i don't mean that angry and better because then i'd be like her, but that is not my mom. my mom left a long time ago. >> the house on clark street sits empty. the backyard, overgrown. the secret, the deadly secret, bound the family almost three decades. the unraveling, torn apart forever. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. tching >> hello, i'm andrea canning. and this is dateline. >> he was a wealthy doctor with

a perfect life and the perfect wife until the day he says he found her dead. valentine's day! yuck >> my wife -- my wife -- i think my wife is just, debt. >> she had enemies. >> there were calls that were made to scare her. >> so imagine everyone shocked when they charged him with murder. >> he just couldn't have done it. >> sure they've had their problems. >> there was a huge number. and i'm talking close to 100 phone calls to this phone number back and forth. >> but he did love her. >> i told some people at the clinic, i wish i had someone that would look at me the way jon looks at susan. >> the question for the jury was did he love her to death. >> the motive was love lost. >> hello and welcome to

dateline. if you're a fan of fictional courtroom dramas you might think that every criminal trial and with a bombshell. maybe it's a surprise witness or an 11th hour confession. well, that kind of thing rarely happens in a real trial. but it did in the story. one last unexpected twist in a case full of surprises. here is dennis murphy with the valentine's day mystery. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> a dozen roses check. how about a candle lit dinner and a champagne toast to love? isn't that what's valentine's day is supposed to be about? >> we all know red is for the ribbon on the box of chocolates, not for the pool of blood in the master back. maybe chicago gangsters get killed on the scene valentine's day but not pretty doctors wives in oklahoma city. >> it was huge. it had all of the appeal of a romance novel gone bad.

it was the high society doctor, married to the beautiful wife that was crazy about one another. >> that high society doctor was doctor jon hamilton. an ob/gyn, who in addition to his regular practice ran an abortion clinic. a role that in conservative oklahoma would bring him some unwelcome notoriety. he and his wife susan had met in 1985 at a friends birthday party. both administered lee separated. john from his first wife. and susan from dick. >> who was she, will she like? i think the best way to describe or is a woman who always wanted to be a mother, who is proud to be a mother. even though she had a great education, her passion was to be a good mother. >> susan, then 39 and john 37 each had two children from their first marriages. friends say that when they met each other, they need an instant connection. down the hall was in the scene

stone clinic. >> she was beautiful, by gracious intelligent and just a really neat lady. i told some people at the clinic that i wish i had someone that would look at me the way jon looks at susan. >> two years after that first date, they made at a local country club. doctor steve jameson, a colleague of john was best man. >> he found over her a lot. >> the doctor and his wife build an nba slave style for themselves. a big comfortable house in a top-notch neighborhood lavish dinner parties and stir of the moment vacations. and the seemingly inseparable couple begin even more so after they married. susan managed john's abortion clinic working there two days a week. and you might guess, it was a job that came with a little danger. anti abortion protesters were a

reality. dick horton sometimes worried for his extra safety but knew that she wasn't easily rattled or intimidated. >> without any question, she wore the pants and if there was another pair she would go and get those. >> if anything threats against the clinics only brought the hamilton's closer together. >> she was very strongly pro choice and very outspoken about it they were kind of a unit in that regard. >> february 14th 2001 would've been their 15th valentine's day together. >> but that wednesday morning, john arrived home from the hospital and found a horrific scene. susan, lying beaten and strangled on their bathroom floor. her head bludgeoned, surrounded by a pool of blood her face savaged almost unrecognizable. two neckties were knotted above her throat, john frantically called 9-1-1. >> 9-1-1. >> please, please, send police

send an ambulance. and >> what a problem? >> my wife, i think my wife my wife is dead. >> sir, sir. >> we told the operator he was trying cpr. >> i'm a doctor, i've been trying cpr, please send someone quick. >> is she not breathing? >> no, she's not breathing, i don't get a false. >> yes, i'm trying, i'm going to hang up -- >> we're on our way, okay. >> by the way the emergency workers arrived it was clear that susan hamilton was dead. possibility, was it a robbery gone bad and intruder or maybe more likely an antiabortion zealot targeting the doctor and his wife. over the next few hours investigators would explore the list of theories and more as they try to understand just what had happened to susan hamilton that valentine's day morning. >> coming up -- john's puzzling phone bill. she finds a huge number close to 100 phone calls to this phone number back and forth. when dateline continues. it's the most wonderful time of the year ♪ it's spring! non-drowsy claritin knocks out symptoms

