Transcripts For KNTV Dateline NBC 20170701

The only thing we have are cigarette butts and suspicion. Dna would point one way hes like, sarge, you gotta take a look at this. A bombshell message would point another. I read the letter and immediately knew this was something very important. A twisted trail leading to sinister suspects. It takes a special kind of mind that wants to do Something Like that. To crack a case this convoluted, it might just take a miracle. That was extraordinary. I just couldnt believe it. A shocker no one would see coming not even the killer im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres Josh Mankiewicz with a texas twist. Reporter named for the body of christ, Corpus Christi sits on the texas gulf coast. This part of the Lone Star State is sheltered from hurricanes and storms. But as it turned out, not from one unnatural disaster. To me, it just looked like a pile of debris, to be honest. And then he looked and he said, oh, my god, its two bodies. Reporter a crime so shocking that even four years later, theyre still talking about it. I cant even imagine what was in that persons mind that evoked his violence, his rage. Reporter two young women. Who wanted them dead . And why . It was a true whodunit type murder. Reporter and along with who and why was the question of why here . This was definitely something that we werent used to or accustomed to in our town. Reporter this part of texas isnt exactly ground zero for murder. Its known more for roping, riding, and friday night lights. Here, life is pretty simple, as are the values its people hold dear, like friendship, family, community. This is where 19yearold mollie olgin grew up. Tell me a little bit about what she was like. She was really funny. She had a weird sense of humor. Always smiling, laughing. Shes just a really good person. Reporter megan olgin was mollies older sister. Just two years apart, they were, says megan, fiercely competitive. She was really smart, which i was always kind of jealous because math came so easy to her. All the subjects came easy to her. She didnt even have to study, try, nothing. Reporter mollie also played drums in the high school band. But her friends, Brooke Ostrom and stephanie chasak, say that what mollie really loved was cruising down the highway singing along to bands like the spice girls. Thats mollie behind the wheel. She loved her car a lot. I remember one night she decided, im gonna name my car jabar. And after that, she called her car jabar mccar. And it was the funniest thing, for no reason. Reporter smart, funny, and a car owner, all of which made for one very popular teen. She had a lot of friends. Yes. Oh, yeah. A lot of friends. She never let anybody leave from hanging out with her without giving them a hug. And saying, i love you. Ever. Reporter which was certainly true when it came to the newest member of mollies unusually large posse of friends, 18yearold Kristene Chapa. Could you tell they really liked each other . Yeah. Yeah. Mollie talked about her a lot. Reporter kristene lived in a neighboring town where she was earning a reputation as a softball superstar. Kristene was a softball icon for this town. Reporter Brittany Selby was kristenes close friend. She was, like, the comic relief in our little group of friends. Reporter brittany says kristenes sense of humor was a Perfect Match for mollies. Mollie definitely brought out kristenes crazy side. It was never never a dull moment with those two. Reporter but for this group of girls, crazy and dull were relative terms. We were not the party kids. We never drank or anything like that. We would go to taco bell. We would go to coffee shops. And we would go to parks. Reporter which is exactly what mollie and kristene decided to do on a warm summer night back in june of 2012. Their destination, Violet Andrews park. That place seem safe to you . Yeah, it did. All the parks did. We would go at night all the time. Reporter before heading out, the two called brittany, asking if she wanted to join them. Brittany took a pass. They had asked me to go, but i had a vollyball game the next morning. So i wasnt able to. Reporter it was a decision that still haunts her. I just know because they, like you know, they called me that night. Im like if i was there reporter the next morning, chris and stan seymour were strolling through Violet Andrews park. We started looking around for birds in general. Didnt see a thing. This place was as quiet as wed ever seen it. Reporter and thats when, just below one of the overlooks, they made their terrible discovery. In the tall beach grass lay the bodies of two young women. It just looked like they had both been molested or mauled. We didnt know if they were alive or or or dead. We had no idea. Reporter the seymours ran for help. Portland 911, whats the location of your emergency . Weve got two dead bodies down here. Are they male or female . Two females. Reporter First Responder Travis Weisman had never seen anything like it. It was horrifying. There is blood. I can see that the clothes are off both girls. There was duct tape on on their mouths, on their hands. You could see they were clearly bound. Reporter duct tape also covered their eyes. And each girl had been shot in the back of the head. I went and checked the pulse on the first girl, i could feel her body was cold and didnt feel a pulse. Reporter and then something no one expected. I went to reach for the second girl, and thats when she started to sit up and moan. It looked so hopeless. And to think that one was alive was just a miracle. Reporter which girl had survived . Could doctors keep her alive . And what story could she tell . The questions were just beginning. One victim surviving. Just the first surprise in a case teeming with twists. When we come back investigators focus on one particular clue. Sometimes that can suggest somebody who knows the victim . Yes. Whats the best way to get two servings of veggies . V8 or a powdered drink . Ready, go. Ahhhhhhhh shake shake shake shake shake done you gotta shake it i shake it glad i had a v8. The original way to fuel your day. Lobster and shrimp are teaming up in so many new dishes. Fest, like coastal lobster and shrimp, with shrimp crusted with kettle chips. Or new, overthetop lobster and shrimp overboard. But it cant last, so hurry in. You never thought the price ofcould be so low. De or saving on a refrigerator could give you chills. With red, white and blue savings never say never. Get our lowest prices of the season save up to 40 on major appliances. Like this lg laundry pair. Only at the home depot. People ask why i switched to sprint. Well, their Network Reliability is within 1 of the big guys. And they have the best price for unlimited among National Carriers and. Wait are you watching this on the awesome iphone 7 . You gotta get iphone 7 from sprint and theyll give you a second one on them what are you doing . Go switch to sprint whos he talking to . I dont know. But i better go to sprint. Wait two iphone 7s. Love you vo get sprint unlimited. And now, get iphone 7 for people with hearing loss, and get a second iphone 7 on us. Visit sprintrelay. Com. Reporter as dawn gave way to morning on that june day in 2012, news of a double shooting in one of the parks began to slowly spread throughout the texas gulf coast. Stephanie chasak and Brooke Ostrom learned about it on facebook. Didnt say who it was. Didnt say male or female or anything along those lines. You didnt think it would be anybody you knew. I didnt think it would be anybody i knew. Reporter Brittany Selby tried to call both kristene and mollie. Neither one of them is picking up. So thats when i started to get worried. Reporter kristenes parents, grace and larry chapa, were worried, too. Grace had been pacing the floor ever since she discovered kristene hadnt come home the night before. Thats unusual. That was very unusual. By now, how many times have you called your daughter . I would say about four or five times i called her. I even told her, im gonna call the police if you dont call me right now. Reporter which is just what grace did. Thats when she learned kristene had been hurt. But the officer wouldnt say much else, only that grace needed to get to memorial hospital. He doesnt tell you what happened . No. He doesnt know what happened. Reporter it was only after arriving at the hospital that the chapas learned kristene had been shot. But they still didnt know if kristene was alive or dead. The nurse walks in and tells us one girl died and one girl is on the second floor. And we need to identify her. And they dont know who died and who lived . No. Reporter it was up to the chapas to identify the survivor. You couldnt go . I couldnt go. I couldnt do it. Reporter so grace assigned her eldest daughter that grim task. So the best youre gonna hope for here is that its your daughter. But shes already pretty seriously hurt. Shes hurt. Yes. Reporter for the chapas, the wait was excruciating. And then their daughter returned with the news they had been praying for. She comes back down. And she tells me, mom, its kris. Reporter family and friends took turns at kristenes bedside wondering if she would ever regain consciousness. I could see her little heart, you know, rise and fall. I got her hand and i was talking to her, telling her that i was there and that we loved her. Howd she look . It was bad. It was so bad that you couldnt even you didnt know it was her. Reporter the bullet had entered the right side of Kristene Chapas head and shattered, destroying some of her brain tissue. During a lengthy surgery, doctors decided not to try to retrieve the bullet fragments. But at least kristene was still alive. By now, the other victim had been identified as mollie olgin. And news of mollies death had reached her family. I was in shock. I remember crying really hard, and i was throwing stuff in my room because it just didnt seem real to me. How were your parents . Really emotional. I had never seen my dad cry. They took it really hard. Reporter so did mollies friends, stephanie and brooke. I just remember like, shes dead, shes dead. And everyones like, whos dead . And i said, mollie. Reporter over the next few days, neighbors here began asking the same question, who had pulled the trigger and why . Finding those answers fell to portland, texas, Police Detective Roland Chavez. Mollie cant give us any information, and kristenes in the hospital and she cant give us any information. At that point, not even clear whether kristenes gonna survive. Right . Yeah. Reporter tips were coming in. Someone said they saw a white car speeding from the park the night of the shootings. That lead nowhere. So chavez and his team focused on the crime scene. There was no murder weapon. They did find two spent. 