and you just really don't expect something like that to happen to transformation from quiet island you. girl to young working woman. but in reality, you know, bad things happen to good people all >> she wore her hair back in a the time. ponytail and she was very prim and proper and, you know, very subdued. as soon as she got away from darryn she was -- like cut her hair in a bob and was really cute and stylish all of a sudden. >> sandra started going out with i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. friends, and as is pretty >> and this is "dateline". obvious in this concert video she was enjoying her new life. before too long sandra started my friend called me and she was hysterical. getting friendly with one of the chefs, a recent transplant from she said, sandra has been oahu named ryan shinjo. killed. >> i was like, oh, my god. >> he wined and dined her and as soon as she was killed we knew who did it. took really good care of her. as the months went on we he was really nice to her. realized this guy is going to they were always doing fabulous get off. how is this happening? things. >> going on honolulu shopping just keep praying. that's all we can do. trips for instance where ryan ♪ would lavish expensive gifts on there aren't a lot of sandra like louis vuitton murders in paradise. luggage. people still talk about this larry and sandra's mom toshi one. >> just a darling girl with two knew little of the relationship. on january 25, 2006 were in darling children. >> it is a story keith morrison dallas visiting their son when followed for nearly ten years. they got an odd call from

>> how? when? >> i get a call from her boss, sandra's boss. >> said she hadn't shown up for said she hadn't shown up for work. it was very unusual for her. work. >> they found her in the car. >> hours later the phone rang >> i saw in the back of her neck again. some ligature marks. it was 3:00 a.m., a time when >> she didn't see serve that. bad news comes calling. >> a small island, a small pool larry's son answered the phone. of suspects. >> and this is basically how he ryan, her lover with the past -- >> i had no idea he was a drug goes. hello. you know, oh, hi. dealer. hi, cousin. >> and darryn, the soon-to-be no! ex-husband. >> that morning he called in coming up -- sick. >> was he polygraphed? >> he didn't pass. >> she was slumped to the right, >> and the lover? to the passenger's seat, face >> he didn't do that good down. >> who wanted sandra dead? either. >> it was growing colder by the day. >> she goes driving by with her >> nothing happens. >> but a father doesn't forget. >> i have to have justice for my boyfriend in the car, and from daughter. what we are told he went >> after all of these years, are there still secrets to uncover. ballistic. he just flipped out. >> must have been quite a >> when "dateline" continues. ins journey for you. >> it isn't over yet. gotcha! >> this father finally got his hide-n-stink protection. answer, but is it the one he lysol spray kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria wanted? >> never in my wildest dreams at the source unlike air fresheners. would i have imagined what we're lysol. what it takes to protect.® going through now. ♪

seeing what people left behind in the attic. well, saving on homeowners insurance with geico's help was pretty fun too. hello and welcome to ahhhh, it's a tiny dancer. "dateline". sandra gallis was born and they left a ton of stuff up here. raised on an island known as one of the most beautiful places on earth, so how could something so ugly have happened there? the young mother was found strangled to death in her welp, enjoy your house. garage. police immediately set their sights on two men close to nope. no thank you. sandra, but it would take a geico could help you save on homeowners father's relentless pursuit of and renters insurance. the truth to unravel this geico could help you save on homeowners emreplenished,d, mystery. here is keith morrison with "the fortified. emerge everyday with emergen-c. packed with b vitamins, other side of paradise." electrolytes, antioxidants, ♪ wandering through this land plus more vitamin c than 10 oranges. you wonder if you have been transported to the beginning of why not feel this good every day? emerge and see. biblical time. to a garden free of want, temptation or betrayal. and in a land so distractingly beautiful, tourists who ebb and

flow like the tides could be forgiven for looking past this lone, tormented father, begging for help for a terrible reason, to solve the murder of his precious daughter sandy. >> i really appreciate it. >> no, no, anything we can do. >> we're -- >> it takes time. >> we hope, we hope we get an arrest this year. there's no close yet. >> it is all good. >> we first came aupon larry mendonza on another "dateline" assignment way back in 2009 which is when we shot this video. he was 68 years old then. alone he worked, handing out here, hello! starts with -hi!mple... how can i help? flyers, gruff and stoic, except a data plan for everyone. everyone? when the pain was just too much. everyone. let's send to everyone! [ camera clicking ] >> just that three years -- wifi up there? -ahhh. sure, why not? it is still rough.

how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. >> larry took us to sandra's so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. grave. told us how he promised to bring her killer to justice. >> she won't be forgotten as long as i'm alive. >> we in no idea then where this meeting would lead us, that our journey would last a decade, a case that would expose evil lurking in this garden paradise and bring larry to the edge of his own mortality. anyone on kuai knew sandra. like many here she was multi-racial, growing up in a household half japanese, half portuguese, all hawaiian, and a hello. devout catholic that attended i'm darryn brown at msnbc world catholic school. headquarters in new york. we are looking at debate in a and her friends. >> when people ask you what was british parliament over brexit. sandy like, what would you tell the house of common sessions started a while ago and began

them? >> she was absolutely a with prime minister boris johnson making a pitch for go-getter. she was teacher's pet. >> really? historic separation. >> always perfect. he is currently taking questions she always had her hair nicely on the brexit deal from done. you know, she was always parliament. there could be a series of votes before the actual vote on the focused. >> in high school sandra was an brexit deal. all of this is happening amid a athlete, a cheerleader, very deadline for the end of the month set by the prime minister. popular. >> she was the complete package. a withdrawal bill could be >> and her home life? presented to parliament early >> old fashioned. next week if the measurement is passed today with no amendments. >> traditional. >> traditional family, you know. also, we're expecting a protest of some 1 million people which would be the largest ever catholic. play-by-the-rules type of in london. we will keep you posted on the people. >> yeah? >> yeah. latest developments. >> discipline, a very important for now, i'm dara brown. thing to larry, he the 20-year back to "dateline". ♪ air force veteran. >> i was trying to toughen her up if you want to put it in that expression, to know what the real world was like. she was beyond the eden the >> that was why larry insisted tourists see. out of sight of the rich and sandra leave kauai to go to verdant estates of the wealthy

few. she was in a working class in a honolulu. she missed kauai, her family and small ranch house in her garage would come home as often as she in her car. she had been strangled to death. could. >> that's when she got involved it was sandra's new boyfriend with darryn. >> darryn was here? ryan shinjo who called the >> darryn. >> darryn gallis, made good police. said he found her that way. >> and she was slumped to the right, to the passenger's seat, money in his construction job. face down into the seat. sandra was crazy about him and >> roy asher was one of the as soon as she moved home she original investigators. got married. we spoke to him in 2009. son austin came nine months later and braden two years after this was three years after that. sandra was murdered. by the age of 24 sandra was the matriarch of her own little clan. >> she loved the boys to death. >> i saw in the back of her neck you know, they were the apple of the ligature marks. her eye. >> life was good until april we didn't find the cord but we have an idea what could have 2005 when sandra came to her been used. >> what? >> thin, thin cord like a parents, very upset. >> as she told us, she was fishing line. >> sandra's shirt and bra were cleaning out her husband's askew, her lip was split as if backpack when two papers fell she hub punched in the face. out, two phone numbers. ryan, the boyfriend -- he's the so she called the phone numbers one on the right of the and it turned out to be two screen -- told investigators he different married women.

>> sandra confronted darryn. discovered sandra's body around 9:00 p.m., but the cops could >> he would never admit it. see she had been dead for a he just kept saying they were while by then. >> probably eight to ten hours. friends, they were friends. >> and she knew otherwise? >> which would have put the time of death about what? >> she knew what it was. >> in the morning. >> could you get any more exact? >> by june darryn had moved out and sandra moved on, got a job >> no. at the beach house restaurant, >> given that the estranged an island landmark. husband, darryn, used to live it was a life changer. with sandra and ryan was now >> she was just a darling girl, you know sandra's dating her, their fingerprints could certainly be explained. nothing suspicious there. but ryan finding the body? well, that was potentially suspicious. >> did he have an alibi? >> yes. >> ah, and it checked out? >> yes. >> do you remember what it was? >> he was at work. >> so who else? well, there was sandra's estranged husband, darryn, of course, and this was interesting. >> that morning he called in sick. >> so in other words he didn't have an alibi? >> no. >> and based simply on that lack of an alibi the police arrested