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if you're over 50, talon valentine'sor day morning 2001, >> on valentine's day morning, susan hamilton had been strangled and brutally 2001, susan hamilton had been strangled and brutally beaten in the bathroom. her naked body was discovered by her husband john. >> it was a violent scene. >> oklahoma city investigators theresa sterling and randy scott arrived at the hamilton house at noon that day. they found a disturbing scene

that didn't suit the neighborhood. >> the lady is laying on the floor blood all over the floor. >> right away detectives started asking who could be responsible. >> now keep in mind, john hamilton was a doctor who provided abortions. his wife susan worked at the abortion clinic two days a week. is it possible that here in conservative oklahoma should be murdered by an antiabortion zealot. just a week before susan was murdered, this wanted poster have enough for doctor. a reward in heaven will be bestowed on anyone contributing to bringing this murderer to justice. and both john and susan had received threatening phone calls that week. >> i received phone calls there were things done, but people trying to set fire to his clinic, people vandalizing his home, putting rushers all over the neighborhood and his in his kids school, that he was wanted

dead or alive. >> what's more, only the days before the murder, another antiabortion group had applied for a permit to stage a protest in front of hamilton's house. >> every avenue was checked. we checked every avenue of any burglary similar remotely close to the neighborhood. >> as is routine in domestic murders, the detective would look at this by was john hamilton himself. in this case though, the spouse had an alibi and a good one. he had been up at dawn for 7 am surgery at a clinic. it was over an eight and afterwards john stopped by the hospital where he had another prestigious scheduled for that morning. at about 8:30 he bumped into his former medical partner, dr. karen reising. >> i had gone into the doctors allows to dictate the procedure and he was in there. he was talking on the phone, sounded like he was talking to susan, just, you know, a very lighthearted conversation. >> afterwards, the doctor decided to swing back home. >> he has time to get back by the house.

their house is very close between the two hospitals. >> he was only at home for a few minutes because it 9 am his pager went off. the hospital calling him to get back for a second surgery. by 9:30, he was scrubbing up for the operation, a complicated removal of a tumor. the procedure came off without a hitch. later, none of the other doctors reported anything at all unusual in his behavior. >> they said he was normal in his jovial as he always was. >> by 10:45, he was on his way home again, which is when he says he discovered susan in a pool of blood. the timeline was extremely tight for the doctor to be even considered as a suspect. you have to believe he committed the violent murder in that narrow window between his two surgeries. the former medical partner for one thinks that would be impossible. >> i personally don't believe a physician to do a surgery, go commit a brutal crime of murder and then go back and do another

surgery and even be in his right mind. >> investigators were not ruling anything out, especially not after finding this. a valentine's day card. opened that day. >> it indicated that she still felt something for things weren't be the same as they were going to be. >> a card had been found inside gianna's jagger. what was to be made of the handwritten message? obviously about this before last monday. what was that all about? a neighbor was about to give the dish. >> she was upset and angry with john and i think she just wanted to have someone to talk to. >> susan's neighhour johnston, the woman next door had pulled one of the investigators aside and put a bug in his ear, that the week before valentine's day, susan hamilton had confided

confided about problems in the marriage. >> susan had noticed that john was getting a lot of cell calls. i think she became particularly alarmed when he didn't answer it and finally told her that it was a patient and that she was down on her luck and having hard times and she was just helping her out. >> the patient as susan discovered was a stripper at a nightclub. susan demanded to see john cell phone bill, and when she got a hold of it, her worst fears seem to be realized. whoever this woman was, there were way too many calls to and from her. >> she gets the bill, and she finds a huge number, and i'm talking close to 100 phone calls to this phone back and forth to john, and she gets very suspicious and questions john about it. >> jon had an explanation for his wife. the patient had been having serious psychological problems and even threatened suicide. john, the good doctor was simply trying to council her, and while he may have stepped over his boundaries professionally, he said he never had an affair with her. >> susan's friend, for one, believed her, and encourage susan to do the same.

