Dateline NBC - The Figure in the House

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

After a woman is found murdered in her South Florida home, her son tells investigators that footage from the home’s security camera could hold the key to finding a killer. Dennis Murphy reports.

Tonight, on Dateline. The victim was on the floor of the bathroom with multiple stab wounds. The son is the one who called 911. Oh, my God, my mom. I remember seeing my dad just breaking down and crying. There'd been a party in the house. Correct. It's upwards of like 20 kids. Maybe one of my friends might have had something to do with it.

That folding knife you found belonged to the son. There were facts that are weird. I didn't do anything, though. Yes, you did. You killed your mother. No, I didn't. I didn't. The lab results come back, and the DNA gives you a name?

Yes. I had quite an extensive history. All of his burglary MOs fit this case. All of a sudden, we hear that somebody escaped from the courthouse. He's got a crew helping him. This is Ocean's Eleven stuff. Yeah.

I think my words were, are you kidding me? As you're going back to a natural verdict... I'm like, what am I doing? This is not right. This is your verdict. No. 35 years, I've never had that happen. This family desperately needed closure.

I just remember shaking uncontrollably. You're about to be thrust into a heartbreaking mystery. A mother murdered, her son accused, and it would take two trials to find the truth. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Dennis Murphy with The Figure in the House. Drive half an hour west from the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and you're in cowboy country. Boots, hats, and line dancing. At least Davie, Florida likes to think of itself as the old west.

But really, you'd have to squint to remember that era. The dairy farms that once ran all the way to the Everglades are mostly gone. Cows and horses made way for gated communities plotted with multi-million dollar homes. And in one of those nice gated homes lived 20-year-old Justin Su, his mom Jill, and his dad, Nan Yao, a professor. A home that would turn into a scene out of a bad slasher movie. All that blood.

All those wounds. It happened on September 8, 2014, the night before Justin's parents had returned from a trip to Malaysia. The next morning, his dad shook off the jet lag and headed to his office at the local campus of the University of Florida. He's an entomologist, a bug guy. Justin's mom slept in but was up when Justin left the house around 9.30 that morning. My mother was in the living room in her pink robe, and she was reading a book, and I said, see you when I get home from work.

Justin also worked part-time at the University of Florida as a professor's assistant. Shortly after noon, he got a call from his father. And the first thing he asked me was, are you home right now? Like, are you home? I'm like, no, I'm at work. The reason for the call, from his office, Justin's dad had seen something unusual on a remote security camera. I just saw something weird. Can you go home and check, like, what's up? The camera just went out at the house. And I'm like, yeah, okay, no problem. Justin's dad, Nan Yao.

Around 12, 15, I thought maybe I should check the camera to see if it's still working or not. So the camera's kind of been flickering and then a reliability, and you wanted to see what was going on? Yeah. The camera was in his house near the kitchen. What he saw, and it wasn't much more than a glimpse, was a live feed image of a figure in the house.

He walking from the kitchen toward the breakfast area and disappear from the view of the camera. And next thing I know is I lost my image. He thought the figure might be his son. But if it wasn't Justin, who was it? When he called his wife Jill and she didn't pick up, he became

alarmed. I remember I sped home from my dad telling me to go check out what's going on because the cameras are out. Within 15 minutes, he'd arrived. The son went in through the garage and passed the dog snoozing in the hallway. Just outside the kitchen, he checked out the first security camera. And I see a camera ripped out.

I don't see the camera, but I see the wire that's connected to it. It has been messed with, huh? It's just dangling from the thing. And I'm thinking, why is my mom going crazy? Why is she ripping out the camera? Is she okay? You thought your mom accounted for the camera dangling. Yeah. I mean, that makes the most sense, because the only other person inside the house is my mother. The living room cam? The same. Gone too, just dangling wires.

He made his way to his bedroom where he says he saw right away something was off. Someone had been in his stuff. Justin, an avid hunter and diver, was a knife collector. Blades were missing. Now he says he could hear water running in his parents' bathroom. And there it was. The bathtub red to the rim with blood, his mother's body floating. Her head is down, so her face is just inside this bathtub that is completely to the top, full of hot, bloody water. When you see something so horrific, there aren't words to comprehend.

He thought immediately of his father and called him. I'm like, I think mom killed herself. That's just the most, at the time, the most rational thing to think. He says, hang up, call 911. I remember saying, oh my oh, my God, no. Like, something just absolute pure panic in his voice. I call 911. What is your emergency?

Mom! My mom killed herself! Okay. A suicide. That's what he reported to both his father and 911. I thought my mother killed herself at that point. My name? Yes.

Justin, too. Oh, my God, my mom. Oh, my God. You've been on the phone with me, Justin. Are you with me? You lifted her out of the tub? Yeah, I lifted her out of the tub. I had blood all over my body.

I started doing compressions on her CPR, something like that. You weren't getting flutters of anything? Yeah. She was so very foggy and gone. I remember after doing that, just pure shock, just absolute terror. And that's when he realized he'd gotten it all very wrong. Still on the line with the dispatcher, but now changing his story. He saw that his mother was bound and now told the 911 people that this wasn't a suicide at all. It had to be a murder.

I'm looking at her hands now, and like, her legs, and I realize they're bound. They're tied. Then it starts to click. I think somebody killed my mother. Somebody who'd bound her hands with a cloth belt, her feet with an electrical cord, then slashed away in a frenzy, stabbing her more than 20 times. Davy police were on their way to secure the scene. Detectives followed and would soon be rolling their eyes in disbelief.

How could the son have thought this was a suicide? Weren't the multiple stab wounds apparent? And investigators would learn something else. The victim's maiden name was Halliburton, and she went by Jill Halliburton Sue. She was the descendant of a rich and prominent family in the American oil business. So there was an early theory to run down. Maybe Jill Halliburton Sue had been so brutally murdered for her money. It was way too soon to know. A crime scene that would horrify even hardened homicide detectives

and leave a son shattered. When we come back. I remember sitting down in the grass and there's some mulch right next to me. I just started punching it like screaming. Those same detectives would soon have some tough questions for young Justin. That folding knife you found, I understand, belonged to the son, is that right? Belonged to the son, yes, sir. Are you going to be able to forget that scene? Never. That woman in the bathroom?

Never. That was probably one of the most horrific scenes that I've ever worked in my 28 years. When veteran Davey homicide detective Paul Williams arrived at the Sioux home, he wasn't sure whether he had a homicide or a suicide. It had been called in both ways. Officers pointed out the young man sitting in the grass as the son. He had found the victim. I remember sitting down in the grass, and there's some mulch right next to me. And I just remember looking at it and just started punching it, like just banging and stuff like that, screaming.

EMTs tried to calm him down. A few minutes later, his dad drove up. And I saw Justin sitting there, and I tried to give him a hug. He's totally in a state of shock. But immediately, police come to me and say, you can't get near him. You two have to separate. You can't get near your own son?

