This story initially aired on Dec. 16, 2023
Within the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2020, when Laredo, Texas, police officer Gregorio De La Cruz walked inside the house on Canyon Oak Drive, his physique digicam was recording the emergency unfolding in entrance of him.
On the prime of the steps, close to the principle bed room, Joel Pellot wearing teal surgical scrubs, was performing CPR on his spouse Maria Muñoz. De La Cruz quickly took over.
Erin Moriarty: What sort of form was she in while you began giving her CPR?
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: She was heat. She was nonetheless heat to the contact.
Whereas De La Cruz desperately tried to revive Maria, he requested her husband concerning the medicine. Pellot had advised the 911 operator his spouse might have taken some capsules.
Officer Gregorio De la Cruz: He stands up, he goes to the restroom. … He opens a drugs cupboard. I can — I can inform all this as a result of I hear it.
JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): I am not likely positive if she took them or she dropped them …
Upon his return, he palms De La Cruz a tablet container.
JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): It is clonazepam.
Clonazepam is a drug that’s usually used to deal with anxiousness. It had been prescribed to Pellot, to not his spouse Maria.
De La Cruz rapidly tossed the tablet container apart to proceed CPR.
Pellot advised De la Cruz that Maria had been struggling recently.
JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): Yeah, she’s been tremendous depressed.
Pellot advised the officers, the couple’s two younger sons have been nonetheless in separate bedrooms close by — seemingly unaware of what was taking place to their mom Maria.
OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (performing CPR on Maria): They’re asleep?
JOEL PELLOT: Yeah.
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Yazmin Martinez says her pal Maria adored her boys, 5-year-old Alejandro and Valentino, who was turning 2.
Yazmin Martinez: She want to take her youngsters to the park … she learn to them earlier than they went to mattress. … only a actually devoted mom.
Maria loved being a keep at house mother. She was studying to play the piano and planning to renew her profession.
Yazmin Martinez: I requested her if she had gone to highschool, and he or she mentioned sure that … she was a nurse in Puerto Rico and he or she’s like I am truly learning to take my take a look at so I can work right here.
It was in Puerto Rico the place Maria met Joel Pellot. He was 11 years older and a nursing pupil.
A couple of years after they married, the couple moved to Laredo, Texas. Pellot had landed a profitable job as a nurse anesthetist, identified within the medical career as a CRNA.
Tina Dores: A nurse anesthetist, or a CRNA, licensed registered nurse anesthetist and a doctor anesthesiologist use the identical remedy, identical methods to offer anesthesia for folks of all ages.
Tina Dores, additionally a CRNA, labored with Joel Pellot at Medical doctors Hospital in Laredo.
Erin Moriarty: Did he appear devoted to his work?
Tina Dores: Sure, very a lot so. … he all the time wished to be higher.
Tina Dores: Once I first met him … he was very household oriented … a tough employee, sensible man … he would all the time discuss … Maria and Alejandro … and exhibiting photos of his son and simply speaking about household life usually.
And now on the Pellot house, paramedics and police have been struggling to avoid wasting the lifetime of the younger spouse and mom.
When extra assist arrived, De La Cruz despatched Pellot downstairs to the kitchen. And that is when De La Cruz realized that the tablet container he had tossed to the facet earlier was now lacking.
OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (police bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, the place is it?
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: I used to be like, he has to have them. In order that’s after I requested, “Hey, does he have capsules?” He comes as much as the primary touchdown of the steps and he tosses them to me.
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: So, he had taken them. So, now I am considering now you are making an attempt to cover one thing.
At 3:58 a.m. lower than three hours after Joel Pellot had referred to as 911, his spouse, 31-year-old Maria Muñoz, was declared lifeless inside their house.
Police started asking Joel what had occurred to his spouse.
JOEL PELLOT (bodycam video): We had intercourse, I took a bathe. Then I believed she was, like, knocked out … After which I’m going again upstairs and he or she’s simply – oh God (covers his face along with his hand and begins to cry).
By now, issues simply did not really feel proper to the investigators. And there was one thing about Pellot’s look that appeared suspicious.
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He was actually sweaty … I am sporting a vest, I am sporting a gun, I am sporting nearly 20 kilos of drugs, proper, and I am not sweating as dangerous as he was.
Erin Moriarty: So, what went via your thoughts while you noticed how sweaty he was?
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He is utilizing medicine. He could also be below the affect of medication.
