On October 18, 1979, twenty-three-year-old Marilyn Haberbush is murdered. Marilyn has been shot two times in the head, and is found lying on the sofa in her modest home two and a half miles east of Franklin, Texas. Twenty-six-year-old John Haberbush, Marilyn's husband, discovers the body. John has enjoyed an evening of roping at the rodeo arena a few miles south of Franklin, but John and his eighteen-month-old daughter Peggy return home at ten o’clock p.m. and fi nd Marilyn dead. John is devastated at the loss of his wife and the baby she had carried, as Marilyn was seven months pregnant. District Attorney Perez feels he has a case against John Haberbush. The D.A. presents evidence to the Donley County Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury indicts John Haberbush for the murder of his wife, Marilyn. The case that the D.A. has against John is shaky, and later the indictment is dropped. In January 1981, the Donley County Grand Jury reindicts John Haberbush. This time the indictment sticks and John goes to trial. The trial is held in San Miguel, the county seat of Donley County. The trial lasts eight days, and, despite the fact that there is no evidence connecting John to the murder, he is convicted. John is sentenced to ninety-nine years in the state penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas.