you are basically consenting to the authorities from nebraska to take you back to that state to deal with these charges. do you understand that? absolutely understand. i m not going to answer any questions with regards to his state of mind at this point. the mottas brought in bob s father, robert motta sr. as co-counsel. back in the 70s, the senior motta represented a clown-turned-serial-killer named john wayne gacy. i had never tried a case with my dad, and he s toward the end of his career, and he d always said to me, if you get a juicy murder, that give me a call. i ll try it with ya. and i called him half expecting him to be, like, nah, you know, i m too old. i don t want to do it. and he was onboard immediately, so this ended up being that case. that was that case, right. dr. anthony garcia insisted that he was innocent. but the mottas were concerned that extensive press coverage of the murders was giving potential jurors only one side of the story. they n
know. i m trying to defend somebody, and i m going to use everything in my arsenal. for lead attorney bob motta jr., that meant challenging or debunking everything jurors had heard from prosecutors for the past two weeks. there were so many inconsistencies with the way that they said that it went down that it just never came together for me that he was guilty. in a rare move, the defense team allowed dateline inside their private strategy sessions. we need to talk about our strategy on direct. that s all i wanted to know. it was a raucous group with alison motta shut the [ bleep ] up! serving as a passionate adviser. robert motta sr., the voice of experience. are we missing something? no. and local attorney jeremy jorgensen and an assortment of researchers sweating the details.
state of mind at this point. reporter: the mottas brought in bob s father, robert motta sr. as co-counsel. back in the 70s, the senior motta represented a clown-turned-serial-killer named john wayne gacy. i had never tried a case with my dad, and he s towards the end of his career and he d always said to me, if you get a juicy murder, that give me a call. i ll try it with ya. and i called him half expecting him to be, like, nah, you know, i m too old. i don t wanna do it. and he was onboard immediately, so this ended up being that case. that was that case, right. reporter: dr. anthony garcia insisted that he was innocent. but the mottas were concerned that extensive press coverage of the murders was giving potential jurors only one side of the story. they needed to hear that there were so many other people with means, motive, and opportunity that could have committed this crime that makes much more sense than somebody waiting 13 years to, you know, murder somebody th
you know, i m trying to defend somebody, and i m going to use everything in my arsenal. reporter: for lead attorney, bob motta jr., that meant challenging or debunking everything jurors had heard from prosecutors for the past two weeks. there were so many inconsistencies with the way that they said that it went down that it just never came together for me that he was guilty. reporter: in a rare move, the defense team allowed dateline inside their private strategy sessions. we need to talk about our strategy on direct. reporter: it was a raucous group with alison motta shut the [ bleep ] up! reporter: serving as a passionate advisor. robert motta sr., the voice of experience. are we missing something? reporter: and local attorney jeremy jorgenson and an assortment of researchers sweating the details. the team rented a home out in west omaha, not far from the dundee nieghborhood. it was there that they plotted strategy. the first order of business?
back. it was 2:00 a.m. california time when he got anthony garcia s brother on the phone. 30 minutes later, bob motta was retained to handle his first murder case. i go upstairs. i wake my wife up, who is my law partner, alison motta. and i m, like, we got a murder case. we gotta get up and go to jackson county. you gotta find a sitter for the kids. reporter: when anthony garcia s extradition hearing came up the next day, the mottas, mr. and mrs. were seated at the defense table. you are basically consenting to the authorities from nebraska to take you back to that state to deal with these charges. do you understand that? absolutely understand. i m not going to answer any questions with regards to his state of mind at this point. reporter: the mottas brought in bob s father, robert motta sr. as co-counsel. back in the 70s, the senior motta represented a clown-turned-serial-killer named john wayne gacy. i had never tried a case with my dad, and he s towards the end