00:00:00
[audio logo] [tires screeching] Nate Eaton: On Facebook,
there's a car club called the Castaways.
00:00:17
[intriguing music] This is for car enthusiasts. They can talk about
cool cars that they see.
00:00:22
Basically a car lovers club. Nik Bird was the founder
of this Facebook group. Skyler Smith: I first
met him at a car meet,
00:00:32
and we really hit it off
and became really good friends. Tara Withers: He had his
friends, he had his car.
00:00:37
He pretty much had
everything that he wanted. He just loved life. He loved everything about it.
00:00:43
[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ [gunshot] [siren wailing] [tires screeching] Justin Gramm: We
had a male victim
00:00:58
with multiple gunshot wounds. It wasn't looking good. ♪ ♪ - Who would do such a thing,
especially to someone like Nik?
00:01:10
- It was terrible. How could you do that
to somebody, you know? I lost my son. - We know that social
media definitely
00:01:20
played a part in the killing
of Nikolas Bird. Kaitlyn Hart:
For some people, it's
00:01:26
hard to tell the difference
between real life and social media. Nate Eaton: Social media
turned into something horrible
00:01:32
because it consumed him
with rage and anger, to the point that he had to go
back into that Facebook group
00:01:38
and find the man and kill
him in cold blood. [theme music] ♪ ♪ [suspenseful music]
00:02:07
♪ ♪ Nate Eaton: Nik Bird
was a young man. His life was just
getting started. Had his whole
life ahead of him.
00:02:38
Kind young man, loved Idaho
Falls, loved living here. Family loved him. - I am Tara Withers,
Nik Bird's mother.
00:02:48
He was just a great kid. [somber music] He went with me everywhere. He loved being with me.
00:02:58
We picked
huckleberries together. He came in one time
and he said, Mom, there's two "pilapillars."
00:03:06
And I said, what's
a "pilapillars"? And he goes--
so I walk outside, there's two caterpillars and
he's like, two "pilapillars."
00:03:15
It was so adorable. He was just a great kid. narrator: As Nik
bird got older, he developed a love for cars.
00:03:23
He founded a Facebook group
called Castaways Car Club, connecting with others
through social media
00:03:29
who shared his passion. - My name is Skyler Smith. Nik was my best friend. I first met him at a car meet.
00:03:37
[intriguing music] And he had a Subaru like mine,
and we really hit it off and became really good friends.
00:03:44
♪ ♪ [engine whirring] ♪ ♪ Tara Withers: They
got all those people with all the same
interest together and
00:03:57
would meet every
couple of months, you know, to show
off their cars. Skyler Smith: It was just all
about that respect and just
00:04:08
enjoying a passion
that we all shared. Tara Withers: He loved
his car, loved it,
00:04:13
worked on it all the time. That was his biggest thing. He pretty much had
everything that he wanted.
00:04:19
You know what I mean? He had his friends,
he did his BMX, he had his car, and his dog.
00:04:26
He was just a great kid. Skyler Smith: He
was someone that I really relied on for advice and
to get me through hard times.
00:04:35
He was always there. He would always listen. You know, he would always
give me solid advice.
00:04:41
And he was just
the type of person that whenever anyone was down
or even when you didn't have
00:04:49
something like, per
se, he invited you out or we went out together
and we went to go get food.
00:04:56
And I'm like, oh,
well, you know, my paycheck's a little tight. I won't get anything.
00:05:01
He's like, I invited you here. Like, I'm getting
you food, you know. He was just always
that type of person.
00:05:11
narrator: On the Facebook
group, Nik began to cross paths with 43-year-old Mark Bent.
00:05:17
Mark would repeatedly
provoke Nik, and what started as minor
disputes soon escalated,
00:05:22
and tensions rapidly rose. Justin Gramm: All
of this started when Mr. Bent moved to Idaho,
approximately February of 2021
00:05:32
from Washington. He had a job with UPS. He
was a very skilled mechanic and did quite well for himself.
00:05:39
♪ ♪ narrator: In life
and in the workplace, Mark Bent was seen
as difficult, often getting
00:05:46
into disputes with others. Kaitlyn Hart: He ended up
leaving his job at UPS. He says he was overworked.
00:05:54
This seems to be
a pattern with his job. So as he has trouble
with coworkers and gets into, like,
behavioral spats
00:06:00
and ends up leaving his
job or getting fired. He didn't really have, like,
a good group of friends
00:06:06
or anything like that. He was also alone here. So he moved here
by himself, which
00:06:11
is why I think he was trying
to find, like, a social group. Justin Gramm: Mr.
Bent, I think,
00:06:17
was a very isolated individual. He struggled with some things. I don't think he had
a large social circle.
00:06:23
I don't think he
had many friends. He struggled with
establishing and maintaining
00:06:27
relationships with people. I do believe that
he was a loner. Kaitlyn Hart: He decided
that he wanted to, like,
00:06:35
be a part of a community. So he went on Facebook. He was really into cars. He found this car group
called the Castaways.
00:06:42
♪ ♪ And the Castaways essentially
just met up to look at cars. They would have car meetups
and car shows all around town.
00:06:53
And the Facebook
page was just full of people kind of trying
to relate to other people
00:06:58
with that passion. ♪ ♪ Justin Gramm: In March
of 2021, Mr. Bent started associating with the car club.
00:07:11
The Castaways is what
they were called, and they would, you
know, frequently get together, go
on ride and drive
00:07:17
their cars around together. [ominous music] narrator: Mark
initially fit in with
00:07:23
the castaways Facebook
group, but it wasn't long before things turned sour. - To be honest, my first
impression of Mark Bent
00:07:33
wasn't bad, but all
the impressions afterwards, you know, became too much. narrator: Many
in the Facebook group
00:07:42
were convinced that Mark had
created multiple fake accounts to argue with other members.
00:07:47
One of his supposed used
aliases was Doug Cook. ♪ ♪ Skyler Smith: He was pressing.
00:07:56
He would always try to feel
superior and just cause drama. ♪ ♪ Justin Gramm: And then
June of the same year,
00:08:10
he had a falling
out with the club. He let Nik know
that he didn't want to be associated with
the club anymore,
00:08:18
which led to a kind of a heated
argument between the two of them. And that's really what kind
of started all of this.
00:08:29
In Idaho, you can go
on the repository, which is essentially-- it's
a public records database.
00:08:35
And so anything that's
public record in terms of, like, criminal
charges, citations, things
00:08:40
like that, you can just
look up for anyone in it. And what Mark was
doing he was looking up
00:08:45
particular people in this club,
viewing their criminal history and then kind of throwing
that in their face, you know,
00:08:54
saying that they're
criminals, and he doesn't want to associate with criminals. And so naturally
that's going to turn
00:08:59
a lot of people against you. But it also created
this perception that he was potentially some
kind of police informant,
00:09:08
or he was involved
with the police somehow, which wasn't true. And I think that
rumor eventually
00:09:14
was put to rest, that that
clearly wasn't the case. But I also don't
think Mr. Bent did
00:09:19
himself any favors by saying--
making those statements. And it kind of came to a head
around February 2022.
00:09:29
Mr. Bird had a death
in the family. It was his grandmother. And Mr. Bent reached out to--
00:09:37
to Mr. Bird via
social media, and was insulting him
and mocking him for the death
00:09:42
of his grandmother. And so that, again, led
to another heated argument between the two of them.
00:09:49
Skyler Smith: That's not
what Castaways was about. You know, we weren't
trying to prolong
00:09:53
drama or keep it around. That's not the atmosphere
that we wanted to run. So we were trying to sever
ties and go separate ways.
00:10:01
[intriguing music] narrator: Amid
the conflicts between Mark and other members
of the Castaways,
00:10:07
rumors began to circulate. - The rumors that
were going around is that Nik was harassing
him, when really all
00:10:23
that Nik was trying
to do was just detach, was just to cut ties
and go separate ways.
00:10:31
He tried numerous times
to be, like, look, I know that you feel different. I just want to squash this.
00:10:41
Just, you know, leave
everything alone. And Mark kept pressing
and kept saying a lot of derogatory terms to
just to get a rise out of Nik.
