How Texas mother Maria Muñoz grew to become an essential witness in her personal demise investigation

This story initially aired on Dec. 16, 2023

In 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.

At the highest of the steps, close to the primary 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 whenever you began giving her CPR?

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: She was heat. She was nonetheless heat to the contact.

While 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 might have taken some drugs.

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’m probably not certain 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’s clonazepam.

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

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

Pellot advised De la Cruz that Maria had been struggling currently.

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 occurring to their mom Maria.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (performing CPR on Maria): They are 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 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’m 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 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 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 Doctors Hospital in Laredo.

Erin Moriarty: Did he appear devoted to his work?

Tina Dores: Yes, very a lot so. … he at all times wished to be higher.

Tina Dores: When I first met him … he was very household oriented … a tough employee, good man … he would at all times speak about … Maria and Alejandro … and exhibiting photos of his son and simply speaking about household life typically.

And now on the Pellot house, 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 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. So that is after 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’m considering now you are attempting 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 house.

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 … And then 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.

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

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

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He’s utilizing medication. He could also be underneath the affect of medicine.

SGT. MATA (to the couple’s sons): You wanna see a hearth truck? Come on let’s go exterior.

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

Sgt. Luis Mata: When 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 someway 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, “Well, I do not need you going by means of my stuff as a result of I’m a really personal man.” … Then I mentioned, “look Joel, I’m not going to pressure you to, that is your proper, however … I’m going to need to go and get with my DA and apply for a search warrant.

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

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

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

Sgt. Luis Mata: Everything there’s recorded … he is hitting partitions, he is shifting furnishings … It was scaring a number 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?

Around 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: How many drugs had been there earlier than?

JOEL PELLOT: I do not know.

SGT. MATA: Mas o menos? (More or much less?)

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 instances 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?” … Well, you realize what, when you 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 whenever you seen she’s probably not responding anymore?

JOEL PELLOT: Uh, 10 minutes? … I’m not one hundred pc certain.

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 particular person 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 tools in a medical bag had 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 good friend Angela Montoya and her husband Luis Ayala rushed over to the home to care for 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 demise.

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

Erin Moriarty: Did you watched that perhaps he was taking steroids?

Luis Ayala: Maybe, 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 buddies and colleagues about his spouse and children started altering his social media posts, too.

Angela Montoya: He deleted the photographs of Maria, or he simply began posting … all the pieces by himself … not along with his youngsters.

Pellot, in demand as a nurse anesthetist, was making some huge cash, and in keeping with Montoya, he loved exhibiting 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.

But buddies say the adjustments they noticed in Pellot went a lot deeper. In 2018, across the identical time Maria gave beginning 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 international locations … he advised me.

Erin Moriarty: Well, 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 discovered about that whereas he was there with Janet.

According to Montoya, Maria confirmed her suspicion about her husband’s infidelity when she discovered a airplane ticket for one among his European journeys. When her disappointment become a deep melancholy, she was prescribed remedy.

But maybe one of the best drugs for Maria turned out to be her every 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.

Yet, at instances she appeared hopeful, believing her religion might mend the couple’s 10-year marriage:

Lord it is a lot for me,

All I actually need to do is see change in him.

And it gave the impression to be working. Just 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 she confirmed me a few Louis Vuitton … he bought for her.

But 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 an extended whereas.

In reality, Pellot advised Mata that he now not lived along with his household and that he had moved in with Janet Arredondo 5 months earlier than Maria’s demise. Mata puzzled how a lot the opposite girl knew and requested her to come back to the police station to speak.

SGT. MATA (police interview): What is 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’s not that I’m attempting to be nosy, however I’ll get to the place I’m 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 motive that I’m right here is as a result of …  final evening 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’m sorry.

SGT. MATA: Um, I perceive. Take your time. I do know it is all sort of thrown at you, so, you realize, I, I advised you on the very starting, I’m gonna be trustworthy with you. So I’m, uh, our primary factor now’s clearly what occurred.

JANET ARREDONDO (holds her head in her arms): Um, I’m sorry, what was your query?

SGT. MATA: How, when did — how lengthy have you ever and Joel been courting?

JANET ARREDONDO: Uh … Um, virtually two years now.

SGT. MATA: OK … Did Maria, his spouse, did she do medication?

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

When Sergeant Mata talked about Maria might have overdosed, Arredondo appeared stunned.

JANET ARREDONDO: Wait minute, are, are you saying she overdosed?

SGT. MATA: We do not know but. … the primary 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 have now 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 carried out — 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 slightly, little prick —  sort of like everytime you, the frequent particular person … has their blood checked after they go to the physician. One little dot.

Erin Moriarty: That’s 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. While the medical expert could not say how the medication 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 is it that I would like?

#1 Move Forward!!

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 grew to become 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 medication 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 almost 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 had 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 good friend Yazmin Martinez, he appeared slightly too upset, too unhappy.

Yazmin Martinez: What made me really feel offended … was him close to the casket … crying over her, giving her kisses. Like why now? You have 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 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. Remember 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?

At some level it disappeared.

Erin Moriarty (watching the bodycam video): I see it is nonetheless right here proper now.

Sgt. Luis Mata: It’s nonetheless there precisely.

And here is the way it occurred. They say 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 need to cover that?

They had been additionally suspicious of that needle catheter, the sort used for IVs, found on the scene. Remember, Maria had a tiny mark on her proper arm. Mata shared his considerations with the Webb County District Attorney’s Office.

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

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

Erin Moriarty: The medical expert is saying, I can not say for a reality that is murder.

Isidro Alaniz: I keep in mind having this dialog with the medical expert early on … and I keep 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: Either 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 automobile there.

