in the second degree. >> dale bruner was also convicted of two counts of sexual assault and sentencedan appeals court vacated the sexual assault convictions and in 2017, bruner's sentence was reduced to 48 years. >> it is a perfect storm. i'm going down with the ship. >> stephanie's friend, jennifer, was driving when the verdict came in. >> i was in my car, yeah, parked on the side of the road, crying like a baby. >> and, like others who knew stephanie, she wishes now she had taken her friend's secrets more seriously. >> i beat myself up over it every day, about how i should have done this or should have done that. >> an almost good marriage with one deadly flaw. >> lot of stephanie's close friends and family didn't even know what was going on. i knew of a couple of events over the years. and let's say it was only two. it only took three and she's dead. >> and so, say her friends, take some advice. heed the warning. don't hide the secret. >> that's why i'm talking about it now, and hopefully just one woman would have the courage to stand up and say, i'm being abused. i'm living in fea