On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day 2021, Nanette Stuiber sat in her car and watched anxiously as EMTs and Montgomery County Sheriff Deputies descended on a house in the tiny village of Farmersville, Illinois.

Nanette Stuiber: I was quite upset and kinda going crazy in the car.

Stuiber had been unable to reach her good friend Leslie Reeves. Stuiber knew Leslie had gone to that house the night before to go on a first date with Chris Smith, a man she had met online. 

Nanette Stuiber: She was extremely excited. She thought it might be a really good connection …

But now Stuiber was worried. She had called 911 to request a welfare check. She’d seen Smith get taken away in an ambulance but there was no sign of Reeves.

Nanette Stuiber: I kept hoping … bring Leslie out, please …

Finally, a detective approached and asked Stuiber for a photo of Reeves. She showed him her phone and he gave her the horrible news. 

Nanette Stuiber: “I’m sorry to have to tell you this … your friend has, um, been murdered,” you know, shot, he said. He didn’t tell me where, but he did say, “I want you to know that she went very quickly.”

EMTs had found Smith barely conscious and unable to say anything about the shooting. They rushed him to the hospital and deputies searched the house. Later that day, crime scene investigator Josh Easton of the Illinois State Police was called to the scene and he began cataloging the mayhem inside.

Erin Moriarty: What do you see when you first approach the door?

Josh Easton: I notice that the … side door of the house … the glass in the door has been broken out.

Josh Easton: The refrigerator was pulled away from the wall … kitchen table was pushed … the — the chairs were knocked over …

No weapon was found, leading investigators to suspect that a third person was involved. Easton took note of every detail, including the burnt pizza in the oven.

Josh Easton: I assume that maybe they were cooking … a pizza for the night and the suspect shows up at the door … they both tried to fight him off and when Chris was shot, Leslie went to the living room … to try to try to hide.

Erin Moriarty: How many times was she shot?

Josh Easton: She was only shot one time.

Erin Moriarty: In the head.

Josh Easton: In the head.

Reeves’ body was in the living room while Smith had been found in the kitchen. Easton said, of the 1,800 crime scenes he’d been to, this was one of the most horrific.

Josh Easton: There was blood everywhere … The cabinets, the refrigerator, the countertop, there was blood from corner to corner in the kitchen.

Easton spotted two silver-colored bullet casings from a 9 mm gun — one in the kitchen and the other near Reeves’ body.

A DEADLY FIRST DATE

As Easton processed the scene, detectives began learning about the victims. Smith was a 48-year-old divorced father who worked for a pool contractor.

Dena LeGrand: Chris was a nice guy. He would hang out here frequently, was friends with most of the people in town. Everybody knew him.

Bartender Dena LeGrand says Smith was well known in town as the guy who grew banana trees and giant pumpkins.

Dena LeGrand: I remember one Halloween … he donated hundreds of pumpkins for decorations for any of the kids to paint … he gave back to his community.

Sharon Costanza is Smith’s mother. Ashli Holcomb is his sister.

Erin Moriarty: Did either one of you ever worry about Chris?

Ashli Holcomb: No.

Sharon Costanza: No.

Ashli Holcomb: Chris is a stay home person, that literally would just work in his backyard.

Smith lived with a dog named Tiki. An EMT told the family that Tiki may have helped Smith make it through the night by huddling with him for the roughly 12 hours that he was bleeding before being rescued.

Sharon Costanza: I think Tiki protected Chris … I think she probably laid right next to him …

Smith’s close-knit family could not imagine anyone wanting to kill him.

Ashli Holcomb: It was like, no way. How? Why?

Sharon Costanza: Who? Yeah. Who would’ve done that?

Investigators had the same questions about Reeves and learned that she was a divorced mother of two children who lived in Troy, about an hour south of Farmersville. Although Reeves had a master’s degree in engineering, she chose instead to teach Pilates and to promote self-defense classes for women.

Reeves posted a video to her YouTube channel to advertise one of her classes: … empower yourself against aggression and assault as we teach you easy to learn self-defense techniques…. Power up!!

Reeves tried to help women in abusive relationships, but friends say she had her own troubles. Stuiber told deputies she was worried about a former boyfriend, a contractor by the name of Robert Tarr, known as Bobby.

Nanette Stuiber: She said … I am going to completely block Bobby from email, texts, phone calls. I — I have to go no contact.

Later that evening, news of Reeves’ murder began circulating and reached another close friend, Amy Steinhauer. She had met Tarr, a divorced father of three, and did not have a good impression of him, but —

Amy Steinhauer: You never see someone and think that — they can kill my friend.

Steinhauer called the Sheriff’s Office that night to give them Tarr’s name. By then, detectives had already set out to find Bobby Tarr while, 85 miles to the north, surgeons were fighting to try to save the life of Chris Smith — a bullet still lodged in his brain.

PIECING TOGETHER WHAT HAPPENED

After learning that Smith had been shot in the head, his family rushed to the hospital in Springfield, Illinois, two hours from their home.

Sharon Costanza : I was on the phone … to everyone I could think of … ’cause I just needed prayers from everybody. 

Doctors removed part of Smith’s skull and some bullet fragments in his brain before putting him in a medically induced coma. His family, struggling to piece together what had happened, learned that he had been out with a woman named Leslie Reeves.

Erin Moriarty: Had you ever heard the name Leslie Reeves before?

Ashli Holcomb: No. … I looked her up and then … I tried to reach out to her friends and then I found … her best friend, Nanette.

Nanette Stuiber told them the same thing she had told investigators: she suspected Reeves’ ex-boyfriend Bobby Tarr. That night, sheriff’s deputies went to Tarr’s home in Collinsville, an hour south of the crime scene. Authorities say he never asked why they wanted to talk to him, and he agreed to go to the police station without a lawyer.

Though her friends said the couple had broken up, Tarr told investigators that he and Reeves were still together.

DET. ROACH: Do you and Leslie have a lot of problems?

BOBBY TARR: I wouldn’t say — no worse than any average couple.

It was Reeves that detectives wanted to talk about.

DET. ROACH: I want you to — to dig down deep here, be as honest with me as you can. OK. Uh, Leslie, is dead.

BOBBY TARR: What?

DET. ROACH: … Can you help me shed some light on this?

BOBBY TARR: How did she die?

DET. ROACH: She was murdered …  

BOBBY TARR: What happened?

DET. ROACH: That’s why we’re here with you. … You help me believe that you’re not involved in this.

BOBBY TARR:  I’m not involved in anything …

Investigators asked Tarr about Farmersville, the scene of the crime.

DET. ROACH: Uh, know where Farmersville, Illinois is?

BOBBY TARR: Farmersville. No, I can’t say that I do. … Never been there. … I’ve never heard of it.

And they asked Tarr where he had been the night before Thanksgiving.

BOBBY TARR: I went to a buddy of mine’s house. He left and left me some money out of his shop and go pick it up.

The friend lived a short distance from Tarr’s home.

DET. ROACH: OK. Do you remember what time you came back?

BOBBY TARR: Um, yeah, it wasn’t that long. Um, maybe 6:30-ish, something like that.

Investigators believe the shooting took place sometime early on Thanksgiving morning, after 1 a.m. Tarr said after he got back, he was home all night.

BOBBY TARR: You can talk to my daughter about me being home.

That’s exactly what they did. Detectives brought Tarr’s 17-year-old daughter Shelby to a different room at the police station. And she told them that her father actually left home twice that night.

DET. TYSON HOLSHOUSER: So the first time he left was roughly 6:30?

SHELBY TARR: Right.

DET. TYSON HOLSHOUSER: And then he — he came home about a half hour later –

SHELBY TARR: Right.

DET. TYSON HOLSHOUSER: and he said he had to go back?

SHELBY TARR: Right.

DET. TYSON HOLSHOUSER: And then it was 9:15-ish when he got back home …

SHELBY TARR: Yeah.

Shelby said he had been gone for more than two hours, and when he got home, he was upset.

SHELBY TARR: He gets home, he was crying. He was sobbing. … He said he missed Leslie.

Shelby said she went sleep around 9:30 p.m. and was awakened by her father around 2:45 a.m.

SHELBY TARR: He started laundry, he was pacing, walking around … And he was like, I can’t sleep.

