>> thou shalt not commit adultery. thou shalt not bear false witness. thou shalt not kill. this was a biblical sort of story. >> reporter: she raised kids. and corn. >> she loved being in -- the tractors. always put a little bit of makeup on every morning before she went out. >> one morning the tractor sat empty. her son jason found her inside. >> my mom -- my mom is laying here on the floor and there is blood everywhere. >> i think more than anything else it's about the money. >> the land would have been worth around eight million. >> reporter: a family sitting on farmland worth millions. was someone hiding a secret worth killing for?

>> most murders happen for a simple reason: greed, fear, lust. >> there are no little lies in this kind of investigation? >> a lie is only there to cover something up. but someone thought the sheriff wasn't moving fast enough to uncover things. >> my life ended that day. >> i think he just had to know the truth. >> reporter: a father and son battle for justice. against each other. >> it wasn't jason that got everything. guess who it was? him. >> you shot your mother to death. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: a small town mystery. and a family torn apart by murder. >> you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is dateline. here's dennis murphy with "the farm." >> reporter: sitting way up in the cab of a tractor can give an iowa corn and soybean farmer

like bill carter plenty of time to reflect on just how hard this life can be sometimes. >> we put this farm together from nothing. >> reporter: there was the summer when the heat scorched the crops the winter when there wasn't enough snow on the ground and always expensive equipment to be maintained. just a lot. but bill carter had way too much time to contemplate things no man on a john deere should ever have to. there was something shakespearean brewing in these cornfields. something out of the old testament. >> thou shalt not kill. thou shalt not commit adultery. >> 911 where is your emergency? >> i need a -- i need an ambulance fast. >> my life ended that day. >> reporter: before the acreage and the little house before the three children. they were two high-schoolers, billy carter and shirley worthington. the only girl he ever really went out with. >> where'd you go on your first date, do you remember? >> took her to the homecoming dance. i played football.

and then i went out after the game and picked her up. she was quiet. prettiest thing you've ever seen. >> reporter: they were in love - deeply -- maybe carelessly. during her sophomore year, shirley in the language of the day, got in trouble. she was pregnant. >> back then -- they didn't want 'cha in school. if you h -- had that happen. so we both had to leave school. >> reporter: bill had a strong moral code and did what he saw as the right thing. >> we were -- married at a very young age. i was 18 -- had just turned 18. and she was 16. >> reporter: soon, daughter jana was born. eventually, bill earned his high school diploma. but with another child soon on the way. life wasn't easy. >> we didn't have indoor plumbing. and that was really hard on

shirley. >> she's not 20. she's got a baby on her hip? >> yeah, she had two babies. >> it's good she liked you? >> yeah. >> reporter: their last born, jason, completed the family. he was such a good boy growing up. he was me favorite. >> the corn crew high and the seasons passed and bill kept expanding his operation, buying more acres of prime farm land. shi sh sir surely. >> from 1985 on, she did everything. >> she just took to it, huh?

>> she was a natural. >> bill even had this custom built tractor built for her. >> reporter: you were saying if we pop the hood here, you would see her signature, a little plaque or something? >> yes. >> she loved being on the tractors. >> reporter: long time friend and neighbor -- >> she always put a little bit of makeup on. >> the carters new their maybes might be wearing hair curlers underneath her handkerchief.

>> she did amount of stuff that you would think after all those years of marriage would have gone on the wayside. >> son billy went into the heating and air conditioning business. >> that must have been disappointing for you, because that was like going back to your great granddaddy, for farming. >> reporter: but much to bill's delight, his youngest, jay son took to farming. >> when he started farming, i really enjoyed working with him. i was teaching him, he is a good farmer. >> the carter family tradition would carry on another generation anyway. the icing on the cake, jayson and his wife shelly lived nearby.

