uh-huh. strangers are gonna decide. uh-huh. who don t know your brother? uh-huh. reporter: this family of highly educated professionals knew the case for and against steve as intimately as any attorney. on the third day of deliberations, there was nothing for them to do but sit together. watch their phones. and then, as they prepared to leave a coffee shop in prescott news. the jury had reached a verdict. but it was 4:00 in the afternoon. apparently quitting time. and the judge decided they d all have to wait until morning to hear what the verdict was. katie and charlotte, comforted by steve s parents, his siblings, had another night to wait and wonder, what did the jury decide? it was rough on everybody. it is. and it s just horrible. with that nervous energy then is to the you can t sleep. we were thinking, well, are they just stretching this out? was it torture? well, sure, i mean, we we just want them to go ahead and let him go now. reporter: then, t
democker at the scene of the crime, but they cannot. reporter: anybody paying attention to the bizarre murder case playing out in fits and starts here in prescott. was apt to be a little suspicious of steve democker s behavior after the killing. getaway bag? fake email? defense attorneys craig williams and greg parzych could see that as well as anyone. but was he guilty of murder? no, they said. rather, he was the victim of some detectives tunnel vision, beginning with a sloppy investigation. there was kind of cavalcade of people roaming through this scene that they didn t lock down, tromping through footprints and tromping through the house. and they didn t seal it off correctly. to me, when somebody shows up on the scene and immediately points the finger at the ex-husband, and then that s all they ever did. it s always boom, right on him? it was always on him.
how can you convict him of murder? reporter: but in july 2013, by this time a full five years after carol s death, steve was still in jail, and the case finally went to trial again. new defense attorneys. a new prosecution team. who, it soon became clear, had, during the long delays, spent some quality time honing their argument against steve. carol kennedy had no enemies. this was not a burglary or a robbery, no valuables are missing. the overwhelming evidence in this case points to the defendant and at the close of that evidence we will ask you to return verdicts of guilty on all charges and especially first-degree murder. reporter: and now the prosecution had more evidence. like steve s google searches during the month before carol s death. damaging, to say the least. there was some information for the term how to kill and make it look like suicide, and there was some information on the term how to make a homicide
steve s sister sharon, he d heard that story from an inmate in that air-vent conversation and desperately wanted to get the story out, and investigated. the death penalty was still on the table. so, steve was terrified. we were terrified. i can certainly appreciate when you re terrified, maybe you do some stupid things. well, it s when you start making mistakes, and that was a doozy of a mistake. uh-huh. reporter: and uncovering that fraud led investigators to what they thought was another, even bigger one. remember carol s life insurance money? $750,000 worth. steve s defense attorney talked about it during his opening statement. he disclaimed, he signed over any interest to the girls and the money was paid out to the girls. that s what happened in this case. reporter: that statement caught investigator mike sechez by surprise. we had made contact with the life insurance company several times throughout the investigation and we had been informed that the life insurance h
the medical examiner offered an opinion. it looked like it might have been a golf club. and one more thing. carol herself might already be telling them who killed her. it s one of those moments that you go, oh my goodness. reporter: the clue that police almost missed. will it help them crack the case? we have to be able to