Page 5 - Cara Pull News Today

It seemed very odd. >> reporter: and remember all those stories about caras control over jj? meghan told the jury how he had to sneak around with his own daughter. >> he would give me money in gas gift cards or grocery gift cards, to make it look like he had bought gas or had bought groceries -- because if he took cash out or money out to give me, it would cause some type of ordeal. >> reporter: but his new love, lonnie lancto, told the jury about that change in jj, as soon as he left cara. >> h...

Opinion. >> i think when you say, "take care of my daughter." "i did love you," all the other insecurities in that note -- the point of that note to me was theres another side of j.j. that a lot of people didnt know. and there were some real issues there. >> reporter: but the idea that was a suicide note? ludicrous, said the prosecution. could have been written years earlier, probably was. after all, why would he ask cara to take care of meghan? she was an adult, living on her own, when j.j. was...

She was put in an interview room while detectives reviewed the rape report. it was not conclusive. did they find any, you know, any of the classic symptoms of a violent sexual stault? >> none were notated, no. >> however, the report did note bruising on caras hip. was it possible to determine how that bruising got to be there? >> that original nurse thought that that bruising might of been from the incident of the night. when it was examined later by another doctor, they determined that the brui...

>> when you lie to a jury, when your witnesses lie, get on that stand, especially police officer, and lie, the jurys not going to forgive you. and he lied. >> reporter: well, maybe, but the defense still had to account for the prosecutions strongest evidence against cara. her shifting versions, her many different stories about what happened. >> my story didnt change. i just got it out of sequence. he came in the door. he raped me. he was enraged. he came in the door, and he yelled at me. he left...

But he was in pain most of the time. >> he kept drinking. and thats when he started using the oxycodone for the knee pain. >> sure. that was prescribed, right? >> yes. but it became chronic. and he was unpredictable when he was on it and off it. >> cara told detectives j.j. liked his work with the medical examiners office, but the horrific crime scenes he witnessed took their toll. so much so he developed ptsd. >> one example, the last one -- a man threw his 7-year-old girl off a bridge. and tha...

>> when i first heard the facts from ms. ryan, i didnt think that they would charge her. >> from the defendant the facts are always different. >> i believed her. she seemed very believable. >> reporter: cara and her attorney waited to see what would come next. and meanwhile, detectives continued their investigation. one thing that struck them was the reaction of j.j.s family and friends. daughter, meghan. >> i said, "was it her?" and they said, "was it who?" i said, "was it cara?" and they said,...

>> if you are in a situation that calls for self-defense, and if you lie about the circumstances, then that tells me that you werent justified in what you were doing. otherwise why do you need to keep changin the story? >> reporter: no question in their minds, said the detectives. cara murdered j.j. they arrested her. the sheriff made the announcement. >> so i believe this is a domestic related homicide and cara ryan was uh, acting out because she was losing control over him. >> when i watched t...

I think he went over to the neighbors. >> okay, is your door locked? >> no. >> okay. >> im too scared to get up. >> in fact, the man had run from her house and collapsed on the next door neighbors doorstep, was lying there, bleeding. the neighbor dialed 911, too. >> he doesnt look very good. hes bleeding pretty bad. >> i understand. >> the neighbor was petrified, afraid of more gunfire, refused to open his door. >> im afraid to go outside. hes outside on my deck. >> and you dont feel comfortable...

>> you say he assaulted you. what, he raped you? >> he did things against my will. yes. >> then, cara told the detectives, j.j. dressed and drove off, and she called him six times, to try to get him to calm down. >> i called him right away and i told him how sorry i was, and how its not serious with scott, and that i was going to call it off. >> and a few minutes later, when he came storming back into the house, cara said she knew exactly who it was. >> i heard him come through the door and he t...

Detective syers, charged with finding out, understood he had a problem. learned that from the deputy who put cara in his car. >> we were told that she had used her telephone. >> that is, her cell phone, the one they failed to take away. big mistake. who did she call? what did she say? syers knew the patrol car was equipped with a camera and microphone to record any conversations. so -- >> i naturally asked, "was this recorded? " and i was told, no, it wasnt. >> there was video, just no audio. fo...