they're blaming me. telling me that i killed him. i'm not a murderer. >> the verdict just in. accused of stealing, killing. designing women, dealing from the bottom of the deck. first, the girlfriend on trial for murder with a stiletto. she never testified in court, but she's talking to us about the secret that led to his

finish. >> he had a shoe fetish. >> plus the craigslist woman, promising a couple a baby that didn't exist. the baby scam. and, only in hollywood. the salon owner to the stars, charged with wanting to kill the competition, literally. >> it caught me off-guard. we're doing skin care. >> tonight, designing women. here now, david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> the sensational case in the national spotlight for one reason alone, the murder weapon. a stiletto heel.

and the woman who used it is talking only to abc news. >> and details the jury never got hear. was she dressed to kill? >> her heel is being held here and testimony is going on. >> houston has some crazy, crime. and this is one of the craziest things that i think a lot of us have ever seen. >> reporter: in a town infamous for its crimes of passion, the proceedings in a houston courtroom this week may have set a new standard for strangeness. >> when you hear of someone dying, especially a brutal death, it -- they're being shot, they're stabbed. but no one ever thinks there's gonna be a stiletto heel in the middle of it, right? >> reporter: yes, whoever heard

of assault by deadly footwear? the crime scene -- a ritzy condo in this high-end high-rise. and the accused -- a petite, soft-spoken mom looking at life in prison. telling her story exclusively to "20/20." >> it's very surreal. it feels like it happened to someone else, and i'm just watching it. >> reporter: born in mexico, ana trujillo came to america with dreams of making it big. married twice, the mother of two young girls. she was a striking, vibrant young woman who was once the host of a community access show. and called herself anna fox. >> the producer said i had a bubbly personality. >> reporter: is that who you are? that tv host with that bubbly personality? >> yes, i am actually. >> yes, i am actually. i am usually very optimistic. i love life. i love friends. >> reporter: she was beautiful and she turned heads. but those big dreams jumped the track as she landed on the hard

side of town. jim carroll, met her at the lawndale hotel where they both once lived. what was she like? >> she laughed a lot. i mean, she was really cool. she'd just talk about spirituality and the pyramids and ghosts and the tarot. >> reporter: she was a drifter, floating from job to job. wishing for the right things, attracted to the wrong people. >> she brought several men to the hotel. and finally i started talking to her, i says, "look, you know, we can't have none of that business going on here. >> reporter: and how many men would you estimate this was? >> four to six men. one of them was the professor. >> reporter: his name, stefan andersson. a naturalized citizen from sweden, who worked at the university of houston as a medical researcher. tell me about him. >> well he was very charming. he had a beautiful, young spirit. he was a professor and i really -- that is really what attracted me. >> reporter: how did he treat you in the beginning? >> oh, he was wonderful. >> reporter: in the beginning, it was all so carefree. here at the local taco shop, bodegas, they were regulars.

and his friend adam benjamin remembers the early days of their romance. >> you can see stephan right there. >> reporter: so what was stephan's taste in women? >> stephan liked attractive women. you know, heels with nice legs. but he didn't have girlfriends or anything like that. >> reporter: why do you think he felt so connected to ana? >> she was a bad girl. opposites attract. >> reporter: within weeks, she'd moved on up to his deluxe apartment in the sky. you wanted to marry him. >> yes. >> reporter: he wanted to marry you. >> yes. >> reporter: it wasn't all about love. it was also about sex. what did he want you to do? >> he had a shoe fetish. he will like for me to, uh, kind of step on him -- >> reporter: step on him. >> well, walk on him. he liked a little bit of pain. >> reporter: but just months after they met, that happily ever after began to wear thin. >> his drinking started concerning me.