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

According to Montoya, Maria, seen on Janet’s doorbell digicam, gave Pellot an ultimatum.

Angela Montoya: “Do you select her, otherwise you select me?: And then 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 automobile): Hey, I’m f—— speaking to you proper now. Hang up the f—— telephone.

RESPONDING POLICE OFFICER: I suppose that is your boyfriend.

JANET ARREDONDO: Yeah.

According to Montoya, Maria advised her that Pellot grew to become violent.

Angela Montoya: And he acquired so annoyed with all the pieces 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 can do that with minimal lawyer intervention. It’s 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. Before Pellot arrived, Maria messaged her good friend Yazmin Martinez to hope for her:

… I simply ask when you can pray for me … tonight we’re going to discuss …

Yazmin Martinez: And then I answered her … And I advised her that I’d pray for her.

Maria’s request for prayers that evening can be her last message to Martinez. Maria died early Tuesday morning.

Nearly 4 months after Maria’s demise – Sergeant Mata and Officer De La Cruz lastly get the toxicology take a look at outcomes they’d been ready for.

Sgt. Luis Mata: Zero clonazepam.

Zero clonazepam — the drug Pellot claimed Maria had taken. Instead, 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 usually used throughout surgical procedure and one among 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 save lots of Maria’s life, returned to Pellot’s house to make the arrest.

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

Sgt. Luis Mata: By the time 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’m right here. I’m right here.” Put’s his arms behind his again. Let us cuff him. Doesn’t put up a combat.

JOEL PELLOT: You can name my, uh, my lawyer.

OFFICER De La Cruz: Oh, you possibly can 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 wished her to die?

DEATH BY PROPOFOL?

When Joel Pellot’s former boss, anesthesiologist Dr. John Huntsinger noticed the record of medicine present in Maria Muñoz – seven completely different drugs — he was stunned by one drug particularly.

Dr. John Huntsinger: I used to be very shocked to see propofol.

Erin Moriarty: Where would he get that propofol? You cannot simply go to the drug retailer to get propofol?

Dr. John Huntsinger: You need to get it from a hospital.

While many of the medication present in Maria’s system could possibly be consumed by mouth, Propofol is often injected by another person with an IV.

John Huntsinger: One of the issues about propofol … it relaxes you tremendously … however it would not final very lengthy. … it makes you cease respiratory you probably have an excessive amount of.

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

Dr. John Huntsinger: Correct.

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 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 underneath 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 convey house any medical medication?

JANET ARREDONDO: Yes.

Arredondo advised police that Pellot had typically introduced medication 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 Attorney Isidro Alaniz chosen a staff of attorneys – Katrina Rios, Ana Karen Garza, Cristal Calderon and led by Marisela Jacaman.

Marisela Jacaman: We are Maria’s staff.

So, they acquired a search warrant for her house. 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 possibly can relate to a number of 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: Well, I feel … it goes a lot additional than simply being a partner … you may see the ability battle that existed or the — the shortage thereof.

Assistant District Attorney 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 really 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 need 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’ve gotten 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 advantageous, you bought it (slams automobile door)

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

But prosecutors would wish far 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?

During Janet Arredondo’s second police interview, she mentioned Pellot had advised her in regards to 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.

SGT. LUIS MATA (second police interview): Why did he inform you that he injected her? Because she was erratic?

JANET ARREDONDO: Right, he wished to uh, simply calm her down, so he did it with remedy.

But 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. Those 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 Attorney 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 be sure that nobody can convey 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 a number 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. Again, 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 staff, however by no means obtained a response. Joel Pellot declined our request for an interview.

MARISELA JACAMAN (opening assertion in courtroom): The proof will present that Joel Pellot had the motive, he had the intent, and he had the means to kill Maria.

Prosecutors offered 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 courtroom): Did Mr. Pellot point out to you that he dumped or discarded the IV catheter and the vials?

JANET ARREDONDO: Yes.

When the protection case begins, Pellot’s legal professionals admit their shopper injected his spouse, however they are saying he wasn’t attempting to kill her, he was attempting to save lots of her.

ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

Joel Pellot, carrying a blue go well with and a darkish gray tie, listened rigorously as his protection staff offered his case.

ROBERTO BALLI (in courtroom): Now, Maria died and there is no query that Joel was there.

Defense lawyer Roberto Balli claims Maria was terribly depressed and had been ingesting and abusing medication for months.

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

According to 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 courtroom): Someone tried to convey 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 mix of no matter Maria had taken and the remedy 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 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 medicine found in Maria’s physique couldn’t have been unintended.

Marisela Jacaman: It was sufficient remedy 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 ensure.

While 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 courtroom): Were you conscious that Joel Pellot was seeing Janet, weren’t you?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Yes, 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 determine that she do not need to be no extra with him I’ve a home open for her.

But prosecutors insist as unhappy as Maria might 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 need to pay for a divorce and break up his belongings.

After eight days of testimony, the jury acquired the case. It took them lower than an hour to determine 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’s not dumb, I imply he is a sensible man … so I do not know if he simply acquired caught up along with his God complicated that he thought he was smarter than everybody and that he was going to outsmart them.

Just 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 acquired justice for Maria, however it’s a tragic ending for the household she beloved and fought so laborious to maintain collectively.

Karina Rios: I feel generally 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 a number of scars together with her from this relationship.

Maria’s staff 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 a beautiful soul.

Marisela Jacaman: And she was an awesome mom. She was simply an incredible particular person. And that vitality? We felt it.

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

Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the sphere 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 manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.

Erin Moriarty

Erin Moriarty is a “48 Hours” correspondent and host of the true-crime podcast, “My Life of Crime.”