>> for more information visit our website. the address is -- dateline.msnbc.com. that's all for now. i'm ann curry and for all of us here at nbc news, thanks for joining us. 911 emergency. >> has the jury reached a verdict? >> we the jury find the defendant -- it was an accident the first time she was shot with a crossbow. it must have been. anyway, she survived. >> she was very light-hearted about the whole situation. >> she didn't survive the second time. >> there's anna lane at the end of the treadmill with an arrow stuck straight in her back.

>> what are the chances, shot twice with a crossbow by her husband? no wonder the prosecutor said it was murder. >> that shows that the arrow basically comes straight in. >> no surprise the husband said it was not. >> did you move the crossbow after anna was struck? >> i never touched it. >> it was so bizarre, so medieval, so unbelievable. >> it's kind of like whoa. >> could he possibly be telling the truth? >> i don't think anybody in the jury wanted to say that this man did it. >> "the crossbow incident." thanks for joining us. i'm chris hansen. over the years we've reported on all sorts of strange and baffling deaths. people pushed off cliffs, poisoned with antifreeze or with a rare radioactive isotopisotop. how often is someone shot with a crossbow and not just once, but twice? here's keith morrison.

♪ >> it is, need it be said, beyond bizarre, the sort of scrapes people get themselves in to, odd accidents, freakish, improbable. lightning striking twice. still, it does happen, doesn't it? though sometimes in the wounded wake of an incident especially strange, a question darkens the mind. was it really an accident? take, for example, this. on a warm sunny day in october 2005 in a sweet little town by the sea, virginia beach, virginia. >> she came in the store and was kind of chuckling about it. >> robert katz owns a jewelry store in virginia beach. he and charlene, his wife, are transplanted new yorkers and close friends of the injured party. >> she says he tried to shoot me with a crossbow. i said, you're kidding! and she goes, no. and i go, really, what are you

talking about? >> shot with a crossbow? and she was smiling? the customer whose lighthearted remarks who so confused katz was a woman anna kramer. the shooter, her husband kenny. the location of this unfortunate mishap? the two-car garage at the front of the kramer's comfortable suburban home. >> she said it was an accident and he was trying to load it or something and the thing went off and it grazed her evidently. she said i wasn't going to -- you know, it's nothing. i'll put a band-aid on it. don't worry about it, it's fine. >> the whole business was little more than embarrassing really. anna said she didn't want to go to the hospital. it was kenny who apparently panicked, called 911. there was a rush to the emergency room to treat a nick on the side of her breast, a few stitches. but, of course, on that 911 call, authorities heard the word "crossbow." so down here at the hospital kenny found himself in the company of virginia beach's

finest. >> then he got arrested. and then she wouldn't press charges. it was ridiculous. she said, he didn't try to shoot me. come on, it was an accident. and end of conversation. i mean -- and he was released. >> they bought the crossbow together for recreation anna told them, and both she and ken had tried it out, but after that close call, they were getting rid of it. >> he was giving it to his wife to give to one of the other teachers she worked with and, you know, get rid of it. >> but of course, the katzes couldn't have any idea back then what would soon happen to that crossbow and their good friends, the creamers, especially, said their friends, when they thought about what lovely people the creamers were. what a loving couple. >> he was a good father and husband. he took his son to scuba diving lessons, to dance lessons. he treated his wife with the utmost respect. never raised his voice, never

used profanity. just a nice guy. he was a well-rounded nice man, and i had no problem with him whatsoever. >> every time we were together with them or when they came into the store to visit us, they always seemed like a very close-knit family. i mean, they just seemed good together. >> it was nothing aggressive about this guy. i only found him to be a loving man. and he told me on many occasions how much he loved his wife and his son. you could see it when they were together. it was nothing that i was making up. he worshiped the ground this girl walked on. i mean, they just -- they kind of loved each other, and it showed. >> the creamers were quite a bit younger than the katzes, but as transplanted new yorkers, they had a lot to share. >> they were as close as family could be without being family. >> they were there

christmastime, you know, for dinner. they were there thanksgiving. they were at our house. >> they brought the boy, of course. he was 11 then and the light of their lives. he was shy, had a few learning issues, perhaps, a little trouble socializing, but oh, how the creamers doted on that boy. >> he was brilliant. >> he was an adorable child. >> kenny and his son were virtually inseparable. kenny even turned up most days at his son's school to have lunch with the boy just because the child seemed to need it. >> i thought it was absolutely wonderful, to be quite honest. >> kim choate was a friend of the creamers, too, and her own son was also shy. so she understood and appreciated kenny's constant presence at school. >> he'd bring stuff in and make him laugh and smile all the time. he welcomed my son. >> kenny was an insurance agent till he went on disability after a car accident. so he was a stay-at-home dad. anna taught school and had to

work. so kim saw her, well, she can explain where. >> i started a bunco group about eight years ago. >> what's a bunko group? >> bunko is like a dice game. it's where a bunch of women get together and you talk stuff about the husbands and stuff, you know? >> that's how kim heard the story, from anna herself. that the first incident was purely an accident, which happened when her son, not her husband, handed her the crossbow. >> she didn't grab it quick enough, and the bow hit and went off. >> so she blamed herself and it wasn't her son's fault? >> no, no. no, absolutely not. you know, i can't even imagine a child thinking that they almost hurt her mama and they did. >> most of anna's stories were happy back then, like the one about their wedding. kenny had a way of doing things with flair. when he and anna got married he put on a giant fairy tale event and he actually rented jackie

onassis' yacht for the reception. >> she never had anything to say negative about kenny. i always thought they had a perfect marriage. >> but you know and i know that nobody's perfect, no marriage ideal. sometimes with a little distance you see things. >> we weren't friends. we were neighbors. that's how i like to put it. >> right next door to the creamers no more than a couple of tract house walls and a strip of grass apart lived a man who saw the creamers through a less rosy lens. this is randall howes, retired naval officer, and it was something about the chemistry with anna wasn't good. especially after ab altercation over howes' dogs. >> she said, your dogs, they bark, bark, bark, bark. she really got mad. i said, okay, anna we're not having this conversation right now. i turned and walked away. and that really made her mad. after that, i never spoke to her. >> so there was tension across that strip of grass. and then howes got the idea that

maybe ken had some trouble with anna's temper too, since ken gave howes the cold shoulder when anna was around, but was friendly when she wasn't around. >> he asked me what the problem was with his wife. i said -- so what i do, i just ignore her. and he said, that's probably the best thing, because she has a hair trigger. >> but the creamers did seem to get along, said howes, except for that one time when he overheard all that yelling. >> when you don't know a couple really well or you're not inside their home with them all the time, it's hard to explain. but i had come home from work and was standing out front getting the mail out of the mailbox, and anna pulled in. i happened to notice, i heard the car pull in next door. and she was, i guess, coming home, too. got out and went into the house and she no more than got in there and there was some yelling. and not screaming, just yelling back and forth. i could tell it was her and ken. then after -- i don't know -- two seconds of yelling or

whatever, something broke. it sounded like something hit the wall. you see these movies where someone throws a vase or whatever, but -- then she came walking very fast, very agitated. got in her car, started it up, and started to back out. >> and her son burst out the door. >> and said, mommy, don't go, don't go. you don't have to go. >> still, everybody has fights sometimes. so it hardly seemed likely this neighbor and what he saw were about to move center stage in our strange drama. because of what happened on another fine morning, a sunday it was, about three months after that bizarre crossbow accident. almost beyond belief really. and if you haven't guessed already, the reason we're telling you all this. what did we say? lightning striking twice? >> what has happened? sir, don't hang up with me! what's happened? sir? sir? >> a frantic call, a frightening sight. >> there's anna laying at the

