may god continue to bless the united states of america. this is an msnbc special presentation. washington, d.c. holds more power and influence, than anywhere else in the world. >> d.c. emergency 911. how can i help you? >> i need the police to come quickly. i've just found my wife, dead. >> reporter: and as a homicide prosecutor, i've learned some people will do anything to get a piece of that power, for themselves. >> how does somebody in d.c. get away with that? >> when i received the assignment to prosecute the case involving the murder of viola

draft, i realized this was going to be a challenge, unlike any that i had handled before. >> did you attempt to give her any cpr? >> no. >> not exactly a grieving spouse. >> no. no emotion, whatsoever. >> she's not breathing? >> no. she is clearly dead. >> i'm glenn and i work as a federal prosecutor in washington, d.c. for more than 20 years. i learned that, in the nation's capital, there is no telling where a murder case bmay lead you. >> you may hear on crime shows prosecutors figure out how they're going to prove means, motive, and opportunity. you know, we don't really talk that way. what we really do is find the true story behind every murder and hold the killer accountable, no matter who it is. this is capital crimes. the 911 call came early in the morning of august 12th,

2011. >> d.c. emergency, 911. how can i help you? >> on the line was a man named albrecht who said he had just made a terrible discovery. >> i need the police to come quickly. i just found my wife dead on the bathroom floor. >> okay. she's not breathing. >> no, she is clearly dead. can you please send the police immediately? >> moot's wife, viola draft, was 91 years old when she died. veteran detective, bobby jackson, was one of the first to arrive at the scene. he was part of what the metropolitan police department called the squad. >> they work murders. we investigate deaths in the city other than suicides. >> so, when this gets called in as 91-year-old woman who is dead in her bathroom in georgetown,

what does that sound like to you? >> a natural. >> i start to ask him some questions, basic questions. when is the last time she was seen alive? he gave me the last time that he saw her was around 4:00 p.m., the previous day. >> moot told detective jackson, that after spending the evening with a friend, he came home at around 10:00 p.m. he, also, said he decided to sleep in the basement because of the stifling, august heat. moot told the detective he realized something was wrong when he went upstairs, the next morning, and didn't see his wife. >> the morning newspaper was still on the stoop. he said he thought that was odd because the decedent would come down, get the paper in the morning, and go in and read it. >> he told the police that, when he went to the upstairs bathroom, he saw something horrific. his wife, of 20 years, lying dead on the floor. he said he made the 911 kaucall

immediately after. moot then called viola's daughter, fran, who also lived in georgetown. >> what went through your head? >> i was in shock because i remember leaving the office and telling the receptionist my mother just died. i have to go home. and moot said the police are here. please, come down. >> fran immediately called her son, ethan, and asked him to come over as well. >> i was probably there within five or six minutes of getting the call from my mother. >> what happened when you got there? >> i am trying to sort of make sense of it all because i want to know what's going on. there are people processing the room where she is. so, at that point, i know she's in the bathroom. and it sounds like, she had fallen. >> but, ethan wondered, was his grandmother's death really an accident? or was it tied to a dark, family secret? according to her daughter, connie, viola lived a dramatic life, right up until the end. >> tell me about your mom. >> my mother was a very

accomplished woman. and she always told us, for women, it's nice to be beautiful but that's not enough. you must develop your brain. you must develop your talents. >> viola was born in germany in 1920. she survived the severe hardships of world war ii. dreaming of a life centered on writing and the arts. >> she had actually written a play, at the end of world war ii, that was produced over there. so, she was on her career path, at that time. but she'd met my father during a job interview as an interpreter. and i think that's sort of when sparks flew. >> reporter: in 1947, viola married an american military officer, lieutenant colonel francis draft who was stationed in germany. after his deployment, they settled in nebraska, where viola's daughters, connie and fran, were born. in 1968, the family moved to washington, d.c.'s most exclusive neighborhood.

