- FEMALE NARRATOR: When a Florida couple takes a second
chance on love, sparks fly.
- TONY: They had good chemistry together.
They were very family-oriented.
- CLAUDETTE: He was excited to buy his first home.
It was a accomplishment for him.
- NARRATOR: But their forever home wasn't meant to be.
- There was blood everywhere. It was on the wall, floors.
- It was a violent, violent scene.
- NARRATOR: As investigators stalk a killer,
a string of startling allegations
raises alarming questions
about a family that appeared to have it all.
- SARAH: The stuff that just starts going
through your head is, "What happened, who did it?"
- To see your loved one cut from
one place to the next place, to see his skin, is sickening.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: April 13th, 2018, Deltona, Florida.
At 10:17PM, a Volusia County 911 dispatcher receives
a distressing emergency call from 34-year-old Crystal Lyde.
- NARRATOR: As first responders rush to the scene,
the 911 operator continues to stay on the line.
- During the call, Crystal ends up giving the phone
to Latoya Woodard, who lives there
and actually is the victim's wife.
She got on the phone. She was hysterical crying.
- NARRATOR: When sheriff deputy Sarah Jackson arrives
on the scene, she is met in the driveway by both women.
- I asked, "Who else is in the house? What's going on?"
They said, "Somebody broke in and stabbed him."
And they give a brief of, you know, hurt inside,
male's hurt inside. They're hysterical.
- They were able to tell the responding deputies
that there were two kids still in the house.
- NARRATOR: Police quickly spring into action
and start to secure the home.
- Myself and two other deputies run into the house,
start clearing the house, see what's going on.
Find the male on the floor. I stay there with him.
There was blood everywhere.
You could clearly see there was a struggle.
It was on the wall, floors.
- HEATHA: It's a horrible thing
to have happen in your community.
- SALLY: Why?
That's my only question. Why did this happen?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Born in Brooklyn, New York,
Edwin Lee Sinclair Daniels was the third of four children.
- FLORIE: Edwin was born in New York Kings County Hospital
October the 26th, 1982.
Eight pounds, two ounces, big boy.
- He was my teddy bear.
You always want to hug him, squeeze him.
He's very friendly.
- NARRATOR: In 1994, at age 12, Edwin's family moved to Florida.
While attending high school in Volusia County,
Edwin began a relationship with a fellow student named Lashay.
- Me and her had a class together in high school,
um, and it just kind of, you know,
"I like your brother" kind of thing,
and it kind of went from there.
- TONY: They were actually dating
through the high school time,
and they end up getting together,
and of course, you know, next thing we knew,
that Jordan was there.
- NARRATOR: Edwin and Lashay
had their baby boy Jordan in 2002,
but the relationship wasn't meant to last.
- We thought, "Okay, well, maybe they'll get married
and they'll get into a relationship,"
but, you know, things just didn't work out
in that direction.
He was very committed, he was caring,
and even at the point when him and Lashay
didn't really see eye-to-eye on many things,
he would still go by and make sure
Jordan was taken care of.
- NARRATOR: After the young couple went their separate ways,
Edwin remained a devoted father.
Sacrificing his own future for the sake of his son,
Edwin opted to forgo college and instead turned
his lifelong passion for technology into a career.
- CLAUDETTE: He went into the technology world,
deciding that was gonna pay more, do more,
you know, and expand his life a little better,
so he end up working at Verizon.
- NARRATOR: Despite his busy schedule
balancing work and family,
Edwin still made time for his faith.
- He would come to church, he would help out, again,
in the media technology area.
- NARRATOR: While attending church,
Edwin met a woman who would change his life forever,
23-year-old Latoya Woodard.
- I believe she was born in Marathon,
in Key West, and she went, from high school,
she went to the Navy. She got married.
- NARRATOR: Latoya and her first husband
raised three boys together,
but the marriage ended in divorce.
- TONY: And she had came out of the military.
She was discharged.
I'm not quite sure how or all the particulars about it,
but she was coming to church,
and she would come with her family.