>> i said susan of i don't think he's having an affair, he's crazy about you, you have a good marriage. and i don't think it's true. , in the end i think you she was calmer. >> when susan's ex-husband learned of her murder and the domestic melodrama about the cell phone law, he thought he knew right away would it happen. >> they had to find the stripper. this stripper did it. >> one thing everybody knew who knew the couple including the neighbors seem to agree on, was that whoever susan's killer was it certainly was not john hamilton. >> he just couldn't have done it. he was so kind and you never heard him raise his voice or anything like that. >> investigators had plenty of theories to work with. but before that valentine's day was over, they would have a suspect in custody. a name that would shock everybody. >> coming up. the motive was love lost. >> when dateline continues.

save on every perk. save on every perk.

narrator: investigators have a word for rage crimes, overkill. investigators have a word for and that's what had happened to susan rage crimes overkill. and that wouldn't have been to susan hamilton on that valentine's day morning 2001. whoever killed her had cracked her skull open with an object he never found. and bashed her face into the bathroom tiles.

two mend ties were tightly knotted about her neck. the scene was a bloody mess. and while there were scenarios to seriously consider berserk robber or maybe the lesion of activists opposed to the couples abortion practice, the crime scene wasn't telling them that. not least of all in a bloody crime there were no footprints leading out of the house. shouldn't the killer have left a trace? >> there is no burglary prince to obtain downstairs. there's no tracks that ran out through the creek bed and behind. soon after their arrival, investigators started questioning dr. john hamilton himself. biden there had been the neighbors tip about problems in the hamilton marriage. and that wasn't all. the doctor's behavior in the minutes after finding susan dead seemed off. hamilton had told a 9-1-1 officer he was performing cpr. but when the first responder firefighter david bradbury, arrived on the scene, he thought there was something odd about the way the doctor was

performing chest compressions. >> he had one hand on her chest, one hand on her abdomen. attempting to do compressions in this manner right here. the way that we are taught to do cpr, we interlock our hands. the palm goes into the center of the chest on the sternum. >> and david bradbury says he didn't see any signs that the doctor had even attempted mouth to mouth resuscitation. >> the way that this woman had been beaten, her face was swollen, her face was bloody. i did not notice any blood on her mouth whatsoever. >> after arriving to the crime scene, investigators placed john in the back of the police car. and it was there they noticed something else on. detective teresa sterling. >> he was acting very upset, he was scraping his knuckles on the screen in the police car. he was banging his head into the screen. he was acting bizarre. >> by that afternoon, police had taken the doctor down to the station. they took his clothes as evidence, and placed him in an

interview room for hours on end, watching and keeping him on the surveillance camera. >> he was just not the victim spouse that we were seeing. he was more suspicion drawn each time that we watched something. >> when left alone in the room, hamilton seemed to be checking out his shoulder area. had he hurt himself? if so, how? >> and when they found fresh scratches on his hands and arms, did that explain maybe the business about scraping his hands on the patrol car cage? was he trying to cover up earlier injuries? >> that would cause a suspicion for us to wonder why he's scraping his hands up. that goes to another issue we talk about maybe being staged or draw attention to me instead of emotionally upset over the loss of his wife. >> still, there was the doctor seemingly solid alibi. after all, he had a busy morning performing not just one but two surgeries with only a brief stop at home in between. >> i think that the biggest part for us was to try to figure out how he could get

there and spend anytime there and get back to the second surgery. >> and, as the detectives looked more closely into the doctor's timeline that morning they saw a whole. not a big one but maybe enough time to kill and get back. they learned that second surgery, originally scheduled for 9 am, hadn't actually gotten underway until 9:40. and why was it delayed? because dr. john hamilton was late. the surgical team was about to get started when they realized that the doctor was stuck at home. >> he supposed to be there. and they've got a lady under anesthesia without a doctor. and that is just unheard of. >> to investigators, that delay opened up the doctors window of opportunity by up to an hour. late that afternoon, valentine's day, 2001, they arrested john hamilton for the murder of his wife. >> you are under arrest. we are going to be transported to oklahoma county jail. >> he was jailed immediately and denied any bail.

