in april of 2017, martin died by suicide. >> that's all for this edition of ""dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> he's a monster. >> he's evil. he's pure evil. she that character in those horror movies. >> he hid in the shadows, a killer in a mask. >> he's clearly a brilliant individual. a brilliantly scary individual. >> his target, a doting young mom. >> she was a georgeous strawberry blonde that loved her son more than anything in the whole world. >> he struck once. would he kill again and would she be next. >> you're just so shattered and

hurting so bad. >> damage being hunted in your own home. held a virtual prisoner. your children in danger from a man with a blueprint for murder. >> i wasser the identified. >> she will face down evil and come forward with a new revelation that will make your jaw drop. >> what i did was wrong. there are no words. i have everything to lose. ords i have everything to lose. hello and welcome to dateline. it was a brutal crime and right away one woman said she knew what happened. it would take years to bring the alleged killer to trial. it's a story of obsession and control that will keep you guessing until the very end. here's andrea with the killing in cobb county. >> a new attraction can be so

exhilarating. but not always. sometimes attraction turns into a dangerous obsession. she says she knows all about that. >> he would show up at my job. he would show up at the store. no matter where i went he would be there. >> she had a stalker. a teenager that got into her house, into her car and worst of all, into her head. >> i wouldn't go out to the mailbox without a gun. i was terrified. >> he had total control over you it sounds like. >> pretty much. >> she could feel it in her bones. something bad was coming and she felt powerless to do anything about it. >> i knew that he was watching and then i just thought here it comes again. >> life used to be much simpler. in the fall of 1995 she moved to cobb county georgia just north

of atlanta. >> this is an upper scale neighborhood. christina was always outside and life was good and i was happy. >> their downstairs neighbors were carmen smith and nick. nick had sparkling blue eyes and a million dollar smile just like his mom. >> she was a gorgeous strawberry blonde, feisty, very outgoing young woman that loved her son more than anything in the whole world. they were like two peas in a pod. >> it was a monday afternoon, the week before halloween. nick and christina got off the school bus and walked home together. >> first thing they did was go downstairs to see if they could find nick's mom. her car was there. she should be there. >> while christina stayed by the door, nick went inside. someone was there but not his mom. >> nick turned the corner and he saw something move across the

bedroom down the long hallway. >> it was a dark figure wearing gloves and a mask. the stranger suddenly stabbed nick and left him for dead. >> as he's laying there on the floor he actually sees his perpetrator run from the house. christina began freaking out. she was terrified. >> christina ran upstairs to her apartment to get help. her babysitter catherine was there with her boyfriend scott. they hurried downstairs. >> christina started walking toward the sliding glass door and i grabbed her and i said don't touch anything. >> the door was smeared with blood and the scene inside was unspeakable. >> somebody said oh my gosh, there's nick and you could see him through the window on the floor in a pool of blood. >> i said get out of here and go down the street. she said what are you going to do? i said i have to get that boy out of there. i'm not leaving without the boy.

>> he grabbed an axe for protection and then dropped it. he wasn't breathing and i smacked him a few times and nothing happened so i started screaming at him and started smacking him harder and telling him he wasn't going to die today and all of a sudden had he kind of bolted up. at that point i said you're alive. scott picked up the little boy and bolted from the house. he squeezed nick tightly against his chest trying to stop the bleeding. >> he was running and yelling down the street, call 911, call 911. >> she was at work when she got a frantic call from her daughter. >> she was hysterical. i drove him as fast as i could. i was screaming for christine and nick but they weren't there. >> she didn't see carmen either but when police officers arrived at the scene they made a

terrible discovery. the vivacious flight attendant and devoted single mother was dead. she had been strangled. carmen smith was just 30 years old. >> and you're just shattered and hurting so bad and you're so thankful that your daughter is alive but then you feel so bad what happened to nick and carmen. >> carmen's sister kristen and brother-in-law jim barely had time to process the news about carmen before learning that nick was fighting for his life. they rushed to be at his side. >> we went straight to the hospital. >> you must have been thinking how could someone stab a 5-year-old, your nephew. proximately 18 times. that's a monster. >> yeah. >> i will never forget walking in the hospital room -- i'm sorry, but yeah. and you have to come to grips

