00:00:00
All I could see was a dark hallway with a light coming out of a door. How bad is this going to be?
00:00:06
Worst case scenario was going through my head. I've never seen a crime scene like that.
00:00:18
The blade was actually bent. It takes a lot to bend a knife blade. This wasn't a case in which you had to wonder who was responsible.
00:00:26
That's correct. I knew right away it was the foster daughter. When I heard you did it, it's like, you're kidding me.
00:00:33
Something else had to have been at play here. She starts telling her story, starts sobbing.
00:00:40
Tears are coming down her face. I couldn't have done something like this if I didn't have an outer influence.
00:00:45
You had sensed for a long time that there was something going on that Sabrina wasn't talking about.
00:00:50
Did you think this was it? I didn't think it was this involved. It just started getting more concrete, more of this is what we could have if we do this.
00:00:59
This is really just betrayal on top of betrayal on top of betrayal isn't it? It's a perfect circle.
00:01:05
It was absolutely crazy. There is no way he would even begin to do anything like that.
00:01:13
It was like I want this, this is how I'm gonna get it. There comes a time in most cops careers when they see something so horrific
00:01:28
they'll do just about anything to forget it, even though deep down they know they never will.
00:01:35
For Officer Randy Mullenix, that moment came in November 2012 on a call to Chagrin Drive in Willoughby Hills, Ohio.
00:01:45
You ever had a scene like this before? Never. I've never seen a crime scene like that,
00:01:50
and I hope I never have to again. It was bad. Finding out what happened that night on Chagrin Drive
00:01:57
and why would ultimately lead investigators on a journey that would reveal accusations
00:02:04
of a diabolical murder plot and a series of betrayals that tore apart an American family.
00:02:13
That journey would begin when this house of horrors was still the loving home of Lisa
00:02:19
and Kevin Knafel, a couple whose friends describe as destined to be together from the moment
00:02:25
they met. I remember her talking about him and she had nothing but great things to say.
00:02:31
Lisa's close friends Kayleen and Carl Lessman were the unofficial chaperones of Lisa and Kevin's first date.
00:02:39
They come in and he is fabulous. We got along right away. I mean, he fit right in, seriously.
00:02:47
And I can totally see why she was drawn to him. I mean, you really can. Kevin was just as drawn to Lisa, according to Kevin's sister, Chris Ann Sutton.
00:02:56
I remember Kevin telling me that I met somebody, and her name's Lisa, and I think I really like her.
00:03:05
She liked to have fun, just like Kevin, very family-oriented. And good for him? Very good for him.
00:03:13
Both Kevin and Lisa had been married before, and both had children. Lisa had Megan. Kevin had Cody.
00:03:21
Kevin was always good with children. Linda Cover is a Knafel family friend who's known Kevin all his life.
00:03:28
Good father. Good father. Dedicated father. Absolutely. Absolutely. Kevin was a jack of many trades.
00:03:35
A truck driver, a school bus driver, an emergency medical technician. Lisa dedicated her life to social work, helping and caring for sexually abused kids.
00:03:47
Kayleen was one of Lisa's co-workers. She just wanted to help people. We work in a sex abuse unit, and that's a very difficult subject that a lot of people can't deal with.
00:03:57
But she really prided herself on helping these families and being able to help make a difference.
00:04:03
Everyone admired Lisa's selflessness. Her friend Carrie Ward also worked with Lisa.
00:04:10
She took in foster kids while she was a single parent and was raising her own daughter by herself.
00:04:15
That feels like sort of going the extra mile and then some. She did. She was always there to help anybody that needed it.
00:04:22
Admirable. Yes, very much so. One year after Kevin and Lisa met, they married. The wedding itself, I mean, was fabulous.
00:04:32
The reception was great. Did you think this marriage was going to be it for Kevin?
00:04:37
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. There was no question in my mind. A year and a half later, Lisa and Kevin announced the arrival of a baby of their own, Haley.
00:04:47
Lisa was on top of the world. Megan, she loved like crazy, of course, but she really wanted another child.
00:04:56
But Lisa felt she had more to give. Two years after Haley's birth, she decided to invite 16-year-old foster child Sabrina Zunich into her home
00:05:07
and to make Sabrina part of the family. I met Sabrina almost immediately when she came to the house.
00:05:15
I remember her saying, I finally have a family. Everything was going really well.
00:05:22
She fit right into the family. Lisa, I mean, couldn't talk highly enough about her.
00:05:27
But the happy times for the Knaefel's blended and now extended family would come to a catastrophic end on that November night back in 2012
00:05:36
when Lisa Knaefel was brutally stabbed in her home. When I heard it was Lisa and who did it, I couldn't believe it.
00:05:45
It's like, you're kidding me. The blade was actually bent and I just started shaking my head because I couldn It takes a lot to bend a knife blade Who could have felt enough rage to do that And why
00:06:15
The love and hope that marked the Knaefels' newly blended family vanished forever on a cold November night in 2012.
00:06:25
911, what is your emergency? At about 1 a.m., the Willoughby Hills Police received a 911 call from the Knafel house.
00:06:37
The caller was the Knafel's 13-year-old daughter, Megan. She said her mother, Lisa, was being brutally stabbed right before her eyes.
00:06:49
Who has a knife? If I have a female yelling on the phone, someone else has a knife.
00:06:54
Megan was screaming, yelling at somebody to stop. You're killing her. Stop. You're hurting her.
00:06:59
Why are you doing this? Oh my God! Oh my God! In the background, Lisa can be heard, pleading for help.
00:07:08
What is going on? It's really chilling to listen to. You're going to have to take a deep breath. I cannot understand you.
00:07:14
I'm going to die. First responding officer Randy Mullinex arrived at the Knaethel home
00:07:22
and found Megan frantic at the front door. She's waving her hands. You need to hurry, hurry, hurry.
00:07:29
Mullinex learned Kevin Knaethel was away on business, leaving Lisa, Megan, Haley, and their foster daughter Sabrina at home.
00:07:38
Worst case scenario was going through my head. What am I going to see? How bad is this going to be?
00:07:43
It was far worse than he could have imagined. Out of the master bedroom came the Knaefels' 18-year-old foster daughter, Sabrina, holding a knife.
00:07:53
It looked like she literally showered in blood. Mullinex ordered Sabrina to the ground, where she was cuffed.
00:08:01
He then went to the bedroom, where he found Lisa Knaefel on the floor. I could barely even see flesh color.
00:08:09
There was that much blood on her. I knew there was nothing I can do. The coroner would later determine Lisa had been stabbed and cut at least 178 times.
00:08:22
Sabrina's weapon was a 15-inch bread knife. The blade was actually bent, and I just started shaking my head because I couldn't.
00:08:31
It takes a lot to bend a knife blade. With Sabrina Zunich now booked and in the lockup, Detective Ron Parmator began the investigation.
00:08:40
This wasn't a case in which you had to wonder who was responsible. That's correct. We knew right away it was the foster daughter.
00:08:46
This looked like a case that could be shut as quickly as it opened. But if that were true, we wouldn't be telling you this story.
00:08:54
This turned out to be one of the most unusual cases we've ever come across. Police would end up investigating not just who, but why,
00:09:03
with answers as stunning as they were disturbing. As dawn broke that cold November morning,
00:09:09
Detective Parmator began with his perpetrator, Sabrina Zunich. I first noticed that she was a very small girl, very frail girl.
00:09:20
Sabrina started describing the moments leading up to the murder. She'd had a migraine, she said.
00:09:26
While everyone else slept, she walked into the Knaefels master bath to get some ibuprofen.
00:09:32
And that, she said, is where her memory went blank. You didn't think anybody could stab someone that many times and not remember any part of it?
00:09:40
No. I mean, I tried all different ways of, you know, get her to come out and tell me what really happened, and she was not giving it up.
00:09:49
And then Sabrina asked for an attorney, bringing Parmator's interrogation to an abrupt and frustrating halt.
