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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  August 20, 2022 11:00pm-12:00am PDT

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and i can't even imagine anything like this happening again. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. thank you for watching and i'm natalie morales. i'm craig melvin.ine." >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> it's shocking. it just kind of, you go into crisis mode. i don't think they knew exactly what had happened other than that he was covered in blood. she was just broken and lost. there is a murderer out there and it is terrifying. >> it was supposed to be an anniversary celebration. 32 years together. >> they were in love even after all those years. they were very happy together. >> suddenly, an intimate moments turned to infinite
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terror. >> i just heard, help, someone is in trouble. i was scared. i was scared. >> a husband found murdered in a closet. a wife, tied up in another. >> they found her on the ground with her hands behind him back. >> she had bruising on her arms and on her face. >> inconsolable. screaming, crying. >> who could be behind this? >> it's me up inside -- >> their only daughter, desperate for justice for her dead. be careful what you wish for. >> everybody gasped. nobody could believe it. this terrifies me because this could happen to anybody. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to dateline. she was his teenage crush, then, puppy love turned into a lifelong love affair. eventually, high school sweethearts jamie melgar and sandra melgar got married and
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raised a daughter. they were celebrating a remarkable 32 years together when jamie was brutally murdered. >> to crack the case, investigators would have to uncover an illusion worthy of the great houdini. here is dennis murphy with "unspeakable". >> the scented candles were lit. the jacuzzi jets turned on high. it was a belated anniversary evening, but not some big blowout. sandra jaime were really not that kind of couple. >> there were so kind to each other, always very respectful. >> it was really the start of a like victory lap for the two. they raised the study daughter, did all the usual things that families do it now retirement for jamie weighs around the corner. >> they sat there and talked about the future and what they were looking forward to. >> but the future for these two would last no longer than the flame on that candle. by the next afternoon, there
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would be blood, lots of it. somehow, someone had turned a cozy celebration into a monstrous crime scene. >> it was just -- it was horrible. >> but in the world have happened in that house? >> i have no idea. -- >> the story of the two begins as high school meets cute. sandra, the new girl from laredo i signed a seat in her houston class from, just in front of jim melgar. their daughter doesn't know how many times he heard that -- story >> he used to pull my here. >> you're kidding. who is this guy behind me, pulling my hair? >> yeah, apparently one time he invited her ice skating, and a bunch of friends were going, so it wouldn't really be a date. when he shows up -- it's him in one of his friends, and his friend left shortly after that. >> so, a little bit of a scheme going. >> yeah, biden did well. >> and that was that. sandra and jamie were done
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deal. an inseparable couple. sandra studied nursing and jamie set aside every time he could for his family, juggling their job as a computer programmer while investing in real estate. happy family? >> very happy family. definitely a daddy's girl growing up. >> reporter: and yet he carried himself with a certain goofy joy, as melissa remembers. >> and he's going? i >> yes, very easy going. very easy to talk to. at the worst jokes. >> there were so bad that you just hop in grown and they became known as jim jokes. >> militias and sandra would really rise and then laugh intelligently at uncle jimmy. >> i remember him being like, oh, your uncle. >> the family's life around not just family but church as well. they joined the jehovah's witnesses early in the relationship. but by her early twenties the daughter liz had left the church. ? newly independent, she rushed into a marriage, a bad one. >> to that he was involved in
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heavy drugs? >> yes. >> that was the end of it? >> that was it. i didn't want to live that kind of life. >> but >> reporter: her parents marriage kept going through sickness and health. in fact, in recent years, james looking number younger than ever on a vegetarian diet and exercise regimen. >> when he realized he was getting older, he just want to make sure he was in his best physical shape. >> your mom, your poor mom, meanwhile, had a consolation of health problems, didn't she? >> yes. >> lupus, chemotherapy involved in that. >> at times, yes. she also had epilepsy. >> did she have the seizures? did you ever see her? >> yeah, she did. >> then december 2012 world around. the 32nd wedding anniversary. sandra was ale on the actual day. so they went out days later, on december 22nd. >> she is finally feeling enough to go -- >> reporter: the next day, the 20, third marissa's family would go to celebrate them with a late lunch. >> on the way there, i remember
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texting him -- >> texting your uncle? >> yeah, i didn't get a response. >> was that unusual, you didn't he didn't text back? >> yes. >> -- they knocked on the front door. >> nothing, no answer. >> marissa's brother, jamie herman, checked around the back of the house. no sign of jaime or sandra. >> we thought, well, okay, maybe they left and went to go to get something. my dad is like, well, his truck is out there. finally, that's when my dad said, i'm just going to go inside. herman walked through an open garage door and entered -- unlocked interior door. >> then he comes around to open up the front door. >> reporter: the visitors huddled in the dark entrance hall, expecting a greeting from sandra or jamie. biden came. just as they got ready to leave, they heard something that sounded like sandra. >> -- it was mumbling. >> we were is her voice coming, from marissa? >> we did not know. i just remember, i ran straight into the master bedroom. >> reporter: marissa waste
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after her father. >> i just remember saying, help, someone is in trouble. >> are you really scared? >> yes, i was really scared. the >> reporter: voice was coming from inside a walking closet attached to the bathroom. -- which to the -- he tugged the, side open the door and there was sandra. on the floor, tied by her arms and ankles, a life. >> he said that she did not look well at all. >> reporter: as marissa's mom cassandra lewis, sandra spoke. >> where is my brother, where is your uncle? >> the answer to that -- unspeakable. >> what had happened to jim melgar entities wife? coming up -- >> she looked like she had aged ten years overnight. >> just broken. and lost. >> reporter: sandra melgar the, only possible witness to a night of tower. what would she remember? >> there was a car following us -- >> when dateline continues.
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still cain uncle damien and sandra's bedroom doorway, weeping for first responders, trying to calculate her family's terrible new math. >> i still don't know everything that was going on. in >> reporter: the bedroom, open drawers, a tossed wallet. had this been a home invasion? and where was her uncle jamie? then, she glanced to her side
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and they are, about 20 feet away from the bathroom, next to jaime and sandra's bed. >> i just saw his ankles. >> and this was, wet in a closet area? >> yeah, in a closet -- >> off the master? >> so you just saw his feet? >> yeah, i don't even know what's happened to him, i just saw, his ankles were tied up. it was horrible. >> there was jaime, naked, covered in blood, on the floor, not far from his safe. -- a phone cord looped around his ankles. sandra was now freed up for tied, sprang from her closet captivity. a former nurse, she checked for his pulse and found none. >> your aunt is distraught. she is crying? >> yes, yes. >> marissa, what in the world could have happened in that house? i >> have no idea. i'm not sure who could've done something like that to him. to them. >> first responders weren't exactly sure what they had been dispatched to either. >> they told us that there's possibly two victims. and that's all we knew when we got. emt stephanie robinson robertson was the first responder on the scene.
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she checked on jaime. he was clearly dead? >> yes, clearly. >> you know gunshot wounds from knife ones wounds -- >> you couldn't tell. there was so much trouble i dry blood. i didn't notice the gash on down >> next emt robertson far found her way to sandra. by then collapsed on a chair in the bathroom, a family member by her side. >> she was kind of balled up a little bit and crying hysterically. >> the emt started to assess sandra, who said her head hurt. but -- >> she said she has no injuries. >> reporter: still, sandra seemed what's -- between gulping sobs, sandra said she simply could not remember what happened the night before. she had been unconscious, maybe had one of her seizures. >> she said, after a seizure, that it is not uncommon that she falls asleep for several hours. by >> reporter: now, harris county sheriff's investigators descended on a crime scene that
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was once just the melgars'modest home. jamie, they could see, had suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso. but looks of it, well over a dozen. the crime scene unit got to work inside, collecting evidence, things like a bloody chair near jaime's body. and a kitchen knife fished out of the bottom of the jacuzzi. sandra, seemingly in shock from her ordeal, declined to go to the hospital. instead, she went to talk with investigators. >> let's start yesterday. >> reporter: sandra told investigators the last thing she remembered was her anniversary night with jaime. >> we went out to -- eat >> and what time was that? >> it was about eight. i'm just guessing, i don't know. >> reporter: sandra told them they stopped for mixers at a cvs on the way home. >> what time did you get home? time d>> probably midnight. >> reporter: she said they intended to share some late right late night romance. candles and strawberries. >> we made some drinks. we got in the jacuzzi --
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>> and your master bedroom -- >> right. and then what? -- >> talking and drinking. >> but the intimate jacuzzi was disrupted by their dogs barking outside in the yard. >> he got out, said he was moving the dogs to the office. because they were too loud. we don't want the neighbors to complain. and he just was taking a while. so, i went out -- and he's going to get dressed. or change in my closet. >> reporter: maybe that's when she had a seizure. >> that was all i knew until -- [inaudible] >> reporter: as they talked, sandra broke dunn down. who could've done this, she wanted? she recalled for the detectives a scary moment on the way home. >> i think when we left cvs, there was a car following us, because we when we came out in our neighborhood, it was still behind us. and he was really close. >> reporter: something for the
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detectives to check. out after sandra's undocking, her cousin diane, who rushed into town to help, met her at a friends house. >> she looked like she had aged ten years over night. and she couldn't stop shaking. and so, i didn't want to ask her too many questions. >> reporter:, liz, remarried now, with an ocean away, living in your when she finally got her mother on the phone. >> what did you hear on her in her voice? >> she was just broken and lost. she was just devastated. >> and at that point you had very fragmentary information, right? >> all i knew was, my daughter was killed in a home invasion. and thankfully, my mom was still alive. >> that's not any kind of you should ever hear. >> it's shocking. it really doesn't sink in for just a while. i kind of just go into crisis mode. >> reporter: liz booked the next flight back to texas. >> i just knew i had to get there. >> had to get back.
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back to a new reality, with a murdered father and a traumatized mother. grieving would have to take a number, while the daughter held everyone together. nothing made sense. >> coming up -- >> where you worried about your mother? that whoever this person was might come back for her? >> absolutely. she was traumatized. >> reporter: begin to trickle in. who could've done this? >> you are getting information right away, a sketchy neighbor. >> yes, right away, -- a jail, suspicious. jail, suspicious
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discovery in her childhood home, home, liz melgar landed in houston. i daddy's girl, shaken even more by the face that was missing. >> i think at that time it really hit me that i was not going to see him anymore. he was not going to be there to pick me up from the airport. >> still a very rocky sandra
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came with family to pick up her daughter. >> we both just broke down at the site of each other. >> she had been through a terrible ordeal. you don't really even know the full story. but did you see injuries on her? >> she just had bruising on her arms and on our face. >> did she have a bump on her head? >> she did, she told me her head was hurting and i could feel it back there. >> liz insisted her mom get some rest. so the next day, when detectives came by the house, we lays in sandra were staying, the daughter was the one to field the questions. >> and you flew in yesterday? >> yes. >> and liz thought it prudent to record the conversation. she updated the detectives on her mother's health. >> she's just in complete shock. and she has retrograde amnesia, she -- has a hard time remembering things the way they -- because of the seizures. >> reporter: liz has witnessed the seizures -- the home invasion. >> i think she probably had a
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seizure and that probably freaked out whoever was there. and maybe they thought they killed her. the >> reporter: detectives asked liz to keep them updated on a recovery. >> because if he can remember a suspect, and that's the best thing for -- me >> no, i agree -- >> right now, at this point, we have nothing -- >> i've been asking, evan asking. >> detectives asked liz if they could pay a visit -- anything -- >> i can't imagine you going back to this house where you have known your hair parents and happy times. and then it is a crime scene. >> absolutely, it's the one place you are supposed to be safe. and it's just been tainted. >> she went through the house room by room, cataloging which he thought was missing. a tv set, jewelry, cash, and medication. last stop, the garage. the garage was full of things that could easily be stolen and pond pawned.
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>> -- >> an xbox console. could this have been the killer's loot, dropped in a panic as he ran from the scene? louise-caused called investigators. they returned to the house, snapped even more voters, and collected the backpack as potential evidence. they would later find beneath that xbox, some of sandra's jewelry. beneat liz realized she had an idea for detectives as well, a possible suspect. is it true, liz, that you even suggested they took a look at your acts at that point? >> yes. i tried to give them as much information -- >> turns out during the rocky last days of his marriage to liz, the melgars suspected he anybody lifted some of sandra's medication, the same sort now believed to be missing. the melgars'never reported their suspicions to authorities. but now liz told detectives, talk to the ex. by now, the murder break-in story was all over the news. >> deputies say he melgar can't
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remember who tied them up or who hurt her husband. >> reporter: and neighbor started offering up crime stopper tips. one of them -- check out a guy scene looking around the police tape. >> -- the houston chronicle's legal affairs reporter covered the murder. you got information right away kind of the sketchy neighborhood. no one to -- the pond and maybe at the scene that night. that's >> right, a neighbor who had just gotten out of jail who was suspicious. >> liz thought, add him to the list of potential suspects. >> did you have ideas for them? >> i did. >> she also suggested they talk to one of her parents tenants. someone who had disputes with her dad. and it was a coworker of jayme she got a bad vibe from. and, again, liz says she urged detectives to look at her ex. he had a record of drug arrests. if not him, what about people in a circle? months dragged by without word on the investigation. >> he blew someone out there
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has gotten away with killing your father? >> yeah, absolutely. who is hard to sleep at night, it was -- every little noise was happy, on edge. >> were you worried about your mother? >> oh, yeah. >> that whoever this person was might come back for her? >> absolutely, i was constantly worried. >> and i was a health at that time? >> she had started having seizures. >> she was traumatized. she had post-traumatic stress. she had anxiety. she had depression. she was a mess. >> leads clung to the hope that one of those lead she gave to detectives would eventually pan out. but for now, anyway, it looked as though law enforcement was playing its cards to close to the best. according to prosecutor barnett of the harris county district attorney's office, that was because they made some early -- >> officers had investigator burglaries and robberies for many years before they thought of homicide. and eight of the scene we looked kind of suspicious. >> so what was off kilter with
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this one? >> if it -- >> drawers weren't, open -- >> they were open a little bit but >> what about those items liz -- and that backpack of apparent burglars luci found in the garage? detectives took careful note of many other items. pricey things that had been left untouched. >> cameras, the bicycle, there was some painting equipment, there were things that were easy to take that were not taken. the stuff that was taken and put in a backpack was left in the garage. did make sense. >> the home, to investigators showed no sign of forced entry. that open garage door the only possible way in for an intruder. but law enforcement thought that is well thought it could've been staged. to investigators, this didn't look like a burglary gone bad, but more like a targeted killing. and they theorized their suspect with somebody already inside the house. >> coming up -- >> my memory is so bad --
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>> reporter: how murky was her memory? really? investigators are about to listen very carefully to sandra's story, when dateline continues. ntinues. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ ugh-stipated... feeling weighed down by a backedup gut" the joy of movement. miralax is different. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. ...free your gut. and your mood will follow.
