- Three young actors on the
brink of Hollywood stardom.
- It's fun to play the hopeless romantic.
- De Niro's making a new movie
and needs a 17-year-old kid to play his son.
- Ricky embraced the part of the Red Ranger.
- But they crossed a dangerous line...
- With life-shattering consequences.
- Josh had been stabbed over ten times.
- Massive blunt-force trauma to her head
and obliterated the left side of her face.
- They said, "You and your boy killed a cop."
- What triggered "Sons of Anarchy" star
Johnny Lewis to do the unimaginable?
- I just was in complete shock. - Why did former
Power Ranger Ricardo Medina make a fatal move?
- I definitely thought they had the wrong person.
- How did movie and TV actor
Lillo Brancato Jr. end up in a life-and-death gun battle?
- The police officer returned fire.
He was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital.
- In an exclusive interview,
we'll hear from the star himself.
- I always thought of murder as something
that had to be done in an intentional manner.
- Find out what happens when the lines
between truth and fiction are blurred.
- When someone gets shot and dies in a movie,
they yell cut, and the guy gets up.
In my world, when you get shot
and you die, you don't come back.
- I'm Soledad O'Brien. This is "Mysteries and Scandals:
Young, Famous, and Criminal."
- For many young stars, fame is exhilarating,
the ultimate prize.
It brings success, privilege, adoration,
but for some actors the qualities
that allow them to refine their craft,
ego and vulnerability,
can also lead them to a dark and deadly place.
For one promising young star who spiraled out of control,
the shadows were inescapable.
September 26, 2012,
L.A. police received a flurry of 911 calls
from residents in the Hollywood Hills.
A few minutes later, officers arrived at 3605 Lowry Road.
In the driveway of the home police found the body
of a 28-year-old male.
- "He has blue eyes and brown hair,
"multiple abrasions and contusions
"and minor lacerations on his neck and arms.
Head has a palpable displaced and depressed fracture."
- We don't know right now whether he fell
or whether he committed suicide.
We know that he died as a result of a fall off of either
the balcony or one of the roofs behind us.
- Inside the home, detectives made another grisly discovery.
- They find a hammer with blood on it,
and they see a woman who's dead.
They walk into the bathroom,
and in the tub they find a kitten
who has been murdered as well.
- The details listed in the police report were appalling.
- "The decedent is found lying on a thin rug.
She has sustained massive blunt-force trauma to her head,
which has fractured her entire skull
and obliterated the left side of her face."
This was a frenzy.
- At first, police weren't sure
what triggered the violence,
but they did confirm the identity of the male victim.
He was actor Johnny Lewis.
Johnny appeared in films like "Alien vs. - Requiem"
and TV shows like "The O.C."
But he was best known for his role as Kip "Half-Sack" Epps
on the popular series "Sons of Anarchy."
After interviewing witnesses, investigators determined
that Johnny murdered the woman inside the home,
his 81-year-old landlady Cathy Davis, along with her cat.
- I'm shaking. I just cannot believe
this happened to that poor woman.
- The news stunned Hollywood.
Film and TV actress Beau Garrett
was a close friend of Johnny's.
- I couldn't believe it. I just was in complete shock
and didn't really think it was real for a long time.
I still don't. - This was really shocking,
shocking to me when I heard that
and also how gruesome the whole thing was.
- This is a guy that was going out
with Katy Perry three years ago.
You know, this is a guy that had the world by the string.
It seemed so out of character for him.
Something happened.
- What could possibly have happened to explain
the brutality?
What made Johnny Lewis snap?
Nothing in Johnny's childhood
growing up in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley
hinted at the dreadful turn his life would take.
Billy Jensen is an investigative journalist
who wrote about Johnny for "L.A. Magazine."
- Johnny definitely was a kid that was into the arts.
He grew up Jewish, but also they were into Scientology.
He abandoned that according to his father,
and the father didn't really try to pull him back in.
- Johnny pursued acting.
His mom began taking him to auditions at age six.
Johnny worked steadily,
including appearances on hit shows
like "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Seventh Heaven."
- It's fun to play the hopeless romantic, you know?
It's fun to live in that world
and have a crush while you're shooting.
- By 2005, Johnny was a full-fledged heartthrob
both on TV in his role
as Dennis "Chilly" Childress on "The O.C."
and in real life as the boyfriend
of up-and-coming singer Katy Perry.
- He's like, "I love her. I'm kinda into her."
I'm like, "Oh, all right, well."
He was a romantic, definitely a romantic.
And from what I know, just very, like, loving.
- The couple split in 2006.
Still, Johnny's star continued to rise,
but he didn't seek the spotlight.
- There was a lot of friends that were courting fame.
I think he just wanted to act.
Johnny lived, breathed, and ate acting.
It was his life.
- You see that plant right there?
I bought it 'cause I'm always
alone here, you know, but I didn't want
to have to take care of a pet.
- We did this film. It was called "The Bridge."
It's, like, a student film.
It was so fun to collaborate with him.
He kind of gave me the freedom
to just kind of mess up and not be afraid.
- Johnny may have cared about acting more than fame,
but still he became famous,
especially after he landed a leading role
on the groundbreaking TV drama
"Sons of Anarchy," about an outlaw motorcycle club.
- I know he cared a lot about that project
'cause it's so character-driven,
and he had such a kind of unique character in it.
- I actually think that a lot of people don't look
rough and tough, which is the thing
that you'll sort of notice about it,
is that they have that in them.
They have that side. But it is really a brotherhood.
- But in 2008, after just two seasons,
Johnny abruptly quit the series.
"Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter said, quote...
- I just remember he wasn't happy.
It could have been he wasn't just getting the workload
that he wanted or needed
to satiate his kind of insatiable creativity.
"Sons of Anarchy" could have been, like,
the beginning of just that dissatisfaction overall.
- Was his sudden departure a prelude to his downfall?
If so, Johnny showed no obvious signs of distress.
The following year, he moved into an apartment
in a 1920s Spanish-style mansion
known as the Writers Villa.
The villa was a sanctuary for Hollywood creative types
whose patron saint
was a kindhearted woman named Cathy Davis.
- She just seemed very interesting and motherly,
and I remember Johnny was saying, like, she kind of
gathered all these, like, eccentrics to live there.
- From Val Kilmer to Thomas Jane to Paula Poundstone,
they wanted someplace just to sit and relax
and talk about art, practice their lines,
and stay with this woman who is very nurturing and caring
and wanted to know about your day and how it went.
- It was so perfect for Johnny.
I remember him really being good there.
- Unlike many young actors who lose control
when they get a taste of celebrity,
Johnny kept himself in check.
- With regards to, like, drugs and alcohol, like, that was,
like, not Johnny.
He just had this, like, life about him
that was pretty intoxicating.
And I think the reason why he was intoxicating
is no matter who you were,
he saw you as this beautiful creature.
I would leave Johnny feeling like I was a goddess,
and it wasn't because Johnny wanted to get in my pants.
We had one of those very rare platonic friendships.
We were like brother and sister.
- In the summer of 2009, just months after leaving
"Sons of Anarchy,"
Johnny started dating his former costar,
Diane Marshall-Green.
- He was totally smitten by her.
"I love her. I love her so much."
"Why? You just met her." "She's beautiful. I love her."
Okay. "I want to be with her." Okay.
I think at the time she was very much in love with him
and wanted to have a child with him.
- At some point she got pregnant, and she had a kid.
- Culla May was born April 6, 2010.
- Johnny was not ready for that, and no one ever is,
but Johnny really was not ready for it.
I think it was a huge pressure.
- Johnny moved out of the Writers Villa
to be with his new family,
but the couple eventually broke up.
There was a bitter custody battle.
Johnny lost.
- That was really, really hard on him.
It wiped him of everything.
Johnny was a incredibly sensitive soul,
and I think that in this world it's hard to be sensitive.
- Johnny continued to land acting jobs,
including a role in an independent film,
"186 Dollars to Freedom."
- He was very soft-spoken.
- Camilo Vila directed Johnny in the movie.
- He came across very professional.
He was an extremely, extremely bright man.
There was something strange about him, but I can say that
about 85% of every actor I've worked with.
- When he was on "Sons of Anarchy,"
Johnny started riding motorcycles,
but in October 2011, that hobby
turned his life upside-down.
- He took a turn at 60 miles per hour.
- Johnny was rushed to the hospital with head injuries.
Doctors checked for concussion,
but tests came back negative.
Not long afterwards, Johnny's father
began to notice unusual behavior,
particularly a sensitivity to light.
Michael Lewis urged his son to get an MRI,
but Johnny refused.
By early 2012 it was clear that something was wrong.
- January 3rd of 2012, he goes for a walk.
He claims he hears someone in distress
and walks into a stranger's house,
and the strangers are there, and a fight ensues.
He grabs a Perrier bottle, attacks the men.
The men beat him pretty badly, and Johnny gets arrested.
- Johnny claimed self-defense, but police charged him
with trespassing, burglary,
and assault with a deadly weapon.
Johnny spent eight days in the L.A. County Jail,
including time in the psych ward.
- On January 11th, he's let out on bail,
and his discharge papers say,
"Chief complaint, blunt-force trauma
to the head and suicidal,"
So you've got this kid now who has suddenly gone off the rails,
and people start thinking there's something
wrong with him, he's crazy.
- What made this gentle artist turn violent?
Did a string of painful and traumatic events take a toll,
and was there anyone who could help Johnny fight his demons?
- I was told by our mutual friends
that I shouldn't see him on my own
'cause he was dangerous.
- Johnny Lewis was a talented actor with a bright future,
but after a motorcycle accident in late 2011,
the star who once played an outlaw on "Sons of Anarchy"
seemed to spiral.
By January 2012, Lewis faced charges
including assault and burglary.
Was this a case of life imitating art,
a young star caught up in the craziness of Hollywood,
or was there something more disturbing going on?
- I don't think he knew how to ask for help.
I think it was out of his control.
- And his friends would say he looked like
a shell of his former self.
He looked empty. He looked vacant.
- One month after he was released from jail,
Johnny got into more trouble.
He was arrested for punching a stranger at a yogurt shop
in Santa Monica.
Then, a week later, he was arrested again,
trying to break into a woman's house.
- There was a sense that he was invincible.
He just punches a guy in the face for no reason.
He started living life as if nothing was going to touch him.
- And I was told by our mutual friends
that I--you know, I shouldn't see him
on my own 'cause he was dangerous.
- Friends and family members were bewildered.
Doctors prescribed drugs
used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
- Schizophrenia is a major mental illness,
and it's characterized basically
as a disorder of thought, mood, and behavior.
Hallucinations and delusions are two major symptoms.
Aversion to light can be a neurological symptom.
- It was unclear what was wrong with Johnny
or if he actually took his medication.
His father believed there might be another reason
for Johnny's behavior.
- The father was looking at the brain injury,
was looking at the motorcycle accident as,
"This must be the reason why my son is doing
the things that he's doing
because he never acted like this before."
- Patients who have damage to the frontal areas of the brain
disinhibit, as it's called.
And if you disinhibit, then you could have violent outbursts,
or you could have impulsive behavior.
- And now did the motorcycle accident or multiple
head injuries trigger this?
The answer is it could have.
- But Johnny was never officially diagnosed
with a traumatic brain injury or with schizophrenia.
- I didn't personally examine him,
but we'd have to do psychological testing
and a full neurological evaluation.
He needed to be in a hospital
for an extended period of time.
- Johnny convinced the court that he was addicted
to drugs and alcohol
in order to swap jail time for rehab,
but when he checked into a treatment center in 2012,
doctors were skeptical about Johnny's claims.
- He starts to play into what he thinks people want to hear.
From what I've learned, the staff starts to realize
they don't think this guy's got a drug problem.
What's going on here?
- Following his stint in rehab,
Johnny was sent back to jail
to serve time for one of the assault charges.
After almost two months, he was released
on September 21, 2012.
- Johnny's dad gives a call to the Writers Villa
'cause Johnny was very happy at the Writers Villa.
So Michael calls Cathy.
Cathy says, "Absolutely, we'd love to have him."
He goes to the Writers Villa,
and after two days,
the horrific occurs.
- We're not sure what started this whole thing.
We don't know if there was some kind of an argument
or some kind of a dispute.
Neighbors heard screaming.
Our officers arrived here in just a few minutes
and came across the two dead bodies.
- There was speculation that Johnny had a run-in
with his landlady, Cathy Davis,
the night before the murder.
- Johnny had gone to the fuse box in the Writers Villa
and turned off all the electricity.
Why did he do that?
Again, it goes back to him being so sensitive to light.
Cathy confronted him and gave him a very stern talking-to,
"Never do that again."
- Whatever triggered the brutal assault,
the results were horrifying.
- The official coroner's report said that Cathy was killed
by a combination of blunt-force trauma
and manual strangulation.
The coroner said he couldn't tell which one occurred first.
She had puncture marks on her face,
and there was a mechanical pencil found next to her.
They believe that he stabbed her
with the mechanical pencil.
She had defensive wounds on her hands.
She fought back. She was not going to go quietly.
- According to police, the violence didn't end there.
- Johnny's neighbor hears his wife screaming for him
because this kid is pummeling the house painter.
A big scuffle ensues.
Johnny is fighting pretty much three people.
They finally are able to get inside the house,
but they can't quite get the door closed,
and Johnny's arm slithered inside the door
kind of like a zombie movie.
Finally, his hand slithers back out,
and then that's the last they see of him.
After that, we know that Johnny
climbed on the roof or went up
and then went outside of a window...
And either jumped or fell from the top of the Writers Villa.
Was it an accident? Nobody knows for sure.
- I was getting on a plane in London,
and I got a text message from a friend of mine saying,
"I'm sorry about Johnny."
I wrote back. I'm like, "Wait, you know,
what are you tal--what are you talking about?"
and I got a text saying, "He's dead."
- It has never been determined if Johnny's death
was an accident or suicide,
but given his erratic behavior that day,
authorities suspected that Johnny
might have been on drugs.
- There was no drugs in his system,
not even the drugs that he had been prescribed,
so there was nothing.
- We don't believe there's any other suspects.
We don't believe there's any other--
any other evidence that we need to collect.
We believe we have the right person identified
as the murderer in this case.
- Cathy was just--she was an incredible woman,
and then to see this happen, I'm just..
I am just beside myself.
- Even as family and friends treasure
the memory of Cathy Davis,
there may never be a satisfactory answer
about what caused a promising young star
to commit such a heinous act.
- The Johnny that I remember, the Johnny that I knew
before whatever it was took over him
that took over him was the most generous,
kind, free-spirited, adventurous, beautiful,
wild, unpredictable, courageous, curious soul.
I know it's not easy to look at the situation
and not see it as a good-- a good person and a bad person.
Every day I think about,
like, the fact that he took someone's life.
If that were my mother, if that were my sister,
if that were my friend, how would I feel?
Not a day goes by that I don't feel him or think about him
and, you know, and miss him.
- The story of Johnny Lewis is a tragedy without closure.
A beloved woman was brutally murdered,
and the mystery behind what caused a young star
to commit this dreadful crime remains unsolved.
For another accomplished actor
whose crimes had terrible repercussions,
did fame set a trap that led to his downfall?
- There's not a day that goes by that
I don't think about that night.
- Hollywood is littered with celebrities
who chase fame, then crash and burn.
In the case of Johnny Lewis, fame found him,
but it didn't offer protection from the darkness.
Lillo Brancato Jr. embraced fame with a passion.
Lillo became an overnight success at the age of 17
in the film "A Bronx Tale,"
but he got caught up in the trappings of Hollywood,
and when he fell, he fell hard.
On a frigid December morning in 2005,
off-duty police officer Daniel Enchautegui
heard the sound of breaking glass
at his next-door neighbor's house in the Bronx.
- He called 911 and then headed over to investigate.
- When the officer came out, it's dark,
and he's trying to figure out exactly what's going on.
He yelled at two guys, "Stop."
- One of the men was Hollywood actor Lillo Brancato Jr.
- He said, "Don't move."
I was startled, and then I turned around really fast.
- Lillo's companion, a career criminal named Steven Armento,
pulled out a .357 Magnum
and began shooting at the officer.
- The police officer, he returned fire
and I think hit them- I think seven times.
Brancato runs up to his car, but the police officer,
he collapses right in the driveway.
He was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital.
- There's not a day that goes by
that I don't think about that night.
What happened on the night of December 10, 2005,
was a heroic police officer lost his life.
- Why was Lillo, a talented young star,
involved in such a terrible crime?
How did his life come to this?
It wasn't anything Lillo envisioned
when he was growing up a few miles away
in Yonkers, New York.
- I was adopted when I was four months old.
My mom said that when she saw me,
she knew instantly that I was the baby that she wanted.
My parents were Italian immigrants.
They have a, you know, great work ethic,
and they tried to instill those values, you know, in us.
My dad built homes. My mom was a homemaker.
I have a brother, Vincent, and we were given everything,
every opportunity that a kid could have ever wanted.
- Fame came calling for Lillo one summer
when he was 15 years old.
