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tonight on deadline.

SHE hugged .

me .

and SHE said he was sorry .

and .

I burst IT in tears. Our families have both gone through a lot.

There's a woman he shot. She's lying on the four in the grass.

Everybody gave her whole life just trying to raise me right.

Who was shot? Christie.

I can. Even I needed an answer. We thought we went real detective, he wants going to get away with kill on our sister.

a Young mother murdered at a trio of man under the microscope. What's going on here?

That was a wesh who would have the motivation to do this?

Like, time froze. I couldn't believe what .

I was hearing. I'm letter hold, and this is deadline.

Here is josh maker with with one moment. The mega proof los, the city of author, and occupies about six square miles, none of them especially glamorous. For decades, local pride settled on the beach boys.

They grew up here and quickly left. Nowadays it's tech giants like space ex with headquarters of the local airport. But the harden soul of author was and is working families, drivers who stay close and look out for each other.

This is a story about one of those families. They faced up and downs like everyone else, and always work through them together until one moment, one morning, one bullet came to tear them apart. Growing up, sisters Crystal, Michelle and Monica Taylor were always there for each other.

We have this tradition of having a family support group.

IT was their mother, known as who said the .

town I thought IT was the most wonderful family there was my mom and I were best friends, and my little to were best friends. And and SHE was every bit the baby. She's my mom's baby.

Crystal Taylor was the Youngest by six years, and both older sisters thought mom loved Christi. A little extra spoiled her too. Same Michelle a. Monicker.

they talked every day, and he would just immediately star wine. And sometimes he talked to my mom. He could be like being a grown up. And then, as the follower's SHE went right back to a old all the time.

tear, her niece remembers Christ as both a homebody and a romantic dreamer SHE wasn't flash SHE .

SHE wasn't someone who like shop to a SHE was just a really down to her simple just happy to be at home watching movies or SHE watched the same movies all the time over sheet love love stories, hope float um ever after love Jones .

those are all stories of women who five love and improbable with and end up happy right? Is that what he wanted? Yeah.

I know SHE wanted love. I know that SHE SHE wanted a fairy tale life. I know SHE always talked about IT, but you know, SHE was happy with the life that he had.

the life he had working, being with family and raising a son who was born the very day .

SHE turned seventeen, sing IT IT never raising and said, in california, and labor, like shaking of areas like IT, never rains. And like .

Crystal called her little boy jav ani, against the wishes of the boy's father.

came in when we were in there and he was like, I want his name to be junior. Just like in labor, stop labor. no. And I see SHE said, oh, no, because i'm not marry him and if I get married, somebody else I don't want to have two.

Je unior like, no. So I made the decision that was in the baby.

He was not to his life, and he was. But that was cristy SHE made a decision. There is no change in her mind.

wrapped in the blanket of her big family. Crystal knew SHE in java would .

do just fine whispers, strangers, babies, anybody? baby?

Anybody say that's too Young and a baby?

No, we are her baby. Said, we would still said IT .

IT would still be said, but I would also be followed by you just going to finish school. You know that life is and over you made you're band harder, what you're going to lay in IT. And we're gonna ve this baby.

Those were rules set down by mo.

Everyone in the school started a career and rainie their children on their own successfully.

As jana grew, cristie grew up because .

he just really took care of her baby, went to work and like, brought her lunch because he was never been in any money. If he wanted in the movies with her son, no, he knew not to ask her snacks. SHE just wouldn't spend any money.

Money was for the important things like jav anta's education.

He talked about college or what he wanted him to do with his life and and you know how he wanted him to be different. So he took her job as a mother really seriously.

By two thousand, one, Michelle and Christie and their kids were living in separate apartments, in the same apartment building in author. Even MMA lived there until her health began to fail. And SHE moved to texas, where her sister in law on nurse take part of her.

But soon came word, mom's in bad shape. Come quick. That day was easy to remember.

IT was september eleventh, two thousand. one. They couldn't fly.

No one in the U. S. could. So they drove from hathor into texas. Christie wouldn't leave mom's side the entire time they .

were there. I'm sorry, but I came here. SHE was leave in her room like forest on, if if he can get next to my mom, she's gna be under her like you.

And that work, your mom can't around.

Oh.

after two weeks, the family drove back the los Angeles, arriving in the middle of the night on september twenty third. Two days later, this finally learned a difficult truth. No matter how much you love and how much you care, sometimes you can help your loved one when harm is headed their way.

Yes.

I like to report a gunshot. There's a woman he shot. She's laying on the .

floor in the garage.

Soon after, a neighbor of Christians called tia with some brutal news.

they just said that he was shot. I remember saying, who was so, Christine?

When we come back.

she's screen the most hering scream .

a family and anguish. I broke down trying. I just tried myself that night. And the first clues to the mystery .

purse was still in tat. Our clothes appeared to be in. That was A.

Yes, I like to report a gunshot. There's a woman he's shot. She's lying on the floor in the garage.

Minutes after a nine one one call, the hall thorn n. Police arrived at Crystal Taylor's apartment building. Detective robbie Williams wasn't far behind.

I was at my desk and received call from my patrol units that they had a Young lady who was unresponsive and appeared to that he may have suffered a .

gunch shot on to the head. Williams arrived and quickly .

sized up the scene officers already trying to revive her that she's lying down in the lobby area of her apartment complex that leads from the upper stairs, which are the apartment into the garage area. And then we just start getting into the processing of a crime scene, making sure that we identified many witnesses, if there is also other victims.

But the only obvious victim was Crystal. She's been shot in the head, paramedics trigger to the hospital, and detective Williams got straight to work finding witnesses.

Because this is early morning. There's kids walking to school. There's people preparing themselves for their day of work. So a lot of people up, a lot of people reported hearing a gunshot.

A father making breakfast for his kids looked down the kitchen window when he heard the shot. He saw a man and running an eleven year old girl on the sidewalk in front of the building also heard IT and saw a man. And holding a shiny object, he jumped the fence and rain north. Anybody actually see the shooting? no.

And there was no surveilLance cameras that .

captured IT either. But the crime scene was talking to detective Williams, was SHE robed.

The evidence supported Robert. a. Price was still in tack the amount of time between someone hearing a shot and and someone else seeing someone running away from the country scene uh doesn't actually support a robbery was SHE seul assaulted no evidence supported that he was sex assault in her clothes appeared to be .

in tah was going on here and .

that was that question.

IT was the first of many questions detective Williams would have. Christy's family was gathering of the hospital later. You'd have questions too. But right now they were all in shock.

I got their first. They were like going go in this room that was after the side. Well, I had already been to the hospital, like with my mom.

So I knew that they took the family to a sive room. So I told him like, no, no, no, I want to go there. I just want see about my sister so then the doctor came out.

He told me he was like, well, he didn't make IT and .

i'm driving on a freeway and all of us said, and I just felt like he wasn't here.

The news that they lost their baby sister was unbearable. Crystal Taylor was just twenty seven .

when I got him, was on the floor. And I just like looking at her. I tried to her.

