she had formed a really, i guess, tight relationship with her boss. reporter: but brooke s family had no idea how close brooke s relationship with her boss shawn smoot actually was. some of her friends did. well, she had told me in the beginning that she had started working for this guy, shawn smoot. and a little bit down the road i had like saw them out eating or something like that. as things progressed in their relationship, i was like, what s going on here? i was like this guy, he seems a bit older, is he you know, does he have a family or anything like that? and she was like, yeah. she s like, he s married. reporter: an affair with a married man. i don t really think she was, like, committed to that relationship. i think it was just her just coming through a divorce. and she had this attention from this man. but there s still something going on that shouldn t be going on? uh-huh. reporter: brooke left the job
know, it this man has got some issues. i ve got to try to get away from him. reporter: brooke reached her breaking point and in january 2011 did something she thought would get shawn out of her life forever. she was just, like, i m done with this situation. he won t leave me alone. i m you know, i m going to the wife. she needs to know about the situation. i think she was probably tired of living in this secret. you know, she d wanted to be free from the situation. the wife knows, he ll leave me alone. yeah. i mean, you know, if i m honest with the wife, then maybe, you know, they can try to work out their problems. and he ll leave me alone. reporter: but it backfired. shawn s marriage imploded. she was just like, i ve gone to the wife. she s getting a divorce. she s made him move out. he lost everything after that. yeah. reporter: and friends say shawn continued to harrass brooke. in fact, they say, things only intensified. beyond emotional abuse? was i
relationship described in the order of protection? the defense pointed out that smoot never admitted to any of the allegations and he was never charged, much less convicted, of any assault on brooke. the order doesn t mean that mr. smoot ever did anything. it doesn t mean that mr. smoot admitted that he did anything. reporter: and the order of protection didn t prevent them from seeing each other, which they clearly did. ms. morris told the judge that she wanted to have social contact with mr. smoot. reporter: jolley argued if brooke was so afraid of smoot why would she want to keep seeing him? after all, phone records showed she was the one who called him that day. she continued to treat shawn as a friend. as someone that she would do activities with. reporter: did you worry that that could be confusing to the jury? absolutely. and i think that s the underlying question anytime that we re talking about domestic violence. why does anyone go back?
reporter: amy denlinger is a former employee of shawn s. what were your impressions of shawn? seemed like a nice enough person, outgoing, typical sales, easy to get along with. reporter: shawn smoot, the name rang a bell with brooke s family and friends. not long after brooke s divorce, shawn had hired brooke as an assistant in the insurance office. i remember the day that she had the interview. we had lunch right before, and she was so excited, you know? it was a real job. and i said there s going to be so much potential for you to move up in this company. you know? i was really proud of her. did you feel like this was kind of the fresh start brooke needed? yeah, we did. we thought we all thought it was going to be a good thing for her. did she seem happy? oh yeah, she loved it. i think there was a couple other ladies in the office that she worked with. everybody got along, and she enjoyed it.
reporter: her friends say shawn had a temper and kaitlyn witnessed it firsthand one night after a dinner. shawn was drunk kaitlyn says, so she didn t want brooke to drive home with him. he did not like that. he began to get very angry. and we drove just down the street, pulled into the parking lot. and i pulled up right beside her car and she opened the door. and shawn was like right there, grabbed her by the arm. i told her, brooke, just get back in the car. and so she did. she got back in the car. and we drove off. reporter: friends say similar incidents followed. brooke felt shawn was stalking her, showing up unannounced and uninvited when she was out with friends. even after she stopped working for him. she definitely knew that something was wrong, you know, after he was obsessive with her, calling her multiple times and texting her and then stalking her. you know, she knew that, you