Page 7 - David Mcmannis News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Statements, this and that, all were followed up, every one of them. detective mayo traced down a walmart receipt, a minor forgettable purchase but the time stamp cast serious doubt on phil barr's alibi, caught him in a significant lie. >> that's how detailed we were getting. and then they just happened to run into a guy who said he knew barr and mcmannis and peewee. >> and he overheard them talking about killing this girl. he heard david mcmannis say we shouldn't have done that girl that way. if i don't get out of town, i'm going to spend the rest of my life in jail. fi phillip barr said i've ...

Still, this was way more than they had before. and finally, 14 years after tara vanished, barr and mcmannis were going on trial for her murder. what had happened at the house that day, a jury finally hears him. >> reporter: a mother's perseverance had brought the case this far. >> she fought and fought and fought. >> reporter: would a verdict bring justice at last? when "dateline" continues. you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season o...

Long trials, each peopled by witnesses the jury might not think were very credible. people who supposedly heard them say things like -- >> "we raped and killed the girl." >> "they're not gonna find her." >> "i'm going to kill you like i did the girl in florida". "the girl i killed was 20." >> reporter: one witness testified about overhearing a conversation between barr and mcmannis. >> phillip barr was saying to david mcmannis, "i didn't want to kill her." and she overheard david mcmannis respond, "she had to die." >> reporter: not very believable, said the defense attorneys. just people makin...

15 months with delay after delay in a case that had taken more than 15 years to get to this point. sharon and keith's marriage didn't make it that long. but they attended both trials together. >> we started this together, we're gonna finish it together, no matter what. >> reporter: and after all that time? in each case, deliberations took less than 90 minutes. the verdicts: guilty. both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. mcmannis has filed an appeal; barr lost his. >> i think everybody would agree that but for sharon, neither trial would've taken place. she fought and fought ...

Something that mr. mcmannis was doing, where he was in a place he shouldn't have been and she confronted him. and two people with impaired minds do things that normal people wouldn't do. and their solution to that was to kill her. >> reporter: the woman who'd been sitting out in the front yard told the jury how the two men had been laughing and joking when they arrived, but later when she saw them backing their truck up to tara's front door breaking that small palm tree in the process. >> it was almost like they had a mission, that they had a plan. and one went straight to the tailgate and put...