Did Amato try to pin killings on kin?
Prosecutor said he attempted to frame his dead brother for deaths
Margaret Amato was the first to die that afternoon in January, prosecutor Stewart Stone said, shot once in the head while sitting at the desk in her home office.
Next, her husband, Chad Amato, was shot twice in the head, shortly after he got home from work, Stone said. The last person to die was Cody Amato, the middle son, who was shot through the face hours later, as soon as he walked into the family’s house on Sultan Circle.
During his opening statement Tuesday in the trial of the family’s youngest son, Grant Amato, Stone told the jury that Amato stayed in the home for hours after killing his relatives, meticulously planting evidence in an attempt to shift the blame from himself, instead implicating Cody Amato in the killings of his family.
“What the defendant did in this case, is he staged a murdersuicide scene,” Stone told the jury of 12 and three alternates, who were seated Monday evening. “And in order to do that, he planted certain items of evidence at the scene to give the appearance of a murder-suicide.”
But Amato’s defense lawyer, Jared Shapiro, told jurors that no physical evidence ties Amato to the killings — and the lack of an alternate suspect isn’t enough to prove his client’s guilt.
“’If not Grant, then who?’ is not a legally sufficient argument to convict Mr. Amato in this case,” Shapiro told the jury.
State: Guns staged
Among the evidence cited by Stone were two handguns and four shell casings the prosecutor
said Amato planted near the bodies of his family members.
Chad Amato was found with a gun holstered on his right hip, Stone explained. But the way the holster was facing, the person wearing it would have to use their left hand to draw the firearm. Chad Amato was right handed.
Another gun — which matched the four shell casings found at the scene — was found feet away Cody Amato’s body.
“So it would appear obviously that that was the gun Cody used to kill his mother, kill his father and kill himself — or so it would appear,” Stone said. “That’s how Grant Amato would like it to appear.”
“It’s wrong,” he added. Though the shell casings found near the bodies were proven to have come from the gun lying near Cody Amato, the bullets that killed the family did not come from that gun, Stone said. He claimed Grant Amato fired four rounds from the weapon, then placed the casings to make it appear as though Cody was the killer.
The actual murder weapon, Stone said, has not been found.
Stone began his presentation by showing the jury a picture of the family’s home as it appeared Jan. 25, the morning the bodies were discovered. None of the home’s 32 windows and doors had been damaged or broken, Stone said, and there were several valuable items left inside.
Grant Amato began softly crying as Stone described the position of each of the bodies.
“But why?” Stone asked. “What was his motive? Why did he kill his family? The answer to that question lies and will be found across the ocean in Bulgaria in a woman named Silvie – if that’s her real name.”
‘He was furious’
Stone claimed Amato was “addicted, consumed and possessed” by Silvie, a webcam model, and stole about $200,000 from his family to spend on the relationship. He created a false persona of himself as being rich and successful, driving a BMW and working as a professional gamer.
That reality came crashing down when his parents discovered the theft and told Silvie about the lies, Stone said.
“That effectively ended his relationship with Silvie,” Stone said. “Silvie now knew that Grant Amato was not a professional gamer, did not own his own house, did not drive a BMW. And to Grant Amato, that was the end of the world. There was nothing to live for and he was furious to his family for ending his world.”
For hours, while Amato’s family lay dead inside the home, Stone said Amato planted the evidence and used a banking app on his father’s phone to create an account in his own name. He later left the home and went to the parking lot of a nearby Publix, where he used his brother’s credit card to send Silvie $600.
“That’s how obsessed he was with that woman,” Stone said. “That’s what this case is about. It’s about his blind obsession with this woman, the end of the world as he believed it to be because of his family and the absolute contempt for those he held for those responsible.”
But Shapiro cited two points he said indicate Amato is not guilty, in addition to the lack of physical evidence: Amato, he said, had sold all of his guns prior to the killings, and a “nefarious combination” of drugs, guns and ammunition found inside the home. A hydroponic marijuanagrowing system was found in the master bedroom.
Shapiro also said Grant Amato was not a gun expert, causing somebody from Amato’s family to scoff. Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler excused the jury and reminded those gathered in the courtroom not to make any comments. A deputy appeared to admonish Gloria Amato, Grant and Cody’s grandmother.
Each juror said they did not hear the comment.
Three witnesses were called to the stand during the first day of testimony: Chris Sisco, Cody Amato’s coworker at Orlando Regional Medical Center who called police after Cody didn’t show up to work Jan. 25; Seminole sheriff ’s Deputy Todd Moderson, who went into the home and found the bodies; and Crime Scene Analyst Arthur Rubart, who identified several pictures of Amato’s home and the bodies of his family.
Sisco described Cody Amato as his closest work friend, saying the two would often joke that they see each other more than they see their own families.
He last saw Cody Amato at the hospital’s break room shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 24. The last thing Cody Amato told Sisco was a promise to get coffee during their work break the next morning.
But Cody Amato never came to work, Sisco testified.
“Everybody’s response was, ‘I can’t believe he’s not here. ‘This is so out of the ordinary.’ ‘Why didn’t he show up?’” Sisco said.
At the end of his testimony, Sisco was shown a picture of Cody Amato, still wearing his nursing scrubs and lying dead in the doorway between the home’s garage and gym.
Sisco said he recognized the man in the picture.
“That would be my friend, Cody Amato,” he said, his voice breaking.
Testimony will resume at 8:30 this morning.