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>> i did not shoot my mom and i would never shoot my mom. >> two trials. >> every emotion hit. >> two verdicts. >> there were only two people who knew what happened that day. one of them's dead and the other one is sitting in that chair. >> too much to bear. >> it's just been a hell on earth. >> hello and welcome to dateline. bill and shirley carter built a comfortable life and raised a family. as their golden years approached the couple fell into a routine. daily coffee, working the fields and spending time with the grandkids. but one morning gunshots rang out leaving shirley dead and planting the seeds of a mystery that would turn one family member against another. here's dennis murphy with "the farm."

>> council bluffs, iowa. in a small courtroom the new and final scene of a four-yearlong drama was playing out. >> count one murder in the first degree the defendant did with malice aforethought with premeditation kill shirley carter. >> it's a case that ripped the stitches out of a close-knit family. >> shattering ribs and perching holes through her long and heart. >> shirley carter shot twice with a deer rifle in the cornfields she shared with her husband of 50 years, bill carter. in pleasantville, iowa, planting

the seed and then ringing in the harvet, corn and soy mostly. so that june morning in 2015 dawned with no particular omens. they started their day as they always did with coffee at the general store. >> they went to coffee every morning to casey's. that was a ritual. >> after coffee bill dropped off shirley at the top of the driveway. >> i let her out of the pickup and she said i think i'll finish my coffee before i chore. and i said, honey, i'll see you between 11:00 and 11:30. >> you never know do you, bill? >> you don't know. >> bill headed off to sell corn at a granary. by 11:00 a.m. he remembers being just a few miles from home when he got a call from his daughter.

>> and she said, dad, mom's dead. jason found her. >> jason, bill's son had called 911. this is what he said. >> my mom -- my mom is laying here on the floor. there's blood everywhere and she's dead and i don't know what happened. >> bill got to the house, ran from his truck passing son jason on the back deck. >> i went in and there she lay. she looked like she was asleep. >> not long after marion county sheriff jason arrived at the farmhouse. did you get into the house itself? >> i did. >> and there you are saying what happened here? >> correct. and who would have a desire to kill a lady in rural iowa? >> the sheriff called for help.

he works for a division of the state police, the department of criminal investigation, the dci. this was his first case in pleasantville, about an hour away from des moines. >> there were multiple vehicles in the driveway, law enforcement on the scene and the family is gathering around the big tree. >> does any of the arriving officers tell you that's the husband or that's the son? >> it was apparent to me these are family member and i don't know names yet. >> as soon as he got a search warrant agent ludwick entered the house with crime scene techs. it looks as though someone had ransacked the place but there sitting on a chair -- >> you first see this purse. it's untouched. >> money in it? >> money in it, cash in it, credit cards in it, gift cards in it. was not touched. >> some papers were strewn

about. >> that's it. her jewelry box was untouched. >> shurlly's bodies was lying right here on the kitchen floor. we know the gun was in this area and shirley was standing in the middle of the kitchen. >> the first bullet went through shirley's body and pierced the refrigerator. they thought the weapon was a high powered gun, perhaps a rifle. >> held from the hip. we know shirley would have fallen on the kitchen floor and the shooter would have moved up towards and then fired a shot like this. >> a coup de grace shot to surely's chest. >> she was in a casket like position. her arms were crossed. >> as though the funeral director had posed her for viewing. >> yes, and that's not normal. >> there were still tests to be

done, interviews to conduct, but it was coming, coming with the relentless fury of an iowa summer twister. no stopping it. a family was about to be destroyed. >> the investigation starts with a closer look at the family which didn't make the family very happy. coming up -- >> they are upset that we are wasting time. >> but police have their reasons. the murder weapon may have belonged to someone within the family. >> so the question is where is this 270 remington. >> that's correct. >> when dateline continues. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years.

