Married to Evil S02E01 A Deadly Dose
Maria's world shatters when her husband Joel, starts an affair; she fights to save their marriage, but Joel refuses to give up his mistress, and Maria's patience runs out; when she threatens divorce, Joel makes a deadly plan to stop her.
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00:00Maria was wholly in love with her husband.
00:03She loved being a wife.
00:05Hi.
00:06Hi.
00:08Her goal was to marry the love of her life
00:11and never have to divorce ever.
00:15Maria wanted the completion of her family,
00:19but Joelle was nowhere to be seen.
00:23Joelle was the only woman that Maria could trust.
00:28Joelle was narcissistic
00:31and was kind of domineering.
00:42He wanted both women,
00:45and the only way to get that was to string both of them along.
00:58Maria was born in 1989,
01:01and she grew up in Puerto Rico.
01:07Her early life was a happy childhood,
01:10beautiful as a little girl,
01:13enjoyed her high school years.
01:16Lots of freckles as she got older.
01:20She was a very active person.
01:23Maria's parents divorced when she was a little bit younger,
01:27and it was definitely difficult for her.
01:31She was sort of devastated,
01:34and that was kind of her goal,
01:37is to marry the love of her life
01:39and never have to divorce ever.
01:45Maria was going to nursing school in Puerto Rico
01:48when she met Joelle.
01:50She fell in love, of course,
01:52and kind of got swept off her feet.
01:55She saw a life and a future with Joelle.
01:58She was enamored
02:01because he gave her so much attention.
02:05Her sister and her father had some cautions
02:08because of his age.
02:10He was 10 years older than her,
02:13but Maria saw so much in him.
02:16He was 10 years older than her,
02:18but Maria saw someone who had set goals and dreams,
02:22and he sold those dreams to her.
02:27Maria and Joelle were married back in 2010.
02:30It was a beautiful occasion,
02:32and Maria looked beautiful.
02:38Maria and Joelle had goals to come to the mainland.
02:46Joelle was training to become a CRNA,
02:50which is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.
02:54You're not trained as a doctor.
02:56It's not as much schooling,
02:58but the pay is very high.
03:03Maria and Joelle were excited
03:05to welcome their first son into the world.
03:08He was a beautiful little boy.
03:12That was something that Maria was over the moon about.
03:16Her calling was to be a mother.
03:25Joelle had a very good-paying job,
03:28and that enabled Maria to be able to stay at home,
03:32which she enjoyed devoting her time to her firstborn son.
03:37Maria and I first met at a ladies' night.
03:41There was a woman in our church
03:43that hosted a ladies' bowling night.
03:46So we met at one of those arcades.
03:49She looked at me, and she said,
03:51So you're the pastor's wife?
03:53And I said, Well, yes, I am.
03:55And she said, So tell me about God.
03:58We became friends right away,
04:00and we just never looked back.
04:07When I first met Maria,
04:09she was incredibly bubbly.
04:12She was very happy, very animated,
04:15incredibly warm and friendly.
04:19You could tell she was wholly in love with her husband,
04:23loved her little family.
04:26She was devoted.
04:28She loved being a wife.
04:30Maria and Joelle seemed to be in a loving marriage.
04:35You could have fun with them.
04:38Joelle appeared to be a supportive and proud dad,
04:42an engaged dad.
04:462017, Maria had gotten pregnant,
04:49and very shortly after, she had had a miscarriage.
04:53And this was really difficult for Maria.
04:59Joelle didn't really understand what happened
05:02and thought somehow that the miscarriage was her fault.
05:07And that didn't help her state of mind.
05:16Maria was so excited to be pregnant again
05:19just a short time after her miscarriage.
05:23You could just see a glow about her while she was pregnant.
05:30Maria had her second son in 2018,
05:33and, you know, she was ecstatic.
05:37Joelle seemed excited,
05:39but this is a time where she started to feel some distance.
05:45He started to be more secretive,
05:47and that sort of made her nervous
05:49that maybe she was doing something wrong.
05:54At this point in Maria's life,
05:56what she wanted was to feel the completion of her family,
06:01but Joelle was nowhere to be seen.
06:05Joelle had a five-year goal that he obsessively spoke about,
06:10and so he devoted himself to work,
06:14took overtime whenever he could.
06:18Maria talked about a lot of the changes going on in Joelle's life.
06:23She kept saying that he's so different now
06:26that they moved to Laredo.
06:29He started bulking up so fast that it seemed abnormal to me.
06:34Both of us suspected there was some supplements going on,
06:38probably a lot of testosterone.
06:41At this point, Joelle's priorities
06:43appeared incredibly vain to me and short-sighted.
06:47His goals were money and his figure, his body.
06:53In January of 2019,
06:56Joelle asked for a break from their marriage.
07:03He just was not happy with the way things were going,
07:09and so he decided he was just going to move out
07:13and stay with a friend,
07:15and that was a really hard time for her,
07:18and that was a really hard time for her,
07:21but she would often tell me that she had 10 good years of marriage
07:24and she didn't want to throw it away,
07:26all because of this one year where he's just acting insane.
07:31Her goal was always for her family to stay together no matter what
07:36because the divorce between her parents had been so devastating.
07:42I want to support him, be his rock,
07:47because I know he needs it.
07:50Maria liked to keep a journal.
07:55When Joelle started being more distant,
07:58it really helped her to get her thoughts on paper.
08:02How can I support someone who's always making me small,
08:06a piece of nothing, not enough?
08:11At the point that Maria and Joelle were separated,
08:15he would come home to spend a little bit of time
08:18not just with her, but with the boys.
08:21He would expect her to still wash his clothes,
08:25and he would convince her that they needed to have sex
08:29to continue to protect the marriage.
08:32I told her that it's not your job to do his laundry,
08:38and it's definitely not your job to be intimate with him
08:42while he's breaking up the marriage.
08:46In March of 2019, Maria was doing his laundry.
08:54She found a plane ticket.
08:59She never even knew he went to Spain.
09:04She just knew in her heart that something was terribly wrong
09:09and he had not been honest at all during this whole time.
09:14Maria finally worked up the courage
09:17to confront Joelle about this plane ticket.
09:24Joelle admitted to having an affair,
09:28and she said,
09:30I don't want to talk to you about it.
09:33I don't want to talk to you about it.
09:36I don't want to talk to you about it.
09:39Joelle admitted to having an affair.
09:44She was a nurse at one of the hospitals that he was working at.
09:51Her name was Janet Arredondo,
09:54and he had taken her on a trip to Spain.
09:59Maria was devastated, but at the same time,
10:02I think she expected this answer.
10:07At this point, Joelle broke down.
10:11He told Maria that he wanted to keep his family.
10:15He wanted to be with her.
10:17He would break up with the girlfriend.
10:22True to Maria, she gave Joelle another chance.
10:26She would do anything to get her family back.
10:31It seemed like such a back and forth during that time
10:35that Joelle would tell her one weekend
10:38that he stopped the affair,
10:41and then a couple days later,
10:43he would change his tune and walk back out.
10:46He wanted both women,
10:48and so the only way to get that was to string both of them along,
10:52and that was really just almost too much for her to bear.
10:58My experience with Joelle was that he was emotionally abusive.
11:04Joelle was confident.
11:06What I perceived as narcissistic,
11:10and he was kind of domineering.
11:13He was like a dominant authority in the household.
11:20One day, I was with Maria at the hospital,
11:24One day, I was with Maria at the coffee shop,
11:28and Joelle agreed to meet her there.
11:32When we were in line, there was a guy that sort of hit on her.
11:42Joelle was extremely agitated, angry,
11:46and vividly upset that someone had hit on his wife.
11:53When he started to get angry with her,
11:55I told him that he had no right to tell her
11:58that she was wearing the wrong thing
12:00or that she invited the attention
12:03when he was having an affair with another woman.
12:10I am a bolder personality than Maria was,
12:14and he started to get nervous of the influence
12:18that me and her other friends had on her,
12:22that she might become bold one day.
12:24He started to discourage her from seeing me.
12:32Maria loved Jesus so much,
12:36and she didn't want to break up her family for fear of God.
12:41What I told her was that biblically,
12:44he had gotten to the point where she had every right
12:48to leave the marriage.
12:53David, don't, don't put that on me.
12:59What are you talking about?
13:01There was a argument that they had in the car at one point,
13:06and Maria recorded it unbeknownst to Joelle.
13:11Because it feels like you're like,
13:13okay, look, if I stay in the house,
13:16I'm going to be frustrated.
13:18Mm-hmm.
13:20Frustration led me to be unfaithful to you in the past.
13:26Maybe.
13:27No, it led me.
13:28Maybe.
13:29You said it, it, it, it.
13:31Because I think.
13:32Okay.
13:33That possibly.
13:34Okay.
13:35Maria was talking to Joelle about his unfaithfulness.
13:40What do you have to say?
13:43Nothing.
13:46So what do you want me to do with that?
13:48With what?
13:49With nothing.
13:51I don't know.
13:52It's up to you.
13:53No, Papa.
13:57You walk out that door, we're getting a divorce.
14:01All right, fine.
14:05You got it.
14:07I have to realize that Joelle that I knew and fell in love with
14:16isn't the Joelle I am dealing with.
14:19I love him, but I don't need to accept none of this.
14:25In the summer of 2020,
14:27Maria was beginning to see that there might not be a future with Joelle.
14:33Maria finally realized that Joelle was not getting better.
14:37He wasn't getting rid of his affair,
14:39and he wasn't going to stop the lying and the dishonesty.
14:42And I think she finally started to picture a life without him.
14:48She wanted to be independent.
14:50Maria had the goal of becoming a nurse in Texas.
14:54She needed to pass her nursing exam to get her degree.
14:58She was making plans to be able to provide for the children on her own.
15:07Take 1,000.
15:09She had hobbies and things she enjoyed doing.
15:18I have been wanting to do a YouTube channel for quite a while.
15:22I have been wanting to do a YouTube channel for quite a while.
15:25I have been wanting to do a YouTube channel for quite a while.
15:28She was doing hair and makeup tutorials.
15:32I would probably grab like a little bit by little.
15:35Maybe that could help you, Gabby.
15:37She was so beautiful in the way that she would play around with her makeup.
15:43I like it.
15:46It just makes you look more awake.
15:48There's nothing like a good mascara and a good bronzer to make you feel good, right?
15:55Take 1,000.
16:06In September of 2020, Maria found Joel's phone
16:12and was able to access a bunch of messages between him and Janet.
16:17It really just showed her that he was in a full-blown affair and they were having sex.
16:24That was the moment that she saw it with her own eyes
16:28and that her very, very determined spirit came out.
16:35Maria confronted Joel and I think Joel started to see a different Maria.
16:41She was saying, hey, I'm done and I'm not going to listen to your lies anymore.
16:48So he told her, I'm going to stop seeing Janet for real this time.
16:53We're going to move to Dallas and that will prove to you that I'm willing to put her away.
17:01Maria was skeptical, but at the same time,
17:05he had never offered to move away from his girlfriend before.
17:10Part of her wanted to believe that it could be true.
17:18Maria was very excited to tell me about how their marriage was going to turn around
17:23and so we agreed to meet.
17:27However, before she came to my house,
17:30she gave me a phone call and said that she was going to be late.
17:34And she said, I called Joel and I heard a dog barking in the background
17:39and I think it was Janet's.
17:41I think he lied to me again.
17:43I think he lied to me again.
17:45I'm going to stop by the house and just make sure.
17:49I told her that I didn't think it was wise for her to stop over there,
17:53that nothing good was going to come from it,
17:55but she said she just couldn't help herself, she had to.
18:00When Maria arrived at Janet's house, she saw that his car was there.
18:04She got out of the car and decided to confront them both.
18:14When Maria arrived at Janet's house and saw that Joel's car was there,
18:18she was very angry.
18:21She had just been played again.
18:25Janet used the Ring app to kind of talk to her
18:27and say that she needed to leave right away or she would call the police.
18:33Maria was incredibly upset and wasn't going to go anywhere
18:38until she had spoken to her husband.
18:40When Joel finally emerges, he tells Maria that he's chosen Janet
18:45and I can't even imagine what was going through her head
18:49when hours earlier he had been telling a different story.
18:54Joel told Maria to go get in the car
18:57and that they would drive to the park and they would just hash it out.
19:03When Maria arrived at Janet's house, she was very angry.
19:08When Maria and Joel were at the park, he got so angry
19:12that he smashed her windshield with his fist and it just shattered.
19:18Meanwhile, Janet called the police.
19:21The police responded fairly quickly.
19:38OK.
19:43Should I pass a warning?
19:44Yes.
19:45OK.
19:50Let me make a phone call in and hopefully she'll answer.
19:54If not, well, that's the only way I can warn her.
20:00PHONE RINGS
20:01MUSIC PLAYS
20:05Hey, I'm f***ing talking to you right now.
20:08Head up the f***ing phone.
20:12I guess that's your boyfriend.
20:15Yeah.
20:16They called Maria and Joel, you can hear him screaming.
20:20He couldn't believe she answered the phone while they were talking.
20:26Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system.
20:30I'm going to try one more time.
20:32Janet started texting Joel to be quiet,
20:36to let him know it was the police calling.
20:39Hello?
20:40Hello, yes, sir, I'm looking for Maria Muñoz.
20:43Yeah, she's here, I'm having a conversation with her.
20:46Right, this is Officer Jalomo, Laredo PD, sir.
20:49Yeah.
20:50I'm calling on behalf of Janet Arredondo, can I speak to her?
20:53Sure.
20:55After receiving the text from Janet,
20:57Joel knew it was going to be the police,
20:59and instantly he was a calm, collected person.
21:03Hello?
21:04Yes, Miss Muñoz.
21:06Uh-huh.
21:07This is Officer Jalomo, Laredo PD.
21:09Yes.
21:10OK, I understand you came over to Miss Arredondo's house earlier today?
21:13Uh-huh.
21:14OK, I'm going to ask you to not return.
21:16If not, you will be placed into custody.
21:19OK.
21:23After the police hung up with her,
21:25Maria drove over to my house.
21:27She was very upset.
21:31She was almost hysterical.
21:33She told me that she was finally ready to move on, for real this time.
21:40No more getting lied to.
21:43I saw her the next day at church,
21:45and even though she was sad,
21:48she was determined that this was the thing that she had to do.
21:52Later that day, she sent him a text and let him know
21:55she was not going to go after him anymore.
22:03She let him know that for them to be legally separated,
22:06an attorney needed to be involved in that.
22:12Joel's response was that he didn't want any lawyers involved.
22:19His concern lied in finances.
22:23He really didn't want Maria to go through with it
22:26because that would cost him.
22:29He had responded initially on Sunday,
22:32but then on Monday, he had a different response,
22:35and he sent it through email.
22:41Again, he gave implication that there was hope for their marriage.
22:46I didn't believe any of it,
22:48and yet somehow I could not convince her to say no to this meeting.
22:56They agreed to meet around 7,
22:59and I told her to contact me as soon as he arrived, as soon as he left.
23:05She agreed to do that.
23:08I believe it was 9.30 when I had not heard from her.
23:16He showed up already much, much later than he was supposed to.
23:20He should have been gone by then.
23:23I started to pray that the conversation would go well.
23:45She's not breathing.
23:58I called my wife on her responses
24:01and I'm just scared if she's not breathing.
24:06She may have taken some pills.
24:12Yes.
24:16On September 22, 2020,
24:18the Laredo Police Department received a 911 call for an unresponsive female.
24:25I was the first officer on scene.
24:28So as I approached the house, I see a male subject at the doorway.
24:33What's going on?
24:34He just turns around and bolts right into the residence.
24:38What's going on?
24:40So I followed quickly behind him.
24:45What's going on?
24:50But I can't feel a pulse.
24:52His name was Joel Peor.
24:55Female is his wife, Maria Munoz.
25:00What did she take?
25:03I think one azepine.
25:09She's been pretty depressed lately.
25:11I hear the paramedics, the ambulance, get to the scene.
25:14They have their lights and sirens.
25:16Paramedics continue CPR and I see no changes in her body.
25:22She's not getting any better.
25:30The paramedics on scene determined that Maria was deceased at 1.50 a.m.
25:37I started getting very suspicious about Joel.
25:41His pupils are just really big.
25:44I see that he's sweating profusely.
25:48Let's have a seat over here.
25:51She's been super depressed.
25:54I've been ignoring her.
