All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S06E06.Thomas.the.Terrible.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

When I arrived
at the crime scene,

the blood was in so many
different places of the room.

There was blood on the carpet,
blood on the bed.

And the officers tell me
the victim's son
was in the room

at the time
his mother was shot.

The investigator asked
what happened in the room.

He lifts his hands up
as if he's holding a gun

and he says, "Like this. Boom.

That's how Mommy got dead."

That was the moment
in this case, when it's like,
"This dude is just evil."

Welcome to Very Scary People.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Yathomas Riley liked to
dominate people.

Hurt them, beat them down.

It's what made him
a feared and successful boxer.

But it was outside the ring
where Riley's cruel and
vicious nature turned deadly.

He wanted total control
of everyone around him,

especially women.

And anyone
who threatened that control

was subject
to his monstrous rage
and deadly violence.

This is Thomas the Terrible.

I don't
even know, bruh.

The last conversation
that I had with Lisa wasn't
much of a conversation at all.

I said,
"Lisa, I am on the way."

And she screamed at me.

"Do not come here.
He will kill you too."

Those are the last words
I heard my friend speak.

I understand.

When we first started
this investigation,

we had no idea
what Pandora's box
we were about to open up.

Loretta Riley.
Take one marker.

There was
five children in my
mom's household.

Yathomas was the second
youngest child in the family.

Yathomas didn't know wrong
in my mom's eyes.

That was her baby.

He was just a very vibrant
little kid running around,

always jumping off of things,
always getting into something.

He was just
a very active kid that
we were all looking after, so.

I love my little brother.

But when Yathomas
was two months old,

my father took my mom
and the children

to a labor camp in,
uh, Virginia,

and the water
was bad out there.

So when he was born,
my mom gave him the water
that was there,

not knowing that the water
was not good.

He was separated from my mom
and he was hospitalized

for five months
in intensive care unit.

Being away from his mother
for five months,

that can significantly
impact a young infant.

That is one our attachment
to other human beings and
to love and warmth occurs.

So the problems
from drinking the bad water
when he was born

was stuttering,
the pigeon-toed,

the delay of speech
at the time,

and he was slow at getting
to the level of learning
than the rest of us were.

When a baby is stressed,

that could change
some of those brain functions
that develop

and may have likely caused
any kind of delays.

The tainted water
isn't the only problem
facing Yathomas.

His childhood home is a
violent, unpredictable place.

When I was talking to his mom
and his sister,

they told me
a lot of stories about
Yathomas' troubled youth.

They told me that
a lot of the behaviors
that he exhibited as a child

were things that they saw
in his father.

Lorene and Loretta
both said that there was some

some abuse happening
between you and Lorene.

Is that true at all?

We know that his father
was physically abusive
towards his mother

and he likely learned
a lot of those behaviors

and absorbed a lot
of those messages.
that he received.

Year by year
Yathomas catches up
to the other kids in school.

Making friends.

And becoming
a standout athlete.

But young Yathomas
has a darker side.

When he was a kid, he went
into his grandfather's closet

and he was playing
with a handgun...

and it discharged.

Around the age of ten,
he took his stepfather's gun
out of their house

and took it to school
to show kids and show off.

When he was 13,
he busted out all the windows
in the local area.

His mom said that
a lot of the behaviors
that he exhibited as a child

were not present
in her other children,

and it was really Julius'
negative behavior
that she saw in Yathomas.

So he was 15
when we moved to Ohio.

Yathomas had friends there.

Some of the friends,
they were probably
gang members.

When I first met Yathomas
or TT,

we were, uh,
living in Cleveland, Ohio,
on the West Side.

Well, the neighborhood,
it was... It was pretty
ran down.

I mean, the, uh, you know,
there was crime everywhere.

It wasn't a good place
to grow up.

A lot of us
didn't have fathers.

You know,
our mothers didn't care.
Our mothers were drunk.

You know,
the homes are broken.

So we gravitated
towards the streets
and the streets raised us.

We set out one night,
and I believe that night
we robbed like four people.

All in one night.
We just ran around
like a pack of wolves,

you know,
looking for innocent prey.

And if they
didn't have any money,

Yathomas got to, uh, uh,
displaying his
violent tendencies.

Yathomas enjoyed violence
and inflicting violence and
aggression on others.

He does not view human beings
as human beings.

They are simply
objects to him.

Yathomas was
16 years old,

beating up on grown men
like they were children.

You know, Yathomas bashed
dudes' head with,
you know, bottles,

I mean, cracked a bottle
right over his dome.

And it... it... it...
it's like, yeah, it was...
it was brutal.

When it came
to the fourth individual,

you know, he was probably
about 16, 15 or something.
He was pretty young.

I proceeded to stick him up
with my pistol.

He didn't have no money.
Yathomas, he started to attack
the young man.

Yathomas knocked
him out early,

but he proceeded to jump
on this young man's head
with both of his feet,

like he was a trampoline
or something.

Like ten, fifteen times.

He liked shedding
innocent blood. I mean, and...

That was something that I
didn't see before that night.

After beating
a teenage boy nearly to death,

16-year-old Yathomas
is arrested

and pleads guilty
to felony assault.

He serves five years
in the Marion County Juvenile
Detention Center in Ohio.

After getting out
of juvenile detention,

Yathomas moves to San Diego
with his family,
where he gets into boxing.

He was never afraid
to fight anyone.

He just didn't have
any fear in him.

And that's one of the reasons
why we told him he needed
to get into boxing.

First time
seeing Yathomas box,

I was very impressed.

You could tell
he was just a talented guy.

He also had Go- gifted power.

You know what I mean?
When he was hitting the bag,

it had that cracking sound
that anyone who knows boxing

or anyone who's been
in the gym,

you hear that,
you're going to turn around
and watch.

"Wow, that guy's got power."

He was a scary looking dude,
you know what I mean?

He had the crooked nose.

He always was in just like
a wife beater. Very muscular.

I remember the sparring wars
that he would have.

