therapy and moore. it's the headquarters for the mason moore foundation, a charity jodi founded to raise money for safety equipment for cops who need it. the group's motto, it's something mason said to her a long time ago-- love wins. he loved me. and all he wanted to do was to try to make this a better place and leave his mark. and i think you did. [upbeat music] crew: that's good. hello, i'm craig melvin, amurder is so personal. she knew who was in the room with her. she trusted that person.

and the saddest thing is that the last person you look at in this world is not your loved ones. it's your killer. [sighs] gosh, i miss her so much. craig melvin (voiceover): tough, tenacious, as feisty as her name, hard driving defense attorney chiquita tate. she would walk into a courtroom, and she looked like she owned the place. she loved defending those clients. she loved law. craig melvin (voiceover): she'd stayed late at work to read up on a murder case, but the next murder police wound up investigating was hers. she's representing some really hardened criminals. maybe somebody had a beef with her. it was personal. craig melvin (voiceover): the clues? a missing gucci wallet, mystery strands of hair. it suggested that a female had maybe killed her, and she had pulled the hair out. who done it? who came up here and did it? somebody planned this murder.

somebody wanted her out of the way. i told her i will make this right. i will make this right for you. [theme music] hello, and welcome to "dateline." she was bold. she was brash. chiquita tate was a rising star in the louisiana legal community, a star someone wanted extinguished. the list of possible suspects was long. could an unhappy client have wanted her dead? or did police need to look somewhere else entirely? here's dennis murphy with "shining star." [soulful jazz] dennis murphy (voiceover): cajun country is where the dreadful thing happened. baton rouge, the louisiana state capital, perched on the banks of the mississippi.

three blocks off the river on a chilly thursday night, a criminal defense lawyer was working late, drafting a writ for the big murder trial starting monday. when did the killer take her? sometime after 8 o'clock was the best guess. the news led next morning's early drive. i hear on a local news station, they interrupt to say that there is a downtown murder in a law office. dennis murphy (voiceover): attorney prem burns was on her way into work. which, of course, alerts me. initially, my gosh, it's an attorney. dennis murphy (voiceover): the office, now strung with yellow crime scene tape, belonged to an up-and-comer named chiquita tate, a local woman just a few years out of law school, but already making a name for herself in the competitive pads and helmets arena of litigation

and criminal defense. she had recently won a half million dollar jury verdict. that's pretty awfully good for somebody out such a short time. [soft music] dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita was one of seven. her father absent, raised by her grandma in a tired neighborhood of boarded-up houses. smart and determined, she rose above her impoverished early years. and once her fuse was lit, she became a rocket. she was talented. she had overcome so very much in a short time period. she was the star of her family. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita was the first in her family to go to college. then she enrolled in hometown southern law school, got grabbed up by a law firm, where she started clerking while studying for the bar. that's when she met legal assistant lessie hookfin. she was just driven, wanting to get that next--

i'll call it that next high. and law school was that. being a lawyer was that. and she achieved it. she passed the bar on her first shot. on her first shot. dennis murphy (voiceover): she eagerly lapped up the hard cases, the kind that made news-- accused killers, druggies, gang bangers. she seemed at ease in the spotlight, happily talking to reporters. [laughs] have a good one. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita was enjoying such success, she opened her own firm in a nice building a few blocks from the court's complex. lessie hookfin went with her. what areas did she start to stake out for herself? criminal. she wanted to do criminal so bad. dennis murphy (voiceover): prem burns watched her in action. chiquita was one to speak her mind and dress how she wanted, in conservative lady lawyer pantsuits one day and stilettos and spiky hair the next. she would walk into a courtroom, and she looked like she owned the place. you could hear her coming before you saw her, huh? you could. you could. and we always joked because chiquita would wear four-inch heels and just strut in.

and you knew chiquita tate was in the courtroom. dennis murphy (voiceover): another thing, chiquita was all about family. she hired her sister, danita, to help in the office. and danita knew better than anyone that hard-driving chiquita could be sunny one minute and a gulf coast storm the next. she fired me, like, every week. dennis murphy: she fired you? yeah, every week. and then-- you were her office assistant? yeah, and at night, she would call me and say, we'll talk. and then she'll say, see you in the morning. and i'm like, i thought i was fired. [chuckles] dennis murphy (voiceover): in fact, it was a skirmish with chiquita that sparked the interest of a young man named greg harris, who almost literally bumped into her while they were both cruising around town. greg's brother, mike says it started when greg cut chiquita off. she's in a corvette. he's in a mercedes. she's blowing the horn at him. and, you know, oh, you-- you, you know, cut me off. and so they pull up to the red light.

