Page 8 - Guy Crystal News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

More important, both men had alibis. witnesses put them nowhere near crystal's apartment at the time of the murder. the same was true for derek smyer. his neighbors saw him at home at 7:30 that morning, meaning he couldn't have shot crystal. doesn't sound like there's enough to hold anybody on at that point. >> no. >> but soon enough there would be another person police would be looking at. coming up -- >> i came around the corner, and it was a guy. he was sitting on the stairs. he startled me a little bit. i got this instinct. i said, remember what he looked like. >> sisters turned investig...

Juries like dna. >> dna, blood trail. in this case, a money transfer. in this case, the lack of cell phone records attaching the two defendants together. >> reporter: the only thing connecting derek to the murder was the confession of the triggerman. skyler moore, aka c-styles. but there was no guarantee the jury would take the word of a gang banger over the word of the clean-cut derek smyer. so it was with nervous anticipation that crystal's family filed into the courthouse on july 11th, 2016. >> the facts and the law and your common sense will lead you to one conclusion. crystal taylor died ...

You know that. >> you're told from when they're young kids, you know, "snitches get stitches." and you don't talk to the police. so when they finally break that barrier and they come and you open the floodgates, they have a tendency to talk then. and all the things that bothered them when they were in the life begin to come out. >> and that's what happened here? >> yes. >> bit by bit, c-styles started to talk. turns out, that was him in the park with derek. he met derek playing pick-up basketball at the same park where derek met crystal and that was the connection investigators had long looked...