48 Hours: Every picture tells a story

Alec McNaughton is either the smartest man in the courtroom... or the dumbest. The alleged killer is about to gamble his freedom on his way with words.

He can't get death, but he could get life as he takes the stand in his own defense.

"I hoped that Mr. McNaughton would take the stand," Prosecutor Kevin McMurry says. "He underestimates everyone else, overestimates his own abilities, and the result is he's easily trapped in his lies."

Defense Lawyer Michael Kam wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter.

Michael Kam: Alec, did you kill your wife, Cathy McNaughton?

Alec McNaughton: No.

It was Kam's only question.

Immediately, Prosecutor McMurry begins tearing apart McNaughton's story about where he was on the day his wife was murdered.

"He wasn't as smart as he thought he was," McMurry says.

McNaughton has always maintained that, at 2:30 p.m. that day, he was already at his mother's house an hour away in Sandy Springs, Ga., when he called home and left a message. But the cell phone records show he was actually within a few miles of his home.

Prosecutor Curry: You were not in Sandy Springs at 2:33 p.m. on February 15, 2009, isn't that true?

Alec McNaughton: It's not true. I was... I was at my mother's.

Prosecutor Curry: So those records are wrong.

Alec McNaughton: They are.

"That phone call was absolutely critical to this case from the very beginning, and it was Mr. McNaughton's fatal mistake," says Curry.

McNaughton talked to police early in the investigation. Detectives poked holes in his story almost immediately. And prosecutors say McNaughton should have known better, considering he's a lawyer.

Video: Excerpts of McNaughton's police interview

"Had he not talked to the police initially, it would have been a very, very difficult case to prosecute," says Curry.

Why did he talk to police? "Because I wanted to find out who killed my wife," McNaughton tells Schlesinger. "And I would've done anything," he cries. "And so that need to find out who had killed my lovely wife overrode my legal judgment."

But Investigator Jason Fetter thinks McNaughton had another reason.

"He did his best to mislead that dumb, redneck investigator," he says.

"Who's that dumb, redneck investigator?" asks Schlesinger.

"I think that's me."

Prosecutor Curry: You told investigators that you had never hit Cathy McNaughton, but that wasn't true either.

Alec McNaughton: That is true.

Prosecutor Curry: That is untrue, isn't it?

Alec McNaughton: No, it's true.

Cathy's daughters, Michelle and Heather Mendenhall, watched McNaughton testify.

"He clearly lied about a lot of things on the stand," Michelle Mendenhall says. "I knew what the truth was."

"I can't believe my mom was married to someone like this," she continues. "Who is this person?"

Even his own lawyer can see the effect McNaughton is having on those in the courtroom

"I'm looking at the court personnel... and the expressions on their face changed," Kim says, showing they rolled their eyes.

"There are times during that cross-examination that what Mr. McNaughton said in the face of the evidence was so preposterous," says Curry.

Alec McNaughton: There was a robbery.

Prosecutor Curry: There was a robbery?

Alec McNaughton: Yes sir.

Prosecutor Curry: Was there a TV missing?

Alec McNaughton: No.

Prosecutor Curry: Was there a computer missing?

Alec McNaughton: No.

Prosecutor Curry: Was her watch taken?

Alec McNaughton: No.

"I think everyone, myself included, sought to not visibly display our disbelief," says Curry.

McNaughton denies everything his accusers say about him.

"She's lying...I did no such thing...that's not true..."

McNaughton has had his say. Now, the lawyers get their last chance to persuade the jury.

"For the first time in my career, we have a case where the victim has spoken from the dead. She recorded what has happened to her with that man," Curry addresses jurors. "And the evidence shows who killed Cathy McNaughton."

"There were no calluses on his hands, no cuts, no bruises, no blood. No DNA. The only, only verdict you can render is that Alec McNaughton is not guilty of any offense," Kim says in his closing.

The jurors begin to deliberate on what looks to most people like an open-and-shut case.

That first night, the jury goes home with no verdict. At the end of the second day, the jurors announce they've decided: Guilty of murder.

Alec McNaughton, the man Cathy once thought was her soul mate, is convicted of killing her -stabbing her more than 30 times in the home they shared.

McNaughton says he was "stunned" that he was convicted.

"I still believe that justice will prevail and my wife's killer will be found, tried, convicted and executed," he says crying.

