48 Hours - The Verdict

Episode Date: January 17, 2016

A wife says she shot her husband in self-defense. 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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jury's indicated they've reached a verdict yes the day of the verdict I was like this is it this is the day that my mom is finally free and liberated from this she can just live happy and free members of the jury in the case of State of Florida versus Anita Jane Smithy have you reached a verdict if you please hand the verdict form to the court what were her last words to you I love you miss Smithy please rise and argue to the verdict of the jury of your peers. Madam Clerk, please publish... I believe those last three words, I love you, was in case this doesn't go right, I love you.

We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder. We further find that during the commission of the offense, the defendant personally carried... She has no heart at all. I'm sorry, but she doesn't. We further find that during the commission of the crime, the defendant actually possessed a firearm. She could never care about anybody but herself because she's fake and she doesn't show emotion. Because she's fake and she doesn't show emotion. Everything that she's ever done has been a show. I was sad, I was happy, I was mad, I was emotional.

Finally, justice for my dad. Defense requests a jury to be pulled. Yes, Your Honor. It was the most painful experience of my entire life to have to witness such injustice. Anything further from the state? No, Your Honor. I believe that my mom did what she had to do to escape with her life. to escape with her life. 911.

Did you shoot? You shot somebody? Who did you shoot, your husband? He was trying to kill me. What's his name? Robert Corwin. When I arrived, Miss Smithy was already on the front walkway to the house.

She was sitting down. She was crying. She kept saying that he shouldn't have been here. He shouldn't have been there. I don't want him to die. Anita first said that Mr. Klein came over the house that night and somehow was able to get inside the house. He came to my home. He had violent sex with me. I was scared. He is six foot tall and 225 pounds and I weigh 125 pounds. She cried and she begged for him to stop. Did I think he could kill me? Yes, I did. And I said, I've got a gun. Get off of me. He treated her like garbage, like a punching bag, with every intention of killing her.

And that's when she shot him. He said something like, you bitch, you killed me. She didn't mean to. She just wanted him to stop. It's crazy. It is. I miss him. And I love him. Did you murder your husband?

No, I did not. I did not murder him. I want people to know, you know, the truth through my eyes what happened. I'm not that person. They're trying to portray me to be. that they're trying to portray me to be. I'm Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours, The Verdict. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups

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Miss Smithy, please rise and argue to the verdict of the jury of your peers. She shot my dad. She killed my dad. I still go back to that day and think about that moment. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder. And the whole world just collapses. That was the biggest cry I've ever heard. That was like a hyena dying.

Here, in the Seminole County, Florida courthouse, it took a jury less than three hours to convict Anita Smithy. Anita admits she shot and killed her estranged husband, Robert Klein, but she says he was raping her and she thought he was going to kill her. If Anita is telling the truth, a terrible injustice was done here. Tonight, we'll lay out the facts and you decide. I like these two because I think it shows that he loved me. Anita Smithy says her relationship with Robert started out with so much promise.

Robert was funny, you know, dynamic. I felt like he was really good to me back then. He always had something planned. Robert, a former combat medic who served in Iraq in Desert Storm, was also a widower. He lost his first wife, Debbie, in 2003 from a heart attack, and he was raising their two children, Stephanie and Eric, on his own. My father was the best person possible. Stephanie Klein is Robert's 17-year-old daughter. He was kind. He was funny. He was smart. He was the kind of person that will never let you down.

Anita and Robert met each other at work. He was in sales, she was a database programmer. In 2004, Anita, who also has two kids, was going through a divorce. She leaned on Robert for support, which turned into romance. What was your mom like when she was with Robert? Was she happy? Yes, she was. She was so excited. He would always make her laugh.

Drew Smithy is Anita's 18-year-old son from her first marriage. I was thankful that he was around to just have this joy around. When I first met Anita, I thought, wow, she's pretty. She's young. she has two kids. Oh, I've never had a sister. That would be amazing. I mean, I've always wanted a mother. That's what my dad tried to get us, was a mom. On May 6, 2007, they married.

Happy day for you? Oh, yeah, it was beautiful. Stephanie was the maid of honor, and Drew was the best man. When they first got married, everything was this picture-perfect life with everyone always happy and smiling all the time. And then it slowly started to change. Drew says Robert became distant, irritable, and verbally abusive. Anita says it was all because of Robert's addiction

to marijuana. During this time when your mom and Robert would argue, were you afraid? Very afraid. There's just so much tension. It felt like there was a monster living there. If you said the wrong thing or you did something, he would come after you, he would just go on a rampage.

You just did not want to set him off. Anita says Robert took his newfound rage into the bedroom, constantly demanding rough sex. I remember one conversation when we were walking, she started crying. Jessica Flores is Anita's best friend. And she said, is it rape if it's your husband? I told her, I was like, Anita, it doesn't matter who it is. If you say no and they still push themselves upon you, that is rape.

That is rape. This growing conflict reached a flashpoint on November 19, 2009. During a heated argument, Anita says Robert put his fist through the shower wall and then pushed her. I grabbed my phone because I just told him I'm not putting up with this, you know, so I was going to call 911. And so he grabbed the phone and threw it across the room, and then I went running downstairs because at that point he was coming after me. She thought that this was escalating out of control. Drew, just 13 at the time, says he saw it all. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, Drew, I need your phone right now.

I need to call 911. And I was about to hand it to her. And Robert looks at me and says, Drew, if you give your mom that phone, there's going to be trouble. My son said, mommy, what do I do? And I said, just sit down. Just sit down. Just listen to him. Just sit down. I just was so scared that I didn't want him to hurt my mom. She had to leave the house and run to a neighbor to get help. When police arrived, she was questioned and filled out a report. Then she fled to a hotel with her kids. She actually parked behind the hotel, so that way if he came by, he couldn't see her car.

But incredibly, just one week later, Anita moved back home and dropped the charges against Robert. Being educated and everything, it's embarrassing to say why I would stay. It just, it looks crazy. Like, why would you go back to somebody who does these things, but you do? That's what victims do. They stay with their abusers. Even though she knew he was bad, she loved him. But just two months later, Anita says the abuse became too much. She secured a place of her own and filed paperwork online to divorce Robert. But Drew says that didn't keep him away.

He tried and called my mom saying he was sorry. He was trying to act like this nice, caring person again, trying to convince her to come back. Jessica Flores worried that Robert would come after Anita again with deadly consequences. Robert had made it clear to me on more than one occasion that she was not leaving that marriage alive and she would be sorry. Robert said to you, Anita is not leaving this marriage alive? Yes, and I told him it was Anita, he's going to kill you. And on May 4th, 2010, Jessica's worst fears came true. But it was not the result she expected. This time, Jessica says, Anita fought back and Robert Klein was dead. I think I killed him.

Klein was dead. I think I killed him. Give me a sense of what it looked like inside that house. He was lying naked on the left side of the bed, face down with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his back and to his arm. All we had was that she had shot him. Detectives Daniel Mattingly and Matthew DePanisus were assigned to the case.

She was sitting on the ground, and she was holding a towel to her side, and it was saturated in blood. She had a stab wound. Anita looked like she'd been through a battle with a bruise on her forehead, a chipped tooth. She had cuts on her lower lip, her face, and neck. And she said that Robert sexually assaulted her. Anita calls me, and she just kept crying.

And she's like, I'm so sorry. I didn't want it to go this way. He was just hurting me. He wanted to stop. I begged him to stop. But in spite of this, detectives quickly became suspicious of Anita, and she would go, in their eyes, from being a victim to a murder suspect. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder?

