[narrator] a beloved retiree is living the dream...
He just moved down here,
Where he could fish every day,
And just a real laidback lifestyle.
[narrator] until a frantic 911 call
Sparks local police to action.
[narrator] investigators zero in on a lone stranger...
It was a eureka moment.
[narrator] and a closer look at motive
Leads to unexpected revelation.
[steven] she knew the relationship was rocky,
That it was not a good relationship.
That was starting to come to a head.
She was not gonna be able to survive.
She was getting desperate
And knew he had a insurance policy.
Most people who think they're really smart,
And that they're going to commit the perfect homicide,
They don't.
[music]
[narrator] sargent, texas in matagorda county
Sits on the gulf of mexico,
About 70 miles southwest of galveston.
[carla] matagorda county is rural.
It also is coastal,
So we have a lot of hunters, fishermen,
Retired folks who live here.
[alberta] sargent is a little bedroom community.
If you walk in there,
People will want to know,
"who are you and what are you doing here?"
They know each other.
[narrator] may 17th, 2009, 8:56 p.M.
An otherwise quiet Sunday evening in sargent
Is shattered by an urgent 911 call.
[narrator] the caller, 59-year-old cathie grigsby,
Says she just found her husband
72-year-old jack grigsby, unresponsive.
[narrator] moments later,
First responders arrive at the home on old caney road
And meet cathie.
[richard] it was about a two-story house.
She was crying or going on quite a bit with some hysteria.
She kept saying, "jack is dead, jack's dead."
[steven] when they walked in,
Mr. Grigsby was lying on the floor,
Blood pooled around his head.
The recliner that he had been sitting in was overturned.
[richard] there was no sign of life
Or no possible chance to resuscitate him or anything.
He has a spot of blood on his chest,
And then a pool of blood underneath his head
Where there are obvious, some sort of head wound.
And that's when we discovered that
He had a gunshot wound to his head.
At that time, then we knew that
We either had a suicide or a homicide.
[narrator] back outside, cathie grigsby is inconsolable.
She was screaming that he was dead quite loudly.
She did, you know, break down.
She seemed truly, truly traumatized.
Investigators begin to try to find out who he is,
What his background is.
Jack was kinda loved by all the folks who knew him,
And didn't seem to have anyone
That would have had any ill will towards him.
[narrator] jack bransom grigsby, jr.
Was born in houston, texas in 1936.
He was the first son.
And he had an older sister,
Two years older than he was,
And younger brother.
And I came in at the very last.
He had plans to join the seminary
When he got outta high school,
But he went into the service instead.
[narrator] after honorably serving in the army,
Jack rejoined civilian life and began a new career in dallas.
Jack was a very, very hard worker.
He worked as a salesman for several years
For a paper company,
And then he eventually got so good at it
That he opened his own paper company.
Jack loved people, and he entertained his customers
Whenever they would come to town.
[narrator] jack got married in 1961,
And he and his wife had two boys.
[mary] he wanted to be there for his boys.
He took 'em on campin' trips and stuff like that.
[narrator] but after more than 20 years together,
Jack and his wife ended their relationship in 1982.
They divorced eventually and went their separate ways.
[narrator] in 1991, jack crossed paths with cathie harris.
They met at a party at a friend's apartment,
And found they had some things in common.
[narrator] cathie was born in 1949 in bristol, tennessee,
But eventually moved to new mexico, then texas.
[phil] cathie had been kind of a nomad.
She had spent a lot of time in west texas,
Became a bookkeeper...
And ended up in the dallas/fort worth area,
Working at a walmart mail center.
[narrator] cathie's first two marriages didn't work out,
But they did produce a son and daughter.
Cathie more or less supported her family and,
You know, supported her children.
[narrator] the other great passion in cathie's life
Was her service sorority, epsilon sigma alpha.
[sylvia] she was the chapter president
Of our group.
We would just have fundraisers, you know,
It started out like bake sales, garage sales.
