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total shock and disbelief. i mean, this is not happening. am i having a nightmare? >> it was so sudden. >> that moment is engrained in my memory. time stood still. >> a wife and mom collapsed and gone. >> and i go to run to her, and she's cold. >> her death baffled the experts. a heart attack? a seizure? could it have even been her new tan? >> it was the first time for a spray tan, and chiapased away a few hours later. >> finally, investigators had an answer. this mystery, they said, was murder. >> we were in complete shock. >> curious evidence. >> suspicious markings on her

neck. >> strange behavior. >> he went from hysterical to calm. >> the trial had everything. exploding emotions, a secret affair. >> did you have an affair. yes, and my husband is well aware of it. >> even an identical twin. five years of suspicion comes down to one moment. >> we the jury -- >> i think that anyone can imagine what it's like to love someone so much, then be charged with their murder? it's unfathomable. >> keith morrison reports on a cliff-hanger of a case. in an instant. thanks for joining us. i'm lester holt. the papers called it the spray tan murder trial, but could a spray tan really be to blame for a young mother's puzzling death? the questions in this case started early one morning with a dramatic call for help and ended five years later with an equally

dramatic verdict in court. here's keith morrison. >> the story, when it hit the news, sounded almost crazy. >> killed by a spray tan. >> claiming his wife died after an allergic reaction to a spray tan. >> they try to blame her death on a reaction to a spray tan. and thus a myth was born. the case of the spray tan defense. what a headline. that was a strange tale. and it is true that a spray tan did play a part in what could be murder. the true story about ha happened here in miami was far more troubling, tragic and bizarre than thiany headline, and it al happened so fast. >> business was good, beautiful house. great friends, and then it changed in an instant, like that. like that. to begin with, there was a brand

newtown, an upscale suburb with green lawns and trophy boats that skirts miami. and among the families was the kaufman clan. ing my rants a generation ago from new york. jerry kaufman came first. >> we're four brothers. lots of children and grandchildren. family's been very close for generations. >> and pretty soon, it was a magnet for a big and ever bigger kaufman family, including these two, the twins. jerry's nephews. identical, like two halves of one person. saturday tried to describe it like the day adam cut his finger. >> we're both screaming and my mom said seth, why are you crying so hysterically. and i said because it hurts. and it was adam's finger. so i truly believe we do feel

each other's pain. >> they were teachers first. big teachers, for little kids. >> we both started teaching pre-k. because there were no jobs available at the time. >> try to imagine you with 4-year-olds. >> kind of like kindergarten cop with arnold schwarzenegger, but it was a lot of fun and rewarding. >> but type offing didn't pay the bills so they joined the family business, real estate. but they looked like bouncers, big, burley men. and suckers for love. >> she was my soul mate. we had an instant connection. >> adam fell first for a remarkable young woman everybody called lena. grew up in israel, met adam at work and quickly decided that he was the twin for her. and he? >> i knew right away that this was the girl i wanted to spend

the rest of my life with. >> what did she do for you? i mine -- >> she is absolutely spectacular, i mean, beautiful. she's a head turner. she's got class. and, you know, you have this poor shrub from new york, you meet a woman like this, you've got to jump on that opportunity. so i did my best. and something worked. >> so what would people see when they saw you and lena walking down the street together? >> happy. the happiest time of my life. i had everything i ever wanted in a woman. caring. loving. giving. she's my best friend. >> they got married in march 2000. before long, they had a girl and a boy, a nice house in a gated community, a big, extended family they saw all the time. and, as adam's mother elaine saw it, a remarkably happy and untroubled relationship. >> there was just so much

harmony in that marriage. he absolutely adored her. and she adored him. and she would tell me all the time, you know, he's so cute, mom. >> if i said, you know, lena, the guys want to go out tonight and grab a drink or go get a steak. no problem. go. there was never an argument about me spending time with my friends. there's really nothing that i would have changed about our relationship. nothing. >> then it was seth's turn. >> and here comes this brazilian girl who is loud. >> that was rakell, and seth was smitten, adam and lena too. the four became inseparable. >> we traveled together. on the weekends we were together. restaurants, everything, family events. it was the four of us. >> like you had a sister, too. >> yes. yeah. really did. i mean, we truly talked about and enjoyed everything together,

