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>> they found the body upstairs in the master bedroom. >> the victim was clearly shot with a handgun. >> the kids are missing, julie was missing. >> reporter: was this a case of murder? >> this is our neighborhood. these are our friends. >> you're just in utter shock! >> reporter: there were secrets in that house. who would unlock them? >> i didn't want my friends to know, i didn't want my family to know! >> devious, manipulative. >> this was our best friend it didn't have to end like this. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's keith morrison. >> reporter: grief, like the ocean rolled into their lives in waves. ride the waves or sink, it seemed to say. ride them again and again. >> it's just a shot through the heart. >> reporter: once there were four fast friends four tall men, before it all went down and the waves took on their new meaning.

>> it didn't have to end like this. >> reporter: no. except it did. and when it did? >> just felt like someone hit you in the stomach really hard and wanted to cry. >> reporter: what could they do? ride its what harp would have wanted, after all. harp. jason harper, sports loving, outdoors loving california boy. with a childhood best friend named paul severns who, as they grew, became "tall paul." >> we were always together. in the early years, he was always taller than me. but then i caught up to him. we were both the two tallest guys in school. >> reporter: so when they got to high school, there was one sport they were very well-suited to play volleyball. >> harp was a stud, you know. i'm not gonna lie to you. i'm not gonna sugar coat it. he was you know, mvp on the team. >> reporter: yes, and went on to play at ucla. where he met jeremy brandt.

bruins talk, on public access tv. >> everybody came back and goes we're not going to lose or whatever and we came back and haven't lost since then. >> we can beat a lot of the teams out there. you know, we could definitely be a final four contender. >> i always said we ran the same speed. and so we would run the warm-ups the same speed. and we would end up talkin' together. and we became roommates throughout college. and just a great guy, a great friend. >> reporter: quiet, mind you. shy at least around the girls. >> he wasn't quite the ladies' man. you know, i'm not gonna lie to you. >> reporter: and then one night back in 2000, four years after he graduated from college harp met a girl at a party. tall paul was there, too. the girl's name was julie cihak. >> she kinda zoned in on harp right off the bat and started to talk to him. >> reporter: so i get the impression she picked him. >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: it went pretty fast after that. and why not? julie was pretty and smart, and

from a well-to-do family. still, when harp proposed just three months after he met this first real girlfriend. >> i felt like it was the first girl that he really loved and there's a lot that goes with that and i just didn't want to him to be, have the wool pulled over his eyes. >> reporter: but they stood up for him and the marriage at san diego's historic hotel del coronado was a great happy party. >> i remember the first dance. they were in this giant ballroom. and they did a very nice ballroom dance, you know. and harp had -- >> reporter: go figure. >> a big old smile on his face. >> reporter: they moved to the seaside to carlsbad, california just north of san diego and jason harper signed on as a math teacher and volleyball coach at a local high school. >> jason was your typical southern california surfer, beach volleyball, public school teacher. >> reporter: where he met the third of those tall friends andy tompkinson. andy and hise

at the same school carlsbad high. >> on a campus of 3,000, 2,500 students, you tend to notice other people who are at the same eye level as you. and jason bein' 6'6" and myself bein' 6'9. >> reporter: there aren't too many people at the same eye level as you. >> no, no. so you do notice, after a while, who they are. >> reporter: the two became fast friends surfing, pick up basketball, poker. guy things. and then jason and julie started a family jake first, then jackie. j names. >> even if that meant not playin' cards with the boys or goin' on a surf trip those kids always came first. >> reporter: were there times when you wanted to do something with him, and he said, "no. sorry, i gotta stay home"? >> absolutely. >> yes. >> reporter: "home" was here in the terraces at sunny creek a brand new gated place not far from the beach. these were their neighbors. so many neighborhoods now, you don't even know who your

next-door neighbors are, but this that's not like this place at all, right? >> no, not at all. >> julie ran the mother/tot group in the neighborhood. so she would actually organize all those activities. she was a good mom. she was really involved with her kids. >> reporter: and hard to know exactly just why things changed after joshua, their third, was born in 2011. julie just didn't seem the same. >> and, as time went by, you would see less and less and less of her. >> she would say, "hi," and get in her car and drive away really quick. >> reporter: but she like she was hiding from everybody. >> yeah. >> reporter: but jason? >> he was part of the permanent landscape of our neighborhood. he was there every day. i mean, literally, every day. >> every day. >> a very hands-on father. >> i'd look out my door to see if he's out there and wave, you know, and we'd walk over. bring the kids over and walk on the driveway, and the kids would start playing right when we got home from school. >> reporter: and then it was an august morning in 2012. >> you don't know what's happened but you know it's not something good. your some stomach kind of sinks. >> reporter: didn't take a

rocket scientist. something was awfully wrong. >> there was crime tape. my house is inside the crime tape and there's a police officer stationed at the base of my driveway. and so i ask the police officer, "is everything okay?" and he said, "no. no, it's not." what had happened that morning? when we come back. >> they said they found the body up starts in the master bedroom. the kids are missing, julie is missing. >> what are you talking about. >> the kids. >> the safety, number one, their safety. >> are they okay? okay? parents help their children discover the world animals, seen those before but sometimes they do it on their own mmm foot wow food for giants oooo no wonder no one has eaten this sandwich kids discover the world with their mouths

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>> reporter: at 7:30 in the morning on the 8th of august, 2012, michele cullen gazed on the police cars, the crime scene tape and asked the cop in her driveway what's happening? >> you need to go inside. you need to turn on your television. >> a policeman told you this -- >> he told me that, yes. what are you talking about? >> reporter: that was apparent soon enough when they wheeled out the body bag. >> one of our colleagues and friends called us and said, "i think something really bad has happened. they say that they found a body upstairs in the master bedroom. and it looks like it's jason's house." >> reporter: bit by awful bit, andy and the rest of them heard the details.

the body had been hidden under a blanket and other debris. one bullet still lodged in the chest. death was, at least, quick. the victim was the beloved member of that tall quartet, the neighborhood dad, jason harper. that was terrible enough. but it wasn't all. >> the kids are missing. julie was missing. and as details unfolded, we were in complete shock. >> this afternoon officers continue their investigation at the harper residence. >> we're all in shock. jason's dead. we're flippin' out. and they're saying, "have you seen this woman?" >> and where is she -- >> and flashing her plates and her picture -- >> wow. >> on the news. >> reporter: so what happened? home invasion? kidnapping? murder-suicide? >> did you worry about their kids? >> yeah. >> that's -- was the worst part. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. their safety. number one, their safety. are they okay? >> reporter: but the carlsbad police department had one piece of

which came in a strange phone call at 11:00 p.m. the night before. sergeant jeff smith, was the lead detective. >> the watch commander working that night, got a phone call from an attorney asking him to go -- or the police department to go do a welfare check at a residence. >> reporter: a welfare check? seemed like an odd request. >> who was this lawyer who called? >> it was attorney paul pfingst. >> reporter: that paul pfingst? he just happened to be the ex-d.a. and now criminal defense attorney, who knew the police department very well. he'd called an internal extension that unlike a 911 call was not recorded. the cops went to the house, and they found jason's body. but not julie and the kids, they were gone. so, police talked to paul pfingst again, who said not to worry, julie and the kids were fine.

his newest client. he arranged the safe return of the children to a local children's hospital. and then 15 hours after the cops discovered jason's body, pfingst orchestrated julie's surrender, at her father's house. >> did she talk to you? >> no. >> reporter: but her attorney spoke with local reporters. >> she's very upset. she's upset about her children. she's upset about her health. she's upset about seeing that basically at this point her life is in shambles. it's a catastrophe all the way around. >> reporter: so it was. but what happened in the bedroom? neither julie, nor attorney pfingst, would say. so the police launched an investigation to figure out what was julie guilty of -- if anything? to begin, they had specialists interview the two older children -- ages 8 and 6 -- who said their day started like a typical su

and then sometime between 8:00 and 9:00. >> when you were watching cartoons -- >> uh-huh. >> yesterday morning and you heard the loud -- >> clunk. >> clunk. >> a thud. that's all they could tell ya? >> a loud thud. >> did they know at that point that their father was dead? >> i don't believe so. >> they must have been very confused. >> yes. >> frightened? >> yeah. young children. >> and the only things you know are there's a guy with a bullet hole and the kids heard a thump -- >> yes. >> not a lot to go on. >> not a lot. >> so what did you do next? >> we talked to neighbors who'd possibly seen things. one neighbor said that they saw miss harper leaving right around 9:05 in the morning, and exiting the -- the -- their gated community. >> so now you know when they left the house anyway. >> roughly. >> reporter: now the detectives did what they could to retrace julie and the kids' movements. during their interviews, the kids said their mom took them to a coffee shop first.

>> from that point they went to a local play-works, or -- jumpy type house place. and from the kids' accounts that's where they stayed for a short period, and played. and we were able to corroborate that with cell phone analysis. >> reporter: which led to a disturbing thought if the thud the kids heard was jason being shot, then the coffee run and the play date happened afterward while he lay, wounded or already dead on the bedroom floor. on august 9th, two days after the shooting, a medical examiner conducted an autopsy and recovered the bullet that killed jason. it came from a .38 caliber handgun. >> we did find a gun- - in the home where mr. harper was found. >> reporter: but it was not the gun that killed jason. so, no murder weapon and the only suspect wasn't talking.

argument between the two, and a gun was produced, and she shot him. and we were -- we didn't know why. >> reporter: not an easy question, under the circumstances. oh, there was an answer. but do you think anyone intended coming up -- >> i don't understand why any of it happened, you know what i mean. >> new clues. >> she was preparing for a new journey in her life. >> my wildest dreams, i would

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>> reporter: by the time julie harper's attorney arranged for her to turn herself in, her husband jason had been dead for a day and a half. for reasons nobody could understand. they appeared to be a solid couple. why would she shoot him? that's what carlsbad detectives were determined to figure out. julie wasn't talking so they interviewed friends and family and peeled back the

sergeant jeff smith learned that a whole year earlier, julie sent a friend some envelopes for safe keeping. >> reporter: what was in the envelopes? >> journals, writings bank statements personal history. >> reporter: in that personal history signs of a marriage that wasn't as perfect as it seemed julie wrote that "jason yelled at me" and, "maybe divorce is the answer." >> it appeared that they were not happy with each other, and that their marriage was going towards the an end, or divorce. >> reporter: whatever was going on jason tended to keep to himself, said his teacher friends andy and kristin. >> he would never say any ill words or bad things, he kept it very personal and private. >> reporter: but it was pretty clear, they said, that the marriage was winding down. >> arrangements were bein' made. >> jason's parents actually bought a house down here. and it had enough room for jason and all the kids. i mean, they were preparing for him to be able to leave.

>> reporter: julie seemed to be getting ready to get out, too, said sgt smith. in fact, she filed for divorce 5 days before the incident. and that same week made some unusual financial transactions. >> days prior to miss harper had taken out about $10,000 in cash out of a dormant account that was under her daughter's name. and she'd written two $4,500 checks to herself. and it was against a credit card in mr. harper's name. >> reporter: julie had pulled out nearly $20,000 cash. >> we found that to be very suspicious. >> reporter: deputy district attorney keith watanabe was assigned to the case on day one. >> did it suggest to you that she had been hoarding money in anticipation of something? >> she was preparing for a change in her life. >> reporter: but did the change involve divorce or murder? julie's father john cihak lived here 30 miles or so from jason and julie's house.

this, apparently, was where julie and the kids spent the night after the shooting. so sgt. smith got a search warrant for dad's place and found nothing useful. there were other guns but none of them fired the bullet that killed jason. perhaps a little frustrated eight days later he got a second search warrant. and this time there was something new: tucked away in the garage attic. in a spot they searched the first time around a blue backpack. must have been hidden between searches. >> they opened up this blue backpack and they discovered julie harper's wallet, credit cards and id, her passport, a different gun and jason harper's last will and testament. >> reporter: also, jason's cell phone. its batteries removed and call and text history cleared. the backpack gun was also clean not the one used to shoot jason. this had to be a getaway bag,

have packed it up after she killed jason. >> that's the only reason to take a person's last will and testament. it's because she realized he was dead. >> reporter: julie's actions before and after the shooting raised all sorts of questions. and foremost for the prosecutor was did she plan this? was it premeditated? and, if so for how long? >> we believed we could prove first-degree murder, not on the theory that she had planned this murder the days or weeks before the shooting had taken place. instead we were relying on the theory that, even during this argument, she took enough steps in order to get the gun, that this would've been planned and premeditated, even if it was only for a minute or two before the shooting. >> reporter: and that's enough? >> in california that qualifies as first-degree murder. >> reporter: so that's what he charged her with first degree murder. julie pleaded not guilty but otherwise kept her mouth shut and sat in jail.

