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

This tale at first aired on Dec. 16, 2023

Within the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2020, when Laredo, Texas, police officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz walked inside of the house on Canyon Oak Power, his frame digicam was once recording the emergency unfolding in entrance of him.

On the best of the steps, close to the master suite, Joel Pellot wearing teal surgical scrubs, was once appearing CPR on his spouse Maria Muñoz. De L. a. Cruz quickly took over.

Erin Moriarty: What sort of form was once she in while you began giving her CPR?

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: She was once heat. She was once nonetheless heat to touch.

Whilst De L. a. Cruz desperately attempted to restore Maria, he requested her husband concerning the medication. Pellot had instructed the 911 operator his spouse will have taken some tablets.

Officer Gregorio De l. a. Cruz: He stands up, he is going to the restroom. … He opens a medication cupboard. I will — I will inform all this as a result of I pay attention it.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): I am not truly positive if she took them or she dropped them …

Upon his go back, he fingers De L. a. Cruz a tablet container.

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

Clonazepam is a drug this is continuously used to regard nervousness. It were prescribed to Pellot, to not his spouse Maria.

De L. a. Cruz briefly tossed the tablet container apart to proceed CPR.

Pellot instructed De l. a. Cruz that Maria were suffering in recent years.

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

Pellot instructed the officials, the couple’s two younger sons have been nonetheless in separate bedrooms close by — apparently ignorant of what was once taking place to their mom Maria.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (appearing 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 once turning 2.

Yazmin Martinez: She want to take her kids to the park … she learn to them earlier than they went to mattress. …  only a truly devoted mom.

Maria loved being a keep at house mother. She was once studying to play the piano and making plans to renew her profession.

Yazmin Martinez: I requested her if she had long gone to college, and she or he stated sure that … she was once a nurse in Puerto Rico and she or he’s like I am if truth be told finding out to take my check so I will paintings right here.

It was once in Puerto Rico the place Maria met Joel Pellot. He was once 11 years older and a nursing pupil.

A couple of years once they married, the couple moved to Laredo, Texas. Pellot had landed a profitable task as a nurse anesthetist, identified within the clinical occupation as a CRNA.

Tina Dores: A nurse anesthetist, or a CRNA, qualified registered nurse anesthetist and a doctor anesthesiologist use the similar drugs, identical tactics to supply anesthesia for other people of every age.

Tina Dores, additionally a CRNA, labored with Joel Pellot at Docs Health center in Laredo.

Erin Moriarty: Did he appear devoted to his paintings?

Tina Dores: Sure, very a lot so. … he all the time sought after to be higher.

Tina Dores: Once I first met him … he was once very circle of relatives oriented … a troublesome employee, sensible man … he would all the time speak about … Maria and Alejandro … and appearing photos of his son and simply speaking about circle of relatives existence basically.

And now on the Pellot house, paramedics and police have been suffering to save lots of the lifetime of the younger spouse and mom.

When extra lend a hand arrived, De L. a. Cruz despatched Pellot downstairs to the kitchen. And that is the reason when De L. a. Cruz learned that the tablet container he had tossed to the aspect previous was once now lacking.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (police bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, the place is it?

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: I used to be like, he has to have them. In order that’s after I requested, “Hello, does he have tablets?” He comes as much as the primary touchdown of the steps and he tosses them to me.

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: So, he had taken them. So, now I am considering now you are looking to cover one thing.

At 3:58 a.m. not up to 3 hours after Joel Pellot had referred to as 911, his spouse, 31-year-old Maria Muñoz, was once declared lifeless inside of their house.

Police started asking Joel what had took place to his spouse.

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

Via now, issues simply did not really feel proper to the investigators. And there was once one thing about Pellot’s look that gave the impression suspicious.

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: He was once truly sweaty … I am dressed in a vest, I am dressed in a gun, I am dressed in virtually 20 kilos of drugs, proper, and I am not sweating as unhealthy as he was once.

Erin Moriarty: So, what went via your thoughts while you noticed how sweaty he was once?

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: He is the use of medication. He is also underneath the affect of gear.

SGT. MATA (to the couple’s sons): You wanna see a hearth truck? Come on let’s cross out of doors.

The couple’s kids, now within the care of regulation enforcement, have been escorted out of doors. Government in an instant introduced a dying investigation.

Sgt. Luis Mata: When I am getting there, I meet with Officer De L. a. Cruz. … He runs the tips through me.

Lead investigator Sergeant Luis Mata did not know if Maria had died through suicide, an unintentional overdose, or if her husband was once someway concerned. Mata knew he had to seek the home, however to do it he must get Pellot’s permission.

Sgt. Luis Mata: And he stated, “Neatly, I do not want you going via my stuff as a result of I am an excessively personal guy.” … Then I stated, “glance Joel, I am not going to power you to, that is your proper, however … I’ll have to move and get with my DA and practice for a seek warrant.

Pellot ultimately gave consent for the hunt. Nonetheless, Mata had a large number of questions. To get some solutions, he directed government to position Pellot in a police cruiser to take him to the station.

Erin Moriarty: May just you spot him earlier than you went in?

Sgt. Luis Mata: I may just see him … via my digicam.

Sgt. Luis Mata: The whole thing there’s recorded … he is hitting partitions, he is transferring furnishings … It was once scaring probably the most other people down the corridor within the dispatch room … in order that’s how loud it was once …

SGT. MATA (to Joel Pellot): Retaining up OK guy?

Round 4 a.m., Mata starts his interview with Pellot, who claims he had given Maria that container of clonazepam prescribed to him.

SGT. MATA: Is it conceivable that she swallowed all of them?

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

SGT. MATA: What number of tablets have been there earlier than?

JOEL PELLOT: I do not know.

SGT. MATA: Mas o menos? (Kind of?)

JOEL PELLOT: I truly do not know.

Sgt. Luis Mata: He could not consider the minorest issues … I do not know the way time and again I requested him – “play again to me the minute you were given there – what did you do?” … and he, neatly, “What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?” … Neatly, you understand what, if you happen to consider the reality, you do not have to consider it.

ANOTHER WOMAN

SGT. MATA (police interview): What was once the period of time between the time you were given out of the bathe … till while you spotted she’s no longer truly responding anymore?

JOEL PELLOT: Uh, 10 mins? … I am not one hundred pc positive.

The surprising dying 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 remark was once that he went in and took a bath … he idea she was once asleep. … after which 10 mins later … He realizes that she’s unresponsive.

Sgt. Luis Mata: When a not unusual particular person showers … what is going to be in the toilet? Steam, condensation, the odor of cleaning soap or shampoo … that main bedroom bathe, which is the only he alleged he used, was once as dry as a wasteland.

Investigators had additionally found out a syringe wrapper at the ground and a needle catheter at the stairs. Syringes and IV apparatus in a clinical bag have been discovered inside of the house.

SGT. MATA (police interview): Why would there be syringes in 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 deal with the youngsters. Ayala, a coworker of Pellot, says he had begun to look adjustments in Pellot’s body and character two years earlier than Maria’s dying.

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

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

Luis Ayala: Perhaps, however … I imply he was once converting like … extra pleasant with women …

Erin Moriarty: Flirting extra.

Luis Ayala: Yeah.

The circle of relatives guy who as soon as had bragged to pals and co-workers about his spouse and youngsters started converting his social media posts, too.

Angela Montoya: He deleted the photographs of Maria, or he simply began posting … the whole thing through himself … no longer together with his children.

Pellot, in call for as a nurse anesthetist, was once making some huge cash, and in keeping with Montoya, he loved appearing 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 pals say the adjustments they noticed in Pellot went a lot deeper. In 2018, round the similar time Maria gave start to the couple’s 2nd son, Joel started pursuing a girl named Janet Arredondo, a surgical nurse, he met at paintings.

Angela Montoya: Joel took Janet to love a holiday spree in Europe. I do not recall which international locations … he instructed me.

Erin Moriarty: Neatly, there was once one shuttle—  there was once Spain, and the following shuttle was once France and Greece.

Angela Montoya: There you cross. There you cross. So, Maria discovered about that whilst he was once there with Janet.

Consistent with Montoya, Maria showed her suspicion about her husband’s infidelity when she discovered a airplane price ticket for one among his Eu journeys. When her sadness was a deep melancholy, she was once prescribed drugs.

However possibly the most productive medication for Maria grew to become out to be her day-to-day journals, found out in her house through investigators:

I do not wish to be unhappy anymore.

I do not want my coronary heart to harm.

I do not want my thoughts to be in torture.

But, every now and then she gave the impression hopeful, believing her religion may just mend the couple’s 10-year marriage:

Lord it is a lot for me,

All I truly wish to do is see alternate in him.

And it gave the impression to be operating. Simply months after her husband had taken his mistress on the ones Eu 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 2nd likelihood for her marriage did not closing. Pellot may just by no means rather go away Janet.

