True Lies

I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, Mystery in Paradise, a classic who done it along Florida's picturesque golf coast. It's an unusual case from the beginning. It's almost like an agatha Christie mystery. There's only three people there and one of them is dead. The killer has to be one of the other two. It was heartbreaking. It was absolutely heartbreaking. They believed that Diane was both smothered and strangled. There's some broken glasses at the bottom of the bed, not you three small spots of blood on her leg. You've got the sun and you've got the stepfather each is accusing the other of the crime. Yes. I grabbed him and I said stop. He throws me to the ground and takes off runner. He's very good at making up stories, but that's not true. No one on our side of the family had any doubt. His story is all lies. I didn't do it. It was just such a battle. Both sides are coming guns blazing. You may have the wrong guy in jail here. There's Dennis Murphy with true lies. Bill Kainu, he was a lucky man. The single dad with five kids was getting a second chance at law. She was the most wonderful lady I've ever met. He first set eyes on her at a nail salon, a business she ran with her twin sister. They're standing in front of this big neon sign that says nails and I says do you all do nails here and they just looked at the sign and then looked at me and said yeah. Her name was Diane a vivacious blonde with a ready smile. You saw Diane through the windows the next weekend I went to get my nails done. Rebecca Kain is Bill's youngest child gave him an excuse to meet her. Rebecca you're being used as bait. Oh I was fully aware at the time. It was a light moment and just what Bill needed. Only eight months earlier he'd become a widower. My wife Christa she fell in the middle of the night. They say she hit her head and now she drowned in the pool. I pulled her out of the pool Easter Sunday morning in 2000. I pretty much fell apart. There I was a single dad trying to raise them and you know keep the family going. He loved my mom. He loved her to the moon and back and then he lost her. He was just lonely and you could see it in him and my brothers were definitely egging him on to get out and meet somebody. And in Diane Bill met somebody special. Diane comes into the picture and he has this beautiful woman and now she's taken care of him. He was a month with her. He needed that. He needed her. She was actually what I consider my dream girl. Blond hair blue eyes and just a beautiful person inside now. She had just a big heart. She would reach out to family and friends. Anyone who was in trouble they can always count on her. And the person who counted on her most was her son, Kevin. I'm an only child. I was actually through my whole childhood was raised by my Nana. Now my mom she worked full time and was single parent. Kevin could be a handful but he was always a bit of a mama's boy and Diane doted on her young son. Me and my mom every day when we woke up every night before I'd go to bed we'd say we love each other. I mean we loved each other immensely. We were best friends. Things moved quickly for Diane and Bill. Kevin thought they seemed just right for one another. He was a kind person. He did do a lot for my mom. He gave her what she wanted and they lived a happy life. Bill and Diane married in 2002. Kevin was 15 years old when he walked his mother down the aisle. They moved into Bill's home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Seminole, Florida near St. Petersburg. A solid neighborhood good schools. For the first time Kevin had a steady male role model in his life. So how was Kevin fitting into the picture here? Kevin was put fit against the picture quite well really. He really took to me more than anyone else the Diane dated with she told me that and you know we got along very well. Kevin appreciated Bill so much he wanted to take his name. He wanted his name to be the same as his mom and I and I was very proud of that. So what's wrong with this picture? Not much. Kevin got along fine with Bill but joining a big family with five kids was a challenge. Kevin's cousin Tanya says the kind kids didn't make things easy for their stepbrother. The kids weren't accepting them at first you know they were mean and Kevin felt like an outsider. A little bit yeah I think it was a lot of friction in the house. In the summer of 2010 things in the kind house were tense and coming to a head. Kevin now 23 was jobless and still living at home and then he had brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. He felt he needed time to recover but Bill and Diane were ready for the next chapter of their lives and his. We had actually been talking a long time about buying our dream home. Diane and I wanted to get out on her own, stuck her own life together. We were looking for a place of our own. But Kevin comes too. No you're 23 years old. It's time for you to be on your own. I needed to get out. We all knew that and I wanted to. They wanted the house to themselves and I wanted to be on my own too. I don't want to live with my parents the rest of my life. Even though we're extremely close. On August 15th 2010 thoughts of dream