documentary on oath keepers founder stewart rhodes, who was sentenced in may of 2023 to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy following the january 6th attack. donald trump commuted rhodes sentence on his first day back in office. the film features estranged members of rhodes family, including his son, who have since become de-radicalised. watch king of the apocalypse tonight at 9 p.m. eastern on msnbc. that'll do it for me. thanks for watching. i'll be back next saturday and sunday at 6 p.m. eastern. follow us on instagram, tiktok and threads using the handle at threads using the handle at weekend capehart and blu hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." the little girl who hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." won the heart of a big city. they call you the miracle baby. why do they call you that? craig melvin: shot in the head at point blank range. a crime scene that shocked even hardened police. dora the explorer pillow and it had blood on it.

craig melvin: as she fought to live, this detective vowed to catch whoever left her to die. soon, he turned up a promising lead. bells and whistles go off my head. craig melvin: in the hospital, she battled back. to know that she had survived was a pretty powerful moment. craig melvin: not just her body, but her mind. there was the guy that come in the day care and erica said, don't let him hurt me. craig melvin: she'd handed investigators what could be a vital clue. but would it be enough to crack the case? [music playing] hello, and welcome to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. it all started with a crime that not even police could believe. a little girl, just a toddler, shot in the head deliberately.

left for dead by a killer who then disappeared. but a detective vowed to crack this case, no matter how long it took. here's hoda kotb. hoda kotb: one of the biggest attractions at the louisville zoo was a floppy-eared baby named scotty. cute and kind of cuddly, at least for an elephant. he's got hair. he's got hair is right. hoda kotb: but on this day, he shared the spotlight with another media celebrity, a spunky girl named erica, whose infectious laugh and incredible story captivated a city. that girl is a miracle child. why do you think they call her that? because she's been through a lot. we had a two-year-old that was shot twice and lived. does she have an understanding of what happened to her? she knows that she was shot. if you could have seen her, you would have said there's no way that this child could possibly make it. hoda kotb: louisville, the home of churchill downs,

is famous for its big horse race, the kentucky derby. so it knows a thing or two about long shots. but in betting parlance, the odds of this story ever finding a happy ending were off the board, virtually impossible. would a little girl ever gain the strength not only to recover, but to come back whole? and would a dedicated detective not only crack his biggest case, but keep the emotional promise he made? erica's story began in a hardscrabble neighborhood in louisville in this brick house on wilson avenue. a two-year-old wild about dora the explorer, erica lived here with her mom, earon harper. on may 18, 2006, police got a frantic 911 call. when they arrived at the house, the man who made the call flagged them down. what was his state of mind? he was really hysterical. what was he saying?

there's a little girl in there, there's a little girl in there. hoda kotb: detective tom barth and now retired officer, larry riley, rushed into the house and found a horrifying scene. a woman almost certainly dead on the floor. just see a big, like a pool of blood. hoda kotb: the officers had to step over the woman to get to the back room where on the bed, they saw the little girl motionless. when i first seen her i thought she was dead. was she saying anything? doing anything? no, and then eventually i touched her and she pushed my hand said, you know, leave me alone. tell me about the emotion you felt at that moment. just, she was alive. hoda kotb: but barely. the officers could see that the little girl had been shot in the head. dried blood was everywhere. they could tell that she'd been left there for a long time. she had very labored breathing, very labored breathing. have you ever seen anyone who was breathing like that who made it? no, no i have not. hoda kotb: there was no time to wait for an ambulance.

a sergeant at the scene barked the order for a police car to take her to the hospital. but first, the officers had to get her to the car. i got to tell you, from the house to the car, it seems like a long way. what did it seem like when you guys were sprinting? forever. thought we was running to the hospital. you're holding her head and you're holding her legs. were you like this, do you remember? yep. just like this? we were side-to-side like this. hoda kotb: when they finally reached the car, they handed her to two ems firefighters in the back seat. and now retired officer steve kelsey jumped behind the wheel. [siren] hit my car and said go as fast as you can go. just hit it. he said, go. hoda kotb: kelsey gunned it for the three-mile trip to the hospital in downtown louisville. so i kept driving and i'm thinking about my own kids. it could have been any of our children. we're all fathers. hoda kotb: the nbc station, wave-tv, captured the dramatic final moments of the high speed motorcade as it made the left turn toward the hospital. with traffic, officer kelsey said the ride

can take up to 15 minutes. how long did it take you? about two to three minutes. hoda kotb: across town, another part of the story was unfolding inside this house. all day long, harold harper and his wife, judith, were wondering why they couldn't reach their daughter earon and their two-year-old granddaughter erica. harold, a retired factory worker, and judith, a homemaker, talk to their daughter nearly every day. so the silence was strange. then the tv news flashed on. news anchor: first here at 7, some breaking news. they said there had been a shooting down on owen wilson avenue, where she lived. and we thought, oh my god. hoda kotb: he and judith picked up earon's oldest daughter, ebony, and drove down to the house. there was a whole bunch of people sitting outside and it was taped off. and it was a mess down there. so you knew that something was up. yeah. and then i just-- freaked out. hoda kotb: it wasn't long before judith and harold's worst fears

were confirmed. the jewelry she had on, they brought it to me. i knew it was earon then. hoda kotb: their daughter, earon harper, 42, was dead in the doorway. when you saw that jewelry and you knew it was your daughter, what went through you, judy? i lost a son in '78 in a car wreck. he was already gone when i got to the hospital. i could have shed a few tears, went on about my business. but this was different. my son was 21, he had no children. hoda kotb: the loss of earon, a mother of four, was devastating. but now the family had to deal with what happened to baby erica. finding out in the most impersonal way. i knew she was hurt, but then the police rushing her down the street, that i saw on tv. hoda kotb: and later they learned how badly hurt. she had been shot in the head. why in the name of god would somebody do that? hoda kotb: it was this man's job to find out.

now in your experience, how many times have there been babies who were victims? there's never been a case that worked and where a baby's been shot. hoda kotb: a lifelong local with a once promising pitching career at the university of louisville, now retired detective rick arnold, knew this would be a high profile case. he just didn't know it would be the case of a lifetime. rich arnold: this is detective rick arnold. today's date is may 18, 2006. hoda kotb: a video camera rolled as detective arnold processed the crime scene, homing in on clues. rich arnold: on this drum near the victim's body, it's a shell casing. hoda kotb: the harsh reality of death lay side by side with the everyday images of young life. earon's body in a pool of blood near a red kiddie wagon, a shell casing in front of a box of diapers. and the bed where erica once jumped for joy, was now covered in her own blood. rich arnold: and suspected blood on the sheets, the pillows

and the pillow cases. hoda kotb: detective arnold noticed something on the bed that would burn in his memory throughout the investigation. the first thing that immediately hit me was the dora the explorer pillow. and it had blood on it. what was the emotion when you saw that? anger. hoda kotb: with two young kids of his own, this case had already hit rick arnold hard. on the spot, he made a promise to erica's grandmother. you said we're going to find who did this. yes. that's a lot to promise somebody, isn't it? yes, it is. craig melvin: coming up, a glimmer of hope for the baby erica. i was rubbing her hand and she opened her eyes. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. [music playing] type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight.

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frantically to stabilize her. her vital signs were barely measurable. hoda kotb: dr. thomas moriarty, a pediatric neurosurgeon, performed surgery on the gunshot wounds to erica's head. these were cat scans of her skull and brain pre-op. on this one you can see part of the bullets and some broken bone. hoda kotb: the surgeon's lifesaving mission was to clean the fragments from erica's head, repair the wounds and preserve brain function if possible. erica actually was lucky in one way. the angle of the bullet wasn't straight through the brain, but downward, exiting under her chin. dr. thomas moriarty: what a blessing, as opposed to a bullet going through and damaging and destroying everything. hoda kotb: and dr. moriarty was relieved that the bullet only struck the brain's frontal lobe, which can absorb injury better, especially in the very young. less than three years old, the brain's ability to repair is truly remarkable. hoda kotb: after a delicate three and 1/2 hour surgery,

dr. moriarty was encouraged by comparison scans of erica's brain. the bullet and the bone fragments in the pre-op image were gone. but despite the repair, brain injuries are unpredictable. and dr. moriarty urged caution. the next three days in the icu are going to be critical. rich arnold: painting it now, another shell casing. hoda kotb: at the crime scene, detective arnold continued to sift through clues. more leads came into focus. a bloody footprint, three big red soda cans and two cigarette butts by the bed. the second one had an ash about an inch long. some had left that cigarette and rushed out of there. hoda kotb: detective arnold ordered dna testing on the cigarettes and cans. the detective was also learning about earon and the more he found out, the more he was drawn in. mostly by herself, earon was raising four children, including erica, the only one home the night of the shooting, and ebony, the oldest at 16.

instead of like mother and daughter, we were more like sisters. you were like friends, huh? yeah, we did everything together. she was the best mom. hoda kotb: and fun to be around, with a boisterous, oversized personality. she was outgoing. she just would do anything. she was just a daredevil. i just miss her so much. she was everything to me. she loved her kids. she tried her best to take care of them. hoda kotb: earon worked at churchill downs as a hostess meeting celebrities, like actor jason priestley. but she had to go on disability because of ms and a painful inflammatory condition known as fibromyalgia. she often took prescription pain killers to manage her symptoms. she was, well, to put it bluntly, i guess, a heck of a woman, you know? as far as a fighting spirit and everything is concerned. hoda kotb: but her parents were concerned by the crowd she sometimes ran with. she was with some guys you weren't fond of?

that's right. hoda kotb: even so, her parents could not imagine who would have shot her and little erica or why. and that just ramped up their own fears that the shooter or shooters might come back. i was scared to death. i thought, oh my god, you know, what if they don't catch these people? hoda kotb: at the crime scene, detective arnold was searching for answers, combing the house for more clues. rich arnold: paint again. kind of a closet that contains a safe. hoda kotb: some contents apparently missing. the first thing that popped in my head was some type of a robbery. rich arnold: and next the drum is a cell phone. one of the first things we do is check cell phone records. hoda kotb: phone records show that earon received two phone calls in the hours before the shooting, both from a family friend. james quisenberry had known earon for years. he called her auntie a. they're menthol. that's the best i can do. is that ok? that's what i smoke, menthol.

hoda kotb: police brought him in to see if he had any information that could help the investigation. one of the very last people to call her or talk to her by phone was you, which is why we want to talk to you. it was me? hoda kotb: quisenberry provided some names for investigators to check out and repeatedly offered to assist police in any way he could. i'll help you, help you find whoever did this. hoda kotb: back at children's hospital, erika was now in the icu, holding on for life. her heartbroken grandparents and big sister stood daily vigil. it was like a horror movie really. i don't know who that was on that bed. that wasn't erica. hoda kotb: ebony took it very hard. 14 years older, she'd been like a second mother to erica. in fact, erica actually called her mommy. by day four in the icu, erica's family was seeing signs of hope. doctors believed erica was strong enough to remove her breathing tube. now it was time to see how she'd do on her own.

i was rubbing her hand and she opened her eyes like a little bit and she said mommy. and then everybody was like, oh my goodness, she's speaking. hoda kotb: while erica had taken the first small steps toward recovery, there was a big sign of life in rick arnold's investigation. it was a mystifying discovery that would turn out to be crucial. why is this with all these personal affects of earon harper? doesn't make sense, does it? made zero sense. craig melvin: coming up, an unlikely car, a cadillac leads to an unlikely clue when "dateline" continues. [music playing] in the wayborhood, every delivery is a treat. one pistachio for you, sir. one strawberry poof, please. oh. enjoy it. oh, poofect. bye waybor. something minty? of course, it's a large. [ gasps ]

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>> what's your message to concerned. >> voters about where. >> the. >> country may be headed after the biden administration leaves? >> actually behind closed doors? they're still asking what the they're still asking what the hell happened? hoda kotb: four days after she was shot, erica woke up and started talking to her family. in the icu, erica was feisty and combative. her neurosurgeon, dr. moriarty, said that was a positive sign. her brain was rebooting. did you pray a lot? oh, yes. hoda kotb: judith was the most religious one in the family. and a week after surgery, her prayers and unshakable faith were answered erica's condition was upgraded from critical to fair. she looked real bad, but i never dwelled on she wasn't going to make it. hoda kotb: now the family had to turn its focus to the one who did not make it, erica's mom, earon.

on may 25, 2006, a week after she was gunned down, earon's family gathered for her funeral. and the man who delivered the eulogy was none other than the officer who'd raced erica to the hospital, steve kelsey, who also served as a minister in a local church. and it was so moving and personal, because he'd been on the scene. hoda kotb: but for jessie halladay, then a crime reporter for the louisville courier-journal, what elevated the story was simple, little erica. the public concern from the very beginning was always that there was a two-year-old involved. hoda kotb: after nearly two weeks in the hospital, erica was well enough to move to nearby frazier rehabilitation institute. but the hard work was just beginning. the brain injury had damaged her ability to walk and talk. what had been second nature to her had to be relearned. running, talking back and forth, and just

being a playful kid again. erica's sister, who knew her best, was worried. erica had lost sight in her right eye forever. and ebony was afraid she'd never be her old self again. what was different? she didn't run and play and talk as much. she was kind of quiet. hoda kotb: with still no idea why her sister and mother were shot, ebony and her grandparents remained fearful. you must have been worried, like who did this? and where are they? yeah, i was just thinking about the safety of the kids and me. so i didn't go out much. hoda kotb: back at the police station, detective arnold was trying to figure out his next move when his investigation caught a lucky break. a 75-year-old neatnik spotted some of earon's things in a rain-soaked ditch three miles from earon's house and phoned police. there were empty prescription pill bottles, credit card and id cards, and personal papers.

and something else that did not belong. tell me about what this thing is. this is a cadillac manual. hoda kotb: a cadillac owner's manual. it stood out, because it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the muddy mess. so why was the car manual there? and who's was it? rick arnold tried thumbing through it, but the pages were soaked together. even the cover, the front and the back cover were just soggy to the point where when i started to look through this the very first time and flip through, pages are still sticking together. hoda kotb: days later, rick could separate a few pages, but was still frustrated. it was the third time and i really was thinking this'll be the last time. if i don't find something in this now, i'll be out of luck. but i went through this, i literally licked my thumb and my forefinger and went through it page by page. hoda kotb: the third time was the charm. i was able to find stuck all the way down in the binding of the book, an automobile insurance card. with a name. with a name most importantly. hoda kotb: by now, his working days had turned into working nights.

detective arnold typed the name, a man's name, into his computer, and it spit out 15 matches. one of them lived in southern indiana, just across the river from louisville. around 11 pm, rick called the man. i asked him if he knows why his manual would have been in a drainage ditch in louisville, kentucky. and what did he tell you? he says, i don't know, but my car was broken into at my work last week. hoda kotb: his cadillac. the break-in happened on the night of may 17th, just a few hours before earon harper was found dead. i asked him, where do you work? and he said he's a pharmacist at a walgreens. and bells and whistles go off in my head. he works in a drug store where they sell prescription drugs. it hit me immediately that there was a reason why that manual was with his stuff now. hoda kotb: detective arnold now had a working theory and it went like this. someone broke into a shiny cadillac parked outside an indiana walgreens. the car happened to belong to the store's pharmacist.

for no apparent reason, the thief grabbed the owner's manual from the glove compartment and tossed it into his own car. he then went to earon's house, where she and erica were shot and earon's prescription pills and credit cards were stolen. then, according to rick's theory, the person rushed away from the house, threw the pill bottles and credit cards into the getaway car and drove off. a few miles away, whoever was in the car, got rid of the hot property, tossing earon's empty pill bottles and credit cards out of the window along with the cadillac manual. and that's how everything ended up together in the drainage ditch. and i think they were just grabbing stuff. and i believe that they just thought, wow, we don't want to have this, she's dead. hoda kotb: rick asked if the pharmacist knew who broke into his car. he said i don't know for sure, but i have a pretty good idea. hoda kotb: the pharmacist remembered, and store security cameras confirmed, that a man in a baseball cap and another man

came into the walgreens at 9:30 pm on may 17th, just hours before earon was shot. and he said they didn't look like they were regular shoppers at our walgreens. he said most of our prescription customers are regular customers. he went on to tell me that they had come back to the pharmacy and tried to obtain prescriptions using bogus names. hoda kotb: and on the security tape, rick looked closely and saw the man in the baseball cap leaning through the window of the enclosed pharmacy section, seemingly checking out names from pill bottles. over and over, detective arnold stared at the grainy walgreens tape. the man in the baseball cap looked familiar. one person sure looks like quisenberry. hoda kotb: as in james quisenberry, earon's family friend, who phoned her minutes before the murder. earlier he told the detective how much he wanted to help the investigation. i'll help you, help you find whoever did this. hoda kotb: rick wasn't buying any of it now. quisenberry had become a prime suspect, though rick

wasn't ready to arrest him. not yet. not until he had the other man. but that wouldn't be easy. although there were two suspects in his sights, the mystery man was not in focus. how clear is the image of the second guy? it's not very clear. craig melvin: coming up, turned out, it was an image that was all too clear to little erica. they was the guy that come in the daycare, and they had braids in their hair. and erica said, don't let him hurt me. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. [music playing] (♪♪) a single touch can say a thousand words. it says... i see you. i feel you. i got you. and i'm never letting go. (♪♪) ever. (♪♪) say it all with irresistibly touchable skin.

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leave saturday. >> it comes after the foreign aid. >> agency attempted to prevent ddos. >> which is. >> led. >> by elon musk, from. >> accessing its secure systems. for now. for now. >> back to dateline. welcome back to "dateline," i'm craig melvin. detective rick arnold believed he identified one man, now a suspect for murder, on security video. but there was another person in the picture, too. would detectives track down before it was too late? once again, hoda kotb. hoda kotb: just 27 days after being shot in the head, erica was released from rehab and met officer and pastor steve kelsey and her other rescuers. it was nothing short of a miracle. that is beautiful. that is beautiful. to see the looks on those faces and know that she had survived was a pretty powerful moment. hoda kotb: erica laughed, cried and acted like a two-year-old.

reporter jessie halladay was amazed by her progress, but also concerned about long-term brain damage. i didn't feel like at that point i could say for sure she was going to be ok. hoda kotb: but even getting this far had beaten the odds. erica was going home. just great to have her there, you know, and to get her to get her home from the hospital. hoda kotb: it was a home she already knew. grandparents judith and harold harper were waving goodbye to their carefree golden years. they were full time parents again. i agreed from the first day that i would take care of her. not knowing what kind of shape she was going to be in, not knowing what mental state she'd be in. hoda kotb: erica's father had never been a big part of her life, so a court granted judith and harold full custody of erica and her baby sister. you worked your whole life. this is supposed to be your time to kind of kick back, put your feet up, but that's not for you? oh, that doesn't bother me in the bit. now, me and my husband, we're a little different.

it didn't turn out exactly like i thought it would, because of, well you know the reason, with the children and stuff. hoda kotb: four years before the shootings, harold had retired from his longtime meatpacking job, expecting to ride his harley into the sunset. i had a california trip and i've been into canada, most everywhere. and well that had to stop. he knows that i couldn't maintain these children without him. i don't want her to. and i love those little kids. i love my grandparents. they're the best grandparents ever. do you think that they sacrificed a lot to do this? yeah, my grandpa loves his harley. but people do what they have to do, you know, what's in their heart to do. hoda kotb: together, they gave erica a secure home. day by day, she was gaining strength. but things were not normal. erica was so afraid of balloons. balloons? balloons, the popping.

and she was afraid of fire crackers. loud noises and everything. she's like this. she was scared when it rained, when it thundered outside. because anything that sounded like gunshots. yeah. hoda kotb: but there was something else that terrified erica, and it was harder to understand. they was the guy that come in the daycare to pick his child up, and he had braids in his hair. and erica started running and crying to the teacher and said don't let him hurt me. hoda kotb: judith told detective arnold about erica's new fear, men with braids. and there on the walgreen's video, detective arnold saw it, the man coming in with james quisenberry, the mystery man, had braids. but the image was still too fuzzy to figure out. rick circulated a freeze frame of the man and hoped someone could identify him. then he waited. eight months later, rick got some promising news. a detective thought he recognized the walgreens

guy from another shooting. and i might want to check him out. hoda kotb: his name, kenneth williams. rick compered several williams' mugshots with the walgreens video. and you think, boom, we've got our guy. i think it's probably him, but there again, the picture on the video's not real good. but i start focusing in on him at that point. hoda kotb: then rick's investigation got lucky again. an unlikely witness came forward with information about that same kenneth williams and the night erica and her mom were shot. but the witness, rashon turner, was questionable. he was charged with murder himself, for which he'd later plead guilty to manslaughter. and he was also gravely wounded in a shooting. prosecutor john heck. john heck: he's on his deathbed, he thinks he's going to hell, and he has something he needs to say. hoda kotb: weeks later, turner's health improved enough to talk to rick arnold. james and kenneth williams. they had supposedly hit a lick on a woman. they hit a lick on some lady.

what does that mean? that's slang term for a robbery. hoda kotb: robbery that quickly escalated to murder. he knew things he couldn't have known. he knew things that weren't in the media. there's no way he could have known some of this stuff. what kind of things? he couldn't have known there were pills involved. hoda kotb: it was a long, frustrating, 15-month investigation, but rick was finally close to the answers he had promised erica's grandmother. what kept you going during some of those times where you might have felt like i'm getting dead ends? a two-year-old baby, erica hughes. hoda kotb: five days after interviewing turner, detective arnold was ready to bring in quisenberry and williams for some tough questioning. actually, rick had enough on quisenberry to arrest him earlier, but he wasn't ready yet. he wanted morel; both men from the walgreens video, so he could play them off of each other in dueling interrogations. and now, he had them. you've been waiting and waiting patiently, so it's time to do your thing, right?

now it's time to move. the detective moves to get each suspect to implicate the other, not knowing he was nearly out of time. craig melvin: coming up. so you didn't know you was playing beat the clock. no, no idea at all. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. with dupixent, stay ahead of moderate-to-severe eczema. as you welcome the feeling of touch with clearer skin and less itch. the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, helps heal your skin from within. severe allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for face, mouth, tongue or throat swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. tell your doctor of new or worsening eye problems, like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. ice works fast. heat makes it ice works fast. heat makes it last.

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with erica being so young and with her grandparents raising her and there was so much interest to begin with, we wanted to go back and see how she was doing. hoda kotb: erica had jesse at hello. that's all it took for the high spirited, then three-year-old, to win over the cynical reporter. erica was in it from the very beginning. you know, she was trying to write with my pen. she wanted to color on my notebook. i was just struck by her curiosity. hoda kotb: jessie reported that erica lost all sight in her right eye. she also had a small scar on her chin where the bullet in her head had exited. i think people still wonder how she survived. i still wonder how she survived. hoda kotb: louisville and erica's family were still consumed by two questions at the heart of it all. who could commit such a horrifying crime? and would the shooter ever be caught? but judith harper had faith all along that justice would be done. most of all, faith in detective arnold.

after all, the promise he made to solve the case was to her. he has gone to see that these people were found. if it had of just been earon, it would have been just maybe another death. but since erica was involved in that, they wasn't gone let up on it. hoda kotb: judith didn't know it yet, but down at police headquarters, detective arnold was close to getting answers from the man he had been pursuing since their starring roles in the walgreens video. james quisenberry, the family friend who'd made the last phone call to earon. and kenneth williams, who admitted to a witness that he was part of a robbery that turned deadly. now it was time to bring both men in and interrogate them. i'm a little apprehensive, but not nervous, no butterflies. just because it's something i had planned on and prepared for such a long time. you were ready. i was ready. hoda kotb: 15 months after the shootings, quisenberry and williams voluntarily

came down to headquarters. each knew the other was there. i wanted them both to understand that if they didn't tell us the truth, the other guys may be. hoda kotb: as a tactic, detective arnold even walked williams past a closed circuit monitor where he could see quisenberry in an interview room. now he's got time to think, hey, what's quisenberry telling these detectives? what's he talking about? hoda kotb: detective arnold needed both suspects to admit they were in the house when the shootings went down. that would back up murder charges against both of them, no matter who pulled the trigger. hoda kotb: quisenberry was interviewed first. he said he knew nothing about the crime. but as the interrogations wore on, he started blaming the man in the other room. i want you to tell me why he killed her and how he did it. i wasn't there, but i know he did it. hoda kotb: but detective arnold knew something quisenberry did not. after quisenberry's first interview rick had scooped up his smoked down marlboros for dna testing.

the results were now back and, bingo, they matched a cigarette butt from the crime scene. he claims he wasn't there, but you got dna that puts him there. and i collected those cigarette butts. and one of those has you dna on it. one of them has my dna on it. one has your dna, that's exactly right. see, that's exactly what i'm saying. you were in that house, and that's what i want to know about. how does he react to being sort of cornered, caught in a lie? he was backtracking. he was he, he was getting scared. i mean, i never told you that i wasn't. i'm saying. - i know. that's my point. i be over all the time. that's what i'm saying. hoda kotb: now quisenberry was admitting he had visited his friend earon that day. but he insisted he'd left before anyone was shot. rick sensed that wasn't quisenberry and his story were crumbling, so he went for the jugular, demanding he come clean. i want to know what you saw inside that house. hoda kotb: and it worked. i saw him go in there, and i was, i was behind him. pow, pow, pow, pow. i hear more gunshots.

him saying he was in that house was critical. that becomes the most important thing he says in the whole statement. hoda kotb: detective arnold now had admission number one. the interview nearly over, quisenberry had a request; one of the strangest rick had ever heard. i know this is hard to ask police this [bleep].. i need to smoke a blunt. hoda kotb: a blunt is a king-sized marijuana cigarette. i've never been asked that in an interview before. we can't do that. i can't do that. hoda kotb: now it was time to interrogate williams, and he proved to be a tougher nut to crack. first impressions of him. he's hardcore. he's hardcore to the max. i did not shoot the lady. i did not do nothing to her or her baby. hoda kotb: he also denied everything and blamed the man in the other room, quisenberry. did he have a gun? yes. what color was it? black. hoda kotb: williams kept insisting he was not even in the house. but rick needed to get him inside,

as he had with quisenberry. i wanted him in the house, not outside by a car, not down the street at the stop sign. hoda kotb: and he needed it fast. although he didn't realize how fast at the time. so you didn't know you were playing beat the clock. no, no idea at all. hoda kotb: detective arnold saw an opening and pounced. first, you'll hear williams finally admit to coming inside. then listen closely as rick asks a rapid fire follow-up about his location in the house, giving him no chance to think or change his story. after i heard a gunshot, i ran in there to see what was going on. what room were you in when that happened? huh? what room? i was in the back room. that was music to my ears, hearing him say i'm in the back room. hoda kotb: rick had him right where he wanted, inside the house. and none too soon. you got an attorney now. hoda kotb: an attorney who immediately stopped the interview. just under the wire and just in the nick of time. hoda kotb: detective arnold placed williams

and quisenberry under arrest. and then he wasted no time making the one phone call he had waited 15 months to make, to erica's grandmother. i literally got done going to the bathroom and made that phone call from the bathroom. what was that making that phone call like? it was an echo, because it was in a bathroom, first of all. it was just a relief. i'd promised judy harper on may the 18th of 2006 that i would, i would get those answers. and now we have. what'd you think when they told you? well, just, just relieved. i had confidence that they would find him sooner or later, 'cause they couldn't get away with it forever. hoda kotb: williams and quisenberry would stand trial for the murder of earon and the attempted murder of erica. an eye for an eye, the death penalty hung over both of them. craig melvin: coming up, an emotional trial and a little girl who not only survived, but thrived, when "dateline" continues. [music playing]

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ok, we are on the record. hoda kotb: those answers would come three years later, april 2009 in a louisville courtroom, where james quisenberry and kenneth williams stood trial for the murder of earon harper and the attempted murder of little erica. whatever the verdict, one man would not be there to hear it, for harold harper, facing the defendants was simply too much to bear. i couldn't look him in the eye without rage. and i was just afraid that i'd mess everything up. hoda kotb: it was an emotional trial. co-prosecutor mark baker, with two young daughters himself, cried in his opening statement. once he determined that there was still life in that little body, you can imagine what the officers did there at the scene. hoda kotb: prosecutors maintain that the defendants came to steal earon's pills and money, but then williams changed the plan after earon fought back according to key witness, rashon turner. well, he told me he snatched a purse from her,

but she wouldn't let go of her purse. he shot her. hoda kotb: turner's testimony also helped fill in another piece of the puzzle; why quisenberry and williams were in the house that night. it appears that after earon became too ill to work, she found a way to supplement her income. selling her prescription medicine. she had invited her friend quisenberry to buy pills before, but this time the deal deteriorated into robbery, and ultimately murder, when williams came along with his gun i had no idea that they would go in a house and kill you over a bottle of pills. hoda kotb: the trial took just one week, and there was little doubt that quisenberry would be convicted of some crime. he got manslaughter and a maximum 45 years in prison. as for williams-- jury foreperson: we the jury, find the defendant, kenneth williams, guilty. hoda kotb: guilty of murder. and then, a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

spared the death penalty only because one holdout juror would not vote for it. did you think that he should have gotten the death penalty? no, i can't go around talking or acting with hate in my heart. 'cause if i do that, then my children, they're going to be thinking it's all right for them to do it. hoda kotb: rick was gratified that he could make good on his promise to erica's grandmother. but he also got something back from her. i drew a lot from judy's strength, because she told me from the get-go that things would work out. and that's a sign of her faith. hoda kotb: out of the tragedy, the harper family had pulled together. with her grandparents as her guiding lights, erica's future looked bright. when i caught up with her, she was a playful six-year-old. we went to the zoo, where she briefly stopped her fun and games to talk. they call you the miracle baby, the miracle baby. why do they call you that? i'm a special, special girl.

special girl? why are you special? i know everything. you know everything. what do you know? i know about like when bananas are rotten, i don't eat them. you don't eat rotten bananas. what else do you know? hoda kotb: erica's struggle from the brink of death became blockbuster news in her hometown. hi, i'm erica hughes. hoda kotb: and the miracle baby became the media celebrity as the familiar face for a community leader's campaign to keep the children of louisville safe. please help us fight guns against children. she is the miracle baby, but she is also a great advocate for fighting crimes against children. erica, what do you want to be when you grow up? a nurse and a teacher. hoda kotb: and why a nurse? you have to help people. kosair staff member: erica, come here. yeah! hoda kotb: like the nurses and doctors from kosair children's hospital who saved her life.

kosair staff member: oh, we're so glad to see you. hoda kotb: more than three years later, they celebrated erica's recovery with a red carpet reunion. taking it all in, surgeon thomas moriarty, proud and pleased that he could give his miracle patient a clean bill of health. no brain damage whatsoever. she's wonderful, she's perfect. she is this little flower that has grown. he left her with a good brain, and that's very important. smart cookie. yeah, she's going to need it throughout life. when you look at erica, do you see any of your mom in erica? yes. what parts? main thing i see is her loud mouth. is that right? yes. erica's loud and she's got the raspy voice just like my mom had. where is your mom right now? up in heaven. do you think about her a lot? what kind of things do you think about? think about her coming down. and what happens when she comes down?

she'll still be my mama. so it's like a constant reminder that your mom is with you. yeah. hoda kotb: and there's one other shared trait. and that's what kept erica alive in her darkest hours. her mom's fighting spirit. to battle with what she had to battle, i guess she did have earon's fighting spirit. you know, to pull through all that. so thank god for that. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." she was everything to me. hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." she was so sweet to everybody. state troopers said bonnie had died in a hiking accident. craig melvin: they said she fell off a cliff.