Under The Moonlight

15:26It took the police a couple of days to find him. They knew immediately who it was because he had taken my brother's car and left his car behind. He also had my brother's wallet. They believe he abandoned his truck at the scene and took Snarr's Ford Bronco. The afternoon that they caught him, Ben Venuto had gone to a gas station and was buying cookies with the last of Zach's money. The gas station attendant recognized him because his picture had been all over the news. The police arrested him just behind the gas station. He was sitting eating the cookies.

16:06He just looked like this normal kid, you know, this young kid. and I just would stare at his picture for hours. The policeman told us that he was 19 years old. They told us he had come from Uruguay. He was living, he lived in New York for a while and then moved out to Utah. And that he had bought a gun a couple of weeks before and apparently somebody had robbed his house. It made him very angry.

16:38On the way to the interview, I was trying to understand what type of individual I would be talking with.

16:55During my conversation with Ben Venuto, he began offering his reason for shooting these two young people. Part of his explanation was that he was tired of living himself, that he wanted to do something so bad that he would have the courage to then kill himself.

17:16But he said that in fact he had lost his nerve after he had shot both of these individuals.

17:25He had a real power trip with the firearm. This made him feel powerful and somehow in control of things. When I described to Benvenuto that he had only completed killing one of the two individuals, the surprise was visible on his face. He was almost disappointed that this gun that he treasured and thought so highly of let him down.

18:01He had told them I just wanted to watch someone die. I want to see what it feels like to kill someone. I mean, they could have taken a knife and run it through my body. I don't think it would have been as painful, because that's when we realized how it was a thrill kill. It was a totally random thrill kill.

18:22I remember he was smiling and just looking into the camera. just made you sick. It just made me sick just to see him. In a way, I wish they would have just shot him right then and there.

18:52I remember the next morning waking up in my room and it was a beautiful morning and I remember the sun coming in through my window and the house was just silent. And I remember thinking, oh it was it was a dream. What a horrible, horrible nightmare. And then my bedroom door opened and my friend came in and she was just bawling and I that's when I knew that oh my word this really happened. And it just seemed so impossible. The Zach could be gone. because honestly, Zach was just bigger than life. He had such a light about him that there was just no way that anyone could have taken him from us.

19:52The funeral, I remember being in our church. Just the amount of people there was staggering. I mean, just there, it was standing room only. It was a beautiful tribute for Zach. Yvette was there and I remember she could barely walk. She got out of the hospital just long enough for the funeral and then she had to go back. But she was very weak and I remember just, just she felt so bad. She felt so guilty and here we are, we just looked at her and she was such a beautiful miracle for us. We were so grateful that she had survived.

20:31Walking out afterward behind his casket was painful. Was really when I just wanted to crawl up in a ball and hide from everybody and just not be the girl that lived. I didn't want to be that person right then. and I just wanted to hide and be Zach's friend.

21:10Our house was so full of people. And one day, all of a sudden, people quit coming. And it hit me so hard one day. He's really not coming home. And I found out through experience there is such a thing as a broken heart. You know, you hear of a broken heart, but it is a physical pain. I never realized that. It hurt me to breathe. And I would look around and see all these people getting on with their lives and I would think, how can they walk? How can they do what they're doing? And how can they laugh? And how can they be happy? Because for me life was basically over. I felt like it was over. Before the shooting, I would say I was a very trusting person.

22:01I was someone who really thought everyone else in this world was kind and generous and giving. And after the shooting, I was terrified of everyone. Didn't trust. I didn't want to socialize. Didn't want to leave my house. My mom made sure that someone was with me 24 hours a day in my room. I was so afraid that this man was going to come and finish the job.

22:42I remember one night just feeling so desperate for help. And I went and I just became so angry. All of a sudden, Benvenuto had the power to make me, who I've always been a happy person. I couldn't even smile. And I remember I went and I kicked a hole in my wall in my apartment because I was just so angry.

23:10I think I really hated Jorge Benvenuto when it was like a cancer spreading through my whole body. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him like he had hurt Zach.

23:31Well, it was pretty obvious that the SNARS thought the appropriate sentence was the death penalty.

23:40And they made that very clear to us. Bob Stott came in our home, and I just looked at him, and I said, kill him.

23:51We understood that and we told them of course that that's what our goal was. Our object was to seek the most appropriate punishment. We certainly felt that the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment. We were going after that. I always knew I would have to testify at some point. And it scared me to get ready for it. but there's no way you can really prepare to be in the same room as the man who shot you.

24:44I will never ever forget that day in court. Just knowing I was going to see Jorge Benvenuto for the first time scared me to death.

25:02At the beginning of the case, we had a preliminary hearing, which is like a mini trial, and that's where I had to testify.

25:15The courtroom was packed. When they brought him into the courtroom, I just felt like he sucked the air right out of there. Kind of. It's like I'm looking at the person who murdered my son. He didn't look at us. And I was like, look at me. You know, look at me. This boy was a little bit of a lie. This boy had a mother, this boy had a family who loved him. And he just didn't even look at us. When I saw him in the courtroom I realized, he has no soul.

26:00And he stood there and pleaded not guilty.

26:09I don't remember actually walking to the stand, but I do remember sitting there and having to point him out and lifting my finger. And I remember watching my finger and it just shook while I'm pointing at him that this is the man who did it.

26:38She looked so afraid and she was trying so hard to be brave. I was amazed that she could get up there and look at him after what he had done to her, but she did it. She did it. I imagined a lot what Zach would have done. and he would have been so strong and so brave during it and so I just tried to be as strong as that could have been

27:17Afterwards, she just fell and she was just sobbing.

27:28I wanted him to get the death penalty. Like he didn't have the right to live.

27:42We were ready to go to trial. We were ready to ask for the death penalty. We had a good case. This is the kind of case that we would have won. But on the other hand, it's a very difficult process. We have to convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. 12 jurors, even if one disagrees, the death penalty is not given. And there will be countless appeals, countless habeas corpuses. They'll have to appear at different hearings. They'll see it in the newspaper. They'll see it on television. Benvenuto said he shot them because he wanted to see what it felt like to watch them die. And it won't be over for another 20 to 25 years.

28:37Jorge did not want to die, so that is why Jorge Benvenuto decided to ask for a plea bargain. He would accept a sentence of life without possibility of parole if he was not given the death penalty in a trial. My family was very torn about it. Would it be giving up on Zach if we took this plea bargain? At the time, there was an execution going on in Texas. And I remember that the crime had happened 20 years before. But these protesters were protesting the fact that they were going to end his life, and that he had changed his life and that he was truly sorry. And I remember just thinking, I don't want that to happen to Zach.

29:31I don't want 20 years from now, protesters out there talking about what a great person Jorge Benvenuto is. I couldn't stomach the thought. And so that's why we as a family decided to take the plea bargain.

29:48I know a lot of people were really shocked the fact that we plea bargained. It was on talk radio, we had phone calls, the media, why would you do this? I said, I do not want my son's trial turned into a freak show. He deserves more dignity than that.

30:10Having him just spend the rest of his life in prison is fine with me. And I can just know he's there in prison forever.

30:28High drama in a Utah courtroom today as a killer is sent to prison for life without parole. George Benvenuto killed a teenage boy and injured his friend.

30:40It's like finally it was really over.

30:51When we walked out of the courtroom the day the man that shot us, the day he was sentenced, I was sure I was never going to see him again. I was never going to have to be in the same room as him again.

31:10And then the man that shot us filed an appeal that said he was depressed when he made that deal. And because he was depressed when he made that deal, he should get out of it. I remember thinking of all the people to claim you're depressed and you should get out of consequences, how dare you?

31:55The good thing about the appeal is I got to make a victim statement and I wanted Jorge Benvenuto to hear me. I wanted him to know what he had done to us and I turned right to him and looked at him and I said Jorge what was it like watching someone die and I just stopped and waited and he looked up at me for one brief second and then dropped his head again that is the only time he's looked at me and then I said was it worth it? I didn't get an answer surprise, surprise.

32:46It was like being kicked in the stomach so hard, it's just indescribable how that felt. I could not believe that he could do that to us again.

33:06I know the name of the man who shot me and who killed Zach, but I don't say it out loud. I refuse to give him that power or respect, and I've never said his name out loud, and I never will.

33:25I've had five operations total. It took about three years for me to officially be out of hospitals. The most painful part has actually been the nerve damage. To not have sensation on the right side of my body can be really painful sometimes. I would much rather have a surgery every other week than have to feel the survivor's guilt.

34:01I would go over to the cemetery and there would be the sweetest notes and little things on Zach's grave from Yvette and you could read her pain. That she felt so guilty for having survived. I didn't want to intrude. I didn't want to force her to be part of our lives. I thought maybe it was too painful for her, but I really wanted her in my life, and my whole family felt this bond towards her. Whenever I'm with her, I think, you were with my son, and he was happy that night with you.

34:46in the stands. Si is the most consistently loving person that I could ever ask for in my life. And she's a person that knows how I feel.

35:04I feel selfish about it, but I really value when she tells me that she's happy that I'm here.

35:16I don't deserve it, but I appreciate it a lot.

35:34I tried for so long to be that girl I was when I was 18. And it was actually my mom who finally one day said, you know, you're gonna just need to mourn the Yvette you were. She's gone. And you won't ever be her again. But you have the chance to be someone a lot different and a lot better. We hold those. Speaking of baseball, speaking of baseball. I went to college to be a news anchor. Are you still recording? And I thought that was going to be my happy ever after. Is that okay? But after the shooting and going through the court process, I realized that the law is where a lot of good can happen for people.

36:22And I decided to go to law school and am now able to help people in the law side of the criminal justice system. I work entirely with victims of crime. And while I don't tell my story with them, and they don't know what's happened to me, I do feel like I'm able to give them a sense of compassion that maybe other people can't, and that means the world to me.

36:55I'm 32 years old. I have a darling 7-year-old daughter. I was married at one point and my ex-husband and I tried really hard to have that work and and it didn't unfortunately but he is the father of my daughter and together I think we're raising a pretty good kid so I feel really lucky in my life.

37:26I miss Zach and I think about him all the time, like all the time. But I don't dwell on his death anymore. I dwell on his life. I have three children. My oldest is Zachary Taylor Davis. I wanted to name him after Zach. Sometimes it just brings tears to my eyes because, you know, not only is he named after him, but I think he looks a lot like him.

37:55Every time I look at the moon, I think of Zachary. He's the man in the moon to me, and I can never look at the full moon without thinking of that night that he saw the beauty in that full moon.

38:19It's been 14 years since I was with Zach last, and I think of him every single day. I can imagine his laugh.

38:37I would love to see him again and just run to him and hug him. And it's interesting, I think I'll, I want to say, wasn't that night so scary? And have him look at me and say, yeah, it was. And he would know what I was talking about.

39:03you