Original subtitles

- I'm craig melvin

And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."

She's like, "kristy, I need you to sit down."

And I'm like, "oh, no.

Well, this is never a good thing."

"your dad was shot." I collapsed to the floor.

None of it made sense to me. I had to hear the whole story.

- Fences make good neighbors, they say.

This one made for a fight.

Big sky country shrunk small by one man.

- The neighbors felt he was a bully.

- But this man refused to be fenced in.

- Praise the lord for this country.

- A showdown. A shooting. And one man dying.

The shooter says it was kill or be killed.

What was the truth? - It was murder.

- Pure and simple? - Yes.

- The man who shot first told his story.

- It was him or me and I-I shot him.

- Joe said "he came at me with a gun

And I didn't have a choice."

- Did the dead man's body tell a different story?

- He wasn't even looking at 'em.

He was looking the other direction

And he gets shot in the back.

- Only two men were there and one of them is dead.

And now, his daughter wants the truth.

- Who is this guy that can just steal

Such a beautiful soul from this world?

♪♪

- Hello and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."

It can be rewarding buying

A piece of land to call your own.

But what happens when the american dream

Turns into a neighborly nightmare?

Two mountain men, both carrying guns

And possibly secrets, clashed over a dispute

That would end with one of them shot

And the other accused of murder.

Here's keith morrison with "the feud."

- There are still places in america

So peaceful, god must've been smiling.

Like this place in montana-- the bob marshall wilderness.

More than a million natural acres

Just south of glacier national park.

The humans here, merely a small, pale stain

On the fringes of a paradise.

Strange that a person up here

Would feel so tense.

- We always knew that something was gonna happen.

- But there was no question about it.

Sue delarosa was a worried woman.

- We just didn't know who was gonna be

On the receiving end of it.

- Yes, there was trouble. Big trouble.

Sue and her husband dan could feel it in their bones.

And this had been such a happy place.

For nearly a century, people have been coming here

To hunt and fish, ride the trails,

Summer, winter, whenever.

Families like the delarosas bought small lots

And built cabins downhill from the public lands.

'round an old dude ranch called the diamond bar x.

- It was a place to get away from your daily grind

And go up on the weekends and let your hair down

And have fun. - With no boundaries,

I'm assuming? - That was exactly right.

- Harmony, community were the rule.

In fact, in 2001,

Sue and dan were married up here

By everybody's favorite waterfall.

- We invited everybody. It was a fun place to be

And everybody was family up there.

- Oh, how they loved it.

- Praise the lord for this country.

- Tim newman loved it, too.

Tim's daughter, kristy.

- My dad was a real mountain man, you know?

He loved being out in nature and sleeping

Under the stars without a tent.

That's what made him happy.

- Tim and his wife, jackie,

Were fixing up a cabin of their own here.

- He moved fast. Real fast. Running around fixing this

Or I'll wake up to hammers banging

And saws. [laughs]

- He and jackie were each other's second chance at love

When they bowled each other over

In 2004 and got married.

- I felt so blessed. We were blessed.

- Or were, before the trouble.

It was that business about the land that started it.

One of the neighbors would always use the land

And the trails like everybody else.

Managed to buy up hundreds of acres for himself,

Smack dab between all those little cottages

And the vast public wilderness up on the mountain.

And then, he refused to allow anybody

To use the generations-old trails

Connecting their cottages to the forest.

- This is him. His name is joe campbell.

- How'd you feel about that? - Not happy.

- Not good. That was like they were--

- Not good. - It was like they were takin'

Somethin' away that was mine all along.

I mean, you felt violated.

It's like, really? Why would you do that?

- Then-deputy brent colbert responded often.

- What was the main thing you could--

Would get called in there for?

- People trying to access the public land

Through private land. And, uh, the owners

Of the private land blocking the access.

- Any one particular name you began to hear about

More than others? - Yeah. Mr. Campbell.

- What was the neighbors' feeling about him?

- The neighbors felt he was a bully.

- Not only neighbors, mind you.

- You're on private property without permission.

- We are? - This is 2008.

Joe campbell confronting a visiting hunting party.

- You're on our property. - Your pin was--

- You've been on it for about 3/4 of a ----in' mile.

- Joe was wielding a high-powered shotgun

Called a street sweeper

Developed for riot control and combat.

- That's quite a weapon you're carryin',

Are you threatened? - Doin' a little bird huntin'.

- That ain't a bird gun. - I always thought

He's gonna run into the wrong type of person

That isn't gonna put up with him.

I thought either he would be shot by someone like that

Or he was gonna shoot somebody.

- Then, there was the time joe barged into

A delarosa family reunion, the family said,

Claiming one of their cars was blocking a road.

- Screaming, yelling profanities.

You know, just bein' an absolute jerk.

- The delarosas wrote a letter to the county attorney

Asking him to do something about joe

Before somebody got hurt. They were advised

That the property disputes were a civil matter.

So, then, some of the family sued and years later,

Made a deal with joe that gave them

The right to cross his land.

Joe put up signs listing the people granted access.

- Oh, we saw some deer. - Thing was, not everybody

Could afford to join the lawsuit.

Tim newman, for example.

- So, it was really hard for him to kinda swallow that.

He wasn't accepting of it at all.

- There's dan up there, leadin' the way.

- Anyway, he figured his god-given right to use

Those trails superseded any earth-bound lawsuit.

- This is the gate to annoy us,

Is the way I think. 'cause it's annoyin'.

- Yes, tim newman was convinced. He had a natural right

To cross campbell's land on long-used traditional trails

Into the very public national forest.

- Campbell lives somewhere over there.

We're not goin' that way.

- By late September 2013, tension was--

Well, was tense.

Tim challenging joe.

Joe increasingly angry.

Threats flying back and forth.

And then, it was hunting season.

And here, a brief calm.

Tim and a hunting friend avoided joe campbell's land.

- Okay. Here we are, cuttin' trails.

Huntin' season 2013.

She's gettin' purdy.

- Later that week, tim left a voicemail

For his daughter, kristy.

- And he was tellin' me about a bear he'd just gotten.

He'd been wantin' to get a bear for a long time

And he finally got the bear.

- What's the old saying? Sometimes

You get the bear, sometimes,

Well, you know the rest.

Oh, by the way.

Everybody but the bear lived that day.

But not for long.

- 9-1-1 what is your emergency?

- There were shots fired and one of 'em's down.

- A showdown up on the mountain.

Who was shot and why? Coming up.

- She's like, "kristy, I need you to sit down."

And I'm like, oh, no.

- And a puzzle for the sheriff.

Two guns. One angry man.

- It was just plain-- "I thought he was gonna

Shoot me, so I shot first."

- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪ - on a Friday afternoon, October 2013,

A sheriff's deputy raced 20 miles

From the small town of augusta, montana

To the edge of the bob marshall wilderness.

- We need the augusta county sheriff--

- There had been a 9-1-1 call.

Reports of shots fired. A man down.

And when the deputy finally pulled to a stop,

He found joe campbell, standing behind the gate

He'd built to block the trail to public lands.

And just 10 feet away, sprawled in the dirt,

There was tim newman.

The deputy ripped open newman's shirt,

Saw a gunshot wound to the chest,

And that it was too late. - My phone rang.

She's like "kristy, I need you to sit down."

- Tim's daughter got a call from her aunt.

- And I'm like, "oh, no. This is never a good thing."

And, uh, I just immediately said no.

I'm like, "no. No." like, "I don't' want to--

"I don't want you to tell me what you're about to tell me."

"no." like, "no." and she's like, "I'm sorry,

Your dad was shot. Tim is dead."

- Tim newman was 53 when he died

Beneath the big sky he loved.

- I was floored. I was stunned.

- We always knew with the guns being pulled that something

Was gonna happen, we just didn't know who

Was gonna be on the receiving end of it.

- It's a beautiful area. As you're drivin' there,

You're thinkin' how could anybody

Who lives in such splendor

Be so angry?

- Sheriff leo dutton responded to the scene

Just after his deputies and found joe campbell

In the back of a patrol vehicle.

- Hi, sir. - Hi, there.

- Sheriff dutton.

- We had to take his story at face value

Because nothing else seemed to-- seemed amiss.

- And what was that story? - It was just plain,

"I thought he was gonna shoot me, so I shot first."

- Made sense. Tim newman's .357 magnum

Was found on the ground, not far from his right hand.

And the sheriff knew that tim newman had been

Baiting the bear, fighting joe campbell's rules

About who could or couldn't cross his land.

He carried a video camera with him.

- This is what you have to go through with this gate.

- Tim, bold as brass, had been cutting padlocks

Which joe campbell used to lock his gates.

- When I first talked to mr. Newman about this,

He admitted to cutting those locks and said

That he was gonna continue to do that.

And I said, "well, I guess if that's the case,

Me and you are probably gonna be pretty good friends,

'cause I'll see you quite often.

- Did you charge tim newman? - I did. I did. Uh--

- You wrote up tickets for him? - I did.

For criminal mischief to the locks and gates

That he was cutting and-and destroying.

- Saw a mountain lion. - Tim thought that charges

Would put him in front of a judge

Where he would finally have a chance

To set the record straight and preserve

What he believed to be his natural right

To use the trails across joe's land

To the very public national forest.

But just days before the shooting,

The county attorney dismissed all the charges against tim,

Saying it was not a criminal matter but a civil one.

Which tim newman took as tacit permission

To keep cutting the locks.

Did you say, "tim, this is not a good way to go?"

- Yeah, we did. Yeah. - I mean, you go out and cut

Somebody's locks, they're not gonna be a happy camper.

- Right. - Yes.

- Which leads us back to the gate

Where tim newman now lay dead.

And joe campbell was telling sheriff's deputies a story.

He and his wife tani were walking up

The trail toward their property, said joe,

When tim started following them on his atv.

They were frightened, he said.

They hurried to his gate, slipped through it.

And then, as joe sent his wife to call the sheriff,

He said, tim got out of his atv and approached

The gate with a pair of bolt cutters.

Then, said joe, tim leaned down to the padlock on the gate

And noticed joe was wearing a pistol on his hip.

So, that was joe campbell's story.

He was threatened, so he shot tim newman twice.

First in the chest and then, in the back.

- We didn't arrest him because he asserted

It's self-defense and montana now has a law

That you don't have any duty to run.

If you feel threatened, then you can protect yourself

With deadly force. - So, essentially shoot first

And figure it out later. - Yes.

- And figuring it out would take time.

- I can walk home, right? - Nope, we'll give you a ride.

- So, joe campbell was sent home that very day

And tim newman's body was taken away for an autopsy.

When of course, science would enter the story.

Science as glorious as all outdoors

To bat away foolish human vanities.

- Coming up. - This really all came down

To what the body told you. - Absolutely.

- But tim's neighbors had already decided.

- They were, "why isn't he in jail?"

"he shot a person. Why didn't we do something?"

- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.

- In the days after tim newman was shot dead,

Joe campbell went back to his home on top of the mountain

While many of his downhill neighbors let the death

Dissuade them from visiting

Their cabins on the land they loved.

But not dan and sue delarosa.

- If all the neighbors had run and hid and-and not come up

To the mountain and stayed at home,

Then, hell, he won. - Yeah.

- Then he's got the whole place to himself,

Which he wanted originally.

And so, we said "we're st-- we're goin'.

- This was our paradise and even though

It was shattered, we weren't willing to walk away.

- And many neighbors vented to the sheriff

About joe campbell. - They were,

"why isn't he in jail? He shot a person.

Why didn't we do something about it?"

- Yeah. - But there's a montana law

That guides our behavior. - So, the question

Became one of intent. - Yes.

- If you intend to defend yourself,

You're within the law. - Right.

- If you intend to kill somebody because

He's a pain in the ass-- against the law.

- Yep. They make hemorrhoid cream for that.

I mean, you don't need to shoot people for that.

- But which was it in this case?

Self-defense or murder?

Remember, joe campbell claimed tim newman

Confronted him. Leveled a gun at him.

So, campbell was within his rights to fire first.

- I-I shot and he spun around and--

- That second shot in the back

Was half reflex, half fear, he said.

Make sure he got the guy who threatened him.

Except this was curious--

Tim was left-handed,

But his gun was found lying on the ground

Near his right hand.

And tim's gun hadn't been fired.

So, if he had the drop on joe, as campbell said he did,

How did joe get a shot off

Before tim could pull the trigger?

The puzzle landed on the desks

Of then-deputy attorney general mary cochenour

And dan guzynski.

- I think mary and I both feel, like-like most montanans feel,

That we have an absolute right to defend ourselves.

I think the challenge is-is to try to ferret out,

You know, when there's a justifiable homicide

Versus a situation where they wanted to commit murder

And they used the justifiable use of force

To get away with murder. - The two prosecutors

Had to decide which applied in this case.

They'd heard joe campbell's side of the story,

But the only story tim newman could tell

Would come from his autopsy.

This really all came down

To what the body told you,

What the wounds told you, right?

- Absolutely. And from that autopsy,

We learned that there were two shots to tim newman.

One shot was to the back. Severed his spine

And it would've paralyzed him instantly from mid-chest down.

The other shot hit his hand first

And then skimmed his chest

And whizzed past his head.

- And to the prosecutors, the angle of those shots

Strongly suggested that the first shot

Could have been in tim newman's back.

- So, it told us that the story that joe campbell

Had told law enforcement that he had shot

Into tim newman as tim newman

Was rising up with his own gun,

Physically didn't work out from a common-sense level.

- This is your miranda warning. - They called joe in

For a second interview. When, again,

He said tim was the aggressor.

Chasing joe and his wife with his atv.

But she did, said joe,

And that's when tim came at him.

Instead, said joe, tim walked right up to the gate

And him. And then?

Then, joe campbell's story changed.

Right after it happened, joe quoted tim

As saying "oh, you're armed?"

Now, he claimed tim pointed a gun right at him and said--

- Well, certainly, that statement

About shoot first or cut the locks, I think

He's tryin' to show that tim newman,

Um, verbally told him that he was gonna shoot him.

And before that, there was nothing.

- And about that thought that the angles of the shots

Suggested the first shot was a shot in the back?

No, no, said joe. Didn't happen.

Not long after, they sent joe home again

And wondered what was the truth

And what wasn't.

They really couldn't be sure.

- In the end, we really needed a shooting reconstructionist

And reconstruct the shooting at the scene.

- But that reconstruction would have to wait

For one of those only-in-montana reasons.

- Right after tim newman had been shot,

There'd been a big snowstorm and the-the crime scene

Had been under snow that whole winter

And we had to wait until may to get him up

To the crime scene so he could do his work.

- And so, once again,

It was springtime in montana

And the answer, pure and mindless

As the first tiny blossoms,

Rose up from the greening soil.

- It was murder. - Pure and simple?

- Yes. - How did they know,

8 months after the fact?

And how would they prove it to a jury?

Different sort of science altogether, that.

- Coming up. In the old west,

It was the lowest thing you could do.

- He shot 'em in the back in cold blood?

- He admits that he shot him in the back.

- And if that was the first shot,

Then this was murder.

- He stated that "the next time I see tim newman,

I'm gonna put him down.

I'm gonna put him down, lamonte."

Those were his words.

- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."

I'm craig melvin.

Joe campbell had admitted to shooting tim newman.

First in his chest, then in his back,

Claiming it was self-defense.

Yet, the autopsy and the crime scene

Both suggested a different story.

Police questioned joe about his motive.

Was he hiding an ugly secret?

Back to keith morrison with "the feud."

- Montana state capitol in helena,

February 2016.

Into the old supreme court chambers--

- Please be seated. - Came a small, elderly man.

Joe campbell, 70 years old, was charged with murder.

Deliberate homicide, they call it here,

Accused of killing tim newman in cold blood.

- It just made me wonder how it had gotten to this point,

Where someone died.

- Worse, breaking the unwritten code of the west.

You're accusing this man of doing

Probably the lowest thing you can do in western mythology--

Shoot a man in the back.

Is that what he did, really?

He shot him in the back in cold blood?

- He admits that he shot him in the back.

- But was it campbell's first shot or his second?

That could make the difference

Between murder and self-defense.

- This was not a justified killing,

And the state of montana

Is going to ask that you find joe campbell guilty

Of deliberate homicide.

- Remember the crime scene expert who had to wait

For the snow to melt to make his calculations?

This is him.

- My job was to independently investigate

What could've happened at this particular crime scene.

- William schneck, a forensic scientist.

What he did was try, with an assistant helping,

To reenact events

As joe campbell claimed they had happened--

Lining up body positioning,

Track of the bullets, that sort of thing. And?

- Were you able to reconstruct the scene

As mr. Campbell said it had happened?

- No, I was not able to do that for either shot.

- But guess what did line up?

The shots in the opposite order

That campbell had claimed.

- My opinion is,

Mr. Campbell shoots mr. Newman in the back

As he's running from the gate.

At that point, he falls to the ground on his back

In the death position.

At that time, mr. Campbell takes the second shot.

A grazing shot over the hand and across the chest,

Missing the head.

- Look at it, said the scientist.

With tim felled by the first bullet to the back,

The second bullet travels south to north,

Grazing his vest, nicking his hand,

And zipping right past his head.

The only way it could've happened.

Was he right?

Why not call a legend to confirm it?

Legendary expert, that is.

- The state calls dr. Werner spitz.

- Dr. Werner spitz literally wrote the book

On forensic pathology.

He even brought the book to court.

- I can only tell you this--

That if weight has a meaning by way of quality,

Then this is 9 pounds and a quarter.

- Okay. All right.

- 89 years old when he took the stand.

Dr. Spitz investigated

The assassinations of president kennedy

And dr. Martin luther king and many, many more.

He testified more recently in the phil spector

And casey anthony trials.

So what did dr. Spitz say about this case?

- Just to be clear, doctor, your opinion is that

Mr. Newman was shot in the back

As he turned away from the gate,

Some 10 feet from the gate.

- Yes, that's correct.

- And then he fell to the ground on his back.

- That's correct.

- And then, he was shot a second time,

Landing in this death position,

And those wounds to the hand line up perfectly with--

- Line up perfectly.

- The big mystery then,

According to the prosecutors, was why?

Why would joseph campbell have shot tim newman

In cold blood?

Well, remember that video of campbell

Taken by a hunting party in 2008?

- You're on private property without permission.

- We are?

- Prosecutors played it for the jury

To show that campbell wasn't afraid to confront

And chase off anybody who dared cross his property,

Even when he was outnumbered.

- You could see on that video

That he was not scared of those hunters,

And to accept his story that he was terrified of tim newman--

A man, a neighbor of his that he had known,

Just seemed implausible.

- Nor was that an isolated incident.

- Your relationship with mr. Campbell--

How would you describe that relationship?

- One word-- miserable.

- And he looked up at me, and he said,

"I don't know who the (bleep) you are, mister,

"but you're trespassing,

"and I don't ever want to see you again."

- This woman was an army colonel on leave from iraq

Out on a ride with her father

When they were confronted by campbell and his shotgun.

- Again, he's like "hey, sweetheart, who are you?"

Both my dad and I told him to put the gun down.

We were just tryin' to go on a horseback ride,

And I told him, I'm like,

"hey, I have to go back to iraq tomorrow."

But he refused to put the shotgun down.

And then he started waving. He's like, "this is my property,

"and this is my property,

"and you can't be on my property."

- The prosecutors argued that the clearest proof

That joe campbell intended and planned

To kill tim newman-- his own words.

Like what he said to the deputy county attorney

Who declined to prosecute tim for cutting locks.

This was days before the shooting.

- He told me that if I wasn't going

To take care of mr. Newman, that he would.

- And this one. - He did refer to tim

Leavin' the top of the mountain in a body bag.

- Joe's words to a contractor,

Two days before the shooting--

- He cleared his jacket back from his pistol

And touched his side like that, and he stated that,

"the next time I see tim newman, I'm gonna put him down.

"I'm gonna put him down, lamonte."

Those were his words.

- He said he was gonna kill 'em, and then he killed 'em.

It was murder.

- The rule in montana is as clear as day.

You can defend your castle, if you're threatened.

Absent a threat,

Then murder is what it is,

And what could joe campbell possibly say about that?

Well, as it turned out, lots.

- I was tryin' to stay alive.

That's all I wanted to do.

It was him or me, and I-I shot him.

I did.

- Dramatic testimony from the accused,

When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

- Point of view can change everything, can't it?

Perspective.

Even in the crisp, clear montana air where here,

Inside the grand old courtroom,

The view was about to get decidedly hazier.

- It's about self-defense.

That's what this case is about.

- This is joe campbell's attorney, greg jackson,

Who wanted the jury to see a justifiable shooting

By a terrified man in fear for his own life.

- All that fancy forensic testimony

Bolstered by legendary forensic pathologist dr. Werner spitz

To show joe first shot tim in the back?

Just spin, said the defense.

Besides, the defense had its own legend.

Dr. Vincent di maio was a pathologist

Who wrote the book on gunshot wounds and said--

- You have to have some description

As to where the shooter is,

And then, you could say, "this is consistent"

Or "no, no, it's not consistent at all."

- In this case, dr. Di maio came to a far different conclusion

Than the prosecution experts.

- There is nothing to disprove mr. Campbell's story.

- Dr. Di maio offered his own theory--

That tim could've been jumping or falling backwards

When the first bullet hit his hand and chest

And then the second shot hit him in the back.

Dueling experts?

Maybe they'd cancel each other.

But if joe campbell

Was going to walk out of the courtroom a free man,

The defense had to hope the jury perceived him and her

In a favorable way. - Joe campbell's my husband.

- And so, here was tani converse,

Joe campbell's wife...

- And how long have you two been married?

- Twenty-three years. - ...And the only other survivor

Of that confrontation on the hill.

So far, you've heard that joe campbell was a bully.

- There isn't any right of way through here.

- That he was a threatening, mean, and dangerous old man.

Unafraid and aggressive.

But tani told the jury

That in the weeks before the shooting,

It was tim newman driving a pick-up who confronted them

As they walked to their horse pasture.

- He said, "joe and tani,

"finally found you."

Joe just said, uh, "tim,

"we've given you a notice

"that you're not welcome on our place.

"please don't harass us."

- Were you afraid of him

When you were next to the road there?

- I was startled. Joe just said, "let's go."

And he just hollered out the--

Out his window, um,

"come on, let's just get it over with right now."

And then, he did drive off.

- And that's why, she said, she and joe were afraid of tim,

And why, on October 18th,

As she and joe walked toward home,

They were alarmed to see tim coming up behind them.

- What were the things that made you believe

That he was gonna physically harm you?

- Well, if he was just wanting to cut the lock,

Why would he chase us up the hill?

Why would he do that? We were watching him.

He was on his atv, and he was off his atv,

And he was grabbing the bolt cutters.

He was unpredictable. He was highly agitated.

- So, what do you and joe decide to do next?

- Joe just kept sayin' "you need to try to get outta here.

"you need to try to get safe. You need to try to get home.

"you need to call the sheriff."

I didn't wanna leave joe.

- But she did leave, she said,

And on her way to calling 9-1-1, heard gunshots,

Placed the call, rushed back, and--

- I saw joe standing at the gate, and he said,

"he came at me with a gun, and I didn't have a choice."

Then I saw mr. Newman lying on the ground.

- In their sometimes-intense cross-examination,

Prosecutors pointed out, not so gently,

That elements of tani's story had changed also,

From previous interviews.

But altered or not, her story was emotional.

[sighing]

As was joe campbell's.

- Call joe campbell to the stand.

- So, kindly and sometimes frightened grandfather of seven,

Or neighborhood bully,

The man who brandished weapons at neighbors

And strangers alike?

The defense set about changing perceptions.

- You're on private property without permission.

- The neighbors? The hunters?

- Did you threaten 'em with a shotgun,

Anything of that nature? - No.

Just-- they were trespassin', and I asked 'em to leave.

- The army colonel and her father?

- Ever pointed a shotgun at 'em?

- No, sir.

- But there was no getting around the fact

That he told the deputy da

He was going to take care of tim newman himself.

Couldn't be more than one way to perceive that,

Could there?

- We were gonna get, uh-- take a legal action.

We were really frustrated. I was really frustrated.

- Legal action.

That's how he intended to take care of tim newman, said joe.

He was just a peaceful-- if frustrated-- man, he said.

And he was terrified

When tim newman chased tani and him up the hill

In a rage that day in October 2013.

Man had murder in his eyes, said joe.

- It's hard to stand up here and say it in front of everybody,

But I was tryin' to stay alive.

That's all I wanted to do.

I was thinkin' about tani.

I was thinkin' about my kids, my grandkids.

It was him or me and I-I shot him.

I did.

- Had joe campbell succeeded

In changing the jury's perception?

Before mr. Campbell could leave the witness stand,

Prosecutor dan guzynski got a chance to cross-examine him

And again present the bully of the mountain

The neighbors said they knew all too well.

- Lamonte moultray says that approximately two,

Three days before you shot and killed mr. Newman

That you told him "I am going to put him down."

Did you say that to mr. Moultray?

- I did not.

- So all these people came into court,

Took an oath, and have lied in front of this jury.

Is that right? - Objection, your honor.

- Ultimately, the prosecutors said,

Joe campbell could have avoided a confrontation.

Could have, but did not,

Because he wanted it.

- All you have to do to save your wife, to save yourself,

Is to turn downhill and walk, jog,

Run down that hill to safety.

- But we-- I looked at some of those options,

Mr. Guzynski, and it's a hell of a lot harder

Up there on the hillside when somebody's threatening you

Than it is to stand in a courtroom 2 1/2 years later.

- So if you were a juror,

What would you think about joe campbell

And the gunplay on the mountain?

Was it murder or self-defense?

- Waiting for the jury.

- There's so much anxiousness.

- Hoping for justice.

- Who is this guy that can just steal

Such a beautiful soul from this world?

- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.

♪♪

- On the 3rd of March, 2016,

In the old supreme court chamber

At montana state capitol building,

The question went to the jury.

Did joe campbell have a right to shoot tim newman?

Was it self-defense,

Or was it cold-blooded murder?

Neighbors dan and sue delarosa waited

And willed their thoughts into the jury room.

- I believe he murdered him.

- Murder. Absolutely.

- Though they knew full well

That since montana passed a new law

Legalizing certain kinds of self-defense,

It was hard to know what a jury might decide.

- If they find him not guilty, he moves up,

There'll-there'll be "for sale" signs everywhere up there.

- So, nervous hours around the old courtroom,

Which turned into a whole day,

And then a second.

- There's so much-- just anxiousness

Just waiting for the jury to come back.

- And then?

Just after noon, day two,

The jury sent the judge a note.

- Please be seated.

- And everybody was summoned to the courtroom.

- I am told that, uh,

You folks are hopelessly deadlocked,

And that even if given more time,

You couldn't reasonably expect to reach a decision.

Is that your understanding of events?

- Yes, your honor.

- I'm gonna declare a mistrial.

- A mistrial.

Three weeks of testimony, all for naught.

- And the state may or may not bring the case again.

We're done here. Thank you.

- I couldn't believe it.

It was a complete shock, I think, for the whole family

That he could just leave that courtroom

And not have a guilty or a not guilty

And just, like, nothin' happened.

Like nothing happened.

- What was the state to do?

Well, in this case, said the prosecutors,

The decision was obvious.

They offered joe campbell a plea deal,

And they scheduled a retrial because--

- It's a dangerous situation,

And I'm concerned it'll be repeated,

And somebody else will be killed.

- Joe campbell remained out on bail with the proviso

That he remain at least ten miles away from his property

Up on the mountain.

But...

Less than three months later, may 2016,

Joe campbell elected not to face a second trial.

Instead, he walked into a courtroom

And waived his claim that the shooting was legal.

- How do you plead to the charge of negligent homicide?

- No contest, your honor.

- A plea of no contest,

Meaning campbell neither admitted nor denied the charge

That he committed negligent homicide,

A reduced charge

From the original allegation of intentional homicide,

Montana's parlance for first-degree murder.

- I believe it's in the best interest of myself

And my family.

- In a case like this, said the prosecutors,

You take what you can get.

- We're focusing on community protection,

And we think it's probably the best agreement

That we could reach

And have a guaranteed resolution of this case.

- Before the judge pronounced campbell's sentence,

Tim newman's wife jackie went to the podium.

- Just because you are callous and have no remorse,

I want you to be aware, as tim's wife...

You have affected our lives in a horrendous way.

- Tim's daughter, kristy, also sent a statement,

Unable to be present because she just had a baby,

A granddaughter tim never got to see.

- My dad died a hero. What will you die?

- It makes me very angry, yeah.

Very upset. Very sad.

Like, who-who is this guy that can just steal

Such a beautiful soul from this world?

- The judge offered joe a chance to explain or apologize.

- Is there anything that you would like to say?

- No, your honor.

- Campbell also declined a chance to explain on "dateline."

His lawyer issued a statement which reads, in part...

- For your pleas of nolo contendere--

- The sentence?

It was, of course, part of joe's deal with the state.

Twenty years, but not in any prison.

All of it a suspended sentence.

- And no fines or restitution is imposed.

- But as the neighbors listened, the judge told joe

He'll have to abide by some very important conditions.

He'll never again be allowed to possess a firearm.

And for 20 years,

Even if the old man manages to live that long,

He cannot return to the mountain

He once called home.

He will never again set foot in his house, his forest,

His trails, his precious property.

Ironic, isn't it?

You care so much about your property

That you never get to see it again.

- Yeah. - Yeah. It's very ironic.

You know, before he owned all the big property,

He recreated just like all of us.

- Yeah.

- And he walked down those trails

Across everyone else's property

And-and hunted and enjoyed it,

And life was good.

But when he decided he needed to take control

Is when it all changed.

- It's like a fable, isn't it?

- Yes. - Aesop could've written it.

- There you go. - Yep.

- Huh.

And if tim newman were on a cloud up there somewhere,

Said his daughter kristy, he'd be telling her--

Well, she knows exactly what he'd say.

- "I'm sorry. Sorry, darlin'.

"sorry for goin' up to that gate without someone with me.

"I'm sorry I'm not there to meet my granddaughter.

"I'm sorry we can't go on another hike together."

Or "I love you." you know.

- Praise the lord for this country.

♪♪

- And that's all for this edition

Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered."

I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.