i learned that he was arrested. i was shocked. i was just so confused. i didn't think it was real. i didn't think it was possible. >> in the rarefied world of the ivy league, they was total package -- star student, gifted athlete, wildly popular. >> he was one of the nicest guys. >> no one could understand how a weekend visit to his parents' house -- >> did you say you heard a shot? >> ended in gunfire.

>> who's already dead? >> charlie told the officers outside he was going to kill my mom, i had to do it. >> yes. >> a brave son protecting his mom, a harrowing story, but was it true? >> he's seated behind a desk? the father. >> defenseless really. >> this seems to be an execution. >> was this campus hero actually a cold-hearted killer. >> the defendant sends an e-mail to his fraternity brothers called "show time." >> or was the truth completely different? >> one of the things that was always a question was was charlie covering up for someone else? a trial where nothing went by the book. >> three of the jurors were crying really hard. >> they were turning around in their seats getting emotional. they see what's coming. >> he was becoming unhinged. >> welcome to "dateline extra."

i'm tamron hall. it seemed like charlie tan had the whole world ahead of him and then charlie's father was killed and everything changed. police were being told one story and then the evidence was telling them another. there were also three 911 calls. did one of them hold the clue that would unlock what really happened on that wintry night? here's "house of secrets." ♪ >> cayuga lake in ithaca, new york, and where you'll find one of the most competitive and prestigious universities in the nation. cornell the ivy league big red. ♪ more than 13,000 undergrads here working on their degrees will take their places in the

law, the arts, medicine. it can be a gold plated entrance to adult life. only the best need apply. students like charlie tan. he was so kind, his high school classmate featured him in a video random acts of kindness giving gifts to complete strangers. >> not just a great kid but the greatest of great kids. >> charlie was the son of chinese immigrants who became mr. everything in his high school year. scholar, athlete, class president, the guy with the cool friends. anna valentine opened up her parents' summer lake house to charlie and her own teenaged pals. >> he was a nice guy. happy and energetic. >> the kind of guy that comes in the room and tells jokes? >> everybody knows him. he'll like in, and the room lights up he starts telling a funny story. >> so you'd think charlie tan was another ivy league overachiever poised for takeoff and great things to come. but that's not this story. this is about the charlie tan,

keeper of secrets and quite possibly something much worse. but before all that, charlie was as deserving a kid as ever got an ivy league acceptance letter. >> he was really excited when he got admitted. >> ivy league. >> he was so excited. he was super happy. >> so in the fall of 2013, charlie tan left his parents home near rochester, new york, and drove the few hours to cornell. his exciting new chapter in a life already filled with early achievements. he pledged a frat, he wasn't big enough for cornell's varsity football team so at 165 pounds he was directed toward what they call the sprint football team. >> i met charlie the first day freshman year actually. i had just gotten my locker and charlie was one of the first people i met. >> quarterback rob pinolo. >> one of the most encouraging team players we have. he's a leader of the team, both by example and through his words.

>> rob and charlie became great friends. >> he was a selfless person. >> charlie impressed his teammates and his coach. terry cullen coaches the lighter weight players. >> always a smile, never late. hard worker, good kid, solid. >> go back to thes now the rochester suburbs where charlie grew up in his teenaged years. it's called pits ford, new york and this newspaper man knows it well. >> a very nice community. >> big lawns, nice cars in the garage. >> big house, lots of executives from kodak and xerox and lawyers. >> charlie was the younger of two boys. his parents jim and jean lived in canada before moving charlie and his brother to upstate new york. his dad ran a tech business that thrived. the home just radiated upper middle-class comfort. his friend anna had been there on occasion.

