first degree murder for greg fester was off the table. before long, a new deal was reached. both fester and reid pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree. and in march 2007 not yet a year since the killing they entered a courtroom. reporter: you went to the sentencing. i did. the first time i saw them. i didn t think i could feel so much anger and sorrow and sadness. i remember thinking i didn t think i could be this mad. yes. reporter: in the courtroom, jessica reid and greg fester each apologized to the stock family. and then the judge handed down their sentences. for fester, two consecutive life terms plus another 10 to 20 for using a weapon. for reid, the first to the courthouse, remember, no break at all. the same sentence. two life terms back-to-back. no parole, ever. and for the stock family, ever
you put the gun to her face and blew her away. okay. and then as i headed out, i just stuck it to him and blew him away. narrator: then a bonus. remember how that blood spatter indicated a second killer was involved? well now before they trooped him off to jail, matt livers gave them a name to match the void on the wall. so perhaps it s not so surprising that in the elation of the moment, detectives had no idea, not a clue, that they had just jumped down an alice in wonderland rabbit hole. coming up the case snares a second suspect, not just with an accusation, but with what appears to be damning evidence. now, that was the real smoking gun. i mean, you got him. is critical to our econo my
i had my own suspicion. narrator: just two days after the murders, detectives visited matt livers former employer, asked about his personality, rumors that he had a temper. they put a watch on him and went through his garbage, too. this was in lincoln, about 30 miles from the murder scene. then eight days after the bodies were discovered, they asked matt livers to come in and answer some questions. you re free to leave at any time. i m here to cooperate with you gentlemen. narrator: he was unerringly courteous, deferential to the two detectives questioning him. said he d never been interviewed by police before. what do you think happened? i don t have any idea. i would like to know why. who, what, when, where and how and why? you know, why would somebody do this to such good people, very christian people? very likable people.
i was with greg. that s all i was with. i was with greg. narrator: but wait a minute. she must have known matt and nick. so the investigators showed her pictures. no idea who they were, she said. never saw them before. if they did it, i swear to god, they are some dumb people. narrator: then she was told the electric chair stood ready for her if she refused to cooperate, and jessica reconsidered. this guy, i don t know why, but he does look kind of familiar. narrator: that s nick sampson, who looked kind of familiar. and from there, as the hours wore on, jessica s story shape shifted as did the players time and again. until it evolved eventually into a tale that began easter night at bulldog s bar in murdock, where nick sampson, you ll recall, worked and ended at the stock farmhouse.
not exactly master criminals, were they? no. not by any sense of the word. two teenagers from wisconsin whacked out on drugs and not knowing what the hell they were doing. out of control. narrator: but the detective had no idea just how out of control these two had been. or where their stolen truck had taken them. and that, a few weeks later, is where the ring came in. that s when roarer got a call from nebraska, heard how that ring turned up at the scene of a double murder, heard how they tracked it back to the walmart in beaver dam and then to cori and ryan and the stolen truck. that must have been a shocker to get that information, to have it cross your desk. a huge shocker. that pretty much sends a chill down your spine. narrator: what was going on? how were these two teenagers, reid and fester, tied to the murders of wayne and sharmon stock? or were they at all? coming up an interrogation of one of the teens provides a chilling first