Detectives went back to Tarr and told him Shelby’s story didn’t match his. Tarr then changed his story and said he had gone to his friend’s house twice, but still insisted he was home by 8 p.m. As Tarr sat at the police station, detectives searched his house and found his phone and a Glock pistol. Shelby had told them her father had a different gun, but they did not find it.

SHELBY TARR: It’s little, it’s like this big. … Not like a light green, but like a — the Army green.

Shelby told investigators she had seen it the day before Thanksgiving – in her father’s sock drawer.

SHELBY TARR: Yesterday morning, actually, I went to get socks and it was there. And now it’s not there.

DET. TYSON HOLSHOUSER: Was there yesterday, gone today?

SHELBY TARR: Yeah.

Bobby Tarr sat at the police station overnight while authorities continued to investigate. They had already learned his car had been captured by license plate reader cameras just after midnight the night of the shooting. The cameras were near a gas station, and investigators discovered that Tarr had bought gas there just after midnight. Back at the police station, they confronted him with the gas station receipt.

DETECTIVE. #2: So you’re a liar.

BOBBY TARR: ‘Cause I don’t remember doing that?

DET. ROACH: You don’t remember being out after midnight when you have told us you are 100% positive.

Erin Moriarty (showing Affrunti a map on an iPad): The gas station is here in Troy.

Andrew Affrunti: Yes.

Erin Moriarty: And the murder occurred here in Farmersville.

Andrew Affrunti: Correct.

The gas station was near Tarr’s home, an hour from the crime scene. Andrew Affrunti is the Montgomery County State’s Attorney.

Erin Moriarty: So, why is it significant? … So, he went out and got some gas?

Andrew Affrunti: It was significant to us because why would he lie about it?

BOBBY TARR (police questioning): So I got fuel. What does that prove?

Investigators believed it was proof Tarr was lying about his whereabouts that night. They placed him under arrest.

Affrunti says they arrested Tarr immediately because they feared Smith’s life was in danger, and they hadn’t found the murder weapon.

Andrew Affrunti: If he was out of custody, could he take further steps to dispose of the evidence?

Just one day after Leslie Reeves was killed and Chris Smith was left fighting for his life, investigators believed they had the man responsible in custody.

But in his only media interview, Tarr tells “48 Hours” they got the wrong guy.

Bobby Tarr: There is so many things untold … that will prove my innocence.

 

SUSPECT PLACES HIMSELF AT THE CRIME SCENE

Bobby Tarr, charged with the murder of Leslie Reeves and the attempted murder of Chris Smith, is nothing if not unflappable.

Erin Moriarty: Did you kill Leslie Reeves?

Bobby Tarr: No.

Erin Moriarty: Did you shoot … Chris Smith?

Bobby Tarr: No.

He kept his cool — even when confronted with a litany of lies he told investigators.

Erin Moriarty: You told the police you only left the house once.

Bobby Tarr: Mm.

Erin Moriarty: That wasn’t true.

Bobby Tarr: Correct.

Erin Moriarty: You told the police you had no idea where Farmersville is.

Bobby Tarr: Mm-hmm.

Erin Moriarty: That was a lie.

Bobby Tarr: Mm-hmm.

Erin Moriarty: You lied about getting gas in your car that night.

Bobby Tarr: Mm-hmm.

When he spoke with “48 Hours,” Tarr admitted he was at Smith’s house the night before Thanksgiving, placing himself at the scene of the crime. He says the night began when he met Reeve sat her part-time job at a Loft store.

Bobby Tarr: She had said she was gonna go meet some friends because one of their friends … was playing in a band … And she asked me if I wanted to go. And I said, well, you know, I would go but I have my youngest daughter staying with me for a week.

Tarr says that when he declined the invitation, Reeves asked if he would follow her to Farmersville, because her van was unreliable. And so he did. That makes no sense to Reeves’ friend Amy Steinhauer.

Amy Steinhauer: She was terrified of him, rightfully so.

Just a few weeks earlier, Steinhauer says, Reeves told her that Tarr had shown up while she was on a first date with a different guy. After that incident, Reeves told Steinhauer she was frightened by Tarr and texted Steinhauer: “I could be killed by him someday if I don’t cut all contact.

Erin Moriarty: So, you’re telling me now that this woman who was scared of you, who had actually texted a friend that she thought you might kill her, asked you to follow her to another man’s house?

Bobby Tarr: Mm-hmm.

Erin Moriarty: Does that make sense Bobby?

Bobby Tarr: No, I understand. Um, so I don’t understand that text in general.

Erin Moriarty: Why did she think you might kill her?

Bobby Tarr: I don’t know. I’ve got no clue.

Tarr says Reeves lied to her friends about their relationship. He insists she asked him to follow her north to Farmersville.

Bobby Tarr: So, I went with her up there … I think we arrived there around 7:30. I parked — parked in front of her van, in front of his house. … That’s as far as I went. … I left; I never went back to Farmersville again.

If he had an innocent explanation for why he was in Farmersville, why did he lie to detectives?

Bobby Tarr: My daughter … her and Leslie, there was a little bit of tension between both of them. …I did not want her to know that I was going to meet Leslie that night.

Tarr claims that after he lied to his daughter Shelby about seeing Reeves, he stuck to that lie at the police station because he was afraid they would tell her. And he never corrected those lies, even when detectives arrested him.

Erin Moriarty: Why not just say, ‘look, between you and me … I lied to my daughter. So let me tell you the truth, but let’s just not share that with her.’ Why wouldn’t you do that?

Bobby Tarr: I should have done that.

Tarr is quick to point out the lack of physical evidence connecting him to the bloody crime scene. Investigators searched his white Jetta but did not find any shards of glass or blood stains.

Bobby Tarr: Two … tests by the state police were done on my car. Zero blood found in my car. … There’s zero DNA of mine at the crime scene. Anything from the crime scene, in my car or on me or any of my clothing or my shoes, zero.

Prosecutor Affrunti has to concede that point.

Erin Moriarty: Was any of Tarr’s DNA found inside the house?

Andrew Affrunti: No.

Erin Moriarty: Were any of his fingerprints found inside the house?

Andrew Affrunti: No.

And authorities still had not found the murder weapon. But a week after the shooting, they got a phone call from Tarr’s friend Billy Adams. Adams said Tarr had called him from jail. That call was recorded.

BOBBY TARR (jail call): What’s your day look like? ‘Cause I need 10 minutes of your time.

Tarr asked Adams to go to his house and look for some deck brackets.

BOBBY TARR  (jail call): I got some special aluminum brackets and — that I need you to get because they’re for another job that I didn’t tell Dad about yet. … So don’t say nothing to him.

Instead, Adams contacted the sheriff’s office. Deputies suspected Tarr knew the phone call was being recorded and was speaking to his friend in code –- about something other than deck brackets.

BILLY ADAMS (jail call): They’re aluminum?

BOBBY TARR: Yeah, get ’em and get rid of ’em.

Bobby Tarr: They thought that was suspicious which was why they went over and searched.

Investigators were on their hands and knees in Tarr’s yard, looking for a gun. Dan Fultz is Tarr’s defense attorney.

Dan Fultz: They searched that area thoroughly. … No gun. You know what they did find? Deck brackets.

A few days later they got another phone call. This time from Tarr’s brother, asking them to come back to the house. Tarr’s family gave deputies a Ziploc bag they said they had found in the same yard that had been searched just days earlier. Inside — a Springfield Hellcat 9 mm pistol and silver-colored ammunition. The Illinois State Police determined the gun was the murder weapon and the ammunition matched the casings found at the crime scene.

Bobby Tarr: We still, to this day, don’t know how that ended up there, specifically in the spot that they searched …

Erin Moriarty: Are you saying you were set up? Someone was framing you?

Bobby Tarr: Yes.

But if someone was framing Tarr, he or she would have to be pretty detail oriented. The state police say Tarr’s fingerprint was on the Ziploc bag.

Dan Fultz: He is adamant that he would not have been dumb enough … that he would’ve carried it all the way back to his home … and said, hmm, where would I put this gun on my one-acre lot? … I think I’ll put it next to the front door.

And Tarr points out neither his prints nor DNA were found on the gun itself.

