that's all for now. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us. has the jury reached a verdict? we the jury find the defendant -- >> i felt like it was a hollywood movie. >> he was a wealthy executive and doting dad. >> he was very loving and concerned about his kids. >> in the midst of a nasty divorce with a bitter ex. >> he just said that his wife was putting him through so much. >> but soon he bounced back, a new life with a gorgeous new fiancé. and that's when it started. he felt threatened. >> he said i'm afraid for my life. >> haunted.

>> i said you're being m melodramatic. and he said no this is really happening. >> ambushed from inside his million-dollar dream house. >> suddenly he started to scream. >> shot to death, a crime of passion said police. >> somebody wanted this man dead very, very badly. >> the question was who? his ex? >> she was losing everything. >> or someone else? the arrest was startling. the strategy in the courtroom, that was the biggest surprise of all. >> he is overweight, out of shape. >> too fat, too sick? >> yes. >> was this suspect too fat to kill? >> thanks for joining us. i'm ann curry. a devoted father gunned down in his own home by someone on the stairs. it's a crime that made national news because of its unusual defense. the suspect argued he was too obese to carry out the murder. would the argument sway the jury? here's dennis murphy. >> the world of pills,

prescription medicines, pharmaceuticals is where he made it big. >> he was moses. he was walking on water. everybody loved him. >> paul seemed go from a college internship to the big money lifestyle of a pharmaceutical executive. on the way he, he figured out many ways to make money out of medicine. >> he could do almost anything. >> and for years this hard-charging golden boy seemed to have all the perks and bennies an executive could want. mid-six-figure paycheck, the million-dollar house in a good suburb, the wife and kids, and then just like that, it all slipped away from him. there wasn't a pill on the shelf to reverse the dizzying decline. >> he did say that everything i have worked for, you know, is gone. >> someone was sicking industry watchdogs on him. slurring his name with innuendo about shady deals and kickbacks.

as it turns out, those would be the least of paul duncsak's problems. something far more sinister was waiting for him inside that million-dollar home in the safe new jersey burbs. >> the theory the police developed is that the killer is on the stairs. and the first shot is up. >> paul duncsak had been ambushed and killed in his own home. the shooter had escaped, and now friends of paul were wondering seriously if they might be next. >> i didn't know if i was on some type of hit list. >> how had paul duncsak's abbreviated life ended in murder? well, you need to understand the marriage. he met his bride-to-be stacey in 1998 at a pharmaceutical conference. he did consulting for the industry, she was a sales rep. friends say they were instantly mad about each other. paul's brother john didn't know what to make of her. she was nothing if not direct.

>> the first thing out of her mouth was, i'm going to marry paul, and she said something about he's the best lover i've ever had. >> but then her people weren't all that thrilled with the young hot shot pharmaceutical exec either. stacey's father ed. what did you think about him? >> i thought he was arrogant unreasonably. obnoxious, but i wasn't marrying him. >> so both families bit their tongues and crossed their fingers as two walked down the aisle in may 1999 after meeting only months before. the wedding was lavish and held aboard a yacht in new york harbor. >> she got pregnant, i believe, right at the honeymoon purposely to pretty much lock paul down. >> that would have been fine, except that paul suddenly found himself saddled with another much hungrier mouth to feed. stacey's father, ed ates, a retired military man was asking his new son-in-law to invest in

various business schemes. paul's fellow pharmacist and best friend tried to give him advice. >> i told him be careful. that you don't know the guy. things can happen to your money. >> and the business went bust, didn't it? >> the business went bust, yes. >> by the end of 2003, after four years of marriage and two kids, paul and stacey were over and out, heading for divorce. the father-in-law says the soured business deals had nothing to do with his daughter's marriage going bust. ed ates says paul duncsak had come to recent stacey, suffering from an illness that paralyzed her face. >> apparently he wanted to be rid of her after she got disfigured. she wasn't a trophy bride no more. >> paul said stacey was the problem. he told friends she was abusing prescription drugs. she deny it had and allegedly told her father that her husband was selling those drugs on the black market.

