Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Florida Man obsessed with "Bulgarian Sex-Cam Girl," murders his family, steals $200,00 to buy lingerie!

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

A Florida male nurse, 30, found guilty of murdering his family after they demand he get a job to repay the $200k he stole to fund his obsession with a Bulgarian cam-girl. Joining Nancy Grace to discuss: Criminal Defense attorney  Julie Rendelman , Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Sheryl McCollum, Forensic Psychologist, Dr Daniel Bober, Retired Chief Medical Examiner State of Ga Dr Kris Sperry, and Crime Online Reporter Dave Mack. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A wellness call this morning ended with Seminole County deputies finding three people dead inside a Chuliotta home. Somebody who lived at a residence on Sultan did not report to work. His boss became concerned. He made a couple of calls. That's from the sheriff's office responding. The call was made to dispatch around 9 o'clock this morning, but Sheriff Dennis Lima says it's believed the homicides took place

between 10 o'clock last night and 7 o'clock this morning. The victims, two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s, were shot and killed. It looks like the person who is responsible for these murders was known to the family, and we're going to do everything that we can to ensure that we get that person in custody. Deputies are searching for 29-year-old Grant Amato. Three people dead in one home. I cannot imagine police going and finding that scene. And they were tipped off by what's called a welfare check.

Wait till you hear what we have uncovered in this case. My mind is totally blown away. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. So police walk in based on a welfare check and they find three dead bodies clothed. No apparent robbery. What the hey? First of all, with me, an all-star lineup today. Julie Rendelman, New York criminal defense attorney, Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, renowned forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Bober,

and retired chief medical examiner, Dr. Chris Sperry, Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Dr. Sperry. First to you, I don't even want to count the number of homicide scenes I've seen or autopsies I have reviewed, many of them with you. Dr. Sperry, when you walk into a scene and everybody, medical examiners, don't just sit behind their desk at the morgue. They have a fleet of investigators that also investigate homicides only. What do three dead bodies in a home, no sex attack, no robbery, no forced entry, tell you? Well, the first thing that that tells me is that there's probably some relationship between the victims and the perpetrator, including family relationships. Family relationships, something in common, such as drug sales, something that went bad.

But the best place to start is viewing this as there is an interrelationship between the victims and the perpetrator. Well, you know what, Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Take a listen to our friends at WKMG. This is Nikki Cisazza. This six-page affidavit reveals details about the moments leading up to the gruesome triple homicide inside this Chuliotta home investigators believe was at the hands of Grant Amato. It is utterly shocking. You know, the question that everybody wants answered is, how could this possibly happen and who did this? It's a burning question, attorney Stephen Kramer says may be complicated in

proving who murdered Margaret Chad and Cody Amato. This is not a slam dunk for the defense by by any stretch. You know, this is a case where it is going to depend on really good hard nosed detective work. The report includes an interview with Cody Amato his girlfriend about what may have prompted the deadly feud. She claims Grant stole $200,000 from his parents to communicate with an online call girl from Bulgaria on a pornographic website. In the report, she also claims Cody told her that he was afraid Grant would kill everyone. Okay, hold on. Let me just let that sink in. Ladies, listen to this. Men, if you're into this, get out of it.

We are talking about a seemingly meek and mild Florida male nurse who allegedly guns down his whole family execution style after they demand he repay them the $200,000 he stole to fund an obsession with a Bulgarian cam girl. Okay, Dave Mack, let me go to you. You're the investigative reporter. Could you explain in detail what is a cam girl? cam girl is a woman who will perform um everything from sexy dancing to sex acts on a webcam that men or women from around the world can pay uh to actually view either live or recorded videos of the actual cam model okay now wait a minute sexy dancing okay thank you jackie howard for the little demonstration you're you're i don't know what that was you look like you had a convulsion but sexy dancing now let me understand something to dr daniel bober

let me bring in a shrink real quick you actually pay somebody money to dance around in their underwear? Am I hearing this? And he guns down his family? He runs through $200,000? You know something? It's funny, but I actually have some patients that actually do this. I have one of them patients. She makes something like $200 every 15 minutes.

And so they give a percentage to the people hosting the site. And, you know, these are people that don't have a lot of education. And so they can make so much money doing it. You know, it almost becomes an addiction in and of itself because the money is so lucrative. Okay, I'm poo-pooing it. Cheryl McCollum with me, director of the Cold Case Research institute and uh crime tech expert cheryl before i get to this scene can we just talk about this for a moment i gotta tell you a true story all right like that's how every bad story starts i gotta tell you a true story but we have a friend from Well, it's my husband's friend. And he seemed normal, right?

And a wonderful marriage. All of a sudden we find out he's getting a divorce. He's in love with a stripper. I'm like, she does not love you. She loves your money. This girl who had a son went through everything he owned to keep her son in private school, would not marry or move in with the friend, ran through all his money, lost his home, his marriage, and his job, by the way, because he went to so much credit card bankruptcy, blah, blah, debt.

And then she left. That was it. After she picked him clean him clean she left and he's still obsessed with her i don't get it help me out i mean how many homicides have you and i investigated that start at a strip club or some and i guess this is the next generation of cam girl well is it it's actually a pretty good way if you're going to do this for a living because it actually makes you as a dancer or performer safer. But again, Nancy, $200,000. But I think it's important to mention that's in a three-month period of time. So this dude is spending $2,000 a day to watch this girl perform sex acts over a video she's never touched him she's never pleasured him in any way they've never met she's in another way i didn't know people actually i didn't know people actually still said that she never pleasured him in any way uh you've been

reading way too many romance novels i don't know how you fit that in between the crime scenes and the Cold Case Research Institute. So I can't wait to hear this. Joining me right now, well-known New York criminal defense attorney, Julie Rendelman. So how in the world do you turn this guy's obsession with a cam girl who, as Dave Mack says, sexy dances for him, and then he guns down his whole family for $200,000 he stole to pay her. First of all, I'm still focused on the word pleasure myself. Remember, I've got everything you say on tape. Aside from that, I think, you know, keep in mind that, you know, he's watching this girl

without thinking about the fact that many other men are watching this girl, but for some reason in his head he thinks he's the one that has the unique relationship with her such that he needs to save that relationship at all costs, even at the expense of his family, which obviously I think for most of us viewing is more than just the normal person who's going to a strip club. This is someone who has now had some kind of delusion. Wait, wait, wait. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Let me hear, let me hear. A normal person going to a strip club.

Let me just digest that for a moment because I can tell you this much. If I get up in the morning and start working at five o'clock, which I do. Work, work, work, take care of the children, cook, the whole shebang. And I find out David Lynch is kicked back at a strip club. Oh, honey, there is going to be H-E-double-L-2-Pay. It might be normal for Julie Rendleman in New York to go to a strip club, but it is not for Nancy Grace. And David, if you're listening, it's not normal for you either. Remember that. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Grant Amato was picked up by deputies at a hotel room in Orange County at 745

this morning. Deputies here are not saying which hotel room that was or which hotel that was at this point, but they are saying that he is in investigative detention at this point and not under arrest yet. 29-year-old Grant Amato remains in custody as a person of interest. Deputies considered him armed and dangerous when they began searching for him yesterday. This all happened after three people, two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s, were found shot and killed inside a home on Sultan Circle in Chulioto Friday morning. Deputies responded to the house for a well-being check when they found what they called a gruesome situation and quickly realized this was not a random act of violence. This is just a horrific

experience for everybody. One victim is in the general area of the garage. One victim is in the kitchen area and I'm not sure the exact and then another victim is in like what appears to be the family office. Deputies released this picture of a white Honda Accord that Amato was believed to be driving that belonged to a relative of one of the victims. That car turned up in the parking lot of a hotel in Orange County where deputies quickly located Amato staying in one of the rooms. You're hearing our friend Clay Leonard with WKMG. Wow. A male nurse, a Clay Leonard with WKMG. Wow.

