my friend called me, and she was hysterical, and she said, sandra's been killed. i was like, oh, my god. as soon as she was killed we all knew who did it. we were like, this guy's going get off. how did this happen? just keep praying. that's all we could do. >> there aren't a lot of murders in paradise, but people still

talk about this one. it's a story we follow for nearly ten years. >> how? >> when? >> got a call from her boss, said she hadn't showed up for work. >> a small island, a small pool of suspects. >> that morning he call in the sick. >> was darren poly graphed? >> he didn't pass. >> the lover? >> he didn't do that well either. >> this case was growing colder by the day. >> nothing, nothing happens. >> but a four doesn't forget. >> i have to have justice for my daughter. >> after all these years are there still secrets to uncover? . quite a journey for you. >> it isn't over yet. >> this father finally got his answer, but it wasn't to one he

wanted. >> never in a million years would aimagine what we're going through now. >> wandering through this land you wonder if you have been transported to the beginning of biblical time. to a garden free of want, temptation, betrayal. and in a land so distractingly beautiful, tourists who ebb and flow like the tides could be forgiven for looking past this lone tormented father looking for help for a terrible reason -- to solve the murder of his precious daughter, sandy. >> anything we can do. this takes time, bro. >> we help we get an arrest this year. we're 90% there. >> it's all good.

>> thank you. >> we first came upon larry on another "dateline" assignment, in 2009 which is when we shot this video. he was 68 years ol then. alone he worked. handing out fliers, gruff and stoic, except the pain was too much. >> three years. it's still rough. >> larry took us to sandra's grave. told us how he promised to -- we had no idea then where this meeting would lead us, that an our journey would last a decade. a case that would expose evil lurking in this garden paradise, and bring larry to the edge of

his own mortality. everyone on kawhi knew sand bra. like many here she was multiracial, growing up in a household that was half japanese, half portuguese, all hawaiian. and a devout catholic who attended school. when people ask you, what was sandy like, what would you tell them? >> she was absolutely a go-getter. like, she was teacher's pet. always perfect. she always had her hair nicely done. you know, she was always focused. >> in high school sap democrat was an athlete, a cheerleader. very popular. >> she was the complete package. >> and her home life? >> old-fashioned. >> traditional. >> traditional family.

you know, catholic. play by the rules type of people. >> discipline, very important to larry. >> i was trying to toughen her up if you want to put it in that expression, to know what the real world was like. >> that was why he insisted she leave to go to college. for a small island girl it felt as big and lonely as new york city. she missed her family and would come home as often as she could. >> that's when she got involved with darren. >> darren was here. >> darren was here. >> darren. a little older. made good money in his highway construction job. sandra was crazy about him. soon after she moved home, they got married. son austin came nine months

later and braden two month after that. by the age of 24, sandra was the matriarch of her own little clan. >> she loved the boys to death. >> life was good. until april 2005 when sandra came to her parents, very upset. >> as she told us she was cleaning out her husband's backpack and two papers fell out. two phone number ♪ she called the phone numbers and it turned out to be two married women. >> sandra confronted darren. >> he would never admit. she just kept saying they were friends. >> she knew what it was. >> i questioned, are you going back with him? she said no. >> by june, darren moved out and sandra moved on. got a job at the beach house restaurant, an island landmark. it was a life changer. >> she was just a darling girl. en why, two darling children.

>> krista hall was a waitress at the beach house and saw sandra's transformation from young island girl to a working woman. >> she was prim and proper and subdued, and as soon as she got away from darren she cut her hair in a bob, and it was cute and stylish. >> sandra started going out with friends, and as is pretty obvious in this concert video she was enjoying life. before too long sandra started getting friendly with one of the chefs, ryan shinjo. >> he wined and dinesed. he was really nice to her. they were always doing fabulous things. >> going on honolulu shopping trips where ryan would lafic expensive gift on sandra. her parents knew little of this relationship. on january 25, 2006, they were

visiting their son when they got an odd call from sandra's boss. >> said she hadn't shown up for work. very unusual for her. she never just -- >> you were thousands of mile away. >> yes, but still, daddy's got to do something. i said, okay, i'll call. i called her cell and left a message, and we let it go at that. >> hours later the phone rang again. it was 3:00 a.m. a time when bad news comes calling. larry's son answered the phone. >> this is basically he goes, hello. >> oh, hi. i have a ---no! coming up -- >> she was slumped to the right of the passenger seat, facedown. >> who wanted sandra dead?

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she was beyond the eden the tourists seem out of site of the rich and verdant estate of the wealthy few. in her own small ranch house, in her garage, in her character she had been strangled to death. it was her new boyfriend that called police, said he found her that way. >> she was slumped to the right of the passenger seat. facedown into the seat. >> roy asher was one of the

original investigators. we spoke to him in 2009. this was three years after sandra was murdered. >> i saw in the back of her neck some ligature marks. we didn't find to cord, but we had an idea of what could have been used. >> what is this. >> thin cord, like a fishing line. >> sandra's shirt and bra was -- her lip was split as if she had been punched in the face. ryan, the boyfriend, on the right of the screen, told investigator he discovered sandra's body around 9:00 p.m. but the cops could see she had been dead for a while by then. >> probably 8 to 10 hours. >> which could have been put the time of death -- >> in the morning. >> did you get any more exact? >> no. >> given that the estranged husband used to live with sandra and ryan was now dating her, their finger prints would certainly be explained. something suspicious there. but ryan finding the body?

well, that was potentially suspicious. did he have an alibi? >> yes. >> and it checked out? >> yes. >> do you remember what it was? >> he was at work. >> so who else? well, there was sandra's estranged husband darren, of course, and this was interesting -- >> that morning he call in the sick. >> so in other words, he didn't have an alibi. >> no. >> based simply on that lack of an alibi, the police arrested darren. >> when you first say, do you think her husband did it? my first reaction was no. >> even as larry tried to wrap his mind around that idea, a detective called him the following day. >> he says, we've got to let him go. we don't have enough. we've talked to the prosecuting attorney and we don't have

enough. >> meaning what? was darren involved or not? hit by grief and impatient for answers larry launched a investigation into his own. >> it was like a panic. i've got so many things to do and i've got to get it done now. >> as a native kauaian had the details to piece together the details surrounding his daughter's murder. he found out darren saw sandra and her boyfriend riding together. >> from what we're told his coworkers went ballistic. he flipped out. >> at that time -- this is important to the case -- sandra and darren shared custody of their two sons. but she worked evenings at the restaurant, so the boys slept

over the darren. at 6:00 she would pick them up, get them ready for school and day care. larry discovered on the night before she was murdered, sandra stayed at ryan's house. she dropped her off at 6:00 a.m. then neighbors said she saw them leave shortly after that to pick up the boys. she saw sandra's car return later but without the children. >> larry learned she had an appointment to get her nails done 45 minutes away. >> she never made the appointment, so this is how we narrowed down the time of death. before about 9:00. where she would have had to leave to make her appointment. >> the cops didn't tell him, but larry learned from his own

sources boyfriend ryan had an alibi while husband darren did not. >> what was he supposedly doing that day? >> from what i'm told he dropped the boy off to the school and went down to the lawn dro mat down the road to do his laundry. the video on the bank next to the laundry or a couple of shops down didn't show anything of him enteringer leaving. >> even though he said he did? >> that he was down there. he said he stayed home that day because he was going to paint his mother's bedroom. his mother's bedroom never got painted. >> all of which got larry thinking the same thing as the police -- must have been darren who murdered sandra. >> right now i'm driven by the case. i got to keep that going. >> many of sandra's friends also thought darren was guilty. >> i think even thought darren

would be arrested immediately, going jail, and children would be going his grandparents or brother, and it would be okay. >> one year after the murder there was indeed an arrest, but it wasn't darren. coming up -- >> we've got to get this case solved. >> a new theory about sandra's murder. >> she may have been smuggling drugs in her new suitcases and not even have known it. >> and a threat from her father. >> i have to figure out a way to get away with it. it will happen. >> when "the other side of paradise continues. ♪ 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. with three medicines in one inhaler,

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or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto for heart failure. entrust your heart to entresto. >> reporter: kauai is unique in many ways. not the least of which is this -- it's almost a media-free zone. most information spreads here, as it has for generations, by word of mouth. where facts, opinions and gossip all swirl together as one. and the news swept across the island like a rogue wave. ryan shinjo had been arrested. but not by the island cops --

