Lulu Sosa

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A divorce fueled by greed and hatred.

They came to make a police report.

She was looking for someone to kill her husband.

Like, disappeared.

She was like, yeah.

Investigators rush to save a life that's on the line.

There was just no margin for error.

It was truly life or death.

You could tell she was excited and thrilled with what was going on.

A woman determined to kill shows investigators how far she is willing to go.

That let me know that we are dealing with a truly evil woman.

Montgomery County, Texas, sits at the northern edge of Houston's massive sprawl.

In the south of Montgomery County, you have kind of your metropolitan Houston-type suburb areas.

North of the county is very rural.

You have ranch communities.

So you have a wide variety of people.

It's 5 p.m.

on July 21st, 2015, when investigators are called to a remote spot in Montgomery County and uncover a scene unlike any other.

It was a county-owned piece of property that was very isolated, had a lot of cover and concealment due to trees and high grass.

Detective Jason Martinez takes in an unsettling scene.

I was standing above the body of the dead man

in a grave.

The The grave is a shallow grave.

It looked like it was basically dug by hand, by shovels.

The body was wearing nothing but a pair of underwear.

His hands were bound behind his back.

There was an obvious gunshot wound to the head, a close contact entry wound on the right temple.

It was like he was executed, and then his body was placed in a hole where no one else could find it.

Detective Martinez recognizes the victim.

The victim in the grave was Ramon Sosa.

Ramon was pretty well known in the community as a local business owner.

He started up a boxing gym and he trained young boxers.

He was a mentor to people in our community.

Investigators and crime scene technicians meticulously process the scene.

We took a lot of photos, different angles, start outward, work inward, get up close.

Then, in an instant, what looks to be the scene of a cold-blooded murder is transformed.

Sound speeding?

Ramon Sosa, R-A-M-O-N-S-O-S-A.

All I can hear is the clicking of the 35mm.

camera going around me just taking pictures.

Non-stop.

And that was it.

It's okay, Mr.

Sosa, you're done.

Once we completed taking the photos, we helped Ramon out of the grave.

The crime scene is part of an elaborate sting operation.

The plan was to stage the murder of Ramon, to fake Ramon's death.

He was having to pretend to be dead to save his own life.

I'd probably be one of the few men that has ever walked out of his own grave alive.

Two weeks earlier, on July 5th, 2015, 48-year-old Ramon Sosa and his good friend Mundo first walked into the Montgomery County Constable's office.

Ramon and his friend Mundo came to make a police report.

Mundo tells detectives that a couple of weeks ago, he overheard a bizarre conversation between Ramon's wife, Lulu, and Lulu's teenage daughter at the family-owned gym.

I think it was around June 25th, June 26th.

I walked in on a conversation regarding Mr.

Sosa's, his soon-to-be ex-wife, with his daughter.

With her daughter.

With her daughter.

Okay, so this is your wife.

Yeah, we're going through the board basically.

I'm going to go to business school with Ms.

Blacksmith.

Now, what kind of troubles are y'all going through?

It was a divorce.

She wants everything.

Money, life insurance, paying your 401k, house, businesses, you know.

Mundo was at the gym this one evening and he walked in front of my office in the gym and Lulu was talking to her daughter.

Mundo explains the subject of their conversation came as a shock.

They were talking about that Lulu wished that Ramon was dead.

Lulu was looking for someone to kill her husband.

Mundo decided to take it upon himself and approach Lulu and ask her what's going on.

That's why he started talking with Lulu in order to make sure, see, like anybody would want to know, does she really want this to happen?

She was a little vague in what she was asking for.

She said she wanted him to disappear.

I was was like, well, what do you mean like disappearing in jail?

She's like, no, you know, disappear.

Mundo wanted to confirm and verify what she was talking about and made the motion with his hand as though he was holding a gun.

I want to like, like, disappear?

And she was like, yeah.

And I was like, you know what?

She's serious.

Mundo says in another twist he didn't see coming, Lulu asked for his help.

Mundo had kind of a checkered past.

He had been involved in a gang, and Lulu tried to enlist Mundo, knowing his history, to see if he knew anyone that could do what she wanted.

Thinking on his feet, Mundo went along with Lulu's request.

Mundo told Lulu that he had someone by the name of Paco that could do the job, but in fact, Paco didn't exist.

He was very close with Ramon.

He was concerned something was going to happen, and And so that's why he got involved.

Following the conversation with Lulu, Mundo tells investigators he called Ramon.

I remember I get a call from Mundo and he tells me,

hey, pops, you know, this lady wants to kill you.

And I said, what are you talking about?

I was so upset.

I mean, there was so much rage and I was so mad.

I thought he was joking.

I said, nah, man, this is not a joke.

It's for real.

He said, I've seen that look on people's eyes when they want to kill somebody and she has that look

Ramon tells investigators he was in shock with the divorce pending he and Lulu were still sharing a home

she decided she was going to live on the second floor and I was going to live on the first floor of the house I just went in the house

Went in my room and locked the door.

And all I did, I just laid in my bed

staring at the ceiling, thinking like, what am I going to do?

What am I going to do?

Sleeping basically with one eye open.

Ramon and Mundo tell investigators they agreed that their best bet was for Mundo to keep stringing Lulu along.

She might be saying this kind of stuff because she's just mad right now.

There's really no evidence.

right now, so I told Mundo, get as much information as you can.

In an attempt to see just how serious Lulu was, Mundo quickly took the next step and told Lulu he'd spoken with Paco, who was on board for the job.

She believed him.

There was no hesitation.

There was no worry on her part.

She trusted Mundo completely.

Ramon tells investigators he then purchased a burner phone, which he used to text Mundo, posing as Paco, his own would-be killer.

He texted back and forth with me like I was the hitman.

You know, I need $200

and let's go do this.

Mundo says he showed the texts to Lulu as proof.

She had no idea the whole time that Hitman was me.

I was playing my own hitman.

So let me ask you this.

Why did you get involved?

Why did you take that extra step to create this fictitious?

I was afraid, sir, that they might get that person to actually do the job.

Was Mundo the only person that Lulu was talking to?

Was he the only one she was seeking this type of assistance from?

As the two men continue with their story, they reveal an even more concerning detail.

I told her, all right, they want $12,000.

She was, what if I give them a truck, a truck, and $2,000 later?

I said, well, to start the hit off, they want $100 for me for them to buy these hundreds.

She gives me the $100

on July the 4th.

I gave them just $100 right there.

There's money involved.

She's really serious about having Ramon killed.

Investigators are stunned by how much information Mundo was able to obtain.

Time was of the essence, and this was a very serious matter, so the ball got to move quick.

Coming up, investigators dig into the broken marriage that threatens Ramon's life.

She started getting really, really jealous.

Her whole attitude changed.

She just wasn't the same person.

And a deadly plot is uncovered.

Mundo was recording everything.

It was chilling to listen to how she wanted me dead.

July 5th, 2015.

Texas gym owner Ramon Sosa and his friend Mundo have just detailed to Montgomery County investigators a shocking murder-for-hire plot that has been coming to a head over the past two weeks.

They also presented some audio recordings of Lulu speaking with Mundo.

Ramon and Mundo hand over cell phones containing text messages from Lulu as well as a thumb drive.

Well time is of the essence on a case like this, so we're gonna take this one and we're gonna take that thumb drive.

I really need to dig into this.

I'm gonna need to obviously get a translator.

We're gonna translate what's on that thumb drive.

As investigators hand off the phones and the drive to be translated, they request Ramon fill in the blanks on his background.

Born in Puerto Rico in 1967, Ramon came to the United States with his family in the early 70s, where after several years of moving around, they eventually settled in Texas.

We moved to Texas when I was in a young teenager.

12 or 13, somewhere around there.

There's four of us.

Siblings.

We were very close.

All of us are very close.

My parents always did a lot of things with us when we were younger.

From an early age, Ramon discovered a lifelong passion.

I really got

interested in boxing when my father took me to the gym with him.

I fell in love with the sport

and never looked back.

That turned pro.

So I was a professional boxer at 17, still a senior in high school.

And that was pretty cool, you know.

But soon after he graduated high school, Ramon's path to a professional career was derailed.

I just was not training the way I was supposed to be training.

And then my father sent me to Puerto Rico to fight over there.

And when I came back, mine was not there with boxing anymore.

Barely in his 20s and with one career already behind him, Ramon was looking at the long term when he embarked on his new profession as a driver for FedEx.

From there, I moved to LA for a job opportunity.

And that's where I met the mother of my kids, Dolores.

The way I met her was dancing.

We got together and one thing led to another.

And she ended up getting pregnant with my oldest son.

And that's when I talked Dolores into coming back to Texas with me.

They then shortly after had my brother Chris.

And then

I came along.

We had a nice home and I was able to build a pool in the backyard, like it's like a little paradise.

The kids loved it.

After a decade together, Ramon and Dolores parted ways.

It's a common law, you know, marriage, what we had.

I think we kind of started growing apart a little bit because I didn't want her to work.

I was more of an old school, you know.

And I kind of, I guess, bothered her a little bit.

We got joint custody, and we ended up living separate lives.

During the breakup, Ramon leaned heavily on his love of boxing.

I still kept going to the gym.

I did more training

young fighters.

In 2004, he founded an outreach program for kids in the community.

There was a nonprofit called Young Prospects Boxing who would pick him up after school, take him to the gym, and they would train and kids loved it.

In the early days of the program, Ramon first met Mundo.

Mundo one day came to the gym.

He wanted to join a boxing team or club.

I told him, May, you know, if you want to, you can start today.

Ramon says Mundo never looked back.

In like three months, we came very, very close.

And he kind of opened up a little more to me about his background.

He grew up as a gang member.

It's tough.

He ended up going to prison for a little while.

He just went down the wrong path.

Then when he came out of prison, he decided to change his life.

Working as a delivery driver during the day and training at night kept 40-year-old Ramon Sosa busy.

But he still managed to find time for romance.

My dad and Lulu met at a nightclub.

He saw her across the way and thought she was beautiful.

And when she walked past him, she stepped on his foot.

She did that and apologized.

That was his gateway.

I just looked up at her and all I can say is like, would you dance with me?

And she goes, of course.

And the rest was history.

Well, after about a year and a half of dating, I just decided that, you know, this is the one.

Lulu Durantes was born in 1974 in Mexico City.

She was a middle child of three.

She grew up with her mother only.

They were a very tight-knit family.

She was working at a Ford

factory.

in Mexico City and that's when she met her then husband and the father of her kids.

Lulu and her husband eventually divorced and she looked for a fresh start in Texas in the mid-2000s.

She was here on a visa, visitor visa.

She had an apartment where she lived with her two children and her mother.

She was working cleaning houses.

She's a hard worker.

She's doing whatever it takes to help her kids.

After dating for a couple of years, Lulu and Ramon tied the knot in 2009.

You know, she loves my dad.

My dad was happy.

They were happy.

She supported my boxing.

She becomes an American citizen.

It was wonderful.

One year later, the family moved across town and together, Lulu and Ramon opened Woodlands Boxing and Fitness.

I was the head coach, and I would take care of the gym, the boxing part of it, and then she did the business side of it.

Mundo, he became a right-hand man eventually.

Lulu thought that Mundo was a bad influence, you know, ex-con, whatever, and she thought he made the gym look bad.

But then when he started helping and taking care of the gym and she found out how to get benefits out of him, now he was good.

Over the next few years, Ramon and Lulu focused on running the gym.

But the couple's marriage soon began to suffer.

We were okay the first three years, and then after the third year, that's when I saw little cracks started in our relationship.

It seemed like the more money we made, the more arguments we got into.

I was working a lot, you know, literally basically all day.

All she could say was like, you know, you're always busy with boxing.

She started getting really, really jealous about my kids.

She would treat them totally the opposite of how she treated them when she met them.

And I felt like now that that she had a nice home, she had money, her whole attitude changed.

You know, she just wasn't the same person.

In 2015, their relationship came to a breaking point when Lulu surprised Ramon by filing for divorce.

They had the pickup truck and a couple of cars and I think a couple of motorcycles too.

And

She basically was out to get whatever she could.

