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identified two suspects -- james styres and roger scott. scott cracked and led investigators to the boy's body. why did they do it? the story began to unfold when phoenix police detective armando s saldate said the boy's mother has been involved so he zeroed in on debra milky. >> he in his mind based upon the little bit of information he had was convinced that this woman did it. >> reporter: saldate arrested milky, a 25-year-old insurance company clerk and within 20 minutes announce shed confessed to arranging for the men to kill her son. the alleged motive -- a $5,000 insurance payout. debra milky was charged with first degree murder. the arrest and charged based solely on detective saldate's statements. at milky's murder trial, saldate was the state's star witness. >> she decided that it would be
witness. randi kaye reports. >> reporter: it was december 1989, all little christopher milky wanted to do was see santa claus but that's not what happened. he wasn't taken to the mall to sit on santa's lap but to the desert and shot execution style. he was just 4. within hours police identified two suspects. james rogers and roger scott. during their interrogation scott cracked, then led investigators to the boy's body. why did they do it? the story began to unfold when phoenix police detective armando saldonta said scott told him the boy's mother had also been involved so the detective zeroed in on debra milky. >> he, in his mind, based upon the little bit of information he had was just convinced that this woman did it. >> reporter: saldonte arrested milky, a 25-year-old insurance company clerk, and within 20 minutes announced she confessed
the court of appeals threw that out that may have to go to trial without the key witness. randi kaye reports. >> reporter: it was december 1989, all little christopher milky wanted to do was see santa claus but that's not what happened. he wasn't taken to the mall to sit on santa's lap but the desert and shot execution style. within hours police identified two suspects. during their interrogation scott cracked then led investigators to the body. why did they do it? the story began to unfold when phoenix police detective armando said scott told him the boy's mother had also been involved so the detective zeroed in on debra milky. >> he in his mind, based upon the little bit of information he had was just convinced that this woman did it. >> reporter: he arrested milky,
a 25-year-old insurance company clerk and within 20 minutes announced she confessed the arrangement. motive, a $5,000 insure ran pay out. shes charged with first-degree murder. the arrest and charges based on the detective's statements. at milky's murder trial, he was the state's star witness. >> she decided that it would be best for milky to die. >> reporter: milky shot back. >> i looked at him and said if i didn't want my son, then i could give him -- i would have given him to my family, my sister or someone else in my family. >> reporter: still, the jury believed the detective. in 1990 she was convicted and sentenced to die. that was just the beginning. for more than two decades her story cap tated the state of