Close to Home (2005) s01e22 Episode Script

We're going to have to pay for that.
I'm worth it.
Do you know the man you shot? No.
Did you plan to kill him? No.
Sohat happened? What, you and your girlfriend Amanda isn't my girlfriend Take your dad's car Amanda isn't my girlfriend.
and you drive to a motel and decide you're going to shoot a perfect stranger for kicks? No, that's not what happened.
Then why don't you tell us what did happen, Billy? She met him online.
The victim? Yeah, on favespace.
Favespace? It's a Web site where people chat online.
He talked her into meeting him.
AMANDA: He said he was a freshman at Notre Dame.
He drove down to meet me, but when I got to his motel room, it was this old guy.
He was bald and he smelled bad.
Oh, my God.
Why in God's name would you meet a stranr at a motel? You know better than that.
You could have been raped, you could have been killed Mr.
Ross, we're going to have to ask you to wait outside.
Okay.
Go on.
I'll be quiet.
BILLY: He was supposed to be a college guy, only he turned out to be a perv.
DRUMMER: Now where were you? I just dropped Amanda off.
She told her parents that we were going to the movies.
That's what he told me, too.
And then what happened? He kept trying to get me to drink rum and cokes and take my shirt off.
He kept saying he needed a hug.
He offered me money.
He had this camera he wanted to tape me with.
The door was locked and chained.
I thought he was going to rape me.
Oh, Amanda.
Did he touch you? He kept trying to, and so I told him I had to pee.
I went in the bathroom and texted Billy.
BILLY: She texted me a meage that just said, "Help.
" So you grabbed a gun from your house and went back.
No.
My-my dad keeps a gun in the glove box.
The glove box? MAN: I have a permit.
I went, I went back to her motel room door and I heard this sketchy guy, like begging Amanda take off her clothes.
The gun was just to scare him.
AMANDA: There was a knock at the door, and when the guy opened it, Billy came in holding the gun.
BILLY: The bald guy.
The pervert.
He got real aggressive with me.
He was really drunk.
He kept shoving Billy, trying to scare him.
I told him to back off.
It's like he didn't even care that Billy had a gun.
But he wouldn't listen to me! I was crying so bad I could hardly breathe.
And I shot him! And then Billy shot him.
Boom, boom.
I don't know what happened.
I just ueezed the trigger.
My hand was, my hand was shaking so bad.
ANNABETH: Why did you run away? I was scared.
And there was blood everywhere, and I didn't want my mom and dad to find out.
I felt stupid for even meeting that pervert.
I just wanted to get out of there.
You could have called the police.
I know I should have.
Were you ever going to? You shot this man twice and fled the scene.
I was just so scared.
Whato we know about the victim? Well, his name's Evan Bennet.
He's 35 years old, no priors, married, two kids.
Works at the Weekly Chronicle.
And poses online as a college boy.
It's the wild, wild west out there.
Pedophiles are posing as whatever works.
If the victim really is a pedophile, good luck getting a conviction on a murder charge.
ANNABETH: Look, I want to believe these kids, and given the state of the world, their story is credible, but they didn't make any effort to let anyone know what was going on.
Instead they just left the victim to die.
I could make a case for intent.
There's also an argument for self-defense.
Let's seize Amanda's computer and the victim's computer and see if this online chat story checks out.
And in the meantime, until the facts tell us otherwise, we'll hold Billy for murder one.
Welcome to the information super highway.
Why you doing this? My husband was not a child molester.
He was a good man and a devoted father.
How much time did your husband spend on the computer, Mrs.
Bennet? That's photography, not pornography.
The computer, did he stay up at night using it? He's the one who was killed.
He's the victim, and you're treating him like Mrs.
Bennet, I'm prosecuting the young man who killed your husband, so I need to know all the facts.
The defense is going to argue that your husband was an online predator.
Well, he wasn't.
Predators are very good at keeping secrets from their families, especially their wives.
Maybe he was meeting that girl to interview her.
He w an investigative reporter.
Do you really believe your husband was doing an interview in a motel, at night, with an underage girl? Well, he often met people at strange places and strange hours.
Mrs.
Bennet, did your husband usually tell you what he was working on? Yeah.
But not this time? I guess not.
We found something here.
Are these girls members of your family? No.
DANNY: The victim's computer is a horror show.
He downloaded thousands of photographs over the last three months.
He has links to child porn sites, e-mails to kids where he poses as a high school student or college guy.
Sometimes even a little girl.
Ah, here's one.
"Sometimes I do my homework in my underware, how about you?" "Ware"-- W-A-R-E.
DANNY: Yeah, he misspells words on purpose.
Sick.
What did we find in Amanda's computer? Exactly what she told us-- e-mails from Bennet, cluding one where our college boy confirmed their meeting at the motel.
He even sent her a map link so she wouldn't get lost.
Amanda spent dozens of hours exchanging messages and images with Mr.
Bennet.
ANNABETH: And the catch is, her pictures are real, his are fake.
He poses as a college-age Brad Pitt.
What are we looking at? It's Amanda's favespace Web page.
She calls herself "Hot Girl"? Kids create identities for themselves on this site.
They post photos, discuss their interests.
They're creating alter egos for themselves.
But her alter ego is "Hot Girl.
" Isn't that a little provocative? It's pretty tame, compared to her friends.
Check this out.
Hello.
Pretty normal nowadays.
A virtual invitation to a sexual predator.
"Hot Girl" certainly caught Evan Bennet's eye.
She pursued him, too.
She initiated several of the e-mail chains.
This guy chatted with fifth graders, too.
Pedophiles call it "phishing.
" Drop your bait and reel them in.
We do need to know if he was on assignment, but this doesn't look like investigative journalism to me, and if he was doing a story, it just provided him with cover for his pedophilic behavior.
I'll talk to his paper.
Bennet was doing a story called "My Life As a Perv.
" What? Yeah.
He was writing an expos? on how easy it is for sexual predators to do their thing-- collect child porn, lure kids-- and how all the while, they keep it hidden from their friends and family.
Wait, you knew he was contacting these children online? Of course.
They were the primary sources for the article.
But his wife didn't know what he was doing.
She wasn't supposed to.
That was part of the story.
Bennet was a bit of an unorthodox guy.
Do you think we could look at his notes? Yeah.
ANNABETH: According to his notes, Bennet befriended these kids online in order to get them to meet him for interviews in person.
Befriended them how? By complimenting them.
Sometimes offering to buy them presents or give them money.
You call that journalism? I'm sorry, but that crosses the line.
You don't lie to kids, and you don't bribe them into mting you.
I totally agree with you, but he was writing a story about predators.
That's what they do.
Okay, let's see if we can find these so-called sources.
See if they corroborate his notes.
If they do, Billy and Amanda's story begins to fall apart.
Well, their story is already falling apart.
Here is the ME's toxicology report.
Said the victim wasn't even intoxicated, not even a little bit.
There was alcohol in his mouth, but he never ingested it.
What, he rinse with it? Also, the rum bottle we found in the room-- no fingerprints on it.
Somebody wiped it clean.
If Bennet wasn't the crazed pervert Billy and Amanda describe lly's claim that he killed him to protect Amanda goes out the window.
We know you talked to Evan Bennet.
You can't tell my mom, okay? You have to promise.
You do understand I'm a police officer.
You can still promise.
Why don't you tell me what you know and we'll see.
You ever met this man? He offered me 500 bucks to meet him at the mall.
Figured it wouldn't be a big deal to show up at the food court and collect my money.
But when I got there, he was different than his picture he e-mailed me.
He was a reporter.
He told you that? Yeah.
He said he was working on some story about how pervs meet girls on the Web.
You know a girl named Amanda Ross? No, I don't.
This guy Evan Bennet, he ever try to touch you? No, he just kept asking me questions about why I talk to guys like him.
He ever try to get you to go to a motel with him? No.
So he never tried to molest you? No.
He was a nice guy.
He promised not to tell my parents what I'd been doing.
Just as long as I stayed off the Web.
He said if he ever saw my image up again, he would contact them and tell them to take away my computer.
He said he was a pare, too.
That's why he was doing the story.
We know Bennet was a journalist doing an article about the dangers of the Internet.
He met with half a dozen kids as part of his story.
We've spoken to all of them.
And? I want to know if Amanda still wants to stick to her prior statement.