SGT. MATA (to the couple’s sons): You wanna see a fireplace truck? Come on let’s go outdoors.
The couple’s youngsters, now within the care of regulation enforcement, have been escorted outdoors. Authorities instantly launched a dying investigation.
Sgt. Luis Mata: Once I get there, I meet with Officer De La Cruz. … He runs the data by me.
Lead investigator Sergeant Luis Mata did not know if Maria had died by suicide, an unintentional overdose, or if her husband was by some means concerned. Mata knew he wanted to go looking the home, however to do it he must get Pellot’s permission.
Sgt. Luis Mata: And he mentioned, “Nicely, I do not need you going via my stuff as a result of I am a really personal man.” … Then I mentioned, “look Joel, I am not going to pressure you to, that is your proper, however … I’ll should go and get with my DA and apply for a search warrant.
Pellot finally gave consent for the search. Nonetheless, Mata had numerous questions. To get some solutions, he directed authorities to place Pellot in a police cruiser to take him to the station.
Erin Moriarty: Might you see him earlier than you went in?
Sgt. Luis Mata: I might see him … via my digicam.
Laredo Police Division
Sgt. Luis Mata: Every thing there may be recorded … he is hitting partitions, he is shifting furnishings … It was scaring a few of the folks down the corridor within the dispatch room … in order that’s how loud it was …
SGT. MATA (to Joel Pellot): Holding up OK man?
Round 4 a.m., Mata begins his interview with Pellot, who claims he had given Maria that container of clonazepam prescribed to him.
SGT. MATA: Is it potential that she swallowed all of them?
JOEL PELLOT: I do not know man, I do not know.
SGT. MATA: What number of capsules have been there earlier than?
JOEL PELLOT: I do not know.
SGT. MATA: Mas o menos? (Kind of?)
JOEL PELLOT: I actually do not know.
Sgt. Luis Mata: He could not keep in mind the minorest issues … I do not know what number of occasions I requested him – “play again to me the minute you bought there – what did you do?” … and he, properly, “What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?” … Nicely, you understand what, for those who keep in mind the reality, you do not have to consider it.
ANOTHER WOMAN
SGT. MATA (police interview): What was the time interval between the time you bought out of the bathe … till while you observed she’s not likely responding anymore?
JOEL PELLOT: Uh, 10 minutes? … I am not 100% positive.
The sudden dying of a wholesome 31-year-old lady like Maria Muñoz did not make sense to Mata. And neither did her husband’s rationalization.
Sgt. Luis Mata: His preliminary assertion was that he went in and took a bathe … he thought she was asleep. … after which 10 minutes later … He realizes that she’s unresponsive.
Sgt. Luis Mata: When a typical particular person showers … what is going on to be within the rest room? Steam, condensation, the odor of cleaning soap or shampoo … that master suite bathe, which is the one he alleged he used, was as dry as a desert.
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
Investigators had additionally found a syringe wrapper on the ground and a needle catheter on the steps. Syringes and IV tools in a medical bag have been discovered inside the house.
SGT. MATA (police interview): Why would there be syringes within the house?
JOEL PELLOT: So, like, I do not know.
Then, Pellot makes a hand gesture and faucets his bicep.
SGT. MATA: Steroids?
JOEL PELLOT: Yeah, for, that is me.
With Pellot on the police station, Maria’s shut pal Angela Montoya and her husband Luis Ayala rushed over to the home to handle the youngsters. Ayala, a coworker of Pellot, says he had begun to see adjustments in Pellot’s physique and character two years earlier than Maria’s dying.
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Luis Ayala: He lose numerous weight after which began gaining muscle.
Erin Moriarty: Did you observed that perhaps he was taking steroids?
Luis Ayala: Possibly, however … I imply he was altering like … extra pleasant with women …
Erin Moriarty: Flirting extra.
Luis Ayala: Yeah.
The household man who as soon as had bragged to buddies and colleagues about his spouse and children started altering his social media posts, too.
Angela Montoya: He deleted the images of Maria, or he simply began posting … every thing by himself … not along with his youngsters.
Pellot, in demand as a nurse anesthetist, was making some huge cash, and in line with Montoya, he loved exhibiting off his wealth.
Angela Montoya: He has this new sporty automotive … “I purchased Maria that one and I purchased myself this one,” bragging about it.
However buddies say the adjustments they noticed in Pellot went a lot deeper. In 2018, across the identical time Maria gave delivery to the couple’s second son, Joel started pursuing a lady named Janet Arredondo, a surgical nurse, he met at work.
Angela Montoya: Joel took Janet to love a trip spree in Europe. I do not recall which nations … he advised me.
Erin Moriarty: Nicely, there was one journey— there was Spain, and the subsequent journey was France and Greece.
Angela Montoya: There you go. There you go. So, Maria came upon about that whereas he was there with Janet.
In accordance with Montoya, Maria confirmed her suspicion about her husband’s infidelity when she discovered a aircraft ticket for one in every of his European journeys. When her disappointment was a deep melancholy, she was prescribed remedy.
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
However maybe one of the best drugs for Maria turned out to be her day by day journals, found in her house by investigators:
I do not need to be unhappy anymore.
I do not need my coronary heart to harm.
I do not need my thoughts to be in torture.
But, at occasions she appeared hopeful, believing her religion might mend the couple’s 10-year marriage:
Lord this can be a lot for me,
All I actually need to do is see change in him.
And it gave the impression to be working. Simply months after her husband had taken his mistress on these European holidays, Pellot handled Maria to a lavish getaway in Las Vegas.
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Angela Montoya: And she or he confirmed me a few Louis Vuitton … he bought for her.
However what appeared like a second probability for her marriage did not final. Pellot might by no means fairly go away Janet.
SGT. MATA (police interview): How lengthy have you ever been with Janet?
JOEL PELLOT: About two years.
SGT. MATA: Out of these two years, how lengthy has Maria identified about it?
JOEL PELLOT: (sighs) For some time. For a protracted whereas.
The truth is, Pellot advised Mata that he not lived along with his household and that he had moved in with Janet Arredondo 5 months earlier than Maria’s dying. Mata puzzled how a lot the opposite lady knew and requested her to come back to the police station to speak.
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
SGT. MATA (police interview): What’s your relationship with him? I would not have referred to as you at 6:30 within the morning if it was only for, for being nosy. It is not that I am making an attempt to be nosy, however I am going to get to the place I am going.
JANET ARREDONDO: Um, he is — he is my boyfriend.
Mata continued urgent Arredondo about Pellot – after which advised her about Maria.
SGT. MATA (police interview): The rationale that I am right here is as a result of … final evening Joel’s spouse handed away. … There does not look like any, proper now, kind of foul play … We’re nonetheless pending an post-mortem. … So let’s get with, how did you, and Joel even begin courting.
JANET ARREDONDO: Um, I am sorry.
SGT. MATA: Um, I perceive. Take your time. I do know it is all sort of thrown at you, so, you understand, I, I advised you on the very starting, I am gonna be trustworthy with you. So I’m, uh, our major factor now could be clearly what occurred.
JANET ARREDONDO (holds her head in her palms): Um, I am sorry, what was your query?
SGT. MATA: How, when did — how lengthy have you ever and Joel been courting?
JANET ARREDONDO: Uh … Um, nearly two years now.
SGT. MATA: OK … Did Maria, his spouse, did she do medicine?
JANET ARREDONDO: Not that I am … conscious of. … he simply advised me that he, she was very depressed.
When Sergeant Mata talked about Maria might have overdosed, Arredondo appeared shocked.
JANET ARREDONDO: Wait minute, are, are you saying she overdosed?
SGT. MATA: We do not know but. … the principle factor is that this, Janet, is after we inform her household …They’re gonna suppose that both Joel … killed her or that you simply had one thing to do with it, that is all we now have to rule you out. OK. … Has Joel ever confided in you that he was, that he wished to do one thing to his spouse?
JANET ARREDONDO: No.
Pellot had advised police Maria might have overdosed on the drug clonazepam, however when the post-mortem was performed — eight hours after Maria was declared lifeless — the health worker discovered no tablet residue in her abdomen. There was one thing on Maria’s physique on the scene that puzzled each the health worker and investigators: a tiny mark on Maria’s proper arm.
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Sgt. Luis Mata: It was slightly, little prick — sort of like everytime you, the widespread particular person … has their blood checked once they go to the physician. One little dot.
Erin Moriarty: That is it.
Sgt. Luis Mata: On her proper elbow crease.
Erin Moriarty: No different indicators of drug use or something like that?
Sgt. Luis Mata: Nothing, Nothing.
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: Nothing.
The post-mortem report states Maria died from a combined drug intoxication. Whereas the health worker could not say how the medicine acquired in her system, she did rule out suicide after speaking to Maria’s buddies and studying her journal.
On the day earlier than she died, Maria wrote:
What’s it that I need?
#1 Transfer Ahead!!
So, might Maria’s dying have been an unintentional overdose? Or was it homicide? When Dr. John Huntsinger, an anesthesiologist and Pellot’s former boss, heard the post-mortem outcomes, he instantly turned suspicious.
Dr. John Huntsinger: I referred to as Detective Mata, and I advised him my considerations.
He urged Mata to order an in depth toxicology screening to find out which medicine had killed Maria and the way they acquired there.
SGT. MATA (police interview): Did you inject her … tonight?
JOEL PELLOT: No.
SGT. MATA: With something?
JOEL PELLOT: No.
Authorities must wait practically 4 months to get the solutions they wanted.
SUSPICIONS CONTINUE TO GROW AGAINST JOEL PELLOT
On a Sunday afternoon on the First Baptist Church in Laredo, a big crowd of household and buddies got here to mourn Maria Muñoz, together with her estranged husband, Joel Pellot.
CHURCH SERVICE: The victorious life is — can be a lifetime of service. … All of our lives have been impacted by the dear lifetime of Maria.
Yazmin Martinez: Her funeral was actually unhappy … Joel was there and he was crying. He appeared very upset, very unhappy.
To Maria’s pal Yazmin Martinez, he appeared slightly too upset, too unhappy.
Yazmin Martinez: What made me really feel indignant … was him close to the casket … crying over her, giving her kisses. Like why now? You’ve made her undergo and cry a lot and also you’re doing this now?
Joel Pellot’s show of grief did nothing to discourage the investigation into his spouse’s dying.
Sergeant Luis Mata and Officer Gregorio De La Cruz say that footage captured by the bodycam on the morning Maria died exhibits one thing curious. Keep in mind the capsules in a container that Pellot mentioned his spouse had taken? De La Cruz tossed it apart when he was giving Maria CPR.
OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, the place is it?
In some unspecified time in the future it disappeared.
Erin Moriarty (watching the bodycam video): I see it is nonetheless right here proper now.
Sgt. Luis Mata: It is nonetheless there precisely.
And this is the way it occurred. They are saying Pellot grabs the tablet container and places it in his pocket.
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz (watching the bodycam video): He simply reached over and … put it proper again within the shirt.
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: If that is actually what she took, why would you need to cover that?
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
They have been additionally suspicious of that needle catheter, the type used for IVs, found on the scene. Keep in mind, Maria had a tiny mark on her proper arm. Mata shared his considerations with the Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace.
Marisela Jacaman: Now we have a 24/7 telephone … and regulation enforcement can contact us with any questions.
Chief Assistant District Legal professional Marisela Jacaman and District Legal professional Isidro Alaniz knew the case can be powerful to show since even the health worker wasn’t positive precisely how Maria died.
Erin Moriarty: The health worker is saying, I am unable to say for a reality that is murder.
Isidro Alaniz: I keep in mind having this dialog with the health worker early on … and I keep in mind her saying look, I wasn’t there, and neither have been you. All we all know is that she has this mix of harmful medicine in her bloodstream … we do not know who gave them to her, if she had some in her system already, if she took some in a while.
Erin Moriarty: Both accident or homicide.
Isidro Alaniz: Accident or homicide.
Investigators started to query Maria’s buddies and found that the Saturday earlier than Maria died, there was a confrontation at Janet Arredondo’s home when Maria noticed Pellot’s automotive there.
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Angela Montoya: So, that is when she stepped out of the automotive after which she rang the doorbell.
In accordance with Montoya, Maria, seen on Janet’s doorbell digicam, gave Pellot an ultimatum.
Angela Montoya: “Do you select her, otherwise you select me?: After which he says … “I select Janet.”
Arredondo referred to as police, and when a responding officer arrived at her house, he referred to as Maria who had by then had left with Pellot. When Maria answered her cellphone, the officer’s bodycam recorded the sound of Joel berating her within the background:
JOEL PELLOT (cellphone video with Maria within the automotive): Hey, I am f—— speaking to you proper now. Grasp up the f—— telephone.
RESPONDING POLICE OFFICER: I assume that is your boyfriend.
JANET ARREDONDO: Yeah.
In accordance with Montoya, Maria advised her that Pellot turned violent.