- It was on July 5, 1992 that I went to Jones Beach.
There was a guy handing out flyers.
He was a scout, a talent scout.
My brother, Vincent, came to get me out of the water
because he had told the guy that,
"My brother would be perfect for this."
- The scout needed a teenage boy
to star in Robert De Niro's directorial debut,
"A Bronx Tale,"
the story of a streetwise kid who befriends a mob boss.
- We did a screen test, and Rob De Niro,
he just--you know, he looked at me, and he said,
"You know, we really like what you did. You got the part."
It was a great day, one of the best in my life.
- On set, De Niro and costar Chazz Palminteri
did their best to look out for their young protégé.
- Well, De Niro did take me under his wing,
and Chazz Palminteri was also the same way.
- Do I have any advice for kids wasting their talent?
If you do the right thing, good things happen.
If you do bad, bad things happen.
It's very simple. it's the domino effect.
- De Niro and Palminteri, every day,
tried to steer me in the right direction.
But, you know, at 15 years old you're very impulsive.
- Once filming began,
Lillo started testing his boundaries.
- The first time my mind
had been altered from smoking weed
was on the set of "A Bronx Tale."
So the first time I got high was captured on film,
and I'm ashamed to say that.
- Before the movie's release in October 1993,
De Niro tried once again to warn Lillo.
- And he said, "Your life is gonna change overnight
in a very, very profound way."
- And the movie's successful, and this kid is amazing.
You can't imagine the amount of phone calls that come in,
and everybody wanted a piece of Lillo Brancato Jr.
- Every time they call me, "Listen, hey, you're on TV.
You're on TV,"
and I always put the TV on, and I always miss it.
- Lillo certainly enjoyed the perks
of his newfound celebrity.
- Everywhere you went, everything was carte blanche.
You were getting free clothing, free sneakers.
You know, I mean, everything a kid could have wanted.
And you had it all. I made some
monumentally bad choices.
It was just a lot for a 16-year-old kid.
- You're going to clubs. There's drugs around.
People want to do drugs with you 'cause you're a celebrity.
- By then I was smoking weed every day and, you know,
going out on the weekends
and drinking up a storm with my friends
and having a good old time.
- And little by little, you think you can handle it,
and then it gets out of control.
- Still, Lillo never worried about the law.
After all, he was a big star.
When Lillo got cast in his next movie, "Renaissance Man-"
- Hey, how's it going?
- Costar Mark Wahlberg offered
his own words of advice.
- Well, you know, he's young, you know what I'm saying?
You got talent, you know what I'm saying?
And he's going into a business situation,
and, you know, you got to look at it for what it is, you know,
and you can't be, you know,
the way you were, you know, before you walked into it.
- Well, he gives me good advice, you know?
He tells me to do the right thing.
He's like a big brother. He's my boy.
- But Lillo ignored the warnings.
He continued to act in films like "Crimson Tide"
and "Enemy of the State" as his drug use escalated.
- By 2000 I had been doing so much cocaine
that I started experiencing delusional behavior.
I was in a car one night with my friends.
We were doing about 60 miles an hour.
I thought they were gonna kill me, so I opened the door,
and I jumped out as the car was driving.
- The incident landed Lillo in the hospital,
where he received powerful prescription narcotics.
- They were opiates, so now in addition to the cocaine,
the alcohol, and the marijuana,
now we add this to the cocktail of drugs.
- Despite his chronic drug use,
Lillo still managed to find work,
including a coveted six-episode arc
on "The Sopranos."
- During "The Sopranos" I was doing heroin.
I mean, there was one scene where I was high,
and I was itching. - By that time,
Lillo's drug use compromised his acting career.
- Well, I'd have the big audition,
but I'd still go out the night before,
hoping to God that by tomorrow
when I'm supposed to be there, I'll be fine.
- But he wasn't fine. - Things just slowed down
'cause he wasn't showing up.
- I was trying to compensate for that by doing more drugs.
The more that I did drugs, the less opportunities that I got.
June 10, 2005 was when I got arrested for heroin possession.
They found four bags in my car. - Lillo was charged
with misdemeanor criminal possession
of a controlled substance,
then ordered to complete a drug program.
But Lillo admits he never fulfilled his obligation.
Instead, he found himself deeper down the rabbit hole.
- But October 2005, man, I started smoking crack.
I would say I had almost a $500-a-day drug habit,
and then from that point I couldn't stop.
