woman s tears, we sometimes yield to the urge to tell her what she most wants to hear, whether it s true or not. is that what jermeir stroud did? and did he unknowingly bring shannon crawley and denita smith together that dreadful day in 2007 when denita was murdered? now three years later two families filed into the durham county courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction, the other an acquittal. reporter john mccann covered the trial for the durham herald-sun. the tone was definitely, you know, somber. shannon s family here. you got denita s people on the other side. tense is a good word for it. reporter: especially tense for denita s mother, sharon, who for the first time made eye
the woman who owned an suv similar in model and color to the one seen leaving the crime scene with a distraught woman behind the wheel. so if the maintenance guy doesn t see the burgundy suv, then you never ask jermeir about the burgundy suv. exactly. i ve wouldn t have went to greensboro looking for a suspect when durham has plenty of people here. reporter: so the day after the murder, detective pate headed westbound on interstate 40, anxious to speak with shannon crawley, the other woman in jermeir stroud s life. by now, shannon s parents, her father keith and her mother anne, were shocked to hear their daughter was about to be interviewed by police. she was a responsible single mom who lived quietly, raising her children. being a young mother, you know, she worked six months straight, 12-hour shifts, to buy
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
sofi thank you, we love you. welcome back, they had managed to keep the affair hidden from his fiance, danita, now, they had uncovered evidence against shannon. there was the gunshot residue in her car, an alibi that did not check out and a potential motive. it was enough to arrest shannon and a day later, it was time for
reasons why. i m not going to do it just because she says she didn t do it. reporter: shannon and her attorney were emphatic that jermeir was the killer and also said that even now, months after the murder, he was making threatening phones calls to shannon, telling her to stay silent about his role. i told them that i m more than willing to look at anything they have if they want to bring me something. but i can t just accept her word for it. that s the problem i m having, i need some kind of proof to back her up. reporter: so the prosecutor challenged shannon, bring me proof. he could not have imagined what was coming next. sex. lies. and audiotape. and maybe shannon crawley s ticket to freedom. a killer conversation. i spent four months in jail because of you, because you lied. i told you to shut the [ bleep ] up. now says shannon s father