have loved tammy. she's full of life, full of energy. and i turn on the news and saw that there was a double murder. i was shocked. what else would he get away with? >> friday the 13th, a quiet afternoon, an ominous call. >> i shot him. i think i killed him! >> chilling, so brutal in this peaceful place with a friendly couple next door. >> it was unbelievable. it's still unbelievable. >> they said it was a robbery gone wrong. that was just the beginning. >> things just didn't add up. >> it was one lie after another. >> a husband, a wife, and their friend. but it was not what you think.

in this case, nothing was. not the marriage and not the murders. >> it just kept getting more red plagues coming up. >> a double life, a cold and devious plan. >> that was somebody who was nervously awaiting his fall guy. >> what happened that day? >> i called the sheriff's department. >> what did you say? >> i said he did it. >> life seemed to move just a little slower in south carolina. afternoons in columbia can be spent on the meandering river, or nearby lake murray. and tucked away inside this capital city is ascot estates where old southern charm minkles with new money. not much in the way of drama here, until april 2012, friday the 13th, when something sinister happened. >> i immediately turned on the news and saw that there was a double murder. >> you're totally confused

because there is no way of knowing for sure what's going on. >> it was my husband who called me and said something terrible had happened. and i said, what happened? >> what happened would become the center of a mystery, a who done it that began with the frantic 911 call. >> who shot your wife? >> a friend of mine, bryan. >> is he still there? >> the call came from a most unusual place, the gracious home of well-liked husband and wife, brett and tammy parker. the parkers were a golden couple. each with their own special gift. tammy was raised in a small town near columbia but left to go into sales where she was immediately successful. best friend, angela leon. >> i think it's hard not to have loved tammy. she's vibrant and out going and full of life, full of energy, always positive.

>> did she -- tammy was the kind of person that she didn't even if she was turning heads. >> during one of tammy's sales calls 15 years ago she met business columbia man. >> she could sell anything? >> she could sell everything. it was just her person amount. everyone liked her. >> and tammy had something else that set her apart, talent. ♪ >> i can't exactly remember the first time i heard her sing but i was amazed, amazed at how great she was. ♪ >> tammy sang with a local band, jump-start. woody was lead guitarist and one of her big gest fans. >> a voice like that is a gift from above. >> friends taught she could take her talent big time but tammy seemed happy to remain in columbia.

one of her gigs was at her friend's ben staple's annual barbecue. >> was this tammy's stage? >> tammy enjoyed this. tammy was an entertainer. >> along the way in 1996 tammy met and married a local boy, brett parker, a medical suppoly salesman. he had been a star athlete in high school. his aunt, sandra hunter, said he was always throwing some kind of ball. >> he played football and softball and baseball and he was an all-american kid. >> an injured sidelined any thoughts of career in professional sports to brett took up amateur softball. that's when he met one of his closes friends, howdy bare. >> no doubt brett was one of the best softball players i had ever played with. >> when tammy came into the picture bare new brett had found his match. >> tammy was just precious. i'll never forget that but i knew they were going to get married. it was just a matter of time. >> howdy and his wife tagged

along with brett to tammy's singing gigs and saw a lucky man in love. >> they were fun to be around. no doubt in my mind he loved her. >> both tammy's friends and brett's family agreed. the couple just clicked. >> did they seem like a good fit for each other? >> they seemed to do well together. they seemed to have some of the same, you know, dreams and ambitions. >> did you like tammy? >> oh, i loved her. >> they had two children born eight years apart. and in the spring of 2012, the family in upscale ascot estates appeared to be living a charmed existence. then came the afternoon of april 13th and that call to 911. it was brett parker. >> get somebody over here. >> okay. i need you to stay on the phone with me, okay? >> tammy was dead, and there was more. someone else lay dead in that house. it was a double murder, a cold-blood eed crime. it would look more chilling with each new detail.

coming up, whose was the other body found inside that house? police learned it was someone brett and tammy knew well. >> one of the first questions i asked him what was his relationship with this man. she said, can i talk to you in private. >> when "mist indust ce. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w... ...e...i...e...i...o. [buzzer] dangnabbit. geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know.

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suddenly become the scene of a deadly crime. >> please get somebody over here. >> okay. i need you to stay on the phone with me, okay? >> home security video shows brett parker calling 911 outside his house, collapsing on the ground as he describes what happened. a violent robbery that left his wife dead. >> listen to me. i understand you are very upset. but is your wife, is she breathing? >> no. >> and there was more to the story. brett had killed the perpetrator in self-defense. >> i shot him. i think i killed him. >> veteran investigator stan smith headed to the scene. >> what was your first interaction with brett parker? >> well, she was heavy breathing. at one point in time he lays down on his back, as if he's suffering, almost in pain. >> inside stan smith walked into

a gruesome scene. the body of brett's wife tammy was in a bathroom. and lying nearby was a man named bryan capenrhurst found not far from a safe where brett kept his money. >> it appears she was seated at the desk in this office area and the shooter shot her from the back. half of her was in the other side of the bathroom and the legs in the office area. so she defendant anily tried to flee. as far as bryan capnerhurst, he was on the right side, shot multiple times, in the face, in the chest, in the arm, in the foot. >> investigators consid s were when he told help the man he shot was a family friend and frequent visitor to the house. in fact, brett said he was in the bathroom when bryan arrived for a meeting and he told him to just go upstairs and wait.

suddenly, brett heard shots. >> he ran upstairs and was at the top of the stairs and bryan was holding a gun on him and ordered him to a safe which was in an out cove area in the attic. he saw his wife's legs and surmising that she was shot. he was taken to this outcove area and on the way he realized or recalled he had a gun hidden on the safe there in that area. and he said he made a decision as he knelt at gun point to grab the gun and try to get to capnerhurst before he shot him basically. >> so he turned around and caught bryan off guard? >> the way hex pland it. >> by shooting him. >> yes. he ran and checked on his wife and realized that she was dead or dig and then he went and called 911. >> police recovered two guns in the scene. brett's revolver, the gun he kept on his safe and used to shoot bryan and in bryan's hand police found a .9 millimeter pistol used to kill tammy.

near bryan's body was open gym bag and ammo with an open magazine clip clearly visible on top. to investigators it looked like brett parker had fought for his life, shot a man in self-defense, and had just lost his beautiful wife. the big question was why, why would such a good friend turn on them? >> one of the first questions i asked him was, what was his relationship with this man me said, you know, can i talk to you in private. that's when he told me he was horse betting. >> brett worked a day job as a full-time medical salesman but on the side he had been a sports bookie for years. >> did it concern you or -- >> every small town has a bookie. that's something that i don't even think about. >> and brett was not the sopranos break your leg style bookie. >> was brett a gentle bookie? >> oh, very, very. everybody says that he delivered his machine kno

money. brett was a good bookie. >> brett also told investigators that bryan capnerhurst was in the bookie business, too. as a matter of fact, he worked for brett. bryan was also an unlikely bookie. a former high school athlete, he was a family man who worked for a county recreation commission and coached kid sports teams. tammy had spoken kindly of him. >> i think she thought he was a nice guy. i mean, she must have thought a lot because he was in her home with her children around. and tammy was very protective of her children. >> and i think he trusted her? >> right, right, exactly. tammy had always looked out for him, you know, getting an extra lunch for him, taking care of him. >> but investigators found out there had been a problem in that bookie business. and it all boiled down to money. brett owed bryan a good chunk of the profits, $20,000, and he had been slow to pay up. >> bryan was going to go over there basically and tell brett, look, i've had enough excuses. i want my money.

>> smith learned that bryan capnerhurst had money problems so it looked like he went to the parkers to demand money owed and take whatever else was in the safe. tammy had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> what do you miss most about tammy? >> her laugh. just her being. she would always call. she always made sure we had our girls nights out. we haven't done that since she was killed. >> it was all so sad. the parkers with their children, 5 and 13, had just returned from a family cruise, tanned and smiling. a relative on that cruise told brett's aunt, sandra hunter, it had been a wonderful trip. 12k3w4r. >> she said that that was the happiest that she had seen brett and tammy. >> and now brett's friend saw a man in pain after losing his wife. >> he would just break down crying and he would cry all the time. >> as for shooting bryan, howdy believed his friend did what he

had to do. >> he didn't have no choice. it was either, you know, him or bryan. that's the way he told us over and over, you know? >> to those grieving for tammy it seemed that t at least there had been some terrible justice for bryan. >> people that loved tammy so much, you know, you couldn't help but feel that he made -- maybe people thought that he got what he deserved. >> investigators told reporters the tragic deaths were the result of a robbery gone bad. it seemed like a cut and dried case. but things aren't always what they seem. coming up, secrets and lies. investigators ask brett if he was unfaithful to tammy. >> a series of text messages with a young lady and they were definitely of a sexual nature.

