When Robin Cho was found guilty of murder, it shocked his defense team.

I was incredulous.

This is investigator George Little.

It was just kind of shocking, really.

I mean, when you look at all the evidence and you look at all the testimony and that can

Victor Robin Cho come on.

But the prosecution?

I was confident and all of the evidence that I wanted to come out came out.

This is prosecutor Frank Centoro.

So I was very happy with how it came out and I thought Justice was being served.

But neither side had much time to think about what had gone right or wrong.

Because six days after the jury delivered its guilty verdict, they were back in court to begin the penalty phase of the trial.

And ultimately, to decide whether Robin Cho would get life without parole or sent to death row.

I'm Sharon Choi.

And I'm Ben Adair.

This is Strangeland, using one of the Koreatown murders.

This is episode six.

We affirm.

So Ben, when the trial goes to the penalty phase, a lot of the normal rules of the verdict phase are kind of suspended.

How do you mean, like what?

Well, first of all, some of the evidence that the judge barred from the verdict phase became admissible,

which gave prosecutor Frank Centoro new ammunition literally.

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