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tv   Dateline  MSNBC  February 12, 2023 9:00pm-10:00pm PST

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i'm craig melvin, and i'm this is dateline. >> it was tough to think that
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anybody can do that to someone. to look at the pictures of what they did to her. and hear details of how it's carried out. it is just devastating. >> shauna tfa. loving mom by day. biggest cocktail waitress by nights. >> i was at one of the bars and as our walk by. every single head turned. he was after her shift that they found her. the victim of a ruthless attack. >> your heart just drops to your stomach. potential suspects, how about the casinos worth of customers? >> we do know if there's some psycho watching us girls work. >> or could the answers lie and the dead woman's past? >> shine aside the thinking i have got to get out the situation. >> from out of the blue, a tip. >> he had some information that was connected to her heart. that would reveal a diabolical
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plot. >> others can understand that this is reality. but was this killer too clever to be caught? >> he is smart. smarter than we are. welcome to dateline. shauna hit the jackpot in las vegas. i handsome husband, adorable daughter, and a good job. but there is a dark side to sin city, and sadly, the beautiful caucus waitress became its victim. and cases like this one, the husband is often a suspect. but the crime scene was telling investigators something else. and they got a hot tip. but like so many things in vegas nothing was as it seems. here is keith morrison with under a full moon. >> she was finished now, tired, run outs.
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it must have been as she walked away from the excessively chirping machinery. and the bleary eyes of the gamblers under the realized. who called offer again, and again. outside of the night, a full moon bay the great houses of delighted sin in a gust of shade pale. it was september 29th 2012. at precisely three clock in the morning in the back room of the casino. a cocktail waitress name shauna, inserted her time card in the staffing machine and set up to break a little rule. shauna had parked her car in the back lot, i practiced discouraged because surveillance cameras were unable to track her all the way to her car. still, easier this way. and after all, but a stalker really be waiting for her there? under a full moon? >> it was absolutely horrible. we felt so helpless. >> it's everyone's worst
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nightmare. >> we do know if any of us were next. >> and never occurred to sean to become a cocktail waitress when she moved to vegas as a 20 something back in the mid 90s. what you want didn't was to be closer to family. meaning, big sister paula. >> she originally just thought there's no way. cocktail waitress. i don't even drink. >> in casino town, a cocktail waitress can make good money. so now, at 46, she was a veteran. >> she would laugh at yourself and say, well as sedona what these caucus are. i just ordered them, and they came to me, and i just go take it to the people. >> but she was good at it. everybody can see that. >> all the customers love shauna so much. >> why? >> she was a sweet person. beautiful. >> she made close friends, a work family, really. including keller chaplain and stephanie vargas. >> as i wanted the bar and i saw her walk by. every single head turned on that bar watching her walk by.
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and i remember thinking why don't i look like her? because men, women, they just loved her. >> but the one love there quite the way he did. i handsome boy scott of a firefighter named george tiaffay. george was a genuine article. and all american good guy. he'd overcome early obstacles become a top notch students in high school. a star athlete. this is a sister, marie. >> valedictorian, on the football team? >> you would think he'd be just a jerk right. it is kind of a jock means there, who knows, stereotypical. >> it was quite the contrary said. murray >> he was also calming force among, family and friends. he was the gentle speaker. he had this outlook in life where i want to go out and make the most of a place. >> so george did. he owned a purse to disappoint
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a west point. after graduation became a combat engineer. served as a builder in panama. his childhood friend, aaron salano, went out for his. it >> the story to tell about the mission to accomplished building schools, clinics, roadways, and bridges. really had an impact on his life. he finally felt like, hey, i'm getting to do something. >> majority of the military but the rank of captain he took a corporate engineering job but soon realized that life an office building wasn't for him. he wanted to work for real people. which is why george put aside that fancy degree of his and went to vegas. to train as a firefighter empty. >> focusing on himself was not how he wanted to live his life. he wanted to serve. that was the favorite word of his, to serve. >> so while shonda served drink at the bar. george served as a firefighter. and found time to volunteer. do we could for the down on their luck souls who live in the fringes of so much glitter.
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and 2004 they had a baby. >> he loved it. her daughter was the most important things are in this world. i mean, everything she did revolved around her daughter. >> and they are dancing to everybody's favorites. >> and then, two years later, a marriage in hawaii. just three of them i. back in vegas, it was a complicated life. what with georgia's eye -- and then it was september 29th 2012. three a.m.. she walked the empty lot to her car. the cameras points away from the strip. under that full moon, headed home. no i.d. was waiting for her. it was 9 am when george arrived with their daughter. she had spent the night at grandma's, he at the firehouse
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at work. but why was the garage door open? what was that inside? george had grown accustomed to trauma and death but this? >> at the gates report a break-in and a murder. >> it was a chilling discovery. shauna i tiaffay found beaten to death inside for home. and some of personal items were found outside the house. what might they reveal? coming up. >> what crosses your mind when you realize that there's somebody discarding things that was a strange or predator? >> absolutely. predator, sexual predator. >> when dateline continues. n dateline continues ♪ ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements at 4 weeks.
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incomprehensible is that she lived in a good safe neighborhood. the part of our vegas is not party. the part of town where people work to casinos raise their families and live ordinary quiet lives. well, this is where they found her, george and their eight-year-old daughter, inside her own house. not so safe after all. >> i think i need to report to -- a break-in and a murder. >> george would've known, even
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if he hadn't been an emt. >> okay, what's going on? >> she'd been dead for hours. >> my wife -- my wife is, on the floor -- bloody, stiff, not moving. >> we get a call in the morning. >> detective dan long has been in homicide a long time. god knows vegas has kept him busy. him and his partner, terry miller -- >> when we arrived, there were fire department personnel everywhere. >> it was all too obvious, shauna have been attacked probably as she walked in the house, and was beaten with something blunt and hard. >> and there was things done with the body that made us think that there was possible sexual assault of some type, and there was posing of the body. >> some kind of predator at work here? a predator who escaped with a good hunk of cash by the looks of it, shawn's purse was missing. >> cash and casino chips, they get tipped with casino chips, they are known to make 300, four, hundred five done $2 a
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night. they make a lot of money especially if they're good. and we did send detective at the palms and interview them, and they said that shauna is one of the best employees that they had. >> but something happened after she left the pump. so, what? >> was shauna very beautiful, is someone that saw her at work, and follow her home? >> of course, as the husband, george would had to be considered as possible suspected to. so detectives pulled him aside and interviewed him on the spot. >> georgia, do you understand the statements being recorded? >> understand. >> you understand what we want to talk to you about what happened this morning? >> yes sir. >> judge told the detectives that when he saw the garage door, he had their daughter
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hang back while he went inside. >> i saw shauna's feet, just lying, they're frozen looking. and in my job, i know what that means. >> okay, are you a paramedic? >> i am an empty eye firefighter. >> their daughter, thank, god did not see anything except george. he rushed route to the street. >> i don't know if there was somebody there. i just wanted to get out of there with my daughter. >> he had taken the little girl to shauna's place because it was her turn. >> because we are currently separated, and we are planning on moving back in together as we started getting along again. >> and meanwhile, they have this complicated arrangement. shauna worked 7 pm to 3 am at the casino, george, as a firefighter, worked long shifts and got lots of days off. >> mama will be happy? >> third daughter shuttled back and forth between them. and when they were both at work, the girl spent nights with georgia's mother. >> okay, what shift did you work yesterday? >> a 24-hour shift. >> so he was at work when shauna was killed. of course, they just some checking just to be. sure >> he was there on every run. he hadn't left for any reason. >> but he was on every run. did not leave work at all.
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so, not a husband this time. >> he had nothing to do with the attack of shauna. >> but george did offer a possible lead. >> the garage door was open. which is unusual. so we were worried because, my wife's house got broken into a week or two ago. >> the thief in that earlier burglary, it appeared, new host sean's bathroom to take a shower, and left with several pairs of shawn's panties and jewelry. he left behind a pair of boxer shorts that were small. back, then shawn a mediately suspected some neighborhood teens, said george. >> so she had discussed it with several people, including george, and decided that maybe, she left something unlocked and it could be some kids that live in the neighborhood. >> so, is that who killed her? looking around the crime scene,
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the detectives realize that china's killer or killers had been into her booze, had taken not just her purse, but like in that earlier burglary, her underwear. so they said about checking every one of the neighborhood boys and they had solid alibis, all of them. >> they were not involved in the break-in, they were not involved in shauna's death. now things get even more scary. because we don't know what we have >> what's that word got out, it can very quickly spread the terror around, like it already had among shauna's coworkers. >> we did not know if there was a psycho watching us girls working at the palms, and we don't know if any of us were next. >> the predatory -- got a boost on that second, i went on a walking path near shawn's house, someone found
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bits of her purse, i. d., makeup kit, personal things. >> what crosses your mind when you realize it's someone walking away from the scene discarding things? >> a stalker. or, absolutely, a predator, sexual predator. >> spread, out that got the rest of homicide involved, days off were canceled. everybody, out they looked everywhere. >> there was considerable pressure. pressure from media, pressure from our administration. everyone wants this thing solved and put away quickly. >> and then, quite suddenly, a break. a tipster on the crime stoppers line. with a story to tell. >> he had some information that he thought was connected to our murder. >> a wild goose chase, maybe, and maybe not. coming up, the tipster mention the detail about the crime, one that gets everyone's attention. >> no one knew that but the two of us. >> when dateline continues.
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detective long approached him. sweet as pie, great hound was, he said he would be glad to go to the station, have a chat, his real name was noel stevens. what did he tell you? >> he knows shauna, he knew where they lived, he did yard work and handyman work for george and everyone else in the neighborhood. >> so someone shauna knew. someone george the do-gooder
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wanted to help. but greyhound, or noel, was adamant that he had nothing to do with shauna's murder. then he agreed to show detectives his campsite out in the desert. >> what did you find? >> swimsuit bottoms that in our search of shawn's house appeared to be the one that match the top that i had seen in her bedroom. >> so greyhound was the burglar poking around in sean's personal things, and in fact, her friends had recalled that she had grown uncomfortable with this charity case we did work around the house. >> she did not want noel in the house anymore and she said, you better get out of this house or i'm calling the police on you. >> so was he the killer? out of the campsite, detectives did not find any evidence linking him to the murder. so, they kept looking. >> one of the other things that big will told us was that noel stevens had a campsite number
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two, and a campsite number two. >> a second campsite, out there, somewhere. but where? and what, if anything, was hidden there? >> coming up. >> in the bush, he saw a pair of jeans. it appeared to have blood on them. >> when dateline continues. ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪ mom. can we get a puppy, mom? please? girls, pets are a big expense. aww. [ audience cheers ] maybe try switching your car insurance to progressive. you could save hundreds. [ audience laughter ]
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here's what happening. it has happened again. the u.s. military shot down another unidentified object, this, time over lake huron. near michigan on sunday. this is the fourth airborne objects down over north america in just the past nine days. a senior administration official tells nbc news that president biden directed the object be brought down out of an abundance of caution, and that the recommendation of the pentagon. and now, back to dateline. d now, back to dateline.
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it's not on any sightseeing itinerary, but this too is las vegas, rugged, desert terrain that is a refuge or hiding place for the desperate and troubled. >> believe it or not, the whole area has homeless people up there. >> this is where greyhound took them. this is where he live, he said. out there, somewhere, they were convinced that there must be a second campsite, possible evidence about the killing of shauna tiaffay, so detective miller won up with the police air unit to have a look around. >> those two pilots decided they were going to fly that whole area for us, and they actually located the second campsite. >> we entered and found a citation in the name of noel stephens. we were at the right place. >> so they spread out, kept looking, and pretty soon, one of them called out. >> about 175 feet from the tenth, he found a bush, and under the bush, he saw a pair of rolled up denim jeans that
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appeared to him that had blood on it. we put those in for immediate dna testing. it was shauna tiaffay blood, and pants were worn by noel stevens. >> that's kind of your story there, how? >> that's kind of our story. >> proof that handyman noel stevens was a murder. could the story be that simple? >> listen to shawn's sister paula for example, and things start to sound a bit more complex. >> i just think that he always loved himself more than he loved anyone else, and it was all about him and what he wanted. >> that was george that she was talking about, the selfless firefighter had another side, so paula. >> the verbal abuse, the intimidation, the control, georgia is always a controlling guy. >> hold the camera in your hand, push it away from us. >> according to paula, george
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had become ever more controlling and judgmental, especially about shauna's spending habits. it only got worse when shauna told george that the marriage was over. >> he said, if you don't come back to me, and we can solve this out, you will lose custody of your daughter. -- >> that was his first? >> that was our number one the fear. oh, absolutely, he used her daughter as a way to manipulate shauna, time and time again. >> shauna had been letting her work mates retakes misogyny that george sent as things got worse to the marriage. >> one text be nice, short and sweet, i love you, i have been thinking about you all day, we need to work things out. and then we would be working, and she would not be able to text him back right away, and
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ten minutes later, he is blowing up her phone, cussing her out, calling her names. >> shauna supporters remember her funeral quite differently than georges did. >> he had no emotion. no emotion at all. he did a eulogy, talking about how much money shauna liked to spend and that there was one time that she was at the gas station and accidentally left the pump in the car. >> in a eulogy? >> in a eulogy. >> paul outwatched george and his daughter at the cemetery and fumed. >> they had not even lowered her in the ground yet, and he said, come on and took her hand, it's time to go. i watched him walk off with my little niece, eight years old, just lost their mom, and i watched him walk off with her, and i thought, this is exactly what he wanted. he wanted all the control over money's. >> paula told the police her suspicions, even before they began chasing down leads on greyhound. even though they had a killer, the idea that george was involved somehow was already in the back of their minds. on the other hand, georgia's family was just as eager to
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ensure the police that those attacks on georgia's character from sean aside were complete nonsense. >> i never saw shauna act cowed or afraid of my brother. she had an equal footing in the way they interact with one another. so, that's why i still can't believe the insinuation and allegations that he was abusive or even controlling. >> georgia's friend, aaron solano, could not agree more. >> no matter where he finds himself, whatever challenging situation he finds himself in, he has always been consistently kind, consistently caring. >> so, which george was the real one? the detectives decided to pay george a visit at his house, though they did not tell him what they heard about him, the good or bad. >> mr. -- can i call you george? >> in common george. >> thank you. >> sure, he knew greyhound, but never heard him called noel stevens before. >> you knew him as something else.
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>> i know him as neil smith. >> george told detectives how he and shauna had prevented neil smith and tried to help and get back on his feet. >> me and the wife, you know, kind of looked at him like our little charity case, because he was a nice guy and, you know, down on his luck. >> right now, detectives knew that greyhound wasn't attic, big drinker. so they asked george -- >> was huge ordeal? or >> no. >> alcohol? >> yes, he would chicago. not a lot, but a beer to. >> just appear to, now and then? >> yes. >> in his interview with the detective, greyhound said that he and george were great friends, worked out together, drink together a lot. but then listen to this. as george kept talking, the man
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he said he knew as neil became noel. >> and she said, you know, can no help us out with this? if it was something that wasn't gonna, maybe no can, nor could be better at anything i was not. >> remember, he said he never heard the name noel stephens before? he knew him as neil smith. was it an honest little slip, or was george hiding something? >> is it possible that he was confused by the name? greyhound used several different names. >> when you get nervous, you revert back to whatever is natural. he reverted back tunnel. he just got done telling us, i have known this man for years as new, and then all help me move. that's a tale. >> why would george amid to knowing greyhound and then lie about the name? >> detectives left georgia home and made a plan, they hoped would shake out the truth. >> we decided to amp up the pressure. >> coming up --
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>> a bold calculation but detectives was about to trigger a stunning chain reaction. >> he's forcing vehicles of the road and plowed she into summit better. they said he committed suicide. >> when dateline continues. robitussin. the only brand with real honeyand elderberry. ♪ crunchy ♪ ♪ tasty ♪ ♪ sweet or savory ♪ ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty, sweet or savory ♪ ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty. sweet or savory, ♪ ♪ always satisfying, gimme- ♪ blue diamond almonds. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ always satisfying, gimme- ♪ in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight.
