Accidentally Like a Martyr (Season 25, Episode 19)
Premise: A woman from a social media–famous family is strangled after her 30th birthday party, and when her stalker’s confession is suppressed, the defense points to her abusive ex-boyfriend, with her own father testifying for them.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 19
- Detectives
- Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott), Det. Theo Walker (David Ajala)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn)
- Guest stars
- Eric Stoltz as Evan Cole, Zach McGowan as Cash White, Jack McKinney as Alan Ross, Veronica Falcón as defense attorney Victoria Potter, Kyle Harris as Lucas Peters
- Director
- David Grossman
- Writers
- Rick Eid
Summary
The Investigation
“Accidentally Like a Martyr” opens at Angela Cole’s 30th birthday party, where her father, Evan Cole, insists on a dance with her and her husband, Lucas Peters, leaves early. Angela is later found strangled, her face fractured, with seven different DNA profiles on her body. Lucas, who arrives after tracking her phone, calls her family controlling. Evan and his wife, Sophia, post intimate family content for millions of followers, and Angela had recently announced she was quitting social media. Video shows Evan following her after an argument; he says they hugged and he took a cab. He points to singer Cash White, her ex-boyfriend, who punched a window beside her that morning and was once arrested for beating her, but an Uber receipt puts White in a car 16 minutes before the 911 call.
Other footage shows a man in a jacket bearing a company’s name lingering outside the party and then following Angela. Detectives ask the company’s staff for voluntary DNA samples, and five men refuse. Video of one, Alan Ross, leads to a warrant; his closet holds 30 framed photos of Angela. Ross asks for a lawyer, and as Brady leaves she remarks that he will need a magician. He then says he only wanted to tell Angela he admired her and lost control when she called him a loser.
The Trial
Judge Roberta Hines suppresses the confession, finding the remark a form of interrogation after Ross asked for counsel, but admits the DNA taken under the warrant. Evan and Lucas then trade blame in front of the prosecutors over Evan’s online post from the party. Defense attorney Victoria Potter wins permission to present White as an alternative suspect, and Evan testifies for the defense about White’s 2024 assault and the broken window. On cross, Price shows that Evan’s post named the restaurant, suggesting he blames White because Ross found Angela through that post.
White plans to take the Fifth until the prosecution grants him immunity, and Potter draws out his temper on the stand. White tells one of the prosecutors that he beat Angela after finding his infant daughter alone while she was on a cocaine binge, and he has video to prove it. Baxter wants the jury to hear this as context, but Maroun is uneasy about blaming the victim. The jury never hears it; instead, White testifies that nothing excuses what he did.
Spoiler, the ending: The judge pushes the jurors toward a verdict, but the trial ends in a mistrial. Price is told he held back and that his job is to win, not to do the comfortable or noble thing. No retrial is shown.
Why it stands out
- Eric Stoltz guest stars as Evan Cole, the influencer father who testifies for the defense in his daughter’s murder trial.
- Brady, not the detectives, draws the confession, and her parting quip is enough to get it suppressed under the Supreme Court’s Rhode Island v. Innis ruling.
- The case ends without a verdict, and Price is faulted for holding back evidence that might have helped.