the case now landed in the hands of men's district attorney who had tried doctor jon hamilton for murder. >> the prosecutor was well aware of the hurdles he faced not the least of which the lack of motive. lane look for signs of spousal abuse in the past but could not find anything substantive. >> until that valentine the motive there was no anger issues, no history of this guy. nothing heading the switch and slipping out? >> nothing that we could really present. >> everyone who knew the couple was saying the same thing, it just didn't make sense for the mild mannered doctor to have killed susan. even susan's children were standing by their stepfather. >> susan's children were the first who were calling me trying to find if i knew of any reason somebody or some person might have been there. and i don't think that they believed it. >> over the next few months though with the help of some unique forensic evidence, the da would put together a novel

theory of just what happened between husband and wife. something maybe grimly fitting for valentine's day. >> she was talking about leaving him. and so, the motive was love lost. >> the state of oklahoma charged dr. john hamilton with just loving his wife to death. >> coming up -- the prosecutor had seemed to have his work cut out for him. >> i've never ever one second not one moment in time ever thought that he was guilty, ever. >> when dateline continues.

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you could end up paying for this yourself. narrator: in december, 2001, 10 months after the valentine's day killing of his wife, susan, dr. john hamilton was being tried for her murder. a crowd lined up to attend the proceedings. loyal patients, former employees and fellow physicians, all standing behind the doctor. i have never, ever one second, not one moment in time have i ever thought he was guilty. ever. narrator: wes lane, the prosecutor, was surprised to find he had an unpopular case on his hands. there were people that thought this guy was being sandbagged, railroaded, a very nice, innocent guy

was facing a nightmare. i mean, i talked to everybody from the restaurant waitress that would wait on them on saturday mornings, and she was a gasp that we could have charged john hamilton because she would see them at breakfast together, all lovey-dovey. together all lovey dovey and and so, yes, there was a vast amount of opposition yes, there was a vast amount of opposition and skepticism. >> would he hoped to show the skeptics at's trial was yes, the doctor was a man indeed who loved his wife. maybe loved her too much. >> john hamilton is a control guy. he wants to have everything in control, in order. >> to the prosecutor, the valentine's day card john had received that morning lit the fuse for the violence that followed. in that card, susan had written

a message alluding to the couples flare up just a couple of days before. susan, ballistic with suspicions that he was having a fling with a stripper. the prosecutor told the jury that he envisioned a murder this way. the doctor, coming back midmorning after his first surgery, trying to patch things up with his wife, who majorly wasn't buying it. >> he knew that she was still considering divorce. something happened in that bathroom that absolutely triggered him in which he grabbed the ties and then he then surprised her and in his rage did all the rest of the work. >> the doctor according to the prosecutions version, now had to cover up his frenzy by going back to perform a second surgery as though nothing had happened. and here's the thing about that timeline. john had to have left the house by 9:20 to make it back to the hospital by 9:30 when he was seen scrubbing up for surgery. susan, as it turns out, should

also left by 9:20 because she had a 9:30 meeting at a friends house ten minutes away. but from all appearances, she never got much of a chance to get ready. when she was discovered, she was still undressed, her hair still wet. which means, if john hamilton didn't do it, you have to believe whoever did arrived right as he was leaving, or had been waiting inside all along. >> so somebody would've had to come in, get enraged, surprised her and thrown to the ground and done the rest. >> and in photos of the crime scene, the prosecutor pointed out to jurors something needed explaining. a wet rag left in the pool of blood from the victims head. it looked like the start of the started and then abandoned cleanup. >> you could tell the blood had been moved around. we actually believe that john hamilton was trying to clean things up before he got paged. >> so you have to think that the opportunistic robber

breaking in -- >> what motive? and there was nothing stolen. >> nothing was stolen, and yet there was this curious story the cropped up in the days after susan had been murdered. a friend was combing susan's clothes closet for something appropriate for her to be buried in, when she came upon something concealed in her drawer. it was susan's good jewelry. >> she calls us and says, i found the jewelry in her underwear. >> what did that mean? >> susan was very disciplined individual. she would never have hidden in her underwear. and all of a sudden, it just clicks, that he's trying to make it look like a robbery. >> now this was the reasoning as the prosecutor sought. the doctor wanted the police to believe the crime had started as a robbery. robbers take jewels, so he hid his wife's jewelry before the 9-1-1 forces arrive, fully intending to get it out of the house sometime later. but he never had a chance to do that, or to tell the cops the

