Bill Lagattuta

Guy got away with murder. Simple as that.

Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder.

He tried to defend himself the best he could, you know? Tried to defend himself and his partner.

Being sent to prison for the rest of his life is not good enough. He needs to hear from the families to see and feel what he has done to us.

Your cowardly act shattered our lives forever. For all of this, we cannot and will not forgive you.

He might say he's sorry now, but we didn't even look at that because I don't believe it.

Mr. Levine, do you have any questions?

He's a murderer, he's a thief, and he's a rapist. That's what he is. He just got old.

To know that they didn't give up. There were people out there in the department that still wanted to solve this case, but then to be able to do it, it was phenomenal.

Asking mom questions about what happened to our dad. She would cry and say that he was killed.

He's indicated he'll talk to anyone, and it'd be nice if he talked to us too.

We'd never heard of a type of suicide note, at least that needed a signature. And on the table next to the note were pens. rather convenient, you know, if someone wanted to sign it.

There's more to this guy than just some guy that's preaching on Sunday. There's a dark side here.

Oh, sure. You bet he's dangerous.

He gave her a story. Oh, that's from the kids at the center. The kids don't take their meds and they spit them out. That must be what that is.

There you go. The only person that could refute it is not here. I take it you don't believe it. Not for a second.

There was a slight abrasion to her nose consistent with a rough pillow or some object that maybe has fibers that scrape across.

My son slammed like $6 worth of blueberries in five minutes.

Unfortunately for Matt Baker, he didn't buy enough time for himself. He should have painted a couple hours of alibi.

Here's some wine coolers to match the story. They were drinking a wine cooler. And the note then is, I just have to say, self-serving. Matt, I'm sorry. Oh, Matt, take care of the kids. You know, not critical of him in any way.

She had to ingest something that made her sleepy, then unconscious, then killed her. And she had to quit breathing. The heart had to stop. And then the lividity had to begin.

I mean, Joshua Tree is just the desert. There's nothing there. There's no water. It's not like you're going to find anything. There's no shelter of any type. So you're just exposed to the elements.

No, I never thought that Erin had run away. I didn't think that was even remotely a possibility.

Erin came to the house when she was 17 days old.

We fostered several children. We adopted five of them. And Erin was the fourth adopted child.

There's no way. No way.

She was a mistress of a preacher.

That's not good anywhere around here. That's really not good.

Oh my gosh, what if? What if they don't convict him? What do you do?

We got to parts of it that showed He had searched terms like overdose and death by sleeping pills.

There was a guy who was holding a Bible on Sunday telling everybody how to live, and he'd murdered his wife. Every minute that went by, Baker was closer to getting away with it. and he knew it.

We've got a guy on the street that's a killer. And I wasn't going to let a guy like that outsmart me or outplay me.

We have to try to do such a good job and have the evidence be so clear and so strong that a prosecutor looking at it will say, I can do that too.

He was foolish enough to allow me to. Did you have a sexual relationship with any woman in the year prior to Carrie's death other than Carrie? No. He could have played the Fifth Amendment. While you have 911 on the phone, you're dressing, or how long did it take to dress her? Again, probably just seconds, not very long at all. He clearly described things that were impossible.

No. He's used to conning people and having them do what he wants.

Why in the world an innocent person would ever confess to a crime as serious as murder?

Did you stab Stephanie Crowe? No.

But the district attorney's office was convinced they were guilty. So six years ago, it wasn't the drifter Richard Tuitt on trial, but the three boys. Their lives were on the line.

until it is a sealed bag. A stunning piece of evidence came to light out of nowhere.

The confession of Josh Treadway gave the most details about the murder of Stephanie Crowe.

No one believed more in Josh's innocence than his public defender, Mary Ellen Attridge.

She was relentless in her belief that the police set the boys up.

The main thing the prosecution has are the two confessions.