>> i went over to his house. i didn't know his parents very well. i talked to his mom a couple times but i didn't have much conversation with them when we were there. >> little was known about his parents and charlie didn't offer details if someone asked. if he had secrets, sorrows, they weren't for the outside world to know about. >> he's very good at like keeping his emotions in. >> i have no idea what the home situation was like. i didn't know before and i don't know now. >> other than a few 911 dispatchers and a few town officers, the wider community, the friends of charlie tan, certainly, knew nothing about the whispers of domestic violence on placid coachside lane. >> he's a very stoic individual. it's a tough part of his life. >> the record is still sealed but it's safe to say the tan house was known to authorities. go back to cornell. it's the winter of 2015 and charlie is now a sophomore. on a chilly thursday morning, he stopped in unexpectedly to visit his football coach. there is a softer side to this coach than drills and xoeb xo

xoeb -- and xs and os and his kids know he'll always be there for him. >> our rule is if you have a problem come on in and close the door. if you need somebody to talk to, we're here. >> now it was charlie who needed a shoulder or something. >> i said "how are you doing?" he said "good but i can't make weightlifting on friday." i said "what's the problem?" he said "i've got to go home." >> charlie seemed emotional. clearly something was eating at the student. >> i asked him if there was anything he wanted to talk about and he declined. he just said he had to get home. >> it wasn't spring break, classes were in session, but charlie got in his car and started the drive to pittsford 100 miles away. coach didn't know that charlie tan's life as a student at cornell would soon be over. >> we didn't worry about charlie, charlie's very squared away. got his act together. knows what he's doing. >> only charlie tan wasn't at all okay. it snowed that night. a muffling blanket, covering the home where something awful was about to happen.

coming up -- why did charlie need to rush home? the first clue coming from a friend's mom who called 911. >> didn't give us a lot of details. i'm just worried that he might do something at his house. >> and then charlie's mom makes a 911 call of her own. >> did you say you heard a shot? >> yes. >> does somebody in the house have a gun? >> when "dateline extra" continues. p for loans the same way you shop for flights online. i didn't realize that lendingtree you can save money on almost any sort of loan. i consolidated my credit card debt with a personal loan. i found a new credit card with 0% interest for 15 months. you just shop, compare, and save, and it's all free. go to lendingtree right now and start saving.

welcome back to "dateline extra," i'm tamron hall. charlie tan was studying among the academic elite at a prestigious american university. he was bright, athletic and he made friends easily. but when it came to his family, he played it close to the vest. so when his name was linked to violence in his home town, it took the campus and his friends

by surprise. here again is dennis murphy with "house of secrets." >> the football coach knew charlie tan had been upset. >> i asked him to call me when he got home. >> that very evening back in pittsford, new york, charlie spent time at his friend's house, where he seemed despondent and depressed. not the charlie he had known since childhood. after he left, the family called 911. was charlie suicidal? >> he didn't give us a lot of details. i'm just worried that he might do something at his house. i don't know if anything's going to happen but i -- i just can't take a chance. >> all right, well i'm going to have them go to that house and check on him. >> and a deputy did just that. detective steve peglow of the monroe county sheriff's office. >> charlie told the deputy he

was upset over some things. he had come home to talk to some people and that he was working out some things and he would be okay. >> it was now late thursday night, almost the weekend. charlie didn't go back to school friday morning and come monday he wasn't at practice. >> there really wasn't much i could do anyway over than text him and he didn't respond. >> and then it was monday night, something awful. >> 911, what is the address of the emergency? >> yes. hi. >> the caller so distraught confused the dispatcher. >> my name is jean tan. i just -- i heard an argument and my -- my son was talked to my husband. >> ma'am, i can't understand anything you're saying. does anyone need an ambulance? >> it was jean tan, charlie's mother. >> did you say you heard a shot? >> yes. >> does somebody in the house have a gun? >> now the garbled story was coming into focus. shots fired, the husband, the man of the house was dead. >> my husband is dead. >> who's already dead?

>> my husband. >> your who? >> my husband. >> are you in a safe spot? >> yes, i am. >> we need you to wait outside of the house for the police officer's safety. >> detective peglow was soon on route to coachside lane. he still had only a garbled account from the 911 call. who had shot whom? >> he was trying to protect me. >> your son was trying to protect you? >> yes. >> it looked like it was what we would call domestic murder. it was -- it was something that had just occurred. >> on arrival, the first deputies on the scene saw a young man who would turn out to be 19-year-old charlie tan standing in the driveway with his mother. they're outside the house? >> outside the house. it's a safety thing for the deputies. no reason to go in. let the people go out. they asked who else was in the house. >> in the next moments the deputies heard the son tell a story that sounded like self-defense. he had to shoot, he said, to save his mother.

he used a shotgun. >> charlie said "my dad's in there, he's dead, i had to do it. he was going to hurt my mom." >> the father is shot because the boy feels his mother's in jeopardy? >> yes. >> it was getting late on a frigid february night. the deputies put the son and his mother in a patrol car. >> they asked where the shotgun was. it was in the garage. >> after securing the weapon, the detectives made their way into the house. on the second floor, they found the victim. the father is behind the desk? >> the father is behind the desk, spent shotgun shells are in the doorway area. >> the detective would learn more about jim tan, father, husband, and businessman. >> he owned his own company, they had lived in canada and moved to the united states some years earlier. >> successful executive? >> by all accounts, yes. >> but was the successful businessman also an abusive husband? detective peglow looked around

the household as a shotgun killing was processed upstairs. they came upon an appointment card for jean tan to appear at domestic violence court so the working theory, justifiable homicide, made some sense. but detective peglow was no rookie. his investigation into charlie tan and what happened inside that home was just getting started. >> one of the investigators found what appeared to be newly taken passport photos along with a list of prominent local defense attorneys. >> that's interesting. >> yes, sir. >> his story is "i had to do it" but you're not taking that at face value? >> correct. coming up, a discovery on jim tan's computer triggers suspicions about his time of death. >> how many days prior is the last e-mail check? >> four. that was really a big thing for me. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. police arrived at the home of jim tan to find him lying behind the desk in his home office,

shot dead. his son charlie told police he did it. he said he was defending his mother. so case closed. far from it. let's return to dennis murphy with "house of secrets." >> deputies canvassed the neighborhood but no one heard the shotgun blast that killed jim tan. but then this homicide wasn't a whodunit. the son admitted to the sheriff's deputies that he had been the shooter, and he did it to protect his mom. >> self-defense is what we'll listen to if the law will bear that out. if that's what happened, the law will bear that out. we wanted to speak to him to determine that. >> that same night, charlie and his mother were taken down to the station to tell their stories. >> were you able to get a statement from the son charlie? >> his lawyer would not allow us to speak to him. >> his lawyer was on scene? >> his lawyer was on scene a few minutes after me. >> without the cooperation of the admitted participants, the mother and the son, the detectives were on their own. it turns out a very large piece of evidence was waiting to be found right there in their very

office. a report from the house on coachside lane. >> 911, what's the address of the emergency? >> just two weeks before the shooting, police records show the wife placed another 911 call. >> yes, hi, my name is jean tan and my husband just beat me up, i need your protection. >> are you injured? >> yes, i'm -- he choked me and i'm so scared. please. >> do you want an ambulance? >> oh, he's coming. no. no. please come. please come. >> the dispatcher heard what sounded like an ongoing fight between husband and wife. >> hello? sorry, yes. >> no, no! it's a mistake. yes, sorry about that. it's all right. this is an argument. my wife is probably upset at me. >> help me! help me! you choked me. >> no. don't be childish, it's all right. >> a deputy was sent to the house and noticed jean tan, the wife, was clearly rattled. reporter john hand of

rochester's "democrat and chronicle" newspaper. >> they found jean was still upset. she had some red marks on her neck but that there wasn't enough there to charge jim tan with a crime. >> so incident over? >> that night. >> he tried to kill me but nothing results in terms of charges or anything really makes it into the paperwork? >> correct. >> so a history of abuse, it appeared. if that were the case, charlie told no one in his circle at cornell university. up on campus, coach cullen hadn't heard from charlie in days and now his phone rang. >> campus police called me up and asked me to come to his fraternity house, which i did. they wanted me to know that charlie's father had been killed. it was rugged. we've got a bunch of players in the fraternity and everybody was obviously very upset. >> charlie tan admitting that he shot his father to death. >> i think it was probably

disbelief more than -- and shock that this occurred. >> we had a team meeting about it but immediately after, there was so much support for him and everyone was amazed by the support. >> from the get-go, there was no debate. the entire frat and team had charlie's back. >> not just the sprint football football, but everybody on cornell's campus that he knew well was showing support for him. everyone was always trying to help him and ask if there's anything we could do for him. >> to his friends at home there was shock, of course, there, too. and, yet, the heartbreaking story of charlie tan protecting his mom by any means necessary made some kind of weird sense. he was, after all, the kid who was always trying hard to help. people talk about him being selfless. >> yeah. >> lives to help other people? >> he would do anything for people. >> close friend anna had a hard time wrapping her head around charlie doing anything violent. the charlie she knew was a thoughtful kid who did things no ordinary teenager did.

>> my mom went through cancer and he was always there, he brought her, like, gifts and stuff so he was always there supporting anybody. >> so anna, too, would be there supporting charlie through this difficult time. a friend to the end. neither she nor anyone else could have guessed where the investigation was heading next. that the detective who'd examined the scene that night was wondering if there was more to the story. it was all obvious right away that something was off with the working theory of the crime. a heat of passion self-defense homicide. >> we were there for hours obviously searching every bit. one of the things noticed by one of the investigators is just, you know, the dried blood that was all over. >> dried blood, the timeline, and the whole story, in fact, demanded a closer look. >> it's certainly one of the things that starts to get your attention that, okay, hang on, there might be more, let's make sure we're on the right path here. >> and there were other observations that set their timeline back. on jim tan's desk computer where

he'd apparently been working when he was killed there were unopened e-mails going back before the weekend. >> jim is trading some e-mails with an employee and then at some point after that he clearly stops using his computer. he is no longer sending and he's no longer opening. >> and as detectives poked around that office monday night -- how many days prior is the last e-mail check? >> four. >> four days? >> that was really a big thing for me. this was a guy that ran his own company with employees and with activity. >> going back four days, that put the shooting back to that thursday night charlie came home from cornell. and a four-day-old crime scene would also explain what had been plainly obvious to the seasoned detectives' nose. >> the odor of decomposition was very strong. >> the detective now believed that emotional 911 call was bogus. a charade. >> did you say you heard a shot? >> yes. >> his mother was in peril and

he had to shoot the husband but you're saying this might be days earlier? it's a what's going on here thing. >> correct. that first inference from the 911 call and from what charlie said in the driveway to the deputies seemed to be in confrontation with what we were starting to see inside. >> down at the sheriff's office, jean tan, the mother, was released from custody. but not charlie. the 19-year-old ivy leaguer was charged with second degree murder. what did you think, anna? >> i was shocked. i was just so confused about -- i didn't think it was real. i didn't think it was possible. >> charlie tan, the nice boy, the great kid if convicted was facing 25 years to life in prison. coming up, store video shows the gun that killed charlie's father being purchased. but it's not charlie buying it. >> new name all together here? >> correct. >> and then the strange thing charlie did just before his mom placed the 911 call. >> the defendant sends an e-mail

to his fraternity brothers called "showtime." >> when "dateline extra" continues.

here's the hour's top stories. toby wilson star of willis family has been charged with child rape. he remains behind bars without bond. the 343 firefighters lost on 9/11 were remembered at a memorial service on saturday in new york. later this morning both trump and clinton will attend the 15th commemoration at ground zero. now back to "dateline extra." welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. charlie tan said he shot his father to save his mother but

investigators were finding flaws in the story. the ivy league student was facing second degree murder charges. was this an intentional killing or justifiable homicide? here again is dennis murphy with "house of secrets." >> anna valentine was in a state of disbelief when she learned her close friend charlie tan had been arrested. did you have a chance to talk to charlie himself in that period? >> he called me on the phone from jail so i talked to him a couple times. >> anna didn't sit around. she was going to do whatever she could to defend her friend because she knew there was no way charlie did anything wrong. you did something remarkable, anna. you sort of pulled together a whole community behind charlie. >> yeah. >> anna started a defense fund support page for charlie. >> and it just spread like crazy. i had no clue what would happen. >> so you just threw it out there on the net? >> i put it on the page and told my friends i did it. people i hadn't heard of were supporting him. everyone was doing.

>> how much money did you raise? >> around $50,000. >> why did people come out of the wood work to support charlie? >> he had just been one of the nicest guys ever and i think everybody knew that and wanted to do whatever they could to give back to him. charlie would give back to other people. if somebody needed anything he would give it to them. >> reporter john hand was working non-stop on one of the most talked-about stories the county had seen in years. so now it's an investigation, for you, a news story. great ivy league kid blows away his father in this nice neighborhood. what's going on in terms of response to this event? >> we were astonished. it's not very often you have a murder suspect who a bunch of people from pittsford are rallying around. >> the case captured the hearts and minds of a community that couldn't imagine this exceptional young man in prison. and these are lawyers and surgeons and political king -- i mean, these are big, powerful people in new york state who are behind this kid. >> oh, yeah. >> we wish that didn't happen but the kid deserves a break? is there some of that feeling around? >> oh, yeah.

the community felt that very strongly. >> when the trial began less than a year after the shooting, the sworn representative of the people with the murder case to prove found herself in an odd spot. >> the biggest problem was the defendant himself because he did appear to be an upstanding nice young man. >> monroe county district attorney sandra doorley. >> from the very beginning people were disappointed that, you know, an indictment was filed against charlie tan and that we were taking this to court but you have to prosecute people who violate the laws of our state. >> the assistant d.a. prosecuted the case in court. he told the jury that, yes, charlie tan was a high achiever, a bright young man who always went the extra mile for his friends. >> and perhaps he wanted to succeed as charlie tan and solve all the problems that were occurring on coachside lane. >> helping his mother? >> helping his mother. >> by killing his father. that was the solution. >> that was our theory, yes. the gun is found at the murder scene.

his fingerprints are on the ammo. his mother, again, a mother saying "my son did it." and charlie saying he had to do it. >> but did he have to do it? that was the key question. and the prosecution said no. this was no justifiable homicide. this was an execution. in fact the weapon the 12 gauge remington shotgun had been purchased just for the killing. they found it laying against a garbage can in the garage. deputies traced the gun and discovered it had just been bought from a walmart near cornell. >> so we sent investigators down there and as they began to look into that they found the gun had been purchased by a young man named whitney knickerbocker. >> newly purchased? >> newly purchased. >> a new name all together. >> correct. >> the purchase had taken place on the same day that charlie left cornell. the salesman remembered the purchase and even better they

had the surveillance video of charlie's friend and fraternity brother buying the shotgun. video which was shown to the jury. whitney knickerbocker was never accused of having anything to do with the killing. charlie apparently convinced him to help buy a gun. >> friends say whitney was told by charlie that he was going to go on a hunting trip so he asked whitney to help him. >> of course, the prosecution says there was no hunting trip. charlie was planning a murder. before he got the friend to buy the weapon, surveillance footage showed how intent he was on getting one. hours earlier, there was charlie. >> charlie tan is on video going to the walmart attempting to purchase the shotgun. he is unable to. >> why is he turned down? why can't he buy the shotgun? >> he's a canadian citizen. >> which meant there would be a waiting period. time the prosecutor says charlie tan didn't so he gets a friend to come in and make the purchase. >> that was our theory, yes. >> it's hard to put together a

heat of passion scenario, mom's in jeopardy, if you purchased the weapon in advance. >> correct. >> and the prosecutor told the jury there was no evidence of a fight. >> if you look at the exact moment of the killing, jim tan is just sitting at his desk. >> sitting at his desk, answering e-mails. >> answering e-mails working to provide a living and a pretty good living for his family. >> in fact, the medical examiner testified that as jim tan sat behind his desk in his home office he was shot three times about the chest and face. the last shot the coup de grace. >> medical examiners believe jim tan was alive when that was inflicted right to his face. >> the prosecutor believes that was thursday night, the same night one of charlie's friends sent a deputy to the tan home to check on charlie's welfare. it's possible that when the boy answered the door and said he was fine his dad was already dead inside. but no one from the tan home called 911 that night.

rather, says the prosecutor, charlie and his mom grabbed their passports and fled the country. >> jean tan and charlie tan left the country, went to canada and came back on that monday before the 911 call was placed. >> so why come back and tell a lie? the prosecution didn't know. a guess, perhaps someone had to run jim tan's business. and this last tidbit, creepy, implied the state. before that four day's late 911 call was placed, charlie took the time to send a warning e-mail to his college buddies. they would soon hear things in the news. >> the defendant sends an e-mail to his fraternity brothers called "showtime." >> you're going to be hearing from law enforcement? >> yes, yes. you will be surprised, showtime. >> no jurors don't buy self-defense, said the prosecutor in summation. this was no crime of passion, it was a planned murder. so this is an assassination. >> yes. >> he walks in and blows dad away. >> exactly.

>> the prosecution rested. the defense team was up next and they were about to lay out a head spinning theory of the crime from seemingly another universe. no one saw it coming. coming up, the defense drops a bombshell. >> one of the things that was always in question of ours was was charlie covering up for someone else? >> and then the prosecution's stunning reaction. >> he picked up the shotgun, he moved quickly across the room. >> when "dateline extra" continues.

welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. a courtroom in rochester, new york, saw video of charlie tan's friend buying a weapon days

before jim tan was found dead. did this prove charlie was a calculating killer? the defense was about to tell a very different story. dennis murphy picks up the story, "house of secrets." >> it was an upside down world in this courthouse where you'd routinely expect lots of supporters for the victim, there were none. >> there was no one mourning the victim. the victim's assistance from the district attorney's office, i sat with her the whole trial because she had nothing to do. >> apparently some people think this vicious father, the victim, deserved, got what was coming to him. >> oh, yeah. people that normally wouldn't advocate homicide who say if he did it then he did it and that his father deserved it. >> but the accused? his girlfriend and friends crowded outside the courtroom every morning, surrounding him protectively as he walked into court. he had all but a cheering section with pom-poms. >> i think it meant everything. i think having all the support made him feel so much better, so much stronger. thinking we were all

there for him no matter what. >> his friend anna was on the witness list so she wasn't allowed to sit inside the courtroom until the very end. >> i went as much as i could between classes for the rest of. >> how did he seem to you? how was he putting up with it? >> some days were harder than others, some days he seemed good. >> charlie would sit in court while his defense would build a case with evidence that seemed to support domestic violence. played that tape of jean tan calling the cops two weeks before the shooting. >> hi, my name is jean tan and my husband just beat me up. i need your protection. >> are you injured? >> yes, i'm -- he choked me and i'm so scared. >> defense attorney james nobles thought the 911 recording spoke volumes about that household. >> it was almost as if we were put in the hell that charlie lived in for a brief moment and the hell that jean lived in for a brief moment. >> and they kept piling on. jim tan, continued the defense, wasn't just a bully at home. his employees testified about the abuse they, too, encountered in the workplace. >> every other person who worked

with jim tan said he was miserable, says he behaved like a child, said he would bully people, said he was nasty at work. >> so a son defending his abused mother was a defense no-brainer strategy that seemed to require little assembly. the other defense lawyer, brian decarolis. >> i think most people that looked at this case said the only defense is self-defense or some hybrid of a battered child syndrome. >> but as the trial progressed, that wasn't the tack charlie' defense team planned. >> our strategy was to keep our strategic defense in our back pocket hidden from the prosecution as long as we possibly could. >> so what was the secret defense? they were going to agree with the prosecution on one point -- that when jean called 911 to report her husband dead, the murder was days old. >> that call is 100% fake, no

question about it. >> not only was the mom lying to 911 about when the murder occurred -- no, argued the defense, she was lying about something much bigger. who the true killer was. the defense attorney saved his surprise for closing arguments. >> it was an unusual moment because certainly i knew there were many friends and supporters of jean tan in the courtroom and i was going to basically suggest to these jurors that she had pulled the trigger. >> jean tan, the mom, the wife, the true killer. the defense said the shotgun was in her hand. she pulled the trigger, she solved her own problem, not her son. that was the story the defense saved for the 11th hour. >> not an easy thing to do in a packed courtroom. >> according to the defense, it was jean tan who had the motive, the motive to get rid of her bully husband, get the house, the business, the money. >> frankly, it put motive in jean tan's category more so than charlie.

>> and whatever little evidence there was was inconclusive. >> there was a fingerprint on the shell casing. and on the box of ammunition. what it means is at some point in time, charlie could have loaded the gun but not pull the trigger. >> as the defense saw it, the mom did it theory explained the odd e-mail charlie sent his frat brothers before the 911 call, the e-mail called "showtime." the e-mail implied the story to come might not be the real one. it went on to say this. >> the real truth will come out one day and you'll know what really happened. one of the thing that was always a question and a concern of ours was was charlie covering up for someone else? >> in court, assistant prosecutor bill gargan appeared caught off guard and stressed when he rose to make his closing argument. >> he addressed charlie directly. he said something to the effect of "charlie, your lawyer is calling your mother a killer." he picked up the shotgun, moved quickly across the room. he kind of approached the jury

closely with it. he was trying to make a point, a very passionate point. >> brandishing the murder weapon as a prop didn't sit well with the judge who told the prosecutor to calm down. >> frankly, we knew at that point we had done exactly what we had wanted to do, we had totally taken him by surprise. >> after a week of testimony the case went to the jury. out in the hallway, tv cameras dogged charlie's every move. he'd been on bond the entire time but his freedom could be coming to an abrupt end. >> he knows his life is hanging in the balance. that's a tough thing for anybody to go through. >> but he had the unwavering support of team charlie. they all waited with charlie as the deliberations began, then spilled over into a second day. and then another. >> every day we'd show up to court being like, oh, is it going to happen today? everyone was super nervous like on the edge of their seats the whole time. i knew charlie was, i knew i was. >> because if it goes in an adverse way for you and charlie you wouldn't see him for a long, long time. >> it was hard to imagine that.

>> jennifer mcguff was a juror, sitting on the case. she walked us through what they talked about. >> i'm not sure anybody felt bad for jim tan. he made a lot of enemies in life. but everyone recognized the way he died was still a crime. >> both the prosecution and defense agreed charlie's fingerprints were on the ammo. >> did he pull the trigger or load the gun and give it to his mom and say "here you go"? that was the biggest point of contention. >> she was ready to vote guilty, but the panel of 12 was far from unanimous. more days passed. >> eight people guilty, four people not guilty. >> a stalemate, an impasse seemed to be at hand. but still they talked. >> three of the jurors were crying. really hard. because they didn't want to think that he was guilty but they couldn't ignore it at that point. >> the local media asked prosecutor bill gargan for updates. >> i don't have experience with a jury out this long nor do my peers. >> on day eight, after 50 hours

of deliberations, the jurors told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked. the judge declared a mistrial. that didn't mean it was over for charlie by any stretch. >> no it didn't mean it was over. it just meant there was a long road ahead. >> a long road with another trial. another set of court dates and another jury to go through the same set of facts. unless that wasn't going to happen at all. coming up, an entire courtroom gets the shock of a lifetime. >> they're actually turning around in their seats, they're getting emotional. they see what's coming. >> as charlie tan awaits his fate, the proceedings threaten to spin out of control. >> he was becoming unhinged. >> when "dateline extra" continues. p?p?h i just saved thousands on my loan at lendingtree.com.

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welcome back to "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall.

more than eight months after jim tan was found shot to death in his home, his son charlie's trial ended with a hung jury. for everyone involved it had been a long road and there was a new trial pending. but there was another stunner in store. here with the conclusion of "house of secrets" is dennis murphy. >> the judge in the tan murder case declares a mistrial. >> even though the case was over for now, the charlie tan mistrial was big news in rochester. >> they could not come to a consensus regarding the murder charge against charles tan. >> everyone was talking to the media -- including judge piampiano who was running for state supreme court, and spoke to our affiliate whec tv. would you be presiding as judge again? >> i believe i would because the case had been assigned to me. that's the normal protocol. >> the lawyers on both sides shared thoughts about doing it all over again. >> it's a murder charge. it's not a petty larceny charge with a hung jury where you walk away from it. we recognize the d.a.'s office

isn't going to walk away from a homicide. >> from your perspective, how will it look differently? >> better. for me. that's how it will look differently. >> unfortunately for charlie's attorneys, they'd already played their surprise defense -- mom really did it. there would be no shock value in a second trial. >> frankly, we've got to face this like it's a brand new case starting today. hung juries are a situation in which you have to reinvent the wheel. >> last november, just weeks after the trial ended, both sides were back in the same court before the same judge, judge piampiano, who just two days earlier had won that state supreme court seat. it was a routine hearing to talk retrial logistics. you're figuring to setting a calendar date? >> we figured maybe a january date. >> reporter john hand was there, too. >> there was a number of charlie's friends there, myself and roughly four or five other reporters who covered the trial, the gang's all here. you know? and the judge said we have to address the motion for dismissal by the defense. it's still spending. >> that's a common motion made by most defense attorneys when

