Joel Pellot, 45, called 911 in September 2020, saying he had found his wife Maria Munoz unresponsive inside their home in Laredo, Texas

Three years later Pellot, 45, a nurse anesthetist, was found guilty of murdering Munoz, 31, by injecting her with a toxin, then calling 911 

Prosecutors accused Pellot of murdering Munoz in their Laredo home in Sept, 21, 2020, while their two young sons slept in the next room

The couple wed in 2011, but after Munoz caught him cheating in September 2020, Pellot walked out of the marriage and moved in with his mistress, leaving her to take care of their two young sons

Prosecutors said Joel Pellot murdered his wife in order to avoid an expensive divorce after she caught him cheating  

Joel Pellot claimed his wife was ‘super depressed’ and had probably overdosed on prescription drugs, but cops said he was acting strangely from the moment officers arrived at their home

In a harrowing 911 call, Joel Pellot’s voice breaks as he asks the operator: ‘Is anybody coming?’ as his wife lay unconscious in their Texas home

The jury convicted him of murder after reading the story of their marriage in a diary she kept up until the day of her death 

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 Sept. 21, ‘tonight we are going to talk’

Toxicology report showed no evidence of anti-depressants, instead seven other drugs typically used during surgery, including Propofol which can only be administered by injection

Maria Munoz, [photo], was murdered by her estranged husband, Joel Pellot, inside their home in Laredo Texas, back in September 2020, after he asking to meet for a ‘heart to heart’. Prosecutors said Pellot’s motivation was avoiding an expensive divorce after she caught him cheating 

A young Texas woman’s final diary entry helped convince a jury she did not kill herself, but was actually murdered by her philandering husband of nine years. Joel Pellot had called the operator in September 2020, to report that he found his wife Maria Munoz, unresponsive and that he believed that she took some pills, adding that he was administering CPR.
Munoz reportedly, was heartbroken when husband Joel Pellot walked out of their home in Laredo, Texas, leaving her the burden of taking care of their two young sons. Pellot told responding officers that his 31-year-old wife had overdosed on prescription pills when police found her dead in their home after he returned for a ‘heart to heart’ talk.
It trial the prosecution said Pellot, a nurse anesthetist, made the 911 call after he injected his estranged wife with a fatal dose of toxin, shedding new light on the her death. 

Joel Pellot, [photo], a nurse anesthetist, was convicted of murdering his wife in 2020, with a lethal injection of drugs hours at their home in Laredo after learning that she was preparing to divorce him 

When Officer Gregorio De La Cruz arrived at the home in Laredo, Texas. , he found Pellot kneeling over his unconscious wife’s body doing CPR. The officer stood back as Pellot, who is a nurse, seemingly urgently tried to resuscitate his wife.
De La Cruz told CBS’s 48 Hours that when he officer De La Cruz offered to help Pellot, he suddenly stopped doing compressions as they waited for paramedics to arrive.

The couple’s troubled marriage was contracted in 2011 and they share two young sons. Pellot’s serial philandering led to discord in the home. Several futile past attempts at reconciliation, include a vacation to Nevada [photo] 

Listening to the 911 call, Joel Pellot is heard telling the operator that he found his wife unresponsive and that he believed that she took some pills, adding that he was administering CPR.
Pellot’s voice breaks down the line as he asks: ‘Is anybody coming?’ 
Police bodycam footage shows the moment a police officer arrived at the home where they were met by Pellot, who was already sweating profusely through his work scrubs. 
Officer De La Cruz told the 48 Hours show that Pellot was acting suspiciously immediately and when he asked Pellot to show him the pill bottle of the drugs his wife had ingested, he went into their medicine cabinet. 
Typically in overdose deaths, drugs are found close to the body. During the video, Pellot can be seen grabbing pills, identified as clonazepam, off of a table and putting them in his pocket. To the officer this was also suspicious. 
De la Cruz began to suspect that Pellot was under the influence of something.

In their search, the officers also found a needle catheter. Other items located included more scrubs, gloves and syringes. 
Ultimately nurse Pellot was found guilty of injecting his wife with a toxin. 
Recordings of his first police interview show that Pellott continued with his strange behavior after he was taken into custody. 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. 

Maria Munoz, [photo], told her husband she was seeking a divorce. She was murdered after she agreed to Pellot’s proposal that they meet for a ‘heart to heart’ discussion about resolving the issue without involving lawyers

During the interview, Pellot explained that he was separated from his wife and was living with his girlfriend at the time. He had gone to his former home to discuss issues concerning his marriage with his estranged wife Maria Munoz, he told his police interviewers. 
He maintained that she took the fatal overdose after he left. 
While 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, the contents of her 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!!’
The medical examiner had found drugs in Maria Munoz’s body but the diaries and recordings were enough for her to rule out suicide.
Pellot’s boss at the hospital, anesthesiologist Dr John Huntsinger, was suspicious at the results and urged police to investigate further but it was four months before the toxicology report revealed there was no clonazepam in Maria’s system.
Instead there were seven other drugs typically used during surgery, including Propofol which can only be administered by injection.
‘I was very shocked to see Propofol, said Dr Huntsinger, ‘Hers was the highest level I’ve seen.
‘I believe this was death by Propofol.’

Pellot’s mistress Janet Arredondo told cops that he had admitted to injecting his wife on the night she died. ‘He wanted to uh, just calm her down,’ she told them, ‘so he did it with medication.’

Arredondo had been interviewed by police and admitted that Pellot had routinely brought drugs, including Propofol, back from the hospital.
She also revealed that Pellot had admitted to injecting his wife on the night she died.
‘He wanted to uh, just calm her down,’ she told them, ‘so he did it with medication.’
Pellot was arrested and claimed in court that he gave her Narcan, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose.
‘Someone tried to bring her back to life, and it wasn’t the paramedics, it wasn’t the police. It was Joel,’ his attorney Roberto Balli told the court.
‘So he did not want her dead. This was a terrible accident.’
But the jury took less than an hour to find Pellot guilty of his wife’s murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in March this year.

Maria Munoz had kept a detailed diary which recorded her tempestuous marriage, which ultimately helped to convict her husband of her murder  

Munoz, a young nurse met medical student Joel Pellot, 11 years her senior, in Puerto Rico. After their wedding in 2011, the couple made their home in the Texas border town of Laredo, where she gave up her career to support her husband.
Fast forward to 2020, Munoz discovered her husband was cheating on her when she found an airline ticket for a European vacation he planned to take with a colleague from his hospital.
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.

Maria Munoz, a young nurse, had met medical student, Joel Pellot, eleven years her senior, in Puerto Rico and he was a medical student. After wedding in 2011, the couple made their home in the Texas border town of Laredo, where she gave up her career to support her husband

Arredondo called police who in turn called Munoz as she traveled 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 as she expressed in a message to her friend Yazmin Martnez that Monday, ‘I just ask if you can pray for me,’ adding, ‘tonight we are going to talk.’