Authorities Wait Six Months to Tell Man His Wife is Trying to Kill Him

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Authorities waited six months to tell a man that his wife was trying to have him killed. And somehow the person prosecutors say helped arrange it was in prison already serving three life sentences for murdering his own family.

[00:00:18]Most people who are convicted of a triple murder never get the chance to murder again. That's the theory behind life in prison. keep the person in prison for life and you make it impossible for them to ever hurt anyone in society again. When Grant Amato was convicted, the prosecution sought the death penalty. Grant's lawyers argued that wasn't necessary. Grant Amato was given life in prison without the possibility of parole and shipped off supposedly for good. Nobody expected to hear from him again. And certainly they didn't expect to hear that he was accused of trying to orchestrate another murder. This is part two, the rest of the story of Grant Amato. As we settle in, if you would hit the like button, I would appreciate it. It really helps the channel. Friday's video told the story of Grant Amato and his murder trial.

[00:01:18]Prosecutors say Grant Amato became deeply obsessed with a Bulgarian webcam model named Sylvie. She gave online performances for Grant and six other men, but only when they tipped her. A single tip was $599.99.

[00:01:38]Grant Amato was tipping as much as $20,000 in a single night. Since he was unemployed, he quickly ran out of his own money. And then he stole from his parents and his brother to continue the relationship with Sylvie. When his family learned what he had done, they took away Grant's phone and sent him to an addiction clinic. It's a wild tale.

[00:02:02]You have got to watch that video. I'll link it at the end if you haven't seen it yet. Grant went on trial for murdering his mother, father, and brother. The jury convicted him and the case moved into the penalty phase. Under Florida law, the jury had to decide whether to give him the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. During that penalty phase, Grant Amato's legal team brought an expert in to talk to the jury. The expert said he had met with Grant and looked at his behavior before he went to prison as well as after he got there.

[00:02:37]And the expert explained to the jury that the chances of Grant ever committing more crimes were exceptionally low >> prior to the commission of these crimes.

[00:02:50]He brings nothing uh that would indicate the possibility that he's likely uh to be uh violent.

[00:03:00]>> So when the contextual factors of low rates of violence for life sentence inmates and Mr. motto's lack of the personality and historical factors correlated with violence are taken together. Your conclusion is that he's a low risk for violence while serving a life sentence.

[00:03:20]And additionally we have a list of other factors which are not uh listed in our factor 8 uh which particularly looks at prior violence because I think one of the things about Mr. motto. Uh if you look at his uh educational background, his employment, uh I think he's not only someone who's apt to be free of disruptive or violent behavior, but quite frankly, I think he has a reasonably good likelihood of being a model inmate.

[00:03:56]>> Grant's age, he was 30 at the time, was also a factor in his favor. The expert said >> as people age, they in a sense have the wind at their back. They're less they're less likely to engage just as a function of age. And clearly as they get past about 40, it really starts to drop down towards zero. So the older inmates who are serving life, they're not acting out in prison.

[00:04:25]>> Plus, Grant was a nurse. That meant he was a natural caretaker, the expert said. Add to that the fact that he had a dependent personality type.

[00:04:36]>> He was overly uh imshed in a sense dependent on his family. Um and the dependent personality is an easygoing, caring, non-combative, non-aggressive type. Uh and again, I think that's over represented in teachers. um nurses and I say that in a positive way. Uh so but these are people that are almost never uh presenting with uh aggressive behavior.

[00:05:09]>> On cross-examination, the prosecution asked the expert about the fact that Grant Amato actually did have a black mark in his past. He had been in a nurse anesthetist program, but he had been kicked out of that program. The expert said he had asked Grant Amato about that issue and Grant told the expert that all those allegations against him were really overblown.

[00:05:36]The way he explained it was that he was accused of stealing propall, but what in reality he was doing was he was breaking uh protocol for the hospital because it's a controlled substance as propall as he explained it to me because he had to give several doses. uh the hospital wanted you to sign out every time you took a dose out because it's a controlled substance. What he was doing to cut a corner was he would take all that he needed and sign it out and then he would have it at in the patient's room. So when it was time for the additional dose, he didn't have to go all the way back and go through the signing out of the propall. He claimed that he didn't steal anything. And as it turned out, I assume that's what the state concluded.

[00:06:37]>> But the state of Florida maintained that the real story was a little different.

[00:06:42]According to the hospital, in June of 2018, they found eight empty vials of the seditive propal in patients rooms.

[00:06:51]Grant claimed he gave the drug to patients who were not quote adequately relaxed by doctorordered medication. The hospital decided that what was happening was Grant was giving a very powerful drug to patients when no doctor had ordered it and he was doing it to knock the patients out and make his shift a little easier. Grant was arrested and charged with grand theft. It's not entirely clear what happened to that charge, but Grant was dismissed from the nurse anesthetist program. The prosecution also brought in another student who had been in the program at the same time Grant Amato had been and he talked about some of the issues with Grant. It wasn't, he said, just the propall. The witness explained that in the course of a day, the nurse anesthetist would work many hour-long shifts and they needed somebody to give them a break.

[00:07:50]>> He would be assigned to give breaks. Um and um the appropriate marks would be put on the board that that person had a break, but then come to find out that person was not actually given a break at all that day. Um either for coffee or for lunch or for a bathroom break. Um and then um there were times where instead of giving breaks, he was found like on a a different floor taking a nap or sleeping instead of doing what was required of us as our job.

[00:08:18]>> Grant wasn't just lying to administrators. The witness said he was also lying to the doctors there at the hospital.

[00:08:26]>> An anesthesiologist will ask us, "Hey, can you go see a patient before they come down here to see if there's anything we need to do before they get down here?" So, you take a preop, you go see the patient, interview them, talk to them, then bring that back. Um, and then that, you know, that necessitates you seeing the patient before they get there. Um, on multiple occasions, he was given that task. He would say that he went to go do that task and then when the patient gets there, come to find out, no anesthesia provider saw that patient at all before they got down there. Um, and so not only would he not do it, but then when asked if he did it, um, then he would lie about whether he gave a break or whether he, um, saw that patient before they came down here.

[00:09:08]>> At that time, under Florida law, all 12 jurors had to vote for the death penalty for it to be imposed. We don't know exactly what convinced the jury or how many jurors were convinced, but the jury recommended life without parole. The judge sentenced Grant Amato to three life sentences without parole. One for each member of his family he had killed.

[00:09:34]And everybody figured that would be the end of things. Dust your hands off. Move on. Grant Amato is no longer a menace to society.

[00:09:45]I did wonder whether Grant would ever get over his feelings for the webcam model Sylvie. He seemed to be very devoted to her. But now we have our answer on that. Apparently, Grant was able to move on from Sylvie. We know that because in May of 2024, a new woman reached out to Grant Amato. Victoria Goodwin watched a true crime documentary about Grant Amato's murder case called Control Alt Desire, and something about it caused her to want to get in touch with Grant. It's not at all clear why.

[00:10:26]Victoria wrote Grant a letter and sent it to him in prison. Grant wrote back.

[00:10:31]The two became pen pals and according to prosecutors, they began a romantic relationship through their messages. At the time she was writing Grant, Victoria was married to Aaron Goodwin, star of Ghost Adventures on Discovery Plus. On the show, Aaron is on a team of men who investigate supposedly haunted locations. Victoria and Aaron have been together for several years before they married. They got engaged back in 2019 and postponed the marriage when COVID hit. They finally married in August of 2022 at of all places Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. On the outside, the marriage looked warm and happy. But less than two years in, Victoria was apparently unhappy. Victoria would later say that at the time she reached out to Grant Amato, she and her husband were in a bad place in their marriage and she was lonely. The relationship between Victoria and Grant Amato was improbable on multiple levels. First of all, Victoria lived in Nevada and Amato was on the other side of the country in Florida. Long-distance relationships are always hard. And then there was the fact that Grant Amato had been convicted of murdering his family. Many people would conclude that that made the person not a suitable partner. And there was that inescapable fact that Grant Amada was serving three life sentences and he would never be eligible for parole. In other words, Victoria and Grant would never be able to be together as a normal couple. But those details apparently did not deter Grant or Victoria.

