been growing stronger every day. >> had you describe the relationship? >> she's like my daughter. >> i agree, yeah. >> we can be a family. we enjoy each other's company. she loves the girls so much. >> and the kids have a joint family. that's the important thing. several cold winters later, the mystery of the missing venus stewart has finally been put to rest, but memories of a loving mother, daughter and friend will be kept alive by those who hold the story of venus close to their hearts. >> she was my best friend. i never went a day without talking to her. never. the girls missed out on a really good mom. >> is she alive in the memory? >> no, yeah. i talk about her all the time. >> we'll do. >> as for doug stewart, his decision to finally confess and give it up changes nothing in his sentence. he and his new xbox will be in prison for the remainder of his life. the remainder of his life. hello, i'm andrea canning, and this is "dateline."er. he's evil. he's pure evil.

he is that character in those horror movies. andrea canning: he hid in the shadows, a killer in a mask. he's clearly a brilliant individual, a brilliantly scary individual. andrea canning: his target, a doting young mom. she was a gorgeous strawberry blonde who loved her son more than anything in the whole world. she was so scared. andrea canning: he struck once. would he kill again? and would she be next? you're just so shattered and hurting so bad. andrea canning: imagine being hunted in your own home, held a virtual prisoner, your children in danger from a man with a blueprint for murder. i was terrified. andrea canning: she will face down evil and come forward with a new revelation that will make your jaw drop. what i did was wrong. there are no words. i have everything to lose. >> what i did was wrong. there are no words.

i have everything to lose. >> ♪ ♪ >> hello and welcome to dateline. it was a brutal crime and right away one woman said she knew what happened. it would take years to bring the alleged killer to trial. but the verdict was far from the end of this case. it's a story of obsession and control that will keep you guessing until the very end. here is the killing in cobb county. >> a new attraction can be so exhilarating. but not always. sometimes attraction turns into a dangerous obsession. connie spencer says she knows all about that.

>> he would show up at my job, he would show up at the store. no matter where i went you would be there. >> she had a stalker. a teenager who got into her house, into her car and worst of all, into her head. >> i wouldn't go out to the mailbox without a gun. i was terrified.>> he had total control of you, it sounds like. >> pretty much. >> lottie could feel it in her bones. something bad was coming. she felt powerless to do anything about it. >> i knew he was watching and then, here it comes again. >> life used to be much simpler for lottie. in the fall of 1995 she moved to cobb county, georgia just north of atlanta. she lived in this house with her daughter, christina. >> this is never skill neighborhood. me and christina were always outside. my life was really good. i was really happy. >> there downstairs neighbors were carmen smith and her son nick nick had a million-dollar smile, just like his mom. kristin is carmen's sister. >> she was a gorgeous

strawberry blonde, feisty, very outgoing young woman who loved her son more than anything in the whole world. like two peas in a pod. >> it was a monday afternoon come the week before halloween. nick and christina got off the school bus and walked home together. cobb county prosecutor jesse evans. >> the first thing they did was go downstairs to see if they could find nick's mom. her car was there, she should be there. >> while christina stood by the door nick went inside because someone was there, but not his mom. >> nick turned the corner and he saw something move across the bedroom down the long hallway. >> it was a dark you're wearing gloves and a mask. a stranger suddenly stabbed and left him for dead. >> as he's laying there on the floor he actually sees his perpetrator run from the house. christina be came really

freaked out. she was terrified. >> christina ran upstairs to her apartment to get help. her babysitter was there with her boyfriend, scott. they hurried downstairs. >> christina started walking toward the sliding glass door. i grabbed her shoulders and i stopped her and i said, don't touch anything. >> the glass door was smeared with blood. the scene inside was unspeakable. >> somebody said, oh my gosh, there's nick. you can see him through the window on the floor in a pool of blood. >> she said, what are you going to do?>> i said got to get that boy out of there. not leaving without that way. >> scott grabbed an accident dropped it when he realized how desperately nick needed help. >> he wasn't breathing at the time. smacked him a few times and nothing happened. i started screaming at him and started smacking him order. and telling him he wasn't going to die today. all of the sudden he kind of bolted up. at that point i said, your live!

>> scotch picked up the little boy bolted from the house. he squeezed nick tightly against his chest trying to staunch the bleeding. >> he was running and yelling down the street, called 911, called 911. >> it lottie was at work when she got a frantic call from her daughter. >> she was hysterical. she was a picnic was hurt. i drove home as fast as i could. i was grieving for katrina -- christine and nick, but they were there. >> when police officers arrived at the scene they made a terrible discovery. the vivacious flight attendant and devoted single mother was dead. she had been strangled. carmen smith was just 30 years old. >> you are just so shattered and hurting so bad. and you are so thankful that your daughter is alive. but then you feel so bad it happened to nick and carmen.

>> carmen's sister kristen and brother-in-law, jim, barely had time to process the news about carmen before learning that nick was fighting for his life. they rushed to be at his side. >> we went straight to the hospital. >> you must've been thinking how could someone stab a five- year-old, your nephew approximately 18 times? that's a monster. >> exactly. i'll never forget walking in that hospital room, sorry, but, yeah. and then you have to come to grips with reality. >> and it was a grim reality. after emergency surgery nick was in critical condition. he looked so little, so fragile in his hospital bed. >> you never think you can be touched by something like this when you've got the perfect family. >> he had been stabbed 18 times and have lost a dangerous amount of blood.

but he survived. nick was going to make it. it was nothing less than a miracle. there was no easy way to tell him about his mom, but he had to know. and even 18 years later nick remembered it like it was yesterday. >> my dad and my aunt told me that my mom didn't make it and i didn't really understand it then. still don't really understand it. >> it was such a senseless act. nick and his family could only grieve and wonder why. back at the apartment now a crime scene, a chill ran through lottie. she told police she could explain exactly what happened. >> i told them that i had somebody that had been stalking me. and it was my belief that he was the one behind what happened to nicholas and carmen.

>> coming up, who was this man in the mask who would kill a young mother and try to kill her son?>> he's pure evil. he's a monster. >> a chilling story of hunter and hunted. >> he has always told me he could get away with the perfect murder. his plan was in the making. >> when dateline continues. eve with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy. what can you do with sensitive skin? ( ♪♪ ) cetaphil moisturizing lotion hydrates for a full 48 hours. because a lot can happen in 48 hours.

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impossible to forget. >> it definitely changed my life course completely. i remember it pretty well. >> nick smith was only five years old when a masked man stabbed him 18 times and killed his mother carmen. while recovering in the hospital nick was told his mother was gone. >> do you remember your mom? >> not as well as i wish i did. most of my memories are just stories i have been told from other people.>> carmen's sister kristen and her husband jim helped raise nick. bedtime stories were often about his beautiful mother. >> she was very athletic. she was in the homecoming court, prompting -- from queen. she was a cheerleader. >> she was very vivacious, very beautiful and very fun. she had nick fairly early in life and did a great job of

working and providing for nick at the same time. >> do you just feel robbed that you never got to experience all of those things a mother and son good to experience together? >> definitely. a lot of people in my family say i act just like her. she was a happy person. >> a happy life that ended in an appalling act of violence. the police officers who discovered carmen's body got an immediate emphatically from her upstairs neighbor, lottie spencer. did you know immediately who had done this? >> yes. i knew. >> lottie was certain it was the work of a teenager named we seem decker. was seam and body had a history. she said it would explain the hideous attack. she told detectives her story, thinks it started so innocently. don't they always? >> i met him at the paintball

field playing paintball. we just met by being teammates on the same team.>> lottie was a captain of her team. kind of a den mother to the other, much younger players. especially was seam, a georgia tech student 12 years her junior. >> he didn't have anyone else he could open up or talk to or share his thoughts and feelings with. >> you felt kind of like a big sister to him. >> that's exactly how i felt. >> taker was a bit of a loner. he latched onto lottie,:-- started calling her at work, at home and wouldn't stop. >> i told him i have 11 you're just taking too much of my time. he would cry and then i knew there was a problem. >> what was a nuisance at first lottie said quickly escalated. her phone started ringing off the hook. up to 100 times a day. >> why didn't you just stop talking to this person? >> i should have. i felt really sorry for him. i really didn't want him to get into trouble. it sounds so crazy. >> maybe that also says about you that you are a good person.

