48 Hours - Sophia's Secret

Episode Date: May 27, 2018

A teen is attacked by her abusive ex-boyfriend -- held at knifepoint, her room set on fire. She reveals her emotional story of survival to CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. 48 Hours presents. 48 Hours presents... I don't remember much of that time.

I just remember thinking, am I going to make it through this? My mom drove me from my house to the hospital. The police are at our house and I'm taking my daughter to the emergency room because she's bleeding from her head. I kept saying to my mom, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, and she was like, Sophie, it's okay. Sophie, you're okay, you're okay. Okay. OK. OK. I just tried to be as calm as I could and try to just reassure her.

She was safe now. Adam wasn't there. What is the male's name that assaulted her? Adam. He needs to be put away. Two officers were waiting there for us, and then they put the whole hospital on lockdown. They knew that he was still at large. The police came in and were just asking me questions. Has this happened before?

I just said yes and that's the last conscious memory I have before my surgery. I remember waking up and I felt, oh my god, I'm alive. I just felt there's a reason I'm here, and I believe this is what I'm here for, to share my story. I was 14 years old, and he had just turned 16. Adam was the typical skater boy that every 13-year-old girl dreams of. Beautiful blue eyes, flippy hair. He was mysterious. A lot of girls were attracted to him.

As soon as he showed interest in me, he became my complete focus. My friends knew something was wrong, but I never told anyone about the abuse. Everyone else loved him. Everyone else thought he was hilarious. Nobody would ever believe that he did anything to me. Nobody would ever believe that he did anything to me. He did a lot of different things when he was angry. I've seen him get mad.

I've seen him do horrible things to me before. But that night, there's just something different. He just had this crazy look in his eyes, like something had snapped. And I asked him, I said, Adam, are you going to kill me? And he said, yes. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals.

Listen to Informance Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life.

Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. She and I have been so close our whole lives.

I knew she told me when she was hurting. I knew we had that kind of a connection. That I didn't recognize when that stopped being the case, that somehow I didn't get what was really going on, I still can't make sense of that. I would do anything to have protected her, and I... I wasn't able to.

I remember the first time I saw him, oh, my goodness, that's Adam. He's so hot. He's in a grade above us. A couple weeks later, he ended up messaging me on Facebook. And I remember bragging about it to my friends, like, oh, look, Adam messaged me, he's talking to me. And that's how we met. When Sophie and Adam met, I could see that she was really excited So we met.

When Sophie and Adam met, I could see that she was really excited and that she was kind of giggly. He has this incredibly kind of innocent presence about him. It was really her first love. I was definitely completely infatuated with him. He was quiet. I couldn't get that much out of him, and I think I was attracted to that. I put a lot of my focus into just trying to figure him out. He seemed to have an underlying sadness. She was aware of him having a lot of pain from his childhood. After my divorce and we moved to Kalamazoo,

it was just a tough time. I mean, it's a tough time for any teenager. He was a little withdrawn and it would go through little bouts of depression a little bit. I started seeking treatment for Adam, some counseling and some place for him to have an outlet. He was always really well adjusted at school, well liked at school, got along with his friends at school and his teachers.

When Sophie entered high school, she seemed a little more lost than she had been before. She went to counseling at one point because she was feeling depressed, but she was level-headed. She wasn't doing things that I felt like were bad for her or destructive, and so I trusted her. But I didn't really fully understand how some of that would shift when she got involved with Adam. I felt very special at first. Adam always told me that he loved me and that he wanted kids with me and that we were going to get married. He used to come outside my window and he'd draw a heart and he'd play my favorite song and he'd lay flowers out there for me. On the surface, Sophia and Adam appeared to be just two teenagers caught up in the excitement of first love. But their youthful infatuation soon evolved into something much darker.

I became his main focus. He didn't want me to hang out with my friends. He wanted me all to himself. He'd go through my phone. One specific time, he was suspicious that I was going to go hang out with someone. He threw me up against a wall, told me that nobody would ever love me and that I didn't deserve him. I honestly thought, wow, what did I do to make him this upset? Why is he this mad? I didn't have a clue about how serious it was or how things were escalating. He'd always text me and say that he was suicidal. He used to cut his legs. He used to take pills.

I had my mom, who I was lying to, and I had him. I just felt hopeless and so I attempted suicide. As soon as I took the pills I realized that I wanted to live and that it wasn't worth it. I first broke up with him right before my birthday. He started stalking me more. It got to the point where I finally told my mom about it and I said, Mom, you know, he's been following me. I'm scared. I called his mom and I said, I'm concerned.

I think he needs to be hospitalized or something. Their relationship was clearly unhealthy and they were getting very possessive of each other. My husband and I spoke with Adam and he said, you know, this girl is going to get you in trouble. She's either going to get you killed or put in jail if you stay with her. This drama has to stop. And it was the following evening that he went over to her house.

The first time Adam attacked me, he ripped the window open and he came in and I was like, get out. Why are you here? Like, leave, leave. And I actually grabbed him and I started hitting him. And so he pulled out a knife and he held it to himself. And he said, you want to hurt me, then do it. And then I just broke down and I told him,

I was like, I could never hurt you. Why are you doing this? He held a knife to my throat and just kept saying, you don't have control anymore. You don't have control anymore. You don't have control anymore. And eventually I talked him down. I told him how much I loved him, about how big of a mistake I had made by trying to leave him. And he agreed to leave and he texted me and he said, you're not going to tell anyone, right? And I just felt sick. And I ran into my mom's room.

I had no idea what to say. I was so embarrassed. And I just said, Mom, Adam broke in. He had a knife. And he was going to kill me. I was crying in my mom's arms, just sobbing and sobbing. And then I heard, get on the ground. The police came, and they actually caught Adam on his way back to the apartment.

And they tackled him and captured him. He admitted to what he'd done. He said that he'd gone there with a knife and said that his only intent was to harm himself and not Sophia. Adam was charged with home invasion with the intent to commit assault. And Adam was also charged with felonious assault because he attacked Sophia with a weapon. In this case, the weapon was a knife. Adam went to jail and he was in jail for about a month.

Sophia's family and Adam's family agreed that the best resolution was to allow him to plead guilty to a lesser charge with the agreement that he would have no contact with Sophia, that he would do a long term of probation, and that he would get counseling. If he completed his probation without getting in trouble, all of his charges would have been dropped.

We wanted to put some distance between us, so we decided to move Adam out to his grandparents house, which is a little over 30 miles away, to finish out school and to be away from her. But during that time, he was on a tether, he was on a curfew, he was put on probation where he saw a probation officer weekly. At that point, everyone between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials,

I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who'd attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman?

Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there. And we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America.

If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. We moved from the apartment to the house because of the attack. I didn't feel safe there, and I didn't want him knowing where I lived. Sometimes at night I'd just be up playing Xbox. Sophie would already be asleep so I'd just like go in her room and make sure all the

things were still locked and make sure she was just fine, you know, just check on her when she was sleeping. I just felt better knowing that she was okay before I went to sleep. I started talking to a mutual friend of ours and I was asking her how he was doing. She was just like, Adam's really hurt at what you put him through. Right then and there I was like, wow, what I put him through. I put him in jail. I felt horrible. Me and her kept in contact and then eventually it got to the point where she said, all right, Adam's gonna make a fake Facebook and if he contacts you, you have to promise that you won't tell anyone. And so we started messaging. Once he got off Tether and his grandparents let him drive their car, he would come visit me.

We'd go stay at hotels together and stuff like that. It had been over a year. I had no idea they had any contact. In fact, despite the court order of separation, Sophia and Adam secretly picked right back up where they left off. Adam continued his abusive behavior, and Sophia continued to blame herself. Stop this s***! Stop f***ing with me! You big a big. I took it as he just loved me so much, and I just drove him to the point.

I took his intensity as love instead of something just dark. Please stop. Please. I thought things were going well. He was starting to take some college courses. He seemed like he had some future plans that he was really happy and excited about. I don't know what happened in the next couple days. I was with Adam at my friend's house. And he just started going off on me,

saying really mean things that I didn't care about him. I was scared when he started talking about how I couldn't go to college and that I had to move in with him and that I couldn't have a job because there might be guys there. That was the last time I talked to him. I got really scared so I just stopped texting him. He sent me hundreds of text messages. I'm going to start jabbing my throat with my pencil. I won't stop unless you stop me.

I'll just stay home and take pills then. I've cut deep, overdosed, and held a gun in my mouth. I'll back my car into your house and light the gas tank on fire with me inside he sent me a picture outside of my house I just remember seeing his jacket and my house that morning there were some chairs moved on the back deck up against the door, and I thought that was kind of weird. I didn't really think much of it, but somebody keyed my mom's car. So I was like, damn, I guess I was on like kind of protective mode or whatever for that

night. He said, mama, I'm going to stay awake all night long, and I'm going to have a baseball bat. I went to my room, and Sophie went upstairs. Kylie was at the computer in the living room, which is kind of at the bottom of the stairway. I walked up into my room and I saw a comforter that used to be on my bed that was just thrown on my floor. As soon as I shut the door, Adam popped from under the blanket and he was holding a knife. He just had this crazy look in his eyes like something had snapped. At first I was trying to tell him, I was like, you can leave, like we can work this out,

I'll meet you outside, just go out the window, like my mom doesn't have to know. He said no, it's too late now. I'm gonna go to prison for this. It's too late now. I'm going to go to prison for this. It's too late now. I asked him, Adam, are you going to kill me? And he said, yes. And he walked up to me, and he had the knife in his hand, and he just cut across my chest. I heard Kylie yelling up,

Sophie, are you okay? So I went up to the top of the stairs, and I said, Sophie, are you okay? I lied and said, oh, yeah, it's just drama from school. Then there was this pause, and I started to walk away, and she said, Mom, I love you. And I thought that that was the last time that I'd be able to say it to her. It just went through me.

I heard this thud and I heard her kind of cry out, this guttural cry. And so I grabbed the doorknob and I said, let me in, and I pushed it really hard, and it pushed back with a lot of force. He was up against the door, pushing against it so my mom couldn't get in. And he just pulled out the bottle, poured out the gasoline, and lit it.

the bottle, poured out the gasoline, and lit it. And then came over to me and started dragging both of us towards the flames. I just took all my might and I pushed through. And as soon as I did, it was just like an explosion of flames. I just grabbed my bat and I ran up the stairs. I couldn't see anything but fire. I thought he had a knife in his hand,

so then I just started hitting him with a bat. Adam was kind of using her as a shield. Kylie, by accident, hit Sophie in the head. Adam was kind of backing away, and he backed into the window. And as Kylie just kept hitting, Adam crouched and kind of fell back through the window, and Sophie was free. I didn't even see my brother come through.

I was in Adam's arms one second, and then the next second I just felt this warm feeling come across my body. And in my head I was like, all right, that's it, I'm dead. To hear more of Sophia's mom's call to 911, join us on Facebook at 48 Hours. When we first got to the hospital, I think the doctors thought, like I did, that it was just a surface injury and there was a lot of blood because the head bleeds a lot. The security officers and police officers were all asking her questions. You know, what does he look like?

Who are his friends? Where does he go? What does he drive? And she was answering as best as she could. She started switching her words around, like the end of a word would be on the beginning, and they realized that something serious was happening. They immediately took her and had a scan.

They found out that she had a hematoma under the skull. When I first, like, seen Sophia, she just had blood in her hair. Like, you could see the blood. Kylie was 15 when this all happened. When he saw her, he just broke down. And he said, I did that to her, I did that to her. I was scared she might have had brain damage or something from the bat.

She was in surgery for a few hours. Then they put the whole hospital on lockdown. Sophia was under guard at the hospital because Adam had just committed a very violent act. He'd broken into a house, he'd set it on fire, he'd held a knife to Sophia's throat, and he was on the loose. Nobody knew where he was, what his mental or physical state was, so she was protected at the hospital to make sure that nothing more could happen to her. I don't know, I guess it was close to midnight. The police came to our house looking for Adam and they searched through the house. He did not come home that night. He didn't answer any calls that night. He didn't answer any texts.

I really believed that they would find him dead by morning. I remember waking up and it was shocking. Just, oh my God, I'm alive. I'm here right now. My skull had been shattered in, I think, six places. My brother, he saved my life. He's my hero and he always will be. Adam was arrested by police today after the assault. He was walking down one of the main roads kind of distraught and the police pulled over and took him into custody without any problem. He was injured quite badly. He had burns up his leg. He had some cuts and bruising

on his elbow and his arm. He was charged with assault with intent to murder Sophia. He was charged with home invasion, arson, and felonious assault. What we kind of want to know is what sparked all this today, last night? The interrogation of Adam lasted over an hour. Adam's demeanor was quite calm. I was surprised. I just felt like I was doing everything to have this perfect image in my head of us. Sure, having a life.

Yeah, and then, I don't know, she just stopped talking to me and I felt like I was taken away. When did she stop talking to you? I'd say four days ago. He couldn't understand why after four days she wouldn't communicate with him and that's what set everything in motion for him.

Once I went to her house, I was planning on... Last night? Yeah, I was planning on just lighting myself on fire. Was your intent to do it when she was there so she could see you? Yeah. How angry were you? What was going through your mind? What were you going to do at this point? Well, I still had this idea that I was going to talk to her.

Yeah. But, I mean, once I saw her face and just thought about it, I was so mad. And, I mean, I pretty much lit myself on fire right there in the room, blocking the door from my mom. And then, like, it just clicked. And then, well, clicked, that I made a huge mistake. With Adam now in custody, both Sophia and Kristen could rest easier. But Kristen, a social worker who happens to specialize in childhood trauma, had no idea until now the true nature of Adam's abusive relationship with her daughter. She's always been just such a wise and amazing young woman. And I could not have imagined that she would be vulnerable to this.

After she knew, it was kind of just like a waterfall of me just telling her things that I had kept in secret for so long. My heart just dropped. Sorry. I was so ashamed that I had let him treat me like this for so long that I didn't want anyone to know about it. She kept it to herself. She didn't want her family to find out. And Adam used that as one of the many ways that he controlled Sophia.

You feel alone. You feel like nobody else is going through it. And I didn't realize that what I was going through was even domestic violence until I spoke out about it. One of the first questions anyone has in a domestic violence relationship is, why do you stay? Why do you put up with this? Why I stayed with Adam... At first, I wanted to help him.

I thought I could save him. And then it was because he had torn my self-esteem down so low that I didn't have any value for myself. And I was scared for my life, obviously, because when I did try to leave him, look what happened. When I took the bandages off Sophia's head, they had shaved a big section, and she had this big scar with staples that came all across her skull. And I remember at first it was just hard it was hard to look at you know just painful to look at and she just said mama I'm gonna shave it off

I'm just gonna shave it off everything that happened with Adam made me feel so ugly inside and out and horrible about myself I hated hated myself. My head's shaved and I don't know. My face is all puffy and I feel more beautiful now than I have since I can remember. The court calls the case of Adam Shavuotja. I don't think she looked forward to confronting Adam, but she knew it was something that she had to do. All rise. Thank you. After Adam was arrested, the next stage of the process was a preliminary exam,

which requires the prosecutor to show that there's evidence to prove that a crime was committed and that Adam committed it. Preliminary exams are always difficult because they're usually just a couple weeks after the incident had occurred. It was the first time she'd set eyes on Adam since she saw him in the bedroom with a knife to her throat. Testifying was the hardest thing I've ever done. I thought that I was trapped and there was no way that I was going to get out and that was going to be the moment that I was going to die. I just felt vulnerable, scared. I just was really worried about her, you know, emotionally. I just was really worried about her, you know, emotionally.

I was just really worried about her. The prosecutor basically just told me to tell the truth. He just came up and sliced my chest. Just be honest. Tell them what happened. Sophia's just generally an excellent witness. She's an incredibly articulate person. She's thoughtful. My mom burst in and then he was kind of grabbing me and he was kind of moving us towards the fire. I was saying, Sophie, come, come out, come out, but the flames were like all in front of the door.

I was saying, Sophie, come, come out, come out, but the flames were like all in front of the door. One of the things that Sophia and Chris and I all agreed on was that Sophia was only going to be safe as long as Adam was locked up. He'd attacked her before. We tried to give him a chance. We tried to give him a break, and that just didn't work. After one day of testimony, it was decided there was enough evidence for Adam to stand trial. Ten months after his arrest, Adam chose a bench trial over a jury trial, putting his future in the hands of a single judge. I was very confident in the home invasion and arson counts, but proving intent is very difficult, and I was concerned about whether or not we could adequately prove,

beyond a reasonable doubt, that he went there with the intent to kill Sophia. He got gasoline, he got a knife, he got a lighter, he went to her bedroom and tried to kill her. My strategy for building this case was to show not just what happened in Sophia's room on the day of the incident, but to show the pattern of behavior and the escalation of what was happening in Adam

in the days prior. I argued to the court that he lost control of himself, and he also realized that he was losing control of Sophia. Adam was finally realizing that Sophia was ending this relationship for good, that she wasn't going to contact him, and that that's what led Adam to the point where he had no choice but to kill Sophia. One of the really important pieces of evidence in this case was the text messages in this matter.

Adam sent Sophia hundreds of text messages. She did not respond once. State your full name for the record, please. Adam Shiguaja. The defense argued that Adam did not go to the house with the intent to kill Sophia. Is it your testimony that you never intended to harm her? Yes. Even when you were holding the knife? Yes, that's correct. I did not intend to hurt her. What was the purpose of going there, Adam? To kill myself. To kill yourself? Yes, sir. I don't believe that he is capable of hurting her. I definitely know he's not capable of murder.

He talked about when he testified how his only goal was to keep Sophia away from the fire. Did you ever pull Sophia into the fire, Adam? No. Did you ever push her into the fire? No, I pulled her away from it. And that any injury she sustained on her chest from the knife must just have been the fact

that he accidentally bumped her with it. Did you ever tell Sophia when you were in that bedroom, even before the fire or after the fire, that you were going to kill her? No. Did that ever happen? No. Are you certain of that? Yes. I was shocked. I didn't expect him to lie like that. That was my final realization that this person is actually sick. A verdict came down in the trial of a man accused of trying to kill his ex-girlfriend. I found beyond a reasonable doubt

that he intended to cause great bodily harm to her, but he did not intend to murder her or kill her. It was like being hit by a train. The judge found Adam guilty of the home invasion and arson counts, but she did not find that the burden was met for the charge of assault with intent to murder. And the sentencing guidelines at that moment went from something like 20 years to three years. The judge said in her verdict that he didn't try to kill her,

that he was there to commit suicide. If Mr. Shikwaja intended to kill Sophia, he would have and could have done that. He obviously very much loved her. It went way overboard. I just was stunned, and Sophie was just stunned, because I know, I know what Adam's capable of. I know, I know what Adam's capable of. The judge made it seem like we both had equal parts in what had happened. And so to me, that put all the blame right back on myself.

The level of deviance and the danger of who he is was not recognized by the court, and I was terrified that Sophie was not going to be protected, that the system didn't think he was a threat. See what detectives found on the scenes of these crimes now at 48hours.com. Justice! Now! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! Everyone was outraged by what the judge said.

The community who had watched Sophia from the hospital bed started raising their voices. What just happened? How is this love? Letters were written to the judge from many people that I've never even met about how wrong her verdict was. One of the most amazing things that happened was that the YWCA coordinated this march outside the courthouse on the day of sentencing. We were all very nervous for sentencing. We were all very concerned that the lesser verdict was an indication that we could expect a more lenient sentence. There is no other way to keep Sophie Putney Wilcox and the rest of the community safe

other than to lock up Adam Shiguaja for the maximum allowable time. He got a chance to get help, he even got a chance to keep a conviction off his record. But his desire to control Sophia was stronger than any of those chances. On September 21st, 2011, I met a mysterious boy with piercing blue eyes. The victim impact statement that Sophia gave in court is one of the best things I've ever heard. Everything started off okay.

I thought that it was love. It tells the whole story of domestic violence. It started with you cheating. You told me that nobody would ever love me. You dug your nails into my leg. You broke into my bedroom and held a knife to my throat. You threatened to kill yourself, burn my house down with my mom and my brother inside. How could someone who claimed they loved me want to hurt me so much? I must have done something to make you do this. He played on her fears. He played

on her shame. Exposing our relationship was something I feared more than death. on her shame. Exposing our relationship was something I feared more than death. He was standing right in front of me. He just looked emotionless. And even though

it was the scariest thing, facing him like that, it also empowered me. This is it. This is the end of a long story of abuse. I ask this court for protection and justice

Okay, Mr. Chiquancha, anything you want to tell the court? I loved her, but I never once did love myself I loved her more than my own life Her to be hurt was never my intent You are a very disturbed man You brought gas and a match to start yourself on fire that that night and have her sit and watch that? That's disgusting. Your actions are haunting. They'll haunt her for the rest of her life. You cannot control someone like this. She is not a piece of property. There was clearly abuse. Do I think it was your

intention to kill her that evening based on the evidence at trial? No, I don't. But you are out of control and you do need to be put away for a very long time. In a decision that took everyone by surprise, the judge sentenced Adam to a minimum of 29 years in prison. When questioned later, she said the uproar over her verdict had no influence on her ruling. Now I can feel safe. It was like a weight was just lifted off of my shoulders.

Sophie was really protected for the first time. I felt like she was given her life back. All of us were. To turn around and sentence them for that amount of time based on her verdict, I don't believe was fair at all. Watching them leave in the handcuffs, it was just unbelievable and it was heartbreaking. Some nights I still can't sleep, just thinking about things. I'm alone at the house for the first time. When I went back to school, I couldn't have anyone behind me because I was scared. I had to have my back to the wall at all times.

It's hard to speak out because the same question seems to always pop up. Why didn't you just leave? Me speaking out gives me hope that I can help other people. He drilled into my head that everything was my fault. That's healing for me. I'm amazed by Sophia. She went through it as such a warrior. I've always felt like she's the strongest person I've known.

And I know this is just the beginning of that young woman's life. I mean, she's going to go out and rock this world. There's a lot of lessons I could take away from all of this. I think the biggest one for me is just how important it is to love yourself. I lost who I was and I've got myself back. I will never let this define me. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.