>> you feel so alone. >> it's like a shot in the chest. >> reporter: despair to hope. darkness to light. tonight, a fight for freedom. in the shadow of justice. two died. two survived. >> i just started hearing gunshots. >> reporter: a double murder -- solved when a teenager named daniel -- confessed. >> case closed. >> reporter: or was it? his family was convinced police got it wrong. >> it just seemed there was nothing we could do. >> reporter: was there something he could do? >> i had no clue what i was going to find. >> you were hooked. >> i was hooked. >> reporter: he didn't know daniel. had never even met him. so why did he spend hundreds of

thousands of dollars trying to free him? >> this could be my son. your son. it could be you. it could be me. >> reporter: was daniel innocent? >> daniel villegas is a convicted murderer. >> reporter: could this survivor solve the mystery? >> i can't let this happen. i got to do something. >> reporter: everyone told him he was crazy. the case a long shot. >> 0% to 5% chance. >> reporter: and there was always the chance he was wrong. >> everybody was holding their breath. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline". here's keith morrison with "the confession." it was good friday night, late, too late. too dark. too deep into gang territory in the border town of el paso, texas. the boys, teenagers, hurried down a side street toward home. going to the party had been a bad idea. >> i was like, we've got to get home.

>> and then, there it was out of nowhere. the car. the screaming. a sudden burst of gunfire. >> like living a nightmare. just a nightmare. i'm going to wake up soon. >> reporter: in a bad neighborhood in a town in west texas, two innocent lives were snuffed in one violent moment and a strange story went into deep hibernation as much in the grave as those poor boys. for 12 long years. and then one day in 2005, in sunny el paso -- a place where a person could look ahead, build a business, fall in love -- a man walked into a bank and, that old story began its unlikely

resurrection. you were a teller? >> i was a bank teller, yes. >> reporter: her name was lucy and for some time, as she couldn't help but notice, a particular customer turned up at almost all the teller windows except hers. >> he was a very, very attractive man. we knew he had a business, so he was in there frequently. >> reporter: and then one february morning in 2005 there he was. standing in front of her. >> he just happened to be at my window. and i did have pictures in our teller windows of me and the girls. and i remember him asking, "oh, those are your daughters?" >> reporter: his name, she learned, was john mimbela, single, divorced father of two and one of el paso's most successful and respected building contractors. >> and just making conversation, i asked her, "where's the dad?" and she's like "i'm not married, and the dad's not involved. >> well, what did you think? >> i said, "well, there's my

chance." >> reporter: he'd noticed her all along of course. and that morning, finally, he plucked up the courage and -- >> i just took a chance and i asked her out. and she accepted. and right off the bat we fell in love. >> and that changed everything. ♪ >> we ended up marrying. [ applause ] >> reporter: it was a second chance for both of them. but as we all know, second chances, wonderful as they are, generally come with baggage. complications. >> she came with other people. >> correct. i told her -- "i know i'm not just marrying you and i will take the responsibility for your daughters." >> reporter: oh, but that's not the complication we had in mind. lucy came with something else, too. though the father of her daughters had long ago left for good, lucy remained very close to the man's family, which included a young man named

daniel villegas. who was in prison. for murder. so that's curious. this is a family you'd wanna avoid, you'd think. >> at first i kinda had my doubts. "well, if he's in prison, it's probably because he's guilty." but they would always say he was innocent. >> reporter: mind you, john was busy running his construction company, didn't think much about the daniel villegas story. how he was locked up for life. how appeal after appeal had been turned down. >> i would give him details on daniel. being convicted, i just kind of knew that they didn't have good representation and he lost his case, and -- john was like, "really? wow." like, that happens. >> reporter: then one night, lucy and john stopped by daniel's parents' house. by then daniel had been in prison for more than 10 years. >> we walk into the house and it's kinda dark. i mean, it's in the evening and they're just sitting there. >> crying. i mean, cries of desperation. >> reporter: daniel's parents had been trying to find some legal group or agency that would attempt, at least, to prove

their son was innocent. and they'd just received their final rejection. daniel's sister michelle was there, too. >> and that was our last hope. it just seemed there was nothing we could do. >> reporter: these are his parents chano and yolanda. >> and i fell apart. i was just like, "what did i do to my baby?" i thought i was gonna protect him and i did nothing in the slightest. >> so they were telling you, "just -- forget it. no." >> yes. yeah. yes. but daniel's appeals had failed. there didn't seem to be any way out. but then there, in the midst of all that gloom, john mimbela said something naive. foolish, perhaps. >> i felt very, very bad for that family at that moment, so i told them, "let me take the information they just returned from you and let me look at it and let me see what i can do, but please stop crying, and don't worry." >> and we were all like, "well, yeah. yes.

of course. please." >> reporter: but really what could he do? he didn't have a clue about the case that put daniel in prison in the first place. or about the workings of the law. oh, these sudden impulses. if john mimbela had known what was coming -- what it would do to him and everybody else -- would he have been a little more prudent? would he have kept his mouth shut? his family insists he's innocent even though a jury found him guilty. if it wasn't daniel, who was it? when we come back -- >> here you have this person who killed these two boys and was out there with a weapon. who else could this person kill? and john mimbela takes on the biggest challenge of his life. >> i said wow, he's serious. (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a stag pool party.

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>> reporter: he was a building contractor by trade, knew nothing about the law and even less about a convicted killer named daniel villegas. but now here was john mimbela, a man far more comfortable with blueprints than legal briefs, poring through the massive case file of a 12-year-old double murder, trying to make sense of all the intricate details of the case.

>> it was trial transcripts, it was some police reports. >> reporter: who knew there would be so much? but, a promise is a promise. so mimbela treated the task a little like a second job. by day, he ran his company. by night he played amateur detective. >> a lot of the stuff was incomplete. but i read it over and over. >> reporter: this went on for weeks. lucy barely saw him. >> he would not drop it. as soon as he got home from work, eat dinner and -- start reading. and i said, "wow, he's serious." [ laughter ] >> reporter: it was like opening

a time capsule, in a way. out of the night, a maroon-colored car, like this one, rolled up beside them. but whatever model the car was, it was trouble. >> and my heart started racing. oh, man, we're going to get into an altercation. so the car was doing this kind of cat and mouse. it would back up, and it would take off a little further, then back up, and then just stopped. the adrenaline was pumping, like we've got to get home. >> then relieved, the car left. the boys kept walking. but 15 minutes later and several blocks away, the car appeared again, slowed to a crawl, turned off its lights, and stopped. >> oh, guys, let's please just go. let's go. let's go. >> as jess told the police back then, the boys didn't listen. instead, his friends, mando lazo and bobby england, approached

the car, started yelling. >> before you know it, i started hearing gunshots. i could swear that i saw a light flash toward me and hit the fence. and it was tot-tot-tot. >> reporter: the same car that had bothered you before? >> yeah. all i kept thinking was i was to go home. i was to be in a safe place. >> he and his other friend ran, ran for their lives. didn't look back. but when bobby and mondo failed to turn up behind them, the two went back to find them. >> i could already see flashing lights, red and blue. i knew something was wrong. >> it was. jesse's best friends were dead. >> it was like living a nightmare. i'm going to wake up soon. i'm going wake up now. and the more i tried, you know, didn't wake up. >> the murder was big news in el paso. mimbela dug up dozens of newspaper clippings reporting on what looked at first like a gang

shooting. yet, the victims were not gang bangers, just innocent kids caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. tv reporter maria garcia has been covering the case for years. >> people were on edge about it because here you had this person who killed these two boys for no good reason and was out there with a weapon. and if he killed armando and robert who were popular, good kids, who else could this person kill? so it was an alarming case. >> alarming and puzzling. who would want to kill these kids, and why? mimbella looked up their backgrounds, their personal stories. bobby was from a military family, by all accounts a kind and friendly young man. mondo was extremely popular, fun loving, and cared deeply about his friends. >> he was always watching out for me.

he was always very protective of me. i would feel his hand on me. i would still feel that warm touch. i hope i never lose that feeling. and i could still remember him. >> reporter: mando and bobby's murder got a lot of attention from the cops. but ten days passed. no arrests. and then a break -- a tip. someone in the neighborhood was boasting that he blew away mando and bobby with a shotgun. the boaster? the young man he'd accepted as a kind of unofficial brother-in-law -- daniel villegas. coming up, two very different sides of daniel emerged. >> it made it difficult to believe because he confessed. >> i didn't believe it. he was a kid. just always having fun. >> when "dateline" continues. wassup? i'm hannibal i'm gonna use samsung pay to get a katz's deli pastrami sandwich. (katz's employees) hey!!!

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>> reporter: it was not like john mimbela to make rash promises, especially a promise to undertake a task that was way outside of his skill set. and he was already a very busy man. but his lucy was so determined that the daniel villegas she knew was no murderer. >> i didn't believe it. i mean, he was a kid, just

always having fun. >> reporter: did he seem like the sort of person who was capable of that? >> no. not at all. he was a clown. he liked to joke around a lot. just a kind-hearted guy. >> reporter: mind you, kind-hearted or not, daniel wasn't a choir boy. he belonged to a gang, had a rap sheet for a few misdemeanors. he had been expelled from school. he liked to party -- maybe too much. but boast about murder? that sounded to mimbela like more than a party prank. but daniel's parents said that's just how daniel was -- immature, a jokester, they said, trying to navigate life in a dangerous neighborhood. >> and i think he was tryin' to be tough, because we were in a tough area. >> there's a lot of gangs -- >> so if he figured if they feared him, then he'd have a better chance of survival. >> reporter: but if that's what it was, he figured wrong. because it certainly caught the attention of detectives at the el paso police department,

so not surprising, late one night, they showed up at the villegas' front door and took 16-year-old daniel downtown for questioning. >> my mom kept telling him not to say anything, that she would get him a lawyer in the morning. but he didn't make it till the morning. >> reporter: no, he didn't. sometime before the morning came, daniel confessed that he killed those two boys. and there, all these years later, mimbela saw what was daniel's indelible signature. he signed his own statement, swearing it was true. >> that's kind of what made it hard for me to understand that daniel might be innocent, because he confessed. >> reporter: that signed confession got daniel charged

with capital murder. >> you're going to have to sort through all of the evidence, through all of the lies. >> daniel's defense attorney argued that his confession was coerced, that he had an alibi. he was baby sitting and watching a movie with friends at this apartment. in the end, 11 jurors voted to convict. but one held out for acquittal. a hung jury. a relief for daniel's family who despite his confession still insisted he was innocent. daniel had just become a father. seemed to think he might be able to stay with his infant daughter. but jesse hernandez, a witness for the prosecution, was very unhappy with that hung jury. >> and i remember the d.a. said, don't worry, we're going keep pushing, and we're going to get him. >> and sure enough, the d.a. tried daniel again.

