- 7 weeks ago
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00I don't know what's the address of emergency.
00:13And I'm kind of scared if she's not breathing.
00:19Can you check for a pulse?
00:21Yeah.
00:23What about her chest? Is her chest rising up and down?
00:28No.
00:30Is somebody coming?
00:32Yes, there should already be an officer getting close.
00:34An officer or an ambulance?
00:36We have both an officer and an ambulance.
00:38Okay.
00:41This video provided by a neighbor shows a threatening man.
00:45He's seen walking past a home holding an axe.
00:58And I'm a sergeant for the Laredo Police Department in Laredo, Texas.
01:08What I can tell you about this neighborhood is that it is very calm.
01:14It's not uncommon to see kids running around in the neighborhood.
01:16There's a park close by.
01:18It's a very, very lovely neighborhood.
01:20In September 2020, all that changed.
01:24Our patrol officers responded to an unresponsive female.
01:30The information that I received was that we have a female in her 30s that apparently had been depressed.
01:40The husband indicated that he had found her on the bed, what he thought was asleep.
01:45She ended up being unresponsive.
01:47Right now, we're approaching the residence.
01:49This has been five years now, but it feels like I was just here last night.
01:54I was just here last night.
02:24I
02:26Have some officers outside if you would be able to unlock the door really quick
02:31I'm gonna let you go see you can speak with the officers
02:42First on the scene is an officer from the radio PD
02:49He finds Joelle payotte doing CPR and his wife Maria
02:54He says she might have overdosed on antidepressants
02:58She has medication here
03:00Where is it at we take the same medications, okay? I give her so
03:08When paramedics arrive they continue trying to resuscitate Maria
03:15I'm the bad I brought her over here
03:19Like maybe like 20 20 minutes
03:24I
03:25I
03:26I
03:27I
03:28I
03:29I
03:31I have two kids in the house too, by the way.
03:45Can you give me a seat?
03:50Yeah.
03:51Yeah.
03:52Just in case they wake up.
03:53We don't want them to see them.
04:01With Maria pronounced dead by the medics, Sergeant Luis Mata is called to the scene.
04:12My job as an investigator is to go in there and rule out foul play.
04:16And nine times out of 10, there is no foul play.
04:21He had a prescription drug.
04:23Where is it?
04:24However, she's a 30-year-old woman that passed away in her own home unexpectedly.
04:29Sir, you gotta go downstairs.
04:31We'll be with you shortly.
04:34He was behaving like any husband would that had just been told that his wife had passed away.
04:39His wife of 10 years is gone.
04:44Despite Joel's distress, Sergeant Mata needs to find out what happened before Maria died.
04:51You gotta go outside.
04:52I approached him.
04:53I expressed my condolences.
04:55And then I started my questioning that I would in any common death investigation.
05:00How did she die?
05:01And why did she die?
05:02What's going on?
05:03What happened?
05:04I noticed that he was wearing scrubs.
05:08So he's some type of nurse, some type of medical employee.
05:14Joel explains that he's a nurse anesthetist.
05:17He and Maria are no longer living together.
05:20But they'd agreed to discuss their relationship after his shift.
05:24Joel indicated that Maria and him had been having marital problems, that she had been drinking lately and had been using pills to help her go to sleep.
05:51So you're not staying here right now?
05:54Um, we had sex.
05:58We took a shower.
06:00He goes in and takes a shower.
06:02When he comes out, he thinks that she's asleep.
06:06Then I thought she was, like, knocked out.
06:09I'm like, hey, what's up?
06:10What's going on?
06:11I didn't think anything of it.
06:15So I just kept on doing my thing.
06:18He checks on her 10 minutes later.
06:20He finds her unresponsive.
06:22And then I go back upstairs, and then she just...
06:25Yeah.
06:27This is what he brought.
06:29And he said that he thinks she took these.
06:32He went all the way into the medicine cabinet and brought these.
