Small Town Murder - #592 - Murder Texts Are Forever - Clifton, Arizona
Episode Date: May 2, 2025This week, in Clifton, Arizona, forgotten text messages solve the case, when a man is killed in what seems like an incident of road rage, until they discover that 14 shots were fired at the v...ictim, leading detectives to believe that it's very personal. There are several suspects, including his fiance, who acted suspiciously & his ex-wife, who he was battling for child custody. Then there's whoever has been stalking, and taking pictures of him. It turns out to be more diabolical than anyone could have thought!!Along the way, we find out that sometimes a whole town goes to a comedy show, that nobody fires 14 shots at someone for driving poorly, and that somehow, people STILL don't know that homicide detectives can check your text messages!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.comGo to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad free right now.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
This new year, why not let Audible expand your life by listening?
Audible CA contains over 890,000 total titles within its current library,
including audiobooks, podcasts, and exclusive Audible originals that'll inspire and motivate
you. Tap into your well-being with advice and insight from leading professionals and experts on
better health, relationships, career, finance, investing, and more.
Maybe you want to kick a bad habit or start a good one.
If you're looking to encourage positive change in your life, one day and challenge at a time,
look no further than Tabitha Brown's
I Did a New Thing 30 Days to Living Free.
In the audiobook, Tab shares her own stories and those of others
alongside gentle guidance and encouragement to create these
incredible changes for yourself and see what good can come from them.
Trust me, listening on Audible can help you reach the goals you set for yourself.
Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wonder
ECA. That's audible.com slash wonder ECA. When Luigi Mangione was arrested for allegedly
shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, he didn't just spark outrage, he ignited a cultural firestorm. Is the
system working or is it time for a reckoning? I'm Jesse Weber. Listen to Law
on Crimes, Luigi, exclusively on Wondery Plus. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express!
Yayyyy choo choo!
Oh yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed.
My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Jimmy Wissman.
Thank you folks so much for joining us today.
All aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station.
We have another crazy case today,
we're gonna be in Arizona.
Oh.
I have some insight into this case,
and I may have even met these people.
That's the crazy part.
Yeah, that's just a little weird spoiler there,
but it's a strange thing.
We will talk all about that.
Before we get to that though, head over to shutup
and give me murder.com.
Get your tickets for live shows there,
including you can still get the virtual live show
that we did, the 420 virtual live show.
We think it's the best one we've ever done.
It's really funny.
The case is crazy.
Bigfoot's involved.
So I mean, you know it's nuts.
I got Jimmy so stoned it's
hilarious there's a there's a I played a an edible trick on him and everything
it's wild it's a good trick I thought it worked so you can get that if it's any
time 14 days after May the night or I'm sorry after April 19th two weeks after
April 19th if you're in that window you can definitely still purchase that and get tickets for live shows in person
especially Chicago at the Riviera may the 17th get your tickets the night
before is sold out in st. Louis so get in there and do that thank you for doing
that shut up and give me murder calm also head over to Patreon, Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of the
bonus material, anybody $5 a month or above you are going to get first of all hundreds
and hundreds of episodes to binge on of bonus stuff immediately and then new ones every
other week, one crime and sports, one small town murder and do they get both of them?
That will give it to them.
There you go.
You get it all. This week, which what you're gonna get for crime and sports
We are gonna dip back into the fraternity hazing waters here with a part two of that of all sorts of Ben Franklin was involved
Last time no one expected that then for small-town murder. We are gonna dip into the Lori Vallow trial Dave Lord Vallow Daybell
She represented herself and I watched every goddamn second of it more than once.
So it's gonna be a lot of fun to talk about that
because she did not do a great job of loyaling.
We'll talk all about it.
Patreon.com slash crime in sports.
That said, I think it's time everybody.
Yeah.
Let's all do this here.
Let's all clear the lungs.
What do you say here?
And let's all take deep breaths and let's all shout
Let's go on a trip shall we let's go to Arizona here we go. We are going to Clifton, Arizona
Clifton, yeah. It's out there in, it's rural as fuck.
That is out by Morenci out in that southeastern, way far southeast corner of Arizona that people
don't even remember exists.
No.
It's like the western part's got like Yuma and all that kind of shit and like, you know,
the northern, but no one ever even remembers southeastern Arizona.
Is this Gila County?
There's nothing there.
This is Greenlee County.
Greenlee, golly.
Yeah. This is about three County. Greenlee. Golly
Yeah, this is about three and a half hours to Phoenix as I know because I've driven this
It's about three and a half hours to truth or consequences New Mexico the other direction
Right in the middle of that it is right outside
Morenci which is a tiny tiny mining town that we'll talk about because I've I performed there
It was the weirdest thing ever and about three and a half hours to Casa Grande Arizona which was our last Arizona episode keeping deadly secrets that was the guy who pretended
he was Scottish yeah and had a whole scam going and then was a murderer after
that so population in this town three thousand seven hundred and eighty and I
was shocked that there's that many people here honestly how many in Clifton
3780 cycle I don't know where it because Morenci I'll explain it when the beginning of the
show but it is the smallest town you ever want to be and it's crazy the median household
income here is right at the national average about $69,000 median home price here this is crazy because
Phoenix the prices are out of control here 118,500 bucks I cannot express to you how
far in the middle of fucking nowhere this is it is so far out there the motto here is
where the trail begins or depends on how you look at it really.
If you're there it certainly begins to get you the fuck out of here.
That's what I mean you want to get on that trail to get to somewhere better,
I'll put it that way. A little bit of history here this area was first known as Goulding's Camp
named for one of the early miners and the town of Clifton was founded in 1873.
and the town of Clifton was founded in 1873. The miners would settle along the canyons,
like the banks of the stream there,
and that's where they would do it.
Mining companies were formed,
and all sorts of claims were staked out and developed.
It's all mining here, that's all it's here.
If the mine shut down, everybody would leave.
There'd be nobody living here.
There's nothing else.
Yeah, they had all sorts of different mines.
The whole history of the town is based on mining, basically.
Copper is the big thing out here.
That's what they're mining, by the way, in case we know it,
but I don't know if everybody else knows.
That's what they're doing out there,
and they're still, after 140 years of continuous mining,
they're still copper they're pulling out.
Stop it.
It's still going on. That's how it's a town. It's crazy. That hasn't dried up yet
Here are some reviews of this town and I'm gonna give there's one review for
Clifton and then I'm gonna give a couple for Morenci since it's right next door
Here is four stars. I have lived in the Clifton Morenci area since I was a child
It is a tiny town that can be very toxic. Oh
Well at mining change that I would like to see is more things for teens to do along with young adults, dude
When we were in Morenci after we did the show like we saw a couple of
Teenagers hanging out out there and we actually said what the hell do you guys do around here?
And they were like, it's fucking rough man they were like anything oh my god they were like this comedy shows
the first thing we've done in like months like there's nothing to do we
basically go he said see where that parking lot is and we're like yeah he
goes we hang out in there I'm like okay it's a grocery store parking lot that's
what they do four stars in Moren, there's a great sense of family
and community in this town.
There really is a lot of community here.
They do, everybody works in the same place.
They all do everything together.
The town loves to put on events for everyone
in the community.
That was a comedy show.
It was literally a community event.
It was crazy.
And around the community to enjoy.
Here's three stars, only one big company to work for, the mine.
They pay the best.
Several smaller places to work but the money's not as good as the mine, obviously.
That's why people drive all the way the hell out here and live here.
Two stars finally, not many places to choose from but there are several bars.
Mediocre grocery store that's overpriced.
Yeah, that grocery store sucked. I went in there and their pizza is horrific. There's a pizza place next to mediocre grocery store that's overpriced. Yeah, that grocery store sucked, I went in there.
And their pizza is horrific.
There's a pizza place next to the grocery store.
It is Ohio, Columbus, Ohio level bad pizza, it's bad.
How could you expect that to be any good?
Yeah, they are the only one within a one hour drive,
the grocery store, and that's true.
It's right in the town of Morenci, right there.
Wow.
