derek smyer was out of jail. he insisted he was an innocent man. a father of two, who had no reason to commission a murder just because he got someone pregnant. but detectives were still investigating. and what they heard made them more convinced than ever that derek had crystal killed. they spoke with traci, the mother of derek s children. early on in the case, she had avoided the cops. now she was eager to tell them what she said happened in 1998 when she was pregnant with derek s first child. she got lured to the back of her apartment on the promise to be taken to a doctor s appointment by smyer. and she was assaulted. and her neck was cut. by some other person? by some other person. rushed to the hospital. and she told us that she was very leery because derek had never asked to take her to the
seat. prosecutors showed the jury the admitted hit man s videotaped confession. i just seen her come down, from the, uh, front the front way stairs. it was still kind of dark. that s when i killed her. how d you do that? what did you do? just shot her. when you left the area, did you go back and tell derek what you d done? um, after that, i seen him not immediately after that. then they called c-styles to testify. but instead of tying a bow on the case, he lobbed a grenade and blew it to pieces. c-styles told the jury everything he said on that tape was a lie. people have false confessions all the time. it happens all the time. calvin schneider was derek
smyer s defense attorney. he said c-styles made up a story that the cops wanted to hear. he was hoping to get better treatment in prison. he came in and admitted that they made these offers to him. and that that s why he did it. you think police kind of rushed to judgment here? absolutely, because they had a hunch, they went with my client. and they excluded others. schneider told the jury that without c-styles confession, there was no evidence linking derek to the murder. they re alleging multiple conversations, planning, without any proof of where, when, how. there s no emails between moore and smyer. there s no text messages. there s no phone calls. the defense portrayed derek as a man who loved his children. not one who would try to have them murdered. there s mr. smyer again in the hospital holding his baby. and i think it s important when you re looking at this case that you evaluate his expression on his face in these photos. proud father or killer? not only w
the cold steel of a .38 can fire a bullet at 1,000 feet per second. the speed of justice is not nearly as fast. crystal taylor was killed september 25th, 201. ten years later, her unsolved murder was still an open case. detectives believed skyler moore aka c-styles was the person who shot her. but they didn t have enough evidence to try him. and they thought the father of crystal s unborn child, derek smyer, might have been involved as well. but there was no evidence linking him to c-styles. except for one thing. now they were at a northern california prison sitting right across from c-stiles. remember when he was arrested and later there was a murder?
found the gun that fired it. let alone linked that gun to c-styles or anyone else. if c-styles went to trial and was acquitted, that would be the end of it. and so, rather than take that chance. the dea dropped charges. the prosecutor said we don t watch try this case now? because we don t have the evidence right now and the witnesses are skittish. you want to wait. and you think this could be a couple months, maybe a. yes. instead, many months path. and nothing happened. the nation grew obsessed with the murder of a 27-year-old twin pregnant woman, but it wasn t crystal case. lacey peterson s case is showing on the new every night. same, beautiful young lady, every pregnant. we were offended. everybody is going on life. one person is gone and people go to work the next morning. birds are chirping.