IN THIS ERA OF THE #METOO MOVEMENT, "48 HOURS" INVESTIGATES A MURDER THROUGH THE EYES OF A WOMAN WHO SAYS HER ABUSIVE BOYFRIEND MADE HER AN UNWITTING ACCOMPLICE IN HIS PLOT TO KILL

Noriella Santos Tells Jim Axelrod: "I Felt Like He Owned Me - I Did What He Told Me"

"The Good Girl," Saturday, March 3, 10:00 PM, ET/PT

Noriella Santos seemed to have everything going for her. She was well-educated, had a high-profile internship with the Clinton Foundation and had a great future ahead. That life was upended in 2010 when she was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the execution-style killing of Michael Sinclair, a Brooklyn, N.Y. man she had dated.

What happened to Sinclair, and what role did Santos play in the murder? In her only TV interview, Santos tells 48 HOURS that she did play a key - though unwitting - role in Sinclair's murder because she was beaten regularly by her boyfriend, Daniel Greenspan, and was responding to his demands. She gives her behind-the-scenes account in an interview with Jim Axelrod for 48 HOURS: "The Good Girl" to be broadcast Saturday, March 3 (10:00 PM, ET/PT.)

For Santos, it all boiled down to whether anyone would believe her tale of abuse.

It's a twisted tale involving a high-achieving woman, a boyfriend and a former boyfriend, fraught with unexpected plot twists and allegations of abuse, that raises questions of how far someone can be pushed in a relationship.

Police found Sinclair shot and barely alive on a street in a Long Island neighborhood, one to which he had no obvious connection. He later died. Sinclair's phone records led to Santos, who admitted she was with Sinclair that night.

That is where the story turns. Santos had been dating Sinclair after breaking up with her first boyfriend, Daniel Greenspan, who has a history of changing his name and personas.

"When I met him, he was a privileged white boy who got kicked out of boarding school," Santos says. "Then he wanted to be half Puerto Rican, changed his last name to Rivera. And now he's a Jew."

"I felt loved by him," Santos says. Later, though, she says the relationship turned abusive. Still, Santos got back together with him after dating Sinclair. Then, she says, Greenspan/Rivera found out he had a sexually transmitted disease and blamed Sinclair for giving it to Santos.

Santos says Greenspan/Rivera demanded she set up a meeting with Sinclair. He threatened her if she did not, she maintains.

"Dan was going to keep beating me and hurt my family," Santos tells Axelrod.

"I felt like he owned me," Santos says. "I did what he told me to."

Investigators at first maintained that Santos was a co-conspirator with Rivera in the murder of Sinclair, something she denies. Prosecutors charged her with second-degree murder and threw her in jail with a bail of $750,000 cash.

Santos was at her lowest point when Warren Share, a wealthy benefactor who'd known her since childhood, let her know that he believed her story. Share paid her cash bail out of his own pocket and hired attorney Michael Dowd, the veteran lawyer who put the battered women's defense on the map. Dowd also was a believer; he insisted his client was a battered woman who was a victim, not a co-conspirator, and he intended to prove it to prosecutors.

Would Sinclair still be alive today had Santos not set up the meeting?

"Honestly, I, I don't know," Santos tells Axelrod. "Dan was so determined to contact him that I think he would have done anything in his power to reach him."

"She is such a damaged person that she doesn't operate the way people would expect her to do," says Nancy Clifford, Suffolk County (N.Y.) assistant district attorney.

"Damaged person or someone who wants to get away with murder?" asks Axelrod.

48 HOURS: "The Good Girl" examines that question through interviews with Santos, Clifford, Dowd and others. 48 HOURS is in the courtroom for the case against Rivera, where Santos testified against her ex, and 48 HOURS is there when Santos learns her own fate in September 2017.

48 HOURS: "The Good Girl" is produced by Paul LaRosa and Murray Weiss. Jonathan Leach is the development producer. Richard Fetzer is the field producer. Jud Johnston, Grayce Arlotta-Berner, Richard Barber, Phil Tangel and Greg McLaughlin are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

48 HOURS: "The Good Girl" is the second part of a Saturday night double feature. At 9:00 P.M., Michelle Miller anchors an encore of "Live to Tell: Afraid of the Dark," the inspiring story of a young girl's will to live, her unwavering focus on pushing police to find her kidnapper, and how through the trauma she found a purpose in life by advocating for other crime victims.

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