When youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. Ions so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com the wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. [ drathis holiday. Ahhhhh ahhhhh a distant friend returns. Elliott. You came back and while lots of things have changed. Wooooah woah its called the internet. Some things havent. Get ready for a reunion 3 million light years in the making. Woohoo yeah welcome back to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. While investigating the Justin Michael murder case, police had just come across a few possibly relevant facts all connected to one man. They learned that someone named David Moffitt, who briefly dated justins fiance, had also worked with justin and david had crashed his car the morning justin was killed, not far from the crime scene. These details, if unrelated, would be an odd coincidence and homicide detectives tend to believe in an investigation theres no such thing as a coincidence. Once again, heres Keith Morrison. Justin michael had been shot to death in his own bed. But his fiance, angie ver huel, had been spared. About a half hour later angies ex, a man named David Moffitt, crashed his car into a ditch about six miles from justins home. When officer jason tart arrived at the scene moffitt appeared to be gone. So i get out of the car and immediately im thinking, okay, maybe they were ejected. So i go and start searching the area, make sure they werent thrown out of the car. I was just getting ready to get back into my car and i hear somebody yell, i need help. I was like, was this your car . Yeah, thats my car. Soon as he gets close to me, he has this real like a very sweet smell coming off of him. So i automatically i say okay, this is a owi. Why would you say a sweet smell means it could be a drunken driving thing . Just the time of day, and theres a car accident involved, single vehicle. I mean, it just kind of goes with it. Definitely smelled like hed been drinking. Was he glad to see you . I dont know if he was glad to see me, but i mean, you were potentially going to rescue him from a bad situation, youd think. He saw somebody that might be able to help him, but i dont know if he was necessarily happy to see me. Reporter David Moffitt told him he was on his way home from visiting his brother that night. So then i basically asked him, like, theres no way in chance maybe you visited a friend in grimes tonight . Now why would you bring that up . There had just been, within an hour, a homicide had taken place in grimes. The suspect was still unaccounted for. And you got a guy whos sweating and smelling sweet. Exactly. Hmm. What did he say . I dont even know where the town is. Reporter everything about David Moffitt made the deputy feel anxious. All the hair not on my head, but all the hair on my body was standing on edge. Thats weird. I mean, hes just a regular guy, right . Didnt seem to be armed or anything. Youre a cop and you got your weapon, and youre still feeling nervous . Well, i knew he wasnt armed because i did just a patdown for weapons before he because if youre going to sit in my car, youre not going to have a weapon on you. But he still made you nervous . Extremely nervous. Reporter but turned out david hadnt been drinking. There was no reason to arrest him. Still, the deputys instincts kicked in. So i looked through his car and i couldnt find insurance, so i impounded it for not having insurance with an accident. Reporter not that it was drivable anyway. He sent david home in a cab. After reading deputy tarts report, detectives bartholomew and hopper knew they had to act fast. There could be clues still on highway 141. And surprises, too. The media people angie and marie saw hovering around the patrol cars theyd been placed in that awful may morning had no idea what had just happened in Justin Michaels bedroom middle of the night. The reporters knew only this they had been sent here because of a suspicious death. And it was related somehow to this house. Then as they waited for somebody to tell them something, they got a tip. Local reporter stephanie moore. We heard that Sheriff Deputies were walking the fields along highway 141. So that would be the highway you would take from des moines to go to grimes. And they were just walking these fields. And we asked them, are you looking for a body . No. Are you looking for someone . No. Are you looking for a weapon . We cant say. But the public is not in any danger. We think hat happened in grimes isnt related to this. Walking up and down. Walking in a line so they dont miss anything. Kind of how they do if theres a missing child. But we thought maybe they were looking for a gun or a weapon. Good guess. In fact, that small army of cops was looking for anything that looked like evidence. Because hours earlier David Moffitts car went off the road around here and facts were piling up. Moffitt had worked with justin, dated angie, and wrecked his car the morning of the murder just six miles away. Of course, that piqued our interest very quickly. That moved David Moffitt to the top of the list. Polk county