Angela Montoya: And he acquired so annoyed with every thing that he punched the windshield.
Erin Moriarty: He broke it —-didn’t he?
Angela Montoya: He broke it, sure, he broke it.
On Sunday morning, Maria texted her husband about hiring a divorce lawyer, and he replied:
JOEL PELLOT TEXT: We will do that with minimal lawyer intervention. It is an excessive amount of cash.
Pellot then appears to have had a change of coronary heart, and sends Maria this e-mail:
JOEL PELLOT EMAIL: I’m so unhappy I’m hurting inside…
I need to sit down with you to speak, w/o arguing. A coronary heart to coronary heart.
They agreed to satisfy Monday evening. Earlier than Pellot arrived, Maria messaged her pal Yazmin Martinez to wish for her:
… I simply ask for those who can pray for me … tonight we’re going to discuss …
Yazmin Martinez: After which I answered her … And I advised her that I might pray for her.
Maria’s request for prayers that evening can be her last message to Martinez. Maria died early Tuesday morning.
Practically 4 months after Maria’s dying – Sergeant Mata and Officer De La Cruz lastly get the toxicology take a look at outcomes that they had been ready for.
Sgt. Luis Mata: Zero clonazepam.
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Zero clonazepam — the drug Pellot claimed Maria had taken. As an alternative, the toxicology report revealed seven different medicine in Maria’s system.
Sgt. Luis Mata: So, optimistic for morphine, Demerol, Versed, propofol — ketamine, lidocaine, Narcan.
Most of those drugs are usually used throughout surgical procedure and one in every of them can solely be administered with an IV.
Erin Moriarty: What was your response?
Sgt. Luis Mata: He killed her. This man killed his spouse.
Authorities acquired a warrant, Officer De La Cruz, who had tried to avoid wasting Maria’s life, returned to Pellot’s house to make the arrest.
Officer Gregorio De Laz Cruz: He knew why we have been there.
Sgt. Luis Mata: By the point we knock on the door, and we announce our presence … identical to the best way you do within the motion pictures, he comes out. “I am right here. I am right here.” Put’s his palms behind his again. Allow us to cuff him. Would not put up a combat.
JOEL PELLOT: You possibly can name my, uh, my legal professional.
OFFICER De La Cruz: Oh, you possibly can name them.
Pellot was taken to the police station and booked. Prosecutors consider he was the one who gave his spouse the lethal combination — however can they show he wished her to die?
DEATH BY PROPOFOL?
When Joel Pellot’s former boss, anesthesiologist Dr. John Huntsinger noticed the record of medication present in Maria Muñoz – seven totally different drugs — he was shocked by one drug specifically.
Dr. John Huntsinger: I used to be very shocked to see propofol.
Erin Moriarty: The place would he get that propofol? You possibly can’t simply go to the drug retailer to get propofol?
Dr. John Huntsinger: It’s a must to get it from a hospital.
Whereas a lot of the medicine present in Maria’s system might be consumed by mouth, Propofol is often injected by another person with an IV.
John Huntsinger: One of many issues about propofol … it relaxes you drastically … however it does not final very lengthy. … it makes you cease respiration when you have an excessive amount of.
Erin Moriarty: I feel most of us, after we hear about Propofol, we consider Michael Jackson.
Dr. John Huntsinger: Right.
Singer Michael Jackson’s dying in June 2009 was blamed, partially, on an unintentional overdose of Propofol. And after Maria Muñoz’s dying, a extremely elevated stage of the drug was present in her system.
Dr. John Huntsinger: Hers was the best stage I’ve seen.
Erin Moriarty: And what does that say to you?
Dr. John Huntsinger: I consider this was dying by Propofol.
With Joel Pellot now below arrest, authorities have been satisfied that Pellot’s girlfriend Janet Arredondo knew greater than what she shared in that first interview.
Arredondo agreed to a second police interview and, accompanied by attorneys, she now appeared prepared to speak.
SGT. MATA (second police interview): Did Joel ever deliver house any medical medicine?
JANET ARREDONDO: Sure.
Arredondo advised police that Pellot had usually introduced medicine to her house – some for his personal leisure use — together with ketamine, morphine, lidocaine, fentanyl and extra.
JANET ARREDONDO: Versed
LUIS MATA: OK.
JANET ARREDONDO: Propofol.
SGT. MATA: Propofol?