SGT. MATA (police interview): How lengthy have you ever been with Janet?

JOEL PELLOT: About two years.

SGT. MATA: Out of the ones two years, how lengthy has Maria identified about it?

JOEL PELLOT: (sighs) For some time. For an extended whilst.

Actually, Pellot instructed Mata that he now not lived together with his circle of relatives and that he had moved in with Janet Arredondo 5 months earlier than Maria’s dying. 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’s your dating with him? I do not need referred to as you at 6:30 within the morning if it was once only for, for being nosy. It isn’t that I am looking to be nosy, however I will get to the place I am going.

JANET ARREDONDO: Um, he is — he is my boyfriend.

Mata endured urgent Arredondo about Pellot – after which instructed her about Maria.

SGT. MATA (police interview): The explanation that I am this is as a result of …  closing night time Joel’s spouse passed on to the great beyond. … There does not seem to be any, at this time, form of foul play … We are nonetheless pending an post-mortem. … So let’s get with, how did you, and Joel even get started relationship.

JANET ARREDONDO: Um, I am sorry.

SGT. MATA: Um, I perceive. Take your time. I are aware of it’s all more or less thrown at you, so, you understand, I, I instructed you on the very starting, I am gonna be truthful with you. So I’m, uh, our major factor now could be clearly what took place.

JANET ARREDONDO (holds her head in her fingers): Um, I am sorry, what was once your query?

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

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

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

JANET ARREDONDO: Now not that I am … acutely aware of. … he simply instructed me that he, she was once very depressed.

When Sergeant Mata discussed Maria will have overdosed, Arredondo gave the impression stunned.

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

SGT. MATA: We do not know but. … the primary factor is that this, Janet, is after we inform her circle of relatives …They are gonna suppose that both Joel … killed her or that you just had one thing to do with it, that is all we need to rule you out. OK. … Has Joel ever confided in you that he was once, that he sought after to do one thing to his spouse?

JANET ARREDONDO: No.

Pellot had instructed police Maria will have overdosed at the drug clonazepam, but if the post-mortem was once carried out — 8 hours after Maria was once declared lifeless — the clinical examiner discovered no tablet residue in her abdomen. There was one thing on Maria’s frame on the scene that perplexed each the clinical examiner and investigators: a tiny mark on Maria’s proper arm.

Sgt. Luis Mata: It was once somewhat, little prick —  more or less like each time you, the average particular person … has their blood checked once they cross 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 the rest like that?

Sgt. Luis Mata: Not anything, Not anything.

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: Not anything.

The post-mortem document states Maria died from a combined drug intoxication. Whilst the clinical examiner could not say how the medicine were given in her gadget, she did rule out suicide after speaking to Maria’s pals and studying her magazine.

At the day earlier than she died, Maria wrote:

What’s it that I need?

#1 Transfer Ahead!!

So, may just Maria’s dying had been an unintentional overdose? Or was once it homicide? When Dr. John Huntsinger, an anesthesiologist and Pellot’s former boss, heard the post-mortem effects, he in an instant was suspicious.

Dr. John Huntsinger: I referred to as Detective Mata, and I instructed him my issues.

He instructed Mata to reserve an in depth toxicology screening to decide which medication had killed Maria and the way they were given there.

SGT. MATA (police interview): Did you inject her … this night?

JOEL PELLOT: No.

SGT. MATA: With the rest?

JOEL PELLOT: No.

Government must wait just about 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 friends and family got here to mourn Maria Muñoz, together with her estranged husband, Joel Pellot.

CHURCH SERVICE: The victorious existence is — could also be a lifetime of provider. … All of our lives have been impacted through the valuable lifetime of Maria.

Yazmin Martinez: Her funeral was once truly unhappy …  Joel was once there and he was once crying. He gave the impression very dissatisfied, very unhappy.

To Maria’s good friend Yazmin Martinez, he gave the impression somewhat too dissatisfied, too unhappy.

Yazmin Martinez: What made me really feel indignant … was once him close to the casket … crying over her, giving her kisses. Like why now? You will have made her undergo and cry such a lot and you are doing this now?

Joel Pellot’s show of grief did not anything to discourage the investigation into his spouse’s dying.

Sergeant Luis Mata and Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz say that photos captured through the bodycam at the morning Maria died presentations one thing curious. Take note the tablets in a container that Pellot stated his spouse had taken? De L. a. Cruz tossed it apart when he was once giving Maria CPR.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, the place is it?

One day it disappeared.

Erin Moriarty (staring at the bodycam video): I see it is nonetheless right here at this time.

