Silent Witness

Speaker 1 Digline is sponsored by Capital One.

Speaker 2 Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet, with no fees or minimums on checking accounts, and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank guy.

Speaker 3 It's pretty much all he talks about.

Speaker 5 In a good way.

Speaker 2 What's in your wallet?

Speaker 1 Terms apply.

Speaker 2 See Capital One.com slash bank, Capital One NA member F D I C This message is brought to you by the Capital One Venture X Card.

Speaker 7 Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit, for less than you expect.

Speaker 7 Elevate your earn with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination.

Speaker 11 Plus, enjoy access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide.

Speaker 7 The Capital One Venture X Card.

Speaker 11 What's in your wallet?

Speaker 8 Terms apply.

Speaker 9 Lounge access is subject to change.

Speaker 8 See CapitalOne.com for details.

Speaker 13 My mother called and says Michelle's dead.

Speaker 13 How is that possible?

Speaker 14 A young mother found brutally murdered.

Speaker 15 Her little girl left to wander in her mother's blood.

Speaker 17 Police had a suspect, and they say he had a motive.

Speaker 19 We had an intimate relationship.

Speaker 20 He ended up having sex.

Speaker 17 But could they prove he was the killer?

Speaker 21 It was a circumstantial case.

Speaker 17 Except for that witness, the girl who left those footprints.

Speaker 24 We will never know what Cassidy saw and what she didn't see.

Speaker 17 Maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to.

Speaker 27 The fact that Cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury?

Speaker 28 The person that killed the mother cared about Cassidy.

Speaker 17 And now, a stunning twist in the case. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dadline.

Speaker 28 Here's Keith Morrison with Silent Witness.

Speaker 30 I think I paused for a second. I had to take a deep breath

Speaker 31 and

Speaker 30 just the reality of what was going on sank in.

Speaker 14 Those who saw the footprints will not forget them.

Speaker 26 They were tiny and they were bloody.

Speaker 30 I had to get my composure to finish searching this house to make sure there was nobody else in the house.

Speaker 34 It was the 3rd of November 2006, early afternoon.

Speaker 34 Deputy Scott Earp of the Wake County Sheriff's Department had been dispatched to a quiet and leafy neighborhood called Enchanted Oaks, the outskirts of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Speaker 4 Here, because of the 911 call from this place, on Birchleaf Drive.

Speaker 38 I think my sister's dead. Here, tell me what happened, ma'am.
I have no idea. Oh, my God.

Speaker 39 The caller was Meredith Fisher.

Speaker 41 She had just discovered, on the floor of the master bedroom, the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old Michelle Young, a woman who, in death, was about to be famous.

Speaker 38 Listen to me, ma'am. I'm going to tell you what to do, but you need to come down so we can help her.
You said there's blood everywhere?

Speaker 38 Listen to me, ma'am. I'm listening.

Speaker 45 Is she breathing?

Speaker 38 I don't think so. Baby checked? Michelle?

Speaker 38 She's cool. Okay.

Speaker 25 As she spoke, Meredith was cradling her two-and-a-half-year-old niece, Cassidy, who had crawled out from under the bedclothes on her parents' bed, just feet from where her mother lay.

Speaker 3 Cassidy's voice, chattering to her aunt, was caught on the recorded call.

Speaker 42 Had Cassidy witnessed the murder or wakened alone to find this?

Speaker 30 You know, you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom.

Speaker 25 By now, Wake County investigators were descending on the house, and having secured the crime scene, Earp's job was done.

Speaker 48 But on his way out, he saw Cassidy again.

Speaker 47 She was still in her pink pajamas, still in Meredith's arms.

Speaker 49 He asked Meredith a question.

Speaker 30 I looked over the child. I didn't see any blood, so I asked her, did you clean the child? And her response was no.
I thought it was kind of odd because I was expecting her to say yes, I guess.

Speaker 41 Somebody did. Yeah,

Speaker 30 somebody did.

Speaker 23 But who?

Speaker 14 Was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother?

Speaker 6 On this November day, all they had were questions.

Speaker 36 Sergeant Richard Spivey of the Wake County County Sheriff's Office probably knows the case better than anyone.

Speaker 52 I mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. There was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault.

Speaker 53 Why do you say a lot of time and energy?

Speaker 52 I think the medical examiner told us there were over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object.

Speaker 40 So detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her.

Speaker 37 Michelle Young was born and raised on Long Island, New York.

Speaker 13 She was smiling all the time, and she was the life of the party.

Speaker 42 Stacia Grossman knew her from childhood.

Speaker 13 She didn't like being the center of attention, but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a good time.

Speaker 55 Michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight-A student.

Speaker 23 Jennifer Powers felt drawn to her.

Speaker 56 She had this kind of bookworm assigned to her where she was very studious and goal-oriented.

Speaker 56 I mean, she was also just a great person to be around, a fun, happy spirit, and, you know, someone that I wanted to spend a lot of time with.

Speaker 14 Lots of people did.

Speaker 32 And when she chose a college far from home, North Carolina State, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies.

Speaker 23 Fiona Childs was her sorority big sister.

Speaker 24 There's this one picture, and it's like, it just came out beautiful, and we liked it because we thought we kind of looked like Charlie's Angels pose without intentionally doing that.

Speaker 3 It was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about Michelle's new guy.

Speaker 37 A fellow student named Jason Young heard how he'd grown up in the North Carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was a life of tailgate parties.

Speaker 42 Michelle fell hard and fast.

Speaker 56 They seemed like a good couple. He was different from other men that she had dated in the past.
He wasn't as serious about a career as she was.

Speaker 56 He was a little bit less sophisticated than Michelle was, but she seemed to be very happy with him.

Speaker 55 Michelle and Jason married in October 2003.

Speaker 14 The day after the wedding, they shared their big secret.

Speaker 58 Michelle was pregnant.

Speaker 26 Their daughter, Cassidy, was born early the next year.

Speaker 60 I love you, mommy. I love you too, Cassidy.

Speaker 34 And when she came along,

Speaker 25 it was love at first sight.

Speaker 39 Michelle was an enthusiastic mother.

Speaker 25 By all accounts, Jason was a good dad.

Speaker 24 He was a great playmate. He knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know.

Speaker 46 The Youngs moved into the big fine house on Birchleaf in 2005.

Speaker 32 Both of them worked, he a salesman, she a financial specialist. In the summer of 2006, Michelle got pregnant again.

Speaker 34 They kept the news to themselves, but it was clear something good was happening.

Speaker 61 The comment he said to me was,

Speaker 13 he's excited to have another baby. Not implying that she was pregnant, but that he was excited at the prospect of it.

Speaker 40 But just a few months later, Michelle was dead.

Speaker 55 Jason was 170 miles away in Virginia on a business trip the night of the murder.

Speaker 16 He heard the news the next afternoon and returned to Raleigh.

Speaker 1 Stacia Grossman got word from her mother.

Speaker 13 My mother called and says, Michelle's dead.

Speaker 54 And I said, Michelle, who?

Speaker 13 Some celebrity? Like, what are you talking about? Like, what do you mean? Like, how is that possible? What happened?

Speaker 40 The very questions that Wake County investigators were asking themselves.

Speaker 17 When we come back, a security camera provides a critical clue. It's not what it caught on tape, it's what it missed and why.

Speaker 52 There was a camera there that had been unplugged.

Speaker 17 Who had something to hide?

Speaker 40 The facts were stark and ugly.

Speaker 37 One night in November 2006, while her husband was away on business, Michelle Young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death.

Speaker 62 Her body discovered the next day by her sister, Meredith, along with her two and a half-year-old daughter Cassidy, who'd been left to wander in her blood.

Speaker 16 For the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds.

Speaker 40 Sergeant Richard Spivey, lead investigator.

Speaker 52 Those of us who work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. That certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that.

Speaker 57 Michelle's husband Jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder.

Speaker 46 Even so, investigators had to look at him.

Speaker 52 We know that he was the last person to talk to Michelle that night, and

Speaker 52 he was also the reason why she was found. He called Meredith Fisher to go to the house.

Speaker 40 Jason Young's business trip that night was routine. Security tapes showed him getting gas about 7.30 p.m.

Speaker 58 as he left Raleigh.

Speaker 55 Two hours later, he was seen on tape at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Greensboro.

Speaker 39 Later, he checked into this Hampton Inn in Hillsville, Virginia.

Speaker 36 This is him, front desk, about 11 p.m.

Speaker 32 And him again at midnight.

Speaker 39 He also made a phone call around midnight, and that was the last time anybody heard from Jason Young until he made another call at 7.40 the next morning.

Speaker 20 A normal person would look at this and say, well, he was 170 miles away. He's got an alibi.

Speaker 52 That sounds like a great distance, you know.

Speaker 52 But 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about two and a half hours.

Speaker 2 Perhaps. But there were curious anomalies at the crime scene.
Couldn't explain them.

Speaker 29 A jewelry box was missing two drawers.

Speaker 44 So was it a bungled burglary?

Speaker 39 Then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate Jason.

Speaker 40 An obvious print on a pillow was a size 10, but Jason wore a size 12.

Speaker 58 But this was weird. There was another partial footprint.

Speaker 26 It defied easy identification.

Speaker 39 So they began calling in shoe experts.

Speaker 58 And now they wondered, were there two attackers?

Speaker 39 Of course, investigators discovered early on that Michelle and Jason's marriage was strained.

Speaker 48 And in the last weeks of Michelle's life, things were not good.

Speaker 24 At our friend Shelley's wedding, he was so drunk and just

Speaker 24 really out of it. When we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know

Speaker 50 that...

