Anne-Marie Green

I loved him.

I still, I didn't want it to be worse.

Recuba once again hired Joe D'Andrea and pled not guilty.

Is Bruno still telling you the same story?

But D'Andrea says he was now seeing...

and hearing the evidence for the first time and says there was a lot to explain to a jury, like the various versions of Recuba's stories.

All captured on tape.

The most challenging, says D'Andrea, that police walked through.

Also concerning to D'Andrea was how a jury would feel about Rakuba's relationship with Tanya Wilczewski and the question of when it began.

Possible motive?

Tanya Wilczewski declined our request for an interview, but sent this text saying there was never an affair.

Bruno Recuba never responded to our request for an interview.

But Joe D'Andrea says he was most concerned about how the jury would react to Melissa's final moments.

D'Andrea says he spent the next two years building his case around his best evidence, that bloody wound to his client's hand.

Do you have anything you'd like to say?

But in May 2024, two years after this arrest, as Recuba's trial approached, both sides agreed to a plea deal, third-degree murder, and no charge of theft.

Having a gun, drinking, bullet in the chamber, safeties off.

in a pretty passionate argument.

It may very well be your sister's own voice that ultimately put him behind bars.

I never really thought about it like that, yeah.