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We talk to that knows giselle? >> reporter: ritchie consulted an alameda county assistant d.a., a guy named "butch," butch ford. >> some of my colleagues, their response was, "well, who helped her do it," because she's a woman, she's pregnant. in order to do this, she had to have help. >> reporter: prosecutors had a hard time believing esteban was physically capable of killing michelle le all by herself. >> we encouraged them to make sure they eliminated any possible suspects, such as the father of giselle's child. >> reporter: that would be scott the ex-boyfriend, butch is referring to. and s...

>> the prosecutor. yeah, yeah, he called down there. >> the nurse changed her story. >> everything changed. everything changed. >> reporter: this is what? one big conspiracy? >> i hate to make it sound like that. >> it sounds like it. it sounds like it. >> reporter: assistant d.a. david saacks says the rape was properly investigated and seemed to be nothing more than a hoax. which also, for him, finally answered that lingering question of who was stalking whom. >> everything was pointing to her and the only thing that was pointing to jermeir was that he was in this affair with shannon. i do no...

Now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for "the durham herald-sun." >> the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannon's family here. you got denita's people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. >> reporter: especially tense for denita's mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye contact with the woman accused of murdering her daughter. >> shannon would look at me with this little smirky look on her face. she's very cocky, like she knew she ...

It had been six months since denita smith's murder. and sitting on the desk of assistant d.a. david saacks was a series of phone recordings that shannon crawley and her family insisted were jermeir stroud copping to the crime and trying to cover it up. >> i got away with it once. i'll get away with it again. just keep your [ bleep ] mouth shut. >> this is wrong. i didn't do anything. >> you know i'll find you. >> reporter: police were not present when shannon recorded the calls, but they were able to trace where they originated from, a payphone, so there was no way to confirm jermeir had made ...

>> yeah. >> apparently, he can. >> well, he did it. he did it. >> reporter: you're convinced that was jermeir. >> oh, it was jermeir. >> reporter: so whose voice would ultimately ring true? a three-year investigation was now in the hands of 12 people. two families now waited anxiously inside the durham county courthouse. as did assistant d.a. david saacks. >> i'm never confident when a case goes to the jury. >> reporter: you've been slapped in the face by juries before. >> too many times. that's the lesson here, you never know. >> reporter: then, after just one day, the jury reached a decision...