with reality. >> it was a grim reality. after emergency surgery nick was in critical condition. he looked so little. so fragile in his hospital bed. >> you never think you'd get touched by something like this when you have the perfect family. >> he had been stabbed 18 times and had lost a dangerous amount of blood, but he survived. nick was going to make it. it was nothing less than a miracle. there was no easy way to tell him about his mom, but he had to know, and even 18 years later, nick remembered it like it was yesterday. >> my dad and my ant told me that my mom didn't make it and i didn't really understand it then. i still don't really understand it. >> it was such a senseless act. nick and his family could only grieve and wonder why, but back at the apartment, now a crime

scene, a chill ran through her. she told police she could explain exactly what happened. >> i told them i had somebody that had been stalking me and it was my belief that he was the one behind what happened to nicholas and carmen. >> coming up, who was this man in the mask who would kill the young mother and try to kill her son? >> he's pure evil. he's a monster. >> a chilling story of hunter and hunted. >> he's always told me he could get away with the perfect murder. this play was in the making. >> when dateline continues. mak. >> when dateline continues and the 12-hour pain-relieving strength of aleve. that dares to last into the morning. so you feel refreshed. aleve pm. there's a better choice.

fight for blast offs fight for piggyback rides fight for 7 am makeouts. every year, walgreens helps millions of people fight the flu. fight to protect the ones you love. walgreens. be a flu fighter. get your free flu shot today at your neighborhood walgreens. it can cause damage to the enamel. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. with pronamel repair, more minerals are able to enter deep into the enamel's surface. the fact that you have an opportunity to repair what's already been damaged...it's amazing. i think my go-to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair.

my car insurance to geico. this is how it made me feel. it was like that feeling when you pull your green sock out of the dryer and then the very next sock is the other green one. and then you pull out two blue ones. and you keep going till you've matched every single sock in perfect order. and the owner of the laundromat is so impressed, he hangs a picture of you next to the dryer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the way you triumph over adversity. and live your lives. that's why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you. now there's less pain immediately following injection. we've reduced the size of the needle

and removed the citrate buffers. and it has the same effectiveness you know and trust. humira citrate-free is here. a little change can make a big difference. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. here's to you. enterprise car sales and you'll take any trade-in?rom that's right! great! here you go... well, it does need to be a vehicle. but - i need this out of my house. (vo) with fair, transparent value for every trade-in... enterprise makes it easy.

it is a haunting memory impossible to forget. >> it definitely changed my life course completely so i remember it pretty well. >> nick smith was only 5 years old when a masked man stabbed him 18 times and killed his mother carmen. while recovering in the hospital nick was told his mother was gone. >> do you remember your mom? >> not well. most of my memories are stories i have been told from other people. >> carmen's sister kristen and her husband gym helped raise

nick. bedtime stories were about his beautiful mother. >> she was very athletic. she was in swimming, basketball, softball, track. she was homecoming court. prom queen. she dated the football player. she was a cheerleader. >> i remember her liveliness. she was very vivacious and very beautiful and very fun. she had nick fairley early in life and did a great job of working and providing for nick at the same time. >> did you just feel robbed that you never got to experience all the things a mother and son get to experience together? >> definitely. a lot of people in my family say i act just like her. >> the police officers got an immediate lead from her upstairs neighbor. >> did you know immediately who had done this? >> yes. >> who had committed this. >> i knew. >> she was certain it was the

work of a teenager. he and lottie had a history. she said it would explain the hideous attack. she told detectives her story. things had started so innocently. don't they always. >> i met him at the paint ball field playing paint ball so we just met by being teammates on the same team. >> she was the captain of her team. kind of a den mother to the other much younger players. especially him, a georgia tech student 12 years her junior. >> he didn't have anybody else he could open up and talk to or share his thoughts and feelings with. >> so you felt like a big sister to him. >> that's exactly how i felt. >> he was a bit of a loaner. he latched on to her and started calling her at work, at home and wouldn't stop. >> i told him that i have a life and you're just taking too much of my time and then he would cry and then i knew there was a problem. >> what was a nuisance at first

quickly escalated. her phone started ringing off the hook, up to 100 times a day. >> why didn't you just stop talking to this person. >> i should have. i felt really sorry for him and i really didn't want him to get into trouble. it sounds so crazy. >> but maybe that also says about you that you're a good person. >> or a very foolish person. >> foolish because the stalking became bolder and very bizarre. >> he kept saying he was going to get me and slit my daughter's throat in front of me and i would come home from work and there would be a pair of my underwear on my door knob or a bra. >> what message is he sending with that? look at me. i'm getting into your place and getting away with it. there's nothing you can do to stop me. another time i came in early and went into my bedroom and there he was naked wearing gator hose

