so they wire the young skinhead, nicassio, and send him into the lion s den. if i go to trial, what am i going to say? do not make that statement in trial. he tells nicassio not to bring his name into it. another bit of evidence, but they need more. and then merriman, who has no idea at all that this is being recorded, gives the investigators an important clue. don t tell me that. you re making me nervous. you [ bleep ] hauled that [ bleep ], you know what i mean? it s subtle, but there it is. a key piece of the puzzle falls into place. when merriman hisses that nicassio helped haul the body, helped get rid of the evidence. the prosecutor knows it the instant he hears it. in his own crude way, merriman is confirming nicassio s credibility. he didn t say he killed her or raped her. he said, you helped bury her, you re liable.
the investigation had been moving fast. it s been only a month since the sting back at the motel. then the two arrests. then the search of merriman s house. and then everything just stops. they ve been trying hard, but they re not getting anywhere. and they begin to realize they could wind up just like the lapd before them. stuck. merriman, now the chief suspect, is still out there. the two other suspects are still in jail and still not talking. but every day, bamieh makes sure they re reminded, especially the youngest, larry nicassio, that the only way they can avoid the worst kind of punishment is by talking. and finally, the pressure works. the date is march 30th, 1998. i m senior deputy district attorney, ron bamieh. we think the deal with larry was big-time for me. we were walking on air. in exchange for reducing the charges, nicassio agrees to tell his story. years after the murder, years
they knew they could prove to jurors that larry nicassio was telling the truth. then finally, loyalty obvious now, now ryan bush confirmed the story, too. they re ready to move. but merriman might also be ready for them. a strange and desperate conspiracy is about to begin. another murder plot is being hatched. and that leads to one more trap still to be set. coming up, an accused killer plays another dangerous game with a little help from home. good morning, how you doing? good to see you.
from prison in february of 1992. nine months later, katrina montgomery was dead. did something in their emerging relationship provide a motive for murder? still, investigators needed more to prove a case against merriman. it was time, they decided, to try another ruse. they arrange for a lie, a false rumor to get to merriman. what lie? that the young skinhead, larry nicassio, is talking and might be implicating justin merriman. you put a lot of pressure on people, they make mistakes, they make statements. and they re always going to create the impression that it s just a matter of time that we re coming. it s inevitable, you really can t stop it. pretty much defenseless here. it s just going to happen. we can drop off the car. how did they get the message out? once again, they dream up a sting. in the local jail, they find a gang member who offers to help in exchange for shortening his sentence. this man agrees to meet merriman here in this car to tell him that nicassio is talk
get their volunteer out of jail, temporarily. he is secretly shuffled out the back door into the custody of investigator volpei, with a warning that if this informant doesn t come back mark volpei would be taken until he did come back. now, camera rolling, the message is delivered that larry nicassio is talking to police. but, i don t know, for some reason, i think they got [ bleep ] larry, dude. the bottom line is we created the illusion that everybody is talking to us. i think larry went and ran his mouth too much. but it seemed that merriman isn t buying the story. does he smell a rat? before the day is out, this volunteer is back in jail, having barely escaped disabling to himself. merriman had come after him with a razor blade. the sting had backfired, and now merriman must know the cops were closing in. he wouldn t be saying much any time soon. you can see yourself, you re this close, and then when it s over, you re like farther away than you were. i mean, that hu