No. I really wanted to give him a hug. They would not let me do that. Nan Yao may not have realized it, but this was the first signal that police were looking at Justin as a possible suspect. Meanwhile, Detective Williams got a fill-in on what had already been found that was of interest. At the front entry to the house, a folding knife had been recovered

with what looked like a trace of blood. And that folding knife you found, I understand, belonged to the son, is that right? Belonged to the son, yes, sir. Interesting fact to tuck away. You try and figure out what's happened here. Yeah, it was definitely, it went sideways. Had the killer dropped the knife while pursuing his

victim through the house? It looked that way. Out back, officers noted a breach in the glass door on the porch, smallish like the size of a pet door. If this had been a crime committed by an intruder, is that how they got in? The horror show was in the main bathroom. It was grotesquely not a suicide. Did the scene speak to you yet? Do you know what had happened here? It seemed to be a pretty violent attack. It also seemed to me very early on that she put up a fight because of the disarray the front doorway was in,

and also for her defensive wounds that were on her hands from the stabbing. Detective Williams couldn't examine the tub yet because it was still full of blood. But when it was drained, they found two things of major interest. At the bottom of the tub, beneath the victim's body, was a large hunting knife. They learned it had been a gift from mother to son. They also found destroyed security electronics, the alarm box from the house. The knife, the alarm panel box,

and some other items that were in there. Got thrown into the bathtub. Thrown in there, yes, sir. There was no trace of the two missing security cameras. It was clear to the detectives that the house had been tossed, rummaged through, drawers flung open. Jill had been a kind of neo-hippie and not really big, unexpensive pieces of jewelry. To the investigators' experienced eyes, this didn't look like a home invasion gone wrong. It looked staged and amateurishly.

Is there a distinction in your mind, detective, between a perpetrator who comes with murder on their mind as opposed to somebody who's trying to get into a house, steal some jewelry, and then has a violent event. Definitely a big distinction. And that plays into the victimology. She was a well-respected member of the community, had no enemies that we found, very wealthy family, well-to-do, worked for a bunch of charitable organizations, just a really, really great lady. And to use a knife, multiple stab wounds.

Are you talking about this is somebody taking it personal? Personal or in a fit of rage. Usually when somebody breaks into a home and you're a burglar, you don't rise to that level of violent attacks. While the crime scene techs took photos, collected prints, and swabbed for DNA, it was time for the detectives to learn more about the Su family. Nanyao and Jill first met in Japan, where she was an exchange student and he was teaching. He eventually left to do a Ph.D. in the States, and Jill left to travel in Southeast Asia.

About two years later, he was thrilled when he got a postcard from her. She was in Thailand. There she was volunteering, helping the Cambodian refugee escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide. I was really moved when I see that. She was there for two years. What does that experience tell us about Jill? She always want to do something she can do to help those who need help. When Jill returned to the States, the two eventually married. This is Amanda. She was just handed to me a minute ago. Adopting daughter Mandy, she lives in

Kentucky. Justin came along about three years later. And the years that followed were good to the couple. Give it up for Justin. Jill, a dedicated mom, still found time to continue her life's passion for volunteer work. When she first came back to the States, she again worked with refugees from Southeast Asia. Years later, she volunteered to make audio tapes for the blind, reading books and magazines. A master in feng shui was consulted. This is her reading an excerpt from a national magazine article. It's turn of the century America with a Chinese overlay. This is all very Jill. Yes, and that's the part I fell in love with. The Su family was very close,

but in the last few months there had been tensions. Justin had dropped out of college. His father was upset with him, and there were even arguments with his mother, Jill. The cops were, of course, alert to the maybe important fact that Jill had that prominent maiden name. She was a Halliburton. Her great-uncle, Earl Halliburton. Her great-uncle Earl Halliburton

had once been among the richest people in America. His wealth didn't come from oil wells, but from developing and improving the process to extract oil from the ground. This is the origins of the Texas oil field work, Halliburton Industries. Yes, yes. I didn't know at that time what a Halliburton is all about,

to be honest, when I first met her. Turns out when Earl Halliburton died, oil rights were distributed to all family members. But it was parceled out so widely, little trickled down to Jill, or to her daughter Mandy, or her son Justin. You being a Halliburton, low those many generations down the line, does that make you a rich kid? Nope. Did they send you a nice royalty check? Yep, for about $13. Termites, not oil fields, paid the bills. 30 years ago, Nanyao developed termite traps used widely today, and that allowed his family to live comfortably. The night before the murder, the Suze had returned from that trip to Malaysia where the renowned

entomologist was lecturing. After that exhausting travel, Jill decided she'd sleep in while her husband went to work. You go to work and then your life is changed. Oh, it's a nightmare. Murdered in her own home. Yeah. But now things were going to get a little uncomfortable.

It was time for the detective to take the father and son down to the station house for what would be an exhaustive interrogation. There'd be lots of questions for the son about life at home and where exactly he was when the murder took place. Coming up... Why, man? Oh, why'd I lie to you? An early lie caught. Detectives don't like lies. So you want to start coming clean?

This is your only f***ing opportunity. Oh my God. When Dateline continues. Just hours after finding his mother stabbed to death in a bloody bathtub, 20-year-old Justin Su, the son, found himself in a Davie, Florida, police interview room trying to explain what had become a tangled story. You can't say, look, I am the grieving, freaked-out son here. That's what I... Who just found this. What are we talking about?

I was going through mental hell. And it was about to get hotter. Detectives always start investigating with the inner circle of family and work their way out. And in this case, Justin was the one who found her and made that confusing 911 call. At a mobile command post parked at the house, Justin had been directed to remove his clothes and photos were taken of his body. He was then given a white jumpsuit.

Now at police headquarters, detectives look more closely for any bruising, signs of a struggle or fight. I'm just going to check your neck area and stuff. One of the worst things about the whole situation that still is a horrible memory for me is I still had the blood of my mother on my chest. Justin cooperated, answered the detectives' questions, and never asked for a

lawyer. He told detectives that around 9.30 that morning, he drove to the local community college, then returned home after his father's call around 12.30 in the afternoon. He walked the detectives through the same story you've already heard. Him coming home to find the security cameras ripped out, the knife collection in his bedroom vandalized, then of course hearing the running bath water and finding what he found in his parents' bathroom. But the tone of the interview was quickly going from good cop, bad cop to bad cop, bad cop. A lot of the stuff that we talked about earlier, the stuff you told us, doesn't make sense.

What do you mean? The second we sat down to talk to you, you lied to us. About what? Justin had an early on problem with his story and it had to do with his whereabouts. When his father called him, he told him a slightly different story than he was now telling police. He told his dad he was working at the University of Florida, but that wasn't true. So you want to start coming clean? This is your only f***ing opportunity. Oh my God.

Do you understand? What? What did I say to my dad? I lied to my dad. I told him I was going to work. He told detectives he was in the library of the community college where he was taking classes. Turned out, that wasn't true either. What if you're not in the library? Then where were you? In my car. What were you doing in your car?

Sleeping. Be honest with me. Did you stay in your car sleeping, or did you go to the library? I say that, okay, I'm sorry, I said that too. You f***ing lied about that too. Because I don't want to see that kid. Justin said he was concerned how his father would react to the news of him sleeping in the car. And for good reason.

When Justin dropped out of college, it was a huge disappointment to his parents. Living at home now, his dad insisted Justin get a job and go to school part-time. Embarrassed he was doing neither that day, Justin feared the anticipated arguments back home later. He even thought that perhaps his mother had had enough, prompting his first thoughts that she had killed herself. Our lives have just been a lot worse since I moved back, and we got into a lot of fights in between this and that, and so that's why when I first saw her, I was like, why would you do, why could you do this to us? Like, why did you leave us? That's why I thought she was, I thought she committed suicide. The word suicide, I don't think would come out of most people's mouths if they found a loved one bound.

Problem number one for Justin, 911 call saying, my mother killed herself, I'm looking at a suicide victim. Correct. Detectives zeroed in on those knives found at the crime scene. One was found with Jill in the bathtub and the other outside the front door. Both were Justin's. He was an avid knife collector. Does that make you wonder? Yeah, sure.

I mean, that's another thing that we later found out that the knives actually came from his room. But Justin said a stranger must have broken into the house and taken his knives. Detectives questioned how likely was that. Supposedly by what you're saying, they went into your room, specifically got your knives, and I guess possibly used that to kill your mom, right? That's what you said? Right. And then there was a puzzling story about a third knife. Justin said he took it from his car for protection as he first went into the home.

Where is it now? In the car. Why is it in the car? I don't know. So after finding his mom dead in the bathtub, why would he go back outside and put that knife in his car? The detective's reaction? Nonsense. They pressed him. He finally admitted he lied. Again. Homicide cops don't like to be lied to.

Why, man? Oh, why did I lie to you? Why did I say the thing about that pocket knife? I just wanted to look like I was being safe. But Justin stuck to his theory that an unknown assailant broke into the house with the intent to rob. Detectives saw it another way. Perhaps he and his mom had argued and fought, and Justin tried to cover it up by making it look like a robbery.

My mom was murdered, for God's sakes! I found her dead! I found her! I had to live with that! Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you guys are thinking I did it? Yeah. Yes. You didn't wake up saying, oh, I'm gonna kill my mom today. You didn't wake up saying, oh, I'm going to kill my mom today.

But when it happened, s*** hit the fan. You really didn't. You were racing to f***ing cover this s*** up to make it look like a robbery. And it was a bad attempt. Bad attempt, too, they said, in pointing to the opening in the back door where Justin said someone broke in. It was small. Too small, detectives said, for a grown man to squeeze through. I guess you're thinking that you're going to tell two, you know, nobodies, hey, this

was a robbery, check it out, and we're going to go salivating over a door that no one could even fit through. You really think that's how that works? Yeah, because I'd never seen a f***ing robbery before. Listen, a kindergarten kid could have done a better job. You're a smart kid, but you screwed up. Why the hell would I murder my mom in the middle of this? I don't see why. I love my mommy.

I want her to be alive. I want her to be alive. Detectives weren't done. They had more questions, both for Justin and his dad. Oh, my God. Please. done, they had more questions, both for Justin and his dad. He was in the room next door, heard the yelling, and now he too was about to be confronted. Coming up, was it Justin his father saw on the surveillance camera? I think it's a male. Okay.

Like a skinny. And they said, said oh your son is skinny and tall and a stunning turn would your dad frame you i guess he already did just why did you do it? That's all. And do you even feel bad that it happened? That's all. That's all I want to know. The questioning of Justin's suit started in the afternoon. Robberies don't happen like this, man. And by the early morning hours, detectives were still at it.

I saw where the body was. I pulled it literally out from the, like, like that. Occasionally, detectives left Justin to talk to his father next door or check with other investigators about leads they were pursuing. So far, they weren't buying his story.

Please let me out! And there were spells, sometimes long ones, when Justin was left alone. Oh, my God, I'm freaking out in here, man. What's happening? What are you hearing? What do you see? When we leave the room, he's talking to himself.

He's screaming and yelling profanities inside the room. He's obviously not comfortable with the fact of where we were pushing him to. Oh, my God. Oh, my Mommy. I'm going to go postal, man. I keep on thinking I see my mom's face. I see my mom's face. I can't think of anything else when I'm in here.

I just want to be out of here. From the next room, Justin's father, Nan Yao Su, could hear his son's pain. That's good, man. That's good. The yelling. Why are you doing this to me? The cursing. The banging on walls. He was begging them to get him out. It was God's wrenching for me as a father. Of course, investigators also had questions for Justin's father. Remember, he first became worried about his wife when he was at his office and logged in to view remotely the home security cameras.

He saw someone on camera. I saw this figure coming in. His face is covered with some kind of fabric, maybe a mask. The only thing I can saw is his head and lower part of the face is covered with something white. I did not know what to make of that. And next thing I know is I lost my image. It's just a very brief moment, probably two to three seconds. Break it down as well as you can.

You're looking at eyes, essentially, huh? All I see is a black band around the eye area. What did you think? You have this alarming image, and then it's gone. Yeah. Camera's off. Yeah. Then I thought, what is that figure I just saw? Nanyao's first thought, it might be his son, Justin.

So I thought, well, is Justin pulling prank on me? So after seeing that image, that's when he called Justin. And I said, are you at home? He said no. So after seeing that image, that's when he called Justin. And he described to myself and my partner that he saw an image, and for a brief second, and then the camera went black. So he sees your suspected killer. Correct. I think it's a male. Okay.

A little skinny. Nanyao described the person to police. Kind of tall and skinny. And they said, oh, your son is skinny and tall. And I said, what are you talking about? The comment threw Nan Yao. Because while at first he thought it was his son on the camera, he was now sure it was someone else, the killer.

Detectives asked the person's race. You tell white male, black male, or? Looks like a whites to me. Okay. White male was something white covering his head and a body shape similar to Justin's. That kept Justin in the crosshairs for detectives, and they told him so. It wasn't me! I'm not gonna call him dad, I'm sorry! How much did he describe you on that camera? What?

Pretty much, bro. My dad? Yes. So much so that that's why he called you and said, man, are you playing a joke in front of the camera? Because he knew it was you in front of the camera. Oh my God.

I'm going to jail, aren't I? For something I didn't even do. Detectives tried to play father against son. So he's not going to come home with me tonight? With the stories he's telling us now, no, more than likely he will not be going home because my partner said he's not making sense. There's too many inconsistencies with what he's saying. Back with Justin, detectives kept pressing the idea that his father suspected him of being the killer.

How can my dad think I killed him? My dad doesn't think that. You know, your dad's pretty sure that you're the one he saw on that camera. Really? Yeah. Oh, my God. Then detectives really pushed Justin's buttons. They switched tactics, now implying his dad might be the killer

and that he was trying to frame his son. Someone tried to frame me, man. If you're saying someone's trying to frame you, the only one that's capable of framing you is your dad. Would your dad frame you? I guess he already did. So if you didn't do it, what you're telling me is that your dad framed you. No, I can't believe that.

You can't believe that? My dad wouldn't frame me. He's blaming me for the murder? If he did it, could your dad do it? No, he couldn't have. He was at work and stuff. And while detectives may have had Justin second-guessing his dad for a moment, his father saw right through the game being played. Did you know that your name was being part of the scenario in the other room?

They're saying, maybe your father's got something to do with this. The father frames the son for this. Yeah, it was so ridiculous. I did not take it seriously. And they probably tried to use my statement to frame him. That's not what you said. No matter what tack they took, detectives always returned to just hammering away at Justin. I didn't do anything, though! Yes, you did! You put your mother!

I did it! I did it! You put your mother! No, I didn't! No, I didn't! No, I didn't! No, I didn't, sir! And that's the way it went for nearly 11 hours. Despite the pressure, Justin insisted he was innocent. And if investigators could only find that snippet of video of the intruder from the home security camera, then they'd find out who really killed his mom. Was he right?

Coming up, a frustrated and increasingly angry Justin. When you guys find out you're wrong, I hope you come and say sorry to me, man, or something. If I found out I was wrong, I'd seriously consider a career change. But I know I'm not wrong. Well, you are. When Dateline continues. Stop jumping in my brain and trying to make me say I did it, even though I didn't do it. Dude, stop laughing, man.

I'm not laughing at that. I'm laughing at you thinking I have these powers. After hours of detectives in his face saying he'd killed his mother, Justin refused to buckle. He maintained his innocence and said they would end up apologizing to him when the case was solved. When you guys find out you're wrong,

I hope you come and say sorry to me, man, or something. This is a horrible... If I found out I was wrong, I'd seriously consider a career change. But I know I'm not wrong. Well, you are. You should consider a career change. I'm serious, dude. I'm serious. Maybe. I'm sorry, detective,

but you're thinking wrong. Wrap me up to a polygraph machine right now, man. They never did. But if there was one thing that could help solve the crime, it was that snippet of video of an intruder his dad saw on his computer. Please say you got the, did you get the recording?

