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"Baby Killer"
SVU, Episode 2.05
Production number: E1411
First aired: 17 November 2000
  {{{nNthProducedInSeries}}}th of 502 produced in SVU  
{{{nNthReleasedInSeries}}}th of 502 released in SVU
  {{{nNthReleasedInAll}}}th of 1271 released in all  
Elias Barrera and Elizabeth Olivet
Written By
Lisa Marie Petersen & Dawn DeNoon

Directed By
Juan José Campanella

Plot[]

6-year-old Carly Jackson, an African-American girl, is shot and killed by her 7-year-old classmate, Elias Barrera, on the schoolyard. Elias is found trying to dump the gun in a garbage can. Everyone is outraged at this horrific crime. Elias' parents are law-abiding citizens, and they don't have a gun in their house. Elias is too afraid say where he got the gun from.

Cabot wants to drop the charges against Elias, but cold-blooded Chief A.D.A. Charlie Phillips, who is seeking the position of District Attorney next year, won't let her, because it's such a politically-charged case that he thinks can get him elected if Elias is charged. Cabot sarcastically says, "Why don't we just apply for a change of venue to Texas, so we can have him executed?" Phillips coldly says, "No, Manhattan Family Court will be sufficient."

The investigation is complicated, but a big break comes when the lab technicians tell them that the same gun killed a 23-year-old drug dealer named Shorty the day before Elias shot Carly. The detectives track down Shorty's turf, and question Nicky Crow, who owns a religious store.

They also talk to Dorothea Strada, an overworked elderly woman who watches neighborhood children. Elias's parents left him there on occasion. The detectives try to track down a drug dealer named Sweetness, who hung out with Shorty. It turns out that Sweetness is Mrs. Strada's great-grandson, and he and Elias took walks into the park, where Elias was being used, against his will, as a pawn for drug dealers. When the cops go to Sweetness’s apartment, they find him dying with a slit throat, and his last word, uttered to Stabler, is Machete.

Elias says that there's a man known as Machete who killed Shorty. It actually happened at Mrs. Strada's apartment on a night when Elias was staying there. Elias picked up the gun there, where it was stashed in a couch. It turns out that Elias had never intended to shoot Carly -- he had brought the gun to school because he feared for his life. Elias pulled the gun out, and fired, when he saw Machete at the schoolyard, because he thought Machete was there to kill him. Elias identifies Machete when Benson and Stabler walk him to the religious store with a mask on. Machete turns out to be Nicky Crow. Benson and Stabler arrest Nicky.

Finally, after Phillips dumps the case on Cabot, she decides that she'll drop the charges. She's backed by various members of the group C.A.L.M., a racial unity group that wants to end violence, and to her surprise, Carly's mother Lorena, who understands that Elias never intended for Carly to get shot.

Cabot enjoys a moment of camaraderie with the detectives in the unit, until a phone call comes in, and they're called to the scene of another shooting. The victim who was killed is Elias, who was shot by a 12-year-old African-American boy named Tommy "T.J." James, who, as he's led away, yells, "You can't kill a sister, and just walk." Stabler worries about the cycle of violence continuing.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Cabot: You know as well as I do that the youngest they've ever convicted was eleven.
Phillips: Yes, but that was pre-Columbine. Since then, there's been an epidemic of ever-younger kids killing kids with no consequence. People are fed up with it.
Cabot: And you're bored of being the Chief Assistant D.A. I know you're looking to replace Lewin next fall but let me tell you, if you think you can put a little boy in jail just so you can prove you're tough on crime you've got to be kidding.
Phillips: He's old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.
Cabot: But not to understand the consequences of his actions.
Phillips: He brought a gun to school. He knew what he was doing. And this... that gives us intent.
Cabot: Why don't you just apply for a change of venue to Texas so we can have him executed?
Phillips: No. Manhattan Family Court will be sufficient.

McCreary: There. You satisfied?
Munch: Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Tutuola: Put the gun down on the table.
Munch: You carry that around in your purse?
McCreary: You know, sometimes I don't leave the hospital until 3 a.m. I have to take a subway, a bus, and walk four blocks through this neighborhood to get home.
Tutuola: You know, carrying a concealed weapon is a felony.
McCreary: I don't. I leave it at home so the appliances can defend themselves.

Lab Technician: Compact, lightweight, hammerless.
Benson: So simple, even a 7-year-old can use it.

[about Elias' picture that he drew]
Benson: When he drew this, he wasn't plotting out Carly Jackson's murder. This was a cry for help. He wanted somebody to know what he saw.
Cabot: He's been through an interrogation, a court hearing, taken from his family and placed in detention. Why wouldn't he have said something by now?
Cragen: Look at the players involved: drug dealers and killers. If Elias was drawn into this world at all, he knows what happens to people who talk.

[after another child is killed]
Benson: Cycle never ends, does it?
Stabler: Welcome to the Gaza Strip.

Background information and notes[]

  • Although "baby killer" usually refers to child murder, the innuendo of the title also implies the killer being a child as well.
  • Olivet mentions she left the D.A.'s office and works as a defense witness for a child in this episode. She had previously testified in the defense of a child, Jenny Brandt, in the Law & Order episode "Killerz".

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3

Home of
Mrs. Dorothea Strada
1630 Lexington Avenue
Tuesday, November 7

Office of Chief
Assistant District Attorney
Charlie Phillips
Tuesday, November 7

23rd Precinct
Detective Squad
Wednesday, November 8

4 5 6

15th Precinct
Detective Squad
Thursday, November 9

Office of
Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Friday, November 10

Family Court
Capacity Hearing
Monday, November 13

Previous episode:
"Legacy"
"Baby Killer"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 2
Next episode:
"Noncompliance"
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