48 Hours - The Hit

Episode Date: July 12, 2015

Why was a colorful entrepreneur with powerful friends blown up in his car? His ex-wife speaks out to "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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It was a beautiful wedding. We had a wonderful relationship. I was very in love, very in love, very, very in love. Gary had a very big personality. He was a big gambler, and he loved it. When they first met, she claimed that Gary had told her, I'm worth $10 million, $20 million. It was in the high millions.

Gary Triano, he'd been a hugely successful financial developer and entrepreneur. He was doing tribal gambling business. That money, which he got every month, was big money. The tribe in himself did not agree on certain things. He was basically forced out of his gambling connection. He was on a downward spiral financially, and there were people who were upset with him. Your husband, he owed a casino in Las Vegas several million dollars,

$1.8 million to an ex-wife, $91,000 to an attorney, hundreds of thousands of dollars to a group of Mexican investors who people said were involved in criminal activity. Probably. Probably. said we're involved in criminal activity. Probably. November 1, 1996, at the La Paloma Country Club. It's a luxury resort, spa, and a fantastic golf course.

Gary Triano finishes playing a game of golf, walks to his car, and there's an explosion. walks to his car, and there's an explosion. There's some kind of an explosion in the country called Parculano, and I guess it's a massive fire. What kind of bomb are we talking about? We're talking about a pipe bomb, an extremely large pipe bomb compared to what is normally out there.

Was this survivable? No. Gary Triano didn't have a chance. He was a dead man. I was absolutely hysterical. And I'm thinking, oh my God, what am I going to do? But you must have asked, who could have killed Gary? I immediately thought, who is it that he hadn't paid?

Before the bombing, Gary was totally in fear. Going around with a gun? He had life threats. I had life threats. The children had life threats. We're talking about Mexican mafia people you don't cross. There was serious, serious things going on. I saw the list.

It was titled, The Kill List. And it saw the list. It was titled a kill list. And it had names. And Gary Toronto was at the top. Did Pam ever talk to you about Gary's business associations with organized crime? Never. Never? Never. She was one of your closest friends. No talk about mob-related people.

Never. Threatening phone calls at the house. That's absurd. She felt unsafe. She felt her children were under threat. No. I don't believe that ever happened. I think that's just completely made up.

Do you believe Pam would have done anything for money? Well, yeah. I'm Peter Van Sant. Tonight on 48 Hours... The Hit. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

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So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The best idea yet. It was back in the 90s and Pam Phillips and her husband Gary Triano were living large. Here in the posh foothills of Tucson, they were rich. Gary was a wheeler-dealer, creating businesses, running Indian bingo, playing a lot of golf.

And some say Gary was rubbing shoulders with wise guys. Some say Gary was rubbing shoulders with wise guys. He was slamboyant in a way that I wouldn't normally fall for. She sold commercial real estate. I was worth, I think, a million eight, two million in there. Made totally on my own. They were socialites with connections. Connections like their celebrity pals, Donald and Marla Trump.

Marla I love. Marla is like an angel. And Donald I adore as well. And he is one of the funniest people to be around, you can imagine. Donald and Marla came, and actually they went to, took him to a basketball game together. Laura Chapman was part of the gang, a friend. We love our Wildcats. We're big, huge Wildcat fans here. University of Arizona. Absolutely. And it was in the paper the next day, you know,

here's Gary and Pam walking down the steps with Donald and Marla. Gary and Pam married in 1986. They had a couple of kids and settled into a comfortable life. When she and Gary were married, Pam didn't even work. She lived a very pampered lifestyle, and Gary provided that for her.

Tell me about going to Vegas with Gary and Pam. That was a trip. It was a lot of fun. He had his own plane, so he would fly us in. What kind of plane? It was just a small jet. It was like a... Just a small jet.

Just a small jet. Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Absolutely. But all that glitters is not, well, you know the story. And after seven years of marriage, things fell apart. Gary was pushed out of the Indian bingo. And his personal gambling debts skyrocketed.

