Page 3 - Guy Crystal News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Served. you feeling any better about the beginning of the second trial than you were at the beginning of the first trial? >> i did. i think because we kind of knew what to expect, we knew what they were going to say, we knew what we had. >> and what you didn't have. >> right. and we had hoped that, you know, whatever mistakes were made from the first trial they'd learn from them and prepared for them and do better. >> reporter: two big differences this time around. first, skyler moore, aka c-styles, was on trial along with derek. although each defendant had his own jury. and second, derek's ju...

Pause, and a gunshot. it is absolutely inconsistent with a hired hit. >> reporter: if not a hit, then what happened? the defense had a theory. it involves this photo of crystal's son javonte found near her body. >> it's obvious that miss taylor was holding that picture when she got shot. >> reporter: schneider wasn't allowed to directly spell out his theory for the jury. he did for us. >> i think she was confronting her killer saying, the only thing you're going to see is a photograph of your son until you pay child support. >> and you think that's when she was shot? >> absolutely. >> reporter...

For the taylor family, history had been split in two. there was "before" when they had crystal and life was good. and then there was "after." >> people kind of started treating us like, "are y'all still talking about that?" >> and they just kind of want you to move on. >> everybody wanted us to move on. >> and you say, i can't really move on. >> i can't move on. >> 'cause you start feeling like, "well, who life is this?" because you want me to go back to what life? this is my life. i don't have a life to go back to. >> reporter: they couldn't move forward. they couldn't go back. but they kept ...

It, but, um -- i told him asap. as soon as i got the opportunity. >> reporter: police once again arrested derek smyer for the murder of crystal taylor. and this time they thought they had the goods. a jury, though, would have other ideas. coming up -- a bombshell from the defense, did someone else kill crystal? >> witnesses testify to hearing an argument. she was confronting her killer. >> that's when she was shot? >> absolutely. >> was this murder a hit at all? >> this is breaking me. >> when "dateline" continues. compare them to clorox. wow! feel the strength of lysol wipes. dude! are you ...

A father of two who had no reason to commission a murder just because he got someone pregnant. but detectives were still investigating. and what they heard made them more convinced than ever that derek had crystal killed. they spoke with traci, the mother of derek's children. early on in the case, she had avoided the cops. now she was eager to tell them what she said happened in 1998 when she was pregnant with derek's first child. >> she got lured to the back of her apartment on the promise to be taken to a doctor's appointment by smyer. and she was assaulted. and her neck was cut. >> by some ...