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00:09Tonight on Dateline.
00:11If the police were right, this was a diabolical murder plot carried out on your brother.
00:17He did it that night, and he was still out there, and who else would he hurt?
00:23The back of the house is on fire.
00:24Okay, get everybody out.
00:26My sister-in-law told me that Rob had died in a fire.
00:31Right away, I knew there was something suspicious.
00:34It was actually a murder. He had been murdered.
00:38Why would someone bring Rob Cantor down into a basement bedroom and then murder him execution style?
00:45We focused on motive, his relationship with Sophie. That was very important.
00:50She was head over heels for Rob.
00:52Yeah, he adored her.
00:53I don't think anybody imagined that this is something we should be wary of.
00:59Evidence of stalking, fake email accounts.
01:02You could see the evil. You could just see it.
01:05You were scared for yourself.
01:07Absolutely.
01:08Obsession, anger, desire for vengeance.
01:15It's really only pointing to one person.
01:17Jealousy, betrayal, revenge.
01:20Who had a motive to kill?
01:21A new turn in this spellbinding mystery.
01:24I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.
01:35Here's Andrea Canning with The Room Downstairs.
01:44Love.
01:45At first, it's all blue skies.
01:49A lovely day that promises to never end.
01:53He was crazy for her. I don't know.
01:55I can't explain it, where the attraction came from.
01:58But just as the weather changes, so too can love.
02:04I never even dreamed of them getting divorced.
02:07What happened?
02:08They just grew apart.
02:12Leaving sadness in its wake, or worse, something darker.
02:18Something that gains power as it churns, and finally strikes the only way it can, with lethal force.
02:29Forever, those people, forever, their souls will be marred and torn by these events.
02:45It wasn't a night to be out.
02:47March 6, 2011.
02:49A raw and rainy Sunday in Teaneck, New Jersey, minutes from New York City.
02:54Henry Rodson's car had broken down.
02:56What was happening that night?
02:57I had a flat tire earlier in the day, and I had to come back to fix it.
03:02You know, it was raining, it was windy, it was just very miserable.
03:05I started to put all my tools away.
03:07For some reason, I just happened to look up, and I saw smoke going across the street.
03:13From the corner house?
03:14From going across from the corner of the house, going across to the right.
03:18A former volunteer firefighter, Henry thought he should at least check it out.
03:22As soon as I saw that there was a bright amber glow, I knew that was a definite fire.
03:27So I decided to just quickly run back to my girlfriend, said, listen, call 911, there's a house that's on
03:33fire.
03:33On the street, in Teaneck, and the back of the house is on fire.
03:37Okay, get everybody out of the house.
03:38You're a former volunteer firefighter.
03:40Yes.
03:41Are you thinking, I've got to spring into action here in case someone needs to be rescued?
03:45I started yelling, I started pounding on the door as hard as I could, just to see if there was
03:49any activity, see if anybody was home.
03:52Anything?
03:52All the lights were off, everything was quiet.
03:55When I went around to the side, the amount of smoke and the amount of flames, the basement was fully
04:01engulfed.
04:02You have no gear?
04:03Nothing.
04:04I also noticed that the neighbor had a spigot nearby.
04:06I was pouring water on the windowsill, but that fire inside was rolling.
04:12Once inside the house, firefighters looked to see where the fire began.
04:16A blackened trail led them to the basement, into what looked like a bedroom.
04:21And there it was, unmistakable, a badly burned body.
04:26Bergen County Arson Investigator Sergeant Terry Lawler said by the time he arrived, the body had been removed from the
04:32house.
04:33The body had suffered severe burns, the front of the body, more so than the back, which wasn't as badly
04:42burned.
04:44The victim was the owner of the house, 59-year-old Rob Cantor.
04:48He'd been a software engineer, a father, a husband, a runner.
04:54Lawler thought it was strange that Rob died so close to where the fire started in that basement bedroom.
04:59Usually, you see healthy, middle-aged males, and they're trying to get away from the fire.
05:04So, maybe they're overcome by smoke.
05:07It just had no reality to me at all.
05:11When Rob's sister, Leslie Padron, got word her brother was dead, her first thought?
05:16Heart attack.
05:17Then she heard the word fire and didn't know what to think.
05:22I said, something's not right.
05:24He couldn't have died in a fire.
05:26Why didn't you think he could die in a fire?