If you hurt someone
at sparring,

then you're supposed to
back off.

It's just practice,
you know what I mean?

You're not supposed to try
to knock somebody out.

Yathomas was someone
he would hurt you in sparring,

and they want to
continuously hurt you.

He seemed to have
a love of... of violence.

Yathomas wanted
to be the next big name.

I saw him going
in that direction.

His ego was big enough.

In the ring,
Yathomas Riley
becomes a brutal fighter.

Outside the arena,
he exudes confidence
and charm.

Yathomas is attracting women
to him,

and I think it comes from
him being handsome,
very much is a go-getter.

He was always smiling.
He was always laughing.
He was always giggly.

You need to be
very strong-willed,

to be able
to voice your opinion
because no one is perfect.

Yathomas isn't perfect.

If he's not listening to me
or his mom or his siblings,

he needs a woman
who can tell him something
without being afraid to.

Yathomas and Koketia
met in 2005 at Walmart
in Florida.

Koketia King
was a mother of two.

She was a corrections officer
and she had aspirations
of being a police officer.

The first time
I met Koketia I thought
she was a good girl.

I thought she was very strong
and definitely my brother
needs that.

His sister thinks
that Koketia experience
on the right side of the law

will keep Yathomas
from the wrong side of it.

And then they
did talk about marriage
at one point.

She was pregnant
at the time with his kid.

So I believed
Yathomas loved her.

A lot.

2006 is a year
of milestones for
24-year-old Yathomas.

Koketia gives birth
to their son, Yaheim,

and he wins the National
Golden Gloves tournament.

Making him the top amateur
light heavyweight in the US.

The National Golden Gloves
opens up a lot of doors
for him

and really sets the stage
for a promising boxing career.

Everyone could see
how good he was and
how much potential he had,

and he did have
the ability to become
an elite level fighter.

By 2007,
Yathomas' record
is 24 and 6.

And he's set to try out for
the US Olympic boxing team,

headed for the
2008 Beijing Olympics.

He makes it all the way
to the finals, where he loses
a close bout.

Yathomas just missed out on
making the 2008 Olympic team

and turned pro
not too long after that.

Coming out of the amateurs,
he was someone
that everyone wanted to sign.

But you took
a closer look at him

and you could see
he had a bit of baggage.

The risk in taking on
someone like Yathomas

with a criminal past
is at some point in his life,

he exploded
for one reason or another.

And you're always, kind of
now that's in the back
of your head of...

"Is this gonna happen again?"

I was working for
Joe LaGuardia Star Boxing,

who signed Yathomas
out of the amateurs.

They're based out
of the Bronx.

The plan was
for him to come up,

live here, train here,
fight out of New York.

They wanted to get him away
from where he was at the time

and hopefully to keep him
out of trouble.

Keep him on the straight
and narrow.

As she worked,
and he practiced
his skills in boxing,

Koketia was really hoping
that he would take over
and take care of the family.

But Yathomas
would buy cars, limos,

splurge with money.

He weighed in
at 185 and one half pounds.

Please welcome Yathomas Riley.

In 2010, Yathomas was a
very promising young boxer,

He was a heavy fighter.
He was a scrappy puncher.

Uh, he did not
dance around the ring.

He hit hard.
That led to exciting fights,

which was paving the road
for him to be a star.

All day, every day.
Sixteen-oh.

-Sixteen-oh.
-...Riley!

Coming home with it, baby.

Three, four, five years was
the game plan for him to...

to fight
for a world championship.

In the boxing world,
Riley is a rising star.

But to Koketia,
he's an absent father.

Koketia would definitely
call and ask for advice

whenever her and Yathomas
would go through something.

Infidelity,
majority of the time

Not knowing if this person
is coming home

or "why are they talking to me
like this?"

And... just in that nature.

Yes.

That seemed to be
a constant source of conflict
with Thomas,

that he did not want
a woman in his life

who spoke back
to him that way,
who stood up for herself.

By the summer
of 2010, Koketia wants out.

But she's about to find out
the terrifying cost
of her freedom.

This is
the police. How may
I help you?

did you do that?
-Hello?

-Hello!
-Hello?

Fifteen-thirty-six.
Why the did you
do that?

-Oh, .
-What is
your address?

What is your address?

The 911 call was received
at 11:41 p.m. on June 10th
of 2010.

The initial
information from the scene,

according to the person
that called,

which was Yathomas Riley,

was that it was a suicide.

The victim
was being airlifted.

And she was
in critical condition.
She may not survive.

Therefore, we handled
the case as a homicide.

Once the victim,
Koketia King, was evaluated
by fire rescue,

we knew that she was shot
multiple times.

That information
brings up a lot of questions.

It has happened where someone
has shot themselves twice.

But the victim's injuries
were highly unusual.

She was shot
in the left thigh.

The second shot
was to the face.

And it was more
in an upward angle

to where it came in
through the lip,
took out the eye

and then went out
the back of her head.

Not really
your textbook suicide.

When I arrived at the scene,

I see the young son
of Koketia King
standing outside.

We had also noticed
there is a police car.

The back windows
are rolled down,

and there is a Black male
in the back seat.

He'll scream out every once
in a while or whatever and,

you ask, "Oh, who's that?"

"Well, that's the
live-in boyfriend.

He was on the scene
when we arrived."

Yathomas Riley had exhibited
out of control...

behavior, when the officers
were there,

and even as he was
in the backseat of the car,

crying, screaming, sweating,
yelling out, "I love you, boo!
Don't leave me, boo!"

You know,
"I'm here for you, boo!

Don't... That's my boo!
That's my girl!"

I walked up,
explained,

"Listen, we're here
to investigate what happened.

You're a very important part
of the story that we need
to get

and we will get to your story.

But I need you
to just calm down for now

and we'll be able to
speak to you

and you'll be able to tell us
everything that happened
today."

Now, most adults, seeing that
there would be children
involved

would take the path
of comforting the children,

or not adding drama
to the trauma.

That was not
Yathomas Riley.

Yathomas Riley was acting out.

He was, at one point,
threatening,

where he said,
"I'm a professional boxer.

I would have kicked
all your asses
if I wanted to."

When we first walked
into the apartment,

I noticed the first bedroom
had some folded clothes
on the floor,

not a bed.

The second bedroom
has sneakers lined up,
all against the wall.

They were well cared for
in that bedroom,

but it was
just for the sneakers.

The kids, I believe,

were sleeping
in the living room.

There was no other bed
other than the bed
in the master bedroom.

Yeah,
I'm trying to be open minded.

But I said,
"That was strange."

You know, you're up,
you're spending money
on so many shoes

and then your kids
are sleeping on the floor.

As a parent,
I think that was odd.

Yeah.

When we went into
the master bedroom...

the blood was in so many
different places of the room.

There is blood on the carpet,
blood on the bed.

The bed is moved.

And also, there were
some holes in the wall,

like somebody punched
the walls.

There seemed to have been
more of a struggle,

more of... of just chaos
that happened in that room.

It's looking less and less
like a suicide

and more like
something happened

between Yathomas Riley
and Koketia King

inside that bedroom.

Yathomas
is transported
to headquarters.

When I approach him
to talk to him,

he just shut down on me.

And he wanted to speak
to no male detective either.

But he was laughing
and he was talking a lot,

bragging about himself,
he's a boxer.

His records, you know.
He was bragging a lot.

He showed no type of caring,
like, you know,

"I want to know
the status of my girlfriend."

He never asked
that question to me.

As a man,
if your loved one
has been shot,

you should show some interest
to find out the status
of that victim.

He never did.

Yathomas doesn't have
any sort of guilt or remorse

for the actions
that he engages in,

whether it be the victim,

whether it be society
as a whole,

even his family.

He is a narcissist, so he has
a lack of attachment
to everybody.

I was very much aware
of what the potential

of violence could be with him.

He's a trained boxer who can
knock me out in one punch.

Knock the other person
in the room out
with one punch,

and then all hell can
break loose from there.

So I said, "Okay, I need
to keep an eye on that guy."

That's when
I made the decision

to have him shackled up
from the legs on the ground.

Yathomas Riley told us
during the interview

that he had discovered
a letter

written to Koketia,

and he believed that
she was having an affair
at work.

He asked her about the letter.

She denied that there was
anything personal going on.

He explained
that Koketia King,

she shot herself to prove
that she loved him.

Not only did she
shoot herself once,
she shot herself twice.

I found it ridiculous.

It's just unbelievable.

As I'm watching that guy,
I know that guy
is a very dangerous person.

If he has a chance,
he would do it.

He would have done it again
and again and again.

He figured that
we were not believing

his version
of what happened in the room.

At that point, he became wild.

Banging his head
against the wall

and-and pulling on the chains
and stuff.

So, he became uncontrollable.

He was like a caged animal.

But Yathomas
and Koketia

are not the only witnesses
to the tragic shooting.

Another indicator
that this was not a suicide

is that the young son
of Koketia King

was in the room at the time
his mother was sot.

The investigator asks
what happened in the room.

He lifts his hands up
as if he's holding a gun,

and he says,
"Like this, boom."

"That's how Mommy got dead."

At the end of the interview
with Yathomas Riley,

we informed him
that he was being charged

with the attempted murder
of Koketia King.

The charge
is attempted murder,

because despite being shot
in the head at close range...

Koketia is somehow
clinging to life.

We didn't expect
her to survive.

But she did.

Riley tells police
Koketia shot herself,

claiming it was
a suicide attempt
in the middle of an argument

about her supposedly cheating
on him.

Now Koketia is conscious
and ready to tell
her side of the story.

Koketia King,
take one, marker.

Before I met
Yathomas Riley,

I was certified
in the state of Florida

as a correction officer
and a police officer.

My goals were to try to be
a homicide detective.

But, I got deferred.

The first day I met Yathomas
was October the 30th, 2005.

I was with a friend
that had a mutual friend
of his,

and I met him
through that friend.

Yathomas was charming.

He seemed like somebody
that I wanted to get to know.

We talked that night, and then
we went to the movies
the next day.

And from that day we just
was talking every day.

He'd come by, see me.

Just the usual dating stuff.

He told me that he was
back and forth from his mom,
his dad a lot,

that he went to prison
and he had got out
when he was 21

and he started boxing.

I think I just like to try
to see what's the good
in people.

So I did not see any of it
as a red flag.

I was living in Miami,
Florida,

and he was living
in San Diego, California.

He would come see me
at least every other month

or two months.

His friend would tell me
that he's an up and coming
boxer.

He was still amateur
at the time.

And that he has money
and he'll take care of me.

But I wasn't impressed.

I'm like, I have my own job,
my own money.

I don't need his.

There was times where
he wasn't making money yet,

so of course,
she was the breadwinner.

I found out
I was pregnant
in February of 2006.

I called him and told him.

He seemed happy.

Yeah.

He started making sure I had
what I needed

through my pregnancy.

He was coming back
and forth regularly.

And by 2008,
things seem to be
looking up for the couple.

Yathomas is racking up
win after win.

But as usual with Riley,
good times are followed by
bad behavior.

I found out about
other girlfriends

from conversations
he had on the phone.

One day we was in the room.

And the kids was in there
and his phone rang.

He answered,
and he said,
"Hold on a minute."

He walked out of the house.

I confronted him
about the phone calls

and he said,
"Oh, it's too loud in here.

I can't hear on the phone,
so I step out of the house
so I can talk."

But I knew it wasn't true.

And that was the first time
I found him verbally abusive,

was when I was questioning him
about the phone calls

and why he had to
step outside.

When you anger him
or tell him no,

it changes,
like a switch go off.

Yathomas really wants people
to kind of cater to him,

and he believes
that he is entitled,

whether it be to money,

or whether it be to harming
another individual,

including within his
romantic relationships.

