This podcast details true crime cases.

It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children.

Listener discretion is advised. Thank you for joining me for today's episode, Once Upon a Crime. This is the last chapter in the series

tarnished Hollywood. In this episode I'll share a story about a promising

young actor who ran afoul of the law. His decision to immerse himself in gang culture at the expense of an

acting career would lead to a life sentence in a prison cell and a brutal and bizarre end to his life at the age of 36. This is the tragic story of Lloyd

Avery II. The At Lloyd Avery II's double murder trial in 2001,

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney

Hoon Chen opened by telling the jury this.

You've heard the phrase art imitating life.

Well, this is a case about life imitating

and even exceeding art.

Jury members would wonder how Lloyd Avery,

a young man from a stable loving family who

attended Beverly Hills High School and was handed a plumb role in an Academy

Award nominated film, came to find himself on trial for his life on a gang-related murder charge.

The answer, while not definitive, might be summed up as a combination of hubris and the need

Avery had to live up to the perception of others. It's a strange story

that could have only come out of Hollywood. Lloyd Fernandez-Averi II was born on June 21st, 1969 to Linda and Lloyd Avery. His father ran a home repair and construction business.

His mother stayed home to raise her four children in a middle class neighborhood of

Southwest Los Angeles known as the Black Beverly Hills.

...