Arredondo’s details about propofol kicked the case into excessive gear. District Legal professional Isidro Alaniz chosen a group of attorneys – Katrina Rios, Ana Karen Garza, Cristal Calderon and led by Marisela Jacaman.
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Marisela Jacaman: We’re Maria’s group.
So, they acquired a search warrant for her house. Then, they supplied her a deal. In alternate for extra data, Arredondo would get immunity from prosecution.
All 4 prosecutors have been satisfied that Maria’s husband had methodically deliberate her homicide, and that the devoted mom and spouse had suffered within the months earlier than her dying.
Marisela Jacaman: I’ve heard of emotional abuse, I’ve seen it, I’ve labored round it …
Marisela Jacaman: … however I by no means realized how prevalent it’s even in our lives the place you possibly can relate to a few of the issues that Maria was experiencing.
Erin Moriarty: On the face of it, this can be a couple having issues, he is having an affair, however to you, that is home violence, how?
Karina Rios: Nicely, I feel … it goes a lot additional than simply being a partner … you could possibly see the facility battle that existed or the — the dearth thereof.
Assistant District Legal professional Karina Rios.
Karina Rios: Maria had no energy on this relationship.
And the proof of that, prosecutors say, is present in Maria’s personal journals. Prosecutor Jacaman learn a kind of entries:
Life is so unfair.
My husband the person I like a lot is inflicting me a lot ache
Maria additionally left proof on her cellphone that she secretly recorded roughly 4 months earlier than her dying:
MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automotive with Joel Pellot): I need to know, what’s it that you really want me to do?
MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automotive with Joel Pellot): What are the expectations you’ve on this — this marriage?
Webb County District Legal professional’s Workplace
Marisela Jacaman: She gave us this very highly effective video.
MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automotive with Joel Pellot): You stroll out that door, we’re getting a divorce.
JOEL PELLOT: Alright superb, you bought it (slams automotive door)
Marisela Jacaman: She was having a dialogue … with him … and that was so painful to observe.
However prosecutors would want way more than that video and Maria’s journal entries. How did they consider that Joel Pellot dosed his spouse with all these medicine?
Marisela Jacaman: That was the million-dollar query. We stored saying, how did he get her to undergo this?
Throughout Janet Arredondo’s second police interview, she mentioned Pellot had advised her concerning the evening Maria died: he had gone there, he mentioned, to have that heart-to-heart discuss after which injected her — to not kill her, Pellot mentioned, however to calm her down.
Laredo Police Division
SGT. LUIS MATA (second police interview): Why did he let you know that he injected her? As a result of she was erratic?
JANET ARREDONDO: Proper, he wished to uh, simply calm her down, so he did it with remedy.
However Investigators consider the sedatives have been a part of Pellot’s plan to kill Maria — that earlier than Pellot put an IV needle in Maria’s arm, he might have slipped a number of sedative medicine into her favourite drink: espresso.
Marisela Jacaman: Ketamine, Versed, morphine and Demerol. These 4 might have been put in her espresso, she then passes out.
After that, they are saying, Pellot injected Maria with a lethal dose of propofol. Then-Chief Assistant District Legal professional Ana Karen Garza Gutierrez says Pellot intentionally waited to name for assist.
Ana Karen Garza: I consider he waited till she was lifeless to name 911 to ensure that nobody can deliver her again.
SGT MATA (second police interview): Did you play any position in Maria’s dying in any respect? You?
JANET ARREDONDO: No.
Arredondo mentioned Pellot did admit to her that he removed a few of the medical tools he used to inject Maria earlier than first responders arrived.
JANET ARREDONDO: He simply advised me he removed them.
Pellot was out on bail, so prosecutors had him rearrested and together with homicide, he was charged with tampering with proof. Once more, he made bail and would put on an ankle monitor.
In March 2023, two-and-a-half years after Maria Muñoz’s dying, her husband went on trial for her homicide.
“48 Hours” made a number of interview requests to Joel Pellot’s protection group, however by no means obtained a response. Joel Pellot declined our request for an interview.
MARISELA JACAMAN (opening assertion in court docket): The proof will present that Joel Pellot had the motive, he had the intent, and he had the means to kill Maria.
Prosecutors introduced 15 witnesses to show to a jury that Pellot had fastidiously and deliberately chosen the medicine to kill Maria. Their star witness, Janet Arredondo, advised the jury what she had shared with police.