police had announced the double murder in gracious ascot estates was a robbery gone very wrong. the unlikely intruder, the parkers' family friend, bryan capnerhurst. brett parker told the investigators his friend bryan had shot his friend tammy in a botched robbery attempt. and then brett, in fear for his own life, killed his friend. it looked like self-defense. but sheriff leon lot knew they couldn't close the case without thoroughly checking out brett's story. >> it was three people there, two of them are dead. so we have to rely on him to explain to us what happened. we were listening to everything he was saying. we would go back and check it. >> investigators went over brett's account. starting with the moment bryan entered the house. before long something unusual came to their attention.

brett told police he was sitting on the downstairs toilet when he heard the shots rang out but one of the female crime scene investigators noticed this, the toilet seat was up. >> lieutenant is a female and she made mention of that, that particularly bothered her. >> of course it takes a woman to notice that. >> right. >> as they poured over crime scene photos another small but important detail jumped out. bryan's gym bag with ammunition and an empty magazine clip visible. >> those items were found on top of the clothing of the items in the bag. >> unusual because of what they noticed on the home security video that captured bryan arriving at the house. >> if you looked at the videos, the way bryan nonchalantly threw that bag over his shoulder you feel like those items would have gone to the lowest point of the end of the bag. it was almost as that firp placed there. >> there was more that didn't seem to quite add up. investigators took a hard look at the timeline of the crime as

brett described it. that home security video showed bryan arriving at brett's home at 12:31 p.m. brett called 911 to report having shot bryan at 12:42. >> what happened? who shot your wife? >> a friend of mine, bryan. >> police believe the confrontation should have only taken a couple of minutes. so why, they wondered, had brett taken nine more minutes to call 911? police were also curious why, with his wife shot inside, brett had come outside to make that call. >> if it were me i would have been inside with my wife, you know, holding my wife, trying to minister cpr and first aid to my wife. he didn't appear to have any blood on him at all. >> yeah, was that strange that he didn't have blood on him? >> it was. >> investigators picked through every detail in brett's account and found that while he had been up front about his illegal bookie business, he wasn't up front about everything. >> when we covered certain things with brett like had he

been involved in any adulterous affairs he told us no. he had a series of text messages with a young lady sexual in nature, indicative of an affair. >> they started looking at evidence versus what he had said. over a period of time it just kept getting more red flags come up. >> tammy's best friend angela lon didn't know anything about the investigation but she had a gut feeling something wasn't right. she called up the sheriff's department to say she thought brett was lying. >> i reached out to them and wanted to make sure that they knew that there were people who had a different side of the story. >> brett continued to insist it was self-defense. within a week of the shooting he had gotten a lawyer. >> the sheriff had told us he thought it was a little odd that brett retained a defense attorney so quickly when he was saying he was the victim. >> anybody in a situation like that, that doesn't retain an

attorney immediately needs psychiatric help. >> his attorney said brett was no killer, he was just defending himself after bryan showed up to steal his money. >> capnerhurst went over there specifically to rob the people. tammy was there. he shot her first. we assumed he was going to shoot brett and brett got the drop on him instead. >> what motive could he have to shoot her? >> motive he would have to shoot her was getting the money out of the safe and have no witnesses. >> why carry out a burglary when you know the wife is home? >> your guess is as good as mine. >> i think some people just find that hard to believe. >> sure they do. people find hard to believe that airplanes fly, but it happens. >> brett parker met directly with sheriff leon lott. he even invited the sheriff to the house to show him the crime scene. >> he wanted to walk me through the house, to demonstrate what had happened. and after that meeting we sat at his kitchen table and at that point was the first time i told

him i just didn't believe him. >> the sheriff was now convinced that brett was no victim. he was the mastermind of a cruel and highly unusual plot to kill his wife and frame a friend. >> he had gotten away with this gambling for so many years, what else was he going to get away with? >> three months after the murders, there was startling news. >> the richland county sheriff's department says parker is lying. >> brett parker was charged with two murders. >> why do you think it took so long? >> because they didn't have a case, is what i thought. >> as the case headed to trial there were no witnesses, no video of the crime, and little forensic evidence pointing to either brett or bryan as the real killer. >> it was a high-profile case. two killings in a small town. they wanted to make the most of it. coming up, the trial opens with a bombshell, not about him but about her.

