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In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. welcome back to "dateline". the jury is about to decide the fate of steven sharp. here's chris jansen with the conclusion to our story. 18 years after a night that ended in his wife's death off a cliff, steven sharp stood accused of murder by the state of new jersey. and through it all, one thing he wants you to know is this. he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jodi. never. >> steven, did you kill your wife, jodi >> i did not kill jodi. i did not. >> did you throw her off --

>> i did not. i did not. i didn't hurt jodi. i didn't push her. i didn't cause her to die. i didn't kill my wife. we talked to steven sharp where he was held for two years after 2008. he and his wife tina said they paid a high price for something he didn't know. >> our daughter is 2 1/2. we don't have contact visits. >> it's not just a tragedy for jodi, it's a tragedy for john. it's a tragedy for my wife. it's a tragedy for my daughter. and for myself. >> still, he decided not to take the stand in his own defense. but told "dateline" that what he first said years ago about his wife's death w...

>> and then there was the husband himself. cool and collected in the back of a police car. >> i didn't see any emotion from him. >> who later confessed, the prosecutor said, to killing his wife. >> and then i said it was an accident. and he said, no. >> but those facts were not where the case ended. the prosecutor argued that they simply set the stage for the real case, a story told by the victim's friends, family and most importantly by a star witness. >> my opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. >> dr. michael baden, the famous forensic pathologist, told jurors the crime scene spok...

It was telling james something sinter had just happened. so you didn't think was a horrible accident? >> no. >> there wasn't any smoking gun, really. just something dark he thought he could read between the lines notice police notes he reviewed the day after jody's degtd. >> he did not react to somebody that just lost his wife should have reacted. >> and so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from the friends this was a couple not in love but in crisis. the subject wasn't wine and roses on those cliffs. it was divorce....

>> she couldn't prove anything, but women called the house and sometimes they'd call and hang up on her. >> in fact, she learned jody had served her husband divorce papers in 1992. less than two weeks later she was dead at the base of the palisades. the timing made it even more eager to talk to the widower. >> there's a sit down with mr. sharp. he's consented to talk, right? >> yes. >> two days after his wife's death he was freely answering questions. yes, he told them, he and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during their tem pestuous marriage. and it was true, there we...