Sgt. Luis Mata: It is nonetheless there precisely.

And this is the way it took place. They are saying Pellot grabs the tablet container and places it in his pocket.

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz (staring at the bodycam video): He simply reached over and … put it proper again within the blouse.

Officer Gregorio De L. a. Cruz: If that is truly what she took, why would you wish to have to cover that?

They have been additionally suspicious of that needle catheter, the type used for IVs, found out on the scene. Take note, Maria had a tiny mark on her proper arm. Mata shared his issues with the Webb County District Legal professional’s Place of work.

Marisela Jacaman: We’ve got a 24/7 telephone … and regulation enforcement can touch us with any questions.

Leader Assistant District Legal professional Marisela Jacaman and District Legal professional Isidro Alaniz knew the case could be tricky to end up since even the clinical examiner wasn’t positive precisely how Maria died.

Erin Moriarty: The clinical examiner is announcing, I will’t say for a reality that is murder.

Isidro Alaniz: I consider having this dialog with the clinical examiner early on … and I consider her announcing glance, I wasn’t there, and neither have been you. All we all know is that she has this mixture of bad medication in her bloodstream … we do not know who gave them to her, if she had some in her gadget already, if she took some in a while.

Erin Moriarty: Both coincidence or homicide.

Isidro Alaniz: Coincidence or homicide.

Investigators started to query Maria’s pals and found out that the Saturday earlier than Maria died, there was once a disagreement at Janet Arredondo’s space 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.

Consistent with Montoya, Maria, observed on Janet’s doorbell digicam, gave Pellot an ultimatum.

Angela Montoya: “Do you select her, or 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 through then had left with Pellot. When Maria replied her mobile phone, the officer’s bodycam recorded the sound of Joel berating her within the background:

JOEL PELLOT (mobile phone video with Maria within the automobile): Hello, I am f—— speaking to you at this time. Cling up the f—— telephone.

RESPONDING POLICE OFFICER: I assume that is your boyfriend.

JANET ARREDONDO: Yeah.

Consistent with Montoya, Maria instructed her that Pellot was violent.

Angela Montoya: And he were given so annoyed with the whole 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 attorney, and he spoke back:

JOEL PELLOT TEXT: We will be able to do that with minimum attorney intervention. It is an excessive amount of cash.

Pellot then turns out to have had a transformation of coronary heart, and sends Maria this e mail:

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

I need to take a seat down with you to speak, w/o arguing. A coronary heart to coronary heart.

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

… I simply ask if you’ll be able to pray for me … this night we’re going to communicate …

Yazmin Martinez: After which I replied her … And I instructed her that I’d pray for her.

Maria’s request for prayers that night time could be her ultimate message to Martinez. Maria died early Tuesday morning.

Just about 4 months after Maria’s dying – Sergeant Mata and Officer De L. a. Cruz in any case get the toxicology check effects they’d been looking ahead to.

Sgt. Luis Mata: 0 clonazepam.

0 clonazepam — the drug Pellot claimed Maria had taken. As a substitute, the toxicology document printed seven different medication in Maria’s gadget.

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

A lot of these drugs are in most cases used throughout surgical operation and one among them can handiest be administered with an IV.

Erin Moriarty: What was once your response?

Sgt. Luis Mata: He killed her. This man killed his spouse.

Government were given a warrant, Officer De L. a. Cruz, who had attempted to save lots of Maria’s existence, 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 at the door, and we announce our presence … similar to the best way you do within the films, he comes out. “I am right here. I am right here.” Put’s his fingers in the back of his again. Allow us to cuff him. Does not post a battle.

JOEL PELLOT: You’ll name my, uh, my legal professional.

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

Pellot was once taken to the police station and booked. Prosecutors consider he was once the one that gave his spouse the fatal combination — however can they end up he sought after her to die?

DEATH BY PROPOFOL?

When Joel Pellot’s former boss, anesthesiologist Dr. John Huntsinger noticed the listing of gear present in Maria Muñoz – seven other drugs — he was once stunned through one drug specifically.

Dr. John Huntsinger: I used to be very stunned to look propofol.

Erin Moriarty: The place would he get that propofol? You’ll’t simply cross to the drug retailer to get propofol?

Dr. John Huntsinger: It’s a must to get it from a medical institution.

Whilst many of the medication present in Maria’s gadget may well be ate up through mouth, Propofol is normally injected through any person else with an IV.

