Original subtitles

The Writer's Villa is the quintessential Los Angeles experience.

[Jennifer] The place was sort of like a bed-and-breakfast

to Hollywood's up-and-coming set.

Luminaries like Val Kilmer, Parker Posey, and Johnny Lewis,

just to name a few.

They would have never imagined in their lifetime that it would be known

They would have never imagined in their lifetime that it would be known

for such a brutal crime.

I remember the story breaking on the afternoon news.

And then the camera zoomed in, and I was like, "Holy hell."

[reporter] What happened inside this upscale Los Feliz home?

The bizarre murder mystery.

Sons of Anarchy actor, Johnny Lewis...

[man] Johnny Lewis was known for Sons of Anarchy ,

[man] Johnny Lewis was known for Sons of Anarchy ,

but now he'll be known for this.

[Lynn] I don't think there's anything that's ever happened in Hollywood

the 25 years I've been here

that has taken my breath away.

But that did.

-[Jonathan] Ready? -[producer] Yep.

[Jonathan] There's a minimal distance between celebrity and insanity.

I've had maybe 15 to 20 clients

who came from different states, different countries,

all of whom had the illusion that they were going to be successful in Hollywood.

But it's a brutal place.

It's a business that's just rampant with people failing.

[photographers shout] Katy, hold that smile!

[Jonathan] And unless you're really talented,

[Jonathan] And unless you're really talented,

and more importantly, unless you're really persistent,

you're not gonna make it.

Then some of them snap.

But that's why Johnny Lewis was fascinating.

[photographer] Johnny, to your right.

He was unlike most. Really unique.

I'm flying!

[Jennifer] Johnny was a really cute kid.

He had moppy blond hair and big, blue eyes.

And, of course, as soon as you're an adorable kid,

And, of course, as soon as you're an adorable kid,

what does every say to do in Los Angeles?

They say, "Get him an agent. Put him in TV."

[photographer] Johnny, to your right!

To the other right!

He landed his first national spot for Pizza Hut.

[screams]

We're gonna create the ultimate pizza.

And he was so cute and so talented

that his career just sky-rocketed.

He was making it on the shows of the 2000s.

Those were the shows like Malcolm in the Middle, O.C.

And then his career just kept going up and up and up as he got older.

And then his career just kept going up and up and up as he got older.

This is the first premiere I've been to where I'm in a movie,

and, you know, it's a little overwhelming, but it's exciting.

[Jennifer] When Johnny was 18 years old,

he saved up enough money from all his television appearances

and finally decided to move out of his parents' home in the valley,

and he moved all the way to Hollywood.

I've been doing hair since I was 18 years old.

I've been doing hair since I was 18 years old.

I liked Johnny. Johnny was a really nice guy.

The most calm, loving, decent human being

that I think I've ever met in this business.

You know, he was in with the in-crowd.

He was young Hollywood.

Young Hollywood is when the rest of the world's

just going crazy over you, and you don't even really know yourself yet.

That's what I think young Hollywood is.

That's what I think young Hollywood is.

[photographer] And just again, Johnny. Thank you.

[man] We love you, Johnny.

[photographer 2] Once more, Johnny.

[Lynn] I heard what happened to Johnny. I just couldn't believe it.

I just couldn't believe it.

[Sara] I handle criminal investigations from the beginning

[Sara] I handle criminal investigations from the beginning

all the way through trial.

I've represented high-profile individuals

that are in the industry, in the business.

So I was familiar with Johnny Lewis fairly early on.

Sometime in 2005, Johnny Lewis met the up-and-coming singer, Katy Perry,

and they struck a dating relationship.

I knew Johnny dated Katy Perry.

I think the fact that they dated was totally their personalities.

I think the fact that they dated was totally their personalities.

Like, boppy, cute, little ice cream, sweet girl

matched perfectly with Johnny's personality.

He wasn't, like, boppy, cute, but he was just, like, serene and happy and nice,

so I think they probably made a really cute couple.

She was the daughter of a Pentecostal minister,

and he was a son of very religious Scientologists,

so they bonded over their religious upbringings.

so they bonded over their religious upbringings.

At the time that Katy Perry began dating Johnny Lewis,

not a lot of people even knew who she was.

Her biggest single had not come out.

[Jonathan] He was in that whirl of success with Katy Perry.

That pairing-up meant a lot to him.

[Sara] Their relationship lasted a little under a year until 2006.

And when they split, her representatives made a statement

that, you know, she needed to focus on her career.

And they pretty much left it at that.

And they pretty much left it at that.

You have to wonder, right?

What was Katy Perry and the others, what were they noticing and seeing

that others were not?

His career just kept going up and up and up as he got older.

He had guest stints on shows like CSI and Bones.

[Robin] Most of us wanna work towards the bigger-budget

huge film and television shows, right?

That's, like, the goal of getting in this industry.

That's, like, the goal of getting in this industry.

And finally, it was in 2008, is when he got his big break.

He was cast as Kip 'Half-Sack' Epps

on the critically-acclaimed FX show, Sons of Anarchy.

They made fun of him on-camera all the time.

-How did you get that name? -Huh?

-Half-Sack. -Oh, man. I...

-...got my left nut blown off by an APERS frag in Iraq. -[laughs]

Sons of Anarchy was a very successful show

Sons of Anarchy was a very successful show

that was based on the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.

There's the dynamic of violence,

the dynamic of how a gang organization operates.

[Robin] At the time, it was really, really, ground-breaking.

To get a role in Sons of Anarchy,

working with Charlie, Ron, Katey,

that's a huge deal.

People would kill for an opportunity like that.

[Robin] I met Johnny on Sons of Anarchy, season one.

It was a big cast of, you know, mostly men,

and they were coming in very committed to their parts.

You know, they were very much the bikers that they portrayed on-camera,

but Johnny was different.

Where the other actors would always be together

doing their manly, biker thing,

he'd be, like, maybe reading poetry in the garage, you know?

he'd be, like, maybe reading poetry in the garage, you know?

He just didn't ever quite gel with them in that same way.

And unlike myself and many other people in Hollywood,

he wasn't in the drug and alcohol scene.

[Robin] No. Johnny never did drugs. He didn't drink.

No drugs, no alcohol. That was not his thing at all.

He just reeked coolness. The kid was just cool, you know?

[Jennifer] Sons of Anarchy was a huge show.

It was critically-acclaimed. It was getting lots of awards,

and a lot of these actors were becoming household names.

[photographer] Hey, Johnny can you get a couple over here for a minute?

But unfortunately, for some strange reason, Johnny wasn't happy.

[Sara] And it seemed like Johnny Lewis was on a path where he was spiraling.

And he was declining.

[Lynn] And I remember second season, when he came in,

[Lynn] And I remember second season, when he came in,

he asked to be written off.

I was like, "Don't do it! No, are you kidding? Don't make a move!"

He was like, "I have to go, Lynn."

-No -[grunts]

[woman yelps]

[gasps]

In the season two finale,

Half-Sack is stabbed while trying to save a baby.

[gasps]

[cries]

And I think that bewildered a few people.

And I think that bewildered a few people.

I think that there might have been one or two people that thought it was,

you know, career suicide.

[Jonathan] He was in an ascendancy. He was really moving up.

I mean, you can't do much better than that show.

And he chose to give it up, though I'm not sure it was a choice on his part.

And he chose to give it up, though I'm not sure it was a choice on his part.

He may have been driven by demons that he didn't know about.

[Lynn] Now, he and I, we spent a little more time in the trailer,

when, you know, when he wasn't on-camera.

And he told me that the biggest thing

he didn't like about the show was the violence.

And the most ironic part of that is that Johnny's name will forever be linked

to one of the most brutal...

...and horrific...

...and horrific...

...violent acts ever committed in Hollywood.

[Sara] To readily walk away from Sons of Anarchy, that is questionable.

And Johnny Lewis did it for a reason

that was completely contradictory to the roles he took after that.

He played a serial killer on Criminal Minds.

My lawyer here explains that I'm being charged with eight murders.

I have one very important question for you.

I have one very important question for you.

Are you sure it's just eight?

So, these were very violent roles.

They were very dark roles.

He played the husband of a young couple in Lovely Molly.

He is married to Molly, the main character,

and when she starts to sort of go off the edge,

he's at a loss at what to do

but, you know, very much in love with her but conflicted.

And the roles he took contradicted why he said he left Sons of Anarchy.

And the roles he took contradicted why he said he left Sons of Anarchy.

I don't understand that at all.

It's exactly the opposite of who he was

and who he wanted to be and strived to be.

People don't understand that as an actor,

you don't just recite the lines

and throw some feeling in there.

No. You have to really feel those feelings to absorb that character.

They can take on the qualities of that character.

They can take on the qualities of that character.

[Jennifer] Later on, one day, he's trying to clear his head.

It was October 30th, 2011.

He had decided he was gonna take out his motorcycle, go for a ride.

He rides his bike about two hours away from Los Angeles.

[sirens wailing]

[Jennifer] But unfortunately, he's involved in a high-speed accident.

He's not wearing a helmet at the time.

The fact that Johnny wasn't wearing a helmet

shows that not only was he being reckless,

also, it's against the law not to be wearing a helmet in California.

And especially being that he came from Sons of Anarchy.

[Robin] He definitely knew better than that.

Everyone had to do motorcycle safety training.

They all were trained very well by the stunt people

and the motorcycle safety coordinators.

Was this a cry for help?

[Sara] There was testing done. He did not have a concussion.

And yet, something was just never right with him after this accident.

[Gil] I've worked more homicides than most people in this nation.

There are those that were assigned directly to me,

or they're working them, and they called me in to now join the crew

to help solve the case.

Johnny Lewis was a particular interesting case.

In January of 2012, two men heard noise in their residence.

When they went to check the residence, they found Mr. Lewis.

When they went to check the residence, they found Mr. Lewis.

He's in there, and he's just wearing pajamas.

[Sara] They tell him to get out.

An argument ensues. He refuses to leave.

Johnny grabs a glass bottle.

[muffled shouting]

He hits both guys in the head.

One of the men starts fighting back,

but it didn't seem to affect Johnny at all.

And hitting Johnny in the head- several blows. It was all fists.

Johnny even bites one of the guys.

[muffled shouting]

[Gil] They're ultimately able to overcome him...

[sirens wailing]

...restrain him until law enforcement got there.

[police radio chatter]

[Gil] He was taken into custody.

When they confront him, he concocts a story.

He told them, "I came in there to save this baby.

He told them, "I came in there to save this baby.

I heard a baby crying, and I came to save the baby."

Well, nobody was in that condo when he broke in.

The men weren't there. There was never any baby in that apartment.

In the eye of the police officer, it was absurd.

In his mind, he was performing a duty of protection

and ended up getting the worst of it.

He's charged with trespassing, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.

He's charged with trespassing, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.

He's then sent to Twin Towers. That's the jail in downtown Los Angeles.

While he's there, his behavior gets even more bizarre.

Johnny starts banging his head on the cement walls.

He also tries jumping from the second story of the jail.

And then, after the total of eight days in custody, his dad bailed him out,

And then, after the total of eight days in custody, his dad bailed him out,

and he was back out of jail.

[Jennifer] When he is discharged,

Johnny goes home to live with his parents.

His face is puffy. His eyes are all black and blue

from bashing his head against the wall.

He all of a sudden develops an over-sensitive acute sensitivity to light

to the point that he starts disabling the fuse box of his parents' condo

because any time he sees the light,

it just blinds him, gives him a headache. He can't stand it.

About a month after Johnny spent eight days in jail,

his behavior gets even more off-the-charts bizarre.

[Sara] On February 10th, 2012,

Johnny's in Santa Monica at a yogurt shop,

and he just randomly starts talking to this family.

Everything is calm. Everything is normal.

And the family leaves the yogurt shop.

[Gil] When all of a sudden, the man heard footsteps.

He turned around only to see Mr. Lewis running at him and strike him in the head.

The police respond, and there's no explanation that Johnny offers.

He is arrested for an assault because of that incident.

As it turns out, the man was an off-duty police officer.

As it turns out, the man was an off-duty police officer.

So shocking. I mean, I'm so blow away by the whole thing.

What would have made him punch that officer?

He wasn't about fighting at all.

Johnny wasn't even confrontational.

[Robin] You hear things, you know, being on set, from other crew members,

[Robin] You hear things, you know, being on set, from other crew members,

but I wasn't really aware that Johnny had taken that dark path.

I really wasn't aware of that at all,

which made the fact of me finding out what happened eventually

so much more shocking.

[Gil] Mr. Lewis, after being arrested and taken into custody,

was able to ultimately make bail and was released from custody once again.

To me, to the layperson, to the homicide cop that I am,

To me, to the layperson, to the homicide cop that I am,

it sounds like Johnny Lewis was a sick man.

It appears that he went off for absolutely no reason.

So police officers have to be on the lookout.

"What is this guy really up to? When is it gonna stop?"

On February the 18th, 2012,

eight days from the previous incident,

at 9:23 in the morning, officers from Santa Monica police department

responded to the home of a Mrs. Merkel.

Upon responding, she indicated she was inside her residence,

and she heard a noise at her window.

And when looked out that window,

she saw Mr. Lewis standing there,

attempting to raise the window and open it up.

She immediately yelled out to him, "Hey, what are you doing?"

And his response was: "I was looking for my friend, Bob."

She said, "No, you weren't. You were trying to break in to my house."

She said, "No, you weren't. You were trying to break in to my house."

At which time, he just walked away.

She called law enforcement.

[sirens wailing]

[Sara] The police come to the scene. They arrest Johnny.

And he says, "She's my friend. I had every right to be here,"

and that just wasn't true.

The woman said, "I've never seen this guy. I don't know who he is."

Was this something he was imagining,

or was it just something he was telling the police?

[producer speaking]

[Jonathan] Somebody referred me.

Johnny was a pleasure to deal with when I met him.

He seemed well-put-together, articulate, attractive.

He supported his family.

That's the interesting thing.

Usually it's the other way round,

but he was so successful that he supported his family.

What I was doing with him was try to position him so that he'd get treatment,

and then he could go out and get jobs and be certified as a solid citizen.

and then he could go out and get jobs and be certified as a solid citizen.

Interestingly, his attorney had negotiated a disposition for him

to do two years in a treatment center that treats mental illness

instead of one year in jail.

It was a sweetheart deal.

[Jonathan] The treatment protocol was extraordinary.

Anybody else would have grabbed the opportunity

to be at that residential place,

ride horses up right near JPL. It sounds great.

ride horses up right near JPL. It sounds great.

[Sara] He didn't wanna do that.

He was not interested in getting well.

He took the jail over the treatment.

[Jonathan] I never got there because he wasn't playing that game.

He said, "I wanna go to trial.

I didn't do it. I wanna go to trial."

But Johnny didn't want me to represent him

'cause he felt I didn't believe in his innocence.

And I've told many a client,

"It's not my job to believe in anybody's innocence or guilt.

"It's not my job to believe in anybody's innocence or guilt.

My job is to find the evidence and show it to you and see what we can get from it."

And he didn't want it.

[Gil] He fired his legal counsel, Mr. Mandel,

and he would represent himself.

[Jonathan] I was perfectly happy getting off the case

'cause I didn't like where it was going.

I was deeply concerned about him.

I wanted him to stay in jail or in the program 'cause I thought he needed it.

I wanted him to stay in jail or in the program 'cause I thought he needed it.

I didn't see it as a dangerousness issue.

I just didn't see it that way, and obviously, I was wrong.

He was a dangerousness.

-[man] Great job, Johnny! -[man 2] Johnny Lewis!

[Jennifer] It's, like, basically, what happened is:

after six weeks in jail, on September 21st, 2012,

Johnny is released early because of overcrowding.

To me, the homicide cop that I am, it sounds like he's a con man.

To me, the homicide cop that I am, it sounds like he's a con man.

He's like a fox.

He went along there for two months. Now they say he's okay.

So he got what he wanted.

[Sara] After Johnny was released from jail,

his father arranged for him to move into the Writer's Villa.

The Writer's Villa is this 1920s Spanish-style mansion in Los Feliz.

And he went straight to the Writer's Villa.

The Writer's Villa was, for all intents and purposes,

those people who were on the far periphery

of the great maw of the entertainment industry.

And I keenly remember the times we had there because it was fun.

It was like everybody was riffing off of each other.

A lot of the actors and actresses from the show Melrose Place hung out there.

A lot of the actors and actresses from the show Melrose Place hung out there.

And one of the principals on the TV show NYPD Blue,

they were friends with all of us.

When Johnny was living there, there were massive, gargantuan parties.

There were multiple roommates.

The landlady, Catherine Davis,

was legendarily a friend and a patron of the arts.

I heard Johnny talk about the Writer's Villa and Catherine Davis,

that she was like a grandmotherly figure to him.

It was a cool place where he lived,

and he wanted to tell people how cool it was.

Unfortunately, Johnny's father doesn't tell Cathy Davis

about the bizarre episodes,

the brushes with the law, or the violence.

And that mistake will cost two people their lives.

And that mistake will cost two people their lives.

[Gil] On the 26th of September,

which was just five days after his release,

a neighbor hears some screaming and commotion going on

in the backyard of the Writer's Villa.

She then calls for assistance.

The police arrive.

By the time our officers responded and started going up the driveway,

By the time our officers responded and started going up the driveway,

they saw the body of Mr. Lewis, who is deceased,

on the ground, on the driveway,

apparently dead of some type of fall

off of one of the structures you see in front of us.

He was in the supine position with head trauma.

And he was pronounced dead at that time.

Well, looking at the actual location,

the distance of the actual impact of where the body ended up,

the distance of the actual impact of where the body ended up,

it appears that he may have either jumped or lost his footing.

Detectives are piecing it together.

We have the SID that's here, as well.

We do have blood in different locations,

so they're trying to collect all that blood.

[Gil] Was it suicide?

Was it accidental?

Just what happened?

All they know was he went over the balcony

and fell onto the driveway to the residence.

[reporter] Police say Johnny Lewis,

a 28-year-old actor from the TV show Sons of Anarchy,

fell to his death.

They found the actor's body in the driveway.

I'll never forget it because I turned on my phone,

and it just lit up for 20 minutes.

The calls just kept coming,

and they were all people that were wanting to know my opinion.

[Robin] I was in the makeup trailer on a film.

An actor came in and said, "Hey, you worked on Sons, didn't you?" and told me.

An actor came in and said, "Hey, you worked on Sons, didn't you?" and told me.

I just... I didn't believe it.

I don't wanna be crying on camera. Sorry.

[sniffs]

It's just...

It's, you know... It's emotional because...

...the person that I remember had so much potential

and was so kind.

And you just wanted the best for him,

And you just wanted the best for him,

[Champagne] I was just, I was grief-stricken.

I do remember being so sad.

So sad and thinking, "Gosh, how unfair."

The reactions to Johnny's death, including Katy Perry's,

was that people were devastated

to lose a young talent like Johnny.

There were so many questions that needed to be answered.

So, they began with questioning the witnesses, who were the neighbors.

The officers speak to Dan, the neighbor,

and he describes Johnny and says that, you know, the man that's laying there

came over early on that day and introduced himself.

"Hey, how you doing, I'm Johnny. I'm your new neighbor."

The guys doesn't know who he is, if this is a homeless guy.

The guys doesn't know who he is, if this is a homeless guy.

He's never seen him before.

[Azari] And Johnny disappears for a little bit.

Then there's about a 30, 40 minute period that passes.

Johnny then comes back and there's an altercation with Dan's painter.

Dan gets involved physically. His wife gets involved.

And they struggle with Mr. Lewis.

He hit Mr. Lewis several times.

But it did not seem to faze him at all.

The man's wife, the man, and the handyman,

are all fighting with Johnny, who's got this super human-type strength.

He's beating everybody up.

They finally break free.

[Carrillo] They run inside the house. Johnny attempts to go inside the house...

...gets his arm in, and they slam the door on his arm.

The did this several times, slamming the door on his arm.

The did this several times, slamming the door on his arm.

Johnny ultimately decided he was gonna go back to the Writer Villa,

jumped over the fence, and went inside the house.

Dan has no idea, nor his wife, what happened after that.

They just know that he ran and disappeared back inside the house.

Next, the police respond to the inside of the villa.

All of a sudden, things there go from bad to worse.

All of a sudden, things there go from bad to worse.

When they walk into the villa, the first floor,

absolutely pristine, no problem.

But it's when they get the second floor,

they spots shards of glass everywhere.

They see the most gruesome crime scene

probably most officers have ever seen in their career.

[police officer] The officers made entry into the house,

and they noticed that the house appeared to have been ransacked

and there was damage to some of the, uh, furniture

and some of the, uh, items inside the house.

They go to the first room, it happens to be the Red Suite,

that is where Johnny lives.

They see a rusty hammer with blood all over it.

[Azari] And then they respond to the bathroom,

and they find Catherine's cat, who had also been killed...

and they find Catherine's cat, who had also been killed...

...and beaten. His head was smashed in.

[Carrillo] Officers then went across the hallway into the master bedroom.

There had been signs of a struggle.

There was blood.

There was furniture that had been moved.

And there they found 81-year-old Catherine Davis...

...lying on her side, up against the bed.

She was severely disfigured in the head.

Just very traumatic injuries.

It's a very gruesome scene.

All right, it's a very senseless crime.

Someone that's just defenseless.

Someone that's in their late, late years, 70, 80 years of age.

I think this, and, and then living in this type of neighborhood,

you don't expect anything like this to take place.

[Azari] The manner of death was manual strangulation,

and blunt force trauma.

[Carrillo] Mr. Lewis was deemed to be...

[Carrillo] Mr. Lewis was deemed to be...

...the killer of Catherine Davis.

There was nobody else in the residence.

They also noted that he had scratch marks

on his neck, which would have been indicative

of the 81-year-old Catherine Davis...

...grabbing onto his neck and attempting to stop him from doing what he's doing.

She's fighting for her life.

So, the timeline and chronology's a bit murky,

So, the timeline and chronology's a bit murky,

but what makes sense is that Johnny introduced himself to Dan...

...went into the Writer's Villa.

Those 30 or 40 minutes was ample time

for him to kill Catherine and her cat.

And then came out and had the altercation with Dan's painter and Dan.

And then fell to his own death.

[police officer] No, we don't believe that there was an intruder.

What took place at this point is that we had

erratic [stutters] behavior from the suspect.

But there was a physical confrontation.

Uh, both male victims sustained injuries.

The suspect probably had been deceased from a, from a fall.

[Azari] It was a tremendous loss for the community,

specifically the arts community.

Actors and actresses who would stay there.

I mean, this is the most heinous attack

I mean, this is the most heinous attack

on an 81-year-old woman and then her cat.

[man] I'm, I'm shaking, I just cannot believe this happened to that poor woman.

She was a, she was just, she was an incredible woman.

You couldn't ask for a nicer person than Cathy was.

She was an absolute sweetheart.

I never saw her say an unkind word to anybody.

[Carrillo] It's a tragic story.

[Carrillo] It's a tragic story.

So sad that someone had to suffer.

At her age, the fear, the pain that she had to suffer initially is...

It's a tremendous thought.

I don't even know if I can tell you what I thought at that time,

but I, I definitely said, actually my words were,

"They've got the wrong person on Sons of Anarchy.

Somebody on Songs of Anarchy's killed somebody, but it ain't him."

[Mathews] So, like, this is so strange to me,

because this is someone that obviously gave him this tremendous opportunity

to star in Sons of Anarchy,

saying, right here, "I was not shocked that this happened."

This is blowing my mind right now.

Because I didn't realize anybody else felt that way about him at that time.

And I think this had a lot to do with the fact that

he threw away an opportunity that was...

...amazing for him.

...amazing for him.

That's pretty intense. You know.

[Azari] There were so many questions that needed to be answered.

What motivated Johnny Lewis to kill Catherine Davis,

and then her cat, in the way that he did?

Not only he climbed those side of the Writers' Villa like a Spider-Man,

but Dan said that he was taking beating like nobody's business.

but Dan said that he was taking beating like nobody's business.

It's like he had no pain.

It's like he was invincible.

[woman] There had been stories that he was exhibiting super human strength.

No one is sure what sort of drug he might have been on.

The story is bizarre and tragic.

Do we suspect that there's drugs or alcohol, any kind of narcotics involved?

At this point we don't know.

We suspect there's drugs or alcohol, any kind of narcotics involved?

At this point we don't know.

When this occurred, bath salts were making headlines

for all the bizarre things that they were having people do.

There are several new drugs that are coming out

after bath salts started to get outlawed,

new drugs come out all the time,

and young people try new drugs all the time.

That's of course one of the things that our detectives are gonna look into,

That's of course one of the things that our detectives are gonna look into,

whether he was using that or anything else.

We really don't know at this time.

[Azari] Bath salts were the sort of street name

given to the drug de jour in 2012.

It was a synthetic drug, it was a hallucinogenic

that a lot of people were taking.

Drugs known as bath salts being blamed for a gruesome scene in Miami.

[Azari] In May, 2012, the Miami cannibal case

[Azari] In May, 2012, the Miami cannibal case

involved a man who ripped off a man's face.

His, his eyeballs were gone, his face. It is unbelievable.

There are many reactions that your brain can have

when you're putting in a substance such as this.

And the behavior that comes out of that

could be anything from aggression

to ripping off basically someone's face.

That was the first thing that people were talking about in the news.

That was the first thing that people were talking about in the news.

Is bath salts.

But the episodes seemed to be a little different.

The rational part of me...

...knows there was something really, really wrong with that guy.

He was a mess.

He was not in his right mind.

I can't imagine a circumstance where any nice, old landlady

I can't imagine a circumstance where any nice, old landlady

would have done or said anything to him

to merit a, one-hundredth of that response. Okay?,

[Gould] Eight weeks later in November, Johnny's autopsy comes out.

The coroner says Johnny's cause of death was blunt force trauma.

Johnny's death was deemed undetermined, accidental vs. suicide.

It was unknown how he went off that balcony.

So, they can't determine for sure what it was.

But they ruled the cause of death would be traumatic injuries

as a result of the fall.

When they conducted Johnny's autopsy,

and as part of that did the toxicology,

they specifically tested, not only for all different classifications of drugs,

but they tested for psychotropic drugs.

And he was completely clean.

Well, of course I knew before those test results ever came back

because when we were filming Sons of Anarchy,

I mean, there were those of us that did, and he just did not.

You know, to this day, I don't think we can really for certain say

what motivated Johnny Lewis to kill Catherine Davis

and then her cat in the way that he did.

But Catherine and Johnny, in the days before the, the murder,

But Catherine and Johnny, in the days before the, the murder,

had a major disagreement over the fuse box.

Johnny, according to his father and others,

had a sensitivity to light.

And he had a tendency to want to shut off the light.

This was something he had done before.

And it appears that there was an altercation

between him and Catherine over him shutting off the fuse box.

That was speculation, but to the investigator,

That was speculation, but to the investigator,

he killed her, she's dead, he's dead, case closed.

Doesn't matter why.

It's very unsettling, extremely unsettling.

[indistinct paparazzi]

I just, I don't understand what happened.

I just don't understand.

[paparazzi 1] Once more, Johnny.

[paparazzi 2] Just again, Johnny.

I believe that it was, you know, due to the motorcycle wreck.

I think that something happened in that guy's brain.

But I knew him well enough to say, "No way. No way."

[Merriner] I've worked mainly with creatives and artists and musicians and producers.

I'm not here to diagnose him.

But something was clearly a little off with Johnny

when he didn't get the treatment that he needed

and it sounds like he wasn't really allowed access to it.

And then he also became resistant to it.

And then he also became resistant to it.

He refused an MRI twice after his motorcycle accident.

And so there's so many things that could have happened to him,

whether it be a traumatic brain injury.

Then it, it really depends on what part is affected.

But it can lead to excessive violence...

...and hallucinations and delusions.

At no point was there a major enough intervention in this kid's life

where somebody could have said, "Something is, is wrong with him."

There's a pathology of wrongness here.

[Champagne] I, I just wish somebody would've, could've, you know,

realized that something was wrong.

[paparazzi] Hey, Johnny can we get a couple over here from you?

[interviewer]

[interviewer]

No.

I don't think he had that capacity.

It was just so far away from the norm.

Johnny Lewis had one real enemy in his life...

...and it happened to be named Johnny Lewis.