A Shot in the Dark

Speaker 1 Grand Canyon University is one of the largest universities in the country.

Speaker 1 Praised for its community and impact, GCU integrates a welcoming Christian worldview and open discourse into over 300 online programs.

Speaker 1 Redefine your online education through GCU's industry-driven, academically rigorous programs. In 2024, online students received over $161 million in institutional scholarships.

Speaker 5 Find your purpose. Private, Christian, affordable.

Speaker 1 Discover available scholarships at gcu.edu/slash slash myoffer.

Speaker 6 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger.

Speaker 6 Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

Speaker 6 Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 11 3 a.m. knock at my door.
They said, Your dad's been shot and he's been killed.

Speaker 7 I screamed.

Speaker 11 The scariest thing that you'll ever go through.

Speaker 7 My whole world crumbled.

Speaker 4 Cara was the kind of teacher that students just love.

Speaker 15 She was a rock star in her school.

Speaker 4 With the same man for 20 years, enjoying life together by the beach.

Speaker 8 The balcony was like our second living room. You can hear the waves on the shore.

Speaker 4 But she was all alone that night when she says an intruder burst into her bedroom.

Speaker 8 I was scared to death. I didn't have any other choice.

Speaker 18 You shot him?

Speaker 19 I shot him.

Speaker 4 She said the man attacked her.

Speaker 8 He told me he was going to kill me.

Speaker 10 She'd been assaulted. She defended herself.

Speaker 4 So why did others call it murder?

Speaker 20 My very first words were, she set him up.

Speaker 4 Cara's account kept changing.

Speaker 21 It hit me just how different all of these stories were and how unbelievable they were.

Speaker 13 Lies.

Speaker 20 No lies.

Speaker 4 What really made Cara pull that trigger?

Speaker 21 The rug was pulled out from underneath her.

Speaker 22 She was shocked and she was angry.

Speaker 4 Yes. A jury would have to decide.

Speaker 8 I did what I did because I had to, not because I wanted to.

Speaker 4 In this story, the killer was never in doubt. It was motive that was the mystery.
I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

Speaker 4 Here's Keith Morrison with A Shot in the Dark.

Speaker 24 It was night when it happened.

Speaker 25 Indian Rocks Beach, Gulf Coast of Florida, two blocks from the water, 10.05 p.m.

Speaker 29 Quiet at that hour, save for the odd passing car and snatches of neighborhood chatter carried on a cooling ocean breeze.

Speaker 34 There was a moon almost full.

Speaker 34 Cara Ryan was in bed, all alone, in a small, darkened room.

Speaker 37 And then, fear, searing as a heart attack.

Speaker 38 The dogs.

Speaker 7 They were growling.

Speaker 8 That's one of the things that made me feel so scared.

Speaker 2 Someone was coming into her house.

Speaker 8 The door crashed open.

Speaker 40 You said the lights were off.

Speaker 7 They were.

Speaker 40 Was it so dark you couldn't actually make out who this person was?

Speaker 8 It happened so fast and I was so afraid.

Speaker 38 She reached to the bedside table, opened the drawer, took out the gun, the one her ex-husband had given her, trained her to use.

Speaker 46 Aim for the mass, he'd always told her.

Speaker 35 Aim for the chest.

Speaker 48 She heard the approaching footsteps from the front door to the bedroom.

Speaker 45 How many steps?

Speaker 8 Like 20.

Speaker 26 And then the shape in the bedroom doorway.

Speaker 42 The hand reaching toward the bed, reaching for her so close.

Speaker 47 She closed her eyes.

Speaker 26 She pulled the trigger.

Speaker 51 Was the shot fired a warning?

Speaker 40 Just stay out of my bedroom.

Speaker 8 I was aiming for

Speaker 8 whoever it was. That's what I was taught.
You don't fire a warning shot.

Speaker 2 Cara called 911.

Speaker 18 You shot him?

Speaker 19 I shot him.

Speaker 18 With a gun?

Speaker 52 Like gun. Okay.

Speaker 45 Cara gripped the gun for dear life, terrified the man would come back.

Speaker 7 Do you still have the gun?

Speaker 19 Yes, I do.

Speaker 32 Okay, I am.

Speaker 53 I'm getting help on the way.

Speaker 32 Okay, when did this happen?

Speaker 20 Just knowing.

Speaker 8 I was afraid.

Speaker 7 I was scared.

Speaker 8 I didn't have any other choice. You fire the gun.
When you pick up a gun.

Speaker 40 If he's coming at you, yeah.

Speaker 8 And he came into that room.

Speaker 40 So as he's coming in the room, did he say anything?

Speaker 34 No.

Speaker 40 Just was sort of coming in the room.

Speaker 7 Right.

Speaker 32 Is he still there?

Speaker 19 I don't know. I think he went over to the neighbor's.

Speaker 18 Okay, was your door locked?

Speaker 11 No.

Speaker 19 Okay, scared to get up.

Speaker 2 In fact, the man had run from her house and collapsed on the next-door neighbor's doorstep, was lying there, bleeding.

Speaker 24 The neighbor dialed 9112.

Speaker 53 He doesn't look very good.

Speaker 32 He's bleeding pretty badly. I understand.

Speaker 54 The neighbor was petrified, afraid of more gunfire, refused to open his door.

Speaker 53 I'm afraid to go outside. He's outside on my desk.

Speaker 32 And you don't feel comfortable going outside and grabbing him?

Speaker 32 No.

Speaker 32 I completely understand.

Speaker 45 Peering out his window, the neighbor described the man's injuries.

Speaker 7 Where is he bleeding from?

Speaker 53 All I can see from the way he's lined is his arms, but I don't know.

Speaker 40 if he's a bad guy.

Speaker 56 But yes,

Speaker 38 it didn't look good.

Speaker 32 Okay, but I do have the police already on the way.

Speaker 18 Is he awake right now?

Speaker 53 Uh,

Speaker 53 oh, okay.

Speaker 32 Is he breathing?

Speaker 53 Yeah.

Speaker 57 The first police cars arrived quickly, within a couple of minutes.

Speaker 18 I know you're scared, Kara, but the police are there and they're going to protect you, but I need you to go to them.

Speaker 47 The 911 operator told Kara, go outside to meet them, but leave the gun in the house.

Speaker 58 So she did.

Speaker 59 She put the gun down.

Speaker 38 But then, what was this?

Speaker 42 Video from a deputy's dash cam shows it.

Speaker 24 They told her, put your hands up.

Speaker 59 And then out on the street, they ordered her down on the ground, handcuffed her, put her in the back of a patrol car.

Speaker 40 What was it like out in the police car when they took you out there?

Speaker 27 Did you believe that they thought you were a victim or a perpetrator?

Speaker 8 I think when I was greeted by a woman with a rifle and three other deputies with their guns drawn, I was ordered to my knees and handcuffed and put in the back. I felt like

Speaker 8 I didn't really know what was going on.

Speaker 42 A night of terror and the victim who suddenly felt accused.

Speaker 63 But is that really what happened?

Speaker 36 No simple tale, this.

Speaker 42 No, the question that greeted officers of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office was not simple at all.

Speaker 16 Maybe Carl Ryan was a victim who defended herself.

Speaker 66 And maybe she was something else altogether.

Speaker 69 What I'm asking for is consent for us to go in there, okay?

Speaker 21 Obviously, it's a crime scene right now.

Speaker 38 What really happened in this little house by the beach in paradise?

Speaker 57 Cara was about to tell her story in greater detail, but it would only raise more questions when we come back.

Speaker 8 I thought maybe I had grazed him. I said, why isn't the ambulance leaving? And Deputy Vaughn said, he doesn't need an ambulance.

Speaker 8 And I thought, oh, now he's really going to be mad.

Speaker 42 Wait, did Cara know the man she'd shot?

Speaker 4 Who was she talking about?

Speaker 71 Cara Ryan squirmed in the back seat of the police car.

Speaker 24 Not arrested, but confined.

Speaker 58 Strangely, perhaps, the police hadn't taken her cell phone.

Speaker 33 She struggled to get to it, was able to make a call or two as she wrestled with the handcuffs behind her, and wondered why she, of all people, was in this predicament.

Speaker 8 It was bizarre, surreal. It's still as if it didn't happen.

Speaker 41 It seemed so safe here, so perfect, two blocks from powdery white beaches, truly a paradise.

Speaker 8 I love the beach, and when I found the house, it just took one second to look down the road and see the gulf and the other way to see the intercoastal, and I knew I had found my home.

Speaker 49 She shared this lovely place with John Joseph Rush, JJ.

Speaker 47 Evenings on the balcony, sipping drinks and hailing the salty ocean air.

Speaker 8 The balcony was like our second living room, and we often lit a fire and enjoyed the nights out there where you can hear the waves.

Speaker 74 on the shore.

Speaker 33 JJ was the sort of guy any woman could love.

Speaker 50 20 years they were together.

Speaker 40 And he wanted to please you.

Speaker 8 And he wanted to please me, yes. And he was a great friend.
He loved his friends. He loved his daughter.
He was very loving. He was very generous, very kind.

Speaker 66 But now, Cara was in a police car.

Speaker 60 No JJ to protect her.

Speaker 75 What a strange place for a law-abiding middle-class person to find herself.

Speaker 50 A high school journalism teacher, for heaven's sake.

Speaker 8 I loved it.

Speaker 16 What'd you love about it?

Speaker 7 The kids.

Speaker 8 They can be very brilliant. And that's one of the best things about teaching.
Close your classroom and there's no adults.

Speaker 50 Here's a fellow teacher, Debbie Ryan.

Speaker 15 She was a rock star at her school.

Speaker 50 Then one day, more than two decades ago, a St.

Speaker 75 Petersburg police officer helped with a class project.

Speaker 73 And they both realized they had known each other since they were kids.

Speaker 60 That was J.J. Rush.

Speaker 8 And we spent that whole night just getting to know each other again.

Speaker 30 And a couple of years later, they married.

Speaker 16 married.

Speaker 47 JJ's daughter from his first marriage, Megan, was their flower girl.

Speaker 8 She was icing on the cake. I was so happy to

Speaker 8 have a man who had a little girl.

Speaker 40 It can be complicated.

Speaker 8 It wasn't always easy, but I loved her like my own.

Speaker 16 But

Speaker 58 into every life, a little rain.

Speaker 45 Eight years into marriage, there was a bump.

Speaker 16 A big one.

Speaker 8 I had an affair?