Then later,
after all these phone calls
and text messages,

I crushed the phone.

He did not scare me.

I worked in a prison with men.

I can come on that compound
and they're gonna respect me,

and... because I hold myself
to a standard that
they're like,

"Okay, we gotta respect her."

That's what he didn't like,
because I'm not going to
back down.

In 2010,

Yathomas finds new fuel
for his rage.

He suspects
Koketia is cheating

and claims he could prove it.

Yathomas had told the family
that he found letters
coming from an inmate.

And he was concerned
about infidelity.

Letter addressing me as,
"Hey, baby girl."

And he's like, "Oh,
you're messing with that dude.

You're f-ing that dude."
Dah, dah, dah, dah.

'Cause he called me
"baby girl"?

Everybody call people
"baby girl."

So... what's the issue?

Meanwhile,
inside the ring,

Yathomas seems to be tanking
his own career.

I know that he liked
to smoke weed.

I know that he had
a short temper.

He didn't want to be told
what to do.

He didn't want to be told
when he was supposed to fight.

He felt that in his mind,
he knew what he was doing

and, you know, he didn't want
to listen to his managers.

He didn't want to listen
to his trainers.

He didn't want to listen
to his promoter.

All the people
that were looking out for him,

all the people that had
an investment into him.

And week of the fight,

he was just like,
"No, I'm not fighting.

I don't feel like fighting.".

That's like,
terrible for business.

In 2010,

police in Florida
pull Yathomas over,

and he's so uncooperative
that they arrest him.

From jail, he calls Koketia.

He wanted me
to buy him out of jail.

It was only $100,
but I wasn't spending
my money on him.

And he ended up coming home,

he's like,
"Why you didn't come get me?

I had to call somebody else
to come buy me out."

And I said, "I told you
I wasn't paying for you.

So that's why I didn't come."

I was standing in my bedroom
and he was in front of me

and he was yelling
and he punched me in
both of my eyes.

And then he wanted
to hit me again.

But he punched
the wall instead.

He felt like he had lost
some power and control,
and that was enraging to him.

I describe him as calculating
and manipulative
and just evil.

He... He don't like to see
nobody happy but him.

I think I stayed for my son
so he could have his father.

But it was just getting
to be too much.

He was trying to control me,
like, keeping me
from my family,

verbally abusing me.

Just don't want me around
people that cared about me,
like my friends.

He didn't want nobody else
to try to to persuade me
to do something else.

I was done.
I was finished.

I couldn't do no more.

I was just trying
to get enough money

to get me and my kids
a place to live,
but...

I didn't make it
to that point.

So, June 10th of 2010,

Yathomas came over,
like we used to do

after the kids
go off to school.

I was making breakfast
and we were just talking
about daily life.

He didn't say anything
that they was having
any problems.

He didn't say
that they were arguing.

He didn't say anything
of that nature.

All he said was that
she was at work

and he was waiting for his son
to get out of school.

So I didn't see anything
that could have stirred up

what was going to follow
after that.

He was calling
and texting.

And just going,
just verbally abusing me.

-I feel he think
he was losing control

because I wasn't answering
my phone,

um, responding to texts.

I came home around ten,
and I had my two sons with me.

When I walked in the house,
the whole house was dark.
It was completely dark.

And then later,

he came in the door,
he came down the hallway.

And he started fussing.

"Where you been?
I've been calling you."

Okay.

What do you want me to say?

And I jumped up in his face
and he told me,

"If you jump up one more time,
I'm gonna shoot you."

And I said something--
and I was in his face
and he pushed me down.

And he shot me in my back.

And I was looking at the shot
like,

"Did he really just shoot me?"

And I was like,
I couldn't process.

My brain would not let me
process that he shot me.

The little one,
as soon as he heard
the gunshot,

he came back down.

Like, "What y'all doing?"

So, he seen everything.

And blood started gushing out,
and I was blacking
in and out.

I was like, I was
fading in and out, and--

and then I finally
just blacked out.

And once I blacked out,
he shot me in my face.

He shot me in my face,
which took out my right eye.

I thought I was dead.

My father called me
and said that Koketia
was being airlifted.

And that she had been shot.

And we needed to go
and check her out
and see that she's okay.

I was very devastated
after hearing that.

When I heard
Yathomas got picked up
for this-- for the shooting,

I was shocked.

I couldn't believe it.
I felt like he had
so much potential

and so much to look forward to
in his career and in his life.

-Ladies
and gentlemen.
-Six and O.

Yeah.

When I came to,
I was in the hospital.

Bandaged up, and the detective
was sitting at the foot
of the bed.

She explained that
there was an argument
going on over the letter.

And that is what leads up
to him shooting her.

Do you think
he did that?

Uh-huh?

Really?

I did think he did it.

That was my first opinion.

Not hearing the story,
that's what I thought.

I think
Yathomas definitely
has disdain for women,

and I think that his mother
trying to keep him
more responsible

and trying to impose
those consequences

likely had a negative impact
on their relationship.

And Yathomas was more
easily able to cut her out.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

But people in Yathomas' camp,

his trainers, promoters
and everything

don't believe that Yathomas
has this in him.

There was no way in their mind
that he had shot Koketia.

As someone
who I knew personally

and someone who I considered
a friend,

I-I wanted to give him
the benefit of the doubt.

Um, so I didn't think
he did it.

The initial thought was,
"This doesn't sound right."

But someone else
is giving Yathomas

a lot more than
the benefit of the doubt.

A 29-year-old medical student
named Lisa Amodio.

Lisa trained
at the gym as well,

and I think that Yathomas
was very cool to her,

especially that
she was a fan of boxing.

She thought that he was
going to be a celebrity.

We all thought he was
going to be a celebrity.

So she was intrigued
by his persona,

and I think that
this whole thing

was exciting
and intriguing for her.

As a medical student,
she was a Yathomas' cut man.

So taking care of Yathomas
as he was getting bludgeoned
by his opponents.

More than just the cut man,

she was also Yathomas'
new girlfriend.

