Q&A with Homicide Detective Al Damiani
(“Transaction Failed,” Forensic Files)
Ronnie Neal and his daughter, Pearl Cruz, accepted the kindness of Diane Tilly and then robbed the educator in her San Antonio, Texas, home and killed her.
Last week’s post detailed the tragedy and irony of that 2004 crime, which Forensic Files portrayed in “Transaction Failed.”
Puzzling. Today, I’d like to focus on the senselessness of the crime.
Ronnie Neal, 33, committed capital murder for household electronics, a few hundred dollars, and a six-year-old car.
And he seemed oddly unaware of the way police actually catch criminals, considering that, as a felon, he had plenty of experience with law enforcement.
Hat trick. For example, he made no attempt to disguise himself when trying to withdraw cash with Tilly’s ATM card at businesses he must have known had security cameras.
He had Pearl, 15, use the card, too. She wore a hat but did nothing else to hide her identity.
After the authorities apprehended the father-daughter team at a motel, Neal told the police quite a yarn about how he came into possession of Tilly’s 1998 Cadillac Fleetwood, .357 Magnum, bank card, and other property.
You don’t say. Neal was at a car wash, he claimed, when he spotted the sedan with the keys in the ignition and the engine running. The vehicle was already loaded up with easy-to-pawn possessions, so he just couldn’t resist hopping inside and driving away, he said.
In the glove compartment, Neal explained, he discovered Tilly’s ATM card, with the PIN number written on a piece of paper.
When he heard on TV that the beloved Robbins Academy educator had gone missing and authorities were searching for two people seen with her car, he set the vehicle on fire in a field so no one would mistakenly believe he was connected with her disappearance, he said.
I’m curious as to why Neal peddled such absurdity.
He was there. Fortunately, Alfred J. Damiani, who Forensic Files watchers may remember for his appearance on “Transaction Failed,” agreed to answer some questions.
As a homicide detective, he worked to find Diane Tilly’s killers and win convictions against them.
Damiani, now a detective with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Vehicle Crimes Unit ReACT in San Antonio, offered some insight and also indulged my curiosity about his line of work:
Were you shocked by this case?
It was disturbing but not particularly shocking.
My wife is an educator and my habit was to have her proofread my reports before I turned them in. She told me recently that she found it [the Tilly case] so disturbing that she had trouble sleeping.
Why was Ronnie Neal so reckless?
He made some attempt. He told Pearl, “Don’t worry, the quality is so bad on the security footage that they’ll never be able to identify us.”
Why didn’t Neal just clam up instead of giving police a story that could easily be picked apart?
He didn’t have a lot of choices because we caught him dead to rights on video tape using the ATM card on more than one occasion.
We caught him with her possessions, and he tried to pull a gun on us — the gun he stole from Tilly’s house. It was in his waistband and fell down his pant leg. Then we grabbed him and took him into custody. He had a second gun, which we found in his hotel room.
And the interview was more than meets the eye.
I sat down with this guy and talked to him and came to the conclusion that no helpful information was coming. At that time, we hadn’t found a body yet so I was still involved in trying to find an alive Diane Tilly and didn’t want to waste time with the guy giving a fabrication.
There was a real close time frame between the murder and when we had him in custody — around 24 hours — and that’s why we were still operating under the hope that it was an abduction and we still might find her alive someplace.
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So I turned the interview over to some other detectives, and they got something from him down on paper. Sometimes it’s good to get a story down, even if it’s a fabrication. It helps for judges to see what a liar he is.
Did you believe his contention that he was mentally retarded?
I don’t think he was a genius but, no, I didn’t believe he was retarded.
That contention came up later, because he wanted to stay out of the death chamber.
This information didn’t make it into the Forensic Files episode, but once when Ronnie Neal was in county jail in the Houston area [in connection with an earlier crime], he hatched a plan to have his sister bring him a TV set with a gun inside the back — this was before TV sets were so thin. The plan was that he would take the gun out, shoot a guard, and watch him die.
I felt a little bad for Annie Pine, Ronnie Neal’s mother, when she begged for his life. She seemed sweet. (I found some footage online of Annie Pine in court that didn’t appear on Forensic Files.)
I think there was more going on at Annie Pine’s house than we know. I don’t think she was the nice person she seemed.
The first time I met her I got a bad vibe off of her and she was incensed that we would be looking at Ronnie Neal in relation to this crime.
Annie Pine absolutely refused to cooperate with the investigation back when we still hoped to find Diane Tilly alive.