06:35I suspected the possibility of an intentional overdose, which could have been a suicide.
06:41Is this your phone?
06:42You can just leave that here.
06:43No, no, no.
06:44I need my phone.
06:45Just leave your phone here.
06:46You can't have your phone.
06:47Just put it here.
06:48Just put it here.
06:53As Joelle is taken outside, Sergeant Mata combs the house for evidence.
07:02We're looking for notes, medication, bottles, pills, things that could explain the reasons why she died.
07:11We found a needle on the stairwell.
07:18Alongside the body were wrappers of a syringe.
07:26Wrappers that you see like in a hospital setting.
07:29Joelle's account was telling us that he had taken a shower.
07:33We went into that shower and it was very dry.
07:36It looked like it had not been used for several hours.
07:40There was no evidence that she had been in a struggle, had been abused, had been tortured, had been assaulted.
07:46However, we found one mark on her elbow crease.
07:51A mark that is consistent with an individual getting their blood drawn or getting an IV started.
07:58I'm asking myself, why are there syringe wrappers scattered throughout the home?
08:06Why is the shower dry?
08:08Why is there a mark on Maria's elbow crease?
08:11Why is there a needle on the stairs?
08:14Those are the questions that I want answered.
08:17Something's not quite adding up here.
08:20The coroner takes Maria's body in for autopsy.
08:40Joelle is taken to the station to answer further questions.
08:48We want to get the background of what's going on in Maria and Joelle's life that could lead us to this point.
08:53Joelle's demeanor was of a hysterical spouse.
09:03The detective's coming in.
09:09Sergeant Mata starts the interview by asking Joelle where he's been living.
09:15If Maria did take an overdose, could their separation be the reason?
09:34If Maria did take an overdose, could their separation be the reason?
09:39She didn't think it was going to last this long.
09:42And, um, it's been a constant thing that she can't even wear pills to go to sleep.
09:50And then she can't go to sleep at all because she's so depressed.
09:55She cries all day.
09:57So Maria was taking pills for depression.
10:00Were they prescribed to her?
10:02Yeah, they were.
10:03And, uh, hers ran out.
10:05So I just went to give her some.
10:08Do you know the name of the pill?
10:09Yeah.
10:10One, one milligram of clematis.
10:13Okay.
10:14His reasoning was that she was very depressed and very sad because she was losing him.
10:20I asked, had Maria been drinking?
10:22And he had said yes.
10:23Did you drink today?
10:25I don't know.
10:27Okay.
10:28I'd like to tell you that she really needed, like, relief.
10:39When you say she would need relief from her depression.
10:43Okay.
10:44Yeah.
10:45Sergeant Mata asks if Maria could have injected herself.
10:49Okay.
10:50Um, does she do drugs?
10:52Other than pulling out of town?
10:54Has she ever done drugs?
10:57Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
11:00I'm pretty sure.
11:01Did she do any type of injections?
11:03Um, lately I'm not sure what she'd get into.
11:09Mm-hmm.
11:10If she did, what would it be?
11:12I don't know.
11:16When we asked Joel about the needle prick mark, he could not explain it.
11:21I feel like you're not telling me something about that trademark.
11:24What's going on?
11:25Yeah, I don't.
11:27What do you suspect?
11:29I don't want to speculate.
11:32You're not speculating.
11:33You're helping me out.
11:34Yeah.
11:35But she just died.
11:37Exactly.
11:38You know, that's not making sense to her.
11:41Exactly.
11:42And my main concern is, how did this happen?
11:46Like, I'm not going to speculate.
11:50And I flat out asked him towards the end of the interview, did you kill Maria?
11:54Did you have anything to do with your wife's death?
11:55Anything to know?
11:56I love my wife.
11:57I don't know what my kids are going to do without her.
12:01He seemed shocked.
12:02I said, no.
12:03Me?
12:04No.
12:05I loved her.
12:06I loved her.
12:07I would rather die.
12:08Yeah.
12:09I would rather die.
12:10I would rather die.
12:11I would rather die.
12:12I would rather die.
12:13I would rather my sons than not have me than not have her.
12:20My condolence is okay.
12:23With no evidence of wrongdoing, Joel is free to leave.
12:36Maria's friends hear of her heartbreaking death.
12:40That day, I had 15 or 20 missed calls of friends that wanted to come forward.
12:45She was well-loved, and they were adamant that Maria would not take her own life.
12:51I first met Maria not long after she had moved to Laredo, and she quickly became just an instant best friend.
13:16Really and truly like sisters.
13:19I mean, we raised our sons as almost siblings, and we were there for each other.
13:24We talked about everything.
13:26This is one of the last pictures I think Maria and I took together.
13:33We were at her house, and we'd been hanging out and talking about life, talking about plans.
13:41Maria was always happy, always encouraging, beautiful, naturally beautiful.
13:48Really could lift you up no matter what.
13:52Take 1,000.
13:54Maria was smart.
13:56Maria was intelligent.
13:59She was passionate.
14:00She was a family person.
14:02She loved her husband.
14:05She loved her kids.
14:06I am great.
14:09I am great.
14:12I've never known Maria to do anything that would even align with wanting to take her own life.
14:19When we started reviewing the case, we noticed that Maria had several cameras inside the home.
14:42We realized that this was a camera that was no longer mounted to the wall.
14:49It was removed.
14:51That's a red flag.
14:54We also discovered Maria's journal.
14:56As a detective, when we find a book like that, like a journal, especially with recent entries up until the moment that she died, that's our victim talking to us post-mortem.
15:08Several journals of Maria all indicated her great faith in God.
15:16I believe she loved God.
15:18She loved her family.
15:19She trusted her husband.
15:21And she believed in the idea that if you were good, you would not be harmed.
15:28There was no suggestion that Maria was suicidal.
15:33Something's not right.
15:34There's needles, syringe wrappers, and she has one mark, and it just happens to be where a nurse could start an IV.
15:41And what's her husband do?
15:43He works in anesthesia.
15:45Sergeant Matta speaks to Joel's former employer for background on him.
16:00I knew Joel.
16:02He would come across as very humble, but he was actually a very bright guy, especially in the area of pharmacology.
16:10Joel's modesty turned to pride when it came to his wife.
16:15He would bring her to some of our business meetings, and we were a little surprised by that.
16:22It just jumped in my mind that he's just trying to show off that he has a beautiful wife.
16:28They presented as a loving couple.
16:33They acted like they were in love, and it was something that you would expect to see with any other married couple.
16:40And then something seemed to change about him.
16:43It became evident that as time was passing, Joel was changing.
16:48Joel had always prided himself on being a father.
16:53That part faded away.
16:56He was becoming heavily obsessed with finances, money, becoming a millionaire, heavily obsessed with being at work, as well as the way he looked.
17:08Joel's co-workers also noticed the change.
17:12He put blonde streaks in his hair.
17:15He lost weight but gained muscle mass.
17:19He became more aggressive.
17:20He had several confrontations with surgeons and other physicians.
17:25To me, that suggested that he was probably taking testosterone or anabolic steroids.
17:32It was very disappointing and shocking that Joel began to change as he did.
17:38Sergeant Mata makes a surprising discovery.
17:43Joel had been having a secretive affair with a co-worker of his who's a nurse named Janet Arredondo.
17:50I talked to Joel about rumors of a relationship, and it's making a lot of us feel very uncomfortable.
18:01There was an air of anxiety whenever he was around.
18:05I became aware that Joel was having an affair as there had started just to be rumors amongst kind of the friends groups, the medical community.
18:13There was just a lot of, you know, talking behind the scenes.
18:17I was definitely shocked when we started to see some of the verbal abuse, the disrespect, and the control that Joel had over Maria.