the family was out of money, so the court appointed an attorney who had very little time to prepare for trial. >> he called one witness to the stand. daniel's prior defense attorney called 18 witnesses. >> and he was found guilty in a hurry. >> yes. in 1995, he was sentenced to life in prison. he was just 18-years-old. >> it was solved. the murderer went to prison. the two victims got their justice. case closed. >> case closed for everyone except daniel and his family. to them, the verdict was a complete shock. >> it was a nightmare to see his face. >> remember, daniel bragged to his friends that he did it.

confessed to the cops that he did it. mirbela read that, the police reports, trial, appeal, saute were all denied. and yet, to this layman's eye at least something seemed to be missing. it just didn't add up. >> i'm like, my god, how did they convict this kid without any physical evidence whatsoever? >> reporter: but mimbela still couldn't answer that one central question -- why would anyone confess to a murder he didn't commit? coming up -- daniel speaks out. did he confess or did he just give in? >> he says you don't make a statement. he says i'm going to make sure you get the electric chair and i'm going to fry your - >>

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>> reporter: of the thousands of pieces of paper john mimbella pored through, there was one that puzzled him more than any other -- daniel's confession, signed at the bottom. which meant that daniel approved of what was written there, it was his ticket to a life term in

prison. and yet -- >> this confession did not match anything of what the police report said. >> reporter: mimbela looked again and again. maybe he was mistaken. but no, daniel said the color of the car was white, but he was wrong. according to a surviving eyewitness. it was maroon. the way he described the sequence of shots also differed wildly from what the neighbor told 911. he also said he was accompanied by a driver and passenger who, it turned out were nowhere near the crime that night. very strange. though, of course, there was probably some explanation. it didn't mean daniel was innocent. so mimbela wrote him a letter. >> trying to get a feel for if he was innocent or not. but the main thing that i wanted to let him know is that -- being a catholic -- i wanted to save him, if in fact he was guilty. it's always about helping people

and helping others. >> reporter: this is where the letter went -- the french robertson unit. a prison in abilene, 450 miles from el paso. and here's the man he sent it to. >> i thought, you know, we had the best system in the world. innocent people just don't go to jail in america. >> reporter: this is daniel villegas. by the time john wrote his letter, a veteran of the texas prison system. daniel was 29 then. wouldn't even be eligible for parole until he was in his 50s. he kept thinking of his daughter growing up without a father. >> i just started crying and crying. >> reporter: in between the decision to take his own life and the final act, daniel, for the first time in years, said a little prayer. >> you know what, god, man, i can't deal with this.

i'm not asking you to let me out. but if you are, give me some type of sunshine i'm coming home. >> the next day he got my letter. >> reporter: coincidence, of course, what else could it be? but daniel decided maybe hope was worth having after all. and when mimbela went to see him in prison, what he heard from daniel was far different from anything he'd read in the police

teens. >> so, he starts telling me, "look out, you little punk, you know what i'm saying? i know you did this." he kind of -- slap me in the back of the head anytime, you know? "do you hear me punk? do you hear me?"

>> reporter: then detective marquez offered him a deal, said daniel -- cop to the crime and go to juvie instead of prison. he said, "if you don't make a statement," he said, "i'm gonna make sure you get the electric chair and i'm gonna fry your ass." >> if you confess to committing a murder, meaning that you would get a lighter sentence. but if you didn't confess, he would make sure you got the death penalty? >> yeah. and he was gonna pull the switch on it. i was willing to do anything possible just to get away from him so, i said, "you know, okay, i'll make a statement." >> reporter: that, said daniel, was after four hours in custody -- frightened and exhausted. >> and you said yes to everything? >> yeah. >> but you didn't think when you said those things, "this means i'm gonna be in prison for the rest of my life"? >> no. i didn't even think none of that. >> come on? really? >> yeah.h.>> yeah. you're not even thinkin' about the future. the futu you're just thinkin' about the . >> getting out of there. >> exactly. >> reporter: detective marquez, who has since retired, declined our request for an interview, as did the el paso police department. but the d.a.'s office said marquez was never alone with daniel and even if he was, he wouldn't have had the time to do

what daniel said he did.id he d. assistant d.a. john williams, s who helped prosecute daniel in the first trial, said the th confession looked legitimate.it. >> that's the case that's 's presented and that's what you go for.for. and i think the police, they get a confession, they mark it off as a solved crime. crime. .'s give it to the d.a.'s offic office and kind of push it off on the prosecution.cution. .> now it's your turn. >> exactly.actly. >> reporter: but by the time t mimbela drove home from his om prison visit he was convinced d daniel was telling him the da truth.truth. it was the confession that was a lie.e.lie. >> he seemed like a very nice, naive, young kid. young kid. i could sense that there's no way he could've really committed this crime. crime. >> well, you know, everybody in prison says, "i'm innocent."nn but the vast majority of them o are not.are not. how were you so sure it was a false confession?fession? >> i did a lot of research on c false confessions.s. and that confession that daniel gave, and i read, fit exactly f what these researchers say false