>> chase and i would build a treehouse right south of the house. and little mckena, she was the apple of shirly's eye. >> reporter: a hard working family man and good husband and son. the now tumbled down treehouse, the abandoned swing by the porch are the artifacts that were all but destroyed on the morning of j june 19, 2015. it started off as a day like so many for bill and shirley. >> shirley liked her coffee. a big cup of coffee, and it was just something they did together before their days got started. >> reporter: after coffee, they bounced down the driveway toward the home.

bill stopped in the driveway. >> i let her out of the pickup and she said i think i'll finish my coffee before i chore. >> i went home the slow way because i wanted to get a coffee and a doughnut. >> reporter: he got a call from his daughter that he would never forgot. >> a wife and mother murdered in her own kitchen, was it a robbery? revenge? or something else. when we come back. >> she looked like she was asleep. and i kissed her forehead and it was cold. 66. >> reporter: but this wasn't just a murder, it was an execution.

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>> reporter: bill carter heading home from a grain run, had just gotten a devastating call from his daughter, his beloved wife was dead. >> and she said dad jason found her you've got to call 911." and i thought, "what?" >> reporter: jason had called his sister with the horrible news. bill dialed 911 as he tore down the road toward his house. >> 911 where is your emergency? >> my son just called and said he found my wife dead on the floor in the kitchen. >> we do have an ambulance on the way there. >> reporter: it turned out, his son jason found his mother and had already called it in. >> my mom -- my mom is laying here on the floor blood there is blood everywhere and she's dead and i don't know what happened. >> reporter: bill got to the house and ran from his truck, past his son jason on the back deck. >> and he was on the phone walkin' in circles. and i didn't pay any attention

to him. i went in. and there she lay and she looked like she was asleep. and i couldn't get a pulse. and i kissed her forehead and it was cold. and i knew she was dead. >> reporter: at first, bill says he couldn't tell how shirley died. but jason came into the kitchen and pointed something out. >> he showed me a bullet hole in the refrigerator. and -- one in the floor beside her. and then he said, "dad, somebody's robbed you and the office was torn completely up, drawers pulled out, papers on the floor." >> did that explain anything to you? i mean, your head is such a jumble at this point you don't know what's goin' on, i imagine? >> i think i was in shock. >> reporter: their bedroom had been ransacked too. soon, emts, and sheriff's

deputies arrived. one found bill in the kitchen bent over shirley. >> and he took my arm, and he said, "bill, you gotta come outside." >> because your home had become a crime scene? >> yeah. >> and your wife of 52 years is dead on the kitchen floor? >> yeah. >> reporter: after they moved shirley's body, investigators told bill she had been shot twice. >> she was shot -- the left armpit. the second shot, she was laying on the kitchen floor -- >> as she's down? >> as she's down. >> so a coup de grace shot, huh? >> right. >> reporter: news of the cold-blooded murder travelled quickly through the farmlands. the carters' neighbors, tony and irene schulz were out running errands when a friend called to say something had happened to shirley they turned around and headed over to the carter place. >> and bill came and said that shirley was dead. that she was killed.

there was just such anguish in his eyes. such terror -- >> reporter: irene called their neighbor, matt russell. >> she said, "she's been shot in the kitchen. she's been murdered it made no sense." >> she could have been saying a space ship just landed at our farm, right? >> reporter: that night, shirley's murder led the evening news on our affiliate who-tv. >> we begin tonight with a developing story out of marion county a homicide investigation is currently underway. >> what was the story out there in the coffee shop and the feed store about what had happened. >> well that there was an intruder and they'd ransacked the house and -- and they'd murdered shirley. that shirley caught them in the middle of them doin' somethin' -- >> reporter: with a killer on the loose, rural iowa was throwing rusty, rarely used, double-bolt locks. >> just couldn't believe it. we don't even lock our doors. >> our keys are always in the vehicles. and i'm thinkin' if -- you know, just was a crazy deal. >> reporter: but the more

investigators looked inside that ransacked house, the more they thought the killer might have come from inside the family. >> reporter: a different theory of the crime. with an investigator drawing a bead on bill. >> he said, "you know, you could've done this, when you brought her back from coffee." >> reporter: when dateline continues. ♪but lying and cheating ♪has torn us apart ♪and i'm moving on. when you said youe, sir. were at the doctor, but your shirt says you were at a steakhouse... that's when you know it's half-washed.

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>> reporter: shirley carter shot to death. neighbors grieving, and at a >> trying to figure out why somebody would've done that. >> you know, i was thinking drugs. you know, somebody's doing it to get money for drugs. >> reporter: back at the carter home, bill waited outside as detectives processed the crime scene, taking pictures, dusting for prints, collecting evidence. they recovered a spent bullet at the bottom of the refrigerator, and another fragment in the

floor. investigators told bill they thought something was off with the whole deal. >> her purse was hanging on mckenna's high chair with her credit cards, and $140 in cash in it. >> reporter: jewelry boxes were undisturbed. prescription meds, normally a prized item for a drug crazed robber, were untouched. so if this was a botched robbery, there's nothing taken? >> nothing taken. >> reporter: so with the intruder theory a bust, as they would in any murder case, police now began to look hard at the people close to shirley. bill says the lead investigator cut right to the chase. >> and he said, you know, you could've done this when you brought her back from coffee. >> well, spouses are always suspects we're told. >> right. >> reporter: deputies took both bill and son jason down to the station for interviews. bill says they asked him about his movements that morning, about his relationship with

shirley, and with jason. they also interviewed jason, who told them he'd also made a run to the grainery that morning, and then gone to his parents' house to spray the weeds in their fields. >> reporter: deputies let bill and jason go home that night. investigators still had the house taped off as a crime scene, so bill stayed at jason's home. >> and i didn't sleep that night. i smoked cigarettes, and i walked that deck. >> reporter: in the days that followed, bill says his grief was compounded by a sense that people were looking at him differently. >> i can't go uptown. people i've known all my life will -- can't look at me. >> reporter: as bill dealt with his loss, he also had to pull himself together to aide the investigators. >> deputies seized half a dozen guns they found in his house including some in this unlocked gun safe deep in the basement. when they gave jason a list of the weapons they'd confiscated -- he noticed one

gun was missing from the inventory -- a high-powered rifle like this one. how did the weapon come to you? >> my oldest son bought it for me in 2005 for christmas. >> did you ever shoot it? >> i shot it that day, the day i was given it. >> reporter: when ballistics experts looked carefully at the bullets recovered from the kitchen, they told bill they thought that missing rifle could well be the murder weapon. >> they said, this is similar to, or, this is from the very weapon that -- >> they can't -- >> reporter: killed shirley? >> say for sure it's from the very weapon, but it is very close to the bullet that went in the refrigerator. >> reporter: if that was the murder weapon it quickly limited the universe of suspects because very few people knew where the gun safe was, or that it was unlocked. their hypothetical suspect, therefore, was most likely someone in the carter family, who'd all gathered for shirley's

funeral, five days after her murder. irene shulz was there. >> family and close friends. because there was just a lot of speculation. >> it was you know, an incredible emotional thing. >> reporter: she couldn't imagine someone in this family being capable of murder. >> we've known them for, oh, about 40 years. good family, good, strong, well thought of in the community. friends rejected outright the very idea that jason or bill could have done this. >> reporter: what about bill? how would -- would his life be better with his wife shot to death on the kitchen floor? >> exactly. >> reporter: what's the motivation here? >> exactly, there's none. >> reporter: and what about jason, the kid next door she watched grow up? >> we're still seeing the same kid that we always saw, the good neighbor kid. >> reporter: by the end of august, the corn was high. two months since shirley's murder and investigators were hinting that the case was wrapping up. >> police in marion county

appear closer to making an arrest, but it turned out there was no break, no arrest. >> reporter: bill carter was turning it all over endlessly in his mind and was beginning to consider the unthinkable. >> reporter: coming up -- >> the shooter could have opened the door and fired from a low position. [ gun shot ] >> reporter: a hired gun takes a shot at the case, and may have discovered a motive. >> bill carter was almost puritanistic in his view of matrimony. en... yea--i can read, you know. we're done here. ahhh! boogers to betsy! mucinex fast-max. 9 symptoms. 1 dose. max strength. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. and for kid's multi-symptom relief, try #1 recommended children's mucinex.