i didn't know what it was to be with, i say, an alcoholic. >> he drank a lot. he didn't seem to be an angry drunk. he seemed like a troubled and gentle soul. a "troubled soul" who, according to ana, had a hidden dark side. >> he was super sweet, and nice, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he would just turn into this other person. he would start accusing me of things. >> reporter: like what? >> why did you leave me? how come you didn't take me with you? >> reporter: what would you do, when he did this? >> i would not provoke him. i would just be quiet. >> reporter: did other people know about this side of him? did other friends see him like this? >> he hid it really well. >> reporter: it was a hot summer night last june, when ana and stefan go out for a night at club 5015. they share a bottle of wine

chased by a few shots of tequila -- in this case, a combustible mix. >> that place, has live music on the weekends -- and it gets really crowded and it's a different crowd and it's nice and, he liked it. he was feeling really good and he was enjoying himself. >> reporter: ana is dressed to kill in her five and a half inch blue velvet stilettos. >> reporter: it made you happy to buy a stiletto that he liked. >> i had to be very careful because the shoes were so high. >> reporter: surveillance videos at the restaurant paint a portrait of a good time girl. take a look. she flirts with a stranger at the bar. then, a sexy chair dance. at first, she and stefan seem to be having a great night out. but by the time she is ready to leave, he is not. >> i was going to leave early in the morning to go see my daughter. i wanted to leave and not stay out very long and he kept wanting to stay longer. >> reporter: that decision to go home is the spark, she says, that will ignite a firestorm. still, the last images captured that night show stefan,

calm, as he leaves the bar with ana. was he wasted by the time you got to the cab? >> yeah. >> reporter: as the cab pulls up, rosemary gomez was at the wheel, accompanied by her husband. >> i was just taking a fare like i normally do. >> reporter: as the couple approaches the cab, reagan cannon said ana was loud and abusive. in her version, he's getting aggressive. >> i just remember him looking at me and looking at me angry. >> reporter: angry, from ana's point of view, but not from the front seat where reagan cannon has some advice for the shy professor. i said, "are you a man or a mouse?" i said, "what are you doin' letting her talk to you like that? >> reporter: it is past two in the morning when the taxi drops them off at dr. andersson's pad. look at these photos.

coming home from the bar, walking calmly to the elevator. ana claims he was on the verge of a murderous rage. >> all of a sudden, he just turns around and has a complete different look on him. angry. >> reporter: as the couple sets foot inside the apartment, her life was about to change irreversibly, and his is about to end. >> and he starts to pull me. i still have my shoes on. so, he grabs me by my hands, he bangs me against the wall. he kept saying that i was going to leave him, i wasn't coming back. he's screaming and yelling and ranting and just -- like, "i saw the way you were looking at those guys. when he threw me over the couch, i fell completely backwards, and my head hit, i saw black. >> reporter: did you feel like your life was in danger at that point? >> yes. >> reporter: in the darkness, she reaches for the only weapon she could find -- one of those blue stilettos.

and starts striking. >> when i reach down to feel him and you feel blood in your hands, that is a horror of someone you love. and that -- that i did it. accidentally i did it. i didn't even know that he was bleeding. he wouldn't stop. and it doesn't seem like nothing is phasing them. he's unstoppable. coming up, action. she called in the crime. but did she commit it? >> i'm the victim. >> self defense? when designing women returns. yeah! ♪ if you want to see old faithful ♪ ♪ don't be such a couch potato ♪ ♪ yeah just go check out the thing for yourself ♪ highlander! ♪ we ain't got no room for boring ♪ ♪ ferdy gerdy ferdy ger boom! [ cluck, cluck ] ♪ no, we ain't got no room ♪ for boring ♪ for boring, we ain't got no room ♪ ahh!

