reporter: the prosecution believed the brothers were flat out lying about the abuse, and the events leading up to the murders, and as it turned out their testimony gave the state a big opening. they offered their mental state as a defense. so when you offer your mental state as a defense you have waived your psychiatric patient privilege. reporter: the oziel tape. remember that? by testifying, the brothers had put their mental state on center stage meaning the tape was now fair game. the defense played the tape to take the sting out of it. what erik and i did took courage beyond belief. reporter: detective zoeller remember had never heard the tape before, and he was dumbfounded. this was supposedly a candid confession tape, but on it the brothers never once mentioned the issue that was now the very core of their defense. why did you ever murder your parents? oh, because they were sexually molesting us. that never came out. why wouldn t he tell his therapist?
upset and i was mad. his lawyer asked, what happened next? mcdowell reponded, she became limp and she fell. d. a. lieck couldn t believe what she was hearing. he hugged her to death. yeah, that s a new one on me. that had not been told before. no, and there s no way. and then we were actually lookin it up on you know, we re googlin it, you know, at at dinner that night, goin , how do you hug somebody to death? when the case went to the jury, lieck thought an outright acquittal seemed unlikely. but, a hung jury was a distinct possibility. just one just one juror, that s all it needs. and i thought, god, if the one believes his story, you know, we re cooked. and sure enough, during deliberations, one of the jurors asked to see mcdowell s confession tape again. does that make you nervous? it always makes me nervous because i m, like, oh god, where are they goin with this? an hour after re-watching the confession the jury came back with a verdict, guilt
correct. the prosecutors did what they could. they played griz s confession tape for the jury. so, gave you $10,000 and the motorcycle. dear mother was a little bit more talkative, about how kelly was at the end of her rope that summer before randy s murder. we talked about how she can t believe he s still alive, and you know, he s sickly and he doesn t want to be here anymore. we got to know the real kelly baker. what became clear to us is that she s a manipulator. so, they called her a puppet master, a liar, a killer. question was, would the jury believe it? now the defense got its turn. and attorney robert ray turned loose his very best counterattack kelly baker, herself. kelly baker had to take the stand in this case, in my view. the jury was about to get a firsthand look at a different
The infamous murders of four young men on a farm outside New Hope, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2017 will be the subject of a two-hour television documentary.
as it turned out their testimony gave the state a big opening. they offered their mental state as a defense. so when you offer your mental state as a defense you have waived your psychiatric patient privilege. the oziel tape. remember that? by testifying, the brothers had put their mental state on center stage meaning the tape was now fair game. the defense played the tape to take the sting out of it. what erik and i did took courage beyond belief. detective zoeller remember had never heard the tape before, and he was dumbfounded. this was supposedly a candid confession tape, but on it the brothers never once mentioned the issue that was now the very core of their defense. why did you ever murder your parents? oh, because they were sexually molesting us. that never came out. why wouldn t he tell his therapist? big deal? the prosecution thought so, but by then the jury had already heard many hours of tearful