everything. and it had to be that way. because adam and seth are so close. >> so, you get the picture. it was a sweet spot in life. too sweet, too perfect to last. it was november 6, 2007, seth and raquel were getting married. lena was to be a brides maid. so she got her first ever spray tan to look her best. hours after that is when it all came crashing down in an instant. and this big, happy family suddenly plunged into a very dark place. it was a little after 6:00 the next morning said adam kaufman when he woke up and realized lena wasn't next to him in bed. he walked into the bathroom, he said. and there she was. >> i go to run to her, and it's just in slow motion as i go to her. and i touch her, and she's cold. i'm screaming. lena, lena, wake up! >> that's when he made that frantic call to 911.

>> my wife's in the bathroom dying! >> he was hysterical. >> i need to you calm down. i can't understand what you're saying. >> my wife is in the bathroom. she's in the bathroom. she's on the floor dying. i doesn't know what's going on. >> okay. she's not breathing? >> no! >> a million things are going through my mind. and all i'm focused on is getting her help. >> please, please [ bleep ] oh, my god. oh, my god. >> the 911 operator tried to instruct him in cpr, but it wasn't working. 23 minutes went by that way. >> you know how many times in your life seconds feel like minutes? this felt like hours. >> then the medics finally arrived, shooed adam out of the way, started work on lena. adam phoned his twin brother seth. >> adam was on the other end of the line frantically screaming my name.

get over here quick, lena's not breathing. >> seth and his fiance hided to the house as emts did everything they could to coax life back into hear body. >> and adam is pacing back and forth, and screaming oh, my god, oh, my god, please go to my kids. >> raquel got the baby out of the crib and went into the 4-year-old's room. she was laying on the floor playing with her toys and she said did mommy ask you to come babysit me because she wasn't feeling well? and i said yes. >> lena was being rushed out of the house into the hospital and they could not save her and adam was a mess, destroyed. what on earth had happened to lena. and the big question, did someone close make it happen? when we come back, you know where this is going. a husband now under suspicion. >> the whole scene together for

fire rescue was like this is not adding up. >> when, "in an instant continues ". at air wick, our lavender and chamomile fragrance contains the natural essential oils of 40 lavender flowers that are gently infused into every precious bottle. lavender and chamomile fragrance. part of air wick's scented oils collection.

you immediately feel that you've lost half of you, your soul. your heart. i couldn't, i couldn't believe that that was true. >> adam kaufman insisted he had no idea what killed lena. she was so active, seemed so healthy. how could a 33-year-old go to the bathroom at night and just

drop dead? didn't make sense to the emts either. something didn't look right. which is why detective anthony angullo was called in to take a look at this medical mystery. he never investigated a homicide before, but could this be his first? even a rookie knows a husband is a potential suspect when a wife drops dead. and certain things about adams story that morning seemed off. >> i mean, the whole scene together for fire rescue was like, this is not adding up. >> and it wouldn't to kathleen hoag either. for starters, adam said he'd been in asleep in bid just before finding lena. but some of the first responders say he was fully dressed when they arrived. >> no one sleeps dressed. even to the fact that one of the officers recognized that he had cologne on and he had his watch

on. >> as if he'd been out all night or something. >> or at least up. >> another officer reported the hood of adam's car parked in the garage felt warm to the touch as if he'd just been driving it. >> being warm kind of lends it to being driven. >> and when the detective looked in the bedroom, did his eyes deceive him? or was one side of the bed undisturbed. as if it hadn't been slept in? so what was adam's story about how he found his wife in the bathroom again? turns out, it was a little unclear. >> he told the first captain that he went into the bathroom and saw her slumped over the toilet. >> uh-huh. >> after that he made a statement where he said that she was slumped over the magazine rack. >> the other way. >> yes. >> strange. isn't that what guilty people do? change their story? but more than anything, it was something on lena's body that just might tell what happened to her.

some nasty looking bruises on her neck. those and other signs of trauma suggested that lena's death wasn't from natural causes. it looked like she'd been strangled. >> something has happened which has cut off the air supply and created the pressure such that you get these, you know, marks in your eyes. >> when somebody has caused their airway to be closed. >> mm-hm. >> in other words, doesn't just happen just by itself. >> not usually. >> so the picture coming together was not of an unexplained death said the prosecutor but the story of a husband who came out from a now out and suddenly snapped. that panic on the 911 call could be the sound of a man realizing he had just done the unthinkable. >> it could also be that, you know, this man ended up strangling his wife, all right, freaked out over what he did, didn't necessarily mean to do it, but, you know, it happened, because he's twice her size and

a whole lot stronger than she is. and whatever set him off, set him off. >> but, did they arrest him? no. that, if it happened at all, would have to wait for an autopsy report, hard evidence. and so, ten days after lena's death when seth and raquel went ahead with their wedding, police were paying attention. >> and judaism, in particular, we celebrate life before death. >> adam was there, made a speech, even cracked a few jokes about his brother. >> and he just wanted for his brother, his twin brother, to have somewhat of a good time at his wedding. >> but looked at another way, it seemed to the police somehow suspicious. as it did when a couple months after lena's death adam seemed to be dating again. so they kept an eye on him and waited for the medical examiner to issue his autopsy report.

waited for months, a year, longer. this was not like some slick miami tv show. bureaucracies don't work so fast in real life. but then it was april, 2009. quite suddenly, decision day. coming up, was lena kaufman murdered? >> they pointed out suspicious markings on her neck. >> or is there another explanation, something to do with that spray tan? >> has the fda received complaints of seizures by people

17 months after that desperate november morning when adam kaufman claimed he was still in the dark, no clue, he

said, as to how his lena died. he said dozens of calls to the medical examiner's office went unanswered. so finally he called the state board of examiners to complain. >> very nice guy said i will look into it, get back to you as soon as possible. >> and the very next day there was a ruling on the cause of lena's death, but no one told adam, not yet. it was a week later, a sultry tuesday evening. adam was working at a new ice crime shop he and hayes brother opened during those boom to bust days for developers. >> in walked police, and that was not uncommon. police always frequent our shop. and i looked back down. and i see red dots on my shirt. all over my shirt. i look back up. and then i see about 15 police officers, swat officers in the store, and i see them, there he is, and they're pointing at me.

and i'm, like, me. and they jump over-the-counter, throw me down to the ground. and i'm like, what's going on. in walks a gentleman, plain clothes. comes up to me and says, leans down on the floor and says remember me? >> it was detective anthony angu angu angullo asking the question. >> he says i don't want you to say a word. real nasty. he said you're under arrest for the murder of your wife. again, time froze. and i said what, are you kid -- total shock and disbelief and awe. this is not happening. this is a joke. this is a nightmare. am i having a nightmare? >> the medical examiner ruled the cause of lena's death was mechanical asphyxiation, that she'd been choked to death by a

person, and now adam was being charged with second degree murder. they took him to the dade county jail, locked him away. >> i'm thinking to myself, this is a mistake. this can't be happening. >> but it was happening. days turned to weeks, weeks to months. reality sunk in. adams wi was accused of murder. >> what was your level of confidence or lack of it as you were sitting in jail waiting. >> i was sitting in jail saying when are they going to realize what happened? they're going to find out the cause of death and release me. i was waiting for that. it didn't come. >> for the past year and a half, the children had no mother. now they had no father. finally, after adam had been in jail three months his attorneys arranged a bond hearing, and as so often happens in florida, it turned into a mini trial, the state printing their evidence against adam. this big strong man, only man in

the house strangled his wife and lied to cover it up? the state played that 911 call in a courtroom packed with adam's family, many of whom were hearing it for the first time. as the tape continued to play, one family member couldn't take it and passed out. >> there's a nurse attending, so i think you should proceed. >> oh, my god! >> so this was raw stuff, seldom seen in miami courtrooms. >> were you present? >> the first witness was detective angullo who revealed he'd been vetting adam since that very first morning. >> i examined the body. present were a cull other officers. they pointed out suspicion markings on her neck. >> and there were something else. >> i did observe petechial markings in her eyes.

