Dateline NBC - The Root of All Evil

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

In this Dateline classic, a young real estate investor and father is found dead in the kitchen of his Jonesboro, Arkansas home. Who could have committed such a crime? Sometimes the most dangerous people in our lives are the ones who should love us the most. Keith Morrison reports. Originally aired on NBC on November 14, 2014. 

I never dreamed somebody could do this. I didn't know why anybody would want to kill him. You watch it on TV. You see it all the time. You just don't think it can happen to you. They were a young couple in a hurry to make their fortune. 50s, 100s, 20s. Piles of money. Building a life until make their fortune. 50s, 100s, 20s, piles of money.

Building a life until one life ended all too soon. What happened to your husband, ma'am? He was laying in the floor and I got scared. I ran out of the house. A young father murdered in broad daylight. Didn't look like a robbery. Lots of valuables left behind. Lots of secrets, too. It just kind of sent chills up my back.

Something was tearing a family apart. I don't even know where to start. Or was it someone? The most cold-blooded evil person. A family feud and an innocent man caught in the middle. You know these shows you watch that people see the ghosts of their loved ones? I wanted that so bad. So bad.

I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with The Root of All Evil. The hunting is good here in the Arkansas Delta. Twice a year, a horde of migrating mallards descends on flooded rice fields. Deer stare out through thickets of hardwood. You have to be quiet, sure-footed, your aim true. That's what Mark Despain's dad taught him. That's what Mark taught his own son taught him. That's what Mark taught his own son. Before

the hatred warmed its way in. Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it? It is. It is. The anger that pitted father against son. It almost got physical and just, it breaks my heart. A husband against wife. I just wanted

to go into protective mode and protect us all. And brought the hunting to town on a deathly quiet summer afternoon. What could be left but the bitter taste of recrimination? He is evil. He is not the kind of person that he's got the public convinced that he is. Jonesboro is both a college town and a farm town. Tends to the needs of young minds and rice farmers on the vast plain of sticky, fertile clay west of the Mississippi River. It's where Mark Despain breezed through school with his easy charm. Tana is his mother.

He was the only freshman that we know of that was chosen by a senior to go to the senior prom. Mark became a high school football star. His sister Jackie watched him bring trophies home to lay at the feet of his father, Jack. He really did look up to dad and he always wanted to, you know, impress him and stuff. And then, well, it's an old story, really. When I was 18 and he was 19, we just bumped into each other. Pretty Michelle.

She was sitting on top of a car when Mark spotted her one night, tiny, doe-eyed, and before long, pregnant. The way I was brought up, you know, if you got a girl pregnant, you married her. That's just, that was just what she did. So, there was a shotgun wedding. Two families

thrown together. Mark and his parents, Jack and Tana. Michelle and her long-divorced parents, her mom Kathy and her dad, Carl. Michelle also brought along a baby from an earlier relationship. And he never treated her like she was not his, never.

Together, they had two boys. He loved his kids. I mean, just anything they ever dreamed of, he would do his damnedest to get it. Anything. The little family moved into a trailer Mark's parents bought them, and Mark studied hard to become a real estate appraiser like his mom, and went into business with his parents. Which, said Michelle, is about when things began to go wrong.

Mark didn't like to be pushed around by his dad. He was an independent person. The growing tension spilled over at the kitchen table. Mark demanded a bigger share of the money. They argued, and then Michelle chimed in. Oh, boy. Oh, my goodness, when she opened her mouth, Dad just flipped off the handle.

And, of course, Mark just, I don't know, stepped in as a husband, like a husband should do. That's how it began, the trouble between father and son, the trouble that was going to get so much worse. Mark split away from the family business. Michelle helped him with bookkeeping. I was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish. And they were a good team, said Michelle's mother, Kathy. They both just had the ability to work together and make money. Mark got into real estate investment. His first, a trailer park no one else would touch.

I couldn't believe he bought that. I was, what are you thinking? Have you lost your mind? He flipped it. Made him about a $100,000 profit. And so having done it once, you figured he'd do it again. Absolutely. And the money seemed to roll in. Mark moved his family to an upscale neighborhood in the southern part of town. Adrift from his own parents, he spent more and more time with Michelle's,

taking them all on family trips He even hired Michelle's dad, Carl, to be his rent collector I remember a lot of times walking in And Carl would be sitting at the dining room table In his 50s, 100s, 20s He was counting them like a drug dealer Just piles of money Piles of money And then, one August afternoon Michelle came home from work He was counting them like a drug dealer. Just piles of money. Piles of money.

And then, one August afternoon, Michelle came home from work early. When I walked in, there weren't any lights on. Everything was knocked into the floor. And then she got to the kitchen, and there he was. And he was laying in the floor. And there was blood coming all out from behind him. And I shook his leg and said his name. And I looked around, and there was stuff in the floor everywhere. And I got scared.

She ran outside, terrified, and called 911. 911, what's your emergency? My husband just came home. Ma'am, I need you to take a deep breath, okay, and tell me what's going on. I don't know. Michelle ran across the street to a neighbor's house, desperate to hide. She's not answering the door. Okay.

You want me to stay on the phone with you? No, I need to call my mom. Okay, call your mom. I'm going to get them in real. It was a voice that scared me. You know, you pick up the phone, you hear one of your kids on the phone and you hear crying. Kathy raced over there, found Michelle sobbing on the curb. She's going, I got to get to him.. I gotta get to him. I just kind of grab my daughter by the shoulders and I'm like, Michelle, he's gone. He's gone. So he was dead on his own kitchen floor. A young wife is now a widow and the horror of what she witnessed is unforgettable. Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot? Oh, yeah. Her family's good life suddenly gone.

Or maybe it hadn't been so good. He was kind of embarrassed to have to come and get money for me. Money? Is that a clue? They're burned into Michelle Despain's brain. The images of that awful afternoon. Shadows in the hallway. Her husband. His blood.

Am I laying in the floor? Is it a sight that lives in your mind a lot? Oh, yeah. Outside, a crowd of police and friends and family and curious neighbors gathered on the street below Mark's house. Among them, in an awful state, was Mark's sister, Jackie. You know, everything was wrapped in tape, and police officers, you can't cross here, you can't do this, you can't do that. I don't know, I just wanted to hold his hand or something.

Detective Vic Brooks was on the other side of that police tape. When I first walked in, I noticed that there were some papers that appeared to be knocked on the ground, and there was some broken glass and stuff like that on the floor. Investigators snapped photos of the chaos. Drawers pulled out in a bedroom. Clothes thrown into a bathtub. A jewelry case toppled over.

Like somebody was looking for something. Possibly. They asked around the neighborhood, did anyone see any strangers that afternoon? And yes, someone did. Investigators told prosecutor Scott Ellington. An African-American was seen in the neighborhood wearing a certain colored shirt. It wasn't just that. Later, somebody said they saw an aging and beat-up blue Mercedes circling the neighborhood. So, thieves casing the house? Maybe.

And yet, as Detective Brooks looked around the house, he could see, this just didn't have the hallmarks of a robbery. The valuable stuff, TV sets, guns, computers, were untouched. And look at this photo, sitting next to Mark's keys in a cell phone on the kitchen island is a container of ice cream. It appeared that he had just walked in and set these items down and then was caught totally off guard. All of that seemed a shriek of a planned ambush, dressed up a little to look like robbery.

The way investigators pieced it together, somebody was waiting for Mark to get home, then crept up from behind, shot him twice. He had suffered two gunshot wounds, one that appeared to have entered from on his left side, and then another shot he had sustained to his face. That was a kind of, what is it, a kill shot or something? Yes, sir.

Somebody's making sure. It appears so, I guess. Why would someone want to kill Mark Despain? I was so confused. I just, I didn't think Mark had any enemies. And I didn't know why anybody would want to kill him. Detective Brooks soon discovered a possible reason. Even though they'd been living lavishly, Mark had serious money trouble. He was kind of embarrassed to have to

come and get money for me. It was a couple of months before the murder, said Michelle's mother, Kathy. Mark asked her for cash to help pay for Michelle's birthday present. You know, it's very unusual because usually they just go out and buy whatever they want. Not anymore. That summer 2011, Jonesboro Real Estate was far from recovered. Many of Mark's rental properties were underwater. The bank was closing in.

Tenants were being forced out of their homes. So... Was anybody upset with Mark? Was this any of his tenants? Could this have been somebody like that? And then, an ugly little surprise crawled out of Mark's own troubled family. Mark and his parents were lobbing lawsuits at each other

over some shared property. The prosecutor heard that Mark's dad, Jack, was a hothead. Jack was very, very angry at Mark for mishandling this property that they co-owned together. Yes, but it went deeper than that. Went to a very dark place, as you will see. And because of it, Mark hadn't spoken to his parents in years. So, when Jack showed up at the crime scene, the suspicion was audible. Michelle's dad, Carl, started yelling at him.

Cursing very loudly, calling him all kinds of names. But what was he saying? There's that son of a bitch, Jack Despain. Did you think Jack was somehow responsible? Oh, yeah. Mark had told multiple people, if anything ever happens to me, you'll look at my dad. Of course. Detective Brooks invited Jack down to the police station.

Just maybe this mystery would have a quick, if very disturbing, solution. Coming up. A young girl makes a troubling accusation that divides a family. Oh, my God. Could this have possibly happened? But was that the motive for murder? Was it even true? When Dateline continues.

It's an unpleasant thing to think about. Parents murdering their own children. But it happens. It's an old story, frankly. Some awful glitch, perhaps, in the human recipe. Had it happened here in Jonesboro? Suspicion fell quickly on Mark's dad, Jack Despain. Michelle's mom heard about it when she called to tell a relative that Mark was dead.

Somebody's murdered Mark, and he was like, oh, my God, he said, have they found Jack Despain? He thought right away it was Jack. Mm-hmm. Because anyone close to Jack and his family knew that a poison far more potent than money had come between father and son. I never saw it coming. I don't think Mark ever saw it coming. It began, said Michelle, when her 13-year-old daughter told them an ugly story,

that her Grandpa Jack asked her to take nude photos of herself on his phone. Mark called a family meeting. Mark told his dad, you know, there's a problem. We want to help you. You know, we're not here to point fingers at you or judge you. Jack swore he did nothing wrong. Mark called in the police. Tana, Jack's wife of more than 30 years, left him,

moved in with Mark and Michelle. How do you prepare for a thing like that? You don't. You don't prepare. What is that like? You just, your mind just is in overdrive. You know, trying to think, you know, oh my God, could this have possibly happened? But after the police interviewed the girl and then Jack and then the girl again and heard her story change, become more elaborate, the investigation was dropped.

And Tana, riven with guilt for ever suspecting Jack abused his granddaughter, went back to him and begged forgiveness. The man I've been married to for over 30 years and went to high school with and then doubting him and knowing I shouldn't have. But Mark and Michelle, believing the girl, never spoke to his mom or dad again, cut them off from their grandkids, disowned Mark's sister when she took Jack's side.

I believe Dad 100%. I don't believe he had anything to do with it. So that was the ugly backdrop to the murder investigation. And Detective Brooks would have to figure out if this years-old, unproven allegation had so eaten away at Mark's dad that it pushed him over the edge. Time to meet potential suspect number one. Close that door, Mr. Despain. Detective Brooks sat down with Jack in an interrogation room

and watched the man fall apart. Was this true grief the detective was witnessing? A regret? Or guilt over something Jack had done? Or hadn't done? That's too late. Too late? What did he mean? Jack didn't shy away from discussing those abuse allegations.

Here's how it happened, he said. She had taken some nude photos of herself and some of her boyfriends. Jack said he found out the girl was sexting, confronted her, said he was going to tell her parents. But she got to them before he did, Jack said, and invented a story to get out of trouble. Jack told us the same story, eager, he said, to finally set the record straight. You didn't ever ask her to take pictures of herself and give them to you? No. But the accusation, said Jack, almost destroyed him.

I was at home. I could have opened up my own whiskey store, I think. There was much whiskey I'd drunk for two months. And typically I don't drink. But that was just to kill the pain. Because everybody assumed that you were abusing your own granddaughter. Yes. Yes.

The detective wondered, did Jack's pain drive him to seek revenge on his own son? No, said Jack, no. He wanted to reconcile with Mark, not kill him. Anyway, when Mark was murdered, said Jack, he was miles away at his own house. That alibi would have to be checked out, of course. But even before Detective Brooks had a chance to do that, other members of the family came down to the police station and told him, don't be fooled by Jack's tears. He was an angry and possibly violent man.

He said, I will ruin you and your family. He said, for you accusing me of this. He said, I will ruin you and your family. He said, for y'all accusing me of this. He said, I will see you ruined. This is Michelle's dad, Carl. The man had been cursing Jack out on the street right there at the murder scene. If I was going to point a finger at anybody, if that's what you're asking, I'd point at Jack and his family. Detective Brooks could plainly see this was a family with a troubling history. So he made a decision.

To attend Mark Despain's visitation, take a look around, see what his gut would tell him. I saw a note in your case file you wrote, this has to be one of the strangest visitations I ever attended. Yes. It was just a cold feeling. It did not feel right.

Was the killer sitting among the mourners, planning a next move? Coming up, a family feud at the funeral. She calls the police on us. And somebody else calls the police with a tip that could crack the case. That was a nice little gift. It was. Michelle and Mark. Just children, really. When they got married. Now Mark was dead.

Gunned down in the family kitchen and Michelle had to plan his funeral. She was barely functioning, she said. I couldn't even tell you who was at the, you know, who was there. It was just a blur. It all still just feels like a blur. But there was one thing she was clear about. Mark's parents and sister were not welcome at his funeral. What was the funeral like for you? Oh, it was awful. We couldn't sit down on the main level with family. Why? Michelle wouldn't let us.

She barred us. It was the same at the cemetery. She's literally trying to get him in the ground before we can even walk up. You mean get them to fill in the grave? Yes. So we just immediately jump out of our cars. We start rushing to the graveside. And she calls the police on us. She calls the police at my brother's funeral.

And yet, for all the chatter about Jack, that he might have killed his own son, Detective Brooke's instinct said no. Jack's alibi checked out. He was fixing his roof afternoon of the murder. And those tears in the interrogation room. I did not feel anything as being fake from Mr. Spain. He appeared to be a broken man at that time. So what to make of the fractured family and all the bad blood now tangled up with so much grief? Detective Brooks thought back to his interview with Michelle's dad, Carl, the man who pointed a finger at Jack on day one.

He told him he didn't want to have nothing to do with him. Carl said he'd been in Mark's house not too long before the murder, dropped off some rent money. Why didn't they shoot me instead of him? I had the money in my hand. Interesting timing. Coincidence?

Or as Detective Brooks wondered, did Carl have something to do with the murder? Maybe not. Carl's alibi checked out. Surveillance cameras, in fact, caught Carl right where he said he was around the time Mark was gunned down, meeting his daughter at the bank where she worked. He could not have shot Mark. Well, the investigation continued. Mark's parents spent time at the cemetery, finally able to do what they couldn't when their son was still alive. We talked to him, talked to Mark.

Rainy days were the worst. I didn't like rainy days. What do you mean, rainy days? I didn't like him getting wet. I knew he was in heaven. But I just didn't like the rain on him. And then, pure luck, really. Remember how neighbors reported seeing an African-American stranger in the neighborhood? Now someone called the cops with a tip.

Somebody who matched that description was actually boasting about shooting Mark Disbane. That was a nice little gift. It was. Didn't take them long to find the guy. Street name, Quelo. Real name, Terrence Barker. And he was nervous. I can see your heart beating through that shirt right now.

