to make sure that he knows that even though his mother's not there, she loved him more than anything. >> it was a small new year's eve party. we took off and then shortly thereafter we saw the police car. my gut was telling my feet to run back to that house. this can't be happening. >> when the party ended, the mystery began. >> it was just crazy. i didn't understand what was happening and why. >> his wife, the hostess had seemed fine all night.

then her death was ruled a suicide but not everyone agreed. >> i always was afraid he was going to hurt her. always. always. >> did a fight tt night lead to something much worse? >> i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. >> a troubled woman or a troubled marriage. >> that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. >> suicide or murder? >> i didn't do this. >> i just knew that my whole world is -- is never going to be the same again, ever. >> hello and welcome to "datelin "dateline." it was december 31st and by all appearances ashley was in the

mood to celebrate. she gathered her friends and family to ring in the new year but as her guests began the countdown to midnight who could have known they were also marking the last hour of ashley's young life. here's keith morrison with "after the party." >> what is so optimistic as a party on new year's eve. what night is hopeful, full of anticipation as the clean slate midnight brings. >> it was a small new year's eve party. just families and friends. >> disappointment is inevitable, clean slates are messy all too soon. >> we not noticed that there was a lot of alcohol out. >> still we celebrate possibilities and watch the clock that ticks toward our new beginnings. and our ends.

on december 31st, 2011, an hour north of denver in colorado, ashley and tom surrounded by friends and family danced to the music that brought them together. their wedding song. >> they decided to get up and dance in the middle of their living room and -- >> everybody watching. >> with everyone watching. i think i said oh, this is sweet. >> it was their party, ashley's and tom's. she'd invited her coworkers. >> she told everyone at work, you should come. >> reporter: they worked together at a hospital where ashley was a respiratory therapist. >> she was nice, just full of energy. she was a happy person. she laughed a lot and joked. >> their friendship was new. andrea didn't know a lot but had listened to her chatter about

jobs and marriages and her three kids. the youngest of whom was born with a dangerous condition called hydrorecei hydrocephalou. >> she embraced the challenge said ashley's mom. >> she went to washington, d.c. in fall of 2011 to speak before congress for funding for hydrocephalous so she had a full plate. >> i liked tom. he was a pretty good guy. very intelligent. >> jeff rodriguez was tom's boss at the county jail. they were corrections officers. >> he had a son that was sick so he did miss more work than most fellow officers liked. >> stressful draining thing, caring for a sick child. so maybe their new year's eve party was a way to hope for

better times and take a break too. ashley's adoptive dad joel was at the party. >> there was dancing going on, people were having a good time. >> ashley seemed to be having a fine time. >> she and tom seemed to be getting on fine? >> they seemed to be getting along fine. >> that's when ashley and andrea went off into the kitchen, had a little party of their own. >> what were you drinking? >> jungle juice and jell-o shots. >> oh, my. >> i was having a good time. >> there was one unusual thing though, said andrea. ashley had just gone through something kind of awful. >> she found out that she had a miscarriage that day and i said oh, i'm sorry. are you okay? and she was like yeah. >> was she unhappy about the miscarriage? >> my impression of it is she already has her beautiful family. it seemed like her life was already complete so i don't

think that she was devastated that she had found out that she had had a miscarriage. >> no tears, andrea said, just a quick casual mention and then the conversation moved on. >> went on to talk about other things. >> probably went and got another jell-o shot. midnight arrived. there were as there always are kisses and smiles and toasts. by 12:30 the party was over. >> i gave her a hug, told her bye. we talked about future plans. >> how did she seem? >> happy. >> but oh, how quickly the new year's clean slate darkened. as an uncle prepared to leave, ashley asked him for a bit of his marijuana to smoke later, she said. tom, the sheriff's department employee was furious and reminded ashley's family that her employer required regular drug tests. was it the alcohol that amped up

the screaming match? ashley's parents had their own recollections. >> he walks by me and he says that he hated us all and wished we would all bleeping die and he went into the bedroom and slammed the door. >> ashley came out of the bathroom and was just kind of like, what's going on? and we were like well, we're going to leave. >> she's like hey, i'm having a super bowl party in a couple weeks. don't forget about that. >> but ashley's parents were rattled. they drove away, then pulled off to the side of the road to talk. ashley's mom sent a text to tom. >> i'm like, you know, there's kids in the house, calm down. >> which arrived as their young granddaughter was involved in quite another discussion with 911. >> can you open the door and let the officers in? >> it's open, it's open. >> the new year was less than an hour old and off to a very bad

start. coming up -- >> chaos. it was shocking. >> a frantic race to save a life. what happened in that house? >> i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again, ever. >> when "dateline" continues. hes 90% of women have a skincare routine. but what about a lip care routine? pay your lips some attention. the chapstick total hydration collection. exfoliate nourish naturally enhance your lips. chapstick. put your lips first.

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prevent problems, and to help provide the most reliable service possible. my name is tanya, i work at the network operations center for comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. 2012 was not even an hour

old. sell brants had poured themselves into their cars to head home and it was already the worst year ever. >> 911, what's the emergency? >> my wife shot herself in the head. please help me. please help me. >> the man on the phone was tom begging for help and willing his wife to live. >> tom told the dispatcher she shot herself, then he put the phone down. he was holding his hand to her head trying in vain to stop the bleeding so he had his 9-year-old daughter pick up the phone. >> are you there? >> can you go open the door and lets the officers in? we're going to help her. >> bryan spencer was a deputy back then. he arrived within minutes to discover that the local police

had bat beaten him there. >> i believe there was three there ahead of me and then there was more sirens, lights, you could see them coming. >> a very fast response. >> this was a jail employee. >> not that that should matter. the effort was to save her life. this was recorded by a police body camera. shows the paramedics arriving. >> the scene chaotic. frantic, the officers located ashley somewhere in the home. >> the local police took charge. they asked spencer to watch the front of the property and that's when from his post on the front porch he saw tom. that's him in the background in the white t-shirt. >> he was pacing around in the front yard and front sidewalk area frantic, screaming. >> screaming what? do you remember? >> i heard him say she's dead.

he would put he hands up over his face. >> ashley's parents had pulled off to talk about the fight that ended the party. when they saw the sirens headed that way -- >> something felt bad and i whipped a u turn. >> he didn't have the car stopped and i was out running to the house. >> were you able to go and see ashley? >> no, i could hear what was going on. i had all three kids and they were crying and screaming and i'm crying. >> it was crazy. it was like a nightmare. i can see blood spatter on the wall. >> what was it like? >> chaos. it was shocking. >> did you understand it was your daughter? >> yes. i do recall just being hysterically upset and crying and thinking that this can't be happening to my daughter. this can't be happening to us. but yet it was.

>> inside the master bedroom ashley was alive, but the wounds to her head were catastrophic. the police body camera shows officers kneeling on the floor trying to stabilize her condition. >> paramedics went in and they made a decision to do what we call a load and go which means they're not going to spend any time doing life support stuff. ashley's mom huddled with her grandchildren in a neighboring bedroom. listened to it all through a closed door. >> is there any way to describe what it's like for a mother to be in that situation? >> no. your brain does funny things. i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again, ever. >> outside, spencer watched tom pacing back and forth, crying, talking to himself. >> i notice he's wearing a white t-shirt and he's covered i believe it was on his left side

in a large amount of blood. >> it was odd, bryan thought that the police officers didn't take tom's clothes or bag his hands for gunshot residue. >> he still had evidence on him and he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. >> he needed to be processed. >> and clothing removed, everything. >> that's not what happened. not at all. and soon after ashley was rushed off to the er, tom got in the back of his squad car and was driven away, but surprisingly, not to the hospital. >> coming up, tom tells his story. >> i heard her gun cock. >> the wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. when "dateline" continues. en "d. pass the ball... pass the rock..

