phone rings at 5:00 in the morning. i knew something wasn't right. he just began sobbing and saying no, no. something horrible must have happened. >> it was just before midnight when the shooting started. >> he had been shot multiple times. he was on the ground face down. >> a man was dead. but not just any man. >> how do you kill superman?

how is superman dead? >> he was an olympian and a father, killed his wave says by an intruder in his own backyard. >> . >> describe to me how fast they were. >> pop, pop, pop. >> but if they are husband was dead outside, why was the gun found hidden inside in and what other secrets were hidden away. >> sometimes she would say things like i would be better off if dave wasn't around. >> was her husband defending his family or was she? >> she rose that night. >> the mystery may not be who did it but why. >> the truth will come out and justice will be served. i have to believe that. >> welcome to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. dave lout was an elite athlete who reached olympic heights, taking home a bronze medal at the 1984 olympic games. for dave, home was ventura county, california, where he

grew up, where he met his beautiful bride, jane, and also where he lost his life. jane said there was a prowler, and then gunfire. police raced to the scene to find dave lout dead. and troubling holes in jane's story. what happened at the lout home that night? here's keith morrison with the hometown hero, and the homecoming queen. >> it was late when it happened. very late. too late. the sky had already fallen. no one saw it coming. no one heard the warning. but now in the night, it was done. they work hard here in their homemade garage gym, because in part, it isn't just a gym. it's a kind of shrine. >> i look at the wall and there's a bunch of pictures.

and that's what makes it special, i think. >> these were the moments before they were born when a shot putter named dave lout became his family's superman. and his little brother watched him win a bronze medal at the 1984 olympics. >> afterwards i just cried. how do you not? how do you not cry when you see your brother up there getting a medal? it's cool. he's my big brother. but he was like my superman. he was my superman. >> don laud is his younger brother by 9 1/2 years. they shared a passion for athletics and fitness from their father. >> i remember my first milk when i was a kid was a protein powder. >> this is all really built into your dna then. it's part of your life. >> yeah, it really is. >> here is where that dna was planted, oxnard, california. a farm town on the beach north

of l.a.'s encroaching sprawl. they grow mostly strawberries here now. lima beans back then. they were different in those days. >> when we grew up, you could ride your bike anywhere. everybody knew everybody. >> this is helen. of course, she knew the louts growing up. and that big old farming family of her childhood best friend, jane lawbacher. >> our dads were both farmers. old farming families we're both from. >> the lawbachers were big here in oxnard. >> there was just lots of lawbachers. always lots of lawbachers. you know, it was just -- they multiplied. they were good catholics. >> and helen's friend, jane, grew up to be especially beautiful. featured in her high school yearbook as homecoming queen. >> but she was not ever concerned with that. she's also very, very shy. >> how do you get to be

a homecoming queen if you're shy? >> she's also just a very kind person, very gentle person. >> and as that yearbook shows, a star volleyball player, too. >> she could spike -- i mean, she's not that tall, but she could jump. >> jane soon met that other gifted athlete, dave lout, already well on his way to becoming one of the best shot putters in california. they began dating after high school, and sometimes let don, little laut, tag along. >> she was wonderful. she was fun. they just -- they got along so well. they loved each other. it was just neat. >> when they got married in 1980, jane's friend helen was a bridesmaid. >> going that morning of the wedding to jane's parents' house, and all the girls getting dressed up. and that was really fun. it was just sweet. and jane was quite excited. she looked gorgeous, beautiful. beautiful on her wedding day.

>> he had her on a pedestal. he always said such wonderful things about her. >> this is don's wife, rebecca. >> we became very close. we'd talk maybe once, twice a week on the phone. and probably for hours her and i. we just hit it off. we were family. >> jane was there by dave's side as he became a national and then world competitor. dave won the bronze medal in the 1984 games. but after, his career faded quickly. he kept trying, but knee injuries, he didn't make the olympic team in 1988. >> he was disappointed. but he knew -- it's like a point of your career when you know that something is done. it's okay. because you know you've done -- you've gone as far as you can. and that door closes. >> and another door opened. dave became a high school biology teacher, coach, and athletic director.

