the day, she's a felon. mentally, when you are in prison here, do you ever escape that? >> as for barbara, she spent the remainder of her house arrest and her father's home. that old vw the one that allegedly carried david's body the night he was killed. still kept outside. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. r watching >> i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i said, have you ever contemplated committing the perfect murder? and he said, yes. the key element to that is making sure that someone is caught. once i have somebody, they will stop looking and that's how you can get away. >> a cold blooded killing, a

victim worth millions, and all kinds of conflicting clues. >> i've never had a case is complicated before. >> police following multiple leads until -- >> we asked, who is that? he says he's my neighbor, he lives two floors below. >> a suspect under arrest. >> having someone you love just taken away. >> sorry...! >> case closed. where was that? could there be something else or someone else they must? >> there were so many parts of the puzzle that we're not adding up. >> someone had pulled the trigger. but had someone else pulls the strings? >> he was the type of guy that could take bad luck and turn it into a fortune. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello. and welcome to dateline. they were neighbors living large and their salt lake city

aloft building. a sophisticated crowd who enjoyed mixing business with pleasure. then a murder revealed a phony in our midst. a man they claimed repaid their trust with lies. was he, they wondered, the mastermind behind this cold blooded killing, or did investigators need to be looking in another direction? here is keith morrison with "suspicion". >> 7 am, november 15th 2007, gone in salt lake city, utah. he pulled into the restaurant parking lot, turned off his engine, sky beginning to brighten, son night not quite up. and there they were, the voices, the terror, the nightmare beginning. >> i ducked down in my car after the first shot was fired. i later they're thinking, okay, well this is how it's going to end for me. >> you're going to be dead? >> yeah. >> 9-1-1, but as you emergency? >> somebody just shot

commanding dead in front of -- ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it stands in stark contrast to much of the rest of salt lake city that sold chocolate factory, this grand stage for our story. it was converted to lock departments in those boom years before the bust. the style of living and location drew a distinct crowd, outliers of a sort, we iconoclasts in this city. >> i love this building. >> bianca pearman-brooks born into privilege in england raised and ireland and africa, came here and august, 2006 to visit a friend. >> i came on holiday and i met christopher and we headed off. >> christopher wright, a real estate developer, lived in the same loved building as bianca a's friend. there is a party in the building. bianca was invited. >> in one night, you know? >> yeah. yeah. >> to anyone watching, it was

an obvious perfect match. friends in loft members dave and lisa. >> she is quirky, and she brought that playfulness out in chris. >> he's a positive guy before he was ecstatic after. >> so, it was true blind passionate love. that drove bianca to give up everything she had known her whole life back in england and move here to utah to be with chris. for six months after that first moment they laid eyes on each other, they were married. >> it made me feel very safe. >> her protector, and incurable romantic. >> this was a man who cries always for romantic movies. the notebook. >> it didn't take long for bianca to become firmly entrenched in loft living. >> the lofts were full of incredibly crazy people. >> academics, airline pilots, physicians, documentary filmmaker, olympic speedskater, mortgage broker, socialites. >> john five, an advertising

copywriter was one of the first to buy the building. >> this building, a fantastic collection of interesting people. >> none more so than perhaps the buildings most gregarious and outsized personality, david novak. >> he was so... nice and entertaining and funny and charming. >> it's impossible not to be charmed by david. i adore the man. >> we were, i would say, basically best friends here in utah. >> david's huge personality fit his apparently oversized professional accomplishments. investor, restaurant tour, owner of an extremely unusual consulting firm whose specialty was preparing wealthy clients for, of all things, prison. >> he was hired to help prepare affairs in order before they went to prison, help educate the family what was going to happen. try to get the best sentencing possible for him. >> that business as david confessed to his law friends grew out of personal experience. he himself was a felon.

served a year in federal prison for mail fraud. >> he was the type of guy that could take that look and turn it into a fortune. >> so, most everyone in the building seem to be living large and those good old pre-meltdown days went into the mix was introduced a new ingredient. a businessman with real money. it was novak, said bianca, who did the introductions. >> christopher had an office but to three blocks from here and there is a starbucks he always want to. and he went over there and novak was there both can dolezsar and he introduced them. >> dolezsar lived in all the enclave south of salt lake city, a very nice guy, by all accounts. with a big extended family and money to invest. truckloads of money. it already loud novak 1.85 million to make a movie about his present consulting business. and soon can and chris began working on a real estate deal. >> they spoke sometimes and

they had contracts back and forth. but i'm a girl. [laughs] >> you aren't interested? >> no! so dull. >> fall came to salt lake city, leaves yellow and fell. the economic crisis got to them like a black cloud. as a businessman ken dolezsar, chris and david novak continued their hustle and flow. the storm bearing down on them was loaded, not with economic ruin, but something else entirely. >> i couldn't believe it. and everyone was there, all of our friends and we sat there. we couldn't move. it was like... it was unbelievable. >> "dateline" returns after the break. break.

