Lesa Buchanan’s family sat uneasy through the Christ Koulis trial.

They listened in quiet rage to the doctor's testimony.

Tara Bentley: It matters that he lied about Lesa. It matters that he is willing to sacrifice her memory after everything else that he's put my family through.

Without concrete physical evidence, the state's case had been difficult to prove.

Kim Helper, prosecutor: I believe that the state had a very strong circumstantial case. Would I have loved to have a photo of him holding the needle? Absolutely. But, ironically, the videotape was always off during the injections.

David Raybin: There was no way that a rational jury would convict this guy of murder. I was concerned they might convict him of reckless homicide. They might fall back on that.

The state had charged Koulis on several counts. While a conviction of second-degree murder carried a sentence of 25 years, a guilty verdict on a lesser count of criminally negligent homicide could mean less than a year in jail.

Tara Bentley: It's not even about justice. It's about finding a reason.

The jury remained out little less than a single day before they returned with their verdict.

Judge: As to count one of the indictment, on the charge of second degree murder, what say you?

Jury foreman: Not guilty.

Judge: As to count two of the indictment, on the charge of reckless homicide, what say you?

Jury foreman: Not guilty.

Judge: As to the charge of criminally negligent homicide, what say you?

Jury foreman: Guilty.

Judge: Very well.

Koulis had been convicted of the least severe of the homicide charges. The more serious ones were rejected. Lesa's 16-year-old daughter Jessica was inconsolable. For the family, it was simply stunning. It felt like a defeat.

Tara Bentley: It was like every emotion of losing Lesa again. But this time, it felt like the world was watching.

For Koulis, the verdict was almost a reprieve.

Christ Koulis: And when they said "not guilty" it was a huge sense of relief. And when they said guilty to-- to the negligent homicide, I didn’t agree with it but I understood how they came to that.

Morrison: So, what's your biggest mistake here?

Christ Koulis: Perhaps that I stayed. I felt it was my responsibility to stick around with her. That eventually she'd come around and she'd stop and we'd get her help. Or we'd part. But at least I was not going to abandon her in that situation.

Dr. Christ Koulis would ultimately be sentenced to two years in state prison, but he was allowed to remain free, pending an appeal. There are currently restrictions on his medical career in Illinois and he has lost the right to practice in Kentucky or Tennessee. For Lesa Buchanan’s family, though, the restrictions did not go far enough.

Tara Bentley: You just hope that, if nothing else, that he won't have his prescription pad to do it to the next woman. That there'd be one less weapon at his disposal.

Once, on the outside, they had seemed the perfect couple: the lovely blonde and the successful doctor. But as every plastic surgeon knows, appearances

Video   Doctor accused of overdosing lover during fling Special edit of the Dateline broadcast for the Web Dateline NBC

can be deceiving.

Death has a way of outing secrets no one would want to be remembered for.

So now, Lesa’s family tends to more positive ways of honoring the life that mattered to them.

Keith Morrison: What do you want people to think about your sister?

Tara Bentley: More than the fact that she ever posed for a picture, that she ever did any acting or ever did any singing or any writing, she was a mother. And she was a sister and she was a daughter and that is where she truly shined in her life.

She had people that loved her. And she had family that she loved.

Lesa Buchanan's family is suing Chris Koulis in connection with her death. He is contesting the suit. He is is also facing charges in Kentucky that he violated probation. A judge will decide if Koulis should serve time for that.

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