ed ates says alerted the authorities who found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the father-in-law wasn't done. ed next accused him of giving kickbacks to employees of a pharmaceutical giant. he had whistle-blown his son-in-law to paul's own superiors. the result of the toxic campaign was a career killer for paul duncsak. he lost his biggest client, and that, says his divorce attorney, all by ruined him. >> because the pharmaceutical industry is a small tight-knit industry in the training field, that he felt that he was going to be and was, in fact, black listed to the other pharmaceutical companies. >> so paul, the one who once pulled down $500,000 a year as a pharmaceutical executive, was now out the door, back to square one, working behind the counter of a local drugstore where he

made less than $100,000 a year. by the beginning of 2004, paul duncsak was not only getting divorced, he was also getting depressed. a few saw paul struggling with dark thoughts. very dark. at one point he called his brother to say he was putting his affairs in order. >> he goes, i fear my life. i truly, truly do. >> even paranoids are right some of the time. coming up -- sabotage in the suburbs. was someone out to get paul duncsak? >> i remember looking at the other mom, and we were just frozen, we really where. >> when "too fat to kill" continues. [ mechanical humming ] [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪

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the road to divorce is often rocky. but the duncsak's road was strewn with land mine and shoulder held weapons. 2004 was a very ugly year indeed for paul and stacey.

he told his brother his wife and father-in-law had thrown him under the bus by destroying his reputation with their slanderous accusations. >> his name out there in the medical field, nobody wanted to hire him. >> meanwhile, stacey duncsak was on the phone constantly to her parents down in florida. the single payer topic, berating paul and the slow-motion divorce. it became official finally in january of '05. he bought her out of the house in ramsey, new jersey, money she used to buy a nearby condo, and gave her alimony in a lump sum. >> he came down the shore and said i'm divorced. i said congratulations. we went out for a cocktail and we went home. >> the celebration turned out to be a false armistice because the two had quickly entered a cold war phase over child custody. he thundered that she was abusing drugs. addiction made her an unfit mother. she loudly denied it and got a

restraining order against him. trapped beneath the volleys were the children, a small son and a daughter. arm's limitation talks were a cakewalk compared to the parental visitation arrangements. >> they were dropping the kids off at the police department. how horrible is that? >> eventually by 2006, the two adults called a cease-fire long enough to hammer out a joint custody agreement, a 50/50 split in parenting. paul, meanwhile, seemed to be getting his groove back. he had managed to work his way from the drugstore counter back into his old environment as a pharmaceutical executive with medco. he also had a girlfriend, a serious new woman in his life who was going to move in with him in the nice but all-too-lonely house in ramsey, new jersey. while paul was talking marriage, the former mrs. duncsak's life was in free fall. money trouble.

she hasn't found work after the divorce. she had been sickly with various complaints and now had fallen behind on bank payments for her home. john duncsak says the way his brother saw it, stacey had only one option to, move in with her parents, ed and dottie ates down in florida, but the child custody arrangement wouldn't allow that. >> every time that stacey had the kids, my brother was always concerned that she would take them out of state. >> and behind that fear of losing his kids was an even darker threat. paul shared it with his friend nancy bagley one afternoon as their kids swam in his backyard. he said that earlier that summer his pool had been sabotaged, its heater cranked up to a piping 101 degrees. he was convinced it was no accident. >> he said i am afraid for my life. i remember looking at the other mom, and we were just frozen. i mean we really were. >> pretty soon word was getting around with his new business

associates that paul duncsak was a man looking over his shoulder. co-worker janie who used the same daycare as paul could not fathom why he was so hush-hush about anyone learning who his new employer was. downright weird. >> please do not notice me if you ever see me over at the day care. i don't want anybody to know where i am working. >> but three weeks later, she ran into him at that daycare and innocently said hello. back at the office he went nuts on her. >> very, very arrogantly and very mad. just pointed his finger at me and said, i thought we had this conversation. i thought i told you never to talk to me outside of this office. i mean to the point that i was very scared. >> even his good friend michael hertz thought paul was starting to lose it. after all, the divorce and custody issue had been settled. he had no reason to fear his ex. >> i said, paul, you know, really, i think you're being a little melodramatic.

