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. coming up shannon would look at me with this little smirky look on her face like she knew she was going to get off. shannon on the stand. for one he s told me since that he did.
now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for the durham herald-sun. the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannon s family here. you got denita s people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. reporter: especially tense for denita s mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye contact with the woman accused of murdering her daughter. shannon would look at me with this little smirky look on her face. she s very cocky, like she knew she was going to get off. no remorse. she didn t feel she had done anything. they had only been engaged for two months. reporter: assistant d.a. david saacks, an experienced, savvy prosecutor, would now
this little smirky look on her face. she s very cocky, like she knew she was going to get off. no remorse. she didn t feel she had done anything. they had only been engaged for two months. reporter: assistant d.a. david saacks, an experienced, savvy prosecutor, would now square off against a younger court-appointed defense attorney named scott holmes. it s important, i think, to try to see the world, try to see the world from the eyes of shannon on the days that led up to and the day that this happened. the whole trial was basically us saying that shannon crawley committed this murder and the defense saying jermeir stroud did this murder. that was basically the trial. reporter: detective shawn pate worried shannon crawley could walk.
now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for the durham herald-sun. the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannon s family here. you got denita s people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. reporter: especially tense for denita s mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye contact with the woman accused of murdering her daughter. shannon would look at me with this little smirky look on her face. she s very cocky, like she knew she was going to get off. no remorse. she didn t feel she had done anything. they had only been engaged for two months. reporter: assistant d.a.
do you expect nadler and the committee will get what they want? there s a distinction between the watergate situation and nexton era and now and specifically that distinction is that back in 1974 the full house voted to declare an impeachment inquiry open, so we don t have that here, so whether or not the court is ultimately going to find that default under category, it s pretty mirky, and especially because the court of appeals for the dc circuit has said this is a very narrow interpretation of when grand jury can be shared and there s very limited exceptions so i do not think that this is a slam dunk for the democrats. i think this is going to be a very telling decision in the dc court. they don t even call it an inquiry which is the legal standard, they are calling it an investigation.