the numbers but johnson not able to haul it in. so cincinnati back on offense. keith wenning with the hand-off, terrell watson, ran into mike harris, and then a bunch of giants come over and drag him down at the 29-yard line. carl, we'll take another look at the pass play to derrick johnson. >> carl: right on the back line. that looked like it was contended, but it appeared he had both hands on it. >> bob: one of those where you need to be stronger to the ball? >> carl: stronger hands. here it is. goes up, yeah hits his hands first. >> bob: so a wasted opportunity for derrick johnson, trying to make the play late on that fourth and 10. second and one. wenning is going to hand it off

on the left side to watson and that will be the final play of the ballgame. cincinnati got off to a fast start. they scored on each of their first two possessions, andy dalton threw a touchdown pass to mohamed sanu on cincinnati's first offensive possession. and the bengals never looked back. tom coughlin, marvin lewis really good week here in cincinnati with the dual practices on tuesday and wednesday, and then preseason game, eli manning played into the second quarter, giants could they may have to take a closer look at. >> and then the injuries that they suffered in the secondary

getting banged up did not help the cause as they try to find the right combination in that secondary. and obviously, landon collins went out with an injury, trumaine mcbride a hamstring, collins a knee, jayron hosley a possible concussion and trumaine mcbride with that hamstring and then mykkele thompson the most severe. final score from paul brown stadium, cincinnati bengals knock off the new york giants 23-10. our next giants preseason telecast is saturday, august 22nd at 7:30 p.m. when the giants host the jacksonville jag answers. for carl banks, howard cross, bruce beck, and our entire crew, bob papa saying so long from cincinnati! orleans darkwa had the giants' lone touchdown on the night, but the bengals were able to make more plays and come up with the victory, 23-10.

tonight's telecast has been produced by tupelo-honey in conjunction with nbc 4 new york and the new york football giants. was appalled. hired him. >> people are something else, man. you know, it's -- especially people that you think care about you and love you. they're supposed to be -- these are the same [ bleep ] that be in your face plotting on you. >> reporter: if the hitman was telling the truth, detective brooks' hunch had been right. someone who claimed to love marc, also plotted his death. but who? coming up -- michelle confesses to an affair. >> my dad didn't know that. marc didn't -- i mean, nobody knew that. and there was another surprise. >> there were two insurance policies, each for the amount of $500,000. >> when "dateline" continues.

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>> reporter: it's shocking what some people will do for the mere promise of a few thousands dollars. like lie in wait for marc despain, then put a bullet in his head. but revealing his paymaster? that the hit man did for free. and the name? >> somebody called me and said, "have you heard? carl's just ant arrested." i'm like, "oh, my god, he did this." >> reporter: carl, kathy's ex-husband, michelle's dad. but marc gave him a house and a job and took him on family vacations. and once again, said michelle, she was stunned.

>> i thought that he cared for marc, you know. the father of my kids. >> reporter: but michelle's mom, kathy, was not so surpnised. she knew what carl was capable of. she divorced him years earlier, she said, to escape his explosions of temper. >> he never would hit me because he didn't want to leave a mark. >> reporter: what would he do? >> he would hold a gun to my head. >> reporter: hold a gun to your head? >> yes. >> reporter: threaten you? >> yes. >> reporter: still, what would make him mad enough to have marc killed? confronted, carl's face tuo,ed to stoeb. >> i'm not going to say anything without a lawyer, vic. >> reporter: but, as investigators discovered, carl had been talking to other people, told them marc had been physically abuui g michelle, that he was tired of it. did you investigate whether or not any ab e acoctually occur d in that marriage? >> there was not any abuse ever found to have been -- to have happened.

>> reporter: so if the abuse story was an obvious lie, why did carl do it? marc's parents were certain he didn't come up with the idea on his own. the real mastermind, they believed, was someone else very close to marc, his wife michelle. >> i cannot see carl taking my son's life without michelle being involved. >> reporter: michelle was far from a loving, doting wife, they said. the woman they knew was pure self-interest, would do anything to get what she wanted. exhibit a -- so what was it that st turned marc against you? >> michelle's manipulation. >> reporter: it was michelle who pushed marc to break away from the family busintts, they said. michelle who tore the family apart by stoking her own daughter's allegations of abuse, to drive a permanent wedge between marc and his dad, and

get marc and his money all to herself. they could easily see her goading her father into planning a murder. >> michelle is a sociopath. she is absolutely -- cares nothing about anyone or anything but michelle. >> reporter: quite an allegation, if true. and, as it happened, detective brooks was pretty sure he saw an effort by the grieving widow to manipulate him. he'd interviewed her, of course, right after the murder. >> i nudged his leg, and i screamed his name again, and he didn't move at all. >> reporter: all that emotion in her voice, it seemed like an act to him. >> there was no tears. no tears. >> reporter: but her voice of desperation captured on the 911 call, surely that was real? >> she's not answering the door, okay? >> reporter: maybe not. one of michelle's neighbors said they saw her standing calmly in the middle of the lawn. >> they see a woman standing out

there talking on her phone. didn't appear to be in a grievous situation for sure. >> reporter: wasn't like she was calling around the neighborhood for help? >> no. >> reporter: and marc's sister still remembered how cool michelle seemed at the crime scene. >> i think what bothered me the most is how clean she was. like her hair was still perfect, her nails were still perfect. >> reporter: what would you have expected? >> oh well, as brutal as it sounds, some blood underneath her fingernails or something. >> rep ter: like she got down there and tried to revive him? >> something. >> reporter: so detective brooks took a careful look at michelle's story, how she invited marc, who was working from h the, to have lunch with her downtown, and then after lunch they went across the street to buy ice cream for dessert. see them here? marc had literally minutes to live. phone records showed that in the hours leading up to marc's death, there were calls and a flurry of text messages between michelle and her dad.

>> what the inveofigator found was that there was an enormous amount of texts missing. there were chunks of texts missing from carl's phone and from michelle's phone. >> reporter: anything interesting or suspicious about the fact they were missing from both phones? >> immediately it was spicious. >> repor er: on the day y r dad was arrested, detective brooks vited michellee ack to the police station and asked her, point blank. >> did you have anything to do with the murder of your husband? >> no, sir. no, sir. reporter: but she admitted she was hiding something. >> anything at all that you need tot get off your chest, michelle? >> just that i was seeing a guy that -- my dad didn't know that. marc didn't. i mean nobody knew that. nobody knew that. >> reporter: seeing a guy? an affair? it all tumbled out. how michelle was dipping into family finances to pay for her log ver's apartment, for his groceries. >> you have to under and,gi'm very ashamed of this. >> reporter: so maybe marc was

on to her, was about to find out what michelle was doing behind his back. marc's parents believed the michelle they knew would rather see her husband dead than risk being on the losing end of a messy divorce. so it was all going to fall le apart? >> yeah. >> rom trailer trash to a rich woman, so she thought in her mind. she was fixing to going back to being trailer trash again, and she just couldn't stand the thought. >> reporter: but if marc died -- >> we found that there were two insurance policies, each for the amount of $500,000. >> reporter: that's a healthy chunk of change? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: a whole noxious stew of suspicion by now, but no ne of it actual proof. months went by. michelle went on with her ife. jack and tana pushed investigators to keep going. they even posted a billboard asking the public for help. the idea that michelle might get

away with murder was eating jack ive. you've got a whole lot of anger in there for that woman, haven't you? >> if i could take her life, and bring my son back, i'd do it. i'd do it in a heartbeat. >> reporter: sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't ? >> it is. it is. coming up -- one more twist. >> i never dreamed he would do that to me. >> and justice for mark? maybe. >> i wanted answers for the children. everyday, millions of amazing photos and videos are shot with iphone.

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about their son's widow, a new boyfriend on her arm and life insurance money in her pocket, and they fumed. >> she's buying stuff, and buying clothes, and going to restaurants. and it's very hard for us to take. >> reporter: detective brooks was determined to see the case through. just like marc's parents, he believed michelle had orchestrated the murder down to the very minute. the shooter himself said as much. carl was texting with someone, he said, as they made their final plans in the church parking lot. >> who'd he tell you he was texting?

>> the dude's wife. play by play. >> play by play. >> reporter: but virtually all those texts had been deleted. detective brooks labored for months, nights, weekends. kind of got emotionally wrapped up in this one, huh? >> i kept thinking of the children. i wanted answers for the children. >> reporter: and then, a breakthrough. finally nine months after the murder, a police analyst managed to recover several deleted text messages, including this one, time stamped 8:20 a.m., five hours before the murder. michelle writes to her dad, "has to be today. can't live like this. awful this morning." her dad's response? he asks if she can get him away for lunch, right? >> yes. >> reporter: she says she can? >> she says she can. and he replies, "okay, i will let you know time." >> my review of some of the text

messages is that marc really wasn't interested in going to eat lunch that day, but she begged him to take her to lunch. >> reporter: after lunch, remember, she asked to linger for an ice cream treat. all the while texting her dad, said the prosecutor, tipping him off to marc's whereabouts as carl placed a killer in their home. >> it just kind of sent chills up my back. what kind of person have you got to be to let your husband walk away from you, knowing what he's going to walk into when he gets home? >> reporter: armed with their new evidence, police arrested michelle. she was charged with capital murder, for planning and orchestrating the crime. she denied it, said she could explain everything, and agreed to tell us. why should people beli e that you had nothing to do with the plot to kill marc? >> because i didn't. he was such a good dad.

such a good dad. anybody that knows me knows that my kids are so important to me, the most important thing, and i would never want them to not have their dad. >> reporter: but she did want out of the marriage, she said. so, those back and forth texts with her dad that day did involve a plot, just not murder. what did you think he was helping you do? >> leave. >> reporter: how was he going to help you leave? >> by getting things while we were gone. >> reporter: so she'd keep marc at lunch while carl and two hired hands moved her stuff out of the house. but her dad changed the plan on her, she said, used those men to kill her husband. she swore to us she had no idea when she met her dad at the bank that day what he'd just done. you're this close to each other, father and daughter, and you're looking in his eyes and talking to him. he gives no hint that he just killed your husband? >> not at all.

>> reporter: and then michelle -- what's the expression? -- threw her father under the s. carl killed marc, she said, not because he thought marc was abusing her, but for money, for a piece of the insurance payout. but you were going to get the insurance? >> right. >> reporter: so even if it was his idea, it makes you look pretty guilty. >> right. one thing that he always told me and my sister, growing up was, you know, that he -- you know, it's use people for what you can get out of them, you know. >> reporter: that was what he told you -- >> uh-huh. and i never dreamed he would do it to me, use me. >> reporter: did he? or was michelle the clever user? in our interview, michelle denied being a master manipulator. she denied that she stoked those sex abuse allegations or that she engineered marc's split with his parents.

for that, she blamed jack and tana. >> i never would've walked away from my kids in the first place. i never would've -- >> reporter: in the end, they didn't walk away from their kid either. because who was pushing, from day one, to solve the murder? who kept pushing, month after month after month? >> my opinion on that is their hatred toward me. it wasn't anything to do with marc. it didn't have anything to do with marc. it was all about jack despain's hatred toward me. >> reporter: you seriously believe that? >> i do. >> reporter: michelle, out on bail, waited for trial. her mother, kathy defended her around town. did you ever let yourself think she was involved? >> the daughter i know? the daughter i helped raise? no. >> reporter: meantime, michelle's attorneys, ray nickle and bill stanley, took a closer

look at those recovered text messages. they filed a motion arguing that investigators didn't obtain them properly. >> they didn't get a new search warrant every time they searched the phone. we're talking about, i think 15 searches. >> yeah. >> of michelle and carl's phones. and they didn't have 15 search warrants. >> reporter: their arguments about improper search warrants may have had some traction. with the trial looming, the prosecutor was worried. >> we're at the high stakes poker game where it's all or nothing when that judge rules the next day on whether to admit the evidence or not to admit it. >> reporter: the prosecutor agreed to start talking about a plea deal. the defense played it tough, said michelle was only willing to admit she learned about her father's plot after the murder. >> she is admitting to having knowledge of someone being involved and not disclosing that to the police.

>> reporter: she would agree to plead guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension said the defense. after some prayer, marc's mother said she could live with that. >> i'm not a gambling person. and you know, it would only -- would've only taken one sympathetic juror to have set her free. >> reporter: in september, more than three years after the death of her husband, michelle despain was sentenced. she left the courtroom in handcuffs mouthing "i love you" to her mom. her dad and the shooter got 35 years. but michelle, though sentenced to 30 years, could be out on parole in as little as five. until then, her mom, kathy will raise the kids. jack and tana hope one day those kids will want to know them, that they will want to hear about their dad and their love for him that came before all

this hate. some of marc's friends told us that you were his hero, jack. >> yeah. >> reporter: you knew that. >> i loved him. >> reporter: i'm sorry, jack. jack and tana set up a charity to help other victims of violent crime. it's called marc's place. >> we're going to try to move forward with something positive that we think marc would be very proud of. >> reporter: and on a fall sunset, they gathered family and friends together to remember their son and finally say goodbye. >> i tell people all the time, it's hug the ones you love. let them know, because you never know. the next moment they may be gone. that's all for now.

i'm lester holt. >> announcer: live from studio 3c in rockefeller center, this is news 4 new york. brought me here from delaware to kill my son. >> a mother lashes out after her son, a gang member, shoots a firefighter before being shot dead by police. then sky high peeping. the real story behind this drone seen buzzing high-rise buildings. get ready for a steam bath. mother nature is about to turn up the heat. good evening, everyone. i'm sibila vargas. >> i'm rob schmitt. we begin with the deadly standoff. an ordeal that had streets on lockdown for hours. >> a gang member is dead, his mother outraged and a firefighter recovering after being shot. the confrontation that took a neighborhood by siege. >> the chaotic scene played out

in front of nearby tv cameras. the feds knocked on this gain member's door a year ace nd agreed to be handcuffed and go quietly. he decided to shoot out this morning. police shot out with a gang member as nearby civilians screamed. his mom was there. police flew her in from delaware and asked her to help hostage negotiators talk him into giving up. >> we need him if he's in jail or out. he said, i know, ma, i'm going to come out. >> reporter: it started at 5:30 a.m. u.s. marshalls moved in to arrest him.