Prince of Darkness (Season 3, Episode 8)
Premise: A cartel assassin guns down a couple in a crowded restaurant, and the hunt for the murder weapon costs Cerreta dearly.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 8
- Detectives
- Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), Det. Mike Logan (Chris Noth)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Carlos Sanz as Javier Gaitan, Rosanna DeSoto as Mrs. Ortega, Saundra Santiago as Sandra Alvaro, Mark Margolis as George Lobrano
- Director
- Gilbert Shilton
- Writers
- Robert Nathan & William N. Fordes
Summary
The Investigation
“Prince of Darkness” begins at a birthday dinner, where a gunman with an automatic weapon kills Natalie Ortega and critically wounds her husband, Manuel, while their young daughter, Felice, survives. Manuel’s travel agency books trips for 22 known drug dealers, and his mother admits he killed a dealer, Felix Arias, who had pursued Natalie. A DEA circular warns that cartel hit man Javier Gaitan is headed to New York. Agency owner Ramone Buenaventura is arrested and admits booking Gaitan under the name Paolo Esteban.
Hotel phone records lead to Sandra Alvaro, a childhood acquaintance who sheltered Gaitan. Manuel dies, and police seize Gaitan in a trap at her building; he insists he is Esteban. With only days to indict, the detectives deduce from shell casings and Gaitan’s left-handedness that he used a Steyr AUG. Posing as a buyer, Cerreta meets gun dealer George Lobrano, who shoots him in a hotel room, leaving a bullet near his spine.
The Trial
Logan refuses any deal for Lobrano, but Cerreta, from his hospital bed, tells them to make it. The federal government wants Gaitan as an informant, and Stone refuses his demand for no prison time. At trial, Lobrano testifies about selling a Steyr AUG to a left-handed buyer, and Mrs. Ortega describes the assassin known as the Prince of Darkness but cannot identify the defendant.
Alvaro gives a sworn deposition, then recants after making two calls. Over defense objection, the judge rules her unavailable because of intimidation and has her statement read to the jury. Gaitan is convicted of both murders. At the courthouse, he is shot dead by a man named Cristobal, who says Gaitan killed his son. Cristobal pleads to manslaughter and is freed for two days before sentencing.
Spoiler, the ending: Lobrano then reveals Cristobal also works for the cartel, which silenced Gaitan; Cristobal has already fled the country. Lobrano is killed at Rikers, Buenaventura is strangled upstate, Mrs. Ortega falls from a window, and Felice is taken from school by a man claiming to be her uncle.
Why it stands out
- Cerreta is shot in this episode, and Jerry Orbach’s Briscoe replaced Paul Sorvino after it; Sorvino’s last appearance comes in “Point of View.”
- The judge admits a recanting witness’s deposition as evidence after finding she was intimidated.
- The cartel eliminates nearly every witness by the final scene.