it is a pain that doesn't go away. it eats away at you. it's a living agony. >> he said i don't know what happened, but your sister's gone. >> he kissed his wife good-bye in the morning. in the afternoon, she was dead. this devoted wife and mom. who would want to harm her? a random intruder? >> this was something that bass more intimate. >> turned out the smiling portraits didn't tell the whole story. >> there were a lot of things that were going on in that family that people never saw on the outside. >> what was really happening inside this seemingly ordinary suburban home?

>> the dents asked me if i had had sex with any other woman. >> an unfaithful husband, but was that the motive for murder? police learned this case was far more complicated than that, and this mystery? no so easy to solve. >> she grabbed his throat. i don't think she realized what she was doing. >> he couldn't take it anymore, the entire situation. >> it's just heart breaking. >> tonight, the troubling truth about the family next door. i'm lester holt, and this is dateline behind closed doors. here's dennis murphy. it was a drippy friday morning, the start of memorial day weekend. bernie usually took that day off from work for a welcome seasonal chore, getting the back yard pool cleaned up. the unofficial start of summer at his family's home in michigan. he told his wife it didn't make sense with the wet he. >> i said hon, i'm not going to

open the pool today. it'sing s soggy out there. i remember hugging and kissing her good-bye. >> it was about to be her favorite time of year. summer in the back yard. >> bunch her favorite pastimes was to be by the pool and tanning. >> julia, their little ten year old at school. jeffrey, a college student, was hanging around the house before heading off for his part time job. and that was the start of what should have been a nothing special day for the pine family of highland, michigan. it would turn out to be, of course, nothing of the sort. that rainy friday was the end of everything they'd known. >> picked up julia from school. we went to the back door like we always would. >> the back door was the side

entrance to the garage. >> julia was first in the door. i was behind her. and she dropped her book bag and said dad, mom, dad, mom. and i said which one of us you want? >> julia had opened the unlocked door. behind it was a leg and a hand covered in blood. >> and that's when we found ruth. >> bernie ran to a neighbor's to call 911. when the emergency services people arrived, they found ruth pine, 51 years old, dead in a pool of blood. jeffrey was called home from work. and bernie broke the news. >> i told him that mom had died. of course tears welled up in his eyes. and he said what? no. you know, he was upset. >> how did you find out? >> bernie called me. and he said i don't know what happened, but your sister's

gone. >> susan showerman is ruth's sister. >> and i just thought, oh, my gosh, she committed suicide. >> suicide? to get some understanding why any one would even think ruth would kill herself, we'll have to roll back the years and meet the peens as they were. >> i don't think i've ever met anybody who's so unabashedly devoted to his wife. he says i'm the luckiest man in the world. >> they had been friends with beeny and ruth for many years. >> bernie agree thad she should day home with the children. >> the friends' daughters spent time with bernie and ruth. >> she would sit and watch us. very attentive mother, like she always had to make sure we were okay. >> and ruth welcomed guests to her table. >> we'd have dinners all the time. ruth would always get something cute at like a krath store and put candy in it.

>> she always made a home cooked meal every night, too. they didn't even have a microwave. >> their daughter was a beautiful work in progress. and their firstborn, jeffrey, turned out to be a golden kid, a star athlete and an excellent student, the kind parents brag about on their bumper stickers. >> talented, smart, charismatic. and i think everybody felt that way about jeffrey. >> and ruth was one of his biggest supporters. >> she never missed a basketball game. she was very involved as far as that and parent teacher conferences. she would volunteer to go on field trips. >> but behind closed doors, the family was struggling with a private sorrow. when jeff was young she began losing her grip. a mental illness was taking hold. >> she said i've got a tracking device in my bloodstream. and she really thought she was being monitored.

>> the family tried an intervention. sister susan knew that bernie was overwhelmedment. >> he needed help to convince her that she needed to see a doctor, maybe think about medication. that her thoughts weren't right, that something was wrong. >> their is tough. you're all sitting around, what, in the kitchen? or at a table? >> in her living room. and he just got up and walked away. and she wasn't accepting it. she didn't believe she was ill. >> in 1998, bernie went to court to have his wife hospitalized. ruth stayed there for two weeks, then was released with orders to take her medication. >> ruth never wanted to take the medication. she would take it, and then she would go off of it. >> there were long stretches when she'd take her medications and things would be okay. but sooner or later, ruth would fall off the wagon. >> she would hide the medication under her tongue. bernie would leave for work and she would spit it out. >> by 2009, ruth was spiraling

out of control. she'd been diagnosed as bipolar with psychotic features. bernie had her hospitalized three times over the next year. had to call for help in getting her there. refusing her meds, increasingly manic. ruth even lashed out at her daughter. >> she did not look well and julia reached over to say mom, are you all right? and she actually swatted julia pretty hard on the hand. >> a year later it happened again with her son. it was early one morning. bernie had been pleading with his wife to take her medicine. she was still in bed. >> and she motioned her finger for me to come over there. and i leaned over and she spit in my face. >> he saw that jeffrey's bedroom door was open and called for his son to reason with his mother. >> and that's when she launched out of the bed at him and, you know, grabbed his throat and tried to hit him. >> bernie told jeffrey to call the police. his intent, he says was simply

to get the cops to take her to the hospital. instead, they charged ruth with assault and put her in jail. her only way out was to take her meds. she refused and spent 17 days behind bars before finally being sent to the hospital. but this time, after her release, the cycle appeared to be broken. ruth stayed on her meds. >> our home was actually in the best place that it had been in a long time. ruth was doing re well. >> her sister susan noticed the improvement too. >> she was taking her medication, i noticed in particular because i called her. and she was busy with dinner, and she said i'll call you back. i thought i don't know if she'll call me back. she called me back, and that was big. >> your sister's back. >> well, it was really exciting for me that she was talking to me. >> but just weeks after the sisters talked on may 27th, 2011, came that awful sight.

ruth behind that door. and the pyne family's tragedy was about to take another turn. they determined this was no suicide. ruth had been murdered. >> and when a wife is murdered, well, you know who's usually the first suspect. when we come back. detectives decide that in this case there's a good reason to take a hard look at her husband, bernie. >> live girlfriend, dead wife. not a good set of facts. >> it definitely threw another cast on things.

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when sheriff's deputies entered the garage at the pyne family home, they knew right away they were working a crime scene. the back of ruth pyne's head had been bashed in by multiple blows. there were more than a dozen stab wounds to the neck. it was a case of murder, and a violent one. veteran homicide officers call savagery like this overkill. >> it's something that involves a lot of rage. typically in homicides we don't see injuries to that magnitude. >> the intruder, for instance, the hypothetical intruder. unlikely to inflict that kind of injury to a victim in. >> very unlikely. this was something more intimate. >> there were no signs of forced entry into the home. the house was not ransacked. it was apparent that this was not a robbery type situation

here. >> detectives did find one door in the house unlocked. the side door entry to the garage. ruth was found sprawled there on the floor. the door tight against her wrist. it told detectives whoever the killer was, he didn't leave that way. >> if her hand was laying there, she was freshly killed. the blood on her hand is wet. for that door to have been opened up, someone leave, closed door back and then open the door again. >> it would have been a telltale swipe of fresh blood. >> you would have had swiping of the blood on her hand. >> and yet the front door, the only other way out they thought was bolted shut. could the killer have had a key and locked it after he made his escape? it didn't seem logical if he was an intruder. but of course bernie had a key. was the husband the killer? >> typically in these case the it's someone's that's directly

involved, somebody that's inside. >> so the night of the murder, the dents talked to bernie and his son jeffrey in a routine interview. >> we talked about the mental illness, of course. many of the detectives or many of police officers had been out to the house with medical pickups for ruth. >> but he says he was stunned when detectives revealed to him that his wife's death was a homicide. >> i could not believe one, that ruth was dead, and two, that anyone would harm her. >> then, as the detectives' questioning went on, bernie said something that piqued their interest. >> detectives asked me if i'd had sex with any other woman besides my wife in the last six months. that immediately caused me to be uncomfortable, because i had to answer yes to that question. and i gave them the details. >> live girlfriend, dead wife. not a good set of facts. >> no. it definitely threw another cast

on things, i mean, as far as how the marriage was. >> does bernie become a suspect to you in. >> absolutely. it did not appear that this was committed by a stranger. >> bernie says now that the stress of being ruth's caregiver drove him not only to threaten divorce, but also into the arms of a girlfriend. >> i couldn't take anymore. i couldn't take battling over medication anymore. i couldn't take wondering what she was thinking. whether or not julia was going to be, you know, cared for well or if something was going to happen. >> ruth discovered the affair one night when she and her daughter walked into the same restaurant where bernie was having dinner with his girlfriend. the mistress broke off the affair, and ironically, being caught red-handed that way bernie says now not only saved his marriage but brought ruth around to taking her meds. >> i think ruth maybe realized she had pushed me too far.