out. like what julie's dad said at her preliminary hearing about the blue backpack. >> there had actually been $39,000 inside that backpack. >> reporter: julie's father admitted that he found the cash in the backpack. and gave it to julie's lawyer to help pay for bail and legal fees. >> reporter: what did you think when you heard that? >> in my wildest dreams i would've never expected that. >> reporter: by the way julie's dad testified at the prelim only after being granted immunity he initially pleaded the 5th. and even though bail was 2 million dollars, julie's family eventually coughed it up and after more than a year in jail she moved back into the house on badger lane three doors down from michelle miller. >> she knocked on my door to let me know that she was back and that we're gonna have a good talk someday when this is all over. >> reporter: what did you say to

>> i was just completely shocked. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: all those comfortable notions about her neighbors and maybe michelle didn't know them at all. >> i don't understand why any of it happened, you know what i mean? he was our friend and he's gone. i don't know who she is. >> reporter: and when julie finally did start talking well. coming up -- i said stop, stop. what are you doing? stop. >> on the stand, her life on the line. and -- >> figure it out. >> secret recordings from behind closed doors. i think we shoula left at the river. tarzan know where tarzan go! tarzan does not know where tarzan go. hey, excuse me, do you know where the waterfall is?

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death his wife julie, the mother of their three children went on trial for first degree murder. >> she didn't look like a murderer, if there's such a thing. >> reporter: but even though deputy da keith watanabe had never been able to talk to julie had never heard her story he was confident. his theme was something he called the "deterioration of julie harper." >> her life had become a disaster, both in terms of her marriage, her children, her health, her financial state. and we believe she was seriously abusing her prescription medication. >> reporter: look at this, he told the jury. pill bottles. though julie suffered from an auto-immune disease, he said, this made it clear she was abusing powerful medications. and said the prosecutor look at the mess in julie's bedroom. as if a hoarder lived here. when jason's body was found, it was hidden under a blanket and surrounded by debris. the bullet that kill h

entered from a side-rear angle. so he was shot pretty much in the back. what happened? julie must have shot jason between 8 am and 9 am, said the prosecutor, while the kids were downstairs watching cartoons. a neighbor saw julie leaving just after 9 am and she was at la costa coffee roasting 40 minutes later. >> she wasn't crying. she wasn't upset. she didn't ask anyone to call 9-1-1. it showed that this woman had a calloused heart. she was capable of murdering her husband and really had the wherewithal to be able to go out into public and appear to be perfectly normal. >> reporter: it was clearly murder said deputy da watanabe. but was it? remember, julie did not talk not once, to the police, or the prosecutor because her attorney never allowed it. but now it was time. defense attorney paul pfingst called just one witness julie harper.

she did it. she shot him but, she said, it wasn't murder. why? because, she said, jason harper, so beloved by friends, and neighbors, and colleagues was, in private, an angry, abusive husband. >> did you videotape jason telling you. >> reporter: and here was her proof, she said. here was her secret recording of jason losing it over money. >> i don't want to enable your horrible money waste! and your poor credit score and everything else. i don't want to enable that. it's horrible! >> reporter: and then, this. get a carpool bitch. figure it out. i can't help it if you're too dumb to do it. too lazy. >> well, you know, at least i have more words in my vocabulary than you do. seems like the b-i-t-c-h is the only word that you can use. >> that's right. right now, that is darn right. cause that's what you are.