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in iowa cornfields a warm sun was beating down on the farmhouse where a murder investigation was under way. shirley carter is lying dead shot ipher kitchen. the sheriff and his team of investigators were trying to figure out what had happened. when your crime scene techs cleared the house they really didn't have much for you, did they? >> they did not. >> no forensic wheres no blood, no dna, nobody walked in front of a security camera. >> right. >> so they'd have to learn more about her life, a back story to a murder. turned out she was a local girl. her dad a grocer, her mother an assistant at a law office. in high school she met bill. where'd you go on your first

date? >> i took her to the homecoming dance. she was quiet, prettiest thing you'd ever seen. >> as bill tells it they were kids in love, deeply maybe carelessly. during her sophomore year shirley got pregnant. >> we were married at a very young age. i was 18 -- i had just turned 18 and she was 16. >> soon daughter janna was born and then came billy. 8 years later jason completed the family. with three kids to raise bill and shirley went into farming on a small plot of starter land they grew some corn and then plowed the profits into more prime iowa acreage. shirley loved farming. >> she did everything. >> she just took to it, huh? >> she was a natural. >> she loved being in the tractors. >> long time friend and neighbor irene schultz says shirley brought a little pizzazz to the fields when she climbed into her custom made tractor. >> she always put a little bit of make-up on every morning

before she went on. >> up on the john deer she's decked out? >> she had rosy cheeks. she was beautiful inside and out. >> in time daughter janna married and moved away to a job in des moines. son billy went into the heating and air-conditioning business. but jason the youngest child took to the land. >> i really enjoyed working with him. i was teaching him. he is a good farmer. >> jason would carry on the farming tradition for another generation. and best of all he and his wife shelly lived close by. bill and shirley soon had grandchildren to dote on. a happy family picture suddenly disfigured by the ugly murder of shirley carter. the dci mark ludwick took the lead for the investigation. >> first of all we want to identify all witnesses, we want to separate them and we want to conduct a face-to-face sit down interview as soon as we can. >> early on the most important

witnesses were bill, the husband, and jason, the son. ludwick assigned deputies to take the two down to pleasantville pd. >> and she said do you want a cookie, coffee? >> in an interview room bill told investigators the same story he told us, he he took shirley home and raced home to find his wife still on the floor. >> when i went in and i felt her she was cold. >> jason in turn said his day started pretty much the same. he'd also taken a load of corn to that same granary. >> i went back down the drive and headed down to eddyfield. >> later in the morning she said he went to his parent's house to help with some chores and then discovered his mother. >> she wasn't alive. it was terrible. >> with their accounts on the record deputies sent bill and jason home that night. the farmhouse was still taped off as a crime scene so bill

stayed at jason's place. >> and i didn't sleep that night. i smoked cigarettes and i walked that deck. >> in the meantime crime techs had finished with the scene and deputies had seized half a dozen guns they found in the house. jason took a look at the inventory of weapons they'd confiscate asked he noticed one gun was miss wrg, a high powered remington 270 rifle like this one. how did the weapon come to you? >> my oldest son bought it for me in 2005 for christmas. >> bill kept the rifle in a gun safe in the basement. >> so the question is where is this 270 remington and is that a murder weapon? >> that's correct. >> the crime scene investigators had examined the two slugs they collected. and it could be ammo used in a .270 remington. certainly consistent with being rounds fired from that type of weapon. >> that's correct.

>> bill stored that rifle unloaded deep in his basement. the killered with have gotten lucky finding the gun or the ammo. or investigators thought maybe the shooter was someone who knew where that gun was, maybe someone in the family. that didn't go over well with the carters. >> we go over to the crime scene and the family is matd. >> jason, his wife shelly, bill and daughtera janna all gathered in the living room. >> and janna and bill let us have it. they are upset that we are wasting time on this investigation. we were screwing up the investigation because we were looking at family members. >> bill and his daughter were right about one thing, they were now focusing on the family. >> coming up -- >> i think we found out that jason carter is having an affair. >> if jason was hiding an affair, was he hiding anything else? >> i never hurt my mom. if you want to hold those affairs against me that's fine. but i never hurt -- i never hurt my mom. >> when dateline continues. no matter where you are, xfinity mobile gives you