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i'm craig melvin. an anniversary celebration that began with candles and strawberries, ended in murder. sandra melgar told investigators she had no memory of the killer who stabbed her husband jaime, and left her tied up in a closet. sandra's daughter liz offered several potential suspects. her ex husband, a former tenant, maybe a coworker. but investigators had a theory of their own. here again is dennis murphy with unspeakable. >> december 23rd, 2013. the day before christmas eve. also the first anniversary of jamie melgar's death, was impossibly hard for his family. >> that's all we really think
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about. >> should be holiday season, it's that awful memory coming back, right? >> yes, yes. >> so imagine the family is waiting for an arrest to be made in this thing. >> yes. we were anxiously waiting for that day to come. that doesn't matter if it's tomorrow, or if it's ten years from now, but we would like some answers. >> but law enforcement wasn't exactly forthcoming with the melgar family. might have been a reason. they doubted jamie's murder murderer was a burglar or even someone else in the center and jamie's remote orbit. >> there's always a first suspicion of family members, if there is nothing that really makes sense. >> and that suspicion had narrowed down to the person inside the house with jamie. sandra. her account of a blacked out 14 hours after their anniversary celebration -- >> i wish i could recall. >> to investigators, was just too weird to be believed. >> my memory is so bad. >> it seemed implausible to them that sandra really heard nothing the entire night. >> this is happening in a very
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small space. the husband is stabbed to death and found in one closet. and she's been tied up in another. >> that's right. >> reporter: investigators closely studied that interview they conducted with sandra. they found her more indifferent than distraught. >> do you know what has happened today? >> my husband was murdered. >> how? >> i don't know. >> reporter: and when sandra broke down crying, detective couldn't recall seeing any tears. detectives believe sandra's story morphed overtime. over time. for instance, the part about how long she waited to get out of the tub after jaime left to fetch the dogs. at first, she was vague. >> and he just, you know, was taking a while, so i got out. >> then, more specific. >> about 15 minutes, 20 minutes. >> later, another revision. >> maybe about five minutes. >> and detectives were perplexed by what sandra claimed she did and did not
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hear that night. >> hear anybody scream? >> no. >> hear the dogs? you can hear the dogs barking? >> yeah, because they were right outside the window. >> but after almost two hours, as investigators pushed her, sandra seemed to tweak this key element of her story. >> actually, i don't even remember hearing the dogs. my husband was the one that says -- he's got better hearing than i. >> of course, the changes in sandra story could be attributed to shock. but as the detectives unit, sandra was being deliberately evasive. enhancing her story to align with a conjured up crime scene. it sounds like a bloody event. was it? >> it was bloody in the area that he was in. there was blood in the carpet. there was blood on a chair. he, himself was very bloody. and the closet -- but nowhere and else in the house was there any blood. >> reporter: to investigators thinking, home invaders would've at least dragged a
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trace of blood on their way out of the house. but crime scene techs did not find any. when the rest of the forensics came back, the findings had limitations. reporter, amanda orr. >> although you have the murder weapon, it's been washed and in water for several hours. >> kitchen knife? >> kitchen knife, a large kitchen knife. it was found in the bathtub. so, any dna that could have been on it from the murderer, was gone. it was washed away. >> what's more, no blood was detected on sandra. in fact, no dna or fingerprints linked sandra to jamie somebody. or jamie to sandra's. and while detectives had a hunch about sandra, the evidence did seen didn't seem quite there yet for an indictment. as more time went by, it became clear to members of sandra's family, like her cousin diana, that law enforcement was eyeing her. >> okay, it's okay for you to think that. investigate her and then you'll see that there is nothing there and move on. >> reporter: but as the investigation dragged into july of 2014, their worst fears were realized. liz and her mom found out in a most unusual way.
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>> i went to the mailbox and it had been absolutely filled with flyers from lawyers, trying to get our business for a pending case. >> did you know what that was about? >> i had no idea what that was about. and so, i got on to the harris county website and i entered my mom's name, and i saw that she had been charged with my father's murder. >> a few days earlier, a grand jury had quietly voted to indict her. she turned herself in and posted bond. and then she hired veteran attorney mac secrest to defend her. >> quite frankly, i can smell bs from across the room. and when i sat down and spoke with her, her story was plausible. i didn't hear anything that rang kind of a false note. alison sea crest, max niece, served as counsel. >> she's a sweet person. she doesn't have a temper. and it was really apparent to us that she had a good relationship with her husband.
