>> curtis lovelace was putting his hands in the life of his new attorney who took on the defense for free, had more than 20 years of experience, just not in criminal law. trial? was this your first murder trial? >> it was. i did a battery criminal defense case right out of law case. other than that, this is basically my first criminal ot than that, this was my first criminal defense case. >> curtis was taking a huge gamble. on the other hand, since he was broke, he didn't have a lot of options. >> cory died of massive bruises. >> in his opening remarks they said they hadn't presented any evidence of murder for a reason. there was no murder. >> all of the medical evidence proves that she died as a result of an acute sudden onset of alcoholism. >> they had to debunk his ex. >> once we finished talking and i had taken my notes -- >> and one of the first defense witnesses was major larry holton