murder, so then obviously my interest was piqued. reporter: it was a stroke of luck. anthony garcia s family had been cold calling lawyers looking for someone to defend anthony. bob motta was the first to call back. it was 2:00 a.m. california time when he got anthony garcia s brother on the phone. 30 minutes later, bob motta was retained to handle his first murder case. i go upstairs. i wake my wife up, who is my law partner, alison motta. and i m, like, we got a murder case. we gotta get up and go to jackson county. you gotta find a sitter for the kids. reporter: when anthony garcia s extradition hearing came up the next day, the mottas, mr. and mrs. were seated at the defense table. you are basically consenting to the authorities from nebraska to take you back to that state to deal with these charges. do you understand that? absolutely understand. i m not going to answer any questions with regards to his state of mind at this point. reporter: the mottas brought in b
was actively involved in his own defense. they say that changed over time as court delays stretched his time in pretrial isolation from months to years. garcia lost a lot of weight and bob motta says his client s mental health deteriorated. the fact that he was in solitary confinement for 3 years, 23 hours a day, you know, mentally, no one can withstand that. reporter: prosecutors who were also concerned about garcia s mental state asked the judge to order a lengthy psychiatric evaluation. in the end garcia was found competent to stand trial, and a date was set for april 2016. then this story took a most unexpected turn. thursday or friday before that monday start of jury selection, alison motta says to us and to two local tv stations,
we have dna tests that prove that our guy was not at the hunter-sherman scene. reporter: alison motta spoke with wowt-tv via skype. their physical evidence and their dna evidence establishes undeniably, unmistakably and without doubt that the murders were committed by two people and not anthony garcia. reporter: the claim was based on what the mottas believed to be a potential match between some unidentified dna found on shirlee sherman s bandana and some dna taken from a suspect in another case. they are taking alleles from dna, bits and pieces, and coming up with a theory that never made it to trial, but she throws it out there on the eve of trial, and prosecutors are incensed, and it really chapped the judge.
reporter: in the beginning, the mottas say anthony garcia was actively involved in his own defense. they say that changed over time as court delays stretched his time in pretrial isolation from months to years. garcia lost a lot of weight and bob motta says his client s mental health deteriorated. the fact that he was in solitary confinement for 3 years, 23 hours a day, you know, mentally, no one can withstand that. reporter: prosecutors who were also concerned about garcia s mental state asked the judge to order a lengthy psychiatric evaluation. in the end garcia was found competent to stand trial, and a date was set for april 2016. then this story took a most unexpected turn. thursday or friday before that monday start of jury selection, alison motta says to us and to two local tv stations,
you know, i m trying to defend somebody, and i m going to use everything in my arsenal. reporter: for lead attorney, bob motta jr., that meant challenging or debunking everything jurors had heard from prosecutors for the past two weeks. there were so many inconsistencies with the way that they said that it went down that it just never came together for me that he was guilty. reporter: in a rare move, the defense team allowed dateline inside their private strategy sessions. we need to talk about our strategy on direct. reporter: it was a raucous group with alison motta shut the [ bleep ] up! reporter: serving as a passionate advisor. robert motta sr., the voice of experience. are we missing something? reporter: and local attorney jeremy jorgenson and an assortment of researchers sweating the details. the team rented a home out in west omaha, not far from the dundee nieghborhood.