ways is going to form the first rough draft of the history of the trump e.r.a. donald trump knows that. it's narrative and important and it's in black and white. >> horrible knowing the person you love is dead. and then you are being looked at for it. >> imagine you are shaken in the dead of night. >> my ears were ringing. i thought i was dreaming. >> in bed next to you, your husband murdered. >> hard to get that one. >> yeah. >> and here's the twist. you are the suspect. >> it's the worst feel iing far

>> could she have been the killer or was someone keeping a secret? >> i said what did you do? what did you do? >> tell us the truth. >> while they were sleeping. >> welcome to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. ben oxley was deeply in love with his second wife, melissa. they were building a life together with his young daughter, alyssa, at the center. a gunshot tore through the dark and left ben dead. no one else was hurt, including melissa. suspicious, police thought. investigators would discover more red flags and to uncover what would happen in the middle of the night, they had to look deep into ben's past. here's keith morrison.

>> it was cold the night the full moon rose. february cold in the desert valley that spilled down from reno, nevada. in that night the wind in the dead of night worried the gray ends of winter grass, up the driveway around the kosher past the unlocked door. something evil afoot. something here inside where the moon peered through the window and into the master bedroom. a little after 3:00 in the morning. >> it's really, really bad. >> what's really bad? >> my husband. >> strange, the things that happen to people under a full moon. good people, not so good people. under that moon that night, it was hard to tell which was which, who was who. >> this was a case built on lies

and deception and a cat and mouse. who knew what it was. >> but the story when it began in 2005 was about love. what permanent felt like it. it was two kinds of love. there was what happened to ben when he met melissa. >> it was something i had never seen. just for no reason he would call and say i love you. >> he was a changed man? >> he was happy. melissa really made the difference. >> if anybody would know, his best friends would. cindy and scott graham. >> ben was family. he was family. >> then there was ben's other love. the brightest thing in his life, the one good thing that came from his first marriage. alyssa. >> everybody said that he loved me more than anything and i think it's true. >> quite true of course.

there was a little jockeying at first. two women, one man. even if one of the women was just 3. >> our first date, alyssa was there. we were eating and i was trying to talk to ben and get to know him and she was like don't talk to my dad. >> i remember meeting her and i didn't really like her. she was talking to my dad. >> more than talking to him as it turned out, ben and melissa moved in together a month later. the sort of thing a 3-year-old finds hard to understand. she said i love you and i said don't talk to my dad that way. >> as we said, it was a love story for both of them. as jamie is the friend and future bride's maid put it -- >> he was truly her best friend. he was the best dad. that's all he cared about was a lisz a. that was his sprirt was to take care of her. >> melissa and ben and a lisz a.

>> he was so involved. like two peas in a pot. one september day as the sun was seding into the sierra nevada mountains, ben and melissa got married at nearby lake tahoe. alyssa, the little flower girl. >> it wasn't just melissa and ben getting married, but alyssa, too. >> they made a ceremony of it. >> will you promise to share in the love of this family, if so, you will say i will? >> i will. >> i got her a bracelet and had it engraved to let her know i will always love her as my own and gave it to her that day. >> alyssa called melissa mom. >> hour did it make you feel? >> happy. very happy. >> what a happy couple they

were. a happy family. >> just for her to be my wife is a blessing. >> that's what you wait for all your life. >> what were your plans? >> to buy a house and have babies and have a family. >> they eventually moved here. a three-bedroom ranch looking towards the sierra nevadas. alyssa was with her dad half the time and halftime with her mom. ben wanted his little girl permanently. >> he never thought he could have his daughter. i was like yeah, you can. >> and he did. he won custody. >> it was him and his daughter. that's what he always wanted. >> the little household groove. melissa's teenage brother, craig, moved in. and then winter came and the wind. on february 20th, 2008, the moon

rose full over the carson valley. after dinner, ben and melissa and craig and alyssa settled in the den to wuchatch a movie. melissa fell asleep on the couch. >> i thought i was late for work and it was 2:30 in the morning. then i went and got into bed. >> crawled in with bed, moonlight on the covers and warm inside. >> about an hour later, i was woken up by this smell and a loud noise. my ears were ringing and thought i was dreaming. >> a smell? >> yeah. the gunpowder. >> as she told it, she looked over to ben and saw by the light of the moon, he appeared to have sleep through whatever it was. she nudged him and he didn't

stir. i. >> i said i would check it out. i realized our front door was open. >> but you didn't see anybody? >> nope. >> halfway down the hall, cold air rushing in rk, she knew something was very wrong. she went back to the bedroom and turn on the light. >> i went to wake him up and i could see him. >> hard to get that out of your head, isn't it? >> yeah. >> that's her call to 911 detective who came to find out what happened and discovered he could not tell. >> you got the wife and a small 6-year-old child and a 15-year-old boy in the house and everybody saying they don't know what happened. >> or could it be that someone had something to hide? detectives wondered how everyone but ben survived without a

scratch. coming up, the investigation begins and melissa is at the very center. a dramatic police interrogation when chi when while they were sleeping continues. they were sleeping continues. this is nice. this is my sexy mom car. i would feel like a cool dad. it's just really chic. i love this thing. it's gorgeous. i would pull up in this in a heartbeat. i want one of these. that is sharp. the all-new chevy blazer. speaks for itself. i don't know who they got to design this but give them a cookie and a star.

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>> welcome back. the nevada home that melissa oxley shared with ben oxley and his daughter, melissa said she was startled awake by a loud noise and the smell of gunpowder. she was trying to make sense of the nightmare staring her in the face. detectives would launch the investigation and ask her tough questions. melissa's answers and a lab test would not take her off their list. here again is keith morrison.

>> i was just confusion and shocked because at this point i still feel like i was asleep. >> on february 21st, 2008 at 3:00 in the morning, melissa oxley called 911. >> the gun noise is like a gunshot? >> i tried to wake up my husband. >> it certainly was. ben oxley was shot point blank in the head and yet melissa lying in bed beside him was unharmed. she ran into alyssa's room and call 911. then 6 years old, she asked to see her father. >> she said i want to see my dad. i told her you can't go see your dad. >> ron was the detective who got the call. >> do you remember getting that call? >> yeah. because i was sleeping. >> he woke up fast to a very big problem. the killing just didn't make

sense. >> appearing like a ghost. no evidence, no weapon. everybody in the house says i don't know. >> a ghost? >> that's what it feels like. you have no idea. >> how was it possible melissa had not seen the person who had shot ben. she was lying right next to him. why was she unharmed? >> that's the red flags popping up. >> had craig, melissa's teenage brother truly slept through the whole thing as she claimed? >> i opened my eyes and right in my face was a bunch of barrels and a machine gun. >> it was police guns. police had discovered shotgun shells on the dresser. >> sorry this a possibility? is he faking? >> melissa, craig, and little alyssa were taken to the sheriffs department at 4:00 a.m., an hour after the

shooting. >> it was alyssa and she was hysterically crying and at the police station they came down and said my daddy has been shot. >> melissa was being grilled by detectives. detective el gis had questions, lots of them. so many things about this murder didn't make sense. >> why didn't they take you out? >> that's what i thought. >> the other thing i don't understand is somebody shoots him and you don't see anything. >> i don't know. >> maybe it was the man ben warned her about. a rough customer who dated his ex-wife dawn who threatened to kill dawn and any man she had been with. it was true? they sent officers to dawn's house when they woke her up, sleepy, but unharmed. the man in question was hundreds of miles away when the murder happened. so again, the questions were for

melissa. >> sometimes people know more than they want to know the sheriff. >> i honestly don't know. >> alyssa was 6 and was the only person who remembered seeing anything unusual. she told the detective. >> i woke up and i just . >> do you know who they were? >> i don't know who it was. >> she saw a shadow looking at her and the shadow left. she went back to sleep and melissa came in and grabbed her and was talking to 911. >> the detective discovered the bullet that killed ben was a number eight bird shot, same ammunition they discovered in craig's room. the question to craig -- >> i apologize for doing it, but i have to. did you kill ben? >> i did not.

>> sure enough when they tested him for residue or cast off, he was clean. could not have fired the gun. back to melissa. >> melissa, understand that i'm not blaming you. i'm asking you to help solve the problem, okay? >> there was blood on melissa and gunshot residue. >> just the truth is all i hope to get. >> melissa's friend, jamie, was there when she came out of the interrogation room. >> melissa just dropped to the floor when she saw me and she had a little bit of blood on her. she just said i didn't do this.

i said i know you didn't do it. >> jamie knew there were others and not just the police who were very suspicious of melissa. >> she is the wife. she was laying in bed with him. it doesn't make sense that she was not shot. >> did melissa do it? i hope not. she could have. why wasn't she shot? >> i thought if she did commit the murder, she is going to make a mistake. you can only live that lie so long. >> soon investigators would discover a possible motive for murder. coming up -- >> the $400,000 policy. she had the motivation to want this to happen. >> when while they were sleeping continues. >> when while they were sleeping continues. but perhaps this year, a more exhilarating endeavor awaits.