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in the first cold dark hours of 2012, ashley's parents followed an ambulance to the hospital and caught up to her in the icu. >> we walked in to her bleeding out of everywhere. >> there wasn't really any hope. they could see that. she was going to die. >> i just sat down and held her

hand. >> but tom wasn't there to hold her hand. tom was at the police station answering questions. >> i don't know what's going on. i have no idea and that's why i'm asking to speak with you. >> it was 2:00 a.m. and tom was still wearing blood stained clothes, the ones that a sheriff's deputy thought should have been bagged as evidence. >> how is your relationship with your wife? >> really good. >> but said tom, ashley was devastated when she miscarried the very day of her new year's eve party. >> it was hard for ashley. it was hard for me, but i didn't think that there was this. >> still at the party itself, tom said she seemed all right. they got on fine until the argument about the marijuana.

he was furious at ashley's family. he was trying to protect her and they weren't. i was like if whatever happened today with the miscarriage, it was like, it happened. you know what, [ bleep ] your mom, [ bleep ] everybody. >> so there was no love lost between tom and ashley's parents and tom admitted that he and ashley kept arguing as they got ready for bed and then he turned around and went to the closet he said and it was all over. >> i heard her gun cock and i was like, what are you doing? and before i had a chance to finish my sentence or close the door, there was smoke. and there was just smoke.

i just ran over to her and i just grabbed her head. >> tom told detectives that sadly he had been worried about just this sort of thing for more than a year because ashley had threatened suicide before. >> what was she saying that she wanted to do to herself? >> just that she wants to end it. she's like you and the kids would be better off without me. >> and so she just said those words but she never acted on anything. >> no. >> and so how long was -- >> never once. never once has she ever grabbed her gun, has she ever loaded it, has she ever made this type of gesture whatsoever. >> by the time while the doctors tried to save ashley tom had been answering questions for hours. >> i have to ask these questions. i have to understand what your relationship is. >> the problem is i've been here since what, 2:00 and now it's already 5:00 and i don't know what's going on with my wife. >> but the detective noticed

something else about tom. >> this strach mark that's on your chest, what is that? >> you have like a long red -- >> oh, probably because i've been doing this all freaking night. >> this one goes straight across here. >> oh, i don't know. it's just me. it's not -- >> so it isn't -- i just had to ask -- >> the debility left the room and spoke with ashley's parents who'd arrived with the purpose of telling officers one thing. their daughter did not shoot herself. >> we had just seen her 7 minutes before this. she was completely fine. she wouldn't do anything like this. >> she was in good spirits when they left, they said. she was already planning her next party. but tom, he'd always had an awful temper, they said. >> i was always afraid he was going to hurt her, always. always. >> why? what about him? >> his temper. you -- you can't go from zero to

100 and think clearly. >> i think that he was just in a fit of rage and he shot her. >> armed with that new information the detective went back to talk to tom and zeroed in on those scratches. officers had given him something clean to wear so they could collect his bloody clothing. >>. >> you have scratches on your body. >> see this, this is a shaved chest. do you know how bad this hurts and itches? i do this all day. this is actually her blood. it comes off. oh, my gosh, it's coming off. it's her freaking blood. >> that's kpactually a scratch. >> he had motive and opportunity. >> so when you went upstairs you were arguing with her and you know you were arguing with her. >> she was also reluctant to believe the shooting happened so quickly, no threats or warnings or hesitation.

she went from saying i want to do what i want to just pulling -- >> yeah yeah. she did. i'm not lying to you. >> and when the detective gave a description about a gunshot wound, a description that turned out to be inaccurate, that really set tom off. >> that wound on the back of her head isn't where she could do it herself, tom. >> oh, [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> and then quite suddenly in the middle of it all completely out of nowhere the detective made an abrupt declaration. >> i have to let you know your wife did not make it. your wife did not make it. >> she was breathing when i was holding her. she was breathing. they told me she was breathing when she left the house. >> ashley died while tom was in police custody. >> i didn't shoot my wife.

