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Keith griffith decided that he could kill his wife. reporter: a cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. not only did it show keith gone for enough time to commit the crime, the prosecutor said, it also caught him in a lie. remember, in his interview, keith told police he hadn t swapped clothes that night. not at any point changed clothes? no. reporter: but a look at the security footage showed he had. he left wearing one set of clothes. it was one of his work shirts. he came back dressed in all black. reporter: the prosecutor also showed security video captured from a residence near the griffith home. it caught a glimpse of an suv pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. it was a little blurry. it was a few seconds long. but it sure looked like keith griffith s car. reporter: and another circumstantial bit. who else but keith, the prosecutor said, could have gotten by the griffith s aggressive great dane cleo? certainly not an unknown intrude ....
we were all frantic, we had no idea what was happening, how it could have happened. because at that point, we knew that there was there was no way that he had anything to do with it. so this is nightmare country? yes. but again, we thought it would all be explained. you know, they would do their job, they would take him and the truth would come out. i was 100% convinced that he was innocent and that they were taking the wrong person in. meanwhile, the person who actually did it was getting away. reporter: family and friends were, for sure, distressed to learn that keith had another woman on the road but the revelation wasn t enough to shake their support for him. it was a shock, but it was something that we accepted as a mistake. but that did not mean that he killed julie. there s just no way he did it. yeah, this is not to julie. definitely. his wife, you know, kids mother, there s no way keith did it. reporter: but when keith griffith went to trial in feb ....
but when keith griffith went to trial in february 2015 all rise. prosecutor raymond mcgee laid out a formidable circumstantial case. on january 17th, 2014, keith griffith decided that he could kill his wife. a cornerstone of the case was that hotel security video. not only did it show keith gone for enough time to commit the crime, the prosecutors said, it also caught him in a lie. remember in his interview, keith told police he hadn t swapped clothes that night. any point change clothes? no. but a look at the security footage showed he had. he left wearing one set of clothes. one of his work shirts. he came back dressed in all black. the prosecutor also showed security video captured from a residence near the griffith home. it caught a glimpse of an suv pulling into the subdivision shortly before the fire. a little blurry. it was a few seconds long. ....
Present, and his response was one word, and that was tragedy. wow. that does make the hair on your neck stand up. it does. that wouldn t look good to a jury. the development brought aaron to a tipping point. were you no longer wavering at this point, aaron? had you come down on the side of, oh my god, my father killed my mother? yeah. yeah. now aaron, too, wrote his dad a letter. if he was guilty it s time. it s time to man up and do what you should have done two years ago. keith s defense attorneys went to the prosecutor to hammer out a plea deal. they agreed on 30 years in prison for the murder and for soliciting the hit. moments later, keith was standing in a paducah courtroom speaking the words his family and friends never in a million years thought they d hear him say. yes, he murdered julie. there s no excuse for what i did. and i can t take it back. and she was my best friend. and i don t know what happened to me. ....
But it sure looked like keith griffith s car. and another circumstantial bit. who else but keith, the prosecutors said, could have gotten by the griffiths aggressive great dane, cleo? certainly not an unknown intruder. the dog and keith were very close. a burglar couldn t have come in, a family member couldn t have. as for the why question, how could keith, a man who by all accounts loved his wife, actually do it? the prosecutor turned to two age-old motives. almost every case involving a husband and a wife, it s lust and greed. one or the other. this one had both. the lust part of the equation, he said, was deanna. raise your right hand. she took the stand and told the jury that not only was keith house hunting for them, he was also making plans to bring her down to paducah for a concert and introduce her to his family. i d love for you to come for the weekend, stay for the weekend, we ll go to the concert and i would really like for you to meet my dad. as for the g ....