Things to do here, all right right the Frisco River Festival it's the Frisco River yeah
that's what that is to the two different rivers or a river in a stream or whatever
come together they're gonna have a festival it includes live local
entertainment oh my god are you kidding me I don't know where they're pulling
local entertainment out of this joint, but
Hunter Hunter Jones and her little dancers. That's one of the hunters a gal
Yeah, okay the high school mariachi band it says bank, but I think they mean bad
I don't think it's the high school mariachi bank
Probably so they misspelled that on their own website a medieval fighting
group I didn't expect that did you expect that in here Joe what is this Joe
Shavarria and the third stone band and then a band called rhythm and blues very
creative holy shit you're gonna have local talent Rosalyn Carrillo-Dorell singing the Star Spangled
Banner.
Jesus.
That's great.
And then a bunch of crafts and foods and there will be free face painting, balloon animals,
train rides for all the young people, it says.
No age or anything there.
Yeah, just young.
Come and celebrate with our community
on Saturday, March 29th, and enjoy the local entertainment
vendor treats, crafts, and a family-friendly fun festival.
Okay. Family-
Fran, family-friendly fun festival.
A lot of Fs.
Too much, yeah.
That said, let's talk about a murder, okay?
There we go.
And in the beginning, I am gonna,
just to describe what this town is like,
I'm gonna talk about this.
I did a comedy show out there.
Right.
I think someone, I think you passed it to me.
I've done it.
You have done it?
Yeah, cause I did it the month before
or two months before you.
I don't know, either way, I ended up at this fucking place
and they paid me $150 and when you're a struggling
stand-up comic, this was 2015, this is pre-podcast
or anything, when you're a struggling stand-up comic,
if someone offers you $150 plus gas money
in a free hotel room, you fucking go, baby.
You get in the car, you drive three and a half hours
while first stopping at the airport to pick up
the two other comics that were coming.
That was part of the gig. I had to pick up the other guys. I had to pick up the two other comics that were coming. That was part of the gig.
I had to pick up them.
They paid for gas.
That was part of the deal.
Yeah.
And we drove all the way the fuck out there.
It is a long, bleak drive into southwestern Arizona or southeastern.
We get there.
When we got there, we got to the motel and we were supposed to text somebody when we
got to the motel.
So we texted them. Six minutes later, she had to be 14 months pregnant,
this lady, gets out of her car and comes in.
She's the motel lady and it's like 12, 30 at night
and she's hustled.
We're like, oh my God, we're so sorry.
We didn't mean to get you out of bed.
And she's like, tell us where the key is.
She goes, oh no, no, the comedy show.
Boy, everyone's so excited. We're like, what? Everyone. We get inside, she's like tell us where the key is she goes. Oh, no. No the comedy show boy. Everyone's so excited. We're like what?
We get inside she's checking us in some security guard comes in is like the town security guard and he goes are these the comedians?
And she goes yeah, and he goes oh man. We're so excited man. Everybody's so excited and one of the comics goes who's everybody?
man, everybody's so excited. And one of the comics goes, who's everybody?
Yeah.
And he goes, everyone in town.
He goes, everyone's going to this.
The whole town comes to the show.
We're like, for real?
He goes, oh, no, that's everybody, dude.
This is like everybody's date night.
This is, I'm taking my wife.
Like, they were all like, I said pregnant lady, you too?
She's like, oh, I'll be there.
We were like, what is going on in this town?
And the whole fucking town, there was 500 people there.
It was a lot of people. Yeah, it was full. It was full of packed. They were great crowd, too
In that like weird tin building. Yeah
Not a crowd you want to get too esoteric with or anything like that, but they were definitely
You do some dick jokes, they'll laugh at him though. It was good stuff
I was terrified they were gonna hate me.
And after I was done, I was like.
Me too.
I could have said anything.
Anything.
But we're f***ing it.
It was easy.
It was just easy, dude.
Easy crowd.
So what a.
I was terrified.
I thought I was gonna die.
What I'm saying is the people in this story,
there's a really, really, really good chance
that I've met these people.
Yeah.
Because they probably came to that comedy show.
I bet they did, yeah.
And you maybe too.
Anyway, let's get into this here.
Here is a young man, let's talk about,
named Matthew Gerald Misener.
M-I-S-E-N-E-R, Misener.
Misener, either way.
He's born in August of 1984.
Grows up in a real nice house,
like nice loving home with a good family,
everybody happy, his parents are Gene and Raymond,
he has two brothers and two sisters,
so I mean just a nice, very nice family,
and I think I might've liked this guy too,
I think if I knew this guy because he,
his, one of his old email
addresses was buddha smoker 36 at aol.com. Known as a real nice guy a real
like a big he's a big guy big like kind of stocky guy real nice guy big old head
on him just a just a big stocky guy looks like he works in the mines type of
guy. He grew up in this area.
No, no, no, he didn't.
He grew up in Pima County, Tucson area.
Oh, okay, all right, okay.
So yeah, he went to Pima Community College.
I guess he went there, he wanted to wrestle there.
He was a wrestler too, so in high school.
So yeah, and he ends up meeting a young lady in 2011,
after all of this, named Georgina Melissa Mendoza,
is her name, so Georgina Melissa Mendoza,
he meets in 2011.
Apparently he's a real nice guy, but he's not very outgoing.
You know what I mean?
He's not like a center of attention kind of guy at all.
Sure.
And Georgina's really outgoing.
So a lot of times those kind of personalities
attract each other because you can't.
He needs her and she needs him.
Yeah, you can't have two people that are that much outgoing
because they're bumping heads with each other then
and you can't have two people just sitting there
because then no conversation happens.
So yeah, this is good here.
He gives her the spotlight
and she has someone to engage with, so there you go.
So she's born in October 1986,
so a couple years younger than him, but in the ballpark.
She's very outgoing, he's a little more introverted,
like we said.
Now, he came from, like we said, a very nice background,
very loving home.
Georgina did not come from such a background.
She had a little bit rougher background.
Yeah.
Her father was very abusive to her mother
and ended up in prison.
Now, like for most of her childhood.
And I don't know if that's for the abuse
or for any other things he's doing.
If he's that abusive to his wife,
I can't imagine he's an upstanding law abiding citizen
in every other regard, maybe.
So, yeah.
Yeah, if you beat your wife in front of your kids,
you're pretty capable of anything at that point, right?
Yeah.
I put nothing past you,
because you're a monster, so.
Anyway, her childhood, she has a stepfather
that her mom marries here that is more stable,
so that's good.
Yeah.
And actually, she kind of pulls it all together,
and in high school school she does great.
She's a really good student, gets good grades,
she likes to play soccer, she's in choir and drama
and all that kind of shit.
So yeah, she's doing all sorts of stuff
and kind of immersing herself in the school stuff.
High school thing, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, which is I guess good
if you wanna be a good student.
I didn't do that and that's why I was a poor student probably so
That's that's a freshman junior freshman and sophomore junior year
She's like that then her senior year completely different person like goes off the rails
Really starts using drugs here and not not smoking weed put it that way she's doing other shit for real she's
doing real drugs so much so that she went from being a very good student and involved
in all kinds of activities by the end of her junior year to dropping out before graduating
what yeah go senior year the wheels came off the wagon here man man. It's not great. What the hell is that about? She ended up going to rehab after that.
I mean, she was pretty much strung out
for about four or five years.
And then went to rehab and had sobered up
and been sober for about two years
after she was in rehab.
And that's when she met Matthew in 2011,
was right around then.
So very different backgrounds, couldn't be more different.
Yeah, and he's catching her on like a good part in her life.
She's about to really start getting it together.
That's what he's hoping, yeah, I think.
Well, she's presenting herself as fine now
because she's very outgoing, she's not on drugs,
she's all cleaned up, and it looks like,
when someone has a big problem and they clean it up,
a lot of times that's very impressive
because that takes a lot of willpower
and everything else too.
I mean, character.
Sure, and it's easy to believe this person's gonna
hang on to all this when they're an outgoing,
loud, gregarious person.
And exactly, and things that start when someone's
17 years old and go on to 21, like that's,
you think of that as,
yeah, people make mistakes.
So anyway, they get married in 2013.
Oh.
And Georgina gets pregnant pretty quick.
Really?
Oh yeah, so now that she's pregnant,
now Matthew's like, oh fuck, I gotta get a real job here,
like I need a career, so he got a job
at the Morenci Copper Mine.
There it is.
That's it, right?
See what I mean?
He gets a job at the Morenci Copper Mine,
which is certainly not anybody's life goal.
No.
But if you need to make some money
and you live in Southeastern Arizona.
And you live in this area, certainly gonna do it.
That's the only way to go.
So he ended up applying for work at the copper mine
Which is about three hours away from Tucson like we said he leave his whole family's in Tucson He leaves everybody and all that shit and moves out in this area. They moved to Clifton or Safford Safford
I'm sorry. They moved to Safford, which is about 40 minutes from the mines. Yeah, that's a bit out
Yes to the west you have to drive keep driving east to get there Oh, yeah, but I guess that Safford's a little bit. I don't even know, that's a bit out, yeah. To the west. You have to drive, keep driving east to get there.
Oh yeah.
But I guess that Safford's a little bit, I don't even know if it's a bigger town, it's
about the same I think.
It's pretty, pretty equal probably.
That's what I mean.
I have a little more people, a little more, there might be a bigger Walmart.
That might be it, yeah exactly.
You might have a couple of things like that.
So he did all that.
He liked his job by the way.
Gets his job in the mine, he ends up really liking it. He digs it. He likes the people at work there. He's, you
know, everybody says he's a real good guy, gets along with everybody. So yeah, after
their son is born here, they're living in Safford and he, their son is born extremely
premature. Oh no, which is really tough. His brother said quote,
I mean my brother's wedding ring
actually fit around his wrist.
Oh he was so little.
That's extremely little.
Yeah that's like when you have like quadruplets
or something they're that premature.
But this is just one.
He spent several months in the hospital, this poor kid.
So I mean that's tough for a new family to and young people and
It's hard. It's hard
So the brother said I knew he was very excited when his son was finally coming home
so about
Less than a year and a half later. They have a daughter too
Really that experience that experience didn't scare them off of fucking leaving it in for a while too long.
Yeah, that would certainly scare the semen right out of me. I think I'd be having a vasectomy in a second.
That would definitely scare me to the condom aisle, I'll tell you that much at the very least.
I'm not doing that again.
That is a lot. So, the problem is things aren't so great here. So now they have the two kids
in a very short window and then she gets pregnant again. So yeah, so now they're they're having
a third kid coming up and I think this is hard on both of them by the way too. I don't
think Georgina wanted to have three kids right away either. So whack, whack, whack, put that
back man. Come on, put it on something not anywhere but in there. So, whack, whack, whack. Put that on back, man, come on. Put it on something, not anywhere but in there.
So, Matthew is working long hours,
he's working overtime if he can.
He's got a lot of bills to pay,
if you can imagine that, obviously.
And Georgina then is at home with these two.
Three children in diapers.
Well, one in her stomach and two in diapers. Yeah, that's brutal
I mean that's brutal and he's working long hours. It takes him 45 minutes to get to work too
So I mean that's two hours add that to the length of his day
Yeah, this is brutal. Yeah brutal. So by
2017 it's all gone to shit and at this point now in this relationship and they're going
to get a divorce now.
So Georgina takes the kids and moves into her parents home in Tucson where she was from
and that December she gave birth to the third child when they were already split up.
And so now they got to figure out custody and that's the problem here is they have a little bit
of a problem here.
Matthew's sister said when Matthew and Georgina
did get divorced, they had 50-50 custody by the courts.
Matthew wanted to be cordial and follow the judge's orders,
but Georgina always wanted to be involved
when he had the kids.
She was being much more difficult.
Yeah, one of those.
And I found they have a couple of little things
that they get into also.
There's a Georgina actually gets arrested
for disorderly conduct fighting in 2017 at some point.
How old is she?
Don't know where the fuck that happened.
Jesus Christ, what is she, 32?
30 something?
Yeah.
Jesus Christ, she's fighting.
That's crazy.
So disorderly conduct fighting she gets arrested for.
We'll talk about it.
Matthew in 2018 is gonna get,
I don't know if this is a ticket or an arrest or what,
but he gets arrested for having a child passenger
not in a seatbelt, but it wasn't in a regular car.
It was in like a 10 person, 10 passenger van. You still gotta have a car belt, but it wasn't in a regular car. It was in like a ten person past ten passenger van
You still gotta have a car seat. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what seat belt
This is so I don't even know if it was his kids or he might have had other people maybe at his brothers and sisters
They're all going on a trip take their kids
I don't know what it is, but there was a child out of a seat belt
He was probably driving which makes it his response is yeah, he's the guy driving. That's all we know
So that's the couple of things that they get into.
But soon after his divorce, Matthew meets another lady.
And it's at the mines, baby, yeah.
Really?
Fellow mine worker named Nicole.
Cart lady.
Nicole Chacon.
She looked just sexy in that hard hat,
I couldn't resist her.
Hard hat, ponytail coming out the back, something about it man.
I don't know.
So.
Copper cough.
Yeah.
So Nicole and he, Matthew works quickly anyway.
I mean, met Georgina in 2011, they're married by 2013. Here he meets this Nicole in like 2017 or 2018 and by 2019 they're engaged.
Engaged?
Engaged already. Yep. They're planning to marry by the way. They have no idea that this
is not going to be a great day to do this but their plan is to get married on St. Patrick's
Day 2020.
No, you're not.
If you are, it's gonna be weird.
So that's pretty funny here.
Now, fall of 2019, something terrible happens.
Georgina calls Matthew and tells him that she has cancer.
Oh no.
Which is obviously, even if you hate your ex-wife,
it's your mother's, it's your kid's mother,
you don't want her to have cancer.
Jesus, that's horrible for the kids
and it's just in general, you don't wanna be a shithead
and wish cancer on people.
So she sent Matthew pictures of herself
with her head shaved and saying she had chemo.
She said, she said, I tried chemo,
it about killed me and I stopped.
And the medicine I was taking gave me a really bad headache.
So she's basically saying she stopped treatment.
It's poisoned, dear, it's gonna be awful.
It's not good for you, yeah.
Yeah.
You're trying to, it's basically,
can we poison this cancer out of you
before the rest of you dies?
That's what it is.
We bet the rest of your body's stronger than cancer.
I've never heard anybody say,
my grandpa got cancer and it was real easy on him.
Yeah, he loved that chemo, man.
It was great.
He loved every fucking minute of it.
Look forward to talking to the nurses every time.
We've seen plenty of people go through chemo
and it's horrifying.
It's ugly every time.
It's never been good.
Really bad. Now, okay, here's never been good. Really bad.
Now, okay, here's when shit gets really crazy now.
Okay, Matthew offered to help her
with the kids, with anything,
because this is obviously a big deal.
It's a hard time in your life, yeah.
And you would hope to, divorced or not,
when something big comes up,
you would hope that someone would try to help
if there's kids involved and everything like that.
Yeah, co-parenting isn't easy.
No.
Especially if there's disagreements,
but if somebody's sick, you gotta help.
You gotta do it.
So apparently, he's offering the help,
but instead of taking the help,
Georgina apparently used this as a way
to limit his visitation rights, basically.
She'd say, oh, I'm sick, you can't come get the kids,
and stuff like that.
I have somewhere to go so you can't get the kids, so.
Wouldn't that be better if I came and got the kids?
Exactly, that's the weird part of it.
What are you doing?
I don't understand it, so.
You understand, I'm having a rough time.
I need to not have the kids gone.
So Nicole confronted her.
Yeah.
Nicole here said, hey, what the fuck are you doing here?
Your fiance, yeah.
Yeah, you're causing him all sorts of strife.
The kids, I'm sure he wants to see his kids.
I'm sure they'd like to see her.
So according to a police report, quote, Georgina,
she slapped Nicole and they got into a scuffle.
So now the ladies are fighting.
Oh, god.
My new fiance is fighting my cancer patient.
Oh, my god.
What a day.
I got my money on the hard hat, personally. Yeah. I got my money on the mine worker, if I had to guess. My new fiance is fighting my cancer patient. Oh my god. What a day.
I got my money on the hard hat personally.
Yeah.
I got my money on the mine worker if I had to guess.
She's surprisingly enough the healthy one here.
Yeah.
No shit.
It's like I won't have black lung for another 30, 40 years.
I don't think you get black lung from copper.
I think that's a different thing.
No, that'd be really weird.
It's copper cough.
You get orange lung from Copper.
So Coppercough.
So Georgina then filed a complaint
against Matthew and Nicole with Child Protective Services.
Hold on.
Yeah.
Didn't she instigate this?
Oh, yeah.
She slapped her.
Yeah, she slapped her.
Oh, boy.
Which is not happy. She said that she claimed that they were abusing their children, she slapped her. Oh boy. Which is not happy.
She said that she claimed that they were abusing
their children, which there was no proof of whatsoever,
after investigating that the allegations,
CPS also determined that wasn't true.
So they said that there was nothing that indicated Matthew
or anybody else abused those children.
Now, Matthew's still concerned because he thinks maybe,
you know, the cancer and everything else,
maybe she's just acting a little wacky,
you know what I mean?
She's obviously got her mind on other things
and you don't know what kind of medicine she's taking
that might make her a little loopier.
Who knows?
Who knows?
So he petitioned for full custody of the kids now.
Well, okay.
So now he's like, all right,
if you're gonna try to say I abused them, I'm gonna get full custody because you're wacky, you slapped my. Well, okay. So now he's like, all right, if you're going to try to say I abused them, I'm going to
get full custody because you're wacky.
You slapped my fucking fiance, whatever.
So he petitions for full custody, which he has a court date set for February 11th, 2020,
where he's going to go and present shit and try to get full custody.
Okay.
Lamont Jones's world is shattered when his cousin dies in custody just weeks after entering
prison.
The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different
story.
From Wondery comes Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups that
begins as one man's search for answers, but soon reveals a disturbing pattern.
Lamont's cousin's death is just one of many, and powerful forces are working to keep
the truth buried.
With never-before-heard interviews and shocking revelations, Death County PA pulls back the
curtain on one of America's darkest institutional secrets.
This isn't just another true crime story.
It's happening right now.
Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge
all episodes of Death County PA early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of
Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking
about the CEO of the biggest private health
insurance corporation in the world.
And the suspect has been identified as Luigi Nicholas
Mangione became one of the most divisive figures in modern
criminal history was targeted premeditated and meant to sow
terror. I'm Jesse Weber host of Luigi produced by law and
crime and twist this is more than a true crime investigation we explore
a uniquely American moment that could change the country
forever.
The people to a true issue.
I mean maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to
acknowledge the barbaric nature of our health care system.
Listen to law and crimes's Luigi, exclusively on Wondery Plus.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple podcasts.
Now, Nicole and Matt, they're just, you know, we're waiting this out, basically.
That's it, because she's denying them visitation.
So he's just like, I got gotta wait till I go to court. So the day before the big court
date the February 11th date on February 10th 2020 just after 5 a.m. this is okay
a local fire chief was driving down the highway here. This is US 191 near Safford down that way.
He spotted a black Chevy Tahoe crashed out
on the side of the road.
And this area too, I mean, it's really rural.
It's out there, man.
It is out there.
And in February too, it would be dark as shit
at five a.m. out there, pitch black.
There's no lights, there's no streetlights.
You can't see anything.
No, I remember driving out there
because we got there at midnight.
It was dark the whole fucking time
and it was goddamn fucking dark, man.
Your headlights only go 50 feet
and every 50 feet looks just like the last 50 feet.
That's it, it is a scary ride.
So this was just entering the horseshoe
curve between Clifton and Morenci over here. So this fire chief found the driver slouched
over in the front seat covered in blood. Oh. They're like, oh shit, this is a bad accident.
Maybe he hit his head on the steering wheel or whatever. So then a little closer inspection
because this is pitch black, obviously, get the old flashlight out looking around,
they find the side of the Tahoe is riddled with bullets.
Oh, this person is maybe shot?
Yeah, they end up getting 14 total bullet holes
out of this thing.
Oh, boy.
Absolutely shot up, this thing is, man.
So they were thinking, and then they figure out
that he has been shot, the man in the car,
which they say, oh, this makes more sense.
He was shot at and shot and lost control
and went off the side of the road.
So yeah, they said at that point,
the fire chief realized the victim had three bullet holes
in the side of his face.
Oh, fuck.
In his face?
To quote Devin Schreiber.
In his face?
In his face?
Not his face.
Not his face.
That's from a Colorado episode we did a few weeks back with the postal worker who killed her partner. To quote Devin Shriver, in his face? Not his face. Not his face.
That's from a Colorado episode we did a few weeks back
with the postal worker who killed her postal worker ex.
That was wild.
So immediately, and if you have ever lived in Arizona,
what would your first thought be?
Somebody came across drug deals.
Or just road rage.
Or, oh boy, yeah.
Arizona, there is more gunshots fired off
on the fucking highways in that state.
It's ridiculous, dude.
It's ridiculous.
It has not deterred anybody from being aggressive
because I get flipped off daily.
That's what I mean.
And by old women, by everyone.
They don't care.
Everyone is quick with the finger.
Everybody is so fucking angry out there all the time.
Like people say like in the Northeast people are angry.
Not like that.
They're not violently angry all the time.
They're grumpy, but that's-
They're mad.
These people are looking for an excuse
to buck shots off in Arizona.
It's crazy.
With hard opinions on bumper stickers
staring you in the face and then being aggressive
on top of that.
Fucking nuts, man.
What the fuck?
So yeah, the first thing they look into is road rage
because there's no surveillance cameras out here,
there's no witnesses out here.
It's fucking five o'clock in the morning
in the middle of nowhere, so they're like,
that would make a lot of sense.
But they said, in a road rage,
you shoot one or two shots off,
you don't shoot 14 shots, that seems very much-
And three in the face.
Three in the face.
You're aiming high.
Targeted as fuck, you know what I mean?
That seems like, I don't like that guy.
He must've made the shittiest move ever on the road.
What, yeah, what?
You couldn't change enough lanes with no directional
to make me shoot you 14 times.
You gotta be drifting.
You've gotta be, it's gotta be nuts.
Yeah, did he have a bumper sticker that says
I have your kidnapped children in the back of my truck?
That's the only thing that would.
Wally's drifting.
Wally's drifting?
So they look inside the car,
they find the person has a driver's license and it's Matt Misener.
Misener, it's him.
Oh, it's Matt?
It's Matt in the truck.
Oh boy.
Now no shell casings are found.
Okay.
So that probably came from inside of a vehicle,
they're thinking.
Inside the other, yeah.
But they would later determine that he died
from three gunshot wounds to the head
from a nine millimeter pistol.
So someone's a.
So it's a routine route, yeah. That's all right. Someone's still a decent millimeter pistol. So someone's a... Yeah, that's all right.
Still a decent shot though.
Damn fine shot.
With a pistol?
To be moving in your car, driving and all that stuff.
That's tough, man.
So, as they're cleaning up the scene,
Nicole pulls up.
Oh.
She pulls up, she is on her way to work at the Morenci mine.
She leaves about an hour after he does. They have to be there at different times. So She is on her way to work at the Morenci mine She leaves about an hour after he does they have to be there at different times
so she's on her way there she sees the wreck pulls up gets out of the car and
then
Gets back in her car and drives away
What so they're like what did the dead guy's fiance just show up and leave right?
What the fuck is up with that?
So they thought that was really fucking interesting here.
So they obviously called her up and said,
you're gonna step out of work today.
What the fuck, Nicole?
We gotta have a chit chat with you here.
That's a damn good employee.
I would, I'm showing up anyway.
So, but when she got there, they told her,
hey, why'd you leave the scene and she goes?
I don't know. It's an accident and they go that was your fiance in there and she didn't know she's even know
She said she said I didn't know that was him. I just saw a car. I had no idea. It was him
It was dark out. I don't fucking know
So yeah, she said she didn't even know she told them that he left for work at 4 a.m. And
That you know less than an hour know. She told them that he left for work at 4 a.m. and that you know less than an hour later she drove out to she
said that she initially passed by the accident got back in her
car. She said she exited the car. She saw a black vehicle
and approached where the deputies were but she want to
get too close because it's an accident scene. She was like
I'm sure it's fine. So she just got back in her car.
That was that she said once she arrived at work,
she realized Matthew wasn't there.
And that's when she started to panic a little bit.
And she realized that,
everybody realized he wasn't there.
And that's when she got a call to leave work.
And she left work and went to the scene.
And she said, I'm the fiance.
That's my fiance there, I think.
And then she said she didn't know, she said she didn't know he was shot.
She just thought he got in a car accident though, because they told her he's been shot
in the face.
And he was like, she was like, what the fuck are you talking about in the face?
So one of the cops said, I explained to her that this is not a traffic accident.
And this is a homicide investigation.
And her fiance is dead.
The guy said that she didn't take it well.
She began to cry and shake
and go into a total shock mode here.
So the cop said it was heartbreaking.