darryn. >> when they first said, you think her husband could have done it, and my first reaction was no. >> even as larry tried to wrap his mind around that idea, a detective called him the following day. >> and he says, we got to let him go. we don't have enough. we've talked to the prosecuting attorney and we don't have enough. >> meaning what? was darryn involved or not? hit by grief and impatient for answers, larry launched an investigation of his own. >> it was like a -- i don't know, a panic. i mean, you know, i've got so many things to do and i've got to get it done now. >> as a native kauaiian and an intelligence specialist he had the ability to piece together his daughter's murder. for instance he found out two

days before the killing that darryn while working on a road crew saw sandra and ryan together. >> she goes driving by with her boyfriend in the car. from what we're told from his co-workers at the time he went ballistic. he just flipped out. >> at that time -- and this is important to the case -- sandra and darryn shared custody of their two sons but, remember, she worked evenings at the restaurant so the boys slept over with darryn. and at 6:00 in the morning she would show up, pick them up, take them off for breakfast, get them ready for school and daycare. but larry discovered on the night before she was murdered sandra stayed over at ryan's house, her boyfriend. he dropped her off at her place at 6:00 a.m. and then the neighbors told larry they saw her leave in her car soon after that, apparently heading to pick up the boys. >> and neighbors confirmed they saw sandra's car return a short while later but without the children. larry learned through his

contacts that sandra had a 10:00 appointment that morning to get her nails done at a salon about 45 minutes away. >> she never made the appointment. so this is how we narrowed down the time of death, before about 9:00 where she would have had to leave to make her appointment. >> the cops didn't tell him, but larry learned from his own sources that boyfriend ryan had an alibi. when, husband darryn did not, all of which got larry thinking the same thing as the police, must have been darryn who murdered sandra. >> right now i'm driven by the case. i mean i've got to get there. >> many of sandra's friends like crystal hall also thought darryn was guilty. >> i think everyone thought that darryn would be arrested immediately and, you know, he would be going to jail and the children would be going to the grandparents or her brother and everything was going to be okay. >> and exactly one year after the murder, there was, indeed,

an arrest. but it wasn't darryn. >> coming up -- >> we've got to get this case solved. >> a new theory about sandra's murder. >> she may have been smuggling drugs in her new louis vuitton suitcases and not even knowing it. >> and a threat from her father. >> if i ever figure out a way to get away with it, it will happen. >> when "dateline" continues. w happen. >> when "dateline" continues

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♪ kauai is unique in many ways, not the least of which is this. it is almost a media-free zone. most information spreads here as it has for generations, by word of mouth, with facts, opinions and gossip all swirl together as one. the news swept across the island like a rogue wave, ryan shinzo

had been arrested, but not by the island cops. by the fbi. >> then we hear that ryan has gone to jail and we're like, oh, my god, what? did he do it? could -- then we hear no, no, he went to jail for drug dealing, which none of us knew he was a drug dealer. i had no idea he was a drug dealer. >> ryan it turned out was a player in the big-money drug trafficking ring, running meth from the mainland to oahu to kauai. when people found out about that, rumors started to fly. was ryan using sandra as an unwitting drug mule? when he took her to honolulu, was she bringing back meth with her? >> who knows, she may have been smuggling drugs in her new louis vuitton suitcase and not even known it. >> the final act of the story? sandra found out about the drug ring and was killed before she could go to the police. but that was just a rumor in a sea of rumors. police didn't seem any closer to

finding sandra's killer, whoever it was. the case grew colder with each passing year. larry still thought darren killed sandra, and it seemed wherever larry went on this small island, there he was. >> this is the house there with the boat and truck in there. it is not easy going by here and knowing that he's still running free. we've -- we've got to get this case solved. >> on this day larry and sandra's mom toshi had to see darren at grandson austin's little league game. that's darren on the field coaching. and in the dugout with his girlfriend, a woman he had known since before sandra's murder. and it was at this point 2009, three years after sandra's murder, when larry felt the time had come for him to go from investigator to avenger. he was seriously thinking about

killing darren. >> if i ever figure out a way to get away with it, it will happen. >> fortunately, the arrival of a new kauai police chief put his hands on hold. daryl perry, a 30-year veteran of the honolulu pd go, agreed t meet with larry and listen to his theories about the case. >> he showed to me the scene and explained to me what happened, and i could feel his grief. >> i mean it wasn't of any forensic value to you for you to be there to look at it, was it? >> no, not at all. >> the point was what? >> the point was i wanted him to realize that there is somebody there that's listening to him. >> what did you do next? >> we went to her grave site. we stood there and -- >> what were you thinking about?