A male nurse, a Florida nurse, just 29 years old, allegedly shoots and kills his family execution style one by one as they come home. After they demand he repay them nearly a quarter million dollars he stole to fund an obsession with a Bulgarian cam girl that he would send her sex toys and lingerie she would send him explicit photos and videos in return her name if it's her real name is Sylvia Venceslova out of Bulgaria I I mean, whoa. Wiping out nearly your whole family? Listen to WKMG. The Amato boys played outside and grew up together. Grant Amato became a problem for his entire family by the end of 2018, when he used more than $200,000 that he got from his father and brother and gave it to an online cam girl in Bulgaria. He wasn't allowed to communicate with her

anymore. The situation even forced an intervention between Grant Amato and his family, ending with Grant being driven to a clinic in South Florida to treat his problems one month before Grant's mother, father, and brother Cody were murdered. That was the last time that I saw Cody and my dad. Grant Amato is accused of killing his parents and brother Cody at their Chulioto home in January, a day brother Jason recalled vividly as police showed up at his work. It was pretty scary. So they came into the building and the whole building got shut down. And later gave me very general details that there was a woman and two males in their 30s found in the house.

So I just tried to answer their questions as best as possible. Nearly released documents that we have obtained reveal Amato sends sex toys and lingerie to the cam girl and uses nearly a quarter million dollars of his family's money to pay for her, as Dave Max says, sexy dancing and sex acts over a webcam. A woman in another country. A flash drive seized by investigators contained dozens of pornographic images and video between Amato and Ventus Lassova. One photo shows her hand holding a sex toy. Another shows her posing in a G-string thong. I got to hand it to her. She's beautiful, all right, but the devil.

To Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist. Well, wait, hold on, Dr. Bober. Dave Mack, I know that according to police information, that he would murder each family member as they came home, ambushed them. What more do we know about the actual murders? What we know is that it looks like he murdered his mother first. She was sitting at her desk in the family office. Then next was his dad. When his dad arrived home from work, it looks like he too was killed then. And then Cody, the brother, was killed several hours later when he came home to check on the family. It looked like the crime scene was staged

after the fact, which is something that came up that they believe that Grant actually tried to stage it to make it look like a murder-suicide and that his brother Cody was the actual guy who did the murder and suicide. To Dr. Daniel Bober, a forensic psychiatrist joining us. Dr. Bober, you heard from KMG, WKMG, that they had actually taken him, carried him, driven him to a treatment center in South Florida for porn addiction. I've never heard of porn addiction resulting in triple homicide. Well, you know what, Nancy? When you're talking about porn addiction or you're talking about gambling,

it's not about the sex or the money. It's about using an uncomfortable behavior to deal with uncomfortable feelings. It's a compulsion. So usually people who have these types of addictions have underlying depression, anxiety, and difficulty dealing with stress, and they use the behavior to cope with it in a maladaptive way. Okay, Cheryl McCollum, I don't know what Dr. Daniel Bober's talking about, because every guy I've ever seen that was addicted to strip clubs it was about these women oh wait Cheryl is it about

controlling them I mean I'm I'm looking at it from a layperson point of view and I'm not proud to say that I've been to many strip clubs just to get witnesses sure in daylight daylight hours oh Cheryl there's not anything much grosser than a strip club during the daylight. I mean, it is skanky. It smells. You see what it really is. It is gross, Cheryl. I agree, Nancy.

Daylight hours is no place for a strip club. But I'll tell you one thing that I always try to do on my cases is look at past behavior. One thing about Grant is he was fired from being a nurse because he gave patients medication because he did not believe that they were relaxed enough, that the doctors had done a good enough job. So this is somebody that believes that he knows better than a doctor. He's not going to take a doctor's order. Well, that tells you right there he ain't going to take his mama's order. So when he gets back from rehab, they sit down with him and give him a list of rules. One being you're not allowed to

contact this woman anymore. And another, you're going to be limited with the Wi-Fi code and you've got to go to Starbucks to even get on the internet. He was not going to live that way. To Dr. Chris Sperry, former chief medical examiner, Dr. Sperry, how can you tell that a, for instance, in a triple homicide like this, that it's been staged, apparently staging it to make it look like one of them had been the perpetrator and killed the others? Well, it's really looking at the scene evidence, looking at the bodies themselves and any evidence that shows that the bodies have been moved or repositioned in some way. Because once a person is shot, there's going to be bleeding and bleeding in very defined patterns, and any alterations in those patterns, any changes in the coloration of the bodies that shows that they've been turned or posed in some way,

that immediately gives the indication that the scene has been altered, the scene has been changed. And so there's always a reason for changing a scene like this, changing death scenes, especially with multiple victims. So, you know, the next level is to conclude or reach a determination as to why have the bodies been changed? Why have the positions been moved? Why does their evidence say that blood was tried? You know, attempts were made to clean blood up? Things like that. Because if you can discern the changes in the scene, you can figure out the motive for doing that. And that, again, steers back to the involvement of another person. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here.

I remember every night before I would go to work at CNN HLN, I would bathe the twins, and that was a special time for me anyway. I would teach them their ABCs, their 1-2-3s. Lucy would only eat dinner in the bathtub. I had to feed her dinner in the bathtub. I had to feed her dinner in the bathtub. I would give her one full hour and John David one full hour. Then I would actually go to work soaking wet. It was one of the happiest times of my life. And I guess that's why I gravitated to Emily Mason. Emily Mason, gorgeous young professor at a local college, Swainsboro, Georgia, East Georgia College. I traveled to Swainsboro to investigate her death,

and this is what I learned. Emily was bathing her two little girls in the tub. When someone came into her home, chased her from room to room, the last thing her little girls ever heard from their mother was mommy running, screaming for her life. Those are their vivid last memories of mommy. She was brutally murdered. And you may ask, where was her husband during all this? Well, her husband, also a professor at East Georgia College, a P.E. professor, a P.E. coach, happened to be gone. He just happened to leave for a local Walmart or Home Depot or Lowe's. And in that short window of time, he comes home to find his wife dead in the home. The children, one was nonverbal, could hardly describe a thing. What happened to Emily Mason? Her story really has touched me.

The mystery surrounding the death, the brutal death of this young mom, Emily Mason. This Saturday, we will be Facebooking, Instagramming, and tweeting live throughout the episode. This Saturday, Oxygen, August 17, 6 p.m., Eastern 5 Central. Please join us. Thanks, friend. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Grant Amato and his older brother Jason

together in an interview room hours after their family was found dead inside their Chuliotta home. Grant denying he had anything to do with the murders, but his brother didn't believe him. I need you to be honest with me, man. I need to have closure. Their parents and brother were found shot to death on January 25th. Deputies say Grant pulled the trigger. Records show he argued with his family in the days leading up to the murders. Because he stole $200,000 to send to a woman in Bulgaria he met on a porn site.

Grant says their deaths had nothing to do with the woman, but he couldn't explain who would kill their family. I don't understand why it happened. I was taking my steps forward despite everything that I was supposed to do. Prosecutors released this video of Grant Amato's attorneys arguing he should be released on bond, saying there's not enough evidence to hold him. The judge denying their request. His lawyer saying the state doesn't have a case.

We still do not have any forensic evidence that links him to this crime. So we just have to proceed with what we have. It is purely circumstantial at this point. At the end of the 16-minute video, Jason hugs his brother, saying he still loves him. I'm going to pray for you, brother, because I can't pray for mom, dad, and Cody anymore. Wow. You're hearing from our friend Amanda Castro at WKMG6. A man allegedly guns down his whole family. When they insist he stop his obsession with a Bulgarian cam girl, he can't take it.

They put him in treatment for porn addiction. It doesn't work. They all end up dead. I'll just share on McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute. What do you make of it? Nancy, one thing they're going to want to do is look at that electronic footprint. They're going to want to see how much contact he had with this

woman in Bulgaria after the murders. They're going to want to see bank accounts, what money was taken when and from whom, and when was it transferred to her. They're going to put together this whole timeline to show exactly what his movements were prior to the murders and most importantly after. It's hard for me to take in an obsession so strong you kill your whole family. To New York criminal defense attorney Julie Rendelman, I mean, of course, voluntary consumption of drugs or alcohol, unless you're totally comatose, is never a defense under the law in crimes. You can't just say, oh, I was drunk or I was high. How can you twist an obsession, a sex or porn obsession, into a defense? Look, I think when you, especially with this young man, I think it was more than just an obsession.

The family had been dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts with this kid for a while. It had two separate times the police had had to come. So I don't think it's just about the Bulgarian girl. I think there's something not right with him on top of that. And even when you watch, I watched that video last night, it was so troubling. There is something off about him, whether before or after this crime. So that's what I would explore as a defense attorney. Prosecutors say he stole nearly a quarter million dollars from his father, mother, and brother to present himself as rich and successful, lavishing this Bulgarian cam girl with clothes and gifts.

So somehow the family gets onto it and they suddenly get the girl, I guess, call her or reach her on cam and tell her he's not rich. He's not a successful businessman. Dave Mack, is that how it went down? Dave Mack, joining me, cryingonline.com, investigative reporter. Actually, that's exactly what happened, Nancy. You know, you talked about how they did the intervention and put him in rehab. Well, it was during that two-week window of time where the family contacted this woman in Bulgaria

and said exactly what has happened, that he stole money, that he's broke, that he's out of a job, that he lives at home with his mom and dad. And that's what really ticked him off. And something the attorney just mentioned a minute ago about when did he contact, did he contact her after the death? You know, within an hour, he had been cut off. His phone had been cut off. His family had totally cut him off from everything.

But within hours, he was of the deaths of his family. He was trying to access this woman using his brother's phone. The last activity on the computer in the office where the mom, Margaret, was found dead was about a quarter of five. We learned she was killed very shortly after that. Then Chad shot about 30 minutes later after coming home from work. Cody shot about four hours later as soon as he comes home from work. And he's still trying to reach the girl. I mean, straight back to you, Cheryl, what a blow that must have been to his morale

for them to tell the girl he's not rich and successful. He's not some millionaire businessman. He lives at home with his mom and dad. That sealed the deal right there. There was nothing more humiliating they could have done to him. Again, Nancy, this is a guy that didn't have a lot of girls in high school, didn't have a lot of women in college. From what we can tell, nobody was knocking on his door. It was only this person that was giving him attention. And I'm going to tell you again, $2,000 a day?

If you figure the average sex toy is $40, he sent her 5,000 toys. Give me a break. When they called her and basically outed him, I think he beyond snapped at that point. And he had made his mind up he was going to kill every one of them. And that's why he started with mom. Hold on. I'm sorry. I didn't hear anything you said after three words, 5,000 sex toys.

I just, I couldn't hear anything. My head started spinning. My ears were buzzing. I can only see red right now. Did she just say that, Dave Mack? And why did she say it and not you? You're the CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. You're withholding evidence. Nobody told me he bought her 5,000.

That's 5,000 sex toys. What a nut. He actually spent over $200,000 on sex toys and the video conferencing, watching her on video, because you had to pay like 600 units or a couple hundred dollars for each 15 minute session that he had with this so-called, you know, whatever girl you want to call her. You know, he thought it was his girlfriend and he was having to pay for any communication. And after everything was said and done, he actually begged her to send him something for free after the family had cut him off. After they'd outed him to this girl, he begged her to send him something for free. After the family had cut him off, after they'd outed him to this girl, he begged her to send him something for free because he said he felt weird having to pay to have videos with her. Did I hear you say he thought she was his girlfriend? Yes, ma'am. He actually was so deluded, Nancy, that he believed of the thousands and thousands of

people around the world that were watching this girl every day at times she was on the air, that it was a special relationship between the two of them to the point where he didn't think he should be paying for it anymore, that he had sent her all this money, he had sent her all these lingerie and sex toys, and that he thought in his messed up head that they actually were boyfriend-girlfriend. That's just what David's friend thought too. Okay, now hold on just a moment. Let me understand something.

To Dr. Chris Sperry, former chief medical examiner, Dr. Sperry, how can you look at a body and tell it's a homicide, not a suicide? Well, first of all, you have to have obviously lethal wounds, and these are gunshot wounds. But a gunshot wound, a single wound in the back of the head with no other weapon around, no firearm within reach, that's incredibly suspicious to start with. Those are homicides until proven otherwise. When there's evidence that other people have had access into where the body was, there's

just a whole litany of different things that make a death like this incredibly suspicious. So it's really based upon the appearance of the body, the wounds they have, the location of the wounds, the absence of a weapon, and then accessibility. crime stories with nancy grace defense lawyer spent the day trying to poke holes in the prosecutor's claim that grant amato who was teary-eyed in court today killed his parents and older brother then staged a scene of a murder suicide the defense today questioned crime scene investigators asking them why more wasn't done in court today killed his parents and older brother then staged a scene of a murder-suicide. The defense today questioned crime scene investigators, asking them why more wasn't done the first day to test for evidence when they first arrived at the Amado home. Was the laptop processed at all for prints? No, it was not. Crime scene tech Arthur Rubar

testified, said the front door of the home, for example, was not swapped the first day when they responded, all because they believed their main suspect lived there. This possibly could be some important evidence here, couldn't it? Possibly. Why didn't you process it then? Though prosecutors said evidence shows that Grant Amato moved his dead parents' and brothers' bodies after he killed them, a crime scene tech said a holster and a gun seemingly placed on the hip of Grant's dad just didn't seem right since he was right-handed. If you were carrying it the way that he has it and you're right-handed, you would have to pull it out awkwardly, point it at yourself, and then point it towards somebody to fire it, which just doesn't make any sense. You're hearing our friend, reporter Jerry Askin at WKMG.

To Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, explain to me how he used his dad's, his own father's, bloody fingerprint to his advantage. Well, you know, in many cell phones nowadays, you have to use a fingerprint to actually access it as opposed to just typing in a password. And again, Grant's phone had been cut off. His family had cut his phone off and everything else.

And so he was trying to access one of these phones in the house to actually call that girl. And he took his dad after his dad was dead. And one of the fingers on his dad's body was actually less bloody than the others. And the police believe that he used that finger to get the fingerprint to access his dad's phone to cheryl mccollum director of the cold case research institute allegations are he killed his father and brother because they were in his way and killed his mother as well because she happened to be there. And after killing them, used the public Wi-Fi at a nearby Publix to log on to try to talk to the web girl. I mean, what does that say about his state of mind, Cheryl? Completely delusional.

And in his mind, Nancy, not only did they have a relationship, he loved her. This is probably the first female that called him by name, that asked him questions, that did what he asked. If he sent her a beautiful lingerie, she wore it. If he asked her to perform anything particular, she did that. They had a wonderful relationship in his mind. $200,000. To Julie Rendleman, a New York criminal defense attorney, it's going to be hard to spin that into any kind of, let me just say, psychotic break or mental defect when after killing them, he has the wherewithal to use his father's bloody fingerprint to open his dad's phone so he, Grant Amato, can use the phone to call the

stripper. Yeah, it is tough, but you know, no words are better for defense attorney than hearing someone say the word delusional when it comes to a client when we're looking for a mental disease or defect kind of defense. And so it is true that some of his actions afterwards clearly indicate that he was well aware of what he was doing. Remember, there's going to probably be two phases in this type of case. There's a death penalty phase, and so a lot of this information is going to be helpful if and when it comes to a death penalty phase. As a matter of fact, you're right, Julie Rendleman. Take a listen to this. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. Tears coming from family members as the verdict was read late Wednesday night. The jury finding Granamato guilty on all three counts of killing his parents and brother

in their Triliota home in January. I can't say I'm really disappointed in the jury. It seems like they went through all the evidence thoroughly. You know, there's still our jury. The verdict coming after more than a week of testimony in the case. Prosecutors saying Amato was so obsessed with an online cam girl from Bulgaria that he went as far as to kill his family. Something that came after he sent her $200,000 that he stole from his parents. He lost his job. He was depressed. He was having a contentious relationship with his father and his brother. He finds Sylvie and becomes consumed with her. With the case based largely on circumstantial evidence, Amato did not testify, a decision his attorney says he doesn't regret as he now looks to his client's future.

My concern right now is to save my client's life. Wow, you're hearing Mark Lehman at WKMG 6. To Julie Rendelman, veteran criminal defense attorney, Julie, it's a whole other ballgame game at penalty phase, because at that juncture, it's not about guilt or innocence. It is about sentencing. And to pursue the death penalty, of course, the state must prove aggravating circumstances, special circumstances that are set forth by statute in the black and white letter of the law, such as killing a cop, killing an elderly or a child, lying in wait, murder for hire, for pecuniary or money interest, or in this case,

mass murder, which equals more than one dead body. We all got, the listeners probably got very familiar with death penalty cases by listening to the Jody Arias trial or the Scott Peterson trial. So what but not putting him up as a witness in the case in chief was probably very, very wise. I mean, if he's this obsessed with a Bulgarian call girl online, you know, if he's truly obsessed, there's no way he could hide that on the stand, Julie. Yeah, I think it's tough. I think the tough thing for the defense attorneys in this case is if you start off with the notion to the jury that it wasn't him, which I believe was their position in this case, and then he found guilty, now you have to completely change it up. You have to now say he was guilty, but, and then you have to give all the reasons that we've talked about to try to save his life, i.e. mental illness, all the things

that we know about his fixation, his delusion. So it's really tough for the defense to switch gears to try to prove to this jury that his life is worth saving. You know, his parents and his brother's bodies aren't even cold. And he's already at the Publix Wi-Fi, I guess right there in the Sub Sandwich Deli area. There he is. He's just left a triple homicide scene. And he's kicked back having some Mardi Gras chicken wings, Cheryl McCollum, at Publix trying to get Wi-Fi to get this girl on the phone. That's not going to help. And just like Julie Rendleman said, Cheryl,

you go through the whole trial going, you guys messed up the crime scene. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. They found him guilty. Now he's got to go with it. Okay, I did it. Here's the bottom line, Nancy. This man commits mass murder to watch a woman he don't know masturbate. Well, that is certainly stripping away the veneer, as I like to say. But what I'm saying, it's about the fact that he can leave the crime scene of his dead mother and father and brother lying there, use his dad's bloody phone, and head over to Publix to kick back, have a sneaky DC Diet Coke, and try to reach the girl on the phone. Julie Rendleman, the murders themselves are horrific enough, but the coldness, the total lack of regard for his family. I mean, he truly is obsessed with this girl. Yes, he is.

And that's why I don't envy the defense attorneys in this case because, you know, they have an uphill battle. The one thing I think they have going for them, ironically, is that Jason seems to really love his brother. And I think they, you know, the jury may be influenced at the end of the day by the fact that his own brother wants to save his life. Long story short, at the end of the day, he's just waiting for this girl to say, I love you. Come live in Bulgaria. Okay, that is not where he's going to be living. You're absolutely right, Nancy. Grant Amato, after just three hours of deliberation, has been sentenced to life in prison. He avoided the death penalty. That was the only goal his attorney had was to save his life. They accomplished that.

Grant Amato will now spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his mom, his dad, his beloved brother, all because they told his imaginary porn star girlfriend that he wasn't a rich businessman. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.