Photo: Seminole County Sheriff’s Office
Family tension over a 29-year-old Florida man’s costly obsession with a woman on a Bulgarian internet porn site, into which he poured more than $200,000 of his family’s money, allegedly led him to kill his parents and brother who tried to intervene, police say.
Margaret Amato.Facebook
Shown photos of the crime scene — his mother bloodied and slumped in a chair over her desk; his father lying on his back in the kitchen; and his brother in a fetal position in a storage closet — Amato, an unemployed nurse, was asked if he had “any remorse.”
He replied that “his family had been blaming him for months for ruining their lives, stealing and not following the rules of the home, so he might as well be blamed for this too,” according to the affidavit.
Cody Amato.Facebook
He was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, and will plead not guilty when he is due to be formally arraigned on March 26, Amato’s public defenders, Jeffery Dowdy and Jared Shapiro, tell PEOPLE.
Dowdy told reporters after Amato’s initial court appearance on Monday, “I think we have some mental health issues.”
Dowdy also tells PEOPLE: “There just didn’t seem to be that much emotion there, nor did there seem to be too much emotion about the loss of his family. … That was concerning to us, especially for being in jail facing those types of charges.”
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Police have not identified the woman on the other end of Amato’s internet connection, but say his infatuation began after he connected with her on Cam Girls, “an adult web camera website,” starting last June.
Amato told police that his father later learned his son had kept up communications with the woman via Twitter, which led to another confrontation at the home on Jan. 24, the night before the bodies were discovered.
His father kicked him out that night, Amato told police, and he says he left after packing up his things, according to the affidavit. Although he later returned, he says he fled after encountering police cars and media outlets at the home.
Amato currently is being held in the Seminole County jail.
Friends of Cody Amato have created aGoFundMeaccount to assist with his funeral expenses. “Cody we love and miss you very much,” they wrote. “You were such a wonderful friend to so many of us, such a gifted anesthesia provider, and we are all honored to have shared the time with you that we did.”
source: people.com
