we think her mom would want for her now. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. it's gut wrenching. >> there's a body by the way laying on the side of the road. >> a young woman shot three times. >> a young single mom out with friends on game day. >> it was packed. >> but as night fell, fear grew. >> they're asking us, do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister. was it someone that was a stranger or someone that we knew? >> i just had this weird feeling that there was something she was hiding. >> tucked away in her kitchen a clue to it all.

>> on top of the forth was a manilla folder. >> does that give you chills? >> t horrible. why didn't she tell us? >> did a secret lead to murder? >> it's just got to be unimaginable. >> i'd ask that you all close your eyes for a few minutes this morning. i'd like for you to envision roan county in the middle of october, the leaves of changing, there's a little bit of a nip in the air.

envision brooke morris standing there and brooke feels like she's been punched until the throat. she's been shot. brooke feels like a bomb went off in her body. this is the second shot and it tears through her chest. she's terrified and she's in extreme pain. thank you. you can open your eyes. >> the final minutes of a young woman's life. detailed in a tennessee courtroom, a tragedy that devastated her family and friends. >> this cannot be happening. >> it was the worse day of my entire life. >> who would do this to our friend brooke? it was awful-horrible. it was a horrible time. >> secrets exposed by will justice be served? >> it was never ending. and i was so frustrated. >> most people who new brooke

morris remember her radiance and zest for life. >> she was always always always dancing every where she went. >> katelyn oekel met brooke while they were growing up just outside of knoxville, tennessee. >> we kind of balanced each other out. she was the girly girl i was the tomboy. so i'd go to her house and change into different outfits. she's come to my house and we'd play on the farm. >> felt like you two were sisters? >> oh yeah, we even felt like sisters. we -- >> that's whether you know you're good friends. >> yes, for sure. >> this is brooke's real sister brittany and her mom, tina. >> very very girly. loved doing lair and stuff like that. she was just a girly girl. >> little southern bell?

>> uh-huh. >> uh-huh. >> yes. >> the little southern bell grew into a beautiful young woman, sometimes blond, sometimes brunette. brooke always drew people into her lovely orbit. >> very spontaneous. hilarious, the life of the party and can make friends with in a minute. >> dina rené was one of them. >> she would come over to my house and say we're going to hang out and have fun. >> and that meant football at tennessee. the strip is completely packed. there are ball fans everywhere. it is so much fun. lots of cooking out, lots and lots of fun. >> lots and lots of orange. >> lots of orange. >> was this something that brooke looked forward to. >> oh yeah. >> on saturday. >> all of us at that age.

you wanted to get your orange and white outfits and figure out where were going to be. >> october 15th, 2011 started out as one of those fun days. the -- was taken on louisiana state and brooke was tailgating with friends. but by night fall something was terribly wrong. >> 911 what's your emergency? >> we're down here on blair road. >> 40 miles from knoxville a couple was driving down a road, keeping their eye out for deer when their healths illuminated something else. >> there's a body laying on the side of the road. >> okay, i need somebody to check for a pulse. >> she's a bloody mess,.ma'am. >> understand. >> what information were you given before you rived at the scene before you were driving there? >> essentially had a white female deceased laying on the side of the road.

>> the body had been found just after 8:00 p.m. at the intersection of two quiet rural roads not far from the chief's home. the woman had not been dead for very long. >> whether you rived here what did you see? >> the victim's body was over here on the side of the road close to blair. >> right on the road? >> yeah right on the white loan. >> what did you see? >> she was well dressed wearing blue jeans boots and a bright orange shirt. she had her purse there and everything. >> id'ing the victim was the easy part, her id was in her purse. she was 23-year-old brooke morris. >> was it someone that was a stranger to us, someone that we knew? all thing were coming into our heads, trying to figure this all out. >> when we come back, what had happened to brooke?

>> they're asking us, do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister and we're like, we don't have a clue. >> the hundred for a killer begins and it starts close to home. >> ex-husband's husbands, sorry, i can't make it. it's just my eczema again, but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you okay? eczema. it's fine. hey! hi! aren't you hot? eczema again? it's fine. i saw something the other day. myeczemaexposed.com. your eczema could be something called atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by inflammation under your skin. maybe you should ask your doctor? go to myeczemaexposed.com to learn more. ♪ happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard. a delicious chew that protects for an entire month. ask your vet for more information. reported side effects include vomiting and itching. nexgard. the vet's #1 choice.

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brooke morris had been found dead on the side of a rural road 40 miles away in knoxville, her older sister brittany felt a

sudden wave come over here in the middle of the night. she woke her husband. >> and i said, i just feel really sick. just like all of a sudden really sick to my stomach. she's like, well what do you think's going on? kr i was like, i don't know i feel nauseous. it wasn't 20 minutes later i get a phone call. vs. sheriff's deputy was looking for her mother, tina. >> he didn't want to tell us much until he talked to mom first. >> mom comes to the door and she looks at me and she's like, it's brooke isn't it, and i'm like, yeah. >> how did you know? >> inoue it had to be because brittany was there. >> yeah. >> it had to be. >> i've delivered more than my share of death notifications and this particular one was -- i'll never forget it. i just asked her to sit op the couch and we sat there for a second. and i said, is brooke morris your daughter.

and said she is, and i said, well, she's been murdered. >> she passed out cold, so we had to get her to come back to and i think we were just all shocked. >> when tina came to she could hardly process what had happened. >> it was almost like it was not real. you know. you've got the wrong person, it's not her. >> but it was real. brooke was dead. she'd been shot three times, once in her neck, once in her chest and then execution style shot to the back of her head. >> i could not believe that another human could be so heartless. >> you never ask any of these questions, like, who would -- do you know anybody that would want to harm your sister. we're like, we don't have a clue. >> i could not even think of someone that would want to hurt brooke in any way. everybody loved brooke.

>> but investigators had to start somewhere. although only 23 years old, brooke already had an ex-husband, clayton morris. she met him soon after high school. >> he was keen of country, you know, they just hit it off and had fun together. and started dating. then the surprise popped up. >> she comes home with some news, big news? >> uh-huh. she was totally excited, of course. i was not so much excited. >> brooke then 20 years old was pregnant. >> i thought brooke was too young for one thing, and, you know it's just -- it's not what i had hoped for her at that time. >> brooke and clayton were determined to make a go of it as a family. so, before they became three, they got married. >> they may have this sweet baby that just stole my heart in an instant. >> did that make it all better? >> it absolutely did.

>> how was brooke as a mom? did she just take right to it? >> oh yeah. >> oh yeah. >> they moved into a house and both had jobs. but the young couple soon realized that family life came with grown-up responsibilities and problems. >> did she confide in you at all about how thing were not great at home? >> yeah, of course she talked to her friends about it. tried to be as supportive as we can but we were on devin levels, here we were still single and she was married with a baby. so hard pressed to kind of relate in that area. i think she knew that it wasn't going to work, you know? >> after two years, the couple split. brooke moved out and clayton stayed in the house with their son. but brooke's family says she and clayton were committed to raising the child together. >> she lived a few doors up from clayton and they had shared custody of the baby.

>> was it an amicable divorce or did they fight? >> they had some treatments, you know. they definitely had disagreements. >> ex-husbands, husbands, spouses are always looked at? >> they are. >> did you feel he was an person important to talk to as well? >> we did. >> did you call him right away? >> we actually went and seen him. >> it was the middle of the night just hours after brooke's body was discovered when investigators arrived at clayton's house, chief philips woke him up. >> what did you say to him then? >> we didn't tell him that brooke was deceased. and our goal was to fine out what he was doing this evening. >> you wanted to hear the story as it relates to brooke? >> that's right. >> clayton says he had his son that weekend. >> could we have left the child and gone out? >> he could have. >> coming up.