and a gator belt looking at himself in my mirror. this is any woman's worst nightmare. >> she says things reached a tipping point when he threatened her and her daughter. this time while brandishing a knife. >> he always told me he can get away with the perfect murder. his play was in the making. he was released in 1995 and released on bond. a judge ordered him to stay away. he didn't and was released in september. this time he was sent to a psychiatric hospital. >> he has severe issues with obsession. i don't think he has the ability to feel compassion for other people. he's clearly a brilliant individual. he's also a brilliantly scary individual. >> while he was hospitalized, lottie packed up and moved to the hospital in cobb county about 20 minutes north of

atlanta where carmen and nick lived downstairs. >> so you moved to try to escape him. >> in october on friday 13th, he was released from the hospital. less than two weeks later, carmen smith was dead. and lottie was overwhelmed with guilt and anger. >> he's pure evil. he's a monster. that's what she told police. she said her stalker must have been behind the attack on carmen and nick. but why. he was obsessed with lottie. he had never even met or spoken to carmen or had he? she thought she knew an answer. a phone call made to her phone a few days before the murder. >> it was friday 20th and the calls started coming in and the phone got put off the hook and then i could hear her phone

ringing. >> carmen answered and hung up abruptly. what was said? nobody knows. but she told her sister and brother-in-law the call was from the stalker. >> she said i'm going to get a hammer and put it next to the bed and i remember laughing thinking if that guy decides to get in the house he's in trouble but you never think it would go to where it went. >> we talked about her packing some stuff and coming to stay with us for awhile. >> lottie says seeing carmen's reaction to the call was harang gets -- heartbreaking. >> we just barricaded the door with some wood. she was so scared. she was shaking and she was so scared. >> just three days later that glass door was open and smeared with blood and he was the lead

suspect in a horrible crime. >> coming up evidence at the scene of the crime. >> there's a broken knife blade and fiber recovered off of carmen smith's body. >> will it be enough to catch the killer? >> he is getting away with murder. he's getting away with exactly what he told me he would. >> when date line continues. me >> when date line continues. so i can buy from

enterprise car sales and you'll take any trade-in? that's right! great! here you go... well, it does need to be a vehicle. but - i need this out of my house. (vo) with fair, transparent value for every trade-in... enterprise makes it easy.

just three days before he was killed carmen smith told family and friends she had gotten a call from the man arrested for stalking her neighbor. it was the strongest allegation yet connecting the victim to the suspect. investigators tipped off about that call by lottie now closed in on him. >> did you execute a search warrant on his house that night? >> we did. >> he was a homicide detective with the cobb county police department. >> we did. in his room we found a piece of paper for the address where the crime occurred. we found a torn up letter that was his words to spencer. >> his torn up letter was hateful and threatening. >> he specifically talks about having plans and back up plans to exact revenge on lottie and the worst part about the letter is he gets to the end and he

says i'm going to let you live. i'm going to get revenge on you but i'm going to let you live. >> to police and prosecutors it wasn't just a rant. it looked like a blueprint for murder. now they tried to link him to the crime scene. >> some of the important evidence we start with is the hair and fiber evidence recovered off of carmen smith's body. there was a broken knife blade. it was a fairly clean crime scene other than that. >> carmen had small puncture wounds on her back and terrible bruising suggesting a ferocious struggle. >> she had been not only tortured and murdered but she had been undressed at some point and redressed. at carmen's bedside, the hammer she had wanted for peace of mind, never touched as she fought for her life. not far away was the suspected murder weapon, a piece of rope. crime scene technicians dusted for fingerprints and collected blood samples.

