trent was killed because it was something this weird. >> she became the key. >> would she also become the next victim? >> she was scared to death to confront him. >> let me ask you a question, you're not setting me up, are you? >> she knew what he was capable of. >> and thus she was terrified. >> and thus she was terrified. ♪♪ her heart was on fire. lost to her, the canned music, the hum of other voices in the bar. there was only him. they were in the deep end now, and as lovers in the flesh of new commitment sometimes do, they confess their sins of the abandoned past, the worst things they'd ever done. words, just words best forgotten until they could no longer be ignored. ♪♪ lexington, kentucky. one year before that night in the bar. a house where students lived. and the music and laughter and chatter of a birthday party swelled and ebbed and drifted in and out of the evening air. >> it wasn't a huge party. it was just a low-key party with some good friends. >> they were about to be seniors, the young men who'd rented the place, who'd hosted the party. >> we had a group of guys, four guys that got along extremely well. >> they were big men on campus. they played football. the university of kentucky's beloved wildcats. antonio o'ferral was a quarterback. >> in lexington, kentucky, if you played for the cats, you're pretty much a well-known entity. >> the birthday boy, 21 years old, was a true rarity, a wildcats walk-on. he had no scholarship, no invitation, he just showed up and tried out for the team. and over three years of hard work he had earned a starting position. >> here we go! >> trent digiuro, gentle giant. >> you know, everybody called him a big teddy bear. he was the great protector of all of our friends. >> the party was sweet, informal. friends snapped pictures and evening dawdled into night. it was after midnight when the party wound down. >> i think we turned in somewhere between 12:30, 1:00. >> antonio and his girlfriend went to bed. outside, trent and some of the others settled under the light on the front porch. out there, beyond the streetlights, was impenetrable dark. inside -- >> we were already in a faint sleep, and we heard a loud bang. >> one of them must have slammed the screen door. but no. >> well, within ten seconds you started to hear the chaos outside, the screaming, the yelling, the crying. >> and there was trent. slumped to one side in his chair under the light. >> trent was bleeding out of his ears and his eyes and his nose and his mouth. and it was a horrific scene. >> horrific and confusing. that loud bang had been a gunshot. but from where? somewhere out there in the dark? had someone intentionally fired a gun at their gentle giant, their teddy bear? >> is it possible to describe what it feels like? to go through that shock? >> it's almost an out-of-body experience. the world is spinning. you're trying to see in the dark. >> in their panic and distress, they did not understand, how could they, the nature of the mystery launched here. or who, in a haze of love, may have learned the answer. >> it was just so senseless. once you found out why, it was even worse. >> just who was trent digiuro, the target? >> we all started hanging out from first grade, 6 years old. it's pretty neat. >> yeah. >> peyton turner and sharalea bollinger were his life long friends. >> if you were his friend, you were his friend and that's all that mattered. >> there wasn't a group for him. there was no group. everybody got treated just the same. >> trent was in fourth grade when he started playing football in his hometown of goshen, kentucky, just outside louisville. by high school he was captain of the team, had lots of friends. so popular trent was homecoming king with sharalea his queen. >> it was pretty special. i mean, just to -- >> oh my gosh, yeah. >> to be part of that and to be voted as that, especially with trent. >> when it came time for college, trent set his sights high. he turned down football scholarships to smaller schools. >> at one point he says, you know what, i just got to know if i can play in the big time, in a division i school. >> mike digiuro is trent's dad. >> so he walked on to university of kentucky, which is in the southeast conference, which is about as big as they come. >> sure. >> and he worked real hard to get to where he was. >> and trent's teammates saw that hard work. >> trent had the ability to perform. so while he might have been a walk-on, his performance allowed him to endear himself to others very quickly. he appreciated the opportunity and he worked real hard to get to where he was. >> and trent's teammates saw that hard work. trent had the ability to perform. so while he might have been a walk-on, his performance allowed him to endear himself to others very quickly. >> that july, as trent practiced football and prepared for his senior year, his parents went to lexington to see him. and to talk about his future. >> he was trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life. he was talking about maybe going to law school or business school. >> did he talk about his birthday celebration? >> we knew he was gonna have some kind of a thing, and then he was supposed to come home that next day to celebrate his birthday with us, and he never made it. >> no. and a creeping fear washed over the university of kentucky football team. was a killer targeting them? and if so, who would be next? >> coming up -- >> i couldn't even believe it. who would murder somebody so wonderful? >> the investigation begins. >> everyone talked. but they didn't see anything. >> and was there more terror to come? >> we were so nervous driving down the street at practice thinking that there might be someone in the woods who wanted to take you out. >> when "dateline" continues. ons entresto is the number one heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists and has helped over one million people. it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the 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internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. >> chaos is what there was on trent digiuro's front porch. his friends stood over the body and stared out into the dark with a kind of anticipating horror. >> you're concerned that there's more to come, you know. that was -- that was one shot. is there someone who's gonna shoot again? >> trent was officially pronounced dead at 3:00 a.m. just about the time don evans arrived. evans has retired now, but was a rookie detective back then. this was his first homicide case. what'd you find when you got here? >> there were three young men in this very yard, and they just looked distraught, and they were consoling each other. >> on the porch, trent's chair was turned over and evans could see blood and debris left by the ambulance crew. what was your first idea of what appeared to have happened here? >> you know, when i first walked up, i went with what appeared to be the obvious. that someone had simply walked from the side of the house, fired the shot, and then exited back toward the rear of the house. so this is almost like an alley here. so it would provide concealment. >> take advantage of surprise. >> yeah. if someone was gonna take a shot, that made the most sense. >> believing the shot came from a handgun, police looked for shell casings. and yet for all they looked, there were none, nor any other evidence. still, detective evans figured there was a party that night, so there were bound to be people who saw something. >> my thought was, as soon as i get 'em to headquarters and get 'em separated, someone's gonna tell me what happened." >> did they talk? >> everyone talked. but with each and every person that i talked to, they didn't see anything. >> 80 miles away, at 5:00 a.m, the digiuros' phone rang. >> it's numbing. it's hard to imagine the feeling. >> suddenly your life doesn't make sense anymore. >> it absolutely stops and pivots in an instant. and then it was kinda, you know, "now what?" >> and soon everybody knew. >> i couldn't even believe it, couldn't understand it. who would murder somebody so wonderful? >> it was about then that the first really useful evidence came back from the medical examiner. bullet fragments were recovered in the autopsy, and the ballistics showed it wasn't a handgun at all that killed trent. it was a rifle, which turned detective evan's first theory upside down. >> well, the theory about walking up the side of the house and firing a shot -- >> that goes out the window. >> that's probably out the window. a rifle's not designed for a close-range shot. >> officers canvassed the neighborhood. a woman who lived across the street said she awoke to a loud noise and it sounded like it was right outside her house. >> so based on that, we actually took one of our marksmen from the police department and ask him, "could this shot be made from here, from this angle?" and we literally re-enacted that possibility. >> did it make sense, the location you found? >> it did make sense. we didn't eliminate the possibility that something else could occur. but this -- this looked pretty strong to us. >> so a working theory, that trent was shot from across the street. ballistics suggested it was a rifle with a particular and uncommon type of barrel. but who owned it, and why did he or she shoot trent? no idea. the football team entered a world of dread. was some hater targeting the team? was one of them next? >> we were so nervous. we were so uncertain of what happened that night, that it affected our daily lives, driving down the street, at practice thinking that there might be someone in the woods who wanted to take you out. making your way to your car from your apartment door. just that walk, a 2,500-yard walk was a hard walk. my dad raised me never to look over your shoulder, but for a very short period of time, you're looking over your shoulder every bit of the day. >> but days and weeks and months went by, and nothing happened. and over time the fear eroded. but the investigation went nowhere. did you ever get to the place where you thought, "we'll just have to live with this uncertainty for the rest of our lives?" >> i would say four years into it, it's like didn't make any difference. >> yeah, not gonna bring him back. >> it is not gonna bring trent back. but still it's "why did this happen?" >> you're four years in, five years in, and really no closer to solving it. >> your first case, and it -- >> day one. that will make you doubt yourself. >> and then one day a particular woman happened to see an anniversary story about the unsolved murder of the football player back in kentucky. a woman who'd once sat in a bar in a fog of love. and who now was quite terrified. coming up -- >> a break in the case from out of the blue. an ex-lover reveals all, including a motive for murder almost too absurd to believe. >> this could be the reason that we never could find out why trent was killed because it was something this weird. >> when "the motive" continues. s . i've been involved in communications in the media for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. women