05:28People die in fires.
05:31Well, he could have only if he had, like, a major heart attack or if something exploded in the basement.
05:37And my brother was a triathlete.
05:39There's no way I could imagine he would have died in a fire.
05:42Finally, we made our way to Teaneck, to the house, and it was horrible.
05:49The story didn't make sense to Rob's friend, Mirdod Sinai, either.
05:53He couldn't see Rob rushing to the basement to put out a raging fire.
05:57He was intelligent.
05:58He was not stupid.
05:59He wouldn't risk his life, right?
06:02Unless he committed suicide, he set himself on fire.
06:04He was not, no.
06:06You could see some indication that this wasn't just somebody that was smoking in his bed in the bedlit fire.
06:13After county prosecutor John Mullinelli examined the scene, he was all but certain the fire had been intentionally set.
06:19What was your gut telling you as to what this could be, what you're looking at?
06:24The first thought was, well, whoever did this act lit the crime scene in an effort to frustrate law enforcement
06:32because DNA evidence is always important.
06:35Which is why he asked the medical examiner to fast track an autopsy, which is when this case got really
06:42complicated.
06:42The post-mortem examination by the medical examiner found that he had a bullet in his head.
07:01They found Rob Kanner's body in his burned-out basement.
07:05Only it wasn't the fire that killed him.
07:08And I think it was the next day the detectives came back and told us that he was shot.
07:16Somebody killed him?
07:18And, you know, they don't give you a lot of information.
07:21Like, we didn't know did someone break in, was anything tampered with.
07:25It's very hard.
07:27It's awful because no one's allowed to say anything about anything.
07:32It wasn't just a shooting, it was an execution.
07:34Shot him from behind, execution style.
07:37Diabolical?
07:38Yeah, despicable. Despicable.
07:41Back at the scene of the fire, investigators found a casing for a .380 caliber handgun in that basement bedroom
07:47where Rob died.
07:49A comforter in the same room yielded another valuable piece of evidence.
07:53The forensic scientist was able to determine that ethanol was on the comforter.
07:59It appeared someone had shot Rob, then used an accelerant to start the fire.
08:04Prosecutor John Mullinelli wondered if Rob's murder was connected to two others in the county that year, both involving house
08:11fires.
08:12Are those two other murders the first thing that come to your mind when you see this crime scene?
08:17There was certainly a discussion and deliberation on the topic, certainly within the first few weeks of the Cantor murder.
08:26The community was kind of very taken aback and very concerned about this.
08:31There was talk of a possible serial killer, arsonist.
08:35Definitely, that would have been the case.
08:37They didn't have much crime in the area at all.
08:41Investigators were also looking into the possibility of a more personal motive for Rob's murder.
08:45They wanted to know everything about him.
08:48They took us in separately.
08:51Rob's friend, Mayor Dodd.
08:53He was wonderful. He was kind. He was loving.
08:56He always saw the other point of view.
08:59Mayor Dodd told police he and Rob met as software engineers and telecom.
09:03They bonded over work and running.
09:05Mayor Dodd nicknamed Rob Roberto.
09:07Rob nicknamed him Mayor Doc.
09:10Food was a shared obsession.
09:13He says, Mayor Doc, why do we make sandwiches?
09:15He was a kid at heart.
09:16The bromance began.
09:17Yeah, absolutely.
09:19He said Rob could be lighthearted, silly even.
09:22Like the time Rob skipped out of work early, leaving this teasing message for his friend.
09:27I've always hated you.
09:29I hate the day that I met you.
09:31I left with somebody who's much better looking than you, which isn't difficult to find, and I curse you.
09:38Have a nice day.
09:40Nice sense of humor.
09:41Absolutely.
09:43I hate you.
09:43I hate you.
09:44And he knew how to understand.
09:45And I left with somebody much better looking that is not difficult to find.
09:50So that's who he was.
09:52It wasn't all laughs.
09:54On their runs, Rob confided in Mayor Dodd about life, fatherhood, his 27-year marriage to his wife Susan.
10:01They were splitting up.
10:03Obviously, I mean, they tried very hard, both of them, to save the marriage.
10:07They went through therapy and all that stuff.
10:09But it's unfortunate, you know, people go their own separate ways.
10:14I never even dreamed of them getting divorced.
10:18My brother was afraid to tell me, Susan, his wife actually called to tell me.
10:23What happened?
10:26They just grew apart.
10:28No rancor, no bitterness.
10:31That's what family and friends said.
10:33But investigators wanted to judge for themselves.
10:36It's Sergeant Love.
10:37Homicide detective Cecilia Love.
10:40What was going on in their lives at this time, Susan and Rob?
10:44They still had a relationship because they had the, you know, the two daughters together.
10:50Susan told investigators the decision to separate was mutual.
10:54For a time, they remained under the same roof.
10:57Rob moved into the basement bedroom.
10:59Eventually, Susan got her own place.
11:01They were still hashing out the divorce when Rob died.
11:04They had been discussing selling the house, you know, dividing up assets.
11:10That can get tense, even for the best of relationships.
11:14Absolutely.
11:14Did you need to take a close look at her?
11:16In the beginning, you know, you always would think it could be his wife or his ex-wife.
11:23Was it?
11:23Or was it someone else entirely?
11:27He was crazy for her.
11:28I don't know.
11:30I can't explain where the attraction came from.
11:32We had no idea about the emails.
11:34We had no reason to believe anything would happen.
11:52Investigators were approaching Rob Cantor's murder from two angles.
11:56Was it personal or was it an arsonist at work?
12:00They searched for a link between his and two similar homicides in Bergen County.
12:04They couldn't find one.
12:06I know our detectives took weeks and months checking everything.
12:11And we just didn't see anything that would bring us to try and tie the three of them together.
12:18Meanwhile, Detective Cecilia Love intensified her focus on Rob's world.
12:23We interviewed the friends and family members.
12:28Lots of people to talk to.
12:29Yes.
12:30At the top of the list, Rob's soon-to-be ex, Susan.
12:34We did bring her in and speak to her.
12:37Who wanted this divorce, Rob or Susan?
12:40I think they both wanted it.
12:42It was a mutual decision.
12:43She said Susan seemed devastated by Rob's death.
12:47Even so, Love wanted to hear an alibi.
12:50Susan explained she'd been alone in her new home on the phone with a friend.
12:54Nothing really led us to believe that she had any involvement in this.
12:59So if not Susan, who?
13:02Rob's friends told investigators they needed to speak to another woman right away.
13:06Her name was Sophie Manu.
13:08Rob and Sophie were involved in this relationship.
13:13So a day after Rob's murder, the detective called Sophie,
13:17who described how she and Rob met more than a year earlier at a science lecture.
13:21The French-born Sophie was 40, 19 years younger than Rob.
13:25She lived just across the river in Manhattan.
13:28They shared interests, running, philosophy, and science.
13:32But there was one problem.
13:34Sophie was married and raising three daughters, roughly ages 4 to 9, with her husband, Tony Tong.
13:41Sophie was living a bit of a secret life.
13:44Initially, yes.
13:46But it wasn't too long before it all came out.
13:51She thought the woman's grief was genuine.
13:54She was crying.
13:56She knew that he was deceased.
13:58Did you tell her that he had been murdered?
14:00Later on in the interview, yes.
14:05What was her reaction?
14:06She was shocked.
14:07Like anyone would be if you found out that information.
14:11Sophie told the detective she'd seen Rob hours before he died.
14:16Rob, with his two friends, had gone to New York City to meet Sophie and her daughter,
14:26her 8-year-old daughter, at a museum.
14:27How open is Sophie to you?
14:29She was a very open person.
14:31When I asked her why would Rob Cantor be found in the basement bedroom, she broke down and
14:39she began to cry.
14:40What was significant about the basement bedroom?
14:43That was the place that she and Rob had consummated their relationship.
14:51That was huge for us because we thought that it had to be something personal.
14:57Rob's friends couldn't see Sophie as a killer.
15:00And yet Mayor Dodd says the relationship always troubled him.
15:03He thought Rob wasn't being careful.
15:06After all, Sophie was still married.
15:08What did Rob tell you about her husband, Tony?
15:11Yeah.
15:11What did he learn about him?
15:12He felt sorry for him.
15:14In fact, he told Mayor Dodd he actually met Tony.
15:18It was about a year before the murder.
15:20There was a situation where Tony Tung actually shows up at Rob's house.
15:25Knocks at the door and Rob, a good a person he is, he let him in.
15:30Rob said the two discussed Sophie.
15:32It was all very civil.
15:34That's when I got angry at him.
15:36I said, first of all, you don't do this.
15:38He said, you would beat him up?
15:40I said, no.
15:40I called the police.
15:41And he said, oh, Murdoch, you're too tough.
15:45His life is falling apart.
15:47His family, his wife is leaving him.
15:49And when I got mad at him, you know, I was like a father figure.
15:53I told him, I bet you offered him a cup of coffee too.
15:56Murdoch, as a matter of fact, I did.
15:58The men had things in common.
15:59Rob was a computer scientist.
16:01Tony had recently opened a computer store.
16:03They were also foodies, loved to eat.
16:07I'm sure my brother thought that eventually they'd become friends.
16:12Yeah.
16:13Because that's what happened with everyone in his life.
16:16The New Jersey investigators wanted to talk to Tony Tung.
16:19He agreed to meet at a precinct in Manhattan where he lived.
16:23The reason we're here is because there's been an incident that happened in New Jersey.
16:28Okay.
16:29Okay.
16:29At first, they played it cool.
16:31They didn't mention Rob's murder.
16:34But they did ask how Tony and Rob knew each other.
16:37Don't take this the wrong way.
16:38Well, was your wife cheating on you with Rob?
16:42Yeah.
16:42Tony admitted he'd been upset about the affair, but said he came to terms with it.
16:47He knew the marriage was over.
16:49Sophie had recently moved to a new apartment with their girls.
16:53I tell you, if my wife was seeing somebody else, I know I'm going to be too happy.
16:56Oh, look at the pain to stop here.
16:58They asked where he'd been the night of March 6th.
17:00Tony said he'd been home alone in New York, mostly doing the dishes and relaxing.
17:05I was doing dishes for a couple of hours, but I was watching the evening back and forth.
17:09It was an alibi that couldn't be corroborated, and the detectives were skeptical.
17:14But it turned out Tony would have a lot more to say about Rob Cantor to us,
17:20including about that strange day when he first showed up on Rob's doorstep.
17:25This sounds crazy.
17:26No one would believe it.
17:41Tony Tong spoke to police for hours, explaining where he was the night Rob Cantor was murdered.
17:47According to him, he was at home.
17:49He had dropped off his daughter, and he got home at 9 p.m. on March 6th.
18:07The only time he left his apartment again, he said, was around 1 a.m. to buy some beer.
18:12You don't go anywhere else other than at 1 a.m.
18:15You go out and you pick up a six-pack at the store, and then you go back home.
18:21That's pretty much the part of the O.G. every day.
18:23Investigators believe Tony was their man, the only one with motive to kill Rob.
18:28They hoped he'd finally break down and admit it.
18:31He didn't.
18:33Why let him go?
18:34Because at that time, we didn't feel we had enough probable cause to make an arrest,
18:40and we needed to continue the investigation.
18:44Still, when months passed with no arrest, Rob's friends became impatient.
18:49Outraged today in New Jersey over a perceived lack of progress solving a murder case.
18:53They keep telling us, give him time or don't interfere.
18:56We hired our own world-class private detective.
18:59They said, he's not doing a good job.
19:01Who is doing it?
19:02Everything we do, they said, don't do it.
19:04We were so frustrated.
19:05Was it moving slowly, as they claimed?
19:08Well, I'm sure for them it was moving slowly.
19:12But, you know, every investigation is different.
19:15In this one, investigators were having a hard time finding evidence
19:19that Tony had crossed the river from Manhattan to New Jersey that night.
19:22You had no bridge video.
19:24You had no taxi receipts.
19:25You had no witnesses.
19:26You had nothing actually physically placing Tony Tongue in Teaneck.
19:31You're right.
19:31We didn't have him at the George Washington Bridge.
19:34We didn't.
19:35But cameras elsewhere did punch a hole in Tony's story
19:39that he came home at 9 p.m. and stayed put until 1 a.m.
19:42What did that video show you?
19:44We see him going to his residence.
19:46We see him remaining in his residence for approximately 20 minutes,
19:51exiting his residence at 10.30 with, you know, bags in his hand.
19:55And we see him walking on East 76th Street, entering his car, which remained parked.
20:01One of the things that you think you'll find in every case is that people make mistakes.
20:06Assistant Prosecutor Brian Sinclair said when investigators searched Tony's apartment,
20:11they found evidence on his computer from the hours after Rob was killed.
20:15What Mr. Tongue was doing less than three hours after the murder was obliterating data.
20:23He was doing the digital equivalent of lighting it on fire.
20:27Tony ran a program destroying files.
20:29That was suspicious.
20:31So was this.
20:33Sophie told investigators that a year earlier he'd been spying on her.
20:37There was spyware that was installed on Sophie Manu's laptop computer by Mr. Tongue.
20:44And he was able to unlock every single e-mail and found out that, in fact, she was having an
20:50affair.
20:51Records subpoenaed from Google also showed anonymous e-mails sent from Tony's computer to Rob and his ex-wife Susan.
20:58He would say, you know, I saw you walking around the Upper West Side.
21:03She's French, no?
21:04So I imagine that Rob was getting these e-mails being quite troubled that somebody knew where he was at
21:13a particular time,
21:14you know, who he was with.
21:15What is it that you finally say, it's go time, we're going to arrest Tony Tongue?
21:20Just the totality of the case.
21:22You know, we felt that this was going to be as much as we're ever going to get.
21:27So in May 2012, 14 months after Rob's murder, investigators knocked on Tony's door.
21:33I answered the door in my boxers, my T-shirt.
21:37When we spoke to Tony, he vividly recalled the day he was arrested.
21:41They took me out of there, got into my temples, slammed me against the wall.
21:46What the heck?
21:48And now you're accused of murder.
21:50Yeah.
21:51I'm burning the house now.
21:52He told us about that time he showed up unannounced on Rob's doorstep.
21:57It was a year before the murder, soon after Tony discovered the affair.
22:01I introduced myself, like, Robby?
22:04Hi, I'm Tony?
22:05Yeah.
22:06You're sleeping with my wife?
22:07No, I said, you know, I'm not that rude.
22:13Tony said he wasn't looking to menace Rob or fight him.
22:16He just wanted to understand.
22:18I want to know who the person is.
22:20What do you two talk about?
22:21First was, like, small talk, just family stuff.
22:25This sounds crazy.
22:28No one would believe it.
22:29To his amazement, he said he found himself starting to like the man who'd stolen Sophie's heart.
22:35You're talking about cooking as well?
22:37Yeah, a little bit.
22:38He talked about his, I made a comment about his stove.
22:41We had a lot in common.
22:43We both like foods.
22:45Because, obviously, we both love Sophie's.
22:48For several hours, he said the conversation was mostly light.
22:51Then, a little awkward.
22:53Okay, very awkward.
22:56Tony asked to see the room where Rob first made love to Sophie.
22:59Why go to the room where, I mean, that's almost like torture.
23:03This is where he had sex with your wife.
23:05I'm confronting someone's having a affair with my wife.
23:09Might as well see the rest of it.
23:10What did you gain by seeing that room?
23:13I guess in a way how he treat her.
23:16I remember I was, uh, a little upset.
23:19That it was a room in the basement?
23:21Yeah.
23:21You took Sophie down here?
23:23What the hell's wrong with you?
23:24You can't go to the hotel.
23:25How angry are you when you leave?
23:28I was like, well, I'd like to see myself seeing my wife.
23:32What did he say?
23:34He said, I can't answer you right now.
23:37And get this.
23:39Tony went back two more times.
23:42And that time, it was like, you know, this is pointless.
23:45And he's still letting you in?
23:47No, that time we were on the patio.
23:50You're becoming a regular visitor at your wife's lover's house.
23:54Well, he was more worried, but I think his wife is still living there.
23:56I mean, this sounds all very cordial.
23:59It is cordial.
24:00He said that was the last time he saw Rob.
24:03By then, he knew his marriage was over.
24:05Tony also said he did not kill him.
24:08Who killed Rob Kanner then?
24:09How'd I know?
24:11How would I know?
24:13I'm in New York.
24:15For three years, he waited in jail to tell that to a jury.
24:18In the fall of 2015, he would finally get his chance.
24:22And to many, it seemed luck would be on his side.
24:26Prosecutors did not have physical evidence against Tony.
24:29Getting a conviction would be an uphill battle.
24:32But first, his ex-wife would have something to say about it.
24:36He came back home with a brown paper bag, and he opened the paper bag and showed me a gun.
