00:00:03
[ominous music] NARRATOR: The United States
is home to some of the world's most dangerous killers.
00:00:13
Individuals responsible
for such heinous crimes. Other inmates fear them. One of these killers
was Rocky Beamon.
00:00:26
- There's a lot of evidence
that clearly Beamon is not psychiatrically stable. - That kind of depravity,
that kind of hatred, that kind
00:00:36
of malice. Why are you evil? Are you born evil? NARRATOR: To feed a severe
drug habit, Rocky Beamon,
00:00:44
along with his
girlfriend, killed and then robbed
an innocent woman. - They wanted her money
and they wanted her car.
00:00:52
He tied her hands. He gagged her
and for a couple minutes, holds her underneath the water.
00:01:00
CHARLIE KEENE: It was heinous. It was cruel. An absolute animal. NARRATOR: Once incarcerated,
Beamon's behavior
00:01:07
reached a new
level of depravity. - All of his attacks are
extremely rage-filled,
00:01:14
and they're all premeditated. These aren't
impulsive homicides. PAUL LOPEZ: There's no
prestige in attacking
00:01:22
a man who has no clothes
on in the shower, in the back. NARRATOR: A threat to anyone
who crossed his path.
00:01:30
Rocky Beamon received
the ultimate punishment. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: I have
no doubt he would have
00:01:35
tried to kill somebody else. The death penalty was
the only option, I believe. - I personally have
never known anybody
00:01:42
to get two death sentences. Usually one just
does the trick. [theme music] NARRATOR: The state of Florida
has the third largest prison
00:02:16
system in the USA,
incarcerating around 89,000 prisoners across 134 prisons. One of these institutions
houses inmates
00:02:28
deemed the worst of the worst. [dramatic music] PAUL LOPEZ: Santa Rosa
Correctional Facility
00:02:35
is located in Milton, Florida. It houses approximately
3,000 inmates. It sits on 54 acres and is
surrounded by woodland.
00:02:47
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Santa Rosa has always had something
of a reputation as being one
00:02:53
of the violent penitentiaries. - Has housed some
of the state's most violent and
00:03:01
notorious criminals. NARRATOR: One of the most
callous individuals to have ever been held
there was Rocky Beamon.
00:03:24
DR. LINA HAJI: If you look
at the traits of psychopaths, Beamon hit almost every
single one of them.
00:03:30
He made a decision
from a very early age that he was going to go
against the grain.
00:03:37
He was going to be
anti-authority, antisocial, anti-society. And he went with
that all the way.
00:03:46
CHARLIE KEENE: Rocky appeared
to be a very fit guy, but you could tell that
his use of crack cocaine
00:03:51
had clearly taken
a physical effect on him. NARRATOR: His insatiable drug
addiction led him to rob and
00:04:00
murder a woman for her car. CHARLIE KEENE:
To bounce somebody and actually throw them
away like trash into a pond
00:04:08
and leave them like that. Whoever did this
was just pure evil. - What affected me in this case
was the horror that she went
00:04:18
through until she was dead. NARRATOR: Once
in prison for murder, Beamon's calculating nature
was revealed through letters
00:04:27
he wrote. PAUL LOPEZ: He said
he would kill again. And then his next
victim, he would
00:04:35
carve the name of the judge
in the victim's back, metaphorically saying, this
blood is on your hands.
00:04:44
DR. LINA HAJI: Beamon
loves being in control. He loves controlling women. He loves controlling
his victims.
00:04:51
This is feeding that
narcissistic quality that psychopaths tend
to have, where, you know,
00:04:56
he's the judge, the jury
and the executioner. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: Rocky Ali
Beamon was born in 1977.
00:05:11
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: He was
born in Naples, Florida, and moved at a young age to
Lake Placid with his mother and
00:05:19
his stepfather. NARRATOR: Rocky's biological
father was an alcoholic and never met his baby son.
00:05:28
DR. LINA HAJI: He made
Beamon a low priority and opted instead
to make alcohol a high priority,
which has got to be
00:05:35
really hurtful to a child. It could have sent
a message to Beamon that he was not loved or not wanted.
00:05:45
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Rocky Beamon always claimed that he'd been
sexually assaulted as a child,
00:05:52
but he never specified
who had abused him, whether it was a biological
parent or a step-parent
00:06:03
or someone off the street. DR. LINA HAJI: The only
source of information that points to him having been
sexually abused came from him.
00:06:14
You never want
to be dismissive. However, I'd be remiss
to say that there aren't individuals out there
who falsely report abuse.
00:06:28
NARRATOR: By the age of 12,
Rocky Beamon, like his father, had become heavily
dependent on alcohol.
00:06:38
PAUL LOPEZ: At 14, he had
moved on to crack cocaine, and he started using
methamphetamine in combination
00:06:46
with alcohol and marijuana. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: He progressed
to full blown addiction very,
00:06:53
very quickly. Is it because he was indeed
sexually abused and went on to self-medicate?
00:07:02
On the flip side, he could
have just turned to drugs and alcohol experimentally
decided that he enjoyed it.
00:07:09
His brain is not
fully developed, and he's already introduced
all of these mind altering illicit
substances into his system.
00:07:20
NARRATOR: Throughout
his teenage years, Beamon's addiction
to substances was matched by a growing
addiction to crime.
00:07:32
- In 1995, Beamon was
arrested and convicted for two counts
of criminal mischief,
00:07:40
three counts of grand larceny,
as well as armed burglary. As a result of those
convictions,
00:07:46
he spent much
of his younger years either on probation
or incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice Center.
00:07:56
DR. LINA HAJI: His goals
are now to be antisocial and to engage
in criminal behavior.
00:08:03
He's a slave to his
addiction, and he's going to need money
to facilitate that addiction.
00:08:07
And so he's getting
himself in a tangled web that he's not going to be
able to escape easily.
00:08:18
NARRATOR: Beamon went on to
make a full-time career out of crime. [tense music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Between 1997 and 2004,
00:08:30
Rocky Beamon was
convicted of alligator poaching, battery larcenies,
driving on suspended licenses.
00:08:43
- Beamon really is the classic
escalating offender. He went from nonviolent crimes.
00:08:50
And now you start
to see, by the time he's in early adulthood,
he already has three
00:08:55
charges of domestic violence. He's angry. He's misogynistic. He's hating women. [suspenseful music]
00:09:05
NARRATOR: By age
27, Beamon's life had mostly been
centered around taking drugs, committing crimes
and doing time in county jails.
00:09:18
Now living in Seffner,
a suburb of the city of Tampa, he got himself
a new girlfriend.
00:09:27
- He even met a girl
named Karen Wilkins. She was a good person that was
led astray by Rocky Beamon,
00:09:37
and they did a lot
of drugs together. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: Beamon
and his 39-year-old
00:09:49
girlfriend Karen were sitting
out the front of their home. They spotted a lady slowly
driving down their street.
00:10:00
The driver was
47-year-old Deborah Lacey. CHARLIE KEENE: Deborah
worked for the post office.
00:10:09
From all accounts,
she was a great lady. NARRATOR: Deborah Lacey had
a 16-year-old daughter and
00:10:14
shared a close
bond with her large circle of family and friends. - She had some issues
and, um, ended up
00:10:22
with a drug addiction, which
kind of led her down this path, where she ended up meeting
Mr. Beamon at that point.
00:10:28
Initially, Ms. Lacey, she
sees Mr. Beamon standing outside of his house. She stops to have
a conversation with him.
00:10:35
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Deborah said, do you have anything I could
drink to swallow my pills?
00:10:44
And that led Rocky to offering
to take her to his house, where he gave her a beer.
00:10:51
[tense music] DOUGLAS COVINGTON: There was no
suggestion that Mr. Beamon and miss Wilkins knew Ms. Lacey.
