Dateline NBC - The Friday the 13th Murder

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

In this Dateline classic, after a failed marriage, a young woman feels lucky to have a second chance when she gets back together with the man she’d loved since high school. Until one morning, when a single shot rings out in a parking garage. Josh Mankiewicz reports. Originally aired on NBC on November 13, 2009.(Additional Footage: AVRphotography.com) 

Your first love can be your last or it can be just a distant memory. Either way it's unforgettable even if it takes you back to the high school prom. How do you look in that tux? I thought he was adorable then. I think that that was the first night that I really told him that I was in love with him. How did he take that? He loved me too.

It had been almost 20 years since Stacy Rock and Ed Schiller got lost in each other's eyes on prom night. Our hands were like magnets. We never just sat next to each other. We were always, like, melted into each other's eyes on prom night. Our hands were like magnets. We never just sat next to each other. We were always, like, melted into each other. How about when he kissed you? Amazing. I think I kissed him first.

That's what he liked about me, because he was a little shy. But that was back in high school. Over the years, they'd broken up and gotten back together more than once. But they never married. Maybe they were too young. Maybe they loved each other too much. But then came the summer of 2005. They'd been apart for close to 10 years,

when Ed, now 39, and Stacy, now 36, reconnected. And it turned out the magic was still there. We were kind of crazy about each other. We were protective of each other. We were afraid of losing each other. It's the kind of silly fear you have when you're that crazy about someone. But then it came true.

On January 13, 2006, Stacey Rock did lose the love of her life. That unluckiest of days was a Friday the 13th. This one, a cold January morning outside Boston. Ed Schiller was getting ready to leave his car and enter the office building where he worked. But first, Ed made a call to Stacey. Ed called me, as he always did, and we chatted a little bit, and I said, I'll talk to you later. And I should have known, because he'd always call back. Instead, someone walked up to Ed and fired a single bullet into his head. Can you get someone down to our media right now? I think he's been shot. I don't know.

He's in a car in his garage. Ed's co-worker had discovered him in his car in the two-story parking garage next to Aronson Insurance where Ed worked as an agent, 7.45 in the morning. Ed Schiller regularly arrived at work early, and he'd sit in his car for about 15 minutes in the parking garage and listen to music before he went inside. In short, Ed was a creature of habit, and those habits made it easier to stalk and kill him. Duke Donahue investigates homicides for the Middlesex County DA's office. It seemed to be that it was an execution style murder.

But who would want to execute Ed Schiller? The photo album of Ed's life shows a man who acted as if he didn't have a care in the world. Ed didn't just embrace life, he leapt at it, whether it was on the slopes or during a quiet moment holding his brother's baby. Ed Schiller seemed to be a guy with a million friends and no enemies. Ed loved life. He loved to, it sounds like a cliche, but Ed loved to live. Carl Schiller, Ed's younger brother. Part of the real sadness of Ed's murder is that he was turning things around on so many different levels,

and I think reconciling with Stacy was a part of that. When police at the crime scene checked Ed's cell phone, they saw the last number he dialed was Stacy's. Two hours later, they were at her door. What did you think when you saw them? It's kind of a blur, but they told me that Ed had been shot. And I'm like, no, you know, he can't be dead. I wish they had killed me instead.

In that dark, dingy parking garage, detectives could find no eyewitnesses, no obvious motives, no fingerprints, no DNA, and no gun. There was one bullet casing outside the car. Eventually, police dug out a 9mm slug that passed through Ed and lodged in the car door. Now, investigators dug through Ed's past. Ed Schiller wasn't a guy with enemies. Not that we discovered, no. So investigators looked closer to home at both Ed and Stacy's family circles.

Stacy was just getting out of an unhappy marriage and had three kids. Her divorce from her husband of 10 years, Jim Brescia, was almost finalized when she and Ed got together again. Detectives asked Stacy if Jim Brescia could have had anything to do with Ed's murder. I couldn't let myself think that Jim had anything to do with it. When Stacey finally talked to Jim Brescia later that day, he said something that sent a chill up her spine. I think I asked him if he had killed my love or Ed. All I remember him saying is, what, am I supposed to cry?

