00:00:00
[audio logo] narrator: On Mother's
Day, May the 11th, 2008, in the quiet community of Lutz
in Hillsborough County,
00:00:12
Florida, a rage-filled man
unleashed a nightmare on Lisa Freiberg and her two children.
00:00:19
Troy J. Morgan: He brutally
attacked every single thing in that house. He killed three innocent
people just because it's
00:00:26
what he wanted to do. narrator: The killer had
left a trail of bodies for the police to find.
00:00:33
Dale Bunton:
The mutilation that was done to these victims,
the extent of the blood
00:00:39
around the house, this was
a pretty horrific scene. narrator: Detectives found the
killer hiding in a cupboard,
00:00:47
35-year-old Edward Covington
was Lisa Freiberg's partner. Shawn Freiberg:
He's not a human.
00:00:54
He's a monster. How could he do that? I don't know. narrator: Edward Covington's
Mother's Day massacre
00:01:09
had revealed him to be one of
the world's most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪
00:01:33
[tranquil music] On May the 29th, 2015, seven
years after the murders of Lisa Freiberg and her two children,
seven-year-old Zachary and
00:01:47
two-year-old Savannah,
42-year-old Edward Covington was sentenced to death in the
Circuit Court of Hillsborough
00:01:54
County, Florida. It was a triple murder
that sent shockwaves through the small community.
00:02:02
♪ ♪ Jared Leone: Edward
Covington committed one of the most
horrific, brutal crimes
00:02:10
that Lutz community
had ever seen. When you think about when it
happened and who it happened to
00:02:18
and how it happened,
it's incredibly horrific. ♪ ♪ narrator: The local press
labeled Covington a monster.
00:02:29
Geoffrey Wansell: The case
of Edward Covington was called by the press a "Mother's
Day Massacre," and
00:02:34
that's genuinely what it was. He killed because he could
and because he wanted to.
00:02:41
It was a remorseless, horrid,
obscene set of killings. ♪ ♪ narrator: This killer's
story begins in Florida
00:02:54
on June the 13th, 1972. Edward Covington's life
got off to a particularly bad start due to a mistake at
the hospital where he was born.
00:03:07
Geoffrey Wansell: We
know comparatively little about his upbringing
as a child, but what we do know
00:03:12
is that as an infant,
newborn, he was given a massive overdose of
antibiotics in hospital, which
00:03:19
caused him 30% hearing loss. And I think that had an impact
on the rest of his life.
00:03:25
[grim music] ♪ ♪ He wants to become a Navy
pilot, but the hearing loss meant that he couldn't.
00:03:35
And so there was
always that inner rage, that sense of resentment
that he always had,
00:03:40
and that stayed with him. Dale Bunton: He thought
very highly of himself. He didn't respect anyone else.
00:03:49
He didn't give
people consideration. It was all about him. narrator: As a teenager,
Covington's mental health
00:03:57
started to decline. Geoffrey Wansell:
At the age of 15, Covington was hospitalized
with the first
00:04:03
of a number of episodes
of mental problems. He was diagnosed with
a chemical imbalance
00:04:09
in his brain, and he was later
diagnosed as being bipolar. ♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith: He was on
medication, but on top of that,
00:04:21
he started to use
illicit drugs. [suspenseful music] narrator: As Edward
Covington reached adulthood,
00:04:31
in a neighboring
county, Lisa Freiberg was growing up with her parents
and younger brother, Shawn.
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[somber music] ♪ ♪ Shawn Freiberg: Lisa and I
got along really well. We were about a year
and a half, almost two years,
00:04:50
difference in age. We were always together. ♪ ♪ I have cerebral palsy. And because Lisa being
the older sister,
00:05:06
in school, she didn't
let no one bully me. She was just the best
bigger sister ever.
00:05:13
♪ ♪ If my mom needed
her, she would come to her in a moment's notice. She was always reliable,
always thinking of others.
00:05:26
♪ ♪ She gave her shirt
off her back to just anyone that needed help. narrator: On January 13, 2001,
when Lisa was 19 years old,
00:05:42
she gave birth
to her first child. Shawn Freiberg: Zachary was
a big surprise to all of us
00:05:50
because Lisa was pretty
young at the time. But you know, accidents
happen, and gratefully, it
00:05:58
was a good accident. And she had an amazing
son that was really caring, just like her.
00:06:07
narrator: Zachary's father
didn't stick around, and Lisa was left
to bring up her son alone.
00:06:15
Shawn Freiberg: Lisa was
very concerned on how to be a mother at first. But working with
our mom, she turned out
00:06:27
to be a great mother herself. Our mom taught Lisa how
to do basically everything.
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And she took that and ran. ♪ ♪ narrator: In 2004, Lisa
met a man and fell in love.
00:06:49
And on May the 20th,
2005, when Zachary was four years old, she gave
birth to a daughter,
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Heather Savannah. Shawn Freiberg: Heather was
her legal name because that's what her dad wanted.
00:07:04
However, we always
loved the name Savannah, and that's the name
Lisa wanted. So that's what we
called Savannah.
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When Zachary found
out that he was going to have
a little sister, he was super excited that he was
going to be the big brother.
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They loved each other. You could tell that
they loved each other. narrator: Shawn has fond
memories of his time
00:07:34
with the family. - I was the cool uncle and I
always played with them and gave them
horseback rides or
00:07:44
play video games with Zachary. There was a lot
of laughs, a lot of love. Just every day was special.
00:07:54
[ominous music] narrator: Lisa
and her family lived in the small community of Lutz
in North Hillsborough County,
00:08:03
Florida. Jared Leone: It was a very
working class neighborhood, where people knew
each other, and
00:08:13
it wouldn't be
a stretch to say people struggle in that area to make
ends meet and to get by.
00:08:20
♪ ♪ Shawn Freiberg: She
worked a full time job, did a lot of overtime
hours just
00:08:28
to make sure she could
give both children the life that they needed and she
wanted to give them.
00:08:37
♪ ♪ narrator: Meanwhile,
on July 19, 2004, 32-year-old Edward
Covington had got married,
00:08:53
but his drinking
and drug-taking had spiraled out of control. Dale Bunton: He had a history
with crack cocaine and alcohol.
00:09:03
When he was sober, he could
be quite personable and very intelligent,
but it seems every time
00:09:13
he did mix those
two, it would bring out a violent tendency in him. Narrator: And it was
Covington's wife who bore
00:09:21
the brunt of his violence. Dale Bunton: He was
physically abusive to her. He broke her wrist.
00:09:30
He strangled her. He broke teeth out. narrator:
At the time, Covington was working as a prison officer
for the Florida Department
00:09:42
of Corrections, and he
used this to his advantage whenever his wife called the
police to report his violence.
00:09:52
Dale Bunton: Any time there
was any kind of contact with law enforcement,
he was using
00:09:57
that to sway
their opinion, hoping that he would be
more believable than, say, somebody else.
00:10:04
And he pulled that
trick multiple times to get out of trouble. Jane Monckton-Smith:
The entire thing
00:10:12
is about him getting
what he wants and manipulating
everyone in his life. narrator: Covington's wife
had put up with enough.
00:10:24
In 2007, she filed for divorce. Geoffrey Wansell: The marriage
had been a terrible failure.
00:10:30
In fact, when she left him,
he took his revenge on her and decapitated
three of her cats.
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♪ ♪ Now, that's not the action
of a man who's entirely in control of himself. It's a violent, vengeful,
horrible thing to do.
00:10:54
♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith:
That suggests to me that he escalates,
and he escalates
00:11:00
quickly when he is challenged. He's clearly got problems
with relationships. He's clearly got
problems with women.
00:11:09
And he's clearly somebody who's
quite happy to go to killing when he's challenged.
00:11:17
♪ ♪ narrator: When his
marriage ended, Covington moved into a trailer
owned by his parents,
00:11:26
20 miles away from where
Lisa Freiberg and her family lived in Lutz. In the same year,
Lisa's relationship
00:11:34
with her daughter Savannah's
father came to an end and Lisa decided to try online dating.
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[unsettling music] ♪ ♪ Troy J. Morgan: I know
she was a single mom. She was raising her two kids.
00:11:49
Relationship wise, I know
she was looking for somebody. narrator: The dating site threw
up a potential match for Lisa,
00:11:57
35-year-old Edward Covington. Shawn Freiberg: I
did hear that she was meeting this
new guy, Edward,
00:12:06
but I trusted her judgment. She was smart. She knew that her kids
meant the most to her.
00:12:13
And, you know, that's
what she was looking for, was a father
figure for Zachary,
00:12:20
a father figure for Savannah. He seemed like
a great guy at first. [grim music] ♪ ♪
00:12:33
narrator: But things
were about to change. In the spring of 2008,
Covington and Lisa
00:12:40
took their relationship
to the next level. Geoffrey Wansell:
Because of his behavior,
00:12:46
his parents threw him out
of the trailer that they owned. But at that point, Lisa
said, well, you could
00:12:52
come and live with us in Lutz. They'd only known each
other about six months. And I don't suspect
she had any inkling
00:13:01
of his very checkered
mental history and his violent first marriage. Troy J. Morgan: She
meets this individual,
00:13:07
and she entrusts him
with her children, and he just used that
as an opportunity to take advantage of them.
00:13:16
So he was taking
care of the children while she was making the money. narrator: Lisa's family
soon became concerned
00:13:24
about Covington's behavior. Shawn Freiberg:
Once he moved in, we did start noticing
more of a temper range.
00:13:34
We noticed that he seemed like
to snap quickly towards her. There was a cloud
of uncertainty,
00:13:43
almost like the kids
didn't want to be there. narrator: Lisa's family was
starting to grow concerned
00:13:51
for Lisa
and the children, but they had no idea how
much danger they were in until it was too late.
00:14:00
[suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ By May 2008, Edward
Covington had moved in with his
girlfriend Lisa and
00:14:11
her two children,
seven-year-old Zachary and two-year-old Savannah. Lisa's family had
started to notice
00:14:18
a change
in the children's behavior when Covington was around. ♪ ♪ Shawn Freiberg: I
was told by my mom
00:14:27
that when Zachary was getting
in the truck with Lisa and if Covington
was there, Zachary
00:14:35
had a scared look on his face. narrator: When
Lisa's family started noticing mysterious
bruises on the children,
00:14:43
they started to have
concerns that Covington was harming them. They took photos of the
injuries that they'd seen.
00:14:52
Shawn Freiberg: It just
added ammo for our case against him that we were
trying to build to show Lisa,
00:14:59
get away from this guy. We have pictures. We have the proof. narrator: But Lisa's
desperate family
00:15:05
didn't get time to stage
the intervention they felt was needed. Just two days after they took
those photos was Mother's Day,
00:15:14
May the 11th, 2008. Shawn Freiberg:
We were surprised when Lisa didn't show up to see
her own mother on Mother's Day.
00:15:26
And that's when we figured
out something was wrong. Narrator: The next
morning, Lisa's family
00:15:35
were notified that Lisa hadn't
turned up at the childminder's or at work. Lisa's mom, Barbara decided to
go over to her daughter's home.
00:15:46
She'd no idea she was
about to encounter a scene of unimaginable horror. [somber music]
00:15:56
Dale Bunton: When the mother
arrived at the trailer to check on her
daughter, she managed
00:16:05
to get in the front
door enough to then see one grandchild, obviously
murdered there on the floor
00:16:13
in front of her. ♪ ♪ At that point, she
backed out of the trailer and called her husband
and called the police.
00:16:24
narrator: Barbara had seen
her seven-year-old grandson's body lying by the front door.
00:16:30
Zachary had been
stabbed to death. ♪ ♪ Geoffrey Wansell: It's
almost impossible to imagine
00:16:43
the scene that confronted her. It was of such
butchery, such carnage that no one could
really describe
00:16:51
it without being horrified. Dale Bunton: I can't imagine
walking in and seeing my grandchild like that.
00:16:58
♪ ♪ narrator: Police and emergency
services raced to the scene. They included
detective Troy Morgan.
00:17:12
[suspenseful music] Troy J. Morgan: We showed
up there at the location and discovered
that there had been
00:17:25
three people murdered inside. When I looked
in the front door, the entire house
was just trashed.
00:17:35
Lisa's son was laying
just inside the door. The one thing that
stuck out the most
00:17:42
was the area where his penis
and his scrotum would be was missing. And it was just, you
could see that it
00:17:52
had been done postmortem
because there was no blood. There was no anything. [somber music]
00:18:02
narrator: Two-year-old Savannah
was lying just a few feet away from her brother.
00:18:07
She had been decapitated. Dale Bunton: What could
a two-year-old child have possibly done to incur
that kind of wrath?
00:18:19
Troy J. Morgan: I
couldn't see where Lisa was actually at until I
went around on the backside.
00:18:26
And then I could see her
laying there in the hallway. ♪ ♪ narrator: Lisa's body was
covered in multiple injuries
00:18:37
and her throat had been cut. ♪ ♪ - It was probably one
of the worst scenes I've ever been a part of.
00:18:53
Geoffrey Wansell: As they
searched the house, the police also discovered that
the family dog had been killed.
00:19:00
- It was a lot to take
in because there was just so much chaos. Seeing the level of
dismemberment, it's not normal.
00:19:11
narrator: There was no
sign of the attacker. Police presume
the person responsible
00:19:17
must have fled the scene. But then someone heard a noise
coming from the closet.
00:19:23
Troy J. Morgan: Patrol deputies
were clearing the house, and then one of them
heard something
00:19:28
and they located him
inside the bedroom closet. narrator: Crouched down
and covered in blood
00:19:35
was Lisa's boyfriend,
Edward Covington. Dale Bunton: He was
hiding, but they were able to see part
of his actual body there,
00:19:46
and they called him out
and had him show his hands and come out. Geoffrey Wansell: As he was
escorted out of the house
00:19:52
and put into the back
of the police cruiser, he says to the officers, I
can't believe what I've done.
00:19:59
♪ ♪ Narrator: It was left
to Lisa's mom, Barbara, to break the news to Shawn. ♪ ♪
00:20:13
- I was getting
ready to go to work and I was actually pulling
out of my aunt's driveway
00:20:21
when my mom called me
and told me to not go to work, to come home. Once I got home and I
saw the police cars
00:20:30
in front of the house,
my mom broke the news to me right in the driveway, that
she found Lisa and the kids,
00:20:43
and they were no
longer with us. ♪ ♪ narrator: Within
hours, the local press had got wind of the tragic
story unfolding in Lutz.
00:20:57
Jared Leone: Monday
morning came in, just expecting to do the normal
reporting I do of the week,
00:21:04
and instead got
a phone call that I'd be helping cover breaking
news and cops beat that day.
00:21:10
I went out there not having
any idea what to expect, and then it turned out to be
one of the most horrific crimes
00:21:17
that that community had seen. There were dozens of sheriff
investigator vehicles.
00:21:24
There was an incredible
amount of emergency personnel, investigators out there. They had us backed
up a block away
00:21:32
just to keep prying eyes from
the extensive crime scene. narrator: Details
of the crime were filtering
00:21:42
through to the press. Jared Leone: Hearing about
the nature of that crime really seemed that whoever
did this had no humanity left.
00:21:54
[grim music] ♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith:
The violence against Lisa and the incredible violence
against the children
00:22:05
as well is absolutely
breathtaking. ♪ ♪ I don't think there
are words to describe
00:22:15
how awful that scene
must have been. - All along the street,
investigators would walk
in and come back out,
00:22:23
and it was shocking to see
how it impacted them as well. There were officers who
were holding each other and
00:22:31
others that had all
the color out of their face from going in and coming out. narrator: Detective
Dale Bunton remembers
00:22:41
arriving at Lisa's property. - At that point, multiple
detectives had responded.
00:22:47
The scene had been taped off. When they were describing
to the detectives outside
00:22:53
of the scene how
bad inside was, it was a very
graphic description about the mutilation
that was done
00:23:01
to these victims and the extent
of the blood around the house. This was a pretty
horrific scene.
00:23:11
♪ ♪ narrator: Reporters started
speaking to the neighbors to try and glean some
information about the family
00:23:20
who lived there. Jared Leone: They kept
everyone back quite a way, but the neighbors had come
out and filled the street.
00:23:30
That street's
a very quiet street. That's what made it
such a shocking ordeal for some of them, that
they had seen the victims
00:23:38
just a day earlier. And that's kind
of how Lutz was. Neighbors knew each other. narrator: The press
were also being given
00:23:48
information by the police. - Throughout the day,
we had multiple updates from the sheriff's spokeswoman.
00:23:57
In between the updates,
obviously there's chatter, there's information
that trickles out.
00:24:04
And until it's confirmed,
it's still not official. But one of the pieces
of information
00:24:12
that had trickled
out before was there was someone found
in the closet. The neighbors knew that
Lisa had a boyfriend.
00:24:19
No one thought that
that's who had done it. ♪ ♪ narrator: What the press
and the neighbors
00:24:27
didn't know at that point
was that police already had their suspect
in custody, and
00:24:33
what Edward
Covington would tell detectives in his interview-- narrator: --would
shock them to the core.
00:24:42
[suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ On May 12, 2008,
police had been called to the scene
of a horrific triple murder
00:24:59
in Hillsborough
County, Florida. 26-year-old Lisa Freiberg
and her children, seven-year-old Zachary
and two-year-old Savannah,
00:25:08
had been found butchered
inside their home. Lisa's boyfriend,
Edward Covington,
00:25:13
had been discovered
concealed in the closet. ♪ ♪ Jane Monckton-Smith:
Hiding in the cupboard
00:25:22
is very strange behavior. There could be an element
in that he had nowhere to go.
00:25:29
Where was he going to go? He could not escape that
he was responsible for what had gone on in that house.
00:25:36
The forensics would have
been absolutely everywhere. narrator: On May
14, 2008, after he'd
00:25:44
been assessed by doctors
in a secure hospital, Edward Covington was
interviewed by detectives.
00:25:57
Geoffrey Wansell: Covington is
amazingly calm and collected. He's not weeping
and wailing, and
00:26:02
he confesses to the killings. Troy J. Morgan: It was as if
I'm just sitting, talking to,
00:26:09
you know, someone about what
we had for dinner last night. I think he was wanting
to get it off of his chest.
00:26:17
narrator: Covington
gave detectives his side of the story. He'd been drinking and using
crack cocaine the night
00:26:24
before Mother's Day. Troy J. Morgan:
He wants to take her car to go get more drugs.
00:26:30
And then he gets upset
because she won't allow him to. Dale Bunton: He knew that
by combining alcohol and
00:26:39
the cocaine he
was using, it was going to cause a bad reaction. He still did it anyway.
00:26:47
Troy J. Morgan: He
wanted what he wanted. And he didn't care what
was going to be in his way.
00:26:52
To lead to this type
of violence on this family, and to take three people out
of the lives of all their loved
00:27:00
ones is horrible. narrator: At approximately
10:00 in the morning and already simmering
with rage, Covington
00:27:08
found two-year-old Savannah out
of bed and lying on the couch. narrator: Two-year-old Savannah
was the first to experience
00:27:39
Covington's wrath. Troy J. Morgan: He
admitted everything he did, telling me how brave she was.
