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Yet spoken to reporters. >> now you'll talk to us, right? >> back up, back up, please, please. >> and before we got a chance to talk to him, his defense lawyer ushered him out down the hallway. >> what did you think? did you take it all in? i'm not sure he took it all in. >> i'm not sure i took it all in at first. >> that this is over. >> it was super exciting. everyone was so happy. everyone was in tears. >> not quite everyone. assistant d.a. bill gargen was fuming. >> were you willing to get arrested over this. >> i was more than willing to have handcuffs placed on me to argue my point. i di...

The wire factory where dawn lavender worked. she was halfway through her day shift. they told her she was under arrest for the murder of her friend, theresa mayfield. >> she first wanted to know why we was arresting her. when she got to the jail, she said this was wrong, we made a mistake. >> the corporal and the sheriff were only too happy to explain to assistant d.a., tim evans, how one clue led to another and eventually an inescapable conclusion. but prosecutor evans had questions, pointed ones. >> you could tell it would be difficult. >> where was the smoking gun? where was the murder weap...

The former defendant who hadn't spoken to reporters. >> back up, please, please. >> before we got a chance to talk to him his lawyer ushered him out. >> did you take it all in? >> i'm not sure i took it all in at first. it was super exciting. everyone was so excited. >> not quite everyone. assistant d.a. was fuming. >> were you willing to get arrested over this? >> absolutely. i didn't cross any lines. >> what recourse do you have? >> there is no appeal that i know of. >> so charlie tan is free. >> that's it. there is no appeal as of right from this trial order of dismissal because there had n...

Is there some of that feeling around? >> yeah. the community felt that very strongly. >> so, when the trial began less than a year after the shooting, the sworn representative of the people with a murder case to prove found herself in an odd spot. >> the biggest problem was the defendant himself, because he did appear to be, you know, an upstanding, nice young man. >> monroe county district attorney sandra dorley. >> from the very beginning, people were disappointed that an indictment was filed against charlie tan and we're taking this to court. but, you know what? we have to prosecute people ...

And just months before that trial began, matt murphy learned that sam had a new defense attorney. someone matt knew very well. >> he so is good. and i would be lying if i said my heart was not in my throat. >> reporter: sam's defense attorney lew rosenblum was the former assistant d.a. who supervised the homicide unit. in fact, he was the original prosecutor who back in 1994 didn't think there was enough evidence to charge sam. not only that, lew was the man who brought matt into the homicide unit. >> lew took me under his wing and trained me how to do homicides. >> what's it like to go up aga...