Why? Don't you believe her? Mrs.
Ross, all of the kids Mr.
Bennet interviewed corroborate the fact that he was very up-front with them about being a reporter.
He didn't act like a reporter.
He acted like a monster.
You're the only one who claims that.
Ask Billy what happened.
He was there.
My son deserves a meda for what he did.
They don't pass those out fokilling an unarmed man.
A man Billy claims was acting drunk and aggressive.
We know the drunk part isn't true.
All the ME's report shows is that Bennet wasn't intoxicated.
Doesn't prove he wasn't acting crazy.
Doesn't prove he didn't intend to hurt that girl and Billy.
It proves someone poured rum into his mouth to make him look drunk.
ANNABETH: The evidence shows you not only failed to report the murder, you altered the crime scene and participated in a cover-up.
I want to know who did what.
You've already admitted to pulling the trigger, so you're in the hot seat.
What did Amanda do? Nothing.
Billy was protecting me.
If he testifies about Amanda's involvement, is there a deal on the table? No, no deal.
Why are you protecting her? Just give us a moment to discuss this.
No! Aren't you listening to me? There's nothing to discuss.
don't appreciate you talking to me like I'm some criminal or something.
Why did you and Billy kill Mr.
Bennet? BILLY: Amanda met him in a chat room.
She thought he was in college.
Only he turned out to be a pervert! That pervert got real aggressive with me.
I told him to back off, and he wouldn't.
So I shot him.
Boom, boom.
Daddy, I want a lawyer.
ANNABETH: She'll need one.
We're charging her with conspiracy to commit murder.
Conspiracy to commit murder.
Miss Ross, how do you plead? Not guilty, Your Honor.
The People request that bail be set in the amount of $300,000.
Oh, that's ridiculous.
We request that my client be released to her parents, Your Honor.
ANNABETH: Without posting bond? HELLMAN: She doesn't pose a flight risk.
Really? She's shown little regard for the judicial process up until now.
She lied to the police, she lied to our office That remains to be proven.
She fled the crime scene, that's a fact.
These are the facts.
My client is a straight-A student.
She is the president of her student council, she is a youth volunteer at her church.
She has no prior history of any disciplinary problems whatsoever.
We have a list of over and on the other hand, the so-called victim in this case was a pedophile who lured this young lady into a motel room, for the sole purpose The only persons of molesting her.
who claim Bennet was a predator are your client and her coconspirator.
Not true.
Kayla Philby was molested by that man a year ago, and she will swear to that on the stand.
While I admire your flair for the dramatic, Mr.
Hellman, you would be best served to save it for the trial court.
Setting bail at $200,000.
( gavel pounding ) Next case.
Amanda is the victim here, and that guy, Evan Bennet, was the criminal.
He lied to her, he seduced her, and he dupeder into meeting him at that motel.
I think the only one who's been duped is you, Doug.
Your client has lied to everyone all along.
She sounds credible to me.
And you know who else ds? That girl.
Do you know Amanda Ross? Yeah, we go to school together.
When this reporter tried to molest her, too, I had to come forward.
So what happened, Kayla? I was chatting on myfavespace and this guy said that he was a modeling agent.
He said I was unique.
He wanted more pictures of me, so I agreed to meet him.
Where? At his studio.
Where was his studio, exactly? Downtown, off Meridian.
Okay.
He He, um The reporter guy had a big camera.
Except it was video.
He said I might be able to do movies, too.
He wanted me to pose in my underwear.
I was scared.
He said I should have a drink, you know, like whisky.
He locked all the doors, and I couldn't get out.
He said if I told anyone, he'd kill me.
When did this happen? Last summer.
Can you be more specific? It was August.
EDITOR: She's ing.
Bennet was doing a story down in Texas last August on the Iraqi war protests.
I've got dates and receipts if you want them.
He was down there for the whole month with one of my photographers.
I can get you an expense report.
Yeah, we'll need it.
I don't understand how these girls can just lie like that.
Clearly, Kayla is just trying to help her friend.
I'll sue them.
I can sue them, right? Amanda and that girl Kayla? For slander, defamation, for taking my husband's name, reputation, and memory and running it through the sewer.
I don't think now is the time for that.
