NARRATOR: Rosemary Pascente is 64 years old
and has called Co-op City home since 1972.
Never married, Pascente lives alone on the 23rd floor
of a high rise.
On January 5, 1997, a neighbor notices Rosemary's lights
have burned through the night.
Unable to reach Rosemary by phone,
the woman heads over to her apartment.
When she gets there, the friend finds
Rosemary's door already open.
She walked inside the apartment
and she called for her friend, but there was no answer.
After looking around the apartment,
she noticed the kitchen area.
She noticed Miss Pascente, a victim of a crime.
NARRATOR: Rosemary Pascente lies on the kitchen
floor, dead, a knife still lodged in her back.
I noticed maybe 20, 25 stab wounds in the back,
in the neck area, one or two in the head.
And it looked like she had been involved
in a struggle with someone.
I also noticed some defensive wounds to her right hand,
so she struggled with the perpetrator.
NARRATOR: In the hallways outside the apartment,
forensics finds further evidence Pascente
fought with her attacker and perhaps hurt
whoever killed her--
a smear of blood on the wall at the elevator
and, 13 floors down from Pascente's apartment,
a few spots inside a stairwell.
The blood trail gives detectives a glimpse of how the killer may
have made good an escape, first trying the elevator,
then quickly heading for the stairs.
Still, they have no idea as to who he or she might be.
Meanwhile, back inside the apartment,
the knife used to kill Rosemary Pascente is matched
to a set in her own kitchen, telling detectives
this was probably not a premeditated murder, but one
that happened in the moment.
Police believe that the blood samples collected
in the building belong to their killer,
but have no clue as to who that person might be.
Meanwhile, a fresh crop of murders
finds its way to New York Homicide's front door
and the investigation into Rosemary Pascente's murder
goes cold.
[music playing]
In May of 1999, NYPD Detective Kevin Lauler is assigned
to the cold case squad.
I requested that the blood recovered from the crime scene
entered into the CODIS system to be compared to any blood
samples or any known subjects that were arrested that had
supplied their DNA samples.
NARRATOR: In August of 2001, Kevin Lauler gets a phone
call from the NYPD crime lab.
[phone ringing]
It's a call regarding the Pascente case,
a call Lauler has been hoping for.
I was informed that a match was made with the blood
recovered from the crime scene with a subject
by the name of Charles Jones.
NARRATOR: Charles Jones' DNA matches
blood found in Pascente's hallway and the stairwell
of her building.
The genetic link places Jones in the victim's building
at the time of the murder, but not in her apartment.
Lauler needs more and decides to find out
all he can about Charles Jones.
KEVIN LAULER: I did a background check on him.
I found out his priors, which were lengthy.
I also found out that he had just
been released from prison on a past robbery where he assaulted
his victim with a knife.
And he was out and about, walking
the streets of the Bronx.
NARRATOR: At the time Rosemary Pascente was murdered,
Charles Jones lived in Co-op City, a couple of blocks
from the victim, further tightening
the evidentiary noose around Jones's neck.
We tried to track this individual down
through his parole officer.
We found out that he had a warrant on him.
And so our game plan, at that point,
was to try to pick him up and talk to him.
We went to his apartment.
I was informed that he wasn't home,
that they didn't know where he was.
The family was covering for him.
Just the mere fact that I was a police officer.
ELEVATOR: Going up.
KEVIN LAULER: So I left my business card with the family
to have Mr. Jones contact me.
NARRATOR: Lauler and Tebbins don't want to tip their hand
about the Pascente murder.
Instead, they leave a message for Jones.
They want to talk to him about an outstanding traffic
violation.
Two days later, Jones rings up the precinct.
KEVIN LAULER: We had him think that he was being arrested
for an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation
and brought him into the precinct.
And at first, we sat him down in our office.
We gave him lunch.
We bought him a soda.
We had him relaxed.
We became buddy-buddies with him, so to speak.
NARRATOR: The approach to Jones is careful.
The problem for detectives-- all of the suspect's blood
was found outside the victim's apartment,
leaving a large hole in their theory of murder.
My theory was that the person involved with this homicide
came into the building with the intent to rob somebody,
looking for an opportunity to push into someone's apartment.
There was quite a bit of distance between that blood
and the crime scene.
So you have to establish how his blood got
to that fifth floor hallway.
NARRATOR: Detectives want to lock Jones
into his story regarding Pascente's
building at 140 Alcott Place and then
grind away at its credibility.
After a half hour of niceties, the process begins.
And when I asked him if he had ever been in 140 Alcott Place,
he told me that he was never in the building,
that he had no need to be in that building.
So with that, now I know he's lying to me.
NARRATOR: Detectives tell Jones they already have his blood
inside Pascente's building.
With that bit of information, Jones shifts
gears and changes his story.
He looks at me and he says, well,
I used to deliver groceries.
And one time when I was delivering groceries,
I had cut my hand on one of the shopping carts.
And maybe that time was when my blood was left in the building.
Then I went on to tell him that, well,
why is it that your blood was found in the building
the same time this woman is murdered in the building?
I said, can you explain it to me?
And he sat back and looked at me,
put his head down, and stayed silent
for a good period of time.
NARRATOR: Lauler pulls out crime scene
photos, images of a 64-year-old woman
dead on her kitchen floor.
And he still wouldn't look at the pictures right away.
He just kept his head down.
He was looking at the floor.
And then finally, he looked up and started
looking at the photos that I was showing him of the victim,
which weren't nice.
Then I went on to say, well, you know what?
I'm going to charge you with this homicide.
He's giving me no response.
NARRATOR: The questioning continues for eight hours
until, finally, the suspect caves
and decides to cut a deal.
He sits back, starts looking through the photos again.
And he says, well, you have to guarantee
me I can get a straight eight.
NARRATOR: "A straight eight--" street talk
for a plea bargain, eight years in prison
for a full confession.
I told him, I can't guarantee you're
going to get a straight eight.
I said, again, I'll tell you, I'll speak to the DA.
I said, whatever you and your lawyer
work out with the district attorney's
office is out of my hands.
With that, Mr. Jones decided to tell me the whole story.
I open the door, go on inside.
WOMAN: And then--
CHARLES JONES: She's seen me.
She panicked.
I'm trying to tell her I'm delivering her groceries.
She grabs a knife and I stab her in the back
trying to protect myself.
NARRATOR: According to Jones, the murder
was a grocery delivery gone wrong,
with Jones acting in self-defense.
At the time of the murder, the suspect was 23 years
old and almost six feet tall.
Rosemary Pascente, 64 and 5 foot 4.
She was stabbed 39 times, eight of those wounds
being in the back.
Given the physical evidence, cold case
detectives find Jones' story of self-defense hard to fathom.
Basically, he's-- how can I put it-- hunting at random.
This was a victim of chance.
When Ms. Pascente confronted Mr. Jones,
it appears that she went to her kitchen drawer
and pulled out a knife to defend herself
from this unknown person who had just entered her apartment.
A struggle ensued where Mr. Jones took the knife from Mrs.
Pascente and repeatedly stabbed her about her body,
also cutting her throat.
After that, Mr. Jones said he just left the apartment,
taking a few items.
That was it.
NARRATOR: On a morning in the Bronx,
29-year-old Charles Jones decides a murder trial
with a possible death penalty as its going-away prize
is not in his best interest.
Jones pleads guilty to a charge of first-degree manslaughter
and pulls a term of 19 years.