It was very difficult to worship.

money the greed of money that's all it was

for investigators the more ramon reveals the more lulu's motive begins to crystallize

what do you think the the motor the motivation of this is it anger or greed

she's angry angry angry anger and then she wants everything

Mundo and Ramon leave the office but not without specific instructions on what to do next.

Ramon was advised to limit his interaction with Lulu for obvious reasons and to distance himself but go to work, maintain your normal routine, just limit your time and interaction with her.

I ended up staying with my parents.

We had no idea what was going on.

I didn't tell anybody.

I was in constant fear.

It was horrible living day to day, knowing that somebody wants to kill you, and you don't know when or where or how.

Coming up, investigators speculate if there are two sides to this sordid tale.

She had previously made 911 calls, accused Ramon of assaulting her.

And Lulu puts her plan into action.

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Detectives in Montgomery County, Texas are investigating a claim by former boxer Ramon Sosa stating his wife Lulu is trying to kill him.

This case was revolving around a person's life, so we couldn't get it wrong.

There was just no margin for error because it was truly life or death.

On July 6th, they listened to the recorded phone calls between Lulu and Mundo from the past week, and they quickly discover Lulu isn't shy when it comes to her motive.

Ramon worked for FedEx for over 30 years and continued to work for them.

And he had a very large pension that Lulu would get if he were murdered.

As investigators keep listening, they learn that Lulu has a looming deadline.

Our finalization of the divorce was coming up soon, and she wanted the hit to happen before then.

Because if it happened after the divorce, my kids would get all my inheritance.

With the deadline less than three weeks away, investigators look closer at the SOSA marriage.

As part of a criminal investigation, it's standard practice to run a criminal history check on everyone involved.

The call history for their residence was pulled, and there did show to be several disturbance calls to the house.

She'd accused Ramon of assaulting her, sexually assaulting her.

Lulu called the the police multiple times about that.

Investigators dig into Lulu's allegations from 2013 and find no evidence to back up her claims.

Lulu had called law enforcement several times.

They were summoned to the home.

I think after the third time the constables came out, they began to believe that this woman was not genuine in what she was telling them.

A sexual assault allegation by Lulu against Ramon.

That case was fully investigated.

Ramon even took a lie detector test during it.

The grand jury in Montgomery County refused to indict, and they found there was no probable cause that it happened.

Finding no reason to discredit Ramon and with the clock ticking, detectives consult with the district attorney's office.

In order to charge someone with solicitation of capital murder, you have to develop your own investigation and our own evidence.

Then we decided to do an undercover operation.

At that point, the sheriff's office took it very seriously and got in touch with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

And the DPS sent down an undercover officer posing as assassin.

Mundo told Lulu that he had someone by the name of Paco that could do the job that she wanted to do.

Law enforcement was able to set up an undercover to assume the role of Paco.

The next step was a face-to-face meeting with Paco and Lulu.

I told them, I said, look, you know, Lulu, she's usually only having conversations with Mundo.

So if anything, y'all need to have Mundo around the meeting with the undercover officer.

Mundo agrees to facilitate the meeting between Lulu and the undercover agent.

The goal was to have Mundo ride with Paco to the location to meet with Lulu and then have Mundo introduce Lulu to Paco.

And once that took place, we wanted him to get back in his car and leave because we didn't want him involved.

On the evening of July 20th, Mundo, Lulu, and the undercover agent meet in the parking lot of a local department store.

There were a number of undercover officers that were in the area watching and ready to act in case something went down.

Normally, when you're dealing with solicitation of capital murder cases, your suspect may be a little more nervous.

And Lulu Soso was not that at all.

Lulu reiterates that she needs the hit to take place within the next 48 hours.

Lulu agrees to give Paco an additional $500 up front with more to come after the murder.

They agreed on $1,000 cash, the title to Ramon's truck once the job was done, and she was going to give Paco some of Ramon's jewelry to compensate him further.

I was pretty taken back.

That let me know that we are dealing with a truly evil woman.

Following the meeting, investigators take the recordings to prosecutors.

While damning, they worry it still isn't enough.

In this case, Lulu had no prior criminal history.

She was a productive member of society.

So there were several things things in her favor that we wanted to negate a jury from falling for.

To seal Lulu's fate, they will need Ramon's help in carrying out an unorthodox plot.

On July 21st, 2015, Ramon reports to the constable's office.

When you're talking about a solicitation of capital murder case, you want to be able to show a jury or a judge what the suspect will do when they see the person that they wanted dead, actually dead.

And so it's not uncommon to, during the investigation, to try to stage the murder.

We knew one of the final pieces of the puzzle was the proof of death.

The district attorney wanted a certain bar to be met.

evidentiary-wise.

And we knew that that was going to be staging Ramon's death, showing proof of death to Lulu and getting her reaction on video.

He said, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take a picture, show her a picture of you dead with a bullet wound on the side of your head.

And I'm like, you're kidding me.

I couldn't believe it.

I didn't know what to say.

I was like, I was stunned.

I was in total total fear and I just didn't know what to expect.

We had the investigators basically use makeup to place a bullet hole on his head.

We made a close contact entry wound on the right temple, what appeared to be a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

We collaboratively discussed, you know, hey, do we have this right?

You know,

is the stipling just right?

You know, this undercover operation had to be spot on,

had to look legit because ultimately a man's life depended on it.

Coming up, will Lulu buy into the sting operation?

We had to put Ramon into hiding.

July 21st, 2015.

Authorities in Montgomery County, Texas are acting fast to save Ramon Sosa's life.

With less than 24 hours before Lulu's deadline to have Ramon killed, investigators prepare to stage his murder.

About 3 p.m.

is when we took Mr.

Sosa to the grave site that we used.

It was very isolated.

I'll never forget.

I was in the back of this SUV and it was blacked out, you know, and me sitting in the back seat thinking, like,

what am I doing?

There were people there already waiting, and there was a guy with a camera.

And so, one of these officers told me how I was going to pose.

And all this,

they already had a shallow grave dug up.

Ramon carefully steps down into the four by four foot grave.

I instructed Ramon to just put his hands behind his back.

That way it appeared as though they were tied behind his back and he was dumped in a hole.

It took me to close my eyes.

It added more blood to my nose, I think mouth also.

We took pictures of him.

with our cell phones.

They had to be taken in a way to look like it was people who had just committed a murder, taking a photograph of someone.

When Ramon climbs out of the grave, he is visibly shaken.

He was upset,

like anybody would seeing basically what is their own death.

I knew that was going to be difficult.

So many different thoughts were going through my head.

I was thinking about my kids, my family.

What are they going to say when they see this picture of me?

I mean, they're going to see it sooner or later.

To keep Ramon safe, investigators whisk him away to a hotel at an undisclosed location.

The goal of that was to have Ramon's friends reach out to Lulu to ask where Ramon was, to see what her reaction would be, what her story would be.

We had to put Ramon into hiding for several days.

They took my phone away.

I had no contact with anybody.

Not his employer, no family members, nobody.

And he had to understand that that was the only key to making this work.

The officer, you know, when they dropped me out, they said, well, we'll call you as soon as we're arrested.

I remember that I just wanted this to be over.

On July 22nd, Hako and Lulu meet for a second time.

Lulu got in the car.

You could tell she was excited and thrilled with what was going on.

Period.

Probably the most chilling part of this entire case was her immediate response to the photo, and it was her smile.

We had enough.

We had our case.

We'd gotten across the goal line.

The next day on July 23rd, Detective Martinez and a patrol officer approached Lulu at the gym.

Okay, Detective Martinez with the constable's office.

Had a few questions for you.

Lulu was in the back office of the boxing gym.

Her mom was there.

Her daughter was there.

Ramon had been off the grid for the previous 48 hours.

Our plan was to speak to her under the guise of me investigating a missing persons report.

Apparently, Mr.

Soza hasn't been at work today.

I haven't seen him.

I haven't talked to him.

We're going through divorce.

I just let her talk.

It was about a 10-minute long production of her attempting to give the appearance that she was being helpful to us.

But it got to a point where I made the decision to go ahead and place her in custody.

Okay, Ms.