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♪ i never wanna hear you say... ♪ no, kevin... no, kevin! believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back. police investigating ben oxley's murder had doubts about his wife, melissa's story. it didn't make sense that his killer would spare melissa and investigators were about to

uncover information that made them wonder if ben was worth more dead than alive or did they need to be looking at another direction, to someone else with motive. here's keith morrison. >> melissa oxley was just 27 years old and already a widow. her 36-year-old husband, ben, shot dead while he slept in bed right next to her. as far as she could tell, said melissa the shooter broke into the house and walked into the master bedroom, shot ben without harming her and leave not a trace of evidence behind. the case boggled the detective's mind. >> is there somebody who doesn't like him or was it murder for hire? >> melissa's closest friends believed her when she invested she had nothing to do with it and she lost the love of her life. she and those around her were probably in terrible danger. >> you don't know who did it and

if they are going to come back for melissa. >> melissa meanwhile tried to be a source of comfort for her 6-year-old stepdaughter. >> the little girl's father was her world and leaving her now in a world of chaos. in the crime scene, they moved in with the woman who had been bride's maid at the wedding. jamie. it was a night when the curtains were drawn that jamie watched melissa realing with pain. >> many nights of crying. i went and laid in bed with her. >> didn't sleep. couldn't sleep. >> getting into a bed after that happened. >> i didn't want to. >> where would you sleep? >> on the floor. >> if the pain and suffering of losing her husband wasn't hard

enough, melissa was a lead suspect. not just in the eyes of the police. >> nobody including the public and the family his any idea why this would happen. they are grasping at straws. . >> ben's sister was certain she arranged his murder. >> she had a following around town. it's always the wife. >> did that mean alyssa, so vulnerable, was living with a murderer? alyssa began to spend more time at her mother, dawn's house. >> ben's sister warned her about the stepmom she came to love. >> she said she thought my stepmom killed my dad that night. >> it must have been pretty weird to hear that. >> yeah, i didn't believe it. >> didn't believe it at all?

>> but if alyssa didn't believe it, others did. before long they had more ammunition because of something else. >> a $400,000 life experience policy. she had the motivation to want it to happen. >> once again, melissa found herself answering difficult questions. >> i didn't even know of the insurance policy. i guess i was sort of naive. we were looking at it for retirement. >> while the investigation went on, the insurance company held back any payments. while the whispers went around. it was shocking. ben had been dead just a few months and melissa was dating already. >> it was soon, sort of, but if i didn't do it then, you almost would get stick in this rut of never doing it. i would have hung up the towel and been done. >> put on the black dress and be

a widow the rest of your life? >> yeah. >> the detective was keeping track and trying not to be judgmental. >> sheer has to do what she needs to do to heal. it doesn't mean i was not paying attention. >> months pass and he scratched away at the leads that went anywhere at all. a clarity began to emerge. despite earliy is spriy y isupp. hard evidence didn't materialize. >> he couldn't help thinking -- >> she was so start led and wen into a fight or flight response and discovered he had been shot. >> there was another reason melissa dropped down the list of suspects. that reason was a certain someone else who it became clear did not like that love story we told you about.

not one bit. >> i said what did you do? what did you do? she said what do you mean what did i do? you think i would do something like this? i said absolutely. >> coming up, a whole new theory of the crime. with a whole new list of suspects eager to share secrets. >> i didn't know. no, no, no, no, no. >> when while they were sleeping continues. no >> when while they were sleeping continues. on a full line of vehicles. now, at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2019 es 350 for $379 a month, for 36 months, and we'll make your first month's payment. experience amazing.