- Lillo Brancato Jr. was just another young celebrity
savoring life in the fast lane.
He thought he was untouchable
until he became more interested in scoring drugs
than his next big role,
but Lillo was about to cross a threshold with lethal results.
Coming up, how did Lillo wind up
involved in the murder of a cop?
- I always thought of murder as something that had to be done
in an intentional manner.
- Lillo Brancato Jr.
was a popular and gifted young star
until he got caught up in the pitfalls of fame,
parties, women, and especially drugs.
Acting roles dried up,
and by 2005, Brancato was smoking crack every day
and faced charges for possession of heroin,
but Lillo hadn't hit bottom yet.
Instead, he hooked up with an ex-con,
his former girlfriend's dad, Steven Armento.
- Steven Armento is a convicted felon
with a history of violence.
I think he has more than a dozen arrests.
This guy is a huge, huge, huge piece of sh--.
- The reason why I hung out with this guy
is because I loved his daughter and of course,
he liked to drink.
He liked, you know, to snort heroin,
and that's what we had in common.
- But that friendship was about
to have devastating consequences.
- On December 9, 2005, it was past midnight.
Steven Armento called me and asked
if I wanted to go out for a drink.
The only time we hung out before that was to go get drugs.
- In the early hours of December 10th,
Lillo and Armento decided to drop in
on a friend in the Bronx, a man named Kenny.
- Brancato befriended him many years prior and knew
that he could always go over to Kenny and get high.
- Brancato and Armento had parked the car.
They go to the house. They're banging on the door.
There's no answer. So the two of them
go around to the side.
Brancato kicks in the basement window.
- 28-year-old NYPD officer
Daniel Enchautegui lived next door
and heard the commotion.
- Then Enchautegui calls 911. He goes outside.
He goes into the driveway,
and here come Armento and Lillo Brancato.
His shield is clearly around his neck.
He yells, "Police, police."
Armento raised his gun and shot Danny,
I know, at least once in the chest.
Even though Danny returned fire,
he was shot several times.
I believe Armento was shot four times and Brancato
maybe two or three times.
- I was shot, and then it just led to a--you know, a gunfight.
I wasn't armed, so I didn't have anything
to defend myself with.
My adrenaline told me to get out of there,
and that's what I did.
- Squad cars arrived as Armento and Lillo
tried to flee the scene.
- The cops, they order Armento down.
He goes down, they kick the gun away.
They handcuff him, and Lillo Brancato was running
to his car to--I believe to get away.
He didn't get into his car
because he was collapsing outside.
- Officers searched Lillo for weapons but came up empty.
Lillo and Armento were both rushed to the hospital,
along with the wounded police officer,
but Enchautegui didn't make it.
- When a police officer is shot or murdered,
it is a personal attack on me
and every other police officer, absolutely.
- I underwent emergency surgery.
I had my spleen removed, part of my colon.
I was on life support.
I remember the doctor in the ER
showing me the cover of the newspaper.
He said, "Are you proud of yourself?"
He said, "You and your boy killed a cop."
- It was a big story, Brancato's kind of sad arc
in both life and art.
You know, "Bronx Tale" gone wrong.
- Prosecutors charged Steven Armento
with first-degree murder.
Even though Lillo didn't fire a weapon,
he was charged with second-degree felony murder.
- He didn't have a gun.
He's never been alleged to have a gun.
- You don't have to be the shooter.
You just have to be a participant.
You can be charged with felony murder.
- I always thought of murder as something that had to be done
in an intentional manner.
- Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges.
They were tried separately.
In October 2008, a jury found Armento guilty
of first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Weeks later, Lillo's trial began.
In order to convict Lillo of murder,
the prosecution needed to prove he knew his partner was armed,
something Lillo adamantly denied.
- The whole case hinged on whether or not I had
the knowledge of the presence of the weapon, which I did not.
- The gun is this big.
How could he not know that this guy's carrying a gun?
He knew they went there to commit a burglary,
and during the commission of that felony, someone died.
- The jury deliberated for a week
before reaching a verdict.
- Murder in the second degree, how do you find the defendant?
Not guilty.
The one count of burglary with the deadly weapon, not guilty,
and then it was the last one, the attempted burglary
with serious physical injury to a nonparticipant,
and it was guilty.
- The judge sentenced Lillo to ten years behind bars.