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welcome back. did someone close to shirley carter want her dead? a rifle missing from her husband's bill's gun safe led investigators to believe her killer knew where bill stored his weapons. surely's loved one was were under scrutiny and soon detectives would discover that someone in the carter clan had plenty to hide.

continuing with our story here's dennis murphy with "the farm." >> shirley the farm wife and mother had been gunned down in her kitchen and it was no obvious explanation for the crime. as investigators began digging into the karlter family background, though, they came across a detail that became the focus of investigation. >> we found out jason carter was having an affair. >> how had you find that out? >> a friend during the interviews. >> so who's this girlfriend? >> we locate her, we bring her in and we determine there's another phone in play. >> another phone? >> a phone they just had. >> it lovers had, what they call burner phones, off the book. >> burner phones, we call it the sixing phone. >> he kept it stashed away hidden under the hood of his

pickup truck. jason not only didn't mention the affair in his first interview, he also never told investigators about that secret phone. does it change him where he stands in your suspects? >> absolutely. he gets elevated at that point. >> if jason had tried to hide the affair agent ludwick wondered if jason was hiding anything else about his mother's murder. the investigator called jason and told him he knew about the affair and the phone. >> so he says i will meet you at the sheriff's office. he's there and he hands the cellphone over. >> say here you go, knock yourself out, huh? >> yep. >> then surprise, jason wanted to talk some more. >> comes in on his own free will, no attorney. >> in this video investigators went over his story again in detail, the time line of that morning. >> how long from 911 phone call to your dad got there? >> 11 minutes. >> jason was bent on letting them know he had nothing to hide

no matter how long it took. bring on your questions. >> and he sits in a chair and he proceeds to sit in this chair for over 10 hours. >> let's do this. let's step out. we're going to give you a minute. >> i'm fine. >> doesn't shift, doesn't move, doesn't stand up. >> no bathroom breaks, no nothing? >> we begged him to take bathroom breaks. we begged him to bring him food. >> you need anything else? >> what's that about? >> he's going to stay here until we believe him. >> he admitted to being unfaithful but said it was ludicrous to think he killed his mother. >> i never hurt my mom. if you want to hold those affairs against me that's fine, but i never -- >> this isn't about the affair. >> i never hurt my mom. i walked in and found my mom the way she was. >> this is about shirley being killed. >> i know that and you're not doing anything about it because whoever did kill her is still out there. >> he headed home but a cloud of

suspicion hung over the carter family not only over jason but will, too. bill knew agent ludwick was look at him since he was the last person known to have seen shirley alive. >> and he said, you know, you could have done this when you brought her back from coffee. >> then for weeks nothing happened. >> we have no leads. nothing's going on in the investigation. >> so the shirley carter murder case was heading to the cold case file? >> it was headed that way, yes. >> but bill carter wasn't going to let that happen. he hired his own detective. nick is a crime scene analyst and a former homicide detective from texas. bill instructed him to dig into the case with an open mind. >> if it's the good, the bad, the ugis it all going to be in your final report? >> we are only advocates for the truth. >> to aide in his investigation he purchased a rifle similar to

the one missing from bill's basement. at least one of those shots would have flown out as the killer racked another round in the chamber to shoot shirley twice. >> it was never found. >> so someone had the presence of mind to gather it up. >> that's correct. >> and since webb had to look at every possibility he examined bill's day the day of the killing. by 9:00 a.m. bill was spotted at the granary 50 miles from the house. webb said bill's only opportunity to kill her was after that. >> bill has to leave the granary, has to get home, kill his wife, shirley, and then leave before jason can get there. >> is it impossible for bill to do all this to-ing and fro-ing in the time allow snd. >> it would certainly be a tight time line. >> squeaky to get it done, huh? >> certainly. >> then the private analyst looked at jason's time line. >> he already puts himself