- NARRATOR: By 2007, Latoya was ready
for a fresh start with fellow church member
24-year-old Edwin Daniels.
- CLAUDETTE: We're all church-oriented,
and the older group of kids, you know, the teens,
would hang out, and Latoya brother,
which is Jimmy, became roommates with Edwin.
- TONY: She ended up going over and crashing there.
Next thing I know, they were dating,
they were going out.
- NARRATOR: Latoya and Edwin grew closer
over the next nine years.
- TONY: They were living together first,
and were not married at first.
They had two kids, two girls, and then later on,
they decided to get married.
- NARRATOR: After their 2016 wedding,
Edwin and Latoya settled into a new home together
in Deltona, Florida.
- TONY: He seemed to be happy, she seemed to be happy.
- CLAUDETTE: It was beautiful to see where they were going
and what they accomplished.
Edwin was excited to buy his first home.
It was a accomplishment for him.
- TONY: He lived for his kids.
He worked hard to provide for his kids.
As a father, he was always there.
Whatever is going on, he would make sure
that he took off to be there.
- NARRATOR: The couple also found room in their home
for one more important person in Latoya's life, Crystal Lyde.
- CLAUDETTE: Crystal is Latoya's best friend
from the military, from what I understand.
May have been friends for several years.
She needed somewhere to stay,
and my brother had his beautiful home.
He had a extra bedroom.
- SALLY: I guess she talked to my brother,
and it was okay for her to stay here,
and I think she stayed there about three years.
- NARRATOR: Together, Latoya and Edwin built the life
they had always dreamed of.
- TONY: They would cook together.
They had good chemistry together.
They were very family-oriented.
- NARRATOR: Tragically, on April 13th, 2018,
Edwin and Latoya's happily ever after
is brutally cut short.
- HEATHA: It was a very bloody scene.
The victim's clothing was soaked in blood,
and there was blood spatter on all of the walls.
- NARRATOR: For first responder Deputy Sarah Jackson,
her concern isn't just for Edwin,
but also for the welfare of his children.
- My first thought is, "Where's everybody else at?
What just happened?"
- HEATHA: The sheriff's office
is going through all of the rooms
upstairs and downstairs. That's how they come across
the children and escort them out.
- NARRATOR: With the children safe and having found no sign
of the alleged intruder, paramedics charge into the home.
- SARAH: I didn't see him breathing,
but he was a larger gentleman, so it might not necessarily
have been easy to see his chest, you know, rising and lowering.
- NARRATOR: Medics desperately tried to revive the victim,
but it's no use.
35-year-old Edwin Daniels is pronounced dead at the scene.
- When I am working, it's just quick processing
the scene of. "What do I see?"
I'm looking around at everything.
There was definitely a struggle.
You can tell it was definitely fresh by the color of the blood.
The stuff that just starts going through your head is,
"What happened, who did it?"
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
Edwin's brutal final moments are revealed.
- There was numerous wounds to his head and neck area.
- It was a violent, violent scene.
- NARRATOR: And detectives home in on a possible motive.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On April 13th, 2018,
authorities in Volusia County, Florida discovered
the bloody body of Edwin Daniels in the home that he shared
with his wife, Latoya Woodard, their children,
and roommate Crystal Lyde.
- HEATHA: Police are thinking, "Oh it's a stranger who came in,
"what would be the motive? Perhaps a robbery.
"Perhaps there was a money incentive
or property incentive."
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As authorities secure the scene,
word of the attack reaches Edwin's brother,
who is a chaplain with the Volusia Sheriff's office.
- TONY: My heart is racing, I'm pounding,
trying to get there, I'm driving with my daughter.
We gets off the exit over in Deltona,
and so you come around the corner and of course,
the bright blindness of the blue and white light
lit up the night sky.
I saw the yellow and black crime scene tape
and I knew he had died in the house.
- ♪
- FLORIE: When my son Tony came in the middle of the night
and he told he that my son is dead,
I went into shock, you know? You just can't believe it.
- Tony said, "Sally, Edwin is dead."
My body had no bones. I just fell to the floor.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Edwin's family grapples with their loss,
detectives arrive on the scene.