prosecutor Steve Foritano and brett lewis had been involved all along. We sent the detectives and patrol officers to that location, highway 141, to see what else they could find in that area that might be of use or might be telling in terms of the investigation. Thats why the locals saw all these Police Officers wandering up and down the field as if they were looking for something. And they were. They were. And imagine what they found there in a ditch along the highway. Probably the most important thing was they found loaded magazines. They had the same type of ammo that was found at the crime scene. The shell casings found at the crime scene matched that type of ammunition found in the ditch on highway 141. Right in the ditch near where the car crashed . It was actually across the highway and a little bit farther down but within 500 yards of where the crash occurred. They also located in that ditch some paper targets that you would use for shooting target practice. Some shooters earmuffs, a camo neck cloth that youd wear you could wear as a mask. Reporter like somebody preparing for an act of terror or an execution. Clearly, David Moffitt was their killer. Had to be. And then . Well, you know what they say about assumptions. Those cops found Something Else near the accident scene. Sort of thing that could make a person wonder, what in heavens name is going on here . It was one little thing. In a shoebox. The shoes were not in it but there was various paperwork. One of the things that were found was a receipt from a local car dealership and the receipt was for a purchase of three oil changes, had the name of andrew wegener. Reporter andrew wegener, the boyfriend angie lived with before justin. Weird. Another guy without a criminal record. Another apparently ordinary person, a des moines funeral director in his case. And yet, there it was in black and white, among all of those other pieces of evidence, andrew wegener. How did he explain that . At that time, you dont. So did andy wegener kill Justin Michael, the man who replaced him in angies heart . We immediately went to andys place of business and brought him back to headquarters for questioning, and we ask him about his relationship with angie. And more to the point, perhaps, his relationship, or the lack of it, with justin. Have you ever met justin . Once. And where was that . It was at joes pub in johnston. Just random runin or was it a gathering . No, it was a gathering with kind of a group of friends. It was an engagement party. Was justin the person who she was in a relationship after you broke up with her or was there someone else . I there might have been somebody else in between. I have no idea. But you dont know . No. The last time you talked to angie would have been when . She sent a text message to me that said happy birthday and i said okay, thanks. And that was it. That was it. Im asking andy about whether or not hes missing anything. And he never tells me about the receipt for the oil changes. Reporter the receipt in the shoebox, the reason for suspicion, and all these questions. And i stay on the receipt because thats where my interest is at. And he believes that hes in possession of the receipt. Andy said he thought the receipt was either in his car or in his house. If it turned up somewhere else, how would that happen . If its somewhere other than your car or at home it blew away . Thats about it. Any ideas how it could turn up in this investigation . No. Then detective hopper asked andy about guns. Do you go shooting at all . Shooting . Yeah. Do you have i have a 12gauge. I havent shot it in six years. Do you have any handguns . No. Okay. And what he did the night before. Yesterday, what time did you get off work . Yesterday, i got off at 4 00 . Okay. Can you walk me through what you occurred from 4 00 yesterday until we showed up at your doorstep this morning and you act so thrilled to see us . Andy said he spent the evening and night with his current girlfriend. So you spent the night at your girlfriends . Oh, yeah. How long has she been there . Three years. Three and a half. Do they have good security there . Uh, no, not really. Is it a safe area . Yeah. Is it like gated to get in . No. Camera coming in or anything like that . No. He had spent the night with his current girlfriend at that time. And we verified that before he left the office, before he had a chance to make a phone call or anything else. At least according to his girlfriend. According to the girlfriend. Yes. And it would give him an alibi for the time of the murder. It would give him an alibi. Whether that was preconceived or whether or not that was legitimate, we did not know. Reporter andy swore detectives would find no evidence against him in grimes. When was the last time you were in grimes . For any reason. Theres a Basketball Court in the u, is what they call it. That was a while ago. Whats a while mean to you . Three weeks to a month three to four weeks at least. Its been a while. Theres a bunch of guys that get together, we pay five bucks and are able to shoot around in this place for a couple hours. Let me double check, make