>> scouring the scene of the crime, bullets and brooke's found, what will they reveal? >> very helpful to us. >> when "dateline" continues. phones have made our lives effortless.

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and it can be included with your internet. which could save you hundreds of dollars a year. plus, get $150 dollars when you bring in your own phone. its a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit a store today. brooke morris was laid to rest at just 23 years old. while her friends said their good-byes, her mother tina admits to being in denial about brooke's death.

>> i kept thinking, she's going to call, she's going to call. i know she's going to call and say, mom, you know it was a big mix up, you know. just couldn't grasp that she was gone forever. kristi that had a very hard time. inoue being at her funeral and tina was holding this picture of brooke, just crying hysterically, two people had to carry her to the grave site. >> along with grief there was something else. >> how scarry was it to you that whoever did this was out there? >> very scary. i mean, because they'd taken something from you, what are the motivates for us. >> roan crow investigator tax with bringing brooke's skiller to justice smoke with her ex-husband clayton. >> were you getting any vibes from clayton? >> you know sometimes you read people and people throw off body

language but he was like, what in the world's going on. >> despite the divorce those who new brooke best didn't think her ex-husband was a killer. >> clayton was a good person so i didn't think he'd be capable of doing something like that to brooke. >> more importantly, clayton's alibi checked out. investigators cleared him, if not the ex-husband, then who? who had brooke come in contact that weekend? investigators retraced brooke's steps, starting not with the game on saturday but the night before, friday. friends told investigators they had tickets to a concert. >> she was super excited about going to that, she was like, okay i got to go find something to wear i'm going to go to dinner. >> after dinner brooke left her car at a shopping parking lot at the restaurant and wen with friends. >> i called the hotel -- left it

unlock for everyone. >> the next day, saturday was the lsu game, everyone was looking forward to tailgating but the next day turned sour. brooke boar rowed something out dina's closet, the two girls got into an argument. >> she was calling all these people to take her to her car because she wanted to change her outfit that night. >> we would be break off and i was with some other friend of ours at that time. so, i'm not really sure where she was. >> neither dina nor albert ever saw brooke again. with more than 100,000 football fans flooding the city for the game, finding brooke's killer was like looking for a needle in

ab orange hay stack. >> i thought maybe someone had kidnaped her. we were all just trying to figure out who would have done this and why, what was their motivate. it was a very horrible time. >> did you think that maybe it could be connected to the game? >> you never know -- you can never rule it out. it's tennessee football, you know, she so happen to be wearing a bright orange top and if anybody knows anything about tennessee football, bright orange is the color for the >> but brooke's body has been discovered 40 miles from the football stadium and investigator were still stunned as to how she ended up there. >> did it lead up to maybe she was dumped here or do you think she was actually shot here? >> based off of everything that was here at the scene, it appeared she was shot here. >> the crime scene itself yielded little physical evidence.

no fingerprints, tire marks and no murder weapon. only some brass as they call it. >> they found spend ammo, they found live ammunition. >> three shell casings as well as some unfired bullets all from a .32-caliber gun. that brass was sent to be tested in the lab while investigator turned their attention to one item at the crime scene that could possibly provide some quick leads. brooke's cell phone it was right there unlocked and in her purse. >> you can find a lot out about a person within seconds of going over the person's cell phone, so it was very helpful to us. >> in fact, brooke's phone provided investigators with a major lead to pursue, two leads actually. two men. investigators wanted to talk to them but they'd have to find them first. >> it's always a concern whenever you have somebody you'd like to talk to and you can't

get to them to talk to them. >> we do consider people a person of interest. >> and what was their relationship to brooke? >> there's still something going on that shouldn't be going on. >> uh-huh. sorry, i can't make it. it's just my eczema again, but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you okay? eczema. it's fine. hey! hi! aren't you hot? eczema again? it's fine. i saw something the other day. myeczemaexposed.com. your eczema could be something called atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by inflammation under your skin. maybe you should ask your doctor? go to myeczemaexposed.com to learn more. ♪ happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard. a delicious chew that protects for an entire month. ask your vet for more information.

