>> i'm craig melvin. . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline". >> horrible. knowing the person that you love is dead.

and then your being looked at for it. >> imagine, your shaken in the dead of night. >> my ears were ringing. i thought i was dreaming. >> in bed, right next to you. your husband, murdered. >> hearty wrap around your head, is it? >> yes. >> and here's the twist. you are the suspect. >> it's the worst feeling, thinking you're gonna be blamed for your husband's death. >> could she have been the killer? or, with someone keeping a secret? >> he said, what did you do. what did you do? >> i don't know what to tell you. >> just of the truth. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to "dateline". it's the stuff of nightmares. and a traitor creeps into your bedroom in the middle of the night and opens fire. but for melissa oxley, the bad

dream was all too real. she told investigators she'd been startled from her sleep to find her husband, ben, dead from a gunshot blast. it seems streams, they thought, that no one else in the house was hurt. including melissa, who was sleeping by his side. stranger still, was who the killer ultimately turned out to be. here is keith morrison with "while they were sleeping". >> it was cold, the night the full moon rose. february cold. in the desert valley that spilled down from reno, nevada. and in that moonlight, all silver, sale, the wind in the dead of night. wear it with the great sense of winter grass. up the driveway, round the corner of the house.

whistled past the unlocked door. something evil afoot. something here, inside. when the moon appeared through the window and into the master bedroom. a little after three in the morning. >> it's really, really bad. >> what's really bad? >> my husband. >> strange, the things that happened to people under a full moon. good people? not so good people. under that moon, that night, it was hard to tell, which was which. who was who. >> this is a case built on lies and deception and a cat and mouse. who knew what it was? >> but the story, when it began back in 2005, was about love. or what certainly felt like it. in fact, fair to say it was two kinds of love. there was what happened to ben when he met melissa. >> as soon as he met melissa, he was something i've never seen. just for no reason he'd call her and say, i love you. >> he was a change man. >> absolutely.

he was happy. melissa really made the difference. >> and if anybody would know, his best friends would. cindy and scott graham. >> ben was family. i mean, he was family. >> and then there was ben's mother love. the brightest thing in his life. the one good thing that came from his first marriage. alyssa. >> everybody said that he loved to me more than anything. and i think it's true. >> quite true, of course. so, there was little joking at first to win one man. even if one of the woman was just three. >> our first date alyssa was there. we were eating and i was just trying to talk to ben get to know one. and she's like, don't talk to my dad. >> i remember meeting her, i didn't really like her. [laughs] many he was talking to my dad. >> more than talking to him, as it soon turned out. ben and melissa moved in just segue together just a month later.

assert the sort of thing a three year old finds hard to understand. >> she said i love you, and i said don't talk to my dad that we. >> but as we said, it was a love story. then for both of them. as jamie a friend and future bridesmaid put it -- >> he was truly her best friend and he was the best dad. that's all he cared about was alyssa. that was his priority. to take care of. her >> so, it was melissa and ben and alyssa. the threesome. >> he was so involved in every aspect of her life. they were really like two peas in a pod. >> and one september day in 2006, as the sun was setting into the sierra nevada mountains, ben and melissa got married. the ceremony at nearby lake tahoe. melissa was a glowing bride. alyssa, a little flower girl. >> it wasn't just melissa and ben getting married. it was melissa marrying alyssa, to. >> seriously. they made a particular ceremony of. it >> alyssa will you promise to share in the love of this family?

will you please say i will? >> i got her a little bracelet and had a engraved letting her know that i will always love her as my own. i gave it to her that day. >> i'm from that moment on, alyssa called melissa, mom. how did it make you feel? >> happy. very happy. >> awe, what a happy couple they were. a happy family. >> being my wife now, it's just a blessing. >> that's what you wait for all your life. >> what were your plans? >> to buy a house and to have babies. have a family. >> they eventually moved here. a three bedroom ranch in the carson valley, looking up towards the sierra nevada's. alyssa spent half her time with ben and melissa. the other time with her birth month, then's ex-wife dawn. but above all, what ben really