00:10:53
Nik came to me
for advice, and he's, like, I keep trying to get away
from him, but he turns around
00:10:58
and he does stuff like this. And I'm, like, I know
it's infuriating, I know it's upsetting.
00:11:02
Just don't feed into it. Just leave it be. But that wasn't
enough for Mark. He wanted to get
a rise out of Nik.
00:11:11
And so he just kept
pressing and pressing. Nik wasn't the bully. Tara Withers: If somebody
was bullied at school,
00:11:18
Nik would go get him. Why don't you come
sit with us, bud? You know, why don't
you come hang with us?
00:11:23
Because he didn't
like it and he wasn't going to put up with it. He was just so pure.
00:11:30
Randy Neal: Mark Bent
would say terrible things, talking about the death
of the grandmother.
00:11:36
Just horrendous things. It's inexplicable. I don't know what
the obsession was. Justin Gramm: It was pretty
apparent that any time he
00:11:44
had a negative
interaction with someone, he would document that on his
phone through screenshots.
00:11:51
And so if you were to engage
in an argument with him, he would look up
your Facebook profile
00:11:55
and then he would take
a screenshot of it. He almost kept a record
of wrongdoing against him.
00:12:00
And it just kind of goes
to show that he really harbored a lot
of anger and animosity
00:12:05
towards other people,
specifically people that he felt had wronged him. - I'd never run
into anyone that's
00:12:12
ever had anything negative
to say about Nikolas, you know. And why Mark targeted Nik?
00:12:17
I will never know. I think he was jealous. I think he was
jealous of Nikolas because Nikolas
had a girlfriend.
00:12:24
He had amazing friends. - Nik was just trying to get
away from him, but he couldn't.
00:12:37
[audio logo] [audio logo] [suspenseful music] narrator: On Facebook,
23-year-old
00:12:56
Nik Bird and 43-year-old
Mark Bent clashed constantly. Mark's arguments
became more personal
00:13:03
and increasingly hostile. Then, without warning,
on September 3, a shocking report was
made to the police.
00:13:11
♪ ♪ Nate Eaton: It was
September 3, 2022, when Idaho Falls Police
officers were called
00:13:17
to Claire View
Lane for a report that a man was
lying in the road. When they arrived, the man had
clearly been shot 17 times.
00:13:28
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Justin Gramm: We
had a male victim with multiple gunshot wounds. It wasn't looking good.
00:13:47
♪ ♪ The first steps, obviously, is
always if we can save a life, save the life.
00:13:55
You know, get the victim
medical attention as quickly as possible or get
them en route to a hospital
00:14:01
as quickly as possible. He was suffering from
multiple gunshot wounds but was still conscious
and breathing.
00:14:09
Immediately
an ambulance responded. narrator: Despite the efforts
of emergency responders,
00:14:21
the victim passes away. Shortly thereafter,
word of the murder quickly spreads
throughout the community
00:14:27
and the Castaways Car Club. [emotional music] Skyler Smith: I was sleeping,
and my boss actually
00:14:37
woke me up, freaking out. Like, it was my day off. He called me freaking out,
and I answered, and he's,
00:14:43
like, oh my god, thank God. I'm like, what are
you talking about? What's-- what's going on?
00:14:49
He's like, well, somebody
was shot and murdered. And, you know, they were
driving or in a Subaru.
00:14:57
And I instantly opened
my phone and saw everything. And I just-- I remember my heart dropping.
00:15:04
♪ ♪ narrator: As the crime
scene investigators try and piece together what
happened, the leading theory
00:15:16
is that Nik's murder
was an ambush. [intriguing music] Justin Gramm: The scene
was somewhat eerie.
00:15:22
It's a darker neighborhood
because there's not a lot of street lights over there.
00:15:26
And so I just remember-- I could see that the vehicle
headlights were on. That's a pretty distinct
part of my memory.
00:15:35
And just the way it-- they
kind of hit the pavement and you can see where the blood
was, where he was laying.
00:15:43
It just had
an eerie feel to it. If you're going
to ambush somebody, that was probably a really
good spot to do it,
00:15:51
because it was not
a very well-lit area. It's pretty dark. My initial thinking
was I could see
00:15:56
how somebody could probably
approach somebody pretty discreetly in that situation.
00:16:01
♪ ♪ - They locked down the area. They begin processing
the scene for evidence. ♪ ♪
00:16:11
Justin Gramm: And there
you're collecting not only evidence from
the victim, including
00:16:18
potential gunshots or rounds. Unfortunately, his body
now becomes a piece of evidence in this case.
00:16:26
- We saw pictures of cop
cars lining the street, and then there was a car. The rear-view
mirror was smashed.
00:16:34
♪ ♪ For our newsroom
at least, it was kind of like all hands on deck. And we started getting pictures
of, like, the crime scene
00:16:53
and all of the cop
cars on the street. And we started
hearing that, uh, people were looking
for some guy that had just
00:16:58
killed somebody on the street. And that's obviously
really scary. It's a really
dense kind of area
00:17:03
over there with
a lot of houses, and I think people
were pretty worried. And the Facebook
groups blew up and
00:17:08
people were trying to figure
out if they were safe or not. - When we do have a homicide,
it's-- it's kind of all hands
00:17:16
on deck, which is good
because we can throw all of our resources
and all of our manpower
00:17:21
at that problem
to hopefully get it resolved relatively quickly. narrator: Police wouldn't have
to search long for a suspect,
00:17:30
as just minutes after
the shooting, the killer revealed himself. Kaitlyn Hart: Mark
Bent, he posted
00:17:36
on Facebook a confession,
saying that he had committed this crime. He explained why.
00:17:42
He said he was
being cyberbullied and that he wanted to kill
Nik Bird specifically.
00:17:47
Nate Eaton: Mark Bent said that
people in these Facebook group accused him of being a police
officer, an undercover police
00:17:53
officer, who was trying
to get information from them in these Facebook chats. It clearly irritated
him to the point
00:18:00
that he felt he needed
to do something. [tense music] Kaitlyn Hart: And he signed
it at the bottom, you know,
00:18:06
that I did this. Nate Eaton: The suspect
posted on Facebook that he committed the crime.
00:18:11
Wait, what? Who does that? You don't see that. I was shocked. I could not believe it.
00:18:18
I remember seeing
that Facebook post and saying, wait, is this fake? Because who would do this?
00:18:24
Who would go on and confess
in such a public manner for the world
to see before you've
00:18:30
even had your day in court? I mean, what-- what
is that going to do? So at first, it was a little
bit of, is this true?
00:18:36
Did he really post it? And then when you find out,
yes, this is a legitimate post,
00:18:39
he really did post this. I think it just showed that--
the guilt that he was feeling,
00:18:44
the guilt that he had
inside, that he felt he needed to tell his friends,
tell the world that, I
00:18:49
did this, I feel
bad about it, and I'm going to do it
in a very public way, in a very public forum.
00:18:57
Kaitlyn Hart: I think people
were shocked that he confessed. I think people were on some
level relieved that he did,
00:19:02
because then you're
not drawn out through this whole process of
trying to look for the person
00:19:07
and find out why, because
at the end of the day, like, the public wants to know
why this happened.
00:19:11
They wanted to know
what the relationship was between Nik and Mark. They wanted to know
if there was a reason, if it
00:19:16
was a random killing, if it
was rage from, like, a road incident, something like that.
00:19:22
But it was almost immediate
that we knew, or at least had ideas or rumors
about what happened,
00:19:27
and that's really rare. Nate Eaton: When the community
learned these facts as we were reporting
them, I think they were
00:19:34
just as shocked as we were. One, that had happened. Two, that it happened on the
street in a neighborhood.
00:19:41
And three, that the suspect
went on social media and confessed to it
before even being caught,
00:19:46
before even being arrested. The comments were--
were, wait, what? The dude confessed?
Why did he confess?
00:19:51
Did someone set him up? Is there something more here? There was some doubt on,
did he really confess?
00:19:56
Was this really him? There was a lot of comments of,
oh my gosh, why did he do this?
00:20:01
Why would he go on and--
and confess to doing something so horrific? [tense music]
00:20:08
narrator: The online confession
left Idaho Falls shocked. Now police had to find Mark
Bent and bring him to justice.
00:20:17
[audio logo] [audio logo] [tense music] narrator: On September
3, 2022, police arrived at Claire View
Lane, where Nik Bird
00:20:38
had been murdered that night. Moments after
the killing, Mark Bent posted an online
confession identifying
00:20:45
himself as the shooter. Just 30 minutes
later, police received a shocking 911 call,
a call that would further
00:20:53
escalate the investigation. ♪ ♪ - 911 receives a phone
call from a man who says,
00:21:02
I need to turn myself
in for killing a man. Justin Gramm: The dispatcher
did a phenomenal job
00:21:22
just being very calm,
keeping him communicating, getting details about
the case where she could.
00:21:28
Um, she did excellent. Randy Neal: She realized
what needed to be done. She was asking questions.
00:21:44
We-- we call those parts of the
crime that you have to prove. So the person,
the defendant has
00:21:52
to be identified,
the time, the place, and then you-- what does it
take to-- to prove a murder?
00:21:58
And this dispatcher
was basically going through those forests. ♪ ♪ narrator: After Mark Bent
admits to shooting Nik Bird,
00:22:29
the dispatcher keeps him
talking, all the while trying to establish
his current location.
00:23:06
Randy Neal: It was a crime
involving a firearm. The officers were
on high alert.
00:23:12
And so arriving
to a scenario for that could have been very
dangerous for everybody.
00:23:16
♪ ♪ [siren wailing] narrator: While police
raced to the scene, the dispatcher
attempts to ensure
00:23:24
Bent does not resist arrest. - The dispatcher
actually got him to step out of the vehicle,
away from his gun,
00:23:32
lie down on the parking
lot asphalt, stretch out his arms so he
wouldn't look as a threat
00:23:38
at all. So just an extraordinary
job by-- by that dispatcher. [sirens wailing] ♪ ♪
00:24:17
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: Mark Bent
is taken into custody, and police begin
searching his truck.
00:24:53
Justin Gramm: That
scene was then preserved because the vehicle
is a piece of evidence.
00:24:57
Everything inside the vehicle
is going to be evidence. And so we need
to process through that.
00:25:02
♪ ♪ It's important to get
every piece of evidence or what you perceive
to be evidence
00:25:11
is labeled, identified. His firearm was left in the
vehicle, and that was evidence.
00:25:16
♪ ♪ narrator: While investigators
continue searching the vehicle, Mark Bent is interviewed
at the police station.
00:25:26
♪ ♪ [radio chatter] ♪ ♪ Justin Gramm: Initially, you
know, speaking with Mr. Bent,
00:25:47
it was an attempt to first
establish some kind of rapport, some kind of common ground.
00:25:52
And we engaged on just
various topics. And I just wanted to get
him speaking to me.
00:26:15
I wanted to understand
him a little bit, why he did what he did. Because sometimes understanding
why is more important than what
00:26:23
happened, you know. Once I decided I wanted
to engage with him about what occurred that evening--
and he seemed pretty
00:26:29
open and willing to talk-- I made sure he was aware
of his Miranda rights, because he was in custody.
00:26:35
And he acknowledged that,
and he was going to talk, kind of implied
it's a long story,
00:26:41
and I told him I
wanted to listen. ♪ ♪ Justin Gramm: He was
well aware that he was in a bad spot in terms
of the case against him.
00:27:25
And I think it kind
of dawned on him that he already implicated himself. And I don't think
he wanted to further
00:27:31
provide us with a better
case against him. I think he just
thought better of it,
00:27:35
and he'd rather
talk to an attorney. I also don't think that,
as planned as this was,
00:27:42
there is a level of it
that seems unplanned, and that is in the sense
that he really--
00:27:49
didn't take much
effort to conceal his crime, which, again,
kind of corroborates
00:27:54
the idea that I don't
think he intended on living through this. Based on his own
statements, I think
00:27:59
he intended to kill himself. His father talked him out of it
prior to him turning himself
00:28:05
in, which helps explain,
as calculated as this was, there was a level
of it that you're just,
00:28:10
like, well, you're not
a very good criminal if you leave all this evidence. And so I think that he was kind
of conflicted on the end
00:28:16
result here. [intriguing music] ♪ ♪ But immediately after
that is when I find out about the Facebook post.