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also: a beloved pet is tied up and thrown out of a moving car. the only evidence police have to track down the dog killer. the calendar shows winter. but it will feel like spring. i )m going to show you something in the long range forecast your weather app won )t. join us, after dateline. >> reporter: bill carter can't let go of the pain. when do you miss her the most, bill? >> when i first started to sleep. and i'd reach across where she would be. and she wasn't there. i miss her all the time. >> reporter: six months went by and still no one had been charged with shirley's murder.

the case seemed to be growing as cold as an iowa winter. >> a plea for justice today in marion county. >> reporter: frustrated with pace of the investigation, dozens of shirley's family and friends gathered outside the courthouse. nbc affiliate, w-h-o-tv covered the rally. >> we must bring some closure, we must have justice for shirley. >> we were hoping that the county attorney would be there. >> reporter: did anything happen as a result of that? >> no, no. >> reporter: bill felt the case was stalled, so decided he needed his own investigator. [ gunshot ] >> reporter: he hired nick webb, a crime scene analyst and former homicide detective from texas. bill asked him to dig into the case with an open mind. if it's the good, the bad, and the ugly, is it all gonna be in your final report? >> we are only advocates for the truth. once we find out what the truth is, they have to decide what to do with it. >> reporter: to aid his investigation, webb purchased a rifle just like the one missing

from bill's basement. >> it's a remington model 770, magazine fed, bolt action, 270 caliber rifle. >> reporter: at the carter home, webb showed us how it might have gone down. >> one possibility is that the shooter could've opened the door and fired from a low position. >> reporter: the bullet that ripped through shirley's body still had enough power to punch a hole in the refrigerator across the room. as shirley fell to the floor, webb theorized the killer probably stepped closer, and fired again. this time directly at her chest. >> the second shot would've been fired from between the edge of the doorway and the edge of the countertop. >> reporter: it was all theory, but if that rifle was the murder weapon, webb says it reveals something else about the killer. the remington rifle ejects a shell between shots. at least one of those would have flown out since the killer shot shirley twice. did you find that? >> no. it was never found. >> reporter: so somebody had the presence of mind to gather it up. >> that's correct.

>> reporter: he concluded shirley's killer was one cool customer. do you see -- elements of panic here? >> i do not. >> reporter: webb also took look at bill's movements that morning. he realized bill couldn't have killed shirley right after their coffee run as an investigator had suggested. that's because phone records show shirley making a call from the house phone at 8:45am after bill dropped her off. and by 9am, bill was spotted at the granary 50 miles from the house. webb said bill's only chance to kill her, was after that. >> bill has to leave the granary, he has to get home, kill his wife, shirley, and then leave before jason can get there. >> reporter: is it impossible for bill to do all this toing and froing in the time allowed? >> it would certainly be a very tight timeline. >> reporter: squeaky to get it done huh? >> certainly. >> reporter: from the beginning, bill had harbored doubts about his son. jason was at the scene. he found his mother and he was one of the few who knew where

that rifle was in the basement. if jason is the shooter, what events have to come together? >> he already puts himself there during the time that the murder would've been committed. so jason simply has to -- commit the murder instead of doing the other tasks that he said he did. >> reporter: is it your belief that jason shot his mother? >> yes. >> reporter: webb had affirmed bill's worst suspicions. and after shirley's murder, bill learned something else disturbing about jason. he was having an affair. >> he -- liked other women and i did not know it until after shirley was killed. >> reporter: and you know now he was, what, running around huh? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: webb thought that could have been a motive. >> an affair would have probably caused his father to cut him off. >> reporter: disinherit him. that serious? >> very serious. >> reporter: in that household, that was -- a mortal sin that couldn't be forgiven, huh? >> bill carter was almost puritanistic in his view of

matrimony. >> reporter: and webb discovered that inheritance could indeed be worth killing for. the hundreds of acres bill and shirley had bought over the years were now worth millions. >> we made a terrible mistake when we changed our will. we left all the land to jason. and the big mistake was we told him. >> they said the land, at the time, woulda been worth around eight million. >> reporter: i can't imagine what's going on inside your whole emotional -- mental apparatus, bill. here you've lost the love of your life, and then you're starting to believe that your son is responsible for the worst of reasons? >> it was terrible. >> reporter: just about grubby money? >> greed and sex. >> reporter: and while bill never confronted his son about his suspicions, he remembered a moment when it all became clear. not long after the murder, bill says, jason found out he was going to visit his lawyer.