wanted was to have his little girl permanently. >> he never thought that he could have his daughter. i was like, yes you can. you could. >> and he did. he won custody. >> it was him and his daughter. and that's what he always wanted. >> and then the little household grew. melissa's teenage brother, craig, moved in. and then winter came. the wind. and on february 20th, 2008, the moon rose full over the carson valley. i after dinner, ben, melissa, her teenage brother craig and little alyssa, settled in the dental watch a movie. melissa remembers falling asleep on the couch when she woke up with a. start. >> thinking i was late for work. it was 2:30 in the morning. i was like, oh i'm not late. so i went and got in the bed. >> crawled in with ben, she said. moonlight on the color covers. warmth inside. >> about an hour later is when

i was woken up by the smell and then a loud noise. my ears were ringing. but at first i thought i was dreaming. >> the smell? >> yeah, it was the smell of the gunpowder. >> as she told it, she looked over at ben. saw by the light of the moon he appeared to have slept through whatever it was. she managed him. he didn't stir. >> so i was like, ok i'll go check it out. so i walked around our bed and got about halfway down the hallway and realized our front door was open. >> but you didn't see anybody? >> no. >> halfway down the hall, she said, cold air rushing in. she knew something was very wrong. so, she ran back to the bedroom. turned on the light. >> i went to go wake him up and then, i could see him. >> yeah. hard to get that one out of your head, isn't it? >> yeah.

>> and thus, her call to 9-1-1. and the detective who rushed over to find out what happened and discovered that he could not tell. >> you've got the wife. you've got a small six year old child. and you've got a 15 year old boy in the house. have you got everybody saying they don't know what happened. >> how did everyone else survive that night without a scratch? coming up -- the investigation begins and melissa is at the very center. >> i'm asking you to help solve the problems with the questions i have, okay? >> a dramatic police interrogation. when "dateline" continues. t normal. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils, a type of asthma nucala can help control.

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traumatize. because at this point i still feel like i'm sleeping. >> on february 21st, 2008, at 3:00 in the morning, melissa oxley called 9-1-1. >> okay, so that the noise is like a gunshot? >> yeah. i turned on the light to wake up my husband and it's really, really bad. >> it certainly was. ben oxley had been shot point blank, in the head. and yet, melissa lying in bed, right beside him was unharmed. she ran then into alyssa's room to check on her own call 9-1-1. and of course alyssa, six years old, and completely unaware of what just happened asked to see her father. >> i want to go see my dad.

i want to go see my dad. and i just older, you can't go see your dad. >> ron was the detective who got the call. do you remember getting that call? >> yeah. because i was sleeping. >> he woke up, fast. through a very big problem. a killing. just didn't make sense. >> hearing like a ghost has done this. no evidence. no weapon. everybody in the house says, i don't know. >> a ghost? >> yeah. that's what it feels like, because you have no idea. >> how was it possible melissa hadn't seen the person who shot ban? she's been lying right next to him. why was she unharmed? >> that's kind of a little red flags. start popping up. you start thinking okay this does not seem right. >> and had craig, melissa's teenage brother, truly slept through the whole thing as he claimed? >> i opened my eyes and right in my face was a bunch of barrels from a machine gun. >> it was police guns he was

looking at. police would already discovered shotgun shells on craig's bedroom dresser. >> here comes another red flag. is this a possibility? is he faking? >> melissa, craig and little alyssa, were taken to the sheriff's department. at 4 am. an hour after the shooting. melissa's best friend got a phone call. >> it was alyssa. and she was just hysterically crying. i'm at the police station. come down here, come down here, my dad has been shot. >> at the time jamie arrive, melissa was already being grilled by detectives. >> today is february 21 third, 2008. >> detective elges had questions. lots of them. so many things about this murder didn't make sense. >> why didn't they take you out? i mean -- >> that's what i thought. >> another thing i don't understand is, why is somebody shoots him, why did you not see anything? >> i don't know. i honestly don't know. >> maybe it was the man who ben warned her about, she said. her rough customer who wants

dated ben's ex-wife, dawn and apparently threatened to kill both don dawn and any man she was with. was the story to? just be safe, detective elges sent officers to dawn's house where they walker up. sleeping, but unharmed. and discovered that the man in question was hundreds of miles away from the when the murder happened. so, again, the questions were formed for melissa. >> sometimes people knew more than they want to tell our share. >> i'm telling you, i honestly don't know. >> alyssa was six by this time. the only person who remembered seeing anything unusual. she told the detective right away. >> well, i was just fast asleep, but i woke up and heard this creek after -- i saw somebody walking in. and then i just, went back. >> you know who they were? . >> i don't know who it was. >> she saw a shadow in her doorway looking at her. and then the shadow left. she went back to sleep and then

melissa came in and grabbed her and was talking to 9-1-1. >> the detective discovered the bullet that killed ben was a number eight bird shot. same ammunition they discovered in craig's room. so, the question quick. >> i apologize for doing that, if i have to, you know. did you kill ben? >> no, i did not. >> sure enough, when they tested craig for gunshot ready to do our blood cast off, he was clean. could not have fired that gun. and so, back to melissa. >> i know it doesn't make sense to you, but it is any sense to me either. >> it's not necessarily a huge, bad thing. but it's stuff -- >> it's the worst feeling, thinking that you're gonna be blame for your husband's death. >> melissa, understand that i'm not blaming you. i'm asking you to help me solve the problems with the questions i have, okay? >> because there was blood on melissa and gunshot residue. >> i don't know what to tell you.

>> just of the truth is all i'm hoping you're giving me. >> i am. >> melissa's friend jamie was there. when she came out of the interrogation room. >> melissa just dropped to the floor. when she saw me. and she had a little bit of blood on her. she just said, i didn't do this. i said i, i know you didn't do it. >> but jamie knew there were others and not just the police, who were very suspicious of melissa. >> she's the prime suspect. she's the wife. she was laying in bed with him. it is a makes sense that she was a shot. >> did melissa do it? well, i hope not. but i mean, she could've. why was it she shot? >> i thought, if she did commit the murder, she's going to make a mistake. you can only live that life so long. >> coming up -- a new clue. what police believe might be a reason for murder. >> a 400,000 dollar life issuance policy. she had motivation to want this to happen.

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>> melissa oxley was just 27 years old, and already a widow. her 36-year-old husband ben, shot dead while he slept in bed right next to her. as far as she could tell, said melissa, the shooter managed to break into the house, walk right into the master bedroom,

shoot ben without harming her, and leave not a trace of evidence behind. the case boggle detective ron elges's mind. >> is there somebody who didn't like him? is this a far higher crime? what could this? >> melissa's closest friends believed her when she insisted that she had nothing to do with it. that in fact, she lost the love of her life. and that now she and those around her were probably in terrible danger. >> because you don't know who did it. you don't know if they're going to come back for melissa. if melissa was supposed to be in that. >> melissa, meanwhile, try to be a source of comfort for her six year old stepdaughter, alyssa. the little girl's father had been her world. leaving her now in a world of chaos. and with her home and love nest now a crime scene, melissa and alyssa moved in with the woman who had been bridesmaid at the wedding, jamie. and it was at night, when the curtains were drawn, that jamie what she melissa, really with pain.

>> many nights crying in the middle of the night. i would hear her. i just went and laid in bed with her. >> didn't sleep. couldn't sleep. >> just getting into a bed after that happened. >> i didn't want to. >> so where would you sleep? >> on the floor. >> and if the pain and suffering of losing her husband was in hard enough, melissa was the lead suspect. and not just in the eyes of the police. >> because nobody, including the public, including families, had any idea why this was to happen. so they're all grasping astros to figure out if his possibly. >> ben sister was certain that melissa arranged ben's murder. i was afraid to make it known around town. >> she had quite a little following of people. because it's always the wife, you know? >> so did that mean little alyssa, just six years old, so vulnerable, was living with a murder? >> alyssa began to spend more