georgetown. it was the perfect place for her literary and social ambitions. >> she became kind of a player in political circles. >> she was a correspondent for a german newspaper. and she had begun writing a bit on foreign policy. so, she made many friends in the state department. and those were people who would come to dinner in the early days. >> reporter: viola's newspaper articles attracted the attention of an 18-year-old german-exchange student. albrecht moot. after he told her he admired her work, they formed an unlikely friendship, despite their 44-year age difference. >> he would come over to the house and have tea with her, in the afternoons. and my father thought it was all very amusing because this was this fairly young man who spoke with a german accent and he would play the piano. >> reporter: in 1986, after almost 40 years of marriage, her

husband, francis draft, died of cancer. viola was devastated and alone. and moot, now in his 20s, began to fill the void in her life. >> they talked, for hours, every night and had so much in common, being both germans and both interested in politics. and when moot showed this attention, she did revel in it. >> did you know that they were on the path to being married, not with st notwithstanding a 44-year-age difference? >> my sister and i both said to her enjoy or have him as a companion or roommate. that would be fine. but she didn't listen to that, at all. >> viola and albrecht's wedding was a major event. along well wishers was president

george h.w. bush. it was unconventional marriage but both got what they wanted. viola had a companion for her busy life and albrecht had access to some of the most influential people in washington, d.c. two decades later, that unconventional marriage came to an abrupt end with viola draft's sudden death. and as detective jackson examined the house, he found evidence that her death was anything but natural. >> i started documenting the scene. then, i went upstairs. she was laying supine on the bathroom floor and i noticed the bathroom was in disarray. there was makeup on the floor. looked like there was a shade had been pulled off the wall. >> she was cold to the touch. it appeared that rigor mortis had set in. i worked my way up to the head. it looked like she might have

some trauma around her neck and possibly some hemorrhaging in her eyes. >> what is that a sign of, in your experience? >> the brain losing oxygen. you see it most of the time in people that hang themselves. and other times, when somebody chokes you to death. >> the body, the blind torn down, the makeup strewn over, what are your instincts telling you? >> well, something happened. and, right then and there, didn't look natural. i can understand if she had a cardiac arrest, maybe she spilled the makeup. how did the blind get torn down? >> notified me of the suspicious death in georgetown as soon as detective jackson called it in. >> one of the best-kept secrets about being in washington, d.c. is we get to partner up with the metropolitan detectives, virtually, from jump. and i see a well-appointed, upscale, georgetown home. i saw pictures of moot and viola

with general patrias. with coretta scott king. i see a certificate naming him as brigadier general in the army. i see uniforms in his closet. and i am asking myself, who, in the world, is albrecht muth? >> the day after viola's death, he agreed to questioning by detectives. what muth didn't know was they already believed viola had been murdered and he was a prime suspect. >> now, yesterday, can you tell me how you found your wife? and when's the last time you saw her? >> i last saw my wife the afternoon of thursday. >> so when you go -- when you got to the bathroom, what did you see? >> my wife on the floor.

>> did you attempt to give her any cpr? >> no. it was obvious. >> for almost an hour, the detectives listen to muth's story and then they spring their trap. >> medical examiner performed the autopsy today. clearly, the medical examiner's office believes that it is a murder. >> the medical examiner discovered that viola had suffered multiple, severe injuries. she had a fractured neck, fractured ribs, a bruised scalp, and a torn fingernail. the injuries were consistent with a violent struggle. viola's death was ruled a homicide. >> sir, i'm very positive. >> the detectives had deliberately surprised muth with the autopsy results, to see how he would react. >> so, not exactly a grieving spouse. >> no. no emotion, whatsoever.

>> although viola's husband seemed like an obvious suspect, he didn't look all that concerned about being charged. and i began to wonder, what had really been going on inside that upscale, georgetown home? >> when i first caught the case, i had no idea that it was about to consume the next four years of my life, as a prosecutor. t fs of my life, as a prosecutor. and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain! subaru created the share the love event.n years ago, where our new owners could choose a national or hometown charity. and subaru and our retailers would proudly make a donation. but now, in times like these, companies are having a hard choice to make. but subaru is more than a car company. and as charities struggle, we cannot just stand by. which is why we plan to donate over twenty four million dollars, again this year.

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the day after viola draft was murdered, detectives question her husband, albrecht muth. i got my first look at his interrogation, a few days later, and it was unlike anything i had ever seen before. >> the medical examiner performed the autopsy today. the medical examiner's office believes that it is a murder. >> you're kidding.

