I have learned over the years that people are split down the middle when it comes to like people who have a mental health diagnosis and then they commit serious crimes like there's some people that think they should just get help While others think it doesn't matter if you commit a serious crime you go to prison into discussion for me in my mind I think that they get help for some smaller crimes but that there's just some crimes that are so despicable that mental health diagnosis or not they should never be let back out into the world with you or I ever again today we're going to cross this path because on December 28th of 2021 just 3 days after Christmas Payton Moyer brutally murdered his own mother and a stepfather In Cold Blood right in front of a sister I have everything from this case and I even delayed making this video a couple of times now as you may know so that I could get more information on the case from law enforcement and today I'm going to ask all of you after hearing and seeing all the evidence of this case should it have been handled any differently like should Payton Moyer have gotten punishment or should he have just been hospitalized um I've got a short little hike to get back to the house where this happened at and I'm just I'm going to tell the story while I'm walking back here 20-year-old at the time pton Moyer lived right here at this home here in Watkinsville Georgia with his mother Ashley his stepfather Benjamin who went by Benji and his two sisters 16-year-old Laney and four-year-old sailor only the youngest sailor was both Ashley and benjie's child pton and Laney's biological father was never really in the picture and then Ashley and Benji got together when pton was about 8 years old which would make Laney about three or four so really even though he wasn't their biological father Benji was their dad he was the only dad they knew and he had been in their lives for as far back as they could really remember Benjamin was a retired US Army Ranger and Ashley at the time was very focused on Fitness she was trying to lose weight and get healthy and then both of the girls they were focused on school and friends the oldest daughter Laney was a cheerleader at the local high school and she was very involved with being social and hanging out with friends and then the youngest daughter sailor she was in prek and she was heavily into Disney stuff at the time in fact in one of the police interviews from later on in the story sailor told law enforcement that her favorite thing to do in the whole world was to sit in the living room and watch Disney movies with her big sister and then lastly in the house we have pton now pton he wasn't just an average kid in town like his sisters pton suffered from mental health issues and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a very early age and he struggled adjust into the world while dealing with this Payton's mom and Benji they did everything they could to get him help they took him to doctors and they went through the process of trying to find the right medication for him and they stuck by his side even while pton was experiencing mood swings and anger they hung in there and they kept with it even though he typically took the anger out on them Payton fought with his mother and stepfather constantly and I mean physically fought with him hitting and kicking alongside the abusive words that he would yell at them as pton entered his teenage years and he began to navigate middle school and then High School the social aspect of growing up came into play and as Payton would get frustrated at school with the other kids he would frequently come home and take it out on his family now the medicine that Payton was prescribed it helped with his anger and with all the fighting and everything but it didn't stop it they just could not find the right mixture for him to get him to stop and let me be clear here like this wasn't an everyday thing but it was quite frequent him fighting with his parents because of all of this Payton's mental health and his anger issues and all of this stuff it caused pton to have a hard time learning and he he just couldn't sit in a chair in a classroom all day and take information in and this led to Payton dropping out of school in the middle of his 10th grade year after Payton made the decision to drop out of high school it didn't get any easier for him like he thought it would because now it was time for him to learn to navigate The Adult World and he only had a ninth grade education so getting a job turned into a challenge and Payton's frustrations with all of it led to everything in Payton's life just taking a turn out into far left field Payton was old enough at this point that he would frequently decide that he didn't want to take his medication anymore he said that he didn't like the way it made him feel so he just wouldn't take it which led to pton displaying erratic Behavior out in public which now because he's older that also led to police interactions and consequences for the way he acted within a couple of year time frame there between 2019 and 2021 Payton was arrested multiple times for his anger issues fighting with Ashley and Benji or acting erratically out in public and then pton also had many interactions with law enforcement where he wasn't charged with anything he was just arrested and taken into custody and then transported to a hospital to receive help for his mental health now it's over those couple of years where pton has decided to take his medicine on and off and he's been being hospitalized here and there Payton's so-called friends decide to introduce him to street drugs pton first got started with marijuana but Payton pretty quickly moved on to other stuff like pain medicine and then ultimately he was introduced to cocaine and methamphetamine and as you all may know already these are all drugs that mess with your head and so here's Payton who has mental health issues pretty bad he's not taking his medication but yet he's doing these drugs Payton would be out in public and he would just randomly start talking to himself and then he would be speaking with someone and he would just all of a sudden start not making any sense he and he would just start talking gibberish now over those years Payton was never arrested for any drug related offenses even though everyone knew he was on them including the police he was never arrested for drugs but Payton had to support his new drug addiction mainly to meth so pton started breaking into people's homes and he started stealing stuff and selling it for a while Payton was actually known around Watkinsville Georgia as the town thief and this did lead to multiple arrests for criminal trespassing and stuff like that now because Payton was choosing to take his schizophrenia medication on and off at this point in time he would go weeks where he was acting normal and he even managed to get a job at a local McDonald's but then he would also go weeks where he quit taking the medication and he would become so erratic and so unbelievably just angry at the world that no one knew which pton they were going to get at any given moment as Le and Benji tried everything they could to get it all sorted out they tried to force pton to take his medicine but by this point pton was what 19 or 20 years old he wasn't quite as big as Benji but he was pretty much just as strong as him so they really couldn't force him to take it they tried to bribe him to take his medicine with money and stuff like that but that didn't work because he would just tell them that he took the medicine when he really didn't just to get the money and then they even tried to have him hospitalized but he would be admitted to the hospital he would take the meds for a day or two until he calmed down and then the hospital would just release him and he would go right back to not taking the medicine as soon as he got back home Payton's parents insisting that he took his medication led to a lot of the physical alterations that happened between pton and his mom and Benji that resulted in Payton getting arrested several times for family violence charges hey how are yall doing good my name is pton yes I'm inside so what's been going on this even man so we got me and my family got to arguing this morning about a cigarette over a cigarette I'm just trying to get my life together and be right and look at my neck look at all these scratches on my body and they tried first my mama tried to fight me and I I I I was just trying I like chill out mom I was like just chill please please just chill out and then Ben wants to step towards me and he's talking about calling the police I'm I'm like man why you trying call the police like what did I even do to you and then and then and then and then he tries to fight me and then we get fighting and I got fighting self-defense he over here trying to slam me he slams me on my back and and he's laying on me while my M sitting there choking me out how I going to call a police man and then he come out here jump on me and going chase me in the wood okay do me a favor turn around turn around put your hands behind your back for me don't don't do nothing okay cuz you take you to jail ton yeah we getting ready to go to jail okay don't there we go all right because of the physical altercations that went on frequently by pton to his parents both Ashley and Benji feared for both of the girls safety so they made Payton set up his bedroom down in the basement the furthest point in the house away from the girls' bedrooms the basement didn't have a door or anything like that like as soon as you walked in the front door to the house there was immediately a set of stairs there one went up to the living area where the girls bedrooms were and the living room area and then another set went down to like the basement area they did this to make sure Payton wasn't in the home doing drugs and other bad stuff around the girls the basement was just open there was no door blocking it off so they would be able to Smit if he was doing anything inside of the house that he shouldn't be and the only door that was in the basement was actually the door that separated the house from the garage so they also had an opportunity to walk through there every now and then when they were going to their vehicles that way they could just check up on him as they were you know going to their cars to leave or whatever the whole family knew when Payton wasn't taking his meds because of his behavior and the living Arrangement that they had set up just gave Ashley and Benji another way to keep their eye on him while keeping him as far away from everyone else as possible during these times as the family entered the holiday season in 2021 it wasn't one of those good times for pton or Ashley or Benji Payton had quit taking his medication back in October and he was actually hospitalized for several weeks at the beginning of November just to get him back on track but Payton was discharged just before Thanksgiving and he immediately came home and quit taking his meds again Thanksgiving actually went okay for the family because even though pton wasn't on his medication it was Ste in his system from that hospitalization so their family was able to get together and eat and they had other family members come over and it was actually a decent day for all of them it was between then between Thanksgiving and Christmas that Payton caused a lot of issues he fought with Ashley and Benji and over the month between the time he was released from the hospital and then Christmas tensions in the home just kept building and building and building until it couldn't build anymore on December the 27th of 2021 2 days after Christmas it started off like a normal day for the family Ashley and Benji were at home with sailor while she played with her new toys that she had just gotten from Santa for Christmas and at about 400 p.m. that day Lany left with some of her friends to go to the movie theater to watch Spider-Man no way home that had just come out at the same time Payton was also at home and he was just down doing his own thing down in the basement after Laney's movie ended she came back home and she changed and got ready to go again because Laney had cheerleading practice that day between 8 and 9:30 she had a teammate come and pick her up and then they went to the high school and practice and then after practice ended she had that same friend bring her back home so Laney got back home around 10: p.m. that night and she immediately came in and she went and got a shower and she cleaned up and she got ready for bed at just around 11:30 p.m. that night Lany walked out from her room and she walked into the living room where Ashley and Benji and sailor were all sitting and watching TV and she told her parents and her sister good night and Laney went to bed it was about an hour later right around 12:30 a.m. on December the 28th when out of nowhere