MARISELA JACAMAN (in court docket): Did Mr. Pellot point out to you that he dumped or discarded the IV catheter and the vials?
JANET ARREDONDO: Sure.
When the protection case begins, Pellot’s attorneys admit their consumer injected his spouse, however they are saying he wasn’t making an attempt to kill her, he was making an attempt to avoid wasting her.
ACCIDENT OR MURDER?
Joel Pellot, sporting a blue go well with and a darkish gray tie, listened fastidiously as his protection group introduced his case.
ROBERTO BALLI (in court docket): Now, Maria died and there is not any query that Joel was there.
Protection legal professional Roberto Balli claims Maria was terribly depressed and had been ingesting and abusing medicine for months.
ROBERTO BALLI (in court docket): When Joel arrived Maria was already on one thing…
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In accordance with the protection, Pellot did not intend to kill his spouse and the proof, his attorneys say, is in that toxicology report. They admit Pellot gave his spouse remedy to calm her down, after which when he discovered her unconscious they are saying, he gave her Narcan, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose.
ROBERTO BALLI (in court docket): Somebody tried to deliver her again to life, and it wasn’t the paramedics, it wasn’t the police. It was Joel. So he didn’t need her lifeless. This was a horrible accident.
A horrible accident, the protection argues, that was brought on by a mix of no matter Maria had taken and the remedy Pellot used to inject her.
Erin Moriarty: How are you aware that Narcan wasn’t there as a result of he tried to avoid wasting her, that he went too far, realized that he had gone too far.
Ana Karen Garza Guiterrez: Narcan will not be a reversal agent for Propofol and Propofol was what stopped her coronary heart on the finish.
The protection by no means defined to the jury how the propofol acquired into Maria’s system, however prosecutors say that the extent of medication found in Maria’s physique couldn’t have been unintentional.
Marisela Jacaman: It was sufficient remedy to outlive two main surgical procedures. It was a lot.
Erin Moriarty: And why do you suppose he gave her a lot?
Marisela Jacaman: To make certain.
Whereas Pellot himself did not testify, his emotional mom did. Miriam Carrasquillo advised prosecutors, throughout cross examination, that Maria had talked about how unhappy she was about her marriage.
MARISELA JACAMAN (in court docket): Had been you conscious that Joel Pellot was seeing Janet, weren’t you?
MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Sure, she advised me.
MARISELA JACAMAN: Who advised you?
MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Maria.
MARISELA JACAMAN: And did you encourage her to remain within the marriage?
MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: I advised her that everyone have a restrict and he or she have a restrict. When she resolve that she do not need to be no extra with him I’ve a home open for her.
However prosecutors insist as unhappy as Maria might have been about her marriage, there is no such thing as a proof that she abused both medicine or alcohol.
They consider Pellot’s motive was cash and that he murdered Maria as a result of he did not need to pay for a divorce and break up his property.
After eight days of testimony, the jury acquired the case. It took them lower than an hour to resolve Joel Pellot’s destiny: responsible of murdering his spouse Maria and tampering with the proof.
Many members of the medical neighborhood attended the trial, together with Pellot’s former colleague, Tina Dores.
Tina Dores: He isn’t dumb, I imply he is a wise man … so I do not know if he simply acquired caught up along with his God advanced that he thought he was smarter than everybody and that he was going to outsmart them.
Simply hours after the responsible verdict, Pellot was sentenced to life in jail, cuffed and escorted out of the courtroom.
Maria’s pal Angela Montoya.
Angela Montoya: She cherished him, and he or she adored him. She simply cherished him an excessive amount of.
Prosecutors acquired justice for Maria, however it’s a tragic ending for the household she cherished and fought so onerous to maintain collectively.
Karina Rios: I feel typically the worst accidents do not even go away a mark … the accidents in your coronary heart, in your thoughts. We might by no means see these on Maria, however she advised us about them … however she carried numerous scars along with her from this relationship.
Maria’s group say a very powerful witness at trial ended up being Maria herself, and that her journals confirmed these scars have been therapeutic.
Rosalinda Villarreal Images
Ana Karen Garza: She was an exquisite soul.
Marisela Jacaman: And she or he was an awesome mom. She was simply a tremendous particular person. And that power? We felt it.
The couple’s youngsters reside with Joel Pellot’s mom.
Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the sector producer. Marlon Disla, Michael Vele and Phil Tangel are the editors. Elizabeth Caholo is the event producer. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.