Speaker 24 Michelle and Jason were fighting and they were referring to it as World War III.

Speaker 40 Jennifer Powers told investigators about another fight that October.

Speaker 3 Michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays.

Speaker 39 And Jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in-law, wanted to limit her stay and said so in an email, along with another nugget.

Speaker 56 He wrote, Our marriage has seen better days and I don't see it trending up. And I remember that really striking a chord with me because I didn't know that their marriage had seen better days.

Speaker 51 So of course investigators wanted to interview Jason Young.

Speaker 34 Maybe he could tell them something.

Speaker 55 But he refused to talk to them.

Speaker 52 He talked to the lawyer and then

Speaker 52 under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all.

Speaker 1 Didn't ask about it.

Speaker 64 Didn't ask how his wife died?

Speaker 50 No.

Speaker 46 Perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look.

Speaker 3 So they went to the hotel, poked around, and discovered some odd activities that night in a stairwell near an exit.

Speaker 52 There was a camera there that had been unplugged.

Speaker 66 Really?

Speaker 22 Yes.

Speaker 52 It was one of the side exits of the hotel.

Speaker 52 One of the, like I said, the fire stairs that go down to the first floor.

Speaker 63 Was there any other tampering down in the?

Speaker 52 Well, the door that was adjacent to where this camera is located, that door also had been propped open that night.

Speaker 27 How do you know that?

Speaker 52 The gentleman that was working as the clerk that night found a rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. Well then they plugged the camera back in so it's now working again

Speaker 52 and at about 635 that morning suddenly that camera's pointing straight at the ceiling.

Speaker 4 Same camera.

Speaker 52 Same camera and it's tampered with yet again.

Speaker 62 If that was Jason Young's work, is it possible he did make the 340-mile round trip?

Speaker 48 Could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in seven and a half hours without ever being seen?

Speaker 40 To find out, investigators played a hunch.

Speaker 69 They visited every gas station along the route, showed Jason's photo, talked to the nightclerks, and came across a woman named Gracie Doms in a tiny place called King, North Carolina.

Speaker 69 She took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly.

Speaker 40 He was the foulmouth customer, she said, who came storming into the store to complain that the pumps were locked.

Speaker 69 And what time was it?

Speaker 16 5.30 a.m.,

Speaker 39 morning of the murder.

Speaker 52 There was actually an altercation between the two of them, so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have just happened into the store.

Speaker 16 If that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut Jason's alibi.

Speaker 6 Still, it wasn't enough.

Speaker 26 So they plotted ahead.

Speaker 55 Painstaking work took time.

Speaker 62 And then, years after the murder, they they finally got a match for that partial footprint.

Speaker 52 The State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were able to eventually identify that shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe. And it was a size 12, which was the same size that he wore.

Speaker 3 Throughout the investigation, Jason steadfastly maintained his silence.

Speaker 46 And rather than face a legal battle where he'd be asked some tough questions, Spivey said, He even gave Michelle's family custody of his daughter.

Speaker 52 Everyone that we spoke with, all of them talked about how much he loved Cassidy and what a great dad he was to just turn over primary custody.

Speaker 52 That was very surprising.

Speaker 40 Investigators had heard enough.

Speaker 25 They believed they had a case, circumstantial, but a case.

Speaker 6 And three years after Michelle Young's body was found on the bedroom floor, Jason Young was charged with her murder.

Speaker 48 Investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward Jason Young, But so far, nothing pointed away.

Speaker 17 Coming up, the case against Jason Young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband.

Speaker 19 We had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there.

Speaker 20 He ended up having sex?

Speaker 28 He never settled down.

Speaker 70 When dateline continues.

Speaker 8 Most holiday gifts end up in a drawer or the back of your closet or accidentally left at your cousin's house. Not this one.
Mint Mobile is offering unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 9 That's their best deal of the year, aka a holiday gift you'll actually use every single day.

Speaker 8 Don't get them socks. Get them premium wireless for $15 a month.
Shop Mint Unlimited plans at mintmobile.com/slash dateline. That's mintmobile.com slash dateline.
Limited time offer.

Speaker 8 Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for 6 months, or $180 for 12 months. Plan required.

Speaker 10 $15 per month equivalent.

Speaker 9 Taxes and fees extra.

Speaker 15 Initial plan term only.

Speaker 10 Greater than 35 gigabytes may slow when the network is busy.

Speaker 8 Capable device required.

Speaker 10 Availability, speed, and coverage vary.

Speaker 11 See Mintmobile.com.

Speaker 71 If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right, Granger knows you need to to understand what's wrong as soon as possible.

Speaker 71 So when a conveyor motor falters, Granger offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem.

Speaker 71 With Granger, you can be confident you have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRANGER, ClickGranger.com or just stop by.

Speaker 53 Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 18 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason. But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 18 Zin is America's number one nicotine pouch brand. Plus, Zen offers a robust rewards program.
There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zen.

