The behavior of the husband of a seemingly healthy Texas mother who died mysteriously at the age of just 31 in 2020 was noted by the police officers who went to the couple's home after he called 911, claiming that she overdosed.
Joel Pellott, a nurse anesthesiologist, was later found guilty of murdering Maria Munoz, the mother of his two children. Munoz died in the early hours of September 22 after a 'heart to heart' with her estranged husband.
A key piece of evidence in the trial was Munoz's journal in which she described her husband's infidelities. Pellot was keen to avoid an expensive divorce, prosecutors argued in court.
The police bodycam footage, aired on CBS' 48 Hours, shows the moment officers arrived at the Laredo home where they were met by Pellot, who was already sweating profusely through his work scrubs.
Officer Gregorio De La Cruz told the show that Pellot was acting suspiciously immediately. The cop also said that when he asked Pellot to show him the pill bottle of the drugs his wife had ingested, he went into their medicine cabinet.
Maria had given up her own medical career to support her husband after they married in 2011
Pellot was dressed in medical scrubs and 'sweating profusely' when police arrived at the home he had shared with Maria where they found her dead
A responding officer said that it was odd that the drugs were not found close to Munoz's body, which is common in overdose deaths
Typically in overdose deaths, drugs are found close to the body. During the video, Pellot can be seen grabbing the pills, clonazepam, off of a table and putting them in his pocket. De La Cruz noted that this was also suspicious.
The officer began to suspect that Pellot was under the influence of something. In their search, the officers also found a needle catheter.
The nurse was found guilty of injecting his wife with a toxin.
Other items located included more scrubs, gloves and syringes.
When Pellott was taken into custody, his strange behavior continued. While alone in the interrogation room, he moved the furniture around, cried and yelled, to the extent that he was scaring people who were in proximity.
During the interview, the killer explained that he was split from his wife and was living with his girlfriend. He went to his former home to discuss his marriage with Munoz.
He maintained that she took the fatal overdose after he left.
Cheating husband Joel Pellot murdered his wife with a lethal injection of drugs hours at their home in Laredo after learning that she was preparing to divorce him
The mother-of-two had kept a detailed diary which recorded her tempestuous marriage
The couple had made previous attempts at reconciliation, including a vacation in Nevada
Pellot was taken to the police station for interview where surveillance cameras caught him crying, screaming and pushing furniture around when left alone
In her journal entries, Munoz wrote that she was heartbroken when Pellot walked out of their Laredo home leaving her to take care of their two young sons.
Maria's diary and cellphone recordings helped investigators discover her husband's abuse, tracking her journey through grief to recovery and a renewed faith in the future.
'What is it that I want?' she wrote the day before she died, '#1 Move Forward!!'
Munoz had met her husband when she was a young nurse in Puerto Rico and he was an ambitious medical student eleven years her senior.
They married in 2011 and made their home in the Texas border town where she gave up her career to support her husband.
But in 2020 Munoz discovered her husband was cheating on her when she found an airline ticket for a European holiday he planned to take with a colleague from his hospital.
Pellot claimed that Maria had overdosed on her prescription of the tranquilizer clonazepam, but a toxicology report eventually found none in her system
Matters came to a head on September 19, the Saturday before her death, when Munoz saw his car outside the home of his lover Janet Arredondo.
Arredondo called police who in turn called Munoz as she travelled home with her husband.
'Hey, I'm f***ing talking to you right now,' they heard Pellot tell her as she took the call, 'Hang up the f***ing phone.'
He had broken the windscreen with a punch before they arrived home, and she texted him the next morning to tell him she was hiring a lawyer.
'We can do this with minimal lawyer intervention. It's too much money,' he shot back.
Hours later there was a change of tone.
'I am so sad I am hurting inside,' he emailed her.
'I want to sit down with you to talk, w/o arguing. A heart to heart.'
Maria was nervous as she prepared for what would be their final meeting.
'I just ask if you can pray for me,' she messaged her friend Yazmin Martnez on the Monday, 'tonight we are going to talk.'
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