Secrets From The Grave

A Man Who Cheated Death More Than Once Dies Under Strange Circumstances

(CBS)  Smith vanished. And when police caught up with Andras, he denied everything. But then, Crislip got a call from someone saying Andras had confessed to her. If true, it was a startling confession, especially because it was made to Andras’ own daughter.

Andras' daughter, who was 21 years old at the time, reluctantly signed an affidavit saying her father "told me that Cassandra had not seen anything because she was two blocks away, but he also told me that she knew what he was going to do to the guy.”

Was Cassandra involved? "I believe everything that we investigated pointed to the fact that she was," says Crislip.

Right after the attack, Flint told a television reporter that he was sure his ex-wife was behind the shooting: "There's no doubt in my mind. Her brother and her husband came to do it and someone was driving the car."

There was plenty of suspicion, yet no real evidence against Cassandra. But she gave them more than enough reason to take her in on a different charge the night they showed up to arrest Andras for attempted murder.

Lt. Susan Clifton tried to arrest Cassandra, who put up a fight. Andras and Cassandra were both taken into custody and charged, Cassandra with resisting arrest, and Andras with attempted murder. They were both released on bond within a couple of days.

Despite the charges he was facing, Andras was allowed to move back into the house he was sharing with Cassandra and "Jane." Flint was determined to get his daughter out of that house, but he was blocked again by the molestation charges that Cassandra had made four years earlier.

Flint was increasingly concerned that Cassandra was using her time with "Jane" to turn his daughter against him. "We were having good conversations for a while, and her mother just cut it off," he says.

Flint heard from his daughter a few times, but they weren’t talking. She was just leaving some very disturbing messages: "I don't want you in my life and I mean it. … I don't like you. I hate you."

Flint was convinced that "Jane" was being told what to say: "It was very obvious the conversation was coaxed, and it’s really sad for a child to be brainwashed or fed these things."

It was a lot for him to deal with. But there was some good news. Police had finally caught up with Smith, and he was arrested for his role in Flint's attack.

Smith was eventually tried and convicted, and is halfway through his 16-year prison sentence. To this day, however, Smith will not implicate his sister, nor will her husband, Andras. "I'm here, and I’ll tell you she wasn’t there," says Ralph Smith.

Around the time Smith was arrested, Cassandra was tried on her charges of interfering with the police.

"This was the only defendant that I ever prosecuted that I was actually concerned would retaliate … against me," says Murphy Klasing, who prosecuted her.

Even the judge told Cassandra that “you scare me, very bluntly,” and he took the unusual step of telling Cassandra the jury thought she was a “pathological liar.” She was sentenced to seven months in the county jail.

Cassandra’s court behavior might have been memorable, but the real drama took place in the hallway. During a break in Cassandra’s trial, Andras, who was facing his own charges, made a phone call to a contact that would put him in touch with a hit man.