Page 11 - Linking Sam News Today

>> and essentially no work had been done on it for at least the last two years. >> reporter: from the beginning, police had suspected cathys one-time boyfriend sam lopez had something to do with her murder. but they had nothing connecting him to the crime. no witnesses. no dna. and sam had that solid alibi. tina was still married to sams brother, armando. the two families intertwined, as cathys family continued to search for answers. >> and then in april of 1997, i got a phone call from mary ben...

The cop who pulled sam over for not stopping said sam flew through the intersection, and when he approached the car, the cop said it looked as if sam and cathy had been arguing. but he did say cathy looked fine. nobody was quite sure what happened after that, except they apparently parted company. sam in his car, cathy in hers. then cathy arrived home, too out of it to realize shed been driving on slashed tires. tina saw the tires the next day. >> i just kept saying, "who -- what happened to you...

Guilty people have tells, just like in a poker game? >> absolutely. they dont have that innocent mindset, and they -- they have other fears. they fear being caught. they cant get their stories straight because theres too many details. >> reporter: montgomery spent months carefully listening and re-listening, watching and re-watching, hours of sams interviews. looking for the tells. >> how long have you guys been dating? >> its -- its an off-and-on thing. on-and-off thing. >> okay. >> reporter: t...

Either way, larry thought sam knew more than he was telling. >> the guilty person knows a lot. cannot forget all that he knows. so when hes talking, all that information is in -- is in his brain, and it can slip out. >> reporter: another reason to think sam knew much more than he was saying? in his second interview after cathys body was found, police spoke with sam for 90 minutes before he asked them a single question. and when he finally did -- >> so did you -- do you guys know how she was kill...

Started dating albert and sam had another girlfriend, too, they continued to see each other. and daron found evidence that in sams mind, his relationship with cathy was far from casual. >> mary gave me a shoe box full of letters that were written between sam and cathy, and the content of these letters showed a very jealous guy. a guy who would get angry any time somebody flirted with cathy. >> reporter: sam didnt try to hide the fact that he was prone to jealousy. >> she knows, every time she me...

His name is matt murphy, and he noticed one thing right away. >> the first thing you see when you look at the file is a big rejection from really good lawyers who reviewed it individually and as a group. >> reporter: which means they tried very hard to make a case and they couldnt do it? >> they tried very hard. thats right. and they figured, based on their review, that they couldnt do it. >> reporter: and some of the reasons were apparent from the get-go -- >> when you look at it on its face, t...

Fingerprint, why would they charge sam? were you surprised you didnt find sams dna there? >> yes. >> reporter: he thought newer, better tests might find sams dna, but it was too late for that. cathys family had sold the car. the case against sam would have to be entirely circumstantial. murphy felt the key to that was somewhere in those interviews sam gave to police. but here, too, there was a problem. >> when you look at the interview, everything that sam lopez said seemed logical at the time. ...

>> quite a few times looking for her. >> reporter: mary says sam sounded okay at first, until she told him where cathy was. >> i said she was at the hospital and she wasnt back yet. >> reporter: at the hospital, visiting albert, her boyfriend, who had attempted suicide. sam okay with that? >> no, he got upset. >> reporter: sam told police he was just worried about cathy, especially after he spoke with her that week. >> she was crying on the phone, i messed up you know, i never tried getting him ...

>> reporter: the very first witness matt murphy put on the stand was cathys mom, mary. it seemed a safe way to start. >> there is a cardinal rule that you dont ever do a hard cross-examination on a mother. >> reporter: but matts mentor broke that rule. >> he really pressed her on some of the details. >> and scored some points. >> scored big points. i mean, scored big-time points. >> reporter: mary initially told the jury sam only responded to one of her pages, but under cross-examination mary re...

Patiently as he distanced himself from cathy torrez. >> hed never been shopping with her, never changed a tire on her car, never carried groceries. we went through the whole litany of things that -- >> reporter: and hes all, "oh no, no, thats --" >> would -- >> reporter: thats all true. "im a million miles away from her"? >> right, right separated himself. >> reporter: but in so doing, javier ruled out any innocent explanation for finding his dna and fingerprint on her car. so when police told h...