Mary Ellen Attridge's plan was to dispute the boy's so-called confessions. But she was also planning to revisit the questions about Richard Tuitt and paint him as the likely killer. One thing she had always wondered about was the clothing police took from Tuitt the morning Stephanie's body was discovered. Clothing the police said contained no incriminating evidence.

She wanted to have a closer look.

She discovered that only Tuitt's white t-shirt had been tested for DNA evidence.

And then she saw something on the red sweatshirt.

Richard Tuitt, a known paranoid schizophrenic, went to... Attridge demanded that prosecutors send all of Tuitt's clothing for DNA testing. Five months later, on the first day of Josh's trial, there was still no word from the lab.

The DNA lab had found three spots of Stephanie Crow's blood on Richard Tuitt's red sweatshirt.

The prosecution was stunned. How come no one spotted this blood before?

Forgive me for saying this, but this is a prosecutor's nightmare, isn't it?

You really need to figure out how that blood got onto its shirt before you can go anywhere, right?

It's been more than six years since Stephanie Crow was murdered, but her parents, Stephen and Cheryl, finally have hope that justice is on the horizon. We're back on the record in the Tewitt case. Today, this man, Richard Tewitt, a drifter, a felon, and a diagnosed schizophrenic, is going on trial for her murder.

The judge put a freeze on the trial. Six weeks later, charges against the three boys who had been incarcerated for six months were dropped with the provision they could be filed again.

The DA was reluctant to charge Tewitt, who was in jail for a burglary. Three years in state prison. There were just too many unanswered questions. mostly about the confessions and how the Escondido police handled the evidence.

A year went by, still no arrest. Summer Steffen and the Escondido authorities were off the case when the state attorney general's office took it over.

Vic Koloka, a senior investigator with the San Diego Sheriff's Department, was in charge of the new investigation.

Koloka started fresh, quickly focusing in on the interrogation tapes.

He noted that the boys had no lawyers with them and were isolated from their parents for extended periods of time. They were interrogated for hours on end.

It was clear to Koloka that police lied to their suspects, which is legal. The question he had was, did they promise leniency, which is illegal?

Kaloka was becoming convinced the boys were innocent because their stories did not fit the facts of the crime.

Did Michael Crow actually confess to the crime in this interrogation?

Though he wasn't there for the most grueling part of the interrogations, Chris McDonough sees things differently. Do you think those detectives crossed the line in those moments?

Doing what you're not supposed to in an interrogation.

Koloka spent two and a half years investigating the case, and he interrogated Richard Tewitt.

Tewitt admitted he went into the Crow house, but denied killing Stephanie.

But in the end, for Detective Koloka, it was the DNA blood evidence that was irrefutable.

Four and a half years after police first questioned Richard Tuitt, he was finally arrested for the murder of Stephanie Crow.

He enters a plea of not guilty and denies all allegations. But just when Tuitt's trial was about to begin, there was another bizarre twist.

Just three hours after slipping away from the San Diego courthouse, Richard Tuitt was finally captured.

For prosecutors, his escape on the first day of trial is just more proof that he killed 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe. This guy's gotta be brought to justice. We gotta fix things that were broken. Prosecutors are in an unusual position. They must also play defense attorneys because to convict Tewitt of murder, they must exonerate the boys.

The Crows have never had a doubt that Richard Tuitt did it. Stabbed Stephanie nine times in her bed after sneaking into their house while the rest of the family slept. Do you think about that night?

It's hard to believe the man in the mugshot is the same man the jury would see, a subdued, clean-shaven, handsome man who has the support of his family. Did Richard murder Stephanie Crone?

Richard Tuitt's mother, Linda, and sister, Carrie, say he is harmless, a sad case of a young man once full of promise.

In his 20s, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The family says they took Richard to the hospital at least 30 times.

And so, Tuitt wandered the streets of Escondido.

He was no stranger to police. His criminal record includes arrests for drug use, attempted burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon. That it was an organized crime. And yet, says his other attorney, William Fletcher.

