00:00:00
She was so alive to hear that news and realizing that it's Amber. How could that be? Her life was just beginning.
00:00:15
Amber made friends for life. There was just no trying with our friendship, it just was.
00:00:21
But that life didn't last long. Amber is on the floor, face down, and she has a plastic bag wrapped around her head.
00:00:30
The till's open, the door's open. Most people that rob a store don't kill anybody.
00:00:35
The whole world just died right there. For months, the murder stayed cold. Didn't have witnesses, didn't have video, didn't have DNA.
00:00:45
We had everything going against us. We'd go down and talk to the detective. We wouldn't let it go.
00:00:51
Then, a break. Another victim. He would duct tape me, duct tape my mouth. And she knew a secret.
00:00:59
Could she risk revealing it? Something's going to happen tonight. A killer ready to run, face to face with the one person who might be able to stop him.
00:01:09
He just reached over the glove compartment. He put out the gun. I said, at least don't kill me.
00:01:15
I wanted to get out of there alive. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Everything She Knew.
00:01:25
It was a Monday morning in January, 2007, 9.08 a.m. A young woman in San Antonio texted her boyfriend,
00:01:37
I love you. That's all it said. I love you. Nothing more. Downtown, the Alamo had just opened its doors.
00:01:47
A few tourists began boarding little boats to gaze at remnants of Texas history along urban stretches of the San Antonio River.
00:01:55
and several miles away in the farther reaches in the modern city, the manager of a video game store began his daily ritual.
00:02:03
His name was Mariano Rivera. The store opens at 10, but the managers typically get to at 9 in the morning,
00:02:10
get the tills ready, grab the money, take it with you, and go to the bank. Similar process in a sister store.
00:02:15
Same company, not far away. That one managed by the woman who sent the text to her boyfriend.
00:02:22
Except this was strange. As the morning slipped by, her store remained closed. Mariano got a call from the district manager.
00:02:33
Can you go over there and maybe you can see something, you see what's going on? He did. He saw a white car in the parking lot look like the young woman's car.
00:02:43
He peered into the store window. Nobody there. And I thought, man, this is strange. Like, where is she? So I kept calling, nothing.
00:02:50
Her name was Amber Belkin, tiny, just 5'2", 100 pounds, but energetic, ambitious, and very much in charge.
00:03:02
She was a firecracker. That's the easiest way to put it. Matt Pina is in Texas politics nowadays, but back then he worked in Amber Belkin's store.
00:03:11
She would let you know what she wanted, but I think she was one of the kindest souls ever that I've ever met.
00:03:16
So I guess it depended on what side you met her on and how much you made her mad.
00:03:22
She could be tough. Oh, most certainly. She loved her job. She did. Monica Peck and Ashley Flores were Amber's best friends.
00:03:30
Was she cut out to be a manager? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She was fierce. But she still was friendly.
00:03:36
She loved all her employees. Yeah. And she loved all of her customers. She was only 25.
00:03:42
She was a store manager. and so it was a very good sense of she's doing it. She's making something of her life.
00:03:49
Like she had goals, she had ambitions and then she wanted to go back to school. She wanted all of it.
00:03:54
Not that she set out to work in a game store. She wanted to be a veterinarian. She was just so loving.
00:04:01
We couldn't pass a turtle on the road. She had to turn around and pick it up and take it to her house.
00:04:07
She would find these random animals on the side of the road. It's like, how did you find that animal?
00:04:11
Like her little dog, Buddy. Amber's parents, Lee and Randy. She actually ran for Buddy across the expressway.
00:04:22
And the hair was all matted up, looked like dreadlocks. And she said, well, I can't put it back out on the road.
00:04:29
It'll get killed. So I just opened the door and let it in. Amber was their only child.
00:04:35
They doted on her from the day she was born. And she was good in return. She helped anybody that needed it.
00:04:46
They didn't even have to ask. She was going to make sure that you were protected.
00:04:52
But now, where was Amber? Why was her store not open? Why didn't she answer the phone?
00:04:58
Early afternoon, still no sign of Amber. So again, the district manager called Mariano.
00:05:04
Something that's just strange. And sent him back for a second look. So again, Mariano looked in through the big front window.