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. the brutality of brooke morris's murder fuelled the search for her killer. >> we really hate they came into our community and committed such a crime. >> roan county investigators cleared brooke's ex-husband. but they had two men to look at. >> what was brooke communicating with that day that seemed to be of potential importance? >> daniel hopkins. >> this is a man she used to date? >> this is a man we believe she had a relationship with, yes. >> i think they were talking, nothing too extreme, maybe a

couple dates. >> albert knew daniel through mutual friends. >> we would hang out with daniel, i would text him and say, hey man are you coming out. he'd meet up with us. >> but albert hadn't spoken to brooke that day. investigators say they called the number listed for daniel on brach's phone, he didn't answer. >> you couldn't fine him? >> couldn't find him. >> investigators learned daniel lived in colorado, he was just in knoxville for the game. >> were you worried when you couldn't gethold of him out there? >> yeah. >> additionally had flown back to colorado, by the time he got on the phone with the sheriff's investigator. >> basically interviewed him. >> where was he? >> from what i understand he was at the ball game. >> daniel told inl investigator he was at the stadium watching

the football game as he texted with brooke on and off throughout the name. the game ended just before 7:00 p.m., brooke's body was found just after 8:00 p.m. if he's telling the truth investigators had to find out if he had enough time to get through the fans, meet up with brooke and had the time to make the drive here and conduct the murder all in about an hour. >> as investigators looked at daniel's tameline they found he was still texting brooke long after the game ended. it read, where are you darling. but then, brooke had been dead for almost four hours. >> until we clear him and rule him out we do consider someone like daniel hopkins person of interest. >> dan hopkins wasn't the only person texting with brooke. who else had brooke been texting with? vs. shawn submit. >> what did you learn about him? >> we learned he ran an office

there in knoxville. >> married, children? >> chaern, no longer married at that particular time. >> what were you impressions of shawn? >> seem like a nice enough person, outgoing. easy to get along with. >> shawn smoot, the name ring a bell with friends. >> i remember the day that she had the interview, we had lunch right before and she was so excited, you know. >> it was a real job. and i said, there's going to be so much potential for you to move up in this company, you know. i was really proud of her. >> did you feel like this was kind of a fresh start brooke needed? >> yeah we did. we all thought it was going to be a good thing for her. >> did she seem happy? >> oh yeah, she loved it.

i think there was a couple other ladies in the office that she worked with. everybody got along and she enjoyed it. >> she had formed a really -- i guess tight relationship with her boss. >> but brooke's family had no idea how close brooke's relationship with her boss, shawn smoot actually was. some of her friends did. >> well, she had told me in the beginning that she had started working for this guy, shawn smoot, and a little down the road, i had like saw them out eating or something like that. as things progressed in their relationship, i was like, what's going on here? i was like, this guy he seems a bit older. does he have a family or anything like that? >> and she was like, i -- yes, he's married. >> an affair with a married man. >> i don't think she was committed to that relationship. i think it was just her just coming through a divorce and she had attention from this man. >> but there's still something going on that shouldn't be going

on? >> uh-huh. >> brooke left the job after just a few months. but it was clear, to investigator at least, that brooke and shawn was still in touch. her phone showed calls between them on the day of the football game and they'd been texting back and forth. >> did you call him? >> my attempt to call him wasn't successful. >> another one whose not around? >> that's correct. >> detectives decided not to wait for shawn to pick up his phone. they wen to his home in the early morning hours after brooke's home. shawn told investigators he had seen brooke before. she called from downtown knoxville asking for help. remember, brooke's tailgating plans wen awry, she needed a ride to her car to change clothes. >> he picked her up and they went to i think wild rings and buffalo rings, two different restaurants within a square mile of each other. >> shawn then said he dropped