45 caliber casings. Reporter and near an Observation Deck just thirty feet away from where mollie and kristene were discovered, police found an empty Monster Energy drink can and five cigarette butts. And the girls didnt smoke . The girls did not smoke. Reporter chavez sent all that for dna testing. As for the duct tape used to cover the girls eyes, chavez thought maybe that was itself a clue. Sometimes that can suggest somebody who knows the victim. Didnt wanna see them. Yes, uhhuh. Far as you know, either of them have any enemies . No. Thats what was so confusing. Everyone loved them, you know. Reporter and thats probably why they were all so discreet when it came to kristene and mollie. Now, as a Murder Investigation began, friends revealed something that not many knew. They began to tell us they were in a in a relationship. These werent just two friends. They were dating. Yes. Reporter that had many here wondering if a romance that was hidden from many might have in some way been a motive for the attack. Conceivable that this was some kind of hate crime . I mean, id be lying if i said that thought didnt cross through my mind. Reporter three days later came news from the hospital. Kristene chapa had regained consciousness. Were hoping now were gonna be able to really get the ball rolling. Reporter the story kristene eventually shared with police provided intriguing clues about the identity of her attacker. And its a story kristene will also share with you. Coming up kristene harrowing account. The first thing we asked her, of course, is, did you know the person that did this . And then the tale told by dna. And that changes everything. Yes. When dateline continues. Nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. Lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain from moderate to even severe diabetic nerve pain. 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The 18yearold had been shot in the head and left outside for more than eight hours. Somehow, shed survived. Then, just days after her brain surgery, kristene again defied the odds and began to stir. Thats an incredible little girl here. Im im telling you, she is something else. We asked her questions. She would squeeze our hand. Reporter that mustve been a wonderful thing to see. It was. Reporter for police, the pressure to find the shooter was intense. Detective Roland Chavez hoped kristene, now conscious, would be playing a big part in that. But kristene still could not speak. It was either a squeeze of the hand, and then the blinking of the eyes. Reporter so chavez kept his questions simple. The first thing we asked her, of course, is did you know the person that did this . And she said, no. Reporter and how tall was he . Shed described him as about 58, 59. Reporter within the first two weeks of her recovery, kristene helped police draw this sketch of the man who shot her. She said he smelled of cigarettes, which made chavez think about those cigarette butts found at the crime scene. He asked that the dna tests on those be put on the fast track. One of the things that kristene was also able to give us was that the assailant wore gloves, and under armour gloves specifically. Reporter she saw the logo . Yes. And she was a softball player. So shes saying under armour gloves, then under armour gloves is probably exactly what were looking for. Reporter but during those sessions with kristene, chavez wasnt the only one asking questions. Kristene struggled to ask a few of her own, tough ones. Was kristene asking you about mollie . She did. We we did not initially give her any of that information. Reporter both chavez and kristenes parents were afraid that the truth about mollie would upset kristene and maybe jeopardize her recovery. I would just tell her mollies got got sent to another hospital. Reporter of course, kristene persisted. And eventually everyone decided she deserved to know mollies fate. Family and doctors assembled in kristenes room when detective chavez revealed the truth. She was distraught and crying and and i told her, you know, i just i need you to stay strong so that you can help us, and were gonna catch him. And so she did. Reporter as the days passed, kristenes communication skills steadily improved, enabling her to share with police more details of that horrible night. Its supposed to be peaceful and safe. Reporter we wanted to hear her story, too. You look great, and its great to see you. Thank you. Reporter kristene began by describing her relationship with mollie. I met mollie at the mall. Reporter was there some chemistry right from the beginning . Oh, there was. We were both very sarcastic, and we would just amuse each other and make each other laugh a lot. Reporter six months later, the two had become a serious couple. Then came that june night in the park. Whyd you go to the park that night . Well, because we had missed our movie and so we were kind of driving around and just trying to figure out what to do. Reporter when they got there, kristene said she and mollie walked to one of the overlooks. We werent even there for five minutes when we ended up seeing, like, this guy walk by. I got a this weird feeling and we wanted to hurry up and get out of there. And the next thing you know, hes right there on mollies side with a gun. Reporter she said the man then forced the two girls down a steep