[music]
[Narrator] She was an attractive 29-year-old
looking for love after a difficult breakup.
[Mandy] She was just really looking
for whatever the next steps were for her in life.
You could see a sense of optimism and excitement
around her.
[Narrator] It wasn't long before she fell
for a young man she believed was the love of her life.
[Karen] He's 25, and he's good-looking,
and he's outgoing,
and they seemed to really hit if off.
[Narrator] But their happiness would end
in horrific fashion.
[Jessica] He was laying on the floor
with a pool of blood.
And that image is never gonna be erased from my head.
This was a planned-out execution where somebody did not
leave a lot of evidence behind.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Narrator] As police attempt to find the killer,
a trio of potential suspects emerges.
The victim thinks she's in her perfect relationship
with her dream person,
and things are never as they appear.
There was a lot of things that she did not know about him.
[Andy] You wouldn't look at him and think
this is the type of man that would murder somebody
brutally, coldly.
[Rich] In my career over the 30-plus years
I've been in law enforcement,
this is the first time I've ever experienced that.
This is one of those true crime cases
where it can actually happen to you.
[music]
[Narrator] February 27th, 2018,
panic is setting in for Jessica Devnani.
Despite numerous phone calls over the last three hours,
she is unable to reach her fiancé,
Patrick De La Cerda.
I knew that something was terribly wrong.
I just knew it.
And I tried to call Patrick over and over again,
but there was no answer.
I started calling his brother
and he said he hadn't heard from Patrick.
I ended up calling my dad to see if he had talked to him,
and I said, "Get in contact 'cause Jessica's freaking out."
My dad ended up calling his girlfriend.
She lived maybe five minutes from his house.
She drove to go check up on Patrick.
[Narrator] Patrick lives in a guest house
on a six-acre swath of South Florida property
owned by his father, Max.
[Andy] This was a sprawling property in Deltona,
up against a lake and a pond.
It had a dirt driveway, a gate outside the property.
There was a barn on the property
and the second storey was converted
to be a live-in apartment
that he was living in at the time
and his father lived in the main house.
[Narrator] Shannon Chamberlain,
the girlfriend of Patrick's father, Max,
is the first to arrive at the residence.
She stays on the phone with Max
until she gets in.
The gate is locked, so she has to go around,
and he tells her how to get into the property.
[Narrator] Per Max's instructions,
Shannon heads to the barn.
But when she reaches the door,
Shannon hangs up with Max and immediately calls 911.
With Shannon still on the phone with 911,
Patrick's fiancée, Jessica, arrives on the scene.
I ran up to the door and I saw Patrick.
I just couldn't believe it.
He was lying on the floor with a pool of blood.
And that image is never gonna be erased from my head.
I just was in shock,
like, "This is not happening. This is a nightmare.
This is a dream. Somebody wake me up."
And at that point, I knew
that my whole world was shattered.
[Narrator] Shortly thereafter, Patrick's father arrives.
Aghast at what they've discovered,
Patrick's loved ones can't fathom
who would do this to such a well-like young man.
Born on June 4th, 1992, in Miami, Florida,
Patrick De La Cerda grew up tagging along
wherever his older brother, Brice, went.
We were normal kids growing up in a big house
with a big yard, plenty of pets and animals
and things to entertain ourselves with.
We were always in the garden, exploring, looking
for bugs and animals and snakes and reptiles.
[Narrator] As the boys grew older,
their attention turned from bugs to motorbikes.
[Brice] We were very mechanically inclined,
so we always liked cars, we liked motorcycles,
and, because we grew up as kids together,
we were always building things together, also,
and taking things apart,
and even came up with the idea
that it would be great to have our own business
in the future.
[Narrator] But the boys' childhood bond
was dealt a gut punch in 2002
when their parents, Max and Patricia, got divorced.
When their parents got separated,
they were in middle school.
The two boys were actually split up.
One went to live with Mom. One went to live with Dad.
[Narrator] Patrick lived with his father.
As a young adult, he began working construction with him
and living in an attic apartment on his property.
I'm Pat, the builder.
[Narrator] Outgoing and handsome,
Patrick had always done well with the ladies.
He had this old Hollywood look,
and he was blonde, he had pretty eyes,
definitely a handsome fella.
[Brice] We were always out and about,
and we were always meeting new people,
so he always had girlfriends.
[Narrator] Even so, by the time
Patrick had reached his late 20s,
he still hadn't found the one.
That is until June of 2017.
While scrolling through a dating app,
Patrick met the woman who would sweep him off his feet:
Jessica Devnani,
a 29-year-old banker from nearby Orlando.
[Jessica] I didn't have any hope that I was gonna meet anyone.
But just after a few days
of being on the dating site,
Patrick sent me a message.
And for me to connect with someone,
they would have to start a conversation,
not just a one-liner,
because I will not respond.
And Patrick, right away, he wrote a big paragraph.
I could tell that he was very smart.
And he's very charismatic just right off the bat.
After my first date with Patrick,
our relationship just took off.
It's as if we were waiting to meet each other.
He was definitely my soulmate.
And it's like I knew him for years.
He told me he had met a girl, and I knew he was excited.
He was always with her.
[Jessica] Me and Patrick complemented each other.
Patrick was definitely the extrovert
and I'm the introvert.
I need someone to have that spark
and Patrick had that.
His personality was just full of life
and he was always making me laugh.
[Patrick] [grunting] I did a workout.
[Jessica laughing]
We had so much fun no matter what we did.
I loved everything about him,
just there is not a mean bone in his body.
He treated me like a queen.
[Narrator] After just five months of dating,
Patrick asked Jessica to be his wife.
[Jessica] We were just at his house,
laying in bed,
and he just popped the question. [chuckling gleefully]
He was like, "Will you marry me?"
And I was like, "Yes, of course."
I wasn't expecting it.
[Narrator] Now engaged,
the couple began making plans for their future.
Actually, it was like a miracle.
It was so easy that he came into my life,
and how could someone be so perfect?
It always felt, actually, like a dream.
Patrick and Jessica, actually, were not living together.
But the couple really wanted to move in together
into a new place.
The couple decided to move to South Florida
which is where Patrick's brother was already living.
And this would be a really great arrangement for them.
They could start fresh together
as well as be closer to Patrick's brother
for a fabrication business
that they were planning on doing together.
[Narrator] As moving day approached,
the couple's future seemed brighter than ever.
[Jessica] We were all set.
Patrick had everything boxed up.
And he had scheduled the moving truck to come.
That year, 2018,
I thought it was gonna be the best year of my life.
I was just so happy that my dreams were coming true
and I was gonna live happily ever after.
[Narrator] But on February 27th, 2018,
Jessica and Patrick's happily ever after
has been snuffed out before it truly began.
[Taz] This is, of course, devastating to Jessica.
They are planning the rest of their lives together,
possibly kids, growing old,
and everything she planned for the rest of her life
is gone in this man.
[Jessica] I just felt like I was in a black hole,
like literally a black hole that I can never get out of.
[Brice] It was a horrible day, to say the least.
I was at work,
and nobody had told my mom at this point,
so I had to be the one to call and tell her
that there was a problem
and that she needed to leave immediately.
She broke down and screaming.
[Narrator] At 11:38 am,
officers from the sheriff's department
arrive on scene
and cautiously approach the residence.
[Marah] They have their guns drawn
because this is a six-acre compound.
The shooter could be hiding on the property,
waiting to attack.
[Narrator] Making their way to the barn without incident,
police begin to examine, both, the body
and search the rest of the property.
Police also ask Patrick's family
one all-important question.
[Marah] They were like, "Who could
a possible suspect be?"
It's looking like this is gonna be one of those hard cases,
trying to figure out
who could possibly wanted to kill Patrick.
[Rich] The victim was laying on the stairs
and on the ground floor,
just inside the front door.
A lot of shattered glass
from the front door all over the place.
The victim had sustained some gunshot wounds.
So, clearly, and fairly obvious to a seasoned investigator,
is that Patrick was coming to the door
when he was shot and killed.
And he never got outside the door to answer it.
[Taz] The shell casings that they find at the scene
belong to .300 Blackout ammunition.
They know that this type of ammunition
is used for assault rifles
such as an AR-15.
[Karen] There were two shell casings lying there,
but Patrick was shot four times,
so where did the other shell casings go?
[Narrator] Detectives surmise that the missing shell casings
may simply be a case
of the shooter quickly and a bit haphazardly attempting
to get rid of some evidence.
[Andy] The absence of other shell casings
shows that this person was careful enough
to try to pick up all of their shell casings.
He just missed two, apparently.
[Narrator] Along with the casings,
police are hoping to turn up another key piece of evidence:
the weapon used to kill Patrick.
Oftentimes, these things are discarded in a murder
when the person panics and runs away.
They searched everywhere on that property,
but they couldn't find the gun.
[Narrator] However, investigators do spot
a promising lead...
when they notice surveillance cameras
placed around the home.
[Brice] I had purchased the security system
for my brother 'cause the house is secluded in the woods.
There was infrared lights at night
so the cameras can record.
I told the police to maybe check the recorder
to make sure that, if there was anything
caught on video, that it would've been caught on video,
and where the cameras were.
[Andy] First thing that they're thinking is, "Fantastic."
Even if the video doesn't capture the homicide itself,
maybe it captures a vehicle.
Maybe it captures the person involved.
[Narrator] But when police look for the hard drive
and computer that should contain any footage,
[camera shutter clicking] they hit a roadblock.
[Taz] They see an ethernet cord
and some power cables, but that is it.
The hardware has been removed.
Somebody's taken it out the house.
That was obviously very disappointing
for them to not have that great piece of information
and jumping-off point.
But it was also very telling
because they knew now that they had somebody
who had a little more knowledge
than maybe the typical intruder might have.
[Karen] Someone had been doing some recon at this house
and they knew when people weren't gonna be home,
knew when cars weren't there.
And they knew when to hit, they knew when to strike.
[Andy] Police believe the reason somebody came on the property
was to kill Patrick.
Not to burglarize, not to rob, not to steal,
but to kill Patrick.
[Mandy] In addition to there not being
a lot of physical evidence,
there also was nothing like DNA
and there were no footprints anywhere.
They truly just didn't have anything to go on.
[Andy] To develop any suspect quickly,
they were gonna have to do it through interviews with family
'cause, the more they can know about Patrick,
the more likely it is that they're gonna develop
somebody as a potential suspect.
Does anybody dislike Patrick?
Does anybody have a grudge against him?
Does he have any enemies?
[Narrator] With Patrick's fiancée, Jessica,
still distraught,
investigators turn to his father, Max,
for information.
[Taz] The detectives are asking Max,
"Is there anybody who may have wanted to hurt Patrick?"
And he's like, "You know what?
We've had a couple of incidents with our neighbors.
Him and Patrick have gotten into altercations."
It's January 24 of 2018, about a month prior.
The neighbor claimed that Patrick was trespassing
on his property.
He had fired six or seven rounds,
he claims, into the ground
to scare off Patrick.
Luckily, Patrick was not hit,
he was not injured, and they called the police
and he's arrested.
[Narrator] Could this aggrieved neighbor
be responsible for Patrick's death?
[Tom] It sounded promising at the time
because, who else is dealing with gunfire at their house,
scaring the heck out of everybody?
[Narrator] But when police actually question the neighbor,
hopes of tying him to the crime are dashed.
He was still sitting in jail from that firearms incident
where he fired the shots,
thinking Patrick was an intruder.
So they were able to eliminate him as a suspect
because he's sitting in the cooler at the time.
[Narrator] With the neighbor ruled out, police wonder
if one of Patrick's many former girlfriends
might have murdered him in a jealous rage.
Patrick enjoyed hanging out, meeting new people.
And because he was younger and in his prime,
he dated a lot of women.
You just never know how his past relationships ended
or if they had any ill intent towards him
as he moved on to be in another relationship with Jessica.
[Narrator] However, police take a look
at all of Patrick's ex-girlfriends
and, one by one, rule them out as persons of interest.
[Kiaundra] Moving on very quickly
after you just recently ended a relationship
can definitely be a reason for someone to want
to commit a murder.
But in this case, none of the detectives
saw any of Patrick's exes
as a potential murder suspect for him.
[Narrator] But when Patrick's fiancée, Jessica,
sits down for a formal interview,
she reveals a relationship from her past
that might point police in the direction
of Patrick's killer.
[Rich] 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.
[Narrator] According to Jessica,
she and Gregory had dated for eight years.
But after they broke up,
Jessica was determined never to see him again.
And falling for Patrick only strengthened that resolve.
[Jessica] I told them about the history
and that our relationship was one big lie.
Gregory Bender was never honest with me.
When we first met back in 2009,
I was around 20 years old,
so I was a little bit more naive back then.
[Marah] Gregory and Jessica met online.
He was 42 years old
and she was only 22 years old.
And they fell in love pretty quickly.
[Taz] He worked as a successful hedge fund manager.
And he had the nice cars, he had the nice house.
He looked like money.
[Les] We all started on the sales desk,
making well below six figures.
But Greg had climbed up the ladder
and was doing extremely well.
I thought he was a nice guy.
He was a very hard worker and very smart.