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>> reporter: they couldn't fathom how sandra was under suspicion for a crime that defied physical possibilities. after all, she was found tied up, barricaded in her closet. >> she believed she's had a seizure. or maybe, she was actually hit in the head and was knocked unconscious. >> to these attorneys, the case seemed suspiciously thin. >> where is the beef? where is the crime? i guess more importantly, where is the investigation? >> it had taken more than a year and a half to indict sandra. so, what were the detectives doing all that time? well, that's an involved story. investigated by nbc affiliate kprc tv. the lead detective on the case reuben shawn carousel, seen here, had become the center of a scandal. >> a controversy is going tonight over a document falsified by a harris county detective now working for the district attorney's office. >> the detective got himself into serious trouble for falsifying a search warrant in a case not connected to sandra 's. and that cast a shadow on his other investigations. >> that became a really big
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issue for the prosecution. and something that the defense would be able to definitely use against them. >> after the story broke, the detective left the sheriff's department. we stand the case against sandra, to? did your lawyers tell you this testing may never go to trial here? this thing has got so many holes in it? >> that's what we believed. absolutely. >> by the summer of 2017, it had been three years since sandra's arrest. she had a right to a speedy trial. it was put up or shut up time for the da's office. when you read all your stuff you, step back, you said, what do i have here? what was the biggest problem? >> the biggest problem was that i didn't have that many affirmative acts from her standpoint. >> what do you mean? >> i couldn't put the knife in her hand. i didn't have any eyewitnesses that she killed him. she didn't confess. >> what did you have going for you? >> her story was ridiculous. >> so, the prosecution made the call. the people versus sandra melgar
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would proceed to trial. >> coming up -- a deadly seduction? >> the prosecution thinks that sandra lured jaime the bedroom under the guise of sex play. >> she's massaging his neck. and then she makes a strike straight up. >> but where was the proof? >> this case ought to scare the hell out of all of you. >> when "dateline" continues. ontinues ♪ ice works fast... to freeze your pain and your doubt. ♪ heat makes it last. so you'll never sit this one out. icy hot pro with 2 max-strength pain relievers.
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august 2017, more than four and a half years after jaime was murdered in what's seemed at the time a brutal home invasion -- but now, sandra, his wife of 32 years, who is on trial for jayme's murder. she pleaded guilty. it put daughter liz in a painful judicial paradox. the people versus are bringing you the family victim justice, in their mind, and yet justice is putting your mother away. >> correct. i lost my father and here i am about to lose my mother. this is supposed to be the justice system that -- it just completely broken. >> prosecutor coeur d'alene barnett's message for the jury was simple, sandra, and only sandra could've done this. >> there is zero evidence -- >> no evidence that anybody else did this. >> prosecutor set out to
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dismantle the idea that jaime -- 's emt stephanie robertson told the jury that to her the crime scene looked off. >> it was a little disarrayed, the drawers were pulled, out nothing appeared to be missing. >> and to the the prosecutor used sandra's own words against her. the jury heard the will interview with the defendant, the one where detectives found are so oddly different. >> do you know what has happened today? >> my husband was murdered. >> reporter: and sometimes her story to the detectives didn't drive with wet they believe to be the facts. >> just trying to tell a tale so that she can go on with her life without being in prison. >> reporter: for instance, her account with of jayme getting out of the jacuzzi to quiet the barking dogs. >> there is a next door neighbor to the millibars who melgars constantly complained about the barking dogs. she said, that night, she didn't hear the dogs barking, like she slept wonderfully. one >> reporter: of the main
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problems for sandra was the big picture. so, you want to believe, the prosecutor argued, that home invaders were slashing your husband to death just feet away from you and you remember nothing? really? >> nobody running? nobody saying anything? when shouting? >> no, nothing. >> reporter: sandra's explanation was that she suffered from seizures and memory loss for years. reporter amanda lore is in the courtroom as the prosecution introduced some of sandra's medical history, refuting that. >> she did go to doctors appointments but the reported that she was not having seizures, that her medication was controlling them pretty well. >> reporter: so if sandra was lying about -- and make the house appear ransacked. >> she had a lifetime to get rid of the clothes, to wash yourself up, to get ready for the big finale. that >> reporter: our quieter prove a motive, the prosecutor
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offered one up for the jury anyway. there was no evidence of infidelity or typical marriage troubles. still, she suggested that sandra wanted out. but their religion made it impossible to split up the usual way. >> jehovah's witnesses don't allow you to divorce, unless someone is cheating. it's very clear that jaime was not that guy. -- divorce target ostracized, i get -- can talk with my friends. but if i kill him, and i will find out, i'm not ostracized. but >> reporter: wasn't sandra too frail to commit such violence, close quarters crime? maybe not. the medical examiner's report that jaime suffered 31 sharp force wounds. but none very deep. >> so, kind of stab, stab, counting taunting kind of injuries? >> -- or maybe not much force used, or maybe a weaker person. so >> reporter: how did the attack go down? the prosecutor had a vivid scenario of a lethal seduction. >> the prosecution thinks that sandra melgar lured jaime to the bedroom under the guise of
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sex play. >> she gets jaime to sit down, in the chair, and -- not -- makes a strike, all the way up. >> it was a dramatic show intel for sure. then it was showtime for the defense. >> the prosecution's case was all invented nonsense, they said. fury, strong evidence light. >> this case ought to scare the hell out of all of you. >> attorney max secrecy told the jury that -- was the victim of a bumbling, myopic investigation. >> -- this lady falsely accused. >> and the defense said, sandra so clearly attacked herself, barricaded and bound. >> she has been tied up. she has been left in a closet for 14, 16, 17 hours. >> they showed these photos in court, told the jury sandra sandra went to a doctor, who
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confirmed her injuries. >> when sandy went to the doctor, a couple of days later, and she had a full examination. of course, a hematoma was found on her head. >> as for that interview, the defense said the only thing it revealed was that the blinker detectives felt sandra was guilty from the get-go. >> she wants to find the killer. >> of course. r. >> of course >> i don't think you do. >> and they said it showed in the most trying of circumstances. sandra remaining consistent and composed. >> i had a seizure, and so i usually can't move anyway. >> another point, a forensic one, the defense told the jury about dna evidence that had been collected but not presented by the prosecution. >> there is unknown male dna on various drawers, from the master bedroom, and door handles. and also on that back back. so, it's huge. because it points to a possible
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other suspect. >> and the csi's had photographed a bloody swipe on the handle of the closet safe, just a short distance from jamie's body. the defense told the jury how detectives never ran it for possible prints, nor had it swabbed for dna. >> isn't that the kind of evidence you want to have available to consider? >> why wouldn't you at least test it? >> the defense to doff more examples of what they regarded as inept detective work. they never brought loses ex-husband in for questioning. or that neighbor with a history of petty burglaries, the one fresh out of jail. >> the police go-tos, house knock, he doesn't answer, and they leave their car. >> -- he at the time? >> right. and then never followed up on it. >> and defense thought they knew just how the investigation got so bungled. look at the man who led it. >> what kind of murder investigation would you have where you knowingly, intentionally, and willfully don't bring the lead investigator to court? >> the defense, not the prosecution, called the one
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time -- detective. they weren't allowed to tell the jury about the scandal involving that other case. but they asked him to account for a litany of fumbles in this investigation. case in point. a pair of sandra socks found out in the evidence room but instead in a filing cabinet, long after he had left the job. >> it's really horrible investigation. it's just inept. >> he's no physical evidence in this case that points to her at all. >> but there was another key element to this prosecutor's case. she knew the jury had one big question. was sandra a houdini-level escape artist. >> coming up. >> how do you tire self up -- all you do is just put it on your tie -- a week at the clever bag of tricks -- could sandra really pull this off? the jurors would have a stutter of an answer. when dateline continues. ine continues. from over 200 indoor
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prosecutors in the sandra melgar murder trial claim she had lured her husband jamie into their bedroom then stabbed him 31 times. the defense countered that there was no evidence linking sandra to the crime. in fact, she was tied up in the closet at the time. but was she? the prosecution was about to unveil a stunning theory. how sandra pulled off an elaborate and deadly hoax. here's dennis murphy with the conclusion of "unspeakable". >> sandra melgar's defense attorneys had try to portray
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the murder investigation as seriously flawed. but, perhaps their most persuasive argument was sandra herself. she didn't testify. but "houston chronicle" reporter brian rogers said her muted appeared spoke volumes. >> there's an old adage indefensible if you can make your client look like a school mom, do it. and she kind of come so cross that way. >> kind of frail? >> small. you have a hard time believing she could even yell. much less stab anyone. >> and how could that seem petite women have managed, as the prosecution contended, to which nature beneath the doorknob of the closet that she was already inside? and beyond that, find her own hands and feet? the prosecution had an answer for those houdini-like skills. >> she definitely prepared for this. i'm sure she practiced the
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chair behind the door. >> the prosecutor said sandra had come up with an ingenious way to wedge that you're under the doorknob from the inside. by sliding a pillow sham along the floor. how is that, you ask? well, she played the jury this video of investigators recreating the process. >> the detectives videotaped themselves putting their chair on the pillow sham and pulling the pillow sham underneath the door, so you can pull it close. from the inside. >> so you can pull it from inside the closet? >> that's. right >> prosecutor barnett said it wouldn't be all that hard for sanders to tie her own hands behind her backs. she showed us what she showed the jury. >> so, how do you tie yourself up in that figure eight pattern? >> it's pretty simple. all you do is just put it on your tie, turn in the back, and you just mess around with it.
