- This is 29-year-old Jessica Devnani. The footage you're about to see was filmed just minutes after Jessica's picture-perfect life took a disturbing turn for the worse. On February 27th 2018, Jessica's fiancé, Patrick De La Cerda, was expecting a delivery at his home in Deltona, Florida, a package which contained a custom made engagement ring he had bought to surprise Jessica.
The night before, Patrick had left his fiancée this voicemail. - Patrick was never heard from after that. At 11:30 AM, the Volusia County Sheriff's Department receives a call about a man who was found shot in his home.
When police arrive at the scene, they carefully make their way down the nine-acre property, unsure if the shooter is hiding nearby. - Is it attached to the barbed wire? - As they get closer to the guest house, officers are quickly approached by Jessica.
- Please. On the front door. - Whose house is this?
- This is my boyfriend's house and his dad's house. - Where’s the dad? - He's at work.
He's on his way. - Okay. Ma'am, come over here.
Stay here behind the tree. - But nothing could have prepared the cops for what is waiting for them around the corner. On the floor in the entrance, 25-year-old Patrick was shot four times through the glass door.
- I don't know how we're gonna get past him to get up those stairs. There's blood at the top of that. - We got a camera above us too.
- There’s cameras all over the place. - They have no way of knowing if the shooter is still inside watching through the surveillance system. - Sheriff's Office!
If you're inside, you need to announce yourself now. - While officers make their way inside the guest house, others go around the property to the other buildings. - Sheriff’s Office, announce yourself.
- Volusia Sheriff’s Office. If you're inside, announce yourself. - All right, go ahead.
Nice and slow. - Sheriff's Office! If you're in there, come out now!
- As it becomes clear the killer has gotten away, police have no idea that Jessica is still in danger and that the man she will later be seen with in this footage, a man Jessica seems to trust who appears to be comforting her, has been planning the murder of her fiancé for months, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. - Clear. Clear.
- All good? - This building is secure. Are there any others that we need to clear?
- While police finish securing the perimeter, Jessica is waiting in a patrol car. Before long, TV news choppers start hovering above. - A 25-year-old Volusia County man is dead and deputies say someone shot right through his front door.
- This is not a random act of violence. - After learning the news, Patrick's father Max, who shares the nine-acre property with his son, arrives home. - He was not at home when any of this stuff happened.
He works construction. He happened to be working a job an hour-and-a-half or so outside of town. - Patrick's father is completely distraught.
- I never got to say goodbye to my son. I never got to talk to him, nothing. - But when approached by an officer, he reveals a clue that could help the investigation.
- We learned that Patrick's father had received a phone call from someone posing to be a delivery driver. - At the gate there was a sign that said, “For packages or delivery drivers, call the phone number,” and it was Max's phone number. - Max relays that information to Patrick.
“Hey, there's a package. There's a delivery at the gate for you. ” But he doesn't really get a response from Patrick.
- So now we start thinking, is that delivery driver possibly related to the murder? We make the decision that we're gonna take Patrick's father and the fiancée to our district office in Deltona. - Start getting statements from the two initial victims.
I know you're gonna be doing crime scene. - While Patrick's body is transported to the medical examiner's office. Jessica and Max are brought in for further questioning.
- We're looking for any reason why someone would want Patrick dead. - The first person in the interrogation room is 29-year-old Jessica Devnani. Although she's terribly upset by the death of her fiancé, Jessica wants to help in any way she can.
- I told law enforcement everything about my relationship with Patrick. - It's June 2017, eight months before the death of her fiancé. Jessica works as a bank teller in Orlando, Florida.
She just recently ended a tumultuous relationship and is finally ready to move on, so she decides to join a dating app. - I didn't have any hope that I was gonna meet anyone, but just after a few days, Patrick sent me a message. I could tell that he was very smart and that he was very charismatic.
As soon as we met, I knew he was the one. It was kind of like love at first sight. Our relationship just took off.
It's as if we were waiting to meet each other. Patrick was the life of the party. Any room he would go to, he would light it up.
His personality was just full of life and he was always making me laugh. - Oh, this is a workout! - I loved everything about him.
There was not a mean bone in his body. He treated me like a queen. - Jessica, look this way.
- Patrick and I, we had our whole future planned out. He wanted kids. He wanted a relationship with his mother.
- Patrick was a wonderful son and he loved kids, he loved babies, and I really was looking forward to have grandchildren from him. - We were gonna have, like, a fairytale life. - And one day he came and he said, "Mom, this one is the one.
This one is the one. " - December 2017. Jessica's life is about to change as Patrick has a surprise in store for her.
- We were just, like, you know, laying in bed, and he just popped the question to me. Of course I said yes. I was so excited.
It was one of the best moments of my life. - The day of their engagement, Patrick offered a temporary ring to Jessica, one she could wear while he worked on a custom-made ring with a jeweler. - The ring that Patrick designed for me, it was actually supposed to arrive within that week that he passed away.
He never got to give it to me. - On the morning of February 27th, Jessica wakes up to see that Patrick has already texted her, but when she tries to call him, she gets no answer. - I didn't think too much of it because, I mean, it was early in the morning.
When I got to work and I tried to call Patrick over and over again and there was no answer, which I thought was weird because he always answers every phone call, I just felt like something was wrong. I left work right away to check on Patrick. The drive felt like it was forever.
- Jessica fears the worst because of the disturbing threats the couple had received. - I was on the phone with Patrick's dad, Max. We both were trying to get in touch with Patrick and there was no answer.
- Patrick's father Max is also on the phone with his girlfriend Shannon after he asked her to go check on his son. And while Jessica and Max are racing to Patrick's house, Max can hear Shannon arriving at the scene. - His tone all of a sudden changed.
I said, "What's wrong? Is Patrick okay? " He was silent.
He didn't say anything. And as soon as I got there, I ran up to the door and I just found Patrick was on the floor with a big pool of blood next to his head. It was just the worst thing you could ever see in your entire life.
My whole world was taken away. - With the gunman still at large. Detective Weaver and his team begin combing through the crime scene searching for any clues that could help them understand the circumstances of Patrick's murder.
The first thing they notice inside the house, nothing is missing. All the valuables are still there, which quickly rules out the possibility of a robbery. - Don't walk that way, Sam.
There's two shell casings on the ground. - There had been a total of six rounds fired, four of which struck Patrick. The crime scene unit was only able to find two spent shell casings.
- So we knew we had somebody who’s smart enough to pick up shell casings at the crime scene. - With how close they were to the body, I immediately realized that this was a calculated murder. - Patrick was coming to the door when he was shot and killed and he never got outside the door to answer.
- The shell casings were unique, . 300 Blackout. It's not something that we commonly see on these types of cases.
- It is a high-caliber, high-level impact. It's ammunition that goes in an AR-style weapon. - I mean, that's extremely violent, and it reflects the degree of intense rage that was present.
- During our initial walkthrough, we discovered that there were video cameras. - We got a camera above us too. - There's one, there's, I mean, cameras all over.
- The first thing think they're thinking is, “Fantastic! ” Even if the video doesn't capture the homicide itself, maybe it captures the person involved. Maybe it captures a vehicle.
- We went upstairs in Patrick's room where the DVR recording system should have been. It had been ripped out of the wall and taken. - Clearly this wasn't a random killing.
- Someone had a vendetta against Patrick. - It was personal and it was planned. It was an assassination.
- Back at the station, Detective Weaver tries to find out who would want to murder Patrick. That's when Jessica tells him about a bizarre incident that happened the month before. - In a strange twist, News 6 discovered the young man has been shot at before.
- January 24th of 2018, about a month prior, the neighbor claimed that Patrick was trespassing on his property, - Ahoy! Ahoy, neighbor! - He had fired six or seven rounds to scare off Patrick.
- Patrick wasn't harmed, but he did call the police. This is helicopter footage of the man being tackled and arrested by police for that incident. Detective Weaver thinks he now has a promising lead.
