presentation from worx. i never dreamed somebody could do this. i didn't know why anybody would want to kill him. you watch it on tv. you see it all the time. you just don't think it can happen to you. >> they were a young couple in a hurry to make their fortune. >> 50s, 100s, 20s, piles of money. >> building a life. until one life ended. all too soon. >> what happened to your husband, ma'am? >> i believe he's -- he's dead. he was laying on the floor, and i got scared, and i ran out of the house. >> a young father murdered in broad daylight. didn't look like a

lots of secrets too. >> it just kind of sent chills up my back. >> something was tearing a family apart. >> i don't even know where to start. >> or was it -- someone? >> the most cold-blooded, evil person. >> a family feud, and an innocent man, caught in the middle. >> you know these shows you watch that people see the ghosts of their loved ones? i wanted that so bad, so bad. >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison with "the root of all evil." ♪ >> the hunting is good here the in the arkansas delta. twice a year, a horde of migrating mallards descends on flooded rice fields. deer stare out through thickets of hardwood. you have to be quiet, sure-footed, your aim true. that's what marc despain's dad taug

that's what marc taught his own son. before hatred wormed its way in. sometimes it's overwhelming that anger, isn't it? >> it is. it is. >> reporter: the anger that pitted father against son. >> it almost got physical. it just -- it breaks my heart. >> reporter: and husband against wife. >> i just wanted to go into protective mode and protect us all. >> reporter: and brought the hunting to town on a deathly quiet summer afternoon. >> can you please hurry? >> okay. i'm going to get them out there. >> please send an ambulance. >> reporter: what could be left but the bitter taste of recrimination. >> he is evil. he is not the kind person that he's got the public convinced that he is. >> reporter: jonesboro is both a college town and a farm town.

vast plain of sticky, fertile clay west of the mississippi river. it's where marc despain breezed through school with his easy charm. tana is his mother. >> he was the only freshman that we know of that was chosen by a senior to go to the senior prom. >> reporter: marc became a high school football star and his sister jacque watched him bring his trophies home to lay at the feet of his father, jack. >> he really did look up to dad. and he -- you know, he always wanted to, you know, impress him and stuff. >> reporter: and then -- well, its an old story, really. >> when i was 18 and he was 19, we just bumped into each other. >> reporter: pretty michelle. she was sitting on top of a car when marc spotted her one night. tiny, doe-eyed, and, before long, pregnant. >> the way i was brought up, you know, if you got a girl pregnant, you married her.

that's just -- that was just what you did. >> reporter: so there was a shotgun wedding. two families thrown together, marc and his parents, jack and tana. michelle and her long divorced parents, her mom kathy and her dad carl. michelle also brought along a baby from an earlier relationship. >> and he never treated her like she was not his. never. >> reporter: together they had two boys. >> he loved his kids. i mean, just anything they ever dreamed of, he would do his damndest to get it. anything. >> reporter: the little family moved into a trailer marc's parents bought them. and marc studied hard to become a real estate appraiser, like his mom, and went into business with his parents, which, said michelle, is about when things began to go wrong. >> marc didn't like to be pushed

he was an independent person. >> reporter: the growing tension spilled over at the kitchen table. marc demanded a bigger share of the money. they argued. and then michelle chimed in. oh boy. >> oh, my goodness, when she opened her mouth, dad just flipped off the handle. and, of course, marc just, i don't know, stepped in as a husband, like a husband should do. >> reporter: that's how it began, the trouble between father and son. the trouble that was going to get so much worse. marc split away from the family business. michelle helped with the book-keeping. >> i was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish. >> reporter: and they were a good team, said michelle's mom, kathy. >> they both just had the ability to work together to -- and make money. >> reporter: marc got into real estate investment. his first, a trailer park no one else would touch. >> i couldn't believ b

i was just, what are you thinking? have you lost your mind? he flipped it. made him about $100,000 profit. >> reporter: and so having done it once, he figured he'd do it again. >> absolutely. >> reporter: and again and again. >> absolutely. >> reporter: and the money seemed to roll in. marc moved his family to an upscale neighborhood in the southern part of town. adrift from his own parents, he spent more and more time with michelle's, taking them on family trips. even hired michelle's dad, carl, to be his rent collector. >> i remember a lot of times walking in and carl would be sitting at the dining room table. and must be 50s, 100s, 20s. he was counting them like a drug dealer. >> reporter: just piles of money? >> piles of money. >> reporter: and then, one august afternoon, michelle came home from work early. >> when i walked in, there weren't any lights on. everything was knocked onto the floor. >> reporter: and then she got to the kitchen. and there he was. >> and he's laying in the floor, and there was blood coming all out from behind him.

and i shook his leg and said his name. and i looked around, and there was stuff in the floor everywhere. and i got scared. >> reporter: she ran outside, terrified, and called 911. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> my -- my -- my husband. i just came home -- >> ma'am, i need you to take a deep breath. okay? and tell me what's going on. >> i don't know. >> reporter: michelle ran across the street to a neighbor's house, desperate to hide. >> she's not answering the door, okay? >> do you want me to stay on the phone with you? >> no. i need to call my mom. >> okay. call your mom. i'm going to get them en route. >> it was a voice that scared me. you know you pick up the phone. you hear one of your kids on the phone, and you hear crying. >> reporter: kathy raced over there, found michelle sobbing on the curb. >> and she's going, t

ed s i just kind of grabbed my daughter by the shoulder. and i'm like, michelle, he's gone, he's gone. >> reporter: so he was. dead on his own kitchen floor. >> a young wife is now a widow and the horror of what she witnessed is unforgettable. >> reporter: is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot? >> a lot. yeah. >> her family's good life suddenly gone -- or maybe it hadn't been so good. >> he was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money from me. >> money. is that a clue?

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>> reporter: they are burned into michelle despain's brain. the images of that awful afternoon. shadows in the hallway. her husband. his blood. >> him laying on the floor. >> reporter: is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot? >> a lot. oh, yeah. >> reporter: outside, a crowd of police, and friends and family, and curious neighbors, gathered on the street below marc's house. among them, in an awful state, was marc's sister jacque. >> you know, everything was wrapped in tape. and police officers. you can't cross here, you can't do this, you can't do that. i don't know. i just wanted to hold his hand or something. >> reporter: detective vic brooks was on the other side of that police tape. >> when i first walked in, i

noticed that there were some papers that appeared to be knocked on the ground, and there was some broken glass and stuff like that on the floor. >> reporter: investigators snapped photos of the chaos. drawers pulled out in a bedroom. clothes thrown into the bathtub. a jewelry case toppled over. like somebody was looking for something? >> possibly. >> reporter: they asked around the neighborhood -- did anyone see any strangers that afternoon? and yes, someone did, investigators told prosecutor scott ellington. >> an african-american was seen in the neighborhood wearing a certain colored shirt. >> reporter: it wasn't just that. later somebody said they saw an aging and beat up blue mercedes circling the neighborhood. so, thieves casing the house? maybe. and yet, as detective brooks looked around the house, he could see this just didn't have the hallmarks of a robbery. the valuable stuff -- tv sets, guns, computers -- were untouched. and look at this photo. sitting next to marc's keys and

cream. >> it appeared that he had just walked in and set these items down and then was caught totally off guard. >> reporter: all of that seemed to shriek of a planned ambush dressed up a little to look like robbery. the way investigators pieced it together, somebody was waiting for marc to get home, then crept up from behind. shot him twice. >> he had suffered two gunshot wounds, one that appeared to have entered from his, on his left side, and then another shot that he had sustained to his face. >> reporter: that was a kind of -- what is a kill shot or something? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: somebody making sure. >> it appeared so, yes. >> reporter: why would someone want to kill marc despain? >> i was so confused. i just -- i didn't think marc had any enemies. and i didn't know why anybody would want to kill him. >> reporter: detective brooks so d

reason. even though they'd been living lavishly, marc had serious money trouble. >> he was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money from me. >> reporter: it was a couple of months before the murder, said michelle's mother kathy. marc asked her for cash to help pay for michelle's birthday present. >> you know, that's very unusual. because usually they just go out and buy whatever they want. >> reporter: not anymore. that summer, 2011, jonesboro real estate was far from recovered. many of marc's rental properties were underwater. the bank was closing in. tenants were being forced out of their homes. so -- >> you know, was anybody upset with marc? was this any of his tenants? could this have been somebody like that? >> reporter: and then, an ugly little surprise crawled out of marc's own troubled family. marc and his parents were lobbing lawsuits at each other over some shared property. the prosecutor heard that marc's dad, jack, was a hothead. >> jack was very, very angry at marc for mishandling this

property that they co-owned together. >> reporter: yes. but it went deeper than that, went to a very dark place, as you will see. and because of it, marc hadn't spoken to his parents in years. so when jack showed up at the crime scene, the suspicion was, well, audible. michelle's dad, carl, started yelling at him. >> cursing very loudly. calling him all kinds of names. >> reporter: but what was he saying? >> there's that son of a bitch, jack despain. >> reporter: did you think jack was somehow responsible? >> oh, yeah. marc had told multiple people, if anything ever happens to me, y'all look at my dad. >> reporter: so, of course, detective brooks invited jack down to the police station. just maybe this mystery would have a quick, if very disturbing, solution. coming up -- a young girl makes a troubling accusation that defines a fy.

happened? >> but was that the motive for murder? was it even true? when "dateline" continues. z2ejdz z16fz

y2ejdy y16fy >> reporter: it's an unpleasant thing to think about. parents murdering their own children. but it happens.

it's an old story, frankly. some awful glitch, perhaps, in the human recipe. had it happened here, in jonesboro? suspicion fell quickly on marc's dad, jack despain. michelle's mom heard about it when she called to tell a relative that marc was dead. >> somebody's murdered marc. and he was like, "oh my god." he said, "have they found jack despain?" >> reporter: he thought right away it was jack. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: because anyone close to jack and his family knew that a poison far more potent than money had come between father and son. >> i never saw it coming. i don't think marc ever saw it coming. >> reporter: it began, said michelle, when her 13-year-old daughter told them an ugly story, that her grandpa jack asked her to take nude photos of herself on his phone. marc called a family meeting. >> marc told his dad, there's a problem. we want to help you. you know, we're not here to point fingers at you or judge you.

>> reporter: jack swore he did nothing wrong. marc called in the police. tana, jack's wife of more than 30 years, left him. moved in with marc and michelle. well, how do you prepare for a thing like that? >> you don't. you don't prepare -- >> reporter: well, what is that like? >> you just -- your mind is -- is in overdrive, you know, trying to think, you know, "oh my god, could this have possibly happened?" >> reporter: but after the police interviewed the girl, and then jack, and then the girl again, and heard her story change, become more elaborate, the investigation was dropped. and tana, driven with guilt for ever suspecting jack abused his granddaughter, went back to him and begged forgiveness. >> the man i've been married to for over 30 years and went to high school with, and then doubting him, and knowing i shouldn't have. >> reporter: but marc and michelle, believing the girl, never spoke to his mom or dad again. cut them off from their gran

disowned marc's sister when she took jack's side. >> i believe dad 100%. i don't believe he had anything to do with it. >> reporter: so that was the ugly backdrop to the murder investigation. and detective brooks would have to figure out if this years-old unproven allegation had so eaten away at marc's dad that it pushed him over the edge. time to meet potential suspect number one. >> i'm going to close that door, mr. despain. >> reporter: detective brooks sat down with jack in an interrogation room and watched the man fall apart. >> i can't. >> reporter: was this true grief the detective was witnessing? or regret? or guilt over something jack had done? or hadn't done. >> i was too late. >> reporter: too late. what did he mean? jack didn't shy away from

here's how it happened, he said. >> she had taken some nude photos of herself and sent them to her boyfriends. >> reporter: jack said he found out the girl was sexting, confronted her, said he was going to tell her parents. but she got to them before he did, jack said, and invented the story to get out of trouble. >> so they took her side, i guess. they took her side and said i was the bad person. >> reporter: jack told us the same story, eager, he said, to finally set the record straight. you didn't ever ask her to take pictures of herself and give them to you? >> no, no. >> reporter: but the accusation, said jack, almost destroyed him. >> i was at home. i could have opened up my own whiskey store, i think, with how much whiskey i drunk for two months. and typically i don't drink. but that was just to kill the pain. >> reporter: because everybody assumed that you were abusing your own granddaughter.

>> yes, yes, yes. >> reporter: the detective wondered, did jack's pain drive him to seek revenge on his own son? no, said jack, no. he wanted to reconcile with marc, not kill him. >> i know i ain't talked to my son in four, five years but i loved him dearly. >> reporter: anyway, when marc was murdered, said jack, he was miles away at his own house. >> i was on the roof trying to put some shingles on. >> reporter: that alibi would have to be checked out, of course. but even before detective brooks had a chance to do that, other members of the family came down to the police station and told him, don't be fooled by jack's tears. he was an angry and possibly violent man. >> he said, i will ruin you and your family. he said, for you all accusing me of this. he said, i will see you ruined. >> reporter: this is michelle's dad, carl. the man who'd been cursing jack out on the street right there at e

finger at anybody, if that's what you're asking, i'd point it at jack despain. >> reporter: detective brooks could plainly see this was a family with a troubling history. so he made a decision to attend marc despain's visitation, take a look around, see what his gut would tell him. i saw a note where you, in your case file, you wrote, this has to be one of the strangest visitations i have ever attended. >> yes. it was just a cold feeling. it just did not feel right. >> reporter: was the killer sitting among the mourners, planning a next move? coming up, a family feud at the funeral. >> she calls the police on us. >> and somebody else calls the police with a tip that could crack the case. >> reporter: that's a nice little gift. >> it was. my sweetheart's gone sayonara. this scarf all that's left to rememb... what. she washed this like a month ago!

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back to our story. a young father has been murdered and the search for his killer is focussed on those closest to him, for good reason. his family, and his wife's family, are divided by a bitter feud. that fight has gotten so ugly that even his funeral is about to be turned into a battleground. here again is keith morrison. >> reporter: michelle and marc, just children really when they got married. now marc was dead. gunned down in the family kitchen. and michelle had to plan his funeral. she was barely functioning, she said. >> i couldn't even tell you who was at the -- you know, who was there. it was just a blur. it all still just feels like a blur. >> reporter: but there was one thing she was clear about. marc's parents and sister were not welcome at his funeral. what was the funeral like for you? >> oh, it was awful. we couldn't sit down on the main level with family. >> reporter: why?

>> michelle wouldn't let us. she barred us. >> reporter: it was the same at the cemetery. >> she's literally trying to get him in the ground before we can even walk up. >> reporter: you mean get them to fill in the grave? >> yes. so, we just immediately jump out of our car and we start rushing to the graveside. and she calls the police on us. she calls the police at my brother's funeral. >> reporter: yet, for all the chatter about jack, that he might have killed his own son, detective brook's instincts said no. jack's alibi checked out. he was fixing his roof afternoon of the murder. and those tears in the interrogation room -- >> i did not feel anything as being fake from mr. despain. he appeared to be a broken man at that time. >> reporter: so what to make of

bad blood now tangled up with so much grief? detective brooks thought back to his interview with michelle's dad, carl, the man who pointed a finger at jack on day one. >> he told him he didn't want to have nothing to do with him. >> reporter: carl said he'd been in marc's house not too long before the murder, dropped off some rent money. >> why didn't they shoot me instead of him? i had the money in my hand. >> reporter: interesting timing? coincidence? or, as detective brooks wondered, did carl have something to do with the murder? maybe not. carl's alibi checked out. surveillance cameras, in fact, caught carl right where he said he was around the time marc was gunned down, meeting his daughter at the bank where she worked. he could not have shot marc. while the investigation continued, marc's parents spent time at the cemetery, finally able to do what they couldn't when their son was still alive.

talk to marc. >> and rainy days were the worst. i didn't like rainy days. >> reporter: what do you mean rainy days? >> i didn't like him getting wet. i knew he was in heaven. but i just didn't like the rain on him. >> reporter: and then? pure luck, really. remember how neighbors reported seeing an african american stranger in the neighborhood? now, someone called the cops with a tip. somebody who matched that description was actually boasting about shooting marc despain. that was a nice, little gift? >> it was. >> reporter: didn't take them long to find the guy. street name, qualow. real name, terrance barker. and he was nervous. >> i can see your heart beating through that shirt right now. i know you're scared. >> reporter: he denied everything. >> i don't know what to tell you, man. i didn't do this.