What about Pearl Cruz’s sentence? Forensic Files said she got 30 years, but I read that she’s already out.
Pearl Ann was as much a victim as anyone else. That doesn’t dismiss her behavior. She took an active part in this crime. But she was only 15 years old and she cooperated with the investigation, which is why the District Attorney’s office allowed her to have a life and walk out of jail. Otherwise, she would have been considered an adult and served the whole 30 years.
Did you feel Forensic Files’ portrayal of the case was fair and accurate?
Yes, they did a great job, especially considering the time constraints. There were two days of shooting and a lot of stuff going on.
Why did you stop working as a homicide detective?
I had one case after another of some really disturbing stuff. They say a detective has only so many homicides in him that he can deal with, and that everyone has a different body count.
One day, it just hit me, I don’t want to do this anymore. It was after the Tilly case and later some baby cases.
Could you put your cases out of your mind when you were at home?
To do homicide, you have to be completely involved — it’s not something you can forget. It was my life. Fortunately, my wife didn’t divorce me.♣
Next: A look at the 1997 murder of Stefanie Rabinowitz in Philadelphia
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Love this quote, “They say a detective has only so many homicides in him that he can deal with, and that everyone has a different body count.” It’s a grim fact of diversity, but so worth considering along with related phenomena, like a boxer has only so many fights in him/her. Like Clint Eastwood said in a Dirty Harry sequel, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” You rock, Big Guy!
For my contribution, I think, in universals, that everyone has ‘ralfing points,’ that, once reached makes a person earl. Sometimes it’s a food item, like ‘one more rice krispy bar and…’ but in this case it’s heinous crime that flicks on the old gag reflex. Regarding criminals, many are like the anti-matter of ‘hope springs eternal,’ in that they think they can get away with it. Great article!
Bruce,
I, too share your appreciation and admiration for Dirty Harry. Had he been there to reel off a signatory line to end the story and fire off a couple of well placed .44 mag rounds there would have been some closure. Maybe something like ‘Go ahead…Make my day’ (well, the most horrible one you can ever think of). I would not wish this on anyone.
It’s now been 13 years and 3 months since my mother’s murder.
I’m doing great by the way. 2 kids, a great job and a fairly good sense of humor. Divorced like 1/2 of America and wishing I had stayed in the Marines some days (because despite it all we have regrets).
As far as ‘hope springs eternal’ your optimism astounds me. I have less optimism in our fellow man. Just prepare yourself to become let down. It’s reality. Rely on your own strength.
Yes, what excellent info and insight in the article. I want to learn more about the daughter and also the horrid father’s suicide. I oppose capital punishment on spiritual grounds, but this self-execution was a favor to the system. His daughter was pregnant with his child. She wisely gave him up when pressed, but she endured what had to be a miserable love/hate relationship. Is there hope somehow for Pearl to overcome her past? And what happened to her baby? I pray that the infant was adopted into a good home! Bruce, your comment was very interesting. “Makes a person earl.” I’ve never heard that expression for “vomit” – “ralph” but not “earl.” Reading on…
Maybe he meant “makes a person hurl” and spellcheck got him?
Thanks, Bruce! So true about the “hope springs eternal” attitude of criminals. Not all optimism is a positive thing.
Murders are incomprehensible to me. Motive-less murders are even more incomprehensible. And most unfathomable of all are those where the murderer must surely know he or she is likely to be caught. As dumb as Neal must have been, even dumber are those today who shoot or mug victims in the sure knowledge that omnipresent security cameras, a legacy of 9/11, will catch them in the act.
Steve Cuozzo
Ms. Tilly was a teacher of mine, I graduated from Alamo heights/Robbins in 2003. Her death devastated me and I still think of her to this day. May she rest In peace.
It was painful to watch for everyone, so I can only imagine how much harder it is for you, having actually known Diane Tilly. It’s good to hear from someone who had her as a teacher and still misses her.
May you have a truly blessed life!
Both perpetrators are trash — the girl, sadly, also being a victim, whose life is likely to involve continuing crime. If she’s not already back in prison, she soon will be. RIP, Diane.
I just (again) watched the Forensic Files episode. Sadly, it is one of their best. I think to myself, if this was me, what could I have done? Probably not much, even if my weapon was at my hip. Someone surely would have been shot, but would I have a chance? Most people today (now, these days) don’t even open the door (smartly). But if she saw someone she knew, another story again. She saw HER, just not the gun. So do we not open the door for ANYONE that isn’t family? If someone wants to get you, they will when you leave your home…backing the car out of the garage when you least expect it I suppose. I think about this lovely woman, so giving and cannot help but feel that the daughter will surely again hurt someone. Only wish she too got life or was executed. She will be back in prison again….you can say she’s a victim too but I don’t care. Her life is over because she won’t change it. She will just continue to do what she knows best – to take from others as she chooses with no care for another life.
