Among the endless array of things the digital world has brought us are, for better or worse, Internet sleuths. Too often, these are armchair experts, who may be innocuous or otherwise unhelpful to the investigation and the people involved. In this case, we have a real professional expert on murder cases who decided to share “some of [his] observations” on TikTok.
David Betras, a licensed lawyer in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, has nearly four decades of experience in criminal law, having worked on numerous murder trials. Considering the fact that he’s a father of three – who does give off a bit of ‘dad energy’ which adds a little fatherly charm – it wouldn’t be too surprising to learn that his children may have had a hand in motivating the older gentleman to join a social media platform that is known for being mostly populated by Gen Z and Millennials.
Regardless of the reason why he joined the platform at the beginning of 2024, Mr. Betras has some interesting and insightful takes to impart, particularly and in this case, concerning the high-profile murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the arrest of the suspect Luigi Mangione.
Thirty-nine years of criminal law experience talking
“I’m no conspiracy theorist, that’s for sure,” is the opening line to David Betras’ analysis of Brian Thompson’s killing, which he uploaded prior to the suspect’s reveal to the public. Not every conspiracy theory is built the same – some have significantly more kernels of truth than others. And, for thousands of netizens in the comment section of Betras’ video, the attorney’s reasoning sounds solid.
The experienced lawyer discussed how “we never saw the actual shooter’s face,” as the now-infamous security footage shows the cameras only caught the killer from the back as he shot. Then, Betras added many other factors as to why he perceived this as a cold, cautious, and minutely calculated murder. His theory at the time ultimately boiled down to his deducing that this suspect wouldn’t have been “sloppy” enough to allow himself to be seen unmasked and by witnesses at both a Starbucks and a hostel, meaning, he speculated that there were multiple people involved and their purpose in wearing the same clothes and being seen at different places was all to throw investigators off-track.
“You’re creating reasonable doubt;” one netizen wrote, “I love it.” Replying to another commenter who considers that there were multiple people involved, Betras said, “Well, all I can say, I said it many times the more people involved in conspiracy the greater the likelihood they solve it.” The likelihood can increase with the more people involved because there are more evidence trails to follow, and the higher the probability that at least one person will screw up and, quite possibly, drag everyone else down with them. However, since Luigi’s arrest, Betras’ initial theory does not seem to align with what has been made known to the public.
“There’s a motive here,” Betras said in another TikTok “you just gotta get the proof against the person who was most motivated to kill him.” According to the senior attorney, if this person happened to make a mistake, in this era of digital footprints and high-tech investigative technology, the FBI would surely detect said mistake.
And, as it turns out, Luigi Mangione seems to have made enough mistakes, some of which Betras cannot help but find a little curious if odd. “Not as good as I thought he was,” Betras said as the news of the arrest came to light, “still a motivated killing though.” As more and more was revealed in the media about the alleged shooter, Betras had to question why the suspect had acted so thoroughly in some regards and like “the dumbest criminal alive” in others.
In Betras’ professional opinion, the murder charge against Mangione came “awfully fast,” and this, added to other facts, has the cogs in his head turning and turning. In one way, the dominoes falling so quickly aligns with one prevalent criticism people have been having of this investigation: the effort put into solving this killing does not compare to most others. Some netizens had to wonder how speedily the FBI would have acted had the victim been an average, working-class individual and not the CEO of United Healthcare.
In the TikTok below, Betras spends a little over three minutes unpacking the circumstances surrounding Mangione’s arrest, and how he’s “not too impressed” with what has been released to the public so far:
The deeper Betras – like many others – dives down this murder case’s rabbit hole, the more he begins to feel like he’s “turning into a conspiracy theorist.” But, by conspiracy theorist standards, the lawyer’s speculations, even as they continue to create some measure of reasonable doubt by addressing the official version of events with some healthy degree of skepticism and scrutiny, are interested in and open to finding out the real truth, whatever that may be.
Published: Dec 13, 2024 05:44 am