a heated conversation about ben oxley. james asking dawn if she wants to have him killed? but that s where the stories diverge. dawn, remember, says she told james, no, don t do it and fell asleep on the couch. but that s not james macklian s story. she was ecstatic about what was happening. she was happy that i was going to kill somebody. reporter: it was after midnight. dawn drew him a diagram of ben s house so he could find his way to the bedroom. then he went to the 7-eleven. and drew $40 out of the atm and then they went to the walmart. dawn waited in the car while james did the shopping, shotgun shells, gloves, a flashlight. she was just very happy about it. like you would imagine a kid going to disneyland, you know? reporter: but there was a problem. they d forgotten to bring the diagram. the plan wasn t for dawn to
that, said cindy, didn t seem to want to act like a parent anymore. she met a guy and she would stay the night at his house. i mean, when her kids are calling us up saying we don t have any food in the house, can you come and bring us food, there s a problem. reporter: and so when dawn and ben went to court to fight for custody of alyssa, cindy had to tell the truth. i told the judge that dawn wasn t taking care of her kids anymore. they weren t a priority. they weren t even number five. reporter: when ben won custody of alyssa and more than $200 a month in child support, dawn was devastated. this is her mother, sherry rosten, a retired deputy sheriff. she would sit in the garage and just bawl about not about not getting her day in court. this was eating her alive? yeah. it was really taking its toll on her. reporter: dawn started drinking heavily.