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This is Detective DePantis. How you doing? Hi. He's the lead investigator in this case. Just 11 hours after shooting her husband, Anita Smithy was out of the hospital and sitting in the interrogation room of the Oviedo Police Department. I know this is probably very traumatizing for you,

so I'm not asking you questions that have to have you necessarily relive it. It had been 36 hours since Anita says she slept. Most of the time, he's a great guy. Things were getting kind of bad between us. He was really getting aggressive. She had been treated for her injuries and had a rape examination. He was smoking a lot of weed. His big thing, really, is punching walls.

Over the next two hours, she told detectives her story. I thought it was just time. I just thought time will take care of this. It all began shortly before midnight, when Anita said Robert showed up at her house unexpectedly. I would tell him not to come over, but he always came over, I mean, anyway. In spite of being separated, Robert had often come over for sex on Monday nights when Anita's kids were with their father. I was a little concerned about what is he doing here. I don't really know where this is going. Okay. But at that time, I was like, okay, I'm just going to placate him. I really did not want to start fighting with him. She said Robert brought over a bottle of tequila and he set up her cable TV.

After taking a shot, they watched the show CSI for a bit, then started to kiss. So I was sort of consensual on, you know, on having sex with him initially. Anita said that when they were done, she dressed and told Robert to leave. But instead, he became enraged and violently started to pull off her pants. I'm telling him, no, I'm done. I got to work tomorrow. I'm done. And then pulled out a knife that he menacingly held to her neck. I'm like, if you hurt me, you're not going to get away with this. Everybody's going to know it was you.

Because I felt like at that moment, is he threatening to kill me? Like, what is he doing with the knife? I don't understand what he's doing. At that point, Anita said Robert wanted some rough sex. He turned around to get coconut oil at the side of the bed. And that's when Anita reached for the gun she kept in her nightstand. That is the point where I got the gun and I put it under the pillow. She says Robert began to rape her.

Did I think he could kill me? Yes, I did. Anita couldn't take it anymore. And I said, I've got a gun. Get off of me. Couldn't take it anymore. And I said, I've got a gun, get off of me. She took the gun from under her pillow and aimed it at him. We were so close, like he was right there. We were so close to the point that I almost think that he might have been leaning on the gun. Anita said she doesn't remember pulling the trigger.

I just had no intentions of actually shooting him. And I just did. the trigger. I just had no intentions of actually shooting him and I just did. She fired three shots, hitting Robert twice. He actually stood up and he goes, he said something like, you bitch, you killed me. And then I just said, baby, baby, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. And I was like, I'm like, I'm getting somebody. I'm getting somebody. And he said nothing. He just said nothing. I said, I'm going to get the interview continues on. And through the process of the interview, little things are added. Little things are taken away. Detective DePanis says Anita's story was not matching the evidence they found at the scene.

You said the coconut oil was on the bed. When we went to your house, we found it in the bathroom. How did it get there? I thought it was on the bed. No, it's in the bathroom. And that's not all Anita had trouble explaining. While she was clear about how she sustained injuries to her face and neck, I don't know at what point in this that I was that I you know got stabbed I don't know. She was noticeably vague when trying to

explain those stab wounds in her abdomen. Did he do those to you or did you do those to yourself? I can't do this to myself. But the detectives weren't so sure. Did you grab the thing and stab yourself? No I didn't. They pressed on. Is it fair to say that you did freak out because you shot him, you're worried about how we're going to look at it, and you in turn stabbed yourself? Again. I didn't stab myself by myself. And again.

I know you did not get stabbed on the bed. I know you did not get stabbed while you were wrestling for the knife. Is it fair to say that? Anita then made a shocking admission. Yeah, it's fair to say that. Okay, so at what point did you get stabbed? After I saw he was on the floor. Anita finally told the cops

what they had been waiting to hear. I was like, oh my God, I shot him because I was scared of him and I have no, I have, you know, other than a few face wounds and a few and this right here, I have nothing to show for the, you know, the fact that I shot a man. To Detective DePanisis, it was a very damning admission. It's suggesting not premeditation, but a thought process to cover up a crime that you just committed.