Speaker 18 Check out Zen.com/slash find to find Zen at a store near you.

Speaker 18 Warning: this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 39 Jason Young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, Michelle, in June 2011. By then, he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell.

Speaker 26 The guy who lived for tailgates, the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone.

Speaker 58 She had recently gotten away from

Speaker 43 the state.

Speaker 72 The defendant had a plan. His plan was to murder his wife,

Speaker 72 and his plan was to get away with it.

Speaker 37 With no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print.

Speaker 3 They knew now that Jason once owned a pair of hush puppies like these that matched the print.

Speaker 37 They were now missing.

Speaker 63 They also told jurors about that early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel.

Speaker 49 But the thrust of their case was this.

Speaker 3 Jason Young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage.

Speaker 72 Were you aware of tensions in that marriage?

Speaker 73 Yeah, I was well aware.

Speaker 25 Meredith Fisher, Michelle's sister, lived near the couple, and for a period was Cassidy's nanny.

Speaker 46 As the Youngs' fights intensified, she took on the role of a marriage counselor, too.

Speaker 54 What would you say were the main issues?

Speaker 75 Michelle's main issues were

Speaker 75 Jason being more responsible, understanding her more,

Speaker 75 and his main concern was

Speaker 75 their lack of sex life.

Speaker 43 Prosecutors called friends to the stand to paint a picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public.

Speaker 76 Jason

Speaker 76 made it very well known that, you know, he was upset about the lack of sex in the relationship.

Speaker 40 And at parties, said Fiona Childs, Jason's X-rated tricks were famously over the top.

Speaker 24 I never observed it myself. I would just hear about it and, you know, he would expose himself and do what he thought was these funny tricks.
And I was always just rather embarrassed for Michelle.

Speaker 28 He never settled down. I mean, it was as if he was still living the single life.
He never bought into the marriage and

Speaker 59 what all that meant.

Speaker 39 In October 2006, when Michelle was four months pregnant, Jason became deeply involved with another woman.

Speaker 47 And not just any woman.

Speaker 42 Michelle Money was one of Michelle Young's close friends from college, one of those Charlie's angels.

Speaker 39 In early October, days before his third wedding anniversary, Jason flew to Florida to see Michelle Money.

Speaker 42 She testified they both knew it was wrong.

Speaker 59 We basically just hung out at the house and

Speaker 19 we had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there.

Speaker 43 Jason was crazy about her, his friend Josh Sholton said.

Speaker 21 He basically told me that he thought he was in love with her.

Speaker 33 Michelle's mother, Linda Fisher, testified that in the final weeks of Michelle's life, she could see the toll the failing marriage was taking on her pregnant daughter.

Speaker 44 She had her head on my lap,

Speaker 20 and she was lying out, and I was

Speaker 50 stroking her hair.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 she was

Speaker 11 empty.

Speaker 54 And what did she tell you?

Speaker 20 Things weren't working out with Jason.

Speaker 55 Two days before she was murdered, Michelle phoned her sister Meredith to report yet another blow-up with Jason.

Speaker 75 She was just, I've had it.

Speaker 73 She said that, you know, more than one time. I just, I can't do this anymore.

Speaker 55 Jason was telling one of his close friends the same thing.

Speaker 55 And prosecutors said just days before Michelle was murdered, he indulged in one last transgression.

Speaker 35 A casual hookup with an old friend named Carol Ann Sowerby in his own living room.

Speaker 22 Michelle was away at the time.

Speaker 71 Cassidy was put down to bed and

Speaker 71 had a couple drinks, just were talking and

Speaker 71 he ended up having sex.

Speaker 42 But divorce was apparently not an option for Jason.

Speaker 21 He had made a statement at one time that

Speaker 21 he was afraid that if he ever got a divorce, that Michelle would take Castie and move back to New York.

Speaker 54 And did he indicate to you that he would have some concerns about ever being able to see Castie again?

Speaker 73 Correct.

Speaker 68 Still, one big question remained.

Speaker 46 Was a good-time guy like Jason Young even capable of murder?

Speaker 39 Genevieve Cargill was engaged to Jason in 1999 before he met Michelle.

Speaker 40 And she took the stand to testify about a fight they'd had

Speaker 46 over Jason's excessive drinking.

Speaker 78 He became agitated. He said something to the effect of, if I'm going to make such a terrible husband, then

Speaker 78 give me my ring back.

Speaker 54 Did you

Speaker 54 give it to the defendant?

Speaker 78 No. He began trying to pull the ring off and it wouldn't come off.
He was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me.

Speaker 39 Prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder.

Speaker 32 So how would the defense counterattack?

Speaker 37 With a witness who could refute every charge.

Speaker 17 Coming up, Jason Young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify.

Speaker 74 Did you kill your wife, Michelle?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 74 Were you there when it happened?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 77 What the prosecution didn't tell you.

