Bad Romance: No Tomorrow

Speaker 1 Hi, it's Deborah Roberts. For the next eight weeks, we're excited to bring you a special series on the 2020 podcast.
It's called Bad Romance.

Speaker 1 The series unravels the shocking true crime stories of love turned lethal. Take a listen.
This show is supported by Hot and Deadly, a podcast from ID.

Speaker 1 Hot and Deadly brings you American true crime that is often stranger than fiction.

Speaker 1 Every week, dive into shocking stories of murder and betrayal, from IRS impersonators in Kentucky to a South Carolina businessman deceived by those closest to him.

Speaker 1 You'll hear first-hand accounts from investigators, witnesses, and family members as they share the chilling details behind each case.

Speaker 1 If you love true crime with a southern twist, you're going to want to check this one out. Follow Hot and Deadly so you never miss an episode.

Speaker 1 Am I ever gonna love again?

Speaker 3 Weddings are all about the future, a lifetime of tomorrows.

Speaker 3 A woman in suburban Dallas was days away from that future, but for Lara Grillo, sadly, there will be no wedding, no honeymoon, and no tomorrow.

Speaker 3 Am I ever gonna love, gonna love, gonna love again?

Speaker 4 Happy birthday!

Speaker 5 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6 My name's Heather Nabor.

Speaker 6 Laura was my best friend. She was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

Speaker 6 Very giving. She always wanted to help people.

Speaker 1 Look at you and your bear.

Speaker 7 Her kids were her world.

Speaker 1 Are you wearing brother's hat?

Speaker 1 So cute.

Speaker 6 I remember we finally picked out her dress and that perfect outfit for the perfect day. Making the wish, ringing the bell.

Speaker 6 I kind of talked her into that.

Speaker 8 I'm glad I did that.

Speaker 6 I really feel like she for years have been searching for home

Speaker 6 and she found that in Rowlette.

Speaker 9 Rowlette's a bedroom community, a lot of rooftops. A lot of people leave town during the day to work in the city.

Speaker 10 Yes, we have a lot of commuters that work in Dallas and then come back home.

Speaker 9 It's a quiet neighborhood.

Speaker 2 What did she like about Rowlette?

Speaker 6 She loved the community.

Speaker 2 And she wanted to lay down roots in this little community?

Speaker 6 Yeah, and she did.

Speaker 2 Did she feel safe in Roulette?

Speaker 6 I think she felt really safe in Roulette.

Speaker 6 Unfortunately, she wasn't.

Speaker 2 I just shut off and I went into the kitchen and I saw

Speaker 9 We got a radio call of an unconscious female.

Speaker 2 She's not moving.

Speaker 13 Not that I saw.

Speaker 12 I think somebody might have killed her.

Speaker 2 You think somebody might have watched her?

Speaker 12 I noticed the sweat of the ground.

Speaker 12 I'm not sure what just happened.

Speaker 9 When we respond to any calls, we activate the body camera.

Speaker 9 When we arrived there, the fire department had made entry into the house.

Speaker 14 Looks to be a room that had focused lots of blood and shell casing.

Speaker 9 And they had backed out of the house because they located a shell casing.

Speaker 15 We got one down, shell casing on the floor.

Speaker 9 We made entry into the house

Speaker 9 and began clearing it.

Speaker 5 Clear?

Speaker 9 Searching for people and victims.

Speaker 15 Got blood in the kitchen. Blood down this hall.

Speaker 16 Stay on me, Drew.

Speaker 2 Yes, sir.

Speaker 16 One victim.

Speaker 9 We located a victim laying face down in the kitchen with a lot of blood around her head.

Speaker 16 I don't have her information yet. That purse being right there next to her, I'm wondering if she just got here.

Speaker 10 She still had her purse and her keys in her hand and her shoes were several feet away from her body. So it gave us the indication that whatever happened happened pretty quick.

Speaker 9 Inside the master bedroom, there was a safe on the dresser. The door was open and there was two plastic totes that were turned over on the bed.

Speaker 9 It didn't look as far as burglary that was interrupted or anything like that. It just didn't look right to me.

Speaker 16 Can you confirm CID En route?

Speaker 9 CID is the Criminal Investigations Division, which houses all of our detectives.

Speaker 15 Can you confirm it, CID's been notified and en route?

Speaker 9 I was pretty certain that this was going to be a major case, and I wanted to get those guys out there as soon as possible.

Speaker 10 We found one shell casing a couple of feet away from her body as well. That was the only piece of evidence that was left there at the scene.

Speaker 10 There was no gun, there was no blood that was out of place, there was no fingerprints, there was no DNA, so we had very little to work with.

Speaker 16 But we didn't touch the body, right? It looked like

Speaker 15 I thought I saw an

Speaker 16 entry wound in her forehead.

Speaker 9 There was a large police presence and first responder presence at the house.

Speaker 9 There were several neighbors that started coming out and wanting to know what's going on.

Speaker 9 As we were securing the scene, I was approached by a male who called me by my first name. In law enforcement, we call each other by last name.

Speaker 16 Okay, come here, come here, come here, come here.

Speaker 9 But he called me by my first name and kind of took me by surprise. And that's when I recognized John Makris as the person that was calling me.

Speaker 16 Right now,

Speaker 16 all I know is there's somebody down inside the house. It looks like a gunshot wound.

Speaker 9 John Makris was a volunteer with the police department in a program called VIPS. And I'd known him over maybe a two-year period.

Speaker 16 That is all I can tell you, and that's all I know right now.

Speaker 9 Once I realized it was John's house, that made me start thinking that it was Laura that was down inside the house.

Speaker 2 Laura is John Macris' fiancée.

Speaker 6 Laura was part of the VIT program.

Speaker 2 What does that stand for?

Speaker 6 Volunteer in police services, and she even tried out the emergency fire department ambulance program.

Speaker 15 You know Laura, right? Yeah.

Speaker 9 I did know Laura from volunteering, police, fire.

Speaker 15 Ken, you go and verify that, Sher.

Speaker 16 I can't right now.

Speaker 16 happy birthday

Speaker 2 police are left to wonder why would anyone want to kill a 37 year old mother of three eight days before her wedding

Speaker 2 was she a robbery victim or could she have been a target

Speaker 10 we didn't have any idea what we were getting into on day one when we responded to this call one victim this was in our opinion it was a whodunit

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Speaker 14 Looks to be a blue that had held the spots of luck and shelf basically on the floor.

Speaker 5 God.

Speaker 15 Go left. Bake them down.

Speaker 2 Mystery surrounds the shooting death of Laura Grillo at her home outside Dallas, Texas.

Speaker 8 And that parse fan right there next to her.

Speaker 16 I'm wondering if she just got here. All right, let's back out.

Speaker 10 At the very beginning stages of an investigation like this, obviously we have to talk to everybody that lives in the house.

Speaker 16 And then John Makris, who just walked there.

Speaker 10 And we have to confirm their timeline of everything they were doing that day to rule them out as a possible suspect.

Speaker 15 I keep calling, calling, calling, no answer, that call.

Speaker 2 And that includes Laura's fiancé, John Makris. Who runs his own construction company and is originally from Greece?

Speaker 16 I'll let you know everything when I find out.

Speaker 10 So at the time this happened, Laura lived in the house with her soon-to-be husband John and their three children and Laura's adult brother Brian. John's mom was also in town.

Speaker 15 Who all lives here?

Speaker 15 Me, Benny, our three kids.

Speaker 16 Okay.

Speaker 15 Mama, mama got to visit me.

Speaker 16 Okay.

Speaker 9 We determined that there was no forced entry into the house.

Speaker 9 So that kind of tightens our circle down a little bit.

Speaker 10 And we felt this was somebody that was pretty close to Laura and was able to either get in the home or somebody that she let in.

Speaker 2 John Makras and his mother, who was here from Greece for the wedding, are together that morning, but away from this house.

Speaker 2 Laura's brother Brian, the one who called 911, says he was asleep and did not hear a gunshot.

Speaker 9 So that throws up a red flag of, is he the suspect? Did he do this?

Speaker 17 We had to look at Brian, but what we found is that he's deaf in one ear and hearing impaired in the other. And if he's laying on this good ear,

Speaker 17 then

Speaker 17 that was the reason why he didn't hear the gunshot.

Speaker 17 Pretty early on, we eliminated Brian as a suspect.

Speaker 2 So Rowlett, Texas police detectives decide to take a closer look at Laura's relationship with her fiancé, John Makris.

Speaker 2 Liz Frogg is Laura's younger sister.

Speaker 7 Laura was living in Georgia and she used to play a multiplayer online game so you could talk with anyone and meet other people and that is how she met John. And he was living in Texas.

Speaker 7 They began a romantic relationship online.

Speaker 2 Was Laura a romantic?

Speaker 6 Yeah, she was.

Speaker 7 In the beginning stages, I think it was more like an infatuation. They hadn't met in person yet.
And it was like the excitement of something new. Like she was happy about it.

Speaker 2 Laura has been married before and has two children. So she decides to take things slowly with John Makras.

Speaker 7 She was, you know, really adventurous. She was also really smart.
She had her kids to think about. And just moving in with some guy that she really didn't know was not an option.

Speaker 2 She moved to Texas, but she did not move in with him.

Speaker 6 Yeah, she didn't move in with him right away.

Speaker 7 Laura had a job lined up. She was getting at her own place so they could start a relationship and see how it would go.

Speaker 7 Laura found out that she was pregnant within the first four months of being there.

Speaker 2 How did she feel about the pregnancy?

Speaker 6 A little surprised, but, you know, happy about it.

Speaker 6 He wasn't.

Speaker 7 And he denied that the child was his. He said that she was sleeping with somebody else.
He made her get a paternity test and go to his lawyer's office with the results.

Speaker 7 She was really hurt. And he still wasn't really willing to have anything to do with her until he knew 100% sure that Maria was his.

Speaker 2 But when the baby's born, all that is forgotten. John Makris dotes on baby Maria.

Speaker 2 This suburban home in Roulette Rowlette holds the entire family, Laura's kids, the toddler, and Laura's mom and brother.

Speaker 2 Laura juggles raising the growing family and helping at the kids' school, as well as volunteering at the local fire and police departments.

Speaker 17 At Rowlett, we have a program called VIPS, and it's Volunteers in Police Service. They wear a modified volunteer uniform, and these are citizens of Rowlette.

Speaker 17 They help us a lot.

Speaker 10 Both John and Laura completed our Citizens Police Academy in the fall of 2014 and had become BIPS members for our police department.

Speaker 2 When detectives asked John Makras to come in for an interview here at the Rowlette Police Department, it was a building he'd been to many times before as a police volunteer.

Speaker 2 In the interview room, Detective Cruz Hernandez breaks the news to John Makras that the victim has been identified. Just got on the phone with the police officers and detectives at the scene.

Speaker 17 They've had a chance to go in. And I told John that I had confirmation that the deceased person was his fiancé, Laura.

Speaker 17 I'm sorry for your loss.

Speaker 2 Detectives remember what John said at the scene when they asked him who lived in the house.

Speaker 15 Me, Benny, have the kids.

Speaker 9 He stated that it was him, the kids, his mother, and the victim's brother, but he never did say the victim's name.

Speaker 2 He never mentions Laura.

Speaker 9 That was a huge red flag because maybe he knew a lot more what was going on.

Speaker 2 Detectives asked John Macras what he and Laura did the morning of her murder.

Speaker 17 He told us that morning Laura left with the kids to take them to school.

Speaker 17 He left at that same time with his mom and he drove to meet his two construction workers, Jesse and James, at a Home Depot in Dallas.

Speaker 10 Our very next step was to get in touch with those stores and pull the video surveillance to make sure that what he was telling us was actually true.

Speaker 2 And there he is at the Home Depot.

Speaker 17 It cleared John at that point of the investigation. We knew that John had not committed the murder.

Speaker 2 So who had killed Laura Grillo? Police asked John if Laura had any enemies.

Speaker 22 Has she had any problems with anybody lately?

Speaker 24 I don't know. Anybody that would want to hurt her?

Speaker 5 I knew I'm sure.

Speaker 10 And he could not think of anyone that would want to hurt Laura. Nobody was mad at him.
Nobody was

Speaker 10 after him for anything.

Speaker 2 Filled with questions and short on leads, Raoult detectives keep digging and they find out something that they didn't expect.

Speaker 10 This case had lots of twists and turns. We had no idea at the very beginning of this what we were getting into and how much planning actually did go into this.

Speaker 10 They very well may have gotten away with the perfect murder.

Speaker 25 Detectives have been chipping away at the mystery surrounding the mother of three's death a week before her scheduled wedding.

Speaker 2 The morning of Laura Grillo's murder, her fiancé, John Makras, was meeting two of his employees, Jesus Trevinho and James Vieda, at a Home Depot in Dallas.

Speaker 17 When John told us that he had met Jesse

Speaker 17 and James at the Home Depot, we brought them in just to confirm that John's story was correct.

Speaker 24 Take me to

Speaker 24 Friday,

Speaker 24 Friday the 13th.

Speaker 2 Jesus Trevinho is not only John's employee, he's also going to be the best man in John and Laura's wedding.

Speaker 23 We were going to meet up at Home Depot. Home went to James' house down the street from me.

Speaker 24 So you picked up James?

Speaker 5 What kind of vehicle are you all in?

Speaker 23 In the Lincoln, in Black Lincoln.

Speaker 17 You can see on the Home Depot video that they're driving to Black Lincoln.

Speaker 10 At the time they were considered witnesses, we had no reason to believe that they were involved in Laura's death.

Speaker 23 Do you know anything about that would help us in our investigation?

Speaker 22 Scanner only worked with him for three weeks.

Speaker 10 After the interviews, we did do some background investigating into James and Jesse and found out that they are both sex offenders.

Speaker 2 It's relevant to authorities because these two alibi witnesses for John Macris both have criminal pasts.

Speaker 23 We took off like at 8.30.

Speaker 10 Jesse told us initially that he was in Dallas all morning with his coworker James and that they went from James's motel straight to Home Depot to meet up with John.

Speaker 10 His phone record said otherwise. At the time that John and Laura were leaving the house that morning, Jesus' phone was traveling from Dallas east into Rowlette.

Speaker 2 Not toward the Home Depot, but to the suburban neighborhood where John and Laura lived.

Speaker 10 At that point, we knew that Jesus had a lot more information than what he was initially providing.

Speaker 10 We obtained a search warrant to seize Jesus' cell phone. Shortly after that, he fled the state.

Speaker 17 Once Jesus fled and we could not locate him, we needed the public's help.

Speaker 25 Police announced a person of interest, 30-year-old Jesus Emmanuel Trevino.

Speaker 17 We needed Jesus' face out there to let him know that he was a person of interest of killing Laura. If someone could provide us with information that will help us in locating him...

Speaker 10 We really had no idea at that point

Speaker 10 he could have been anywhere.

Speaker 2 With the nationwide manhunt for Jesus Trevinho underway, John Macros is also on local television and he's saying he's looking for answers.

Speaker 27 Why somebody will do something like that to her? I mean, I'm not talking about Jesus. I'm talking about in general why.

Speaker 27 And I mean, now a name comes up, it's somebody that I know.

Speaker 8 It's like the why now is even bigger.

Speaker 2 Why is the question the police have as well? So detectives turn to John Macris for answers.

Speaker 2 How have things been lately, relationship-wise, between you and her?

Speaker 2 She was happy, I was happy, and of course, I will have her arguments.

Speaker 2 Normal stuff. Normal stuff.
not really too many arguments.

Speaker 2 But detectives wonder, did this couple have hidden secrets?

Speaker 10 We were able to find one email that Laura sent to John that she wanted out of the relationship.

Speaker 25 In June of 2015, Laura had sent the email saying, I'm at my wit's end. I'm going to leave.

Speaker 6 She wanted to separate and she was trying to assure him that she's she's not out after child support and money and that he could still see the kids and that it's not a vengeance thing.

Speaker 6 It's just not working.

Speaker 2 And after that, out of the blue, John proposes

Speaker 2 to her.

Speaker 6 Exactly.

Speaker 2 John counters Laura's breakup email by asking her to marry him. And she says yes.

Speaker 6 It was a little surprising when she agreed to marry him. I was like, okay, well that kind of flip-flop, but you know,

Speaker 21 okay.

Speaker 7 She wanted to have a stable life for our kids. She felt like maybe would bring her and John closer together.