In 1993, Pam and Gary separated and eventually divorced. She moved to Aspen. He stayed in Tucson. She moved to Aspen He stayed in Tucson Until that day November 1st, 1996 The bomb was so powerful It literally sent debris flying 200 yards into the air

The windshield actually flew over these trees And into the swimming pool area Just five days before Gary's 53rd birthday. Gary definitely was a target. Gene Reedy is a Pima County investigator. Gary suspected he was being followed and told people he was being followed by an individual that was driving a green Jeep-type SUV.

Was that vehicle seen on the day Gary Triano was murdered? It was a similar vehicle, or the specific vehicle was seen up at La Paloma Resort. That's where the bomb went off. Where the bombing happened, that's correct. We're on an explosives range in the remote mountains of New Mexico. Over those hills about 40 miles from here is where they detonated the first atomic bomb. These ATF agents... Watch your strap. ...they worked the Triano bombing and came up with some crucial clues.

This is the exact location where the device was when it detonated and murdered Gary Triano. Gary Triano had just finished 18 holes with a pal. He walked to his car. When he entered the car, he leaned over and seen this unknown bag that was sitting here exactly where it's at right now. And like anybody, he probably reached over and grabbed it, right? He did. What's this? ATF bomb expert Tony May. This is a reconstruction of the device.

And special agent Tom Mangan. When you look at something this size, you say, this is overkill. ...recreated the bomb at our request. . I don't get into this car. Here we go. Five, four, three, two, one.

Lead the way. Yep. Let's check out the damage. Look at the blast pressures, Tony. Yeah. Look at that. This is all pieces from this last blast. Correct.

What we're looking at here. Correct. For you guys,. Look at that. This is all pieces from this last blast. Correct. What we're looking at here. Correct. But for you guys, this is all evidence. This is all evidence. Yeah. From here, we have to sort out what is car parts and what is bomb parts. Right. Do you see anything from the bomb? This is an end cap from the pipe bomb itself.

Look at the frag pattern on this door. Frag pattern being these holes. Frag pattern being these holes. Right now, we're looking at the seat of the explosion. And the explosion itself. Right, and you see the fragmentation. Was this survivable? No. It was quick, it was calculated, and it was murder.

This is an exterior door panel that's been blown off. There are people who look at this circumstance and say, this looks like a classic mob hit. Right, with the bombing. Everybody looked at that and said, looks like a classic mob hit. Right, with the bombing. Everybody looked at that and said, that's a signature mob hit. Detective James Gamber has been on the case from day one. I was two months into homicide. And you get one of the biggest cases in Tucson history. We continue to work it for 18 years. 18 years of your life? Yes.

We continue to work it for 18 years. 18 years of your life? Yes. It took so long because it's been an unusually tangled story, filled with endless leads and with curious characters, many with their own theories. Characters like Dr. Lawrence D'Antonio. I'm a family physician here in Tucson, Arizona.

I've known Gary Triano since I was a little boy. He's also convinced mobsters killed Gary Triano because he says Gary owed them money and wouldn't pay. He's a very flamboyant man and he's also very good looking, but he's rotten to the core. He was a con man. He was a thief. And he would rob or steal from anybody, including his own family, his own wife. That's the way he was. Dr. D'Antonio says Triano associated with known criminals, like the infamous mafia boss Joe Bonanno, who retired in Tucson. Gary Triano's first business was financed by Joseph Bonanno. Was Gary Triano living in a dangerous lifestyle?

Oh, absolutely. Gary carried a gun all the time. And Dr. D'Antonio says he has even seen proof that Gary Triano was on a kill list. There were a lot of names on this list, and some names would come and go, but Gary Triano was always at the top. The minute the doctor heard about the bombing he was sure who did it i was absolutely sure that gary trana had just been murdered by neil mcneese

Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list.

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I'll tell you what I think happened. I think Gary really burned someone really good, and somebody was really upset, and someone was going to kill him. He's got a pretty good idea of who that someone was. This man here is the man that orchestrated this. Like Dr. D'Antonio, Reedy thinks the killer is a man named Neil McNeese. When Neil McNeese was on drugs, he was a completely psychotic, insane guy. All I ever met in his world, his entourage, was drug dealers, drug addicts, strippers, prostitutes, and bad guys. He had a lot of bad guys that worked for him.