- SHON: The family was on the driveway of the residence.
Latoya, from the first moment I saw,
was sitting on the ground. She was crying.
She was showing signs of hyperventilating.
She was upset.
- NARRATOR: Latoya seems in no condition to talk to police
and is taken to a local hospital to be evaluated,
while Crystal Lyde is transported
to the sheriff's office to be formally interviewed.
By then, Latoya's mother, Terry McQueen,
has arrived on the scene.
- SHON: She had stayed with the kids,
and then the kids ended up going to be interviewed at
what we call a CPT, which is child protection team.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: With all witnesses safely removed from the home,
detectives begin processing the grisly crime scene.
- ERIKA: There was a lot of blood
all over the floors, so we had to be very careful
about where we walked.
- SHON: It was found in the hallway that leads into,
like, the living room and kitchen area,
and you could see how the drywall had been kicked in,
blood everywhere, so it was a violent, violent scene.
- NARRATOR: As police approach Edwin's body,
they find evidence that suggests he was attacked
as he entered his home.
- The body was laying somewhat facing up,
and there was, if I recall correctly,
French fries on the floor, a receipt,
and a bag of food.
- It suggests that he didn't get very far
into the house before he's attacked there.
He never makes it out of the foyer.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: A closer look at Edwin's body reveals
the violent nature of the attack.
- PETER: There was numerous wounds
to his head and neck area.
- His carotid artery was nearly transected.
- SHON: There was some clothes underneath his foot,
and next to him, the way he was sprawled out,
there was a Jamaican-style Rastafarian hat.
- We collected it because it was an unknown.
You don't know if it belonged to him
or it belonged to somebody else.
- SHON: I did look at the front door.
There were no signs of forced entry,
nor on to the back of the residence.
- HEATHA: There didn't appear to be anything
taken from the home.
In fact there was a wallet conveniently there
with money sticking out and no property
appeared--appeared to be taken.
- NARRATOR: Though detectives find no weapons
in the vicinity of Edwin's body,
because he was injured with a sharp object,
several knives are confiscated from the home,
including one found in the kitchen sink.
- The knife appeared to be a cheese knife
laying in the sink. That was collected.
- SHON: It's got a finely serrated blade
and it has two tips or prongs on the end.
- NARRATOR: With the search of the home completed,
police move to speak to Edwin and Latoya's
seven and nine-year-old daughters.
- The children both said that night
that they did not witness anything.
They went to sleep, they had headphones on.
The next thing they know,
they're being woken up by law enforcement.
- NARRATOR: Police are hopeful that the victim's wife
and roommate can provide more detailed information.
- HEATHA: Latoya is cleared by the hospital
shortly after getting there.
They check her vitals, and everything is fine,
and once she was cleared, she was transported
to the Deltona VCSO operational building
to be interviewed.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When Latoya first arrives,
detectives document her appearance
and collect any physical evidence.
- PETER: Her clothing was collected as evidence
by another deputy.
- NARRATOR: Now dressed in scrubs,
Latoya sits down with detectives.
- NARRATOR: When police ask Latoya about the events
leading up to Edwin's murder,
she tells them she spent the morning at work
before coming home in the afternoon.
- HEATHA: And then she says she has this conversation
and text messages with her husband Edwin
about when he gets off work,
and so she goes upstairs and goes to sleep
and she's waiting for him.
- SHON: She told us while she was laying there in bed,
she had fell asleep, but she did hear a loud bang,
which she associated with the garage door being closed.
- At some point, she hasn't still heard from Edwin
so she decides to go downstairs to find Edwin to check on him.
- SHON: She says she walked around the corner
and that's when she found Edwin there on the floor.
- She says that she begins screaming.
Crystal comes in and she asks Crystal or tells Crystal
to call 911.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Having heard Latoya's version
of the night's events,
police turn to her roommate Crystal Lyde.
- She told us about that day,
how she had picked up the kids around 5:30
'cause Latoya asked her to, um,
she said when she got home,
Latoya was not home at that time.
