Page 12 - Eric Mullens News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Pam and -- >> he hits pam in the head hard. he's standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. >> reporter: the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had already left on vacation. >> this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. >> reporter: so, for the jury it came down to whose story to believe. prosecutors said the police cleared those suspects right back at the beginning. but nothing could clear ralph. and nothing could soften a truly shocking allegation -- ralph murdered pam because divorce would get him disfellowshipped, cast out, fr...

>> i knew she was dead when the ambulance showed up, because they didn't go into the house. they just stayed, and were working on ralph. >> ralph wasn't shot, but he was hurt. and he was air lifted to the nearest trauma hospital. walsenburg, as local reporter eric mullens knew, was not equipped to handle an investigation of this magnitude. >> you have small town departments, five, six, seven people. you don't have murder cops on staff. you don't have forensic professionals on staff. >> so by the time shannon arrived at the hospital looking for her mother, an agent of the colorado bureau of inv...

>> ralph candelario's life was more important than anyone else's life. >> reporter: so the jury got the case. and they worked till the end of the day and then through a second and then a third. tick tock. >> whether they convict him or they don't is going to be a different set of emotions. >> reporter: and then in the middle of the third day -- >> we the jury find the defendant, ralph leroy candelario, guilty of count number one of first degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. but the end of ralph's story? oh, no. on the day set aside for his sentencing ralph decided the plot needed one more twist...

Hurt and he was air lifted to the nearest trauma hospital. the local reporter as eric mullens knew was not equipped to handle an investigation of this magnitude. >> we have small apartment houses, we don't have murder cops on staff, forensic specialists on stof. >> by the time shannon arrived at the hospital the colorado bureau of investigations was there to meet her along with aaron. >> how did she take? >> about as well as you'd expect anybody to get hit by a sledge hammer. first she was shocked and in denial. >> suddenly i realized that last conversation i had with her, that was it. >> no f...

And eric mullens? >> i remember taking it home and reading it and putting it down and thinking, no, it didn't say that. and picking it back up again. >> but remarkable as ralph's letter was, it still wasn't the whole story. a few weeks after the murder, he mustered up the courage and told the police -- >> while he was held captive, he had asked to go to the restroom and he was sexually assaulted in the bathroom. >> why didn't he say anything about that before? >> his explanation was, that he was embarrassed. >> it might be a little bit difficult to talk about, but the smallest details could be...