Once Burned (Season 25, Episode 20)
Premise: A celebrated fire captain is beaten to death in his firehouse, and the firefighter with a criminal record who reported finding him claims he killed the captain in self-defense after refusing to cover for a theft.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 25, Episode 20
- 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
- Bobby Soto as Diego Peralta, Max Casella as Steven Delvecchio, Victoria Cartagena as defense attorney Yolanda Matos, William Ragsdale as Fire Marshal Julian Jenca, Kaelyn Ambert-Gonzalez as Ruby Ramirez
- Director
- Michael Smith
- Writers
- Art Alamo & Ajani Jackson
Summary
The Investigation
“Once Burned” opens at an apartment fire where Capt. Clint Braddock saves firefighter Diego Peralta from a backdraft. Hours later, Braddock, a 9/11 veteran who led a team into the South Tower, is found beaten to death with a Halligan tool in his firehouse. Peralta, who called 911, says he heard shouting and found the back door open. Video shows Braddock letting in a hooded, gloved visitor who leaves 20 minutes later. His wife, Candace Newman, had just been served with divorce papers after an affair, but friends back her alibi, and her doorbell camera shows Braddock knocking down retired firefighter Steven Delvecchio.
Riley and Walker pull Delvecchio from his running car. He admits collecting fraudulent PTSD payments through the World Trade Center Health Fund; Braddock found out, forced him to retire and ended their friendship. A bar confirms his alibi. An email leads to the visitor, Fire Marshal Julian Jenca, who warned Braddock that a $500,000 diamond necklace reported lost in a jewelry store fire was stolen while Braddock’s company held the scene. Since no one else entered, the killer was inside. Of five firefighters whose prints are on the tool, all worked that fire, and Peralta has a burglary record. Jenca’s file, stained with Braddock’s blood, turns up in a dumpster in Peralta’s building, and he is charged.
The Trial
Defense attorney Yolanda Matos says Peralta killed in self-defense after Braddock, the real thief, attacked him. The prosecution unseals a juvenile assault on a bodega owner who tried to call police; the judge admits the search evidence but bars Peralta’s priors. Matos gets Riley to concede that no necklace or money turned up and Braddock’s home went unsearched; Jenca admits Braddock could have taken it. Peralta’s pregnant wife, Ruby, begs Price to believe him. A hostile Delvecchio admits Braddock punched him but says he deserved worse.
Peralta testifies that Braddock doubled back alone at the fire, asked him to lie about it, revealed he had multiple sclerosis from Ground Zero debris that the Health Fund would not cover, threatened to frame him with the file and came at him with the Halligan. Braddock’s neurologist confirms the secret diagnosis. Price admits he judged Peralta by his record; told he can dismiss the case, he goes ahead. Peralta’s claim that no one would believe him opens the door to his priors, and on cross he is shown photos of the bodega owner he beat at 15. He answers that the prosecutors have already made up their minds.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Peralta of second-degree murder. Insisting he is innocent, he asks Ruby to make sure their son, Anthony, and their unborn child know it. Whether his account is true is left open.
Why it stands out
- The verdict comes even as the case backs up part of the defendant’s story: the captain did have a secret illness linked to Ground Zero.
- Price openly questions whether a reformed ex-convict can get a fair hearing, yet the prosecution goes on to use the man’s record against him.
- The plot turns on the World Trade Center Health Fund, which one firefighter defrauds and another is denied.