When you think of the Elon Musks of the world,
he's like that kind of personality type,
someone who's highly intelligent but they're a little quirky.
[Narrator] Jessica explains that, despite his quirks
and the 20-year age gap,
she found Gregory warm and endearing.
[Jessica] He was also very charming,
and you could talk about anything
and that's what I was attracted to,
his personality.
[Narrator] Jessica tells detectives
that, at first, everything between her and Gregory
was wonderful,
so much so that, after four years of dating,
they got engaged.
But Jessica says that, not long after Gregory proposed,
he began acting strange.
[Jessica] All of a sudden, he told me
that I can't come over his house anymore
because he got a roommate
and he doesn't want any girls coming over to the house.
And I said to him, "But I'm not like a girl.
I'm your fiancée.
How can you not tell your roommate that?
That doesn't make any sense."
There was many red flags,
but, unfortunately, I was ignoring them.
Being that I was younger back then,
I also didn't see that I would find somebody like him
because I was in love with his personality.
I was in love with him.
And I just wanted our relationship to be honest.
[Narrator] Jessica tells police
that the relationship reached a tipping point
in 2016
when Gregory was admitted to the hospital
for a medical procedure.
[Taz] Gregory ends up having to go to the hospital,
and, of course, Jessica is going to go check on her fiancé
and see how he's doing.
[Narrator] Identifying herself as one of Gregory's loved ones,
Jessica was allowed into the recovery room.
[Mandy] That's when she got the surprise of her life.
Jessica walked into Gregory's hospital room
and she was surprised to see
that there was already another woman
standing at his bedside.
[Jessica] I was just shocked, I kinda showed her my ring,
"I'm his fiancée."
And she's like, "Well, I'm his wife."
And she showed me her ring.
And I was like, "What?"
[Narrator] According to Jessica,
that's when Gregory ordered her out of the room.
Greg was just like, "Get out," so I left.
[Narrator] Jessica tells police
that a few days after the incident
at the hospital,
Gregory tried to make amends.
He called me and he said,
"I'm so sorry. I had to tell you to get out
because she would go crazy."
And I said, "What is this?
You married her. How did this happen?
How could you do that to me?"
[Taz] Gregory is telling Jessica,
"No, you don't understand. This is a business arrangement.
The only reason I married her
was because she needed her son
to go to a better school district.
So I'm just doing her a favor."
[Narrator] In return, Gregory says his wife, Daymara,
agreed to help out with the mortgage
on his multi-million dollar residence
which, given some recent volatility
in the hedge fund markets,
was a welcomed supplement.
[Jessica] At first, I didn't believe it.
I was like, "This is crazy."
He's like, "You were never supposed to find out."
[Kiaundra] I believe that there was more to the story
that he was telling Jessica.
If this was simply a business relationship,
why not tell Jessica that?
Why not be honest from the get go.
She probably was hoping for the best.
But she had to make the decision for herself at some point
to choose her own mental stability.
[Narrator] Unfortunately for Jessica,
even though Gregory was married,
he wasn't ready to let go of her.
He pretty much told her there was no circumstance
that he would ever be okay
with the two of them breaking up.
[Narrator] According to Jessica,
this dynamic played out
between her and Gregory for several more months.
[Jessica] He's like, "I'm gonna harm myself.
I've been with you for eight years,
so, if you ever leave me,
I'm never gonna be able to let this go."
[Kiaundra] You can't have your cake and eat it too.
And to use suicide and self-harm
as a way to manipulate her
to change her mind to want to be with him
is not okay.
[Narrator] In the spring of 2017,
she called it quits with Gregory for good.
Needless to say, Gregory didn't take the news well.
Jessica alleges that Gregory became
even more obsessed with winning her back.
He was always blowing up my phone,
wanting to know what I was doing.
[Rich] Gregory Bender had been
persistently coming after Jessica,
trying to win her back
and, at some points, was making threats.
[Jessica] He wanted to know my every move,
and to make sure that I was still there
and not with somebody else.
[Narrator] But by June of 2017,
Jessica was with someone else.
It was definitely love at first sight.
Patrick asked me to be his girlfriend
on that first date,
so it was definitely fast.
[Narrator] Given the nature of Gregory's threats,
Jessica did her best to hide her new relationship
with Patrick from him.
She knew how possessive he was, how jealous he was.
And she kept it a secret as best she could.
But as many things happen,
Gregory Bender found out through social media.
[Jessica] I told Patrick, I was like,
"Please, I don't want our picture up on Facebook
because, if Greg ever finds out..."