the son was over at the house in minutes. >> he came-- bargin' through the door and he said, "what are you gonna go see your lawyer about?" and i said, "i just need to get some things straightened out. there's some things that don't add up." and that's when he slammed his fist on the countertop and he said, "my life is over." >> reporter: his life. jason's life is over. >> his life is over. i knew then he had done it. >> reporter: it was a horrible realization. you're tellin' me your boy became a monster? >> he did. he did. i'm ashamed. >> reporter: you shouldn't be ashamed. you did everything you could for the boy. >> i didn't do somethin' right. >> reporter: bill may have been sure about jason. the district attorney was not. so, bill decided to up the ante and put even more pressure on the d.a. he would do what investigators had not, force his own son to

answer questions under oath. >> my attorney said "you know, we can file a wrongful death suit. and that will force the county attorney to make a move." >> reporter: take him to civil court to get the county to do what you thought should be the right thing? should be the right thing. >> reporter: so this might be the only shot there's ever gonna be in a courtroom? >> that's right. and for shirley, it's worth it. >> reporter: but as certain as bill was, there were those in this little town who thought there was no way jason could have killed his mother. the battle for justice was just beginning. >> reporter: coming up -- >> you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. >> reporter: blood against blood in court. >> you shot your mother to death. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. one for someone in yo.

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now. >> bill's carter's lawyer, mark weinhardt, opened by telling the jury only one person wanted shirley dead. >> the killer is sitting a few feet from you. that's the killer right there, jason carter. >> reporter: it started like a murder case, but remember, this was a civil trial. the father the plaintiff, the son the defendant. the burden of proof is much lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. >> the plaintiff only has to prove the -- defendant liable by a preponderance of the evidence, in other words, 51% likely that you are right. >> reporter: there was someone unexpected sitting in the courtroom -- the district attorney. the same d.a. who had not charged jason. he brought his legal pad to court almost every day and took detailed notes. >> do you solemnly swear? >> reporter: one of the first witnesses was the plaintiff -- bill carter - - who talked about

the day of the murder. >> she was standing in the circle drive, holding her cup of coffee. that's the last time i seen her. >> reporter: bill carter's lawyer now focused on what he characterized as jason's suspicious behavior. >> reporter: he played jason's 911 call. >> there's a hole through the floor and into the frigerator. >> reporter: even though he sounded distraught, the lawyer said, jason's own words incriminated him. >> he knew things. that only the killer would know. he knew there been two gunshots fired. >> reporter: weinhardt argued jason said something else that he couldn't possibly have known. >> reporter: looks like she's been laying here for two hours. i don't get what happened. >> and you hear him say that his mother has been dead for two hours, which medically is absolutely not the fact based upon what we know about the condition of the body. but also, why would he be saying that, other to already start to create the narrative, "hey it

wasn't me." >> reporter: now bill's lawyer also attacked jason's character -- to show the jury he was not a devoted family man. there had been rumors around town about jason's extramarital affair. >> do you solemnly swear? >> reporter: now here came proof. >> i do. >> reporter: this was jason's woman on the side. her name -- tara hoch. >> you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. >> reporter: tara told a sizzling tale about a 15-month affair with the married jason carter. >> how frequently were you guys having sex? >> uh -- on average it would've been several times a week. >> did you ever tell mr. carter you loved him? >> i did. >> did he ever reciprocate and tell you that he loved you? >> he did. >> reporter: but bill's lawyer said there was something else. jason and tara texted each other constantly. on the morning of the murder they exchanged more than a hundred texts. some of them steamy. >> do you recall what your last text message from mr carter was. >> um -- it was something sexual.

>> reporter: weinhardt said conversation ended only when jason stopped texting as he pulled up to his parents' house. >> text, text, text, until 10:50 a.m., at which point the text traffic goes dark. >> reporter: quiet for 13 minutes until jason made that phone call to his sister -- telling her their mother was dead. weinhardt said that was more than enough time to kill his mother and stage a robbery. >> when you're deliberating, somebody start a timer for 13 minutes. and as you're sitting there, think about what he could be doing in that space. >> plaintiff calls jason carter. >> mr. carter, if you would come up. >> reporter: then came the moment so many had been waiting two years for jason, the favorite son and accused killer, on the stand, under oath- telling the jury about seeing his mother dead. >> i couldn't believe what i'd found. >> reporter: weinhardt probed