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i need an ambulance right now, 3089 polk drive. 3089 polk drive. please hurry. >> what has happened? sir? don't hang up with me. what's happened? sir? sir? >> there is a surreal quality to events so carved in memory when lives unalterably change. odd then how completely those memories can and do diverge. it was, no disagreement about this, a sunday morning when it happened. >> i was on my way to church. >> here's what the next-door neighbor, the retired navy commander, randall howes remembers. >> i was walking out through the garage, and i heard the dogs barking and somebody was at the front door. i went around the corner of the garage. >> there was the 11-year-old

neighbor boy. >> he was in his pajamas and he said, mr. randy, we need your help. >> howes asked the boy, what are you saying? that's when he heard the unforgettable phrase. >> he said, mr. randy, the crossbow. and ken came to the door, and i would say melting down, just very upset. just saying, i need help, i need help. >> ken creamer led his neighbor through the house and into the two-car garage. >> and there's anna laying at the end of the treadmill with her hands up under her head with an arrow stuck straight in her back. >> dead. had to be. but only just, said howes. the body was still pink. >> kind of like, whoa. >> but now what happened next would be central. the military man, his eyes, his memory, this is what he says he saw. >> the first thing i did was scan the garage for the crossbow. i looked real quick and it was sitting on the box on top of this blue wrapping paper on the far side of the refrigerator.

>> funny the things that become so terribly important later on. on top of a box on blue wrapping paper the far side of the refrigerator. that's what howe remembered. the rest of us might have missed it. here's what else he saw. >> he was beside himself. he was very, very, very upset, agitated. and i'll say this. my impression was if you were standing on the edge of hell, when i walked in and i saw her laying down with the arrow in her back, it was -- my first impression was, it was a dead kill shot, because it looked like it went right through the heart. if it wasn't, it was very, very close, but it was dead on. i mean, 90 degrees, straight in. >> and that's what you told the police? >> that's what i told the police. >> so if it had gone off by accident, it would have had to

have hit that fridge, somehow hit at such an angle that the arrow -- >> that's right. >> -- in a strange coincidence, came out perfectly -- >> exactly. >> but it would have been -- >> the right height also. the right height, the right angle. and i can tell you, if i was going to murder someone with a crossbow, i'd darn make sure it goes in on an angle. >> creamer wrapped a white towel now reddened with blood around the fatal wound on his wife's back. >> so he would get down and just -- i said affectionately, you know, just very caringly rearrange it and he would say, where's the ambulance? i need help. this was supposed to be a gift for a friend. it wasn't supposed to be here. then he would start to cry. >> good evening. our top story at 6:00, a bizarre death investigation in virginia beach. authorities say a woman died after she was shot in the back with an arrow. >> before long, the street outside was a parking lot. after the ambulance and the police cars, came the local media.

and pretty soon, just about everybody knew that this was not the first crossbow shooting in ken creamer's house. >> officers got a first look at the family's crossbow back in october. that time police say it accidentally struck anna creamer. >> lightning striking twice, a person could understand, actually. but this? >> resuscitative efforts were attempted, however, she was pronounced deceased at the house. >> a detective put creamer into a police car. kenny said good-bye to his son. said he'd be back. the detective drove down to the station. >> i appreciate you coming down. >> am i in any trouble? >> no, you're not. we're just talking. >> ken creamer told the officer that he under the direction of his wife anna was cleaning up the garage. picking out things to save, items to throw away, or give away. rearranging. then he picked up this one bag. didn't know what was in it, he said. he kind of threw it off to the side. >> i heard it hit the side of the refrigerator. >> i heard you right, so you

threw the bag, you heard the sound of the crossbow going off immediately. >> yeah. >> okay. >> i heard sound, and i didn't really know what was happening. >> an accident, said ken creamer, horrible, unbelievable but true. creamer told the cop he didn't even know the crossbow was still in the house, didn't know it was in the bag he tossed across the garage, didn't know it was loaded, with a hunting arrow, no less. maybe she loaded it, he says. >> can you explain to me why you think she loaded the bow before she put in it the bag? >> i don't know. i don't know. sometimes she does -- she -- my wife does whatever she wants to do. you can tell her not to do something, and she'll do it? >> really? even after she'd already been injured in that earlier crossbow incident, asked the interrogator? >> i didn't touch it. >> i didn't say you did. kenny, i didn't say you did. >> and only then it seemed to dawn on ken creamer that the man in the room did not believe him. >> we've been married 13 years. you can ask. never had one. >> never had a fight? >> never had a fight. never had one.

i buy my wife jewelry, whatever she wants. >> i'm asking you for the investigation, ken. >> i didn't -- >> you need to relax. >> i mean, i love my wife so much. >> i know you do. >> why would i -- i would never do anything to my wife. and my son. i love my son. >> of course, ken creamer was exactly right, this officer was very suspicious of him. >> i don't know! >> anna would put a loaded crossbow -- >> i don't know! i don't know! >> okay. kenny, kenny, you got to calm down. >> i can't. >> ken creamer was the picture of a grief-stricken man, but his answers, decided police, just didn't add up. what happened to ken's wife anna simply couldn't have been an accident, could it? they arrested him, charged him with murder. and what about the long, slow business of collecting evidence for a trial? >> detectives say what happened yesterday was no accident. this time, they say, it was a homicide.

>> they put the boy into foster care briefly and then he was taken away too live with anna's relatives. ken was denied bail and took up involuntary residence here in the virginia beach county jail. it was more than a year later when police, still preparing their case, mind you, asked neighbor randall howes for another interview. >> they had some pictures, crime scene photographs that i had not seen. >> but now he saw something very disturbing. and right then and there randall howes knew he was about to play another important role in ken creamer's life. >> so i went, uh-oh. this means probably that my testimony will be key. >> and randall howes was absolutely right. a trial begins and the prosecution tries to prove that what happened to this young wife and mother was no accident. >> i determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. bored with your one trick lipstick?

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ken creamer killed his wife anna. of that, there was no doubt. shot her with a crossbow, right here in his garage. and the shock of it was, he'd done it before. just didn't kill her that time. so the charge that put him in this place, first-degree murder, no surprise. but still, justice crawled. the boy adjusted to a new life with anna's family, a family that came to believe firmly in creamer's guilt. and for 2 1/2 years, he sat in jail waiting to answer the question. >> how do you plead, guilty or not guilty? >> not guilty. >> this was june 2008. >> the commonwealth's evidence will show this was no accident. >> and this, the prosecutor, tabitha anderson.

>> here's your timeline. september 2005 the defendant buys the crossbow. less than 30 days later anna creamer takes an arrow to her chest. and she goes to the hospital. less than 90 days after that, she takes an arrow in the back, and this time she goes to the morgue. >> had to be murder, said the prosecutor. >> that shows that the arrow basically comes straight in. >> look how the arrow went straight into her back and almost right through her, said the medical examiner, as if it was carefully aimed from close range. >> i was able to run my hand over the skin of her chest, and i could feel the tip of the arrow under my fingertips. >> also, said the examiner, it was a razor-sharp hunting arrow and did a lot of damage.

>> it perforated the heart basically impaled the heart. as the arrow came from back to front, it went through the aorta, completely severing it. just cut it right in half. >> no doubt about the conclusion, she said. >> i determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. >> the "x" right here is where mr. creamer said he was standing. >> the detective who interrogated kenneth creamer right after the shooting testified when he asked creamer why the crossbow was loaded and with a hunting arrow, that the answer that his wife must have loaded it didn't seem believable. >> last time i touched it, it was in october. >> remember, this was the second time anna was shot. so now the prosecutor looked back to that first incident. was creamer's story about that time consistent or believable? here's what creamer's brother-in-law, anna's sister's husband, remembers him saying

back then. >> he told me that he called his wife into the garage, anna, and that he had a surprise for her and when she walked into the garage, that the weapon somehow discharged. >> now listen to what an acquaintance remembers creamer telling her. >> he said that the crossbow was sitting on a shelf and it fell, as she was reaching for the keys and he said it came up through the right side of her breast and out the center and just that it exited completely. and he was going to be in the doghouse for a while. >> a slightly different take. then there was a friend of anna's named sue cotton who said she cornered ken in the house one day after the first incident when she noticed the crossbow in the garage. why didn't he get rid of the thing? >> i can't throw in it the trash. if somebody comes and takes it out of my trash can, then i'd be liable for anything they'd do

with it. i said, okay, why don't you disassemble it, break it apart so that nobody could use it? he said, you can't disassemble a crossbow. i said, why don'you take it to the police station? you can take to it the police station and just drop it off there. and he said -- he started to laugh. >> could such a precise memory 2 1/2 years later be trusted completely? that would become an issue. still, two shootings less than three months apart. perhaps insurance was the motive, said the prosecution. the creamers kept policies for heart attacks, for cancer, even for their dog, about $1 million in all. enough for murder? but motive wasn't at the heart of the prosecution's case. rather it was two witnesses who claimed they had evidence to show it couldn't have been an accident. here was the first. a man named j.j. mason, a firearms expert who said he tried to make that weapon fire by accident. hit it with a mallet a couple dozen times, and -- >> during the course of my examination of this crossbow i

found no reason why it would fire without a pull of the trigger. >> in other words, the arrow that went through anna creamer must have been fired on purpose. >> i saw anna laying there facedown with an arrow square in her back. >> but the true star of the case against ken creamer was the next-door neighbor. that retired naval commander, randall howes. >> ken is kind of just babbling, making noise or whatever and saying, we need help, we need help now. >> remember, howes told us he saw something in the garage that jumped out at him much later. a detail about to assume a huge importance. as howes stood there near anna's body, he testified, he was scanning the room looking for that crossbow. >> on the far side of the refrigerator there was a cardboard box, and sitting on top of the cardboard box was the crossbow. i could see the front of it. >> mr. howes, i'd like you to take a very careful look at that picture. you see a blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator in that picture, sir? >> yes, i do.

>> was that blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator, as it is in that picture when you went into the garage with mr. creamer? >> no, it wasn't. >> and there it was. the gotcha in the prosecution's case. here was an extremely credible witness, a military officer, whose memory strongly suggested that when howes stepped outside the garage that day to talk to the police, ken creamer still inside moved that crossbow, staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. powerful evidence. assuming the jury would decide to trust neighbor howes' military-trained memory and that firearm's expert's evaluation of the crossbow. but would they? ken creamer takes the stand. would jurors trust him? >> i heard a poof sound, and i turned around quick and my wife was already on the floor. [ male announcer ] let's level the playing field. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive,

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msnbc now.

i'm alex witt. as many as 70 people may be missing from a sinking cruise ship off the coast of tuscany. crew members search the inner cabins fearing that all of the unaccounted for may have been trapped inside. crews have recovered three body ps. a hole was ripped in the ship's hull when it unexpectedly ran aground. the cost of that incident is under investigation. i'll have more news in one hour. again, because it sounds bad doesn't mean it is bad. it's a classic situation of kind of lightning striking twice. >> ken creamer's defense attorney had a problem. the story was just so improbable. a man shoots the love of his life with a crossbow twice and claims each time it was nothing more than a freak accident. true, it's up to the state to

