There's a well-polished veneer of southern gentility that graces the fine old mansions of Beaufort, South Carolina, although the courthouse where a jury was selected to pass judgment on Vinson Filyaw is incongruously modern.

It was also a long drive from Lugoff, S.C., where defense lawyers had argued Vinson could not have had a fair trial.

No matter. Elizabeth Shoaf would go anywhere to face Vinson again. She was determined, she said, to tell the jury every gruesome detail of every miserable day in that bunker.

It was her duty, she decided, to make certain Vinson could never terrorize anyone again. 

She never got the chance -- Filyaw’s own words would do the job.

Remember that manuscript he'd written? The one in which he boasted about his plot and his assaults on Elizabeth?

The crowd gathered in the courtroom sat in stunned silence as the district attorney read it aloud.

(District Attorney Barney Geise reading in court)

"Knowing that when or if I got caught, I would spend the rest of my life in prison, I decided to make the most of my victim. I repeatedly raped her in between newscasts and coffee breaks … she was doomed. I was overjoyed and basking in the success of my mission. I began to think that I could keep her for as long as I wanted and nobody-- nobody could stop me."

The defense offered an explanation of sorts.

After years of alcoholism and untreated depression, said his defense lawyers, Vinson’s life had spun out of control and maybe, said his lawyer, maybe his book was not entirely factual.

(Defense attorney Jack Duncan in court)

I mean, it is just -- fantasy and reality were so intertwined that the fantasy took over. The manuscript is just that. It's that of a novel and entertainment.

Vinson sat in his court clothes, surrounded by the deputies he'd vowed to kill, the young girls he was charged with abusing and by his own ugly words.

Elizabeth's father strained to hold himself in check.

Don Shoaf: If I could have found him before the cops did, we wouldn't have had a trial. I’d be the one in jail. Some people forgive. I don't. Not something like that.

Madeline Shoaf: No.

Don Shoaf: I’ll never forgive him. Never.

But now, Vinson had a decision to make. Were his written words the truth or not?

The defense asked for a recess.

What would Vinson do? Admit he was guilty of everything or tell the jury the story he'd tried out on us -- his claim that Elizabeth was in on it?

Then, back in session, the judge had an announcement: the jury would be needed no longer.

(In court)

Judge Cooper: In your opinion counsel, does the defendant Mr. Filyaw understand the charge, the punishment and his rights?

Duncan: He does your honor.

Cooper: How does your client wish to plead to these charges?

Duncan: He wishes to plead guilty.

The story, the abuse of Amber, the kidnapping and repeated rape of Elizabeth, the bizarre plot to kill his would-be captors -- it was all true. He admitted guilt to all 17 of the charges against him.

And yet Elizabeth, sitting on the front row, did not give up her guard just yet.

Video   Showdown with abuser Teen Elizabeth Shoaf braces to confront her abuser in court as her father checks his rage. Dateline NBC

What would happen to Vinson? How long would he be locked up? Could he ever come after her again?

As sentencing got underway, prosecutors laid out the evidence and described every crime Vinson committed each day he held Elizabeth hostage down in his bunker.

(Campbell in court)

"He took this chain and put it around her neck, wrapped it around her neck."

Amber, the other girl Vinson called Peanut, approached the judge with her story.

Amber: I lived with Vinson a year and a half. I can tell you, he is not the clean cut man you see here today. There is no excuse for the cruelty he put me through for at least a year of my life. Whereas he thought he was smart enough to hurt and take advantage of a 12-year-old child, he was not smart enough to realize that I would fight until I take my last breath.               

Elizabeth's mother Madeline told the judge about the agony Vinson put them all through.

Madeline Shoaf: The torture she experienced horrified us all. She was a child when she was taken from us and placed into the adult world, which she should've been allowed to gradually enter.

And then when it was Elizabeth’s turn…

(Prosecutor Campbell)

This is Elizabeth. Do you want me to read it?

Her great wall of bravery softened, just a bit, and she asked a prosecutor speak for her.

(Prosecutor Campbell)

There are certain images, your honor, she told me she will never forget. She can still feel the chain around her neck and how much it hurt when he raped her, when that chain was around her neck. All she asks, your honor, is sentence him so that this can never happen to anyone else. That he can never get out of prison.

Vinson watched and listened intently.

And then he stood up, bravado gone entirely , the big bad wolf now just a callow nervous man, and apologized.

Vinson Filyaw: Unfortunately, my anger and hatred towards Kershaw County sheriff's department manifested itself in a plot of revenge. I used an innocent young lady as pawn. There are no words or statements that I could ever possibly give to undo the pain that I have caused her and her family. I can only hope that one day they will be able to forgive me because I cannot forgive myself. I think of nothing else every day.

Wasn't this the man who just hours before court began told us it was all a game?

What should happen to this strange, confused man... Who'd become, quite simply, by his own reckoning, a monster.

What was a judge to do?

Elizabeth sat and watched and waited as the judge contemplated Vinson’s sentence.

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