00:28:29
♪ ♪ narrator: Mark's Facebook post
indicates that the killing was premeditated.
00:28:39
Police prepare to charge him. ♪ ♪ Kaitlyn Hart: He had written
the confession notes weeks
00:28:48
before the actual murder. He wanted to show his parents
what happened in the case
00:28:53
that he actually
went through with it. He told his dad,
after the murder, that he tried to stop
himself from doing it.
00:29:01
But it's definitely
premeditation because they can go back. He wrote in his notes
app on his phone,
00:29:07
so investigators can go back
and see when he wrote it, and he wrote it weeks before,
which is an obvious indicator
00:29:14
that he had planned this. - All of this started
online and ended online with that confession.
00:29:24
Justin Gramm: This was
initially one suicide letter that evolved over time, as Mr.
Bent decided that he wasn't
00:29:31
just going to kill
himself, that he was also going to kill Nik Bird
and then potentially himself.
00:29:36
But ultimately, we
know that he didn't end up taking his own life. The suicide notes were-- were
written that we kind of traced
00:29:43
as being the foundation
or the beginning parts of his confession. But then ultimately,
on September 3,
00:29:50
kills Nik Bird, which was
a pretty calculated act. That was when we
clearly knew, OK, I
00:29:58
feel comfortable booking him
for a first-degree murder charge at this time. ♪ ♪
00:30:08
[audio logo] [audio logo] [intriguing music] narrator: Preparation is
now underway for the trial
00:30:27
of 43-year-old
Mark Bent, charged with the September 2022 killing
of 23-year-old Nik Bird.
00:30:35
Prosecutors planned
to use Bent's social media activity as key evidence. ♪ ♪ Randy Neal: There was
overwhelming evidence.
00:30:47
We had a 911 call, and that
was just prior to him being arrested,
and in that conversation,
00:30:56
he not only admitted
to the shooting, but actually named who it
was, the victim, Nik Bird.
00:31:05
Justin Gramm: Digital
evidence and social media, there's always
a footprint somewhere.
00:31:09
It's a matter of,
can you find it? Can you sift through
that data to determine if there's a connection?
00:31:16
And I think when you
look at a case like this where he really didn't take
any preventative measures
00:31:20
to destroy or alter any
of the social media, the evidence was overwhelming. Randy Neal: There
was a confession.
00:31:29
This is not going
to be trying to prove Mark Bent killed Nik Bird. This is going to come down
to just how depraved was it.
00:31:38
♪ ♪ narrator: The trial
commences in December 2024. Nate Eaton: There were many
moments that were pretty
00:31:48
tense during this trial. A lot of murder trials
end in plea agreements. They don't actually
go to trial.
00:31:52
But this is one where
Mark Bent clearly thought that he had
a defense and he wanted
00:31:57
to present it to the jury. And so the prosecution had
to go forth with witnesses,
00:32:02
with evidence. There were moments that
brought tears to many people who were in the courtroom.
00:32:08
These trials can be
extremely taxing on families. They're reliving the moments
of their loved ones' deaths,
00:32:14
of their loved
ones' final moments. [emotional music] Skyler Smith: Very
difficult being
00:32:21
in the same room with someone
who murdered your best friend. It's also very
difficult to watch
00:32:30
him try to defend himself. [sobs] Try to play victim. ♪ ♪ It's rough. ♪ ♪ - 17 times is what he shot him.
00:32:56
And does anybody deserve that? No. Did Nikolas deserve that? Absolutely not. I said my victim's
impact statement.
00:33:06
I said-- every time we went
to court, the judge's table, Mark's rights-- where
were Nik's rights
00:33:15
when he was being gunned
down in the street, you know, and left to die? How could you do
that to somebody?
00:33:25
narrator: Prosecutors
lay out the evidence, including dash cam footage
recovered from Mark's truck.
00:33:31
[ominous music] Randy Neal: There's
actually a dash cam under his rear-view mirror.
