had gary hilton managed to outsmart them all? would florida be able to make the case against him? four years after sheryl dunlap s death, it was finally going to trial. coming up your palms are sweat wri and your heart is beating. the dramatic case begins. how would it end? you could just see the jurors, i saw it in theirize, they knew. when with dateline continues. ing six miles at an amusement park. bill s back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl s kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. so you can move more. dr. scholl s. born to move. my mom washes the dishes. .before she puts them in the dishwasher.
but i have to forgive gary hilton. i have to. tabby, in the family it was a death case and the jury recommended the death penalty and that was the sentence. does it matter to you? we were pleased with the outcome, yes. like laura said, he s off the streets. he s not able to hurt anyone again. yes, i think it matters. and there are regrets on the part of the officers who investigated the hilton cases. could there have been one tip line that had come in sooner? could there have been one fragment of information we could have put together more quickly and spared her? there hasn t been a day go by since then i haven t thought about meredith emerson and what we could have or should have done differently. but, see, she really is the hero. she did the best could in hopes we could catch up. it was through her efforts we were able to catch her killer but also the killer that was responsible for the killing of sheryl dunlap. in georgia, for meredith emerson s closest friends, it s time
in the south, authority in florida were convinced he had murdered nurse and mother sheryl dunlap whose partial remains were recovered two weeks before meredith emerson went missing. hilton was defying authorities in georgia to make the charges stick. if they want to spend a million dollars, 2 million, to convict me and then another 2 million to get death, hey, they can do it. leon county florida state s attorney willie max had heard enough and indicted had hilton for the murder of sheryl dunlap. he s gone away for life. he ll be leaving georgia corrections in a pine box. why does florida need to go to the expense of a death penalty trial? my thought is this is an evil, bad person and there ought to be a consequence in life to evil acts. i don t think murderers ought to
its case was brief. lead attorney inez super-called only one witness. an expert on tool mark identification who testified by video p tape, arguing that the bayonet in evidence, could not in her opinion be determined to have been what was used to slash the victim s tire. subjective. it s based on the individual examiner s training and experience. the defense was trying to impeach the testimony of the state s expert who said hilton s bayonet had slashed sheryl dunlap s tire, and that was it for the defense. gary hilton declined to take the stand. do you wish to testify? no. one in 63 million in her closing argument, the prosecutor reminded the jury of those big number dna matches. what are the odds that somebody else s dna is on that sleeping bag other than sheryl dunlap s? 1 in 11 trillion caucasians.
from the dumpster outside atlanta where hilton was recovered. a georgia cop on blood mountain had found the bayonet wrestled away from gary hilton. now investigators in florida had a theory. what was interesting about that knife is, before we knew of mr. hilton, before he had killed ms. emerson and been caught, our analyst in our lab showed us, this is the style this is what the knife s going to look like. cameras and memory cards were found inside the van. the techie detectives in the fdle computer lab were working overtime trying to unscramble deleted material from the evidence. and deep in their dna lab more than 700 samples were being analyzed in an attempt to find some link between gary hilton and the late sheryl dunlap.