She was a doctor,
so she liked to help people.

So I think she felt that
she could probably
save Yathomas.

So when Yathomas
was locked up,
from what I saw,

her role was
to support her man.

And she did that
to the fullest.

Whatever he needed,
whatever needed to be done,

whatever she had to do
to make sure that

he was going
to get the most support,

to get the case thrown out,

she was gonna be there.

I remember talking to Lisa,
and she's like,
"He didn't do it.

He didn't do it.
This is like...

We-- We have proof
he didn't do it."

And she was so adamant
that he was innocent.

And it was hard to...
to think otherwise,

because again,
I never saw that side of him.

I never saw
that side of anyone

that they would want
to shoot somebody.

After Yathomas shot Koketia...

he really had
no empathy for her
and what he did to her.

The fear that
she likely experienced
in that situation.

Koketia was
just a chess piece,

and I think that
he was ready to move on

to bigger and better things.

Like most predators Yathomas
Reilly moved on to new prey.

This time, it's Lisa Amodio.

He's charmed her, seduced her
and made her fall in love
with him.

And now,
she's willing to do anything

to help get her new love
out of prison.

Lisa believes Yathomas
can be a champion fighter.

She wants to start
a new life with him,

get married and have a family.

But there's an old saying,

"Be careful
what you wish for."

Congratulations.

He just
beat the system.

Know what I mean?
He's a champ of this hour.

Man.

-Champ, baby.
-Yeah.

I was watching
a local news.

At 10:14 p.m.,

I saw Yathomas Riley
coming out of jail

with both fists up in the air.

"I'm a free man."

All right,
thank you.

Two years
after he was arrested
for shooting Koketia King

and just days before
his trial is set to begin,

Yathomas Riley
emerges from jail

with all charges dropped.

Then I said,
"Are you serious?"

I asked myself that question.

"Why would he be let go?

Professional boxer
Yathomas Riley

was on track for greatness
before life got in the way.

Accused
of an attempted murder,

now, the local fighter
begins his road to redemption.

I couldn't believe it.

There was media coverage
of him claiming victory

outside of the jail.

He's-He's...

He's a very dangerous person.

Hey, baby, like I love you.

I'm with the press right now.

The woman
in Yathomas' corner
the last two years,

his rock, is Lisa Amodio.

Born and raised in New Jersey,

she becomes a medical doctor,

finishing her residency

at St. Barnabas Hospital
in The Bronx.

Lisa was
someone that Yathomas
met up in New York.

Lisa had just graduated
med school

and was going to
this boxing gym

where she met Yathomas,

and the two
quickly became very close.

I had flew to New York
and he took me to the gym.

And she was there
and he introduced me,

"Oh, this is my girlfriend,
my kid's mom."

He told me
that he's training her.

And I said, "Okay."

But I knew it wasn't true.

To someone like Yathomas,

human beings are objects

that they use
to get whatever they want,

or to attain a higher status.

As a couple,
they were a bit odd to me.

Lisa's a doctor,
and she liked to help people.

That was her nature.

Yathomas was a thug.

He liked people believing
that he was from the streets.

But they say
opposites attract,

and they seemed very happy.

Lisa refuses
to believe that
the man she loves

is capable of shooting anyone.

So, when he's arrested
for attempted murder,

she dives into the case files
looking for anything
that might help

Yathomas beat the charges.

And in the police report,
she finds something.

When he was
arrested,

Yathomas didn't have
gunshot residue on him.

But Koketia did.

After speaking
to Lisa,

I almost got obsessed
with the gun residue thing.

I remember, like,
asking uh, science friends

like, "Is there any way
that, you know

she would have gun residue,
and he wouldn't,

and he pulled the trigger?"

And Lisa was convinced

that there was zero question
that she shot herself

and he was going to get off
of this crime.

If you're in close proximity
of a gun being fired,

the powder residue
would float in the air.

And if you
were holding the gun,

it would be on your hands.

But that's something
that could be like,

either wiped off
or washed off,

and sometimes,
we do have that.

Lisa also focuses
on that letter

an inmate sent to Koketia.

The letter that allegedly
set off the argument

that led to the shooting.

Partway through the letter,

they say that they should
check in on a woman

and give a phone number
for this woman.

That phone number
had nine digits.

Phone numbers have 10 digits.

Social Security numbers
have nine digits.

During that time,
within the jail system,

there was a scam,

where identity was stolen

from whatever
social security number
they could get,

and if they could get
all the information,

they would file
your tax return

and get the refund.

This was evidence
in some people's mind,

of a tax fraud scheme

Koketia,
as a corrections officer,

was involved in
with inmates in the jail.

I told
defense attorneys

that while working
at the prison,

during the same time
I'm trying to leave Yathomas,

an inmate approached me
with an offer

to make some quick money

so I can do
what I was planning
on doing, leave.

And he told me
that he'd give me $2000

to put this letter
in the mail,

so I could move,

because I didn't have
enough money

to just leave like that.

The defense
ran with that story

about the victim
not being credible.

And put a taint on the story
because of the fraud.

As evidence
clearly mounted

and the victim's testimonies
were contradicted,

it became clear
Riley wasn't the suspect
at all.

In fact, he was the victim.

Nothing ever changed
in the case.

The facts were the facts
from day one.

So it was just unbelievable.

They painted the picture

of that she might have
been involved in fraud.

That's not why we're here.

We're here
because she was shot twice,

by somebody that she had
a relationship with,

a domestic situation,

not because
she was involved in fraud.

Despite having
what initially felt like
an airtight case

against Yathomas Riley,

prosecutors decide
they can't risk putting
Koketia on the stand

now that her credibility
has been questioned.

The charges are dropped.

Yathomas the Terrible
goes free.

August 17th, 2012,

Riley came home.

The first thing I did
when I got out
is hug my family.

You know,
very happy to see them.

To see the sunshine.

That-That turns
your stomach a little bit

when you see that.

Yeah.