confessions are.ns are. >> all the classic symptoms were there.th >> they were.y were. >> reporter: but with daniel's appeals already exhausted, what could he do? he do? mimbela needed help.d help. no idea then that someone who h did help convict daniel had a story to tell.to tell. mimbela just needed to find himi coming up --ing up -- >> he was almost shocked by the killer.killer. how could detectives think he h was the killer? the killer? even stranger, he almost r, he .onfessed. >> you know what, they're going> to fry you to fry you. >> they're going to fry you?. >> yeah.ou>> yeah. >> sound familiar?amiliar? when "dateline" continues. hey! this is lloyd. to prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. he's agreed to give it up. ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so... more pills. yep... another pill stop.

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>> reporter: el paso, 2007. the mimbela construction company struggled like most. but for all that worry, john mimbela was ever more focused on one major project -- daniel villegas. >> i had a few people criticize why i was tryin' to help a killer get outta jail. but i just felt it. the more i dug into his case, the stronger it got. >> reporter: he had no idea. not a clue what he was getting into the legal learning curve. the hurdles, the time. the expense. the system. the whole impossible process. he might have stopped right

there, had he known. instead, convinced that daniel was innocent, mimbela decided the thing he should do was take what he learned to the man who put daniel in prison back in the '90s -- d.a. jaime esparza. esparza's view then, of course, was that daniel was a cold blooded killer. >> i think there is enough believable and persuasive evidence in the case. >> reporter: and there was no reason to think he'd changed his nevertheless mimbela arranged a meeting. >> well, everybody thought i was crazy. they said, "john, he's the guy that convicted daniel, why would you go talk to him?" >> good question. >> and i'm like, "he needs to know the truth." >> reporter: mimbela marched into the d.a.'s office confident that esparza would see the light, correct his mistake and free daniel john mimbela. >> i told him, from what i've investigated, daniel's confession was coerced. you've got the wrong guy." >> and? >> and he tells me, well, john i can't do anything about it. you have to initiate it. get yourself a good appeals lawyer.

>> still, he took the tip and hired a lawyer who said -- >> "you have zero to slim chance of getting this kid off." >> what was it like to hear that? >> my heart sank. i'm like, "but he's innocent." and he's like, "doesn't matter, john. the system doesn't care. it's about winning and losing." >> reporter: the attorney told mimbela there was really only one thing he could do, file a petition seeking a writ of habeas corpus -- a last-ditch sort of appeal -- the thing you try when all else has failed, essentially a claim that daniel had been falsely and unlawfully imprisoned. >> it's gonna cost you about $20,000. >> wow. >> but i can tell you that these things take up to 10 years and there's no guarantee. >> they rarely succeed, in fact. >> they rarely succeed. >> reporter: he wrote the check, but the writ would take months to prepare. and mimbela was not particularly

good at waiting around. >> he spent a couple of weeks reviewing the file then -- >> there was no weapon, no car, no identification, no nothing except a confession. >> so bonilla and mimbela started their own investigation. they fanned out from the crime scene workersed over the police reports, dug for new clues, and -- >> there's not one single thing that i would say, yeah, this guy did it. there's not one piece of evidence. >> they also tracked down witnesses and found him. jesse hernandez, one of the teens who survived the shooting and testified against daniel. when they found him, jesse was divorced, reclusive, with a bad case of survivor's guilt. it was he who persuaded his friends to go out that night.

and 15 years later, he was still haunted by it. >> my friends would still be here today. it wouldn't have happened. >> it was late at night when mimbela and bonilla came to call. >> i opened the door and said, yes, can i help you? like, jesse hernandez? like, yes? >> we identify ourselves. we're here wanting some information on the murder of armando and robert. >> i said, murder? i'm -- i'm sorry, you got the wrong guy. i don't know anything about no murder. >> jesse said he had no idea what they were talking about. then, mimbela explained how he believed daniel had been wrongly convicted for killing his friends. >> he's like, well, how did they come to daniel? i go, a confession. a confession that we believe was false, coerced. he turned white. why.

>> why did he turn pale? because of what happened to him. soon after the murder, said jesse, he was called to police headquarters for an interview. there he said that same detective told him to write down what he remembered about the shooting. jesse did. and -- >> he says, you know what, this is [ bleep ]. you know and i know that you did it. i'm like, how could you be saying that? didn't do anything. yes, you did. that's not true. these are my friends. i love my friends. he said, well, you know what, you're going to have explain that to the judge. they're going to fry you. i just -- i couldn't stop crying. >> marcus, he said, had him convinced he had a blackout and killed his own friends. he came close to a confession, he said, but jesse's mother found out what happened and called the cops, furious about what the detective had done to her son. and jesse was not questioned by marcus anymore and was never