[00:12:20]At some point, things got easier when Grant Amato got hold of a cell phone. He wasn't supposed to have one. The Florida Department of Corrections specifically forbids inmates from having cell phones, but Grant managed to get his hands on one, and at that point, Victoria and Grant were able to communicate by text and Facebook Messenger. It is not clear where things would have ended up between them, but the relationship was interrupted in October of 2024 when prison officials found Amato's phone and confiscated it. And they say that by that time, 6 months into Victoria's and Grant's relationship, things had turned much darker. According to prosecutors, Victoria and Grant were plotting to hire someone to kill Victoria's husband. The police report says Victoria was in love with Grant, but she was convinced her husband Aaron would not accept divorce.

[00:13:20]So, Victoria was raising the money for the hit, setting aside $11,515 to hire the killer. and Grant Amato was trying to use his prison contacts to hire a hitman. The arrest report says Victoria expressed her feelings of wanting to be without Aaron and with a motto to a motto, which she described as fantasy or daydream. When she was first confronted, Victoria insisted that's all it was, a daydream. Her husband and she were going through a tough time in their marriage, and she was daydreaming of being in a different situation. But Victoria said she no longer felt that way and that she didn't really want to kill her husband. In fact, according to the report, Victoria claimed she couldn't even remember sending those specific messages.

[00:14:13]But according to law enforcement, the text messages told a different story.

[00:14:18]Victoria wrote in one, "Am I a bad person?" "Why would she ask that?" asked Grant Amato. And Victoria wrote back, "Because I chose to end his existence, not divorce."

[00:14:30]She also wrote, "I'm so anxious. Lol. I just can't believe it's happening. Like, how did I get to this point?" None of that sounded like a daydream to investigators. They say that Goodwin and Amato came up with a specific plan to kill Victoria's husband, Aaron, while he was filming in California in October 2024.

[00:14:54]The prosecutor told the court that the evidence showed Victoria and Grant intended to actually commit the crime.

[00:15:01]The evidence began with her text messages. Here's what the prosecutor told the court.

[00:15:08]>> Those are very serious comments. When you couple that with during that on that same date, she is relaying information that Mr. Goodwin was in Barstow staying at a batch western provided him pictures of what he looked like the car that he was driving and that there's discussions that Mr. Amato's buddy named Gordo is going to take care of the situation. The facts become more more serious.

[00:15:34]>> From the texts it looks like Victoria and Grant may have thought they were actually committing the crime. At one point, Grant Amato contacted the hitman to find out whether the murder had taken place. Amato wrote that Aaron Goodwin is asleep right now in the hotel room. And then he wrote, "I need to know what is going on. Can I get an update? Was it done?" Victoria and Grant also talked about the money involved according to the prosecutor. And even from those text messages that talk about setting aside, you know, $1,100 $11,000 for Bordeaux and ultimately this investigation reveals about $60,000 was sent from Miss Goodwin over to Mr. Amato or or associates of Mr. >> The prosecution simply wasn't buying Victoria's story that she really did not want to kill her husband Aaron.

[00:16:29]>> At no point does Miss Goodwin ever try to claw back.

[00:16:33]At no point does she say something like, "You know what? I was just kidding. I don't really want to go through." Like, you don't ever see anything along those lines.

[00:16:40]>> Fortunately, Aaron Goodwin was not shot and killed. We don't really know why not since Grant and Victoria did in that text message seem to think it was happening in October. But that same day that Aaron was supposed to be killed, investigators seized Grant Amato's phone. Although it's fortunate that Aaron Goodman wasn't hurt physically, under the law, that is not the end of it. In Nevada and pretty much everywhere, the person who tries to hire a killer is still guilty of a crime.

[00:17:13]Even if no one dies, prosecutors only need to prove that the defendant intended for someone to be killed and reached an agreement with another person to carry it out and something of value was going to be paid. It does not matter if the hitman was an undercover officer or if the plan never even came close to happening. The law focuses on the decision and the agreement to kill, not whether the plot actually was successful. And that meant that the case against Victoria Goodwin was very strong. But for some reason, the state of Nevada was not alerted to the plot until almost 6 months later on March 4th, 2025. Victoria Goodwin was arrested two days after that and charged with solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Victoria initially denied the charges but ultimately decided to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and in exchange the prosecution dropped the solicitation charge. At her sentencing, Victoria apologized to her husband Aaron. I'm so immensely sorry for the pain and anxiety I've caused you and the betrayal you undoubtedly and rightfully feel by my actions.

[00:18:32]I need you to know that I will always hold love for you. I genuinely pray you find your joy and peace again and I will bow out of your life forever to hopefully ease that process.

[00:18:44]I'm sorry I broke us and I am consumed with regret every day.

[00:18:50]My absolute promise to you is that you will never see or hear from me. I intend to leave the state of Nevada and you and anyone else will never be in danger of me ever again.

[00:19:03]Secondly, I'd like to apologize to my parents.

[00:19:06]>> Aaron Goodwin, her husband, the target of the hit, gave a heartending statement to the court. For seven years, I thought I was in the most loving relationship of marriage with my best friend. Someone who I trusted whole heart and laugh with every day. Someone who made me feel like I was someone, like I was her one and only.

[00:19:29]I was loyal to her and do whatever I could to make her happy. I thought we were something very special and so did everyone else. Aaron Goodwin told the court that Victoria and Grant had become spiritually married. Even though Victoria was actually married to him, no one ever explained what the spiritually married part meant.

[00:19:52]>> This has led me to fear in my life. I've hired SEC armed security for weeks, not knowing it was over or not. a lot always looking over my shoulder and having to go through therapy and even try to understand any of it. It's it's like a heartbreak no one should go through in life. I can't trust anything anymore.

[00:20:20]I cry every day. I feel so alone. She's She grew me into a person I never was. I will always wonder why, but worst of all, she lied to me every day.

[00:20:35]>> Aaron also mentioned one shocking point.

[00:20:38]>> I didn't know about any of the murder plot, the hit man or the blackmail until the detectives told me after she was arrested.

[00:20:46]>> That's terrifying. Actually, Grant's phone was seized in October of 2024, and Victoria wasn't arrested until March 6th of 2025. So for six months, Aaron Goodwin lived with Victoria while he had no idea that she had been looking for someone to kill him. It's frankly shocking that no one warned him about the plot. Aaron Goodwin ended his emotional statement by telling the court, "I will never feel safe or be the same, but because of what she did, especially when she gets out one day.

[00:21:24]She claims she's remorseful now that she's been caught, but there at no time before did she ever try to stop this from happening. Victoria's lawyers asked for probation, but the judge gave her 36 to 90 months in prison instead with credit for the three months she had already served. Aaron, meanwhile, filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. In her response, Victoria said she believed Aaron and she could still reconcile.

[00:21:57]Aaron was incredulous. On Instagram, he reposted a US Weekly article about Victoria's claim that they could reconcile and he said, "I really can't believe this. Hasn't she done enough to me?" With the case against Victoria Goodwin over now, what about Grant Amato? If the report is correct, then he was involved in the plot. Also, to date, Grant Amato has not been charged with any crime around this case. There are at least a couple of possible reasons for that. It's possible that prosecutors believe they don't have enough evidence to charge him, but given the evidence we have already seen, I would be surprised if that was the reason Grant was not charged. It could also be that prosecutors still plan to charge Grant Amato and they just have not done it yet. But my guess as to why he's not been charged is a lot less legal and a lot more just about the practical aspects. Grant is already serving three lifetimes in prison without the possibility of parole. When someone is given life in prison without the possibility of parole, there is really very little more that the system can do to punish them unless they do something that reaches to the level of the death penalty. Otherwise, they can have privileges taken away. They can be put in solitary confinement for a time, but with apologies to Nathan Hail, they have but one life to give to the prison system. That's one reason some countries and one US state, Alaska, have laws that say nobody can be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. These governments argue it's better to give people a little hope, even if it's remote. But the vast majority of US states have an option for life without the possibility of parole.

[00:23:53]Some states even mandate it in murder cases. The argument is that some crimes are just so heinous that you can't ever risk those people getting out on the streets again under any circumstances.

[00:24:07]So, let me know your opinion on this.

[00:24:09]The jurors in Grant's murder trial were told he'd never be dangerous again. So, what do you do if that turns out not to be true? Should prosecutors charge Grant Amato or should they say enough is enough. He's in jail for life and we're not going to spend any more time or money on him. Let me know your opinion in the comments. One more thing, if you enjoyed the video, it really helps the channel if you hit the like button and subscribe for more real crime, real law, and the story behind the cases. See you in the next one.