Page 33 - Fred Mueller News Today

October 2013 felt like a grim ground-hog day. fred mueller again in court. his family supporting him from the gallery. did you feel at all like, "okay. we know how this works now. were a little stronger this time around." >> i did feel that way. we could cut out the extraneous stuff and really focus on the no case. >> reporter: but there were differences from the first trial. to ensure an untainted jury pool, the case had been moved northeast to suburban denver, more than 250 miles away from cot...

>> its my dad and the deputy, and, yeah, they come in. its kind of a shock to see, you know, when youre expecting somebody, to see strangers coming in instead. >> reporter: what do you think when you see that? >> not a whole lot of time to think, honestly. you kind of go into shutdown mode. >> reporter: alex recalled his dad seemed like he was in shock. >> he was very disheveled, had been crying a lot. and then he, you know, gave me a big hug, and that was kind of how it broke. >> reporter: i ca...

He said he did. >> false memories happen to us all the time. its not a lie. its just a memory that happens to be incorrect. >> reporter: but no expert could help the jurors understand how fred truly felt about his wife of almost 27 years. to wrap up their case, the defense brought up freds family to talk about how happy the muellers had been. >> did you observe anything that led you to believe your folks were having difficulty in their marriage? >> no, never. >> reporter: leslies mother, ginnie,...

They thought freds story defied common sense and science. >> going to tell you a story that leslie mueller was drowned by her husband. >> prosecutors called michael, the first trained rescuer on the scene. >> im asking him what happened. tell me what happened and he relates that she apparently had fallen off the water fall. >> fred told him the same thing he told investigators, hed watched leslie swan dive off the cliff hitting granite before sliding into the water. >> all of a sudden i was stru...

>> because you -- >> that was the best day of our lives until that accident. >> reporter: the best day of their lives? the agent clearly suspected there had been trouble in the muellers marriage -- a suggestion fred coolly dismissed. >> i can see after 27 years the two of you grow apart. >> no. i think we made a hell of a good pair. >> and you dont know quite how to deal with that. >> or -- or -- >> or? >> one could say that after 27 years we were looking forward to retirement. >> reporter: and ...

>> reporter: time went by and the muellers didnt hear anything from the colorado investigators. the kids assumed the sheriff and his team had finally decided to believe their dad, too. >> we didnt hear from them for three years after that. and so i thought that -- >> i just thought it was done. >> yeah, we didnt -- >> i guess they finished up their -- >> crossed their -- >> -- paperwork or whatever they needed to do. >> -- "t"s and -- >> and that it was over. >> reporter: it wasnt over. >> i am ...

>> reporter: but fred mueller also changed things up in this trial. he hired a new powerhouse attorney, pamela mackey, who had a roster of high-profile clients, like kobe bryant. >> what the prosecution asks you to believe is that fred mueller went from this to a homicidal maniac within seconds. >> reporter: freds new lawyer argued that the states case was beyond flimsy. >> their theory that because leslie mueller did not suffer any significant injuries in her fall from the ledge, fred mueller m...

He pulled over, but he couldnt seem to find where leslie fell. >> i start to unload from the jeep. he says, "no, this isnt it." and we get back in the jeep and he continues upstream or uphill. >> reporter: after another stop, they found the right place and hiked toward the creek. >> all of a sudden, i hear yelling and the yelling is coming from downstream. >> reporter: it was the homeowner, justin sparks. michael golub took off toward him. he was in a knee-deep pool down below the waterfalls. >>...

Support for impeaching and removing the president at 49%. president trump denounced these numbers claiming he, quote, has the real polls. now back to "dateline." >> reporter: after a contentious five-week-long trial, the murder case against fred mueller finally went to the jury. what was it like waiting for that so important verdict? >> butterflies. >> yeah, we were all so nervous. >> and tension. >> but we were also -- i think we were all pretty confident in our gut that theres no way that he w...

Statements, the prosecutor used those words against fred. >> what we learned about the defendant yesterday is he can sell anything. but he cant sell you the impossible. >> from our perspective, thats what he tried to do. is that he tried to sell the emergency responders, c.b.i., the sheriffs office and, quite frankly, these juries, tried to sell something -- a story that was just simply impossible. >> reporter: could this jury rise to the challenge and once and for all make sense of what happene...