I wonder if there might be a difference with the type of offense. I think SA's not guilty, but I was a trafficker, and that's a line of work that's specifically all about conspiracy, trust, and learning to read people.

For example, you learn to spot a cop even when they're in civilian clothes. A regular person walks in a room, they look for what they're interested in and don't usually notice much else. A criminal walks in a room, they look around, but try not to be obvious about it (hence, the "shifty-eyed" stereotype). A cop walks in a room, they really look around and don't care who sees them looking. I never noticed this before I was involved in any crime, but after, it's really obvious. I may not know that guy's a cop, in that I haven't seen his badge and there's a really tiny chance I might even be wrong, but I know that guy's a cop... and that's the kind of knowing you need to be comfortable working with.

A lot of people on the internet like to argue the finer points of "knowing" things, trying to prove this or that tiny bit of evidence. But we know the mafia was involved in the JFK hit, for example, because look at Jack Ruby. We don't have proof and we don't know the details and there is a tiny chance we might be wrong... but c'mon, we know.

I was in a prison of about 90% traffickers, and only a couple of violent offenders. Maybe if I had been around more violent people, I might well know SA was a violent type, and guilty. But I'm not inclined to believe SA could talk and act so perfectly normally to his girlfriend on the phone while the murder and burning was taking place, and then volunteer to talk to the media and be so normal while the police are searching his property, fully aware her bones are in his backyard and her bloody car is on his property, "hidden" under a couple of tree branches and boards.

I never personally saw a guy like that, and if there was, I imagine he'd be a Ted Bundy type, a pure sociopath murdering out of compulsion all the time... not waiting to do it right before the important people get deposed in his multi-million-dollar lawsuit. It just doesn't compute.

Having seen and been involved with real conspiracies, I understand how they work, and I know the cops in this case are bad, similar to how OP's cops know it. But I don't know about SA. I don't believe he's guilty because it's just way too improbable where I come from... but, props to tredaniel, he might have spent time with guys exactly like that.

Bottom line, I'm not convinced yet, but the opinion of ex-cons carries serious weight, far as I'm concerned.