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>> president trump esktilated his feud saying i don't believe they are capable of loving our country. alexandria ocasio-cortez said his policies were rooted in ethnicity and racism. decrying a controversial extradition bill, chaos ensued a

police fired rubber bullets at the demonstrators. back to dateline. welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. the cloud of suspicion over melissa oxley was lifting. she was no longer the crime suspect in her husband's shooting death. detectives were focussed on another woman in ben's life. someone they believed held a grudge and what she was about to tell them would send the case in a stunning new direction. here again is keith morrison. if you knew ben, there is no way you would want him dead. i couldn't think of anybody that would want him dead besides dawn. >> dawn, dawn oxley, ben oxley's ex-wife, alyssa's mother. even as more than a few local

gossipers pointed the fingers at melissa, ben's best friends told each other. >> everything in me said dawn had something to do with it. >> a few years back that, thinking would be unimaginable to their best friends, scott and cindy graham. not dawn. dawn the force of nature, the center of any room she was in. >> i don't know if it's manipulating or what, but everybody agreed with dawn. as long as dawn was happy, we are all happy. >> after five years of marriage, neither den nor dawn was happy and the marriage went up in flame. >> ben cheated on dawn. i could see that. this probably was not going to be something she was ever going to get over. >> dawn changed after that. didn't seem to want to act like a parent anymore. >> she met a guy and she would stay the night at his house. when her kids are calling saying

we don't have food in the house, can you bring us food? there is a problem. >> when dawn and ben went to court to fight for custody, cindy had to tell the truth. >> told the judge that dawn wasn't taking care of her kids anymore. they were not a priority. they were not even number five. >> when ben won custody of alyssa and more than $200 a month in child support, dawn was devastated. this is her mother, a retired deputy sheriff. >> she would sit in the garage and just bawl about not getting her day in court. >> this was eating her alive. >> it was really taking its toll on her. >> dawn started drinking heavily. her teenage son, devin, watched his mother fall apart. >> she started to lose jobs and

all hell broke loose. >> but murder? police went to see her a couple of hours after ben was kill and found her fast a sleeve. . >> what time did you go to sleep? >> i watched a movie and probably around 4:00? >> she happened to be sharing her bedroom with a 24-year-old family friend named james. >> we watched a movie and went to bed. not a convincing alibi any more than james, the new man in her life, was just a friend. even less convincing when the detective learned about a trip to a 7-11 store about an hour and a half before the murder. >> why are they hiding little pieces? we started to do surveillance on them and they were worried wa because they think we are

watching. >> it shows dawn and her two daughters. alyssa was 7 by this time. a year into the investigation, she was back with her biological mom and the court his slowly weaned her back there permanently. >> there you are, trying to grieve the loss of ben at the same time as alyssa is being pulled back towards dawn. >> the loss of both of them, truly. >> and while the police were watching dawn, dawn was telling her children, including brandy, that the real suspect was melissa. >> she told you that it was melissa who committed the murder? >> yes. >> brandy was hearing that from her mother, dawn, who was drinking too much, getting duis and spending nights in jail. >> they started getting arrested. dawn and james both. >> and while they had james, they asked him point blank about

the murder of ben oxley. >> did i kill ben? no. did dawn kill ben? no. do i know about it? no. >> were you involved in the plan something. >> no. i'm looking you in your eyes. i did not kill him. >> lots of denials and no real evidence. a year and a half had gone by. sufficiency the summer of 2009. on to the cold case territory. >> getting there. >> one afternoon as the detective was recovering from the night on the grave yard shift, the cell phone rang. it was don oxleawn oxley. >> she said she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to talk. it was about time. >> she was e neinebriated and h quite a story to tell about james. about how he offered to murder

ben. >> the night ben died he said now or never. i said no. not today. don't do it. no. i said no. no, no, no, no, no. >> hours later, she said, james woke her up from a sound sleep and told her ben was dead. that, she said, is all he told her. all she knew. >> you confident james had something do with it? >> i don't know. >> is that really all she knew? dawn, remember, had a 16-year-old son named devin, who, detectives learned, was at home and listening in the hours before ben oxley was murdered. if anyone could confirm dawn's version of the events, it would be devin, but he was not talking. not yet, anyway. >> coming up, prosecutors were about to make a deal to get the

