Dateline NBC - Return to the Early Shift

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

When a Kentucky man is convicted of murdering his co-worker, it appears the mystery is solved until a stunning disclosure years later turns the closed case upside-down. Josh Mankiewicz reports on the new trial that had both sides of the courtroom bracing for what would come next. Originally aired on NBC on June 28, 2019.

I stood there in that hallway where that pool of blood was, where her office was. Whoever did this knew this facility and knew it well. A head-turning twist in the crime that stumped everyone from the start. Seven years. We're seeking justice for Michelle for almost seven years. A mom of two murdered at work. A lot of blood, a lot of trauma. There were pry marks on her office door. What was in that office that anybody would want?

That's the mystery. Tonight, a case blown apart when a secret relationship is revealed. I don't get a chance to explain it. You're not controlling this anymore. Exposing hidden bombshell evidence. He's on the property where a woman is murdered and we don't know who he is. Everybody on social media was like, that's the guy that did it. Who was in prison, the real killer or the wrong man? We still have a murderer out there.

You never know how something's going to go. A mother murdered, a family shattered. Would there be justice? I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with Return to the Early Shift. They call it the early shift for a reason. It was still an hour before dawn in this small town in northern Kentucky. And in a few hours, a local warehouse would become an anthill of activity as the first employees of the morning arrived. But who among them could predict that before the first coffee break that day, one of their co-workers would be dead? I just walked in our office and I think somebody killed somebody upstairs in her office. Okay, what makes you think somebody killed

somebody? She's laying there underground and there's blood all over. Impossible to believe in this tight-knit workplace where everyone knows everyone, but there was Michelle Mockbee, 42, wife and mother, face down in a pool of blood. The investigation that followed would peel the lid off an entire company and take a hard look at every employee who was there that morning. You know that your suspect is one of those people in the building. That's right. Probing for clues in the victim's

private life. The detective asked me if there was any trouble in their marriage. Eliminating suspect after suspect until there was one. And just when it seemed to be over, it wasn't. Did you have a sexual relationship with her? Are you denying that? I think it's any of your business. A scandal would scramble everything. You're not controlling this anymore. You're not the Commonwealth attorney right here. They say the wheels of justice turn slowly. In this case, the wheels came completely off, leaving a family wondering who would do the right thing for a kind and loving woman who went to work one morning and never came home. If you give Michelle Mockbee's siblings a chance to tell you about their sister,

they can't say enough good things about her. She was our big sister, our role model. Michelle was just the most amazing sister that you could ever ask for. Very loving, caring, giving person. She would do anything for anyone. She always had a big smile and her laughter was contagious. Michelle carried her positive spirit into the workplace. She was head of payroll at that warehouse owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a worldwide supplier of laboratory equipment. It was also where she met her husband, Dan Mockbee. What was she like? What drew you to her? Michelle was funny, attractive, intelligent. There was a vibrantness to her. I mean, she was beautiful.

It was at a Thermo Fisher Christmas party back in 1999 that Dan first summoned the courage to share his feelings with her. You've been thinking about Michelle? Oh, absolutely. He asked Michelle to stick with him that night, and she did. And then everything went sideways. And it was the worst date in the world. What went wrong? I don't know. I was totally off my game. I couldn't speak. But then I asked her out again, and she said yes.

Well, maybe you did something right. I must have. I don't know. Michelle and Dan married in 2001 and continued to work together at Thermo Fisher. Not long after came two daughters, Madeline and Carly. I remember she pretty much just said, be nice to people. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to be nice to people. Because she was nice to everybody. Yeah. Yeah, she was nice to everybody. Yeah, she was. She would always, like, play games with us in our backyard

and, like, take us to all these fun places. Yeah. She was just a fun person to be around. But even as busy parents, Dan and Michelle always planned a date night every other Monday. Memorial Day 2012 was no exception. How was she that night? Happy?

Absolutely. Normal? Normal. The next morning, Michelle got up to go to Thermo Fisher for the early morning shift. Dan had the day off and stayed home. She wakes me up, kisses me goodbye, says I love you, and went to work. And that was the last you saw of her? That was the last you saw of her? That was the last I saw of her.

At 5.53 a.m., a security camera captured Michelle's car as it arrived at the parking lot. She stopped by the warehouse's time clock and headed upstairs to her office. About an hour later, a supervisor named Ed Yuska noticed a big stain on the upstairs hallway carpet. He started looking around the area with help from a co-worker, the janitor, David Dooley. Ed went out on the mezzanine just part of the ways, and I was holding the door, and there was just a, he said there's a dead body laying there. What did it look like? I just saw from the knees down. I didn't see the whole thing, but honestly, I'm glad I didn't look because I'd never been around anything like that.

It was kind of frightening for me. Someone inside Thermo Fisher had killed Michelle Mockbee. But who? And just as puzzling, why? When we come back... What was in that office that anybody would want? That's the mystery. The hunt for a killer begins.

With each person I talk to, there's no evidence that they've been involved in anything. So if it's one of these people you're interviewing, they've disguised it well. They have. It was a horrible, bloody scene. Michelle Mockbee's battered body was on the floor of the mezzanine at the Thermo Fisher warehouse. A plastic bag over her head. When Boone County Sheriff's Detectives Bruce McVeigh and Everett Stahl arrived at the warehouse, they saw the bloodstains on the hallway carpet and concluded Michelle had been dragged around the corner from her office. The office itself was locked, but there were fresh pry marks on the door. It looked like

an attempted break-in. What was in that office that anybody would want? That's the mystery. While the detectives were trying to make sense of the crime scene, Michelle's husband Dan was still at home. Coworkers had started reaching out to him, but all they told him was there had been some kind of incident at the warehouse. And that's when I started getting nervous. Dan rushed to the warehouse. To detectives, he might have been the victim's loving husband or the perpetrator of an incredibly violent crime. Right now, they didn't know much. After he was escorted inside, Dan took the initiative with Detective Stahl. And I looked at him and I said, Excuse me, officer, my wife works here. I really need to know that she's all right.

And that's when he told me that she was deceased. His reaction was pretty excruciating to watch. I still had to press on, and I still had to move forward with my looking at him as a possible suspect. When police ask you where you were at the time your wife was killed... I was doing what most sensible people are doing at 6 o'clock in the morning if they don't have to get up and go to work. And I was sleeping. It's not a very good alibi, but it's the only one I had. Detectives asked Dan to go to the sheriff's station to take a lie detector test.

You agreed to take the polygraph? Yes, sir. That's a scary thing. Because if it goes wrong, all of a sudden there's a case against you. Right. It was nerve wracking. But Dan passed the polygraph, and for detectives, that was enough. Apparently this time, the husband didn't do it. With Dan cleared, detectives decided to focus on everyone who was at the warehouse that morning. It turned out 13 employees were working their regular shifts when Michelle was killed. Detectives interviewed all 13. With each person I talk to, there's no blood, there's no evidence that they've been involved in anything.

So if it's one of these people you're interviewing, they've disguised it well. They have. There was nothing suspicious about any of the 13 interviews. So detectives started methodically digging through other evidence, starting with Thermo Fisher's security camera footage. And right away, they spotted something unusual that happened the morning of the murder. A vehicle in the parking lot, not entering but leaving around the back of the building. Detectives matched the truck to its owner, David Dooley, the janitor, and one of the workers who'd found Michelle's body.

Dave Dooley's truck is seen leaving the parking lot at 6.31 that morning. Right after the murder. That's right. That's right. The security tape showed Dooley returning to the warehouse around 7 a.m. Detective McVeigh thought it was odd that Dooley hadn't mentioned that when they first spoke. They needed to speak with Dooley again, so they went to the apartment he shared with his wife Janet. And Dooley wasn't surprised to see them. I kind of figured it would happen just to do a follow-up.

Before Detective McVeigh even brought it up, Dooley told him he'd gone home the morning of the murder. McVeigh recorded their conversation. I came back here, and then I went back to the fishers. You came back here? I came back here, yeah. I couldn't get a hold of my wife, and I came home to make sure she was okay. Yesterday you didn't tell me you left. Why did you decide to leave?