>> you think the guy's paranoid. >> absolutely. and he said, no, this is really happening. i know nobody believes me. >> with all this drama going on, when stacey took the kids for vacation the second week in august of 2006, paul was all but convinced he would never see them again. michael, the best friend, tried to cheer him up, changing the subject to the exciting new chapter. his fiancee would be moving in with him in a few days. in fact, paul was on his cell phone with her as he pulled into his driveway after work on wednesday, august 23rd. as the fiances chatted, he remarked about an empty hamburger wrapper lying on the floor. then he took her to task for leaving the central air conditioner going full blast. >> paul was being paul and made the crack, i can't believe you left the freaking air conditioner on. she said, no, i didn't. >> that's when she heard paul scream and the line go dead. his months of growing fear had

been validated by at least seven gunshots at close range. he never had a chance to tell all his doubters i told you so. coming up -- gunned down in his own house. were others in danger? >> we all walked around wondering if we were next. on the hit list. >> police hear a conspiracy caught on tape and learn of a secret stakeout. >> they were essentially surveilling paul duncsak's house. >> when "too fat to kill" continues. also, get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline, anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow! [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before.

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paul duncsak's girlfriend heard her fiance being murdered just hours before they were to begin a new life together in this million-dollar new jersey home. she called 911. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> police arrived at the house that wednesday evening to find the 40-year-old pharmaceutical executive slumped inside a hallway, dead of multiple gunshot wounds. the killer, whoever he or she

was, had left the house unseen and left it behind fairly clean. >> and the crime scene techs are not getting lucky at the crime scene, are they? >> with forensics no. fingerprints, there were some recovered. they turned out to be paul duncsak's, and several of the fingerprints are unknown at this time. >> no hair, fibers, fingerprints, dna, no murder weapon? >> no murder weapon. >> so all of the good csi stuff is mostly absent from the scene, huh? >> that's correct. >> but brian hoof, a detective with the local police department says the victim had been shot at least seven times. to investigators, that suggested hatred. now the officers were eager to speak with the ex-wife to learn where she had been at about 6:30 that night. they quickly located her at her condo. >> when we asked to come into the house to speak with her -- she had two small children. she didn't want to us come inside.

she left the children inside. we said we have something serious we need to speak to you about. she refused. she wanted to talk on the doorstep of the condominium. >> how did she react to news of his death? >> initially a little bit emotional but nothing more than that. >> then you're asking where were you, huh. >> yes. >> she said she had an appointment for her son at a dr. solomon in teaneck, new jersey. she arrived at 6:20 and was at the doctor's appointment for about 45 minutes thereafter. >> and you checked it out and she was right. >> correct. >> that's where she was. she was alibied up. >> that's where she was, yes. >> spouses and exes are routinely checked out in these kinds of homicide, but stacey duncsak, the victim's unhappy ex-wife, was in the clear. who was next on the list of possible shooters? the murdered man's brother cut right to the chase when he spoke to detectives.

i said i can't believe he actually did it. they said who? i said ed ates. i couldn't believe it. i have a conscience. i would never have anybody killed. or do it myself. i couldn't. and he doesn't. he doesn't have a conscience. he's a sick man. he actually said he was going to do it, and he did it. and all of my brother's friends, every time everybody got interviewed, it all led to ed ates. ed ates. stacey's father. paul's friend michael told the police the same thing when he learned of the death. he even thought he might try to nail him next. >> we all walked around wondering if we were next on the hit list. >> you thought there was an enemies list of friends of paul? >> yes, exactly. >> homicide detectives always pose the question, who benefitted from the murder. and here the victim's brother and best friend are telling the police that stacey unquestionably stood to gain from her ex-'s death. she would be free to move to florida with her children and raise them with money from the million-dollar trust fund paul had set up for them.