00:10:59
Ms. Lacey Bordeaux,
unfortunately, had indicated that
she had a lot of money and all Ms. Wilkins
and Mr. Beamon
00:11:06
could see was money for drugs. NARRATOR: Beamon, motivated
by his unrelenting addiction,
00:11:14
decided he was going
to rob Deborah Lacey. When Deborah told
him that she wanted
00:11:20
to consume some crack cocaine,
Beamon saw his opportunity. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
They got in her car.
00:11:30
They went to one of Mr.
Beamon's suppliers and got cocaine. Mr. Beamon and Ms. Wilkins
indicated where they wanted
00:11:38
to smoke the crack cocaine. It was an isolated area
because it was a wooded area,
00:11:45
and in the middle of it
there's a pond or a lake. [ominous music] NARRATOR: Unbeknown to Deborah,
she was walking into a trap.
00:11:58
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Deborah is in the woods with Rocky and Karen,
and they're doing this crack cocaine.
00:12:05
At that point, Rocky
decided that he would rob and kill Deborah Lacey. Rocky hit Deborah
with a stick and
00:12:18
tied her hands with
a drawstring from his shorts. He then stuffed
a rag in her mouth
00:12:29
to keep her from screaming, and
duct taped that over her mouth. PAUL LOPEZ: He and Karen then
walked Ms. Lacey approximately
00:12:43
150 yards to a nearby pond. That is a long way. That is an American
football field and a half.
00:12:55
Once they arrived
at the pond, Mr. Beamon forced Lacey's head
under the water and held her there
until she was dead.
00:13:12
DR. LINA HAJI: That is a long,
torturous, sadistic way to commit a homicide. He let Lacey know that she
needed to be absolutely
00:13:23
terrified prior to her death. He's filled with rage. And on top of that,
he's a serious drug
00:13:30
addict, which is
easily disinhibiting his impulsive nature. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
That must have
00:13:38
been terrifying for Ms.
Lacey, realizing that she's underwater,
not being able to breathe,
00:13:44
and that she's never going
to get out of that situation. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
After the murder,
00:13:55
Rocky and Karen took $30
out of Deborah's purse. They stole her
Lincoln Continental
00:14:02
and traded it for $200 to $400
worth of crack cocaine. DR. LINA HAJI: You can rob
someone in order to gain money.
00:14:10
You can even assault somebody
in order to gain money. But did you really
need to murder
00:14:16
her to get money for drugs? It seems unnecessary. NARRATOR: Following
the murder, Beamon and
00:14:24
Wilkins unashamedly carried on
living their lives as normal. Seven days later,
Deborah Lacey's sister
00:14:36
had not heard from her
sibling for over a week. She called the police
to report her missing.
00:14:46
DOUGLAS COVINGTON: My name
is Douglas Covington. I was a Felony
Division chief, and
00:14:51
this case landed on my desk. Ms. Lacey had been reported
as a missing person. A sergeant with
the sheriff's department
00:15:00
had indicated to his squad to
be on the lookout for Ms. Lacey and to start looking for her.
00:15:07
NARRATOR: With officers
dispatched to drive around the neighborhood,
the sergeant noticed
00:15:12
a suspicious looking vehicle. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
That same sergeant was driving down the road
and noticed a car
00:15:19
with its back window out. He stopped the car. The driver jumped out
and said he didn't
00:15:25
have a driver's license. NARRATOR: The man was arrested
for failing to provide valid documentation.
00:15:32
- There were two other
individuals in the car. They brought them all
down to the station
00:15:37
and they started
questioning them. NARRATOR:
The detective in charge of the questioning for the
Hillsborough County Sheriff's
00:15:46
Office was Charlie Keene. - 2005 I was assigned
to the homicide section with the Sheriff's Office.
00:15:54
Myself and my partner
conduct an interview with the two young men
in possession of the car.
00:16:00
We learned that
they actually traded crack cocaine for the car
to an individual known as Rocky Beamon.
