Suspicion in Silver City

I don't want to believe it. My sister's dead. And I just. I'm sorry. I just kind of felt hard. Inside a silent home, an eerie scene, water pouring through the rooms. You heard the water running? Yes, it was just like gushing. I saw her in the bathtub. Face down. Right. Drowned? No. She'd badly beaten. Lots of bruising. But clues would be hard to come by. Detective Sanchez claims that by leaving her in the water, that washed away any DNA evidence. I thought it was over. She was just dead and nothing was ever going to be done about it. Not if this family could help it. We started looking, looking for what happened. There was still water in the tub. We pulled the drain. I saw black scuff marks. A case that would see a key suspect. A deep town. I was like, wow, he's going to Alaska. That's exactly what people do. And on earth, dark deeds from the past. She would wake up and hit me standing over watching her. That's creepy. Sinister stories. She told me that he was following her. Yet justice was anything but certain. You want that smoking gun? Uh-huh. And there's just not one. A crime scene right out of a scary movie. A trial right out of a courtroom drama. I'm Lester Holt and this is Deadline. Here is Keith Morrison with Suspicion in Silver City. [MUSIC PLAYING] Out in the middle of New Mexico, hours of desert highway from better known haunts light, side to face, is an old mining town called Silver City. And such an unusual place it is. Korki would be a good word. Very old west. There's a lot of history in Silver City. [MUSIC PLAYING] A vast, erud desert one way out of town, lush green mountains the other. [MUSIC PLAYING] Fourth, fifth, sixth-semeration ranchers and silver miners. Co-exist with artists and hippies and wide-eyed newcomers. As we say, Korki. It's just lots of different perspectives, which is always fascinating. [MUSIC PLAYING] But of course, this is not a travelogue. No. No, this is about what happened here, or more precisely what happened in there. Inside that little house, to her. She was beaten from head to toe. She had bruises from the top of her head down her feet. [MUSIC PLAYING] Her name was Cassie Farrington. And what was done to her in the bathtub of her own house was dreadful. And she went in the bathtub and she's like, "I can't even be sleeping. I wish you'd still." It was also for a very long time, an unsolved mystery. [MUSIC PLAYING] Cassie Brooks was her name then, her mom and dad, Darleen and Chuck. She was very, very outgoing, driven, motivated. For once, she was a little kid. Yes, from the time she was a little straight-aids all the way through perfect grades. Wow. She worked hard. Cassie seemed to be good at pretty much everything. She let her in five sports, her senior year too. And she was in the National Honor Society, in the years of America. She aced high school in just three years, announced to her family that she was going to be a doctor. And then she was 16 years old. She tried to hide what happened. But of course, couldn't. She was pregnant. Med school was not going to happen. [MUSIC PLAYING] And then, to Cassie siblings, Elizabeth and Beau, events kind of whizzed by. She had a baby, got out of the hospital, graduated high school, got married and moved out in one month. Wow. Yeah. Super fast. But the marriage didn't last. By 22, Cassie now Cassie Farrington was on her own in Silver City, with two small kids working as a nurse. In fact, she moved into a house owned by one of her nursing professors. This woman, Charnell Lee. Was she a good time? Oh, yes. Like the best. Spit spot all the time. Always. Yeah, she was awesome. Just around that time, Chernell was heading toward a breakup with her husband, Billy. Billy was also a nurse. Maybe a mentor of sorts to Cassie. And he seemed to be very fond of her. So her lot had worked around the house. Then pretty soon, a serious boyfriend came along for Cassie. David Barry. He was wonderful with the children, and that was something that she really liked about him. Cassie's friend and coworker, Mary Flores. They had a relationship that was fun. They were just building a life together. Especially on the morning of March 24, 2014, something Billy Lee had been trying to arrange for her came through. She had just been notified by Billy Lee that she was getting off of the meds surge floor, going to the ER, the job she wanted. Cassie had just finished her graveyard shift at this silver city hospital. When she called her mom to tell her the news. That was the plum job, the one she always wanted. Yes. Then she went home to get the kids off to school and have a nap before meeting her friend Mary again later. I had heard that the shift was particularly difficult. So I texted her and told her to go home and get some rest. And then when she got up to get the kids from school, we could all, they could come by. We go get ice cream or something. The afternoon came. No Cassie. I understand you have kids and who knows. I mean a million things could have come up. And when Cassie's parents got a call from their grandson school to say she didn't show to pick him up, they weren't really worried. I was hoping that she just slept through her phone because she'd worked graveyard as the name of four at the hospital. But eventually, a request to Charnel, the landlord, could she check on Cassie, please? So I drove down from my house up at the hill. Down this way and up here to go in and check on her through the back door. Which is where? She noticed the strangest thing. I looked to the door and there was water. You could see through the door that there was just water rolling out. And I knocked. Was it coming out under the door? No, it was just rolling out into the kitchen right there. Weird. That would be very strange. Yeah, it was very strange. And then as soon as I saw that and I knocked and I called for Cassie and nothing happened. And then so I had to go back up to the other house to get the key. And then just came right back here. Yeah, then I unlocked the door. Dread, scripture then, something bad in there. And where was Cassie? A home full of water, an ominous sight, but nothing compared to what came next. You're a nurse, you've seen lots of things. Yeah. But that can't have been easy. No. [music] Something was clearly wrong inside this small home on the outskirts of Silver City, New Mexico. Very strange. Turned out Lee checking on her tenant, Cassie Farring, to open the back door and was confronted by water everywhere. And you heard the water running? Coming from the bathtub. So she ran to the master bedroom, intending to turn off the water. And there she was. I've never seen anything like it. It was heaped up and the waves were just like. That's a deep, deep bath. Yeah, it was like cresting and she was on the top. Oh. And she was in the water. Yeah, she was upside down. Face down. Right. I mean, you're a nurse. You've seen lots of things. Yeah. No. Well, at the time, you know, you're just in. Like emergency mode, you know. You just. You don't even stop to think. And so I just went and grabbed her and pulled her over to here and turned her over to see if there was something I could do to help her. I mean, it was kind of horrifying. Because she was still in her nursing scrubs. And then I checked to see if she had a pulse and she didn't. Nothing to do now, but call 911. And she's been in the bathtub and she's. I can't even see a thing now. She's still. Okay, so she's on responsive right now. She's dead. As Charnault talked to the 911 dispatcher, she turned off the faucet and. Oh my god. Why is the water running everywhere? It's weird. I heard water running in the extra bathroom. At the other end of the house? Yes. So Charnault ran back there and discovered water running in the other bathtub too. No flooding, that drain was unplugged. When she. When she turned off the water, Sharnel noticed that the towel rack was broken. "This bit right up here was just yanked off the wall." "Totally yanked off the wall." "Huh." "And then that's hurt." "We're leaving a gaping hole or something." "Yes." By then the Grand County Sheriff's deputies were arriving and they asked Sharnel to leave. "Would you see?" "I saw water on the ground, on the north side, that had been coming out of the trailer. It was still dripping in fact." Lieutenant Ray Tavazon was the supervising chief deputy. While his lead detective Jose Sanchez took charge of the scene on the investigation, Tavazon had a look around. "Any sign of forced entry?" "No." "No." "No sort of foot print, sort of tire marks or anything." "No, the way the ground is gravel and stuff, there wasn't any." And inside the house? We saw that there had been what looked like maybe a scuffle in that bathroom. It told you that. "Well, there was a broken towel rack laying on the floor. There was a pair of glasses laying on the floor. And then from there we went to the north end of that trailer. Her bed was made, hadn't been slept in. Her lunch box, her backpack, and her purse were all on the foot of the bed." "In other words, this was not a robbery." "Apparently not, no." "Didn't look like it. They would have taken that stuff." "That was a trick. There was a laptop in the bathroom. And then she was laying on the floor. And at that point, I went out and called my superiors to inform them what we had." There is no getting over the phone call. Cassie's parents got then. "All I remember is she started screaming now. And then she told me they found Cassie dead in her home. I just grabbed my car keys and we were out the door and gone. Headed to silver." "What was that drive like?" "It seemed like it took forever, but it was the fastest I'd ever made that trip." "What goes through your mind?" "We're just hoping that they're wrong." "Yeah, hoping they were wrong." But they arrived in time to watch Cassie being carried away in a body bag. And then traumatic as that was, as they stood there, Lieutenant Tavazon approached them. And seemed to say it looked like she'd taken her own life. Lieutenant Tavazon mentioned to you how many times, three times? "Tavazon in that evening. He brought up suicide and I said she wasn't suicidal." "Is it what he's trying to persuade you to do that?" "Yes." "It wasn't a suggestion that was made. It was a question that was asked." But sitting here all this time later. Lieutenant Tavazon told us they must have misunderstood him. "You heard that they eventually decided that what you had done was suggested it was suicide." "Well, yeah, they were upset because I asked the question." "Did you think so at the time?" "No." "So what did the Lieutenant think?" "Young lady just doesn't die, you know, just out of the blue. We considered a homicide till we're proven otherwise, sure." "Of course, there was that other matter that needed proving." "Who did this?" Coming up. After just a few hours at the house, detectives leave the scene. "How can you be done with your investigation that quick?" So the family decides to do a little detecting of its own. "There was still water in the tub. We pulled the drain and we saw black scuff marks." And the date line continues. It's a terrible thing to encounter. Caught or not, so young just 23 and a mother of two. But there she was. And what happened to her as the deputies could clearly see was close up and intense and murder. "Did you see any obvious injuries on her body?" "Well, there was some bruising on her arms. There was some bruising around her neck." But it was less clear, however, was exactly how her death was caused. "Hello." "Did it leap out at you though and say, 'Somebody beat this girl, they strangled her." "It was suspicious, very suspicious." "Tort of thing could keep crime scene investigators busy all night, swiping for DNA, taking fingerprints, collecting all the bits of evidence." And yet, this was very strange. After just a few hours during which they didn't do those things, the deputies left. And told Cassie's family, "Go on in if you want." "Yeah, they released the house." "Hey, you can go in." "And they put their hand at the door. You can all go in now." "How can you be done with your investigation that quick?" "Aud." "Not exactly normal protocol, especially since once people start walking in and out, the scene becomes highly compromised." "Did you go into the house that day?" "Merryman, when they said you can go in the house, we went in." They were hoping to find some sign or clue to explain what happened to Cassie. But they never imagined they'd find evidence that the deputies just left behind. There was still water in the tub, so we pulled the drain, and when we pulled the drain, then we saw black scuff marks, black from shoes, rubber, black rubber in the tub. And where did those scuff marks come from? From a struggle. They also found Cassie's glasses at a hair ribbon near the broken tower rack. No one had bothered to collect them as evidence, so they did. "To a strange level, the family is a kind of CSI group." We gathered up the hair with the bobby pin and the ribbon, her glasses. "We were gathering too?" "You were gathering evidence?" "That was frustrating." "Yeah." "Cut it like a tell right off the top. This isn't going to necessarily go well." Deputies did return to the house the next day, though, and discovered the carpet in her bedroom was gone. "Billie Lee, the landlord goes in and starts ripping the carpet up." "Wait a minute. Yeah, you've got a guy going in right after and the first thing he does is rip the carpet out of the mouth of the bed." "Well, so can we." And that finally seemed to get the attention of the lead investigator, Sergeant Sanchez, who by then already had a few reservations about Mr. Lee. Why would he remove the carpet to get rid of evidence? And what was his relationship with Cassie? Mr. Lee told him that he really didn't have any dealings with Cassie. Then later found out that she had applied for a position in the emergency room. And Billie Lee was the one that was helping her, and that's what, through red flags up for Versace. Why? Well, because he was thinking maybe he was there to try to collect a favor for forgetting her the job. Cassie reject Billie Lee and pay a terrible price. A few days after Cassie's death, the investigating deputy set out to officially question Billie. But Billie was gone. Had quit his job, left town. Was far, far away in Alaska without his wife. "I was like, wow, he's going to Alaska, maybe Sanchez is on to something." "That's exactly what people do. You know, they can trouble they take off for Alaska or someplace like that, Mexico or something." But, whatever reason, no effort was made to bring Billie Lee back to Silver City for questioning. And investigate as quickly turned their attention to another man in Cassie's life, her live-in boyfriend, David Barry. His behavior in the first few days after her death was very strange and peculiar to me. Oh, also. I myself never really saw him shed a tear, but I was suspect of everyone that had any contact with her. I didn't trust anyone. At the funeral, Cassie's casket was left open. "To tell the world what was done to her," said her siblings. "Her face was covering her neck, her bruises, her hands were black. But who had done it?" In months, all anyone could do was speculate. "I thought it was over. I thought she was just dead and that was it and nothing was ever going to be done about it." At the sheriff's office, investigative supervisor Tavizan questioned his deputy, Sanchez. Why hadn't he even dusted for fingerprints? He says no. He says it's too clean. To him, it wasn't anything that would have been helpful to the investigation. Kind of an assumption there, huh? Well, I guess that's what you could call it. What's the old expression to assume makes an asset? It means both. Yeah, exactly. So, was zero physical evidence to point to anyone? The case of the murder in the bathtub went cold. Until six months later, a particular friend once suddenly gone just as suddenly reappeared. Time for a pertinent question or two. Coming up. Billy Lee, back from Alaska, admitting he and Cassie were close. But what will he say to this? "Did you inflict any injuries to the victim on life's 24th?" Cassie Farrington's parents, Chuck and Darley and Brooks, were in pain, deep, endless, searing pain. About Cassie's murder, of course, but also about the long wait for justice. "That period of waiting?" "Hard." "Very difficult." "Divorcault on us." "Dween us." "Who come?" "I was going all the time." Few things eat at a marriage quite like grief, even the best marriages. All she wanted to talk about was Cassie's case. And when months went by, with no arrest, "And I finally got to the point where I just told her, I can't do this anymore. I thought about it too, but I didn't want to talk about it all evening with her." But the topic was unavoidable. Any new leader development had to be discussed. The medical examiners report, for instance, that didn't come out for four months. And when it finally did, it was vague. It was homicide by undetermined means. Undetermined means? You saw bruises all over her body and apparent strangulation. And they wouldn't classify it as strangulation was the cause of death. Multiple mechanisms is what caused the death. They knew that if the case ever went to trial, that vagueness could be a problem. That is, if it went to trial. Because the investigation seemed to be going nowhere, the family found things out like how boyfriend David had a solid alibi. So why wasn't he officially cleared? Why did Darlene seem to be a more active investigator than the deputy? It's drove me nuts trying to play crime scene investigator, but it also helped me to push the cops. Too hard, maybe? Detect this, I just said, you know I'm tired of Mrs. Brooks calling me all hours of the night. But they kept pushing anyway. I asked, well did you get Billy Lee down here from Alaska and having to do his polygraph? He said yes. Remember, Billy Lee lived on the same property as Cassie, and was married to her landlord, and hours after the murder, he ripped out Cassie's bedroom carpet. And then, decam for Alaska. Question was, why? Months after he left, Billy returned. You mean Billy Lee or William, actually? And Sergeant Sanchez finally had his chance to question him. How long have you known Cassie and Edward? Any Cassie, whatever, she was attacked in the murder and she was? But curiously, Sanchez did not ask why Billy removed the carpet, and why he suddenly took off for Alaska. But he did ask about the nature of Billy's relationship with Cassie. We were real good friends. We didn't go barbed together. We didn't go fishing together. We didn't do that kind of stuff, but we had a working relationship that was pretty close. Really? Back at the crime scene, Day of the Murder, at least as Sanchez told his supervisor, Billy claimed to barely know Cassie. They were pretty close. Too close? Billy told the detective he had an alibi. He and the buddy were out in the country working on his cabin. We were working on that roof, and I got the call. No, we've been out there for a couple of days. But of course, as any detective could tell you, people lie all the time about alibis. Sanchez asked Billy to take a polygraph. Did you inflict any injuries to the victim on March 24th? No. The results were inconclusive. Not so good for Billy. And that alibi? Just kind of sat there, unchecked. Until finally, a year later, Lieutenant Tavazon himself did some checking and confirmed that Billy's alibi was absolutely solid. Though when we tracked him down, he said this. They never did, in my mind, ever really truly suspect me because I had such an alibi. I hate to say it, but I've looked at what they were saying. You were there number one person of interest. At least one investigator is number one person of interest. They never told me that. Billy also found any suggestion he was too close to Cassie, particularly offensive. Absolutely never even thought in my mind that I've had a relationship with Cassie. Not even a little bit. Traded her to like a daughter. So why take off for Alaska after the murder? Got a blocative job offer up there, so I took it. Not even thinking of. Did it look bad? Yeah, why would it look bad? And he felt the same about that carpet he ripped up in Cassie's bedroom. There were some people who thought, Billy took that out of there because Billy didn't want evidence to be found. Well, what kind of evidence would have been in the carpet more than would have been somewhere else? You knew that question was being asked about you. After the fact, yeah, Sanchez, he said, "Well, I just take the carpet of us because you released the place and we needed to save that flooring." But what about that polygraph? Why that inconclusive result? I can tell you why. Instead of you ever been in the house. I said, "Yes." And she kind of raised her eyebrows on that album because that was our rental house. Of course I've been in the house multiple times. Maybe they should have asked Cassie's family who didn't for a minute suspect Billy Lee. They would have told the deputies it was long past time to focus on someone new. And who could that be? The person the family had suspected all along. He did it. He killed her. We know he did. Coming up. Disturbing stories about one of the men in Cassie's life. She would wake up and hid me in the dark standing over and watching her. That's creepy. And then a new theory of the case. He said, "A cop did this. That this had been done by someone who had