Now they had to tell their Ailing momo. Her baby was gone .

when I had to call my mom, say, somebody killed Christan SHE. Scream the military in scream. I just know this is going to q mum too.

There's nothing worse than bearing your kimel.

No, when you are already. So I remember when I was talking to me, I was like, don't you leave .

me telling Crystals? Ten year old sun was even harder.

And we have said next time, like rit, you've on your mom died and he crosses arms like this in school and you just kind of leave back poor a little .

mommy your mom died. They didn't say how you all kind of shielded. Wanted for what had happened.

Yes, we were older and couldn't grass what had happened to her. So why give IT to him?

So in one day, his whole world goes away. No more mom, no more home, no more life. As he knew IT. yeah.

And he taught himself just because, like I can talk about IT, you don't even know advantage in a room like he's learned to just, I don't know, he just shut down.

Even now, jovana seems almost numb when talking about the worst day of his life night.

I pretty much, I broke down cry. I just tried .

myself .

to sleep that night.

You remember that? yes. You remember what you looked like? Yes, I heard. You can't remember the sound of your voice. I can, even for what if you would sound like now to bother you a bit? Yes, this finally tragedy would only get worse because Crystal Taylor wasn't the only one kilby that bullet.

As Crystal Taylor's family tried to figure out how to cope with her murder, detective robbie Williams tried to figure out who might have wanted her dead.

When we start recreating that person's life now, we trying to find out who would have the motivation to do this, and often times, you know, a civium like he was not involved in any criminal enterprise, we tend to focus on relatives or relationship partners.

The eleven year old girl who'd seen the shooter running told cops that just before the shot rang out, SHE heard a man and a woman arguing, was that a clue? Detective Williams learned Crystal had a boyfriend named dino.

Just a hard working guy was in a relationship with Christal on and off. And this is coming from the family and the friends that knew about dino.

And there was Kenneth words, father of Crystal's, ten year old son of we did trying .

to identity there was ongoing.

Kan wasn't helping with givantake, and there have been conflict over child support. In the past, Christal had obtained a court order requiring kanas to pay. So two possible leads and a third surfaced when Williams went to Crystal office.

We get to her place of employment and we talk to several Young ladies. I identify and themselves as being her friend. And um there shall that this has happened.

They told him. The day before he was killed, Crystal received a phone call at work that seemed to matter, and then they dropped a bomb shell .

that a SHE was pregnant and b the person that he was pregnant, I did not want her to be pregnant .

any longer, could pregnant around?

I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell.

In fact, he was five months along. Her unborn son died when he did, Christal had told friends the father of her child was a guy named direct smile. So you want to find out weir darrick.

Most definitely, you want to find everything about .

him right now. The detective learned Crystal and dark, had a quick flag, and only last than a month or so they'd met at Anderson park, which is near both their jobs. By now, IT was launched on Derek wasn't in his office, so Williams drove to the park, bringing Christal's work friends with him. And one of them immediately noticed something.

He points out, a car that direct drives .

his car was easy to spot. IT had venality plates. That said, my hip slang for a fancy car. Then Crystal friend pointed out Derek and detectives brought him in for a talk.

So and compose yourself, what is your last nature? Smile in your person, nature of dead, and give middle inter. He freely answered your questions. He'd d ask for an attorney.

No, no. He never requested an attorney during our interview time with them.

When was last time that you? So our apartment that you can recall last time was not recently OK. I ve seen her visibly um in about a couple years much he kind of discounted IT as yeah we .

were on and off really quick. Does dg a offer .

any theory of what he thinks might have have to at some .

point in the interview, he talks about her being involved with other people. did.

so. Sometimes say that that's the impression .

that might be true being trying to make me. I. The knowing that was pregnant with his child.

he acknowledged that he was pregnant, but came short of acknowledging that the child was .

his father and he thinks are. Or anyway, you had a basic description of someone that witness is saw running from the scene.

Yes, african american male warn a dark coloured hoody with a um scar around his head or hank ship around his head. Small build more in dark clothing with a light facial hair, that description .

resembled their smile. IT does. They're mire had no criminal record. He had a White color office job, and he came from a close net loving family, said his sister Daniel.

I really, I looked up to my brother growing up that was really quiet in school, but everyone knew who their smile was. He had your back. He had my back. And and there is no doubt that if anything happened, he would be there to take care of me.

So when he heard police were interviewing her brother about a murder, he questioned him herself .

and as dead, what is this? He said, I don't know. I said, what happened. He said, I know what happened.

So he didn't say that he knew anything about crustal tailors.

nothing about crustal IT.

Sounds to me like you were pretty fixated on.

There are pretty early. Well, he was one of our our top three because remember, we're looking at the son's father. We're looking at her love interest on an off guy, dino, and we're looking at now deric.

how did you want his father react when you told him Christal .

libin murdered? His reaction was shot.

he was shot, and her boyfriend dino was devastated, police said. More important, both men had a bots. Witnesses put them nowhere near Crystal apartment at the time of the murder. The same was true for Derek smile his neighbors saw at home at seven thirty that morning meeting he couldn't have shot. Crystal doesn't like to hold anybody .

on at that point. No.

but soon enough, there would be another person police would be looking at coming up.

IT was a guy. I kind of get this instinct said, remember what he looked like?

Sisters turned investigators.

So we thought we were real detectives. He wasn't going to get away with killing our sister.

Hey, it's judge mac. What's from deadline with a question for you, true crime fans, how do you catch a killer whose motive is simply uni maginness investigators? Give us a fascinating look inside a very twisted mind as his secrets are finally uncovered.

If you think you've heard every deadline story, think again, listen to motive for murder and a dozen other riveting series when you follow the deadline original podcast. They called IT the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight IT group of thirty somethings who like to party. IT starts as a playboy channel fantasy, but this is real life where passion leads to murder and a killer seeks god's help with the cover up.

I'm judged my gods. And this is deadly. March of the all new podcast from deadline.

listen for free each week or unlock new episodes early and enjoy add free listening by subscribing the date line premium on apple podcast spotify or date line premium dot com. A true crime story never really ends, even when a case is closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning.

Since our day line story aired, Tracy has harness her outrage into a mission.

I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

IT does just change your life, but speaking up for these .

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Germy a Taylor wasn't supposed to be born for twenty more weeks. He never got a birth certificate, only a death certificate. Then the coroner released his body along with his mother's, so their family could say goodbye.

IT was not being casket. I member, I wanted to reach on touch, and I just kind of set in the chair, looking down in the waiting forward to be over. In the days after chrystie died, everyone in the family spoke with police, hoping they could help in some way. Anyway, Michelle l had a story about the day before Christine died as he left with the kids that morning, there was a man in the lobby of their building.

and I came around the corner, and he was a guy. He was sitting on the stairs. When I came around, he stopped me a little bit, so I stopped to ask them, what was he doing there? And then he told me he was waiting for someone.

Michelle had a bad feeling about him.

I can get this instinct. They said, remember what he looked like? And then I froze on what he looked like and won on my business.

And SHE warned Christie about the man.

I called to tell that I was a strange guide that was a on the stairs. Just be careful when he came.

