reporter: cara ryan s defense was well underway even before the opening statements began. the strategy, at least. attorney rodger futerman, remember, had put cara through a couple of mock trials, and discovered the majority of women convicted her, and the majority of men didn t, and the women s rationale was all emotionally based. they wanted to hear much more emotion in her. they want to hear her crying. and this client is not like that? that s not her. it s just not how she is. reporter: so futerman worked hard to ensure there were mostly males in the jury. in florida, 2nd degree murder cases have six person juries, and he succeeded. five of the six were men. we believed the men wouldn t be focused on the emotion, but more on the facts. what else did you look for in the jury? gun owners. people that were not afraid to shoot someone if they came into their house unannounced, and almost every one of our jurors had a gun, and was not afraid to use it.
he raped you? reporter: more evidence soon after the murder police asked jj s daughter meghan to call cara. they recorded the call, it too was played for the jury. why did you shoot him though? i didn t know if it was him coming back to kill me like he said he would or if it was a stranger coming in and that s what he said if anyone came in the house unannounced to shoot to kill. the monotone, the you know, the lack of sympathy. how are you doing? horrible. i m sorry. i don t know what to say. she s talking to the daughter of the man she just shot and killed. reporter: the jury also saw these selfies from cara s phone, taken three days after the shooting. she just killed her lover of so many years and here she is out drinking. it seemed very odd.
from miss ryan i didn t think they were gonna charge her. reporter: but, you know, from the defendant the facts are always a little different. i believed her. she seemed very believable. reporter: cara and her attorney waited to see what would come next. and meanwhile, detectives continued their investigation. one thing that struck them was the reaction of j.j. s family and friends. daughter, meghan. i said, was it her? and they said, was it who? i said, was it cara? and they said, yes. and my whole world crumbled. reporter: girlfriend, lonnie lancto. my very first words were, it was a set up. she set him up. reporter: j.j. s older brothers rick and bill rush. i told him to take the guns out of the house, cause that s how much i did not trust her. my first words were, that bitch. right out of my mouth without even hesitation, because i knew in my heart that this was not gonna be an accident. reporter: strong words.
rape. while cara was at the rape crisis center, the detectives received new information from the crime scene such as first responders believed the house lights had pretty much all been on when whatever happened happened. remember, cara said it was dark in the house. but once we gathered a little bit more evidence from the detectives working the crime scene, then we did get definitely more pointed in our questions and more direct. and then something odd happened. cara changed her story. remember, she told 911, my ex-husband raped me. i shot him. but now she said she didn t know who was coming into the house. somebody was in my home, whether it was jay or jack the ripper, i was scared. somebody came in the house unannounced. it could have been j.j., or it could have been jack the ripper? really? i mean what did you think of that? she thought her story, you
neighborhood chatter carried on a cooling ocean breeze. there was a moon, almost full. cara ryan was in bed all alone in a small, darkened room. and then fear searing as a heart attack. the dogs. they were growling. that s one of the things that made me feel so scared. someone was coming into her house. the door crashed open. you said the lights were off. they were. was it so dark you couldn t actually make out who this person was? it happened so fast, and i was so afraid. she reached to the bedside table, opened the drawer, took out the gun, the one her ex-husband had given her, trained her to use. aim for the mask, he d always told her. aim for the chest. she heard the approaching footsteps from the front door to the bedroom. how many steps? like 20. and then the shape in the bedroom doorway.