In an Instant

Speaker 1 It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technologies' biggest sale of the year.

Speaker 1 Enjoy huge savings on select PCs like the Dell 16 Plus, featuring Intel Core ultra-processors, and with built-in advanced features. It's the PC that helps you do more faster.

Speaker 1 Plus, earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, price match guarantee, and expert support.

Speaker 1 They also have huge deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC and make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop now at dell.com/slash deals.

Speaker 4 Dateline is sponsored by Capital One.

Speaker 5 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 11 It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way.

Speaker 5 What's in your wallet?

Speaker 4 Terms apply. See Capital One.com/slash bank, Capital One NA member FDIC.

Speaker 3 Total shock and disbelief. I mean, this is not happening.
Am I having a nightmare?

Speaker 2 It was so sudden.

Speaker 15 Please, please, my wife, who got some body. I almost gone down.

Speaker 3 That moment is ingrained in my memory. Time stood still.

Speaker 10 A wife and mom collapsed and gone.

Speaker 3 And I go to run to her, and she's cold.

Speaker 2 Her death baffled the experts. A heart attack, a seizure.
Could it have even been her new tan?

Speaker 20 It was the first time she had gotten a spray tan, and she passed away a few hours later.

Speaker 2 Finally, investigators had an answer. This mystery, they said, was murder.

Speaker 3 We were in complete shock.

Speaker 2 Curious evidence.

Speaker 22 Suspicious markings on her neck.

Speaker 2 Strange behavior.

Speaker 23 He went from hysterical to calm.

Speaker 2 The trial had everything.

Speaker 3 Exploding emotions.

Speaker 2 A secret affair.

Speaker 19 Did you have an affair?

Speaker 21 Yes, and my husband is well aware of it.

Speaker 2 Even an identical twin

Speaker 2 Five years of suspicion comes down to one moment.

Speaker 3 We deteriorate. I don't think that anyone can imagine what it's like to love someone so much and then be charged with their murder.
It's unfathomable.

Speaker 2 Keith Morrison reports on a cliffhanger of a case

Speaker 1 in an instant.

Speaker 26 The story, when it hit the news, sounded almost crazy.

Speaker 27 Killed by a spray tent.

Speaker 28 Claiming his wife died after an allergic reaction to her spray tan.

Speaker 7 Husband accused of murdering his wife tries to blame her death on a fatal reaction to a simple spray tan.

Speaker 32 And thus a myth was born.

Speaker 33 The case of the spray tan defense.

Speaker 17 What a headline.

Speaker 33 Now it was a strange tale. It was true that a spray tan did briefly play a role at the heart of what sounded like murder, but the real story?

Speaker 33 Headlines don't always tell it, do they?

Speaker 11 The true story of what happened here in Miami was far more troubling, tragic, and bizarre than any headline.

Speaker 38 And it all happened so fast.

Speaker 3 Business was good, beautiful house,

Speaker 3 great friends, and then it changes in an instant. Like that.
Like that.

Speaker 40 To begin with, there was Aventura.

Speaker 42 A brand new town, an upscale suburb, actually, with clipped green lawns and trophy boats that skirts the northern fringe of Miami.

Speaker 43 And among the founding families in this clean new place was the Kaufman clan. Migrants a generation ago from up north in New York, Jerry Kaufman came first.

Speaker 10 We are

Speaker 18 four brothers.

Speaker 46 Lots of children and grandchildren.

Speaker 18 The family's been very close for

Speaker 47 generations.

Speaker 39 And pretty soon Avatura was a magnet for a big and ever bigger Kaufman family, including these two, the twins, Adam and Seth Kaufman, Jerry's nephews.

Speaker 11 Identical, like two halves of one person. Seth tried to explain it by describing the day Adam cut his finger.

Speaker 3 We're both screaming,

Speaker 3 and my mom said, Seth, why are you crying hysterically? And I said, because it hurts.

Speaker 19 And it was Adam's finger.

Speaker 3 So I truly do believe that we feel each other's pain.

Speaker 49 They were teachers first.

Speaker 7 Big teachers for little kids.

Speaker 3 We both started teaching pre-K

Speaker 3 because there were no jobs available at the time.

Speaker 12 I was trying to imagine you with a four-year-olds.

Speaker 3 Kind of like kindergarten cop, you know, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun and also very rewarding.

Speaker 43 But teaching didn't pay the bills.

Speaker 51 So they joined the family business, real estate development.

Speaker 48 Though frankly, they looked more like wrestlers or bar bouncers, big, burly, athletic men.

Speaker 7 And it turned out, suckers for love.

Speaker 3 She was my soulmate. She was my soulmate.
We had an instant connection.

Speaker 37 Adam fell first for a remarkable young woman named Eleonora, though everybody called her Lena.

Speaker 54 She'd been everywhere, had Lena.

Speaker 55 Russian roots, grew up in Israel, came to America, met Adam at work, and quickly decided that he was the twin for her.

Speaker 39 And he?

Speaker 3 I knew right away that this is the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with.

Speaker 36 What did she do for you?

Speaker 3 I mean, she is absolutely spectacularly beautiful.

Speaker 3 She's a head turner.

Speaker 17 She's got class.

Speaker 3 And, you know, you have this poor schlub from New York. You meet a woman like this.
You know, you got to jump on that opportunity. So I did my best and something worked.

Speaker 17 So, what would people see when they saw you and Lena walking down the street together?

Speaker 3 Happy.

Speaker 3 It was the happiest time of my life.

Speaker 3 I had everything I ever wanted in a woman.

Speaker 3 Caring, loving, giving.

Speaker 3 she was my best friend.

Speaker 35 They got married in March 2000.

Speaker 57 Before long, they had a girl and a boy, a nice house in a gated community, a big extended family they saw all the time.

Speaker 42 And as Adam's mother, Elaine, saw it, a remarkably happy and untroubled relationship.

Speaker 59 There was just so much harmony in that marriage. He absolutely adored her and she adored him.
And she would tell me all the time, you know, he's so cute, mom.

Speaker 3 If I said, you know, Lena, the guys want to go out tonight and grab a drink or go get a steak, no problem, go.

Speaker 3 There was never an argument about me spending time with my friends. There's really nothing I would have changed about our relationship.
Nothing.

Speaker 32 Then it was Seth's turn.

Speaker 61 And here comes this Brazilian girl who is loud.

Speaker 7 That was Raquel.

Speaker 33 And Seth was smitten.

Speaker 35 Adam and Lena, too, the four of them became inseparable.

Speaker 61 We traveled together. On the weekends we were together, restaurants, everything, family events, it was the four of us.

Speaker 62 Yeah.

Speaker 31 It's like you had a sister too. Yes.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 61 Really did. I mean, we truly talked about and enjoyed everything together, everything.

Speaker 61 And it had to be that way because

Speaker 61 Adam and Seth, they're so close.

Speaker 49 So, you get the picture.

Speaker 4 It was a sweet spot in life.

Speaker 14 Too sweet, too perfect to last.

Speaker 11 It was November 6, 2007.

Speaker 35 Seth and Raquel were getting married in 10 days.

Speaker 43 Lena was to be a bridesmaid, and so she got herself her first ever spray tan to look her best in the dress.

Speaker 32 Just hours after that is when it all came crashing down in an instant, and this big, happy family suddenly plunged into a very dark place.

Speaker 14 It was a little after six the next morning, said Adam Kaufman, when he woke up and realized Lena wasn't next to him in bed.

Speaker 50 he walked into the bathroom, he said, and there she was.

Speaker 3 And I go to run to her, and it's just in slow motion as I'm going to her. And I touch her, and she's cold.

Speaker 10 So I'm screaming, Lena, Lena, wake up, wake up.

Speaker 14 That's when he made that frantic call to 911.

Speaker 15 Please, Lee, my wife is in the bathroom body. I know what's going on.

Speaker 43 He was hysterical.

Speaker 15 Sir, I need her to calm down. I can't understand what to say.
Where is the- My wife is in the bathroom. She's in the bathroom.
She's on the floor.

Speaker 15 I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 15 Okay, she's not breathing? Why?

Speaker 3 A million things are going through my mind, and all I'm focused on is getting her help. Please! Please!

Speaker 3 Oh my God!

Speaker 29 The 911 operator tried to instruct him in CPR, but it wasn't working.

Speaker 64 23 minutes went by that way.

Speaker 3 You know how at times in your life, seconds feel like minutes?

Speaker 3 This felt like hours.

Speaker 13 Then the medics finally arrived, chewed Adam out of the way, started working on Lena.

Speaker 30 Adam phoned his twin brother, Seth.

Speaker 3 Adam was on the other end of the line, frantically screaming, my name. Get over here, quick.
Lena's not breathing.

Speaker 47 Seth and fiancé Raquel raced over to the house as EMTs tried to intubate Lena, pushed and prodded, and did everything they could to coax life back into her body.

Speaker 61 And Adam is pacing back and forth and screaming, oh my God, oh my god, oh my god, my kids, my kids. And he's saying to me, please go to my kids, please go to my kids.

Speaker 45 Raquel got the baby from the crib and went into the four-year-old's room.

Speaker 21 She was on the floor playing with her toys.

Speaker 66 And she looked at me. She said, Did mommy ask you to come baby sit me because she wasn't feeling well?

Speaker 66 And I said, Yes, baby.

Speaker 48 Lena was being rushed out of the house and to the hospital, but they could not save her. And Adam was a mess, destroyed.

Speaker 7 What on earth had happened to Lena?

Speaker 48 And the big question: did someone close make it happen?

Speaker 2 When we come back, you know where this is going. A husband now under suspicion.

Speaker 65 The whole scene together for fire rescue was like, this is not adding up.

Speaker 2 When in an instant, continuous.

Speaker 3 You immediately feel

Speaker 3 that you've lost

Speaker 3 half of you, your soul,

Speaker 3 your heart.

Speaker 3 I couldn't believe that that was true.

Speaker 37 Adam Kaufman insisted he had no idea what killed Lena.

Speaker 9 She was so active, seemed so healthy.

Speaker 34 How could a 33-year-old go to the bathroom at night and just drop dead?

Speaker 32 Didn't make sense to the EMTs either.

Speaker 7 Something didn't look right, which is why Detective Anthony Angulo was called in to take a closer look at this medical mystery.

Speaker 55 He'd never investigated a homicide before, but could this perhaps be his first?

Speaker 29 Even a rookie knows a husband is always a potential suspect when a wife drops dead.

Speaker 54 And certain things about Adam's story that morning seemed off.

Speaker 65 I mean, you know, the whole scene together for fire rescue was like, this is not adding up.

Speaker 34 And it wouldn't to Chief Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoag either.

Speaker 32 For starters, Adam said he'd been asleep in bed just before finding Lena.

Speaker 43 But some of the first responders said they saw Adam fully dressed when they arrived.

Speaker 65 Nobody sleeps dressed.

Speaker 65 Even down to the fact that at the police, at the hospital itself, one of the officers recognized that he had cologne on and he had his watch on.

Speaker 8 As if he had been out out all night or something.

Speaker 69 Or at least up.

Speaker 34 Another officer reported the hood of Adam's car, parked in the garage, felt warm to the touch as if he'd just been driving it.

Speaker 65 Being warm kind of really lends it to being driven.

Speaker 29 And when the detective looked in the bedroom, did his eyes deceive him?

Speaker 39 Or was one side of the bed undisturbed?

Speaker 33 As if it hadn't been slept in?

Speaker 64 So, what was Adam's story about how he found his wife in the bathroom again?

Speaker 43 Turns out, it was a little unclear.

Speaker 65 He told the first captain that he

Speaker 65 went into the bathroom and saw her slumped over the toilet.

Speaker 65 After that, he made a statement where he said that she was

Speaker 65 slumped over the magazine rack.

Speaker 7 The other way.

Speaker 12 Yes.

Speaker 25 Strange. Isn't that what guilty people do? Change their stories?

Speaker 13 But more than anything, it was something on Lena's body that just might tell what happened to her.

Speaker 29 Some nasty-looking bruises on the neck.

Speaker 11 Those and other signs of trauma suggested that Lena's death wasn't from natural causes.

Speaker 72 It looked like she'd been strangled.

Speaker 65 Something has happened which has cut off the air supply and created a pressure such that you get these,

Speaker 65 you know, marks in your eyes.

Speaker 16 When somebody has caused their airway to be closed.

Speaker 47 In other words, it doesn't happen just by itself.

Speaker 73 Not usually.

Speaker 40 So the picture coming together was not of an unexplained innocent death, said the prosecutor, but the story perhaps of a husband who came home after a night out and suddenly snapped.

Speaker 13 That panic on the 911 call

Speaker 40 could be the sound of a man realizing he had just done the unthinkable.

Speaker 65 Could also be that

Speaker 65 this man ended up strangling his wife, all right, freaked out over what he did. Didn't necessarily mean to do it, but it happened because he's twice her size and a whole lot stronger than she is.

Speaker 65 And Whatever set him off, set him off.

Speaker 29 But did they arrest him?

Speaker 12 No.

Speaker 12 That, if it happened at all, would have to wait for an autopsy report.

Speaker 41 Hard evidence.

Speaker 42 And so 10 days after Lena's death, when Seth and Raquel went ahead with their wedding, police were paying attention.

Speaker 74 In Judaism, in particular,

Speaker 20 We celebrate life before death.

Speaker 36 Adam was there, made a speech, even cracked a few jokes about his brother.

Speaker 31 And he just wanted for his brother, his twin brother,

Speaker 61 to

Speaker 21 have somewhat of a good time at his wedding.

Speaker 45 But looked at another way, it seemed to the police somehow suspicious.

Speaker 68 As it did when a couple of months after Lena's death, Adam seemed to be dating again.

Speaker 26 So they kept an eye on him and waited for the medical examiner to issue his autopsy report.

Speaker 70 Waited for months, a year,

Speaker 12 longer.

Speaker 26 This was not like some slick Miami TV show.

Speaker 30 Bureaucracies don't move so fast in real life.

Speaker 40 But then it was April 2009.

Speaker 43 Quite suddenly, decision day.

Speaker 24 Coming up, was Lena Kaufman murdered?

Speaker 22 They pointed out suspicious markings on her neck.

Speaker 24 Or is there another explanation?

Speaker 2 Something to do with that spray tan.

Speaker 60 Has the FDA received complaints of seizures by people who have undergone spray tan?

Speaker 27 Yes.

Speaker 2 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 8 Looking to crack the code on your career?

Speaker 72 Well, maybe it's time to get your degree.

Speaker 8 Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 programs you can complete online.

Speaker 30 No set class times means you can do it all on your schedule.

Speaker 72 And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., they make getting your degree affordable, too. Get started at snhu.edu slash dateline.

Speaker 44 That's snhu.edu slash dateline.

Speaker 19 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 19 Zen 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 19 Check out zinn.com slash slash find to find Zin at a store near you.

Speaker 19 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 69 A mochi moment from Mark, who writes, I just want to thank you for making GOP1s affordable. What would have been over $1,000 a month is just $99 a month with Mochi.

Speaker 69 Money shouldn't be a barrier to healthy weight. Three months in and I have smaller jeans and a bigger wallet.
You're the best. Thanks, Mark.
I'm Myra Ammuth, founder of Mochi Health.

Speaker 69 To find your Mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com.

Speaker 75 Mochi members have access to licensed physicians and nutritionists and are compensated for their stories. Results may vary.

Speaker 32 17 months after that desperate November morning, An Adam Kaufman claimed he was still in the dark, no clue, he said, as to how his Lena died.

Speaker 34 He said dozens of calls to the Miami Medical Examiner's Office went unanswered.

Speaker 54 So finally, he called the State Board of Examiners to complain.

Speaker 3 A very nice guy said, Ms. Kaufman, I will look into it, take care of it, get back to you as soon as possible.

Speaker 54 And the very next day, there was a ruling on the cause of Lena's death.

Speaker 30 But no one told Adam.

Speaker 26 Not yet.

Speaker 29 It was a week later, a sultry Tuesday evening.

Speaker 35 Adam was working at a new ice cream shop he and his brother opened during those boom-to-bust real estate days for developers.

Speaker 3 In walk police, and that was not uncommon. Police always frequent our shop.

Speaker 3 And I look back down, and I see red dots on my shirt, all over my shirt. And I look back up, and then I see about 15 police officers, SWAT.
officers in the store.

Speaker 3 And then I see them, there he is, and they're pointing at me.

Speaker 17 I'm like, me?

Speaker 3 And they jump over the counter, throw me down to the ground, and I'm like, what's going on?

Speaker 3 In walks a gentleman, plain clothes, comes up to me and says, leans down while I'm on the floor and says, remember me?