Speaker 80 There's an art to the business of criminal defense, and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of Jason Young. So, what could defense attorney Mike Klinkeson do?

Speaker 55 Well, to begin with, as he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution.

Speaker 80 Jason Young was not a good husband.

Speaker 65 He acted at times like an immature jerk, but that does not make him a killer.

Speaker 80 The defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you.

Speaker 16 That jewelry box in the bedroom, there was DNA on it.

Speaker 36 Didn't match either Michelle or Jason.

Speaker 26 The suspicious activity at the hotel?

Speaker 66 There was a fingerprint on that camera, and it wasn't Jason Young's. And there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied Jason to the crime scene.

Speaker 55 And there was no blood in his car.

Speaker 64 There was not a scratch on him.

Speaker 65 Ladies and gentlemen, Jason Lynn Young did not murder his wife.

Speaker 81 He did not murder their unborn son.

Speaker 69 And this case has not been solved.

Speaker 55 Who better to make that argument than Jason Young himself?

Speaker 37 But so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that November night, and almost five years silence.

Speaker 60 It's always a big decision for defense attorneys whether or not to call their clients.

Speaker 1 Beth Karras is a former prosecutor and legal analyst.

Speaker 32 She covered the trial.

Speaker 60 This is a case that really begged for Jason Young to testify. If he's innocent,

Speaker 60 right, and if he's truly innocent, get on the sand and tell the story.

Speaker 74 We call Jason Young.

Speaker 45 All right.

Speaker 37 With his mother sitting in the front row, Jason Young prepared to do just that.

Speaker 39 Defense attorney Brian Collins hit it hard off the top.

Speaker 74 Did you kill your wife, Michelle?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 74 Were you there when it happened?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 1 But what about Jason's missing hush puppies that matched the partial shoe print?

Speaker 37 He no longer owned them, he said.

Speaker 74 Are those the shoes that you had on on November the 2nd?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 42 They were all ratty, he said.

Speaker 39 Told Michelle to give them to Goodwill.

Speaker 39 And as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, Jason testified, he left his room twice.

Speaker 1 The first time to get a power cord for his laptop.

Speaker 79 I was going over

Speaker 79 the sales call that I had the next day.

Speaker 40 The second trip, trip, he testified, was to smoke a cigar.

Speaker 79 I had to go outside to smoke the cigar and I also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings and so I wanted to see if I could pick up the USA today as well.

Speaker 36 That newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk he's had around midnight.

Speaker 74 So between the time you smoked the cigar and went back upstairs and went to sleep, did you leave that room until the next morning?

Speaker 79 No, sir.

Speaker 39 Next morning after his sales call, Jason testified, he realized he'd left some eBay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home.

Speaker 23 They showed purses.

Speaker 39 He was thinking of buying one for Michelle as a belated anniversary present.

Speaker 79 And I realized I didn't bring those papers.

Speaker 74 Why is it important to you that somebody get those papers?

Speaker 79 Because I wanted it to be a surprise.

Speaker 11 A surprise to Michelle means so much more than anything.

Speaker 39 So around noon, November 3rd, he called his sister-in-law Meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those eBay papers. Friday, November 3rd.
He left Meredith a voicemail.

Speaker 39 If you could do me a huge favor, I can go over there and see if you can find it sitting on the computer.

Speaker 43 Then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby.

Speaker 41 And it was there, he testified hours later, that he learned Michelle had been murdered.

Speaker 57 I just...

Speaker 79 I just, I just fell. I just, I just, I broke on the inside.
I just broke and I didn't believe it.

Speaker 23 Family members drove him back to Raleigh.

Speaker 40 During the drive, he said his friends called.

Speaker 79 Ryan and Josh had said that the investigators were

Speaker 79 asking really ugly questions and pointing their finger at me and doing things like that. And they said, you don't need to talk to anybody.

Speaker 79 You need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody.

Speaker 43 And then the explanation for his long silence.

Speaker 79 The lawyer that I got after talking with him, he actually advised me to not go talk to the police.

Speaker 74 And did you take that advice?

Speaker 79 Yes, sir, I did.

Speaker 74 Did he also tell you not to talk to anybody about it, Cassidy?

Speaker 79 That's actually exactly what he said. He said, don't talk to anybody about anything.

Speaker 64 The defense also addressed the motives prosecutors have laid out that Jason wanted to escape a bad marriage and keep custody of Cassidy and spend time with his new love.

Speaker 74 Did you have any designs in your own mind of leaving Michelle Young for Michelle money? No, sir.

Speaker 69 All right, describe why not.

Speaker 79 I think we both knew it was wrong. I don't think we, either one

Speaker 79 dreamed that

Speaker 79 it would ever be found out.

Speaker 11 Pushing me around the bed.

Speaker 39 As for that violent episode with his ex-fiancé, Jason had an explanation for it.

