Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, including his outright admissions to undercover officers, once in court, Abma changed his story completely and denied all responsibility for Barbara's murder.

His testimony was that he had dropped her off at her house, as he'd said.

and that there was somebody in a car that had followed them from the bar.

And the last he saw of her was there.

And then later he hears that she's missing and the police want to question him.

He hits the panic button and says, I made a false alibi up because I was the last one who was with her.

After six weeks of evidence presented at the trial, Fred Abma was convicted of first-degree murder.

The judge looked at all of the evidence, including the confessions by Mr. Abma to the undercover police officers and said, I have no reason to doubt these.

It's a sentiment that his defense lawyer, Balfour Der, agrees with.

Ultimately, rehabilitation of any offender is the greatest protection for society.

If, if an accused is rehabilitated, he's not going to be a danger to anyone.

He's not a danger to commit whatever offenses that we're worried about.

And that's why rehabilitation is written into the criminal code as a consideration for a judge on every sentence, and it's why, in our system of justice, that we never wanna lose sight of it.

We can't keep people in jail forever.

They're gonna get out sooner or later, and it's far better that they get out on the right track to being a pro-social, contributing member of society.

Big operation.

Although it's not really right to call it a Mr.

Big.

It was more a Mis- a Mr.

Little, because it happened so quickly.

But they were able to, in a matter of g- you know, probably less than an hour, in a quick trip to a bar where they had some beer, um, convince Mr. Leeming that they were bikers and they could help him.

They went to this would-be biker clubhouse that the police had set up, and they had, you know, they showed him an armory of weapons that were there to try to legitimize them.

Here again is his defense lawyer, Balfour Der.