Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - 90 Day Fiancé Star Frames Boyfriend

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

After being falsely accused of attempted murder by his ex-girlfriend following a chaotic day at Boca Bash, Cole Goldberg fought a four-year legal battle that ultimately ended in a full acquittal, and a renewed drive to pursue criminal defense law.⁣ ⁣ Cole's links - ⁣ https://www.instagram.com/lmcolee/⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ Go to https://HelloFresh.com/itc10fm to get 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife ⁣ ⁣ Go to GoodRanchers.com and use code INSIDE to get a free meat for life plus $100 off your first three orders.⁣ ⁣ Get 10% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. ⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ Check out my Dark Docs YouTube channel here -⁣ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkDocsMatthewCox⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69⁣ ⁣ CHAPTERS: ⁣ 1:45 - The Relationship Takes a Turn⁣ 6:00 - Boca Bash: A Day That Changed Everything⁣ 16:00 - The Incident on the Water⁣ 26:00 - Accused of Attempted Murder⁣ 41:00 - Arrested and Thrown in Jail⁣ 49:00 - The Media Blitz and Her Betrayal⁣ 55:00 - Fighting the Charges: Plea Deals and Setbacks⁣ 1:07:00 - The Trial and Taking the Stand⁣ 1:29:00 - The Verdict: Full Acquittal on His Birthday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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this is a bite-sized insider guide. Subscribe now on your Facebook. favorite podcast platform or watch us on YouTube so you never miss a beat let's make sense of this industry together that she was on reality TV she would always tell me bad publicity is good publicity I look at my phone and then boom article article TMZ Fox NBC a nonstop I got charged with attempted murder and this was her chance to like blown up again I was working part-time at the hard rock hotel I basically my job was I would bring a bunch of women over I would get paid to bring them in and the whole incentive was to fill out the tables

so people would buy bottles. So they would pay me to do that. They would give me the comp bottles and just I would come with like 20, 30 girls and just hang out. Where are you coming up with 25 girls? I just growing up in Boca and friends. I mean, I made a lot of, I know a lot of people.

Of course, yeah. Yeah, everybody's got 25 girls than they can golf course. Yeah. So I would do that. And one night in July, I brought like 20, 25 girls. So I brought them in,

And then she's there just, Caroline just sitting by herself on, there's like a bench. She's sitting there. I'm like, who is this in my head? Because she's not part of my table. I don't bring her. Right. So me being the gentleman I am, I introduce myself. I offer a drink.

And we just hit it off from there. Talking all night, next thing you know, I get her phone number. And we go on a date to Houston's in North Miami like three days later. Well, and who is she? Like, what do you find out when you talk to her? I find out that she's 10 years older than that. me. Right. She has three kids and that she's basically owns a talent agency. She gave me her Instagram. She had a blue check mark at the time where you could, this was before you could buy it.

So I knew she was like somewhat verified or I guess famous in a way. Right. And I found that she was on reality TV a couple of times as well. What kind of account? What is that? She was on like music videos or like 90 day fiancee she featured in. She was in extra in some movies. She was a part of a dating show, a Spanish dating show in Miami. A couple of different things she was doing. Okay. Yeah. And you, so you get her phone number. Right. And what do you? Get her phone number. Call her or call her, text her. We're talking. I keep it simple. And then we just, we planned a date at Houston's. We stayed, uh, she's 10 years older than you. Ten years older, yeah. Yeah. What are your buddy saying? Is that normal? I mean, no, it's not. I mean, but everyone

at the age. I was 22 at the time. So they were like, okay, like, it was kind of like, wow, you got that. Nice. Right. How long did you guys date? About nine months. Any problems? So the beginning, it was, I mean, we were like best friends. We did everything together. She actually ended up working at there as well. When I first met her, she was a truck

dispatcher part time, but she put that like within two weeks. She didn't want to work in nine to five. She also had a talent agency. Right. So she would basically book people for like music videos or modeling. shoots or anything. So she's trying to make that business be her main business. Correct. She said it was like really big and popping before COVID.

And then COVID kind of shut her down. And she had a physical office. She had the close. So that's what I remember. She told me. So she's trying to revamp that, get out of the 9 to 5. And then she was always coming to dare with me anyways because I was still doing that part time until I graduated.

And she ended up getting like a host job there. So we were actually working together. So we just did everything together. But yeah, the beginning we were just having fun, traveling, just enjoying. It was like a nice honeymoon phase. It was just different. Right. And we definitely both were enjoying each other a lot.

About halfway through into the relationship, maybe month five or six, I mean, she started getting more financially dependent on me and expecting more for me. And I just wasn't ready for that at 22 years old. I mean, I just graduated in December of 21 from Florida. Florida State University. So I was in a role, like a kind of like a stepdad role. I mean, there was times where I'd start taking her kids to school like 7 in the morning. It started paying for her nails, her gas, rent, car repair. And it was a lot of pressure on me at the time. Right. So things started getting a little like choppy at that point, but not like necessarily

like she's mad at me or anything. She just knew like maybe we were taking this day by day basically. And it was supposed to be a summer thing, but I needed to fill that manly role that she was looking for, like a father, a father figure for her kids. I started having to pay for her babysitters. I was babysitting at times, going to publics, buying groceries for her kids and her family. It was a lot for me at the time. But I just felt like I had to do it at that moment. I even took money out of my student loan account. I wasn't making money at the time besides there.

So it was a lot of pressure on me for sure. so I mean but there's nothing nothing violent no fights no not at all okay it just uh yeah like I said I mean we both definitely loved each other a lot we had a lot of fun but as time went on she was kind of like telling me oh we got to get married I got to have another kid quickly so because there's already three of them I know but I think she was uh I mean I later learned now looking back at it I think she was buying into my future and yeah she was trying to lock you I was definitely getting, first of all, if you're 33, 34 years old, like you women can have kids and they're having them in their 40s. Like it's, yeah.

My mom was 40 when I was born. Like women are 40, 45, 50 years old. Like that's, right, right. I just graduated. I was not ready for any of this. Right. Well, yeah, you're just a kid. You still got to go to law school.

Right, right. But I still had the lust and I guess the love for her and I just kind of kept fighting and taking day by day. And like I said, pulled money on my student loan account to help her. So, well, I mean, how. how does it progress? Is there anything happen between the event? What do I say? Anything happen between that that's notable?

Up until leading? Not really. I mean, if you go to the day of, I get a call in the morning. I know a bunch of people in Boca, so I know people a lot of boats. So Boca Bash is an annual event

the last Sunday of every April. It's a huge party, like thousands of boaters, thousands of people. Every police agency and the whole state come down to assist. It's a big event. So I had connections to boats. This girl, this friend of mine, she's a female, she calls me.

She's like, hey, can you help me find a boat? Can you put me on one? So I was like, yeah, I got one for you. I have her on speaker. I'm in the bathroom. She hears me. She's in like the hallway or upstairs or something like that. And she gets all like insecure or jealous or I don't even know the word for it,

but she starts getting super upset. I'm talking to a girl and she doesn't know the reason why. That was the only thing that kind of like set her off in the beginning in the morning to, I guess, put her in a negative mood. But other than that, she was just extremely happy to go. I mean, I've hyped this up to her for a while. I've been going since I was like 10 years old. My dad used to have boats. So I'd go all the time.

And my dad would also always drive me past like the dock area. There's a lot of like driving under the influence of boats and stuff. So he would show me as a kid like all these people getting arrested, all these people. teenagers. She's like, don't be that guy. So that always stuck in my head for a while, that image. So yeah, we were so excited to go. We were meeting with our friends, my friend Sebastian, and yeah, we got, we had an early start, but that was the only thing that happened before, nothing else. We had a really pretty good relationship, in my opinion. So you guys end up going out there? Who's boat were you on? Was it your boat? There's my friend Sebastian's his father,

actually. So yeah, we wake up. We wake up at maybe like seven in the morning. The whole phone call happens, but that's fresh under the rug at that point. We go grab, we go to a bagel store, get some food. Nothing hits like home cooking. And Hello Fresh makes it easy to do more of it. I'll be honest. Most nights, I'm busy researching true crime stories or recording podcasts. So cooking a big meal from scratch isn't always easy.

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New subscribers only varies by plan. Then go to CVS Publix, pick up some food platters, some liquor, seltzers, champagne for mimosas. And then we head over to my friend Sebastian's house, who lives on the intercoastal. and he's a boat there. So we meet with him and maybe three or four of my friends at the time and a bunch of just like random girls that he brought. Where are her kids? They are always either with her mother or the baby dad.

Okay. Yeah. Same father for all three. Same father for all three. She actually just had two more though with a new, new father. She's married again, so. Did the 90-day fiancé? workout or whatever happened with the 90-day fiancee? Is that one of the baby daddies?

No, no. She actually met this guy, I think, on her Spanish dating show. I think it's called Anna Miranda Rendonos or something like that. But they pay for like the wedding and all that stuff and they set you up, but it's a popular in, I guess, South Florida area. But yeah, I mean, that's pretty much what happened that morning. So we get to Sebastian's house and we're all just excited. We all start drinking champagne. We're waiting on everyone to go. We have to get there early because 9 a.m., you want to get the sandbar.

The sandbar is in the middle where you could stand. And boats are just leaving so early. That's the prime spot. So we got to leave early. We start heading out at like 9.30. Everyone's here. Music's blasting. Sun's out.

We're all dancing already. And then we get to the sandbar. And then Sebastian's father, who was the captain, we meet some friends all tie up in boats. We're just there, just having a good time partying. As we arrive, we see a bunch of people we know. We get on the sandbar walking around. There's a bunch of sponsored boats, like Celsius boats, people, socializing, drinking more.

We're walking around. I actually go to the Celsius boat and bring a couple cases back to the boat we were on just so everyone could start having energy or some sort of hydration. And then we just keep, I mean, the sun's out again, partying, partying. dancing, everyone's all starting to fill up, thousands of people coming. And by the time, like, we start boat hopping. So on the south end of Lake Boca,

that's where all the big boats are in the deeper waters by the channel. So we see, like, this three-story boat, big yacht. Like, DJ on the third floor, massive speakers, they have a trampoline in the back tied up. A bunch of, it was like a sponsored vodka. boat, so a bunch of liquor. So maybe about like

12 o'clock, I would say. Carolyn and I decided to start boat hopping and we swim all the way to that boat. So we swim about 50, 60, maybe even 70 yards. But by that time, we're three hours in the day. I mean, we had a couple drinks already. So we actually started, it was

difficult to swim at that point. I mean, while the boat traffic, we were asking people to hang on on to their anchors, jet skis, floaties, just so we get to the boat and we were struggling. So we get to that boat, we get on, and everyone, we're just meeting everybody. I mean, everyone just welcomes you in their boat pretty much in Boca Bash. It's a huge party because you're boat hopping and everyone just nice. But we get on, meeting a bunch of people.

The vodka brand, I think, was called the Tully. It was like a local brand. I'm not sure if it's like a national thing in stores, but he offers us a taste, a mixed drink we get. So we have a little bit of mixed drink there. We're dancing. The DJs blasting. And yeah, shortly after we decided to leave, we're like, okay, we're definitely coming back here.

Ironically, as we're approaching back to Sebastian's boat, which is the boat we came on, their anchors up, and they're like, we're leaving. So I'm like, because I went to the Boca Batchett, Sebastian many times before prior, so it's like, it's early. Why are you guys leaving so quick? Everyone on their boat's like, destroyer, like super drunk. Right.

So like, okay, we're out. I at this point was like, you know what? Like I'm good to go too. I've been here many times, but I gave the decision up to Caroline because it was her first time there and she was excited. It was like 1 o'clock at this time. She's like, no, no, no, I want to stay. I'm having such a great time.

I'm enjoying myself. Please, let's stay. So I'm like, okay, we'll stay. So Sebastian hands us her belongings. They leave. I didn't just sitting there with my backpack on. And we're just standing in the middle of the sandbar at this point, and just making sure for our next move.

15 minutes go by, we're just like tossing football, just talking to random people, having a couple more drinks. And I call my friend who has a paddleboard. He's also like in the deeper side of the lake where you can't stand. It's like 15 feet, I think. But he's like directly west. So if I walk straight, I would have got to him, but you can't walk because it gets deep.

So he comes and picks me up on a paddle board. Caroline and I actually and brings us over to his boat. So the captain of his boat was called, his name was Captain Doobie. And then he's tied up to a couple of my friends that I know, like Anthony Mimo and a few other people. So they were tied up in the deep side as well. So they're all the way on the north end of the deep side, the northwest side. And then that big boat that we went to, the sponsored boat is all the way on the south of it, but on the same side. Again, I'm introducing everyone to Caroline.

we're dancing more drinks seltzers all that stuff time keeps going I mean no lack of very lack of water to be honest I tried to I had maybe one or two bottles the whole day she wouldn't even take any because I mean it's her first time there she didn't know to pace

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Quick. Right. So I tried to tell her that, but she was pretty much going drink for a drink with me whole time. And she's, I mean, she's half my weight, but she handles a liquor will. I mean, she was working at Dair and constantly parties. She's always drinking, so. So basically, yeah, we're at that boat. I asked Michael, I was like, Caroline, I was like, you want to go back to that sponsor boat?

Because it was fun. The trampolines, the vodka, the DJ. So I said, can we please take the paddle board to Michael back to that boat? He's like, yeah, go ahead. Caroline and I get back on the paddle board. we start paddling south back to the big boats we get off the paddleboard um i'm paddling without the stick i just using my hands and um yeah as we're approaching she gets off she starts swimming towards a trampoline i'm like tying the paddleboard up to something and we're both actually swimming to the trampoline

there's about like eight girls jumping on there um as we're approaching the trampoline she's like you know what can you please get me a drink like a seltzer truly or a white claw i think it was so the trampoline it's tied up to the back of the boat. It's about three to five yards into the water off the edge of the boat. And I go on the back of the boat where the cooler is. So this is where, like, I guess the first count happened, where they tried to charge me with battery. Right.

She asked me for the drink, as I mentioned. I underhand, I waited for her attention. I was like, Caroline, do you want this one? I show her at the drink, screaming her name. She's like, yeah, yeah, waves to me, toss it, toss it. I underhand toss it there. Slips through her hand. just from the floor of the trampoline and that's that's all that happened she

claimed that I pelted her like a quarterback overhand hit her in the face she fell off the trampoline and fell down and had a huge like bruise on her face that's what she claimed no witnesses no evidence at all to that I mean you'll see I mean body cam pictures zero things she actually got booked as well that night I'll get into that with a she had a worn out for arrest six hours later muckshot still no no bruising or nothing on her face right so that That was just ridiculous. Then she says,

there's a couple other girls that saw me toss it. So they're like, okay, I want one, two, one, one two. They catch her, they catch it. She comes up to me after, she's like, why are you tossing girls' drinks?

Right. But she tried to like say that, oh, she broke up with me because I pelted her. But that's all that happened. I was like, what do you mean? I just threw a drink, toss some drinks.

Like, they asked for her, what's a big deal? Right. She's like, all right, whatever, I'm going to swim back to Captain Duby's boat. So I'm like, I have my paddable.

I have to bring it back, like I promise. She decides to swim. I kind of lose sight of her as I'm like untying the paddleboard. I arrived maybe five minutes after she arrived at the Duby's boat. So as I'm there, she's already just sitting there, like, dancing on the ledge. I get on the boat and she's like, I was like, why did you just swim away like that? What's the problem? She kind of let her on the rug.

She's like, nothing happened. At the point, we then hop over to the Anthony Mimo boat. So they're tied up at this point. We hop over. Again, I'm introducing her to other people that haven't met her yet. She's talking, having fun, dancing, more drinks. And then out of nowhere, this individual slaps Caroline's ass, like, extremely hard. And she gets, like, extremely upset.

This is a guy. Yeah. Okay. This guy, I don't know, random guy. You could tell he was very, very drunk, like falling over drunk. And I later learned he was, like, 19 years old. the time and it was just crazy but um she gets super like upset she's like this is not how you meet somebody for the first time like what are you doing um everyone's like kind of upset like what the hell

does happen to you so she starts getting in his face and i feel something physical is about it happens so i'm like in between i get in between them and just extend my arms just to separate them this guy is so falling over drunk just from the that little extension of my arms, he falls to the floor. But nothing crazy. She, Caroline, claimed that I pushed him into the propellers. She started bleeding everywhere and fell into the water. No witnesses to that as well.

Did they ever find this guy? Did he ever? No, no. Okay. It was no problem. Right. Yeah. He was just a drunk kid.

So he got hit by the propellers, didn't get to the hospital, didn't follow the police report, didn't, nobody else saw it, nobody else saw the blood. Right. Okay. That happens. It was false. The sharks didn't get him. that's really that's really what happened you tried to swim back and he's they couldn't

run it because the shark got him right right yeah so uh we disliked the situation that's all that happened and then she starts getting um upset with me actually she's like you got to be more physical like do something about it i was like come on i was like this isn't first of all we're on someone else's boat um i'm not going to start fighting the guy for you like he's very drunk like just let him be like there's no reason there's no point of getting violent so we go back on two B's boat after because that boat that we were on was like you know what um calling it quits today uh we're all gonna tie up it's five o'clock at this point that was like they're signed to leave so they start on untying on dubies boat and they start drifting away and i have caroline on my lap on dubies boat

at this point calming her down i'm like it's not like relax like it's like don't get mad at me for not being physical with this guy there's no reason to be like what's the point she's like i can imagine trying to wrap up i imagine wanting to wrap it up when other when the people on the boat start throwing each other into propellers yeah it's it's it's over it's the day's over and that's typically my i mean he never went to he never went to propeller that's right i know i know yeah but uh yeah they start wrapping up and then i have her in my lap she's getting all like irrational in a way and this is this is this is this is This is when the two.

She's been drinking all day too. She's like drunk, drunk, drunk. Drunk, tired. I mean, she weighs like 1.30. So as she's on my lap, these are one of these two other witnesses, like, across the way. They were supposedly watching her for 20 minutes or watching us for 20 minutes, but only her because she was in a red bikini. That's what they kept saying, and they liked the view of her. So they were staring at her, but they didn't see me pushing some guy into propeller, but they were staring at her for 20 minutes, saying that we were fighting.

the whole time. But little that they know, I was just calming her down because she was mad at me for not fighting the guy. Right. Or just calming her down saying it's okay, don't worry about it. So they thought, they say we were arguing for 20 plus minutes. But that's that. So essentially what happens after, she finally calms

down about the butt slap. I have her on my lap. I'm kind of like hugging her, like comforting her. And basically, since they're really leaving the Aunt Mima boat where the push happened or the butt slap, our captain, Doobie, it's like, you know what, let's leave too. It's time. So at Boca Bash, especially that day, I mean, just boating in general, you have to have enough life jackets per person on the boat. And our boat left early in the day, remember, Sebastian. So we came with that boat. We didn't come with Doobie's boat or Anthony Moe's boat. So captain screams, if you didn't come with us,

you have to get off. We don't have enough life jackets for everyone. Caroline and I weren't the only ones that came. I mean, afterwards. So other people jumped off too and left. I don't recall where they went or what they did. But Caroline starts getting super irrational at this point. She's like, I'm jumping in the water.

I got to swim to land. I don't know what to do. She's acting all crazy. Irrational, very rational. So that's when I'm like, some of these witnesses claim that was kind of like restraining her, but that's not what happened either. I was kind of like, stay, like, you don't jump off.

It's not smart. She's first time there, unfamiliar waters, drinking all day, dehydrated, lack of food, just everything. I was just under the sun. She was there since 9 in the morning. It's 5 o'clock at this point. And there's boat traffic. She's swimming in the channel. The current's ridiculous at this point.

Very strong. And it's just dangerous. So I was kind of like holding or like, don't go. Like, that's not smart. like we got to figure this out she's insisting i find like okay go you're you're a grown woman in my head like you can handle it then she jumps in the water with her phone um start swimming just randomly swims just straight like towards like the middle of the sandbar i guess because behind us is the channel that's the closest thing to land but you can't swim to the channel i mean the coast guard

everyone will pick you up in a second uh so she starts swimming straight i'm there to the captain like please like pleading my case like you got to take us home like we have no ride and he's like he ends up finding two more lifejackers or someone else on the boat does i guess because other people left that came with them earlier on or they went on a different boat so he's like you have 30 seconds to go get her i found two more life jacket so i at that point jump in the water as well she's already swimming a little ahead i start swimming as fast as i can like zero to 100 like no chance to warm up again i was drinking all day too um not falling over drunk i still had all my faculties and my awareness and everything.

I understood exactly what was going on, but I was tired. I was drinking again. I was in the sun just like her. I had lack of food just like her and water just like her. Halfway through, she's about like 50, 60 yards away. Halfway through, I can't stay vertical. I feel like I'm sinking, like my lower half's going under. I look back, I'm like, I'm in the middle.

I was like, do I go back? I mean, I'm focused on getting my girlfriend, But before I jumped in the water, I was screaming, Carolyn, Carolyn, we have a ride home. She couldn't hear me. She was too far out. So I'm in the middle at this point, sinking. I was like, okay, I don't know what to do. I start panicking.

I just see Caroline. So that was my main focus to get her back to safety and on her boat so we could leave for the day. As I swim faster, I said, keep going faster. And then at this point, I'm like swalling water. Water's getting in my eyes. I can't breathe. just seeing stars. I felt like I was in like a

basically like outer space but obviously not floating. Like I just needed something to touch that touch feeling to regain my composure. I'm literally drowning at this point. I felt like I was going to die. So as I approached Caroline, I see she's stationary.

I don't know if it was shallow at that point or she was on a floatie. I later learned it was a floaty but it turns out the waters were extremely deep and I see her right shoulder sticking out of the water. So by the time I get to her, I literally lunge out with my arm all the way out and just touch her shoulder for literally for one to two seconds just for that touch so I could like keep myself above water. And this is when she's basically, she's on a floaty, I learned, and she's in front of these people, these four witnesses that have like this big boat. And she actually was struggling to swim too.

she asked them for that floaty. She was in distress. So as I get to her, I touch on her shoulder. These guys, these people obviously don't know who I am at this point. They think I'm some maybe just crazy guys swimming after her. So they don't understand the context or the reasoning of why I was going after her. So I grabbed her shoulder and literally two seconds. I just need to touch.

And that's when I release. I'm like, I can breathe. And I get to regain my composure a bit. I grabbed into the floaty for a second and to the back of their boat. She's getting lifted onto the boat at that point. And out of nowhere, these four people should screaming at me. You just tried to kill her, tempting murderer. You tried to kill her.

You tried to drown her. Get away, get away. I'm hanging on their back of their boat at this point. I was like, I'm just insanely confused. I was like, what the hell just like happened? Why are they screaming at me? I couldn't even get a word out. I was like, that's my girlfriend.

That's my girlfriend. They just kept screaming over me. I was like, I couldn't swim. I couldn't swim. Next thing you know, I get a huge fish gaff hook stuck in my face, threatening if I don't leave, they're going to strike me with it. What is she saying? She was, I don't even know at the point.

It was just all so quick. I don't even think she was able to speak to, but she was able to speak to them afterwards. Right. But it just happened so fast. I don't even think she really said anything. She definitely said that's my boyfriend. I know for a fact, but that's pretty much it. So at that point, I shut up because I'm like, I'm about to get.

I felt threatened. Right. I thought I was going to get the hook in my face. Right. So that's the thing with the long pole and it's got like a point and a hook on it, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

So luckily, I obviously reganed my composure at that point. I was hanging on to their boat and Captain Doobie drifted towards me. So I didn't have to swim as far back. So I look over my right shoulder. There he is. Captain Doobie's boat. They already angered up closer to me because they were waiting for me to get Carolyn. Right.

So I swim back to them. I'm treading water at this point slowly. I don't have to swim obviously as fast. And they pull me up. They're like, okay, like, what the hell just happened? Like, do you, are you going to come home with us? Like, I don't know what they're, everyone's confused why these people are screaming at me. Right.

They're like, do you want to come home with us now? I was like, no, I can't leave my girlfriend. And in my head, I was like, she's on a stranger's boat right now. First time in Boca Bash, unfamiliar waters. I mean, she had her phone on her, but. I just didn't, I didn't feel comfortable leaving her. I mean, I came with her. I'm not going to leave her there.

He had no way home. And I'm like, I'm out leaving my girlfriend. So they decide to, instead of take me home, drive me to the sandbar so I could stand instead of just being in water. So I'm on the sandbar now. I take my backpack this time because they're leaving. So I'm by myself in the sandbar. Maybe 10, 15 minutes go by.

I decide to swim back to where Caroline's boat. I see in the distance. Mind you, this whole time, not one 911 call, no medical attention, no CPR, no videos, nothing, nothing at all. They're just hanging out. I come back 15 minutes later in my backpack. I see in the distance, maybe swim another 50, 60 yards. As I'm approaching the boat Caroline's on in the boat that I just almost had a hook stuck in my face.

Caroline's kneeling down with her hand out holding me, comforting me as I'm approaching. She's like everything is going to be okay. We're going to leave now. I don't know what the hell just happened. And then shortly after, since I came back a second time,

and I was holding onto their boat, that's when the owner of that boat decides to wave down the fish and wild life. Just because I came back a second time. Right. I mean, if you really thought I was trying to kill her or anything, wouldn't you call 911 or anything? or anything like that or she saw some crazy crime.

And why would I come back a second time too? And first of all, do it in front of all these people. Why is she reaching out? There's thousands of people. Why isn't she screaming? He's coming. Help me, help me. Exactly.

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I didn't even try, so I was just in the water. She's just kneeling down on the like the little boat deck in the back holding me, comforting me. And Fish and Wildlife have come over. They're waved over. I'm actually extremely relieved at this point. I was like, I'm going to get a ride at home. They're going to take me to shore. Carolyn Zia, I'm coming with you.

I'm coming with you. Because I've had that case back a few years ago in Boko Bash. I was on a paddle board. The police picked me up, took me to shore, no problem. So I was like so excited. I was like, finally it's over. Like this whole crazy situation is done. I'm going to get back to taking the shore.

I mean, and that didn't happen. What happened? What did they say? So I started getting. questioned. Caroline's still on their boat. They kind of like drift away so they could separate us, of course. And I'm getting questioned. I'm answering fully cooperative. They read me my Miranda. I answer everything, like very well. I told the officer I couldn't swim at least five times. Like, why did you touch her? Why did you touch you? Like I couldn't swim. I just, I need to regain

my composure. Stuff like that. Completely disregarded it. Whatever. Then the arresting officer, the lead officer, he starts questioning me too, eventually. Same story. My story has been consistent since the first time I told it all the way up until through trial. Right. It's never changed.

I never even practiced my testimony because I told the truth. Right. So say consistent. The lead officer is interviewing the four witnesses that Caroline's on, that boat, the big boat. And first of all,

we later learned that the whole investigation of an attempted murder took only 24 minutes. Second of all, it's by the fish and wildlife. Their main thing is to measure the size of a lobster. Right. Or a fish. So they've never, we learned obviously also in testimony. The lead officers never done a felony case before,

or anything domestic or this kind of crime. Crime, yeah. So. He's checking licenses. Yeah. You have fishing licenses. Right, right. Exactly.

So he gets, as he gets on this witness's boat with Caroline, the owner of the boat that put the hook in my face, starts screaming. To him, planting the seat in this officer's head, he just tried the killer. It's attempted murder. It's attempted murder. He's like, and this guy's this officer, like, you know what? Yeah, maybe, let's see it. Maybe he was trying to make a name for himself or whatever the case may be, get maybe a raise or promotion for doing this. I don't know. But that's just my opinion.

I just don't think he was qualified to do this. I think he should have handed it over to like Pocopogey or something. But it is what it is. So he continues his investigation. It's a boat. I get, like, it's maybe difficult to separate people, but he had people sharing pens as a writing witness statements. First of all, these four people didn't want to even cooperate.

One of them even said, oh, she's probably going to be in bed with him later tonight. Why am I going to do this? Right. Other people were like, oh, I want to be on the news. And this officer starts saying, imagine this was your daughter. Kept saying to them, planting in their head, like, basically coercing them to do it, to write. it.

So he separates, there's two couples. He has two couples in the front of the boat, sharing a pen, writing a statement together, and then other two on the other side. And then this one, the boat owner is like watching over everyone writing statements and just getting involved. I mean, like I said, it's a boat, it's hard to separate, but you could have done better. Right. So the whole investigation was a problem, in my opinion.

Yeah, they're sharing pens, their writing statements. They had that whole 10 to 15 minutes to also corroborate what they're going to say before I came back the second time of what happened. So it was essentially one witness. This no-boat owner really had a strong personality. He was screaming attempted murder. He was yelling at me. I feel like he just, like, was the ringleader and basically essentially made everyone

one witness and gotten to everyone's head to cooperate as well, as long as the officer. What is Caroline saying? Caroline at this point saying, I didn't do anything. She even told the cops that I think he couldn't swim. I think he just grabbed them to my back. I never done anything like this before. I'm not violent. She was completely on my side.

Okay. Yeah, completely. And I'm assuming these people on the boat, are they drunk? Drunk. Yeah. Yeah. So they all, the funny part about it, they all downplayed the amount they drank at trial. But on the body cam, they have open blenders, tequila bottles, rum.

They admitted to making margaritas. But they all claim they didn't drink, but just. Yes, in my computer. There's no way. So they all downplay it. So what happens? You get arrested? Right then?

No, no. So the main, I'm talking about a different officer right now, I guess his partner or whatever. But the lead officer is still interviewing those four. And then the guy Alex, the boat owner, tells the officer, oh, those people crossed the way saw it too. These are the people claiming that they saw me fighting with Caroline for 20 minutes. So that boat's completely all drunk as well. But he sends Officer Hudson over there. on Alex's command basically.

Meanwhile, there's thousands of other people around he could have interviewed other boats. But he goes to whatever Alex is saying, like Alex said it was attempted murder, he went with that. Alex is saying, go interview him, he went with that. So the lead officer goes to the other boat, interviews them as well, and that's pretty much it.

And then he gets onto my boat, and then I get questioned the second time. So I was talking to another officer this whole time. I had a little cut on my knee, too, was treating my knee, just from boat hopping. I say exactly what I said to the first officer told the main officer I couldn't sum at least five or six times as well, completely disregarded it, and then he tells me I'm getting arrested for like dating violence or attempted murder. He didn't really tell me.

I don't remember exactly what he said, but, and then I got handcuffed. And he was just, I was in shock. I was like, there's no way this is happening right now. Even though she's saying that none of this happened. Yeah. Exactly. And she gets arrested too. Okay.

After they finally run her name way later. Because she had a warrant out for her arrest. For what? She resisted arrest with violence. This was before I met her, but a little before I met her, in Miami. And I guess she got probation for it. And then I guess she violated. But she kept that part of her life completely, like, hidden.

I didn't under, I didn't know her condition. of the probation. I didn't know when it was over. I didn't know anything. She didn't kind of tell me. And back then, I wasn't really knowledgeable by that stuff either

because I've never been in trouble. Right. And I don't really know those terminologies. So that was news to me that she had a warrant out for arrest. I had no clue. If I knew she couldn't leave the county,

I would have never let her come that day. Right. That was the violation? She left the county? I don't know how she violated. I don't. I don't know what it was. But, yeah, she had.

had worn out. She got arrested. And not one time during her, I mean, they were actually, I'm going to back forward a little bit. She was getting questioned all the time about her injuries on her arm, bruising, bruising, bruising, bruising, nothing. This guy thinks they're charged me of attempted murder and strangulation. Not one question about her neck. Nothing. There's, I mean, the body cam, we have pictures, zero mark, zero injuries. She tells her huge hoop earrings in. She had her phone on her during the alleged dunk. All these witnesses were saying multiple things. Someone said she went to

her for a split second or brief dunk. Someone said 30, 40 seconds. Someone said 10, 15 seconds. First of all... So that's what they're saying. You walk, when you reached out to her, that you actually shoved her under water. Yeah, they're trying to say I held her under and tried out a strangle her and drowning. Okay. Yeah. That's what they're trying to claim. First of all, the longer goes, I mean,

I'm not like Superman. I defies physics. I would sink as well. Right. I mean, I kept my head up water the whole time. I mean, it was so quick. I mean, I don't even recall. I don't even know if she went under to this day. They're claiming she did, but her hair seemed dry. Again, no zero injuries at all, zero signs of any sort of strangulation, no cuts, no marks, nothing.

And, of course, her claim about the can, zero about that of two. They kept asking about her arms the whole entire time, at least like 30 times. Because I guess she had like some sunspots or bruising, but it turned out to be old bruises. So like six days before Bokoabash, she got into a pretty bad car accident. And that's where her bruises came from. She hit a tree. Her tars were like balding and she, I don't know if she had insurance at the time, but I remember her saying that she could either hit the car in front of her or a tree. So she decided they hit the tree instead.

It was a pretty bad accident. So, yeah, I mean, I saw the bruises on her that night. I visited her that night. I was making sure she was okay. But that was six days before. So she saw those old bruises on her. Right. But again, they're asking her about her bruises and nothing about her neck or anything.

So she, again, she gets arrested. She goes to the hospital that night, not for any injuries or anything, but just to get medically cleared for jail. So she takes her mugshot, again, zero marks on the mugshot. This is six hours later. Maybe something pops up afterwards, but no bruising, no marks, absolutely nothing. So she gets out the night. next day, I believe, where she has to get transferred to Miami or wherever her warrant was, or probation.

I think it was Broward or Miami. So she had to get transferred from Palm Beach to there. And I get out the next day, too. I mean, my experience was pretty crazy because that was one of the most scary times ever. I'm in a holding sale with 10 or 30 people. Most of these guys are also from Boca Bash, to be honest. But they're all like drinking and drinking boats and driving. So the corrections officer after I take my mugshot

Shows me a paper, it says like, just felony murder. He's like, you killed her. You killed her. I was like, there's no way. I was like that has to be bullshit. Like there's a typo here. Yeah.

Which obviously it was. So, I mean, and then I later learned that the jail messes up a lot of times with their paperwork. Right. So the guys in the holdings are asking me, like, what do you charge with? who you charge with, they're like, oh, I tell them,

they're like, oh, you're the big dog in this one. Right. And I'm like, what do you mean? There's definitely a miscommunication here. Like, she's, my girlfriend's going to come clear this up. Like, she knows nothing happened either. So I thought everything's going to be fine. Like, this is just like a big joking nightmare.

Right. And. You're expected what? Any minute for the officer to walk in and say, hey, they dropped all the charges. Exactly. Go ahead, get your stuff. Right.

You know, process you out. Right. problem don't worry about it right exactly so uh i started calling on the phone tell my mom what happened my dad took like maybe 10 tries they didn't know who was calling because this was like 12 am at the point and um finally get them on they're like oh don't don't talk too much i mean it's all recorded i mean i had nothing to hide i told the truth um like i did since day one so um i get there and then they're like okay you're gonna they started signing us for sales so thankfully it was, they were still following COVID protocol at the time. So I didn't have any like,

cellmates. I had my own cell to myself. But everyone's going on like a floor three, four. I get put on floor 10. That's where all the, I guess, attempted murders or murderers were being tried for. Yeah. So violent crimes. Violent crime floor. So I get put there and I'm just like walking through to myself and there's like this guy tattoos all over his face just like, looked possessed, just staring at the glass. A bunch of crazy people was walking by. It looked like... Not the typical Boca crowd that you hang out with.

Exactly. I was like, what's going on here? So I get myself, it's freezing. I try to sleep as long as possible. It's the whole process. The food was obviously terrible. The beds were hard as a rock. It was just torture.

Yeah, they're not really concerned about your comfort. Yeah. I picked that up. I'm constantly asking for the phone too. I'm constantly on the phone with my mom. I was like, what's going on? Like, please help me. Get me out of here.

Get me out here. And I have to go to first appearance at like 8 in the morning or something like that. So they bring me out. I'm wearing a COVID mask at this point. I go to another holding cell. I get like shackled into my arms and legs. And at this point, obviously, again, I am not familiar with the system or anything. I think this is my opportunity to like tell the judge what happened.

Right. And I could tell my story and try to get out of this right now. He tells you, don't talk. Stop talking. I didn't even get to talk. I was waiting for him to go. I just hear this public defender. I'm standing next to him.

It's my turn. The guy's like, have you talked to the public defender? No. I just hear him say with my background, that I'm from Boca. I graduated from Florida State. Went to Spanish for high school.

Like basically saying I'm a good kid. Like, no priors. And I was like, okay, I'm going to talk now. He's like, it's over. Done. I get put back to the holding sale. I start panicking. I didn't know if I got, like,

bond or anything. I didn't know what was going on. I see this guy next to me with paperwork. They're like, oh, I'm getting out in 10 days. I'm like, I don't have anything. I start freaking out to the corrections officer. I was like, I didn't get a chance to speak. Like, let me speak.

I didn't get a chance. I started, like, panicking. He's like, you've got to wait 30 days. So I thought I was going to be stuck there for 30 more days. My heart dropped. I was completely scared. I didn't know what was going on. And shortly after, I mean...

You have to know your dad is behind the scenes. Work, you know, calling, trying to get you a lawyer, trying to get you bond. like i don't know i wasn't even considering that at that point i was just like i didn't know what was said i didn't understand any of the terminology so i was like did i get bonded like what's going on i thought i really thought i was stuck in there for 30 days right more to be able to just explain myself to the judge i was like this is this is a complete misunderstanding and terrible so i get back to my cell i'm like all bummed and depressed and i'm like trying to let hit reality

sink in but get the phone and my mom tells me i got i got i got bond money. It was a $60,000 total. The attempted murder was 50 and it was battery. Just missed me a better 10. So put up to 6K, I get out. I was in there for a total of like 21 hours. As I get out, my parents are there. I'm walking like through the tunnel. I mean, I know, I mean, you know, and I know it was a nightmare. Because I know the first, you know the first period of time that you're in there. You're in shock. You're in shock that they close that door and they won't open it, that they're talking to you like you're a scumbag, that you're locked up with these guys that are low lives, and you're just like, I'm totally unprepared to be in this situation.

And did you have that moment where you thought to yourself, like, you can't do this? You can't keep me in here. I actually remember having like, it was a few seconds, maybe 10 or 15 seconds. And I thought, oh, no, wait a minute. They can. This is. how it works. I can't leave. They're not going to open the door. They're like they do. They can keep you here. But I remember like 10 or 15 seconds where I was like, who do you think you are? Yeah. And then I was like, oh, wait a minute. You're, you're in jail. This is how it works. Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, I remember also I was a, I had my cut on my knee like I mentioned before. So I had to get clear it again in jail and they had to treat it. Guy can start talking to me.

He's like, so what do you do? Why are you here? I was like, I basically tell him I had a, I had a, A clothing brand at the time. I never launched it, though. It's called I Am Brand. Right. And he's like, well, now you could say I'm in jail. Just messing with me and stuff like that. Did you see the Justin Timberlake tapes that they just recently released?

I saw it didn't watch it, though. He's, like, handcuffed. He got the UI like years ago. And he's got handcuffed to the loop and the table. And they're trying to, they've got video of him. They're being very nice to him, you know. and they're talking to him. He's like, is, he got, he has, he's like, is this necessary?

Like, he's like, like the hand. Like, is this, is this normal? Like, do you normal? Yeah, this is how, when you get a DUI, this is what happens. When you break the law, we put a handcuff on you. And then when he has to, they put him in his cell, he's, they open up, they're like, okay, you'll be processed and you'll be able to see the judge tomorrow morning. And he's like, I have to sleep here?

And they're like, yeah. And he's like, here, they're like, here, they're like, here or in the next cell. Yeah, he's like, all night. Is this normal? Is this the normal condition? He's completely out of his element. And when they ask him what he does for a living, he says, it's hard to explain. He goes, I'm Justin Timberlake. Like, that's what I do. That's how I make a living. I'm Justin Timberlake. It's so, you're just watching him having been through the systems multiple times, watching him, I'm like, this poor bastard, he just has no, he's so, this is so foreign to him. So, I mean, I can imagine.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a crazy experience, for sure. So yeah, you got out, I mean, I see my parents just there. They had like, in their car, bands open. And I'm just like, we just all just start bawling crying as I'm walking through the tunnel. Aw. Yeah. And your dad's there?

My dad's there. Okay. The dad and my mom. I think my brother was there too. So I get in the car, just like everything was going to be okay. So I turn on my phone. Like my phone back, obviously, they had my phone. Thousands of text messages.

People thought it was like a joke. I thought it was like a skit because of her background reality. They thought like we planned this or something. Because everyone that knew me prior growing up a book on knew I would never do something like this. And everyone was just like in shock. So I look at my phone and then boom, article, article, TMS, Fox, NBC, nonstop, wouldn't stop, being blown up everywhere. And I get just having the deal with that, and every article that posted and everything I read,

it was just like a stab to my heart. Like, I was like, what is going on right now? Like, this is insane. Like, I need this to stop, and she needs to come through and say nothing happened because nothing did happen. And that didn't go that way. She gets out the next day, too. She sees all the press.

She would always tell me bad publicity. good publicity. So she got, I don't know if she blamed me for her getting arrested that day and completely she completely flipped on me and changed her story instantly. She saw an opportunity. I don't know if she's

saw an opportunity from all the press and stuff to be a victim and maybe get compensation out of it or money and get her name out there again. Because, I mean, there definitely was a point where she was, her name was out there and then there was a period where, I guess, during COVID and stuff like that, it wasn't. And this was her chance

to like, blown up again. Yeah, get back into the, in the, yeah, what, the media,

exactly. And, yeah. So she, I don't know if she's an opportunist or she's an opportunity, but she ran with it and completely flipped her story on me.

And now she's trying to play a victim. Thing, I did all this, and I held her under a couple seconds too long, and all this crazy stuff. She made crazy accusations. When's the first time

that you found out that she had, like, flipped her, or changed her story? Yeah, So shortly after I got like an injunction restraining order sent to my house. And she had like had a written statement. My lawyer was able to get that.

Did you, did you prior to that when you come home, you come home, did you try and call her to say, hey, what's going on? No, I had a no contact order. Okay. So when you were released, they were like, you do not contact her. I had no contact order and no weapons, no firearms. That was the only conditions I had. So you had to turn in your AR-15 and your... Luckily, I never owned a gun.

Right. So, okay, so one day you get served. I get served. Comes to my house, I was like, what's going on? And then I also, shortly after, I got served also a civil lawsuit, which shows her motive, clearly. I mean, anyone else would probably just wait until the civil, I mean, the criminal trial is over. And then you file a civil leave. You don't do it.

Yeah, it's a guarantee. That quickly after. If you're convicted, then the civil lawsuits, it's a lock. Yeah. You can't say I didn't do it. already found guilty from a jury. Like, you're done. Right.

So she does it like maybe a month after or maybe a couple weeks, but the injunction came first. She actually never showed up for her injunction hearing, so that got dismissed. Okay. So that was that. So then she starts posting all over social media. People were like sharing with me. I didn't even want to go on her pages because I didn't even know contact order.

I didn't want to like risk anything. So she starts like posting all the articles and saying like that she just, just got attempted murdered, almost drowned by me and stuff like that. And a whole montage of like TMZ, Fox, ABC, like, just showing, she got opportunities. She was on music videos with, like, Kodak Black. A bunch of stuff came around about this. She was playing a victim, and she was getting all the opportunities for it. So was she interviewed by TMZ, or they're just, she's just showing that they are covering the story.

Showing the covering the story. Okay. They put, ironically, like, a whole, like, collage of her, like, sexy photos or whatever that she had. So I don't know, she definitely was in contact with them back then, in my opinion. But yeah, she kept running with the story constantly talking about on her Instagram and just like trying to blow it up again and make a name. Because when you contacted me on Instagram, I had already knew I had heard about the story. You know, but I remembered seeing something and thinking that you two were on a boat and that she jumped off. the boat and swam to another boat. And you jumped in and swam after her. And then, like,

they pulled, they pulled her up and then, like, left you there or something like that. So I remember I had seen something, but I didn't know anything else about the case. And even that, I kind of got wrong. But, you know, it's funny. What ends up in the press? And then when you find out what actually happened later, you're like, it's true, but it's misleading. Like, yes, she was swimming. He jumped in. He was swimming. But that's not the way. These people like to spice up these articles. And unfortunately, today's world, people leave everything they read and it's a problem. Yeah.

Well, it makes for better. Nobody wants to read. Yeah, everybody wants to read. Yeah, yeah. It's better. It's more fun to read. Yeah, but it's at my expense. Yeah.

Well, you know, they don't know you. Right. So, so you get the, you get the no contact. You've got the, you've been served. Have you gone out and gotten an attorney? Yeah. a touch, so I actually had three attorneys over this process. Okay.

Three different sets. First one would be used for Bond. He helped with that. It was actually referred by my uncle. He's a good friend of his or something like that. And you go to his office and a very strong personality. Like he, you could tell he's like a shark. Like he gets things done.

I mean, I liked him in that aspect, but the whole time we were there, it was zero about me. He was showing us other people's cases and just going over that. Right. So that was like a no for my mom and I and we just, we got rid of him there. And we ended up hiring another set of attorneys. So he's kind of like letting you know I've handled all these big cases. Yeah. Not one about my situation at all.

Right. And he was showing us other, like privileged stuff from other people. Right. I mean, not privileged, but because there's public information. But yeah, he was going over everyone else but me. Right. Essentially. And then he, this guy also like freaked out my mom that day.

The day I was trying to get bailed out, he starts telling her that I came on the boat with a weapon and there was trespassing and a bunch of attempted murder with a weapon and deadly, I don't know, crazy stuff he was telling her. So he freaked out my mom so bad. And on one of the articles actually came out, did say I also killed her. So my mom thought for like five minutes that I did do.

She was dying, freaking out. Okay. Yeah. So there was just a bunch of miscommunication in that moment. Right. But yeah, long story is sort of you get rid of things. him just from that one meeting and we hire another set of attorneys who actually I've been with for like two years so we all the way up until trial you had a trial in

November of 2024 jury trial before that trial I got offered a plea deal it was six months in county convicted felon of battery by shangulation domestic battery by strangulation and three years probation with a bunch of other conditions like classes and apology letter and so like for trying to drown your girlfriend yeah six months yeah so the the charges were actually honestly anybody who's had a girlfriend that's not a bad deal but uh yeah at this point the charges were downfiled they were actually wasn't attempted murder the i had a different prosecutor in the beginning um i forget her name but she ended up leaving she got appointed someone somewhere. But she downfiled at the U.T.

have to have to murder charges to battery by shangulation and battery. Those two counts. That's when I got up for that plea deal when the new prosecutor came in. A year and a half into... I think that's going to hinder your ability to get into law school if you took that. Yeah, definitely. It's going to be a problem. Yeah.

I was definitely one of my major consideration. Yeah. But I, no, any sort of time I wasn't taking regardless. Right. Even a felony. So, because I knew I didn't, I knew I was innocent. So what's the, what's the lawyer say when he presents this? Does he say, he advised me not.

Hey, think, oh, okay. Because sometimes they'll be like, listen, think about this. Yeah. You know, you get five people on the stand saying that this is what they saw against what you say happened. Like, that's a bad, that's a bad situation. You could end up with a, you know, you could end up being found guilty. And so, you know, a lot of them will be like, just take the plea. Yeah.

Because it's a lock. Right. It's not even that they're bad people or they're. But their fear is that they've been to trial so many times and they've seen it go wrong. Right. That a lot of times they'll be like, look, bro, just take it. Take it. I know you're innocent.

I know this. I know it's been blown out of proportion and twisted. But for God's sake, like, you don't want to risk a trial. Right, right. Definitely. So, but anyway, so he said, don't take it. He said, don't take it. I mean, because there was time involved.

Right. That was a no, like, not even a consideration. So about a year and a half into the case now, charges get upfiled back to attempted murder. The reason being is because I didn't take the plea deal. No new evidence came in, nothing. They upfiled it. So now I have three counts.

Count one was attempted murder. Count two was domestic battery by strangulation. Count three was battery, simple battery. So now I was dealing with that. And then I get offered another plea deal shortly down the line right before trial November of 2024. Um, prosecutor decided to do a, uh, withhold adjudication, um, on domestic body by strangulation. So it would still have like be on my record, but I wouldn't be formally convicted.

Right. Zero jail time. Three years probation. Okay. So this was like a day before trial that was, I was like consulting with everybody possible. Like, I mean, it was hard decision in my life. Because, I mean, I had my realtors license at the time. I was worried about my future.

I thought I was going to lose that. I didn't know what the outcome. would be if I did take this, but I was also very scared what I was going up against. And the fact that there's not an actual formal conviction and no jail time seemed like a no-brainer in a sense. Right. Even though I was innocent, but just the risked what I was going against, it just, I don't know, it seems like a good option at that point. So the day before trial, I think I have a hearing, or I think it was called a colloquy. Yeah.

We go over that. I guess the prosecutor tells the judge that this is a possibility. I end up actually saying yes to it. Okay. And I guess God stepped in and didn't let it happen because prosecutor was on board. Everyone was bored. And then I guess in the DA's office at this time, the victim, supposedly alleged victim has so much power. And she has to ask the final say.

Right. So they call her like 10, 15 times. She doesn't answer, no answer, no answer. We're just sitting there. The judge is like, what's going on. We're waiting for, like, victim's approval for it. Right. and are the alleged victim's approval

and long story short she finally answers she's like no I want my day in court so I get that pulled from me and that was one of the hard decisions I ever made in my life so during this process the attorney I went to trial the second trial with that I just acquitted on

I actually end up calling him as I have another attorney representing me I ended up seeing his videos on YouTube, he did a really good case with Travis Rudolph that I know personally. I used to play football with him. I think it was like a double murder trial. He got fully acquitted on two for self-defense. His name was Mark Shiner, the lawyer, and Heidi Perlet. So I'm with my other attorneys at this point during that day. I'm calling around not only my parents and everything, I ask for his advice about that plea deal. He said, in front of the judge I have, I would take it. So

the next morning I show up in the court to take that deal like I just spoke about and I said yes I end up running into that lawyer I just called Mark in the elevator I'm like okay I'm gonna take the deal I spoke to yesterday thank you for taking my call he took my call on a Sunday night I'm not even his client yeah he just wanted to help me so um he tells me okay good luck I go I mean and they all gets closed for me and then that was just the crazy events and then I'll be We see a couple months go by. There were so many delays, the arresting officer's wife got pregnant. The prosecutor got pregnant.

The alleged victim got pregnant. So there was many delays in this case. But yeah, two years in, we went to trial, it was a jury trial with my second pair of attorneys. And there was a mistrial within the first three minutes after the jury was sworn in. Why? The prosecutor went over my... I guess my rights remain silent and accidentally, I guess, told the jury that basically, in my opinion, she inferred that if I don't testify, I'm guilty.

Okay. So it was like a rookie mistake that I guess she accidentally made to the jury. So that caused a mistrial. After the whole day before, we worked on the wadir and all the juries getting picked and collected and sworn in. And then super fast after the next day, three minutes ate it, mistrial. Who asked for the mistrial? My attorney.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So you got granted And then my attorney actually comes over to me after Whispers in my ear This is the best thing that ever happened to you Right I don't know what he was inferring or why

Why he felt that way, but Well, because first of all, you're wasting a lot more I would think you're wasting a lot more time For the prosecution And so now they're like Fuck, like we got to start over again It makes her look bad At this point they desperately want this to go away

I mean the judge was definitely screamly mad at the prosecutor Right Because that was like a mistake you don't make. Right. What exactly did the prosecutor say? Do you know? Or?

I would have to look back into it. But you say that they basically referred if you don't speak. She alleged that because he's, that if he doesn't take the stand, then he's probably guilty. Like, right? Like, he's, like, he's, if he doesn't speak, if he didn't take the stand, like he's, well, the, when they read the right to remain silent, like, you stopped talking at that point or did, or did she talk about that? During her opening statements. I didn't testify, of course,

said this was quick, but I don't remember the exact terminology or wording she used, but that was kind of basically in the sense of what she was inferring. Right. Okay. So she's suggesting that if he doesn't take the stand, he's guilty. And so they're like, oh, you can't say that.

Like, it's your right not to take the stand. That doesn't mean you're guilty or not guilty. You don't have to take the stand. That's like a lot of one in the trial is. Right. And so that the, so then his lawyer said, look, we want to miss trial. And the judge was like, fuck.

So the audience didn't hear that. But essentially what your current girlfriend said now is the lawyer said something along the lines of if he doesn't speak, I hope you can find him guilty. Right. Just so the audience kind of knows. Right, yeah. I believe so. Something along those lines. Yeah.

So. I mean, I actually have the tape of it. I mean, I would have to look back, but. Right. So you have to start over. Start over. Does it start over right away? We were supposed to start over the next day and start picking a jury again.

But I don't remember what happened. They couldn't get enough jurors. and then more delays happened. I think this is when the alleged victim got pregnant. Okay. So that paused it for a while because we also didn't want her coming to trial with a jury pregnant for sympathy reasons.

There are a lot of issues here. So that gets delayed. I end up moving on from these attorneys. That was like my sign. Because I met Mark Shiner that had called an elevator that day before. and I was like I'm moving on

I liked Mark so I liked Mark and Heidi I thought they were well equipped and fit for it I mean like I said I watched their trials I ran into him it was a sign that I ran into him an elevator spoke to the day before that

and it ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me right yeah because they were they were amazing so I heard them shortly after we had a judge at that point Carolyn Shepard, she ends up, another delay happened because she ended up getting

appointed to the appellate court. There was two seats available. So she got appointed. So we didn't even get to try the case in front of her. We ended up getting a new judge. I guess he's a new to criminal bench. He was a civil judge. So not much experienced criminal.

I actually went to a few of his trials before. Because at this point I was debating whether I should do a jury trial or a bench trial. So a couple weeks in like shortly after I started studying him watching his trial I was just kind of see what kind of judge he is because he's new to criminal we can't really We only have a basis. I observed ultimately he was very fair and reasonable and I thought he could definitely see through this and and see my point of view So that's when I decided to do a bench trial with my lawyers. So we decided to do that I waived my right to a jury trial It was definitely a risky move at the point. I was I was definitely scared about it right and the bench trial is just what the judge

has one of the say? No, just the judge. There's no jury. It's just you're presenting everything in front of the judge and he makes the determination. Yeah, the judge makes, yeah, he decides my fate. Right. Totally. So, honestly, what, 13, how many jurors are there typically? 13? Florida was 6. 6 plus 2 subs, so 8.

Yeah, so you got 8 jurors who honestly couldn't get themselves out of jury duty. I mean, they know, have no, like, you know, these are they have no experience with the law. Like it's a ridiculous system. Yeah. I was worried about like that, for example. They go deliberation.

They're like, oh, I just want to go home. It's guilty. Or splitting the baby or anything like that. Right. Like half the people on that jury probably think the earth is flat. Yeah. Like this is not a good, this is, this is not a good system. Sorry.

And before we get back into it, how long since the incident to the start of the second trial has it been? and then like what is your life like outside of the court like is it just put on pause or how's that definitely yeah i mean uh so you're saying from this first trial the second trial how long it's been well from the incident no the incident four years four years went by yeah four years went by so four years well this is upcoming april 24th there would be four years okay so three three to four years like what are you doing and with your spare time like what's your mental state are you thinking like oh like I don't know. Yeah, we'll touch on that right now.

Yeah, so obviously the first month or two, not only was I dealing with the state forcefully breaking me up, so I was dealing with a heartbreak with Carolina. I mean, she was usually my girlfriend. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, she just got torn away from me, and that was my last day speaking to her every. Right.

So I was dealing with that, and then I was dealing with, obviously, all the press and the looks, because I grew up in Boka, so I knew, it was like a bubble. So, like, everyone pretty much knew me. I knew everyone. Again, thankfully, everyone that knew me prior to this event knew I would never do something like this.

Right. So they knew it was BS from the jump and they had my side. I had a great support system. But still, the first month or two, especially people I encountered and from the gym that just like somewhat know me, barely know me, I was getting the dirtiest looks. I was definitely very depressed.

I had a lot of anxiety. I wouldn't even want to leave my room at times. And then something clicked. I mean, I knew I was innocent since day one. And I just walked around like I was as well. Cut my head high. Cut all the BS. These articles kept popping up.

I didn't care. I was just ready for my day in court to tell the truth. And I kept fighting, kept moving forward. Two years in, I thankfully was able to, I mean, I'm going to rewind. I had an LSAT scheduled, L-SAT, which is the test to get admitted to law school. That was actually scheduled maybe a week after Bogabash. That never happened. My law school plans were completely derailed.

I mean, I'm at the age. I was 23 at that time, just from 23 in March 12th, and then Vocabash was in April. So I was like a month into 23 years old. And that's like the time. I mean, I graduated in December of 21. And this is the time where I had to transition to like adulthood in my career and go to graduate school, law school. So that completely threw me off track. I wasn't able to move out.

I wasn't able to get any normal jobs, nothing like that. but two years in, I was thankfully, luckily, to get my real estate license. I took the class and took the exam, passed, and then I get hit with, I have to go in front of the board, like the whole board. Because I had this open case. Plea or case, right? I had the open case. So I'm on Zoom.

There's like, I think, eight to ten people on the panel. I get a lot of noes. A lot of women were actually saying no. They're like, I don't feel comfortable with him. in my house, for example, or doing open houses. And then I finally get this one guy all the way to the left. He's like, he's innocent until proven guilty. Yeah.

Like, you have to give it to him, to give him the benefit of the doubt. I get it, finally. So he gives it to me because I think it has to be unanimous their whole panel. So they gave me my license. And the next two years, I was thankfully able to, it meant a lot quicker. I grinded that. I mean, I did really well. So there was definitely hurdles there, too.

I didn't use my last name. I was nervous to. I didn't want to because I didn't want to have people looking it up and not coming to my open house or trying to use me as an agent. So I went by my middle name, Cole Preston. That was my marketing name and everything. So that helped in that aspect.

But of course, there was still people that were able to find everything. And I just always had to explain myself. It was really annoying. Dating in the beginning was an issue. I was trying to find a good. girl and it was that was a disaster i mean they would i would always click with them that's hard without a conviction yeah yeah but i was able to click with them easily and then in today's world everyone just

looks you up so yeah and then they just questioned me about it most of the time they i explain myself and they got over it but there's definitely there was definitely some woman that didn't even give me the chance to explain um and just looked me up and just was like i don't want to deal with this i don't know they're they obviously believe what they read right uh But yeah, I was also two years in. I was able to find a girlfriend that saw through it, and she's been amazing through my side. This whole process, and I knew this was BS from the jump,

and just was extremely supportive. So I'm very thankful for her, and I'm still with her to this day. He's awesome. So that was good. Very helpful. Got me through a bunch of stuff. I traveled a lot. That was another big thing I did.

I went to Paris, well, France. Italy, London, the UK, Ireland. So traveling really helped keep my head out of this thing too, because every country I went to, I felt like I was reborn, a new person. And I didn't have to explain myself. But there was actually one case where I went to Paris. I was checking into a hotel.

And as I'm checking in, the guy's like, oh, you're the famous Oldberg. He's like, I read about you in the New York Times. I was kidding me. It's following me over here now. But that was one instance. but everywhere else was fine but even like women that I would meet out of country ended up looking me up too and I would still have to explain myself like sometimes another language too I'm like Google Translate or something yeah but uh most of the

people saw through it I'm trying to think uh you know Wade remember Wade like uh who I was a guy we uh we interviewed who had been basically a guy it attacked him in his own house and Wade has a concealed firearm and they were fighting in his house and he'd screaming at the tell him the guy

to get out, get out, and the other guy knows he has a gun and Wade pulls the gun and shoots him. He's in his house. He's attacking me.

I have a gun. Like he's scared. And eventually they arrest him then they eventually get the charges drop. But to this day he said he'll meet somebody

and they'll say, you know, yeah, I live over such and stuff. They're like, oh yeah, you know, that's where that guy killed that dude right and he's like yeah yeah yeah i heard that you know it's like

he's like to this day people are or they'll say stuff like oh yeah you know that guy there was the guy's there murdered a guy and it's like okay well that's not what happened you know but like you said you have to you're constantly because they they have a version of of what happened in their mind and they play it over and over again and they retell it and it becomes it becomes a you know that's the official story and then that's just what they believe and and there's and the So every time it comes up to him or to you, then you're constantly having to explain. And to them, they've already decided that what the official story is. And what you're saying isn't accurate.

Oh, he's just twisting it because he's the guy. Yeah. So eventually you decide you're going to go to trial. You decide on a bench trial. Yeah. Why did you decide on a bench trial? Were you concerned? Like, what's your lawyer?

We had a lot of concerns with the jury. I mean. Is that what your lawyer is also saying? Yeah. that it's questionable. Yeah, yeah, definitely. What's the requirement? Does it have to be like 100% jury?

Like, is there, is it like, does it just have to be like 60-40 for them to rule you guilty? It's unanimous. Unanimous. So they all have to come to the same decision. Exactly. Yeah. And you're facing, I'm assuming, up to 30 years or something. It was about 26 years, yes.

Yeah, the attempted murder was max 15. Domestic battery retangulation was five and then battery was one. Yeah. Okay. So, so, yeah, we were concerned with the jury. I mean, you don't know who you're going to get. Yeah. I was worried about the fact that people just want to go home and just like,

we're just like guilty, split the baby, maybe get me like, okay, not attempted murder or not baddie, but we'll give him domestic bad by strangulation. Right. Wired about that. Just a bunch of different issues. Along with the bench trial, too, I was worried, too, because he was a new criminal judge. We had not much basis on him. He just seemed very fair.

He was younger. Yeah, you have no experience. It's not like your lawyer and say, hey, I've been in, oh, yeah, I've been in front of him a hundred times. Or, oh, yeah, we all know, oh, he's a hanging judge, or you don't want to go in front of him. Like, they know that. Yeah. And my lawyers, I think, did one bench trial over the last 10 years, too. Right.

He loves jury trials. He likes to put on shows and theatrics and something. Yeah, they all there, they're good. If they're good at it. He's really good at it. I mean, that's part of the reason why I hired him to go in front of a jury because he knows how to put on a show. The same with his wife Heidi. She was amazing, too, Heidi Perlet.

So I had both of them. But yeah, I was also concerned with the bench trial because I don't know if he was trying to be a conservative judge since he's new, maybe trying to make a name for himself, trying to be like that hard nose, like throw the book at you judge. But no, like I said, I studied him for maybe two weeks, three weeks. I saw some of his trials. I saw his rulings to other people. And I just ultimately thought he was very fair. I had a good feeling with him. So we decided to go with that.

So what happens during the trial? The second trial starts. At this point, I'm like not, ironically, not as nervous as I was the first time around. Like, I didn't feel like the nerves or the jitters or I felt very confident. Okay. I don't know if it was a mixture. I mean, it was a mixture of just my lawyers, my new lawyers, they thought they were very great. And they knew what to do in this judge.

I just felt more comfortable this time around. So we went to trial that Monday. This is March 9th of 26th. You go to trial, opening statements happen. Jump right into it because there's no jury selection, of course. Right. It's a lot easier. Is it the same prosecutor?

Yes. Okay. Same prosecutor. Prosecutor goes, maybe like a three minute, maybe, no, eight-minute opening statement. Just very brief. Like, not too much. She didn't even want to do an opening statement. She asked my lawyers to not do one either because it was a bench trial.

She didn't, like, opening's more for juries. Right. But my lawyer was like, no way. And then my lawyer, Heidi Perlet, goes opening statement, goes for 45 minutes. Beautiful, like, A-plus-plaz opening statement. So at that point, I was like, all right, we got this. Like, I felt very confident. I was smiling at that point.

And that whole day was the state's witnesses, the four main ones that the boat that Caroline went on to. Started off with one of the guys who they claimed broke up, I mean, got in between, intervened for me to get off of Caroline when I was, allegedly trying to drown her. Right. That was the first witness. He basically testified saying that he just gently, lightly, grabbed her, underneath, and brought her in the boat.

If I was trying to be physical and violent and trying to drown her, you would think he would have to at least fight me off or be attacking her and all that stuff. You don't gently grab someone, guide them onto the boat. It's currently in the middle of being drowned. Exactly.

Right. And I didn't even realize he was there at the point because I was so focused on Caroline and I was panicking, blacked out at that point, because I was drowning. and it was a two-second thing. So I didn't even know he was there.

So that's what he testified to. He demonstrated where I put my hands on her. He put it on the shoulders. There was a bunch of different pictures of the witnesses. Of course, he downplayed it how much he drank. Didn't really understand how long she was under four. I think he said like 10 seconds into 15. He actually said four Mississippi.

So he was one of those shorter ones, and he was right next to her. So he went and then. the boat owner's wife went next. She said basically like 15 seconds, said I was in distress in her deposition. She said I couldn't swim either. Because if Caroline needed a floaty, why don't I get the same benefit of the doubt, you know?

So she was struggling. And then she said I was, I looked like I was laboring, struggling to swim as well. She said my hands were also on the shoulder area. And then the boat owner's sister goes next, all downplaying how much they drank as well. First of all, they all didn't want to be there. And they needed a formal sign off from the judge because they're out of state

witnesses. They're in Pennsylvania. So they were giving them trouble for being there anyways, but they ended up coming because the judge signed off on it. And, yeah, they were just signed off on paying on paying for, making, oh, okay. Yeah, like a subpoena. Yeah. Right.

Formally, because before they were just, the state. was serving them but it's not it's not binding because they're out of state they need the judge to sign off on it right so uh they were you don't show up you're gonna get arrested yeah yeah yeah yeah you held in contempt for sure so she goes uh down playing them out to drinks uh says that i came from like the front i believe she says a bunch of different things essentially and then the boat owner goes last he completely makes a couple of really false accusations um he says he used the boat hook to break me and caroline up from the incident of me trying to allegedly drown her. But that boat came out way later.

That was false. And two weeks had I tried to attack her a second time as she got pulled away, which is completely false as well. He started getting loud with my attorney. He started talking over the judge. The judge had to stop him. So yeah, he was being definitely reckless.

Like he was that day at the boat, to me too, screaming at me. Scream calling me an attempted murder time the cop of attempted murderer, yelling at me saying I should be a disgraced to society that I should never be a lawyer. So this guy was saying. So he was acting the same way he was the day of the incident at trial. It showed his real personality.

So they therefore went to that day. I think it went pretty well. They all obviously said different things, different time frames of how long she was underneath the water for. Again, four seconds, 10 to 15 seconds, five seconds, six, all different variations. Day two comes. and the next two witnesses from the other boat states when it says come. The ones that said they were watching you guys

for 20 minutes. Right. They're testifying. They have a different angle, so they see from the back. One of them basically says exactly the opposite of what Alex, the boat owner said that no hook was used to break us up, but came after, that no one had to jump in to intervene.

A bunch of different stuff said one of my hands were in the air as it was on her shoulder. Someone said head. Someone said, a brief dunk underwater. I love her. It takes up and down. So, again, everyone saw pretty much the same thing,

but something different. And the issue with these six individuals, one, obviously they definitely were drinking. Two, they just jumped the gun. They didn't understand the context of why I was swimming after her. They didn't know my reasoning behind it. They didn't know I was trying

to get her back to the boat because we had her ride home. They didn't know I was going after for her safety. They didn't know I was struggling to swim most importantly and drowning. Like I said,

they gave her the benefit down, but not me. They knew she was struggling, but why not me? In their eyes, that could have been some just random strangers swimming after her, but I was trying to explain myself in the context and the perception of how they perceive the event. From touching my girl's shoulder, I get charged with attempted murder, the way they perceived it differently. So perception is just a major thing in this case,

and it revealed my life for four years just because the way they perceived that instance. In reality, I just couldn't swim, and I was trying to get her back to the boat we were on. Right. So day two is happening. Those two guys go. And then we have the officer going after that. So the state rests by day two. Day three comes, it's all my witnesses.

So I had actually my ex-girlfriend. She was one of the witnesses. She was a character witnesses. She was allowed there. She basically got into the fact that Carolyn, I guess, was a jealous type. And they got into a scene where Caroline actually confronted my ex-girlfriend at a place called Rocco's Tacos.

Basically, Caroline thought I planned to arrange my ex-girlfriend to be there the same time as Caroline. But that was just a coincidence. Like, she was just there. It's Boka. I mean. It's a taco place. Yeah. So I'm in the bathroom.

Caroline goes to Angela and all her friends. There's like six girlfriends. Starts confronting Andrew, like, yelling at her. I don't know exactly what was being said. But long story short, Caroline basically, we leave and they comp the bill. The waiters come over to that table. I'm so sorry what just happened. It was just a crazy scene.

So she testified to that. I had my friend Anthony Mimo testifying. He witnessed the butt slap and heard the whole point of the motive why we jumped off the boat. Not enough life jackets. He heard the captain scream that out. He was there when Coast Guards come to check about life jacket count. He saw the butt slap happened. He obviously said, I never pushed the guy in the propeller and he's bleeding everywhere.

He saw that too. So testified in that aspect. He also testified the fact that he's known Caroline for quite some time and she would be somewhat get jealous and drink a decent amount. And so that was that was him. And then I had a couple guys from the boat we came on in the morning testifying that we were fine all day. Nothing happened when she's trying to paint the picture that we were fighting all day.

So yeah, my witnesses did really well. They told the truth and day three. And then I ended up going day three too. I decided to testify. So that was a really lengthy process. I think I was on there for like an hour and a half. But like I said, I didn't practice. My way didn't really go over with my lawyers.

I just told the story that I told to the two police since day one. I've been consistent since these whole four years. And my story has never changed once. So I'm testifying. My lawyer's up first. I'm going through the whole day with him. During breaks, I'm like, it's on court TV. So it's live and it's on YouTube streaming.

So I'm reading like all these comments. And it's like, give me this confidence. Everyone's like, oh, he's doing really well. Like, I believe him. He's credible. So I'm, like, reading this during the break. And it's just like, okay, like, this is good. Because I'm seeing, like, a public opinion, basically,

they would be, like, a jury in the sense. And there's just saying how she was not credible. She testified the day before Caroline. And how she was, like, all over the place. Like, it was like a ping ball machine. Like, everything was saying. She was differently. She was denying about certain things that you accused me of and then saying I did stuff,

but saying I didn't. I don't know. It was like a whole, you would have to watch it to understand. Do they ever confront her that when she says you push the guy and he fell into the propeller and he was bleeding? Do they ever say there is no person like that? What does she say? I mean, she was like saying it happened, but it didn't and not really the propeller, but she didn't understand that.

She was like he was in the water, but she wasn't. She didn't even know what a propeller was, I believe. Okay. So she was very confused. And she was saying in her injunctions and stuff that I like, bit her and like in writing statements and like tore into her like private area or groin which is i don't know no clue where that came from and she like denied it on the on the stand during trial that that never happened but she put it in her injunction that it did and then she later said that

her attorney did it for her and she just signed off for it so she didn't really like approve anything essentially or read over it she just signed the paperwork and uh i don't know it was a bunch of crazy stuff she was like all over the place um so she definitely lost credibility on the stand um i mean she making up a bunch of lies. Even that beer can part. The top comment on this court TV video of her says, I know nothing about this case. However, I don't believe a word coming out of her mouth.

It's top comment on the video. Yeah, as she was going, it was pretty, I mean, during break two, I saw her, because she broke in between, they split her testimony up. Everyone was kind of like saying, oh, she's not credible. Like, I don't believe a word she's saying.

Right. She was all over the place. Her memory was off, certain things. were like false, even the can situation where she claimed I pegged through it to her like a quarterback and hit her in the face at like 20 miles an hour. She even mentioned that it was like unintentional. Even though I didn't throw it overhand,

I underhand toss her like she asked for it and it didn't hit her anywhere. But she used the word unintentional. And the judge actually used that to my advantage when the verdict was read, but I'll get to that later. So yeah, she went all over the place. I went very credible,

just prosecuted. didn't let her trip me up at all. I just told my story, I told the truth. So I thought I did really well. Later that night, I was getting sent like court TV commentators saying that like I was very articulate, I did it amazing and I'm very believable. So give me a lot of confidence for sure.

I mean, I knew I was confident and I was, it was going well, so I went and then I believe after I went then we had an expert witness come in too. He was basically testifying, he's like on a, aquatics instructor, he's a professor at FIU. He was testifying on the stages of what happens when someone's drowning. And along the lines of the climbing the ladder effects, kind of like what I did just today afloat.

Right. And I grabbed him to her shoulder for us like a two seconds. So he basically cooperated exactly everything that I did, all the actions I did of signs of someone drowning. So that went really well too. I think the judge understood all the stuff and terminology in that aspect. and then we rested on day three. Judge says,

he's going to take the night to think about it. We had some time, and he just wanted to reveal all his notes. So the next day, day four, was on a Thursday. It was actually my birthday. I come in the morning of my birthday, and then that's the day of the verdict. So I had like a... I thought I was going to have like the worst sleep ever that night,

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Right. Like it was just like settling in. And I was just like, well, it's okay. But I'm going to go. I woke up in the morning. I just relax. I hit the steam room, shower. I was like, everything's going to be okay.

I just kept talking to God and making sure everything was going to be perfect. And it was my birthday as well. Obviously, that was a secondary thought at the moment. Right. So I get there, I eat up with my family, Judge comes in, and he starts going over everything. So initially he's like, I'm not going to take into account stuff about their credibility and their relationship and how she's like a reality star or whatever may be. So at that point, I'm like, damn, this is negative towards me. Like going, I mean, I shut up the facts.

I still went too, but I was like, damn. okay, maybe this might be something. He starts going over every single count in detail, explaining why he thought certain ways. He starts with count three, which is the misdemeanor battery, at least the most, least charge, at least violent charge. And he starts saying about how he can't find reasonable doubts.

At that point, I get the biggest, like, relief, like weight off my shoulders. I was like, all right, if I don't have this, then I'm cruising through the rest. he says not guilty. I'm excited. My lawyer is like squeezing my hand. Like, okay, we got two more left. Let's get through this.

He skips over count two. And then I see two police officers over my left shoulder come in. Yeah. That's not a good sign. Yeah. Because I mean, before even, I'm going to rewind a little bit,

before even the judge came on the bench, they were doing people's just like, court hearings. Like, just no other people. motions and stuff like that before my trial started. And there was a bunch of cops in there because there was people from the jail. So my lawyer is like, if these cops leave,

it's a good sign because usually the cops know the verdict before. Right. So they all left. There's only one deputy there. So we were excited. I was like, that's a good sign. But then after the first count was not guilty,

then the two more come in behind my shoulder. So everyone in even the stands were like, there's no way this is about having. They're about to take him. Right. So he goes over, he skips over count two. Go straight to count one. I was like, why is he going out of order?

I would be thinking because he's going to find me guilty of count two. That's what I was thinking. That's what I got worried about. Because after he said not guilty to count three, I was like, okay, I'm good, but he skipped over count two. And the cops coming at the same time. And he says he goes over attempted murder, the reasoning, and the reasoning, and goes over, like, everyone's testimony of why he thought there was reasonable doubt. It's not guilty. But, yeah, like you mentioned at this point. I thought, I was like, there's no way.

He's going to put the baby on me, too. Like, I'm going to get count two, which is like a felony. It's still a felony. Domestic battery by strangulation. It's a bad felony. Yeah. And then he goes over count two and basically gives the same reasoning as to count one. So it's not guilty.

I'm fully acquitted. And I hug my attorney to my right and my other attorney to my left. And everyone's clapping, celebrating. And I could just, like, breathe. I mean, it's still sinking in now. I mean, I went through four years of this. So I'm still getting used to it. But it's so surreal that I just be.

all this and I was fully acquitted on all counts. And how long, just for the audience, how long ago was this trial? So the verdict was on March 12th of this year, 2026 was on my birthday. My 27th birthday. So 12 days ago. Yes. And then when you leave, and I asked you this last night, but the whole time, because I was, because your father is an attorney and I was like, I was asking what your dad was

thinking and was your dad telling you like to take the plea because I'm sure your dad has seen has numerous examples of of seeing just trials just being you know they're just unpredictable and and and you said your dad was like absolutely not your fight we're fighting the whole like it's fighting the whole way I mean that's just personality and he said I could either follow his advice or not but again I was asking I have a lot of attorneys and everyone was advising me to take the plea pretty much yeah especially when that involved no jail time or like a withhold adjudication. Well, it's unpredictable.

It's not that they're, I don't even think that, and I don't think it says anything about, you know, their, their character as much as it says how unpredictable their knowledge, or they understand how unpredictable the court system is. And, you know, obviously if you're like, I mean, it's great to say, well, if you're not guilty, then go to trial. Listen, that's easy to say, but it takes a fucking lot of balls to go to trial. I will say, too. I mean, thankfully, my parents come up a few dollars, and they were able to assist me. I mean, I'm just, again, I was out of college. I was using my student loans to help pay my girlfriend, my ex-girlfriend now, Caroline at the time. They were able to get me a great attorney's.

But anyone else in my position could be falsely accused on just a simple perception, the way someone perceived something differently and been sitting in jail for four years and forced to taking a plea because they have to get a public defender. I'm not saying anything bad about them, but that's like the entry-level position. So they're trained to, like, get pleas done, I feel like. Was to their benefit. It's to their benefit to get their clients take a plea. Yeah.

And then the prosecutor is supposed to be a minister of justice. I mean, the fact with all the evidence that this went through far, and this is a completely BS and everything, I mean, even during the trial, we showed evidence Caroline's face when she found that was being arrested, this before she got arrested, her draw was to the floor. Like in shock, complete shock of why I was getting arrested. She's like, on what charge? What did he do? You can't do this.

Again, Caroline also said that she had to use both her hands to rip my hands off her. And I came around the front like a shark. She thought I was a shark. Right. But at the deposition, she thought I was a girl. So she said crazy stuff. But she thought I was a shark and she had to use her hands to rip me off her. And I flipped over her.

And I came from the front. A bunch of different stuff. And she had her phone in her hand. She said to use it all. but she had her phone afterwards on the boat, like the phone would sink. Right. I mean,

she got caught in that aspect as well. And, yeah, I mean, it was just wild. And then just the perception thing and the misunderstanding, just crazy how this took four years of my life just because the way they perceived something that they didn't know the context of.

And nothing happens to her other than just she has to maybe, you know, do court fees for paying for people. No, she doesn't do none of that. None of that applies to her. They'd have to charge her with that. So none of that applies to her.

She just goes about her business. It reminds me, I've always mentioned this. I'm almost positive that I almost always get it slightly wrong, too, is that when I was growing up, there was a woman who was, I don't know, I'm going to say she was an older woman, but I was probably in my 20s when this happened, or in my teens. So she could have been 30, and I would have said she was an old woman. But let's say she's 50 or 60.

It's the McDonald's one. So, and it's the same kind of thing where this woman drives through McDonald's drive-thru, asks for a coffee, they hand her the coffee, and the lid isn't on quite correctly, right? Right. So when she grabs it, she obviously squeezes the foam cup or paper cup, whatever, I think it was a paper cup, or the paper cup, and the lid pops off and it collapses and it drops in her lap, and it burns her. That's what the media says. that the way the media says it is she ordered coffee,

she took the coffee, and she spilled it in her lap. And so she turned around, got a lawyer, she sues McDonald's. They go to trial. She gets $2.5 million. I always get the number wrong, by the way. Sometimes I say five. Sometimes I say one, because I don't remember what it was. But it was outrageous because I've been checked.

Every time Colby's ever checked, I've been wrong. But I remember, too, it wasn't bad. It was whatever. It was a couple million dollars she gets. And the media went nuts. And people were like, this is ridiculous. She spilled coffee on herself. She, you know, she doesn't deserve that money.

Everybody would spill coffee. She, you know, it's ridiculous. So they went nuts. And because that makes great headlines. Right. Yeah. But the truth of it is what the jury heard. And then, of course, they're like this,

These jurors, they're crazy. The court system, how could the judge let this happen? This is a tragedy. What's wrong with these people? It's not fair, you know, poor McDonald's. But then here's the problem is if they say, okay, wait a second. Here's what the jury heard. The jury heard that McDonald's is boiling their coffee at, you know, 180 degrees.

it doesn't need to be more than 110. And that the Food and Drug Administration has come in multiple times and told them, you are boiling your coffee too hot. It is a hazard. Stop it. But McDonald's never does. And that it's so hot that it causes the cups to collapse and it causes the top to not secure properly. People are getting burned all the time.

And when I say burned, I don't mean your skin was a little hot. It was little red. Right. No big deal. It's okay in two days. It was a little tender. No, no. It burned off layers of her skin.

And so when they hand her the cup and it collapses, it falls in her lap and it burns her inner thighs and her vagina. And she has to have reconstructive surgery on her vagina. They've been for a decade or so. They've been warned and told over and over and over. Maybe it's only five years. I don't know. But over and over they've been told. They've had multiple lawsuits, and they've known it's an issue.

And during the trial, it comes out, you know this is an issue. You know you're burning people. There is no reason for you to boil the make the coffee this hot. And there, the reason they said they did it, what comes out in the internal documents from McDonald's is people like people specifically when they ask about our coffee, why do you like McDonald's coffee? They say, well, it's always hot. And because of that, you're willing to burn, you know, 2,100 people a year in your 59,000

stores, you're willing to burn a couple thousand people a year. And you don't give a fuck about those people because most lawyers are not going to go to trial. And most of the times you get it dismissed. And so this one woman said, no, I'm not going to. And so that's what the jury heard. And the jury said, listen, man, you're burning people. You know this is a problem. You're burning people constantly.

The cups are collapsing. The tops are falling up. You know that the cup can't even hold this much heat. You're burning people and you're, you essentially dropped a boiling coffee in this woman's lap and she had to have surgery. Like how much is it if you had to have reconstructive surgery on your nuts? I'm thinking I want a couple million dollars, especially if you know it's a problem. And her initial request was to cover the medical bills and reduce the coffee, which was $20,000 in medical bills. And they counteroffered with $800.

And the final settlement was $2.7 million. Oh, that was close. Yeah, yeah. This time. So, yeah. So that to me is one of those things where it's like if you read the newspaper articles, she's a money grubbing. psychopath who burned, who spilled coffee on himself. And if you look at the actual facts, no, McDonald's is at fault.

They know they're at fault. They're burning people. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think it's the same thing. It feels like the same thing. From a distance looking at what happens, you think one thing. And then, of course, the media is twisting it one way. Exactly.

And then when the actual judge heard what actually happened, he was like, okay, well, that's not what happened at all. Exactly. You're you're misconstruing the facts and you don't even you don't even really know what happens You're fucking 800 feet away. I have to wait four years to tell my story Right I mean everything I feel like everything is backwards like you're innocent to prove him guilty But the public doesn't view it that's not really how it works though right You're guilty to proven innocent in the public size especially all these articles coming out your mug shot all this stuff I mean it's crazy how it works that way well even the real estate thing if it was up to the other real estate

Agents sitting on the board you wouldn't why I somebody falsely accused me I'm still in the process I'm not guilty Yeah. So. It's crazy how it works that way, honestly. And then going back to the verdict, when I was testifying, the prosecutor had to refresh my memory. So she brought over my body cam. So that can't come in because of hearsay, my own statement in body camp. Okay.

She can only do it to, I guess, for impeachment purposes or to refresh my memory. She went over some sort of topic. I forgot what it was, but it got out, something got out at the point. where I said I couldn't swim to the police. The judge heard that. So my statement wasn't supposed to come out at all. So during the verdict of attempted murder in the account too also, the judge actually mentioned during the, when he said not guilty,

he said the court later learned that Mr. Goldberg told the police within 20 minutes that he couldn't swim. That led to a big part of the not guilty verdict because, I mean, that's what I said. I mean, the fact that what I'm trying to get out of this, the fact that couldn't come in because of hearsay, and the police disagree completely disregarded me telling them I couldn't swim at least five, six, six times during the actual day. So that wasn't something that they put in their report at all. Yeah, they just slipped out. Right.

Slipped out at trial, which was like a blessing. And the judge used that to my advantage. So that was amazing how that happened. Yeah. So what are you, so are you going back to law school? Like, what's the plan? Like, do you think this changes what you want to study, what you want to be? Like, how does it succeed?

Yeah. So initially, I mean, since I'm in the sports field, I wanted to be a sports agent and then a lawyer at the same time, like handing the contracts. But I feel like now, going through the whole process, I've learned a lot, gained a lot of experience, tested me for sure. I do possibly want to be a criminal defense attorney now. I feel like I could resonate with clients. I've been through it personally, so I think this is something I want to do.

I want to go back to law school. I'm going to sign up for my LSIT again and see where it takes me. But I definitely want to finish where I guess I left off. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching. Do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, hit the bell, so get notified of videos just like this. if you want to get a hold of Cole, we are going to leave his Instagram link in the description box. You can go there and you can follow him and if you need to message him.

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