00:05:11
But this time, he saw someone. Amber's assistant manager, Brandon, just standing there behind the counter.
00:05:19
I knock on the door, and so he lets me in, and I said, Brandon, have you seen Amber? He's like, no.
00:05:25
He goes, but something is strange. There's money on the floor. It looks like there was some kind of struggle or something happened.
00:05:30
Things got knocked over. My first thought was, where's Amber? So he said he didn't know.
00:05:35
And, you know, of course, right away I'm thinking, you know, what is going on with this guy?
00:05:39
He clearly sees there's something wrong. Yeah. He must have not recognized the car.
00:05:44
I'm thinking, that's her car outside. Sure. You see there's things on the floor.
00:05:48
Why haven't you reacted right away? And, you know, call someone or check the rest of the store.
00:05:54
But he hadn So Mariano ran to the back office the only other room of the store Not a moment he ever forget Not for the rest of his life
00:06:05
And when I run to the back, I find that Amber is on the floor, face down, and she has a plastic bag wrapped around her head.
00:06:12
And instantly, I knew what happened. One mystery solved. Amber was no longer missing.
00:06:21
But a much bigger mystery remained. when we return. Most people that rob a store don't kill anybody.
00:06:28
Maybe the robbery was just a cover for murder. He had the classic motive. It does kind of seem personal.
00:06:47
There are some things which, once seen, can never be unseen. Amber Belkin sprawled in death in the back office of a video game store, her head wrapped in a plastic bag.
00:07:00
Mariano Rivera dialed 911, his mind a horrified confusion. He stared at Amber's assistant manager, Brandon Beal.
00:07:08
I was angry. I was upset. And then I'm looking at Brandon like, I don't understand.
00:07:14
How did this happen? And I don't want to blame anybody, but your first thought is, who is around?
00:07:20
Who can you look at and say maybe he had something to do with it? It's got to be a pretty shocking thing to discover.
00:07:26
I mean, it's hard to describe. You just have a million emotions just running through, and you just don't know what to make of them.
00:07:33
The police came, took one look, and called San Antonio Police Detective Raymond Raybob Roberts.
00:07:40
It looks like a robbery gone bad. The store's in disarray. The clerk is found in the back office.
00:07:47
She's dead. Try to get some information. Are there any witnesses? No, sir. So you tell them, you know, hold the scene down, get the crime scene detectives out there.
00:07:55
The news, indistinct, unconfirmed, spread through the Texas afternoon. Somebody dead in Amber's store.
00:08:02
But most people did not know who, including Amber's father, as he headed over there.
00:08:08
I jumped in my truck and I called a friend of mine who was a defense attorney. And I said, I need you to call anybody that you can and see what you can find out.
00:08:19
And I was just about there, and he called me, and he said, Well, how far are you from there?
00:08:27
And that's when he realized it wasn't that Amber found someone dead. They found her.
00:08:37
And my knees just buckled, and I just... My whole world just died right there. That's a pretty dreadful feeling, isn't it?
00:08:49
It's the worst feeling in the world because you totally realize no one can fix this.
00:09:00
Nobody can bring her back. Not for them. Not for her friends. And then everything just stopped.
00:09:09
Disbelief. Disbelief. Your earth shatters. I sat on a curve and cried. Everything around me was just a blur.
00:09:20
Inside the store, Detective Roberts had a look around. There was a bunch of DVD games on the ground.
00:09:27
Where the cash register was right there by the front, the till's open, the door's open, there's some chains just kind of laying around.
00:09:35
There's more DVDs on the ground in the back. Like somebody came in, ransacked it.
00:09:39
Ransacked the place, took off, yeah. He went round to the back alley. Was this an escape route?
00:09:45
Probably stacked all the games up here. Either had their car here in the alley or had it parked over there.
00:09:52
Put the boxes out here and picked them up. You wouldn't think robbing a game store would be worth killing somebody in the process.
00:10:00
You wouldn't think he'd better rob a game store. Yeah, normally during robberies, it's just robbery. There's no murder.
00:10:09
And this was certainly a robbery, given the mess and the empty safe. We checked the bank. There was no deposit made for that money.
00:10:17
There was $1,900 stolen, three or four big video games, PlayStations and PS3s and DVD games.
00:10:27
All that was taken. The haul totaled just under $6,000. Maybe the store surveillance cameras could tell the detective who took it.
00:10:36
Except... There's no surveillance video in the store. There's none in the strip center that the store's located in.
00:10:44
There's no video anywhere. There was video at the Starbucks next door, but it only showed the front door.
00:10:50
And that's it. You don't see anything. Who would know that? Who would know it was the video game company's only store in San Antonio not equipped with cameras?
00:11:01
Answer was obvious, thought the detective. An employee would know, just like an employee would know Amber hadn't taken the cash to the bank yet.
00:11:09
Then Mariano told the detective about encountering Brandon and that he couldn't understand why Brandon didn't look for Amber
00:11:17
until he, Mariano, arrived. His first thought should have been, I think there might have been a robbery.
00:11:22
Let me make sure, first of all, the robbers are not still in here and can hurt me,
00:11:27
but also let me see where Amber is. Just what the detective was thinking. He talked to Amber's co-workers.
00:11:32
They said she had issues with Brandon. They had never learned to work together yet,
00:11:38
and it's just when you have a guy like that who's not really the same type of attitude or mentality
00:11:45
that the rest of us were it causes some problems. Did she trust him? You know I don't know. I think
00:11:52
in some instances with some things no Even Amber parents said they knew she was dissatisfied with Brandon Because she had written him up She prepared a negative work review
00:12:06
She was going to turn it in that day. It's just his last chance, Mom. She said, I can't allow him to continue to make these mistakes.
00:12:17
So, motive? Opportunity? Behavior that didn't seem innocent? I mean, he had the classic motive.
00:12:26
He didn't want her to write him up. Yeah. He didn't want to get fired. Didn't want to get fired, yeah.
00:12:31
Well, this seemed like a personal crime, right? Could have been. Most people that go in and rob a store don't go with the intentions of killing anybody.
00:12:37
They just go in there and do the robbery and leave. Putting a plastic bag on her head.
00:12:42
Squeezing it tight and holding it that long. Squeezing it tight. Takes four or five minutes, probably.
00:12:47
Takes commitment. Yeah, no kidding. You know she's struggling. She's just not laying there.
00:12:53
That takes a while. So that takes... it does kind of seem personal. They had Brandon in the back seat of a patrol car.
00:13:01
Detective went to talk to him. He tells me a story, and it's just not making any sense.
00:13:06
So he had Brandon taken downtown and questioned by a colleague known for her special interviewing skills.
00:13:13
She's a real good detective. She has a way with getting stuff out of people. About an hour later, I'm still at the scene.
00:13:20
She calls me back and says, yeah, something's up with this guy. Coming up, Amber's parents were convinced it was Brandon.
00:13:29
Everything pointed to him. Would that explain what Amber's mom says she saw at the funeral?
00:13:35
He put one of the GameStop tag holders that had their ID on it. He put one of those in her casket.
00:13:45
When Dateline continues. It was four days after that awful morning in the video game store.
00:14:00
Amber Belkin's funeral was huge, as if, in death, she'd been adopted by the community around her.
00:14:07
Over 600 people, and the ones that couldn't get into the chapel, waited in the lobby and in the parking lot.
00:14:16
Was that a comfort? A very big comfort, that she'd touched that many lives. They loved Amber. They said, we love Amber.
00:14:27
As Amber's parents watched, they could not stop seeing in their heads another scene,
00:14:32
the one in the back room of the video game store, the way she was killed. They told me it was personal.
00:14:39
She had to be so frightened. And when she tried to pick up the phone, I know it was to call us.
00:14:50
and he yanked the phone out of the wall. Was it Brandon Beale? By the day of the funeral, they were sure.
00:14:59
We definitely thought Brandon did it. Everything pointed to him. And then, as mourners filed by to pay their respects,
00:15:07
suddenly, there he was, at the funeral. In front of them, Brandon Beale. Did you think, my God, her killer has come to the funeral?
00:15:16
Oh, he came in and shook my hand, and I got up, and my knees just felt weak, and I just fell.
00:15:23
Then, said Amber's mother, she was sure she saw Brandon walk right up to the casket and put something into it.