Mercy! I hate to think you are right. Destroyed at 15. Deliberately destroyed by an evil father. As a Christian, I believe God warns us in the Bible about the evils to come, but He can reach anyone who truly seeks Him. I don’t carry a gun, Lisa English, and I can’t call either one trash, Marcus, but from a “safe” (please dear Lord!) distance, I pray for the daughter and the child she was carrying.
SMH
What happened to Pearl?
She gave birth to her father’s son in 2005, went to prison for a few years, and was released early. No word on what she’s doing now.
Lisa: If we care about victims – and Diane was, to be sure, the greater victim here – I think consistency requires that we care for Pearl Cruz too, if only secondary to the primary victim, who behaved appallingly but was a child; one raped by her father and pregnant with his child. She had been reared disgracefully by a morally bankrupt,abusing habitual criminal. Surely we can’t blame her for the way she was – or at least we have to give her the opportunity, away from that creature of a man, to be better? I hope she IS better and has recovered from her appalling earlier life. No child should have experienced what she did. But you may well be right: so much damage was done that she can’t overcome earlier wickedness experienced and habituated. But I disagree that the key should have been thrown away. That’s to treat her just like the man who too likely made her like that. She deserves the chance of rehabilitation – surely?
Hi Marcus,
I hear what you are saying 100% about ALL the victims. I also get what you are saying about the daughter Pearl. What we CAN BLAME her for are her actions and hold her accountable. Oh most definitely she was created to be this way by her abusive father. Abusing a child as he did can make a child become a sociopathic adult. However “HOPING” (as you say) that she is better will not make her better. If she is not in intense therapy and rehabilitation she will probably not change. Not knowing the BETTER way to be an adult human (by not hurting, cheating and killing others) will make her continue to be the bad person she is. That type of therapy and rehab is very expensive. Do we know that she’s in there getting that help today? No. We don’t. The philosopical human says “she deserves the chance of rehabilitation” but WHO is managing that to be sure she doesn’t get out and do this again, or WORSE? Sure any human who is as abused as Pearl will probably be bad unless they get the help, but is she permanently scarred? Only her professional therapist can know that. THEY would be the one to really say if the key is to be thrown away or not. It is my opinion that Pearl now needs to prove to US, the general good human race, that she deserves to be among us and not incarcerated for the rest of HER life because of what she has done, because of ANY reason.
Hello Lisa: Absolutely, Pearl Cruz is responsible for her wicked actions and severe punishment was apt. The problem with what you suggest – a problem where risk has to be evaluated – is that we can’t punish people for what they might do in future by ‘throwing the key away,’ only for what they have done. If Cruz was showing a pattern of serious violence, such as she was part of in this case (though it’s unclear if the violence was only on the father’s part), that might be deemed prescient of future behaviour, particularly if she was doing this aged 18+.
But as she was a child, and undoubtedly very badly influenced by her wicked father, this is significant mitigation that seems, rightly in my view, to have been taken into account. Now, if she again commits – or is part of – a significant violent crime, that’s when the sort of evaluation for release you talk of would become important (assuming she wasn’t in for life).
Where we disagree a little, it seems, is that you think the writing was on the wall after the first crime, and would be very cautious about her release, whereas I don’t see the writing there then – it being too premature to write her off.
Children certainly do wicked things – by no means always because of identifiable influence from others. But in Cruz’s case, with that father, I give her the benefit of the doubt… If she was paroled, I suppose it would be said that she HAD proved to be sufficiently trustworthy to release. Remember, she wasn’t given a life sentence (nor should she have been as a child), so to that degree once she’s served an appropriate sentence she has nothing to prove to anyone, even if we think she should have…
Excellent discussion, friends.
“Hurl” is perhaps what he meant…as in blowing chunks.
Pointless to give Pearl Cruz a near-bye, except perhaps for the DA to be seen as showing “compassion” while eyeing an upcoming election for higher political office. Too harsh? Well let’s check, what do we think she’s doing now? Picking up the good works where Diane Tilley left off? Working hard to earn a life and be the best she can be?
This is the one episode of the series I can no longer watch as it’s just too stomach turning. Diane was a beautiful woman both physically and personally. The way she helped people in need is becoming a rarity now days.