>> what does that present to you? >> suffocation. >> detective angullo said he was sure he'd gotten his man. had been suspicious since he talked to adam at the hospital. >> he seemed upset at one point, then the other minute he was very angry. i could see his jaw muscles clinch. obviously disturbed. but it was strange going from being upset to angry. >> and where had adam been earlier that night? not sleeping, investigators thought, remember, his side of the bed looked, to them, undisturb undisturbed. but on lena's side? there were unusual smudges. >> the staining appears to be on the actual pillow itself and just below the pillow where the body would lie. >> they were stains from the spray tan lena got the previous evening when she wanted to look her best for seth kaufman's wedding ten days later. defense attorneys seized on that evidence and perhaps without

intending to made their case famous overnight. >> they called in a witness ronald wright. >> has the fda received complaints of seizures by people who have undergone spray tanning? >> yes. >> do you believe that the spray tan material should have been investigated for potentially causing an allergic reaction? >> oh, sure. i mine, we don't know exactly what happened to mrs. kaufman. we know that she collapsed of the we know she asphyxiated. but we don't know why any of that happened. and certainly, there's a real possibility that that could have been caused by this exposure to the tanner. she's got it all over her hands. it certainly raises the possibility of an allergic reaction caused by that. >> she gets her first spray tan the night before chiapass away? why not investigate it? stranger things have happened.

it would be negligent on our part not to do that. it was certainly negligent on their part not to test it. >> it became known far and wide as the spray tan defense. but the idea that lena's death might have been caused by an allergic reaction, one more ridiculed than serious consideration. >> it was almost comical. >> but they had a point. i miean, it was never tested, right? to see if there was a possibility that that could have caused it. >> there was some testing for the heck of it, but even the doctor they put on the stand couldn't ascribe to that theory. i guess it sounded sexy, but it was not feasible. >> the judge was not persuade either. adam would stay in jail, no bond. his family was devastated. twin brother seth left in tears. but shortly after that hearing in one of those rare moments, the judge had a change of heart. it was just after father's day. >> the judge said -- he used the

term i had a catharsis. he said, i'm going to let this boy go home to his kids. great day. >> except adam would have to wear an electronic ankle monitor, a stark reminder he was not a free man. and the real trial was yet to come. when we come back, evidence about marks on lena kaufman's neck and torso. marks her best friend said she didn't see the night before when lena showed off her new tan. >> you said shy took off her jacket? >> yes, she did. >> was she nude underneath her jacket? >> yes, she was. >> did you notice any marks on her body at all? >> no. >> when "in an instant continues." the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come.

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four and a half years after he buried his wife lena came the day of reckoning for adam kaufman. here he was charged with send degree murder, accused of killing her in the bathroom of their florida home. >> ladies and gentlemen of the jury you have been selected and sworn as the jury to try the

state of florida versus adam kaufman. >> as they had been since lena's death, adam was surrounded by his protective family, including his twin, seth. the family was terrified. he was facing up to life in prison if convicted. >> i was really worried. bottom line is, the fate of my twin brother rests in the hands of 12 people i don't know. >> joe mansfield methodically laid out the state's case for the jury. there was, he argued, only one possible way to explain lena's death. >> lena kaufman died as a result of mechanical asphyxiation to her neck. and the defendant, her husband, is the one that did it. >> that ultimate evidence would be scientific, medical, said the prosecutor, but he wanted jurors to keep in mind the obvious. adam kaufman was the only adult home at the time of lena's death, giving him the

opportunity to kill her. and with his body-builder strength, the wherewithal, too. on top of that, adam couldn't keep his story straight said the prosecutor, version one came from the 911 call when adam said he found lena on the floor. >> she's not breathing? >> no! she's on the floor! dying! >> but the fire rescue lieutenant said he found lena somewhere else in the bathroom. >> he told me word for word that he found her slumped over the toilet and he indicated if she was vomiting kneeled in front of the toilet with her head down in front of the toilet. >> but later at the hospital he overheard him saying something different entirely. >> why did you take notice of it? >> because it was completely different from the other story he told me. this time he mentioned being slumped over a magazine rack. >> she wanted jurors to know about adam's puzzling behavior

that morning and called a firefighter to the stand. >> he went from hysterical to calm. >> his demeanor or his emotions fluctuated? >> yes, ma'am. >> from hysterical to calm? >> yes, ma'am. >> and there were those other unusual things, said the first responders, that they just couldn't help but notice, like how they'd seen adam kaufman dressed, not at all like someone who said he'd just woke up. >> it stood out for me that mr. kaufman was completely dressed, and he was just doing cpr, how does he have shoes, clothes on and why is she completely naked? it just didn't sit right. it didn't seem normal. >> if, as adam said, he'd been home all night, why was the front of his mercedes warm to the touch? >> i put my hand on the hood and felt that it was extremely warm. >> and of course there were those marks on lena's neck and torso. they were fresh, said the prosecutor. they weren't there the evening

before when she showed her best friend her spray-on tan. >> you said she took off her jacket? >> yes, she did. >> was she nude underneath her jacket? >> yes, she was. >> did you notice any marks on her body at all? >> no. >> and the officer gave a stark description of the indentations he observed on lena's neck. >> it was consistent, consistent with fingertip sized markings. >> and they called crime scene investigator anna howl. she testified about what she saw on lena's hands. >> the nail polish on the middle finger and middle finger were chipped. >> were those chipped nails evidence of a struggle that morning? and then prosecutors presented the man they considered the most important witness of all, the senior medical examiner who determined the manner of death. >> what would be the manner of death? >> homicide. >> why would it be a homicide? >> this mechanical asphyxiation could only occur at the hands of

somebody else. >> somebody else? >> yes, somebody else. >> and just to be sure there was no doubt lena was murdered, the prosecution admitted evidence that she couldn't have died of heart failure. they called a witness about breast implants months before her death. >> she was a healthy woman. >> they wanted to point out he wasn't disfraught. >> you maid comment about his wedding ring. >> i did. i asked him if he was married. he said that his wife had passed. and i said so when do you think you're going to be ready to take that off. >> at some point did you guys become intimate? >> yes. >> but as the state's case began to wind down prosecutors would have no idea what would stick with the jury other than their star csi witness was about to blow up on them. >> isn't it true, ma'am, that

you've previously had an intimate sexual relationship with detective angullo? >> coming up, fireworks from a witness and from the victim's mother. >> and, is the prosecution's case about to completely unravel? when dateline continues. and exhilarate. nspire make you smile. calm you down. lift you up to feeling more. our 37 unique fragrances spark every emotion imaginable. what will glade inspire in you? sc johnson, a family company. saffect over 1 million homes a year and can cost thousands of dollars to repair. thankfully, rid-x has enzymes to break down waste and time-released bacteria to reduce tank buildup. rid-x. #1 in septic maintenance. and now for rvs too!

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biased, incompetent, flawed. >> the way adam kaufman's attorney saw it prosecutors had put on a good show for the defense. >> you will hear that this is a prosecution in search of a crime. an innocent man has been falsely charged with a crime that did not occur which he did not commit. >> no crime at all, said the defense attorney, certainly not murder. the defense's claim? that lena blacked out, collapsed, fell neck first onto a magazine rack. a freak set of events that caused her death. a theory he could have proven if it had not been for incompetent investigators. lead detective angullo directed her to disregard a key piece ever evidence. >> he told you not to take those items of evidence, those magazines into custody, is that

right? >> right. >> the magazines to the rack said the defense were the key to the mystery. they would have proven that lena fell thayer, because they would have been stained by her fresh spray-on tan. >> i think the failure to collect the magazines, in and of itself could constitute reasonable doubt. you never fail to take in to custody evidence. >> in fact, said adam's lawyer, the police were so determined to prove this was a murder, they misread the scene entirely. >> these photographs prior to -- >> like for example when howell told the court she found chipped polish on lena's nails. >> the polish on her middle finger and index finger were chipped. >> suggestion? that lena's husband attacked her and she fought for her life. but the defense hired its own crime scene expert to look at that tiny bathroom space. >> did you find any signs of a struggle inside of the house?

>> i found nothing that would indicate anything like that. >> but to be fair, said the defense, howell wasn't the only one who screwed up that morning. >> i put my hand on the hood, and i felt that it was extremely warm. >> a police officer said the hood of adam's car was warm to the touch. but the defense answered, of course the car hood was warm. it was locked in a garage on a hot miami night, evidence of nothing. >> mr. kaufman was completely dressed. >> they tried the same tack with those emergency workers, they said adam didn't seem to them to be a man who rolled out of bed to find his wife unconscious. they insisted he was fully clothed. and yet, that's not what the very first responder witnessed. >> i saw a man on top of a woman attempting what looked like cpr. >> what was the man wearing when you entered the room? >> at that time he was wearing boxes and a tee shirt.