Soza, stand up, please.

You're under arrest.

Okay, you're under arrest.

Ma'am, it's okay.

Stay back.

We have a warrant.

As soon as Lulu is in cuffs, investigators make an important phone call.

Give me the call, said, you know, she's been arrested.

We're going to go pick you up now.

And

I had tears of sadness, of anger, and

so many emotions came through me about everything that had gone down.

At the station, police read Lulu her rights, but she refuses to talk.

From the minute she was taken into custody, she lawyered up and exercised her Fifth Amendment right.

Coming up, the Sosa family hopes for closure.

I remember her when they brought her in, the sounds of the chains, you know, her walking.

She never looked at me the whole time.

I just want it to be over.

On July 23, 2015, Lulu Sosa is arrested for solicitation of capital murder after hiring an undercover agent to kill her husband, Ramon.

During the sting, Ramon hid out in a hotel.

But news of Lulu's arrest breaks before he has the chance to reach out to his family.

Hello everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield.

This is Primetime Justice.

Divorce can get messy.

My mom, she saw there was a breaking news from Montgomery County next to the Woodlands.

A woman tried to murder her husband.

My mom's English is kind of broken and the only thing she understood was that she was arrested for killing her husband.

She saw her picture on the breaking news and my mom just fainted and just started screaming.

The first person I call is my mother.

And oh my goodness, I heard her in the background because my dad picked up the phone.

And I hear in the background my mom just yelling.

You know, that kind of cry you hear at funerals.

It was breaking me.

She thought that I was dead.

Immediately, Ramon rushes to his family's side.

I get to the house and my dad is there.

Eyes are bloodshot.

My mom's in the back, just

couldn't catch her breath.

And I started calling my sons

because everybody was, you know, so many people have already seen it on TV.

I call my sons and my daughter, Mia.

I just immediately started bawling my eyes out.

I was crying.

I remember I just

was so angry because how could somebody want to kill my father?

You know, let alone his wife.

While awaiting trial, Lulu never offers up an explanation for her actions, and the couple's divorce is finalized.

And then to her, you know, everything was awarded, everything, the cars, the house, the gems was all awarded to me.

So out of all that greed that she wanted everything, she went and her kids and her family and her mom without nothing.

By the fall of 2016, over a year after Lulu's arrest, she sees the writing on the wall.

On October 11th, Lulu takes a plea.

She agreed to plead to 20 years in prison to

what's a second-degree felony.

which carries a range of punishment from for her for probation to 20 years.

So she accepted the maximum punishment for that crime.

Because

no one was murdered,

her lack of any criminal history in her past, and the fact that she was willing to accept responsibility, I believe 20 years was a just sentence in this case.

I just was ready to be over with.

You know, it was about 15 months later.

I just wanted to be over.

At her hearing, the judge gives Ramon a chance to speak to his wife and would-be killer.

I remember her when they brought her in, the sounds of the chains, you know, her walking.

And

I feel saddened to see this lady, how she ended up.

Somebody that came to this country looking for a better life for herself and her kids.

Ramon was able to give what we call a victim impact statement about the impact that this has had on him.

and what she's done to him and his family.

And I forgave her and it was as if I had released all that anger and all that air of the balloon and I was at peace again.

She never looked at me the whole time and they just took her away and that's the last time I saw her.

But the Sosa family walks away from the ordeal with something far more valuable than money or possessions.

Our family is much, much closer.

The dynamics between my father and I have been amazing.

I mean I have a four-year-old son, his grandson, his first grandson.

He's an amazing grandfather.

I know that there's a day that's going to come in the near future that Lulu is going to be released from prison.

I hope that she betters her life.

What's helped me a lot too is talking to people, men and women that are going through difficult situations in marriages.

I hope that people that see my story can learn something from it

and I hope that is that it helps them.

Maria Lulu Dorante-Souza was paroled in November 2023.

Lulu's daughter was never charged in relation to the attempted crimes against Ramon.

The town of Agda in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.

But lately life on the coast has taken a strange turn.

The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.

His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.

Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

I am the Archangel Michael.

The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.

Legal proceedings have been initiated.

Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Sheikh for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.

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