And on one particular occasion she says, you know, i m kind of in fear of my life. i m scared. i don t know what he might do to me. he s shown up at my house. and he has a gun with him at all times. reporter: shannon s co-worker was concerned and wanted to help. it gets to the point that he offered to sell her a gun, which he did. he named the exact model, and tells me that he gave her bullets to accompany the gun and offered to teach her how to use it. reporter: what kind of gun? it was a .38-caliber revolver. reporter: the same type of gun detectives thought denita s killer might have used. you know, wait a minute. i just finished a interview with her five minutes ago and she told me, i never owned a gun. and in that same interview, i asked her, do you think that jermeir is capable of murder? and she said, no, not at all. just like that, no, not at all. but you re telling a co-worker
She had an abortion. and the romantic part of their relationship ended a year before denita s murder. they both agreed that it ended in january of 2006. the relationship was over. they both gave the same date, the same incident and reason that it ended. reporter: shannon said she didn t think jermeir was capable of murder and insisted she didn t even know denita smith. then detective pate zeroed in on the last time shannon was in durham, the city where denita was murdered. she says she s never been to durham. i ask her about owning a gun. and she tells me that i ve never owned a gun. i can t stand guns. i m scared of them. i said okay, i can understand that. a lot of people feel that way. reporter: and as for where she was on that chilly january morning? she told me she was at a doctor s appointment with one of her children. that was easy to check out. her supervisor was on scene. and she did tell her supervisor
Ann says her daughter had the abortion because the pregnancy wasn t viable. but she claims that when jermeir found out he was very upset. he had contacted the doctor to find out if what she said was true about the pregnancy being viable. and the doctor refused to talk to him. and that made him angry. reporter: jermeir wanted to keep the baby and yeah, yeah. reporter: and raise the baby with shannon? with shannon, yeah. reporter: doesn t sound to me like their relationship was over. sounds to me like it was going pretty well. no. it was over. in fact, he had said to her that if you don t want the baby, you know, i ll take the baby. reporter: shannon went through with the abortion. but by this time, jermeir told detectives, his relationship with shannon had taken a big turn. there was no more sleeping together. going shopping together, that kind of thing. it was more just a voice on the phone. or see you in passing at work. reporter: so basically, they broke it of
To the tapes. was this the same guy? if they find out i shot her, man, that s life right there. you heard jermeir testify and you heard the tapes. does anybody really believe that s jermeir talking on these tapes? i know, but you got a better shot than me. to me that sounded like michael jackson. he had this high-pitched voice. it just clearly was not jermeir s voice. and it clearly was not something jermeir would say, or how he would say it. it just was obvious to me that it was fake. the jury laughed. that s the first trial i ve ever been on where i heard jury members snicker. reporter: but the crawleys, who were in court when those tapes were played, were not laughing. they say they d heard many of those calls firsthand and believed they were the real thing. the jury had heard jermeir testify. he has a deep voice. and the person on the tapes
a year. reporter: now after the murder, word of jermeir s two-timing spread quickly. denita s mother, sharon. i m angry. i m mad. because it never should have happened. you were in a serious relationship. you know, why you felt you had to step out, don t understand. you don t hurt the ones you love. reporter: the divorce rate in this country would suggest that we hurt the ones we love all the time. that s true. but it s kind of bad when you going into the marriage being foul. not saying that it s okay once you re in it. but you would just like to think, you know, you re starting things off right. reporter: edythe kearns was barely beginning to process the loss of her close friend, and now had to cope with something else she had never imagined. i was just sad. and i was hurt. and i was in shock.