just, i need more detail. you don t remember when nothing like that. steve stiles was says something less than he said in 2001. even detective lopez gave it a try. he questioned a lot of gang members and he knew c-styles had gang members in prison snoon you can t go on the main yard, am i right? okay well, we re looking for some help on some cases. now one hand washes the other. if you tell us something that you remember, truthfully remember, and we can corroborate it, we can get you moved out of california. like to where though? arizona, illinois, tennessee. detective lopez assured c-styles this wasn t your typical police interrogation.
house? no, we were, you know, back on the job. making sure since the case was reopened, we they had enough evidence this time. by then, detective lopez at the sheriff s homicide bureau had pulled out the old files and read everything. police reports, forensic reports, interview notes. and what he read lined up with what c-styles had told him. the description of the place. the description of meeting the victim s sister the day prior. the way he ran out of the place, all those things were, you know, matched what he was telling us. and we were able to corroborate. with all that information, lopez decided to take a chance. arrest derek, apply some pressure, and see if he would crack. so nine years and ten months after crystal taylor s murder, derek smyer once again sat in a police interview room. he felt like he had to control everything that happened in the interview. he would answer a question, but
then detective beth smith testified about two key pieces of evidence that the first jury never saw. first, a photo of derek on his high school basketball team, proving he did play basketball. an important detail because police believed derek met skyler moore on the basketball court. the second new piece of evidence was security footage from the night before crystal s murder that placed derek at a 7-eleven near both crystal taylor s home and skyler moore s. it proved, they said, derek had lied about his whereabouts back in 2001 when he told police he was miles from crystal s hawthorne home that night. did he ever tell you that he went to the 7-eleven? no. as the evidence was mounting against him, derek s defense went on offense, portraying the mother of his two children as a lair whose testimony couldn t be trusted. have you lied to your family
of all of our sports leagues that were taking us to summer camps. she says derek did go off track in high school. he was just 16 when his girlfriend traci got pregnant. it was news their parents were not happy to hear. they were in shock, especially my dad. my dad is very traditional, you know, believes that children should be born in wedlock, as derek and i were. derek s daughter sydney was born in april of 1998 and instantly derek smyer had to be an adult. he dropped out of high school so that he could get a full-time job. and even though he wasn t making much, he was still doing what he could to support that baby. that changes your life. that does change your life. and that forestalls a lot of your options. absolutely, absolutely but derek, he was a hardworking guy. in 2002, the year after crystal died, derek smyer had another daughter with the same woman. if i fall, all this footage is being deleted. for the most part he wasn t a
would go back to his ill-temperedness and his kind of monstrous ways. to help explain how derek had crystal killed, prosecutors again called her sister michelle who had been through the emotional wringer when she testified in the first trial. i was afraid of what it was going to do to me mentally the second time. i was afraid for myself. nevertheless, michelle mustered the courage to take the stand and testify to seeing the alleged gunman c-styles, in their apartment complex the day before her sister s murder. what did you say to the defendant mr. moore? i told him that he startled me and i asked him what he what was he doing there? the jury also heard from chavonna hall, in middle school at the time, now an adult, who said she still remembered seeing c-styles fleeing the crime scene. and what did you hear? it was like a, um like a gunshot, like a big noise basically. what next occurred? we seen somebody running past us.