McNeese was a rich kid. He'd inherited millions from his family's uranium mining fortune. He also owned a piece of an Indy race car team. But Dr. D'Antonio, who once was McNeese's personal physician, says his patient slipped into an even faster lane. He was heavily on drugs, and his drugs were cocaine and heroin. And that's when the trouble started. According to D'Antonio, the beef between McNeese and Gary Triano was over a huge diamond ring. A gorgeous diamond wedding ring.

And this thing was magnificent. And Gary said, pitched it as a quarter of a million dollar ring. As the doc tells it, Triano needed cash. So he offered up his wife's $250,000 wedding ring to McNeese as collateral for a loan. But there was a problem. The diamond was a fake. And when McNeese realized he'd been scammed, all hell broke loose. And Neil went absolutely crazy.

And he started to tell me, I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him. And he said, and when I kill Gary Triano, it will be spectacular. The whole world will know I killed him. Gary Triano owed him a debt, and I believe that's why Gary Triano was killed. Reedy says he's got it all figured out. I'm taking you to where I believe the bomb was built. Let's go inside. This place looks like a movie set.

Thousands of parts, heavy machinery. He has everything here that could be used to build the bomb. We found at least six pieces of the puzzle within this drawer right here. We found the shotgun shells. We found bearings, the same type of powder that was used in the bomb. We found the Radio Shack receipts right there. That linked all this together. That linked all this together.

Reedy says the man who built the bomb, right here in this shop, was a model airplane hobbyist named Jerry Capuano. This is his bomb builder. He built the bomb. Reedy's theory of the crime is this. The bad boy millionaire McNeese put together a whole hit team to go after Gary Triano. It was a bunch of lowlifes. This is his bodyguard who are orchestrated and got the hit crew together with these two guys. And these two guys have a past criminal history. They're complete thugs. McNeese and his bodyguard also had a criminal history.

They were convicted of extortion for threatening another man who owed McNeese money. This is where Gary came in the day of his death. This is where Gary came to play golf. Reedy says he has found a witness who saw that hit team right here in the parking lot. Directly next to Gary Triano when the bomb went off, there was an individual in a vehicle who was sitting there reading a magazine. Now, he was looking in his mirror, and he saw an individual in a vehicle who was sitting there reading a magazine. Now, he was looking in his mirror and he saw an individual backed by the bushes. He also saw another individual straight ahead up on this knoll directly in front of us that we're pulling around to. And you believe that person was doing what? I believe those two people were involved in the bombing.

So, to sum up this tangled story so far, millionaire businessman Gary Triano gets in big trouble with mobsters and they kill him. Case closed, right? Well, not really. That's just the opening scene of this mystery. Turns out, lead detective James Gamber doesn't buy Reedy's mob hit theory. They were all looked at and discounted.

Police didn't believe the whole diamond ring story. They didn't buy the bomb factory or the hit team. And they didn't believe any of the other mob hit theories either. The Mexican group, the financial group, discounted. Just a bad business deal. We went and talked to the casinos, and they said, yeah, we lose money all the time. We don't go out and kill people for the money. But Tucson detective James Gamber had another lead.

In December 1996, just weeks after Gary Triano's murder, In December 1996, just weeks after Gary Triano's murder, his ex-wife, Pam Phillips, filed a life insurance claim. A big one. There was a $2 million life insurance policy. $2 million. More than enough reason for Detective Gamber to travel to Aspen, where he spoke to Pam face-to-face. The money would go to Pam as the trustee. She's the only person, when you followed the money, that benefited at all. There's nothing about me, nothing about me, that would ever harm a person, ever, ever.

There was no money motive. There was no insurance motive. Gamber questioned Pam. She told him she divorced Gary Triano, escaped from Tucson, and fled to Aspen, all because she was terrified. There was things happening with him that I couldn't understand. He was off the wall. Off the wall. And you moved because? Because our lives were threatened. I mean, our lives were threatened. Gary feared everything. Gary was totally in fear. Going around with a gun. But Pam's friend, Laura Chapman, has a different take. Why did things go wrong in their marriage?

When things started to go downward and the money was not going to be there anymore and that, you know, the rich and famous lifestyle was going to be evaporating, I think she saw the writing on the wall and said, you know, I don't think I want to be in this relationship anymore. Pam tells this story with such conviction that she'd reached a point where she had to leave Gary because of the people he was dealing with, the threats to her family. Everyone was scared, and she had to move to Aspen to save her children.

That's absolutely ridiculous. That is not why she moved to Aspen. Why'd she move to Aspen? She, you know, she was looking for her next ATM, her next bank. She was looking for somebody to provide her that lifestyle again. After her divorce, Pam Phillips' old friend, Laura Chapman, says, Pam was in the mood for love in Aspen. Once she got to Colorado, what was Pam looking for in a man? I think she was looking for to make sure that he had basically a net worth probably of at least $10 million or more. That was the aphrodisiac. That was the attraction.

Yeah, absolutely. It didn't really matter what they looked like, just as long as they had a lot of money. Pam, as usual, gravitated to her people the rich and famous she became a successful real estate agent and resumed her life as a socialite but she had one friend who didn't seem to fit the mold his name was ron young i met him at a party next door, the duplex next door to me. Very tall. The guy is like a skyscraper. He was a business manager to people that were at this barbecue. And I could use some help with my business. And so that's kind of what ended up happening.

Pam says Ron helped her with her business interests, and she paid him cash. Pam owned an online company called Star Babies, making astrology charts for infants. I hand wrote all the different planetary aspects to understand our children and be a better parent. What was your relationship with Ron? Strictly business, pretty much.

I mean, doing business plans. He helped on pretty much everything, you know. He helped a lot. But Pam's nanny in Aspen told police that her relationship with Ron Young soon moved from the office to the bedroom. Now, you're here to tell me the truth, right? I'm here to tell you the truth. Did your business relationship with Ron turn into a romantic relationship? No, not really. Because it's been alleged that you were lovers, were you?

No, we were not lovers. This is, like, embarrassing. Could we have crashed out having wine, fully clothed, you know, on a couch? That might have happened once or twice. You know, we were not lovers, no. In the summer of 1996, Pam suddenly turned on her partner, accusing Ron Young of fraud using her credit cards. When she called the cops, Ron disappeared.

Several months later, in November of 1996, Gary Triano was blown up in his car. November of 1996, Gary Triano was blown up in his car. The bomb blew off the roof and killed Triano only days before his 53rd birthday. And in Aspen, a cop who dealt with Pam in the fraud case saw the bombing story on TV and called Tucson. Detective James Gamber took the call. We get a call from Detective Crowley with the Aspen Police Department. And he says, hey, I have a suspect in a fraud case up in Aspen. His name is Ron Young, this gentleman right here. Turns out that Ron Young had a criminal record. This was a new intriguing lead, a link between Pam and a small-time crook. Where it becomes more interesting is when we actually interview Pamela Phillips and we ask her, we say, who's Ron Young? And she basically minimizes his relationship to her.

Oh, he's somebody who did some financial work for me. She doesn't talk about the fraud, and she is basically shaken by the question. I mean, visibly shaken by the question. It's a bad movie. It's a nightmare. I would never kill Gary, the father of my children. It's just, I can't even stand it. I'm not even going to go there. It's just not real. Pam may have been shaken and detectives suspicious, but they didn't yet have a case.

What's worse, Ron Young was nowhere to be found. shaken and detectives suspicious, but they didn't yet have a case. What's worse, Ron Young was nowhere to be found. For nine years, the case languished. Another look at the frag pattern on this door. Then, in 2005, the case heated up. The bomb expert, Tony May, and agent Tom Mangan of the ATF were reviewing cold cases. They took another look at the murder of Gary Triano. Tell me what this bomb tells you about a potential suspect. Well, it tells me quite a bit, actually, from the size of the battery to the fact

that a remote control system was used. This is somebody that was familiar with model boats, model airplanes. But they determined the bomb builder was an amateur. You have sloppy solder points. In this case, the solder points were globbed on. How was this 17-inch pipe bomb detonated? Okay, using a remote control firing system. He was by this at a hobby shop. By it at a hobby shop. And when he sees Mr. Triano get into the vehicle and get close proximity to the bomb, he initiates the device.

And boom. And boom. The experts were now sure. Because of the sloppy workmanship, the bomb was probably not the work of a mob hitman. As far as the cops were concerned, that took the gangster theory of the crime off the table for good. Whose handwriting is this? As he studied the files, Tucson detective James Gamber became more and more convinced the key to the case would be the relationship between Pam Phillips and the vanished con man, Ron Young. Then in 2005, a break. Ron Young was arrested in

Florida on fraud and gun charges. When police searched his apartment, they discovered something amazing. Ron Young was an obsessive record keeper. Gamber learned that during the 1990s, Young had received significant cash payments from a woman in Colorado. Usually between $18,000 and $2,000. The woman sent hundreds of thousands of dollars. sent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her name, Pam Phillips. Why did she pay Ron Young $400,000? You tell me. Because she was paying him for the murder.

The murder? Of Gary Triano. Of Gary Triano. Yes. This has nothing to do with me. My children have to know this has nothing to do with me. I had have to know this has nothing to do with me. I had nothing to do with the death of their father. Absolutely nothing.

Absolutely nothing. But investigators have said you had two million reasons. Like what? Two million dollars in life insurance money. I didn't even know that I had that. Well, she needed money, and she wanted to get Gary out of her life. So she reaches out to Ron Young, and basically, if you look at all the evidence collectively, says, if Gary dies, I get $2 million.

If you kill him, I'll give you $400,000. And for you, that's the motive of this crime? Correct. Ron Young didn't just keep extensive financial records. He also recorded dozens of hours of telephone conversations. Listen to this. That's Ron Young talking to Pam. If I ever found out that you compromised me for your benefit, it would be really unfortunate for you because there's just

plenty of stuff that I could literally dig out of the ground, and you're a fried duck. Then investigators discovered this startling piece of audio tape. Well, I tell you, you're going to be very serious. When you sit in a women's prison for murder... I only know of one murder that Pam Phillips is associated with. Finish your thought. That's Gary Triano. So what murder could they be talking about? For Detective Gamber, this case was becoming one of sex, lies, and audio tape.

But it all came together when an obscure police report from 1996 turned up. That was the same year Gary Triano was blown up. Back then, a rented van was found abandoned in Southern California. No one knew it at the time, but that van would contain some important circumstantial evidence. And guess who rented it? Ron Young. They find basically a map of Tucson. As far as we know, Ron Young has no relationship to Tucson.

There were several notes, one that lists out people that are very close to Gary Triano. We find a receipt for a local hotel. We find where he stayed there for 18 days under the name of Philip Desmond. Then we find some of the divorce paperwork from Pam and Gary's divorce. With this new evidence that Young was in Tucson prior to the bombing, stalking Triano, Gamber now believed he had a case. And in October 2008, Ron Young was charged with Gary Triano's murder. Pam Phillips was next in Gamber's sights. in Gamber sites.

By 2008, Pam Phillips had moved to Europe, Switzerland mostly, to be with her daughter who was a student there. Then, there was a revelation. It all came flooding back to me. It was like, oh my gosh, she really did do it. Laura Chapman, Pam's old pal from Tucson, came forward to tell police a story she says she was too frightened to tell for 15 years. Were you scared?

Yeah, I was scared. Laura says that back in 1993, shortly after the Trianos separated, Pam said Gary was acting crazy one night, threatening her and waving a gun. She called me and she called another woman to come over to their home, and she said, you know, I should just hire someone and have him taken out. And, you know, then I can collect on the insurance policy. And for cops, Laura's story was the last piece of the puzzle. In October 2008, Pam Phillips and Ron Young were indicted on

the same day for conspiracy and murder. It would take a year before Pam was tracked down in Europe, now in Austria, and arrested. It would be another year before she was extradited to the U.S. in 2010. As all this was happening, Pam's partner, Ron Young, stood trial. There's no gunpowder in here. He denied everything and never implicated Pam. But in the end, those records and audio tapes did him in.

We've been trying to defend Ronald Kelly Young, guilty of the offense of first-degree murder. And then, back in Arizona... In Division 27 of the Superior Court... It was Pam Phillips' turn. This is your arraignment. Those are your charges.

But then, a major delay. Pam's lawyers claimed she was mentally unfit to stand trial. Pam, is it true that you once believed that you had some sort of computer chip or brain implants put in that was controlling your thoughts and actions? Let's just put it this way. I was a mess. I was a mess. I was a mess.

Let's just put it this way, I was a mess. I was a mess. I was a mess. Finally, on February 19th, 2014. This time we're gonna be hearing opening statements from the attorneys. 17 years after Gary Triano's murder, Tucson's trial of the century began. It is time to hold Pamela Phillips responsible

for her crimes. It is time to find Pamela Phillips guilty. The prosecution case was straightforward. Pam was portrayed as a financially desperate woman willing to kill her husband for that $2 million life insurance policy. The only person who stood to gain any benefit from Gary Triano's death was Pamela Phillips. The prosecution's star witness was Laura Chapman.

I remember saying, oh my gosh. Who told that damning story of Pam wanting to hire someone to take out her husband. Is Pam looking at you while you are testifying? I don't know, Peter, because I never, ever looked at her. Pam was outraged

by Laura's story. That she should just hire a hitman, have him taken out. No. No. Those words would not come out of my mouth ever. Ever. Ever. And there's one more thing Pam wants people to know

about Laura Chapman, that she had a medical condition that affected her memory. Poor girl, she had a brain tumor? Something happened to her medically. That is so ridiculous. First of all, I didn't have a brain tumor when she told me this. That happened many years later. It'll be nine years this month.

And it does not affect my memory one bit. My memory is perfect. The leads that they dropped. Pam's defense was simple Someone else did it Who killed Gary Triano? Neil McNeese, I believe Pam's attorney, Paul Eckerstrom

says the angry millionaire had the motive and the ability He says that makes a lot more sense than the notion that Ron Young built the bomb. Ron Young couldn't even fix a flashlight or a screw in a light bulb, far as I can tell. We found out who did this, and we've got strong, strong evidence of who did this. And it wasn't Pam, and it wasn't Ronald Young. It was people that were involved with organized crime. But the tapes recorded by Ron Young himself

haunted the defense. Well, I tell you, you're going to be very serious when you sit in a women's prison for murder. The problems with these tapes, they're spliced and diced, we believe. They were never authenticated by any expert. The defense argues that if you listen to the entire audio tape, it's obvious that Ron Young is talking about his own medical problems, and that if Pam didn't give him money for treatment, she'd be murdering him.

I'm the one that's f***ing dying. I have a need. You have my principle. I want a little bit of it so I can proceed. Eckerstrom says the true story behind most of the tapes was extortion. Ron Young was just trying to get money out of Pam. What he had on Pam was the fact that she had a reputation in Aspen to protect. It was a small town. She was a real estate agent. She needed her reputation. According to the defense, Pam was afraid that Ron would spread the news that she was being investigated in the death of her ex-husband. If Pam paid him, Ron would keep his mouth shut. You're talking about a guy who's an extortionist.

This is what he does. He's squeezing Pam is what you're saying. Yeah, he's squeezing Pam. With a minor in chemistry. Finally, Pam's defense presented what they were convinced would be a knockout blow. the fence presented what they were convinced would be a knockout blow. Something discovered among the bomb fragments. We found DNA on the bomb.