Speaker 74 Did you throw her around on the bed like she said?

Speaker 79 No, sir. What I did was wrong.
I did pin her down and I took the ring.

Speaker 50 Okay.

Speaker 74 What was your level of intoxication at that time?

Speaker 79 I was very intoxicated, but I don't feel like that's an excuse for what I did.

Speaker 25 And they questioned him about the most important woman in his life.

Speaker 74 Did you want to stay married to Michelle?

Speaker 79 Yes, I did. I wanted to

Speaker 79 have another baby and I wanted the family to grow.

Speaker 26 He also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight.

Speaker 74 Were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle?

Speaker 79 No, sorry.

Speaker 79 I lost it.

Speaker 25 His testimony lasted three hours.

Speaker 60 Jason Young was a very good witness.

Speaker 60 He understood what he had to do when he was on the stand.

Speaker 20 So he didn't come off as contrived or phony?

Speaker 1 Like he had put this together very carefully in order to account for all the evidence that they had.

Speaker 60 He had access to police reports, all the discovery. He knew the state's vulnerabilities.
And so he could

Speaker 60 arguably tailor his testimony to

Speaker 60 fit with an innocent explanation.

Speaker 55 How did Jason Young do?

Speaker 23 Twelve jurors were about to decide.

Speaker 72 Coming up, the prosecutor gets her chance to go one-on-one with Jason Young and it isn't pretty when you're working on your marriage when you are having sex with Caroline Sowerby in your home when dateline continues

Speaker 61 Score holiday gifts everyone wants for way less at your Nordstrom rack store. Save on Ugg, Nike, Rag and Bone, Vince, Frame, Kurt Geiger London and more.

Speaker 82 Because there's always something new. I'm giving all the gifts this year with that extra 5% off when I use my Nordstrom credit card.

Speaker 61 Santa who? Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock our best deals. It's easy.
Big gifts, big perks. That's why you rack.

Speaker 83 A BetterHelp ad.

Speaker 83 This November, BetterHelp is encouraging people to reach out, grab lunch with an old friend, call your parents, or even find support in therapy.

Speaker 83 BetterHelp makes it easy with its therapist match commitment and over 12 years of online therapy experience, matching members with qualified professionals.

Speaker 83 And just like that lunch with an old friend, once you do reach out, you'll wonder, why didn't I do this sooner? Start now at betterhelp.com for 10% off your first month.

Speaker 84 I'm Julio Vaqueiro, anchor of Noticias Telemundo. You can watch Daidline, the heat true crime series on Telemundo.
And now, you can listen to Daidline as a podcast.

Speaker 84 Stories of love and betrayal, of secrets revealed, of the men and women who stand between evil and justice. Every twist and turn can now be heard in Spanish, with new mysteries arriving every week.

Speaker 84 Just search Tateline en Español, wherever you get your podcasts, and start listening.

Speaker 22 It was riveting.

Speaker 80 Almost five years of silence about his wife's murder.

Speaker 55 I went back to my room broken here in this courtroom.

Speaker 79 I loved Cassidy and I loved Michelle.

Speaker 72 And that he went to murder his wife.

Speaker 51 Now, Prosecutor Becky Holt began pulling apart a story she had just heard for the first time.

Speaker 72 Were you working on your marriage when you were having sex with Carol Ann Sowerby in your home

Speaker 72 less than two weeks before your wife was murdered?

Speaker 79 No, ma'am, that was not the way to work on a marriage. That was very detrimental.

Speaker 72 Were you working on your marriage when you called Michelle money?

Speaker 79 Michelle and I confided a lot in each other, and we talked about my issues with my wife and she talked about her issues with her husband.

Speaker 72 So is the answer yes when you had an affair with Michelle Money that you were working on your marriage?

Speaker 79 No ma'am. Having the sexual intercourse and having the intimacy was

Speaker 79 very detrimental to that.

Speaker 11 The cross-examination lasted a full hour and the next day the case went to the jury.

Speaker 31 Retire to the jury deliberation room.

Speaker 23 Soon became clear jurors were having trouble.

Speaker 85 But it indicated that y'all have not yet reached a unanimous decision.

Speaker 35 The jurors were split six to six.

Speaker 3 The judge sent them back to try to make it unanimous.

Speaker 85 Everybody else remained at Jersey Leap for a second.

Speaker 29 But hours later, they were back.

Speaker 41 And courtroom 3C

Speaker 22 was still.

Speaker 21 It appears that they are hopelessly deadlocked at this point.

Speaker 42 Eight jurors had voted for acquittal. Four voted guilty.

Speaker 55 Judge Stevens declared a mistrial.

Speaker 62 Was serious consideration given to dropping the case?

Speaker 28 I think there was serious consideration as to is there more we can do.

Speaker 40 So the prosecutors decided they would try again.

Speaker 23 But this time with the one thing they didn't have the first time, Jason's own story.