Speaker 71 It was Detective Anthony Angulo asking the question.

Speaker 13 The investigator who'd poked around the house the morning Lena died, among the first who'd been suspicious of Adam's story.

Speaker 3 He says, I don't want you to say a word.

Speaker 3 Real nasty. He said, said, you're under arrest for the murder of your wife.

Speaker 3 Again, time froze. And I said,

Speaker 3 are you kidding?

Speaker 3 Total shock and disbelief and awe. I mean, this is not happening.
This is a joke.

Speaker 3 This is a nightmare. Am I having a nightmare?

Speaker 33 The medical examiner had ruled the cause of Lena's death was mechanical asphyxiation.

Speaker 42 that she'd been choked to death by a person.

Speaker 57 And now Adam was being charged with second-degree murder.

Speaker 29 They took him to the Dade County jail, locked him away.

Speaker 3 I'm thinking to myself, this is a mistake.

Speaker 3 This can't be happening.

Speaker 58 But it was happening.

Speaker 43 Days turned to weeks, weeks to months.

Speaker 68 Reality sank in.

Speaker 29 Adam was accused of murder.

Speaker 38 What was your level of confidence or the lack of it as you sat in jail waiting?

Speaker 3 I was sitting in jail saying, okay, when are they going to realize what happened? They're going to find out the cause of death. They're going to find find it, and then that's going to release me.

Speaker 2 I was waiting for that.

Speaker 3 It didn't come.

Speaker 7 For the past year and a half, the children had no mother. Now they had no father.

Speaker 6 Finally, after Adam had been in jail three months, his attorneys arranged a bond hearing.

Speaker 76 And as so often happens in Florida, it turned into a mini-trial.

Speaker 14 The state finally presenting its evidence against Adam.

Speaker 34 Had this big, strong man, the only other adult in the house when Lena died, strangled his wife to death, then lied to cover it up.

Speaker 77 You don't have to get somebody like to go ahead and play the 911 tape.

Speaker 7 The state played that 911 call in a courtroom packed with Adams' family, many of whom were hearing it for the first time.

Speaker 32 As the tape continued to play, one family member couldn't take it and passed out.

Speaker 22 There's a nurse attending, so I think you should proceed.

Speaker 15 Oh, my God!

Speaker 36 This was raw stuff, seldom seen in stodgy Miami courtrooms.

Speaker 10 Oh, my God!

Speaker 22 That occurred on the following day were you present the first witness was detective van gulo who revealed he'd been investigating adam ever since that very first morning i examined the body present were a couple of other officers uh they pointed out uh suspicious markings on her neck and there was something else

Speaker 22 i did observe what i believed to be peticial hemorrhaging in the eye and the actual eyelids. And what indication, if any, does the presence of petite in someone's eyes or eyelids suggest to you?

Speaker 22 Asphyxiation.

Speaker 50 Asphyxiation.

Speaker 11 Death by suffocation.

Speaker 32 Detective Angulov said he was sure he'd gotten his man.

Speaker 45 Had been suspicious since he talked to Adam at the hospital.

Speaker 22 He seemed upset at one point, then the other minute he was very angry. I could see his jaw muscles clench.

Speaker 22 He's obviously disturbed, but it was strange going from being upset to angry.

Speaker 25 And where had Adam Coughlin been earlier that night? Not sleeping, investigators thought.

Speaker 30 Remember, his side of the bed looked to them undisturbed.

Speaker 63 But on Lena's side, there were unusual smudges.

Speaker 22 The staining appears to be on the actual pillow itself and just below the pillow where the body would lie.

Speaker 25 They were stains from the spray tan Lena got the previous evening when she wanted to look her best for Seth Kaufman's wedding 10 days later.

Speaker 7 Defense attorneys seized on that evidence and perhaps without intending to

Speaker 29 made their case famous overnight.

Speaker 35 They called in an expert named Dr.

Speaker 68 Ronald Wright, the former chief medical examiner in Miami-Dade County.

Speaker 60 In your investigation, has the FDA received complaints of seizures by people who have undergone spray tan?

Speaker 27 Yes.

Speaker 27 Do you believe that the spray-tan material should have been investigated for potentially causing an allergic reaction?

Speaker 12 Oh, sure.

Speaker 27 I mean, we don't know exactly what happened to Mrs. Coffin.
We know that she collapsed. We know she asphyxiated, but we don't know why any of that happened.

Speaker 27 And certainly, there's a real possibility that that could have been caused by this exposure to the tanner. She's got it all over her hands.

Speaker 27 It certainly raises the possibility of an allergic reaction caused by that.

Speaker 3 She gets her first spray tan the night before she passes away? Why not investigate it? Stranger things have happened.

Speaker 3 It would be negligent on our part not to do that. It was certainly negligent on their part not to test it.

Speaker 25 It became known far and wide as the Spray Tan Defense.

Speaker 72 But the idea that Lena's death might have been caused by an allergic reaction, one more ridicule than serious consideration.

Speaker 65 It was almost comical.

Speaker 6 But they had a point.

Speaker 33 I mean, it was never tested, right?

Speaker 6 To see whether or not there was some possibility that that could have caused it.

Speaker 65 Well, actually, there was some testing done just for the heck of it after that, but even the doctor that they put on the stand couldn't ascribe to that theory.

Speaker 65 I mean, I guess it sounded sexy, but it really wasn't feasible.

Speaker 30 The judge was not persuaded either.

Speaker 29 Adam would stay in jail, no bond.

Speaker 42 His family was devastated.

Speaker 4 Twin brother Seth left in tears.

Speaker 5 But shortly after that hearing, in one of those rare moments, the judge had a change of heart.

Speaker 50 It was just after Father's Day.

Speaker 43 The judge said

Speaker 46 he used the term, I had a catharsis.

Speaker 11 He said, I'm going to let this boy go home to his kids.

Speaker 11 It's a great day.

Speaker 76 Except, Adam would have to wear an electronic ankle monitor.

Speaker 67 A stark reminder, he was not a free man, and the real trial was yet to come.

Speaker 2 When we come back, evidence about marks on Lena Kaufman's neck and torso, marks her best friend says she didn't didn't see the night before when Lena showed off her new tan.

Speaker 77 You said that she took off her jacket? Yes, she did. Was she nude underneath her jacket?

Speaker 79 Yes, she was.

Speaker 77 Did you notice any marks on her body at all?

Speaker 65 No.

Speaker 2 When In an Instant continues.

Speaker 52 Four and a half years after he buried his wife, Lena, came the day of reckoning for Adam Kaufman.

Speaker 43 Here he was, charged with second-degree murder, accused of killing her in the bathroom of their Avatura, Florida home.

Speaker 69 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have been selected and sworn as the jury to try the state of Florida versus Adam Kaufman.

Speaker 76 As he had been since Lena's death, Adam was surrounded by his protective family, including his identical twin, Seth.

Speaker 39 The family was terrified.

Speaker 52 Adam was facing up to life in prison if convicted.

Speaker 3 I was really worried

Speaker 3 because bottom line is that the fate of my twin brother rests in the hands of 12 people I don't know.

Speaker 34 Dade County Assistant Prosecutor Joe Mansfield methodically laid out the state's case for the jury.

Speaker 4 There was, he argued, only one possible way to explain Lena's death.

Speaker 80 Lena Kaufman, she died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation to her neck,

Speaker 80 and the defendant, her husband,

Speaker 12 is the one that did it.

Speaker 33 That ultimate evidence would be scientific, medical, said the prosecutor.

Speaker 64 But he wanted jurors to keep in mind the obvious.

Speaker 35 Adam Kaufman was the only adult home at the time of Lena's death,

Speaker 4 giving him the opportunity to kill her.

Speaker 43 And with his bodybuilder's strength, the wherewithal, too.

Speaker 8 On top of that, Adam couldn't keep his story straight, said Prosecutor Mansfield.

Speaker 7 Version one came from the 911 call when Adam said he found Lena on the floor.

Speaker 12 She's not breathing?

Speaker 15 No!

Speaker 15 I don't know what happened. She's on the floor, dying.

Speaker 32 But a fire rescue lieutenant said Adam told him he found Lena somewhere else in the bathroom.

Speaker 79 He told me, word for word, that she was found her slumped over the toilet. And he indicated that if she was vomiting, kneeled in front of the toilet with her head down in front of the toilet.

Speaker 32 But later at the hospital, said that same EMT, he overheard Adam saying something else entirely.

Speaker 46 Why is it that you took note of that third version?

Speaker 79 I took note of it because it was completely different from the other story he had told me. Okay.
This time he mentioned the patient being slumped over a magazine rack.

Speaker 34 Chief Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoag supervised the case. She wanted jurors to know about Adam's puzzling behavior that morning and called a firefighter to the stand.

Speaker 23 He went from hysterical to calm.

Speaker 81 His demeanor or his

Speaker 65 emotions fluctuated?

Speaker 81 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 65 From hysterical to calm.

Speaker 81 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 47 And there were those other unusual things, said the first responders, that they just couldn't help but notice.

Speaker 7 Like how they'd seen Adam Kaufman dressed.

Speaker 48 Not at all like someone who said he just woke up.

Speaker 79 It stood out for me that Mr. Kaufman was completely dressed.
If he was just doing CPR, how does he have shoes?

Speaker 79 Clothes on and why is she completely naked?

Speaker 79 It just didn't sit right. It didn't seem normal.

Speaker 5 If, as Adam said, he'd been home all night, why was the front of his Mercedes Mercedes warm to the touch?

Speaker 23 I put my hand on the hood, and I felt that it was extremely warm.

Speaker 51 And of course, there were those marks on Lena's neck and torso.

Speaker 18 They were fresh, said the prosecutor.

Speaker 33 They weren't there the evening before when she showed her best friend her spray-on tan.

Speaker 77 You said that she took off her jacket? Yes, she did. Was she nude underneath her jacket?

Speaker 65 Yes, she was.

Speaker 77 Did you notice any marks on her body at all?

Speaker 65 No,

Speaker 43 an Aventura police officer gave a stark description of the indentations he observed on Lena's neck.

Speaker 18 And it was just consistent, consistent with fingertip-size marking.

Speaker 63 And they called a witness who'd been key to the investigation that morning, crime scene investigator Anna Howell.

Speaker 11 She testified about what she saw on Lena's hands.

Speaker 82 The nail polish on Eleanor Puffin's middle finger and index finger are chipped.

Speaker 11 Were those chipped nails evidence of a struggle that morning?

Speaker 71 And then prosecutors presented the man they considered the most important witness of all, the senior medical examiner who determined Lena's cause of death.

Speaker 2 What would be the manner of death?

Speaker 25 Homicide.

Speaker 80 And why would it be a homicide, Dr. Haimer?

Speaker 70 This mechanical asphyxiation could only occur at the hands of somebody else.

Speaker 68 Somebody else?

Speaker 70 Yes, somebody else.

Speaker 34 And just to be sure there was no doubt Lena was murdered, The prosecution provided evidence she couldn't have died of something like, say, heart failure.

Speaker 33 They called the plastic surgeon who gave her an EKG before giving her breast implants, just four months months before her death.

Speaker 18 She was a normal, healthy patient.