>> or a very foolish person. >> foolish, lottie says, because diggers stocking became bolder, or bizarre. >> he started flipping out yelling at the top of his lungs that he's going to get me and slit my daughter's throat in front of me. i came home from work and there be a pair of my underwear on my door knob or a few days later a broad. >> what message is he sending with that? >> look at me, i'm getting into your place and getting away with it. there's nothing you can do to stop me. another time he came home early and went into my bedroom and there was wasim taker in a pearland were looking into a mere. >> once again taker threatened her and her daughter, this town while brandishing a knife. >> he's always told me he can get away with the perfect murder.

his plan was in the making. >> finally, lottie decided to let the justice system take over. taker was arrested in august, 1995, but released on bond. the judge ordered him to stay away. he didn't and was arrested again in september. this time he was into a psychiatric hospital for evaluation prosecutor jesse evans. >> he's got some severe issues with obsession. i don't think that he has the ability to feel compassion for other people. is clearly a brilliant individual. he's also a brilliantly scary individual. >> while taker was hospitalized lottie packed up and moved to the house in cobb county, about 20 minutes north of atlanta where carmen and nick lived downstairs. >> so you moved to try and escape them. in october, on friday the 13th, wasim decker was released from the hospital. less than two weeks later carmen smith was dead. and lottie spencer was overwhelmed with guilt and anger. >> wasim decker is evil.

he's pure evil. he's a monster. >> that's what lottie told police. she said her stalker must've been the one behind the attack on carmen and nick. but why? decker was obsessed with lottie. he had never met or even spoken to carmen or had he? lottie thought she knew the answer a phone call she said decker made to carmen's phone a few days before the murder. >> it was friday the 20th, like decker style, the calls started coming in and the phone got put off the hook then i could hear her phone ringing. >> carmen answered and then home up abruptly. what was said? nobody knows. carmen told her sister and brother-in-law that the call was from lottie's stocker. >> she said i'm going to go get a hammer and put it next to the bed. i remember laughing, thinking if that guy decides to get in the house he's in trouble. but you really never think that it would go to where it went >> we talked about her packing some stuff and coming to stay

with us for a while. >> lottie says seeing carmen's reaction to decker's call was heartbreaking and she did what she could to help her neighbor feel safe.>> the entryway within her dwelling was the sliding glass door. we just barricaded the door with some wood. she was so scared. she was shaking. she was just so scared. >> just three days later that glass door was open and smeared with blood and wasim decker was the lead suspect in a horrible crime. >> coming up, evidence at the scene of the crime. >> there was a broken knife blade and a hair fiber recovered off of carmen smith's body. >> will it be enough to catch the killer? >> he's getting away with murder. is getting way with exactly what he told me he would.

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for your co-everything, just three days before she was killed, karmen smith told family and friends she'd gotten a call from waseem just three days before she was killed, carmen smith told family and friends she had gotten a call from what seemed acre, the man that had been arrested for stalking her neighbor. it was the strongest delegation yet connecting the victim too the suspect. investigators tipped off about that call by lottie now closed in on decker. expected to execute a search

warrant on his house that night? >> we did. >> jon doss was a homicide detective with the cobb county police department.>> in his room we found a piece of paper with the address of where this crime occurred. we found a torn up letter that was his words to lottie spencer. >> decker's torn up letter to lottie was able and threatening. prosecutor jesse evans. >> he specifically talks about having plans and backup plans to exact revenge on lottie. and the worst part about the letter is he gets to the end and he says, but i'm going to let you live i'm going to revenge on you, but i wouldn't let you live. >> to police and prosecutors this wasn't just a rant. it looked like a blueprint for murder. now they try to link decker to the crime scene. >> some of the important evidence that we start with is a hair and fiber that was cut recovered off of carmen smith's

body. there was a broken knife blade. it was a fairly clean crime scene other than that. >> carmen had small puncture wounds on her back in terrible bruising, suggesting a ferocious struggle. >> she had been not only tortured and murdered, but she had been undressed at some point and redressed. >> at carmen's bedside, the hammer she had wanted for peace of mind. never touched as she fought for her life. not far away was the suspected murder weapon, a piece of rope. crime scene technicians dusted for fingerprints and collected blood samples. the evidence was sent to the state crime lab for analysis. >> the lab test kept coming back without the physical evidence that we needed, that linked him to the dead body of carmen smith. that's when we knew that it may always be a circumstantial case. >> and the circumstantial part of the case was just too weak to make an arrest. prosecutors still believed decker was the only viable