18:28The most common theme that we gathered from all these interviews was Joel's narcissism.
18:43Another factor was lack of respect for his co-workers, lack of respect for his supervisor.
18:50There was an incident where I was called in emergently to help him in the room, and the patient was flat-lined.
18:58We had to immediately do CPR.
19:01But when I walked in the room, he was texting on his cell phone.
19:10After that incident, I brought him to our office, and I let him know that we were going to terminate him immediately.
19:22After Joel left, I had hoped that perhaps he would straighten out, he would go back to being a good husband and father and forget about Janet.
19:33But nothing changed.
19:35Joel got work at a different hospital and continued his affair with Janet.
19:41Maria eventually found out.
19:44At this point in the investigation, I had my suspicions that Joel had killed Maria.
19:49But I still couldn't prove it.
19:50We needed more evidence.
19:53Sergeant Mata's team searched through Maria's phone.
19:57There was one particular video where Joel and Maria are having a conversation in a vehicle.
20:03Maria is spilling her heart, and Joel arrogantly just continues eating his food.
20:08I want to know, what is it that you want me to do?
20:13What, you know, what do you want me to do?
20:16I have already forgiven you.
20:20When Maria tells him, it's just over, you've made this choice.
20:25You walk out that door, we're getting a door.
20:29All right, fine.
20:32He gets mad and storms out of the car, and slams a door.
20:37We also discovered an email.
20:42It seems that you already made your decision.
20:45You've gone with Janet.
20:46That's okay.
20:47I wish you two the best.
20:49And I just hope that we make this relationship be civil for the sake of our children.
20:53The next step I want you to do is to turn in your keys to the house.
20:58Maria had just filed a divorce appointment with a local attorney.
21:03She was leaving him.
21:04Once Maria mentioned the word attorney and indicated to Joel that she had already made an appointment,
21:09he emailed her indicating that he's had a lot of time to think about it,
21:13that he wants his marriage to work, he wants his family.
21:16And all he asks before she goes to an attorney is to have one last heart-to-heart talk.
21:23Chief Assistant DA Maricela Jackaman doesn't believe that's what Joel wanted.
21:35She thinks this was another example of his coercive control over Maria.
21:40I believe that Maria was subjected to various levels of emotional abuse.
21:47And when he felt he was losing control and she said,
21:53we'll end this amicably.
21:55We can even go talk to an attorney.
21:58He didn't want that.
21:59That was not part of his plan.
22:04Sergeant Mata calls in Joel's girlfriend, Janet, for an interview.
22:22When we asked Janet what she knew of Maria, she mentioned that she had been told
22:42that Maria had been very depressed, that she was refusing to let go of Joel,
22:46and that she did not want this divorce.
22:49Why is Joel still married to her, in your opinion?
22:51Why? Because she won't do the divorce.
22:57And in her mind, it was a boyfriend that just could not get away from his wife,
23:02who was refusing to let him go.
23:04Because last night at about 1.30 in the morning, or earlier in the day,
23:07or earlier in the day,
23:09um,
23:10whole-edged white passed away.
23:12Okay?
23:13Um...
23:14I'm sorry.
23:15Um...
23:16I understand.
23:17Take your time.
23:19When I told Janet that Maria had been found dead,
23:23that's when she told me I had a chance to talk to her two days ago
23:27and I wish I should have.
23:29That is when she told us about the incident when Maria had gone over to Joel's house.
23:35Yeah, she went to my house on Saturday.
23:37Oh, this past Saturday?
23:38Yes, sir.
23:39Uh...
23:40And did she see you?
23:42I didn't open the door.
23:44Did you call the police?
23:45Yes.
23:46Was she, like, was she trying to say something?
23:47Janet explains that the incident was recorded on her door cam.
23:51Do you have a...
23:52I might still have it.
23:54I think it's this one, I think it's 29.