"This is a question I ask a lot of people in your situation," Schlesinger says. "What does justice feel like?"

"It definitely doesn't do anything to fill the void that she's not here, that we'll never physically see her again," Heather replies, tearing up. "I'll never hug her again...it doesn't help those things."

It also doesn't answer one lingering question. How did a woman like Cathy - a strong woman with friends, family and money - end up a victim of domestic violence?

"I feel like if my mom had said, 'One time's enough,'' maybe she'd still be here today and I wouldn't be sitting her talking to you," she continues.

And even though it is Alec McNaughton who stands convicted, it is Heather and Michelle who are left feeling guilty.

"For a good year, that's all I felt - guilt and regret that I didn't say anything and I just kept it to myself," Michelle says. "I didn't speak out when I had the chance, and you know, you cant - it was too late."

Alec McNaughton was sentenced to life in prison.

He now is represented by a public defender and is trying to get a new trial.

Domestic Violence Resources:

National Domestic Violence Hotline: (800)799-SAFE (7233)

Partnership Against Domestic Violence (Metro Atlanta): [phone]

Battered Women: Why They Don't Leave

Valentine's Day: Does "V" Stand for Domestic Violence?

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[Ladygbuk]

I watched this movie and the things that were left out. Why didnt they have the mothers alibi, did he go to his mothers? How come there wasnt any marks on the hands of the husband ? Did they check the road from the husbads home to his mothers for the bloody clothes? They say wherever you go you leave something behind but I cant see what he left behind. He was an abuser for his previous three wives and they should have reported him long ago. Why didnt the wife tell her daughters? She had such a loving family was she so desperate to be married? No man would ever lay a hand on me and I cant understand why women let men do this.This was definitly a confusing movie and I thought about it long after the show ended. The mobile phone call was another problem. I believe he may have killed his wife because of money problems but maybe he had someone else do it. Something else to thnk about. I'm glad he is in jail regardeless of the out come he is just an abusive man.

[jmarklane]

So...was it Fetner? Or Fetter? Or Fetzer?

Seriously, cbsnews.... I mean, it's a moderately interesting article about a truly horrible crime. But the same old shoddy editing shows up in basically every piece you guys publish.

You are an embarrassment to your profession.

[jfetner]

I have been called worse!

[123Faith]

We all have to trust the police, investigators and the jury to make the right decisions. Those who doubt they nabbed the "real" killer are downright funny...please! I have some swamp land in Minnetonka Minnesota I would love to sell you!! Cathy sounds like a wonderful woman just looking for some love and a relationship after her marriage didn't work out. Too bad she got mixed up with an abuser and inevitably a killer. I am so sorry for her daughters and friends for their loss.

[beijingmaria]

Based on the conversations related with the present husband, he is the right killer,because of the very obvious trails related with this deliberated murder. Mc has already planned all, he knows more than Cathy knew him. Donot regard a person as soul mate without enough his/her backgrounds. If Cathy knew more experiences about 3 ex-wives of Mc, she should know 100% she would be the victim. "How to avoid marrying a jerk" is a nice book about marriage &safety. FYI

[loveislandliving]

If he was at his mother's house why wasn't his mother called as a witness? Is she deceased? Very confusing. Why was the ex in town? Did anybody ask and check out his story? Good grief, this episode had so many holes in the story!!!

[Jetgirl007]

I will miss you Cathy. You were a ray of sunshine among the Delta family.

[t_k_shoults]

Hey I_Hate_You_All -

Maybe Jetgirl007 did know Cathy... They both worked for Delta you IDIOT!!!

[Classof95]

To cepe10-2009 and the rest of you: May God help you all and your insensitive judgments. Cathy's daughters are reading this site. Their father, a wonderful and loving man, did not kill his ex-wife. Alec McNaughton, a demented sociopath, did. A show that airs for less than one hour and is meant to entertain -- not report news -- could not possibly address all the issues surrounding this horrifying, life changing event. Domestic violence impacts families from all walks of life. Instead of throwing out false accusations that are even more hurtful to this devastated family, consider putting your energy to something actually helpful such as raising awareness that any kind of violence against women, even just once, is never okay.

[cepe10-2009]

Um the ex husband had wounds on his hands, he was in town at the time, he was probably the one who did it, the police in this case are incompetant, they didnt even get DNA from her broken off fingernails? sound like another case where they railroad the worng person.