- HEATHA: This is different because Latoya had told
law enforcement Latoya gets home and she's waiting
for the children and she's waiting for Crystal.
That was inconsistent.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: According to Crystal,
Latoya returned home around 7:00PM.
At that point, Crystal left the house.
- She left and went to Walmart and came back.
- NARRATOR: Crystal tells detectives
that Latoya could barely answer her question.
- NARRATOR: Police find Crystal's story plausible,
but it still needs to be confirmed.
- We had to get the full story from Crystal.
- SHON: When we played the 911 call for her,
she started to change her story.
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
detectives turn up the heat on Crystal.
- NARRATOR: And a shocking tip turns this investigation
on its head.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Florida police investigating the murder
of 35-year-old Edwin Daniels
have just caught an inconsistency
in the statements from his wife Latoya
and their roommate Crystal Lyde.
- Latoya had already told us that she arrived home
before Crystal and the kids,
but Crystal's now saying the opposite,
so it's showing that someone is not being truthful.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In an effort to verify her account
of the night's events,
investigators return to Crystal's 911 call
and scrutinize it for inconsistencies.
- NARRATOR: Later in the call, the 911 operator attempts
to have Crystal clarify the disturbance
she purportedly heard in the home.
- HEATHA: And then that's when we learned, "Hey, wait a minute,
"Crystal has said to the 911 operator
"that she heard Latoya and Edwin arguing,
"and then she then leaves to Walmart,
"comes back 15-20 minutes later,
"and then Edwin has been murdered,
and Latoya is there, upset, covered in blood."
- NARRATOR: Detectives are convinced that
Crystal is holding back
key details surrounding Edwin's death.
What remains unclear is if she's covering up for herself
or for someone else.
- SHON: She clearly stated that
she heard some sort of commotion,
so then, at that point,
we believe she may have seen what occurred.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Now, detectives turn back to Crystal
and confront her with the conflicting statements.
- HEATHA: The detectives, they get
their 911 call, uh, recording and they go back into the room,
and they play that recording for her.
- So now she can hear herself saying these things,
and that's when she admitted,
"Yes, Edwin's car was there when I left."
- SHON: Again, this goes to the fact that
the victim's wife, Latoya, said she never saw Edwin
and didn't have an argument with him
and did not see him until she came downstairs and found him.
- NARRATOR: Crystal insists to detectives
that it wasn't until she returned from shopping
that she discovered something was wrong.
- Crystal, she's got her bag of groceries
from Walmart and she goes upstairs, she said,
and took off her shoes, her slip-on shoes
there at the bed and put her groceries down
and then came down to check on Latoya,
and then when Latoya is saying, "Call 911, call 911."
- ♪
- SHON: After Crystal tells us more details about the argument,
at this point, all the evidence leads to Latoya Woodard.
We ended up going back to confront Latoya
about this information.
- HEATHA: They ask her,
"Hey, Crystal says that she heard you arguing,"
and Latoya just said,
"Crystal's a liar, Crystal's lying."
- SHON: She was very defensive,
and we didn't stay with her very long at point.
So once we finished with her there,
she was free to leave.
She left with Crystal, they both left.
- They had to get enough evidence to convince me,
"Hey, it's time to arrest."
- NARRATOR: Uncertain which of the two women
are telling the truth,
investigators attempt to verify Crystal's story.
- HEATHA: Crystal Lyde told the police
that she went to Walmart, so the police follow that up.
They go to Walmart.
- SHON: I viewed the security footage,
and we are able to verify she was at Walmart
from the time of 9:46 to 9:54.
We established her alibi.
- NARRATOR: Detectives are also able to confirm Crystal's story
about returning from her shopping trip
and going upstairs.
- HEATHA: Her shoes were found.
There were shoes found by the bed,
and there was also a Walmart bag there
and items from Walmart that were found on the bed.
Law enforcement was able to corroborate that the time
on her Walmart receipt was consistent with
the Walmart video.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After Crystal is ruled out,
detectives turn to Edwin's autopsy report for answers.
- SHON: The 16th of April, the autopsy was performed.
We learned from that that he had 34 stab wounds.
- He had stab wounds in his head, in his face,
in his tongue, in his esophagus, his hands, his abdomen,
so he was--he was, uh, brutally, brutally stabbed.
He had a depressed skull fracture.
- NARRATOR: The degree of violence leaves investigators
to one conclusion.
- Why keep stabbing after five, 10, 15, 20 times?
So certainly it makes you think, "Hey, this is someone who had
a lot of anger, a lot of animosity toward Edwin."
No property appeared to be taken and no pry marks.
So all of those things are making you think
it wasn't a stranger.
- NARRATOR: On April 18th, 2018,
five days into the investigation,
the case takes a shocking turn
when two of Latoya's family friends step forward
with an explosive allegation.
- We actually learned that Latoya had a boyfriend.
His name was Allan Roberson.
- HEATHA: So this is the first time
law enforcement's hearing does she have a boyfriend,
which, remember, Latoya told the police
she did not have a boyfriend.
- NARRATOR: Investigators are also stunned
when Latoya's friend
mentions the hat found under Edwin's body.
- Law enforcement, they haven't released that
they have located this hat under Edwin's body,
so that was significant, and not only that,
but that she was scared
that it was connected to her boyfriend.
- So it was time to go talk to him at that point.
We needed to go located Allan and figure out who he was,
where he was, and see if he knew anything.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Police are able to determine
that 26-year-old Allan Roberson
works for the same local sandwich chain as Latoya.
When they reach out to his employer,
they learn from his manager that on the day of the murder,
Allan was not himself.
- HEATHA: He was working at his store
on the day of the murder, and at some point at about noon,
he was having a meltdown. We didn't know the reason why,
but the manager said Allan did have a meltdown.
- NARRATOR: As detectives examine the time sheets
from the day of the murder,
they discover something peculiar.
- SHON: Latoya had went from her place of employment,
logged off at one, and then went over to
where Allan worked and worked there
for another 15 minutes.
- HEATHA: So she had been with him that afternoon,
and that's different from what she had told the police,
which was, "Right after work,
"I go home and I'm with my children
waiting for my husband."
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When authorities finally get their chance
to question Allan directly, he is anything but cooperative.
- SHON: We pulled him aside 'cause he was working.
We told him why we were there, that we want to talk with him,
but he told us that he wasn't gonna talk with us
unless he had an attorney present.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When detectives return days later,
they find Allan's attitude hasn't improved.
- SHON: He said he wouldn't talk to me
unless I ordered food,
so another time, I went back and I ordered a sandwich.
I tried talking to him while he was making my food,
and he wouldn't talk to me.
He would just ignore me, make my sandwich,
and he'd go stand off into the back room.
I probably went four, five, six times try to talk to him.
- HEATHA: We were trying to find out who did it,
but he would not cooperate.
That's another red flag. Why is he trying to protect her?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
the chilling details of Edwin's attack
come into focus.
- HEATHA: He's caught off-guard.
It's hard to defend yourself against a knife.
- NARRATOR: And a cold-blooded motive rises to the surface.
- TONY: I knew they had money issues,
and so it could've definitely been financial.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Five days after Edwin Daniels
was found brutally stabbed to death
inside his Deltona, Florida home,
investigators discovered that Edwin's wife,
Latoya Woodard, had been hiding a secret affair.
- It was significant that she's not telling us that
right at the time of the murder, she was seeing someone.
She's hiding that from us. Why would she do that?
Is it because she's worried that he did it
and could get into trouble?
Is she worried that we're gonna now find out the motive?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: With Latoya's 26-year-old lover
Allen Roberson refusing to cooperate with law enforcement,
detectives work to build their case against Latoya
with the evidence they have on hand.
- The crime scene detective, Pete Bethea,
he was going over all of the photographs
of the clothing, and he notices that
the victim's clothing appears to have these
kind of unique circle stab wounds,
kind of like a pattern, you know, through the shirt.
- NARRATOR: While examining the clothes,
Detective Bethea makes a significant finding.
The hole pattern on the shirt
appears to match the cheese knife
retrieved from Latoya's kitchen.