and who was the shooter in this theory? her father. giving his daughter a monstrous and bloody gift of liberation from a man they both loathed. so detectives tried to call ed ates at his home in florida. they say his wife dottie answered and told them he was away and had no idea how to reach him. >> he is essentially out of touch for 24 hours from the time of the murder, and he's the person that we're looking to talk to, and when you have that type of situation, it starts throwing up red flags. >> the night after the murder, thursday, ed ates did return the police's calls. he told them he was currently in louisiana at his elderly mother's. obviously the new jersey detectives were eager to interview ates in person, so they flew to louisiana. by the time they arrived, the father-in-law had already hired a lawyer and invoked the right not to talk.

but the detectives did get in a few words with ates' sister brenda that night. she told them that her brother had arrived at their moms in louisiana on a tuesday evening, one day before the murder of paul duncsak. >> did you think she was telling the truth? >> i wasn't certain. it was still very early on in the investigation. >> so the detectives kept look at the ates' family's possible involvement in the murder. roughly a month after the crime, they obtained wiretaps on various ates phone lines. what they heard sounded to them like a classic cover-up in the works. ed ates tried to make sure his family stayed on script when it came to the tuesday story, his alibi. >> you were there when i got there on tuesday. >> yes, right. >> okay. i've just got to make sure we're all saying the same thing when it comes to it. >> at least one of them is ed ates forcing his alibi on his sister, basically saying i got there on tuesday. >> coaching his story.

>> yes. >> the detectives were also digging into phone records and they came up with a plot. cell phones used by ed and his wife had been registering hits at cell towers just blocks from the victim's new jersey home, only a week or so before the murder. the investigators also learned the florida couple had rented a vehicle in nearby pennsylvania in the same time frame. >> what was going on the with the ates and this trip north? >> they were essentially surveilling paul's house. >> eventually the investigators and prosecutors were convinced they had enough. in june of 2007, almost a year after the death of paul duncsak, they traveled to florida to the form of the ates family. >> tell me about the arrest. it's morning, isn't it? >> yes, i was coming out of my motor home. my wife was already out. i was starting across. my little grandson, the 5-year-old, was running to meet me, and a sheriff's car come racing up the driveway. they slapped handcuffs on me and my wife, and it was downhill

from there, has been ever since. >> taken in front of your family. >> yes, they came in with a s.w.a.t. team. >> the grandfather then about 300 pounds remembers being overpowered by sheriff's deputy as his 5-year-old grandson looked on in horror. ed ates had been arrested for murder and his wife arrested for hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice. the authorities thought they had their man for the crime, but how were they going break his alibi story? in louisiana on tuesday, the day before the killing, the relatives had circled the wagons around big ed ates who was about to tell the world a larger-than-life story about why he couldn't have possibly killed the man he once called family. coming up -- drama in the court as ed ates' sister takes the stand. she was his alibi, but what will she say under oath? >> i wanted to do what i thought was the right thing to do.

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u.s. treasury secretary timothy geithner is welcoming spain's decision to ask for a bank bailout. euro zone finance ministers say they're willing to loan spanish backs up to $145 billion. a fast-moving wildfire in northern colorado is forcing the evacuation of morn 40 homes there. the fire is said to have burned more than 200 acres. now back to our program. this wasn't how edward ronald ates, a highly decorated computer analyst for the military, figured he'd be spending his retirement years, inside a courtroom in a defendant's chair on trial. >> would you please step from the jury box. >> and yet the state of new jersey was about to tell 12

jurors why they should convict this grandfather of murder. >> this is the case of the killing of paul duncsak. >> bergen county's assistant prosecutor wayne mello opened the state's case talking to the jurors not about the defendant, but about the victim. 40-year-old paul duncsak, a wealthy pharmaceutical executive, how he, the victim, had weathered a brutal divorce from ates' daughter stacey, how paul on the day he died was trying to turn the page, on the phone chatting with his new fiancee lori when he stepped into his house the night of august 23rd, 2006. >> he was inside the house and he said, and you left the air conditioning on. i said, no, i never turned on the air conditioning. then suddenly he started to scream. >> on the stand, the fiancee recounted paul duncsak's last words. >> he said, oh, oh, no, and then he stopped speaking, and i heard a thud like a falling sound and

