That there was a conspiracy. michael minor never gave me that information. reporter: what is your gut telling you, that danielle was indirectly involved, directly involved or she wasn t involved. reporter: what had no no part in this whatsoever. she wasn t involved in that homicide. reporter: news of the decision not to prosecute danielle for sam s murder made sam s sister cindy furious. do i think it s a tough case? yes, absolutely. but you know what? their job is not to prosecute cases that are easy. their job is to prosecute criminals. reporter: but just when everyone thought danielle was free and clear, prosecutor fraivillig said not so fast. remember michael minor s videotaped break-in of dianne mcknight s apartment? the prosecutor believed danielle not only helped plan the break-in, but she also instructed michael to steal some of dianne s possessions. danielle was charged with burglary and theft. at trial, the defense argued
Michael minor never gave me that information. reporter: what is your gut telling you, that danielle was indirectly involved, directly involved or she wasn t involved. reporter: had no part in this whatsoever? she wasn t involved in that homicide. reporter: news of the decision not to prosecute danielle for sam s murder made sam s sister, cindy, furious. do i think it s a tough case? yes, absolutely. but you know what? their job is not to prosecute cases that are easy. their job is to prosecute criminals. reporter: but just when everyone thought danielle was free and clear, prosecutor fraivillig said not so fast. remember michael minor s videotaped break-in of dianne mcknight s apartment? the prosecutor believed danielle not only helped plan the break-in, but she also instructed michael to steal some of dianne s possessions. danielle was charged with burglary and theft. at trial, the defense argued
These stairs. he said at some point while the two were in the stairwell, sam turned. michael claims that he was in fear and closed his eyes and just fired his gun. then he, you know, comes toward me and i just you know, i just i closed my eyes and i just pulled the freaking trigger and i m so sorry. with all the things he s telling you he s in a relationship with danielle, do you start to think we need to talk to danielle dreher. yes, so the next step was let s hear danielle s story. so detective szalbirak left michael and headed to the hospital where danielle had been waiting for updates on sam s condition. all she had been told was that sam had been shot. no one told her by whom. when i got over there, she was crying. she was very upset. detectives recorded the interview. we re trying to piece what all happened. okay, let me get calm here. at first detective szalbirak didn t reveal he knew about danielle s lover michael minor
He found her tone to be strangely flat and unemotional. that was troubling to me. that was disturbing to me. i cannot believe he did this. danielle went on to say she had no idea michael planned to talk to sam that day. so michael never said anything about going over there? no, he didn t. but detectives were skeptical. they wondered if danielle knew more about michael s intentions than she was letting on. at this point, i don t know whether to believe her or not. you re not done with danielle dreher? oh, no, we re not done with her. for the moment, szalbirak left her at the hospital to be with sam s family. it was up to danielle to reveal the identity of the shooter and explain the sordid details of how she was connected to him. she said, i need you to sit down. i have something to tell you. and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. first, cindy learned sam and danielle were getting a divorce. then that both danielle and sam were having affairs. most shocking of all? it was danielle s lover who shot
Danielle never asked michael to steal anything. the jury didn t agree. she was found guilty as charged and sentenced to four years in prison. this was a very satisfying verdict, to see the woman be punished for her actions. reporter: is the murder of sam dreher an open case or a closed case? no. it s a closed case. reporter: but not for cindy, who continues to mourn the loss of her brother. she keeps his uniform close by for comfort and, with it, a lifetime of memories. he was loving. he was caring. he was the peacemaker. he was always doing for others. he was just sweet. reporter: cindy once felt the same way about her sister-in-law danielle. now there s bad blood between the two. cindy fought danielle in court over benefits from sam s life insurance. they ultimately reached a confidential settlement. cindy also keeps a watchful eye on danielle. according to cindy, danielle was dating another man before she
In this text message to michael, danielle wrote, get out of there if you aren t already. getting bad feeling. and he s doing it at the request basically of danielle. reporter: but what detectives found most alarming were the text messages michael and danielle sent each other. reporter: michael minor writes, i want to blow his head off and then put two on her just for good measure. he goes on to say, bang bang, done. i won t, though, because it s wrong. danielle later responded, you would not and could not because that would be illegal. that was definitely disturbing. reporter: in another text danielle referred to her handgun, which she called daisy. she wrote, i am so close to introducing them both to daisy. michael responded, ha, ha, we can do it together. as a date. smiley face. in yet another, she wrote, i hate them with every inch of me. revenge will be mine, and it will be very, very sweet. it was very obvious that
Or that it was michael who shot sam. instead he started by asking danielle about her marriage to sam. danielle candidly described it as troubled. we had been not getting along for many months. danielle also explained that she knew sam was having an affair despite sam s best efforts to conceal it. dull know where he went today? today? i m sure he went to his girlfriend s, yeah. but he always goes to her house. i m not surprised by that. danielle then admitted she too was unfaithful. she was pretty straightforward, told me about the affair. it was wrong. i shouldn t have done it. nobody should cheat. little by little, the detectives led danielle to believe they were focusing their investigation on her lover michael. so it would kind of shock you if michael went and confronted him? yeah. that s what happened. really? and we have michael. do you? it wasn t the reaction the detective was expecting.
Motive was just jealousy. despite the fact that she was conducting an affair of her own, i think that she was just completely enraged that sam started stepping out on her as well. reporter: but in order to prove that in court, fraivillig felt she would need something she didn t yet have a statement from michael saying danielle acted as his accomplice. so she waited, thinking time would compel him to come forward and admit danielle was involved. he never did. michael maintained danielle played no role in sam s murder. was this possibly a twisted act of chivalry? i think that certainly one of his motivations, if not his sole motivation, was trying to protect the woman that he loved. reporter: did you say to him, why are you protecting her? yes. and he said, i m not. he said, i m not protecting her. we were hoping he would contact us through his lawyers
Danielle had some kind of hatred towards sam, that there was that she wanted to hurt him. reporter: and based on those text messages, it seemed clear to detectives that she had persuaded michael to feel the same way. i absolutely think she poisoned michael s mind as far as what sam was. everything he knew about sam was that he was a violent person. he was described to him as a drunk, as a cheater, as a liar. that knowledge came from one person and one person alone. it was danielle. reporter: did you have any evidence as you kept investigating that sam was abusive or violent toward danielle? there was no evidence of that whatsoever. danielle definitely had control over michael minor. she did manipulate him. did she manipulate him to the point of killing sam? i don t know.
Went to prison. she was living with a firefighter, as a matter of fact. one of my brother s supposed fire brothers. reporter: what s your advice to this guy, this firefighter? watch your back, you know. the last two guys involved with danielle, one s dead, one s in prison. reporter: as for dianne, she s now left to reflect on a life with sam that could have been. did you two talk about marriage? yes. reporter: and was that in the cards? oh, absolutely. reporter: did you ever feel like i m being punished for having this affair? oh, yes. i might have said those exact words myself. reporter: it all started in a club with an innocent conversation. mm-hmm. reporter: was it all worth it? falling in love with sam? i would never change having met sam.