00:09:57
You thought, whatever else we're going to get, it's not going to come from her. Exactly.
00:10:02
So Parmator consulted those who arguably knew this teenaged ward of the state better than anyone.
00:10:09
Sabrina's social workers. She had some issues with her family growing up. Her grandma took custody of her about the age of three.
00:10:17
Case manager Nicole Corbett said Sabrina struggled with having been abandoned by her parents at a very early age.
00:10:25
She ended up in the juvenile system after stealing from her grandmother to pay for drugs and alcohol.
00:10:31
She worked a lot in counseling, how to cope and how to manage with everything she was going through.
00:10:38
Eventually, Nicole helped place Sabrina in the Knaefel home. She just wanted to be a part of something, a part of a family.
00:10:46
I know that's what she wanted more than anything. So when she was told about being placed with the Knaefels, she was ecstatic.
00:10:52
It turned out the Knaefels' loving care was just what Sabrina needed. She was going to class, getting good grades.
00:11:02
I think Sabrina really was thriving in their home. Which made the news that it was Sabrina who had brutally stabbed Lisa.
00:11:09
All the more baffling. I still can't see the Sabrina that I know being violent towards anyone, let alone what she did.
00:11:19
Something else had to have been at play here. Detective Ron Parmator was thinking the same way.
00:11:24
He wanted to talk to Kevin about what that something else might be. But he held off.
00:11:30
I was giving him his space because I thought that he needed time to, you know, deal with the tragic death of his wife.
00:11:37
According to his sister Chrisanne, Kevin was an emotional wreck when he heard what happened.
00:11:43
I'm sure that there was some guilt because he worked nights and he wasn't home. Still, Parmator felt Kevin might hold the key to solving the riddle of this case.
00:11:54
Why keep going You got your suspect and she got the weapon in her hand Just doing my job as a detective I was trying to find out why It was the one central question that continued to plague Detective Parmator and drive him forward
00:12:11
You're crossing your fingers and thinking we really need a break. Yes. And then one day it arrives.
00:12:17
One day, Sabrina decides that she wants to tell us what happened. And the story Sabrina ultimately told was far more complicated and twisted than anyone could have imagined.
00:12:30
News of Lisa Knavel's bloody murder cut through Willoughby Hills, Ohio, like a blistering
00:12:50
winter wind. I was shocked. Lisa was a nice person. She was a good mom. She was a good wife.
00:13:00
Finding out that the foster daughter Lisa welcomed into her home ended up committing Lisa's murder,
00:13:06
only added to the collective pain and suffering. Retrayal is the perfect word for what happened.
00:13:14
As Detective Ron Parmator worked the case, he learned there had been growing tension within the Knafel home right before the murder.
00:13:23
And the source of that tension was Sabrina. She got along great with Kevin, and she did not get along well at all with Lisa.
00:13:32
Parmator discovered Lisa had become frustrated with Sabrina's behavior toward Kevin.
00:13:39
She was fascinated with Kevin. She seemed a little vivacious in my eyes, flirty, like flaunting herself.
00:13:52
And Parmator learned from texts on Lisa's cell phone that Sabrina's flirty behavior had begun to take its toll on Lisa and Kevin's marriage.
00:14:04
Sabrina was demanding Kevin's time, and Kevin was making himself available. Too available, as far as Lisa was concerned.
00:14:13
You have one actual text from Lisa to Kevin in which she's saying you're getting too close to Sabrina.
00:14:18
Yes. In fact, Lisa wrote, Cut the damn cord. Spending too much time with her and less with your real family.
00:14:27
Thanks a lot. Lisa also became concerned about the relationship Sabrina had with her daughter Haley.
00:14:35
She acted like a mother to Haley on a regular basis. It made Lisa uncomfortable.
00:14:41
Lisa wasn't happy with it, no. It sounds like one of the things that everybody agrees on is that Sabrina was fixated on, fascinated with Haley.