i didn't shoot the mother of my kids. i didn't shoot the person who i wanted to have another one with. >> what would the police believe, tom's story that the shooting was a suicide or ashley's parents' story, that he'd shot their daughter in a fit of rage? >> coming up, ashley's family is outraged by the investigation's final report. >> it was incomplete. it was inconsistent. no followup. it was unbelievable. >> when "dateline" continues. u. >> when "dateline" continues

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and our shirts from custom ink help bring us together. we order custom ink to welcome new employees, personalize team shirts, and even for company events. the design lab is so easy to use. we just upload out logo and if we have any questions, customer service is there to help. seeing our team together in custom ink gear is an amazing reminder of how far we've come as a business. - [narrator] custom ink has hundreds of products to help you look and feel like a team. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com hello, here's what's happening. president trump issued his first veto of his presidency on friday rejecting the legislation that would have put an end to his emergency declaration. the house will vote to overturn the veto on march 26th. >> 28-year-old gunman live

streamed part of the killings before being taken into custody. now back to "dateline." >> welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. though covered in blood and suspicious scratches, tom insisted he did not harm his wife, that she was the one who pulled the trigger. ashl ashley's parents weren't buying it but would the police? here again is keith morris with "after the party." >> 28-year-olds old, wife and mother of three was dead. the gunshot wound in her head unsurvivable. it was suicide said her husband, tom. >> i didn't shoot my wife. i didn't -- i didn't do this. >> i had three grand kids that i dearly loved that i knew in my

heart that tom had just killed their mother. >> the news of ashley's death sbr spread quickly. >> everything was find that night. >> confusing. >> she was happy. she didn't seem suicidal. >> andrea, new friend, drinking buddy at the party couldn't shake a feeling. >> i don't feel like she would have taken her life. tom was the only other person that was there. >> so if it wasn't there it had to be him. >> right. >> for all the questions, police did not arrest tom nor charge him with anything. >> what were they telling you along the way? >> that they were investigating it. >> tom was one of the speakers at ashley's funeral. >> ashley didn't have much patience. >> what he said wasn't the sort

of thing people expected to hear. >> but her parents were furious. >> he had that opportunity to speak and share about the woman he so-called loved, and called his eternal wife, all he did was degrade her. >> what was it like to hear that? >> it was shocking. it was unbelievable. >> as the days turned into weeks and tom remained free, ashley's parents became convinced that something about the investigation was not right. >> joel and i sat down and said look, if for some crazy reason she walked in the house and shot herself and they can show that we will accept it and support tom. we didn't feel like that was, you know, the case. >> they weren't alone.

remember on the night it happened, former deputy bryan spencer saw tom roaming around freely with blood and other potential evidence all over him. >> the police 101, very basic thing. any scene that you respond to, you want to treat it as the highest level of what it could possibly be. >> so he would be a suspect. >> he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. >> but none of that was done at the scene. >> pretty soon ashley's parents began to expect it was a coverup to protect tom. perhaps the so called blue wall of silence looking out for a fellow law enforcement officer. >> it's a hell accusation to make though. >> it is strong, but that is how we feel. >> mind you the police department strongly disagreed. both the coroner and the crime scene investigators issued reports that her death was indeed suicide and remember, tom told the police she'd expressed

suicidal thoughts before and she had two close relatives who had taken their own lives and they found prescription drugs in ashley's purse and night stand which tom told them she quit cold turkey when she learned she was pregnant. and so two months after ashley's death her parents got the news they feared. police ruled her death a suicide. case closed. >> it made me angry. made me angry because i knew -- i knew that he shot her. i knew that ashley wouldn't take her own life. >> once the case closed and we got the police report we realized they didn't do anything. >> so tell me more about the police report and what you didn't like about it. >> it was incomplete. it was inconsistent. could have been written by a high school student. no followup. it was unbelievable.