embankment and into the tall beach grass below. And she recalled the odd way he referred to them both. He called mollie girl number he called mollie girl number one and i was girl number two. Reporter and he referred to you that way, by numbers, all the way through it . He did. Reporter whatd you say to him . Well, once we got under the overlook, i asked him if he was gonna take us anywhere, and he just told me like, no. This will be quick and easy. I can feel, like, my heart beating so fast. Im like, man, i want my mom. And thats when im just like praying, please god. Dont dont let dont let me die. Please. Reporter mollie say anything . We both asked each other if we were okay. And that was the last thing we asked, we both asked each other. Reporter thats when kristene says she was raped. But the ordeal wasnt over. He had the gun pointed at us still, and he made me put duct take duct tape over mollies mouth and her eyes, and i had to do the same to myself. I was already at the stage, like, im gonna die. Like, this is it. And i hear the gun go off. And then i went black. And, like, everything went black. Reporter kristenes remarkable physical recovery turned out to be the easier part. I come out here for the anniversary of the shooting, for mollies birthday, and, like, for the day we met. Reporter this is not a painful place to return to . Its not painful. I guess i just kind of feel closer to her, i guess, because its the last place i saw her at. Reporter rehab helped distract kristene from her sadness. So did working with police to find mollies killer. Kristene was kind of our inspiration. Seeing how hard she was working just made us continue to work even har even that much harder for her. Reporter it wasnt for lack of hard work, but police had to face the truth, the investigation had stalled. At this point it sounds like youre kind of nowhere. Yeah. Reporter and then, the dna tests of the cigarette butts and the drink can came back from the lab. And that changes everything. Yes. Coming up a mysterious message rocks the case. The letter is written from the perspective of a hit man who has been hired to kill the surviving victim in this case, Kristene Chapa. Surance. [ snoring ] progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto. [ chuckles ] all right. 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I couldnt move my hand or my arm, my leg. I had to relearn to swallow. You dont give up, do you . I dont. I try to stay motivated. Reporter so did detective Roland Chavez. He, too, was making progress. The cigarette butts and drink can, collected from the crime scene, had just given him his first major break in the case. What did the dna show . The dna showed that it returned to Dylan Spellman. Reporter who was Dylan Spellman . Police learned he lived just three blocks from the crime scene. And chavez also noticed a striking resemblence to that sketch kristene had helped police draw of the gunman. We start trying to get background on Dylan Spellman. Reporter some quick computer searches revealed spellman had a criminal past. Dylan spellman had just been convicted of a violent crime. Yes. On an Armed Robbery in in nevada. Yeah. Reporter that nevada Armed Robbery occurred in 2010, a year and a half before the shootings. Spellman and some accomplices broke into a home in a las vegas suburb and held a family hostage before robbing them and taking off. Anybody get killed . No. Reporter and at the time of the shootings in 2012, Dylan Spellman was in the Corpus Christi area, awaiting sentencing for the nevada Armed Robbery. He had been sent here to to stay with a friend. Reporter what intrigued chavez were some unusual similarities between the nevada crime and the shootings in texas. As we started going through that case file, we started seeing more and more things that are lining up with what were looking at. For example . The use of numbers. Reporter remember, kristene had said the shooter referred to her and mollie as girl one and girl two. He used numbers in that other crime . Yes. They referred to each other by number in that particular crime. Reporter the similarities between the two crimes didnt end there. In the nevada home invasion, were the victims bound . Yes, they were. Hes gotta be number one on the list at this point. He he definitely jumped to the to the top. Reporter by that time, Dylan Spellman had already returned to nevada to begin serving his threeyear sentence. So chavez hopped a plane to las vegas, hoping to hear what mr. Spellman might reveal about his brief stay in texas. Spellman admitted he was in the park the night of the shootings. But he denied being anywhere near the area where the girls were found. He said he was never on the deck. Well, weve got dna on the cigarette butts that prove otherwise. Why lie about that unless youre involved in the crime . Sure. So, i mean, it that definitely raised more suspicion. Reporter chavez then told spellman police found his dna just 30 feet from where the girls were shot. Thats when he says spellmans demeanor changed. He asked me, you know, what what what are the consequences . And i said, well, in texas, i said, you know this is a Death Penalty kind of case. Reporter and then Dylan Spellman asked about a deal. Normally any person thats innocent isnt gonna ask for a deal. Youre gonna profess your innocence. And he wasnt. Now im thinking, this is my guy. Reporter so chavez asked spellman to take a polygraph and spellman agreed. And how does he do . He fails. Reporter time for handcuffs, youre thinking . Not quite yet. Chavez could put Dylan Spellman at the crime scene, but still had no way of tying him directly to the shootings. We have no gun. We have no usable prints. The only thing we have are cigarette butts, monster can, and suspicion. Reporter it didnt help that chavezs one eyewitness to the shootings could not identify spellman from a photo lineup. It was very hard because the suspects all looked the same. Reporter and then there was the matter of mr. Spellmans height. Hes big. Hes, what, 68 . 