00:14:54
She was. Six months after the murder, the investigation took another turn. Parmator learned Sabrina was ready to talk.
00:15:04
She starts telling her story. She starts sobbing. Tears are coming down her face.
00:15:11
Sabrina told Dateline the same story she told police, the story of a young girl bouncing through the foster care system,
00:15:19
always dreaming of a better life. I wanted a new beginning and to put all the past behind me.
00:15:27
I wanted that picket white fence, the dinner on the table with siblings, and, you know, something I never had.
00:15:34
I wanted that structure of a family. So when the Knaefels opened their door to Sabrina,
00:15:40
It was a dream come true. My first impression of Kevin was caring father, somebody that was willing to, you know, get to know me and want to know me.
00:15:51
And then there was Lisa. My relationship with Lisa, it was at first good. We would all spend time together.
00:15:59
We would go swimming in the backyard. I felt a part of the family. Then Sabrina confirmed what Parmator had already heard.
00:16:08
The good times quickly came to an end. When Sabrina and Lisa started arguing, according to Sabrina,
00:16:15
Lisa began thinking of her as more foster than daughter. And Sabrina didn't like that.
00:16:22
I felt like the outsider. I felt kind of abandoned in a certain type of way and not accepted.
00:16:29
Sabrina admitted her close relationship with both Kevin and Haley had become a major source of friction with Lisa.
00:16:37
She doesn't like the fact of how I'm acting with Haley and wouldn't let Haley come around me, not even give me a hug at night.
00:16:46
It really, it hurt me. And then came the moment when Sabrina said Lisa told her it was time to go.
00:16:53
She was very blunt about it and she was like, I'm sorry, but I don't want you here anymore.
00:16:58
My life was shattering before me. The betrayal, the abandonment, all that came to surface.
00:17:06
Two weeks later, Sabrina says she quietly, carefully walked into Lisa's darkened bedroom, a knife in her hand.
00:17:14
I was in the room for a good 10, 15 minutes, and it was a constant, like, battle in my head.
00:17:19
Just do it. Don't do it. Just do it. In the end, it was Sabrina's darker side that won out.
00:17:28
She wakes up and she thought I was Megan, and it was like, Megan, go to bed. I completely froze.
00:17:34
And then she sits up in her bed and she was like, Megan, go. And she realized it wasn't Megan.
00:17:41
And that's when I did it. I remember her shouting, Bree, stop. And I remember Megan coming in and setting a hand on my shoulder
00:17:50
and saying, Bree, stop. And I just nudged her off and told her Megan don Anger triggered by a troubled teenager feeling of abandonment leading to murder For Ron Parmator Sabrina story made perfect if tragic sense
00:18:08
You believe Sabrina? Absolutely. But Sabrina was not done. What she was about to reveal would send this investigation hurtling in a completely new and alarming direction.
00:18:20
Sabrina told Detective Parmator she didn't act alone. I couldn't have done something like this if I didn't have an outer influence.
00:18:32
Sabrina drops a bombshell, claiming that getting rid of Lisa was actually someone else's idea,
00:18:39
communicated in a series of bitter texts. Man, I wish she was dead, or I can't stand her.
00:18:46
She just needs to go. Detective Ron Parmator always knew who killed Lisa Knafel,
00:19:06
and now he thought he understood why. Sabrina had told Parmator Lisa was about to crush her dream
00:19:13
of remaining part of the Knafel family. She hated Lisa. That feels to me like a motive.
00:19:20
Absolutely. I hated Lisa, but it was only because she was triggering a lot of past issues.
00:19:27
But there was more. There was, said Sabrina, someone else. It's not all my fault.
00:19:35
Now, I take responsibility because I did what I did, and I know it was wrong. But if it weren't for him, it would not have happened.
00:19:42
If it weren't for him, Sabrina was referring to her foster father, Kevin. I was doing what Kevin told me to do. That's what it comes down to.
00:19:53
It was an astonishing accusation. Sabrina told Parmator Kevin had grown to hate Lisa even more than she did.
00:20:01
It was a feeling she said Kevin shared with her, slowly, over several months. I started through text, man, I wish she was dead.
00:20:10
Or I can't stand her, she just needs to go. According to Sabrina, Kevin also revealed that Lisa had multiple life insurance policies
00:20:19
and that she was worth more dead than alive. But just as it seemed Sabrina's story couldn't get any more twisted,
00:20:29
she dropped a second bombshell. Her story was that Kevin and her were having a sexual relationship
00:20:36
and it was going on for probably about six to eight months prior to the homicide.
00:20:44
I absolutely fell in love with him. Kevin, Sabrina said, promised her the world and played on her love of three-year-old Haley.
00:20:53
He promised me we were going to have our own house and I could take over the role for Haley, a mother figure,
00:21:01
and I'd go to college, do everything that I ever wanted to do in life. And then, she said, Kevin finally convinced her
00:21:10
the only way to realize that picket fence dream was to kill Lisa. It just started getting more concrete, more of,
00:21:19
do you want to do it? You know, this is what we could have if, you know, if we do this.
00:21:28
When you're in love, you will do anything for that person. According to Sabrina, they first discussed the idea of Sabrina shooting Lisa.
00:21:38
Then they considered hiring a hitman. Then, after several months, they finally settled on Sabrina stabbing Lisa in her sleep.
00:21:48
Kevin picked out this bread knife, and it was about a foot long, and it had a rigid blade.
00:21:55
And he said to use this one because it would do more damage on the inside. I was supposed to take her ring, her necklace, all of that, as if somebody came in and, you know, burglarized her.
00:22:11
Are you kidding me? When Kevin's friend Linda Cover got wind of Sabrina's story, she was dumbfounded.
00:22:21
I thought that it was absolutely crazy. There is no way. I can't even believe that he would even begin to do anything like that.
00:22:30
Neither could Kevin's sister, Chris Ann. Kevin, she said, loved Lisa too much to want to harm her.
00:22:37
Nor would he ever do anything to risk the safety of his children. He would not put his kids in harm's way.
00:22:45
And I include Megan in that. He thought of Megan as his own daughter. No one, she said, could be manipulated into committing such a violent act.
00:22:56
This is the act of one person and one person only. According to Linda Cover, Sabrina's story was a web of lies,
00:23:06
woven together by a deranged and troubled teen whose fantasy of having a life with Kevin and Haley pushed her over the edge.
00:23:15
I think she imagined the relationship that didn't exist. It was like, I want this, so this is how I'm going to get it.
00:23:22
As for the alleged affair, you ever see any hint of anything inappropriate between Kevin and Sabrina?
00:23:30
Absolutely not. No. No. That's not my brother. Sabrina, they said, turned on Kevin and blamed him for everything,
00:23:40
hoping for a plea deal. So what's going on here? Sabrina lying to save her own skin?
00:23:46
Absolutely. Absolutely. Not according to Detective Parmitor. You're convinced there really was a plan between her and Kevin?
00:23:54
Yes. And that there was an affair, despite the lack of hard efforts. She had no proof. There's no love letters. No. There's no photographs. There's no videotape. No.
00:24:08
How do you know what happened? Took Sabrina on her word. Every time we interviewed Sabrina,
00:24:13
she always told us the same story. And it rang true. Absolutely rang true. And Parmator said he
00:24:19
was suspicious of Kevin even before Sabrina came forward. Several weeks after the murder,
00:24:25
Parmator asked Kevin to come to the station for an interview. Kevin brought along his attorney.
00:24:32
He would only answer the questions about his wife's work. And nothing about the murder.
00:24:36
Nothing about the murder. Parmator also became suspicious of how Kevin began filing claims
00:24:42
for Lisa's $800,000 in life insurance within hours of Lisa being pronounced dead.
00:24:50
And then he started spending the money. He was buying cars. He was buying a camper. He was remodeling his house inside.
00:25:01
All with Lisa's insurance money. All with Lisa's insurance money. All of that was enough for detectives.
00:25:08
Three months after Sabrina accused Kevin of manipulating her into killing Lisa, Detective Promotor arrested Kevin and charged him with plotting the murder.
00:25:19
Sabrina agreed to testify as the state's star witness. In exchange, the district attorney's office agreed to recommend that Sabrina receive a reduced sentence.
00:25:30
You're taking the word of an admitted murderer here. Correct. Even though she's clearly got a reason to lie about this.
00:25:38
Yep. I believe what she was telling us is the truth. But would a jury agree? 18 months after Lisa Knafel's murder, Kevin Knafel's trial began.
00:26:03
The charges? Complicity and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. Kevin was also charged with sexual battery relating to Sabrina.
00:26:14
Prosecutors Karen Kowal and Lisa Naroda argued Sabrina would never have killed Lisa had it not been for Kevin.
00:26:22
She was the perfect patsy. Young, impressionable. Idealist. And anxious to have a guy love her.
00:26:30
Yes. And so he manipulated her. Yeah. But this was no slam dunk. Kevin denied all charges.
00:26:37
And prosecutors acknowledged their case was based primarily on the word of Sabrina,
00:26:42
a young woman with plenty of reason to lie. This puts you in a difficult position, it seems to me.
00:26:48
I mean, you are defending the character of this cold-blooded murderer. And the fact that she committed this murder is all on someone else.
00:26:57
Not necessarily on someone else, but together with somebody else. She would never have done this by herself.
00:27:02
Without any direct proof of the alleged affair, prosecutors began by calling those who say they saw signs of inappropriate behavior
00:27:11
between a foster father and foster daughter. Sabrina's teacher, Willie Smith, described spotting Kevin with Sabrina at the school one afternoon.
00:27:22
She moved toward sitting in his lap inside his legs. What did you do? I did a double take, kind of, really.
00:27:34
Then Nicole Corbett, Sabrina's social worker case manager, testified about a strange call from Kevin just a month before the murder.
00:27:42
Kevin, she said, admitted his marriage to Lisa was in trouble and said they were considering divorce.
00:27:49
What was your reaction to that statement? I was surprised. I didn't know they were even considering splitting up their divorce.
00:27:57
Kevin, she said, asked whether, in a divorce, he would be able to take Sabrina with him as opposed to her staying with Lisa I just thought it was a little odd that he wanted to take a 17 girl alone in a home with just him
00:28:16
Prosecutors next showed jurors' cell phone activity. More evidence, they said, that indicated Kevin and Sabrina were having an affair.
00:28:24
Kevin was texting Sabrina way more than he was texting his wife? Substantially more.
00:28:28
Within a two-week period, Kevin and Sabrina texted and called each other almost 1,500 times.
00:28:37
That compares to just 200 calls and texts between Kevin and Lisa. Prosecutors then turned jurors' attention to Kevin's behavior after Lisa's murder.
00:28:48
David Strunk was one of Kevin's close friends. Strunk testified that Kevin seemed desperate to visit Sabrina in jail.
00:28:57
just one day after the murder. He told me that he just wanted to let her know that he was still there for her.
00:29:05
This was the person that had just killed his wife, and I was shocked that he would want to have any sort of contact with her.
00:29:12
According to Karen Kowal, Kevin's real reason for wanting to see Sabrina was to keep her from talking to police
00:29:20
and telling them about Kevin's involvement in the murder plot. That trip to the jail was certainly huge.
00:29:28
As pleased as prosecutors were with their case so far, they knew it would stand or fall on how the jury responded to their next witness.
00:29:39
You guys worried? I was worried. They listened. Everyone listened. As Sabrina told of the night she took Lisa's life.
00:29:49
I started to stab her. I just raised the knife up and went down on her. Why is it that you could violently and brutally stab her repeatedly 178 times?
00:30:03
Because I was manipulated to do it. By who? Kevin. What did you think? Sabrina was a strong witness.
00:30:15
I felt she did a good job. Maybe so. But without anyone to corroborate Sabrina's story, prosecutors feared the jury still wouldn't believe it or her.
00:30:29
Enter the next witness, Sabrina's high school friend, Autumn Pavlik. Autumn testified she had first-hand knowledge about the murder plan and Kevin's involvement in it.
00:30:41
According to Autumn, Sabrina once called her thinking she had connections to a tough crowd and could find someone willing to kill Lisa.
00:30:51
There was a phone call that we had. She had asked me if I was able to get her a hitman.
00:30:58
Could you tell if there were any other people in the room at the time? Yes. And how could you tell that?
00:31:03
I could hear the defendant in the background talking. Autumn then testified she and Sabrina discussed the idea of paying the hitman by delivering drugs for him.
00:31:14
That's when she said Sabrina handed the phone to Kevin. What did he ask you at that time?
00:31:20
Do you need me to take you to go run drugs? And what was that in reference to? The hit.
00:31:26
Autumn said she ultimately backed out of the plan altogether. Finally I said, sorry, I can't help you, I don't want anything to do with it.
00:31:34
But Autumn was willing to later help Detective Parmator with his investigation. After hearing Autumn's story, Parmator asked Autumn to call Kevin and talk about the hitman,
00:31:47
thinking Kevin might implicate himself. Prosecutors played that recorded phone call in court.
00:31:54
The only thing that I'm worried about is that whole hitman thing. I honestly don't know. She talked a big game about a lot of things.
00:32:01
On the call, Kevin never admits to knowing anything about a hitman. But to Detective Parmer Tor his calm manner and apparent lack of surprise suggest a prior knowledge of the plot Never says what are you talking about We never had any conversations
00:32:19
If you have any information about the murder of my wife, please go to the police.
00:32:25
Never says anything like that. In fact, when Detective Parmator called Kevin just two days later,
00:32:31
Kevin made no mention of Autumn's call and claimed to have only a vague recollection of who Autumn was,
00:32:38
even though he'd just spoken with her. Last name doesn't ring a bell, but I think she had a friend named Autumn at school.
00:32:46
As Prosecutor Kowal saw it, Kevin was trying to keep police from finding the one person,
00:32:52
other than Sabrina, who could link him to Lisa's murder. Clearly a lie. Very damaging.
00:32:59
Prosecutors were now confident jurors had all they needed to convict. But now it was the defense's turn to make its case.
00:33:08
And Kevin Knievel's attorneys weren't about to let Sabrina leave that courtroom without a fight.
00:33:16
The defense tries to undercut the prosecution's whole premise, arguing there was nothing going on between Kevin and Sabrina.
00:33:24
There were maybe 12 witnesses that if they see any form of abuse, they have a mandatory duty to report it.
00:33:31
And none of them did. And all of them testified that they didn't do it. Kevin Knafel's defense attorney, Mike Connick, felt pretty confident.
00:33:53
as he prepared his counterpunch before the Lake County Court. Did Kevin have anything to do with Lisa's murder?
00:34:00
No. Did he have any sexual relationship with Sabrina? No. There was not one centil of physical evidence
00:34:08
that tied Kevin to any of these crimes. Connick began trying to dismantle the evidence the state did present.
00:34:17
He challenged the county employees, who had testified they believed Kevin was acting inappropriately towards Sabrina,
00:34:24
asking why they didn't report such behavior before the murder. At that time, if you had a serious concern, you would have filed a report, wouldn't you?
00:34:35
I would have filed a report if I felt it was a serious concern. I did not file a report on this.
00:34:43
There were 8, 10, maybe 12 witnesses that are mandated reporters. If they see any form of abuse, they have a mandatory duty to report it.
00:34:55
And none of them did. And all of them testified that they didn't do it. No one reported inappropriate behavior, said Connick, because there was nothing to report.
00:35:05
Lisa, ironically, was a mandated reporter. She never reported it. Connick then addressed the large number of texts between Kevin and Sabrina.
00:35:19
I don't find that shocking. Neither did Kevin's sister, Chrisanne. There's more texts between my husband and one of my daughters than my husband and me.
00:35:29
It doesn't mean anything. But what about those who testified Kevin acted suspiciously immediately after the murder?
00:35:37
I don't think I'd want to have to come home and find out that my wife was butchered and then have other people criticize what my emotional response to that situation was.
00:35:48
Kevin's friend, Linda Cover, agreed, even if the emotional response was to try and visit Sabrina in jail just one day after she'd murdered Kevin's wife.
00:35:58
I thought about that and I'm thinking, he might have wanted to say, why in the hell,
00:36:06
what's the matter with you? Linda Kover also believed Kevin was unfairly judged for filing the life insurance claims as quickly as he did Kevin she said had to think about the welfare of his children Now I have to be the sole support Now what am I going to do
00:36:23
A great deal of the state's evidence where witnesses said he's not acting the right way.
00:36:27
He's not acting normal. As soon as somebody can tell me what normal is, I'll be happy
00:36:32
to adopt it as a notion. Connick applied that same argument to the criticism of Kevin's muted response to the mention
00:36:40
of a hitman on Autumn Pavlik's recorded phone call. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to be angry? Was he supposed to be defensive?
00:36:50
I think what he was supposed to be was something. That's kind of Kevin's demeanor. You can't pass judgment on that.
00:36:57
But what about Autumn's testimony that she spoke directly to Kevin about hiring a hitman to kill Lisa?
00:37:04
Connick dismissed that testimony as being inconsistent and unreliable. During Cross, Connick asked Autumn to read a transcript of her initial interview with police
00:37:15
when she was asked if Kevin was ever a part of her conversations with Sabrina about trying to hire a hitman.
00:37:24
Why don't you read me your answer on page 32 at line 3. No. Well, no. We were on the phone and she didn't really talk about it in front of him.
00:37:34
And I don't think he knew that I knew. Thank you. She ultimately acknowledged that Kevin was never present or on the phone during those conversations about killing Lisa.
00:37:46
But Mike Connick knew it would be his cross-examination of Sabrina that would determine Kevin's fate.
00:37:52
My name is Michael Connick and I represent Kevin Kniegel. Sabrina is a seriously disturbed human being.
00:37:59
The murder itself, he said, was all the proof the jury would need of that. Do you recognize this knife?
00:38:09
Yes. And when you began slaughtering Lisa Knafel, this knife was straight, wasn't it?
00:38:17
Yes. And you attacked her with such vigor and force, anger and rage, that you managed to put a 20-degree bend in a stainless steel knife, correct?
00:38:27
Connick continued pressing, hoping to show Sabrina was motivated not by manipulation from Kevin,
00:38:33
but by her hatred for Lisa. You used the abandonment as a rationale for it to be okay
00:38:41
for you to murder my client's wife. No, I did not. No. It was a factor that came into it, yes.
00:38:48
A justification, a rationalization, no. In the end, Sabrina never wavered from her story.
00:38:55
Still, Connick felt he damaged her credibility. By the conclusion of her testimony,
00:39:01
There should have been no question that she was not reliable. But that was for jurors to decide.
00:39:10
It took them just under 10 hours to deliberate. I have a verdict. Guilty on all counts.
00:39:17
Guilty of sexual battery as charged in the indictment. Guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.
00:39:24
Guilty of complicity to aggravated murder as charged in the indictment. Kevin Knafel was sentenced to life in prison.
00:39:32
You think an innocent man is in jail? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I'd about stake my life on that.
00:39:38
Sabrina also received a life sentence, but will be eligible for parole after 30 years, as recommended by the state.
00:39:48
Prosecutors feel justice was served, but lead prosecutor Karen Kowal is quick to point out.
00:39:55
cases like these bring little satisfaction. This is really just betrayal on top of betrayal on top of betrayal, isn't it?
00:40:04
I mean, you got Kevin betraying Lisa, Sabrina betraying Lisa, then you have Kevin betraying Sabrina and ultimately Sabrina betraying Kevin.
00:40:15
Yeah, it's a perfect circle.