In this exclusive sneak peek at Court TV’s Interview with a Killer, the convicted murderer who killed two fellow extremists gets emotional and combative when faced with his crimes in a deep dive into what triggered him to kill.
Staring into the eyes of killers and asking them to relive their crimes is about as intense an experience as one could imagine for anyone, but investigative reporter and journalist David Scott continues to bring these stories to audiences straight from the mouths of the convicted.
In this exclusive sneak peek at this Sunday’s episode of Court TV’s Interview with a Killer, Scott sits down with Devon Arthurs, who was just 18 years old when he gunned down two of his roommates before taking a smoke shop hostage.
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While he was only a teenager, it was quickly revealed that Arthurs had already been radicalized by a local neo-Nazi group called the Atomwaffen Division (AWD). Arthurs has said he was radicalized online, and after he was kicked out of his house, he moved in with the group, with prosecutors arguing he became a key figure.
In May 2017, an argument erupted between Arthurs and two of his roommates over his conversion to Islam — with admissions of sympathies with ISIS and Al-Qaeda to police. Arthurs then shot and killed Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18. He then made his way to a nearby retail establishment, where he was ultimately arrested after a hostage standoff.
It would be six years before Arthurs was finally deemed mentally fit to face justice. But in 2023, he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and three kidnapping charges, eliminating the need for a trial. He was subsequently sentenced to 45 years in a Florida prison.
In an attempt to get inside that moment, Scott brought up vivid details and Arthurs’ own words from police interviews and the trial, which agitated the inmate who told him frequently, “I don’t like to think about things like that.”
In a particularly tense moment, as seen in TooFab’s exclusive clip, Scott describes Arthurs in the moments preceding the shootings as “mentally unstable” and then becoming “enraged.”
“I guess you could say that, but I was also intensely in fear,” Arthurs said, adding, “You can be in fear and be enraged at the same time. Would you agree with that?”
When Scott didn’t have a ready response, instead saying he’d have to think about it, Arthurs accused him, “You’re dodging the question.”
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“I’m not here to be interviewed,” Scott shot back calmly. “You’ve agreed to be interviewed.”
“If you wanna ask loaded questions, then that’s fine,” Arthurs replied defiantly, to which Scott conceded, “Well, they’re all loaded questions, when you look at the circumstances.”
“They are,” Arthurs agreed. “Well, thank you for admitting that.”
They went on to talk about Arthurs expressing regret that he’d failed to take his parents’ advice to seek mental health treatment earlier in life before Scott asked him directly, “Would you say that you’re sane or insane?”
“There is no experience in True Crime television like coming face to face with convicted killers. And there is no greater challenge for an interviewer than to peel open a window into the mindset and motivations behind their murders,” Scott said in a statement ahead of the release of Season 2.
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“This show serves up justice for the court of public opinion using the unique power of the good old fashion hardball interview, and results are compelling, chilling, and unforgettable.”
Arthurs does answer Scott’s question in the clip, but it’s a question that has followed his case since his arrest. And it’s one that may not be easy to definitively answer, as he has at times said he shot the two young recruits to the neo-Nazi organization to prevent future deaths.
Scott pins Arthurs down on a lot of these claims, as a forensic psychologist who analyzed Arthurs during his trial also takes a look at this interview to help viewers understand how and why he’s responding as he is.
It’s an intense and riveting back-and-forth, with Arthurs clearly uncomfortable at times, combative at other times, and seemingly conciliatory at others.
He shares how he thinks he was radicalized into these extremist views before the killings and how he’s managing his mental health while imprisoned, and what he hopes for his own future — something, as was pointed out in court, that he took away from his victims.
Devon Arthurs’ story unfolds this weekend on Interview with a Killer, with new episodes airing every Sunday at 8 p.m. ET
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