just picture her laugh. i know that's the way she wants to be remembered. >> caroline, who was with danielle that day, misses her friend too. that one time teenage hangout is now just a memory. >> was at the end of the creek for you >> yes, it was. it all went after that. ever. >> the creek, still lacing through the sandy banks. but those voices of innocence are still now. ever since one lazy, happy day turned into a very bad night. one never to be forgotten or completely understood. understood. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: hello i'm andrea canning, and this is dateline. a doctor's wife dies after a minor fender bender. so why do her brothers believed this was no accident? >> i pulled my brothers out and

said you're not gonna believe what i just? heard >> the startling news came from her sisters. friend >> she kept insisting get a full autopsy. >> the brothers kept it a secret. >> they didn't tell my parents or my sister diana. we wouldn't tell anybody. it was information about a family member they loved what they point the guilty finger. >> there's no way we were going to accuse him >> reporter: hello and welcome to dateline, thousands americans are killed in car accidents every year but when a mother of two died after reminder fender bender her loved ones were left shaking their hands and looking for answers the more they learned the more it seems that wasn't her accident that need investigating. it was her marriage here is dennis murphy with bitter pill

>> so ironic that rosie essa was just idling a few days the afternoon when she had only a few precious minutes remaining. but we never know, do we? it was february 2005, she was dashing to the movies to meet her sister diana at a matinee. >> at the last minute, and i was at the movie theater she had called and said i'm on my way. she said, i'm leaving now. >> no one knew it then but rosie special trip to the movie that day from the nice home in suburban cleveland would second motion an international manhunt. something that became an excruciating five-year ordeal that would expose mistresses, secret bedrooms and new identities. and would involve the fbi of a middle east and murder. and all the intrigue and all the lifetime of sorrow for so

many, began on the streets of a perfectly pleasant, moms, dads, kids, and dogs kind of neighborhood. gates mills ohio. rosie, and her handsome husband yazeed essa or yaz as he was known to one at all, lived here. she was a nurse. they met while working at the same hospital. a 36, he was proud that he, a man of humble roots, was able to provide his family with so much. the big house, the backyard pool, money for whatever they needed. >> once upon a time -- >> the kind of son-in-law, rosés parents, rocco and gee gee dipuccio can regard as heaven sent's. >> she sent him for baby food, he would come back with 36. everything in that he did was just a lot. >> was he a show off in anyway, or was he being generous? >> no, you know i used to say to him i think that god is so good to you and everything you do because you're so giving to people.

>> now, rosy, her family would say could not have cared less about the house the cars or the status. she was down to earth and content with what she always had. not the least of it, her close italian american family. where a sunday dinner at her parents was don't miss. >> you're silly! >> and of course, the sun and moon of her life, two your old daughter lena and four-year-old son armand. >> was she happy to be a mother? >> oh my god, are you kidding? she would just pinch their cheek and say i can't believe i've got these beautiful kids. i just love. her eyes lit up when she looked at her babies. they were her life. >> happy birthday! >> say happy birthday. >> in fact rosy and yaz married for almost six years, we're hoping for another child. she was taking prenatal vitamins. but she would never get to have another baby. because rosie's ten-minute drive to the movies in her

black volvo suv was going poorly. her waiting sister had no idea what had gone wrong. >> i wondered where is she? how come she's not calling? i held my phone the whole time. just waiting for it to ring. >> as it turned out, for a few minutes anyway, rosie was on her cell with their friend of many years. a woman named eva. she drove an interstate two 71 for just one exit, to wilson mills road. that's when rosy's suv started veering erradically. another driver noticed it. >> i saw a black car crossover center and go back into the lane and hit a car. and the car just kept going. and i think to myself what is going on here? what is this woman doing? >> the volvo eventually stopped. that's when tara tamsen medical technician, pulled over and ran to see if she can help the women in the car. she found the person in desperate shape. >> when i got into the car the woman was limp. and next thing you know, she started vomiting. meanwhile patrol officer david schiciano, the highland heights police department had happened by.

