Murder at the Palladium

It was December 1992. A jury had just found David Lemus and Omeldo Hidalgo guilty of murder when a Bronx homicide detective named Bobby Addolorato stumbled across some information.

Bobby Addolorato: "See back then, I never heard of the Palladium shooting. It was a Manhattan homicide and I was a Bronx detective, so I just hadn't heard of it."

At the time, the detective was interviewing an informant about gang activity in the Bronx. The informant told him about a murder he'd witnessed at the Palladium nightclub in Manhattan. He still remembers it today. According to Addolorato, the informant said he was parked in his car when he saw two of his fellow gang members -- Joey Pillot and Thomas "Spanky" Morales -- open fire from the street, shooting the bouncers that Thanksgiving night.

Knowing nothing about the case, detective Addolorato made a few calls in 1992 and learned that, in fact, there had been a murder at the Palladium and two men had already been convicted. Not Spanky and Joey, but two other men named Lemus and Hidalgo.

Under questioning, Joey Pillot made a startling confession, that he and his cohort Spanky were the Palladium gunmen.

Still, the detective thought the D.A.'s office should hear what his informant had to say and prosecutors agreed to meet the informant. Afterwards assistant district attorney Steve Saracco said he wasn't convinced. He said the informant's account didn't match the known facts of the case.

Addolorato: "After about 20 minutes, he came back out and said, 'Listen, thank you very much, he's really not on the money with his facts.'"

Detective Addolorato couldn't argue. After all, he knew his informant was a gang member with a drug problem. So he let it go -- but not for long.

Two years later, Addolorato, now working with federal prosecutors in his gang investigation made a number of arrests. Among those jailed were Joey Pillot and Thomas "Spanky" Morales, the very men Addolorato's informant had identified as the Palladium shooters. Spanky wouldn't talk, but Joey Pillot was willing to cooperate and to get a deal, he had to tell all.

Under questioning, Joey Pillot made a startling confession, that he and his cohort Spanky were the Palladium gunmen. He even recalled how his 9-mm gun had jammed and that an unfired bullet had fallen to the ground. In fact, an unspent round was found at the scene.   

Addolorato: "Even when Joey admitted that, and it rang a bell with me, there was still needed to be work done to corroborate Joey Pillot."

Detective Addolorato was skeptical because Joey Pillot told different versions of the story, contradicting himself on key points, like who actually pulled the trigger. So the detective kept digging. He learned that just days after the murder in 1990 there was a call to the NYPD's anonymous crime stoppers hotline. The tipster fingered two people: Joey and Spanky. And working his sources, Addolorato found more, three witnesses who said Spanky had bragged about the killing.

Addolorato: "They told us, "Spanky's face was out to here like he got punched, and they were bragging, Spanky said, 'Yeah, and we lit them up. And, you know, we shot the bouncer."

Also, there was that all-points bulletin for a blue Oldsmobile with a partial license plate number with 8, 1, K. Addolorato discovered that Spanky Morales drove a blue Oldsmobile, and though the model year wasn't the same, his license plate did include the numbers 8 and 1.

Three years after Lemus' and Hidalgo's convictions, the new evidence prompted the Manhattan D.A.'S office to launch a new investigation, re-interviewing dozens of witnesses. The following year, the prosecutors agreed that Lemus and hidalgo should be granted something most inmates never get -- a new hearing before a judge.

The D.A.'s office acknowledged that Spanky Morales "was considered to be a suspect in the Palladium homicide," possibly a "third shooter." But, the D.A. argued that did not mean Lemus and Hidalgo were innocent. The judge agreed. In fact, the judge completely discounted Joey Pillot's new account of the shooting as "much worse than merely doubtful." He said it was "entirely unworthy of belief." The motion for a new trial was denied.

That was 1996. Years passed. Detective Addolorato says the case kept him up at night because he had a hunch that something wasn't right. If the wrong men were in prison, as a cop, he felt it was his duty to fix it. He talked to anyone who'd listen, especially one man, Steve Cohen. Cohen was one of the federal prosecutors who had worked with the detective on that gang investigation. In fact, he was the one questioning Joey Pillot when Pillot confessed. Now, Cohen was a defense attorney and, believing Lemus and Hidalgo were innocent, he took on their case for free. His clients have always maintained their innocence. In 2002, Dateline spoke with David Lemus and Omeldo Hidalgo.

Dan Slepian (NBC producer): "How did you know about the Palladium murder?"
Lemus: "Was watching news, Channel 2 news right after the Price is Right, and they had a little clipping right there saying there was a drive-by shooting at the Palladium and bouncer got shot, I was like, wow."
Slepian: "Had you ever been to the Palladium?"
Lemus: "I went to the Palladium one night in my life."
Slepian: "In your entire life?"
Lemus: "In my entire life."
Slepian: "It wasn't Thanksgiving night?"
Lemus: "No, it wasn't Thanksgiving night, this was maybe like a year before."

But what about his admission to his friend, Delores Spencer, that he'd been involved in the murder, and asking to hide the gun at her house? David Lemus told us it was all a lie, and the biggest mistake of his life.

Lemus: "I told her that I was at the Palladium, and there was a shootout that happened at the Palladium, and some people had got shot, and I told her that I was a part of that."
Slepian: "Why say that?"
Lemus: "I was trying to to portray this image of somebody that I wasn't."

Steve Cohen: "David said to me once that he wanted to be a tough guy with a car when all he was, was a knucklehead with a bus pass and he lied to Delores Spencer to build himself in her eyes. What does that make David Lemus? It makes him stupid. Does that make him someone who should be in jail 25 years to life? I don't think so."

Lemus: "There's not a day that goes by that I don't say to myself, out of all the things you could have said to Delores that day, why the Palladium? Eats you up."
Slepian: "How did you get involved in all this?"
Omeldo Hidalgo: [Speaks in Spanish]"
Lemus: "He's says he doesn't know. He still asks himself the same question."
Slepian: "Were you at the Palladium on Thanksgiving?"
Lemus: "No, he says he doesn't even know where the Palladium is at."

And there's one other thing that still made no sense at all to Cohen.

Cohen: "Lemus and Hidalgo have never been linked. They'd never laid eyes on each other until they were both arrested and showed up in court."

Of course, that's a defense attorney talking. And over the years, Lemus and Hidalgo made repeated legal challenges to their convictions. They lost every one. No court ever found there was credible evidence to overturn the jury's verdict. The D.A.'s case held up. Case closed. Or was it?

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Lemus acquitted after 13 years in prison Producer Dan Slepian blogs about the case Photos: New evidence in Palladium murder Judge’s 2005 decision freeing Lemus Original Dateline story Shadow of Justice Section Front   Add Shadow of Justice headlines to your news reader: