.
19:20So it was just rumors.
19:24But the stories were repeated so, so much that it's like the story that becomes, it had a life of its own.
19:35You start believing what you hear because you hear it so much.
19:39While Spring Valley residents quietly prayed that their hometown hero didn't give in to temptation and get killed because of it,
19:49cops zeroed in on Philemon and Daniel and the long history.
19:53In fact, Renee introduced Philemon to Daniel and was instrumental in securing the couple's paperwork to emigrate to the U.S.
20:01But it was an open Spring Valley secret that after 20 years, Philemon and Daniel weren't happy in their marriage.
20:10So police pay Philemon a visit.
20:13She readily admits her marriage is on the rocks.
20:16She said that, you know, Daniel couldn't keep a job.
20:21He had odd jobs.
20:24She was tired of taking care of all the responsibilities, paying all the bills.
20:33Philemon tells police she wasn't having an affair with Renee.
20:37But she did lean on him during the stressful separation from Daniel.
20:41And Daniel didn't like it one bit.
20:44Because one thing about Haitians is that, you know, we have a lot of pride.
20:51Disrespect is something that we just don't tolerate.
20:55You know, as a child, you're taught to respect one another.
20:59As a child, you're taught to respect your elders.
21:02So you can do anything, you know, to someone who's Haitian, but disrespect, that's a deal breaker.
21:09Now cops wonder, was Daniel angry enough to kill his longtime friend?
21:15And if all the rumors churning the waters in Spring Valley are true, it looks like there's a lot of commandment-breaking happening in this God-fearing community.
21:24Police paid Daniel John Baptiste a visit at his new apartment, the one he's lived in since he and Philemon separated.
21:41He has no problem talking to cops.
21:44Daniel was very well-liked in the Haitian community.
21:47He was a very religious man, and he played organ in the church.
21:50He did various jobs.
21:54He drove taxis.
21:57He drove school buses.
22:00He fixed, you know, fixed watches.
22:03You know, all type of odd jobs that he would do.
22:08And Daniel admits he's a proud Haitian man who struggled as he watched both his marriage and his longtime friendship with Rene Charles crumble.
22:16He indicated that Rene Charles was the godfather of his oldest, his firstborn.
22:25And he had also indicated that prior to Rene Charles being killed, because of the problems Daniel was having with Rene Charles and his wife, that they had went to mediation.
22:38You know, because he believed that Rene Charles was one of the reasons why his marriage didn't work.
22:47But after the therapy went nowhere, John Baptiste says he severed ties with Rene for good, but his wife didn't do the same.
22:55I asked him about the relationship with his wife, and he indicated that he didn't think there was anything intimate going on.
23:06And then I started questioning him about the murder of Rene Charles, if he had anything to do with it.
23:14He told me no.
23:16And he says he can prove it.
23:18He tells police on the night of the murder, he was working at his job driving a taxi.
23:23When his shift ended at 8, he walked to his apartment.
23:26When asked what time he got home, he said roughly 8.39, it was verified with his roommates that he was home at that particular time.
23:40And it was also verified that his daughter had come to visit him, to see him, and to get some money from him.
23:47With nothing to hold him, Jean-Baptiste is free to go, but cops keep a careful eye on him as they continue to look for other leads.
24:02Meanwhile, the town gathers at St. Joseph's Church to say a final goodbye to one of the most influential residents Spring Valley has ever known.
24:12When someone like Rene Charles passed away, and in the manner that his death happened, it touched everybody.
24:25Even people who didn't know him, who was just learning about who he was because of the nature of his death, were touched.
24:34And Haitians, if for nothing, they are a very close-knit community, and they definitely come out to support each other in a situation like this.
24:48I do not want to exaggerate the numbers, but we had approximately 1,400 to 1,500 people in that funeral.
25:01The church, there was not enough seats for people to be inside the church, so people gathered in the parking lots.
25:17Some of them stayed in their cars just to follow the procession.
25:22It was big.
25:24It was just very humbling to see the outpour of support.
25:33Everybody did their speeches, and the priest did this amazing service.