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♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ welcome back. dawn oxley just told detectives the new man in her life offered to murder her ex-husband, ben. dawn said she refused. investigators had a hunch she knew more than what she was saying. in a case with few leads and plenty of dead ends, investigators were about to hear several versions about what happened the night ben was shot dead. once again, here's keith morrison. >> finally the story of ben oxley's murder, bit by bit, was leaking out. could dawn's version be believed that she had nothing to do with

it. here's what dawn's mother, sherry thought. >> i could see her saying i wish he was dead and james saying want me to kill him for her? her saying whatever. it was more of a disbelief ann affirmation. >> that's the story dawn told, too. she did not want james to kill her ex-husband. >> you want to talk about this case? >> you know i do. >> it was the fall of 2009. dawn was in jail for a dui and agreed to talk in more detail about the night of ben oxley's murder. >> he said do you want me to go do that? i'm sitting there going are you serious. are you kidding me? he was on the phone and asking me if i wanted him to go take care of ben and i was saying no. >> she went to sleep, she said. the next thing she knew, james was back. >> here woke me up and said it's done. i was totally drunk and turned

around and now i'm waking up out of a dead sleep. i said what the hell are you talking about. i said seriously the cops are going to show up because my ex-husband's dead. >> and she did not take part, she swore. not at all. >> i didn't drive. i did not go anywhere. i didn't have plans. i did not want ben dead. >> so truth or fiction? there was no solid evidence either way. more than james killed ben, only dawn's story. at which point, tom gregory who was the assistant district attorney decided he needed her help. >> you love to get everybody involved in the case, but there is a reality that sometimes you need the help of one of the people involved to get the main person. >> so dawn oxley was offered limited immunity.

testify truthfully against james and you won't be prosecuted. a sort of get out of jail free card. >> why go ahead and make that deal with her so soon? you had her statement. why not hold off and be patient and get them both? >> say we don't do the deal with her and arrest him. what's our evidence? >> dawn signed the agreement and james was charged with first-degree murder. but, the end of the story? oh, no. not even close. the truth had been hiding, but it was itching to come out. young devin, remember him? dawn's son? devin decided it was time to reveal what he overheard the night of the murder. >> my mom was like i want ben to die. i just want him dead. james said i will kill him right now. you just say the word and will kill him. he was like a broken record. i want him dead. i want him dead. >> sounds like a woman who was shocked when it happened?

but there was more. james told his attorney it was time to tell the whole story. >> i could tell he was telling the truth. over the course of 15 months, he always told the same story. >> now comes another story. james' story. not a love story this time. >> nobody could believe that i did what i do. i had never been a violent person. >> james did not have an easy start in life. by the time he was a teenager, he was drinking, doing drugs and stealing things. >> i had given up any hope on continuing successfully in life. >> dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james. made him feel rescued and gave him a place to live. he had been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. >> for gave me a sense of hope that there was someone besides my mom that cared.

>> james discovered what others had. as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasn't, well then james could not be happy either. >> she was very, very upset at the fact that she lost alyssa. >> she went on rants about ben oxley, a man james didn't know and had never met. but he listened. >> felt like you were in love with her after a while. it gave he a sense of feeling wanted. >> then he realized she would never be happy unless he fixed what was upsetting her. >> i wanted to make dawn happy. >> so what happened? dawn and james' stories began the same way. february 20th, 2008, a night of heavy drinking and a heated conversation about ben oxley and james asking dawn if she wants to have him killed. that's where the stories diverge. dawn remembers she told james,

don't do it and fell asleep on the couch. but that's not james' story. >> she was ecstatic about what was happening. she was happy i was going to kill somebody. you know? >> it was after midnight and dawn drew him a diagram so he could find his way to the bedroom. he went to the 7-11 and withdraw $40 out of the atm and they went to the wal-mart and dawn waited in the car while james did the shopping for shotgun shells and gloves and a flashlight. >> she was very happy about it. like a kid going to dizsneyland. >> they forgot to bring the diagram of ben's house. >> the plan was not for dawn to go in the house. it was for me to go into the house. i didn't know how to get in or where the bedroom was so dawn had to go inside.

>> the front door was locked and dawn took him around the back where a sliding glass door was unlock and they walked down the hall and then, said james, dawn pointed him towards the master bedroom. >> i turned around and she was going into alyssa's room. >> into the room? >> yeah. she was about half her body was into the room. she was going to take alyssa with her. i said you can't take alyssa. >> was this true? remember alyssa, just 6 years old at the time, told police she remembered seeing someone in her doorway. >> i looked down and i saw someone walking in. >> then, said james, he walked into the master bedroom and saw ben and melissa sleeping in the moonlight. >> i raised the gun and that's where everything in my mind that should have happened three or four hours ago happened.

i started thinking why am i here. something i heard to my left. >> a sudden noise? >> yeah. as i turned and jerked to see what it was, i pulled the trigger. >> he ran and left the front door wide open and caught up to dawn at the truck. >> who drove? >> she did. i started yelling at her when we got in the truck. >> the truth, said james. all of it. >> dawn knows the truth and know the truth. that's all that matters. i'm taking full responsibility for what i did. dawn needs to take full responsibility for what she did. >> coming up -- was ben the only who was in danger that night? >> what was it like to hear that? >> unreal. >> one more revelation still to come when while they were sleeping continues. still to

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welcome back. dawn oxley agreed to testify that james killed her ex-husband, ben. in exchange, dawn received limited immunity and james was charged with first-degree murder. in court, there would be a couple of surprises, including a terrifying detail about the night ben was killed. turns out ben was not the only one in danger. here's keith morrison with the conclusion of our story. >> it's a rare thing to sit in a jail house room such as this while a murderer confesses, chapter and verse. denial the more common language here. >> i pulled the trigger. >> james did not shrink from it. he murdered ben oxley in his sleep and must live with what he did with for the rest of his days. >> i'm afraid to deal with what

i actually did. >> in december of 2011, he told his story in court. it was after the da took the death penalty off the table and james decided to plead guilty. that's when melissa sitting in the courtroom, heard for the first time about something else. james was supposed to kill her, too. >> dawn asked me in kill melissa. i automatically said yeah. >> there was a bullet there for you. what was it like to hear that? >> unreal. >> do you believe she was in the house that night? >> i do. that makes me sick. i have a harder time with dawn than i do james because if it wasn't for her, none of it would happen. >> that's where melissa and james firmly agree. only half a measure of justice. since dawn is protected by that immunity agreement she signed with the da. >> james is not the type of boy who will commit a murder in the

hopes that dawn will find it acceptable. he didn't do this as a surprise gift. >> dawn declined a request for an interview, but her mom, the retired sheriff remained in her corner. >> i know a lot of people believe that it was a blatant conspiracy on her part. but i don't think dawn really wanted ben dead. i don't think dawn was there. >> you are trying to hold it all together. all the way along and even now. >> you got to understand. ben was a good guy. they had their problems. everybody loved him. he didn't deserve to die. >> so for the time being, it's a he said she said story. and the da's deal with dawn?

to the display of james' attorney, she may never face a murder charge. >> the prosecutor made a deal with the devil. >> a deal with the devil. without dawn's testimony at the preliminary hearing, the murder charge would never have stuck. but dawn was not totally off the hook. there was one possibility still. if the da could find hard evidence that dawn lied for implicating james -- >> it's an open book on dawn oxley for murder. if someone showed she did go, we could prosecute her. dawn was sent to prison on another offense. she pleaded guilty to using her teenage daughter to sell prescription drugs. >> was she employing you as her assistant? >> i was driving, yes.

>> dawn was released from prison in march of 2014. but not to be the mother of alyssa. the judge terminated her parental rights. both alyssa and brandy went to live with melissa. she offered them a kind of family life they didn't know with their biological mom. >> it is a family. that's what i need. >> in 2011, having pleaded guilty to murder, james prepared to be sentenced. >> is there redemption for a person like you? >> i don't know. i don't expect anybody they hurt to forgive me for what i've done. >> you are talking to them, right? >> basically talking to melissa. i'm sorry. >> in exchange for his guilty

plea, the da agreed to recommend that james could be eligible for parole after serving 24 years. final decision up to the judge. defense attorney made the argument. >> and then melissa took the stand. >> emotionally the damage you have caused me is almost unbearable. for alyssa, you crumbled her foundation. and everything she knew to be right and true. and as hard as this is to do or believe, i also want you to know i have found it in my heart to forgive you. >> and then james got his sentence. >> the murder charge you are sentenced ed td to life in pri. >> life without parole. ever. afterwards, the little girl in the middle of the family drama

turned to melissa with a request. alyssa asked to meet with james and was ushered in to see him before he was whisked away. >> i told him that i decided to forgive him and that i wanted him to have hope. >> and she wept. tears of forgiveness of lingering grief for her father. as for melissa after the trial she told us, she was ready to move on. >> where will you keep ben? >> he will always be in my heart. he will never be forgotten. but we have to go on. >> if he's looking down watching you, what would he think? >> do you miss him? >> yeah, i miss him a lot. >> you are a pretty strong kid, aren't you in. >> yeah.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin thank you for watching > she was the love of my life. always.