sure were good to go. Sure. The detectives exhausted their questions, took andy back to work, apparently in the clear. Unaware that andys name was about to turn up one more time in a very suspicious place. Coming up investigators had been looking for a single killer, but a fresh clue may send this investigation in a whole new direction. Theres evidence to suggest that there is some sort of conspiracy involved here. When the shadow continues. Have you ever read the list in conventional tampons . Theyre scary harsh ingredients, artificial fragrances, and chemical processes. This is my body, i deserve something safe and comfortable that works its time for rael change. Finally, a product that is designed with my comfort and needs in mind. Get rael peace of mind they really work and made with quality organic cotton. Its time to get rael. For good. [ gunshot ] [ multiple gunshots ] quitting smoking is freaking hard. St, like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette justin didnt deserve this. He always thought of everybody else, always wanted to do for other people. As much in love as angie said she was, the detectives had learned over the years, you never know. They needed to search her phone, see who she talked to in the hours and days just before justin was shot to death. They also got a search warrant for David Moffitts house. And inside . No, they didnt find the murder weapon. But they did find these strange notes, seemed to have been written by someone who had been watching justin and angies neighborhood. Those surveillance notes listed addresses in the immediate area around the crime scene. And they were very specific about when neighbors were turning on and off their lights. The creek behind the house is is it wide enough where i can jump across that . Obviously, it looked like a way to make an escape once the murder was done. Reporter but then they found what looked like the mother lode a bill of sale. It was in andy wegeners name. Reporter yeah. But there it was in David Moffitts house. Reporter that is, the bill of sale for a 9mm carbine. And the name on the document, bold as brass, was indeed andy wegener. How was that remotely possible . Its more evidence to suggest that theres some sort of conspiracy involved here. Its too early to really rule anybody out. We wanted to find out if andy was the actual purchaser of that weapon. Fortunately, that bill of sale gave us the lead to where the weapon came from. Reporter his name was right here drew bahlmann. And here he is. Hes a Smalltown High School english teacher in a little place called sigourney, 90 miles or so from des moines. There is something you can do with a degree in english then . Yes, there is. Yes. And i love my job. Reporter an english teacher who likes to tell stories. And this one . Sort of thing that would make an interesting plot for a novel, wouldnt it . For a novel perhaps, yes. Drew is a selfdescribed nerd. He also is a target shooter and a metal detector enthusiast. Hes forever digging up old coins and such. Loves it. Mind you, theres only so much a person can ferret out using equipment thats well, to say downmarket may sound cruel, but the metal detector that i wanted was about 600. Are you out of your mind . No. You buy a 600 metal detector . Uhhuh. Thats even like the midrange. You can spend upwards of 9,000 on a metal detector if you wanted to. Youre getting toward being uppercase nerd . Very much so, yes. So he figured hed sell the gun and use the cash to buy that new metal detector. Its what the state of iowa calls a long gun. Its something that you put to your shoulder and you shoot like a rifle or a shotgun. So i listed it online, on armslist, its like craiglist for guns. Reporter whatd you ask for it . 360. Reporter about a month later, he got a nibble via email. I told him that i needed cash and i needed a photo i. D. So i knew he was who he said he was, and that he was at least 21. Reporter who did he say he was . He said his name was andy wegener, and that was the email address that he had contacted me from, was andy wegener somethingorother at gmail. Com. Reporter whered you meet . I work parttime at a gas station. Its public, there are cameras in the area, and if something bad were to happen i know of at least two or three people that are there a lot that would probably come to my rescue. Is that the kind of thing you have to do when you sell a weapon . Thats the thing i do when i sell a weapon because ive got entirely too much to lose. I have a family, i have a job that, you know i love them both. I did not want to jeopardize those. We met at the station. I showed him the rifle in the back end of my car, and then i filled out a bill of sale, because i wanted to make sure that this was trackable. I kept a copy. He kept a copy. We reviewed everything to make sure that it was what he wanted and make sure everything was, you know, up to snuff. Reporter you saw his photo i. D. . I saw his photo i. D. Reporter and how carefully did you, you know, store the information . Im kind of a pack rat by nature. Its my my teacher nature, you dont throw anything away. So all of the email conversations that he and i had, i kept. All the Text Messages between he and i, i kept. And i still had pictures that i had originally posted on armslist, those were still on my home computer. And as he was leaving, again, to cover myself, i wrote down his license plate number. You are a careful guy. I am. Was he a nice fellow . For the very limited interaction we had, yeah. He seemed very nice, very normal. He asked me how to load it. I showed him how. And that was it . Off he went . Off he went. And then, a few days later, the School Secretary gave drew a message. A polk county detective wanted to talk to him right away. And my very first thought was i interpreted the law wrong when i had looked up the iowa codes, and im going to jail. You immediately thought about selling that weapon . Thats the first thing that came to my mind. Why else would a polk county detective be calling me . I was going to jail. Scary thought . It was very scary because i had taken so many precautions. I called the detective. And he said, drew, did you sell a firearm recently . And that was my second thought, yes, i am going to jail. I have completely screwed everything up. And i told him you know, be forthright, be honest i said, yes, i did. He asked me to describe what it was. I told him it was a 9millimeter carbine. He said, drew, we have reason to believe that that weapon was used in the commission of a crime. And my heart just sank. What happened . I have no idea. And he told me it was used in a murder, and i about dropped my phone. Thats what that does to you. I i unwittingly took part, was an accessory in somebodys death. I felt terrible about that. You felt that way, that you were an accessory . How would you feel . I mean, i sold the i sold something to a man, to a person who later used that to take somebodys life. Terrible. Just oh, god. And i still today, ive rationalized it, ive gone to a counselor about it. I still feel bad about it. Whats the expression . Guns dont kill people people kill people. And i still i still believe that. But i provided him that method. Later that day, detective hopper drove out to meet with drew, who turned over all the emails and Text Messages, he had saved them all, as well as photos of the rifle, three ammo magazines, a scope and a red laser pointer attached to the weapon, part of the deal. And i asked him if he had any shell casings from the weapon that he sold. He went, left, and came back shortly after and had 63 casings. Reporter wow. Hes a person who likes to keep things. Yes. Most of those casings were tulammo,. 9 milammeter. The same ones that were found at the murder scene. And at the crash site. But who bought the carbine . We still dont know where were at with david versus andy. So, could drew i. D. The guy in a photo lineup . Coming up detectives show drew pictures of david and andy. He said, thats very odd. He said, this is strange. When the shadow continues. Apparently we come from a long line of haberdashers. We chose eleanor. It was greatgrandmas name. So were in this little town near salerno and everyone has dads eyebrows. Help your family discover their unique story, with a gift from ancestry. But at fidelity, value is more than just talk. We offer commissionfree online u. S. Stock and etf trades. And, when you open a new Fidelity Brokerage account, your cash is automatically invested at a great rate thats 21 times more than schwabs. Plus, fidelitys leading price improvement on trades saved investors hundreds of millions of dollars last year. 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They offered a message for Service Members stationed around the world and for their families. Now lets go back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline extra. Police had their eyes on two people of interest in their investigation into Justin Michaels murder and both of them had dated justins fiance. There was David Moffitt who possessed a bill of sale for the murder weapon, but the name on that bill was andrew wegener. So who actually bought the gun . The pace of this investigation was about to speed up. Heres Keith Morrison with more. I really thought it was a random act. A home invasion. So during the course of that day, you were completely buffaloed . Correct. While the investigation raced forward, the Polk County Sheriffs Office told Justin Michaels family virtually nothing. Didnt tell them theyd found the man who sold the murder weapon, nor that they had to figure out who he actually sold it to. Because surely whoever bought the gun must have been the killer. I asked him at that point to look at the photo lineups. The first set of six photographs i showed him contained the photograph of David Moffitt. Mr. Bahlmann looked at it and he said, i cant be 100 certain. He said, the guy had a hat on, had sunglasses on. He goes, i wish i would have had him take it off. Then he pointed at the picture of David Moffitt and said, im 90 sure thats the person that i sold the gun to. What happened when he looked at the picture involving andy wegener . When i showed him the photo lineup with andy wegener, he looked at it and immediately looked at it and pointed to andy wegener and said, thats very odd. He said, this is strange. He was confused. He goes, that looks like the i. D. That looks like the person i sold the gun to. He picked out both of them, so we still have our questions. It was all very confusing. It didnt help that David Moffitt and andy wegener look similar. So one last thing to try. Earlier, when deputies searched David Moffitts house, they found the bill of sale for that carbine. But they also discovered a receipt for lemonade and a candy bar bought at a Dollar General store in the very town where the rifle was purchased. So i requested video from that store. A person walks into the store, still wearing the hat, but the sunglasses are hanging off of his shirt. And the video depicts David Moffitt. Well, well, well. And he purchases a lemonade and a candy bar. Which may have settled the question of who picked up the murder weapon. But here was another question. How did David Moffitt get hold of andy wegeners i. D. . The detectives had all kinds of reasons for wanting to talk to David Moffitt. They picked him up about 15 hours after the shooting. Took him to headquarters. Installed him in an interview room. And . No dice. He requested a lawyer. And just like that, youre done. I sat there for approximately an hour with him, offering him a phone book, a means to reach his attorney. Because we still wanted to attempt to talk with them, even if his attorney was present. He never reached an attorney. David moffitt wouldnt talk, but it hardly mattered. The evidence they already had was enough to arrest him, and charge him with firstdegree murder. By now, detectives understood that angie had nothing to do with the murder. That what seemed like a lack of emotion in angies demeanor and maries too, for that matter, was shock. Pure shock. In fact, the thought that david could be the man who killed the love of her life hit angie while she was still being questioned. And finally, after her apparent calm, she was overcome. When dave came up and we talked about that and the detective came back with a picture of him do you know this person . Thats dave. And i said, thats him. And i immediately started shaking. And was very visibly upset. Im just so that he had something to do with it and what if i have caused all of this . And the detective was like, whats going on . And i said, if hes the one who did it, then its all my fault. What do you mean by that . Because i was the one who had broken off the relationship. I was the one who ignored him the next day. You really think if you hadnt ignored him hed suddenly become mr. Sweetness and light . Well, no, but i just felt like it was i brought this monster into justins life. But the prosecutors needed more evidence if they wanted to prove that David Moffitt was the man angie saw as a monster. How, for example, did david get an i. D. With andy wegeners name on it . Unless andy was somehow involved . One of the discoveries during that first search warrant was a computer box for a laptop. And that laptop was never found during that first search warrant. So the prosecutors wrote a second search warrant. And voila they found it. But maybe too late. They discovered it in the bottom of a red tub that had a few inches of water in the bottom of it. And you know how computers hate water. But the waterlogged laptop wasnt all they found. The red tub ended up being a gold mine of evidence. Like what . They found ammunition that ended up being consistent with the ammunition found at the crime scene. And remember that shoebox they found near the car crash . It was a nevados brand shoebox. And in David Moffitts red tub . What do you know. In that red tub were those nevados shoes, size 11. Its almost like he was laying the trap for himself. Absolutely. They sent the wet laptop off to the computer lab, hoping maybe the techs could find something on it. And surprise, surprise, they did. And off of that computer, we were able to find the work that David Moffitt had done to create a fake i. D. In andy wegeners name. Thats the one david presented to the schoolteacher, drew bahlmann. He also created a fake andy wegener email address and stole that oil Service Receipt from andys car. All of which made it obvious, said the prosecutors, David Moffitt planned to get away with murder by framing a perfectly innocent man, andy wegener. What kind of a mind is behind that sort of behavior . It was very cold, very calculating. Tremendous amount of planning and premeditation that went into this murder. And he tried to execute it so that he would not be blamed, that he would get away with it. And remember that sweatshirt left behind after the shooting, as if the killer had been sloppy . In the sweatshirt was a boat registration that we could not figure out why it was there and what its meaning was at the time. Ultimately, several months later, we learned that that boat registration belonged to the father of the registered sex offender that lived within a few blocks of the crime scene. So it appeared to us, once we made that connection, that that was just another attempt to cast the blame for this on somebody else. So convicting David Moffitt of firstdegree murder would surely be about as easy a task as a prosecutor could ask for. Or maybe not. Coming up the trial begins and everyone will learn new details about the night of the murder. Its just unfathomable still. Thats pretty crazy, isnt it . When the shadow continues. , your plans can change in minutes. Your head wants to do one thing, but your gut says, not today. If your Current Treatment isnt working, ask your doctor about entyvio. Entyvio acts specifically in the gi tract to prevent an excess of white blood cells from entering and causing damaging inflammation. Entyvio has helped many patients achieve longterm relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. 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Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Ready to treat differently with a pill . Otezla. Show more of you. Trials are really interesting because you get to really hear the whole picture. Several detectives as well as Law Enforcement officials finally, said tv reporter stephanie moore, after months of secrecy they gathered in june 2015 at the polk county courthouse in des moines for the trial. And the prosecutors revealed all those wild Details Behind the murder of Justin Michael. First time the public heard any of it. First time justins family and fiancee finally understood what happened. The detectives and the prosecutors had shared no information with us, other than the fact of who they arrested. And the little they learned during the pretrial hearings could be confusing and painful. As things started to come out a little bit, i texted andy and i said, how did he get your i. D. . And he was like, i dont know. And i just had that feeling of, what if andy had something to do with this . But prosecutors have good reason for keeping the details of their cases from the public and even from the family. We dont want the publicity of the evidence to taint the jury panel. But now, as the trial began, they were quite confident they had all the evidence they needed, even without the stillmissing murder weapon. But what happened to it . I mean, he crashed the car apparently right away. He either got rid of it before then or our theory, at least, is that sometime between him getting home after the murder before officers were back out there doing that extensive search and being arrested that evening, he was able to get back and retrieve the weapon and throw it into saylorville lake. And then once its in the lake, theres no way youre going to find it. Not without a lot of work. But with all the other evidence collected, prosecutors felt they had enough. With the physical evidence that we were able to get, specifically from drew bahlmann and at the homicide scene and at David Moffitts house from a ballistics perspective, we were able to connect all of those dots. The state showed the jury bullet casings and ammunition magazines, targets for practice shooting, davids reconnaissance notes, a kindle containing a map of justins neighborhood, a can of pepper spray. Even a flashlight that, for all of David Moffitts careful planning, ultimately betrayed him. It was something that caught the attention of justins sister, sydney, and brother nathan. There were two times that he reacted significantly in the whole trial, and one was they found a fingerprint on the battery in the flashlight. And so he wore gloves when he was carrying the flashlight, but not when he was putting the batteries in the flashlight. And when they said that, he goes, ah. As if david just then understood his error. It was at the trial, said justins mom, that she finally learned what that red light in her eyes was. It was not some kind of strange flashlight as she thought. It was a red laser pointer, most likely attached to the murder weapon. Pointed at my face. Thats a very sobering thought. Thats sitting at the trial brought back a lot of trauma issues and that being one of them. And the other thing that really bothered me was finding out that this guy had the gun six inches from justins face when he shot him four times. Because we had thought, you know, he was in the hallway, at the doorway. And somehow it makes it even more invasive, you know, that hes that close and i mean, just executed somebody. It was an execution, yeah. And you actually look at somebodys face and make that choice to kill him. To me, thats just beyond troubling. I its just unfathomable still, like the twilight zone. The prosecutors saved David Moffitts computer searches for last, and then the jury and everybody else heard what david looked up on his laptop in the days before the murder a window into the mind of a killer. The only murdering murder guide youll ever need. Seriously. Convicted crimes of passion in polk county. Traffic cameras in grimes. What does hell look like . And so on and so on. Interesting that he would ask what hell looks like. Theres some reference to the confessional times. That is, times when some local priest would be available. A priest whose oath would swear him to secrecy. He obviously was concerned about