Patrick said he's not gonna hide our relationship
and he's not scared of Greg.
[Mandy] Patrick wanted to be able
to tell the world that he was in love with this woman.
And he convinced Jessica
to post a photo on Facebook.
[Narrator] Before posting the picture,
Jessica created a new profile,
deleted her old profile,
and blocked Gregory altogether.
It wasn't enough.
Jessica tells detectives
that, once Gregory saw the photo,
he not only ramped up his harassment of Jessica
but began to threaten Patrick as well.
[Jessica] Greg looked up Patrick's mother and he's like,
"I know where your mom lives.
I'm gonna harm you guys.
I'm gonna come to your residence.
You better leave Jessica right away."
[Narrator] Jessica says she finally obtained
a restraining order against Gregory
in December, 2017.
[Andy] The restraining order prevented Gregory Bender
from calling, texting, emailing, showing up in person,
so that she would not have to have contact
with Gregory Bender.
[Narrator] Still, Jessica was worried
that the restraining order wouldn't stop Gregory
from coming after her or Patrick.
Patrick assured her that they would get through this.
Jessica tells detectives the restraining order worked,
up until the morning Patrick was killed.
[Jessica] When I got to work, I put my phone away.
So a couple hours passed at work
and his name popped up on the work caller ID.
At that moment, I was in shock.
While he hasn't contacted me since the restraining order,
I got very concerned.
[Narrator] It's just a little over 24 hours
into the investigation
and, because Gregory had violated the conditions
of the restraining order,
police have cause to arrest him
and hopefully question him about any potential involvement
in the murder of Patrick De La Cerda.
[Andy] It's the very beginning of the investigation,
but I think alarm bells are going off
for these seasoned detectives very early on
that Gregory Bender needs to be
somebody that they look closely at.
Gregory had called Jessica at least twice
on the morning of the 28th.
Through the sheriff's office with Volusia County,
he was arrested for violation of that injunction.
[Narrator] With Gregory in custody,
police apply for a warrant to search his home.
[Andy] And when they get him arrested
for this violation of injunction,
they know they've got maybe 24 hours
till he posts bond,
and before he can get back into his house
and potentially alter, destroy, conceal evidence.
So, as that clock's ticking,
law enforcement knows they've got to get a judge to say
you can legally go into that house
and find whatever it is that's evidence of the crime.
[Narrator] As investigators wait for the judge
to approve the search warrant,
they attempt to sit down for a face-to-face
with Gregory Bender,
hoping to ask him about the phone calls
he made to Jessica the morning of the murder,
calls that broke the conditions of the restraining order,
but Gregory is having none of it.
Ultimately, Gregory's attorneys
claim that the calls were made accidentally.
They admitted that he had called Jessica
a few times
but told investigators from the sheriff's office
that it was a mistake and he didn't intend to call her.
[Tom] They said that he had just butt-dialed Jessica
and it was an accidental call,
and blew it off as nothing.
[Narrator] Gregory's attorneys not only claim
that their client knows nothing about Patrick's murder,
they offer up an opinion on who they think
really committed the crime.
They think that Patrick was killed by his own father, Max.
They say, "Well, you know, Jessica is very beautiful.
And from what I hear, Max was trying
to hit on Jessica.
And he wanted his son out of the picture
so that he could have Jessica all to himself."
[Narrator] Detectives are dubious of the accusation.
However, not wanting to leave any stone unturned,
they decide to re-interview Max De La Cerda
whom they originally spoke with the morning of his son's murder.
[Tom] Now, the Volusia County Sheriff's Department
is thorough.
Even though they suspect Gregory
is engaging in some kind of misdirection
by pointing the finger at Max, they look into it.
[Narrator] During his interview,
Max is fully forthcoming
about what he was doing at the time of the murder.
Though, some of the details are a bit fuzzy.
[Marah] He says that he was working a job
and they say, "Oh, you were at a construction site,
but where?" "Oh, I'm not sure."
[Narrator] Max explains the job was somewhere
near the town of Ocala
and offers detectives a way
to further pinpoint his whereabouts that morning.
[Karen] He says, "Here's my phone.
You can check my phone, wherever I was."
[Tom] So he gives his smartphone to the police
who then take a look at the geo tracking
to establish that he was far, far away
from the Deltona house at the time of the murder.
Ultimately, that cleared Max.
[Narrator] In addition to providing detectives
with information that clears him
as a person of interest,
Max also provides them with intel
that adds another wrinkle to the investigation.