- Right away we wanna find the neighbor. Could he be the shooter who came onto the property stealthily and got Patrick to come downstairs and killed him? - Just hours after Patrick was found murdered, investigators send someone to the neighbor's house.
- Is he home now? - I don't know. We're gonna try one more time.
- But after knocking on every door and window, they get no answer. - Nobody. - Strange.
- You're gonna run his name through a law enforcement database and we found out this individual could not have committed the crime because he physically was in custody at a jail facility. - So we were able to check him off the list. - Detective Weaver then asks Jessica if there's anyone else who could have the motive to kill Patrick.
That's when he learns about a series of ominous voicemails the couple had received. - I was really scared because, like, he was always shadowing my life. - It appears there was one person who wasn't happy with Jessica's newfound love, her ex-boyfriend, Gregory Bender.
- Jessica informed law enforcement that she had had a prior relationship with a gentleman, Jessica's ex, Gregory Bender had been persistently coming after Jessica trying to win her back. - 2016. Bender was a successful hedge fund manager who lived in this million dollar house in Windermere, a wealthy suburb just outside of Orlando.
Although he and Jessica had been dating for a while, their relationship was far from perfect. As time passed, Bender became more and more controlling and Jessica recalls feeling trapped. - He was very possessive.
He said that if I ever left him that it would never be pretty. - But the relationship came to a head in early 2016 when Gregory Bender was admitted to the local hospital for a medical procedure. Jessica decided to drop by for a surprise visit, but when she got to his room, there was another woman at his bedside.
- She's like, "What are you doing here? " I was like, "What are you doing here? " And then she showed me her ring.
She's like, "I'm his wife. " - She was this woman, Daymara Sanchez. Confused and angry, Jessica left the hospital in a hurry.
- My heart just dropped. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock.
- In the following days, Bender tried calling her to make amends, giving a bizarre explanation about his private marriage, which did nothing to reassure Jessica. - He said, "I'm so sorry. " And he told me that he had only married her as, like, a business marriage.
He was just trying to help her out and they had an arrangement together. - And Jessica essentially said, "Well, break it off with her and get a divorce or you and I are finished. " - And he said, "No, just give me a little bit more time.
Just give me a little bit more time. I'm gonna make it happen. " I couldn't take it.
- The discovery that Gregory Bender had been hiding the fact that he was married gave Jessica the push she needed to gain back control of her life. Not long after, Jessica ended her relationship with Bender. - Jessica believes that, “Hey, that chapter's finally closed in my life and I'm ready to start fresh.
” - But while she was convinced her life was going to get better, she had no idea how far Bender was willing to go to get her back. - He said, "You can't do this to me. I'm not gonna let you go.
" He wanted to know my every move and to make sure that I was still there and not with somebody else. I blocked Greg from everything. I wanted him to leave me alone.
- Bender began harassing Jessica, calling her repeatedly, reaching out to her family, stalking her on social media, and when all else failed, he would show up at her work. - When the police came to my job at the time, I had the police officer listen to the voice message. - And they're like, "Well, it still doesn't mean anything.
We can't do anything based on verbal harassment. " They even called Bender. They said, "Oh, he seems fine.
Like, he seems cool and collected. " And I was like, "Yes, that's Bender. He's very conniving that way.
" - Jessica tells Detective Weaver that Gregory Bender just couldn't live with the idea of any other men in her life. But just one month later, Jessica met Patrick and they began dating. - I definitely wanted to be clear with Patrick that I did have a very jealous ex-boyfriend.
I was afraid that he would find out about our relationship. I told Patrick, I was like, "Please," I said, "I don't want our picture up on Facebook because if Greg ever finds out," you know, but Patrick said no, he doesn't wanna hide us. - Patrick wanted to tell the world he was in love with Jessica and nothing would change his mind.
He eventually convinced Jessica to post a single picture on Facebook. Before she agreed, Jessica had created a new profile, deleted her old profile, and blocked Bender altogether. It wasn't enough.