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in august of 2012 columbia, south carolina, was reeling from the news that brett parker, the

only survivor of a tragedy which left two people dead, had himself been charged as the cold-blooded killer who master mined the whole plan. brett's family and friends believed he was a man wrongly accused. >> he wanted us to know that he was innocent, you know. every time, he said, i am not -- i did not do it. >> even tammy's close friend, former band mate, woody woodward had a hard time believing brett was guilty. >> you had no reason to doubt brett at some point? >> i believed him. thigh actually called me and wanted me to be a character witness and i told him i would be glad to because i did not see him doing this. >> when the trial began in may, it was a courtroom divided. on one side, brett's family and friends, including his and tammy's teenage daughter. on the other side, friends and family of tammy and bryan sat together. they wore blue, tammy's favorite color, as a show of unity

against the man they believed murdered both victims. >> they were shots fired in the home. >> in her opening statement the prosecutor minced no words, brett parker had committed a terrible crime and then elaborately covered it up. >> had you listened to the details of this case, you would be firmly convinced that it was brett parker who not only had the motive but actually did kill tammy parker and then bryan capnerhurst. >> prosecutors wanted the jury to know that the parker marriage wasn't what it seemed. brett had strayed. once with an out of town woman and several times with a local bank teller. lindsay mull ens testified that they met, they texted, and that he shared some confidences with their marriage. >> he said that he slept upstairs and she slept down. >> but the parkers had more

problems than just brett's affairs. they called ben staples to the stand, a parker family friend. >> how did tammy feel about the marriage? >> as the years went by she was unhappy. we had conversations regarding religions. brett did not believe in god, going to church. that was important to her. >> then ben revealed another bit of evidence about the parkers' shaky marriage, this one a bombshell. >> did your relationship become more intimate? >> yes. >> and approximately how many years ago was that? >> about three years ago. >> and did that end? >> it did. it did not end our friendship. we remained best friends until her murder. >> the public admission of the affair was a total shock, even to those closest to tammy. >> how this was a secret she kept from her girlfriends? >> she did. we always felt that ben probably loved tammy because how could you not love tammy. we didn't know ben that well so we didn't think that that had

happened. >> an old friend and fellow bookie testified that four months before the murders, brett was talking about a separation. >> my advice to him, if he wanted it, was that being that it was coming up on the holidays, for him to try to go home and work it out with aly and at least get through the holidays for the kids' sake and after the first of year for them to try to get back together. if separating was an option then, so be it. >> a bad marriage is one thing, murder is another. so prosecutors turned to a different motive, money. unbeknownst to tammy, brett was in deep debt. he had made the biggest mistake a bookie can make, he gambled himself. and brett wasn't too good at it. gunter told an investigator brett owed him big money. >> i just told him about the brett and i had individually, his own account. the $100,000, $101,000. >> this was not the first time brett's gambling had been a serious issues.

>> it had nearly caused a divorce. his father bailed him out. $100,000. >> the estate tried to convince the jury that killing tammy had been brett's way out of of is a a. shaky marriage and his gambling debt. tammy had taken out a life insurance policy. >> $868,000 was the ultimate amount. >> who was the beneficiary on that? >> brett. >> tammy also had close to $200,000 in a 401(k). combine with the insurance, nearly $1.1 million all left to brett. >> what kind of man sets up his friend to take the fall for murdering his wife and then he murders the friend and leaves him with the legacy of that he murdered somebody. >> he wanted to perpetuate this lifetime. he wanted to continue to gamble. he wanted to enjoy the girlfriends. tammy was the hindrance to him. he felt like this was his way out. >> in court the ugly accusations seemed to get to brett as the medical examiner testified about tammy's fatal injuries.

