Final Judgment: Dramatic Court Verdict After Wife's Death Arouses Suspicion

April 1, 2009— -- On the morning of Sept. 27, 2001, Doug Grant says he woke to find his wife Faylene, drowning in their bathtub. He says he called a physician's assistant he knew and asked him to come over.

"He started doing CPR and he turned her on her side and a bunch of water came out. And I thought, 'What did I do wrong?'" Grant told "20/20."

Watch the story on "20/20" Friday, April 3, at 10 p.m. ET.

Several hours later, after being rushed to a nearby hospital, Faylene's heart stopped and she was pronounced dead. Local police in Gilbert, Ariz., initially viewed her death as accidental, though the medical examiner officially labeled it "undetermined."

And undetermined it has remained, until just last week when a Maricopa County jury decided whether Doug Grant was responsible for his wife's death.

The case of State of Arizona vs. Douglas D. Grant read like a Hollywood script, complete with a prosecutor with a penchant for the jugular and a defense attorney with his own flair for the dramatic.

Behind them was a cast of family, friends and witnesses who alternately portrayed the defendant as an innocent victim of circumstance or an evil mastermind capable of the most heinous of crimes.

The trial was rich with references to Mormon theology, the Celestial Kingdom, and eternal salvation, because both Faylene and Doug Grant had been raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Doug Grant had been excommunicated, while Faylene remained a devout follower. She believed wholeheartedly in the Mormon doctrine of personal revelation, that a faithful member can receive guidance directly from God, her family said.

"She was so spiritual in a good way. She was Christ-like and there is nothing wrong with that. ... It's a good thing to love Heavenly Father and to love Christ and to want to be like them. That's what she was," said Jody Stratton, Faylene Grant's sister.

Doug Grant's calling was rather different. By the mid-90s, he had built a booming business with nutritional supplements. He also did health and nutritional consulting with several NBA teams, including the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat.