Page 7 - Dylan Spellman News Today

Twist. >> reporter: day by day, inch by inch, kristene chapa walked a steady, if uneven, road to recovery. >> i couldnt move my left side. 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? >> ...

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 saying this is the guy that did it. first came dylan spellman, t thing you want to think about. but its important to know about. the first question people usually have is: "wh...

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 ...

>> 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 ...

Welcome back. a mysterious letter had identified chris melcho as the man who shot mollie and her girlfriend. after police spoke with melchor, they turned their tensi to his former root maim, david strickland. police wan heated to what he had to say, and they were not the only ones. heres josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "a texas twist." first came dylan spellman, cleared by police and by his height. then chris melchor, also cleared of suspicion by geography. now detective vueleman was on...

"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 thinki...

Him directly to the shootings. >> we had no gun. no usable prints. the only thing we have are cigarette butts, monster can and suspicion. >> it didnt help that his one eyewitness to the shootings could not identify spellman from a photo line-up. >> it was very hard because the suspects all looked the same. >> and then there was the matter of mr. spellmans height. >> hes big. >> hes what, 68". >> 68". >> remember christine said the shooter was quite a bit shorter than that, 58", maybe 59". >> for...

And more things lining up with what were looking for. >> for example. >> the use of numbers. >> remember christine had said the shooter referred to her and molly 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. >> similarities between the two crimes didnt end there. >> in the nevada home invasion, was the victims bound. >> they were. >> he definitely jumped to the top. >> by that time dylan spellman had alre...

Only been out of revenge for having his arrested as for those confidential details in the letter. >> this is small town texas, any number of places this kind of information could have come from. >> what about the lab report showing stricklands gun matching the shell casings found at the scene. >> we had our expert said its inconclusive. theres no way you can say for sure. >> police they said should never have taken their sights off the real shooter. >> they had the right guy. >> dylan spellman, ...

Violence. >> it was sam smith who had the last word. dylan spellman might have been under suspicion, but ultimately had nothing to do with this crime. david strickland was the man holding the gun. >> shooting both of these girls for no identifiable reason at all. he certainly decided that. >> prosecutor smith neverle offered the jury a plausible motive. christine says shes sure it was about her sexual orientation. >> whats the reason youre thinking it was a hate crime. >> the letters he tried to...