believe, i also want you to know i have found it in my heart to forgive you. and then james got his sentence. the murder charge you are sentenced to life in prison. life without parole, ever. afterwards, the little girl in the middle of the family drama turned to melissa with a remarkable request. alyssa asked to meet with james. and was ushered in to see him before he was whisked way. i told him that i decided to forgive him and that i wanted him to have hope. and she wept then. tears of forgiveness. of lingering grief for her father. and as for melissa? after the trial, she told us, she was ready to move on. where will you keep ben? he will always be in my heart. he will never be forgotten war, but we do have to go on.
brandi was hearing that from her mother, don, who she could see was drinking too much, getting duis, spending a few nights in jail. they started getting arrested, james and john both, we are finding reasons to be taken to jail. and while they had james, they asked him point blank about the murder of ben. you think i called jet ben? no. did don kill? ben. no were you involved in the plotting or murder of ben? no. i m looking you in the eyes. i did not kill him. that was it. lots of denials, no real evidence. a year and a half had gone by since the murder, it was the summer of 2009. we re in cold case territory. getting there. then one afternoon, as the detective was recovering from a night in the graveyard shift, his cell phone rang.
it was don. she said that she can take it anymore. what did you think when she called? that it was. time he drove her to her house, she was inebriated. i m hurting. but she had quite a story to tell about james. about how he offered to murder been. the night ben died, he said, now or never. and i said no. i said not today, don t do it no. i said no. i said no. no, no, no, no, no. hours later, she, said james walker up from a sound sleep and told heard ben was dead. but that, she said, was all he told her. all she knew. but you re pretty confident that james of something to do with it? i don t know. but was that really all she knew? don remember had a 16 year old son named devin who, detectives learned, was at home
now. you have to understand, ben was a good guy. they had their problems, everybody loved him. he didn t deserve to die. so for the time being, it is a he said, she said story. and the da s deal with don? to the dismay of james matlean attorney, may mean that she may never face a murder job. the prosecutor made a deal with the devil, now he ll have to short how far and how she is. deal with the double? well, the da said without john s testimony at the preliminary hearing, a murder charge against james wind of stock. but don wasn t totally off the hook, because there was one possibility still. if the da could find hard evidence that dom lied when she was given that get out of jail free card for implicating james
dawn s sun? he finally decided to reveal what he overheard the night of the murder. my mom was like, i want them to die. i just want him dead. yadda yadda. and then james cede james said i would go kill him right now. you just say the word, i ll go kill him. she was like a broken record. i want him dead. i want him dead. sound like a woman who was shocked the murder happened? but there was more. it was after that when james matlean told his attorney it was time to tell the whole story. i could tell he was telling the truth. over the course of 15 months, i was told the same story. so now comes another story. james is story. not a love story this time. nobody could believe it that i did what i did. i ve never been a violent person. james matlean did not have an easy star in love life. by the time he was a teenager he was drinking, doing drugs, stealing things. i had pretty much given up any hope on continuing