time at her mother dawn's house. and one day, while she was there. ben's sister warned her about the stepmom sheet come to love. >> she told me that she thought my step mom killed my dad. that night. >> must be pretty weird for you to hear that. >> yeah, i didn't believe it. >> didn't believe it at all? >> no. >> but if alyssa didn't believe it, others did. and before long, they had more ammunition, because of something else detective elges discovered. >> 400,000 dollar life insurance policy. it sounds a lot like she had the motivation to want this thing to happen. >> and once again, melissa found herself answering difficult questions. >> i didn't even know there was an insurance policy. i guess i was sort of naive to it. we were looking at it for retirement. >> but while the investigation

went on, the insurance company held back any payments. while the whispers went around. it was shocking, really. had ben been dead, just what? a few months? and melissa was dating, already. >> it was soon, sort of. but it was like, if i didn't do it then, you almost would get stuck in this route of never doing it. i would've just hung up the towel and be done. >> put on a black dress and be a widow the rest of your life? >> yeah. >> detective elges, of course, was keeping track. and try not to be judgmental. >> she has to do what she needs to do to heal. it is a meat i wasn't paying attention to what was going on. >> but as months passed, and elges scratch the way a the flu few paltry leads that went anywhere at all, asserting clarity began to emerge. despite his own early suspicions and those are brothers, hard evidence against melissa just didn't materialize. in fact, said elges he, couldn't help thinking -- >> she probably didn't do it.

she was so startled, she went into a flight or flight response when she jumped out of bed. and then went to a normal reaction, which is what's going on? >> and that's why she discovers -- >> she discovers he'd been shot. >> but there was another reason melissa dropped down the detectives list of suspects. and that reason was a surgeon someone else, who, it became clear, did not like that love story we told you about. not one bit. >> i said, what did you do? what did you do? and she said, what do you mean? what did i do? you've known me all these nears years and you would think i would do something like that? i said, absolutely. >> coming up -- a whole new theory of the crime. with a whole new list of suspects to share secret. >> i said, no. i said, no, no, no, no. >> when "dateline" continues.

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hour's top stories. deadly flooding has washed through neighbors in southern california. with thousands of residents who seen here. two atmospheric rivers that their so-called. hit the state friday. causing roots to collapse, teased to travel. trapping others in the waters. a second one set to hit early next week. the rainfall will continue to rise through sunday. the sierra foothills could get up to -- of precipitation while coastal areas could see up to a foot of rain. now back to dateline. back to dateline welcome back to dateline, i'm craig melvin. melissa oxley could breathe a little easier. while still on the radar, detectives never -- no longer consider the primaries suspect in ben's life. they shifted their focus on another woman invents life.

they believe she held a grudge. investigators were about to bring her in for questioning and the story she would tell what's send the case in the stunning new direction. here again is keith morrison with "while they were sleeping" lee. >> if you knew ben, there is no way that you would want him dead. i could not think of anybody that would want him dead, besides don. >> don, don oxley's ex-wife, melissa's mother, even though as more than a few other gossipers pointed suspicious fingers at melissa, ben's best friends told each other. >> everything in me said that don had something to do with. that. >> of course, just a few years back, that sort of thing would've been unimaginable to don's best friends, scott and we sidney graham. not don, the don the force of nature, the center of the room. >> i don't know is manipulating,

but everyone agreed with. don if she was happy, we were all happy. >> but after five years of marriage, neither benn nor don were happy, and the marriage went up in flames. >> ben had cheated on john. i can see that. this probably wasn't something that she was going to get over. >> don changed after that, said cindy, didn't seem to want to act like a parent anymore. >> she met a guy and she would stay the night at his house. when her kids are calling us to tell us that we have no more food in the house, there's no food, there's a problem. >> so when ben and john went to court to fight for the custody of melissa, sunday had to tell the truth. >> i told the judge that don was not taking care of her kids anymore. they were not a priority, they were not even number five. >> when ben won custody of

melissa, and more than $200 a month in child support, john was devastated. this is her mother, sherrie washington. a retired deputy sheriff. >> she would sit in the garage and just ball about not getting her day in court. >> this was eating her alive? >> yes. it was really taking its toll on her. >> don started drinking, heavily. her teenage son devon watched his mother fall apart. >> she was starting to lose jobs, all hell broke loose. >> but murder? remember the police went to see don just a couple of hours after ben was killed and found her fast asleep. >> at what time did you think you went to sleep? >> oh god. i watched the movie, the departed, and dissent. and i don't know, about four? >> in fact, she had been to be sharing her bedroom with a 21 -year-old family friend, named

james matlean was. >> they watched a movie and went to bed? >> that's the story. that's. it. >> not a convincing alibi, anymore than the obvious fiction that james, a new man in her life, was just friend. >> even less convincing, when detective we ron found out about a trip to a 7:11 store. middle of the night, about an hour and a half before the murder. >> why are they hiding little pieces that are in significant to what is going on? then we started to do. surveillance on them. we were stuck there were starting to get worried because we were watching. them. >> surveillance photos showed john with james, her daughter alyssa, seven at this. time a year into this investigation, alyssa was back at home. with ben dead, the courts had slowly weaned her back there permanently. >> there you are still trying to grieve the loss of ben at the same time as alyssa is

being pulled back to don. >> yes the loss of both of them, truly. >> and while the police were watching, don was telling her children, including brandi, that the real suspect was melissa. >> she was telling you that melissa committed this murder? >> brandi was hearing that from her mother, don, who she could see was drinking too much, getting duis, spending a few nights in jail. >> they started getting arrested, don and james both. , we are finding reasons to be taken to jail. >> and while they had james, they asked him point blank about the murder of ben. >> you think i called jet ben? no. did don kill? ben. no. do i know anything about the murder? no. >> were you involved in the plotting or murder of ben? >> no. i'm looking you in the eyes. i did not kill him. >> that was it. lots of denials, no real evidence.

>> a year and a half had gone by since the murder, it was the summer of 2009. we're in cold case territory. >> getting there. >> then one afternoon, as the detective was recovering from a night in the graveyard shift, his cell phone rang. it was don. she said that she can take it anymore. she wanted to talk. >> what did you think when she called? >> that it was. time. >> he drove her to her house, she was inebriated. >> i'm hurting. >> but she had quite a story to tell about james. about how he offered to murder ben. >> the night ben died, he said, now or never. and i said no. i said not today, don't do it no. i said no. i said no. no, no, no, no, no. >> hours later, she, said james walker up from a sound sleep and told heard ben was dead. but that, she said, was all he

told her. all she knew. >> but you're pretty confident that james of something to do with it? >> i don't know. >> but was that really all she knew? >> don remember had a 16 year old son named devin who, detectives learned, was at home and listening in the hours before ben oxley was murdered. so if anyone can confirmed on version of the events, surely it would be wet devin. he wasn't talking yet, anyway. >> coming up. the question haunting this whole case. >> what's our? evidence? >> was there anything against anyone? prosecutors were about to make a deal to get the evidence they need. >> you want to talk about this case? >> you know i do. >> when dateline continues. yeah. i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love, plus the powerful cough relief you need.

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oxley's murder, bit by bit, was leaking out. but could dawn's version be be believed? that she had nothing to do with it? here's what don's mother, sherry, thought.

>> you want to talk about this case? >> you know, i do. >> it was now the fall of 2009. dawn was in jail for a dui. and agreed to talk before for detail on the night of ben oxley's murder. >> he said, do you want me to go do that? >> i'm sitting there going, are you serious? are you kidding me? all i know is he was on the phone. he was asking me if i wanted him to go take care of ben. and i was saying no. >> and then she went to sleep, she said. the next thing she knew, james was back. >> he woke me up and he said, it's done. and i was totally drunk. and then they turn around and i waking up out of a dead sleep and i'm like, what are you talking about? he said, the cops are going to be here. seriously, right now you're telling me the cops are going to show up at my house because my ex-husband is dead? >> and she did not take part, she swore. not at all. >> i didn't drive. i didn't. i did not go anywhere i. did not plan this. i did not want ben dead. >> so, truth or fiction?

there was no solid evidence either way. nor that james matlean killed ben oxley. only dawn's story. i which point tom gregory, the district attorney, decided he needed her help. >> you love to get everybody involved in the case, but there's a reality, in many cases, that sometimes you need the help of one of the people involved to get them in person. >> and so dawn oxley was offered a limited immunity agreement. cooperate with the prosecution. testify truth of truthfully against james matlean, and you won't be prosecuted. a sort of get out of jail free card. why go ahead and make that deal with her so soon? you had her statement. why not hold off for a while and be patient? try to get them both. >> let's say we don't do the deal with her and we go out and arrest him, what's our evidence? >> dawn signed the agreement and james matlean was charged with first degree murder. but the end of the story? oh, no.

not even close. the truth had been hiding, but it was itching to come out. young devin. remember him? dawn's sun? he finally decided to reveal what he overheard the night of the murder. >> my mom was like, i want them to die. i just want him dead. yadda yadda. and then jjames said, i would go kill him right now. you just say the word, i'll go kill him. she was like a broken record. i want him dead. i want him dead. >> sound like a woman who was shocked the murder happened? but there was more. it was after that when james matlean told his attorney it was time to tell the whole story. >> i could tell he was telling the truth. over the course of 15 months, i was told the same story. >> so now comes another story. james is story. not a love story this time. >> nobody could believe it that i did what i did. i've never been a violent person.

>> james matlean did not have an easy star in love life. by the time he was a teenager he was drinking, doing drugs, stealing things. >> i had pretty much given up any hope on continuing successfully in life. >> dawn, after her marriage to ben, befriended james. made him feel rescued. give him a place to live. he just been paroled from prison after doing time for stealing a truck. >> kind of gave me a sense of hope. there was somebody out there who cared. >> at's house, james discovered what others had. as long as dawn was happy, everybody was happy. and if she wasn't? well, then james could not be happy, either. >> she was very, very upset at the fact that she lost alyssa. >> and she went on rents, he said. about ben oxley. a man james didn't know. had never met. but he listen. you felt like you are in love?

>> yeah, for a while. it gave me a sense of feeling wanted. >> and then he realized, he said, she never be happy. unless he fixed what was upsetting her. >> i just wanted to make don happy. >> so, what happened? dawn and james's stories begin the same way. february 20th, 2008, a night of heavy drinking at dawn's house. a heated conversation about ben oxley. james asking dawn if she wants to have him killed. that's where the stories diverge. dawn says she never told james, no, don't do it. and fellas sleep on the couch. but that's not what james matlean's story. >> she was expected about what was happening. she's happy that was going to kill somebody. you know? >> it was after midnight. dawn, drew him a diagram of ben oxley's, said james. so he could find his way to the bedroom. then he went to the 7-eleven. drew $40 out of the atm with dawn's bank card. and then together they went to

the walmart. dawn waited in the car while james did the shopping. shotgun sales, gloves, a flashlight. >> she was very happy about it. i mean, like imagine a kid going to disneyland. you know? >> but there was a problem. they forgotten to bring the diagram of ben's house with them. >> the plan was it for don to go into the house. the plan was for me to go in the house. and i didn't know how to get in the house. or where the bedroom was. so, dawn had to go inside. >> the front door was locked. so dawn took him around back, he said. we're a sliding glass door was unlocked. and the east their way in and walked down the hall. then, said james, dawn pointed him towards the master bedroom. >> and i turned around and she was going into alyssa's room -- >> going into the room? >> yeah, half of her body was in the room. she said she was going to take alyssa with her. i said, you can't take alyssa.

>> was this true? remember, alyssa alyssa, just six years old at the time told police she remembered seeing someone in her jewelry. >> i just looked out and i saw someone walking in. >> and then, said james, he walked into the master bedroom. saw ben and melissa sleeping in the moonlight. >> and i raise the gun and that's where everything in my mind that should've happened, three or four hours ago, happened. i started thinking why am i here? something i heard to my left -- >> a sudden noise? >> yeah. and as i turned and jerked to see what it was, i pulled the trigger. >> he ran, then he said. left the front door right wide open. caught up to dawn in the truck. who drove? >> she did. i started yelling at her. when we got in the truck.

>> the truth, said james matlean. all of it. >> dawn knows the truth and i know the truth. and that's all that matters. i take full responsibility for what i did. dawn, needs to take full responsibility for what she did. >> coming up -- was ben the only one who is in danger that night? >> what was it like? >> i don't know. >> one revelation still to come. when "dateline" continues.

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>> it's a rare thing to do to sit in the jail room just as this, where a murderer confesses chapter and verse. denial is the more common language here. >> i pulled the trigger -- >> but james matlean will he murdered then oxley in his sleep and must live with that for the rest of his day with. and suffered 2011, he told his story in court. it was after the da took the penalty off the table, and james decided to plead guilty. and that's one melissa said sitting in the courtroom, her for the first time about something else james was supposed to kill her to. >> don asked me if i would kill melissa. i just said yeah. >> there was a bullet there for

you. what was it like to hear that? >> unreal. >> do you believe that she was in the house that night? >> i do. which makes me sick. i have a harder time with don than i do with james because if it wasn't for her none of it would've happened. >> and that's where melissa oxley and her attorneys still can't firmly agree. only half a measure of justice since done is protected by that immunity agreement that she signed with the da. >> james is not the type of bore who is going to go out and commit a murder in the hopes that dawn will find it acceptable. he didn't do this as a surprise gift. >> don herself declined the interview. though her mom, the retired deputy sheriff, has remained in her corner. >> i know that a lot of people believe that, that there was a blatant conspiracy on her part.

but i don't think don really wanted ben dead. i don't think don was there. >> you're trying to hold it all together? >> all the way along and even now. >> you have to understand, ben was a good guy. they had their problems, everybody loved him. he didn't deserve to die. >> so for the time being, it is a he said, she said story. and the da's deal with don? to the dismay of james matlean attorney, may mean that she may never face a murder job. >> the prosecutor made a deal with the devil, now he'll have to short how far and how she is. >> deal with the double? well, the da said without don's testimony at the. preliminary hearing, a murder charge against james wind of stock. but don wasn't totally off the

hook, because there was one possibility still. if the da could find hard evidence that dom lied when she was given that get out of jail free card for implicating james -- >> it's still an open book for don oxley for murder. if somebody comes today with credible evidence to show that she did in fact go, we can prosecutor. >> and 2011, done was sent to prison on another offense. she pleaded guilty for using her -- teenage daughter, brandi, to sell prescription drugs. >> what she employing you as an assistant in that business? >> i was driving. yes. >> don was released from prison in march of 2014. but not to be the mother of alyssa, the one judge terminated her parental rights. both alyssa and were brandy sent to live with melissa. to live a life that they did not know with their biological mom. >> it was a family, that's a lie that i need. >> in 2011, having pleaded

guilty to murder, james was matlean being prepared for being sentenced. >> is there a redemption for person like you? >> i don't know. i don't expect anybody that i've harmed or heard to forgive me for would have done. >> he looked in the lenses you said that. you're talking to them, right? >> basically talking to melissa. i'm sorry. >> an exchange for his guilty plea, the da agreed to recommend that james could be eligible for parole after serving 24 years. >> all rise -- >> final decision, up to the judge. defense attorney stover made the argument. >> then melissa took the stand. >> emotionally the damage you have cost me is almost unbearable.

for alyssa, you crumbled her foundation. and everything she knew to be right untrue. and as hard as this is to do or believe, i also want you to know i have found it in my heart to forgive you. >> and then james got his sentence. >> the murder charge you are sentenced to life in prison. >> life without parole, ever. afterwards, the little girl in the middle of the family drama turned to melissa with a remarkable request. alyssa asked to meet with james. and was ushered in to see him before he was whisked way. >> i told him that i decided to forgive him and that i wanted him to have hope. >> and she wept then. tears of forgiveness. of lingering grief for her father. and as for melissa? after the trial, she told us,

she was ready to move on. >> where will you keep ben? >> he will always be in my heart. he will never be forgotten war, but we do have to go on. we still have to be here and live today day lives. >> if he's looking down and watching you, what would he think about his daughter? >> i think he still loves me and that i'm doing much better than i was in my other house. >> he misses? >> yes, i miss some allot. >> your strong kid, aren't you? >> yeah. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. ank you fo r watching >> i'm craig melvin >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is dateline. >> this was an insane world that i was living in. i did what i had to do.