25:41I remember kneeling towards his casket, and people brought flowers.
25:49And I started hearing these little pops, and I look up, and I actually see flowers just blooming right in front of my eyes.
26:05It gave me a sign of hope that life can blossom after, despite all of this.
26:19But down at Spring Valley PD, cops aren't as hopeful.
26:25They can't seem to get any traction on the investigation.
26:29Weeks go by, then months turn into years.
26:33The Renee Charles case is frozen solid.
26:36I think the overall feeling was, oh, you guys can figure it out.
26:41You guys, you know, go to school, it's a police academy, and y'all are detectives, and you solve, you know, murders all the time.
26:46Why not, you know, this one?
26:49After a while, it's just as if you have to live with this.
26:53I think that that's one of the most painful things as well.
26:57Because you've got to deal, you've got to come to a point of getting answers.
27:02You want to know why.
27:05Meanwhile, turnover at the Spring Valley PD pushes the case deeper into the archives.
27:10Over the next few years, investigators peek at it whenever there's time.
27:15But no new information surfaces.
27:18Cold cases are very difficult to solve because they're cold cases for a reason.
27:24There's no evidence.
27:25There's no leads.
27:26There's nobody to turn to.
27:27There's nobody to investigate.
27:30Ten years later, the Renee Charles case still haunts Spring Valley PD.
27:36Investigators believe it'll take a miracle to solve it.
27:40That's when the department shakes things up.
27:43Enter the Honduran hurricane and the Haitian sensation.
27:4713 years after Renee Charles' murder, Spring Valley Police realize they might finally have the right investigators in the department to solve this case.
28:04Detective Roxanne Lopez, Detective Roxanne Lopez, and patrol officer Ronnie Charles.
28:10We worked a lot of cases together.
28:12We're going in, kicking in doors, getting drug dealers, getting guns off the street.
28:17We're pretty much both the same.
28:18We're always at 100 miles per hour, and we're always getting things done.
28:23Ronnie Charles, who is no relation to Renee, is known as the Haitian sensation for being able to navigate a community that normally won't talk to anyone in authority.
28:34And Roxanne Lopez, a.k.a. the Honduran hurricane, hasn't met a case yet she can't whip into shape.
28:43Everything was laid out on the floor, trying to figure out what I could work with, what I couldn't.
28:49And I treated that case as if it was 1994, and I was present, and what would be the first thing that I would do.
28:59As Lopez meticulously combs through the evidence, she finds a wallet, Renee's wallet, that was missing from the crime scene back in 1994.
29:09What happened is, two days later, like a couple blocks away from there, an elderly couple was walking their dog, and they found this wallet on the ground.
29:17So they assumed that the shooter took the wallet and tossed it after the homicide.
29:23Back then, investigators found no fingerprints and no money inside, so the wallet was stored away as more evidence that led nowhere.
29:34But when Lopez carefully re-examines it, she discovers a secret compartment containing three separate bank deposit receipts.
29:41One from 1992, another from 1993, and a third from 1994, the money was all deposited into one account that belonged to Philemon Jean-Baptiste.
29:54It was clear to me that these were things that he didn't want anybody to see, and so I looked into those accounts, and unfortunately, banks back then were not keeping records after seven years.
30:10But it was enough to give me a clue that I should be digging more into how deep were their relationship.
30:18We can be friends, but is it friends enough that you have access to my bank account?
30:23For three years was, I knew that I had to go to Philemon and dig and find out.
30:31She was very welcoming for me to come into her home.
30:35You know, she asked me if I wanted anything to drink, and then came the time where I said to her,
30:40I'm here to speak to you about your great friendship with Renee Charles, as I've gotten, you know, new information, and we want to try to investigate his death.
30:48And instantly, her face froze.
30:52And I remember the feeling I felt, because it's not the reaction that you would give someone.
30:57You should be happy that someone is looking into somebody that you care about.
31:01Her reaction was the opposite.
31:02She got cold.
31:03She got stiff.
31:03And immediately, she's like, I don't want to talk about this.
31:06She stood up from her seat and said, I want you out of my house.
31:10I want you to leave now.
31:11I want you to leave now.
31:13At that moment, I knew that I had hit a nerve.
31:15And it definitely was a red flag for us, for sure, that she knew more and she was not going to say.
31:26Lopez is certain the locals are going to be no help either.
31:29But she's got something, or rather someone, original investigators didn't have.
31:35The Haitian sensation, Officer Ronnie Charles.
31:39When I started speaking to people in the community, they know me well.
31:43And people talk to me.
31:44And very freely, very candidly.
31:47And they tell me what they know or don't know.
31:52Suddenly, the ghosts of the past start coming back to life.
31:56And the names swirling around all the stories, Philemon's ex-husband, Daniel Jean-Baptiste.
32:03It was reported that Daniel solicited the services of a couple of our street degenerates out there to kill pretty much Rene for what he was doing.
32:13And there's one guy people remember bragging about being in on the hit.
32:18Gene Lazar is one of these guys who's always on the street, always on the street corner, always getting arrested, always getting in trouble.
32:25Everybody knew him.
32:27But Lazar is long gone.
32:29He was deported back to Haiti after being convicted of drug possession.
32:33So Roxanne works also as a U.S. marshal.
32:36And she had contacts that were located in Haiti because it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
32:43And we were able to learn that he worked in an airport kitchen.
32:49And he was a cook.
32:50And he was living a hard life.
32:54I remember being in my office and, like, doing the old, you know, the old football hustle and the jumping in there.
32:59I'm like, we got him.
33:00We're going to go down there.
33:01We're going to do the interview.
33:02I couldn't wait.
33:03I couldn't wait.
33:06In a small conference room at the U.S. Embassy, set up like an interview room,
33:15Lopez comes out of the gate asking Lazar why everyone in Spring Valley remembers him talking about being part of a murder for hire on Rene Charles.
33:24Yeah, I don't know.
33:26I've been trying to show that I was a big man.
33:29But then again, deeply inside.
33:32When I asked him about Daniel Jean Baptiste, I remember that he was, he immediately went from this meek, you know, like laid back kind of guy to like he was present.
33:55And I remember him jacking himself up in his seat and saying, like, you know, that Rene was having an affair with Philomene.
34:03And I go, yes.
34:04He goes, so you do know.
34:05And I go, yes, I do know.
34:07And so then that's when he started to go with the flow of the conversation.
34:11Lazar says right before the murder, he witnessed a big blowout between Daniel and Philomene after Philomene was crowing about her child.
34:20And in the Haitian community, where pride and family go hand in hand,
34:50this was the ultimate humiliation and Rene's death sentence.
34:55Lazar insists didn't pull the trigger, but he knows who did.
35:0018 years after Rene Charles' murder, former Spring Valley resident Jean Lazar points a finger directly at Rene's longtime friend, Daniel Jean Baptiste.
35:20Jean Lazar revealed that there were conversations that Daniel Jean Baptiste was having with Jean Lazar and now and this other friend of theirs, Moochie Toussaint.
35:32Daniel was angry.
35:33He wanted to take Rene Charles out of the picture, like make him disappear.
35:37And he says he told them he'd pay them $5,000 to get the job done.
35:41The czar comes clean and admits he was interested in the job for the money.
35:50Jean said, you need to pay me up front for the job.
35:53And Daniel told him, I'm not paying you.
35:55I don't trust that you'll do it.
35:58I said, when you do your own job.
36:00That's what I tell him about.
36:01Right.
36:02Straight like that.
36:03Then from there on, he never tells you about he's going to kill him.
36:07So when Jean got iced out, he thought they're not going to go forward with it because he's not going to pay Moochie the money either.
36:17Fast forward the day of the homicide, Jean tells us that's when he learned that the murder happened and he was still bitter angry that Moochie got paid for the job or believed that Moochie got paid for the job.
36:31If Lazar's story is true, it looks like Moochie Toussaint was the trigger man.
36:35Cops quickly discover he's left Spring Valley and moved to Florida, where he now works as a long-haul truck driver.
36:43Fearing he might take off if he thinks he's a suspect, Lopez and Charles come up with a plan.
36:49So we called Moochie and stated that someone's using his identity, but we're going to help you.
36:55When are you going to be in New York?
36:57So he was grateful.
36:59He gave us a date where he was going to be in New York delivering a load.
37:03He was jovial.
37:06Everything was cool, calm, collect.
37:09And then I said, do you know Rene Charles or Daniel Jean Baptiste?
37:14And the same reaction that I got with Philemon, he froze in a seat and his whole demeanor changed.
37:21It went from cool and collect to like nervous, a little bit hard.
37:27He admitted that he knew who Gene Lazar was and he admitted that he knew who Daniel was and he did admit that he lived in Spring Valley at that time and that he did communicate with them and was around the same circles, but that he knew nothing about Rene Charles' death.
37:42With no hard evidence against Moochie, they've got to let him go.
37:48The only hope now is to get the alleged mastermind, Daniel Jean Baptiste, to crack.
37:53He still lives in Spring Valley and every Sunday he's at church playing the organ.
37:58When I saw him for the first time, he just looked like, you know, somebody's grandfather.
38:05He looked very like Meek and he just seemed very approachable.
38:08And we started to get into his family and his children.
38:14He started talking about his love for his kids.
38:16He started talking about how he's not with the mother of their children because many years ago they had ended up having to get a divorce because he believed that she was having this affair.
38:26And that to me was like, boom.
38:29He opened the door for me to slide right in.
38:32Lopez fires up her laptop.
38:34And then I pushed play and Jean Lazard is now seen in the video and Daniel Jean Baptiste thought we had Jean Lazard in custody.
38:45The baby's not raised.
38:48Baby's not for Daniel.
38:49So what did Daniel say in the car to you?
38:51Everybody else, no, it's Spring Valley.
38:53Daniel got two kids, he got two kids, two is one, one for Rene.
38:57As soon as he said that, Daniel just cracked.
39:03Like he just got emotional and he looked at me and he just said, I wanted him dead.
39:09I wanted him dead.
39:13And then I go, I know what happened, but I want to hear it from you.
39:16A tearful Daniel explains that his wife's relationship with Rene was more than he could bear.
39:25He spent weeks studying Rene's routine and knew exactly what time he'd be arriving home.
39:32On the night of the murder, he admits picking up Moochie Toussaint, dropping him off in an alley behind Rene's house, then driving around the neighborhood.
39:41And while he circles the block, Daniel hears several gunshots and he speeds it up and he gets back to the same location he drops Moochie at.
39:51Moochie gets into the vehicle and Moochie says, the job is done.
39:59Daniel drives Moochie to his house, then he goes home and they never talk about it again.
40:05On April 2nd, 2013, Daniel Jean-Baptiste pleads guilty to first-degree manslaughter and is sentenced to 12 years in prison.
40:20There were no winners.
40:23Danielle's children now were losing their dad and Rene's family had already lost their dad.
40:35It was kind of bittersweet.
40:38My father was not there to be with me.
40:40When I got married, my sister, none of us, he didn't see all of those life moments like Daniel got a chance to see.
40:50He was helping raise his grandchildren.
40:53He was around for his daughters.
40:55He was living his life.
40:59And it was just unfair.
41:01This murder definitely broke the community.
41:09People stopped trusting each other.
41:11You know, like the church groups eventually, you know, fell apart and fell away and all of that camaraderie, you know, that we had.
41:21So it was surely just dissipated.
41:23Now it just seems like everyone's just in their own little world, taking care of their family, and that's it.
41:31And it's just remained that way.
41:33There'll never be another Winnie Charles in the Haitian community.
41:50He was everything.
41:52If I could just speak to him, I would just tell him, thank you for showing me the power of service, the power of caring, and the power of wanting to make a difference.
42:10And I'm going to do everything I can in my own power for as long as I live to just to do the same for others.
42:40Thank you very much.
42:45Thank you very much.
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