DNA, the CSI moment. Would it work? Five, four, three, two, one. In the end, the bomb which killed Gary Triano came back to center stage. I thought once we had this, we won the case. The defense claimed they'd discovered dramatic new DNA evidence. This is one of the places where we found it embedded in the wood. We excluded Ronald Young as the bomb maker. And if Ron Young didn't do it, then Pam is innocent.

So this is a CSI moment as far as you're concerned, right? Yeah. And, you know, we don't have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Pam's innocent. So this is a CSI moment as far as you're concerned, right? Yeah. And, you know, we don't have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Pam's innocent. All we need to do is create a reasonable doubt. After eight weeks of trial... You have to tell the state, don't charge somebody with scant innuendo and insinuation. The defense had bottom-lined their case. Pam didn't do the crime.

Someone else did. And that man was the drug-crazed millionaire who thought Triano cheated him, Neil McNeese. The defense has a pretty simple theory. Neil McNeese is the killer. What do you say? They don't have any foundation or any

solid factual basis to make that allegation. They claim McNeese had underworld ties, he had a kill list, and Gary Triano was on the top of that list? Correct. And do they have that list? No. They also didn't

have McNeese. He died back in 2002 of a drug overdose. And they didn't have the alleged bomb maker, Jerry Capuano, either. He's dead, too. It's rather convenient, yes. It's always nice to accuse somebody who can't defend themselves. As for star witness Laura Chapman and her story that Pam once talked about hiring someone to kill Gary. That she should just hire a hitman. The defense says

it never happened. There's a problem with your story in that the woman that was with you and Pam that day in the bedroom says she doesn't remember Pam saying this. That is not true. That is not true. I think she perjured herself. I think she knows exactly what was said. If the state is required to prove that... Of course, all of this was left up to the jury.

And after 13 hours of deliberation, the jury spoke. To you find the defendant, Pamela Ann Phillips, guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder as alleged in count one of the indictment? When you heard the words guilty, guilty of conspiracy, guilty of first-degree murder. It's a complete frame. Here I sit, and I am innocent. And the people that killed Gary Triano were out walking around. All right, let's go on the record and see our 2008... One month later, back in court... Ms. Phillips, would you give us your full name, please?

Pamela Ann Phillips. Pam is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. I just want everybody to know that I am innocent. I am innocent. I am innocent. I'm not that person that they're... You're not that evil, greedy, money-rubbing person who would even kill for money. No, I would never harm anybody. It's gut-wrenching for me because I don't just think she's innocent.

I know she is. Two juries have heard this evidence and two juries have convicted, Ron Young and Pam Phillips. Right. Aren't you the one who's wrong here? No. You know why they were convicted?

Juries believe that you're probably guilty these days because the state would never have brought the case otherwise. That's the way they think. Eckerstrom also blames the media. He says because of pretrial publicity and what he calls inaccurate media reports, he thinks the jury probably made up its mind before trial. Pam didn't have a chance going in. We had a thousand suspects. He thinks the jury probably made up its mind before trial.

Pam didn't have a chance going in. We had a thousand suspects. As for Detective Gamber, the man who spent 18 years trying to crack this case, it all came down to the hitman with an obsessive need to keep records of everything. Do you think there would have been a conviction without those audio tapes? No. So Ron the con man did himself in. He convicted both of them. This is a travesty

of our whole judicial system. This could happen to anybody. You feel like you've been railroaded. Totally. Totally. I'm innocent. I am very, very, very innocent. Step in. Close the door.

Is it weird to you, the person that you socialized with, hung out with celebrities, Donald Trump, the travel, the fun, the parties, the balls, the fancy dress, the lifestyle, is now a convicted murderer. Yeah, it's hard to believe that somebody could stoop so low. In the end, Pam Phillips will sit alone in a cell. Her grown children didn't even come to her trial.

There will be no more ski trips with the Trumps, or golf getaways, or Vegas weekends. There is just the prospect of life in prison, alone with her belief that the system is rigged and that she is the innocent victim. Gary Triano's family sued Pam Phillips and Ron Young for wrongful death. They were awarded $10 million. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.