his dashboard cam recorded the accident. >> the female driver was sitting back. she's just gasping for air. >> rosie was will rushed to the hospital. when word reached her family, they too raced to the emergency room worried about her condition. >> we were just praying, please, let her live. no matter how bad she is broken up, we will take care of her, just let her live, god. >> in the er the doctors were working frantically on rosy for almost an hour now. allowed her husband, yeah's, and the emergency room doctor to observe. >> rosie's brother would be the one to deliver the bad news to his parents. >> he looked at me, he was crying, he went like this to me. and i just went down.

it was sadly over for rosie essa at the age of 38. the family was brought to a private room for reviewing. >> when i saw her, i, thought she looked like she was sleeping. i mean, there was not a mark on her. >> and as the stunned family began to prepare for unspeakably sad arrangements, just hours after she had passed away, that friend, named eva who have been on the phone with rosie right before her car crashed. got a hold of dominick, rosy's brother. she repeated what where very probably rosie's last words. it was literally, unbelievable, what even was suggested. >> first thing i did is i went in the house and i pulled my rather, out and i said you are not going to believe what i just heard. repeated the story to him. we looked at each other like, now with the hell do we do? >> what's eva said would nearly ripped dominic and his brother apart. how could they keep such a monstrous thing secret? >> we wouldn't tell our parents. we wouldn't tell my sister diana. we wouldn't tell anybody. >> coming up --

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

dennis murphy (voiceover): the dipuccio family ♪ ♪ ♪ turned to their church for strength >> the dipuccio family turned to their church for strength and dealing with the loss of their rosy, i just 38 snatched away far too soon in a slow motion car accident no one

could comprehend. their beloved daughter and sister, mother of two, and wife of yaz >> look at mama. >> yaz had been born in detroit, a first generation palestinian american, son of a ford autoworker. after medical school, he had become an emergency room doctor, but one within entrepreneurial itch. he and his brother had become wealthy as a partners in a satellite dish installation company. back in 1999 when they married, rosie's parents felt it was a dream come true for their daughter. >>i just think we have a beautiful future together. >> in the years they were married, rosie's mom and dad saw only a solid relationship. >> we loved him. we cared about him because there was nothing we could say we disliked.

>> but now, after her death, there was trouble brewing in the family. it brought rosies two families -- nearly to blows. it all started after a conversation just hours after rosie's death that dominic had with her sister's friend eva. >> he said, rosie died, rosie died, she is hysterical, she proceeded to tell me that rosie was talking to her on the way to the movie and she said yaz had given her a calcium pill before she left the house, and she started to feel queasy. she said i will call yaz to see if maybe the calcium could be making you sick. >> i'm hearing something about a pill, he gave it her, she is being made sick by it as he was talking to her on the phone. within an hour, she is dead. >> right. >> after the eva conversation, dominic called a family council of just the two brothers and their wives. they needed some place private, so they got into one car and drove to the churches parking lot.

eva's story seem incomprehensible, could there have been something wrong with the calcium capsule yaz had given rosie >> we called, her she kept insisting promise me you will get an autopsy toxicology report, promise me promise me. >> dominic's wife actually was dumbfounded. >> how did this information come to you about somebody from his family, there was no way we were going to accuse him -- >> let alone a guy that we knew that was in our family that we loved. >> we trusted. >> the brothers found themselves an opposite answers fire strategy, dominic the lawyer wanting to go slow, first let the coroners report then see -- >> rocky and has wife rachel were eager to take evas story to the cops. everyone hoped that yaz was blameless. >> i remember feeling suspicious after that phone call, feeling like we need to do something with this information.