The lady broke down, you know?
But they still said,
we're gonna have to take you down to the station
and talk to you because, A,
You had questions.
You're the closest one to him, and B,
you did drive up and drive away, which does not look good.
There is that.
So they're like, we gotta clear you.
They did a swab on her hand for gunpowder residue,
and no residue, no nothing.
She seems like she's telling the truth
and has no idea what's going on and just has bad luck.
So she vehemently denied any involvement
and they said, well, do you know anyone
who would wanna hurt him if you didn't?
And she said, yeah, his fucking ex,
Georgina would really like to hurt him.
And then she tells them the whole story.
She had cancer and then she's keeping him away from the kids.
She slapped me, we got in a fight.
They have a custody hearing tomorrow.
All those things kind of come together.
Tomorrow, the next day.
She said that Nicole said Georgina hated
that Matthew ended their marriage,
because now Nicole's saying that he ended the marriage
to be with Nicole.
Oh.
Yeah, he was miserable in that marriage
and got with Nicole.
Now I don't know when the overlap
or how much of an overlap. If there is one of an overlap at this point. It's not really a
Jermaine fucking yeah matter right now. It doesn't matter. So they said that you know, she said but it could be jealousy
She could be mad. She's been mad at him for years and it hasn't stopped and now she's even madder at him because they're fighting
In court and he wants custody
So she also said they said anybody else, you know, just making a list here, we got
to check people out.
And she said, okay, I got something else.
Oh, she said there's a guy, he usually carpools to work every single day with a guy named
Samuel Rivera, who abruptly just got out of said he wasn't carpooling
that morning.
Yeah.
Didn't go.
Sam's not ridin' with him anymore.
Yeah, every other morning he's in the car
and now he's not.
So they were like, well that's a suspect then also.
Certainly.
He's not there, but they find out that he was overseeing
an emergency plumbing and maintenance job
on one of his rental properties
and there was workers and people and tenants
and everybody else that he was there the whole time.
It wasn't him, he didn't do it.
So then the cops go, all right, let's talk to Georgina here.
Georgina claims that Matthew and Nicole
are abusive to the children
and that Nicole had threatened and beaten her
on the occasion of their altercation.
Even though we know that Georgina threw the first
fucking punch.
Right.
But if you're terrified of someone,
you don't slap them usually.
Because that's not gonna hurt them,
but it will piss them off.
All that's gonna do is instigate.
A lot.
Yeah.
So she said, I did not feel safe with Nicole. I knew what I needed to do.
I put in temporary sole custody, she tells the investigators in her interview.
So now, so they look into her, they do find out that she was home at the time of the shooting.
Oh, so like, okay, well, that's not helpful at all.
They did find out about the full battle, you know, full blown custody battle and everybody's
fighting and nobody likes each other and all that kind of shit. But she was home. So they're
like, fuck, what are we doing here? She did tell investigators that he was a good father
at times. And, you know, but she basically, you know, said, you know, currently it's all
unhappy. She even said that I know it's Nicole that did it to him.
My poor kids have lost their father.
She said she had a text message from him
reading something along the lines of,
if something unexpected happens to me, it was Nicole.
Oh.
And the authorities find that on her phone too.
She has that on her phone.
Oh shit.
They corroborate that shit.
So yeah, Nicole's gonna throw him down the mine or something.
So they said Nicole and Matthew had a volatile romance and they talked to Nicole and she
said, yeah, we did have a volatile romance, but he likes a lady with some spirit to her,
I think.
He likes a spicy lady here. It's, I think. He likes a spicy lady here.
It's a soft loss, we like everything spicy.
Yeah, a little spicy.
So she, but she said it never got to the extent
of them wanting to kill each other or anything like that.
They were gonna get married on St. Patrick's Day.
Like, we're a month away from fuckin' marriage here.
What are you talking about?
So at this point, it's a stalemate.
Yeah.
Couple people with motive,
nobody with any sort of ability to do it though.
That's the problem.
One was at home on her way to work,
the other one was at home.
Oh, what do we do here?
Then a tip comes in.
Who from who?
Sometimes it's just a fucking luck.
And this is just a witness.
Oh.
Random person, after seeing it on the news and everything,
said, this is from the police officer, a man called,
and he had told me he was headed to work,
and he had actually followed Matthew for miles from Safford,
just being in, going the same direction.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And at one point, he said he lost him.
Matthew was traveling a little bit faster,
and the guy got behind.
But he says he didn't see him, but he heard a little bit faster and the guy got behind. But he says
we didn't see him, but he heard a pop in the distance. So he said he heard a pop and then
he saw Matthew's vehicle on the side of the road and right in front of the vehicle on
the side of the road was a white car. And he said out of nowhere, this white sedan just
made a U-turn and went southbound on 191 and started going really fast.
The other way.
That's it.
So they said, basically, that's, there's not a lot of cars on the road.
So if it's not this guy who's coming forward, who did it, it's probably that white car.
That other one.
Yeah.
It's probably that.
So yeah, they're like, okay, this is fucking interesting here.
Guy fleeing the scene from at that point
Now Nicole tells investigators that five days before the shooting Matthew had gone to see his children and a man in a white
Sedan was taking pictures of his car. Oh
Yeah, this is very fucking interesting. So Matthew was on the phone
With Joe with Nicole at the time
that this was happening.
He was parked by Georgina's residence
and he was trying to get the kids.
And the wife was taking pictures of his.
Matthew's car.
Matt's car, yeah.
And Matthew was on the phone with Nicole
and Matthew said that, you know, I was telling him,
hey, or he was telling me, hey, this guy just took
a picture of our license plate.
What the fuck is up with that so Nicole says why don't you take
one of his plate then see who the fuck this is okay so he did and he texted the
picture of the plate to Nicole so Nicole with the cops now pulls out her phone
and goes through her shit and goes here's the fucking plate she still has
the picture which is pretty fucking amazing, honestly. Some tit for tat worked out for once.
For once, all this bullshit picture taking.
Take a picture of me, I'll take a picture of you.
Take that, what are you gonna do?
So she said, I have a picture right here.
And it was a vehicle, it's a white, they look it up,
and it's a registered, it's a white sedan.
How about that?
So the vehicle belongs to, is registered to two Tucson men,
Eduardo Montano Jr., who's born in September of 83,
so he's about their age,
and his grandfather, Samuel Sandoval.
That's who this belongs to.
Now they, right away they find out that
that's the owners of the car, so they go to talk to them.
Eduardo has two warrants.
He has two misdemeanor warrants.
So they get to take him right to,
he doesn't have the opportunity to say
I don't feel like talking right now.
They arrest him.
You get to talk right now.
Yeah, and I looked him up, I found a bunch of dumb shit
that he did to failure to produce evidence of his financial responsibility
No insurance
Water turn on without authority. That's
Boy, that's some desert shit there. He got that you're gonna be here Thursday to turn it on. I got it
I'll just turn it on myself
Yeah, and that might have to do with the irrigation and all that that the the Southwest and the desert waters a big fucking deal. Obviously you got to have it.
It's he got he got busted for this like six times. I found all sorts of records of him
being bussed. So that's a thing that he does all the time. Or he doesn't pay his water
bill and just turns it right back. Either one. It's just a valve. He's also busted for
speeding going 30 miles an hour over.
It was a photo enforcement one.
Also driving without a license, suspended or revoked.
And animals with no vet care.
Basically, I guess.
Neglect.
Neglect of his animals, yeah, is what that is.
And that was in 2000, that was one of the things
they arrested him for.
And they had a warrant out for it.
Yeah, because you can't do that in Arizona. You can't neglect animals, you're a fucking monster.
So he had a warrant out for that and something else.
So that's what they took him in on.
And they talked to Eduardo,
and they said when they go to the house in the driveway,
there's a white Cadillac with a dark tinted window,
and it fit the description of what the witness said.
White sedan, dark tinted window.
So they waited for search warrants on the home and car.
They take him down to the sheriff's office.
They say, where were you last night?
Tell me where did you sleep last night?
Tell me.
He said, I went to my friend John's house.
And they said, okay.
He denies he was anywhere near the crime scene.
They said, well, they know his vehicle was at Georgina's
home the day Matthew took a photo of his license plate.
So, do you know Georgina?
And he said, yes, I do.
Oh, she's a friend of mine.
They said, well, how well do you know her?
And he said, we tried dating, but it didn't work out.