>> no. >> that's the issue at hand because the only two people that reside in the house is -- is you and her. >> right. and you see -- >> do we have a time of death? >> so he doesn't seem to be asking who could have done this? all he wants to know is the time of death. >> he's trying to get an alibi. >> crime scene investigators found no sign of forced entry at the house. so detectives ask muth how an intruder could have gotten inside. >> so, you're clearly agreeing with us nobody else could have possibly come into the house. >> i can assure you somebody must have -- >> well, but how could they come in if, you know -- >> that's yours to investigate, not mine. >> okay. >> do you have coffee, by any chance? >> ordinarily, when homicide suspects are interrogated by

homicide detectives, they're, you know, denying the crime. they're offering alibis. they're requesting a lawyer. muth requests a cup of coffee. >> i needed to know more about muth and his relationship with viola. her family was happy to share what they knew. >> so, when you first met muth, what kind of an impression did he make? >> it was unusual. he was wearing an eye patch. he was at my mother's house and we came, specifically to meet him. >> wow. it's nice to meet you. what happened to your eye? oh, i was a mercenary in south america. i was involved in very active fighting and i lost my eye. the next time we saw him, he was fine. he wore glasses. he could see. mom said, oh, muth, he's so -- has such an imagination. he's so creative. we just thought he was extremely odd. but, you know, if he was amusing and entertaining to her, okay.

>> viola seemed to relish having her quirky husband by her side at posh, georgetown events. "washington post" reporter, keith alexander, has been reporting on d.c.'s elite-social scene, for over ten years. >> what do you remember about her social circles? like, what she was involved in here, in d.c., and up town in georgetown? >> she was interacting with presidents, right? president bush. she interacted with supreme court justices. and this young man brought energy to her life that she enjoyed. she knew that he was a little eccentric. but she enjoyed the fact that he had this love of life, if you will. >> as we investigated muth's personal history, some bizarre facts came to light. his office files contained correspondence written to and from an aristocrat who turned out to be an elaborate, fake persona, created by muth, himself. >> he said he had inherited the

title from an uncle from india. and he had stationery made. beautiful stationery with it. i don't know. a crest or something. and americans are in love with royalty. we're kind of fascinated by that. so, people in washington love this -- oh, he's a count. we must meet him. we must go to dinner at their house. >> muth set out to acquire some of the power and influence he craved. his first effort was creating a foundation he called the eminent persons group. >> this was an organization that was designed to stem the traffic of weapons to developing nations. which, you know, when you hear about that, that sounds like that might be kind of a good thing to do. >> who wouldn't want to be a member, right? >> who wouldn't want to be a member? and once you get a couple people onboard and you show that you have these people on board, they

become interested. >> muth's group was surprisingly successful. billionaire financier, george soros, contributed money. the group included vips, like former secretary of defense, robert mcthnamara. but keith alexander wasn't surprised that muth was able to pull off such an elaborate deception. >> how does somebody in d.c. get away with that? >> his wife. remember, viola draft is very expected and i think part of that is people respected him, not so much for who he was but who he was with. well, he seems a little eccentric but he's with viola draft. he must be okay. >> over time, the eminent persons group seemed to unravel. muth was skilled at putting things together but he wasn't all that skilled at holding things together. began to sense that he wasn't really what he claimed to be.

and i would come to learn, over the course of the investigation, those people were right. >> i've seen a lot of interrogations, over the years. but watching muth, i could almost see the wheels turning in his head. but, even i was astonished at how brilliantly muth used the system against itself in a bid to escape justice. system againsd to escape justice. wow! what'd you get, ryan? it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! what does it do bud? it customizes our home insurance so we only pay for what we need! and what did you get, mike? i got a bike. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hey kim! with 5% cash back on travel purchased through chase from freedom unlimited, you can now earn even more. book that hotel kim, because you are worth it. i am worth it.

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nothing i'd learned about albrecht muth added up. his wife had been murdered in their home. there was no sign of forced entry, and he didn't have an alibi. yet, he showed no concern at all about being the prime suspect in a homicide. >> do you have coffee by any chance? >> i wanted to be sure we had air-tight evidence before arresting him so we let him walk, after being interviewed by detectives. in the meantime, georgetown was buzzing with rumors about viola draft's death and the fact that a killer was on the loose in their affluent neighborhood. it was a made-for-tv crime, that the local media ate right up. >> did you have anything to do with her death, sir?