Patrick's father was working in a different area of
the state up in Ocala, Florida,
which is about 90 minutes from Deltona,
and that morning, he starts getting messages
from a strange number
and phone calls that someone's at the front gate
to deliver a package.
[Rich] The gate was installed because of the threats
that Gregory had lodged against Patrick.
So they placed the gate up against the driveway.
[Taz] Since Patrick and Max have set up these gates,
it's been a little difficult for people to deliver packages,
and he actually has a sign on the gate, saying,
"Call this number for me to let you in,
show you how to drop off packages."
So this guy says he's calling to drop off a package.
[Narrator] Max tells detectives
that the call didn't seem strange
because Patrick was expecting a delivery
of a surprise custom engagement ring
he designed to replace the one he originally gave Jessica.
[Jessica] When Patrick first proposed to me,
he presented me a beautiful ring,
but, being Patrick, he wanted
to customize the ring a little bit more.
So the ring that Patrick designed for me,
it was actually supposed to arrive
within that week that he passed away.
[Narrator] Max tells investigators
that's why he provided instructions
to the person on the phone
about how to get past the gate.
Max says he then tried to contact Patrick
to let him know the custom engagement ring
was on its way.
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.
And then he sent another text,
"Hey, I haven't heard from you.
Did you get that package?"
And then it snowballed from there.
[Karen] There was some speculation
that Gregory knew that this ring was coming
and that's why he had the package scenario.
But I don't think that he did know about the ring.
I think it was just a coincidence.
[Narrator] Is it possible
that another as of yet unidentified individual
posing as a delivery person
is responsible for Patrick's murder?
To answer that question,
detectives would have to track down the person
who made the call to Max the morning of the crime.
But that would take time.
Cellphone records in today's day and age,
in homicide prosecutions, particularly,
it's becoming one of the most useful tools we have.
In this case, cellphone data was instrumental
in multiple ways.
We knew the number that called Max De La Cerda.
And we knew Gregory Bender's number.
We knew that they weren't the same numbers.
[Narrator] Complicating matters is that cellphone records
show that Gregory Bender, or, at least, his cellphone,
was at home at the time of the crime.
We get Gregory Bender's phone
and it did not leave his house that morning.
It stayed at his home all morning
while the murder happened.
[Narrator] Is it possible
that Gregory Bender is innocent?
While they have little concrete evidence
tying him to the crime,
detectives believe that Gregory Bender
is responsible for the shooting death
of Patrick De La Cerda,
the fiancé of his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Devnani.
When you're dealing with a case that does not have
a lot of physical evidence,
the police really heavily rely on witnesses
and what those close to the case are able to tell them.
[Narrator] Investigators catch a break
when they receive an unexpected call
from Gregory Bender's now ex-wife, Daymara Bender.
The news outlets have already talked
about Patrick passing
and his ex-wife sees the news.
And she decides that she also had a story to tell.
[Narrator] Investigators quickly set up a meeting
with Daymara.
Gregory's ex claims
that, in the months prior to her moving out of the house
she shared with Gregory,
she repeatedly saw him make several entries
in a spiral notebook.
One day, she got a little curious
about what exactly he was writing in there,
so she decided to take a peek.
[Rich] She had seen what appeared to be
directions on how to get to Patrick's house
along with a step-by-step plan
of not only how to get there
but what to do along the way.
[Narrator] Daymara says that she ultimately confronted Gregory
about the contents of the notebook.
[Marah] She knew that it was very weird
and just tried to shake off this very weird encounter
that she had with her at-that-time husband.
I would've been terrified.
"No, sir, I'm not sleeping in this house tonight."
To fantasize about murdering somebody,
that's crossing the line.
It's very psychotic.
[Narrator] On February 28th,
with Gregory in custody for violating the restraining order
Jessica had taken out against him,
a judge grants a warrant to search Gregory's residence
an over 4,000 square foot Tuscan-style villa
in Windermere, Florida.
[Andy] Once law enforcement gets their search warrant
and they get it while Gregory Bender is still in jail,
he's still in custody for this violation of injunction,
they bring the same crime scene unit
that worked at Patrick's house up in Deltona.
And they're working with the sheriff's office
from Orange County.
Once they were in the house, they found
an arsenal of ammunition in Gregory Bender's closet,
multiple firearms, different caliber.
They found body armor.
[Narrator] The discovery of the weaponry
is another black mark against Gregory
and another violation of the restraining order.
[Andy] I believe it's within 24 or 48 hours,
you need is to turn over all of their firearms,
ammunition, to the local sheriff's office.
