Lila Stangard Murder Case

This article is about the charges brought against Rebecca Sutter and Griffin O'Reilly.
For the night Lila was murdered, see Murder of Lila Stangard.

"Your Honor, the record shows that my client, Rebecca Sutter, did not impregnate Miss Stangard, nor did she take her to an abortion clinic with hopes of terminating said pregnancy, nor did she drive through three states to spend 20 minutes on a rooftop where Miss Stangard's body was found in a water tank. And yet my client stands accused of murder. To allow this trial to proceed would be a gross miscarriage of justice."

—Annalise to Judge Carol Morrow after Mr. Ingram's testimony^[src]

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Sutter & O'Reilly was the central case of season 1. On August 30 2014, Lila Stangard was reported missing after having a falling out with Rebecca Sutter and Griffin O'Reilly. A few days later her body was found on the roof of the Kappa Kappa Theta sorority house inside a water tank. A police investigation quickly started and Rebecca and Griffin were arrested and charged for her murder. The initial theory was a love triangle gone wrong. Middleton University wanted Annalise Keating to defend Griffin because Lila's family were top donors for the university so having Griffin accused or worse convicted of her murder would have cause significant damage to the reputation of the university. She ended up coming on as Rebecca's council thanks to Wes, and was able to get the charges dropped by implicating her late husband Sam Keating.

Before Annalise represents Rebecca[]

Pilot[]

The murder investigation started in early September, after days of Lila being missing. The inhabitants of Kappa Kappa Theta sorority complained of issues with the water pressure, prompting a maintenance worker to stop by and investigate the water tank. Upon opening it he discovered Lila's dead body floating inside and called the police. Miranda and Stuart Stangard were quick to arrive at the scene. After the initial autopsy her death was ruled a homicide. Following this, the police called Griffin in for questioning because he was her boyfriend. In the days following, Rebecca and Griffin met up a few times inside Rebecca's Apartment. On one occasion, Rebecca came to Wes' Apartment and asked to have a shower, which was really a cover to hide Lila's phone inside his cupboard. The next time they saw each other Wes told her to never talk to the police without a lawyer.

During this time, Annalise defended Gina Sadowski against an attempted murder charge. One night she went through Sam's phone and found many messages between him and Lila. She later decided to front him while the Keating 5 were working on the murder of Marjorie St. Vincent case. She asked him point blank if he was sleeping with Lila and he was quick to deny it. Later that next day when Annalise won her case, Sam cooked a celebration dinner. When he left to the basement to get a bottle of wine, Annalise went through his phone again and saw all the messages between him and Lila had been deleted, causing her to be suspicious and leave for Nate's. She asked him to make sure Sam's alibi checked out, that he was at Yale University when Lila was murdered, because the two were close and she didn't trust him. At the end of the day, Griffin and Rebecca were arrested. ("Pilot", "It's All Her Fault")

Rebecca is a pawn[]

The next day, Wes attempts to find out about Rebecca at the Philadelphia Police Department but is told he needs ID. While he is leaving, he sees Griffin post bail. Meanwhile Annalise meets with David Dolan, the university president, where he asks her to defend Griffin. The meeting ends with her saying she would think about it. At the same time Nate finds out that Sam never showed up for his trial lecture the same night Lila was murdered. That night, Annalise and Sam have dinner with their friends. Sam says that they picked somebody else for the position he was going for at Yale. Later, Nate finds out Sam's car wasn't in the hotel parking lot on the night Lila was murdered. The next day, the Keating 5 are working on the Paula Murphy aka Elena Aguilar case when Bonnie comes in and tells them to tidy up because they would be meeting with Griffin so Annalise could decide if she wanted to represent him or not. When he arrives he gives his account of events. He was at a party without Lila, called Rebecca for drugs and the two of them start having sex when Lila shows up. Lila was upset because the couple had a virginity pact and started screaming and scratching Griffin. He said that was why his DNA was under her nails. After Lila left, Rebecca was smiling and Griffin realised that she set it up, using Griffin's phone to text Lila to come over. Griffin tried to find Lila for the rest of the night but never did.

Later that night Wes created a fake ID to pose as a public defender and visited Rebecca. He tells her he found the phone and there must be evidence that she is innocent because there is no other reason she would keep it. Rebecca stays quit while Wes pleads and eventually calls the guard and tells them that he isn't a lawyer. Wes gets angry and tells Rebecca that Griffin plans to pin the murder entirely on Rebecca. The next day Annalise picks Wes up from jail and he tells her that Rebecca is his neighbour. He tells her she can't represent Griffin because he has everything while Rebecca is a pawn.

That night Annalise meets with Nate who tells her that Sam's alibi checks out and he was at Yale the entire duration of what happened to Lila. In class the following morning she awards the trophy to Wes and announces she is representing Rebecca. When they arrive at the station to meet with Rebecca, Wendy Parks is already there and tells them Rebecca confessed on tape. ("Smile, or Go to Jail")

Building Rebecca's defense[]

The confession tape[]

During Rebecca's bail hearing, the defense led by Wendy Parks says that Rebecca has already confessed and bail should be set at the maximum because of the severity of the crime. Annalise's argument that the confession tape could show coercion fell flat because Rebecca's written confession was already in evidence. Judge Granville Killinger set bail at $1 million. After, Annalise and Bonnie met with Rebecca and tried to have her tell them what happened during her confession. She told them she didn't kill Lila and they made her confess. She also mentioned that Wes told her that Griffin was going to put it on her and he was right. She later lectured Wes and took him off the case. She instructed Bonnie to get Rebecca's detainment logs and confession tape because it would be the only way to get her out on bail. The Keating 5 and Annalise then went to meet Marren Trudeau, who was being charged with insider trading. Meanwhile Bonnie failed to get the confession tape from prosecutor Parks.

That night Nate, who now believes that Sam killed Lila, broke into Sam's car to look at his destination log. Bonnie witnessed this from her car and then went to sergeant Matthew Joseph the next day to demand the confession tape by blackmailing him. When the group arrived back after solving the insider trading case, Bonnie showed them the confession tape. It clearly showed coercion and judge Killinger reduced bail to $100,000 and opened an investigation into interrogation of Rebecca. Following this Wes was finally able to get Rebecca to tell him what was on Lila's phone, which was a penis picture of an older man. He took this to Annalise and she asked if anyone else knew about it and then told him that he had to be the person that Rebecca could trust. Later she confronted Sam with the infamous line "why is your penis on a dead girl's phone?". She told him she knew they were sleeping together and asked for details. She then starts self deprecating, saying that Sam goes for weak women who he wants to fix. He denies this, saying Annalise was never just 'an affair' and Annalise says "tell that to your first wife." ("Let's Get to Scooping") ("We're Not Friends")

Lila's phone[]

The next day after class Wes asked Annalise if she had a plan for the phone. She initially refused to discuss it but eventually said she was unsure if she would even use it as evidence. Later they met with Ryan Remini, who was charged with the murder of his father. That evening Wes and Rebecca talked about the phone and she already knew that Annalise didn't want to use it in court yet because she spoke with her. Meanwhile, Annalise went to see Nate and he accused her of telling his boss that he was investigating Sam, resulting in him getting fired. He then came clean, saying he lied about Sam's alibi checking out and that he drove back to Philadelphia shortly before Lila was murdered. Annalise confronted Sam about this the following night and he came clean. She then told him Rebecca was on her way and he had to do a psychiatric evaluation on her to find out if Lila told anyone else about their affair. This was where the name 'Mr. Darcy' was coined for Sam. After this, Rebecca uses the toilet upstairs and sees the bedroom wallpaper, recognising it from the picture on Lila's phone. She runs away, Wes calls her, she tells him about the wallpaper and he confronts Annalise about her husband being 'Mr. Darcy'. ("We're Not Friends")

The next day Annalise dismisses class because of the emergency hearing for David Allen. That night, she visits Wes at his apartment and he tells her that he has a list of all of Annalise's illegal acts in a safe deposit box and he will take it to the police unless she gets Rebecca back. The next day, she finds out that David Allen's only alibi is dead shortly after Wes pressured her about Rebecca. She begins to stress in her office before coming up with a plan and putting Lila's phone in a package and telling Frank to plant it in Griffin's car. The next day the police find it and there is news coverage about the penis picture and it giving Griffin a motive, so Annalise shows this to Wes and tells him it's safe for her to come back. Later, Annalise tells Sam she changed the wallpaper after he saw the news. ("Freakin' Whack-a-Mole")

Lila second autopsy and gag order[]

The new day starts with giving her account on events to the Keating 5, Bonnie and Annalise. It's cut short when she makes a joke that no one finds funny and Wes suggests taking a break. Later everybody sees on the news it was reported Rebecca and Griffin had sex on the night Lila was murdered and Annalise tells Bonnie to arrange a gag order hearing. In the hearing, the gag order is granted and Jared Keegan submitted a motion to exhume Lila's body because he and his team believed it would point to Rebecca as the sole murderer after noting marks on her neck from autopsy photos.

The Keating 5 work on ways to prevent the motion from being accepted. Soon after Wendy Parks meets with Annalise and gives her the sealed file Commonwealth v. Holden to use to discredit Dr. Erik Turner. She does this successfully and then has Dr. Silas Root testify that the marks on Lila's neck are insect bites. She tasks the Keating 5 with figuring it out a way to make the Stangard parents testify against the exhumation. Sam went to Annalise with a way to have the Stangards testify. They didn't trust Griffin because he was religious and pressuring Lila to be as well. They feared he was trying to control Lila and had ulterior motives. Annalise then tasked Frank and Laurel with going to meet Miranda Stangard and they were successful in convincing her to make a statement. Following this, Wendy Parks hired her own expert that came to the same conclusion as Dr. Erik Turner. Annalise tasked Wes, Connor and Asher to meet with Wendy's assistant in a bar and find out why she changed her point of view on the motion. Wes found out that Wendy and Jared worked out a plea agreement for Griffin but only if Wendy supported the exhumation in court.

Later that night, Wes, Rebecca, Bonnie and Annalise are discussing the new information. Annalise comes up with the idea for Rebecca to leak some information to the press that would make it politically impossible for the plea agreement to go any further. The next day it is revealed that Rebecca told reporters that Griffin raped her. Judge Carol Morrow sanctioned Annalise and said that if it is uncovered that she was behind Rebecca breaking the gag order, a disciplinary hearing will be held. She also ordered the exhumation of Lila.

That night, Nate meets with Rebecca in a store and introduces himself. He said he knew that she didn't kill Lila, they both knew who did, and he wanted her help to catch him, him being Sam. Back at the Keating House, Bonnie got the second autopsy results and told Annalise that Lila was 6 weeks pregnant and it was missed during the first autopsy. Annalise made Bonnie stay whilst she confronted Sam about everything so far. That he lied about sleeping with her, lied about being at Yale when she was murdered, and was now saying he didn't know she was pregnant. Annalise suggested that he was only saying he didn't know because if he admitted to knowing, it was motive to kill. ("He Has a Wife", "He Deserved to Die")

Rebecca working with Nate[]

During class, the new case is revealed to be the murder of Elke. At the house, the Keating 5 are looking over the case when Connor goes round to Laurel and Wes suggesting they study group the weekend of the bonfire. Annalise calls Wes into her office and tells him that Lila was pregnant. She asked him to not tell Rebecca, but he did. She then met with Nate and told him as well, who told her to go to the Keating house and get some of his hair for Nate to run a DNA test at the station. Nate's idea was that if the DNA matched Lila's baby, they'd open an investigation into Sam and close Rebecca's case. The next day Rebecca attempts to get some hair from the house but Sam is suspicious and tells her to leave. Later she calls Nate and updates him and they arrange to meet.

