midnight, august 28th, 2009. oxnard, california. 911 emergency. the woman in full panic. what s the person look like that was in your backyard? you heard shots being fired? yes. my husband is outside. the woman on the phone was jane laut, the wife of the hometown hero. oh my god. dave was still outside, she said, where she heard shots fired. where did you last see your husband? he told me to get back in. so i came back in. and i heard the shots. how old is your son? don t wake him up just yet, okay? i can t see dave. stay with me. i have officers on the way. stay in the house.
jane laut. remember those clothes they found in the laundry room? when they tested them they found gunshot residue. so did jane shoot dave, then change into her pajamas before she called 911? and you ll remember, jane specifically mentioned a red flashlight. police bagged it, tested it, and found gunshot residue. as if she was holding the flashlight while shooting her husband. if jane was the killer, this is about as cold-blooded as it gets. investigators said dave had been shot six times. we came up with a fairly logical explanation of how it was done. shot one appeared to have been fired from a distance of several feet. grazed his head. deposited pieces of scalp on a garbage can and then the bullet hit the wall. that shot brought him to his knees, where the killer fired shots two and three into his face at close range.
i mean, she didn t fall, she rose that night. and, you know, became the a very strong, powerful woman. and defended the life of her son. and then at last in january 2016, jane laut went on ial for murder. her friend, helen, sitting right behind her. do you think she ll go to jail? i don t. really? i don t. i absolutely do not. you believe the jury will believe her story? i do. and see it as a case of self-defense? i do. i believe that. i believe that. i sincerely believe her. i don t say that about many people. i sincerely believe her. do you usually get this personally invested in a case? i am always invested in my cases, yes. but do i care as much about clients like i do about jane laut? no, that s i would be lying if i said i did. but could he persuade a jury to believe in jane too?
welcome back. i m craig melvin. dave laut was murdered outside his home, and then police found the gun that killed him inside. calling the story his wife told detectives into question. but what she told them next would send the investigation hurtling in a whole new direction. a stunning allegation pointed to another explanation for dave s death. here again is keith morrison with the hometown hero and the homecoming queen. sweet jane laut now accused murderer, and now that dave was dead, stories emerged. it seemed like she was controlled, in my opinion. an across-the-street neighbor. i mean, he s there, standing there, while she s, you know, pulling weeds, cleaning out gutters, washing his truck. and he s not lifting a finger to help her? come on, you know. while jane seemed, what, nervous? almost like a scared little
jane laut told the police a harrowing story, of a backyard prowler, and gunshots right outside her door. and now her husband, olympic bronze medalist, dave laut, was dead. but some things seemed a little off. for example, said investigator palmieri, when police were still questioning jane at the house, she stepped into the laundry room. she actually tried to keep one of the police officers out of the laundry room. she tried to close the door, with her in the laundry room and him out. why? well, said palmieri, jane was wearing pajamas when police arrived. but in the laundry room they found her jeans rolled up in a towel tucked between the washer and dryer. her top was lying there as well, inside out. it looked like they had been removed quickly, stashed away. when an officer tried to administer a gunshot residue kit to jane s hands, standard procedure in a shooting investigation when the officer doing the test began getting the test ready, she did go into the