Dangerous Liaisons

How Far Would You Go For Love?

(CBS)  Detectives believed it was highly unlikely Ashley had come up with the murder plan on her own, especially as they learned more about Tracey Humphrey’s background and his double life.

It was a life that was full of tall tales. Asked if he told people he played in the Rose Bowl, Tracey Humphrey says, "I told people I went to the Rose Bowl with the University of Iowa."

It turns out he didn't. "Who doesn’t pad their resume a little bit," he says.

And it turns out there was something else Tracey Humphrey left off his resume: he was an ex-con and had done serious time, mostly for violent crimes against women, just like the brutal beating Sandee had accused him of.

Police were now convinced that Tracey Humphrey was the mastermind behind the murder. But they needed more evidence, so they enlisted one his clients, Tobe White, to go undercover.

With Ashley beside him, he asked Tobe to lie by telling police she saw Ashley with Tracey Humphrey at the time of the murder. "You were just hanging out over at my house - referring an argument," Tracey Humphrey could be heard telling Tobe, who was secretly recording the conversation.

Armed with that tape, Humphrey's rap sheet and those cell phone records, which revealed Ashley and Tracey Humphrey called each other 22 times the night Sandee died, police charged Humphrey with first degree murder.

"I was in this unbelievable situation. I mean just this unimaginable situation," says Tracey Humphrey. "Who’s going to believe that I wasn’t involved?"

In Feb. 2006, just before Tracey Humphrey’s trial was set to begin, prosecutors struck a deal with Ashley. If she would plead guilty and testify against her husband, the state would recommend a 25-year sentence, instead of seeking the death penalty.

"The defendant said he would do anything not to go to prison for ten years," said prosecutor Fred Schaub.

Meanwhile, Tracey Humphrey’s attorney Joe McDermott insisted that the real killer had already confessed. "She shot her eight times. She’s not any dummy by any stretch of the imagination. And yet her claim is he’s the mastermind," says McDermott.

The prosecution painted Tracey Humphrey as a violent manipulator and wheeled out an ex-girlfriend and Tobe White - the client who had gone undercover for police.

"During my workout session that Saturday, he threatened to kill me if I was working with the police," Tobe testified.

But it was Ashley's testimony Sandee’s friends and family had anxiously awaited.

After more than two years in custody, she was barely recognizable. Ashley had gained more than 30 lbs. Gone were the fresh faced good looks of a girl who, a few years earlier, had chased after boys.

"She looked horrible. I hate to say it, but she was beautiful, and she’s not anymore," says Ashley's friend Charli.

Ashley told the jury that she had gone out with plenty of guys but had fallen head over heels in love with Tracey Humphrey.

But it wasn’t long, she said, before he began to dominate and control her. "I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without telling him. I wasn’t allowed to have any friends," she testified.

Possessiveness turned to pain and violence. Ashley said Tracey Humphrey hit her and frequently threatened to throw her out. One night, she says, he knocked her unconscious. When she woke up, Ashley says she agreed to do the unthinkable.

"I was just begging to stay with him. And I told him that 'If you want me to stay with you, I’ll kill Sandra for you,'" she testified.

Ashley testified that Tracey Humphrey accepted the offer.