- He had found out about me and Patrick through Facebook. He had found my profile. - Things went downhill from there as Bender began threatening Patrick as well.
- He had looked up his name online and he found his address and phone number and at that point he was threatening Patrick. Greg looked up Patrick's mother and he said, "I know where your mom lives. " He's like, "I'm gonna harm you guys.
I'm gonna come to your residence. You'd better leave Jessica right away. " - Patrick took it very seriously.
He did get a security system installed at his residence as well. - He also installed a fence at the entrance of the property. But Gregory Bender could not be deterred.
As the months passed, things only got worse. - In November 2017, Jessica and Patrick had had enough. They presented the tapes and text messages to a judge who then granted them a restraining order against Bender.
Bender was ordered to stay away from Jessica and turn in his large collection of firearms to authorities. - With the restraining order. Bender was not allowed to call me, message me, no form of contact whatsoever.
He was not allowed to come near my workplace or my house. And I also listed Patrick's residence in the restraining order. - And in all appearances, the restraining order worked.
The threats and harassment stopped. Patrick and Jessica could finally breathe a sigh of relief. - We thought he did go away.
We didn't hear anything and we felt confident. - Only once did Gregory Bender violate the restraining order and called Jessica at her work. It was the first time in two months and it was on the morning of Patrick's murder.
- Gregory had called Jessica at least twice on the morning of the 28th. - He called you this morning? - Yeah, on my work phone, because he's not allowed to call me, so I got scared.
That's when I texted Patrick. - So when she got the phone call and saw on the caller ID that it was Gregory Bender, flags started going up, and that's when made her so worried. - In that time it was very clear that he was the most promising lead.
- Detective Weaver finally has a prime suspect in Patrick's murder, and he also has an idea. Now is the time for Jessica to return Gregory Bender's calls, but this time police will be recording everything. - Best case scenario would be he would admit Patrick's murder to her.
But what we're doing is we're trying to collect as much information as we can. - Investigators are hopeful Bender might say something incriminating, but everything depends on Jessica. Just hours after she found her fiancé's body shot down, she's asked by police to call the man they think killed him.
- That very night they said, “Call him and try to get a confession from him. ” I was very scared just to talk to him. - Jessica has spent the last few months doing everything she can to avoid contact with that man and now she's going to have to confront him.
Jessica is terrified, but she doesn't think twice. - I just wanted to try to do everything I could to help the investigation. - She really wanted to solve Patrick's murder.
She did that without hesitation. - Jessica is nervous. She doesn't know how Gregory Bender is going to react.
But before she can say anything, Bender speaks up. - But Jessica has too much anger and she doesn't hold back. - There's no panic in his voice.
It's almost like this was rehearsed, it’s like he knew that we would be recording that conversation. - So I said to him, "Why did you call me on the morning that Patrick passed away? " And he said that, "Oh, it was a mistake.
I accidentally dialed your number thinking it was a coworker. " - The odds of him accidentally calling her twice, that doesn't seem very likely. - While Jessica is not pulling any punches, Gregory doesn't say anything that could be used against him.
But as the call is about to end, he makes a surprising move. - He's like, "Let's meet up, let's talk. " - Bender offers to meet Jessica just hours after her fiancé was brutally murdered.
It appears he is still trying everything he can to get Jessica back. - That's where the phone call ends. - She did a heck of a job on the controlled call, but they are nowhere near probable cause to arrest him for first degree murder.
- However, there's a chance Gregory Bender knows the investigators are onto him. They need to act fast before he destroys any valuable evidence they may not know about. They decide to arrest Bender for violating the restraining order, which will give police only 24 hours to build their case against him.
But even with their prime suspect behind bars, Detective Weaver doesn't have any proof that would link him to the murder. This is when investigators receive a tip from the most unexpected source. - A day or so into our investigation, we also received a phone call from Bender's wife.
- What made Daymara come forward was that, she sees the news and sees that Patrick De La Cerda was murdered. Daymara tells me that she has information that she believes can help our investigation. She's very, very nervous.
She didn't want us coming to her house. She doesn't want to meet at a police station or at a sheriff's office. - Daymara asks to meet investigators in a parking lot a few miles outside of town.
When they arrive, the frightened woman quickly gets into the police car. - She's kinda having a hard time really, you know, articulating what she has, and she was in shock and she was terrified of Gregory. Months prior to this murder, she had discovered a notebook that belonged to Greg.
Didn't really know what it was, thought it was some sort of journal. One day when he wasn't home, she went through the notebook and she had discovered a murder plan. - She had seen what appeared to be directions on how to get to Patrick's house.
- Schematics, a playbook that Bender wrote of how he would do the crime, how he would get in, how he would get out, how he would cover his tracks by throwing away evidence. - I confront him and I asked him and he said it was a fantasy. - He told her that, "Hey, this is just fantasy.
I would never do anything like this. " And she kinda dropped it. Now here we are two months later and Patrick's dead.
- This crucial information provided by Gregory Bender's wife allows authorities to finally get a search warrant for his house in Windermere. The idea that Bender wrote everything down in a notebook could be invaluable for the investigation. But Detective Weaver doubts they will be able to find it.
After all, the man who shot and killed Patrick went through extraordinary lengths to conceal his identity. - The main thing we were looking to find was ammunition that matched that . 300 Blackout caliber ammunition found at the scene, the murder weapon, and this notebook with the murder plan.
And we don't find these things that we're looking for, we're back at square one. We can't prove that Gregory Bender killed Patrick De La Cerda. - But almost as soon as he arrives at Bender's home, Detective Weaver makes the most shocking discovery of his entire career.
In the office, inside a recycling bin, he finds several crumpled up handwritten pages. - I look down and in the trash can right on top, I see a map, a hand-drawn map on some torn out pages from a spiral notebook, and I was in shock, like, there's no way that we just found this murder plan. - It's almost unbelievable and just shocking that he would forget something so simple as tossing the murder plan in a trash can and not throwing it away.
- Some of the first things in it were directions and it actually had Patrick De La Cerda's address, Howland Boulevard. - The sketch of the property was spot on. - The bullet points written on the murder plan give precise directives that would explain how Bender was able to get away unnoticed.
“Put duct tape on a second pair of shoes, so no tread prints. ” “Wait for confirmation that he is alone, then turn off cell phones. ” “Dispose of clothes, plate, tracker, gloves.
” - That gave us premeditation to show to a jury, but we needed a way to physically tie him to the crime scene. - Inside the house, police also find an arsenal of ammunition, multiple firearms, and body armor. The discovery of the weaponry is another violation of the restraining order against Bender, who was ordered to hand over everything to the authorities.
Investigators also uncover a large amount of . 300 Blackout bullets, the same bullets used to kill Patrick De La Cerda. But one thing they don't find in Bender's collection is an AR-15, the weapon that uses those bullets.
It appears Bender disposed of it after the murder. Unfortunately, even if it's obvious to them that Gregory Bender killed Patrick, police have no murder weapon and nothing that can prove Bender was physically at the crime scene. As the search of the house nears its end, Weaver takes one last look inside a junk drawer from the kitchen and finds the most damning piece of evidence yet.
- A spent . 300 Blackout shell casing. - Not a unfired piece of ammunition, but a discharged shell casing of .
300 Blackout ammunition. This is huge. This is a potential piece of physical evidence that could directly tie Gregory Bender to the crime scene.
- The shell casing is sent to the lab for analysis and police now have probable cause. On March 1st 2018, less than 48 hours after Patrick De La Cerda was shot and killed, Gregory Bender is charged with first degree murder. But investigators have not yet seen the footage that will turn Jessica Devnani's life upside down, and Bender's defense attorneys are planning to use it against her in court.
- They informed me the next morning that Greg was arrested. I just felt relieved and I was just eager to go to trial. It was a long road two years after the murder that we finally got to see trial and it was the worst years of my life.