- ♪
- The exact measurements from the distance between
the two prongs on the knife, the hole marks on his shirt,
he was able to notice the correlation
from the knife and the holes.
- That made me start thinking that
that knife was the one that was used,
and I believe the medical examiner's office
was also notified of the possibility
of that being the murder weapon.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators also reexamined
photos taken of the injury to Latoya's knee.
- PETER: When I was going over those photos,
I saw the injury just above the knee
and what appeared to be consistency between
that injury and the cheese knife
that was collected from the sink.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When Detective Bethea takes a closer look
at the clothes Latoya wore the night of the murder,
he notices something else.
- I observed blood on her shirt.
We reached out to Leroy Parker,
who is a expert in blood spatter analysis.
He agreed that the person wearing the shirt
had to be in the vicinity
at the time that the incident occurred.
- NARRATOR: For investigators, it's even more proof
that Latoya's lies have finally caught up with her.
- It's confirmed that the-- the blood on Latoya's shirt
is, in fact, Edwin's blood.
- This definitely shows that she was with Edwin
when he was being murdered
and not upstairs asleep in bed as she claims.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Based on the evidence,
police believe that when Edwin arrived home
with the food requested by his wife,
he was ambushed.
- Latoya and Edwin's physical stature
is not much different, so it would've been easy
for her to overpower him if he's coming in the door
and not expecting this to happen.
- PETER: He was obviously attacked in the hallway.
Whether he was coming or going out of that hallway,
I would think that he was probably coming in
because, you know, the food nearby.
- HEATHA: He certainly did fight,
but he's caught off-guard.
It's by someone he loves who's armed with a knife.
It's hard to defend yourself against a knife.
- NARRATOR: Believing the motive for the murder revolves around
the affair between Latoya and Allan,
detectives acquire the couple's phone records.
- SHON: Between April 1st and the 14th,
there was 91 contacts between the two of them,
which is way more than Latoya had contact with
her own husband on her phone.
We also learned that Latoya and Allan,
they texted a lot and every day.
We learned that Latoya would call him,
call him, as in Allan, her king,
and Allan would call her his goddess.
They would tell each other they loved each other.
- There was talk about a pregnancy and a miscarriage.
Never any discussion of that
in the text messages with her husband,
but there is discussion where's she's texting
Allan Roberson saying,
"I feel like a failure as a woman,"
talking about her miscarriage.
So it was clearly a serious relationship.
- NARRATOR: While the affair
provides a clear reason for the crime,
police also consider a second possible motive.
- Edwin, he had a $100,000 Prudential life insurance,
he had it through his work, and Latoya tried to claim
relatively soon after Edwin was murdered.
- TONY: I can only speculate, and this is my personal opinion.
I knew they had money issues,
and so it could've definitely been financial or money issues.
- NARRATOR: With this information in hand,
detectives try once again to get Allan Roberson to talk.
- I have the power of subpoena
at the State Attorney's office as part of an investigation.
I can compel people to come in.
However, in order to compel you to come in,
I have to give you immunity,
because you might incriminate yourself.
We're now in September of 2018, and Allan does show up
as compelled by the court, and at that time, uh,
he agrees that he will cooperate and be interviewed
by myself and the detectives.
I explained to him he has immunity.
Anything he tells me can't be used against him,
that he has to, uh, testify.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up, Allan finally shares
his side of the story with investigators.
- We confront him with those text messages,
and he doesn't remember. He minimizes it.
- NARRATOR: And Edwin's family learns the shocking cruelty
of a homemaker turned homewrecker.
- We had no idea the severity of the trauma that he took.
- SALLY: We just broke down and cried.
People we didn't even know in there was crying with us.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After months of trying to get
Latoya Woodard's lover Allan Roberson to cooperate
in the murder investigation of Edwin Daniels,
a subpoena has finally compelled him to meet with police
on September 6th, 2018.
- We then talked to him, and he was, um,
he was less than truthful, we'll say.
- ♪
- Through the interview, we asked him a lot of questions,
and a majority of his answers were, "I don't remember."
