the sun rose over grief and chaos that last morning of april 2011. in little kingman, kansas. ashley seacat was dead, her house burned around her. and her husband and two little boys were just beginning to understand what had happened to them. the can t believe it stage. just like her siblings kathleen and rich. like i believed somehow it wasn t true. you plead with god or you just want a miracle to happen. no miracles to be had. and that might have been the end of it really. an awful tragedy but these things do happen. and for all but loved ones they re soon forgotten by the rest of the world. except those volunteer firemen weren t quite sure what they were dealing with. so they took the prudent step and called in the state fire marshal and the atf, the bureau
but reviewing the tv show she had been watching, she could tell them which scene was playing when she heard that gunshot. and that s how the kbi was able to determine the gun went off long before brett called 911. we believed it was about 30, 35 minutes prior to mr. seacat calling 911 is when she heard that gunshot. to do something. right. and the atf s monty discovered the fire was not simply a matter of lithe the bed on fire. was that where the fire was started? in my opinion, there were multiple fires started on the second floor of the residence. interesting. but it didn t rule out the possibility that vashti herself started the fires. there s a lot of things in limbo at that point. yes. but their suspicions pointed in one direction. toward brett seacat, who was going from grieving, guilt-ridden widower to a serious person of interest. which his half-brother bobby found preposterous, especially
test the defense claimed would have revealed if he actually fired that gun that night. if you ve ever seen what that gun looks like, everything just comes out the side of that cylinder. so that stuff goes somewhere. and onto your skin is where you re looking for at it. yet they didn t look. they didn t look. but he s a cop, they re a cop. brett seacat doesn t have much faith in the kbi. but the star witness for the defense would be the last witness, brett seacat himself. coming up cold-blooded killer or grieving husband? i didn t think it was appropriate to be dragging my wife s name through the mud. did you love vashti? i loved vashti. did you kill vashti? no, i did not. brett s story from the stand, his life on the line.
there s no rule of thumb, nothing that works anyway to allow a person to successfully predict a jury s verdict based on the time it takes to make it. brett seacat s jury deliberated six hours. what did that mean? brother bobby was nervous, of course, but had a good feeling. i think that the state in every respect failed to prove and make their case. ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict? yes, we have, your honor. we, the jury, find the defendant brett t. seacat guilty of murder in the first degree. guilty on all counts. the reaction in the courtroom was muted.
Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline 20191111 06:20:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.