00:16:06
NARRATOR: Officers quickly
discovered that Beamon did not own the car. It was, in fact, registered
to the missing Deborah Lacey.
00:16:18
The police urgently
wanted to talk to Beamon. As they attempted to track
him down, a call came in.
00:16:32
CHARLIE KEENE: I
was in the office, we received a call of a body
being found in a small pond.
00:16:38
Deputies arrived. They confirmed, in fact, there
was a deceased female victim there that had been taped up.
00:16:46
NARRATOR: Detective
Keene immediately left for the crime scene. CHARLIE KEENE: As I
entered the scene,
00:16:55
it's been marked off
with crime scene tape. And I can see there's
a female victim in the water.
00:17:01
Her hands and her feet
were tied together, and then her mouth
was also taped up.
00:17:08
It was heartbreaking
to know that any human would be treated like that. We knew that whoever
had committed
00:17:14
this crime was just violent. NARRATOR: Police confirmed the
body was that of Deborah Lacey.
00:17:24
Forensics had identified her
through her fingerprints. They also calculated that
her body had been in the pond
00:17:33
for 10 days. CHARLIE KEENE: So when we
notified miss Lacey's family that she had been found
and that she was deceased,
00:17:42
it was heartbreaking. No family wants to hear
that their daughter had been murdered.
00:17:50
NARRATOR: The same afternoon
Deborah's body was found, police had managed to track
down where Beamon lived.
00:17:59
[intriguing music] - They began doing some
surveillance on his house, and then they went
and knocked on the door.
00:18:07
Ms. Wilkins answered
the door and they asked her if anybody
else was in the residence.
00:18:13
She said Rocky was. They arrested him
for an outstanding warrant and brought him down
to their station.
00:18:19
NARRATOR: Beamon and Wilkins
were questioned together that very same evening. Officers cut
straight to the chase
00:18:31
and ask them how they
knew Deborah Lacey and why they had her car. - Both of them
initially completely
00:18:40
denied knowing Ms. Lacey. They all lied as to where
the car came from. But when they started talking
to these individuals separately
00:18:48
and said the owner of that
car had been found murdered, then they decided
to tell the truth.
00:19:21
CHARLIE KEENE:
Once he confessed to committing the homicide, his
demeanor completely changed.
00:19:27
It's kind of like it was
a lighter version of him at that point. I've never had somebody
confess the way that he did.
00:19:34
We asked questions
and he gave us a direct and pointed answers. He was just, this
is what I did.
00:19:41
Most of these interviews
go on for three, four, five, six hours, sometimes. With him, you know, he knew
he was caught and he owned it.
00:20:08
NARRATOR: Beamon went on to
admit his desperate motivation behind the horrific murder.
00:20:37
DR. LINA HAJI: I don't
think the drugs had anything to do with this murder, because
this wasn't a huge drug dealer
00:20:43
that he robbed and shot. This was an innocent
47-year-old woman who also happened to struggle
with addiction
00:20:50
that he took advantage of. He killed for the kill. He did not kill for the drugs.
00:20:56
[ominous music] CHARLIE KEENE: I think he was
so strung out on crack cocaine that I don't think he really
gave it a whole lot of thought.
00:21:05
It seems like it was
just a normal day of doing business for him. NARRATOR: Beamon's
girlfriend, Karen Wilkins,
00:21:15
confessed to her role
in Debra Lacey's murder. CHARLIE KEENE: She certainly
took part in the homicide,
00:21:22
but I don't think
she planned it. And she wasn't the one who did
the-- the binding of Ms. Lacey.