Speaker 31 With the principal at her school.

Speaker 47 That's when Cara and JJ separated and later divorced.

Speaker 8 He blamed himself for my affair and for our breakup. And for the year that we were separated and the year that we were divorced, he pursued me relentlessly.

Speaker 40 Blamed himself? Why?

Speaker 8 For not being there, for being out in a bar drinking or wherever he was, and leaving me to keep the home fires burning.

Speaker 40 But they weren't apart for long.

Speaker 46 About a year after the divorce, they had a chance encounter on the beach.

Speaker 8 And I had just broken up with somebody.

Speaker 8 And I said, you know, God, if I'm going to find a nice man, he's going to be on the beach with a dog. And I look over and there's his dog and his daughter.

Speaker 8 And I thought, God, you know, that's not really funny.

Speaker 50 JJ must have been happy to see her.

Speaker 78 Two days later, she was surprised to find him in her driveway.

Speaker 8 And I said, what are you you doing here? And he said, I think we should get back together. And that was it.

Speaker 7 We got back together.

Speaker 42 They never remarried, but once back together, they called each other husband and wife.

Speaker 38 They wore wedding rings.

Speaker 44 They shared bank accounts.

Speaker 56 Wasn't perfect, of course.

Speaker 16 What life is.

Speaker 47 After 17 years on the force, a serious car accident left JJ in too much pain to work on patrol.

Speaker 41 So he retired and became an investigator for the medical examiner's office.

Speaker 73 But things changed.

Speaker 50 Their relationship was not like the old days anymore.

Speaker 42 And then finally, JJ told Cara he was moving out for good.

Speaker 71 It was the day after Valentine's Day, 2015.

Speaker 8 That was a surprise. He had just turned 45, and he woke up one day and he said, I need some space.
I need to find myself.

Speaker 40 And I thought, what the heck? This came out of the blue?

Speaker 7 Out of the blue.

Speaker 8 I thought, what the heck is going on?

Speaker 70 Do you think he was having an affair or something?

Speaker 8 I suspected.

Speaker 79 In fact, JJ had met someone, a police sergeant named Lonnie Langto.

Speaker 38 They'd been friends for years, but became closer when JJ's relationship with Cara seemed, to him anyway, to hit a dead end.

Speaker 40 How was he feeling about all this?

Speaker 20 He was nervous about how she was going to react. He knew that she'd be upset and angry,

Speaker 20 but at the same time, he was so excited.

Speaker 54 Anyway, Cara seemed to be moving on, too, with another police officer.

Speaker 30 A steamy relationship.

Speaker 42 March 2015, three weeks after JJ moved out, is when it happened.

Speaker 79 The night of panic and terror.

Speaker 42 And now Cara was sitting in a police car.

Speaker 48 What was she thinking?

Speaker 43 Here's what she told us.

Speaker 40 She was wondering, she said, why it was taking so long for paramedics to treat the intruder she shot.

Speaker 8 I thought maybe I'd grazed him. And when I got into the cruiser, I said,

Speaker 8 what's going on?

Speaker 8 Why isn't the ambulance leaving? And Deputy Vaughn said, he doesn't need an ambulance.

Speaker 7 And I thought, oh, shit.

Speaker 8 Now he's really going to be mad. Now I'm really in trouble.

Speaker 40 What do you mean, now he's really going to be mad?

Speaker 7 Well, I had fired a gun and called 911.

Speaker 8 He could have lost his job.

Speaker 71 Lose his job?

Speaker 44 He's going to be mad?

Speaker 81 Oh, yes.

Speaker 16 Cara Ryan knew who her intruder was. Knew him very well indeed.

Speaker 4 Coming up, Cara shares an eyebrow raising new detail about what happened in her bedroom.

Speaker 15 It was mortifying.

Speaker 4 What she claimed set the intruder off.

Speaker 8 That's when he became violent.

Speaker 70 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 67 It was a full-blown crime scene now on this tiny street in Indian Rocks Beach.

Speaker 66 The street lit up with flashing lights, police lines drawn, crime scene investigators and detectives arriving.

Speaker 69 My name is John Sires, okay? I'm with the Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 66 Lead Detective John Sires and his partner A.J.

Speaker 14 Scarpatti introduced themselves, asked Cara, who did she shoot?

Speaker 63 Did she know him?

Speaker 50 Without hesitation, she said, Hi.

Speaker 84 Thanks, Martha.

Speaker 85 I'm sorry, what do you call him?

Speaker 84 Jay. Jay.

Speaker 86 Of Of course, JJ Rush.

Speaker 84 I call him Jay.

Speaker 16 That's right.

Speaker 77 Her ex-husband, J.J.

Speaker 50 Rush.

Speaker 52 Small world.

Speaker 47 Detective Sires knew J.J., had run into him at crime scenes.

Speaker 78 J.J.

Speaker 49 was a medical examiner's investigator.

Speaker 28 But why would Cara shoot him?

Speaker 61 Her answer was right there in the 911 call.

Speaker 18 My ex-husband came in and he raped me. He raped you?

Speaker 64 Uh-huh.

Speaker 19 I shot him.

Speaker 76 Rape?

Speaker 65 But that's all she said on the topic until about two hours later, when she told the deputy she needed medical attention.

Speaker 86 I need to see a doctor.

Speaker 21 Then hurt.

Speaker 54 It was Detective Sire's job to sort through it all, and he began by showing Cara a bit of kindness.

Speaker 21 I went over and took the handcuffs off of her.

Speaker 87 She must have seemed pretty upset.

Speaker 59 She just shot her ex-husband.

Speaker 21 Not unduly.

Speaker 7 Really? No.

Speaker 42 Mind you, according to Cara, as she sat there in the car, she didn't know how badly hurt JJ was.

Speaker 25 So you thought he was alive still?

Speaker 13 Absolutely.

Speaker 54 In fact, JJ died rather quickly.

Speaker 83 A fate that had a certain irony. It was he who gave Cara the gun, taught her how to shoot to kill in case the occasion ever arose.

Speaker 63 Was this an appropriate occasion?

Speaker 83 Detective Sires, charged with finding out, understood he had a problem.

Speaker 58 Learned that from the deputy who put Cara in his car.

Speaker 21 We were told that she had used her telephone.

Speaker 41 That is, her cell phone, the one they failed to take away.

Speaker 48 Big mistake.

Speaker 60 Who did she call?

Speaker 77 What did she say?

Speaker 16 Sayers knew the patrol car was equipped with a camera and microphone to record any conversations.

Speaker 63 So...

Speaker 21 I naturally asked, was this recorded? And I was told, no, it wasn't.

Speaker 58 There was video, just no audio for the first hour and a half.

Speaker 44 Cara was in that patrol car.

Speaker 36 Deputy forgot to turn it on.

Speaker 56 Mistake number two, a rather important one, as it would turn out.

Speaker 38 Anyway, they kept her in the car for almost three hours as they gathered evidence.

Speaker 50 A deputy finally took her to police headquarters, where the detectives made arrangements for an examination at a rape crisis center.

Speaker 48 Later, they looked at the tapes of Cara recorded during that drive to the station.

Speaker 49 Did she appear to be emotionally battered or anything?

Speaker 88 I mean, if you watch the in-car camera, she's just kind of casually talking with him about being in the law enforcement community and knowing different people.

Speaker 89 Yes, with

Speaker 86 my husband's softball team.

Speaker 88 It was just kind of,

Speaker 88 you know, general conversation. She didn't seem so upset in that video.

Speaker 49 It was around 2 a.m.

Speaker 42 at police headquarters when Cara revealed why JJ was at her place that night, even though he'd left her, moved out.

Speaker 36 three weeks earlier.

Speaker 60 It was quite a story.

Speaker 24 Remember, Cara met a new man after the breakup with JJ,

Speaker 63 also a sheriff's deputy.

Speaker 44 His name was Scott, Scott Holderbaum.

Speaker 40 For a week or so, you were seeing this guy.

Speaker 51 You were having some.

Speaker 8 It was fun. It was fun.
I was giddy. I was like a school kid.
And my teacher in the room next to me, I'd run over there and say, he just texts me. What do I say?

Speaker 8 And I haven't really been on a date in 20 years.

Speaker 91 The day of the shooting, Cara texted Scott a very explicit text, complete with intimate selfie inviting him to come over for a tryst.

Speaker 8 So embarrassing. I had never sent suggestive text messages, let alone body parts.
It was mortifying. It'd be sad if it wasn't so tragic.
But it is tragic.

Speaker 40 So, but he couldn't come?

Speaker 73 Is that what happened to me?

Speaker 8 Oh, Scott was at work. He worked from 7 at night till 7 in the morning.

Speaker 3 So, she said, she sent the very same X-rated selfie and a similar invitation to JJ.

Speaker 3 And JJ, though he was seeing someone else, came right over.

Speaker 40 Would he have thought of it as breakup sex?

Speaker 58 Maybe a one last go around the planet.

Speaker 8 Nostalgic. There's a country song, we don't have to be lonely tonight, you know, and then tomorrow we'll go our separate ways.

Speaker 50 Cara told detectives that as she and JJ were in bed together, her phone kept beeping incoming text messages.

Speaker 38 Chirp, chirp. Yeah.

Speaker 8 So I ignored it.

Speaker 61 It was off.

Speaker 8 It went off again, and I told him just ignore it, just ignore it. And he leaned over and he grabbed the phone and he opened it.
And he said, who the hell is

Speaker 7 Scott Holderbaum?

Speaker 71 That, Cara told police, is when JJ saw she'd sent the same picture, the same invitation, to both of them.

Speaker 92 So he saw kind of like the text message

Speaker 92 conversation or whatever you call it.

Speaker 89 I think he saw a photograph. I don't know.

Speaker 8 And that's when he became violent. He was angry.
He assaulted me. Told me he was going to kill me.
Told me he was going to kill Scott.

Speaker 22 Said that at the time he saw this stuff.

Speaker 8 You'll both be dead by the morning light. You're an effing whore.
And he was just furious.

Speaker 25 You say he assaulted you. He did.

Speaker 8 What, he raped you? He did things against my will, yes.

Speaker 42 Then Cara told the detectives, JJ dressed and drove off.

Speaker 49 And she she called him six times to try to get him to calm down.

Speaker 89 I called him right away, and I told him how sorry I was, and how it's not serious with Scott, and that I was going to call it off.

Speaker 66 And a few minutes later, when he came storming back into the house, Cara said she knew exactly who it was.

Speaker 89 He tore me through the door, and he told me he was going to kill me. or he was going to make it to where nobody would ever want me again.

Speaker 89 And he came in the room and that's when I cracked the gun.

Speaker 55 a story which as you'll see would be rather important later after they heard it the detectives sent cara to the rape crisis center but the results there only raised more questions

Speaker 39 and something she said while there would have them wondering was cara a rape victim or a woman scorned whose fury ended in murder.

Speaker 4 Coming up, Cara changes her story, claiming she didn't know it was JJ coming into her house.

Speaker 40 Just a moment. You were with this guy night and day for 20 years.

Speaker 52 Right.

Speaker 40 And you didn't recognize who it was coming through the door.

Speaker 45 It was the middle of the night when J.J.

Speaker 41 Rush's daughter, Megan, was awakened from a deep sleep.

Speaker 11 3 a.m. knock at my door

Speaker 11 from the detectives.

Speaker 64 What's that like?

Speaker 11 The scariest thing that you'll ever go through.

Speaker 11 And they said, your dad's been shot and he's been killed. I said, I screamed, obviously, and it was terror and loss.
That's not something any 21-year-old wants to hear at 3 in the morning.

Speaker 90 Megan was not the only one assaulted with the news that night.

Speaker 20 I was called that night.

Speaker 50 And in Lonnie Langto's case, a particular remorse, a regret for a lifetime.

Speaker 41 Lonnie was recovering from surgery just then.

Speaker 38 And earlier that day, JJ called, offered his company, his help.

Speaker 41 And she said thanks, but no, she was going to sleep.

Speaker 67 You must have gone over that in your mind a million times.

Speaker 20 I live with it every day. I take comfort in the fact that

Speaker 20 the last words we had to each other were, I love you, and I love you more.

Speaker 20 Those weren't the last words that they had with each other. I guarantee you that.

Speaker 3 She means JJ and Cara, of course.

Speaker 58 So why did he go to her?

Speaker 72 And what happened?

Speaker 94 Around 6 a.m., Cara returned to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office from the Rape Crisis Center.

Speaker 45 She was put in an interview room while detectives reviewed the rape report.

Speaker 95 It was not conclusive.

Speaker 22 Did they find any, you know, any of the classic symptoms of a violent sexual assault?

Speaker 21 None were notated, no.

Speaker 72 However, the report did note bruising on Cara's hip.

Speaker 54 Was it possible to determine how that bruising got to be there?

Speaker 88 That original nurse thought that that bruising might have been from the incident of the night. When it was examined later by another doctor, they determined that the bruising was days older.

Speaker 55 She said that he held her wrists while he sexually assaulted her and therefore left marks.

Speaker 21 The examination didn't notate anything with her wrists.

Speaker 22 Mind you, photos, as you can see, did show a red mark, but the detective said that was most likely from the handcuffs which she twisted around as she tried to make cell phone calls.

Speaker 22 Or maybe she got those marks having sex with her new boyfriend.

Speaker 45 Cara told them it was pretty wild.

Speaker 89 Sex that I haven't even thought about since college.

Speaker 54 The detectives looked at text messages between Cara and her new boyfriend sent a few days earlier.

Speaker 21 Well, they had text messages back and forth. Tie me up, tie me down.
They talked about putting certain types of lotion on bite marks or bruises, and they talked about handcuffs.

Speaker 40 The injuries on your wrists, the text from him, he said he would bring over handcuffs again

Speaker 40 and again leave some marks.

Speaker 8 I said, Are you bringing your handcuffs?

Speaker 40 Well, and he said, get prepared to have some more bruises.

Speaker 8 Marks of passion, I think he said, yeah.

Speaker 40 Well, you like marks of passion.

Speaker 8 I like passionate sex.

Speaker 3 So, what did Cara think about the Rape Crisis Center's inconclusive report?

Speaker 40 They did a rape kit and they didn't find any evidence of rape.

Speaker 8 Yes, they did.

Speaker 8 They did.

Speaker 8 Well, it showed sexual contact.

Speaker 8 Didn't show there wasn't a rape.

Speaker 49 While Cara was at the Rape Crisis Center, the detectives received new information from the crime scene, such as...

Speaker 61 First responders believed the house lights had pretty much all been on when whatever happened happened.

Speaker 26 Remember, Cara said it was dark in the house, but...

Speaker 21 Once we gathered a little bit more evidence from the detectives working the crime scene, then we did get definitely more pointed in our question and more more direct.

Speaker 59 And then something odd happened.

Speaker 54 Cara changed her story.

Speaker 46 Remember, she told 911, my ex-husband raped me.

Speaker 90 I shot him.

Speaker 84 Breaking into your home.

Speaker 90 But now she said she didn't know who was coming into the house.

Speaker 8 Somebody was in my home. Whether it was Jay, Jack the Ripper, I was scared.
Somebody came in the house unannounced.

Speaker 47 Could have been JJ or it could have been Jack the Ripper?

Speaker 64 Really?

Speaker 22 I mean,

Speaker 87 what did you think of that?

Speaker 21 She thought her story, you know, needed to be embellished.

Speaker 96 I'm going to ask you very, very bluntly and very honestly, okay?

Speaker 96 Did the rape occur?

Speaker 96 Let me ask you this point blank.

Speaker 92 Did you know that was John coming through the door?

Speaker 97 And did you shoot him purposely?

Speaker 39 No, I did not.

Speaker 89 I did not shoot John purposely.

Speaker 96 But you shot that person purposely, correct?

Speaker 96 In that moment, I was scared.

Speaker 96 And you were scared why?

Speaker 96 In an emotional night. I didn't know what was happening.

Speaker 96 And you know what? I just... I wish I had never gotten back up.

Speaker 41 Talking with us, she defended the second story that she didn't know who the intruder was and assumed it could be a stranger.

Speaker 40 You're in the middle of a big fight.

Speaker 7 He wanted to.

Speaker 38 He's coming back around to talk to you.

Speaker 40 He wants to clear some things up.

Speaker 8 He would have said that on the phone.

Speaker 40 So as he's coming in the room, did he say anything? No.

Speaker 40 Just was sort of coming in the room.

Speaker 16 Right.

Speaker 13 And you shot him.

Speaker 7 But you saw who it was.

Speaker 8 Didn't see who it was.

Speaker 8 And I was so scared. Hang on.

Speaker 7 And nervous.

Speaker 40 Just a moment. You were with this guy

Speaker 40 night and day, in bed, intimate, hearing all his grunts, listening to the way he walks

Speaker 27 for 20 years. Right.

Speaker 40 And you say you didn't recognize who it was coming through the door?

Speaker 7 No.

Speaker 8 I was scared out of my mind.

Speaker 43 Cara said it was only when she heard JJ's voice that she knew who it was.

Speaker 16 What happened right after you shot him?

Speaker 8 Well, that's when I heard him say, oh, shit.

Speaker 8 So that's when I figured it was him.

Speaker 63 So which was it?

Speaker 50 My ex-husband raped me?

Speaker 44 I shot him?

Speaker 57 Or I shot a stranger?

Speaker 50 Or was it a third version of events?

Speaker 50 This one filled with stories about JJ.

Speaker 8 We had a dark set.

Speaker 28 Yes, Cara had a lot to say about her recently departed ex.

Speaker 63 But was it true?

Speaker 4 Coming up, Cara calls one behavior of JJ's disturbing and downright compulsive.

Speaker 8 There were days where he could go from sundown to sun up.

Speaker 4 Why some said JJ was spinning out of control.

Speaker 98 There is no way to predict where the spiral would end, either in danger to himself or somebody else.

Speaker 70 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 28 J.J. Rush was dead.

Speaker 28 His ex-wife, Cara Ryan, killed him.

Speaker 71 In self-defense, she said.

Speaker 35 Now she set about telling the detectives about the real JJ.

Speaker 71 Same thing she told us.

Speaker 2 Not a pretty picture, she said.

Speaker 8 And right after we got married,

Speaker 8 the compulsive gambling became the big issue. And there were days where he could go from sundown to sun up.

Speaker 91 Cara was a school teacher, remember, and one day she said she got a nasty letter from the Florida Department of Education.

Speaker 89 The state was going to pull my teaching certificate because he hadn't paid my student loans.

Speaker 36 He paid the bills in the early days of their marriage, she said.

Speaker 8 So I started looking at the accounts thinking, what's going on here? I don't understand.

Speaker 58 What was going on, said Cara, was they were broke.

Speaker 8 I felt really betrayed and lied to and hurt.

Speaker 60 So she said she laid down the law, took over the financial stuff, and told JJ he had to get help for his gambling addiction.

Speaker 13 But, you know, a gambling addiction, it's probably as hard or harder to kick than smoking or drinking or it's very hard.

Speaker 7 But I loved him.

Speaker 8 I made vows. I made a commitment.

Speaker 8 So as long as he was willing to go to Gamblers Anonymous, then I was willing to support him. And we went to marriage counseling.
That helped.

Speaker 80 Cara told detectives that for five years, JJ didn't gamble at all, and they were happy.

Speaker 16 But...

Speaker 8 You know, I always worried that the gambling would come back up and the financial situations would happen again.

Speaker 2 And then in 2004, JJ had that bad crash in his police car.

Speaker 100 When we got there very shortly thereafter,

Speaker 40 he had an actual like a hole in the top of his head.

Speaker 90 Bob Jones is a former St.

Speaker 41 Petersburg police officer and JJ's good friend.

Speaker 100 His knees and feet and everything else got hung up around the steering wheel. Then from that point on,

Speaker 100 multiple back problems, multiple back surgeries.

Speaker 55 And that, said Cara, is when.

Speaker 8 He started drinking heavily. All day, every day.

Speaker 72 At home recovering.

Speaker 20 Yes. Depressed.

Speaker 8 Depressed. Yeah.

Speaker 37 He recovered eventually, she said, and took that job as an investigator at the medical examiner's office.

Speaker 36 But he was in pain most of the time.

Speaker 8 He kept drinking, and that's when he started using the oxycodone for the knee pain. Sure.

Speaker 26 That was prescribed, right?

Speaker 8 Yes, but it became chronic, and he was unpredictable when he was on it and off it.

Speaker 33 Cara told detectives J.J.

Speaker 59 liked his work with the medical examiner's office, but the horrific crime scenes he witnessed took their toll.

Speaker 33 So much so he developed PTSD.

Speaker 8 One example, the last one, a man threw his seven-year-old girl off a bridge, and that was his case.

Speaker 8 I know it was emotionally tearing him apart.

Speaker 16 The day before Cara shot him, JJ went to a therapist, a man named Bob Green.

Speaker 36 He had also been their marriage counselor.

Speaker 49 And so, of course, the police talked to Mr.

Speaker 50 Green, and he told them that day JJ was in tears.

Speaker 98 That he was spiraling out of control. There is no way to predict in that situation where the spiral would end, either a danger to himself or somebody else.

Speaker 40 where the sort of burdens of what he did for a living and of his situation in life had become too big for him. Yes.

Speaker 8 I think a part of him didn't want to be in this world anymore.

Speaker 60 But he was supposedly kind of happy.

Speaker 8 That was the face he put on.

Speaker 40 You don't believe that.

Speaker 8 I know he wasn't happy. Antidepressants and the drinking and the oxygen and the physical pain and the mental pain, the post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was struggling.

Speaker 42 The therapist, Green, went even further when he offered police a remarkable theory that JJ knew if he barged in on Cara unannounced, she would shoot and shoot to kill.

Speaker 98 My opinion has always been that it was a suicide.

Speaker 40 How could it possibly be a suicide?

Speaker 98 Because he had trained Cara that if someone comes through the front door unannounced, you pick up a gun, you close your eyes, and you shoot.

Speaker 27 To a lot of people, it seemed a stretch.

Speaker 101 He had not announced he was coming over.

Speaker 98 Someone came through the front door, and she did as she was trained to do.

Speaker 99 Detectives weren't buying Green's idea.

Speaker 21 It's a kind of a ridiculous theory.

Speaker 27 So, Cara's version?

Speaker 79 That without her to help him, JJ was depressed, suffering from PTSD, a suicidal gambling, alcohol, and oxycodone addicted man, who, in the days after he left her, fell off all his wagons and fell into a rage when he saw she had a new love.

Speaker 58 The detectives were skeptical.

Speaker 21 When it comes to being derogatory towards JJ, then she has all the specifics we need. But when it comes to explaining the rape or the attack, then things become very fuzzy.
You were married before?

Speaker 21 She folds up into the corner, starts hiding her face, you know, just a different persona altogether.

Speaker 50 So, what was the truth about JJ?

Speaker 20 He was happier than he's been ever that I can remember. And all of his friends will tell you the same thing.

Speaker 76 Who was right?

Speaker 33 And what what did it say about the events in this little seaside bedroom?

Speaker 4 Coming up, a very different picture emerges of JJ as a man very much under Cara's thumb.

Speaker 20 He was very controlled. He couldn't go out to lunch without bringing home a receipt.

Speaker 4 A man ready to make a change.

Speaker 11 He was dead set on not being with her anymore. He was done.

Speaker 47 Detectives listened closely to Cara Ryan and her stories about JJ's problems.

Speaker 64 Depression, gambling, drinking, painkillers.

Speaker 79 A man so out of control, he raped her in a rage before she shot him.

Speaker 89 And then he came back through the door. I thought he was going to kill me.

Speaker 60 Was it true?

Speaker 20 Never in his life. Never in his life.

Speaker 2 Lonnie Langto had known Cara and JJ for years before she and JJ fell in love.

Speaker 40 Did she have a reasonable argument that maybe she thought she was defending her life?

Speaker 20 Not at all. He wasn't a violent person.

Speaker 20 She has no other defense but to tell you that.

Speaker 2 Private lives, as we all know, can hide cesspools of stories best left untold.

Speaker 22 But no secrets in a murder investigation, the detectives had to know what was the nature of Cara and JJ's 20-year relationship.

Speaker 45 For example, that chance meeting on the beach years earlier when they were divorced, Cara said it just happened.

Speaker 71 The detectives said she made it happen, tracking him down to an out-of-the-way beach.

Speaker 21 She actually told us, you know, I'm walking on this beach that's nowhere near my house, and I say the next man I walk into, he's in the woods, and it ends up being JJ.

Speaker 21 Wasn't really.

Speaker 88 Maybe in the movies, I guess that might happen.

Speaker 38 Calculating, said the detectives.

Speaker 16 And in keeping.

Speaker 21 A lot of the description to us of their relationship was she was more controlling.

Speaker 16 And especially, without exception.

Speaker 88 She controlled the money.

Speaker 90 When JJ retired from the police department, he collected a pension as well as a salary at the medical examiner's office.

Speaker 80 But he never saw any of the money.

Speaker 90 Both checks went directly into a bank account controlled only by Cara.

Speaker 20 All he did was deposit his checks. He couldn't tell you how much they even were.
He was very controlled. He couldn't go out to lunch without bringing home a receipt.

Speaker 61 If he wanted to help his daughter, Megan,

Speaker 14 he had to ask Cara.

Speaker 11 Like, I once needed help with a deposit for my phone, and he had to call and have a conversation over $100

Speaker 11 just to help me out.

Speaker 11 And

Speaker 11 so he was like, yeah, Cara said okay.

Speaker 11 And it's like, okay,

Speaker 7 thanks.

Speaker 33 Megan's mom and JJ's first wife, Sherry Tribby, said it was always like that with Cara.

Speaker 74 Once when Megan was in elementary school,

Speaker 74 I didn't have money to buy her shoes. So I asked John to help me.

Speaker 74 And he was

Speaker 74 reluctant at first, and then he he finally helped me, but when he did, he said, don't tell Cara.

Speaker 33 But Cara said she had her reasons.

Speaker 8 He couldn't have his own bank account. He couldn't have credit cards.
He couldn't have an account with me off of it.

Speaker 42 That, she said, was because of his gambling addiction.

Speaker 63 But addiction?

Speaker 28 JJ's family said he liked to go to the track and play cards, but he was far from being addicted.

Speaker 40 If he went out somewhere with somebody and bought something, I mean, would you need to see a receipt?

Speaker 8 He wanted to give me the receipts. He wanted it to be where I didn't have to worry.
Okay. He didn't want me to look over his shoulder, so he put his receipts on the counter for me.

Speaker 26 Secrets.

Speaker 14 To the world outside the family, Cara was, as she herself said, a loving stepmother to JJ's daughter, Megan.

Speaker 56 She felt like you were very close.

Speaker 34 She regarded you as her own.

Speaker 11 I'm sure she did.

Speaker 27 Why would you put it that way?

Speaker 11 She wanted to put that scene out for everybody, that we had a perfect relationship. I never really felt like she liked me or wanted me there.
So being with somebody who makes you feel so

Speaker 11 unwanted and unloved,

Speaker 11 it was tough.

Speaker 91 It got easier to meet her father in secret, said Megan.

Speaker 72 Avoid the tension with Cara.

Speaker 61 But issues will barge in, like it or not.

Speaker 41 Like the time Megan wanted to apply for a job as a police dispatcher and felt she needed a new dress for the interview.

Speaker 16 Cara got wind of it.

Speaker 20 She said, oh, well, you'll never make it through that anyway. She wanted a dress for her interview.

Speaker 20 And she could never ask him for that before because Carl wouldn't allow the money to be spent.

Speaker 72 That's about the time JJ started planning his exit, as he whispered to Megan.

Speaker 11 He was secretly opening up his new bank account and he changed everything so that nothing was going into her account anymore.

Speaker 11 And then the time that she started to notice was when he was like, okay, well, it's time to get out now.

Speaker 87 That sounds like somebody who has made a firm and final decision.

Speaker 11 He was dead set

Speaker 11 on not being with her anymore.

Speaker 7 He

Speaker 11 was done.

Speaker 11 And I was proud of him.

Speaker 27 So he'd left her, taken up with another woman, cut off a substantial income, ended her ability to control him.

Speaker 80 Sounded like a motive, said the detectives.

Speaker 21 The rug was pulled out from underneath her.

Speaker 21 She was shocked, dismay.

Speaker 22 And she was angry.

Speaker 21 The shock turns to anger at some point.

Speaker 14 And there was JJ, apparently happy, getting his own place, his own car, had a girlfriend who loved him, bought his daughter that dress.

Speaker 11 I think it was the first moment of being like freedom, I guess, where he felt like,

Speaker 11 I can... I can actually do this, and when you give me the receipt, I can throw it away.

Speaker 14 Did he succumb to gambling, alcohol, painkillers after he left Cara?

Speaker 61 No, said Lonnie Langto. Not even close.

Speaker 20 With John none of those things existed and he certainly had ample opportunity to drink to excess, to gamble to excess, to be angry, to be upset.

Speaker 27 He was free to do whatever he wanted now.

Speaker 20 Yes, absolutely he was.

Speaker 16 We reminded Lonnie of what Cara and the therapist had told us.

Speaker 40 That he was in a downward spiral, getting worse and worse by the day,

Speaker 55 that he was actually suicidal.

Speaker 13 Did you see any evidence of that?

Speaker 20 Absolutely not. He was not suicidal.
He was happier than he's been ever that I can remember.

Speaker 11 I was excited, and it was just like cool, you know? Like, this is the dad that I want all the time. It's like I got to see my real dad, and it was great.

Speaker 52 Sorry. That's okay.

Speaker 11 I've just never seen him

Speaker 11 so happy

Speaker 11 as he was.

Speaker 55 Happy for the three weeks after he moved out.

Speaker 33 And then he was dead.

Speaker 61 What was a homicide detective to make of all that?

Speaker 82 Coming up.

Speaker 4 A startling theory of what really happened the night of the shooting.

Speaker 20 My very first words were it was a setup. She set him up.

Speaker 70 When Dateline continues,

Speaker 102 some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 102 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 102 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 102 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 93 Hey, everybody, it's Rob Lowe here.

Speaker 14 If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called Literally with Rob Lowe.

Speaker 104 And basically, it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Aaron Sorkin, or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J.

Speaker 35 Fox.

Speaker 93 There are new episodes out every Thursday.

Speaker 16 So subscribe, please, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 23 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

Speaker 103 But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 108 Zen is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.

Speaker 110 Plus, Zen offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 108 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zen.

Speaker 109 Check out zin.com slash find to find Zin at a store near you.

Speaker 106 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 4 Continuing our story, Cara Ryan has killed her ex-husband, JJ Rush, saying he burst into her bedroom and attacked her.

Speaker 8 He assaulted me, told me he was going to kill me.

Speaker 4 But JJ's family calls it murder, arguing Cara was bitter over losing JJ and his money.

Speaker 11 He was secretly opening up his new bank account. Nothing was going into her account anymore.

Speaker 4 Now, someone else is about to speak out about Cara and JJ's relationship.

Speaker 21 Well, the next-door neighbor did tell us that JJ said that he was scared she would shoot him.

Speaker 4 And then the hunt for the truth takes a tantalizing turn.

Speaker 10 We got a lip reader.

Speaker 83 You've got a lip reader.

Speaker 4 Once again, Keith Morrison.

Speaker 61 Cara Ryan talked to those detectives all night long, admitted she shot J.J.

Speaker 3 Rush, her man of 20 years.

Speaker 39 But it wasn't until 10 the next morning, as she was finishing up her last take statement, that Detective Sires gave her the news that held back all night.

Speaker 71 J.J. was dead.

Speaker 75 Why wait so long?

Speaker 21 I believe she knew right away that he was dead.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 21 But yet, for the entire nine hours and 55 minutes that she was with us, she never once let on that, you know,

Speaker 21 that she thought he was deceased, never asked how he was or anything.

Speaker 87 Well, how did you react when you told her he was dead?

Speaker 40 No reaction.

Speaker 21 It was just a very

Speaker 21 flat, emotionless affect.

Speaker 79 In fact, remember those phone calls Cara made from the police car when the camera didn't record audio.

Speaker 58 Later, police retrieved a voicemail she left for a friend then.

Speaker 60 In it, Cara appears to know JJ may be seriously hurt and feared she was in deep trouble.

Speaker 76 Yeah, Cara, I need for help. Please call me.
I think I heard God. He was placing me and I saw him.

Speaker 76 If all the paper class has care.

Speaker 42 The day after police sent Cara home, she consulted an attorney named Roger Futerman, a British-born American-educated lawyer who flies the Union Jack outside his Clearwater, Florida office.

Speaker 10 When I first heard the facts facts from Miss Ryan, I didn't think they were going to charge her.

Speaker 40 You know, from the defendant, the facts are always a little different.

Speaker 17 I believed her.

Speaker 10 She seemed very believable.

Speaker 45 Cara and her attorney waited to see what would come next.

Speaker 58 And meanwhile, detectives continued their investigation.

Speaker 41 One thing that struck them was the reaction of JJ's family and friends.

Speaker 14 Daughter, Megan.

Speaker 11 They said, was it her? And they said, was it who? And I said, was it Cara? And they said, yes.

Speaker 7 And my whole world crumbled.

Speaker 24 Girlfriend, Lonnie Langto.

Speaker 20 My very first words were it was a setup. She set him up.

Speaker 58 JJ's older brothers, Rick and Bill Rush.

Speaker 108 I told him to take the guns out of the house because that's how much I did not trust her.

Speaker 28 My first words were, that bitch.

Speaker 2 Right out of my mouth without even hesitation. Because I knew in my heart that this was not going to be an accident.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 14 Strong words.

Speaker 41 And then the detectives talked to the next-door neighbor.

Speaker 21 Well, the next-door neighbor did tell us that JJ said that he was scared she would shoot him.

Speaker 54 Huh, I'm going to break up with her. I'm afraid she might shoot me, either as a reaction to the breakup or something of that sort.

Speaker 60 That was the day before JJ moved out.

Speaker 89 The gun was shot him.

Speaker 61 But there was one person's words the detectives kept going over and analyzing.

Speaker 16 Cara Ryan's own words.

Speaker 73 They listened carefully to the stories she told and compared them.

Speaker 21 What they were, how they changed over time, and that was really when

Speaker 21 it kind of hit me just how different all of these stories were and how unbelievable they were.

Speaker 65 There were, said the detectives, four main stories.

Speaker 50 The first, what she told 911 and the first responding officers.

Speaker 52 My ex-husband came in and he raped me.

Speaker 77 Okay, when did this happen?

Speaker 77 Just about. He came in and he raped me and I put him like that and I shot him.

Speaker 56 Shot him while or after he raped her.

Speaker 42 They asked her that as she sat in the patrol car.

Speaker 42 At this point, the audio was turned on.

Speaker 84 They raped me.

Speaker 84 He got on top of me, and he held me down.

Speaker 8 At this point, I had the gun.

Speaker 84 Okay.

Speaker 84 And then what happened?

Speaker 8 And then I fired the gun.

Speaker 84 Where was he?

Speaker 8 Standing over me on the bed.

Speaker 47 The second version emerged in the interview room.

Speaker 50 Cara said JJ raped her and left. But when he came back, she heard and recognized his voice threatening her before she shot him.

Speaker 84 And he told me he was going to kill me.

Speaker 89 And he was going to wait for Scott to get off work and he was going to kill Scott.

Speaker 89 Or he was going to make it to where nobody would ever want me again.

Speaker 89 And he came in the room, and that's when I cracked the gun.

Speaker 96 What exactly did you do?

Speaker 8 As he came in the door,

Speaker 8 I don't remember.

Speaker 89 The gun went off. I shot him.

Speaker 37 Then at the Rape Crisis Center, another version, implying an accidental shooting.

Speaker 99 Cara quoted as saying, he grabbed her and the gun went off.

Speaker 46 Now she is telling the rape counselor that they were struggling over the gun?

Speaker 40 What, during this alleged sexual attack?

Speaker 21 She's told me, you know,

Speaker 21 he raped her, she shot him,

Speaker 21 but never said anything about him grabbing the gun or anything until she speaks with the rape counselor.

Speaker 99 Finally, version number four.

Speaker 16 Cara didn't really know who came barching into her house.

Speaker 42 She was simply scared and fired.

Speaker 89 If somebody was in my house, then I'm like, yeah.

Speaker 96 But see how you're explaining to that me, Cara? You're telling me the condition he was in,

Speaker 96 what Jay had done, what Jay had threatened to do.

Speaker 96 But then it goes to someone within my house. I mean,

Speaker 96 it can't be both. Did you think this was Jay, or did you think this was

Speaker 96 a masked marauder breaking into your home?

Speaker 89 I was going to die.

Speaker 96 What made you think that?

Speaker 89 Somebody was in my home.

Speaker 8 Whether it was Jay, Jack, the ripper, I was scared.

Speaker 2 There were more variations.

Speaker 43 The door was locked or it wasn't locked.

Speaker 78 JJ would always call her before he came over, but this time didn't.

Speaker 37 The detectives counted them all up.

Speaker 50 Cara's versions of what happened in this tiny bedroom.

Speaker 28 They got to ten.

Speaker 27 Ten different stories.

Speaker 87 As you looked at those different stories, what did you think you were dealing with here?

Speaker 21 If you are in a situation that calls for self-defense, And if you lie about these circumstances, then that tells me that you weren't justified in what you were doing.

Speaker 21 Otherwise, why do you need to keep changing the story?

Speaker 42 No question in their minds, said the detectives.

Speaker 44 Cara murdered JJ.

Speaker 63 They arrested her.

Speaker 41 The sheriff made the announcement.

Speaker 111 So we believe this is a domestic-related homicide and that Kara Ryan was acting out because she was losing control over him.

Speaker 15 When I watched the press conference, I was actually crying my eyes out.

Speaker 42 Fellow teacher Debbie Ryan didn't believe what they were saying about Cara.

Speaker 112 I believe in her. And a couple people said to me, Really, you believe her? Yeah, why wouldn't I?

Speaker 16 Sad when, you know, people don't know the facts.

Speaker 71 Cara was now in the hands of deputies at the county jail.

Speaker 41 Charged with second-degree murder.

Speaker 65 She was facing a possible life sentence for killing J.J.

Speaker 28 Rush.

Speaker 4 Coming up, Cara's defense embarks on a surprising strategy.

Speaker 10 We got a lip reader.

Speaker 16 You got a lip reader?

Speaker 4 And then a mock trial reveals what jurors might think of Cara.

Speaker 114 I don't believe for one second that she was raped.

Speaker 69 Ms. Ryan are charged with murder in the second degree.

Speaker 16 Second degree murder.

Speaker 45 Cara Ryan was facing up to life in prison for shooting her ex-husband, J.J.

Speaker 43 Rush.

Speaker 62 But even after hearing the charge, Carl was convinced it would all go away.

Speaker 8 I thought it was ridiculous. I was waiting any day for them to realize they had no case.

Speaker 50 Her attorney, Roger Fuderman, said he too was surprised that Carl was charged.

Speaker 10 I knew from minute one there was no motive, and there was no... What do you mean there's no motive? I saw no motive in this case.

Speaker 40 Come on, it's a breakup of marriage. That's when murders occur.
I know. You know, the guy has taken his income away.

Speaker 16 He's walked out on her.

Speaker 16 You know, he's seeing another woman.

Speaker 10 But when I looked at everything, I said, they don't have a motive here. She loved this man.
It's clear she loved this man. She didn't need the money.

Speaker 16 But now that she was charged, Fuderman first got Cara out on bail and then confronted what he knew was a very big problem.

Speaker 10 We knew the statements.

Speaker 10 The sequence of some of the statements were an issue.

Speaker 2 So Fuderman did exactly what detectives had done.

Speaker 83 He scrutinized all those statements, but he tried to figure out a defense.

Speaker 10 I hand wrote

Speaker 10 all her statements on huge boards and every inconsistent statement was in red and the consistents were in blue and then the helpful were in green.

Speaker 63 Fuderman asked Cara how to make sense of these color-coded differences.

Speaker 7 I asked her, how on earth do we get this?

Speaker 52 How do we get around this?

Speaker 10 And she just said the truthful without thinking, without planning. She said, they're all true.
I just got some of the sequences wrong.

Speaker 63 So, okay.

Speaker 57 That, said Fuderman, is because Cara was in shock and had been questioned on and off for nearly 10 hours.

Speaker 10 It's certainly a very logical explanation for some inconsistencies in the sequence of events.

Speaker 30 Still, so many stories.

Speaker 91 Maybe, thought Fuderman, he could find a way to reduce the number of Cara's stories a future jury would hear.

Speaker 43 Remember that deputy who failed to record audio when Cara was in the police car?

Speaker 16 The deputy said that's when he read Cara her Miranda warning, her right to remain silent and have an attorney.

Speaker 77 But did he?

Speaker 10 There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that Miranda was never read.

Speaker 58 And if Cara wasn't read her rights, then that statement would be thrown out.

Speaker 75 A jury would never hear it.

Speaker 36 So there was a hearing.

Speaker 50 The prosecutor questioned the deputy.

Speaker 74 Did you read her her Miranda warning?

Speaker 77 I did.

Speaker 74 How long had she been in the patrol car when you did that?

Speaker 40 About 15 minutes.

Speaker 42 And here's how the deputy said Cara responded.

Speaker 40 Her comment was, yes, I understand.

Speaker 16 But Cara swore that never happened.

Speaker 8 Absolutely not.

Speaker 73 Who was right?

Speaker 2 That's when Fuderman got a big idea.

Speaker 10 We got a lip reader.

Speaker 16 You got a lip reader?

Speaker 12 We got a lip reader.

Speaker 10 I was looking at this video and I started thinking, I said, if he's so cool, Red Miranda, even though the sound's not on, if we get a lip reader, we're going to be able to tell.

Speaker 10 If she answered like he explained that she answered.

Speaker 2 And if she didn't, maybe Feuderman could prevent a jury from hearing that first conflicting story.

Speaker 40 Does it surprise people when they find out how well you can read lips?

Speaker 34 Yes.

Speaker 31 Then here she is.

Speaker 58 Lucinda Hebler, who is deaf, is the lip reader hired by Attorney Fuderman.

Speaker 40 Had you ever heard such a request before?

Speaker 13 The first time in my whole life.

Speaker 31 The video was very grainy, hard to decipher, but Lucinda told Fuderman she would try.

Speaker 55 What were you looking for her to say?

Speaker 115 I was specifically looking for.

Speaker 115 Yes,

Speaker 115 I understand.

Speaker 115 My wife,

Speaker 115 I see no evidence of her sexual words.

Speaker 16 Right.

Speaker 79 But then, a judge's ruling meant it suddenly didn't matter what Lucinda saw or didn't see.

Speaker 66 A Miranda warning said the judge wasn't necessary at that point.

Speaker 92 Yeah, the right to remain silent.

Speaker 43 And in fact, Cara had been read her rights later at the police station.

Speaker 73 So the jury would get to hear Cara's first conflicting statement. Feuderman was deflated.

Speaker 44 Somehow, he was sure Lucinda had to be good for his case.

Speaker 48 But he also knew the judge's ruling was a problem.

Speaker 60 So Fuderman switched gears and planned his strategy to pick a jury.

Speaker 10 We anticipated that women would be favorable to someone that had been raped.

Speaker 24 He decided to do a dry run, enlisted mock juries composed of men and women to test their reactions, not just to the evidence, but to Cara herself.

Speaker 50 It's rare to witness the workings of a mock trial.

Speaker 66 They're usually confidential.

Speaker 8 And I saw the figure come through the doorway.

Speaker 42 But this is the actual audio as Cara testified for the mock jurors.

Speaker 8 And that's when I reached for the gun.

Speaker 10 When you shot, did you know who you shot?

Speaker 95 No.

Speaker 39 Not until I heard his voice.

Speaker 55 Fuderman acted as prosecutor.

Speaker 16 The questioning was withering.

Speaker 10 So now we have three different stories within a couple of hours period. And your explanation for that is what?

Speaker 8 I was stunned. I was shocked.
I was an emotional wreck.

Speaker 14 That should go down well with female jurors, thought Fuderman.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 13 I was dead wrong.

Speaker 55 Here's what the mock jurors told Feuderman.

Speaker 90 Well, some women gave the answer he expected.

Speaker 86 I found her not guilty. She was already in fear for her life.

Speaker 14 Most found her guilty as sin.

Speaker 114 I don't believe for one second she was raped.

Speaker 86 I felt like she had no emotion or remorse in what she did for someone she cared about for 20 years.

Speaker 33 As for the men, the result was practically reversed.

Speaker 45 the facts of the case are that someone broke into the home and they were afraid and they shot him were futerman and his co-counsel surprised you bet they were time to rethink strategy for the real trial every case is winnable and every case has pros and cons cara's case winnable well That remained to be seen.

Speaker 4 Coming up, at trial, testimony that JJ had recently cut his financial ties to Cara, and there was going to be hell to pay.

Speaker 20 The week he died, I helped him get bank accounts away from her. That was the first week the money didn't hit the account, and she had a fit.

Speaker 70 When Dateline continues

Speaker 48 not quite two years after Cara Cara Ryan shot her ex-husband, prosecutor Liz Jack stood before a freshly impaneled jury and painted a picture of a cold, manipulative woman who could no longer control or even have her once compliant ex-husband.

Speaker 81 And so.

Speaker 117 On March 7th, 2015, she invited him over for sex. He accepted her invitation.
And by the end of the night, he was dead.

Speaker 50 Dead, the state charged, because he had the temerity to leave her and take up with another woman. She was not happy about it.

Speaker 21 I think she was definitely shocked.

Speaker 21 To her, it came out of nowhere.

Speaker 76 And he didn't just leave her.

Speaker 61 He cut off the money.

Speaker 117 She was financially dependent on him and he left her.

Speaker 21 She was used to having

Speaker 21 X number more dollars in her bank account.

Speaker 51 And now it was gone. Now it was gone.

Speaker 15 911 is the...

Speaker 59 Listen to the 911 call.

Speaker 78 So devoid of emotion, said the prosecutor.

Speaker 50 Evidence that this popular teacher was capable of murder.

Speaker 18 My ex-husband came in and he raped me. He raped you?

Speaker 64 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 16 More evidence.

Speaker 30 Soon after the murder, police asked JJ's daughter, Megan, to call Cara.

Speaker 38 They recorded the call.

Speaker 73 It, too, was played for the jury.

Speaker 118 Why did you shoot him, though?

Speaker 119 I didn't know if it was him coming back to kill me like he said he would, or if it was a stranger coming in and that's what he always said if somebody came in the house unannounced to shoot to kill.

Speaker 21 The monotone, the uh, you know, the lack of uh sympathy.

Speaker 86 How are you doing?

Speaker 8 Horrible.

Speaker 8 I'm sorry.

Speaker 119 I don't know what to say.

Speaker 21 She's talking to the daughter of the man she just shot and killed.

Speaker 41 The jury also saw these selfies from Cara's phone.

Speaker 25 They were taken three days after the shooting.

Speaker 27 She just killed her lover of

Speaker 88 so many years, and here she's out drinking.

Speaker 13 It seemed very odd.

Speaker 50 And remember all those stories about Cara's control over JJ?

Speaker 33 Megan told the jury how he had to sneak around with his own daughter.

Speaker 11 He would give me money and gas gift cards or grocery gift cards to make it look like he had bought gas or had bought groceries because if he took cash out or money out to give me, it would cause some type of ordeal.

Speaker 77 But his new love, Lonnie Langto, told the jury about that change in JJ as soon as he left Cara.

Speaker 20 His relationship with his daughter was so much better because he didn't have to answer to why he was talking to her. What was it about? What did she want?

Speaker 42 Wait a minute, he had to answer for what he how he talked to his daughter.

Speaker 20 Oh, absolutely. That was a big deal.

Speaker 46 JJ, she said, loved his newly found freedom.

Speaker 20 He was so excited. He was so happy to not have to answer to someone for every single thing he did or said.

Speaker 60 And Lonnie also told the jury that all hell broke loose after JJ cut off his financial ties to Cara.

Speaker 20 The week he died, I helped him get bank accounts away from her. That was the first week the money didn't hit the account.
And she had a fit.

Speaker 20 It was about money with her.

Speaker 37 Then the night JJ died, the prosecutor said Cara lured him with that invitation for sex by x-rayed text messages, which were displayed for the jury.

Speaker 21 We also found that she downloaded a book, How to Get Your Man Back, or something to that effect.

Speaker 60 Just how badly did she want him back?

Speaker 85 These are from notes Cara wrote to herself on her phone.

Speaker 35 I would do anything to make it work.

Speaker 66 I love you. I want to start over.

Speaker 71 How can you just abandon a 20-year relationship?

Speaker 21 Stuff that we found in her cell phone that showed this shock and this dismay that, you know, how could he do this?

Speaker 25 But remember, Cara accused JJ of raping her.

Speaker 43 So the prosecutor told the jury that DNA tests didn't even show clear evidence they'd had sex.

Speaker 46 And those bruises on Cara's hip were, judging from texts with the new boyfriend, not from JJ.

Speaker 21 The rough sex a couple days prior to the shooting is what led to whatever injury she may have had.

Speaker 35 The red marks on her wrists could have been from sex play, said the state.

Speaker 73 Could have been from struggling with her handcuffs here in the police car.

Speaker 21 Nothing led me to believe that there was anything

Speaker 21 from this alleged altercation with JJ

Speaker 21 that was on her body at all.

Speaker 71 And remember how Cara told detectives that JJ went back to drinking and abusing oxycodone after they broke up?

Speaker 73 The medical examiner testified that the level of alcohol in his system was very low that night, and there was no trace of opiates in his blood at the time of his death.

Speaker 21 He had one

Speaker 21 pill in his pocket at the time of his death, and he obviously had the prescription because he injured his back.

Speaker 16 So if the detectives were right that Cara wasn't defending herself, why that night at that moment did she take out the gun and pull the trigger?

Speaker 56 Because, said the prosecutor, her ploy, her attempt to lure him back, failed, and she was losing control of him.

Speaker 50 The state's theory that Kara did send graphic selfies to her new boyfriend, and JJ did see them.

Speaker 77 She wanted to make him jealous, but he didn't attack her.

Speaker 73 He just walked out on her.

Speaker 21 I think it's reasonable to believe that he said, this is it, this is over, you know. So maybe that plays a part into her saying, you know, I'm not going to get him back.

Speaker 13 And so things went south. Yeah.
She wasn't happy.

Speaker 40 The police and the prosecutor said it just couldn't have happened the way Kara said it did.

Speaker 40 For one thing, when first responders arrived, just moments after the shooting, really, all the lights in the house were on. It wasn't in darkness the way she had described it.

Speaker 40 And this room is so tiny that somebody standing in the doorway could reach out and touch the finger of the person on the bed.

Speaker 40 So wouldn't she have recognized the man she lived with for 20 years when he was that close? Wouldn't she have recognized the sound of his footsteps coming across the floor?

Speaker 16 And

Speaker 40 the bullet that killed him went in through his upper arm at the back and down into his heart as if he wasn't coming in to attack her, but as if he was turning away, perhaps to run.

Speaker 55 You saw the trajectory of the bullet.

Speaker 40 What story did it tell you about what must have happened in that bedroom doorway?

Speaker 88 JJ was walking out or turned to leave the bedroom and saw it coming and may have ducked down.

Speaker 88 But her story of I saw this hand reaching towards me and I pulled the trigger, it doesn't line up with the angle, the trajectory of the shooting.

Speaker 88 Like I told her, I said, would the bullet hang a U-turn? It doesn't work like that.

Speaker 35 But perhaps the state's strongest evidence was in Cara's own words.

Speaker 32 With the dogs.

Speaker 35 Jurors listened to those hours and hours of ever-evolving stories.

Speaker 89 I was scared. I didn't know it was coming.

Speaker 21 I think any normal person, you know, would be able to look at those interviews and say, she's lying. You know, she's not telling the truth.

Speaker 21 There's nothing in there that tells me, you know, that there's a reasonable explanation for her action.

Speaker 47 Yes, there was a reasonable explanation, said the defense.

Speaker 50 And the jury was about to hear it.

Speaker 82 Coming up.

Speaker 4 Cara's lawyer argues that cops mishandled the case because JJ was one of their own.

Speaker 10 He lied. When your witnesses get on that stand, especially if if police officers lie, the jury's not going to forgive you.

Speaker 4 And then, Cara takes a gamble that could decide her fate.

Speaker 8 I texted him. I said, I'll do it.

Speaker 81 Hey, everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson.

Speaker 81 It's called Where Everybody Knows Your Name and We're Back for Another Season.

Speaker 81 I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 81 Listen to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrison sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 23 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

Speaker 107 But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 108 Zin is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.

Speaker 110 Plus, Zin offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 108 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zen.

Speaker 109 Check out Zen.com slash find to find Zen at a store near you.

Speaker 106 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Speaker 9 Just got a new puppy or kitten?

Speaker 8 Congrats!

Speaker 9 But also, yikes! Between crates, beds, toys, treats, and those first few vet visits, you've probably already dropped a small fortune, which is where Lemonade Pet Insurance comes in.

Speaker 9 It helps cover vet costs so you can focus on what's best for your new pet. The coverage is customizable, signup is quick and easy, and your claims are handled in as little as three seconds.

Speaker 9 Pro tip it. Lemonade offers a package specifically for puppies and kittens.
Get a quote at lemonade.com/slash pet. Your future self will thank you.

Speaker 7 Your pet won't. They don't know what insurance is.

Speaker 50 Cara Ryan's defense was well underway even before the opening statements began.

Speaker 60 The strategy, at least.

Speaker 62 Attorney Roger Fuderman, remember, had put Cara through a couple of mock trials and discovered.

Speaker 10 The majority of women convicted her, and the majority of men didn't. And the women's rationale was all emotionally based.
They wanted to hear much more emotion in her. They wanted to hear crying.

Speaker 16 And this client is not like that.

Speaker 70 That's not her.

Speaker 52 It's just not how she is.

Speaker 50 So, Fuderman worked hard to ensure there were mostly males in the jury. In Florida, second-degree murder cases have six-person juries, and he succeeded.

Speaker 83 Five of the six were men.

Speaker 10 We believe the men wouldn't be focused on the emotion, but more on the facts.

Speaker 40 What else did you look for in the jury?

Speaker 45 Gun owners.

Speaker 10 People that were not afraid to shoot someone if they came into their house unannounced. And almost every one of our jurors had a gun and was not afraid to use it.

Speaker 2 No, I'm one of.

Speaker 42 Once the trial began, Fuderman told those jurors that Cara had no choice but to use her gun to defend herself, plain and simple.

Speaker 117 He attacked her. She says, stop.
Never acted like this. Stop.
You're raping me. Stop.

Speaker 54 Something else the defense tried to do.

Speaker 27 Persuade the jury that JJ was out of control after seeing that text from Cara's new boyfriend and came back to the house in a rage.

Speaker 10 He snapped.

Speaker 10 She defended herself. He snapped.

Speaker 41 So those are the elements.

Speaker 40 You need to get a jury to believe he was a person capable of snapping.

Speaker 13 Correct.

Speaker 40 And that she legitimately was in fear for her life.

Speaker 13 Correct.

Speaker 40 That she wasn't angry and wanted revenge, but was terrified.

Speaker 27 Correct.

Speaker 2 So part of the strategy was put the victim on trial.

Speaker 40 You went after him pretty hard. You went after him for, you call him essentially a drunk.
You talked about the oxycodone use.

Speaker 40 And you made it sound like he was, you know, a

Speaker 13 volcano about to explode.

Speaker 10 Well, there was no doubt, as our experts said, he was a chronic Xanax noxycodone user.

Speaker 7 Right.

Speaker 27 For good reason.

Speaker 10 For good reason, but I think...

Speaker 40 They were prescribed.

Speaker 10 They were prescribed, but as needed. Three to four a day, that's a lot.
We don't know when he was taking them.

Speaker 50 Even though the medical examiner testified that JJ's blood showed low levels of alcohol and no trace of painkillers that night, Fuderman claimed withdrawal set JJ off.

Speaker 10 He was drinking. He was coming off Oxy.
He was coming off Xanax. He was taking antidepressants.

Speaker 55 He was filled with rage.

Speaker 10 He was confused. And all of these things could lead him to snap that night.
Because that's what happened. He snapped.

Speaker 8 He had bad addictions.

Speaker 8 He had bad sides to him. He wasn't a bad guy.

Speaker 22 But his friends, his family felt as if the dead guy is being dragged through the mud.

Speaker 13 Sure.

Speaker 40 Did you feel bad about it?

Speaker 8 I didn't want it to happen. I never wanted to go to court and air all of our dirty laundry.

Speaker 37 But now that she was here, accused of murder, JJ's reputation was fair game, said Attorney Fuderman.

Speaker 10 I think there was a lot of sides to JJ that his best friends didn't know.

Speaker 38 Including his cop buddies, said Feuderman.

Speaker 44 Cops who he charged were blind to anything but Cara's alleged guilt and and would do anything to prove it.

Speaker 8 It wasn't an investigation.

Speaker 6 It was a witch hunt.

Speaker 8 They sprang up out of their beds like a church choir and they met at that gate with pitchforks.

Speaker 17 Why would they do that?

Speaker 8 They were his friends. They were his buddies, his brothers.

Speaker 10 I told the jury, the police are going to lie to you.

Speaker 39 Lie?

Speaker 38 As when the deputy said he read Cara her rights in the patrol car, said Fuderman.

Speaker 40 Yeah, 15, 20 minutes, yeah, roughly.

Speaker 42 The The deputy originally said it was during the first 15 minutes.

Speaker 57 Then he changed his story.

Speaker 10 And he said, I no longer read Miranda within 15 minutes. I read it an hour and 10 minutes later.

Speaker 40 And she wasn't facing a camera at that point.

Speaker 7 Correct.

Speaker 35 Fuderman charged that the deputy changed his story after he found out that Lucinda the lip reader had been analyzing Cara's words.

Speaker 50 The deputy said, no, he just refreshed his memory by looking at the tape.

Speaker 79 But Fuderman wasn't buying it.

Speaker 10 He lied.

Speaker 66 And that's when Feuderman put Lucinda on the stand.

Speaker 41 And she confirmed she never saw Cara respond to a Miranda warning.

Speaker 42 And though she said she couldn't always tell what was said on that video, Feuderman had made his point.

Speaker 10 And when you lie to a jury, When your witnesses lie, get on that stand, especially if police officers don't lie, the jury's not going to forgive you. And he lied.

Speaker 16 Well, maybe.

Speaker 71 But the defense still had to account for the prosecution's strongest evidence against Cara.

Speaker 26 Her shifting versions.

Speaker 41 Her many different stories about what happened.

Speaker 8 My story didn't change. I just got it out of sequence.
He came in the door. He raped me.
He was enraged. He came in the door and yelled at me.
He left. He came back.
It was just

Speaker 8 the same thing, just a little muddled.

Speaker 16 It was a little more than muddled.

Speaker 40 Things happened at different times in different tellings, basically, right?

Speaker 8 I just got things out of sequence.

Speaker 34 Hmm.

Speaker 8 I was in shock. I was scared out of my mind.

Speaker 8 I had never seen him like that.

Speaker 54 At the trial, Attorney Funerman had an expert offer this opinion.

Speaker 10 Trauma can affect how you remember things.

Speaker 10 Sometimes a moment of self-preservation can affect how you say things.

Speaker 55 But Carl was consistent about one thing.

Speaker 71 Her claim that JJ raped her.

Speaker 44 Evidence to back that up?

Speaker 45 The marks on her wrists, said Feuderman.

Speaker 42 And he called another expert to say they were fresh, just hours old, so couldn't have been caused by the new boyfriend.

Speaker 10 It was a quantum leap from the state to say the sex that she had 36 hours prior to the incident would leave fresh scratches on her or a bruise.

Speaker 10 So we think that that was caused by the incident.

Speaker 44 Mind you, the state said the marks could have been left by the handcuffs, too.

Speaker 79 But again, Fuderman had made his point.

Speaker 66 But now Cara had to make a decision.

Speaker 67 Should she testify or not?

Speaker 8 I thought, I really don't want to testify. I'm scared and it's painful.

Speaker 8 And then Roger said, it's totally up to you, but my gut says testify. And I said no.

Speaker 44 But in the middle of the night, she told us she changed her mind.

Speaker 8 So I texted Roger at three o'clock. I said, I'll do it.

Speaker 44 And she did.

Speaker 50 Cara told the jury her story.

Speaker 36 And in the middle, she dropped a bombshell about JJ.

Speaker 27 Coming up, a stunning revelation.

Speaker 8 You left a suicide note.

Speaker 4 What would it mean for Cara's case when dateline continues?

Speaker 79 Cara Ryan had made the decision to testify.

Speaker 52 A risky decision, yet Feuderman had confidence in his client.

Speaker 10 I told her, just tell the truth and be yourself. Don't be fake.
Don't put fake tears. And if you are yourself and you do tell the truth, you can't go wrong.

Speaker 42 So Cara took the stand and tried to explain why there were differences in the way she told her story.

Speaker 71 She also explained to the jury that she was smiling in those photos taken two days after she shot JJ because her friend asked her to smile.

Speaker 67 Then came the bombshell.

Speaker 8 He left a suicide note.

Speaker 27 When did he write that note?

Speaker 8 I don't know when he wrote it.

Speaker 36 Attorney Feuderman said he made the discovery after going through more than 300 pieces of evidence.

Speaker 8 And I bursted out crying because I thought his last words to me were, I'm going to kill you,

Speaker 7 and you're a finger whore.

Speaker 8 And his last words were

Speaker 8 sad.

Speaker 2 The letter read, I love you more than I've loved anything or anyone in my entire life.

Speaker 54 I wish with all my soul that you felt the same way.

Speaker 44 Please take care of Megan.

Speaker 16 I'm sorry I failed you because I really did love you.

Speaker 13 Was that a suicide note? Oh, I think so.

Speaker 79 That's a matter of opinion.

Speaker 10 I think when you say, take care of my daughter, I did love you. Take care of Megan, all the other insecurities in that note.

Speaker 10 The point of that note to me was there's another side of JJ that a lot of people didn't know, and there were some real issues there.

Speaker 50 But the idea that was a suicide note, ludicrous, said the prosecution.

Speaker 33 Could have been written years earlier, probably was.

Speaker 83 After all, why would he ask Cara to take care of Megan?

Speaker 79 She was an adult living on her own when JJ was killed.

Speaker 38 And JJ was over the moon with his new life, with a new woman.

Speaker 47 So those expressions of love, highly unlikely at the time of his death.

Speaker 38 Anyway, with that it was over.

Speaker 24 Cara had done all she could to make her case.

Speaker 40 What was it like when that jury went out?

Speaker 8 I knew it was in God's hands.

Speaker 8 There was nothing I could do. Now, my attorney looked like somebody punched him in the gut, but I was just an eerie calm.

Speaker 73 Megan was anything but calm.

Speaker 60 as the jury deliberated.

Speaker 11 It was nerve-wracking. I was like wondering what they were talking about.

Speaker 24 Ron Fowler was foreman of the jury. Amy Petrilla was the one and only woman.

Speaker 13 How did the prosecution want you to see her and her character?

Speaker 15 You know, manipulated and

Speaker 12 a cold-blooded killer.

Speaker 17 Would you agree with that?

Speaker 105 Well, yeah, I guess maybe not quite to that degree.

Speaker 73 But was she?

Speaker 105 You know, she's a teacher. She's never been in trouble before.

Speaker 45 But as you listened to testimony, Ron found Cara's actions odd.

Speaker 105 She never cried when she was on the phone with a stepdaughter. I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to shoot him. So that really bothered me through the case.

Speaker 42 They were less bothered, mind you, by the way Cara's story of what happened kept changing.

Speaker 105 The testimonies from some of the experts says that's not unusual.

Speaker 15 Victims of assaults, physical assaults or sexual assaults, act different than people who are contemplating

Speaker 16 murder.

Speaker 38 Score one for the defense in a series, otherwise, of strikeouts.

Speaker 60 Its portrayal of JJ as an opiate-addicted drunk, for one.

Speaker 105 When they tried to paint him as being this, you know, drunk,

Speaker 105 on drugs, and irrational, I didn't put a lot of basis to that.

Speaker 15 I always figure if someone is able to keep a job for 10 years,

Speaker 15 they're doing something right.

Speaker 42 Then, Lucinda the lip reader, who said she didn't see evidence that Deputy Red Cara, her Miranda rights in the cruiser.

Speaker 55 The defense called the deputy a liar.

Speaker 16 Remember that?

Speaker 15 I think the defense was trying to do whatever they could to create doubt.

Speaker 8 That's their job.

Speaker 15 Sure. I didn't think it added much to, you know, the evidence that we were looking at.

Speaker 105 I didn't believe that the policemen did read the rights based upon his testimony, but later they did when they really continued to ask questions and they read the Miranda rights.

Speaker 44 Another defense strikeout.

Speaker 16 The suicide note, if that's what it was, didn't add much for them either.

Speaker 15 I think just for me, it spoke to his state of mind.

Speaker 65 Did it seem like a suicide note to you, or was it more of...

Speaker 7 I read it several times.

Speaker 15 There's different meanings that you could put to it.

Speaker 105 I just didn't think that it had a basis for what happened that night.

Speaker 29 Finally, Cara's risky decision to testify.

Speaker 17 Did it pay off?

Speaker 105 I was surprised that she testified, but it didn't didn't really alter my thought process before or after.

Speaker 2 So they gathered in the jury room.

Speaker 58 Five men, one woman.

Speaker 63 Two weeks worth of evidence and testimony to review and debate.

Speaker 2 And then they had to decide who to believe and what mattered and what the evidence proved.

Speaker 10 It's a horrendous waiting moment.

Speaker 16 And?

Speaker 50 It wasn't very many moments. The jury decided in just 90 minutes.

Speaker 83 That usually means guilty in that short period of time.

Speaker 80 So your spirits rose?

Speaker 14 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 I asked my attorney what that meant, and he said, You can't tell what a jury's going to do.

Speaker 10 When they came back very quickly, I was petrified.

Speaker 4 Coming up, the jury speaks.

Speaker 113 There was stone silence, and all you heard was

Speaker 16 from everyone. Everyone.

Speaker 17 And then a flood of emotion.

Speaker 40 What are you feeling right this second?

Speaker 8 I wish things were different.

Speaker 73 We cannot tolerate any outbursts?

Speaker 16 There is no overstating it.

Speaker 71 A palpable tension, a flutter of the heart, when a jury files in to pronounce the fate of another human being.

Speaker 41 Cara Ryan shot her ex.

Speaker 71 She could spend decades in prison, or she could walk free.

Speaker 24 This was the moment she'd find out.

Speaker 40 You're charged with second-degree murder. The jury walks back into the room.

Speaker 48 What did it feel like to be you?

Speaker 8 All I could do was breathe.

Speaker 8 All I could do was just keep a stiff upper lip, hold my head high, be confident.

Speaker 45 Some spectators watched on a closed-circuit feed.

Speaker 41 A cell phone camera recorded it.

Speaker 44 The words that changed Cara's life.

Speaker 73 As to the defendant in this case, see the defendant is not guilty.

Speaker 61 Not guilty.

Speaker 8 My first moment was

Speaker 8 thank you to my attorney, Roger,

Speaker 8 and his

Speaker 7 co-counsel.

Speaker 8 And then my next thought was

Speaker 8 to turn around and look at my mother and say, mom, it's okay.

Speaker 67 That, we need hardly tell you, is certainly not what JJ's brother was doing or feeling.

Speaker 83 I said to myself, you're kidding me.

Speaker 57 Or his sister.

Speaker 113 There was stone silence, and all you heard was

Speaker 16 from from everyone. Everyone.

Speaker 113 We were in shock, exactly.

Speaker 65 We weren't shocked.

Speaker 38 Or his daughter, Megan.

Speaker 11 I didn't really believe that that's what I heard, and I didn't want to cause a scene. So I walked out.
And the moment I hit those doors, I just fell to the floor. I couldn't physically move anymore.

Speaker 71 It was just like it was when she heard he was dead, she said.

Speaker 11 My heart shattered again.

Speaker 11 Somebody who had hurt you for so long and then hurt hurt you in the biggest way anybody ever could

Speaker 7 just

Speaker 11 won

Speaker 11 again like she always did.

Speaker 60 So why did the jury acquit? In the end, they said it boiled down to a single question. Did Cara shoot JJ in self-defense or rage?

Speaker 15 I don't think it was out of rage. I think it was out of fear.

Speaker 105 It was the sense of fear, a sense of self-defense that he was angry,

Speaker 105 that he left and came back that still resonated with me of the self-defense issue being pretty strong.

Speaker 7 Amy had no doubt, she said, Cara must have been assaulted.

Speaker 29 What evidence persuaded you of that?

Speaker 120 The marks on her arms and her entire

Speaker 51 demeanor

Speaker 15 at the time of the interviews after the murder. She presented as a very scared victim of an assault.

Speaker 54 Amy didn't believe those marks could have come from the kinky sex Cara had with her new boyfriend.

Speaker 15 The evidence was presented that the marks were less than 24 hours old.

Speaker 37 Nor did Amy buy the prosecution theory that Cara got those marks from handcuffs in the police car.

Speaker 15 I believe the testimony that she was in fear of her life and she was defending herself as she had been instructed by her

Speaker 15 husband, ex-husband.

Speaker 50 So the jury was unanimous.

Speaker 30 Cara shot JJ in self-defense.

Speaker 105 Was there evidence enough to say that she did not act in self-defense?

Speaker 37 And that's where none of us could come to that conclusion.

Speaker 61 Cara's life is no longer on hold.

Speaker 100 She has gone back to teaching, her attorney told us.

Speaker 79 Now that the ordeal is behind her.

Speaker 48 At the end of our interview, the woman who revealed little emotion to juries, mock or real, finally did.

Speaker 40 What are you feeling right this second?

Speaker 8 I feel like um

Speaker 8 I feel like Jay's still with me.

Speaker 6 I think about him every day,

Speaker 8 and I wish things were different.

Speaker 6 I wish I could have saved him.

Speaker 8 I wish I could have done something differently.

Speaker 8 And I know this has caused a lot of pain for not just his family, but my family.

Speaker 58 JJ's daughter, Megan, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cara for his insurance and pension money.

Speaker 79 Cara denied Megan's allegations, and the case was settled out of court.

Speaker 25 As for Lonnie Langto, she lives with the loss of JJ every day.

Speaker 20 It never goes away,

Speaker 20 but

Speaker 20 we keep John alive with each other. The family and I are very close.
I get to talk to Megan every day. I get to

Speaker 20 see the things that he missed or misses

Speaker 20 and hope that he's seeing them and he's proud of her.

Speaker 14 And Megan,

Speaker 14 who for a while worked as a police dispatcher, is now working at a local hospital, all the while trying to navigate a future without her dad.

Speaker 14 But there will be someone new in her life soon. She's going to have a baby.

Speaker 11 She wish that it could be different, but I just have to go forward with my life and live to make my dad very proud

Speaker 11 of what I've become.

Speaker 64 Oh, I think he probably is.

Speaker 64 I really hope so.

Speaker 7 I really hope so.

Speaker 4 That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central.

Speaker 57 And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.

Speaker 28 I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News.

Speaker 24 Good night.

Speaker 23 If you're a smoker or dipper ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.

Speaker 103 But with Zen nicotine pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.

Speaker 108 Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.

Speaker 110 Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.

Speaker 108 There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zin.

Speaker 109 Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.

Speaker 106 Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.