girlfriend peggy thomas. >> peggy was my guide out there? >> i would be surprised if it was any different than mine. >> and he was right, like jim, peggy wasn't giving the police anything in her interview. so detective mike beach decided to shake things up. coming up -- it's peggy's turn to be interrogated. will she give up her lover? >> she said, you know, you're never going to be able to do that to me again. >> and peggy herself, she's off to the next man. >> she's evil. >> and the whole case goes south in mexico. when "dateline" continues. -not this. ♪ -oh, what am i into? mostly progressive's name your price tool. helps people find coverage options based on their budget. flo has it, i want it, it's a whole thing,

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♪ ♪ ♪ and everywhere i go ♪ there's always something to remind me ♪ ♪ of another place and time ♪ ♪ josh mankiewicz: florida musician james huden ♪ of another place and time ♪ was in the middle of an intense interrogation with detectives from whidbey island, washington, regarding the murder of russel douglas. florida musician james huden

was being interrogated for the murder of russell douglas. >> who is bill hill? >> he's a friend of mine who lives here. bass player. >> does that surprise you that i brought up that name? >> yes. >> why? >> uh, because you're from -- whidbey island? >> would it surprise you that i've been talking to him almost daily for the last week and a half? >> yeah, it would surprise me. >> i just wanted to see a reaction. up until that point he was playing it pretty cool, and i think i got the reaction i was hoping for. it kind of deflated him a little bit. >> it's truth or dare time, jim. you know what you told bill. he's your best friend in the whole world. the guy is falling apart over this, literally falling apart over the guilt he's carrying around because you told him what

you did. >> i don't buy that for a minute. >> if revealing bill hill as their source was intended to shock jim huden into confessing it failed. with no murder weapon, no warrant and no authority to make an arrest in the state of florida, the detectives had to let their primary suspect go free. were you worried at all about bill hill? now you've disclosed he's the source of all this. >> we made sure before we went back to washington that bill understood that we had to give his name, but my hope was that jim huden would be far too worried about his own skin and not have to worry about taking retribution on bill hill. >> easy for him to say. bill hill remembers being terrified when he heard his former friend knew he was the one that called the police. >> oh, yeah. scared to death.

>> watching your back. >> oh, yeah. yeah. >> that terror was amplified a few days later when hurricane charley which had been churning up the gulf, suddenly made an unexpected turn and slammed into punta gorda. packing 150 mile-an-hour winds, charley leveled parts of town, taking out electricity and giving plenty of cover to someone like jim huden who might want revenge. >> i slept on the couch in the living room with my .357 under the pillow. >> because you thought jim was coming? >> yes. >> how did you sleep? >> not very good. >> as it turned out. the detective was right. jim huden had plenty on his plate and no intention of sticking around. once charley died down no one was surprised to learn that jim

huden was literally gone with the wind. >> he cold told me, you will never see me in a jumpsuit. he had every intention of killing himself before it came to that. >> that brings us back to that hurricane. hurricane charley. jean says that after the storm passed, jim asked her to drive him to miami. he told her he wanted to spend one last night alone, drinking and gambling in a casino there, before he committed suicide. >> i gave him $4,000 or $5,000 and he was going to take his own life. >> you were crying? >> i was historical. >> was he crying? >> yes, he was. i drove away thinking that was the last time i would see him.

i would be getting a knock on the door asking me to identify his body. >> reporter: for weeks, jean says she waited amid the ruins of her storm-ravaged home for word of jim's fate. she assumed he was dead and that's what she told the whidbey island cops when they called to follow up. >> there were several messages on the machine, you know, from them and i called them back and i told them what had happened, and it's, like, you got your man. he's dead and there you go. case is solved. >> but shortly after telling the police that jim had probably killed himself the phone rang again. it was greyhound bus lines in houston, texas. >> they found a bag that was left on the bus with jim's name on it with a bottle of crown royal, his clothes and a gun in it. >> how long -- when did you hear from him? i got a phone call from my