and i heard a few smiles went from him. a few smiles went from her. and after that, it's all she wrote. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg harris was doing well as a contractor. the romance blossomed, and chiquita moved into greg's home, a big step up from the falling down neighborhood of shotgun houses where she grew up. they got married in a small wedding with family in 2008, and a year later, chiquita was moving into that nice, new office, varnishing the bookshelves, proudly hanging out her shingle. dennis murphy: did anybody ever worry about her and her clients? i don't think that it was to the point where either she had to worry or anyone else had to worry. dennis murphy (voiceover): on february 19, 2009, chiquita was working hard, prepping her defense in a double homicide case. she told lessie she had to work late just a couple of hours. but chiquita never returned home that night. her husband, greg, called her office repeatedly, but got no answer.

around dawn, he drove down to the office, troubled, he'd say later, to see his wife's hummer parked where she'd left it. he couldn't get in the locked building, so he called 911. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg suddenly spotted a patrol car and flagged it down. an office worker let the policeman in the building while greg called his sister-in-law, danita, sounding frantic. he's like, d, the hummer is still parked here, and they won't let me in the office. dennis murphy (voiceover): once upstairs, it took only a glance for the patrol officer to declare chiquita's office a crime scene-- a bad one. the shining starlight of chiquita tate had been cruelly extinguished-- by whom and for what reason? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, the first clue. no blood in the elevator, no blood on the lobby. but then when you proceeded into the next room where her body was, she was laying on the floor.

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breathe better in as little as two weeks. when you can breathe better, what isn't better? this is better. this is better. that's better. dupixent is an add on treatment for specific types of moderate to severe asthma. it works with your asthma medicine to help improve lung function. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's proven to help prevent asthma attacks. and doesn't that make things better? dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. tell your doctor right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines including steroids without talking to your doctor. when you can get more out of your lungs, you can do more with less asthma. isn't that better? ask your doctor about dupixent, the most prescribed biologic in asthma. and now approved as an add-on treatment for adults with copd that is not well controlled and with a specific marker of inflammation. ♪ bosch dishwashers use water less ♪

♪ add finish tabs more success ♪ ♪ work well together every time ♪ ♪ burnt-on stains, get outshined ♪ (♪♪) ♪ burnt-on stains, get outshined ♪ [soulful jazz] as the sun was coming up over the mississippi that cold february morning, the family and friends

of chiquita tate were converging on the street below her office. so i tried to run into the office, and the police grabbed me. and they was like, ma'am, you can't go in there. i say, that's my sister in there. dennis murphy (voiceover): just like danita, chiquita's legal assistant, lessie hookfin, was stopped on the street outside by an officer. and he saw me coming. so he came toward me and grabbed me, pretty much to hold me up because i was going down. and that's when he told me she was dead. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita's loved ones were huddled together when veteran homicide detectives chris johnson and elvin howard rolled up to the scene. so the responding officers told you, that's the husband over there, but he's on the edge of things for you. you haven't approached him yet. that's correct. he was upset to the point where uniformed patrol had to put him in the back of the unit. so do you go up at that point? no. at that time, we try to gather as much information as possible. dennis murphy (voiceover): the detectives

began their standard investigative ritual, putting together a timeline of the victim's last day. assistant lessie hookfin knew some of it. so that thursday, how does that fit in your recollection? what was that day like? pretty regular day. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita had gone to court and, that very day, talked to reporters about her latest case. the statute is the question that i would like the appellate court to review. dennis murphy (voiceover): after a quick chat, she headed back to her office, where workers were refinishing a bookcase. lessee left at her regular time, about 5:30, and she remembers being concerned about the smell of varnish. i said, quita, don't stay in here too late because that smell was just overpowering. she says, lessie, i'm not gonna stay in here late. i'm just gonna read this. dennis murphy (voiceover): but she did stay late. chiquita's husband, greg, told police his wife called him around 7:00 or so and asked him to please bring her something to eat. so he set out from their home in baker,

about 25 minutes away. then he said he went to mcdonald's in baker and got some hamburgers and fries and brought it to chiquita in her office. chiquita met him downstairs, according to greg, and let him into the building because at 5:30 in the evening until 7:30 the next morning, the building is locked. and unless you have a swipe card, you can't get access? exactly. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg told the cops he encountered a number of tenants in the building working late that night. he remembered running downstairs on a small errand for his wife. chiquita had a client that was coming over to pick up some money. so he went downstairs to pay this client and pick up some paperwork from this person for chiquita. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg said chiquita had more work to do and yet another client to see, so he said he took off for home. it was some time around 8:30. [suspenseful music] what happened next was a bloody mystery. it would be up to the detectives and also prem burns to figure out, the attorney hearing the awful news on her car radio that morning.

