reporter: later that afternoon, the jury sent out a note. verdict. as the verdict was read, debra sat with melissa s family, consoling her niece. tony villegas is guilty of murder in the first degree. reporter: tony s face was blank. before sentencing, melissa s aunt, lynn haberl, addressed the court and said directly to tony. we forgive you because we must and release you into god s hands for all eternity. reporter: sentencing was immediate. sentenced to spend the rest of your natural life in a florida state prison. reporter: after tony was led out of the courtroom, melissa s family went to his people and hugged them, then all cried together. my heart broke for them. it is a legacy for their family. reporter: melissa s own legacy is something called the garden of reflection. before her murder, she worked for victims rights, and raised money to build it. now, her name is inscribed there, too. the victim, as prosecutors told
years in prison. but one big question emerged, speculation about that woman in the firm who d been killed. whether melissa knew about the ponzi scheme is one of those great mysteries. reporter: scott had started his ponzi scheme three years before melissa was murdered. is it time to take a fresh look at the whole melissa lewis murder? is there something more sinister? reporter: detective brian kendall now had a whole new problem with his fairly straightforward case against tony, the jealous train engineer. is this woman, melissa, killed because she knew too much? after we think we had this solid, buttoned-up case, we do have the whole scott rothstein ponzi scheme comes into play? reporter: the fbi combed through the detectives files looking into a melissa-rothstein-ponzi link. they spent a week going through every inch of that case to find out if there was a connection to scott rothstein. reporter: with all these
the next day when he was driving his train. they moved north and then back south along the railroad. reporter: but now prosecutors had to tackle the head scratching question of motive. why would tony kill melissa in the first place? debra villegas testified that tony became very jealous and angry with melissa because she d virtually replaced him in the household. was melissa helping you through this difficult time in your life now, through this divorce? yes, ma am. reporter: and that was the theory. in order to get back at debra, he killed her best friend. you have these domestic homicides all the time but this had a twist to it because he didn t kill debra. reporter: then tony and debra s 23-year old son, caleb, was called to testify against his father. the usual blank stare on tony s courtroom face changed as his son recalled how his father blamed melissa for the divorce.
from the pepper spray on the walls and floor, it appeared melissa came home and was attacked inside the garage. detectives also found a small button on the garage floor, perhaps ripped from that pantsuit. then one detective had an idea: use the gps and security system in melissa s vehicle to locate it. it s a cadillac. cadillac has onstar. they re able to activate the onstar, tell us the location of the vehicle through gps, and brought us right to this parking lot. reporter: the car was about a half mile from melissa s house in this medical office parking lot that melissa never went to. and through onstar, you could remotely open the vehicle, huh? they were able to unlock the vehicle for us. reporter: inside the suv, disturbing clues. what do you find? we find a suit jacket that she was wearing the night before and on the suit jacket, there was a missing button. and that s significant because the corresponding button was found on her garage floor. reporter: the jacket smell
reporter: despite what tony said, detectives thought the crude comment had a broader meaning, speaking to the bff relationship of debra and melissa. does he feel like he s been tossed out of the house because melissa has taken his place? i think he definitely believes that melissa was a catalyst to enable debbie to go forward with the divorce. he kills melissa lewis to get back at debra for divorcing him. reporter: but if you re lethally angry about an impending divorce, why not kill the wife? if he kills melissa and he s caught, debbie s still there to raise their kids. reporter: although tony would later deny it, debra told detectives he had been violent with her and her kids in the past. because of that, debra said she had decided on her own that tony had to go. you thought he was physically gonna hurt the kids? no, he was already physically hurting them. i thought he was going to go too far. debbie was scared of tony. but didn t raise any suspicion as to why he would