i contacted john avitto and i asked to meet with him. case." he was a little apprehensive. and how does a investigator like you move forward on getting somebody to trust you? >> i like to start with, you get more with sugar than spice. >> so jay salpeter convinced john avido to meet him in his car and had a tape recorder rolling. >> okay, i'm here regarding john giuca. could you tell me how you got involved in this case? >> well, i was in riker's island, and me and john became good friends. >> so, the first time, avitto says, "oh, no, this is basically what happened," and repeats his courtroom testimony. >> he did tell me he hit the guy on the head with the gun, the kid went down, he start kickin' and punchin'. he did tell me all that. >> he's sticking by his jailhouse confession. >> right, but i'm not ready to start a confrontation with him. just keep it going, let him speak, and as a detective, you learn when you let people speak, things come out. >> it's an exercise in private investigating 101 because he goes after this target, john a

the judge's response to this is he grants them a new hearing. >> john avitto comes in. ords were, apologizing to john. what was your reaction? >> it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. >> so the judge listens to all of this and decides that there was no deal. that john avitto's life was not helped by anything the prosecution did for him. dorine still doesn't give up. >> and then she got an unexpected phone call from her lawyer. >> reporter: in a stunning decision, a panel of four appellate judges overturn her son's conviction. the judges concluded that the prosecutor committed a clear violation of court rules. that they helped avitto. but john remains behind bars because the prosecution has appealed the ruling hoping to get the conviction reinstated. meantime, antonio russo changed his story. >> what he said was he did it alone, that he shot and killed mark fisher. >> i want my name cleared. one of the worst things about this is people thinking i'm a murderer, and i want that wiped away, because it shouldn't be there in the first place. >> reporter: some peopl