brett felt ill and was rushed to the hospital. brett was back, however, the next day to hear the prosecution present evidence it said proved he planned the murders, framed his friend, and then covered it up. here's how they said he did it. >> first, he shot and killed his wife in that upstairs office. then at 12:25 p.m. brett's own home security camera catches someone peering through the blinds. prosecutors believe it was brett waiting for bryan to arrive for a meeting brett himself had arranged. gunshot residue was found on those blinds, proof, the state said, that brett had already fired a gun before bryan even arrived. >> at 12:25, who is that peeking out of the blinds. i mean, that was somebody, in our opinion, who had just done this heinous thing and was nervously awaiting his fall guy to show up. >> after killing bryan, his fall guy, prosecutors said brett staged the crime scene and

planted that gym bag and ammunition. >> i guess the idea was that was supposed to be some kind of murder bag. >> and place the gun he had used to kill his wife in bryan's hand. there's no way bryan brought that gun to brett's house, a friend testified. >> did you know whether bryan had a gun? >> not -- no, but heck no, he did not have a gun. bryan was scared of guns. there is is is no way on this eartha bryan capnerhurst had a pistol, none, zero. it did not happen. >> and there was something else. >> that gunshot to the forearm -- >> bryan capnerhurst had suffered a major gunshot wound to his arm but he was still clutching the gun as he lay dead on the floor. the medical examiner testified it's unlikely the gun would have stayed in his hand. >> in my medical opinion, based on the shot to the arm -- to the forearm and falling over, i believe that the gun fell out of

his hand. >> the gun had been placed in his hand. >> the prosecution had made its case. now it was time for the defense to fight back. >> they had no proof whatsoever that he shot his wife. it was completely circumstantial. >> the defense was about to tell the jury that bryan capnerhurst, not brett parker, was the real villain. coming up, brett's team produces a powerful witness to back up his story, his teenage daughter. >> i witnessed them -- i remember. ♪ i'm your venus

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so you turned me into a cartoon...lovely. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. brett parker had declared a resounding not guilty to the murder of his wife tammy and friend bryan capnerhurst. from the day it happened to this moment in court, he insisted that he was the innocent victim of a robbery gone bad. >> and who shot your wife? >> a friend of mine, bryan. >> is he still there? >> i shot him. i think i killed him. >> defense attorney said the accusation that brett plotted to kill his wife and then framed his friend was too far fetched to believe. >> i think brett is a fine young man. he's not a genius.

it would have taken an einstein to set this thing up. >> would it take a genius, though, to concoct a plan like that. >> i think i'm fairly bright and i be damned if i would have thought it up. >> in court, brett parker's attorney said bryan capnerhurst was a desperate man with far more motive for murder. >> a man that was at the end of his rope who had a desire for money and a plan for violence, and the evidence in this case is going to prove it. >> still, the defense thought it had an uphill battle. he knew it didn't help his case that his client was an unfaithful husband and gambler. >> it showed he was a bad man because he gambled, he had an affair, they said that was another thing that showed he was a murderer. it was just ludicrous. >> from the start, they wanted the jury to know that, okay,

sure, brett's a gambler himself, was deep in debt, but he was in debt to an old friend he had known since he was 15. >> you weren't worried about that, wor you? >> i've never been worried about brett. >> as a matter of fact, if he had called you and said, look, i'm having a problem, you would have wiped the whole thing clean, wouldn't you? >> we would have worked something out, yes. >> you never put any pressure on him, call him up, i'm going to come get you or something, right? >> no, sir. >> and that life insurance policy the prosecutor suggested was a smoking gun, the insurance agent testified brett wasn't even all that interested in a policy on tammy. >> did you attempt to sell him insurance on his wife? >> yes. >> tammy? >> uh-huh. >> were you successful in selling him insurance to his wife? >> i was not. >> tammy had taken out the insurance on her own. and instead of claiming a dime for himself, brett had already signed the insurance money over to his kids. >> did he tell you directly that

he wanted this money to go to the children? >> yes. >> and remember those downstairs blinds, the ones with the gunshot residue the prosecution said had been left by brett before bryan even arrived? >> proof that he killed tammy ahead of time and then looked through the blinds to see bryan coming. >> they stated that, but they didn't prove that. >> a defense expert suggested the fine particles had merely drifted to that blind, even days later. >> if you have an air handling system like we have in most buildings and houses, over a period of time it will be sucked through the intakes and distributed fairly evenly through a place. >> and that curious matter of the toilet seat being up when logically it should have been down. >> and that's the bathroom the defendant said he was in? >> yes. >> objection, your honor. i move to have that stricken. >> when the prosecution tried to enter that as evidence in court,

