Page 6 - Stephen Sharp News Today

It back in the garage. he put in the bag with the picnic items. it was just convenient. a convenient excuse for having that hammer. >> detectives asked if they could check out the drawer and the rest of stephens house that night. he agreed. but as it turned out, something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. >> and i said, look, mr. scharf, im your local police department. >> ted ehrenberg was a local officer told to keep an eye on stephen scharf that night as detecti...

>> yes, they were you know, we were inu love. it was aesthetic. >>ing from there, marriage, a house. a sun jonathaning in 1983. and lould you describe jodie as a momle? >> she was really devoted. >> life was good and even as the years went by, even with the demands of work and family, steven says he and jodie still made time for each other. like that can last summer sunday in september of 1992. steven says it was supposed to be a date night. >> it will wasnt -- day in our life, our marriage. >> ...

>> reporter: he and another rescuer began to walk along the base, pointing their flashlights north. finally, about 30 feet away, the beams landed on something white. it was jody, lying motionless next to a tree. >> there was a lot of blood on that tree. and the blood was actually draining down the tree. thats where the severe impact took. thats where she really -- >> jody sharp had not survived the fall. to chiofi it was clear.fa she had slammed into that tree. as they began to move the body he ...

Circumstances. everything -- every little thing was clicking in my mind, im saying to myself, this isnt right. somethings wrong here. >> gut instinct is one thing. but evidence is quite another. people handle terrible events in different ways. the police are paid to be suspicious. maybe their view of stephen was too jaundiced. there really was nothing to indicate that jodys fall was anything but an accident. a few months later the ruling was in. the bergen county medical examiner concluded the m...

Marital spat. >> the prosecutor paints a picture of someone who frankly is furious about this divorce. >> no one person ever indicated that my client was furious over this divorce. they had talked about divorce for years. maybe she was, you know, saying one thing and not following through. >> oh it is true stephen scharf did not want a divorce, he says he wanted to give the marriage another chance. and as for that former girlfriend, terry scofield, she recounted stephens mysterious statement jus...

She was seeing other people herself. >> the person on the bottom half in both of those is who? >> jody scharf. >> the record keeper of a dating service testified that jodys name was on an application. she even checked off the interests shed like to share with a mate. the attorney offered that as proof of stephen and jodys open marriage. but what really rankled the defense, what had torn at the heart of stephen scharf, was the testimony of his son, jonathan. >> i remember her showing me her bruis...

And he didnt want to split assets with jody. and there was yet another motive for stephen, said the prosecutor. a potential payout. >> usaa life insurance company. >> an insurance representative testified about a $500,000 policy taken out against jody scharf months before her death, payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >> stephen f. scharf. >> jody scharf was simply worth more dead than alive. her friend marian hilferty testified jody feared stephen might do som...

This wasnt a murder case, just a sad story about a woman who tumbled drunkenly to her death. >> this case is an accident, nothing more, nothing less. >> soon it would be in the hands of a jury. >> coming up -- >> it was the light bulb. you couldnt help but think, hmm, thats interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> stephen, did you kill your wife, jody? >> the verdict. -♪ hes got legs of lumber and arms of steel ♪ ♪ he eats a bowl of hammers at every meal ♪ ♪ he hold...

The jurys about to decide the fate of stephen scharf. heres chris jansing with the conclusion of our story. >> 18 years after a night that ended in his wifes death off a cliff stephen scharf stood accused of murder by the state of new jersey. and through it all one thing he wants you to know is this. he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jody. never. >> stephen, did you kill your wife, jody? >> i did not hurt jody. i did not. >> did you throw her off the palisades? >> no, i did not. i d...

And i was begging him to stop doing it. >> he also remembered the last day of his mothers life. he was 10 and said his mother told his father that she didnt want to go out with him alone. >> she said, if i wanted to go out with you, i wouldnt be divorcing you. >> but where was the proof that stephen had planned to kill jody that night? well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. but there was also testimony from this woman, one of stephens old girlfriends. >> i even mentioned to my girlfriend ...