Speaker 25 He proposes and four months later, the wedding is set.

Speaker 2 You were her maid of honor.

Speaker 6 Yeah. We had a lot of fun picking out the dress.

Speaker 6 We tried several on.

Speaker 6 You know it's always a long process.

Speaker 6 You know, picking out the cakes and the wedding flowers.

Speaker 7 They're planning on getting married in November.

Speaker 2 It's just eight days before their November wedding when Laura is killed.

Speaker 2 That morning, her best friend Heather is shopping for Laura's bridal shower.

Speaker 6 So I was picking out cards and gifts when I got the call

Speaker 6 to go to the house.

Speaker 2 In an instant, Laura's friends and family go from planning for her wedding

Speaker 2 to planning her funeral.

Speaker 6 I was waiting to wake up from a nightmare. I'm like, none of this can be real.

Speaker 2 What was John's behavior like after she was killed?

Speaker 6 It was like maybe just a little hiccup happened in his life.

Speaker 2 You know?

Speaker 7 He was just, he was way too happy. He was smiling, he was like making jokes.

Speaker 2 The very day following Laura's murder, John moves the children back into the house.

Speaker 17 Rowlett police released the house on Saturday. and John moved the family route back in the house.
You got to remember, Laura's been killed in the kitchen

Speaker 17 and the suspect is still at large. And so we found that odd that he never asked for any type of security detail.

Speaker 10 She didn't seem concerned at all about whoever this random person might have been at the time coming back to his home.

Speaker 9 It's another red flag.

Speaker 2 But John does ask for help from the neighbors to clean up Laura's blood from the kitchen floor.

Speaker 9 One of the neighbors was there helping clean, and he said, hey, go get her toothbrush.

Speaker 9 And so they were using her toothbrush to scrub blood out of grout.

Speaker 2 He made someone clean up her blood in the grout of the towel with Laura's.

Speaker 7 Toothbrush.

Speaker 6 He said she wouldn't need it anymore.

Speaker 2 Her toothbrush.

Speaker 7 He was also complaining how the funeral costs were so expensive and even after Lara's dead, she was still costing him money.

Speaker 2 Laura's maid of honor says John wants to try to get refunds for the wedding cake and even the flowers.

Speaker 6 The bridal bouquet.

Speaker 6 You know,

Speaker 6 there was no refunding that.

Speaker 25 So

Speaker 6 he decided to use it for

Speaker 6 the funeral.

Speaker 2 The wedding flowers

Speaker 2 be turned into funeral arrangements.

Speaker 7 The pain and the grief didn't hit until I was at her memorial service.

Speaker 7 And seeing her picture and then this little box in front of it.

Speaker 7 That's when I went, it really hit. Like, that's my sister.
I was never going to hear her voice again.

Speaker 7 I was never going to be able to hug her again.

Speaker 2 Detectives Detectives decide that John's employee, James Viella, the one who'd only known him for three weeks, is the one most likely to cut a deal.

Speaker 2 And they bring a Texas Ranger into the interrogation room.

Speaker 26 What's that? What's that? What's that?

Speaker 17 Jim Holland is a legend here in Texas.

Speaker 28 He got dragged into something that he didn't know about.

Speaker 17 I know that. He is an expert at solving cold cases.

Speaker 8 Not a killer.

Speaker 2 And one interview makes all the difference.

Speaker 2 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 16 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 2 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 2 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 20 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without waking him and I'm scared.

Speaker 2 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 20 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 29 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

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Speaker 18 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood, and that's gone to flames. New secrets and lies are coming out.
This is going to be catastrophic.

Speaker 18 We're fighting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell. They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 1 I can't.

Speaker 18 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

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Speaker 2 Five months into the investigation, police are still searching for Jesus Trevinho, that employee who met up with John Macris on the morning of the murder.

Speaker 17 If someone could provide us with information to get him located and returned to Texas.

Speaker 2 Finally, a tip leads authorities more than a thousand miles away.

Speaker 10 Jesus was ultimately located in the Clearwater, Florida area and taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.

Speaker 2 Jesus Trevinho is in custody, but he's not talking. So investigators turn again to John Makris's other employee, James Vieza.