are living longer than ever before with kisqali when taken with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in postmenopausal women with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant alone. kisqali can cause lung problems, or an abnormal heartbeat, 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undo what happened to trent digiuro. and yet the lack of any answer, year after year, seemed somehow to be an insult to all that was good. and they just had to accept it. >> i think we'd all kind of resigned ourselves as every year passed we were just never gonna know. >> and you wouldn't even know if it was intentional or not. it was some random thing. >> i would think, yeah, we would have known by now. >> then it was about five years after the shooting, a local attorney named tom bullock heard from an old friend, a woman. she was nervous, tentative, asked him on the phone, could she reveal what she knew about a crime without saying who she was? >> she was extremely evasive. she didn't really wanna tell me really anything. >> you can give people answers, but you sort of want to know why they're asking the question. >> that's right. i said, well, i can give you general information about how the police system works, but until i know specifics, i really can't help you that much. and she was clearly afraid of something. >> but she kept calling. finally she revealed it. she was called about a murder. >> did she tell you what murder? >> she eventually came around to say it was a very high-profile murder. >> where'd your mind go when you heard that? >> i knew which one it was. >> and then she told him a very strange story. happened in a bar, she said. almost a year after trent digiuro was killed. she was falling hard for a guy. >> they talked about how much they loved each other. toward the end of the evening, they decided to say, "okay, what is the worst thing that you've done?" >> like let's get this out of the way. >> let's just get to it, you know, that sort of point in the relationship where you say, let me hear the worst. >> and her boyfriend said, "i killed trent digiuro." >> and at first she sort of sloughed it off, you know? "eh, sure you did." >> didn't believe him. >> no, of course not. but then he started describing it. you know, exactly how he did it. >> but she still didn't want to believe it. after all, she'd fallen in love with the guy. so she said she kind of buried it, stayed with him for another year. but now, years later and single again, she had seen a story in the newspaper about the fifth anniversary of trent's murder in which trent's dad was quoted, "somebody knows what happened." >> she started really thinking about it, and -- and it touched her. >> but she was so frightened of him, she said, she was determined to remain anonymous. >> they know each other intimately. she knows how he would react to certain situations. >> yep. >> and she was terrified. >> he certainly would've remembered his conversations with her. >> if you told someone that you committed a murder, you would certainly remember having told them that. >> yes. >> so tom bullock went to detective evans. >> we agreed that whatever information i would give him would be anonymous because for all we know, the whole thing could've been hogwash. >> that's sort of tricky, isn't >> and you fed him bits and pieces of information from her without saying. >> correct. he was blts taking that information, he wasn't writing it down in notes. he wasn't putting it in official files yet. we wanted to see if what she said was credible. >> that's sort of tricky, sjt it? i mean, when you've got somebody making an accusation, you have to be able to talk to that person. >> well, yeah. but at that point, beggars can't be choosers. >> so he gave you a name. >> so he gave me a name. he gave me the name of shane ragland. >> shane ragland. the woman's ex-boyfriend. but who was he? didn't take long to find out. shane was the son of a wealthy businessman. just so happened shane attended the university of kentucky at the very same time as trent digiuro. but after college he didn't do so well. he ran up at least a dozen convictions, drug charges, multiple duis, and so on. so detective evans went back to attorney bullock. >> is there any more? can you get me any more? and ultimately he started talking about a motive. >> and that's when the whole story took a turn into "the twilight zone." >> he told me that it was concerning shane ragland being blackballed from a fraternity. >> what'd you think when you heard that? >> that's a stupid reason to kill somebody. >> the fraternity in question was sigma alpha epsilon, sae. detective evans looked through sae's records, and there it was, a pledge list with shane's name crossed off. >> and then it -- it hit. this could be the reason that we never could find out why trent was killed is because it was something this weird. >> evans went to one of trent's closest friends and asked had he heard of this guy shane ragland? >> and he said, "shane ragland." and then i could just sort of see it at that point on his face, you know? and i let him tell the story. >> a story about an unpleasant little incident. shane was among the freshmen pledging the sae fraternity. and one day, as they were getting to know the campus -- >> they went into trent's dorm, and trent was there, and on the wall was a calendar of some sorority girls. >> when shane saw that calendar, right away he pointed to one of the girls' pictures and he bragged that he'd had sex with her. >> what shane didn't know is that girl was the girlfriend of the president of the fraternity. >> trent did not like that one bit. got word to the sae president, and that's when shane was blackballed. >> so at that point shane's opportunity to be in that fraternity is pretty much over. >> the motives for murder are many and varied. but this seemed absurd. it was three years after that slight when trent was murdered in cold blood. could it really have festered so long? and if it had, if that was true, they had another problem. >> the more that we dug specifically into shane ragland, the more the likelihood that he would get word that he was becoming a suspect in this case. and if that happened, this anonymous witness was in real danger. >> evans had no doubt that shane would remember he told an ex-girlfriend about the murder. >> and what's gonna keep him from then going up and eliminating her like he did trent digiuro? >> so now evans understood his mystery witness was trying to be brave, but was quite reasonably frightened. how would he ever convince her to take the ultimate risk? >> she was very hesitant to do it, and she was scared to death to confront him. coming up, setting a trap. >> something has been bothering me. something that you told me a long time ago. i wish you never had. >> but who's going to get caught? >> let me ask you a question. you're not setting me up, are you? >> when "the motive" continues. s then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. don't settle for products that give you a sort-of white smile. try crest whitening emulsions... ...for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets... ...swipe on in seconds. better. faster. 100% whiter teeth. shop crestwhitesmile.com. ♪ ♪ well would you look at that? ♪ ♪ jerry, you've got to see this. seen it. trust me, after 15 walks ...it gets a little old. ugh. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! [thud] [clunk] ugh... unbelievable. unbelievable. [ding] frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge is helping people love what they love again. just one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. because life starts when heartburn stops. take the challenge at prilosecotc dot com. to see my ancestors' photos was just breathtaking. wow, look at all those! what'd you find? lorraine banks, look, county of macomb, michigan? oh my goodness... this whole journey has been such a huge gift for our family. i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening. president biden spent thanksgiving with his family. the president and first lady paid tribute to all the lives lost during the pandemic. and five u.s. lawmakers are meeting with government officials in taiwan. congress won alissa slotkin tells nbc news she received a letter from the chinese embassy urging her to call off the trip or risk the relationship between the u.s. and chinese relations. back to "dateline." detective evans knew he had to meet this mystery woman, the woman who was claiming she knew what happened to trent dejeer roe but was too frightened to talk about it. but then tom bullock playing gatekeeper agreed to meet face-to-face. any more than that, maybe not. >> she agreed to do an interview and just asked that it be kept under wraps until we can get him secured. we negotiated that. don't get me involved. i want to do this for the family. this guy is dangerous. but until you get handcuffs on him, you can't involve me. >> evans knew even if he arrested the guy, a mystery woman testifying about something an ex-boyfriend told her, it wouldn't be enough. >> i can imagine the prosecutor saying, i can't just put her on the stand. his attorney will come along and say, "she's full of it." >> yeah, and in this particular case it's, yeah. you know what? that in itself is not gonna do it, nor should it. we're still in a situation where this has to come from him. >> him, meaning shane ragland. evans told her they had to find a way to get shane to admit on tape what he did, otherwise what jury would buy such a ludicrous motive for murder? there was only one way, he told her, she'd have to wear a wire. >> she wasn't very happy with that obviously. >> i should think not. >> yeah. she asked me if i could spell anonymous. >> but, he said, she came around. >> she wanted to do what's right all along. she just would like do that without getting herself killed doing it. >> but she would only proceed on one condition. >> i had to prove why she was gonna be safe. i had to prove how we were gonna do this. it wasn't enough for me to say, "oh, don't worry. he won't have a gun. we'll look for bulges." >> so they came up with a plan. gave her a cover story to protect her, a fictitious job, a phony address, and then casually she resumed contact with shane. a few emails. a little flirty at times, on both ends -- >> people sometimes hear from their exes, right? i mean, that -- that happens. >> and finally, the sting. she told shane she'd be passing through the lexington airport on business, and he agreed to meet her. it was in this airport lounge, surrounded by undercover cops and fbi and behind security to be sure shane wasn't armed. >> so what's been happening? >> worked about two years in louisville. >> they reminisced for an hour or so. >> tell me the good things that you remember about our relationship. >> i remember you used to love your disco music and ask me to dance with ya. >> and then she went for it. >> something's been bothering me. something that you told me a long time ago, and i wish you never had. and i need to know how you feel about it now, so i can understand what kind of person you are now. >> at that point he paused, and it's like he knew exactly what she was talking about. >> i regret it. >> you do now? >> of course, i do. >> you didn't before. and, you know, the thing about it is, not knowing trent -- that was his name, wasn't it? trent? not knowing him, i just kind of ignored it all this time. >> saying trent's name was deliberate. >> we had talked to her about that. let's make sure we know what you're talking about when we play this for a jury later. >> and she brought up what appeared to be the motive, that fraternity blackballing. >> how could you be mad -- that mad at somebody to do that? that -- over something so [ bleep ] stupid? do you ever think of it? >> of course, i do. you're making me uncomfortable now just talking about it. >> i'm sorry, but this is something i have to get off my chest, because i have to live with it too, you know? i mean, do you plan on ever telling anybody about what you did? >> no. i mean of course not. >> was he sensing something? the cops, knowing they didn't quite have what they needed, not yet, held their breath and listened. >> let me ask you a question, you're not setting me up, are you? >> i've never told anybody. >> i know. i'm just -- i'm getting this weird vibe. >> i've never told anybody. >> swear to me that you're not setting me up because i'm scared to death right now. >> he said, "are you setting me up?" and that's when things got really scary. >> but she kept her cool. >> okay. then we'll stop talking about it. how's that? >> and they did. and then about ten minutes later, shane came back with just what the detectives needed to hear. >> to answer to your question, i am very, very remorseful. very. i can't -- i can't tell you. >> you're so stupid. >> i know. i was angry at him. i made -- i made the wrong decision. there is nothing you can do, you know. >> she made him so confident and comfortable that he came back to the subject and left us with what we really needed at that point. it came out of his own mouth. >> they picked him up the next day, took him downtown, asked him was it true what an old girlfriend was telling them? >> so if she tells us you sat there and you talked about the murder, she's a liar, basically? because it never happened. >> she's just making that up to >> you think that she's mad at you? >> 100%. absolutely, that -- there was absolutely nothing said. >> shane denied it all. denied knowing trent, didn't even know where he lived. denied talking about trent with her. >> i never mentioned his name once, and she never mentioned his name once. she didn't -- nothing about that. nothing about the murder. >> nothing about the murder or anything? >> so then his inquisitors fetched the airport recording. >> i'm gonna play something here for you, and i want you to listen to it, okay? >> something's been bothering me, something that you told me a long time ago. i wish you never had. >> well, you're telling me that you didn't talk about trent. that's not the truth, is it? >> she may have said trent, but we were talking about stuff. but i didn't hear her say trent. i didn't talk about trent. i swear to you guys -- i did not do this. >> but his denials were to no avail. shane ragland was charged with murder. bail was set. and shane's wealthy father paid it, a million dollars cash. so shane was free, pending trial, which was a very big problem for the ex-girlfriend who'd turned him in. police moved her to a secure location and kept an eye on her. and then strange things started happening. >> we got information from our state police intelligence section that there was a hit out on this girl. there were phone calls to her friends that would ask, "have you seen her? do you know where she is these days," obviously trying to locate her. >> that would make you pretty nervous. >> yes. and you've got to let her know this. you've taken on the responsibility. >> sure. >> so we had to keep her and her attorney in the loop and let them know, you know, for what it's worth, this is what we're dealing with. >> that's a whole little horror movie that's playing out, kind of a story within a story here. >> it became that, you know. >> and with all that going on, she had to do precisely what she didn't want to do, go public, show herself and testify. and the world would know that her name was aimee lloyd. and that she was truly terrified. coming up -- >> aimee goes public for the first time, facing her fears and shame. and the defense hits back hard. >> if, in fact, someone had actually told you they had engaged in a killing of another person and you continue a romantic relationship with them, that seems a bit odd. >> when "the motive" continues. >> when "the motive" continues need to worry. the pre-treaters are built in. tide pods dissolve even when the water is freezing. nice! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. sweet pillows of softness! this is soft! holy charmin! excuse me! roll it back everybody! charmin ultra soft is so cushiony soft, you'll want more! but it's so absorbent, you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin. ♪ i remember when you were here ♪ that's mommy! ♪ and all the fun we had last year ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 if there was any doubt about police perceived threats to aimee lloyd, aimee, rushed into court by a s.w.a.t. team. but trent digiuro's dad mike knew that if she braved the danger and told her story -- >> i don't know how a jury could sort of not convict him. >> but when it came for trial, then prosecutor luanna redcorn was all too aware she was alleging a very hard to believe motive. >> i think i was like everybody else, a little incredulous that somebody would let the fact that they'd been blackballed from a fraternity fester for years and culminate in killing the person they blamed on blackballing them. >> what did you make of the credibility of this young woman. >> well, the police did a good job of following up on all the things she said, and when you sat down and talked to her, you began to understand and believe her. >> and they had a bit more than just aimee. they'd found what they believed was the murder weapon, a .243 weatherby rifle at shane's mother's house. and at his father's place they found .243-caliber bullets like these. an fbi expert said testing had linked those bullets to the fragments from the fatal bullet. the defense argued the tests were not reliable science. >> call your next witness. >> aimee lloyd. >> and now, nearly eight years after trent was killed, here was the one person who could tell the story. aimee lloyd finally revealed herself publicly. though because she remains frightened even now, we've obscured her image in this video recorded by the court. the prosecution's star witness talked about that night in a bar, and shane, according to her, straight out confessing to murder. >> he said something about, you know, he had -- if i remembered the football player who had been killed and told me his name, trent. he told me that he shot him. >> but prosecutor redcorn knew aimee's story had a weakness and so no choice but to confront it. >> you did not break off the relationship after he said this to you. >> no. >> you didn't go to the police or anything. >> no, i would -- i just -- i ignored it. >> just ignored what he had said to you? >> right. i forgot about it. i didn't wanna listen to it. i didn't wanna hear it. i didn't wanna believe it. >> why? because she was in love with him, she said. >> did you worry that a jury might question why she waited so long? >> oh, of course. i mean, any time there's a delayed report about anything, that goes into the credibility that a jury would give a witness, but, you know, everything that she told the police could mostly be corroborated. there really was -- he really was a pledge for sae. he really did get blackballed. there really was a conversation in the dorm room where he claimed -- shane claimed to have slept with one of the girlfriends. all of those thing happened. >> during aimee's testimony, the prosecutor played the tape, the sting meeting at the airport. >> you're so stupid. >> i was angry at him. i made the wrong decision. >> that, said the prosecutor, clear as day was an admission that he did indeed commit the murder. how to defend against that? shane's father hired a formidable defense team. guthrie true was one of shane's lawyers. >> if, in fact, someone had actually told you they had engaged in a killing of another person and you continue a romantic relationship with them, that seems a bit odd. >> when the defense cross-examined aimee, she knew it was coming. had to. an attack on her credibility. but could she have suspected how personal it would be? this from true's co-counsel when aimee said she went home with shane that night after he talked about killing someone. >> weren't you concerned about spending the night with somebody who had admitted to you that he had killed someone else? >> i blocked it from my mind. i didn't want to -- i didn't want to hear that. >> and then a kind of nervous embarrassment filled the courtroom. the defense had gotten access to aimee's very personal, very explicit diary and confronted her with her entries one by x-rated one. >> we are trying to challenge the credibility of the prosecution's case, and sometimes that gets uncomfortable. >> this is what aimee wrote the day after she said shane confessed to her to murder. >> april the 30th, the very next day, you make a notation, "made love in afternoon. great day." >> we have, for the sake of decency, left out the most explicit entries made public by the defense that day. >> and then may the 3rd was the date that you recorded you took a bath together and made love. right? >> yes. >> and then it was on may the 7th you notated -- you noted, "great love. decided i would move in with him in july. perfect." >> yes. >> so this man who had told you that he had killed someone, you made the decision that you were going to move in with him come july? >> yes. >> so was her credibility harmed? there was still, after all, that incriminating airport recording. or was it incriminating? >> you never did ask him, though, if he had shot and killed trent, did you? >> why would i when he had already told me? and if i said to him, "did you kill trent" when he already knew he told me five years ago, he would have -- he would have known that i was -- that i was there, in fact, to -- >> to set him up? >> to get him to admit it. >> hadn't you rehearsed that? >> rehearsed what? >> with detective evans and others, don't give him an opportunity to deny that he had shot trent. >> no. >> had the defense planted a seed of reasonable doubt? maybe. the jury adjourned to think about it. and trent's friends waited. >> i've never been so terrified and so scared in my life. >> uh-huh. >> your heart's going 100 miles an hour. >> a hundred miles an hour. >> and five hours later -- >> we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of intentional murder. >> guilty of intentional murder. the sentence, 30 years. >> to know that he was guilty, know that this guy who's sitting this smug and nonremorseful is guilty and found guilty, and, boom, you feel good about that. >> he thought it was done. >> okay, this is it. he's going to jail. it's over. and amy? she have vanished. >> amy was afraid. we told her that if she testify, we would do what we could to let her have a new identity. law enforcement helped her have a new identity. >> that new identity would be a problem. we talked about something that blows you away. i could not grasp with that. this case was not over. not even close. >> coming up, the stunning reversal. will there ever be justice for travis? oh wow. here we go all over again. >> when "the mmotive" continues. mot. and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. there's a different way to treat hiv. it's once-monthly injectable cabenuva. cabenuva is the only once-a-month, complete hiv treatment for adults who are undetectable. cabenuva helps keep me undetectable. it's two injections, given by a healthcare provider once a month. hiv pills aren't on my mind. i love being able to pick up and go. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions post-injection reactions, liver problems,...and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. ask your doctor about once-monthly cabenuva. imagine having someone else do your books for you. with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. as your quickbooks live bookkeeper, i'll categorize expenses, reconcile accounts, and close your books. cool. - yep. know where your business stands. intuit quickbooks live bookkeeping. it was early spring in kentucky when justice was done for the murder. the woman who faced up the fear and told her story. we never met amy but i am grateful for whatever she's done for trent and for us. >> what happened is not static at all. al court reversed the jury's decision. shane went home on a million dollars bail paid by his dad to wait for a whole new trial. >> it's been a long time, shane. >> i don't look at it like that. i look at the long-term goals of the case that's against me that's fake and false and they know imminent. i don't worry about my feelings. >> why was the verdict thrown out? >> it had nothing to do with amy lloyd or her explosive testimony or the sting tape recorded at the airport. all that was fine. what was the issue? the bullet that killed trent. the fbi linked the fragments found in the autopsy. after shane's eviction, the fbi realized the test used was bad science and stopped using it. >> these are things we have been arguing for years should not have been admitted and the court reads with the defense. >> when this reversal happened, what was it like? >> it was a real blow. >> kind of an irony, is it? >> in my mind yes. >> when you thought it was done? >> here we go all over it again. and yet another time we realize quickly it's going to be without some key evidence. lloyd was coming back. amy lloyd was not going to testify a second time. that was the deal she made, testified once and disappear. >> there was no way to bring her back. >> no option but to make a deal. shane pleads guilty of second degree murder. >> he admitted firing that fatal shot. >> it was not ten more years or anymore years. he got the time he served, five years and plus three days. three more days. he walked out the courtroom and went home. >> it did help a little when he successfully sued shane in civil court for wonderful death. the judge reduced to $33 million. he had not received a penny and does not expect to but money was never the point. >> he never accepted responsibility for what he did. shane went on with his life and in a few years later he was involved in a serious car accident. he's on a wheelchair and back in court for an unrelated case. what about amy? if that's even her name now. >> how is she doing now. >> she's living a new life. >> what did she do? could you tell me anything at all? >> i am sorry, i am not able to tell you anything about her current life at all. >> at all? >> at all. >> mike had a choice he knew he can sink into bitterness. >> where do you put your frustration over this? >> well, what has come from all of this is we consider a positive thing. >> the trent's foundation, the university of kentucky and a local high schools, young people with determination and personal courage just may think -- >> you can never mistake sense of his death but you can make sense of his life. >> it makes sense of what we have done to commemorate trent and remember him and given these young folks an opportunity that trent won't have. trent's friend remained his friends, remaining close. >> feel like family. >> they are family. it says so much about what trent meant to these kids young adults and what they mean to us have been a blessing. >> they all get together and laugh and tell story and imagine -- >> gosh, i should it would be magnificent as a teenager. i kind of pissed i don't get to meet miswife or kids or share all the adult things we had the opportunity. when i get rid of those feelings, the underlying feelings, gratitude that he was in my life even if it was for a brief moment in time. ♪♪ ♪ good morning and welcome to a special edition of "morning joe," we are on tape this morning. after thanksgiving. we hope everyone had a great holiday and ate a lot of turkey. >> i know we did. >> you gained like five pounds. >> anyhow, we have for you a number of our top conversations and interviews from the past few months. what are we starting with? >> let's begin with the new reporting on the link donald trump's loyalists and