48 Hours - Ryan Poston Murder Part 1: Breaking Point - Encore

Episode Date: December 30, 2018

A lawyer shot -- his girlfriend admits she pulled the trigger. It looked like the story was over, but it wasn’t. “48 Hours” is there for a new trial and a new verdict. Correspondent Peter Van Sant investigates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Murderers come in all shapes and sizes and ages. Didn't matter how young she was, how pretty she was, how smart she was. She wanted to kill him. She intended to kill him. She intended to kill him.

Kimber County 911. Ma'am, I have a... I killed my boyfriend in South Dakota. Okay, where are you? I'm standing about ten feet from his dead body. Okay. On October 12th of 2012, which was a Friday night, Shani Ubers had called the police

and said that she had killed her boyfriend in self-defense. I went immediately to the Highland Heights Police Department. You want something to drink with some water? She had already been transported there by the first responders to the scene. Okay, what was his name? The man that I killed? Ryan Carter Poston.

Ryan Poston, in 2012, was a 29-year-old lawyer. He did mostly civil law. He was very successful, had a very good practice. Smart. Oh, so smart. When he walked into a room, he immediately demanded attention, and he got it. He was a very good-looking guy, and he had a very big heart. And your name is Shana? Shana Huber.

Shana at the time was a 21-year-old, recently graduated college student from the University of Kentucky with a psychology degree. Very, very bright, smart individual. And obviously she was very pretty, too. They were together for a few months at a time, and then they were apart for some time period. To say that their relationship was on and off would probably be an understatement.

It was a roller coaster. He was throwing me around the room, like, picking me up and, like, had my face and stuff. I was in an adjoining room with a video monitor, so I was watching this live. Pulled me by the ponytail of my hair. And she talked nonstop. If you go to jail, are you allowed to keep your phone?

Hour after hour. I knew he was violent. I knew he was crazy. Two hours and 40-something minutes, I believe. I had my head banged and do a few different things tonight. The facts and the evidence did not support her claim of self-defense. Picking me up and throwing me into the bookshelf and calling me a hillbilly. and the evidence did not support her claim of self-defense.

My name is Michelle Snodgrass. I am the prosecutor in the case against Shana Hubers. She was putting on a show. She was dancing. She was laughing. She was snapping her fingers and saying, I did it. I did. Yes, I did.

It was like an evening with Shana Hubers, like on Broadway. I have never seen someone who was so desperate to tell her story to anyone who would listen. Can I talk to you? Can I have somebody to talk to? I never saw one emotion that would have indicated remorse. He had guns laying on the table. If she was that afraid, she could go out the door. Is your daughter a murderer? Shana Hubers is not a murderer.

No, she'am. He's completely dead. Are you sure that he is dead? He's dead, ma'am. He's completely dead. I think about him every day. You don't think something like that is ever going to happen to someone you know. Matt Herron still struggles to make sense of what happened the night of October 12, 2012 when his close friend Ryan Poston was killed Is there something I could have done that could have prevented that? And I know a lot of people in his life had to have felt the same way

How did things spiral so out of control between Ryan and his girlfriend, Shana Hubers, that she shot him to death, insisting it was to protect herself? What was lost when your friend was shot and killed? He's the type of person that you want in your life. Not just a friend, but a loving son, a protective, adoring older brother. He had three younger sisters that he absolutely adored. Ryan's family was close-knit, even though his parents divorced when he was little.

He was extremely close to his father, Jay Poston. And when his mother remarried to Peter Carter, Ryan thought of him as a second father. He had two men who loved him like a son. He wanted to express how big of a role both of those men played in his life. So he had his middle name legally changed to Carter. He was very proud of that. What did he want to do? What did you see him doing in the years ahead? You know, I used to joke that I would run his first political campaign for him for free. Hi, baby.

his first political campaign for him for free. Hi, baby. Sarah Robinson, who grew up with Shana in Lexington, Kentucky, says Shana's future seemed promising as well. And how smart was she? I thought she was close to genius, in my opinion. I mean, she always was in AP classes, always getting A's and everything. Shana received countless awards for academic excellence and leadership.

She liked to succeed at anything and everything that she did. And that included music and drama. Was she a good actress? She thought she was. Sarah says back in high school, Shana also had a real flair for the dramatic when it came to boys. If a guy broke up with her or something or if a guy just said they weren't interested

in her, she would take it pretty hard. Crying and maybe a little screaming. She didn't really like to let things go. It was a sight of Shana Ryan would come to know all too well. Shana went to school in Lexington, more than 80 miles away from Ryan's condo in Highland Heights. The two probably never would

have met if it weren't for Facebook. He spotted provocative photos of her and they started dating in the spring of 2011. He was 28 and a lawyer. She was 19 and a college student. And was she happy? Yeah, she seemed to be happy. I mean, she never said that there was anything wrong in the relationship. She was just always there.

But according to Ryan's friend, Allie Wagner, there was plenty wrong right from the start. How did Shana react when she first met you? She was so cold. You could just immediately tell that she was just obsessed with him. I think she had a goal in the beginning to make him settle down with her and when she wasn't becoming successful that became a problem. He was very busy with work. He wasn't really looking for anyone. He had tried to end things a few times. But Ryan was having a tough time getting Shana to let go.

Shana admitted in a text to a friend, he says he's only with me because I make him feel so awful about it when I cry. He didn't want to hurt her feelings. Unfortunately, she just refused to take no for an answer. And so the two were on again, off again for 18 months. She would come by his place when she was in town. To show up unannounced? Absolutely.

As Shana became more possessive, Ryan's exasperation and concern grew. In a text to his cousin, he wrote, this is getting to be restraining order level crazy. She's shown up at my condo like three times and refuses to leave each time. like three times and refuses to leave each time. He also complained about Shana's obsessive behavior in a Facebook message to Allie. Literally, probably the craziest person I have ever met. She almost scares me. I wish I had said, if she scares you or if she's crazy,

just walk away. Instead, he kept taking her back. I think he was playing mind games with her. Ryan's neighbor, Nikki Carnes, claims there's another side to this turbulent relationship. Shana complained to her that Ryan was emotionally abusive. She would always tell me that he would say she needed a boob job or a facelift and that she was fat, she needed to lose some weight. Why wouldn't she have left? I guess because she was young, and she always told me she loved him.

She picked up his laundry, she did his laundry, she took his dog out, she went and bought him food. She did everything for him. Could there have been a Ryan that you didn't know? No. Someone that had a dark side? No. In the 10 years I knew him, never once raised his voice. He's always been the same. Super nerdy, super sweet. Ryan hoped Shana had finally gotten the message when he told her he wasn't going to see her that weekend of October 12, 2012. What he didn't tell her was that he had a date with a world-class beauty.

Ohio! Audrey Bolte, Miss Ohio USA 2012, whom he also met on Facebook but he did tell Ali a former beauty pageant contestant herself who knew Audrey she's very beautiful very personable and all that kind of stuff so Ryan was the perfect match for her he was really excited to go Ryan and Miss Ohio were supposed to meet at a bar that Friday night. But Shana showed up at his condo, and Ryan never made it. He beat me and tried to carry me out of the house, and I came back in to get my things, and he was right in front of me, and he raced down and grabbed the gun, and I grabbed it out of his hand and pulled the trigger.

And how long ago did you shoot him? I don't know, 15, 10, 10, 15 minutes, not even that long. 10 or 15 minutes ago? Yeah. Someone shooting someone and then waiting 15 minutes to call, that in itself was bizarre. Lieutenant Dave Fornash and his partner were the first to arrive on the scene.

I want you to go to your front door. I want you to open it up, walk outside the door with your hands in front of you. OK, I will. We instructed her to get on the ground. As I entered the apartment, I saw Ryan Poston's body on the floor in the dining room behind the dining room table. Police escorted Shana to the station,

knowing she had shot Ryan to death. And I picked up the gun. But was it to save her life or had she entered Ryan's condo with a plan to take his? Even seasoned investigators could never have imagined what would unfold in the hours after Shana Huber's killed Ryan Poston. It was crazy. You just wouldn't believe it. From the moment Lieutenant Dave Fornash brought her into that interrogation room, Shana's behavior was bizarre. Do you smoke?

I will. As he started to leave, she started making noise as if she was crying or trying to cry or wailing. As soon as he walked out of the room, she stopped immediately. Police Chief Bill Birkenhauer was immediately suspicious like a light switch exactly and what are you thinking when you see that right off the bat i'm thinking that she's you know pretending she wasn't crying no tears came out of her eyes says you have the right to remain silent shana was then read her rights and although she asked to see a lawyer i'd'd be a woman attorney.

Okay, so I can't ask you any questions at all. she found it impossible I was so out of it. to remain silent. I was like, this is not the big black killer, then can you come to the scene? Shana talked constantly.