>> in the dark of the parking lot, they made a compromise. rocky would call the coroner the next day, and ask for a thorough and full examination of rosie's body. there wouldn't be any mention of eva's suspicions. >> the coroners going to find out how she died, this was a matter of two days, three days, for days. the corner would come back and say this is what happened. >> that is where everyone wanted, they were desperate to know what had happened who rosy. the two car accident she had been involved and had been a minor fender bender, and there appeared to be no serious trauma to rosie's body. the next day, the corner performed an autopsy. unwelcome news reached the dipuccio cause of death, unknown. more tests would be needed. the weight would only add more stress to an already stressful situation between rosie's two

brothers. her parents felt the tension. they were going at each other. and i couldn't understand this. >> you could see it? >> i could see. it, they were arguing. and i told -- you don't have to talk to dominick and rocky. >> but how long could the brothers keep their secret from the rest of the family? >> coming up -- >> especially when someone else was also growing suspicious. >> as soon as i got off the phone, i said, i think he killed her. >> when dateline continues. caplyta is proven to deliver significant relief across bipolar depression. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta treats both bipolar i and ii depression. and in clinical trials, movement disorders and weight gain were not common. call your doctor about sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants may increase these risks in young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, stiff or uncontrollable muscle movements which may be life threatening or permanent. these aren't all the serious side effects.

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dennis murphy (voiceover): rosie essa died in a low impact car accident.

and almost two weeks later, her family rosie essa died in a low was still awaiting the coroner's final report on impact car accident and almost two weeks later, her family was still awaiting the coroner's final report on the exact cause of her death. >> that is when this woman on her own decided to get involved. and it's that involvement that would later prove invaluable to the police. >> i didn't want to be the nosy neighbor -- coming up with these wild convoluted ideas. christine dicillo was a nurse who once worked with both rosie and her doctor husband yaz. she hadn't seen much of either of them in the previous five years. by coincidence christine lived right next door to roll eastward eva. and eva told her about that last phone call with rosy about yaz giving them a -- >> it's odd to me that just prior to leaving for a movie in the middle of the afternoon, in a hurry that that was so necessary that he give you the pill. as soon as i got off the phone with eva, i looked to my husband and said i think he killed her. >> gut instinct.

>> instantly. >> so, going simply on her gut instinct, that something wasn't right. and unknown to release brothers, christine called the authorities. >> but, if you are wrong, christine -- >> well, or could they take it if i was wrong? there was no harm, no foul. they could politely tell me that i was wrong and thank you for my help. and i would go away. >> christine's urgent request to check yaz out made it to the desk of this detective. gary mckee, of the highland heights ohio police to department and was already investigating rosie's car accident. >> i had never met christine dicillo, i didn't know she had a -- with him. whatever reason, she didn't care for him may not have been a valid reason. so, i wasn't approaching him as a suspect or even thinking that, you know, this guy's murder. >> still, the detective had some facts that did not at. a 38 year old woman, good

health, suddenly dead in a fender bender. what's more, the coroner couldn't give him a cause of death. at minimum, he had to find out more about those calcium capsules, christine dicillo had told him about. the detective called rosie's husband, and he agreed to come down to the police station. that interview was recorded on an audiotape. the detective questioned the doctor about the calcium capsules. >> two weeks before i was over my mom's house, and i heard about this as. well my mom was just -- over and they were talking and i had been told that rosie was there. and that we should probably, you know, she was over 35, she should probably start taking calcium supplements. so, she's not in the care of any special mansour. anything she didn't have any special -- >> no. >> was she experiencing any unusual stress recently? >> no, life was good. >> did you have any stressors in your marriage? >> no, our marriage was fine. >> so, what's your impression of this doctor, the guy called yaz. >> well, he's clearly a smart individual. very low-key.