So was the man Michelle saw on monday, the same man witnesses saw on tuesday running from the scene after the murder.

But I like to do is just know a little bit about police brought .

in shavon a home the eleven year old schoolgirl who saw the running man do yeah with her mom at her side, SHE worked with a forensic artist from the los Angels share of department on the sketch of the suspect can tell me about his his eyes, his mouth machine worked with the same artist. Does the description of the guy Christal sister says, was waiting on the staircase that matched ed, the description of the guy.

People say we were running away after the shooting, almost identical. Here's the sketch drawn from both their descriptions. Are you happy with the final sketch? IT looked like the guy.

oh yeah. IT looked like him.

but he didn't look like any of the men in Crystal Taylor's life. Not Derek, not dino, and not jazan day's father, Kenneth. Cops would have to figure out who he was, and we're to find him. Monica and Michelle didn't want to wait for that.

We had cocaine and the criminal files. And so we thought we were real detective.

Too much TV can be a dangerous thing. Or maybe this was the dynamic of the tailor family. The sisters who are going to together help Crystal raise her son were now helping solve her murder. So sketching in hand, they canvas neighborhood. You not the police?

SHE became so obsess, worried me how obsess SHE was with, and he would say he's not going to get a way with doing this .

to my baby sister. Tea was afraid her mom and her, and putting their own lives in danger.

I threatened to tell the police, like you guys are not supposed to be doing, then like you guys don't have weapons, you, what are you going to do if what are you looking for? And then what are you going to do if you find IT?

But there's no arguing with success. Michelle and Monica's amateur detective work paid off after showing the sketch around. They ve got a tip. The guy in the sketch was a ganging banger who went by the street name sea styles. Now the sisters wanted to find him. If you're right, if this is the guy, he's a killer and a gangbanger, and you're just going to walk, walk up on him and say he wasn't anna.

get away with killing. I wanted to be able, told the police where he was like, let's go get them .

they didn't find him, but they did tell detective Williams, who ran the name through a game database, and discovered, unfortunately, there was more than one c styles.

There is a big style. There's a low c style.

Eventually, Williams found a sea styles who'd been on product at the time .

of the murder. Our first goal was to identify the connection between the sea style and Crystal Taylor. Any game affiloir any relatives?

Was he a boyfriend x boyfriend? The sister say no. Her friends say no. There's no evidence to support that. They even knew .

each other or maybe they knew each other exactly.

We have to also keep that as a card on the table. okay. So how can we start proving this up? I start examining where their lines may across.

Chris st. Taylor works in carson. h. SHE goes an Anderson park. Oh, there's information that sisters hangs out at Anderson park. Okay.

they brought in sea styles legal name scaler more. What do you have to do with the murder Crystal tailor? And he says.

I don't know her, I do not do this. But he studying her photo .

and then see styles continue to talk.

He's coming about an analysis of the person who would have done this and he refers to the person that this person had a lot of age, this person had a lot of age. And them to do that is .

supposed to just saying, no, I didn't do any murder. I don't know who this is. I know you're talking about exactly that seemed rather strange. But so to this, there was no obvious reason for sea styles to kill crustal dayer. True that if you are worried about becoming a victim of gay violence, you're probably safest in the morning because these guys should stay up very late and don't rule out of bed until late morning or noon.

Now i'm not going to say that that's a fact, but it's more true than .

not if somebody is up and working at seven or seven thirty in the morning, their past .

just went cross. Not Normally not not a hard core, uh, serious type of person like A C style.

So once he the man in the parking on that question, sea styles wasn't terribly helpful, but then he did something surprising after staring at Crystal photo and floating theories about her killer, sea styles suddenly confessed to a different murder of a rival game member. I don't do this for a living, but he isn't even being charged with that. And and you weren't even asking him about that.

I didn't even know there was a murder.

So why would he brought that out?

You have to understand um c styles mentality. C styles mentality is that there's nobility and killing the enemy. There is no nobility or honor in killing a lady whose pregnant .

somebody is that yes, detective Williams was convinced sea styles was only copping to the other murder to distance themselves from Crystals. And then all the witnesses in Crystals murder picked him out of a lineup. Two months after Crystal dayers death, scalar Moore, A K.

A C. Styles, was charged with murdering her and her unborn baby. Je justice seemed close at hand. IT was not coming up face to face with a confess killer. You were free to testify.

but I was praying and asking god to make us strong enough. But I was secretly scared .

when deadline continues.

When someone you love dies violent, there are so many emotions, anger, loss, even sometimes the fear that you'll be next. I was afraid open .

the door in the morning like like there's a blind spot when I first walk out like, i'm literally looking out like this every morning you .

all look over your shoulders.

over our shoulders. Really bad. I was in almost a post traumatic stress syndrome, kind of think, just nervous all the time.

With scalar Moore, A K, A, C styles charged in the murder, there was some sense of relief to know .

that this guy was off to streight was some comfort because he was the one that could show up and .

kill a anybody. So the sisters were still afraid to face him at the preliminary hearing. Tough to be in the court room and see him.

Oh yeah, we were crying soon as we walked in the door in court. But we thought, like, no, no, what i'm going to do when I see him, you know, the shooter, i'm looking for this guy, yeah.

yeah and then you see him.

have this .

visual .

reaction to him and I felt like, like he had some more noise because we told the detective was, I was like, he looked like he he has some remorse.

The detective didn't buy IT for a minute and he was like.

no, he's a straight up killer. He don't have no remorse.

whatever the tailor saw that hint of humanity in a cold blooded killer sea styles still scared them. You were for you to testify?

Yes, I was.

but you want to hadn't did IT.

I wanted to did IT because I was praying. And axing got to make us strong enough to be able to do with what everything we needed to do. But I was so really scared.

Michelle l. testified. He saw sea styles at Crystal building the day before the shooting. IT was up to other witnesses to place him there the day Crystal was killed, and there were several who could, the man making his kid's breakfast, a neighbor who saw a man who looked like sea styles around one that same morning watching the building, another neighbor who actually new sea styles and thought he saw him loitering in the area. Except all those witnesses were afraid to testify in open court against unknown ganging member, all except one, the schoolgirl who may not have known enough to be afraid me, who was a child essentially when he saw someone running away from the scene. Cristal hotel murder, SHE was willing to continue justifying.

yes, he was.

But her family was pretty worried.

Her mother in particular, yes, her mother was really, really concerned about that.

The da had his own concerns. The testimony of a school girl and the sister of the victim didn't seem enough to convict. And that's about all the evidence they had. Police never found any DNA fingerprints or forensic evidence that linked sea styles to the garage of Christal Taylor's apartment, and while they found a thirty eight caliber bullet lodge in Crystals brain, they never found the gun that fired IT, let alone link that gun to see styles or anyone else. If c styles went to trial and was acquitted, that would be the end of IT.

And so rather than take that chance, the da drop the charges when the prosecutor said, we don't want to try this case now because we don't have the evidence right now and the witnesses are skipped, we want to wait. And you think that's gonna couple a month, couple maybe a year. Instead, many months passed and nothing happened. The nation grew obsessed with the murder of a twenty seven year old pregnant woman. But IT wasn't Crystal taye ler lacy .

Peter since cases showing on the news every night. And Chris, the same beautiful Young lady pregnant and there's no coverage. You're finding that everybody is going on with life like the world kept going, just one person's gone and people go to work the next morning the birds typing and IT all offends you is just we and you're thick and winds are yeah then unlike mom .

died six months after her daughter Crystal, her family says the cause was as much heart break as heart disease. And all of that took a huge toll on the Taylors.

Everyone was hurting. So no one really wanted to be around what would bring up that sadness again. And that was us and being together. So we separate .

IT for a while. And so what had been a big, happy, close family? Gonna splendet.

yeah.

Sea styles was convicted of the gang murder. He had admitted to his sentence, life in prison and Christal Taylors murder remained officially unsolved. The sisters were sure c styles had told the trigger, but they were sure of something else to c styles had no reason to kill their sister. Someone put him up to IT, and they thought they knew who that someone was coming up. Eat this to Crystal.

Eat this to all of us the chilling .

clue that Crystal had given her family. You're all kind of beating yourself up for not listening to Christy's warning. Actually.

I was as a guy S A guy who had Christal .

tailor killed.

For the tailor, family history had been split into there was before, when they had Crystal, and life was good. And then there was after.

People can't study, treat us like still talking about that.

just think they want you to move on. Everybody want to this, I can move on because you .

feel feel like whole life is this because you want me to go back to what life this is my life. I don't have a life to go back to.

They couldn't move forward. They couldn't go back. But they kept going over the last days of Crystals life, reminding to that trip when they visited their Ailing mother in texas.

They arrived back in los Angeles in the middle the night saturday into sunday. Yet Crystal still woke up very early. The next morning he insisted.

i'm going to church. We were all thinking to sleep in but he got up in SHE played and then he cried SHE was going through something.

SHE just wasn't sharing IT with us. The next day was monday the morning Michelle saw a suspicious man on the stairs of the apartment building. SHE warned Crystal, who went a different way to the garage, which might have saved her life for twenty four hours. What they didn't learn until much later was that Crystal left work crying on that last day of her life. He didn't say anything to her family that night, but he did act differently.

SHE went around the room and SHE held everyone. And I think he just didn't want na worry anyone to. And I think SHE kind just hope that everything will work out.

What was the matter with Christal Taylor? They reviewed their mental table a little further. And there IT was a moment IT happened during their car trip back from texas.

SHE was on her phone listening to something, and SHE put her phone down and SHE said, if anything happens to me.

IT was dead. Derek smile, the father of her unborn child.

Did you go in to any detail? Take into ry about him. Don't worry about him helping .

with the baby. They thought that all IT was direct, didn't want to help raise his child. Now they, we played that moment over and over.

We should say, wait, what did you say to? But instead of that, like we need him like just I think I don't even talk to him her we're so used this is picking up our body and going SHE brought .

up that he was worried but didn't hear IT or IT didn't sound bad enough. You're all kind of beating yourself up for not listening to .

Christy's warning .

exactly even though IT sounds to me like you'd almost have to be a mind radar to know that he was really concerned yeah the year started the past and this family thought a lot about Derek smile. Christal had said if something happened to her, IT was Derek. They believe he was the only one who had something to gain from her death, as they had done with c styles MC. Monica now tried to find Derek. I didn't know Derek's name.

I thought his name was mires, and I was direct the wrong way. Isn't looking for him like just forever?

If they had managed to tail dark, they would have found a guy who didn't seem to fit the profile of a killer he was doing else. As his sister Daniel .

he had on his battle degree in business, he had went on to start his own company. He was doing great. He was always happy. He was always in good spirits. He was driven.

He still have that silver must convertible with the custom plates. My hip, although Monica Michelle ver. Spot the car tea, did I stoked .

a light and beric pulled up next to me in a car, the top down, listening to music. I just fall like, this was so unfair. That is a nice Sunny day and he's gone on with life is just like trip me out like this guy really just did this to my family, did this to Crystal.

He did this to memo. He did this to my mom, micelle givantake to all of us. And he was even detective .

robby Williams saw Derek one day at the airport.

My wife and I were on our way to vacation, and I up in icy Derek Walker .

ite passed us. Williams had never forgotten Crystal Taylor. He took in her case file with him as he moved up the promotional latter from detective to luti ET. He'd always shared the family suspicions that dark k was somehow behind Crystal murder, but he also knew he didn't have enough evidence to arrest him.

I was back to my wife. That's the guy as the guy who had Chris a Taylor kill.

That's got to be like a knife in you. I mean, if that's what you think, if you think that's the guy with Christal day or kill, well, here is out free breathing the same here you are, maybe going on vacation just like you are having a great time. He got a way with .

IT is about karma in this life for the .

next IT turned out to be this life help was about to come from the last place. Anyone expected coming up? We looking .

for some help.

On some cases, a conversation with the convict is see styles about to come clean when deadline continues.

The cold steel of the thirty eight can fire a bullet at a thousand feet per second. The speed of justice is not nearly as fast. Crustal was killed september twenty fifty, two thousand, one. Ten years later, her unsolved murder was still in open case. Detectives believe scale more A K A C styles was the person who shot, but they didn't have enough evidence to try and and they thought the father of Crystals, unborn child they're admire, might have been involved as well. But there was no evidence linking him to see styles, except for one thing.

there was a group of men sitting near the sea at picnic area talking on the day .

Crystal was murdered when detective robbie Williams first saw Derek swire at Anderson park. Derek wasn't alone. You, anyone heard the names he .

said after that point, and even heard of A C style.

But much later, after sea styles was arrested and detective Williams got a good look at him, he thought the gangs banger looked familiar. You think the first time you saw their admire.

you think he was with c style?

Yes, I think he was in the company of, see if you were right, they were hanging out together. R, if only you'd know .

if I had only known.

And now a decade later, there was no way to prove who the man in the park might have been. And Crystal dead sisty le, serving time for another murder. And nothing's happening to beric.

Nothing was happening to direct that I could see. But i'm a believer of carma either in this life of the next you're gonna pay for what you've done wrong.

I'm guessing you were preferring that IT was this life?

Yes.

maybe IT was karma, maybe IT was luck, maybe IT was good police work, but whatever IT was on june fifteen and two thousand and eleven, L. A. Sherifs detective Richard Lopez and his partner best Smith found themselves at a northern california prison with a few hours to kill. SHE mentioned here.

and I always want to talk to him about a two thousand and one murder to occur hathorn.

That would be Crystal Taylor's murder. Detective Smith had worked with hathorn pd on the case. SHE knew die smile would never spelled, but would see styles. I said we've got .

three hours to the plane, right? Let's pull in pretty soon.

They were faced to face with scale, more A, K, A, C, styles.

and the rest of this with. later.

Sea styles were saying even less than he did back in two thousand and one. So detective Lopez gave IT a try. He had questioned a lot of game members, and he knew c styles had enemies in brisbane.

You everybody tired to look over your back because that's that's why you are old, because you can go on the menu. And right? Okay, well, we looking for some help, on some cases, down one hand washed each other. If if you tell us something that you remember, july ly, remember, and we can CoOperate IT, we can get you .

moved out a arizona .

elano I tennessee detective loops assured .

at sea styles this wasn't your typical police and derision with .

regime render its right. So anything you say cannot be using and would not trying to put a case on you, but we just trying .

to get the truth. Then detective Lopez showed sea styles some photos of Crystal daler and they're expired.

I got a stick, suspicion you might recognize some of them faces. Kay, okay, your scaler you see for went from what we know you know what's up? Okay, it's a good act to it's survival and and no one was to talk to police.

I know that, but everybody does. Do you know that mean you're told from when they're Young kids, stitches get stitches and you don't talk to please? So when they finally break that barrier and they come and you open the flood gates, they have a tendency to talk them. And all the things that bothered them when they ran the life begin to come out.

And that's what happened here. Yes, bit by bit, sea style started to talk. Turns out that was him in the park with Derek. He met Derek playing pickup basketball at the same park where Derek met Crystal. And that was the connection investigators had long looked for between sea styles and their mire and c style said back in the summer of two thousand, one derik began complaining about a problem named Crystal Taylor.

He described Derek is being desperate because of this print, ut girl. He said the darky called her gold digger and that by getting rid of her, that takes care. The problem of having child supported.

So he said he and Derek worked out a deal. C styles would pull the trigger and their admire would owe him a favor. IT was just matter.

He plays in lot for us. The money was you that tell this works. I also thought that when you wanted somebody killed.

you had to pay money for that. Everybody glamorized and thinks is that way, but in skylar's mine, this this was issue for him to do. He could do this. And then, of course, Derek would be in debt to.

and there would be no money trail linking the two man, c styles said dr. Told him where Crystal lived.

Guard says he's ousel location. He's there waiting for the victim to come down the stairs, in fact. But I believe he runs into his sister the day before before right? Exactly and so on. The David, he goes, and weight lies and weight for her and SHE comes down to the colony shooter and then he runs out of the graduate.

You're looking at a guy who's, by all accounts, kind of a harden gangbanger live in that life. What's in IT for him to confess to one more murder when he's already in there doing life without perl? I can't .

speak to all them, but I can speak to this one. He felt bad about this, and he wanted to make IT right.

Killing a pregnant an bothered him. Yes, killing those other .

people did not.

didn't seem to know. Police thought they finally had the story of who killed Crystal Taylor, but IT was a story they couldn't tell in court, not yet anyway. Coming up that dynamic dual of sister detectives was IT done.

Yet we were, you know, back on the job, cam and lazy.

shift their focus to dark. We never .

thought he should get away with.

My brother is not a perfect man, but my brother is an innocent man.

By two thousand and eleven, for the Taylor family, Crystal's murder was an ugly scar that was never going to heal.

We almost stubbing as obsessed tis, but you still want to, but we still want to answer.

Then the phone ring detective shared the big news about their prison interview with c styles.

and they said, well, the suter confessed and told .

them IT was direct smile who put him up to IT. In his confession, mister style said he saw another woman on the stairs and thought, maybe that was Christy, that was you.

And he said he considered killing me. That was a devastating.

You were that close to get me?

yeah.

Detectives still had to figure out how to use sea styles off the record confession to make IT on the record case against Derek. In the meantime, sister's Michelle Monica couldn't resist going back to prowling the streets, looking for clues, cagan and lazy, shift their focus to dark.

We never thought he should get away, away to when the police said, come in. We wanted talk to you and open the case. I have a notebook now. Oh my all smile. So i've loaded down and then I go back and I felt like businesses they had.

They also figured out where direct lived. You regularly drive by his house.

No, we were, you know, back on a job. Sure, since the case was reopened, we they had enough evidence this time.

By then, detective Lopez, at the share of homicide, had pulled out the old files and read everything. Police reports, forensic reports, interview notes and what he read, lined up with what sea styles had told him, the description .

of the place, the description of meeting the victim sister the day prior, the way he ran out of the place. All those things were, you matched what he was telling us. Soon we were able to.

corporate with all that information loops, decided to take a chance, arrest Derek, apply some pressure and see if he would crack. So nine years and ten months after Crystal Taylors murder, they're admire once again, SAT in a police interview room.

he felt he had to control everything that happened in the interview, he would answer a question, but before he answered that, he, he would give a preamble as to why. His answer was this .

loops positive told Derek that sea styles had contest and implicated Derek. Derek denied everything. Lopez thought he was lying, but what he was not doing was cracking.

said, not not a likeable person. I don't know if anybody he's going to believe you and he just didn't seem the mind.

Of course, it's possible Derek wasn't worried because he wasn't guilty during those ten years from two thousand, one to two thousand and eleven. What's Derek doing and how is he? Does he seem like a guy with a cloud over s IT?

No, he seems like a man is flourishing.

Direct sister Daniel elle was shocked by the arrest. He says the way he and Derek grew up was a world away from people like see styles and from crimes like murder.

We played, we were into sports. We had two extremely active parents that were a part of all of our sports leagues that we're taking us to summer camps.

What sports were both of you buy.

We played everything my parents had has involved in everything possible. We directed football, basketball, softball, all baseball. You name IT. We did IT.

SHE says derg did go off track in high school. He was just sixteen when his girlfriend Tracy got pregnant. IT was news their parents were not happy to hear.

There in shock is my dad, my dad is very traditional now, believes that children should be born in wedlock, as there and I were.

Derek daughter sydney was born in April of nineteen ninety eight. And instantly their admire had to be an adult.

He dropped at a high school so that he could get a full time job. And even though he wasn't making much, he was still doing what .

he could to support .

that .

baby that changes .

your life. So but Derek, he was a hard working guy.

In two thousand. Two, the year after Crystal died, Derek swire had another daughter with the same woman.

If I fall, all this put that is being deleted.

For the most part, he wasn't a foot on that, but Daniel says he was in his children's lives, as was the whole smile family. Daniel insists his father of two wouldn't commission a murder over an unplanned pregNancy if in fact, he even was the father of criminal's child direct tell you that he was dating Christal Taylor.

No, I never heard a Christal Taylor before. Before he was actually arrested in two thousand eleven.

Did ever mention you gotten pregnant and was concerned about?

No, he didn't tell me that.

And he was animate. There's no way her brother hung out with a gangbanger scar, more A K sea styles. Ever meet him, no ever your director about.

never hear their talk about him.

Direct friends with any game members.

My parents are extremely traditional. They were into game violence or any of that nonsense. Derek would not bring game members to the house or affiliate himself with game members. Furthermore, no one seemed Derek ever, ever, with any game member.

Daniel said her brother had nothing to do with Christal's murder and that see styles was a liar.

He is known as a uh, jail house snitch, and he is arrest and beaten up by people where he's currently house dead. The deal for him is that he gets relocated at a state to a place where nobody knows him.

SHE says. The cops simply took the path of least resistance.

They headed out for direct from .

the star because because .

he seemed like the probable person. My brother is not a perfect man, but him being pulled in, harassed by the police. Is children being taken from him? It's not my brother.

Well.

my brothers is an innocent man.

And maybe he was right. Just days after Derek was arrested, the da said there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

We are, let him go. We let go. And yeah, I was tough. Let them go.

The mire was once again a free man.

I bet was clear. I bet he thought he was done. Never going to see us .

again if that's true. He was wrong coming up. Someone steps forward with a stunning new lead.

SHE was assaulted and her nick was cut.

Another attack on another pregnant woman.

He was knocked to the ground and the assailant tried to kick her in the stomach.

That person was never got right who could be behind this when date line continues. They called IT the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight IT group of thirty somethings who like to party. IT starts as a playboy channel fantasy, but this is real life where passion leads to murder and a killer seeks god's help with the cover up. I'm judged mates, and this is deadly. March on the all new podcast from deadline.

listen for free each week or unlock new episodes early and enjoy add free listening by subscribing the deadline premium on apple podcast spotify or decline premium dot com. A true crime story never really ends. Even when a cases closed, the for those left behind is just beginning.

Since our day line story aired, Tracy has harness her outrage into a mission.

I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

IT does just change your life, but speaking up for these issues .

helps me keep going .

to listen to after the verdict. Subscribe the deadline premium on apple podcast spotify or a deadline premium dot com. I'm keeves Morrison for deadline c if you're not already hooked on p ox dark comedy called based on a true story now is the perfect time to dive.

A new season is out now and it's an unbelievable unpredictable ride based on a true story. Stars Kelly, coco and Christmas 呢 is new parents， eva and nason, who are eager to be done with the world of true crime and their friendly neighborhood serial killer. But when new bodies start turning up, IT seems the world of true crime isn't done with them based on a true story is dreaming now, oh, my Young gog.

dec. Smile was out of jail. He insisted he was an innocent man, a father of two, who had no reason to commission a murder just because he got someone brag that.

But detectives were still investigating, and what they heard made them more convinced than ever that they had Crystal killed. They spoke with tracing the mother of direct children early on. In the case, he had avoided the cost. Now he was eager to tell them what he said happened in one thousand and eighty eight, when SHE was pregnant with direct first child.

SHE got load to the back of her apartment on the promise to be taken to a dog appointment by smile. And SHE was assaulted and her neck was cut by .

some other person.

by some other person rushed to the hospital. And he told us that he was very Larry because Derek never asked to take her to the darker before. And instead of picking up on front, he asked to come into the rear, the ali, where darker and doesn't have much access to public view.

There's the scar from the attack. And according to Tracy IT was just the beginning, and that wasn't the last time he was assaulted while he was bragger. No, wasn't. Tracy told police in two thousand two, when he was pregnant with their second child, SHE was attacked again. He was knocked .

to the ground and the assailant tried to kick her in the stomach. That person was never caught.

right? And whoever cut her throat in the previous incident was never caught. That's correct. Tracing now told the cop SHE believe Derek was behind both attacks. He also said in both cases he wanted her to have an abortion, but that he had refused. After your pregnant by one guy and you get lured to the back of your apartment building, and then somebody tries to kid you why you continue your relationship with that guy.

you have to understand mister Derek smile. And one thing he is is he is a manipulator of women.

Cop saw a pattern, one that was reinforced by something else. They learned .

that investig continued. We discovered a Derek headband, the prison a for a federal fence of he was scammed money from a bank.

IT happened in two thousand four. Here's Derek in this fuzzy bank security photo. Stealing money from other people's bank account turned out he had a girlfriend who worked at a credit union. He got account numbers from her and use them to move money into account. He controlled what the eighty thousand dollars that they came.

the investigators, and didn't find IT. And we tried to look forward to.

and we never found IT you heard about there serving federal time.

And just, yes, I went surprised. I and I wasn't surprised at who he used as an accomplice.

his girlfriend. yes. Why are you not surprised by that?

Because Derek possesses that type of selfish type of what can you do for me type mentality, manipur, manipulative, self center, an arrogant.

Maybe that's why direct never shied away from talking with the cops, and why he never asked for a lawyer. Or maybe he just wasn't guilty. Definitely.

he thought he was smarter than we were anyways. I mean, you know, what did we have?

When Derek was briefly arrested, detectives asked him who he was with at Anderson park on the day crustal was murdered. Remember, detective Williams thought later IT was probably see styles, but cops had no way to prove IT. And then under questioning, direct gave them one.

T city goes, I saw women in the back sea.

the back seat of detective Williams police car. The woman deric saw was jana, poet to Crystals, friend from work, who accompany detective Williams. Dara k. Said he saw her quite clearly.

The look on her face was SHE was totally destroyed that's .

what he said, which gave detective loops and idea if he is that close .

to see the cheese tolly distorted and he should have a pretty good look at who he was talking to.

At the time, no one had thought to show jana poet to a photo of sea styles, but now they did. And SHE said .

that who Derek was talking to .

in the part that was the missing link, a witness who could connect sea styles to direct mire. Then one last piece, the da wanted see styles interviewed again.

How this time .

I made sure what he said could be used in court.

you have the remain silent understand sea .

styles told the same story with the same details how he met Derek and how direct wanted help with Crystal tailor you talk about .

when you're.

I said so, like the opportunity.

Police once again arrested direct admire for the murder of Crystal Taylor, and this time they thought they had the goods. A jury, though, would have other ideas coming up. A bomb shell from the defense. Did someone else kill Crystal? Witnesses testify to hearing .

an argument. SHE was confronting her killer.

That's when he was. Is .

absolutely.

Once this murder a hit at all.

this is break at me.

IT took police ten years to arrest. They're admire for the murder of Crystal Taylor. IT took another five years to bring him to trial, and detective robby Williams knew the case wasn't air tight juries .

like DNA DNA blood trail in this case of money transfer in this case, uh, the lack of cell phone records attaching the two a defendants together.

The only thing connecting direct to the murder was the confession of the trigger man scale R A K A C styles, but there was no guarantee the jury would take the word of a gangbanger over the word of the clean cut there expire. So IT was with nervous anticipation that Crystal's family filed into the course on july eleven, two thousand sixteen.

The facts .

and the war and .

your common sense. Will lead you to one conclusion. Crystal Taylor died at the hands of scotland more, and they are smile.

prosecutor denant mires told jurors. Critters murder and the attacks, and Derek s. Other girl for and Tracy Williamson, or no coincident.

he has a motive to do IT because he doesn't want to have the kids he doesn't want .

to pay out support the prosecution claim that while deric may have fail to stop Tracy from having her two children, he found the right man for the job of stopping Crystal, his basketball bud c styles.

He's a gang member, he's a killer. And mr. Swire, new who to go to when he wanted Crystal Taylor taken care.

Prosecutors showed .

the jury the admitted hitman's videotaped confession.

Just seen her come down for for the front way stairs. You were still kind of.

How the area did you are? Go back and tell there. Would you do. After day.

I see .

you then.

Then they called sea styles to testify, but instead of tying a bow on the case, he logged a grenade and blew at the pieces. C styles told the jury everything he said on that tape was a lie. People have false confessional all the time.

IT happens all the time. Deer expires. Defense atterley calvin china says sea styles made up a story that the cops wanted to hear. He was hoping to get Better treatment in prison.

He came in and admitted that they made these offers to him and that, and that's why he did you think this kind of rush to judgment here? absolutely. Because they had a hunch, they went with my client and they excluded others.

Cator told the jury that without sea styles confession, there was no evidence linking direct to the murder. They are alleging multiple conversations, planning without any proof of where, when, how. There's no emails between more and smile.

There's no text messages. There's no phone calls. The defense portrait, Derek, as a man who loved his children, not one who would try to have the murdered this mr. r. Smile again in the hospital holding his baby.

And I think it's important when you are looking at this case, that you evaluate his expression on his face in these photos, proud father or killer, not only was direct smile, innocent of Crystals, murder, said the defense, maybe c styles was too. There was no physical evidence placing him in that parking garage. Maybe they said this wasn't a hit.

After all, several of the witnesses testify to hearing an argument, and then all of the argument ended. There was a pause and a gunshot. IT is absolutely inconsistent with a hired hit.

If not a hit, then what happened? The defense had a theory. IT involves this photo of Crystal son jani found near her body. It's obviously miss Taylor was holding that picture when SHE got shot. Neter wasn't allowed to directly spell out his theory for the jury he did for us.

I think he was confronting her killer, saying, the only thing you're gonna is a photograph of your son until you pay child support and you think that's when you wish? absolutely. The defense suggested juana's father killed Crystal, never mind, that police had cleared him early on.

Derrick lawyer told the jury his client wasn't innocent man. But this tragedy IT will be compounded if you convict person that is not involved. And i'm asking for a not guilty verdict on all counts.

Thank you very much. Crystal's family was worried they could only hope. The jury believed c styles video confession and not his presentation of IT. The wait for a vertit was .

agonizing. That was painful.

One day passed, then two, three days in.

I'm nervous. I don't want to do this again. I can't do this. It's not easy.

Then IT was a week. Then one week turned into the two.

I'm like, i'm just praying. I just keep praying. No matter what I see, what I hear, I keep praying every day.

The waiting was harder. That was true for direct family too.

I started get nervous. I was there everyday anigh sly waited so that we could hear that part, so we could hear that there was not guilty. I would see the jurors come out there, red in the face, almost like they're arguing back there. I I ve been yelling.

we're on the record and people smile. After twenty one days, the jury we assembled in the courtroom.

the jury has not been able to .

retrieve verdict. They were stuck. I do declare a my trip.

This is break at me.

I hope .

that time is time to do IT again, pull IT back together. But today I don't want to .

do IT IT again. Coming up trial number two, this time, new evidence and a new witness.

people around he behave .

a certain way, direct own daughter. What would SHE reveal when deadline continues?

IT was like their own nightmarish groundhog day. Nearly nine months after the mistral Christal, Taylor's family once again entered a courthouse, wondering if this time justice would finally be served. You feeling any Better about the beginning of the second trial and you worth the beginning of the first trial?

I did, I think because we kind of knew what to expect. We knew what they were going to say and we knew what .

we had and what you didn't have.

right? And we'd hope that, you know, whatever mistakes were made from the first trial, they'd learn from them and prepare form .

and do Better. Two big differences this time around. First scale, Moore A K, A, C styles was on trial along with Derek, although each defendant had his own jury, and second direct jury would not see c styles disputed video tape confession IT was ruled inadmissible, so prosecutors focused on direct motive.

Here was a man. They told the jury who do almost anything to avoid paying child's support. Crystal and her five months and born son were killed with one gunshot, one gunshot to the back of her head, that the prosecution for a patent .

say they .

called the real girl friend Tracy Williamson, who repeated her story that the first time he was pregnant with their child, he was attacked by a man he didn't know.

He put a knife to my throw. Did he cut you with a knife? yes.

And then during her second pregNancy, a second attack.

smile came, sucked me in the face, and I were on the side of the car, and smile stopped me. A maston ach in my face then directs .

own daughter took the stand against him. He didn't testify in the first trial, but he told this jury the direct seemed to hate being a father.

He went come during major occasions on earths and things like that. He was very little tempted. He didn't spend much time with me when he did. He just seemed like IT was kindly for show, you know, if you, when people bore around, he behave a certain way. And when those people left, he would go back to his his ill temper in his a kind of monstrous ways to help explain .

how Derek had Crystal killed. Prosecutors again called her sister. Michelle had been through the emotional ringer when he testified in the first trial.

Some stake at the testimony you made in, I was afraid of what I was going to do to me mentally the second time, I was afraid for myself.

Nevertheless, Michelle mustered the courage to take the stand and testify to seeing the alleged gn sea styles in their apartment complex the day before her sister's murder.

Would you find more? I told him that he started me, and I ask him what he, what was he doing in here?

The jury also heard from shavon a house in middle school at the time, now in adult, who said he still remembers seeing c styles fleeing the crime scene.

And what did you hear? IT was like a, like a good shot, like a big noise, basically, what next? car? D we see somebody running process.

Prosecutors then had to connect sea styles with their smile. For that, they relied on two eyewitnesses. Detective Williams told the jury he was pretty sure sea styles was with deck at the park on the day Crystal Taylor was ambushed and murdered.

IT wasn't until you actually saw him in person that .

you were able .

to to remember that he resembled .

the .

person without the park.

yes.

As before, Crystals friend and coworker jane paleo left no doubt with her definitive testimony.

As you sit today, did you see both of those individuals in the park?

yes. I also told the while cryo was excited to have another son, SHE was afraid to tell Derek SHE was pregnant, so Janet told him for her via email.

after you sent the email, people's fifty one to direct admire, did you get a phone call? Yes.

IT was their required, jane said. And he wasn't happy.

He is. He wanted to have a baby. Did he say anything to you about trying to do something with Crystal? Yeah, he just said, if I can get her to get red of the baby, say he'll do whatever he can, but he don't want to have a baby.

And jana recalled that the day before Crystal was murdered, her first day back at work after the trip to texas, therefore called again.

Could you hear anything with respect to the conversation SHE was having? No, the only thing I heard is before SHE hung up the phone, SHE was like, whatever, because he was crying and he was like, whatever. And SHE got IT from her death. When you got that from her death, do you see, did you see? Wish what he went to the back there and when you follow her in the bathroom um what would you doing crying .

then detective bath Smith testified about two key pieces of evidence that the first journey never saw. First, a photo of dark on his high school basketball team, proving he did ay basketball, an important detail because police believe Derek met scale more on the basketball court. The second new piece of evidence was security footage from the night before Crystals murder that plays, there are got a seven eleven near both Crystal Taylors home scala mores IT proved they said Derek had lied about his whereabout ts back in two thousand, one, when he told police he was miles from Crystal hot or on home that night.

Did he ever tell you that he went to the seven eleven? no.