He also denied his relationship as serious with Latoya.
- Of course, we had all of his text messages,
which tell a very different story,
and we confront him with those text messages,
and he doesn't remember, he minimizes it.
- Almost every question, he doesn't remember.
It was clear to all of us that he was trying to protect her.
- NARRATOR: When police asked Allan where he was
the night of the murder,
he claims he was home with his mother and sister.
- NARRATOR: After the interview,
authorities are able to confirm Allan's alibi.
- HEATHA: They talk to his family,
and his phone records and his Google records show
that his phone was being used and active,
and we're talking in the time frame of the murder, at home.
It was all leading us to realize here's a motive.
She was having an affair with somebody
that she was deeply in love with
and wanted to continue a relationship with
as well as it was the life insurance policy.
So that may have factored in as well.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Unable to place Allan at the scene,
police are now confident enough in their case against Latoya
to issue a warrant for her arrest
for the murder of Edwin Daniels on November 15th, 2018.
- ♪
- SHON: She was arrested in an apartment complex
in Port Orange, Florida, where her mom,
Terry McQueen, was living now. She had moved at this point.
So she was taken down there in the parking lot.
- CLAUDETTE: It was an amazing day, that day.
The investigators that's working on the case, um,
gave us a call that she was, um, apprehended and arrested
for second-degree murder of Edwin,
so we were overjoyed.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On February 4th, 2020,
Edwin's family piles into a DeLand, Florida courtroom
for the first day of Latoya's murder trial.
- There were a lot of people who, uh, loved
and still love Edwin, so they were actually coming
to every single court date.
I had generally, like, 10 to 15 family members
coming to every court date.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors contend Latoya killed her husband
for his life insurance policy
and to be with her boyfriend, Allan Roberson.
- Nineteen witnesses testify, and everything went smooth.
I presented all of the evidence of their relationship before,
but also their relationship after the murder.
She's having contacts, too, with Allan Roberson,
through phone calls and through jail messages.
She was still in a relationship with him.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Through graphic photos from the murder scene
and the autopsy report, prosecutors point out
the enormously violent nature of the crime.
- We had no idea the severity of the trauma
that was, you know, that he--that he took.
To see your loved one, you know,
cut from one place to the next place,
to see his skin, you know, out of his arm
or out of his neck, um, you know, to see his eyes like that,
um, it's--it's...it's sickening.
- FLORIE: I couldn't stay inside there to see
those pictures of my son laying there stabbed
and all that blood. I had to be in a different room.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When Latoya's attorneys present their defense,
they do their best to shift the blame.
- The defense's argument was that
Latoya didn't do it and maybe Allan Roberson did it.
- NARRATOR: But prosecutors tell the jury
the evidence shows that Allan was in his home
at the time of Edwin's murder.
- This idea that Allan did it
and she had no idea about it just didn't make any sense,
obviously because of the cell phone information
and his family, but also because
why would she continue this relationship
if unwittingly and unknowingly he murdered her husband?
- NARRATOR: On February 7th, 2020, the jury retires
to determine Latoya's fate.
- HEATHA: The judge read the jurors the law,
and then they went and deliberated.
They found her guilty as charged,
and that was of second-degree murder.
- SHON: Latoya Woodard had her sentencing,
and judge sentenced her to life in prison.
- We just broke down and cried.
People we didn't even know in there was crying with us.
- We were relieved, really, very thankful
and grateful that justice was served.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While Edwin's family receives the verdict
that they hoped for, it does little to soothe the pain
caused by Latoya's actions.
- Oh, my god, she took your heart away.
Ripped you, she did.
Knowing that you raised your child from a baby,
and for somebody to slaughter your child like that
is not easy. She took everything out of me.
- We still grieving for him because
I'd rather not sit here and do this with you.
I'd rather have him next to me.
- TONY: One of my reasons for doing this
and wanting to do this is to help other families.
If your relationship is in trouble, seek some help.
Get somebody to talk to.
Talk to them about it because little things become
big things that become complex things
that can really destroy families and lives forever.
- ♪