Page 16 - Assistant Da News Today

Now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for "the durham herald-sun." >> the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannons family here. you got denitas people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. >> reporter: especially tense for denitas mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye contact with the woman accused of murdering her daughter. >> shanno...

Explorer. >> he was very positive about the vehicle. he said, "yep, thats the vehicle that i saw." >> reporter: and that wasnt the only thing the witness noticed, says assistant d.a. david saacks. >> he remembers a patch or some kind of something, you know, on the shirt. >> reporter: a patch like on the uniform shannon wore as a 911 dispatcher. and there was more. investigators discovered shannon clocked in at about 10:00 a.m., some two hours after denita smith had been murdered. more than enoug...

Shannon was prepared to share all new information with the potential to change the whole focus of the case. assistant d.a. david saacks. >> she just wanted to give her side. and we certainly wanted -- allowed her to do that. >> reporter: and her idea, or her attorneys idea was and then youll drop the charges after youve heard this? >> i think that certainly was her idea. so if they dont say anything were going to keep going on the path were already on, which is shes already charged. >> before we...

It had been six months since denita smiths murder. and sitting on the desk of assistant d.a. david saacks was a series of phone recordings that shannon crawley and her family insisted were jermeir stroud copping to the crime and trying to cover it up. >> i got away with it once. ill get away with it again. just keep your [ bleep ] mouth shut. >> this is wrong. i didnt do anything. >> you know ill find you. >> reporter: police were not present when shannon recorded the calls, but they were able t...

There. >> the nurse changed her story. >> everything changed. everything changed. >> reporter: this is what? one big conspiracy? >> i hate to make it sound like that. >> it sounds like it. it sounds like it. >> reporter: assistant d.a. david saacks says the rape was properly investigated and seemed to be nothing more than a hoax. which also, for him, finally answered that lingering question of who was stalking whom. >> everything was pointing to her and the only thing that was pointing to jermei...

The csi team rushed over to todd and rachels house and assistant d.a., lisette suder, joined them as they searched and documented the interior of a house that was strangley chaotic. >> reporter: what did it look like? >> the house is well-manicured. minus the fact that theres this yellow crime scene tape up. and then you walk through that and you walk into the doors and the house is in complete disarray. kitchen is completely undone. baseboards missing all over the place. the house is not put to...

Leave behind these small particle feathers. >> reporter: thompson peered through his microscope, studying bloody strands of hair found clutched in kathleen petersons hand tangled in the hair were not one but two minute bird feathers a surprise he says to the detectives and an assistant da watching in the room >> i think they were surprised because of the lab had not found the second feather. >> bill peterson was interested in the results, too. a review of the slides showed what traces of bird fe...

Identical. assistant d.a. kevin rousseau led the prosecution. >> on states exhibit 1 -- >> reporter: ashlea deenor assisted from the witness stand detective cedillo helped lay out the case. >> were you able to conduct a search of her apartment and her vehicle, things like that? >> yes, sir. >> and did you find a receipt that proved to be helpful? >> thats correct. >> reporter: a sales receipt showed some odd purchases on carters credit card >> she had purchased two shovels. she had purchased a t...

And i was shocked. we were shocked. >> yeah. >> reporter: but they still didnt know what happened to kenia. quickly, the lee family called a news conference and delivered a message to travis forbes. >> anybodys going to relay any messages to him, tell him, or if you guys talk to him, tell him weve got just one question. where is kenia? thats it. >> reporter: but travis wasnt talking anymore. so lee offered a radical idea. >> i called assistant d.a. lombardi, and i said make a deal. >> you wanted...

I knew that he would eventually hang himself. but i didnt think hed go out and try to murder again this soon. and i was shocked. we were shocked. >> yeah. >> reporter: but they still didnt know what happened to kenia. quickly, the lee family called a news conference and delivered a message to travis forbes. >> anybodys going to relay any messages to him, tell him, or if you guys talk to him, tell him weve got just one question. where is kenia? thats it. >> reporter: but travis wasnt talking anym...