and she was screaming and begging for her life. and the jury didn t have to just take her word for it, prosecutors called scott sherwood, paul s partner from work to the stand. they told the jury he had been interrogated by police and showed them the take. let s go from the beginning. you meet paul where? i met paul at his house in glen cove. jurors heard him tell police his version of what happened the night of the murder. so he gets in your red blazer. who s driving? i was driving. we were driving up towards where his residence was, where s catherine lived. sherwood said paul told him to part about a mile away from kathryn s house and weigh in the car. about how long was he gone from the car? over an hour. and what did you see when he got to your car? he said, it s done. he had said that the chloroform didn t work. i had to strangle her.
paul and catherine novak. the novak had both going up at city kids. paul was in new york city paramedic, a job that seemed a perfect fit. i wanted to be that person that would show up, that would help my parents. would help my sister if she was in a car accident. or something like that. but he also saw the dark side of city life. a little too close to home. i would do shootings and stabbings two blocks away from my apartment. i always thought to myself, i could never raise a child in this area. so, in 2002, paul and his wife catherine went house hunting in narrowsburg, new york. a small hamlet tucks between the catskill and poconos mountains. they didn t need to look for long. it was the big red house, as she called it. and she will talk about the big red house all the time. catherine s brother michael and sister in law joanne says she worked hard to make the big red house a home. growing up, we live in apartments. you know, this was a space of her own. yeah, she was th
accident. this in investigator kelly with from new york. i m like ok. so he sits down, grabs a tear, he s a fall away for me. and then i remember him, he s the guy that grilled me. the one that got my face. how are you feeling? oh my gosh, these people are back in my life four years later? at that point, i still didn t know what they wanted from me. i knew this guy was yelling at me. and then i just looked at him and said i would like to speak to a lawyer. paul had already been interviewed by police several times. he thought this was all behind him. you knew it had to be about catherine? well, yeah, off obviously had something to do with that. later that day, the police went back to paul s house. and i went outside in the driveway with emily said, for we re sorry to have to bring this to you but paul novak is under arrest. i said, for what? i said this is for his involvement in his wife s murder four years ago. what cat and paul didn t know that was that a witness had
catherine was created a life without paul. then, in december 2008, some time in the early morning hours, some were in her house, a fire started. a house is totally on fire. it s on fire? when firefighters arrived, the big red house was a wall of flames. they had no idea if anyone was still inside. does anyone of? there yes, yes, the kids! are they in the house? i don t know. neighbors knew paul wasn t there. he wasn t living in an apartment three hours away with his new girlfriend. that morning he got a call from catherine s pastor. i picked it up and it was passed or phyllis she goes, where the kids, where the kids? unlike, there with me. what s going? she goes, the house is on fire. firefighters worked for hours dousing the flames. when catherine s friends sue muller arrived, the fire was still we raging. she stood vigil for hours. waiting to hear news of her friends. all of a sudden, the firemen
previously because i had ended up getting a second job at new york hospital in queens which was very high paying. reporter: and then greenwald called what he said was his most crucial witness, paul s landlord. the defense wanted to use him to undermine a key part of the prosecution s case. remember, scott sherwood said that after the murder he and paul drove home to paul s house. do you go straight to paul s house in glen cove when you come back? yes. reporter: but on the stand paul s landlord disputed that. he said he d been outside setting up for a photo shoot starting in the early morning and didn t lay eyes on either of them. how could the man be out there and he never sees scott sherwood or paul? there s only one way. it didn t happen. reporter: the landlord s testimony was proof, the lawyer argued, that scott sherwood had made up his story. the defense closed its case claiming the prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that paul was a killer.