MSNBC Dateline May 17, 2020 09:23:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
but there s always more than one side to a story. defense attorney dariel weaver told the jury that when she read carefully through all the prosecution material, here s what jumped right out at her. when you take a good hard look at their evidence, when you see that they ve interpreted the evidence to fit the conclusion that they drew in the first 12 hours of this case, you see that all it is is assumptions and suppositions and cut corners. reporter: but, said the defense, if the jury looked at facts and not assumptions, they d see ralph s story about what happened to pam had to be true. remember those two men fingered as possible killers? they had records, drug offenses, burglaries.
motives for murder they d ever heard. so his religious beliefs were more important than somebody else s life? ralph candelario s life was more important than anyone else s life. reporter: so the jury got the case. and they worked till the end of the day and then through a second and then a third. tick tock. whether they convict him or they don t is going to be a different set of emotions. reporter: and then in the middle of the third day we the jury find the defendant, ralph leroy candelario, guilty of count number one of first degree murder. reporter: guilty. but the end of ralph s story? oh, no. on the day set aside for his sentencing ralph decided the plot needed one more twist. the jail issued him a safety razor to clean up for court. ralph used it to slash his wrists and throat. his own son was not sympathetic.
she walks in on a burglary. burglaries aren t uncommon in walsenburg especially with all the drugs around. reporter: then, said the defense, one of the bad guys saw pam and he hits pam in the head hard. he s standing there in the kitchen, fire poker in his hand, wondering what to do. reporter: the robbers must have thought pam and ralph had already left on vacation. this family was supposed to be gone. that was the talk around town. reporter: so, for the jury it came down to whose story to believe. prosecutors said the police cleared those suspects right back at the beginning. but nothing could clear ralph. and nothing could soften a truly shocking allegation ralph murdered pam because divorce would get him disfellowshipped, cast out, from his church. pam wasn t leaving. and so he had only one option left. reporter: if he became a widower, he d be free to marry again. it was, said the prosecutors, one of the more disturbing
with these stories, can be transformational. it s my own thing that i can do for me. see what listening to audible can do for you. just text listen5 to 500500. welcome back to dateline extra. i m tamron hall. it s a grand name perhaps for a weekly paper in an out of the way little town, the world journal. but then walsenberg was a thriving coal mines offered endless promise. now antique stores like pam and ralphs filled the gaps left behind by departing commerce. i think in all small towns, you see, maybe a degree of selling the heritage because there s nothing else left to sell. so no surprise said eric mullens of the world journal.