00:21:29
Mr. Beeman hit her
and pushed her in the water. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: Them trading
that car for crack cocaine
00:21:36
solved this crime. After their confession,
the Sheriff's Department got a search warrant
to go into Mrs. Wilkins
00:21:44
and Mr. Beamon's residence. And they actually found
a pair of swim trunks that did not have
a tie string in it,
00:21:53
and related back
to the tie string that had tied Mrs. Lacey's hands. NARRATOR: The next
day, 28-year-old
00:22:00
Rocky Beamon was charged
with first-degree premeditated murder. Karen Wilkins, who is
seen as an accomplice,
00:22:09
was charged with
second-degree murder. They were both held
in a local jail. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
I was a prosecutor
00:22:23
in the case of state of Florida
versus rocky Beamon and Karen Wilkins. I read the police report.
00:22:29
It became very obvious
to me that this had the aggravating
factors that could lead to a death penalty case.
00:22:35
The confessions
were the biggest piece of evidence I had. NARRATOR: The weight
of Beamon's confession
00:22:42
made a death penalty
trial seem inevitable. But he was able to cut a deal. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
He negotiated a plea
00:22:53
where he would plead guilty
and spend his life in prison, if the prosecutors
would take the death
00:23:00
penalty off the table. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
When he offered to plead to life in avoidance
of the death penalty,
00:23:08
I had no problem
with it whatsoever. As long as he was not
out on the streets for the rest of his life,
I was good with that.
00:23:17
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: Five months later,
Beamon's plea hearing took place at the 13th
Judicial Circuit
00:23:32
Court in Hillsborough County. DOUGLAS COVINGTON: Mr. Beamon
comes into the courtroom
00:23:39
with his attorney. He was in a Sheriff's
Office jail jumpsuit. Mr. Beamon pled guilty,
and at that point in time,
00:23:48
the victim's family has
an opportunity to indicate how this has affected them. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Deborah's family obviously
00:23:57
took the murder very hard. The daughter had a letter read
on her behalf in which she
00:24:06
said, my mother will
never get to see the milestones in my life. She'll never get
to meet my children.
00:24:12
You have taken that from me. NARRATOR: For first-degree
murder, kidnapping, and robbery, Rocky Beamon was
sentenced to life in prison
00:24:24
without the possibility
of parole. CHARLIE KEENE: During
that sentencing, Mr. Beamon did something
that I've never
00:24:32
seen anybody do in any trial. Once he pled guilty,
he looked at me and he gave me a head nod.
00:24:40
And that head nod, I took
it as him saying, look, I did the right thing. I accept the responsibility.
00:24:45
It was very strange. NARRATOR: Beamon's
girlfriend, Karen Wilkins, was tried separately and pled
guilty to second-degree murder.
00:24:58
She received a sentence
of 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years probation. For the next seven
years, Beamon
00:25:09
was moved between
various institutions within the Florida
prison system. In March 2012, Beamon, now
aged 34, ended up as an inmate
00:25:22
at Apalachee
Correctional Institute. HECTOR BRAVO: Apalachee
Correctional Institute
00:25:31
is a correctional
institute located in the panhandle of Florida. The institution opened in 1949.
00:25:39
It houses approximately
1,300 inmates and it's mixed custody
of close, medium, and minimum security inmates.
00:25:46
[dramatic music] NARRATOR: His cellmate was
44-year-old Bruce Hunsicker. PAUL LOPEZ: Mr.
Hunsicker was in prison,
00:26:06
serving a sentence
of six life sentences for raping a 10-year-old
girl at knifepoint.
00:26:16
At that point, Mr.
Beamon was unaware of it. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
The first couple
00:26:23
of months that
they shared a cell together was somewhat cordial. The relationship seems
to have started going downhill
00:26:33
when Hunsicker borrowed
some coffee from Rocky and wouldn't return it. Then Rocky learned
that Hunsicker
00:26:44
had been convicted of raping a
10-year-old girl at knifepoint. NARRATOR: As someone who
since adolescence claimed
00:26:52
he held a particular
hatred for child molesters, Beamon was enraged. He decided he was going to kill
his cellmate in cold blood.
00:27:06
[suspenseful music] PAUL LOPEZ: Beamon
at that point began stalking Mr.
Hunsicker and essentially
00:27:16
analyzing his daily patterns. And what he learned is that
Hunsicker took a shower every
00:27:23
day precisely at 4:00 PM. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
The whole stalking thing kind of goes to his
preparation to kill this man.
00:27:37
NARRATOR: Beamon decided to
murder Hunsicker in the shower during his daily visit.
00:27:43
PAUL LOPEZ: He then
fashioned a 14-inch shank, or a jammed weapon out of a
piece of fence that he was able
00:27:51
to become in possession of. HECTOR BRAVO: Murders
of an inmate in the shower is an area of opportunity
because these inmates
00:27:59
are unsuspecting
of being attacked while they're showering. They have their guard down.
00:28:09
NARRATOR: Five
days after learning about Hunsicker's crime,
Beamon made his move.
00:28:19
- The attack
started with Beamon coming up from
behind Hunsicker and putting his left
arm around his neck
00:28:28
and choking him to keep him
quiet, while with his right arm stabbing him in the abdomen
and other areas of his body.
00:28:36
[tense music] He would ultimately end
up stabbing him 80 times and left him for dead
on the bathroom floor.
00:28:52
- Stabbing somebody 80 times is
what we refer to as overkill. It did not require 80
stabbings to kill his cellmate.
00:29:03
That tells me that Beamon
was enjoying what he's doing. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
After the attack,
00:29:11
Rocky, covered in blood, takes
a shower, cleans himself up, and then he takes the evidence
being his shorts and the weapon
00:29:20
and flushes them down
the toilet, and then he leaves. NARRATOR: Beamon left
Hunsicker's body where he lay.
00:29:28
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Hunsicker's body wasn't found for a couple of
hours during a security check.
00:29:37
PAUL LOPEZ: Mr. Hunsicker
suffered a punctured heart, a punctured kidney,
a punctured right
00:29:45
lung, a punctured diaphragm,
and injuries to other organs. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Authorities
did eventually find the weapon,
00:29:57
and unfortunately, there was
so much DNA in the prison system, sewer lines. They couldn't confirm
that it was the weapon
00:30:07
that Rocky had used. NARRATOR:
But the authorities did not need to prove who
had killed Hunsicker,
00:30:14
as Beamon once again took
responsibility for his actions. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Beamon
confessed to the crime
00:30:28
and told authorities
that it was his hatred of child
molesters that had driven him to do what he did.
00:30:36
Beamon did not show any
remorse for the killing, and, in fact, probably
seemed almost proud of it.
00:30:47
- Beamon starts to show these
kind of narcissistic traits, which are typical in
psychopaths, where he is almost
00:30:54
beaming with pride that he's
taken out a child molester, like he's done this kind
of vigilante justice,
00:31:00
that he should be
admired and revered. He's not thinking,
I took a life that I had no right to take.
00:31:09
He's now again in control. NARRATOR: Beamon was moved
into close management or solitary confinement,
locked in a single cell
00:31:25
for 23 hours a day. He was there
for the next five years. DR. LINA HAJI: When you're
in solitary confinement,
00:31:37
you're having a loss
of sensory stimulation. You're not interacting
with other humans.
00:31:43
You're not seeing light
as much as you should be. We see psychosis. We see depression.
00:31:49
We see anxiety. We see loss of social skills. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: In 2017, 39-year-old
Beamon was transferred to Santa
00:32:04
Rosa Correctional Facility. HECTOR BRAVO: Santa Rosa
Correctional Institution is a men's prison located
in Milton, Florida.
00:32:16
The prison opened up
in 1996 and houses over 3,000 inmates
of custody levels, clothes, minimum and medium.
00:32:25
[tense music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Beamon was downgraded from close management
one to close
00:32:32
management two, which entitled
him to have a cellmate. PAUL LOPEZ: Nicholas
Ryan Anderson
00:32:46
was a 27-year-old
inmate and was the cellmate for Mr. Beamon. Mr. Anderson was serving
a 20-year sentence
00:32:58
for child molestation. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
The rationale behind putting Rocky Beamon
in a cell with a child molester
00:33:09
is beyond my comprehension. I don't know why it was done. Beamon had not found this
out and did not find it out
00:33:21
until he was notified
by members of a prison gang of what he'd
been convicted for,
00:33:29
and the gang members
actually told him that they were going
to take him out if Rocky
00:33:35
didn't take him out himself. PAUL LOPEZ: Beamon asked
if Anderson would provide him
00:33:42
with his commitment papers
to show him in writing why he was in custody. Of course, Mr. Anderson
refused to do that.
00:33:53
At that point, Mr. Beamon
felt that Mr. Anderson was lying to him. NARRATOR: Now aware
of Anderson's crime,
00:34:04
Beamon carefully put
together plan to kill his 27-year-old cellmate. [suspenseful music]
00:34:14
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: Part
of Beamon's preparation was watching the guards
and timing their movements,
00:34:23
so that he ultimately
determined that they came by about every 25 minutes. PAUL LOPEZ: To prepare for the
killing, he was able to somehow
00:34:35
to get his hands
on a double A battery. He ground it down
on the cell floor to create a fixed point blade.
00:34:50
NARRATOR: Just over
a week after being placed in a cell with
Anderson, Beamon made his move.
00:34:59
He waited until just
after the midnight check. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
Beamon told Anderson
00:35:07
to get out up out of his bunk. He told him, you got to go. And Anderson said, I'm
not going anywhere.
00:35:15
[tense music] At which point Rocky
punched him in the eye and pulled him to the ground
and tied his arms and his legs,
00:35:26
and then tied another
bed sheet to hog-tie him. NARRATOR: Beamon then
began to strangle Anderson.
00:35:41
- At some point he
determined that he was dead, so he released him. But Anderson started
breathing again,
00:35:51
and that's when
Rocky started kicking him and stabbing him with the
battery shank that he created.
00:36:09
[ominous music] [alarm blaring] NARRATOR: At 12:14
AM, an inmate in a neighboring cell
called out to officers
00:36:18
who rushed to the crime scene. They were met with Anderson's
hog-tied body on the floor,
00:36:26
with Beamon standing over him. Beamon was restrained
and moved to another cell. Despite the nurse's
best efforts,
00:36:38
they were unable to revive
Nicholas Anderson, who was pronounced dead at 1:53 AM.
00:36:51
THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN: When Beamon
was interviewed after the fact, he did not show any
remorse for what he'd done.
00:36:59
And if another inmate
hadn't sounded an alarm, he would have continued
to torture him.
00:37:06
His reason was that he
hates child molesters, and that he intended
to kill as many as he could.
00:37:16
DR. LINA HAJI: The fact
that Beamon's cellmates were sex offenders were
an easy excuse for him.
00:37:23
I really believe had his
cellmates been drug dealers or bank robbers,
they likely would
00:37:28
have suffered the same fate. Beamon wanted to kill. That's it. - He was committing his
second murder of someone
00:37:42
accused of molesting a child. What were you thinking
putting this man into a jail
00:37:51
cell with this man? NARRATOR: Just
over a year later, Beamon was charged with the
murder of his first cellmate,
00:38:04
Bruce Hunsicker,
who he'd killed almost six years earlier. [ominous music] THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN:
He was charged
00:38:14
with first-degree murder
in the Hunsicker case, and the death penalty was
definitely on the table.
00:38:24
Beamon responded to the call
for the death sentence by writing a judges
and prosecutors
00:38:31
and saying you better
go ahead and kill me, because if you don't,
I'm going to continue
00:38:39
to kill child molesters until
either I die, all of them die, or you put
me on death row.
00:38:50
DR. LINA HAJI: I
think Beamon really has is embraced who he is as
a serial killer at this point.
00:38:59
He's enjoying having
other people read exactly how sadistic his mind is. Beamon has a desire to be
in control at all times.