00:33:42
This almost taped every
aspect of that evening. So we could actually
see him leave
00:33:49
from his home in Pocatello,
drive all the way up the freeway, which is
50 miles, come into town
00:33:57
and start stalking. He was looking for prey. You can watch him go to areas
where these folks, what he
00:34:06
believed to be his
nemesis, this car club, where they
would congregate, and he was looking for him.
00:34:15
narrator: Mark had
planned to attack the Castaways Car Club
at their next meetup,
00:34:20
but Nik had canceled it. Tara Withers: I feel
that Nik was a hero, because if that meeting
of that car club
00:34:29
wouldn't have been
canceled that night, Mark said that he
would have killed many,
00:34:33
or he would have shot many. And he drove
around to the place that they go five times
trying to find them.
00:34:41
♪ ♪ Randy Neal: We can see
every area that he checked. Eventually he comes around and
he discovers Nik Bird's car.
00:34:52
This is all on video
in real time. But then when he parks
behind Nik Bird's car,
00:35:00
because the car's turned
off, the camera goes off. So we have a two-hour gap where
he is just sitting and waiting.
00:35:12
He's lying in wait. That's not enough. He figures, all
right, I might have an issue where
he'll get in his car
00:35:22
and drive off before I get
a chance to get out of my car and go shoot him. And so he devises a scheme
where he goes out,
00:35:29
and he breaks the side view
mirror on the driver's side. We have the shards of glass
from that mirror on the ground.
00:35:40
Nik Bird comes out. He takes a picture on Snapchat
very angry about what happened.
00:35:47
[tense music] - He took a snapshot
of it and was going to send it
to his friends,
00:35:52
like, what happened
to my mirror? But he never got to because
Mark came up behind him.
00:35:58
♪ ♪ Randy Neal: And that
was the pause that allowed Mark Bent
to cover that distance
00:36:07
and then start shooting. [gunshots] [suspenseful music] A neighbor looks out his
window, sees the figure.
00:36:20
He-- he hears the shots,
sees the-- the shadowy figure leave, get into the truck.
00:36:26
The vehicle starts back up. So that dash video
is actually-- you see the victim still
moving, lying on the ground
00:36:34
next to his car. And then you see
the suspect drive away. ♪ ♪ You see him drive down the road
with responding police cars,
00:36:47
their lights flashing
as they're going by. All of these things happening. And then he stops again.
00:36:54
The camera goes off. And that's where he does
these two major things. He calls his father, who talks
him into turning himself in,
00:37:03
and he posts the--
the Facebook confession. narrator: After the prosecution
concludes its case,
00:37:11
Mark Bent takes the stand. Randy Neal: He had
had the opportunity to see all of our evidence,
and so there
00:37:21
was just very, very
few holes in what we were able to reconstruct. And so he basically confirmed
everything that we had put up.
00:37:33
That was what he described
in his testimony. And then he talked
about the moment
00:37:38
that he got out of his truck. Randy Neal: Suddenly, he
said, I don't remember. And he said that there was
a one-minute gap there.
00:38:23
- It seems like
he had forgotten a lot of details
of what happened during the actual
murder, which is
00:38:29
ironic because the Facebook
posts details everything that happened. And he made this post only
minutes after the murder.
00:38:39
narrator: Mark's defense
argues his actions were a result of online bullying. Nate Eaton: Mark Bent's
defense was that he
00:38:47
was bullied on Facebook. People in these Facebook
group accused him of being a police officer, an
undercover police officer, who
00:38:55
was trying to get
information from them in these Facebook chats. It clearly irritated
him to the point
00:39:01
that he felt he needed
to do something. And so his defense was
to point out that he actually
00:39:06
may have been
a victim, that he may have been the original victim
before Nik Bird was shot.
00:39:11
During the trial,
he showed emotion. A lot of times, he
sat there very stoic, without showing any
things, but without showing
00:39:17
any sort of emotion. But there were moments
where you would see him well up with tears,
or he would be upset
00:39:22
about what was being said. He clearly thought
that he might get off, maybe with a lesser
sentence, that the jury might
00:39:28
find him not guilty, that
they might find out that because of what was
happening on Facebook,
00:39:33
on social media in his life,
that he really was the victim. But that clearly
was not the case.
00:39:39
The defense didn't actually
ever present any screenshots or evidence showing that,
but that was the defense,
00:39:45
that he had been
picked on to the point that it consumed him
and he needed to take
00:39:50
action against Nik Bird. - I knew that once it was said
that Nik was bullying him,
00:39:59
I knew better. I absolutely knew better
'cause that's not what he was. Never, never would Nik do--
00:40:06
I mean, after
the stuff that Mark said about his grandmother,
Nik's grandmother,
00:40:13
I would have lost my mind. I don't know anybody
that wouldn't have. Nik was-- he--
00:40:19
To look at his stuff,
he's never bullied anyone. You know, to look
at his social media.
00:40:23
Look at this.
Look at that. He just wasn't able. He loved people. He wasn't going to hurt
people like that.
00:40:31
Nate Eaton: After the jury
deliberated for several hours, they came back with
a verdict of guilty.
00:40:36
And the judge
sentenced Mark Bent 45 years to life in prison. [dramatic music] Tara Withers: I'm
happy that he got
00:40:46
what he got because I feel
like he's taking my life, too, you know. Skyler Smith: We all felt a bit
relieved, I would say for sure.
00:40:55
[somber music] Nik is finally getting justice. Justin Gramm: When
I got this case,
00:41:04
I was pretty young
in my detective career, and I was still learning a lot. I'm still learning today.
00:41:09
Every case teaches
you something, and it really also shined
a light on how grateful
00:41:15
I am to work with
the people that I work with. To have the entire
department come together,
00:41:22
to make sure that the job
gets done correctly is a sight to behold. ♪ ♪ narrator: This case
highlights the real life
00:41:32
dangers of social media. Kaitlyn Hart: Social media
is extremely dangerous. It can be an awesome
tool, and, um, it
00:41:41
can be very, very
helpful, but it can also be extremely dangerous. I think in this case, it
was only dangerous because--
00:41:49
I mean, no one
could have predicted that this could have happened
because of a Facebook group.
00:41:54
It's entirely possible that
this wouldn't have ever happened without social media.
00:41:58
It started with the car
group Facebook page, and it ended with the car
group Facebook page.
00:42:06
I think that
for some people, it's hard to tell the difference
between real life and
00:42:12
social media. And I think Mark was
one of those people. I think he was so intensely
hurt by the fact
00:42:20
that somebody would put
anything negative about him on a page where there
was people from all
00:42:27
over the world
on it, that it made him super paranoid that
somebody was going to hurt him,
00:42:32
which I think is
in some aspects a fair concern,
but definitely not a reason for any kind of violence.
00:42:42
Nate Eaton: He was
looking for friendships. And in the beginning,
it seems he found it.
00:42:46
He found people with
similar interests. And so in the beginning it
was a really great thing.
00:42:51
And then it turned
into something horrible because it consumed him
with rage and anger,
00:42:57
to the point that he
had to go and find the man who established
that Facebook group
00:43:01
and kill him in cold blood. narrator: Nik's life
may have been cut short, but he touched the hearts
of many in his time.
00:43:13
Skyler Smith: One
thing that I want people to remember
about Nik is that he-- like I said before, he's
one of the purest souls
00:43:21
that I've ever met. Because of him, I
strive to be like him, I strive to carry
out, you know,
00:43:29
what I would call
his-- his legacy. Just an amazing person. - The impact he had
on people was amazing.
00:43:41
Nik's friend, they
text me, asked me if they could name
their baby after Nik, which is a huge, huge honor.
00:43:51
You know, the pain
of losing him, there's not even a comparison. He was everything
to a lot of people.
00:44:01
He was like the shining
light, you know. [sobs] - He's been there
through my darkest times.
00:44:09
He's been there
for a lot of people. Tara Withers: He had
touched that many lives,
00:44:14
and that was my son that
touched those lives. You know what I mean? It makes you proud.
00:44:18
[somber music] ♪ ♪ [theme music] ♪ ♪