suspect in carmen smith's murder in the stabbing of her son, nick , but they didn't have the evidence to prove it. the investigation stalled. >> wassim decker walked away from the murder. >> he walked away from the murder, but not some accountability. the police felt like they had a viable way of charging him with aggravated stalking. >> reporter: decker was arrested and charged with stalking lottie spencer. . there are multiple witnesses, friends of hers, friends of his that actually observed firsthand some of these stalking activities that were occurring at her apartment, either by hearing the phone, hearing him knock on the door at all hours of the night, seeing him come by. >> decker was convicted in september of 1996 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. it was the close to the worst chapter of lottie spencer's life , but it wasn't a happy ending. did you feel like you had some peace in your life again when

he was behind bars? >> no. because he was getting away with murder. he's getting away with exactly what he told me he would. he needed to pay for what he did to carmen. >> after the trial body decided to leave georgia to try to start over. nick smith went back to the same school and the protective embrace of his family. >> i kind of went back into the normal routine. i think that was the best way i could have dealt with it. i think my family did a pretty good job of trying to keep my life as normal as possible. >> during the next 10 years nick's life did finally return to normal. but in 2006 decker was released and moved nearby. all the terrifying memories of the master man wielding a knife came rushing back. police decided to provide security to keep nick safe. >> we would have a cop sit outside of our house at night and we had cameras installed in my house and on the outside

just as a precaution. >> lottie says she was also looking over her shoulder. tell us about the day that he got out. that he was a free man again. >> not a good time. >> were you waiting every day for the phone to ring or that bang on the door? >> yes i was starting to unravel again. >> coming up, the fear begins all over and so does the push for justice. >> you had your smoking gun. >> absolutely. >> it's another trial for wassim decker and just look who's addressing the jury. when dateline continues. ate-toa that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection.

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in dogs of all sizes. for your co-everything, choose cosequin. let's review. okay. for your co-everything, we're not gonna talk about traffic or weather. if anyone brings up lawn care, i will handle it. hosting can be extremely difficult for young homeowners turning into their parents. oh, are you done with this? i'll just take that. okay, he's still drinking. right. oh, look what the cat dr-- no, no. let's try again, if you wouldn't mind. it gets ugly. you can either take it off or i'll take it off you. yeah. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but you love to take it. she doesn't want it. [ put a little love in your heart by david ruffin begins to play ] my bad, my bad. good race. - you too. you were tough out there. thank you. i'm getting you next time though. oh i got you, i got you. down goes jewett. jewett and amos are down. what a lovely sign of sportsmanship. you okay? yeah.

♪ ♪ >> a news update. new mexico judge throughout the involuntary manslaughter case against actor alec baldwin, citing misconduct by the police and prosecutors. and emotional baldwin cried during the decision.

he could have faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted. a judge dismissed rudy giuliani's bankruptcy case friday, citing a lack of financial transparency from giuliani. the order paves the way for the two georgia election workers who he defamed to begin collecting their $146 million judgment against him. for now, back to dateline. ♪ ♪ >> welcome back to dateline. i'm andrea canning. prosecutors believed carmen smith had been murdered at the hands of wassim decker, her neighbors stalker. with no physical evidence tying wassim to the crime they could improve it and investigation stalled. years past, but determined detective was about to take a new look at an old clue and turn this case from cold to red hot. once again here is the killing in cobb county. after 10 years in prison wassim

decker was a free man. but still a suspect in the murder of carmen smith and the stabbing of her son, nick. >> he was still terrorizing you in some ways. >> just the fact that he was out was kind of terrorizing. >> he is that character in those horror movies. he's like your worst nightmare. >> after his release decker got a job and moved to suburban atlanta. he was a free man and enjoying life. here he is skydiving and loving it. decker's freedom called homicide detective jon doss. the carmen smith murder was now officially a cold case. to dos decker was the one who got away. does a case like this hunt a police department? >> absolutely. because these cases go home with you. in your mind. >> four years dos couldn't do anything about it. and then just by chance he was sent to a dna training seminar in 2008. a

