them. >> you know, if it weren't for you and jake's other friends, this case would possibly have never been solved. >> i believe that jake's several buddies and his friends outside, we were the ones that pushed this to get this solved. >> reporter: his family kind of underestimated the second family. >> absolutely. >> now it is the end of the story of what happened to jake. his friends fought for him. his family fought against him. in the end, it's hard to tell who won. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. i'm greg. >> and i'm natalie. >> and this is dateline.

>> my mother called and said michelle is dead. how is that possible? >> reporter: a young mother found brutally murdered. her little girl left to wander in her mother's blood. police had a suspect and they say he had a motive. but could they prove he was the killer? >> it was a circle case. >> reporter: except for that witness. the girl who left those footprints. >> we will never know what cassidy saw and what she didn't see. >> maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe, she didn't have to. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to the jury? >> the person that killed the mother killed about cassidy. hello, welcome to dateline.

michelle young was married to her college sweetheart four months pregnant with their second child. the young mother was beaten to death in her own bedroom. the investigation revealed a troubled marriage. but the husband was away on business and unraveling this case would take years. here is keith morrison with silent witness. >> i think i paused for a second. had to take a deep breath. and, just reality of what was going on. what was going on. >> the footprints were unforgettable. they were tiny, and they were bloody.

>> i had to get my composure to finish searching this house and make sure there was no one in the house. >> scott was the wake county sheriff's deputy dispatched to a quiet and leafy neighborhood called enchantedhohe oaks on th outskirts of raleigh, north carolina. her because of a 911 call from this place on birch leaf drive. >> tell me what happened, man. >> i have no idea. >> the caller was meredith fisher. she had just discovered on the floor of the master bedroom, the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old michelle young, a woman, who in depth -- death, was about to be famous.nor >> is she breathing? >> i don't think so. >> have you checked? >> she's cool. >> as she spoke, meredith was cradling two-year-old cassidy who had crawled out from under

the bed close just feet from where her mother lay. cassidy's voice was cut oton th recorded call. had to cassidy witnessed the murder? awakened alone, to findf this? >> you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom. >> and now, wake county investigators were descending on the house and having secured the crime scene, earp's job was done, but on his way out he saw cassidy again. she was still in her pink pajamas, still in meredith's arms. he asked meredith a question. >> i looked over at the child. i didn't see any blood so asked her,do i did you clean the chil and her responses know. i thought it was kind of odd because i was expecting her to say yes i did. >> somebody did. >> yes, somebody did. >> but who? was it the same person who murdered the little girl's

mother? on this november dale they hadw were questions. richard spidey, then a sheriff with wake county sheriff's office, probably knows the case better than a. >> this was a brutal, vicious beating. there was a lot of time and energy into this assault. s s the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object. >> detectives started investigating the victim and everyone else around her. michelle young was born and raised on long island, new york. >> you smiling all the time and she was the life of the party. >> stacia grossman knew her from childhood. >> she didn't like being the center of attention but she liked creating a great atmosphere for everyone to have a good time. >> michelle was a cheerleader in high school and a straight a student. jennifer powers felt drawn to her. >> she had the sort of bookworm side to her for she was very studious and goal oriented. she was also just a great person to be around, a fun,

happy spirit and someone i wanted to spend a lot of time with. >> lots of people dead, and when she chose a college far from home, north carolina state, she was soon surrounded again by an admiring group of women friends, best friends, buddies.waas fiona childs was her sorority big sister. >> there was this one picture and it's like it just came out beautiful and we liked it because we kind of thought we look like charlie's angels pose without intentionally doing that. >> it was sometime in 2001 when friends started hearing about michelle's new guy, fellow student named jason young, heard how had grown up in the north carolina mountains, how he loved to camp, how he was the life it tailgate parties. michelle fell hard and fast. >> they seemed like a good couple. he was differenthe i from men s dated in the past. he wasn't a serious about a career as she was. he was a little bit less

sophisticated than michelle was, but she seemed to be very happy with him. >> michelle and jason married p the day after the wedding, they shared their big secret. michelle e was pregnant. there dottie, -- daughter, cassidy was born the next year. and when she came along, it was love at first sight. michelle was an enthusiastic mother. by all accounts, jason was a good dad. >> he was a great playmate. he knew how to sit on the floor and play with his daughter, you know. >> the youngest moved into the big house on birch street in 2005.

