The detectives ask him, like, you know, did he approach you in a threatening manner?
Was he mean to you?
Was he aggressive?
And he said, no, he was a really nice guy.
We said hello, and then he just shot him.
They ask him how many times, and he makes the sounds.
He makes the three pow-pow-pow sounds in the interview.
It's really eerie.
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.
I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation.
Discovery's True Conviction.
And this is Anatomy of Murder.
Some of the hardest murders to solve are the ones that seem to occur without explanation, the ones that don't come with a clear motive or any immediate suspects.
Then there are those crimes where interviews, forensics, just everything seems to fall into place.
But even some of those still remain hard to understand, even after they're unraveled.
Today's case begins in a quiet residential neighborhood on the south side of Dallas, Texas.
It was a warm Sunday night in early August of 2020 when suddenly the sound of gunfire rang out.
Hearing that unmistakable noise, a neighbor stepped out of his home to see what was going on.
And what he saw next stopped him cold.
A man lying in the street.
He wasn't moving.
He doesn't know who it is.
He can tell that the victim's got a gunshot wound to the head and that there's just blood on the ground.
It's not someone that this person knows and he doesn't see anyone else around.
That's the voice of Kishore Lakhani.
Deputy Chief of the Family Violence Division at the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, where she's been a prosecutor for the last 12 years.
The neighbor was stunned.
This block was almost always quiet and peaceful, not the sort of place where you'd hear gunshots.
When officers arrived on scene, they found the victim lying beside an idling car.
He's outside of his own car on the ground with his cell phone on the ground, with a flashlight on, and the driver's side door is open.
An ambulance arrived and paramedics quickly got to work.
They're just trying to see if there's anything that they can do to help them.
But it does not look like it's going to be a survivable injury.
They eventually do transport him to the hospital where he is later pronounced deceased.
Back at the scene, police found a wallet and ID cards belonging to the victim.
His name was Ricardo Medina.
He was 27 years old.
His license showed a home address far from the Dallas neighborhood where he was found.
So they were curious about you know, was he over here visiting someone, or what put him in this neighborhood here?
When starting from scratch, police had to explore all of the possibilities.
For example, was it a robbery gone wrong, a personal dispute that turned violent?
Detectives didn't have much to go on, but there were things that made it unlikely that this had been part of a robbery.
There didn't seem to be anything apparent that was missing or anything like that.
I mean, his ID cards were there.
His work lanyard was there.
His cell phone was on the ground next to him with a flashlight on, and his driver's side door was open.
There wasn't anything obvious that was missing or anything like that.
Police canvassed the area looking for clues.
They asked people if they'd seen or heard anything out of the ordinary, but no one had.
They also asked if anyone knew Ricardo, but no one did.
So with no witnesses, no clear motive, and no suspect, police had an actual mystery to figure out.
Detectives turned their attention to victimology, learning more about the victim.
Who was Ricardo Medina?
Who did he spend time with?
And more importantly, was there anyone that might have wanted him dead?
From his family, investigators learned that Ricardo was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, about a half hour's drive from Dallas.
He was pursuing a master of science in nursing while also working.
He's a nurse working in a hospice facility, especially during COVID this time.
So he's working a lot of hours.
He's really, really just a great guy, a gem of a person.
He had lots of friends, lots of people that were affected by this offense.
He was just a really, really good guy.
Ricardo's family said he loved helping people, which made nursing a perfect fit.
He was also passionate about music and sang in a choir.
And while these details helped paint a fuller picture of the life that Ricardo lived, they also made his murder all the more puzzling.
No obvious motive or suspects came to light.
So at that point, they really don't know much else, right?
I mean, they've tried to knock on as many doors as they can.
They're trying to see if anyone's got any cameras or any ring cams or anything like that.
They do return the next morning to see if they have any better luck the next day.
So they knock on more doors any place that they see cameras or trying to see if they can get any sort of video or anything pulled.
Either there's not any available recording or the devices that people have are in a, So they're still not able to find anything, even when they go out there the next day.
While law enforcement pieced together potential evidence, Ricardo's inner circle transformed grief into action, issuing urgent public pleas and demanding answers at every turn.
Then from you know Ricky's family and friends.
They had posted pictures of him from their own personal collections about.
This happened to my friend.
If anyone knows anything, please report it.
It was just people kind of sharing posts about Ricky and who he was and why.
Know if you can help help.
So up until that point they really don't have any other information.
Later in the week, investigators got their first break.
Ricardo's cell phone had been sent out for data extraction and when the phone records came back, police started to build their timeline.
They're looking at his social media messages and the navigation and things of that sort that are like native on the phone, because they do a phone extraction, And from that they're able to figure out that he was there to meet his date for that night on that Sunday night.
His messages revealed that he was on a date with a woman that we're going to call Lisa Robinson.
But it's not her real name, as we wanted to protect her privacy.
Lisa's home address was just a block away from where Ricardo's body had been found.
Now they had the why he was there the night he'd been shot.
Investigators' next step was to try and speak with Lisa.
So police get to her home and they ask, where was she on Sunday and things like that.
And she does say that she'd gone on a date, and they ask her you know, is there anything unique about that date, or is it second, third date, or what?
Lisa told police that she had recently met Ricardo on a dating app and that Sunday was the only time they met in person.
It was their first date.
It appeared that they'd only been talking for a few days.
I mean four or five days tops.
I think is kind of what we saw their conversation to be, where they were just planning on, you know, scheduling a time that worked for both of them to meet up.
Ricardo had picked Lisa up Sunday evening and they'd gone out for ice cream.
They sat in his car eating, chatting and getting to know each other a bit more.
They talked about their interests, the music, they both enjoyed listening to music.
And so they talked about that.
She had actually just graduated from college, like kind of right during COVID.
And so she was also wanting to pursue a career in nursing and being that he was a nurse.
He was sharing about kind of what he did and just kind of giving her more career advice.
She said he was really friendly and they had a really good time.
So at the end of the night, Ricardo dropped Lisa back off at her home.
She had thought they enjoyed each other's company.
So she was a bit surprised that he never reached out again.
Lisa assumed she'd misread him.
She thought he'd ghosted her, meaning he stopped all contact, you know, without warning or explanation unfortunately, something that is not so uncommon in the world of dating apps.
Her reaction was just more confusion on her part.
It's like she wasn't quite able to piece it together.
She even tells them, you know, right there that, oh my gosh, I just thought he wasn't interested.
He didn't message me back.
I mean, it was just one of those we met on that app.
We went out.
I thought it went well.
Maybe he didn't feel the same way.
So I didn't think anything of it when I didn't hear back from him.
At some point during that conversation, detectives told Lisa why Ricardo never reached out.
He had been killed shortly after their date ended, within blocks of her home.
They kind of impress upon her, I guess, the gravity of the situation, that it's right after he drops you off that he's found dead, you know, in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to his head.
Lisa appeared genuinely shocked when she learned about the murder.
She said that she had heard that someone had been killed that same night, but didn't think for a moment it had been Ricardo.
Lisa gave detectives her phone so they could see her messages and communications with Ricardo.
They were hoping to learn more about the relationship and find clues that might shed light on what happened the night of his death.
Police stayed with Lisa, continuing to ask her questions.
Is there anything that you can tell us?
Is there anything?
And it's at that point where she's like, well, there's this guy that's been stalking me.
So at that point they say all right, you know, we're going to have you come down and interview you at the station.
As friendship twisted into a relentless pursuit and what began as a constant pressure on Lisa's life.
Detectives wanted to know if someone's obsession had turned to murder.
Police sat down with Lisa Robinson the woman Ricardo Medina had been on a date with the night he was killed to learn more about the man who she said had been recently showering her with unwanted attention.
She just says well, there's this guy that you know has been infatuated with me or stalking me, some variation of that.
And then she immediately is like, well, I mean, I think he is.
And so the more she's talking about him, the more they're kind of asking her OK well, how long have you known him?
What's going on with him?
All of those things.
That's kind of when we get a little bit more information.
Lisa had met the man the previous year through social media and at the time she was living outside of Dallas and attending college.
They had mutual friends, so when he sent her a friend request, she simply accepted and they started chatting.
His name was Jorge Esparza.
He worked as a security guard at a building in Dallas, the same city where Lisa's family was from.
In the spring of 2020, COVID hit.
Lisa moved back home to Dallas to finish her studies online.
So she had said that well at that time.
You know, it's kind of hard to connect with people, meet up with people, because of COVID.
So she was limited to the friends that she had in town, and he was one of them.
So she did meet up with him. a few times kind of in that springtime of 2020.
According to Lisa, Jorge was a generous friend.
She told detectives that he used to bring snacks for her and her siblings.
And when she wanted to visit her old college campus to see her friends, Jorge offered to drive her.
She said that there were times in the summer where she would go back to her college town to either visit her roommate or her ex-boyfriend, who she was still in contact with.
He was fine with driving her There and back, he was a good friend.
But there was a catch.
Jorge wanted Lisa to be more than a friend.
She was interested in a friendship with him.
He always expressed interest in, you know, having more of a relationship.
She just said she didn't like him like that.
But she maintained somewhat of a friendship with him over time.
Lisa knew that Jorge wanted more from her, but he seemed to accept her limits.
She said that she enjoyed their friendship and that didn't think that his feelings for her were much cause of concern or that big a deal.
So I think you know, over the summer it seemed like she was okay with kind of having him drive her back and forth.
She made it very clear to him that this was only ever going to be a friendship.
But you know she felt that he always just probably wanted a little bit more and thought this was the way of going about that.
Perhaps
I mean, that was just kind of her thought process.
It slowly became clear that Jorge wasn't really accepting Lisa's boundaries.
He continued to pursue her romantically, even though she repeatedly said she wasn't interested in him like that.
His messages to her became more frequent and more intense, to the point where Lisa ultimately decided to block him.
But that didn't stop his advances.
He would start repeatedly messaging her from different accounts, creating new accounts.
And she just kind of felt bad for continuing to ignore him.
So then she said, yeah, you know, then I would kind of engage with him again.
You know, when he would say, okay, he promises he understands this, that, and the other.
There were other times where she had kind of said, okay, we're done.
I don't want to talk to you.
But then it kind of picked back up again.
Around the beginning of August, Lisa decided that Jorge wasn't getting the message and she'd had enough.
She cut off all contact and this time for good.
But even then, his messages continued.
He keeps changing like some variation or another of his own name and keeps sending her friend requests and messages.
So he's not hiding who he is.
She knows it's him, but she's continuously blocking him.
Lisa showed police her cell phone and as they scrolled, their suspicions grew.
This wasn't just an extra message or two.
There were loads of them.
And what she was showing the detectives then, are all of these friend requests and new message accounts, new social media accounts and new messages that were all showing that she had blocked him and he was continuing to message her.
There were so many messages that at some point, Lisa said, she basically just stopped reading them.
She said, a lot of them I didn't even read because it's just so much.
And I'm telling you, it's an insane amount of text messages, an insane amount.
And like the length of the messages, it's super voluminous.
Jorge Esparza didn't have a documented criminal history, but as they looked at the messages, police saw red flags.
Lisa said that she hadn't been afraid that he'd become violent, but at the same time she had felt that the constant messaging was starting to feel like harassment.
And that was making her a little paranoid because he just he just wouldn't stop.
And so she was getting a little nervous.
And it was kind of at that point where she was like, I've blocked him on everything.
He keeps reaching out to me.
It's making me nervous.
It's making me paranoid.
So just to talk for a moment about the crime of stalking.
You know, each state has different laws in Texas.
It is a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.
So that really is what it comes down to.
People are like, well, is it subjective?
Does it matter how you feel?
It really is how a reasonable person would be expected to feel from the behavior.
That behavior can be someone talking to you.
It can be them messaging you doing different things, even to your property, if it is making you feel fearful reasonably.
And that really is very different, you know Scott, than so many of the other definitive crimes, for example, like the crime of robbery.
So here's the big picture.
Stalking isn't just someone tailing you down the street.
It's a deliberate course of conduct made up of two or more unwanted acts, which could be visual or physical proximity, non-consensual communications, threats or a mix of all of these, that would make a person a reasonable person, fear for their safety or suffer substantial emotional distress.
Now, even after a breakup or rejection, continued texts asking to meet up can amount to harassment.
But if they persist after a clear stop from the person receiving those texts.
That's the difference between harassment and stalking.
And that's the reason investigators dug back into Jorge's messages and wouldn't reveal his whereabouts around the time that Ricardo was killed.
And that was important.
That same Sunday morning, Lisa's dog had disappeared.
Jorge messaged her saying that he had heard about the dog and that he was going to go out and look for it.
But that was strange because Lisa hadn't shared the news about her dog with anyone.
And then mysteriously, he says, I found the dog somewhere a little bit away from her home.
I took it to the vet.
Let me, you know, bring the dog by.
Lisa seems to have read right through that, right?
She was certain that the messages about her dog were a ploy to resume contact.
She felt it was another way for him to want to see her again, to the point where she was like just leave the dog.
Just leave the dog on the other side of the fence and no one's home.
Just go away.
So it was just things like that.
She was getting more and more paranoid and felt really harassed by him.
As she sat with police together, they read through many of the messages that she had previously skipped.
And then they saw one that actually mentioned the shooting.
He also has messaged her that, hey, there was a shooting in your neighborhood.
You know, a nurse was killed.