And with that, Anita was arrested. But her lawyer, Whitney Bone, believes that Detective DePanisis went too far. He went in there with an agenda. Bullying a rape victim into confessing something she did not do. He went in there with the idea that this woman is going to be a defendant and I'm going to charge her with murder. You guys are trying to trip me up. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Bone says Anita was so traumatized after the shooting that she should never have been subjected to an interrogation in the first place. Why didn't he just get off of me? Why does he treat me like that if he loves me?

I saw a woman who was victimized not only once by Robert Klein, but again by the Oviedo Police Department in the manner in which they interrogated her in that room. by the Oviedo Police Department and the manner in which they interrogated her in that room. At a time when she's traumatized, raped, cut, and you don't know the circumstances, and has been up all night, can you understand why people would say, you may not get the most reliable, accurate story at that moment? I could see that.

Were you taking advantage of her? No. Our only intention is to get the full story and to figure out exactly what happened. I don't know what your intentions are. But Anita's supporters say that nothing she said in the interrogation can be trusted. Evidence doesn't lie. I know evidence doesn't lie, and you can keep saying that, but I don't remember. She hadn't slept.

She hadn't eaten. She's been stabbed. She's had to kill someone. And they're telling her, you stabbed yourself. You did this. Just admit it. Say it. I'm not saying you're lying. Of course, you would say whatever you had to, to get them to stop. My father bought this in 1954. My children grew up here. A lot of memories are here.

Anita Smithy's father, Phil Andree, never imagined he'd ever have to sell his 150-acre family farm in Indiana. I had to make the decision. It was a farm worth more than a life? And whatever anybody else says, it wasn't to me. But with his daughter's freedom at stake, Phil sold the farm to help pay

for Anita's legal defense team. And I don't regret what I've done. But it would take more than a month for Anita to make bail. When I posted bond for her and got her out, she was suffering terribly. Phil, a former Army chaplain who spent years counseling soldiers, says it was obvious to him that Anita was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I lived with Anita day and night.

I was very worried about her emotional state. She did not have a clear chronological memory of what actually transpired that night. Anita's brother, Audie Andree, believes that it is the PTSD that affected Anita's ability to get her story straight during that interrogation. You said the coconut oil was on the bed. When we went to your house, we found it in the bathroom. How did it get there? She had gaps in her memory. I thought it was on, I think it's on, I thought it was on the bed. No, it's in the bathroom. She could not put together what actually happened. Prosecutors Kelly Jo Hines and Stacey Salmons were assigned to Anita's case. They say Anita's family is just using PTSD as an excuse.

I think that the act of Anita Smithy murdering her husband was traumatic. Do I think that it rose to the level where it impeded her ability to give a knowing, voluntary or intelligent statement? No. Anita likes to be a victim. Belinda Klein is Robert's sister. I think that Anita thrives on it. Belinda, a police deputy,

says she has seen Anita play the victim game before. Back in 2003, when Anita told Belinda that her first husband was abusive toward her. It's an allegation his family denies and Belinda doesn't buy. I would talk to her about injunctions for protection and pursuing charges against him, but Anita would never do any of the things that I would suggest for her. And as a cop, you're thinking what? suggest for her. And as a cop, you're thinking what? I'm thinking if you're really in fear,

then why are you still in this situation? Do you believe that Anita was abused by her first husband? No. And was she abused by your brother? Absolutely not. In fact, prosecutors say Robert was actually trying to reconcile with Anita. Robert Klein was a man who loved his wife, who wanted to make that relationship work. This is not a man who wanted to hurt her. The proof, they say, are in these text messages. In those series of text messages, it's clear that he's not this horrible, obsessed monster who's violent, angry, degrading in any way to her. In fact, he's texting her, love you, hope we can work things out, conversations about counseling.

And prosecutors say Anita shared an unusual but consensual sexual relationship with Robert. Even after they were separated, some people referred to what they did as rough sex. It was what they did. It was their norm. They engaged in role play. They engaged in a sex life where there was an introduction of at least a knife. It was something that she accepted. It was something that she accepted. It was something that she enjoyed. It was not anything that she objected to. But what about Anita's claims that Robert was violent in their marriage, like on that November 19, 2009

confrontation described by Drew? I just was so scared that I didn't want him to hurt my mom. Not so, says Robert's daughter Stephanie, who witnessed the same incident. She came downstairs and was yelling at me. Do you see this? Do you see this? Your dad just slapped me. He hit me. He's crazy. Blah, blah, blah, blah. No, that's not what happened at all, because I was right there. I saw it. He never laid a hand on anybody. He would never do that. That's not that type of person. There's pictures of them where the two of them are standing in front of a Christmas tree together. In fact, Belinda says less than two months after that alleged violent episode, Anita spent New Year's Eve partying with Robert. I mean, I'm watching video of them shooting fireworks,

and Anita is filming everything. Hey, the beautiful photographer! Happy New Year! So what does that tell you about her story? That it's a lie, that she's not afraid. She's not afraid. It's quite extraordinary for me to listen to you tell this story when the other side is telling a completely

opposite story. The other side isn't dead. They can paint the picture. She's got to paint some kind of picture because she killed him for no reason. But because the murder took place in Florida, just about everyone in America has an opinion about the George Zimmerman case. Like George Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense when he shot Trayvon Martin, Anita is entitled to a stand-your-ground hearing. If Anita's team could prove she shot Robert Klein in self-defense, she could walk free. Going into this stand-your-ground hearing, are you optimistic? Of course. My mom was optimistic, too.

It's so cut and dry. If you are being raped inside your own home, you said no. And if you're using a gun to defend yourself, that, I feel like there couldn't be a more clean-cut situation for the Stand Your Ground law to be effective. But the prosecution wasn't going to make it easy for Anita to make her case. And I didn't want him to kill me. I wanted him to get out of my house and I didn't want him to kill me. It's not fair to my kids, but I didn't want him to die.

You apologized to him. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. I had no intention of murdering Robert Klein. They're kicking my mom while she's down, and it's so terrible to see. But this time, Anita would not say she stabbed herself. You stabbed yourself in order to try to deflect responsibility. No, I didn't have to do that because I'd been raped and I'd been cut and beat up. I didn't have to stab myself to make it look like self-defense. That doesn't make any sense. But the judge rejected her claim that she was standing her ground when she shot her husband. She was in

just absolute shock and so was I. Anita would now have to stand trial and face a jury for murdering Robert Klein. But just before her trial was to begin, Anita and her legal team scored a huge victory with a ruling that could change everything. Do I need a lawyer? This is where I work on stuff for my case. I put everything in binders, and I try to organize everything. The lawyers have lots of cases, and this is my only one. For the first time in a long time, Anita Smithy is optimistic. Just before her criminal trial is to begin, her lawyers win a major pretrial victory.

The jury won't be shown that damning interrogation video where Anita says her wounds were self-inflicted. I mean, I did stab myself. I mean, I had a hold of the knife. How concerned was I? Very concerned. I mean, because that's a vital aspect of this case. Anita's camp says Detective DePanisis bullied her. You stabbed yourself near him. Is it fair to say that? There's no need to lie now. I'm not lying. I don't remember where I stabbed myself. Tried to confuse her.

You guys are trying to trip me up. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. To build a case against her. Three seconds. Five seconds. I don't know. Because if I say then you're going to use it against me. Detective DePanis' response would become a major legal issue. Nothing's being used against you at this point. Nothing's being used against you at this point, he told her. And that mere statement kind of muddied the waters as far as her Miranda rights are concerned. Yes, Your Honor. It meant that everything Anita said afterwards about cutting

herself couldn't be used at trial. Did you screw that up? My intentions were good. I guess it was a slip up on my part. Yes. Please be seated. A slip that could cost the prosecution their case. State of Florida v. Anita Jane Smithy, case number 2,000. Four years after the killing, Anita's attorney for the trial, Rick Jantcha, Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. wastes no time portraying Robert Klein as a monster who attacked Anita. You'll hear that Robert Klein grabbed her, pulled her down on the bed. He pulled a knife, that he put it to her throat. He was violently beating her, violently sexually assaulting her. The jury has shown those pictures

of Anita's injuries. Without the interrogation tape of her admitting to causing some of the cuts, it's a huge problem for prosecutors. They're hoping this man, medical examiner Dr. Frederick Bulich, will fix it for them. He poured over the photos of Anita's wounds, the scratches on her face, the cuts on her neck. I have an opinion that these are self-inflicted. Dr. Bulich says the cuts are all shallow in depth and the cutter, he says, was careful about doing them. Is there any evidence indicating that these wounds were inflicted upon her by another person? There is no evidence that any other person was involved. I think she panicked.

Anita Smithy's story is that Robert Klein was attacking her. And what does she do towards that end? She gets a knife. She calculatedly places cuts to her cheek, cuts to her neck, and cuts her abdomen in such a way as to indicate that perhaps she had been harmed by him. And what about the bruising on Anita's face and her chip too? Recoil, Dr. Bulich suspects. If the gun was held near the face, it's possible. But then, Shirley Rice, a specially trained nurse who's been involved in more than 300 rape cases, takes the stand. She says after examining Anita, it's her opinion Anita was

assaulted. At the time I did the exam, I thought of her as a victim of a sexual assault. And has anything changed your mind since that time? In my evidence, no. But when prosecutors question Nurse Rice, you're unable from a professional standpoint to ever say for sure whether or not the injury that you see during a sexual battery examination is either consensual or non-consensual, right? I cannot tell you whether it's consensual or non-consensual because I wasn't there. Robert Klein did not rape Anita Smithy. And to prove that point, prosecutors call this woman, Anita's former friend, Tarana Stewart, to the stand. Did the defendant ever confide in you with regard to any sex practices that she and Robert

Klein engaged in that stick out in your mind? Yes. Can you tell us what that was? Playing date rape, role playing. Did she tell you that they had engaged in that date rape or role play scenario on the night that Robert Klein was killed? Yes. Torrena turned out to be a snake. Did Torrena betray Anita?

She did in a way that she should have never betrayed her. Prosecutors called the case detectives to testify. Anita told different versions of what happened the night she shot her husband. And she started to tell a second story, and I noticed inconsistencies between that first story and the second story. Detective Mattingly tells the jury Anita first said Robert waved a knife at her, but in a second version, she didn't even mention a knife. And there were other inconsistencies. But Mattingly admits, at the time, he never took notes. Both he and Detective DePanisis are grilled about their lack of experience.

Isn't it a fact that this is the first homicide case you ever investigated? Yes, sir, that's true. Did you ask her how long it had been before she'd slept? No. Did you ask her how long it had been before she'd ate? No. Did you ask her when the last time she had anything to drink? No. Jancha argues Anita was so traumatized by the events of the evening, she should never have been subjected to a grueling police interview so quickly. I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that there is one piece of evidence. As the trial was wrapping up, many courtroom observers believed the defense had won its case.

But Jancha wanted to seal the deal to show just how traumatized Anita was with one last piece of evidence. And that's the 911 call of Ms. Smith. Prosecutors don't object. For the first time, jurors hear the dramatic 911 call. But amid Anita's cries, they also hear Anita say Robert stabbed her in the stomach with a knife. And why did you shoot him? Did he hurt you? with a knife. Kelly Jo Hines and Stacey Salmons could not believe their good fortune. As we objectively listen to that 911 call that was just played to you. And before I start my closing argument to you, I'll address a few things just about that phone call alone. Stacey, I'm sitting just behind you there in the gallery, and I hear you say, I set the snare.