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any kind of way. the point is, that it looks legitimate. not that it is legitimate, but it looks legitimate. the >> prosecutor argued sandra did this, just minutes before the family discovered her. which explained what the emt said she did not see on sandra 's wrist. >> she had no bruises. no ligature marks. nothing. >> but the very thought that sandra could have come up with these elaborate tricks and executed them, that's sheer speculation, said the defense. >> that's a theory, folks. there is no evidence of that. >> a theory that the defense said investigators who didn't even try to cooperate with the eye witnesses who had found sandra. doctor liz said after that night, investigators never came back to ask the family what they saw. >> they never really spoke to your family again, is that right? >> yes, they never reached out to anybody. they could have asked them about the theory of the chair and the math under that year. you know? they could have asked them about the surroundings. >> and they would've heard how the family said they needed scissors to cut sandra free. her wrist so tightly bound. >> i have a big problem where they are not following through. they're talking to witnesses who had personal knowledge. >> the prosecution said it investigators followed the
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evidence and did a thorough job. it was now up to a harris county jury to decide sandra's feet. the first day of deliberations ended with no decision. the jury said you have to go back to your office and how to go back and protect work? >> you can't work. you try to do other stuff, but you really can't. >> finally, on day two, there was a verdict. >> we were all saying is going to be fine. this is a joke. no worries. >> surely the jury will see it with the family see it? >> exactly. >> sandra melgar stood to learn her fate. >> we the jury find the defendant sandra jean melgar, guilty as charged with the indictment. >> sandra collapse into her chair, sobbing. liz, the on devastated, grasped for her mother as she was led away. >> it sucked the life out of me. i just felt the room spin. and i just felt like my world was collapsing. >> we just could not believe. it could not believe it was happening to her.
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>> to prosecutor barnett, this was justice. both for the state and for jamie melgar. >> she's committed a crime and they found her guilty. i'm glad. i've done my job. and justice has been served. >> the jury sentence sandra to 27 years in prison. her lawyers have begun the years long appellate process. from behind bars, sandra wrote us this letter saying she's at peace because she knows she's innocent. her family supports her, so, she's not giving up. analysts? well, she and her kids do their best to carry on without jamie or sandra. >> my daughter just loved her loved her nana so much. and it was too heartbreaking to tell her that nana wasn't coming home. >> what do you miss about your dad the most? >> every day when i look at my
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kids, because i know what a wonderful grandfather he would have been. the jokes and the games. probably the choice he would have made for them. >> they never got a chance to roll their eyes at a gym joke? >> yeah, yeah. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> i'm natalie morales and this is "dateline. " >> it's pitch black. we locked eyes there just for a split-second. he was stunned, he was frightened, he had no idea what hit him. he knew that we had him. >> he was untouchable. ruthless, lawless, murderous. he was willing to kill whoever he needed to kill. >> the drug lord, el chapo. >> the most wanted fugitive besides osama bin laden. >> they said, no one will ever catch him. >> but him in this team did it in the most astonishing way. >> surprise you? >> i could not believe it. >> the american agent who helped capl

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