>> that's our program for tonight. be sure to catch us again next week for another edition of "what would you do?." don't forget, you can connect was any time. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. and don't go away. "20/20" starts right now. northern kentucky, and a handsome young lawyer is dead. a 911 call has just come in. >> where are you? >> i'm standing about ten feet from his dead body. >> reporter: what's the first thing you're told about this? >> we have a murder. >> reporter: a small town that hasn't seen a murder in years. here it is right here, building number 12. police on the scene within minutes. >> i can see the body. >> reporter: your heart's pounding right now? >> oh, yes. it's beating really fast, i don't know what's going on. >> reporter: the victim -- 29-year-old ryan poston. he'd just opened his own law firm. his life is taking off. a large and distinguished family. so many friends. so many beautiful women orbiting around him. and no known enemies. >> police in highland heights

are still trying to piece together what exactly led to the fatal shooting. >> reporter: now he's dead. shot six times with his own gun. what happened? >> this was a shocking crime. six shots. >> bang, bang, bang, bang, and down he went to the floor. >> reporter: bad blood between a beautiful woman and a man. a twisted romance turned sour. inside a suburban condo, the dining room becomes a crime scene. a hail of gunfire from a semi-automatic. >> we're going to begin with the murder trial of that honor student from kentucky. >> reporter: tonight, the case that had the country glued. >> she said, "yeah, he wanted a nose job so i gave him one." >> i gave him the nose job he wanted. >> that made my blood run cold. >> reporter: a promising life cut down. how did it go from mad love to bad blood?

>> good evening. tonight, the stunning tape, the suspect that can't stop talking and acting out. but it's about to get even more bizarre. how did it go from this to the so-called nose job murder? >> he was often out with friends as part of the friday night d e dating scene. beautiful women always wanting to know him. but one of those women would become a fatal attraction. here's gio benitez. >> reporter: the story begins here at a bar called the milford inn. 24-year-old audrey bolte is waiting, any minute now, a man is supposed to arrive. were you excited to meet him? >> yes, of course. i was very much looking forward to it. >> reporter: audrey isn't just your average beautiful blonde on a blind date. >> audrey bolte, you are miss ohio! >> reporter: she's miss ohio 2012! >> only three women left. >> reporter: one of the final three at the miss usa pageant.

>> and the second runner up is ohio! >> reporter: but tonight miss ohio is hoping to meet mr. right. >> i had ended a serious relationship about a month prior so it was kind of like me getting back out to, in the social world. >> reporter: they had met on facebook through mutual friends. they talked about possibly meeting at ryan's condo but decide to rendezvous at the bar. one small change in the plans changes the course of the entire night. >> who wouldn't be looking forward to meet a lawyer from cincinnati who's attractive and funny and witty? i mean who wouldn't be excited to? >> reporter: it was going to be a night of fun and shooting pool. it's mid october, friday night. not far from the bright lights of cincinnati across the ohio river in the small suburb of highland heights, kentucky, a typical small town full of fast food on the highways. but life is rather slow.

the big news is the high school football team, the bluebirds are undefeated. it's a crisp and clear evening. an autumn chill in the air, and back at the bar audrey appears to be getting the cold shoulder. >> i'm kind of looking around and i didn't see him. so i waited. >> reporter: she goes to touch up her mascara. it's almost 10:30, and it's looking as if miss ohio is in the unlikely position of being stood up. you must've been waiting and waiting and waiting. i mean, what's going through your mind -- were you angry? >> i mean, i'm a girl. so i was like where is this guy? like, where is he? >> reporter: his name is ryan poston, and audrey was hardly the first woman to find him appealing. so you two were just really in love? >> i thought he was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen in my love. it was love at first sight. i guess it was three days later and i had the key to his apartment. >> reporter: for about two years, lauren worley was with ryan.

they even got these dogs max and lilly together. when they met, lauren was a student at chase law school at nearby northern kentucky university. and ryan, who had already graduated from there, was studying for the bar exam. so there was that electricity between you two, right? >> it really was, and i kept remember thinking "i cannot believe that he wants to date me. like, he is just so perfect and so beautiful." >> reporter: as if you're not gorgeous. >> well, i appreciate that, but i mean ryan poston is one of a kind. >> i thought he was perfect for her. >> reporter: lauren's former roommate, emmy reinle, thought it was a match made in heaven. and i know you even compared ryan to a character of "twilight," right? >> i did! i did! >> reporter: who? >> you know the character, edward? he is just such a protector, so soft spoken. always there. even his build was similar to ryan's. >> i felt so loved. >> reporter: to lauren,

29-year-old ryan was the whole package. he had the brains to match his good looks, plus a loving and highly successful family. >> sort of like the movers and shakers. people that have been around for a very long time doing very big things. >> you know our families had been friends for 20, 25 years. >> reporter: tom ardawalla and matt herren were two longtime buddies who agree that ryan's spell wasn't just cast on women. >> he was a magnetic person to be around. >> reporter: you would go and hang out in bars just like this one. >> yeah, we'd go out a lot, every weekend probably. >> reporter: they say nights with ryan in bars like this wouldn't result in your usual drunk talk, but rather nonstop debate sessions. >> he could literally talk about anything and everything. he was passionate about so many things. >> reporter: philosophy, politics, they say ryan had strong feelings on many subjects. among them -- guns. he liked guns? >> he believed in the ideology of gun ownership, and he believed guns can make society safer.

>> he always had them. he would have one in his boot. he would have them in his holster. it was almost like that's the guy that is a man, and he can protect. >> reporter: to lauren, ryan's comfort with guns made her feel safe. they'd practice shooting together at the range. he even showed you how to use them, right? >> yes, and he said, you know, "i want you to know how these guns work because i don't want you to pick them up and then accidentally, you know, hurt yourself." >> reporter: but lauren says as great a catch as ryan was, in the end, the timing wasn't right for them. they eventually broke up. >> we broke up, always thinking, i think in the back of my mind at least that we were going to get back together. >> reporter: but meanwhile, another one of ryan poston's relationships was disintegrating. >> he was stressed out. absolutely stressed out. >> reporter: crystal owhoso was a friend that ryan had hired at his law firm in this building in downtown cincinnati. but he was having a bitter falling out with his partner there. >> it was sucking the life out of him, literally.

>> reporter: in the midst of the fight, he sends crystal an angry facebook message ranting about the lawsuit between him and his partner, saying, i want this piece of [ bleep ] destroyed. bury him neck deep at low tide, throw darts at his head. wait for high tide to roll in so i can stomp on his head while he's drowning. an uncharacteristic display of anger, his friends say. and now, something else is incongruous. the usually reliable ryan has left miss ohio, audrey bolte, sitting alone, waiting for him at the milford inn. you must've been thinking, this can't be happening to me right now. >> yeah! he was very, you know, responsive to text messages, i had just talked to him, he said, "okay, no problem, see you there." >> reporter: how many text messages do you think you sent him that night? >> i would say i sent probably two or three to him saying, "hey, i'm here. where are you? are you coming? but he didn't show up, so i went home. >> reporter: the reason ryan never showed up? because he's lying in a pool of

his own blood in his highland heights condo where audrey almost met him. >> campbell county 911. >> reporter: ryan has been shot, and help won't make it in time. >> are you sure that he is dead? >> yes, he's -- he's dead, ma'am, he's completely dead. >> this is highland heights. it doesn't happen in highland heights. >> reporter: the mystery on meadow lane is only just beginning. stay with us. tropical. and during red lobster's island escape, three new tropical dishes take me straight to the islands. so i'm diving fork-first into the lobster and shrimp in paradise, with panko-crusted lobster tail and jumbo shrimp in captain morgan barbecue glaze. or the ultimate island seafood feast, with tender crab, wood-grilled lobster, and two island-inspired flavors of jumbo shrimp. because a summer without tropical flavors might as well be winter. this escape is too good to miss so...don't.