- I thought it was a bit excessive,
but I don't blame the judge.
That was a sentence imposed by God.
God knew that that's the amount of time
that I needed to get my life together.
- Lillo spent eight years in prison before being released
on New Year's Day 2014.
Now in his 40s,
Lillo Brancato hopes to revive his movie career.
- I think Hollywood likes a comeback story.
I think if someone's on the right path
and they've showed that they've repented and changed,
that's something that they find as being positive
and worthy of giving, you know, a second chance.
- But Lillo may not be able to escape his criminal past.
- There's definitely a lot of lingering animosity
between the New York City Police Union and Lillo Brancato.
- When someone gets shot and dies in a movie,
they yell cut, and the guy gets up.
In my world, when you get shot and you die,
you don't come back, like Daniel Enchautegui.
Ten years for killing somebody?
Lillo finished his commitment, but he didn't pay any time.
- For people to say that I'm a heartless killer,
that's totally untruthful.
I am very remorseful of--you know, for what happened.
He didn't deserve to die, and this is what happens
when people choose to use
and, you know, abuse drugs.
- Lillo would like one more shot at fame,
but for another young actor the future is on hold.
Like Brancato, former Power Ranger Ricardo Medina
enjoyed being a star,
but his celebrity didn't mean a thing
when he found himself charged with murder.
- Just like Johnny Lewis
and Lillo Brancato Jr.,
Ricardo Medina was a young actor
with a bright future in Hollywood.
Medina courted fame and won fans on the popular
"Power Rangers" TV franchise,
but then his career started to slip away,
and his life took a dark and terrible turn.
- On January 31, 2015, L.A. County sheriffs and paramedics
responded to a 911 call about a stabbing.
The victim was identified as 36-year-old Josh Sutter.
The suspect was former TV star Ricardo Medina.
- Josh's girlfriend came home, and she said it was Josh,
that Joshua was the one that was dead.
- I assumed it had to be some sort of mistake,
and there had to be an explanation.
- Authorities took Medina into custody.
He admitted stabbing Sutter
with a sword but claimed self-defense.
Was this a case of an argument gone wrong,
or did the young actor who found fame
as an action hero
become a real-life villain?
Ricardo "Rick" Medina
was born and raised in Southern California.
His childhood ambition was to become an actor
on his favorite TV show, "The Power Rangers."
That dream came true in 2002, when 23-year-old Rick
won the role of Cole Evans,
the Red Lion Wild Force Ranger in "Power Rangers Wild Force."
- This was our first big job in Hollywood.
We bonded from the minute I met him.
He really, really embraced the part of the Red Ranger.
- Rick relished being part of the Hollywood scene.
- His sense of being a celebrity,
I would say he fully embraced it.
He definitely enjoyed the spotlight.
I know that he had aspirations to become a, you know,
successful leading man.
- When the season was over,
a new Red Ranger took Rick's place.
- Every season a new cast of five actors is hired.
- They're just like,
"Go ahead, get out of here," and on to the next.
- For the next few years, Rick kicked around Hollywood,
but gigs were scarce.
The fall from celebrity was tough to handle.
- You know, I think a lot of us came off that show thinking
that we would just move on to become,
you know, that next big thing.
And then when that doesn't happen,
it can definitely do something to your psyche, yeah.
- Then in 2011, Rick got another shot at fame.
The producers of "Power Rangers" cast him
as a sword-wielding villain named Decker.
- He was super excited and I do think twice as humble,
twice as grateful.
- When "Power Rangers Samurai" ended in 2012,
Rick didn't have any acting jobs lined up,
so he focused on his other passion, animals.
- He was very enthusiastic about animal rights
and rescue of animals.
So he was a--at a stage in life where he was combining the two.
- Then in 2015, in a twist of fate,
Rick met a woman named Rachel Kennedy.
Rachel was launching a refuge for unwanted dogs.
Rick agreed to manage the rescue
in exchange for free room and board
at a ranch house in Green Valley,
60 miles north of Los Angeles.
- We brought 15 to 20 dogs up there right away.
- And he was so happy. He was telling me
about these amazing dogs.
He was like the dog whisperer before the dog whisperer.
- But Rachel claimed Rick didn't keep up
his end of the deal. - He's supposed to
take care of the dogs.
That wasn't happening. The house was always
in disarray, filthy.
- Rachel asked her brother, Josh Sutter,
to move into the ranch house
and help look after the property.