attorney saying they'd heard from jim and that jim was in a motel down in houston. the lawyer put jean in touch with jim and filled her in on his latest plan, a plan that could only succeed if jean agreed to send jim money. >> his plan was to get across the border and go from there. and so i sent him yet more money and allowed him to, you know, get out of the country. >> which wasn't at that point a crime since there were no charges against him. >> at this point, no. here's where our story takes another bizarre turn. while jean huden, the wife jim had cheated on for years was willing to stand by her man and help him escape to mexico, police learned that peggy thomas, jim huden's lover and alleged accomplice was now willing to give him up. >> i'm not involved in this. >> in this interview with detectives, peggy thomas said that in a phone call shortly before he fled to mexico jim had

confessed to killing russell douglas. >> he said i'm sorry. i love you. i never meant for you to be involved in it and i did it when i went for cigarettes. he said it can't be, and i said you know what? just know that i love you. you'll never see me or hear from me again. >> with no evidence tying peggy to the murder, the detectives asked for the public's help in documenting motives in 2003 where russel douglas was murdered. >> we put out descriptions of the vehicle he was driving. just a few days after it hit the media we got a phone call from dona ana county sheriff's office in new mexico saying someone had turned in as a firearm that they believe might have been used in a homicide on whidbey island. >> talk about luck. >> it doesn't get any better than that. >> the gun came from a former las vegas sheriff's deputy who

recently retired to new mexico. the deputy had known jim huden and peggy thomas in las vegas and in october 2003, the deputy said huden had come to his house and asked to be shown how to shoot the gun. according to the deputy, the next time he saw either huden or the gun was in january 2004 when jim huden handed it to him in a paper bag and asked him to hold it for safekeeping. >> we took the weapon for testing, and it was matched to the shell casing from the tracker and also matched to the slug that was pulled from russel's brain. >> the murder weapon. >> that's the murder weapon. >> and you have a guy telling you that jim huden gave it to him. >> right. not just that jim huden gave it to him, but he taught jim huden to fire the weapon and that jim huden gave it back to him just a few days after the murder of

russel douglas. >> if you'd had that information before you went to florida, you could have brought jim huden back in cuffs. >> yes. >> now you have the proof and jim huden is nowhere to be found. >> we have all we need. now we just need jim. coming up, with jim out of the picture, his lover peggy thomas meets a new man, a millionaire cowboy who was about to be taken in a wild ride. >> i didn't have nothing to do with it. she said, my lawyer told me not to. if you're innocent, why wouldn't you take a lie detector? i looked in her eyes and i mean, she is evil. >> when "dateline" continues. let's be honest:

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for nine months, the mystery of who killed russel douglas for nine months the mystery of who killed russel douglas and why weighed on his family. then as it often does in this story a ringing phone brought momentous news. >> i got the call from the prosecutor who said i'm telling you first that they thought they knew who it was. >> jim huden's name meant nothing to russel's family, but the name of huden's girlfriend peggy thomas did.

>> peggy thomas is the owner of the home that russel and brenna rented that they had had a verbal agreement that they were going to buy if they could come up with the capital. >> given that brenna was the named beneficiary on russel's life insurance policies, russel's family wondered if his death was in some way part of a real estate deal. >> i guess some of our family members kept thinking did peggy maybe do this or set this all up because she thought that if brenna got insurance money she would buy the house and peggy would then have that instant cash? >> peggy thomas appeared to be the only link between jim huden and russel douglas, and it wasn't just a circumstantial connection, either. on page 14 of the murder weapon's owner's manual, investigators had found a fingerprint belonging to peggy thomas. troubling, but what concerned russel douglas' brother and sister most was the fact that brenna didn't appear to be the

least bit upset about the prospect of her friend peggy being involved in her husband's murder. >> he worked with her and you're not saying a peep, you know? if it was your friend, something, either disbelief or i can't believe my friend did this, i want to make sure they get punished. >> let's go get them. >> i said, you know, when you were really mad at russ did you ever say to peggy while you guys were working together that russ hads some insurance money and he'd be better to you dead than alive. she said, well, i might have and at that point i kind of looked at her and i thought, man, did this not give somebody a motive somewhere along the line? >> was this a case of angry words having unintended consequences or as some suspected, had brenna actively recruited russel's killers? the family couldn't know for sure, but that question now

complicated their relationships with brenna and the grandchildren. >> and we tried to be as supportive as we could for the kids, but i know she listens to all of their conversations. so it's a very controlled conversation. >> when it comes to awkward telephone conversations none could have been more strained than the ones that took place between jim huden's lover and jim huden's wife after he fled to mexico. >> you call her first or she called you? >> no. she called me. >> what did she want to talk about? >> well, she wanted to know how much the cops had been bugging me and what they knew and if i had heard from jim or anything like that. >> and you, what? told her? >> i told her what the cops had said. i didn't tell her anything about jim. >> why did you not hang up the phone? >> i don't know. i don't know. >> this isn't even jim. this is jim's mistress. >> i know.

i'm an idiot. >> that's not all. sce jean said she was able to stay in contact with jim while he was in mexico. jim asked her to fly out to vegas to meet peggy face-to-face and keep her in the loop. >> we did have jim in common. i never told her where he was. i did tell her i knew he was okay. it was just very weird. we went out and had drinks and saw a band, and i really found it hard to hate her as much as i wanted to. >> as months passed and jim huden's trail grew colder, the lives of the women who would love him took drastically divergent paths. while jean grew steadily poor supporting jim, the ever-resourceful peggy, now a limo driver in vegas hit the jackpot. in 2007 one of her affairs turned out to be this man, mark allen, a new mexico horse breeder and heir to an oil fortune.

>> the limo people asked me do you want some guy or the ex-mrs. washington, and i said i'll take the ex-mrs. washington. >> five months after meeting peggy thomas, allen said he asked her to marry him. >> the biggest mistake i ever made in my life. >> within months of moving to his new mexico ranch, allen says peggy was nosing her way into his horse business, pressing him to fire longtime employees and hire friends of hers. >> you know, she wanted her people to do the accounting and stuff. >> when he refused, allen says, the man magnet turned into a maneater. >> she'd get on me and it was -- it was like a man getting on you. she's a pretty good sized woman. i looked in her eyes and i -- i mean, she's evil. she is evil. >> but if peggy thomas married

well, she divorced even better. allen says he gave her money and an 80-foot houseboat just to go away. >> the divorce took way longer than the marriage did. >> looking back, mark allen says he should have known better. he says a few days before their wedding peggy let him in on a little secret. >> she said she was accused of being involved in a murder and that her ex-boyfriend had killed a guy, she said, but i didn't have nothing to do with it. i said, did you take a lie detector? she said, no, my lawyer told me not to. i said if you're innocent why wouldn't you take a lie detector? and she never gave me a good answer. >> it should be noted that although mark allen says his brief marriage to peggy thomas cost him dearly, she did give him at least one chuckle.

in 2009 after one of his horses won the kentucky derby, allen says he saw peggy quoted in the press. >> she said she was down here training horses and breeding horses. peggy can't even step up on a horse. coming up, whatever happened to jim, the fugitive from justice and his wife jean? >> i was getting ready to leave and not be able to come back to this country for the rest of my life. >> you could have died in a shoot-out. >> who knows? >> torn between joining jim on the lam and turning him in. which would she choose? when "dateline" continues. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. an amusement park... so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic

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the trump is at c-pack on saturday. he spoke for two hours, slamming the mueller report and democratic lawmakers. and space-x's crew dragon capsule will arrive at the space station early this morning. it's the next step in testing the spacecraft, which could carry astronauts to the station. now, back to "dateline."

>> by the spring 2011 russel douglas had been dead for more than seven years. his suspected killer was still on the loose because the only person on earth who knew his true whereabouts wasn't talking to detectives. >> i mean, they'd been watching me for years. they tapped my phones. >> police were pretty sure you were in contact with jim. >> well, sure. they had a good idea. >> and they were right. >> of course, they were. >> the man no longer known as buck naked had been able to build a new life for himself in mexico. ♪ >> and even played the occasional gig. >> it was in vera cruz, mexico. to bring him more money and he was teaching music to kids at a music school down there. i'd fly up to dulles airport and

then to kansas and change planes so they couldn't track how i was going and how i was getting to him or we'd meet in other cities. i never flew directly to him so, you know, so they couldn't trace me, you know, to get to him. >> but that kind of devotion doesn't come cheap. jim's life on the lam had taken a toll on jean's health and it's devoured the inheritance she received when her mother died. >> the man cost me every dime i had. i lost my house, and i lost my livelihood -- sorry. >> and yet, after her father died in 2007 jean says she seriously considered joining her husband in mexico where he was known as maestro jim and sharing his life as a fugitive. >> i knew what border crossing i was taking.

i had a new i.d. i was getting ready to leave and not be able to come back to this country for the rest of my life. >> maybe you would have died in a shootout. >> who knows? he probably would have taken me out next. >> that did not happen, for one reason. >> just days before she planned to join jim jean met this man, bill bruner and fell in love. >> and he finally made me see what foolish thing that would be to do and for some reason i listened to bill, and now he's -- he saved my life, basically. >> so love kind of wrecked your life and then love also saved your life. >> yeah. i guess it did. it sure did. yeah. >> because of bill jean gave up her dream of re-joining jim huden, but it wasn't until the spring of 2011 that bill bruner convinced her to give up the addiction that was jim. >> i had to finally -- i had enough, you know? i know jim doesn't love me. he didn't care about me when he

did what he did and he still doesn't care about me and probably less so now that i'm out of money. >> more than that, jean had herself gotten into some legal trouble after jim fled to mexico. in exchange for immunity from prosecution on some drug and check forgery charges, jean told authorities all she knew about the murder of russel douglas and just where jim huden could be found. >> they're not interested in me. they wanted jim. they said they would not prosecute me and i certainly hope they stick to their word. >> in june 2011 mexican authorities picked up the man known as buck naked or maestro jim in veracruz and quickly turned him over to waiting u.s. marshals. when the plane carrying jim back to washington state landed in seattle he was greeted by a familiar face. >> and you said what?

jim, nice to see you again. >> jim, i'm not sure if you remember me, but i'm here to escort you back to island county. i said you're under no obligation to talk to me and he immediately said i don't want to. >> something he should have said years earlier. >> probably would have been a good idea. >> for the foreseeable future, jim huden would be wearing exactly the ensemble he had, for so long, sought to avoid. immediately after huden's arrest detectives began trying to track down his former lover peggy thomas. a routine computer data search led police to this lake in new mexico where they discovered peggy thomas kept an 80-foot houseboat that she'd gotten in her divorce from mark allen. >> they said she was a really nice person, that she was single and that she'd put the name off the hook on the boat due to the fact she was single.

>> captain burton of the san juan office, said she was lured to the marina with a bogus promise there was a package waiting for her. she didn't seem all that surprised when he placed her under arrest. >> she had an attorney and she'd been waiting for this day and was kind of ready to get it over with. >> peggy thomas was all business, current says and wasted none of her legendary charm on him. >> just enough time for her to make fun of me and make fun of my braces and how young i looked. she thought i would be someone older, she said. >> after waiting seven, long years, russell douglas' family was elated that his suspected killers were in jail, but russel's wife? not so much. >> and i called brenna, and it was kind of a stunned silence for a little bit and then it was, like, oh, well good, but it was not the ecstatic thank god

something that i was really wanting to hear. >> in july 2011 when russel douglas' family gathered in solidarity for jim huden's first court appearance, russel's widow was conspicuously absent. >> i asked her, are you going to go? why would i go? it doesn't concern me. it just didn't quite seem right. >> it would take another year before jim huden and the wife of the man he was accused of killing sat in the same courtroom, and when they did, all eyes would be on her. coming up, brenna douglas, could she have anything to do with the plot to kill her husband? >> he had a lot of issues, throwing furniture around and different things. how he treated the kids and i, it wasn't okay. >> when you and russ went through a separation, that kind of thing that you told peggy

about. >> yeah. >> i said who else knows about this? >> did he tell you? >> yes, he did. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ a sock-a-bam-boom ♪ who's in the room? ♪ love is dangerous ♪ but driving safe means you pay less ♪ ♪ switch and save ♪ yes, ma'am excuse me, miss. ♪ does this heart belong to you? ♪ ♪ would you like it anyway? [ scatting ] ♪ would you like it anyway? seresto, serjake...eresto. seresto, seresto, seresto. whatever your dog brings home to you, it shouldn't be fleas and ticks. seresto gives your dog 8 continuous months of flea and tick protection in an easy-to-use, non-greasy collar. seresto, seresto, seresto. ohh no, jake. seresto. 8-month. seresto, seresto, seresto.

