drinks and two ambien the night the shooting happened. the defense team says their client was not aware of his actions because of his reaction to the inso-- insomnia drug and therefore was not responsible. pamela escobar has closing arguments. >> they left the county courthouse after a quick lunch after the jury heard from both lawyers during their closing arguments. bullets from the gun never hit officers and never came close to the officers who were on the ground outside the house back in january of 2014. >> didn't find any. bullet strikes or no tampering issues. >> prosecutors argued that the trained officers testified to hearing bullet strikes nearby and there were three bullet holes in a window pain in the dining room.

place the bullets could have gone. it went out the dining room door and right where the officers went. >> they believe it to be true. no one is saying the officers are lying. theythey are not accurate. >> he was taking ambien and not conscious of what was going on. >> what kind of guy who forms the intent to shoot up the house with his 6 and 9-year-old daughter and then calls two entire police forces to come in on a friday night and then decides he wants to lay down with a bacon sandwich and watch tv? does that make sense or is that bizarre? >> there is no ambien exception in the state of north carolina. >> reporter: prosecutors say he is guilty. he drank alcohol that night and took ambien. if he was driving he would have gotten a dwi. >> he keeps a loaded gun accessible, that he hit his wife, grabbed the loaded gun and shot at the police officers that night. you know what he wants you to

not guilty because there is no criminal liability. he can do all of those things and there is simply no criminal liability. that doesn't make any sense. >> reporter: pamela escobar, wbtv on your side. >> maureen: he was facing 14 years if convicted, but he was found not guilty on all counts. >> maureen: sky 3 was over a pond in charlotte. cmpd dive team members helped authorities in the search involving a mount holly homicide. authorities did not say what they were looking for, but we know it was not a person or weapon in that case. >> maureen: gadsen county has had their hands full. there are 12 open positions and they are investigating two homicides this week. they started an investigation on a homicide that took place during a house party in mount holly. two days later detectives started another homicide investigation in a triple

both are on going cases. an arrest has been made in the triple homic shooting jeffrey gillian and stephanie sanchez and her husband at the time. crystal florez spoke to authorities about the case load with less help. >> it is very taxing. >> reporter: typically one homicide investigation is a lot to handle for the detectives in the police department. but this week everyone has had to pull double duty. >> it has been extremely busy with two homicides. >> reporter: detectives' first investigation began on sunday after a saturday night house party lead to the shooting death of lewis. early tuesday morning they began a triple homicide investigation in uh lks sis. in alexis. they found the dead bodies of gambino and stephanie sanchez and just one homicide they used all seven of their detectives to investigate.

those resources along with crime analysts depending on how big the case can get and howdy tailed with a lot of nature. >> with two homicides to solve, the resources are spread thin. detectives are taken off one case to work on the other. to make matters worse, the police department has 12 openings for officers. but it is not just the homicide cases that suffer. >> it causes us to delay other investigations often because our efforts to try and solve a homicide as quickly as possible. >> the mount holly suspect is still on the run. they arrested crystal gambino for the trip hell home -- triple homicide. >> there is a lot of work for prepping it and getting it ready for trial. >> even though his department is shorthanded at the moment, he says he has not reached out to the neighboring agencies to ask for more detectives and resources. it is something he will consider if the investigations are in desperate need of hlp. christian florez, wbtv on your side. >> maureen: gaston county

if you are in trouble. they are there for you and they have more than enough patrol officers to respond to an emergency. keep that in mind. >> maureen: this man is accused of shooting a woman in the head on caps hill mine road. it happened on tuesday morning. we do not know her condition right now. >> maureen: a missouri state trooper being called a hero for saving a woman from a feary crash last month. the dash cam video shows the rescue, and it was just released. wbtv anchor brigida mac has the story on "primetime." >> police dash cam video shows the dramatic moments when a driver running from police strikes another car. >> both vehicles spinout of control. i called it in and knew i needed to get down here. i could see the fireball and i could see the plume of smoke come up from that. >> they clocked a speeding

>> hit a car in the intersection. >> with flames spreading fast, the officer ran to 60-year-old becky crawford's totaled honda civic as gas spell from its ruptured tank. >> i knew i had to get her out of there. i worked probably a thousand plus accidents in my career. you know, once a car catches on fire, the time that they take to go up is interpret quick. >> with at least half a dozen broken bones including her back, crawford lay helpless in her car. >> climbed inside and undid her seatbelt and asked if she was okay. she said i hurt and i said i know you do, but we have to get you out of here. >> less than 90 seconds after he carried her away from the scene the car exploded. >> it is a little surreal. that's not something you capture on your own camera very often. everything just happened so fast. >> reporter: the 19-year-old

anything that any other fellow officer wouldn't have done. but the victim's husband calls him a genuine hero and thanking him in person. >> god bless you. >> reporter: the trooper's disregard for his own life saved his wife. >> i wouldn't have chosen this way to meet him, but i'm glad we met. >> see you soon. >> the accolades are nice, but that's not why we do our job. we don't do our job for accolades. we do our job because the service and protection that's on our patch and that was my opportunity to do a little of both that day. >> wbtv on your side for "primetime." >> wow, he did so much. isn't it amazing with the dash cams how we can see this stuff happening in realtime? becky crawford is receiving medical treatment for her injury. doctors do expect though that she will make a full recovery.

it is friday night and it is 53 degrees. let's check in with eric thomas to find out if it will get any better over the weekend. i think that's kind of chilly. >> eric: yeah, it is a little cool, maureen and we will start embarking on a warming trend as we take you through the weekend time frame. we will take you to the scott clark toyota weathernet and maureen just showed you a live shot. it is gorgeous. look at the sunset. this is from cpcc and 51 degrees there at the community college. the number officially at the airport is 50. we are in the fasts across the i-40 corridor and boone and blowing rock, there you go. out the door, hour by hour, 43 at 11:00. so if you're taking your family out, make sure you bundle them up and it will be chilly. we are heading into the 30s thereafter. wrmer weather on the way. it is not much of a rollercoaster. wait until you see the numbers in the first alert forecast. >> up next on "primetime" imagine losing your rent money

if happened to a charlotte woman. we'll introduce you to the people who jumped in to help. and 9-1-1 calls oocially mean -- usually mean bad news. next, how a little girl's fashion emergency helped brighten the day of a south carolina deputy. and next, an alleged thief in south carolina meets an unexpected guest as he tries to make a get away. the incredible video and you have to see it neck. you are watching "primetime" your only live, local news at

stick around. >> maureen: now on "primetime," look at this scene in greenville, south carolina. boy, the owner of this home is thankful to be alive after that car flipped over and hit his home. according to firefighters, the driver was the only person in the car and she wasn't seriously hurt. two people in the home at the time at the accident? well they were not hurt either. a thief gets quite the surprise at a get away. it happened in columbia. deputies say a man stole $40 worth of meat from the wal-mart. when he dashed out the front door to make his get away he ran head first into a passing suv. and, well, he was stopped on impact. the shaken man left, but deputies say they got this picture and they are trying to find him. >> maureen: look at this adorable video of a doctor comforting a crying puppy

the dog was crying because of feeling weird from the anesthesia. the video became so popular that the shelter shared a follow-up picture of the puppy with her family. look at that wonderful vet raw their yen. still to come on "primetime" rent money down the drain. not so fast. we'll introduce you to the

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revelations to the o.j. simpson murder case? los angeles police say a knife was found on property that once belonged to o.j. simpson. the former football star was living there in 1994 when his ex-wife nicole simpson and ron goldman were killed. in 1998 a construction worker found the knife and gave it to a retired officer thinking the case was closed. the officer kept the knife until recently. because there was never an arrest or conviction in the murders, police say the double homicide case is still open. the knife is now being tested by lapd. >> maureen: a 2-year-old girl in greenville, south carolina had a fashion emergency so she decided 9-1-1 was the place to call. deputy martha lone showed up at little aaliyah's house after she called police and she didn't say anything. when she knocked on the door the little girl showed up with half a pant leg on and the

>> she wanted me to her do her shoes and then she wanted me to hug her and hold her. i just kept saying it made my day. she was so sweet and so out going. >> maureen: even though it wasn't a real emergency it was a nice break from the tough call she usually gets. of course, this is a reminder to talk to your kids about how to call for help and when making that call is appropriate. >> maureen: now on "primetime" the mayor of matthews says full speed ahead to breakaway from the charlotte-mecklenburg school district of the they met to go over the game plan. jim taylor tells wbtv that in 10 days they will vote on a resolution that will have them splitting up. whether it is the right thing or not, some pairns say it is -- some parents say it is too big and can't cater to the specific needs. he is already thinking about

>> we have three scenarios that we are exploring. number one getting the authority to form our own district and two splitting up the current district to a north, midand south district orie generals and then -- or regions and then third is starting our own charter system. >> mayor taylor tells us in addition to a resolution in a few weeks he will create a task force that will consist of citizens to investigate what needs to be done to form their own school district. moore more new tonight -- >> maureen: new tonight the charlotte fire department is getting help to achieve their goals. they received five treadmills and three bikes and foury lip tau cal machine -- 4y lip tau $20,000. the items were donated to the firefighters by the charlotte marriott center city. they are re-doing that marriott, so they thought let's give the firefighters who work so hard for us a

equipment at the fire house. >> eric: stay in shape. those guys need to be in shape. >> maureen: have you ever seen the riggors to become a firefighter? that's why they are built like that. strong strong. >> eric: they are out there in the middle of the summer heat. >> maureen: crazy. >> eric: no summer heat yet, but we are trending in that direction. the numbers are going to still work their way upward. it is 57 degrees and honda hd tower cam. happy friday. if you are heading out here is what you will encounter. a little bit of a breeze out of the north right now. [no audio] temperatures in the mid40s a you -- across the piedmont. we are talking in the peaked moppet to the upstate of south carolina. you don't see a change until you head up the hill and we drop to around freezing.

we will drop off our perch around 49, 50 degrees and work our way to 40 around 11:00 midnight. if you are enjoying your friday night even through 1:00 in the morning. here is a map. what caw expect? partly cloudy skies and no disruptive weather all the way through the overnight hours and that's it. it is out the door tomorrow morning at 8:00. one or two clouds hanging around and we'll call it fair skies. into the high country we go and a nice start up. no surprise about 29 degrees. continuing then with our map through saturday. an upper level disturbance is working into the western sections of the viewing section. even a few wet snowflakes again developing as we take you through the late night hours. certainly on saturday night and then into sunday morning. but late in the afternoon we will be getting into the high country.

timing that will beacon vein -- be convenient. 57 through 4:00. you can see it is just working its way through the mountains. you can see the showers and most is happening after dark. it is in and it is out and then even if you are heading out for sunday services it should be just fine. the rain is long gone and the skies are just going to part. i mean open up for another beautiful day the timing is nice and we find ourselves in the weekend. 58 on saturday after a chilly start. tons of sun. there it is what we just showed you. we will jump into the mid60s. 70 on tuesday and then low to mid70s by midweek. then perhaps by the end of the forecast period another weak system gets in here and a few showers out of that. that's the way it is. here is maureen o'boyle. >> maureen: time for a look at what is trending and these are

wbtv social media sites today. this maternity photo shoot from jackson, mississippi is viral tonight. the expectant woman's husband died a few months before her due date, but the photographer found a way to include him in her maternity pictures after he passed. fake -- take a look. they took old photos and added them into the new shots. they divorced, but recently reconciled and expecting their second child together. >> maureen: an autopsy report says whit thee houston's daughter, bobbi kristina had morphine, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs in her body when she went underwater in a bathtub. she spent six months in a coma before her death. >> maureen: a 16-year-old is charged in the case of nude photos of teachers. the male student stole the pictures she intended for her

spread them around school via text messages. police announced that the teen is charged with computer crimes and aggravated voyeurism. the voyeurism charge comes after an investigation showed the teen's phone had the picture of the teacher stored in a separate pass code protected file. for more on these stories and others make sure to click on the links. it is time for the "primetime" pic. who is watching who. post the picture on instagram with wbtv and me and we could use your picture here. follow us at wbtv under score news. >> maureen: a charlotte dot crew was in the right place at the right time and helped make an expensive rescue. hundreds in cash blew into a storm drain and now one woman

kristen hampton with tonight's good news. >> we were driving down hodge -- hodgkis. >> she was flagging down anyone she thought could help her. $200 she planned to pay toward her rent blew out of her car and straight into the worst possible place. the very best possible people stopped to help. john jones is the crew chief for the three-man team from charlotte d.o.t. >> we assessed the situation and carefully removed it and retrieved the money and handed it to her. >> reporter: easier said than done. it took all three men to removed the 80-pound grate. nothing in their job description said they had to help her. >> not only as a community, but as a city. >> reporter: their efforts were rewarded with a great big hug for all three. in charlotte with the good news, kristen hampton. >> all in a day's work. >> reporter: wbtv on your

we are back after this. >> closed captioning on wbtv news is sponsored by subaru

concord. >> maureen: we thank you for watching "primetime" and we hope you have a wonderful weekend.

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