Just a heads up, this episode contains explicit language and subject matter not suitable for young listeners.

And after 32 years, 32 years, this day has come.

That was the voice of Yolanda Santa Maria, mother of Jade Clark, who was murdered in Hollywood in 1987.

The emotion and pain of a mother who has lost the most precious thing in her life has got wrenching and clearly remains unabated after so long.

She had flown across the country to come to court in downtown Los Angeles to see the man convicted of killing her son sentenced to prison for the crime.

But as with all things in the murder case against Pierre Romain, there will be one more obstacle in the way of a mother's justice.

I'm Michael Connolly and you are listening to Murder Book.

This case to get solved has gone forever. Anything possible that could have gone wrong went wrong.

You know, justice delayed is better than no justice at all.

You got played for 32 years. Now what? Now what?

We're on the 101 freeway heading towards downtown Los Angeles and the criminal courts building.

If you don't hear any traffic noise, that's because we're doing the usual 10 miles an hour in the morning rush hour.

I'm with Rick Jackson, the retired LAPD detective who worked on the Pierre Romain case since 1987 since the first call out.

And we think we may be heading to the last court appearance or hearing in the case where Pierre Romain may finally be sentenced for the crime of murder.

Rick, as I said, you've been at this since 1987. What are your feelings right now? Are you anxious? Do you think this is the finally the end?

You know, in ways it's routine because I'm going to a sentencing and I've gone to sentencing so many times over the years on various cases.

But this is a totally unique case. Obviously, you know, I've spent almost half my life with this case a part of me.

I happened over 32 years ago and I'm in my, you know, later half of my 60s. So it's right about there and that's pretty bizarre because usually cases come and go and you reflect on them, but not where they're still active like this has been for so long.

So there is some anxiety. You know, it should be routine, but this case is taken on a different meaning to me because of the history and all we've gone through in my personal life.

All that's happened over so many years and I'm especially anxious for the victims mom who made a long flight to be here this morning and it's not easy for her with her, you know, some help issues that she's, you know, had over the years.

So I'm more excited that this hopefully will put an end to it for her. She deserves to have this day. She's deserved it for a long time and it finally got here, but it'll be nice to for her to walk out of that courtroom today hopefully from the last time.

So yes, we reached what we think is the final chapter of this season of Murder Book. I should say here that our sponsor for this episode is the Hashet Book Group, publishers of my own books in print, electronic and audio platforms.

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