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[chatter] jim huden and peggy thomas were charged with the murder of russel douglas in the summer of 2011. jim huden and peggy thomas were charged with the murder of russel douglas in the summer of 2011. from that moment, whidbey island prosecutor greg banks had been hoping they would turn on each other and spill the details of what had happened on the day russel was killed. >> that was the plan. >> but that didn't happen. >> did not happen. >> because why? they're still in love? they wouldn't rat on each other? >> you know, if you got a chance to interview them you could ask them. >> because jean huden was still married to jim, the prosecutor decided to split the case and try jim and peggy separately. >> we needed jean to testify against peggy, but washington has a rule that says you can't call a spouse against a defendant. >> if you try jean and peggy

separately jean couldn't testify against peggy. >> more than a year after his wife had given him up, jim huden went on trial for the murder of russel douglas. the opening statement of the island county prosecutor set the tone. >> ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this case is about the assassination of russel douglas the day after christmas 2003. >> banks promised the jury that the evidence would show that jim huden and an accomplice had lured russel douglas to his death with the promise of a christmas gift for his wife brenna. >> james huden did not even know russ douglas, but his accomplice did. >> jim huden, he declared, was the triggerman. >> mr. huden walked up to that car. he opened the door. he looked him right in the face and in the distance of less than four inches used a .380 semiautomatic handgun to put a bullet between his eyes.

>> the prosecutor began by calling the one person that police still believed knew more about this case than she was saying. >> state calls brenna douglas. >> brenna douglas, the dead man's widow. on the stand, brenna identified a picture of peggy thomas and said they used to cut hair together. in 2003, she said, she rented a house from peggy. >> did you two become close? >> yeah. we'd talk. it was just girl talk stuff. >> did you talk about personal things with her? >> yeah. >> according to brenna, her rocky marriage to russel douglas was among the things she talked to peggy thomas about. >> he had a lot of issues, throwing furniture around and different things and how he treated the kids and i, it just wasn't okay. >> when you and russ went through a separation, is that the sort of thing you might have talked to peggy about? >> they talked to most people about probably too much. >> why did you say that that you talk to people too much. >> are you a person who likes to

chat. >> i just chat. >> do you know james huden? >> i met him. >> how is it that you met james huden? >> through peg. >> it was the woman to woman conversations between brenna and peggy that the prosecutor based his theory of the murder. brenna told peggy her husband was violent. peggy told jim and jim pulled the trigger. the prosecutor explained why. >> mr. huden pulled the trigger on russel douglas as a way of exorcising his own personal demons. >> that point was underscored when huden's old bass player bill hill took the stand and told the court about the day jim huden shared his darkest secret. >> he said i need to tell you about something that's on my mind. >> as jim huden clenched his teeth and stared daggers at his former close friend, bill hill continued.

>> he proceeded to tell me my stepfather used to beat me and beat my mother and always have hated that man and wanted to find somebody else that fit that m.o., and then he said they did find a person that fit and said that they murdered him. >> in halting language hill told the same story he'd told police eight years earlier that peggy thomas aided in the execution of russel douglas and that russel's widow brenna had known about it. >> i said who all knows about this? >> did he tell you? >> yes, he did. he said the only people that knew was him, peggy, his wife jean and the woman at the hair shop that she didn't play much of a part, but she knew it was going to happen. >> but no evidence was offered to buttress that charge, no

incriminating e-mails, no cell phone records. no suspicious money transfers. the question of brenna douglas' possible involvement in her husband's murder was simply left hanging in the air for everyone to ponder. >> state's next witness is keith ogden. >> next the prosecutor presented the story of a gun. keith ogden, a retired las vegas lawmen told him that jim huden came to court in late october 2003, just two months before russel douglas was killed to talk about a gun jim had just purchased. >> he told me that he purchased it from somebody in the newspaper in las vegas. >> did you ever see it. >> yes, sir. >> when jim huden brought it over to my house to show him how to use it -- >> please raise your right hand. >> a ballistics expert testified that the bullet taken from russel douglas' head came from jim huden's gun. >> this bullet was fired from this .380 auto. >> given those facts, it seemed

odd that the murder weapon wasn't simply dropped into pujet sound. but keith ogden told the court that in early january, just days after the murder jim huden had asked him to keep the gun in a safe place. >> please take the stand. >> the last witness for the prosecution was detective mark plumberg. he told the court that while he was questioning huden at his home back in 2004 huden asked a rather odd question of him. >> he said is peggy angry enough at me that she would implicate me in this? >> had you told mr. huden that peggy thomas had implicated him? >> i did not. i had not implicated peggy thomas, and i had not suggested that she had any knowledge or part in the crime. >> in closing, the prosecution played the videotaped statements huden later made to island county detectives down at the punta gorda police station. >> i'm a son of a [ expletive ], but i am no killer. i'm a son of a [ expletive ].