>> please, go away. >> did you have anything to do with her death, sir? >> i am closing -- i'm closing the door on you. good-bye. thank you. >> the day after her death, police told viola's family she had been murdered. they were shattered but they had little doubt about who may have done it. >> what was your first thought when you heard this was a homicide? >> then, it all kind of made sense. yeah. i mean, would he be capable of doing something like this? one would want to say no. but, on the other hand, yes, of course. >> they had many fights. it was mostly verbal and she would kick him out of the house and the locks would get changed. and he would disappear, for a few days. >> and then, did there come a time when it did get physical? >> it did. >> ethan got a horrifying call from his grandmother. >> she said something had

happened. she didn't elaborate on the phone. i lived a few blocks away, so i got over as fast as i could. she was upset. there was a chair that had been broken. she had remnants of like food in her hair. she said they were talking. an argument had ensued. it had escalated, quite a bit, resulting in him breaking a chair in an attempt to hit her with it. >> that vicious assault was a turning point. viola kicked him out of the house in georgetown and, for two years, muth disappeared from viola's life. muth later explained he spent those two years assisting u.s. forces fighting in iraq. >> muth had made his way into relationships with certain, u.s. military members. and he would talk about how he was working special operations. he was commanding troops. and he would blast e-mails out to his friends at the pentagon, telling them he was off on a mission in iraq. some people believed him.

of course, he would never put names in those e-mails or the kind of information that folks could use to disprove muth's claims. he was pretty skilled at the art of misdirection. >> in 2008, two years after viola had kicked muth out of her home, she invited fran over for lunch and some unwelcome news. >> i could tell she was feeling me out. how i would feel if she took him back. >> she, ultimately, would sort of back down from that position, and he would be back, without us knowing. >> and she took him back. that's all i can say. >> of course, muth hadn't been in iraq, for those two years. my team later learned he was in florida, working as a motel desk clerk. but, his new persona, a foreign-military adventurer, flourished after viola took him back. >> when muth returned to georgetown from florida, he came

back as brigadier general albrecht muth, of the iraqi army, complete with certificates and military uniforms. he would actually run a ceremony at arlington cemetery, every year, to honor fallen iraqi soldiers. this was a ceremony attended by military dignitaries, and none of them ever seemed to call out muth for being something he wasn't. >> after his return to georgetown, muth's personal behavior took an even darker turn. martin's tavern is a famous watering hole in georgetown. it's a place where, muth, himself, often hung out. jason kaine, lived, for a while, as a border in albrecht's home. he saw their relationship, up close, and witness the just how

dangerous muth became with just the slightest provocation. >> this is where i learned that -- that when he started drinking, his demeanor would change and he would get more animated and angry. >> so, what did you see, particularly, between he and viola? >> he would start getting sloppier. you know, just -- he always wanted to have a very controlled environment. his interactions with viola, when he was drinking, would be very argumentative. >> viola's family, also, said that muth became a different person when he was drinking. >> it's like jekyll and hyde. i mean, belligerent's the best word for it. instantly, he's bumping into people, knock things over. slurred speech. just completely at a loss. for someone who acted in such a regimented fashion, this would like completely unravel him. >> viola's death seemed to confirm ethan's worst fears about muth's violent temper. >> did you have any concern that

maybe they are looking at this as sort of a natural death? >> it did. it was in the back of my mind, knowing their history, that at least had to be put out in the light. >> as soon as he arrived at the crime scene, ethan made sure detective jackson knew muth had a history of abusing viola. >> ethan comes running over, and says that there was some type of domestic between the two of them. >> i wanted to make sure that he was aware there had been a couple instances where, you know, restraining orders had been put into play. that she had felt threatened by him, you know, more than once. >> muth's history of domestic violence against viola was the final piece of the probable-cause puzzle. four days after viola's death, i met with the homicide detectives. we decided we had enough to apply for an arrest warrant for albrecht muth. >> what became pretty important are those prior acts of domestic violence that muth perpetrated

against viola. we dumped all of that in the arrest warrant to try to convince the job that, even though we didn't have an eyewitness, we had enough to make out probable cause that muth had killed viola. >> right after he was booked, the homicide detectives interrogated muth, again. and this time, they took off the glos glo gloves and went right at him. >> you murdered her! >> i did not. >> you are a sadistic person. you murdered your wife. you're a monster. >> thank you for the compliment. >> you're a 140-pound monster. >> for a man just charged with a homicide, albrecht muth appeared unfazed. >> tomorrow, i will be completely looney. >> you're already looney. >> tomorrow, i will be certifiable. >> muth had just announced how

