prosecutors say their story was a lie. and swift justice. try sue taylor swift and she might just shake it off. why the case was thrown out of court. but first the night line five. ♪ >> no wonder you can't sleep. your car is a mess. >> you need parts i've never heard of. >> when life keeps you up, it let's you sleep in 20 minutes. >> number one in just 60 whoooo. going somewhere? here's some advice. tripadvisor now searches more... ...than 200 booking sites - to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30%. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight dallas cowboy serum star ezekiel elliott suspend without pay for allegations of domestic violence. even though he hasn't been charged with a crime. he was known for letting domestic abusers off easy even in the face of what some called overwhelming evidenceful are we now seeing a new nfl? >> into the second day! it's a foot race and he will not be touched. >> he is one of the nfl's top players. the super star dallas cowboy player ezekiel elliott. the host of the nfl in dallas, texas. baring it all. >> ezekiel elliott, plain and simple, is one of the best young players in the game. it is a major blow to a team that thought they could compete for a super bowl this season. >> but now under a cloud of controversy, suspended for six gals for violating the nfl's personal conduct policy. >> the dallas cowboys are furious. >> in a letter informing elliott of the decision, they said it systems from their investigation. his ex-girlfriend accused himself of multiple instances of physical violence during the week in july 2016. she reported it to the police department, elliott has denied allegations and was never arrested or charged with the crime. >> the commissioner roger goodell has the power to be able to suspend players, even though they aren't found guilty in a court of law. >> damian was an offensive lineman for the new england patriots and the new york jets. >> from the players' perspective, a lot of players are shocked by the fact that it is six games. considering that ezekiel elliott hadn't been convicted of a crime as far as domestic violence is concerned. >> the nfl conducted its own investigation and said they found credible evidence establish that's on multiple occasions, he used physical force against her resulting in her injury, including on one occasion, injuries to her face, arms, wrist and hands. when you hear what ezekiel elliott allegedly did, it is incredibly troubling. least three times, hitting his girlfriend. hitting her all over her body. over and over again. this is the kind of thing that you just scratch your head and you say, how is this possible this man could do this one night and another night and another night? >> in the letter to elliott the nfl pointed to an incident in march 2017. caption and video obtained by tmz sports. he appeared to pull down a shirt and grab a woman's breasts. the nfl called it inappropriate and disturbing and reflected a lack of respect for women. >> for him to behave in that manner, shocking the woman, shocking anyone who watched it, this is a role model? are you kidding me? late this afternoon, elliott's attorneys responding in a statement. that the nfl's findings are replete with factual inaccuracies and erroneous conclusions and it cherry picks so-called evidence to support its conclusion. elliott's lawyer plans to appeal. saying a slew of could not troe verting evidence will come to life. and saying i am both surprised and disappointed in the nfl's decision. today admit that i am far from perfect but i plan to continue to work very hard on and off the field to mature and earn the great opportunity that i have been been given. it was a stark contrast to ray rice who was arrested for assaulting his then fiance. this video showing rice dragging his then fiance's limpl body out of an elevator after what police say was an assault. he was indicted on assault charges. the very next day they married. two months later they appeared together at a press conference. >> i failed miserably but i wouldn't call myself a failure. i'm working my way back up. i wanted to thank her for loving me where i was weak and building where i was strong. >> palmer to justifieses. >> i do deeply regret in the role i played that night. i love ray. >> some critics called the press conference a sham. >> a horrible press conference where she is apologizing for her behavior, which was just unthinkable. >> then nfl gave rice what many considered a slap on the wrist. a two-game suspension for domestic violence. >> there are consequences when you make a mistake plifblg i tan behind ray. he is a heck of a guy. >> a firestorm erupts. the six-game suspension on players using banned substances and then later, a second video emerges also obtained by including independent investigative powers and a minimum six-game suspension for first time domestic violence offenders. the suspension one of the first major tests of the new policy. >> this was the time where the league finally acted and it sent a message. any player who will be involved in any domestic violence incidents, this will not be tolerated and it won't be second. >> this is a stunning fall from grace for one of the nfl's most promising players. elliott was the star at ohio state. elliott's prospects were so bright, e-60 profiled him right before the 2016 draft. >> if you trust the support system, you trust people who care for you, you listen to them, then nothing but good things are come from that. >> the dallas cowboys select ezekiel elliott. >> he was the fourth player chosen overall and headed to the biggest stage in football, dallas. >> for the touchdown. in his rookie season, he led in rushing. >> i'm a competitor. i love going out there with the high stakes. everyone has their eyes on you. that's fine with me. >> helped the cowboys reach the playoffs. >> out across the 45. today's decision by the nfl putting this season on hold. >> jerry jones, the cowboys' owner had been outspoken in public about the fact that he led the league's report. he looked into it and he didn't believe that ezekiel elliott committed any domestic violence acts here. >> this is an opportunity for zeke to have some self-reflection. hopefully a guy talented, he will get it together. and be productive, not only on the field but in the community. >> the nfl is a brand, a day when a player's behavior off the field was met with a little more than a wrinkle long gone. next, a former fbi sxagt his daughter convicted of killing her husband. was it self-defense or murder? 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>> no. my father is guilty of saving my life. >> tonight, molly martins core bet and her father tom are convicted of second-degree murder in the death of molly's husband, 39-year-old jason corbett. >> this morning a father and daughter in north carolina are headed to prison. >> the father and daughter claim it was self-defense. they made for a rare pair of murder defendants. she had never broken the law, while he made a career enforcing it. working for the fbi for 30 plus years. and yet, here they are enmeshed in a crime that has made news from the mountains of north carolina to ireland where nearly a decade ago, molly took job as a nanny after an inquiry from a father in desperate need. >> jason corbett was emotional. he had lost his wife and there were two babies. >> very quickly, their relationship goes from professional to personal. she back's mother to jason's two kids. then 3-year-old jack and 1-year-old sarah. after three years together, jason and molly marry in molly's home state of tennessee. >> the wedding day, i have excited for them. >> the familiar little stays in the u.s. moving into four-bedroom home. >> it was dream summer. >> molly has it all, except one thing, jason is refusing to make they are children's legal mother. >> i felt like he was going to follow through with the adoption papers. >> but that never happened. and molly says there were other problems in their relationship. >> he was very controlling and very possessive. >> he would dictate what she should wear or shop for, when she should be home. >> molly says the fights were escalating and the kids witnessed them. later, son jack tells a social worker what he saw. >> he would physically and verbally hurt my mom. >> molly says a lawyer told her to document any alleged abuse. >> are you finished? >> i'm talking to you. is this how you treat -- you just ignore me? >> she said she's caught between a rock and a hard place. without a legal adoption, she has no shot of custody in the event of a divorce. >> i always came to the same conclusion that it wouldn't be better for them to lose a second mother. >> tom martins knows his daughter is suffering but decides she doesn't need another man bossing her around. >> i was not going to interfere in molly's marriage. that was molly's marriage. >> two years ago that changed with tom and molly's mother were spending the night at the house. >> i don't know what precisely woke me up. what i heard were loud voices, like thumping. something bad was going. on i grabbed that little league baseball bat and i ran upstairs. >> the bat was in his room. he had brought it as a gift for his grandson. >> what did you see? >> it's awful. he has his hands around her neck. he has her in a chokehold. fear was secondary at that point. i was so ashamed that my father would see me like that. >> and i said let her go. and he said i'm going on kill her. >> tom said he hit him in the head with a baseball bat but jason kept dragging molly toward the bathroom. >> hit him hard in the back of the head again. >> you hit him hard. >> yeah, did i. >> he still got her by the throat but he changed his tactics. he decides to come back at me. >> jason just grabbed the bat away. like it was nothing. >> tom said he threw her to the ground. i was screaming, don't hurt my dad, don't hurt my dad. i thought, he's going to kill my father. >> i rush him and i grab the bat with two hands. trying to hit him with the bat and he goes down. and then i realize, he is not going to get up. it looks like the threat is over. >> he's bleeding all over. i play killed him. >> with what? >> with a baseball bat. >> they tell the police it was self-defense. just days after jason's death, molly begins fighting for custody of the children she's raised for eight years. while she's focused on sarah and jack, the police have turned their focus to molly and tom. >> dadeson county prosecutors say they took a hard look at these photos and noticed a vast difference between jason's injuries and the absence of injuries they say on molly and her father. >> they walked away with nary a mark on them. and he left on a board with his skull crushed and his scalp ripped off. >> investigators say that bloody brick found in the bedroom is a key piece of evidence. in her police interview that night, molly admits she hit her husband with it. >> i hit him on the head. >> with what? >> with a brick. >> prosecutors become convinced molly and her father are lying and charge them with second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. >> are you guilty of murder? >> no. >> did you murder your son-in-law? >> no. i didn't murder my son-in-law. and i would challenge any reasonable man, much less a reasonable father, to say that this was unnecessary forceful. >> during the trial he took stand and said he did what any father would do. >> you were defending your daughter. >> i was. >> i'm going to do everything that i have to do to save her life. >> but prosecutors tell jury to disregard tom's testimony and focus instead on the blood spatter in the bedroom. they point to pictures like these, noting that most of the blood spatter is on the lower half of the wall with the area above relatively clean. prosecutors say that demonstrates that jason was still being hit after he was down. they challenged the notion that there was ever a threat that night. floating a possible motive for murder that jason may have been considering returning to ireland and taking his kids with him. >> molly's life was about those children and she wanted those kids. >> she was willing to kill for it? >> maybe so. >> defense attorney walter holten said molly was the victim of abuse and there were two children in the house that knew it. and the jury didn't get to hear from they will. >> mr. corbett's family took children to ireland. they could have brought them back and let them testify. >> but during the trial, prosecutors read a statement from jack where he called molly a murderer. and according to prosecutors, before the trial, they spoke to jack and this time he denied his father ever abused molly. after nearly four hours of deliberation, they return a verdict. guilty of second-degree murder. these jurors say they were convince in the part by the lack of injuries to molly and tom and they say they have a theory of their own about what really happened. >> i believe molly made the first blow. >> why? >> i believe jason was in bed sleeping. and she struck him with the paver. >> and her dad help her cover it up? >> i think at some point dad dime help out and help cover up. >> the judge sentenced both father and daughter on 20 to 25 years in prison. when i spoke with molly, she told me that even before that sentence, she had already lost something more precious than her freedom. >> my life end that had day they took kids. >> for "nightline," lexington, north carolina. and next, why the case against wildest dreams singer taylor swift was dismissed. where's gary? 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[cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ welcome to second chance week on "who wants to be a millionaire." >> yeah! >> today's second-chance contestant wanted to save all three lifelines, so she took a risk on the $50,000 question. she calls that her $45,000 lesson to ask for help. from new york, new york, please welcome back christina burke. [cheers and applause] >> hi, chris. >> hey, christina. good to see you again. >> oh, hug. [laughs] thank you. [cheers and applause] >> good to see you again. >> nice to see you, chris. >> yeah. welcome back. >> thank you. >> a chance to have a do-over. >> i know. >> how is that $45,000 lesson treating you? >> oh, it's, um... i'm finally getting over it. i'm starting to-- >> are you? well, let's take a look at it. this is--this is what you were facing at the time. do you remember what your answer was? >> yes. >> what did you say? >> i said japan. >> yeah, what was the correct answer? >> the correct answer was canada. >> yeah.