both of them worked. he, a salesman. she, a financial specialist. in the summer of 2006, michelle got pregnant again. they kept the news to themselves but it was clear20alt something good was happening. >> the comment he said to me was, he is excited to have another baby, not implying that she was pregnant but that he was excited at the prospect of it. >> but, just a few months later, michelle was dead. jason was 170 miles away in . he nia on a business trip wim heard the news that afternoon and return to raleigh. stacia grossman got word from her mother. >> my mother calls and said michelle is dead. and i said michelle who? some celebrity? like what are you talking about, like what do you mean? like how is that possible, what happened? >> the very questions wake county investigators were asking themselves. >> is the investigation heats up, a security camera provides a critical clue. it is not what it caught, but what it missed, and why.e haenk

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keith morrison (voiceover): the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006 when her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death, her body discovered the next day by her sister meredith along with her 2 and 1/2 year old daughter cassidy who'd been the facts were stark and ugly. one night in november 2006 when her husband was away on business, michelle young was attacked in her own bedroom and brutally beaten to death, her

body discovered the next day by her sister, meredith along with her 2.5-year-old daughter, cassidy, who had been left to wander in her blood. for the investigators who set out to find her killer, no way to get those little footprints out of their minds. sergeant richard spidey, lead investigator. >> of those of us who work in law enforcement, this is our profession but we are also parents. michelle's husband, jason was hundred and 70 miles away the night of the mayor -- murder but even so, investigators had to look at him. >> we know he was the last person to talk to michelle that night and also the reason why she was found. >> jason young's business trip that time was routine. security tape showed him getting gas 7:30 p.m. as he left rahway. two hours later he was seen on tape at a cracker barrel restaurant in greensboro. later he checked into this

hampton m in hillsboro, virginia. this is him at the front desk and again at midnight. he also made a phone call around midnight and that was the last time anybody heard from jason young until he made another call at 7:40 the next morning. >> a normal person would look at this and say she's 170 miles away, he's got an alibi. >> that sounds like a great distance, but 170 miles, you can get between the crime scene in the hotel and about 2.5 hours. >> perhaps, but they were curious anomalies at the crime scene. could not explain them. jewelry boxes missing two drawers, so was it a bungled burglary? then, there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate jason, an obvious print on a pillow was a size 10, but jason wore a size 12. but, this was weird. there was another partial footprint that defied easy

identification so they began calling in shoe experts but now they wondered whether two attackers? investigators discovered early on that michelle and jason's marriage was strained and in the last weeks of michelle's life, things were not good. >> and her friend shelley's wedding, she was so drunk and really out of it. when we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that michelle and jason were fighting and they were referring to it as world war iii. >> jennifer powers told investigators about another fight that october. michelle wanted her mother to stay with them for the holidays and jason, who had a tense relationship with his mother-in- law, wanted to limit her stay and said so in an email along with another nugget. >> he wrote, our marriage has seen better days and i don't see it trending up and i remember that really striking a chord with me because i didn't know that their marriage had seen better days. >> of course, investigators wanted to interview jason young.

maybe he could tell them something. but he refused to talk to them. >> you talk to the lawyer and then under the advice of counsel, he declined to speak with us at all. >> didn't ask about her? didn't ask how his wife died? >> no. >> perhaps, investigators thought, that business trip deserved a second look so they went to the hotel and poked around, and discovered some odd activities that night in the stairwell near an exit. >> there was a camera there that had been unplugged. >> really? >> yes. it was one of the side exits of the hotel, i guess the fire stairs that go down to the first floor. >> was there any other tempering done? >> the door that was adjacent to where this camera was located, the door also had been propped open that night. the gentleman that was working as the clerk that night on the rock that had been placed in the door to keep the door from closing. to keep the door from

the plug the camera back in so it's no working again in about 6:45 that morning suddenly, that camera is pointed straight at the ceiling. same camera and it is tempered with yet again. >> as that was jason young's work, is it possible he did make the 340 mile round-trip? could he have killed his wife and cleaned up his daughter all in the 7.5 hours without ever being seen? to find out, investigators played a hunch. they visited every gas station along the route, show jason's photo, talked to the night clerks, and came across a woman named gracie dahms in a tiny place called kane, north carolina. she took one look at that photograph and recognized it instantly. he was the foul mouth customer she said, who came storming

