this plan i had, you know, he planned on killing his wife. he planned on having a relationship with kelli, blah, blah, blah. none of that s true. so what is true? is tom richardson a cold-hearted killer or just a broken-hearted husband? i was with juanita since 1981. and when you lose somebody like that, it s like you have this big hole in the side of you. and nothing will ever replace that. it would now be up to the jury to decide his fate. coming up a dramatic demonstration as jurors try to figure out what caused that mysterious bruise on juanita s leg. everybody was at the same point in thinking that oh, my god, that s probably exactly what happened.
and i believed him. shortly after juanita died, tom showed up at kelli s house with another gift, a plant from juanita s memorial service. he didn t tell you why he was giving you the plant? no. but it meant something to you, didn t it, that plant? no, not really. juanita s sister jeannette thinks it means a lot. what kind of a girl would if she knew where it came from, would accept a gift like that? i think that is a disgrace to my sister. whatever had been going on between tom and kelli ended after that visit. with juanita dead only a month, tom started asking friends to fix him up. we always said tom was pretty much our best witness throughout this whole investigation. tom could not keep his mouth shut. so herweyer had an idea. he d arrange to set tom up with a new woman who also happened to be a michigan state trooper. that worked.
2:00 in the morning. that s not a few hours. okay, what is it, less than 24. it s a long time when you re in shock, you re being traumatized. it s a pretty short time to tell three different stories. not when you ve been going through mental blocking and then you re starting to get recall and you got some guy that you feel is trying to brainwash you into the fact that your wife s just committed suicide or possibly committed suicide. and what about kelli brophy, tom s so-called prayer pal that the prosecutor branded as his amber frey? so people who think that you were envisioning some possible relationship with kelli after your wife died, just overly suspicious? just wrong. i was not planning on killing my wife. my wife and i were getting along as good as we ever got along, and there was no plan. they ve tried to paint that into
once said to him about her requirements for a husband. you said wanted someone who had a relationship with god, who wasn t a smoker or a drinker and who didn t have a living ex-spouse. right. and tom had a question for kelli. juanita s sick and when she dies, will you wait for me? i said yeah. i m not going nowhere. that s what a friend would do, a friend would stand beside him no matter what. these two friends talked on the phone a lot, but a single call may be the key to all of this. tom called kelli from pictured rocks on his cell phone on june 21st, 2006, the night before juanita s death. they spoke for 13 minutes. what did you guys talk about in that call? nothing. if i remember right, i was in bed sleeping, and i just listened. i don t know if he was plotting something. i don t know i don t know anything. all i just know is that he told me what he wanted me to know.
i do. fbi financial expert bill vos did the math for the jury. there was four different life insurance policy, life annuity types of policies. for a total of how much? roughly $243,000. and would that have been sufficient to retire the debt? they had a total debt of roughly $235,000. miss brophy, would you come forward. financially secure, she said, tom might then be able to pursue 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