00:27:46
Because I asked,
was she scared? Was she screaming? Was she crying? And he's like, oh, no.
00:27:50
She was so brave. And he seemed so proud of that. [grim music] - He was just as matter-of-fact
about everything he did.
00:28:07
But he did indeed almost cut
that little girl in half. ♪ ♪ narrator: Lisa Freiberg had
been awoken by the sound
00:28:21
of the attack on her daughter. Dale Bunton: Lisa
came out, and he then turned his violence on her.
00:28:33
She had multiple stab
wounds, blows to her head. ♪ ♪ narrator: After
killing Lisa, Covington
00:28:49
had then turned his murderous
rage onto a sleeping seven-year-old Zachary. ♪ ♪
00:29:10
Troy J. Morgan: He said
that there was really no movement, fight, nothing. Neither one of the kids
put up a fight.
00:29:17
♪ ♪ - You're this close
to this person when you're stabbing them, or you're
cutting their throat,
00:29:24
or you're doing all those
other things, that's personal. That's a different level.
00:29:31
♪ ♪ Geoffrey Wansell:
Covington was quite open that he was responsible
for the killings,
00:29:45
but what he never did was
offer any kind of explanation about why he did it. narrator: Troy
tried to determine
00:29:54
a motive for the murders. Troy J. Morgan: There
was a lot of details that we had to continually
ask because he
00:30:00
cut the boy's penis off. So my thought is, what is
the purpose behind this? Is this sexually-driven?
00:30:06
And he literally was
like, oh, gosh, no. Jane Monckton-Smith:
I think he'd have deflected from that
because that's something
00:30:21
that he would not want
people saying about him, that he was a sex offender. He would rather be
thought of as angry
00:30:29
than being sexually-motivated. And I think he'd
have been quite adept at trying
to get the police
00:30:35
to concentrate on the anger and
ignore the sexual motivation. narrator: Detectives question
Covington about where
00:30:44
he'd been found hiding. Troy J. Morgan:
Most times you'll be interviewing somebody,
there's some level of remorse,
00:31:05
right, for what they did. This one was definitely
way different. narrator: As the interrogation
continued,
00:31:15
Dale was tasked with
investigating 35-year-old Covington's background. Dale Bunton: Even with somebody
who confesses immediately,
00:31:25
you still need to build
that case to prove it. narrator: Dale questioned
Covington's previous employers.
00:31:34
Dale Bunton: He had worked for
the Department of Corrections. They explained to me that
they did have problems
00:31:40
with him, disciplinary issues,
the tardiness and the just not even showing up for work.
00:31:48
He also had investigations
on him for abusing inmates. narrator: On May 14, Dale got
a call from a potential witness
00:31:59
to the Mother's Day murders. Dale Bunton: This gentleman
was friends of a man that lived
00:32:05
right next door to the scene. He was helping him install
a roof on his deck. And while he was there,
he and his friend
00:32:17
kept hearing noises coming
from the crime scene before it was known
to be a crime scene.
00:32:24
And he was looking
over there and he saw a window that was unobscured. The blinds were
pulled off to the side
00:32:32
and he saw the gentleman that
he knew frequented there. He could tell he was
striking something.
00:32:40
He would also hear
a subsequent what he thought was a dog yelping in pain. It was later determined
that that dog
00:32:47
was beaten with a hammer. Being beaten 15 or more
times, one after another, after another, after
another, it's just so cold.
00:32:58
Shawn Freiberg: I think he
did that just out of spite, because even though he
already killed my sister,
00:33:04
he wanted to hurt her
more because she knew that she loved all
animals, and that
00:33:11
was another way to get her. [somber music] Dale Bunton: The animals,
for some reason,
00:33:17
are my weak point now. I can disassociate myself
from the human aspect usually pretty good.