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ryan smith continues with more of designing women. >> are you reporting an assault, ma'am? >> i hit him with my shoe. he's bleeding a lot. he started beating me up. >> reporter: when houston police received ana trujillo's desperate 911 call, they raced to her boyfriend's high rise condo and walked into a slaughterhouse. >> the crime photos in this case were especially gruesome. the blood spatter.

the victim still lying there. it was a tragedy and it was horrible. the hallway was streaked with blood. the deceased, medical researcher stefan andersson barely recognizable from more than two dozen stab wounds to his head, face and neck. all from the heel of one of ana's blue stilettos. and on a glass table nearby, a macabre sign, trujillo's book of tarot, turned to the picture of death. instantly, the police officer was suspicious. >> he just yelled at me and took his gun out and he told me to -- to get down on the ground. i thought they were there to help us. ana tells police andersson had attacked her, that she killed him in self defense. but though she was drenched in blood, police say she doesn't look injured. she gives a rambling, disjointed

statement. >> it's a meandering sort of my life up till now three hour tape in which she talks about what actually happened the night of very briefly. >> reporter: the cops have heard enough. they put her under arrest. you said you felt like a fool. why? >> they're blaming me, they're telling me that i killed him. i am not a murderer! >> reporter: she is booked, posts bail. put under house arrest. each day, new allegations surfaced about her past. a friend remembers a startling attack. >> she knocked me out.

>> reporter: and remember the londale hotel where her friend jim carroll once lived? he had the most jaw dropping tale of all to tell. >> she told me that if anybody ever messed with her, she pulled her shoe off, she said, "i'll get 'em with this" and it was a big stiletto heel. the trial began last week in a burst of lights, cameras and bravado. >> feeling confident? >> do i look scared? >> reporter: from the beginning, the prosecutors pull no punches, focusing the jury on that killer heel. really the star witness in the case. over and over, they demonstrate the brutality of the crime. >> in trial, we saw an x-ray of the shoe. to the naked eye it just looks like a cobalt blue stiletto high heel. but once you saw that x-ray it looked like an ice hammer. >> he had ten puncture wounds on his head, fifteen to twenty around his neck, face, and arms. that is excessive for a lot of people. >> excessive? what he was doing to me? he was enraged.

he hit me on the head with my own shoe. >> reporter: even though his case is far from a slam dunk, her lawyer is still confident. and whether she hit him once, 25 times, 50 times, if she felt her life was in danger, the jury can't convict. >> reporter: to prove the case, carroll has to convince the jury that andersson flew into a violent rage back at his apartment. these photos show bruises, but it wasn't clear how or when she got them. >> the defense wanted to portray her as victim. because she had to. >> reporter: but remember that surveillance video from the apartment, the last images of andersson alive. he seems calm and collected. carroll says what you can't see is his blood alcohol level.

>> we've all seen people who drink a lot who act one way in public and go home and then act another way. anna was alone in stefan anderson's apartment. and he went off the deep end. >> reporter: did the mild mannered professor attack his girlfriend in a drunken, jealous rage? >> she talked about being smothered and he was grabbing her, that's when she hit him with her shoe. >> reporter: but it's the murder weapon itself. that $29 stiletto shoe, that could come to ana's rescue. >> it's not a gun, it's not a knife. it's not the typical thing someone would use to kill someone. so that could help the defense in saying, she just grabbed whatever she could. with the evidence mounting against her, ana is thinking about taking the stand. >> are you confident enough that the confession i did on tape is enough? >> if i put you on the stand, they can ask you about certain things that may have happened. >> reporter: but at the last minute, she decides it's too risky. and with her fate in the balance, ana prepares her daughter, siana, for the possibility that she may be heading to prison.

>> we have to be prepared for what's to come. we might have a conviction and i want to tell you i love you very much. >> reporter: on the morning of april 6th, the sun rose over a perfect spring day in houston. closing arguments in the trujillo case were about to begin. >> it won't be until your break that she ceases to be the stiletto stabber. >> if she reasonably fears death -- >> reporter: she's now a

convicted murderer, sentenced just this afternoon to life in prison. and she still refuses to wear it. >> we all have an opinion, but until you find yourself in a situation, you don't know either. >> reporter: you don't know what you're going to do when that happens? >> you think you do, but you don't. >> reporter: in spite of everything, you loved him. >> i have no closure. and it's not my fault. >> after seeing the evidence, was it self defense, or murder? >> when we come back here tonight, when getti inting a fa

can turn deadly. >> coming up. making hollywood's faces look great. but when competition set up across the street, did she have a plan? skin deep and deadly? when designing women continues. [ male announcer ] the wright brothers started in a garage. mattel started in a garage. disney started in a garage. amazon started in a garage. ♪ the ramones started in a garage. my point? some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year. ain't garages great?

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designing women continues. now, chris conley with if looks could kill. >> reporter: before life as an upscale facialist, dawn daluise. no, not dom deluise. dawn daluise left the sleepy florida bayou in hopes of becoming an l.a. model. nylon and lacing it coquettishly for frederick's of hollywood's way risque lingerie catalog,

semi-undressed for success. but rather than trying to live on her looks, she studied accounting and figured she ought to live on the looks of others. as an aesthetician, she developed a client list alleged to include jennifer aniston and nicki minaj. only now she's sporting the latest in jailwear. no one ever said blue is the new black. the 55-yr-old daluise was now world famous, the elite aesthetician arraigned on solicitation of murder charges facing a possible nine years in prison. talk about losing face. >> i'm not real familiar with what a facial is. but i imagine it has to do with somehow making your face better. i don't know. >> reporter: in west hollywood, by order of the city council, it is illegal to declaw a cat. but what you do to your own body is your business and theirs. >> the beauty industry is extremely competitive. >> reporter: for cosmetic surgery, for hairstyling, for skin care, for a mani, a pedi or

a brazilian, celebrities are willing to pay through the nose and the battle for them is fierce. ask the man who cut madonna's hair and pamela anderson's and jon bon jovi's. >> i opened my salon here. you open across the street? you have violated me in a very, very serious way. i would walk across the street and i would say, "excuse my french, but are you out of your [ bleep ] mind?" >> reporter: yet law enforcement doesn't get much aesthetician-on-aesthetician crime. so when the proprietress of skin refinery appears to be at the center of an alleged plot to whack the guy next door, gabriel suarez, who runs smooth cheeks, it's unusual. >> it almost seems surreal. >> reporter: how surreal? l.a. county sheriff's department is still peeling the masks. >> in 18 years, you've never seen anything like this? >> no.

starts out with an alleged victim, who turns out to be a suspect victim. >> and then a witness who, in your mind, turns out to be -- >> suspect. >> reporter: it was a friend of his who asked detective mccauley if he'd speak to daluise, who'd been operating skin refinery at this address for years. among her offerings was something called a galvanic facial, a favorite of her then friend and client, edward feinstein. >> put a mask over your face. it's a little bit of a hannibal lecter mask, if you saw it. it's a little overwhelming. >> reporter: over the years, daluise and her business had been talked up in a few glossy-magazine beauty roundups and in the tabloids. >> dawn had a public spat with nicki minaj. it was all over the news. >> reporter: when mccauley phoned her, daluise said her tires had been slashed recently and that she was being cyber-stalked, harassed online. >> there had been craigslist ads that were posted. solicitations for sexual encounters that listed her address and her phone number. >> and did she have any idea who

might be responsible? >> she believed it was gabriel suarez. >> did she feel like he was a competitor and therefore this was why he might be doing such things? >> yes. >> it's kind of crazy. >> his response was in general. "i don't know her." he came off as very credible to me. >> reporter: daluise seemed aghast that suarez had moved his business practically next door, even though suarez had smooth cheeks focused on a different end of the skin care game. >> i liked the name "cheeks" cause i do a lot of waxing, too. and it's kind of double-entendre. it has cheeks and, you know, "cheeks." >> reporter: daluise thought feinstein would back her with the cops. feinstein flipped, telling them the cyber-stalking was actually daluise's plan to frame suarez. >> she wanted me to pretend to be gabriel, send her fake texts, post craigslist ads. she wanted it to seem like she was being stalked so she could say it was gabriel. >> she asked you to do all these things? >> yes.

