How Texas mom Maria Muñoz became an important witness in her own death investigation

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 once 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 in regards to the medication. Pellot had advised the 911 operator his spouse could have taken some drugs.

Officer Gregorio De la Cruz: He stands up, he goes to the restroom. … He opens a medication 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 arms De La Cruz a capsule container.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): It is clonazepam.

Clonazepam is a drug that’s usually used to deal with nervousness. It had been prescribed to Pellot, to not his spouse Maria.

De La Cruz shortly tossed the capsule container apart to proceed CPR.

Pellot advised De la Cruz that Maria had been struggling these days.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): Yeah, she’s been tremendous depressed.

Pellot advised the officers, the couple’s two younger sons had 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.

Yazmin Martinez says her good friend Maria adored her boys, 5-year-old Alejandro and Valentino, who was turning 2.

Yazmin Martinez: She wish 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 dwelling mother. She was studying to play the piano and planning to renew her profession.

Yazmin Martinez: I requested her if she had gone to high school, and he or she mentioned sure that … she was a nurse in Puerto Rico and he or she’s like I am truly finding out to take my check 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 scholar.

A number 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 occupation as a CRNA.

Tina Dores: A nurse anesthetist, or a CRNA, licensed registered nurse anesthetist and a doctor anesthesiologist use the identical treatment, similar strategies to supply anesthesia for individuals 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 needed 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 speak about … Maria and Alejandro … and displaying photos of his son and simply speaking about household life usually.

And now on the Pellot dwelling, paramedics and police had been struggling to save lots of 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 capsule container he had tossed to the aspect 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 once I requested, “Hey, does he have drugs?” 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 pondering 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 useless inside their dwelling.

Police started asking Joel what had occurred to his spouse.

JOEL PELLOT (bodycam video): We had intercourse, I took a bathe. Then I assumed she was, like, knocked out … After which I’m going again upstairs and he or she’s simply – oh God (covers his face together 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.

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He was actually sweaty … I am carrying a vest, I am carrying a gun, I am carrying nearly 20 kilos of substances, proper, and I am not sweating as dangerous as he was.

Erin Moriarty: So, what went by means of your thoughts once you noticed how sweaty he was?

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He is utilizing medication. 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 exterior.

The couple’s youngsters, now within the care of regulation enforcement, had been escorted exterior. Authorities instantly launched a demise investigation.

Sgt. Luis Mata: Once I get there, I meet with Officer De La Cruz. … He runs the knowledge by me.

Lead investigator Sergeant Luis Mata did not know if Maria had died by suicide, an unintended overdose, or if her husband was in some way concerned. Mata knew he wanted to look the home, however to do it he must get Pellot’s permission.

Sgt. Luis Mata: And he mentioned, “Effectively, I do not need you going by means of 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 need to go and get with my DA and apply for a search warrant.

Pellot ultimately gave consent for the search. Nonetheless, Mata had quite a lot of questions. To get some solutions, he directed authorities to place Pellot in a police cruiser to take him to the station.

Erin Moriarty: May you see him earlier than you went in?

Sgt. Luis Mata: I might see him … by means of my digicam.

Sgt. Luis Mata: All the things there’s recorded … he is hitting partitions, he is transferring furnishings … It was scaring among the individuals 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 attainable that she swallowed all of them?

JOEL PELLOT: I do not know man, I do not know.

SGT. MATA: What number of drugs had 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 bear 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, nicely, “What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?” … Effectively, what, in the event you bear 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 once you seen she’s not likely responding anymore?

JOEL PELLOT: Uh, 10 minutes? … I am not 100% positive.

The sudden demise of a wholesome 31-year-old girl like Maria Muñoz did not make sense to Mata. And neither did her husband’s clarification.

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 individual showers … what is going on to be within the rest room? Steam, condensation, the scent of cleaning soap or shampoo … that master suite bathe, which is the one he alleged he used, was as dry as a desert.

Investigators had additionally found a syringe wrapper on the ground and a needle catheter on the steps. Syringes and IV gear in a medical bag had been discovered inside the house.

SGT. MATA (police interview): Why would there be syringes within the dwelling?

