what angela when through during the murder. you didn t know angela? i didn t. reporter: a few days later, the detectives went to the school where cyndi was a substitute teacher. 3rd grade that day. we met with her privately in an office at the school i showed her that i had the arrest warrant for her for bein part of the homicide with angila. how d she take it? she really didn t respond. she didn t cry. she didn t make any statements. reporter: oh but she would. such a surprise on the way. coming up. cyndi says she was just bragging. a handful of things in that conversation are somewhat true, but for the most part it s false and extremely exaggerated. reporter: but will anyone believe her? that was kind of a shocker in the courtroom that day, in fact, wasn t it? . when daetline continues.
hang out. she seemed to jump at the opportunity. reporter: but nervous? oh yes. investigators set up a secret meeting at this hotel. there were four detectives sitting there and that s when it kinda hit me. like, holy, holy cow, this is for real. reporter: but how to do it without spooking her? the detectives had an idea. one of our options was to have a hotel room which we had audio and video wired and we were gonna be in the room next to it. reporter: but matt was engaged to a girl in denver. i said, naw, that s not gonna happen. there s only one reason you go to a hotel room and i m like, we re, y know, not doing that. reporter: so they considered hiding the wire on his body. matt didn t like that, either. cyndi was very careful and paranoid. and i just gathered that if they put a wire on me and we started talking about this stuff, there was a chance that she would wanna search me.
Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline 20210828 09:53:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
bad, gut feeling from conversations that he had with cyndi that there was more to this. reporter: so detectives took the next step. they enlisted him as a confidential informant and gave him a name ci-17-001. i mean what s it like to be a confidential informant? during the time it was kinda cool. it was kinda like what you see on tv. reporter: the arrangements, however, were a little daunting. they came out and they asked me if i would be willing to come up there and wear a wire. what was it like to hear that? i was kind of stunned and dumbfounded for a second. and y know after a second of thought, if she was involved y know the right thing was to go up there and help em. reporter: careful. you can never know, when you set a trap, exactly what you ll catch. test, test, test. i m almost there. reporter: coming up. cyndi stays silent. until all of a sudden, it happens.
and suggested richie was somehow set up. i think there s reasonable doubt here and i ask that you find richie wilder not guilty. reporter: and the jury went out. and returned in less than an hour. i ve had simple theft cases that have taken longer to decide than this case did. we the jury find the defendant, richie edwin wilder jr., guilty of the crime of murder. reporter: guilty. richie s wife, cyndi, dissolved in tears in the courtroom. and then again later, in the hallway. he s a good man, he s a good husband. he would never do anything that would hurt his kids. none of it makes any sense to me at all. i know that i was home that night. i got up on a couple occasions with my kids. when i got up, he was at home. reporter: sad. still so loyal. still clinging to that