what was going to happen to him had he committed this murder. That day that all of the computer stuff came out was a particularly brutal day in court for me. It was hard for me to handle. I had to leave and decided i couldnt go back in the afternoon because it was just it was overwhelming. You say it was too hard to hear. You couldnt actually go back. But what made it so hard . Just seeing my name, seeing justins name. You know, he had googled my name, looked at my Facebook Page or whatever for months. Seeing the locations from where he was to our house and just knowing that he was that close. And here you were totally oblivious living through the happiest days of your life. Uhhuh. In his closing, prosecutor Steve Foritano told the jury what must have happened. David moffitt, i think, was obviously fixated on angie ver huel. That she broke off with him, which caused him some pain and hurt. And then that wound was probably reopened when he started working with justin. And justin wound up getting engaged. And david, obviously, would be concerned about the fact that it was justin that was with angie. And that he couldnt be with her because of him. So he gradually formed a plan that somehow he was going to get rid of justin, possibly even get angie back again. I realize that there is a very high bar to cross to to be considered insane by the legal system. But thats pretty crazy, isnt it . Well, he had a goal. And he worked to achieve that goal. So his trying to commit this murder, trying to plan and make sure that he got away with it. Maybe. And maybe Something Else was going on. Maybe David Moffitt could blame somebody or Something Else. And, sure enough, he did. With a Legal Defense that could defeat the best evidence in the world. David moffitt had no intention of going to prison. Coming up moffitts lawyers call a controversial witness to make their surprising case and then the verdict. Almost gave you chills up your spine. When the shadow continues. Im part of a community of problem solvers. We make ideas grow. From an everyday solution. To one that can take on a bigger challenge. From packaging tape. To tape that can bond materials to buildings. And planes. One idea can unlock a breadth of solutions. At 3m, we are solving problems that improve lives. One idea can unlock a breadth of solutions. My mom washes the dishes. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . Cascade platinum does the work for you, prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. And you know what they isay about curiosity. Itll ruin your house. So get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. Here, it all starts withello hi . How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone wifi up there . Uhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your local xfinity store today. David moffets trial for the murder of Justin Michael was underway in an iowa courtroom. Prosecutors had presented evidence to bolster their theory that David Moffett had meticulously planned justins murder. After discovering the woman who broke up with him was engaged to justin. But the defense team was about to present their case and it was a stunner. With the conclusion of our story, heres Keith Morrison. Rarely is a prosecution so replete with evidence of a killers motives and awful deeds. Rarely, does that evidence so clearly portray such planning, such deviousness. A man who knew exactly what he was doing when he murdered Justin Michael, said the prosecution. And then it was time for the defense. That was the worst day of the trial. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Defense attorney did not dispute the wealth of evidence the state presented. All true, said mr. Rig. David moffett did kill justin, said the defense, because he was legally insane. And, therefore, not guilty. What the facts are in this case are really in dispute. The fact that this happens because of a mental disease isnt really in dispute. Because this makes no sense otherwise. What happens here, for lack of a better term, is crazy. And why should the jury believe that . This was the defenses star witness, dr. Peter bragan. A famous, if controversial, psychiatrist, with a resume of television and other appearances in which he has condemned the use of psychotropic drugs. The doctor testified david had been taking antidepressants on and off for years and that what david did was the drugs fault. I think the whole thing evolves out of a progressive hammering of his brain by the drugs. It was druginduced violence, the doctor told the jury. Druginduced murder. Back in the courtroom, angie listened to this. And upset, would not be quite the right word. It was laughable almost. And just that you can how much money they had to spend to find this guy whos going to say exactly what the defense wants. Him to say. Were you afraid the jury would buy it . Of course, youre always a little afraid cause its scary to think that he could potentially get off with an insanity plea. And the more he talked, the more it was it was frustrating to sit there and listen to him. You walk into somebodys bedroom with an assault rifle. Yes. Its horrible. He told you he thought about whether it was right or wrong, right . No. He told me in the beginning he thought about whether it was right or wrong. And that didnt enter his mind anymore. It was like he was in a video game or like in a activity that was outside of the normal reality. He even thought about killing somebody else. So toward the end, i mean, hes just become a i believe the victim of this manic episode driven by the drugs. Its just not him. Its the jury that gets to make the decision, right . Of course. They do. You never know quite what a jurys going to do. Its always an anxious moment when you are re trying to wait them to return a verdict. Oh, but it wasnt a moment. Hour after hour, they waited. And then almost seven hours later the judge asked do we have a verdict . The jury says they do. We find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. If David Moffett felt anything in that moment, he didnt show it. Nothing. Stone cold reaction. Almost gave chills up your spine. The insanity defense clearly did not work. The threshold that you have to reach for an insanity defense is that you dont understand the nature and consequences of your actions. Or you dont understand the difference between right and wrong. Thats an incredibly high threshold. You look at the degree of premeditation, the degree of planning that went into that, those are not the actions of an insane person. It does nothing to bring justin back. But it would have been horrific if he had not been found guilty. So it did help. And can you imagine if that person was still free in our society . Who knows who he wouldve attacked next. And he wouldve. I think he wouldve. I think he enjoyed the planning and seeing if he could accomplish his task. Verdicts are always hard, i think, because nobody ever wins in this situation. His family is obviously still in pain. The moffett family is obviously in pain, as well. So there there really is no winner here. We want to hold him responsible for what he did. And the jurys verdicts did that. Would they have caught him without those lucky breaks . Had David Moffett not lost control of his car on that gravel road. Had the cop not spotted the wreck off in the dark. If you hadnt stopped, if you just went on your merry way my involvement is just the citizen driving up the road stopping to check on somebody that morning. You know . Had the deputys instinct not pushed him to seize davids car, he probably would have been caught, eventually. But what do you think about this now when you look back on it . Thankful. Very thankful that i, one, trusted my gut because were trained to do that from day one because its the only thing you really got to back yourself up on calls when youre by yourself. Sure. If somebody seems a little hinky, maybe he is. And you just need to investigate it further. Its not prying. Its trying to figure out if theres something more to the story than what youre hearing. And a lot of the times, when you trust your gut, its right. Neither David Moffett or his attorney agreed to be interviewed. He appealed and lost. His sentence was mandatory in iowa. Life without parole. Cold comfort for justins family. Only photos of him now. And memories of the good person he was. Habitat for humanity, his favorite charity, built a house in his honor. His colleagues at wells fargo worked on it. Its one its a perfect memorial, i think, for him. He would like to see something good come out of the terrible thing that happened. Theres a thing that happens to people when they truly grieve. It isnt voluntary. And it takes a long time. Grief is is a wave. And sometimes its it just fills you and it takes you away. And it happens less frequently now than it did six months or nine months ago. Yeah. But its still debilitating. And we knew then that physically, he was gone. And and in our hearts, we still havent let him go. Its just still hard to believe that a person could be that evil. Evil is the only word i can think of. Inhuman. To do Something Like that. He just seems like, you know, he was a a he didnt get his way and he took justins life for no reason. And the woman at the center of it all . What kind of a life would she have had with him . A thought, perhaps, best packed away like a lot of things. Had the had the Wedding Dress. Had the houses booked. Had the venue booked. Had catering booked. I mean, we were just a little over two months out. Yeah. Boy, oh boy. A Wedding Dress is such a symbol. What do you do with a thing like that in a situation that youre in . Havent even looked at it. Where you put it . Its in my moms basement. Shes moved a couple of times. And its in her basement. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Thank you for watching. Denita was a light in this dark world. Thats what she was about. She was just a cup of love. Im like who saw this coming . A beautiful, young student gunned down. Things like that just didnt happen there. Why . Who . Who would want to do this . I thought i had my man. Her fiance was a police officer. Anyone knew how to do this and get away with it, wouldnt it be him . I spoke to