they ask a judge to throw out a case due to a lack of evidence. >> you always do it. it's frankly malpractice not to. >> everyone thought this would be an order of business quickly dispatched and the judge would move on to setting a new trial date. >> then he starts talking about the lack of evidence regarding the possession of the gun and charlie ever having the gun, lack of evidence that the fingerprints were found on the shells upstairs but didn't look like he shot it. i looked at another reporter and i said "what's going on here?" >> charlie's lawyers had a glimmer about where this was going. >> i leaned into charlie's ear and i told him "something good is about to happen." >> the assembled press couldn't believe where the judge was heading. >> you're holding your breath and you're like he's about to dismiss this case, a case that's the biggest in years and years. >> assistant prosecutor bill

gargen saw the train wreck ahead and he wasn't pleased. he grabbed the mike. >> can i speak? and the judge said no, you may not. he continued to speak. the judge said i'll put you in handcuffs. >> the judge to the district attorney? >> yeah. never seen that before. >> yeah. put you in handcuffs. >> you're out of line here. >> a court deputy walks up behind the prosecutor. >> he was interrupting. he was becoming unhinged. >> the judge did finish his thought. he threw out the entire case against charlie tan. a judicial ruling that meant the case couldn't be reprosecuted or retried. >> it was a big win for charlie tan. he was ecstatic. >> outside the courtroom, the media was waiting for charlie, the former defendant who hadn't yet spoken to reporters. >> now you'll talk to us right. >> back up, back up, please, please. >> sorry. >> and before we got a chance to talk to him his defense lawyer usualed him -- ushered him out and down the hallway.

>> what did you think? did you take it all in? >> i'm not sure i took in the at first. >> that this is over? >> it was super exciting. everyone was so happy. everyone was in tears. >> not quite everyone. assistant d.a. bill gargan was fuming. >> were you willing to get arrested over this? >> absolutely. i was more than willing to have handcuffs placed on me to argue my point because i didn't cross any lines. >> what recourse do you have? >> there's no appeal. that i know of. >> so charlie tan is free. >> that's it. there's no appeal as of right from this trial order of dismissal because there had not been a verdict by the jury. >> the event didn't happen. >> correct. >> in the people versus charlie tan you have to wonder if the vocal supporters cared are the day outside of the courtroom. >> some of them think the golden ivy league boy was able to kill his father and get away with it? >> yeah.

what does affluenza buy you in the courtroom? >> strange story. >> yeah. >> charlie's mother will not be prosecuted because there's never been any evidence to show she is responsible for the murder. could it have been the mother? >> i look at a 12-gauge shotgun, she was a small woman, i don't know if she was capable of even being able to discharge that kind of weapon. >> so the only two people who know what happened in that house, charlie and his mother, have stayed mum all this time. neither was interviewed by police, neither has spoken publicly about a case closed but far from resolved. >> people will say this is a kid who killed his father and got off and people will also say no, it isn't, they couldn't prove it. you have two groups of people back there who said "i don't care what happened, i'm never sending this 19-year-old cornell student to prison." >> the mom and brother are running the company jim tan started. as for charlie -- is he okay, do you think? >> he seems okay, he's very positive. >> he's a great kid, a smart

student, a popular kid who's done well and succeeded in all elements he's been in. time to move on now. we welcome him back with open arms. >> but that didn't happen. the university let charlie know that if he attempted to return to cornell it was prepared to discipline him for violating the school's code of conduct. so charlie withdrew and lost the cornell version of the gold-plated entrance ticket to adult life. his former coach thinks charlie will regardless find a way to succeed. >> if he can get over the turmoil that he came out of, i think he'll do fine. he's got everything going for him. >> in his young life, he'd pleased everybody. his coaches, his teachers, his devoted friends. outwardly happy, inwardly, who really knew? all one can say with any certainty are the known facts of a murky case. he got a friend to buy him a shotgun, said good-bye to the ivy league, and, on a winter's day, drove home.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. when i saw her, i lost concept of time. i reached in, pulled her out, and started screaming help. >> please! oh, my god! wake up! >> it was the worst seconds in my life. >> how was it possible? >> i would give anything if she were alive today. >> such a sweet young wife and mom.