charged with anything. now, all these years later, jesse looked to the copy of daniel's confession that mimbela had given him. >> i started reading it, and i was like, hold on, that's not what happened. >> jesse said he remembered vividly the color of the killer's car. the direction it was driving, the sequence of the shots. daniel's confession was wrong on all of them. what's more, neither the car the killer drove nor the murder weapon was ever found. and no physical evidence of any kind implicated daniel. >> how did they convict daniel? i kept thinking, how could they do this to him? he was like me. he just wanted out. he just wanted to go home. i'm pretty sure he did -- signed, did whatever they wanted. i have to do something. >> so he called john mimbela. >> i said, john, it's going to be hard for me, but i'll do what i can. >> with jesse on board, mimbela went looking for more legal muscle to help further daniel's

cause. in 2010, he contacted the northwestern university school of law center on wrongful convictions of youth which specializes in cases involving false confessions by teenagers. attorney josh tepper was co-director then. >> we said, okay, we'll take a look at it. as soon as we did, we were hooked. john was right, we had to be involved. >> and in fact, northwestern has reviewed hundreds of cases like daniel. kids who claim they signed their lives away under pressure. >> it doesn't take much to -- for a young person to cave and actually admit to something that they didn't do under that type of pressure. >> that's the only way you get out of this room is tell us what we want to hear. >> exactly. >> northwestern's endorsement added a whole new level of legitimacy to the case and some national attention, too. but mimbela by now, contractor during the daytime and legal scholar at night, hoped that it might encourage the d.a. to support daniel's case.

and also persuade the judge to grant daniel's writ of habeas corpus and order a special hearing called -- >> an evidentiary hearing. >> which n which all the evidence could be presented? >> i had been told that the evidentiary hearings are very rare. >> that was about the only shot daniel had at freedom. mimbela knew before the judge made his decision, he would hear from the other pig player in the case. d.a. esparza. remember three years earlier, he turned mimbela away. but now mimbela was convinced that with all the new evidence, esparza would be persuaded. they waited weeks, months. then several days before christmas, the d.a.'s office announced it had reviewed the request and given the judge its recommendation. and -- >> we get the response from the d.a. asking the judge not to give us an evidentiary hearing. >> it looked like he just put

the bullet your possibilities. >> that's it. >> hope is a dangerous thing in prison, as daniel knew. and mimbela was quickly learning. >> there were times when he started to give up hope, and i would try and encourage him as much as i could. >> got to have faith. got to have faith. >> we try. >> it's hard, i know. is going to work out okay. >> i told him, "daniel i'm never going to stop fighting for you." so don't give up because i'm not giving up. >> tilting at windmills? quite probably. still, mimbela prepared for a fight. and naturally went looking for the fastest gun in town. somebody who could navigate the system and give daniel a fighting chance. good luck with that. coming up -- >> an old lead -- >> the police department never really followed those leads thoroughly. >> offers new hope.

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>> reporter: the holiday season of 2010 was not an especially joyous time for john mimbela. the d.a., to his utter surprise, had recommended daniel not get a new hearing. so now mimbella braced himself for judge sam medrano's final decision. and with christmas approaching, he went shopping not for gifts, but for a tough courtroom lawyer, just in case that long shot came in on that habeas corpus writ and daniel did get his day in front of a judge. >> i asked around and said, "who is the best lawyer for daniel?" everyone i asked said, "joe

spencer." >> if you're in trouble, real >> reporter: so mimbela set up a meeting, made his pitch. >> he tells me the story about daniel. i go, "he had two trials?" he goes, "yeah." "'cause he confessed." he goes, "yes." "double homicide." "yes." "he's already exhausted his appeals." he goes "yes." i go, "what do you wanted?" >> reporter: spencer had seen a lot of cases in his day, gotten plenty of people off. but this case? wasn't just a long shot. it was a surefire loser. >> you don't understand, john. this is texas. in texas i give you about a zero to five percent chance of being successful, closer to zero than to five. i'm telling you that i don't think that we can win this case. >> reporter: nevertheless, he took the file and read through it front to back. >> really saw an injustice. i really saw a wrong that needed to be righted. and i just want to be so much a part of it. >> reporter: for starters, spencer focused on the man who

took daniel's confession. detective alfonso marquez, whose investigation, spencer thought, was inadequate at best. >> the physical evidence and forensic evidence did not -- the eyewitness testimony did not match and contradicted daniel's confession. >> reporter: well, surely if a statement like that is made and then it's compared to the facts, they throw out the statement. >> reporter: something else in the statement caught his eye. the two brother. javier now dead and his brother, rudy. both had been cleared by the cops. this was weird. the flores brothers were known gang members. and according to the murder victim's friends, rudy had a particular dislike for mando lazo. and two weeks before the shooting -- >> rudy flores, according to what we know from police documents, had said he was going to kill armando and had

threatened whim that. and police had investigated those claims. >> reporter: that was before the shooting. >> before the shooting, yes. >> reporter: after the shooting? >> when questioned by police, rudy flores admitted to being in the vicinity of the shooting at the time of the shooting. but from what we can see, the police department never really followed those leads thoroughly. >> they did not even look at rudy flores's statement that he puts himself at the scene of the crime. if they just looked at that they would've seen there's something wrong here. i think the detectives developed tunnel vision. once they got daniel to confess, they were oblivious to everything else. >> sitting in the cell with his high-powered legal team behind his case, daniel allowed himself to see possibility. >> started having more and more and more help. miracles do happen nowadays.

i hope i'm a miracle story. >> his parents even had his room ready, hoping after a decade and a half behind bars he'd finally be coming home thanks to mimbela. >> i just remember thinking, thank you, god, i've got someone who listened. at least someone was trying. >> privately, john mimbela knew there was no hope to change esparza's mind. was made up. that's when he got an idea. [ honking ] >> at in-your-face kind of crazy idea. coming up, daniel gets a second chance at justice. >> face to face with the detective who he said threatened to put him in the electric chair and fry him himself. take one of those pillows

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>> reporter: it was subtle at first. just a billboard or two around town, but then more popped up all over el paso. including ones that moved. soon there were demonstrations right outside da jaime esparza's window, demanding justice for daniel villegas. all of it organized by john mimbela. >> i figured the best thing i can do is just try to bring awareness that this is wrong. maybe we can change things. >> he believes in this cause with all his heart. and he's gone through great lengths to try to get other people to believe. >> reporter: and mimbela took up the cause like a marching band. >> full force. he spent a lot of money. hundreds of thousands of

dollars. he has added a sense of credibility, of legitimacy. i think people started to pay attention. >> reporter: d.a. jaime esparza was paying attention, too. well aware of mimbela's street campaign and how it was helping shape public opinion. >> i think he's taken it, in some way, personally. because this was a case that was important to him. that this is an affront to justice. >> reporter: every time we come to the el paso courthouse and try to talk to d.a. jaime esparza, he has shut us down. no interview. no comment. has told us that he is ethically prevented from doing so. and so we've had to parse together the d.a.'s point of view based on his court filings and what has leaked out to other reporters along the way. which is that d.a. esparza is

still convinced daniel is a killer. and he was not about to let him get a shot at a third trial especially since he was convicted fair and square in esparza's view years ago. this a rare public comment for local tv. >> i have to believe in the evidence. i would have never asked that jury to convict if i thought that i had doubts. i would have never asked them to do that. >> reporter: at least one of the victim's families agreed and supported the d.a.'s position but it was the judge who would have the final say. judge sam medrano. who noted carefully the d.a.'s objection spent months reviewing the file and finally decided. yes. despite the d.a.'s opposition, he granted daniel's writ of habeas corpus and ordered a hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to warrant a new trial. >> so we knew we had to get this hearing if we had a chance of freeing daniel. and we got it.

>> reporter: there would be no jury at this hearing; the judge alone would hear witnesses and then decide whether or not to recommend to the texas court of criminal appeals that daniel get a new trial. >> hope started to build. but we all still knew it was an uphill battle. this was the last chance. >> reporter: a few weeks before the hearing daniel headed west on a prisoner transport bus to el paso. he was in high spirits. it was the first time he'd been to his hometown in over 15 years. we met with him shortly after he arrived at his new residence the county jail. >> it feels good. finally seeing the city again, after so many years. >> reporter: you're still hoping that a court will take a decision that courts very rarely take so you may not get out. >> yeah. >> reporter: you faced up to that? >> yeah. i faced up to that. too much has happened. too many pieces have been falling together, too many miracles have been happening.

that you never would've thought would happen are happening. then on a hot day in june, 2011, in judge medrano's packed court room, filled mostly with daniel supporters we saw no one from the victim's families. >> all rise. the hearing that daniel had waited so long for finally began. unlike a regular trial, the burden of proof was on the defense, which would make the case that daniel was coerced into a confession and railroaded into a wrongful conviction. >> the odds were completely against daniel. and here he was, back in el paso, back in the courthouse where he was convicted as a 16 year old. >> reporter: but this time district attorney jaime esparza wasn't at the prosecution table. in his place assistant d.a. john briggs a tough, no nonsense prosecutor, who made the case throughout the hearing that justice had already been served when daniel was convicted back in 1995. >> we know that his allegation of actual innocence was all just

a sham. and we know that for the last 17 years he's been praying to god to let him out even though he's not innocent. god's not letting him out, he needs you to let him out, judge. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: attorney joe spencer called a parade of witnesses. 33 of them. including him -- >> marquez, m-a-r-q-u-e-z -- >> here he was with a detective who he said wanted to put him in the electric chair and fry him himself. >> this time the tables would be turned as daniel's attorney gave marcus a grilling. >> was there any physical evidence between your investigation that tied daniel villegas to the scene? >> no. >> was there any forensic evidence that tied daniel villegas to the scene?

>> no. >> reporter: what about coercing the confession the night of the arrest? marcus denied it when asked by assistant d.a. briggs. >> prior to obtaining the statement of mr. villegas, did you ever physically strike him? >> no, sir, i did not. >> ever physically assault him? >> no, sir, i did not. >> threaten him in any way to give that statement? >> no, sir. >> marcus insisted his investigation was thorough. that he did not suffer from tunnel vision when it came to daniel, and that he did consider other suspects. >> you all followed up leads, as well, right? >> yes, sir, we did. >> and then a surprise. one of the original suspects interviewed by the el paso police all those years ago. the defense called rudolfo "rudy" flores. remember him? he was in his mid 30s now, serving time in an unrelated case.

the man who along with his dead brother police believed was the killer. joe spencer hoped to pull a confession out of him. what he got was almost as dramatic. >> it i refuse to answer any questions. i am invoking my fifth amendment right to remain silent. >> rudy flores was keeping his secrets, whatever they were. >> i refuse to answer any questions. >> one witness was very eager to talk and make the case for daniel villegas. that was daniel. coming up, weeks of hearings, months of waiting, and then finally a decision. >> ran to my son's office, hugged him. we all cried. inside every bottle of suave professionals is a beautiful blend. moroccan infusion for shine,

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the county jail. waiting and waiting for this. >> daniel villegas -- >> to talk about that easter weekend in 1993 and his fateful encounter with the detective. >> had me mentally paralyzed. i was a 16-year-old kid. i didn't want to go the electric chair and get fried. >> was there any doubt in your mind that the detective would do that? >> no, there was no doubt that he would carry out the threats. >> the assistant d.a. asked him about his alibi. that he was baby sitting at an apartment with several friends. >> why didn't you just tell detective marquez, hey, you got the wrong guy? i was baby sitting. >> i told him i didn't do. it he didn't want to hear it. >> you didn't tell him that, did you? >> told him i did not do it. >> assistant d.a. briggs was emphatic daniel did do it. that his teenage boasting and above all his confession proved his guilt beyond a doubt. and something a jury had already decided.

it was all done by the book. legally obtained, he said. protocol properly followed. in his closing, briggs told the judge that daniel's claim of innocence was little more than a media event. >> the press want to know because then they get their big, sensational story. i guess my question, judge, is are we going to succumb to the media pressure or follow the law? popular or unpopular as that may be. it's your choice. >> after the writ hearing, that's when there was a huge, huge, huge movement of support for daniel. >> reporter: but that was the court of public opinion. the only opinion that really mattered was the judge. he would be the one to recommend whether or not daniel should be granted a new trial. a negative word from judge medrano, and it was all but over

for daniel. yet another christmas came and went. the 17th christmas without daniel. the villegases still decorated their tree, hoped for next year. then new year's passed and easter and fourth of july. no news. >> torture. it's like we had done all we could do, and all we could do was sit and wait. >> finally, august of 2012. judge medrano announced he had made a decision. and all of them filed back into his courtroom, hearts in their mouths, to hear what it was. >> it is this court's recommendation to the texas court of criminal appeals that the applicant, daniel villegas' request for a new trial should be granted. [ cheers and applause ] >> all the years of anguish came

out. i was overwhelmed. all them 19 years just washed out. >> overwhelmed, man. overwhelmed. i feel so happy for daniel. >> not everybody was happy with the judge's finding. assistant d.a. john briggs -- >> daniel villegas is a convicted murderer. it's his burden to carry the day on this writ. he hasn't gotten there in my mind. i'm not persuaded by anything that he's presented that we have the wrong person. >> we still knew that we had one more hurdle. >> oh, yes, and it was a very big one. the judge's recommendation wasn't the final word. the texas state court of criminal appeals would ultimately decide whether daniel got a new trial. nine law and order justices whose decision would take several months and would be announced with little fanfare on line. once a week, it was always a wednesday, the court posted its decisions.

so every wednesday morning daniel awoke in his cell in a state of extreme anxiety. >> i would ask my mom if i was on the list. she'll tell me, "no, you're not on the list, baby." and i'll be like, "oh god. gotta wait another week." and that it just kept on goin' on, week after week after week. >> reporter: the legal rarity that had gotten daniel this far seemed to have lost its momentum. another christmas passed his birthday too and a host of holidays. the long delay, daniel understood, was not a good sign. as he expressed to his mother over the jail phone. >> don't blame god for it, daniel. don't blame god. you're just having a bad day, just like i was. >> having a bad day? this is every day. this ain't just today, this ain't it's gonna be tomorrow, it's gonna be the next day. >> reporter: every saturday john mimbela visited daniel, used whatever he could to keep hope alive. >> i had to give him some kind of encouragement.

so somebody had offered to sell me a convertible and i said, "what a perfect way to encourage daniel. i said, "daniel, this car is waiting for you, so don't worry about it, you're coming home." >> reporter: but then 16 months after the appeals court got the case, daniel's mother checked the court website like always. this time, there it was, a decision from the justices revealed in three incredible words -- relief is granted. >> i fell to the ground. screaming like a psycho. >> reporter: did she make sense when she talked to you? >> no. i had to call her and ask what happened, what happened? >> reporter: the texas court of criminal appeals had voted unanimously to grant daniel a new trial. john mimbela's phone rang. it was his lawyer with the news.

>> says yes, we got it, john. ran to my son's office, hugged him, and we all cried. we got it. >> that moment will live you with for the rest of your days. >> that was probably the happiest days of my life. >> i was in a state of shock. i was like, no, this isn't happening. >> reporter: over a year you were waiting. >> 16 months. the longest 16 months of my life. >> reporter: the texas court of criminal appeals not only granted daniel a new trial due to ineffective assistance of counsel, it vacated his conviction. in other words, it was no as if he'd never been put on trial. meaning -- >> that i wasn't a convicted felon. that was the most beautiful part there. >> reporter: clean, you have no record at all. >> none. >> reporter: what's more, like anyone awaiting trial, it was possible daniel could be

released on bail. mimbela, who had already spent well into six figures on the case, feared bail would be set in the millions. beyond his ability to pay. meaning daniel would quite possibly remain just where he was -- behind bars. coming up, will the d.a. try for trial number three? >> we're praying that that doesn't happen. >> when "dateline" continues. before i had the shooting, burning, pins-and-needles of diabetic nerve pain, these feet were the first in my family to graduate from college, raised active twin girls, and trained as a nurse. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda approved to treat this pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior.