>> reporter: but, said julie it got worse. it got physical. >> he grabbed my wrists and my hand so forcefully and twisted it so hard that i mean it was hurting into the next day. >> reporter: remember, jason was a, 6-foot-6 athlete about a foot taller than julie. by then they slept in separate rooms but sometimes, she said, when he got angry, he came to her room and the abuse turned sexual. >> slamming me up against the wall face first. >> and what were you saying? >> i said stop, stop, what are you doing? stop. what are you doing? stop. >> reporter: julie told the jury that jason raped her about 30 times. she said she was so frightened she stashed a gun under her pillow just in case. she woke up the morning of the shooting, she said, to the sound of jason, yelling and screaming. >> he was, you know, usinge

curse words, and, "god i'm so sick of this, you know, where's my computer?" >> reporter: jason believed, said julie, that she'd hidden his computer. >> his face was all red, and he was just, you know, his nose scrunched up, his eyes squinting and he'd just get this look of absolute rage and hate, but this was, i don't know, this was bad. >> what did he attempt to do to you then? >> he grabbed me, and began yanking my top off. >> i started pushing back and somehow managed to sort of

wiggle my way free pulling away. as quickly as i could moved from there across the room to my bed. >> what did you do when you got to the bed? >> i grabbed my gun from under my pillow. >> reporter: a derringer .38 caliber handgun. >> he was coming towards me with his arms raised, and he said, 'i'm gonna kill you, you and i was shaking and i was holding on to my gun tightly. next thing i knew, i felt my hand jerk and

still like coming forward at me, and then all of a sudden, he froze. completely and just like a tree in the forest, just fell forward at me. >> reporter: just like a tree. jason, the tall man, the athlete, the volleyball coach, the math teacher was dead. so that, finally, was julie's story: that she was an abused woman, who shot her husband in self defense. >> on that date did you still love your husband? >> yes. >> did you want him to be dead? >> no. >> reporter: but now, for the

face a prosecutor with a lot of questions. coming up, the crime re-created in court. >> >> do you need a moment? >> but did they out maneuver the prosecut prosecutor. >> this was the smartest woman i've ever cross-examined in my life. when "dateline" continues. and now we get way cleaner clothes way faster make a mess make a mess, make a mess that's a big mess your first words save time with tide he turbo clean. it's quick collapsing suds reduce rinse time and don't overwhelm your machine so you get 6x cleaning power in 1/2 the time tide america's #1 detergent

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>> he was coming towards me with his arms raised -- >> reporter: so finally julie harper told her story -- her husband, jason, was an abuser and she killed him in self defense. what did you think when you heard that? >> it hurt my stomach. it hurt my heart -- >> yeah -- >> she could say anything she wanted because there's two sides to everything and he's not here to tell his. >> reporter: the story was not a big surprise to deputy da watanabe. but as a prosecutor who'd specialized for years in spousal abuse cases -- he just didn't believe it. >> she was saving her own skin. and she was willing to throw her dead husband under the bus and ruin his reputation in order to do so. >> reporter: well, that's your point of view. maybe it was true. >> we considered that possibility. but it simply didn't stand up under the scrutiny of truth. >> reporter: it was when the prosecutor began his cross examination that he discovered-- julie was ready for him. >> au

believe that your shooting of jason was justified based on your need to defend yourself? >> i didn't even intend to shoot him. i only wanted to scare him, or to get him to stop. not rape me, not hurt me, or possibly worse. >> this was the smartest woman that i had ever cross examined in my life. >> reporter: dodging and weaving. >> yeah. she was able to think on the spot. >> reporter: those pill bottles -- all necessary for her medical condition and prescribed by her doctor. she never abused them, she said. but if, as she said, jason was coming at her when she shot -- why then, the prosecutor wondered -- did the bullet enter from the back? >> do you mind stepping down here and i'm going to have you -- >> reporter: prosecutor watanabe set up a courtroom re-creation. >> okay, i'm going to have mr. carr stand in for jason just because then i can. >> reporter: but, things didn't quite play out the way the prosecutor hoped.

advantage? >> your honor the witness is crying now. >> do you need a moment ms. harper? >> no, it's okay. >> okay, position his hands where they were. the record will reflect. >> she broke down and started crying and was visibly upset in front of the jury. >> reporter: that was maybe not the best strategy on your part then, as it turned out. >> it was a powerful moment for her because it allowed her to really retell the story in an emotional way and bring the jurors into her story. >> reporter: julie was on the stand for three days. and then the jury had to decide, was she a murderer? or -- a victim -- in fear for her life? >> i was juror number three in julie harper's trial. joseph dyal said he knew early on in the deliberations it wasn't going to be easy or quick. >> within 15 minutes, we had taken a vote. and it swe

and we would argue each points to the -- to where there was nothing conclusive. >> reporter: on the second day of deliberations, the judge called everyone back to the courtroom. >> we received a note from the jury this morning at 10:06am. the note reads, we are unable to reach a verdict on some of the counts. we are deadlocked. >> deadlocked on some of the count. but they had been able to reach a unanimous verdict on one count. count. >> let's bring in the jury. >> reporter: this was the moment of truth. did the jury believe julie? >> i'll ask the clerk to read >> verdict, first degree murd. we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant julie harper not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of -- >> yes, they did believe her. she did not preplan and deliberately kill her husband, so it couldn't be first degree murder. but was it second degree? not

on that, they were deadlocked. the judge declared a mistrial >> obviously, when there's a murder trial and you get any form of acquittal, that's a good thing. she would have hoped for total acquittal. >> reporter: so, with a hung jury, and bail already established, julie walked out of the courthouse a free woman. >> did she do it? yeah, she did it. was it self-defense? it certainly was after who knows how many years of the toxic relationship they had, and his incredible cruelty. >> i felt like i've lost a little bit of faith in the justice system >> reporter: jason's friends just couldn't understand it. >> just felt like, you know, you were a little kid and someone hit you in the stomach really hard, and you wanted to cry, but you weren't gonna cry. and your eyes started tearin' up. >> it was very, very s-- surreal, i guess, you know, emotional. >> reporter: while the prosecutor thought about whether

julie went on with life -- back at the house on badger lane. >> and then she just comes back in the neighborhood-- >> and then there she is-- >> reporter: down the street, right -- >> yeah. >> living life -- >> like before -- we're like, "is this ever gonna end"? >> reporter: well. they couldn't know, of course. there was another secret julie was keeping -- from everyone. coming. >> really that devious? >> another bombshell and another trial. >> i didn't want my neighbors to

julie harper was walking on air, acquitted of first degree

second degree, tasted like sweet vectorry. >> the images of her walking out of that courtroom as a free woman, were tough for me to swallow. still, what he could do was try again. of course first degree murder was off the table now. but, he could go for a lesser charge of second-degree murder, which he did. a new trial date was set for six months later -- april 2015. and then, one month before that trial was to begin, surprise! julie had some astonishing news for the judge. >> the retrial for a carlsbad woman accused of killing her husband her attorney says she is pregnant. seven months pregnant. caught everybody by surprise, that did. >> she intentionally got pregnant in order to interfere with our retrial. >> reporter: really, that devious, in your mind? >> she's really that devious and well-planned and manipulative.

what's more, julie's pregnancy was highly intentional. in vitro fertilization the judge -- no choice, really, delayed julie's trial for 5 months. and josephine faith cihak was born on april 29, 2015. no father listed on her birth certificate. the neighbors on badger lane watched and wondered. >> she decided she was gonna walk the baby in the stroller through the neighborhood. and, you know-- >> it was like nothing ever happened. >> that was very uncomfortable. >> it was like nothing had >> and everything was fine. >> everything's fine. >> and she's -- you know, my life 2.0. well, not quite, of course. in september, 2015, the judge, the attorneys, all assembled before a brand new jury. 12 new strangers to win over. except this time, the prosecutor knew what was coming from julie. did

abuse. >> did julie appear in any way to be fearful to you? >> no. >> did you see any bruises or marks on her? >> no. julie and jason's he would dest son jake, by this time 11, on the state of the marriage. >> tell me about how their arguing became worse. >> it just escalated. >> even though the arguing became worse did you ever see your dad hit your mom then? >> no. neighbor, michelle cullen saw jason and julie together, five days before jason's death. >> did you see ever see anything that led you to believe that she was being physically abused? >> no, never. >> reporter: but julie's sister amy said julie did confide in her that jason was physically abusing her. >> jason had become very, very angry was constantly yelling at her, would grab her by her wrists and twist them. nothing about

so, why would the jury believe julie's claim that jason did rape her violently, and repeatedly? when julie testified, she asked the jury to look at entries in her private journals and day planner. whenever they saw the word 'sex," said julie, that was code for rape. >> were you making notations of days you had coerced sex? >> yes. the prosecuto of course didn't believe that. but when he challenged her, was this real emotion? >> now, have you ever called the police on jason for any of these incidents? >> no. i was very embarrassed, i was very embarrassed that he was doing it. i didn't want -- i didn't want -- my family to know, i didn't want my neighbors to know, i didn't want my friends to know. manipulation or the

truth? once again, a jury was asked to pass judgment on julie harper. >> in the superior court of the state of california. >> reporter: everybody waited. baited breath. >> we the jury in the above and titled clause find the defendant julie harper guilty of the crime of murder and fix the degree there of as murder in the second degree. guilty of second degree murder. on went the handcuffs. just like that. jury number two was not at all like jury number one. >> reporter: no doubt at all? >> no. >> no. >> no. >> no. >> not at all. >> no. >> reporter: but what about the secret recordings? jason yelling at julie. >> i don't want to enable your horrible money waste! >> he did lose his temper at times. but the tapes were so conveniently done, it seemed to come on just at the time when he was at his worst. that's pretty good evidence. but i-- i just had the feeling that they were staged. and how about that diary in

to mean rape? >> so it would say, "sex. then we went to the west, a fine dinner house, had filet mignon." >> say-- saying, "cuddling--" [ laughter ] >> "cuddling, and then we talked and cuddled more," and et cetera-- >> but that meant rape. >> but-- but she would say that meant rape. and that made no sense to us. >> no disrespect to the first set of jurors from the initial trial. i just don't understand how they could not have found her guilty. and so we made an appointment to talk to julie, by then behind glass in a san dego county jail. >> reporter: i don't think you expected this result at all. would i be right about that? >> you'd be correct in that, yeah. what was really so shocking, was that they could ignore all of that independent evidence outside of my testimony. >> reporter: by that she meant the recording of jason yelling and her claim that in her diary sex meant rape. and despite what the jury thought, she has big plans. >> because of what i've gone through with my husband and the

abuse that i've suffered, i am planning and working with a couple of people to start the julie harper foundation as a charity benefiting victims of domestic violence and their families. >> reporter: but first of all, you have to start with getting a jury to believe that you were a victim of domestic violence, and that was your problem. >> well, and that's where you go, like, the first jury did believe that. there's different people that process information, the same information, same evidence in very different ways. >> reporter: the way jason harper's friends processed it was that julie tormented a good and decent man, and then threw him under the bus to save her own skin. >> the hardest thing i think for me was the rape allegations. i just, there's just no way. no way. not harp. >> you know, harp's gone and -- you know, we miss him. and we love him. but, you know, for her to be put away -- it -- it helps -- it helps heal. >> reporter: and julie?

sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. >> and essentially, i'm 42 years old and it's a death sentence. >> reporter: very true. which brought up a question on a lot of minds. >> reporter: why did you get pregnant? >> i was such a good parent, and i had that love to give to another child. and really wanted to be able to give and share that love with my daughter who i love more than anything in the world. >> reporter: her other children live with jason's parents now. the baby is with julie's father. who sent us a statement repeating julie's abuse claim and saying -- "the verdict is unjust," we asked him and julie's attorney and her friends and siblings, any of them, to sit with us on camera and talk about julie. if nothing else, to defend her. all declined. >> thank you very much. >> barring a successful appeal, julie harper will die behind

that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. this sunday, political "the hunger games" in the gop. ted cruz sweeps the delegates in colorado. >> i think we will go in with an overwhelming advantage. >> it looks more and more like we're headed to an open convention that could deny trump the nomination. the man trump just hired to save his campaign joins me. plus, look who got nasty this week. >> he hasn't done his homework. >> i don't believe that she is qualified -- >> they called a truce, but is the damage done? joining me this morning, bernie sanders and new york city mayor bill de blasio, a key clinton supporter. also, ryan's hope. many republicans want paul ryan to be their nominee. he says no. so what's