>> that would be the only time this jury heard the sound of jim huden's voice during this trial. >> please give your attention to the opening statement. >> attorney matt montoya began his defense of jim huden with a quote from the musical man of la mancha. >> ladies and gentlemen, facts are the enemy of truth. >> you heard right. he told the jury in a first-degree murder case that facts are the enemy of truth. perhaps it's fitting that montoya who had just recently appeared in a production of man of la mancha who famously imagined wind mills to be giants. >> his defense of jim huden would also require a fair amount of imagination. >> not telling you that his side is wrong or that my is are side is right.

i want you to address the facts critically because the facts will show you more than one outcome. >> other than what he suggested, was that russel douglas had shot himself. >> did anyone request that you test or preserve his hands for possible gunshot residue? >> no. we do preserve things for trace evidence and that's why the sheet was used inside of the body bag. >> so no one tested his hands for gunshot residue? >> not to my knowledge. >> a gotcha, perhaps. but no gun was found in the car and the fatal bullet had been traced to a gun known to have belonged to jim huden. >> was mr. douglas' body still in the vehicle at that time? >> it was. >> next, montoya suggested, russel douglas was killed somewhere else perhaps by someone other than jim huden and then placed in the car at the

crime scene. >> i'm not find anything blood of any sort. >> a blood spatter expert named dr. john nordby. the car's interior should have been covered in blood if that was where russel douglas had been shot. >> the shooting seemed to me like it did not occur in this vehicle because there are empty spots where you would expect blood to be. >> permission to approach the witness, your honor? >> yes. >> on cross-examination prosecutor banks challenged the defense's only expert witness pointing out that in his written report on the case dr. nordby had cited the movie pulp fiction as a good example of the kind of blood spatter he would expect to see in russel douglas' car. >> the two characters in the film were facing in front and they actually got back spatter, the bullet went toward the backseat, but the spatter went through the front. so that's the illustration i was meaning to convey.

>> so you chose to rely on an illustration from a fictional movie produced in hollywood to help describe this scenario? correct? >> i guess. sure. >> the final defense theory was that jim huden had an alibi, ron young, a childhood friend of huden's took the stand and told the court that huden was at his home in seattle, at the time he believed russel douglas was murdered. >> i did see him december 26th when he was stopping by on his way out of town. >> do you recall what time that was? some time probably between noon and 1:00? >> was he by himself? >> no. >> who was with him? >> peggy thomas. >> with that the defense rested and the prosecutor offered no cross-examination. a month shy of his 59th birthday jim huden was facing a minimum 25-year sentence if found guilty, but just before the jury began deliberations, jim huden's attorney reminded them one more time of those immortal words

from "the man of la mancha." >> ladies and gentlemen, when i started this trial i told you facts are the enemy of truth and i hope you wondered what that meant. you heard facts upon facts facts. i'm telling you there are other conclusions that could be made from that evidence. >> soon enough, jim huden and his attorney would find out if anyone on that jury had reached one of those alternate conclusions and thus save it from having to spend the rest of his life in prison orange. coming up -- >> we, the jury -- >> the verdict and then the other moment everyone's been waiting for. peggy was on the fence of whether or not to accept a deal or go to trial. but she thought, if i keep my mouth shut, it's worked all this day, i'm going to skate. >> that would be my assessment. >> will jim testify against

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after deliberating for approximately 3 and 1/2 hours, the jury in jim huden's murder trial reached a verdict. . >> after deliberating for approximately three and a half hour, the jury in jim huden's murder trial reached a verdict. >> please rise. >> from the moment the jurors began filing in jim huden seemed to know the news would not be good. in a whisper, he murmured. >> i'm done. >> i'm done.