68. Reporter remember, kristene said the shooter was quite a bit shorter than that. 58, maybe 59. For me, it it was always the the difficulty of of getting over the size. Reporter so chavez and his team regrouped. We began getting cell phone records for him, getting hair samples or, anything off the duct tape, anything off of the girls clothing, anything that would be able to attach Dylan Spellman to them. Does any of that lead anywhere . No, unfortunately it didnt. Reporter two years passed. The case grew so cold that chavezs chief decided to give it to a new detective, hoping he might have better luck finding the missing pieces. Detective aaron veuleman had been working the case. And now he took the lead. What we first wanted to do was expand the scope of the crime scene search because we there was one crucial piece of evidence that we didnt have at that point, which was a murder weapon. Reporter veulman hoped the murder weapon might definitively link spellman to the shootings. Whatd that turn up . We didnt find anything. Nothing of value. So youre back to kind of nowhere. Thats right. And then . We received a phone call from the investigators at the Sinton Police department. Reporter those investigators in the neighboring town of sinton had just been given a letter addressed to Kristene Chapas father. What does the letter say . The letter is written from the perspective of a hitman who has been hired to kill the surviving victim in this case, Kristene Chapa. Reporter in the letter, the hitman even named the person who had hired him. If youre wondering, the letter does not mention Dylan Spellman. All of it was a twist as big as texas. Coming up immediately i knew this was something very big and very important. Had investigators been on the wrong track the whole time . In the two years prior to this investigation we had never heard that name. When dateline continues. Mus and lasts for 12 hours. Learn more at mucinex. Com treat excess mucus with mucinex 12 hour and enjoy living well. Is more than one thing. 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Reporter while detective aaron veuleman continued trying to strengthen his case against Dylan Spellman, investigators in neighboring sinton, texas, received a mysterious letter addressed to Kristene Chapas dad. Immediately i knew this was something very, very big and very important. Reporter the letter writer described himself as a hitman hired by the person whod shot mollie and kristene. He wrote the gunman had sought his services to finish the job and make the only witness to mollies murder disappear. What hes saying is, i was hired to kill kristene, but im not gonna do it. Instead, im warning you. Thats right. Hes telling Kristene Chapas father, im gonna tell you who the murderer is, and then you can go do something about it. Reporter the letter contained Details Police had never mentioned in public. That he forced the girls to duct tape themselves. The fact that he called them by numbers, girl number one, girl number two. Reporter then, the biggest revelation of all. Who does he say the murderer is . He identifies him. His name is Christobal Melchor, and he gives an address in utah. Reporter Christobal Melchor from layton, utah, to be precise, just outside salt lake city. Melchor worked in the area as an army reservist. Had the name Christobal Melchor crossed your desk in any way during this investigation . In the two years prior to this investigation, we had never heard that name. Reporter the hitman even included a photograph of mr. Melchor, the man he said hired him. This guys being handed to you on a plate. Yeah. Reporter could it be real . Should police take this at face value . Is it possible that this letter is some sort of thinly veiled threat to kristene, you know, youve survived, but we know where you live . Yes. The letter definitely contained an implied threat to her safety. And so we moved very quickly to make sure that she was safe, that she was protected. Theyre like, okay. You know what . You need to leave town. No one could no where i was at. Only my family knew where i was at. Reporter with kristene in a safe place, veuleman went straight to layton, utah. With the help of the local pd, he was soon sitting across from his new person of interest. Christobal melchor said that he was on a Training Exercise in fort hunter liggett, california, at the time of the murder. Not only was he not in texas, he was on the other side of the country. He was. Was there anything to suggest that he had some kind of vendetta against the chapa family . We were not able to find any connection between Christobal Melchor and the chapa family or the olgin family. Reporter veuleman then showed melchor the letter, and