>> what they saw was his identical twin who arrived perfectly dressed minutes after that 911 call ended. but really what stuck in the craw of adam's lawyers was that medical examiner who ruled lena's death a homicide. why did it take a year and a half to call it that? because he said he was pressured into it by police. co-counsel ripped into the doctor. >> detective anthony angullo had been pushing to you rule it a homicide, isn't that true? >> objection, urn. >> that's, that's not true, counselor, and you know it. >> and the defense used lena's autopsy photos to make the case for its own theory, that she died accidently. >> there are these marks on the undersurface of the chin. these match the spines of the magazine in terms of a contact mark >> this former medical examiner testified for the defense that

the pressure on her neck would have clearly blocked her airflow, killing her, but it was why the defense said she collapsed. that was the real shocker. >> these cells should not be here. >> he said he took apart her heart and found scarring. this is active -- >> scarring of the heart that the state medical examiner never found, heart disease. the doctor explained to a riveted courtroom that lena likely had no idea just how sick she was until her heart suddenly gave out that morning. >> the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> and then just for good measure, the defense called someone else with star power to the stand. >> congestive heart failure and all that. >> dr. michael baden. he reviewed lena's autopsy file and said to him, there was no question about it. >> there was no murder. she died of natural causes. >> even lena's own mother said

she tried to tell detectives that her daughter had suffered frequent fainting spells, that it might have been an accident. but they wouldn't listen. >> how many calls were made to the detective trying to reach him? >> my son, my ex-husband. and myself. i had to call them too. i assume it was about 25 calls. maybe more. >> it was something you rarely see, a grieving mother defending the man accused of killing her daughter. she said adam was and is like a son to her. >> we are very close than usual, even more close than before. >> you love adam? >> like my own son. >> and it's happened a number of times during the trial, a state witness wound up winning points for the defense. adam's so-called love interest, for example. though it wasn't quite like that. yes, they dated for a while, but adam wasn't going to get deeply involved she learned.

>> adam wasn't emotionally available, which he always made clear from the very start. >> finally, one last loose end. remember csi anna howell? earlier she testified that she, a married woman, had only a working relationship with lead detective angullo. >> when you've been off duty, you socialize with detective angullo? >> no, sir. >> no? >> but the very next day, she was called back to the stand and had to admit she hadn't told the truth. >> you knew you had misrepresented your relationship to this jury on the stand under oath. >> that wasn't part of the case. >> yes or no, ma'am, is that true? >> yes. >> thank you. >> in fact, the two had had an affair. >> are you married? >> yes. >> did you have an affair with detective angullo? >> yes, and my husband is well aware of it, sir, and i am happily married, and i don't have any issues with that any longer. >> and she said the old affair never affected her work, and with that she stormed out of the

courtroom. to the defense, it was clear that she and angullo were in cahoots. the detective who never took the stand in this trial could not be trusted. in his closing, the lawyers said it was adam who was the real victim of a lousy police investigation. >> they bungled this investigation beyond recognition to adam's detriment, causing the false charges to be lodged against him in this case. >> but it was one person the court didn't hear from who maybe mattered most. adam kaufman. he opted not to take the stand in his defense. but he wanted to speak to us. >> the problem with this case comes down to one word -- investigation. a rookie detective working his first homicide, a fellow in the medical examiner's office not doing a thorough autopsy.

>> she has two beautiful grand children. >> more infuriating he said was the prosecutor's claimna lena's mother was only standing by him so he'd let her see her grandchildren. that outraged lena's mother. >> you think she's going to go against him? >> you accusing me of lies? >> one of the prosecutors in his closing went after your family. >> that's right. >> and basically said that your mother-in-law was a captive of your family. could do nothing to express her real opinion because otherwise she'd be left out in the cold. >> how dare he go after lena's mother. lena's mother. who bravely came into that courthouse and stood up for the son-in-law that's charged with second degree murder of her daughter. >> his mother-in-law's show of loyalty was striking. but would it be enough to impress the jurors and save

