| “ | I don't want to shoot anybody, but they were in my store. My store! I have a right to self-defense! | „ |
| ~ Costas rationalizing having murdered Garland and Cecil Booker. |
George Costas is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Self Defense". He is a Greek jewelry store owner who shoots and kills three men who tried to rob him and claims self-defense; his real motive, however, is a desire to be treated like a hero.
He was portrayed by Adam Arkin, who also portrayed Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck in Monk and Theo Tonin in Justified.
Early life[]
Costas was born and raised in Crete, and as a young man moved to Fort Lee, New Jersey, where he married an American woman named Christina and got a job at his brother-in-law's jewelry store. One day, a crack addict tried to rob the store, and Costas shot him in the head, killing him. Costas was hailed as a local hero, even though the police officer who handled the case suspected, but could not prove, that he killed the thief because he wanted attention and praise from the press.
Costas and Christine eventually moved to New York City, where they opened a jewelry store of their own. He was angry and paranoid about crime in his neighborhood, so he carried a .38 revolver everywhere he went and kept it behind the counter at his store, waiting for an excuse to use it.
He finally got his wish when two petty criminals, brothers Garland and Cecil Booker, came into his store and tried to rob him; he pulled his revolver on them and fired, mortally wounding Cecil, who later died in a nearby alley. Garland took off running to his car, but Costas, after reloading his weapon, followed him and shot him in the back as he tried to drive away. He then left Garland to bleed to death and went back to work as though nothing had happened.
"Self Defense"[]
NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and Detective Mike Logan investigate the murders and question business owners in the area, asking them whether they had encountered Garland and Cecil before. Costas denies seeing them before, but Cerreta and Logan take his pistol for forensic testing, which reveals that the bullets that killed Garland and Cecil did not come from the revolver. Acting on a hunch, Logan checks gun permit records and find that the Costases have another revolver, registered in Christine's name.
When Cerreta and Logan question Costas about the other revolver, Costas sees the writing on the wall and confesses to killing Garland and Cecil, claiming that they had tried to rob him and that he had feared for his life. Cerreta and Logan find several holes in his story, however, so they question his wife and brother-in-law, who tell them about the shooting in Fort Lee. They also go over the autopsy reports on Garland and Cecil and examine their car, finding that their wounds and the .38 slug found on the floor of their vehicle are consistent with being shot in the back by someone standing a few feet away, contradicting Costas' story of shooting them in the store after they pulled a gun on him. They ultimately come to the conclusion that Costas killed them in cold blood as they were trying to get away, so they arrest him, even though Cerreta sympathizes with him as a crime victim.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette charge Costas with second-degree murder. During their investigation, they watch the tape from Costas' security camera that show him shooting at Garland and Cecil and then running after them, proving that he lied about what happened. Costas' lawyer, Alex Drakos, tries to get the tape suppressed as evidence by claiming that his client was not read his Miranda rights when he confessed, even though he was not in custody at the time; the judge nevertheless agrees and excludes the confession.
Meanwhile, media coverage of the murders gives Costas the attention and praise he always wanted, with gun rights organizations in particular hailing him as a hero. Fearing an acquittal, District Attorney Adam Schiff tells Stone and Robinette to make a deal with Costas. Stone reluctantly offers to let Costas plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder, but he refuses to plead guilty to anything, declaring that he was in the right when he killed Garland and Cecil.
During the trial, Costas testifies in his own defense that he shot Garland and Cecil because he thought they were going to shoot him, and because he feared they would come back and hurt Christina. Stone cross-examines Costas and asks him why he had feared that Garland was going to kill him when he had in fact been trying to get away from him, but Costas once again angrily insists that he did nothing wrong.
Drakos then calls Cerreta as a witness, and he testifies that Costas' actions as recorded on the tape were, in his opinion, justified. Stone cross-examines Cerreta and asks him to explain police procedure on using deadly force, as well as what regulations say about police witnessing armed civilians chasing after someone. Cerreta replies that deadly force is only permitted when police officers know beyond a reasonable doubt that their lives or those of others are being threatened, and that a civilian chasing after someone with a gun is committing a crime.
During closing arguments, Drakos portrays Costas as a law-abiding citizen who acted in self-defense against "those hoodlums", while Stone says that Costas killed Garland and Cecil not out of fear, but out of a desire for revenge and notoriety. The jury finds Costas innocent of murdering Cecil, but guilty of murdering Garland. Costas files an appeal, with several gun rights organizations paying for his defense, but he still goes to prison for murder.
External links[]
- George Costas on the Law & Order Wiki
