In addition to curbing our enthusiasm, Larry David once curbed a death sentence. While filming said comedy show in 2003, David walked past a man who would be faced with execution for a murder he didn’t commit. That footage led to his exoneration. However, like the insensitive characters on his famous TV shows, David’s good deed was completely unintentional. Here’s how our favorite comedian/curmudgeon accidentally saved a life in a twisted plot straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm — only it actually happened.
The crime
At approximately 10:32 PM on May 12, 2003, 16-year-old Martha Puebla was killed outside her home in Los Angeles. A few months later, 24-year-old machinist Juan Catalan was arrested for her murder. He’s the brother of a co-defendant in a previous murder case in which Puebla testified. Catalan was in the courtroom for her testimony; therefore, authorities believed that he killed the teenager in retaliation. Although jailed, Catalan proclaimed his innocence and hired Todd Melnik as his defense attorney. Melnik asked where he was on the night of the murder. Catalan remembered that he attended Dodger Stadium for a game between the LA Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. Melnik set out to prove Catalan’s alibi.
The Curb
After an empty search for witnesses among Dodgers fans, Melnik scoured footage from stadium cameras. Although the cameras did capture Catalan and his young daughter, the resolution was poor. Thankfully, Catalan recalled that a different camera crew was in Dodger Stadium that night to film “Super Dave Osborne” (the stuntman alter-ego of actor Bob Einstein). Melnik flipped through the stadium’s media calendar and found an entry for May 12, complete with contact info for an “obscure production company.” He dialed the number and a voice said, “HBO.”
Neither Melnik nor Catalan knew about Curb Your Enthusiasm, the HBO series filmed at the stadium, nor did they know about Larry David, the star and creator of Curb and co-creator of Seinfeld. In spite of this personal affront, David let Melnik dissect footage of the episode that would become S04, E06: “The Car Pool Lane,” featuring David and Einstein (as Marty Funkhouser) at a Dodgers game. Melnik sat with a studio engineer and sifted through reels of tapes. On one of the last tapes, David walks up a set of stairs and is intersected by Catalan and his daughter going back to their seats after getting snacks. “I literally jumped out of my chair,” recalled Melnik. David was there and corroborated the lawyer’s impressive vertical.
The verdict
The Curb footage wasn’t quite enough to waylay Catalan from a lethal injection, considering that the murder happened over an hour after the timestamp. As such, Melnik traced a cell phone call received by Catalan to a tower near Dodger Stadium, placing his defendant at the ballpark at 10:12. After weighing the evidence, Judge Leslie Dunn threw out the case.
In 2008, gang member Raul Robledo was sentenced to life in prison for Puebla’s murder. Catalan won a $320,000 settlement for false imprisonment and his arresting detectives were punished for falsifying evidence. He is now a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Of course, his favorite episode is “The Car Pool Lane.”
What does David say about all this?