and she goes bernie, i will do anything to save my marriage and high family. and i said you will take your medication. and you will let me watch you take it. >> but now his wife was dead. and bernie was giving police an alibi, accounting for his time the afternoon his wife was murdered. >> bernie was at a restaurant with co-workers and friends. bernie had give us times that he had left there and went to pick up his daughter julia like he always did and to the point they arrived home. >> ruth's sister susan didn't believe bernie could possibly be involved. after her initial shock, she began to wonder whether some mental patient from ruth's trips in and out of hospitals over the years had developed an obsession with her. >> ruthie was so beautiful that could i see someone being infatuated with her. and she did give her address and phone number and things out to some people. so it wouldn't have been hard to find her. >> an interesting theory, maybe. but the detectives experience with killings like this told

them to first keep looking at people who knew ruth very well. coming up, police investigate ruth's family and friends. including her son jeffrey. >> everyone liked him. the teachers loved him. parents loved him. every mom's dream kid. >> what did he know about his mother's death? >> mom was not upset or anything today

ruth pyne had been found beaten and stabbed to death in the garage of her home. the detectives had just interviewed her husband bernie, and he knew his son jeffrey was up next. >> i knew that jeffrey didn't do this. my concern was that it didn't look good, simply because ruth's mental illness painted a big target on both of us. >> jeffrey, 21, a biology major

at the university of michigan was the pyne's much admired son. he was once the valedictorian at his small christian academy where he excelled in just about everything. >> everyone liked him. he got along with everybody. the teachers loved him. parents loved him. you know, it's like every mom's dream kid to date their daughter. >> jeffrey was a role model for his friend steven. >> he just was one of those guys that he was intelligent beyond his years, i think. he was a kind of person that i don't know who didn't look up to him. >> as he was interviewed by dents, jeffrey was the polite respectful young man everyone knew him to be. he had an unblemished record. >> our goal is to figure out what happened. >> he told detectives aboutis had dad, that he was home alone until his mother came back from grocery shopping around 11:30. a little later, he recalled she went upstairs to lie down. he left the house, he said about

1:30. >> there was no altercation or your mom was not upset or anything today before you left? >> no. she, she was fine. >> at this point, all jeffrey had been told about his mother was that she was dead, not that she'd been murdered. the son continued his account of the afternoon, heading out for the first of two part time jobs. >> your mom was upstairs in bed when you left? >> yes, i told her i was going to the lady's house. >> the lady's house was mrs. needham, a former teacher jeffrey did yard work and chores for. >> what all did you do over there today. >> i went over there, transplanted her lilacs and -- >> how many did you transplant? do you know? >> five. >> and after he left mrs. needham's, he said he went to his second job at spicer orchards. he clocked in there about 3:00. as they were speaking the detectives noticed jeffrey's hands were bandaged. he creped his hands' orchard, he

said when he tried to pick up a wooden pallet. the detectives took pictures of his injuries and asked jeffrey to explain in detail how he got them. >> i picked it up like this and used my foot to give it a boost. and my hand got caught in there. got just kind of stuck and i shoved it back on there. and it stung really bad. >> did it pull the skin off of your hand? >> yeah. it tore it up. >> the whole time i'm thinking that there's just no way that's possible. >> the dents were now just as interested in the son with the raw blistered hands as they were with the father who'd admitted to an affair, and they became even more interested as they watched jeffrey's reaction to the disclosure of the brutal truth about his mother. >> your mom was murdered. someone killed your mom.

so if there's anything else that you know about that you've been holding back that you're afraid to tell us, now's the time. okay? >> i don't know what to tell you. i don't know of anyone who would want to hurt her. >> jeffrey claimed to know nothing about his mother's death. but oddly, they thought he never did ask the dents just what had happened to his mother. >> he never asked us one question at all about his mother, during the entire interview. what person wouldn't ask something, anything, if you had just been told a loved one was killed? unless you knew the answers. >> the dents then moved on to talk about his mother's arrest for assaulting jeffrey the year before. >> she came at me. he launched out of the bed and grabbed me by the throat and started hitting me and stuff.

but i mean, she didn't hurt me or anything. >> was she upset with you because she ended up in jail for the amount of time that she was there? >> no, i don't have a problem with my mom. never had a rob with her. all i, the only issue i had was i wanted her to take medicine. and she, nature of the illness, she didn't want to take it. >> then jeffrey said in recent months things were getting better. >> she would come and show him, i've taken my pills every night. >> the questions continued for over an hour until the detectives asked the inevitable provocative one. >> did you do anything at all today to hurt your mom? >> no. no. >> in any way, shape or form? >> nothing. >> did you have any arguments with your mom today. >> no. >> do you know who would?

>> no, i have no idea. i can't even -- >> somebody did. >> i'm having a hard enough time --. >> so father and son stories were now on the record. each had given reasons why the dents should keep looking at both. coming up, with no witnesses and no weapons, investigators cast a wide net in the search for a killer. >> we're lacking at any suspect information such as this mysterious person who had been seen cutting through a neighborhood to the landscaping crew, to the former workman. your smile. ] like other precious things that start off white, it yellows over time. fact is, when it comes to your smile, if you're not whitening, you're yellowing. crest 3d white whitestrips go below the enamel surface to whiten as well as $500 professional treatments, at a fraction of the cost. guaranteed, or your money back.

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in the days and weeks following the murder of ruth pyne, detectives say they scoured the area for both suspects and a ditched weapon.

>> we canvassed the neighborhood, even as far as to drain the pool out, looking for a possible weapon. we'd searched the yard. we had officers talking to neighbors. >> the sheriff's tip line was ringing. >> we're looking for any suspect information that we get from any source. from the mysterious person seen slipping through the neighborhood, to the landscaping crew to the former workman. we were able to clear those things. >> so they put together what they had, a family dealing with mental illness, a mother bludgioned to death, a spouse who who been unfaithful, a son with injuries to his hands. and something else they noticed about jeffrey, the tareful quivering voice, the head to the hands. it all came across as an act. >> at no time, even when we tell

him your mother has been murdered, there are no tears. there's no watery eyes. there's no what appeared to us real emotion. i mean, faked emotion. trying to pretend, but nothing that appeared to be real. >> so jeffrey, the beloved friend, the goodson, had become a suspect in his mother's murder. >> i just think it's impossible. >> jeffrey had lived with his aunt susan, ruth's sister for several weeks after his mother's murder. >> i did try to pull information from him by just saying i know you had difficult times. his reaction was what i would think was normal. i don't feel jeff did this crime. >> jeffrey never raised his voice at his mom, ever. certainly never raised his hand, but never showed any anger towards ruth whatsoever. he just loved her. i can till right now, i'm a better suspect than jeffrey could ever be. >> what are you finding out about bernie?

>> we took a strong look at bernie. we were able to clear bernie through his alibi. >> as we put our case together, more and more things are focusing on jeff and less and less is focusing any where else but jeff. >> so five months after ruth pyne's death, her 21 year old son was indicted on a first degree murder charge. jeffrey pyne pleaded not guilty and last november stood trial. the one time valedictorian faced a life sentence if convicted. >> and he hit her again. and again. and again. and again, and again and again and again. >> the prosecutor opened by outlining the state's theory. >> this was an angry, angry killing. it was the result of year ts an years and years of things that had built up living with a difficult person who was bipolar. >> to support that theory that jeffery snapped, a string of witnesses described what they'd been told jeffrey had had to

endure over the years. >> he told me one night that his mother tried to kill his little sister. >> she spit in his face. jeffrey stated he told his mom, mom, you need to take your medication. >> jeffrey's ex-girlfriend, holly freeman gave the jury just a closer look at how eccentric and dangerous his mother's behavior had become. >> she had been storing knives in the headboard of her bed. >> jeffrey, she said, wanted to move out but didn't have the money. and he was also concerned about leaving his little sister with a mother who had been violent with both of them. >> he felt bad leaving julia there, and he was worried for her. >> and she also testified jeffrey told her, if his father didn't get a divorce by summer, he would timely do it, move out on his own. >> he couldn't take it anymore. just the entire situation was weighing too much on him. >> but there was little physical evidence to support the prosecution's theory. no murder weapon was ever found.

and there was no blood in jeffrey's car. no blood any where on him. the best the prosecution had was just a single drop of ruth pyne's blood on a handle in the laundry room sink. >> that would be the place to wash up. >> plenty of time to clean up. plenty time to bag up whatever he had to do and get out of there. >> prosecutors theorized he washed his hands in the laundry room sink and showered upstairs secure in the family timetable that day. >> he knew julia was at home and his dad was at work and what time he would return home with julia from school. >> next prosecutor the attacked his alibi. he claimed he was planting lilac bushes. but she testified that jeffrey had done that gardening, but four days earlier than he told police. >> nose bushes were there on monday the 23rd. and you mulched them on may the

24th. >> yes. >> was he supposed to transplant lilac bushes any where else? >> no. >> and the prosecution pointed to the long voice mail message jeffrey left mrs. needham that day. >> kind of checking things out, i still got some priming and stuff to do, but i just stopped over there for a little bit before i had to go to spicers. >> in listening to the voice mail, it appears to be just a rambling message. almost as if a way to start an alibi. >> prosecutors believed rather than transplanting high lacks jeffrey was actually using that time to conceal the murder weapon and bloody clothing. then he showed up for his job at the orchard. and that's where prosecutors asserted he made up another story, a lie about how he got raw broken blisters on both his hands. >> this was from work today. i was flipping over a pallet.

and as i was flipping it over, my hand got caught in there. >> the medical examiner testified highly unlikely. >> i can't envision the capability of inserting the hands in those slats in the way to create these injuries. >> and when the police lab tested the very pallet, no skin or dna from jeffrey was found. so how did jeffrey tear up his hands? >> is it possible that those blisters could be created by the number of blows that were applied to mrs. pyne's body with a rectangular object? >> yes. >> and about a week after the mur did he, the young man's father, bernie said he'd noticed a scrap piece of two by four missing from the garage. >> so you believe a two by four was the bludgeoning weapon here? >> we believe so. >> but without rock solid evidence, jeffrey's behavior became part of the prosecution's circumstantial case. that perceived false show of

grief detectives saw when they questioned jeffrey the night his mother was killed, the arriving emts that afternoon agreed. they testified to witnessing some bad acting. >> what was he doing? >> making crying sounds, distraught crying sounds. i noticed there was no tears. >> but in fairness people react in different ways to very emotional scenes. >> sure, but when you just find out that your mother is dead and you go out there, and you, the people that are standing around appear to be faking what you're doing, that's important to us. >> finally, the prosecution argued it came down to character. and they used holly, the ex-girlfriend, to tell the jury about the time that jeffrey had cheated on her and lied about it. >> he lied so effortlessly, to me, to my family, to my friends. he had a whole erab rat story to cover his tracks.

>> they're young kids. >> yes. >> and you cheated on me with another guy, that sounds like teenage stuff. >> yes. >> but why would you put weight on that? >> once she saw that side she'd never seen of him before she became very suspicious of him. >> after 11 days of testimony, the prosecution rested. the defense was up next. and the lawyer for the accused son elected to take a path less traveled. very gutsy. very risky. coming up, jeffrey's lawyer tries a high stakes gamble. >> the prosecutor's case was running out of gas. that was the mentality. ♪ ♪

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jeffrey's attorney argued that the case against his client wasn't based on any hard evidence but was simply a grab bag of prosecute's hunches. >> we reject any notion that jeffrey pyne is responsible for the death of his mother. somebody else committed this crime. >> there was no proof in this case, no direct evidence. and the circumstantial evidence had too many holes in it. >> it all began, the lawyer said, with a slipshod

investigation. why, for instance, weren't ruth's clothes sent to the lab for testing? >> wouldn't you start by sending the clothing that the victim was wearing? that's where hairs, any other type of dna's going to be. >> as for the prosecution's theory that jeffrey showered in the upstairs bathroom, who knows? no evidence was taken. >> did you take the faucets from that tub? >> no, sir. >> take the drain trap from that tub. >> no, sir. >> do any test on the faucet or the drain trap in. >> no, sir. >> and in cross examination, the defense got the technician to concede that a trace of ruth's blood on the sink didn't really explain much. >> it's not evidence that jeffrey or anybody else cleaned up in that house. >> another defense point, that same tact was so inept that he used bernie's own tools to

remove the trap. >> is that common for you to use the homeowner's tools? >> no, sir. >> why did you do it that day? >> my toolbox was missing when we went to get the tools. >> so you have your own toolbox? >> yes. >> csi bungled that case. they could contaminate the scene. >> it was all the defense argued, simply a rush to judgment. but what about jeffrey's interview with the detectives? >> he answers all of their questions. and every single answer he provides checks out. >> in fact, it didn't check out. the story about the lilac bushes collapses. >> well, if you believe her. >> mrs. needham adamant that no, he didn't plant those lilac bushes. the lawyer went off her. >> and you're certain your memory is infallible? >> that i definitely remember.

>> you remember everything? >> oh, no. >> do you have any difficulties with your memory? >> i tend to forget things and remember other things. >> in order to believe her you've got to put aside the fact that she remembers some things and forgets other things. >> the defense lawyer also disagreed with the medical cher's opinion that the young man's explanation for shredding his hands on the wooden pallet was highly unlikely. >> nobody can prove that you can't sheer off the skin from a pallet to me. >> also couldn't find any traces of blood or skin on it. >> nothing was found on it, but that doesn't mean that jeffrey's story doesn't pan out. >> and then there was this theme running through the trial, the perception that jeffrey was faking his grief. >> to show that he didn't show enough emotion is not evidence of a crime, certainly not proof that he killed his mother.

>> was jeffrey even a fundamentally honest person? his former girlfriend holly had testified no. >> the kid lies. >> because jeffrey lied about a relationship sometime prior. he killed his mother. the two just don't equate. holly has been jilted. hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. >> the defense believes his cross examination of holly revealed jeffrey was a young man without a violence streak. >> did you ever see him hit snib? >> no. >> he even kept his cool they argued, the time his mother tried to choke him. >> he did not retaliate. he didn't hit her back or anything like that. >> and even holly, now no longer a friend to jeffrey testified that the only thing he ever wanted was for his mom to get better. >> it seems that's the most important thing to jeffrey, is that right? >> for her to take her medication, yes. >> they rejected out of hand the prosecution's big theory, that

jeffrey simply reached his boiling point over his mother's mental illness and snapped that day in the garage. >> jeffrey could have gone and done his own thing at any given time. when ruth took her meds, it was one happy family. there was no reason for him to do this. >> when it came time to call his ownance withes, though, the defense lawyer made a risky calculation. >> you know, at this point, the defense rested. >> he rested his case without calling anyone to counter the prosecution's version of events. not so much as a character witness to speak well of his client. >> we got all of the character evidence from the witnesses the state called in. >> but very often in these cases you have a counter scientific expert, an alter nat medical examiner's report. >> no. we had experts lined up to do that, but the prosecution was running out of gas. that was the mentality. >> a smart, quiet young man

misread? or a son who is finally at the end of all patience? it would be up to the jury to decide. coming up. >> i didn't know what to think. >> the agonizing wait for a verdict. one day, then two. >> you always wonder the longer they're out, is it the worst for

and it just happens to be the defendant's house. >> render the only verdict this case requires, a verdict of not guilty. thank you. >> as the trial came to an end, jeffrey pyne's family hoped and even believed that he would be home for christmas. >> i thought that we had a real good chance. i thought that the jury would come back with a not guilty verdict. >> jeffrey's aunt susan remained certain he was innocent. what's more, she says, there was just no evidence to convict him. >> i cannot see him doing that and coming away with no evidence. it should have been somewhere. it should have been on him

somewhere. >> the blood. >> something. is he that good? i mean, really. >> as jurors retired to deliberate, they faced three choices, guilty of first degree murder, which meant a life sentence, guilty of second degree murder which could mean 13 and a half years or less or not guilty. >> waiting for that verdict was tough. i didn't know what to think. >> day one, no verdict. then a second day. >> you always wonder if the longer they're out, is it the worst for the prosecution. >> the jury is rea-- finally one third day a verdict. >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of second degree murder. >> i went over to bernie, and i hugged him and apologized that i didn't get the job done. >> a very good close u for us, but at the same point, also sad. >> there's a dead woman here. and there's a family that's

destroyed. >> outside in the hallway, jeffrey's father was numb. >> i wasn't there to protect my wife when i needed to be. and i wasn't able to get my son, first of all, i believe in my son's innocence. and i wasn't able to get him home for his sister for christmas. >> julia broke. and she said no, dad, no. and she said that over and over again. the pain that she felt was like nothing she's, i think that was harder on her than losing her mom. >> bernie's friends carol and john, were stunned. she criticized the defense for not calling witnesses. she believed it might have swayed the jury. >> the prosecution did a great job of building this case about this poor abused child. that wasn't his whole life. that was a small part of his

life, really. >> there were good times and there were bad. and you could say that about any household. >> i don't understand why his attorney did not put people on the stand to testify about the pyne household. >> i have a statement i'd like to read, urn. >> weeks later on sentencing day, jeffrey pyne spoke up for the first time. >> i continue and will always maintain my innocence in this crime. i hope and have faith that one day the truth will be made known, andly be acquitted. >> can and he asks for leniency. >> i do ask you for compassion in my sentencing. in doing so, considering that i have no previous criminal record, no history of violence, that i was a productive member of society. >> family members added their pleas for compassion. >> i am ruth pyne's sister. >> believing in jeffrey's inch sense. >> i brief that this case was

not proved beyond a reasonable doubt. >> jeffrey so stoic throughout the trial began to quiver and broke down when his father read a letter from his little sister julia. >> my name is julia pyne. i am 12 years old. and i am a vak tim of this crime. i miss my mom ruth very much. my brother jeffrey and i are very close. and i miss him very much as well. he is a great big brother, and i ask you to send him home very soon. to me and my dad, because we love him very much. >> the judge wasn't swayed. >> i believe that until jeffrey acknowledges his role in this crime and finds a way to deal with the anger and rage that caused him to do such a horrible act, it is not safe for him to be free. >> he sentenced jeffrey to 20 to

60 years in prison. >> this is beyond surreal. i know jeffrey didn't harm his mother. and yet, he sits in prison for a crime he didn't commit. >> bernie pyne will proclaim his son's incense until the day he dies. he's pinning his hopes on a new trial. >> on a daily basis i think about all aspects of this and it just doesn't make sense. i mourn not only for my wife but my son. it is a pain that doesn't go away. it's a living agony. >> jeffrey once told his teacher he wanted to study medicine to find a cure for his mother. he told others he'd trade places with her if he could. now jeffrey pyne, the one time valedictorian will spend at least 20 years behind bars for ending her life. that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

this sunday, national security versus freedom of the press. the tension and the political fallout as the attorney general appears to backtrack. republicans have their sights set on attorney general eric holder. did he level with congress about whether he sought to criminalize the work of journalists? >> with regard to the potential prosecution of the press for disclosure of material, that is not something that i've been involved in, heard of, or would think would be a wise policy. >> holder reportedly regrets the treatment of the press in recent leak investigations and tries to reach out. has it worked? how should the administration balance the protection of secrets and the free flow of information. we'll ask the chairman of the house intelligence committee, michigan congressman mike rogers, about that. and the expected nomination of former bush administration official jim coemy as director

of the fbi. also, the president back to business and tries to shake off scandal. will the irs investigations undermine work on job creation and immigration reform? with us democratic senator from new york, chuck schumer. later, our political round table. what michele bachmann's exit means for the tea party. does the president have an economic plan for the second term? and a discussion of the new study this week that shows more and more women are the primary breadwinners in american families. good sunday morning. news this weekend foreshadowing another bad week ahead for the irs. as an inspector general report is expected to reveal lavish and wasteful spending at irs conferences around the country. we want to start with another political distraction for the obama administration.

the attorney general eric holder under fire for investigationing leaks to the news media. he pledged to reassess some of the justice department guidelines. he has now also become a political target for republicans. joining me now, former senior add va sviser to the obama re-en campaign, david axelrod. republican congresswoman from tennessee, marshablackburn. jonathan alter, republican strategist ana navarro and tom friedman. i want to get everybody's impressions of the attorney general under fire. david axelrod, my question is, is this a holder problem or is it a president obama problem at this juncture? >> i think, look, the sport, the sie civic sport of washington, d.c., is -- there's a serious public policy issue underneath all of this that i think we have to