I didn't think about that. Detective Stahl also questioned David's wife, Janet, separately to see if she would tell the same story. This conversation would prove critical to the entire case. What she said is in dispute because a part of the recording is hard to hear. When was the first time you saw Dave after he got home? When was the first time I saw him?

Yeah, yesterday after he came home. Yeah. I asked her specifically if Dave ever came home that morning, and she says no. To Stahl and McVeigh, Janet Dooley had just contradicted her husband's story. So police questioned her again about that apparent discrepancy. She told the other detective that he didn't come home that day. Janet seemed surprised. She told police that David did, in fact, come home. And the reason she offered raised more questions for investigators. He said he ripped another pair of pants.

So he had to come home with just a new pair of pants. Janet's statements were not helping her husband's cause. David Dooley never said anything about ripped pants to police. Adding to the confusion, detectives spoke with Thermo Fisher employee Joe Siegert, who told them he talked with Dooley that morning. According to Joe, he made a point to come over to him and say, hey man, I had to go home because I ripped my pants. Dooley was adamant he never said that to Siegert and did not rip his pants that day.

But the differing stories about why he came home placed a bullseye squarely on David Dooley's back. We started working on a search warrant for the residence and for the truck. You execute those search warrants and you find bloody clothing? No bloody clothing. Stuff taken from the crime scene that shouldn't be at his house? No. Some kind of murder weapon? No bloody clothing. Stuff taken from the crime scene that shouldn't be at his house? No. Some kind of murder weapon? No.

No bloody clothes. No weapon. But David Dooley was the only employee who left the warehouse on the morning Michelle Mockbee was killed. And there were witnesses contradicting Dooley's account of why he left that morning. On September 27, 2012, the Boone County Sheriff's Department made its move. David Dooley was arrested and charged with the murder of his co-worker, Michelle Mockbee. Case closed? Not by a long shot. The David Dooley trial would expose secrets,

tarnish the reputation of law enforcement, and have Michelle's family question if justice would ever be served. Coming up... David Dooley was in the middle of breaking into her office when she came up the steps and surprised him. A break-in? What was he after? That feels like a thin motive. Sometimes desperate people do desperate things. When Dateline continues. Michelle Mockbee's favorite color had always been red. Since her death, her family has worn red in her honor. And that's what they did in October 2014, when they flowed into this Kentucky courthouse for David Dooley's trial. On May the 29th of 2012, Dan Mochte lost the love of his life. And two little girls lost their mom at the hands of a man who couldn't even keep his story straight

from one day to the next. Prosecutor Linda Talley-Smith knew she didn't have a perfect case. There were no fingerprints, no DNA. So she told jurors they wouldn't hear about any smoking gun. But they would hear David Dooley's own words, which had made him the last man standing in the detective's process of elimination. It was through this process that the path kept turning back to one person, the defendant, David Dooley. Jurors heard that almost all the employees working on the morning of the murder were on the warehouse floor, far away from the

upstairs office area where Michelle was killed. They were eliminated as suspects. We were able to create a time record of where everybody was and what they were doing at different points during the morning. And where was David Dooley? There's a red pickup truck. The jury got to see Dooley on security video from that morning. The defendant actually left that building that day at 6 31 a.m which was about a half an hour after Michelle walked into the building. The prosecutor showed the jury a photo of those fresh pry marks on Michelle's office door and said they were a crucial clue that helped explain the murder. Our belief has always been that David Dooley was in the middle of breaking into her office when she came up the steps and surprised him.

And ultimately she was assaulted and restrained. Because she was a witness to a crime in progress. Absolutely. The medical examiner said Michelle was bludgeoned with something similar to an industrial packing tape gun. So then after such a violent attack, why was no blood evidence ever found on David Dooley? And why wasn't any of the DNA found at the scene a match to his? The prosecutor argued the janitor worked every day with cleaning supplies and plastic bags, together perfect for removing evidence of a crime. At the time David Dooley attacked Michelle in that hallway, what did he

have with him? A rolling crime scene cleanup cart with a trash bag in the middle of it. It's my personal belief that when he left that building, he took with him a bag containing all of the evidence that was missing from the scene. A cover-up so spotless, only a janitor could manage it, said the prosecutor. It was only his story, she said, that was a mess. It's very hard for a person to explain how they can't tell the same story twice. And in these circumstances, we had four separate statements from him. Detective McVeigh testified it was only in Dooley's second interview at his apartment that Dooley first mentioned leaving work and going home.

And I came back here. Okay, what time did you come back here? 6.30. I couldn't get a hold of my wife, and I came home to make sure she was okay. His wife Janet said David did come home to change a pair of ripped pants. He had to come home and just, you know, grab a pair of pants. It sounds like an alibi, except David Dooley adamantly denied doing that. I never said that.

Okay, you didn't rip your pants? No. Okay. When defense attorneys Chris Roach and Tom Pugh got their turn, they talked about all the hard evidence the state didn't have. DNA evidence, murder weapon, blood evidence, marks on David Dooley. Dooley never testified in front of the jury, but he did talk to Dateline about the case against him

and his story that differed from his wife's. You say you went home to check on your wife. They talked to your wife, and she says he came home because he tore his pants, and he came home to change his pants. So what's the truth, and why can't you and your wife agree on the same story? We do agree that I came home. Did you go home to change your pants? No, I did not.

Why would your wife say that you did? I do not know. We've talked about that a couple of times. And the only thing we can come up with is she didn't hear me properly. Janet Dooley has serious hearing problems. And on the day of the murder, she says she only saw a pair of ripped pants in the house and thought David said that's why he came home. So a person that cannot hear,

they put things together themselves through their eyes. And I did. Dave didn't change his clothes and Dave didn't change his story. The defense also stressed that DNA was found on Michelle's body and belongings in at least five different places. And none of that was a conclusive match to David Dooley or anyone else. We heard testimony that there were many unknown DNA profiles. Could one of these unknown profiles have been the killer? The defense noted that something had set off the warehouse alarm system just three days before the murder. And you think that's significant?

Yeah. Yeah, that's significant? Yeah. Yeah, it's significant. That means that someone could have gained access to Thermo Fisher. After both sides had presented their cases, it was time for closing arguments. No one could think of any reason to kill Michelle Mockbee. So what motive would David Dooley have to kill Michelle Mockbee? But it was only after the defense had wrapped up its closing that the prosecutor gave her answer to that question, laying out her theory of motive for the first time. I would suggest to you that the evidence is right in that stack of stuff over there. You have time cards.

You have invoices. All kept in Michelle's office. You think the motive was the time cards. You have invoices. All kept in Michelle's office. You think the motive was the time cards? Yes. I believe that Michelle had actually discovered the fact that he had actually been triple dipping by clocking himself in, clocking his wife in, and getting paid hourly to do a job that they were already being paid a monthly salary to do. That feels like a thin motive. Sometimes desperate people do desperate things. Was David Dooley desperate enough to commit murder over falsified time cards? It would be up to the jury to decide. Coming up. We the jury. A verdict from the jury. But the real stunner was what came after.

So I don't get a chance to explain it? You're not controlling this anymore. A prosecutor turned witness and a case turned upside down. They lie, they cheat, and that's what they do. After waiting a full day without hearing a verdict, Michelle Mockby's siblings were on pins and needles. When the first day comes and goes and there's no verdict, you guys worried at all? No.

Stressed. Yeah, it was pretty agonizing waiting. Then, after deliberating for some 16 hours over two days, word came from the jury. There was a verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, David Dooley, guilty of murder under instruction. Guilty for the murder of Michelle Mockbee. Did you have anything to do with the death of Michelle Mockbee?

No, I did not. I did not kill her. David Dooley was sentenced to life in prison. He filed an appeal. You know getting convictions reversed on appeal is a long shot. But when you're innocent, it does happen. And it will happen. Dooley was right. It wasn't over.

Two years after his conviction, a whistleblower came forward to reveal a secret romance between Detective Bruce McVeigh and Prosecutor Linda Talley-Smith. The scandal rocked the prosecutor's office and would lead to serious questions about David Dooley's conviction. Brian Hamrick covered the scandal for NBC's Cincinnati affiliate, WLWT. All of the information about the personal conversations between the prosecutor, Linda Talley-Smith, and the lead detective, Bruce McVeigh,

all of their correspondence, all of that comes out. The jaw-dropping headlines said the affair between the prosecutor and the lead detective began weeks after the trial. At a hearing in March of 2017, the prosecutor and the detective, both instrumental in putting Dooley behind bars, found themselves on the hot seat, being grilled by Dooley's new attorney, Deanna Dennison. Are you telling me you didn't have a sexual relationship with her? We were friends.

You're under oath. We were friends. Did you have a sexual relationship with her? Are you denying that? I think it's any of your business. I'm asking you to answer. You're under oath. She'll testify. She'll say. Tell me what it is your answer is. I just said yes. Okay. Thanks. Simple.

Let's talk about this letter. It was a sensational courtroom drama. But the issue for the Dooley trial wasn't the affair. It was an 18-page letter in which the prosecutor blasted the detective, who was by then her former lover, as an outright liar, both personally and professionally. She ended up reading her own scathing words into the court record. Now that I know what a complete liar you are, I am going to grapple with ethical issues with every case in which you were involved. She said she was upset because McVeigh didn't tell her what was on a Thermo Fisher security video that he'd come across. Dooley's attorney continued reading from her letter. Not to mention the fact

that you allowed me to go through a complete effing murder trial without telling me the truth about that video. And now that I know it, what the eff am I going to do now? What the eff am I supposed to do now? Right. That one message from Linda Talley Smith to Bruce McVeigh really tells the story, doesn't it? Yeah, and that may be the most damning paragraph of the entire trove of information. He says 8, 11 p.m., random dude. The video in question shows a man outside the Thermo Fisher building. Police call him the random dude. It's a little hard to tell exactly what he's doing, but he's on the property where a woman is murdered brutally 10 hours later,

and we don't know who he is. The prosecutor said the defense was given this video, but defense attorneys say they never saw it and were never told about the random dude. That would have been in our closing. I mean, our whole defense was he didn't do it. So if we can point to unknown individuals that were trying to gain access to the building, that would definitely have been used. Remember, Callie Smith said she didn't know about the man on the video during the trial,

but finally learned about him from McVeigh afterwards. But then, she did nothing. She didn't go to the judge. She didn't go to the attorney general. And she didn't go to the defense either. She wrote a letter to Bruce McVeigh saying, how could you do this to me? And I get to live with the worry that someone on the defense side will find it at some point and they will all wind up in trouble over it and the entire case will be tainted because of it. You wrote that?

I did write that. In defense of her actions, Tally Smith testified she subsequently calmed down and never sent that letter. And besides, she said, the video with the random dude was much ado about nothing. It doesn't constitute any evidence that someone got in that building. Would it have changed anything about the case? No, absolutely not. For his part, McVeigh said he didn't tell the prosecutor about the video because he was confident the random dude wasn't the killer. But after hearing the testimony, the judge threw out David Dooley's conviction.

It was a stunning development, setting the stage for a new trial. David Dooley would remain behind bars in the interim. Dave found out and then he called me in. Of course, he was crying. He was relieved that finally he's going to get a second chance to prove his innocence. We still have a murderer out there, but I'm not going to shut up until Dave comes home. Janet Dooley was confident her husband would be found not guilty in a new trial because Detective McVeigh's credibility was compromised after the prosecutor branded him a liar. They lie, they cheat, they win, and that's what they do.

Michelle's sisters said they were frustrated by the judge's decision, but it didn't change their minds about David Dooley's guilt. After everything that's come out, you think they got the right guy? We absolutely think they have the right guy. We have no doubt about that at all. Nothing that's happened since the trial, nothing in the appeal, has made you think maybe the jury was wrong? No. Michelle was just, she deserves justice.

I mean, she deserves all this to be, we all deserve all this to be over with. Seven long years after Michelle Mockbee was killed, both sides had to brace themselves for a new trial. Coming up, a new prosecutor with a

powerful new case. Where are his boots? Missing boots, a suspicious screwdriver, and those time cards. They've never been found, so there are missing time cards. Exactly two. When Dateline continues. As the second trial approached, Michelle Mockbee's daughter Madeline could see it weighing on her father. He had a little bit of closure, and then the second trial comes,

and everything's just wiped back out. While Michelle's family was bracing for another trial, a lot had changed. Prosecutor Linda Talley-Smith had lost her re-election bid and was now a potential witness. So the Kentucky Attorney General's Office and Assistant AG John Heck took over the case. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury. With every case that I take, I review it and I ask myself, is this person beyond all doubt guilty? Whoever did this was familiar with that facility. Then you say, well, who was there?

And then whoever did it had to have left. Who left? Now we're down to one person. As for the video that showed the unidentified man approaching the warehouse's side door, Heck offered an explanation for why the so-called random dude didn't matter. Knowing that this is what got the new trial granted, we wanted to hit that head on. What that man did actually was throw something in the garbage can

right beside the door. That guy was never identified? Never identified. For heck, the heart of the case was that David Dooley was the only one to leave the warehouse that morning. This was a bloody, violent murder. They would be covered in blood. There were no bloody clothes found on the scene. Whoever did it left, and when you looked at the video camera, he's the only one who left. One of the things that could have been covered in blood, Dooley's steel-toed work boots, required footwear at the warehouse. Heck told the jury Dooley might well have gotten rid of his boots to cover up the crime. Where are his boots?

They searched his house, his garage, his feet, his truck, and these were never found. So, did Dooley leave work to check on his wife or to get rid of bloody evidence? David Dooley's statement was that he went home to check on his wife. Right. You don't believe that? No. He wasn't texting saying, how are you doing? And she wasn't texting back saying, I'm feeling bad.

That communication never happened. David Dooley did place one unanswered phone call to his wife that morning before going home. To Heck, if Dooley was really concerned about his wife, he would have called more than once. Heck also found Janet and David Dooley's conflicting stories suspicious. But it's her version of the story that sort of you find more interesting? Yes, because she's essentially covering up for a criminal. Remember the disputed audio of Janet Dooley talking to investigators the day after the murder? Janet Dooley denies ever saying her husband didn't come home that morning, and she accuses detectives of manipulating her words and ignoring her hearing problems.

But Heck points to another interview with Detective Stahl several weeks later, in which Janet seems to admit saying her husband never came home. I've been spending the last few days reviewing all of the interviews that we've done with you and I said when Dave left for work that morning when is the very first time that you saw him after he left for work and you said when you guys let him go that afternoon that's how I remembered it so the second time they went over her first statement with her and said, you told us this, this, and this. And she said, yep, that's how I remembered it.

She said the exact same thing, and that is that David Dooley did not come home. Prosecutor Heck acknowledges not knowing exactly why David Dooley would have wanted to break into Michelle's office and why he would have killed her. But to Heck, the fact that David Dooley was double-dipping on time cards, and that Michelle handled payroll, and that the Dooley's time cards from that week were never found, were together just all too suspicious to ignore. As we sit here today, we have never found David and Janet Dooley's time cards from that week.

Just, they've never been found. So thereley's time cards from that week. Just, they've never been found. So there are missing time cards. Exactly two. Would Michelle have had those with her that morning because she was coming in to do payroll? She may have gathered them up. She may have. And Heck emphasized a screwdriver was found in David Dooley's locked janitor's closet. A screwdriver the same size and with similar markings as the pry marks on Michelle Mockbee's

office. What are the odds that in this situation, this screwdriver is a different screwdriver? The screwdriver, like much of the case, was circumstantial. Heck's response, there was simply too much circumstantial evidence to ignore. At some point, a coincidence is not a coincidence. At some point, it's just overwhelming evidence of guilt. Now, after years of waiting

for their second chance at a trial, David Dooley's defense team was ready to make their case. And at the top of their list of alternate suspects was Michelle's husband. No alibi. The police didn't even bother to take his phone. Coming up, new questions about Michelle's husband and all that insurance money. $409,000 of cash withdrawals. Could he be paying somebody? I don't know. What would the verdict be this time?

Right away, your heart just starts pounding. Yeah, I was terrified. David Dooley had waited five years for a second chance in court. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, David Dooley did murder Michelle Markey. His new attorneys, Deanna Dennison and Jeff Lawson, were eager to present their new evidence to a jury. There was some new evidence, of course, that random person that we wanted to introduce. Rules of evidence prevented defense attorneys from introducing Linda Talley Smith's letters in court, the ones where she accused Detective McVeigh of being a liar. But what they did have this time around was the random dude video that had led to the overturned conviction.

We have an entire first trial on this case that's conducted on the fact that this was a fairly secure building. What the walking man shows is that that's not true. To the defense, that random dude was just one of the alternate suspects ignored by detectives. Every single thing that was done from the moment that they saw that David left on that surveillance tape was in an effort to convict David as opposed to make sure that they had the right person. The defense brought up other warehouse employees who they said were not thoroughly investigated. They focused on Michelle's husband Dan and the money he received from Michelle's life insurance policy. We started seeing cash withdrawals, $10,000, $20,000, $12, Dan, and the money he received from Michelle's life insurance policy.

We started seeing cash withdrawals, $10,000, $20,000, $12,000, $14,000. All of which suggests what? Well, suggests that something's wrong. $409,000 of cash withdrawals. Could he be paying somebody? I don't know. I mean, that feels like you're throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Because it's all reasonable doubt. Prosecutors, detectives, and Michelle's family all agree that Dan Mockbee had nothing to do with his wife's murder. And on the stand, he said as much. Did you have anything to do with hiring somebody to kill your wife? Absolutely not. The defense also questioned

the state's theory of motive. You don't dispute that David Dooley was stealing. No, we don't. We don't. We think that that he was. Yes. You don't think he'd kill to cover that up? No, no, no, absolutely not. Even though it would have meant loss of his job and maybe loss of his wife's job. So we're going to kill somebody? No. It had nothing to do with covering up a theft, a theft which we don't even know she knew about. I mean, the way she was bludgeoned, that's not from somebody just, oh, shoot, she found out about it. You're going to spend the time to tape her legs up and drag her all over the place? I don't think so. And remember the steel-toed boots that the prosecution said were never found? The defense said Dooley's work boots were found, shown here in evidence photos.

They weren't steel-toed, but the defense said Dooley wasn't the only one to violate the footwear rules at Thermo Fisher. In her closing argument, Deanna Dennison emphasized the circumstantial nature of the case against David Dooley. It's not a question of, did he maybe do it? Did he probably do it? Or could he have done it? Oh, maybe by process of elimination, he's the only one that could have done it. That's not the standard.

The standard is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it. And they have not shown that to you. Now, once again, the case was in the hands of a jury. This time, it took seven hours. Somebody said they have a verdict. So right away, your heart just starts pounding. I was terrified going upstairs to sit in the courtroom. We, the jury, find the defendant, David Dooley, guilty of murder under instruction number four. For the second time, David Dooley was convicted of murdering Michelle Mockbee. What did your client say afterward? Oh, no, not again. Michelle's siblings had a very different reaction. When they read that guilty, it was just, just felt everything just, bam, release. Lots of tears. Lots of tears. Lots of hugs. At the end of

the day, this is a guilty man, and the jury rightfully found him guilty. David Dooley maintains his innocence and remains silent at his second sentencing. And he still says, I'm not going to confess to something I didn't do. Even if it means that this judge could change my sentence, could give me a lower sentence. Never going to admit to something that never happened. It's been years since Michelle's death, but she's still part of her daughter's lives. Madeline and Carly say it's the little things that remind them of their mom. Bon Jovi will come on the radio and we'll think, like,

oh, our mom liked all that kind of music and would go to all kinds of concerts. She was just a fun person. Everything I know about your mom makes me think that she wouldn't have wanted you in a courtroom. She wouldn't have wanted you to hear about a murder trial. She wouldn't have wanted any of this to touch you at all. No. No, she would just want us to be, like, happy. Yeah.

And maybe she'll finally get her wish? Yeah. Yes. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.