nothing. and i was calling his name and he wasn't answering. >> the court heard how the fiancee immediately called 911 and local police arrived within minutes to discover a lifeless paul duncsak, slumped inside a narrow hallway of an otherwise pristine house. >> any sign anywhere at the residence of paul duncsak of forced entry? >> no. >> an investigator who processed the crime scene testified that the evidence pointed away from a botched robbery. the victim, he said, was still wearing a rolex watch and had $300 in cash on him. multiple gunshot wounds were testimony to a violent death. >> does that tell you anything? >> it tells me somebody wanted this man dead very, very badly. >> to preempt the standard defense argument that the cops never seriously pursued anyone but the accused, the prosecutor called a young neighbor to the stand.

he told the court he'd seen a green van with a mysterious woman inside it around the time of the murder, but the tip seemed to be one of those investigative red herrings. >> i did not then nor do i now believe that that van was involved in this murder. >> instead the prosecutors said the evidence gathered in the months after the murder showed that the killer was far from a nameless intruder. it was, in fact, someone who knew paul duncsak well and plotted his death carefully. >> what we have here as a search string is how to commit a perfect murder. >> a forensic expert provided damning testimony against the defendant. he explained how a computer used by edward ates and later seized by police yielded the ghosts of past online searches. >> is it true that on the hard drive they found a search asking the question, how do you commit the perfect murder? >> that is true. he researched how to pick a lock and purchased a lock pit set. he researched silencers, and he

would purchase two books on silencers. he researched .22 caliber weapons. >> and not only did edward ates research guns, the prosecutors said he owned them, too. >> please raise your right hand. >> to emphasize that point, he called an extremely reluctant witness for the prosecution, stacey duncsak, the daughter of edward ates and ex-wife of the victim. >> it would be fair to say that your dad has a good knowledge of guns? >> he has a knowledge of them. >> okay. in fact, you know that in 2006 he certainly owned a gun. >> yes, sir. >> the prosecutor was trying to show that the defendant was not only comfortable around guns, but also had planned his murder like assassin, surveilling his intended victim in the week before the crime. the court was told the story of the cell tower hits and cell phone records that put edwards ates squarely in his

ex-son-in-law's neighborhood. >> it's reconnaissance. paul duncsak for the week s prior followed the same pattern day in and day out. >> same pattern, he's punching in, punching out. you could set your watch to him. >> well put. >> the sergeant also testified to those wiretaps, the ones in which edward ates reminds his sister about when he arrived in louisiana, on a tuesday before the wednesday murder of paul duncsak. >> he has co-opted his sister and his mother into a conspiratorial agreement to hinder his apprehension because it is clear that the truth is he was not there on tuesday. >> asserted by the prosecution, but still not proven. but that was about to change in most dramatic fashion. the defendant's sister, brenda, took the stand. in a soft voice, she, in effect, ratted out her brother. she recounted how he'd asked her to lie to police, to tell them he arrived on her louisiana doorstep on tuesday. >> now, you knew that was untrue? >> yes, sir.

>> changing her story, she said her brother had in fact arrived on a thursday, nearly 24 hours after paul duncsak's murder in new jersey. but maybe there was an asterisk next to brenda's testimony. she also admitted on the stand that she had cut a deal with the state. her testimony in exchange for leniency on charges of hindering apprehension and obstructing justice. still she insisted on the stand and to "dateline" later that she was now telling the truth. >> it's a horrible thing to have to testify against your brother, but i really didn't have a choice. i wanted to do what i thought was the right thing to do. >> with his alibi crushed by his own sister, the brick-by-brick masonry of a circumstantial case was walling in edward ates. the prosecution had portrayed a vengeful man, carefully plotting

the murder of his former son-in-law, stalking of his comings and goings and lying in wait that wednesday night. speculation had he baited the the scene knowing that duncsak would be agitated by finding a carelessly tossed hamburger wrapper and air conditioner blasting away. was he led to the thermostat, the kill zone? but it's clear, argued the prosecution that etas then got in his car and drove 21.5 hours straight to his mother's home in louisiana, arriving thursday night. >> he is a very motivated person to return to safety. almost poetically to the bosom of his mother. >> now ed ates had to explain all of that away, and his attorney would try to do just that with a novel defense. jurors, this man is just too fat to kill. coming up -- >> his abdomen was obviously obese at that time. >> the legal strategy that

raised eyebrows from coast to coast. >> too old, too fat, too sick. >> yes, we proved it. >> ed ates' big gamble when "too fat to kill" continues. [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx. the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection. she would help her child. go! goooo! [ male announcer ] with everything. but instead she gives him capri sun super-v. with one combined serving of fruits and vegetables. new capri sun super-v. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ the prosecution had painted edward ates as a liar, a schemer, and worst of all, a cold-blooded killer, but as his lawyer was about to assert, those were just words. where was the hard evidence of ates' guilt in the murder of paul duncsak? >> well, first of all, i knew walking into the courtroom every morning they would presume he was guilty. the myth that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty is false. we walk in knowing that the

jurors say, well, he's indicted. the prosecution and the police believe he did it. let's find out how guilty he is. what i had to show the most was scientific fact that he could not have done it. >> the attorney began his argument at the crime scene itself where the defense claimed the detective who so meticulously went over every piece of evidence collected there failed to come up with anything, not so much as a fingerprint or a fiber to connect ed ates to the crime. >> you're going to see a lot of what i call "hm, well, that's interesting, what about that"? but not one of those makes up beyond a reasonable doubt. >> wouldn't you think he would have asked that an eyewitness would have remembered a strange 300-pound man lumbering away in broad daylight? the attorney did point out something a young neighbor had seen. >> a mystery woman inside a green van park behind the victim's home. >> and there was a green van

driven by a woman that the children saw there for over an hour and they never found it. i don't know if they looked for it. but it certainly had nothing to do with ed ates. >> was that a red herring to you or interesting to you? >> it was very interesting. that probably was the murderer. driven by a woman and yet, every woman ed ates knows was accounted for. >> in other words, he says, paul duncsak was likely killed by an unknown intruder, maybe a robber caught in the act who then fled without taking anything. the lawyer says the testimony of the victim's fiancee supports the theory. she recounted on the stand that paul said something like, oh, no, into his cell phone just before the line went dead. he never identified ed ates. >> paul didn't know the killer. if you're facing someone killing you and you have that cell phone, wouldn't you say the person's name? if you are looking at someone

you know and you're begging not to be killed, wouldn't you use their name? it seems illogical to me. >> that's what you would say to the intruder with the ski mask. >> that's right. >> oh, no, no, no. >> that's exactly right. paul didn't know the killer. >> but the defense had a lot of ground to make up, starting with the defendant's initial ally, which his sister seemed to smash to bits. she told the court her brother had asked her to lie to police, to say he arrived in louisiana on tuesday, one day before the murder of paul duncsak instead of one day after on thursday. on cross, the defense lawyer tried to show that brenda, a nice woman, was easily confused. >> if i told you that the detective sat where you are and said that brenda ates told me she gets confused, would that be true? >> occasionally, i do. i have diabetes and i do occasionally get my mind -- >> she believed the truth was

what the detectives told her it was. they told her the truth is thursday. they told her we drove and followed ed down. we followed him from ramsey all the way to selby. we know exactly when he got there, it was thursday. and she said well, you know, sir, you're a smart detective, and i'm just a simple lady who gives people baths in a nursing home. if that's what you say, it must be true. >> but the defense was about to tell the jury something really surprising. sister brenda hadn't been the only one who got it all wrong about when ed ates made it to louisiana. the defendant himself now said he had misspoken in those damning wiretaps about arriving on tuesday. >> you were there when i got there on tuesday. >> yes. >> in fact, the lawyer said, ed ates had arrived in louisiana not on tuesday, the day before the murder, and not on thursday, the day after the murder after the police claimed. ates was now saying he had