it was sent to the crime lab for analysis. >> the lab test kept coming back without the physical evidence that we needed that linked him to the dead body of carmen smith. that's when we knew that it may always be a circumstantial case. >> and the circumstantial part of the case was too weak to make an arrest. prosecutors still believed he was the only viable suspect in carmen smith's murder and the stabbing of her son nick but they didn't have the evidence to prove it. the investigation stalled. >> so he walked away from the murder. >> he walked away from the murder but not accountability. the police felt they had a viable way of charging him with aggravated stalking. >> he was arrested and charged with stalking lottie spencer. >> there's multiple witnesses. that observed some of the stalking activities occurring at

the apartment hearing him knock on the door at all hours of the night. seeing him come back. >> he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. it was a close to the first chapter of lottie spencer's life but it wasn't a happy ending. >> did you feel you had some peace in your life again when he was behind bars? >> no. he was getting away with murder. getting away with exactly what he told me that he would. he needed to pay for what he did to carmen. >> after the trial, lottie decided to leave georgia to try to start over. nick smith went back to the same school and the protective embrace of his family. >> i kind of just went back into the normal routine. i think that was the best way i could have dealt with it and i think my family did a pretty good job of trying to keep my life as normal as possible. >> and during the next ten

years, nick's life did finally return to normal but in 2006 he was released and moved nearby. all terrifying memories of the masks man wealding a knife came rushing back. police decided to provide security to keep nick safe. >> we'd have the cops sit outside of our house at night and we had cameras on the outsize as a precaution. >> she was also looking over her shoulder. >> tell us about the day that he got out. that he was a freeman again. >> not a good time. >> were you waiting every day for the phone to ring or the bang on the door? >> i was starting to unravel again. >> coming up, the fear begins all over and so does the push for justice. >> you had your smoking gun. >> absolutely. >> it's another trial and just look who is addressing the jury.

when dateline continues. he jury. when dateline continues. that they don't need to. i think dentists will want to recommend sensodyne rapid relief. sensodyne rapid relief builds a layer fast on the tooth's surface over those sensitive areas, which means patients are going to get fast relief from their sensitivity. sensodyne rapid relief is clinically proven to work in 3 days. i think dentists will want to recommend this product because it's going to help their patients and that's what we are trying to do is help patients. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun? -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, and she's right there. -yeah, she's my ride. this date's lame. he has pics of you on his phone. -they're very tasteful.

in a series of tweets president trump continues to try to raise questions about a whistleblower's credibility. this despite a memo claiming he brought up an investigation of joe biden in a call with ukrainian president supporting the whistleblowers claims. and a federal judge has blocked the trump administration's attempt to increase the authority of immigration officers to deport people without allowing them to appear before judges. now back to date line. >> welcome back to date line. i'm natalie morales. prosecutors believed carmen smith had been murdered at the hands of her neighbor's stalker. yet with no physical evidence tying him to the crime they could not prove it and the investigation stalled.

years passed but a determined detective was about to take a new look at an old clue and turn this case from cold to red hot. once again, here's andrea with the killing in cobb county. >> after ten years in prison he was a freeman but still a suspect in the murder of carmen smith and the stabbing of her son nick. >> he was still terrorizing you in some ways. >> yeah. >> he is that character in the horror movies. he's your worst nightmare. >> after his release he got a job and moved to suburban atlanta. he was a freeman and enjoying life. here he is skydiving and loving it. his freedom galled the homicide detective. the carmen smith murder was now officially a cold case.

to him he got away. >> does the case like this haunt a police department? >> absolutely because these cases go home with you in your mind. >> but for years he couldn't do anything about it and then just by chance he was sent to a dna training seminar in 2008. a random assignment that would change everything. >> back in the mid 90s, very little at all could be done with the hair except to say the color of the hair. now when there's any tissue from the root on the hair it takes just a minute amount of tissue to come up with a full profile dna. >> it's called nuclear dna testing and he immediately thought of carmen smith. she was a strawberry blonde and he remembered the short dark hairs recovered from her body. not hers under layers of bedding. >> i felt it was invaluable evidence if there was enough tissue on that hair underneath her sweater. >> he brought one of those hairs

to a dna lab in texas and waited. >> it was almost 15 years late whern the call came in and there was a match. >> they have identified his hair. him and only him to the exclusion of all others on the dead body of carmen smith at the time she was found. >> you had your smoking gun? >> absolutely. >> i got a call. i was very happy but it was hard for me to have to go back and tell the stories. >> she dreaded the thought of testifying in open court in front of daker but she knew there would be no avoiding it. he was arrested and charged with murdering carmen smith and stabbing her son nick. his trial started in september of 2012. >> all rise.

