welcome back. accused murder gaege bethune testified that he punched pravin varughese on the night that teenager went missing. gaege s lawyer argued that the injuries his client inflicted were not life threatening and pravin later froze to death due to his own poor judgment. the jury was about to do liberal deliver its verdict. then a surprise that would leave the courtroom stand. here s dennis murphy with the conclusion of at the edge of town . lovely and her family waited patiently inside the jackson county courthouse as a jury decided whether to find gaege bethune guilty of their son s murder. one hour turned into two. then six. then seven hours of deliberation. it was about 10:15, we were callback. the jury comes in. several of the jurors were visibly shaking and looked like
this, you need to leave the room right now. lovely assumed he meant gaege s family, but she was wrong. everybody in the courtroom was shocked. so, i ve been doing this over 30 years and it was the first time i ve ever had this happen. rather than sentencing gaege, the judge threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial. he ruled that the evidence had been sufficient to convict gaege, but the wording in the indictment might have confuse the jurors. so, gaege was a free man, for now. when i saw him walk out, and i got to put my arms around him and hold him, it was the most amazing feeling in the world. gaege s best friend says gaege couldn t wait to be reunited with his daughter. he just has these big old eyes, just jump straight into his arms. and it s one of those hallmark movie kind of things. not for lovely. she couldn t believe what had happened. i was shock. disgusted. and i felt like, how can you
reporter: after he got in his truck, he said gaege didn t seem to have a clue where he was going. he said they didn t really talk that much and drove around in circles. he was on the phone the majority of the time. trying to get cocaine off of somebody. gaege said he was nervous and wanted to get home. i was like, dude, i ve told you to get out of my vehicle ten times now. and then we start to get aggressive. reporter: gaege said he immediately pulled over and that s when he said things got ugly. he got out the vehicle, swung on me. self-defense, i moved back. dodged it. and then i hit him. then we roll down the hill, he was on top, i was on top. punches were exchanged. i do know for sure, the first hit, it hit him square in the face. reporter: maybe that would explain the bruise on pravin s forehead. i was scared for my life. i didn t know what he was capable of. definitely not my race. i m not used to being around that type of population. reporter: at that moment, h
him alive. what did you learn about him? at face value, typical southern illinois guy. middle class family. reporter: his name was gaege bethune. his mom penny was also a nurse. gaege was a very laid back, good kid, a lot of dreams and hope. reporter: penny says gaege fell story for pravin walking by in the cold. he didn t have a coat, and asked him for a ride, and gaege says. yes penny says gaege had no idea that pravin was missing until he saw the story on tv. he immediately went to his father and then they took care of things. the following is a statement taken from gaege he told police that he was upset when he found that pravin was missing. he seemed eager to tell detectives everything he knew. and he came up to my window and said, hey, can you give me a ride. and so i did. it s cold outside, nobody needs to be walking in this cold.
so 30 years of law enforcement work goes up in smoke. yes, that was pretty much the end of my career. the city says his dismissal was a confidential matter with nothing to do with litigation. but the chief says that he was the scapegoat for city under siege by provides family. what did you think of the investigation until that point? what i did think was it was a good investigation. there were a lot of conscientious people working hard. there was one other person that lovely sued. remember, a driver gave pravin a ride that night. he was the last person to see him alive. what did you learn about him? at face value, typical southern illinois guy. middle class family. his name was gaege bethune. his mom penny was also a nurse. gaege was a very laid back, good kid, a lot of dreams and hope. penny says gaege fell story