there, so jason simply has to commit the murder instead of doing the other task he said he did. >> is it your belief jason shot his mother? >> yes. >> painful as it was bill had been suspicious of his son early on and remembers a moment it all became clear. not long after the murder, bill says, jason found out he was going to visit his lawyer. >> he came barging through the door and he said what are you going to go see your lawyer about? and i said i just need to get some things straightened out. there's some things that don't add up, and that's when he slammed his fist on the counter top, and he said my life is over. >> his life, jason's life. >> his life is over. i knew then he had done it. >> it was a shocking realization. >> you're telling me your boy became a monster. >> he did, he did. i'm ashamed. >> you shouldn't be ashamed. you did everything you could for

the boy. >> i didn't do something right. shurlly a shirley and i did something wrong. >> bill carter tired of waiting for the prosecutor. he the father would take the almost unprecedented step of bringing his son before a civil jury. >> my attorney said, you know, we can file a wrongful death suit, and that will force the county attorney to make a move. >> bill was about to sue his son for shirley's death. if the jury ruled for the father, jason wouldn't face prison but something like financial ruin. >> coming up -- >> plaintiffs call jason carter. >> father against son. >> you became a practiced, skilled and chronic liar. >> son against father. >> the killer, shirley carter is not in this room but it's not jason carter.

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hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. nbc news is projecting a big win for former vooiice president jo biden in south carolina. he has a narrow lead of 30 points over bernie sanders. this will be biden's first primary win. and he have learned of the first reported death of coronavirus in the united states. the pagts died in kirkland, washington. governor jay inslee has declared a state of emergency there. now back to dateline. welcome back to dateline. i'm natalie morales. 68-year-old shirley carter was shot dead in their kitchen and her husband bill was convinced their youngest son jason was the trigger man. eddy for just bill readied a

civil lawsuit against his own flesh and blood. at trial jason's cheating would take center stage and a jury would decide if its discovery drove him to kill. once again here's dennis murphy with "the farm." >> on a december day in 2017 2 1/2 years after shirley carter's murder in this courthouse in knoxville, iowa, father faced off against son. >> there is not a more important courtroom in this estate than this courtroom right now. >> bill carter's lawyer mark weinhardt opened by telling the jury the person wanted shirley dead. >> that's the killer right there, jason carter. >> it started like a murder case but remember this was a civil trial, a wrongful death lawsuit. the father of the plaintiff, his son the defendant.

the burden of proof is much lower than it would be in a criminal trial. >> the plaintiff only has to prove the defendant liable by a preponderance of the evidence. in other words, 51% likely that you're right. >> bill carter's lawyer played jason's 911 call. he argued jason stated something about the time of death he couldn't possibly have known. >> it looks like she's been laying here for two hour. >> you hear him say his mother has been dead for two hours which medically is absolutely not the fact based on what we know about the condition of the body, but also why would he be saying that other than to already create the narrative, hey, it wasn't me. >> then bill's lawyer attacked jason's character to show the jury he wasn't a devoted family man. jason's other woman took the stand. her name terra hope. she was questioned by another of bill's attorneys. >> you could hear a pin drop in

that courtroom. >> tara recounted her 15-month affair with the married jason carter. >> how frequently were you guys having sex? >> on average it would be several times a week. >> did you ever tell mr. carter you loved him? i did. >> did he every reciprocate and tell you he loved you. >> he did. >> do you recall what your last text message from mr. carter was? >> it was something sexual. >> he said the conversation ended only as jason started texting as he pulled up to his parent's house. >> text, text, text until 10:50 a.m. at which point the text traffic goes dark. >> quiet for 13 minutes until jason made a phone call to his sister telling her their mother was dead. he argued that was more than enough time to kill his mother

and stage a robbery. then came the moment so many had been waiting for. jason the favorite son in his own words telling the jury about seeing his mother dead. >> i couldn't believe that i found her. >> weinhardt confronted jason about the affair. >> you did it in a friend's residence, in cars, even in your own house? >> correct. >> you became a practiced, skilled and chronic liar? >> correct. >> now bill's lawyer tried to prove motive. it was he argued about money. the jury was told jason was a spendthrift. >> he puts money into nice motorcycles and trips and vacations. >> at the same time jason was expanding his farm operation. >> he was as broke as he'd ever

been. he had $40 in his personal bank account, $80 in his business bank account. >> jason saw only one way out, getting control of his parent's farmland worth millions. jason knew he stood to inherit all of it. >> my dad said that shelly and i and our kids will inherit the ground and that your sister and brother will inherit everything above ground. >> the lawyer mapped out his theory. shirley had found out about jason's affair, and if shirley knew then bill soon would know, too. jason worried he'd be disinherited. he had to stop his mother before she disclosed his illicit romance. >> i want you to look at the jury and tell them the truth. you shot your mother to death. >> absolutely not. >> the jury listened for seven days to the plaintiff's case. and then came the defense. >> jason had a loving, close relationship with his mother.

>> jason carter's lawyer challenged the accusation that jas jason in his 911 call was trying to push back the time of shirley's death two hours. >> this is all happening within a matter of minutes. jason was simply so distraught and to say you should have done this and that i think is just ridiculous. >> as for jason's affair he told the jury it was irrelevant, a salacious distraction and of course jason lied about it to preserve his family. >> if you want to characterize him as a bad guy for carrying on an affair, fine. but that doesn't make the man a killer. >> jason's wife shelly told the jury despite everything she still supported her husband. >> every day i work on forgiving but never forgetting.

i love my husband, and we have reconciled. >> as for the motive wandrow argued sis jason didn't have one. she said that was business as usual for farmers. >> we paid that off just like we paid it off every year so we could renew our line and start again. >> and then he offered an alternative theory of the case. >> he's right. the killer of shirley carter is in this room. and it's not jason carter. it's him. the accuser. >> bill carter he said was the likely killer. shirley, he argued, complained about him all the time. >> she had to get permission for everything. >> jason's wife testified that shirley told her bill was too

controlling. >> whether it be to go get her hair, make a hair appointment or to help with the kids, whatever it was she had to get his permission before she could do that. >> wandrow said it all must have come to a head on june morning. >> and something happened on that friday that made him snap, and he is the one that killed his wife. >> after two weeks of trial and mutual accusations, the battle between father and son went to the jury. >> the court will now read the verdict. >> it took a little over two hours to answer the question. did jason carter cause the death of his mother? >> did defendant jason carter batter shirley carter causing damages to plaintiffs? answer, yes. >> jason had been found liable for the death of his mother. the jury cleared bill. >> it had to come sooner or

later it had to come. >> since this was a civil case jason wasn't getting any prison time. >> what amount of punitive damages if any do you award the estate of shirley carter? answer, $10 million. >> $10 million. bill and his lawyer never expected to see a dime. >> the more important thing for bill was simply to have eight people from that county hearing all the evidence and saying jason did it. >> meanwhile the county district attorney ed bull sitting in the back of the courtroom had been watching closely. what would he do now? >> coming up -- the fates were not quite through with the carter family. >> i got right into his face and i said why did you kill your mother? >> there would soon be an act 2. >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> when dateline continues.

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with a civil case decided against jason carter finding him liable for it death of his mother the district attorney decided it was time to act. less than 48 hours after that civil verdict agent ludwick and sheriffs deputies arrested jason carter for the murder of his mother. >> i got right into his face. and i said why did you kill your

mother. >> but you didn't get anything. >> didn't get anything. stonefaced cold. >> jason carter would be brought back into court this time accused of first degree murder. if convicted he could face life in prison. agent mark ludwick had been convinced of jason's guilt ever since that initial interrogation a few days after the murder. >> i'll tell you the truth, the god-awful truth. >> you're not telling me the truth, jason. >> yes, i am. >> that day jason agreed to take a polygraph exam. >> regarding the death of your mom do you intend to answer each question truthfully? >> yes. >> did you physically hurt your mom last friday. >> he fell. >> by a huge margin. >> not evidence but guidance for you, right? >> strong guidance, yes. >> in march 2019 the curtain came up on the criminal trial. it was first degree murder and jason carter pleaded not guilty. as much as he wanted his son to

face justice bill carter knew there would be no winners. >> i knew there wouldn't be a good outcome. >> why do you say that? >> if my son's guilty of first degree murder, that's not a good outcome. >> so that's a bad choice. >> you'll hear prosecutors talk about motive, means and opportunity. well, means, she said she was in the home, there was ammunition. opportunity. so let's talk about motive. >> district attorney ed bull was telling a jury in council bluffs, iowa, jason was stressed over his finances the day he killed his mother. >> this case isn't about money. it's about pressure. it's about am i going to be able to be a full time farmer? >> this time around the burden of proof would be higher, beyond a reasonable doubt. and that's what prosecutors challenged without that rock solid csi-style evidence that

juries love. >> i want three things in a homicide case. i want forensics, i want a confession and i want an eyewitness. in this case i had none of those things. >> ed bull would pretty much follow the map of the civil trial but the jury wasn't allowed to know about the civil case or its outcome, and bull's hands would also be tied by the judge's ruling that the jury wouldn't be allowed to hear about jason's affair or the steamy texts on his secret phone and that jason had lied about all of that at first. tara hope, the girlfriend took the stand but only to it testify to the gap in jason's time line and to the abrupt end of their conversation. >> was your conversation this morning without telling us any of the details such that you expected it was at a logical stopping point? >> no. >> as to motive in his oeng the da had mentioned the financial pressure on jason but in the end he found it hard to explain why jason would have shot shurlly in cold blood.

>> there's absolutely nothing i can tell you that would make sense of why it is a son shoots and kill his mother. >> now it was time for the defense. jason carter's attorney christine brandstead had a clear message for the jury. a shoddy investigation focused on jason early and never looked anywhere else, and there were plenty of people to question. >> very, very significant parts of this investigation simply weren't completed. weren't followed, weren't done. >> so war room, christine. what is the biggest thing you have going in your favor in this thing? >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> as in the civil case the defense attorney argued jason had a loving relationship with his mother and that his allegedly incriminating how did he know that statements were taken out of context. and by the way, he wasn't in any financial trouble. >> there was a $3,000 check deposited that day and another check for $3,000 in the mail and

$175,000 worth of grain in the bins. >> and as to the abrupt ending to jason's texting with his his mother on the day of the murder the defense attorney second degree the girlfriend on the stand. >> did you perceive in any way that jason carter was troubled on the morning of june 19th? >> no. >> then there was the time line of that morning to deal with. all along based on statements of first responders and crime scene techs it was estimated surely had been murdered some time just before 11:00 a.m. when jason admits he was at the farmhouse. one of the nation's pathologists for hire took the stand. he's been involved in injfk assassination to o. j. simpson. >> were you able to do that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty? >> yes. >> he told the jury that shirley may have been killed two hours

earlier than anyone had thought possible. if he was correct then shirley was murdered around 9:00 a.m. he could not have killed his mother. >> so when the state says to you all clues point to one conclusion, it's all the clues that it tunnel vision law enforcement and one investigator in particular went after. >> the defense attorney said the tunnel visioned investigator was special agent mark ludwick. now he reluctantly became her star witness with brandsteader rumbling about the names of the investigation ludwick fumbled. >> you were not aware of -- >> that's correct, yes. >> not aware of jeremy morrison. >> i did become aware of jason morris. >> that would be jeremy morris.

i think you just said jason. >> yeah, that was my mistake. >> and that was a big part of the point we were trying to make to the jury. >> and while jason's lawyer argued the investigation hadn't been thorough he said the names raised weren't viable specs. >> no credible information. >> would the jury see reasonable doubt or would jason carter be spending the rest of his life in prison? the attorneys would have one more chance to make their case. >> coming up -- the verdict. >> i ask you to return a verdict of not guilty. >> there are only two people who knew what happened that day. one of them's dead and the other one is sitting in that chair. >> when dateline continues. protect your pet with the #1 name in flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years.

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welcome back. at jason carter's murder trial prosecutors knew without forensic evidence a confession or any eyewitnesses they faced an uphill battle. the defense made their case that police had tunnel vision and botched the investigation. the jury was unaware jason had been found liable for his mom's death in a civil trial. with the criminal case now wrapping up the stakes were raised for father and son. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "the farm." >> the case of the state of iowa versus jason karlter was about to go to the jury. >> there's so many holes in this

investigation. there's so much that isn't even explored. >> jason's defense attorney made one last plea. >> and in reality the forensic evidence says jason carter couldn't possibly be guilty. i ask you to return a verdict of not guilty. >> now the county prosecutor argued all the viable leads were followed and the defense was just so much smoke and mirrors. >> and you believe this is a staged burglary, then all of the names and stuff they put up on the board is irrelevant. >> bull told the jury jason just snapped that morning and in a fit of rage had killed his mother. >> there are only two people who knew what happened that day. one of them's dead and the other one's sitting in that chair. find him guilty as charged. it took the jury less than two hours to reach a verdict. about the same duration as the civil jury's deliberation. and remember that jury had found

jason liable for his mother's death so the lead investigator felt good about things. >> we felt this is it and i had that feeling and emotion of he's going to be found guilty. >> ludswick assembled a team to take jason into custody after the verdict. >> ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> jason knew a copviction could send him to prison for life. >> we, the jury find jason carter not guilty. >> not guilty. jason had gotten his life back. >> i just want to go home and see my kids because it's been a long time coming. >> jason was a free man. the district attorney says he gave it his best shot. so you're giving the jury this argument of a moment of rage, but you can't really play that movie for them and explain what it was. it's not a very satisfying thing to say something happened, he went downstairs, got the rifle

and killed his mom. >> i don't disagree with you. i wish there was a better story i could tell but i'm limited based on what the facts are that i can prove to a jury, and that's the best i had. >> but that wasn't good enough for bill carter. >> the worst thing i was afraid of was that shirley would never get justice. and that happened. >> is this case closed? >> yes. we believe that we held the right person accountable, but if new information comes forward we will continue to investigate this. >> that's just what jason carter says he wants. find the killer. he declined an interview with dateline, but his attorney says he realizes some people will still believe that he shot his mother to death. >> jason knows that until someone has conclusively proven to be the murderer some people will still suspect him.

>> the $10 million civil judgment against jason remains in place. he's appealing that verdict. but for now jason is as he's always been a farmer and the cycles don't stop. it's planting season. i imagine seeds are going in the ground, huh? >> that's exactly it. i know he was planting on easter day and jason has had his father out planting at the same time. >> what did he think? >> he said his thought was it just seems wrong. this should have been the time we were both planting, we both quit and we went in for easter dinner together. and it's hard for him to understand how his family ended up split up like this. >> and on his side of that field bill carter watched the son he loved so much work the land just as he taught him. >> i have to farm right across the fence from him. >> can you see him? >> i was from here to that wall from him yesterday.

>> a few feet but an unbridgeable divide when it's a matter of father versus son. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> free meek mill! >> how do you explain why your case has become so important? >> this is the same thing that thousands of minorities are going through. they just don't have anybody to speak on their behalf. >> now they do. >> yeah, now they do. >> rap star, hashtag, symbol, meek mill inspired a movement. >> he's been wronged by the criminal justice system for a decade now. >> we have been conducting criminal justice with a chainsaw. >> in his first post-prison interview, he tells his powerful story.