>> and he was even better at being a teacher and a coach than he was at throwing. >> if dave missed his former glory, his family said he never showed it. and of course, remained a legend to his niece and nephews. >> i think one phrase that could best describe him is a gentle giant. >> yep. >> he had so much patience, so much kindness. >> at home, dave and jane struggled to have children. >> she wanted to have a family really bad. i felt bad when i would get pregnant. >> and then in 1999, they adopted a baby boy from south korea, named him michael. >> they were happy. i have tons and tons of pictures of them. the three of them together. they were happy. >> moments in time. inspiration on a garage wall, which these days is about all that's left. >> this doesn't make sense, no. it's not right. it doesn't make sense. >> ever since that august night

in 2009. >> 911 emergency. >> i heard shots. >> you heard shots being fired? >> yes. >> when a superman fell to earth. coming up, what happened in that backyard? did a run-in with a prowler turn deadly? >> how many pops did you hear? two. >> describe them to me it, how fast they were. >> pop, pop, pop. >> when "dateline extra" continues. for discounts, like safe driver and paperless billing. but nobody knows the box behind the discounts. oh, it's like my father always told me -- "put that down. that's expensive." of course i save people an average of nearly $600, but who's gonna save me? [ voice breaking ] and that's when i realized... i'm allergic to wasabi. well, i feel better. it's been five minutes.

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welcome back. returning to our story, dan and jane laut were the golden couple, an olympic medalist and his beautiful bride. with the adoption of their baby boy michael, the family seemed happy. until gunfire ripped through the night and turned their home into a crime scene.

dave laut had been shot in his own backyard. but what or who had lured him outside? here again is keith morrison with the hometown hero, and the homecoming queen. >> midnight, august 28th, 2009. oxnard, california. >> 911 emergency. >> the woman in full panic. >> i heard shots. >> you heard shots being fired? >> yes. >> the woman on the phone was jane laut, the wife of the hometown hero. >> oh, my god. >> dave was still outside, she said, where she heard shots fired. >> where did you last see your husband? >> he told me to get back in. so i came back in. and i heard the shots. >> how old is your son?

>> stay with me. i have two officers near. i want you to stay inside the house. >> the officers had to lock down and call in a homicide team to investigate further. it was a brutal scene. >> ventura county da investigator said by the time first responders arrived, there was no sign of a prowler. but they did find dave laut. >> he had been shot multiple times. he was on the ground, face down, with very obvious gunshot wounds to his back and to the back of his head. >> jane was a mess. she told investigators she had no idea who would do this. >> is there anybody who would want to harm him at all? >> no. >> son michael, 10 at the time, slept through it all. and jane's brother took charge of him while jane went down to

the oxnard police station to offer a more complete statement. it had been a perfectly normal evening, she said. they were in bed by 10:00. dave in the master bedroom, she in michael's room, where she often slept because dave had a bad back. and then it was about an hour later, she said, about 11:00. >> who was? >> dave came down the hall, she said, worried about the dog. >> so 11:15, she said, she and dave crept over to a sliding glass door to a side yard.

>> so you walked towards the sliding glass door with the flashlight in your hand, right? >> uh-huh. >> what happens? >> and then when it happened -- and then i heard somebody -- >> did you see anybody else? >> i thought i saw like a shadow. a shadow came by the trash can. >> was it front of him or behind him? how far behind him are you? >> and then what happens? >> then i hear gunshots. >> and the gunshots?

>> what did it sound like? >> it sounded like pop, pop, pop. >> how many pops did you hear? >> three. >> describe them to me, how fast they were. slurg >> it was a pop, hesitation pop, hesitation pop? it was one, two, three?>> it wa, hesitation pop? it was one, two, three? >> as jane talked to investigators into the early morning hours, the awful news was getting around. >> we got a call about 5:00 in the morning. >> what happens to a person? you go to bed at night and everything's fine. the phone rings at 5:00 in the morning, suddenly your life is a very different thing. >> yeah, it's like an earthquake. it just shakes your whole foundation and being. and things are never the same after. it was awful. >> he just felt to his knees. he was on the phone and he just began sobbing and saying, no, no.

it was horrible. >> you don't believe it, but it's like -- how do you kill superman? how is superman dead? ♪ i once was lost >> a few days later, dave's friends and family held a candlelight vigil. >> he was so loved. and every step we take, we take because of people like you reaching out to us, and are here to support my mother-in-law and my husband and our family. we really truly appreciate that. thank you. >> lift up your candles for dave. >> but they didn't know then what the police had discovered. a key piece of evidence almost overlooked at first. >> the lead investigator in this case walks in, he's just looking around. and i mean, you've got a dining room table, you've got a hutch, you've got a grandfather clock. so he opened up that clock and

it was an oh, wow moment. >> why would a prowler leave something so important in there? coming up, if the intruder was outside, how did a key piece of evidence get inside? something else seemed odd. jane's behavior. >> she actually tried to keep one of the police officers out of the laundry room. she tried to close the door with her in the laundry room and him out. >> when "dateline extra" continues. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. by choosing flonase, you're choosing more complete allergy relief and all the enjoyment that comes along with it. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only control 1. flonase controls 6. and six is greater than one. with flonase, more complete relief means enjoyment of every beautiful moment. flonase, six is greater than one, changes everything. ♪

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welcome back. olympic medalist dave laut was dead. his wife, jane, told police he went out back in the middle of the night to investigate a noise. then she heard gunshots. as the shock of dave's loss rippled through the community, detectives pored over the crime scene searching for traces of his killer. they quickly discovered a crucial piece of evidence, and with it, their case would take a dramatic turn. back now, keith morrison, with the hometown hero, and the homecoming queen.

>> jane laut told the police a harrowing story, of a backyard prowler, and gunshots right outside her door. and now her husband, olympic bronze medalist, dave laut, was dead. but some things seemed a little off. for example, said the investigator, when police were still questioning jane at the house, she stepped into the laundry room. >> she actually tried to keep one of the police officers out of the laundry room. she tried to close the door, with her in the laundry room and him out. >> why? well, jane was wearing pajamas when police arrived. but in the laundry room they found her jeans rolled up in a towel tucked between the washer and dryer. her top was lying there, as well is, inside out. looked like they had been remove quickly, stashed away. when an officer tried to administer a gunshot residue kit to jane's hands, standard procedure in a shooting investigation -- >> when the officer doing the

test began getting the test ready, she did go into the bathroom and either wash her hands or wipe her hands on a towel, one of the two. before coming back to the table and before the test was done. >> so odd things. anyway, police scoured the place, didn't see any murder weapon lying around. and they were about ready to take dave's body off to the morgue when some instinct told the lead detective to look here. he cracked open the doors of the grandfather clock in the dining room, looked down inside, and there it was. >> this is more than likely the murder weapon. >> a ruger six-shot revolver. surely no prowler would have dropped a weapon right here in the dining room clock. >> the prowler theory did not make any sense whatsoever with a hidden gun inside the house. >> and so it wasn't long before

investigators shifted their focus from unknown prowler to the woman who had reported one, jane laut. remember those clothes they found in the laundry room? when they tested them, they found gunshot residue. so did jane shoot dave, then change into her pajamas before she called 911? and you'll remember, jane specifically mentioned a red flashlight. so police bagged it, tested it, and found gunshot residue. as if she was holding the flashlight while shooting her husband. if jane was the killer, this is about as cold-blooded as it gets. investigators said dave had been shot six times. >> we came up with a fairly logical explanation of how it was done. >> shot one appeared to have been fired from a distance of several feet. grazed his head. deposited pieces of scalp on a garbage can and then the bullet hit the wall. that shot brought him to his knees where the killer fired

shots two and three into his face at close range. >> we find the one that goes through his cheek bone, down the side yard, bounces off of the concrete, it nicks the fence, and that bullet we matched out on the sidewalk. >> shots four, five and six hit in the upper arm and back, and the back of dave's head. >> we believe shot six, the final shot, was the shot to the back of the head. >> from the very beginning, jane denied she had anything to do with it. >> i don't know what happened. and i didn't do it. >> but they didn't believe her. especially when they found out that the bullets that killed dave matched the gun in the grandfather clock. and now don and rebecca laut began to look at a lot of things differently, things jane had told them through the years which maybe didn't add up either.

