Grant Amato: A Virtual Romance. A Real Tragedy | Criminology — Transcript

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1. 0:00Cody did not go or did your father point
2. 0:01a gun at you?
3. 0:04No, there's there's nothing else that I
4. 0:06can say.
5. 0:08Then you're this is not going to end up
6. 0:10the way you want to with what you're
7. 0:12telling me right now. He didn't cry. He
8. 0:14didn't get angry. He didn't make any
9. 0:16excuses. Just there's nothing else I can
10. 0:20say. But
11. 0:22sometimes silence is the loudest scream.
12. 0:28[Music]
13. 0:35[Music]
14. 0:37This is not just a case. This is a
15. 0:39warning for an era where the line
16. 0:40between reality and fantasy is
17. 0:43increasingly
18. 0:44blurred. If you love in-depth criminal
19. 0:47psychology analysis, don't forget to
20. 0:50subscribe to the channel so you don't
21. 0:52miss any truths hidden in seemingly
22. 0:54absurd stories. Is Grant a victim of
23. 0:58loneliness, of internet addiction, or is
24. 1:01he a dangerous manipulator, ready to
25. 1:04destroy the very people who love him the
26. 1:07most? The journey from a young man
27. 1:09living in a loving family to the biggest
28. 1:12suspect of the investigation. Where to
29. 1:17[Music]
30. 1:19start? Granato was born in 1989 and grew
31. 1:23up in Florida in a stable middle-ass
32. 1:25family. His father Chad was a computer
33. 1:27engineer. His mother Margaret worked in
34. 1:30the medical field. His older brother
35. 1:32Cody was a pharmacist, a family
36. 1:35pride. Grant struggled more than he did.
37. 1:38Although he studied anesthesia, he was
38. 1:40suspended after stealing drugs from a
39. 1:43hospital. With no job and no direction,
40. 1:46Grant was left to fend for himself and
41. 1:48began spending hours a day in a webcam
42. 1:50relationship with a woman named Sylvie
43. 1:53living in Bulgaria.
44. 1:56At first, it was just chatting, but
45. 1:58gradually Grant spent money on her. Not
46. 2:01a small amount, more than
47. 2:04$200,000 taken from his parents'
48. 2:06accounts, his brothers, even his old
49. 2:09student
50. 2:11loans. The family finds out, conflicts
51. 2:14begin, trust is broken, and that's when
52. 2:17things start to slide.
53. 2:21January 25th,
54. 2:232019, things will never be the same
55. 2:27again. On the morning of January 25th,
56. 2:302019, Semino County police received an
57. 2:33emergency call from the workplace of
58. 2:35Cody Amato, Grant's brother. He did not
59. 2:38show up for work, did not call, and was
60. 2:41not
61. 2:42reachable. When police arrived at the
62. 2:44house, they found a chilling scene. Chad
63. 2:46was slumped in the backshed. Margaret
64. 2:48was found near the front door and Cody
65. 2:51in the bedroom, still wearing his
66. 2:52headphones, had been shot in the
67. 2:55head. There was no sign of forced entry,
68. 2:58no struggle, no missing items. All three
69. 3:01of the Amato family members died from
70. 3:03close-range gunshot wounds, and the only
71. 3:06person not present at the scene was
72. 3:08Grant
73. 3:09Amato. Grant is invited to work at the
74. 3:12police station, but what awaits him is
75. 3:14more than just a few routine questions.
76. 3:17[Music]
77. 3:24On January 26th, 2019, just one day
78. 3:28after all three family members were
79. 3:30found missing, Grant Amato was summoned
80. 3:32to the police station for a statement.
81. 3:35He was not arrested. He was not
82. 3:37handcuffed. And he sat down in the
83. 3:39interrogation room chair with a
84. 3:41strangely calm demeanor.
85. 3:44You got to walk through Coke or
86. 3:45anything? No, no, no. I I'll hold off on
87. 3:47this. Okay. Hi, I'm Eva. Hi. How are
88. 3:49you?
89. 3:51I'm here. His voice was calm, his eyes
90. 3:54straight and unblinking as if he were
91. 3:56attending a job interview. Not the most
92. 3:59serious event of his
93. 4:01life. Grant began recounting the details
94. 4:03of the past few days. He said his father
95. 4:06had kicked him out of the house 2 days
96. 4:07earlier because he was still secretly
97. 4:09communicating with Sylvie, a Bulgarian
98. 4:12girl, via webcam, which his family
99. 4:15strongly disapproved
100. 4:17of. When's the last time your dad put
101. 4:19his hands on you?
102. 4:22Uh, the last time my dad put his hands
103. 4:25on me would
104. 4:27be kind of the middle of December of
105. 4:312018 because there was like that
106. 4:33emotional connection. I guess you could
107. 4:35say, between her and me, like I I like,
108. 4:38you know, it felt like like like a
109. 4:40relationship, you know. I didn't want to
110. 4:41just stop cold turkey on it. His dad had
111. 4:44kicked me out on a Thursday because I
112. 4:48was still talking to the woman. When
113. 4:50asked where he was during the time his
114. 4:51three relatives died, Grant said he
115. 4:54slept in a store parking lot, then went
116. 4:56to a Double Tree hotel, and then stopped
117. 4:58at a Panera Bread to connect to the
118. 5:00Wi-Fi. So then Yeah. So, I'm only in
119. 5:03Panera for like 10 minutes or something
120. 5:05like that. And then I end up leaving
121. 5:07from there. And then that's where I go
122. 5:08to the Double Tree. And then that's
123. 5:09where I checked in. And then I was at
124. 5:11the Double Tree all night with all the
125. 5:14money that had been getting spent and uh
126. 5:18I guess just the mix of everything that
127. 5:19I've been saying just kind of boiling up
128. 5:21in him. Um, Grant describes a time when
129. 5:24his father lost his temper just because
130. 5:26of money and how people didn't
131. 5:29understand that he had real feelings for
132. 5:30Sylvie, that it was a relationship and
133. 5:34not an
134. 5:35illusion. During the interrogation,
135. 5:37Grant rarely used the words my father,
136. 5:40my mother, my brother. Instead, he used
137. 5:43they, them, he, she. It was a
138. 5:48manifestation of distancing language, an
139. 5:51unconscious language to separate himself
140. 5:53from the deceased and from
141. 5:58guilt. When police asked about physical
142. 6:01evidence, time of death, phone records,
143. 6:04blood stains, Grant began to give vague
144. 6:07answers, changing little details. He
145. 6:10insisted he never went back to the
146. 6:12house, didn't have a gun, didn't know
147. 6:15what happened. But the surveillance
148. 6:17cameras, phone records, and even strange
149. 6:19blood stains on his clothes seemed to
150. 6:22tell a different story. When I had come
151. 6:25back that other time, I frosted in front
152. 6:27of the the red the dude's fence, the red
153. 6:32blinking lights ones. Um, what time was
154. 6:34that? I can't I can't remember. That was
155. 6:36that was Friday during the day when you
156. 6:38said you were going to come back, right?
157. 6:39Yeah. I think that there was something
158. 6:42that obviously happened at the house.
159. 6:45Tell me what happened. I don't know what
160. 6:47happened. You just said it. You know
161. 6:49something bad happened there out of your
162. 6:51voice. Not mine. I didn't I have not
163. 6:52told you anything what's happened there.
164. 6:54Something bad happened. You've been here
165. 6:56with us. You think something bad has
166. 6:59happened at your house. And to date, so
167. 7:02long you haven't even asked us about
168. 7:04anybody. Once a a bomb goes off, you
169. 7:07can't diffuse it. You can't. That's
170. 7:09already out there. Now is the point to
171. 7:12say, "How do I put band-aids on myself
172. 7:14to minimize the the injuries I
173. 7:21[Music]
174. 7:30have?" But Grant didn't confess. He
175. 7:33stuck to his story. No tears, no
176. 7:35apologies, just a long silence and a
177. 7:39calculating look in his
178. 7:43eyes. What Grant didn't say is what has
179. 7:47psychologists asking the bigger
180. 7:49question. Is this a defense or a subtle
181. 7:52manipulation?
182. 7:57When's the last time your dad put his
183. 7:58hands on you?
184. 8:01Uh the last time my dad put his hands on
185. 8:04me would be because uh with the way that
186. 8:08I was acting, he just he didn't see that
187. 8:13I was doing anything for like the
188. 8:15positive. Um you know, and a lot of it
189. 8:18just came back to money uh with him. Uh
190. 8:21January 4th, did you agree to go? I I
191. 8:25didn't, but they said that you know,
192. 8:26this was your only Who said? My dad.
193. 8:29Okay. And that was in Fort Lauderdale.
194. 8:31Yes. Yeah. Notice how Grant switches
195. 8:33from my dad to he and then they. This is
196. 8:37a sign of distancing language. When a
197. 8:40person is guilty or feels guilty, they
198. 8:42often distance themselves from the
199. 8:44victim by using a distancing pronoun.
200. 8:47I had never, as embarrassing as it is,
201. 8:50I'd never been on my own. The longest
202. 8:52period I'd ever been away from anybody
203. 8:54is 2 weeks when we were up in Japan.
204. 8:56Before he uttered the word embarrassing,
205. 8:58the corners of Grant's lips pursed
206. 9:00slightly and his eyes darted to the
207. 9:02left. Micro expressions of
208. 9:05defensiveness. Despite his modesty, his
209. 9:08body betrayed his insecurity and
210. 9:09avoidance. So then, yeah. So, I'm only
211. 9:12in Panera for like 10 minutes or
212. 9:14something like that. And then I end up
213. 9:16leaving from there. And then that's
214. 9:17where I go to the Double Tree. And then
215. 9:19that's where I checked in. And then I
216. 9:20was at the Double Tree all night. The
217. 9:22story is told in a smooth timeline with
218. 9:25little pause and no emotion. This may be
219. 9:28a sign of a scripted narrative, a story
220. 9:31that has been prepared in advance in the
221. 9:33mind. Innocent people often tell stories
222. 9:35with intricate details mixed with
223. 9:38emotion because they really remember
224. 9:40liars reenact. I think something
225. 9:43happened at the house based on my
226. 9:45knowledge right now. And you're afraid
227. 9:47to say it. You're afraid to to come back
228. 9:50and say that I was a victim.
229. 9:53You already made the decision on whether
230. 9:55or not they can live or not.
231. 10:00This is a manifestation of body
232. 10:02blocking, a defensive posture as if
233. 10:05trying to block the flow of information
234. 10:07from the outside. The body freezes in
235. 10:11the moment of being confronted with the
236. 10:13truth. The classic reflex of fight,
237. 10:16flight, or freeze. He did not go or did
238. 10:19your father point a gun at you?
239. 10:22No, there's there's nothing else that I
240. 10:24can say.
241. 10:26Then you're this is not going to end up
242. 10:29the way you want to with what you're
243. 10:30telling me right now. This is the key
244. 10:32point. Instead of reacting strongly to
245. 10:35being associated with the extreme plot,
246. 10:38Grant simply responded in a short,
247. 10:40silent voice. The lack of emotion in his
248. 10:43response was out of sync with the
249. 10:45seriousness of the question, suggesting
250. 10:47that something was probably hidden.
251. 10:50Every word he chose, every glance, every
252. 10:54stillness. There was no direct evidence
253. 10:56of a confession, but the body language
254. 10:58and micro expressions told a different
255. 11:00story. A story that Grant may have tried
256. 11:03to hide, but his own body betrayed him.
257. 11:07Forensic evidence begins to mount, from
258. 11:09phone records, time of death, and DNA at
259. 11:12the scene. Can Grant's silence stand
260. 11:14against all of that? Grant never
261. 11:17officially admitted to his actions. But
262. 11:19the evidence from cameras, phone data to
263. 11:23blood stains paints a complete picture.
264. 11:26In the circuit court of the 18th
265. 11:27judicial circuit in a for seminal county
266. 11:30Florida State of Florida versus Grant
267. 11:31Amato case number
268. 11:351933 CFA. It took the jury less than 8
269. 11:38hours to reach its verdict. Grant Amato
270. 11:41guilty of firstdegree murder of three
271. 11:43victims. He was sentenced to life in
272. 11:46prison without the possibility of
273. 11:49parole. No more webcams, no more
274. 11:51fantasies, just silence forever this
275. 11:54time.
276. 11:56Grant a motto, a man obsessed with
277. 11:58virtual love or a cold-blooded
278. 12:01manipulator. There is no confession,
279. 12:03only actions. So what do you think? What
280. 12:06is the truth?