them you had to send out a messag that the importance of not jus arresting one or two, but to give all of them and that s exactly what police were doing in the watkins case within 24 hours, they had group of teenagers in custody. but brandon says the impact of bryan watkins murderer new yor did not end with those arrests it was a seminal case for me it allowed us to have a tippin point impact the day after the murder, bradden received a call from the governor s office, offerin $40 million to help fight crime, money that would be used t hire thousands of new cops, an soon, the city s crime rat began to drop. as for the suspects arrested i the watkins case, all would be convicted of murder, and sentenced to 25 years to life. but that s not even close to the end of the story of the seven men convicted o this crime, one says he alon
quarter century since th murder of brian watkins. and since this man, johnny hincapie, was locked up, one o seven men convicted of a crime but he insists he s innocent i had no involvement in thi crime, leicester i m the only one that claiming innocence so, what is johnny hincapie s s story in 2015, i went to speak wit him at new york s fishkill correctional facility. hincapie took me back to the night of the crime he had recently turned 18 an was on his way to a can t miss event, a party at the roseland ballroom in manhattan. there was a very popular dj who was throwing a birthda party for himself, and everybody just wanted to b
are dressed to an attorney who was now dead in fact, you waited for him to pass away to force a letter to him, didn t you not at all sir. prosecutor hurley als ridiculed his story about bein coerced into confessing by a abusive detective. he was wearing a t-shirt, smoking cigarettes, right? yes like some evil movie cup? yes you made that up, didn you. no. really argued that can copy new details about the crime an not because he was coerced, bu because he was there i saw - you heard him say let s ge paid yeah. you said that because you are there and was true, right? it was not true miste hurley you were there, and it wa true as the prosecution s case was over hincapie faith was now in th hands the judge. and that s when ron kobe got a phone call a new witness came forward,
a map of the subway station. you remember as clear as if it was a recent event they knew what this witness told him, if true, was a bombshell. but neither dennison nor hughe is a lawyer, so they got i touch with one new york city is well-know civil rights attorney, ron kube they said look, we know there s no money to pay you, but would you take the case? so i said yes. kobe s first task was t talk with that witness his name is luis montero luis monte rio offered proo that johnny did not commit the crime. but what the court agree? luis montero is about to tel the harrowing story. coming up, get all of a sudden go i hear commotion screaming. did you see him go into the platform when dateline continues
montero s testimony is how h says detectives tried to cover a false commission from the very same thing tha says happened to him and they slapped me every time i tell them something tha they didn t want to hear they hit me. so that s when the nightmare started, you know? but montero never correct and maintained his innocence law kuby argued to the judge that what montero and hincapie say happened to them was eas to believe they were just two of many innocent people swept up b police at a time in new york history when crime was out o control. simply, the wrong place as and the wrong era. we have done some terrible, terrible things to innocen people in the course o fighting crime case in point, kuby argued, the central park case