mastermind and you get the guy whose hand was actually on the knife, and maybe the little fish swim away? >> that's essentially what happened in this situation. >> do you think you had a strong case against jill taylor? >> she was probably the weakest case we would have had compared to all four people that we believed we were involved. >> reporter: and so in august 2014, the murder trial of daniel blizzard began, with a parade of lawyers, life insurance salesmen, and law enforcement taking the stand before the star witnesses began to appear. >> he would say, 'can't wait til the old man's gone.' >> reporter: jill taylor claimed that daniel wanted vern dead, so he could collect the $1.58 million dollar life insurance policy. and, that adriana mendez told her that she and luis were going to go through with the attack. >> she said, we're gonna do that