Like, be safe.
If you need a ride to work, let me know.
I can give you a ride.
I just want you to be safe.
So was it a coincidence?
Had he heard about the crime and was trying to make sure she was safe?
Or was it something more?
Then they saw a message which is the type to send chills down your spine.
Yeah, it said, good night, Lisa.
Don't stay up too late.
It also said, I'm kind of feeling like, and then an image had followed.
It was a picture of the title character from the TV show, You.
It's a character who's known for stalking and killing the love interest of the women he's obsessed with.
In the shadow of Ricardo's murder, the reference went far beyond mere creepiness.
So was this Jorge Esparza simply trying to intimidate her, or did it signal the first move in a twisted copycat killing with Lisa at the center of his obsession?
Detectives couldn't ignore the parallels, nor what they'd been told by Lisa.
They decided to arrest Jorge Esparza, but not for the murder.
In a coordinated move, officers converged on Esparza's workplace and took him into custody.
Lisa's detailed account having given them the probable cause needed to charge him with stalking.
Once at the station, he was given his rights and they sat down for an interview.
Detectives were hoping that during that conversation that they'd also find out if Esparza had been involved in Ricardo's murder.
One thing was clear right off the bat, he liked to talk.
So when I see the fact that he was open to talk, that's a great opportunity, especially in a case where he may have been rejected.
And here's why.
That rejection likely brings out an emotional response.
So, as an investigator, I'm looking to key into that with this type of approach, telling your person of interest.
I know how rejection stings.
We've all been there.
That's like a heart punch of feeling unwanted.
And I'm here to hear your side.
Help me understand what happens next.
That mixture, as an investigator, of empathy and quiet control is a detective's ritual, earning their trust by validating their anger.
Then use that very emotion to draw out the inconsistencies, the little slips, until the story finally unravels.
You know, I think for us as prosecutors or law enforcement, I'm always of the belief like let them say whatever they want.
Like I love a talkative person of interest or just really a talkative interviewee because again, if they're telling the truth, I believe that that will show itself for what it is.
But if they're not.
The more they talk, the more opportunity detectives or prosecutors have to poke holes and prove their lies to be what they are.
It's a great opportunity to get him to be emotional in that interview, because that brings everything out.
And he did something else interesting during that conversation.
He started off by discussing his work as a security guard, stating how similar it was to police work, as if he was trying to paint himself as one of their own.
In his interview at the beginning he talks all about like oh yeah, you know, I was going to be a cop too.
I think he said, oh, I couldn't get in because of the tattoos.
And the detective was like, no, that's not a thing.
The detective soon moved from small talk to questions about Esparza himself.
You know, it's in the interview when things get really interesting, because they're talking about like hey, tell us, you know a little bit about yourself.
Are you single?
Are you dating?
Yeah.
Esparza told them about his relationship with Lisa and claimed it was more than just friendship.
He said that they had been on again, off again for a long time and that he was trying to make it work with her.
Detectives had already seen the mountain of messages that Esparza had sent to Lisa.
That all went unanswered, but they let him continue on with his tale.
It's very clear.
You know, kind of in this whole process of watching him testify and His interview and just kind of getting to know him through these various text messages, that I do believe he feels he can talk himself out of anything.
He can talk his way through things.
And so all he's doing is talking more and more and more.
Detectives slowly turned the conversation to the night of Ricardo's murder, then asked Esparza where he was at on that Sunday.
He was like, well, I was at work and I did this, I did that.
And he's able to account for a lot of his time, but just not able to account for much Sunday after his evening shift.
What Esparza didn't know was that police were one step ahead of him.
They'd already subpoenaed his call record data that showed which cell towers his phone had pinged on the night of the murder.
It appeared that Esparza had driven right by Lisa's house.
So now they're telling him, look, We know that you were here.
We know that you go by her house all the time.
So then little by little, he starts telling them that, yes, you know, I go by.
I want to be with her.
Like, I just don't know why she doesn't understand.
And so, yes, I went by, but that's it.
As the interview wore on, Esparza's facade began to crumble.
First he admitted to being near Lisa's house that night, then revealing he'd seen her arrive in a car driven by a man detectives knew was Ricardo Medina.
But Esparza didn't stop there.
He admitted that he followed the man as he pulled away.
He says he followed him out from her home and it's before he ever exits the neighborhood.
He bumps his car, causing the victim to step out.
What Jorge Esparza said next made it clear that this was no fender bender.
It was bait.
Sensing that this could be the right moment, the detectives pressed Esparza to see if he would finally be willing to come clean to confess.
The detective tells him like look the thing about the truth.
It never changes and it always stays the same.
So you're able to tell me all these other things, just tell me, tell me what happened.
And he gives it up.
When he was asked, did you shoot him, Esparza responded, yes.
And from there, he continued to confess.
They ask him how many times and he makes the three pow, pow, pow sounds in the interview.
It's really eerie.
Even though Esparza had admitted to the murder, the interview wasn't yet over.
Detectives wanted to try and understand his motive for the crime.
The detectives asked him, like, you know, did he approach you in a threatening manner?
Was he mean to you?
Was he aggressive?
And he said, no, he was a really nice guy.
We said hello.
And then he just shot him.
Esparza then went sideways and claimed that the person really behind the shooting was Lisa, the object of his affection, claiming that she asked him to murder Ricardo.
Even though he says he did it, He kind of wants to still put the blame on Lisa, says you know, I don't want her to get in trouble.
She has so much going in her life.
Like, I don't want her to get in trouble.
I don't want this to affect her.
I mean, she has nothing to do with it.
He's telling the detective, like, no, she messaged me.
She told me to do it.
She told me, you know, if you're a man, you'll do it.
There wasn't any evidence to corroborate what Esparza was saying, but detectives, let him keep talking.
He doesn't know that part, right?
So he's like, yeah, maybe I can just try to spin it this way.
It's still very selfish, very self-centered.
Very much about him, about how he was trying to help her and now he doesn't want her to get in trouble.
But the detectives weren't buying what he said.
When the interview concluded, Esparza was placed under arrest.
He's charged with murder and he has a stalking case also.
So we went to trial on the murder but you know the stalking case was just kind of the other one that ran along with it.
He charged with murder of Ricardo Medina.
In the lead-up to the trial, prosecutors dug deeper into Esparza's life, looking for additional evidence to try to strengthen their case.
They continued to focus on his phone, specifically his searches, what he'd been posting and messaging around the time of the murder, and what they found grew more and more disturbing.
Esparza had actually posted on social media numerous times about Ricardo's killing, purporting to be someone who cared.
One post even lamented another life lost to gun violence.
It's almost as if he's bragging about this because he's going out there.
He's using posts that other family members have posted about.
If anyone knows anything, please let us know.
He's reposting all of these things.
There were also other conversations that got the attention of Kishwer and her colleagues.
One in particular looked as if it had been recently deleted.
It was a woman that Esparza referred to as his therapist, but she was actually just a friend.
And during their conversations, he had messaged repeatedly about Lisa.
He talks a lot about how he's obsessing over Lisa to this girl and what else should he be doing to get back together with her when there was really no together to begin with?
Soon after Ricardo's murder, Esparza also messaged the woman referencing the TV show You.
He asked the woman, what would she think if he told her that his life was like that show?
Would that sound really weird?
And she says, okay, you've told me that before and...
You know, I told you you need to talk to someone about that.
I don't want to be looped into this.
But Esparza didn't seek professional help.
Instead, he brought up the show once more, and this time it was even more unsettling.
One of his messages to her, he says, let's just say I got rid of my Benji.
And that is, in season one, a love interest of the girl that this stalker is following.
So it seemed like Esparza wasn't just watching the show.
He was modeling himself after it.
After he sent that message, he told his friend to delete their entire conversation.
But the friend did not, and then later shared it with investigators.
There were also the numerous texts that Esparza had sent to Lisa, most of which he'd never even read.
One more that stood out as particularly chilling...
In the week after Ricardo was killed, Esparza had texted Lisa about one of his streaming accounts.
He said he added a new profile to the account and then sent her a picture.
In the screenshot he sends her is the profile account and there's a new profile and it's got a little angel emoji and it says Lil Ricardo.
He's used the complainant's first name in a message to Lisa.
Another time he sends her a message you know, good morning, hope you're having a great day.
And just throws in victim's last name.
You know, seeing so many of these messages and this just unwanted barrage of what he is sending her.
It's just that reminder that stalking, like so many of these other similar crimes, it's all about control.
And so if he isn't getting positive attention, he would rather get negative attention, even if it's by causing fear anger, whatever it is.
And just think about that, right?
Is it him bragging gloating, feeling some sort of satisfaction that he's gotten his rival out of the way?
Or is it just the thing to cause her fear?
Now, fortunately she hadn't seen it before she got with detectives.
But it really just goes to the nature of this type of crime.
You know, Anasita a stalker's mission, so to speak is all about control, driving them to obsess over someone who's already pushed them away.