brooke off at her car where she left it. >> he said he didn't know where she wen. >> so, had brooke met her killer there in the parking lot or sometime later? perhaps she left to meet up with that other guy she'd been texting, daniel hopkins. as far as investigators knew, shawn smoot was the last person to see brooke alive. as investigators checked out his story something wasn't adding up. >> is this one of first this guy's story is not adding up? >> it was one of the many. coming up. >> i went in her kitchen and on top of her refrigerator was a manilla folder. >> a secret brooke never shared with her family. >> did that give you chills when you found that envelope? >> yeah it was horrible. >> when "dateline" continues. sorry, i can't make it. it's just my eczema again,

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investigators working brooke . morris's murder case were taking a hard look at two men she was talking to the day she was killed. daniel hopkins said they tried to meet up but never did. >> were daniel's friend able to back up his alibi? his alibi was verified. >> he was really at the game? >> yes. >> daniel hopkins conhave been in roan county at the time of the murder. chef eventually cleared by the

authorities. but could they verify smoot's story. here's video of them at one of the restaurants he said they went to. here they are taking their drink on to the patio. another camera captured the couple leaving 6:30 p.m.. brooke is walking several steps ahead of shawn. something chief philips thought was telling. >> normally people were happy and all that stuff, you'd think they'd walk out together. if there was something going on, maybe she was like, i want to get away from him or whatever. i'd be glad wen he drops me off at my car. >> this is the parking lot where smoot says he dropped brooke off at her car.

so, they decided to trace his steps. they pulled his cell phone record and found something unusual. in the 2 1/2 hours after shawn and brooke had last been seen together there was no activity on his cell phone. at 11:00 p.m. his phone started pinging off towers at this major interstate heading out of knoxville. then his phone turned around and started pinging in another direction all the way back to his house. did he talk about why he was about to leave town and didn't or why he turned around? >> in initially talking to us he told us he was home all night. >> so that's an inconsistency for you. >> it is. >> investigators were becoming suspicious of shawn smoot. and they weren't the only ones. brooke's closest friends never suspected clayton or daniel hopkins. they knew the relationship with shawn had been stormy. >> she'd tell me little thing here and there.

>> shawn was drunk, katelyn says so she didn't want brooke to drive home with him. >> he did not like that. he'd get very angry, we drove just down the street pulled into the parking lot and i pulled up right beside her car. she opened the door and shawn was like right there. grabbed her by the arm. i told her, brooke just get back in the car and so she did. she got back in the car and drove off. >> friends say similar incidents followed. brooke felt shawn was stocking her, showing up unannounced and uninvited when she was out with friends, even after she stopped working for him. >> she definitely knew something was wrong, you know, after he was obsessive with her, calling her mumble times, texting and stalking her. she knew that this man has got some issues, i've got to try to

get away from him. >> brooke reached her breaking point. and in january 2011, did something she thought would get shawn out of her life forever. >> she was like i'm done with this situation, he wouldn't leave me alone. i'm going to the wife, she needs to know about the situation. >> i think she was probable tired of living in the secret. she wanted to be free from the situation. >> the wife knows, he'll leave me alone. >> yeah, if i'm honest with the wife, then maybe, you know they can try to work out their problems and he'll leave me alone. >> but it backfired. shawn's marriage imploded. >> she was just like, i've gone to the wife, she's getting a divorce, she's made him move out. >> he lost everything after that. >> and friends say shawn continued to harass brooke. in fact, they saw thing on intensified. >> beyond emotional abuse was it physical? >> uh-huh, yes.