But soon, tension began to develop between the two men.
- I know there was some friction.
My understanding was Josh had some concern about visits
by Rick's girlfriend, and that might distract him
from some of the duties that each had at the house.
- The living situation quickly deteriorated.
Then on January 31, 2015, Rick and Josh got into an argument.
- There was an altercation between Rick and Josh Sutter.
So Rick's girlfriend asked them to stop.
And they did stop at that point in time.
Rick and Rick's girlfriend went back into his room,
and then suddenly Josh broke open the door.
At the point Josh enters the room,
Rick is holding his sword.
- According to Sheriff Department reports,
Rick then stabbed Josh in the abdomen
with a sword he kept next to his bed.
- At this point in time Rick's upset,
but Rick does call 911.
- There was effort by Rick to use towels to, you know,
mitigate the blood flow.
- But it was too late.
- Josh's girlfriend found out that Josh was dead
and that Rick had stabbed him.
- Rick was taken into custody. He claimed self-defense.
- It had appeared to him that he was under attack
and his girlfriend was also being under attack.
- Rick's girlfriend corroborated his story,
and Rick was released from jail a few days later.
No charges were filed,
but the former Power Ranger was back in the spotlight.
- I want to say I'm very--very, very sorry for what occurred.
I'm very happy to be out of jail,
and my heart goes out to the Sutter family.
- Once I found out that he was released, that was it.
I called every media station that I could.
This is not gonna go down like this.
Someone's lying here. - To try to prove it,
Rachel Kennedy sent a crew to clean the ranch house.
They returned with gruesome photos of the crime scene.
- We called the detectives. They said, "Yes, get it cleaned up.
We're done with our investigation."
And it was a bloody massacre.
The first thing I saw with the photos was the door.
There was no damage to this door,
so if Josh would have knocked that door down,
it would be damaged. - That wasn't all.
Rachel was even more convinced Rick was guilty after reading
the results of her brother's autopsy.
- Not until several months later till we received
the coroner's report
did I realize that Josh had been stabbed over ten times.
- The Sutter family pressured detectives to reopen the case,
but was there enough evidence to prove that Ricardo Medina
killed Josh Sutter in cold blood?
- Former Power Ranger
Ricardo Medina
found himself back in the headlines
after he was arrested for the fatal stabbing of his roommate.
Medina claimed self-defense and no charges were filed.
But all that changed one year later.
In January 2016, Medina was back in custody,
accused of first-degree murder.
- He believe the matter was concluded,
and then suddenly there's a re-arrest,
so he was surprised.
- It was a little bit of vindication
because we just spent a year
fighting and collecting evidence.
- He had the sword in his hand, and he made one jab.
- At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors claimed
the former star repeatedly stabbed Josh
after the two men got into an argument.
- Rick chose to pick up his sword
and stab him over ten times.
That's not a good choice.
- But the defense argued that Rick was merely
protecting himself after Josh allegedly
tried to kick down the door to Rick's room.
The coroner's report revealed that Josh's
blood alcohol content at the time of death was significant.
Still, with no hard evidence to prove that he had acted
in self-defense,
Ricardo Medina faced life in prison.
But then, a surprise break. Prosecutors offered a deal.
If Rick agreed to plead guilty
to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter,
he could avoid a trial and a life sentence.
- He was very enthusiastic about the offer.
He believes that it was a proper use of self-defense
but entered into the plea agreement
in order to avoid the risk.
- His celebrity helped him in many ways, I think,
and it shouldn't be that way.
It was a brutal murder, not by an actor, not by a Power Ranger,
by a madman and a murderer.
- Is it possible for the former superhero
to redeem himself?
- He has a very dedicated fan base,
and they have been very supportive of him,
and he gets a lot of fan mail.
So he's hopeful that when he gets out,
he can start up again but have a real focus on acting.
- I'm very, very sorry. - We all make mistakes,
and he deserves a second chance, absolutely.
- But it's just not right. My family feels--
we're heartbroken forever.
But Josh will never come back.
How is that justice?
- Ricardo Medina, Lillo Brancato Jr.,
Johnny Lewis.
Three promising actors
who shot to fame at a young age,
then lost everything.
Lewis paid the ultimate price, but for Brancato and Medina,
whose crimes landed them behind bars,
they're hoping Hollywood will give them a second act.
For more on "Mysteries & Scandals,"
go to oxygen.com.