I know you're scared. He denied everything. I don't know what to tell you, man. I know you're scared. He denied everything. I don't know what to tell you, man. I didn't do this. Detective Brooks wasn't buying it. Because by then, the police also tracked down the driver of that beat-up blue Mercedes seen near the house before the murder.

And he told the cops he took Quelo to meet a man in a church parking lot. And that man wanted a job done. Was that job murder? I didn't do that. I did not do that, sir. By now, Detective Brooks had been working night and day for a week. His store of patients ran out. This is serious s*** to me.

I got three kids that are laying over crying. Was it that angry speech? Or another long night in his cell? The next day, Quelo came clean. For a promise of $7,000 to $10,000, still unpaid, he said, he took the job to shoot and kill Mark Despain. He fired the first round round and that round hits him more. I guess it would say there. He didn't know Mark from Adam. He said it was the man from the parking lot

who took him to Mark's house, told him where to lie and wait for Mark, gave him a gun, and then Coelho said something rather surprising. What the hell kind of people do like this? The shooter who executed a stranger something rather surprising. The shooter, who executed a stranger for the mere promise of a few grand, said he was appalled, not at himself, at the man who hired him. You know, especially people that you think they care about you or love you, they're supposed to be, these would be the same s**t that would be in your face, plotting on you.

If the hitman was telling the truth, Detective Brooks' hunch had been right. Someone who claimed to love Mark also plotted his death. But who? Coming up, Michelle confesses to an affair. My dad didn't know that. Morgan, I mean, nobody knew that. And there was another surprise. There were two insurance policies, each for the amount of $500,000. When Dateline continues. It's shocking what some people will do for the mere promise of a few thousand dollars.

Like lie in wait for a mark to Spain, then put a bullet in his head. But revealing his paymaster? That the hitman did for free. And the name? Somebody called me and said, have you heard Carl's just got arrested? I'm like, oh my God, he did this. Carl, Kathy's ex-husband, Michelle's dad. But Mark gave him a house and a job and took him on family vacations. And once again, said Michelle, she was stunned I thought that he cared for Mark, you know, the father of my kids But Michelle's mom, Kathy, was not so surprised

She knew what Carl was capable of She divorced him years earlier, she said To escape his explosions of temper. He never would hit me because he didn't want to leave Mark. What would he do? He would hold a gun to my head. Hold a gun to your head? Yes.

Threaten you? Yes. Still, what would make him mad enough to have Mark killed? Confronted, Carl's face turned to stone. I'm not going to say anything without a lawyer, baby. But as investigators discovered, Carl had been talking to other people, told them Mark had been physically abusing Michelle, that he was tired of it. Did you investigate whether or not any abuse actually occurred in that marriage?

There was not any abuse ever found to have happened. So if the abuse story was an obvious lie, why did Carl do it? Mark's parents were certain he didn't come up with the idea on his own. The real mastermind, they believed, was someone else very close to Mark, his wife Michelle. I cannot see Carl taking my son's life without Michelle being involved. Michelle was far from a loving, doting wife, they said. The woman they knew was pure self-interest, would do anything to get what she wanted.

Exhibit A? So what was it that just turned Mark against you? Michelle's manipulation. It was Michelle who pushed Mark to break away from the family business, they said. Michelle who tore the family apart by stoking her own daughter's allegations of abuse to drive a permanent wedge between Mark and his dad and get Mark and his money all to herself. They could easily see her goading her father into planning a murder.

Michelle is a sociopath. She is absolutely, cares nothing about anyone or anything but Michelle. Quite an allegation, if true. And as it happened, Detective Brooks was pretty sure he saw an effort by the grieving widow to manipulate him. He interviewed her, of course, right after the murder. I nudged his leg and screamed to say, I can't, I didn't know at all. All that emotion in her voice, it seemed like an act to him. There was no tears.

No tears. But her voice of desperation captured on the 911 call. Surely that was real. She's not answering the door. Okay. Maybe not. One of Michelle's neighbors said they saw her standing calmly in the middle of the lawn. They see a woman standing out there talking on her phone.

