Who’s Looking Guilty on ‘Presumed Innocent’? A Roundup Before the Finale

You might already know who the killer is on the Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent, since the book it is based on has already been adapted into a film of the same name back in the 1990s. And yet the Jake Gyllenhaal series has us biting our nails in anticipation of its season finale.

For one, the series created by David E. Kelly has changed a few things up from its source material and the film adaptation that starred Harrison Ford as Rozat ‘Rust’ Sabich (played here by Gyllenhaal), the prosecutor accused of murdering his fellow lawyer Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve). 

But more importantly, the series, with its weekly episodes, has managed to keep the mystery alive. While it continues to make us think the worst of Rusty, it is simultaneously laying before us an array of suspects that are starting to look guilty.

Since we’re on the edge of the big reveal, and after episode 7 poked us with a major evidence drop, it’s time to round up a list of suspects before Presumed Innocent episode 8 airs on July 24, 2024.

Who’s looking guilty on Presumed Innocent?

Can I be honest? EVERYONE! The series has made so many characters appear to have motive, from Rusty’s secretary Eugenia (Virginia Kull), who didn’t like how obsessed Rusty was with Carolyn, to Rusty’s daughter, who is worried for her father, or his son, who just happened to drive by his father’s girlfriend’s house the night of her murder. The only people who seem safe from accusation at this point are Liam Reynolds, the convict from a previous case who is behind bars, and Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) because, well, he seems way too chill.

But if we were to look at the most likely ones, here are my top five contenders, in no particular order.

Michael Caldwell

Carolyn’s son Michael (Tate Birchmore) was a witness in the case, but during his cross-examination by Rusty, he was able to prove that Michael harbored anger towards his mother for not making him a part of her life. The accusation against Michael’s father, Carolyn’s ex Dalton (Matthew Alan), might be a bit too open-and-shut, but Michael still looks fishy.

While there’s no element of sexual violence in the crime, the way she was tied up was similar to the case of a sexual assault victim that Carolyn and Rusty had worked on. And Rusty was able to establish that Michael may have known details about the case, and perhaps, in some weird Oedipal rage, there’s a possibility of him committing the murder.

Raymond Horgan

Yeah, I know, everybody loves Raymond. But hear me out!

Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp) seems like a nice man with a nice wife … a bit too nice in a series full of suspicious and morally gray characters. The man has a panic attack in court when he’s about to cross-examine Michael, who was told by his mother that some guy from work was starting to scare her. Could it be her boss? Do we smell foul yet? No? Hang on.

In the eponymous book by Scott Turow, it is revealed that before Rusty, Carolyn also had an affair with Raymond Horgan, who was the DA at the time, in a bid to advance her political ambitions. However, they ended it. Now in the series, no such indications have been made, except for that one instance during Carolyn’s funeral, when Horgan knew something about her (that she had a son) that Rusty didn’t. 

What we do know though is that Carolyn withheld evidence in the Bunny Davis case after she found out about the blunder by the medical examiner Kumagai (James Hiroyuki Liao). Had they turned the evidence in, Liam Reynolds (Mark Harelik) would’ve walked free, and they would’ve lost the case. Carolyn could’ve gone to Horgan, her senior, to seek guidance on how to proceed, and he might’ve realized the damage it could do to his re-election bid.

This still makes his motive for killing her eventually a huge stretch, perhaps she tried to blackmail him? Horgan does lose his cool at Rusty for sabotaging his re-election. Maybe he lost his cool at Carolyn too?

Barbara Sabich

It’s the oldest trick in the book and fits here (a little too) perfectly. Wife discovers her husband is cheating on her with his smart and sexy co-worker. He feels guilty, apologizes, and promises her it’s over. But she finds out it isn’t and gets mad when she spots them together. A crime of passion is committed.

Ruth Negga has been brilliant as Barbara Sabich, the wife who forgave her husband for the sake of their beautiful family. We get to know what she is thinking through her therapy sessions, where she is open about flirting with infidelity herself. But there’s something a bit too calm and composed about her demeanor, almost in a Gone Girl-esque way. Maybe because she has gotten her revenge?

But forget all the circumstantial notions and let’s look at some more concrete evidence. At the end of episode 7, when Tommy Molto returns home, we see on his table the murder weapon, a fire poker, with a post-it stuck on it that says, “Go f*ck yourself!” Doesn’t it look like something a wife would leave for her cheating husband to tell him she discovered his lies?

But then why would Tommy Molto have it? Unless…

Tommy Molto

Oooh, now isn’t this a delicious choice, owing chiefly to just how good Peter Sarsgaard is at making us hate his character Tommy Molto!

Molto is the most satisfying suspect. Rusty is the golden boy who is a good family man on the surface but seems to have many skeletons buried in his closet. Tommy Molto is like the Severus Snape to his James Potter: creepy, a suck-up with oily mannerisms, rather smug about his wins, disliked by most people, and a loner with a cat. He instantly looks sus.

More now that it is revealed through a flashback and confirmed by Eugenia that Carolyn Polhemus was uncomfortable around Molto, and even put in a request with HR to not work cases with him. He was clearly interested in her. Could he have found out about her and Rusty’s affair? Rusty getting his position at work, all the good cases, the recognition, and now the girl he wanted too, even after he was married?

Could Tommy have been blackmailing Carolyn and the man that was getting scarily obsessed with her, about who, she told her son Michael? Did he find out that she and Rusty were back together and lost his cool at her? The murder weapon being discovered at his place might be a simple clue pointing at him. 

But then, what’s with the note? Why would he, a lawyer well versed in criminal law, leave an incriminating post-it on it?

Rusty Sabich

I mean, the killer could still be Rusty, right? I’m still rooting for it not to be because that would just be a cliché. Remember Defending Jacob, another Apple TV+ series that followed a similar whodunnit theme, where the case against Jacob is dismissed, but never the suspicion that he might’ve actually committed the crime and just got away because of a good defense?

We’ve seen how obsessed Rusty was with Carolyn, his rage, and how he can get violent when he feels threatened. We know that he was aware of Carolyn’s pregnancy. He had motive, and he knew of a patsy that he could set up (Reynolds) by staging the body a certain way. And as Molto’s recent cross-examination of him proves, Rusty could’ve just “snapped.” Then again, it would be too stupid for a prosecution lawyer to make so many messes if he was trying to avoid looking incriminating.

Rusty has been sticking to his story from the start with unwavering conviction. Even when holes are poked in his claims of truth, even when it makes him look like a jerk in front of the jury, Rusty accepts that he made some terrible errors of judgment but he never killed Carolyn. Almost as if it’s a script that if he calmly follows, would help bring reasonable doubt in the jury’s mind and he would go free.

Or, dear reader, the killers could be the series’ writers, who come up with a killer twist that blows all our theories into the water and presents a whole different motive and an unlikely murderer.

Either way, I will be seated for that Presumed Innocent season 1 finale and keeping an eye out for anything to carry forward into its recently announced season 2!