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Victim's sister the day prior. the way he ran out of the place, all those things were, you know, matched what he was telling us. and we were able to corroborate. >> reporter: with all that information, lopez decided to take a chance. arrest derek, apply some pressure, and see if he would crack. so nine years and ten months after crystal taylor's murder, derek smyer once again sat in a police interview room. >> he felt like he had to control everything that happened in the interview. he would answer a question, but before he answered it he would -- he would give a preamble as to why his answer ...

The park might have been. >> and crystal is dead. c-styles is serving time for another murder and nothing is happening to derek. >> nothing was happening to derek that i could see. but i'm a believer of karma. either in this life or the next. you're going to pay for what you've done wrong. >> i'm guessing you were preferring it was this life? >> yes. >> maybe it was karma. maybe it was luck. maybe it was good police work. but whatever it was, on june 15th, 2011, l.a. sheriff's detectives richard lopez and his partner beth smith found themselves at a northern california prison with a few hours ...

>> manipulator. self-centered. and arrogant. >> reporter: maybe that's why derek never shied away from talking with the cops and why he never asked for a lawyer. or maybe he just wasn't guilty. >> definitely he thought he was smarter than we were, anyways. i mean, you know, what did we have? >> reporter: when derek was briefly arrested, detectives asked him who he was with at anderson park on the day crystal was murdered. remember, detective williams thought later it was probably c-styles, but cops had no way to prove it. and then under questioning, derek gave them one. >> he said -- he goes, ...

Really concerned about that. >> reporter: the d.a had his own concerns. the testimony of a schoolgirl, and the sister of the victim, didn't seem enough to convict. and that's about all the evidence they had. police never found any dna, fingerprints, or forensic evidence that linked c-styles to the garage of crystal taylor's apartment. and while they found a .38-caliber bullet lodged in crystal's brain, they never found the gun that fired it, let alone linked that gun to c-styles or anyone else. if c-styles went to trial and was acquitted, that would be the end of it. and so, rather than take t...

By 2011, for the taylor family, crystal's murder was an ugly scar that was never going to heal. >> we had almost stopped being as obsessed with it. >> but you still wanted answers. >> but we still wanted answer. >> reporter: then the phone rang. detectives shared the big news about their prison interview with c-styles. >> they said, "well, the shooter confessed." >> reporter: and told them it was derek smyer who put him up to it. >> reporter: in his confession, mr. styles said he saw another woman on the stairs and thought maybe that was crystie. that was you. >> uh-huh. and he said he conside...