you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? did we peak your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening. nda valencia: he kept telling me he was going to die young, but i never dreamed that he was going to die that way. >> he kept telling me he was jesse's body was laying in between two going to die young, but i --

going to die that way. >> jesse's body is -- it was obvious that it was a homicide and -- >> wreaked of guilt and -- lied and lied and lied. >> about six, sex, sex. >> there's a lot of people that sheet and it doesn't make them a murderer. >> all of a sudden it -- no one else had a motive. >> steve is on the phone, he's got a gun. he was crying. i said, fight this. this is crazy. >> college student is murdered and detectives discover a trail leading uncomfortably close to home. >> oh my god, it's going to look bad.

it was afternoon by the time someone noticed him, -- though he'd been lying here still, was beautiful. -- and though he had been lying here still since before daylight. and -- where university -- students were winding down their school year. june 5th 2004. >> and 9-1-1 behind it and i was ordered to come and investigate -- and headstrong up their yellow tape and we're taking a -- and it was obvious to them that

it was -- >> the medical examiner sitting on the left and -- waited for her return. >> there were a lot of people watching what was going on -- and lying there on the grass. it was and deliberate determined -- >> he had a -- >> blood was oozing off from there on to his neck. >> she looked closer and -- not quite smooth, as if it had been -- serrated knife. >> when we turn the body, it seemed the grass was -- was blood soaked. >> so much blood. but not exactly where the -- and no blood on the front of

his body after all. had to be a reason. and -- no i.d. at all. just this slender young man with an seeing eyes. >> it wasn't a lot known at all. -- trying to garner information. >> they sent officers around the neighborhood, a picture of the body. >> did anyone know who he was? as a shocked afternoon deepened in the evening, someone did, though exactly who he was. >> the whole time, all day long, i had a funny feeling. >> far away, in kentucky, over the hills and down country roads was a mother named linda valencia. she was eating dinner with her sister infighting about her son,

jessie. >> i told my sister, it's a weird that he is not calling me, -- you know jessie. >> after dinner, linda sister dropped her off at -- house. -- then just a few minutes later -- >> i saw headlights coming back up the hill to my house. so, i went to the door, and opened it, and i remember laughing. and i ask -- i asked her if she had missed me so much, that she had -- >> but her sister was not smiling. >> i said, is it jessie? and she never answered me. and i remember just backing away and i just wanted to run. >> of course, there was no running, not from this.

the police wanted to talk to her. >> they said that they were sorry to inform me that my son had been killed. and i basically called him a liar and i, said it's not true. >> what's a person to say? to do? deny, deny, deny. the world collapsing around, her jessie's mother fainted. in columbia, that june night, crime scene techs visited visited -- scoured the neighborhood. they had noticed a nearby apartment door. popped open. and so, they walk through it. into a mystery that would turn the world upside down. coming up i -- >> by the time jessie was six or seven years old he told me,

mom, i'm not going to live to be very old. >> didn't tell you where that thought came from? >> he never did. >> later, a surprising friendship that would shock a city. did it lead to murder? >> he said, mom, guess who showed up on my doorstep. ahh! watch it! ♪♪ come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey.

it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight. subject 2: it doesn't feel good because you can't play outside with other children. subject 3: as a parent, it is your job to protect your family. but here is something that i cannot do. i cannot fix this. i don't know if my daughter is going to be able to walk. i don't know if she's going to make it till tomorrow. [music playing] interviewer: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now

and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt. you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing]

keith morrison (voiceover): when he was about seven years old, jesse valencia asked his mom to sit down. linda valencia: and he told me, i'm not going to-- >> when he was about seven i don't want you to get upset, and don't cry. years old, jessie valencia asked his mom to sit down. >> and he told me, i don't want you to get upset. and don't cry, don't get emotional. and this is a little kid now, i'm talking. and he said, mom, i'm not going to live to be very old. i'm going to die at a very young age. >> why would he say -- >> it's like he knew. and he told me that for years.

he was constantly telling me that. because he said he was trying to prepare me for his death. >> did he tell you where that thought came from, or why he thought that? >> he never did. he just said he knew he was going to die young. >> and now, the age of 23, jessie's awful prediction had come true. it's half naked body found lying in a lowly patch of grass, so far from home. >> i never dreamed that he was going to die that way. >> whatever happened to him, the investigators figured, must have started here be hind behind this -- crime scene. it was the door to jessie's apartment. it looked like jessie may have flung it open, fling his killer. >> with the jessie's body being found away from his home, the bottom of his feet were dirty, he was obviously -- he was running. and walking away, he we believe

he was headed to a friends house, to get help. because there was a friend that lived in that pat line from the -- to the friends house. >> and -- chased him, caught up to him. attacked him. >> yes. >> and showed no mercy. details linda could not bear thinking about. she was just 21 when she had jessie. >> the two of them kind of grew up together, right? >> yeah, pretty much. from the time he was born, i took him everywhere with me. i wouldn't even go out on dates unless i took him with me. and everybody except me. i can remember a time that he wasn't with me. >> just the two of them, and then a stepdad and two sisters, and a family farm in power ville, kentucky, a one stoplight town.

>> every store went into, everybody knew him. everybody just hollering, hey, jessie. how are you? even three and four years old, he would just top your head off about everything. >> right about everything, knew about everything. linda's nickname for jesse was college prep. christian met jesse on the school bus in high school. >> i think bright is a really great word to describe jesse, because of his intellectual brilliance, but also he just was a real bright light. >> he repressive will. they sort of kid who, if it was raining, would dance in it. and with christian scrawled graffiti under the town bridge. >> jesse just had this real and pure love of life. >> i can just remember thinking, this guy is going to be something big. he's going to do big things.

>> -- met jesse at a school dance. they talked about movies and music. jessie told her he wanted to get out of power ville one day. he tried modeling after -- could do that, but said, aaron, he was always down to earth, always -- >> he would get me to sing for him. of a maria was his favorite. and -- >> how did he do that? >> there were times you would call me at night, in the middle of the night and say, we do seem to me? and i'm like, it's 1:30 in the morning. >> but she didn't mind. not really. back then, she was a little bit in love with jesse, even though she knew she wasn't his tight. jesse was gay, and proud of it. >> he loved who he wanted to love. and that's a brave way to be in life. >> he was really outgoing, and outspoken.

he was the type of boy that would tell you exactly what he thought. and if you didn't like hearing it, he would try to sugarcoat it a little bit for you. but he would always tell you exactly how he felt -- >> didn't hold back? >> no, he didn't. he might have got that from me. but he was always excited about everything. laughing in general to him was just amazing. he just loved life. >> and linda certainly thought he was brave when jessie packed up the modeling and decided to go to college, first of his family to go. he ended up at the university of missouri, which seemed as far away from perilous could be. i was happy, and excited that he wanted to do that. i did not want him to go out of

state. i kept emphasizing to him that it was not going to be a good thing for us to be so far apart. for us to be so far apart. >> no. and now the worst of her premonitions had come true. that lovely son of hers, that promise, horribly snuffed out. >> i mean, he was my whole life, and i just couldn't believe that he was gone. can you remember what it was like for you? >> it was just dread. like, i just wanted whoever did this, i wanted, like, them to immediately be apprehended. like, it just was like this feeling of -- >> urgency. >> yeah, of panic. >> but this one wasn't going to be quick or easy. although, the cause of death was perfectly obvious said the medical examiner, the gaping knife

wound in his neck. but other things were harder to explain. >> usually with knife injuries, one tends to get defense wounds on the hands. so you get knife injuries on the hands. >> but jesse's hands were unmarked, which made the me wonder, maybe jesse hadn't been conscious when his throat was cut. they found him flat on his back. if he was that way when the killer cut him, it would explain the lack of blood on his body. if he was standing, then the blood would run down the front of him or the back of him. and if he walked, walked after he sustained the injury, then there would be blood on the bottom of his feet. there was none of this. there was still one puzzling thing. a pattern of angry bruises across jesse's chest and back and under his jaw. >> we had to think of all the possibilities of how this came about. so she sent his fingernail clippings and blue shorts off to the lab for testing. and waited. and the detectives?