00:39:10
Why not have some more bravado? Why not feed the narcissistic
component of psychopathy?
00:39:16
He's reveling in this now. This is who he is. This is what he does. And he's now proud of it.
00:39:23
- I don't know that I've
ever heard of a convicted felon asking for the death
penalty and basically saying,
00:39:32
kill me or I'll kill more. Beamon said that he had
no regrets in either case. He says, it was the best
feeling I've ever had,
00:39:44
better than any drug I've
ever had or an orgasm. [intriguing music] NARRATOR: The following
year, 41-year-old Beamon,
00:40:01
frustrated by the slow
judicial process, tried to speed up
receiving a death penalty sentence by waiving
his rights to an attorney.
00:40:13
He penned another letter
directly for the judge. HECTOR BRAVO: Beamon
threatened the judge
00:40:20
by telling the judge he was
going to carve the judge's name into his next victim, and
that he was going to dedicate
00:40:28
the next victim to the judge. - This is the highest
level of attempt at control and manipulation
that you can really ever see.
00:40:38
These letters
reveal who he truly is, which is an extremely
manipulative, sadistic, violent offender.
00:40:47
NARRATOR: Beamon got his wish. Later that month,
he was found guilty of first-degree
premeditated murder
00:40:56
and received the death
sentence for the killing of Bruce Hunsicker. In November 2019, Beamon
was given a second death
00:41:06
penalty sentence for the murder
of his other cellmate, Nicholas Anderson. CHARLIE KEENE: He's
committed three
00:41:13
murders at that point in time. I mean, odds are
to me he's going to commit a fourth
if you continue
00:41:18
to let him have open
interaction with other inmates. So I don't know that
there was another option.
00:41:26
NARRATOR: Rocky Beamon
was sent to death row at Union Correctional
Facility in Raiford, Florida.
00:41:33
HECTOR BRAVO: Beamon was
ultimately housed single cell status, meaning he was alone
in the cell and the department
00:41:39
separated him from
general population due to all the criminal
and vicious acts that he did.
00:41:45
While he was housed
on death row in 2020, he committed
the act of suicide. NARRATOR: The Florida
Department of Corrections
00:41:55
didn't elaborate
on the circumstances of the 42-year-old's suicide. PAUL LOPEZ: He begged
to be on death row.
00:42:05
However, I think
what he probably didn't take under consideration
is how slow the wheels
00:42:11
of justice can move. You can be on death
row for decades. I think he just got tired of
waiting for the state to do it,
00:42:19
so he did it himself. DOUGLAS COVINGTON:
I can't say I'm sorry, especially after what
he had done after my case.
00:42:27
And I'm sure those prisoners
that he killed had families. Mr. Beamon probably
did not need
00:42:34
to have a place on this Earth. DR. LINA HAJI: He caused
so much chaos and turbulence
00:42:40
in everybody else's
life, but he still had to remain in control. And he ultimately got his way
and was sent to death row.
00:42:49
But he was going to say,
I'm the last in control. You're not going to kill me. I'm going to kill myself.
00:42:57
That's why he
committed suicide. NARRATOR: The question
of why Rocky Beamon decided to choose
a path of murder
00:43:07
is one that remains unanswered. [dramatic music] DR. LINA HAJI: In spite of a
horrific childhood, substance
00:43:14
abuse, mental
illness, none of that is the reason why Beamon
was so horribly evil.
00:43:21
Beamon never had
a positive effect on anyone that he came across his entire
life, including himself.
00:43:30
- Beamon probably sees himself
as some sort of vigilante to provide justice for children
that were harmed by adults.
00:43:48
Killing Bruce Hunsicker, a man
serving six life sentences, posed no additional threat
to any children going forward,
00:43:56
and sure as hell
47-year-old Deborah Lacey was not a child sex offender. A vigilante?
00:44:03
No. A predator looking for some
level of justification? That's more likely to me.
00:44:15
[theme music]