We feel like
we failed Koketia,

and she didn't get justice
at all.

The day
he got released,

someone called me on the phone

and he said,
"Nobody call you,
tell you he's getting out?"

I said, "No."

And I was like, "Okay."
And I hung up the phone.

Everybody need
a second chance.

Thank God that he gave me
my second chance.

I was scared.

I didn't go nowhere.

I stayed in the house.

Koketia has
a restraining order,

that's supposed to keep
Riley away from her
and their son, Yaheim.

Meanwhile, Yathomas
has moved on with Lisa,

who is now
an emergency room doctor.

Yathomas and Lisa
moved to Leesburg.

I believe that's because
that was the location,

for her, being an ER doctor,
is one of the best locations
for her to go to.

I know Lisa
from the emergency room.

I was a nurse there,
and then she joined us
as an ER doctor.

I introduced myself
as we were supposed to do,

and I knew I was going
to like her immediately.

Compassion oozed from her.

I knew immediately,
I said, "I know why

this person became a doctor."

He loved
Georgia.

Really did.
We have family here as well.

And he got married.

When they got married,
him and Lisa,

I was happy for him.

I don't think
that they were a couple

that I would ever
expect to unite,

but they were
very happy together.

I was all for him
to marry Lisa.

I was happy.

That mean he ain't gonna
bother me.

Yathomas and Lisa
started a new life together.

They have a son, Giuseppi,

and from the outside
looking in,

they are a very happy,
beautiful family.

After Yathomas is released,
he asks his promoter
to set him up

with a fight
that will get him back
into the national attention.

His first flight out of prison
was his toughest opponent
to date

as a professional
coming off of
a two-year prison stint.

Clearly, he hadn't been
training properly.

He goes
into this fight
and it is very clear

that he is not the same boxer.

And he loses this fight.

And that would end up being
his last professional fight.

Having a family
and not having his career,

the thing that
had defined his life
for the past few years

ends up being a bigger problem
for Yathomas and for Lisa.

The first time
I hung out with Lisa socially

outside of work
was actually at her home.

She had invited myself
and my partner
and our daughter,

to come for a barbecue,
to go swimming.

And that was actually
the first time
I met her husband.

When we arrived at their home,
Yathomas was very clear

that our shoes were to be off,
where they were to be placed,

if we had bags,
where they were to go.

Lisa came out of the back.

She was not the confident,
funny, exuberant person
that I knew.

She was mousy.

Meek, timid.

Lisa had obviously
been instructed
how to behave,

how to speak,
where to sit, what to do.

That was my impression.

How did this matchup
even happen?

What are the qualities
about Yathomas
that Lisa fell in love with?

I-I could not find them.

It isn't just Jessie
who has trouble figuring out

why Lisa
is so devoted to Yathomas.

The women
in his immediate family
do, too.

I looked Yathomas up
after Lisa told me who he was.

When I was reading
the articles online,

I discovered that Yathomas
had been... detained

for allegedly,
possibly shooting a partner.

Reading that article,

I knew that what I was seeing

between the two of them
in their home was real.

I told my partner,
I said, "I've got to get
even closer to her.

She's in trouble."

Yathomas did not
let Lisa out of his sight.

He did not want her
speaking to people

without him there,
especially his family.

That is part of
just an abuse cycle

of keeping a victim sheltered,

so that they can't...
talk to others

or sort of have new ideas
come to them

in terms of
leaving their abuser.

He apparently believed

that his wife was seeing
someone else.

He would go to the hospital
where she worked

and walk into the ER area,

and he would sit at a desk,
like, watching her work.

Yathomas was getting
in confrontations

with other hospital employees
and disrupting the workplace.

But,
the hospital administration
got-got involved, and-and...

basically told him
that he couldn't come back.

So, then he took to
sitting outside.

I realized Lisa
was in real trouble

when I went to her house
one day,

and she met me with a pair
of big rimmed sunglasses on.

I didn't ask her
to take them off.

We were inside the home.

I looked at Lisa and I said,
"Nice glasses, friend."

In June of 2015,

three years after the couple
settled in Georgia
with their infant son,

Lisa hits her breaking point.

Lee County, 911.

I need some officers
to come to my house.

What's the problem?

My husband
keeps putting
a gun to my head today.

Okay,
where is he at now?

He just drove away.

I think he's mentally ill.

He's...

He's having some sort of
psychotic break.

Her husband,
the love of her life
holding a gun to her head

seemed to be a wake-up call
for Lisa.

She was not going to let
Yathomas hurt her.

Okay,
they're about to
pull him over, okay?

They're getting behind him.

Please don't hurt him.

- Do you hear me?
-No, ma'am.
No, ma'am.

I cannot believe
that this is happening.

Lee County
Sheriff's deputies
arrest Yathomas

on three counts
of aggravated assault

and keep him in jail
while he awaits a hearing.

With Riley in jail,

Lisa thinks she'll get

at least a temporary break
from her volatile husband.

But, Yathomas has other ideas.

Hello.
This is an AmTel operator

calling from
Lee County Justice Center

with a prepaid
collect call from...

Yes?

Riley finds a way
around the judge's order

barring him
from contacting Lisa.

He calls her
using the name Chad

and refers to her as Jessica.

Lisa picks up on the scheme
right away.

Yes, you are.

Even though Lisa is trying

to get him to take
responsibility for his actions

and even trying to get him
to have some sense of empathy,

he would constantly
change the subject,

which shows that he has to be
in absolute control.

"Till death do us part."

Lisa says these words
as a vow of love and devotion.

But for Yathomas,
"Till death do us part"

is less of a vow and more
of a twisted promise.

Lisa seems willing to do
anything for her husband.

But what is he willing
to do to her?

It's June of 2015,
and Yathomas Riley is in jail,

locked up for pointing a gun
at Lisa's head.

How long he'll stay in jail
is up to Lisa.

Lisa had
a window of opportunity
to leave.

I told Lisa,
"If you bond him out of jail,

you've given him permission
to escalate his behavior."