But police checked Jim Brescia's alibi and it was rock solid. He was at work, far from the murder scene. And all of that sent police back to square one. Who killed Stacy's love? Who killed a likable and fun-loving guy? Someone who didn't seem to have any enemies. Ed Schiller Ed Schiller laid dead in his Nissan Maxima in a parking garage off a busy street in Newton, Mass. Just two weeks before the murder,

Newton, an affluent suburb of Boston, had been named the safest city in America for the second year in a row. There wouldn't be a third. The question in Newton that day was who killed Ed Schiller and why. His brother Carl. He wasn't really afraid of anybody. Just minutes before the murder, Ed's cell phone showed he had spoken with his high

school sweetheart, Stacey Rock. The two had started seeing each other again after a breakup that had lasted 10 years. During that time, Stacey had married, had three kids, but was now all but divorced. Recently, she had been quietly hoping their love affair would finally take them to this chapel near the historic Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. It was a postcard from the Wayside Inn that Stacy sent Ed that set in motion their rekindled love. On the back of the postcard were two words, White Flag, the title of their song.

If you listen to the words, it's, the title of their song. If you listen to the words, it's, I know I caused too much destruction. I don't expect you to come back to me, but I just want you to know that I'm going to die loving you. The postcard was Stacy's way of apologizing to Ed for their bad breakup years earlier. The wayside was their place, where they took long walks near the in-scenic water mill, and later found refuge together in room number nine at the top of the stairs. But I wasn't trying to get him to come back to me. I just had to let him know my feelings for him and where I was and how I got there. Judging by her high school yearbook dedication,

Stacey always thought the place she would be was in Ed's arms and not in a marriage that wasn't working. It was my senior quote, and I said, Ed, you are my world. How did you not marry him? Because as good as we were together, we didn't have it together. You guys were just too young.

Yep. And so Ed went off to college. They drifted apart. When he returned to Boston, the two moved in together. But that didn't last. Stacey wanted more than Ed was prepared to give. I always thought that I was supposed to be married and have children before I was 25. And he wasn't ready. Ed was prepared to give. I always thought that I was supposed to be married and have children before I was 25, and he wasn't ready. Ed was free spirit. And while working as a bartender at a

country club, Stacey met Jim Brescia, a man nine years older. He was engaging, and he had a career, a good-paying job at the defense technology giant Raytheon. I thought maybe he would be more mature and ready to settle down, I guess. Two months after they started dating, Stacey was pregnant. Were you upset, or did you think, this is what I wanted? Oh, no, I was ecstatic. Even though you weren't married to Jim? I think he was stunned. He was very happy also.

But it wasn't long after the baby arrived that Stacy learned more about Jim. She describes him as a taskmaster who didn't appreciate her and was hardly ever home. He was controlling, she said, and selfish. And worst of all, he wasn't Ed Schiller. But Stacy wanted a man who came complete with a commitment. And in the end, she agreed to get more deeply involved with Jim. I tried to love him. I just felt like he didn't love me.

If I could just get him to love me, I could love him. So this was somehow your fault. Yeah. And honestly, I love my baby so much that I wanted more. I wanted a family. Their wedding, ironically, was at the Wayside Inn Chapel, the romantic spot where she and Ed had spent so much time. So I was still trying to pretend, trying to make him Ed, I guess, in a way. Because the wayside inn was your place with Ed?

Absolutely. I regret that, using that place. I hated my wedding, by the way. How long after that wedding did you realize you were with the wrong guy? I knew I was with the wrong guy before I even got married. But get married she did. Seven years and three kids later, Stacey was desperate to get away from Jim. What persuaded you that your marriage to Jim was finally over? I was going crazy mentally. I felt like struck with fear constantly. And I was tired of feeling inadequate and unloved.

It was the fall of 2005. Stacey had filed for divorce before, but Jim talked her out of it. This time there would be no going back. While waiting for the divorce to be finalized, Stacey got a court order to get Jim Brescia out of the house. She started spending more time with Ed, and Jim hated that. He didn't want anybody else around me or the kids. He felt that Ed was helping me, keeping me strong, which he was. After learning about the bad divorce, Detective Duke Donahue thought a chat with Jim Brescia was in order, even though Brescia had been provably at work at around the time of Ed's murder. When the investigator asked Brescia if he could talk with him, Brescia wanted to know why. I told him there had been a shooting

this morning in Newton. Did he say, and who got shot? He did not. He said I had nothing to do with it. That had to strike you as suspicious. I would say so, sure. Donahue had more questions to ask, but first, he had some digging to do. You went through his trash? We did. It looked as if the murder of Ed Schiller might be wrapped up in a series of relationships involving Schiller, his high school sweetheart Stacey Rock, and her soon-to-be ex-husband Jim Brescia. But was it? So far, the pieces didn't add up to a love triangle murder. All kinds of things are saying you should be looking at Jim Brescia, and yet Jim Brescia's

got an alibi. Pretty good one. No question about it. The morning of the murder, Brescia was at work at Raytheon, more than 20 miles away from the scene of the crime. For 23 years, he'd worked at the defense contractor where employees maintained government security clearances. Doesn't sound to me like the guy behind the murder for hire plot. From his co-workers, he was an intense family man. He loved his children and that he was going through a divorce that he didn't want. He was trying to get back with his wife. Jim Brescia was looking down the barrel of a divorce he didn't want, and a boyfriend he didn't want his wife or his children involved with.

He hated Ed. And he made that pretty clear? Yep, even to my kids. Did he ever threaten Ed? Yes. What did he say? That if we ended up together, it wouldn't be good for his health. Did you believe him? No, I just thought that was just another one of his ways of trying to scare me. It seems that Ed Schiller himself realized Brescia's problems with him could come with a big price tag. Ed's brother, Carl.

He said to his neighbor, in fact, that if I wind up with a bullet in my head, you'll know who did it. So there were suspicions, but no proof that Jim Brescia was involved in anything illegal. Duke Donahue thought of another place to look. You went through his trash? We did. His alibi was holding up that he was at work, so we decided to do a trash pull at Jim Brescia's home in Walton. What's in Jim Brescia's trash?

Well, a couple things of significance. One was an empty binoculars box. The second was a credit card receipt. Brescia had used his credit card at Ocean State Job Lot in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Maybe Duke Donahue should have played the lottery that day, because he turned out to be very lucky. The store produced a list of every purchase Brescia made there with his credit card. And one thing leaped out. A prepaid calling card. A phone card. Yes. Jim Brescia had a home phone, an office phone, a personal cell phone, and a Raytheon-issued cell phone. So why would he need a prepaid calling card to make calls from a pay phone. That prepaid phone card made only five

calls and they were all to the same number. The person on the other end was a man named Scott Foxworth and he was a man with a past. Scott Foxworth had actually done time for a homicide many years ago. Foxworth had just been released from prison on probation after killing a man in a bar fight. Foxworth had used a gun to win that fight and was sent away for four years. And police soon found something else, a suspicious car employees noticed in the parking garage the morning of Ed's murder. It was described as a red or maroon, kind of an older model. It was in the garage, backed into a spot across from where Ed Schiller was later parked.

Police checked. Jim Brescia did not own a red car. What kind of car does Scott Foxworth drive? Scott Foxworth drives a red Ford Taurus. Donahue subpoenaed Foxworth Drive. Scott Foxworth Drive, see, Red Ford Taurus. Donahue subpoenaed Foxworth's phone records. In reviewing those records, that phone, on the morning of the homicide, called Jim Brescia's desk phone at Raytheon. That phone also called another co-worker at Raytheon, and that was Nancy Campbell. Nancy Campbell, a 25-year employee at Raytheon, a friend was Nancy Campbell. Nancy Campbell, a 25-year employee at Raytheon, a friend of Jim Brescia's, and a former girlfriend of Scott Foxworth.

Was she the link between these two men? Police questioned Foxworth. They asked why he and Brescia had talked so often, and Foxworth said the calls were about matters of love, not murder. Jim was going to assist Scott potentially getting back with Nancy Kim. So the ostensible reason that Jim Brescia's using a prepaid phone card to surreptitiously call a cell phone is because he's playing matchmaker. Do you believe that? That may be a hard one.

Brescia, Foxworth, and now Campbell knew police were looking at them as possible suspects. A decision was made that we could do a wiretap, which would give us the ability to listen to the conversations that potentially Nancy Campbell or Scott Foxworth or Jim Bresch who were engaging in. And how did they react?

Silence. So this is like Sherlock Holmes, the dog not barking. Correct. Donahue thought the weak link in the chain was Nancy Campbell, a single mother. After four interviews and the threat of a murder conspiracy rap hanging over her, Nancy Campbell cracked. Ultimately, she told us everything she knew about Scott Foxworth assisting Jim in maybe roughing up, was sending Ed Schiller a message. Nancy Campbell gave up the goods. This was a murder-for-hire plot. The price on Ed Schiller's head? $10,000.

Three months after the murder, Jim Brescia and the man police say he'd hired as a hitman, Scott Foxworth, were in court facing charges of first-degree murder. But this was not going to be a slam-dunk case. Look at the evidence. It's circumstantial. There's calls, but there's no hard evidence. Hey, hey, hey. Court is in session. Jim Brescia went on trial first.

Scott Foxworth would be tried separately. Prosecutors say Brescia had hired Foxworth to kill Ed Schiller. And the motive? With Schiller out of the way, Brescia might get his wife back. James Brescia refused to accept that his marriage to Stacey Brescia was over, and he refused to accept that those problems had nothing to do with Edward Schiller. But would jurors buy the rest of the case from Middlesex County Prosecutor Adrian Lynch? It would hang on the testimony of two women in Brescia's life, his co-worker Nancy Campbell and his ex-wife, Stacey.

On the witness stand, Stacey would have to confront the man she says brought so much grief to her life. As she testified, Brescia looked on with a poker face. In 2005, was there a particular reason that you decided to go forward with the divorce? I just couldn't do it anymore. I felt dead inside. Stacey said she had wanted a divorce even before she and Ed reconnected, but that once she started seeing Ed, Jim Brescia became obsessed with that new relationship, even having them followed by a private eye. And finally, Stacey said,

the obsession morphed into a threat. I remember him saying, if we ended up together, it wouldn't be good for his health. And I said, even if you think of doing something silly or stupid, think of your kids. Then, during the Christmas holidays, Stacey said she made a mistake that she would live to regret. Now, during the course of the holidays, what, if anything, did Mr. Brescia do or stay? Where did he stay? He ended up staying at my house for a while. It is still hard for Stacy to explain. He played me again by telling me, you know,

he wasn't gonna go anywhere for Christmas, guilting me out, and the kids kind of wanted him around. Clearly the message Jim got from that was that maybe things can still work out. But I never once said that I wasn't gonna go through with a divorce. I'm ashamed of that because I cheated on Ed. I did not love Jim. Even though you were married to Jim? I did not want to be with him. I don't expect anybody to understand what I can't understand, but I love Ed. And Stacey testified

that when she made that clear to Brescia, he was devastated. Ed was hurt too. And on January 12th, she had dinner with Ed to apologize. It was the night before the murder. And after you saw Edward Schiller in the parking lot that evening, did you ever see him alive again? No. Prosecutors had talked about motive. Now it was time to establish a money trail. On October 14, 2005, Jim Brescia cashed a $4,000 IRS refund check at his mother's bank.

Prosecutors said it was a down payment to the hitman, Scott Foxworth. The next day, Foxworth's bank account showed some unusual activity. Scott Foxworth deposited $1,000 cash into this account. Immediately prior to Mr. Foxworth's deposit, what was the balance of that account? $8.50. The next witness would be Stella Brusha. Prosecutors wanted Brusha's 87-year-old mother, Stella, who went to the bank that day with her son, to testify about what happened to the $4,000 IRS refund.

