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>> reporter: a stunning twist in a family's desperate search for justice. >> nothing has turned out right. >> reporter: a wife and mother, murdered. >> she was in a casket-like position. her arms were crossed. >> who would a motive to kill a lady in rural iowa? >> you see this purse, untouched. her jewelry boxes, untouched. >> reporter: did someone have a bigger prize in mind? a family farm, worth a fortune. >> i did not shoot my mom, and i would never shoot my mom. >> two trials. >> every emotion hit. >> two verdicts. >> there are only two people who knew what heaped thappened that. one of them's dead. and the other one's sitting in that chair. >> reporter: too much to bear. >> it's just been hell on earth. council bluffs, iowa. in a small courtroom, the final

scene of a four-year-long drama was playing out. >> count one, murder in the first degree, did the defendant, having ma having malice aforethought, and with premeditation, kill shirley dean carter? >> it's a case that ripped the stitches out of a close-knit family. >> the bullet strikes her in the side and carves a path threw her chest. shattering ribs, and punching holes in her lung and heart. >> reporter: shirley carter, shot twice with a deer rifle in the little home set in corn fields that she shared with her husband of 50 years, bill carter. in pleasantville, iowa, so much of the rhythm of life is set by the seasons. planting the seed. then, bringing in the harvest. corn and soy, mostly. so, that june morning, in 2015,

dawned with no particular omens. shirley carter and her husband bill started their day, as they always did, with coffee at the general store. >> we went to coffee, every morning, at milo, to casey's. that was a ritual. >> reporter: after coffee, saying hello to neighbors, they bounce back down the gravel road to home. 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 ya between 11:00 and 11:30. >> you never know, do you, bill? >> you don't. >> reporter: bill headed off to sell a load of corn at the grainery, about an hour away. 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.

>> reporter: jason, bill's son, had called 911. this is what he said. >> my mom. my mom is laying here on the floor, blood -- there's blood everywhere and she's dead and i don't know what happened. >> reporter: bill got to the house, ran from his truck, passing son jason on the back deck. >> i went in and there she lay, with her feet up against the bread -- bread drawer. and she looked like she was asleep. and i went, immediately, and checked her carotid artery. and i couldn't get a pulse, and i kissed her forehead and it was cold. and i knew she was dead. >> reporter: not long after,

marion county sheriff, jason sandhold, arrived at the farm house. he grew up in marion county and knew the carter family. >> there you are, in the kitchen, saying what in the world happened here? >> correct. and who would have a motive? i mean, who would have the desire to -- to kill a lady, in rural iowa? >> reporter: the sheriff called for help. >> multiple phone calls from my boss. >> reporter: special agent, mark ludwig, 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 from des moines. >> so, i get here to the driveway. got multiple vehicles in the drive way. law enforcement's on the scene and the family's gathering around the big tree. >> do any arriving officers tell you that's the husband or that's the son? >> i meet with the sheriff and apparent to me this these are family members, and i don't know names, yet. >> as soon as he got a search warrant, agent ludwig entered the house with crime-scene

techs. it looked as though someone had ransacked the place. but there, sitting on a chair. >> you first see this purse. that's going to be a key item for a burglar. 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 was it. thrown about. that -- they weren't going through drawers looking for things. they weren't going through the china hutch looking for the expensive silver. when we made our way into the bedroom, her jewelry boxes were untouched. >> reporter: and in the kitchen lay the unlikely victim, shirley carter, a 68-year-old farm wife and mother. >> shirley's body was laying right here, on the kitchen floor. >> what's your best guess as to what happened that day? >> we know the gun was in this area, and was -- shirley was standing in the middle of the kitchen. >> because of her injuries? >> because of her injuries and the path of the bullet. >> reporter: 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 like this. >> held -- held from the hip. we know shirley would have fallen down to the kitchen floor. and the shooter would've moved up towards, and then fired a shot like this. >> reporter: a coup de grâce shot to shirley's chest. how totally odd, the way she had come to rest. >> she was in a casket-like position. her arms were crossed. >> as though the funeral director had posed her for viewing, huh? >> yes. and that's not normal. >> what does that tell you, agent? >> that tells me the body was moved. and that person, who -- who moved her, more than likely the person that shot her, cared and loved for her and had remorse, immediately following. >> reporter: there were still tests to be done, interviews to conduct. but it was coming. coming, with a relentless fury of an iowa-summer twister. no stopping it. a family was about to be destroyed.

coming up. the investigation starts with a closer look at the family. which didn't make the family very happy. >> they are upset that we're wasting time. >> but police had 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 "the farm" continues. >> that's correct. >> when "the farm" continues may your holidays glow bright and all your dreams take flight. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedes-benz winter event. stnarrow it to all thes ikarate moms... in desperate need of brown sugar. meaning, you. you're the one we made mywalgreens for. with pickup in as little as 30 minutes.