>> he provided me with texts that seemed to indicate that ms. daluise had asked him to lie to me. >> lying to these damn cops to get them to step up. i'm going to tell them gabriel was in my apartment last night and is now threatening me with bodily harm. but it was another of feinstein's texts that would get dawn daluise on page one and tmz and give new meaning to the phrase "if looks could kill." >> i found someone who is going to take gabriel out. his name is chris geile and he's on my facebook page. but daluise's apparent text led cops to get proactive on the facialist. >> reporter: when you use the

phrase take care of, it doesn't mean to get a nice facial. guard that my life would be in danger for doing skincare. >> reporter: so the aesthetician who had told police she was being cyber-stalked found herself going from facial to disgracial in less than a month's time, arrested march 5th, and charged with solicitation of murder. >> yes, your honor. >> reporter: chris geile hasn't been charged with anything. in a sitdown with kabc, he denied being dawn's hitman of choice. >> i was just totally astonished. there were no services to engage. >> at this point, he is more of a witness than he is a suspect. >> reporter: edward feinstein was not so lucky. on march 12, feinstein planned to sit down with "20/20." while we waited, police came to his home to arrest him. we caught up with him a week later, after his release. >> i'm the one that originally

told the police when they contacted me about dawn's ruse so for me to be named a suspect was just mindboggling to me. >> reporter: police had decided daluise had been maliciously stalked by feinstein. daluise attorney philip dube is confident the case against her will be dismissed. >> it's absolutely ridiculous. >> reporter: for now, the case lies in the mountain of evidence. 220 gigs worth on detective mccauley's daluise hard drive. do you feel confident at this point in your investigation, that you know who did what to whom? >> no. >> i'm so relieved to hear you say that. this is the craziest thing i've ever seen. >> it is. >> reporter: the only ones not laughing are gabriel suarez, still trying to imagine why someone might want him exfoliated permanently and dawn daluise still sitting in stir after a competitor got under her skin.

>> coming up, the designing woman who scammed a childless couple. what she didn't have, was a baby. >> it was all a lie. >> when designing women returns. or did they just add an r? forget about that. it's not a word! you're my frather, i'm your fron, this is our framily. you can't just mush words together like that. uh gu gu. [ speaking french ] oh, guilty as charged. he does love brunch. daddy does love brunch. [ male announcer ] join a sprint framily for as low as $25 a month. and for a limited time, get a switching bonus worth up to $650. happy connecting from sprint. so why do they often act so wor naughty?$650. shoes should feel nice. grrr... ooh! it's time to tame the shoe with dreamwalk ultra-slim insoles... grrr... so you can wear the shoes you're in the mood for...

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and the woman who preyed on them. rieena ninan has this story. >> reporter: even before they got married, mark and tracy dziekanski, living in a kid-friendly community outside of chicago, talked about having children. >> can't wait to have a little girl and put her in the sundresses and fix her hair. >> reporter: but tracy was unable to conceive. and adoption was an ordeal. so, they decided to write an ad on craigslist. >> reporter: it's a growing trend, wanna-be parents going online to find a child. legal? yes. guaranteed? no. finally, the dziekanskis get the answer they'd been waiting for

from a pregnant mother almost a thousand miles away in north carolina. >> she knew she couldn't take care of this baby. >> reporter: heather taylor lives in this trailer and is struggling to make ends meet, so she's willing to give them her baby. so, it's time to go shopping. >> we got a few of the items and all the equipment and whatever else the baby needed. >> reporter: the local babies r us wasn't the only place the dziekanskis were dropping cash. >> naturally, during the pregnancy, there were some financial expenses that she said she needed money for? >> and we didn't hesitate. i mean, you know, you wanna keep her healthy. she's carrying our adopted baby. >> reporter: weeks later, heather unexpectedly goes into labor. tracy is actually on the phone as heather rushes to the hospital. >> she's having a c-section, and i'm on the phone with her in the delivery room.

i mean, you could hear the heart rate and everything. and then a couple of minutes later, there's a baby crying. >> reporter: did you give the baby a name? is and the total tab, now $1,500. >> i don't hesitate. >> reporter: then heather sends you this. >> yeah. >> we pretty much lost it. just in awe. oh my gosh, this is real. it's our baby. >> love the wrinkles on the back.

