Page 12 - Stephen Sharp News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

She was seeing other people herself. >> the person on the bottom half in both of those is who? >> jody scharf. >> the record keeper of a dating service testified that jody's name was on an application. she even checked off the interests she'd like to share with a mate. the attorney offered that as proof of stephen and jody's open marriage. but what really rankled the defense, what had torn at the heart of stephen scharf, was the testimony of his son, jonathan. >> i remember her showing me her bruises. >> he had painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. >> i never hit jody. it made m...

And he didn't want to split assets with jody. and there was yet another motive for stephen, said the prosecutor. a potential payout. >> usaa life insurance company. >> an insurance representative testified about a $500,000 policy taken out against jody scharf months before her death, payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >> stephen f. scharf. >> jody scharf was simply worth more dead than alive. her friend marian hilferty testified jody feared stephen might do something violent if she pushed for that divorce. even so, marian said, jody was determined to get awa...

This wasn't a murder case, just a sad story about a woman who tumbled drunkenly to her death. >> this case is an accident, nothing more, nothing less. >> soon it would be in the hands of a jury. >> coming up -- >> it was the light bulb. you couldn't help but think, hmm, that's interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> stephen, did you kill your wife, jody? >> the verdict. -♪ he's got legs of lumber and arms of steel ♪ ♪ he eats a bowl of hammers at every meal ♪ ♪ he holds your house in the palm of his hand ♪ ♪ he's your home and auto man ♪ big jim, he's got y...

The jury's about to decide the fate of stephen scharf. here's chris jansing with the conclusion of our story. >> 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. >> did you throw her off the palisades? >> no, i did not. i did not. i didn't hurt jody. i didn't push her.

And i was begging him to stop doing it. >> he also remembered the last day of his mother's life. he was 10 and said his mother told his father that she didn't want to go out with him alone. >> she said, if i wanted to go out with you, i wouldn't be divorcing you. >> but where was the proof that stephen had planned to kill jody that night? well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. but there was also testimony from this woman, one of stephen's old girlfriends. >> i even mentioned to my girlfriend that it was a perfect relationship. >> terry scofield had been dating stephen months before jody...