>> she had just told me that shawn was getting violent. >> he broke into her apartment one night, came in through the bathroom window, threw her head up against the towel floor. >> brooke's family didn't know about any of this, the relationship, the alleged violence. it was until after her death that her family finally learned brooke's secret. >> did that give you chills when you found that envelope? >> yeah it was horrible. >> it was brittany who discovered it when she went about the task of cleaning out brooke's apartment. >> we were getting stuff in order to pack away and send. i went in her kitchen and on top of the refrigerator was a manila folder. >> brittany opened the folder, it was an order of protection brooke taken out a year before her murder against her former boss, shawn smoot. >> and it was page after page of crazy stuff that he did to her.

and i'm just like, this is horrifying, like i didn't even know any of this was happening. >> the document details a litany of alleged violent outbursts by shawn, including the time brooke says he broke into her apartment and attacked her. >> why didn't she just tell us, you know, that -- this is what i'm going through, i need help? >> why did you think she didn't want to share with you what was going on in her life? >> she knew we'd have a fit. i would have hunted him myself for hurting her in any way. and i think she knew that. >> brooke's friends who knew about the order of protection were surprised to find out she and shawn were talking on the day of the football game. >> phone knew that she had even had contact with him. >> but to investigators there was something about this particular order of protection. brooke had asked the judge to

allow her and shawn to have social contact. and sure enough they had continued to talk and spend time together. so, they had to wonder if thing were really that bad between brooke and shawn. the investigation dragged on for weeks, then months. it was almost too much for tina to bear. >> i got really frustrated, yeah i did. you know, and i'm sure they had to hear my wrath a few times because, you know, i'm a mother and i wanted to know who did it, and i wanted them put behind bars. >> a major break in the case was coming. would a jury be able to put it all together. >> i said were you directly or indirectly involved. coming up, a murder charge at last and a powerful moment in court. >> silent, and brooke morris is dead. >> i wanted them to envision this young woman being shot three times. there's little rest for a single dad,

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brooke morris's family and friends had come to a hear wrenching conclusion. she had been in a violent relationship with shawn smooch. a relationship that ended in her murder. >> did it seem to you that okay, they with go arrest him right now? >> oh absolutely. but that didn't happen. i was thinking, well, surely any

day now. any day now. >> investigators had their suspicions as well and they were trying to build a case against smoot. he was the last to see her alive. they had an allegedly violent relationship, he had lied to investigators. so far, they had found no physical evidence tieing him to the crime. >> you were able to search shawn smoot's apartment. >> we were. >> did you find anything? >> we found an empty box that once contained a firearm with ammunition. >> no gun? >> no gun. >> the box was for a .32-caliber pistol, same as the murder weapon. ammo. >> same style of the ammunition found at the scene. >> without the gun itself, the circumstantial case wasn't enough to charge smoot with murder. then the crime lab released its report showing the markings shell casings on the crime scene

matched the mashes on the bullet in shawn's home. missing was the murder weapon. >> that's a connection. >> it's pretty much the connection. >> eight months after brooke was killed, shawn smoot was charged on murder. >> did you identify with her as being this woman who was vulnerable? >> absolutely. >> prosecutors saw this case as a relationship turned deadly. >> we're still talking about domestic violence, we're still talking about orders of protective, and all of the thing that go wrong in these situations. >> you had no witnesses, you had no dna from your suspect, you had no murder weapon, that's a lot of things you didn't have? >> if we didn't feel like we couldn't prosecutor it and feel successful we wouldn't indict it.

>> shawn smoot insisted he was incident, he cycled through five different defense attorneys and the trial was delayed again and again. >> it was surreal. >> really? >> you know, because it had been reset 22 times. 22 times. >> that's torture. >> it is. it is torture. >> the trial finally started in july 2016, five years after brooke died. robert jolly, smoot's fifth attorney believed the state's case was weak for one reason. >> i don't think they did a very thorough investigation of anybody other than mr. smoot and even his investigation wasn't very thorough. >> charley told the jury just how little that investigation uncovered.

