shooting was murder. i believe the story that mr. salas gave is consistent with the evidence found at the scene. in other words, he thought it was suicide so what happened in that moment after midnight? how would a juror decide? upon reaching a verdict you will inform the bailiff who will in turn notify me. kusa s dan grossman settled in for a long wait. this is almost a three-week trial. you thought you were coming back to hear the verdict. but, no. less than four hours later a verdict. we the jury find the defendant not guilty of murder of second degree signed by the jury foreperson. not guilty. not murder. after four long years of living under a cloud of suspicion, tom was acquitted of all charges. he stayed straight faced.
done a little man skapg to spice up his marriage. he had texts and photos to prove it. there s tom salas when he has hair on his chest all the way to the left and on december 17th, 2011, he texted ashley. there you have it. you get your way so here it is. thought you might like it. so the scratches, said the defense, were because it was itchy, that s all. as for the so-called witnesses of self-defense, totally unreliable. the one changed her story on the stand and the other? just months after the shooting young nick glover went camping, of all things, with tom, the very man he said he heard confess to shooting ashley salas. at no time during the camping trip with tom salas did you ever tell anybody that you were uncomfortable being there with tom? i do not recall. who to believe?
for example, it wasn t one but two prosecution crime scene analysts. this one you ve already heard believed it was murder but this one most people that shoot somebody in an act of rage, they don t stop with one shot. dan gillum was the crime scene investigator from ashley s death. using a defense attorney about the same height as ashley. it showed how difficult it would have been for someone as tall as tom to shoot someone. is that an unnatural position for another person to be holding the gun in that manner? it is for me. okay. and mr. salas is 6 feet tall? . how tall are you? i m 6 feet tall as well. the gun was ashley s. it was within six feet of where it s usually stored. after examining all of the ballistic and spatter evidence, gillum didn t believe the
what did you know of ashley having a mental illness. i knew that she was on medications. we spoke pretty in depth about that. but even with medications, the friend testified, ashley had trouble controlling her emotions. what kind of mental health issues did you observe ashley salas to be going through? depression, mood swings, impulsive behaviors. in fact, the defense argued ashley was so depressed the summer before she died she wrote this letter to tom. i have so much pain on the inside i can no longer take it. i m sorry to do this to you and the kids, but i find myself not even liking my children. every day is a chore with them and you. i have to pretend to be happy. i have to pretend to be someone i am not. please make sure you raise the kids to continue to go to the school we have chosen. i do love them. i just can t take this life any
longer. please make sure you let them know every day that i do love them and this was not their fault. suicide expert dr. michael allen studied the letter as well as ashley s medical records and testified about his review. do you have an opinion in this case about whether or not ashley salas was at high risk to commit suicide on january 1st, 2012? yes. my opinion is that she had many, many risk factors and warning signs. remember, detectives had learned years before that ashley had a family history of suicide. both her maternal uncle and her grandmother took their own lives. that, said dr. allen, put ashley at a higher risk for doing the same thing. two close family members who had died by suicide would suggest a get this particular propensity for suicide. the defense argued that on new year s eve, 2011, it was the