herweyer learned juanita s insurance policies would net tom nearly a quarter of a million dollars. that wouldn t make him rich, but it would free him from the pile of debt they d wracked up building that expensive new home. and a tip led investigators to another possible motive. her name, kelli brophy. she worked at a convenience store on tom s fedex route. he spent a lot of time with kelli brophy. do you think they had an affair? yes, i do. kelli says it never happened. did you have an affair with tom richardson? no. did you think he was cute? didn t give it a thought. kelli says she and tom were just close friends who talked on the phone while they both worked at night. and what would you guys talk about during these calls? usually bible studies. if true, there was a lot of bible study going on. investigators learned they talked on the phone 383 times in less than ten months.
that murky relationship with kelli brophy, who on the stand walked a narrow line between defending tom and helping the prosecution. did he indicate also that he wanted to take care of you? yes, i think that was brought up. and did you find that concept appealing? yes. she didn t want to testify at all and only came here under subpoena, still denying she and tom ever had an affair. do you recall telling the investigators that tom had asked you that if you weren t married, if you two could date? date? i don t recall date. what do you recall him asking? just if i d wait for him. kelli had agreed to wait. the insurance payout was a given, but according to prosecutors, tom s plan for his post-juanita life had one problem. juanita didn t have a will. would you come forward? so six days before their vacation, tom had a meeting with an attorney.
kelli brophy, the life insurance, and tom richardson s three different tales of how juanita died. we had three uniformed troopers approach him first to arrest him. it came on february 6th, 2007. the charge? first-degree murder. but with only circumstantial evidence, could the prosecutor make the charge stick? coming up a husband on trial as prosecutors present disturbing pictures from a not-so-perfect marriage. i ve heard him call her a dumb b-i-t-c-h. he always acted like he just despised her. but was that a motive for murder? you and me and the big old tree side by side, one, two, three count the birds in the big old tree la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales.
financial plan was the prosecution s fantasy, what about that other woman, kelli brophy? it was the prosecutor s number one motive to support her motive of the case. what was the evidence? there wasn t any, zero. did you ever have sex with tom? no. did you ever kiss him? no. ever hold hands? no. did he ever tell you that he was going to leave his wife for you? no. as for that mysterious double bruise on juanita s thigh, newmanen had an explanation. it came not from tom but from juanita s fall. under cross-examination, the coroner himself conceded that was possible. but that injury certainly, there s a possibility it could occur during the fall. could you tell us your name? for tom s case, the defense had three star witnesses who knew tom better than anyone, his kids. just describe your dad for us, if you could. my dad is a very honest and trustworthy person. he had such good morals. how valuable were the kids?
if i m calling somebody 383 times, one of us thinks something s going on. but i didn t. i just was a friend, just being a friend. was kelli just a friend? she d tell investigators she believed tom was innocent, but then she d keep talking to them for hours. i compared kelli brophy to wringing water out of a dish rag. we would gain a little more each time we interviewed her. like when kelli told them that tom had given her a pair of earrings for christmas and then the revelation that shocked investigators. tom had also told kelli that juanita would soon be dead. tom told you that his wife wouldn t be alive by christmas? right. he told you juanita had cancer. yes. i believe that he thought she had cancer. juanita had found a lump in her breast, but there was no cancer. was tom telling the truth to kelli, and if not, why would he lie? maybe because of something kelli