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bad blood continues. once again, gio benitez. >> reporter: another fall weekend is just under way in this part of kentucky. it should be quiet. but it's not. it was a very normal friday night. but you get a very unusual call. you're hearing about a shooting. dave fornash is an 18-year veteran of the highland heights police force. >> this is highland heights, it doesn't happen in highland heights!

>> reporter: this 911 call just received -- and it's a woman's voice. >> ma'am i have, well -- i killed my boyfriend. >> what did you kill him with? >> a gun. a loaded gun in the house. >> i turned on my lights and took off. >> reporter: you were about a mile away. so you were pretty close. >> correct. >> reporter: he pulls into this condo complex. there's about 20 units lining both sides of meadow lane. so you park the car and you're just walking now? >> right. >> reporter: here it is, building 12 right here. >> right, building number 12. >> reporter: he enters building 12, and heads up the stairs. >> and we're listening for stuff as we go up the steps. >> reporter: another officer now with him, as he approaches number 10. the condo belonging to that yog lawyer, 29-year-old ryan poston. the shooter is still on the phone. >> ma'am, i want you to go to your front door, i want you to open it up, walk outside the door with your hands in front of you. >> okay, i will. >> reporter: so that door opens up. a young woman emerges, early 20s, slim, about 5'8", long brown hair.

>> i told her to be quiet, get on the ground, had my gun pointed at her. >> reporter: his partner cuffs the woman and takes her away while fornash goes inside. >> i can see the body over here. >> reporter: in a similar condo, fornash shows us how he started going room to room. because you wanted to make sure there was nobody else in this house. >> correct. my heart is pounding. i don't know what's going on. >> reporter: these crime scene pictures show what it was like. a cluttered two-bedroom apartment, clearly a bachelor pad. couches, chairs, a bookcase and a large tv, a second bedroom dedicated to just his neckties and for that gun lover an artillery vest. there's no one inside besides ryan poston. >> so the body's like right in this area. the head is here. >> reporter: he checks for a pulse, there is none. so there was no blood up here? nothing. >> nothing. >> reporter: fornash calls for the coroner, and heads back to the station where the woman is waiting in this interview room. it's the first time he learns

her name, shayna hubers. >> my name's dave fornash, i'm a sergeant, okay? >> reporter: at the moment he knows nothing about her or how she and ryan were connected at all. that story begins about 90 miles down the highway at the university of kentucky. shayna was among the graduates of the class of 2012, a hometown lexington girl. >> i've known her since second grade. >> reporter: morgan burrows grew up near shayna. they went to the same high school. >> she was very smart. like really, really smart. a lot of people at school knew who she was, like everybody was like, "oh, well, that's the girl that's got good grades and stuff and really pretty," like everybody would always talk about how pretty she was. >> reporter: morgan says people considered her driven to succeed, a standout student in high school, dean's list in college, now pursuing her masters in school counseling. ryan's cousin had known shayna from college and she had arranged the introduction. >> reporter: ryan's lifelong

friend brian stewart had moved to new york, but remembers ryan telling him about meeting shayna. >> ryan was certainly attracted to her. and i'm sure the feeling was mutual. >> reporter: clearly she loved posting pictures of herself on instagram, but now she was only too eager to include ryan. they were both smart and good looking, but there was one big difference -- their backgrounds. shayna grew up here, a solid middle class neighborhood with some unmanicured lawns. >> i think she would probably want something that looked better than the neighborhood she was in. >> reporter: something perhaps like this -- the bluegrass horse farms and blue blood heritage lexington is famous for, a world of money and prestige. a world familiar to ryan, but money can't buy you love. >> he was in the rebound state still. >> reporter: it was a few months after ryan and longtime girlfriend lauren worley had broken up. she didn't know shayna, but her old roommate emmy reinle did. do you think that she was just a

gold digger, thinking, you know what, ryan's my ticket to a good life? >> actually, yes. i'm going to get me a doctor or a lawyer. that's who she wanted to date. >> reporter: but as time went on it wasn't clear if ryan and shayna actually were dating. >> i don't know if he would tell you that they were in a relationship. >> reporter: ryan's friends say he lost interest rather quickly and tried to end things with shayna, but she refused. how could he allow her to decide whether they're going to break up or not? >> he just wasn't able to. he was too nice. didn't want to hurt her feelings. >> he did feel duty bound to let her down easy. >> reporter: so easy, the relationship continued on and off for more than a year with ryan and shayna chronicling it all to friends on social media ryan being asked in one exchange -- are you still dating what's her name? shayna? yes. how's that going? it's okay. i'm pretty stressed. i received 75 txt messages from her. i am emotionally and mentally spent. i hope she leaves me alone.

and shayna confiding to a friend -- >> he says he is only with me because i make him feel so awful when i cry. my love has turned to hate. >> reporter: but they're still together in october 2012. it's the night of the vice presidential debate between joe biden and paul ryan. he loved to watch those debates? >> absolutely loved to watch that kind of stuff. >> reporter: ryan was going to watch with his whole well-to-do family here in their stately brick home. what do you know about that night? >> they were happy to just have ryan come to dinner even if shayna was there as well. >> reporter: if shayna had any thoughts that getting this invitation for steak and asparagus meant a turn for the better, she was about to learn ryan was ready to stick a fork in the relationship once and for all. >> ryan had approached his stepfather and indicated that the relationship wasn't going forward. >> reporter: and he's got a new girl already lined up. remember miss ohio, audrey bolte? that blind date is the very next night.

>> i have no doubt that this is what set her off, and she knew that she was losing him and that would be final. >> reporter: 24 hours later, ryan is dead. >> a highland heights woman allegedly shot and killed her boyfriend. >> shayna hubers allegedly fired those fatal shots. >> this is somebody who wanted him dead. >> it was like i was at -- it was out-of-body experience. >> reporter: and shayna is in the interrogation room, utterly ignoring her right to remain silent. >> i gave him his nose job he wanted. >> when i first saw the interrogation tapes of shayna hubers, i immediately thought of jodi arias. >> reporter: jodi arias, the arizona woman who shot her boyfriend then stood on her head during a police interrogation. if you thought that tape was off the charts, wait till you see this. ♪ how sweet the sound

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"20/20" continues with bad blood. once again, gio benitez. >> reporter: it's friday night in highland heights, kentucky. most of the town is out watching the high school bluebirds football team extend their winning streak. but five and a half miles away, police have found 29-year-old attorney ryan poston lying dead in a pool of blood. now a pretty 21-year-old graduate student, who admitted to pulling the trigger, is sitting in the interrogation hot seat.

>> i'll be with you in just a second, you're fine. >> reporter: inside the nondescript 8-by-8 room, a video camera rolls as sergeant dave fornash reads shayna hubers her miranda rights. >> it says you have the right to remain silent. >> reporter: so she said i want the right to an attorney. >> i can't ask her any questions once she evokes the right to have attorney. >> reporter: though to complete his report, he asks for the victim's name. >> okay. what was his name? >> the man that i killed? ryan carter poston. >> reporter: the man that i killed, she says. >> i was kind of stunned and at that point, you know, she just started talking. >> reporter: she talked and talked and talked. i killed him, she says, but, with an explanation. it was self defense. >> i -- honestly, like, shot the man in self defense. >> okay. >> he was throwing me around the room. as soon as it happened it was surreal. it was like i was at -- it was out-of-body experience. it was like, that was not me. that was not me.

>> okay. >> reporter: sergeant fornash leaves the room to process what he just heard. meanwhile, shayna becomes increasingly anxious. look at her here, fidgeting, pacing, and drinking copious amounts of water. eventually another officer comes to keep her company. once again, without being asked, shayna starts spouting. >> i didn't plan for it to happen. >> reporter: telling police what she says happened inside that apartment. a domestic dispute gone awry. >> picking me up and throwing me against the bookshelf. that's when he started screaming all these nasty things. i mean, "you're a [ bleep ] hillbilly. everyone knows you're [ bleep ] crazy." >> reporter: shayna says ryan sat at this dining room table glaring and screaming at her, all while playing with his sig sauer semi-automatic hand gun and ammo. >> he pulled it out, lift it, and like, "what -- what would you do if i shot you right now? what would you do if i --" and i was afraid. >> reporter: remember, ryan was a gun enthusiast. his messy apartment full of

paraphernalia. an artillery vest hanging next to his ties. bullets sharing a cabinet with board games. but then she goes on to paint ryan as a pill-popping zealot. habitually abusing prescription drugs like adderall, xanax and ambien. sure enough, there are vials of medication everywhere in the crime scene photos, right next to the his bullets on the table. >> he's been whacked on drugs for a long time. he's capable of anything. >> reporter: shayna starts to act it all out. saying ryan got up. >> he wasn't completely standing up. he was like this. >> reporter: but before he could strike, she says she grabbed his gun from the table and began shooting. >> he fell onto the ground. he was, like, laying like this. his glasses were still on. he was twitching some more. i shot him a couple more times just to make sure he was dead 'cause i didn't want to watch him die. >> reporter: six slugs, a mercy killing, she claims, to put her bleeding boyfriend out of his misery.

but then, an extraordinary remark. >> he's very vain. one of our last conversations we had that was good was that he wants to get a nose job. just that kind of person. and i shot him right here. i gave him his nose job he wanted. >> reporter: yeah, you heard that right. but police chief bill birkenhauer couldn't believe his ears. when you heard her say, "i gave him that nose job he always wanted." >> my jaw dropped, you know? it was like, "did she just really say that?" >> reporter: it's important to note, the cops don't ask her one single question because she's asked for that attorney. but that doesn't stop her from spewing. >> hubers could not shut her pie hole! she could not be quiet. >> reporter: but that was only the beginning of shayna's bizarre behavior. listen as she laughs, questioning her own sanity. >> am i crazy? >> i don't think you're crazy. >> reporter: asking a series of strange questions about life behind bars. >> if you go to jail are you

allowed to keep your phone? can you shower there? or do you just get really dirty? i have to shower in front of people? oh [ bleep ]. oh, my god. >> reporter: musing out loud about love. >> i don't know if anyone will ever want to marry me if they know that i killed a boyfriend in self-defense. not funny. >> reporter: and the would-be school counselor worrying about her homework. >> i have two papers due monday that i haven't submitted. i don't know if i can even -- doesn't matter now. >> what her behavior in the interrogation room says to me is that there was no remorse whatsoever. none. >> reporter: but it's when she is alone in that room that she is the most revealing. listen as she paces back and forth muttering. >> i did it. yes, i did. i cannot believe i did that. >> reporter: listen again. i did it.

>> i did it. yes i did. >> reporter: at one point she breaks out ballet moves. [ humming ] >> reporter: and even starts singing "amazing grace." ♪ how sweet the sound that saved a wretch ♪ >> reporter: what do you make of this? >> it was a very bizarre thing. her actions in that room didn't come off as somebody who just killed somebody. a lot of the things she did in there were staged. >> reporter: that was enough for sergeant fornash. he comes back into the room. >> here's what's going to happen right now, shayna, okay. with everything that we have -- we're going to -- i'm going to have to charge you with murder. >> what degree? >> murder. there's no degree. >> reporter: and places her under arrest for the murder of ryan poston.

and just as shayna herself predicted -- >> i'm going to be the talked about for many years. >> reporter: the shooting immediately made big headlines. >> she shot her boyfriend in self-defense. >> a grand jury has indicted a northern kentucky woman. >> a young kentucky woman accused of brutally killing her boyfriend, shooting him six times and then boasting that she, quote, gave him the nose job he always wanted. >> reporter: when we come back, shayna moves from the interrogation room to the courtroom. >> i'm shayna hubers. >> reporter: where her self defense claim -- >> bang, bang, bang, bang. >> reporter: might actually get traction with the jury. >> it is more likely that a jury will buy that defense if the defendant is a woman. >> reporter: and five of the jurors are women. jurors are women. stay with us. and this is my aha moment. we travel putting on rodeos for people with mental and physical disabilities. we had a thirty-year-old participant come with his caretaker.

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>> reporter: it's setting up to be the trial of the year in northern kentucky. >> the case of accused murder shayna hubers. ryan poston was shot six times. shooting him in the face. was it murder? or self-defense? >> it was an amazing situation, an amazing case that kind of captivated the whole area. >> reporter: shayna hubers, finally getting her day in court, after spending over two years waiting in jail. she had been in this courtroom before. months earlier, she'd made a case for bail taking the unusual

tactic of testifying at this bond hearing on her own behalf. >> i'm shayna hubers. >> could you recall your emotional state? >> i was horribly traumatized. upset, in shock. >> what did you believe would have happened if you hadn't grabbed that gun first? >> i believe i would have been hurt, that i would have been shot. >> reporter: demure enough in her glasses and jailhouse stripes, her image is a sharp contrast to her former life. >> you would say anything to this court to get out of jail. >> reporter: prosecutor michelle snodgrass pounces, calling her a flight risk. >> you talked about changing your hair, burning off your fingerprints. phone calls that you made to your mother and said, "if i see a door open in here, i'm running." >> it's been almost two years. i don't remember every phone call i've had with my mother. >> i think she is a risk of flight. >> reporter: bail denied.

>> all rise. we are on the record. >> reporter: today, shayna is before that judge again on trial for murder. >> that's the murderer, sitting at the table. >> reporter: would a jury buy her claim of self-defense? >> going into the trial shayna hubers had one very important thing going for her. and that is that we are all now very aware of domestic abuse. >> reporter: walking into this courtroom did you ever think, we got this? >> there is no such thing as a slam dunk case. >> reporter: maybe so, but snodgrass must know you have more than an outside shot when your suspect acts like jodi arias. what do you think was the pivotal sort of testimony in that courtroom? >> probably the most important thing was that two and a half hour video. i think that speaks volumes, not just her words, but her actions. >> reporter: she lets the jurors hear shayna's own version of the shooting, especially that callous comment about the nose job.

>> and wants to get a nose job. just that kind of person. and so i shot him right here. i gave him his nose job. >> reporter: it was the phrase that made the case notorious. just google shayna hubers and up pops "the nose job" murder. >> i didn't say those words. she did. >> reporter: "i finally gave him his nose job." what did you think about that? >> i think that one statement summed up her attitude. there was no sign of remorse. >> reporter: to prove how heartless the former honor student seemed, the prosecution brings up three women, cellmates who spent time with shayna in jail and say shayna laughed about the murder and admitted ryan poston never hurt her. >> she was trying to make people believe he was abusive to her. >> she would throw furniture around to make it seem like there was a fight. >> and what did she say really happened? >> that she was the aggressor in the fight. >> i don't believe there was any kind of struggle. >> reporter: highland heights police chief bill birkenhauer

was the lead detective on the case. >> my shoulder hurts. >> reporter: he says shayna didn't have any bruises that night, but ryan had quite a lot of something the prosecution claims is much more significant. >> and how many facebook messages did he have? >> reporter: almost like a voice from beyond the grave, ryan poston's own texts and facebook posts, tens of thousands of them. >> i would say there was 50,000 pages. >> reporter: you looked through each and every one of those messages, didn't you? >> i did. all the text messages together told me that ryan poston did not want to be in relationship with shayna hubers. >> reporter: ryan texting a friend, i received 75 text messages from her. i am emotionally and mentally spent. i hope she leaves me alone. add shayna's messages and the prosecution says the picture is very clear. >> he says he is only with me

because i make him feel so awful when i cry. my love has turned to hate. >> reporter: the most crucial message of all, one shayna sent to her close friend christie oiler. a seemingly incriminating message when shayna and ryan were going to a shooting range together. >> when i go to the shooting range with ryan tonight, i want to turn around and shoot and kill him and play like it's an accident. >> i wish i would've paid more attention to it. >> that right there stunned everybody that was watching this trial. >> i think a lot of people, and the defense especially wanted to play that off as a joke. it's just not funny. >> reporter: the prosecution says it was not long after that, that shayna finds out about that date with miss ohio. >> when things didn't go her way, it was not good. >> reporter: they tell the jury, shayna, the jilted lover, picks up one of ryan's four loaded guns that night at his condo and kills him in a jealous rage.

>> she killed him in cold blood. and i'm asking you to find her guilty of murder. >> reporter: but now its shayna's turn. >> she acted in self-protection. >> reporter: asserting self defense, the same story as when shayna first called 911. >> her words, repeatedly and over. he could have grabbed me. he could have hurt me. >> reporter: attorney david meija says the couple was arguing and that shayna shot ryan after they both grabbed at that gun that was laying on the table. >> if he had gotten the gun, it would've been me and not him. >> all right, you may call your first witness. >> i've got to hand it to the defense. they tried a tactic that in the past has been tried and true. when all else fails, bring on the defendant's mother. >> i was frightened for shayna. >> reporter: shayna's mother sharon testifies about a frantic call from shayna in the wee hours the morning before the shooting. >> she was in pain. there was fear in her voice.

>> reporter: she says shayna was distraught, calling from ryan's condo. so sharon hubers drives to the condo to get shayna. >> i tried to get her to leave with me and come home. >> reporter: but shayna won't go with her. she insists she wants to stay and work things out with ryan. >> it showed that shayna hubers was not afraid to stay at ryan poston's. she went back. >> reporter: the next night, shayna is back at ryan's again, when her mother gets an even more disturbing call. >> she was hysterical. terrified. >> reporter: this time, shayna tells her she's just shot ryan. >> she was a mess. >> reporter: it's sharon that tells her daughter to call 911. and so she does. >> campbell county 911. >> ma'am, well, i killed my boyfriend in self-defense. >> is a person who shoots somebody intentionally without

justification going to call the police with this kind of speed? >> he threw me across the room. >> reporter: the defense suggests shayna's story is believable. remember those drugs found at the crime scene? the defense argues they could have sent him into a rage and that he had a violent side. remember that facebook message during his lawsuit with his former partner? >> i want this piece of [ bleep ] destroyed. bury him neck deep at low tide. throw darts at his head. wait for high tide to roll in so i can stomp on his head while he's drowning. >> ryan poston is 6'3", 230. she is 5'6", 110 pounds. >> reporter: meijia says there's plenty of reasonable doubt. >> emptying the clip into somebody against whom has threatened violence against you, who is going to grab a gun to shoot you in your belief is absolutely justified by under the law. >> reporter: but unlike the bond hearing, shayna herself never takes the stand in the trial.

>> you know what, shayna hubers, wherever she is, i did her justice. >> reporter: her lawyer knows he only has to convince one juror. did he? >> the police do not determine guilt or innocence, you do. >> we had to decide, was she under extreme emotional distress or was it just something that she did? >> reporter: the verdict, when we return. with alzheimer's means i am a lot of things. i am his guardian. i am his voice. so i asked about adding once-daily namenda xr to his current treatment for moderate to severe alzheimer's. it works differently. when added to another alzheimer's treatment, it may improve overall function and cognition. and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. vo: namenda xr doesn't change how the disease progresses. it shouldn't be taken by anyone allergic to memantine, or who's had a bad reaction to namenda xr or its ingredients. before starting treatment, tell their doctor if they have, or ever had, a seizure disorder, difficulty passing urine,

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bad blood continues. once again, gio benitez. >> reporter: it's nearly midnight in newport, kentucky. in this town the only thing usually open at that hour is the

pepper pod diner. but on this night, a light is shining inside campbell county courtroom #2. after nine intense days of grueling testimony, the fate of now 24-year-old shayna hubers, accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend ryan poston is now in the hands of seven men and five women. >> all rise. >> has the jury reached a verdict? >> we have, your honor. >> reporter: after just five hours of deliberation, the verdict is in. >> we the jury find the shayna hubers guilty of murder. >> reporter: shayna hubers, guilty of murder. the courtroom overcome with emotion. >> ladies and gentlemen, i'm going excuse you for the evening. >> reporter: as for shayna, the former honor student once seen

dancing in that interrogation room, now sitting motionless in stunned silence. while ryan's family hugs emotionally, shayna's mother slips out of the courtroom unseen by cameras. laura kirkwood was on that jury and says convicting shayna was a no-brainer. >> at no point did i buy the battered girlfriend defense. >> reporter: but guilt is only step one. in kentucky, the jury also recommends the punishment. she faces up to life in prison. so the next morning, they are back at it again, jurors hearing final testimony to help them determine shayna's fate. ryan's sister, katie carter, takes the stand. recounting the moment when she found out her big brother had died. >> i said, "it's not true. >> i said, "it's not true. >> reporter: katie describes how in the two years since his death, her family's life has changed. >> he made us complete. without him there is always a chair that is empty. he will never be able to have

all the things he deserved to have in his life. >> reporter: katie walks off the stand and into the loving embrace of ryan's two other sisters. meanwhile shayna hubers, sitting on the other side of the courtroom, remains reactionless. >> ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will hear closing statements. >> reporter: shayna's attorney david meija makes a final push for the jury to give her the statutory minimum of 20 years. >> shayna hubers called police, cooperated with law enforcement. >> reporter: he cites her so-called honesty during that infamous police video, lack of criminal history, not even a parking ticket, and her young age. >> there must be a belief in the potential for maturity, potential for reformation. >> can i have just a moment? >> you may. >> reporter: but prosecutor michelle snodgrass has some

theater for her closing argument, a prop, the stained dining room chair from ryan's apartment, meant to pull on the heartstrings of the jury. >> the empty chair. that will never be filled again. nothing will ever make it right. >> reporter: she reminds jurors of the six shots shayna fired at ryan. >> i think everyone agreed ryan poston was alive for each of the six shots. i bet there was suffering, pain and torture. >> reporter: as snodgrass wraps her closing argument she asks for life. and shayna hubers, maybe for the first time, looks concerned. after deliberating for only an hour, the jury is back in the courtroom ready to recommend their sentence. >> we the jury fix the punishment for the offense of murder at 40 years' confinement in the penitentiary.

>> life was too long that possibly, maybe if she is rehabilitated, she could do some good when she gets out. >> even with a 40-year sentence she's likely to get out in just 20 years. it doesn't seem quite right, does it? >> reporter: outside the courtroom, ryan's mom speaks publicly for the first time. >> one minute at a time. one hour at time. one day at a time. >> reporter: moving on is difficult for others involved in the case, like former miss ohio, audrey bolte. though she never actually met ryan poston, did that blind date trigger his murder? >> all of the time i play it back in my head and it took me a long time to be okay. >> reporter: for brian stewart, it's the loss of a childhood friend. >> brian was my best friend and

i'm convinced he's the best man i shall ever know. >> reporter: and then there's lauren for whom ryan was the love of her life, the one that got away and who now faces a lifetime of regret. >> i was so close to it. i was right there. i wish i would have known or paid attention because i might have been able to stop it. i loved ryan. i still love ryan. he's my lover in the clouds. >> tonight, shayna sits behind bars. she's requested a new trial, that's being decided now. >> and 40 years behind bars, but it's up to the judge to make a

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