melchor was stunned. But he was even more surprised when he saw his picture on the last page of the letter. Reporter that was because melchor immediately recognized the photo. He knew when and where it was taken. Plus, he said, the original photograph was of two people. The missing man, he said, was his former roommate, David Strickland. If the snapshot was a surprise to melchor, the name David Strickland was an even bigger one for detective veuleman. Turns out, hed crossed paths with David Strickland before. Id interviewed David Strickland in 2012 just days after the murder. Reporter remember that tip about a white car seen speeding from the park the night of the murder . The tipster was David Strickland. He came in as a good samaritan, wanting to provide information. Reporter back then, David Strickland lived just blocks from the park where the shootings took place. And now here he is being mentioned in connection with a guy whos been mysteriously fingered for the murder. Thats right. So just like that, basically, mr. Melchor is no longer the focus of this. Its now David Strickland. Thats right. Reporter Chris Melchor went on to explain that he and strickland were no longer on good terms. Melchor believed strickland had stolen several of his guns, so he had strickland arrested. The gun robbery put a damper on their relationship. Reporter strickland pleaded not guilty to the gun theft charge and was released soon after, but the charges were still pending. And veuleman wondered, could strickland have written that letter as some kind of elaborate payback for melchor having strickland arrested . I know there was bad blood between David Strickland and Christobal Melchor, but to accuse someone of murder . If you think that letter was written by David Strickland, and you think the letter includes things that only the killer would know well, i think the logical inference was that strickland had something to do with the murder. Reporter finding David Strickland was now vuelemans priority. According to melchor, strickland left utah after his arrest and returned to texas, so detective veulemen did the same, hoping this man would turn out to be the investigations third, and final, person of interest. Coming up a suspect, not acting at all like you might expect. He was enjoying this interview. Maybe police have the wrong guy again because this one doesnt seem to ring any bells for kristene. She wasnt able to point at him and say, thats the guy that did it. And with Heart Disease, your risk is even higher. You didnt know that. No. Yeah. But, wait, theres good news for adults who have type 2 diabetes and Heart Disease. Jardiance is the only type 2 diabetes pill with a lifesaving cardiovascular benefit. Jardiance is proven to both significantly reduce the chance of dying from a cardiovascular event in adults who have type 2 diabetes and Heart Disease and lower your a1c. Jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. 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Now detective vueleman was on the trail of another man, David Strickland. Detective learned strickland was a hometown boy. His dad, a successful businessman. Strickland served briefly in the military and was now newly married. Then vueleman saw photographs of David Stricklands possessions, which had been seized at the time of his arrest on the gun theft charge. Ill never forget the first photograph that popped up. It was a glock. 45 caliber pistol and an under armour glove. You could see very clearly the white under armour logo. Reporter a glock glock 45, the type of gun the crime lab suspected was used to shoot the girls. As for the black glove, kristene was absolutely certain that the shooter wore a pair exactly like that. I know that because i played softball and that stuck out to me right away. Reporter detective vueleman immediately sent stricklands gun to be tested to see if it fired the two spent shell casings fired at the gun scene. What that report said was that the two shell casings found at the scene and the two shell casings from the test fire were linked to the same weapon. Reporter for detective vueleman that report was the missing piece of the puzzle, which he believed now directly linked David Strickland to the shootings. The day i looked at that ballistics report is the day we arrested David Strickland. Reporter the charges, aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, and capital murder. While in custody David Strickland agreed to sit down for a police interview. Just have a seat for me. Prosecutors sam smith watched the interview through a oneway mirror. At some point you saw mollie and kristene. He would claim to have committed to murder youre saying you did this. Sure, i did it. And then in the next sentence with a smile on his face saying, but thats what you wanted me to say, isnt it . Whatever you want to hear, boss. So its like a game . Very much so, a game. He was enjoying this interview. Reporter four years after Kristene Chapa was raped and shot, four years after mollie olgin was murdered right next to her, David Strickland faced a jury of 12. Were you confident . Were you worried . Well, of course i was worried. I mean, i felt horrible. I didnt know how it was going to end upcoming out. When you saw mr. Strickland for the first time what did you think . I didnt know what to think, to be honest. I was just thinking he