We would support and give to st. Jude's.
That was our charity.
[narrator] it was after cathie's kids were grown up
And on their own
That she met jack grigsby.
Though he was 13 years her senior,
Cathie was drawn to jack's laidback nature.
[alberta] he was a quiet, peaceful person.
He never made waves.
He, he was never angry, he was just a quiet, gentle man.
[narrator] after six years together,
They tied the knot in 1996,
And then jack retired in 2001.
The couple sought a more peaceful life,
Leaving behind the hustle and bustle of dallas
For the quiet calm of sargent,
Less than five hours away.
[alberta] he just moved down here to retire on the water,
Where he could fish every day,
And just a real laidback lifestyle.
[narrator] 52-year-old cathie wasn't quite ready
For the life of a retiree,
So she got a job as a bookkeepr at the salvation army.
[sylvia] that's where we originally met.
Everybody was just crazy about her.
She was very cheerful, happy.
Always lookin' on the bright side of things,
No matter what.
[narrator] cathie stayed active in her sorority
And kept busy with work,
But she missed the energy of the city.
I don't think she was happy when jack moved her from dallas.
She went from a popular place to a nowhere place.
They argued a lot.
[narrator] after ten years together,
It was clear the age difference between 65-year-old jack
And 52-year-old cathie had become a problem.
[alberta] she lived a different life than him.
She was always wanting to be on the go.
She had a lot of sorority sisters
That she would go to dallas to meet.
She wanted more from him than what he was giving her.
[sylvia] she said they were really strugglin'
And not gettin' along,
And she said, "I, I really think that it's time
That we just separate."
[alberta] she had moved out and into an apartment
That jack was payin' for,
And a car note that jack was payin' for.
She knew the divorce was imminent.
[narrator] by 2009, jack was in his 70s,
And his health began to decline
Making the split even harder.
[alberta] he had had a stroke, so one side of him,
His arm and his leg, kind of drug.
[sylvia] jack was ill.
She felt really sad.
I think she struggled with, you know, their breakup.
June is when the divorce proceedings are,
Are supposed to take place.
The divorce would be final at that point.
[narrator] despite the impending divorce,
Cathie often checked in on jack when he felt ill.
By 2009, they were back in divorce court,
But they were still on friendly terms.
[narrator] the couple seemed to be adjusting to
This new chapter of life...
...Until the devastating night when cathie discovers jack
Dead inside the home they once shared.
[richard] cathie said she had just returned from dallas
And dropped her friends off
And then come back to the house.
She had called him earlier in the week to see if
He would watch her dog
While she went out of town to a sorority convention.
Of course, he loved animals, and he wasn't gonna say no.
And he kept the dog.
[narrator] after four days in dallas,
Cathie stopped by the house to pick up her dog.
When she got there, she said the door was unlocked
And the lights were off,
And she discovered him on the floor.
[narrator] cathie says that lately,
Jack had been depressed.
[steven] there was some suggestion
That he was in some poor health.
Didn't leave his house much any longer.
And so there was certainly some possibility
That it was a suicide.
[narrator] a deputy escorts cathie
To the sheriff's department for a formal interview,
While authorities begin to process the scene for evidence.
Typically, if somebody were to shoot themselves,
The gun falls very close in proximity.
We had moved the body to make sure the gun
Hadn't fallen inside the chair.
[robert] we didn't find a weapon at that time.
That's when we knew we were workin' a homicide.
[narrator] coming up.
A theory takes shape...
They found some evidence in mr. Grigsby's journals.
[narrator] and investigators seek a mysterious suspect.
This car kept circling,
Would pull up into mr. Grigsby's driveway and leave.
[music]
[narrator] the homicide investigation
For the death of jack grigsby is underway
After his wife, cathie, found him dead inside his home
From a gunshot wound.
Whoever did it left something behind.
There was a shell casing found.
It was a .9 millimeter casing.
[richard] a spent shell casing
Can give you lots of other leads.
It can be used to match a particular gun.
We didn't see nothing damaged on the door
Where it was either forced open, kicked in,
And none of the windows broke.
His wallet was in there.
It had quite a bit of cash in it.
It did not appear to anyone that
It had been a robbery or a burglary.
[carla] either jack let someone into his home,
Or the front door was unlocked.
Maybe it was someone he knew,
Because he appeared to be sitting in his chair
When he was shot.
So, he was comfortable.
We have some knowledge of a timeline
And, and a timeframe of death
Based on the state of rigor mortis.
Now we had a narrower window
Of a couple of hours that we're looking at.
[narrator] investigators look to
His distressed wife, cathie, for answers,
And she pulls herself together to assist.
When I first seen cathie, she was a little hysterical.
She became very quiet, low key when we interviewed her.
She says they had a friendly relationship,
Even though they're getting divorced.
[narrator] cathie says she dropped her dog off
With jack on Wednesday,
Before driving to dallas with two of her sorority sisters.
Dallas is about a five-hour drive from sargent, texas,
And she was there for a number of days, including Sunday.
She did provide officers with receipts
That supported her alibi.
[narrator] investigators ask cathie
Who else had access to the home
She did bring up a individual's name of, of royce coody,
Who had been doin' some work or helpin' jack remodel his house.
She just said that she didn't know a whole lot about him,
And then jack had just previously met him.
She was just givin' us an idea that
There is somebody else out there
That would have access to the house.
[steven] there was some indication that
He had been to the house a number of times.
He certainly would have been someone
That would have been welcomed into the house.
So, the police certainly weren't going to ignore that as a,
As a possibility.
[narrator] investigators then ask if cathie owns a gun.
She said that she had a .9 millimeter, a ruger,
That she had bought from her boss, where she works.
[carla] her boss happened to have an extra handgun.
Cathie claimed to need the gun for personal protection.
There was a shell casing that was recovered at the scene,
And the shell casing was a .9 millimeter.
[narrator] investigators tell cathie
They will need her to turn over the weapon.
She agrees.
She signed a consent to search, and she told 'em,
You know, where the gun was located.
In her apartment, on a, a stand next to her bed.
[narrator] deputies accompany cathie to her apartment.
When they went into her house and did the search,
The weapon was not where it was kept.
She last seen her gun, I believe she said,
On Thursday, before she left to go out of town.
They began searchin' the other areas of the apartment
Just to make sure it wasn't misplaced.
And then she claimed that the weapon had been stolen.
[steven] there's no forced entry to her apartment.
She told them that nobody else had a key.
So then, the only person who might otherwise
Have a key to her apartment, obviously,
Would then be the apartment managers,
Or, of course, the maintenance man.
[narrator] with no sign of a break-in,
Investigators believe it's plausible
That someone with access to cathie's home
May have taken the gun.
Before investigators wrap up with cathie,
She also gives them royce's number.
But when they call, it goes to voicemail.
[steven] so, they don't discount the,
The possibility that it's the maintenance man,
Or mr. Coody.
But by that point, the fact that now this gun is not there
That she has said was there, again...
It places her under more suspicion.
[narrator] despite their doubts,
Authorities continue trying to find royce
And id the apartment maintenance man.
Meanwhile, they get the autopsy results.
The autopsy revealed a gunshot wound to the head
Cause of death.
We were also able to identify a probable time of death.
Between the time he was killed and the time he was found,
Probably four or five hours.
So, the murder took place on Sunday, after 12:30.
[narrator] the finding bolsters cathie's alibi.
[carla] she and the ladies were in the process of driving home
During the timeframe in which jack would've been killed.
[robert] I think it would've been hard from her to
Leave from there without her friends
And come down here and commit that crime,
And then go back before they would miss her.
[narrator] investigators head back to jack's house,
Where crime technicians have been processing the home
Through the night.
And they've made an important find:
Jack's journal.
The final entry details a visit from handyman royce coody.
They found some evidence in mr. Grigsby's journals
That indicated that mr. Coody had been there the day before,
Saturday.
[narrator] investigators learn
That someone they've been wanting to talk to
Is asking to speak to them.
When they step outside the home they find royce coody himself.
Royce came down, and he wanted to know what happened.
[steven] and mr. Coody said that
The last time he'd seen mr. Grigsby
Was the Friday before his death.
He'd done some repair work,
And he'd gone over to mr. Grigsby's house
To clean some fish.
The police confronted him with that discrepancy, you know,
"hey, we've caught you in a lie. Now, tell us the truth."
Royce referred to some memory issues.
He said he was there on Friday for a different purpose,
And just forgot he'd been there on Saturday.
That's his story.
[narrator] officials ask royce where he was
During the timeframe the murder took place.
[robert] his story was on Sunday,
That he got up with a friend and went fishin'.
[narrator] investigators allow royce to leave
With the understanding that
They'll be following up on his alibi.
His alibi was he was fishing with a friend.
Well, they talked to the friend. The friend confirmed that.
Turns out, he was not physically in the area.
He had a alibi witness that basically rules him out.
[narrator] a few hours later,
Just as officials are wrapping up,
Yet another man asks to speak with them.
[carla] they are approached by a man,
Joe zamora, who says,
"I think that I saw somethin' that might be important."
Mr. Zamora had related to them
That he'd been fishing there the day before, on Sunday.
And in the later part of the morning,
Early part of the afternoon,
That he had seen a fellow drivin' a car
That kept showing up in that area.
[david] there's almost no traffic out there.
So, it was very unusual, on a Sunday,
To see this car driving by the same location
Time and time again.
[steven] this car would pull up
Into mr. Grigsby's driveway and leave.
[narrator] joe says that afternoon,
The car pulled into the driveway one last time.
The man drivin' the car got out
And went up to the door of jack's
To knock on the door.
[narrator] shortly after,
The same car pulled up next to joe.
[david] this individual would not look him in the eye
When he was talking to him,
He was 5'10", kind of scrungy looking,
Kind of looked like a biker.
[robert] we thought that was definitely a good hit.
We were getting a little closer. We were closing in.
[narrator] coming up.
A hunch and a sketch turn up a suspect.
[carla] he bragged to people about being in a biker gang,
That he could be somebody who could get things done.
[music]
[narrator] two days into the investigation
Of jack grigsby's murder,
A witness names joe zamora tells authorities
He saw a mysterious man at jack's home
Around the time of the killing.
Joe described the man as a white male,
40s to 50s, and heavy, thick mustache.
[carla] kinda average height, average build,
Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.
[narrator] finding the man in the ford taurus
Becomes top priority.
[david] this is a huge tip for us.
It was a big break for us to have this witness.
The activity that this person was doing
Did not seem to fit anything
Other than being involved in this homicide.
He was willing to get with a forensic artist,
And develop a sketch based upon his memory
Of what the individual looked like.
We did put out the information to the surrounding areas,
"be on the lookout for anything."
Put this guy's possible description
And the ford taurus.
[narrator] although jack's wife, cathie, has an airtight alibi,
There is a lingering loose end from her interview
Still nagging at investigators.
[carla] she had owned a weapon of the same caliber
That was used to kill jack grigsby,
Her estranged husband.
Cathie told police that she had purchased a handgun
From her boss at the salvation army.
[narrator] authorities question cathie's boss about the gun.
He said, yeah, in fact, he did sell a .9 millimeter to cathie.
He even showed us a bill of sale that was dated March 2009.
[richard] he had not only sold the gun to cathie,
He loaded it with ten rounds of ammunition.
He had a box that he kept with the remaining 40 shells.
We compared it and it was
The same-manufacturer .9 millimeter
That was found at the scene.
[steven] that was a little shocking.
By that point,
The police realize she could not have been the shooter.
