Deborah Roberts

um talk to us a little bit about the couple and also too about earl i mean how what connected them and just what police began to unravel when they looked a little deeper

Yeah, they didn't believe that.

And then they bring in Earl Howard, and then he has a story to tell, and they start cutting a deal with him, and then he tells a little bit of a different story there.

Yeah, yeah.

Once again, one of those things is stranger than fiction.

And people always ask us, like, why wouldn't the person just leave?

Yeah.

And then what about the community, John?

Because oftentimes when we go into these communities,

you know you can tell they've been devastated by you know something like this and as you said it was a fairly low crime rate in that town and this was something that was shocking.

What kind of an impact did it have on the community?

Howard eventually pleads guilty to a number of charges, including arson, conspiracy to commit arson.

And then he eventually is sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Nikki goes to trial.

She is found guilty, among other things, of conspiracy to commit murder and to commit arson, tampering with evidence.

And she's sentenced to life.

She's found guilty and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

John, I want to talk more about that and the outcome in this case.

But a few weeks before she was sentenced, you actually talked with Nikki.

And after we come back, we'll hear more about what she had to say.