that does it for our show. a reminder, rachel has john brennan for a big interview tonight. that does it for me. you can always check out "the beat" at 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. my mother called and said "michelle's dead." how is that possible? >> a young mother found brutally murdered. her little girl left to wander in her mother's blood. police had a suspect and they say he had a motive. >> we had an intimate relationship. >> we ended up having sex. >> but could they prove he was the killer? >> it was a circumstantial case. >> except for that witness.

the girl who left those footprints. >> we will never know what cassidy saw and what she didn't see. >> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury? >> the person that killed the mother cared about cassidy. here is keith morrison with "silent witness." >> i think i paused for a second and had to take a deep breath.

and just the reality of what was going on would sink in. >> reporter: those who saw the footprints will not forget them. they were tiny and they were bloody. >> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house. >> reporter: it was november 3, 2006, early afternoon. deputy scott earp had been dispatched to a neighborhood, enchanted oaks, the outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. here for the 911 call from this place, on birchfield drive. >> i think my sister is dead. >> tell me what happened. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom, the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman who in death was about to be famous. >> you need to calm down so we can help you.

you said there's blood everywhere? listen to me. >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. she's cold. >> reporter: as she spoke, meredith was cradling her niece, cassidy the who crawled out from under the bed clothes on her parents' bed, feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice chattering to her aunt. was caught on the phone call. had cassidy witnessed the murder, awakened alone to find this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> reporter: by now, wake county investigators were descending on the house. having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done. but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question.

>> i looked over the child. i asked her did you clean the child? her response was no. i thought it was kind of odd. because i was expecting her to say, yes, i guess. >> reporter: somebody did? >> yeah, somebody did. >> but who? the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? on this november day, all they had were questions. sergeant richard spivey of the wake county sheriff's office probably knows the case better than anyone. >> this was just a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy invested in the assault. >> reporter: why? >> the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of blunt object. >> reporter: so detectives started investigating the victim. and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> she was smiling all the time. and she was the life of the party.

>> reporter: stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being center of the attention but liked creating a great atmosphere to have a great time. >> reporter: michelle was a cheerleader in high school and straight a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had this kind of bookworm side to her. she was very studious and goal-oriented. she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit. and you know someone that i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> reporter: lots of people did. and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friend. best friends, buddies. fiora childs was her sorority big sister. >> there is this one picture, it came out beautiful. we liked it. because we felt like we kind of looked like charlie's angels, posed, without intentionally doing that. >> reporter: it was sometime in 2001, when friends started hearing about michelle's new

guy, jason young, heard how he had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life of tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was different from other men she had dated in the past. he wasn't as serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less sophisticated than michelle was. but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> reporter: michelle and jason married in october, 2003, the day after the wedding they shared their big secret. michelle was pregnant. their daughter cassidy was born early the next year. >> mwah! >> i love you, mommy. >> i love you too, cassidy. ♪ twinkle, twinkle >> reporter: when she came along it was love at first sight. ♪ how i wonder where you are >> yea! >> reporter: michelle was an enthusiastic mother. >> huh? >> huh? >> huh?

>> huh? >> by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know? >> reporter: the youngs moved into the big fine house on birchleaf in 2005. both of them worked. he a salesman. she a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was "he is excited to have another baby." not implying she was pregnant. but he was excited at the prospect of it. >> a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in virginia on a business trip the night of the murder. he heard the news the next afternoon. and returned to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother called and said "michelle is dead." i said, "michelle who?

some celebrity. what are you talking about? what do you mean, how is that possible? what happened?" >> reporter: the very question that wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> when we come back, a security camera provides a critical clue. it's not what it caught on tape, it's what it missed. and why? >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> who had something to hide? -morning. -morning. -what do we got? -keep an eye on that branch. might get windy. have a good shift. fire pit. last use -- 0600. i'd stay close. morning. ♪ get ready to switch. protected by flo. should say, "protected by alan and jamie." -right? -should it? when you bundle home and auto... run, alan! ...you get more than just savings. you get 'round-the-clock protection.

