case playing out in fits and starts here in prescott. was apt to be a little suspicious of steve democker s behavior after the killing. getaway bag? fake e-mail? defense attorneys craig williams and greg parzych could see that as well as anyone. but was he guilty of murder? no, they said. rather, he was the victim of some detectives tunnel vision, beginning with a sloppy investigation. there was kind of cavalcade of people roaming through this scene that they didn t lock down, tromping through footprints and tromping through the house. and they didn t seal it off correctly. to me, when somebody shows up on the scene and immediately points the finger at the ex-husband, and then that s all they ever did. it s always boom, right on him? it was always on him. reporter: the jurors listened to steve s interview with the detectives, conducted the night carol was killed. we ve got a suspicious death and right now we don t have any other person.
yeah, and you have no control over it. uh-huh. strangers are gonna decide. uh-huh. who don t know your brother? uh-huh. reporter: this family of highly educated professionals knew the case for and against steve as intimately as any attorney. on the third day of deliberations, there was nothing for them to do but sit together. watch their phones. and then, as they prepared to leave a coffee shop in prescott news. the jury had reached a verdict. but it was four in the afternoon. apparently quitting time. and the judge decided they d all have to wait until morning to hear what the verdict was. katie and charlotte, comforted by steve s parents, his siblings. had another night to wait and wonder what did the jury decide? it was rough on everybody. it is. and it s just horrible. with that nervous energy then is to the you can t sleep. we were thinking, well, are they just stretching this out? was it torture? well, sure, i mean, we we just want them to go ahead
prescott town square in anticipation of the annual rodeo. and, on june 3rd, inside the square s historic court house, county attorney joe butner opened his case against steve democker by ticking off the reasons why, in his view, steve deserved to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars. by this time, pre-trial legal rulings had taken the death penalty off the table. though attorney butner told the jury the case was no less condemning. i will ask you to find the defendant guilty of the first degree pre-meditated murder. reporter: first, he said, steve had motives, and not just that 6 thousand a month in alimony. no. carol, said the prosecutor, was worth a lot of money. dead. the evidence will show that at the time of her death that steven democker was the owner and beneficiary of two life insurance policies. the total value of those life insurance policies was
could someone else be the real killer? i m wondering what was this man capable of? so much tragedy and so much heartbreak. it was very emotional for me. we just kept waiting for them to figure out they had it wrong. reporter: it was the second of reporter: it was the second of july, 2008, early evening in a fine old town called prescott, arizona. sun going down, air cooling down to a fine evening warm. here at the town s historic rodeo grounds, refugees from the summer heat in phoenix, 2 hours and 25 degrees away settled into the stands to enjoy the annual exploits of the cowboys. at the very same time, a few miles away on the edge of town, a woman named carol kennedy jogged along a well worn path at
settled in for an evening alone. she picked up the phone and called her mother ruth who lived way off in nashville, tennessee. she was an amazing daughter who still called her mom every day. reporter: ruth was 83. the call, a nightly ritual. and then at 8 pm, the oddest thing. the line went dead. but not before ruth heard something rather terrifying. ruth tried to call back. nothing. and there she was, so far away, and now worried. so she decided to call the sheriff s department, whose headquarters is here in downtown prescott. sheriff s office, maria. how can i help you? ah, yes. my name is ruth kennedy and i m calling from nashville, tennessee. i was on the phone with my daughter and she screamed and said, oh no and the phone s gone dead. and is there anything you can do? can you go check? reporter: oh no.