Speaker 16 The second trial began in February 2012.

Speaker 64 This time, Howard Cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use Jason's own words to convict him.

Speaker 86 Put your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand, please the court.

Speaker 49 But first, prosecutors called that night clerk at the gas station, Gracie, who remembered Jason complaining about the locked pumps.

Speaker 87 And when he came in to pay, he started cussing and raising cane.

Speaker 2 And what time did this happen?

Speaker 87 That was about 5, 5.30 in the morning.

Speaker 57 A time when Jason said he was at the hotel.

Speaker 85 Two next witness.

Speaker 48 Then prosecutors had new witnesses and new testimony.

Speaker 3 They wanted jurors to hear about Cassidy, whose bloody footprints, they contended, made her a silent witness to murder.

Speaker 54 When I got to Cassidy, I said, what are you doing?

Speaker 46 Daycare worker Ashley Pommentier took the stand.

Speaker 54 I noticed what she was doing.

Speaker 43 She told jurors she watched Cassidy play alone days after her mother was murdered.

Speaker 12 She had the chair and the doll in her hand together, and then the mommy doll in the other hand, and she just hit them.

Speaker 34 As unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind, a witness he would never harm.

Speaker 26 The fact that Cassidy was

Speaker 6 spared, did that mean anything to you, or would that mean anything to a jury?

Speaker 28 Certainly. It meant that the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about Cassidy.

Speaker 87 I do. Thank you, Maybe Susie.

Speaker 57 Fiona Childs took the stand.

Speaker 41 Prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy Jason arranged.

Speaker 24 It did raise a red flag to the marriage.

Speaker 23 And Michelle had questioned.

Speaker 24 That she brought up specifically her life insurance. She brought it up several times, asking me, didn't I think that a million dollars was too much and did they really need that?

Speaker 46 After Michelle died, Fiona found out the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million.

Speaker 24 But I was just like in total shock. Like that, that is...
incredibly excessive.

Speaker 1 And prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against Jason brought by Michelle's mother and sister.

Speaker 1 One was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder.

Speaker 50 Over the defense's objection, court clerk Lauren Freeman testified about that lawsuit.

Speaker 88 There is an alleged paragraph, paragraph six, again reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of November 3rd, 2006, Jason Young brutally murdered Michelle Young at their residence.

Speaker 1 Freeman went on to testify that Jason never responded responded to the allegations, and that led to a default judgment against him. That judgment said, Jason killed his wife.

Speaker 60 A default judgment does not mean the facts alleged in the silver complaint are true. It does not mean he's guilty.
And the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions.

Speaker 60 However, when you hear the statement, Jason Young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean he's guilty, folks.

Speaker 50 Hello, you know?

Speaker 57 And the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling.

Speaker 67 I'm reading from this judgment, which is signed actually by Judge Stevens.

Speaker 1 Judge Stevens, the very judge sitting before them in this trial.

Speaker 60 The jury hearing it, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight.

Speaker 86 This is the complaint that was filed in December seeking custody of Cassidy.

Speaker 1 Prosecutors also called the attorney involved in that custody case over daughter Cassidy, and those same allegations were repeated yet again.

Speaker 60 The jury heard several times through these two civil complaints that Jason Young brutally murdered Michelle Fisher-Young.

Speaker 16 But the headline act came when prosecutors played Jason Young's entire testimony from the first trial.

Speaker 41 I wanted her to have it and began to rip it apart.

Speaker 29 I don't remember.

Speaker 39 Prosecutors tried to show that Jason's call to Meredith to pick up those eBay printouts was merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find Cassidy.

Speaker 42 Why else would he print an eBay auction ad and leave it on the printer and then hit the road where he couldn't bid during the actual auction?

Speaker 16 They called Sergeant Spivey to the stand.

Speaker 81 That auction was going to end 8 o'clock p.m.

Speaker 81 Eastern Standard Time.

Speaker 67 And what day was that?

Speaker 52 That was on

Speaker 81 November the 2nd, 2006.

Speaker 14 Just hours before the murder. Now, prosecutors tried to prove Jason lied about his reasons for leaving the hotel room.

Speaker 58 I didn't pull the door all the way through.

Speaker 49 In his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop.

Speaker 74 Why was it that you wanted to look on your laptop?

Speaker 79 I was going over

Speaker 79 the sales call that I had the next day.

Speaker 47 But Special Agent Mike Smith took the stand to say Young didn't use his laptop for work that night.

Speaker 26 It's an internet site dedicated to sports.

Speaker 39 Jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar.

Speaker 57 But prosecutors contended Jason was a fierce anti-smoker, and the weather that night was freezy, windy.

Speaker 67 Can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear that the defendant either had in his luggage or was wearing?

Speaker 81 No, sir. There was a suit jacket.
Okay.

Speaker 86 That was the only outerwear that...

Speaker 38 I'm aware of.

Speaker 3 Jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back, of course. They argued the gas station attendant's memory couldn't be trusted because of a childhood brain injury.

Speaker 87 I've had memory problems since I was six because I've been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband.

Speaker 22 The defense also argued the case really wasn't solved.

Speaker 39 That there was no physical evidence to prove Jason was the killer.

Speaker 65 There wasn't one scratch on Mr. Young, no sir.

Speaker 34 That he would never have had time to make that trip and commit murder. That he didn't have the mindset mindset of a killer.

Speaker 58 And that cigar?

Speaker 39 They showed that Jason Young actually owned a humidor and he'd once made a purchase at a cigar store.

Speaker 74 You have ample evidence before you that Jason Young is not guilty.

Speaker 32 And then it was over again.

Speaker 22 And time for another jury to consider whether Jason Young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man.

Speaker 17 Coming up, the verdict take two.

Speaker 85 The jury, by unanimous verdict, found the defendant Jason Lin Young to be

Speaker 43 for more than five years michelle young's family and friends had been waiting for answers who killed their pretty pregnant michelle many thought they knew

Speaker 24 it was him you know i didn't know all the evidence i didn't know half the things i know now but i felt that way.

Speaker 20 One jury failed to decide.

Speaker 41 And now attorneys were making their final arguments to a second jury.

Speaker 65 Be mad at him. Hate him if you want to.
But when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. It does not match up to Jason having killed his wife and unborn son.

Speaker 67 30 blows? That's not from a stranger.

Speaker 67 That is a mad, mad

Speaker 67 domestic abuser.

Speaker 63 Soon, that jury was behind closed doors in the Wake County Superior Court.

Speaker 11 After two days, they were back with a verdict.

Speaker 85 Will the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant Jason Lynn Young to be guilty of first-degree murder of Michelle Young?

Speaker 3 Guilty. First-degree murder.

Speaker 47 Jason Young didn't flinch.

Speaker 41 Behind him, his mother was equally stoic.

Speaker 39 On the other side of the court, Michelle Young's bereaved mother and sister wept.

Speaker 32 Fiona at home got the news from a friend.

Speaker 45 You say he's guilty.

Speaker 45 Like,

Speaker 45 what?

Speaker 45 What?

Speaker 16 Jason Young received a life sentence, chose not to address the court.

Speaker 63 Even as the bailiffs led him away, he remained expressionless.

Speaker 25 The prosecutors were, they told us, relieved.

Speaker 67 It's very emotional to have family members there who you've been working with for five and a half years. And they finally have justice, you know.

Speaker 28 You know, we've been telling them for years,

Speaker 28 just trust.

Speaker 28 Just trust that it'll be the right result.

Speaker 4 But was it a year and a half ticked by

Speaker 50 and then this?

Speaker 89 Attorneys for Jason Young demanding a new trial, saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors.

Speaker 1 December 2013, Jason Young's new attorney launched his appeal.

Speaker 90 Who is the killer? Is Jason Young the person responsible for Ms. Young's death? And, you know, it seems fundamentally unfair.

Speaker 1 What was fundamentally unfair?

Speaker 1 Remember, during the trial, the attorney pointed out, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against Jason brought by Michelle's family. They accused Jason of murder.

Speaker 88 Jason Young brutally murdered Michelle Young.

Speaker 86 The defendant brutally murdered Michelle Marie Fisher-Young.

Speaker 1 Way out of bounds, said the attorney.

Speaker 63 The jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that.

Speaker 3 Outside the court, Michelle's sister Meredith predicted the appeal would be thrown out.

Speaker 27 And the jury came to the right verdict and we're confident it'll stay.

Speaker 50 But she was wrong.

Speaker 77 A Raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife.

Speaker 1 In April 2014, the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about those civil cases prejudiced the jury.

Speaker 57 And they took particular exception to the fact the prosecutor was allowed to tell the jurors it was their trial judge who signed the civil judgment against Jason, which said that he killed his wife.

Speaker 1 In fact, said the appeals court, introducing evidence about the civil cases was a violation of North Carolina law.

Speaker 60 And that law says you cannot use a civil complaint, a civil allegation, as proof in a criminal case.

Speaker 48 But a year later, the state Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision.

Speaker 43 And in 2017, Jason Young made yet another attempt to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective.

Speaker 4 It was also denied.

Speaker 5 I love you, Larry.

Speaker 59 I love you too, Cassidy.

Speaker 15 But children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals.

Speaker 3 For Cassidy, her father, her mother, are snatches of memory, ever farther away.

Speaker 17 That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.
Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 12 This time of year, many are checking off their holiday gift lists.

Speaker 9 But identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them.

Speaker 12 Protect your identity with LifeLock.

Speaker 9 LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss.

Speaker 12 If your identity is stolen, LifeLock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back.

Speaker 9 Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com/slash dateline.

Speaker 8 Terms apply.