Florida Wife's Murder Exposes Husband's Secret Life

- On Prime Crime. - I thought she's not breathing. - Who is it that's not breathing? - Who is? - The untimely death of a young mother sends ripples of sorrow through an upscale suburb. - I tried to pick her up. She's, she's dead. She's screaming. That's fine, that's fine. - Somehow I'm suffering. She's going to be okay. - As investigators unearth the truth, they discover layers of deception, obsession, and lurking secrets. - Shanti was ambush, was blindsided. Never knew what was coming. - It was a very great woman. Everything on her was happening. It's been never expecting to happen. ♪ ♪ - Hey there, everybody. I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. In April of 2018, a young mom in Orlando, Florida suddenly dies under very strange circumstances. Is this an accident? Or something more? - I don't want to say this, Paul. - What is it? - Hello. - Why is she stopping me? They are trying to do CPR. I can't get her. - Okay, listen to me. - I need help. - And who is this? - This is David Chah. - Okay, your name is David. Okay, who is it that's not freezing? - Who is this? - Okay, sir, I need to take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. - That's the voice of 49-year-old David Tronis. He calls 911 to report he came home to find his wife, 39-year-old Shanti Cooper Tronis, dead, face down in the bathtub in the garage apartment of the couple's upscale home. - What happened? - It started to rain the shower. - And she passed away? (laughing) Is she awake right now? - No. - Is she breathing? - No, I'm awake. - I tried to do CPR, I can't get her to breathe. - Can you get her out of the shower? - I pulled her out. - And you don't know what happened or when anything happened? - Back on April 24th of 2018, David Tronis called 911, seemingly hysterical. - Has she been sick or something? - Yeah, she's sick. - Yes, oh God, what happened, David? He's saving me. (crying) - She had had appendicitis a couple months earlier and had surgery that she had some difficulty recovering from. First responders think that they're going to be coming into an accidental death or a fall or something like that. Shanti was found on the floor next to her bed, and they can just immediately tell that this is not a fall. Rigger Mortis had already started to set in. - Her right arm was up unsupported. Up off the ground, she was lying on her back, and she was lying on a mattress pad that was full of blood. She had some very unusual abrasions on her in very unusual places. On her hands and her knees. She'd been beaten and strangled. She's pronounced deceased immediately. The attack was so brutal that it blew a hole in her cheek, ripped off portions of her ear, fractured the back of both of her eye sockets, and broke her nose. She was manually strangled. Shanti was ambush, was blindsided. - And this unexpectedly brutal scene leads detectives to believe something more is going on. One of the things we both noticed about the bed, not only was it hastily made, and the sheets were different colors. They were white, but they almost looked like brand new sheets on the bed that were crisp white, and still had the creases from the box. There was cash in plain view. Her purse was open in plain view, and no credit cards were taken. No cash was taken. Nothing else of value was removed. Shanti was a 39-year-old, very beautiful mother. She was a professional woman. She had worked for a software company that built manufacturing software, and then started her own business. She had a nanny that would assist her, not only with Jackson, but also with her business. - She spent time with her family. She also loved her job. She loved what she did. Can't tell you what she did at all, but she definitely loved her family. She loved our dogs. She loved seeing parks. We'd always go to seeing parks. You know, watch twice a month. She was scared to go on a lot of rides. She was checking out like four times, but she still went. - You know, when work was done, and we were able to relax, it was relaxing. Barbecues on the lake, just hanging out with friends. They're kids, Jackson. Nothing crazy, just, and it was time to relax. That's what we want to do. - No matter what kind of day she was having, she always knows my honor and faith. - She wouldn't let the bad things happen at the effect of the moment. She was a very great woman. Everything about her was fascinating. She was just over all the best mother that I wanted to ever ask for. - Now, detectives need more answers as to what happened to Shanti, and they want to hear from David Tronis, so he's brought into the police station to talk. - Do we need one here? - No, there's four of us here. - And when did you move to Florida? - 1,813, five months after I met Shanti. - Did you meet her here or there? - No, why? - No, why? - It's okay. - I'm sorry. - I'm sorry. - Take your time. - He worked in Minneapolis as an engineer. David ultimately was divorced and met Shanti online. Their relationship evolved very quick and led to David moving from Minnesota to Orlando to be with Shanti. - You said something about having a great weekend. - Shanti had her appendix out on February. I want to say 23rd. And she's been eating a lot of pain. I'm sorry, I can't talk about her in the past. I've never been more in love with her so I have been. Shanti was a hard-working mother. They were both coming out of previous marriages back when they met. By all accounts, it seems like her and David were very much in love or in that sort of honeymoon phase. - Hi, family. - My dad has, I have to go over here. - This is my dad. He's having a baby on his own. - I don't know. We'll find out. - Thank you so much, Jack. Have a good night tonight, okay? - I love you. - David worked back in Minnesota since he moved down to Florida in 2013. He didn't work at all. Her background was in finance and accounting. She had her own company. - She was very successful. She had been previously married to Jackson's father, Jim Cooper. They had been divorced about a year or two at the time that she met David. - She had recently divorced Jim. Jackson's dad. - They was beyond our harmonies. I mean, they were ages, you know, for a while. - I need you to have. - If you take to them, you need them to come. You ask you, Mr. Jackson, you need them to kind of think and tell them why you need each other. - You always, in any investigation, starting your inner circle, and you work your way out. We don't believe she was alive on Tuesday morning, so it was important where Jim was the night before. Jim ended up picking up Jackson and bringing him to the house. He shows up and there's all these police there. So we added quite a long extensive interview with Jim. We were able to vet everything that he told us. So we absolutely had to rule him out. - On that day that had happened, there was almost a chance that I didn't pick him up. He would have been in that home when this happened. And I can't imagine. - Police know Jim didn't hurt Shanti. - The question is, who did? To answer that, let's go back to understanding David Tronis' timeline of events. - Tell me about Monday night, what happened? - We were getting ready to go to bed at midnight. These things have early, most of the time. She had some really secure sleep background. - So where would you sleep? - The dancers on the couch. They wanted a complete renovation of the main house. So they were living in the loft above the garage. So he would often sleep in the garage with the dogs. - Do you wake up Tuesday morning? - What do you do? - The pool was full of these from the wake of the morning. I know I cleaned the pool up. She said she was going to sleep there a little bit. So I think she came down after 7 o'clock, probably. She said she wasn't feeling very well. She had chipped her tooth the day before. And she had made a dentist appointment with this morning. But she said she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to bed. She came out of the garage. - He said she went back up and came down a second time. And then went back up and came down a third time. around nine in the morning and still had not shower yet or was not ready to leave for her appointment. She has all this pain and she just no call to no show that appointment that she made the day before but that doesn't make any sense. Do you see anyone at the park that you know, I don't. David said that Shanti went on with her day. He went on with his day by taking the dogs to a dog park and is unaccounted for for several hours. So you think you've got home about to put the dogs in I can I feed them. We have construction starting a couple weeks. So cleaning courtyard, I clean the pool up and what happens when you enter the home and see anything unusual. I get here the water is running. I just walk on stairs. I didn't hear her. She's not saying anything doesn't seem right. David told the police that at about three o'clock he went upstairs and found Shanti faced down in the bathtub. She's submerged partially whenever Alex is kind of sticking out in the water. The water in the tub was to ensure that I pull her out into the other room. They didn't know what to do. At first I tried to do CPR. She was she was still. I was losing it. I thought I was losing her. Her body is stiff. This is clearly a person that is beyond CPR. How cold in his way? Yeah. She thought I'd fall. I tried to have had. She's had to be spotted. She's glad. I mean, down her face. I grabbed the lashes cover. I put it under her head. I wiped her. It's all right. I tried to cry. Somehow I'm suffering. It is a chilling account. But upon a careful review of the details, a few things start to stand out. Coming up, detectives wonder how could Shanti Cooper-Tronis' body end up so battered if she had simply slipped and fell? Does her husband, David, know more than he's saying? I think that you've told us a significant amount of information. You've been very cooperative. But I also think that you've left some stuff up. But there's something that happened between the two of you. Hey, everybody. We're going to get right back to the Tronis case in just a minute. 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April 2018 Orlando, Florida. 49-year-old David Tronis, a self-described contractor, says he found his wife of just one year Shanti Cooper Tronis dead after a fall in the couple's garage apartment bathroom, where they'd been staying temporarily while their home was undergoing renovations. Here's the breezeway. Here is the house. However, detectives quickly determine something about Shanti's death was not adding up. So last communication in any way on the phone would have been Monday and other than that, you would have been pretty much together. We were to cut it all the time. So it was hard because now I'm concerned if she was okay when I left. Her iPhone last moved at about 11.30 pm on April 23rd. Shanti was a busy business woman who was involved in lots of meetings and discussions and calls and her phone remained in the same place on that night, stand the entire day. When was the last time you had telephone text on a Facebook and Instagram communication? The phone was Shanti. Good day, good forward. He knows that Shanti is busy, but he also knows that Shanti has a broken tooth, but he never texts Shanti. Never checks him for about four or five hours. David's cell phone is quiet and in essence, dead to the world. And one thing investigators quickly home in on is David and Shanti's living situation. We closed from the house uncle in April of 2015. We didn't move in right away until a few months to work on it. David was able to buy the house for $608,000 in cash. It's a historic home from the 1920s and became the focus of David's life through the renovating of the house. So you closed in May 2015 and you started doing work. Was it in the condition that it's in the house? Was it under renovation or? It was fully leveled on. There was some older Victorians at home and Shanti wanted to completely open up the concept. As we got into it, we felt more and more issues. You guys had completely covered it down to the studs pretty much. Yeah. As time progressed, there was a bunch of renovation plans. The entire living space of the house, you know, the kitchen, the living room, all of that was completely essentially destroyed. David's job basically was to be the contractor for this renovation. He had convinced her that he knew what he was doing and after hiring and firing subcontractors for almost two years, I think she realized he did not know what he was doing. So someone in the neighborhood had recommended to both of them that they call this particular builder who was on this TV show. I'm basically the general contractor for the project. I'm hiring subcontractors and I hired a consultant to help us do that. And who is that? His name is Keith. Keith does a TV show in March. He has to us to be on the show. They had a meeting the week before her death and she was dismissive. She did not want to come down to the pool area and meet with him. Maybe perhaps she wasn't as interested in doing the show as David was. When talking about that day and about Shanti and about their relationship, David was somewhat reserved when detectives would talk about things such as the house. His demeanor completely changes. He becomes very calm, but engaged, animated, really wanting to talk about this house and the improvements and the role that he played. Has there been work crews at the house? We finished the demo and started the friendly menu scene in January. We did the foundation in November in December. It's been moving slowly, but it's a huge project. We kept an open mind the entire time where the construction and the contractors' apostability were the workers' apostability. They followed up to see if there was an issue with potential like transients in the area because there was a hospital nearby. They took DNA, they took latent prints, and ultimately none of that came back to anyone except for the people that lived in the home. So there was just no indication that this was some random stranger or anything like that. David ends up making several strange comments about his relationship with Shanti that raises serious red flags. David was volunteering how much he and Shanti were in love, and really. - I really wanted to paint a picture of a remarried couple who was blissfully happy and talking about the rest of their lives. - We did just follow, like a great rhythm, and we were just really, really happy when we were talking more, and we were, you know, it was great, we were really, really, really happy. And Saturday night I think was the first night that she really enjoyed just being kind of out and relaxing with that. And since her surgery, I didn't have sex, and she didn't have to try any of that as we did. - He offered up to us without asking that they had been intimate on Saturday and again on Sunday. We both keyed in on that because we did not ask them about their sex life. I'm sitting there looking at him, thinking, "What is he trying to say?" - It was messy, it was very messy. So are you saying that blood is got somewhere? - We did get on the bed spread, and it did get us to the bed, we should. - It was a very unusual statement. We tried to narrow down where he meant we would find blood on the bed. He just kept saying it was everywhere, it was everywhere. That was an indicator to us that we needed to look further on that bed. - Is there something covering that up now or now? - I don't need to switch the sheets. - So there shouldn't be blood on the bed now. Or is that? - There shouldn't be, she was bleeding. I brought her out of the bed. I would guess that is what the, I would guess that is. I would guess that is, so we picked up the sheets and we went to God. - If you pull apart that interview and you look at the things that he said, he's trying to cover it up, he's trying to explain it away before we find it. - They go back on multiple search warrants and they find blood on the bed rails. It looks like it's been wiped on the visible side but you can see where it had run down and hadn't been wiped on the sort of the side that you wouldn't see just looking at it with a naked eye. So it's just one of the thousand little pieces that come together and paint a picture of a person who's not being truthful. - Investigators know David Tronis isn't being 100% transparent with them and they want to know why. - You could give two (beep) about what happened to Shanti tonight. I told you she was murdered, murdered. You can't even bake it. That's how much you could give a (beep) (upbeat music) - Talk around in circles. Trust me, the evidence and her body is deep for itself and your story is BS. You either made a mistake or your cool body killed. Which one are you? - It's April 2018 and homicide detectives in Orlando, Florida are questioning 49 year old David Tronis over the suspicious death of his 39 year old wife, Shanti Cooper Tronis. He says he came home to find her dead in the bathtub, a standard slip and fall accident. But the evidence isn't adding up. - Did you to argue? - No, absolutely not. - Did you harm Shanti in any way? - Absolutely not. - Did you choke her? - Absolutely not. - Did you strangle her? - Without questioning her. - Shanti did not fall and get those injuries. - Okay. - Without question. Who's the last time to argue? - Very briefly on Saturday. If Jackson felt like you two argued about the house routinely, is that accurate or not? - I don't think most of the time that we're arguing about it, I can understand that might be his perception. - Has any fight ever turned physical between two? - No. - There were fights and arguments about the home renovation and the money involved. And it was pretty clear there was a financial aspect to this. - The injuries that this woman sustained, absolutely 100% in my opinion, not possible from a slip and a fall in a bathtub. - David reported that he found Shanti in the bathtub, full of water, and then took her out of the tub in order to give her CPR. - There was no water anywhere. There was no water puddled on the bathroom floor. There was no water marks on the carpet where she would have been dragged from the bathroom. - Using some luminescent chemicals, they were able to see that there had been blood in the tub up to a certain line. They were able to find some light and prints around the tub. And on the door frame that ultimately came back to either Shanti or to David. - For you to see the significance of her injuries of close and personal like you did, and come up with this cock-a-may-me theory that she fell in her head is just baffling to me that you thought we would believe that. You strangled her. There is no one home but you. This is not looking good for you. - I have never, ever, and would never have her surgery. - We always say the body doesn't lie, but people do. Her injuries and what had happened to her in that house was not lying to us. And the evidence doesn't lie, but clearly he was. - Despite all of this, there's still not quite enough evidence to hold David Tronis. But months later, investigators learned there was a different side to his life. One that few knew about. - Stay friendly. - My name is Arthur Adams. - We are now at the 7-Eleven. You work here? - Yes. - And you have a second job as well? - Yes. - There were definitely indicators to us that there was possibly trouble in the marriage. We learned from canvassing the neighborhood that David had a whole other life. - Where is that? - A club Orlando. It's a gay man's gym spa. - Is David a member of the club? - Yes. - How many times in the last 18 months do you think you've seen David on average? - Like at least twice a week. - And the last time you saw David at Club Orlando? - Maybe five days before the murder. - David's life was one of smoking mirrors of using people, of denial, of reality. David never referred to Shanti as his wife, but only his partner. This was something that stood out as being questionable as we later investigated and found David's complete second life, including trips to the men's bathhouse, just two miles down the street from their home. It definitely raised a suspicion of whether David did have a complete second life unknown to Shanti. - Having a double life is not a crime, but it does lead investigators to name David Tronis as their number one suspect in the brutal murder of his wife. Yet, something is still missing. - The story of the sheets is the wildest story of my 19 year legal career. - This Tronis case is very, very disturbing and whenever I hear stories like this, I'm always asking myself, how well do you really know who's in your life? Who are you letting into your life? Do you really know all you should know? It's a scary concept to think about, but let me talk to you about our incredible sponsor and partner who may be able to help you out here. Truthfinder. So truthfinder is a service that can provide actual safety for you guys. And I say that because truthfinder is one of the largest public records search services in the United States. 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One thing that the detectives noticed when they arrived on the scene that night was that Shanti didn't have her ring. And her ring was not accounted for. Shanti wore her weddings at every single day. So for her not to have it on, when we observe her body, there could have been a number of explanations for that. When we asked David, he's saying it's on her finger, and we both knew it wasn't. Ultimately, we found it in his possession, in his bedroom, in a suitcase at his mother's house. The first thing that came to my head was checkmate. We found the trophy that David kept from that day. Now, was it a remembrance of the relationship they had? Maybe. Was it a remembrance of being able to do and get away with this crime for months and months? I think that's also likely. With holes in Tronis' story, forensic evidence, and a very telling crime scene, detectives have enough to arrest and charge David Tronis with first degree murder. But it's something that happens nearly a year later that brings the case to a stunning conclusion. I got a phone call from David's criminal defense attorney. He realized that he had an item of physical evidence in his possession. He had an attorney pretty much the day after her body was discovered. We put a camera on the house within a few days of her death. And the camera captured two private investigators removing evidence from the house. One of the things we were looking for from the very beginning is what I like to call blood spatter at inception. So where did this event occur? And if there was blood on the mattress pad, there should be blood on the sheets. And there was no blood on the sheets on that bed. His first set of attorneys hired the private investigator to remove the sheets from the home. The sheets had been laundered to the point where if you saw them on a search, you wouldn't think they were bloody. Once we got them, we spread them out. And you can see blood spatter likely where her pillow would have been. The Orlando Police Department asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation about the concealing of this evidence. And ultimately, decisions were made by the state attorney's office to not file charges against the initial defense attorneys. But David Tronis' case didn't happen right away as his defense initially argued he was not competent to stand trial. It was extremely difficult for so long. So many hearings, it just, it was all about him and his rights. And it didn't really seem to be about her. When I started going to hearings around the third for a early fourth year of this being dragged out, I got a picture of my mom, every single hearing. As a reminder that even though she's out here physically, she's always with us. I also held up her picture at the end of every hearing. Just to show you that it's just more than just a name on a paper. And more than just a news headline, it's more than just that. We were going to keep making sure that everybody would see her face because we weren't going to go away. Five years after Shanti's death in October 2023, prosecutors finally get the chance to lay out their case before a jury. Back in 2013, David Trone's moved to Florida to be with Shanti. And he moved to Florida. He was able to purchase a beautiful ride home. David and Shanti would argue that they're about the harm of instruction and what was going on. And her not having any ownership in the home. There were indications she was funding that renovation, but he was very much treating this beautiful half-million-dollar residents as his and not as theirs. The house is everything to David. It's his identity. It's his passion project. It's really the focus of his life even more than his wife. He loved that house more than anything else. Shanti controlled the destiny of that house. And how desperate was David to make sure that the renovations went through and his gem was polished? That house became the rest of the more and more unlitable of the backlash and honest tension in the relationship. This home show was the lifeline out of this mess with this house that they've dug themselves into. And she, a week before her murder, was not into it. The likely motive, I think, is he had an alternate lifestyle where he was behind her back seeing men. And then one of the last things that he had tried to do right before we arrested him is he had made a request to get her life insurance with all of the accounts and the life insurance. He stood to gain over a million dollars. This was a murder of rage, of anger, of extreme violence. The only reasonable explanation for Shanti's death is sitting right there. The state starts presenting their witnesses from David and Shanti's friends to neighbors and experts. As a couple, did they appear to be affectionate towards each other? No. I never saw them hold hands, touch, kiss. It was a little strange. Were you ever made aware of any tensions related to the house that they lived in it? Yeah, I mean, it was being that it was under the renovation. There was a lot of tension, a lot of fights. When he walked alone, did he have any canine companions? Almost always. Now, on April 24th of 2018, did you see either Shanti Cooper-Tronus or David Tronus, the defendant, walking? Yes, I saw David. Did he have any canine companion or companions with him? Not on this day. A local neighbor told law enforcement that she was coming home from the grocery store and saw David walking alone in the neighborhood. Police showed a picture of David that day to the neighbor. And the neighbor said that David was wearing different clothes at 12 p.m. than the ones that he was wearing at 4 p.m. You know, it's little facts like that that really stands out when you have somebody telling a story that doesn't match up. Road 13's entry, according to E&F, is 4.23, 2018, 11.19 p.m. There is no other entry until April 24th, 2018, at 10.11 p.m. correct? That's correct. So this device registered no distance, no steps, essentially 23 hour span of time. Yes. Shanti had a step tracker on her phone that recorded her going up and down the stairs. She always had her phone with her. There was no steps tracked of her at all on April 24th. And that doesn't fit with his telling of that day. There's evidence that she got a text message work related very early in the morning, about 658, that she never read and never responded to. The theory was that this attack either happened around midnight when she was going to bed or early in the morning as she was getting up. This kind of is a theory, but if she seated on the edge of the bed above where the blood dripped to the slots, when she is removing her right earring, she's looking possibly at David. And maybe they're arguing over the renovation or maybe the relationship is ending. But the moment she goes to her left earring, her head would have been turned away from him. And so if she's starting to remove this earring, that's when she takes this blow to the left side of her head. She never saw it coming. Was there anything other than the defendant's statement to you in Detective Sharp that indicated that Chante Tronis was alive past the steps the night before 11, 19 p.m.? There's nothing that indicates any sign of life past Monday night. But the defense paints a different picture without calling any witnesses of their own. They would have you believe that this was an unhappy marriage that they lived separate lives. That the marriage was crumbling. This is a case about a rushed judgment. It's about a sloppy investigation. It's about circumstantial evidence. All this financial motive, it's who we-- The theme that the defense tried to develop was police didn't do a thorough investigation. And they targeted David. You're not here to tell me to take you. You're not here to solve a crime. You're here to determine if the government has proven to crime that they have alleged that Chante Crouper of Tronis was murdered and David Tronis is the person they did. The men should be taken up. Let's go to April the 24th. Did you tell him that this was a domestic violence assault before even speaking to Mr. Tronis? No. I told him that the husband was the one who called us and that what his statements were. No, I did not indicate who was responsible for her death. We didn't know. It was suspicious, though, weren't you? of the story of the inconsistencies. - Yeah, of course. - They basically blamed our investigation and said it was lacking in substance and that we had made a lot of errors that the police investigation was shot in. - Isn't it true that you can go to Mr. processing the interest or suspect from jump that you didn't believe a word out of his mouth? - That's not true. - You should judge him for the lack of emotion. - No, I did not prejudge him for the lack of emotion. - Her ex-husband was just as much of a suspect as he was, but you have to be able to eliminate people and you have to start with a person who called 911. - You became concerned with some of the details you noted at the crime scene, right? - I became concerned with some of the details I noted in the crime scene, as discussed. No water, no wet, that those things, yes. - No detective. - I became very concerned with inconsistencies, yes. - As this case developed, there was no real coherent defense. There were no facts to establish any other identity of any other person. No primarchs, on doors to show a burglar. No stolen valuables. No evidence of animosity or bad relationships with Shanty and other people. - During that trial, it was long days we didn't sleep at night when the jury got the case for a couple hours that seemed like an eternity. They kept coming back with questions and we were trying to decipher what they meant. That really made us crazier than we already were. - After nearly five hours of deliberations, the jury returns their verdict. - The important of us is they have shown us where it reads, "We, the jury, find the defend the guilty "of first-degree murder as charging the indictment." - So it says, "We all." - In that moment when the verdict is actually announced, it's like time stops. And I remember looking over at Jackson and he waited for that day for so long and in the span of 90 seconds when the jury entered the room to the verdict was read by the court clerk. Justice was delivered for him. - My heart was racing like a couple hundred thousand pages a minute. But when I heard the verdict, I was overjoyed and it was probably just one of my life. - The night of the verdict, we were walking to the truck and Jackson was shrugging his shoulders. And I said, "What are you doing?" And he said, "I feel lighter like a waste than this thing." - David Tronis is found guilty of first-degree murder and faces a possible life sentence in prison. - To me, the greatest satisfaction in this case was David having to be faced with the truth of what he did. - When this parasite came into our lives, he took something from us and most importantly from Jackson and what he took is not replaceable. He lost a good parent. It is still unfathomable to me what he put Jackson through. - I couldn't look at him. If I looked at him, I would do something I would regret. And I wouldn't say his name. He doesn't deserve that. He told a lot of lies. So I just wanted to set the record straight and let the judge know that it needs to be life without parole. - My mom was the best person I ever knew. She worked a lot, but she never put her family over work. - Early 2018, she was taken from me and my family. It's like a hole in my heart that I can't fill or fix. She didn't die peacefully. She did not deserve anything that happened to her that night. She was the best mom I could ever ask for. - Court will adjudicate she guilty. I'll sentence you to life imprisonment. - David took control of so many things. He took control of the house. He took control of finances. He took control of how long Shanti lived. - Personally, I think so people didn't know how hard the worker she was. She knew how to get stuff done and she did it with a hundred percent precision. She was very good at what she did. She was more than just someone that was murdered. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody. If one person hears her story and might think they're in that kind of a relationship, then maybe they can get out before it's too late. And that would be something positive that came from her memory. - We both worked as hard as we worked on this case for Jackson because of the tragedy to that little boy. For him having to grow up without his mom. There's not a day that goes by that they won't grieve for her. That grief is really just love with no place to go. - In the end, this case largely centered on the house and the remodeling and the arguments. We're fighting for the house for Jackson so that Jackson can decide at some point in the future what to do with this place that brought the worst incident that he'll ever have in his life. And whether Jackson sells it or whether Jackson takes a sledgehammer and knocks it to the ground, our fight now is to give Jackson control of what happens to this place. - It's kind of weird, you know, having the same routine for six years. They all just suddenly being over. - It's like a new normal. We have many more good days than bad days now the trial's over. We just had mother's day so we went to the beach and the flowers in the ocean, but she loved going to the beach with him. And we talked a lot about her. Just try to honor her memory. It was a long road for Shanty's family to finally see justice for Shanty's murder. And while David Tronas fights his case on appeal, he sits in prison. The man wanted to have it all. Now has nothing. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber. And until next time, stay safe.