But they certainly believe that she's being deceptive.
[carla] cathie's alibi is
She was there at that sorority convention in dallas.
This is not something that can be disputed.
[narrator] with suspicion
Surrounding cathie's involvemet growing,
Detectives reach out to her for another interview.
But they are surprised by her reaction.
[richard] they were tryin' to get her back down
The sheriff's office,
And she attorneys up.
Attorney calls, says, "I'm representin' her,
Don't talk to her."
[narrator] after nine days of circulating
The mystery man's face around sargent,
Investigators haven't turned up a single lead.
So, they try a new tack.
[richard] I remember thinking,
"what're the odds that somebody would stop and get gas?"
[steven] sargent is a very small community.
There was a texaco.
And anybody that's interested in getting gas,
They're going to go to that convenience store.
That one happens to have surveillance cameras.
[narrator] authorities review surveillance video
From the day of jack's murder.
[steven] what they found was a vehicle that had,
In just around in the noon hour and sometime after that,
Had made two stops at the texaco station.
[david] there was a ford taurus,
And then they saw the individual came out.
He fit the general description from the sketch.
It was a eureka moment.
He had called me, he was very excited.
"captain! Captain, I got it!"
The first time he came to the store,
He bought sandwiches,
And then he came back again and, and bought beer.
He uses a debit card, which is described as a lone star card.
It's a card that is given out by local government
For welfare and food stamps.
That card is traced to a lady by the name of suzanne matz,
And she's in the dallas area.
[steven] they were also able to get some information
From the application for the lone star card.
That application included the name,
Not only of ms. Matz,
But also including the person that was living with her.
And she was in a relationship with daniel ray harrison.
And they were able to pull driver's license photos
Of ms. Matz and mr. Harrison.
[narrator] daniel's photo seems to match the man
In the video and the sketch.
[robert] who's daniel harrison?
We started doin'
A criminal history background on him
To see what type of individual we were dealin' with
And what he may be capable of.
He had been in prison before, and he had been out on parole.
Mostly drug history.
There's no reason to believe that daniel harrison
Actually knew jack grigsby.
Which led detectives to ask,
"did he have a history with cathie?"
[narrator] on June 4th, 2009,
Two and a half weeks after the murder,
Investigators make the 400-plus mile drive
North to denison, texas
To pay a visit to suzanne matz and her boyfriend,
Daniel harrison.
[robert] when we went to interview them,
They didn't even know we were comin'.
[steven] there was a car sittin' out front
That appeared to be the same car
As what they had seen on the texaco video.
[david] so, we got there,
Daniel ray harrison was not there,
Suzanne matz was there.
We told suzanne that we were investigatin' a death,
Jack grigsby.
That's when we found out that there was a connection.
She had known cathie for several years.
[narrator] suzanne says she met cathie eight years earlier,
In 2001, when they worked together
At a walmart mail order center.
She claimed that her relationship with cathie
Was that they had been friends.
Cathie did her taxes for her every year,
And that they had kept in touch.
[narrator] cathie often confided in her
About her problems with jack.
She knew that the relationship was rocky,
That it was not a good relationship.
[narrator] in fact, six years earlier,
Cathie made a comment that stunned suzanne.
In 2003, cathie was looking to get jack killed.
[steven] she asked ms. Matz,
"do you know of anybody that would kill mr. Grigsby?"
And I think suzanne matz' response to that was,
"well, no, I don't."
[narrator] cathie pressed,
Wanting to know if maybe suzanne's boyfriend, daniel,
Might be able to help her.
[richard] cathie had met him,
And she thought he was a kind of a bad boy,
Because he had a history of bein' in and out of prison.
[carla] he bragged to people about being in a biker gang,
About having connections to violence,
That he could be somebody who could get things done.
Cathie thought he may know somebody
To actually kill jack for her.
Suzanne played it off as,
"I didn't think she was serious."
Like, "I didn't think that she really meant it" type of deal.
[david] she's pretty adamant that
She doesn't know anything about the murder.
When we confronted her with the fact that
Her car had been used down in sargent,
She admitted that she had let daniel take her car
And drive it that day.
[steven] to her knowledge,
Mr. Harrison had used her vehicle for work purposes
On that Sunday.
[narrator] as investigators wrap up with suzanne,
Daniel harrison returns home.
He agrees to go to
A nearby sheriff's station for questioning.
[david] I started talkin' to daniel.
I said, "did you know about jack bein' murdered?"
He said, "no, I didn't know anything about it."
I showed him a copy of the artist sketch,
And I could tell that it kinda shocked him.
And I said, "well, daniel,
He looks a whole lot like you to me."
I said, "now, just help me understand this.
You say that you were not involved in this,
But how do you think we found you?
Nobody knows you down there. You, you're 450 miles away.
How did I find you?"
[narrator] coming up. Daniel tells a harrowing tale.
[narrator] and a potential motive emerges.
Each of them would've received 50% of the proceeds
Upon his death.
[music]
[narrator] texas investigators are preparing to transport
Suspect daniel ray harrison for questioning
In the murder of jack grigsby.
Under the law we can lie to a suspect
To get him to talk,
We can't fabricate evidence.
So, when I was talking to daniel ray harrison
In my vehicle,
I led him to believe that cathie grigsby had been the one
Who led us to him.
[narrator] by the time they reach the station,
Daniel is feeling the heat.
I said, "well, we have an eyewitness that saw you there."
And I showed him a copy of the artist sketch again.
He thought that cathie already spilled the beans on him,
And he was just ready to give it up and move on.
[richard] daniel says cathie had actually tried to poison him
With antifreeze in his coffee or something.
And it, it did cause some renal failures.
He got sick from it.
[narrator] though there is no way to prove it,
The alleged poisoning
Might explain jack's decline in health.
Daniel says when it didn't kill him,
That's when cathie looked for help.
[david] daniel ray harrison and cathie grigsby first met
And talked about killing jack grigsby in 2003.
He turned it down...
And didn't pursue it any further.
[narrator] he says he had no contact with cathie
Until March of 2009,
When suzanne hired cathie to do their taxes.
At that time,
Daniel claims cathie once again brought up killing her husband.
[steven] mr. Grigsby had a life insurance policy
Of $200,000.
She and jack grigsby's son were 50% beneficiaries.
That's how she would pay him, letting him know that,
"if I get the 100,000,
I'll give you $10,000 for killing jack."
[david] he says, "the first time she approached me,
I was not interested.
But suzanne and I are on hard times,
And we needed money.
So, when she approached me again,
I said yes, that I would do it."
[narrator] cathie allegedly explained
They were under a deadline.
June is when the divorce proceedings are
Supposed to take place.
She would no longer be
A beneficiary of the insurance policy.
So, she would have wanted this to take place
Before that divorce proceeding took place.
[narrator] daniel says two weeks later,
He met cathie in person to discuss the details.
He claims cathie proposed he kill jack
While she was at an upcoming sorority convention in dallas.
[carla] she's gonna be in dallas at the convention.
Where he lives is a little bit north of dallas.
He was to go to the hotel where she was staying.
[david] she told daniel ray harrison that,
"I have a gun. It's a .9 millimeter."
She had the weapon at her house, she had it loaded,
She was prepared.
She went to a local walmart
And had a copy of a key to her apartment made.
He picked it up 3:30 Sunday morning.
[narrator] posing as a stranger looking for a good fishing spot
Daniel approached jack's home.
[robert] daniel asked him,
Could he go inside and use the restroom.
So, they wind up goin' inside.
[david] he went to the restroom and then when he came back,
He had the .9 millimeter pistol.
Jack was sitting in his lounge chair
With his back to him.
And then he proceeded to shoot him directly in the head.
Headshot, execution style.
