Stev Steven News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> my client has been wrongfully charged with her death. >> reporter: one reason the prosecutor couldn't prove murder had to do with sloppy police work the defense attorney said. suggesting it had been like keystone cops that fatal night. >> you never photographed the body before you moved it, did you? >> no, sir. >> why didn't they take photographs? they destroyed the crime scene area. >> reporter: they didn't even bother to question potential eyewitnesses, he said. instead, they cleared visitors from the lookout. there might have been someone who saw something or heard something. >> there mi...

Jody that night? well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. but there was also testimony from this woman one of steven's old girlfriends. >> i mentioned to my girlfriend it was perfect relationship. rrlt terry had been dating steven months before jody's death. >> did he tell you whether or not he was married? >> actually he said he was not married. >> reporter: she remembered something strange steven said to her on the beach over that labor day weekend. >> he was under a lot of stress and it would be resolved by the end of september. >> reporter: two weeks later, jody was dead. terry now se...

Red flares reach the top of the pole. >> reporter: did you think that might be a murder weapon? >> that might have been plan a. he didn't use it. he went to plan b. >> reporter: which he believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff. detectives asked steven the obvious. what was a hammer doing in that picnic bag? >> he told us he fixed a drawer in his kitchen with the hammer. and he just forgot to put it back in the garage. he put it in the bag with the picnic items. it was convenient. it was a convenient excuse for having that hammer. >> reporter: detectives asked if they would check out ...

Against jody months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >> steven. >> reporter: jody was worth more dead than alive. her friend testified that jody feared steven might do something violent if she pushed for the divorce. even so, marion said, jody was determined to get away from her husband. >> she was going to have divorce papers served on steven. she was very afraid of him. >> reporter: yet was steven violent enough to kill his wife? an unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against steven. >> i'm here for my mother. >> reporter...

In closing they insisted this wasn't a murder case, just a sad store about a woman who tumbled dru 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 lightbulb. you couldn't help but think, that's interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> steven, did you kill your wife, jody? >> the verdict when "over the edge "continues. i love you, couch.