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Background

Grant Tiernan Amato was born in Orlando, Florida, on May 20th, 1989, to Chad and Margaret Amato. He was raised with his older brother Cody and had a half-brother, Jason, who lived elsewhere.

Grant and Cody were close. They went to the same high school and were on the weightlifting team. Later, they both enrolled at the University of Central Florida. Both guys wanted to become nurse anesthetists. Cody stayed focused, got through school, and graduated, but Grant dropped out and started to go down a dark road.

In June 2018, he was suspected of stealing and improperly administering drugs to patients he was overseeing. He admitted to his misdeeds and was fired. Police arrested him for larceny, but later dropped the charges.

Grant turned his attention to online gaming. His family bought him streaming equipment.

While everyone thought he was in his room streaming, he was actually spending his time on adult cam websites and becoming obsessed with a Bulgarian cam girl named Sylvie.

He started buying virtual tokens and sending them to her. He also sent her gifts like lingerie and toys. He told her he was a rich gamer, but in reality, he was stealing from his family. Within a few months, he had taken $60,000 from his brother and $150,000 from his father, and he had spent it all on a girl he had never met.

After his family found out that all the money was going to a cam girl rather than his streaming venture, they were concerned. With his secret exposed, Grant ended up living with his aunt briefly, but he stole from her, too. Grant’s parents convinced her not to press charges.

Rehab and Return home

In December 2018, Margaret and Chad spent $15,000 to send Grant to a 60-day rehab for his addiction to the internet and adult entertainment, but he left after a few weeks.

When he returned home, he was told to get a job, pay his own bills, and stop contacting Sylvie, or he would have to leave.

Grant didn’t care about following the rules; all he could think about was Sylvie, and he kept contacting her.

Chad confronted Grant one last time and told him he could no longer live there.

Crimes

On January 24th, 2019, Grant walked up to his 61-year-old mother as she sat on the computer, and he shot her in the back of the head.

Afterward, he waited for his father to return home. When 59-year-old Chad walked into the kitchen, Grant shot him twice.

Grant used his father’s phone and texted Cody to come over. Four hours later, Cody walked in and was shot. Grant put the gun near his brother’s body to frame him for the crime.

When Cody didn’t go to work the next day, police were sent to the family’s Chuluota, Florida, home for a wellness check. At 9:17 am, authorities found the bodies.

The next day, they located Grant at a local hotel and took him in for questioning.

When authorities showed him pictures of his loved ones’ bodies and asked if he had remorse, he reportedly stated, “My family has been blaming me for months for ruining their lives, stealing, and not following the rules of the home, so I might as well be blamed for this too.”

The 29-year-old professed his innocence and didn’t fold during questioning.

Detectives didn’t need a confession because all the evidence pointed to Grant being the culprit, and he was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder four days after the murder.

Legal Proceedings

His trial started less than 6 months after the crime in July 2019, with the prosecution seeking the death penalty.

The evidence against Grant was overwhelming, and on August 12th, he was convicted on all counts.

At the penalty phase, Grant’s brother Jason told the court he still loved his brother, something that may have convinced the jury to spare Grant’s life.

They could not agree on a death sentence, and Grant was sentenced to life without parole.