Detectives were already working on it. Analyze it frame by frame and it might just clear Justin. Or not. Easy, you go to the tape, you pull it and you all look at it. That would be great.

This camera system that he had was a drop camera service inside the house and you are afforded the opportunity to pay for a service which keeps the live recordings. In fact, the Sous had

a trial period for recordings that lasted two weeks. It expired two days before the murder and was not renewed. That meant there was no video recording to retrieve. It was just a live monitor view. So once that image was gone, it was gone forever. But there were other investigators reviewing videos from outside the house, including at the front gate, to see if they could confirm Justin's story and timeline. Justin told investigators that after running errands that morning, he left the house again around 9.15. The security camera at the front gate showed his black car leaving. About three hours later, sometime around 12.30,

his car can be seen again on the same security camera, returning to the gated community. It was just as he'd said, responding to his father's request to check on his mother and the house. Based on guard gate video, we had him coming and going from the house. And from the time that he had left and by the time he came back, that was the opportunity window that we basically put a timeline of when this murder took place. Justin was not at home shortly after noon when the detectives theorized the murder had to have taken place. The comings and goings seen on the security gate video confirmed Justin had not killed his mother.

When we were done, we were pretty convinced that he wasn't the one who did it. So all these suspicions you just talked about, you believed in the end that he was telling the truth? I did. Justin got the welcome news without trumpets or drum rolls. He was simply told he was free to go. All of a sudden, it's over. Yeah, it is. They just opened the door.

Was your dad there at that point? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I remember the first memory I have of my dad is he saw me, hugged me, and said, Oh, don't worry. Obviously, he did not believe for a second that I did. No. Throughout his ordeal, Justin was agonizingly aware he still had his mother's blood on him. I had to ask him, like, can i just go to the bathroom i had to go in and go to the sink

and take this water and just try to wash off my mom's blood in this police bathroom and i'm being blamed for this justin's interview was long, harsh, and traumatizing. If you keep on doing that to somebody for 12, 13, 14 hours, that's close to torture. And you can make someone confess to something just to end it, just to get out of that situation, which is horrible. And I never broke. Even some law enforcement professionals felt that grilling him for 11 hours was extreme. I have to tell you that I have seldom in my 35 years of practice of criminal law seen an interrogation go that long. Prosecutor Maria Schneider would be the one to try the case when the killer was finally caught. Had these guys stepped over the line into bullying intimidation? You know, investigating the family or suspecting the family,

sadly, that's kind of par for the course. Whether I personally think that they went a little bit too long and a little bit too hard on Justin, you know, that's me Monday morning quarterbacking. Lead detective Paul Williams said it was as long and hard as it needed to be. Did you rough him up more than you needed to to get your story? No, I don't think so. And I never feel bad about that because we do the investigation for the victim who can't speak. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

He'd be in that room as long, being grilled? As long as it took. Without a doubt. And the optics of it, it's probably not what you want to see. My job is to find the facts. And the fact is that during his interrogation, Justin gave detectives a new lead to pursue, opening up a whole new area of investigation. The son, it turned out, had thrown a party at his house two days before his parents came home from that Malaysia trip. There were a number of

young people smoking, drinking, wandering around the house. Could one of those partygoers fit the profile of a suspect? The interview list had suddenly grown by leaps and bounds. Coming up. I was guessing maybe one of my friends might have had something to do with it. Had Justin guessed right? The people he mingles with, they always talk about robbing people, doing this, doing that. Detectives investigating the murder of Jill Sue were back to square one. Her son, Justin, was no longer a suspect, but he did offer them a tantalizing new lead. So in recent days, there had been a party in the house.

Correct. With a lot of kids? A lot of kids, upwards of like 20 kids, 20, 25 kids. So that's interesting. Yes. So there was a lot of people inside the house, which added to the problems of the contamination or cross-contamination of other people's DNA and fingerprints they could have left on the scene, as well as what we were dealing with already. Justin gave detectives a list of people, mostly young people in their 20s. You gave them names. Yeah, I gave them every single one of my friends' names, and they went and background-checked all of them. Yeah, I was guessing maybe one of my friends might have

had something to do with it. The detectives reached out, called the people from the party, come down to headquarters. They told them we need to talk. And when they did that, they were swapped for DNA. I'm going to take an oral swab from you. No one objected. By then, they all knew what happened to Justin's mom three days after the party. Most were happy to answer detectives' questions. You know if he has cameras inside the house? Yeah, Justin told me he did. He told you? Yeah. You're saying that there might be a friend... Justin told detectives during his interrogation that when guests arrived, he made sure he told everyone to be cool around those security cameras. He warned them that

even though his parents were away, they sometimes checked the cameras remotely. I told them there's a camera in the room, don't go in that room because there's a camera and my parents will see you and they see you. When they were in Malaysia, when they see you, they would like, they'll get pissed. Justin said most party guests were longtime friends, but he said there were a few he didn't know very well. And one guy made his way to an off-limits part of the house. I remember I yelled at him because he actually went into my parents' room, into like the bathroom. What for? He was on a phone call. He's like talking to someone. He's walking around my house, kind of just like on the phone. Yeah, what did you tell him?

Tell him to get the f*** out, like get out of there, man. Detectives took note, the parents' bathroom, the very place where Jill's body was found. So they asked the guy about it. I'd gotten an important phone call, so I'd walked away, stayed away from everybody, and I just, I wandered. I ended up in the master bedroom, and that's when he found me. He's like, yo, can you, like, go in the garage or something? My parents have cameras.

I don't want them to see you in the master bedroom and think of anything weird. Actually, there were no cameras in the bedroom, and the guy on the phone immediately left to continue his call elsewhere. I met him that night. But he and some of the others told detectives they should take a look at one party-goer in particular, someone who had a record and an unsavory reputation. The people he mingles with, they always talk about robbing people, doing this, doing that. And my logic, A, the people he mingles with, they always talk about robbing people, doing this, doing that. And my logic, A, the people he mingles with.

B, he's in a house. He knows Justin's there alone. His parents aren't there. You see this big house, somebody with a lot of money. If he's under the impression that his parents are still gone, and they go there Monday, somebody breaks in, mom's there, mom catches them. Whole altercation ensues. The whole whatever happened, happened. They flee. Police traced the guy to his home and asked him to come down to headquarters to answer a few questions. He told the cops he'd actually been expecting them. I had a feeling I would end up here just knowing the situation. They asked him to take off his shirt to see if there were any signs of an injury from a struggle.

There were not. He admitted he had an arrest record, but for drugs, not burglary. No rough stuff. Yeah, I'm on probation right now. That's why when I came to my house, I was like, oh my God, here we go. And when it came time for a DNA swab, he said his DNA was already in the system as a result of his arrest. The young man had an alibi for the time of the murder.

He was at work, he said. In all, detectives went through close to 30 interviews. And except for that one person, no one else at the party had a criminal record. You've canvassed all the kids and they don't seem to be a lead for you? Correct. Meanwhile, CSI investigators at the crime scene had already swabbed a number of items for DNA. More than a week later, news came back from the lab. There was a hit. Coming up. Does a hit mean you have a name at that point? Yes, they identify a name. I had quite an extensive history. And a familiar way of committing

burglaries. All of them were within gated communities and they were all backed up against water. And most of the entries were done through a back glass doorway. When Dateline continues. It's an electrifying moment for any detective working a case when a DNA sample comes back from the lab with not just a hit, but a name attached. Detective Paul Williams had one of those aha moments nine days after Jill Sue's murder. They've taken their sample, this genetic sample, and compared it to a known database? Correct. And they give you a percentage, like one into some trillion, billion people, that it's a match for this person. And more importantly, does a hit mean you have a name at that point? Yes,

they identify a name. It wasn't the guy from the party. Wasn't anyone from the party. They were all clear. Rather, it was a 20-year-old named Deontay Rezillas. Who in the world was he? The detective didn't have a clue. Did you go to your computers and pull up the name? Pulled up a picture, looked at him, saw his history. He had quite an extensive history. Juvenile history. Juvenile stuff. Burglaries.

Nothing, no violent crimes. It was all burglary and property crimes. The way Deontay Rosillas pulled off those burglaries, his M.O., sounded familiar to Detective Williams. All of them were within gated communities, and all of the homes were huge, and they were all backed up against water. And most of the entries were done through a back glass doorway into the home.

And destroying surveillance equipment, if he could? Yes, yes. The detective wondered if Deontay had been in the Sioux house legitimately. Maybe he knew Justin. If so, that could explain the presence of the DNA. The detective called Justin and read him three names. I have three names I want to ask you if you know them or recognize them. Lucas Hayward?

Lucas Hayward? Yep. No. Deontay Reziles? Deontay who? Deontay Reziles? No, I do not know who that person is. Roderick Edwards?

No. At any time during the past several weeks, have you given any of these males permission to enter your price? No. Justin didn't know that two of the names were made up. He blanked on all three, including Deontay Reziles. Never heard that name. I've never seen that man in my life.

The detective told him about the DNA hit. Justin was relieved, but he says it was hard to feel anything back then because of what he'd been through. He was, he says, shell-shocked. I don't know what else term to say it, but mentally scarred. Like, I was mentally, like, beat up, man. But the police were moving fast. They got an arrest warrant and nabbed their suspect. It went down like a textbook case. I want to talk to you about some burglaries.

What about a burglary? Well, that's what we'll do. Before we talk to you, you know, you got to read these rights. You don't want to talk to me? I don't know what's going on, so... Okay, no problem. Then they told him the charge he was facing. You're going to be charged with first-degree murder.

First? First-degree murder, okay? What am I being charged with first-degree murder for? Can't talk to you, so... What? What the f***? Police told Deontay to remove his clothing and put on a jumpsuit. And Deontay asked again about the charge he was facing.

Do you know what my charges are? That's it. Deontay was assigned a court-appointed defense attorney, and an investigator working for the defense went to talk to him in jail. Gentry Chambers was surprised by the young man he met. He's a scared kid. To me, that says a lot, because this case,

the person who did it, I don't think they're going to be too scared. I think this was a case where whoever did this, they either did it before or, you know, they were a real gruesome person. You thought they would have had tougher, thicker skin than you're seeing in your life. Because this is what I do for a living. I talk to people that's incarcerated. Gentry learned Deontay Rosillas had grown up not far from the Sioux family. His single mom worked minimum wage jobs. He was nicknamed Moochie as a boy.

I get up every morning. As a young man, he could be charming. Driven to, if these selfie videos retrieved from his phone mean anything, a known burglar talking like a motivational speaker. If you're not ambitious, you're not going to get far. If you want to be rich, you can't get rich sitting on your ass. When he was living the good life, he could show off.

Got a beautiful view of the beach, though. You see how I laugh? This video, a tour of his room during a hotel stay. I wish everybody in Broward have a nice day, you know, enjoy your summer vacation and get money. That's all. He could have been anything he wanted to be. You feel that strong about him? I feel that strong about him. I feel that if he would have got the right direction, or if one thing that would have changed in his life that would have led him to see something good,

he could have been anything he wanted to be. Instead, he landed in jail, charged with murder one, possibly facing the death penalty. You'll be held without bond until further order of the court on that. But Gentry had his doubts about Deontay's guilt. The savage way Jill Sue was killed didn't seem like something a breaking and entering guy would do. To kill a woman in that fashion, that way. Tell me about that way, killing in that way. Tell me about that way, killing in that way. In that way is to bound her

and to stab her multiple times. Almost like torturing, right? Police have a word they use, overkill. Right. But the case moved forward. In the months that followed, Deontay Rezillas made one court appearance after another.

Then came July 15, 2016, almost two years after Jill Sue was murdered. Deontay was in court that morning for another hearing. All of a sudden we hear that the courthouse is shut down, the area around the courthouse is shut down. David Neal, a reporter with the Miami Herald, was in his office covering breaking news that day. There's unusual numbers of large police vehicles in the street, and we're not sure, exactly sure what's happened. Then Neal and his colleagues learned... Somebody escaped from the courthouse. Sitting in a courtroom.

Right, and so we're calling around and going, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Coming up. He's up and out. He's gone. You see a bunch of heads turn, like the utter shock. A suspected killer on the loose and a grieving family with new worries. Got a phone call from the victim advocates, I believe, saying, hey, you might want to pull over. It started out as just another pretrial hearing at the Broward County Courthouse. Didn't end that way.

David Neal of the Miami Herald. And then suddenly, he's up and out. He's gone. He's bolted. Wait a minute. A prisoner, cuffed and shackled, had somehow escaped from a packed courtroom? Yes, he had. The guy got up and escaped from a courtroom. The guy, of course, was Deontay Rosillas. I was like, did that guy just really do that? He did.

At 9.06, Deontay entered the courtroom, first in the line of inmates heading for the jury box out of camera range, waiting for his case to be called. At 9.36, a new group of inmates entered the room. Seconds later, Deontay, still off camera, raced out, a bailiff on his heels. And suddenly you see a bunch of heads turn, like the utter shock of everybody,

and then you see him head out the door. The biggest resistance he got was when he hits the door, which was kind of a heavy door, but someone was on the other side of the door, so he hits the door, kind of bounces back, then pushes through again. And made it out. Why didn't somebody try and tackle him in the hallway? Because nobody expects that. Because it was just so out of, out of, out of norm.

Courtroom 4810 is on the fourth floor of the courthouse. Once Deontay was on the other side of that courtroom door, he was off. He's out of shackles. He's out of handcuffs. He's out of the of that courtroom door, he was off. He's out of shackles, he's out of handcuffs, he's out of the jailhouse. Yeah, he's gone. Past sheriff's deputies, I imagine, bailiffs? Yeah, past everybody. All sorts of court officers are there.

Right. This guy was just blazing through. Charging through this hallway, racing down that staircase. Caught on security camera as he busted out a back door to a waiting car. They're gone. They beat the perimeter. Before they could set it up. Before they could even set it up. A suspected killer was roaming free. Law enforcement swung into action. The courthouse was locked down. A manhunt launched. And a hugely embarrassed Broward County Sheriff faced the cameras.

There'll be investigations and debriefings, but right now my main concern is where he is right now. Davey Detective Paul Williams heard the news from a colleague at the Broward County Sheriff's Office. I think my words were, are you kidding me? And I said, whatever help you guys need. So you're working with what, known associates and family members? Correct.

I ran through all my criminal histories, all the contacts that I had with them. Like everyone else, Justin Su couldn't believe his ears when he learned about the escape. Got a phone call from the victim advocates, I believe, saying, hey, you might want to pull over. I remember stopping at the gas station and saying he escaped from prison. And, you know, we're having all the, there's all these resources out to try looking for him. Detective Williams called the Sous as well. Obviously their concern was their safety

and whether he was going to come back to their home. Look over your shoulder, right? Correct. I arranged it with our police department and our command staff to have Davie police officers maintain security at the home for the Sue family. And we have the latest on the search tonight. The story was all over the local news. The sheriff at the time appealed to the community to be on the lookout.

If you think you know where he is, you think you know where he might be, you think you know where he might be going, or you think you see him, call us up. Two days, three days days four days passed a crime stoppers reward grew to fifty thousand dollars but the fugitive continued to elude the law and the rumor mill exploded dionte was here dionte was there law enforcement running down the tips chasing down the rumors we'd actually heard at one point he pulled into a hospital in West Broward, and he died in the emergency room there. I happened to have an ex-girlfriend who worked in that emergency room,

and I quickly texted her, you have a dead guy there, maybe in his early 20s, black guy. She's like, no. So this stuff was all floating around. Yeah, the rumors were flying. And when investigators turned up at Deontay's old hangouts to talk to friends and family members, they didn't always get a warm welcome.

In fact, just the opposite. They're incredibly not receptive, and they're not having it. The case reinforced a sentiment in parts of Broward County's Black community that they couldn't get a fair shake. Deonte's supporters asking, as others had, why a burglar was facing a charge of murder. He's got a past of, you know, robbery. But he doesn't have a violent past. The feeling is they needed a black guy to pin it on and they picked him.

So that was the feeling out of a lot of his friends and associates and a fair amount of the black community in Broward that knew him. DeJounte's audacious escape generated sympathy for him on social media. He became something of a folk hero to his supporters, known by that childhood nickname Moochie. There's a rap song? There was a rap song. Run Moochie Run? Is that right? There was a hashtag Run Moochie Run. There was this outcry on social media from his friends and associates saying, they should take this opportunity to look back into that case, which is not quite the way things work, folks. But then, suddenly, Moochie stopped running. Coming up, the great escape and how it was done.

He's got a crew helping him. You know, helping him get out of the shackles. This is Ocean's Eleven stuff. Yeah. But there would be no Hollywood ending. SWAT teams were called. When Dateline continues. After DeAndre Rosillas pulled off that crazy caper at the Broward County Courthouse and went on the layout,

a promising new lead came in. A tipster claimed Deontay was hunkered down at a day's end about an hour away. Law enforcement hightailed it north and showed up in force. The information that we were receiving is that he was going to go down with a fight, so obviously the SWAT teams were called. It was six days since Deontay had busted out of the courthouse. Any dramatics in the takedown? No, he was taken in custody without any incident and brought back to the Broward Sheriff's Office. A greatly relieved Broward County Sheriff wiped giant omelet amounts of egg off his face and announced the arrest. Broward County in South Florida is a safer place.

So how did he do it? How did a 21-year-old jailhouse prisoner pull this thing off? Well, by enlisting the help of devoted friends and family members. That's how. This is Ocean's Eleven stuff. Yeah. We're going to break this guy out of a courtroom. Very coordinated.

Deontay's recorded phone calls from jail exposed the plot. Once investigators listened to them, they learned they'd been outwitted by a confederacy of mostly teenage plotters. He rounded up the Impossible Missions Force and, you know, lit the match and pulled it off. This is video of Deontay in jail on the morning of the escape, preparing to put a plan into play that investigators believed he'd been hatching for months,

beginning with a key that would unlock his cuffs and shackles. How did he get his hands on such a key? Prosecutor Maria Schneider. There was a deputy at the jail who, a couple of months before this, reported having lost a handcuff key. Losing a handcuff key in the jail who a couple of months before this reported having lost a handcuff key. Losing a handcuff key in the jail is a very big deal. So if you lose one, you have to file a report indicating where you had it, where you lost it. So we don't know whether that key in fact unlocked his handcuffs, but you wonder.

The investigators listened to a phone call recorded just days before the escape. Deontay was talking to a friend in the courthouse who was describing the route Deontay should take to get out of the building. We know that his friend walked from the courtroom down the stairwell that leads to the third floor to the secondary stairwell that leads outside. And if you don't know the setup, you could walk into some dead ends. Correct. Correct. You need to know where to go. Especially if you're in a hurry. On the morning of the escape, security video shows Deontay getting patted down. You can see he's already ripped apart the legs of his jumpsuit to make it easier to kick off. And underneath the jumpsuit, he's wearing street clothes. Later, the inmates approach the courtroom fully shackled.

One prisoner then blocks Deontay's torso from view and unlatches his waist chain, giving Deontay's hands room to maneuver. It speaks to Mr. Rosilla's kind of intelligence that he was able to organize this whole thing. He's got a crew helping him, you know, helping him get out of the shackles. When Deontay enters the courtroom with the other inmates, he heads for a seat in the jury box. Investigators believe that's when he unlocks his cuffs and shackles. Now he's ready to make a run for it, as soon as all his confederates are in position. So there's two twins who are eyes and ears in the court? Yeah.

Who are they talking to? They're talking to the people in the car. The getaway. Right. And so when the car's in position, one twin signals the other twin, twin signals Rosellas, and he's like, okay, now everything's in place for you to roll. And roll he did. The sheriff picked up the story.

One of the twins coughed into a cell phone. That cough was a message to alert them to know that Rosellas was on his way down to the story. One of the twins coughed into a cell phone. That cough was a message to alert them to know that Rosales was on his way down to the vehicle. The rest is history. Defense investigator Gentry Jampers. Look, was there a partying Gentry? You said, man, that was incredible. Of course. I mean, I'm saying to myself, how many guys actually evade the police and get away, and away for a week. Except for one postscript that punctures the idea the young plotters had thought of everything, rather than just being very lucky. This is a poor kid from the hood who didn't even probably even think this was going to go down the way that it went down. Look, the car that picked them up didn't even have gas in it.

They had to stop to the gas station. In the months ahead, all eight of those who helped Deontay were charged and convicted. He's very smart. He's very charming. Because he got all these people to put their own freedom on the line for him. As for Deontay Rosillas, he may have been back behind bars on 23-hour lockdown and facing new charges. But he wasn't done. The escape is not the end of it for this young man. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, he continues. Not long after he was captured, Deontay wrote this letter to the judge whose court he fled.

He apologized for bolting, said in his defense that he didn't stray far. Then he offered an explanation. I was clearly trying to just gather evidence for my defense. I had to bust myself out so I could be my own detective? Detective, right. To find exculpatory information? To clear myself and, you know, you're a very fair judge. Like I said, he buttered him up. Far from trying to gather evidence to help his case,

Deontay was actually busy doing other things while he was hunkered down in that motel room. He was just hanging out and talking to friends and going on porn websites. But Deontay now had other business to pursue. Top of that list, feeding the social media machine to keep the Justice for Deontay campaign alive, recording this message, which was posted on Facebook. If you have been placed in jail for a crime you know nothing about or never committed, would you sit in jail? Let me ask this for you logically.

No. But Deontay did sit in jail for years. The trial finally took place in 2021. And like everything in this story, it would end with a can-you-believe-it twist. Coming up, disorder in the court. As you're going back into the courtroom to announce your verdict. I'm like, what am I doing? This is not right. In an extraordinary moment, a juror changes her verdict.

Is this your verdict? No. In 2019, five years after Jill Sue's murder and three years after Deontay Rezillis' notorious courtroom dash for freedom, a billboard went up in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It was provocative, in both its wording and placement. This billboard, which reportedly the sheriff could see from his window, was showing the victim and the person accused of killing her, saying, two victims, one truth.

And with a hashtag, Justice for Moochie. And it says, who killed Jill Halliburton? Who framed Deontay Rezellis? To this day, no one has figured out who paid for that billboard, with its message that Deontay Rezellis was yet another wrongfully accused black man. How provocative was that?