00:33:25
When I get into the animals,
I have a more difficult time. ♪ ♪ narrator: Dale needed to find
out if the man in the window
00:33:37
was indeed Edward Covington. Dale Bunton: I went
back to the office and used the suspect's
photo as a base,
00:33:45
and then created a photo pack
of similar looking individuals so that they could do
an identification of the person
00:33:54
that they saw at the scene. And I told him, I
want you to study it. I don't want you
to just pick one.
00:33:58
And after 11 seconds, he said,
it was this one right here. And he identified
Edward Covington.
00:34:05
Jared Leone: It
didn't come as a shock when he was named as a suspect. It just didn't make
sense any other way
00:34:14
than it to be Edward
Covington covered in blood, found in the closet. narrator: Edward
Covington was charged
00:34:21
with three counts
of first-degree murder, three counts of abuse
of a dead body,
00:34:27
and one count
of animal cruelty. He'd confessed to the brutal
and senseless murders
00:34:32
of the family who'd
put their trust in him and allowed him
into their home. It seemed he was
willing to take
00:34:39
accountability for his actions,
but that was about to change. [suspenseful music]
00:34:49
♪ ♪ On May 14, 2008, in
Hillsborough County, Florida, 35-year-old Edward
Covington had confessed
00:34:59
to the Mother's Day murders
of his girlfriend Lisa and her two children,
seven-year-old Zachary
00:35:06
and two-year-old Savannah. ♪ ♪ Troy J. Morgan: If you
look at all the facts, it seems what other recourse
does he have really, other
00:35:17
than just fall on the sword? Or is he going to take a chance
and hope that he gets lucky?
00:35:22
And that's exactly
what he tried to do. narrator: Despite his
detailed confession,
00:35:28
at his plea hearing
on June the 5th, 2008, Covington pled not guilty. Geoffrey Wansell:
For almost six years,
00:35:37
Covington fought
to be considered incapable of standing trial
because of a mental imbalance.
00:35:44
In other words, I'm not
guilty because I'm mad. Jane Monckton-Smith: This
man is highly manipulative.
00:35:50
He must have known that
he was not going to be able to beat the forensics. All he can do is try
to defend what he did.
00:36:02
Now, one of his ways
of defending himself is to raise the idea
that I'm mentally ill,
00:36:08
that I had a psychotic moment. Maybe that had something to do
with crouching in the bedroom,
00:36:15
hiding in the cupboard,
just adding to this idea that this man is insane. And certainly,
the crime scene looks
00:36:23
like only an insane person
could have done that. [somber music] Geoffrey Wansell: Covington,
he would work the system,
00:36:35
and that's exactly what
he did for all those years before he actually
came to trial.
00:36:41
♪ ♪ narrator: Ultimately,
he was deemed competent to stand trial. And on October the 22nd,
2014, over six years since
00:36:52
the murders, 42-year-old
Edward Covington finally appeared
at the Hillsborough County
00:36:57
Circuit Court in Florida. The following day, after
the opening statements had been read, Covington
changed his plea to guilty
00:37:07
and waived his right
to a jury for the penalty phase of his trial. Jane Monckton-Smith:
And that might
00:37:15
look as if this is a man
who's accepting responsibility for what he's done,
but it's equally
00:37:22
possible that he's reached
the end of the process. This trial is going ahead now.
00:37:27
All of his insanity pleas
and everything, that's all been done. Now, if the trial goes ahead,
all the detail comes out.
00:37:37
And the only way to protect
himself from that is to plead guilty
so there is no trial.
00:37:42
No jury gets to hear
all of that stuff that might make him look
like a sexual predator
00:37:50
or in some way he doesn't
want to be represented. So I think it's quite
possible that that guilty plea
00:37:57
at the last minute is
another manipulation of the system to his benefit. narrator: Detective Troy
Morgan was called to testify
00:38:06
at the sentencing hearing. Troy J. Morgan: We started
playing the interview, and Covington asked
not to be present
00:38:13
because he didn't want
to relive it again, which I thought was selfish. He's worried about
himself, which
00:38:19
I guess at this point
in time, I guess that's all he's going to worry about. The judge made him come
every single day to say,
00:38:25
I don't want to be here. And then they let him go,
sit in a holding cell. Everything about
Covington is selfish.
00:38:34
Everything is motivated around
what he wants, what he needs. And that was clear
in this murder.
00:38:44
narrator: The findings
of the autopsies were presented to the judge. Dale Bunton:
The youngest child,
00:38:49
the two-year-old
daughter, Savannah, that was especially brutal. She had radiating fractures
in leg bones, arm bones.
00:39:00
It was learned that he probably
had picked her up by the legs and threw her against
a wall and into the couch.
00:39:09
She had multiple stab wounds,
just outrageously brutal. Savannah, I'm sure, felt the
terror of what he was doing.
00:39:23
♪ ♪ narrator: Lisa had
multiple injuries. Her skull was fractured. She'd been stabbed in the chest
and her throat had been cut.
00:39:38
Dale Bunton: Zachary
also had multiple stab wounds in his chest
and his back and his neck.
00:39:47
♪ ♪ narrator: The numerous
psychiatrists who evaluated Covington
also gave evidence.
00:40:07
Geoffrey Wansell: One
of the psychiatrists working for the state
described him to the court
00:40:11
as threatening, aggressive,
hostile, and angry. And I think that's
exactly what he was,
00:40:17
and he couldn't control it. narrator: The details that
came out during the hearing
00:40:24
were almost too much
for the family to comprehend. Shawn Freiberg: He's not human.
00:40:30
He's a monster. How could you do that
to a two-year-old? How could you do that
to a seven-year-old?
00:40:38
How could you do that to a
mother that was just trying to survive and find love?
00:40:45
How could he do that? I don't know, but that's
why I consider him a monster and not human.
00:40:54
♪ ♪ narrator: Lisa's mom, Barbara,
was invited to read a victim impact statement to the court.
00:41:05
♪ ♪ Barbara Freiberg:
[recording] I miss Lisa, Zachary, and Savannah
with everything in me.
00:41:11
I miss them so deeply that
most times I can't stand it. I miss their voices,
their smiles,
00:41:20
their hugs, and their kisses. The day I found them
is the day I died too. My life has never
been the same.
00:41:29
♪ ♪ narrator:
For the family, the pain of losing Lisa, Zachary,
and Savannah still
00:41:43
weighs heavily on their hearts. Shawn Freiberg: Lisa
did so much for me and I could never tell
her how much I love her.
00:41:55
I wish she was still around
because I miss her that much. I miss her friendship.
00:42:01
I miss her guidance. She was my world. ♪ ♪ narrator: On May 29, 2015,
at the Hillsborough County
00:42:15
Circuit Court, 42-year-old
Edward Covington was sentenced to death. ♪ ♪ Troy J. Morgan: I would say
that Edward Covington's murder
00:42:27
and dismemberment
of this family was probably
the most evil murder that I worked in my career.
00:42:36
♪ ♪ Thankfully, we won't have
to worry about him hurting anybody else ever again.
00:42:45
Shawn Freiberg: Before this,
I wouldn't be sure if I believed in the death penalty.
00:42:51
However, after going through
what my family has gone through, I found that it
is OK to be not thankful
00:43:03
but accepting of the death
penalty sentence. Narrator: Edward Covington
remains on death row
00:43:12
at the Union Correctional
Institution in Florida, awaiting his fate. - I look forward
to that day, and
00:43:20
I think that's when we
can truly close the door and move on, once
he is executed.
00:43:31
♪ ♪ I want this behind us. I want the monster gone. ♪ ♪ narrator: Covington
slaughtered an entire family
00:43:48
in a murderous,
drug-fueled rage. He went on to mutilate
and violate their bodies
00:43:54
in one of the most
horrific crimes that Hillsborough
County has ever seen. He's never apologized
for his actions
00:44:01
or offered any
reasonable explanation for them, which is
why Edward Covington will go down in history
as one of the world's
00:44:10
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