Page 35 - Stephen S News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

♪ the jury is about to decide the fate of stephen scharf. here's chris jansen with the conclusion of our story. >> reporter: 18 years after a night that ended in his wife's death off a cliff, stephen scharf 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 jody. never. stephen, did you kill your wife, jody? >> i did not hurt jody. i did not. >> reporter: did you throw her off the pad salpalisades? >> i did not hurt her.

The violent intent to kill his wife. or was there another way of looking at that couple perched high on those cliffs on a summer night. stephen's new wife says the prosecution has it all wrong. >> my husband is not capable. that is not the man he is. my husband is sweet, kind, loving. consider at. >> the prosecutor -- >> the defense was ready to show how stephen scharf, far from villain, was the real victim in this story. coming up -- >> they destroyed the crime scene area. >> new questions about the evidence and was there another reason why a son may implicate his dad? >> who does the money...

Everywhere, she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of her body. >> why would steven have killed his wife. the biggest reason was that steven did not want a divorce. he didn't want a custody fight. and he didn't want to split assets with jodi. there was yet another motive for steven, so the prosecutor. a potential payout. >> usaa life insurance policy. >> a $500,000 policy taken out months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >> stephen f.scharf. >> jodi was worth more dead than alive. her friend testified that jodi feared ...

>> time is an invisible but crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years. >> sometimes it hurts a case. memories fade. evidence is lost. but time can also put evidence in a new light. >> such was the case of the trial of steven sharp, accused of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. >> there is no statute of limitations on murder. >> the prosecutor promised the evidence would tell a story as simple as it was brutal. a husband determined to avoid a costly divorce lured his wife to the edge of a cliff and forced her off it. >> if he has lied, he is guilty. >> the state marshall brought up some ...

>> it's what he didn't see that confused him. there was no sign that the woman's body had also hit that ledge or any part of the cliffs. >> nothing, no blood, no hair, no clothing, no fibers, no skin. >> by that point, the officer had arrived at the lookout. since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, siri was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police headquarters. steven recounted the awful moment when his wife disappeared. >> we were walking and she said for me to get the blanket. she slipped and i didn't see her any more. >> rescuer cheoffey ha...