Page 242 - Steven News Today

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

Welcome back to "dateline extra." years after jody fell to her death, a new prosecutor reopened the case and brought in a famous forensic pathologist to re-examine the evidence. what would he uncover? >> what stuck in his mind -- >> reporter: in every murder trial, time is an invisible but crucial player. >> 16 years. >> reporter: sometimes it hurts a case. memories fade. evidence is lost. witnesses die. but time can also put evidence in a new light. such was the case in the trial of steven. acc...

Against jody months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >> steven. >> reporter: jody was worth more dead than alive. her friend testified that jody feared steven might do something violent if she pushed for the divorce. even so, marion said, jody was determined to get away from her husband. >> she was going to have divorce papers served on steven. she was very afraid of him. >> reporter: yet was steven violent enough to kill his wife? an unlik...

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 saying one thing and not following through. >> reporter: though it is true steven did not want a divorce. he says he wanted to give the marriage another chance. as for that former girlfriend? she recounted stevens mysterious statement just before jodys death. >> give...

The officer says he began talking to steven about what had happened to jody when steven interrupted him. >> he looks at me and he goes, you dont believe me. >> reporter: then the officer says he said something that almost knocked him off his feet. >> i said, i believe an accident occurred. i said, was it an accident? and he put his head down and he said, no. >> reporter: he believed that was a stunning confession. he ran to tell the other detectives, including lynum. but they had spent hours gri...

>> reporter: into the tree canopy which carried her through the abyss and into that distant tree. >> this is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and her head. >> reporter: there was another bubble to burst in the prosecutions case. the motive for murder. steven wasnt a greedy killer his attorney said. his client never made a claim on that insurance policy. it was only after the money was turned over to the state, years later, he said, that steven even bothered to collect...

Face. >> reporter: the medical examiner first ruled the circumstances of the death could not be determined. now on second look she said the victims wounds or lack of them told her something different. something vital. if jody had tumbled innocently down, she would have had broken bones everywhere. she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of her body. >> reporter: why would steven had killed his wife? the biggest reason the prosec e prosecutor argued was that steven did not want...

>> reporter: a death scene where the pieces didnt connect. a husband who appeared nonchalant. from a cops point of view, things were adding up and not in stevens favor. >> not just one thing. it was the totality of the circumstances. everything -- every little thing was clicking in my mind. im saying to myself, you know, this isnt right. something is wrong here. >> reporter: gut instinct is one thing. but evidence is quite another. people handle terrible events in different ways. the police are ...

Do you have any accompanying music here for small-town news? paul shaffer, ladies and gentlemen. >> the show making fun of itself and turning itself inside-out that way was something kind of new. >> dont we look like guys you see hanging around together? >> absolutely. >> would you like to hang around with me? >> nope. >> ill say it again, this is the stupidest show -- >> i thought i would never want to do this show with you. >> now why? >> because you thought i was -- >> a [ bleep ]. >> there i...

10 grand. >> went in large measure to her intent. demonstrated deep content and hatred she had for the father of her great grand bay by do offer money to kill him. >> the trial lasted less than four days. the state made its case that shirley killed steven to eliminate a family problem. prosecution had no physical evidence to prove she was the shoot err. no dna. no fingerprints. no gunshot residue. no splatter. no photos of the scrapes on shirleys hands. all they had were descriptions of the hand...