>> reporter: now they are just anxiously waiting for heather to come from north carolina to chicago to drop off little anna. but where was she? >> oh, it was one thing after another. her brother was in a car accident. she missed her plane. the baby had breathing problems. she didn't want to fly, she wanted to drive. >> reporter: then heather drops a bombshell. >> she's changed her mind. she can afford to keep anna. >> reporter: devastated and now suspicious, tracy goes back to craigslist and contacts other couples, wondering is this a scam? sure enough, she hears from a woman named nicole who says heather was giving birth to her baby too. >> i lost it. i'm like, oh my gosh, this isn't real. >> reporter: no, it wasn't real. the pregnancy, the sounds of a newborn crying in the hospital room, those photos, all part of an elaborate and heartless scheme. there was never a baby. >> it was all a lie. >> reporter: detective david flynn from the pitt county sheriff's department says nicole, the north carolina victim, got these photos as "proof" of heather's fake pregnancy.

>> so she's pretending here to be pregnant? >> that's correct. i'm not sure what she used to, to make her belly bigger. >> reporter: nicole declined our request for an interview, but she did tell our affiliate how far heather took the con job. >> she was faking contractions and she'd keep going with it. she'd say, "how long was this one?" >> reporter: so, who is heather really? no stranger to the law. writing bad checks and identity theft. had a long history of making up stories about other things. >> reporter: just like the the baby, the refund was never delivered. >> we told her, we're contacting the detective. >> reporter: how could they not know? >> she provided a lot of

details. seems like she wanted to live a different life, and enjoy the fantasy and attention. >> reporter: and attention she got. >> solicited people on craigslist and taking people's money. >> she had to seek mental treatment. >> the emotional toll that this took on them, you really can't repay them for that. >> how could you be so cruel and mean and deceitful to do this to somebody? i was just heartbroken. >> it's like the baby died almost, or -- >> right. >> oh, gosh, for -- for months. >> our little anna would be a year old. >> reporter: despite their awful experience, the dziekanski's haven't abandoned their dream of parenthood. soon, they hope to start fostering to eventually adopt a child. and you believe in your heart it's definitely gonna happen? >> there's no doubt in my mind

that baby's gonna have nothing but the best. >> let us know on twitter. do you think adopting on twitter or online should be legal? coming up, an ex-stripper with a taste for

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as designing women

continues, jim avila and the case of a crushing blow. >> reporter: phoenix, arizona, the valley of the sun, where hot asphalt bakes human tempers, delivering simmering trials and raven-haired killers. jodi arias, and now this woman, marissa devault. >> we thought that it was going to be the next jodi arias trial. but this is the addams family. this is stranger than jodi arias. >> reporter: are these the hands of a murderess? is this the face of a killer? or is 36-year-old marissa a victim? so battered by an abusive husband that she bludgeoned him to death? >> the prosecution telling a different story. she could face the death

penalty. >> reporter: killer or victim? that puzzle that has stumped phoenix, arizona, since january of 2009. from the beginning. just hours after the bloody attack that splattered the couple's master bedroom from floor to ceiling, marissa devault tells a story of constant abuse, verbal and physical. >> how did he hit you? >> with his fists. >> and where was he hitting on your body? >> all over the place. and he just kept hitting me. >> reporter: marissa even stands to show police how she says her husband of 15 years raped her on the night of the attack, choking her before forcing her on the bed against her will. >> so you came home and didn't want to have sex and he got mad? >> you wake up and he's raping you, hands around your neck. >> he likes that, he likes it because he can hold me here. at times, crying. seeming completely distraught. at other times, smiling in an

