oh, my got. he shot me. it came out of nowhere. a sweet stay-at-home mom from a strong family of faith shot point blank at her own garage door. my dad is like collapsed on the ground. it was very traumatic to see, very very emotional time. her survival seemed like a miracle. i didn t know if i would live. was this some awful random crime, or did someone want her dead? that was mystery number one. someone was out there. yeah, we were scared. mystery number two, a secret 1,600 miles away. there were several text messages. it s just slowly snowballing. it was like a punch in the gut. and mystery number three? i m going to hurt you. who would they turn out to be? i m like damn, what did this lady do? faith, temptation, and a twist the size of texas. let s be very clear. justice needs to be served. i don t think it has been. carrollton, texas, just north of dallas, is the kind of place where the upwardly mobile go to buy their dreams. the sc
i m so sick of being alone. you need to file by this friday or move on. i ve waited long enough. prosecutors said that affair was frank s motive. so all eyes were on suzanne when she took the stand. she believed he was in a loveless marriage. that he was basically separated from his wife, that living under the same roof for convenience sake. but in separate bedrooms. how important was the mistress s testimony, suzanne? you know, i don t think suzanne had any kind of knowledge about any of this. i don t think she knew that there was a murder for hire plot. i don t think she knew about any association with criminals. i think suzanne fully believed, just like everybody else around frank, they take him at his word and they believe him. reporter: prosecutors told the jury that for a family man like frank, divorce was not an option. but, they argued, murder was. i mean, it didn t have to happen. a divorce was the solution. reporter: frank was with suzanne in california on the
orchestrated a plot to have her killed. well, you know, i was totally in shock. this is so far from anything, first of all, that i ever dreamed that i would be involved in. but second of all, i mean it all came at the same time. i m shot. and then i find out my husband has been having a three-year affair. i was in disbelief. it was so farfetched. reporter: his friends felt the same way. in fact, frank was so well regarded in carrollton that his friends offered to post his $1 million bond. at his bond hearing, witness after witness testified to his character and sterling reputation. even denton county prosecutor jamie beck was impressed. people from his church, people from his community, clients, current clients came forward and packed the courtroom for a bond hearing, which is just unheard of. they took the stand. they, you know, just sang his praises on what a good guy he was. reporter: though he quickly bonded out of jail, the investigators were convinced frank howard was beh
nancy was shot. jamie beck summed up that testimony. he does a full-out confession. i ve murdered someone. i shot a woman in the forehead in her garage, took her food and her purse, and then we dumped everything on the way back. reporter: both michaels pleaded not guilty. their day in court would come later. as for motive, the prosecutors told the court that was as old as time. frank had another woman. and this was no casual fling. they presented evidence of frank s devotion, the flowers, letters and cards he sent to suzanne leontieff when he wasn t with her. police also discovered frank had spent enormous sums of money on his mistress. i think the figure that he had given suzanne was $1. 9 million. ultimately we discovered that they had purchased a home together in
who gladly took that money were not charged because they were either doing time or facing prosecution for other crimes. still jamie beck and her team wanted to link frank to the men who they believe actually shot nancy, the men in the silver car. first they tried to establish that frank had paid the alleged driver. they played a snippet of the jailhouse call recorded a few weeks before the shooting. and so i basically, you know, gave michael every i said, i m all in with you, buddy because i don t know what else to do. i was all in with him. reporter: even more incriminating, prosecutors said phone records proved frank was communicating with the alleged driver the day of the shooting. as for the alleged shooter, the other michael, the prosecution called a witness who testified he confessed to her the night