When Curb Your Enthusiasm Saved A Man From Death Row
Pretty, pretty, pretty good!
Mystery Mob!!
What if I told you that HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm was responsible for keeping an innocent man from a death sentence? You’d probably say, wait, isn’t Curb a fictional comedy? You must be talking about something else, some true crime spotlight show, right? WRONG. SO WRONG.
Netflix even released a documentary on the story called, “Long Shot.” Larry himself was interviewed.
I can see you eager for more, dear reader, but before we satisfy your curiosity, let’s answer this week’s riddle:
I am shorter than the others,
but when you’re happy you raise me up,
and I become tallest.
What am I?
Answer: A Thumb!
Now, let’s get back to Curb:
A witness, a murder, and a hurried arrest
In early May, 2003, Martha Puebla took the witness stand. The 16-year old testified against her ex-boyfriend, Jose Ledesma, and Mario Catalan for accessory to two murders, in a gang-related shooting.
A week later, Martha was murdered. She was shot dead outside of her residence in Sun Valley, California.
The police arrested Mario Catalan’s brother, Juan Catalan for Martha’s murder. The police thought that Juan had murdered Martha on the orders of his brother and Jose Ledesma - a revenge hit.
They were umm, not correct. But when did that ever stop the police, AMIRIGHT?
Juan faced the death penalty
Catalan was placed behind bars while awaiting trial. Had be been found guilty, he would have received the death penalty. Catalan hired a lawyer - Todd Melnik.
When they first met, Catalan told Melnik he was innocent. In fact, he even had an alibi for May 12, during the murder. He went to the Los Angeles Dodgers game with his 6-year old daughter, his cousin Miguel, and his friend Ruben.
He had plenty of details ready to go when asked, too. Catalan noted that the game was tied late until the visiting team, the Atlanta Braves, scored 7 runs in the 9th inning to win the game 11-4. Catalan recalled that he and his companions left the game and stopped to buy baseball cards with his daughter. He even called his girlfriend outside the stadium. Then he drove everyone home.
Catalan then produced tickets from the game. Apparently, this was not strong enough evidence to let him go. (Even though it seems like it should be.)
A fruitless search for alibi evidence
Melnik was not deterred. Using Catalan’s seat number for reference, he searched through every bit of game film to identify his client in the crowd. But no luck.
He then contacted the ticket holders in the nearby seats to testify on Catalan’s behalf. None felt comfortable testifying.
But there was one more avenue to explore. See, Catalan mentioned he saw a film crew at the game in his aisle -- in fact he said they were “blocking the aisle.”
Hope emerges.
Enter Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Melnik went back to Dodger stadium and spoke with the media department. They told him that on that May 12th game, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm was being filmed.
So Melnik called HBO. They let him sift through the unedited film. Eureka.
In an interview with NBC News, Melnik recalled the moment he saw his client on film:
“We were watching tape after tape after tape and finally he showed up after tape number five…I jumped out of my chair and pointed at the screen and said that’s him! That’s him!”
After reviewing the tape and time stamps, the Judge dismissed all charges. Juan was then awarded $320,000 for being falsely accused of murder and wrongly confined for six months.
To this day, Attorney Todd Melnik and Juan Catalan maintain a close relationship.
Juan is now - OBVIOUSLY - an avid fan of Curb.
Deeper dives with Larry and the gang
The story of Juan Catalan and Curb Your Enthusiasm is illustrated in the Netflix Documentary Long Shot.
In the doc, Larry apparently shrugs off the whole incident as “Maybe something I could impress a date with.” Classic Larry.
Here’s an Almost: A True Crime Podcast episode on this wild tale.
As always,
Stay ‘spicious
-Andy & Mark
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