uh-huh. he went to a massage parlor, a bar and a couple of strip clubs. try as he might, he never found a hookup. there wasn t anyone available or interested or however you want to put it. after last call, he went to the river to watch the boats before returning to the hotel to catch some shut-eye. as for why he lied to the police i was embarrassed and ashamed what i was doing the night my wife died. i loved my wife. did you burn the house down, keith? no. did you kill those dogs? no. i loved those dogs. whi didn t know if he d get acquitted. i didn t think he d get convicted. i thought it would be a hung jury. after six hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. i m going to declare a mistrial at this time. keith would sit in jail
it does. that wouldn t look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. were you no longer wavering at this woint, aaron? had you come down on the side of oh, my god, my father killed my mother. yeah. aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. if he was guilty it s time to man up and do what you should have done two years ago. keith s defense attorneys went to the prosecutors to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. moments later, keith was standing in a paducah courtroom speaking the words his family and friends never in a million years thought they d hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. there s no excuse for what i did. i can t take it back. she was my best friend and i don t know what happened to me. but i did it. there s nothing i can do about it. temple bradley who works near the courthouse, was there.
they quickly discovered how much they had in common. he talked about both his sons and i think being a grandpa. so i just really connected, because i had grown kids, too. reporter: after several dates, deanna says, keith expressed interest in a relationship, but she wanted to keep it just-friends. they stayed in touch but didn t see each other for awhile. then, just a few months back, he sent her a flirty text message. the text just said, did you cast a spell on me? and i m like, i looked down at my phone, i m like, what? he says, well, i was in a party last night, and this woman was chattin me up. he goes, and all all i could think about was you. reporter: deanna, who was in the throes of a traumatic romantic break-up, agreed to start seeing him again for dinners. and, she says, he seemed excited to show off the new post-surgery keith. he goes you re not gonna recognize me. and he goes, i ve lost over 100 pounds. and i said, you have? reporter: did he look
i mean, you know, that s kind of what friends do for each other. okay. and i hope to god that this problem is not his. reporter: but eventually, without giving details, the detective revealed julie s death was no accident. the investigation is showing that, that foul play is involved. okay. i do not believe at this point in time that this was any kind of an accident. i m going to ask for your cooperation on, on several things. okay? okay. reporter: one of the first things detective carter asked about was how keith and julie were getting along. any problems at all that y all had or anything like that whatsoever? no. she s my best friend. okay. i mean, i know i mean that woman loved everybody. reporter: the investigator also asked keith for details about his business trip to indiana. didn t leave the hotel? i did leave the hotel, about 11:00 i went and got something to drink.
reporter: as for the why question, how could keith, a man who by all accounts loved his wife, actually do it? the prosecutor turned to two age old motives. almost every case involving a husband and a wife, it s lust and greed. one or the other, and this one had both. reporter: the lust part of the equation, he said, was deanna. she took the stand and told the jury that not only was keith house hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to paducah for a concert and introduce her to his family. i d love for you to come for the weekend, stay for the weekend. we ll go to the concert and i would really like for you to meet my dad. reporter: as for the greed part, that was life insurance money, two policies on julie s life worth $250,000. one of them, the prosecutor said, had taken effect just eight days before julie died. keith griffith got to the point in his life he just wanted to start something new. and he didn t wanna give julie