A Question Of Murder

Did John Maloney Get A Fair Trial?

(CBS) 
In one of two ongoing investigations, Balskus is collecting boxes of documents, examining more than 100 of Paulus’ past cases.

Balskus says a zeal to "get" Maloney might have led to manipulating evidence, like the key videotapes used in Maloney's case. Paulus had sent the hours of tape to a private, outside company, supposedly to cut them down for time, not alter the content.

But there was an initial $27,000 editing bill, and a note from Paulus to the editor saying: "I have replaced modified or added new excerpts to be included in the tape." There was also an editor's note that said: "Some of your clips are so short – one and a half seconds in duration – that they may seem choppy."

Was there any editing done that could be considered doctored? "Not from my knowledge," says Paulus' co-prosecutor Vince Biskupic.

Maloney probably was hurt more by his actions on the tape than by his words. Still, Balskus wonders to what lengths Paulus went to win this case.

Does Balskus think that Maloney got a fair trial? "No, I don't know if John Maloney did it or not," says Balskus. "But yeah, I think it's pretty clear that not all the evidence was presented to the jury."

Not only does Berry believe that Maloney did not kill his wife, she's convinced that Sandy caused her own death.

She says the evidence was in the basement of the Maloney house, where police recorded a bizarre scene: two VCRs on top of a coffee table. And from the ceiling, there appeared to be a ligature hanging from a conduit pipe, right down in front of the coffee table.

The autopsy showed that Sandy was very drunk the night she died. Berry thinks Sandy tried to hang herself with the electrical cord: "She made a suicide attempt, at least a gesture, but enough of a gesture to jump off that coffee table and hit her - back of her head."

Then, as Berry's theory goes, Sandy tried to clean up in the basement shower. But ultimately, she ended up on the first floor, where she collapsed into unconsciousness on the couch while smoking. It was that lit cigarette, Berry believes, that caused the fire.

"There certainly was a big death wish going on," says Berry. "She did want to die."

Berry's case was bolstered by what police found upstairs. "There were quite a few suicide notes found in the trash on the first floor," says Berry.

Police had labeled these "apparent suicide notes" on the evidence list and there were five in all. The notes essentially said: "John, how could you throw everything away? Take care of the kids. I'm done fighting."

"It was the day before the final divorce hearing. She had already lost custody of her kids," says Berry. "So I think she just felt she didn't have anything left."

The jury, however, heard nothing about these notes, and nothing either about her possible suicide attempt.

Did Paulus intentionally ignore the evidence because it might favor Maloney? Balskus thinks it's possible: "They thought John Maloney did it, so they focused on him. The problem with that is you sort of put blinders on and you ignore the evidence."

Biscupic, who was on Paulus' prosecution team, says the suicide theory is a fantasy. But where did the head wound take place, and why was there no blood upstairs? "A fire takes place, things happen," says Biscupic.

But Berry says there was no blood upstairs because Sandy cut her head in the basement, where her blood was found. State investigators used a chemical spray, Luminol, which illuminates blood traces even after a clean-up. In this case, Luminol detected blood in several parts of the basement, including the bathroom and the shower.

Blood evidence was also found in the laundry room, on towels, on Sandy's shirt and in another bloody footprint. "They combed this place looking for any DNA link, any trace of John Maloney here, and they couldn't find it," says Berry.

The only basement evidence prosecutors seemed to care about was Sandy's bloody shirt, which they say Maloney took downstairs to the laundry, after killing Sandy upstairs.

But if Sandy wasn't murdered, how did she die? Berry's experts say it was alcohol poisoning. She drank herself to death.