Maritime (Season 13, Episode 18)
Premise: A young real estate broker is found shot and floating in the East River, and the trail leads to a retired star quarterback’s abandoned yacht, the blood of three people and the quarterback’s drug-addicted older brother.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 18
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson)
- Guest stars
- Craig Walker as Sean Ridgeway, John Doman as Howard Ridgeway, Lizbeth Mackay as Miriam Ridgeway, Tom Mason as defense attorney Matt Wolchesky, J. K. Simmons as Dr. Emil Skoda
- Director
- Gloria Muzio
- Writers
- Wendy Battles
Summary
The Investigation
“Maritime” begins when two brothers spot a woman’s body floating in the East River near the Throgs Neck Bridge. She was shot once in the right temple from several feet away and had been in the water for days; her blood shows alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and Dramamine. A sorority toe ring identifies her as Julie Eastman, a Nebraska farm girl who became a successful broker at real estate firm Nelson Woburn. A co-worker says she was dating sports agent Adam Makris and planned to end it.
Makris’s boss says the couple sailed to Southampton for the 30th birthday party of client Darryl Ridgeway, a star quarterback who walked away from a $23 million contract, and none of them has been heard from since. Ridgeway owns a Glock of the caliber that killed Eastman. The Coast Guard finds his yacht anchored near Port Washington with its dinghy on shore, and Beck finds bullet holes and blood that DNA ties to Eastman, Makris and Ridgeway. His girlfriend, Amanda Taylor, says his older brother, Sean, was high and picking fights at the party and boarded the boat afterward, and Sean’s print is found aboard.
Sean, a heroin user with an assault record, leaves his mother a message denying everything. Through his dealer, the detectives track him down and find him barely breathing after an apparent overdose.
The Trial
Sean is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. His lawyer, Matt Wolchesky, notes there is no weapon, no witness and only one body. At trial Beck matches the blood to all three victims, and Taylor testifies that Darryl refused Sean money at the party. Wolchesky then takes one count of second-degree murder at the maximum, and Sean admits shooting Darryl in a fight over money, killing the other two and dumping the bodies and gun overboard.
When the Ridgeways’ check to Wolchesky bounces, he learns that $4 million left Darryl’s account a week after the killings, suggesting Darryl may be alive. Skoda describes Sean as the family scapegoat, raised by an abusive father and unusually prone to duress, and Judge Louise Einhorn sets the plea aside. A trace sends the transfer to the parents’ home in Short Hills, New Jersey. McCoy offers three counts of second-degree murder or charges against Miriam Ridgeway for moving the money. Howard Ridgeway urges Sean to accept, but Sean refuses and testifies that he left the boat at Greenport while Darryl was pursuing Julie.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Sean on all three counts of first-degree murder. At sentencing he still says he is innocent; Branch observes that no verdict is ever fully certain, and two of the bodies are still somewhere in the river.
Why it stands out
- Sean pleads guilty in the middle of his trial, but the plea is vacated after Skoda concludes that his role as the family scapegoat leaves him especially vulnerable to duress.
- A $4 million transfer meant to suggest the quarterback is alive is traced to his parents’ house in Short Hills, New Jersey.
- Only one of the three victims’ bodies is recovered, so the case rests on the blood and prints left aboard the yacht.