[katekrumm]

quick judgment--did you discern all that from a one-hour tv show? good thing the jury had over a week of evidence before they came to their conclusion.

[123Faith]

Right and maybe you think Ted Bundy was put to death but was not the "real" killer like OJ and Scott Peterson......hmmmm......it's that old adage....if it looks like a rat, walks like a rat, smells like a rat, by God, it's a rat!!! 2+2=4 any way you add it up!!!

[jayhawks23]

I might add to that I feel terrible this happened, but I'm not looking for revenge or closure, or satisfing a dead families pain of knowing who did this. But I am pointing out a ton of information you need to know before you lock somebody up for life because we need to "get" somebody. Common sense says any of these questions or ALL should be "CLEARLY" answered before he gets locked up and the key thrown away!

[jayhawks23]

This is one of the worst jobs of convicting a person I ever seen and the reporting can't be to far behind it. This show must have had its budget cut also to come up with this piece. To many questions left unanswered for to many reasons. The guy may have been a total jack*** to women but that doesn't mean he killed her. Reason to question the verdict:
1)Just because the cell phone tower was 2 miles from his house doesn't mean he was at HOME! My own cell phone records have shown many times that my signal is skipped around until it finds a tower and it may be 20-30-40 miles away, he said he was at his mothers did she not verify his time frame of being there? That never said he wasn't there? Were there any calls during that time he was gone that could be verified from down there?
2)He doesn't have a single mark on his body from an attack that resulted in a woman being stabbed 30+ times. This is the part that throws me totally. This was a very personal way of killing someone, was there no DNA in her nails from the fight? They never point out that apparently they can't find a foot print, a finger print, a smudge made in all that blood any where in that room or the house - why??? No way somebody killed her and was flying around in the house. Could have brought the lights in to follow the trail with luminal I'm sure.
3) The ex husband having a cut on his hand, renting a silver car, & being in town (on their old anniversary date) the day she dies - just a little to much to discount so fast!
4) Who financially gained from her death? Nobody knows in the episode, money maybe the single biggest motivator for murder!
5) The fact that his ex wifes showed up to go after him should totally be disregarded. Don't know an ex that comes to the aid of the old partner very often and yet none of them filed charges against him, none of them gave it any bother until it was "show time" for the cameras and the audience that wanted to hear it!
6) What type of weapon killed her? 30+ stab wounds they should have had a pretty good idea what type of knife ie (size, length) or was he right handed or left? All these questions need to be answered before you convict a man because he "supposedly hit his wives or was abusive to them".
7) What would have lead up to this event? Was he in trouble? Did she tell her friend on the phone call anything that there was a fight or things were going bad before she hung up and was eventually killed? Did she tell her he was still at home during that call with her?
They can't place him in that room with her! They can't say he had the weapon that killed her or a replica or something close. They clearly didn't try to "clear" his statement with his mom or neighbors if he was really there, receipts to and from the homes to verify the trip etc?
Circumstancial evidence should never be allowed to convict anybody - PERIOD! One innocent man or woman makes the whole thing not worth it!!! The reporting of this story appears to have been done as well as the investigation of this case - lots of holes in it.
Yet O.J. walked & all they had to do was make people think one cop planted all that blood and evidence because he was prejudice - right....

[greatlakes99]

You watch a lot of csi, right?

[efh123]

Jayhawks23 it's laughable how you dismiss all of the evidence against him. I thought the cell phone tower evidence was very compelling and even the investigator said that without it he probably wouldn't have been convicted. It showed that he wasn't where he said he was and you can bet they had an expert from the cell phone company confirming that. If that wasn't the case, his lawyer would have put someone on the stand refuting the prosecutor's cell phone evidence. Every time Richard Schlesinger brought something up to Alec McNaughton, his reply was, "that's a lie... that's not true," etc. As for him not having a mark on him, I think that was a lot of luck and some planning on his part. I think he was wearing clothing that he got rid of and obviously showered. The guy had a history of treating women like crap and even threatened to kill one of his wives and his daughter. He's where he belongs.

[cepe10-2009]

I agree the cell phone evidence is very weak, no chain of custody no quality control, no way to be sure what tower would handle a call under different senarios within a 40 mile radius

[katekrumm]

jayhawk23,

I can tell you that your questions were more than answered at the trial that lasted over a week. A tv show that attempts to reduce something down to an hour is going to edit out many contributing facts.

