Page 2 - Dewey Mitchell News Today

District Attorney Greg Willis announced that Darius Bradford, 45, of Plano, was sentenced by a jury to life in prison following three convictions of Burglary of a Habitation with Intent

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Look at me in the face. >> reporter: chris phillips saw daniel in court, too, when chris testified for the state. >> im very cool under pressure, but something about seeing him that day was very shocking to me. i look over at daniel and i gave him a nod, like, "i see you." and he nods back. and there was just kind of this -- this -- i dont know -- this tension. >> reporter: scott goldstein covered the trial. could tell right away this could be unusual. >> the opening line, i think, for the prose...

The day that daniel purchased those gloves. >> reporter: that was huge -- real evidence linking daniel to the crime scene. >> when all these facts comes together, theres no other suspect. and the reason that shelley was killed is because she stood in the way of a romantic rendezvous that he so desperately wanted with nathan. >> reporter: on november 4, 2009, eight weeks after shelleys murder, they arrested daniel willyam. the arrest was, for shelleys family, a double-edged thing. they were relie...

Knew that was gonna be the defense. >> reporter: and as for daniel -- >> i told them in opening statement, it is bizarre as it is brutal. and i wanted them to know that they would be hearing a case where their first reaction was going to be, "how could this happen? this -- this is -- this is crazy." >> i didnt want to be in the middle of the case and them trying to figure out, "wait, whats going on, and why are we looking at this guy and not that guy?" >> reporter: then the prosecutor presented ...

Bloody clothing and the murder weapon and other evidence, the prosecutor figured, none of which police were able to find, though they searched thoroughly through the area. >> in this case, we had someone who committed this crime and then did a fantastic job of cleaning up and not leaving evidence and after the fact told multiple lies. >> reporter: in fact, the prosecutor said, daniel was so good at cleaning up it would be reasonable to assume he was framing nathan when he left that one piece of ...

And then resumed again. and remember, in his first interview with the police, daniel lied about where he was the morning of the murder. and then in a second interview, he told them he went to the falls that morning. and that bit was true, the prosecutor said. but when daniel claimed he went there to meet another female classmate for a photo assignment, that was a lie, said the prosecutor. >> we talked to her and she said that there was no reason for him to have ever been there. he didnt contact ...

She repeatedly told him no, that she was in class, that she wasnt interested. and the fact that he kept asking just showed that he really wanted to make sure he could get away with what he was about to do. and that she wasnt home, also. >> reporter: right. so that was key. he had to make sure that there was nobody in the apartment. >> absolutely. >> reporter: then daniel stopped texting her for almost two hours and then resumed again. and remember, in his first interview with the police, daniel ...

Reporter: daniel willyam, as was his right, declined to testify when he went on trial for killing shelley nance. so he did not himself point at nathan and accuse him of committing the murder. but of course he didnt have to. his attorney did it for him. it was not a surprise to prosecutor dewey mitchell. >> they said it couldve been nathan, and it couldve been a random person, and that by the time the states done with its case, youre not gonna be able to know who did this crime. they just dont ha...