They'll hijack social media, send nonstop messages, even create, as here, fake profiles just to keep you glued to your phone and on the edge.
You know, it's not about love.
It's about weaponizing fear and guilt until you feel like there's no escape.
Understanding that twisted playbook is the first step to shutting it down before it gets dangerous.
And in addition to what Esparza was messaging and posting, there were also interesting posts about him.
While the case is pending, we're able to see on social media that there are other people posting about the defendant saying he's always been like this.
You know, he harassed me.
He did this.
He did that.
And so there were quite a few people that made similar posts.
The prosecution reached out to the women who posted about Esparza to see if they would be willing to speak about their experiences.
And several of them agreed.
One of them is his high school girlfriend.
She told investigators that Esparza had been cruel to her during their relationship.
There was a lot of stalking behavior, a lot of destruction of property where he would go to her home, cut up all her clothes, cause a lot of damage.
The ex-girlfriend shared messages from Esparza.
And just like Lisa, there was a huge amount of them.
They're either extremely violent, loving or just downright ugly.
You know name calling, just horrible things.
And he continues to do that, to somehow say well, now you have to be with me because I know this about you, or I'm going to make sure that you're not going to be with anybody else, things like that.
Another former classmate of Esparza's had said that he'd had trouble accepting that she wasn't interested in him romantically.
He continued to stalk her, continued to harass her to the point where she's filing a complaint with the school and he's befriending her neighbors.
So then he's there every day after school, like right across the street from her house.
He starts roaming in that same area.
So a lot of the same sort of stalker behavior.
Esparza's problematic behavior also had been on display to a woman who worked in a local restaurant.
She knew him as a regular customer.
Sparza had expressed interest in her, but she turned him down.
He continued to visit the restaurant and even randomly visited her home, saying he just happened to be in the area.
Then things turned darker and even more dangerous.
Someone's spray painting various things on their cars, on their doors, on the side of their house, slashing their tires.
And these things are just kind of happening at her home.
And she has no idea who's doing all of this.
And then someone tried to set fire to her house more than once.
The woman who lived with her family had installed cameras to try and figure out what was happening.
The image of a masked figure was captured by the cameras.
One of the times her mom recalls that she was up sitting in her living room as she's watching the fires being set, the tires being slashed.
And she was worried because she had her two daughters at home and her husband traveled for work.
So she would stay up and she was just sitting in fear, watching it happen and trying to call the police.
Call a neighbor to see if someone could get out and figure out who he is or why this is happening.
The person wearing the mask got into a car and drove away, but not before.
A neighbor would have an important observation a partial plate number, which turned out to be a match for Esparza's car.
They're able to match those partial plates to the defendant because he's again visiting her at the restaurant that she works at, where the manager has called the police and issued a criminal trespass warning.
So they weren't able to completely pieced together that he was the person that set the fire.
But there was enough there where it's the same partial license plate, same make and model of the vehicle, because we see it on video.
By the time Jorge Esparza's trial began in April 2024, investigators knew that his obsession with Lisa wasn't an isolated occurrence.
He had been stalking women for years and his dangerousness had been escalating.
But after the first day in court, something happened that no one could have predicted.
It had nothing to do with Esparza himself and everything to do with the judge presiding over the case.
Jorge Esparza's trial for the murder of Ricardo Medina was being live streamed.
And you have definitely sometimes been asked the question why is it that some cases are put on TV and not others?
Well, certain states and certain courts allow cameras in the courtroom and certain ones don't.
And here in this day and age where you can live stream, it might be that the media says look, there is a public interest in what's happening in the courtroom.
So we'd like to live stream it.
The court will ask both sides where they come out on it.
Sometimes the defense will object and that is often the end of it.
Or they may say they object, but the judge will decide that there is a public interest or a compelling public interest and let it happen.
But it's basically a decision made by the judge.
And then if so, all the proceedings are being streamed live for all to see.
So here Anastasia is where it kind of goes sideways, because after the court was adjourned the recording kept rolling.
Then a hot mic captured a conversation the judge was having with one of the court staff.
And obviously at that time, the jury's not in the courtroom.
The judge said something about her view of the evidence and the defendant's guilt.
And she didn't realize that that mic was still rolling and the live stream was still going.
So at that point, a mistrial was granted to ensure fairness to the defendant.
The judge recused herself from both the murder case and the stalking case against Esparza.
And a new trial date was set.
Six months later, over four years after Ricardo Medina's murder, a new trial began.
There was a new judge and a new jury, but the facts remained the same.
The prosecution began by laying out the centerpiece of their case, Esparza's fixation with Lisa.
What started as a friendship turned into an obsession, and when she said no, he refused to honor her wishes and then manipulated her to stay in contact for as long as he could.
That makes me really sad because he knew exactly what he was doing.
And he knew that if he just kept at it, she was going to cave.
She was going to give in.
She was going to engage with him because she didn't want to be mean.
And so that is really frustrating, because it seemed like many times she had tried to just kind of push him off, stop.
And it just, it wasn't happening.
Stalking is a crime about isolation and control.
It's generally divided into two categories, and of course we're talking about.
You know now what you'd read in a book psychotic or non-psychotic.
Psychotic stalking is driven by delusions and psychosis.
But Esparza didn't show signs of delusion.
What he did show were the hallmarks of non-psychotic stalking obsessive thoughts and a distorted sense of self-importance.
That's significant, because research has shown that non-psychotic stalkers are more likely to escalate into violence, as in this case it did.
Esparza couldn't handle Lisa's rejection.
After watching her get dropped off from her date with Ricardo, Esparza targeted him.
It was a pattern of behavior that had been growing.
If there was an interest there, he's gotten rid of that.
He's telling her that her neighborhood is not safe.
He knows she doesn't have a car.
He knows she has to get to and from work.
And so he wants to be that person who's going to be able to keep her safe and only him.
The linchpin of the prosecution's case was Esparza's tape confession which at trial he claimed he didn't remember giving.
Jorge Esparza testified in his own defense at trial.
He claimed that what he had told detectives was what they wanted to hear and that he was actually confused about a lot of that conversation.
He admitted going to her house because the cell phone puts him there.
And so he did say, yes, I went there, but I went there to kill myself because I wanted her so bad.
So he goes to her house.
Essentially what he's saying in trial is to kill himself.
But then he doesn't know what happened after that.
All I could think of when I hear this is that line, admit what you have to deny what you can.
It basically sums up as far as his testimony.
But the question is, would the jury see through it?
Esparza's confession to investigators wasn't just detailed.
It aligned with the physical evidence and the timeline of the shooting, starting with the bump to the back of Ricardo's car, which then all makes perfect sense because there is that scuff mark at the back of Ricky's car.
And you've got, you know, the phone with a flashlight on.
I mean it just.
It all makes sense that he would be back there trying to look to see you know if there was any damage to the vehicle.
And he says he just shot him.
One thing remained clear.
Esparza believed he could talk his way out of anything.
But video doesn't lie, and his statement to police was recorded.
In the interview, you'll see that towards the end, after all is said and done, and I you know, maybe that's when he realizes like okay well, now I don't think I have a way out of this.
He starts do this whole, oh my God, who am I?
Where am I?
What's going on?
While they likely believed Esparza was feigning his behavior, detectives played it by the book and called for EMS.
So they immediately get paramedics in there.
And it's really interesting to see that as soon as the detective walks out of the room, all of that panting and heavy breathing, everything just kind of stops.
And he's just kind of bored, just laying on the ground there.
But Esparza's performance started again the second the paramedics walked in.
The heavy breathing came back as if it was just on cue.
And this wasn't new.
The prosecution heard from multiple women who had reported similar behavior when they had cut him out of their life.
He would send videos and say like, oh my God, look, I'm getting so sick, I'm getting so sick.
And it's just a video of him screaming, essentially, kind of like, and laughing hysterically.
And it seemed, the only thing that stopped Esparza's fixation was when he found a new woman to target.
That's what caused the trauma to end for one which is.
You know what we argue to the jury.
You know it's not a matter of if.
And when it's just a matter of who, because you see exactly who he's been and he's shown you who he is.
And we know, through so many people, that this is exactly the person he is and it's just going to continue.
This is the behavior he's going to continue to engage in.
And obviously it's escalating.
The prosecution wasn't buying Esparza's theatrics, and neither was the jury.
Shortly after deliberations began, a verdict was reached and announced.
Jorge Esparza was found guilty of the murder of Ricardo Medina.
Three of the women who had been targeted by Esparza spoke at his sentencing.
It was really helpful to speak to these other women that were really brave and came forward and shared kind of their experience with him, you know, dating back to like 2015 2017, 2019.
What became clear from their words was a chilling pattern.
Esparza would fixate, obsess, and harass.
So many people posted similar things.
These were the only three that came and spoke with us, but all of them with the pictures that they shared, because a lot of the people that posted were posting photos of the destruction that he'd caused and text messages where he's admitting to setting the fires, where he's admitting to spray painting on the doors and things like that.
For the women who testified, it was more than a courtroom appearance.
