there was a time when stephen carlstrom could almost taste freedom as well.also near. >> i was getting out in two months. i was free to go home and live my life with my son, and it didn't turn out that way. >> like stokes, he was serving a short term for meth possession, but now he's facing a new charge. murder. he's pled not guilty. but carlstrom is one of nine inmates charged with the murder of john chamberlain, an orange county inmate targeted by other inmates who believed he was a child molester. >> i was just playing dominos in the day room when this happened, but i've got a lot of people pointing the finger at me. i got the guy, allegedly, brought him down. allegedly some people dragged him inside of the cube, into the blind spot, and started beating on him. >> the blind spot was an area behind a privacy wall, which has since been removed. carlstrom says he felt obligated to lure chamberlain there because the plot to attack him was hatched by other white inmates, and jailhouse politics requires inmates of the same race stick together. >> if you were not

. >> prosecutors kristen richardson and carla carlstrom, promised the jury pieces of a puzzle. pieces they hoped would ultimately reveal a resentful, hateful husband, whose frustrations had boiled over. >> i think it was actually, i hate this phrase, but it truly was a crime of passion. >> at the core of the prosecutors' case, david was a sexist philanderer who viewed his goody-two-shoes wife as a weight around his neck. so he put his hands around hers after an argument to free himself of the burden. david they said then turned to nici's problem with pills as his cover-up. >> why kill her? >> it wasn't a plan to murder. if it was something he planned to do, sure, he could divorce her. this was not a plan. this was something that erupted one night in a fit of rage. >> because they thought there was no premeditation, david pietz was charged with second, not first-degree murder. but proving he snapped and strangled nici in their condo wouldn't be easy. this was a highly circumstantial case with little direct evidence pointing david's way. >> in terms of the bedroom or the house, t