adam? coming up. >> i know i have the truth on my side. >> evidence of a

nearly five years have passed since lena kaufman's death, and now her husband adam was about to learn his fate at the miami courthouse. two possibilities now, an immediate handcuffed escort to spend up to the rest of his life in prison, or instant and permanent freedom in the arms of his family. >> i had my entire family there with support. that's why i was able to walk into that courtroom every day

holding my head up high, because i know i have the truth on my side. >> but prosecutor kathleen hogue believed her side had presented the real truth, that adam had choked lena to death after an argument early that morning at their home. >> there was evidence of strangulation, the proof is there. it didn't happen by itself. >> now adam and his twin brother and family all watched as the jury left to deliberate. >> i just wanted a fair trial. because i knew once all the evidence was presented that there's no way that 12 people can sit there -- i don't care who you are. >> they were gone. nothing you could do about it. >> jurors said they were ready for the task ahead. jennings is a court certified mediator, he became a natural choice to be foreman. >> did you call for a vote right away? >> not initially. we took time to go through each piece of evidence and

deliberate, deliberate. >> here, with permission of the court is the actual jury room where we would see how they literally weighed the evidence. >> i drew try scales on the chalkboard. to the right would be broken as innocent and broken as guilty. we tried to fit everything in that to come one a decision. >> they paid close attention to the conflicting testimony from those different medical examiners. but more than anything, the jurors were determined to listen to that 911 call one more time, very carefully. >> it's much easier to hear that within the confines of a jury room when there's all of us hauling around a laptop. it had been a month since we listened to that 911 call. >> my wife's in the bathroom dying. >> and when they listened, they said, they heard a man who wasn't changing his story but was simply beside himself and utterly confused. >> you know, obviously when you first hear it in the openings, he said i don't know what's

going on, over and over again. when we listened to it in the jury room you think, man, this is just a terrified man that really has no idea what's going on. >> and after eight hour the of deliberation they had reached their verdict. >> we the jury of miami dade, florida, the defendant is not guilty. >> adam's family and friends burst with emotion. >> so what was that like? >> i'll tell you. i didn't hear her reading it. i put my head down, and all i could think about were lena and my kids. i hear not guilty. and i hear crying in the back. >> that's it? >> that's it. it's over. it's over, it's over. a finality. >> later, adam and seth pose for pictures, holding the jury charge sheet with those words he longed to hear -- not guilty.

the very words miami prosecutors had dreaded. they spent a huge a resources on this case and lost. and the jury foreman told us he believed the case should not have gone to trial at all. >> why did the state bring this case to trial? when there's such evidence that said no, don't do this. adam kaufman is innocent. he's not not guilty. adam kaufman is innocent. >> i don't apologize for the case. i'm not going to. >> you believe a murderer has gotten away with it. >> he's not the first one. won't be the last. that guy paid a lot of money for a defense, and he got it. and he's a very lucky man. >> given what he's been through, lucky might not be the word adam would use. still, he says he's not angry, not bitter. >> i can only move forward. i can't move backwards. i can only move forward and do the right things for my family, my children, myself. >> and as for the team that tried to put him away --

>> the discovery that the people who were, who were looking for evidence against you had been actually having an affair. >> right. >> and maybe couldn't be relied on to tell the truth. >> that's right. >> what was that like? >> poetic justice? things happen for a reason. i'm a firm believer of that. and lena's spirit was definitely with us during this trial. and she was watching over it. >> lena. he will always remember lena, he said. and the love he lost in one instant that november morning. >> where do you put her now? >> she's with me every day. every day. you know, there's not a day that goes by that i don't think about her. the kids think about her. she'll always have a place in my heart. we have pictures of her all over the home. our wedding photos, our, just pictures of her so the children will never forget who their mother was and is. and she's still a very big part

of their lives. every day. that's all for r holt. thanks for joining us. next on "meet the press," our focus is on the search for solutions to key crises around the u.s. and the world. the first ever known ebola patient on u.s. soil is now being treated at an atlanta hospital. what's his prognosis? and how is the u.s. government responding? i'll ask the head of the centers for disease control. no end in sight to the war in the middle east. strong backi ining for israel f president obama. plus, your government at work, not working. the most do-nothing congress ever heads for vacation. tempers flare on the house floor. will anything get done on the country's most pressing problems? >> from nbc news in

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