That same night Bonnie meets with Sam outside the house. She confronts him about knowing about the pregnancy because Lila came by the house shortly before her death and was turned away by Bonnie. Sam kisses Bonnie to make her keep quiet. Bonnie goes straight to Annalise with this information and she fires her. At the same time, Nate and Rebecca meet and Nate gives her a USB to plug into Sam's computer to download all his data. Wes sees them together and Rebecca comes clean about working with him. Wes thought that Annalise was testing them because he thought her and Nate were still together. Connor comes round for the study group and Rebecca leaves with the USB. At the end of the night, Annalise tells Sam she told the D.A to run a DNA test on all the men in Lila's life, implying that he will soon be caught. ("He Has a Wife")

Night of the bonfire[]

Before Sam dies[]

Michaela arrives first at the Keating house after stealing the trophy from Asher. Sam tells her Annalise isn't home, as they had just had a fight and she left for Nate's apartment. Michaela decides to wait, at which point Rebecca shows up and tells Michaela to call Wes before running upstairs and locking herself in the bedroom with Sam's laptop. Michaela calls Wes in a panic and it only gets worse when Sam breaks into the bedroom, causing Rebecca to run into the bathroom with the laptop. Shortly after Wes, Laurel and Connor arrive at the house. Wes talks Sam down and convinces Rebecca to come out the bathroom. She does so when the USB is finished downloading his data. They begin to all leave when Sam tackles Rebecca to the floor, causing her to drop the USB. Laurel grabs it and runs out the room, Sam chases after and is pushed over the stair railing by Michaela. Everybody was panicking and discussing what to do while Sam lay unconscious on the floor. Wes wanted to leave but the others weren't as sure. During this, Sam got up and started strangling Rebecca, so Wes grabbed the trophy and hit him in the head with it, killing him.

Following Sam's death[]

They started planning to leave. Wes took Rebecca upstairs and cleaned the blood off her in the bathroom and once they were done, Wes planned to take Rebecca to a motel and told Connor, Laurel and Michaela to go to the woods. Before they could leave, Asher came to the front door and was demanding the trophy from Michaela, but she texted him and he left. After Wes left Rebecca at a motel, he went back to the house for the trophy, when Annalise announced her presence. She instructed him to remove the body and burn it. He went to the woods and showed them the bloody trophy he had in his backpack. The 4 were tied on whether having the murder weapon was a good idea or not. When Wes mentioned going back for the body, there was more disagreement so he flipped a coin with heads being getting the body and tails being leaving it. The coin landed on tails but he lied and said it was heads because Annalise had instructed him to remove the body. ("Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me")

The next day, Wes breaks the USB in the motel with Rebecca. The Keating 5 are called to the house and Annalise tells them the police want to question them about Sam, because he was missing. Following that, Annalise tells everyone Rebecca's trial starts in 3 days unless they can get the charges against her dropped by implicating Sam in the murder of Lila. Frank and Laurel obtain Sam's hair from the bathroom and Connor has Oliver hack to find where Sam was driving the night Lila died. Wes suggests using Sam's laptop to track his location so Annalise sends Bonnie to the police department to obtain the laptop. Meanwhile she meets with judge Morrow and prosecutor Parks to discuss obtaining the security footage of the abortion clinic Lila went to. The judge sided with Annalise. Afterwards, she found out Sam was the father and came clean to Frank about what happened the night of the bonfire. They viewed the security footage and had the receptionist take the stand to testify about what happened between Sam and Lila in the waiting room. Annalise also submitted into evidence the DNA report showing that Sam was the father of Lila's baby. She told the judge that Wendy was holding Sam's laptop in police lockup so she appointed an IT expert to analyse the data on it. Mr. Ingram testified that Sam was at Kappa Kappa Theta house on the night Lila was murdered. Annalise gave her closing statement before Wendy Parks formally dismissed the charges against Rebecca and Griffin. The case was put on hold pending the detainment of Sam. ("Hello Raskolnikov")

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Season 1
"Pilot"	"It's All Her Fault"	"Smile, or Go to Jail"	"Let's Get to Scooping"
"We're Not Friends"	"Freakin' Whack-a-Mole"	"He Deserved to Die"	"He Has a Wife"
"Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me"	"Hello, Raskolnikov"	"Best Christmas Ever"	"She's a Murderer"

"Mama's Here Now"

"The Night Lila Died"

"It's All My Fault"