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>> reporter: january 14th, 2014. daniel villegas had been locked up almost 20 years. depending on what happened in this courtroom, his life behind bars would continue, or he would taste freedom for the first time since he was a teenager. it all depended on a bail hearing, where once again judge medrano would make a key decision, this time setting the amount. john mimbela worried, rightly, that it would be astronomical, beyond his means. >> i'm gonna have to come up with some money. >> reporter: but to everyone's surprise the judge set bail at $50,000, of which mimbela only had to pay a small percentage --

just over a thousand bucks. >> oh my god. [ laughter ] another happy, happy moment. it's like, that i think i can live with. probably the smallest check i've written so far. >> reporter: john mimbela happily wrote the check, and before very long -- [ cheers ] >> it was priceless. it was priceless. we had waited for so long for that moment to happen. >> reporter: somebody else greeted daniel too, somebody he had never met. >> jesse hernandez. >> i said, daniel. and he turned around and he looked at me, and -- and i whispered to him, "i'm so sorry. im so sorry for what happened to

you. i really am. but i'm so happy for you. that you're out, and you're enjoying this." and he says, "oh, man. thank you so much. i love you." and he gave me a kiss. >> reporter: and a few minutes later, daniel was whisked away in the red convertible john mimbela promised him back in those dark days when all seemed lost. >> what better way than to present him his car, and let him ride away in that car? >> reporter: pretty amazing day. >> very amazing. couldn't believe that this day had finally come. >> reporter: they went to church then. and then they had a feast. his first steak in years. >> delicious. >> reporter: he came home to yellow ribbons. experiencing all the new things. well, reacquainting himself with

the old. >> haven't been in my bid in a long time. >> reporter: including his daughter, just an infant when he was imprisoned. now 20 and married and in college. since his release, daniel's been making up for lost time. he has a job at mibela contractors, naturally, and a new baby. this would have been the conclusion to our story, but as everyone knows, the world sometimes has other plans, as does d.a. jaime esparza. despite the court rulings and public sentiment, the d.a. is convinced daniel is a killer and should be locked up for life. he's promised to try him all over again. >> let's have a jury decide whether or not he committed the crime or not. that's always been our policy. we do our talking in court. >> reporter: though the d.a. has declined our interview request until after the case is resolved, he is preparing to introduce new allegations.

one is from a man who says he remembers more than 20 years after the fact hearing daniel confess sometime around his two trials. also allegations that daniel can be heard in a much disputed prison phone call with his mother mumbling something that the prosecutor hears as "i'm not innocent." and also, mimbela and daniel in telephone calls, the prosecutor will say, conspired to influence witnesses when they can be heard strategizing. the claim which according to mimbela amounts to a smear campaign by the d.a. are they trying to get at the truth in your view? >> not at all. i believe they're just trying to hide the truth. >> but does the d.a. have a case? the judge has already thrown out much of the state's evidence. daniel's confession, inadmissible because it was

coerced. all those hours of prison phone calls ruled out as simply irrelevant. the judge did not hear any confession on those tapes. the d.a. determined to move forward is appealing that particular decision. though around el paso, in and out of the legal community, we encountered many people who wondered why the d.a. will not let it go. one of the doubters, the d.a.'s own co-counsel at daniel's first trial. former assistant district attorney john williams. >> i don't know why they're pursuing it, to be honest with you. i talked to some of the officers who were also involved. and a lot of the people anyway have some regrets. >> reporter: maybe it was a rush to judgment. >> right. >> reporter: the d.a., jaime esparza, is up for re-election. he faces opposition. the villegas case is a controversial issue in the campaign. one of esparza's opponents says if elected she'll review the case to see whether is t should be pursued.

the other opponent says barring earth-shattering evidence, he'll drop the case. for now, john mimbela is bracing for trial three. >> you know, we're praying that that doesn't happen. it would be a shame to put daniel and his family through it again. >> i don't know if it goes to trial we win it or they're going to drop the charges. either beltway's one deal. 19 years ago i didn't have the chance to be here, you know? >> reporter: at the edge of john mimbela's office, the face of a new project that daniel and mimbela plan to open should the case be dismissed or should daniel be acquitted. >> i'm excited about that one. we've got to get a lot of people that are in prison, literally hundreds of us still in there.

they don't got a john in their life. we've got to be that john for them. >> reporter: and mimbela plans to retire soon from the construction business. once called the king of construction in el paso. that was the thing he hoped to be remembered for. then he walked into a bank and met a woman who gave him along with her love the challenge of his life. >> it would be probably the best thing i've ever done. every penny, every hour i spent on daniel's case was worth it because now daniel's with his family. >> reporter: how many more hours and more things will depend on a decision not his to make? whatever happens to daniel, john mimbela lived up to his word. a promise is a promise all the way. that's all for now. i'm lester holt.

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