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 good friend Angela Montoya and her husband Luis Ayala rushed over to the home to care for the children. Ayala, a coworker of Pellot, says he had begun to see adjustments in Pellot’s physique and character two years earlier than Maria’s demise.

Luis Ayala: He lose quite a lot of weight after which began gaining muscle.

Erin Moriarty: Did you think that possibly he was taking steroids?

Luis Ayala: Perhaps, however … I imply he was altering like … extra pleasant with ladies …

Erin Moriarty: Flirting extra.

Luis Ayala: Yeah.

The household man who as soon as had bragged to associates and colleagues about his spouse and youngsters started altering his social media posts, too.

Angela Montoya: He deleted the photographs of Maria, or he simply began posting … all the things by himself … not together with his children.

Pellot, in demand as a nurse anesthetist, was making some huge cash, and based on Montoya, he loved displaying off his wealth.

Angela Montoya: He has this new sporty automobile … “I purchased Maria that one and I purchased myself this one,” bragging about it.

However associates say the adjustments they noticed in Pellot went a lot deeper. In 2018, across the similar time Maria gave start to the couple’s second son, Joel started pursuing a girl 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 international locations … he advised me.

Erin Moriarty: Effectively, there was one journey—  there was Spain, and the following 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 keeping 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 treatment.

However maybe the most effective medication for Maria turned out to be her day by day journals, found in her dwelling by investigators:

I do not wish 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 it is a lot for me,

All I actually wish 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.

Angela Montoya: And he or she 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 now not lived together with his household and that he had moved in with Janet Arredondo 5 months earlier than Maria’s demise. Mata questioned how a lot the opposite girl knew and requested her to come back to the police station to speak.

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 will 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 night time Joel’s spouse handed away. … There would not seem like any, proper now, sort 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 type of thrown at you, so, , I, I advised you on the very starting, I am gonna be sincere with you. So I’m, uh, our primary factor now could be clearly what occurred.

JANET ARREDONDO (holds her head in her arms): 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 medication?

JANET ARREDONDO: Not that I am … conscious of. … he simply advised me that he, she was very depressed.

When Sergeant Mata talked about Maria could 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 once we inform her household …They’re gonna assume that both Joel … killed her or that you simply had one thing to do with it, that is all we’ve to rule you out. OK. … Has Joel ever confided in you that he was, that he needed to do one thing to his spouse?

JANET ARREDONDO: No.

Pellot had advised police Maria could have overdosed on the drug clonazepam, however when the post-mortem was performed — eight hours after Maria was declared useless — the medical expert discovered no capsule residue in her abdomen. There was one thing on Maria’s physique on the scene that puzzled each the medical expert and investigators: a tiny mark on Maria’s proper arm.

Sgt. Luis Mata: It was just a little, little prick —  type of like everytime you, the widespread individual … 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 blended drug intoxication. Whereas the medical expert could not say how the medication bought in her system, she did rule out suicide after speaking to Maria’s associates 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 demise have been an unintended 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 issues.

He urged Mata to order an in depth toxicology screening to find out which medication had killed Maria and the way they bought 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 associates got here to mourn Maria Muñoz, together with her estranged husband, Joel Pellot.

CHURCH SERVICE: The victorious life is — can also be a lifetime of service. … All of our lives had been impacted by the valuable 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 good friend Yazmin Martinez, he appeared just a little 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 will have made her endure 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 demise.

Sergeant Luis Mata and Officer Gregorio De La Cruz say that footage captured by the bodycam on the morning Maria died reveals one thing curious. Bear in mind the drugs 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 capsule 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 wish to disguise that?

They had been additionally suspicious of that needle catheter, the sort used for IVs, found on the scene. Bear in mind, Maria had a tiny mark on her proper arm. Mata shared his issues with the Webb County District Lawyer’s Workplace.

Marisela Jacaman: We now have a 24/7 telephone … and regulation enforcement can contact us with any questions.

Chief Assistant District Lawyer Marisela Jacaman and District Lawyer Isidro Alaniz knew the case can be powerful to show since even the medical expert wasn’t positive precisely how Maria died.

Erin Moriarty: The medical expert is saying, I am unable to say for a reality that is murder.

Isidro Alaniz: I bear in mind having this dialog with the medical expert early on … and I bear in mind her saying look, I wasn’t there, and neither had been you. All we all know is that she has this mixture of harmful medication 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 associates and found that the Saturday earlier than Maria died, there was a confrontation at Janet Arredondo’s home when Maria noticed Pellot’s automobile there.

Angela Montoya: So, that is when she stepped out of the automobile after which she rang the doorbell.

In keeping 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 dwelling, 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 automobile): Hey, I am f—— speaking to you proper now. Dangle up the f—— telephone.

RESPONDING POLICE OFFICER: I assume that is your boyfriend.

JANET ARREDONDO: Yeah.

In keeping with Montoya, Maria advised her that Pellot turned violent.

Angela Montoya: And he bought so pissed off with all the things 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 are able to 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 electronic mail:

JOEL PELLOT EMAIL: I’m so unhappy I’m hurting inside…

I wish to sit down with you to speak, w/o arguing. A coronary heart to coronary heart.

They agreed to satisfy Monday night time. Earlier than Pellot arrived, Maria messaged her good friend Yazmin Martinez to hope for her:

… I simply ask in the event you 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 night time can be her closing message to Martinez. Maria died early Tuesday morning.

Almost 4 months after Maria’s demise – Sergeant Mata and Officer De La Cruz lastly get the toxicology check outcomes they’d been ready for.

Sgt. Luis Mata: Zero clonazepam.

Zero clonazepam — the drug Pellot claimed Maria had taken. As an alternative, the toxicology report revealed seven different medication in Maria’s system.

Sgt. Luis Mata: So, constructive for morphine, Demerol, Versed, propofol — ketamine, lidocaine, Narcan.

Most of those drugs are sometimes 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 bought a warrant, Officer De La Cruz, who had tried to save lots of Maria’s life, returned to Pellot’s dwelling to make the arrest.

Officer Gregorio De Laz Cruz: He knew why we had been there.

Sgt. Luis Mata: By the point we knock on the door, and we announce our presence … similar to the way in which you do within the motion pictures, he comes out. “I am right here. I am right here.” Put’s his arms behind his again. Allow us to cuff him. Does not put up a battle.

JOEL PELLOT: You possibly can name my, uh, my legal professional.

OFFICER De La Cruz: Oh, you’ll be able to name them.

Pellot was taken to the police station and booked. Prosecutors imagine he was the one who gave his spouse the lethal combination — however can they show he needed 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 completely different drugs — he was shocked by one drug particularly.

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: You must get it from a hospital.

Whereas many of the medication present in Maria’s system may very well 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 … nevertheless it would not final very lengthy. … it makes you cease respiration in case you have an excessive amount of.

Erin Moriarty: I believe most of us, once we hear about Propofol, we consider Michael Jackson.

Dr. John Huntsinger: Appropriate.

Singer Michael Jackson’s demise in June 2009 was blamed, partially, on an unintended overdose of Propofol. And after Maria Muñoz’s demise, a extremely elevated stage of the drug was present in her system.

Dr. John Huntsinger: Hers was the very best stage I’ve seen.

Erin Moriarty: And what does that say to you?

Dr. John Huntsinger: I imagine this was demise by Propofol.

With Joel Pellot now below arrest, authorities had 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 carry dwelling any medical medication?

JANET ARREDONDO: Sure.

Arredondo advised police that Pellot had usually introduced medication to her dwelling – 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 Lawyer Isidro Alaniz chosen a workforce of attorneys – Katrina Rios, Ana Karen Garza, Cristal Calderon and led by Marisela Jacaman.

Marisela Jacaman: We’re Maria’s workforce.

So, they bought a search warrant for her dwelling. Then, they provided her a deal. In change for extra info, Arredondo would get immunity from prosecution.

All 4 prosecutors had 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 demise.

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’ll be able to relate to among the issues that Maria was experiencing.

Erin Moriarty: On the face of it, it is a couple having issues, he is having an affair, however to you, that is home violence, how?

