of 1992, krystyna was four months pregnant with roger s baby. when did you learn that krystyna was actually pregnant? that was the sunday right before roger s death, maybe three days. prosecutor lewis told the jury this was motive with a capital m. beverly, the 54-year-old girlfriend, desperately afraid that this dramatic development would end her life with roger. indeed, prosecutors showed the jury an unsigned contract detailing how roger would support krystyna and the baby and possibly even live with them. there s a baby now. this is real. we ve got to deal with this. it s not going to go away. now it was time for the defense, and beverly s attorneys had a bold, if risky, strategy that would put roger himself on trial. the defense hoped to prove that
himself and that it appeared the gun had been wiped clean, meaning this wasn t suicide, but murder. and that wasn t all. she was the prime suspect. the man accused me of murder. he accused me of killing somebody i love. detective riley suggested the state might be lenient if she cooperated, and he drafted a statement for beverly in which she seems to admit being there when roger died. it said in part, a noise made me jump. i don t recall getting up. i recall standing over roger, who was on the sofa, and seeing the gun. i kept telling him, you know, that s not possible. it s not true. but beverly says, she felt trapped. he says, if you make me be your enemy, i can make sure that nobody will ever believe you. i can make you out to be the black spider woman of all time. she was so intimidated, beverly says, she signed the statement, even though she says it wasn t true.
northup. he filed a lawsuit in federal court. in april of 1999, a federal judge agreed to hear beverly s case. what would the judge decide? beverly waited in prison, and her daughter katie, now a mother herself, had to wait as well. does your son know his grandmother? yes, yes. we take him out every other week to visit. she s his mimi. he has a name for the prison, doesn t he? mimi s house. yeah. ten years after the saga began, the waiting came to an end. a judge ruled beverly monroe had not received a fair trial and ordered her to be released from prison. when beverly left jail, she d served seven years and was 64 years old. it s impossible to explain after waiting a decade. you know, for some relief from this.
paintings was suspicious. roger aged them in the rain on the roof. and certain statues roger donated to his daughter s college were fake. he had hired a local artist to copy them. who created that piece? i did. defense attorneys also raised questions about roger s daughter karina, who had a rocky relationship with her father and reportedly wasn t happy he was having another child. and they speculated about those who were possibly hurt by what they called roger s ruthless real estate deals as well as the men whose wives roger had seduced. and then there was krystyna drewnowska. he was in a jam with krystyna, and he didn t know what to do. this was a week before his death. remember that unsigned contract spelling out how the baby would be supported? beverly says krystyna was pressuring roger to make the deal, but he was resisting. it didn t get signed. he didn t want to sign it.
and that s how she kills him. and that s how she kills him. what s more, there was no suicide note. out of character, suggests lewis, for someone as flamboyant was roger burde. he was an ego maniac. if he committed suicide, he would probably have left a 100-page letter to the world. there s just no way. he wouldn t have killed himself like this? he wouldn t have killed himself, period. prosecutors not only needed to prove roger burde had been murdered, but that beverly monroe was the killer. but the state didn t have any physical evidence tying beverly to the crime, and the polygraph results were inadmissible. nevertheless, prosecutors did have what they considered convincing evidence, beverly s own statements to detective riley. the jury and those in the courtroom heard the taped interrogation, and riley testified that beverly had admitted twice that she d been there when roger died. she said, i remember standing over him and looking down and