She arrived in court wanting to help Jim Brescia. Her testimony may have done just the opposite. What did he do with the $4,000? He gave it to me and he put it in an envelope marked IRS. Tell the members of the jury, please, where that money in the envelope was put. I put the envelope in a strong box that I have. She says the cash never left the strong box, and that was October 2005, three months before the murder. And what's inside the envelope?

$4,000. If that was true, Brescia couldn't have used it to pay Foxworth. Prosecutors quickly asked for a recess. Duke Donahue checked the $4,100 bills. Checking the date the bills were printed, Donahue saw they were all printed prior to 2005, the year the check was cashed, except for one of them. One of the bills was signed by a man who had not been yet appointed Secretary of the Treasury as of the time that she said she put it in the box. That crisp hundred was issued in 2006,

one year after Stella says she put the money in the strong box. Was she lying? Or had her son used some of the money without telling her? Either way, it was a disaster for Brescia. Jurors would now hear from the state's star witness, Nancy Campbell. Prosecutors say Nancy Campbell was the one who put Brescia and Foxworth together. Did she know she was helping to set up a hit? Could she have saved Ed Schiller's life by calling police?

Whatever her responsibility might have been, she would pay no legal price for it. Nancy Campbell testified for the prosecution under full immunity. Nancy Campbell, Ed Schiller under full immunity. Nancy Campbell, Ed Schiller's blood's not on her hands? You could make that case that the phone call could have or should have been made. Why would this divorced mother of two risk it all to be a go-between for a jilted husband and an ex-con? In court, she said she wanted nothing to do with it when Brescia first approached her. He said that he wanted me to call Scott, and I said that I wouldn't. If he wanted to talk to him, he could have his number. Prosecutors gave the jury evidence of more than 60 phone calls from payphones between Brescia and Foxworth. On at least two occasions,

Campbell said she saw Brescia call Foxworth from a payphone. I asked why he was calling on the payphone, and he said it couldn't be traced, and he just said he wanted Scott to beat up somebody. I assumed it was Ed. Campbell said Brescia and Foxworth together tracked down where Ed lived and worked, and the plan changed from roughing up Ed to something more sinister. A beating wasn't enough. They could point the finger back at him, and if he was dead, then they couldn't. On Friday, January 13th, Campbell's phone rang. It was Jim Brescia.

He just said that something bad happened, and I said, what do you mean? He just kept saying something bad happened. Shortly after came a bizarre call from Scott Foxworth. And I said, what do you mean? He just kept saying something bad happened. Shortly after came a bizarre call from Scott Foxworth. And he said to me, well, I hope he didn't hire someone else to take care of Ed. And I said, what are you talking about? And he said, well, you know how he's been talking to me, but I keep telling him I'm not doing that. Foxworth and Brescia were pointing fingers at each other, or maybe they were trying to confuse the one person who knew of their plot. After two weeks of testimony from 69 witnesses and more than 200 exhibits,

this circumstantial case seemed to have some teeth in it. Your Honor, with that, the commonwealth... But Jim Brescia was about to bite back. Your Honor, I call James Brescia. Brescia, please to bite back. Your Honor, I call James Brescia to the stand. Brescia, please step forward, sir. The defense had been hammered during the prosecution's case, but Jay Carney, one of Boston's most experienced defense attorneys, was ready. He set his sights on the key to the prosecution's case, but Jay Carney, one of Boston's most experienced defense

attorneys, was ready. He set his sights on the key to the state's case, Nancy Campbell. If Carney could get jurors to question her testimony and her motives, then his client Jim Brescia might have a chance. You would need to find that Nancy Campbell is a believable witness to ever find the defendant guilty. Campbell testified under a grant of immunity that she was the go-between for Brescia and her ex-boyfriend Scott Foxworth, a convicted killer, in this murder-for-hire plot. You think that the story she's telling is not the real story? I think Nancy Campbell was forced to tell a story that would support the government's case. As proof of this theory, he reminded Campbell that what she initially told police completely changed as she faced the threat of being charged as an accessory to murder.

The police asked you directly whether Jim Brescia ever said he wanted Ed Schiller killed. Yes. Or dead. And isn't it true that you said to the police, no, not to me? Yes. Campbell testified that it wasn't until her fourth interview in April, three months after the murder, that she finally told the truth. When it came time to cross-examine Brescia's ex-wife, Stacy,

the defense wanted jurors to understand that her testimony was motivated by revenge to get back at her husband. And it would also be fair to say that you hate Jim Brescia to your core. No. I can't hate him because that would consume my life and that's what killed Ed. Carney also wanted jurors to believe that Stacey was thinking about reconciling with Brescia when she allowed him to stay at her home during the Christmas holidays. If there was going to be a reconciliation, Carney reasoned,

Brescia would have no reason to order a hit on Ed Schiller. I think Stacey engaged in a lot of revisionist history at the trial trying to justify her conduct. When it came time for the defense to call its witnesses, there would be only one. It should be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so I hope you are. And that would be Jim Brescia himself. Brescia started out by testifying he was not obsessed with Ed Schiller because Stacey had started divorce proceedings well before Ed was ever back in the picture. Did you ever, during the entire time that you were married to Stacey,

ever tell her that if she and Ed got together, it would be bad for his health? No. Did you ever tell your wife that if something bad happened to Ed, it wouldn't be you? No, that's ridiculous, no. Brescia did admit being upset when Schiller was with Stacy and around his children, and he said he told that to Scott Foxworth. I told him that I'd like, you know, it wouldn't bother me if I saw the kid get beat up or something. And what did you suggest to Mr. Foxworth that Mr. Foxworth could do? I just asked him if he wanted to engage. Engage, a benign word for paying to get Foxworth's ex-con hands on Ed Schiller

to rough him up and frighten him away from Stacey. Brescia testified Foxworth wanted $2,000 for that little piece of dirty work, and Brescia said that when he balked, Foxworth said he'd take $1,000 up front and another $1,000 if Ed Schiller stopped seeing Stacey. Brescia agreed. What was the most that Scott Foxworth was going to do with Ed Schiller in sending him a message? He was going to threaten him. He might beat him if it came to that, but that was it. Finally, Brescia testified that Nancy Campbell lied when she said he had ordered a hit.

At any time in your life did you ever tell Nancy Campbell that you had hired Scott Foxworth to kill Edward Schiller? No, never. Engage. That's all Brescia wanted, he said. But by the holidays, when Foxworth still hadn't engaged Ed, Brescia said he wanted his $1,000 back. What did he say? He told me to just be patient. What else did you tell him, if anything, besides that you wanted the money back?

Just that, you know, things were going well with the family, and, you know, it didn't appear that I needed to do anything like that anymore. As evidence, Carney asked Brescia to read a letter he'd given to Stacey after the holidays. I love you, Stacey. I really do. I just wish every day could be the same as the last. And spending the time together that we did just reinforced in me how strong our emotions and feelings for each other really can be. On January 13th, Brescia testified he got the shock of his life when he learned Ed Schiller had been murdered. And he called Foxworth again from a payphone.

I told him that, you know, the police had confronted me and he said, well, at least your problem's taken care of now. I said, what do you mean? that the police had confronted me, and he said, well, at least your problem's taken care of now. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, the problem's been taken care of now. You should give me the other $1,000. What was your attitude in talking to him? I was out of my mind.

I was mad. I said, I told you I wanted my money back. I didn't want to do anything like this. I said, you know, I didn't ask you to kill anybody. He told me if I didn't pay the money that same thing would end up happening to me. And so Jim Brescia testified. He later gave Foxworth another thousand dollars. I think it's possible that people can get caught up in thinking that life is a bit like a TV program or dealing with The Sopranos or something like that. I suspect that Jim Brescia had a little bit of a thrill dealing with a person like Scott Foxworth for a while. But when he realized how foolish that was, he tried to undo it. Regrettably, tragically, he wasn't able to.