gotten to louisiana on wednesday at around the very hour paul duncsak was being killed in new jersey. to verify the amended day, a man who lived in the same neighborhood as ates' mother and sister took the stand. his name was matlock, and he remembered seeing ed ates and his car on a louisiana block on wednesday. >> did you see his beige honda that week? >> yes, i did. >> what day? >> on wednesday. >> he said 17 times i am certain it was wednesday. this man had no reason to lie. he is intelligent. awake. sitting right there staring at the house. >> the lawyer was trying to show that ed ates could not have been killing paul duncsak in new jersey and been in louisiana on the same day at virtually the same hour, physically impossible. and he was about to show why he thought the prosecution's theory was also straining reality. >> his abdomen was obviously

obese at that time. >> in a novel defense that made headlines across the nation, the lawyer called an expert witness, a doctor to the stand, to show that edward ates could not have committed this particular murder. why? because the creaky grandfather was too fat to have pulled it off. >> too old, too fat, too sick. >> yes. i mean we proved it. they had nothing to refute that. >> the medical expert testified that edward ates' obesity fueled a litany of chronic health problems, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, making it unlikely for him to run during or just after the crime. what's more, his sleep apnea, which left him chronically fatigued, would have ruled out an all-day-and-night getaway. >> drive 21.5 hours within a 24-hour period? >> that would be highly improbable. >> so the reason why ed ates can't be behind the wheel powered by adrenaline fleeing the scene is what? >> he would fall asleep.

powered by adrenaline keeps you awake four hours? five hours, six hours, then you have a crash. but adrenaline can't run 24 hours. >> the defense was telling the jury it had been presented no direct evidence to tie ed ates to the murder of his former son-in-law, and medically there was no earthly way he could have done it. and yet there was all that circumstantial evidence still to explain away, that odd trip to pennsylvania and new jersey the week before the murder, the damning computer searches, and there was only one person left who could do that. coming up -- ed ates takes the stand in his own defense. >> you had murdered paul duncsak in cold blood, isn't that the truth? >> no, sir, that is not true. >> would his story convince a jury? when "too fat to kill" continues. i'm here with carol, flo, and karen for a girls night out talking about activia. i tried it and my body felt so right, for a change.

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let me rephrase it. drive 21.5 hours. >> edward ates' lawyer tried to show that his client was not in new jersey at the time of the murder or that he wasn't in any physical shape to be killing anyone. but edward ates still had to explain away the rest of the prosecution's case. and he was willing to do just that in a jailhouse interview with ""dateline."" for starters, he said that drive that he and his wife had taken from florida a week before paul's death was not a reconnaissance as the prosecution claimed. it was rather an innocent vacation up north with a detour into new jersey to make sure his daughter stacey had her children and her former husband paul did not. >> wait a second. your daughter's moved out. she's got her own little place with the kids. there's no reason to go to the house at all, right? >> other than to make sure he was really on vacation. we felt guilty. is he really on vacation?

>> were you snooping on him? >> no. what would i care about him in the middle of the night? >> we got up to see if he was really on vacation. he appeared to be on vacation, and we drove back to the campground. >> he said the police misread something else, those online searches. >> how to commit the perfect murder. looking for books on making your own silencer at home for a weapon. >> uh-huh. >> that doesn't look good. those are bad facts to bring into a murder case. >> out-of-context facts yes. on "fox & friends" they were discussing how to commit a murder and about it being banned. i looked it up, is it really banned. is it available on the internet. >> did you lie in wait on your son-in-law and shoot him with a .22 when he came in the door? >> no, sir. >> did you hear him say, no, no, no. hit the floor. give him one in the groin for your daughter stacey? >> no, sir, i wasn't there. >> out the back door and drive 21 hours. >> no, sir.

>> and motive, ates, tells you is where the prosecution's case really falls apart. he said he simply had no reason to avenge his daughter or want his former son-in-law dead. >> i didn't have anything to get even for. they had a marriage. they had a divorce. he never did anything to me. >> i didn't have a real feeling for him. as far as either way. >> and he gambled by telling that story directly to the jury itself. >> why in violation of all the rules of perception of trial law 101 did you elect to put ed ates on the stand? >> this is a very intelligent man. number one. the vast majority of cases you're having people who have problems. secondly, he has no prior convictions. he has no criminal record. >> so you can't read back a rap sheet to him. >> exactly. so you have that luxury. thirdly and most importantly, he

insisted. he insisted. he wanted to explain that he didn't do it. >> just as had he with "dateline," edward etas told the jury his version of those computer searches and the trip north a week before paul's death. but in so doing, he left himself open to the prosecution's cross-examination. >> you had murdered paul duncsak in gold blood and fled that scene, driving to your mother's hopeful isn't that the truth? >> no, sir, that is not true. >> the victim's brother said he listened to ed ates' testimony in utter disbelief. he was praying the jurors had too. >> you knew he was lying. i did not kill paul duncsak. you knew, you just felt he did. >> but it was ed ates' shifting alibi that the police

believed would undo the florida man. >> when he changed from i was in louisiana on tuesday to i was in louisiana on wednesday, that was a mammoth sea change that the jury i felt would never buy. it was the big lie. >> he has lied to you again and again and again. >> in his closing, the prosecutor theorized for jury just why edward ates had gone to such lengths to kill paul duncsak. it was for his daughter stacey whose life had been in free fall ever since her divorce from the victim. >> she really has nowhere to go. her father, the protector, wants her back and wants those grandchildren in florida. and so long as paul duncsak is alive, that will not be. and i think in part, ed ates viewed this matter as he just needed killing. >> look at ed. you look at him. >> all wrong replied the defense.

it closed its case by underscoring again why ed ates couldn't be the killer. he had no motive and was too unhealthy to kill paul duncsak and flee the scene as police claimed. and he couldn't have been in two places at once. in new jersey when paul duncsak was dying and in louisiana where a neighbor named matlock clearly identified him. >> matlock saw him and his car there wednesday night. august 23rd. >> now it was the jury's case. but it wouldn't take long, a little more than a day for it to render a verdict. >> what is your verdict? >> guilty. >> the 12 men and women who had heard the case agreed ed ates had, in fact, murdered his former son-in-law paul duncsak. his "too fat to kill" defense may have won points for being original, but the panel rejected it completely. >> he held his hand out, shot a gun, and went to the neighbor's yard and got in a car and drove. >> they found the prosecution's evidence circumstantial, though it was pointed overwhelmingly to the man's guilt.

the computer searches, the sister's testimony, the mystery trip to new jersey. >> he knew the comings and goings of paul, so he was in the house waiting. as soon as he came in the door and moved a few feet into the hallway, the door opened and ed shot him. >> but what you really sunk ed ates for these jurors was his decision to testify directly. it all snapped together. >> i was certainly in shock that he took the stand, and then all of a sudden, when the change of the story of when he actually got there. >> he changed his story as well? >> just the changing of the story, we went from tuesday to wednesday to thursday. the wiretaps. i think that all certainly played into it. >> you are guilty. >> later in court, the victim's brother john duncsak vented his fury at the man who took his brother's life and robbed his children of their father. >> the defendant's decision to take the life of a human being

with no regard for the effect that it may have on others is unimaginable. >> his daughter stacey who declined to speak to "dateline" faces no charges in the death of her former husband. it's a fact that doesn't sit well with paul's friend michael hurst. >> she's in florida at her family home with her children with a tidy reserve of money. she's in the winner's circle. >> yes. it's sad, isn't it? it's sad that after all of this it worked out with such a nice, neat bow for her. >> the judge had little sympathy for edward ates. he sentenced him to life without parole, likely a death sentence for the 65-year-old grandfather who the injury believed lay in wait and then fired at least seven times. not too old or sick to hate. >> and you can find more information about this case on our website at