been trained in police tactics." When Dateline continues. A dreadful whispered suspicion was making it a corrosive way around Silver City in Mexico. That somehow cops were protecting cops. The blue code they called it. At first I didn't want to believe it, but as time went on it became more apparent that it seemed that way. Why? Maybe because the investigation of Cassie Farrington's murder had been going nowhere for so long, even while the family kept trying to tell the detective Sanchez that a particular Silver City cop killed Cassie. But the detective hadn't done a thing about it. He never questioned him. And I asked him that. And he said he was trying to eliminate everyone else that could be possibly a suspect. And then he was going to talk to him. But Sanchez's supervisor, Lieutenant Tavazon, had already confirmed Billy Lee's out of the buy. Boyfriend David's too. We know he was at work. He left at five o'clock in the morning to go to work and damning. And all that was verified. And still nothing happened. So one day, months after the murder, the anger Cassie's family was feeling boiled over. I call the DA's office. As for a meeting to complain about Sheriff's Department. And complain he did, forcefully, said Chief Deputy District Attorney George Zokhan. People got a little hot under the collar, the sheriff, the under sheriff were there. And Lieutenant Tavazon was also there. He and the others had to admit that lead detective Jose Sanchez had made mistakes. Many mistakes. I had no reason to doubt him, but I should have. I should have micromanaged him. So maybe the whispers about some blue code were understandable to Deputy Tavazon. Just not true. We do not protect officers. If an officer makes a mistake or commits a crime, we treat them just as we would any other person. The real reason behind a stalled investigation? Just laziness. The decision was swift, Sanchez was off the case. And this ranch owner and veteran detective stepped in. I came in one day and I was told hey, we're going to assign you to the Cassie Farrington case. Sergeant Jess Watkins, see which you can find they told him. First thing I did was sit down, read through all the interviews, read through all the reports. And then he listened as Cassie's family told him about the city police officer who had never even been questioned about the murder. I knew it was Farrington that did it. Brad Farrington, Cassie's estranged husband. When Cassie died, the two have been separated for more than a year. but we're going through a nasty custody battle. As soon as we found out she was dead, we all thought it was him. Cassie's family told Detective Watkins that Cassie had been living in fear of Brad for years. Wasn't Shy about saying so. He had her convinced he was going to kill her. Watkins listened to their stories. Many stories. One when Cassie's mom was right there watching. He has her against the wall on her side, but he has her in a headlock. Did you want to call the police? Yes, but I felt like if I did anything he would hurt her. And she would wake up during the night and hid me in the dark standing over watching her. That's creepy. Yeah. That is the first time she said he's going to kill me. And she really believed this? Yes. The first time? How many times? Well, she told me at least three times. And then there was this. What Brad did to the kids? Cassie told her mom about it. Said he called this a game. They were relieved when the couple finally split. And they liked her new boyfriend, David Barry. I thought when she moved in with David that maybe she'd be more safe. Could get on with life. The kids loved him. Well, Tristan actually started calling him Daddy David. Which Cassie would be like, "Can't call him that. Your dad's going to get mad." And sure enough, said Cassie's sister, he did. He expressed to Cassie that he didn't like it. That the kids better not call him that. He blamed Cassie for it? Yeah. And a few weeks before Cassie's death, she told her parents, "Son Tristan came home from a visit with Brad. Otterly terrified." Then he asked him, "What's wrong, Tristan?" He said, "Daddy said he's going to kill Mommy and David. He was five years old." I don't think a five year old makes that up. By then Brad was no longer on the police force. And things weren't going so well for him. When Sargent Watkins finished reviewing it all, the police reports his own interviews. What he felt was something like amazement. Wow. Nobody in this world is pointed out as having any reason to want to harm her other than Brad. As long as she was alive, Cassie had the kids, and a new man, and a great job. And he was losing everything. She had no longer worked at the police department. They hadn't reached any agreements on these kids. I think that was his way to take what he could from her. Just say, "Hey look, those kids are not going to have you." Was Watkins right? We asked to hear the faring inside of the story from Brad or his family or both. We asked multiple times. But they told us they didn't want to be interviewed. Anyway, for Sargent Watkins, the evidence was too compelling to ignore, especially what came right out of the autopsy. Photos which the detective said to the prosecutor told an unmistakable story. "That this had been done by someone who had been trained "in police defense of tactics." What'd you think when you heard that? Well, I thought we now have the evidence we need to charge Bradley Farrington. Five weeks after Sargent Watkins took over the case, and a year and a half after Cassie was killed, law enforcement tracked down Brad Farrington in Tucson, Arizona, where he had taken the children. And they arrested him and charged him with first degree murder. Just one nagging worry. There was no evidence at all to put Brad at the murder scene. And without that, odds of conviction weren't good. I was scared that he was going to get off. Coming up. At trial, the defense comes out swinging. It will be clear that other people had access, motive, and ability to complete this crime. What will the jury think? Oh, I was nervous I just paced up known halls in and out. It was the day the Brooks family feared they'd never see Brad Farrington on trial for murdering Cassie. I never thought we would get this far. Too far? The prosecutor's opening argument was a warning to the jury. We don't have a lot. No one saw the defendant enter Cassie Farrington's home. No one saw the defendant strangle her. No, and there was absolutely no evidence from the crime scene to help their case. The prosecution didn't even call the now retired detective, Jose Sanchez, as a witness. What were rather brief on was the scene. That was a weakness, actually. Well, I don't know if I would call it a weakness, but it wasn't a strength. You should be in the diplomatic corps. Well, there just wasn't anything there that was terribly useful. So we showed the scene, so the jury could see, you know, this is where it happened. It was unilluminating. And that was a problem. Until the prosecutor argued for the right to present hearsay evidence normally disallowed. And he won. Brad was being verbally physically abusive toward her. So one by one, Cassie's friends repeated stories, Cassie told them about her fear of Brad. There would be times where she felt like he was following her. And then Cassie's mom told the jury what she saw when Brad was with Cassie. And he had her in the chokehold on the bed. When you say a chokehold, can you describe for us just how he was holding? The arm was up on her neck like this. He had her neck. To frighten, control? Darleen wasn't short. But shortly before she died, it's at her mom. Cassie confessed there was another reason, too. He liked to choke her during sex. How did that relate to murder? Remember, the medical examiner was vague about the cause of death. But not this guy. Dr. Michael Hunter, chief medical examiner in San Francisco. We're seeing bleeding within some of the muscles. He made it crystal clear to the jury that Cassie's killer strangled her. Once you see injuries to the neck, particular hemorrhages, evidence of assault that you can form an opinion, and I have formed an opinion that this represents strangulation. But why should the jury decide Brad did that? It was in the Academy from January, 2006. This is Ed Reynolds, retired Silver City Police Chief, and also once, Brad's police academy instructor, the man who taught him the chokehold. So eerily similar to what Darleen demonstrated. All of which was interesting, said defense attorney Nathan Gonzalez, but did not prove that Brad was the killer. In fact, he told the jury, they arrested the wrong man. But their star witness to drive that point home was none other than retired Grant County Deputy Jose Sanchez. And what he said on the stand, oh my. Mr. Farington, a suspect in your investigation. Not my suspect, no. Now that was shocking because Sanchez, the told Cassie's parents that Brad was a suspect. He believed there was an altercation of fight and that he killed her and then took her and put her in the other tube. He sold us that the day after her death. This is Sanchez. This is what Sanchez said. But now in court, Sanchez told a different story altogether, which if the jury believed it could undermine the prosecution's entire case. I was focused already on Mr. Lee. Mr. Billy Lee. Why did you choose to focus on Mr. Lee? There was just too many discrepancies. Remember, Billy was cleared, had a solid animal bite. But now the defense was using Sanchez to raise doubt about who the real killer was. There's a lot of smoke here, but no fire. Muttles it up. And that I believe was the defense strategy. That if you have enough of that, then the jury won't see through it. The jury retired to consider. Oh, I was nervous I just paced up and down the halls in and out. Four hours later, they were called back into court. Has the jury reached a verdict? Can the defendant shut please rise? We find the defendant, Bradley Farrington, guilty of first degree murder. When they announced their verdict? There was a lot of tears, a lot of size of relief. One of the deputy attorneys says, "Thank you for not giving up. Thank you for pushing." And I said, "How could I? Here's my little girl." Brad Farrington was sentenced to life, no parole for at least 30 years. And Cassie is by the memory now. And so her parents remember their way. way through their pain to the good in her life. The kids live with Brad's family now, so Chuck and Darleen's one hope is to see their grandchildren again. They don't allow us to see your talk to 'em. I don't think you'd want to say to them if you could. They would have hope. That their mama loved them unconditionally. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us. (upbeat music)