Apparently, he said they went out for like a month,
basically, it didn't quite work out.
And they said, all right, well, you know, tell us about her.
And he said, I've hung out with her and her kids a couple times.
And they said, so who's Matt?
And he said her ex-husband, the father of her children.
And he said, they're having like a custody battle or something right now.
So they said, you ever had any contact with him and his answer is what's his answer? No
me
That is a terrible answer
Eduardo
Yeah, you may know the guy other people in the interrogate know the other detective. I'm asking the fuck do you think?
We're in a fucking interrogation room.
You idiot.
Me?
He said me, never.
Never, all right.
Never.
So they said, well, we have a report of Matt saying
that you were taking photographs of his vehicle.
What up with that?
And he says, why never talk to him?
Me?
Okay, now we're gonna go, now we're gonna go with semantics
in a police interview.
He should've just went, me?
So they press him again, well where the fuck
were you that night, even though he's already said it.
So they said, you know,
because these are the people from down there.
So they're like, we didn't drive three fucking hours to come here for nothing on a whim.
You know how shitty that ride is?
Although Tucson's a mite better than Morenci.
It is a little bit, yeah.
It's still a long drive from out there though, because these are the people from that county
out coming to Tucson to talk to this guy.
So he said, right, well, they said, if we didn't know more than that.
And he said, well, I know my grandfather mentioned
there was an accident in Clifton or something
and that I may have been involved.
Oh.
That I may have been involved in.
And they said, well, how are you involved in it?
And he said, I don't know, I wasn't in an accident.
This is a really annoying conversation.
Yeah, who me? Who me? accident. This is a really annoying conversation. Yeah.
Who me? Who me?
This is the one where like you want, you'd probably want to pistol lift this man just for frustrating you and you
can't. And it's like, we're going to fight. That's for sure. We know you're,
you did something. This is crazy. So they said,
cause your car was up there that morning. Yeah.
It was up there because people saw it.
And he said, quote, I swear to you it wasn't.
Who, me?
Wasn't.
They said, you know, the guy's dead.
You know what I'm saying?
There's a dead person here.
And he said, he said, listen, I get that, you know, you're putting me in and I get sounds
that looks bad for me.
He said, I completely understand.
He said, but listening, listen to what I'm saying. I was not there
It says hanging out with my friends and then I went home to my grandfather's house. That's it
Yeah, that's that he said nothing to fucking do with it. I invade denies everything
He said we dated briefly but not enough for me to go kill her ex-husband. That's crazy. This is insane
What are you talking about, basically?
So they investigate him.
They find out that he had been married
to his high school sweetheart
and left her for Georgina a few months earlier.
He'd been married for 15 years or something
and all that shit, left her for Georgina,
and then it didn't work, I guess, after a month or so.
Allegedly, that's what they're saying.
So then they go talk to his grandfather
to check out his alibi.
And this is, Sandoval is his name,
and the policeman says this, quote,
I asked Mr. Sandoval, was Edward here all night?
He said no, as a matter of fact, he wasn't here.
He left at 10 o'clock at night,
didn't come back till about eight or 830 in the morning.
Which, by the way, if you were to shoot someone at five in Clifton, it would give you just enough time to drive back to Tucson by 8 or 830.
It's about three hours, three and change drive.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of
Midtown Manhattan.
This a silent starts firing at him and the suspect has been
identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione became one of the most
divisive figures in modern criminal history was meant to
sow terror is walking the people to a true issue.
Listen to law and crimes Luigi exclusively on one degree plus
enjoying one degree plus the one degree app Spotify or Apple
podcasts.
Last year long crime brought you the trial that captivated
the nation, she's accused of hitting her boyfriend Boston
police officer John O'Keefe with her car Karen Reid is
arrested and charged with second degree murder. The 6
week trial resulted in anything but resolution.
We continue to find ourselves at an impasse.
I'm declaring a mistrial in this case.
But now the case is back in the spotlight.
And one question still lingers.
Did Karen Reed kill John O'Keefe?
The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent.
How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen?
I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law & Crime
and host of the podcast, Karen, The Retrial.
This isn't just a retrial,
it's a second chance at the truth.
I have nothing to hide.
My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be.
I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this.
It's not her.
Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial,
exclusively and ad free on Wondery Plus.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024,
CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets
of Midtown Manhattan.
This assailant starts firing at him.
And the suspect.
He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione.
Became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history.
I was meant to sow terror.
He's awoking the people to a true issue.
Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple podcasts.
So Grandpa hates Eddie.
Grandpa hates Eddie.
This is not helpful at all. And the cops at the time periods they all lined up the shooting happens around five o'clock
That gives sufficient time to drive that vehicle from five o'clock three hours to get back to Tucson nailed it. She's us
So they search his house now grandpa's house really and they find a nine millimeter pistol and
The gun has 14 rounds missing from being totally full.
So it's got three left.
Yep, 14 missing.
So they're like, huh, that's interesting.
We happened to find 14 bullet holes in something
and maybe it wasn't all the way.
We found your 14 shots.
Maybe it wasn't all the way full.
We don't know to begin with,
but it's kind of a coincidence
that you could fit 14 more shots in that fucking gun.
That's all I'm saying.
Very interesting, yeah.
So they also, they do forensics and they find out based on ballistics that this is the gun
too.
Oh boy.
So they're pretty, Eduardo's pretty fucked here.
So they tie the gun to it.
He's gotta be shocked they did this so fast.
Oh, it all happened really fast.
By February 12th he's under arrest.
So I mean, within 48 hours.
They aren't kidding, that first 48 is mad important.
Yeah, it is, and they got it.
They nailed it with this one.
He's arrested for murder.
He's brought back to Greenlee County,
and he's assigned a court appointed attorney,
and he's held on a million dollars bond. And they go on to say bond and they go on to say the police go on to say we're trying to establish the motive
and that's why we're looking at other leads.
Like this guy doesn't know this guy enough to just shoot him for no reason.
So he said looking at more opportunities.
Oh yeah he said investigators are heading back down to Tucson to continue the investigation
so this is still ongoing.
Although we do have him under arrest we still have to do the forensics part of it
and still follow up on every lead that we have.
Now, the day after the murder, while this is going on,
police tracked down Georgina, and they said her emotions
were kind of all over the place when they talked to her.
They said that she was happy, she was sad, she was happy,
she was crying, she was mad, She was happy. She was crying.
She was mad.
She was just, there was not just like, I have grief.
Range of emotion, yeah.
It was a real weird range of emotions that,
I mean, and everybody reacts different to tragedy,
but her demeanor, they said, seemed to be rehearsed,
the cop said.
It seemed like, I'm gonna be upset,
then I'm gonna pull it together,
but then, oh God, I'm so sad,
but then I'm mad at whoever did this this and just said it didn't seem natural that out of nowhere meltdown
After you've been told something and you can regain composure and then just fall apart again. That's the brew magical
That's well, that's where the Oscar comes from. That's the thing. That's the one that'll get you
It's where Meryl Streep makes her money. Yeah know what I mean? That's where it all comes from.
That'll start the sequel being talked about for sure.
That's the one right there.
And it's funny because if you've ever watched
interrogations, interrogation videos
where you know that the person is guilty,
Yeah.
and they tell them something and then watch their reaction
and they don't like, you know, go, oh, it's okay.
They just sit there silently
and watch this person perform this.
Like a comedy crowd that's not having any of your shit
and you say stuff and they sit at your stone face.
None of this.
It's probably way more uncomfortable
to be in the interrogation room with that happening
than even on a stage.
And we know that that's very uncomfortable.
So it's awful.
It's awful.
Doesn't get any worse than that, except for this.
You guys, I'm trying real hard.
This.
So they ask again about the relationship.
And she said she did not want Matthew to have the kids
because she didn't like Nicole.
She thought Nicole was a very abusive woman.
And she also thought Matthew was a very abusive
man as well.
She claimed, yes, I did date Eduardo for a month, Eduardo Montano, and they confided
in each other about past abuse.
They had both suffered.
That's kind of how they got together.
Oh boy.
Bad backgrounds.
But she said that Montano, when she heard said that Montana, when he heard about the children and Matthew
and that whole situation, he became concerned
for the welfare of her children.
What a great guy.
He's just a magnanimous fuck this guy.
Already stepdad.
She talked about the physical altercation with Nicole.
They were like, let's talk about that,
what happened there.
She said, Nicole said, fuck that, bitch, fuck you. I said Nicole said fuck that bitch fuck you I
Said you don't need to call me a bitch. I have my house and this is in front of my kids and she said I'm gonna fuck you
up
So I slapped her across the face
No
She grabs me and throws me to the ground and starts hitting me and hitting me,
and then she stopped.
She said, I didn't feel safe with Nicole.
I knew what I needed to do.
I put in temporary sole custody.
So they're like, okay, that's great.
Back to Eduardo.
Fascinating story.
Terrific.
And she said, Eddie was around my kids.
We dated maybe a month at the most.
We told him what was going on, or I told him what was going on with
You know everything like that and I know that I talked to Eddie and I was probably you know, what was me?
What was me like everything I'm going through and then he told me some stuff about his childhood. It was rough
I felt bad for the guy Edward himself had experienced abuse
So Georgina said he says he just says that he's not that he just doesn't want nobody to hurt them
He was very concerned about her kids because he was abused. He doesn't want that to happen to these kids
So then they said
Were you involved in Matthew's murder at all and she says quote. I don't want to say anything else. Oh
Okay at all and she says quote I don't want to say anything else okay okay talking about that guy that likes my kids oh man so they look into her they
they're investigating Georgina they find out she never had cancer what she never
had cancer you bitch she faked fucking cancer. She did the Scamanda shit or whatever the fuck that.
Oh my god.
She faked, you're a monster.
Anyone who fakes cancer is a fucking monster.
You have to be, you're a terrible person.
Terrible.
Faking cancer.
Those are the only people I wish would get cancer, are people who fake cancer.
Yeah.
Because they deserve it at that point.
They wanted it.
They were begging for it.
They were literally asking for it,
and I hope they get everything they ask for.
She was downloading photographs off the internet
and sending them to Matthew to get sympathy.
She downloaded pictures that weren't
of actual cancer patients. What a bitch.
That's why she wasn't letting Matthew see the kids either,
because she couldn't show that she had her hair her hair and all
That shit. Oh my god, so they she got photos
The the cop said she's got photos and said hey look Matthew. I'm dying
I have cancer and the cop said we actually found the same picture that Georgina sent to Matthew on the internet
She found the picture on the internet and sent it to him
Holy shit, then
the picture on the internet and sent it to him. Wow.
Holy shit.
Then they get access to her phone records
because she deleted all of her text messages
on her phone and all that kind of shit, right?
Georgina did.
But they found them in her phone records
because you can look that shit up.
And the cop said, we found information
during search warrants and our investigation
in their communications that she gave Mr. Montano information in order for him to go out and commit the murder.
Oh my God.
Yes, this is fucking crazy.
They found also that based on the data that Eduardo was in the area of Matthew's
residence that morning at 4am the morning of the murder, it appeared through text
messages that he'd been stalking Matthew.
He was following him at his house, and at one point there's a text where
Eduardo had asked Georgina for Nicole's address,
and Georgina not only gives the address
but describes what Nicole drives and all that kind of shit.
Here's the exact text messages.
One is a few days before the murder from him to her,
from Eduardo to Georgina,
been outside Matt's all night and haven't seen him.
Okay, that's a text message sent there.
Then one text message she sent to him said,
you're in my thoughts always, I love you and we love you.
Oh, the kids too. The kids too. So it
doesn't sound like they broke up after a month does it? No. Now the day before the custody
hearing on the 10th, Eduardo apparently texted her quote, Hey, I don't want to do this. Oh,
this is while he was outside of Matthew's house. Right. Hey, I don't want to do this. Oh, this is while he was outside of Matthew's house. Right. Hey, I don't want to do this. She responds back.
This is fucking, she's a whack job. Quote,
if you want to marry me, you need to show me what kind of a man you are.
Kill my ex. She didn't say kill my ex. I'm like, kill my ex husband.
Show me you got balls. Wow.
I was thinking she was gonna say something like I'll give you a blow job if you don't.
Or something, no, way colder.
Way colder.
I don't marry pussies.
You better get to work.
I marry closers.
This pussy's for closers.
Clock in.
Yep.
ABS, always be shooting.
Oh my gosh.
So February 25th, 2020 2020 she is arrested. Yeah
now there's a big memorial put on the highway if you know Arizona if you drive
out there there's a lot of crosses on the side of the road because people drive
fast and poorly and it's just the way it is so fast and loose with the vehicle
safety. Oh man.
So a lot of them are plain.
Sometimes there's writings, sometimes a little flowers on them or something like that.
Little crosses, um, shit like that.
This they there's an elaborate memorial here.
It's yeah, placed on the side of the highway on February 12th and it was a statue of an
angel with big wings.
Really?
It was a marble white statue about three feet high.
That shit's real.
Attached to it are all sorts of balloons
and things I love you to, you know,
like Valentine's Day messages,
because it was two days before that.
Jesus.
It's a lot.
They said there's a lot of people
stopping at the memorial site.
This isn't the safest area for people to be stopping on the side of the highway and doing all this type of shit
So yeah, they said at one point
You know there was like a bunch of high school kids like just looking at the ditch where the car was just like staring at
It trying to figure it out see the batter stand in the grocery store parking lot, so yeah
Want to go see where that guy crashed?
That's something to do for an hour or two.
Better than this place let's go.
No shit.
Then the memorial was after a week it's removed.
Yeah because it's a distraction.
Yeah they don't know if the family removed it or the highway department removed it and
they can't tell.
There's a big article about it but they don't know, they don't know what happened.
All that's there now are two vertical orange stripes
painted by the police on the cliff bottom
where the vehicle came to arrest.
Because it went off the side of the road
down into the gravel.
So September, 2020, Eduardo is in court.
And because he had to wait for that because of COVID.
He is going to plead guilty to second degree murder
and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
He's got, they got him dead to rights.
They got all the witness, they got the gun matching.
They got text messages.
They got GPS of where he was.
I mean, you can't be more guilty than this.
It's impossible.
They've got text messages and the gun matches
in your house.
You're in trouble.
You're fucked.
So he admitted to conspiring with Georgina
during his trial.
Now he'll do this.
Hold onto that for a minute.
To injure Matthew so he would miss attending a court hearing.
That was the point of this apparently.
He said that he ambushed Matthew,
fired multiple shots from a nine millimeter Ruger,
which killed him.
Now Georgina just completely maintaining her innocence.
I don't know anything about it.
If he did it, he did it on his own type of shit.
That's what he says.
Now during sentencing, Matthew's mother, sister,
brother, and Nicole all speak, as well as a coworker of his,
the guy who carpools with him, Samuel Rivera,
who was a pretty good suspect for about three hours there.
Yeah, thanks a lot asshole.
Yeah, and Rivera said quote, I'm lucky to be here,
meaning you could've shot me too.
You bet.
You hurt this whole family and took a good friend away.
I hope you never come out.
You took away from us, you took away from all of us
someone who we really cared about.
His sister said, this is not that guy's sister,
Matthew's sister, says that her brother
would have given you the shirt off his back
to help a person in need,
and that, Eduardo, you're a fucking idiot,
who was duped into getting involved
in a custodial situation between him and his ex-wife,
and said you took away someone who meant much to all of us,
you took his life away from all of us
His mom Matthew's mother says I despise this guy meaning Eduardo
And I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail and never has an opportunity to see daylight You don't know what you did to us to your own family to those children my grandchildren who don't have a father now
We're still in a state of shock. I cry every day
my grandchildren who don't have a father now, we're still in a state of shock. I cry every day.
His brother came up and said, now that I have to be that rock for myself and the rest of
my family when it used to be Matthew, I hope he feels every bit of emotion, including the
love and anger his entire years he spends in that cell and it consumes him from the
inside and I hope he does not make it out. Oh my.
And that Nicole got on and said she would make sure
the children know who their father is
and that she hopes that they hate their mother
for causing this.
She said, quote, I pray that they will hate her.
That's hilarious.
That's hardcore.
Nicole, that's a mind broad right there. She's not fucking around. That's how it is in the, Cornicle. That's a mine broad right there.
She's not fucking around.
That's how it is in the mines.
Either you're in or you're out.
Hope you get cancer and your kids hate you.
That's right.
Hope you really get cancer.
So the judge says, you, sir, may fuck off 25 years for murder, eight years and nine
months for conspiracy to be served consecutively.