prosecutor jesse evans was there for the state. he argued that his obsession with one murder lead to another. some people are just mean. >> evans said taker had left a trail of destruction and those critical hairs. >> cold case solved. >> defending him was wasee waseem daker. >> there's three principles of law that i want to give you. >> before he took over his own case he had been represented by an experienced father and son team. >> they had no case without tho those hairs. that's why they didn't go

forward. they didn't have a case and they knew it. >> their advice was focus on the hairs and don't obsess about lottie. >> this case had to be defended by attacking the science of the state's case. >> but he couldn't seem to let go. his focus from the start was his relationship with the state's star witness. it was a romance he said, intimate in every way. lottie insisted that was not true. >> some of the things he said had to be just really beyond frustrating that saying you two had a sexual relationship. >> there was no relationship, so there's nothing, you know more that i can say about that. >> did he ever try to kiss you or -- since he's so in love with you? >> no, never once tried to kiss me or anything. >> when he finally turned to those hairs he called on the prominent dna experts that challenged the state's key

evidence. the nuclear dna test watching them and done on the root tissue of a single hair. the problem is none of the hairs recovered from the crime scene had any roots. >> there were hairs taken from the body and all clearly indicated as having no roots. that's something that you could do with a naked eye and of course the expert at the time used a microscope. >> are you so 0% sure the or original hair had no roots. >> the records say this and somehow it arrives at the laboratory and it's a hair with a root. >> it was a serious challenge to the state's key piece of evidence and he once again connected the evidence to lottie spencer, a liar that had ruined his wife in the most treacherous way. >> she derailed a murder

investigation by making all of these false allegations. >> for lottie, all the fear and hurt came rushing back every time he mentioned her name. >> he was enjoying it. like he had control again. made me feel really weak. >> jess se evans asked the jurors not to focus on lottie and to think about another woman when they started their deliberations. >> he was anxious and uncertain what they would do. >> we were holding our case together with two hairs. and there's an explanation for that and our case is no longer viable. >> it took the jury just 3.5 hours to reach a verdict. >> we the jury find the

defendant guilty as to count one. >> guilty of the murder of 30-year-old carmen smith. >> you go all of these years thinking he got away with it and he didn't. >> at his sentencing the state called one witness, nick smith that was determined to face his attacker one last time. >> no way. >> he took my mother's life and stabbed me, my life was put on hold. >> nick struggled to hold back tears. you wonder will someone other than me control my life and interrupt my thoughts. he's finally caught and i'm finally free. i love you, mom. >> i never wanted to use what happened as any sort of crutch or let it get in the way. i did the best i could to and if

she were still here i think she would be proud. he had life in prison and 47 years. >> it's typical of a coward that you would act the way you're acting. and that's what you are, a coward. >> case closed. justice for carmen and nick smith and the victory lottie had wanted so badly but the story was far from over. something happened at the end of the trial that would calm to haunt lottie. something that would lead her to realize there's still unfinished and unbelievable business in her saga. a final verdict, yes. the final chapter, not even close. a stunning confession is about to turn this case around. >> i couldn't let it go. i had a conscious.

i had to live with me. >> there's a real issue here. something was going on behind the scenes that we weren't aware of. behind the scenes that we weren't aware of i knew that hpv could lead to certain cancers. i knew her risk for hpv increases as she gets older. i knew there was a vaccine available that could help protect her before she could be exposed to hpv. i knew. so i talked to my child's doctor. now that you know that hpv can lead to certain cancers, don't wait. talk to your child's doctor today.

stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm thenot actors, people, who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin. and, had significantly less itch. that's a difference you can feel. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about

new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. fight for blast offs fight for piggyback rides fight for 7 am makeouts. every year, walgreens helps millions of people fight the flu. fight to protect the ones you love. walgreens. be a flu fighter. get your free flu shot today at your neighborhood walgreens. woman: i'm here, and suddenly my migraine takes me somewhere else, where there's pain and nausea. but excedrin pulls me back in a way others don't. and it relieves my symptoms fast for real migraine relief.

outdated. the paperwork... the calling for everything. the searching for id cards... it's like you're stuck in the 90s. that's why esurance makes it simple with an app that has everything you need because that's how we live nowadays. rad. your id card is on a bodacious tiny future tv. wow! you're really committed to this whole 90's thing, aren't ya? no, i'm just saying what's in the script. that's true. everything we're saying's in the script. when insurance is simple, it's surprisingly painless. >> he had been convicted of murder and it looked like he was out of lottie spencer's life forever. >> it was very emotional but so

good. so very good. >> do you feel free? finally free? >> i feel like a lot of weight has been lifted and i'm going to close this chapter and just go on with my life in a positive way. >> that was lottie in 2012. she told us she closed that chapter but she didn't. not by a long shot. in fact, since that interview she turned this story completely upside down with astonishing revelations. we sat down with her again to hear her new version of things. >> so did not expect to be sitting here talking to you again. >> no. >> major turn of events. >> yes, there has been. >> it all began with a bombshell. >> mr. daker and i had a consensual sexual relationship. >> yes, she now says in the mid 90s she had an on going sexual relationship with him. he wasn't really her stalker. he was her lover.