It didn't appear to be in a grievous situation for sure. Wasn't like she was calling around the neighborhood for help. No. And Mark's sister still remembered how cool Michelle seemed at the crime scene. I think what bothered me the most is how clean she was. Like, her hair was still perfect, her nails were still perfect. What would you have expected? Well, as brutal as it sounds, some blood underneath her fingernails or something.

Like she got down there and tried to revive him or something? So Detective Brooks took a careful look at Michelle's story, how she invited Mark, who was working from home, to have lunch with her downtown. And then after lunch, they went across the street to buy ice cream for dessert. See them here? Mark had literally minutes to live. Phone records showed that in the hours leading up to Mark's death, there were calls and a flurry of

text messages between Michelle and her dad. What the investigator found was that there was an enormous amount of text missing. There were chunks of text missing from Carl's phone and from Michelle's phone. Anything interesting or suspicious about the fact that they were missing from both phones? Immediately was suspicious. On the day her dad was arrested, Detective Brooks invited Michelle back to the police station and asked her point blank. Do you have anything to do with the murder of your husband? No, sir. No, sir.

But she admitted she was hiding something. Anything at all that you need to get off your chest or make you chill? Just that I was seeing a guy, but my dad didn't know that. Morgan, I mean, nobody knew that. Nobody knew that. Seeing a guy? An affair? It all tumbled down. How Michelle was dipping into family finances to pay for her lover's apartment, for his groceries. You have to understand, Iay is trying to do this.

So maybe Mark was on to her, was about to find out what Michelle was doing behind his back. Mark's parents believed the Michelle they knew would rather see her husband dead than risk being on the losing end of a messy divorce. So it was all going to fall apart. Yeah. From trailer trash to a rich woman, so she thought in her mind, she was fixing to go back to being trailer trash again. And she just couldn't stand the thought. But if Mark died?

We found that there were two insurance policies, each for the amount of $500,000. That's a healthy chunk of change. Yes, sir. A whole noxious stew of suspicion by now, but none of it actual proof. Months went by. Michelle went on with her life. Jack and Tana pushed investigators to keep going.

They even posted a billboard asking the public for help. The idea that Michelle might get away with murder was eating Jack alive. You've got a whole lot of anger in there for that woman, haven't you? If I could take her life and bring my son back, I'd do it. I'd do it in a heartbeat. Sometimes it's overwhelming, that anger, isn't it?

It is. It is. Coming up, one more twist. I never dreamed he would do it to me. And justice for Mark? Maybe. I kept thinking of the children. I wanted answers for the children.

Jack and Tana Despain heard how their son's widow was living, with a new boyfriend on her arm, with life insurance money in her pocket, and they fumed. She's buying stuff and buying clothes and going to restaurants, and it's very hard for us to take. Detective Brooks was determined to see the case through. Just like Mark's parents, he believed Michelle orchestrated the murder down to the very minute. The shooter himself said as much. Carl was texting with someone, he said, as they made their final plans in the church parking lot.

Who do you say he's texting? The dude in white. Play by play. Play by play. But virtually all those texts had been deleted. Detective Brooks labored for months, nights, weekends. Kind of got emotionally wrapped up in this one, huh? I kept thinking of the children. I wanted answers for the children.

Then, a breakthrough. Finally, nine months after the murder, a police analyst managed to recover several deleted text messages, including this one. Timestamped 8.20 a.m., five hours before the murder, Michelle writes to her dad, Has to be today. Can't live like this.

Awful this morning. Her dad's response? He asks if she can get him away for lunch, right? Yes. She says she can. She says she can. And he replies, okay, I will let you know time. And my review of some of the text messages is that Mark really wasn't interested in going to eat lunch that day,

but she begged him to take her to lunch. After lunch, remember, she asked Mark to linger for an ice cream treat. All the while, texting her dad, said the prosecutor, tipping him off to Mark's whereabouts as Carl placed a killer in their home. It just kind of sent chills up my back. What kind of person have you got to be to let your husband walk away from you knowing what he's going to walk into when he gets home armed with our new evidence police arrested michelle she was charged

with capital murder for planning and orchestrating the crime she denied it said she could explain everything and agreed to tell us why people should believe that you had nothing to do with the plot to kill Mark? Because I didn't. He was such a good dad. Such a good dad. Anybody that knows me knows that my kids are so important to me. The most important thing. And I would never want them to not have their dad.