into the store to complain that the pumps were locked and what time was it? 5:30 a.m. >> there was actually an altercation between the two of them, so you have a reason why she would remember him as opposed to any other customer that may have happened into the store. >> if that attendant was right, investigators may have undercut jason's alibi. still, it was not enough, so they plodded ahead, painstaking weight -- work took time and then years after the murder, they finally got a match for that partial footprint. >> the state bureau of investigation and the fbi were able to eventually identify the shoe as a hush puppy orbital shoe size 12, the same size that he wore. >> throughout the investigation, jason steadfastly maintained his silence and rather than face a legal battle where he would be asked some tough questions, he even gave michelle's family custody of his daughter. >> everyone we spoke with, all

of them spoke about how much he loved cassidy and what a great dad he was. to just turn over primary custody was very surprising. >> investigators had heard enough. they believed they had a case. circumstantial, but a case. three years after michelle young's body was found on the bedroom floor, jason young was charged with her murder. investigators and prosecutors knew that very little pointed directly toward jason young, but so far, nothing pointed away. >> coming up, the case against jason young as an alleged killer and as a cheating husband. >> we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> we ended up having sex. >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues.

keith morrison (voiceover): jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife michelle in june, 2011. by then, he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates, the guy who loved to party-- that guy was long gone. becky holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. becky holt: the defendant had a plan. jason young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, michelle, in june 2011. by then, he had spent 18 months in a jail cell. the guy who lived for tailgates and love to party, that guy was long gone. vicki holt was the prosecutor who opened for the state. >> the defendant had a plan. the plan is to murder his wife. his plan was to get away with it.

>> with no murder weapon found, the prosecutions case was built on the partial shoe print. they knew now that jason once owned a pair of hushpuppies like these that matched the print they were now missing. they also told jurors about the early morning visit to the gas station and suspicious activity at the hotel, but the thrust of their case was this. jason young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage. >> were you aware of tensions in that marriage? >> yes. i was well aware. >> meredith fisher, michelle sister, lived near the couple and for a time was cassidy's nanny. >> michelle's main issues were jason been more responsible, understanding her more, and his main concern was their lack of sex life. >> prosecutors called friends to stand paint picture of a marriage that was unraveling out loud and in public. >> jason made it very well known that you know, he was

upset about the lack of sex in the relationship . >> at parties, said fiona childs, jason's ex-rated were famously over-the-top. >> i never observed it myself. i would hear about it and he would expose himself and do what he thought was his funny tricks and i was always just rather embarrassed for michelle. >> you never settle down. it was as if he was still living the single life and he never called into the marriage and what all that meant. >> in october 2006 when michelle was four months pregnant, jason became deeply involved with another woman. and, not just any woman. michelle money was one of michelle young's close friends from college. look at those charlie's angels. in early october, days before his third wedding anniversary, jason flew to florida to see michelle money.

she testified they both knew it was wrong. >> we basically just hung out at the house and we had an intimate relationship for the two days he was there. >> jason was crazy about her, his friend said. >> he basically told me that he thought he was in love with her. >> michelle's mother testified that in the final weeks of michelle's life, she could see the toll the failing marriage was taken on her pregnant daughter. >> she had her head on my lap, and she was lying out and i was stroking her hair and she was empty. >> and what did she tell you? >> things were not working out with jason. >> two days before she was

murdered, michelle phoned her sister, meredith, to report yet another blowup with jason. >> she was just, i've had it. she said you know, more than one time, i just can't do this anymore. >> jason was telling one of his close that friends the same thing and prosecutors said just days before michelle was murdered, he indulged in one last transgression, casual hookup with an old friend named carolanne sowerby, in his own living room. michelle was away at the time. >> cassidy was put down to bed and we had a couple drinks, just were talking, and, we ended up having sex. >> but, divorce was apparently not an option for jason. >> he had made a statement one time that he was afraid if he ever got a divorce that

michelle would take cassidy and move back to new york. >> did he indicate to you that he would have concerns about ever being able to see cassidy again? >> corrected >> still, one big question remains. was a good time guy like jason young even capable of murder? genevieve was engaged to jason in 1999, before he met michelle, and she took the stand to testify about a fight they had over jason's excessive drinking. >> he became agitated. he said something to the effect of if i were to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. >> did you give it to the defendant? >> no. he began trying to pull the ring off, and it wouldn't come off. he was throwing me from what bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them behind me. >> prosecutors hope to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder, so how did the defense counterattack?

with a witness who could refute every charge. coming up, jason young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. >> did you kill your wife? >> no, sir. >> we there when it happened? no, sir. >> when dateline continues. no, sir. >> when dateline continues. if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy n me at there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,

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...day to fly. the city of houston has 500,000 customers remaining without power following severe storms. the weather caused seven deaths across the region, including from falling trees, and a fire sparked by lightning. flash floods from seasonal rains have killed dozens of people in afghanistan. the u.n. food agency posted on x saying the western part of the country was most affected by floods for more than 2000 families were impacted. for now, back to dateline.

>> welcome back to dateline. i am craig melvin. jason young was on trial for the murder of his wife, michelle. prosecutors argued the software salesman killed his wife to get out of an unhappy marriage. to bolster their case, they called two of jason's lovers to the stand, women who shared the details of their extramarital affairs, but the defense had a star witness of its own. after five long years, jason young was about to break his silence. here again is keith morrison with silent witness. >> with the prosecution did not tell you -- >> there is an art to the business of criminal defense and it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of jason young. so, what did defense attorney mike quinn golson do? to begin with, he agreed with the prosecution. jason young was not a good husband.

>> he acted at times like an immature jerk but that does not make him a killer. that jewelry box in the bedroom did not have jason's dna. there was not any forensic evidence that tie jason to the crime scene. no blood in his car, not a scratch on him. >> ladies and gentlemen, jason young did not murder his wife. he did not murder their unborn son, in this case has not been solved. >> who better to make that argument than jason young himself? but so far, remember, he had never said a word to anyone about that november night, and

almost five years silence. >> it's always a big decision for defense attorneys to call their clients. >> beth karas is a former prosecutor and legal analyst to cover the trial. >> this is the case that really begged for jason young to testify. if you're truly innocent, get on the stand and tell the story. >> with his mother sitting in the front row, jason young prepared to do just that. defense attorney ryan collins hit it hard off the top. >> did you kill your wife, michelle question mark >> no, sir. >> were you there when it happened? >> no, sir. >> what about jason's missing hushpuppies that matched the partial shoe print? he no longer owns them, he said. >> of those issues you had on? >> they were already, he said. told michelle to give them to goodwill. as for the night of the murder, after he checked into the hotel, jason testified, he left his room twice, the first time to get a power cord for his

laptop. >> i was going over the sales call i had the next day. >> the second trip, he testified, was to smoke a cigar. >> i had to go outside to smoke and i also wanted to look at some sports schedules and some standings, so i wanted to see if i could pick up the usa today, as well. >> that newspaper run explained why he was seen at the front desk, he said, around midnight. >> in between time you smoke biggest -- cigar and went upstairs and went to sleep. >> the next morning jason testified he had left some ebay printouts sitting on the computer printer at home that showed purses. he was thinking of buying one for michelle as a belated anniversary present. >> i realized i didn't bring those papers. >> why was it important to you that somebody get those papers? >> i wanted it to be a surprise. a surprise to michelle means so much more. >> around noon, november 3rd,

he called his sister-in-law, meredith from the cart task if she would go to the house and get those ebay papers. he left meredith a voicemail. then, he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby, and it was there, he testified, hours later, that he learned michelle had been murdered. >> i just fell. i just -- i broke on the inside, i just broke and i didn't believe it. >> family members drove him back to raleigh. during the drive, he said his friends called. >> ryan and josh had said that the investigators were asking really ugly questions and pointed their finger at me and doing things like that and they said you don't need to talk to anybody. you need to get a lawyer before you talk to anybody. >> then, the explanation for

his long silence. >> the lawyer i got after talking with him, he advised me to not go talk to the police. >> did you take that advice? >> yes, sir, i did. >> did he tell you not to talk to anybody about the case? >> that's exactly what he said. he said don't talk to anybody about anything. >> the defense also addressed the motives. that jason wanted to get out of a bad marriage, keep custody of cassidy and spend time with his new loves. >> did you have any design and- year-old mind of leaving michelle young for michelle money? >> no, sir. >> describe what went on. >> i think we both knew it was wrong. i don't think either one dreamed that it would ever be found out. >> pushing me around. >> as for that violent episode with his ex-fiance, jason had an explanation for it. >> did you throw her on the bed like she said?

>> no, sir. what i did was wrong. i did pin her down and i took the ring. >> okay, what was your level of intoxication at that time? >> i was very intoxicated but i don't feel like that's an excuse for what i did. >> they questioned him about the most important woman in his life. >> did you want to stay married to michelle? >> yes, i did. i wanted to have another baby and i wanted the family to grow. >> he also explained why he gave up custody of his daughter without a fight. >> were you able to afford a lawyer for a full-blown custody battle? >> no, sir. due to the media and some of the internet website, the job that i had, i lost it. >>'s testimony lasted three hours. >> jason young was a very good witness. he understood what he had to do when he was on the stand. >> so, he didn't come off as

contrived or phony? like you put this together very carefully in order to account for all the evidence they had? >> he had access to police reports, all the discovery. he knew the states vulnerabilities, and so he could arguably tailor his testimony to fit with an innocent explanation. >> how did jason young do? 12 jurors were about to decide. coming up, >> you are working on your marriage and having with caroline sowerby in your home? >> when the line continues. the if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd

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keith morrison (voiceover): it was riveting. ♪ almost five years of silence about his wife's murder-- i went back to my room. keith morrison (voiceover): --broken here in this courtroom. it was riveting.. five years after his wife's murder, broken here in this courtroom. now, the prosecutor begin pulling apart a story she had just heard for the first time. >> you're working on your marriage and you are having sex with caroline sowerby in your home less than two weeks before your wife was murdered? >> no, ma'am. that was not the way to work on the marriage. that was detrimental. >> were you working on your marriage when you called michelle money? >> michelle and i confided a lot in each other and we talked about my issues with my wife

and she talked about her issues with her husband. >>, so is the answer yes when you had an affair with michelle money that you were working on your marriage? >> no, ma'am, having the intercourse in the intimacy was very detrimental to that. >> the cross-examination lasted an hour. the next day, the case went to the jury. it soon became clear the jurors were having trouble. >> you've indicated you've not yet reached a unanimous decision. >> jurors were split 6-6. the judge that the back to try to make it unanimous. but hours later, they were back. and courtroom 3c was still. >> it appears there deadlocked at this point. >> eight jurors had voted for acquittal. four voted guilty. judge stevens declared a mistrial. >> was serious consideration given to dropping the case? >> i think there was serious consideration as to what more we could do.

>> prosecutors decided they would try again, but this time, with the one thing they did not have the first time. jason's own story. the second trial began in february, 2012. this time, howard cummings led the prosecution, hoping to use jason's own words to convict him. >> place your left hand on the bible. >> first, prosecutors called the night clerk at the gas station, gracie, who remember jason complaining about the locked pumps. >> when he came into pay, he started cussing and raising cane. >> what time did this happen? >> that was about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning. >> a time when jason said he was at the hotel. then prosecutors had no witnesses and new testimony. they wanted jurors to hear about cassidy, whose bloody

footprints, they contended, made her a silent witness to the murder. >> when i got to cassidy, i said what you doing? >> take care working ashley palmatier took the stand and told jurors she watched cassidy playing alone, days after her mother was murdered. >> she had the chair and the doll in her hand together and then the mommy doll in the other hand and she just hit them. >> is unsettling as it was, the prosecutors wanted jurors to know the killer had left a silent witness behind, a witness he would never harm. >> the fact that cassidy was spared, did that mean anything to you or would it mean anything to a jury? >> certainly. it meant the person that killed the mother, we felt, cared about cassidy. >> fiona childs took the stand. prosecutors pressed her about a life insurance policy jason arranged. and, michelle had questioned. >> she brought up specifically her life insurance. she brought it up several times

, as he mentioned that $1 million is too much and that they really need that? >> after michelle died, fiona found the true amount of the policy was actually $4 million. >> i was just in shock. like that is excessive. >> prosecutors also told the jury about civil lawsuits against jason brought by michelle's mother and sister. one was a wrongful death case filed in 2008, a year before he was charged with murder. over the defense's objecting, court clerk lauren freeman testified about that lawsuit. >> there is an alleged paragraph, paragraph six reading verbatim from the record, in the early morning hours of november 3rd, 2006, jason young brutally murdered michelle young at their residence. >> freeman went on to testify that jamison -- jason never responded to the allegations leading to his default judgment against him. that allegation said jason killed his wife. >> a default judgment does not

mean the facts alleged in a civil complaint are true. it does not mean he is guilty, and the judge at the criminal trial told the jury that in his instructions. however, when you hear the statement, jason young brutally murdered his wife, but that doesn't mean his guilty, folks, hello. you know? >> the prosecutor made sure the jury heard just who signed that ruling. >> this judgment is signed actually by judge stevens. >> the very judge sitting before them in this trial. >> the jury hearing that, it's just something that's going to carry a lot of weight. >> this is the complaint that was filed in december seeking custody of cassidy. >> prosecutors also called the attorney involved in the custody case over daughter, cassidy, and the same allegations were repeated yet again. >> the jury heard several times

through these two civil complaints, that jason young brutally murdered michelle fischer young. >> but the headline young came when prosecutors played jason young's entire testimony from the first trial. and began to rip it apart. prosecutors tried to show that jason's call to meredith to pick up those ebay printouts is merely a ploy to get her to discover the body and find cassidy. why else would he print an ebay auction ad and leave it on the printer then hit the road where he could not bid during the actual auction? they called sergeant spivey to the stampede >> that auction was going to and at 8:00 pm eastern standard time on november the second, 2006. >> just hours before the murder. now, prosecutors tried to prove jason lied about his reason for leaving the hotel room.

in his original testimony, he told the court he left the first time to get a power cord for his laptop. >> why was he wanted to look on your laptop? >> i was going over the sales call i have the next day. >> special agent mike smith took the stand to say young did not use his laptop for work that might. >> he was on an internet site dedicated to sports. >> jason said he went out a second time to smoke a cigar but prosecutors contended jason was a fierce anti-smoker, and the weather that might was freezing, windy. >> can you tell me whether or not there was ever any substantial outerwear the defendant had in his luggage were was wearing? >> no, sir. it was a suit jacket. that was the only outerwear. >> jason chose not to testify this time, but the defense fought back, of course. they argued the gas station attendants memory can be trusted because of childhood brain injury. >> i have had memory problems since i was six because i have

been through a lot with myself and my kids and my ex-husband. >> the defense also argued the case really wasn't solved, that there was no physical evidence to prove jason was the killer. >> there was not one scratch on mr. young. >> that he would never have had time to make the trip to commit murder, that he didn't have the mind-set of the killer and the cigar showed that jason young actually owned a humidor and once made a purchase at a cigar store. >> you have ample evidence before you that jason young is not guilty. >> then, it was over again in time for another jury to consider whether jason young would go to jail or walk out of court a free man. coming up, the verdict, take two. >> with the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant to be -- >> when dateline continues. >> when dateline continues. you weathered the storm and just lived with the damage that was left behind. but even after all this time

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>> be mad at him, hate him if you want to, but when you look at the physical evidence in this case, it does not match up. it does not match up to jason having killed his wife and unborn son. >> 30 blows? that's not from a stranger. that is a mad, mad domestic abuser. >> soon, that jury was behind closed doors in the wake county superior court. after two days, they were back with a verdict. >> with the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant to be guilty of first-degree murder . >> guilty, first-degree murder. jason young didn't flinch. behind him, his mother was equally stoic. on the other side of the court, michelle young's bereaved mother and sister wept. fiona, at home, got the news from a friend. >> they said he's guilty. i was like what?

>> jason young received a life sentence, chose not to address the court even as the bailiffs led him away. he remained expressionless. the prosecutors were, they told us, relieved. >> it's very emotional to have family members there whom you've been working with for 5 1/2 years, and they finally have justice, you know. >> we have been telling them for years, just trust. just trust that it will be the right result. >> but, was it? a year and a half ticked by, and then this. >> attorneys for jason young demanding a new trial, saying the trial that led to his conviction had significant errors. >> december, 2013, jason young's new attorney launched his appeal.

>> who is the killer? is jason young the person responsible for miss young's death and it seems fundamentally unfair. >> what was fundamentally unfair? remember, during the trial, the prosecution introduced testimony about those civil cases against jason brought by michelle's family. they accused jason of murder. >> jason young brutally murdered michelle young. >> the defendant brutally murdered michelle young. >> way out of bounds, said the attorney. the jury should not have been allowed to hear about any of that. outside the court, michelle's sister, meredith, predicted the appeal would be thrown out. but, she was wrong. >> a raleigh man is getting a third trial in the death of his pregnant wife. >> in april, 2013, the judges ruled unanimously that testimony about those civil cases prejudiced the jury in the took particular exception to the fact the prosecutor was allowed to tell the jurors it was their trial judge assigned a civil judgment against basement -- jason, which said

that he killed his wife. in fact, introducing evidence of about the civil cases was a violation of north carolina law. >> that losses you cannot use a civil allegation is proof in a criminal case. >> but, a year later, the state supreme court reversed the appeals court decision and in 2017, yet another attempt by jason young come to get a third trial, this time on grounds his defense team was ineffective, was also denied. the children know little of the arcane world of motions and appeals. cassidy has grown. her father, her mother, snatches of memory of her farther away. >> that's all for this edition of state line. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. this is dateline.