So, theoretically, once Gregory Bender
had that restraining order entered against him,
he should've turned over his entire arsenal
that he had built up to the Orange County Sheriff's.
Unfortunately, he never did.
[Narrator] One thing detectives don't find
among Gregory's illegal weapons cache
is an AR-15,
the type of assault rifle they believe was used
to shoot Patrick De La Cerda.
However, in one kitchen drawer,
they make a crucial discovery.
They found in a junk drawer
one single casing for 300 Blackout ammunition,
the same caliber of shell casing
that they found at the crime scene
and outside the barn when Patrick was murdered.
[Narrator] Also missing from the home
is the notebook Gregory's ex-wife
claims outlines the plot to kill Patrick.
As the hunt for the notebook drags on,
detectives receive word of a potential problem.
Gregory Bender is on his way home.
[Rich] Gregory Bender was arrested
on February 28th at about 1:00 in the morning.
He was in custody almost 24 hours
when he was released from the Orange County Jail.
He arrived at his residence
but was not allowed access into the residence
because of the search warrant taking place.
And he was not happy.
[Narrator] While Bender waits outside,
investigators finally find what they're looking for.
One detective looks in a trashcan
and there's crumpled up, wadded up pieces of paper,
and there it was.
[Narrator] In less than 48 hours,
detectives in Florida have not only identified
Gregory Bender as the prime suspect
in Patrick De La Cerda's murder,
they have also found what appears to be
a detailed plan for carrying out the crime.
[Rich] In the office area, there was a four-page note
that had been crumpled up and thrown out in a trashcan.
[Tom] They find three or four pages
of a written plan to kill Patrick.
They were shocked, and the first thing they thought
was, "This is not even believable."
An investigator, detective,
can go his entire life investigating homicides,
I think, and not have a situation
where they find a written plan to kill.
It's not only a written plan to kill Patrick De La Cerda
but also maps, drawings.
[Mandy] He really had thought of everything.
It was clear that he had done a lot of research
which seemed to include visits to Patrick's home
prior to the murder.
He had drawn a very accurate map of the property.
He knew the best way to get around the property
without being seen,
and he figured out the best way to access Patrick.
I'm not surprised because he's a detail-oriented person.
I don't think you could reach that level of success
being sloppy.
He sat down, he thought it out,
and he had a plan, unfortunately.
[Rich] Gregory was an intelligent person.
Maybe he needed confirmation in writing out the plan.
"Follow step one. Now follow step two.
Now follow step three,"
instead of just doing it.
This assured him that not only was he gonna get there,
but he was gonna accomplish what he set out to do.
[Narrator] Detectives can only guess
as to why Gregory would be so careless
in leaving such a key piece of evidence behind.
It's entirely possible
that he wasn't planning on being in jail
when the search warrant was executed on his home.
And he didn't realize
that he wasn't going to have enough time
to properly dispose of it.
[Narrator] with the discovery of Gregory's playbook for murder,
law enforcement believe they have a good idea
of how the crime unfolded.
[Andy] On the morning of February 27th, 2018,
Gregory Bender got up that morning
like he had gotten up other mornings in the past,
with just anger, resentment, jealousy, ego.
And he finally put his plan into action,
a plan which led him to getting into his car,
leaving his phone at home, intentionally,
taking a burner phone he had bought,
and then making that drive for 40, 50 minutes
up to Patrick's home.
[Narrator] Police believe that, at approximately 7:00 am,
Gregory Bender made his way
onto the De La Cerdas' property
where, coincidentally, Patrick was anticipating
the delivery of Jessica's newly designed engagement ring.
He walked up to that door,
just knowing exactly what he was going to do.
[gun firing]
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.
He's able to go in the house
and get the surveillance video,
maybe picks up some of the shell casings,
because they find one at his house.
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.
[Narrator] On March 1st, 2018,
less than 48 hours after Patrick De La Cerda's death,
Gregory Bender is charged with first-degree murder.
I was glad that they were able to arrest him
in the timeframe that they did.
And I was just eager to go to trial.
[Narrator] But before the trial begins,
investigators working with the prosecutor's office
uncover another critical piece of evidence,
evidence that pertains to the phone calls
made to Patrick's dad
by the mysterious delivery man.
[Tom] When police overlay the data
from Gregory's personal phone and the burner phone,
they fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
The police found that Gregory powered down his personal phone.
Meanwhile, you can see the burner phone signal
bouncing from cell tower to cell tower
up the road to Patrick's place.