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

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

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

>> reporter: what were you thinking about? >> i was thinking about the sadness in -- in -- in the loss of a child. >> reporter: there's nothing, nothing, nothing like it. nobody can understand unless they've been there. >> not unless you've lost a child. >> reporter: chief perry was struggling to tell us that he did know what it was like to lose a child. he took the job as head of the kauai police department after the sudden death of his 26-year-old son, erickson. >> has the death of your son affected the way you do your police work or the way you think about it? >> as a matter of fact, in my son hadn't passed away i wouldn't be here today. i'd be on the big island and retired. one of the things that told me before he passed away -- this was just minutes before he died -- he told me that he

wanted to help people. so i feel in a way that i'm working through him. that he motivates me. i believe that things happen for a reason. and in fact, i told larry this. i told him, there's a reason why we met. i don't know what the reasons are. but i'm here for you. >> reporter: so, after meeting with larry, chief perry sent sandra's file to a couple of friends in honolulu. investigators with the state attorney general's cold case unit. >> i asked them to see if they can find anything else that we may have missed. >> reporter: and they did indeed find something, using what was breakthrough science for that time, early 2009. cold case investigators extracted touch dna from sandra's shirt and bra. chief perry called larry with the news. >> and he said they got something. they rescanned her clothes and they found two -- how did he put it? two microscopic particles of a

male origin. coming up -- sometimes it's what you find, and sometimes it's what you don't. >> going through the calendar, it's pretty detailed from january 1st. every day. >> but on the morning of sandra's murder -- >> you've got nothing. when the other side of paradise continues. continues ...standing in the struggle. hustling through the hurt. asking for science, not sorrys. our time... ...for more time... ...has come. living longer is possible- and proven in women taking kisqali plus fulvestrant or a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor. kisqali is the only treatment in its class with proven overall survival results in 2 clinical trials. helping women live longer with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali was also significantly more effective

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here's what's happening. former president donald trump's legal team remaining unclear just over a week before his second impeachment trial begins. two south carolina attorneys were expected to join his defense team, but nbc news confirms they have mutually parted ways. anti-vaccine protesters shut down a vaccine site in los angeles. it happened as hundreds wait in the their cars to receive doses at dodger stadium.

officials said all vaccines would still be administered. now back to "dateline." >> reporter: it took a scientific breakthrough to finally get larry mendonca the help he was pleading for. touch dna. microscopic skin cells on sandra's shirt and bra, that was a match to darren. >> when that result came in, tell me what your first thoughts were. >> we got him. >> reporter: but larry was wary. >> it isn't over yet. >> reporter: because what seemed like great evidence to the cops did not to the newly elected prosecuting attorney shaylene iseri, for one simple reason. the dna did not exclusively match darren. >> it could have come from the two children. >> reporter: larry, though, refused to be discouraged. >> the driving force is to get

this case solved and put my daughter to rest. >> reporter: because she isn't yet? >> hopefully it'll be this year. hopefully it'll be 2009. we're close. >> reporter: but 2009 ended as it had begun, with the case in stasis. no breaks. no leads. no arrests. and 2010 was no different. same for 2011, nothing. it's fair to say sandra's murder investigation was very much cold. so, 2012 now. six years after the murder. and three years after that dna test. chief perry gave the case to a new detective named bryson ponce, who re-examined the physical evidence like sandra's car, undisturbed since the day she was murdered. >> she was sitting down in the driver's seat. and the -- from her waist up, was pulled, slouched over onto the passenger's seat. >> reporter: you said pulled?

did it appear that it had been yanked over that way? >> it appeared that way, yeah. we believe that there was a struggle outside of the vehicle in the garage. and that's due to some evidence that was on the outside front of the vehicle. >> reporter: like what? what were they? >> smudge marks, some hair. appeared to be female's hair, head of hair. >> like maybe she was struck out there or something? >> some type of struggle in which she appeared to get away in a hurry. >> she tried to get in the car. >> tried get in the car, tried to leave. >> to see that just as it was -- you even got the decorations there. this thing, the necklace around the mirror, exactly the same. >> yeah. and one of the theories is he

came through the passenger side door, because if you take a look through the back, you see the child seats. it shows that doesn't appear to have been touched, that somebody was back here. >> those are just the way they were. >> just the way they were back in '06. >> pretty sad. >> yeah. >> when you look at how this homicide happened, it wasn't sexually motivated or it wasn't a robbery. it really was focused on anger. >> reporter: and so ponce circled right back to those original two suspects -- husband, darren. boyfriend, ryan. but which one? from the file, ponce learned ryan, in addition to being a drug trafficker, had also been convicted of domestic violence. and was there something fishy about how he found sandra's body? he told the cops he went to sandra's house, doors were locked. said he peered through these ventilation slats at the base of her garage wall. said he saw sandra in her car.

>> and calling out, "sandra, sandra." then he says that he couldn't get into the door. he called a friend to come and help him open the door. >> reporter: called a friend to help him find a body? wouldn't be the first time a guilty party did that. and did ryan remain here at the scene, wait for the police officers? >> yeah. >> reporter: talk to them there? >> yeah. >> somebody who found his girlfriend in the car is going to be, one, terribly grief stricken. upset. and worried he was going to be blamed. was there anything in the report about his demeanor that night? >> you know, initially investigators thought that maybe he wasn't saying everything that happened. >> reporter: holding back a little. >> yeah. and maybe he was a little bit nervous. >> reporter: but ryan had an alibi, right? he was at work when sandra was killed. well, ponce found out the estimated time of sandra's death was really more of a rough guess. and that sandra could just as

well have been murdered hours earlier when ryan wasn't at work. and then there were the results from ryan's 2006 polygraph exam. what was the result of that? >> he wasn't viewed as passed. >> reporter: which didn't look good for ryan. except darren's polygraph result didn't look so great, either. how'd he do? >> he didn't do that good. he didn't pass. >> reporter: now, that was interesting. both suspects failed the polygraph. so now ponce looked at the evidence against darren. who gave police two entirely different accounts of the morning of the murder. first he said sandra came by to get the kids. then a minute later said she didn't. now, remember, darren and sandra were going through a divorce and a heated child custody battle. so darren apparently thought it would be a good idea to take note of run-ins with sandra, like the times she was late in picking up the boys, hoping it would one day help him in court.

>> you know, going through the calendar, what i found really interesting is that it's pretty detailed from january 1st, every day, all the way up until the 24th, is the very last entry. and on the 25th, you've got nothing. >> reporter: why is that important? because sandra was murdered that very morning, the morning of the 25th. about the time when she would have been picking up her sons. >> you would expect darren to have wrote down in there that sandra never showed up to pick up the boys, that he had to take off from work. >> reporter: but he didn't. nor did he call her to find out why she was a no-show. ponce theorized that sandra actually did go to darren's house to get the boys. but there was an argument of some sort and she left without them. darren, still angry, followed her home. parking his truck on a street behind sandra's cul-de-sac.

>> this path, you know, basically leads to the cul-de-sac. and her house is just three houses down. right when you come to the end of this walkway. very, very close, easy access. >> reporter: so you think that darren came up, followed her, had the confrontation there, killed her with a ligature, choked her to death. then what'd he do? >> you know, i think after the incident happened over here, he went back as where he came and just took off and headed back home. >> reporter: and nobody saw him. >> you know, it was -- it was still dark. >> reporter: ponce also found this e-mail sandra sent her lawyer just three weeks before her murder. "darren started asking me about my boyfriend as he calls him, ryan. he got really upset and started swearing at me. he started shaking me, telling me to tell him the truth and don't ever call him again." ponce worked the investigation for close to a year.

and as he weighed and reweighed the evidence, he always came back to darren. who lacked an alibi? who called in sick to work? who gave conflicting accounts about the morning of the murder? who left blank the diary entry for the 25th? who failed a polygraph? who was jealous of ryan? who never called sandy to find out why she didn't pick up the boys? ponce delivered his final report to chief perry and prosecutor iseri, and a handful of fellow investigators. >> we all believed it was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the case was not going to get any better than what we had. and i asked everything else if this is anything more we'd need to do to change your mind that this was not the person that committed this offense, and everybody said no. >> reporter: and prosecutor iseri finally agreed to present the case to a grand jury. and in october 2012, the grand

jury indicted darren for sandra's murder. so, was larry's quest for justice finally over? oh, no. not by a long shot. coming up -- >> this case is a textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives. >> a new prosecutor, a new delay. >> kauai is a murderer's paradise. if you want to kill somebody, you've got an 80%, 90% chance of getting away with it. it ctable relapses. all these other things too. who needs that kind of drama? kesimpta is a once-monthly injection that may help you put this rms drama in its place. it reduced the rate of relapses and active lesions and slowed disability progression. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it,

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>> reporter: on october 31, 2012, darren galas was charged with the murder of his wife, sandra. he pleaded not guilty, was released on bail.

6 1/2 months later, on may 15, 2013, sandra's dad larry and mom toshie held this memorial dedication service outside kauai's domestic violence center. chief perry was there, as was bryson ponce. but darren stayed away, as did sandra's two sons. >> as most of you know today is sandy's birthday. this is why it's -- a very, very special day for us. mahalo. >> reporter: at this point, larry and toshie thought they were in the home stretch, that darren's trial was just months away. but the prosecuting attorney who indicted darren lost her bid for re-election. defeated by this man, justin kollar, who flat-out accused his predecessor of bringing charges against darren to make a splash and help her chances of re-election, though

the case, he said, wasn't ready for trial. >> this case is the textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives. >> reporter: gotcha. >> and into their families. >> reporter: so now, larry's quest for justice was mired in a political battle with the new prosecutor saying he couldn't proceed because the alternate suspect, ryan shinjo, had never been completely eliminated. >> if you've got cases where you have multiple suspects and you're gonna charge one of those suspects, you'd better be sure you've excluded the other suspects. >> reporter: former prosecutor shaylene iseri fired back, saying the entire investigative team voted to seek an indictment. >> the team decided unanimously. it wasn't shaylene's decision. it was the team's decision. i definitely feel that there was more than overwhelming evidence to convict mr. galas. >> reporter: you could've gotten that conviction, had you been elected. >> oh, i definitely believe so.

>> reporter: "she's dreaming," said kollar. she never would have won. so kollar reopened the investigation again. and delayed the trial again, while his office tried to strengthen the case. and the result was one trial delay after another. and three years later, 2015 now, larry was one furious 74-year-old man. >> kauai is a murderer's paradise. if you want to kill somebody, come to kauai. you've got probably about an 80%, 90% chance of getting away with it. and i firmly believe that. >> there was never any point during this process where the file was just sitting on a shelf getting dusty. there's always something that was being done, another piece of evidence that was being tested, another witness that was being looked for. >> reporter: but you must have been ready to let it go at some points. you know, "we can't do this. let's forget about it."

>> that conversation happened any number of times over the years. but at each time, we said, "no, there's got to be a way to move this forward." >> reporter: and was larry's kind of constant input part of the thing that kept you going here? >> of course. i mean, none of us wanted to get that call saying, "hey, larry's -- larry wants to see you right away. and he's not happy." either way we get up in the morning and do our jobs but seeing the toll this took on larry over the years has also been hard, and seeing the pain in his eyes. >> reporter: when we spoke to larry in 2015, darren's trial was on the calendar for march of the following year. and the odds larry gave of that happening? >> i would say probably a little better than 50/50. >> reporter: but even that was optimistic. the trial was delayed again until november 2016. but as that trial date approached, the defense requested another delay.

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

>> it's all about what you can prove in a court of law. when the other side of paradise continues. try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: larry mendonca didn't comprehend what was happening to him as he walked this fairway, played his round of golf. it was only later when the doctor intervened, rushed him by air ambulance to honolulu. heart attack. then quintuple bypass surgery. and then a stroke. >> it was difficult for me to see how vulnerable he was at that time. >> reporter: because he had always seemed like the invulnerable man. >> correct. i mean, he was superman to myself and my sister. and to see him in that situation, in that -- that hospital bed, it was tough. very tough. he was miserable. i couldn't do a whole lot to fix

it. >> scary time. >> very scared. >> reporter: it was sheer cussedness, probably, that pulled him back from the brink. >> my cardiologist says the whole thing was due to the 10, 12 years of stress. >> reporter: larry spent months in physical therapy to build up the strength to attend darren galas' trial, scheduled for the summer of 2017. but it was delayed yet again. and darren during all this time? out and about. this time we found him at son austin's soccer game. that's him wearing the black t-shirt, gold chain, and wraparound sunglasses. and in the blue shirt, his wife, cherene. larry and his wife toshie were there at the soccer game, too, always are. and what larry felt in his chest was more rage than physical pain. >> someday i might lose it all. i really don't know what i'm going to do. you never know until it happens. >> reporter: then, late 2017,

a breakthrough. the prosecutor felt his investigators had finally and fully eliminated ryan as a suspect, which now only left darren in their sights. >> we had done some work over the years that had made the case somewhat better. maybe darren looked himself in the mirror and said, "i know i did it." i don't know. >> reporter: hmm. >> but they said, "we'll plead." >> reporter: but plead guilty to murder? no. darren agreed to plead no contest to assault. you had a murder case here. no contest to assault sounds like not very bad. >> well, we may think we have a murder case. we may know that he did it, but it's all about what you can prove in a court of law. >> reporter: and on january 29, 2018, 12 years after sandra's murder, we were with larry outside the courthouse just an hour before the plea hearing.