[narrator] daniel left the house and spoke with joe zamora
To feel out if he had heard the shot.
Then he called cathie.
And her response was, "how is my dog?"
Pretty cold.
[narrator] he went back home to suzanne,
Who was none the wiser.
After I got a signed confession from daniel ray harrison
On the murder,
We got a probable cause affidavit
And arrest warrant for cathie grigsby.
They went to the salvation army and arrested her there on site.
In front of everyone. I was really shocked.
[narrator] cathie refuses to give a statement.
But when authorities search her purse,
Her habit of keeping receipts comes back to haunt her.
[richard] she had a receipt for the key being made at walmart,
Which ultimately we knew was the key
That she gave to daniel harrison
To gain access to get the gun to commit the murder.
[robert] so, everything started comin' together at that point.
She planned this and he carried it out.
[narrator] coming up, a hard truth comes out at trial
[richard] the irony of the whole thing
Is that she wouldn't have got a dime.
[music]
[narrator] 19 days after jack grigsby
Was found shot dead in his home
Investigators work with prosecutors
To build their case against his wife, cathie grigsby.
They request surveillance video from the dallas hotel
Where cathie stayed during the convention.
[steven] the videos pretty clearly show
That she left the key at the front lobby,
At the front desk,
Instructed them who to give it to.
And that harrison, at 3:30 in the morning,
Came and picked it up and showed his id.
After we got the confession from daniel ray harrison
And video from the hotel,
I felt very confident that we were making a,
A very strong case against cathie grigsby
For the murder of jack grigsby.
[narrator] authorities want to offer daniel harrison a deal:
A murder charge and 40 years in prison
If he cooperates.
Daniel accepted a plea deal
And agreed to testify against cathie.
[narrator] cathie grigsby's murder trial
Begins on October 25th, 2010.
Prosecutors argue that cathie was motivated by
One thing and one thing only...
Money.
What I think finally made cathie snap was the fact that
The divorce was starting to come to a head.
And that jack was cutting her off financially.
The credit cards had been run up.
He had finally cut her off the credit cards.
[narrator] he also planned to stop paying for
Her apartment and car loan.
She was not gonna be able to survive without his help.
[narrator] knowing she was going to be cut off soon,
Prosecutors believe cathie became desperate
To change her fate.
[carla] at trial, daniel harrison said that
Cathie had told him
That she tried herself to kill jack through poisoning him.
We were never able to really confirm that that had happened,
And it lined up with what his health issues were.
[robert] she was getting desperate.
And she knew that jack had a insurance policy.
[narrator] in a surprise twist,
Prosecutors reveal that jack had already taken action
To make sure cathie wouldn't get that money.
[richard] jack had changed the beneficiary
On his life insurance policy.
Cathie was no longer beneficiary.
[sylvia] she wasn't in the will,
She wasn't gonna get the house, she wasn't gonna get the money.
The irony of the whole thing
Is that she wouldn't have got a dime.
[narrator] cathie's confessed co-conspirator,
Daniel harrison,
Testifies against her.
But cathie's defense attempts
To turn the prosecution's star witness into a liability.
[carla] daniel harrison is a criminal
Who confessed to being the person
Who shot jack grigsby.
Cathie's never been in trouble.
You know, she's a churchgoer.
She's not somebody who would ever commit this kind of crime.
They basically attempted to show mr. Harrison was a liar.
[narrator] the jury deliberates just over an hour
Before returning a verdict.
[carla] the jury does find her guilty of capital murder.
And capital murder is
An automatic life sentence in texas.
[david] I think the system worked, she'll die in prison.
Most people who think they're really smart,
And that they're going to commit the perfect homicide...
They don't.
[alberta] I feel bad for jack. I feel bad for his family.
I'm sure he wanted to live one more day to say
"I love you" to his kids.
[mary] my brother is up there in heaven
With my other brother,
And they've gone to the big fishin' hole in the sky,
Havin' a ball.
[music]