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foreign [Music] there was only one person who wanted to harm David and at that point it was
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David he was acting with his Physicians suicidal it's the only explanation reynella Lee is guilty of the first
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degree premeditated homicide of David Lee I'm Aaron Moriarty 48 hours and this is married to death we've returned to
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the case of reynella lead the Tennessee Widow accused of murdering her second husband
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did she really shoot him or did he shoot himself it's not a clear-cut case as you're about to hear in part five we
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return to the courtroom where reynella Leith is on trial I understand the presumption of
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innocence I understand about proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt is that correct Tuesday May 9 2017 day seven of the
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murder trial for raynella Lee one week after it began judge Paul Summers tells the jury the case is
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coming to a close but I expect this case to be concluded so far as proof is concerned
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today but before final arguments begin Mr Hedrick you may proceed thank you Miss Legrand the defense wants to leave
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a lasting impression on the jury this is the mattress and box spring headboard footboard so am I right yes what I
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should point out that's defense forensic expert Celia Hartnett she has brought the crime scene to the
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courtroom including the actual bed where David Leith was found shot today defense
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attorney Josh Hedrick the record the only hole in the headboard um were you able to identify this hole in
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the headboard as Bullet Hole yes it's a jarring sight right below the judge a light brown wooden bed frame is
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set up along with matching nightstands on either side each holding green lamps with white Shades just as they did 14
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years ago the mattress is hidden under a light blue sheet still staying with David Lee's blood
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it looks like a stage scene of a Macabre play all right there in the center of the courtroom what's that it's a wooden
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doll thank you ma'am two wooden dowels they look like sticks indicate the trajectory of bullets that went into the
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mattress and David Lee's headboard ma'am I'm going to demonstrate for you some positions attorney Hedrick has to
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convince the jury that David Leith could have fired all three shots so he takes a
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gamble he actually climbs onto the bed with a Colt 38 revolver in hand but we're to lie in bed and I were to
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aim at my head and pull the trigger and miss high and create this am I okay so far yes yes
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he touches the dowel poking out from the hole in the headboard and then frustrated that I've missed
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sat up and pulled the trigger it would enter my head here am I right yes then he refers to the third and
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final shot the one prosecutors claim David Leith could not have fired and then if I fell
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and my hands squeezed again it would be consistent with this direction am I right not just with the
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direction but also with the distance defense attorney Rebecca Legrand we're not saying we know exactly what
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happened we're just saying we know there are multiple ways away all of this makes sense
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who wanted to harm David and at that point it was David he was acting with his Physicians
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suicidal you know one of the takeaways I think that they were trying to keep with the
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the jurors here's my producer Josh Gainer you can't necessarily put yourself Inside the Mind of somebody
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who's committing suicide because you can't put reason behind the unreasonable and the other thing is if they're going
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to go to that point take their own life it's not always going to play out the same way just if something is done
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unusually it doesn't mean it didn't happen [Music] Wednesday May 10 the 8th and the final
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day of trial everybody ready to get started with the final arguments both sides making their
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final case David Lee's bed is still set up looming in the background commit police the court
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ladies and gentlemen of the jury good morning for the defense it's Josh Hedrick David
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Lee was a proud man he was a proud man who knew he wasn't going to be able to do the
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thing that they will be able to do then he does something out of the ordinary Hedrick sits again on the deathbed with
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a gun in his hand that click you just heard that's the gun cylinder spinning in his
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hand he's getting lost in West Knoxville where he lived his whole life he's becoming
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he's becoming useless and a proud man doesn't want to be useless foreign man doesn't want to be a burden
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[Music] the most dramatic moment in the trial was with that bed it's very difficult to
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hear all this very technical testimony about the evidence when you actually bring in the bed and you really see
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someone act out like Josh Hedrick did what he contends happened it certainly does bring some clarity in the courtroom
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but the idea that it was the actual bed the idea that there were still blood stains on the sheets and the mattress