random assignment that would change everything. >> back in the mid-90s very, very little at all could be done with the hair, except to say the color of the hair. now when there's any tissue from the root on the here whatsoever it takes just a minute amount of tissue to come up with a full profile of dna. >> it's called nuclear dna testing dos immediately thought of carmen smith. carmen was a strawberry blonde and he remembered the short dark heirs recovered from her body. not hers. under layers of betting. >> i felt it was invaluable evidence if there was enough tissue on that hair was underneath her sweater. >> dos brought one of those hairs to a dna lab in texas and waited. it was almost 15 years after carmen smith's murder when the call came in. there was a match. >> they have identified wassim decker's hair. him and whole -- and only him, to the exclusion of all of all

others, on carmen smith's body at the time she was found. >> i got a call from detective dos i was very happy, but it was really hard for me to have to go back and tell the story of the things that he did. >> lottie dreaded the thought of testifying in open court in front of decker, which she knew there would be no avoiding. decker was arrested and charged with murdering carmen smith and stabbing her son nick. his trial started in september of 2012. prosecutor jesse evans was therefore the state. urder of a. evans argued that decker was in violent stalker and that his obsession with one woman led to the murder of another. a trail of destruction and those critical hairs.

>> evans said decker had left a trail of destruction and those critical hairs. daker was waseem daker. initially, i want to point out a couple things. >> out three things. >> before he took over his own case decker had been represented by an experienced father and son team michael and jason tread away. they were still advising him and believed the states case was vulnerable. >> they had no case without those hairs. that's why they didn't go forward. they didn't have a case and they knew it. >> there advice? focus on those hairs and don't obsess about lottie. >> this case had to be defended by attacking the sides of the states case. >> waseem daker couldn't seem to let go. his focus from the start was his relationship with the star

witness. it was a romance, waseem daker said, intimate in every way. lottie insisted that wasn't true. some of the things he said had to be just really beyond frustrating him a saying you two had a sexual relationship. >> there was no relationship, so there is nothing, you know, more that i can say about that.? did he ever try to kiss you or say he is so in love with you? >> never once. never once righted to kiss me or anything. >> when he turned to those hairs he called on dr. greg, the prominent dna expert challenged the state's key evidence. the nuclear dna test matching daker to carmen smith that was done on the root tissue of a single hair but the problem, he says, is none of the heirs recovered from the crime scene had any roots. >> there were hairs taken from the body and they were all clearly indicated on the report

is having a root. that's something you can do with the naked eye. of course, the expert at the time used a microscope. >> are you 100% sure the original here had no root? >> the records allstate that. somehow it arrives that this laboratory and it's a here with a root go there's real problems with that piece of evidence. >> it was a serious challenge to the states key piece of evidence and daker once again connected the evidence to lottie spencer. a liar, he said, who had ruined his life in the most treacherous way. l of the fear t from her darkest days came rushing back every time >> for lottie all of the fear and her from her darkest days came rushing back every time take her mentioned her gait -- her day. >> he was enjoying it. he had control again. that made me feel really week ago

>> jesse evans asked the jurors not to focus on lottie into think about another woman when they started their deliberations. what the jury would do. we were really holding our whole case >> after he took his seat prosecutor evans frwas anxious, uncertain what the jury would do. >> we were really holding our whole case together with two hairs. two hairs from the victims body. if there's an explanation for that our case is no longer viable.>> it took the jury just 3.5 hours to reach a verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant, waseem daker, hilty of murder. >> all these years thinking that he got away with it and he didn't. >> at the sentencing the call -- the state called just one

witness, nick smith, who was determined to face his attacker one more time.>> i did not let him defeat me. no way. >> daker took my mother's life. my life has been on hold. >> nick struggled to hold back tears.>> no longer does someone other than me control my life. he's finally gone and i'm finally free. i love my mom. i never wanted to use what happened as any sort of a crutch or let it get in the way . i did the best i could. i think if she was still here she would be proud. >> the judge then delivered the sins. life in prison, +47 years. a defiant daker fused to sign the documents for his sins. >> case closed.

justice for carmen and nick smith and the victory lottie had wanted so badly. but the story was far from over . something happened at the end of the trial that would come to haunt lottie. something that would lead her to realize there was still unfinished and unbelievable business in her saga with waseem daker. a final verdict? yes. the final chapter? not even close. the stunning confession that's about to turn this case around. coming up. >> i couldn't let it go. i have a conscience i have to live with me. >> there's a real issue here. something is going on behind the scenes that i couldn't -- that we weren't aware of. >> when dateline continues. for your co-everything, choose cosequin.