25:00In October 2015, Tony Tung stood trial for the murder of Rob Kanner.
25:06Rob's family and friends filled the gallery.
25:08He didn't look remorseful.
25:10He looked arrogant, come out, right?
25:12You know, like we were wasting his time.
25:15Rob's sister was worried.
25:17There was no murder weapon, no fingerprints or DNA linking Tony to the crime.
25:21Were you concerned that this case might not be that easy to win for the prosecution?
25:27Yes.
25:27We definitely were concerned because it was all circumstantial.
25:32Veteran prosecutor Wayne Mello opened for the state.
25:35This case was about perhaps the oldest motive in the world.
25:42In this case, she and he done him wrong.
25:46He said Tony's rage simmered until the week of Rob's death when it exploded.
25:52Sophie had just served him with divorce papers.
25:55Then, the day of the murder, she introduced Rob to one of their daughters.
25:59Tony found out.
26:00This would be the first time that a child of Tung had met mommy's friend, Rob.
26:13Prosecutors presented jurors with a timeline, partially captured by security cameras.
26:18Earlier in the night, Tony Tung could be seen talking with his daughter Cleo in the lobby of Sophie's apartment
26:23building.
26:43Tony told investigators he finally got home that night at around 9 p.m., but the tape showed him arriving
26:49more than an hour after that.
26:51Mr. Tung is seen on video, parking his car at 10, 10 p.m.
26:57We see him on that video walk from his car to his residence.
27:02About 20 minutes later, cameras picked him up a third time.
27:06You will see him walk to his car.
27:10You will see him enter his car.
27:13You will see him spend perhaps two minutes in his car.
27:17You will see him walk to the corner.
27:20Not his corner.
27:22He's not going back home.
27:25He's going to Tung.
27:27But Tony's car never moved again that night.
27:32How do you think he got to New Jersey?
27:34Oh, he definitely got to New Jersey by car.
27:37And he definitely had help in some form.
27:41What's your theory?
27:42But that particular form of help took is unknown.
27:46But there are many ways for an individual to get to New Jersey without having a record of that trip
27:54made.
27:54The prosecutor argued that Tony had time to make the 13-mile trip to Teaneck
27:59and return to Manhattan to start destroying the computer files.
28:02Just hours later, as that body has been recovered from the embers of a horrible arson,
28:12Mr. Tung just happens to be feverishly erasing 170,000 bits of information on his computer.
28:23Still, he said a critical piece of evidence was found in Tony's email account.
28:28November of 2010, just months before the murder,
28:32Tony wrote to a friend in Texas about getting a magazine for a .380 caliber handgun.
28:37You stated the name for the records by the U.S. magazine.
28:40Though the friend never sent the magazine, the email was significant for the prosecutor.
28:45Mr. Tung just happened to have an interest in the precise caliber weapon
28:52that was the killing weapon in our murder.
28:57Don't you find that remarkable?
29:00The murder weapon was never recovered,
29:02but the prosecutor said this video shows Tony exiting his car that night with something in his right hand.
29:08Something was taken from that car.
29:11That's something I suggest to you is the gun.
29:15In one of the trial's most anticipated moments,
29:18the state called the woman at the center of it all, Sophie.
29:22Please state your name for the record and spell your last name.
29:25Sophie Manon.
29:25Sophie told the court her marriage was already in trouble when she met Rob in the fall of 2009.
29:31I was wearing a T-shirt that had Paris Marathon on it,
29:36so Rob was like, oh, you run?
29:38And I was like, yeah.
29:39And he said, oh, I run too.
29:40So we started talking about that.
29:43As the weeks passed, their friendship turned into something more.
29:55On Valentine's weekend, 2010, she said the relationship became intimate at Rob's house in Teaneck.
30:01He said that there was a bedroom in his basement.
30:06It was a bedroom that the kids used when they were teenagers.
30:11And so we went down in that bedroom.
30:17And we made love.
30:20Days later, she found out Tony had hacked her private email account.
30:24He knew everything.
30:25Did Mr. Tong question you about intimacy between you and Rob?
30:34Yes.
30:35Can you tell us about that part of the conversation?
30:38He wanted to know where we had slept together.
30:45And I told him we slept together in the basement bedroom.
30:54Tony was really upset that I had slept with an older man in a basement.
31:03A few days after that, she said, Tony announced he was buying a gun.
31:08He came back home with a brown paper bag.
31:13And he opened the paper bag and showed me a gun.
31:18Could you tell if it had a magazine?
31:20No.
31:22The prosecutor argued that roughly a year later, Tony shot and killed Rob.
31:28The body of Robert Cantor was found in that basement bedroom on the remains of the bed
31:37where Mr. Cantor had sexual relations with Mr. Tong's wife.
31:43Sophie said she learned of Rob's death the next day.
31:46And there were voice messages on my voicemail and emails from Rob's friends.
31:56And he told me that there had been a fire in Rob's house and that he was dead.
32:08When she left the stand, the two women in Rob Cantor's life,
32:12his ex-wife Susan and lover Sophie came together for the first time.
32:17I think at the time, Susan felt compassion for her wasn't easy.
32:23But she did certainly understand that Rob had very strong feelings for her
32:27and that Sophie had very strong feelings for him.
32:30And so there were two women who had, like, strong feelings about someone
32:33just embracing each other.
32:35That's really, you know.
32:36It's really nice.
32:38It was nice.
32:39In closing, prosecutor Wayne Mello said there was only one person
32:43who could have caused so much pain.
32:45This murder could have happened no other way
32:49other than the murderer is seated before you.
32:53Now, the defense was ready to present its side.
32:57What Rob's family didn't count on, the wild turn this case would take.
33:02That made me angry.
33:04I questioned this crazy justice system.
33:20Day after day, Tony Tung watched the prosecution portray him
33:24as a cold-blooded killer.
33:25It wasn't a pretty picture, and according to Tony, it wasn't true.
33:30There's a lot of bad things adding up here.
33:33Where he was killed, you wiping your computer hours after the murder,
33:38you going to visit him.
33:41Yeah, but, like, I didn't kill him.
33:45Did you have someone drive you over to Teaneck?
33:51No.
33:52Defense attorney Robert Kalish asked jurors to use their common sense.
33:56If Tony wanted Rob Cantor dead, wouldn't he have killed him that day
34:00at Rob's house, roughly a year before the murder?
34:03If he didn't kill him right there and then,
34:07he wasn't going to kill him at all,
34:09because that was the time to do it with his bare hands.
34:13He said investigators never seriously considered
34:16that someone else may have wanted Rob Cantor dead.
34:19They just let it slide.
34:21Let it slide because they got their man.
34:24Tony was the only suspect.
34:28He argued Tony was home alone the night of the murder.
34:31As for the destruction of his computer files hours later,
34:34that was an unfortunate coincidence, he said.
34:37It's just normal that he decided to do it at that time.
34:44What time did he delete the material?
34:46I believe it started at about two-something in the morning
34:49and then went, but it ran for like five hours.
34:53So we're talking about two hours after the fire started?
34:57Yeah.
34:58It looks bad.
34:59Oh, sure.
35:00That's why Mr. Mello and the prosecutor's office have a case.
35:05Equally bad for the defense,
35:07Tony asking his friend to buy him a magazine
35:09for the same caliber ammunition that killed Rob.
35:12Tony didn't take the stand to rebut that
35:14or any of the prosecution's case.
35:16But here's what he told us.
35:18Why do you need to ask a friend in Texas for that?
35:21It's like a conversation starter.
35:22He's in Texas.
35:23A conversation starter?
35:24I need a .380?
35:25No, this is something else.
35:26Like, oh, yeah, by the way, you're from Texas.
35:28Aren't these things a little cheaper over there?
35:30It just looks bad that you're asking a friend
35:32for a .380 caliber magazine
35:35and a .380 is used to kill Rob Kanner.
35:38But I didn't kill Rob Kanner.
35:39Did you show Sophie a gun?
35:42Yeah, I did.
35:42I was holding for somebody.
35:44Besides, the defense said,
35:46Tony's friend never followed through on the request.
35:48And more important,
35:50Tony was never at Rob's house the night he died.
35:52How can you prove
36:00that a man committed a murder in New Jersey
36:05when you cannot even prove that he was in New Jersey?
36:13After a trial that lasted two months,
36:16the jury deliberated for hours, then days.
36:21There's no gun.
36:23There is no, no pun intended, smoking gun.
36:25You can't find anything.
36:26There is no trace of him being in New Jersey.
36:29We thought maybe they call it mistrial, this, that.
36:32But he was extremely nervous.
36:34On the fourth day, the jurors came back.
36:38Has the jury agreed upon a verdict?
36:41Yes, Your Honor.
36:42Is the verdict unanimous?
36:44Yes, Your Honor.
36:45Your verdict is?
36:46Guilty.
36:50It was an emotional moment
36:52for Rob Cantor's widow and daughters.
36:54Take us inside that courtroom
36:56in that moment with all of you
36:58when that verdict is read.
37:00It was a huge relief.
37:02You know, you got to pay for what you did.
37:04You ruined life.
37:06You took their father away.
37:09You took a nice person.
37:11He didn't do anything wrong.
37:12You hear the word guilty.
37:14Unbelievable.
37:15On murder.
37:16Unbelievable.
37:18The judge sentenced Tony Tong to life.
37:21After that, Rob's family tried to put Tony
37:23in the murder trial behind them.
37:25But then, three years later, a stunning reversal.
37:29An appeals court found that parts of a detective's testimony
37:32could have unfairly prejudiced the jury against Tony.
37:36Then, you get the news that no family wants to hear
37:39that an appeals court has overturned the conviction.
37:43That was horrific.
37:46We knew he knew he was guilty as hell.
37:48We knew he was.
37:49To put us through this again,
37:51to draw this all up to the surface,
37:54to make it so raw all over again,
37:58was just horrible.
37:59That made me angry.
38:00I questioned this crazy justice system.
38:03Him, you find out he needs a second chance?
38:06Are you guys kidding me?
38:07Tony, why don't you stand up and face it so they can see?
38:11By the time Tony stood trial again,
38:13Rob had been dead for 12 years.
38:15His new attorney, Ian Silvera,
38:17said the state still couldn't prove Tony was the killer.
38:20There is not one ounce of evidence in this case
38:25that will support that claim.
38:27That Tony was in Cheek on that night
38:32as the state is claiming.
38:34Another problem for prosecutors?
38:36Pulling jurors even further into the past.
38:39We have to bring them back in time to 2011
38:42because, you know, in 2011,
38:44there weren't ring cameras on every house.
38:46You know, smartphones weren't as prevalent.
38:49Assistant prosecutors Joseph Torrey
38:51and David Malfitano.
38:52We wanted to lower their expectations
38:54on the type of evidence they were going to see.
38:57If prosecutors in the first trial focused on technology,
39:00here they seized on Tony's alibi
39:02for the night in question.
39:04If you're being questioned the next day about a murder,
39:07you know, why would you lie about simple things
39:08like the dishes to the police officer?
39:11When you actually sit down
39:12and look at the photographs of his house,
39:14I defy anybody to say that he's doing the dishes.
39:16He had piles and piles and piles of dirty dishes.
39:19Why would you lie about whether you left your apartment,
39:22what time you left?
39:23These are very simple things.
39:24The jurors were listening to his lies in the statement,
39:28and then they were seeing the objective evidence,
39:30which we argued was uncontestable,
39:31the forensic evidence, video surveillance, etc.
39:34For weeks, the two sides went back and forth.
39:37This time around, though, jurors didn't need days,
39:40only a few hours to decide.
39:43As soon as we heard that, we knew.
39:47Guilty.
39:49Sentenced to life.
39:50Again.
39:55In the years since her brother's death,
39:57Leslie said much has changed in the Cantor clan.
40:00Rob would have been a grandfather by now.
40:02He would have been a great grandfather.
40:04Amazing.
40:04Grandfather.
40:05Amazing.
40:06He would have loved it.
40:08I always have that moment of sadness of what he's missing,
40:12and that I hope he can see, you know,
40:15how happy his children are with their lives,
40:18and his grandchildren.
40:20For Mayor Dodd, time hasn't quite filled the hole
40:23left by his old running buddy,
40:25the one he affectionately dubbed Roberto.
40:28But it has given him a deeper appreciation of the man
40:32and the price he paid for love.
40:34I think Roberto died so Sophie could be free.
40:39He really cared for this.
40:41He cared for all the human beings,
40:43but I don't know that he fell for this woman.
40:46Obviously, there was something that clicked,
40:48and I think he died so she could be free.
40:56That's all for now.
40:58I'm Lester Holt.
40:59Thanks for joining us.
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