Speaker 40 Prosecutors wanted to prove that Adam wasn't all that distraught after the loss of his wife.

Speaker 70 So they called a woman he dated two months after her death.

Speaker 80 You made a comment about his wedding ring.

Speaker 28 I did. I asked him if he was married.
He said that his wife had passed.

Speaker 28 And I said, so when do you think you're going to be ready to take that off?

Speaker 80 At some point, did you guys become intimate?

Speaker 66 Yes.

Speaker 36 But as the state's case began to wind down, prosecutors could have no idea what would stick with the jury

Speaker 29 any more than they knew that their star CSI witness

Speaker 12 was about to blow up on them.

Speaker 78 Isn't it true, ma'am, that you previously had an intimate sexual relationship with Detective Anglo-Coming up?

Speaker 24 Fireworks from a witness and from the victim's mother.

Speaker 15 Are you accusing me of us?

Speaker 2 And is the prosecution's case about to completely unravel when Dateline continues?

Speaker 74 Hi, we're Mochi Health, your long-term weight loss solution. We'll connect you with a board-certified provider to discuss your unique goals.

Speaker 74 Eligible patients can access custom formulated GLP-1 medications at an affordable fixed price, delivered to their door monthly.

Speaker 74 Take our free eligibility quiz at joinmochi.com and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership. That's joinmochi.com.
Results may vary.

Speaker 74 Eligible GLP-1 patients typically lose one to two pounds per week in their first six months with Moji when combined with a healthy lifestyle.

Speaker 73 A BetterHelp ad. 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 73 BetterHelp makes it easy with its therapist match commitment and over 12 years of online therapy experience, matching members with qualified professionals.

Speaker 73 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 46 I'm Julio Vaqueiro, anchor of Noticias Telemundo. You can watch Dayline, the heat true crime series on Telemundo.
And now, you can listen to Daitline as a podcast.

Speaker 46 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 46 Just search Daidline en Español, wherever you get your podcasts, and start listening.

Speaker 12 Biased, incompetent,

Speaker 12 flawed.

Speaker 6 The way Adam Kaufman's attorneys saw it, prosecutors had put on a great show

Speaker 7 for the defense.

Speaker 60 You will hear that this is a prosecution in search of a crime. An innocent man has been falsely charged with a crime that did not occur, which he did not commit.

Speaker 10 No crime at all, said Defense Attorney Bill Matthewman, certainly not murder.

Speaker 29 The defense's claim that Lena blacked out, collapsed, fell neck first onto a magazine rack, a freak set of mishaps that cut off her airflow and caused her death.

Speaker 29 A theory he could have proven easily, said Attorney Matthewman, if it hadn't been for incompetent investigators.

Speaker 36 For starters, he said, lead detective Anthony Angulo ordered this detective, Anna Howell, to disregard a key piece of evidence at the scene.

Speaker 60 Detective Angulo specifically told you not to take those items of evidence, those magazines, into custody. Is that right?

Speaker 38 Correct.

Speaker 33 The magazines in that rack, said the defense, were the key to the mystery.

Speaker 29 They would have proven that Lena fell there because they would have been stained by her fresh spray-on tan.

Speaker 78 I think the failure to collect the magazines in and and of itself could constitute reasonable doubt.

Speaker 8 You never fail to take in

Speaker 11 to custody evidence.

Speaker 32 In fact, said Adams' lawyers, the police were so determined to prove this was a murder, they misread the scene entirely.

Speaker 3 These photographs prior to

Speaker 6 when Howell told the court she found chipped polish on Lena's nails.

Speaker 82 The nail polish on Eleanor Puffin's middle finger and index finger are chipped.

Speaker 11 The detective suggestion?

Speaker 39 That Lena's husband attacked her and she fought for her life.

Speaker 14 But the defense hired its own crime scene expert to look at that tiny bathroom space.

Speaker 3 Did you find any signs of a struggle inside the house?

Speaker 57 I found nothing that would indicate

Speaker 22 anything like that.

Speaker 39 But to be fair, said the defense, Howell wasn't the only one who screwed up that morning.

Speaker 23 I put my hand on the hood and I felt that it was extremely warm.

Speaker 43 A police officer said the hood of Adam's car was warm to the touch, but the defense answered, of course the car hood was warm.

Speaker 52 It was locked in a garage on a hot Miami night.

Speaker 29 Evidence of nothing.

Speaker 79 Mr. Coffin was completely dressed.

Speaker 34 Prosecutors said the defense tried the same tact with those emergency workers.

Speaker 30 They said Adam didn't seem to them like a man who just rolled out of bed to find his wife unconscious.

Speaker 25 They insisted he was fully clothed.

Speaker 48 And yet, that's not what the very first responder on the scene witnessed.

Speaker 4 I saw a man on top of a woman attempting what looked like CPR.

Speaker 78 What was the man wearing when you entered the room?

Speaker 4 At that time, he was wearing boxers and t-shirts.

Speaker 41 What those others likely saw, said the defense, was Adam's identical twin who arrived at the house perfectly dressed minutes after that 911 call ended.

Speaker 77 I had no reason to change my opinion whatsoever.

Speaker 30 It's an instant health.

Speaker 7 But what really stuck in the craw of Adam's lawyers

Speaker 6 was that medical examiner who ruled Lena's death a homicide? Why did it take him a year and a half to call it that?

Speaker 53 Because, they said, he was pressured into it by police.

Speaker 72 On cross-examination, co-counsel Al Millian ripped into the doctor.

Speaker 60 Detective Anthony and Gulo and Abature have been pushing you to rule it a homicide. Isn't that true? Objection, Your Honor.

Speaker 84 That's not true, Counselor, and you know it.

Speaker 48 And the defense used Lena's autopsy photos to make the case for its own theory

Speaker 36 that she died accidentally.

Speaker 60 There are these marks on the undersurface of the chin. These match the spines of the magazine in terms of a contact mark.

Speaker 43 This former medical examiner testified for the defense that the pressure on her neck would have clearly blocked her airflow, killing her.

Speaker 35 But it was why the defense said Lena collapsed.

Speaker 53 That was the real shocker.

Speaker 19 These cells should not be here.

Speaker 71 The doctor said he took apart Lena's heart and found

Speaker 12 scarring.

Speaker 60 This is active focal myocarditis.

Speaker 29 Scarring of the heart that the state medical examiner never found.

Speaker 10 Heart disease.

Speaker 11 The doctor explained to a riveted courtroom that Lena likely had no idea just how sick she was until her heart suddenly gave out that morning.

Speaker 46 The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Speaker 72 I do.

Speaker 70 And then, just for good measure, the defense called someone else with star power to the stand.

Speaker 19 Congestive heart failure and all that.

Speaker 55 Dr.

Speaker 4 Michael Bodden, the former New York City medical examiner and frequent medical expert in high-profile murder cases, reviewed Lena's autopsy file and said to him there was no question about it.

Speaker 19 There was no murder.

Speaker 18 She died of natural causes.

Speaker 4 Even Lena's own mother said she tried to tell detectives that her daughter had suffered frequent fainting spells before her death, that it might indeed have been an accident, but they wouldn't listen.

Speaker 16 How many calls were made to the detective trying to reach him?

Speaker 85 My son, my ex-husband, and myself, I had to call there too.

Speaker 85 I assume it was about 25 calls.

Speaker 21 Maybe more.

Speaker 11 It was something you rarely see.

Speaker 43 A grieving mother defending the man accused of killing her daughter.

Speaker 29 She said Adam was and is like a son to her.

Speaker 85 We are very close and usual, even more closer than before.

Speaker 11 Frida, do you love Adam?

Speaker 85 Like my own son.

Speaker 6 And as happened a number of times during this trial, a state witness wound up winning points for the defense.

Speaker 48 Adam's so-called love interest, for example.

Speaker 26 Well, it wasn't quite like that.

Speaker 41 Yes, they dated for a while, but Adam wasn't going to get deeply involved, she learned.

Speaker 28 Adam wasn't emotionally available, which she always made very clear from the very start.

Speaker 21 The red evidence tape.

Speaker 70 Finally, one last loose end.

Speaker 11 Remember CSI Anna Howell?

Speaker 13 Earlier, she testified that she, a married woman,

Speaker 68 had only a working relationship with lead detective Angulo.

Speaker 60 When you've been off duty, you socialized with Detective Angulo?

Speaker 12 No, sir. No?

Speaker 30 But the very next day, she was called back to the stand and had to admit she hadn't told the truth.

Speaker 78 You knew you had misrepresented your relationship to this jury on the stand under oath.

Speaker 11 Isn't that true, ma'am? Yes or no?

Speaker 28 That's part of the case.

Speaker 78 Yes or no, ma'am. Is that true?

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 84 Thank you.

Speaker 7 In fact, the two had had an affair.

Speaker 26 Are you married?

Speaker 21 Yes.

Speaker 18 Did you have an affair with Detective Angula?

Speaker 21 Yes, and my husband is well aware of it, sir, and I am happily married and I don't have any issues with that any longer.

Speaker 37 Then she said the old affair never affected her work.

Speaker 26 And with that, she stormed out of the courtroom.

Speaker 48 To the defense, it was clear, they said that she and Angula were in cahoots and that a man who wanted so badly to prove Adam a killer, the detective who never took the stand in this trial, could not be trusted.

Speaker 12 In his closing, the lawyer said it was Adam who was the real victim

Speaker 16 of a lousy police investigation.

Speaker 60 They bungled this investigation beyond recognition to Adam's detriment, causing the false charges to be lodged against him in this case.

Speaker 58 But it was one person the court didn't hear from who maybe mattered most.

Speaker 10 Adam Kaufman.

Speaker 13 He opted not to take the stand in his defense, but he wanted to speak to us.

Speaker 3 The problem with this case comes down to one word. Investigation.
A rookie detective working his first homicide. A fellow in the medical examiner's office not doing a thorough autopsy.

Speaker 77 Ms. Eismar has two beautiful grandchildren.

Speaker 47 More infuriating, he said,

Speaker 29 was the prosecutor's claim that Lena's mother was only standing by him so he'd let her see her grandchildren.

Speaker 79 The joy of her life.

Speaker 13 That outraged Lena's mother.

Speaker 79 You think she's going to go against him?

Speaker 15 Are you accusing me of life?

Speaker 3 One of the prosecutors in this closing went after your family and basically said that your mother-in-law was a captive of your family, could do nothing to express her real opinion because otherwise she'd be left out in the cold.

Speaker 3 How dare he

Speaker 3 go after Lena's mother?

Speaker 3 Lena's mother, who bravely came into that courthouse and stood up for the son-in-law that's charged with second-degree murder of her daughter.

Speaker 53 His mother-in-law's show of loyalty was striking,

Speaker 53 but would it be enough to impress the jurors and save Adam?

Speaker 67 Coming up.

Speaker 3 I know I have the truth on my side.

Speaker 31 No evidence of a strangulation.

Speaker 65 The proof is there.

Speaker 86 We did a jury in Miami-Day County, Florida, find

Speaker 2 when in an instant continues.

Speaker 44 Nearly five years had passed since Vena Kaufman's death, and now her husband Adam was about to learn his fate at the Miami Courthouse.

Speaker 49 Two possibilities now.

Speaker 32 An immediate handcuffed escort to spend up to the rest of his life in prison.

Speaker 41 or instant and permanent freedom in the arms of his family.

Speaker 3 I had my entire family with support. That's why I was able to walk into that courtroom every day holding my head up high.

Speaker 3 Because I know I have the truth on my side.

Speaker 13 But prosecutor Kathleen Hope believed her side had presented the real truth, that Adam had choked Lena to death after an argument early that morning at their home.

Speaker 31 No evidence of a strangulation.

Speaker 65 The proof is there.

Speaker 65 It didn't happen by her, by itself.

Speaker 36 Now Adam and his twin brother Seth and the family all watched in anticipation

Speaker 16 as the judge sent the jury in to deliberate.

Speaker 69 The jury may retire.

Speaker 3 I just wanted a fair trial because I knew once all the evidence was presented that there's no way that 12 people can sit there.

Speaker 12 I don't care who you are. They were gone.

Speaker 7 They were out of the room. You couldn't do anything about it.

Speaker 3 Nothing you could do about it.

Speaker 13 Jurors, Ryan O'Donnell and Bernard Jennings said they were ready for the task ahead.

Speaker 71 Jennings is a court-certified mediator.

Speaker 58 making him a natural choice to be their foreman.

Speaker 55 Did you call for a vote right away?

Speaker 62 No, not initially when we went in the room. We took time to go through each piece of evidence and deliberate, deliberate.

Speaker 41 Here with permission of the court is the actual jury room where we could see how they literally weighed the evidence.

Speaker 62 I drew three scales on the chalkboard. To the far right would be broken of innocent and to the far left broken as guilty.
And you said you have to fit in one of these positions.

Speaker 62 So we tried to fit everything in that to come up with a decision.

Speaker 84 They paid close attention to the conflicting testimony from those different medical examiners.

Speaker 7 But more more than anything, the jurors were determined to listen to that 911 call one more time,

Speaker 39 very carefully.

Speaker 83 It's much easier to hear that, you know, within the confines of a juror room when there's 12 of us hauled around a laptop.

Speaker 83 You know, it had been a month since we had last listened to that 911 call, so I think it was imperative that we got a chance to hear it again. Please please, my wife, who best have got it.

Speaker 83 I almost go not.

Speaker 56 And when they listened, they said, they heard a man who wasn't changing his stories, but was simply beside himself and utterly confused.

Speaker 83 You know, obviously, when you first hear it in the openings, he said, I don't know what's going on, over and over again.

Speaker 83 When we listen to it during the end in the jury room, you think, man, this is just a terrified man that really has no idea what's going on.

Speaker 9 And after eight hours of deliberation, they had reached their verdict.

Speaker 86 We, the jury in Miami-Dade County, Florida, on this fifth day of June 2012, find as follows: The defendant is not guilty, so say y'all.

Speaker 4 Adams' family and friends burst with emotion.

Speaker 9 So what was that like?

Speaker 26 I'll tell you, I uh

Speaker 3 I didn't hear her reading it. I put my head down and all I could think about were Lena and my kids.
I hear, not guilty.

Speaker 3 And I hear crying in the back. That's it? Oh, that's it.
It's over?

Speaker 31 It's over?

Speaker 3 And it's over.

Speaker 3 Finality.

Speaker 18 Later, Adam and Seth pose for pictures, holding the jury charge sheet with those words he'd longed to hear.

Speaker 48 Not guilty.

Speaker 4 The very words Miami prosecutors had dreaded.

Speaker 48 They'd spent a huge amount of resources on this case and lost.

Speaker 29 And the jury foreman told us

Speaker 52 he believed the case should not have gone to trial at all.

Speaker 62 Why did the state bring this case to trial when there's such evidence that said, no, don't do this.

Speaker 5 Adam Kaufman is innocent.

Speaker 62 He's not not guilty. Adam Kaufman is innocent.

Speaker 65 I don't apologize for the case. I'm not going to.

Speaker 7 But you believe a murderer has gotten away with it.

Speaker 65 Hey, he's not the first one.

Speaker 31 He won't be the last.

Speaker 65 Look, that guy, he paid for a

Speaker 65 lot of money for a defense, and he got it. And

Speaker 65 he's a very lucky man.

Speaker 64 Given what he's been through, lucky might not be the word Adam would use.

Speaker 84 Still, he says he's not angry, not bitter.

Speaker 3 I can only move forward. I can't move backwards.
I can only move forward and do the right things for my family, my children, myself.

Speaker 51 And as for the team that tried to put him away,

Speaker 38 the discovery that the people

Speaker 56 who were looking for evidence against you had been actually having an affair and maybe couldn't be relied on to tell the truth. That's right.

Speaker 47 What was that like?

Speaker 3 Poetic justice?

Speaker 3 Things happen for a reason. I'm a firm believer of that.
And

Speaker 3 Lena's spirit was definitely with us during this trial, and she was watching over it.

Speaker 54 Lena.

Speaker 48 He will always remember Lena, he said.

Speaker 7 And the love he lost in one instant that November morning.

Speaker 63 Where do you put her now?

Speaker 3 She's with me every day.

Speaker 3 Every day.

Speaker 3 You know, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. The kids think about her.
She'll always have a place in my heart. We have pictures of her all over the home.

Speaker 3 Our wedding photos, our

Speaker 3 just pictures of her.

Speaker 3 So the children will never forget who their mother was. It is.

Speaker 3 And she's still a very big part of their lives

Speaker 17 every day.

Speaker 2 That's all for now.

Speaker 26 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 2 Thanks for joining us.