prove guilt, but as everybody knows, lightning hardly ever strikes twice. could any defense pass the laugh test? well, maybe. for one thing, said the defense, it would demonstrate in court that the firearm's expert was wrong, that the creamer's weapon could fire by accident. >> and i think what you'll see is that mr. mason, in fact, cannot say that this couldn't have been an accidental discharge. >> besides, there was lots of evidence of innocence, said the defense. would a guilty man sound this distraught on a 911 call? >> i need an ambulance right now. 3089 polk drive. 3089 polk drive. please hurry. >> what has happened? sir, don't hang up with me! what's happened? sir! sir? >> ken creamer would never kill his wife, said the defense. he adored the woman. and a parade of friends came to the witness stand to confirm it. music teacher. >> they seemed to get along

well. >> the boy's fifth grade teacher. >> got along great, great hostesses. everything seemed very normal. >> and remember this man? creamer friend and jeweler, robert katz. >> a loving, caring family. >> and his wife, charlene. >> such a loving family. they were very, very close. >> as for that first crossbow incident, the one that injured anna, well, she herself said it was an accident, the teacher testified. >> she laughed about it. told me what happened and just -- that's about it. she was very lighthearted about the whole situation. >> as for those insurance policies, yes, they totaled over a million dollars, but he'd been an insurance agent, remember? those amounts were normal, said the defense. anna bought some of them herself. and all of them were written to benefit not ken but their son.

still, that prosecution evidence was strong. the firearms expert, for example. >> in my examination of the crossbow, i found it to be in excellent mechanical operating condition, showing very little wear from very little use. >> the crossbow, he testified, simply could not have fired without someone pulling the trigger. but the expert only hit the weapon, he didn't test it by throwing it, which is what ken creamer said he had done. by the way, the defense, j.j. mason was an expert in guns, the kind that fired bullets. what did he know about a crossbow? so how, asked the defense, could anyone rely on this expert's opinion? time for the defense to make its own case with some courtroom drama. >> judge, i'm going to ask the court to indulge me with one more physical demonstration. >> defense attorney gregory turpan would show right here in court how the weapon could have fired accidentally. the right decision? well, maybe not.

>> actually, may i ask if i could have the witness step down while i do this, please? mr. mason. >> just don't mess it up. i assume you've done this before? >> judge, yes, sir. >> mr. mason, this is how it would be drawn back to begin with? >> that's correct. >> if i can ask you to tell me -- bear with me just a moment. judge, i'm going to try one more time, then i'm not going to take up any more of the court's time. >> the demonstration was an embarrassing bust. >> judge, thank you for the court's indulgence. i won't take up any more time. >> now the defense had one blockbuster witness left. >> i'll ask permission to call my client, kenneth creamer, please. >> ken creamer would tell the story himself. here he showed the jury what happened that sunday morning in his garage. >> then just -- not ask you to be an actor or anything, just how did you manipulate the bag? >> like this. >> just like that?

>> yes, sir. >> you can have a seat, sir. >> once you did that, then what happened? >> i heard a -- a poof sound. >> poof? >> like, yeah, you know, a poof sound. it was the bow. then i turned around quick and my wife was already on the floor. >> did you hear her say anything? >> no. just like a groan sound. >> as for that friend, sue cotton, who testified earlier that she'd lectured ken about getting rid of the crossbow -- >> did you tell her, i don't want to just throw it away or something like that? >> there was never a conversation with her. she just flat-out lied to everybody here. >> in fact, said creamer, he thought his wife had already given the crossbow away. but surely the neighbor, a man with an impeccable reputation was telling the truth when he said he saw evidence that creamer staged the crime scene to make it look like an accident.

>> no, said creamer, that was not the truth. the neighbor must have been seeing things. >> did you move the crossbow at all in any way after anna was struck? >> i never touched it. >> the case is now totally in your hands. >> so now the question would be handed to the jury. the memories were conflicting, but the facts were like lightning striking twice. had ken creamer persuaded the jury that such a thing was possible? jurors take aim at the truth as they wrestle with the crossbow. >> some of men tried to get a feel for how it loaded up. >> and, the verdict -- >> the jury finds the defendant -- >> when "the crossbow incident" continues. of ingredients... i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo!