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hi, richard lui with your hour's top stories. colorado's governor and first gentleman have both tested positive for covid-19. jared polis and his partner are both asymptomatic, and will continue to quarantine at home. the united states, now, surpassing 13 million covid-19 cases. and the supreme court rejected another election challenge, tonight. the lawsuit claimed the state's no-excuse mail-in voting violated the state's constitution. the motion was dismissed for prejudice. for now, back to "capital crimes." now, back to "capital crimes." just four days after 91-year-old viola draft was found dead in her georgetown home, her husband, albrec albrecht muth, was arrested and charged with murder. >> motive was, perhaps, the most interesting aspect of this case.

why, in the world, did he choose to end her life in august of 2011, at age 91? >> viola's daughters had a pretty good requestidea about w would want to kill their mother. they told me that, in the weeks leading up to her death, muth had become obsessed with viola's money and her estate. >> there was a flurry of e-mails, about all the things he wanted to take with him out of the house. my sister was very angry, and she said to him, why are you bringing all this up now? pl mom is say live aalive and well. we're not going to talk about this now. >> do you know if your mom had a will? >> yes. >> did she leave anything to him? >> no, she did not. she disinherited him. >> yes. >> viola took the dramatic step of removing albrecht from her will and just one week before the murder, she slashed his monthly allowance, leaving him

with virtually no income. yet, just two hours after viola's family arrived to identify her body, muth stunned them with an astonishing claim. >> he comes down with a paper and it was a note he was purporting written by her entitling him to money. >> declaring x amount of dollars. this is own like, you know, a plain piece of paper. no lawyer name on it or anything. but the weird thing of the thing was mother's signature was, like, down in the corner. >> not even the signature line? >> no. no. and it was, like, askewed. >> albrecht muth arrived for his first pretrial hearing. reporter alexander was in the courtroom for "the washington post." >> this is the first time we get

a glimpse of this person. and we get to see the demeanor of the suspect. and what's interesting is that he was very combative with the judge. >> from the very start, muth seemed determined to take control of the proceedings. >> he said, i'm general albrecht muth. loud. i remember him echoing in the courtroom. you will address me as such, to the judge. it was fascinating. >> not only did he keep insisting he was an iraqi general, muth took it to a whole new level. >> the united states is in open violation of my rights under the geneva convention. i am and remain a serving officer in a foreign army, and, as such, am entitled to -- red cross geneva. >> the geneva convention is an

international treaty establishing rules about how prisoners of war are to be treated. muth was demanding its protections. >> first time i ever heard geneva convention invoked in any of the murder cases i covered. it was several days later when he was arrested and he had time to prepare for what he was about to go into. and i think he got into his character, and -- and really honed into what he was going to do. he had the attention and was going to make sure we remembered him and he stayed in character. >> but muth's military posturing was just the opening act. his next announcement stastonisd everyone and set the stage for months of legal conflict. >> the medical team at d.c. jail requested me to advise the court that effective sunset on sunday, i shall be on an unlimited fast. >> i'm sorry, can you repeat that, please? >> his courtroom antics had their intended effect.

on february 14th, 2012, muth was transferred to st. elizabeth's hospital for psychiatric evaluation. after months of observation, psychiatrists declared that muth was suffering from a delusional disorder, and was not mentally competent to stand trial. >> i start to believe that muth may actually be conning mental-health experts, that he is delusional and cannot be held accountable by the criminal-justice system. at this point, i am actually worried that muth may get away with killing his wife, viola draft. with killing his wife, viola draft. ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy.