>> i honestly felt like she was family, so i'm going to dismiss the strange feeling i get sometimes. >> like said rebecca the time jane told her two men put a knife to her throat and demanded money. >> and i said, well, did you call the police? did you yell? she says, oh, no, i just -- i just came home. i just wanted to get home. and i said, this was in the middle of the day and nobody else saw? she said, no. >> and then there was her claim that somebody was leaving threatening notes on her car. >> but then suld ask her and probe her, what kind of notes? but she wouldn't really tell you. >> so the implication is somebody's after her, she's in some danger? >> right. >> now when they look back at the things they noticed over the years, it was like something fell into place for them. >> there was a separation, it was like jane was the parent and michael was the child, and dave was in the way. >> you had the sense that she was pushing dave away? >> yeah. i think that was a stress on the

marriage. >> that there was stress was pretty clear, said rebecca. >> for a while, every time she would call me, it seemed like it was to vent about something she didn't like about what dave was doing. >> so evidence was carefully sifted for months. and then in february 2010, jane laut was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and the story, said investigators, was chillingly clear. >> this was an execution. she had lured him out, shot him from behind, and then egressed on him, shot him a second and third time, stepped back and shot him a fourth time, came up super close, and shot him two more times, one to the back of the head. >> there seemed to be plenty of evidence. jane's odd behavior, her lie about a prowler, and on top of it all the gun in the grandfather clock.

so jane hired a lawyer, and pleaded not guilty. and the story that came out then turned the whole case on its head. >> mr. laut was a monster. he was despicable. coming up, what had been >> one of two choices. flight or fight. she decided to fight. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

i'm dara brown with the hour's top stories. donald trump ramping up attacks on hillary clinton at a campaign event in new hampshire saying he doesn't think she's all there. trump hopes to make up some ground after a recent national poll shows him trailing her by nine points. in camden new jersey, they will continue shows as planned after a railing collapsed friday night. the temporary railing has been put in place that's being guarded by security. now it's back to "dateline extra."

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. dave laut was murdered outside his home, and then police found the gun that killed him inside. calling the story his wife told detectives into question. but secrets emerged, and what she told them next would send the investigation hurtling in a whole new direction. a stunning allegation pointed to another explanation for dave's death. here again is keith morrison with the hometown hero and the homecoming queen. >> reputation is all we have in the end. how quickly it can turn. sweet jane laut now accused murderer, and now that dave was dead, stories emerged. >> it seemed like she was controlled, in my opinion. >> an across-the-street neighbor.

>> he's standing there while she's pulling weeds, cleaning out gutters, washing his truck. and he's not lifting a finger to help her? come on, you know. >> while jane seemed, what, nervous? >> almost like a scared little rabbit. >> i was always a little leery about what was actually going on in the home. >> this close friend said jane's fear reminded her of another vulnerable creature. >> jane looked like a scared cat. constantly doing like a twitch, looking over her shoulder, kind of looking to see if someone's behind her. >> this from jane's former co-worker. >> he was very aggressive. he was very demanding. and when he said jump, she would go how high. >> how strange it was, she thought, that jane always wore long sleeves, even when it was hot outside. but more disturbing --

>> there were times when she would come in, and i noticed on her face, it looked swollen. and she would never comment how it happened. >> there were several times that i saw bruising on her. one time on her face. her arms, her lefgs. several places. >> this is a monster. just a monster. >> ron bammier is jane's defense attorney. and according to him, dave laut is far from the hometown hero so many believed him to be. the real truth about dave laut, said bammier, for nearly three decades, he subjected his wife to horrific abuse. >> like all abuse, it's about power and control. we have verbal abuse, the names he called her over a long period of time.