homes and moving out faded into the routine of a hot floor to Sunday. Bill mowed the lawn and cleaned the pool. Kevin was looking forward to the NASCAR race and sprawled out on the couch. Diane settled into the bedroom it happened a little before 2 p.m. a desperate call to 9-1-1. Then moments later another call a different voice. Something unspeakable had happened in the kind house. A senseless violent act. A mystery with lots of clues but no easy answers. It's almost like an egg at the Christie mystery or something where there's only three people there and one of them is dead so the killer has to be one of the other two. But which one of the other two? That was the question that would haunt police. When we come back. It's a difficult case. The evidence at the scene. There's some broken glasses in the shoe. Who would it point to? Both father and son tell their stories down at the station. I said Kevin stop. He grabs me. He's very good at making up stories but that's not true. 9-1-1 is just a fire police or medical emergency. The 9-1-1 operators in Pinellas County, Florida are used to dealing with life and death emergencies but this one was different. Diane Kine was dead. Her husband and son were both distraught and both making frantic calls. First Kevin. He seemed like me. Longer. And then Bill. I just killed my wife. I was in high for her. She was two here. Where is your son? You're right out the door. Two calls from the same location just minutes apart. Kevin Kine and his stepfather Bill each accusing the other of murder. Reporter Curtis Krueger says the competing calls were even more unusual because they were made in the heat of the moment. One person presumably is calling and telling the truth. The other person has already figured out the story that they're going to use that's not true. That's pretty rare and certainly quick and devious thinking by someone. Father and son one falsely accused of an appalling crime. The other the real killer and a devious liar. The case would be a tough one. It went to veteran homicide detective Jim Beining. They both immediately accused each other of us being the killer. So you got to evaluate all these stories and figure out what's really going on. I do. It's the difficult case. First responders found Diane Kine's lifeless body face up in her own bed. Kevin's loving mother, Bill's loving wife was just 49 years old. It appears that she is died from a possible strangulation or a fixation and there's some other things in the room. There's some broken glasses at the bottom of the bed and that she maybe most interestingly there was blood. Blood on the bed cover blood on the victim up her leg. Yes the the victim had three small spots of blood on her leg. Things were in disarray both inside the house and in the front yard. Binding took a quick inventory. There's shirts in a driveway in the yard. Um, pair of shorts, a phone was in the front yard. Just those visual observations. Any of that stuff explain itself to you about what might have happened there? - Not really. No, at this point, we've got to interview the two people that were there. - Who do you begin with? - You come with Bill. - Detectives ask Bill to come down to headquarters so they could get his story. - All right, Bill. Um, you do know why we're here tonight, right? - His story is he and Kevin, we're gonna sit down and watch the NASCAR races on TF television. Bill says Kevin went to the bedroom to talk to his mom. - I hear her holler out Kevin and a loud voice and probably five, 10, 15 minutes goes by and so I get up to go see what's going on. I push the door open and I see Kevin on top of Diane. I ran in, grabbed Kevin from the back, pulled him back off of Diane. He slammed me back into the arm wall and he scooted out the door. I caught him at the kitchen. He was throwing me around like it was a rag dog. He shook me off again, took off for the door. He ripped the metal off of the door handle, pulling it off so hard. - So now this tussle's going on in yards. - That's right. - It's moving out in the front yard. I grabbed him and his shirt came off. At one point, I guess his shorts came off. He had breached into his shorts before they came off, pulled out a cell phone and he dialed 911. And he says, I said, Kevin, stop, let's stop this. He says, okay, Dad, okay, I'll stop. He grounds me, he throws me to the ground and takes off running. - He's gone. - He's gone. - Bill then tried to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. His daughter, Rebecca, found him head and hands outside the house. - He looked so empty. When we got to my dad, he just, he looked, he looked like you just took the life right out of him. You took his life away again. And I just, I broke down for him. I couldn't do anything but just reach out and hug him. - With Bill's story on the record, Detective Binding then talked to Kevin to get his version of events. He said it started as just another Sunday with no hint of the tragedy to come. - I was just kind of feeling a little off, so I laid down on the couch, was watching the race and stuff. Bill tapped me on the head and said, your mom needs to talk to you right now. And he actually tapped me on the scar. It still scarred up and it hurt. And I said, okay, well, I'm sleeping. I'm not feeling good right now. Tell her I'll be a minute. And he came back again, did the same thing. Your mom needs to talk to you right now. I went towards her room and I pushed the door open. And as soon as I pushed the door open, he grabbed me from the back of the neck and put me in a chokehold. - Bill did. - Yes, sir. And he put me in a chokehold and I was screaming. Mom, mom, mom, please help me. Anybody? And I saw my mom's face, her face was black and blue. It was, it wasn't even blue, it was just black. And it was absolutely horrible. And that's a mental picture that's gonna be in the back of my mind for the rest of my life probably. - So you've been fighting in the front lawn, you've been calling to the neighbors for help, you're calling 911 for help. Where does it go next? - Well, at that point, I finally got away from him. I did break free. I ran as fast as I could. - Are you running away from a murder scene? - Yes, sir. I'm running away from somebody that had just murdered my mother and somebody that was trying to murder me. Now this story gets told a completely different way from Bill. His version is that he comes into your mother's bedroom, sees you on top of her that you are on top of your mother killing her. Did that happen, Captain? - No, sir. - You didn't kill your mother. - No, sir, I did not. - Two distraught 911 calls. Two dramatic stories describing a cold-blooded murder. Only one of them could be true. Coming up. - Did you lie? - I did not lie. - A polygraph, DNA, and the curious death of wife number one. - Bill had wife that drowned in the pool. - Was Bill kind becoming suspect number one when Dateline continues? (dramatic music) - A woman murdered two men in the house each is accusing the other of the crime. - Yes, only one did it. - And you have to figure out who the killer is. - That's the problem. - It's an axiom in your business that the spouse is always a suspect until they're not. - Yes. - Detective Jim Beining started taking a hard look at Bill Kahn. - Bill had a previous marriage, and they lived at the same home, and he had a wife that was, was it drowned in the pool? - That would interest me. - Sure it would. - Did it interest you? - Oh, absolutely. - Bill's first wife, Chris, to died in the middle of the night. There were no witnesses, but investigators believed she tripped, hit her head, and ended up drowning in the pool. Police ruled it an accident, and Bill collected on an insurance policy. - Do you know how much money was paid out on her death? - I believe it was approximately 250,000. - Bill had other insurance payouts too. One, when his automotive shop burned down, another on an investment property fire. He was also the beneficiary on policies for a Diane, totaling $750,000. - Are you a guy that plays fraud games on insurance in a company's building? - No, every one of those was invested in it. - It's all consistent. The arson, the insurance payouts, including up to Diane's death. - Right. - 'Cause that's the picture that comes together against you. - Yeah, I understand that. - This is not fraud on your part. - Absolutely not. - Kevin, Bill's main accuser, says the motive for his mother's murder is obvious. She was worth more dead than alive to his stepdad. - Let me hear your indictment for Bill Klein for murder. Kills your mother why? - Money, $750,000 could help him out a lot. - Detectives thought they had a plausible motive. Now they combed through Bill's 911 call and his lengthy interview on the day of the murder. Not everything seemed to add up. Reporter Curtis Krueger noticed something curious reported by the first deputy at the scene. The first responders arrived and attempted to take a pulse of Diane and they found her body to be somewhat cold. And that of course indicates that she may have been dead for a while. - That deputy arrived just minutes after Bill said he'd caught Kevin in the act. Diane's body temperature may have suggested a different timeline. Detective Binding was troubled by another part of Bill's story. He said he never went back to check on Diane after Kevin ran off. - I assumed that she was already dead. - But it all been so brief, did you get a good look at her? - No, I did not. - I would think when you come back in, you'd immediately go to her bedside and see what's going on. - That probably would have been, I wish I would have. - But you didn't do that. - I didn't do that. - Bill would not have had to check on Diane if as Kevin said, he was the one who killed her. And when the crime lab reported on the first item sent for DNA testing, the results seemed to place Bill directly at the crime scene. Remember Diane died of a fixation. Testing showed Bill's DNA profile on a sample taken from her neck. - We were very loving couple. We slept in the same bed together. - Yeah, my DNA should be on her. - A reasonable explanation for a bad fact, but was it the truth? Detective Binding reached into his toolbox for something to help assess Bill's credibility. He asked him to take a lie detector test. - You agreed to take a lie detector test and you flunked the critical questions. - I flunked certain questions. - Two questions, and I won't