wasn't buying it. because by then, the police also tracked down the driver of that beat up blue mercedes seen near the house before the murder. and he told the cops he took qualow to meet a man in a church parking lot. and that man wanted a job done. was that job murder? >> i didn't do that. i did not do that, sir. >> reporter: by now detective brooks had been working night and day for a week. his store of patience ran out. >> this is serious [ bleep ] to me. i've got three kids that are laying over there crying. >> reporter: was it that angry speech or another long night in his cell? the next day, qualow, came clean. for our promise of $7,000 to $10,000, still unpaid, he said he took the job to shoot and kill marc despain. >> you fired the first round and that round hits him where? >> it hits in the chest area. >> reporter: he didn't know marc from adam, he said. it was the man from the parking

lot who took him to marc's house, told him where to lie in wait for marc, gave him a gun. and then qualow said something rather surprising. >> i've been thinking, like, man, what the -- what -- what -- what in the hell kind of people do [ bleep ] like that? >> reporter: the shooter who executed a stranger for the mere promise of a few grand, said he was appalled. not at himself, at the man who 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.

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number one awarded. it's got to be tide >> 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 got 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 surprised. 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 havrc

confronted, carl's face turned to stone. >> 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 abusing michelle, that he was tired of it. did you investigate whether or not any abuse actually occurred 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 k

to get what she wanted. exhibit a -- so what was it that just turned marc against you? >> michelle's manipulation. >> reporter: it was michelle who pushed marc to break away from the family business, 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. >> reporter: like she got down there and trieto

>> something. >> reporter: so detective brooks took a careful look at michelleal story. how she invited mark, who was working from home 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 investigator 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 suspicious. >> reporter: on the day her dad was arrested, detective brooks invited michelle back 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 to 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 lover's apartment, for his groceries. >> you have to understand, i'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 apart? >> yeah. >> from 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 none of it actual proof. months went by. michelle went on with her life. 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 alive. 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? >> it is. it is. coming up -- one more twist. >> i never dreamed he would do that to me. >> and justice for marc? maybe.

children. i wanted answers to the children. y2d1iy y16fy

>> reporter: jack and tana heard about how their son's widow was living, 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'll let you know the 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 believe 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

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 bus. 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, he used 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.

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 t

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 -- even if we'd have went to trial, it would've only taken one sympathetic juror to have set her free. >> reporter: it was more than three years after the death of her husband when michelle despain walked into a courtroom to be sentenced. she left 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 after serving as few 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. thanks for joining us.

this sunday, the drip, drip, drip of team trump's meeting with the russians. >> i think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting. >> all week long, revelations render the administration's previous statements inoperative. >> these guys just can't come clean. and it tells the country that they have a lot to hide. >> and it's not just democrats speaking out. >> this is a serious situation and one that is a long way from over. >> what happened at that meeting? why is the white house so reluctant to come clean? and how much did president trump know about the meeting before? i'll ask president trump's lawyer, jay sekulow, and the leading democrat on the senate intelligence committee, mark warner. also the republican health care bill. >> i am sitting in the oval office with a pen in hand waiting for our senators to give it to me.

because of a health scare for john mccain. will the delay help or hurt the bill's chances? i'll talk to the man who counts the votes, republican senator john cornyn of texas. and what do voters in trump country think of the president right now? the latest from a special new nbc news/"wall street journal" survey. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw, presidential historian, doris kearns goodwin. former head of the american conservative union al cardenas and danielle pletka of the american enterprise institute. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." good sunday morning. to those who remember watergate, the seminal moment may have been when white house counsel john dean said he told president nixon there was a cancer on the presidency. this appears to

metastasized. the gap between the original story donald trump jr. told and what we have learned to be the truth grows by the day and with each new piece of evidence, the white house is forced to revise and extend its remarks. in one week we move from the white house and trump junior denying ever having met with russians through a series of concessions and evolving explanations offered only after reporters uncovered new facts to where we are now, that trump junior, jared kushner, paul manafo manafort, an interpreter, a lawyer and maybe others met at trump tower to discuss dirt on hillary clinton. was there more? was it collusion? treason as some democrats charge? simple opposition research as president trump has claimed? was it even illegal? to be sure, there are many unanswered questions, but here's what we know right now. the trump team was open to getting information from russians and willing to cover it up. >> as far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. >> over the course ofe