robber got the jewels. that's because he was put in the back of the police car, and never got back inside the house again. >> and finally there was the story told by blood. the medical examiner had determined that susan had been strangled with two neckties, but her fatal injuries came from being bludgeoned by a blunt object, a murder object never found. investigators had to interpret the blood evidence left behind. and for that, they hired a bloodstain expert named ross gardner. >> this was a relatively contained crime scene. good amount of blood, a lot of impact spatter. >> gardiner carefully examined everything the doctor had been wearing that morning. a lot of the blood on his clothing could be explained by his intent to administer cpr, but the expert looked at hamilton's shoes, the left one in particular, and found that to be a different matter. the shoes were found next to susan's body. john said they fell off his

feet while he was attempting to revive her. the expert though was certain that whoever was wearing that left shoe that day was present when susan hamilton was being bludgeoned to death. >> effectively, the inside and front of that shoe was in motion around this spattery event from miss hamilton's radiating out. the only explanation of that event was that moving towards miss hamilton. >> and then there were these curious stands in the doctors shirt. one expert thought i saw a similarity between the angular shape and the moon created on susan's head. his theory was that the stains left and they sure were left by the murder weapon as they came in contact with the garment. of course, he didn't have the actual murder weapon to make a true comparison, but he was able to leave the jury with a vivid impression. the doctor may have taken a kind of photograph in blood.

>> he took a 1 to 1 image of mrs. hamilton's head and the injuries in the lacerations. we took a wonder one image of his shirt and we overlaid it, and you can overlay the pattern transfer right on top of the wound and you see an immediate matchup. >> but the most damning blood evidence of all may have been found in the doctor's car. on the steering wheel and driver side seat and dorsal, crime scene investigators recovered strands of susan's hair and a piece of her flesh. how did they get there from the bathroom? to the investigators, the only plausible explanation was that the doctor had bundled up the murder weapon to dispose of it somewhere along the way as he raced back for a second surgery. a bloody bundle that leaked. >> he wouldn't have had time to wash that, or would've had time to get it off his clothing, he left in a hurry, obviously, the first time that he was at the house. so leaving in a hurry, that's evidence that gets transferred from one thing to another. >> by the time the prosecutor

wrapped up his case, he laid out a theory of when had happened. that the doctor had used the neckties to pull his wife down to the ground, and passed her head in with the murder weapon never found. afterwards he tried to clean up but quickly gave up. >> to set a lot of dots to connect, and we knew we had enough dots that if we could get it to lay out in an understandable matter, we knew the jury would be hard-pressed not to convict him. >> dr. john hamilton though, was ready to explain it all. his version of the truth would be completely different from the prosecutors. his long silence behind bars ended as he prepared to tell the jury and us what really happened that valentine's day morning. >> valentine's lovers quarrel that it turned violent, not according to the doctor. >> coming up.

>> the more we talked about things, the more things we cleared up, the more things we got straightened out. things weren't nearly as bad as they portrayed it to be. >> when dateline continues. rsv is a contagious virus that usually causes mild symptoms, but can cause more severe infections that may lead to hospitalizations, in adults 60 and older - and adults with certain underlying conditions, like copd, asthma, or congestive heart failure. talk to your doctor and visit cutshortrsv.com. ♪ it's the most wonderful time of the year ♪ it's spring! non-drowsy claritin-d knocks out your worst allergy symptoms including nasal congestion, without knocking you out. feel the clarity and make today the most wonderful time of the year. claritin-d. chevy silverado factory-lifted trucks. where will they take you? with the capability of a 2-inch lift.

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matt martin, doctors head attorney knew it would be uphill. >> we have a circumstantial case and i think the prosecutors in this case we're putting a sinister as sinister spin on it as they possibly could. >> to the defense team, it seemed obvious from the first moments that investigators never seriously considered any one other than the husband. >> the focus was always on john, never anywhere else. who was never on anti abortion protesters, never on anyone -- there were calls that were made to susan that scared, her there were brought out. >> the defense was dealt a setback at the start of trial. the judge ruled that he would not allow any testimony on threats that the doctor's wife may have received. so the strategy would be to pick apart the evidence and the logic of the prosecution's case. >> i never saw anything that

about john, if i can't have you nobody can. >> after all, only two people in the world really knew what was going on inside the hamilton marriage. john avlon hamilton's spent day since his wife's murder in jail cell, would finally get to testify about the last days of the marriage, a story also told us. >> the more things were taught >> as john hamilton told it, by valentine's day, the couple have already patched up the raw wounds of that unorthodox relationship with the stripper. the doctor said he even started seeing a therapist in trying to get back susan's trust. susan had decided to go into counseling with him. >> originally she didn't want to go, but eventually said yes i'll go. >> you began to see your --? >> yes, she even told her best