Karina Rios: Effectively, I believe … it goes a lot additional than simply being a partner … you can see the ability wrestle that existed or the — the dearth thereof.

Assistant District Lawyer 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 type 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 demise: 

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automobile with Joel Pellot): I wish to know, what’s it that you really want me to do?

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automobile with Joel Pellot): What are the expectations you will have on this — this marriage?

Marisela Jacaman: She gave us this very highly effective video.

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video within the automobile with Joel Pellot): You stroll out that door, we’re getting a divorce.

JOEL PELLOT: Alright high quality, you bought it (slams automobile door)

Marisela Jacaman: She was having a dialogue … with him … and that was so painful to look at.

However prosecutors would want way more than that video and Maria’s journal entries. How did they imagine that Joel Pellot dosed his spouse with all these medication?

Marisela Jacaman: That was the million-dollar query. We saved saying, how did he get her to undergo this?

Throughout Janet Arredondo’s second police interview, she mentioned Pellot had advised her in regards to the night time 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.

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 needed to uh, simply calm her down, so he did it with treatment.

However Investigators imagine the sedatives had 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 medication 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 Lawyer Ana Karen Garza Gutierrez says Pellot intentionally waited to name for assist.

Ana Karen Garza: I imagine he waited till she was useless to name 911 to ensure that nobody can carry her again.

SGT MATA (second police interview):  Did you play any position in Maria’s demise in any respect? You?

JANET ARREDONDO: No.

Arredondo mentioned Pellot did admit to her that he removed among the medical gear 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 demise, her husband went on trial for her homicide.

“48 Hours” made a number of interview requests to Joel Pellot’s protection workforce, however by no means acquired 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 rigorously and deliberately chosen the medication 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 legal professionals admit their shopper injected his spouse, however they are saying he wasn’t making an attempt to kill her, he was making an attempt to save lots of her.

ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

Joel Pellot, carrying a blue swimsuit and a darkish gray tie, listened rigorously as his protection workforce 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 consuming and abusing medication for months.

ROBERTO BALLI (in court docket): When Joel arrived Maria was already on one thing…

In keeping 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 treatment 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 carry her again to life, and it wasn’t the paramedics, it wasn’t the police. It was Joel. So he didn’t need her useless. This was a horrible accident.

A horrible accident, the protection argues, that was attributable to a mixture of no matter Maria had taken and the treatment Pellot used to inject her.

Erin Moriarty: How have you learnt that Narcan wasn’t there as a result of he tried to save lots of her, that he went too far, realized that he had gone too far.

Ana Karen Garza Guiterrez: Narcan shouldn’t 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 bought into Maria’s system, however prosecutors say that the extent of medication found in Maria’s physique couldn’t have been unintended.

Marisela Jacaman: It was sufficient treatment to outlive two main surgical procedures. It was a lot.

Erin Moriarty: And why do you assume he gave her a lot?

Marisela Jacaman: To make sure.

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 wish to be no extra with him I’ve a home open for her.

However prosecutors insist as unhappy as Maria could have been about her marriage, there is no such thing as a proof that she abused both medication or alcohol.

They imagine Pellot’s motive was cash and that he murdered Maria as a result of he did not wish to pay for a divorce and cut up his belongings.

After eight days of testimony, the jury bought 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 group attended the trial, together with Pellot’s former colleague, Tina Dores.

Tina Dores: He is not dumb, I imply he is a wise man … so I do not know if he simply bought caught up together 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 good friend Angela Montoya.

Angela Montoya: She beloved him, and he or she adored him. She simply beloved him an excessive amount of.

Prosecutors bought justice for Maria, nevertheless it’s a tragic ending for the household she beloved and fought so laborious to maintain collectively.

Karina Rios: I believe 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 quite a lot of scars along with her from this relationship.

Maria’s workforce say an important witness at trial ended up being Maria herself, and that her journals confirmed these scars had been therapeutic.

Ana Karen Garza: She was an exquisite soul.

Marisela Jacaman: And he or she was an ideal mom. She was simply an incredible individual. And that power? We felt it.

The couple’s youngsters live with Joel Pellot’s mom.

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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.