>> the police department declined to speak with "dateline" on camera but said this about the allegations against them. the investigation was thorough and complete. as for ashley's parents, there was nothing more either of them could do apparently. and two years went by during which tom moved to indiana with the kids and enrolled at a local university. >> i said to him, tom, murderers always move away. >> it was important to ashley's parents to remain close to those three kids so they fought for grandparents rights and tried to be civil with tom. but they also told anybody who would listen that they believe their daughter had been murdered like a local reporter. >> he said do you mind if i start looking into this? i said no, go ahead.

it didn't take him much. >> the reporter talked to neighbors, and asked the police department to comment on what he'd heard and before you knew it the chief announced ashley's case would be reopened. >> i extend my sincere sympathy to the family for their loss and for the revisited grief that can accompany the reopening of a case like this one. >> i started crying because it's the catalyst for opening everything up. i've finally have someone taking it seriously. >> in particular, a neighbor who was only 15 at the time said he heard tom admit to shooting ashley. >> pretty hard to forget hearing somebody confess their murder and then getting away with it. >> to prevent any suggestion of taint or coverup, the case was turned over to the nearby fort collins police department.

for the next seven months officers talked to witnesses both old and new and hired experts to re-examine forensic evidence and when their work was done, the d.a. decided to assemble a grand jury. >> what i want to do is i want to put all that information, as much as we can gather and almost use it as a test run. >> and they said? >> and they indicted him. >> i got the phone call that they indicted him. i just started crying. >> tom was arrested in indiana, charged with second degree murder and brought back to colorado to stand trial. ashley's parents were finally optimistic. >> i believe that they will find him guilty of murdering our daughter. i believe that's going to happen. >> you decided to believe it or do you really believe it? >> i really believe it. >> coming up, a powerful 1-2 punch from the prosecution. >> i heard him saying oh, my

god, what have i done? >> i could hear her screaming get off me, get off me. >> when "dateline" continues. ons protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. let's see, aleve is than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain.

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you talk too much. turbotax live now with cpa's on demand. >> the united states will ground all boeing 737 and max 9 jets. >> breaking this moment. we have a lot of big stories to get to. spreading them out and digging deep. spreading them out and digging deep four years after ashley's death, her husband tom was on trial for murder. dan grossman of kusa was in the courtroom for opening statements. >> the room was packed. you have ashley's parents who were there, a lot of family

members, aunts, uncles even just people from the public were interested in this case. >> the prosecution's allegation was perfectly clear. tom argued with his wife and in a fit of rage shot and killed her. >> at the conclusion of this case after you've received all of the evidence you will be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that it is him who pulled the trigger. >> prosecution witnesses said ashley was in high spirits, not at all suicidal. >> she was happy the whole night, laughing, smiling. she was dancing with her children, interacting with all the guests. >> tom though, ashley's uncle john testified about tom's sudden blowup when he discovered ashley asked him for a joint. >> i was sort of taken back by it because everything was fun that night and then all of a sudden boom. so i was like whoa. >> a neighbor said ashley told her how tom got physical with her. >> she told me how he had pushed

her around before. he had never hit her, but he was physical in pushing her. >> the d.a. wanted the jury to hear that tom had a hot temper, that she was volatile. >> anger would have been the most obvious motive. >> to prove it, the witness, ear witness, you could say. nick glover, the neighbor whose story was reported on television and helped reopen the case. >> i heard him saying oh, my god, what have i done. >> nick was 15 at the time. he said he remembered crouching down inside his house under an open window listening to tom speak to people in his driveway. >> you can hear one of them, i do not know who it was say what? what do you mean? and he proceeded to say i shot my wife. >> nick said he knew- tom. you could see him out the window. >> how certain are you that the voice you're hearing is tom's

voice? >> i'm 100%. >> there was more. nick's mom testified that on the night of the shooting she got a strange phone call from a teenage neighbor around 1:00 a.m. >> she said please call the police and i said no, i didn't and she said why? she said because your neighbor just shot his wife and i said, what? and she said i could hear her screaming get off me, get off me. >> powerful evidence and then that neighbor testified, but -- >> do you recall telling cathy glover on a phone conversation that same early morning, i heard her screaming get off me, get off me? >> i do not. >> she was 16 and drinking that night, she said so that might explain her faulty memory. >> do you recall telling the officer that you heard a female yelling get off of me, get off of me. >> i do not.

>> did you expect that from her? >> yeah. it didn't surprise me. >> it hurt you though. >> it hurt. but i thought that, you know, when you have a police officer that interviews her within an hour, hour and a half of the shooting saying these are things i head heard whether she'd been drinking or not, to me that's the most believable version of events. >> so a hiccup perhaps but then there was the crime scene. the coroner and the csi offerser said that the scene screamed suicide. >> priest is a former homicide detective and forensic consultant who used a miniature model of the bedroom to show ashley's position. >> she has to be here and bent down. >> he was convinced that if ashley shot herself there would be more blood on the floor and surrounding surfaces, not just

this one carpet stain. >> we have indications of bleeding but the type of injury that we're talking about is going to bleed a lot. and that's not the kind of stain i would expect to see if that's what was occurring. something is keeping that blood from reaching that area. >> and he believed that something was tom. remember his clothing was drenched with blood and the priest concluded tom and ashley must have been in close contact when the gun went off. using the prosecutor he suggested there was a struggle when the shot was fired. >> i can keep blood staining from getting on to the wall or on to the cabinet and i can lower her, continuing to bleed on to my shirt to where i get her in this position. >> the prosecution rested its case. and what possible defense could there be? well, for a start, this.

>> a letter and what a letter it was. >> coming up, a troubled marriage or a troubled young woman? >> what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley to be going through? >> mood swings, impulsive behaviors. >> and the verdict when "dateline" continues. ct when "dateline" continues with advil, you'll ask... what sore muscles? what pounding head? advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts.

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>> reporter: it can't be an easy thing for a juror, imagining a moment he or she didn't see. >> please rise for the jury. >> reporter: and deciding what must have happened. did tom fallis kill his wife ashley in a fit of violent temper, or what? >> tom fallis did not kill his wife and mother of their three children. ashley fallis committed suicide. >> reporter: remember how the prosecution talked of ashey's happy frame of mind? "that ashley was a kind of lie," said the defense. >> ashley fallis was a beautiful woman, but she had a terrible pain inside. she was mentally ill. >> reporter: the defense put one of ashley's close friends on the

stand. >> what did you know of ashley having a mental illness? >> i knew that she was on medications. we spoke pretty in depth about that. >> reporter: but even with medications, the friend testified, ashley had trouble controlling her emotions. >> what kind of mental health issues, uhm, did you observe ashley fallis to be going through? >> depression, mood swings, impulsive behaviors. >> reporter: in fact, the defense argued ashley was so depressed the summer before she died, she wrote this letter to tom. >> "i have so much pain on the inside i can no longer take it. i'm sorry to do this to you and the kids, but i find myself not even liking my children." >> reporter: "every day is a chore with them and you. i have to pretend to be happy. i have to pretend to be someone i am not. please make sure you raise the kids to continue to go the school we have chosen.

i do love them. i just can't take this life any longer. please make sure you let them know every day that i do love them, and this was not their fault." suicide expert dr. michael allen studied the letter as well as ashley's medical records and testified about his review. >> do you have an opinion in this case about whether or not ashley fallis was a high risk to commit suicide on january 1, 2012? >> yes. my opinion is that she had many, many risk factors and warning signs. >> reporter: remember, detectives had learned years before that ashley had a family history of suicide. both her maternal uncle and her grandmother took their own lives. "that," said dr. allan, "put ashley at a higher risk for doing the same thing." >> two close family members who had died by suicide would suggest a genetic propensity for suicide. the defense argued that on

new year's eve 2011, it was the miscarriage that broke her will to go on. that she spent the night masking her pain with alcohol that she planned to dull it further with marijuana after the party. and that's why tom was upset. >> she was vulnerable. he was concerned about her. he didn't want her to add marijuana to this toxic system that was developing inside of ashley fallis. >> reporter: the defense conceded ashley and tom quarrelled that night, but insisted it never got physical. those scratches on tom's chest? the ones the prosecutors believed were proof of a struggle? dna tests never found any evidence to support that. >> you did not find any of ashley fallis' dna, cellular material on the swabs from tom's chest correct? >> that is correct. >> reporter: the defense reminded jurors that tom told police why he had the scratches, that he'd done a little

"manscaping" to spice up his marriage. he had texts and photos to prove it. >> there's tom fallis when he has hair on his chest, all the way to the left, and on december 17th, 2011, he texted ashley, "there you have it. you get your way, so here it is. thought you might like it." >> reporter: so the scratches, said the defense were because it was itchy. and that's all. as for the so-called witnesses, said the defense, totally unreliable. the one changed her story on the stand, and the other? well, just months after the shooting, young nick glover went camping, of all things, with tom, the very man he said he heard confess to shooting ashley fallis. >> at no time during the camping trip with tom fallis did you ever tell anybody that you were uncomfortable being there with tom fallis? >> i do not recall. >> reporter: who to believe?

for example, there wasn't one but two, prosecution crime scene analysts. this one, you've already heard, believed it was murder. but this one? >> most people that shoot somebody in an act of rage, they don't stop with one shot. >> reporter: dan gilliam was the crime scene expert from the first investigation of ashley's death. using a defense attorney about the same height as ashley, he demonstrated how difficult it would have been for someone as tall as tom to have shot ashley at an angle that matched the bullet's trajectory. >> first of all, is that an unnatural position? for another person to be holding the gun in that manner? >> it is. it is for me. >> okay, and mr. fallis is six feet tall. how tall are you? >> i'm six feet as well. >> okay. >> reporter: and the gun was ashley's. the shooting happened in arm's reach of where it was usually stored, said the defense. after examining all the ballistic and blood spatter evidence, gilliam just didn't believe the shooting was murder.

>> i believe that the story that mr. fallis gave is consistent with the evidence found at the scene. >> reporter: in other words, he thought it was suicide. so, what happened in that moment after midnight? how would a juror decide? >> upon reaching a verdict, you will inform the bailiff, who will in turn notify me. >> reporter: kusa's dan grossman settled in for a bit of a wait. >> this is almost a three-week trial. there's a lot of evidence. you thought that you were looking at coming back the next day to hear the verdict. >> reporter: but, no. less than four hours later, a verdict. >> "we the jury find the defendant, thomas fallis, not guilty of murder in the second degree and all lesser included offenses, signed by the jury foreperson." >> reporter: not guilty. not murder. after four long years of living under a cloud of suspicion, tom fallis was acquitted of all charges. >> he stayed straight-faced.

his -- his defense attorney, iris eytan, was very emotional. but ashley's parents, they -- they left the courtroom fairly quickly. >> reporter: ashley's parents declined to talk with dateline after the verdict, but their legal battles are far from over. they filed a civil lawsuit against several employees of the evans police department and the weld county sheriff's office who they believe falsified, altered, and omitted key evidence to make ashley's death look like a suicide. despite the verdict, they continue to pursue the case. in 2017 a final judgment was issued dismissing their claims. >> what about ashley's family? can they just accept this, and go on? >> i don't think they'll ever accept it. to say that they were distraught would be an understatement. they i think truly believe that tom fallis killed their daughter. and they are never gonna let that go. >> reporter: an idea, once so deeply ingrained, true or not,

will not go away. and tom fallis and his children make a life as best they can. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm phillip mena in new york. it's 6:00 in the east. face of evil, the first court appearance for the new zealand mass shooting suspect as new details emerge about the horrifying incident, president trump responds. what he said when directly asked about the rise of white nationalism around the world. the president uses his veto power for the first time after a dozen republicans defy him on that emergency declaration. the college cheating