this is "nightline." tonight, when a high school sweetheart is the prime suspect. a teenaged girl discovered dead many her boyfriend arrested. >> they have nothing else to go on, and i'm the boyfriend. >> nearly two decades later, the evidence that changed everything. >> i'm an innocent man, and innocent people don't go to jail. >> why questions still remain. >> if he's claiming he wasn't with her in that after 9:00, the weekends show he was with her. >> one man walks free. who killed leah freeman? >> whoever did this needs to pay. >> "nightline" will be right back.

good evening. thank you for joining us. young love and a decades-old murder mystery. locking a rocking a small community in oregon. now sitting down for the first interview ever since the conviction was overturned. why he maintains his innocence

to this day. >> i just figured the truth will come out. i'm an innocent man and innocent people don't go to jail. >> they said it's for the murder of leah freeman. >> did you do it? >> no, i didn't do it. >> they have nothing else to go on, and i'm the boyfriend. >> this afternoon, the body of a teenaged female, tentatively identified as leah freeman was discovered. >> hoev dwho ever did this need pay. >> what's he hiding? >> i had medley yet leah when i walking through the gym. she was a freshman, i was a senior. leah was always a sparkle. >> he was always in love. the girls liked him. >> he was definitely a flirt. he was kind of into every girl. but he did seem like he really cared about her.

>> he seemed like an okay kind of guy, but still, the age difference was there. and then i found out that they were being sexually active. and that was disturbing. >> i'll never forget that date. it started out like any other normal day. >> i hadn't seen her for a while. we were still really good friends, but we just didn't hang out as much because she was with nick a lot. >> she was at sherry's, and she wanted to go jogging and asked sherry to go with her. sherry asked her mom, and her mom said no. because every time you do, nick comes and picks leah up and you end up walking home alone. so leah heard that, and i guess she got mad and started to walk off. >> she was headed toward the high school, spotted by numerous witnesses along the way. >> the next witness says that around 9:30 p.m. she sees leah

standing outside a pay phone. and there are two men arguing nearby. next time you see leah, she's standing outside the gas station. and that's the last time that anyone sees leah. several minutes later, a witness hears a high-pitched scream. >> it was 9:00. i went to go to sherry's to go get leah, asked her where leah was. >> she's probably walking home, i'm sure if you drive to her house you'll find her. >> nick gets back into his car and starts driving through the town looking for leah. >> he did call the house shortly after 10:00 that night. and he said is leah there? and i said, leah, no, isn't she with you? and he goes, well, it's all right, don't worry, i'm going to go find her and i'll bring her home. >> i mean, i'd even talked to police twice that night. and my headlight was out, and i got pulled over for it both times. told them that i was looking for

my girlfriend. i decided to go by leah's house one more time. and i saw a glare on her window. thought it was her tv. back then, it was 2000. it's not like she could send me a text. she couldn't call me on a cell phone. i thought she was home. and i went home after that. >> and i looked in her room, and her bed was empty. >> leah's mom calls at like 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning the next day. >> i said, where's leah? she's not here. he goes, she didn't come home last night? and i said, no, where is she! and he goes, i don't know. >> i went i as quick as i could. i talked to cory. we went down to the police department and filed a missing person's report. the police basically told us that leah was probably a run

away. >> i knew something was wrong. this girl had no reason to run away. >> i don't remember what date it was. the police called me, they wanted to talk to me. so of course i'm going to go in and i'm going to help them. >> today's june 30th. it is 1348 hours. >> how would you character chart her personal life? >> she's giggly and a good person. >> i started to have my concerns when it kind of started, i guess trying to twist my words. >> the night that leah disappeared, it's about 11:40. the mechanic worked the swing shift. he's driving home, and he saw a shoe lying in the road. that person came forward with the shoe. we showed it to leah's sister. she said i think that's her shoe. >> then, on the 4th of july, her other shoe is discovered. and it's got blood on it.

>> the distance from where the left shoe was found on hudson ridge back to the town of coquille is about a 10-mile stretch. >> when we found that shoe with the blood on it, we thought this is not going to end well. >> the body of a female, tentatively identified as leah freeman was discovered. >> the body was in bad, bad condition. >> it was august 3rd. i'd gone out to laverne park, and all of a sudden a coquille city cop pulled in. and i said cory, i i need to take you home. i said, they found her. >> i remember the exact moment. and i broke down. i just remember that specific moment in time. that's the saddest moment that

i've ever gone through. >> 15-year-old leah freeman vanished off the streets of coquille five weeks ago. her death is being treated as a homicide, but investigators are saying little else. >> i that i everybody was quick to point fingers at nick, because he's the most likely person being her boyfriend. >> police just aren't able to make any kind of a case stick. >> as time went by, it slowly became a cold case. >> fast forward eight years. a new sheriff comes into town, and he wants to look into the case. >> we looked at every person that was identified as a possible suspect in this case. and then we went forward. no matter which way we went, at the end of the day, it came back to nick. >> we're going to stop by mr. mcgulfen's residence and see if he's around. >> we've interviewed over 100, almost 200 people in the last six months. >> with all these witnesses coming forward, police say

they're getting information that appears to contradict what nick has said all along, that he had not seen leah after he dropped her off at her girlfriend's house around7:00. >> i basically drove everywhere for that four hours looking for her, and i didn't see her once. >> we have several witnesses that actually place nick with leah after 9:00. if he's claiming he wasn't with her that night after 9:00, but we can show he was with her, what's he hiding? >> with the tenth anniversary of leah freeman's disappearance and death days away, authorities say they're closer than ever to bringing justice to this case. >> they decided to take it to the grand jury. they called over 110 witnesses. and, after presenting all this evidence, they came back and said, we think nick did it, we think he had to be charged. >> it was a normal day at work, and i will forgot and recipe at my house. so i ran home real quick.

noticed i was being followed. when i pulled up to my mailbox, cars everywhere. >> separate your feet. >> what do you think this is all about? >> obviously, they said it's for the murder of leah freeman. >> did you do it? >> no, i didn't do it. love of my life, man. >> why do you think they did it? >> because they have nothing else to go on, and i'm the boyfriend. >> when i got arrested, it felt like a nightmare i was trying to wake up from, but i never woke up. >> when we come back, nick's nightmare comes alive in court. >> and what if anything did the defendant tell you? >> that i strangled that bitch. and i'll strangle you too. james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh!

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on july 7, 2011, 11 years after leah was killed, a murder trial is finally under way. >> nick says he last saw leah when he dropped her off at her best friend's house. >> in court, prosecutors call witness after witness, trying to convict nick mcguffin of murder and manslaughter charges for the killing of leah freeman. >> timing was important, because it put a hole in nick's story is what it did. i argued what happened was they got into an argument. it got physical. and it went bad from there. >> the state's case against nick

is that he was very, very upset that leah was going to break up with him. >> tries to get her into his car. she loses a shoe. she screams. and, in an effort to keep her quiet or in anger, he strangled her. >> then a witness for the prosecution claims neck confessed to the murder. >> mr. breakfill was there a a conversation with the defendant? >> several. >> and what did he tell you? >> that i strangled that and i'll strangle you, too. >> he was never one of my friends. he had dated my mother a little bit. i know i never said anything like that. >> the biggest problem for breakfill in his testimony is the eight-year gap between the time he says it happened and the time he tells the authorities.

>> if he made that statement, you weren't you curious enough to start talking to people about who it was he would have killed? >> no, sir. >> you didn't care who he killed? >> i just tried to stay as far away from the situation as i could. >> there was no dna evidence tying him to leah. there was no evidence in his car. there was just nothing physically to show that he in fact did this, and there wasn't any reason for him to do it. >> but, if convicted of murder, nick could face life behind bars. >> i remember looking down in my mind, i was probably asking god for help. i was praying for the right answer. >> as to count one, murder, do you find the defendant not guilty. >> the answer to his prayers, a not guilty verdict on the main charge of murder. >> as to the lesser-included offense of manslaughter in the

first degree, we find the defendant guilty. >> i think i nearly jumped out of my seat. it was almost like a lightning bolt hit me. >> in this case there's more incentive for a prosecutor to request a manslaughter charge. >> and it's because oregon has this quirky law. >> because for murder you need a unanimous verdict. and in oregon for man slaughter, you can have two holdouts. >> we found out it was ten in favor of guilt and two in favor of acquittal. >> if this happened in any other state today, with two jurors unwilling to convict, it would end up in a hung jury. >> nick was sentenced to ten years. >> behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit. little did nick mcguffin know that a guardian angel was about to come to the rescue. >> there's several other organizations that deal with wrongful convictions.

wreath wrote to every one of them. that was probably 2015. and that's when the oregon innocence project finally took his case. >>ly >> i had a really strong sense that nick was innocent because of the evidence i was looking at. it didn't make sense to me. there's no blood, no hairs, no fiber, no dna connecting this crime to nick. >> police told 2020 in 2010 that the shoe that had the blood on it was found right in town on north elm street. >> her shoe was found by the road here with blood on it. >> that night. >> that night. >> that shoe that was found on north elm street had no blood on it, and, instead, there was a shoe that was found ten miles away out in the woods that had bloodstains on it. there were over 20 witnesses who saw nick driving around that night looking for leah. he doesn't have time to commit this crime when you actually

>> well, we had one eyewitness that put him and her together near the metro police. around 9:00. >> we know that can't be true, because we have documentation of another witness who sees leah walk by the atm, and the police officers go out to that atm and pull those records and confirm that that is 9:04:00 p.m. they create an entire theory to convict a man based on evidence that's just wrong. >> then, a shocking discovery. bolstering nick's claim of innocence. >> we were surprised when we looked at the raw data from the original dna testing back in 2000. there was actually dna from an unidentified male found on both of leah's shoes many h, her rig and her left shoe. that was a huge moment for our case. >> back in 2000, that was the infancy of our dna testing.

the analysts at the time chose not to actually call out that potential male dna, because she couldn't decide what it was, because it was at a very, very low level. >> if the jury in 2011 knew that there was dna of an unidentified male on the victim's blood-stained shoe, the jury would have acquitted. there's no doubt in my mind. >> mcguffin's new attorney made the argument that under the law, they were required to turn over this evidence from the lab. and they didn't. and that failure should lead at least to a new trial. >> it's our top story in oregon. a judge ruled that state police did not reveal dna evidence that would have exonerated him. >> after more than eight years, a judge overturns nick mcguffin's conviction. >> just because the judge throws out the conviction does not mean that nick mcguffin is going to be a free man. >> judge sullivan sends that

case right back to the da's office to make a decision. new trial or not? >> we made the decision of, no, don't go forward. >> whoo! >> it was wonderful seeing him, knowing he was free. >> when you do this wrongful conviction work, you live for the moment you get to walk an innocent client out of prison, and we got that moment with nick after it 20 years of fighting to prove his innocence. >> 20 years later and still no one else has been arrested for leah freeman's death. >> i want justice. i want for whoever killed her to pay for it. because they've been walkin' free for years, and it's just wrong. >> stay with us. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis.

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whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa nick mcguffin served nine years for a crime he says he did not commit. then he moved back to his hometown. >> trying to get my life back. i had an idea of what it was going to be like. and i, i was wrong. it's not, it's not easy.

it's actually really hard. i'm an innocent man. i remain an innocent >> that's "nightline" for this evening. thanks for the company, america, goodnight, have a great weekend.