23:56Okay.
23:57She's there.
23:58Let me see.
23:59Janet hasn't been charged,
24:01so Detective Mata has no right to seize her footage.
24:05So when she offers the video,
24:07he records it on his phone.
24:09Maria and Joel had taken the boys to a Halloween pumpkin farm,
24:15but he cut the trip short,
24:17saying that he had to go into work immediately.
24:20Maria became suspicious,
24:22drove to Janet's house.
24:24She's like, I just want to go tell Janet
24:27that I'm not going to bother her anymore.
24:29She can have them,
24:30but to be responsible and be mature for the kids.
24:33She told them, like, you need to take,
24:36and he said, I'm staying here.
24:38I'm going to be here.
24:40Maria phones Joel repeatedly.
24:46He eventually agrees to talk with her in her car,
24:49away from Janet.
24:51Soon after,
24:54a police officer responds to Janet's previous call.
25:02Hello, ma'am.
25:03Did you call, please?
25:04Yes, I did.
25:05What's going on?
25:06I had a woman come by
25:08that she was already told not to be here.
25:11She was here.
25:12She was asked to leave.
25:14She refused, so I called you guys.
25:16By the time I was on the phone, she left.
25:19Yeah.
25:20Do you have her on video camera?
25:21Um, I have her on my ring.
25:23If you have her on camera,
25:24that's enough for me to go warn her not to return.
25:26So the officer says, okay,
25:28what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to warn her.
25:30That way she already has the official advisory.
25:32If she comes back after that,
25:34do you want to put her in jail?
25:36At that time, she says,
25:38if she were to come back a third time, then yes.
25:40So when the officer called Maria...
25:45Hey, I'm talking to you right now.
25:49Head up the phone.
25:51I guess that's your boyfriend.
25:56Yeah.
25:57Joel was in a rage.
25:59That just tells me that he is domineering
26:01and he is aggressive.
26:03And then you can see Janet on the phone sending text messages.
26:09We were able to get cell phone records.
26:11It was her sending Joel a message.
26:13Hey, the police just heard you yelling.
26:17It's the police trying to get a hold of Maria.
26:20So when the officer calls back,
26:22you'll notice the calmer demeanor.
26:25The switch was flipped back to being a rational individual.
26:30Hello.
26:31Hello, yes, sir.
26:32I'm looking for Maria Munoz.
26:34Yeah, she's here.
26:35I'm having a conversation with her.
26:37All right.
26:38This is officer.
26:39Hello, Moloreto PD, sir.
26:40Yeah.
26:41I'm calling on behalf of Janetta Redondo.
26:43Can I speak to her?
26:44Sure.
26:46The officer then explains
26:48that she's not welcomed back at Janet's home.
26:50And if she comes back onto her property,
26:52she's going to be arrested for trespassing.
26:54Hello.
26:55Yes, Ms. Munoz.
26:56Mm-hmm.
26:57I understand you came over to Ms. Redondo's house
26:59earlier today?
27:00Mm-hmm.
27:01Okay.
27:02I'm going to ask you to not return.
27:03If not, you will be placed into custody.
27:05Okay.
27:07Okay.
27:08If you...
27:09Yes, video surveillance.
27:10So this is your official warning.
27:12If in the event you return, you will be placed in jail.
27:15So I suggest you do not come here no longer, okay?
27:18Okay.
27:19Okay.
27:20Do you have any questions?
27:21No.
27:22Alrighty.
27:23Thank you, ma'am.
27:24Maria says that she understands, and the conversation ends.
27:29Bye-bye.
27:30Within 24 to 48 hours, we received a call from a local attorney indicating that Janet was not going to be making herself available to talk to the police any further.
27:40Now it's just getting more and more clearer that there's something more to this case.
27:55Janet has information, she doesn't want us to know, and she's hiding something that's very revealing.
28:10Despite its poor quality, the doorbell footage showing Maria's visit to Janet could prove crucial to the investigation.
28:23Video forensics is the scientific analysis enhancement authentication of any sort of video evidence that may be used in a criminal case.
28:36It's the scientific analysis of recorded evidence.
28:41Video evidence is critical in a lot of cases, especially nowadays with ring cameras, nest cameras, surveillance cameras of all types.
28:49There's almost always video evidence associated with any sort of critical incident that happens, and it acts as a silent witness, as a objective view of what actually occurred, as opposed to eyewitness statements.
29:07The way that this video was recorded is not ideal, but we can still gain a lot of very valuable information from it.
29:13I'm going to make this footage look as good as it possibly can.
29:17The first thing I want to do is get a better view of what's happening on that small screen.
29:23We see that the footage is moving around, and that's because the person holding the phone that's recording this screen is moving around.
29:32I want to see this footage stable the way that it's meant to be.
29:37So the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to stabilize it.
29:40So now we can look at this footage in a way that more closely approximates the original footage.
29:50Maricela Jackerman studies the police body cam evidence in detail.
30:02We noticed that there was inconsistencies in his story.
30:12He mentioned that she had overdosed, that he gave her a bottle of clonazepin.
30:19Where'd she take?
30:20I think clonazepin.
30:22But when he was asked for the bottle.
30:25Where is it at?
30:26It wasn't around Maria's body.
30:28So he gets up and he leaves the room and he comes back with a bottle of clonazepin and shows it to the officer.
30:36And you see his hand grab the bottle and put it in his pocket.
30:48There was absolutely no need to do that.
30:51The pinprick found on the crease of Maria's arm is also concerning.
30:56One of the first things we said was, why isn't any of the paraphernalia there?
31:01If it was truly an accident, then the syringe would be there.
31:06Why was it cleaned up?
31:10As Maria's body is held by the coroner for autopsy, Sergeant Mata gets a call from Joelle's former boss, Dr. Hunsinger.
31:20He's suspicious about Maria's death and recommends a full toxicology test on her blood.
31:26Dr. Hunsinger's gut feeling from the good go was that Joelle played a role in Maria's death.
31:33Joelle had access to several potent drugs that could kill anyone.
31:39So a full toxicology report that included anesthesia drugs had to be done.
31:45I'm not familiar with police work and my concern was that those drugs are not always looked for.
31:51I was very concerned that if the body was cremated, evidence would have been lost.
31:57With only circumstantial evidence against Joelle,
32:01discarded medical wrappers,
32:03an open used needle found on the stairs,
32:07and the prick mark on Maria's arm,
32:10the toxicology report will be crucial.
32:13We had all this evidence, yet we still didn't have the confirmation that Joelle had killed her.
32:17We might have suspected it, but we needed the proof.
32:21When the autopsy is complete, the coroner, unable to determine Maria's cause of death,
32:27sends her blood sample to the lab.
32:30She has no choice but to release her body back to Joelle,
32:34who quickly arranges her funeral.
32:37At this point, Joelle's not accused, so he is Maria's next of kin.
32:43Joelle then has free reign to do whatever he wants with that body in the terms of selecting a funeral home,
32:49selecting a burial or cremation.
32:51He started making arrangements almost within 24 hours of her death to get her cremated.
32:57What that says to me is that in his mind, he wants to get rid of any evidence in the event that we would ever need Maria's body again.
33:05He wants to dispose of it completely.
33:07Weeks go by. With the toxicology tests held up in the lab, the investigation stalls.
33:22We hit a wall in waiting for that toxicology report. The question that I kept asking myself was,
33:42if and when these results come back, how are we going to be able to prove that he injected her?
33:47Unfortunately, it's just a waiting game.
33:49It was very frustrating. The longer that it took to get an outcome or cause of death, the more fearful I became we weren't going to get one.
33:59The team reexamined the evidence, including the door cam footage, which shows how estranged Maria and Joelle had become.
34:10The video footage helps to show how long she was out on the porch.
34:15We know that she went there to confront her husband. We know that she was standing on this porch, ready to have a very difficult conversation about her marriage.
34:24And this video just corroborates that.
34:27She's standing on the porch. She's waiting for an answer. And we can see that she's on the phone.
34:34Police query the time Maria made that call.
34:39Her phone is recording the exact moment that call connected.
34:44So if we can compare the phone records with this video footage, we can get a very accurate timestamp for exactly when she was standing at the door.
34:54Four months after Maria's blood samples went to the lab, detectives received the toxicology report.
35:17Did Maria die from a clonazepam overdose, as Joelle claimed?
35:23The whole case rests on these results.
35:27What did you take?
35:28I think clonazepam.
35:30And then I go back upstairs and I see you.
35:33Do you see it?
35:34Do you see it?
35:35Do you see it?
35:36Do you see it?
35:37Do you see it?
35:38Yeah, one mil gram of clonazepam.
35:40When we got those toxicology results, zero traces of clonazepam in Maria's body.
35:49That completely refutes Joelle's constant indication to the dispatcher, to the paramedics, to the responding officers and to us that Maria had taken clonazepam.
36:00The report reveals that Maria was poisoned by a cocktail of drugs, including ketamine, Verset, and propofol.
36:09We needed to figure out how she submitted to this without any physical bruising.
36:14Several of her friends mentioned that they would meet at a coffee shop and that she loved coffee.
36:18So when the toxicology report came back and it indicated that there was caffeine, it hit us.
36:26We knew now how he got her to submit to take these anesthetic drugs.
36:32Although a tainted coffee cup was never found in the house, investigators speculate that this was how Joelle was able to poison Maria.
36:41Our suspicion is that Joelle arrived with a cup of coffee, but the coffee was spiked.
36:47That was an aha moment.
36:52Once she's fully knocked out, fully paralytic, fully sedated, Joelle then injects her with propofol.
37:00The purpose of using propofol as a murder weapon is specifically to stop someone from breathing.
37:08It's the propofol that killed Maria.
37:12This is flat out murder.
37:15Once we got the toxicology results, we had more of a case to get a search warrant for Janet's video and surveillance.
37:28We were hoping to find digital evidence, possibly home video, possibly the door cam footage that showed Maria at her house two days prior to her dying.
37:38Janet.
37:39Yes.
37:40Sergeant Matalaredo PD.
37:41I know yesterday you spoke to the prosecutor.
37:43Just give me a second.
37:44All right.
37:45I suspected strongly that Janet was involved.
37:48But the district attorney's office made a deal with Janet that as long as she was truthful and willing to testify, she would be immune from any charge with the exception of murder.
37:58You had some evidence?
37:59Do you have that evidence right now?
38:01I can't find it.
38:02You can't find it?
38:03No.
38:04OK.
38:05Unfortunately, by the time we got to Janet's, most of her home video had been destroyed.
38:10I'm going to tell you something right now.
38:11Think about it.
38:12They're giving you a deal of a lifetime.
38:14I'll leave it at that.
38:15We really wanted to re-interview Janet.
38:22She had to have had some type of knowledge of what Joelle did that night.
38:28We wanted to see if she would be willing to come forward in exchange for some type of immunity deal.
38:41Janet accepts the offer.
38:44When we spoke last, we were investigating a diseased person.
38:48Obviously, the circumstances have changed.
38:50It's now a murder.
38:51OK?
38:52Janet says that Joelle told her when he met with Maria the night she died, she became extremely upset.
38:59OK.
39:00Joelle told Maria, relax, let me give you something to calm you down.
39:05And that is when Joelle injected Maria with a sedative.
39:08That gives us the answer of how Maria got that mark on her elbow crease.
39:20The man, did he tell you what he did with him?
39:21He just told me he got rid of them.
39:22So now what do you think?
39:23Do you think it's possible he killed his wife?
39:24Do you think it's possible he killed his wife?
39:25Do you think it's possible he killed his wife?
39:30I did not possibly it.
39:31He did what?
39:32He killed Maria.
39:36She told me that Joelle had confided in her that he had killed his wife.
40:01It was the smoking gun that we were looking for.
40:06Police raced to arrest Joelle, who's now staying with his parents.
40:28I heard Joelle had been arrested probably within minutes of it being announced.
40:33I broke down crying.
40:35Any questions?
40:36No, sir.
40:37No? Is there anything you need?
40:39You can call my attorney.
40:41Oh, you can call him.
40:42We felt like there was hope that there was going to be justice and that he was going to be held accountable and that he wasn't going to get away with taking her life.
40:51With Joelle charged with murder, Chief Assistant DA Jackaman builds the case.
41:06The nature of a jury trial is that you just never know what the jury's going to decide.
41:12The plan was to show the video footage of the dynamics between Joelle, Maria, and Janet.
41:23The door cam footage is the last video showing Maria alive.
41:29When Maria went to Janet's house, she wanted to know where her marriage was going.
41:35That was her goal, to obtain the truth.
41:38She wanted to know what's going on here.
41:41The first witness that we started with was the officer who was called in on a criminal trespass.
41:59Hey, I'm talking to you right now.
42:03Head up the phone.
42:04I guess that's your boyfriend.
42:10Yeah.
42:11I'm calling on behalf of Janera Redondo.
42:13Can I speak to her?
42:14Sure.
42:17Hello.
42:18The substance of this conversation was so difficult because Maria was brokenhearted.
42:25He basically broke her in that moment.
42:31That's why this video was used at the beginning of the trial.
42:41The call recorded by the officer is also crucial to the case.
42:46Hey, I'm talking to you right now.
42:49Head up the phone.
42:51That showed the jury a very good idea of how he was controlling of Maria and how he could
43:01go from angry to calm in a second.
43:09Sadly, the door cam footage was the beginning of the end for Maria.
43:13At the end of the trial, we believed we had provided for the jury a good understanding
43:25of the relationship between Joel and Maria.
43:31They saw it was an abusive relationship, that he was controlling of her.
43:35We were able to show that not only was this not a suicide, not an accidental overdose, it
43:45was an intentional killing of Maria.
43:49The trial lasts nine days.
43:52The jury takes less than two hours to reach a verdict.
43:56The jury's decision was guilty on both counts, murder and tampering.
44:01And we were happy for Maria.
44:11Joel was arrogant, was domineering, and killed his wife in cold blood.
44:19Joel is sentenced to life, plus 10 years for tampering with evidence.
44:24When Joel was sentenced for the murder of Maria, I was so happy.
44:28It felt like she had been able to get the justice that she deserves to have.
44:34With Joel and Maria's children now living with grandparents, the question her friends
44:39and family are left asking is why.
44:43I believe the motive for killing Maria was to prevent the divorce from happening and was
44:49to prevent Joel from having to pay some type of financial resources to Maria.
44:55Money was power to Joel.
44:57I believe he would do anything and everything to prevent him from losing any type of those
45:02resources, including killing his wife.
45:05The one thing he did not want was to lose control of Maria.
45:13He didn't want her anymore, but he didn't want anyone else to have her either.
45:17I think that when he started abusing testosterone, I think he turned into a monster, and the outcome
45:25was inevitable that this would happen.
45:29It's extremely shocking to look back at the change that he went through from a very humble
45:35family man to a murderer.
45:38I miss Maria a lot.
45:47It's hard when my son asks, or when we drive by places that we shared so much with, or when
46:00I come back to town, or when I look at her pictures or different things.
46:07And it's just a humongous loss that I'll never be able to replace.
46:16And it's just a humongous loss.
Comments