what did you think reading his journal? >> it sounds like the mind of a sociopath. they kill your dog and then help you go find it. >> announcer: tonight on an all new "20/20," a tale of love, lies, videotape and murder. >> charged with premeditated murder, kidnapping and poisoning. >> announcer: an explosive teenage love triangle that started in high school and ended in a shallow grave with a bombshell courtroom decision in a trial watched by millions. >> just now, we've got a verdict. >> there were some reporters than even squealed. >> announcer: two boys, best friends, vying for the same girl and one of them even killing for her. >> it was sickening. >> announcer: here tonight the woman in the red-hot center. >> you know, i'm freaking out. >> announcer: we'll take you inside the mind of a teenage killer. but which one? from surveillance cameras to the police interrogation room. >> was there a moment during

that interrogation that you said, "i'm speaking to a murderer"? >> announcer: to the witness stand. >> now, i have to have this person, this monster, you know, staring at me while i'm on the stand. >> announcer: from his psychotic secret journals to caught on tape buying a shovel, duct tape and sleeping pills, a murder's start-up kit. >> one way or the other that kid was dying that day. >> announcer: tonight, "two's company, three's a crime." here now, david muir and elizabeth vargas. good evening on this saturday night as we bring you the story of three high school friends, desperate love and ultimate betrayal. one goes off to college full of promise only disappearing weeks into his freshman year. his family, his best friend, his girlfriend all mourning, but someone is hiding something. >> that's right. a body. >> and now speaking about the price paid for a teenage love triangle. matt gutman on the case from the very beginning.

it's a twisting obstacle course. still carlos aguilar know this drive like the father knows the contours of his son's face. it's a route he drove through so many times where the body his teenaged son christian was discovered two years ago. >> this dirt track is getting narrower and narrower. it's amazing anybody found this body. we've been following carlos for 30 minutes off state road 24 in the wooded waste lands of northern florida. >> the road is not that bad. >> no, it's not that bad but not that easy. >> now you see this is impossible for us, even with 500 people to find him. this hard-working immigrant family from colombia, plucking leads and sweating the earth with their tears.

considering this secret crowd. there's a cross with rosary beads the name chris spray painted on a nearby rock. >> a father's dream. >> the name christian means i came from god. >> he choose this cross for me. >> life wasn't supposed to end here. so son for the 18-year-old scholar with the dancing eyes and megawatt smile. >> what was your brother like? >> he was shy with people he didn't know. but once he got to know you, he would just open up. he would start cracking jokes. start telling you things about himself, any way to get you to laugh. he would try to find ray way. >> so, how did christian aguilar end up in this marsh land bound, face down in this shallow grave with what the cops call an enemy style burial. >> this is some kind of act, someone trying to conceal the body of a person. we find that most generally in

the cases of murder. >> it's a story that made headlines up and down the turnpike. >> a search is on for the university of florida student. >> -- and caught national attention. >> my son is still alive in my heart. >> the twisted murder mystery started at this elite charter school in miami. christian aguilar was known for his easy-going cool, his chris ma and taste for hip-hop. ♪ >> that's one thing you and christian shared is love of hip-hop and specifically kanye? >> to this day, i still love kanye west. we would hop in his car and hang out for a while. >> at the time christian was dating erika phiman, pedro bravo.

>> he liked action heroes, superheroes. >> the beauty was the center of pedro's world. >> we were on dates, we texted all of the time. >> did you say you loved each other? >> yes, we did. we did say we loved each other. and for a long time, i thought that's combine of what love was like. >> it seemed their love was built to last. >> not many relations go three years. >> especially not in high school. >> yes. it's kind of unheard of. >> christian aguilar was part of the couple's clique. they all go to prom together but as graduation approaches. pedro and erika's puppy romance is almost over. >> at one point, you decided that this relationship wasn't working for you. >> yes. i did. i had talked to him about it. maybe we should go on a break. i don't think i'm happy. i felt he almost manipulated me at that point in my life.

erika breaks up with pedro and abruptly the class clown's laster was replaced with tears. >> he was very emotional about it. he cried a lot. it was very -- it was not what i was expecting at all when i broke up with him. >> reporter: so when you broke up with pedro, somewhere in your mind were you thinking, "well, maybe i could start something with christian"? >> there was a little part of me that kind of hoped that, you know, christian made me really happy and we had so many things in common, but a larger part of me was like, you know, it's never going to happen. >> reporter: she would leave pedro behind to attend santa fe community college in gainesville and study biology. coincidentally, christian is heading to gainesville also, but to "the swamp," home of the orange and blue, the university of florida gators. his future, full of promise. he has a scholarship, gets financial aid, and plans to study biomedical engineering.

and when he and erika run into each other in gainesville, suddenly, sparks fly. >> it was crazy. we had these smiles on our faces from ear to ear and, i mean, we just looked at each other and, like, with these dumb faces, like, "is this really happening?" >> reporter: that sounds like true love in a way. >> i think we were soul mates. >> reporter: erika has moved on. her ex has not, abandoning his plans to study engineering at a college in miami and moving to gainesville to enroll in erika's college. when is the first time that you realize, "oh, man, pedro's in gainesville"? >> he actually sends me a text message. and i'm kind of thinking, this is, this doesn't sound normal, you know? no one just packs up all their stuff and moves to a different city, you know, so far from their family, for a girl. >> reporter: no, it wasn't normal. neither was the journal pedro kept. a brooding meditation on his quest to win erika back.

"no one will stop me," he wrote. "i will get out of miami and into gainesville, and i will get her back." >> i just was kind of like, "oh, my god, what are we going to do? should we tell him? should we not tell him? or should we just live our lives, and kind of, if he sees us or meets us or something, we will worry about it then." >> reporter: "20/20" obtained that journal and sketchbook, which would prove central to the story. in it, pedro's personal and meticulous self-help plan to get rid of acne, whiten his teeth and even wear a red shirt because he thinks it will be more eye-catching to the opposite sex. his handwritten musings winding around seemingly unrelated sketches of cartoon characters, monsters, and sometimes sentimental doodling. >> they almost looked like he could've been a cartoonist, you know? i mean, they were very beautiful pieces of art. >> reporter: his drawings, what kind of drawings were they? >> i just saw, you know, pictures of hearts.

there was captions next to the hearts, you know, there were broken hearts and hearts in tiny pieces. >> reporter: adding insult to injury, pedro now hears through the grapevine that his true love's heart now belongs to one of his best friends, christian. the journal revealing his increasing anguish, "i feel as if someone stabbed me and i bleeded out and died. i want her back, please. i'll give anything." it's september 7th, and this is the 34th street wall. erika agrees to meet pedro here. it's a place where, for years, uf students have come to paint graffiti, but this is an awkward moment at best because right away pedro asks her if she's dating christian. she says no. he confronted you with the pictures of you and christian. >> he showed me a picture of me standing next to christian. and i was just like, "listen, we're friends, you know, we're hanging out. you know, we're not dating.

we're just hanging out." >> reporter: but you lied to him. >> i did lie to him, yes. >> reporter: why did you lie? >> i just felt like it wasn't the appropriate time to tell him that. you know, i don't want to push this kid at all. i don't want him to think anything, you know, that might throw him over the edge. >> reporter: but pedro is spinning out of control. he's even been talking suicide. and then, curiously, he calls christian for help. >> pedro calls christian on a pay phone and he's like, "i'm really depressed, and i was wondering if we can talk, you know, so maybe you can give me advice about how to deal with this, you know, depression." >> reporter: did he ask you if he should go, what you thought? >> we were a little concerned that maybe he would try to fight him or something of that sense, but, you know, we talked about it, you know, you're going to meet on uf campus. you're going to be fine. >> reporter: they met at the hub, the college bookstore here at the heart of this throbbing campus of the university of florida. and what happens soon after will change three lives forever. >> i started calling him. i started texting him. he was not answering. i was kind of like, well, you

know, i got to do something, i have to do something. >> reporter: when "2020" continues. bring in your verizon or at&t bill, turn in your old phone, and we'll cut your rate plan in half. visit us online or visit a sprint store today.

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>> announcer: "20/20" continues with matt gutman. >> reporter: let's face it. we live in the united states of surveillance where every moment, from the shocking and the trivial to the outrageous and mundane, is an open target for exposure. and on september 20th, 2012, almost every moment of pedro bravo's day was captured in the bitter grays of surveillance cameras. he and christian met at 1:39 p.m., head to lunch, then go to this best buy. a receipt shows a kanye west cd with cash and used his rewards card. at 4:11 that afternoon, bravo

drives his friend to this parking lot. the two sit in bravo's navy blue blazer at this spot. no one gets in or out of the vehicle. about two and a half hours later, security cameras show bravo pulling out of that walmart parking lot. christian aguilar is never seen alive again. >> if you hear the last person that was with your son was your son's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, you kind of link one and two together. we all started having our doubts and suspicions. >> reporter: now, at the same time that pedro was being tagged by all that surveillance, erika friman was frantically trying to find christian. >> i kept texting him and kept calling him, and it was really strange that he wasn't answering. it wasn't, just wasn't like him. i mean, i'm trying to calm myself down, you know. yeah, yeah, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. >> reporter: back at pedro's apartment, what security cameras pick up next was suspicious and disturbing. bravo arrives then immediately leaves his apartment. where he goes next is an issue of contention because 30 minutes into his drive, he deliberately turns his phone to "airplane mode."

>> so he puts it in airplane mode, where his phone isn't going to be detected. >> reporter: ken brennan is a private investigator hired by "20/20" to review the case. >> he's sharp enough to know, you know, police can triangulate cell phones. >> reporter: he's off the grid for almost five hours before surveillance cameras capture him at a nearby mcdonald's picking up a big mac and a dr. pepper before finally heading home. >> he knows that "i'm going to dump the body, and i want to dump it far enough away from where the crime occurred." so he wants to get the body out of gainesville, far enough away where it's in another jurisdiction. it's a lot harder for the police to investigate a crime that's outside their jurisdiction than one in their own. >> reporter: 4:00 a.m. in the morning and christian is still missing. >> i call pedro, and it starts ringing. and it's ringing, it's ringing and then finally he answers. and you know, the first thing i ask him was like, "where's christian?" and he's just like, "no, i dropped him off, you know, we got into a verbal argument." i'm freaking out.

and he's just like, "no, listen, it's late. i'm sure he made it home. he just didn't call you." >> reporter: by daybreak, erika is panicking. you call his apartment. he's not there. he's not at your place, either. >> i call pedro, and at this time, i'm not asking him, i'm telling him, like, "listen, you need to come with me to the police station." >> reporter: 9:44 in the morning and both erika friman and pedro bravo go to the campus police station to report their friend is missing. sergeant steve wilder was suspicious from the get-go. when you first saw pedro bravo come in there, into that room, what was your first impression? >> it didn't take long, interacting with him and talking to him, that i knew that there was really something that he was holding back. >> i don't know where he is. >> reporter: at what point do you begin being suspicious of pedro? >> honestly, we even walked into the police station, and i still didn't think pedro was capable of doing something so horrendous.

i mean, this guy that's, you know, shy and, you know, he wouldn't hurt a fly, you know? he loves animals, and you know, he's hard-working in school. >> reporter: never seemed violent. >> never seemed violent. >> reporter: pedro says he came here to help, but everything that comes out of his mouth only cements his status as the prime suspect. >> we're finding out new stuff that you haven't talked to me about before. >> well, i just told you i was in that area. >> reporter: at first, pedro tells investigators that he left aguilar in the woods not far from walmart after arguing with him in the car. >> i told you everything i know. i just drove away, like, while he was still there. >> reporter: but with every question, a new variation in his story. at one point, he even introduces the possibility of a new suspect, a mysterious hitchiker they picked up in a rough part of town. >> how old do you think he was? >> i'd say mid-50s, but i can't tell because he had a big, white, bushy beard. >> reporter: and pedro now claims that after dropping the

hitchiker off, he and christian got into a fight, not about erika, but about another girl they knew in high school. >> okay, so you strike one time with this hand, blood or no blood? >> he was already bleeding. >> so you strike him with your other hand, right? >> yes, side of the cheek. >> it had gone from, "well, i punched him one time and made him get out of the car," to "i forced him out of the car, punched him repeatedly," to "i punched him repeatedly, landed on top of him, punched him again repeatedly and left him unconscious, but still breathing." >> i'm going to be honest. i wanted to hurt him. like, really hurt him. was there a moment during that interrogation, when you looked at bravo that i'm speaking to a murder? >> i knew, certainly after speaking with him for just a few minutes, that i was speaking with someone who was trying to be extremely deceptive. >> reporter: you saw pedro bravo. he's not a very big guy. and when you think of him knocking somebody who's eight inches taller than him out of the car and beating him up, what do you think? >> they have that old saying, "it's not the size of the dog in

the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." >> then, i turned around and i just punched him in the face. >> what did he do? >> well, he grabbed his nose because i punched him. but, like, i turned around and then i hit him in the face. >> when he starts fumbling over himself and he starts coming up with these [ bleep ] stories, they know they got the right guy. now it's a matter of gathering the evidence enough to be able to arrest this guy and then ultimately to convict him. >> reporter: after eight hours of interrogation and rambling answers, pedro has still not confessed to any crime. but tellingly, he keeps referring to christian in the past tense. >> christian was a really good friend. >> we know that he's not coming back, okay? you know he's not coming back. >> reporter: look at that again. a subtle but fateful nod of the head. and with that, the case against pedro bravo had begun. >> you have the right to remain silent. >> reporter: and so had the search for christian aguilar's body.

it was the largest and most publicized search in gainesville history. hundreds of people, friends, family, volunteers, even psychics combing ten square miles of woods and ditches in search of clues. >> i'm looking for people's heart that can come and help me. i'm looking for somebody that can walk with me. that's the only thing that i ask. >> god, today we come before you and we pray for the aguilar family. >> reporter: candlelight vigils pop up for the missing teen in gainesville, miami, and the family's native colombia. >> we had hope of finding him. i mean, it slowly started going away when you're reaching day four and five, and there's no trace of him. >> reporter: so you knew that he was dead, but you were not willing to accept the fact that he was going to remain missing. >> yes. >> reporter: eight days after christian's disappearance, even though no body has been discovered, the state charges

bravo with kidnapping and first-degree murder. >> it was sickening almost, just because, you know, we knew him for so long. and, you know, christian was his friend. and i'm just there like, you know, crying, crying. and we're just feeling like, you know, he's not going to come back. we're not going to ever see him again. >> reporter: knowing that christian's family and the love of his life are all in agony, pedro still offers no information about his friend's whereabouts. then, 22 days after his mysterious disappearance, two hunters in search of firewood found christian's body in the swamplands 60 miles southwest of gainesville. >> a body found east of cedar key. >> the aguilar family tells us they feel like it's their son. >> and they tell me, you know, listen, the search is over. you know, they found him. christian's gone. and i mean, now i'm starting to

shake, and it was like this sense of relief and at the same time this sense of overwhelming pain. >> reporter: when we come back, lights -- >> 48 minutes, he uses his flashlight out there. >> reporter: camera -- >> you know, he's not coming back. >> reporter: and courtroom action to prove how the young freshman taught himself murder 101. >> as the suspicion and evidence mounts here tonight, our question for you at home, have you ever been involved with someone who just can't let go? we're tweeting throughout the hour. use #abc2020. check in with us on our facebook page. we'd love to hear from you. elizabeth and i will be right i know, i told you so. on progressive.com, you can compare our progress rates with our competitors' rates, so shopping is easy. you don't sound like flo. [high-pitched] yeah, i do. [ clears throat ] who you talking to? [ normal voice ] what?

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>> announcer: "20/20" continues with "two's company, three's a crime." once more, matt gutman. >> reporter: as life in the college town of gainesville rolls on, investigators spent two years building their murder case against pedro bravo. erika, burying grief in her studies. she was majoring in biology at santa fe community college. >> during all this time, i felt like christian was kind of near us, kind of watching over us. and i felt like he was there with us trying to comfort us, trying to give us, you know, it's going to be okay. >> all rise for the jury. >> let the record reflect that mr. bravo is present in the courtroom with his council. will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> yes. >> reporter: but when the trial finally begins, the defendant is very much on the defense. >> charged with premeditated murder, kidnapping and poisoning. >> high school friend, uf student christian aguilar. >> in the trial of santa fe student pedro bravo. >> reporter: pedro bravo and christian aguilar were

high school amigos, but all that ended when christian swept pedro's former girlfriend, erika friman, off her feet. >> he was a very passionate person, very romantic. i loved that about him. i loved everything about him. i used to tell him, i was like, you know, "the world could end right now and if i'm in your arms, i don't care." >> reporter: now, pedro stands accused of murdering christian, and it looks like there's a mountain of evidence to prove it. >> with all this evidence amassed against him, he's got a very narrow opportunity to tell a story that's even remotely plausible. >> reporter: from the outset, the prosecution pulls no punches. >> body in the wooded area. >> reporter: painting bravo as a jealous rival plotting revenge against his former friend. >> this is a story as old as time, the classic story, the cain and abel story, elimination of a rival fueled by jealousy, hatred, anger. he has an obsession with her. he has an obsession with getting her back.

>> reporter: erika takes center stage as the prosecution asks her to recount her story. >> and i did not want to continue in a long-distance relationship. and now i have to have this person, this monster, you know, staring at me while i'm on the stand. and i can just feel myself, like, aching and i just don't even want to look that way. i don't want him to look at me. i don't want him to see me ever again. >> reporter: the prosecution presents pedro's journals as proof of his disturbed state of mind, page after page of teen angst and anguished obsession. >> "but everyone out there wanting blood, wanting me gone, i will give them what they want." >> reporter: there was also this self-loathing suicide note he penned in jail. >> "i feel terrible. and every day in here is a day spent waiting to die. i am a monster for having hurt chris the way i did." >> reporter: at one point, she breaks down in tears. all of this was focused on you.

you were at the center of this all. >> yes. a lot of it was his obsession for me and how he wanted me back, and how he wanted to be with me. >> reporter: but what did you think reading his journal? >> it sounds like the mind of a sociopath, or a sick person, for someone to be that selfish and that controlling and that manipulative, you know, it's almost like, when they describe sociopaths, you know, they will kill your dog and then go help you find it. >> reporter: prosecutors also start piling up the circumstantial evidence compiled over the two-year investigation. the jury learns that just four days before christian's disappearance, pedro came here to a nearby walmart and buys an ankle wrap and gets $80 cash back. he then comes to this lowe's where he buys hot shot pesticide, a gatorade and a shovel. then, for some reason, he heads back to that walmart, and pedro walks in with that shovel, purchases sleeping aids, duct tape and a knife. he pays cash.

then there's that staple of 21st century criminology, the computer evidence. it turns out that pedro googled suspicious search terms such as "buying anesthetics," "what is chloroform," and "how do sleeping pills kill you?" >> at 1:35, he does a search, "good anesthetic chemical." at 1:35, he does another search, "can rubbing alcohol knock someone out?" >> reporter: the prosecution claims that days after pedro completed his homicidal research, he arranged to meet christian. reporter stephanie bechara of abc affiliate wcjb has been covering the story from day one. >> the state put together a timeline, a sequence of events where, you know, where he was, from when he got together with chris all the way to nighttime. christian holding that kanye west cd and pedro right next to him. that is a picture that, you know, no one will ever forget that. >> reporter: the two sat parked in pedro's suv at that walmart.

according to the prosecution, this was the scene of the gruesome murder. they claim that bravo strangled aguilar inside his car after knocking him out using gatorade laced with drugs. >> christian aguilar struggles for his life. he reaches for the door. he scratches the ceiling. this is an enemy burial. this is indifference to life. >> reporter: and for the csi types in the jury box, prosecutors have a cornucopia of forensic evidence. >> the most damning evidence against pedro is the blood that was found inside his suv. >> reporter: blood in pedro's car and on a pair of insoles, christian's backpack, containing his wallet, was balled up inside bravo's closet. and the residue in his car matched soil samples from the site of christian's shallow grave. and then, a piece of irrefutable evidence, the tear pattern from the roll of duct tape pedro

bought at that walmart. >> they literally were able to match the tears of the duct tape found on the victim's body with tears on duct tape on pedro bravo's own car. >> reporter: it is a chilling chain of evidence, but the defense argues that all of it, from the shovel and the computer searches to the poison pesticide and sleeping pills, was intended not for homicide, but for suicide. >> he's out there in the woods. he's drinking this concoction, threw up all over himself, and he's like, "well, maybe this is a sign from god that i shouldn't do this." >> reporter: pedro still needed the jury to believe that his statement to police was true. he beat christian up, but left him alive. and now he's going to have to sell that story himself. coming up, pedro takes the stand. >> do you swear or affirm any testimony you give this jury today will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the

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>> announcer: now, more of "two's company, three's a crime." once again, matt gutman. >> reporter: what would a hardcore gang member know about the intimacies of a teenage love triangle? in this case, prosecutors claim, quite a bit, as they call to the stand a prisoner with the improbable name michael angelo. with gun, drugs, and kidnapping charges to his name, he's a true renaissance man of crime. >> are you a convicted felon? >> yes, sir. >> do you know how many times you've been convicted?

>> nine times. >> the plot thickened with michael angelo's testimony. >> reporter: the felon shared a cell with pedro bravo in the fall of 2012, and when they met, angelo dispensed with the small talk. >> you know, i was like, "you probably killed that kid," you know? >> what was his response to that? >> he really didn't answer, you know. >> reporter: later, when bravo does speak, it's of his two main preoccupations, writing and death. >> he had asked me, you know, to borrow a pen and my shoelace, and i asked him, "what for?" and he said so that he could write a suicide letter to his parents and to use the shoestring to kill himself. >> reporter: bravo was put on suicide watch for a few weeks. angelo says when the young man returns, bravo has shifted his mind-set from suicidal to scheming. now, he's concocted a way to walk free. >> what did you think it was? >> a way to basically get the

charges thrown out in his case or get the charges dropped against him. >> and did you believe it was offering you money to help? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: bravo's plan was to use angelo's outside gang contacts to commit murders similar to chris' to make it appear that a serial killer was on the loose, thus leading suspicion away from bravo. >> was it ever brought up about the shovel and what you would need to do with the shovel as part of the plan? >> reporter: the prosecutor keeps digging for more details, specifically about that shovel bravo purchased. >> i would have to go get the shovel to, i guess, copycat that murder to make it look like somebody else had did it. >> reporter: but angelo had a plan of his own. he cut a deal with prosecutors to become a jailhouse snitch, earning bravo's trust and

extracting incriminating details like these. >> he said that he was going to try to poison him with a mixture of sleeping pills and pesticide mixed with soda. his backup plan was to have a knife, you know, to cut his throat. his main plan was to choke him with a moving strap. >> reporter: eventually, michael angelo completes his masterpiece, a full confession from bravo, one the aguilar family must now endure as the last moments of their son's life play out in graphic detail. >> he told me that he, you know, basically put a moving strap around the kid's neck and braced his self against the seat. he said that he remembers watching the radio, the clock on the radio, and said it took like 13 minutes for the kid to, you know, i guess, die. >> did he ever make any comment to you about security guards at walmart? >> yeah. he, at one point, he said that he kind of got freaked out because while he was holding onto the strap that the security

guard had rode by. >> reporter: angelo is a full-service snitch. he even leads cops to the hidden location of that now-infamous shovel. >> did he, in fact, tell you where the shovel was located? >> he said a wooden walkway bridge-type thing. >> reporter: bravo's defense says angelo's credibility is shot since he was testifying in exchange for a reduced sentence, but can they overcome all that video? >> surveillance video of spy glass apartments, surveillance video of walmart, you can see those two together. >> reporter: with all that physical evidence piling up against him, the most important defense witness in this trial is pedro bravo himself. in fact, the 20-year-old is the only witness the defense calls. >> there were some reporters that even squealed and two of them gasped. everybody was very much waiting for that moment. >> reporter: as his parents look

on stoically, bravo tries to charm the jurors, resurrecting the old class clown, conversational, even jovial at times. bravo describing his last-ditch effort to win erika back. >> i still loved her, and i really wanted to get back with her, so i, other than getting my classes done, i also had a set idea that i'm going to go get her back. i keep telling myself, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this." >> reporter: but what exactly was the "this"? bravo admits that when he discovered that erika was dating christian, he snaps. >> they've been going out for about, like, two, three weeks. and at that moment, i'm just instantly, like, i'm crushed because he's one of my best friends. >> reporter: he says that as he descended into a life of despair, he was consumed by thoughts of suicide that had plagued him for years. >> i was too nervous to do anything with knives because i don't like pain and i couldn't bring myself to hang myself or

anything like that. so the only way i could see it was i tried to take some pills, see what would happen, but lo and behold, i'm still here. >> reporter: speaking of suicide, remember that shovel? bravo says he can explain that away, too. >> tell the jury why you bought a shovel. >> it was going to be part of my idea to kill myself. in a way, i was going to go find a spot, and i was going to mark my tomb, and i was going to dig it. >> reporter: even as the but now he has to keep his story straight. >> seems like he was changing the story depending on the evidence. >> reporter: one piece of testimony he tried to finesse deals with the ending encounter with christian. the alleged scuffle inside the suv as the two boys argue with