Everything was a blur. Every night was a nightmare. - Jessica and I, we felt victimized every single day for three years and a half because we had no voice.
Absolutely no voice. - I was getting through this difficult time with the support of Patrick's family, his mother very specifically, and she's been very loving towards me. To be at the trial was very hard, but we would face it together.
- It's May 25th 2021, three years after the murder of Patrick De La Cerda, the trial begins. When Gregory Bender walks into the courtroom, he looks confident and relaxed, almost like he's sure he's going to win his case. - His confidence was very surprising considering the evidence we had against him.
- But with no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses, and no DNA at the crime scene. . .
- Ultimately this case is a circumstantial case. - Patrick De La Cerda was the victim of a murder, a detailed and meticulously thought out murder plan and a tragic ending in which he was shot four times in the head, face, chest, and hip. - And we'll show that there's more than just one or two people that have motive and opportunity in this case.
- Gregory Bender had money. And he bought some good defense attorneys. We knew we had a good case, but we knew it had to get stronger or we could lose the case.
- The courtroom is quiet. While everyone is paying attention to the opening statements, Gregory Bender has his eyes fixed on Jessica. - It was very uncomfortable because I was facing the monster and he was staring at me most of the trial.
He wouldn't take his eyes off of me. They had to tell him, you know, “You have to look away. You can't just keep staring.
” After one of the instances, he wanted to know who I was with when I attended one of the court dates. - While Jessica sits in the audience surrounded by Patrick's family, Gregory Bender gets instantly jealous thinking that Patrick's brother might be Jessica's new boyfriend. - He was still even then jealous of who I was with.
- As the prosecutors call their first witness to the stand, it's Jessica Devnani who walks up to give her testimony. She's about to face the man who killed her beloved fiancé, ready to tell the truth about the months leading up to the murder. - We knew going into it we were gonna present Jessica.
- I just wanted to do the best I could to bring the truth out. You know, to see that Patrick's killer is put away for life. It was really hard.
I was really nervous. - But Jessica is about to discover what the defense attorneys have in store for her. Right away they attack her credibility by showing a series of secretly recorded videos.
In the footage, she's seen having lunch with Bender on November 7th 2017, in the early months of her relationship with Patrick. A week later another video shows Jessica and Bender meeting for dinner. There's a scene of the two of them entering and leaving Bender's home.
He's seen touching Jessica's leg for the camera or leaning in for a kiss. The videos are meant to convince the jury that Jessica and Bender were still a couple. - You started dating Patrick in June.
Why are you dining with Greg and going to Greg's house in November of 2017 if you're happily moving on with Patrick? - But Jessica is ready. She fights back with a statement that shocks the courtroom and the defense's strategy blows up in their face.
- Because the defendant was threatening and I was trying to calm him down and he said that if I went to see him, he would not harm anyone. It felt really odd. I felt like he was trying to put on a show because he kept, like, trying to get close to me and trying to hold my hand, which he never used to do.
I was like, "What are you doing? " I was like, "What are you trying to do? " - Jessica quickly exposes the truth that the secretly recorded videos were all a setup and that Gregory Bender had hired a private investigator to follow him around.
- Did you actually see these videos? - I did. - What did he do with it?
- He had given it to Patrick. - Did that cause some strife between you and Patrick in your relationship? - Yes, we had a fight and we had broke up for a few days.
- Did the two of you end up getting back together after that? - Yes. Throughout the trial, Gregory Bender remains stoic until his ex-wife Daymara Sanchez takes the stand, the one he claimed to have married only as a business relationship.
- Were you married to Mr Bender? - [translates to Spanish] - Si. - Yes.
- As she begins her testimony, Bender breaks down, showing emotion for the first time in the trial - It was a plan to kill the guy. . .
- “The guy” is Patrick? - Yeah. - After her testimony, Gregory Bender is seen saying "I love you" to her across the gallery.
