Page 10 - Erwin Howard News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Please listen to me. at some point i guess i raised my voice and little dog rossy started growling. >> reporter: erwin said he threw a pillow at the dog and that angered dee dee. >> she told me, how dare you hurt my dog and she slapped me. i reached towards her, i grab her hand, she start punching with her hand on my chest. i put her hand down. i crowd her and pulled her towards me. we struggled. >> reporter: erwin said he put dee dee in a sort of a bear hug. >> i just kept holding her and telling her, please, listen to me, please i don't want to lose you. i love you. i don't want to lose you....

Is in san jose and julie is in a resort and sometimes my experience that people dissipate stress after a crime is committed. some people drink and take drugs or leave the area just to dissipate stress. >> reporter: there was strangely one more person who just happened to have been traveling near the time of dee dee's disappearance 36 her ex-husband erwin howard had just flown to his home country of bolivia. and erwin was a mechanic who worked for american airlines in l.a. the common thread in all of these trips? nearby lax airport. what a better place to dump a car? >> lax is a big place and a...

That he was calling her every name under the sun. >> reporter: dee dee told the same story to her friend linda. >> i said do you realize that erwin's behavior is escalating, dee dee? and she said yes. >> reporter: you said call the police? >> no. i said have you changed your locks? she said, no, i'll do it on the way home and, of course, she never did. >> reporter: investigators soon learned that in those conversations with her friends, dee dee had left something out. a detail she mentioned only to her daughter julie that during that argument, erwin howard had also slapped her. >> i said, mom,...

Evidence, everything pointed directly at erwin. >> reporter: there was one more key piece of evidence. the day after the murder, a witness saw a mercedes on the street in the area and she thought it belonged to a friend so she sped up to catch her. >> she sees it's not her friend and he is she sees a male hispanic driving the car and she remembers that license plate. >> reporter: the license plate belonged to the mercedes owned by dee dee keller. the man driving? the witness helped the police artist draw this sketch. who does it look like? >> it looks like erwin. >> reporter: the witness was t...

Defense was i wasn't there and i didn't have anything to do with it? >> correct. >> reporter: the defense attorney walked into the courtroom and made a statement that caused mouths to fall open. >> defense attorney gets up and he says that you're going to see something you'll never see in a court ever. he says my client killed dee dee keller but he didn't murder her. >> reporter: what did that mean? >> they trying to to see if they could get a manslaughter out of it. >> reporter: the d.a. asked to speak with erwin howard behind closed doors and made an offer. plead guilty to second-degree murd...