>> i was thinking about the sadne sadness in the loss of a child. >> there's nothing -- nothing like it. nobody can understand unless they've been there. >> not unless you've lost a child. >> chief perry was struggling to tell us that he did know what it was like to lose a child. he came out of retirement and took the job as head of the kauai police department after the sudden death of his 26-year-old son, erickson. >> i feel in a way that i'm working through him, that he motivates me. i believe that things happen for a reason. in fact, i told larry this. i told him, there's a reason why we met. i don't know what the reasons are, but i'm here for you. >> so after meeting with larry, chief perry sent sandra's file

to a couple of friends in honolulu, investigators with the state attorney general's cold case unit. >> i asked them to see if they can find anything else that we may have missed. >> and they did indeed find something using what was breakthrough science for that time, early 2009. cold case investigators extracted touch dna from sandra's shirt and bra. chief perry called larry with the news. >> and he said, they've got something. they rescanned her clothes and they found two -- how did he put it? two microscopic particles of a male origin. >> sometimes it is what you find and sometimes it is what you don't. coming up -- brrp. >> you know, going through the calendar way found really interesting is that it is pretty detailed from january 1st all the way up until the 24th. >> but on the morning of sandra's murder -- >> you've got nothing. >> when "dateline" continues. n e is changing him...

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hello, i'm dara brown at msnbc world headquarters in new york. we are looking at a debate in the british parliament. this is over brexit. the house of commons session started a little while ago and it began with prime minister boris johnson making a pitch for the historic separation. he is currently taking questions on the brexit deal from parliament. they're debating amendments to the deal and there could be a series of votes before the actual vote on the brexit deal. here is some of what we heard earlier. >> mr. speaker, i suggest in all humility and candor to the house that they should ignore -- they should ignore the pleadings of the honorable gentleman and vote for an excellent deal that will take this country and take the whole of europe forward. >> that was the prime minister there. nbc's steve patterson outside of parliament. steve, how long is this debate expected to go on? >> reporter: dara, as with everything with brexit it kind of remains to be seen. we had some of the opening

statements to start this morning. protesters have already started filtering in. we expect millions in central london today. as far as when the vote actually is supposed to take place, it could be some time at some point maybe this afternoon, maybe 2:30, 3:30, 4:30 local time. but, again, they have to get through the initial phase of voting which is all of these amendments they have to churn through. some of those are obviously very important, but we're not exactly sure when the official vote will come down. we, of course, will be here to bring you the latest on that, dare au. >> steve, do we know how razor thin is the margin of support in parliament for the brexit vote? >> so that is the big excitement coming into today. the first time parliament is sitting in nearly 40 years for a weekend session, just to either ratify or turn down boris johnson's proposal. coming into today, you know, we have so many pundits that love to pontificate on which way the

vote is going to go. nobody is giving a definitive answer because of how thin the margin has been. there is broad support, broad opposition, but some of the pundits say it could come down to 15, 10, maybe even 5 votes. a razor slim margin when you are looking at what could happen as a decisive move in the country's future, dara. >> steve, we know that teresa may tried to get this done. what are the chances that this will pass? >> so there's a number of ways this could shake out today. it is funny you mention theresa may because maybe 89 to 95% of what is in johnson's current proposal is exactly the same as what theresa may was proposing, protections for british citizens abroad in eu countries and vice versa, the billions that the uk would have to pay out to the eu as part of basically this

divorce proceedings. one thing that is different is what is happening in northern ireland. northern ireland will remain in sort of the umbrella of the eu's customs union as opposed to the uk also being a part of that at large. that is one difference. obviously everybody wants to avoid a hard border between the two irelands, the ireland to the south and northern ireland which is in the uk. that is a huge part of why there has been all of this back and forth. but essentially, other than that these are very much the same proposals of theresa may. as you remember, her proposal was turned down three times in parliament. boris johnson says that he thinks he has what it takes for this to pass. he wanted a charm offensive for about 24 hours, the entire day yesterday. some of the party members we have seen in line with the votes have been breaking ranks. so, again, a razor slim margin coming into today, dara.

>> steve, you mentioned there's a protest planned for today. can you tell us about that? when is it supposed to begin? >> yes. so i mean protesters have already started to show up. as we've seen with these events, you know, going on for now years, a lot of people in central come out. we expect millions to kind of consume this area, but they've been mostly peaceful protests. you see a lot of clever and cheeky signs. you see a lot of demonstrations which are peaceful, a lot of silent protesting, a lot of people that are kind of getting mora more animated but we haven't seen anything that has led to violence or to a situation where police need to really get involved, although we expect this area to be flooded and littered with people against brexit and what johnson is proposing. >> steve, what do the polls say about public sentiment for brexit? are most people for it or against it? >> i think that's a question that sort of depends on where you are as to most things with

this sort of brexit battle we've been seeing going on for years now. if you are in central london, i think you will find more people are against a hard brexit whereas you go to maybe more of the out skirts, to the towns more in support, and you find people that are more strongly for a harder brexit. it just kind of depends on what community you are. as we've seen just with people here in central london, many are coming out against what is being proposed here, dara. >> steve patterson, thank you so much. we will keep you posted on these latest developments. we will have another live report at the top of the hour. when the vote happens we will bring you the results immediately. i'm dara brown. now we take you back to "dateline." >> -- against darren who gave police two entirely different accounts of the morning of the murder. >> first he said sandra came by to get the kids, then a minute later said she didn't. now, remember darren and sandra

were going through a divorce and a heated child custody battle. so darren apparently thought it would be a good idea to take note of run-ins with sandra like the time she was late in picking up the boys, hoping it would one day help him in court. >> you know, going through the calendar, what i found really interesting is that it is pretty detailed from january 1st, every day all the way up until the 24th is the very last entry, and on the 25th we've got nothing. >> why is that important? because sandra was murdered that very morning, the morning of the 25th, about the time when she would have been picking up her sons. >> you would expect darren to have wrote down in there that sandra never showed up to pick up the boys, that he had to take off from work. >> but he didn't. nor did he call her to find out why she was a no-show.

he theorized sandra actually did go to darren's house to get the boys but there was an argument of some sort and she left without them. darren, still angry, followed her home, parking his struck on a street behind sandra's cul-de-sac. >> this path, you know, basically leads to the cul-de-sac and her house is just three houses down right when you come to tend of this walkway. very, very close, easy access. >> so you think that darren came up, followed her, had the confrontation there, killed her with a ligature, choked her to death. then what did he do? >> you know, i think after the -- the incident happened over here, he went back where he came and just took off and headed back home. >> and nobody saw him? >> you know, it was -- it was still dark. >> he also found this e-mail sandra sent her lawyer just three weeks before her murder. darren started asking me about my "boyfriend" as he calls him, ryan.

he got really upset and started swearing at me. he started shaking me, telling me to tell him the truth and don't ever call him again. he worked the investigation for close to a year, and as he weighed and reweighed the evidence he always came back to darren, who lacked an alibi, who called in sick to work, who gave conflicting accounts about the morning of the murder, who left blank the diary entry for the 25th, who failed a polygraph, who was jealous of ryan, who never called sandy to find out why she didn't pick up the boys. he delivered his final report to chief perry and the prosecutor and a handful of fellow investigators. >> we all believed it was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the case was not going to get any better than what we had. >> and prosecutor asari finally agreed to present the case to a grand jury, and in october 2012

the grand jury indicted darren for sandra's murder. so was larry's quest for justice finally over? oern oh, no, not by a long shot. >> coming up -- >> this case is a textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives. >> a new prosecutor, a new delay. >> kauai is a murderer's paradise. if you want to kill somebody, you've got probably an 80%, 90% chance of getting away with it. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues from 12 countries, over 10 years. olay's hydration was unbeaten every time. olay, face anything. ♪ ♪ only activia is packed with billions of our live and active probiotics. make the most of this holiday season by supporting your gut health.

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released on bail. six-and-a-half months later on may 15th, 2013, sandra's dad larry and mom toshie held this service outside kauai's center. darren stayed away as did sandra's two sons. >> as most of you know today is sandy's birthday. this is why it is a very, very special day for us. mahalo. >> at this point larry and toshie thought they were in the home stretch, that darren's trial was just months away. but the prosecuting attorney who indicted darren lost her bid for reelection, defeated by this man, justin kollar, who flat-out accused his predecessor of

bringing charges against darren to make a splash and help her chances of reelection though the case, he said, wasn't ready for trial. >> this case is the textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives. >> gotcha. >> and into their families. >> so now larry's quest for justice was mired in the political battle. with the new prosecutor saying he couldn't proceed because the alternate suspect, ryan shinjo, had never been completely eliminated. >> if you have cases where you have multiple suspects and you're going to charge one of those suspects, you better be sure you have excluded the other suspect. >> the former prosecutor iseri fired back saying the entire investigative team voted to seek an indictment. >> the team decided unanimously. it wasn't shailene's decision. it was the team's decision. i definitely feel that there was more than overwhelming evidence

to convict mr. galas. >> you could have gotten that conviction? >> oh, i definitely believe so. >> she's dreaming, said kollar, she never would have won. so kollar reopened the investigation again and delayed the trial again while his office tried to strengthen the case, and the result was one trial delay after another. and three years later, 2015 now, larry was one furious 74-year-old man. >> kauai is a murderer's paradise. if you want to kill somebody, come to kauai and you've got probably about an 80%, 90% chance of getting away with it, and i firmly believe that. >> there was never any point during this process where the file was just sitting on a shelf getting dusty. there's always something that was being done, another piece of evidence that was being tested, another witness that was being looked for.

>> but you must have been ready to let it go at some point, said, we can't do this, just forget about it. >> that conversation happened any number of times over the years, but at each time we said no, there's got to be a way to move this forward. >> it was larry's kind of constant input, part of the thing that kept you going here? >> of course. i mean none of us wanted to get that call saying, hey, larry's -- larry wants to see you right away and he's not happy. >> when we spoke to larry in 2015 darren's trial was on the calendar for march of the following year, and the odds larry gave of that happening? >> i would say probably a little better than 50/50. >> but even that was optimistic. the trial was delayed again until november 2016, but has trial date approached the defense requested another delay and the judge granted it. the case was continued to august

2017. and as that date approached, we looked back on what larry said to us in 2015. >> some day this is going to end, you know, one way or another, and maybe i can rest a little bit. >> early in the morning of the 14th of february, 2017, larry mendonca, age 75, went out to play a round of golf. wasn't feeling well. called his son, lawrence, in texas. >> and told me he was having a heart attack and he was going to the emergency room. >> what was that like? >> it was pretty intense, but being as stubborn as my dad is, don't worry about it, i will be fine, they're just going to put a stint in me, i will be fine. i don't think he knew the magnitude of the situation at the time. >> coming up, a father fights for his life. >> to see him in that hospital bed was tough, very tough. >> what will happen to his fight for justice? >> it is all about what you can prove in a court of law. >> when "dateline" continues.

so the whole world looks different. >> it is all about what you can prove in a court of law. >> when "dateline" continues. prove in a court of law. >> when "datel-when "dateline" . . . s s what pain?

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welcome back, for more than a deck, larry history endosa had waged a relentless battle to get his daughter's killer get put behind daughter. he believes her husband strangled her. after a years long investigation, prosecutors agreed. and yet darren remained free on bail. larry was free from giving up his crusade. but the endless frustration was taking its toll. with a father who fought so hard

for justice, would a father who fought so hard for justice live to see it. here's clife morrison with the conclusion. >> harry didn't contemplate what happened to him, when he played a round of golf, it was only after a doctor intervened, heart attack, quintuple bypass surgery and then a stroke. >> it was difficult for me to see how vulnerable he was at that time. because he always seemed like the man -- >> superman to myself and my sister and to see him in that situation in that hospital bed, it was tough. very tough. >> it was shear cussedness probably that pulled him back from the brink. >> my card, my cardio, said probably from years of stress. >> they tried to built up

strength for the trial, scheduled for the summer of 2017. but it was delayed yet again and darren during all this time, out and about, this time, we found him at son austin's soccer game. that's him wearing the black t-shirt, gold chain, and wrap-around sunglasses. and in the blue shirt, his wife. >> larry and his wife were there at the soccer game, too. always there. and what larry felt in his chest was more wage than physical pain. >> some day, i might lose it all. i really don't know what i'm going to do. you never know until it happens. >> then, late 2017, a break through. the prosecutor felt his investigators had finally and fully eliminated ryan as a suspect. which now only left darren in their sights. >> we had done some work over the years that had made the case somewhat better. maybe darren looked himself in the mirror and said i know i did

it, i don't know. but they said we'll plead. >> but plead guilty to murder? no. darren agreed to plead no contest to assault. >> you had a murder case here. no contest to assault sounds like not very bad. >> well, we may think we have a murder case, we may know that he did it, but it's all about what you can prove in a court of law. >> and on january 29, 2018, 12 years after sandra's murder, we were with larry outside the courthouse, just an hour before the plea hearing, and as you might have guessed, he wasn't happy. >> there's no justice. >> what are the chances that everything could fall apart over there this morning? >> there's a possibility. he can, i'm told he can change his mind at any given time. up to the time he is sentenced.

but what happens here? >> drawing your attention to the no contest plea form -- >> as darren formally changed his plea from not guilty to murder two to no contest to assault one was not final resolution but more delay. the court granted darren four more months of freedom before sentencing. and larry, well -- >> i'm very mad. i'm very upset. >> there was once a time, right after sandra's murder where they were hoping to raise sandra's boys. >> he has been working on them for 12 years. he has been brain washing them. they hate their mother. they hate their grandparents. >> as they left court, darren was protected by relatives which included the two grandsons. darren declined to speak us with but his defense lawyer michael green did stop to talk. >> there is a big contest

between plead nothing contest and pleading guilty. >> it would certainly suggest he did something to her. >> he assaulted her. >> no contest says he neither admits nor denies the charges. >> now for four months, uncertainty because the judge had the power to sentence darren for anything from ten years in prison to probation. >> what i foresee, at sentencing, they are going to ask for leniency. >> do you think he could actually avoid going to prison all together? >> at this point, i wouldn't put anything past them. >> on may 30, 2018, we were back outside the courthouse, with larry, and this time, he was the one surrounded by supporters. a 12-year investigation, now reduced to just an hour in court, that felt as stressful and tense as any jury trial, and would darren be carted off to prison or would the judge give him probation and send him home?

>> darren's lawyer michael green reminded the judge there had been an alternate suspect. >> this guy sends you, who was a person of interest the entire time -- >> then he told the judge to remember, this was not a murder case. >> there's an agreement that my client will plead guilty to nothing. nothing. he's offered to plead no contest. to an assault charge. >> and then larry got his chance, finally, to let 12 years of pain pour out, starting with that first awful night when he broke the news. >> what do you tell a woman that the baby she had once nursed, fallen asleep in her arms, played on her lap, skipped off to school with the lunch she had made for her, was now dead? we received a life sentence. full of pain, sorrow, agony, and

frustration. a life sentence with no parole. eternity. >> darren stowcally sat through it all, and then, what sentence would the judge impose? she began by quoting darren's attorney. >> that is that he pled no contest to the charge of assault in the first degree. that's what this sentence is about. >> larry's stomach started to tighten. >> and my lawyer reached over and said this doesn't sound good. >> and then, six minutes into her ruling, finally, here it was. you are hereby committed to the custody of the director of the public safety for imprisonment for a period of ten years. >> ten years. the maximum she could impose. and with that the family's 12-year quest for justice came to an end. >> it was my great thing that i promised to my daughter and her

children. >> larry follows a series of rituals on the anniversary of sandra's death. they bring flowers to her memorial outside the ywca, have lunch at the beachhouse restaurant where sandra once worked, and they prayed by her graveside, at holy cross cemetery, where she is surrounded by her ancestors. sandra, so homesick when away from this island she lived, is now forever a part of it. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc headquarters. 6:00 in the east. 3:00 out west. here is what is happening. growing divide.

the president and his party increasingly at odds as a whirlwind week on the hill brings new evidence for democrats and a full slate of officials set to testify. plus, from a bombshell admission, to a backtrack, the damage to the trump administration's defense after mick mulvaney broke with the president's story and how he may have put himself in the cross-hairs of the impeachment inquiry. >> strategic nightmare. a strong rebuke from the number one republican in the senate, to the president's serious strategy.