paraphrase, but they both had to do with whether you caused her death or knew what happened to her. - One of the questions, did you cause the death of Diane Kind? Bill's answer, no. Another question, did you lie about Kevin being on top of Diane on August 15th, 2010? Bill's answer, once again, no. According to the test results, both of those answers showed deception. - Central stuff, not peripheral stuff. These central questions, you're not getting through the lie detector. - Did you lie? - I did not lie. That's why they don't use lie detectors in courtrooms 'cause they can issue false readings. - If the guy's flunking the test and the sun says he did it, it's not a good set of facts. - No, is it? - No, now we have to attack Bill. - Did they ever? Binding along with Detective Anthony Stevens brought Bill in for more questioning the same day he flunked his polygraph test. This time, they put the screws to him. - She's dead and there's only two people that could have done it, okay? And I'm here to tell you right now, his DNA is on our neck, yours is. He always has said you didn't go in the room, too. You already knew she was dead. That's why he didn't go in the room. - And anyway, you should have known that is possibly being involved. - It was a withering interrogation and Bill kind cracked. He changed his story and said he did in fact go into his bedroom after the fight with Kevin. - Why would you lie to us about certain statements? - Got no logical explanation. - If Bill thought changing his story about going into the bedroom to check on Diane made him look better, he was probably the only one. - I have told you what really happened. - Which version are we supposed to believe? 'Cause you haven't been truthful to us at this point. You see how this is going? - Mm-hmm. - You fail to polygraph. Your DNA is on our neck, his isn't. The mountain started to build. - Detective thought it looked like a mountain of evidence against Bill kind. What would the evidence say about Kevin? - Coming up. His glasses were found at the bottom of the bed. Could there be a mountain of evidence against Kevin, too? That's what your blood was found on your mom's leg. What's your explanation for that? Detectives thought they had compelling evidence against Bill Kahn. And when they started checking out his steps on Kevin, they realized he'd been on their radar before. Your deputies said a history of being called out to that house. They did. Five years earlier, when Kevin was 18, he got into an argument with his mother's sister. Assistant state attorney Bill Lowry describes what Kevin did next. The police showed up. He fought with the police. And even was trying to have his dog attack the police during it. And so he was arrested for a batter and law enforcement officer resisting arrest. Kevin pleaded guilty. And now deputies from Pinellas County were back at the house, this time investigating the murder of Diane Kahn. Bill, who'd said his son didn't, was painting a picture of Kevin's violent past. I had never seen anybody act the way that Kevin acted out. Just three months before, Bill said Kevin had brandished a knife against his mother. He was frustrated about something and said, you're going to listen to me. He had a knife at his hand. And it scared the heck out of her. Kevin says that never happened. Was Bill deflecting attention away from himself or telling the truth about the man he insisted killed his wife? His daughter Rebecca backed him up and attacked Kevin in her interview with the cops. He was a little hot head. He would come in and throw his weight around. Like the time she said, Kevin tried to go bill into a fight at the house, sicking the cops on him. He would puff up and get in my dad's face, screaming for him to hit him. Please hit me. I'll call the police and you'll go to jail right now. Things got so bad. Bill and Diane even took legal action to throw him out. I went to my attorney. He drew up the papers and we had him legally victim. You can do that? You can evict a child? He was 21 at the time. But Diane loved her only child and couldn't cut the cord. She let him come home. The summer of 2010, however, was racing towards a showdown. Tensions in the family were high. The kind house was cramped with four extra people. Bill's son and his family camping out on couches because of financial troubles. Kevin wasn't making things any easier obnoxious about sharing the household computer. He was the computer hog. That's all I ever wanted to do was sit on the computer. It wasn't even his computer. But he would change the passwords and kick everybody off. Kevin's mother was furious. She'd stop talking directly to him, trying to avoid the persistent arguments. They're just talking via emails. Completely. 30 feet across his house and they're communicating via email. Not even 30 feet at times. The last straw was Kevin cursing out his mother in front of the encamped family. Called her a bitch. Called her the C-word. Called her a retard. Diane and Bill gave Kevin a deadline to get out for good. September 21st. But five weeks before that deadline day, Diane was dead. And Bill said Kevin's temper and violent past pointed to him as the only one who could have done it. Did Kevin kind kill his mother, Diane? Yes. And the reason he did it? Because he was being kicked out of the house and wanted to get his own way. And the reason that you should not be looked at for her murder is what? I didn't do it. I'm the one that pulled her murder off of her that day. But Kevin had already told detectives that that was all lies. He hadn't been near his mother, never made it into the bedroom. Detectives, however, knew they'd found something important inside. And it belonged to Kevin. Which seems to belay his statement that he didn't get into the room. Right. Kevin's violent history and those glasses did him in. He was arrested, charged with killing his mother and held in jail. But that wasn't the end of the story, not by a long shot. Remember, Bill Kein had flunked his lie detector test. Kevin, meanwhile, had also agreed to be wired up. They asked you the critical questions. Oh, of course. All around one question. Did you kill your mother? Exactly. You passed the polygraphs, sir. Passed it flying colors? When the polygraphs of came back, you know, your thought was, we may have the wrong guy in jail here. The prosecutor acted quickly. He handed Kevin a get out of jail free card, releasing this accused killer back into the community. I felt as a prosecutor and my goal here is justice. I thought it would be wrong to have Kevin sitting in jail with the status of the case at that moment. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean we had enough evidence to put Bill in jail. So the prosecutor convened a grand jury in early 2011, hoping to sort things out. He asked Kevin's lawyers about letting Kevin testify. Allison Miller was one of his public defenders. We found him credible. We found him compelling. Shoot, maybe we put him in front of a grand jury. And they believe him and he never gets indicted. I wanted the story out there. I wanted the truth to be out there. And I felt like it would help me if I could present myself to these people. Kevin told his story to the grand jury. How he stood at the bedroom door, shocked by his mother's ghastly appearance, and then Bill jumping him from behind. He goes into how he never went in the room. But Kevin was in a big disadvantage. Key at that point doesn't know about the blood evidence. Three specks of blood had been found on Diane's leg and more on her bed cover. Labanalysis just back showed it was Kevin's blood. But only the prosecutor knew that. That said, you know your blood was found on your mom's leg. I have no explanation. In the battle of competing stories, the grand jury broke the tie. Kevin Kine's gamble to testify had backfired. He was indicted on the spot for first degree murder. As he's leaving the courthouse from the grand jury, he's brought back in and arrested again. The case had been unpredictable from the start. It had rival 9-1-1 calls. He's not found him. How have you started it? Conflicting murder accounts. Please let him just kill by one. Now, in the courtroom, there'd be even more surprises. Coming up. This sandal, scandal. He's actually says I've never seen them before. But what did science find? His DNA was on him. What a jury vote to convict Kevin. Or could it still swing right back to Bill? It's just so fake. When Dateline continues. July 2012, two years after Diane Kine was murdered in her own bed, her son Kevin stood trial for killing her. Bill Kine, the other man who'd been under intense suspicion, came to the courthouse every day, still feeling the loss of his wife. She was everything I'd ever dreamed of in a lady. We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. Sheriff's office. In this unusual case of dueling 9-1-1 calls and conflicting murder accounts, prosecutor Lowry was confident that blood evidence would sink the son's story and fully support the husbands. Who was your best witness? I think probably Anna Cox was, really. Anna Cox, a blood stain expert, testified that Kevin's blood was not only on his mother, but also on her bed cover. If he says he wasn't in the room, does your scientific finding deny that premise? Yes. There's no question to your mind. Science tells you he was in that room. Yes, you had to be right next to the comforter. To the prosecutor, it was a home run, confirming Bill Kine's story, that he opened the door and saw Kevin straddling the bed on top of Diane. And Lowry argued, Kevin's blood at the crime scene had to get there during a struggle with his mother or when Bill pulled him off her. It put the light to his story that he was not in there. There's no innocent explanation. And his broken glasses had been found in the bedroom, along with Birkenstock sandals. One inside the room, one by the door. He was adamant. They were not his sandals. Never wore. He actually says I've never seen them before. His DNA was on him. So, why would he lie about those shoes? And the reason he'd lie is because the shoes show he's in the room. Bill Kine took the stand to tell his horror story about that day. And he put his personal stamp on those Birkenstocks. Diane and I bought them for them at Sam's Club, about a year or so prior to the incident. Bill recalled the time when Kevin tried to pick a fight with him, then called 911. Testimony, the defense, fought to keep out, but lost. I wanted the jury to know that he was like a boy who cried wolf, who wouldn't make 911 calls frequently. Bill said Kevin was hardest on his mother, especially in the summer of 2010, when she gave him the deadline to move out, and he cursed her out in front of the whole family. That's it. She says I can't live with you one second longer. How close is that to the day? The awful day. Probably a week. The prosecutor theorized Kevin just snapped and killed his mother in a rage after one last argument. Kevin's lied. His DNA is in the room. It's consistent with Bill's story. It's inconsistent with his story. Therefore he did it. We both believed Bill Kine was the person who killed Diane Kine. The defense argued that Bill's story Henry was not true, and that his DNA was all over the crime scene. The DNA on Diane's neck, the DNA on the pillows, the DNA on the folded sheets, to me was a slam dunk. That's reasonable doubt. The defense offered a theory that Kevin's blood had sprayed toward the bed after he was scratched by Bill in their fight at the door. The defense also argued that Bill was the real killer. If it's not our guy, it has to be him. He did say that, I don't know if it was just not as aggressive as it needed to be said. Maybe if they'd hit Bill harder, jurors would have found reasonable doubt. But they didn't. After four hours, the jury came back with a verdict, guilty. Second degree murder, Kevin Kine was sentenced to life in prison. My throat went down to my ankles. I mean, it was a horrible feeling. There were no winners. Kevin was going to be in jail for the rest of his life. I lost the woman I was going to grow old with. But Alison Miller still believed in Kevin and wouldn't give up. Murder convictions rarely get overturned, but Alison thought an appeal had a solid chance. She'd objected to the judge letting in the old 911 call Kevin made to get Bill in trouble. I argued that should not be admissible. She said it prejudiced the jury against Kevin, and an appeals court agreed. Two years after his conviction, Kevin was granted a new trial. It was a stunning turnabout. Alison rushed to phone Kevin in prison. So I called and said, can I speak to Kevin Kine? And some very helpful person was like, well, honey, it doesn't work like that. We can't just put him on the phone, you know, and you have to schedule a appointment. And I was like, can you just tell him he's getting a new trial? I was astounded. I was extremely happy. I was hurting for my dad, no one on our side of the family had any doubt as to what happened that day. In February 2015, it was Florida versus Kevin Kine round two. Same courtroom, same judge, and same prosecution strategy. So there's really nothing to change in considering that he was convicted the first time, you know, it wasn't like he would say, oh, we should have done it this way or done it that way. This picture shows not so for the defense. Alison Miller and co-counsel Jessica Manuel were in attack mode from the opening gown. We're going to fight everything that needs to be thought. If we're going down, we are going down swinging this time. You know, the judge in the state, they kept telling us, well, this wasn't an issue, the first trial. Nobody objected to this. The first trial. Hey, guys, I don't know if you realize, but we're hoping for a different outcome. One jaw-dropping difference, the defendant himself, a classic before and after weight loss, about 75 pounds worth. When I went to prison, my main goal was to lose everything and become fit. A lot of courtroom observers thought you cleaned your client up quite a bit, in appearances and also his interior, his demeanor, huh? Yeah, he looked a lot more presentable, and also he grew up a lot. Bill Kine. The defense had pulled its punches on Bill Kine in trial one, but not this time. He's the obvious suspect. Now it seemed as though Bill was the one on trial. Bill Kine has lied over and over and over again. He's lied to save his own skin. He's lied to protect himself. He's lied to set up my client for murder, and the state expects you to convict Kevin based on that man's word. It's funny. Judge probably said 20 times, you know, there are two sets of prosecutors in this room. Allison Miller played Bill's 911 call, asking the jury to use its common sense. Why didn't he rush in to save Diane? Sheriff's office. Two bullets. Your son checked your wife's. Yeah. Okay. They were fighting again. Okay. All right. Hold on for me. It's so fake. I mean, the heavy breathing, and then he starts to get emotional. Oh, Diane. Oh, no. Oh. Oh. It's just so fake. This case is about money. The defense also hammered hard on motive. Bill Conch collected $750,000 when Diane Conch died. Three-quarters of a million dollars sounds a lot more like motivation to me than a computer password or wanting to stay in the house. The rebooted defense now had one last change, a blockbuster, new witness. And what is your decision? Coming up. On the stand, there'd be some changes too. The sandals he never wore? No, I wore them. The bedroom he never entered. I might've took one or two steps just opening the door. Will a jury believe his story this time? We felt confident that he would be able to hold it together. She never knows. You never know. Exactly. I think we all know who you are. But tell us your first and last name for the record, please. Kevin Leakine. This wasn't Kevin's first time under oath. He testified before the grand jury, and that's when he got indicted. Now here he was again, putting himself and his story on the line. It was a high stakes gamble. Were you in your mom's clothes? Very close. Kevin was instructed by his attorneys, Alison Miller and Jessica Manuel, to talk directly to the jurors. We said, if you expect them to believe what you're saying, you better look them in the eye and tell them the truth. Do you ever call your mom a bitch? I did. Do you ever call your mom a retard? Unfortunately, I did. We said, Kevin, is this true? Are you disrespectful? Yes, ma'am. Well, then you can see it all. A preemptive strike, part of the plan to soften Kevin, and give jurors reason to doubt that an immature, bratty, 23-year-old could turn into a cold-blooded killer. What this jury wants to hear is you say you didn't kill your mother. Kevin, did you kill your mom? No, ma'am. But evidence of Kevin's blood on Diane's thigh had always been the defense's toughest challenge. The state's theories, the blood got there once Bill and Kevin start struggling. But from day one, Kevin had maintained he never entered the room when he was attacked by Bill. Now he would give himself and his blood some wiggle room to get closer to his mother. When you opened the door, did you take any steps into the bedroom? I might have took one or two steps just opening the door. In cross-examination, the prosecutor challenged Kevin as a flip flopper. This taking one or two steps, this is the first time you said that in four and a half years, right? I was always saying that I've opened the door and that's as far as I've went. You were always saying you never went in the bedroom, right? I did not go further than the door, sir. I think Kevin was probably in a state of shock, and I'm not sure he entirely knows how far he got in that bedroom. It also shifted his story on those sandals. After Kevin left the stand, his attorneys could only hope their new strategy, clean up Kevin and dirty up Bill had worked, as the jury got the case and began deliberations. I took six hours. The little time it takes them to get that verdict form from the jury box up to the judge, to the clerk to read, feels like eternity. In the state of Florida, versus Kevin Lee kind, in a charge of murder in the second degree, the defendant is found not guilty. Not guilty. That was probably the best feeling I felt in ten years. You got your life back, I did. Since paternal grandmother, his biggest supporter cried tears of joy. Across the aisle, Bill kind muttered to himself. I was deficit. I couldn't believe it. Sometimes the bad guy went. You reclaimed his life. You pulled him out of the abyss. Yeah. Good job. Thank you. Any lawyer that tells you they never lost a case, never tried any tough cases. Prosecutor Lowry was still certain he put the right defendant on trial? Twice. He didn't mean he didn't kill his mother. Just means that a jury said he didn't. The jury foreman said the defensive strategy to put Kevin on the stand worked. I just don't believe that the evidence points to Kevin. Not only was there reasonable doubt, this juror believed Kevin's testimony over bills, in part because Kevin looked directly at him. Did that make a difference to you, make an eye contact acknowledging your presence? Yeah, because the eyes tell something. Bill didn't look at us once. The next day, the judge released Kevin. Good luck, Mr. Kind. Thank you. Please still come back. I won't. Good. Outside, Kevin met his grandmother and then the local media. I'm innocent. There's got to be a guilty party. Where's justice for your mother and all of this? I'm hoping coming, so that way justice is served for my mother. The Fifth Amendment prohibits double jeopardy, so Kevin can't face charges in this case again. But Bill could. I would like the prosecutor ask the sheriff's office to reinvestigate Dianne Kind's death. That's silly. I'd love to be the defense attorney on that case. There's no way Bill Kind would be convicted because not only does the evidence not show that, but the defense would be Kevin did it. Who is Kevin Kind? Who is this guy? Kevin Kind is a name on paper. That man is not a Kind and he is not my family. So where's justice for Dianne and all this? and did serve some time in prison. - I don't believe the Diane would even want him to serve life in prison for her murder. But in my mind, he should still be behind bars. - But now, Kevin's got a second chance at life. He says he's dedicating it to his mother. - She's looking down and she sees that I'm maturing and I am gonna be the man that she wanted me to be. - So in the end, what do we make of this mind-boggling who done it, where no one can say for sure who murdered Diane kind? Leaving a husband and son still pointing the finger at each other, still professing love for Diane, but one of them still defiantly lying about having killed her. - That's all for now, I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.