There may have been no evidence left by Tewitt in the Crow home. But there was evidence on Tewitt. In fact, after Stephanie's blood was found on his red sweatshirt, a crime lab eventually found her blood on Tewitt's white T-shirt, too. How significant to your case are those blood stains on those two shirts? Part of the case. Right at the center of the case.

Because, according to prosecutors, there's only one way blood could have gotten on his clothes. He killed Stephanie.

but the defense was about to present its theory. Showing you the red shirt. That Stephanie's blood was transferred to its clothes by the police.

I tried to avoid stepping into the blood.

The defense claims that Stephanie's blood got on Tewitt's white T-shirt after investigators tracked it into a holding cell where Tewitt was being questioned. When Tewitt sat on the floor of the cell, blood tracked in on the shoes of the policeman and got smeared onto its shirt, which was soaking wet from the rain. Showing you a sleeve with...

But that's exactly what the defense claimed happened, that a police investigator photographing the crime scene using a tripod like this set it down in Stephanie's blood. Later, back at the lab, the police used that same contaminated tripod to photograph Tuitt's red shirt. According to this theory, some of Stephanie's blood, now dried, somehow flaked off the tripod and onto the shirt.

Stephanie's big brother, Michael, was 14 years old when it happened. He has grown up in the shadow of the murder and despises Richard Tewitt.

And when that shirt was later tested using wet chemicals, the dried blood turned into a blood stain. Do you think the jury will buy that? Honestly, no. I don't. I really don't. And then the defense presents its strongest argument to exonerate Richard Tuitt, the boys' own words. All I know is I'm positive I killed him.

Most of the confession tapes had been ruled coerced and inadmissible back when the boys were facing trial. But now, those tapes can be used as evidence to defend Richard Tuitt.

I do. Michael Crowe, Stephanie's older brother, would now take the stand to defend himself.

It is the first time Michael, now 20,

You were quite emotional on the stand. What was it that sort of pushed you past the brink?

Then it's Joshua Treadway's turn to testify.

Aaron Houser is the last of the boys to take the stand.

Even though it's Richard Tewitt on trial for murder, in the two weeks of the boy's testimony, the defendant's name is hardly mentioned. No further questions?

Finally, after listening to three months of testimony, the jury must decide. Is Richard Tuitt the killer?

Or as the defense claims, are these boys getting away with murder?

Michael Crowe may be convinced that Richard to it killed his sister, but the authorities haven't always been so certain. In fact, even today, after all these years, there are still those who believe others did it. Others who remarkably confessed to the crime. Yet to it is the one on trial now because there is also dramatic evidence against him. There is one thing no one disputes.

After six years of living under suspicion for the murder of his little sister, the moment of truth is about to come for Michael Crow.

a jury is finally deliberating the fate of the man who is on trial now for her murder.

In the end, would the jury believe a mentally ill transient could kill a young girl in her own home without making a sound or leaving a trace?

Would they believe a brother and his friends could confess to a murder they didn't commit?

And what about the blood? Could police mistakes have contaminated key evidence?

It would take eight long days of deliberating. But finally.

the jury has found Richard Tuitt guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, concluding that he killed Stephanie Crowe, but without malice or premeditation.

Michael Crow chose not to be there for the news. Three months after the conviction, the judge is ready to sentence Tuitt at issue whether his mental illness will affect his punishment.

Thank you.

Richard Tuitt was here in the hills of Escondido on that terrible night in 1998. The night Stephanie Crow was murdered.

The night of the murder, police received numerous reports about a stranger in the Crow neighborhood.

They say he appeared disoriented, knocking on doors, looking for a girl named Tracy.

Is this the man who knocked on your door? Yeah, that's him. The Crow's next-door neighbor at the time, Reverend Gary West, told us he saw Richard Tuitt that night. You go to the door, and he says what?

When did you first meet Richard Tuitt? How old were you?

At the time, Richard Tuitt was obsessed with this girl, Tracy Nelson, who resembled Stephanie.