>> there are no fingerprints there is no gunshot residue test, no dna test, there's absolutely no evidence that leaks mr. smoot to roan crow on that evening. >> the defense sought to prove the evidence the state did have wasn't incriminating, like the missing gun that shawn owned. yes, it was the same caliber as the murder weapon, but -- >> there are how ever many million of people in this country that own guns and this was a common weapon. >> the defense argued that the ballistic reports linking shell casings from the crime scene to the bullets in smoot's home that had no science behind it. >> there's no scientific evidence of that. >> there is not currently a standard that shows that every firearm makes unique marks. >> as for the volatile relationship described in the

protective, defense pointed out that smoot never admitted to any of the allegations and was never charged, much less convicted of any assault on brooke. >> the order didn't mean mr. smoot did anything, or admitted to doing anything. >> and the order of protection didn't prevent them from seeing each other, which they clearly did. >> miss morris told the judge that she wanted to have social contact with mr. smoot. >> jolly argued if brooke was so afraid of smoot, why would she want to keep seeing him? after all, phone records show she was the one that called him that day. >> she continued to treat shawn as a friend, as someone she'd do activities with. >> did you worry that could be confusing to the jury? >> absolutely. i think that's the underlying question any time that we're talking about domestic violence. why does anyone go back? >> the prosecutors hoped any

doubt the jury may have regarding smoot's guilt would be wiped away when they called their key witnesses to the stand. >> do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give -- >> amy denver who was working for smoot when brooke was murder said the impression of man who hired her didn't last. >> why did it change? >> he was cold, got angry easily. not satisfied really ever. almost seemed like he enjoyed getting somebody rowled up. >> in court she testified about what happened the monday following brooke's murder. >> now, on that day did mr. smoot come into the office? >> he came in that morning, when i saw hum the first time he didn't see me. he was crouched down under his desk unhooking this computer. i asked him if he was okay. and he said, no.

and i asked him if there was anything i could do. and he said, turn back time. >> amy had already heard about the murder and that investigators had been to smoot's house. she told the jury what the defendant said next. >> and at that point i asked him if he was directly or indirectly involved and he said, both. >> did you take that as a total admission of guilt? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> it had taken nearly five years of brooke's murder to get her alleged killer before a jury. it took the jury less than four hours to reach its verdict. >> we the jury, find the defendant, shawn nelson smoot, guilty of premeditated first-degree murder of brooke nichole morris. >> what's the emotions that you're feeling when you hear that word? >> well, of course we can't show emotion in court. >> what's going on on the inside? >> on the inside i'm screaming, i'm jumping for joy. >> i was able to give tina a hug

and see her smile through all of the tears she'd had in the last five years. >> this is the moment she'd been waiting for. >> yes. i think it's the moment we all had been waiting for. >> for the prosecutors this case is more about winning a conviction, it's a lesson to be learned. >> for a woman watching this going through the similar situations what's the message for her? >> get out. get help. get out. don't go back, it's not going to change. >> speak out and don't be afraid, don't be ashamed because you know, it's not your fall that you're being treated this way. you shall never be treated that way. >> the jurors also had to decided smoot's sentence, that's when prosecutor tiffany star smith asked them to imagine the horror of brooke's last moment. >> i'd ask that you all close your eyes for a few minutes -- >> were you hoping having the jury close their eyes would have a powerful impact?

>> i wanted them to try to envision this young woman out in the middle of nowhere being shot three times by an angry man that she was afraid of. >> all goes silent. and at 23 years old, brooke morris is dead. >> the jury sentenced smoot to life without the possibility of parole. he's appealing his conviction. that conviction and the sentence have provided comfort for brooke's family, but not closure. >> i can't make any more memories with her, only memories i have are past memories. im, it's hard. >> she's always in my heart, she will always be in my heart. and, you know we had -- i had 23 wonderful years with brooke. i wish i had 53 more, but unfortunately i don't. but i know where brooke is, i

know i'll see her again and that gives me hope.