As the evidence was mounting against him, dead defense went on offence, portraying the mother of his two children as a liar whose testimony couldn't be dressed IT. Have you lied to your family members like your Anthony Miller, your sister Danielle, about things about mr. smile?

Because on what you're talking about, you got to be specific.

Have you ever lied to the .

light to them? Every people .

buy all the time 很难。 Tracy Wilson was an admitted liar and untruthful, so you couldn't believe what he said. And as for Crystals, for angina a, who said he saw a sea styles and direct smile together.

the defense .

says Derek was with a high school friend and direct sister. Danel says the idea that direct met a ganging banger on the basketball court is absurd. But he grew up playing basketball on a bunch of other sports. Did you play baseball in high school?

He did play basketball in high school. He played basketball. And up to his junior year, I play basketball up and to my self, more year never touch a basketball since there doesn't play basketball .

in a more in this cord, everything was on a line that's when direct smile would never shied away from explaining himself in the past, took the stand. Coming up, did you have thing to do with the death of Crystal Taylor?

No, I did not.

Derek smile, a beautiful dead, to be prepared .

to take you about responsibility.

What the jury agree .

that time firms.

IT is a calculated risk for a defendant to testify at a trial their mire was willing to take IT prosecutors had painted him as a child hating, cold blooded killer deric and his atterley were determined to show he was anything. But do you recall the birth of your daughter? city? Yes, I do.

What was the day things today, actually, uh, April twenty six, nineteen .

ninety eight. And um you are there for the first track.

of course. Derek told the jury he was a loving and devoted father to his two girls. How would you describe your relationship? Mother, growing up, I was strong in my opinion, and he was adamant he had nothing to do with the attacks on Tracy while he was pregnant.

Didn't you have an attack because you wanted the kids killed? You wanted heard to have an a portion. I.

in fact, that time I had already dropped out of school, I was working, I was buying bottles. I was very much invested in the well being of my daughter.

They're told the jury he was a good dad to his children with Tracy and planned a treat Crystal and their child the same way you angry that miss Taylor was gna keep this child. No, wasn't to ruin your life. No, sir, where you worried about I have to pay child support for eighteen years. No, sir, why not?

Because I was prepared to take my responsibility.

he admitted he did call Crystal in the day is leading up to her death, but Derek said IT was just a checking on her. Has any good soon to be father? What I asked how .

he was feeling.

why did you ask that?

I know before he went to take SHE was having morning .

sickness direct made sure to let jurors know that he like Crystals family mark time in relation to her death how long did you work at pending?

Um I was well until about two weeks after we lost Crystal Crystal's .

family heard that and ceived IT bothered .

me so much to hear him say that because he never called, he never cared. He doesn't care.

As for the prosecution theory that he hatched a plot on the basketball court with collar more A K A C styles to kill Crystal Dylan, impossible said dark for two reasons. First, did you ever play that part? no.

But more important, prior to this case, have you ever seen guta more before in your life? no. Erick also had an explanation for why he showed up on security video at a seven eleven near both mores and Crystal homes. He said he stabbed for cash after being at his end house nearby.

My mother asked me to run an iron for her to take my aunt a cooking device. IT was something round IT was either a cracked pot or a um a pressure cooking direct.

Forcefully denied any involvement in Christal murder. Did you have anything to do with the death .

of Crystal tailor killed?

Did you ever shot in the head so that you can give birth to your baby night? nothing. But Derek was not done on the stand. Now came the risky part, cross examination by a prosecutor determined to show the other side of direct mire.

because I was being responsible. Man, I see, well, wouldn't response will be put .

on a condoms CER election. The prosecutor forced direct to admit he had tried to convince Crystal to terminate .

her pregNancy. Did you tell her to get so not directly? No, no.

So indirectly. You told her to get abortion. Yes, man.

And for all he's talk about losing Crystal, the prosecutor pointed out he never once tried to console her family.

did send to the family, did send the family a card, a sympathy card, when he was murder.

All of that was an attempt to show the jury that the calm, soft spoken, direct mile on the stand was a con. The real, there was an unroped criminal amused by his failed attempt at bank fraud.

I didn't get my cup and you think that's fine? And no, i'm very embarrassed about IT, which is why I paused. I I was very hesitant to say that, but I wanted to tell the truth, smile on your face, I think, mr. Smart, would you agree that at all?

As for direct story about going to his and the night before the murder to deliver a crackpot, the prosecution let Derek and the jury know they thought I was a crack of something else.

You didn't tell detective sare about a trip to your art.

did you? Maybe he was confident, maybe he was smug, and maybe he was a little too familiar with the rules of criminal law.

mr. Sy, you didn't want another child. If Crystal Taylor had that baby, you would have had to support two kids in two thousand and one, i'm sorry, believe that's compound.

I don't know which ones to learn. What would what I do. And you know, he tried to rule the degree y over with, you know, like he just knew the law. So impressed with himself, he was very impressed with himself. Yeah, error almost drives you that .

then once again, Derek's fate was in the hands of the jury, which Derek would they believe was the real one. This time, Crystal's family didn't have to wait nearly as long for a decision. Deliberations took barely .

more than a day.

They did in direct look .

a looks cocky in argan, like he he believes he is validator not guilty. We, the jury and above entitled to action, find the defendant direct paul mier guilty of the crime of murder. I got to run out of because now I can even hold an emotion I wanted to scream, but in like, I was so happy, I was so happy. I was more happy than I ever been in my life.

Across the aisle, a different emotion.

They read that guilty verty. And as I time froze, I was in shock. How does this happen .

outside the courtroom, a gesture from the opposing side caught t Daniell. Off guard.

The shell came up to me.

In that hallway.

I can shed any .

tears because I was trying to contain my emotion and SHE hunt me, and SHE said .

so sorry.

And I burst IT .

in tears.

I burst IT in tears because that, to me, is a true example of humanity, regardless of what we've gone through. And our families have both gone through a lot.

lost a lot.

Continuing to grieve. But I appreciated the human and need that he showed.

dr. Smile was sentenced to life in prison. Sea styles was also convicted in Crystal murder. Crystal son giovanna has reconnected with his dad, but still hurts from the loss of his mom.

I'm always going to miss her. You know, I don't think you want me to linger to, like, just let IT hold me back.

Everything that's happened, you could not want you be miserable. Yes, easier said than that. Sometimes.

yes, you add a lot of people to help me.

Good family, good friends, Crystal's family, once splattered feel they're coming together again. It's not the same, they say, as when Crystal was with them, but it's slowly getting Better. And they have a plea for other potential Crystal tailors .

out there. We will save her. This will change anything for us. But somebody knows there, in a relationship like this, tell somebody, and if I could happen, a crime IT can happen anybody.

If you're with somebody who makes you feel threatened, tell someone loudly and now, and if you hear someone else speak up, i'll let a cry for help go by. That's all for now. I'm letter hot. Thanks for joining us.

Friday night on the line.

did you sexually assault anyone? Did you do fraud?

Anyone the international .

deadline friday .

at nine eight central only on nc.