Speaker 8 Hey, James, Jim Hall with the Rangers. How you doing? Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 This time, police bring in an investigator with the Texas Rangers.

Speaker 8 How's it like treating you today?

Speaker 2 Viella, it seems, is starstruck.

Speaker 13 You actually remind me of the legend of the Texas Rangers I heard about.

Speaker 8 With the old Wild West days. Yeah, yeah.
They'll send all these marshals and sheriffs in there.

Speaker 13 It took one Texas Ranger to go.

Speaker 8 One Wyatt wrote one Ranger, right? Okay.

Speaker 10 James was infatuated with Texas Rangers, and that actually worked out to our advantage.

Speaker 23 If you've ever trusted anyone in your life, today's the day. Because there's no one else that can help you in this deal.

Speaker 23 You just want to go home.

Speaker 23 There's an opportunity for that.

Speaker 17 You stay in the boat, man.

Speaker 23 If you don't play, you ain't get indicted for capital murder.

Speaker 2 James Vieva decides to play, and over the course of a four-hour interview, he paints a disturbing picture of a plot, a crime, and a cover-up.

Speaker 2 His story starts with a call from an old friend, Jesus Trevinho, that other man from the morning Laura was killed.

Speaker 23 It was a normal conversation.

Speaker 30 It was later on that the job came up about John.

Speaker 2 Viella says the conversation quickly turned from working a construction job to becoming an accomplice in a murder.

Speaker 13 So first he tells you, hey,

Speaker 23 you want to help me with the job. I'm going to shoot this lady.

Speaker 23 And I'll give you $1,000 for it. And what else does he say?

Speaker 30 That's what he tells me.

Speaker 23 Yeah, it's about

Speaker 30 John's life.

Speaker 28 He's sent it up.

Speaker 2 Vieva says he was paid $1,000 just to drive Jesse to Laura's home.

Speaker 17 Jesus had approached multiple people. He said, I'll pay you money if you drive me to kill my boss's wife.
And the first and second person turned him down.

Speaker 17 So I believe that James was brought in at the last minute to drive Jesse to Laura's house to kill her.

Speaker 2 James Vieva tells police Laura Grillo's death was no robbery gone wrong. He says it was a murder for hire, orchestrated by the man Laura was just days away from marrying, John Makris.

Speaker 30 He's not happy. He doesn't want to marry her,

Speaker 30 but he knows if he needs her, she'll take the kids.

Speaker 30 And he wants to keep the kids.

Speaker 23 So you want to kill her to keep the kids, basically.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 10 You mentioned that he and Jesse had driven out to Rowlette several times attempting to kill Laura, but there was always something that scared Jesus, like somebody walking down the street or it was raining or something that made them feel uncomfortable and they would go back to Dallas.

Speaker 17 James indicated that John was getting upset with Jesus because it's getting close to the wedding and I need Laura to be killed before the wedding. Get it done.

Speaker 30 This is me harder to get this done. It's because I have got sued.
I'm not ready.

Speaker 30 I'm not doing anything for

Speaker 30 the wedding. You need a quick b ⁇ .

Speaker 2 Investigators find text messages John Macris sent Jesus Trevinho on the morning Laura was killed saying,

Speaker 2 don't be late. It's a good day to get some work done.

Speaker 10 That information in conjunction with Jesus' cell phone records that show his phone was traveling towards Rowlett, we felt like that was a code for today's the day. You know, come get this done.

Speaker 23 Tell me where you dropped him off.

Speaker 30 Right in front of the house.

Speaker 22 Supposed to park

Speaker 28 on the other block and wait till he comes out.

Speaker 10 Once Laura walked in, she went to the right, which goes towards the kitchen area, and that's when Jesus jumped out.

Speaker 13 When he gets back in the car, what does he say to you?

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 17 James told us when they were leaving north out of Rowlette

Speaker 17 that Jesus was throwing his shoes out, he was throwing his hoodie out along the roads.

Speaker 17 We were able to find one shoe and one hoodie that was still out there flattened out in the grass.

Speaker 28 After we started hitting the home depot, that's when he starts talking.

Speaker 17 I scared her.

Speaker 13 She actually tried to run.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 that's what I said. Yeah, he shot her.

