Grant was discussing about receiving money to kill somebody. Reporter according to bennett, he and lewis had been brainstorming ways to raise seed money for a nightclub. So lewis placed a coded message online, advertising discreet housecleaning services. Prosecutor garrett glennon. By discreet housecleaning, grant lewis apparently meant and hoped that someone out there on the internet would understand that to mean that they were hitmen. Eporter bennett says a client did respond to the ad a offered 60,000 to kill heidi. I know from the client, from the person, you know, emphasized to grant and grant emphasized to myself, that it needs to look like an accident. Reporter bennetts role was the muscle, to do the actual hit. Lewis, the middle man, communicated with the client and in late march 2000, bennett arrived in baltimore from denver. He says he waited for the signal to a a. In the meantime, he scoped out his victim, breaking into heidis home by tampering with the locks, then posing as that Neighborhood Watch volunteer who so scared heidi. I do remember her answering the door. Reporter did you go to the once . It was just that one time. Just the one time . Reporter on april 20th, bennett says he heard through lewis that the plan was a go. After getting into heidis house, he hid behind the front door. Now, my plan was to j jt try to get her, and like, still make it look like an accident, like, may be snap her neck or something to make it look like she fell down the stairs or something. Reporter heidi walked in through the door, and bennett says he pounced. Panicked, i panicked and rushed at her at the front and, you know, tried to muffle her scream. I was making sure if she was alive. I didnt know. Thats when i had the knife. And to make sure, had cut her throat. Reporter then, bennett said, he wiped the place down. And to throw forensics off, he ransacked the bedroom and used heidis lipstick to make that number one on the living room wall. After that, bennett says, he fled. Thats it . Thats it. Repororr poor heidis dead heidis dead. Reporter detective childs pressed, who was the client . He showed bennett a photo array of six suspects. Assistant state attorney matt breault. He immediately separates four photographs and says, its definitely notothese four, and hes left with two. And stares at them. And eventually, he says, yes, this is him. I remember him. This one. I recognize him as the boyfriend. Reporter benentt picked out Stephen Cooke. Heidis boyfriend was arrested for firstdegree murder. Deep in our hearts, we all had a feeling that he had something to do with it. Reporter stephens trial began this june. He pleaded not guilty. Glennon and breault had the task of convincing a jury that stephen was capable of orchestrating a cold murderfor hire. Their case would rely heavily on the word of one man, the killer himself, Alexander Bennett. You really had to believe this guy bennett . Absolutely. Reporter your case was goi to rise and fall on that . He was going to be the star witness against Stephen Cooke. Reporter bennett told jurors the same story he told investigators, how he killed heidi. Video cameras werent permitted, audiotaped. He decided to confeses he says, because of his faith and for heidis family. I wanted to be a human being. I wanted to give a family some type of peace. I wanted to have faith enough h and to grow up i io a man and to accept and take responsibility for what i did. Reporter but the question still remained, if Stephen Cooke had planned heidis murder, why had he done it . According to stephen, they were in love and planning to marry. But some of heidis friends testified that she was so miserable in the relationship, she was preparing to leave. She had ask a friend of hers for a small loan for an easy Storage Facility in an effort to move out. Reporter and the real reason for the murder, the prosecutor told the jury, was pure and simple greed 700,000. Two months before heidis death, stephen and heidi had taken out each other. I wonder why an hourly employee at a hardware chain is buying you should. Reporter almost a Million Dollars worth of coverage . As we explained to the e ry, they had one car between them, which was hers, a red civic. They are not married. They didnt have any children. And they really didnt have many belongings. There really wasnt anything to insure. Reporter so once they buy the policy, its tick tock . Correct. Reporter heidi had no idea time was running out for her. No idea what was going to happen when her boyfriend dropped her home that night. But, according to investigators, stephen knew there was a hired killer in the house. He set the wheels in motion. Reporter driving her home to her death. He knew w wt was in that house. He knew what he was doing. Doesnt get any worse than that. Reporter but the defense would have an answer for those insurance policies and everything else. And the person to explain it all to the jury would be coming up the defense. Just how strong was the prosecutions case . Murderers words. The admitted killer on the stand, had spilled out a gruesome account of the plot to murder heidi. Stephen cooke, he testified, had hired him via the internet to kill his girlfriend. The motive . The boyfriend wanted her life insurarae payout, 700,000 bubus. But stephens Defense Attorneys conceded nothing. They thought the prosecution had a weak case overall and one big problem in particular, its star witness, Alexander Bennett. Bennett obviously had something to gain by changing his story. Our old friend, quid pro quo. Plea deal. Breon johnson were stephenen they said, before the colorado mans socalled confession, bennett faced life in prison without the chance for parole. But once he cut a deal with the state to testify, he could look forward one day to walking free. So heesinging for his supper here . I couldldt have said it better myself, exactly. The less time he would spend in jail for his own deeds. Reporter the defense argued another glaring hole in the prosecutions case was the lack of any physical evidence tying stephen to the crime. The computer in the house that stephen and heidi shared was never taken in as evidence. Its a digital crime at heart. Not in this case. Not in this case. What happened . Heidi and steve did have a fairly new desktop computer, and that was never seized by the police. Reporter so to this day we have no idea what that hard drive on the home computer wouldve shown . No. So your guy is being charged with a contract killing, but nobody can produce the contract . No. Investigators not have any computer records, they didnt have a record of bennetts plane ticket, phone records, credit card receipts, eyewitnesses who saw bennett and cooke together. Not even the murder weapon. Stephen sisters kim. All you have is a confessed murderers words. Thats all. Theres not one piece of evidence in this whole entire trial that points to stephen, other than the confessed murderer and these detectives with, oh, their beliefs. Reporter and when it came to motive, they turned the case on its head. The defense version this isnt about stephen searching for a contract killer online, but rather heidi look for love on a dating website and finding Alexander Bennett, who surprised her by showing up in baltimore. We thought that he met her online, came here to be with her and she rejected him and he killed her. It made sense to us. It made sense with the it m me sense with the physical evidence. This police photo of heidis keys and bag. If, as bennett testified, hed jumped her when she walked in the door, how did her door keys and makeup bag end up tidily on the Kitchen Table in another roomom so the bag on the kitchens tables not a trivial thing for you . No. I think she made it to the kitchen. I dont think he attacked her at the front door. Make sure she was dead and reporter and if prosecutors thought bennett was the foundation of their case, the defense felt it had its own star witntns, Stephen Cooke. He would take the std. The bottom line is, by this time, we had come to the conclusion that its bennett versus cooke. Its who you believe. For a second, i just looked at her like what in the world is going on. Reporter stephen told of finding heidi, the love of his room floor that night. And then i just held her in my arms and was rocking her and crying, just calling her name and all. Reporter stephen testified the couple were planning on a said that they were finished. Mr. Cooke, you keep saying that you and heidi were going to get married. But weve heard from other individuals that she was thinking about leaving you. Ive never heard anything like that until now. Reporter they were also planning for kids. And that was the r rson he nted a big insurance policy on himself. We were going to start a family. We were going to have children. And i wanted to make sure that there was enough money for heidi in case i died. Reporter he added, it was heidi who wanted insurance for herself. He never pushed her to get it. T. Heidi then askekeme if it was all right if she could get 700,000 worth of Life Insurance. And i said, fine. Reporter the defense added there was proof heidi was actively nudging along the Life Insurance policy application. Shed faxed over some final documents just days before her death. Its a fact of thehease, even heidis own brothers, harold and frank, cant quite account for. Theres persuasive stories that she was going to leave him. And yet, theres also pretty trying to get this insurance policy up and running. I mean, shes active in getting thats the the insurance going. Yeah. Yeah, i thats the biggest mystery to date. Thats one of the things we dont fully understand. Reporter as fothe murder, stephen flatly denied ever meeting Alexander Bennett, and said he had nothing to do with heidis death. Now steve, uve heard through testimony that you arranged for heidis murder via the internet. Did you do that . Not at all. Not at all. I didnt i didnt have anything at all to do with heidis murder. Why are you testifying . Im testifying because i want my family and friends and i want idis family and friends to to know the truth. And for 15 years, they havent heard the truth. For 15 years, ive been blamed for something i didnt do. I didnt kill heidi. Reporter both sides rested. Which argument would jurors believe . Which man would they choose . The state and its key wiess, alalander bennett, the acknowledged murderer . Good job, middleclass lifestyle and father of a 7yearold son . The jury was out, but Stephen Cookes sister knew the verdict she wanted to hear. Hes not guilty. Theyre theyre going to say, not guilty. Theyre going to say, not guilty. Reporter but after a day and a half of deliberations, that wasnt the jury verdict. Guilty or not guilty . We find him guilty. Reporter Stephen Cooke was found guilty of firstdegree murder, hiring a longdistance killer to murder his girlfriend. I felt like i lost my breath. I just was in shock. I just could not believe thats what theyve said. I remember screaming, oh, no. Thank you, lord. Prayers are answered. Its relief, joy, and happiness, and also sadness because we still dont have heidi. Reporter grant lewis, the denver middle man was sentenced both Alexander Bennett and cooke faces life without the chance of parole. And remember the butcher Terry Gilliam . A police have totally cleared him of any involvement. And in fact offered him an apology. Its not everything, but it does its a start. It does mean something. Reporter as s r heidis family, their days are all about the kids and grandchildren. And parents who believe devoutly in a hereafter, always remember, of course, heidi. Did you talk to heidi . Oh, yes. I did. What did you tell her . I just said, sweetie, we finally got the answers weve been praying for. And justice will be served. Thats all for now. Joining us. Joining us. This sundayy morning, the terror attacks in san bernaino. Did the killers get help . Why did no one see this coming . And can we prevent these kinds of attacks from happening here in the United States . Well get the latest on n e investigation from the very top. Attorney attorney general Loretta Lynch joins us. Plus, the role of islam, are we dealing with a perversion of the religion or a strain of it . Also, the error attacks and the campaign. Do these help donald trump pull away from the pack. Every time theres a tragedy my numbers go way up. Joining me are rich lowry of the national review, amy walter of the cook political report. York times, and Charles Ogletree ogletree. Welcome to meet the press. Good sunday morning, president obama will address a nervous company tonight from the oval office on the Terror Threat andndhat the administration plans to d d to keep us safe. The terror attacks in San Bernardino were the worst in the United States since 9 11 and they have both unnerved a country already jittery about terrorism and its transformed the president ial race. Theres so many unanswered questionsns where syed faok and after thend his wife radicalized . How could no one know about their weapons . Was this an isolated inndent or a harbrbger of future terror attacks . Well get to those question with the head of the justice department, Loretta Lynch. We begin with Pete Williams who and the director of the National Counterterrorism center under both president s bush and obama. What caused the fbi to label this a terrorism incident. Theres a huge supply of weapons and bombs they have built. They built their bombs using instructioio that are available from jihadist web sites including al qaedas online magazine inspire. They modified their assault rifles trying to make them into automatic weapons using instructions available on these online jihadist sites. Theres her facebook posts pledging support for isis. Theres sort of trade craft things. They attempted to destroy their electronic media, smash their cell phones knowing the fbi would come back and look at that. Then he had contact with people at that the fbi has been watching. Let me follow up at. He had contact with the fbi which leads to a question the attorney general has to answer the fbis radar screen . Not contact with the fbi but contact with people that the fbi was watching from time to time. People that came up on the counterterrorism radar. They dont know the nature of the contact. They have in essence phone records, social media records. They say he didnt have a lot of contacts with them and one of the things thehe fbi looks at in analyzing these things is whats the frequency of the contact . Are they reaching out to the same networks over and over again theyll say did we miss something but at the time no red flags were raised. Worst terrorist attack on u. S. Soil since 9 11 and no group is taking responsibility. How scare i have that . Its scary because it fits the isis play book perfectly. Isis may try to direct but what its trying to do is inspire so these are inspired attacks, they are, where they live that understand theh culture and understand in part how to terrorize those communities. So what would you need Resource Wise . If you had every is there enough resources you can have, the fbi could have, that could stop syed farook and his wife from doing this . This is a multifaceted plan and you dont have enough resources. Off huge american population, a small, small, small subset that is radicalized and an even smaller subset that takes action and you cant cover everyone who has some contact with someone bad. You need is offense oversea, defense at home with intelligence and Law Enforcement and really deep engagement with these communities. Even if they had the resources there are legal limits here. The fbi cant listen to everybody it wants to. There has to be a predicate that allows them legally to start monitoring. We just changed the bulk Data Collection of the nsa. How much would that is that, do you think, impacting this investigation . I dont think bulk Data Collection was an enormous factor because generally that deals with overseas calls to the United States. Did was make the process more efficient so there were no silver bullets there but when yoyo do have really tapped out resources to cover so many investigations it can help you move through and discard some faster. So in that regard it may have played not a major role but some supportive role. Michael leiter, p pe williams, thank you both. In what may be a preview of what the president will say tonight, president obama did address the investigation and terrorism in his weekly address this, of course, aired yesterday. Its entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror and it would underscore a threat weve been focused on for years, the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies. We know isil and other terrorist groups are encouraging people around the world and in our country to commit terrible acts of violence. Often times as lonene wolf actors. For the latest on the investigation, im joined by the attorney general, Loretta Lynch. Madam attorney general, welcome good morning. We are four days since the attack. What can you tell us about the state of the investigation and what we know now . This investigation is ongoing, its wide ranging, very complex. Ceceainly as you know, were four days away from the horrific attacks. Immediately the fbi began working with our state and local counterparts with whom we have an excellent relationship. This is an fbi investigation now because of the indications that we do have of radicalization. This is a terrorism investigation at this point in time but we contin to work closely with our state and local counterparts, also atf, marshalls are on the ground. Were focusing on the victims of this horrific attack. Four days, over 300 interviews. Several locations searched. A lot of information being processededbeing analyzed andd being gathered. And m