was his right, declined to testify when he went on trial for killing shelley nance. so he did not himself point at nathan and accuse him of committing the murder. but of course he didn t have to. his attorney did it for him. it was not a surprise to prosecutor dewey mitchell. they said it could ve been nathan, and it could ve been a random person, and that by the time the state s done with its case, you re not gonna be able to know who did this crime. they just don t have evidence. i think it was a pretty good strategy. reporter: yeah. i think it was the only strategy. you know, this wasn t a self-defense case and it wasn t an insanity case. so it had to be somebody else. reporter: well, it makes sense. i mean, again, did you have blood? no. do you have dna? no. what they had in their pocket, my star witness is, is the boyfriend who we we knew the girlfriend was thinking
when all these facts comes together, there s no other suspect. and the reason that shelley was killed is because she stood in the way of a romantic rendezvous that he so desperately wanted with nathan. reporter: on november 4, 2009, eight weeks after shelley s murder, they arrested daniel willyam. the arrest was, for shelley s family, a double-edged thing. they were relieved, of course. but until then, the police had not told them that shelley had been stabbed 42 times. oh, my god. i almost passed out. 42 exact. and i just thought, oh my god reporter: prosecutor dewey mitchell got the case then, and right away could see the problem. this was a circumstantial case, in which the accused would likely say, the other guy did it. especially in a case like this. reporter: so he sent out his investigator, hoyt hoffman, to second guess the police. you have to make sure that no
the day that daniel purchased those gloves. reporter: that was huge real evidence linking daniel to the crime scene. when all these facts comes together, there s no other suspect. and the reason that shelley was killed is because she stood in the way of a romantic rendezvous that he so desperately wanted with nathan. reporter: on november 4, 2009, eight weeks after shelley s murder, they arrested daniel willyam. the arrest was, for shelley s family, a double-edged thing. they were relieved, of course. but until then, the police had not told them that shelley had been stabbed 42 times. oh, my god. i almost passed out. 42 exact. and i just thought, oh my god reporter: prosecutor dewey mitchell got the case then, and right away could see the problem. this was a circumstantial case, in which the accused would
reporter: daniel willyam, as was his right, declined to testify when he went on trial for killing shelley nance. so he did not himself point at nathan and accuse him of committing the murder. but of course he didn t have to. his attorney did it for him. it was not a surprise to prosecutor dewey mitchell. they said it could ve been nathan, and it could ve been a random person, and that by the time the state s done with its case, you re not gonna be able to know who did this crime. they just don t have evidence. i think it was a pretty good strategy. reporter: yeah. i think it was the only strategy. you know, this wasn t a self-defense case and it wasn t an insanity case. so it had to be somebody else. reporter: well, it makes sense. i mean, again, did you have blood? no. do you have dna? no. what they had in their pocket, my star witness is, is the boyfriend who we we knew the girlfriend was thinking
family, a double-edged thing. they were relieved, of course. but until then, the police had not told them that shelley had been stabbed 42 times. oh, my god. i almost passed out. 42 exact. and i just thought, oh my god reporter: prosecutor dewey mitchell got the case then, and right away could see the problem. this was a circumstantial case, in which the accused would likely say, the other guy did it. especially in a case like this. reporter: so he sent out his investigator, hoyt hoffman, to second guess the police. you have to make sure that no stone is left unturned. reporter: and then, they strategized we spent i would say half of or more of our time actually working it the other way, saying, okay, well, let s say that the other person did it. nathan. nathan. let s say nathan did it. or let s say ashley did it, and and let s look at the