friman. his friend's nose, now bloody, bravo claims he pulled in here behind this motorcycle shop. now, the two start fighting. they tumble out of the car, and at this point, he claims things got really heated. >> as i exit the car, he comes up and something went from my head, and i just, i got mad, and i basically pushed him. as i pushed him, i followed behind him and i swept him off his feet. as he fell down, i fell on top of him as well. >> reporter: bravo claims that's the last time he ever saw christian, he was alive and above ground. >> but all i could tell was that he didn't get up right away, but that he was still moving. >> still breathing? >> yes. >> reporter: but here's the thing. so much of this story was captured by security cameras, but the one piece of video pedro needs to be on tape simply doesn't exist. >> we don't know of any surveillance video that shows the two had an encounter or a fight. >> reporter: no video. and for 22 days, no aguilar until his body is discovered face down in that shallow grave, buried, as cops say, "enemy

style." >> the defense really tried to come up with a credible story. now, do we believe that? i'm not sure. >> reporter: but what does the jury believe? we're about to find out because, as we were conducting this interview, a voice from the courthouse calls out. >> we got a verdict. >> let's go. we got a verdict. >> reporter: the verdict is next. [instructor] just repeat after me. [student] ok. [instructor] nein. [student] nein. [instructor] nein. [student] nein. [instructor] nein. [student] nein. [instructor] nein. [student] nein.

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>> announcer: "20/20" continues with matt gutman. >> reporter: judgment day for pedro bravo. the aguilar family hustles in for a decision.

carlos, the anxious patriarch, needs a moment to gather himself. everybody is starting now to move back into the courtroom. christian aguilar's family has gathered here en masse. all day, carlos has looked very calm, but right now, this is the tensest we've seen him. this is the culmination of two years for him. it has already been a long day for the family, nearly eight hours of closing arguments, the prosecution and defense taking their last shots at a jury of eight women and four men. >> i think you'll find that the fight did happen at straits. you'll find the law enforcement did nothing to check out whether or not the fight happened at straits, and when you do that, i think you'll find my client is not guilty. >> reporter: the prosecution says bravo's the mastermind of a murderous plot, reminding the jury of pedro's police interrogation and his curious choice of a past tense. >> throughout the interview, he says and refers to chris was a

good friend. he is the only person on the planet who knows that chris is in the past tense. >> reporter: as the jury takes the case to the deliberation room, all the aguilar family can do is wait and worry. >> there's that moment when the jury's deliberating that you're just thinking, "what's taking them so long?" what happens if they find something? what happens if there is a reasonable doubt? >> reporter: there are nine days of testimony and more than 1,000 pieces of evidence to consider. but after a mere three hours, the jury is back. >> we, the jury, find the defendant pedro andreas bravo in this case, as to count one, the defendant is guilty of felony murder, first degree. >> reporter: bravo, stone-faced after being found guilty of all charges. the aguilar family, always respectful inside the courtroom, takes to the hallways for a rare moment of catharsis. alexander, how do you feel? >> i don't know.

i can't really describe this. >> reporter: the judge said, "this is your day of reckoning," to bravo. do you think life in prison is enough for him? >> i think that as the maximum that he can pay for the life of my son. >> reporter: later, they return to remind the judge of the toll this case has taken on them. >> i cannot tell you or quantify the pain that we have gone through. >> reporter: their brief moment of relief comes to an abrupt halt as the killer gets one last twist of the knife. >> i know in my heart that i did not do anything to hurt my friend to put him beyond that point and cause him to die. i know in my heart what i did, and i know god knows what i did. so i will take whatever sentence is given to me, be it life, life without parole, and i will do it. >> you know, this was a person we knew. this was intentional. none of this had to happen. >> reporter: this was your friend. this had been your former love. >> yes, yes, it just makes it all so worse.

>> this is your day of reckoning. >> reporter: judge james colaw giving him exactly what he asked for. >> as to count one, i sentence you to natural life in prison with no possibility of parole. >> reporter: after the verdict, family and friends go their separate ways. the aguilars once again making that long drive to that makeshift shrine in the middle of nowhere. and the former girlfriend, she still has her whole life ahead of her, just not the one she thought she'd have. >> i think we would've gotten married, eventually. he was such a good person. he was just so kind and so considerate and so compassionate. i almost feel like when i describe him, i'm never describing him enough, you know, like there's something missing. you know, you had to meet him. i miss him every day. doesn't go away. like i sweat money.

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two punch and timing of this storm is tough and why bensalem residents spent time outdoors in storm is tough and why bensalem residents spent time outdoors in the snow. >> get ready for more of