Page 19 - Thomas Hunter News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

There to witness it all, friends and family of the victims. thomas hunter's mom claire hunter, who had been staying out of the public eye, and shirlee sherman's brother dan were two of the first people outside the courtroom. >> it's been eight years. you know? it's been going on for a long time. a lot of this stuff's a blur. >> reporter: douglas county attorneys don kleine and brenda beadle had been prepping this case for more than three years. you prosecuted all four murders. >> yeah. >> you ever think about, "maybe we should just take the last two. that's easier? >> sure. that was a discussi...

>> and those people are essentially in many cases anonymous. >> to some extent, yeah, they are. >> so, they might be kids, or they might just be saying they're kids. >> correct. and that's what we would come to find out, that he interacted with people all over the u.s. in some cases outside of the u.s. through these interactive sites. >> did you or anybody in your family ever worry that tommy was meeting people online or just talking to people online through the gaming community, people maybe you didn't know about? >> that didn't really come up till after the fact when we started thinking mayb...

>> reporter: their theory was whoever killed the brumbacks also killed thomas hunter and shirlee sherman. prosecutors summed up their case in a word, revenge, and they pointed to something they found on garcia's tablet. >> one of the searches was just an interesting quote that had the word revenge in it, so we were interested to know where that came from, and it's easy to find when you google it. >> reporter: it was a quote similar to one in shakespeare's play "the merchant of venice." >> if you harm me, shall i not revenge? >> not often does "the merchant of venice" come up in a murder trial....

>> so, they might be kids, or they might just be saying they're kids. >> correct. and that's what we would come to find out, that he interacted with people all over the u.s. in some cases outside of the u.s. through these interactive sites. >> did you or anybody in your family ever worry that tommy was meeting people online or just talking to people online through the gaming community, people maybe you didn't know about? >> that didn't really come up till after the fact when we started thinking maybe that was something that could have happened. but prior, no. >> and you didn't know who those p...

>> it's been eight years. you know? it's been going on for a long time. a lot of this stuff's a blur. >> reporter: douglas county attorneys don kleine and brenda beadle had been prepping this case for more than three years. you prosecuted all four murders. >> yeah. >> you ever think about, "maybe we should just take the last two. that's easier? >> sure. that was a discussion that we had many times but the evidence, i think, would still come in. especially with the 2008 case. so, it seemed like the most logical thing was, if we're gonna do these, let's do 'em together. >> reporter: their theory...