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i actually need that. take him back. cted take him back. >> waseem daker had been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. looked like he was out of lottie spencer's life. finally and forever. >> it was very emotional, but so good. so very good. >> do you feel free, finally free? >> i feel like a lot of weight has been lifted. and i'm going to close this chapter and just go on with my life in a positive way. >> that was lottie in 2012. she told us she had closed that chapter, but it turns out she didn't. not by a long shot. in fact, since that interview she has turned this story completely upside down with astonishing revelations. we sat down with her again to

hear her new version of things. >> so, did not expect to be sitting here talking to you again. >> no. >> it's a major turn of events. >> yes, there has been. >> it all began with a bombshell.>> mr. daker and i had a consensual sexual relationship. >> yes, lottie now says in the mid-90s she had an ongoing sexual relationship with waseem daker. that he wasn't really her stalker, he was her lover. it was something she had flat out denied for 17 years. if what you are saying you is true you lied to the district attorney, you lied in open court to the jury what you lied to me. >> there are no words. to describe just how very remorseful i am. what i did was wrong. i am taking 100% full responsibility for what i've done. damage i have caused this man and his family, there's nothing

i can do to take it back. nothing. >> lottie now says she lied under oath about the sex and about many of the stocking charges she had made against daker. >> did waseem threaten you or your life? >> no. >> did he threaten anyone's life around you? >> no. >> are you in love with waseem daker? >> no. i never was in love with mr. waseem daker. >> and you're not today? >> no. >> she says even though they were in a relationship she still feared him until recently generally believed he was a murderer. >> i was terrified of him. that was no lie. those motions were real. i've lived in that fear. i've had those nightmares. >> she says that fear drove her to lie to put daker behind bars, but the euphoria she felt after the verdict started to sour. she couldn't stop thinking about something prosecutor jesse evans said during the trial. >> i learned during the closing

arguments that carmen's lifeless body was wrapped up in five layers of bedding. i was shocked. i started to get pretty scared at that moment, because i have given him in two blankets just before her death. . they were blankets that lottie now says she and daker had slept in together. >> mr. daker used those blank it's on a number of occasions. he was welcome in my home and we were friends. he had spent the night and, clearly i knew that his dna could have been on those blankets.>> remember, carmen had been found under several layers of bedding. if one of lottie's blankets was among them it could explain how daker's hair got on carmen's body. >> this isn't a maybe. this is a woman risking perjury charges. this is a woman who can explain this evidence. you have to take this seriously.>> the doctor who had been a paid expert witness for

daker worked on the case for free in his role as director of idaho innocence project. he believed lottie's story was a game changer. >> now there's a logical explanation of how the hairs got there. this is one of those places where you have to shake the system and say wait a minute, this is so obvious. he didn't get a trial. >> i have a conscience. i have to live with me. >> body decided to come forward. she filed affidavits with the court and in 2013 judge mary staley granted daker a hearing for a new trial. jesse evans wasn't buying lottie's new story. that's because while he was preparing for daker's hearing he believed he found that stories real source. >> there's a relation here. something is going on behind the scenes that we weren't aware of. >> coming up, -- >> i messed up really bad. despicable. >> another revelation inside a

prison cell, 4000 pages of secrets. do you think waseem daker is manipulating lottie from prison? when dateline continues.

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the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. ask your provider for cologuard. "soulmates." soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere. but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title. for almost two decades here is how lottie spencer talked about waseem daker. >> waseem daker is evil. he's pure evil. he's a monster.

