Page 6 - Those Cliffs News Today

What stuck in his mind -- >> in every murder trial, time is an invisible but crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years. >> 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 stephen scharf, accused of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. >> there is no statute of limitations on murder. >> the prosecutor promised the evidence would tell a story as simple as it was brutal. a husband, deter...

It was telling james linum something sinister had just happened. >> you didnt think this was a horrible accident. >> no. >> there wasnt any smoking gun really. just something dark linum thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. >> he did not react like somebody who had just lost his wife should have reacted. >> and so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from jodys ...

>> the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one critical way, though. she determined that jody had been drunk the night she fell off the cliffs. jody had a blood alcohol level of .12. that was over the legal limit. >> would be equivalent to approximately four average-sized drinks, wine or beer, something like that. a drunken slip-and-fall, argued the defense. to back that up, the lawyer had his own heavy hitter. famed forensic pathologist dr. cyril wecht. wecht posted a resume of star-...

>> 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 stephen scharf, accused of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. >> there is no statute of limitations on murder. >> the prosecutor promised the evidence would tell a story as simple as it was brutal. a husband, determined to avoid a costly divorce, lured his wife to the edge of a cliff and forced her off it. >> if he has lied, he is gu...

Or, was there another way of looking at that couple perched high on those cliffs on a summer night? stephens new wife says the prosecution has it all wrong. >> my husband is not capable. that is not the man he is. my husband is sweet, kind, loving. considerate. >> the defense was ready to show how stephen scharf, far from villain, was the real victim in this story. coming up -- >> they destroyed the crime scene area. >> new questions about the evidence. and was there another reason why a son m...

Get started for free at ancestry.com. jodys death on these cliffs had been a horrible accident. her husband said so. and the medical examiner wasnt arguing with him. but detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. it was telling james linum

>> on the charge of murder, your verdict is? >> guilty. >> guilty. >> later, jurors said what united them was the testimony of jodys friend, telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. >> that possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me, it was my husband. >> and it was another woman in stephens life that swayed the jury, that his stress would soon be over. >> that was something that pushed me towards what we decided in the end. >> it was the light bulb. >> to them, it ...

Something sinister had just happened. >> you didnt think this was a horrible accident. >> no. >> there wasnt any smoking gun really. just something dark linum thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. >> he did not react like somebody who had just lost his wife should have reacted. >> and so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from jodys friends that this was a cou...

Were you eating? >> drinking. >> you were drinking. >> i had lost my wife. my son lost his mom. >> there was plenty of sympathy among family and friends, to be sure. for the man newly widowed with a small child to raise on his own. his wife had died in a freak accident, off a cliff, of all places. how could that happen? and thats exactly what police who were there the night of jodys death wanted to know too. >> right away i got a feeling that there was something definitely wrong. >> it nagged as...

The top of the cliff. and 30 feet to the north. >> she had to have been propelled from that point. >> jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said, and likely from another spot entirely on those cliffs. he wasnt the only expert who saw it that way. >> -- the head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. >> dr. mary anne clayton was the bergen county medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of jodys death could not be determine...