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so mystically deadly as if the fear of it has come down through centuries in our genes and attached itself to a defendant named ken creamer. >> january 8th, 2006. early morning. sunday. >> a case that seemed to call for a passionate closing from prosecutor patrick connolly. >> the defendant took this crossbow, and he took this arrow. this crossbow bolt. he loaded it, and with it in there and his wife on a treadmill, he stood behind her and fired it directly into her back with malice, with premeditation, with deliberation, and he did it willfully. and you, each and every one of

you, know it's the truth. >> to which defense attorney ahshin farashahi replied -- >> how many times after an accident that you've said to yourself or someone had said, oh, my god. i can't believe i did that. that's the essence of an accident. and just because it's an accident that it's unlikely, that it's a freak accident, does not mean that it's murder. >> for the jury, the choice seemed relatively straightforward. >> i don't think anybody on the jury really wanted to say this man did it. >> of course, for the jury, and these members of the jury who gathered to talk about it, there were a number of questions to consider. as they talked in that jury room, they struggled to figure out how an accident might have played out. >> his statement that he threw this christmas bag, unbeknownst was the weapon in it and it had discharged. you know? where did it hit the

refrigerator, for example? and how did it land? we did have the weapon in our jury room. and some of the men tried to, you know, get a feel for how it loaded up. it takes a lot of strength to load that. >> but as they looked at the evidence -- >> and how the arrow that killed the woman, it went in straight. >> as they re-read ken creamer's testimony, his memory of the careless toss, the bag hitting the fridge, the loaded crossbow going off -- >> it physically was not possible. the physics of it disallowed it. >> then there was the neighbor, randall howes, whose memory suggested creamer staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. what was it that persuaded you that he was a credible witness? >> his character on the witness stand. >> just an upright -- >> good man. yes. >> could he have been mistaken, do you think? >> no, i don't think there was

any doubt. he told the truth. >> still, creamer said the crossbow went off inside a bag. maybe that made it an accident after all. >> we had the bag and we had the weapon, and we were trying to figure out desperately how could this weapon be in the bag and have done what it did. and none of the positions this bag was in made any sense whatsoever with the weapon inside of it. it just didn't make sense. >> we couldn't find -- >> we couldn't figure it out. >> we couldn't find a good exit hole. >> there was no rip in it. >> there was no hole for the arrow. it didn't make sense. >> so if it couldn't have been an accident the second time, what about the first? >> this sounds like that to me already he's already planning something. >> so now jury members realize they had formed some strong opinions about mr. creamer. >> i just don't put any stock in anything he says. you know, i just don't -- don't trust the guy. >> and once they decided that about ken creamer, members of the jury began to look at the marriage with anna in a whole new way.

remember, there was lots of evidence at the trial that suggested that the marriage was strong, that ken and anna were quite close. but once in the jury room, some of those members said, evidence or not, they saw it a different way. >> i think she was a woman that was living under terror with great threat upon her. >> so he planned it? >> yeah. >> he thought about it? >> yes. he wanted to kill her. i think he wanted to kill her in october. >> remain seated. >> and so the jury returned to the crowded courtroom and told the judge they were ready. >> in the case of the commonwealth of virginia versus kenneth frank creamer, we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. >> guilty. creamer twitched a little, looked down. they didn't believe him. >> he looked like a beaten dog. >> and among his few remaining friends, perhaps only these, the katzes, grieved for ken creamer. >> they had him guilty before

anything was done. i mean, the papers, the news. i mean, they just -- >> everybody portrayed him as a criminal. >> tore him to shreds. >> but you need a motive to kill somebody, ink. and he didn't have one as far as i could he wasn't a beneficiary on any of their policies. he didn't have another woman. they weren't destitute for money. i mean, you have to have a reason to do something like that. there was no reason. >> i can't see him taking the mother of his child away from -- away from him. i mean, you know, it was just the way -- if you saw them the way we saw them together, i just can't see it. >> and then as the clock ticked down towards his sentencing from his jail cell ken creamer jumped at one last chance to explain. what made you think you could actually kill your wife and get away with it?

