. >> reporter: kusa's dan grossman settled in for a bit of a wait. >> this is almost a three-week trialdence. you thought that you were looking at coming back the next day to hear the verdict. >> reporter: but, no. less than four hours later, a verdict. >> "we the jury find the defendant, thomas fallis, not guilty of murder in the second degree and all lesser included offenses, signed by the jury foreperson." >> reporter: not guilty. not murder. after four long years of living under a cloud of suspicion, tom fallis was acquitted of all charges. >> he stayed straight-faced. his -- his defense attorney, iris eytan, was very emotional. but ashley's parents, they -- they left the courtroom fairly quickly. >> reporter: ashley's parents declined to talk with dateline after the verdict, but their legal battles are far from over. in 2015, they filed a civil lawsuit against several employees of the evans police department and the weld county sheriff's office who they believe falsified, altered, and omitted key evidence to make ashley's death look like a suicide. and despite the verdict, they cur