>> are the calcium pills and the prescription vitamin still at home? >> yes. >> would you mind if i followed you back to your home uncollected those? >> no, that be. great. >> not at all. >> remember, rosie and yes were trying to have another child. and she was prescribed premade of vitamins. detective mckee wanted all the pills rosie was taken, gathered up for testing. including the calcium capsules that you has said he bought for his wife. the interview over, the detective followed yaz home. >> we entered the home. there was a female seated at the kitchen counter and hostile. she was marguerita montanez. >> margearita was the daytime 90. he had hired her to care for the kids after rosie died. he also hired another woman to be the nighttime nanny, at the time the detective thought nothing of margarita, the nanny. though, that would eventually change. for now, he was only there to get the pills formulas. >> before he retreats the pills,

he asked me, have you found the cause of death for my wife? and i said, no, we have. and so, he reached up into the cabinet, he got the pills. but before he handed them to me he said, why do you want these? and my response was you know, i just want to cover all the bases. >> the next day, yaz asked rosy sister to watch his kids overnight. then, in the middle of that night, she got an urgent call from him. >> at four in the morning, he left me a voice mail saying, that his friend's brother was in a bad car accident. and, they didn't think he was going to make. so, he was going to go to north carolina. >> the friend's brother was apparently in bad shape. rosie asked the dipuccio family to watch the children for the weekend. but, on monday, when the doctor was to return, came a bombshell none of the dipuccio cover-up imagined. rosie's brother got a call from his wife. >> julie called and, said nobody can find yaz. said, what do you mean? nobody can find. them i found this, friend we

found is, number i called. him i, said has your brother? and he said, what are you talking about. i said, well, yes told us he was down with you. has your brother been in a really bad car accident? i, said i haven't seen yaz. he hasn't been here all weekend. >> dominic went to rosie and yaz's house. and discovered something on the kitchen counter. >> it was an envelope that had obviously recently been open. it was just a couple of days before where the passport would come in. and he said, he's gone. he's gone. but, could this father really have left behind his two children? children who just lost their mother three weeks before? the dipuccios did have questions. what killed rosy? and, why did yaz disappear? >> coming up -- the autopsy comes in along with a stunning revelation about those calcium pills. >> what were they filled with? >> when dateline continues.

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hours top stories. former president trump was ordered to pay over $83 million and damages to writer, e. jean carroll. for repeatedly defaming her, and denying that he sexually abused her. 83 million is on top of the 5 million judgment on trump from a previous trial. and president joe biden vowed to shut down the u.s. mexico border. if congress passed a bipartisan immigration plan. republican leaders who built the house and senate pulled back from the deal, after former president trump expresses disapproval. now back to dateline! dateline welcome back to dateline. i'm andrea canning. rosie essa died in a minor car accident after taking what she thought was a calcium pill given to her by her husband. now in the midst of a police investigation rosie's husband is nowhere to be found. here is dennis murphy with more of bitter pill.

[laughs] >> doctor yazeed essa was gone. three weeks after his wife rosie had died a puzzling death heat up and abandon his two young children. his job as an er doctor just flat vanished. rosie's brother dominic filed a missing person report with the police. then, headed down to yaz's house and started his own investigation. >> my entire family spent the week at the house. we were playing detectives. trying to figure out what happened. >> what was the puzzle piece telling you? >> rosie died on a thursday, less than 24 hours later he sends a blast email to all his friends that said, just wanted to let you know that rosie died yesterday in a minor car accident she will be missed. >> that's it? >> that was the email. >> you will be missed. >> the mother of his two children. >> blast email! >> the credit card transactions,

dominic eventually learned that jazz had bought a plane ticket. final destination? cypress, the island in the mediterranean. dominic knew it was time to tell the entire family everything. he and his brother rocky had been keeping. back about the conversation their sister had with eva just before she died. her story about rosy feeling take after taking a calcium capsule given to her by yes. >> are you the family saying out loud in one voice yaz killed rosy. >> some of us are, it took me awhile really took me a while. >> suddenly dominic and his wife's family had grown. carrying on only for their four children but now rosy to children as well. >> if not a mother not a father we really don't even know where to tell them where they went. what happened to them where did he go. how do you even answer that question? >> then came even more devastating news. about four weeks after rossi's death, test results were in for the calcium pills that police took from yaz's home. >> we were suspicious but they nailed it.

>> and what were they filled with? >> potassium cyanide. >> cyanide. a lethal poison. nine pills were in the bottle that yes had turned over to police. it's from that same bottle that he gave rosy a capsule. and sure enough there was enough cyanide in each pill to kill a person within minutes. rosie's death was a homicide. but how could the man that dipuccio love so much the son-in-law they thought had a near perfect marriage with rosy ever have killed her? nonetheless doctor yazeed essa was now a murder suspect and international fugitive. the local police called in the fbi. >> and initially he fled from cleveland to cyprus and then eventually he also came information through various sources that he had traveled to lebanon. >> phil tours and he is a fbi man hunter. the agent immediately knew he had a major problem.

he was virtually untouchable in lebanon because that country does not have an expedition treaty with the u.s.. so rosie's husband was living freely in beirut. the fbi knew it. and there was nothing they could do about it. >> even if we have eyes on the ground, you've got an agent saying i just saw him leave his apartment going down to the bistro he read the paper one. home you can't move in and sort papers on him. >> right. >> back in the u.s. rosy's family desperately tried to get yaz to turn himself in. >> they held news conferences. >> what we're doing today is making a plea. if he is watching to come back to cleveland and answer the charges before. >> by then the doctor had officially been charged with aggravated murder in the death of his wife. but it appeared he had no intention of coming back. officials would later learn that yaz took on a new identity. maurice kolisi. >> he was a single good-looking guy always up for a party. here he seen at a wedding. months went by. then a year.

>> did you ever get the feeling it was thumbing his nose to you and tell the other people looking for him? >> yeah i think so. >> and what you have to do is lure him off the security of his home base where he safe in beirut? >> we hope at some point he leaves the country. >> in october 2006 a year and a half after voters deaf her mom and dad got a phone call from their local police chief. >> and he said are you sitting down? >> he says i have big news for you. i said, we've got him. >> yaz have finally slipped up. he left the security of lebanon. the fbi was aware he was going to be on a flight into cypress is alonna airport. how the new, they won't say. but cyprus police were waiting for him when he got off the plane. and, in cypress, unlike lebanon, a person can be extradited to the u.s.. but yes would fight every inch of the way to avoid facing aggravated murder charges in ohio. >> that's our guy! >> it wasn't until january of 2009 that yazeed essa, the man in the grainy footage was

finally brought back to the united states. >> 50, go ahead >> and detective gary mckee,, the highland officer who first started investigating rosie's death for years before was waiting for him. >> we put him in the backseat of the car. and i did not say a word to him. >> you did say, remember me? >> i think he did. >> i don't think i had to say that. >> one question no one had yet answered why would the doctor want his wife dead? coming up -- >> are you asserting that there's a little love-nest? >> oh yeah, there was identified as a play, house, a love shack. >> a love shack. >> when dateline continues. because a lot can happen in 48 hours. dermatologist-recommended cetaphil. we do skin. you do you.

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for nearly five years, the the dipuccio family had been waiting for this day. dipuccio family had been waiting for this day. dr. yazeed essa, would finally face a jury for allegedly poisoning his wife rosie with cynanide would prosecute the aggravated murder case for ohio. >> what's the mission how do you go in about it? >> mission is to define his character and let the jury get another glimpse of who he is as opposed to how he appears there in the courtroom. >> as the trial started, the prosecution challenge was to convince the jury that yazeed essa was a decadent.

