drowning, and that will relate to her addiction. he said the only crime was that emily never received the help she needed. the defense called emily s mother to the stand to show that detox at her house was at best amateur hour. you have no certificate or any license. no, i don t. are you telling this jury that you know all the subtleties of withdrawal? absolutely not. kutmus tried to cast doubt on the claim that emily had gotten completely clean before she died. were you in denial at that time about your daughter s absolutely not. to drivme thapoint, the defense called witnesses who say they saw signs emily was still abusing those pain pills and alcohol in the weeks before she died. one of them was alex s mother. she was argumentative. agitated. and she didn t really seem to comprehend sometimes what we
reporter: he said the only crime was that emily never received the help she needed. the defense called emily s mother to the stand to show that detox at her house was at best amateur hour. you have no certificate or any license. no, i don t. are you telling this jury that you know all the subtleties of withdrawal? absolutely not. reporter: kutmus tried to cast doubt on the claim that emily had gotten completely clean before she died. were you in denial at that time about your daughter s condition is this about your daughter s condition? absolutely not. reporter: to drive home that point, the defense called witnesses who say they saw signs emily was still abusing those pain pills and alcohol in the weeks before she died. one of them was alex s mother. she was argumentative. agitated and she didn t really seem to comprehend sometimes what we were talking about. reporter: signs, the defense said, that are evident in this
this case should have never been prosecuted. that was where you came down right, was from the beginning, was that the case shouldn t have been brought? absolutely not. i took that position because of the lack of evidence. alex fazzino was totally innocent. there s no more pressure than when you if you have an innocent person that you re trying to defend on this kind of a charge, first-degree murder. reporter: kutmus says that from the beginning, prosecutors targeted alex and refused to consider anything else. they reviewed all the information, the toxicology reports, everything associated with her death. they concluded, we don t know what the cause of death is. we don t know the manner of death. and what happened almost a year and a half later, the state finds some guy from sioux falls, south dakota, a pathologist who said that the manner of death was was a homicide. they found this person. reporter: kutmus stated his case to the jury. emily fazzino passed away as
josh mankiewicz: by this time, the love that had once joined the beckwith and fazzino families reporter: by this time, the love that had once joined the beckwith and fazzino families was long gone. in an iowa courtroom, both families had listened for a week. alex fazzino murdered emily fazzino on january 29. reporter: as prosecutors painted alex fazzino as a monster who brutally killed his wife in a fit of rage. i gotta ask you this straight out. did you play any role in killing your wife? physically, no. i mean i, i ll always feel a little responsible that i couldn t get through to anybody to get her help. and i ll carry that with me for all of my life. reporter: defense lawyers, bill kutmus and trever hook insisted that there was no murder here, or any crime at all. this case should have never
been prosecuted. that was where you came down right, was from the beginning, was that the case shouldn t have been brought? absolutely not. i took that position because of the lack of evidence. alex fazzino was totally innocent. there s no more pressure than when you if you have an innocent person that you re trying to defend on this kind of a charge, first-degree murder. reporter: kutmus says that from the beginning, prosecutors targeted alex and refused to consider anything else. they reviewed all the information, the toxicology reports, everything associated with her death. they concluded, we don t know what the cause of death is. we don t know the manner of death. and what happened almost a year and a half later, the state finds some guy from sioux falls, south dakota, a pathologist who said that the manner of death was was a homicide. they found this person. reporter: kutmus stated his case to the jury. emily fazzino passed away as a result of an accidental dro