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there was something kind of disturbing about it too and maybe that's what you have to do
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it's real somebody died there and there is a lot at stake [Music] we can't say David Lee shot himself as I demonstrated
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for you I'm gonna come in Under The Wire by asking you to be as diligent as you have been since
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we started and to return a verdict of not guilty because the burden to prove guilt is on
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the prosecution Stephen Crump gets the last word so here we are eight days later
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thousands upon thousands of words hundreds of exhibits and here we are I want you to assume
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that David Lee had Alzheimer's for everything I'm going to say to you right now I want you to assume that he had
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Alzheimer's I want you to assume that he was despondent about that because you will see it doesn't matter
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but where all this falls apart for anything except homicide is where the blood spatter is found you
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all recall round blood spatter acts very specifically it must be horizontal it must be perpendicular to and it must be
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facing you cannot lay in this bed and face that direction and get that blood spatter on the wall
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crumb is saying that the blood spatter from the gunshot wound in David's head must lie on a perpendicular surface to
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the path of the bullet he believes that the defense's previous demonstration of the gunshots and their
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trajectories is invalid Crump says the blood spatter on the wall indicates the Fatal bullet came from a different
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direction blood doesn't turn Corners you heard her say that the only way that this gets
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there is if David Lee is facing you on this bed and The Gunshot enters where that void is in the bed it's the only
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explanation reynella Lee is guilty of the first degree premeditated homicide undatedly
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the closing arguments are now complete so all eyes turn to the jurors assuming that within moments the fate of reynella
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leaves will be in their hands the jurors have sat through more than a week of trial dozens of hours of
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testimony and nearly 150 pieces of evidence and yet there are still things about reynella Leith they'll never hear
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for example they don't hear about the strange circumstances surrounding the death of her first husband Ed dossett in
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1992. did anyone wonder about how Ed Dawson died David's cousin Beth Roberts says
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yes the reports were an agricultural accident but some folks in the community had a
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problem with that scenario Ed grew up on a farm for him to have been trampled by his own cattle that
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just didn't make sense Dawson had also been terminally ill with cancer and heavily medicated leaving
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folks to wonder how he managed to get out into the field on his own however true crime writer Diane Fanning
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mentioned a local theory that Ed may have orchestrated his death to look accidental so his family could receive a
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bigger insurance payout than if he died from cancer because if Ed knew he was about to die
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but he wanted his family to be more secure financially he might have said take me out there
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let the cows tromp on me however in 2008 Dr darinka malusanec the same medical examiner who ruled David
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Lee's death as a homicide also ruled Ed Dawson's death a homicide she determined
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that dossett died not by cattle but by a morphine overdose we'll never know for sure reynella was
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charged with murder for Dawson's death but she never went to trial the charges were dropped after jurors convicted her
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of murdering David Leith in 2010 she was six years into a life sentence when her conviction was thrown out
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bringing us to the present third trial judge Summers concerned that jurors would be negatively influenced refused
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to allow any of that information at trial the judge also refused to allow jurors
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to hear about the shooting of Steve Walker but you're going to hear about it because he talked to us
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[Music] precious just give me your name and what you do in town Steve Walker and I run an automotive
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shop I'm a crouton on a real big salad here and this is a big salad in this town
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[Music] Steve Walker owns an auto shop in Knoxville raynella's first husband Ed dossett used to come into His store
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Steve considered Ed a friend and there was another connection Steve Walker's wife was a secretary in Ed's office when
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Ed practiced law and served as a district attorney general in Knox County what Steve Walker didn't know was that
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his wife's relationship with Ed dossett was more than just professional Steve says he found out in 1995 three
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years after Dawson's death he says he discovered during divorce proceedings that the son he had raised from birth
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was actually Ed dossett's biological child Ed Dawson had had an affair with Steve's wife it was a terrible shock
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well this is a soap opera that I never wanted to be in it came as a shock to reynella as well but when Steve Walker
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first talked to raynella he said he thought she was taking the news in stride I shared this thing she was hurt
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by Ed you have been hurt by Ed you guys had signed in common here you both have been hurt I mean did you get on ambition
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to get the truth both of you were yes I mean in some ways you felt that you were on her side
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Ray Dallas yes I thought we was on the same team he could not have been more wrong I'm going to take you back to May
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26 1995 because what happened shortly after Walker discovered the true fraternity of his son
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drastically change both Steve and raynella's lives and their versions of what happened are quite different
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according to a police report filed by reynella she was home on her farm that morning remember it was May 26 1995 when
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she heard a disturbance out by her cows she grabbed her gun a 38 and went to investigate
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she don't believe she found Steve quote acting psychotic unquote near Ed's grave
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on the property from an interview done with raynella years later with investigators
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in case you can't quite hear what she's saying reynella told investigators that she found Steve Walker attempting to
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urinate on Ed dossett's grave raynella told police she began firing warning shots into the ground to chase
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him away but she says Steve took the gun and fled that was raynella's story but Steve
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piled his own police report and Steve's version is very different he says he didn't go alone to her property
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he says that reynella showed up at his auto shop unannounced and asked him to jump in her car and
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come back to the farm she told him she found some papers about the affair that Steve would want to see
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yeah and did she seem upset with you that day that she picked you up until I seen the gun we was as friendly as me
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and you right now when they got to reynella's Barn Steve says she suddenly pulled out a revolver
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and said quote I'll kill you you son of a unquote and then told him she'd raise the child you saw when you turned
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around she had a she had a tail around her hand and she comes up with it and and start shooting Steve says she missed
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and she didn't hit you oh no no thank God but I did start running he did start running but he says in his
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Panic he tripped and fell I'm just laying there and I'm I'm defenseless at this point and I talked
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to her and I said you know uh what are we doing I said you know if you kill me I said I can't raise my kids you
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can't raise yours because we had talked of children she said it used to be a better shot than that but I can hit you
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from here and she aimed that gun at me and uh I just uh I just closed my eyes I mean I knew I was gone
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at that moment reynella pulled the trigger Steve says but the gun was out of bullets I mean
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there's no doubt in my mind if she hadn't run out of bullets I'd be dead [Music]
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which story did the police believe after Witnesses said they saw reynella drive up and pick up Steve raynella was
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arrested and she was charged with attempted murder attempted murder but she took a deal and was allowed to
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plead guilty to the Lesser charge of assault after six years her record was cleared
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so what does this say about what raynella may be capable of Josh Hedrick and Rebecca Legrand weren't
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her attorneys back then they are now and they insist this incident means nothing
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her attorney told her then and it's the same thing I would have told her is this
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is a plea that will get expunged there is no jail time take this deal and walk away
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reynella Lee did walk away the charge was expunged from her record and the jury at this trial heard nothing about
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the shooting [Music] it's been a good job and I thank you for your time and attention
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and Ms Lee thanks you for your time and attention 22 years later will she walk away once more a free woman I was really
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looking forward to deliberating that's the voice of Michael persicano one of the jurors we spoke to after the
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trial you're going to want to hear what the jurors said because just as the trial was about to end something
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happened that no one saw coming if you can picture like a cartoon you know of someone's jaw hitting the floor
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I'm Aaron Moriarty 48 hours and that's married to death part five part six the amazing finale is next
00:19:28
this podcast series Married to death is developed by 48 hours in partnership with CBS News Radio Judy teigart is
00:19:38
executive producer Nancy Kramer is our executive story editor Mike valet and Alan Pang are the series producer
00:19:48
editors this episode was produced by Josh Gainer Lisa freed and Luis Geraldo and edited by Mike McHugh Dwayne
00:19:57
Tolleson Jamie Benson and Meghan Marcus thanks to composer Richard fioka for his
00:20:04
original scores Gabriella de mergian and Morgan Canty are our associate producers Kayla cadell
00:20:13
is our production associate thank you to Craig swagler the vice president and general manager of CBS
00:20:21
News Radio and finally a shout out to all of you our fans we owe it to all of you the millions of fans of 48 hours in
00:20:32
the U.S and around the world don't forget to join me online I am at EF Moriarty on Twitter and we are at 48
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Hours on Twitter Facebook and Instagram see you soon