Page 9 - Jon Ralph News Today

Recollections would clear the air, he was wrong. what did you think when you saw it? >> i was pretty blown away by what was written. >> coming up, back at home with detectives, ralph gets his own surprise. >> he was very upset that they were missing. >> a better question, why would he care?

His story to match what he thinks youre finding. >> exactly. >> ralph kept explaining, kept offering not less, but more details. about, for example, the drawer pulls in his house, the ones investigators removed to test for fingerprints. >> in the event that one of the invasion persons touched them. >> now heres ralph with the police at his house just after pam was murdered. noticing the missing knobs. >> what happened to all the knobs? >> he was very upset that they were missing. >> i dont under...

Ralph was on vacation or maybe on the run. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph so that we could try to track him down. >> reporter: they tracked his cell phone and caught up with him. >> driver, get your hands in the air. >> reporter: in northern california. >> walk back to the sound of my voice. back to me. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> reporter: charged him with first degree murder. pams daughters were relieved when they got the news. >> all i could think to myself was finally. >> repor...

Pam and -- >> he hits pam in the head hard. hes standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. >> reporter: the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had already left on vacation. >> this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. >> reporter: 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 soften a truly sho...

Unconscious. >> i mean, i dont remember anything else other than waking up in the morning. >> then, said ralph, still disoriented, he tried to sit up. >> i looked down the hallway. i could see pam, her legs. she was there. >> revealed by the first rays of a warm morning sun. >> her head -- there was just blood all over. and there was blood on the floor. and i touched her cheek. and she was cold, cold, cold. and i ran out of the house. >> and that, said ralph, is when he saw his neighbor and yell...

Delaying tactic, whatever it was it didnt work. a day later the judge ordered ralph back to court. >> people versus ralph candelario sentencing. >> reporter: and ralph, bandaged up, got another day in the spotlight. >> your honor, i have maintained that i have been innocent through this whole process. >> reporter: and then a keen observer might almost have heard the jaws drop around the courtroom. >> pam will be resurrected. we will be able to see her again. we will be able to watch her laugh an...

He turned to sobbing and shaking maniac. >> raffls face was banged up, he had bruises in several places, he was confused like a man coming out of a concussion. >> just exhausted. my head just feels -- just hurts. >> and then as soon as he was able and still in his hospital clothes, ralph talked to agents. >> ralph got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and then decided to go downstairs to make sure the wood burning stove was still lit. on his way to the bottom of the steps he said...

And eric mullens? >> i remember taking it home and reading it and putting it down and thinking, no, it didnt say that. and picking it back up again. >> but remarkable as ralphs letter was, it still wasnt the whole story. a few weeks after the murder, he mustered up the courage and told the police -- >> while he was held captive, he had asked to go to the restroom and he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom. >> why didnt he say anything about that before? >> his explanation was, that he was emb...

>> a lot of people got guns. >> a lot of neighbors told me. i went out and got a gun. you know? i want to protect myself. >> everybody knew the candelarios had a nice house, filled with vintage treasures. >> theres a little jewelry that pam kept. this is her dresser. >> some of which were missing as ralph told the police during a videotaped tour. >> the televisions gone. >> okay. >> the candelarios had been about to leave on vacation. so maybe the intruders thought they were gone and were surpri...

>> have you ever heard of gloves with l.e.d. lights? >> we researched it, because i had never heard of that. they do exist. >> in the letter, ralph also changed the time of pams death, backed it up by more than 24 hours. why? could that perhaps have been a response to this investigators challenge? >> she didnt die at 3:00 in the morning. it had to be earlier than that. well know after today. well know that. >> okay. >> and thats going to come back to you. >> okay. >> but thats when ralph reporte...