25:57I don't know what to do.
25:59I don't know what to do.
26:01I don't know what to do.
26:03I've been ignoring her.
26:07We're going through some problems.
26:12I came to talk to her. We were just talking.
26:21I'm like, this doesn't make sense.
26:23If he doesn't live here, what is he doing here at one o'clock in the morning?
26:27We had sex. We took a shower.
26:31I thought she was knocked out.
26:34I didn't think anything of it.
26:37So I just kept on doing my thing.
26:41And then I go back upstairs and she just...
26:45He starts crying, but it's a really fake cry.
26:51It didn't add up to me. I didn't like where it was going.
26:55Oh, it's 37.
26:57It's really 37.
26:58I told him that this is very 37, which is mean suspicious in police jargon.
27:04We gotta talk to you, okay?
27:06Come on, just, you gotta go outside.
27:12So I arrived at the scene shortly after 2 a.m.
27:16Once I got the authorization and consent to go into the home,
27:20I did do a brief walkthrough.
27:23I see Maria. Her body is there.
27:26Joel insinuated that she had overdosed on a bottle of pills, a bottle of clonazepam.
27:33Whenever somebody takes a bottle of pills, they foam from the mouth.
27:38I noticed that Maria was not foaming from the mouth.
27:41When they did the examination of Maria's body,
27:44my partners discovered a track mark or like a puncture on her arm.
27:50It looked like she had just gone to get her blood drawn.
27:53And then they also discovered a bag of medical supplies.
27:58Inside that bag were needles, catheters, and four to five bottles of medications.
28:06I immediately suspected that there was more to this than what Joel was saying.
28:17We transported Joel to the hospital.
28:20We transported Joel to the police department. It was a voluntary interview.
28:35When I arrived at the station, I could hear him screaming.
28:39So much so that I had to tell the officer to tell him to calm down.
28:42When I entered the room, my interview at that point was that of a grieving spouse.
28:58Joel wanted to make it clear that Maria was depressed and was not taking the separation well.
29:12According to Joel, he had a prescription bottle for the same type of medication.
29:33So he allowed Maria to take some of his pills.
29:42He wanted me to think that Maria was so depressed that she had taken a bottle of clonazepam and that she committed suicide.
29:49By the end of that interview, I didn't suspect that Maria had taken any pills.
30:15When we looked at the needle puncture wound, the medical equipment at home,
30:21I suspected that Joel, with his knowledge of anesthesia, had killed his wife.
30:35So at the end of that interview, Joel was released.
30:40There was no evidence to charge him.
30:43The next morning, my husband came to get me.
30:47He told me that the police had let him know that Maria was deceased.
30:57And I remember just screaming out, oh my God, he's killed her.
31:06It really was like a ton of bricks.
31:08I immediately said, he did it.
31:11Like, he did it.
31:13He actually, he actually did it.
31:19When the police told me they were doing a suicide investigation, I told them that was impossible.
31:31I knew that she would never do such a thing.
31:35I knew that she would never do such a thing because she had plans for the future.
31:41She had plans for her life.
31:46The key piece of evidence that was pending for us to rule out suicide, to rule out overdose, was a toxicology report.
31:55As soon as we received that, we knew what caused her death.
32:05The toxicology report routinely takes a few months.
32:10And in January 2021, we received the report.
32:15The first thing we looked was to see how much clonazepam she had.
32:20And it was striking that she didn't have any clonazepam in her system.
32:26One milligram of clonazepam.
32:29He said clonazepam and she had none in her system.
32:34So then we reviewed the other drugs that were in her system.
32:40It was Versed, Ketamine, and Morphine.
32:44Propofol, Norrican, Lidocaine, and Demerol.
32:50So all these drugs were in her system.
32:53So all these drugs, what they have in common is that they're normally used for anesthesia.
32:58I was familiar with Propofol because that's known as what ultimately killed Michael Jackson.
33:03Propofol takes effect immediately.
33:07The second it hits your bloodstream, you fall asleep.
33:11So it's impossible for you to self-administer Propofol.
33:17Someone else has to administer Propofol.
33:19So we knew it was not an overdose.
33:23We believed that we had the proof to show murder.
33:30We're going to the police or we're going to break down the door.
33:33We're going to the police or we're going to break down the door.
33:44Joel Payot was arrested and charged with the murder officially on January 16, 2021.
33:50Joel Payot's trial started March 20th of 2023.
33:56The defense argued that Maria was a drug abuser who committed suicide because she was so depressed.
34:05And that Joel gave Maria an injection in an attempt to revive her.
34:13Maria's journals were critical to the case so we could refute that she was suicidal.
34:21Today my head will not look down.
34:24Today I will conquer.
34:26Today I am free.
34:28I am strong.
34:30I am free.
34:32I am free.
34:34I am free.
34:36I am free.
34:38I am free.
34:40I am free.
34:42I am confident.
34:44I am enough.
34:47When I testified in court, I was able to read the journals to the jury and mention to the jury that suicide and depression had no bearing on this case whatsoever.
35:00With all the accusations flying about suicide or trying to smear her, Maria was able to speak for herself on how she felt, what she thought, and share the hope that she had.
35:15I love my life. I love who I am becoming.
35:20Joel couldn't steal her voice from her like he thought he had. And it was beautiful.
35:26And it was beautiful.
35:30It was important to give as much background information as we could to explain Joel and Maria's relationship.
35:39The prosecution team brought in a video that Maria had recorded without Joel knowing.
35:48You walk out that door, we're getting a door.
35:53Come on.
35:57Got it.
35:59We believed it was important to show that he's pretty cold about the pain that she's experiencing.
36:07We explained to the jury that on September 21st, 2020, Joel Peyote arrived to Maria's home with a bag of anesthetic drugs and IV equipment.
36:22He was wearing his scrubs because he had been at the hospital.
36:26So the evidence showed that she had high levels of caffeine in her system.
36:32We were able to describe to the jury that he probably showed up with a cup of coffee.
36:40And in that coffee, he likely included the oral anesthetic drugs, which is the ketamine, the rosette, and the morphine.
36:52And that would have incapacitated her.
36:56She would not have been able to resist him trying to put an IV on her to give her the additional drugs, lidocaine, propofol, narcan, and demerol.
37:10The levels of anesthetic drugs in her system were enough for two major surgeries.
37:18Joel knew that this was going to end her life.
37:22Now we are here for Maria Muñoz, who wrote, no matter what happens, I will be fine.
37:39I will not put my head down. I will hold it high. I am unique. No one is me. And that is my superpower.
37:47I am enough and all I need. I will always push and thrive. I will shine bright like a diamond in the sky.
37:55The woman who never gave up. Maria.
38:00Joel Peyo was found guilty of murder and of tampering with the evidence.
38:16When Joel finally was convicted of murder, I was so relieved. I was grateful for Maria to get justice, but I was sad for her children.
38:36I don't think that Joel has any real remorse for what he did.
38:43I think that he's a narcissist and a manipulator.
38:53Being with Maria and Laredo was like having family there. She became like a sister to me.
39:02She always lifted my spirits, even when she was the one with tragedy in her life.
39:10I think Joel sold her a life of dreams and promised her the world.
39:17Maria was special and she deserved so much more.
39:23Maria was like a ray of sunshine. She walked into a room and she lit everybody else up.
39:31I miss her laugh. I miss her smile.
39:37I miss her smile. I miss her smile.
39:42I miss her smile. I miss her smile.
39:47I miss her smile.
39:50I miss her laugh. I miss watching her run after her kids. I miss seeing her chase them and the joy that she had.
40:00We need more joy like that in this world.
40:20We need more joy like that in this world.
40:34She was very happy on her wedding day, ready to start a life with him.
40:39She did not expect something so tragic would happen to her marriage.
40:43911, we're at your emergency.
40:48Me and my wife got in a terrible argument. I just shot her and I swear to God I didn't mean to do that.
40:55Hello? Hey man, why did you try to kill me?
41:00He was charming, but he was also terrifying to anyone that knew him.
41:05It's a level of evil that most people never see in their lifetime.
41:10He was losing control.
41:11He went full psycho.
41:14The scene itself just looked like a nightmare.
41:17It wasn't human.
41:19She wasn't his wife. She was a possession.
41:22If the ambulance gets here quick, she might be saved.
41:24This was so cruel.
41:27This was evil.