Control it. reporter: but police say jermeir wasn t able to control the situation with shannon. some three months before denita was murdered, shannon bought this house near where jermeir lived. and when police searched that new home of shannon s, they were surprised by what they saw and what they didn t see. kids rooms, beds, everything you expect to be in a nice children s room. mom had a mattress on the floor. there was little to no living room furniture, no dining room set, nothing in the kitchen. suggesting what? she was overspending so she could live near jermeir? just to be near jermeir. that s the only reason. there was a clear pattern of her placing herself near him at every turn. it seemed kind of stalkerish. coming up, shannon s brand-new story.
i didn t know what he had done, and i didn t know what he was going to do to me. reporter: it s often considered risky for a murder defendant to take the stand. but shannon crawley insisted on telling her story that she was a victim and not a killer. how do you know now that jermeir did it? well, for one he s told me since that he did. and you re trying to tell the jury that then you had no idea what might have just happened there? i didn t see anyone. just to hear how she presented the information, her poise and her demeanor and all that kind of stuff, she s a credible witness. i mean, she tells a credible story. reporter: and the defense did have those phone conversations shannon recorded in which she insists jermeir threatened her and incriminated himself. you know i already got away with murder once. you think i can t do it again? i m sure you can. reporter: but shannon s defense attorney ultimately chose not to play them.
You, what s his answer? he says, no, that s preposterous. you can check my phone, you can check my work logs, you can see where i was. i ll do whatever you need me to do. reporter: but shannon told police all the evidence they needed just might be sitting in jermeir s garbage can, which was where she suggested he stashed the knife. and sure enough, jermeir s going out to put his garbage in his can and sees the knife in there. he immediately calls his police department and that s when they find the neighbors who said, yeah, they saw the night before some other car come up and heard a thump and somebody saw somebody throwing something in his can and leave. it wasn t shannon. no identification was made about that. reporter: just a dark figure in a hoodie. that s correct. reporter: was the knife planted? there s no proof either way, but it was tested, and there was nothing that connected it to jermeir. as for his whereabouts at the time of the alleged rape? he actually was
Pregnant. but says she and jermeir ended the romance before she had the abortion. but now, her story is slightly different from what she first told detectives. we talked about it. there were some complications, which is why i decided to terminate. the story is that he said to you, i don t want to have a baby with you. and the with you part hit you very hard. no. that conversation never happened? no. one of the things that popped in my head based on my recent interactions with shannon was that maybe she had done something. shannon and jermeir s differing stories are most in conflict when it comes to the day denita smith was murdered. shannon insists he forced her, at gunpoint, to take him to denita s apartment. he told me that i was going with him. that if i didn t, his exact words to me were, either you die for your kids or the kids die for you.
I want god to forgive me for whatever sins that i may do. reporter: jermeir stroud was never charged in the case. but the trial judge did say it was jermeir s behavior that created a perfect storm of events. bringing victim and killer together. jermeir declined our request for an interview. but in a statement, he denied any involvement in denita s murder. and all the allegations that shannon crawley has made against him. investigators say jermeir fully cooperated and was completely exonerated. he didn t ask, pay, coerce anyone to do this. he didn t pull any trigger. and he didn t know it was gonna happen? he didn t know it was gonna happen. at the end, it comes down to the person who pulls that trigger. on the campus of north carolina central university, they still remember denita smith. in the journalism department where she made such an impact,