it with was something she flat out denied for 17 years. >> if what you're saying is true, you lied to the district attorney, you lied in open court to the jury. you lied to me. >> there are no words. to describe how remorseful i am. what i did was wrong. i am taking 100% full responsibility. the damage i have caused this man and his family is -- there's nothing that i can do to take it back. nothing. >> lottie now says she lied under oath about the sex and about many of the stalking charges she had made against him. >> did he threaten you? >> never. no. >> did he threaten anyone's life around you. >> no. >> are you in love with him. >> no, i never was in love with mr. daker. >> and you're not today.

>> no. >> but she says even though they were in a relationship she still feared him and until recently genuinely believed he was a murder. >> i was terrified of him. that was no lie. those emotions were real. i have had the nightmares. i lived in that fear. she said that drove her to lie but the euphoria after the verdict started to sour. she couldn't stop thinking about something that the prosecutor said after the trial. >> i learned during the closing arguments that carmen's lifeless body was wrapped up in five layers of bedding and i was shocked and i started to get pretty scared at that moment because i had given carmen two blankets just before her death. >> there were blankets that she now says she and daker slept in together. >> he used those blankets on a number of occasion. he was welcome in my home.

we were friends and he had spent the night and i knew his dna could have been on those blankets. >> remember carmen had been found under several layers of bedding. if one of her blankets was among them it could explain how daker's hair got on her body. >> this isn't a maybe. this is a woman risking perjury and charges and turning against her own self-interest. this is a woman that can explain this evidence. you have to take this seriously. >> he had been a paid expert witness for daker and worked on the case for free in his rule as director of the idaho innocence project. he believed her story was a game changer. >> now there's a logical explanation of how the hairs got there. this is one of the places where you have to shake the system and say this is so obvious. he didn't get a fair trial. >> i couldn't let it go. i have a conscience. i have to live with me. >> she decided to come forward.

she filed affidavits with the court and in 2013 the judge granted him a hearing for a new trial. but jesse wasn't buying the new story. that's because while he was preparing for the hearing he believed he found that story's real source. >> there's a real issue here. something is going on behind the scenes that we weren't aware of. >> coming up. >> i messed up really bad. it's despicable. >> another revelation inside a prison cell 4,000 pages of secrets. >> do you think he is manipulating lottie from prison? >> when dateline continues. pri? >> when dateline continues aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush.

but my hygienist said going electric could lead to way cleaner teeth. she said, get the one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's gentle rounded brush head removes more plaque along the gum line. for cleaner teeth and healthier gums. and unlike sonicare, oral-b is the first electric toothbrush brand accepted by the ada for its effectiveness and safety. what an amazing clean! i'll only use an oral-b! oral-b. brush like a pro. with licensed agents availablep when 24-7,d it. it's not just easy. it's having-jerome-bettis- on-your-flag-football-team easy. go get 'em, bus! ohhhh! [laughing] c'mon bus, c'mon! hey, wait, wait, wait! hey man, i got your flag! i got your flag, man! i got your flag! it's geico easy. with licensed agents available 24/7. 49 - nothing! woo!

why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills?e else. flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler. nothing lasts longer. flonase sensimist. 24 hour non-drowsy allergy relief

. for almost two decades, here's how lottie spencer talked about waseem daker. >> i think daker is evil. he's pure evil. he's a monster. >> but then she changed her story. calling him a victim. >> you know what, i messed up really bad. despicable. >> lottie's reversal was astonishi astonishing. in the years since carmen smith's murder, she had built a new life. she was a single mom again, raising her young son in a new home. by recanting her testimony, she put all that at risk. >> how worried are you right now that you could go to jail for perjury? >> i'm very worried.

i know that i'm facing prison time. there will be severe penalty for what i do. i don't want to be ripped away from my little boy. i have everything to lose. >> a year after daker's conviction, the hearing began on the motion for a new trial. daker again representing himself, called the dna expert to the stand. >> a man sleeps in a blanket, can his hair transfer to the blanket? >> yes. >> if a man has sex on the blanket can his hair transfer got blanket? >> yes. >> daker's chances really hinged on lottie. >> loretta spencer blatz. >> a nervous lottie made her way to the stand and swore to tell the truth. >> just prior to carmen smith's murder, i gave her two blankets. blankets that i knew you used in my roswell apartment.