He's going to kill you.

It gets to the point
where her coworkers,
where her family

and even Yathomas' family,
are telling Lisa,

"This is a problem.
You need to get out."

I said, "What, Lisa?
what is it that he has done
for you,

that has you thinking...

he deserves your loyalty?

What has Yathomas done
for you?"

"He held a gun
to your head.

The next time,
he's gonna pull the trigger."

She just shook her head.

And said, "I-I can't
turn my back on him."

Right.

Yathomas Riley appeals...

to women who are nurturers.

The moment these women
start engaging with him,

he begins breaking them down.

Slowly but surely
convincing these women

that they're nothing
without him.

In early July,
Lisa drops the charges
against Yathomas.

He's free.

Yathomas is released
from jail,

but forced to give up
all the guns in his home.

Yathomas Riley
had to surrender
all of his firearms

to the magistrate court
constable.

It was seven or eight,
nine guns, mostly pistols,

uh, that he--
that he took away from there,

and he is also not
supposed to have
any contact with Lisa.

But shortly after
he is released,

Lisa goes back
to the courthouse

and has the restraining order
removed

so that Yathomas
can come home and be with her.

What happens next
is the opposite

of the happy homecoming
Lisa longs for.

Yathomas immediately
vents his rage on his wife

for calling the police on him.

She was realizing
who he really was.

And learned,
at an emotional level
that she couldn't help him.

That's when she became...
disposable.

Lisa told me,
"If I don't get away

from this man,
he's going to kill me."

I feel like Lisa knew
she wasn't going to
leave him alive.

And unfortunately,
I believed that, too.

And so it broke my heart
to hear her in that way.

Yeah.

The last conversation
that I had with Lisa

wasn't much
of a conversation at all.

I answered the phone
and she was screaming
and crying.

I couldn't-- I couldn't
make a lot of sense
of what Lisa was saying,

other than she was terrified.

Lisa clearly knew
she should have
left him in jail.

I said,
"Lisa, I am on the way."

And she screamed at me.

"Do not come here.
He will kill you too."

Those were the last words
I heard my friend speak.

She's dead!

Sorry, let me just...

Oh baby.

Go in here. Come through.

-Okay.
-Come in.

Gotcha.

When I arrived on the scene,
there were numerous
sheriff's deputies there.

There were already a couple
of other GBI agents there.

Yathomas Riley was there.

And I could tell it was--
It was already kind of
a tense situation.

-...over there
Yeah.

Right.

When we first started
this investigation,
we had no idea

what Pandora's box
we were about to open up.

Tonight, an investigation
is under way

into the death of a woman
in Lee County.

The Georgia Bureau
of Investigation

and Lee County
Sheriff's Office
were called to a home

in the 500 block
of North Hampton Road.

This is where the body
of 34-year-old
Lisa Marie Riley

was found this morning,
by Riley's husband,
Yathomas Lee Riley.

Everything about the house
was pretty normal...

Until we got
to the master bedroom

where the primary
crime scene was.

The master bedroom was a mess.

Lisa was still in there.

She was covered in blood.

She had been dead
for some period of time.

It was immediately obvious
that this had not
just happened.

-You see
all the blood on her?
-Right.

There was a pool of blood
next to her body
that had been smeared.

As if something
was crawling around in it.

From a personal perspective,
it was horrifying

because we knew immediately

that Lisa Riley had been dead

in her bedroom with her child.

You try to maintain
your composure
and work the scene,

but things like that
where a child is involved,
that's troubling.

Yathomas had called 911

and reported that
his wife had killed herself.

Nobody believed that.

Yathomas constantly played
the role of the victim.

You can hear him
talking about,

"How could you do this to me?
Why am I here?"

Not taking any responsibility
for his actions.

One of the other nurses said,
"You've got a phone call.
It's your husband."

He said,
"I need you to sit down."

I sat down and I said,
"Okay, I'm sitting."

He said, "Honey, Lisa's gone."

I wasn't surprised.

I was mad.

I was mad.

And I almost
even remember thinking...

"Well, if Lisa couldn't
get away,

at least it's over for her."

I was walking up the steps
to go to our apartment.

And that's when one of my sons
gave me the phone

and my mom told me the news
and I stopped right there.

And my husband at the time
had to catch me.

Of course.

I was sitting in my car
and his mom called my phone,

and she's like, "You told me
he was gonna kill that girl."

And then I went
and Googled it,

and sure enough...

Tonight an investigation
is under way

into the death of a woman
in Lee County.

I think before she passed,
she thought about me...

Because I warned her
before any of this happened.

And she still went down
that rabbit hole.

Yathomas could not
control my friend,

so Yathomas killed her.

In the hours
after the shooting,

investigators collect
and analyze evidence.

They also arrested Yathomas

for violating
his bail conditions...

...which prohibited him
from having guns in the house.

With Riley behind bars again,

investigators have time
to pick apart his story.

Police did not find
any signs of forced entry.

They checked all the windows.

They were all locked.

None had been opened.
No doors had been broken in.

I began doing some bloodstain
pattern analysis
in the master bedroom.

We did
some shooting reconstruction

so that I could determine
exactly how it happened.

The bullet struck
the baseboard,

which means we knew
that they had been fired
in a downward direction.

And then when
there were bullet defects
in another wall,

we knew that multiple shots
had been fired in this room.

You use Luminol
on the bathroom,
on the bathroom floor

and got some
very strong reactions
for the presence of blood.

So we knew that he had already
gone in and cleaned up.

If somebody comes home,
finds their spouse shot,

they're not going to
clean up the bathroom

and then call 911.

Everything that I was seeing
in this scene,

every step I took
I was seeing something else

that demonstrated
or suggested
that this was not a suicide.

As they gather evidence
from the crime scene,

investigators get
a huge break.

They discover the house
has an alarm system
with cameras,

giving detectives a picture
of what happened

on the night of the murder.

On July 9th,

Yathomas follows her
to the back of the house.

Lisa never appears again.