I was raised really, really Christian and murderers did. It just seemed like she was constantly just babbling. You have very pretty teeth. Did you have one with the doncha? She talked so much that the officers were wanting to leave the room. I had to go to jail. Can you shower there? Or do you just get really dirty? They were switching off so they wouldn't get burnt out.

What are they going to do with me? I don't know. They just told me to come here and sit with you. For almost three hours, Shana told anyone who would listen about an alleged history of abuse by Ryan. Leading up to a fight in which she says she feared for her life. And I shot him in self-defense because he's done stuff before where I've hit my head on a headboard and could have died. But the more she talked, the more her words would come back to haunt her. This story never stayed the same. Beginning with exactly how Ryan's gun ended up in her hands.

He was screaming at me, telling me I was f hillbilly, that he hates me. By all accounts, Ryan, who owns several guns and was licensed to carry, had a habit of placing his handgun on the dining room table after coming home from work. And I just picked up the gun, and in the middle of him doing something with his arm or saying something crazy, he shot him. This time she told police that she picked up the gun off the table while Ryan was yelling at her. But remember, Shana had told the 911 operator a different story about wrestling the gun away from him. And he reached down and grabbed the gun away from him. But Shana didn't stop at one bullet. As she described the final moments of Ryan's life, the details were beyond disturbing.

And he was laying with his face on the table, like twitching. And so I knew he was going to die. I walked around the table. And I think that's when I shot him in the head. I shot him probably six times. Shot him in the head. He fell onto the ground. He was like laying like this. His glasses were still on. He was twitching some more. I shot him a couple more times just to make sure he was dead because I didn't want to watch him die. him die.

She didn't say that she was worried about him suffering. She said that she couldn't stand to see that. That's why she finished him off. If someone's wounded on the ground, someone that you love, wouldn't you attempt to resuscitate, to save, rather than shoot him? Or call 911.

Instead, Shana admitted she waited at least 10 minutes to call for help. If we were to pause right now for 10 minutes, it would be interminable to this audience how long a period of time that is. And she's not calling 911. Why do you believe that's the case? If he was to live, then he would have a story to

tell. He was helpless. Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass. He laid there helpless and she walked over and shot him again and again and again. That's not self-defense. And who's going to die or have a completely deformed face? He's very vain and wants to get a nose job. Just that kind of person. And I shot him right here. I gave him his nose job. He wanted it. My jaw hit the floor and I said to myself, did she really say that?

And Shana had plenty more to say. I did. Yes, I did. I did. Yeah, I did. Even when Shana wasn't speaking, her actions spoke volumes to the investigators who were watching from the other room. Not only did she dance and twirl... She even sang Amazing Grace.

How sweet the sound... She even sang Amazing Grace. How do you respond to what we're looking at here is a woman in shock? Someone who is in shock does not pirouette. Within hours of putting six bullets into Ryan Poston and watching him die, she danced and sang. Here's what's going to happen right now, Shana. With everything that we have, I'm going to have to charge you with murder. Shana Hubers was arrested for murder.

What degree? Murder. There's no degree. Ryan had been shot six times. Pretty much every side of his body he'd been shot at. Doesn't that fit someone who fears for her life at that moment, that she's being attacked, that she has to use excessive force to put down the threat? It more likely indicates somebody who's very angry. The investigation was far from over. Shana claims Ryan had a dangerous temper, and she can prove it.

Listen to more of Shana Huber's 911 call on Facebook at 48 hours. The chessboard today is how it was on the day Ryan died, mid-game, with the pieces unchanged from where it was then. Ryan Poston's friend, mentor, and chess rival, attorney Ken Hawley, relished those competitive matches that would sometimes stretch out over days. And I haven't been able to let it go, really. But now that chessboard sits in his office, frozen in place, a metaphor for a life cut short. a metaphor for a life cut short. When somebody is erased at an early age like that,

what has the world lost by not having the benefit of what they would have come to be? Ken and his legal assistant, Lori Zimmerman, had offices in the same building as Ryan. They witnessed Shana's obsessive behavior and the toll it took on him. If she couldn't get him on his cell phone, she'd call the receptionist and ask for him. Or she'd show up here. I mean, it was relentless. She would text him 50 to 100 times a day.

She would just wear him down and exhaust him to the point where he would say, OK, Shana. And he just kept doing the easy thing which was staying with her when ryan left work for the last time the evening of october 12 2012 he told lori about his big date and he said with a big smile on his face, I have a date with Miss Ohio tonight. Ohio. His news gave Lori an uneasy feeling about Shana. And I said, I'm very nervous about what you're doing tonight because who knows what Shana will do. You need to get her gone. I need you to call the police.

I need you to call a locksmith. I need you to make it very final. And that was when he said, hey, Lori, I've got this. Don't you worry about me. Hours later, Ryan was dead. I knew she was a stalker. I thought that she was perfectly capable of causing a scene, but murder? What do you think happened the night he died?

I think that she went over there, tried to talk him out of breaking up with her. Ryan's friend, Allie Wagner. And I think he just stood his ground for the first time. I think he just said, no, like, this isn't working. I think she picked up the gun and shot him. In her mind, this was a failure of sorts. And Shana didn't fail.

Shana Hubers is someone who is used to getting her way. The movie Fatal Attraction comes to mind. You won't answer my calls, you change your number. I'm not going to be ignored, Dan. He was trying to break up with her. And I think that Shana'm not going to be ignored, Dan. He was trying to break up with her, and I think that Shana was not going to be broken up with. Chief Birkenhauer says the proof is in an astonishing trove of texts and emails investigators discovered in numbers unlike anything they'd ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of messages. Hundreds of thousands. Yes. And most of the

messages were from Shana. For every one message Ryan sent, she probably sent 50. She couldn't stop herself. Here it was, a look inside this tortured relationship. Back in February of 2012, eight months before Ryan's death, he wrote Shana, you can tell people you broke up with me. Part of her reply, I love you dearly far more than you deserve. Then in March, Ryan pleaded, Shana, stop texting me. And in April, he texted,

I no longer have the patience to deal with you. Now, Ryan's a bright guy. He's a lawyer. Why didn't he get a restraining order? Well, under the law in Kentucky, he didn't qualify for a restraining order. The law in Kentucky basically requires the two to have been living together or to have been married.

basically requires the two to have been living together or to have been married. Instead, Ryan tried to take matters into his own hands. Another text in April, this time from Ryan to his cousin. She came to my place on Sunday morning, and I literally had to pick her up and throw her into the hall. Still, Ryan just couldn't close the door on their relationship. The two were back together that summer, but things soured again in late August.

And Ryan texts Shana, I'm turning off the phone and padlocking the door, and then she keeps texting. There were at least 100 messages until finally at some nine hours later, under this barrage, Ryan says, I'm not reading any of these. Stop. What does that tell you about Shana's behavior? Well, this goes back to she's obsessed with Ryan Poston. Shana once again showed up at his door she had her own key ryan had to leave his own

condo and leave shane in there and go spend the night with his father because she would not leave and she continued arguing with him while the prosecution insists ryan was the one being stalked and living in fear, Shana told police that at times she was also afraid of him. He keeps loaded guns in the house, has picked up a gun, pointed it at my face as a joke. What would you do if I... A lot of information is going to come out about this relationship and about what happened that night. Defense attorney John Paul Ryan. This was not a case of anything but self-defense. This was a case where Shana was acting to save her own dignity and her own safety. The defense team claims there are plenty of Facebook messages Ryan sent his friends that

show he was a young man consumed by anger. He'd had a falling out with his ex-law partner who was suing him. August 16th, 2012, less than two months before he was shot and killed, he says, and I want to rig explosives to everything I see. Well, I don't think anybody's denying that Ryan wasn't going through an emotional time. He was upset about being sued by his former law partner. His rage was never in any of these messages directed at Shana Hubers. Not one. October 4th, 2012, Ryan writes this. There's nothing I want more than to just scorch the effing earth and leave this entire city in a pile of burnt rubble.

He's fantasizing about doing a violent act, and just days later, according to Shana, he attacks her. But that wasn't a violent act directed to any person. You have to put it in context. He does not say he wants to hurt a person. Pressure is building up. He's got a girlfriend that won't let go. He finally snaps.

Why shouldn't we believe that? There's no evidence at the crime scene to indicate that Ryan Poston went after Shana Hubris. Nothing was knocked over. No signs of a struggle? None. Are you buying this notion of self-defense at all?

Not one bit. Not one bit. These photos of Shana taken after her arrest show some light bruising. But police still insist there's no evidence of a life-or-death struggle. Now, the young woman suspected of cold-blooded murder heads to court to ask a judge to let her out of jail. This case was always, to me, about a senseless act. Senseless. I could never quite make sense of what happened on October 12th.

