gil. and when she found out, she confronted him. i was absolutely furious. reporter: what d you say to him? i just screamed at him, like, who the hell do you think you are? why would you do this? reporter: very, very devious. very, very. reporter: according to linda, gil cried, said he only did it because he felt tom should know the truth. she said he begged for forgiveness, and even threatened to harm himself. tom felt bad that he felt suicidal. he, you know, tom was that kind of guy. you know? i know this is a really crazy situation we re in, but i m not going to let him kill himself over it. like, we ll work this out somehow, you know? reporter: linda says she was still worried that gil was suicidal and that s why she decided to postpone telling him the affair was over until after the holidays. she seemed sincere, but investigators had to wonder if linda and gil had plotted together to get rid of tom.
and he told the jury, one more important detail. the s-u-v in the video had a fog light defect, one that cast a distinct headlight pattern. what we re seeing from this vehicle is that it has this white light that is on the ground that moves in front of the vehicle. reporter: detectives tracked down gil s white s-u-v which he sold a few weeks after tom s death and placed it along the same route seen in the security footage. and sure enough, when we went out to the scene then when we did our tests, we turned the lights on and there was the pattern that was quite visible. reporter: gil s car had the same defect visible in the video. prosecutors thought it was just what they needed to place gil at the crime scene and tie all their evidence together. that was a unique feature to that vehicle. and it was still exactly the same a year later. i have yet to find another nissan pathfinder, color white,
yeah. and i loved them both. we d say, well, you know, we don t have to decide tomorrow. we have to just take some time and figure this out, you know? reporter: linda says tom didn t pressure her to end the affair. to the contrary, he gave her the time and freedom to continue seeing gil and sort out her feelings. you re just living in almost two different lives. yeah. but they ve intersected. i had a real life and then i had fantasy life, basically. reporter: but everyone in the triangle knew it couldn t last. linda had to make a choice, gil or tom. and a few weeks before tom s death, she did. coming up. her husband or her lover? he threw me on the bed. who would linda choose?
whether he murdered someone? absolutely not. why are you so sure that there s not a darker side to gilberto nuñez? i m not sure about anything. i think there s a darker side to all of us. people are complex. but there s absolutely no evidence that the guy committed murder. reporter: in court, gilberto was represented by two heavy hitters from new york city, evan lipton and gerald shargel who had previously defended mafia boss john gotti. they argued that the prosecution s case against their client was pure fantasy. they say that gil is such a schemer, but the plot they ve described here, it s like something out of a bad lifetime movie. reporter: the defense said if anyone was manipulating things it wasn t gil. it was linda. they read her texts to gil sent the very weekend she said she was rekindling her relationship with tom. i love you, i miss you. miss holding your hand. that soft spot scar on your face. mwah mwah mwah.
two of them that they would all that tom kolman would allow the sexual relationship to continue between his wife and nunez? reporter: did you have to think of the scenario that maybe linda wanted tom out of the way so she could be with gilberto? no question. that was top on the priority list. reporter: and the first question for investigators did linda or gil drive a white suv? detectives knew that linda didn t. but gil did. he drove a white nissan pathfinder. i mean, there are a million white suvs out there. sure. reporter: once you think about it and you start looking, they re everywhere. oh, absolutely. reporter: a coincidence, but a suspicious one. detectives were also remembering how gil showed up at the scene of tom s death to console linda, and his reaction struck them as odd. it was described as that he was hysterical, almost jumping up and down like a pogo stick. very dramatic. not a common reaction that you