Yathomas comes out,

picks up the nine-month-old,

disappears back down
that hallway again.

He takes Giuseppe back
to the master bedroom,

leaves him there...

...with pools of blood
smeared around the floor
near his mother,

and leaves the house.

Yathomas leaves
his nine-month-old son
in the master bedroom,

where the boy's mother lays
dying from a gunshot wound.

He then jumps in his car,
and drives away.

Very shortly after
he left the house,
he called his lawyer.

I think he didn't get
an answer.

So he's milling around
in the Albany area
for a couple of hours.

He's constantly dialing
into this ATT system
and viewing the cameras.

I think it was 42 times.

He was checking to see
if there'd been
any police response,

if anybody had called,

if anybody was coming
to the house.

And then he's headed
north towards Atlanta...

Before he turns around
and comes back.

The next morning,
Yathomas walks back
in the house.

After he's there
for about four minutes,

he calls his lawyer.

He calls his lawyer again.

Again.

Again.

He called him six times.

All before he calls 911.

And when he calls 911,

he immediately posted
his alibi...

...which was really odd.

Over the next several weeks,
detectives search for evidence

that can prove Yathomas
was in the house
when Lisa was shot.

And they discover
a curious detail
in the security system logs.

A broken window sensor alarm
went off just before
Yathomas left the house.

That glass break detector
was activated two times,

at 8:23 and 8:26 p.m.
that night.

A glass break alarm
is actually
a vibration sensor,

so that's what
we were reading.

It's going to activate
with sharp noise.

The prosecutor on this case,
and I, we were sitting here
having this conversation.

We're like, "Oh my God,
we may know exactly
when the shooting happened."

Law enforcement went back
to the house at a later date

to conduct a practical test,

to investigate the sensor.

Master bedroom door open,

center north bedroom
door closed.

We took what we call
a bullet box,
which is a cardboard box

with old
ballistic vests in it.

Two shots.

And we actually
went back to the house

and shot a similar firearm
in the house
into the bullet box.

The other guy is
at the alarm pad
filming the alarm pad.

Master bedroom window.

You know, you hear, "Bang,"
the alarm pad lights.

So know that every time
a gunshot goes off in there...

Bedroom window.

...that it activates that.

And this was huge.

I mean, we were like,
"We know exactly
when this shooting happened."

An even
more shocking discovery,

a horrifying clue
that reveals what happened

in the master bedroom
during and after the gunshots.

When I conducted
some macro-- Micro photography

and a close up examination

on Lisa's son's pajamas,
his onesie,

and I found and documented

bone fragments
embedded in the onesie.

There was strong
physical evidence
to support the idea

that she was holding the baby
when she was killed.

What makes this case
so horrendous

and what gives you
the most insight
into who Yathomas Riley is...

He could have strapped
the baby in a car seat
and driven away with the baby.

He could have still
built his alibi,

but instead because the baby
is going to complicate

his attempts
to build an alibi,

he leaves the baby there

-overnight with
his dead mother.

The baby literally had to have
cried himself to sleep

in a puddle
of his mother's blood.

That was the moment
in this case when it's like...

This dude is just evil.

So hearing you say that...

Hurts.

-Can we stop for a second?
-Sure.

He shot us
in front of his kids.

Your flesh and blood.
Your bloodline.

So that goes to show
you don't care about them.

You're trying to take away
the most important person
in their life.

11 months
after Lisa's death
in June of 2016,

Yathomas Riley goes to trial,
charged with her murder,

and with
the aggravated assault

of their nine-month-old son,

because Lisa was allegedly
holding him

when Yathomas shot her.

He was acting so arrogant
and like he knew
he was going to get off.

He was just sitting over there

laughing with
the correction officer.

He was just having
a good old time.

I thought that
the case was airtight.

I didn't see any holes.

I didn't see any place
for the jury to go that--

That there wasn't evidence
to answer those questions.

We had, you know,
three and a half,
four days of evidence.

The jury was out
in 30 minutes.

The jury finds
Yathomas Riley guilty
on all counts.

I was relieved
because he wouldn't be out
to do it to nobody else.

The judge sentences
Riley to life

without the possibility
of parole,

a sentence that many believe
came one victim too late.

When he shot his girlfriend
in Florida, Koketia,

and then he got away with it.

Then he went to Georgia
to do the same thing.

If the state had done
the right thing,

there's another victim
in Georgia

who would have never
been dead today.

Lisa was the reason
that he got out.

She was the reason that he had
a second chance at life.

And then, in return,
he takes her life.

The whole thing is just--
It's tragic.

I did all I could do
to help her.

I did all she would let me do.

I feel like Lisa knew
what was about
to happen to her.

I think Lisa knew,
and she just, at that point,

wanted to make sure
that I didn't go too.

As a woman,
it's very disappointing to me,

and it's very...
It's heart wrenching.

I'm glad that Koketia King
is still here.

I'm glad she's here
for her sons,

but there's another woman
that's not.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

If you look over the course
of his entire life,

from his childhood
through his adolescence

and then into adulthood,

all of his behaviors
are very characteristic
of being very psychopathic.

There is no chance
that Yathomas
would ever change.

There's nothing to indicate
that psychopaths
will ever get better.

He used people
when he wanted to,

and when he was done
with them,
he would discard them.

This is one of
the coldest sumbitches
we've ever come across.

For most of his life,
Yathomas Riley seemed
to lurch

from one violent act
to the next,

culminating in a final
outburst of brutality

where he murdered his own wife

and left their infant son
in her bloody arms.

Finally,
justice has been served.

Riley will spend the rest
of his life behind bars.

But for Lisa's family
and friends,

justice came too late.

They were left with a life
of grief and sadness.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.
Thanks for watching.

Good night.

Next time on
Very Scary People...

Scott Kimball tells us about 21
people that he killed.

It's like a horror novel.

He brings out a knife.

At that point,
I knew I was dead.

He's supposed to tell us
where are these bodies,

but I think we just made
a deal with the devil.