Murder With My Husband - 307. Patrick de la Cerda: Patrick de la Cerda: A Crime That Shocked a Family

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

In this episode, Garrett and Payton explore the case of Patrick de la Cerda, a man living what seemed like a fairytale romance until his life was tragically cut short by a killer no one saw coming. Links: Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/a-plan-to-kill/crime-news/patrick-de-la-cerda-shot-to-death-at-florida-home News-JouralOnline.com - https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/courts/2021/05/29/man-convicted-murder-plan-slaying-romantic-rival-deltona/5243838001/ CaseLaw.FindLaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-district-court-of-appeal/2196501.html ThatsLife.com - https://www.thatslife.com.au/crime/deadly-delivery-killed-by-a-fake-postie/ TillManFuneralHome.com - https://www.tillmanfuneralhome.com/obituaries/5296709 CrimeAndCoffeeCouple.wordpress.com - https://crimeandcoffeecouple.wordpress.com/2024/10/06/the-murder-of-patrick-de-la-cerda/ ClickOrlando.com - https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2018/03/02/deltona-man-slain-in-attack-sparked-by-jealousy-sheriff-says/ DailyMail.com - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10200995/Florida-man-nearly-gets-away-murder-wife-girlfriend-meet-hospital-ICU-stay.html CBS.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-de-la-cerda-murder-gregory-bender-trash-48-hours/ A Plan to Kill Season 1 Episode 6 - https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/GMO_00000000506750_01/e5dccebe-1846-3a2f-9acb-1fbc994f950d?paused=true Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. Welcome back.

Another week, another episode, here we are. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching on Netflix. We love you guys. That's what I got. We're excited because you might not be able to tell. But if you go watch one of our other episodes on Netflix and then you rewatch

this one on Netflix. Peyton and I spent hours and hours and hours, re-lighting and redoing our entire set. Yeah, can't you tell? If you can't tell, damn, that sucks. But if you can tell, thank you. A lot of it is a bunch of little stuff. We added a lot more lights. We just wanted to upgrade things a little bit. we hopefully we sound the same because we still got our good mics and our good audio so we're chilling we're ready to go we're excited to be here and we're excited that we were able to switch things around a little bit don't want to ramble too much or have too many announcements but we dropped some new merch and i actually wore this i think on one of my live streams maybe that i do on my ig and everyone's like oh my gosh where's the merch so it is available now it is

So cute. It's kind of like a, what would you call that? Barcity collection? Yeah. I guess you could say. Yeah, so go check it out. Mwmh shop.com. We got some new merch. It's really cute. I'm not going to lie. All right, Garrett, do you have your 10 seconds? For my 10 seconds this week, I will make it quick. I see that every week. Um, I got a little sick. I was sick. Today's the first day that I'm feeling better. I was sick for a long time. I was sick for like a week. Feeling good. I'm healthy. No worries there. Payton wants in their dog. She's been trying to convince me of getting in a dog. literally today in the car. We went and got, we go to Dutch Bros. every single day. As you guys know, we're on the way back. Payton's like, hey, look at this. Like, what is it? It's like, it's like,

it's a puppy. What do you put me on the spot? You out in me. What do you have to say for yourself? I have so much love to give. That's what I have to say. I like that. And there's so many pups that need homes. I can all just come to mind. Payton was another puppy. We are holding off on having another puppy. So it's not happening right now. Sorry everybody. But that's what I got this week. Puppies and being sick. So on that note, let's hop into today's case. Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com newsjournal online.com. Case law.com. Finelaw.com. That's life.com. Tillmanfuneralhome com.com. Crime and coffee couple.com WordPress. Click Orlando.com. Dailymail.com. Cbs.com.com. And a plan to kill season one, episode six.

You know, I think most people in this world deserve a second chance at happiness, an opportunity to leave the past behind and move forward with their lives, especially when it comes to love. Because sometimes we really just choose the wrong people. We ignore the red flags. We rush into things. But I believe each relationship good or bad teaches us something about. ourselves. It is a lesson on what we want, what we don't want in the future. So when someone is brave

enough to walk away from a situation that doesn't serve them, I have a lot of respect for that. Unfortunately, it is not always that easy to shut the door and never look back. Because for some of us, the past refuses to stay in the past. And instead, it haunts us. It torments us. And we'll stop at nothing to get what it wants, even if it destroys us. It's 2018 in the small town of Deltona, Florida, a quiet suburban community between Orlando and Daytona Beach. Now, for 25-year-old Patrick De La Certa, this is home, a place where he's ready to start the next chapter of his life,

being that he's in his mid-20s. Now, Patrick's pretty close with his family, so close, in fact, that he shares the same home and construction job with his dad, Max. Patrick and his dad, Max, living together. Now, his family described Patrick as a go-getter, someone who lived every day to its absolute fullest. His mother, Patricia, also described him as a romantic, someone who always dreamed of meeting the perfect person, settling down and starting a family of his own. A dream that actually started to come to fruition a year before back in June of 2017. That was when Patrick had met a 28-year-old bank teller named Jessica Devnani. He met Jessica on a dating app called Plenty of Fish and only took a few dates for Patrick to fall head over hills for Jessica.

That's kind of a smart name. Plenty of fish? Yeah. Is that the first time you thought that? What do you mean? Like when you, you've heard of plenty of fish. You've never heard of the dating plenty of fish. Babe, I, I just turned 56.

Yeah. Okay, guys, for those, I'm not 56. I'm 30. Okay, 31. Same thing. Chill. But no, I never used dating app because it was like I met. He had motion.

I had motion. Can a white, we get a little motion? No, but I met you, and it was right around the time I feel like dating apps were becoming more popular. So I didn't have a dating app either. See, because you have motion. No, I just again, they weren't that popular yet, I feel like. That's funny. So only took a few dates for Patrick to fall head over hills for Jessica. And honestly, she felt the same. She saw him as the full package. And even though the two lived about 30 miles away from one another with Jessica in Orlando, So their relationship escalated pretty quickly.

They started taking trips together and talked about a future with one another. Even Patrick's dad, Max, who he lived with, could see that this was the person for Patrick. He had found the one in Jessica. So in December of 2017, Patrick actually took the next step. He bought Jessica a ring and got down on one knee. And Jessica said yes. Patrick told her, okay, this ring I'm proposing with, it's just a placeholder. He wanted her to pick out something custom, something that she really loved, but he still wanted

to be able to propose to her and keep it a surprise. This was basically just another gesture that showed how romantic and caring Patrick really was. He cared that the proposal was a surprise, and then he also cared that she gets a ring she loves. And as they worked together to design this ring, the two already started coming up with plans for their wedding. They were considering two different places, either West Palm Beach, Florida, or they actually planned to move eventually for France, where Patrick's mother, Patricia, was from. Now, by the end of February, Jessica's custom engagement ring was finished and was supposed to be on the way any day now. She couldn't wait to try it on for the very first time. That point, Patrick and Jessica seemed more in love than ever.

On the night of February 26, 2018, Patrick left Jessica a voicemail. He said, quote, I love you, good night, sweet dreams. In the morning, I'll call you, I'll send you a text when I wake up a little later. All right. Love you. Good night. Bye. It was a voicemail that would be played over and over by Jessica in the years to come because was actually the last one Patrick would ever leave her. Now, on the morning of February 27th, Patrick was home alone while his father was out on a construction job that was about 70 miles away.

That morning, he texted Jessica as always, told her he loved her and wished her a good day at work. And again, promised to call her a little later, like he always did. But shortly after 7.38 a.m., Max, his father, tries to call Patrick. He'd just gotten a call that someone was there to deliver a package for him and it needed to be signed for. Now, Max thought it was probably the engagement ring that Patrick and Jessica were waiting on. See, Max and Patrick's property was behind this big, gated fence. So Max had a sign on the gate that said to text or call if something needed to be delivered.

So none of this was unusual. What was strange was the fact that Patrick, wasn't answering his calls or his texts after Max said, hey, there's someone there with a delivery, especially because he knew Patrick had been anxiously waiting for this ring to come. So instead, hours went by with no word from Patrick. So Max calls Jessica to see if she's heard from him. And she says, no, actually, I've been a bit worried too. She hasn't spoken to Patrick since that morning.

That's when she decides, okay, I'm going to leave work early. I'm going to go check on Patrick's. Now, his dad is saying he's not answering. At this point, she's kind of feeling like something might be wrong. So around 11 a.m., she makes the 30-mile drive from Orlando to Deltona. And meanwhile, back at Patrick's property, a neighbor is actually calling 911. She had stopped by the home and noticed that the front door was wide open. And she had also noticed that Patrick de LaSerta was bleeding right inside the entrance of his home.

And when the operator asks her if she wants to perform CPR, the caller says no. And she says it's because it's pretty obvious that Patrick is already dead. 9-1-1, where's your emergency? It has been shot and killed. When did that happen? I don't know. You don't want a train CTTR, correct? No, no, he's dead, he's cold.

So Jessica actually gets there a few minutes after this 911 call is placed. And before the police can even arrive, she also walks up and sees her fiancé lying there in a pool of his own blood. His body is already cold to the touch. A minutes later, sheriff's deputies arrive on the scene, and they determined that Patrick had been shot four times

through the head, chest, and hip. Jeez, dude. And it's pretty obvious just by looking at him that the weapon of choice was a high-powered rifle. Oh, okay. They could also tell because the killer had left behind two, unique shell casings that are used in semi-automatic weapons. But the attacker had seemingly collected the other four casings since we know six shots were

fired in total. It appeared as though Patrick had almost been ambushed here, answered the door only to find his killer standing there on the other side. Now luckily, Max and Patrick did have security cameras set up around their house. I'm talking about I want to see the cameras. But when police went into the home to try and locate the footage, you find that Patrick's computer and hard drive from the home security system is missing. What's odd is, there's nothing else that appears to be missing from the home.

So if this wasn't a robbery, this was definitely a planned out orchestrated attack, which obviously means now it was time to look at suspects, and there seemed to be one right from the start. Patrick and Max had another neighbor who was an army veteran supposedly suffering from dementia. Turns out, Patrick and this neighbor had exchanged some words in the past. Oh, man. And on one particular evening, things escalated. The neighbor went inside, grabbed his gun, and started firing towards Patrick's house.

Now, thankfully, no one was injured, but Patrick called the police who then sent an entire SWAT team to deal with this. The man was tackled and taken into custody. So the police look into this report and they're obviously like, hey, he has a neighbor feud. This is a potential suspect. Maybe he felt like he hadn't settled the score against Patrick. But there was one big problem. The neighbor was currently in jail. It's pretty good alibi, honestly.

So they quickly scratch him off the list. But this is when his father, Max, tells police there might be another person of interest. During his interview with them, he mentions the call he'd got earlier from the delivery driver. And the fact that Patrick was shot seemingly right as he opened up the front door, well, that doesn't look good for whoever dropped off that package. And Max also remembers that the delivery driver had asked for Patrick by name. So Max had said, okay, let me call my son and I'll call you right back. What's your number?

But the delivery driver refused to leave any details with Max, which is why he thought this was a bit strange. He's like, what if this wasn't actually a delivery driver? Now, meanwhile, a distraught Jessica is also brought down to the station and is speaking with police. And when asked if she thought or knew of any enemies that Patrick might have, she says there is one person who might have wanted to hurt him, her ex-boyfriend of eight years, a 50-year-old man named Greg Bender. Okay.

She said that Greg was even to this day still in love with her and was not happy about her whirlwind romance with Patrick. Gosh, dude. In fact, she hadn't heard from Greg in months, but he had actually called her that morning, not once but twice. Jessica refused to answer because she's like, why is my ex-boyfriend calling me? But now with everything that's happened, she's like maybe those calls weren't a coincidence. So let's talk about Greg, the ex-boyfriend. I feel like I'm not going to like Greg. He and Jessica had met on a dating app back in 2009, when Greg was 42 and Jessica was 21.

Greg was a successful hedge fund manager. He lived in this big house in a fancy neighborhood right outside of Orlando. He was the kind of guy who loved fast cars, guns, and living in expensive, luxurious lifestyle. Basically, he was the polar opposite of Patrick. But Jessica and Greg went on to have this pretty long relationship. And six years in, Craig actually proposed to her. And while Jessica said yes, she probably had some doubts about the marriage. They weren't exactly a healthy couple.

In fact, things had been pretty toxic and on and off for those six years. And Greg apparently showed his true colors early on. When Jessica told him about someone else she had been seeing, Greg began stalking the other guy, found out where he lived, and said if he ever came near Jessica again, he would tie him up and make him regret it. Greg's jealousy was a constant problem in the relationship, but Jessica admitted she was a bit naive when she said yes to his proposal. She was in love with him and she wasn't interested at the time in being with anyone else. At least that was how she felt until 2016. That year, Greg was hospitalized after undergoing a medical procedure. And Jessica showed up to offer her support.

But when she got to the room, there was another woman sitting by Greg's bedside. Okay. Confused. Jessica explains to this random woman that she was his fiancé, like my ring, to which the other woman responded, I'm his wife. Oh, no. So that's when Jessica realized

Greg had been living this double life. Their entire engagement. How does it happen? How do people pull that off? Because I've heard of cases too where people have like full on kids and families in other countries. And they just don't know about it.

And they somehow have a full blown relationship with somebody else. Yeah. Like how? I just don't understand how. And here's the thing. It's like the projection of him being like super jealous and overly protective of his 21-year-old girlfriend when he has a whole wife. So she realizes in this moment, oh my gosh, our relationship was a lie.

But when Greg recovered and left the hospital a few days later, he called Jessica begging her to fix things. He's like, listen, yes, I'm married, but it wasn't serious. It was just a business arrangement. He only married the other woman so her son could go to the good schools in the district he lived in. I don't know whether Jessica believe this or not, but she gave Greg an ultimatum after that.

She said, You have until the end of the year to leave and divorce your wife, or I'm leaving. But 2016 comes and goes, and Greg doesn't make any moves to get divorced. So in 2017,

she gives the ring back to Greg and says, and that's it, I'm done. But Greg doesn't let her walk out of his life that easily, as we probably guessed. It says things like, you can't do this to me. I'm not going to let you go. And no matter how much she tries to ignore him, he keeps pursuing her to the point where she actually has to block his number and his accounts on several apps.

And then she creates new profiles just to hide from him. All of which only pushes Jessica further away from this long-term relationship she. had been in. And by February 2017, she's back on dating websites where she connects with 24-year-old Patrick de La Certa that June. And that's when things start to get pretty ugly. Obviously, she's happy to have met Patrick, but Greg comes across Patrick's Facebook page when him and Jessica start dating. And he sees that this guy on Facebook is dating. his ex-girlfriend. The eagle on the sky is mind-blowing.

So he turns to his wife and his life. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. My girlfriend! To have a full-blown wife and kids and then be dating somebody else but then being mad because your ex-girlfriend... Yeah, that's just... That's insane.

Isn't cheating on you, by the way. Like, left you and isn't a new relationship. So he sees the two of them together on Facebook and he starts sending Patrick threatening... messages saying things like, quote, I know where you live. I'm going to harm you. And then Greg says things to Jessica like, quote, I'm going to hire a hitman or I'm just going to do the job myself in regards to hurting Patrick. In fact, it was threats like this that actually made Patrick install

those security cameras around his and his dad's home in the first place. There was even a point where Jessica felt compelled to meet up with Greg in person to just try and like sever ties, try to to make him understand, just talk him down off the ledge. Like, you can't keep threatening my new boyfriend. You've got to let this go. She felt that if she gave him what he wanted, maybe goes on, you know, meets up with him, maybe he'd back off, that maybe he wouldn't actually hurt anyone. Oh, this is sad.

This is horrible. What Jessica didn't realize was at this point, Greg had actually hired a PI to follow him and Jessica on, like, when she would meet up with him, secretly film them, and then sent that film to Patrick saying, oh, she's going on dates with me. She's meeting up with me. She's doing this behind your back. You should break up with her. And I'm not going to lie, it did work a little because Patrick was like, Jessica, like, why are you even meeting up with him?

They did fight about it. She explains though. She's like, I'm trying to get him off her back. Like, let him down gently. Like, try to sever it slowly so that he can just leave us alone. And Patrick forgives her. He understands. Greg doesn't give up, though.

The threats continued, some of which were left on voicemails. I'm making a phone call. I'm giving instructions. And I'm going to have my plan put into action. Greg said things like, I'm giving instructions. I'm going to put my plan in action, seemingly about hiring a hitman. And that's when Jessica and Patrick actually decide to go to the court for a restraining order. Both of them filed for protection against Greg for much of them. older ex-boyfriend.

But only Jessica was granted that protection. Patrick's order was denied, which is terrifying because Jessica actually said in interviews that she was never afraid of Greg hurting her. She was always terrified of what he might do to the next people she got involved with. Now, it's really sad because there really isn't much you can do about it. Even say, let's say the restraining order was granted. Like, it's not like there's a bubble around you that stops somebody from coming close to you. Most of the time.

Like, if that person wants to kill you still, they probably will. Now, a part of this restraining order actually required Greg to turn over his large gun collection. Oh, okay. They were like, you got to get rid of your guns. This was in December of 2017. He never does. Just like Garris said, they don't ever really obey it. But after Jessica said things did start to quiet down a little bit, like after she got the restraining order, the voicemail stopped, the Facebook threats came to an end.

It seemed like maybe Greg had finally come to terms with reality. So two months go by with radio silence from Greg. That was until February 27, 2018. When she saw Greg Bender's name come up on her phone that day, and then her fiancé, ends up murdered in his doorway, and she realizes something is seriously wrong. Now, hearing all of this, police are like, okay, forget the neighbor guy who's in jail. We have obviously found our primary suspect. Like, this is suspect 101, but they need more evidence.

So they ask Jessica, hey, would you be willing to help us out? Call Greg and see if you can get him to confess. And she agrees. She tries. With officers listening in, Greg tells her he saw the news about Patrick's death. He's so sorry for her loss. But Jessica puts him on the spot, tells him, hey, I know you did this. You told me so many times you were going to hire a hitman.

You told me you were going to kill Patrick. She asks him point blank. Did you shoot him? Now, on this phone call, Greg denies it. It says, absolutely not. Like, I'm your friend. I would not do that. But obviously Jessica's like, okay.

you're lying, realizing that the call is going nowhere, police try another tactic. They can't arrest Greg just based on his history of threats, but they can't arrest him for violating his restraining order against Jessica since he did call her twice earlier that day, which he's not allowed to do. So they track Greg down and they get him into custody. But they can't keep him for long if he's not going to confess.

He's working on making bail. they're going to have to move quickly if they want to file charges for murder, which either means extracting a confession or finding more evidence that he is the one who killed Patrick. Now, unfortunately, for Greg Bender, he's made more than one enemy. And when he gets arrested, all of these enemies are willing to speak out. So that night, when Greg was behind bars, detectives received a phone call from none other than, Greg Bender's now estranged wife. This is the same wife who he told Jessica he was married to as a business arrangement after they had met in the hospital.

Now, her name is Demera Sanchez. And she has something she wants to share with the police about her husband after finding out he'd been arrested. Okay. She's pretty nervous and clearly terrified. So the police tell her, hey, let's just meet secretly. They pick a spot in a secluded parking spot. and set a time for the following day, February 28th. And here's what she tells them during this little meetup.

In December of 2017, she and Greg finally did decide to get divorced. She was packing her things to move out of the house they shared when she stumbled across something. It was a blue spiral notebook that, according to her, belonged to Greg. So, she opened it. and inside she found what sounded or looked like an elaborate plan for a murder. That's insane. So she grabs the spiral notebook that she's found while packing her house up.

She marches right up to gray and confronts him about it. She's like, what is this? This is weird. Like, what is this in this notebook that's yours? And he admits it's his and that he wrote it, but it was just, a fantasy. It was fiction. He wasn't actually planning to murder anyone. Now, she's on her way out the door.

So she's like, you know what? Whatever. You're weird. I'm getting out of here. And she just lets it go because... Yeah, she wanted to be done. I don't blame her. What else is she going to do? That was until she saw the news about Patrick. She knew about his connection to Jessica. And the plan in the spiral notebook, that she had found read

sounded almost identical to the crime that had been committed against Patrick. So that's when she goes to police. And this actually gives them enough to get a search warrant for Greg's house.

They're like if he was planning the murder in his house, we can now search his house. They move fast on that. While Greg is still behind bars for violating his parole, police execute the warrant on his home. Which is good

because then he can't go and clean anything up. he can't move thing. Right. It's a great time. So the detectives feel like this is probably a shot in the dark. I mean, what are the odds that this guy just left evidence around the house incriminating him? But the second they get inside and look through his home office, what do they find?

The notebook. Spiral blue notebook. Just like his estranged wife had described. And in those pages were specific details not only about a random murder, but about Patrick's house, like the fact that he had a dog named Optimus who was, quote, slow and old, written in the notebook. And that there was mulch in Patrick's yard,

which he notes he could use for cover. This is obviously things Greg would only know if he had been stalking Patrick and literally planning out this murder. The difference was, Greg wrote about how he planned to tell Patrick that he was just going to rob him. And then his plan was to inject him

with a mixture of heroin and fentanyl to make it look like he'd overdosed. That didn't work. He was just going to suffocate Patrick to death. Imagine just like listing all this out. I was going to say, who writes this down? Like what? Nobody.

Is he afraid he's going to lose it? Nobody writes it down. It's only insane people that write this down because no normal person would be writing this down. He just pulls out his handy dandy notebook and is like, was it fentanyl or was it? Yeah, what am I doing again? What was I going to do?

It's gross. It's weird. Now, obviously, it seems like Greg pivoted. He got to the property and pretended to act like a delivery man to lure Patrick into a vulnerable position. When he opened the door to sign for the package, Greg shot him, hoping the crime would just seem random. Still, it was clear that Greg had thought this crime out because among those pages were notes like, quote, dispose of clothes, plate, cracker, gloves, put duct tape on the bottom of a second pair of shoes so there's no treadprints. Wait for confirm that he is alone.

Turn off cell phones. As for additional evidence, detectives also discovered a hand-drawn map sitting on the top of his garage bin that shows the exact location of Patrick's house. This is crazy. This is like... A couple of things. This is like really well thought out. bad way. I'm like, are you trying to get caught? You're literally leaving a blueprint. Like, this is worse than having a Home Depot receipt. If you think about it, if he burned the notebook, maybe he thought he would be able to. Like, it's gone. There's no evidence after that.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So maybe. Maybe he thought I'd be able to get rid of it. I mean, it was sitting on the garbage bin. So maybe he was just planning on throwing it away. But also like, it's 2017. And we know that you've been stalking this guy. Why do you have a map that has the exact location. of Patrick's house. Like you're overboard. You know where he lives. You know what I mean? Like it's almost begging to get caught.

