Live Breaking News & Updates on Prosecutor Colleen Barnett
Stay updated with breaking news from Prosecutor colleen barnett. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
absolutely, i was constantly worried. and how was her health at that time? she had started having seizures. and you know she was traumatized. she had post-traumatic stress, she had anxiety, she had depression. she was a mess. reporter: lizz clung to the hope that one of those leads she gave detectives would eventually pan out. but for now anyway it looked as though law enforcement was playing its cards close to the vest. according to prosecutor colleen barnett of the harris county district attorney s office, that was because they d made some early observations about the crime scene. officers have investigated burglaries and robberies for many years before they get in homicide. and they thought that the scene looked kind of suspicious. so what was off kilter with this one? the fact that it didn t look burglarized. the drawers were open, i think, right? they were open a little bit, but nothing was tossed. reporter: but what about those items lizz noticed were missing ....
First responder, emt stephanie robertson, told the jury that to her the crime scene just looked off. it was a little disarrayed. the drawers were pulled out nothing was appeared to be missing. reporter: and the prosecutor used sandra s own words against her. the jury heard that interview with the defendant the one where detectives found her so oddly indifferent. do you know what has happened today? my husband was murdered. reporter: and sometimes her story to the detectives didn t gybe with what detectives believed to be the facts. she s just trying to tell a tale so that she can go on with her life without being in prison. reporter: for instance, her account of jaime getting out of the jacuzzi to quiet the barking dogs there was a next-door ....
The jury anyway. there was no evidence of infidelity or typical marriage troubles still she suggested that sandra wanted out. but their religion made it impossible to split up the usual way jehovah s witnesses don t allow you to divorce. unless someone s cheating, and it s very clear that jaime was not that guy. if i get divorced, i get ostracized and i can t talk with my friends. but if i kill him, and nobody finds out, i m not ostracized. reporter: but wasn t sandra too frail to commit such a violent, close-quarters, crime? maybe not. the medical examiner s report concluded jaime suffered 31 sharp force wounds but none very deep. so kind of stab, stab, taunting kind of injuries or how i don t how do you read it? or maybe not much force used. or maybe a weaker person. reporter: so how did the attack go down? the prosecutor had a vivid scenario of a lethal seduction. the prosecution thinks that sandra melgar lured jaime to the bedroom under the guise of se ....
reporter: august 2017. more than four-and-a-half years after jaime melgar was murdered in, what seemed at the time, a brutal home invasion. but now, sandra, his wife of 32-years, was on trial for jaime s murder. she d pleaded not guilty. it put daughter lizz in a painful, judicial paradox. the people versus are bringing you, the family, victim, justice in their mind. and yet, justice is putting your mother away. correct. i ve lost my father and here i am, about to lose my mother. this is supposed to be s the justice system that it s just completely broken. reporter: prosecutor colleen barnett s message for the jury was simple, sandra and only sandra could have done this. there s zero evidence. no evidence that anybody else did this. reporter: the prosecutor set out to dismantle the theory that jaime s death resulted from a botched robbery. ....
Neighbor to the melgars who constantly complained about the barking dogs. she said that night, she didn t hear the dogs barking. like, she slept wonderful. reporter: of course, one of the main problems for sandra was the big picture, so you want us to believe, the prosecutor argued, that home invaders were slashing your husband to death just feet away from you and you remember nothing? really? nobody running? nobody saying anything? shouting? no. nothing. reporter: sandra s explanation was that she d suffered from seizures and memory loss for years. reporter amanda orr was in the courtroom as the prosecution introduced some of sandra s medical history refuting that. she did go to her doctor s appointments, but reported that she was not having seizures. that her medication was controlling them pretty well. reporter: so if sandra was, in fact, lying about being unconscious for hours, then she had plenty of time to pull herself together and make the house appear ransacked. s ....