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>> now it was the morning, 7 am, november 15th, 2007. >> 9-1-1, what is the address of your emergency? >> dean carriger, then a detective, was on the freeway when his radio came to life. >> it wasn't for a few minutes i heard there was an actual shooting, at which time -- >> that's my department. >> that's where i need to come get busy. >> it got the address, the parking lot, the village in restaurants south of salt lake city in a town called sandy. his town. >> it was very violent violent scene. the victim was shot five times. the fifth shot was done while the shooter was standing over top of him, and shot him in the

face. >> oh. >> the shooter was making sure he was dead before he left >> cold, methodical, like a professional hit. and, yet amazingly, somebody was sitting in a car, maybe six feet away watched the whole thing. ordinary guy, minding his own business. now, eyewitness to a brutal slaying. the man's name was lee carlson. >> right hand came up, reached inside his pocket, out came a gun. and pointed it at the other man, right in the face, and pulled the trigger. >> here at the station, lee told how he ducked out of sight after the first shot. not before he got a glimpse of the shooter. >> as far as i can remember, he had a longer nose... i can tell i color, but size seemed to be more bulging. >> when you to see him in a glimpse -- i know we're kind of asking a lot. >> what's did out most was his hair. long, tied in a ponytail. looked almost out of place like

a wig. >> i look at that more than his face. >> before the shooting, said lee, he heard the man's voice, sounded eastern european, maybe slavitt. both men came here in the victims car, which the shooter used to flee the scene. as for the victim? well, you've heard the name by now, ken dolezsar, the extremely wealthy local investor. >> my daughter called me, just falling. she told me ken has been shot and he's dead. wow. >> matt beaudry considered ken dolezsar to be one of his closest friends. they founded and coached a college hockey team together. the ken math new wasn't just a wealthy businessman, he was deeply concerned for the boys on the team. >> i watched him pull out his wallet, slip money into kids pockets. he heard kids needed tuition money, couldn't buy their books. >> now his friend, their friend, was dead. >> kids broke down and bald. >> at the locked building in

downtown salt lake, the news rocketed the floor. a couple residents including bianca's husband were doing business with dolezsar. >> it sounds like rubber knocking at a car crash. it was like, wow, someone we know has been murdered! >> who would want a man is nice and generous as dolezsar dead? but then, it's almost let your police work where money goes, trouble often follows. more money, the bigger the trouble. and in this case, an extra dollop. the dead man's vast fortune hundreds of millions wasn't really his, strictly speaking. he married into the bulk of it. fortune came from a company has why founded with her former husband. the divorce had been nasty, family royalties bitterly divided and some family members weren't in the least bit happy. but ken was making investment decisions. >> detective carriger contracted ken's brother and broke the news. >> dropped down to his knees and he said it's that [bleep]

derrick. >> a moment of unguarded grief and rage, and thus the possible suspect. derrick mower, kim's adult stepson. >> it was apparent there were difficulties between those two. >> trouble in the family didn't stop with derrick. >> there seemed to be a rift. >> not between dee and ken. there is a genuine love story. but now, a grieving dee told detectives she was as baffled about the murder as they were. >> she was not able to provide us any information as to who he was meeting that day, or anything about that day. >> and despite all that friction, beat fighting over money or control, dee's family produced not a single viable suspect, not even ken's stepson. >> derrick had an alibi the time of the murder. >> those interviews weren't entirely in vain. a clue emerged from ken's assistant. the night before the murder, she said, ken got a call on his cell. >> she knew that he had set up

the meeting to meet with whoever he was talking to. at 7 am, on the 15th. >> the day and time at which ken dolezsar was shot to death. was the color also the killer? if so, they now had his voice because earlier, that caller left this phone message. >> hey, ken. this is robert. i talked to dave. he said we should get together pretty soon here. >> detectives traced the prepaid cell phone from which the call came and went to the store where someone bought it. >> this phone is purchased with cash, with no identified information provided to the carrier. >> the family did have a suggestion for the detectives, something they actually agreed on. should look carefully at a man named david novak. yes, that david novak. remember, novak's consulting business prison beyond executives? guess what? >> dee mower was incarcerated in federal prison. >> tax fraud.

ken while the wife dee was david novak's client. that's why i ken dolezsar new david novak. something about that consultant and want to be movie producer made ken's relatives suspicious. detectives drove over to the law for the spoke with mr. novak. >> he was soft spoken. >> and a bright man? >> he came across as very intelligent, yes. >> answered all of their questions, but it didn't seem to be much hope. and then, as detective carriger was preparing to leave, he tried one more question. that prepaid cell phone, one someone used to invite ken fatal meeting, the store had surveillance video of a man buying that very phone. ken's family said they didn't recognize him but it would novak? carriger showed him the photo. >> we asked, who is that? he said he's my neighbor, he lives two floors below. >> and just like that, a big piece of the puzzle popped into place.

but, fair warning, as you will see, puzzle pieces and some residents of this downtown loft might not be quite what they seem. >> coming up -- >> a massive sense of disbelief. >> the investigation takes as many turns as one of the buildings hallways. >> i've never had a case this complicated before. >> when "dateline" continues. ateline" continues

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. >>,? . oh -- tell now the investigation seem to be going nowhere. and then, as detective carriger was about to leave it david novak's apartment, he shows a novak this violent photo from that cell phone store. >> he looked at it, said that's chris wright. he's my neighbor. he lives two floors below. >> chris wright, his good friend and husband of the irreplaceable bianca. >> this is definitely somebody we want to talk. to >> carriger arrive unannounced at chris rights office and almost before he could ask a question he said, chris launched into a story about can dolezsar. clean the man was so paranoid he wanted chris to buy a prepaid cell phone so they could communicate incomplete privacy. to detective carriger, the

story seemed a little too ready. rehearsed. >> almost as if he was covering. trying to account for things that we knew. >> i see. >> odd. then as the interview went on, he said, chris is voice began to sound familiar. the voice mail that police believed helped lure kin to his death. >> hey, can. this is. robert >> to me that was chris is voice on that phone. >> the detectives pulled out a search warrant. bianca this woman the police arrived. >> it's surreal. you have -- there like roving gangs of toddlers who are ripping everything apart. they turned our sofas upside down. took out the light. they took out my coaster. i mean, they take everything apart. >> at ballistics report told police the murder weapon was a 9 millimeter handgun. chris, was an avid collector of guns and among them, police found an empty case for a spring feel armory 9 millimeter handgun. what do you know, the gun that

went with it was missing. chris wright was arrested and charged with the murder of ken dolezsar. there >> is a massive sense of disbelief. he was being completely taken out of the blue. and for no reason. >> the loving husband who cried his way through romantic comedies. a cold blooded assassin? impossible. he cried a quite listen literally was impossible for chris to have killed can dolezsar that morning. he had an alibi. >> he was in the loft. i was there. >> he was home, in bed, with her. >> he was a foot from me. there's no room for that. >> they surely had to be a colossal misunderstanding. bianca saw support from her neighbors including david novak, her only friend with intermittent all edge of the legal system. he confronted you? >> he was brilliant. yeah, he would ask me how everything was going. and what was happening with christopher. with our attorneys, we're doing

the job they were supposed to. >> she told him everything, she said. and he assured her that the state would soon be rectified. she believed him. i >> don't want to be married to a murderer. i would not fool myself. there was a seconds doubt in my mind he did not do this. >> but some of their friends in the loft weren't so sure. >> i started to feel sorry for her. thinking, oh my gosh. you, portnight girl. you know, you're going to be crushed by this. >> at the utah justice center, the case that the police turned over to josh player, then the assistant district attorney, seem very clear. >> the evidence was exceptionally strong in this case. it all kept pointing in the direction of mr. wright. >> there was the surveillance photo. the voice message, which was placed from a spot near the loss, according to sell tracking. and the eyewitness. he'd been shown a photo lineup with chris in it. and now he remembered some details that were different than he when he had that first dramatic day.