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stimulate, maybe upset a suspect that you have not cornered, hoping for an overreaction. sometimes it works, sometimes, not. even though they didn't have a solid case yet, the detectives let word slip that they intended to arrest george, charged with murder, hoping he would do something rash and maybe, incriminate him self. >> he was told by his former attorney that he would be arrested. at the same time, police officers were showing up at my mother's doorstep. >> what did george do? he got into his truck, reached over to his mother's house, dropped off his daughter, roared off again. police watching. >> driving extremely fast. use force in vehicles out of the way, 40 seeing vehicles off the road and then plowed straight into a summit barrier. the officer following said he just committed to side. >> what did you think when you got that report and heard about the? >> well, i think it was a very good indication to us that we
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are on the right track. >> if suicide was his intent, as that detectives assumed, it did not work. his injuries were not severe. still, it looked to detectives like a guilty george would rather kill himself than face a murder charge. as george late in the hospital bed recovering, nor stephen -scape police the final piece they need, he confessed that he killed shauna and set his good pal george asked him to do. >> we want to see him at the hospital. we went in and told him that he was under arrest. >> did he say anything? >> he asked to speak with his attorney. >> i just knew that george had something to do with it. >> both the george and noel were booked on murder and conspiracy and burglary charges. >> georgia is the one that wanted shauna dead. george is the controlman that needed that control of shauna, and he had a tour of his disposal that worship tim, loved him, that would you were needed to be done. >> no stevens pretty guilty and
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spent the next three years cooperating with the investigation, while george pleaded not guilty, set up a ministry in the core county detention center. he looked his family, including sister maria, square in the eyes and swore that he did not do this. >> why the age-old conclusion that the husband was that it? >> he was a statistical suspect but they won for sure. >> why would she say that anyone would believe an attic and known liar over george? detectives theory that a guilty conscience led to a suicide attempt. >> let me tell you, he has been on suicide prevention squats. he is an empty, he is quite knowledgeable about what it takes to cool yourself in a vehicle, so driving that large vehicle into a rare we do see people on is not how an expert tries to commit to set. he did something stupid, but he did not try to comes off.
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>> several firefighters can twos defense to. fellow west point grads, south of france -- >> i truly believe he is innocent. he gives too much of himself, and i think that is one of the reasons he finds himself in a situation that he is in. >> were you surprised at the amount of support that georgia? >> no, no, george, he makes lifelong connections. that's part of his generosity. >> so, on a searing hot summer day, in late august 2015 -- >> good morning. >> those lifelong connections sat on one side of a las vegas courtroom. >> george was adamant that this go to trial. he would not accept any plea deals, anything. >> on the other sign, a sea of hot pink. >> there was an outpouring every day. lots of people that showed up
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wearing pink. >> why that? >> pink was shawn's favorite color, and not pale pink, a pink. >> ex work mates were there to. >> i wanted the jury to see that she was not just a vegas cocktail waitress. that she was a good person, beautiful person, good human being. >> prosecutors told the jury that we'll know greyhound stevens was the admitted killer of shauna tfa, he never would have done it, if george did not put enough to it. >> he had a singular goal of, i need to kill my wife, and he has to keep pushing noel to do it. >> please be seated. >> shawn's sister politics defied that she encourage her sister to move out. >> i told her that based on things you stymie there have been going on for a while, that i believed that she should separate yourself from george and move to a different home. >> so she did, and george increased his contact with no, his phone calls the stevens in the months before the murder proved the conspiracy, so the
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prosecutors. they showed the jury george's phone records. >> if you look at how much he called no, 87 phone calls. >> three, four calls a day? >> yes, his mother is once a day. >> then they said, look at this. here is george annual shopping together, buying gloves, dark clothing, a knife and on four different occasions, they bought amorous. >> this ended up at george tiaffay, when he has to perfectly good hammers of the garage. >> look at all this have been but a murder kit, they ask? >> one final thing, greyhound told cops that he got into shanna's place with the key that george gave him. look at this, here is george at the horror store buying a key like the key that noel used. only one possible conclusion, so the prosecutors, -- >> north stevens used the hammer.
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the person who used no stevens is george tiaffay. it's a good story, it's real interesting, but it's not evidence yet. >> this is georgia's defense attorney robert lankford. >> there is absolutely reasonable doubt as to george tiaffay involvement in the case. >> those surveillance videos, for example, that the prosecution found so damning, none of the weapons they bought was the actual murder weapon. besides, most of what they bought together were simple and innocent camping gear. george helping a man in need, as usual. >> he thought he was helping out north evens to live out where no wanted to live, which was outside of town. >> as for the 87 phone calls, the prosecution said proved george and brown conspired to kill shauna, there is nothing sinister there, said the defense, just a manchin to
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contact his charity cheeks handyman. >> i live out in the area, and cell service is notoriously bad. on top of, have you ever tried to call a handyman in this town, it is ridiculously difficult to get a hold of those kinds of workers to come to work. it >> in fact, said the defense, do i think the state had time george the murder was no steven 's word. >> without no stevens statement to the police, george is an innocent man. >> not of the jury believe stevens, said the defense, but even his own france, tipster big will set a court that the man was a habitual liar. >> honestly, on a scale of 1 to 10, i would put him at a scale of one and a half. >> ten being varying on us? >> one and a half meeting on a subtle, that is correct.