about his 911 call. >> was it important to you, to tell the 911 operator that she had been gone for two hours to make it less likely that anyone would think that you were involved with the death? >> no. >> reporter: weinhardt confronted jason about the affair. >> you had sex with her multiple times a week. >> correct. >> you did it in a friend's residence, in cars, even in your own house. >> correct. >> you became a practiced, skilled a chronic liar? >> correct. >> reporter: now bill's lawyer tried to prove motive. it was, he argued, about money. the jury was told jason was a spendthrift. >> he puts money into motorcycles and nice cars -- and trips and vacations. >> reporter: at the same time jason was expanding his farm operation. where did all that leave him? more than half a million dollars in debt. >> jason was as broke as he had ever been. he had $40 in his personal bank

account, $80 in his business bank account -- so he at that point is feeling like his back is to the wall. >> reporter: weinhardt said jason saw only one way out. getting control of his parents' farmland worth up to eight million dollars. jason knew he stood to inherit all of it. >> my dad said that, shelly and i and our kids -- will inherit the ground and that your sister and brother will inherit everything above ground. >> reporter: the lawyer mapped out his theory. shirley had found out about jason's affair. and if shirley knew, bill would soon know, too. jason worried he would be disinherited. weinhardt also suggested jason might have had something more sinister in mind. maybe jason expected to find bill with shirley that morning. >> what was his plan on that morning of the 19th? was it to kill them both? we don't know. we'll never know. but --

if the two of them died, jason got all of it, free and clear. >> reporter: jason owned up to being a liar and a cheat. but there was one thing he was adamant about. >> i want you to look at the jury and tell them the truth. and the truth, sir, is that as she stood in the doorway of the house where she raised you in her sock feet, you shot your mother to death. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: bill's lawyer wasn't buying it. he insisted jason had broken half of the ten commandments. >> thou shalt not kill. thou shalt not commit adultery. thou shalt not bear false witness. thou shalt not covet. honor thy father and mother. >> and that's all visited to that little farmhouse. >> that's right. >> reporter: now it was the defense's turn and jason's attorney would stand the story completely on its head. >> it was bill carter that killed her.

>> reporter: coming up -- did bill carter have a motive for murder? >> something happened on that friday that made him snap. >> reporter: and, the verdict. think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are changing the way they fight it... they're moving forward with cosentyx®. it's a different kind of targeted biologic. it's proven to help people find less joint pain and clearer skin. don't use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms of an infection. or if you have received a vaccine, or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur.

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>> what the evidence is going to show is that jason had a loving, close relationship with his mother. testamento?. it? >> well, there's elements of both. old testament and -- fiery judgment, shakespearean in the relationships between fathers and sons, and soap opera with an affair, all packaged into one. >> reporter: lawyer wandro challenged the accusation that jason, in his 911 call, had revealed details only the killer would know. >> there's a hole through the floor and into the refrigerator. >> reporter: wandro says those bullet marks would have been visible to anyone. >> at no point did he say "she's been shot," but look it. there's a mark in the floor, there is a hole in the refrigerator. and that is obvious when you look at those crime photographs.

[ crying ] >> i couldn't believe what i was seeing. i don't remember everything i said. >> reporter: as for jason's affair? wandro told the jury it was irrelevant, a salacious distraction, and of course jason lied about it to preserve his family. >> if you wanna characterize him as a bad guy for carrying on an affair, fine. but that doesn't make the man a killer. >> reporter: wandro called jason's wife, shelly, to the stand. she told the jury despite everything she still supported her husband. >> have you and jason reconciled? >> everyday i work on forgiving, but never forgetting, because i don't deserve that, and neither do my children. [ crying ] but yes, i love my husband, and

we have reconciled. >> reporter: the defense now turned to motive. wandro argued jason didn't have one. shelly said they were never in money trouble. she conceded that at one point, they owed the bank more than half a million dollars on their loan. but she said that was business as usual for farmers. >> and you paid that off in 2016? >> we paid that off just like we paid it off every year so we could renew our line and start again. the same routine every year. >> reporter: jason's lawyer said even if they were in debt, killing shirley would not have solved jason's financial problems as long as his father was still alive. he argued, it simply didn't make sense. >> there was never any inkling, that there was any problem between jason carter and his mother. >> reporter: but wandro was about to tell what he said was the real story -- and it would