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the sheriff of virginia beach, virginia, is a cautious man. in his jurisdiction a prisoner who wishes to talk to the media may do so only through a thick slab of bullet proof glass, which is the window through which we sized up the man who shot his wife with a cross bow. why did you decide to tell your story? >> because i wanted my side to get out. >> the beard, the prison jumpsuit, not at all in keeping with the image ken creamer presented at his trial. perhaps more suitable for a question that had been on the minds of many people here in virginia beach. what made you think you could actually kill your wife and get away with it? >> what you said is totally

false. never -- never. what you're saying now is like basically insulting me. no, never happened. not like the way you were saying it, no. >> trouble is, that's what the jury believes. that you planned it, conspired about it, set it up, did the whole thing yourself. thinking you were going to get away with it and walk away with a million bucks in cash at the same time. >> no, not true, not true. it's not true. >> what is true, said ken creamer, is that he and his wife had a wonderful relationship. never fought in the way the neighbor, the one anna didn't like, described. fighting in the house. anna running out of the house. >> never ever happened. no. >> never happened? >> no, never happened. >> every family fights. >> my wife never stormed out of the house. never, no. >> as for the crossbow, he

insisted he didn't know it was loaded. >> i never loaded it. so -- >> you're saying she did? >> most probably, yes. >> why would she do that? >> i don't know. >> i'm just trying to get through my head, why would somebody load a crossbow with a hunting arrow with a razor tip on it and put it in a bag in the garage. doesn't make any sense. >> that goes through my mind, too. i don't know. >> in fact, he still claims he was convinced anna had gien the crossbow away to a friend at work. what friend? that was unclear. >> you have the name of the friend? >> there was a two. one was a julia who wanted it. and was a pierce. miss pierce. i thought she was giving it to pierce. >> did those people ever testify at your trial? >> no. >> why not? >> why not? >> why wouldn't they say, she

was going to give me the cross bow. i was waiting to receive it. >> i know the investigator went to the school, and they said she wasn't around. she wasn't working there no more. >> so there's nobody to support your story. >> no. yeah. no. >> as for his neighbor's testimony that he saw evidence creamer had staged the crime scene. >> find a statement to the police and read it. let's see what it says. i bet you it's different than what he testified. >> but the problem and the inconvenient part of it is, he saw what he saw in the garage, and then he saw the photographs later of the way it was when, you know, evidence photos were taken, and he said the crossbow had been moved. and the only person who could have moved it is you. >> well, that's what he testified. but if you get his statement, wouldn't there be a statement? if he's the fist one on the scene to the detectives. he should have a statement, right? >> it might support his story.

>> i doubt it very much. i doubt it very much. >> worth going to have a look? >> please. and bring a copy to my lawyer. >> we did ask for the record to see the statement. the prosecutor declined our request. he insisted his jury was accurate and the jury, after all, believed him. in august of 2008 ken creamer appeared for one last chance to claim it was an accident. to appeal for the court's mercy. and then it was the judge's turn. >> i can't read his mind, but obviously at some point along the way mr. creamer has convinced himself that was the case. that in fact it was an accident. obviously the jury did not believe this particular killing was an accident. and having sat through the entire trial, quite frankly, neither does the court.

the sentence, life, no parole. decision made. every can't be certain, can't they? we were preparing to leaf the man behind the glass when he broke into a moment of unguarded emotion. he was remembering the minutes after the shots that took his wife changed his life. talking to that detective. saying good-bye to his son. >> i miss him a lot. in general what he thinks. just miss him. last time i seen him i said i'll be right back. it's like i abandoned him. you know, i worry about him. he's my son. >> maybe you are the unluckiest guy in the world. >> yeah, it looks that way. >> for more on this story you can visit our website. dateline.msnbc.com. that's all for now. i'm chris