- East Bank Hospital
- No, I told you to order 200 hundred units,
not 20 units, but while I'm here at the hospital
- There is a chance that they're not
going to be able to get it out that way
- Ms. Bannon, Tammy, Detective Travis.
Hi.
How is he doing?
- He's better.
He's moving a little bit
and doctors are gonna keep him sedated a few more days.
Swelling's gone down a little bit, so,
that's a good sign.
- Has he been able to communicate at all?
- No, no he hasn't.
- Okay.
Well, I know you understand that time is critical here.
Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?
- Yes, of course.
- Great, so, my understanding is
you found him last night on the driveway,
after work around 10:30 p.m.
- Ah, yes.
- Did you hear anything?
I mean, anything outside, anything out of the ordinary?
- We heard his car door shut,
and when he didn't come inside,
Michael went to check on him.
He found him lying on the ground,
bleeding,
and moaning a little bit.
- Was there anything that's happened recently
that maybe caused you to believe he might be in danger?
- No, no.
He gets along with everyone.
Has a lot friends.
- How about the family?
I mean, anything going on there,
anything outside the family that
- Actually, he just broke up with his girlfriend
and I know they weren't getting along.
Maybe she has a new boyfriend or something.
- Okay.
Do you know where I can find her?
- What about you Mr. Bannon
anything to add?
- Get them.
Find them.
- Come on
Courtney, I'm not sure how much you're aware of,
but Justin was recently involved in an incident
that has some people concerned,
and I was hoping you might be able to shed light
on that situation.
- Is he in trouble?
- No, no, neither are you.
Just have some questions.
- Maybe we should wait until my husband's home.
- Sure, we can do that
but unless you have something
that I'm not aware of,
I don't see why there's any reason
we couldn't start the conversation now.
- Mom, it's fine.
I don't mind telling him what happened.
- Great.
Any information will help.
- Okay.
Well, Justin and I were together for 10 months.
Got any threes?
- Nope, go fish.
- You're cheating.
You are so cheating.
- No I'm not.
How can you tell?
Are you cheating?
- Oh my gosh, I can't believe you.
- I don't cheat.
- Mom, he's over here cheating
and how long is it gonna take you to find
whatever it is you're looking for?
- Ah, actually, I have.
Just needed my blanket.
It's my favorite.
- So, how many nights are we gonna
have to spend playing cards
before we can go anywhere?
- I don't know.
There's not like a number on it.
It's just until they're comfortable, I guess.
- Comfortable.
- Yeah, but mom already loves you.
It's just dad we have to work on.
- They do know how old you are, right?
I mean, I haven't had to do the whole
parental routine thing since like seventh grade.
- Oh, and who was that?
Katie?
Your stalker.
I mean, if this is too much trouble
you can always go back to her.
- Heck no.
- Well then, in the mean time, you get to play Go Fish
with me in my den.
- Exciting.
- Are you sure you don't have any threes?
- All right guys,
it's getting close to 10:30 p.m.
it's time to wrap things up.
Courtney, you have to sing in the morning.
- My bad Mr. Hamilton,
we let the time slip away.
I'll head out now.
- It's okay, I understand that.
I just didn't want it to go too late.
- I'll walk you to your car.
- Okay
So, have you decided on it?
- About what?
- About what we were texting about.
- I haven't decided yet.
- Well, did you see how I handled your dad in there?
I mean, is there something?
He's tough.
- You did good,
but if I do it,
you have to promise to never
- Hey, no, you don't even have to say it.
We trust each other, don't we?
- We do.
- And I won't be able to go to sleep
unless I hear your answer.
I have work in the morning,
I need rest.
- Okay, okay,
I get it.
Sorry.
- It's okay.
- No kiss tonight.
Miss me.
- Miss me more.
- You know I will.
I never should have done it,
but I was in love with him and I wanted to make him happy.
And he said it would make us closer
since my parents were in between us.
So, I gave in.
And it was stupid.
- So, you sent him the photos,
he passed them on to his buddies,
and then you broke up with him?
- No.
- No, he didn't pass them on,
no, you didn't break up?
- Around that time, they went through a phase
of breaking up and getting back together.
It was something different every week.
Craig and I didn't know what to do.
- So, Courtney, how would you describe
your relationship at that time?
- You know, you can just text me this, right?
- I know.
I like notes, they're just they're more personal.
- Do you want me to take you home today?
- I know what that means
and I thought tryouts were today.
- They are, but I'm not going.
I just signed up to get my dad off my back.
Well, here's what I was thinking.
So, Toby lives down the street from you, right?
So, I'm gonna park at his house,
I'm gonna walk over to your house.
Sound good?
- And what if one of the neighbors sees you come in?
My parents know all of them.
- They'll all be at work.
- Hey Justin.
- Hey.
Oh, is there anything due in Beyer's class?
I don't know.
If there is, I didn't do it, so, we can just fail together.
- All right.
See ya.
- Okay.
Let me figure this out.
So
you can talk to another girl,
but if there's a guy anywhere near me, you get mad.
- That?
That was about school work.
- But that doesn't seem to matter when it's me.
- That's cause it's different.
I mean, I trust you, it's the other guys I don't trust.
I mean, you don't know how guys think.
- I didn't want to lose him,
so, over time, I became what I thought he wanted me to be.
- So how much time do we
- Shh.
- Why are we being quiet?
- Because my dad's home.
- What?
- Yeah, my dad's home.
He's asleep.
- What?
- He works third shift and he won't wake up.
- Are you serious?
- It's fine.
He won't wake up.
- What if he does wake up?
- Don't worry.
Come on.
Come on
- What are you doing home?
And what is he doing here?
- Mom, he brought me home to get a paper I forgot,
that's all, I promise.
- You're lying to me?
Courtney Nicole, you're standing in front of me
looking me in the face, lying to me.
- Okay, just calm down, you'll wake up dad.
- Maybe I should.
- Mrs. Hamilton, I can explain.
- You need to go.
Now.
Excuse me, where do you think you're going?
- Back to school.
- No, not with him.
I'm taking you.
- After we were caught,
my parents clamped down on our relationship,
and I think Justin started looking for a way out.
- Hey, can I borrow your reading log?
I practice. I'll give it after school.
- Haven't people been caught doing that?
- I'll just change the dates on there.
I just need your list.
Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Seriously?
- What did I do wrong this time?
- The same thing you do every time.
You can't stop talking to other guys,
and you know how I feel about it,
and you won't stop.
- Are you kidding me?
- Dude, come on.
- Don't touch me.
- Listen, it's fine, just go.
Just go.
It's fine.
He came up to me.
You're accusing me before even asking what happened,
and you always assume I'm in the wrong.
- That's because it happens so often.
I mean, am I supposed to assume it's coincidence?
Honestly, I'm sick of dealing with you.
- You know, I'm sick of you too.
To hell with this.
- Okay, let me solve that for you then.
Talk to whoever you want.
I'm done.
- Courtney, I'm sure you know this,
but abusive relationships are not always physically violent.
- Yes, I know that now.
- What about the photos?
- He never deleted them.
Have you seen them?
- No, and I won't.
- We didn't know about the photos
until well after it happened.
Otherwise, we would have done something.
We would have called someone.
- It was a rough time for me, but I think I needed it.
.
- Courtney?
Are you not eating tonight?
I know you may not want to hear this right now.
- Dad, please don't.
Not now.
- I think this is important for you to hear.
When a relationship ends,
it's because God has a much better one planned for you.
Maybe I can just listen for a while?
Or maybe mom.
What's this about?
- Hey.
Some guy is here to see you.
Says he needs to talk.
- Mr. Hamilton, can I get for you?
- I know what you did.
Look at me!
- Sir, I never intended for
- If my daughter sheds another tear over what you did
or for anything, one tear, I'm gonna make you pay for it.
Do you understand me?
- Yes sir.
- And that's a promise.
I don't know how you're gonna do it,
but those pictures are gone by tomorrow.
All of them.
I'm gonna hold you personally responsible.
Are we clear?
- Yes sir, we're clear.
.
- I have written statements from multiple witnesses
that say you threatened a boy who is now in the hospital.
That's a problem.
- I understand.
I was angry and I said things that I now regret.
- You regret?
After the embarrassment he caused your daughter,
I think any dad would have done the same thing.
- Well, yes, but looking back on it now,
I wish I would have handled things differently.
- Differently?
Why?
- Can I sit down?
- Yes.
- I just need to say that
everything that happened between us.
I understand much better now.
- Yeah.
Me too.
- You used to write a name and some numbers
at the end of the notes you wrote me.
I never knew what that meant.
- My Life Verse
- I looked it up.
It was good.
The girl that wrote that verse
I worry that she's gone now,
and that's my fault.
I don't know if I'm any good at it, but I pray now,
and when I do, I ask that the girl
who used to write those verses please come back.
Not for my sake, but for hers.
- Everything that happened was not just your fault.
I wasn't living that verse, so I stopped writing it.
- No, it wasn't you.
You don't need to be sorry about anything.
I'm the one that needs to say I'm sorry,
and to ask for forgiveness.
I also told my dad that I was sorry,
I was trying to change.
He thought it meant I was becoming a republican.
- So, after you found out about his conversion,
what'd you think, did you believe him?
- I did.
- Well, I guess I wouldn't put it passed a boy
to convince a girl of something he wanted her to believe
I mean especially if he has something to benefit from it.
- I believed him because that was me
at one point in my life.
I found Christ as a teenager
after making some unfortunate choices.
And after what the boy said,
I just don't think you can make something like that up.
- Mr. Hamilton,
Craig,
we have your truck on video surveillance
in the restaurant parking lot
the same night Justin was assaulted.
Can you explain that?
- After Courtney told me about their conversation,
I wanted to give the boy a word of encouragement.
Tell him how proud I was of what he was doing.
So, I went up there.
They told me he'd already left
so I went back to the truck and headed to work.
- So, this other man,
did you get a good look at him?
- It was dark.
He was a large frame, like six foot.
Had on a jacket.
He had something in his hands.
- Sweetheart can you tell me what happened to your brother?
- Hey!
Guess who I got a letter from today?
You're gonna embarrass me after I got you the tryout?
Hey, you get back here, boy.
You are an embarrassment!
- Back off.
- You're a disappointment!
- Get off!
- I'm telling you right now!
- Get off me!
- Dear Justin,
if I didn't tell you in the hallway,
I want you to know that I do forgive you.
How could I not, when I've been forgiven for so much myself?
I know we both agreed that we should keep our distance,
but I want you to know that I pray for you daily.
I pray that your walk with the Lord will grow strong,
that your body will heal,
and that your family will be restored.
And lastly I pray that the words of My Life Verse
will ring true in your life,
just as they have in mine.
Your sister in Christ, Courtney.
Psalm 28 7