and i was hurt. and i was in shock. just disbelief because i had i had nothing bad to say about him. this wasn t jamere. yes. i mean, that s exactly, more or less, how i felt. it was just like a nightmare. like, this wasn t reality. denita had trusted jamere. the man investigating her death did not. now, the man who once made denita so happy was in the cross hairs of a murder investigation that was quickly ramping up. and though jamere stroud seemed genuinely devastated by denita s death, openly crying throughout his interview with detectives, he wasn t getting much sympathy. when i first spoke with him, i thought i had my man. jamere? jamere. coming up. what does shannon know? and what is she hiding? as we re leaving, getting
there was no murder weapon. and she hardly looked like a killer. i thought she might be able to sell the story. i figured she d be dressed real conservative, probably come in looking like she just landed off the mayflower, and that somebody would be sympathetic. reporter: from the beginning the prosecution portrayed shannon as a woman scorned, who couldn t have jermeir stroud to herself, so she made sure denita smith wouldn t either. shannon, suggested prosecutor saacks, was either carrying a torch for jermeir or trying to burn down his whole world by killing his fiancee and pinning it on him. for whatever reason, she couldn t handle the situation between jermeir and denita. and to resort to this, just to me, speaks of desperation. reporter: the prosecution s star witness? jermeir stroud, whose courtroom testimony was broadcast on local tv.
david saacks says the rape was properly investigated and seemed to be nothing more than a hoax. which also, for him, finally answered that lingering question of who was stalking whom. everything was pointing to her and the only thing that was pointing to jermeir was that he was in this affair with shannon. i do not believe he was involved in the murder. i do not think he was involved in the planning or the execution of this murder at all. reporter: and even if jermeir wanted denita out of his life, what could possibly be his motive to kill her? and this is exactly what i thought. why? all he had to do is call denita up and say, it s over. reporter: there s no property. no property. reporter: there s no alimony. and it doesn t make sense. reporter: he seems genuinely crushed by what happened. absolutely. reporter: as the trial approached, the d.a. facing a circumstantial case with a seemingly credible defendant, offered shannon crawley a deal. plead guilty to denit
suspected she would have been out of that relationship, she had too much dignity for that. reporter: this was an affair jermeir was hiding. correct. reporter: remember, jermeir lived in greensboro near shannon, but 50 miles away from denita, the woman jermeir was officially involved with at the time. it was a tale of two cities and two women. jermeir and denita were dating, though not yet engaged. and he was also seeing shannon, and that seemed more serious than just a fling. reporter: did jermeir disclose to you that he had gotten shannon pregnant? he did. reporter: and that she had an abortion? correct. reporter: shannon s mother ann says her daughter had the abortion because the pregnancy wasn t viable. but she claims that when jermeir found out he was very upset. he had contacted the doctor to find out if what she said was true about the pregnancy being
what s your choice? and i knew he had his gun. reporter: after arriving at the complex, shannon sticks by her story that jermeir went up the denita s apartment, leaving her behind in the suv. i got to the sidewalk and i heard a shot. reporter: you think jermeir killed denita? i absolutely believe that he did. reporter: what would possibly be his motive for that? i don t know. reporter: i mean, if he didn t want to be with her anymore, they weren t married, they had no property or kids together, he could have just broken up with her. i don t know. i don t know. i don t think he had a plan at all. i think he just acted in the spur of the moment. but i don t believe that he set out to deliberately go there and shoot her. i believe that he was after me. that was how he made me feel. when we left my house that day, i never expected to come back home. i honestly believed that he was going to kill me. reporter: shannon says the investigation doesn t support