Page 9 - Finally Ralph News Today

Ticket. the numbers are 28, 30, 39, 59, 70 and 10. tonights powerball jackpot is worth $570 million. president trump is spending the weekend at camp david for a retreat with republican congressional leaders and top administration officials. notably absent, attorney general jeff sessions who was not invited. now back to "dateline." >> welcome back. im craig melvin. when ralph candelarios account of the home invasion was published, it was the talk of the town. everyone wondered, could this story...

>> how are they doing? >> hes not good. crying. he told me to go help her. shes in the kitchen. im going to get my neighbor to help me here. ralph, were getting help for you, ralph. okay? >> the police arrived. went into the house with guns drawn. and there at the entrance to the kitchen, still in her nightgown, lay pam candelario. her head covered in blood. >> i knew she was dead when the ambulance showed up, because they didnt go into the house. they just stayed, and were working on ralph. >> ...

The thing was, the glass fell out the door, not in, as you would expect it would do if somebody was breaking into the house. the police, of course, brought that up with ralph. and what did he write in his letter? i went out the back, and the rear door glass was broken. some pieces fell out when i opened the door. ralph even had answers to questions he wasnt asked, like, why was the fireplace poker exactly where it belonged by the fireplace? >> normally if you used a weapon, youre going to find i...

Loss. >> its been a horrible day. >> the best he could remember, said ralph, he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. then decided to go downstairs to make sure the wood-burning stove was still lit. but on his way to the bottom of the steps, he said, somebody hit him from behind. and then again from the side. >> and i put my arm up, and, boom, i mean, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. it hit me hard, you know. and so i went backwards. the ringing -- i couldnt see no more. >> ...

For her mother, an agent of the colorado bureau of investigation was there to meet her. along with aaron. how did she take it? >> about as well as you expect anybody to get hit by a sledgehammer or whatever. first youre just kind of shocked, then a little bit of denial. >> suddenly i realized that that last conversation i had with her was -- that was it. >> no fresh start now. her mother was dead. and then shannon saw ralph. >> and he lost it. he just turned into a sobbing, shaking maniac. >> ra...

Burglaries arent uncommon. especially with all the drugs around. >> then, said the defense, one of the bad guys saw pam. and he hits pam in the head hard. hes standing there in the kitchen. fire poker in his hand. woe wondering what to do. >> this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. >> so for the jury, it came down to whose story to believe. prosecutors said the police cleared those suspects right back at the beginning, but nothing could clear ralph. and nothing could ...

Fine, then -- >> we seemed to be getting along. everything was fine. she said, this is it, im done. >> what did that feel like? >> it was a crush. you were crushed. >> these two had more things in common, both products of broken homes. the wedding day approached, just a few days to go, when shannons mother, pam, and aarons dad, ralph, invited the bride and groom-to-be for dinner and a talk. ralph was every bit a devout a believer as pam. so some premarital guidance perhaps? oh, no. nothing like ...

It was, said the prosecutors, one of the more disturbing motives more murder theyd ever heard. >> so religious believes were more than important than someones life. >> ralphs life was more important than anyone elses life. >> so the jury got the case and they worked until the end of the day and through a second and then a third. ti >> whether they convict him or they dont is going to be a different set of emotions. >> then in the middle of tv third day. we the jury find the defendant ralph guilt...

Investigation that had occurred to that point. >> which the prosecution listed in detail for the jury to hear, but theres always more than one side to a story. defense attorney told the jury that when she read carefully through all the prosecution material, heres what jumped out at her. >> when you take a good hard look at their evidence, when you see theyve interpreted the evidence to fit the conclusion they drew in the first 12 thours hours of this case. you see all it is is assumptions and su...

Telling me that she just wasnt as happy as she should have been. >> lots of circumstantial evidence, almost enough. not quite. and then the antique rugs. >> i was searching the kitchen area and found in the washing machine two small size rugs. and the rugs were still very wet. and they were balled up to one side. >> but when ralph saw the rugs during a walk-through with the police, he didnt seem to recognize them. >> i mean, ive never seen these rugs. >> the minute we heard he had never seen the...