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in iowa cornfields, a warm sun was beating down on the farm house where a murder investigation was underway. shirley carter was lying dead, shot in her kitchen. sheriff jason sandhold 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 forensics, dna, nothing useful, nobody walked in front

of a security camera? >> right. >> so, to understand shirley carter's death, they'd have to learn more about her life. the backstory 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? do you remember? >> took her to the homecoming dance. yep. i played football. then, i went out after the game and picked her up. took her to the dance. yeah. had an old, '51 chevy. rusted out. beat up. she didn't care. she was quiet. prettiest thing you ever seen. >> reporter: 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. had just turned 18 and she was 16. i went right to work, working in a locker. >> meat processor? >> i did the cutting and wrapping of the beef and pork in the afternoons and evenings. and went to school in -- in the mornings. and finished my senior year, that way. >> reporter: soon, daughter, jana, was born. then, came billy. later, jason came. bill and shirley went into farming. on a small plot of starter land, they grew some corn and soybeans. then, more prime, iowa acreage. shirley loved farming. >> she did everything. >> she just took to it, huh? >> she was a natural. >> she loved, loved being in the tractors. >> reporter: longtime friend and neighbor, irene schultz, said shirley brought a little pizzazz

to the fields when she climbed into her custom-made tractor. >> she always put a little bit of makeup on, every morning, before she went out. >> in the john deere? she is decked out? >> she was. she had rosy cheeks. shirley would come, you know, bopping in, you know, just to say hi. you know, pulling in the driveway, going by. >> what's her personality, irene? >> goodness. big heart. loved her family. she and bill were always together. you always saw them together. she was beautiful, inside and out. >> reporter: in time, daughter jana moved away and married. 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. >> reporter: 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. dci agent, mark ludwig, took the lead in the investigation. >> first, we want to identify all witnesses. we want to separate 'em. and we want to conduct a face-to-face, sit-down interview, as soon as we can. >> reporter: early on, the most important witnesses were bill, the husband, and jason, the son. ludwig assigned deputies to take the two down to the pleasantville pd. >> and she said do you want to go get a coffee? >> reporter: in an interview room, bill told investigators the same story he told us. how he dropped shirley off at home, and then ran a load of corn to the grainery. and then, he raced home, to find his wife, still, on the floor. >> and when i went in and i felt her, she was cold. >> reporter: jason, in turn, said his day started, pretty much, the same. he had also taken a load of corn to that same grainery. >> i went back down the drive

and headed down to edyville. >> later in the morning, he went to his parents' house to help with some chores, and then discovered his mother. >> it was terrible! >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: in the meantime, crime scene techs finished with the scene and seized half a dozen guns they found in the house. jason took a look at the inventory of weapons they had confiscated and he noticed one gun was missing. a high-powered, remington .270 rifle, like this one. >> my oldest son bought it for me, in 2005, for christmas. >> reporter: bill kept the rifle in a gun safe in his basement.

>> so the question is where is this .270 remington? and is that her murder weapon? >> that's correct. >> it could be ammo used in a .270 remington? >> it was. >> couldn't say absolutely, positively, but certainly consistent with rounds fired from that type of weapon. >> that's correct. >> bill stored that rifle, unloaded, deep in his basement. the killer would have to have gotten lucky, finding the gun and 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 back on tot of the crime scene and jason is mad. >> jason, bill, and daughter, jay th jana, all gather in the living room. >> we're wasting time on this investigation. that we are screwing up this investigation because we are looking at family members.

>> reporter: right about at least one thing, they were now focusing on the family. coming up. >> we had found out that jason carter was having an affair. >> reporter: if jason was hiding an affair, was he hiding anything else? >> i never hurt my mom. if you want to hold those affairness again affairs against me, that's fine. but i never -- i never hurt my mom. >> when "the farm" continues. mom. >> when "the farm" continues but new preparation h soothing relief is the 21st century way to do all three. everyday. preparation h. get comfortable with it. and i'm still going for my best. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm on top of that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? getting out there.

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>> reporter: shirley, the farm wife and mother, had been gunned down in her own kitchen and there was no obvious explanation for the crime. as investigators began digging into the carter family background, though, they came across a detail that focused their attention. it concerned the son, jason, the won who had found his mother's body. >> we had found out that jason carter was having an affair. >> how'd you find that out? >> a friend of his during one of the interviews. >> jason never mentioned any problem with his marriage when investigators first asked him about that. >> who is his girlfriend? >> we locate her, we bring her

in, and we determine there is another phone in play. >> another phone? >> a phone that they just had. >> the lovers had. what they call burner phones? >> burner phone. >> jason kept the phone 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. >> reporter: if jason had tried to hide the affair, agent ludwig 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 cell phone over. >> so, here you go. knock yourself out, huh? >> yep. >> reporter: then, surprise. jason wanted to talk some more. >> comes in, on his own free

will. no attorney. >> reporter: in this video, investigators went over his story again, in detail. the timeline of that morning. >> how long, from 911 phone call, till your dad got there? >> five minutes. >> reporter: 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 the chair, and he proceeds to sit in this chair for over ten 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, nothing? >> we begged him to take bathroom breaks. we begged him to bring him food. >> brought you that. i don't know if you want it, or not. you need anything else, jason? >> what's that about? >> he's going to stay here, until we believe him. >> reporter: he admitted to being unfaithful. but said it was ludicrous to think he'd killed his mother. >> i never hurt my mom. if you want to hold those

affairs against me, that is a's but i never hurt -- 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. >> reporter: he headed home. but a cloud of suspicion hung over the carter family. not only over jason, but bill, too. bill knew agent ludwig was looking 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. >> reporter: 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 heading that way, yes. >> but bill carter wasn't going to let that happen. he hired his own detective. nick webb is a crime-scene

analyst and a former homicide detective from texas. bill strugt bill instructed him to dig into the case with an open mind. >> is it all going to be in your final report? >> the great thing about doing what we do is that we have the easiest job that there is. we are only advocates for the truth. so -- >> but you got somebody paying the bills, right? do you owe him anything? >> absolutely nothing but the truth. once we find out what the truth is, then the people with -- that have the hard jobs have to take it from there. >> reporter: to aid his investigation, webb purchased a rifle similar to the one missing from bill's basement. the remington rifle ejects a shell casing between shots. at least one of those would have flown out, as the killer racked another round in the chamber to shoot twice. >> it was never found. >> so, someone had the presence of mind to gather it up. >> that's correct. >> reporter: and since webb promised to look at every possibility, he examined bill's movements the day of the killing. phone records show shirley

making a call from the house phone at 8:45 a.m., after bill had dropped her off. and by 9:00 a.m., bill was spotted at the grainery, 50 miles from the house. webb said bill's only opportunity to kill her was after that. >> bill has to leave the grainery. 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 and froing in the time allowed? >> he already puts himself there. so, jason, simply has to commit the murder, instead of doing the other task that he said he did. >> is it your belief that jason shot his mother? >> yes. >> reporter: painful as it was, bill had been suspicious of his son, early on. and remembers a moment when 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 countertop, and he said my life is over. >> his life, jason's life, is over? >> his life is over. >> connect the dots for me, bill. what he what's going on? >> i wanted to say, your mother's life is over. that's what i wanted to say but i didn't. >> do you think he incriminated himself with that? >> yes. i knew, then, there was no reason to say that. i knew then, he had done it. >> reporter: 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. shirley and i did something wrong.

>> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. father against son. >> you became a practiced, skilled, and chronic liar. >> reporter: son, against father. >> killer of shirley carter is in this room. and it's not jason carter. >> reporter: when "the farm" continues. >> reporter: when "th" continues. . you can get the perfect gift up until the last minute.

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>> reporter: on a december day, in 2017, two and a half years after shirley carter's murder, in this courthouse in knoxville, iowa, father faced off against son. bill carter had spent almost a million dollars to get to this courtroom and to this moment. >> there is not a more important courtroom, anywhere in this state, than this courtroom today, right now. >> reporter: bill carter's lawyer, mark, opened by telling the jury only one person wanted shirley dead. >> the killer is sitting a few feet from you. that's the killer, right there. jason carter. >> reporter: it started like a murder case. but remember, this was a civil trial, a wrongful-death lawsuit. the father, 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. >> reporter: 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. >> and you hear him say that his mother has been dead for two hours which, medically, is absolutely not the fact, based upon what we know about the condition of the body. but also, why would he be saying that, other than to already start to create the narrative, hey, it wasn't me? >> reporter: 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, tara. she was questioned by another of bill's attorneys. >> you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom.