one face showing the emergency doctor who saved lives and seemingly the ideal husband. the other an evil poisoner who planned the murder of his wife the mother of his two children. >> rosie sister-in-law may have seen one of those mask slip right after rosie had died. she testified as to how cold and disrespectful yaz was in the way he treated his wife's body lying on the hospital bed. >> yaz walked over to rosy and abrupt -- very abruptly lifted her up and pulled the sheet down. and she was naked underneath. and he exposed her breast. and he tried to get the necklace off and he just got it off and he just treated her very disrespectfully. and i was thinking, why is he doing that? why is he treating her like that? that's his wife! [inaudible] >> if the prosecution had an indispensable star witness, it would be be this person taking

the stand. eva mcgregor had been the friend on the phone with rosy just before her car accident and death. only eva could point to yaz as the sign of that cyanide rose casing that she had taken. >> she had taken a calcium pill, right before she left for the house. she didn't want to take it. and she said that she was rushing out the door. and he said, here take it, take the calcium. now, i don't know if that's what's making me sick. >> the jury would get the lesson in poison. the court was told that cyanide isn't something you could just buy over-the-counter. but the lethal, stuff according to this poison expert was available only a mouse click away online. >> there is a study done where the actually looked at ebay. there's two times that it came up where you could buy, on ebay, cyanide. >> and, it turned out to be a snap to shake out the calcium in the capsule and replace it with cyanide. >> you can literally just take, you know a pen cap and you

could scoop it with that and pour it right in. >> that may have been the killers methodology. but, in the big picture, the most damning fact against diaz was his decision to flee. would an innocent father had left his two children behind just weeks after their mother had died? for the story the courtroom was taken to the middle east to account for years is missing months in lebanon. >> good morning sir. >> this man jamal khalife, a kind of godfather mr. fix-it character, testified about how he helped yaz live on the land. virtually a new life and identity. >> i got a phone call from my brother. and that there's somebody coming over and to take care of him. >> the brother of jamal, the fixer, had known yaz family back in the united states. >> he testified that he put him up in a new apartment, -- >> maurice khalife. we have all of the support in lebanon. >> as he got to know the american doctor, a stunning story about rosy spilled out. >> he told me the whole story that his wife was living at home, going to a movie. he told me he grounded cyanide

he filled up pills he gave her two pills. down the street she had a car accident, she died. >> a severe blow for the accused. a second hand account of a confession from yaz. another witness was about to deliver an even more dramatic roundhouse punch. >> good afternoon mr. essa. >> none other than the defendants own brother and business partner, took the stand as a prosecution witness. >> i asked him if he was responsible for her death and he said, yes. >> when you found out that information, what did you say to your brother? >> [inaudible] >> why did you say that? >> because he took rosie's life. and i loved her. and he just ruined this whole family. >> it was crippling testimony. the brother, once an inseparable blood friend had given yaz an evidentiary kill shot. nonetheless, there were still

core problems in the prosecution overall case. it was entirely circumstantial. and, seemed to beg for a motive. why would the doctor do it? >> prosecutors answered,, by arguing that yaz the family man wasn't really when you took a closer look. it turned out, he had scans of women on the side. he was a doctor, with the first degree cheating hard. >> every wednesday night, he would spend with his girlfriend, with this mistress at her apartment. >> girlfriend, mistresses, sex partners. lots of them. jurors were even shown photos of a hidden away bedroom in the building with he and his brother had the visit. >> a love shack, that was it, that was a place that he would use the apartment over

there from time to time to bring his lady friends. >> good afternoon. >> and one of those lovers had been marguerita montanez, the daytime nanny. she was the woman the detective sought sitting in yaz ' when they first want to collect the calcium caps. margarita had turned out to have a long term sexual affair with the ads. an affair rosie, evidently knew nothing about. >> in 2001, we begin our sexual relationship. >> why did you become involved in a relationship with the defendant while you are married? me and my husband were having problems and i was going to get a divorce. >> so, did this begin an affair with the defendant? >> on occasion. it wasn't a love affair or anything. >> marguerita montanez described it as a friends with benefits type of relationship with yaz. purely sex. >> but the prosecution asserted yaz had a deeper more complicated relationship with another woman. michelle madeline. now, she was the so-called nighttime nanny for his children. michelle was also someone prosecutors say, who fell in love with the doctor and he with her. >> exhibit 125.

>> to make the point jurors were shown a camisole like this one, an intimate valentine's day gift from yaz to michele just two weeks before rosie's death. >> a representative of the company that shipped the nightie, let the card that was enclosed. >> next valentine's day will be all ours. i love you with all of my, being yaz. >> he's indicating to this pair more, at next year's going to be all ours. it's kind of a foreshadowing of, she won't be a round next year. >> the mistress, the nighttime nanny, was called to the stand.

>> i had a romantic relationship with them. >> michelle testified that she was a nurse that met him on the job. she asked for and received a court order to obscure her image while testifying. >> he was telling me that he was so unhappy in his marriage. and i was the love of his life. and i was his dream come true. and, he was going to leave her so that our relationship could continue. >> she's pushing back saying, no, i can't be with a married man. and, he can't take no for an answer. and that's his motivation. that's will put him on this path. >> a path, the prosecution argued, led directly to murder. the one mistress shared with the court his true feelings for his wife, rosy. >> he was in love with her, according to what he told me. and that he was in love with me. he would, say she was a good person. but she was cold. he would call her, nana. >> what is that? >> the refrigerator brand. >> rosie's family taking in the testimony where devastated by the mistresses revelation. >> the way he humiliated her. and on top of everything that he had done to her to belittle her, or to make fun of her with the mistress is you know, sick. >> your honor, at this time the state of ohio will rest its case. >> the defense was about to rise and offer a completely different theory of the crime.

the jury had already met the true killer in court. and, it wasn't yazeed essa. >> coming up -- questions about those cyanide filled pills. >> if he has successfully killed his wife with that, why hold on to this stuff? >> precisely. >> when dateline continues. have you ever wondered what an icon,... a legend,... a legacy,... a pop star,... and a tight end all have in common? they all got this season's updated covid-19 shot to help better protect them against recent variants. got it? ♪♪ ♪♪

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had with yazeed essa. >> our mandate is a do the best job that we can. and to bring home that not guilty. >> the defense for yazeed essa came down to this. sure, he had a lot of women on the side. and he got away with it. so why did he need to kill his wife? his two defense lawyers mark, and steve, told the jury straight out that the defendant was not going to be the husband of the year. >> yazeed essa, regularly, always maintained numerous, sexual relationships with other women. >> but, they insisted, a cheater does not necessarily make a murderer. especially a doctor who was planning a bigger family. >> yazeed essa did not commit this crime. he did not intentionally kill the mother of his two young children. the woman with whom he was actively trying to conceive a third child, and add to their family. something that they both wanted. >> if he where the heartless philanderer portrayed by the

prosecution, then how come rosie's family liked him so much? >> [inaudible] >> yes. >> it appeared that they had a [inaudible] >> yes? >> the marriage, to her parents, , and to her family, is a good loving, viable marriage? >> by accounts they had a great marriage. >> the prosecution theorize that he killed rosie to be with the mistress, michelle. the defense said that michelle was another take-a-number girlfriend. >> the michelle meant nothing. >> arguing, said the defense, you had a respected doctor with no maroney worries, a respected family, and as many girlfriends on the side as he could chuckle. on the bottom line, he had no reason to kill rosy. >> there was no reason for him to a separated his children from their mother and their father. >> to do something as dramatic an extreme as poisoning your

wife requires some strong motive that was not present here. >> and then there was the way that he behaved early on. would a guilty man have turned over to the police that bottom of calcium pills if he knew that the lab would find cyanide in nine of them? >> yes. >> bottom line, if he had contaminated this and killed his wife for them, why would you hold on to this stuff? >> exactly. >> that defense would -- go after the police the sloppy evidence. the defendant who had put the bottle of cyanide into his hands before -- >> the forensic expert who did not check for prints. >> the pill bottle itself would've been conducive to leaving ridge detail, correct? >> yes. >> to be clear that, nobody ever made that request. >> no sir. >> there was a catastrophe in terms of forensics here. >> and even though the court had learned how easy it was to obtain cyanide, there was no evidence presented that he has