John Huntsinger: One of the vital issues about propofol … it relaxes you very much … nevertheless it does not closing very lengthy. … it makes you forestall respiring you probably have an excessive amount of.

Erin Moriarty: I feel maximum folks, after we pay attention about Propofol, we call to mind Michael Jackson.

Dr. John Huntsinger: Proper.

Singer Michael Jackson’s dying in June 2009 was once blamed, partially, on an unintentional overdose of Propofol. And after Maria Muñoz’s dying, a extremely increased stage of the drug was once present in her gadget.

Dr. John Huntsinger: Hers was once the perfect stage I have observed.

Erin Moriarty: And what does that say to you?

Dr. John Huntsinger: I consider this was once dying through Propofol.

With Joel Pellot now underneath arrest, government have been satisfied that Pellot’s female friend Janet Arredondo knew greater than what she shared in that first interview.

Arredondo agreed to a 2nd police interview and, accompanied through lawyers, she now gave the impression in a position to speak.

SGT. MATA (2nd police interview): Did Joel ever convey house any clinical medication?

JANET ARREDONDO: Sure.

Arredondo instructed police that Pellot had continuously 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 top equipment. District Legal professional Isidro Alaniz decided on a group of lawyers – Katrina Rios, Ana Karen Garza, Cristal Calderon and led through Marisela Jacaman.

Marisela Jacaman: We’re Maria’s group.

So, they were given a seek warrant for her house. Then, they presented her a deal. In change for more info, Arredondo would get immunity from prosecution.

All 4 prosecutors have been satisfied that Maria’s husband had methodically deliberate her homicide, and that the faithful mom and spouse had suffered within the months earlier than her dying.

Marisela Jacaman: I have heard of emotional abuse, I have observed it, I have labored round it …

Marisela Jacaman: … however I by no means learned how prevalent it’s even in our lives the place you’ll be able to relate to probably the most issues that Maria was once experiencing.

Erin Moriarty: At 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: Neatly, I feel … it is going such a lot additional than simply being a partner … you must see the ability fight that existed or the — the dearth thereof.

Assistant District Legal professional Karina Rios.

Karina Rios: Maria had no energy on this dating.

And the proof of that, prosecutors say, is located in Maria’s personal journals. Prosecutor Jacaman learn a kind of entries:

Lifestyles is so unfair.

My husband the person I really like such a lot is inflicting me such a lot ache

Maria additionally left proof on her mobile phone that she secretly recorded roughly 4 months earlier than her dying: 

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

MARIA MUÑOZ (mobile phone video within the automobile with Joel Pellot): What are the expectancies you have got in this — this marriage?

Marisela Jacaman: She gave us this very robust video.

MARIA MUÑOZ (mobile phone video within the automobile with Joel Pellot): You stroll out that door, we are getting a divorce.

JOEL PELLOT: Alright nice, you were given it (slams automobile door)

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

However prosecutors would wish a lot more than that video and Maria’s magazine entries. How did they consider that Joel Pellot dosed his spouse with all the ones medication?

Marisela Jacaman: That was once the million-dollar query. We stored announcing, how did he get her to publish to this?

All through Janet Arredondo’s 2nd police interview, she stated Pellot had instructed her concerning the night time Maria died: he had long gone there, he stated, to have that heart-to-heart communicate after which injected her — to not kill her, Pellot stated, however to calm her down.

SGT. LUIS MATA (2nd police interview): Why did he inform you that he injected her? As a result of she was once erratic?

JANET ARREDONDO: Proper, he sought after to uh, simply calm her down, so he did it with drugs.

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 will have slipped a number of sedative medication into her favourite drink: espresso.

Marisela Jacaman: Ketamine, Versed, morphine and Demerol. The ones 4 will have been installed her espresso, she then passes out.

After that, they are saying, Pellot injected Maria with a perilous dose of propofol. Then-Leader Assistant District Legal professional Ana Karen Garza Gutierrez says Pellot intentionally waited to name for lend a hand.

Ana Karen Garza: I consider he waited till she was once lifeless to name 911 to make certain that no person can convey her again.

SGT MATA (2nd police interview):  Did you play any position in Maria’s dying in any respect? You?

JANET ARREDONDO: No.

Arredondo stated Pellot did admit to her that he removed probably the most clinical apparatus he used to inject Maria earlier than first responders arrived.

JANET ARREDONDO: He simply instructed me he removed them.

Pellot was once out on bail, so prosecutors had him rearrested and at the side of homicide, he was once charged with tampering with proof. Once more, he made bail and would put on an ankle track.