the defense successfully objected. he said it was just a family habit to leave the toilet seat up to make things easier for his young son. >> he had a 6-year-old child. every time the child comes in from school or someplace else he runs to the bathroom right away. brett and his wife always put the seat up. >> he hears shots fired in his house and he's going t think about putting the toilet seat up. >> it's not an automatic reaction if you do it every day. >> it was explainable behavior. the motive was flimsy, said the defense, now it attacked the state's forensic evidence. the defense used the amount of gunshot residue found on brett's hands to undermine the theory that brett had shot his wife with one gun and his friend with another, arguing there just wasn't enough guns are due on his hands to have fired both weapons. >> if he fired both the .9 millimeter and the .410 revolver

in combination i would expect his levels to be very high. >> what did you find in this case, sir? >> well, his levels are consistent with someone who has fired a firearm, certainly, but they're not extremely high. >> and defense argued that bryan did have gunshot residue on his hands, proving he could have killed tammy. >> certainly that's not the only way in which gunshot residue can be had, but it is consistent with firing a gun. >> and there was the prosecution's theory that the gun in bryan's hand had been placed there after his death, that he could never have held on to it after being shot himself. >> the state claims it would have been impossible for bryan to have that gun in his hand given the severe injury that he sustained to his arm. >> many, many people have the death grip. if you're shot and you've got something in your hand, you squeeze it tighter. >> and the idea that bryan would

never have had a gun? a friend of brett eerks robert bou bour, says that's just not true. he wasn't asked to tell this story in court but says that a month before the killings he was at the parker home and saw bryan handling one of brett's guns with ease. >> he took all the bullets out of the clip and handed me that one and then handed me a revolver which he had took the bullets out. and i hear a friend say he would never touch a gun. >> brett told investigators he had given bryan that handgun for protection. in a dramatic move, defense brought in a witness to confirm that. brett and tammy's 14-year-old daughter brook. >> bryan and my dad were discussing a gun that my dad had. and they were just talking about how they thought it was good for him to have safety at his house and to protect bryan's family. >> are you talking about mr.

capnerhurst? >> yes, sir. >> having young brook parker testify was controversial but her aunt knew brook believed her father was innocent and wanted to take the stand. >> she had some information that needed to be given, and she did what she felt like she needed to do. >> she wanted the jury to hear her story, no matter how difficult it was to tell. >> i witnessed them talking about how he was giving the gun to bryan. i'm not lying about that. i was there. i remember. >> it was a tragedy that had stirred up the quiet waters of this carolina community and soon a jury would have to decide who was to blame. but before they did, the defense wanted them to hear from the only person alive who really knew what happened in the house that day pr that day, brett parker himself. >> never hurt her. i would never hurt tammy.

never have. >> but would the jury believe him? the verdict, when we come back.

what really happened inside

that ascot estates home? in court brett parker confidently took the stand, eager to tell his version of the events. first he wanted the jury to know he's marriage was hardly the wreck the prosecution made it out to be. >> me and tammy got along fine. we put our kids before everything. i know that's why i could never go to her and ask for a separation, because it would just destroy our kids. >> and he explained his initial red sense to tell the police about his or fairs or gambling debts had nothing to do with the murders. >> when they asked me about the affair and i admitted it to them that next day, and as far as the gambling goes, if you know bookmakers, it's not something you just talk about. >> then, struggling to keep his emotions in check, he recounted the day of the shooting. >> bryan was standing there with a gun pointed at me.

and told me to go -- go to the [ bleep ] safe. and i walked up the steps and, i mean, i didn't know what was going on. i was panicked. i kept asking him why. what are you doing? and as we -- we walked by the office, i could see -- i could see tammy's feet sticking out of the bathroom. and then i knew something was wrong, bad, that he had probably shot her. >> when you shot capnerhurst, did you have any fear in your mind at that time? >> yeah, i'm scared. yeah, but when i got to that safe i made a decision right then that it's going to be me or him. >> ultimately the defense wanted the jury to see that while a flawed man, brett parker was no killer.