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albrecht muth was facing second-degree murder charges for killing his wife, viola drath.

apparently, giving this accomplished con man a golden opportunity to escape the charges, entirely. >> john norris was a public defender with d.c. superior court. although, he wasn't involved in the case, he explained what muth's ultimate strategy appeared to be. >> so, john, if a defendant is declared not competent, what happens to a homicide defendant in d.c.? >> they would be committed to st. elizabeth's hospital, while they were continuing to be evaluated and treated, all with an eye towards their dangerousness to the community. >> so if muth tried to persuade the docs at st. elizabeth's that he's really not a danger to society, he could be right back out in the community. >> i don't know that it would happen quickly. but, yes, the process could lead to his ultimate release. >> ordinarily, i work with the doctors at st. elizabeth's, day in and day out. but in this case, i couldn't help believe they were off the

mark. i didn't believe muth was delusional. >> i already knew muth told detectives he was going to fake mental illness during the interrogation. but muth's former lodger, jason kaine, had the giequivalent of smoking gun. >> to school me on his ways. >> and he was laying out what kind of things. >> >> got prominent people to talk him up. how -- how he lied and used kind of false documents to get more people involved in an organization. and it was just so surreal, i was like i want to remember this. like, no one will ever believe me. and i had a voice recorder on my iphone, so i just put record and put it back in my pocket. >> it is at that time in 1996 that i create. you will aware -- be aware that count albi is a complete

invention and fabrication. >> really? >> of course. no such person exists. and you simply do that by virtue that, in america, everything is possible. because in america, it will just go to the courts and say this is money. so, count albi is created and, of course, 90% of the people are none the wiser. >> did you see some of this stuff work for him? >> yeah. yeah. absolutely. it was scary how gullible some senior-government officials can be. if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. >> reporter: and it seemed like we could refute his insistence he was an iraqi general, just as easily. >> he's got military urmniforms. the chief of police is dealing with him, before he gets arrested, as if he is a military dignitary. but then, we find the prince sh print shop receipt. muth ordered his own iraqi

general appointment certificate, the same one he then hung on the wall of his library. which he offered as proof that he was an iraqi general. we thought, okay, we've got him dead to rites. the man is a poser. >> yet, despite all the contrary evidence, muth had still managed to convince a team of si psychiatrists he had a delusional disorder. >> so once it becomes clear the experts at st. elizabeth's are going to stick with muth not being competent to stand trial. do i then go out and hire mental health professionals to evaluate muth, on behalf of the prosecution? and try to undercut the findings by the docs at st. e's? i decide to do just that. >> mitch is a highly-respected forensic psychologist. he examined albrecht muth on behalf of the prosecution. >> so, when you came into the mix, muth had already been declared incompetent, right?

>> the diagnosis had changed significantly to that of a major mental illness. a personality disorder, that is a kissing cousin to another mental illness, schizophrenia. >> after interviewing muth for 15 hours over the course of six days, mitch came to a very different conclusion. >> so, what's your first take? >> my first take was that, here is an arrogant individual and was extraordinarily eccentric. he wrote, while he was in d.c. jail, a five-volume novelette m manifesto called "triumph of illusion." he wrote exceptionally well. he could have been a novelist. >> so when you ultimately evaluated him, you reached what conclusion? >> well, he's not delusional. absolutely, no diagnosable meant illness. he did suffer from a

narcissistic personality disorder. but, that has no bearing on his ability to work with his attorney. >> reporter: for almost a year, muth had tried to convince the court he wasn't mentally competent to stand trial. >> and my greatest fear is, if muth succeeds, he will virtually have gotten away with the murder of viola drtahath. i was determined not to let that happen. >> after a week of opposing arguments about muth's mental state. judge canon issued his ruling. albrecht muth was competent to stand trial. >> i don't think there was any doubt, anyone that knew him, knew that he was gaming the system. >> the family and i were thrilled. we thought muth was finally going to stand trial for murdering viola. but, muth had one more card to play.

at the hearing, he made a truly astonishing statement. >> we are going forward on our date in march for trial. do you understand, sir? >> there will be no trial in march. >> well, you understand the case is set in march. do you understand is set for tr. >> yes, but it's an irrelevant date. >> muth revealed he was resuming his hunger strike this time at the command of a higher power. >> it was a long, arduous process of discovery of the heavenly realm. it is a painful process, but faith and time is meant to be painful. the mystery of faith. i had a holy order communicated to me by gabriel, 40 days, no food, no liquid. and this time muth went all in. after weeks of refusing any solid food he weighed just 91 pounds putting his health at serious risk. he was transferred to the united medical center where doctors said he was in imminent danger

of cardiac arrest. muth was risking his life in his most dangerous gambit yet because he knew his trial couldn't begin unless he was physically present in court. >> one of our bedrock systems is a defendant has an absolute right to be present at all stages of a trial, and you just cannot commence a trial with the defendant not being present. >> so what's the ultimate end game here? muth's 91 pounds, can't be transported to the hospital to courtroom so i can start the murder trial against him. i'm stuck, i'm treading water. what i knew is that as long as he stayed in this condition i couldn't even begin to go about seeking justice for viola, for fran, for connie, for ethan and for the community. muth at that moment had us where he wanted us. t that moment had e he wanted us

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murder of his wife viola draft, albrecht muth was finally going to face a jury. but in a last ditch effort to sabotage the trial muth starved himself nearly to death. >> i have never seen a defendant try so many different avenues to put off a trial. and i kept saying to myself what is he doing? because the trial's going to happen. it may not happen tomorrow or next week, but it's going to happen. so he's just delaying the inevitable. >> i needed to get around muth's incess t incessant attempts to avoid going to trial so i made a last ditch legal argument to judge canon. i argued this is no different to a defendant who handcuffs himself to the bars of the jail and then complains that he's not present in the courtroom for the commencement of his trial. we proposed to have judge canon instruct muth, mr. muth, if you

decline to eat i judge canon will deem you've waived your right to be present at the commencement of your trial, and i will try you in your absence. now, we all understood that there was no precedent for this. after careful consideration of my legal arguments judge canon agreed. and we proceeded to trial with muth lying in a hospital bed at the united medical center. after three years of muth's lies, tricks and cons we were more than ready to lay out our case to the jury and prove that this was a premeditated murder by a dangerous man. so what you have to do is try to build the case piece by piece. so for example, we know there was no forced entry into that house. every door was secure. every window was either locked or not accessible from the

outside. we had muth on his computer in his house at about 5:00 a.m. googling things like extradition from mexico, crossing the canadian border, flights to iceland today. i told the jury, ladies and gentlemen, you don't need to be sherlock holmes to see muth was trying to figure out how do i get out of town. no trial is ever a sure thing. after five days of presenting our evidence the prosecution rested. our case was strong, but we knew the burden of proof worked ipmuth's favor, not ours. >> one of the things i say to a jury is not only is my client factually innocent but he's legally presumed innocent under the law.

maybe the defendant did it. that means not guilty. probably the defendant did it, that means not guilty. it's only if it's beyond a reasonable doubt. so it's a very high standard. >> when the defense took over we expected an elaborately contrived story for muth about what happened to viola. to the amazement of many who had followed the case muth exercised his right not to testify in his own defense. were you surprised when he just kind of punked out and said -- >> i was definitely surprised. i thought this is his chance. he's got the world as his stage. but then the more i thought about the more i realized, no, this was again strategy. he realized if he got on the witness stand then he would have to answer questions, and he would not be in control of the narrative that he wants to put out there. >> on january 15, 2014, i made my closing arguments followed by

the defense. almost three years after viola's death and a nearly endless game of cat and mouse with someone i came to see as a master manipulator the jury took just one day to return its verdict. they found muth guilty of first degree murder. >> what emotions ran through you when you heard guilty? >> just elated, just very elated and very happy. >> we're very, very, very happy. the jury didn't spend too much time thinking about it. i think they saw the picture very clearly and came to the right decision. >> were you in the courtroom when the verdict came down? >> i was in the court, and i think you saw emotion from the family. it wasn't so much they were surprised he was going to be found guilty. no onewise really surprised by the verdict. it was that it's over. >> three months later judge canon handed down the sentence, 50 years in federal prison. you don't really celebrate a

guilty verdict in a murder case, but me, i hugged the family members. i cry with the family members. and you feel satisfied that notwithstanding everything muth did to avoid being held accountable at the end of the day justice was done. it's the thing that most people would fear, to be home, asleep in your bed and have intruders come in and do the unthinkable. >> i felt like a hand being placed on my mouth. i started saying, please don't kill me, please don't kill me. >> an attack in the night. >> i was rae freaking out. what's going on? >> a mother murdered. >> it looked like two ghosts had just committed the ultimate