completely change the plot of this courtroom drama. >> mr. weinhardt's is right. the killer of shirley carter is in this room. and it's not jason carter. it's him, the accuser. >> reporter: as for motive, wandro suggested perhaps bill and shirley were having trouble in their marriage. maybe she had even threatened to leave him. >> she had to get permission for everything. >> reporter: jason's wife testified that shirley complained to her that bill was too controlling. >> whether it be to make a hair appointment or to help with the kids whatever it was, she had to get his permission before she could do that. >> reporter: she said shirley couldn't even do the little things she wanted. >> the night before shirley's death, she turned and looked at me and she said, "the one thing i'd like to be able to control is the way i mow my yard, and i can't even do that." >> reporter: wandro said it all must have come to a head on that june morning. >> and something happened on that friday that made him snap.

and he is the one that killed his wife. >> reporter: finally, more than two years after shirley had been shot to death. and after two weeks of trial, the epic battle between father and son went to the jury. >> the court will now read the verdict. >> reporter: it took the jurors just a little more than two hours of deliberation to reach a verdict. >> question one. did the defendant, jason carter, batter shirley carter causing damages to plaintiffs? answer -- yes. jason was found liable for killing his mother. and since the defense had accused bill of killing shirley, there was a second question the jury had to answer. >> question two -- did plaintiff, bill g. carter, batter shirley carter causing damages to her estate? >> reporter: answer -- no. bill was in the clear. >> i seen my son lay his head down on the table in front of him. it had to come.

sooner or later, it had to come. >> reporter: since this was a civil case, jason wasn't getting any prison time. >> what amount of punitive damages if any do you award the estate of shirley carter? >> reporter: answer -- $10 million. >> reporter: ungettable money. >> we don't expect to collect much of anything, if -- >> reporter: was -- was money ever -- >> -- if any. >> reporter: -- part of this for bill? >> no. the more important thing for bill was simply to have eight people from that county hearing all the evidence and saying jason did it. >> the burden was lifted. that's just the best way i can say it, it was lifted off of me. >> jason carter was found by the jury responsible for shirley carter's death. >> reporter: news of the verdict had barely been broadcast when there was another startling development in the case. >> less than 48 hours later on a sunday afternoon they arrest jason. >> reporter: bill got a call to come down to the sheriff's office. he arrived just in time. >> two deputies were taking him

in, in -- cuffs. >> reporter: jason was charged with first degree murder and now faces a criminal trial. he has pleaded not guilty, and plans to file an appeal in the civil case. >> jason, i loved him so much. probably still do. >> reporter: well you either have a lot of healing to do or there's just going to be ruptures there forever. >> i hope that i get to talk to jason sometime. >> reporter: what would the first question be? >> why? why? why? >> reporter: i know you're a religious man, bill. did ya tell shirley about all these things? >> i've talked to her. i've seen her in my dreams. >> reporter: you tell her, "we finally got justice here"? >> did up at the cemetery, yeah. it's still so cold up there.

she shouldn't be there. it's not right. >> reporter: written on shirley's gravestone are the names of her children, daughter jana and son billy. but there's one name missing, the once favorite son, jason carter. >> reporter: that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll be off for the next three weeks as nbc brings you coverage of the winter olympic games in pyeongchang. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, goodnight. a coast guard search w -- off the san mateo county coast also...it escalated fast. we have the video of a car break-in -- that turned dangerous for officers. and the sobering reality for bay area football fans, who travelled to minnesota for the super bowl. hi, we're alaska airlines. and our california game is stepping up. with our low fares, your san jose start-up

won't have to pony up for a quick flight to an la meet-up. and you might even get an up-grade on your next trip to palm springs. over 90 daily non-stops. from san diego on up. alaska airlines. that's how we fly. and now, step up to alaska premium class, with upgrades starting at just $15. video that shows how a car break- in quickly turned very dangerous right now at 11:00 we've obtained surveillance video that shows how a car break in quickly turns very dangerous for san francisco police officers. the news at 11:00 starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us i'm janel wang sitting in for jessica aguirre. >> i'm raj mathai. tonight we see the whole thing of a police confrontation. and