Fatal Visions

Let us appoint judges, to judge this people according to our law...

Book of Mormon, Mosiah 29:11

Josh Mankiewicz: Let me see a show of hands, did anybody wanna be on this jury? (laughter) Really, no one.

Seven of the twelve jurors who decided Doug Grant's fate agreed to talk to us about their deliberations, which were just as painstaking as the four-month trial had been. To start with, the physical evidence - or lack of it - gave them no clear picture of what happened.

Karen: When the prosecutor waited to his closing arguments to say, "Well, he took her by the back of the head and pushed her head in the bathtub.  And that's how she got those abrasions on the side."  There was no way that those abrasions could've happened from that.

As for that strange incident in Utah:

Josh Mankiewicz: What do you think happened at Timpanogos?

Pam: (laughter) We don't know.

Karen: We don't know. (laughter)

So, they immersed themselves in the circumstantial evidence.

Josh Mankiewicz: You read Faylene's journals?

Diane: Yes.

Josh Mankiewicz: Very closely? What did you make of Faylene's writings, that she was ready to die, that she expected to die?  You think Doug placed that in her head or--

Diane: No.

Josh Mankiewicz: She had those feelings?

Pam: She had those feelings.

Josh Mankiewicz: What sort of picture emerged of Doug Grant during the trial?

Karen: We don't really know.  We just get to see a little tiny bit of who he was.  And it's hard to make a whole judgment about who Doug Grant was, on that little bit.

Ironically, Doug's history of infidelity made it harder to find a motive.

Matt: I don't know what his motive was.  And that was a big thing to me.  It's like, he'd already had Hillary.  So, why would you--

Josh Mankiewicz: So the idea that he would have to get rid of his wife, so he could have this other woman, he'd done that before without killing anybody.

Brett: There was a question of the-- the settlement, the business settlement--

Female: Yes.

Brett: And-- also the life insurance was $300,000.  So--

Josh Mankiewicz: So you think-- you think it's conceivable money was the motive?

Karen: it's a possibility.

It was a possibility.  It's also a possibility that she took too many pills.  Drowned in the bathtub.  And he didn't call 911.  And that's what happened.

Doug was charged with first-degree murder, a premeditated plot to kill Faylene.  But the jury could also consider two lesser charges:  second degree murder, which does not require premeditation, or manslaughter. recklessly causing another person's death. They argued for days.

Josh Mankiewicz: You think Doug planned to kill Faylene.

Diane: I did think he planned-- to kill Faylene. 

Matt: I didn't think there was evidence that showed that he planned it out in advance.

Josh Mankiewicz: You thought what?  Faylene took the pills on her own and Doug let her die or didn't care?

Matt: Didn't care, screwed up, somethin' like that, yeah. Even if Doug gave her, say, "Here, here's some Ambien, take it so you can go to sleep," I don't see a criminal act of a husband giving medication to your wife.

In the end, it seemed to come down to one thing.

Josh Mankiewicz: If there'd been a 911 call from Doug Grant, would we be here today?

Brett: I don't think so.

Various: Probably not. It would be a different story. 

March 24, 2009, seven and a half years after faylene's death, the jury's word came down.

First-degree murder: Unable to agree.  Second-degree murder: Unable to agree. Manslaughter: guilty.

Guilty on the least of the charges.  Still, Doug Grant was taken straight into custody. But his time in court wasn't over yet. Under Arizona law, the jury helps decide what the sentence should be.  So, a few days later - and fresh from jail - Doug Grant, unshaven, disheveled, made his way to the witness stand to plead for mercy.

Doug: So I hopped up, yelled Faylene's name, and her head was underwater.

Faylene's family had told us that Doug could work a crowd like no one else...

Doug: It didn't work. It didn't work.

How would his emotions now affect the jury?

Josh Mankiewicz: What'd you think of Doug's testimony?

Pam: It was a little bit too late for me. And it was a lot of crying with no tears.

Matt: Right.

On May 15, 2009, the judge sentenced Douglas Grant to five years in prison. After years of mystery-- and misery -- an investigation full of false starts and dead ends. A contentious and angry trial. Doug was called to account -- in this world, at least -- for the death that Faylene herself foretold. It was outcome doug had already considered.

Josh Mankiewicz: Can you accept a guilty verdict?

Douglas Grant: No.  Absolutely not.  'Cause I'm not guilty. I can't accept it and I won't accept it.  No matter what happens, the truth will come out eventually.

After Faylene's death, Hilary did become the mother of her children-- legally adopting the two boys Faylene had with Doug.  And as Faylene had foretold, Doug and Hilary also had a little girl together. They named her Nevaeh. That's "heaven," spelled backward.

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