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>> georgia's attorney was itching to cross examine the habitual liar that damaged his client, which presented the prosecutors with a dilemma. the man at the center of the case against george might just destroyed. >> could be a real problem? >> could be a real problem. there was substantial amount of discussion between him and i over whether or not we calm or not. >> is that a play, you disagreed? >> oh yes, we disagreed. >> coming up -- a risky decision looks like it might just backfire. >> do you hear voices? >> yes. >> do you remember saying to that person that they sounded like monsters? >> yes. >> not just voices, hallucinations too. >> but kind of hallucinations? >> i see shauna sometimes. >> when dateline continues. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on... ♪
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murder shauna timothy, he confessed to it. but he also claimed that he was told to do it by her husband, george. prosecutors had a tough decision to make, and their case hinged on the outcome. here is keith morrison with the conclusion of under a former. >> prosecutors had a big problem. they knew it.
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the problem had a name, noel stephens, greyhound. >> no is a very important piece of information, but he's also the biggest risk. >> no credibility sweepstakes, he's way down here somewhere, and the defendant is way up there? so, they argued, these two prosecutors. she support him on the stand. >> my thought was, you don't understand who george is and how sinister this was until until him eternal and say that this is the person that he gave access to. >> he said, don't take the chance. >> they can say he is crazy, psychotic, almost man did it on his own. >> who prevailed? she did. >> they called noel stevens. >> up one greyhound to the witness stand and offered his grisly story. >> i hear here and ahead. >> when you hear in the head, what happened? >> she hit the floor. >> at the she hits the floor, what do you do? >> at the jumped up or, what do
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you do? >> keep on hitting her. >> how long did you hear for? >> i hit her until she did a move anymore. >> why? because he said somebody told him to. >> who told you because shauna? >> george. >> but was it true? >> now, the defense got to ask greyhound about, for starters, his addictions. >> wild turkey 101. >> ivanka whatever, i can get my hands on, every day. >> you can every day? >> every day. >> one or two? >> i think until i don't have any more. i drink. >> he smoked weed, humid it and give speed. but it got worse. >> do you hear voices? >> yes. >> do you remember saying to that person that they sounded
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like monsters? >> yes. >> hallucinations to. >> we'll kind of hallucinations? >> i see shauna sometimes. >> sometimes? >> yes. >> you see other people? >> sometimes. >> i think everybody agreed that no stevens is as crazy as an outhouse rat. >> how could you believe a man is crazy is that? >> you are outside of reality at that point. >> so, a man who hears voices? that got the jury's attention. one or even submitted a question right by the judge. >> did the voices you said he would hear from time to time ever tell you to call shauna. >> no. >> there was the choice for the jury. george used null as a murder weapon, or the drunk who heard voices killed shauna and blamed an innocent man. the lawyers, friends, the family, from both sides, could only sit and wait. >> it was nerve-racking. for three days, they waited.
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the prosecutors, once confident, worried. >> -- by day three, you think, is there a holdout? >> count one -- >> and then finally, here it was. >> guilty of first degree murder. >> guilty. george tiaffay, his face almost serene, absorb the verdict. >> it was just this big weight taken off my soldiers. we know because, i felt this entire time that china did not have a voice in this. i have been so worried about representing her right and saying the right things and making sure that i portray her as the wonderful person that she was. >> but george annul were sentenced to life. george has no chance of parole. >> it was so much relief. >> closure. >> george began serving his life sentence, and then, in july 2017, he filed a handwritten petition asking to be released from prison.
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it included an explosive mission. he told the court my wife, whom i truly loved dearly is that, brutally murdered, and it's my fault. after denying it for six years, george finally confessed, but he did not take full responsibility for what happened. instead, he explained that prescription drugs caused him to loosen it, that god was directing him to perpetrate a crime to protect his child. protected from what, exactly? he did not say. he blamed his attorney for not bringing up the drug induced hallucinations a trial. georgia's family felt blindsided by the confession, said his sister maria, and now, she feels, he is where he belongs, behind bars. georgia's petition was denied, and the young girl at the heart of the tragedy -- >> i really do feel that my niece is the true victim in all
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of this. it's so tragic, and i just don't have words for what she's going to have to come to terms with and understand as she gets older. it's really tough. >> paula plans to make sure the daughter of shauna tiaffay never forgets. >> we talk about her mom and how much she loved her, and what we concur moment along for her now. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching.

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