and as you might have guessed, he wasn't happy. >> there's no -- no -- no justice. >> reporter: what are the chances that thing could fall apart over there, this morning? >> it's a possibility. he could -- i'm told he can change his mind at any given time, up to the time he gets sentenced. >> reporter: but what happened here -- >> now, drawing your attention to the no contest plea form. >> reporter: -- as darren formally changed his plea from not guilty to murder two to no contest to assault one, was not final resolution, but more delay. the court granted darren four more months of freedom before sentencing. and larry? well -- >> i'm very mad. i'm very upset. >> reporter: be but you're finally getting the answer. >> reporter: there was once a

time just after sandra's murder when larry and toshie were hoping to raise sandra's boys. but now -- >> he's been working on them for 12 years. he's been brainwashing them. they hate their mother. they hate their grandparents. >> reporter: as he left court, darren was protected by a phalanx of friends and relatives, which included the two grandsons. darren declined to speak with us, but his defense lawyer, michael green, did stop to talk. >> there's a big difference between pleading no contest and pleading guilty. >> reporter: well, it certainly would suggest he did something to her. >> well, he assaulted her. >> reporter: that very day but he didn't kill her? >> no, but -- he doesn't admit that he assaulted her. no contest means he neither admits nor denies the charges. >> reporter: but now -- for four months -- uncertainty. because the judge had the power to sentence darren to anything from ten years in prison to probation. >> what i foresee at sentencing, they're going to ask for leniency. >> reporter: do you think he could actually avoid going to

prison altogether? >> at this point, i wouldn't put anything past him. >> reporter: on may 30, 2018, we were back outside the courthouse with larry mendonca. this time he was the one surrounded by supporters. a 12-year investigation now reduced to just an hour in court, that felt as stressful and tense as any jury trial. would darren be carted off to prison? or would the judge give him probation and send him home? darren's lawyer, michael green, reminded the judge there had been an alternate suspect. >> this guy shinjo, who was a person of interest the entire time -- >> reporter: then he told the judge to remember this was not a murder case. >> there's an agreement that my client will plead guilty to nothing. nothing. he's offered to plead no contest to an assault charge. >> reporter: and then larry got his chance, finally, to let 12 years of pain pour out, starting with that first awful

night when he broke the news to toshie. >> how do you tell a woman that the baby she had once nursed falling asleep in her arms, played on her lap, skipped off to school clutching the lunch that she had made for her, was now dead? we received a life sentence of pain, sorrow, agony, and frustration. a life sentence with no parole. sandy got eternity. >> reporter: darren stoically sat through it all. and then, what sentence would the judge impose? she began by quoting darren's attorney. >> and that is that he pled no contest to the charge of assault in the first degree. that's what this sentencing is about. >> reporter: and larry's stomach started to tighten. >> and my lawyer reached over and she says, "this doesn't sound good." >> reporter: and then, six

minutes into her ruling, finally, here it was. >> you are hereby ordered committed to the custody of the director of the department of public safety for imprisonment for a period of ten years. >> reporter: ten years. the maximum she could impose. and with that, the mendonca family's 12-year quest for justice came to an end. >> that was my graveyard promise to my daughter, and i fulfilled that. >> reporter: larry and toshie follow a series of rituals on the anniversary of sandra's death. they bring flowers to her memorial outside the ywca. have lunch at the beach house restaurant where sandra once worked. and they pray by her graveside at holy cross cemetery, where she is surrounded by her ancestors. sandra, so homesick when away

from this island she loved, is now forever a part of it. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." 96 kpke with the bird and the bee. >> i had a huge crush on him. he had this amazing voice. >> very gregarious, very charismatic. i think the passion he had for people came through. >> he was the guy the whole town woke up to, morning deejay steven b. >> he was so funny and he had such a great love of music. >> he's loveable. i mean, everybody loves steven b. >> but soon, it was faally clear that not everybody did. >> they came upon a body floating in the water. >> shot him one time in the back of the head. >> i felt like i was in some made-for-tv movie. it's like "this can't be happening."