friend sherry, i don't believe jon had an affair. so in susan's mind, the affair was not an issue. >> even the prosecutor, wes lane had to admit that john had been telling the truth about that suspected affair. lane had questioned the other woman. >> had there been a? fling and illicit relationship? >> no. >> the doctor refuted the prosecution's case against him point by point. like the observation made by detectives at the station that he seem to be checking out scratches to his shoulder. they'de been suspicious earlier at the house when he scratched his hands against the cage of the police car. was he nervous about what an examination of his body would reveal? >> i was frantic. i knew susan was dead, i knew that they were suspecting me. i was scared, 1 million thoughts were running through my head. the major one was that i had lost the love of my life, i was never going to see susan again. >> they're going to accuse you of trying to cover up the scratches that susan made as you were killing her? >> if susan had scratched me, wouldn't you assume that they would've found tissue, blood,

dna of some sort under her fingernails? nothing was found. it was looked for extensively. >> prosecutors had made a big deal about the doctor showing up late for a second surgery that morning. was he in fact late, they theorized, because he was killing his wife during those moments then trying to figure out what to do next? dr. hamilton had a more simple explanation for being late. he had been told at the surgery before his was running along, and he decided to use the delay to run home and give his wife a valentine. >> i talked to the surgery nurse and she said, the surgery before yours started 30 minutes late. >> you thought the second operation was going to be backed up? >> right. i still had 15 or 20 minutes. i have a bad habit of doing trying to do too much in too short period of time, but because it was valentine's day, i wanted to give susan her valentine's day card, and start her day off right before she got busy with her meeting.

>> so that was the reason you went? >> all right. and susan was getting ready trying to get dressed, and we kissed. i gave her the valentine's day card. she went in the closet and got one and give it to me. >> the card would later become an issue, because people saw a snarky line from susan, we'll obviously forget about this before the trouble began. did you understand which she was saying? >> well sure, but it also said something like she loved me and loved our time together. >> as for the discovery of susan's hair and blood tissue in his car, hamilton explained it this way. after calling 9-1-1, he realized the emts when we have a look at the car past his car out front, so he raced out to move it. he said he had gotten susan's blood on him from doing cpr, blood that then transferred from his clothes and hands to the car. >> i wanted emt to get in. >> a lot of people don't get

that. they hear there might be a spark of life in your wife and you gotta do cpr and you gotta move the car? >> i think that just goes to probably in my heart i knew she was dead, but i didn't want to believe that or give up. i wanted them to be able to get in and help and i didn't want any obstruction, so yes, i went and try to move the car. i was so nervous i was shaking so much i was unsuccessful. >> so these things that you say are out of focus with the other thing, the business about moving her jewelry, hiding it in her drawer. why did you hide it? >> i don't know. because it was out there in view i guess. >> in murder cases constructed on the interpretation of blood evidence, it's not unusual for juries to hear from dueling experts when they go to trial, and that's what happened here. and it was seen as a coup for the defense locked up one of

the most highly regarded blood spatter experts in the nation. tom bevel, a veteran of almost three decades with the oklahoma pd. >> i was hired either the next day or within two days at least of the actual crime by the defense. >> and they thought they were doing well because they took you off the market, prosecution wouldn't be able to attack your expertise? >> i thought that. >> and as expected, his take on the story of the blood put dr. hamilton in a better light. for instance, the shirt that the prosecution suggested had a bloodstain left by the murder weapon, defense expert couldn't go that far. >> in order to say that you have to have the murder weapon. the murder weapon was never found, you don't have an object to compare it against. >> and the shoe splattered with susan's blood from different directions as she was being killed, not necessarily a killer shoe, countered the

defense expert, but the shoe of dr. hamilton as he gave his wife cpr. >> he jumped out of his loafer shoes which would've re-oriented them, and he jumped over to her side and knelt down to try to assist her and give cpr. >> bevel was the last witness in the trial and from everything he testified to under the defence attorneys general questioning, he helped dr. hamilton. an authoritative figure on the stand turning blood evidence from damning into benign. >> then the prosecutor rose for his cross examination. and all, how the case changed. the bottom fell out of everything. >> all the air in the courtroom was gone. it was one of those moments. >> coming up. one of those perry mason moments. >> i've never seen a case like doctor hamilton's where the defense expert offered the most compelling evidence against the defendant. >> when dateline continues.

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clinically proven welcome back to dateline. i'm andrea canning. welcome back to dateline. now with the conclusion of the valentine's day mystery, now with the conclusion of the valentine's day mystery. here again is dennis murphy. >> tom bevel, the blood spatter expert hired by dr. john hamilton, had wrapped up his questioning under the defense attorney. as a last witness in the trial, he'd refuted a lot of the prosecutions findings and bolstered his client's case.

then came the prosecutor, wes lane's turn to cross examine. now courtroom lawyers like to talk about perry mason moments when a trial is electrified, but are hardly ever happens. it did in this case, it didn't ever. the prosecutor tossed out an open-ended question. >> well, mr. bevel is there anything the states experts or the oakland oklahoma police department missed in their examination of the evidence? >> the blood spatter expert on the stand, on the payroll of the defense, hesitated before answering. >> i expected an objection when i looked at the defense table which was over on my left. there wasn't an objection so i answered and i said yes sir. >> there was a detail that the witness wanted to talk about. something he had noted and which would later be regarded as the atomic bomb of the trial of dr. john hamilton.

it was about that bloody shirt taken from the doctor. >> in my examination, i found additional blood that was not talked about anywhere on the inside of the right cuff. >> prosecutors hadn't talked about this stain. maybe they had missed it all together. it was up inside the sleeve. how did it get there? >> that's when he started explaining that the blood spatter inside the sleeve, the only thing that he could think of that it was consistent with was john hamilton when he was beating her with that blunt instrument strength. it was driving that up inside his shirt. >> if you can get whiplash in a courtroom, that's what happens. the defenses expert was saying that dr. john hamilton most likely created those bloodstains by bashing in his wife's skull. >> it was a shock to everybody. nobody expected that to happen.

>> is saying looking at that. sure >> his own expert is saying he's guilty. >> you can just envision what the murder weapon is, bludgeoning on poor susan's head, causing blood spatter. it's a vivid picture. >> it sure is. >> on redirect, hamilton's lawyer tried to defuse the bombshell testimony by suggesting that the spatter could've resulted from the doctor performing cpr, but his argument wouldn't be enough. it took the jurors took just two hours to reach a verdict. >> with the jury, to find as follows, the defendant is guilty. >> the doctor realized he had been scuttled by his own man, the expert on blood spatter. >> i still believe that the system would work and that justice would come out. i was wrong. i was horribly wrong. >> two weeks later, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

the doctor was still in shock as the judge added his opinion. >> just want to comment. the majority of the jurors said to me that they were very disappointed that they didn't have the senses of death as an option. you should consider yourself very lucky. >> but for john hamilton, the fight wasn't over. >> you know i've come to find out the blood spatter is really junk science. if this blood spatter is real science, then why should two prominent national authorities disagree with the findings. one says, the shoes is what convinced him. the other says it's his shirt that convicts him. they don't agree. >> hamilton hired a new attorney, to appeal the decision. >> i mean criminal trials for 22 years and i've never seen a case like doctor hamilton's where the defense expert offered the most compelling

evidence against the defendants. >> there were arguments about whether tom bevel should never been allowed to testify. >> whether he lied about or defence counsel took a risk of should never been taken. >> tom bevel denies lying about his testimony and the carts didn't buy the appeal either. the courts made their way up to the supreme court but they ultimately failed. >> a lot of people who think that you are guilty say it's time to dr. hamilton to finally admit his guilt. be a guy, step up to the plate and tell the story the way it was. >> i'm telling the truth now. if i was the guy they think i am, then what do i have to lose by telling the truth? i don't have anything to lose. if i really did it, if that would clear my conscience, but i didn't do it. i didn't kill susan. >> for susan's family and

friends, the case is now closed, but it will may never bring closure. after all, nothing can bring back the beautiful headstrong woman they are loved. >> it's changed valentine's day forever for union kids? >> actually, we've turned into a positive. it started out as a negative. we changed it to instead, that valentine's day is a day to celebrate love. there isn't any greater love. >> today, john hamilton resides in prison. behind the walls were valentine's day has little significance at all. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching.