Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline Extra 20171127

Hello and welcome to dateline extra. When police got word someone had fallen off a cliff, they werent surprised. The place was known to be dangerous. Even they couldnt guess it would take almost 20 years to find out what really happened to a woman out on an evening hike with her husband. Reporter every couple has it. A shared song, a favorite movie, or maybe a special place. Steven says for him and his wife jody, this was it. Two rocks forming a lovers chair on the edge of a cliff. That was our spot. We would bring a couple of lawn chairs, a cooler and she would bring her work from graduate school. Reporter they had been escaping to this place for years, ever since they were newlyweds in a starter apartment in new jersey. Up here, the air was fresh and the views seemed limitless. It framed by trees. You could look down and to the right and see the view of the George Washington bridge. Reporter what they couldnt see from here, of course, was the future. Had they caught even a glimpse of what was to come, surely, they would have abandoned this place forever. Steven and jody met in the late 70s in georgia. He was in the army. A book worm who loved the civil war. She taught history. Theirs was a meeting first of minds, then hearts. How would you sort of describe those early years . Were they loving . Were they excitie ingxciting . Yes. They were we were in love. Reporter from there, marriage. A house. A son jonathan in 1983. How would you describe jody as a mom . She was really devoted. Reporter life was good. Even as the years went by, even with the demands of work and family, steven says he and jody still made time for each other. Like that last summer sunday in september of 1992. Steven says it was supposed to be a date night. No idea that that would be the most critical day in our life in our marriage. Reporter it was a day like any other day . Yes. Reporter husband and wife would drive into manhattan and go to a comedy club. A light hearted night on the town. They made a detour here to their spot. Steven remembers pulling up to the scenic lookout, sitting in the car with jody. Sharing a wine cooler. There were other people there sitting in their cars. We looked over the spot where the binoculars were and walked up to the sort of open view. Reporter he says they then turned and took a narrow well worn path to those rocks. They sat there as the night fell around them. He with his back against the rock, holding her as she sat directly in front of him. At some point something goes terribly wrong. Yes. Reporter he says he stood up intending to go back to the car to get wine and a blanket. For whatever reason, jody stood up, too. The edge of the rock was at her feet. What was your last glimpse of your wife . Just standing up and and stumbling forward. Reporter jody had gone off the cliff. I didnt know how bad things were. But i was stunned. Reporter what did you do . I got down on my stomach. I stuck my head over i just yelled. Jody. Jody. Talk to me. I just yelled down there. Reporter no response. He grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist who came here to the Police Station. Lieutenant seary was on duty. It was a very quiet night. All hell broke loose. Reporter the frantic man was telling them a woman had fallen from the lookout above. That her husband was waiting for help. The Police Called in michael, an experienced climber. I was there as a rescue mission. I thought she was alive. Reporter he began to lower himself off the side of the cliff where the womans husband said she had fallen. About ten feet down. He caught site of a length. The minute i got to the length, i observed the purse. I think it was two credit cards. Reporter on a length ten feet down . Right. Reporter it was what he didnt see that confused him. There was no sign that the womans body had hit that length or any part of the cliffs. Nothing. No blood. No hair. No clothing, no fibers, no skin. Reporter by that point, officer walter seary had arrived at the lookout. Since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, seary was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police headquarters. On the way, steven recounted the awful moment when his wife disappeared. We were walking. She said to go back to the car and get the blanket. She slipped. I didnt see her anymore. Reporter as they arrived at the station, rescuer had made it to the base of the cliff, more than 100 feet below the top. He expected to find a wounded woman there. But he didnt. Im saying, shes not here. The first point i said, maybe this is a hoax. Maybe she never went off the cliff. Reporter he and another rescuer began to walk along the base, pointing their flashlights north. Finally, about 30 feet away, the beams landed on something white. It was jody, lying motionless next to a tree. There was a lot of blood on that tree. The blood was actually draining down the tree. Thats where severe impact took. Thats where she really reporter jody had not survived. It was clear she had slammed into that tree. As they began to move the body, he noticed something else. She had an odor of an alcoholic beverage that emanated from her body. Reporter when you smelled that, did you think, well maybe she had had too much to drink and fell . That entered my mind, yes. Reporter at that moment, steven was sitting in a room at the Police Station waiting for someone to tell him what had happened to his wife. Do you remember whats going through your mind at this point . How badly is she hurt . Where is he had . Why isnt she calling back to me . Reporter thats when an officer walked into the room and broke the news to steven. Jody was gone. I dont remember who came in and told me. Reporter what was your reaction . Denial. How could this happen . Reporter that question would haunt him and many others. It would take years for the answers to finally come. Coming up he was rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. Reporter you thought he was faking tears . Absolutely. Curious behavior puts a husband under the microscope. When over the edge continues. I saw the change in rich when we moved into the new house. But having his parents over was enlightening. You dont like my lasagna . No, its good. Hmm. Oh. Huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. Blow on it. You see it, right . Is there a draft in here . Im telling you, its so easy to get Home Insurance on progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. My bladder leakage was making me feel like i couldnt spend time with my grandson. Now depend fitflex has their fastest absorbing material inside, so it keeps me dry and protected. Go to depend. Com get a coupon and try them for yourself. Go to depend. Com whfight back fastts, with tums smoothies. It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums jimmys gotten used to his whole yup, hes gone noseblind. Odors. He thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics. Theres febreze fabric refresher. Febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve. Gone noseblind to. And try Febreze Unstopables for fabric. With up to twice the fresh scent power, youll want to try it. Again and again and maybe just one more time. Indulge in irresistible freshness. Febreze unstopables. Breathe happy. Throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. Just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh . Hey . I paused it. Bam, family time. So how is everyone . Find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. Welcome back to dateline extra. It started out as a romantic date. It ended in tragedy. Jody and steve hiked to a favorite spot along the cliffs to take in the view. A short while later, jody fell over the edge and questions about what really happened that night began to mount. Reporter it was the worst night of his life. Now steven, in the Early Morning hours of september 21, 1992, had to tell his 10yearold son jonathan his mother was dead. I said, come on, jonathan, we need to take a walk. I told him. He immediately burst into tears and i cried. I cried like a baby. I wasnt ashamed. Reporter he remembers his distraught sons reaction. But little else from those dark hours. Were you sleeping . Were you eating . Drinking. Reporter you were drinking . I lost my wife. My son lost his mom. Reporter there was plenty of sympathy among family and friends to be sure. For the man newly widowed with a small child to raise on his own. His wife had died in a freak accident, off a cliff of all places. How could that happen . And thats exactly what police who were there the night of jodys death wanted to know, too. Right away i got a feeling that there was something wrong. Reporter it nagged at the rescuer. Why was her purse on a leng led feet below . Part of her should be here. Reporter thats what came to you . She should be here or the pocketbook should be with her. It wasnt fitting. Reporter another thought dawned on him. If jody had tumbled, why hadnt she hit the side of the cliff . There was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. The location of jodys body seemed off to him. Way off. She was like 30 to 40 feet away to the north. A person falls off the cliff, theyre going to go south or they will go right down. Should have been right down where i got off the ropes. Thats why she should have been. Reporter someone else was scratching his head for different reasons. It had to do with stevens behavior while the search was under way. Officer seary was surprised steven was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. Did he give any indication, i dont want to leave, my wife could still be alive down there . Not at all. Reporter he said he couldnt believe how willingly steven got into his patrol car. I tell you, if it was my wife, girlfriend, whoever, they would have had to pry me away if i was at the top of the cliffs. Reporter he got into your patrol car . Without a word said. Reporter stranger still was how calm the husband seemed. When the officer heard steven describe how his wife had fallen, he made a mental note. There was no emotion. No emotion at all. Like he was reading a script. Reporter did it occur to you, maybe he is in shock . No. Ive seen people who lost loved ones and ive never seen anybody act that way. Reporter it was a particular moment later inside the station that really caught the officers attention. He asked if he could get a drink. He was looking over his shoulder at me and splashing water up into his face and rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. Reporter you thought he was faking tears . Absolutely. Absolutely. Reporter a death scene where the pieces didnt connect. A husband who appeared nonchalant. From a cops point of view, things were adding up and not in stevens favor. Not just one thing. It was the totality of the circumstances. Everything every little thing was clicking in my mind. Im saying to myself, you know, this isnt right. Something is wrong here. Reporter gut instinct is one thing. But evidence is quite another. People handle terrible events in different ways. The police are paid to be suspicious. Maybe their view of steven was too jaundiced. There really was nothing to indicate that jodys fall was anything but an accident. A few months later, the ruling was in. The medical examiner concluded the manner of jodys death could not be determined. An accident was as likely as anything else. Case closed. Or was it . Coming up reporter you didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. Suspicions grow. Was there a weapon at this romantic rendezvous . Wine, cheese, crackers, claw hammer. Red flares are going up. They reach the top of the pole at that point. When over the edge continues. When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Welcome back to dateline extra. Police began to question stev stevens behavior after his wife fell from the edge of a cliff. To them, he just didnt seem like a grieving husband. But did their suspicions amount to anything more than a hunch . Reporter jodys death had been a horrible accident. Her husband said so. The medical examiner wasnt arguing with him. Detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. It was telling james something sinister had just happened. You didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. Reporter there wasnt any smoking gun really. Just something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. He did not react like somebody should have reacted. Reporter the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. He quickly learned from jodys friends that this was a couple not in love but in crisis. The subject wasnt wine and roses on those cliffs. It was divorce. She was going to go through with it, yes. Absolutely. Reporter jodys longtime friend marion told detectives that skro that jody had been determined to take her son and leave her husband. She was convinced steven had been cheating on her. She couldnt prove anything. But women called the house. Sometimes they would call and hang up on her. Reporter in fact, they learned jody served divorce papers on september 8, 1992. Less than two weeks later, she was dead. The timing made him more eager. Reporter two days after his wifes death, steven was freely answering questions. Yes, he told them. He and his wife were talking divorce. As they had sometimes done during their marriage. It was true, there were other women. He told us they had an open marriage. They were seeing different people. He said he had been with 50 to 60 women. Reporter she was okay with it . According to him. Reporter he told detectives they had become unhappy with their free love lifestyle. So they came to this romantic, if treacherous spot, to recommit to each other. To kiss and make up. The spot where they went was not a spot you would go to reconcile with anybody. Reporter detectives werent buying the story for another reason. They had found something suspicious inside the car. A bag filled with items you would expect for a romantic pick anymore and one you would not. A hammer. Wine, cheese, crackers, opener, claw hammer. Red flares reach the top of the pole. Reporter did you think that might be a murder weapon . That might have been plan a. He didnt use it. He went to plan b. Reporter which he believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff. Detectives asked steven the obvious. What was a hammer doing in that picnic bag . He told us he fixed a drawer in his kitchen with the hammer. And he just forgot to put it back in the garage. He put it in the bag with the picnic items. It was convenient. It was a convenient excuse for having that hammer. Reporter detectives asked if they would check out the drawer and the rest of stevens house that night. He agreed. As it turned out, something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. I said, look, im your local police department. Reporter he was a local officer told to keep an eye on steven that night as detectives combed through his house. The officer says he began talking to steven about what had happened to jody when steven interrupted him. He looks at me and he goes, you dont believe me. Reporter then the officer says he said something that almost knocked him off his feet. I said, i believe an accident occurred. I said, was it an accident . And he put his head down and he said, no. Reporter he believed that was a stunning confession. He ran to tell the other detectives, including lynum. But they had spent hours grilling the man. We werent getting that feeling. Reporter the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate steven. But they didnt. We took it as far as we could go. There hadnt been the cause of death at that time was listed as undetermined. So officially, it wasnt a homicide. Reporter in time, the detectives moved on to other cases. Steven moved on, too. 14 years after his wifes death, he remarried. Tina says he has been a loving, ideal husband. It was like we were two puzzle pieces that were made for each other. We just each of us completed the other person. Reporter even in this happy new life he says, he has never forgotten about jody. He might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking of her, too, after all these years. They had a new prosecutor and he was eager to revisit old case files. Among them an unexplained death here on the cliffs so many years ago. The death of jody. There was this renewed push since 2002 to look into the cold cases. Reporter he covered the trial for the repocord in new jersey. On one hand it didnt seem they had any reason to pursue it. In terms of hard evidence, it had nothing new. Reporter the prosecutor did have someone new. A famous name to join the investigation into jodys death. Dr. Michael bodden, a world renounced forensic pathologist who investigated the death of john f. Kennedy and testified at the trial of o. J. Simpson. He was about to turn up the heat on a very cold case. The doctor has reviewed the evidence and has determined that this could not have been an accidental fall. Reporter in december of 2008, detectives paid one more visit to steven. They wouldnt tell me what it was for. I had no idea what this was about. It didnt make sense. Reporter 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff, police were back. Steven was in for a shock. After all these years, you thought it was done. Not until they reached behind and hand me this thing this arrest warrant. Coming up, the case heads into court with a surprise from the stand. For my mother. Their only son has some dark secrets to share. Did you see that abuse . I did. When over the edge continues. T complain about dry mouth they feel that they have to drink a lot of water. Medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. Dry mouth can cause increased cavities, bad breath, oral irritation. I like to recommend biotene. Biotene has a full array of products that replenishes the moisture in your mouth. Biotene definitely works. It makes patients so much happier. [heartbeat] advil liquigels minis. Our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. A small new size thats fast, cause its liquid. Woohoo youll ask, what pain . New advil liquigels minis. Michigan congressman john conyers is stepping down from his position at the as the top democrat on the house judiciary committee. That decision coming before a congressional investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. The 88yearold lawmaker says that he will not resign from congress. Democratic minnesota senator al franken says he is embarrassed and ashamed at allegations of groping women. He will return to work on monday. Four women have accused him of sexual misconduct. Now back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline extra. Years after jody fell to her death, a new prosecutor reopened the case and brought in a famous forensic pathologist to reexamine the evidence. What would he uncover . What stuck in his mind reporter in every murder trial, time is an invisible but crucial player. 16 years. Reporter sometimes it hurts a case. Memories fade. Evidence is lost. Witnesses die. But time can also put evidence in a new light. Such was the case in the trial of steven. Accused of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. There is no statute of limitations on murder. Reporter the prosecutor promised the evidence would tell a story as simple as it was brutal. A husband determined to avoid a costly divorce, lured his wife to the edge of a cliff and forced her off it. If he has lied, he is guilty. Reporter the state marshalled some familiar facts to tell its story, starting with the crime scene where the prosecutor said the cliffs showed no sign of an accidental tumble. No debris, no clothing, no blood, no hair, no tissue. Reporter then there was the husband himself, cool and collected in the back of a police car. I didnt see any emotion from him at all. Reporter who confessed, the prosecutor said, to killing his wife. Then i said, it was an accident . And he said, no. Reporter those facts were not where the case ended. The prosecutor argued that they simple set the stage for the real case. A story told by the victims friends, family and most importantly by a star witness. My opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. Reporter the doctor, famous forensic pathologist, told jurors of crime scene spoke of a murder, not an accident. If a person falls accidentally, the individual will be within a couple of feet of the base of the building. Reporter that didnt happen in the case of jody. Her body landed 50 feet out from the top of the cliff. And 30 feet to the north. She had to have been propelled from that point. Reporter jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said. And likely from another spotten tirely on those cliffs. He wasnt the only expert who saw it that way. The head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. Reporter the medical examiner first ruled the circumstances of the death could not be determined. Now on second look she said the victims wounds or lack of them told her something different. Something vital. If jody had tumbled innocently down, she would have had broken bones everywhere. She did not. There were no visible injuries on the back of her body. Reporter why would steven had killed his wife . The biggest reason the prosec e prosecutor argued was that steven did not want to divorce. He didnt want a custody fight. And he didnt want to split assets with jody. And there was yet another motive for steven, said the prosecutor. A potential payout. Usaa Life Insurance company. Reporter an insurance representative testified about a 500,000 policy taken out against jody months before her death. Payable to a primary beneficiary. Can you tell us the policy owner . Steven. Reporter jody was worth more dead than alive. Her friend testified that jody feared steven might do something violent if she pushed for the divorce. Even so, marion said, jody was determined to get away from her husband. She was going to have divorce papers served on steven. She was very afraid of him. Reporter yet was steven violent enough to kill his wife . An unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against steven. Im here for my mother. Reporter his own son took the stand against him. Now a businessman, jonathan painted his father as an angry, violent man who terrorized his mother. Did you see that abuse . I did. Reporter jonathan said he realized his father had likely killed his mother only after that arrest in 2008. This videotaped interview shows hum recalling the dark past for the first time to police. She got coffee thrown at her. Reporter now in court, he had even more to tell about his childhood. Like the afternoon he sat cowering in the back seat of a car watching his mother suffer. My mom was driving. My dad just hitting her with the bottom of his fist. I was begging him to stop. Reporter he remembered the last day of his mothers life. He was 10. Said his mother told his father that she didnt want to go out with him alone. She said, if i wanted to go out with you, i wouldnt be divorcing you. Reporter where was the proof that steven had planned to kill jody that night . Well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. But there was also testimony from this woman one of stevens old girlfriends. I mentioned to my girlfriend it was perfect relationship. Rrlt terry had been dating steven months before jodys death. Did he tell you whether or not he was married . Actually he said he was not married. Reporter she remembered something strange steven said to her on the beach over that labor day weekend. He was under a lot of stress and it would be resolved by the end of september. Reporter two weeks later, jody was dead. Terry now sees that cryptic statement in a dreadful light. I was like, the end of september. Then the light bulb went off. Reporter it went off for marion. In perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecutions case, she told the jury that when she heard her friend was gone, she immediately remembered something jody said just weeks earlier. She said that during this conversation i have with him, if anything happens to me, you will know who did it. She said, you will know it was him. Reporter the prosecutors position was clear, a husband with a motive. The perfect setting. The violent intent to kill his wife. Or was there another way of looking at that couple perched high on the cliffs on a summer night . Stevens new wife says the prosecution has it all wrong. My husband is not capable. That is not the man he is. My husband is sweet, kind, loving, considerate. Reporter the defense was ready to show how steven, far from villain, was the real victim in this story. Coming up they destroyed the crime scene area. New questions about the evidence and was there another reason why his son might implicate his dad. Who does the money go to . It goes to me. When over the edge continues. Fred would do anything for his daughter. Get in, fred even if it means being the back half of a unicorn. Fear not fred, the front half washed his shirt with gain. And that smell puts the giddy in giddyup ah. The irresistible scent of gain flings laundry detergent. You cant help but smell happy. Welcome back to dateline extra. We continue now with over the edge. Steven is not guilty reporter 18 years after the death of his first wife, more than a decade after the investigation first stalled, steven was being called a killer. But his defense attorney argued there was no new evidence in this case, no new eyewitnesses. Only new opinions. Im talking about the same old facts and circumstances. Reporter he said the state was hoping to win a murder conviction by painting his client as a terrible husband. That it couldnt prove he was a killer in 1992, and it couldnt prove it today. My client has been wrongfully charged with her death. Reporter one reason the prosecutor couldnt prove murder had to do with Sloppy Police work the defense attorney said. Suggesting it had been like keystone cops that fatal night. You never photographed the body before you moved it, did you . No, sir. Why didnt they take photographs . They destroyed the crime scene area. Reporter they didnt even bother to question potential eyewitnesses, he said. Instead, they cleared visitors from the lookout. There might have been someone who saw something or heard something. There might have been. Theres a possibility that might have happened. Reporter if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later, the defense said, why didnt they videotape their int interview with him . That way, jurors could have judged stevens supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. Why didnt you . Not an interrogation. He wasnt in custody. I dont know. Reporter the defense attorney argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. My client never said this wasnt an accident. Reporter as for that hammer, police thought was a weapon the hammer was examined by the forensic experts. There was nothing found on that hammer. Reporter the defense attorney pressed the medical examiner on her flipflop. Undetermined manner of death in 93. Now it was a homicide . Really . Are you trying to say that you are learning from your mistakes on this case . You may call them mistakes, sir. I did the best i could in 1992, documenting what i had observed. Reporter the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one critical way though. She determined that jody had been drunk the night she fell off the cliffs. Jody had a blood alcohol level of. 12. That was over the legal limit. Equivalent to approximately four average size drinks, wine or beer, Something Like that. Reporter a drunken slip and fall argued the defense. To back that up, the lawyer had his own heavy hitter. Famed forensic pathologist dr. Wecht. He posted a resume of starstudded investigations as high profile as the prosecutions. Only he had a totally different take on how jody died. I would call this an accidental death. Reporter in his version, which he demonstrated with, of all things, a teddy bear, jody fell off the cliff and onto jagged rocks below, causing her mortal wounds. Her body then catapulted. Out goes the body. Reporter into the tree canopy which carried her through the abyss and into that distant tree. This is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and her head. Reporter there was another bubble to burst in the prosecutions case. The motive for murder. Steven wasnt a greedy killer his attorney said. His client never made a claim on that insurance policy. It was only after the money was turned over to the state, years later, he said, that steven even bothered to collect. Would it throw fuel on the fire not to do it . I know i look guilty because i am guilty. I better not make this claim. You are damned if you do. You are damned if you dont. Reporter the other alleged motive, divorce, was flimsy as well, he said. Jody and steven had been talking breakup for years. Those divorce papers just the latest legal salvo in an ongoing marital spat. The prosecutor paints a picture of someone who frankly is furious about this divorce. No one person ever indicated that my client was furious over this divorce. They had talked about divorce for years. Maybe she was saying one thing and not following through. Reporter though it is true steven did not want a divorce. He says he wanted to give the marriage another chance. As for that former girlfriend . She recounted stevens mysterious statement just before jodys death. Give me to the end of september and everything will be okay. The stress will be a lot of the stress will be gone. Reporter the defense attorney said that was stevens way of trying to dump his girlfriend. Speaking of which, he added, those other women did not bother jody as all. She was seeing other people herself. The person on the bottom half in both of those is who . Jody. Reporter the Record Keeper of a dating service testified her name was on an application. She even checked off the interests she would like to share with a mate. The attorney offered that as proof of steven and jodys open marriage. But what really had torn at the heart of steven was the testimony of his son jonathan. Remember her showing me her bruises. Reporter he had painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. I never hit jody. It made me sick to my stomach. Reporter the young man wasnt to be believed, said the lawyer. For one thing, when police interviewed jonathan in 2008, the young man described his dad as a good guy. He was a fairly decent, you know, fairly decent parent. Reporter it was only after detectives told him his dad had just been arrested that the son turned on his father. She on his father. Before you found out that your dad was arrested, did you lie . Yes. And did you lie more than once . Yes. Why would jonathan turn on his father and lie . The defense lawyer said it was jonathan, not his dad, who was motivated by greed. If Steven Scharf was convicted, his son would get all that insurance money. Whoops the money go to . It goes to me. In the end the lawyer called Steven Scharfs son a spoiled brat. That sounds like some spoiled kid. Who was not a credible witness. In closing they insisted this wasnt a murder case, just a sad store about a woman who tumbled dru drunkenly to her death. This case is an accident, nothing more, nothing less. Soon it would be in the hands of a jury. Coming up. It was lightbulb. You couldnt help but think, thats interesting. The jurors speak. What would they decide . Steven, did you kill your wife, jody . The verdict when over the edge continues. I love you, couch. You give us comfort. And we give you bare feet, backsweat, and gordos. Everything. I love you, but sometimes you stink. Soft surfaces trap odors. Febreze fabric refresher cleans them away for good. Because the things you love the most can stink. And plug in febreze to keep your whole room fresh for up to 45 days. Breathe happy with febreze. The jury is about to decide the fate of Stephen Scharf. Heres chris janson with the conclusion of our story. 18 years after a night that ended in his wifes death off a cliff, Stephen Scharf stood accused of murder by the state of new jersey. And through it all, one thing he wants you to know is this, he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jody. Never. Stephen, did you kill your wife, jody . I did not hurt jody. I did not. Did you throw her off the palisades. I did not. I did not hurt jody. I did not push her. I did not cause her to get hurt. I did not kill my wife. We talked to Stephen Scharf at the county jail where he was held after his arrest for two years. He and his wife tina said they paid for something he didnt do. Our daughter is two and a half and hes never held her. Its not a tragedy for jody, its a tragedy for my wife, for my daughter and myself. Still he decided not to talk the stand in his own defense. But told dateline what he said years ago was the truth. I wish it didnt happen. I wish we had gone to the comedy club. But im innocent. But had the jury gotten that same message . When they walked into that deliberating room for the first time, some jurors, in fact, planned to vote not guilty. There wasnt enough evidence for me. Thats what it was. Others were thinking guilty. It was a several things. It was no one thing that had made up my mind. The jurors went back and forth over the evidence. And heres what they came to believe. That jody was likely drunk and that her husband knew it. And if that was the case, why would he let her get so close to the edge of a cliff. As the husband, knowing that your wife was drinking, would you bring her there . The jurors deliberated three days before deciding whether Stephen Scharf should be found guilty or not guilty of a single count of murder. On the charge of murder of jody an scharf, your verdict is . Guilty. Later, jurors said what united them was the testimony of jodys friend telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. That possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me, it was my husband. And it was another woman in stevens life who swayed the jury. Terry scofield recounting what he said weeks earlier, that his stress would soon be over. That was what pushed me at the end. It was the lightbulb. It was her husband that slipped with that statement. They believed it wasnt a fall from the cliffs, they believed it was an execution. Stephen scharf was sentence today life in prison. He said the jurors condemned him not on the fact but on his and jodys tumultuous open marriage. You think this was a judgment on the part of the jurors . I think people would say he was punished for his moral weakness, but this was a murder trial. But for the rescuer, its a fitting end to the night thats haunted him on the palisades. It has never left me. Its been years. I went back there myself without people knowing it because it bothered me. For Close Friends like marian, the verdict does not remove the sting of the loss. Im angry that he took the life of a beautiful person. Thats what bothers me the most. That he would do that and think that he was going to get away with it. He wanted the insurance money, he wanted his son, hed have the house. Hed have whatever he wanted, and shed be out of the way. I think that was sad. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra im craig melvin, thanks for watching. I get my strength from my mother. She was my very best friend. I called my mom and she didnt answer. I pretty much knew in my heart that something was wrong. A mother vanished. I cried myself to sleep. It was awful realizing your Worst Nightmare had come true. A family anguished. Shes gone. Do you have any idea how