>> reporter: when people talk about the trial of carter cervantez, this is what they remember. >> state record, please. >> my name is carter carol cervantez. >> reporter: against the advice of her attorneys, carter cervantez took the stand. gone was that criminal master mind. here sat a helpless victim. >> she gets up on the stand, and it was insane. >> reporter: carter said it was all her boyfriend, david mallory, controlling every aspect of her life. >> i was very afraid of david. >> how afraid of him were you? >> um, i thought he was going to kill me. >> this is where carter's defense truly began. she told the jury she was a woman enslaved by her sadistic lover. >> he was tellin' me what to drink, what to eat, um, and he made me have sex with him in the movie theater. >> and he had that gun, the glock, she said. used it like a threat, and it scared her. >> did not feel comfortable with that weapon. >> she told the jury she was asleep at home when ashlea was being murdered. she didn't know where david had gone but somehow he wound up with a set of american eagle keys. >> gave me some