and i left again about 4:00 and just went and, and got a doughnut and a coke. like i said, i get up pretty early. reporter: and what about weapons. did keith own a gun? i have a .45 acp in my work truck that i just got, and it s never had any, i mean it s never been loaded. reporter: as part of standard protocol, the detective asked for keith s clothes. they would be tested for gun shot residue. what you re wearing now, is that, was that fresh clothes from this morning whenever you? this is what i wore yesterday. reporter: before wrapping up the interview, the detective took a look at keith s cell phone. while i m reviewing this phone, i see that he obtains a text message, an incoming text message from a lady by the name of deanna jaynes. reporter: ping, up comes a text message? that s correct. reporter: the message read: did you make it home okay? keith was quick to point out, his relationship with deanna was completely platonic. she s more like a guy friend.
nothing sexual? no big deal, that s right. reporter: after that, keith was released to go and grieve with his family. detective carter, meanwhile, set out to verify keith s story. he had a receipt where he had stayed. reporter: so that puts him three hours away from this house fire. correct. reporter: the death of his wife? it showed his check-in time and check-out time. reporter: a quick check of keith s gun showed he was telling the truth about it as well. the gun looked as though it had never been fired. so maybe he s not the guy? he may not be. reporter: so then who was? coming up the detective sits down with deanna. was she really like a guy friend to keith? you could say maybe she s driving events here. maybe she wants to get rid of the wife. that s correct. let s see, aleve is proven better on pain
that there was there was no way that he had anything to do with it. so this is nightmare country? yes. but again, we thought it would all be explained. you know, they would do their job, they would take him and the truth would come out. i was 100% convinced that he was innocent and that they were taking the wrong person in. meanwhile, the person who actually did it was getting away. reporter: family and friends were, for sure, distressed to learn that keith had another woman on the road but the revelation wasn t enough to shake their support for him. it was a shock, but it was something that we accepted as a mistake. but that did not mean that he killed julie. there s just no way he did it. yeah, this is not to julie. definitely. his wife, you know, kids mother, there s no way keith did it. reporter: but when keith griffith went to trial in february 2015. all rise! reporter: prosecutor raymond mcgee laid out a formidable circumstantial case.
griffith what she would have needed in a divorce and been entitled to. reporter: keith s daughter-in-law ali griffith listened to the entirety of the prosecution s case. all she heard were theories. they spun a story, and they told a story how they wanted it to go. and they had facts that supported their story, but did not prove it. reporter: and that s what keith s defense attorney mark bryant hammered home for the jury. reporter: what s no evidence mean? they didn t have dna, they didn t have any kinda forensics, they didn t have a confession. they had nothing! they had circumstantial evidence. reporter: in their haste to arrest keith, the defense argued, the police had gotten it wildly wrong. yes, he conceded, keith wasn t the husband of the year. but, he said, deanna s story that keith was pursuing her for a long term commitment was nonsense. rather what he wanted was a port in every storm. reporter: as for the life insurance, $250,000 was far from
i felt that the detectives, the sheriff s department, were on a manhunt, and they were after my dad. because the husbands always do it? yep, husbands always do it. and they just seemed like they just zeroed in on him and were going at it 110 miles an hour and were not respectful to my brother and i about any of developments or anything going on. reporter: but detective matt carter had an ongoing investigation and he felt there was ample reason to pursue their dad. after his interview with deanna, he d driven to the hotel that was keith s alibi. there, he uncovered a bombshell. remember keith saying to the detective he d been at the hotel the entire night? ducking out just twice to get a drink and a snack? well, unhappily for keith s alibi, when the detective hit play on the hotel s security video, it told a vastly different story. keith is seen leaving, as he d claimed, around 11:00pm. but i think within 15 to 30 minutes, he s gonna be returning. but that never happened.