did this . He wasnt the monster you imagined . No. He wasnt. Sometimes those are the scariest people though. Reporter prosecutor smith laid out his evidence, from gunshot to snapshot to mug shot. The gun, the shell casings, and the gloves. As for the letter, smith told the jury police had found remnants of it on David Stricklands computer. You can delete the letter off of your computer but if you have used the spellcheck, grammar check function, that information is still stored in the computer. And thats what you found . Thats what we found. Why do you think mr. Strickland wrote that letter . He had to know that suspicion would have eventually boomeranged back on him. Thats what most people would think. Its a foolish thing to do. Its a very foolish thing to do. Reporter before prosecutor smith rested, he called kristene to the stand, putting her face to face with David Strickland. I wanted to make eye contact with him. I wanted him to see me and see what he had done but he would not look at me. Defense attorneys dont dispute that kristene was a sympathetic witness, but in court, they argued, she was also unreliable. She didnt know who shot her. She has no rec election. She wasnt able to pick our client out of a photo lineup. She wasnt able to point at him in court and say thats the guy who did it. Reporter whats more, kristene told the police that the shooters gun was silver. The glock was black. Reporter the defense also went after the investigators argued they bungled the lengthy twoyear long investigation by losing critical documents and mishandling evidence. We had the documentation that the evidence was mishandled from the chief of police, chastising the officer who handled the evidence. Reporter that lead detective Roland Chavez admits mistakes were made. Hes now retired. The second lead detective aaron vueleman was let go for sharing sensitive details of the case with someone outside the department. Stricklands attorneys concede their client may have written that letter, but they argue it would only have been out of revenge for Chris Melchor having him arrested. As for those confidential details in the letter this is small town texas. Theres any number of places that this kind of information could have come from. Reporter but what about the lab reports showing stricklands gun matching the shell casings found at the scene . We had our expert who said that its inconclusive. I mean, theres no way that you can say for sure. Reporter police, they said, should never have taken their sights off the real shooter. They had the right guy. Dylan spellman, you think thats the killer . Hes a better match than my boy. He had just failed a polygraph exam and then started trying to plea bargain. This is a guy that kicked in a door with a group of people wearing masks, went in and held a family hostage. Terrorized a family. Takes a special kind of mind that wants to do Something Like that. Reporter and stricklands attorneys point out their client had no history of violence at all. David strickland did not do this. Reporter it was sam smith who had the last word. Dylan spellman, he told the jury, might have been under suspicion but ultimately had nothing to do with this crime. David strickland, he said, was the man holding the gun. Shooting both of these girls for no identifiable reason at all. He certainly is a psychopath. Reporter prosecutor smith never offered the jury a possible motive. Kristene says shes sure it was about her sexual orientation. Whats the reason for thinking its a hate crime . In the letter that he supposedly tried to send to my dad said something in the letter like those fing lesbians. Reporter in his interrogation strickland made a point of saying he had no issues with the gay community. Whether or not that was the truth, prosecutors decided not to charge him with a hate crime. After five days of testimony the jury began deliberations. It took six hours to reach a verdict. Guilty. David strickland is appealing that conviction based on a hair found at the scene, one that police never tested. Stricklands attorneys have sent the hair to a lab and are awaiting the results. For mollies family and friends, that guilty verdict, as it often does, provided hollow satisfaction. Were wait for justice and then now its here but we dont get her back. We have had so many huge major life moments and she hasnt been there. What would have been our anniversary, her birthday, the anniversary of us getting shot, those days are the hardest. Reporter kristene still wonders how she escaped death and sometimes why. I do have survivors guilt. Hopefully it will go away in time. Kristene would tell me, why was it me . Why didnt she survive . And i told her theres a reason that shes still living and to be happy and live on for mollie because mollie didnt get that chance. Thats all for this edition of dateline. Im lester holt, for all of us at nbc news, good night. 13 . And see your friend. Youre not going to just run her over and leave her there fl right now at 11 00, friends since childhood. Now one is accused of killing the other. A grieving father talks to us exclusively as loved ones gathered tonight to remember the victim. The news at 11 00 starts right now. Good evening and thanks for being with us on friday night. Raj mathai. Jessica aguirre. A south bay woman accuse of running down and killing her lifelong friend remains in jail