I've answered each of your questions here:

1) An expert testified at the trial that even though it is true that if a tower is full, your phone can bounce to another tower, it can't go more than 20 miles away due to the curvature of the earth. don't ask me to go into detail--I'm not an expert. but that was the explanation as to why it was impossible for him to be in sandy springs, ga and have his phone hit off the tower by his house, over 40 miles away. I'm sure the defense did their best to find an expert to testify to the contrary, but in over a year of preparation for the trial, they were not able to find one person to do so.

2) I believe he was wearing something to protect himself during the attack. This was not addressed in the trial because I think they were not able to figure it out exactly, but being close to the family, I have a guess as to what he did. He owned a motorcycle and had armored leather and a helmet and armored gloves. All of these items were never found later when the estate was itemized. I don't think it occurred to anyone earlier, but even if it was not the motorcycle gear, it could have been something similar. I don't think it was as crucial to the case as he wanted it to be because that was angle: "I don't have marks on me. It couldn't be me."

3) Her anniversary date with her ex-husband was on Valentine's Day. She was murdered the day after. The ex-husband was in town on business. It was detailed at the trial how impossible it would have been for him to have committed this act based on the timeline alone. Trust me when I say that the whole "ex-husband did it" theory was the defense's way of putting doubt in the jury's mind. I personally know this family, and there is no way that the ex-husband would have or could have done it. The police did more than their ample share of investigating him, and the jury heard from him on the stand. It was a well covered topic. Also, one more thing: this was not said anywhere, but the person who committed this crime, IF THEY WERE NOT WELL PROTECTED, would have had more than one little cut on their hand, considering there were over 30 stab wounds.

4) Interesting that you bring up money. McNaughton was in crazy amounts of debt (over $100k in taxes alone). Cathy never made a lot of money, but she was a frugal lady who could (and did) take care of herself and her husband. I don't want to say too much because it would invade the family's privacy. The money issue, too, was covered at the trial.

5)

6) I concur with the other person's questions about watching CSI. These questions can't always be answered.

7) Actually, yes. She did tell her friend that she was anticipating an argument with her husband before she hung up the phone. It wasn't brought up in the show, but there were other multiple violent episodes that had occurred preceding this event.

The office where she was murdered had a closet where he kept his clothes. He lived there in the house, so of course his prints and DNA were all over the place. Finding his DNA would not have proven anything. At trial, they also discussed the fact that the shower and bathroom attached to the office had been used and cleaned out immaculately. Nothing else had been cleaned except that bathroom.

His mother did speak on his behalf at trial. But she is older, has bad memory, and would say anything to protect her son. A mother's testimony is not going to go very far. He did go visit her, but it was much later in the day--after the murder had taken place.

Unfortunately, circumstancial evidence is all that police have sometimes. To say that physical evidence should be a requirement for convicting someone would be ridiculous. I can see making a rule like that for a death penalty, but not for any trial at all.

[katekrumm]

I forgot to address #5 . . .

The ex-wives didn't show up to go after him. In fact, they were initially reluctant to testify at all. Two of them were married to him over 20 years ago when a domestic violence charge would have fallen on deaf ears. There was also a fiancee that wouldn't testify because she was too scared but told police that he had abused her as well. It's easy for you to judge a situation like that from the comfort of your living room.

[bostonamp]

It saddens me to read all these comments people are making without having any facts. The ex-husband Gary Mendendall didn't commit the crime. 48 hours neglected to state the following facts that are on court record: The Flight Manifest of Gary Mendenhall leaving Dallas-Denver-Atlanta , Arrival time at ATL airport, car rental receipt at the airport, check in time of his hotel and the phone calls made to his daughter. All of this evidence proved he was no where near the crime scene and it was impossible for him to have committed this crime. Its the ignorance of some of these bloggers and poor reporting on 48 hours . Everything I mentioned is on court transcript and these documents cleared Gary Mendenall of being the murderer.

Testimony of Cathy's daughters, McNaughton's ex wives and the photo's taken of Cathy beat up spoke volumes.

Cathy's daughter's message to others is to "stop domestic violence against women."

Gary Mendenhall name was cleared from the beginning of this case as it should be now. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE YOU TRY TO BE A CSI INVESTIGATOR.