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he placed a call to her friend katherine with the unimaginable news. >> karen, it's tim. i'm at karen's apartment, she has been stabbed. >> stabbed? >> it's a horrible way, it's very horrible way to die. >> karen, the baby of the family with five older brothers suddenly gone. she had been especially close to her oldest brother mike. >> my brother called me. i was at the airport, and said, you better sit down. he said, karen's been murdered. >> any theories about what happened? >> i don't know. i was trying to figure out the why and relying on the police to do what they needed to do. >> and what they had to do was plenty.
sometimes the best, okay, because they don't lie. the circumstances don't lie. people lie. >> and that's the case lowry made to the jury. the circumstances showed tim permentor was the only one with the motive and the opportunity to kill karen. and everything he did afterwards was fabricated to cover up his horrendous crime. >> the issues in this case were the murder of karen by the only person that really could have done it, and that person lied about all these things. and you know, there's no reason for a person to lie about the death of their loved one, if that's really true. >> defense attorney clapp countered with common sense, arguing that karen's killer must have been just drenched in blood after such a frenzied attack, and there was no forensic evidence to show that his client was that person. >> in order to buy the state's case, you have to make assumption upon assumption upon assumption. that's not what our system is about. >> how did i do it? how on earth did not one single drop of blood get on my clothing, anything like that? >> or in your car, which was ripped apart. >> right. that's why i agreed to let them look. get what you want, because i knew i was innocent. >> the defense also tore into the credibility of the state's star witness, george solomon, saying it was ridiculous to think tim would get an invitation to spend the night with him after blurting out a murder confession. >> hey, i killed somebody. just now, or whatever. oh, really? oh, okay, well, come on, let's
immediately, there was no doubt in my mind she was dead. i picked up the phone and i called 911. >> she's laying on the floor, there's blood everywhere. >> karen pannel, sprawled on her back, bloody. a murder victim in her own home. >> when the first deputies arrive on the scene, her boyfriend is in the front yard, he was hysterical. he actually threw up he was so upset about finding his girlfriend. >> depuies gave tim, the shaken boyfriend, a chance to collect himself in the back seat of the police car.
those times. it was that karen's car guy was the killer. they brought him to headquarters again, this time for an official and much more aggressive interrogation. >> he gave the same timeline as he gave previously. we went through it with him. and he held true with what he told us. at that point we started attacking his story. >> tim had a simple explanation for the timeline problems, he was confused. >> this is what cooperation got me. confused. >> confused? >> we know you weren't confused, tim, you lied. >> when the pizza arrived, i was still there. >> we know what gets you confused, tim, you lie. >> when the pizza arrived, i
for it, but i didn't do it. >> the detectives who cracked the case say they might have believed tim, if only he hadn't tried so hard to fake his alibi, starting with those three letters written in blood. so, this hollywood touch, as i think of it, roc did it, the tying declaration, it bit him. >> it bit him hard, very hard. he outsmarted himself, and that's why he's in prison. >> after the trial, roc herpic was free to ride his harley, but he tells us it still eats him up that a man he never met tried to frame him for murder. if you could talk to him, just the way we're sitting here, what would you say to him? >> i am restrained, correct? i couldn't get to him, right? >> should we tie you to the chair in this scenario? >> i would not be a good communicator in that conversation mode with him sitting there. i couldn't do it. >> mike pinnel couldn't do it,
somebody that is going to offer you a better future? >> you can't dictate terms to your kid sister? >> no, you can only fix yourself. >> as it turned out, roc wasn't a fix for karen either. the relationship soon took an ugly turn. >> they seemed to get along for a while and she was happy. and he turned into not a very nice guy. he was a little creepy. >> he was tough on her? >> there were some unexplained bruises. i used to tell her, what are you doing? he did not deserve her. she wouldn't listen. >> the fights got worse and police were called three separate times to intervene. one time roc allegedly broke down the front door. that was the last straw. karen filed a domestic battery complaint and roc moved out. tim says even a year later, he was still harassing karen about a rolltop desk he left behind. >> she was starting to get scared of him towards the end. >> the issue he had was i got a
matter what you do, there's always going to be that spectre hanging over you. >> it was several months into the relationship before tim finally revealed his ugly secret. he was a felon that spent more than a decade behind bars, not a navy s.e.a.l. but a violent one-time pump. the self-described escort king. >> i said, i have been waiting for the right time to tell you this. she was flabbergasted. i think that she became frightened of me. >> why didn't you shake hands and call it quits? >> because i loved her. >> karen's friends and brothers say she told them she was afraid. when she tried to pull away from tim, brother mike says those fears were quickly borne out. >> did you ever hear evidence she was not being treated well? >> yes. and she called me and said that tim had choked her and i felt like after that conversation that i had convinced her to file a police report.
moment for you. >> it is. >> death penalty cases can sometimes take a torturous path in reaching a courtroom. this one had taken four long years, and despite building a strong circumstantial case, prosecutors did not have a murder weapon or other physical evidence linking tim permentor to the stabbing. dudley clapp was tim's defense attorney. >> you have a complete lack of physical evidence -- no bloody fingerprints, no bloody footprints out the door. >> but prosecutor lowry was confident about the evidence he did have. >> frankly, i think circumstantial cases are
initial interview i was out of there at 7:30? >> well, his fingerprints were on that box. >> and you had a receipt saying it was delivered at 8:48. >> yes. so he has now put himself right there at the scene and right there in the last crucial hours of her life. >> it's a poor set of facts? >> for him. >> and then tim's timeline, his alibi took another hit. he first said he was home when he called his friend george after 9:30. detective nelvin found evidence proving otherwise. >> once we get the phone records back and the cell tower site locations back, we are putting him at her house. >> so the tower is catching him in a lie? >> absolutely. his 911 phone call in the morning, it hits off the same tower he was hitting off when he called george at 9:36 the night before, which is directly north of karen pannell's house. >> they could only think of one reason for him to lie about