33 years and he gets 33 years, nine months for conspiracy to be served consecutively. 33 years and he gets 33 years, nine months.
Now according to this, he's gonna serve that
and he's also ordered to pay restitution of $1,919
for funeral expenses and may have to pay more restitution
at a later date.
January, 2021, Georgina pleads to,
because now she has to.
You have to.
Yeah, they got, otherwise it's first degree murder
and you're in a lot more trouble.
So during the sentencing here,
began with her court-appointed attorney
addressing the court, Georgina's.
She spoke for about a half hour
and spoke of mitigating circumstances
that led to these troubles,
including mental health issues,
a horrible childhood.
She said that she had mental instability as a factor
in her client's life.
She said that's just how she is.
She suggested, listen, don't put her in prison.
Yeah.
She suggested some type of probation.
Yeah.
Huh? What's that now?
In which she would receive counseling.
She just needs some therapy and some time to think about it.
She needs a kick in her ass is what she needs.
Fuck therapy.
She said her-
The threat of daily rape and shanks.
Yeah.
And she said her client was already undergoing counseling, and she pointed out that mental health
facilities in the Arizona state prison system
are greatly lacking.
I've heard that too.
Now Georgina, they said her voice is she's sobbing
and crying during the 15 minutes she spoke.
She denied being a part of any conspiracy
to murder her ex-husband, even though she's pleading guilty.
She said she was not aware that Eduardo was planning to kill Matthew.
She wept, whooped, wept, wept.
I'm kidding. I don't know why. I know it was weep.
But anyway, heavily as she spoke and created a,
what the newspaper described as a quote,
small mound of tear soaked tissues on the desktop in front of her
victim impact though, they get to talk.
Matthew's dad said, what he was to us
is impossible to describe.
He said, now he's gone and I'll never be able
to hug him again.
He talked about how he attended his son's
high school football games and wrestling matches
and they were real close.
A sister of Matthew said that Georgina's actions
and that the love and devotion to her children
was behind it.
That's what she said.
She goes, I know that's what it is, but it doesn't matter.
She said, this is not how,
because she's being nice to Georgina.
She said, I know it was your kids that did this,
but some people weren't that nice.
They kept calling her manipulative.
One member of the family said
she was very much a part of the family. Weulative. One member of the family said she was very much a part
of the family. We accepted her. Some of the family members said she cared only about herself and
didn't give a shit about her kids. One said it was all about her. She didn't really care about the
kids. It was all about what she wanted. Man, so the Greenlee County Attorney General, Jeremy Ford,
presents a lot of evidence, sharply contradicting, as they say in this article the claim of not being involved in the murder
If you want to marry me show me what kind of man you are after he says I don't want to do this
Talked a guy into it. Holy shit the also the county attorney called her a danger to society
Now here's the thing that's fucked up Holy shit. Also the county attorney called her a danger to society.
Now, here's the thing that's fucked up. During this, there is a letter the court receives
from Eduardo Montano saying that he acted alone
in the murder and she had nothing to do with it.
Somehow she got to him and got him to say,
well he still did it.
He wrote a letter to the court and the judge was like, no, no, no, that's silly.
How could you be serving north of 30 years and still a sucker?
And ever be like, I'll do you a solid.
Still a sucker.
Yep.
So yeah, the judge was pretty adamant here.
The judge said that she called her manipulative said he reviewing the notes.
The word manipulative stood said, reviewing the notes, the word manipulative
stood out several times with you.
Said that much of what was presented by the defense
is mitigating circumstances, doesn't carry any weight
in this courtroom, and the judge agreed
with the prosecutor's earlier comment and told Georgina,
you are a danger to society, and then said,
you, ma'am, may fuck off off 25 years for murder eight years nine months
for conspiracy consecutive 33 years and nine months just like Eduardo same shit get fucked
lady that's what he said yeah or she said the judge so there you go according to the
plea agreement yeah she plays she does that 25 years okay so it's pretty much the same
deal.
Now there was a goFundMe for Matt.
We've seen some GoFundMe's,
remember there was one a couple weeks ago
that had a pitiful amount of money, we were sad.
This is a $15,000 goal and they raised $7,076 of it,
which is a bad. Not bad.
That's not bad and yeah, they talk about it.
That's for the kids obviously, that's still fucked.
They talk about this, when they put this up in 2020 his kids were five four and two. Oh
Jesus Christ that is brutal. I'm not gonna give their names out there still mine. Oh, but that's you know, that's that's crazy
So yeah, they just talk about how is you know?
We try hard as we try to find the answers to this senseless murder
We asked that friends family or anyone who knew Matt please help with what they can
answers to this senseless murder we asked that friends family or anyone who knew Matt please help with what they can. That is because it's short they said to help the family pay
for all the arrangements and such short notice. Now Georgina is in prison here and I have
her things that she's done here. She did high school when she first got there figured that out SA recovery wellness
C to C HG
self-control
That's a course that she took apparently new beginnings through peers
She did a substance abuse thing and then did some water labor. Whatever the fuck that is
Either way, she is in Perryville.
Not a nice place.
Really?
Oh yeah, she's in Perryville.
You know who she's there with?
I do.
Yeah.
She's in Perryville in the Santa Cruz unit.
She has, let's see, she's only 5'1".
5'1"?
Yeah, she's 5'1", just like Sarah.
Her prison release date, projected eligible release date is June 3rd, 2052.
She's got a minute.
Got a few minutes in there.
Now, Eduardo, on the other hand,
he has a exact same release date.
I think it's a couple, it's like two weeks earlier.
It's May 20th, 2052,
because he got arrested two weeks earlier than her.
That's all it is.
And he's in Red Rock.
Red Rock?
In Eloy.
Oh, that's not good.
No, that is out there.
That's so hot.
Wow, that's miserable.
Holy shit.
He's there, he's in a medium, moderate custody class, I see.
And he had a couple of infractions
in jail.
What'd he do?
A possession or manufacture of an intoxicating substance.
Dude, he's making pruno.
Yup, and then a few months later, positive test or refusal of urinalysis wanted to do.
I wonder why.
He's doing whatever he can in there.
His jobs have been as a maintenance helper and then at the apostolic, apostat, how do you say that?
Apostatology?
Apostolic, apostolic, there you go.
Apostolic chapel, which religious shit he's doing basically.
He's gonna refill the fucking wafers.
So there you go everybody, there is the story.
By the way, very quickly, there's another Matt Meisisner same exact spelling of the name everything like that who was murdered in Tempe in 2020 in July
Don't name your if your last name is my dude. Don't do it five months later and
Biblical names there's now a Matthews law because his cats were stuck in his apartment and they made a law
So landlords have to let people get in and get pets.
So that's pretty interesting.
But there you go.
There's Clifton, Arizona and all that crazy shit.
You enjoyed that.
That's a wild story.
If you enjoyed that, please get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars.
It helps tremendously.
I'm telling you, we don't know why, but it helps drive us up the charts.
Head over to shutupandgivememurder.com.
Tickets for live shows, if you are within the two week window
after April the 19th, you can still get the 420 virtual live show.
It was great, the story was great.
Jimmy was, we got very stoned too.
Kept the story together, it was a really, really good show.
Very funny stuff and our costumes were fun too.
So get that also at the Riviera in Chicago
May 17th get your tickets for that the night before is sold out
So get them right there shut up and give me murder comm follow on social media at small town murder on Instagram at small town pod
on Facebook
patreon.com
Crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material anybody five dollars a month or above, you get hundreds of episode deep back catalog
to binge immediately upon subscription.
New ones every other week, one crime and sports,
one small town murder.
You get it all this week, which you're gonna get
for crime and sports.
We're gonna do fraternity hazing part two.
Crazy fucking stories.
Then for small town murder, the Lori Vallow Daybell trial.
She represented herself, watched every minute of it.
We're gonna talk all about it
because it's a lot of fucking fun. We'll talk about the jurors,
what they thought afterwards too,
and her interview and all of that shit.
That is shut up, or I'm sorry,
that's patreon.com slash crime in sports,
and you get a shout out at the end of the regular show.
If you wanna follow us on social media,
shut up and givememurder.com,
drop down menus, take you anywhere you wanna go.
That's it, thank you so much for listening everybody,
and until next week, it's been our pleasure.
Bye! If you like Small Town Murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus
in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.
Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.
Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. and
wherever you get your podcasts.