>> jesse was kind of a free spirit from what i understand. >> know your victim, investigators like to say. so they started digging, especially into jesse's life in columbia. and what they discovered was not so much a long list of enemies, but rather a long list of lovers. coming up. >> some guy called in and said that this kid was crying inconsolably. >> tears in the night and persons of interest in the light of day. >> ed bradley admitted that him and jesse had had sex the day before the body was found. eric said something to the effect of, i wouldn't care if he was dead. >> when dateline continues. (sister) and save big on things we love, like netflix and max! (dad) oh, that's awesome (mom) spaghetti night -- dinner in 30 (dad) oh, happy day! (vo) a better plan to save is verizon.

it starts at $25 per line guaranteed for 3 years and get both netflix and max for just $10/mo. only on verizon. when it comes to your hair, ingredients matter. that's why herbal essences is packed with naturally derived plant ingredients you love, and none of the stuff you don't. our sulfate-free collections smell incredible... ♪ and leave your hair touchably soft and smooth. ♪ herbal essences it■s beginning to look alot like savings! blendjets holiday sale is on now! give the gift of convenience the blendjet 2 portable blender is perfect for everyone on your list. even that picky relative who hates everything. and dont forget the accessories! theyre all on sale! dont wait! our most popular colors and patterns will sell out!

go to blendjet.com and take advantage of our holiday sale now. loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today.

keith morrison (voiceover): the murder of jesse valencia sent a nasty jolt of anxiety >> the murder of jesse valencia sent a nasty jolt of anxiety

around columbia, missouri. >> everyone was just so shaken. >> barry bumgarner, a local college professor and crime novelist, was like a lot of people here, full of questions. >> there were several articles about, did this happen in broad daylight? why didn't anyone see anything? and people wanted answers. >> so the columbia police department worked with all deliberate speed on the few leads they could find. according to jesse's phone records, the last call he'd made was around 3:15 in the morning. his neighbor, seen here on nbc affiliate komu, said not long after that, he heard arguing coming from jesse's apartment. >> just bumping, just like somebody stumbling and kind of bumping into the wall, like, oh, oh, stop it, you know. >> police found another witness who told them he'd seen something odd during the night. a young man walking barefoot near the crime scene. was he the killer they were looking

for? it was about a block or so away, maybe two, from the victim's house. some guy called in and said this kid was crying inconsolably. >> but who was he? wasn't a lot to go on. so investigators started tracking down jesse's friends, trying to piece together a portrait of his life in columbia. he was a junior at mizzou. books on history piled up around his apartment. >> he had a lot of friends. >> you talked to a lot of them? >> talked to a lot of them, you know. he was, he liked to party, like almost every other college student. >> jesse loved to dance. and one of his favorite places was a local nightclub, where, just a few days before he died, he met someone new on the dance floor. an aspiring chef named ed. police asked ed to come down to the station. >> he readily admitted that him

and jesse had had sex the day before the body was found. >> and jesse's friends said they saw jesse and ed leave a party together just a few hours before jesse was killed. so detective short watched ed very closely in the police interrogation room, when he swore he'd left jesse alive and well on the street outside the party before heading on home. ed said his roommate had seen him coming in. >> what did you think about him? >> he was an emotional mess, is how i would describe him. constantly crying, very upset, very scared. the fear of, why am i here? >> did he have something to hide? it was a knife that killed jesse. ed was a chef. he owned a whole bag of very sharp knives. but it was ed's roommate, a man called eric thurston, who really got investigators'attention. eric had his own shady past, a rap sheet for drug possession and stealing, and fighting words about the murder. >> eric thurston, in his

interview, actually said at one point, i could kill somebody, but i have too much faith in humanity or something to that effect. >> when he talked to police, eric didn't even try to hide his dislike for jesse. >> he said something to the effect of, i wouldn't care if he was dead or i don't care if he's dead, talking about jesse. >> why would he say that to the police? even more suspicious, eric told them he'd left ed at home that night to go out on a date. that would have been around the time jesse was killed. so investigators searched the men's home, took dna samples, and waited. >> there was this other kid named zev, i think. >> -- >> another lead. zev, a rabbi's son, just 19. jesse's friends said he called zev his boy toy. police asked him to come down to the station. >> zev was very quiet, very low-key, and he did not appear

to be a violent person at all. you know, not that that can't be hid. >> zev told them he wasn't even gay. he and jesse were just friends, not lovers or anything. so he had no reason to be jealous or angry. and anyway, said zev, he was at home all night. >> he said that he got up the next morning to have breakfast with his parents. >> he lived in his parents'house, right? >> he lived in his parents'house, yeah. the only, you know, one of the questions posed to him was, well, can you get out of the house without your parents seeing you? and he said, yeah, i can. >> phone records showed that zev had tried to call jesse several times that night. and zev failed a voice stress test, indicating he might be lying about something. not admissible in court, mind you, but certainly curious. at this point, just a few days into the investigation, detectives had three persons of interest. but it didn't feel like they were any closer to solving the murder. >> so every day we would have

what's called our, we nicknamed it the round table. all the detectives would sit down and discuss the leads they had followed the day before, where we're going, what we need to do. sometimes those round tables get a little heated. you know, when you end up working 20 hours a day and taking three hour naps for days in a row, people get a little edgy. >> but a hundred miles away from the hurly burly of the police investigation, way off in st. louis, it suddenly dawned on a friend of jesse's. he had a clue for the police. something that might actually help crack the case. >> jesse and i chatted two, three times a week at least. >> patrick rogers had met jesse before he went to college. they'd bonded over indie bands and politics, but mostly chatted online. >> which allowed you to keep a record of these chats, right? >> yes. i realized that i have these chat logs and that the chat logs say everything. it's

time stamped. i knew it was all right there. >> what was all right there? well, jesse had revealed a secret, a secret lover. he had not revealed a name. but this was something bigger than a name. how would the columbia police department react once they heard that jesse's secret lover was one of their own? coming up, jesse's late night visitor. >> he was excited about it. >> excited? >> i mean, the guy was coming by on duty. >> when dateline continues. >> linda oof! that was fast. ♪♪

mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season. while i am a paid actor, and this is not a real company, there is no way to fake how upwork can help your business. upwork is half the cost of our old recruiter and they have top-tier talent and everything from pr to project management because this is how we work now.

here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy

by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. i'm just gonna lay in with a look at some of the headlines. special counsel jack smith is firing back at former president donald trump's claims of presidential immunity in that federal election interference show. in a saturday court ruling,

smith argued giving trump sweeping immunity, quote,'s two license presidents to commit crimes to remain in office. and oscar nominated british actor tom wilkinson has died. he was known for roles in the full monty, that meant begins and the best exotic miracle photo. he was 75 years old. and now back to dateline. and now back to dateline s quite >> linda valencia was qe familiar with all of her son jesse's relationships. she was rare among mothers. she knew things, intimate things, that mothers don't often get to hear. jesse told her everything.

