no, i didn t. tate stuck to his alibi: home and asleep, after taking his medication. lead agent birmingham thought he was telling the truth and crossed brian tate off his suspect list. so you only had one suspect at this point. yeah, one suspect and only one suspect. that evening, lisa s loved ones gathered at a funeral home for the visitation. the turnout was impressive and included many of todd s friends in the sheriff s department. your fellow officers are there as they would be, you know, they want to show respect. right. the mood inside was somber and uneasy. the caldwells gathered near lisa s coffin. the techels stayed in the back of the room. seth was there. his sister-in-law presley will never forget what happened next. he actually came up to me, kind of in the middle of it, he gave me a big ol hug, and he said, you will always be my little sister and i love you.
our intent is to retry it. that was an easy decision to make. even though the jury s vote was again in favor of conviction, this time nine to three lisa s family was starting to have its doubts. is there something that i m just overlooking? like did he not do it? is there something that they just see and they re like he s not guilty? but just when they thought they couldn t suffer any more heartbreak, the caldwells would be devastated by new findings by a brand new defense team. i heard it about a week before the trial and it just like somebody hit me in the stomach. coming up the defense comes out swinging. we chose to focus on the sloppy work done by the law enforcement. there was absolutely no dna, fingerprint, confession. when dateline continues. looking for a smarter way to mop?
hometown ottumwa. ready for the jury, gentlemen? february 2013, can you see yourself going into the courthouse? yeah, i remember. what do you say to one another? we gotta stay strong. the caldwells never wanted to believe seth killed lisa. but, heading into trial, they were all now convinced that he did, even presley, once his staunchest supporter. there s really no other explanation for what has happened. when you left the techel residence, who was there? two prominent families, the caldwells and techels, once close in-laws, were now fiercely divided, camped on opposite sides of the courtroom. seth had pleaded not guilty. i was like, just look at me, like, i wanna see kind of in your eyes, how you re doing, but he doesn t look at you. she was like my best friend. prosecutors called to the stand their emotional trump card. todd caldwell remembered his lisa. everyone would tell me how much lisa and i are alike, and i would just tell everybody
door saying that he wanted out of there. and we were in tears. a lot of us because we knew that we were up against a wall, that nothing else could be done with this person. after weeks of testimony and three full days of deliberations, the seth techel murder trial came to a sudden conclusion today. it was all over. the motion for a mistrial is hereby granted. the judge declared a mistrial because of a hung jury. hung jury? punch to the gut, andy? you ever have one? well, i never had one in almost 30 years. prosecutors immediately decided to retry the case. the vote had been ten to two for conviction. of course we re disappointed in what happened. the caldwells had lost a daughter and sister and, now, they couldn t even get the closure they desperately wanted. and they d have to do it all over again. it s hard to know that you re gonna have to endure another one. a trial date was set for seven months later, october 2013. and trial number two
this all out, you know. did you have anything to do with lisa s death? no, i didn t. tate stuck to his alibi: home and asleep, after taking his medication. lead agent birmingham thought he was telling the truth and crossed brian tate off his suspect list. so you only had one suspect at this point. yeah, one suspect and only one suspect. that evening, lisa s loved ones gathered at a funeral home for the visitation. the turnout was impressive and included many of todd s friends in the sheriff s department. your fellow officers are there as they would be, you know, they want to show respect. right. the mood inside was somber and uneasy. the caldwells gathered near lisa s coffin. the techels stayed in the back of the room. seth was there. his sister-in-law presley will never forget what happened next. he actually came up to me, kind of in the middle of it, he gave me a big ol hug, and he said, you will always be my little sister and i love you. and i was like, i love you