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| “ | I only killed him because of you! It's your fault! | „ |
| ~ Scott blaming Denise Pikering for the murder he committed. |
Scott Heston is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Pretend". He is a teenage boy who murders his best friend and makes it look like an accident, all so he can have his friend's girlfriend to himself.
He was portrayed by Michael Welch.
Early life[]
Scott is a 16-year-old high school student and, along with his best friend Riley Cuskey, an aspiring social media celebrity. They regularly filmed themselves engaging in "extreme fighting" - wrestling matches in which they beat each other to a pulp with blunt and jagged objects, including a baseball bat wrapped barbed wire, and upload it to the Internet.
He also has an obsessive crush on Riley's girlfriend, Cassandra Sullivan. After Riley breaks up with her, she goes to Scott for a shoulder to cry on, but they end up having sex. When she and Riley get back together, Scott starts making plans to get rid of him.
Scott and Riley film another wrestling match, an especially brutal fight in which they break glass over each other's bodies. Scott then "accidentally" hits Riley in the leg and cuts his friend's femoral artery, which he had learned about after taking an anatomy class in school. After Riley collapses, Scott films him as he dies.
"Pretend"[]
After Riley's body is discovered, the NYPD's Special Victims Unit investigates his murder. The mother of a missing boy who resembled Riley misidentifies him as her son and accuses convicted child molester Darren Tolson of killing him. Just as the SVU team begins investigating Tolson, however, Scott walks into their station house, identifies the dead boy as Riley Cuskey, and provides the recording of his death.
Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola interrogate Scott, who claims that he merely recorded the fight and that a boy named Jake killed Riley accidentally. Detective Elliot Stabler joins the interrogation and confronts Scott with the fact that the camera was stationary all through the recording, meaning that only Riley and the killer were present; he also says that, since both fighters were bleeding, DNA analysis will reveal the killer's identity. Cornered, Scott bursts into tears and confesses to killing Riley, but insists that it was an accident.
Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak prosecutes Scott for second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide. Scott's lawyer, Oliver Gates, characterizes Riley's death as the accidental result of a game that went too far, while Scott's therapist testifies that the boy suffers from severe clinical depression and hurts himself just to feel something. The jury ultimately dismisses the two most serious charges, but they do find him guilty of criminally negligent homicide. He is nevertheless released on bail pending his sentencing.
Cassandra attends the verdict, and Scott tries to talk to her, but she refuses to even look at him. A suspicious Novak goes to her foster home, where Cassandra admits to the love triangle between her, Scott, and Riley, and says that she knows that Scott killed Riley on purpose because she took the same anatomy class where Scott lea rned about the femoral artery.
While Novak cannot try Scott again for murder, she is determined to see he gets the maximum sentence for the charge he was found guilty for. At her direction, Stabler and his partner, Detective Olivia Benson, try unsuccessfully to get him to confess to killing Riley intentionally, but Benson convinces Cassandra to speak for Riley at Scott's sentencing; she does not show up, however. Scott addresses the court and expresses remorse, even apologizing to Riley's parents. Ultimately, the judge sentences him to five years of probation with counseling in lieu of prison.
When Cassandra is struck and seriously injured by a car, Stabler and Fin suspect foul play and look up the DMV tags of the offending vehicle. They find Scott's friend Keith, who confesses that Scott gave him $500 to injure Cassandra to stop her from testifying. They arrest Scott for attempted murder; after he is convicted, he is sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After Cassandra is revealed to be Denise Pikering, a 28-year-old con artist posing as a teenager, Gates presses charges against her for statutory rape because she had sex with Scott, a minor. Novak charges Pikering with statutory rape and calls Scott as a witness. Pikering, who is representing herself, cross-examines Scott, accusing him of taking advantage of her; Scott replies that he only had sex with her because Riley "dumped your skanky ass". When Pikering presses him further and accuses him of murdering Riley, Scott explodes and tries to attack her, screaming that it is her fault that he committed the crime. Ultimately, however, they both end up going to prison.
External links[]
- Scott Heston on the Law & Order Wiki