emotional abuse. the way he treats her. we have physical abuse, that's everything from the punching to the kicking to the slapping to the hitting, throwing her down, pulling her hair, spitting on her. >> and jane wasn't the only victim said bammier. dave was angry that his adopted son, michael, was not athletic. >> neighbors would hear him call michael names, racial names to michael that are just horrible. we have him yelling at him in the street about how he can't ride a bike or catch a football or play baseball. >> all those years jane was afraid to report dave. afraid of what he might do to her loved ones. and so she covered up her abuse and her injuries. we obtained this summary of a police report from the 1980s in which jane reported that an intruder attacked her while she was alone at work. at the time, police found the injuries consistent with jane's story. in fact, said bannier, dave inflicted those injuries. then ordered jane to lie, and blame a nonexistent intruder. a pattern of covering up dave's abuse, abuse which by the summer

of 2009 was getting worse, said bannier. >> from june of '09 to august of '09, it was escalating. >> but jane continued to take it, until that particular august night when something changed. that night, according to bannier, for the first time, dave threatened michael's life. she really believed he was going to kill michael? >> yeah. >> so she made the decision to fight. >> jane had taken michael to the beach that day, said bannier. they were late getting home. >> dave was upset. started screaming and yelling, nobody respects me. i don't get any attention around here. nobody cares about me. >> jane put michael to bed, got into pajamas herself and waited for dave's anger to subside. >> but he wasn't calming down. so about 10:30 or 11:00, he comes out of the room, and he's upset and he's angry. >> and that's when she saw the gun, said bannier. >> he's holding it and he starts talking about michael, how they don't respect him, and he's

going to blow his f'ing head off. he grabs her. he throws her against the wau. she falls down. she kind of crawls backwards on her hand and feet like crab walk toward the backdoor. somehow she gets him out on the patio. she's like, calm down, dave, calm down. >> then out of the darkness, dave stumbled on the patio. >> he loses his balance, and that's her opportunity. and she goes at him and she tries to grab the gun and they go to the ground. and there's a struggle for the gun. the gun goes off. and then she eventually gets the gun and she empties it. >> and then she said, she ran back into the house, put the gun inside the grandfather clock and caused 911. >> she has no idea he's did. he's down but she thinks he's getting up. women in these relationships have this superman complex. they gave their abusers. >> so yes, she lied about the prowler, but did it almost automatically. her conditioned response to his abuse. but once the police discovered

jane's lie, said bannier, their minds are made up, that she was a cold, calculating killer. and so when police found those clothes shoved notice laundry room, they believe it must have been jane's attempt to hide evidence of her crime. but those clothes only had a tiny fragment of gunshot residue. and police never bothered to test the pajamas jane was wearing when they showed up. but bannier did. and the tests revealed the pajamas were covered in gunshot residue. proving, said bannier, that jane was wearing those pajamas when she fired the gun. >> it supports her story. >> it all does. >> as for the claim that jane jumped up to wash her hands before a gunshot residue or gsr test? that never happened, said bannier. that was just the police covering up a major mistake. >> the cop lost the gsr sample test. they searched for it and couldn't find it. >> anyway, investigators looked at the crime scene evidence and

just plain got it wrong. once they concluded she was a murderer, he said, they actually distorted the evidence to fit their story. >> a bullet that glanced off his head, and went about a 90-degree angle and hit the wall. and deposited two pieces of scalp matter on the garbage can. >> and you're saying that's physically impossible? yes, it's ludicrous. it violated the laws of physics. >> what's more, he said, the dna on the gun was dave's. once again supporting jane's contention, that he had the gun. and then they struggled for it. >> his dna is on the trigger. there's no getting around that fact. >> one more thing, said bannier, one more bit of evidence that the police missed, even though it was right under their noses. bruising on jane's upper left arm. photographed the morning after dave was killed. >> if you look at the bruise closely, you'll see that there's basically a little hand print.

>> a hand-shaped bruise that helps prove, said bannier, this wasn't murder. it was self-defense. >> if you're fighting for your life reasonably, you have to conclude if you're fighting for a gun, you get to use lethal force. >> and now looking back, said jane's childhood friend, helen, things began to make sense. >> we saw her less and less. >> more than two decades passed. helen had a long career as a social worker, and gradually lost touch with jane. >> i would always send her christmas cards and say, call me, whatever. and i would never hear from her. >> and then helen heard about dave's death. >> everybody was pointing to jane. and like a light bulb went off and i'm like, oh, my god, she was a battered wife. and you didn't get it. you didn't see it. >> but the very idea that jane

was an abused spouse, that she killed dave in self-defense? absolutely ludicrous said the lauts. an outrageous allegation about dave. >> i know my brother. he's just a good man. he would give you have the shirt off his back. that's just the way he was. >> can you see him losing his temper at the woman he's married to, and abusing her, hitting her? >> no. >> never. >> no. >> never. >> no. >> no, said the lauts. no, said the police. besides, they said maybe jane had quite another motive for killing dave laut. a financial one. coming up, borrowed money -- >> thousands and thousands of dollars. >> and even more money if dave was dead. >> sometimes she would say things like, i'd be better off if dave wasn't around. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back. here again is keith morrison with more of our story. the hometown hero and the homecoming queen. >> olympic glory does not always translate into material wealth. in fact, said detectives, as they sifted through dave and jane's financial records, they found evidence they were struggling. >> the lauts' finances were -- they were just living beyond their means. it was poor bookkeeping, poor management of the bills. it didn't happen just before the shooting. this has been going on for years and years and years. >> after dave was killed, said don and rebecca, they found out jane had been borrowing money from her mother-in-law.

>> jane asked her for a lot of money, gave her different excuses why she needed money. >> to pay mortgages or something like that? >> mortgages, doctor bills, school -- >> supplies. >> tuition, school supplies. >> how much are we talking about here? >> thousands and thousands of dollars. it was a lot. >> when they found out dave had three life insurance policies? >> i believe we totaled it all up, and i think it came to $300,000, $350,000, somewhere in that neighborhood that she was likely to see if a prowler had done this. >> was there ever any indication she was capable of violent acts? the sort of person who could be violent? >> yeah. >> she said some things to me, and i dismissed them because i maybe didn't want to believe that she was capable. but sometimes she would say things like, i'd be better off if dave wasn't around.

>> meanwhile, justice crawled. a year passed. then two, three, four. jane remained free on bond. and dave's niece, megan laut, fumed. >> she caused my family so much pain, and it's horrible. it's just -- i hate it. >> nephews aaron and cody took it out on the garage weight room. >> i have a way of bottling and condensing it and i get it out when i lift. >> you get your emotion going, your anger, your adrenaline going. >> in december 2013, don laut pleaded with a judge to get the case before a jury. >> i just want the court to know that there's a family, and there's friends behind my brother. and it's been four years. and it's been very difficult.

>> and then in january, 2015, more than five years after dave's death, in a move that shocked jane's veteran defense attorney, the prosecution indicated it would be open to making a deal. >> and i was blown away. >> a plea deal? yes. and what a deal it was. if jane pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, she would be sentenced to just six years and would most likely serve only three. seemed like an admission of weakness from the prosecution. and the opportunity of a lifetime for a woman facing first-degree murder and 50 to life. and so -- >> i gave her my strong recommendation that she take it. she said no. i was just like -- i was stunned. i said, jane, i kept saying, do you understand it? she said i understand fully. this is my decision. and she was crying. and she says, i have to fight for this.

>> mind you, by then jane had some powerful moral support from her old friend, helen. >> she rose that night. she didn't fall, she rose that night. and, you know, became the -- a very strong, powerful woman. and defended the life of her son. >> and then at last in january 2016, jane laut went on trial for murder. her friend, helen, sitting right behind her. >> do you think she'll go to jail? >> i don't. >> really? >> i don't. i absolutely do not. >> you believe the jury will believe her story? >> i do. >> and see it as a case of self-defense? >> i do. i believe that. i believe that. >> i sincerely believe her. i don't say that about many people. i sincerely believe her. >> do you usually get this personally invested in a case? >> i am always invested in my cases, yes. but do i care as much about

clients that i do about jane laut? no, i would be lig if i said i did. >> could he persuade a jury to believe in jane, too? coming up, jane takes the stand. >> i get a not guilty, which is what we're shooting for. she has to testify. >> a gun takes center stage. >> pull back the hammer, fire. each and every time. >> and the verdict. >> we, the jury, find the defendant -- >> when "dateline extra" continues.

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welcome back. jane laut was facing 50 years to life for the murder of her husband. but when prosecutors offered a deal, a sentence of six years if she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, she said no, she wanted to face a jury.

would she regret that decision? here's keith morrison with the final chapter of "the hometown hero and the homecoming queen." >> dave laut was a son. he was a father. he was a colleague. he was a friend. >> more than six years after the death of olympic bronze medalist dave laut, the murder trial of his wife jane finally began in this ventura, california, courtroom. prosecutor ra minute newy told the jury jane was a calculating killer. >> if you look at each of the six shots they were administered by this defendant as she was executing her plan to murder her husband. there is just one reasonable conclusion, to find the defendant guilty of murder. >> the defense attorney countered the real victim was jane laut, who suffered the

utmost cruelty at the hands of her husband. >> he is not the hero of the olympics. he is the monster who abused her for 27 years. >> the defense called family and friends and neighbors who all testified jane was an abused spouse. but attorney babier said the most important witness was the defendant herself. >> if you're going to get a not guilty, which is what we're shooting for, she has to testify. >> the judge would not allow cameras to roll when for the first time publicly through tears jane told her story. she said she took dave's abuse for nearly three decades, until the night he threatened their son. >> i think she could live with the fact that he could kill her. she could not live with the fact that he would kill michael. >> on the stand, jane admitted that she lied in her 911 call. >> 911 emergency -- >> and later to the police about a prowler. but she denied she had any financial motive for killing her

husband. after all, she did not ask for nor did she receive a penny of dave's life insurance. >> jane would never be about finances. absolutely not. >> why do you say that? >> because that's not her value. jane is about relationships, she's about family, she's about children. it's never been about money for her. >> of course, the prosecutor got his turn to cross examine jane. there were a lot of i don't remembers about the the night of the murder. she simply couldn't recall what happened after she fired the first two or three shots, she said. but she did admit she was quite familiar with the gun. in fact, had used it several times before. >> this single-action gun in the hands of this defendant required her to pull back that hammer, fire. pull back the hammer, fire.

each and every time. for the six times that she aimed that weapon at her husband and shot him. >> like this, said the prosecutor, as he played a video of a woman firing that very gun. but, said the defense attorney, that's not the only way to fire the gun. >> if you hold the trigger down you can pull the hammer back and fire. >> this is called fanning the gun. the sort of thing you'd expect to see in an old western. but a prosecution expert countered that a movie is the only place he'd ever seen that. >> every expert that came up said that that is absurd. the accuracy of firing a gun six times and hitting your target six times in the dark is astronomical. >> after seven weeks of testimony, final arguments from both sides. defense attorney bamier made an impassioned plea to the jury. >> why would jane laut do this?

why would she do this? when you think about it, there's only one real reason. only one. it's what anybody would do to protect their child. >> you do not have the right to kill your husband -- >> the prosecutor urged the jury to look past the emotion and focus on the evidence. >> the defense testimony is false. it is untruthful. it is unbelievable. it is a story conjured up to raise her battered woman's self-defense claim in a murder case. it is plan "b" because plan "a" doesn't work. and it's a lie. >> jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 days. then finally, march 30th, 2016, announced they were ready. jane, supported by helen and other friends who had stood by her all along, walked to the courthouse and what waited there. >> it appears to be in order so

i will read the verdict. the we the jury find the defendant jane laut guilty of the crime of first-degree murder. >> guilty of first-degree murder. a shock ran through the room. ron bamier, who fervently believed in her innocence, looked distraught. jane comforted him. the woman who flat turned down a deal to do six years for voluntary manslaughter now faces the possibility of life in prison. it was a victory for dave's family. yes. but not one to celebrate. >> our faith calls us to forgive, and we do. we forgive her. >> but forget? no. not the lauts. not their superman. >> it's very difficult. i miss him every day. i miss him every day. >> i think i'll always grieve. i know i'm always going to miss him. he's always a part of me. but it's hard.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons. into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen. now, the scenes you've never seen. "lockup: raw." >> behind every murder is a motive. >> they're crying on the phone, they're screaming, telling me that their daughter cannot spend another day around this guy, they're afraid of what he's going to do. >> i felt that the person was more like a man than like a woman. this was after we got married. >> behind every murder is a story.