No, then when? When would be the right time? Mrs.
Bennet, a civil suit would just shut people up and impede our prosecution.
My neighbors-- they look at me like I'm some kind of monster.
The parents at my son's day care, pull their kid's close when I pass.
They probably think I molest kids, too.
My little girl she just wants her daddy back.
And I tell her I do, too.
MAUREEN: Your statement is worthless, Kayla.
The dates don't match, and we can prove it.
I don't understand.
Your daughter lied to us about the molestation.
Oh, that can't be.
It takes a lifetime to build up a reputation, Kayla, but just one minute to destroy an innocent man's name.
We're charging you with perjury, a Class D felony, that carries a sentence of six months to three years.
Oh, my God.
Kayla.
Amanda Amanda had video of me with the boys at this party.
With boys? Having sex.
MOTHER: How many boys were you with? She taped this? Mom, I'd been drinking.
I hardly remember any of it.
Oh, my God.
And she blackmailed you? She said she was going to post the video unless I told you guys this reporter molested me.
Post the video where? On the Internet, like she's done with her Web parties.
What do you mean, Web parties? Amanda gave a bunch of us these webcams for our bedrooms.
You've seen it, Mom.
It's right on top of my computer.
Send some investigators out to the school.
I want to know why Amanda's been giving away these webcams.
And if she's tri to blackmail anybody else.
Amanda blackmailed her, Doug.
Look, nobody can prove that anybody blackmailed anybody.
Now this young lady Kayla is obviously confused and ashamed and looking for ways of gaining attention, sympathy.
Save it for the jury.
This was a desperate attempt to cover up a murder, and you know it.
Doesn't a murder require a motive? Now what motive would Billy and Amanda have for killing Evan Bennet if he wasn't a child molester? See, that's what I thought.
You don't have one.
Without one, you don't have much of a murder case.
Amanda got Billy to set up the webcam for me.
He even installed some software he wrote.
He's such a nerd.
Billy did this? Yeah, he's really smart.
He like skipped two grades.
I heard he could have gone to college last year, but his dad wanted him to get his driver's license first.
So what did Amanda get out of this? What do you guys do on these webcams she gave you? Nothing.
We talk to each other.
Sometimes we play strip poker and stuff.
You guys played strip poker on the Internet? Yeah, all our friends do it.
And Amanda would organize this? Yeah, she would organize other stuff, too.
Skinny dipping dares, cheerleaders gone wild.
Just goofing around.
It's not like anybody touched anybody.
You guys want us to abstain, the Web is like the ultimate safe sex.
And Amanda would host these parties on the Web for everyone to see? Oh, not everyone.
We just showed stuff to each other and the boys we liked.
Sure, I watch the girls' webcam parties.
I mean, who wouldn't? They play strip poker.
It beats Jeopardy, man.
So you save these webcasts? Yeah, I download them, burn them for my friends.
You know, not all the guys get it for free.
Wait, wait, wait.
This girl charges people on the Internet? Yeah, they use mycyberwire, dude.
MAUREEN: We're issuing a subpoena to mycyberwire.
I want to nail down who's buying these webcasts, and exactly what they pay.
STEVE: What's mycyberwire? MAUREEN: It's an online payment service.
If I agree to buy something on the Web, say photos or webcasts, I pay through mycyberwire, which has my credit card number on file.
Is that safe? It is if you're buying pornography.
There's no record kept of how the money is spent.
Just dollar amounts, dates and a record that money changed hands.
Why haven't we found evidence of these webcasts on Amanda's computer? She must have stored the images on an external hard drive the police couldn't find.
What about Billy's computer? Nothing yet.
He encrypted his hard drive.
We can't open the files.
Detective Ortiz has three guys working on it around the clock, but we still managed to get copies of these webcasts from other guys at the school.
I got a pair of threes.
I got an ace.
Well, I got three aces.
You lose, Sarah.
All right.
Here goes.
There you go.
Wow.
These girls look like they're totally oblivious to the fact that anyone's watching.
Why didn't we do that stuff when we were in school? Jack.
God, what if this was Haley? Hey, if Haley ever tries anything like that, she's grounded for life.
I'm talking locked in the room until she's married.
Yeah, like you're not going to try that anyway.
I've got an idea.
Why don't me and you go in the bedroom and make our own video? Hmm, that sounds like fun.
We're married, it's legal.
Honey, I'm sorry, just have to go through all these DVDs.
All right.
I have motions to prepare.
It's always something, isn't it? I'm sorry.
Annabeth, you've been pushing really hard since you lost that trial.
I know I have.
Well, you need a break.
What do you want me to do? I'm up at the crack of dawn, I take Haley to day care, I work all day, and then I come home to make dinner, and I still have things left to do for the case, Jack.
I mean, I can't just be at your beck and call.
Right.
Amanda's been profiting off these webcts she organized.
at an average of $40 apiece in the last six months.
She's a high school senior, and she's running a $320,000-a-year business from her bedroom? Okay, we're in the wrong line of work.
She makes more than we do combined.
So I'm thinking Amanda's sellinonline tickets to watch her school friends play strip poker on the Internet.
This couldn't have been just boys from her school paying to watch this.
She must have sold monthly passes to outsiders.
Pedophile's dream.
This girl is smart.
She was careful not to participate in the webcasts heelf.
How could she do this without participating? Well, if she had a webcam in her room, she must have dumped it before we got there.
She's probably communicating with her buyers through instant messaging.
You can't trace it.
Which gives us a motive for murder.
Evan Bennet must have discovered her little online entrepreneurial streak.
How? Well, pervs have their own chat rooms.
They probably tued him on to her.
She wasn't afraid he was going to molest her.
She was afraid he was going to expose her.
So why did Billy shoot him? Well, we know he set up the webcams.
He must have been involved in her business.
I'm just here to inform you that, in addition to the conspiracy to commit murder charge, and all the other charges you're facing, we'll be adding distribution of child porn.
You can't prove that.
We can prove she sold explicit images of underage kids online.
Now, you have no evidence aside from her mycyberwire account, and that just proves that she got money.
You can't ove for what.
Doug, we've got dozens of witnesses-- kids who paid to watch the webcasts, kids who are in the webcasts, sometimes unwittingly, including the girl she triedo blackmail into defaming the victim.
I'd like a minute alone with my client, please.
Okay, she's willing to deal.
She'll confess? No.
She won't confess to any wrongdoing, and she's not going to testify against her friend Billy.
No.
No deal.
Wait, wait, wait, it.
Wait a minute, now.
She may have something potentially more valuable than a confession.
Evidence that could lead to the arrest of the people who purchased her webcasts-- over 500 of them.
Now, what if you had a log of who received what-- images, names, dates, specific requests for underage girls? She could give us that? Hypothetically.
If she did, you could get search warrants, and my guess is, if you search their houses, you could find everything that you need to put these sexual predators away for a very, very long time.
In exchange for? A walk.
Two walks.
One for her, one for Billy.
That's a nonstarter, Doug.
Besides, think she's bluffing.
I don't believe she has any of this evidence.
And, if she does, it's only a matter of time before we find it.
Well, what if there's a hard drive you don't know about.
The police haven't found it now.
What makes you think they'll find it later? Think about that.
I mean, they're two smart kids.
They can go to college, get on with their lives, and you get to put 500 child molesters behind bars.
You'll be a hero.
And they get away with murder.
Everything in this life has this price, Annbeth Just balance the scales.
Every predator-slash- child molester preys on 100 kids in his lifetime.
That's a lot of victims and a lot of ruined lives.
I can't make this deal.
Look, if we can find a way to put enough pressure on Amanda, then maybe she'll turn over the evidence she has and agree to do time.
That's a big if.
Or maybe Billy's computer has something on it.
That's an even bigger if.
Steve, I know I lost a big trial, but Annabeth, this is not about trusting you.
It's about making judgment calls.
That's 500 creeps, Annabeth.
Indy 500.
My killers walk, Jack.
People end up thinking Bennet was a child molester.
How do we explain that to his family? I mean, if this had happened to us, I wouldn't want Haley's memory of you to be that you re some pedophile.
It wouldn't.
You'd see to that.
So will Bennet's widow.
I just don'tant to give up.
So don't.
It's not in your nature, anyway.
I'm sorry I've been so busy.
Don't worry about it.
You know, one of the benefits of me working so much is that I get to save up a lot of vacation time.
Oh, yeah? Yeah.
We could use it to go somewhere.
Maybe somewhere exotic.
Ooh.
Exotic.
Yeah.
I like that.
With a beach.
Maybe topless.
Not going to happen.
I don't want us to be so busy that we start drifting apart.
What about Haley? Haley can stay with my mom.
So just the two of us on a beach? Let me think about that.
( giggles ) ( phone rings ) Uh-uh.
You're not on vacation yet.
( ringing ) This is Annabeth.
You cracked it? The guys finally opened Billy's files.
ANNABE: Please tell me you found enough to put the Indy 500 away.
Sorry we didn't.
Billy programmed all this encryption just to hide the fact that he was only watching one person online.
Just one? Now, imagine that this is your hand, and, when I do this, it's you touching me.
Feels really, really good, Billy.
Lover.
You're the only one.
No one else gets to do this but you.
Billy.
Thousands of hours of this filth, all perfectly cataloged, too.
Dates, times.
He watched her do everything.
This stuff, dressing, homework, showers She had a webcam in the bathroom? Bathroom, bedroom, closet.
He wated her from all angles, all day, all night, all the time.
This kid even watched her sleep.
Oh, Billy, I love you so much.
I dream about you doing this all night long.
This was on your computer, Billy.
Thousands of hours of Amanda Ross on video.
I don't see what this has to do with anything.
The kid had a crush on her.
So what? You were obsessed with her, weren't you, Billy? Is that why you've been protecting her? Why you killed for her? You helped her sell child porn online, too, didn't you? You're the one who knows computers.
This is your last chance to help yourself.
I'm not going to testify against Amanda.
Billy, she used you.
Can't you see that? She took advantage of you.
Do you really think she loves you? Do you really believe you were the only one watching her? The only one she put on these webcam shows for? I know I was.
I programmed her webcam.
I designed the software.
Guess what.
She outsmarted you.
You logged every hour of Amanda's private shows, so we compared the times she was ing that to the times payments were deposited into her mycyberwire account.
She was selling a lot of tickets to the shows you were watching.
HELLMAN: You called this meeting.
I assume it's regarding our proposal? It is.
We're rejecting it.
With all the hysteria surrounding pedophiles nowadays, the jury is just going to eat their story up.
Their story? Her story.
Billy's testifying against her.
Here's a counteroffer.
You confess, and turn over the evidence you have, we'll consider a reduction in the years you spend in prison.
I don't think so.
we'll see the court time Billy,why did you killed Evan Bennet Because Amanda asked me to.
Mr.
Bennet had figured out that she was making money by getting her friends to striptease and do stuff on the Web.
And she was scared that we were going to go to jail.
You, too? Yeah.
Because I helped her with computer stuff.
Billy, will you describe how you and Amanda carried out your plan to kill Mr.
Bennet? Yeah.
She got him to meet her at a motel.
My job was to wait in the car until she texted me.
That's when I went up to the room and shot him.
Was that the entire plan? No Amanda wanted to make him look like a perv, so she told him to bring his camcorder.
She said it was for the interview, but it was really to make it look like he wanted to make a video of them having sex.
She also brought rum to make him stink like a drunk.
I I poured rum into his mouth afteI shot him.
And what happened next? We were supposed to wait for the police and she was going to act all, like, "Oh, no! Oh, no! The pervert molested me!" But I chickened out and ran.
Well, that's some story.
Not the same story you told the police though, is it? No, sir.
It's the story you told the prosecutor's office in exchange for a more favorable plea deal, isn't it? It's the truth.
The truth? The truth is you were the one that shot Evan Bennet.
Yes.
And now you're trying to put the blame onto my client.
She told me to kill him.
So she forced you to do that? She put your finger on the trigger and she made you pull it? BIY: She said e said I could touch her.
Excuse me? Amanda said that if, that if I killed Mr.
Bennet that I could touch her.
For real.
I loved her so much that I said yeah.
So you are telling me that you agreed to murder another human being simply in exchange for the chance to touch this young lady? Aren't you listening? Oh, you're coming through loud and clear.
Amanda, why did you agree to testify today? Because I want the people to know the truth about what happened.
And because I wanted them to know how easy it is for kids to be tricked by pophiles on the Internet.
So it doesn't happen to other children.
That's right.
Why don't you begin by telling the jury how you first got involved with webcams? I got my first webcam two years ago as a gift from my grandparents so I could chat with them in Florida.
Billy showed me how to use it.
And at some point did you begin talking to other people besides your grandma and grandpa online? Yes.
Including strangers? Yes.
Did any of these strangers ever offer you money or gifts? Yes.
This guy offered to set up a mycyberwire account for me if I tried on my bathing suit for him.
Then more guys started asking me to do things for them, too.
What sort of things? Exercises, aerobics.
One man wanted me to paint my toenails for him.
's not as creepy as it sounds.
Did these men ever ask you to do sexual things for money? Yes.
Men like Evan Bennet? Yes.
Now did he ever, at any point, tell you that he was a reporter? No.
He tried to molest me.
He kept pawing me and trying to get me to drink stuff.
That's why I texted Billy.
Billy said you already had a plan to kill him.
Now, is that true? No, I didn't know Billy was going to shoot him.
I didn ask him to do that.
He did that on his own.
I think he was jealous.
HELLMAN: Thank you, Amanda.
Amanda, just so we're clear.
You're saying you never met Evan Bennet before that night at the motel? Never, not once.
And you had no idea he was an investigative journalist? Is that your story? That's the truth.
The People would like to recall Billy Hampton to the stand as a rebuttal witness, Your Honor.
Billy, had you ever seen Mr.
Benn before that night you shot him? Yes.
Where? a cafe.
That's where he and Amanda met in person for the first time.
But they had talked before.
He said he was writing a newspaper story about Web sites like hers.
She told me all about him.
So why were you there? To protect her, in case he turned out to be a perv.
So you mean you followed Amanda to the cafe without her knowing? Yeah, they didn't see me.
I even took a picture.
Billy, I'd like you to look at the People's exhibit.
this an enlargement of the photo you took that day at the cafe? Yes.
So why did Amanda and Mr.
Bennet meet later at the motel if they'd already met at the cafe? Because she didn't want to do the interview in public.
She told him that she'd only do it somewhere really private like a motel.
She'll plead to conspiracy to commit murder and give you the evidence she has on the people who purchased the webcasts.
In exchange for? Eight years.
Same as Billy.
Billy cooperated.
She'll do 20.
But Billy's the one that came up with the idea to sell the webcasts to start with.
Amanda, it's over.
You can stop lying now.
I'm not! He's the one that wanted Mr.
Bennet dead.
He's the one that wanted to protect the business.
Why would he? You're the one who kept all the money.
That was my cut.
He made his money blackmailing the pervs.
Some of these guys are doctors, lawyers, businessmen.
Billy tracked their puhases.
He told them he could get them arrested.
Unless they paid him off.
To an offshore account he set up.
Why didn't she tell us about this before? She thought if she had, she would have conceded her guilt.
She is guilty.
BIY: She's lying.
Again.
We obtained bank subpoenas for your webcast customers, Billy.
We know that dozens of them withdrew tens of thousands of dollars over the last six months and it's only a matter of time before we confirm that they wired the money into the same account, yours.
They'll never agree to testify.
We can be pretty persuasive.
We had a deal.
The deal's off.
Both Amanda and Billy have agreed to do 20 years, each.
And we're getting evidence that could put hundreds of sexual predators behind bars.
My daughter's five years old, and last fall we were online talking to some of the kids from her kindergarten class.
We didn't think anything about it.
Until we realized some creep was posing as one of her classmates.
As a five-year-old.
It's almost incomprehensible.
My husband died trying to do something for these children who are victimized.
I'm just glad he didn't die in vain.
So you and Jack are really going away? Yeah, we made plane reservations for Hawaii.
Jack found this little place on the beach with a view.
It's so romantic.
I am so jealous.
Hey, guys.
What is it? Annabeth, there's been an accident.
Jack was driving home.
He was on his way to pick up Haley.
He was hit by a drunk driver.
They've airlifted him to the hospital.
He's okay, though, right? How badly was he hurt? Tell me.
I'm sorry.
Please.
No.
Please.
Don't leave me.
Please, don't leave me.