Plenty of TV shows don't deliver this much drama. What happened next was a twist no one saw coming. Jim Brescia's defense was that he admitted making the phone calls, admitted hiring Scott Foxworth, but says that all he wanted was for Foxworth to beat up Ed Schiller, not kill him. Brescia says Foxworth went ahead and did that on his own. Then, during cross-examination, either something happened to Jim Brescia, or it didn't. You be the judge. I just got a really bad headache. I'm having a hot time. I'm sorry. When jurors began deliberations, there was much to consider, not the least of which was Jim Brescia's performance on the witness stand.

What bothered me the most is we want killers to look like killers and not like normal people. Once the door to the jury room was closed, the six-man, six-woman jury was overwhelmed by the decision ahead. A couple of people actually broke down. It was intense, but it was also brief. After only five hours, jurors sent out a note. They had reached a verdict.

Ed Schiller's family huddled together in the front row. But when jurors walked into the courtroom, they were puzzled by the absence of one man, Jim Brescia. You guys go out to deliberate. You come back, the defendant's gone. What did you guys think? He escaped. Did you wonder when you came back?

We were shocked. Never saw that happen before. We were shocked. I was shocked. Where was Brescia? For the answer to that question, you have to go back to what happened the day before when Brescia was still on the stand. Were you afraid to do it yourself?

Afraid of what? You wanted to get somebody else to do your dirty work for you, right? No. During his first day of testimony, Brescia seemed fine. But when he came back for a second day of cross-examination, Brescia appeared disoriented at times. I am confused. I don't know exactly what

you're asking me. Not recalling what he had said only 24 hours earlier. So the answer to the question, did you meet Scott Foxworth prior to him going away to prison in August of 2002, is yes, right? Yeah, I'm sorry, Adrienne. I got a headache. Excuse me? I just got a really bad headache. I'm having a hard time. I'm sorry. Yes, she had introduced him to me that day, yes. Did you call me by my first name? I said, I have a headache. I just have a headache. Bresch's attorney, Jay Carney, knew something was wrong. Mentally, I was saying, Jim, answer this question.

You testified to it yesterday. And his response instead was he didn't understand the question or he didn't remember what he had said before. In fact, the day of the verdict, Brasher was not in court because he was at a hospital undergoing tests where doctors determined he had suffered a minor stroke. Prosecutors say that even if true, it was a minor event against the backdrop of the entire trial. Okay, so you don't take the fact that he called you by your first name as evidence that maybe he was suffering some mental impairment at that time? No, it actually is my name. He wasn't calling me the Queen of England. Regardless of where Brescia was and what his diagnosis would be, the judge ruled a verdict

would still be read in court with or without him. When asked when I've been charging the defendant James Brescia with murder, what say you sir, is the defendant guilty or not guilty? Guilty,ense is charged. Carl Schiller hugged his mother and father, who had listened to every brutal fact throughout the trial. Outside the courthouse, defense attorney Jay Carney said this verdict would not be the final word. A person who suffers a stroke

while he is in the middle of testifying in his own trial would not be able to have a fair trial. Stacey Rock, however, had her own diagnosis. That's a joke. Joke stroke. It was his last ditch effort to try to get away with it, and now he thinks he's going to win the appeal, and he won't. Except he did. An appeals court ordered a new trial, and 10 years later, Jim Brescia went on trial for a second time. After the case went to the jury, there was, once again, a last-minute bombshell. Before a verdict was delivered, Brescia pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison, this time with the possibility of parole. As for Stacey Rock, her sentence was life without Ed, her true love. She often thinks about what the years ahead could have been,

those walks around the water mill and those carefree days at the Wayside Inn. I know you blame yourself, but I don't think Ed would blame you. He knows that if I had known, I would have done something. I would die for him. What's the lesson here? I think I was very lucky to have him, and some people never get that ever. I have to live for him now and make the most of every day. In their room number nine hideaway,

there's a tradition of couples leaving love notes in a secret compartment in the dresser and buried among all the others are the notes passed between two sweethearts who thought they finally had all the time in the world.