>> did you shoot in self-defense capnerhur capnerhurst? >> yes, i did. >> did you ever have a plan, a premeditated plan to shoot and kill your wife? >> no. >> under cross-examination brett held firm, sticking to the story he first told investigators. >> did you think it was important to tell the police the truth? >> i did tell them the truth. i've told them what was happening in the house. that is the truth. i believe, as i see it, the evidence proves it. >> when the prosecutor crossed him about his infidelitys he insisted his feelings never waivered. >> you said you love tammy, you love her today sdm. >> yes. >> despite their troubles brett said the love for tammy was always there. >> you would never do anything to hurt her? >> never hurt her. i would never hurt tammy.

never have. >> it was time for closing arguments in the case of the people versus brett parker. >> i ask you with all my heart and all the love and faith i have in our jury system to send brett back to his family. don't let this injustice continue. >> brett parker is no victim. he is a greedy, selfish, entitled. and while, yes, maybe even charming at times, manipulative killer. >> then the case was in the hands of the jury. what's the mood like? >> i told my wife, i said, if it's short, i said, i don't -- i don't feel good. unless they take a while. >> in just three hours, they were back. in the divided courtroom the families of tammy, bryan, and brett prepare to hear brett's fate.

>> as to the charge of the murder of tammy parker we the jury unanimously find the defendant guilty. as tort change of the murder of bryan capnerhurst we the jury find the defendant unanimously guilty. >> when you heard the word guilty, are you thinking thank god? >> it's sad. it's not -- it's not the outcome any of us wanted. tammy is t not back. now brook has no father. but thank god he didn't get away with it. >> brett's sentence read immediately was life behind bars. >> it just was like, i don't know, i had lost a friend, you know. not one one of my best friend's. very emotional. >> is that weighing heavy on you know that he's going to be behind bars in life? >> certainly it weighs heavy on me. i'm a irish men. that and because i defended many people i knew was guilty, this is one i thought was not guilty.

>> tammy's friends keep her memory alive, in part through her music. ♪ in the fall of 2012 ben staples held his annual barbecue as a tribute to tammy. >> it won't ever be the same without her. >> we will continue but it obviously won't be the same without tammy jo. >> thanks are settling down again here in this quiet southern town. the healing has begun for the families and friends of both victims. >> i know tammy is in heaven. she was very strong in her convictions and she always said that. she always said that. i don't know about brett but i know i'll be in heaven. i feel like she's around. i feel her presence. i can hear her. she's still there. i still feel her with me. i dream about her a lot. >> that's all for now.

i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. this sunday morning the breaking news on a chemical weapons deal in syria. could president obama win without a fight? or is the deal just a stall tactic? with no end in sight to the syrian civil war the question remain, will syria's president assad comply? the view from key members of the senate this morning, plus "the new york times" columnist tom friedman with his analysis and our roundtable on president obama's search for a solution. authors bob woodward and richard wolffe. "washington post" columnist kathleen parker and republican strategist ana navarro analyze the president's decision-making. plus, the fifth anniversary of the financial meltdown, the great disconnect, the dow was up, so were corporate profits but income equality is bigger than ever. are we better than we were five

years ago. former treasury secretary hank paulson is here in a sunday morning exclusive along with former congressman barney frank and cnbc's maria bartiromo. i'm david gregory. all that adead on this edition of "meet the press." for sunday, september 15th. >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the word's longest running television program, this is "meet the press." and good sunday morning, secretary of state john kerry is on the ground in israel right now where he's meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu whose reaction to the deal is cautious but supportive. we'll get a response from senator john mccain in a moment. but first andrea mitchell just back from her travels with the secretary of state with the very latest on this deal. andrea, it amounts to this, assad and the russians committing to say exactly all the chemical weapons that he's got. >> right. >> and to get rid of them by the middle of next year. why shouldn't that be

universally cheered? >> it is a very big deal, sweeping deal but there are a lot of ifs. is it going to work? the russians say they're speaking for assad. assad has not personally committed to this. he spoke to disclose in a week. what if he doesn't meet that deadline? the only enforcement is up to the u.n. and that's still to be negotiated and russia ruled out the use of force as a threat. that doesn't mean the president couldn't use force but with congress leaning against that with the american people against that, how credible a threat is that? >> i don't want to get into the weeds on the united nations but when comes to force if somebody plays cat and mouse and wants to gum the works the u.s. is in a position to go to the u.n. and say, hey f. that happens then weath we're going to threaten force and are in a position to use it. >> that's correct. in fact, tomorrow there's going to be this big report from the u.n. inspectors, not literally tying it to assad but it will build international pressure. at the same time, though, the only threat of force if it's credible at all wil