Turning Pain Into Power

Little did Amy know that her own husband had masterminded an elaborate plan to kill her in the hotel room. Filled with rage, Chris violently attacked Amy, first bludgeoning her in the head with a flashlight before attempting to suffocate her with a pillow. He took Amy's jewelry and wallet, then scattered the contents of her purse to make the attack look like a robbery. He then dragged her unconscious body into the bathroom and tried to drown her in the bathtub. Amy says that's when police officers came to her rescue. The vicious attack left Amy in the hospital with four skull fractures, a cracked vertebrae and 30 staples in her head.

Chris was arrested for attempted aggravated murder. He was a first-time domestic violence offender and was not required to stand before a judge before being released. He was freed within 24 hours. So, even though Amy's husband nearly killed her, there was very little police could do to protect her.

Three weeks after the first attack, Amy walked into another one of Chris's deadly traps. This time Chris hid in the back seat of Amy's minivan. "He popped up behind my seat," Amy says. "I was screaming. I remember thinking, 'What am I going to do?' I slammed on the brakes and that's when he shot me in the head." Amy was shot twice in the head before crashing her minivan. This time, Chris was arrested and kept behind bars.

Amy barely survived the second brutal attack, but Chris, now incarcerated, was still bent on murder. He spent five months in prison when officials discovered he was plotting to hire a hit man to kill not only Amy, but her mother and brother as well. Police set up an undercover officer to pose as the hit man, capturing the sinister details of his plan on surveillance cameras and unraveling Chris's murder-for-hire scheme.

Chris pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to serve 30 years in state prison with no possibility of parole.