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 gained a reaction. Joel Pellot declined our request for an interview.

MARISELA JACAMAN (opening remark in courtroom): The proof will display that Joel Pellot had the cause, he had the intent, and he had the way to kill Maria.

Prosecutors offered 15 witnesses to end up to a jury that Pellot had moderately and deliberately decided on the medicine to kill Maria. Their megastar witness, Janet Arredondo, instructed 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: Sure.

When the protection case starts, Pellot’s attorneys admit their consumer injected his spouse, however they are saying he wasn’t looking to kill her, he was once looking to save her.

ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

Joel Pellot, dressed in a blue swimsuit and a dismal gray tie, listened moderately as his protection group offered his case.

ROBERTO BALLI (in courtroom): Now, Maria died and there is not any query that Joel was once there.

Protection legal professional Roberto Balli claims Maria was once extraordinarily depressed and were ingesting and abusing medication for months.

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

Consistent with the protection, Pellot did not intend to kill his spouse and the evidence, his lawyers say, is in that toxicology document. They admit Pellot gave his spouse drugs to calm her down, after which when he discovered her subconscious they are saying, he gave her Narcan, a drug used to opposite an opioid overdose.

ROBERTO BALLI (in courtroom): Somebody attempted to convey her again to existence, and it wasn’t the paramedics, it wasn’t the police. It was once Joel. So he didn’t need her lifeless. This was once a horrible coincidence.

A horrible coincidence, the protection argues, that was once led to through a mixture of no matter Maria had taken and the drugs Pellot used to inject her.

Erin Moriarty: How have you learnt that Narcan wasn’t there as a result of he attempted to save lots of her, that he went too some distance, learned that he had long gone too some distance.

Ana Karen Garza Guiterrez: Narcan isn’t a reversal agent for Propofol and Propofol was once what stopped her coronary heart on the finish.

The protection by no means defined to the jury how the propofol were given into Maria’s gadget, however prosecutors say that the extent of gear found out in Maria’s frame may just no longer had been unintentional.

Marisela Jacaman: It was once sufficient drugs to live to tell the tale two primary surgical procedures. It was once such a lot.

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

Marisela Jacaman: To make sure.

Whilst Pellot himself did not testify, his emotional mom did. Miriam Carrasquillo instructed prosecutors, throughout pass exam, that Maria had mentioned how unhappy she was once about her marriage.

MARISELA JACAMAN (in courtroom): Have been you conscious that Joel Pellot was once seeing Janet, were not you?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Sure, she instructed me.

MARISELA JACAMAN: Who instructed you?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Maria.

MARISELA JACAMAN: And did you inspire her to stick within the marriage?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: I instructed her that everyone have a restrict and she or he have a restrict. When she make a decision that she do not wish to be not more with him I’ve a space open for her.

However prosecutors insist as unhappy as Maria will have been about her marriage, there’s no proof that she abused both medication or alcohol.

They consider Pellot’s cause was once cash and that he murdered Maria as a result of he did not wish to pay for a divorce and break up his belongings.

After 8 days of testimony, the jury were given the case. It took them not up to an hour to make a decision Joel Pellot’s destiny: accountable of murdering his spouse Maria and tampering with the proof.

Many contributors of the clinical group attended the trial, together with Pellot’s former colleague, Tina Dores.

Tina Dores: He is not dumb, I imply he is a sensible man … so I do not know if he simply were given stuck up together with his God complicated that he idea he was once smarter than everybody and that he was once going to outsmart them.

Simply hours after the accountable verdict, Pellot was once sentenced to existence in jail, cuffed and escorted out of the court.

Maria’s good friend Angela Montoya.

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

Prosecutors were given justice for Maria, however it is a tragic finishing for the circle of relatives she beloved and fought so onerous to stay in combination.

Karina Rios: I feel on occasion the worst accidents do not even go away a mark … the wounds to your coronary heart, to your thoughts. Lets by no means see the ones on Maria, however she instructed us about them … however she carried a large number of scars together with her from this dating.

Maria’s group say crucial witness at trial ended up being Maria herself, and that her journals confirmed the ones scars have been therapeutic.

Ana Karen Garza: She was once an attractive soul.

Marisela Jacaman: And he or she was once a really perfect mom. She was once simply an awesome particular person. And that power? We felt it.

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

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Produced through Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the sphere manufacturer. Marlon Disla, Michael Vele and Phil Tangel are the editors. Elizabeth Caholo is the improvement manufacturer. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the chief tale editor. Judy Tygard is the chief manufacturer.