And when they run this map for Prince later, the only ones on it are Greggs. I mean, this is open and shut 100%. Now on top of that, they find a gun safe inside his walking closet and it has the same ammunition that was used to kill Patrick. And while they don't find the murder weapon itself,

they do find a bunch of other guns, which are still in violation of his parole. And Jessica can confirm that she remembered him owning an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle when they were still together. This is the same gun that would later end her future fiancé's life. So sad. A gun that detectives were sure was now in the bottom of a lake somewhere. Now, meanwhile, down at the station, 50-year-old Greg Bender's paying his bail for that previous arrest. He is released.

I mean, they're trying to move fast, but he still is able to. get out, he's heading home. When he gets there, he finds police at his house, literally searching it, executing a search warrant. And before he can even step inside, they're like, ah, turn around, you're back under arrest. They place him back in handcuffs. They send him back to county jail. And this time, for first-degree murder charges. Here's the problem, though. We have no eyewitnesses. We have no DNA at the crime scene. We have no confession. We have a lot of probable cause and a lot of circumstantial evidence. We just don't have anything directly tying him on the front porch to Patrick's body, if that makes sense. No, no, it makes sense. I'm just trying to think,

yeah, I mean, I guess everything is circumstantial. But it does feel like it's conviction worthy. No, 100%. It just sucks when it's all circumstantial. But prosecutors are like, let's just keep building, let's make this an airtight case. And they find a couple more things of note. Like, one of Greg's neighbors actually had a security camera. And they find some security footage. And the video shows Greg leaving his house in his car around 6.13 a.m. on the morning of February 27th. That is roughly an hour before Max got that call that a delivery person was waiting at the gate trying to get Patrick to come to the door and sign for a package, which we now can infer was the killer. Now, there's also some information on a burner phone that Greg had in his possession, and the data from the phone

shows it only ever called two numbers, Greg's own personal phone, and Max Patrick's dad, confirming basically with evidence that he was the delivery person who called just moments before Patrick opened the door and was killed. Now, data on the phone also showed it sat at Greg's house for weeks leading up to the murder, premeditation, and only left once to travel to Patrick's property the day he was killed, meaning it was likely bought with the sole intention of being used for the murder plan. He didn't want to call Max on his own phone. Now, prosecutors also ran some bullet casings that were found in Greg's desk drawer. They discovered they were an exact match with the two that were left behind at the crime scene. Interesting. Okay. Unfortunately,

it would be about three years before any of this could be presented in a quarter. I mean, this used to bother me a lot and it still does for like the families and the victim that are involved because they have to wait so long to get justice. But the only upside is that usually that person is in prison during this time. And usually the reason it's taking long is because they're building an airtight case. It's not always just. They're trying to wait. Yes, you have the few who are like just trying to.

trying to wait on purpose, like trying to just get a feels. But a lot of the times there is reasons behind it. Yeah. So as Patrick's friends and family waited for that time to come, Jessica's 30th birthday happened. And on that day, Patrick's parents actually gave her a birthday present that she would never forget. The real engagement ring that Patrick had never gotten to give her, the one that was supposed to be delivered.

A ring that she's actually wearing when it came time for Greg Bender's trial. in May of 2021, which is devastating and also just like... That's so heartbreaking. Heart wrenching. Yeah. So Jessica is the star witness at trial and a pawn in the defense's arguments. Now, while Jessica told the jury about Greg's history of control, jealousy, and threats, the defense used those secretly recorded meetups as a way to try and discredit her.

They pointed to how she agreed to meet up willingly with Greg after she was already with Patrick, how she was leading Greg on, letting him rub her leg, hold her hand, kiss her head. It's just something I hate about, like, the defense side of cases like this is they make the, they just make people look so bad. And especially when they make, like, a victim look bad. And they can't defend themselves. Messed up. Also, like, what's a girl to do with an obsessed ex-boyfriend?

Like, if she's really genuinely trying to get him to stop. She's going to say, ew, no, don't kiss me. No, like, you're going to piss him off. She's trying to get him to just... She's legit scared. Yes. And guess what? She was scared for a valid reason

because he literally killed her fiance. She's using any way she can think of of what can I do to psychologically get into this guy's head and get him to get away from us. Yeah. She argued that she found all of this unusual because it wasn't his typical behavior when they were together.

And it wasn't until later that she realized he was actually touching her and doing all of this for the hidden cameras that he was planning to share with Patrick. Jessica told the jury that she met up with Greg to subdue the situation, hoping it would eliminate some of the threats the couple was receiving. Now, at one point, the defense even tried to point to Max, Patrick's father as a suspect. And again, just like Garrett said, the defense's way of just like re-victimizing and dragging everyone through the mud and a trial. I hate it. I hate it. They said there were discrepancies about where Max said he was and where he actually was on the day of the murder, to which Max defended himself by saying he was always on different sites for his job and likely just got confused about where he was scheduled. Like I'm constantly going back and forth.

Still, they said Max had motive because he had feelings for Jessica. Oh, give me a break, man. Oh, well, he was actually in love with her fiance. Now, imagine hearing this. This is something both he and Jessica insist was absolutely not true, but like this is disgusting. The evidence brought forth by the prosecution far outweighed any hearsay mentioned by the defense. Between the bullet casings, the threatening voicemails, the restraining order, and the detail murder plan in his little handy-dandy notebook, there was little room for doubt. After four days of testimony, the jury left to deliberate, and when they came back, they announced that Greg

Bender was guilty of first-degree murder. Yeah, good. Now, in Florida, that automatically meant a life sentence without the possibility of parole. But there's one thing, Patrick's family and Jessica are actually left wondering. If Patrick had been granted a restraining order against Greg, would he still be alive today, or would the outcome, honestly, have still been the same? Just my opinion, laying in. I don't know. I think that he probably would have done anyways. He seemed pretty set on killing him. I mean... And it's horrible. It's so sad.

Greg still had his gun collection, even though he was supposed to hand it over as part of the order. We know that that was never strictly enforced. No cops showed up to his home saying, hey, give us the guns. And because of that, one of those exact weapons was used to take Patrick's life and Jessica's future with him. Which is why Jessica actually looked at Greg during her sentencing hearing when she gave his impact statement, she said, quote, we were going to have the fairy tale dream and live happily ever after, but this dream never became a reality because it was taken away by this man sitting in the courtroom

today. And that is the murder of Patrick de la Certa. Just senseless. I mean, I hope he wroughts in prison. Hope he hates his life. That's what all I got. Horrible. Absolutely horrible. My heart always goes out to the victim and their families. It's also horrible because there's so much nuance and complexity to Jessica surviving, but her ex-boyfriend being the one who murdered her fiance. And then you add just on top of that the fact that they were in their fairy tale stage of relationship. They hadn't known each other that long.

They just got engaged. Like, this is the most devastating heartbreak a woman can feel. Yeah. And my heart just goes out to Jessica, her family, Patrick's family, everyone who's dragged through the mud at trial. I hope they know that there are tons of people listening to this right now that back them and love them and want justice for Patrick. And we got a little bit of that with Greg being put away in prison. All right, you guys, that is our episode for today and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.

Power, fame, obsession, betrayal. These are more than headlines. They are the forces behind some of most unforgettable crimes in history. We're Sabrina Deanna-Roga and Corinne BN, the hosts of Two Girls One Ghost and our newest show Crimes of, a crimehouse original powered by Pave Studios. Crimes of is a weekly true crime anthology series that explores a new theme each season from Unsolved Murders, Mysterious Disappearances, and more. And since it's a Valentine's season, we're exploring crimes of passion. When love turns into obsession, passion twists into paranoia, and just

Jealousy pushes people beyond the edge of reason. From suburban acts murders to interstellar love triangles, these are the stories where I love you becomes I'll kill you. Listen to and follow Crimes of on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music, new episodes out every Tuesday.