But she did want out of the marriage, she said. So those back-and-forth texts with her dad that day did involve a plot, just not murder. What did you think he was helping you do? Leave. How was he going to help you leave? By getting things while we were gone. So she'd keep Mark at lunch while Carl and two hired hens moved her stuff out of the house. But her dad changed the plan on her, she said. Use those men to kill her husband. She swore to us she

had no idea when she met her dad at the bank that day what he'd just done. You're this close to each other, father and daughter, and you're looking in his eyes and talking to him. He gives no hint that he just killed your husband? Not at all. And then Michelle, what's the expression, threw her father under the bus. Carl killed Mark, she said, not because he thought Mark was abusing her, but for money, for a piece of the insurance payout. But you were going to get the insurance. Right. So even if it was his idea, it makes you look pretty guilty. Right. One thing that he always told me and my sister growing up was, you know, that he used people for what you can get out of them, you know. That was what he told you? Mm-hmm.

Sure. I never dreamed he would do it to me. Use me. Did he? Or was Michelle the clever user? In our interview, Michelle denied being a master manipulator. She denied she stoked those sex abuse allegations. Or that she engineered Mark's split with his parents.

For that, she blamed Jack and Tana. I never would have walked away from my kid in the first place. I never would have walked away from my kid in the first place. I never would have. In the end, they didn't walk away from their kid either. Because who was pushing from day one to solve the murder? Who kept pushing month after month after month? My opinion on that is their hatred toward me. It wasn't anything to do with Mark. It didn't have anything to do with Mark.

It was all about Jack Despain's hatred toward me. Do you seriously believe that? I do. Michelle, out on bail, waited for trial. Her mother, Kathy, defended her around town. Did you ever let yourself think she was involved? The daughter I know? The daughter I helped raise? No. Meanwhile, Michelle's attorneys, Ray Nickel and Bill Stanley, took a closer look at those recovered text messages.

They filed a motion arguing that investigators didn't obtain them properly. They didn't get a new search warrant every time they searched the phone. We're talking about, I think, 15 searches of Michelle and Carl's phones, and they didn't have 15 search warrants. Their arguments about improper search warrants may have had some traction. With the trial looming, the prosecutor was worried. We're at the high-stakes poker game where it's all or nothing when that judge rules the next day on whether to admit the evidence or not to admit it.

The prosecutor agreed to start talking about a plea deal. The defense played it tough, said Michelle was only willing to admit she learned about her father's plot after the murder. She is admitting to having knowledge of someone being involved and not disclosing that to the police. She would agree to plead guilty to a charge of hindering apprehension, said the defense. After some prayer, Mark's mother said she could

live with that. I'm not a gambling person. And, you know, it would only, even if we went to trial, it would have only taken one sympathetic juror to have set her free. It was more than three years after the death

of her husband when Michelle Despain walked into a courtroom to be sentenced. She left in handcuffs, mouthing, I love you, to her mom. Her dad on the shooter got 35 years, but Michelle, though sentenced to 30 years, was out on parole after less than five. She is now remarried.

All the kids are grown up. Jack and Tana haven't heard much from the kids are grown up. Jack and Tana haven't heard much from the kids over the years, but that hasn't stopped them hoping one day they'll get to tell them about their dad, about their love for him, before all this hate. Some of Mark's friends told us

that you were his hero, Jack. Yeah. You knew that. I loved him. I'm sorry, Jack. In tribute to Mark, Jack and Tana have dedicated themselves to helping other victims of violent crime. We're going to try to move forward with something positive that we think Mark would be very proud of. And on a fall sunset, they

gathered family and friends together to remember their son and finally say goodbye. I tell people all the time, hug the ones you love. Let them know. You never know the next moment they may be gone.

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.