>> reporter: tara recounted her 15-month affair with a 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 that you loved him? >> i did. >> did he ever reciprocate and tell you that he loved you? >> he did. >> reporter: and bill's lawyer said that, on the morning of the murder, jason and tara exchanged more than a hundred texts on that secret phone. some of them, steamy. >> do you recall what your last text message from mr. carter was? >> it was something sexual. >> winehardt said the conversation ended only as he pulled up to his parents' house. >> text, text, text, text, until 10:50 a.m., at which point the text traffic goes dark. >> reporter: quiet, for 13 minutes, until jason made a phone call to his sister telling her their mother was dead. argued that was more than enough time to kill his mother and stage a robbery.

>> plaintiffs call jason carter. >> reporter: 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 what i found. >> reporter: winehardt confronted jason about the affair. >> you did it in friends' residence, cars, even your own house? >> correct. >> you became a practiced and skilled, chronic liar. >> correct. >> reporter: it was, he argued, about money. the jury was told jason was a spendthrift. >> he puts money into motorcycles and nice cars and trips and vacations. >> reporter: at the same time, jason was expanding his farm operation. where did all that leave him? more than half a million dollars in debt. >> jason was as broke as he had ever been. he had $40 in his personal bank

account and $80 in his business bank account. >> reporter: jason saw only one way out. getting control of his parents' farmland, worth millions. jason knew that 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: jason carter's

lawyer, steve wandrow, challenged the accusation that jason, in his 911 call, was trying to push back the time of shirley's death to morning hours when he had been accounted for on video at the grainery. >> this is all happening within a matter of minutes. jason was simply, so distraught. and to say, you know, you should have done this and you should have done that, this and that, i think is just ridiculous. >> reporter: as for jason's affair, wandrow 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: as for the motive? wandrow argued jason didn't have one. shelly conceded that, at one point, they owed the bank more than half a million dollars on their loan. but 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. >> reporter: and then, wandrow, boldly, offered the alternative theory of the case. >> mr. winehardt is right. the killer of shirley carter is in this room. and it's not jason carter. it's him. the accuser. >> reporter: bill carter, he said, was the likely killer. shirley, he argued, complained about him all the time. >> she had to get permission for everything. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: wandrow said it all must have come to a head on that june morning. >> and something happened on that friday that made him snap. and he is the one that killed his wife. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: jason had been found liable for the death of his mother. the jury cleared bill. >> you had been hoping and thought you were going to get this verdict. but when it actually came, bill,

how did it feel to you? >> i see my son lay his head down on the table in front of him, as soon as the verdict was read. i seen that. i was watching him. but it had to come. sooner or later, it had to come. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: meanwhile, the county district attorney sitting in the back of the courtroom, had been watching closely. what would he do now? coming up. not quite through with the carter family. >> i got right into his face and

i said why did you kill your mother? >> reporter: there would, soon, be an act two. >> what is the big ebtd thigestu have going in your favor in this thing? >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> reporter: when "the farm" continues. carter >> reporter: when "the farm" continues. for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks man 1 vo: proof of less joint pain woman 1 oc: this is my body of proof. and clearer skin. man 2 vo: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 2 vo: ...with humira. woman 3 vo: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. humira is the number one prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. avo: humira can lower your ability to fight infections.

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>> reporter: with the civil case decided against jason carter, finding him liable for the death of his mother. the district attorney decided it was time to act. less than 48 hours after that civil verdict, agent ludwig and sheriff's 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, huh? >> didn't get anything.

stone-face cold. >> reporter: jason carter would be brought back into court. this time, accused of first-degree murder. agent ludwig had been convinced of jason's guilt ever since that initial interrogation, a few days after the murder. >> i'm telling you the god-awful truth. i am telling you the truth. >> you are 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 failed. >> by a big margin? >> huge margin. >> he totally failed the polygraph. >> not evidence but guidance for you, right? >> strong guidance, yes. >> in march, 2013, 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. .270 was in the home. there was ammunition. opportunity. 13-minute gap in his timeline. so, let's talk about motive. >> reporter: district attorney, ed bole, 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? >> reporter: this time around, the burden of proof would be higher, beyond a reasonable doubt. and that's a prosecutor's challenge, without that rock-solid, csi-style evidence the 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. >> reporter: ed bole 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 bole's hands would also be tied by the judge's ruling the jury wouldn't be allowed to hear about jason's affair or the steamy texts on his phone or that jason had lied about all of that. tara took the stand but only to testify to the gap in jason's timeline, and the adrubrupt end their conversation. >> was your conversation that 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 opening, the da mentioned the financial pressure on jason. but in the end, he found it hard to explain why jason would have shot shirley, in kcold blood. >> there is absolutely nothing i can tell you that would make sense of why it is a son shoots

and kills his mother. >> reporter: now, it was time for the defense. jason carter's attorney, christine branstadt, a shoddy investigation focused on jason early and there were plenty of people to question. >> there were very significant parts of this investigation simply weren't completed, weren't followed, weren't done. >> so, war christine, what is the biggest thing you have going in your favor in this thing? >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> witnesses, no damning photo, nothing like that, huh? >> nothing. and from our perspective, jason's statements had been consistent, throughout the civil litigation as well. and we didn't see the evidence as mounting against jason. >> reporter: as in the civil case, the defense attorney argued jason had a loving

relationship with his mother. and that, his allegedly inkrit nighting 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. >> reporter: and as to the abrupt ending to jason's texting on the day of the murder. the defense attorney asked the girl 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 timeline of that morning to deal with. all along, based on statements of first responders and crime-scene techs, it was estimated shirley had been murdered sometime just before 11:00 a.m., when jason admits he was at the farmhouse. to counter the time of death, one of the nation's most famous pathologists for hire took the

stand. wecht has been involved in several cases, from the jfk assassination to oj simpson. >> were you able to do that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty? >> yes. >> wecht told the jury 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., when jason was seen on video, clearly still at the grainery. 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 the tunnel-visioned law enforcement, and one investigator in particular, went after. >> the defense attorney said it was special agent mark ludwig. now, he reluctantly became the star witness, rattling off the names of people during the investigation. ludwig fumbled.

>> you were not very aware of callie shin's involvement. >> that's correct. yes. >> not aware of jeremy morris? >> i did become aware of jason morris. i'm not sure, at what point, that was. >> that would be jeremy morris? is that who -- i think you just said jason. >> yeah. that's my mistake. >> it took some prompting. it took a lot of reminding and getting through that information, and that was a big part of the point we were trying to make to the jury. that had this information been taken seriously, i wouldn't have to remind law enforcement of who key players were, in this case. >> reporter: while jason's lawyer argued the investigation hadn't been thorough, agent ludwig told us none of the names the defense raised were viable suspects. and they had followed every lead. even ones deemed not credible. >> no credible information. >> reporter: 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's sitting in that chair. >> reporter: when "the farm" continues. >> reporter: when "the farm" continues. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean?

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the case of the state of iowa, versus jason carter, was about to go to the jury. >> there are so many holes in this investigation. there's so much that isn't even explored. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: now, the county prosecutor argued all the viable leads were followed. and the defense was just so much smoke and mirrors.

>> if you believe this is a staged burglary, then all of the names and stuff they've put up on the board is irrelevant. >> reporter: bole 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: ludwig assembled a team to take jason into custody, after the verdict. >> ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict? >> yes, we have. >> reporter: jason knew a conviction could send him to prison for life.

>> we, the jury, find jason carter not guilty. is that your verdict, ladies and gentlemen? >> yes, it is. >> reporter: not guilty. jason had gotten his life back. >> i just want to go home and see my kids. it's been a long time coming. >> reporter: jason was a free man. the district attorney says he gave it his best shot. >> so, you're giving the -- 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, he got the rifle, and killed his mom. >> i don't disagree with ya. i wish that there was a better story that 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: that's just what jason carter said he wanted. find the killer. he declined an interview with "dateline," but his attorney said, he realizes some people will still believe that he shot his mother to death. >> jason knows that, until someone is conclusively proven to be the murderer, some people will still suspect him. >> and he has to reconcile himself to that. >> one of the things jason has talked about is that he has a lot more understanding of everyone's predisposition to judge, and he feels that he's become less judgmental since he's been in this position. but he's asked for continued investigation, mostly to find out who killed his mother, and to help deal with any judgment

that is upon him from the public. >> reporter: the $10 million civil judgment against jason remains in place. he's appealed that verdict. but for now, jason is what 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 that he was planting, on easter day. and jason saw his father out, planting, at the same time. >> what did he think? >> he said, his thought was it just seems wrong. this should've been the time where 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. >> reporter: and on his side of that field, bill carter watched the son he loves so much, work the land, just as he had taught him. >> i have to farm right across the fence from him. >> and you see him? >> i was from here to that wall

from him, yesterday. >> reporter: a few feet, but an unbridgeable divide when it's a matter of father, versus son. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> he's a monster. he's evil. he's pure evil. he is that character in those horror movies. >> he hid in the shadows. a killer in a mask. >> he's clearly a brilliant individual, a brilliantly scary individual. >> his target a doting young mom. >> she was a gorgeous strawberry blond who loved her son more than anything in the whole world. >> she was so scared. >>ar he struck once. would he kill again? and would she be next?