Laney was woken up by several loud bangs and then right after those loud bangs sailor came running into Laney's room saying mommy and daddy are shot now Laney being the big sister she told sailor to stay in her room and she walked out to see what was going on and she just simply stepped out into the hallway and she could immediately see gji laying in his bedroom floor and Ashley sitting in the living room chair and there was blood just everywhere Laney knew that sailor was right they had both been shot and as soon as Laney saw it she immediately slams her bedroom door and she shuts and locks it she grabs sailor and carries her into the closet and she holds on to her tight while she calls 911 Lany tells the 911 operator that her parents have been shot so that call goes out shots fired here at their house officers from all over sto what they're doing and they fly to get here so they could figure out what's going on while 911 was still on the phone with Laney five officers breach and enter the house their first objective was to clear the house to make sure the threat was no longer there so the officers go room by room clearing the house they see Ashley in the living room and they start moving down the hallway and they see Benji laying on the master bedroom floor once they've cleared the whole house lastly they go into Laney's room they yell out that they are police and they open the closet door and both of the girls pretty much leap into the officer's arms and the officers carry them out of the house into safety now the Watkinsville police department and the okone county sheriff's department they were all already pretty familiar with the family and the house because of all the cuse that they had gotten for Payton's Behavior so right away law enforcement notices that Payton is the only member of the family that's not accounted for at the same time while officers are secure in the home and they're waiting for detectives to arrive and they're waiting for the coroner and all of that stuff both Laney and sailor are taken by an officer down to the police department so that they can start trying to make sense of all of it the girl's grandparents are called and informed of what happened and their aunt was also called and she pretty much met them at the police station as the girls arrived detectives immediately sit down and begin talking to both of the girls to find out what happened Laney tells them her version of events which is just how I described it to you just a moment ago that was exactly how Laney described it but at the very end of the conversation Laney tells the detectives that Payton must have done it he was the only one that was not there and he was the only one who ever had a problem with Ashley and Benji by this time sailor has fallen asleep and sitting with her aunt the detectives unfortunately have to wake her up to talk to her and when they get her awake they just simply ask her what happened tonight four-year-old sailor begins to tell them what she saw and it's heartbreaking sailor tells the detectives that she was in the living room with Ashley and Benji watching TV when pton walked in pton just kind of comes and stands right in the middle of the living room while Benji Ashley and sailor are sitting there watching TV and they're kind of staring at him and then sailor tells the detectives that she sees pton take a gun out of his hand when they see this Benji takes off running down the hallway back to his room so he can retrieve a firearm of his own for whatever reason Payton then turned the gun and pointed it at his mother and he pulled the trigger shooting her twice as she sat in the chair there in the living room and it's here where sailor tells detectives the most heartbreaking part of all of it and again she was just four and she didn't know any better but she tells the detectives that after Benji left the room she saw Payton putting batteries in the gun so it would work she saw him reloading bullets into the gun but to her at four years old she thought he was putting batteries in it like a toy now sailor told the detectives that pton looked at her as he walked down the hallway and then he met Benji at his and Ashley's bedroom door where he proceeds then pull the trigger again shooting bingi four times in the chest and in the abdomen area and then after he has shot bji he turns around and he puts a black baseball hat on he tells sailor that he's going to be right back and then he walks out the front door and sailor watched as pton got into Benjamin's work truck and he pulled out of the driveway and drove off now we believe that the girls lives were never really in danger he loved his sisters more than his parents and he even had sailor's name tattooed on his arm it was here once sailor watched pton drive off that she ran back to lany's room and Laney called 911 and that whole thing happened after hearing sailor's version of events the detectives now knew 100% that Payton was their suspect so they went back to Laney and they asked her if you follow up questions like does pton have any friends in the area and where would he go if he left home like that and Laney tells them that Payton really only had one friend that he ever talked to and that that friend lived about 20 minutes away over in Athens Georgia so just for reference the 911 call came in from Laney at about 12:30 a.m. and then officers arrived on the scene and they got the girls out and got them back to the police station they were able to sit down and talk to them and get these statements so that they kind of knew what was happening and within about half an hour of the 911 call at 108 a.m. officers put out a bolo for Payton Moyer with the description of Benji's truck that he was driving and then they were also able to notify Athens that he was probably headed their way no one really knows where pton went after he left the home but it was about 2 and 1/2 hours after the bolo went out at about 3:30 a.m. when an Athens Clark County police officer was patrolling an area in Athens and he spotted Benji's truck the Athens officer didn't immediately try to pull him over they all knew that he had just killed both of his parents so he calls it in and the officer turns around and he tries to stay way back so that Payton wouldn't see him and do something crazy and they waited until another officer arrived and once another unit got there they activated their lights and they tried to pull Payton over but pton didn't stop and it l led