It was a direct shot at Broward Sheriff's Office. It was really a middle finger to law enforcement in Broward. Right. And it didn't really, I don't think it swayed opinion. To Jill Sue's family, it was a poke in the eye. How painful was that? It wasn't more painful than just made me

angry. Deontay's supporters were angry too. NBC's South Florida covered some of those rallies. Deontay's supporters were angry too. NBC's 6 South Florida covered some of those rallies. Deontay once more a symbol of a system his supporters believed was stacked against them. So many people, so many of our people, they've just been railroaded through the justice system. It's just not fair. Deontay's trial was looming and the Justice for Moochie campaign played right into the defense's strategy. Ayati Dominguez, one of Deontay's attorneys. It's not a unique experience or a unique thing to happen that someone could be falsely arrested, especially if they're black.

Prosecutor Maria Schneider. So you've got a very noisy court of public opinion looking over your shoulder here. We do. We do. And the defendant... And you have to deal with it. It's a factor. Yeah. And Mr. Rosillas is very charismatic, and he has a group of friends who are very, very devoted to him. In late 2021, seven years after Jill Sue was stabbed to death, Deontay Rosillas went on trial for first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty. The trial came down to one key issue, the DNA at the crime scene. The best thing you have going is the DNA, right? Absolutely. The DNA is indisputable.

Investigators found Deontay's DNA in three places, on a belt inside the house, outside on one of Justin's knives, and at the back door point of entry. It should have been a slam dunk, but the county lab where the DNA was processed had door point of entry. It should have been a slam dunk. But the county lab where the DNA was processed had a history of controversy. Listen, nothing is ever simple. The BSO lab in 2015 was accused by a local expert of mishandling how they calculated the numbers, the statistics of how often in a population it is likely that you would find similar DNA. It was a dispute over numbers, the prosecutor said, nothing more.

No one ever has accused the Broward Sheriff's Office of getting the DNA processing wrong. Nevertheless, Deontay's defense attorneys worked mightily to keep those doubts about the lab work front and center. They were also laser focused on Justin Su, arguing that even the police initially thought Justin was the killer. I didn't do it! He was back in the hot seat that years ago intense interrogation relived now in court. Defense attorney Michael Orlando. I think it was focusing in on his behavior and where he lied to the police. Justin Su is going to go on trial virtually for murdering his mother.

Basically, they put him on trial. When jurors went out, deliberations dragged. Finally, day five, a verdict. Remember, Deontay was charged with first-degree murder. A stunner was coming. The defendant is guilty of the lesser-included crime of manslaughter. Guilty of manslaughter. With a considerably lighter sentence than murder one.

A blow to the family. So, why? As is customary, the judge polled the jurors, asking each if this was their verdict. He started with the foreperson. Another stunner. Is this your verdict? No.

Let's play that again. No. The camera was not allowed to show jurors' faces, but this was unheard of, a juror changing her verdict. He asked me, do you agree to mantle her? I took a pause. It felt like forever.

And then I just said no. Meet the juror who recanted. Her name is Jackie. We changed her appearance because she's concerned about her safety. I sat there and I took a deep breath and they're just waiting. And I see them leaning forward, like waiting for me to give the answer. Minutes earlier, she says, she'd been disturbed by the reaction at the defense table when the verdict of manslaughter was announced. They were patting each other on the back and they were all smiles and giggles.

And that didn't go down well with you? It did not. It just bothered me so much. It stiffened her resolve. And then I just said no. And I felt relief. Jackie was convinced Deontay Rosillas deserved the more severe penalty of murder one. But she says she presided over a deeply divided jury. The dividing issue, she says, was race. Jackie herself is Afro-Latina. Remember, the country was still gripped by an anguished debate about racial justice following George Floyd's murder. And so, Jackie says, was Deontay Rosillas' jury. One of the men started crying and was like,

I can't send another young black man to jail. And I looked at him and I said, excuse me. I was like, if it was my brother that committed this murder, I would have no problem sending my brother to jail. And I looked at him and I said, excuse me. I was like, if it was my brother that committed this murder, I would have no problem sending my brother to jail for the rest of his life. They'd been sequestered for five days. They'd argued and argued again. Eventually, Jackie says, she and others gave in and went with the lesser charge. So you voted for manslaughter? I voted for manslaughter. Correct. But as you're going back into the courtroom to announce your verdict, what are you, are the wheels moving in your head? The wheels were moving, sir. Yes, sir.

And I'm like, what am I doing? This is not right. So she did what she did, said that one little word. The judge dealt with the divide. Going back, they'll continue with their deliberations. Back in the jury room, Jackie says things got ugly. She says she felt threatened by one juror. He said, you f***ing Puerto Rican. If I was to see you out on the street,

I would smack you in the face. But Jackie wasn't budging. I knew that what I was doing was the right thing. So you come back into court and judge, we're not going to get there, right? And he just said, thank you for your time served. And that was it.

A mistrial. We spoke to five other jurors and some, not all, agreed race was a divisive issue during deliberations. After she was dismissed, Jackie spoke with Jill's husband. Dr. Sue is a lovely man, very humble, very kind. We spoke about it and he started crying. I started getting a little man, very humble, very kind. We spoke about it, and he started crying. I started getting a little teary-eyed as well, and I told him I had to be the voice for Jill because no one else wanted to be, and give her the justice that you and your family deserve

to at least get a little bit of closure. In a matter of months, a new group of 12 would gather in the same courtroom and begin to weigh the matter of Deontay Rezillis all over again. Coming up, three little letters that no one can agree on. That man's DNA. DNA. His DNA was nowhere in her bedroom or the bathroom where this murder occurred. And Justin, back in the hot seat.

He lied about his whereabouts. When Dateline continues. Well, the second trial of a man accused of a gruesome murder has started. Three months after the mistrial of Deontay Rosillas, prosecutor Maria Schneider was hoping this time the verdict would match the crime. To her, unquestionably first-degree murder. I know the strength of the evidence that I have. I don't need to play games. I just have to tell these people what it is. The state's theory of the crime was this.

Deontay broke into the house to rob it, unexpectedly came across Jill and the two fought. At some point, Jill tried to escape out the front door. A neighbor said it was noon when she heard an unsettling cry coming from the Sioux house. I heard a high-pitched, shrieky sound, and I saw a light-colored object at the front door, and it was going back into the house. The woman thought it was the Sioux's dog, but the prosecutor said it was Jill who let out that shriek as Deontay dragged her back inside.

She puts Mrs. Sioux at noon when Justin and Dr. Sioux are not at the house alive. The prosecutor has a theory as to how Deontay was able to drag Jill back in and tie her up. It is possible that during the struggle when she tried to escape through the front door that she was hit on the back of the head and that could have knocked her out. The knife used to stab Jill had a sharp edge at the end of the handle. The medical examiner said an injury on Jill's head matched that shape. Once unconscious, the prosecutor said, Deontay dragged her into the couple's bathroom where he murdered her. There's very little blood

in and about the bathroom, so that indicates to us that she was stabbed while she was in the bathtub. The bedrock of the state's case were the three letters all juries love to hear. That man's DNA. DNA. Prosecutors again pointed out those two items, the belt and the knife, where they got the original hits for Deontay's DNA. But with advancements in DNA science, five years after the murder, they developed that third hit.

It was found on that broken glass door. The point of entry, which I think is very important, you know, that glass that he went through. The shimmy under the glass. Correct. How certain was the analyst who tested the DNA? This is what she said about the broken glass door. The DNA results are at least 2.333 quadrillion times more likely if they originated from Deontay Bezillis. That is one number with 27 zeros behind it. That is multiple times more than the population of the world. And when Prosecutor Schneider told jurors about that infamous breakout, she said it was evidence of his guilt. Deontay Bezilliles escapes from a packed courtroom.

And there was more. After his capture, Deontay tried to enlist friends to help him fabricate an alibi for the day Jill was murdered. So he bribed a corrections officer to get him a phone. He was looking to get a cell phone

smuggled into the jail. Sergeant Jason Hendrick testified that with that device, Deontay started enlisting people in his conspiracy. Everything that I need you to do is basically just to help me or whatever, and help my alibi or whatever. Little did Deontay know, the phone was tapped. Hello. What's going on? In one of those calls, he asked someone to lie for him,

saying he was in Georgia, not Florida, on the day Jill was murdered. Jill's murder was on the 8th of September, and Deontay's own cell phone record showed he was in Florida that day. He posted, um, posted or received messages and it, and the GPS put him in the location of Pompano Beach. And in an attempt to counter the state's strongest evidence, his DNA at the crime scene, Deonte asked one friend to lie about that too. To pretend that some guy had a fight with a defendant, caught him, took his blood, and planted it at the crime scene.

That's correct. Only problem is, none of the DNA from the crime scene is from blood, is it? No. So was this case impossible to defend? Far from it, said Deontay's defense attorneys, Michael Orlando and Ayati Dominguez. The strategy was similar to that in the first trial, attack the DNA evidence.

Our main theory in the case was that he never was the person that killed Jill Halliburton Sue because his DNA was nowhere in her bedroom or the bathroom where this murder occurred. His DNA might have been found in other parts of the house, but not where Jill's body was found. Why is his DNA not in the place where there's a clear struggle? The person was put in the bathtub. Somebody turned on the sink, threw things inside, and DNA survived in the bathtub.

But Deontay's DNA is nowhere there. And then there was that murder weapon found in the bathtub with Jill's body. Deontay's DNA simply wasn't on it. He's excluded from being any type of a contributor to the DNA that's on that knife. Prosecutor Schneider disputes that. She says it is possible for DNA to dissipate in water.

Still, the defense remained critical of all the DNA collected at the scene. Are you saying that is his DNA but somebody planted it? Or was the lab got it wrong? I wish we could have a crystal ball and go back and find out how exactly it got there. We focused in on a couple things. One was to highlight the issue of potential contamination. The other was to bring out some of the issues that the lab has had. The defense also raised the possibility of other potential suspects for the jury to consider.

Did the people that Justin had invited over to the house have a role in the murder of Jill Halliburton Sue. And in its cross-examination of Nanyao Sue, the defense made sure jurors heard his description of the person he saw on the security camera. You said that the person that you saw was white. Appeared to be white, yes. And if the defense went hard at Justin during the first trial, they drilled down even harder during the second. Justin was a suspect in this case.

But after Mr. Rosales was arrested, then they no longer pursued that angle. But police should have pursued him, the defense said, reminding jurors of Justin's inconsistencies. Even after police detectives accused you of murder, you continued to lie to them about where you were. You told them you were in the library. When I was being interrogated, I possibly said that.

I was under a lot of stress. He lied about his whereabouts, saying that he was at the library. And then it was like, oh, no, I was in the parking garage in the middle of September in South Florida, and I was taking a nap in my car. In closing arguments, the defense said the state didn't do its job. What they've shown you here today is not in any way proof that Deontay killed Jill Sue. At all. But the state doubled down on its physical evidence.

The science puts him there. The science puts his hands on a weapon. The science puts his hands on an item that tied Mrs. Sue up. Jurors started their deliberations. The last time it took five days. Once the jury went into a second day of deliberations, I started despairing. Groundhog Day. I thought, oh my god, it's either going to be another hung jury or there's some jurors in there who just are not seeing the evidence for what it is. Coming up, after seven years of verdict. Can you hear the words? Tell me what's going through your brain and your stomach.

I know that my body was clenched so tightly. Deontay Rosillas' first murder trial ended in a mistrial. Now, after three days of deliberations in the second trial, there was a verdict. Everyone braced for the reading. The defendant's supporters and family sat near him, but Jill Su's family chose not to attend court for this verdict, not after their experience the last time around. Guilty of murder in the first degree. Quiet gratitude at the prosecution table.

And you hear the words. Tell me what's going through your brain and your stomach. I don't even know. I know that my body was clenched so tightly that when I heard the words, I just felt my whole body like relax and say, thank you, God. You know, justice was done. Jill's husband was driving when he got the news. Oh, my God. I had to stop my car. I screamed. And I said, finally, finally, finally. All these years, finally. Maybe we'll start to heal again. Maybe we can start to heal, really heal.

Across the room at the defense table, little reaction from Deontay Rosillas. He knows that any reaction he would have, you know, at that point, it wouldn't matter. It was not going to change the verdict. But he knew. It was a somber event. A manslaughter verdict would have meant a 15-year max sentence. A first-degree murder conviction meant the death penalty or life without parole. And now he's coming out of corrections in a pine box, probably. It's that severe. And the jury believed the state's version of events. But a verdict is a verdict. Both sides now had urgent business.

Should Rosillas get the death penalty or not? We strongly felt that this should not be a death penalty case. There was a lot of mitigating circumstances. The Sous were also consulted, and they wrestled with the decision. I think in some respects that he should die just because of what he did. And in another sense, too, I want him to suffer in another way, just living the rest of his life in a smaller enclosure than the bathroom that he took my mother's life in. What do you think Jill would have said?

Jill would have said, no, she doesn't want to take another life. In the end, the state took the death penalty off the table. That meant the judge had no discretion in sentencing. Deontay Rosillas would serve mandatory life in prison with no parole. At sentencing, the Sous got the chance to confront the now convicted killer of their beloved Jill. Deontay, Jill is the kind of person who could have helped you. Instead, you kill her. You kill her and call blood. Like a psychopath.

Then, he dismissed his wife's killer. After this, today, young DeRizzo, I'm going to erase you from my memory. In my mind, you do not exist. From Justin, the son whom Rosillas' side had tried to portray

as the real killer, came another dismissal and a grim prophecy. Deontay, I found watching everyone you know that you think love you and that love you

slowly go on with their lives and just forget about it who you were. You slowly become nothing. Normally when the sentence is mandatory, defendants have little to say. But Rosillas spoke for 25 minutes. He made the inevitable declaration of innocence. I don't possess the hate, rage inside my heart to commit such a heinous crime. And then the insistence that he, Deontay Rezillas, was another wrongfully accused black man.

This courtroom that I'm currently sitting in, there's no place for people of my skin color. Finally, it was the judge's turn. The court now finds you guilty, adjudicates you guilty, and sentences you to life in prison. Afterwards, the suits, Nan Yao, Justin, and Sister Mandy, went to a local park.

The ordeal was behind them, but scars lingered. Justin still battles the effects of trauma, first from finding his mother's body and then being accused of killing her during that painful interrogation, reprised again and again in the courtroom. One positive, he did get the apology

he demanded from the police. I took it upon myself to go talk to him, and I told him, listen, if your feelings are hurt, basically, I'm sorry, but I'm here to do the job for the victim, and that's my responsibilities to the victim to find out who did this, sir. Justin says the apology felt matter-of-fact. I went to the police station, and they apologized to me,

and then right after, they just went into, like, business stuff. I don't think they really know, even to this day, we really know what doing something like that to somebody can cost them. In the park where the family gathered, there's a bench dedicated to Jill, embossed with her artwork. They remembered the woman who made helping others her life's work. It's turn of the century America. The hundreds

of hours she spent recording books for the blind. She touched more lives than you'll ever be able to count. Yeah, definitely. She touched a lot of people's lives. You know, and it's a true fact that if she were still alive, she would be helping out. Justice now done for Jill Sue, the gentlewoman with a huge heart and generous spirit. And an unfinished agenda of good works remaining. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.

I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.