00:15:30
He put one of the GameStop tag holders that had their ID on it. He put one of those in her casket, and I got that thing out of there as fast as I could
00:15:44
and put it in a tissue and put it in my purse because I thought, that's the last thing I want buried with my daughter.
00:15:53
Was that ID potential evidence, she wondered? Was Brandon trying to bury evidence with Amber's body?
00:15:59
So Mama's automatically thinking Brandon did. That's got to be Brandon, you know.
00:16:02
A week after the murder, Detective Roberts questioned Brandon on videotape. I'm going back over everybody we talked to trying to figure this thing out.
00:16:14
Brandon repeated the story he'd been telling from the start. He was nowhere near the store that morning.
00:16:20
I just got up, let my dog out, March 4th, then at 9.45 I left because I had to go help my fiance's parents move out.
00:16:32
It's a big island that goes in the kitchen. He didn't get to the store, he said, until after 2 p.m.
00:16:37
for afternoon shift, and when he got there, he insisted it was still closed. So he panicked. Was he supposed to open that morning?
00:16:47
I'm about to put my stuff in so I can check the computer. He looks around and sees the DVDs on the floor, the cashier's drawer open.
00:16:56
He sees all this and thought, hmm. So he starts going about to open the store. He thought, hmm?
00:17:03
Yeah, so, you know, he's not looking for Amber or not looking for anybody that's supposed to be working.
00:17:09
Brandon told Detective Roberts he had no idea Amber was in the store. No idea Amber intended to submit a negative work review about him that very day.
00:17:19
Didn't notice her car in the parking lot, he said. Didn't think the obvious mess in the store meant they'd been robbed.
00:17:25
Wait a minute, you saw the disarray? Yeah. If an employee saw the disarray... A normal person you would think would go in and start looking something's up.
00:17:32
Something's wrong here. Yeah. So Robert's got a search warrant for Brandon's house and car.
00:17:37
Maybe they'd find some of the stolen DVDs and game consoles there. They did not.
00:17:43
But there had to be something. For weeks, the detective looked for evidence on Brandon Beal.
00:17:50
Randy and Mama called me 24 every day two three times a day Brandon it Brandon Brandon Brandon Brandon Detectives questioned his fiance her parents They scoured his phone records
00:18:05
We did everything we could to try to get some kind of evidence on Brandon and there was
00:18:11
none there. Yeah. And there was none there because he didn't do it. That alibi about helping his fiance's parents?
00:18:17
Checked out. And his phone records revealed he was miles from the store when Amber was murdered.
00:18:24
Finally, Brandon Beal was cleared. Did you at some point think I'm going to be charged with murder?
00:18:32
Yes, I did. The memory's still fresh. Had nightmares of going to jail. You know, it was hard for me to sleep.
00:18:40
That terrible day? My whole thought process was, let me get this store open because, you know.
00:18:46
I think I screwed up. Right, I screwed up. Why didn't he notice they'd been robbed?
00:18:50
You know, some stores are a little messier than others. Sure. So maybe that meant that whoever was on the night before didn't put things away.
00:18:56
That was my thought process. Totally opposite of, hey, there's somebody dead here or there was a robbery.
00:19:02
Brandon was 23 then and terrified. I'm just thinking, you know, just they're really just trying to put this on this young black man, you know.
00:19:12
When they questioned his fiance. They was trying to convince her that I did it. They would say things to her like, you know, how can you sleep with a murderer?
00:19:20
Or, you know, he did it. You know, you're possibly next. When they searched his house.
00:19:27
It seemed like a scene out of the movie. It just went going through drawers, throwing our clothes.
00:19:31
They left my house a wreck. Even when he was finally cleared, he said, no one told him.
00:19:37
Nor, he said, was he told Amber had written him up. Though he agreed they hadn't always seen eye to eye on some things.
00:19:44
And until we spoke with him, he said. He had no idea Amber's mother believed she saw him put something into Amber's coffin.
00:19:52
Did you walk over to the casket and put in a lanyard or something? That's the most absurd thing I've heard.
00:19:59
No, no. That was my very first funeral, so I didn't even get that close to the casket.
00:20:06
But Brandon is a father now. So, he told us, he thinks of Amber's parents and understands.
00:20:15
I couldn't imagine, you know, losing one of my children. But if Brandon Beal didn't kill Amber Belkin, then who did?
00:20:25
Coming up... I'm sitting at the office and the phone rings. A caller reluctant to give his name, but gives up someone else's.
00:20:34
I say, well, I know who killed this girl. That Brandon Beale did not kill his boss, Amber Belkin, was very clear,
00:20:53
which meant that Detective Ray Bob Roberts had a big problem. We had everything going against us.
00:20:59
Didn't have witnesses, didn't have video, didn't have DNA, didn't have fingerprints, didn't have nothing.
00:21:06
He went public then, had to. We held a big news conference with the parents, mom and dad, pleading for help.
00:21:14
Crime stoppers put up a lot of money. Nothing. I was hoping, you know, money talks.
00:21:20
A hundred grand reward. A hundred grand rewards, a lot of money. Nothing. We put flyers up all over San Antonio.
00:21:28
We wouldn't let it go. But as months went by without a single solid lead, Detective Roberts sank through frustration and into a kind of despair.
00:21:39
This little girl, she looked like my girl. And she resembled my daughter. Same build, same color of hair.
00:21:49
Amber's favorite book as a baby was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I read that to my daughter a million times.
00:21:59
You know, you do this for an extended period of time. You try to distance yourself.
00:22:05
Sure, you got it. And the worst thing we can make is getting too close to it. Yeah.
00:22:10
I got close to the family, mentally, physically, for the detective. You do that every case.
00:22:20
You're no good. You're burnt out. And then, about seven months after Amber's murder.
00:22:28
I'm sitting at the office and the phone rings. The caller claimed to know something.
00:22:33
What's your name? I don't want to tell you my name. Just call me Joe. Okay, Joe.
00:22:38
What do you got? I said, well, I know who killed this girl. I said, okay, who? He said, a guy named Giovanni.
00:22:45
I said, okay, what makes you think this guy did it? Well, he asked me if I wanted to do a robbery with him, you know, before.
00:22:53
I said, okay. Fascinating. He says, we used to both work for EB Games. I said, well, why did he want to do this robbery?
00:23:02
Well, he wanted to do the robbery at this store because there's no cameras. Hang up with him.
00:23:05
I call EB Games. Yeah, both of them did work. for EB Games. So I'm thinking I finally got a break.
00:23:13
The detective asked Joe to come in for a talk. Joe told him that at first he didn't think Giovanni's request was serious.
00:23:21
I just kind of blew it off. I didn't, you know, you don't think your best friend
00:23:24
is going to actually want to go through something. But after he heard about Amber, said Joe,
00:23:28
it all clicked. Giovanni must have killed her. But how much stock could Roberts put in this guy, Joe,
00:23:36
who initially wouldn't even give his full name And who was this Giovanni, anyway?
00:23:41
The detective checked for priors. There wasn't much. Had a record as a juvenile.
00:23:46
Get his fingerprints, get the fingerprints that we lifted from the crime scene. There's hardly any that are legible.
00:23:53
And none was a match. Now you're stuck as an investigator. This is all you got. You got this one witness, and you want to tie the suspect.
00:24:00
But there's nothing to time. I mean, there's nothing. I have nothing to hit him on.
00:24:04
But worth a try, he brought Giovanni in for an interview. Water, coke. It'll do damage to my stomach right now without food.
00:24:13
Of course, he denies it. I'm real comfortable thinking that you're responsible for this murder.
00:24:19
That's crazy, sir. Was it crazy? No way to prove, really. And then a couple of days later, Detective Roberts brought the tipster, Joe, back in.
00:24:28
And this time Joe poured it all out, said Giovanni actually told him straight out that he killed someone.
00:24:36
I just was in shock when he told me that. I was like, well, I was scared too because I was in a car alone with him thinking like, you know, I freaked out.
00:24:44
Like, what's he going to do to me? Now that was huge. If Joe was telling the truth.
00:24:50
But just one guy's accusation, no idea how credible it might be, wasn't much to go on.
00:24:56
Still, it was all they had. So? So I draft out an arrest warrant, and I draft out a search warrant.
00:25:04
Bring it to the magistrate. She reads it, says it's about time. This is in the news.
00:25:09
This is a high-profile case for San Antonio. Rich white girl dies at work. People went crazy.
00:25:16
It shouldn't have mattered, but people went crazy. They went justice. Yeah. Go get the search warrant signed.
00:25:22
Go get the arrest warrant signed. It's my birthday. I said, man, it's the best birthday present ever.
00:25:29
But then he got a call from his sergeant. He says, Ray Bob, I want you to keep your mouth shut.
00:25:35
Don't say anything. I just want you to do what I'm telling you to do. He said, I need you to get that arrest warrant quashed.
00:25:41
Wow. Giovanni would not be arrested after all. Just not enough evidence. The prosecutor had made it clear he didn't want to try him and fail in court.
00:25:52
But the detectives still had a warrant for Giovanni's DNA. So they went to his house unannounced.
00:25:59
He opens the door. I said, got a warrant for you. Didn't say search warrant. Didn't say arrest warrant.
00:26:05
And he sinks. And he turned back to his wife and says, I'm going with them. And he was defeated.
00:26:10
He put his head down. Head down. Shoulders sank down. And he put his hands behind his back.
00:26:14
Like he was getting ready to be handcuffed. Like he was getting ready to be handcuffed.
00:26:18
He thought he was going to go to jail. That's certainly a tell. Oh, yeah. Giovanni gave them a DNA sample, but afterwards he clammed up, wouldn't say a word.
00:26:28
I was disgusted so I had somebody else take him back home, but I called my friends in SWAT.
00:26:33
I said, hey, keep an eye on this guy. And sure enough, just hours later, he got a call.
00:26:39
SWAT calls me and says, hey, Ray Bob, he's loading everything up in a car, he's moving.
00:26:43
They pulled Giovanni over, traffic stopped, asked him, where was he headed? I'm going Loretto, I'm getting the hell out of here.
00:26:50
Giovanni was going to Laredo, Texas, along the Mexican border. Nothing Ray Bob could do about it.
00:26:56
And the case went pretty much nowhere after that. For many months. Until... There was a woman.
00:27:05
She was terrified. And did she have a story to tell? Coming up... A young mother, locked in with a killer.
00:27:16
He just reached over the glove compartment. He put out the gun. Yes, at least don't kill me.
00:27:22
When Dateline continues. Late June, almost a year and a half after the murder of Amber Belkin,
00:27:38
Detective Ray Bob Roberts roared down the highway to Laredo. He had just gotten a call from the police there.
00:27:45
Giovanni's wife wanted to talk. her name was Veronica and what a story she told I made a dumb choice
00:27:55
I was really young and I got pregnant really young still in high school? yeah she tried to resist him she said
00:28:03
wasn't attracted that way but he was so insistent and once she was pregnant our family would insist that we get married because they did not want us to have a baby out of wedlock And I listened to everyone except my own feelings
00:28:19
And once they were married, she said, he demanded sex whenever he wanted it. Whenever he, like, touched me, I would feel sick and I would tell him to stop.
00:28:29
There were times when he would get angry or frustrated and then he would force himself on me.
00:28:35
And right beside sleeping children in their one small bedroom. It would duct tape me, duct tape my mouth, duct tape my wrists to the leg of a chair.
00:28:51
And just to keep me quiet. I was very afraid. And again, I was young. Much too afraid to tell.
00:28:58
And while detectives search for more clues in Amber's death here. Then one day in late January 2007, as she watched TV, she saw the news of Amber's murder.
00:29:08
And I said, look at this. Wow, isn't that crazy? And he just looked and he just said, wow, that's...
00:29:15
He mirrored my reaction to it, like, wow, that's... wow, I can't believe it. I never thought for one second, like, he just acted normal that whole time.
00:29:27
That is until after the police knocked at their door in the fall of 2007. after Joe reported Giovanni,
00:29:34
after Detective Roberts got that search warrant for Giovanni's DNA. We were asleep, and it was early in the morning,
00:29:43
and then we hear a pounding at the door, like just, and that woke us up, that woke me up,
00:29:50
and we're like, what's that? And he got up first, and he went to go check. And then he returned and told her, it's the police.
00:29:58
They think I killed someone. I was like, did you? Did you? they want to talk to me because they think I killed someone.
00:30:04
What's it like to hear that? I was shocked and mortified. And he says, because I did kill someone.
00:30:13
And that's all he said. He said, I killed someone. Who? Why? And I'm assuming maybe he had like an altercation with someone,
00:30:20
like maybe a friend or some guy down the street. I don't know. But Giovanni only said.
00:30:26
We're going to move to Laredo. Let's just go. That very day? The next day. A very rapid move. Unprepared. It's just fast.
00:30:34
Veronica was beside herself, paralyzed by fear. How do I tell somebody? Do I call the police? Do I tell a family member?
00:30:42
What do I do? And I just stay quiet and I was so afraid to say something. And then one night she worked up the courage to ask him a question.
00:30:53
I asked him, did this have anything to do with what I saw in the news that day? and he said yes I did that
00:30:59
that was me what was that like to hear? I just started crying oh my god I go why?
00:31:09
why did you do that? he said we needed the money she begged him turn yourself in
00:31:20
instead he went to his mother she would cry to him please don't go you don't want to leave your children
00:31:26
They're never going to see you again. And I'm just there like crying. Why? Like inside, like I'm just, I'm trying to do it as peacefully as I can without making them angry toward me.
00:31:36
And then around dinnertime one evening, Veronica finally told him she'd had enough.
00:31:42
The marriage was over. Then he said, you know what, let's go for a drive. Let's go get the kids something to eat.
00:31:49
Instead, he drove her to a secluded area. It was just dirt all around, empty. And no people, no one inside.
00:32:00
That's when he pushed the auto, the lock. Yeah, the car lock. The car lock. And it locked all the doors.
00:32:07
And that's when I was like, okay, like, something's going to happen tonight. Something's going to happen.
00:32:15
Because we were in the middle of nowhere. And I didn know he was going to kill me I was already crying I was looking out the window And I was thinking how am I going to get out of this
00:32:29
And I look over and he just reached over the glove compartment. He put out the gun and I said, please don't kill me.
00:32:35
He said, don't worry, just do what I say. Get into the back seat, he ordered. He followed her.
00:32:41
And then he raped me back there. I started crying, I just started praying as he was doing
00:32:48
I started praying, I just started calling out to God, God please me I wanted to get out of there
00:32:55
alive but it wasn't Veronica who would die it was Giovanni he pulled her out of the car
00:33:02
take the gun he said shoot me I said I can't do that he said yes you're going to do it
00:33:09
because if you don't do it I'm going to come after you and I'm going to come after the children.
00:33:15
I'm going to come after your family and whoever you end up with, I'm going to come after him too.
00:33:21
If you don't do it, I'm going to come and hurt your children and I'm going to hurt everybody.
00:33:26
So you need to end my life tonight. Joe, I can't do this. I cannot kill you. I cannot be like you.
00:33:33
I can't do this. She tried to reason with him, she said. Told him if she killed him and went to prison,
00:33:40
their children would have no parents. I just said anything I could say just to get him out of this mentality.
00:33:47
And it worked. He drove home, told her what she had to do. He had me laid down next to him.
00:33:54
He made sure that I was right there. I was awake the whole night because I was afraid that he would do something while I was asleep
00:33:59
or to the children or just do something crazy. Then the next morning he said, I'm just going to disappear.
00:34:06
He drove Veronica and the kids to her mother's house. And he took off. What did it feel like to walk away from him?
00:34:16
Like I'm almost there. It's almost over. And I run in there and I said, I need to make a phone call.
00:34:22
I need to tell the police what happened. And she did. They told me to ask me, listen, why it should take so long?
00:34:29
I was just so afraid. But I'm here now and I'm telling you everything I know. Everything that he told me.
00:34:35
But now, he was truly gone. Coming up We're in a jail A cold, stinky, loud jail Confronting a killer
00:34:46
Healing a wound They were grateful that I said something That I did the right thing
00:35:04
The day Veronica called the police was the beginning of the end for Giovanni Rivera.
00:35:10
I'm drafting him, and the rest aren't referring to going to get the son of a bitch, you know?
00:35:14
Not that easy. All they knew was he'd gone somewhere, probably Mexico. But it was a full six weeks before they tracked him down,
00:35:24
surprised him at a relative's house, sure enough, in Mexico, as he played one of the video games he stole from Amber's store.
00:35:33
Detective Roberts finally got his suspect exactly where he wanted him. We're in a jail. A cold, stinky, loud jail.
00:35:41
I'm Detective Roberts, Raymond Roberts, San Antonio Police Department. All this background noise, we read Giovanni's rights.
00:35:47
You have the right to remain silent. And he starts talking. I've had a police killed for a long time.
00:35:54
I've been wanting to turn myself in, so... But I always put the needs of others for me.
00:36:01
Wait, put the needs of others before me? Really? He says, this past Christmas, I need money.
00:36:09
EB Games. He said, I'm going to do the one on San Pedro because there's no video.
00:36:15
He drives there, he tells me, he says, I had tape and a knife. What's the tape for?
00:36:20
Tie him up. He claimed he didn't know it was tiny Amber Belkin running the store that day.
00:36:26
In my heart I think he knew After all Giovanni had worked for the game store company knew who managed the stores and he knew Amber If he was going to pick somebody to rob why wouldn he pick this
00:36:39
five foot two, 100 pound young woman? Instead of Brandon, who's big and tough. Big guy,
00:36:45
instead of all these, he knew. When he got there, said Giovanni, she recognized me and I,
00:36:51
I, um, when I was in there, I asked for the money and I tried to explain to her, look,
00:37:01
I'm having some problems. And she, she said, just take the money. But then he claimed she reached for the phone.
00:37:08
So he took her down, taped her wrists with duct tape, like he had often done to his wife.
00:37:14
And then that's when she panicked and she wanted to scream. And I just covered her mouth and just saying, please don't scream.
00:37:20
Don't scream like that. And now I'm faced and I'm like saying that I can't lose everything I have gained in my family.
00:37:29
I've already hit the point of no return and I just grab a bag and I just try to just be quiet, just be quiet.
00:37:35
He put a bag on her head, he said. He squeezed it tight around her neck. He held it there.
00:37:42
And when she stopped moving, I just heard her gurgling and I didn't hear her screaming.
00:37:48
and I just stopped and I said, you know what? Okay, and I turned her around and I untied her.
00:37:54
I said, are you okay? And she wasn't breathing. And I heard her gasp, but she didn't respond anymore.
00:38:00
And that's when I left. I had already had the money, and I put the stuff that I wanted to pick up so I could sell,
00:38:05
and I left out the back door. Giovanni's story would not be tested in court. He took a plea deal, murder, a life in prison,
00:38:16
with parole possible beginning in the year 2038. At the sentencing, the Belkins finally confronted the killer of their only child,
00:38:25
their darling daughter. Is it helpful to do that? It is. It is. No. Not for you?
00:38:34
He sat back on the constable's desk, tapping his foot, just looking around. Like you're wasting my time.
00:38:44
It would have been beneficial if I had heard him say, I am really sorry. I am so sorry, Mr. and Ms. Belkin.
00:38:58
You know, Amber didn't deserve to die. I'm so sorry. What did he say? Nothing. But the Belkins did get an apology from someone else.
00:39:09
Giovanni's now ex-wife, Veronica. Hi, Veronica. They met for the very first time when we shot this story.
00:39:20
I've blamed myself for not saying something sooner, for waiting too long. And I always felt like they had maybe some anger towards me.
00:39:30
But blame her? No. They knew she was a victim too. In fact, Giovanni pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Veronica.
00:39:40
They were really nice. They were grateful that I said something. that I did the right thing.
00:39:47
We don't have any ill feelings at all. She's a wonderful girl. They are, they told us, broken still
00:39:57
and always will be. And they cling now to Amber's best friends, Ashley and Monica.
00:40:04
My daughters, her adopted daughters, which are Amber's friends through thick and thin.
00:40:11
They have each named daughters after Amber. and they hang on to memories like gold.
00:40:18
It's like you have to put it in a box and then just keep it there for safekeeping
00:40:22
because that's what you have. That's what you hold on to. It hurts. It hurts. Life will never be what it was with her.
00:40:35
That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.