>> but then she changed her story, calling him a victim. >> you know what? i messed up really bad. it's despicable. >> lottie's reversal was astonishing. in the years since carmen smith's murder she had built a new life she was a single mom again raising her young son in a new home. by recanting her testimony she put all of that at risk. how worried are you right now that you could go to jail for perjury? >> i'm very worried. i know that facing prison time. and there will be severe penalty for what i do and i don't want to be ripped away from my little boy. i have everything to lose. >> a year after daker's conviction a hearing began on the motion for new trial. daker again representing himself called dr. begin, the

dna expert to the stand. >> if a man sleeps in a blanket can is here transferred to the blanket? >> yes. >> if a man has sex in a blanket can his here transferred to the blanket? >> yes. >> the doctor laid the scientific foundation, but daker's chances really hinged on lottie. a hush came over the courtroom as a numbers lottie made her way to the stand and swore to tell the truth. >> just party commons murder i gave her two blankets. blankets that i knew that you used in my roswell apartment.>> reporter: she acknowledged having a sexual relationship with daker . and then lottie so list of daker's abuses started to topple like dominoes. >> did i ever physically threaten you threaten to kill you or harm you? >> never. >> did i ever steal your bras, panties or hang them on your? >> no. >> people will see this and think you're lying now that your

were really telling the truth before. >> what reason do i have? i have everything to lose. i'm doing it because this is right. >> in a bristling cross- examination prosecutor jesse evans trade lottie as a troubled , unreliable woman. >> did you admit was that you had to mental illness shoes you were dealing with? >> i said i was suffering anxiety and depression. >> evans next move was stunning. he presented evidence that he said explained lottie's incredible reversal. letters confiscated from daker process prison cell. 4000 pages of correspondence between the convicted murderer and the woman who testified against him. >> i sent him daily devotions, bible verses encouraging cards. i sent him a lot of information , case files but i actually feel like i'm his personal secretary, in a way. >> it turned out lottie had actually been helping with daker's appeal. gave her research assignments and she looked up cases,

printed documents, mail them to prison and then waited for his next request. do you think waseem daker is manipulating lottie from prison? >> there's no doubt. by sending those letters to a convicted murderer, a sociopath she has opened the door. she has allowed him an opportunity to get back in her life. we already know he has a history of manipulating her. >> is he manipulating you right now into doing exactly what he wants? absolutely not. this is a repent of woman who is very remorseful and very sorry for what she has caused. >> evans says those letters until another story. he says lottie knew about the bedding and terror evidence long before daker's murder trial started and never said a word about giving any blankets to carmen. >> it wasn't until after she started secretly communicating with the defendant that she then made this broad assertion that i had given some blankets to carmen. the problem with that is that i

challenged her on it. describe the bank it's -- blankets. tell me which one they were. she couldn't remember. >> there is no smoking gun, or smoking blankets, in this case. >> i don't think there's any evidence of blankets. >> on the stand lottie not only recanted her testimony from two trials, but described the incredible lengths she's willing to go to help set daker free. >> you believe so strongly in this you apply for a second mortgage to help in waseem's defense. even took out a life insurance policy naming waseem as beneficiary? >> my daughter is a beneficiary. she would get one third, my son would get one third and daker would get one third. yeah. i would my house and hire them -- him the best defense he could get. >> despite all of lottie's efforts, the fundraising, correspondence with daker, the legal research judge staley didn't buy her new story. she rejected daker's motion for

a new trial. >> the right results were reached for the right reasons. i know that we have done things the right way and i feel confident in the defendant's guilt. >> the ruling included a harsh rebuke of lottie. the judge said she lacked credibility and a new testimony appeared to have been concocted by the defendant. lottie seemed on -- unbowed, ready to carry on her fight. >> somebody needs to say, wait a second, justice was not served in this case. >> and on that point lottie is not alone. jason treadway, daker' his shadow attorney during trial, agrees. >> the circumstances of how daker 's here got to be on that bedding, what more pivotal evidence could there possibly be? >> how can use believe anything lottie says now? >> i think we have a man's liberty and life estate you have to believe what she says. how can you not allow 12 different people to hear her version now and let them decide if it's true or not?

>> are you ever going to give up on waseem? are you in this until all appeals are exhausted? >> yes i played a role of an innocent man being falsely convicted for crimes he did not do. i've got to make it right. 20 >> in 2016 the supreme court upheld daker's conviction. >> i have no doubt that waseem daker is a cold-blooded killer and justice habits served with his conviction. it doesn't matter what lottie says. this case is about carmen. this case is about nick. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. good morning and welcome to the saturday edition of