>> we talked about anything and everything. sometimes jesse would talk to me about things i didn't want to talk about. he had no filter on his mouth when he was talking to me -- >> so linda had her own ideas about who police should be talking to. and it wasn't the aspiring chef or his roommate or the rabbi's son. >> the detective called me on the phone. she was asking me if i knew of anybody that had anything against jesse. and i told her, yes, i do. and i said, he's a cop. >> linda said she didn't know the officer's name. but she told the detective that two months before the murder, she got a call at 2 o'clock in the morning. jesse was on the other

end. excited? >> he said, mom, i've been arrested. and i said, oh, my god. and he said, well, i was at a party and it got too noisy and the cops came. >> jesse, outspoken as always, protested. didn't go over well. and he told me if i opened my mouth again, he was going to arrest me. and i said, do what you got to do. and he arrested me. >> at the police station, said jesse, the officer wrote him a ticket, told him he'd have to appear in court later, and then released him. all of which would have made for a memorable story. but then, a few hours later, jesse called linda again. >> and he said, mom, guess who showed up on my doorstep? and i just said, who? and he said, that cop that arrested me last night. and i said, so what's going on? >> it was the beginning of, jesse didn't know what exactly.

it was personal, intimate, and secret. the sort of relationship you instant message one of your best friends about. >> in all of the time he spoke with me, he wouldn't say his name. he only referred to him as columbia's finest. he was excited about it. >> excited? >> he was. i mean, the guy was coming by on duty. >> he would stop off, they would have sex, and then he'd go back to work. >> yeah, and jesse found all that exciting, and i'm seeing this as a bunch of red flags. >> oh yes, linda said she saw those too. >> jesse kept talking about how when i ask him where he lives, he kind of dances around it. or if i ask him anything about family or anything, he said he constantly wants to talk about my personal life, but he never wants to talk about his.

>> and then, linda said, jesse discovered why. why his secret policeman lover wouldn't reveal anything about his own life. he was married. >> he said he's married, he has a child, and it's wrong. and he said, i'm not gonna see him anymore, i just want him to stay away. >> so he tried to cut it off. >> yeah, he tried to cut it off then. >> he wouldn't be party to someone cheating, and i remember his exact words to me were, i'm not gonna be someone's other woman. and he was mad, and he had every right to be mad. >> and patrick had proof jesse felt that way. it was all there in their online chats. patrick printed them out, brought them to the columbia police headquarters. >> what was their first reaction when you said, i think this is a cop? >> they didn't seem surprised. it, i would have expected a bigger reaction.

>> that's because just a couple of hours after they identified jesse's body, before they talked to patrick or linda, police had gotten an anonymous tip about the affair. >> had you ever investigated a fellow cop before? not for homicide, no. >> no. do you remember the first thought that came into your head when you realized, i'm gonna have to do that? >> i think my first thought was, we need to get this right. >> that's the second thought. the first thought. >> it was, oh my god, it's gonna look bad. >> coming up, a witness searching photos for persons of interest has an unexpected close encounter. >> he goes, i don't need to look at those pictures. i passed him in the hallway when you walked me over here. >> when dateline continues. continues -[ groans ] -we're gonna need a minute.

do you have any food allergies? -well, my teeth are sensitive to cold. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that'll be $19.45. oh, i'm just paying for my own salad. right now, we are in a defining moment. people across the country are being denied basic reproductive health care. more than ever, people need planned parenthood. and more than ever, we need you. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. go online, call this toll-free number, or scan the code on your screen now, with your $19 monthly gift. with restrictions and barriers to care on the rise across the country, there's never been a more important time to join. help us protect access to care and reproductive freedom. help us fight for the policies that protect our right to control our own bodies

and ensure future generations have the ability to decide their own future. help us make sure high-quality, affordable health care is available to all who need it. the care that i was given at planned parenthood was the most compassionate, kind care that i have received. truly, like, if planned parenthood had not stepped in, i would not be here today. they saved my life. visit this website, call, or scan the code with your $19 monthly gift. join right now, and if you do, we'll send you this "care. no matter what." t-shirt with our thanks. this is a defining moment. together we can fight back against barriers to reproductive care. and we need your support more than ever. it is your right to have safe health care. that's it. it's health care. and everybody deserves health care. don't wait. join today.

go online, call or scan right now. and help planned parenthood continue to protect and provide care, no matter what. ( ♪♪ ) the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash to the comfort of your couch. slow down!... i mean (coughs) slow down! ahh! watch it! ♪♪ come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season. ahh! keith morrison (voiceover): on the brow of a hill on the family farm, linda valencia visits her son.

visits the memory still so very raw of the bright >> on the brow of a hill on the family farm, linda valencia visits her son. visits the memory, still so very raw, of the bright spark he was in her life. of the day they told her he was dead. of the day of his funeral. the day they put him

in the ground here. >> i just sat there and just held onto the casket handle. and i wouldn't turn it loose. and there were so many people that came. i mean, look how many people loved jesse. >> and i had a letter that i wrote him with a picture. and i asked linda if i could just put that in the ground with him. and she said, of course. and so my heels were sinking into the mud. and i couldn't stand up. and i was watching one of the most important people in my life be covered up with dirt. >> and she sang his favorite song for him, one last time. and how do you measure a loss like this? the gap, it tears in the lives of people. and in the history of things that might have been, had he been around. in columbia, missouri, detective short was measuring, not loss, but an explosive new lead. a phantom cop. who was he? and then he got word that one of jesse's college lovers, a guy named andy, had seen jesse

with the mystery cop up close. >> they were at jesse's apartment. he says they're in bed together. and he hears a knock at the door. guy walks in, puts a flashlight on him. he said when he saw the flashlight come on, he could see that it was a police officer. and then he attempted to have sex with him. participate with andy. and andy was like, no, i don't want to be a part of this. >> according to andy, jesse and the officer had sex anyway. and when it was over, the cop had a warning. he looked at both of them and says, you don't talk about this. don't tell anyone. and he left. >> surely, detective short figured this andy would be able to identify the officer. so, the detective and his partner brought andy into the precinct and showed him a book of photos, the entire columbia police department. but this was weird. >> pretty obvious he's not really looking at the pictures. he's just kind of thumbing through them. and it was pretty apparent to me that he was nervous about me being in the interview room. so i just got up and walked out. >> leaving andy alone with the detective's female partner.

>> kind of looks through the pictures again. she says, you're really not looking at them. he goes, i don't need to look at those pictures. i passed him in the hallway when you walked me over here. >> when she came out of that room, what'd she say? >> she looked at me and she goes, you're not going to believe this, it's steve rios. >> stephen rios. a police officer, two and a half years on the force, an up and comer. active in several police charities, with what looked like an exemplary record. and of course, rios was married. his wife had given birth to a baby boy just four months before. detective short checked jesse's arrest record. and, yes, it was stephen rios who took him in and issued the ticket. but that wasn't all. stephen helped guard jesse's murder scene. >> when he got to the police department the afternoon when the body had been found, he saw one of the sergeants writing jesse's name down and he says, hey, i know that guy, arrested

him about a month or so ago. well, the sergeant told him to go down there and identify the body. so, after identifying the body, he actually volunteered, according to the supervisor, to guard the crime scene. >> and he would have known he shouldn't be there. >> oh, sure. just having the relationship alone with him, he should have never been involved in the case -- >> didn't mean that he killed him. >> that's correct. >> so, stephen rios joined the list of people police wanted to take a hard look at. >> nobody was ruled out. and you were preparing the background before you actually brought him in. >> we wanted to get as much information as we can to confront him with what we knew. >> detective short figured he'd get a couple of days to gather information before rios got wind he was a person of interest in a murder investigation. but for the first of many times, things didn't quite work out as

expected. coming up, stephen rios denies an affair. >> when i confronted him that there was a relationship, he said, what, sex? you already knew that was a lie. yes, i did. and his wife has a visitor. >> an officer of the law is having his house searched by other officers of the law. >> it was alarming for sure. >> it was rinvoq delivered rapid symptom relief and helped leave bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc tried to slow me down... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc caused damage rinvoq came through by visibly repairing my colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief...

lasting steroid-free remission... ...and the chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check, check, and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. put uc in check and keep it there with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq and learn how abbvie can help you save. it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time

to quit the kibble and feed their dogs fresh food from the farmer's dog. made by vets and delivered right to your door precisely portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. ♪♪ here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi

and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. join thkeith morrisonpeople tak(voiceover): it wasacy three days after the murder of jesse valencia. >> it was three days after the murder of jesse valencia. detective john short had just found out that the murdered man's secret lover was an ambitious, married, up-and-coming cop named stephen rios. so, next thought? the hope that this was just an

affair, that the cop was not the killer. >> i mean, i wasn't personal friends with him. i was a co-worker, knew who he was. >> nobody wants a bad cop. >> that's a perfect statement. >> but just as detective short was trying to figure that out, who walked in the door? stephen rios himself. >> he just shows up, says, i need to talk to you guys. >> stephen said he'd heard rumours a police officer was involved, so he'd come to clear things up. said he'd once arrested jesse, but that's all there was to it. >> when i confronted him that there was a relationship, he said, what, sex? and i said, yeah. and he denied it. >> you already knew that was a lie. >> yes, i did. i confronted him with that lie. he breaks down, kind of cries, says, yeah, but only once. >> and you knew that was a lie? >> and the problems that i was having at that point,

personally, was, okay, is he upset and crying because we've just outed him as having a homosexual relationship, and he's married and got a child? or is he lying because he did this? >> stephen told the detective he had plenty of witnesses who could prove he wasn't anywhere near jesse the night he was murdered. where was he? he clocked in at 6 p.m. that evening. it was a busy shift. he made a traffic stop. that's him on the dash cam video. then helped out on a shooting investigation across town. said he finished a little after 3 a.m. and joined some other officers for a beer up on the roof of the station. then went back inside to go to the bathroom. >> his entry into the building prior to his departure was at 4:37 a.m.. so, that's the only thing that we can confirm without a doubt. that's solid evidence, obviously. >> but stephen told detective

short he didn't leave just then, but instead went back up to the roof for a few minutes and drove out finally around 5 a.m. and then went straight home. talk to my wife libby, he said. so, they did. they don't announce these things, of course. they just knock on the door. and there was libby. surprised? imagine. >> most people, an officer shows up at your house, you're immediately on pretty high alert, as one would be. >> stephen had already told libby someone he'd arrested had been murdered, but as for the rest of it, the affair, the fact he was being questioned as a person of interest in a murder, she didn't know a thing. and the cop at the door said nothing about any of that. instead -- >> she reassured and said anyone that had contact with the victim were talking to all of >> what sort of questions if

you ask? >> i think she asked what times they've got home? >> on saturday morning? >> yeah,. their spouses, no big deal -- >> so, libby thought for a minute, then told the officer that grace was the only person she knew who had been arrested. she told the officer that grayson, her four-month-old baby, started crying early that morning. woke her up. >> i remember 5:15. i remember looking at the clock, i remember 5:15. it's in my head. >> libby didn't know, of course, but no idea how her groggy memory would be poked and prodded and parsed. how crucially important those precise minutes would turn out to be. no. anywhere between five and ten minutes after waking up, she was in the kitchen warming up a bottle for the baby when her husband walked in. >> we made eye contact. i think i said something like, long night, and you know, he said yeah. and he immediately walked to grayson's room and picked him up and then he handed off grayson and i started feeding

him. >> so, she told the story and the cop laughed. she expected stephen would come home then, but he didn't. instead, more cops showed up to search the house. >> an officer of the law is having his house searched by other officers of the law. >> it was alarming for sure. she wondered, was her husband a murder suspect? they certainly searched the house as if he was. they even examined the shower drain, looking for what, blood? other evidence of murder? >> but the drain didn't come up with anything. >> no, it didn't. >> from a crime scene. no. no blood, no. >> no, no nothing. >> no blood in his car, no evidence on his clothes, nothing. >> no sign of a struggle on rios's body, because you looked at him, right? >> yeah, they took pictures of him and everything. there was no injuries. >> nor could they find any possible murder weapon in his possession or in his house.

they administered a voice stress test, same one they'd given the rabbi's son. stephen passed. >> and he said, you know, they looked at everything, they cleared me as a suspect. i'm good. so i think even though i was alarmed, i thought, gosh, this was a bad day. but it's done. >> it's over. >> yeah, i mean, i had no idea it was coming. >> no, she did not. -- her own police chief talking about her husband's relationship with homicide victim jesse ventura. steve finally came clean. >> i think his exact words or something like, what was in the paper, he said, it's true. >> do you remember what you said in reaction to it?

>> i don't think i said much. i think i was pretty quiet and in shock about it. >> she was just 21 years old. she just had their baby, and then, in an instant, dogma. >> everybody knows. we did not get to handle that the way a normal married couple would murray infidelity. >> steven took a temporary view of absence. four days after the murder, he told police that he would visit his father. they gave him permission to go, but to his surprise, made a clear he was not out of the woods yet. >> he was certainly a little agitated, and i think, it was then that he really knew they were still looking at him, something was still going on. so he left and, i went to the grocery store. when i came home, my sister in law ran out of the house, and

she said. steve on the phone, and he's got a gun. >> he did not go to virginia. he went to a walmart near the airport in kansas city, but i'm selfish auction. he was threatening to kill himself. >> and i just ran in the house and grab the phone, said, fight this, your sunday do, fight this, this is crazy. >> he said he would do it? >> yeah. >> welcome to that, panic? >> panic is not the right word. just, sadness? >> the be felt helpless. some 24 hours earlier, her life was full of promise. but now. >> she drops to the floor, which i've never seen any of my children to. she's hysterical. >> libby's parents were there when stephen called. >> we had called the police. remember on the other line, they said that they knew what

was going on, so then they arrived and they took over talking to him. >> police manage to talk substance to steve, swore he would drive back to susan and john's house, but he still had the gun, which is why, as cops waited for the driveway, they were on the ready, just in case. >> you have police officers in your front yard with john strong is not any part of our life. it was all pretty traumatic. >> overwhelming for us. >> we're in the back of the house waiting to hear gunfire. >> waiting and bracing for steven's next move. >> coming up, police learned of a possible motive for jessie's murder. >> he said, distinctly, i am going to out-him to the police chief. >> and, later, libby offers a new detail. >> did you feel like you are being called a liar? >> i certainly think i was. >> when dateline continues.

n dateline continues

keith morrison: steven rios must have felt like the walls were closing in on him. armed and threatening to kill himself, steven rios must felt like the distraught officer was headed to his in-laws house the walls were closing in on him. armed and threatening to kill himself, the distraught officer was headed to his in-laws house where police were waiting. in laws, johnson, prepared for the worst. instead, authorities lead stephen into their living room, unharmed. >> we gave him a hug. he's part of our family. until that changes, that's what you do. >> the respite was short-lived. investigators had talked to the cops steven had joined for a beer on the roof the night of the murder. they said stephen left the building earlier than the five a.m. time he claimed. police hauled him back to the station. minutes mattered, a lot. >> now, as far as what time he got home, initially, he said he

got home around 5:20 or 5:30. >> that's what libby had told the police, to. so, detectives wondered, did stephen have time to stop at jesse's apartment before he got home? we wondered that same thank. all right, here we go. all right, so relieving the playstation. first, we drove from police headquarters to jesse's house. >> it's coming up here on the left. now, this trip from the police station, with some traffic, mind you, has taken us just over four minutes. >> your destination is on that left. >> then, from jesse's house to steven and louise home, we kept it under the speed limit, stopped at some light along the way, too. and there is the rios house. our total drive time? just under 15 minutes, which leaves 20, 25 minutes for

whatever may or may not have happened. 20, 25 minutes for stephen to confront jesse, that chase him maybe as far as 200 yards, choke and subdue him, cut his their, rushed back to his car, and drive home. you are content he had enough time to go and commit this offense? >> if he got home at 5:30? yeah, i do. >> 5:25? >> sure. >> 5:20? >> the tighter the time gets, the harder it would be to pull it off, that's for sure. i don't deny that. >> even if he could do it, why would he do it? well, maybe the answer was in those online messages between jesse and patrick rogers. >> he said, distinctly, i'm going to out-him to the police chief. >> if stephen knew that, what would he do to stop it? >> given his suicide threat, he was taken to a mental health center for observation. but when doctors went to check

on him, he was gone. a quick man hunt, there he was. at the top of the nearby parking garage. as they closed in, stephen rios move to the ledge. as television cameras were trained on him, at least negotiator talked him down. >> i just thought his behavior wreaked of guilt, to be honest with you. and it was just an innocent man doesn't act like that, not in my opinion. >> one of the commonalities people will throw at homicide actives is that they've got tunnel the john. as soon as that man got up on that roof and threatened to kill himself, after that, they just didn't think about any other possibility that was done. >> that's not true. you know, we could have ignored the rest of the leads there on out and said, no, we've got our guy. >> but you didn't. >> no, never. >> in fact, detective short set, his boss made sure to remind investigation team that stephen was just one suspect among many. >> used to tell us every day, don't put on your blinders,

even at this guy looks like this is the person, we've still got to clear everybody else for not. >> like an ad, the aspiring chef. police interrogated him several times. found no motive. and besides -- >> kind of felt for the guy, to be honest with you a little bit. because he wasn't an emotionally strong person at all. >> was that enough to clear it? what about his alibi? his tough gay roommate, eric? he'd gone out that night, remember? around the time of the murder. >> so, we found the individuals that he had gone to and they confirmed that during that entire timeframe, we couldn't account for his whereabouts. >> what about zev, the son of columbia's highlight respective rabbi? zev who denied he was jessie's lover, but failed the voice stress test. police wondered, was he the person the eyewitness had seen crying near jessie's house? >> so, you took this kids picture out and showed it to be

apparent eyewitness? what did the person say? >> i think he said that he wasn't sure. >> was there a chance it was zev? >> i find it hard to believe. to me, it came down to motive. i couldn't see where there would be motive on his behalf to do anything. >> a full week into the investigation, police did not have enough evidence to arrest anyone for the murder of jesse valencia. but that changed when detective short got the dna results from jesse's body. coming up -- >> a packed up his things, sold our house, did all the things that you would do -- >> if somebody dies. >> if somebody does. >> a life moves on, still convinced of her husband's innocence. >> he wasn't covered in blood. there wasn't anything in our house. there wasn't anything in his vehicle. it doesn't make sense to me. >> when dateline continues. ontinues ♪♪ come on!

a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season. [music playing] subject 1: cancer is a long journey. it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight. subject 2: it doesn't feel good because you can't play outside with other children. subject 3: as a parent, it is your job to protect your family. but here is something that i cannot do. i cannot fix this. i don't know if my daughter is going to be able to walk. i don't know if she's going to make it till tomorrow.

[music playing] interviewer: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt.

you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing]

one month after jesse valencia's murder, one month after jesse steven rios was again being held at a secure mental valencia's murder, stephen rios was again being held at a secure mental health facility. libby went to see him and again, but it was over for them. and she knew it. >> i packed up his things, sold our house, sold his vehicle,

did all the things that you would do -- >> if somebody dies. >> if somebody dies. because it was as if -- i mean, that person that i knew was gone. >> and then detective short got the dna results. remember, the medical examiner sent jessie's fingernail clippings to the lab. and under one of them, there was, just a miniscule speck of it, but unmistakable, steven's dna. problem was, it wasn't the only dna the lap found. ed's dna was under that same fingernail to. >> we were not surprised to find evidence of his dna. at readily admitted that there was sexual contact between him and jessie. steve said he had not had any contact nor had he seen this individual since the 20th or 29th of the prior month. >> so we're talking about a full week? >> at least, you have. >> for police, the dna results

settled at. they charged steven rios with the first degree murder of jesse valencia. and ten months later, he stood in the columbia courtroom, not in uniform, but in handcuffs. >> the trial lawyer should read the classics, dostoyevsky, tolstoy, deckhands, because a guard trial lawyer is a master storyteller. >> so, it didn't hurt that the prosecutor brought in from a neighboring county to avoid any with a partiality just happened to be a novelist on the side. his name? morley swingle. >> you need to make sure that every one of these jurors is confident in their say that this guy has proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. of course, swingle told the jury about the dot of dna on the other jessie's fingernail, but there was more. several of jesse's hairs were

found on jessie's chest. >> the expert said that every her on jessie's chest that had a route, they had been tested. they all came back being stephen rios dna. >> yes, and the kind of hair it was wasn't the sort that tends to just fall out. >> they were limb hairs, l.a. and, hairs from your arm. >> here, the prosecutor went out on a limb. he argued stephen must have rubbed off those hairs when he is a commonplace chokehold called the unilateral neck restraint. that is hell steven rendered jesse unconscious, said morley single, before killing him. >> i've been a police defensive tactics instructor for about 30 years. and i was the academy instructor that stephen rios went through. i'm going to move in and get underneath his armpit -- >> this is todd berke. the prosecutor called him to the stand to demonstrate the trickle to the jury. we asked him and detective short to do the same for us. >> okay, so, i'm underneath his arm on the side, got him locked

up on the side, and i'm going to push my head into the back of his head and basically shut down most of the blood supply in and out of his head. >> and remember the bruises that medical examiner found on jessie's chest and back? >> if this was not done properly or he didn't get a grip urgency was able to fight his way out of it, the first thing that people do try to shove the person back into the hole, or even striking this way. that's where the bruising was. >> so that he goes down on his back? throats cut at that point. >> that is a theory, yes. >> but cut his throat? with what? a knife, just like this, said the prosecutor. a clip of knife with a partly serrated edge, which just happened to be quite popular with cops. the prosecutors had stephen lied when he claimed that he never owned one. >> multiple officers had seen him with a clip knife, and i put several of them on the stand. >> why you such a knife on his

young lover? the prosecution called to the sent one of jessie's close friends, and she told the same story jesse's online buddy, patrick rogers, did. >> i believe that this police officer i've been having an affair with must be a married man and that next time he comes over, i'm going to confront him about it. >> and the friend testified, about him, to the police chief. there was, said prosecutor swingle, a motive to kill. >> jessie had confronted him and rios chased him and caught him, choked him in his consciousness and cut his throat, and then hurried home and got rid of the night somewhere along the way. >> but prosecutors twinkle did not persuade levy, because, she said, she saw stephen with her own eyes when he came home, walked calmly through their front door. and so, when she was asked to take the stand in steven's defense, she did. >> i've seen him upset before, where he was clearly anxious,

you know, or agitated. he was none of those things. he wasn't covered in blood. i know that there wasn't anything in our house. there wasn't anything in his vehicle. and i just do not understand how somebody could, in that timeframe, not only commit the crime, but clean up after themselves, not leave a chase behind, come home to their wife like everything was normal. it does not make sense to me. >> after libby testified, steven did to. he was emotional, impassioned. swore he didn't own the kind of night that killed jesse, never choked anyone, and time discrepancy or not, he simply drove straight home that night. jessie's mother, linda, didn't buy it. >> he's staring at the prosecutor and trying to look him in the eye and answer his questions, but then he averts his eyes. and my daddy always told me that if somebody can't look you in the eye and tell you something, that they are lying to you. >> it was up to the jury now.

who would they believe? coming up -- a verdict. >> there was never a doubt in my mind. >> they're lot of people that cheat. it doesn't make them a murderer. >> when dateline continues. continues

to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. the power goes out and we still have wifi join the millions of people takto do our homework.acy and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data

and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. on the third floor of the boone county courthouse, jurors were holed up deliberating the fate on the third floor of the of disgraced cop steven rios. moon county courthouse, jurors were holed up, deliberating the fate of disgraced cop, stephen rios. hours past. linda and libby waited on opposite sides of the courtroom. >> there are a lot of people

that sheet every day. unfortunately. but it doesn't make them a murderer. >> i knew he was the one that killed him. there is never a doubt in my mind. >> nine hours later, the jury agreed with linda. stephen was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. libby was devastated. the jury came back and said, guilty. what was that like for you? >> i mean, i don't know there's another word for it. but, shock. >> and that was when local crime novelist, barry bumgarner, got a call from a friend on the police force. >> she kept saying, you ought to look into this. you can't make the stuff up. you just can't make this up. >> so, more on a whim than anything, barry, who read about the trial in the local paper,

decided to send stephen rios a letter. see if he'd give her an interview. and he said, yes. >> so, i was having peace visions up, i want justice for jesse, i'm going to interview rios and get rios to confessed to me. >> but he didn't. anything but. in fact, what stephen said persuaded barry to start all over, to investigate the facts of the case herself. >> so, what is all of this here? >> this is a binder of interviews, which i also have on recorders. police reports, police reports, police reports. police reports. >> something like 400 interviews. a wealth of information about jussie and about stephen that the jury mostly never got to see. i and somewhere in all of that, said barry, she saw a pattern in the levers liaison's. she said stephen would usually show up at jesse's during his shift sometime after midnight, never as late as the time

prosecutor said he did on that night of the murder. >> why would he go up on the parking garage and have a couple of beers and wait until 4:45 a.m., when he had never gone over there and he had known jesse was asleep and his wife is at home waiting for him? >> and remember how jesse talked about confronting stephen, said he'd expose him? some of jessie's friends told barry he enjoyed shocking people a bit. those stories he told them about confronting stephen, about doubting him to the police chief, could have been just that, stories. what's more, said barry, despite what jessie had told his friends, she could find nothing, no voice mail, no text, no phone call even, to prove the men talked that weak at all. >> so it wasn't like there was a phone call that said, hey, you better get over here and make right with this or i'm going to out-you. there wasn't any of that. so, for me, the motive and opportunity, it's just missing. >> and when she talk to the

jurors, it did not reassure her about their verdict. >> several of the jurors, five different jurors said, well, i just couldn't wrap my head around if not rios, then who? >> weren't the police right, though, when they said, you know, no one else had a motive? >> i would venture to say that young man with a rabbi father, who didn't know his son was gay, i think he maybe had a similar motive for him. >> zev, the rabbi, sunset always denied being gay, let alone sleeping with jesse, but barry said jessie's friends told her he joked about outing zev to his dad. so, was that just a joke? very wondered if zev might have been that unidentified young man spotted crying in the street in the middle of the night. the eyewitness was shown a photograph of zip and said, no, i don't think that's the guy. >> he was shown a high school yearbook picture, is what they showed him. he did not look like the same

young man. i saw his picture from when he was 19, from when he was in high school, and he looked nothing like that picture. >> i asked her, how many times has she interviewed stephen? more than 100, she said. is it possible that you've spoken to him too much, that you see the world through his eyes, maybe more than is comfortable? >> i don't think so. >> do you think he's innocent? >> i don't think he should have been convicted. >> you will get it in a sense? >> i don't think he did it. i don't. i don't think he had time. >> that was just her opinion, after all. and then, an amazing thing happened. two years after stevens conviction, an appellate court ruled that the jury should not have been allowed to hear testimony from jesse's friend about what he had told her. the business about outing stephen. that, said the appeals court, was hearsay. didn't count. stephen rios would get a brand-new trial.

>> did you think they were going to release him, let him go? >> i didn't know what they were going to do. i had so many people toll -- tell me, he'll get out of it, because he is a cop. he's going to get out of it. i said, not as long as i live, he will not. >> coming up -- >> you are going to hear that this defendant committed this murder out of less and blind ambition. >> was stephen rios on trial for murder or morality? the prosecution in this case was based around several things. one of them was the fact that rios lied. lied and lied and lied. >> about sex, sex, and sex. >> when dateline continues. come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season. objects like a latent with

some of your headlines. consulting firm, mckenzie, will pay $70 million in an opioid settlement. but it's accused them of contributing to the drug crisis by helping manufacturers design deceptive marketing plans. the company is not admitting to

any wrongdoing. a judge still has to sign off. up to 1 million people are expected to pack new york's times square on sunday night to bring in 2024 during a security briefing near city mayor, eric adams, said there was no specific threat to the annual celebration. now, back to dateline. now, back to dateline. unspoken the day we climbed up from the hollow to jesse's hill, there was a chill in the the place where he is buried on the family farm. air. a hint of some sacred thing unspoken. the day they came up from the hall of jesse cell, the place where he is buried on the family farm. what did this area mean to jesse, this hill? >> this was the path he would walk from the house and come out here and climb over the fence and go over to my mom and dad's. >> which is over that way? >> yeah, over that way. >> it was a place linda came

find her courage for the second trial of stephen rios. she was going to need it. >> yes, my client had gay sex with mr. von seele. >> steven rios had a brand-new defense attorney. a man not interested in winning any prizes for sensitivity. his name, gilles leonard. >> i like to think i'm sort of like jimmy stewart and anatomy of a murder. just a good, all down home lawyer that just likes to drink down ten and he likes to do well for people. >> the defense attorney plays no big surprises. the prosecutor's case was mostly a replay of the trial three years before. ambitious cop, desperate to keep a secret, kills caleb. or >> you're going to hear that this defendant committed this murder out of lust and blind

ambition. >> science? the prosecutor promised the jury would prove. it who else but the murder would leave dna under jesse's fingernail? or hairs on jessie's chest? and the crime lab had unmasked who the murder was. >> the profiles from the three hairs are consistent with each other, as well as the profile from stephen rios. >> but this time around, the prosecutor's case was humbled by that appellate court ruling. this time, the jury would not get to hear what jessie told his friends about his plans to expose stephen. >> and that was the motive, i believe, and so the jury did not get to hear that the second time around. >> still, the prosecutor drove home the essentials. a timeline that fit the murder and the behavior of a guilty man. that threat of suicide, and all those lies, the prosecution in this case was based around several things. one of them was the fact that rios lied. he lied, lied, and. lied >> about sex, sex, and

sex. >> instead of hiding from the lies? >> yes, my client lied. leonard said, so what? >> he was a married man with a small baby at home, having an illicit affair with a young boy. well, a young man. and so, yes, your first inclination is to lie. that didn't make you up murder, it makes you a liar. >> one of the investigating officer said that when he got up on that rooftop, he was going to kill himself. >> yes. >> i knew then, for sure, he was the killer. >> so, apparently god, the holy ghost, or jesus christ was in a police uniform and was able to look into stephen's heart and know that plane was jumping off. >> the defense attorney hoped that if the jury could look past stevens lies and adultery, they'd begin to see holes in that prosecutions evidence, like a timeline police worked out. sheer fantasy, said the defense. >> look at all that he would've had to accomplish. he would have to chase this boy down. i don't know what you've been

out to the scene. yet >> i have. >> it's not a short, little across the. straight up and over. he had to, quote, seduce him with what i used to refer to is the secret ninja chokehold. execute him, get rid of the, coast cleanup. >> what the defense asked the jury to do was think of the prosecutions theories as something like a quirk of speculative fiction. consider the neighbor, said leonard. >> bumping into the wall. >> the neighbor who said he heard a commotion in jessie's apartment. >> do you recall telling police officers that you believe that it was anytime between 3:30 and 4:30? >> i gave them a guesstimate. that was what i told them at the time. >> between 3:30 and 4:30 am, the defense pointed out, at least four people saw stephen drinking beer on the police station roof, a gathering that broke up around dawn, according to this detective. >> i remember making a comment about day breaking in the far, i guess, northeast sky.

i believe the sky starting to lighten up. >> but hang on a moment. when the defense got to questions that medical examiner, she told him the crime happened before daybreak. >> you believe now that the sun had not come up when mr. valencia had met his and? >> it was dark. that's correct. >> if that was true and stephen was on the roof until dawn, that would mean he didn't kill jessie? just as fantastical, that leonard, was the prosecution's theory of how stephen would have killed jesse. he showed the jury that dash cam patio bumped a traffic stop statement made that night up the murder. might be hard to see, but the defense attorney said it showed there was no knife on stevens belt. in fact, stephen said he never owned a serrated clip knife. as for what he called the secret ninja chokehold -- >> now, what it's done correctly, how quickly can you render a person unconscious?

>> in about 3 to 7 seconds. >> step in, underneath his arm -- >> todd burkett demonstrated the chokehold for the jury in the courtroom of the prosecutor. >> why is yourself? >> well, what could be more dramatic than the prosecutors showed into unconsciousness right in front of the jury? >> but defense attorney leonard had his own dramatic demonstration. >> okay, allen, take your left arm and grab mr. brooks elbow and his arm. >> he wanted the jury to see that jesse would have been able to fight back, to scratch whoever was attacking him. >> how do you do that and not leave a scratch, not leave some more skin under the fingernails? not leave some kind of? mark again, there were no marks on stephen. >> and of course it be a bit of stephen's dna under jessie's fingernails, argued leonard. they had had sex a week earlier, sure, but maybe dna was left over from that encounter. sex could explain the hairs on jessie's chest, to, he said.

the crime lab had found several hairs belonging to stephen on jessie's comforter. >> his bed linens were days old, so he could've easily gotten those hairs rolling around in the bed that him and stephen had rolled around in a few days before. >> but there is one final piece of scientific evidence that the defense wanted the jury to consider. remember, stephen was not the only person whose dna was under jessie's fingernails. that is firing chef, dead mcdevitt, one of the last people had seen jesse alive, his dna was there, to. and here was a central theme of that defense. police may have gotten the wrong man. coming up -- >> it was important to set that record straight. >> because he believed to be true? >> i 100% believed to be true. >> let me take the stand and adds an intriguing twist to her testimony. i know that that clock was set

fast. i know that. >> when dateline continues. or quinoa? -[ groans ] -we're gonna need a minute. do you have any food allergies? -well, my teeth are sensitive to cold. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. that'll be $19.45. oh, i'm just paying for my own salad. right now, we are in a defining moment. people across the country are being denied basic reproductive health care. more than ever, people need planned parenthood. and more than ever, we need you. i can't believe this is the world we live in, where we're losing the freedom to control our own bodies. go online, call this toll-free number, or scan the code on your screen now, with your $19 monthly gift. with restrictions and barriers to care on the rise across the country, there's never been a more important time to join.

help us protect access to care and reproductive freedom. help us fight for the policies that protect our right to control our own bodies and ensure future generations have the ability to decide their own future. help us make sure high-quality, affordable health care is available to all who need it. the care that i was given at planned parenthood was the most compassionate, kind care that i have received. truly, like, if planned parenthood had not stepped in, i would not be here today. they saved my life. visit this website, call, or scan the code with your $19 monthly gift. join right now, and if you do, we'll send you this "care. no matter what." t-shirt with our thanks. this is a defining moment. together we can fight back against barriers to reproductive care. and we need your support more than ever.

it is your right to have safe health care. that's it. it's health care. and everybody deserves health care. don't wait. join today. go online, call or scan right now. and help planned parenthood continue to protect and provide care, no matter what. ( ♪♪ ) the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash to the comfort of your couch. slow down!... i mean (coughs) slow down! ahh! watch it! ♪♪ come on! a hero will answer the call... (laughs) you just have to answer the door. oof! that was fast. ♪♪ mucinex available on doordash. ahh! it's comeback season.

ahh! it had been harder than linda expected to sit through another trial. she hated listening to the lawyers score points over her son's most it had been harder than intimate secrets, his lovers, even his bed sheets. they expected to sit there another trial. she hated listening to the lawyer score points over her son's most intimate secrets, his lovers, even his bed sheets. >> i'd laugh at some of

it and then i would get mad because i did feel like jesse was on trial. >> you can't say anything about? it >> and you can't do anything. can't say nothing. >> defense attorney gillis leonard aggressively poked holes in the prosecution's case. he argued stephen was the victim of a which hunt. >> i firmly believe that the columbia police department, once they focused on stephen, they didn't even that or go anywhere else. >> of course, the detectives took issue with that. remember their vow to guard against tunnel vision? well, that was just spin, said leonard. it was obvious from the way investigators had handled their search of ed mcdevitt's apartment. jesse's new lover, the wannabe chef. >> did you find a bag of knives in that apartment? >> no, sir. >> so you didn't find a bag of knives in the apartment? >> i didn't. >> and yet, at himself said he kept the knives in his bedroom

in plain sight. leonard called that half-hearted, sloppy detective work. equally sloppy, according to the defense, was investigators'failure to follow up on what ed's roommate, eric thurston, had told them. >> did you tell detective john stewart that when ed mcdevitt uses alcohol along with prescription pills, he does become out of control and very violent? >> yes. >> remember, eric was the one who'd given ed his alibi, said he'd seen him come home. nonsense, said the defense attorney. how could he? eric had been out on a date at the time. >> so, the truth is, you weren't home. mr. mcdevitt did not come home while you were home? >> i don't know at this point. i'm not sure at this point. i'm not. i'm not going to give you one way or the other. i'm sorry. >> the jury got to hear from ed himself when the prosecutor called him to the stand. >> if i didn't put him on, then

he'd be the big phantom that the defense was trying to make sound so terrible. >> there is no video of ed's testimony, but he told the jury he had never been violent tore jesse or anyone else. so, here comes this phantom and this phantom turns out to be kind of a shy, soft-spoken guy. >> right, very, very, very clean-cut, shy young man who was devastated. >> a did not agree to an on-camera interview, but he told us he did not kill jesse. he had nothing to do with it, and he grieves for him to this day. but of course, there was someone else investigators had considered a person of interest, wasn't there? zev, the rabbi son. >> here's the echo may or may not have been seen in the area. jesse's friends told me that he was breaking up with them, and this was this kid's first gay love affair. and he was deeply hurt. >> the defense attorney grilled

zev about his relationship with jessie. >> so, isn't it true that jesse was your first, alternative lifestyle experience? >> you meet my first gay friend? >> no, but first time that you had a gay relationship? >> no, that's not true. i never had a gay relationship. >> seven did not deny trying to call jesse the night of his death. >> you call him at 12:01. >> yes. >> and then you try to get 107? yes. >> anne and your testimony went to bed? >> yes. >> didn't you drive over and get his apartment at about 3 am in the 1996 buick? >> now. >> they do not get out of the driver side and walk around to his part? >> no, i did not do that. >> he denied it all. he lived in his parents

basement, and if he had taken that car out in the middle of the night, the garage door would have gone up, they would have heard him. >> how would we know if they heard him? the parents go and say at the morning of the murder, our son who had an affair with him, we had the garage door go up and leave? >> on the witness stand, his mother was adamant, she swore he never left the house at all that night. >> did you see him go to bed? >> yes. >> what time was it that he went to bed? >> around 1:30. >> there's always that mystery man defense. >> detective john short listen to the defense attorney call his investigation sloppy, incompetent, blinkered. the real story, he said was far from that. >> i'm sure you beat the waterfront a lot to see that there's anybody else who may have. even a stranger walking by who picked a fight and killed him? >> this case file turned out to

be over 1300 pages. we interviewed a lot of people, we've got several types of you might want to look at this person, we might want to talk to this person. we searched them all down. every lead was followed up on, and completed. nothing, and no information or evidence lettuce to anybody else. >> but what would the jury believe? the defense attorney had one more ace up his sleeve. libby. by this time libby was steve's ex-wife, she was in a new relationship and she wasn't happy to be back in court. >> i was angry about it, i remember fighting with my parents about it. and just being, i wanted to move on. >> she told her familiar story. waking up at 5:15 a.m. to baby grayson's cry. saying her husband walked through the door without a scratch. then she volunteered a detail she had told others for years, but did not bring up at the first trial. >> i know that that clock was

set fast. i know that. >> libby testified that stephen must have arrived home even sooner than she first told police. >> so you set your alarm clock? fast >> right. >> so you wouldn't be late for work? >> absolutely. >> how fast? >> i would say it was probably seven minutes fast, usually. >> which to the defense, met stephen got home even earlier than police thought. and he had even less time to commit the murder. prosecutor morey was skeptical. didn't exactly accuse lobby of lying, but close. >> i just wanted to point out what her previous statement had been so the jury would say that, well, she tried to shorten that timeframe a little bit. >> do you feel like you are being called a liar when you are on the stand? >> i certainly think that i was. for me, it was important to set that record straight. >> because you believe it to be true? >> i 100% believe it to be true. >> you don't think that your

memory is adjust a? >> no. >> levees revised timeline had turned the attack on the police investigation, linda valencia, agreed a mother, hated it. the once convicted cop saw possibilities. the jury went out and close the door. coming up! >> there was enough reasonable doubt to drive a truck through. >> two families of it the verdict. and steven talks. >> some people think i'm not. >> what would the jury? think when dateline continues! dateline continues! when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when i wanted to see results fast, rinvoq delivered rapid symptom relief and helped leave bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc tried to slow me down... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc caused damage rinvoq came through

by visibly repairing my colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief... lasting steroid-free remission... ...and the chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check, check, and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. put uc in check and keep it there with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq and learn how abbvie can help you save.

hi, i'm chris and i lost 57 pounds on golo. asgolo isn't complicated.st about rinvoq i don't have to follow a restrictive diet, and i don't have to spend a lot of time making meals. using golo was truly transformative. it was easy, and inexpensive.

the jury will now retire to deliberate and reach their verdicts. keith morrison: steven rios watched the 12 >> the jury will now retire to strangers who would be deciding his fate deliberate. >> he watched the strangers who would be deciding his fate, file out of the courtroom. jurors who had not heard his story. not from him, anyway. he had chosen not to testify. >> some people think i'm a killer, some people think i am not. i know i'm not. >> he did speak to us via video link from prison, and he had a lot to say about libby, about grayson, about his once perfect life. >> what happened the minute all this goes south? what was the first day? the first mistake? >> probably crossing paths with

-- >> the night he arrested jesse. >> a lot of people in that circumstance were not very friendly, but he was, he was like 20 questions. he didn't have any ill will. >> but you're a cop, you arrest people before, some of them are very nice. but you made a decision. he said okay, i'm going to go back there. something might happen, something sexual might happen. because i'm attracted, and so obviously is he. >> well i set out for that role. >> no, he said, he only wanted to make sure that jesse was okay. the sex was a surprise, he said. >> it is widely understood that he was enjoying this relationship with you. maybe as much as you are with him. but he found out you are married, and intended to confront you about that.

so, that happened? >> no, that never. >> why would he tell his mother he was going to? why would he tell his friends he was going to? why would he say those things to people if they never happened? >> i have no idea. me being married never came up. >> the point was, stephen, he didn't know that jesse was probably trying to expose him. so he said he had no motive to kill him. though he agreed it might be hard to take his word for it given how he lied to libby, the police, to everybody. >> had you come forward and said, look, i did have a personal relationship with this guy. and ladle your cards on the table. if you're innocent, why wouldn't you do that? >> having a same sex relationship with a married police officer. >> you know you're a human being as well. they do that. >> it's easy to say now, but it

wasn't anything that i was proud of. it wasn't something i wanted to reveal to the guys. >> so he said he did want to hide that from the investigators, but he didn't, he swore he did not want to hide anything else. quite the opposite, he said. he had done everything that he could to help investigators. >> if you want to switch my car, switch my house, if you want to search my house, search my house. >> if you want to clear name, the way to do that is not jumping off a building. it's staying, and telling the truth. wouldn't you agree? so why threatened suicide? >> everything was crazy. i was passed off. and i know the people say stay and fight, but the life you had is over. >> now, the question was, would he get it back? libby's parents that he might. while the jury deliberated,

they began to make plans for stephen, for a life outside of prison. >> we all decided that he couldn't stay in columbia. where was he going to go? he did not have a job. >> crime oenologist, mary, had felt confident to. she had shared her research with the defense, who was sure that he made his case. >> there was enough reasonable doubt to drive a truck through. she >> was across the street, having lunch, when the word came. a verdict. >> with the jury, having found that the fence, stephen, guilty of murder in the second degree. >> there was aghast in the courtroom. jessie's friends chair, but there was a cat from a lot of people who were watching it. >> stephen rios was found guilty of second degree murder this time. he will be up for parole in 2049. way too soon for linda. >> i still don't think it was

enough. i wanted the death penalty. >> but the prosecutor sees some -- in it. >> 24 jurors with no dog in the fight, came in, heard this evidence, and it is 24 to 0 that the prosecutor has pulled without a reasonable doubt that stephen rios committed this murder. >> levy still had her doubts. in fact, told us, she believed stephen was innocent until she dies. it's why she talk to us all these years later. it's why she encouraged her sons trips hundreds of miles, three times a year, to visit his dad in prison. we went with him and libby on one of those long rides. he is a young man now. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it's crazy. you're so big. [laughter] >> you've chosen a very

interesting path. >> and i found it very interesting you say that i've chosen that. because i don't feel like it was a choice. i think if it was a choice i 100%, it would be easier for me if i could have believed that he was guilty, and moved on with my life and not looked back. >> and linda has her grandchildren now. says, little braydon is a spitting image of jesse. >> they keep me busy, i have a full schedule. >> but most days, she climbs the steep little hill to the place where jessie will forever be. watched over by the statue of that very maria of the psalm. here the star of his favorite path, the one that goes over the fence and through the woods to the barn over there. after jesse's death, going through his things, linda found a poem he had written at this very place. >> i remember it.

the summer heat, the long walk down the road, and it's all too familiar as i stroll down the beaten, gravel path. and the indian whence blow through the cornfields. it's youth. escaped from all home, and the unpleasant memories that touch me here. they certainly cannot touch me now. >> the song of a young man trading his past for a better future. it has a different meaning now. >> i miss him, still. i mean, i think about him every day. >> every day? >> every heartbeat. ♪ ♪ ♪ and this is "dateline." >> hello, i'm craig melvin.