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>> reporter: the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november, 2006, while her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her bedroom and brutally beaten to death. her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter cassidy who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spivey, lead investigator. >> those who work in law enforcement this is our profession. but we are also parents that certainly strikes a, different note with you when you see something like that. >> michelle's husband jason a medical software salesman was 170 miles away the night of the murder. even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night. and -- he was also the reason why she was found.

he called meredith fisher to go to the house. >> reporter: jason young's business trip that night was routine. security tape showed him getting gas, 7:30 p.m. as he left raleigh. two hours later seen on tape at cracker barrel restaurant. later checked into the hampton inn in hillsdale, virginia. this is him front desk. 11:00 p.m. him again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight. and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say he was 170 miles away. he has an alibi. >> that sound look a great distance, you snow but 170 miles, you can get -- between the crime scene and the hotel in about 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: perhaps. but there were curious anomalies at the crime scene. couldn't explain them. a jewelry box was missing two drawers. so was it a bungled burglary? then there were footprints near

the body that seemed to eliminate jason. an obvious print on the pillow was a size 10. but jason wore a size 12. but this was weird, there was another partial footprint, defied easy identification, so they began calling in shoe experts. now they wondered were there two attackers? of course, investigators discovered early on michelle and jason's marriage was strained. and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> at our friend shelley's wedding he was so drunk. just -- really, out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know, michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays. and jason who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law wanted to limit

her stay. and said so in an e-mail. along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days, i don't see it trending up. i remember that really striking a chord with me. i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> reporter: of course investigators wanted to interview jason young. maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> he talked to the lawyer. and then under the advice of the, counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> reporter: didn't ask? didn't ask how his wife died. >> no. >> reporter: perhaps, investigators thought the business trip deserved a second look. they want to the hotel. poked around and discovered, odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there unplugged? >> really. >> yes, one of the side exits for the hotel. one of the, the fire stairs that

go down to the first floor. >> reporter: any other tampering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where the camera was located the door also had been propped open that night. >> how do you know that? >> the gentleman working as the clerk that night found a rock placed in the door to keep the door from closing. >> reporter: well then they plug the camera back in. it is now working, again, and at, about 6:35 that morning, suddenly that camera is pointing straight at the ceiling. >> reporter: same camera? >> same camera. tampered with yet again. >> reporter: if that was jason young's work. is it possible he did make the 340 round trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in 7 1/2 hours? without ever being seen? to find out investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route. showed jason's photo, tucked to the night clerks.

and came across a woman named tracy doms in a tiny place called king, north carolina. she took one look at the photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul-mouthed customer who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked. and what time was it? 5:30 a.m., morning of the murder. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them. so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have happened into the store. >> reporter: if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it wasn't enough. so they plodded ahead, painstaking work, took time. and then, years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy shoe, size 12, same size he wore.

>> reporter: throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained silence. rather than face a legal battle where he would be asked tough questions, spivey, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> all of them talked about how much he loved cassidy. what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody, that was, that was very surprising. >> reporter: investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case, circumstantial, but a case. and three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far, nothing pointed away. >> coming up -- the case against jason young. as an alleged killer, and as a cheating husband.

>> we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> we ended up having sex. >> he never settled down. >> when "dateline" continues. hold on, don't worry, there's another way [siri: *beep beepá] directions to the greek theater. ♪ can i get a connection? can i get can i get a connection? ♪ ♪ i can see it in my, see it in my reflection. ♪ ♪ ohhh can i get a connection? ♪ tryna find the old me

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jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june 2011. by then he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates.

the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. prosecutor becky holt opened for the state. >> defendant had a plan. his plan was to murder his wife, his plan was to get away with it. >> reporter: with no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print. they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station. and suspicious activity at the hotel. but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yeah. i was well aware. >> reporter: meredith fisher, michelle's sister lived near the couple. and for a period was cassidy's nanny. as the young's fights intensified she took on the role of marriage counselor too. >> what would you say were the

main issues? >> michelle's main issues were, jason being more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to the stand to pant a picture of a marriage that was unraveling. out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship. >> reporter: and at parties, said fiona childs, jason's x rated tricks were famously over the top. >> i never observed it myself. i would just hear about it. and you now he was expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks. and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> he never settled down. it was as if he was still living the single life, that he never bought into the marriage. what that, what all that meant. >> reporter: in october 2006, when michelle was 4 months pregnant.

jason became deeply involved with another woman. and not just any woman. michelle was one of michelle young's close friend from college. one of those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle who testified they beth knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and -- we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there. >> reporter: jason was crazy about her. his friend josh dalton said. >> he basically told me that he thought was in love with her. >> reporter: michelle's mother. linda fisher, testified in the final weeks of her life, she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap. and she was lying down. and i was, stroking her hair.

and -- and she was -- empty. >> what did she tell you? >> things weren't working out with jason. >> reporter: two days before she was murder, michelle phoned her sister meredith to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, "i've had it." she said, "you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore." >> reporter: jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing. and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he had indulged in one last transgression. a casual hook-up with an old friend named carol ann sauerby in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed. and i had a couple drinks.

we just were talking. and -- we ended up having sex. >> reporter: but divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he made a statement one time, he was afraid if he got a divorce michelle would take cassidy and move to new york. >> and did he indicate he would have concerns? >> correct. >> reporter: one question remained. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder. a woman was engaged to jason before he met michelle. she took the stand to testify about a fight over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated and said

something to the effect if i am going to make such a terrible husband then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off. it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from one bed to the other. and jumping on me with all of his weight. and pinning my arms both of them behind me. >> prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it added up to motive for murder. so how would the defense counterattack? with a witness who could refute every charge. >> coming up -- jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife, michelle? >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. it's about delivering a more comfortable shave every time. invented in boston, made and sold around the world.

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>> reporter: there is an art to the business of criminal defense. and it would take an artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so what could the defense attorney, mike clinkson, do. well to begin with, he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband. >> he acted at times like an immature jerk. but that does not make him a killer. >> reporter: the defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. the jewelry box in the bedroom there was dna on it. didn't match michelle or jason. suspicious activity at the hotel, there was a fingerprint on that camera, and it wasn't jason young's. and, there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied jason to the crime scene. there was no blood in his car. there was not a scratch on him.

ladies and gentlemen, jason lynn young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son. and this case has not been solved. >> reporter: who better to make the argument than jason young himself. but so far, he had never said a word to anyone about the november night. and almost five years silence. >> it is always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients. >> reporter: a former prosecutor and legal analyst. she covered the trial. >> this is a case that really begged for jason young to testify. if he is innocent. >> reporter: after all this time. >> if he is truly innocent. get on the stand and tell the story. >> we call jason young. >> reporter: with his mother in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney brian collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife michelle? >> no, sir. >> wore you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> reporter: what about jason's missing hushpuppies that match the shoe print.

he no longer owned them. >> are those the shoes you had on november 2nd. >> no, sir. >> they were all ratty. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after she checked into the hotel, he left his room twice. the first time to got a power cord for his laptop. >> i was going over the, the sales call i had the next day. >> reporter: the second trip he testified was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke a cigar. i also wanted to look at sports schedules and some standings and so i wanted to see if i could pick up the "usa today" as well. >> reporter: the newspaper run explains why he was seen at the explainsk round midnight. >> between the time you smoked the cigar, went back upstairs and went to sleep did you leave the room until the next morning. >> no, sir. >> reporter: the next morning he realized he had left, e-bay

printouts on the computer at home. they showed purses thinking of buying one for michelle as belated anniversary. >> i realize i didn't bring the papers. >> why was it important to you somebody get the papers? >> because i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more. >> reporter: noon, november 3rd. he called his sister-in-law, meredith, from the car and asked if she would go to the house and get the e-bay papers. he left meredith a voice mail. then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. and it was there he testified, hours later, that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i just broke on the inside. i broke and i didn't believe it.

>> reporter: family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointing their fingers at me and doing things like that. they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to got a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> reporter: and then the explanation for his long silence. >> the lawyer that i got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes. >> did he tell you not to talk to anybody about it? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense addressed motives laid out. that jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new love. >> did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving michelle young for michelle miney? >> no, sir.

>> describe why not? >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one -- dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for the violent episode with his ex-fiancee, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her around on the bed like she said? >> no, sir. what i did was wrong i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay. >> what was your -- level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated. but i don't feel like that is an excuse for what i did. >> reporter: they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have -- have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> reporter: he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full blown custody

battle? >> no, sir, i had -- due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost, i lost it. >> reporter: his testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> reporter: so he didn't come off as contrived or -- phony? like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all of the evidence that they had. >> he had access to police reports. all of the discovery. he knew the state's vulnerabilities. and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to -- to fit with an innocent explanation. >> reporter: how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with jason young.

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>> reporter: it was riveting

almost five years of silence about his wife's murder. broken here in this courtroom. >> i loved cassidy. i loved michelle. >> and then he want to murder his wife. >> now prosecutor, becky holk began pulling apart a story she heard for the first time. were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with caroline sauerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle miney? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other. we talked about my issues with my wife. she talked about her issues with her husband. >> was the answer yes, when you had an affair with michelle that you were -- >> no ma'am having sexual intercourse and having intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination last >> the cross-examination last an full hour. and the next day the case went to the jury. >> retire to the jury

deliberation room. >> reporter: it soon became clear jurors were having trouble. >> indicated that y'all have not reached a unanimous decision. >> reporter: the jurors were split 6-6. the judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous. >> the jurors leave for a second. >> reporter: hours later they were back. and courtroom 3 c was still. >> it appears that they are, hopelessly deadlocked at this point. >> reporter: eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do? >> reporter: so the prosecutors decide they would try again. but this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february. 2012. this time, howard comings led

the prosecution hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> put your left hand on the bible, raise your right hand. >> reporter: first prosecutors called the night clerk at the gas station, gracie who remembered jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> what time did this happen? >> that was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. the time jason said he was at the hotel. >> call your next witness. >> prosecutors had new witnesses and testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody footprints they contended made her a silent witness to murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what are you doing? >> day care worker ashley pomentier took the stand. she told jurors she watched cass idy -- cassidy playing alone days after her mother was murder. >> she had the dolls in her hands and just hit them.

>> reporter: as unsettling as it was, prosecutors wanted jurors to know the kill heard left a silent witness behind. a witness he would never harm. the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you? or would that mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> i do. >> thank you. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy. and michelle questioned. >> that she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times. asking me didn't i think $1 million was too much. did they really need that. >> reporter: after michelle died, fiona found out the true amount of the policy was $4 million. >> i was just like in total shock. that is incredibly excessive.

>> reporter: and prosecutors told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objection, the court clerk laura freeman testified about the lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph. reading verbatim t in the early morning hours of november 3, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. freeman went on to testify that jason never responded to the allegations. and that led to a default judgment against him. that judgment said jason killed his wife. a default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty. and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement, jason young brutally

murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he is guilty, folks. hello? you know. >> reporter: and the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> i'm reading from the judgment. signed actually by judge stevens. >> reporter: judge stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing it, it is just something that is going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> reporter: prosecutors called the attorney involved in the custody case over daughter cassidy. and those same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that jason young brutally murdered michelle fisher young. the headline came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial.

>> i wanted her to have that. >> and began to rip it apart. >> i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors tried to show, jason's call to meredith to pick up the e-bay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an e-bay auction ad leave it on the printer and hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction. they called sergeant spivey to the stand. >> that auction would end, 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time. >> what day was that? >> that was on november 2nd, 2006. >> reporter: just hours before the murder. now, prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reasons for leaving hoet tell room. -- the hotel room. >> i didn't pull the door. >> reporter: in his original test men he told the court he left to get a power cord for the laptop. >> why did you want to look at the laptop? >> i was going over the sales call the next day. >> special agent mike smith took the stand to say that young didn't use his laptop for work

that night. >> this is an internet site dedicated to sports. >> reporter: jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar. prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker. the weather was freezing, windy. >> could you tell me or not there was any substantial outer wear that the defendant had in his luggage or wearing? >> no, sir, a suit jacket. that was the only outer wear that i am aware of. >> reporter: jason chose not to testify this time. the defense fought back of course. they argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't beep trusted because of a childhood brain injury. >> i have had memory problems since '06 because i hatch been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> reporter: the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved. that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there wasn't one scratch on mr. young. >> reporter: he never would have

had time to make the trip an commit murder. that he don't have the mindset of a killer. and that cigar, it showed that jason young owned a humidor and once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. then it was over again. >> reporter: and time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. >> coming up -- the verdict. take two. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant, jason lynn young to be --

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>> for more than five years, michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers. who killed their pretty pregnant michelle? many thought they knew. >> it was him. you know i didn't know all the evidence. i didn't know half the things i know now. but i felt that way. >> one jury failed to decide. and now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury. >> be mad at him. hate him if you want to. but when you look at the physical defense in the case it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows?

that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> reporter: soon that jury was behind closed doors. in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back. with a verdict. >> the jury by unanimous verdict find jason lynn young to be guilty of first degree murder. >> reporter: guilty. first degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona at home got the news from a friend. they said "he's guilty." i was like, "what? what?" >> reporter: jason young received a life sentence. chose not to address the court. even as the bailiffs led him awe he remained expressionless.

the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> i was very emotional. i have family members there who have been working for five and a half years. and they finally had justice you know? >> we have been telling them for years just, just trust, just trust that, that it will be the right result. >> reporter: but was it? a year and a half ticked by. and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> reporter: december 2013. jason young's new attorneys launched his appeal. >> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for ms. young's death. it seems fundamentally unfair. >> reporter: what was fundamentally unfair? remember during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason.

brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle marie fisher young. >> way out of bound said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the core, michelle's sister meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out. >> the jury came to the right verdict. we are confident. >> reporter: a raleigh man is getting a third trial. >> reporter: in april, 2014, the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about the civil cases prejudiced the jury.

her father, her mother, snatches a memory ever farther away. thanks for joining us. i just can't imagine. to be held in captivity. >> dad, just send the money. that's all they want. >> they have an american kid. a 14-year-old kid in the middle of the jungle. they're thinking they hit the jackpot. >> they were vacationers turned prisoners. a mother and son kidnapped by terrorists. >> we need 10 million u.s. dollars for the release of your