The jurors had the day off while the judge and attorneys discussed jury instructions. I used the opportunity to visit with Sheila Bellush's mother and stepfather, Don and Gene Smith.

     We sat down under a breezy, oak tree at a picnic table outside the Oregon couple's RV. It felt worlds away from the daily courthouse conflict that had become our ritual. In truth we were only 33 miles west of downtown on I-10 in a San Antonio suburb called Boerne.

     They pulled into the Alamo Fiesta RV park almost a month ago and now their longest journey neared an end and a verdict in the case of their former son-in-law, Allen Blackthorne, and the charges he faces for allegedly murdering Gene's daughter Sheila Bellush.

     "I believe that everybody in life has a journey and this has been the hardest part of our journey," said Gene Smith, with tears always hovering under the surface.

     Smith, herself, is another interesting character in the cast of this tragedy. She has married three times, the first time at age 15. She has only a ninth grade education and had buried three children, including Sheila, by her 64th birthday. "I don't think I'll ever quit crying honey," she said.

     She is a diabetic and the stress of the trial has caused her hands and head to suddenly shake at times. "God has taken care of me even though I have sat and begged God to take me home - it's been so difficult," she said.

     She is a larger woman, her husband Don a smaller man but she calls the man who has stood by her side for nearly the last three decades her rock. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't because of him," she said with her behind his back. Their devotion is obvious and inspirational in the face of a hardship that could cripple most others.

      "I think this whole case is about right or wrong and bad people and good people. I have to believe that there are more good people than there are bad people," she said.

     For the first time on this sunny Wednesday morning, Smith has confidence the jury will return a guilty verdict. The confidence, she says, comes from a feeling that Sheila's spirit is always with her. "When Mr. Murphy (the prosecutor) started interrogating Allen and Allen had to admit he was lying and had been lying about so many things, I could feel Sheila there and she was happy telling me, 'Mama he's telling the truth finally.' "

     Some strange ironies exist in Gene Smith's difficult life. "Allen and Sheila were married on our anniversary the fourth of February, so every year when it's our anniversary we have to work very hard to remember it was us first." The statement forces a quick laugh and a smile. The couple bought the lavish RV that cost more than their house to visit Sheila, the only one of five children to move far from home, landing in Sarasota in 1997.

     "It was meant to go down and spend six months out of the year with Sheila. We got that RV and it's never been a pleasure trip. Its just come down to courts and stuff and saving our money for the next trip," she said.

     She asks the very question jurors will face in the next 24 hours. "Why would three Hispanic men who didn't know Sheila, didn't know any of our family, didn't have anything against any of us (do it). Unless it was a person who had money and the only one who has got any money is Allen. We sure don't," she said.

      "All you ever have in this life are your family, all I ever had in this life were my children," she said.

     As she starts to sob I change the subject to plans for family gatherings once the court battles become a distant memory. She talks about her great grandson and many grandchildren. Gene Smith calls these the blessings God has given her, despite all she has lost. And then as if with almost sudden realization Smith says, "And life goes on, it always does."