The First 48 Hours — Season 12, Episode 212: “The Ultimate Price”.

 

An older man who stepped in to prevent a store robbery didn’t deserve to die. This is what spurred Miami homicide detective, T.C. Cepero, to refuse to give up on a case on The First 48.

Sixty-six-year old Isabelle Torres left his house to buy a phone card at the neighborhood Dollar Store. Unfortunately, he happened to be there when 38-year-old Keonne Williams decided to rob the place. Torres intervened and was killed.

Cepero and his partner, Castillo had to tell Torres family that was murdered. “It’s never easy telling a family that their loved one is dead,” said Castillo. Following the notification scene in which the family was devastated.

Surveillance video showed an Impala leaving the murder scene. However even after tracking down the owner of every blue Impala in the county, none of them matched the video vehicle.

The detectives found out just how much luck is involved sometimes in a murder case when they stumbled upon the exact vehicle at court months later. Imagine their glee when they found the car was registered to an owner who had a suspended license.
They arrested Williams immediately after watching him drive the vehicle away from the courthouse. Lo and behold, he had a limp. When asked about the limp he told the officers he was shot during a robbery on the exact same day that Torres was murdered.

What a coincidence, eh?

His claim, however, was that he was the victim and that it happened 70 miles away in West Palm Beach. He said he reported the “robbery” to police at WPB.

Someone obviously forgot to tell Williams about an invention called the telephone.

Prisons are filled with stupid criminals and a quick call to PPB police showed that Williams appeared to be no different. He told Cepero a white-Mexican man shot him. However, he told West Palm Beach officers an African American man shot him.

He also told WPB the robbery happened outside a Stop and Shop store, but he told Cepero it was outside a CVS drugstore. Conveniently, he could not give Cepero the name of the woman he claimed dropped him at the hospital for the treatment of the bullet wounds.

Hmmmm…

Viewers were probably shocked when Cepero had to release Williams due to lack of evidence. He spent the night for driving on a suspended license and then went his merry way. But wait! The cops kept his car! And it was filled with blood spatter.

Huh, so much for his story about being driven to the hospital, eh?

While Williams was limping around Miami-sans, the car Cepero and his crew combed the streets of Miami searching for the only eyewitness they knew about-a homeless woman named Marie.

Luck struck again when the new Dollar Store owner found her! She talked to police and picked limp-along-Williams out of a photo line-up as the man who murdered Torres. Now, how were they supposed to find him and arrest him?

He was long gone. Well, a little while later the genius decided he wanted the car and showed up in person to collect it from the police.

Remember what I said about stupid criminals?

He was arrested at the jail and charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery. By the time the show closed, Williams was awaiting trial and of course, presumed innocent until found guilty. Tears of joy filled the room when the victim’s family members were told the alleged killer had been caught.

Okay, a great show that triggered some questions.

What do you think about the police having to let Williams go, even though they knew he allegedly did it? Why do you think criminals are willing to murder innocent humans for $10 bucks in a register?

 

Watch The First 48 Hours Thursdays 9/8c on A&E.