By playing that moment where Anita says Robert stabbed her in the stomach, it opens the door for prosecutors to contradict her. The jury could now hear that previously forbidden part of the interrogation video where Anita admits stabbing herself. I just know that I freaked out and I picked it up and I stabbed myself. This is a big deal that you are now going to be allowed to present to this jury, correct? Yes. He didn't open a door. He opened a vault. She shot him. She inflicted those injuries to herself. The defense brings up. Prosecutors

closed their case against Anita Smithy with the best argument they've got, that interrogation tape. I don't remember where I stabbed myself. I know that I freaked out, and I did. It's proof, they say, that she was not acting in self-defense when she killed her husband. I think that is what doomed us. Ms. Smithy, please rise and argue to the verdict

of the jury of your peers. Within hours... We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of second-degree murder. Completely outrageous, ridiculous, insane, ludicrous. She was being attacked, she was being raped, and she was terrified. 100% certain she thought if she tried to flee, if she tried to do anything, he was going to kill her. Jury to be pulled. Yes, Your Honor.

Drew watches, unable to do anything, he was going to kill her. Drew watches, unable to do anything, as his mother falls apart. I know exactly why she was so hysterical and why she collapsed. Anything further from the state? It's because she didn't do it. And Anita's supporters say they know exactly who to blame. There is one piece of evidence. Anita's own attorney, Rick Jantcha, for foolishly playing that 911 tape. Opening the door for prosecutors to use Anita's admission, she stabbed herself. I mean, I stabbed it, but he was there too. It's not a mistake, but a fatal error. Not only did the statements get played, they got played right at the very end of the trial, very last thing.

Anita's camp says the only reason why they lost that case is because of the playing of this 911 tape. What do you say? I say that that playing of the 911 tape was only one small piece of a much larger puzzle within a two-week trial. A trial that took four long years to begin had come to a dramatic conclusion. I finally couldn't wait to look at his parents and hug them. The same with his children. When you guys left the courtroom, you were still pretty stoic, wouldn't talk to reporters. But when you went into the elevator and the elevator doors closed,

we could hear you. And I'll go on record as saying I'm the one who squealed in the elevator and part of that is just the relief that comes with it of knowing that you worked so hard for an ultimate goal and that and that you succeeded but their feelings of relief didn't last long just before sentencing, Anita's attorney suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Attorney Whitney Bone steps in to represent Anita. This verdict, justice or injustice? Injustice. She was brutally beaten and she was forcibly raped.

And she was already planning Anita's appeal, focusing on that interrogation. I don't have any reason to lie to you. I'm very optimistic that Anita Smithy did not receive a fair trial in compliance with the law and that she will have another day in court. But first, Anita will be sentenced for Robert Klein's murder. She's facing life in prison. Her 13-year-old daughter is too upset to speak, but Anita's son Drew begs the judge to show mercy.

My mom is just, she's my everything, and I just want you to know how much I love her and that she's not the person that people are making out to be. Drew tells the court he will continue in school with the hopes of becoming a doctor to make his mother proud. Then it was time for the man who gave up everything for his daughter to make one last effort to save her. I've always known Anita as a very caring person, a person of integrity, and she just added a lot to all of our lives. I just appeal to you today.

To all of our lives, I just appeal to you today. Jessica Flores tells the judge that essentially Anita is a victim of domestic violence, and locking her away is not the answer. She's wanting to help other victims out there. Please help her to help other people. Robert, say hey, Steph. To Robert Klein's family, the repeated characterization of him as an abuser is repugnant. The reality is just the opposite, they say. Anita was the abuser, mentally and physically. She shot my dad. She killed my dad.

She deserves to get life in prison. A life for a life. With respect to the sentencing, 40 years total. 40 years. Anita will likely be in prison until she's at least 80 years old. Justice has absolutely been served in this case. I agree. Robert Klein can never come back. He can never hold his children.

How important was this moment to you and for the memory of your father? It was the most important one yet. To know that my dad's name would not be drug in the mud anymore. To let the real story show. Robert Klein's children were adopted by his sister Belinda. Anita's children are being raised by her first husband.

Now you be a juror. What's your verdict? Chat now on Twitter and Facebook.