It was cathartic.
Some of them were meeting for the very first time.
They were hearing each of these stories and realizing they weren't alone.
So it was kind of shocking for them to think, oh my God, he spray painted the same thing on my door and I can't believe that he had that same experience, because it seemed like they were kind of piecing it together that, oh my God, this is the same guy.
He did this same thing to me, just at a different point in life, and the person who paid the ultimate price was Ricardo Medina.
All homicides are tragic, but this one had added weight.
Ricardo had no connection to Esparza and barely knew Lisa.
He was just a young man out on a first date who got caught in the crosshairs of a criminal obsession.
It was so sad and so senseless that Ricky was there and was murdered at the hands of this defendant.
He has such a loving family.
They were so great, and of course they were so upset.
It's so senseless.
They just could not understand how this could happen, how their son was in the middle of something he didn't even know about.
I mean, Ricky had no idea who this defendant was.
I mean, he just barely met Lisa.
It was very sad.
At sentencing.
Ricardo's dad also spoke.
In the weeks that followed his son's death he'd scrolled through the many social media posts and saved people's messages and screenshots, hoping they might hold some clue or as the later remembrance of his son.
In court, he learned that one of the accounts that claimed to be trying to help belonged to Esparza, the man who had so cruelly taken his son's life.
There were so many posts on his own Twitter account about Ricky, even for the family to understand.
Come upon that information later.
I mean, it was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking to hear from, you know, both Ricky's mom and dad that how could this be?
This guy's going out there and saying, look what happened.
This is a, you know, terrible tragedy.
And he's the one that did this.
Jorge Esparza was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Justice, at least in the legal sense, was served, but Ricardo's loss resonated far beyond the courtroom walls.
He was a son, a friend, and a nurse.
On a memorial page for Ricardo, a co-worker wrote about the kind of care he gave his patients who had suffered from strokes, brain tumors and cancer.
He would be the one sitting with them in their final hours, making sure that no one had to die alone.
While Lisa had met Ricardo in person only once...
Their conversation from that night made an impact.
She had been feeling uncertain where her life was going, graduating during COVID and wondering what came next.
She shared that he made her, you know, interested in nursing again and interested in trying to pursue a career in that what she went to school for, what she was passionate about.
And those were the last conversations that he had with someone.
The way Ricardo had reacted when Esparza had hit his car was revealing, even to that same man who later took his life.
Even the defendant, you know, he said he was really nice.
He asked me how I was.
He was very friendly.
On Ricardo's memorial page, a friend wrote that he lived a life full of dreams and goals.
He grabbed life by the horns by excelling as a nurse and dancing till dawn at every rave he could.
People believe all different things about what happens after death.
But whatever it is, and wherever Ricardo Medina is today, whether it's his spirit or his body, we hope he's surrounded by music, light and the kind of peace he so selflessly gave to others.
It was supposed to be a simple first date.
How could Ricardo have known?
A first date ritual is as old as time.
Meant to spark joy and promise of something new, but became the trigger for a nightmare that no one saw coming.
Ricardo went out on that night believing he was forging a connection.
Instead, he walked into the line of fire of a man consumed by jealousy and fixation.
His life was cut short, not because of who he was, but because of what he represented the future that a stalker couldn't tolerate another man sharing.
We often talk about what is considered the warning signs, things to look for.
But in this case, this was evil coming from a place that no one could have expected.
There are many victims and survivors in this story.
There's the woman who we've called Lisa, who was targeted by someone she thought was a friend and who now is left knowing that a man she'd been on a single date with was murdered because of Esparza's obsession with her.
It's obviously no fault of hers and she had no idea just how twisted Esparza truly was, but it's a heavy weight he left her to bear nonetheless.
There are the multiple other women who Esparza bothered, harassed and terrified before he moved on to his next target.
I think many of us know or can imagine the fear they must have felt when he repeatedly wouldn't take no for an answer.
And then there is Ricardo Medina, a young man out on a date who lost his life because of Esparza's warped obsession.
He was pursuing his dream of helping others.
He sat with patients to give them comfort as they suffered serious illness, where they lived out their last days.
He has a family who misses him terribly and friends who will forever mourn his death.
This AOM community, we remember you.
And to all who knew and loved you, the flame of your memory will never burn out.
Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder.
Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original.
Produced and created by Weinberger Media and Fresetti Media.
Ashley Flowers is executive producer.
This episode was written and produced by Tracy Levy.
Researched by Kate Cooper.
Edited by Ali Sirwa and Philjean Grande.
I think Chuck would approve.
