Page 14 - Jon Ralph News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It was, said the prosecutors, one of the more disturbing motives for murder they'd ever heard. so his religious beliefs were more important than somebody else's life? >> ralph candelario's life was more important than anyone else's life. >> 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. >> 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 murd...

>> best he could remember said ralph, he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. then decided to go downstairs to make sure the wood burning stove was still lit. on the way to the bottom of the steps, he said, somebody hit him from behind and again from the side. >> i put my arm up and boom. it hit me like a ton of bricks. it hit me hard. so i went backward. the ringing. i could not see if i more. >> ralph -- see anymore. >> ralph was knocked unconscious. >> i don't remember anything else other than waking up in the morning. >> then said ralph, still disoriented, he tried to sit...

Painstaking police work before investigators finally had enough evidence to arrest ralph candelario for the murder of his wife pam, but they'd have to find him first. ralph was on vacation or maybe on the run. >> i initiated some phone calls with ralph so that we could try to track him down. >> they tracked his cell phone and caught up with him. >> driver, get your hands in the air. >> in northern california. >> walk back to the sound of my voice. back to me. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> charged him with first degree murder. pam's daughters were relieved when they got the news. >> all i could...

Can you tell me anything? >> yeah. the only thing, you know, that i know is that a lot of stuff was stolen from the house. >> okay. >> ralph stuck to his story. a deadly home invasion. >> and then i found her. >> yeah. >> and that's, you know -- >> yeah. >> i tried to deal with that. >> shannon pressed ralph for details. >> the one guy that hit me that i saw from the front was taller than me. >> okay. >> and he had a dark complexion. you know, he had marks on his face. >> and then something that didn't sound quite right. >> and i don't know. and that's -- and it felt like a split second. >> a ...

Ralph's story about what happened to pam had to be true. remember those two men fingered as possible killers? they had records, drug offenses, burglaries. >> she walks in on a burglary. burglaries aren't uncommon in walsenburg especially with all the drugs around. >> reporter: then, said the defense, one of the bad guys saw 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. >> 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. ...