Speaker 28 He just shot her.

Speaker 17 In the head.

Speaker 2 Viella's confession may be a breakthrough, but police still have a problem.

Speaker 2 Cameras never capture Jesus Trevinho and his black sedan anywhere near the crime scene. But James Viella has an answer for that, too.

Speaker 13 When you drove over there, you drove?

Speaker 2 Yes. Okay, and what car were you driving?

Speaker 22 Some

Speaker 28 great car. I want an idea to make her mom.

Speaker 17 Jesse had gone out and purchased a car for the sole reason for committing the murder.

Speaker 17 They brought the new car out, committed the murder, parked the car, got in their black sedan, and drove to the Home Depot.

Speaker 17 You can see on the Home Depot video that they're driving a Black Lincoln.

Speaker 2 Viella says he doesn't know what kind of car the new one is, but he does know where to find it. Investigators recover this Silver Kia sedan in a local Dallas garage.

Speaker 2 And when police go back to the surveillance video in Rowlette, sure enough.

Speaker 10 We were able to find that Silver Kia sedan leaving Laura's neighborhood at the morning that she was killed.

Speaker 10 James is finally deciding to cooperate and gave us the information that we needed to move forward with arresting John.

Speaker 8 I'm going to go arrest him.

Speaker 31 Police arrested the fiancé of a mother of three found murdered inside her home in November.

Speaker 2 John Makris is in custody, and investigators are about to reveal just how far back they believe the plot to kill Laura Grillo goes.

Speaker 25 When Laura had sent the email saying, I'm going to leave, and we think that email signed Laura's death warrant.

Speaker 25 Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

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Speaker 11 Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 31 Bond is set at $3 million for a man accused of paying two employees to kill his bride-to-be.

Speaker 2 John Makris and Jesus Travigno were charged with capital murder. They pled not guilty.

Speaker 7 It was like there's going to be some kind of justice. We might never get closure, but there will be justice hat for Laura.

Speaker 7 Yes.

Speaker 7 Finally.

Speaker 8 Hey, come on.

Speaker 2 Epsilon. Come here.
And now it's John Makris, Laura Grillo's fiancé, who's in the interrogation room with that Texas Ranger.

Speaker 2 He denies having anything to do with Laura's murder.

Speaker 26 Sometimes I was getting angry or mad with her and stuff like that, but no, maybe I do not want you killed.

Speaker 8 If you arranged for him to kill her and then you changed your mind and said don't do it, but he still wanted the money so he did it, then that's something that needs to come out, John, because that's not what they're giving me.

Speaker 26 I didn't.

Speaker 2 Investigators don't believe him.

Speaker 26 I loved you, I still love you.

Speaker 2 They say John Makrus is just playing the part of an innocent man.

Speaker 10 John did a very good job of making sure that he was captured on video as many places as he could be.

Speaker 2 That's when investigators become aware of evidence that they claim suggests Macris had been planning the murder for months.

Speaker 25 In December of 2014, an ex-girlfriend of Jesus had made a report to the Rockwell Police Department. That was the first time that it was known that Jesus was talking about committing this crime.

Speaker 2 According to the police report, a friend of Trevinho's offered him $15,000 to kill his wife or $5,000 to find someone who would. But according to the police, he didn't say who that friend was.

Speaker 2 This nearly a year before Laura Grillo was murdered.

Speaker 10 He didn't give her any names at that point, so she had no idea who the intended victim was going to be.

Speaker 2 The case was referred to the Texas Rangers. They declined ABC News' request for an interview.

Speaker 25 He had been planning this since December of 2014.

Speaker 25 So in June of 2015, when Laura had sent the email saying, I'm going to leave and I can't promise I'll stay in Texas, John, about 20 minutes later, he forwards it to Jesus.

Speaker 25 Unfortunately, we think that email signed Laura's death warrant.

Speaker 2 And soon after that, John Makras proposes, but investigators don't believe he ever intended to go through with any wedding.

Speaker 25 He knew that time was running out and that he had to act quickly to keep her here.

Speaker 17 The motive here was he wanted to control Laura. He wanted sole custody of the four-year-old daughter.
And because he couldn't control Laura, he decided to just eliminate her.

Speaker 2 When John is arrested, little Maria is taken in by Laura's friend Heather.

Speaker 2 And in September of 2018, John Makris goes on trial in Dallas County.

Speaker 25 John's defense was that he had no involvement and Jesus and James just went rogue and did this on their own. It didn't make sense.

Speaker 2 His defense doesn't make sense to the jury either. John Makris is convicted of capital murder.

Speaker 2 And so is Jesus Trevinho. the man who actually pulled the trigger.
They are sentenced to life without parole.

Speaker 2 But what about the driver, James Vieva? He too was charged with capital murder, but made a deal with prosecutors.

Speaker 25 Since James did cooperate with us and testify in both John and Jesus' trial, we did give him a lesser charge of murder and he was sentenced to 25 years in the Texas Department of Corrections.

Speaker 7 I wrote a victim's impact statement on behalf of my sister because my sister no longer has a voice, so i'm speaking for her

Speaker 7 and the people that did this to her that took her life

Speaker 7 needed to be put away and kept away forever

Speaker 2 john makras is now behind bars for life but his next step is hard to believe he's ready to go back to court this time to keep laura's best friend heather from adopting his young daughter the daughter she had been raising.

Speaker 2 What happened when you get that notification that John wants his daughter?

Speaker 6 I'm like, well,

Speaker 21 I'm fighting.

Speaker 6 I'm not giving up. That's my kid.

Speaker 6 That day that Laura was killed, the family, they stepped on the landline.

Speaker 2 Laura Grillo was not the only victim in this brutal crime. So are her three children, including four-year-old Maria, whom Laura shared with John Makris.

Speaker 2 All of them have lost their mother and their home.

Speaker 17 After Laura was murdered and John was arrested, then the two older children were returned to their biological fathers.

Speaker 2 They lost the only siblings they knew.

Speaker 6 It was pretty horrifying.

Speaker 2 When John Makras was arrested, Heather, Laura's best friend and neighbor, took Maria in.

Speaker 2 I love Heather.

Speaker 7 She has such a caring heart and she loved those kids. Laura did even say, like, if, you know, if something happens to me, please take my kids to her.

Speaker 2 But Makris, convicted for capital murder, wants his daughter to be raised by his mother.

Speaker 6 He wanted Maria to go to Greece with his mom.

Speaker 17 Well, knowing what I know about John and how he liked to be in control of everything, I wasn't surprised. I was just wishing

Speaker 17 that

Speaker 17 the four-year-old could stay here in Texas because I felt that's what she knew.

Speaker 2 In 2019, the case went to trial.

Speaker 2 And the jury awarded custody to Heather.

Speaker 6 She's mine.

Speaker 21 I adopted her.

Speaker 2 Why was that so important?

Speaker 6 I wasn't going to give up.

Speaker 6 That's my kid.

Speaker 10 This case had lots of twists and turns.

Speaker 15 Make them down.

Speaker 10 And, you know, I would characterize this case as a once-in-a-career case. We didn't have any idea what we were getting into on day one when we responded to this call.

Speaker 25 You had a really sweet woman that did not deserve to be taken from her children.

Speaker 25 The only person who had the means and the motive to take Laura away from her family was John.

Speaker 25 The jury saw John for the man that he was. It was a feeling I'll never forget.

Speaker 2 ABC News contacted John Makris at the Texas prison where he's serving his life sentence. He declined our request.
for an interview.

Speaker 6 He thought he could get away with something and John, well, you know what?

Speaker 6 You stole something

Speaker 6 from a lot of people.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 as far as I'm concerned, John Mackus can rot in hell.

Speaker 8 Very pretty snow angel.

Speaker 6 I should still be hearing her voice.

Speaker 26 She was the coolest friend I ever had.

Speaker 7 My sister was an amazing person.

Speaker 7 Anything that she decided that she was going to do, she did it.

Speaker 2 How often do you think of Laura?

Speaker 2 Every day.

Speaker 6 I can't help it. I mean, I got a little mini Laura in my house.
You know, she reminds me so much of her mom.

Speaker 2 Maria and her siblings are growing up now without their mother.

Speaker 2 What do you want them to remember about Laura?

Speaker 6 She loved them more than anything in the world. She would want them to be happy.

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