expensive lawyering dealing with misdeeds that go way beyond tapping an ex-wife s telephone. 1997, paul was arrested after an incident in san francisco one night. ugly accusation. rape, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, trying to run his alleged victim over with his pickup truck. the charges that could put paul in prison for a decade or more. instead, paul spent nearly three years driving back and forth between his place here in colusa and san francisco engaged in a series of court maneuvers. the result? paul simply got probation after pleading no contest to assault with intent to commit rape but denying blame for the offense. the other charges were dropped. but the conviction put paul on california s sex offenders list, searchable by county. a fear that someone in colusa was bound to find his secret paul went into compile near santa cruz. as part of the original plea
i m not copping attitude with you but i m having trouble with some of the stuff you re saying. i know my word i was a felon, a drug addict. everybody knows about it. i put up with a lot of [ bleep ] . so this must have put a whole different complexion on paul. it did. reporter: having thought for sometime maybe peter was your guy. what was that like? it s possible we may have somebody else to look at. reporter: and indeed they did. attached gps trackers to both peter and paul s vehicles, which produced precisely nothing. more weeks slipped by. eduardo ayala, aware he and his family could be the killer s next target, lay awake at night thinking. i would imagine peter trying to build this bomb. had to do it on a work bench obviously but he s got the shakes. so i think about that. did he or did he have somebody else do it for him?
the first thing they told us was a wiretapping incident. reporter: wiretapping? yes. reporter: dave and sue claimed paul tapped his wife s phone to spy on her during divorce negotiations and, sure enough, here are the court documents. in 1997 paul was arrested on four counts related to tapping both his wife s and in-laws phones. he pleaded guilty to one count of electronic eavesdropping, a felony. the other charges were dropped, and paul served no jail time. but the wiretapping story was just a prologue to what they were really there to talk about. who do you think is capable or responsible for actually setting up an explosive device in that panel? i think, like, probably 90% paul. but david and susan couldn t really give a reason why paul would want to kill roberto other than they felt paul just had that kind of personality to do something like that, while pete didn t. so you don t think peter is
deal paul s attempt to commit rape conviction was dropped, vacated in 2007, seven years later. in exchange paul pleaded no contest to the assault with a deadly weapon charge, which meant paul was no longer a registered sex offender. and the prodigal son was welcomed home. that part of his past was a carefully guarded secret from most of the folks here in colusa county. but pete s past was not a secret. everybody knew he didn t like roberto ayala. and everybody knew he was a suspect. around town could you hear what people were whispering? pete. pete, pete. reporter: but not paul? not paul. reporter: then five months into the investigation there was news of a sort from one of the crime labs.
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