Bobby Tarr Nothing on the firearm, no DNA, no prints of mine on the firearm.

Andrew Affrunti: What I think is, what happened is, is that the gun was cleaned. And that Mr. Tarr just missed a spot.

That spot was Reeves’ DNA, say police, found on the guide rod of the gun. Tarr’s explanation: the gun wasn’t his – it belonged to Reeves.

Bobby Tarr:  I purchased the Hellcat and Leslie purchased it from me.

As investigators continued to build a case against Bobby Tarr, they say he was hatching a plan to silence the only eyewitness.

COULD CHRIS SMITH ID HIS ATTACKER?

If there’s anyone who knew what guns Leslie Reeves owned, it’s Howard Bolton, her close friend and firearm instructor.

Howard Bolton (at gun range): Leslie accompanied me here on several occasions. … When I would hold classes, she would actually shoot with us.

Howard Bolton (at gun range): Leslie was becoming a very good shot.

Bolton says Reeves had organized a class called “Girls with Guns” not long before she was murdered.

Howard Bolton (at gun range): We put the girls through their paces … They would move forward and fire. They would come back and fire …And Leslie did very, very well at that.

Bobby Tarr insisted to “48 Hours”  that Reeves owned the Hellcat that was used to kill her, but Howard says he never saw her use it.

Howard Bolton: Leslie never brought, uh, a Springfield …  let alone a Hellcat — to class.

So then how did Reeves’ DNA get on the guide rod of the murder weapon? Howard believes that Reeves’ DNA could only be on that guide rod if the gun was fired at her at close range.

Howard Bolton: So when he shot her, wherever it was he shot her … would have contaminated that part of the gun.

In fact, Howard says Reeves owned a different gun. Her friends say they wish she had taken it with her the night she was killed.

Howard Bolton(at gun range): Had Leslie taken the gun with her, I assure you the outcome would’ve been different.

Tarr declared his innocence but the case against him could hinge on what Chris Smith — the only survivor — remembers. Would he be able to identify him? That was the question as Smith remained in a coma.

Sharon Costanza: We were talking to him, singing to him … And I was … always holding his hand.

While Chris Smith lay helpless, authorities say Tarr was plotting to silence him forever.

A grand jury indicted Tarr on two counts of solicitation of murder. Those charges are based on allegations by an inmate who says Tarr paid him $10,000 to shoot and kill the lead detective and Smith.

Erin Moriarty: Did you ask an inmate to shoot Chris Smith —

Bobby Tarr: No, ma’am.

Erin Moriarty:— and to kill Detective Roach?

Bobby Tarr: No, ma’am.

Tarr says the alleged plot was a lie concocted by a former cellmate. Tarr says he loaned that cellmate $10,000 for his bond and that it had nothing to do with Smith.

Erin Moriarty: Were you worried he was going to testify and point to you as the shooter?

Bobby Tarr: No. … I was not worried one iota.

The truth was that no one knew what Chris Smith remembered. The first time he regained consciousness was in early January 2022, about two months after the shooting.

Smith’s voice was so weak in those early days, that his old friend Mark Reardon, a talk show host in St. Louis, barely recognized Chris on the phone.

Mark Reardon: I could not believe that I was hearing from this guy. And I cried, he cried … just talking about that moment really brings me chills because I just thought he was never gonna be someone that was in my life ever again.

Erin Moriarty: What did Chris tell you?

Mark Reardon: Well … when Chris came out of this … I was pretty sensitive to ask him about what had happened that night … because I think I was a little afraid of even having those conversations. So … most of the conversations that we had were really focused on, hey, how are you? you gonna be OK.

After intense physical therapy, Smith has made incredible strides. He’s much stronger than when he awoke from a coma, but he discovered there are gaps in his memory. What does he remember from that terrible night?

Chris Smith: I wish to God I could remember something … even just a — a smidgen of something. But I remember nothing.

He remembers nothing of the shooting or Leslie Reeves.

Chris Smith: I said, “who the heck’s Leslie? … I don’t know Leslie.”

Erin Moriarty: You had no idea.

Chris Smith: No. Nothing, nothing.

Erin Moriarty: Is Chris the same person who used to come on your show before he was shot?

Mark Reardon: Yeah … I think at the core, he’s still the same guy that I knew. … He’s still the smart ass, he’s still the guy that’s gonna talk about how good he is, and how good he was, and how much he could lift weights.

Smith works out at the gym most mornings trying to regain muscle so that someday he’ll be able to walk without assistance.

He’s even back to being the lead singer in his rock and roll band.

Sharon Costanza: I don’t know how he did make it. I don’t understand how he did. He’s a miracle.

But Smith is aware that his life is very different from what it once was. 

Chris Smith: I’m half the man I used to be, but I’m trying to get it back as hard as I can.

Chris Smith: My left leg is, uh, partially paralyzed from my hip to my knee, then from my knee to my toes, completely paralyzed, so if there’s any neurosurgeons out there … any researchers out there, please get a hold of me. I’ll be your guinea pig. Just make me normal and give my life back please (crying).

Erin Moriarty: It’s tough, isn’t it, Chris?

Chris Smith: Tough doesn’t even describe it. Doesn’t even describe it.

Smith is resigned to living with part of that hollow-point bullet in his brain; doctors say it’s in a spot that makes it too dangerous to remove.

Erin Moriarty: So that’s where you got shot?

Chris Smith (points to the top of his head where bullet went in): Yep. Right here … yeah, still feel it on my skull right there.

After decades on his own, Smith had to move back into his mother’s house.

Sharon Costanza: I thank my blessings daily that he’s here with us. I just wish that this guy didn’t take everything away from him.

Smith visits with his loyal dog Tiki, but no longer lives with her. And he’d love to see his 12-year-old daughter more often, but he can’t drive and he’s living in St. Louis almost two hours away from his daughter and ex-wife.

Chris Smith: I miss her … I — I mean, she was my little pea in a pod. I mean, we did everything together.

The trial of Robert Tarr was set for April 2024, but Smith would not be there. He told the prosecutor he was too angry to attend.

Erin Moriarty: You didn’t think you’d be able to just sit there?

Chris Smith: Oh no. No way. I — I know myself. … I — there’s no way. No.

But Smith’s alleged shooter Bobby Tarr will be there and he said he was eager to tell the jury that he’s not a violent man.

Erin Moriarty: But on this one night, early morning, did you snap?

Bobby Tarr: No, that’s not my nature. I don’t lose it and snap.

THE CASE AGAINST BOBBY TARR

When Bobby Tarr went on trial in April 2024, prosecutors told the jury that he killed Leslie Reeves rather than allow her to live the life she wanted; a life without him.

Andrew Affrunti: Mr. Tarr … couldn’t deal with the fact that Leslie was seeing somebody else and … he had to go and take care of it.

Andrew Affrunti says Tarr secretly followed Reeves to Farmersville early that evening, and shortly afterwards his phone began showing some interesting activity.

Andrew Affrunti: He had actually searched Chris Smith on his phone, had tried to find his Facebook profile.

Tarr headed home and texted his friend Billy Adams, “I don’t feel like she would drive that far for a party or go out with a girlfriend. I think it’s for a dude.” He also searched whether police could track his phone if he was using a VPN – a virtual private network.

Andrew Affrunti: He was researching to determine whether or not that would mask where his location was while he was using the phone.

Authorities say around midnight, Tarr left home, stopping at that gas station. And then, according to Affrunti, surveillance videos and cell tower records show that Tarr drove back to Farmersville.

Erin Moriarty: You believe he intended to kill both Chris and Leslie?

Andrew Affrunti: I 100% believe that he went up there with the intent to do serious harm to both of them.

With one victim dead and the other with no memory, it’s difficult to say with certainty what happened. But the prosecution argued that sometime after 1 a.m., Tarr tried to enter through the back door of Smith’s house. Reeves and Smith tried to keep him out.

Josh Easton: There was some kind of altercation or struggle …And that’s when the glass was broken.

Crime scene investigator Josh Easton told the jury what he’d observed inside the kitchen.

Josh Easton: The refrigerator was pulled away from the wall from where it appeared it normally was.

Prosecutors believe Reeves was trying to use the refrigerator to block the door. And based on where Smith was shot in his head, they think he was crouching down to help Reeves.

Andrew Affrunti: I think that … while Chris was crouched down trying to hold the door shut, uh, Bobby shot through the door and struck Chris.

With Smith incapacitated, Affrunti says Reeves hid in the living room. Tarr tracked her down, shot and killed her.

Andrew Affrunti: I strongly believe that … he walked in and executed her.

Defense attorney Dan Fultz disputes all of that.

Dan Fultz: There is simply no evidence … that that’s what happened. There’s no evidence that Leslie pushed the refrigerator. There’s no fingerprints and blood … on the refrigerator of Leslie’s.

Fultz says evidence of a fight in the kitchen tells a different story.

Dan Fultz: The amount of blood in that kitchen was astonishing.

Erin Moriarty: From looking at that crime scene, do you believe that Christopher Smith had to fight his — his assailant … in the kitchen?

Dan Fultz: It would appear to me that there was … some significant struggle in that kitchen between him and someone else.

And he says the assailant could not have been Tarr because he would have been covered in blood.

Dan Fultz: They did not identify a single piece of DNA in his car, they didn’t identify a bloody fingerprint, they did not identify anything tying him to that crime scene.

But prosecutors argued the house wasn’t bloody when Tarr left. They said Chris bled heavily in the 12 hours it took for help to arrive. And while the prosecution did not have a lot of forensic evidence linking Tarr to the crime scene, Affrunti says his phone activity, his lies to investigators, and the evidence found on the Hellcat all prove his guilt.

Andrew Affrunti: When you put all of that together, that’s when you get the clear picture of what happened.

When it was the defense’s turn, Tarr says he wanted to tell his story to the jury. But he chose not to testify.

Erin Moriarty: Why didn’t you just decide you were gonna talk to the jury and tell this story, if in fact you have a story to tell?

Bobby Tarr: I should have, I very well should have.

Dan Fultz: We made a strategic decision … because it may have opened the door for a whole lot of other more damaging evidence to be used, to cross examine him.

The defense didn’t put on any witnesses and counted on the jury to find reasonable doubt in the lack of physical evidence. After three hours, the jury found Bobby Tarr guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Two months later, Tarr was back in court for sentencing, and this time, so was Smith — to tell the judge how the shooting impacted him and his family. Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom.

Chris Smith (after sentencing) Lost my house, lost my truck … I mean, I’ve literally lost my life without being killed.

While Smith was in a coma, he says looters descended on his house and stole his guitar and amps, even his above ground pool. Later, his house was sold at auction and then razed. All that’s left is an empty lot.

Tarr also spoke at his sentencing and denied shooting Reeves and Smith. The judge sentenced him to 85 years.

Leslie Reeves’ friends are focused on keeping her memory alive.

Amy Steinhauer: I hope the rest of his time on this earth is hell.

Howard Bolton: She was a light of a lot of people’s lives. … She was always smiling. She was a very good mother, lived for her kids … And was an advocate and champion of women — women’s rights and especially women that were abused.

Nanette Stuiber: If it can happen to her, it could happen to anyone. So we all need to be careful.

Smith says he never expected he’d be a victim of domestic violence and cautions other men to take a hard look at their behavior.

Chris Smith: If guys you feel like that, if you wanna hurt a woman, get help.

While Smith mourns his old life, he is writing a book about his experiences, and says he’s working to make what he calls poor man’s margaritas out of the lemons and limes he’s been handed.

Chris Smith: I’ve got a do-over. Good Lord gimme a do-over. Not many people get a second chance in life.

Smith has found love with Michelle Albrecht.

Chris Smith: She’s an angel. … Loving me and accepting me the way that I am.

He proposed to her on stage.

Erin Moriarty: What’s the most important lesson out of all of this?

Chris Smith: Don’t ever give up on anything ever, ever… No matter how bad things are. Don’t ever give up.

Leslie Reeves’ two children are being raised by their father. 

Bobby Tarr is still awaiting trial on solicitation of murder charges.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

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Produced by Paul La Rosa and Dena Goldstein  Marc Goldbaum is the development producer. Grayce Arlotta-Berner  and Marcus Balsam are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.