to a short high-speed chase through Athens now because the officer had called it in and they waited for other units to arrive by this time uh quite a few units were already you know right there nearby So within a couple of minutes of the Chas starting they threw out spike strips and pton ran over them flattening all the tires and just as quickly as that chase had begun Payton pulled over and with about 20 Athens officers was on scene pton Moyer was taken into custody without incident pton was immediately taken to aone County and booked into the county jail there for two counts of murder and child endangerment for doing it in front of his sisters pretty much right away once Payton got into the jail system he was sent off to a psychiatric facility to receive help unlike being an adult out in the Free World where you have a choice in prison you don't have a choice and he was forced to take his medication and you know I wonder a day or two after the murders Payton is now on his mids again and he's thinking coherently did he then realize what he had done and become sad about it I don't know the answer to that but I do know that several months later after Payton's arrest in May of 2022 even though Payton was taking his medication in jail his mental health situation got bad again and while he was behind Boris he was hospitalized yet again he was in the hospital for about a month this time before he was released and again he was taken right back to the aone county jail but this was the last time he was hospitalized to date and since that hospital visit he has you know been forced to take his medication at the jail and he hasn't had any other issues about 6 months after that hospitalization on November the 2nd of 2023 just shy of one year since the murders Payton Moyer agreed to take a plea deal and in his own words he did it so that his sisters did not have to take the stand to testify against him so pton pleed guilty to two counts of malice murder possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and cruelty to children and the judge sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years plus an additional 15 years so if Payton were to get paroled down the road it would be after 45 years and Payton would be nearly 70 years old at that point at The Plea and sentencing hearing Lany Payton's sister she gave a heartfelt Victims Impact speech where she explained that her life was flipped upside down because of all this in more ways than just the death of her parents she said that she didn't know why he had done it but that she was in high school and she no longer had her parents help with her homework or to even just navigate life she said that she didn't have her parents anymore to give her gas money and to make her car payment for her and to pay her phone bill and her insurance and all these things so immediately after this she had to get a job and she had to start doing all of these things that she didn't have to worry about prior to that night most notably during her speech Laney looked directly at Payton and told him that she didn't have a brother anymore also at the sentencing hearing the girl's aunt and now Guardian told the judge that the younger sister sailor had night mares for so long after watching Payton shoot their mother she had to have counseling and that she was so young that she cried all the time saying that she wanted her mommy and daddy now I've gone through the court transcripts of the hearing multiple times and nowhere in it is there anything about Payton shedding a tear or getting CAU up because of grief as he was speaking or anything like that it says nothing about him even being remorseful at all in fact as the judge was handing down that life sentence the judge so much has said that he hasn't seen any remorse from Payton at all not for killing his own mother and stepfather but also No Remorse for destroying his whole family and taking everything away from his younger sisters the only thing in the transcripts at all is just uh is one line about three qus of the way through the hearing where Payton's public defender stood up and said and I quote on behalf of Mr Moyer we would like to say sorry to his family that's it at this hearing Payton's attorneys included an entire box of Payton's medical records that they wanted to be included in the record for this trial and from what I can tell it looks to me like pton took the life sentence plea deal against his attorney's advice it seems as if the public defenders wanted to attempt to get him found either guilty or not guilty but by mental defect so that he would go to a mental hospital instead of prison and as I said earlier though Payton agreed to take the deal and because of that guilty plea pton Moyer is currently serving his life sentence at mon State Prison in mon County Georgia but this leads us to what I want to know from all of you I have told you everything that happened in the case and I've shown you the crime scene photos and everything and I've told you about what led up to it so down in the comments below I want your opinion do you think Payton should have gone to a mental health hospital or did he get the right punishment with a life sentence in prison which by the way you know he'll get mental health treatment in prison it's just not in a cozy hospital now my heart goes out to Ashley and benjie's families but more importantly to both of the daughters I can't even begin to Fathom what either one of them have gone through being in the home and witnessing their own brother do this to their parents I also can't imagine the devastation that followed it all because they didn't have their parents to take care of them anymore Plus on top of that benjie sister also had to uproot her life and overnight she had to become a parent to raise both of the girls now and it it's just devastating on so many levels this whole tragedy is something that's going to follow both of the girls their whole lives they'll never get over it and it's just it's devastating absolutely devastating that is going to do it for this episode today and pton Moyer who killed his mother and his stepfather in Watkinsville Georgia I want to thank you all so much for watching I really appreciate it if you're new here go down hit that subscribe button then hit that notification Bell so you get notified every time I upload a video thank you all I will see you again in the next one please all of you stay safe and stay healthy much love to you all [Music]