the rest of the proceeding for jim huden, at least, seemed to be a formality. >> we, the jury, find the defendant james edward huden guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree as charged. huden would later be sentenced to 80 years in prison, but he'd scarcely been led from the courtroom before prosecutor greg banks turned his attention to a far more difficult case. the one against jim huden's alleged accomplice peggy thomas. charged with murder, there was only one piece of physical evidence tying peggy to the killing of russel douglas. it was that single fingerprint of hers on a page in the gun owner's manual. >> the case against jim was pretty strong. >> oh, yeah. >> but the case against peggy was pretty weak. >> it was much more circumstantial. >> it was jean huden, the wronged wife, who stood to be the strongest witness against

peggy thomas. according to jean, peggy had told her everything that time jean visited her out in vegas. >> the plan was peggy had talked to russel about did she have presents for brenna and the kids and she had talked russel into going out to the island to meet with him to pass these presents on. >> not only that, but jean says peggy told her that after dropping off jim at the ambush location peggy drove off to create an alibi. >> they made a point of driving jim to sebring to buy a pack of cigarettes and to make sure to get a receipt with the date and time so it would prove she wasn't there at the time. he got rid of his clothes in a dumpster and tried to cover their tracks as best they could. >> a powerful story, but the powerful story knew that putting jean huden on the stand was risky. in the years after jim fled to

mexico, jean huden got into trouble with the law over drugs and check forgery. >> i've talked to jean a lot, and i do believe her, but i also know what happens in a courtroom and unfortunately, she is not as pure as the driven snow when it comes to what the defense attorney will do with her. >> peggy was clearly on the fence as to whether or not to accept a deal or go to trial. she thought if i just keep my mouth shut it's worked all this way, i'm going skate. >> that would be my assessment. >> please rise. >> on january 11, 2013, peggy thomas who had been under house arrest for the past year entered an island county courtroom for another round of pre-trial motions and encountered a familiar face. >> this time her former lover jim huden took the stand to answer the one burning question that was no doubt keeping both the prosecutor and the defense counsel from sleeping at night.

>> mr. huden -- >> would jim huden agree to testify at peggy's trial? >> i assert my fifth amendment rights. >> though the two former lovers never seemed to make direct eye contact that day, jim huden made it clear that he, at least, was willing to carry their shared secrets to the grave. >> okay. i'll do the fifth amendment thing here. >> perhaps jim huden's gaunt appearance frightened peggy, maybe the prospect of having her wardrobe as well, reduced to basic orange had a sobering effect, but two weeks later, just days before her trial was to begin, peggy thomas was back in court. >> cause number 11-1-1. >> this time it was to plead guilty to a reduced charge. >> we are here for a change of plea to an amended charge rendering criminal assistance in the first degree with a special allegation that the defendant was armed with a firearm. >> in pleading guilty to criminal assistance, peggy

thomas was agreeing to being an accessory after the fact. >> thomas, do you make this plea freely and voluntarily? >> i do. >> if you'd gone to trial against peggy thomas, do you think you would have won? >> uh -- >> if you say yes, my next question is why didn't you? >> my take on it was we had a 50/50 chance of guilty versus not guilty and so it was a rolf the dice. >> a few weeks later peggy thomas was sentenced to four weeks in prison. >> i would still love to see her come forward and say, look, i really did make a mistake. i've got to own up to this, that i really did set it in motion but i didn't mean to. i don't know if that's going to happen. >> neither brenna douglas nor her attorney had responded to "dateline's" request for a

statement, in a lawsuit filed on an insurance company to collect on one of the life insurance policies, brenna said i categorically state that i was not involved in the death of my husband in any way. peggy thomas served her time and was leased from jail in august of 2016. jim huden has chosen to keep his secrets to himself while he remains incarcerated. and as for jean, the woman whose love took her down that dangerous path, she pondered what might have compelled jim's decision to remain silent. >> for someone who managed to get himself 80 years, i thought he might have seen the light of day. does he think he was doing her a favor one last time? i just don't get it. i really don't get it. he must have really loved her more than i even imagined or

he's still trying to prove what a man he was or thinks he is. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. good morning. i'm phillip mena at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it is 6:00 in the east, 3 out west and here's what's happening. the president unleashed at a conservative conference going after the special counsel, democrats and the green new deal. >> these people are sick. they're sick. democrat lawmakers are now embracing socialism. socialist takeover. they know the game and they play it dirty, dirtier than anybody's ever played the game. >> the new report about michael cohen and whether it could be a game changer on obstruction of justice.