‘Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story’ Premieres On Lifetime, Latest In True Crime Series

Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story is a made for TV film that’s based on the true crime story of Christopher Porco, who was charged and convicted of killing his father and disfiguring his mother with an ax in a suburb of Albany, N.Y., in 2004.

The docudrama, which premiered on Saturday, stars Matt Barr (Hatfields & McCoys) as Christopher Porco, Lolita Davidovich as his mother Joan Porco and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) as a composite character police detective.

Romeo Killer is the latest in a string of true-crime movies created by Lifetime. They’ve previously aired docudramas on “The Craigslist Killer” and the Drew Peterson and Casey Anthony cases. "The appetite for them seems to know no bounds," executive producer Kahn Power told Zap2it. "I've made a lot of movies about a lot of different subjects, and for me, there were a lot of interesting character arcs that we explored here. The cop and his daughter (played by Sarah Desjardins) became the conscience of the movie, which is why we composited him, to get inside his mind. Otherwise, we might as well do a documentary."

The film follows Porco’s story from his arrest, to his trial and eventual conviction. It explores the questions of his guilt – from his mother’s initial confirmation that he was the one who wielded the ax and then later coming to his defense, to the community’s hesitation to believe their neighbor capable of such a horrific act. Some family members still believe in his innocence, while others, like his paternal grandmother, believe he should be locked up for life.

After the movie ran on Saturday night, Lifetime then aired an hour-long Beyond the Headlines documentary about the Porco case, which featured testimony on the real life events.

Watch the trailer for Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story below: