EP 6 - Ramon

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Speaker 3 They take me in a blacked out SUV to this location where they had already dug out this shallow grave. When I get there, they tell me, Okay, I need you to strip down to your underwear.

Speaker 3 They showed me how to pose with my hands bowed behind my back, and I looked like I was a little bit swollen.

Speaker 3 They put more blood on me, and they even threw dirt on me, which I thought it was so degrading, and closed my eyes.

Speaker 3 The only thing that I could remember was the sound of the 35 millimeter as it went around me, just clicking, taking pictures of me.

Speaker 1 I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.

Speaker 1 Ramon Sosa's story is one of those stranger-than-fiction kind of tales. It's a betrayal that threatens everything,

Speaker 1 including Ramon's life. Ramon grew up in Puerto Rico, the only son in a traditional and tight-knit family.
Ramon idolized his father, who was a professional wrestler.

Speaker 3 Like the kind you see on WWE and WWF. And I used to see him on TV all the time in Puerto Rico.
He was big, muscular, and had this aura about him. when he walked into the road.

Speaker 1 As a kid, Ramon tagged along with his dad to the gym, and it was there where he fell in love with what he calls the real thing, boxing.

Speaker 3 I started boxing about seven years old in Puerto Rico. That was my life.

Speaker 3 School boxing home, school, boxing home. That was it.
Takes a lot of discipline in boxing if you want to do it right. And that's what it taught me.

Speaker 1 And all of that discipline started to pay off for Ramon. He fought in hundreds of amateur matches as a teenager, and he was winning a lot.

Speaker 3 A lot of the trainers that worked with me, they said that I had a lot of natural talent and people started saying, man, you're going to be good when you grow up. For my size, I hit very hard.

Speaker 1 He's careful to point out that even though he was a champion in the ring, he never fought outside of it.

Speaker 1 He felt like it was his responsibility as an athlete to maintain a strong sense of right and wrong.

Speaker 3 I don't fight in the street. Boxing is a skill.
And when you get in that ring, it's like a chess match.

Speaker 1 He dreamed of going pro and taking care of his family. The Sosas moved from Puerto Rico to Houston, Texas when Ramon was a teenager.
After sweeping the amateur leagues, Ramon went pro.

Speaker 3 My father actually had to sign my contract to turn pro because I was underage.

Speaker 1 He was a professional boxer for a few years before he eventually settled into a new career. coaching and training young boxers in the U.S.

Speaker 3 But when it turns into a business and you see like everybody wants to make money from you, everybody wants a piece of the pie, it was tough when it started getting to me.

Speaker 1 In his early 20s, he fell in love and got married. He and his first wife had three kids.

Speaker 3 I mean, praise to all the mothers that stay at home with their kids because you know what? That is a tough, tough job. It's a full-time job.

Speaker 1 Raising three kids together strained their relationship. They moved to Houston to be closer to Ramon's parents.
That's where he still lives today.

Speaker 1 But even with his parents' help, Ramon and his first wife knew that they weren't a match. They needed to separate.

Speaker 3 It did not work out. Even though we couldn't work it out, we did the best that we could for our kids.
And to this day, you know, we know we have grandkids together, so I respect that she respects me.

Speaker 1 Ramon missed being a full-time dad. With more free time on his hands, he decided to start a nonprofit, an after-school boxing program for at-risk youth.

Speaker 3 You know, we'll pick him up after school, take him to the gym. They would get a snack, homework help, and then box.
And then we also talked about life situations.

Speaker 1 He loved being involved with the community and helping kids who needed a positive influence in their lives. That's how he met a close friend.

Speaker 3 His name is Mundo. That's not his real name.
That's the name that he went by.

Speaker 1 As a teenager, Mundo had been involved with a gang and went to prison. Now that he was out, he was turning his life around looking for a purpose.
And he always loved boxing.

Speaker 1 He saw a sign about the after-school program and he asked Ramon if he could volunteer.

Speaker 3 And he said, ah, can I start today? I said, start today. He said, right after bat, he said, yeah, I want to start today.

Speaker 3 So he went to his truck, got some workout clothes, and he went running with my kids.

Speaker 1 Mundo kept coming back day after day, and Ramon liked how he related to the kids. He was honest with them about the bad choices he'd made.

Speaker 3 He had all these tattoos with his gang name on his back. He never hardly ever took off his shirt because he didn't want people to see that kind of stuff and the kids to see that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 And that's what I liked about him, that he mentored so many kids in the gym to not go through the same thing that he went through.

Speaker 1 Ramon and Mundo became close friends. They ran the after-school program together.
And Mundo even started working alongside Ramon at his day job. training professional boxers.

Speaker 3 He became kind of like my right-hand man, and I would tell people when he went to to the boxing tournaments and shows with me, yeah, this is my other son, you know, it's my third son.

Speaker 3 He became really, really close to me and he called me pops because I was like a father figure to him.

Speaker 1 Ramon and Mundo worked side by side, training professionals and then running the after-school program. It went on like this for years.
That was until Mundo got married and had a kid of his own.

Speaker 1 And Ramon moved to the other side of the city. Eventually, the two slowly fell out of touch.
Ramon was now seven years out from his divorce, and he wanted to find someone to share his life with.

Speaker 1 That's when a friend told him about a new dance club in Houston.

Speaker 3 He goes, you know, they play that sash,

Speaker 3 you know, that kind of stuff that you like. You might want to go check it out.
I hear there's a lot of beautiful ladies there, too.

Speaker 1 It was a Saturday night and a weekend where Ramon didn't have his kids. So he decided to go check it out.

Speaker 3 I mean, it was packed. Things were going on, you know, and music was the kind of music that I liked, and the dance floor was packed.

Speaker 3 There she was.

Speaker 1 He was mesmerized by this one woman on the dance floor.

Speaker 3 So I kept looking at this lady on the dance floor. She danced very, very well.
And I might think you're like, well, she looks Colombian or from the Caribbean. The way she's dancing.

Speaker 3 She was wearing a tight, meaning black dress. It looked like it was painted on her.
Beautiful olive skin. She had long black hair.

Speaker 3 hair next thing i know i see her walking towards me and i said okay i'm trying to be cool about it and she steps on my toe she had high heels on it it must have been three inch heels and i'm like oh my goodness i just went down i had a beard i just went down and she starts telling me in spanish oh my gosh i'm so sorry i'm so sorry are you okay and let me tell you all i could do was just

Speaker 3 look up, extend my hand and say, would you dance with me? And she said, of course I'll dance with you. And that's when it all started.

Speaker 1 Her name was Lulu.

Speaker 3 Her real name is Mariel del Lutes. She went by Lulu.

Speaker 1 They had an instant connection. After that night on the dance floor, Ramon and Lulu started going on dates.
And she admitted she hadn't stepped on Ramon's toe by accident.

Speaker 3 She said, yeah, I did that on purpose. I wanted to get to know you.

Speaker 1 And that's exactly what they did.

Speaker 3 We had a lot in common. She told me that she was a divorced mother too, had recently moved to Texas or Mexico City for a better life for herself and her kids.

Speaker 1 After a few dates, Ramon explained to Lulu that his career as a boxing coach was very demanding. It meant working late nights and traveling to tournaments on the weekends.

Speaker 1 He knew it was the kind of schedule that could make dating difficult, if not impossible. But it didn't scare Lulu off.
She was supportive of his career and she wanted to help him succeed.

Speaker 3 She started going to those tournaments with me, sat there the whole time supporting me, helping me with the kids. And I liked that about her.

Speaker 1 Just like Ramon, Lulu was a hard worker.

Speaker 3 The way she was making ends meet to try to take care of her family was working underground. She would clean houses.

Speaker 1 Lulu was determined to become a U.S. citizen.
In addition to cleaning houses and raising her kids, she went to night school to improve her English.

Speaker 3 And I I would help her too, you know, talking to her in English when I could, she was telling me, just talk to me more in English because I wanted to learn English.

Speaker 1 Ramon was impressed. They both had young kids from their previous marriages.
After about six months of dating, they started getting to know each other's families.

Speaker 3 There was family gatherings. On her side and my side, Ludu was always there helping out, cleaning, helping, you know, with the food.
She was always very helpful with everybody.

Speaker 3 And my mother and family, they liked her. They They saw how she treated me.
And they saw that I have been alone for seven years now.

Speaker 3 And they kind of saw something in her that, you know, she might be the one.

Speaker 1 Having his mother's approval sealed the deal for Ramon. One night in 2009, after a year and a half together, I went on one knee and I proposed to her.

Speaker 3 First, she said yes, of course, and then she started crying and crying. And I said, well, what's going on? Well, are you okay?

Speaker 3 And all she kept saying was that after all she went through with her ex-husband, she thought it would ever happen again.

Speaker 3 And she saw it in me that I was a good man and she just couldn't believe that I asked to marry her.

Speaker 1 During their engagement, Lulu doted on him.

Speaker 3 Oh, my goodness. There was times where I would have a drink and I wasn't even halfway done.
And she would go get me another one. Guys are like, man, how do you find a woman like that, man?

Speaker 3 She's beautiful and she treats you like a king.

Speaker 3 You know, kind of like make you stick your chest out a little bit too. Like, wow, that's my lady.

Speaker 3 You know, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 The couple had a quick engagement. It was a second marriage for both of them, so they opted for a simple courthouse ceremony with a backyard reception.

Speaker 3 It was at my sister's house, in fact, she wanted to give me that as a present. She had a big celebration for my marriage.
A lot of family and friends were there.

Speaker 3 Her family, her mother, and her sister and brother-in-law, they were all there.

Speaker 1 In the middle of the reception, surrounded by family, music, and food, something strange happened that Ramon will never forget.

Speaker 1 Lulu's mother approached him, and she had a stern look on her face.

Speaker 3 Her mother walks up to me, and then she just whispers in my ear,

Speaker 3 Now she's your trouble,

Speaker 3 and walks away.

Speaker 3 I mean,

Speaker 3 wow,

Speaker 3 that's the first red flag was out there right at our wedding night.

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Speaker 1 It starts working immediately to combat grogginess, fatigue, and mental blocks. One drink, and the brain fog clears.
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Speaker 1 In 2009, Ramon Sosa was newly married to his second wife, Lulu. She was hardworking, supportive of his career, and she went above and beyond to make him happy.

Speaker 1 Instead of a honeymoon, Lulu wanted to take a more practical approach. She wanted to invest in becoming a citizen.

Speaker 3 That's what she wanted. And so I was okay.
Well, that's what you want. And I was happy for her because she was just tired of cleaning houses.

Speaker 3 I just wanted to get a regular job job and be here legally.

Speaker 1 It was a mountain of paperwork. The first big hurdle the couple faced together.

Speaker 3 And it's that cheap. And we did it.
We went over there to the immigration attorney and I signed all the papers.

Speaker 3 Seemed like it was like about 300 pages. That's a lot of responsibility that you take when you sponsor a person to be in this country legally.

Speaker 1 With Lulu's immigration paperwork underway, they started their new life together.

Speaker 3 The first years of our marriage, what you call the honeymoons years, were wonderful. I was still very involved in boxing.
I had my nonprofit. She supported that also.
She cared a lot about me.

Speaker 3 She cared that I was a father figure to her son and her daughter.

Speaker 1 Early on in their marriage, Ramon told Lulu about his career dreams. He wanted to open his own boxing gym in Houston, a place where he could coach and train the city's best boxers.

Speaker 1 But he knew knew this dream was a few years away. He didn't have the money for all the upfront costs.

Speaker 3 I told her how much it was going to cost and she goes, I can get that for you. And I said, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 Lulu was determined to help Ramon's dream come true.

Speaker 3 She was borrowing money for family and also she maxed out all these credit cards that she had. And that's so we were able to open up our first gym.
and buy all the equipment.

Speaker 1 The plan was dubious, but it worked. And he was grateful for it.
The gym quickly became a full-time job for both Ramon and Lulu.

Speaker 1 He did the head coaching and training, and she handled the business side of things.

Speaker 3 She told me that back in Mexico City, she used to work for Ford, and she was an executive secretary, and she knew how to keep the books.

Speaker 3 And she was good at it. So I was very happy that I had somebody that, because I mean, I'm not good at that part.
I'm good at training people. I'm good at teaching them how to fight and box.

Speaker 1 And he was. His gym became the place for elite boxers to sharpen their skills.
And it was growing quickly.

Speaker 3 The business took off. It took off and it took off quick.

Speaker 3 My day started at four in the morning and I was till nine in the evening working Saturdays too. And I mean, I was literally exhausted every day.
But that's the price you pay when you own a business.

Speaker 1 Within a year, he had already paid Lulu back and they were starting to make real money.

Speaker 3 I just kept saying to myself, like, wow, this is what I wanted. I mean, I didn't become a world champion.
I didn't go to the Olympics, but I'm still doing something with boxing.

Speaker 3 And at the same time, I'm making money. And we were financially doing very, very well.
We were to the point where we under the bite of a big house, cars, vacations.

Speaker 3 So everything was good. And to me, life was good.

Speaker 1 One day, Ramon got an unexpected visitor at the gym,

Speaker 1 his old friend, Mundo.

Speaker 3 And I'm like, Mundo, and I swear,

Speaker 3 it was like we picked up right where we had left off.

Speaker 1 Mundo asked to come work with Ramon again, but Lulu wasn't so sure about him. She didn't like his look or his criminal background.

Speaker 3 She told me, I don't know about having somebody like that around our business. You know, she saw the tattoos.

Speaker 3 I've had to be honest with her that, you know, told her his background of everything that happened to him.

Speaker 3 And, you know, he had been released from prison back in the day, been shot at, gang member, but he cleaned his life. He wanted to live a different life.

Speaker 3 But then when Mundo started coming around, helping me and helping with the gym and helping the weekends so we could have days off, when she saw the benefits in him, then she said, okay, well, maybe we can use him.

Speaker 1 So Mundo started working nights and weekends at the gym. It was a relief.
The Sosos really needed the help.

Speaker 1 They were beginning to struggle at home with the pressure of parenting and managing their business.

Speaker 3 So at home, racing the family was getting difficult. And Lulu would take the issues that she had with her kids out on me.

Speaker 3 So yeah, the family dynamic, we were seeing cracks.

Speaker 1 After the first three years of marriage, Ramon started noticing that Lulu was changing too.

Speaker 1 She was becoming more demanding.

Speaker 3 She didn't want my kids to come around. She didn't want my family.

Speaker 3 Even my family started coming to my house because they saw how she changed, how she wasn't the same person, the very nice lady that they had met when I first met her.

Speaker 1 Lulu was getting controlling about how Ramon spent money while she was spending more than ever.

Speaker 3 She would go shopping and come back from the mall with all these bags. I said, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 Ramon's concern was amplified when he discovered.

Speaker 3 I started noticing that the books were not adding up to the number of people members we had in the gym.

Speaker 3 And every time I would bring up that situation, I said, hey, what's going on here? This is not adding up the bottom line. And she would always say, oh, don't worry about it.
And I was upset.

Speaker 1 So he hired someone else to take over the books.

Speaker 1 One night, Ramon came home from the gym to find that Lulu was hosting a party at the house. A party he hadn't heard about.
There were balloons and a cake. Lulu's entire family was there.

Speaker 3 And I can tell that she had been drinking because she was just slurning a little bit. And she had a bottle of wine in one hand and a cup in the other.

Speaker 3 And she said, say hello to your new American wife.

Speaker 3 And I'm like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 Lulu had applied for citizenship and she was approved. Earlier that day, she'd she'd gone to her naturalization ceremony and officially became a U.S.

Speaker 1 citizen, but she hadn't mentioned it to Ramon, her husband, and the sponsor of her visa.

Speaker 3 And I said, wait a second, you're here legally in this country because of me. Your kids are here legally because of me.
And you don't have the respect.

Speaker 3 to ask me like if I wanted to go to the celebration it got to the point where I asked her point blank

Speaker 3 did you marry me just to be here legally with your family, the money, the American lifestyle?

Speaker 3 And she came back with, look at me, I'm beautiful. Look at my body.
I can get any man I want and men that have a lot more money than you. But no, I chose you.
I want to be with you and I love you.

Speaker 1 He wanted to believe her, but he was still disturbed by her choices, not to mention her controlling behavior, not wanting his kids around, her her spending, the discrepancies in the books.

Speaker 1 And now, she hadn't even invited him to her citizenship ceremony.

Speaker 3 And I said, no, this is that cool. I like the way this marriage is going.

Speaker 1 Ramon pulled away emotionally and physically. He knew something was wrong, but he was too busy with his gym to take immediate action and file for divorce.

Speaker 1 In the meantime, the couple started sleeping in separate bedrooms.

Speaker 3 We were still married, but living separate lives, basically in the same house.

Speaker 1 He didn't expect Lulu to be the one to file for divorce. But one day, she came to him with the papers and she had a bold request.
She wanted to keep the house and the business.

Speaker 3 I said, no, no, I don't think so. I said, we're going to go half.
Everything is going to split down the middle. You go your way, I go my way.

Speaker 3 But all the money and time that I have invested in this marriage and everything that we have, no.

Speaker 3 I said, no, this is my house. So I told her, we can work it out or we can go to court.
And that's what I got my attorney and we're going to fight it out.

Speaker 1 He had been through a divorce before. And although the first one was difficult, it had been fair and respectful.

Speaker 1 But this divorce was about to take a devastating turn.

Speaker 3 I remember I was driving and Mundo calls me.

Speaker 1 Mundo explained that the night before, he'd been closing the gym when he overheard Lulu talking about hiring a hitman.

Speaker 3 And, you know, Mundo being funny, and we always joke around before all the time. I said, Mundo, you know, quit joking around, man.
You know what we're going through.

Speaker 3 This is not cool to be joking like that. He said, nah, nah, nah, pops.
I've seen that look in people's eyes when they want to kill somebody. And she has that look.

Speaker 1 Mundo approached Lulu to ask about what he overheard.

Speaker 3 And he walked up to her and I said, you guys need to be careful what you're saying

Speaker 3 because you never know who's listening. And

Speaker 3 he said, are you guys talking about remote?

Speaker 3 And I said, yeah.

Speaker 3 Mingo said, do you want him gone and you want to disappear?

Speaker 3 And Mundo did the pistol sign with his hand. And he said, you want him gone like this? Like, you know, and she said, yeah, I'm tired of him.
I wish he was gone, disappear. Yeah, like that.

Speaker 3 I just want him gone out of my life.

Speaker 3 And Mundo said,

Speaker 3 I tell you what, you know, I got some people that can do the job for you.

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Speaker 1 It's formulated with clinically studied ingredients like clean caffeine, electrolytes, antioxidants, and adaptogens. It's a simple morning cocktail that fits seamlessly into my wake-up routine.

Speaker 1 It starts working immediately to combat grogginess, fatigue, and mental blocks. One drink, and the brain fog clears.
The fatigue lifts. I'm in control of my day again.
Take back your mornings.

Speaker 1 Visit clubearlybird.com and use code BETRAYAL for 20% off. That's clubearlybird.com.

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Speaker 1 That's where the next phase of your weight loss journey comes in. There's before weight loss, after weight loss, and the after-after.

Speaker 1 Help restore and refresh your facial skin and reclaim your natural-looking youthful glow. To learn more, visit faceafterweightloss.com.
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Speaker 1 Mundo told Lulu he could help, that he knew someone who could do the hit.

Speaker 1 Instead of calling up a connection, he went straight to his good friend, Ramon.

Speaker 3 I was upset. I was so upset.
I mean, I had to pull over.

Speaker 3 I had so much rage.

Speaker 3 I didn't know what to do. I was like, man, what I do? So I called the police.
So he said, no,

Speaker 3 here's the deal. I talked to her and I'm going to start meeting with her.
And I'm going to record everything on a phone and see how far she's willing to go.

Speaker 3 And then what I want you to do is take all these recordings to the police and see what they want to do.

Speaker 1 Ramon was skeptical that this plan would work and taking Mundo at his word meant Lulu was dangerous. So right after that phone call, he decided to go to the police.

Speaker 3 And I told him the situation, what happened, and he responded with: You know what? You guys are going through a divorce.

Speaker 3 Women and men sometimes say things when they're upset, even that they want to kill their wives or their husbands. But it's just saying it out of anger.

Speaker 3 There's really not a lot of evidence to do anything with that.

Speaker 1 He wasn't sure if Mundo's plan to use secret recordings would be admissible or even legal. It sounded kind of like entrapment.
So he asked the detectives about it.

Speaker 3 I told Hoy Blackwood does, hey, look, and he said, can you guys keep getting more evidence? And I said, okay, apparently that is legal. So that's what we did.

Speaker 1 So they moved forward with the plan. Mundo would meet with Lulu in private places like cars to see if she was actually serious about hiring a hitman.

Speaker 1 And all the while, he was secretly recording on his phone.

Speaker 1 For this to work, she'd have to believe that Mundo was in 100%.

Speaker 1 But why would she trust Mundo, one of Ramon's best friends? Ramon has a simple answer.

Speaker 3 Lulu's so desperate in everything that's going on, the voice that's going her way, her life is slowly crumbling.

Speaker 1 The most difficult part of their plan was that Ramon would have to play dumb and spend a few more days sleeping under the same roof as Lulu, pretending that he didn't know what she was planning.

Speaker 1 Ramon remembers turning into his driveway that day,

Speaker 1 something he'd done a thousand times before, and he always felt comfort and relief when he got home.

Speaker 1 But now, it was all so eerie.

Speaker 1 His house, a would-be crime scene, and him, an unsuspecting murder victim.

Speaker 3 Even though we're sleeping in separate rooms, I had to go home and see this lady and look at this lady,

Speaker 3 knowing that she wanted to have me killed.

Speaker 1 He barely said a word to her. That night, he locked his bedroom door.
He tried to sleep, but he was wide awake with thoughts racing. People say things they don't mean during a divorce all the time.

Speaker 1 Could she just be fuming? Or could she actually go through with it? The next day, Ramon got his answer. It turns out Lulu was in a hurry.
She wanted to take Mundo up on his offer right away.

Speaker 3 Lulu wanted me dead before our divorce was finalized because she said to Mundo, look, if he dies after

Speaker 3 our divorce is finalized, my kids get everything.

Speaker 3 But if he he dies before the divorce is finalized, she gets everything.

Speaker 3 And the divorce was going to be finalized no matter what.

Speaker 3 So she wanted me dead as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 Ramon had spent seven years with Lulu. For most of that time, he genuinely adored her.
He wanted to give her that second chance at a loving partnership.

Speaker 1 And he dreamed of seeing her succeed alongside of him. Instead, she was throwing it all away.
And Ramon heard everything, captured on tape.

Speaker 3 I could believe what I was hearing from Lulu. She's telling Mundo how she's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me.

Speaker 3 And she's literally making crying sounds. And she starts laughing after that.

Speaker 3 In one of the first recorded conversations, Lulu dropped a bombshell lulu was planning to have me killed two years prior to our divorce i was like what

Speaker 3 and mundo said yeah have it on one of the recordings and i listened to it and i said i can't believe what i'm listening to

Speaker 1 two years earlier they'd taken a family vacation to mexico city Ramon thought their relationship was in a good place.

Speaker 3 And she was so happy to show me Mexico City and go to the pyramids. She had a whole itinerary for everything we were supposed to do in Mexico City.

Speaker 1 She told Mundo that she was planning to kill Ramon on that trip. Lulu wanted his savings, his business, and his life insurance.

Speaker 1 She was conspiring to commit the crime with a friend back in Mexico.

Speaker 3 And the plan was, yeah, bring them over here. We'll disappear.
People disappear here all all the time.

Speaker 3 What we can do is have you guys held for ransom,

Speaker 3 and then they're going to let you go, and then we're going to disappear him.

Speaker 3 And then Mundo asked Lulu, so how come you didn't go through with it?

Speaker 3 And Lulu said, well, I didn't have the heart to do it then.

Speaker 3 But now I do.

Speaker 1 This chilled him to the bone. He didn't recognize this woman.
He'd never heard his wife speak like this before. The coldness in her voice, her laughter.

Speaker 3 It never crossed my mind that Lulu had this cold-blooded heart.

Speaker 3 Through our good times and our marriage, I never would have ever thought in a million years this person had that kind of mind to do this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 He became genuinely terrified for his life.

Speaker 1 Ramon left the house and stayed with his parents who lived across town. In the meantime, Mundo asked Lulu if she wanted him to reach out to one of his guys, if she was ready.

Speaker 1 And she said she was. So Mundo called his contacts.

Speaker 3 He called one of them John Boy and the other one Paco.

Speaker 1 If those sound like characters from a crummy action movie, it's because they are.

Speaker 3 Told me that he saw Blood In, Blood Out. And those are those two characters, right? From that movie.

Speaker 1 But Lulu bought it. So Mundo texted Paco, who was actually Ramon using a burner phone.

Speaker 3 Then I said, well, Mundo, I'm not a street guy. So he's already teaching me how to talk or text in that gang lingo to pass as a criminal, basically.

Speaker 3 He's meeting with Lulu and the first thing I do, I text Mundo, I say, hey, the boss laid ready to do this. We need $200 for the toy.

Speaker 1 Mundo explained that the hit would cost $12,000, but the guys would need $200 up front for the gun.

Speaker 3 She went to our bank. We still had an account together.
She went to our account, got the $200 out of our savings, which is basically my money too, and gave Mundo $200.

Speaker 1 As soon as the money changed hands, they had enough to go to the police. The moment was both a relief and a horrible betrayal.

Speaker 1 And with this evidence, the police were finally ready to move on Ramon's case. They took it very seriously.

Speaker 3 They had to get all these different agencies together and come up with a plan. State troopers, the sheriff department, FBI.

Speaker 3 They got real quick.

Speaker 1 Law enforcement wanted to collect evidence of their own.

Speaker 1 They decided to see if Lulu would make a down payment for the hit and if she would exchange the money with one of these fictitious fictitious hitmen in person,

Speaker 3 the state police brought their own undercover police officer to play as one of the hitmans to start meeting with Lulu in person.

Speaker 3 I mean, this guy, if you saw him in the street, you thought that he was really a gang member, hitman. You know, he fit everything to the T.

Speaker 3 He had all the tats, he knew how to talk, he had a mean look, like you would be scared of him.

Speaker 1 Lulu met him in a car, which of course was an undercover police car full of cameras. She said she didn't have the cash to pay him just yet.

Speaker 3 But she brought my own jewelry as a down payment for my own murder.

Speaker 3 Bracelets, watches,

Speaker 3 just some stuff that I had left behind at the house. And she gave that to him as a down payment.
And then she also had the nerve to tell him, look, and he also wears this really nice watch.

Speaker 3 And if he has it it on you can keep that too because it's worth something and then after he dies i'll give you the rest of the money and they said okay we're gonna take care of business now

Speaker 1 that night the police asked ramon to come to the station right away and i said what about mungo

Speaker 3 he's not coming

Speaker 3 i said no we just need to talk to you

Speaker 3 When I arrive at the station, go to the special room that we always met.

Speaker 3 And when I get in, I started noticing like, wait a second, there's a lot more people in this room than before. The FBI guy was there, the state police detective, the DA or assistant DA was there.

Speaker 3 So it was a packed room. And they started telling me, say, okay, Ramona, we feel that we have enough evidence to arrest Lulu right now.
But here's the deal. You guys own a business here locally.

Speaker 3 She's a mother. She's never been in trouble.
And we need to make this a slam dunk case. And I'm afraid that if we go to a jury trial, we might have one of the jurors feel sorry for her.

Speaker 3 And you just want to make sure it's a slam-dunk case. So, we have decided to stage your death and show her your picture, and then record it.

Speaker 1 It sounded over the top, he'd never heard anything like it, and to be honest, neither have I.

Speaker 1 The police told Ramon that they'd need need him for three days, so he quickly went home and packed a bag.

Speaker 1 He was advised not to tell anyone where he was going. Not Mundo, not his parents, not his kids.

Speaker 1 He returned to the police station the next morning and was surprised when the police started doing special effects makeup to make it look like he'd been shot in the head.

Speaker 1 The police even had a reference image, a photo of a real murder victim whose body had been dumped in the desert.

Speaker 3 They take me in a blacked out SUV to this location where they had already dug out this shallow grave. And when I get there, the detective tells me, okay, we need you to strip down to your underwear.

Speaker 3 They show me how to pose with my hands bound behind my back. And I looked like I was a little bit swollen.
They put more blood on me.

Speaker 3 And they even threw dirt on me, which I thought it was so degrading, and closed my eyes and the only thing that i could remember the most from that scene was the sound of the 35 millimeter

Speaker 3 as it went around me just clicking taking pictures of me

Speaker 1 and then the detective said okay mr shosa we're done here put your clothes on and they took me away to a hotel He sat in the hotel room for two days, not able to contact anyone, just waiting for the police to arrest Lulu.

Speaker 3 I couldn't sleep. All I did was pace back and forth, thinking about all the different situations.
What if it doesn't happen? What if she doesn't fall for it?

Speaker 3 What are my kids going to think when they see this? My parents, everybody. I mean, all, I mean, it's so many things going through my head.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, back in Houston,

Speaker 3 The undercover police officer was in the car with Lulu,

Speaker 3 and he shows Lulu the picture of me in the shallow grave.

Speaker 3 So next thing she does, she starts racing up her hands up, like doing the racing the roof like she's laughing, like, yeah, I'm about to get paid. I hit the lotto.

Speaker 3 And then walks out of the car,

Speaker 3 closes the door.

Speaker 3 No idea whatsoever. The whole time she was talking to another cover police officer.

Speaker 1 Lulu was arrested right there for solicitation of first-degree capital murder. After the arrest was made, the police called Ramon's hotel room to let him know.

Speaker 3 I literally sat on the edge of that bed and

Speaker 3 tears started coming out.

Speaker 3 Tears of anger, tears of sadness.

Speaker 3 Not because I was still in love with this person, but she didn't think about me being a son, me being a father,

Speaker 3 you know, a friend, a brother,

Speaker 3 all those. She didn't think about none of that.
You taking me away from my kids,

Speaker 3 my mother, my father.

Speaker 3 That hurt me a lot.

Speaker 1 Ramon says the worst part of this entire betrayal was what happened next. He hadn't been able to talk to his family for three days and explain where he was going or what was going on.

Speaker 1 He's the kind of son who calls his mom nearly every day. He knew she'd be panicked.

Speaker 1 So as soon as he could, he dialed his parents' house.

Speaker 3 My father answers the phone.

Speaker 3 And my dad never answers the phone. My dad is not a phone person.

Speaker 3 He says, what's wrong with you at?

Speaker 3 And I can hear the cracking in his voice. And in the background, I hear my mother.
screaming and crying.

Speaker 3 The kind of cry you hear at funerals when somebody passes.

Speaker 1 His parents had just heard the news of Lulu's arrest, but they didn't know it was a setup. The only thing they knew was that they hadn't heard from Ramon

Speaker 1 and that his wife had just been arrested for soliciting his murder.

Speaker 3 And I try to drive as fast as possible trying to get to her.

Speaker 3 And when I get there, my dad opens the door and my dad's eyes were bloodshot.

Speaker 3 I've never seen my dad cry ever.

Speaker 3 He just hugged me and I went straight to my mother. She was laying on the couch and she can't catch her breath and she's crying.
I said, mom, calm down, I'm okay. I mean, I'm okay.

Speaker 3 You know, I tried to explain to her that I was going to be okay, but she still couldn't catch her breath. She was basically hyperventilating, you know, because she was so anxious.

Speaker 1 This is the moment that still haunts Ramon. Seeing his own mom grieve his death.
It's something few people ever see, and it's extremely difficult to process.

Speaker 3 You know, I'm her only son and they'll forget that it's going to be the picture that'll always be over my was

Speaker 3 my dad holding my mom's hand,

Speaker 3 telling her it's going to be okay.

Speaker 1 Even though Lulu was being held on a million dollar bail, Ramon couldn't shake this fear that she'd somehow find him.

Speaker 3 I didn't know if Lulu had a plan B or C, so

Speaker 3 I was sleeping with a loaded shotgun next to my bed.

Speaker 3 Then I had another loaded gun on the counter of my kitchen, which was a 40 millimeter.

Speaker 3 Then I had a nine millimeter loaded in my vehicle at all times ready to go.

Speaker 1 In the year following Lulu's arrest, He didn't leave the house unless he had to. Over time, all of that fear turned to anger.

Speaker 3 I had so much bottled-up anger inside of me. My family, my kids, and my mother, all that anger, I had it bottled up inside of me.

Speaker 3 Anyone that has gone through something so traumatic, like have went through,

Speaker 3 you can't live with that much anger. I couldn't continue to live the way I was living with that anger with loaded guns around me all the time.
I was a ticking bomb. But I was afraid of myself.

Speaker 1 After 15 months in jail, Lulu pleaded down to second-degree solicitation of capital murder. Ramon channeled his anger into writing a victim impact statement to deliver at her sentencing hearing.

Speaker 3 I mean, I was going to let her have it verbally of all the pain and anger that she had caused me and my family. When they let me talk,

Speaker 3 it was packed. A lot of people were there from the press.

Speaker 3 I get up. I took a deep breath.

Speaker 3 I forgave this lady.

Speaker 1 This was about him. It wasn't about making Lulu feel better or letting her off the hook.

Speaker 1 It was about making this moment into a ceremony for himself, a ceremony to release all the anger he'd been carrying.

Speaker 3 And once I did that, it was as if all that anger just was gone.

Speaker 3 Like all that air went out of the balloon and I was able to breathe and,

Speaker 3 you know, it's just

Speaker 3 life was beginning to be more normal now.

Speaker 1 Lulu was sentenced to 20 years, but ended up serving eight and a half. She was released in November of 2023, and she'll serve another 12 years on parole.

Speaker 3 She's under very, very strict rules with the Texas State Parole Board.

Speaker 3 If she misses up, she's going right back in.

Speaker 1 Ramon decided to move on from the spaces they shared, which meant selling the house and the gym.

Speaker 3 It was just way too many memories. I just needed to move on.

Speaker 1 As for Mundo, they're still friends today. He doesn't think about Lulu every day like he used to.
It's in part because...

Speaker 3 I'm in love again.

Speaker 3 Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 She's been wonderful to me. She's Puerto Rican too.
I say that because we have a lot in common when it comes to our cultures.

Speaker 1 Ramon is determined to turn his betrayal into a positive force. He wrote a memoir about his experience.
It's called, I walked on my own grave.

Speaker 1 And he wants to tell his story on stage as a one-man play.

Speaker 3 I'm not an actor. I'm not a professional speaker.
But when you speak from the heart,

Speaker 3 it means something.

Speaker 3 And I think I like to do that, tell my story on stage, the real deal, everything that happened.

Speaker 1 Part of his healing process has been understanding that there's a term for what Lulu did to him. The terror he lived with for years afterwards.
It's domestic abuse.

Speaker 1 Even though his story has so many twists and turns, that's what it boils down to. His own spouse tried to have him killed.
As you know, we end all of our weekly episodes with the same question.

Speaker 1 Why did you want to tell your story?

Speaker 3 My hope is that my story helps men and women that are caught in difficult situations in their marriage. Not go through what I went through because I was a victim of domestic abuse.

Speaker 3 And it's hard for people to understand that.

Speaker 3 Wait a second, you're a boxer and you're this and you're that. So I advocate, you know, for men that are victims of domestic abuse to never give up, get help.

Speaker 3 I mean, just like women, men should be getting the same type of help.

Speaker 1 On the next episode of Betrayal:

Speaker 1 Who wants to file a police report against their father? You know, I didn't want to put my dad in jail. I really didn't.
Like, I didn't want to be the kind of person who did that.

Speaker 1 If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email us at betrayalpod at gmail.com. That's betrayalpod at gmail.com.

Speaker 1 Also, please be sure to follow us at Glass Podcasts on Instagram for all betrayal content, news, and updates. We're grateful for your support.

Speaker 1 One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners.

Speaker 1 Betrayal is a a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison.

Speaker 1 Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Monique Laborde.
Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristen Malkuri and Caitlin Golden.

Speaker 1 Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreinchek. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio and Nico Aruka.
Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MyMusic.

Speaker 1 And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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