Kendall Rae

And when investigators looked into it, they found a gun that used a .22 caliber bullet, the same type that killed Sonia.

They also learned that the evidence locker key was kept in a mailbox in the chief's office, which anyone could access.

And while this doesn't prove necessarily that Matt Owens definitely did that, it still showed that it was possible.

And given this guy's character, it was not a stretch to think that he would have stolen something out of the evidence locker, right?

But unfortunately, not everyone saw it that way because his family and friends

People in his church community were strong defenders of him, and they were mad.

So mad that when his trial started in 2005, Sonia's family said that Owen's supporters treated them as if they were the bad guys when they were in court, which had to have been so difficult for them to deal with.

on top of worrying about getting justice for Sonia.

Now, during the trial, the prosecution argued that Matt Owens killed Sonia and staged the theft of Patrol Car 321, which I think seems pretty obvious to all of us.

But it might not have been as obvious to the jury because, first of all, the judge ruled that the accusations of sexual assault from all these women weren't admissible.

So they weren't able to hear that this was clearly a pattern of behavior for Officer Owens.

And he hired a strong defense attorney who was prepared to pull out all the stops for his client.

They argued that investigators were correct about a known police officer killing Sonya, but they said it wasn't Matt Owens.

They pointed the finger at Byron Redburn.

the same officer who suggested that Owens may have gotten the gun from the evidence locker.

And they claimed that he had a motive to try and frame Owens because it turns out that Owens was having an affair with Redburn's own daughter.

So all of this, coupled with the lack of DNA evidence, made it difficult to secure a conviction.

After deliberating for 10 days, the jury was completely deadlocked.

So the judge declared a mistrial, which

was just so upsetting for everyone, especially Sonia's loved ones, to have to go through this again.