committed, he said, we ll work it out. we ll get him out of ecuador. and that s just what tommy ray did with the full cooperation of ecuadorian authorities. when officials there discovered serrano had actually been a u.s. citizen for years, they deported him to america in the custody of detective ray. in september 2002, nelson serrano walked into a central florida courtroom and pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. after a snarl of legal delays in september 2006, nearly nine years after the murders, serrano finally sat before a jury, the accused in a first-degree murder death penalty case. that man sitting right there murdered four people. in court tommy ray sat a few feet away from nelson serrano. the families of the four victims packed one side of the courtroom as the prosecutor, john aguero, called phil dosso to recount the history of bad blood with serrano.
how silly is this? serrano s son had been called by the prosecution, but the defense used him to flip the tables. testifying that it was his father s partners who actually stole business money from him, not the other way around. a million dollars had disappeared. and george and phil were not willing to tell us what they did with the money. then the defense went after the busy here, there and everywhere of serrano s alleged travels the day of the murders. in and out of airports, boarding planes, driving around. how come no person or camera saw him? not a single witness was found who saw mr. serrano leave that hotel, drive to the airport, park at the airport and get on a plane, isn t that true? that s correct. and you re sure that there are no videotapes from atlanta, tampa or orlando showing mr. serrano anywhere near those airports on this day, isn t that true? i have no personal knowledge of any tapes of that nature, no, sir.
the three partners who made up erie manufacturing were like family. they danced at weddings of one another s children. in 1985 when frank dosso married maria, business partner nelson serrano was there celebrating with his wife. serrano, originally from ecuador had been a middleman who sold the garment conveyer systems that erie made to big customers. eventually he bought into the company and was welcomed as a full partner of phil dosso and his long-time friend and co-founder of erie, george gonsalves. with serrano s flair for sales, the company grew into a multimillion dollar family operation by the middle of the 90s. so times were good? yeah, they were good. they got better and better. the partner were slowly making way for their children to take over the company. frank was being groomed to take his father s place. er is ran office put on payroll to be bookkeeper. . i always got the impression.
serrano, originally from ecuador, had been a middleman who sold the garment conveyer systems that erie made to big customers. eventually, he bought into the company and was welcomed as a full partner of phil dosso and his long-time friend and co-founder of erie, george gonsalves. with serrano s flair for sales, and the original partner s knowledge of the nuts and bolts of manufacturing, the company grew into a multimillion dollar family operation by the middle of the 90s. so times were good? yeah, they were good. reporter: they got better and better. they were making way for the children to take over for frank. there was something about serrano that spelled trouble for his wife. he always thought he was better than everyone else. reporter: and she wasn t the only one that felt that way. by the summer of 1997, a long-simmering dispute among the partners had boiled over into an all out wa- out warout war.