I could never make sense of why Ryan Poston's life was ended. Why couldn't Shana Hubers, a brilliant and beautiful grad student, simply walk away from her troubled relationship with Ryan Poston? I think it's really sad. It's just, it's kind of heartbreaking. Shana's childhood friend, Sarah Robinson, barely recognizes the sweet, kind-hearted girl she once knew. sweet, kind-hearted girl she once knew. I saw her mugshot. That was, I think, the first thing that I saw that really made me take a step back

and just be like, oh, my God. What did it look like? It looked like someone who was angry and like someone who had just been through hell. It is June 10, 2014, almost two years since Ryan's death. Shana has remained in jail the entire time. She has hired a new defense team, led by David Mejia.

At a bail hearing, they are joined by Shana's mother, Sharon Hubers. Shana was in the gifted and talented program. hubers shana was in the gifted and talented program sharon a retired school teacher is proud of her child's academic success she graduated cum laude in three years at the university of kentucky shana was pursuing a master's degree in school guidance counseling at the time of this tragedy and what do you want people to know after reading that? What do you want them to know in relation to this case? Shana Hubers is not a

Child a girl a person That would Murder someone that would wake up and say okay I'm going to shoot somebody. And I want the world to know who Shana is. And I want them to hear it from her mother. Through Sharon's testimony, we also learn about the 24 hours leading up to Ryan's death. Thursday, October 11th, 2012, the night before Ryan died. Welcome to the first and only vice presidential debate.

The vice presidential candidates were slugging it out in a televised debate. Ryan brought Shana over to his mother and stepfather's place to watch it. And then she slept over at his condo. He wants to break up with her. Talk about mixed signals. Why is she staying the night at his place? That is a question that I think a lot of people want an answer to. I don't know if it was part of Ryan's attempt to let her down easy.

I just don't know. Ryan had already said he didn't want to see her that weekend perhaps that's why a distraught shayna called her mother from ryan's shortly after 3 a.m was she emotional upset yes she she wanted mama and yes she was i knew something was wrong. Sharon says she met up with her daughter at Ryan's place around 5.30 that morning. When he woke up, he saw that Shana Heber's mom was inside his condo. Shana's mom was inside his condo? Absolutely. Had come in on her own?

In the middle of the night, had driven from Lexington to sit with her daughter. She wanted to lay on the couch and put her feet in my lap, and she did. Sheena's relationship with her mother, what was that like? I think she was very close to her mom. I think her mom, for a good portion of her life, could have very well been her best friend. That child has been a blessing to me. She's my whole life. Sharon Hubers would like her daughter to be released to her custody, but prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass believes Shana is a flight risk because of what she told police.

Part of me wanted to get my keys and get in the car and leave. Because I knew my word against him isn't even dead. You know, how is anyone else to know that it's self-defense? To get bail, Shana needs to convince the judge that she's not a flight risk, and despite shooting Ryan, not a threat to society. On the stand, she paints a picture of herself as a model girlfriend. Ryan was going through a lot and he needed moral support and I was always good to him. But she also suggests she had a reason to fear him, claiming Ryan was obsessed with guns.

Wherever you were in the house, you were always at an arm's length from a gun or a weapon of some sort. And that concerned you? Oh, yes. You know, just laying everywhere, he'd pick one up and shoot a book on a shelf or something. And did that with Shana in the condo on numerous occasions. Is it true that Ryan, on at least one occasion, did target practice inside his own condo? We don't know if he did target practice inside his own condo? We don't know if he did target practice inside his own condo.

We do know that there was a book that had, you know, wood on it and some holes. Bullet holes? Yes. He was always very careful in his handling of firearms. Ryan's friend, Matt Herron, insists he was a responsible gun owner. It was never something that I worried about. But Shana insists she was worried enough to shoot Ryan in self-defense. And she thought that when she explained it to police that night, they would release her. I believed in my innocence and I wanted to see my mother and go home.

Now, the witness stand is about to turn into the hot seat. He told you he needed to not be around you. Didn't he say that? Ryan Poston's volatile relationship with Shana Hubers had become a house of mirrors. Nothing was as it appeared. His friend Lori Zimmerman says that while the couple appeared to have reconciled in the weeks before his death, their romance was rocky. He wasn't happy about dating Shana Hubers again.

From the very start, he was working to not date Shana Hubers anymore. Ryan's neighbor, Nikki Carnes, says from what she witnessed in the months leading up to Ryan's death, the relationship was toxic. I was awoken out of my sleep by some screaming and yelling outside, and they were arguing. This is something that was, like, happened quite often. Was this a nasty argument? Yeah. Everyone has a breaking point.

