after all, he'd promised the family he'd bring cindy home. >> well, from the time i got this case, i had a daughter that was 13. the same aged daughter that cindy was when she disappeared. >> now it was up to prosecutor smith. >> it was a lot of heated discussions about this. >> and you've got this delicate situation of trying to broker the people's interests versus the family's passionate desire. >> and you can't say no. they've lived this for more than 20 years. so with myself and the father and the family came to sort of a middle ground, and i agreed to reduce it from first-degree murder to second-degree murder. >> smith was also willing to downsize the sentence from mandatory life to 22 years. so would it be deal or no deal? >> it fell apart because he wanted a better deal. >> we couldn't get the number. it fell apart because we couldn't get the number. >> no deal. ream had insisted only a ten-year prison sentence. the d.a. wasn't going there. >> and when he said no, it was taken off the table immediately and steve ran in the court and