- Female narrator: In 2016, "snapped" featured
The troubling story of sabrina zunich,
Who had been taken in by foster parents lisa and kevin knoefel.
- Being placed with the knoefels was a dream come true for her.
- Narrator: But in little more than a year,
Sabrina's dream would end in a nightmare.
- It was a slaughterhouse.
- An unstable foster child snapped.
- Narrator: Now serving 30 years to life at ohio's
Dayton correctional institute, sabrina is finally ready
To reveal on camera the intimate details of her story.
- We're the picture-perfect family on the outside,
But on the inside, it was completely different.
- She was right at the age where
You're looking for intimate relationships.
- I was in a very delicate state.
I was in love with this man. What I thought was love.
- He's 43 years old and sabrina's foster father.
He is manipulating her,
Saying they can lead this blissful life together.
- This fantasy of living happily ever after
Pushed her over the edge.
- If you want love, you're gonna do anything to get it.
- Narrator: But how did love turn into rage?
- I was convinced that I was gonna lose everything
That I've ever dreamed of if this didn't happen.
- This story is not as simple as a young woman
Snapping and killing someone.
- And I can't undo what's already been done.
I was selfish and I'm sorry.
- The situation is a perfect storm.
Textbook predator move.
- He said, "you could stab her."
- ♪
- Sabrina: I'm sabrina ann zunich.
I chose to do this interview because I wanted
My side of the story to be told in depth.
This is eight years after the initial, um, incident,
And I believe I have a different perspective now.
I'm not a monster.
I'm an individual who made a mistake
That affected a lot of lives.
- Bob: This story has a lot of tentacles to it.
The depth of the story, and all the different people
That have been affected by this, it's a bit staggering.
So this--this story goes very deep.
- Narrator: On the night of November 16, 2012,
The willoughby hills, ohio police department
Received a terrifying 911 call.
- You can hear on the 911 call where she's screaming.
- I've been doing this about 20 years, it is by far
The worst 911 call I have heard.
- Narrator: The dispatcher routed all available units
To the scene.
- Narrator: When the first patrol car arrived,
A 13-year-old girl burst from the house, terrified.
- Debra: She's saying, you know, "she's stabbing my mother,
There's blood all over."
- Gary: The officers did not know what they were getting into
When they came on the scene.
Uh, all they knew is something very terrible was happening.
- Narrator: The officer could see someone
Inside the master bedroom.
- He voiced the command to come out, um, more than once,
With her hands up.
- Narrator: Finally, someone emerged: Sabrina zunich,
Who had turned 18 just three weeks before.
- Gary: The officer does see that she has a knife
In her hand and she is covered in blood from head to toe,
And you know, at that point in time she's probably lucky
That the officer didn't kill her right there.
- What was most shocking and most interesting to me was
That she was young,
And everyone would ask: What would have an 18-year-old
In a quiet suburb do something like that?
- I had a very troubling childhood.
Because I always wanted love and I wanted love from my parents
And when I didn't-- wasn't able to get that,
I looked for it in any place that I could.
- Sabrina was born into a family that, uh, she had alcoholic
And drug-addicted parents.
She struggled very early in life.
She had related a story to me that at one point when she was
Still being bottle fed, to get her to go to sleep,
They would put vodka in her bottle to get her to pass out
So they could go about their lives.
She had lots of challenges.
- I was diagnosed when I was, uh, four years old with adhd.
And, uh, growing up, throughout my life,
I was diagnosed with, uh, odd, adhd,
Bipolar, anxiety, depression.
- Bob: The state came in and...
She was taken out of the-- out of her home.
- Sabrina: When I was 14, that's when I got into
The actual system and was placed into group homes and...
It was traumatic, to be honest with you.
Because it was like the realization that I was never
Gonna live with my parents,
Like they were never gonna change.
And it was me having to get a--a reality check
Early on in life.
- Narrator: The trauma of being removed from her family home
Was only heightened by the unstable life
Of the foster care system.
- There's so many years there of bouncing back and forth
Through the different places that she lived,
The different people that were in her life.
- Narrator: In July 2011, after 2 years of being
Shuffled around the foster system,
Social services placed then-16-year-old sabrina
With a new family: The knoefels.
- Tracey: Lisa and kevin knoefel appeared to have it all.
They had a beautiful house, um, in willoughby hills.
They had, uh, lovely children.
- There's two daughters, it-- one from lisa's first marriage,
And one from lisa and kevin's marriage, who is younger.
- Narrator: Kevin drove a truck for a food service company,
And lisa had made a career out of helping troubled kids.
- Lisa knoefel was a social worker for cuyahoga county.
- Lisa's job was to, uh, provide ongoing services
For children who are in counseling and treatment.
- She was really good with kids put in bad situations.
- Lisa loved children and she loved to help people.
- Lisa was a very caring individual.
She--she always put others before herself.
When she had foster children, she treated them like her own.
She made sure she went the extra mile
To--to be a good parent.
- My first impressions of lisa and kevin
Were that they were loving, they were caring.
That they were into doing foster care
For the betterment of the child.
- Sidney: After everything that sabrina had gone through
Up to that point, their home felt like a dream,
With stability, love, and with siblings.
- Narrator: Sabrina immediately connected
With the knoefels' two girls.
- We started off as friends, and then, uh,
We moved into...Sisters.
We'd do each other's hair,
We'd get dressed and we'd take pictures.
We all, like, connected.
Me and lisa's relationship was good at first,
And me and kevin had a very close relationship.
I could be open with him and it was a very, um,
Easy relationship.
- She was a teenager who hadn't had that type of love before.
- Sabrina: In the beginning,
I felt like I finally had a family,
One that I could go to school, come home,
Get help with homework and, you know,
Have dinner on the table and just have a family,
Like that bond that I've never had
And I never knew existed.
It was everything that I've ever wanted.
- Her grades improved and she was just doing great.
- She fits in fine.
She gets in no problems, she doesn't skip school.
- Narrator: Sabrina also started making friends in the area.
- We had two classes together.
Sabrina was outgoing and very friendly and just kind of cocky.
"nobody can really hold me back" type of attitude.
- Tracey: She had dreams, she had goals,
And she wanted to be a massage therapist.
- Narrator: In October 2012, after living with the knoefels
For over a year, sabrina turned 18.
Normally, 18-year-olds leave foster care,
Unless they're still in high school
And want to remain in the system.
- School was going great, she was in a family
That was doing things and would go on vacations together.
So, she was wanting to stay with the family.
- Narrator: Sabrina petitioned to be allowed to remain
In the knoefel home.
- Sabrina: I was doing two grades at once at high school.
They had gotten me there
With the structure that they provided,
And to uproot and be by myself and alone,
That was a big risk that I was taking.
- Narrator: But just three weeks after sabrina petitioned
To stay, the seemingly perfect image of the family shattered
With a chilling 911 call.
- Sabrina is probably alive today because when the officer
Ordered her to drop that bloody knife, she did,
And was safely taken into custody.
- I didn't realize I came out calm.
Like, that was a part where I guess I just--
I was not mentally there.
I was in and out the whole time.
- Narrator: Coming up,
Details of a horrific attack emerge.
- There were 178 knife wounds.
That is definitely a long, sustained attack.
Where'd she get all that rage from?
- Narrator: And police discover unintended victims.
- I can only imagine what she went through.
- ♪
- Narrator: On November 16, 2012, police
In willoughby hills, ohio, had 18-year-old sabrina zunich
In custody for ruthlessly attacking her foster mother.
- At the time...
I didn't register it. I--I couldn't.
I was blacking in and out.
I wasn't coherent for everything.
- Narrator: With sabrina secured,
Police entered the master bedroom,
Where they found 41-year-old lisa knoefel.
- They tried to do, uh, cpr. And she was just gone.
- Narrator: In the closet, police made another
Shocking discovery:
Lisa and kevin's three-year-old daughter.
- I don't even want to know how much she heard.
- Doug g: Sabrina was in no state to answer any questions,
Or at least acting that way.
And during the attack, she had suffered some cuts as well
As lisa fought back.
So they had to take her to the hospital.
Kevin, lisa's husband, isn't there.
The only other people in the house were the girls.
And the three-year-old wasn't gonna be able
To give the police any details.
She's just too young.
So it all falls on the 13-year-old.
- Sidney: This is a teenage girl whose been awakened
In the middle of the night by screaming,
Who just witnessed her foster sister stabbing her mother.
- I have a lot of regret
And sorrow because I can only imagine what she went through.
And she shouldn't have had to gone through that,
Nobody did in that situation. [sniffling]
- Sidney: But kids are more resilient
Than we give them credit for,
And she was able to tell police what happened.
- Narrator: Megan found the strength to tell investigators
The harrowing details of that evening.
- Gary: She walks into her mother's bedroom,
Probably being awoken from the screams, uh, of--of lisa.
What she's seeing is the very gruesome,
Graphic murder of her own mother.
- She is begging sabrina to spare her mother's life,
To stop what-- "you're killing my mother,"
And she just doesn't stop.
- Gary: She's just repeatedly stabbing her,
One stab after another stab.
- The assault was so violent that the knife was bent
At some degree of an angle.
- Debra it appeared that lisa fought for her life,
There was things knocked over, there was blood everywhere.
- Michael: She ultimately sustained 178 stab
And slashing wounds.
There were serious defensive wounds.
- Narrator: Lisa's frightened daughter explained why
Her stepfather, 43-year-old kevin knoefel, wasn't there.
- Carol: Kevin was a truck driver and he was on the road,
He worked third shift.
- Detectives tell kevin to rush home.
They would have someone stay with the girls
Until he gets there.
At the hospital, they tried to interview sabrina,
But she wasn't able to give them much at the time.
- Sabrina: I guess the reality just--it--it hit
When I started crying.
I--I didn't--I didn't grasp what happened,
And when I did, I just couldn't do anything but cry.
- Narrator: When kevin finally arrived home,
He appeared more curious than grief-stricken.
- Tracey: He wanted to see the bedroom for himself,
After she was killed,
The police thought that was strange.
- Narrator: The next day, when loved ones gathered
To console kevin and the girls,
They also noticed he was acting strange.
- His demeanor was so-- I don't know.
I can't say how a person should appear when their wife's
Been brutally murdered,
But he just didn't appear to be fazed by it.
- Carol: He was greeting people and shaking their hand.
There was not really that emotion that you would see
From someone that just lost their--their wife tragically.
- People said kevin wasn't displaying emotions we think
Somebody should display.
Regardless of their claims about that,
There's no--no question who did that horrific crime.
- Narrator: But the question was:
Why would sabrina attack lisa?
As police began their investigation,
They asked lisa's loved ones
About the dynamics of the family.
- Carol: At first, lisa had only positive things
To say about sabrina.
That she was getting great grades in school
And that therapy was working really well,
And she was such a sweetheart.
- Narrator: But six months into sabrina's stay,
Things began to change.
- We're the picture-perfect family on the outside.
On the inside, it was completely different.
- The development of the relationship between
Lisa and sabrina had some typical features
Of a parent-child relationship, like arguments,
And sabrina thinking that another child may have
More attention from lisa than she did.
- There wasn't attention provided for all the children.
It was always focused.
I didn't-- I didn't see it as fair,
And they got so much more freedom than I did.
I felt like I wasn't really a part of the family.
- I think the problem is that sabrina didn't quite
Understand the dynamics of a family household.
She'd never been in one, so she interpreted the issues
She would have with lisa as...
A bigger deal than it really was.
- Sabrina: It definitely put a gap in between me and lisa
Because of the abandonment that I had to deal with,
Because of the rejection I've dealt with.
And so, even if it's not intentional,
I--I picked up on what I perceived as...Closing me out.
- Narrator: Sabrina began to argue more and more with lisa,
And soon lost her initial feeling
Of safety and acceptance.
- It wasn't what I always hoped for.
It wasn't the dream family that I've always wanted.
That mother-daughter relationship changed immensely.
- However, kevin and sabrina began to get closer and closer
The longer that sabrina was in the home.
- I told kevin that I was feeling like an outsider,
That I don't believe she treated me the same way.
I didn't necessarily had to hide anything and I could be real,
And so it made it easy to talk to him.
He was open and he was-- he was my friend and my father.
Kevin was there to catch me because he never judged me
And he always made me feel wanted.
And he was always everything that I needed.
- Narrator: But as police questioned friends and family
Of the knoefels, they soon learned
That as kevin comforted sabrina, lisa sensed trouble.
- Sidney: Lisa may have been feeling some of the same things
That sabrina had felt at some point,
And that would be feeling abandoned, feeling unloved,
Feeling unwanted or neglected by his developing
Relationship with sabrina.
- Narrator: Friends told authorities that lisa
Wasn't the only one who became suspicious
Of sabrina's relationship with her foster father.
- Sabrina would always tell me that whenever she needed
Something, she would just go to kevin for it.
- People called the relationship kind of creepy.
- They were too friendly, they were too close.
They would make sexual jokes towards each other.
- Narrator: Investigators also learned that, recently,
Lisa had reached her breaking point.
- Lisa did call me and express she wanted her out of the house.
- Michael: She was told flat out that sh--you know,
"as of January 1, you're no longer welcome here."
- Narrator: This ultimatum came three weeks before the murder.
- Lisa stormed out and said, "if you think you're gonna turn
My husband against me, you have another thing coming."
And I started crying and, uh, 'cause I knew from there
That that was the beginning of the end.
But I'm not gonna-- I'm not gonna say
That she's the villain in this story,
I'm not gonna say that.
- Sidney: Lisa's reaction was totally justified.
She sees her husband getting close to her
In an inappropriate way.
Remember he's 43 years old and sabrina's foster father.
- Narrator: Coming up,
Sabrina admits to a twisted relationship.
- It started with massages. And it gradually went to more.
- Narrator: And describes a troubling psychology.
- Sabrina: If you want love, if you wanna feel that
You're not just a throwaway,
You're gonna do anything to get it, right?
- ♪
- Narrator: Investigating the murder of lisa knoefel,
Ohio police began to focus on the relationship between
Lisa's husband, kevin,
And the couple's foster daughter, sabrina zunich,
Who stabbed lisa to death.
- Autumn: The vibe that I got from kevin and sabrina's
Relationship was that they were more boyfriend and girlfriend
Than they were father and daughter.
I believe sabrina was attracted to kevin because
She had daddy issues and a lot of abandonment issues.
- Narrator: Investigators needed to determine:
Had sabrina acted alone?
As detectives interviewed more people,
They learned sabrina had actually tried to find help
In carrying out the attack on her foster mother.
- She came to me and said she wanted to know
If I knew any hitmen.
And I think she might have actually thought
I could help her, but I couldn't.
- Narrator: And during investigators' conversation
With autumn, she made a startling accusation.
- Autumn: I knew kevin was involved because when sabrina
Would talk about needing help,
She would refer to the both of them,
You know, "me and kevin need to get rid of lisa."
- Narrator: But when authorities initially pressed sabrina
About kevin's involvement, she denied it.
- Bob: Sabrina was gonna take the fall for it,
She kept her mouth shut for six months because kevin
Had promised that he was gonna take care of her.
After several months went by,
She realized that she had been had,
And that was when she decided that she's gonna tell the truth.
- Narrator: Once she decided to talk,
Sabrina confirmed to police that she had begun
An inappropriate relationship with kevin
Ten months after moving in with the family.
- Sabrina: It started with massages.
I wanted to be a massotherapist.
I wanted to, um, help people all my life and so,
He said, "you can practice on me."
And it w--started on the legs, because he was a truck driver
And, you know, had cramps in his legs.
And, uh, it gradually went to more--
From father-daughter to significant others.
Me and kevin ended up being in a sexual relationship.
- Sidney: The situation is a perfect storm because
Sabrina feels like she is getting
The dream family that she wants,
But then he is manipulating her.
- I realize today that it was unhealthy,
That I should have never entered into that relationship.
I also know that I was in a very, um, delicate state
Because of everything that I've lacked growing up.
- She was so young; she was a teenager.
And sexual predators tend to slowly convince the person
That they love them,
And that only they love them,
And that they can take care of them.
- Narrator: Investigators ask sabrina about what led
To lisa's killing.
- Sabrina: Kevin shared the problems in the marriage
That they were having.
He told me that he really didn't wanna be married to her anymore,
That he was not in love with her anymore,
And that, um...He just is in the marriage
Because of the children.
He said, "I want her gone."
And I said, "why not just divorce her?"
And he said, "because I can't do it.
The girls would end up going to her."
- Narrator: Sabrina told police kevin lured her into helping.
- Sabrina: It was about the promises that he made me
That I was gonna have a life that I wanted to live.
A future that I never thought I could have.
- Bob: Some of the things that kevin had discussed
With sabrina and dangled in front of her were things
Like going to modeling school, having their own home together,
Maybe in florida where they could spend time at the beach.
- He laid the foundation that he is the answer
To all of sabrina's prayers.
They can lead this blissful life together--
A life that she's craved forever.
- What I keep thinking about as I listen to this story
Is that...It is a story.
Her story.
She's claiming he wanted lisa dead.
Pretty convenient from someone found holding
The bloody murder weapon.
- Sabrina: He started breaking down crying.
He said that, "I can't do this anymore.
I'm going to kill myself if she's not gone."
- Sidney: Another textbook predator move.
He's going to kill himself,
Preying on her sense of loss and abandonment.
And now sabrina has to contend with that
She might lose him too.
- Sabrina: I said, "well, what do you want me to do?"
And he said, "you could stab her."
I was in love with this man. What I thought was love.
And so I was gonna do anything for the man that I loved.
That's when the planning started and he picked out the knife,
He told me how to do it,
What position if she was sleeping, to go and stab her
And to make it look like a burglary,
To knock everything down, and to take all her jewelry.
- Narrator: Sabrina told police that kevin convinced her
It was the only way they could be together.
So on November 16, 2012,
While kevin was safely out of town,
She picked up the knife he chose and crept into lisa's bedroom.
- Sabrina: My heart was pumping out of my chest,
I could see it through my clothing.
Like, I was going to do it and then I was like,
"no, you can't do it. Do it, don't do it."
It was a constant...Fight.
And when she woke up, I had no choice.
She called out, "bree, stop."
She was on top of me at one time.
She had the knife at one time.
She fought for her life.
When megan made the 911 call,
That's when I knew that this wasn't gonna be
How he told me it was going to,
That, uh, the plan fell apart.
Megan put her hand on me, I remember that, um,
She said, "bree, stop," and I just sh--shrugged her off.
I didn't know hailey was in the closet.
When I found out, I broke down and cried.
- Doug g: According to sabrina's story now,
When she was taken into custody, she knew exactly what to say
Because kevin had coached her.
- Doug b: Kevin told sabrina to tell the authorities
That she had no clue what ha--she didn't remember
What happened, she blacked out.
- Sabrina would be declared mentally ill and serve some time
In a mental health facility and--and get out,
Do no hard time; that's what he told her.
- Sabrina believed that they would be together.
- Sabrina: If you want love, if you wanna feel that
You're not just a throwaway...
You're gonna do anything to get it.
I just kept on thinking that everything is gonna be okay
Like he said.
That, um--
That, "no matter what, he's gonna be there for you."
- Sidney: If her story is true,
She is still a victim in this case,
Because she was manipulated into
Taking the actions that she did.
- My first thought was someone not owning up to what they did.
Trying to shift the investigation and the blame
To someone else.
- She did it and it was horrible,
But I believe in my soul that she was a 100%
Manipulated into doing it.
- Narrator: Based on sabrina's statement,
And on the witness statements about an inappropriate
Relationship, authorities decided to arrest kevin knoefel
For conspiracy to murder.
- Carol: When I heard that kevin was arrested,
I thought to myself, "I knew it.
I--I knew that he had something to do with this."
- Narrator: Kevin denied having an illicit relationship
With sabrina or any involvement in his wife's murder,
And his defense team was confident sabrina's statement
Was nothing but lies.
- There's no evidence that kevin had ever done
Anything inappropriate with sabrina.
No dna, no videotapes, nothing.
- Narrator: Coming up...
Sabrina's riveting testimony.
- He just needed me to do his dirty work.
- Narrator: And a brand-new motive emerges.
- He said, "she's worth more dead than alive."
- ♪
- Narrator: After confessing to the aggravated murder
Of her foster mother lisa knoefel,
Sabrina zunich agreed to be the star witness
Against the man she claimed orchestrated the slaying:
Her foster father, kevin knoefel.
- Tracey: Sabrina agrees to testify against kevin
In exchange for the prosecutors' deal
Of life with parole eligibility in 30 years.
- Narrator: On may 29, 2014, kevin knoefel's trial began.
- I had never seen a case like this before;
Foster daughter kills foster mother
At the foster father's wishes.
- Kevin pretty much played her.
- He told her they could finally be together if lisa was gone.
- Narrator: Kevin's defense team
Argued that the case against him was weak.
- The only evidence they had was sabrina.
- Gary: It was completely sabrina's story--
This whole fairy-tale fantasy.
- Narrator: The defense also argued that the murder
And sabrina's claim of an affair with kevin were both connected
To the mental illness she was diagnosed with as a child.
- Sabrina's upbringing definitely plays a part
In her mental health.
Being removed from family is a traumatic event
In and of itself,
And being placed in foster care increases the vulnerability
That a child has, their attachment to people,
And often results in behavioral issues.
- I'm sure it was a rough life, but a lot of people who had
Rough lives don't end up stabbing someone to death.
The prosecution leaned into what they argued
Was kevin's motivation for wanting sabrina
To kill lisa: Life insurance money.
- Well, it was all financial. If he got a divorce,
He was going to have to pay child support and share custody.
If she was murdered, he stood to get a lot of money.
- Sabrina: He said, "she's worth more dead than alive,"
And he brought out two policies:
One for $500,000, one for $250,000,
And I said, "oh, that's what you mean."
- Bob: That was the dream that kevin was dangling to sabrina,
That, "once we get out of this, this is our future,
We're gonna have our own home together."
- It was like that devil/angel on your shoulders,
And, uh, I said, "if--
"if I want this love, then I have to do this,
Because he's gonna kill himself if not,"
And I wasn't gonna risk losing him.
- Narrator: The defense called autumn pavlik to the stand,
Who testified about sabrina wanting to hire a hitman.
- On cross-examination, she was forced to acknowledge that kevin
Had never been a part of any of those conversations.
- Narrator: Under oath, autumn also made a surprising admission
About the alleged affair between sabrina and kevin.
- Sabrina never told me they were sexual.
- There was no evidence whatsoever that kevin had
Any type of sexual relationship with her.
- Narrator: As for the night of the murder,
Prosecutors argued that kevin and sabrina
Made their final plans via text message.
- The night before lisa was killed, sabrina and kevin
Had been texting a lot.
They had been in constant contact through the whole night.
- Michael: The content of the text messages is unknown,
And the fbi were unable to retrieve
Any of the text messages off of sabrina's phone.
- Narrator: However, sabrina was ready to testify about the texts
And everything else,
In her own words and under oath.
- The state was hanging its hat on sabrina.
- Narrator: Sabrina testified about the sordid details
Of the insidious relationship from the first massage--
- Narrator: --To how he asked her to pleasure him
As he drove her to school each day.
- Erika: I was appalled, and I still am.
He was working in the capacity of a foster parent, you know?
That makes it even more, um, unacceptable.
- Narrator: She explained how, once kevin groomed her,
He dangled a fantasy life with him
In front of the troubled teen.
- Narrator: At one point, the prosecutor directly
Asked sabrina why she killed lisa.
- Narrator: As for what sabrina claimed
Was in the 70 unrecovered text messages
Sent between them that day...
- What we were discussing in the text messages was, um,
What I should wear, um, if she had gone to sleep.
I--I was giving him a play-by-play,
When did she lay hailey down to rest,
Wh--if megan went to sleep.
- There were some details involved about the knife again,
How to use it.
- Narrator: And the last text sabrina sent kevin?
- "I'm about to do it. I love you, I'll see you soon."
I didn't want lisa dead.
I did it because he told me that he was gonna kill himself.
Why didn't I stop? Because...I was convinced
That I was gonna lose everything that I've ever dreamed of
If this didn't happen.
- Narrator: Kevin and his defense team disputed
Sabrina's description of the text messages,
And denied kevin ever threatened suicide.
- Whether or not he told her to do it,
Sabrina is the one that did it.
Sabrina walked into the bedroom where the woman
Who had taken her into her home was sleeping--
The mother of the two girls that sabrina called sisters--
And stabbed her over and over and over again.
- I realize today that it was a plan and that he wanted me
To get caught and he wanted to live the life
That he couldn't live without lisa,
And he just needed me to do his dirty work.
- Under cross-examination, the defense team attempted to...
Discredit sabrina as a... Unstable, evil, psychotic woman.
- I think sabrina zunich is a seriously flawed human being.
The number of medical evaluations she had,
She testified she had heard voices for about a month,
Which she blamed on a medication.
- Not only was she hearing voices,
But the voices were telling her to harm other people.
- Tracey: There was no real physical evidence
Against kevin knoefel,
It really wasn't a slam dunk for prosecutors.
The whole thing kind of hinged on sabrina zunich and whether
A jury would believe her statement.
- Narrator: Coming up, the jury must decide
Whether or not to trust a killer.
- Maybe she was a manipulated victim.
But what if she's a psychopath?
- Narrator: And sabrina faces her demons
After eight years behind bars.
- I know no matter what I say, I can't bring her back.
- ♪
- Narrator: After two days of deliberations,
The jury in kevin knoefel's murder trial
Announced that it had reached a verdict.
The tension in the courtroom was thick.
Had the jury believed sabrina zunich
That kevin made her do it?
- I did not see how any person could find her credible,
Let alone credible enough beyond a reasonable doubt
To convict kevin knoefel.
- Narrator: Debra gutowski had led the jury
Through deliberations.
- We were aware that she had some issues and that
She had some problems,
But she was a very credible witness.
- The verdict was guilty on all eleven counts.
- When the verdict was read, I was elated.
- We were very emotional, and we cried, and we hugged.
- Tracey: Kevin was sentenced to life in prison
With parole eligibility in 42 years.
- It'll be in his 80s before he's eligible.
- The judge told me that, um,
If it weren't for my testimony,
That kevin would have not been convicted.
I just pray that whatever help he needs, he gets.
'cause I know I'm broken, but he's gotta be broken as well.
- Narrator: Sabrina pled guilty to murder and was sentenced
To life with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
- Sabrina: I believe that the responsibility
For this crime is divided between two people,
And that's me and kevin.
I--I committed the crime.
And I won't--never deflect from that because...
I did it, and I was wrong.
I believe that I should do time,
Because I know they deserve justice,
And the only justice they can get is me behind bars.
- Sabrina is very aware of the damage she's done,
And she couldn't be more remorseful.
She's horrified by her acts.
She knows that these girls have no mom to move forward with.
- Sabrina: And I realize that there's more than one victim
In this story.
If it means anything, I truly do apologize.
If I had a chance, I would tell them
That I was selfish, and that I'm sorry,
And that I never meant to hurt them,
And I know, how can I say that
When I w-- when I killed their mother?
I was in a place that...
I wasn't thinking about anybody but myself,
And that was wrong, and it doesn't make it right.
I know no matter what I say, I can't bring her back.
[crying]
And I can't undo what's already been done,
And what they've saw.
Am I remorseful? Absolutely.
If I could go back, I would have left the home.
I would have...
I would have told lisa what kevin was doing.
- Bob: Might not be a popular opinion, but I believe sabrina.
As sure as I am sitting here,
He was the 100% mastermind of this plan.
- Narrator: However, not everyone
Believes sabrina's story.
- Doug g: Sabrina may have had an ulterior motive
For faking remorse to get her sentence lessened,
To get the sympathy of the courts to--I don't know--
Reduce her time.
Maybe she was a manipulated victim,
But what if-- what if...She's a psychopath?
- Sabrina: I'm more than a murderer.
I'm somebody that has learned from their mistakes.
I want a chance to do right.
I want a chance to live a life.
And I'm not saying that I deserve it,
But I'm saying everybody should get a second chance.
I've changed and I've worked on myself,
So I believe one day, hopefully, I'll get free.
- ♪