had actually done that. still, the stark at the end of the case of yazeed essa, was his decision to fee the country. how could that be anything other than the actions of a guilty man? the defense spun it this way, yazeed essa, early on so to a lawyer who had told him that he may be facing the death penalty if charge for the murder. >> he was led to believe he could be charged with capital murder, and he just freaked out. >> then of course, his lawyers had to defuse the explosive allegations from the lebanese fixer, and his own brother, that he had admitted to poisoning rosie. >> i asked him if he was responsible for her death, and he said yes. >> both witnesses had lied on the stand, according to defense, because they had cut a deal for prosecution with leniancy that

they were facing. >> it was the proverbial get out of jail card. >> the brother, for instance, was looking at almost 12 years in prison for helping yaz on the lab. he took a deal. >> he's got five kids all under the age of 12 years, he employs 100 people, he's got a lovely wife, a beautiful home, and his world is about to collapse on him. >> so he was well advised in terms of his own strategy to sing for supper? >> that's what we believe. >> jamal had been a fugitive wanted by the united states. >> where you indicted in a 29 count indictment? [inaudible] >> just listen to my question! listen sir! listen to my question! >> the more he talked, the better off we felt we were. >> that guy trying to cut a deal? >> precisely. >> so if yaz essa didn't do it. who did? the jury had already met her, said the defense. they offered up margarita, the

daytime nanny, for the killer >> she maintained a long term, ongoing sexual relationship. >> margarita had a motive for wanting rosie out of the future, said the defense. they said they kept the relationship going even after both had married. and don't believe the portrait of her as a casual friends of benefits lover, said the defense. >> she very much wanted to marry yazeed essa. >> and they claims that margarita was so obsessed with yaz, that they scheduled the wedding for her the same day as yaz and rosie. >> you selected the same wedding day as yazeed essa? is that we are telling us? >> absolutely. >> margarita worked for yaz brother and had access to yaz house. the theory, did she snake over there once, place the cyanide in the capsule so that she would have yaz for herself? >> the police did very, very

little to eliminate her as a suspect. >> despite the assertion, they had investigated margarita and dismissed are as a suspect. she emphatically denied having anything to do with the death but had the defense raised enough reasobale doubt >> the defense will respectfully rest. >> after a seven-week trial, and over three -- witnesses. the case was concluded. now it was up to george. they delibered for three days and announced that they had reached a verdict. >> i could not stop shaking, i got the exact same way i did the day rosy that.

>> the lawyers, the families for both sides were summoned to the courtroom for the reading of the verdict by the judge. >> we the jury in this case being duly and paddled and swarmed, to find the defendant, yazeed essa, guilty of aggravated murder. >> guilty. it was almost -- at sentencing a few days later, rosy's family confronted the man that they once loved as a son in a brother. >> we lost our rosy for no reason. they only thing that i'm hoping that, for now on, maybe there will be less nights that my wife cries herself to sleep. >> i challenge you to find the courage today with what you did, to provide the apology that my mother, my father, my sister, my wife, my brother, and rachel deserve. are you man enough? are you? it is your last chance to save your soul. right here right now. >> yaz kept silent. >> i sense you to life in prison. >> the judge had sentence the doctor to the maximum. all along, the detectives, the prosecutors had wondered about the ifs.

if rosy hadn't called eva on the way to the movies. if she had lost control of her suv on the freeway. and not the local street. >> high-speed impact on the highway, the coroner and the pathologist probably would not have looked any further than blunt force trauma from the automobile incident. in any way it could've been a perfect crime. >> but yaz hadn't plotted the perfect crime, as they saw it. he killed, he ran, and he was a tenacious lawman as they saw it. he will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm andrea canning, thanks for watching! good morning, welcome to this saturday edition of morning joe: weekend. it's time for a cup of coffee. as we go through another wild week in politics with major developments from the campaign trail, to capitol hill. let's dive