Had Ryan reached his? I think Shana reached hers. Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass believes rejection and rage sent Shana over the edge. Snodgrass confronts her about Ryan's repeated attempts to break up with her. Did he invite you over? Which night? Well, let's say the night you put six bullets at him. How about that night?

Did he invite you over that night? They'd broken up time and time again and gotten back together. Why did she get violent this time? That's a good question. I think that she believed it was over for good, and she wasn't going to have that. The fireworks continue at the bail hearing over Shana's different accounts of how Ryan's gun ended up in her hands.

You told 911 that you had to grab the gun out of Mr. Poston's hand. Is that correct? I did say that. But you told the police something different, didn't you? It was a handgun that I used. The gun was this big. I picked it up off the table. I did have to release the SIG.

I did. I remember it now. I can see it in my eyes. This is a SIG Sauer P238, .380 caliber, semi-automatic handgun. This is the weapon that was used in the shooting of Ryan Poston. She released the safety, pointed the gun at Ryan Poston, and shot him in the right side of the head. Chief Birkenhauer believes Shana's admission that she released the safety on the gun

is evidence of premeditation. I believe as soon as she released the safety, she made the decision that she was going to kill him. It is a sign, in my opinion, that she had time to think about it. Show me how she released the safety. The safety, which right there, you can't pull the trigger. In order to make this gun operate,

you have to release the safety. Now the gun's ready to go, and then you just pull the trigger. It is an extra step that you just pull the trigger. It is an extra step that you have to think about. The gun itself also contained critical forensic evidence, a trace of Ryan's blood. And what did that tell you? One or more of the shots were so close to the body, when the trigger was pulled, the blood came out and it landed on the gun.

Meaning Chief Birkenhauer believes that Shana moved closer to Ryan for the final kill shots. There was never a time after the first shot that he was on his feet. But Shana now insists it was Ryan who was moving towards her, despite what she told police after Ryan's death. He was still moving. He was still coming to work me. First two shots we thought were firecrackers, and then there was four more, and then we knew it was gunshots. Ryan's downstairs neighbors, Vernon and Doris West, heard gunshots that night, but no fight. And what was the sequence of the shots? Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Did either of you hear any arguing in that condo above you? Did you hear any shouting? Never, never, never. Never did, never did. No. If there had been a fight going on up there, a physical struggle between the two of them, Sheena being thrown across the floor, would you have heard it?

Yes. I believe I would have heard it. The prosecutor insists that even if Sheena initially thought Ryan was a danger to her, she didn't need to keep shooting him. She had the door behind her with no obstructions. Why didn't she just go? The defense maintains that Kentucky's so-called stand-your-ground law says a person does not have a duty to retreat prior to the use of deadly physical force.

But the prosecutor believes Shana's decision to keep shooting proves a murderous intent. She knew that Ryan Poston had somewhere else that he had to be and someone else that he was meeting and she wasn't going to let that happen. In his questioning of Shana, defense attorney David Mejia turns the table on the prosecution, driving home Shana's contention that she had to use deadly force to save herself. Now, what did you believe would happen if he got out after having been shot twice? He would shoot me. He would hurt me. As you well know, Shana has been portrayed as strangely obsessive, a liar, a murderer.

It's been horrible. She grew up in the church. She's not a murderer. The word evil has been used to describe your daughter. She's far from evil. Shana has a heart of gold. She's like her mommy, a loving spirit. That's what I want the world to know. In the end, Judge Fred Stein sets bail at $1.5 million, too much for Shana's parents to afford.

Now, as the case heads to trial, how will the defense team overcome the one witness who could destroy any claims of self-defense? That witness, the twirling, singing, loquacious Shana Hubers. If you go to jail, are you allowed to keep your phone. It's sad when someone pushes you away and pulls you back in and pushes you away and pulls you back in. Shana Hubers takes center stage. There were times when he had my head going 10 different directions to where I didn't even know if that was my boyfriend or not

or what he was to me. Was she obsessed? This is getting to be restraining order level crazy. I'm not kidding. She needs help. Or in fear for her life. He would have killed me. It was scary.

I'm scared. Oh, my God, that's frightening. I'm scared. The defense claims she was abused. I feel like I was let on. I feel like I was manipulated, used, and abused. But the prosecutor's not buying any of it. Were you with 10 other men during that,

during this whole time that we're talking about? 2012, 10 different men. How are you saying, was I with them? Like, are you saying that I, was I friends with them? You slept with 10 different men during 2012. I may have slept with 10 guys in 2012, but I don't see how that's relevant to any of this. 48 hours. Obsessed. Next. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products.

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