>> she acknowledged having a sexual relationship with daker and then lottie's old list of daker's abuses startle to topple like dominos. >> >> never. >> did i ever physically threaten you, to kill or harm you? >> never. >> did i ever steal your bras, panties or hang them on your doorkn doorknob? >> no. >> there are going to be people that think you're lying now and you were telling the truth before? >> what reason do i have? i have everything to lose. i'm doing it because this is right. >> in a bristling cross-examination, prosecutor jesse evans portrayed lottie as a troubled unreliable woman? >> did you admit you were having mental issues? >> i said i was suffering anxiety and depression. >> the next move was stunning. he presented evidence that explained lottie's incredible reversal. letters confiscated from daker's

prison cell. thousands of pages of correspondence between him and the woman who testified. >> i sent him bible verses, encouraging cards. i sent him a lot of information, case files. i actually feel like i'm his personal secretary in a way. >> it turned out lottie had been helping with daker's appeal. he gave her research assignments. she looked up cases, printed documents and waitied for his next request. >> do you think waseem daker is manipulating lottie from prison? >> there's no doubt that she's opened the door, she's allowed him an opportunity to get back into her life and we already know that he has a history of manipulating her. >> is he manipulating you right now into doing what he wants? >> absolutely not. this is a repentant woman who is

very sorry for what she's caused. >> evans says the letters tell another story. he says lottie knew about the bedding and hair evidence before the murder trial started and never said a word about giving any of blankets to carmen. >> it wasn't until after she started secretly communicating with the defendant that she then made this broad assertion, i had given some blankets to carmen. the problem with this is, i challenged her on it. describe the blankets. tell me which ones they were. she couldn't remember. >> there's no smoking gun or smoking blanket in this case? >> absolutely. i don't think there's any blankets or evidence of that. >> on the stand, lottie not only recanted her testimony from two trials but described the lengths she's willing to go to help set daker free. >> so you believe so strongly in this, you applied for a second mortgage to help in waseem's defense and you even took out a life insurance policy naming waseem as the beneficiary?

>> my daughter is the beneficiary. she would get a third, my son a third and daker would get a third. but yeah, i would mortgage my house and i would hire him the best defense that he could possibly get. >> despite all of that lottie's efforts. the fundraising, correspondence with daker, the legal research, judge staley didn't buy her new story. she rejected daker's motion for a new trial. >> the right result was reached for the right reason. i know we've done things the right way. i feel confident in the defendant's guilt. >> it included a harsh rebuke of lottie. the judge said she lacked credibility and her new testimony seemed to have been concocted by the defendant. lottie seemed ready to carry on her fight. >> somebody needs sto stand up and say wait a minute justice was not served in this case. >> on that point, lottie is not loan. jason tread away, daker's shadow

attorney -- >> what kind of pivotal evidence could there possibly be. i believe the man deserves a new trial. >> how can you believe anything lottie says now? >> i think when you have a man's liberty and life at stake, you have to believe what she says. how can you not allow 12 different people to hear her investigation now and let them decide if it's true or not. >> are you ever going to give up on waseem? are you in this until all appeals are exhausted? >> yes. i played a role of an innocent man being falsely convicted for crimes he didn't do. i've got to make it right. >> in 2016, the georgia supreme court upheld daker's conviction. he tried to take his appeal all the way to the u.s. supreme court, only to be denied review. >> i have no doubt that waseem daker is a cold blooded killer and justice has been served with his conviction. doesn't matter what lottie says.

this case is about carmen. this case is about nick. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales, thank you for watching. good morning on this sunday morning. i'm frances rivera at msnbc world quarters. it's 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west. here's what's happening. the impeachment battle intensifies. the latest on the timeline an the strike that vi for both sides. plus, the new effort to unmask the whistle-blower. >> a political pressure on the other side to delay and stone wall as long as possible. >> if they do impeach the president, the senate doesn't vote to convict, imagine what kind of a presidency you're going to have. >> the american public is very smart and they will understand if the story is told and in a