After the murder, the burner phone goes dark
and Gregory's cellphone comes back to life.
[Narrator] Gregory's trial begins on May 25th, 2021.
Prosecutors open by presenting
their strongest piece of evidence.
[Andy] We wanted to lead with the murder plan
and get that in front of the jury as quick as possible
and give them that structure to this case.
In terms of physical evidence,
we wanted to focus on the best thing we had
which was the shell casings.
We were able to conclusively say
the two casings from the scene were fired from the same gun
as the casing that we found in his junk drawer.
[Narrator] After presenting the shell casing evidence,
prosecutors walk the jury through the cellphone records
that placed the burner phone in Gregory's possession
the morning of the murder.
As for key witnesses,
the state puts both Jessica Devnani
and Gregory Bender's ex-wife, Daymara,
on the stand.
They were working in concert in the courtroom
against him
to put him in jail for the rest of his life
'cause he had burned both of them.
He messaged me, saying, if I didn't leave Patrick,
he would harm Patrick.
[Jessica] The trial was very hard
seeing Gregory again in person and having to testify,
but, for me, it was more that I wanted to make sure
that he was put away forever.
So I wanted to make sure
that I did the best that I could
so that that could happen.
[Narrator] Despite the prosecution's strong case,
when it's their turn,
Gregory Bender's defense team
wastes no time poking holes in it.
[Karen] They said prosecutors didn't have
a smoking gun, as it were, 'cause they don't have
the actual murder weapon
and they don't have the surveillance video.
[Mandy] They decided to suggest
that Patrick's father, Max, who he lived with
may have actually had reason to wanna harm his son.
[Karen] And so he gets dragged in there
for the defense as a witness
and he's upset that he's even a part of this.
He's already lost his son
and now he's being accused of killing him.
What you're asking me is making no sense.
I don't think that has nothing to do with Patrick's murder.
It was one of the most heartbreaking things
I have ever listened to.
[Narrator] When it was their turn to cross-examine
Max De La Cerda,
prosecutors made sure the jury knew
that not only was Max nowhere near
the farmhouse at the time of the murder,
but that he was in no way capable
of harming his own son.
[Andy] Max stood up very well in cross-examination.
And we were able to just point to the jury
that it's such a stretch
to say that Max wanted to kill his son
with how much he clearly loved his son.
[Mandy] Listening to the way Max talked about Patrick
on the stand really proved to me
that he was absolutely not responsible.
[Narrator] On May 28th, 2021,
the trial reaches its conclusion.
[Woman] We, the jury, find the defendant
guilty of the charge of first-degree murder.
[Mandy] At Gregory's sentencing hearing,
a short time later,
he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
[Max] I will miss my son
and I regret that I wasn't there for him...
[sobbing]
He was a beautiful soul, a beautiful kid.
I hope they keep you in jail until you die there.
[Brice] As long as I got a guilty verdict at the end,
none of the other stuff made any difference to me.
At least he's out of society,
he's not harassing anybody else
and never will.
[Narrator] Since Patrick's death,
Jessica has moved on as best she can.
But in a cruel twist of fate,
the custom engagement ring that Patrick designed for her
arrived shortly after the murder.
It was on my birthday that I was with Patrick's mother,
Patricia, and Patrick's brother, Brice,
and we were having a little dinner.
And Brice had packaged the ring.
And he had wrote a card.
It was very special because he said
that he was grateful that me and Patrick met,
and that he considers me still as his sister-in-law,
and he's happy to have me in the family.
I still wear my ring every day
as a symbol of me and Patrick's love.
I will always love Patrick,
and the ring is one of the last things
that I have to hold near.
And it's a connection that I have with Patrick.
[Narrator] Jessica has also formed
a professional relationship
with Patrick's brother, Brice,
helping him to promote the business
that the two men had dreamed of creating
since they were kids.
[Jessica] Brice owns a fabrication company
and I'm Brice's social media manager.
He wanted to start it with Patrick
and he wanted to see that through.
[Brice] To this day, she still helps me with it
and I would say that's our little project together.
I'm grateful also for Brice
for letting me be in his life, also,
because they're an extension of Patrick,
and I don't ever wanna lose that relationship.
[Andy] A life lost when you're that young
is the worst kind of tragedy we can see.
We'll never know if he was gonna be a father,
what his career was gonna have,
what joys he was gonna have with Jessica,
vacations, trips, love, marriage.
His life was priceless.
[music]
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh
[streetcar bell dings]