light courses when lies in the photo. he said, jarred something in his mind. >> i was 80 to 90% certain this was the man that i saw. then he found a picture of course on the web. and tried photo shopping in a few details. like a week. >> i looked at that and said yes, that looks almost exactly like what i saw. >> reinforcing a memory. but was the memory accurate? as for the rest of the case, the investigation wasn't over yet. the story just begun. the first puzzle pieces placed, were they seemed to fit. but -- >> i've never had a case this complicated before. >> oh, even more than complicated. as those friends in the loft began to believe. something darker than that. >> "dateline" returns after the break. you ever think about the storage operation a place like this must rely on? -no. they just sell candles, and they're making overhead? you know what kind of fish those are?

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here's what's happening. the california man was arrested for allegedly reading the u.s.

capital on january 6th. but today posing as a member of the media. the fbi says he worries tactical vest, black helmet with the word press. and arrest warrant affidavit says there is no evidence that the man is affiliated with a news organization. in tokyo, reported a two month high in covid cases on saturday. earlier in the week, the olympics banned spectators from the summer game. the tokyo olympics big begin in less than two weeks. now back to dateline. >> welcome back to "dateline". i'm craig melvin. chris wright was under arrest, charged with the murder of his business associate, ken dolezsar. but the investigation would reveal a damning new discovery. evidence linking chris directly to the crime scene. but for his friends and family, the pieces of this complex puzzle just didn't fit. was it possible chris had been

set up to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit? once again here's keith morrison with "suspicion". >> strange times around the loft building in downtown salt lake city. so shocking that one of their own, chris wright, had been arrested and charged with killing that wealthy businessman ken dolezsar. >> all of the evidence we obtain lead up to chris wright being the trigger man. >> in the suv can drove to his fatal morning meeting, for example, the color use that vehicle to flee the scene. and when the cops found it and scoured the interior, they got a hit. chris is the any. >> we had a dna result from the inside door handle of the suv. >> it was a tiny sample. not a perfect one. they seem to put chris in ken dolezsar's car, driver side. which certainly helped the case. but it wasn't quite airtight. not yet. the murder weapon had not been found. yes, they found an empty gun

case increase and bianca's apartment. but nothing to connect the case to the murder. and just about then -- >> a sergeant for the district attorney's office just happened to call me and ask, hey, did you ever look in that gun case? was there shell casing or anything in that gun case? >> turns out, the guns manufacturer includes a test fired shell casing with each gun itself. so, the detective went to the evidence locker, he said. retrieved the gun case. >> locked inside and there was a case. >> a moment. >> big moment. >> big moment because, when ballistics tested that shell casing -- >> it was a match. that shell casing was fired from the same gun as the shell casing recovered at the seam were can dolezsar was killed. >> chris wright's missing gun must of been the murder weapon. now the case looks very strong indeed. though kate courses wife bianca

certainly didn't think so. >> i know for certain, categorically that christopher didn't do it. >> in fact, the police and prosecutor had it all wrong, she insisted. and it was it just that chris had an alibi for the morning of the murder. no, she said it was a whole case. it was all wrong. chris is danny in the car, for example? of course it was there, she said. chris had admitted he had been in the car. but weeks before the murder. but, get this -- the steering wheel especially and all the car was covered with dna and fingerprints that did not match chris. nor did bianca by the carlson story. >> he said that with the guy had an eastern european accident. christopher is american born and bred. he also said that he had only seen a glimpse of his face. >> again i only saw a glimpse of it. >> in fact, said bianca, the eyewitness account more properly eliminated chris as a suspect. all agree to remember that ken and his color arrived at a

crime scene together in his in the same car. i think about it said bianca -- >> oh, is a dude wearing a wig? >> would chris where a week to a meeting with someone who already knew him? had met him? particularly someone as cautious as ken. >> you have a deeply paranoid man, ken dolezsar, who's doing business with chris for and has mess met him. you don't thing if chris forgot into the car all wake up that he would think that was strange? >> and if the eyewitness was right, the killer shot with his right-hand. >> christopher is staggeringly left-handed. >> staggeringly left-handed. then there was a business of eye color. now, long after the event, the eyewitness was seeing the killer had brilliant, little ice. but right after the murder -- >> i can tell i color, but his eyes seemed to be more bulging. >> he just got more and more refined and each to interview with the police. >> brilliant blue ice. >> yes, which of course, you

can see brilliant nordic blue eyes from the side. >> what about chris is this suspiciously missing handgun? the one link to the crime? >> says bianca she is certain chris did not use it to kill ken dolezsar that morning. impossible, she said. because he no longer had it. >> that gun i lost back in the summer. >> lost? >> yeah. >> you just lost a gun? >> i have a horrible have it approves new stuff. >> before chris ever met ken dolezsar, she took some visiting british friends shooting at salt lake. they finish at sunset. >> and i put down this little gun, the springfield on the ground, right next to the bank. and i went to help somebody with something else. >> then she got distracted, and she said. packed up the rest of the gear, went home. and neither she nor chris ever saw that gun again.

bianca's proof that then was missing? this video may just over a day later by her british visitors, who wanted to document their uniquely american experience. in their video, there is no sign of the springfield armory 9 millimeter. >> i lost stuff constantly and it was a bone of contention between christopher and i. >> and while the prosecution scoffed at bianca's lost gun story, her loft friends did not. >> if you knew sweet bianca, she accidentally through her gorgeous wedding ring away. we had to dig it out of the garbage. i was standing there. she can be an absent minded ding bat. >> but remember the day the police searched the loft? >> they took my toaster. >> she was focused like a laser that day, said bianca. watching intently, she said, as an officer looked in the empty 9 mm gun case. >> i was sitting beside her. no test fired shell casing, she said. >> i don't mean to sound

cynical, by no it wasn't there. >> only possible conclusion, said bianca? it was her accusation. the sandy police must have planted the shell casing. in order to link courses missing gun to the crime scene. it will be hard for people to accept the idea that this detective would do something as unethical as plant evidence. >> it was not there. i know that. >> the sandy police department categorically denied the accusation. but as those loft friends heard more of chris wright's side of the story from bianca, they became convinced he was innocent. >> there were so many parts of the puzzle that we're not adding up. >> unless, they reasoned, unless someone they knew very well wanted chris to take the fall. a dark suspicion wafted through the corridors of that all chocolate factory. perhaps the police, they said,

arrested the wrong neighbor. >> he had the perfect patsy and christopher. >> the neighbors start comparing notes and realize, someone in their circle was not who he seemed. coming up -- >> we were astounded. and i remember seeing, what? >> when "dateline" 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, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed.

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>> among residents of downtown salt lake loft, 90 or took root and grew around the story of the murder of ken dolezsar. it was funded weeks after chris was arrested. off to residents, dave and lisa mccammon were having dinner with her best friends, the novaks. >> he announced we are moving. and we were astounded. i remember saying to him, what? you've put all this money into your aloft. you've got all this investment here. why are you leaving? he said it's just time to go. >> he claimed to be their great friend, sociable, gregarious, larger than life. then said his neighbors once chris was arrested, he seemed nervous, and now he was gone. and so they wondered, was david novak running from something? the locked friends began reexamining those stories david told him over the years, particularly those about his criminal past. >> i started comparing notes and stories, and it becomes

clear. wow, david told me a different version of that. >> he's been lying, to put it rather bluntly? >> certainly not full truths. >> the brief prison term for mail fraud, turned out there is more to that story. a lot more. novak confessed to a con played out like a cinematic thriller. he used a private flying club he owned to run an insurance scam. then, as it caught up to him, he attempted to escape by faking his own death. ditched his airplane in puget sound. >> the fact is dead death in order to avoid insurance audit. that was not a crime of passion, that was a crime of calculation. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> or so the loft friends believed and if that was true, what might he have done here in salt lake? the suspicion only grew on the friends found out novak left town without mentioning it was he who fingered chris in that surveillance photo. >> did he ever tell you, i

identified christopher as the guy who -- >> know! no. >> of course that prepaid itself on as a very clue that led police to chris. iphone which chris blocked, said bianca, after novak short him -- >> novak said this guy routinely used these throwaway phones. >> what's more, said to bianca, chris could not have left that voice mail. because by the time of the murder, she says, he had given the air the phone away. >> he gave it to novak. >> and novak gave it to dolezsar? >> yes! yes, i mean, as far as we know. it's novak, so we don't know anything. >> and now a theory about motive drifted from loft to loft. had novak borrowed almost 2 million from ken? the friends said they watched him spend lavishly on high living and never saw evidence of that movie the loan was supposed to pay for. but really, was their old friend capable of orchestrating murder? and pinning it on chris? >> there's one person that bragged about knowing russian