Would you point out the various sort of landmarks in this area here? That's Reverend West's house, and our house is over here to the right.

But if Tewitt was the killer, he was either very careful or very lucky. The crime scene was bloody. There were no fingerprints or DNA. And the murder weapon was never found. The morning after the murder, Tewitt was picked up and his clothes were confiscated.

But he was let go because authorities said they had no incriminating evidence and didn't think he was capable of sneaking into the house undetected.

But today, authorities have done a 180. Prosecutors Dave Drewliner and Jim Dutton are confident he is the right man.

And yet, he leaves not a single fingerprint. Well, no hair, no fibers, no footprints.

With the trial of Richard Toot finally underway, it is Michael Crow who is perhaps the most anxious about the outcome. Back in 1998, authorities were convinced that this 14-year-old planned and carried out the brutal crime.

back then michael crowe stephanie's big brother confessed to police back then in this courtroom it was michael crowe and his two friends who were preparing to go on trial for stephanie's murder

Stephanie Crow's funeral was on a Tuesday. Her parents and friends were all there.

But someone was missing. Her big brother, Michael. Hey, Michael, you have the right to remain silent. Not only had the Crows lost a daughter. Anything you do say can and will be used against you in court. They were now being told their son was her killer.

When we first talked to Cheryl and Stephen Crow back then, they said Michael was a bit shy, but otherwise a typical 14-year-old.

But authorities saw Michael differently. A bright kid with a dark side. The morning Stephanie's body was discovered, they say, Michael seemed distant, quiet, even preoccupied.

Former prosecutor, Summer Steffen.

But it was Michael's alibi that really made investigators suspicious.

But according to the police, even in the dark, Michael should have seen something. His room is directly across from Stephanie's.

You say you didn't see anything that night. No, I didn't.

Police began interrogating Michael. At first, he denied killing his sister.

Let's hear it, Mike.

But after two days of questioning... Or it's your mom or it's your dad or it's you. Michael finally told the police what they had suspected all along.

Sibling rivalry was Michael Crow's motive for murdering his sister, according to police. They say Michael deeply resented Stephanie because she was more popular and got better grades. And they say he didn't act alone. Instead, he recruited two of his friends, both of them also in the ninth grade.

This was Josh Treadway back then, a shy, artsy kid. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What kind of guy are you?

I would hope would be a good description. And this was Aaron Houser, more bookish, analytical.

Aaron also had an impressive collection of knives.

Michael, Josh, and Aaron loved fantasy, especially video games.

For most kids, it's harmless fun. But investigators believe these boys decided to bring their dark fantasies into the real world and find a real victim, Michael's little sister.

When authorities went to see Josh, the suspicions grew. What'd they find? They found two knives under my bed. Under this bed? Mm-hmm. Police thought one of those knives looked like the one used to kill Stephanie. So they brought Josh in for questioning.

Aaron gave me the knife.

Police questioned Josh for 12 hours. He didn't say much more, but when he came back for another interview two weeks later, he told the police how the murder was planned. Josh told police Michael had the motive, but Aaron was the mastermind.

Police brought Aaron Houser in for questioning. He never confessed. Instead, he gave a chilling hypothetical scenario of how someone would inflict knife wounds on someone like Stephanie.

This is the hearing where Josh... Chris McDonough was one of the detectives who interviewed Josh and Aaron.

When Josh told you he was afraid of Aaron, did you believe him? Yes. Definitely. Once they had their confessions, detectives believe they had made their case. But shortly after the boys had given those detailed statements, they recanted, took it all back. Now Michael and his friends were saying they had made it all up under intense pressure from the police.

You didn't conspire with your friends to kill your sister? No. You didn't take part in it in any way? In any way. Why wouldn't you just stick to your guns and say, I didn't do this. I didn't do this. There's no way in the world I'm going to confess to something I didn't do. Just eventually they wear you down to where you don't even trust yourself. You can't trust your memory anymore.