uncomfortable way that a seasoned detective would probably look at, and at the very least, find odd. >> reporter: for police, it was an odd story and an odd victim. dale and marissa had met as teens in their hometown of lake havasu, arizona, a party town known for outrageous spring breaks. they met up again years later in their 20's in phoenix. by then marissa had a baby. she was a stripper and according to her friend and nanny amy dewey, an opportunistic marissa saw dale as a catch. >> what was the attraction? >> i think that she saw a man who had just graduated from refrigeration school and had the potential to make money. it was always about the money. >> reporter: amy lived with them for a time before their

marriage. >> was there any sense that dale was violent in any way? >> no. she would come home and try to pick a fight with him or try to provoke him and he would just tell her, "i'm not gonna fight with you, i love you, let's work this out." >> reporter: then came the day amy was fired after a chilling conversation, if true, would foreshadow a future grisly murder. >> she came to me and said, "dale is dreaming about having sex with you. i don't think that's appropriate." i'm concerned for your safety. dale is dreaming about killing you with a hammer. you have to go." >> reporter: fast forward to one new year's eve. dale is in his bedroom critically wounded by, yes, a hammer. >> me husband -- >> reporter: in the interrogation room, marissa plays the battered woman card. i hit him with both hands.

>> reporter: but police don't buy her sob story. and prosecutors don't think a jury will either. >> opening statements today in the case of a woman accused of killing her own husband. >> reporter: the real motive for that tool-time thrashing, they say, was a big fat payday. >> marissa is a woman who likes money, but more than that she likes easy money. >> reporter: prosecutors show the crime scene in vivid detail, displaying dale's deadly injuries. arizona republic writer michael meifer is in the courtroom. >> you know, she put a fist-sized hole in the side of his skull. >> reporter: then the prosecution begins to reveal a secret life that marissa never spoke of. a past that includes working that pole at a strip club. >> the risky behavior. the boyfriends. the stripping. you get a picture of someone who doesn't have rules. >> living on the edge. >> yeah.

>> reporter: one of the lovers, they met on a website. >> so you began having sex the first day you met. >> reporter: he loans her money, keeping meticulous track. >> this insurance money's gonna come through. don't worry about it. >> reporter: there it is, what prosecutors believe is the real motive for the murder. a big life insurance policy on dale earmarked to pay back her sugar daddy. >> a new insurance policy that was worth a million dollars that >> reporter: it was not looking good for marissa. but her defense had yet to start. and when it did, a blockbuster of its own. until then, really nobody had said anything positive about marissa. >> nobody. >> reporter: but marissa had an ally, her oldest daughter

rhiannon, named after the fleetwood mac song. and she has a devastating story to tell about her stepdad dale. >> her daughter came in and said, "yes, dad hit mom." and said, "yes, he had affairs and came home smelling of some other woman's perfume." and when the prosecutor brought up, "well, didn't your mother hit your father as well?" she said, "well, not as much as my father hit my mother." that was damning. >> reporter: it was a tough defense for dale's family and friends to hear. but would it sway the seven women, five men jury? >> we know it was marissa devault in the bedroom with the hammer. you're notalking about who did it. you're talking about why did she do it? did she have any justification? >> do find the defendant count one first degree murder guilty. >> reporter: murder in the first degree. guilty. this week, the jury ruling

36 year-old marissa devault, mother, stripper and gold digger, was now a killer too. >> it's unfathomable. why did dale die? it seems like they proved in court that he died for money. >> why did he put up with her, do you think? >> he loved her. she killed the one person who ♪ a great performance: a perfect balance of grace and power. the incredible windtunnel® air steerable from hoover. with exclusive windtunnel® technology to remove stubborn, deep down dirt, and it steers with just a flick of the wrist. powerful, and lightweight. the windtunnel® air steerable,

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