mafia. >> how hard would it be to find somebody that looked like chris? and he introduced chris from the very beginning with that in mind of setting chris up. >> i mean, i know it sounds like a really dumb movie, but if you had ever met novak, the man has a byzantine mind. >> she recalled although supportive chats she had with no back after chris is arrest. >> turned out he was probably fishing for information. >> it reminded friend, john five, of a conversation with no back one night after they dined together. john posed a question, he said, ingest, of course, hypothetical. >> i said, david, have you ever contemplated committing the perfect murder? and he said, yes. the key element to that is making sure that someone is caught and charged with a crime once i have somebody they will stop looking and that's how you can really get away.

>> and now, novak had taken off. and even though their questions didn't amount to heart evidence, of course, chris defense attorneys wondered as they prepared for the trial why police had so readily dismissed novak as a suspect. dismissed him and a few other quite puzzling discoveries, like for example the whereabouts of cans widow dee 's. remember, she was in prison at the time of his murder. when she first talked to police, she told them she had no idea her husband had a meeting the morning of his murder. no clue who he was meeting with. turns out, she was not telling the truth. >> hello? >> you have a call from an inmate. >> hello? >> hi, honey. >> and standard procedure for prisons to record and made phone calls. this is ken talking to his wife dee the night before his murder. >> i'm actually meeting with my friend tomorrow at 7 am. go figure that out.

>> i love it. >> yeah, exactly. >> tomorrow morning 7 am. tomorrow night i should know more. >> police confronted dee in prison, recorded the interview. in it, she claimed the stress of losing her husband caused her to forget about that phone call. she dropped a bombshell. she said she knew who the friend was, ten was supposed to meet and it wasn't chris wright. she never heard of him before. >> david novak. that's who i believe he was meeting. >> chris's defenders wanted to know why the police didn't follow up on that or probe deeply into all that tension in dee new mower's family. odd, all of it. the feeling to them that something was missing, that the case against chris didn't hold together. so, as chris's trial finally got underway, bianca felt her husband was as good as home. >> it was just like... brilliant, you know? you know, they go away, they do

the thing, come back and i get my husband back. >> coming up, chris wright makes his case to dateline. >> people who are going to watch your show, i urge them to make their own decisions. >> when "dateline" continues. n "dateline" continues namaste... ...surprise parties. aww, you guys. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks... ...for 3!... ...so i can du more of the things i love. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection,

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>> chris wright's where the trial began in april, 2010. it had been more than two years

since ken dolezsar was shot dead in the village in packing a lot in sandy, utah. chris's defense did more than challenge the evidence. it made a provocative claim, that chris wright was the victim of a conspiracy. it conspiracy hatched right here in aloft by former neighbor, david novak, to protect the real killer. setting up chris to take the fall. a conspiracy the prosecution brushed off as nonsense. >> you would have to believe for it not to be chris right that it was somebody else that looked like chris, sounded like chris wright, had the phone bought by chris wright. used the gun bought by chris wright. had chris wright's dna and had a connection to ken dolezsar to find that it wasn't chris wright. >> but all of that claimed chris is defense that clever novak was quite capable of setting up. >> he didn't nailed from start to finish. >> like a chess game, somehow, 20 moves ahead? >> yes.

>> that didn't explain lee carlson the smart and eyewitness who sat in court and pointing his finger at chris wright. >> i am very certain, very clear what i saw and i may not have told it initially right off the bat under legal stress of what i saw, but i know what i saw and i know who i saw. >> except, there is one person who said he is most certainly sure lee carlson is mistaken. chris wright himself. >> i will answer any question you want to ask. >> chris was jailed after his arrest. he wanted to make his case today line in the flesh, but authorities wouldn't allow it. so, we talk to him on the phone. >> so, you say you didn't do it? >> i absolutely did not do it. >> we discussed all the allegations at length. he offered detailed reputations, and some allegations of his own. >> we are asked to believe that the police were incompetent and definitely that david novak is

crooked, when the only person who is innocent as the driven snow as you. >> it's not my fingerprints, it doesn't match my description. i had an alibi, i have no motive, and there is clearly a person who is pointing the finger at me who got $2 million. >> this is to cloak and dagger for a jury. >> i understand how difficult it is to believe, but the alternative is that i just simply got up one day and decided to go shoot some poor person in a disguise. >> chris want to talk about that voice mail. the one that helped lower can to his death. the voice mail detective carriger was shot was left by chris. the, no voice analyst ever studied it. >> the people who are going to watch your show are going to listen to my voice and they're going to listen to that recording. and i urged them to make their own decision. >> let's listen to it right now, all right? >> absolutely, go right ahead. >> hey, ken. this is robert. i talked to dave. he said we should get together

pretty soon here. >> that isn't you? >> that is absolutely not me. >> the jury got the case, april 29th, 2010. a jury that is certainly heard about it, but never saw the mysterious david novak. so, today by the prosecutors evidence or bianca's explanations? her alibi for chris? >> i was concerned because i've been told, you know, sometimes it can be a crapshoot. that was the phrase that was used. >> the jury deliberated for 11 hours. and the verdict? guilty. >> i can't even begin to explain... this-like bottom it that flew out. he wouldn't let me hug him. yeah... sorry. just give me a second.

>> it's all right. take your time. >> crying is not acceptable. >> why is that? >> because i'm english. >> but for ken's friends, at least matt beaudry, the verdict was vindication. >> a smog killer, and a jury and his peers listened to all the evidence and with that we did choice decided that he was. i'm satisfied with that. >> chris wright was sentenced to 15 years to life. and david novak has not been charged with or accused by the police of anything. though, whether or not authorities want to talk to him is less clear. >> you know where he is? >> i don't know where he is, no. >> are your people trying to track him down? >> well, part of the rules i'm constrained by is i don't speak about ongoing investigations or the existence of an ongoing investigation.

>> but as long enforcement was mom about david novak dolezsar's would i was not. dee mower filed a lawsuit against novak on grounds including wrongful death, conspiracy, breach of contract, and fraud. her suit alleged a third theory, that novak paid chris wright $25,000 to kill ken dolezsar. novak didn't answer the suit, nor attend the proceeding. so, in november, 2011, a judge granted a default judgment on the breach of contract and fraud claims and awarded mower $7 million. and august, 2012, the court granted her a motion to dismiss the wrongful death and conspiracy claims. so that a final judgment could be entered in the case. back in aloft, some imagined the worst about their former friend and neighbor. >> would you advise him to do if you could talk to him? >> talk to you guys. tell the story. >> if you have nothing to hide. >> refute me, tell me why what

i'm saying is not correct. we used to be friends. i'm more than willing to hear it you have to say, david. >> so, where is he? turned out, david novak wasn't so hard to find after all. in fact, here he is near his last known post loft address, an upscale neighborhood in a city northwestern city. didn't look like a man on the run. just a guy getting a coffee with his wife at starbucks, of course. he just isn't answering calls or emails from his former loft friends. and he didn't want to talk to dateline. telling us over the phone, he was not involved in ken's, has been cleared by the police and anyone who says otherwise is a liar and liable to be sued. bring it on, he said. so, is chris wright a liar? bianca and winning or perhaps willing accomplice? >> some people are surprised you stayed, because you could

go? >> i wouldn't leave a dog in christopher's situation. and i will work until my dying day to make sure that his name is cleared. >> wait for him as long as we have to? >> yes. no problem. >> and out in suburban sandy, utah, the case still resonates around the shiny new courthouse. we are hr struggles with his emotions a bit as he told us he did not send an innocent man to prison, but rather a chief justice for everyone. >> i was glad for the family as the victim. >> you take the stuff to heart, don't you? >> i do. i do. >> and while they stand on opposite sides of that chasm between innocence and guilt, there's no dispute about the man whose life was lost.

ken dolezsar was a man who loved a woman, just as chris loved bianca, who loved hockey, loved helping kids, and tried to do right by all that money. which is mostly still around. though, he is not. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. r watching >> i don't even think i understand what happened. because you don't want to hear details. that was the worst day of my life that i found out about my mom. >> a loving couple. a romantic hike. a secluded spot. >> she was turning to look at the bird. it's like her feet just went out from under her. >> all of a sudden i hear yelling coming from downstream. there was mrs. mueller floating face up. >> ally falling