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apparently, he can. well, he did it. he did it. reporter: you re convinced that was jermeir. oh, it was jermeir. reporter: so whose voice would ultimately ring true? a three-year investigation was now in the hands of 12 people. two families now waited anxiously inside the durham county courthouse. as did assistant d.a. david saacks. i m never confident when a case goes to the jury. reporter: you ve been slapped in the face by juries before. too many times. that s the lesson here, you never know. reporter: then, after just one day, the jury reached a decision. shannon s family was encouraged. i didn t feel that the d.a. proved his case. there were some damaging things, yes, but there was no preponderance of evidence, and i thought that she was going to be acquitted. reporter: for shannon crawley it all came down to this decision. would it be a life of freedom or life in prison? denita s mother braced herself ....
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Even know jermeir, looked away from a murder committed by a guy who worked for another department in another city? they re risking prison time for this guy they don t even know? cops will protect other cops regardless of what department they re in. there are always that few, not many. reporter: to the contrary, assistant district attorney david saacks, who was assigned to prosecute, says he was extra careful in building his case against shannon precisely because jermeir was a police officer. i needed to make sure that everything was done by the book and we vetted everything as well as we could, and delved into everything as deep as we could because he was a cop. because if you clear him, you know you re going to get that criticism. absolutely. we ended up having to have several different interviews with jermeir. and each time we would get maybe a little something more. and so it took a little while sometimes to pull all that stuff out. reporter: investigators say he appeare ....
reporter: as the trial approached, the d.a. facing a circumstantial case with a seemingly credible defendant, offered shannon crawley a deal. plead guilty to denita smith s murder and be sentenced to a maximum of 12 years in prison. denita s mother, sharon, was not happy. what d you say? no. reporter: don t let her off? uh-uh. no. my words were my daughter didn t get to plead for her life that morning, so no. no plea. reporter: she needn t have worried. shannon crawley was not going to take a deal. she insisted she wanted to clear her name and would now take her chances in court. ....
yeah. apparently, he can. well, he did it. he did it. reporter: you re convinced that was jermeir. oh, it was jermeir. reporter: so whose voice would ultimately ring true? a three-year investigation was now in the hands of 12 people. two families now waited anxiously inside the durham county courthouse. as did assistant d.a. david saacks. i m never confident when a case goes to the jury. reporter: you ve been slapped in the face by juries before. too many times. that s the lesson here, you never know. reporter: then, after just one day, the jury reached a decision. shannon s family was encouraged. i didn t feel that the d.a. proved his case. there were some damaging things, yes, but there was no preponderance of evidence, and i thought that she was going to be acquitted. reporter: for shannon crawley it all came down to this decision. would it be a life of freedom or life in prison? ....