WSVN — It was like an execution. Thirty-eight-year-old James Duarte was shot dead in his car behind a North Miami Beach office building in August of 2001.
The main suspects in the murder left the country, but David Superville was charged with second degree murder because prosecutors believed he knew the hit was going to happen.
Andrew Rier, defense attorney: "When I asked where that was documented, the detective said it was told to him orally, and it was not recorded."
Superville's attorney thinks the charge should be dropped.
Andrew Rier: "I don't think this case ever sees a jury or a judge. I don't think it gets that far."
And here's why: North Miami Beach detective Ed Hill, who built the case against Superville has admitted to having an affair with Superville's wife.
Andrew Rier: "I don't' know how you describe this except to say it's unbelievable."
Hill has been with the North Miami Beach Police Department for 20 years. Fifteen of them as a homicide investigator. In this deposition Hill is asked how many times he had sex with Superville's wife.
He answers, a couple of times. He also admits to exchanging Christmas gifts, traveling with her to the Bahamas and Jacksonville and helping her out in a new business.
Andrew Rier: "These actions I think have delt a death blow to whatever strength the case had and, in this case, I don't think it was there to begin with."
Andrew Rier: "Because that's all that the case is, his word against my client's, and there's no physical evidence."
Rier didn't want Superville to say much, but he did allow him to talk about the experience of being charged with murder. He spent a month and a half in jail.
David Superville: "So I'm in maximum security, in murderers' row, in the cell.
Andrew Rier: "In some way, you could say that his life was taken from him, and he was replaced."
In the deposition, which attorney Rier asked us to make clear he did not provide, Hill said he thought Superville and his wife were divorced.
The detective also said they never discussed her husband's case.
Carmel Cafiero: "Detective Hill is still on active duty here in North Miami Beach. He's testified the romance is over but Hill is now the target of two investigations. Both his Internal Affairs Department and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office want to know exactly what went on here."