- Don't talk to anybody in the courtroom. - Now that the jury has seen what kind of man Gregory Bender really is, how he meticulously thought out, jotted down, and put into action his murder plan, it's time for the court to hear exactly what happened on the morning of Patrick's murder, because there's one piece of evidence that has yet to be revealed, and it will define the fate of Gregory Bender. The man who was convinced he was going to outsmart the cops with his perfect plan made the most ridiculous mistake.
February 27th 2018, at 6:13 AM, the security camera from a neighbor catches Gregory Bender's car leaving his house. He drives for 45 minutes from Windermere to Patrick's house in Deltona. After parking his car, he puts on the second pair of shoes with duct tape underneath.
Then he makes his way onto the property. - The dirt road that was drawn on the murder plan runs down the side of the property. It's pretty heavily wooded down this way.
So I think he walked on foot until he got to this opening. - At 7:15 AM, Bender is lying in wait just out of view while he makes the phone call to Max posing as a delivery driver. While Max is relaying the information to Patrick via text message, Bender waits, his rifle aimed at the front door.
He can see through the glass, positioned just a few feet away. He doesn't want to miss his mark. When Patrick makes his way down the stairs, he opens fire, shooting six times through the front door and killing Patrick De La Cerda.
- Gregory took out all his rage, all his jealousy in those shots, and accomplished what his one goal in life was at that point in time, which was to kill Patrick. I'm sure there was some level of satisfaction that he had done it. He had pulled off in his mind what the perfect murder was and that he was gonna get away with it.
- Bender hurries inside, rips the DVR from the security cameras out of the wall. As he makes his way back out of the house, he remembers to collect the shell casings. - He leaves two there.
He gets rid of the rest of them, but he keeps one. That really ties Gregory Bender to the crime scene. - After disposing of the evidence and the murder weapon, Bender keeps the shell casing as a memento, a trophy to remind himself what he accomplished.
That was a mistake. - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was able to tell us that the two casings recovered at the crime scene were shot from the same exact weapon as the weapon that shot the single shell casing recovered from Gregory Bender's junk drawer. - He couldn't take that Jessica left him and wouldn't come back to him because of Patrick De La Cerda.
- This case is about the difference between a fantasy and reality. People should not be judged on their worst thoughts just because they put them to paper, but that's what they're doing in this case. - On May 28th, after three days of testimony, the trial finally reaches its end.
After just a few hours of deliberation, the jury comes back with a verdict. - We the jury find the defendant, Gregory Bender, as follows. Guilty of the charge of first degree murder as charged in the indictment.
- In Florida, a conviction of first degree murder is an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole. - I wanna thank all of you for having put evil where it belongs. - I hope they keep you in jail until you die there.
Until you die. Because the moment you step out, I'm gonna finish you off. The same thing you did to my son.
- Mr De La Cerda, Max, you have to address the judge. - I understand that. - You have to address the judge.
- I will miss my son. He was a beautiful soul. A beautiful kid.
- I hope you feel some peace, Patrick. Rest assured, the man who took your life is going to pay with his own life now. Patrick's mom and I, we went out to the cemetery in West Palm Beach.
We brought some cake and we brought some champagne and. . .
- They both wanted to share the news with Patrick and celebrate his victory. - We finally did it. We got the guilty verdict.
- The only reason that make me feel better is that I lost my child for love. He had love in his heart when he passed. He was going down the stairs to get the ring.
- While Patrick never got the chance to give her the ring himself, Jessica Devnani was finally able to put it on as she celebrated her 30th birthday, a surprise finally delivered by Patrick's family. - I still wear my ring every day as a symbol of me and Patrick's love. Patrick will always be the love of my life.
The ring is one of the last things that I have to hold near, and it's a connection that I have with Patrick. I want Patrick to be remembered with nothing but a sense of love because of the love that he had to show everyone. - Patrick taught Jessica to live her life to the fullest and every day she does her best to make him proud because she knows that's what Patrick would have wanted for her.
- I will go on for Patrick. I will live in his happy memories close to my heart.