the one who got such a kick out of chiquita in court was, in fact, a legendary baton rouge prosecutor. my boss, the district attorney, was out there. there were so many police officers there. the crime scene van was there. and so i went into that and immediately said to my boss, i want this. i want this case. dennis murphy (voiceover): prem insisted, as she always does, on viewing the crime scene. as she entered the office, she noticed chiquita had been fixing things up. but then when you proceeded into the next room where her body was, i was like, oh, my lord. she was butchered. she was butchered. she was laying on the floor. she had little slipper socks on her feet, the way all of us would be if we stay after work. we're not going to keep our heels on. she basically had a law book that i think she had been reading that was in her hands at the time the attack began. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita had been stabbed 43 times.

the attack was brutal and messy, the bloodstained wall suggesting a fight to the death. did you have a murder weapon? - no. - no, sir. did you get lucky with a footprint or a partial print or anything in blood, anything like that? no, we did not get lucky with the footprints. no blood in the elevator, no blood in the lobby, no blood on the buttons. dennis murphy (voiceover): the killer had improbably vanished without leaving a trail and, at first glance, hadn't taken anything either. had the office been trashed? had anybody been looking through files or something like that? - no. - no. - no, we didn't see that. she had expensive jewelry still on her hands. she had earrings in her ear. so it dealt with-- this is starting to tell you some stuff about the nature of this killing, right? that's correct. dennis murphy (voiceover): it didn't look like a robbery. however, as crime scene techs processed the scene, the investigators realized chiquita's wallet was missing from her purse. and there, in the victim's hand, what looked like a major clue. and her left hand was open.

there was a piece of hair in it, actually, 91 strands of hair in it. and her right arm was over her head. and she just died like that. dennis murphy (voiceover): had she pulled it from her killer's head? the hair was long. had the killer been a woman? what were your theories? what do you think had happened? i actually, uh-- i did not come to any conclusions because i couldn't think of a soul who would have wanted her dead. dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita's father-in-law, silver ray harris, admired her courage, but wondered about the kind of clients who came with her line of work. being a criminal lawyer, that's what you deal with-- criminals. so you have to accept the degree of bad people that come looking for-- she's the toughest of the tough, huh? that's what i hear, that she would-- if you went to her, she'd try to help you. dennis murphy: it could have been an unhappy client, someone who-- - could well have been. didn't like the results they got from her. could have been or could have been a member of the victim's family. dennis murphy (voiceover): the list of potential suspects could be as long as her client list.

yet chiquita's brother-in-law says he can't understand how anyone could do such a thing. heartless completely to do her that way. when i get on my knees at night, i pray he'll get justice. dennis murphy (voiceover): police were confident they would get their man, or woman. and something up a street pole gave them hope. outside chiquita's office were city surveillance cameras and traffic cameras. did one of several cameras see someone enter after greg left? there may not have been a trail of blood, but with a little luck, those cameras just might give them a portrait of their killer, or killers, suitable for framing. will the cameras capture chiquita's killer? and that mystery clump of hair, what might it reveal? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. if you're in a fight and pull someone's hair out, you're going to find root hairs. so the scenario that occurs to me

is this is a woman that's in this assault. exactly. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues.

it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people.

[suspenseful music] dennis murphy (voiceover): chiquita tate's vicious killing-- stabbed and slashed dozens of times-- had shaken her friends and family to their very roots. and as an officer of the courts, it was also an attack on baton rouge's criminal justice system family.

the heat was on detectives johnson and howard to find the killer. you're looking at the poles around here. what was that, chris? yeah, the crime cameras. we know that most of baton rouge have crime cameras down here. they have several locations. and across from the office, there's a crime camera right there on the pole. we also have traffic cameras that are on each signal light. dennis murphy: oh, yeah. elgin howard: there are some right here. dennis murphy: they're right here. elgin howard: yeah, that's correct. so you could get really lucky maybe-- yeah, hopefully. we thought we would be getting lucky. - --of the perpetrator-- - exactly. --coming or going, huh? that's correct. [tense music] dennis murphy (voiceover): this camera, about a block away from chiquita's office, was working fine. it showed a quiet street the night of the killing, normal activity. what they really wanted was the shot from this camera, which swept right past chiquita's office door. but bad luck-- a recent storm had knocked it out. the camera in front of the office was not working properly that particular night. dennis murphy (voiceover): so no picture of a suspect. this wasn't going to be an open-shut solve. but there was evidence to work with. the crime scene technicians had taken scrapings

from under chiquita's fingernails and sent them off for lab analysis. had she scratched dna material from her killer? they'd have to wait on findings. and likewise, the clump of hair found in chiquita's hand, did it contain dna identifying the killer? if you're in a fight and pull someone's hair out, you're going to find root hairs, hair balls. dennis murphy (voiceover): but the lab work was back on the hair sample. there were no roots on those strands, but the hair had come from a woman's hair extension or weave. so the scenario that occurs to me is this is a woman that's in this assault. exactly. dennis murphy: two women are fighting, and-- exactly. --she's gotten a bit of this weave and-- exactly. dennis murphy: --yanked it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the theory of two women in a death struggle didn't make sense to the cops. the attack seemed too violent, too overwhelming. but with homicides, you never know. in the early hours of the investigation, though, they did catch a major break. a report had come into dispatch. a woman driving through a high-crime area

known as gardere lane called police to say she'd found a wallet. and it belonged to chiquita tate. she's driving down gardere lane, and she sees the wallet on the side of the road. dennis murphy (voiceover): amazingly enough, the finder of the wallet knew chiquita. the young attorney had given a speech at her daughter's school and made quite an impression. that prompted her to call the police and advise us that she located this wallet. dennis murphy (voiceover): and unexpectedly, for a wallet taken from a victim's purse and then tossed, chiquita's id and her credit cards were all inside, which got investigators thinking, maybe the killer planted the wallet there, hoping some street person would find it and stumble right into a homicide investigation. when you take a nice gucci wallet loaded with credit cards to gardere lane and leave it in the streets, somebody's going to pick it up and start going to the mall, spending some of those credit cards.

and the first thing that's going to happen is that the police are going to have a film of the transaction and go to that person and say, you killed chiquita tate. there's our suspect. absolutely. dennis murphy (voiceover): so this killer unknown started taking on some traits in the detectives' minds. the person was good, or lucky enough, to get out of the office building without leaving a trail of blood and, after what had to have been a frenzied attack, still had the composure to think up the red herring of the tossed wallet. the killer looked like a cool customer, perhaps a professional. as the cops went down the list of dubious characters on her client roster, they looked closely at two men who had been accused of killing a man and his 17-year-old son. dennis murphy: possible suspects? one of them actually was in jail at the time of the homicide. it just was very unlikely that someone who she worked so hard for would kill her. dennis murphy (voiceover): a few of the people on chiquita's client list were incarcerated at the time of her killing.

others had alibis, but she also had clients who were free to come and go. did one of them have an appointment? was there anybody due to come in that evening? no. dennis murphy: as far as you recall? not after-- not after hours. after hours? no. that would have been very unusual. and i would have known. dennis murphy (voiceover): a mystery client with the worst of grudges, a woman unknown-- only theories, until the cops play poker with a witness and hit the jackpot when they're only holding a pair of deuces. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, a revealing phone call with a jaw-dropping tip for police. it's is a voice saying, i think i know who may have killed chiquita. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. dupixent helps people with asthma breathe better in as little as two weeks. when you can breathe better, what isn't better? this is better. this is better. that's better.

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. nbc news now projecting donald trump is won arizona, flipping it to redneck and completing the sweepable seven battleground states. the president-elect victory in the blue state marks a decisive shift, reclaiming its 11 electoral college votes for republicans. it's here. the rockefeller center christmas tree arriving on the plaza saturday morning for the first time since 1959, this 74 foot norway spruce hails from west stockbridge massachusetts weighing in at 11 tons and stretching 43 feet wide. for now, back to dateline. of someone's life to understand what made them tick. in chiquita's case, they found for sure a woman loved, respected, and admired. but they also learned she had a capital t temper. she was extremely aggressive.

to the point of being irritating or-- hmm, to some and to some extent. dennis murphy (voiceover): had she pushed someone too hard or too far? as detectives ran through the evidence, they'd, of course, been talking to the husband, greg harris, right from the start. dennis murphy: greg, meanwhile, was being very helpful with investigators. he hadn't lawyered up. he was telling them the story of his night. here's the keys to my vehicle. take a look. - yes. if you want to go to the house, check it out? yes, absolutely. i'm with you. dennis murphy (voiceover): and they conducted those searches because spouses, no matter how cooperative, are always suspects. and what crime scene investigators found when they pored over greg and chiquita's house was, well, at first glance, not much. no weapons, certainly. no blood-soaked clothes. they took dna swabs and bagged various items for lab analysis. and then, in a closet, they found a really oddball souvenir-- [greg and chiquita arguing indistinctly] --an audio recording made by greg of him and chiquita engaged in a screaming match.

dennis murphy (voiceover): this sounded like a couple splitting the sheets, divvying up the household goods. dennis murphy (voiceover): danita was aware that her sister, chiquita, was unhappy, but realistically, she didn't think her strong-willed sister would ever be happy in a marriage. you know in a relationship, you have to compromise. mm. i don't think she was willing to do it. it's her way or no way. dennis murphy (voiceover): danita says her tempestuous sister was always threatening to storm out of the marriage, right up to her last day. and that morning of february the 19th, she called me and she said that, d, i just can't do the marriage thing anymore. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg's parents, silver ray harris and joyce henderson, believe the couple had just hit a rough patch. i think it has to do with her not being home very often. she would take cases that would take her to new orleans. and she'd work on cases to late up into the night.

too much career going on for her. yeah, and no time for him. and i think he wanted more time. dennis murphy (voiceover): but in the early hours of the investigation, detectives learned the fight recorded at the couple's home wasn't an isolated incident. their files showed that a 911 domestic call brought police to greg and chiquita's house two months before they got married. what was that all about? police were called out because chiquita accused greg of hitting her. from what we understand, a charge was filed against both of them. dennis murphy (voiceover): so, with that in mind, when greg sat down with investigators, the conversation became contentious, even combative. i loved my wife. we was trying to make this relationship happen. you were trying to make the relationship happen. no, we both were. dennis murphy (voiceover): they'd had problems, he admitted, but said he wasn't violent with chiquita. the detectives told greg what they'd picked up on, that chiquita was leaving the marriage. wrong, countered the husband. she was still living with me. you go to my house, there ain't no clothes packed. yeah.

well, if she was leaving, why did she ask me to come over there and help her when we was still doing-- going to the movies, doing everything else? dennis murphy (voiceover): they reviewed greg's timeline the night of the killing, how he brought his wife dinner and left her still working at the office sometime around 8:30. where did you go? where did i go? i went home. straight home? i went straight home. which path did you take home? i got on the interstate. dennis murphy (voiceover): that's when police, clearly suspicious of greg, used a ploy to smoke him out, to catch him in a lie if he were, in fact, lying. according to the cameras, that's not the path which you had taken last night. we convinced him that we had cameras up-- which we do have cameras up. we convinced him that we can track his cell phone. in fact, did you have anything like that? no, we did not. we just-- we was bluffing him. you know we do phone records? your phone records, her phone records, they tell us every tower that you hit when you're making phone calls. that's fine. that's fine. dennis murphy (voiceover): and so with greg thinking the cops knew his every move, they confronted him

with an important question about the place where chiquita's wallet had already been found. when the last time you've been on gardere lane? gardere lane? i went to gardere lane last night. really? yes. what time you went to gardere lane? i don't-- i don't know what time it was. approximately. dennis murphy: what's he say he was doing there? he said he went to buy steroids. he's a big guy, and he lift weights. and he said that's where his steroid dealer lived. a little street transaction? right. dennis murphy (voiceover): whatever the explanation, greg harris had put himself in the neighborhood where the wallet had been tossed. for the cops, it was a gotcha moment. and while they had no evidence, no dna, no forensics that connected him to the killing, they did have some leverage-- that old domestic dispute call. though, she and greg were charged, only the charge against chiquita was dropped. why are you the only one that had a warrant? all of this was supposed to have been dismissed.

now, other than this, i don't know anything about it. i never hit this girl a day in my life. dennis murphy (voiceover): so using a year and a half old warrant unrelated to the death of chiquita tate, the police put greg in custody for a few days. dennis murphy: so they could put him on ice, huh? absolutely, while the forensics were being tested from the crime scene. dennis murphy (voiceover): but then, seemingly out of the blue, came a strange tip from an anonymous caller. saying, you need to look into this angle, because i think i know who may have killed chiquita. this is a voice on the phone. this is a voice on the phone. female voice. and it's like, you need to look into it. she was involved in a lesbian love triangle. dennis murphy (voiceover): did that explain the clump of hair, the impassioned, intimate killing? the investigation was charging off in a wholly new direction. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, chiquita's husband, greg, was he in danger? someone came up to his bedroom window at about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and shoots in the window.

craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. ♪ ♪ have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. and i'm keeping the weight off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only weight-management medicine proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events such as death, heart attack, or stroke in adults with known heart disease and obesity. don't use wegovy® with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines, or in children under 12. don't take if you or your family had mtc, men 2, or if allergic to it. tell your prescriber if you are breastfeeding, pregnant, or plan to be. stop taking and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or any of these allergic reactions. serious side effects may include pancreas inflammation and gallbladder problems. call your prescriber if you have any of these symptoms. wegovy® may cause low blood sugar in people with diabetes,

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without talking to your doctor. ask your specialist about dupixent. without talking to your doctor. [suspenseful music] dennis murphy (voiceover): just as investigators were zeroing in on the husband, greg harris, they got a tip that brought them back to chiquita tate's list of clients. but it wasn't about any of the career criminals on her roster. the tip concerned two female clients, a same-sex couple that chiquita had been helping with an adoption case. the anonymous caller suggested their lawyer-client relationship was more than that. a female said that it was two women that chiquita was-- had a love triangle. she even gave the two suspects' names as well. she indicated that one suspect had scratches on their body.

well, that would explain the crime of passion, which you think is a signature here-- yes. --and also maybe why there's hair in the palm of her hand-- - that's correct. - --some sort of a tussle. yes. that goes a long way towards explaining a lot of it. yeah, if it's true. there's some sort of a romantic relationship here that's gone wrong. dennis murphy (voiceover): police confirmed the names of the two women on chiquita's client list and then paid each a call. we had to investigate and contact both individuals and got statements from them. dennis murphy (voiceover): the detectives told the prosecutor that both women insisted chiquita wasn't their lover, just a good attorney. we loved her work. she was a friend, but that's where it ended. dennis murphy (voiceover): still, the detectives took a closer look at the couple. we didn't see any scratches on their arms. we also realized one of the suspects had braids, and not weave in her hair. dennis murphy (voiceover): what's more, police say that both women had alibis. legal assistant lessie hookfin was sure the secret love triangle was nonsense. i know about the adoption. i knew the clients.

and everything was going well. is there any way you can see that that's somehow involved with-- - never. dennis murphy: --chiquita's being butchered? no. dennis murphy (voiceover): so the investigators put the tip in their back files and proceeded to check out the tipster. they traced her call to a town in texas. they even drove there and after questioning a few locals, managed to reach a woman by phone with an oddly familiar voice. i immediately recognized her as the voice that i heard that had called the office at that time. i asked her how did she know chiquita tate. and she said, well, chiquita tate used to be married to my brother. this was greg harris's sister. that's correct, greg harris's sister. dennis murphy (voiceover): so the tip that sent detectives off to texas had led them right back to greg, the husband. was greg-- or maybe his sister-- trying to plant a false lead? prem burns added that to her list of concerns about greg harris. she was also discovering that greg had a bad history with some of the women in his life. her investigators found greg had control issues

and a temper, according to chiquita's family members and some old girlfriends. he just wanted them within his eyesight and within his control. dennis murphy (voiceover): she also learned that chiquita had taken out a lease on an apartment. she hadn't yet moved into her new place. but prem burns believes chiquita was, indeed, going to divorce greg, which meant he had lost control of her. and i believe that's what happened with chiquita, is that he was not going to let her. nobody leaves me, huh? nobody leaves greg harris, unless greg harris throws them out of the house onto the front lawn. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg's brother, mike, doesn't believe it for a second. his brother, he says, wasn't violent. and what's more, he says, greg and chiquita were working it out. we all go through bumps. but there's also a phase called reconciliation and healing, you know? and that's what they had. dennis murphy (voiceover): and as for that tip about the same-sex couple, greg's father, silver ray,

says his daughter wasn't trying to throw off the cops. the female love triangle was a legitimate concern of his. she got that strictly from me, which i got it from another attorney. and we just wanted to look at all of the options to make sure that all the bases were covered. we wanted to look at these two women. did you encourage her to call the cops with the story? i didn't encourage her. she did it on her own. but it wasn't nothing to throw the cops off. if you're investigating, you got to look at all the angles. dennis murphy (voiceover): in fact, greg's father and mother, joyce, and brother, mike, say they couldn't believe that police even suspected greg-- not the greg they knew. my greg was the son that helped raise his brothers. he made sure that they were fed when i worked. he made sure when they came home, they did their homework. you have people you want to grow up to be like. my motto was my older brother. i wouldn't be the person i am today if it wasn't for him. dennis murphy (voiceover): even chiquita's sister could not imagine greg as the killer.

dennis murphy: can you see him in that office-- no. --in a rage, slashing your sister-- no. --fight that's moving from here to there? no. no, i can't even picture it. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg's parents and his brother believe that whoever killed chiquita also wanted greg dead. they recount an incident that happened after greg was released from custody. shots were fired into his home. someone came up to his bedroom window at about 3:00, 4:00 in the morning and shoots in the bedroom window five times with a 10 millimeter gun-- oh. --hoping that he was in the bed. it just so happened greg fell asleep on the sofa. god saved him. he was not in the bed. dennis murphy (voiceover): greg's family, convinced he was innocent, became only more so when they heard this-- scrapings from under chiquita's nails showed dna not only from greg, but from someone else as well, an unknown male. what could that mean? craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. if greg harris had done this, you would have found an enormous amount of blood,

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waiting for? new vaseline radiant x body welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. a husband suspected of killing his high-profile attorney wife was under the microscope of louisiana detectives. and some new dna evidence was about to be revealed.

would it be good for the defense or the prosecution? here now with the conclusion of "shining star" is dennis murphy. dennis murphy (voiceover): the case against him-- greg harris was the last person known to have seen chiquita alive. his marriage to chiquita had been volatile, and he put himself near the street where chiquita's stolen wallet was tossed. but what galvanized this case for the prosecutor was a pair of sunglasses discovered in greg harris's car. the glasses are under the seat. is there blood evidence on them? there absolutely was. there was a combination of his blood and her blood on the left lens. when i was told that there is their blood mixed on this left lens and the right arm of those glasses, i said, i don't need anything more. dennis murphy (voiceover): on march 16, 2009, greg harris was charged with second degree murder. he went on trial two years after chiquita's death in march of 2011.

the prosecution set out to prove that greg killed chiquita because she was going to leave him. former girlfriends testified that greg had a jekyll and hyde personality-- sweet when he was courting, volatile and controlling once he won them over. he would hit them. he would, um, fight with these girls. as long as he could control them, he was fine. dennis murphy (voiceover): prosecutors played the 911 tape from that domestic abuse call. while both chiquita and gregg were charged, the call didn't sound as though they were locked in a fair fight. dennis murphy (voiceover): and the prosecution argued greg had another motive-- money. the night the murder happened, he called his boss and said, i need to get an advance or a loan on my 401(k). and his boss said, you know, i can't do it. i'm sorry, greg.

dennis murphy (voiceover): but as prem burns told the jury, greg could get about $60,000 in insurance if chiquita were to die. chris johnson: i think money was motivation, but more so, i think chiquita had planned to leave greg. and that's one thing that greg could not accept. dennis murphy (voiceover): the prosecution told the jury greg may have been angry, but he was also cool and calculating, planning both the crime and a cover-up, case in point-- those long hairs that suggested a female killer. the state argued greg brought the hair to the crime scene and then planted it. her hand was not, like, clenching it, as if she died that way. it was actually strewn, as if somebody had taken it and just weaved it through her hand. dennis murphy (voiceover): it was a ploy, said the prosecution, designed to throw off the cops, just like the tossed-and-found wallet from gardere lane, where greg eventually admitted he went the night of the killing. gardere lane? i went to gardere lane last night. dennis murphy (voiceover): misdirection,

according to the prosecutor, was greg's mo. she even suspects he fired those shots into his own bedroom to make it look as though the killer was still at large. it was kind of like, gee, let me call and say that there's a lesbian love triangle. let me plant the hair. it's like, let me just go one step further. dennis murphy (voiceover): and of course, there was the blood evidence. prosecutors presented more than the bloodstained glasses. a lab analysis revealed there were dots of blood throughout greg and chiquita's house. there was a significant bloodstain on a clorox bottle. the clorox bottle was out up on the sink. and it had blood visible to the eyes. dennis murphy (voiceover): prosecutors say that stain contained chiquita's and greg's dna. what makes sense to you? what makes sense to me is that greg harris had no reason to want to kill chiquita tate. zero whatsoever. dennis murphy (voiceover): lance unglesby was on the defense team, and he argued there wasn't nearly enough evidence to convict greg harris. nothing put him at the site of the killing.

the alleged motive was weak and the blood evidence paltry. our theory was very clear. if greg harris had done this, you would have found an enormous amount of blood in that mercedes, and on his clothes, and at the house in baker. and that just wasn't the case. lance, out at the house, they're very curious about this clorox bottle, where, again, they think they see co-mingled blood. what about that? that's a problem for you. well, practically, it's not a problem. in the normal course of living, a little blood on a clorox bottle is really not that big a deal. chiquita lived there. of course, her dna would be on that bottle. dennis murphy (voiceover): as for the hair that the prosecution said was planted, the defense argued that was just an unproven theory. those two female clients may not have been involved, but the long strands suggest another woman may have been there. it suggested that a female had maybe killed her, and that in the middle of the fight, she had pulled the hair out. between that and the amount of clean-up that would have been

required, we've always believed two people were involved in this murder. dennis murphy (voiceover): and as for that visit to gardere lane, the defense lawyer says greg was reluctant to admit it, but not because he had tossed the wallet. lance unglesby: well, because he was buying steroids. he was discussing buying steroids, which is illegal. dennis murphy (voiceover): kill her for the insurance? the defense said no way. lance unglesby: he had too much going for him. we did not buy into the prosecutor's theory that he would do it because he was in some financial stress. we didn't believe in buying that for a minute. dennis murphy (voiceover): the defense argued cops didn't look hard enough at the list of scary clients who may have wanted chiquita dead and that unknown male dna under her fingernails, the source still unknown. we believed that there was just more to this than was being presented to that jury. dennis murphy (voiceover): the trial lasted 16 days, and then the jurors were given their instructions. after listening to the evidence, danita was torn. and she remembers how she felt when, after 3 and 1/2 hours of deliberation, the jury announced it had a verdict. dennis murphy: now, take me right through your mind

and your stomach as you're walking back into the courtroom. shaking, barely could stand on my feet. and we holding hands, walking back in there. dennis murphy (voiceover): did they see greg as a stone killer, capable of premeditated murder, or an innocent grieving husband? the answer is neither. the verdict they reached was something in between-- guilty of manslaughter, a lesser charge which the judge allowed them to consider. the prosecutor was flabbergasted. i just about passed out. and so did the defense attorney. nobody argued manslaughter. dennis murphy (voiceover): she wanted to know why the jury rejected her argument of premeditated murder. prem burns: i went back and talked to the jury. and they said, well, you know what we think? we think something just went on up there that got out of hand. dennis murphy (voiceover): the judge had a lot of latitude in imposing the sentence. manslaughter could carry anywhere from a few months to 40 years in prison. a lesser conviction of a lesser charge, but the judge threw the metaphorical book at him. she did. 40 years without the possibility of parole.

correct. dennis murphy (voiceover): the maximum sentence. in 2012, an appeals court upheld greg harris's conviction, but amended his sentence to 40 years with the possibility of parole. then, in 2015, greg began working with a different lawyer to get his conviction reversed. he argued that the judge should never have presided. before trial, judge trudy white disclosed that she knew the victim and that chiquita had been her law clerk. the defense didn't object. dennis murphy: should you have gotten her recused? - absolutely not. - was that a trial error? no, she was a very fair judge. dennis murphy (voiceover): but greg's lawyer, rick gallo, said the judge did not disclose everything about their relationship. we discovered that chiquita, the victim, had actually represented judge white in a civil lawsuit. dennis murphy (voiceover): judge white did not respond to our requests for a comment. greg's attorney also said the harris family received letters after the trial, claiming someone else killed chiquita because she knew too much about something. but the cops will tell you that every lead they chased

down brought them back to one man, someone who robbed a family of its shining young star. in april 2016, a louisiana district court denied greg harris's petition for a new trial. dennis murphy: so it's been years now, lessie. do you miss her? oh, i miss her so much. everything-- i miss it all. dennis murphy (voiceover): baton rouge, the river rolls on, but without that fiery young lawyer who'd come so far, so fast. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music]