Snapped: Women Who Murder - Donna Trapani

Episode Date: November 27, 2022

After a beloved town librarian is gunned down, investigators discover that this murder-for-hire gives a whole new meaning to a broken heart.Season 28, Episode 17Originally aired: December 17, 2020Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. They appear to be the ideal couple living a picture perfect life. White picket fence, two cars, a dog, kids, and it's like, wow, this is blissful. She was very focused on being a good mother, a good wife, a good person.

But all is not as perfect as it seems. Even people with zero enemies, there's someone out there who doesn't like you. And the piece of a quiet community is shattered when one of its most innocent residents is murdered. Housewife, a mother, a librarian is executed. Who would want to kill her? Who? A housewife, a mother, a librarian is executed. Who would want to kill her? Who?

There's nobody in this world that would want to see anything happen to her. As detectives peel back the layers of the case, scandalous secrets are revealed. She is telling him that she's pregnant with his child and that she has terminal cancer. Detectors noticed that it can't jump on her stomach and her stomach came in. Because of this tady affair, people were sort of mesmerized by it

because it had a soap oper quality to it. Once they start putting all these pieces together, with all the dominoes falling, there's one left. He brought this evil person into their family. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing town of Lake Orion, Michigan, couldn't be further removed from the bustle of the motor city. The town of Lake Orion is this kind of bedroom community. It's a peaceful little community. Everybody knows everybody else.

On the night of October 4, 1999, shortly after 9 o'clock, 9-1-1 operators get a desperate call from two of the town's librarians. It's kind of a frantic call. They say, our friend is dying. Get here soon. The caller says their coworker, 48-year-old Gail Fulton, is lying in a pool of blood. Did she get hit by her own van?

Did she get hit by a car? As a result of that 911 call, officers were dispatched to the area. BEEP! BEEP! Law enforcement arrives, and the first officer begins to the area. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. She was shot in the head and twice in her stomach and her chest area. They try to revive her, but really there's no hope for gal. She's dead. When homicide detectives arrive, their first objective is to find out as much as possible about the victim. There was two witnesses that knew the victim, and that was able to furnish information right away. When this woman, this librarian, this mother of three, is assassinated

in the township library parking lot, it astonished everybody. It was major news and metro Detroit, and it was a big story. Marza Gail Garza was born in 1951 in Corpus Christi, Texas. She was kind, she was very smart. She was very social, and we just hit it off.

We just have a lot of fun. She had a great childhood. Her parents were wonderful people known in the community. That a beautiful home that she grew up in, her family was very devoted to the Catholic Church. The Garza family took their Catholic faith seriously, as did their friends within Corpus Christie's close-knit Hispanic community. Our parents belonged to a social group back in the day, 50 years ago, and all of the kids,

we were all about the same age. It was simple, it was good times for everyone. We were taken care of. When it was time for high school, Gail enrolled at an All Girls Catholic Academy. You knew she was going to be something. You knew that. And whatever her goal was,

whatever she wanted to do, she accomplished it. And there was nothing that she couldn't do. She was very smart. In 1969, at the start of Gail's senior year, she began dating 17-year-old George Fulton. Gail and George met Catholic youth group. And they kind of seemed like opposites. You have Gail, who's kind of a loner and quiet and shy.

George was an overachiever. George was outgoing athletic and the president of his class. He was very nice, you know, and he was nice to her. And to me, that was all that was important. She saw something in him that made her eyes twinkle a little bit. So she saw in him something that would be good for her. After high school, George and Gail went to college over 1,500 miles apart. George enrolled at West Point in New York

to pursue a career in the military. And Gail stayed close to home in Texas, studying to become a speech pathologist. She went to Delmar College, junior college, to their in-corpice, and then after those two years she transferred up to Baylor. Her dad's all my mother. Despite the distance, the romance thrived. Gail and George both graduated from college in 1974, and they got married right away.

The life of the doting military wife, suited Gail. She and George raised two daughters and a son over the course of the next two decades, all while bouncing around the country from base to base. When she had three children and she decided to stay home and raise her children so she was not working. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years. Gail was very focused on her children, wanting them to have its normal

upbringing as possible, even though they traveled so much. She liked to cook, she did arts and crafts. She was very focused on being a good mother, a good wife, a good person. After two decades of service, George was ready to part ways with the army in 1993. George retired from the military as a major, and they moved back to Corpus Christi, Texas near home.

The problem was he couldn't find work. After a few years of testing the Texas job market, George landed a lucrative engineering gig at a firm up north. They moved to Michigan and it's like, wow, this is blissful. We live near the lake, this wonderful community. Yeah, it was very happy. She was working at the library, and she was thrilled.

But the demands of George's new job eventually caused difficulty in the marriage. George got a great job at an engineering firm, and part of that job was flying to Florida many, many times a year. All that I knew is that George was traveling a lot and spending a lot of time in Florida. And I said, well, you know, it's not too much different than when he was in the military

that he would travel and be gone for a long time. The outward appearance, this looked like the perfect family living the dream in oriental ship. Her neighbors liked her. There wasn't anybody that didn't like Gail. She was just a pleasant person, you know, going about her life. a pleasant person going about her life. But now, only three years after moving to Lake Orion, Gail is found dead outside the library where she works, and detectives are determined to figure out why. What was interesting to the police right from the beginning

is that nothing was taken from her. Her purse was still there. There was cash. She was wearing jewelry. From the beginning, they ruled out a potential robbery. Law enforcement begins to question these co-workers of Gail Fulton's, and they begin to describe a person who is a devout Catholic

who goes to mass just about every day. Why would somebody shoot her three times, especially in the head, we ruled out robbery. So I think it really goes back to what was the motive of this particular crime. They were just trying to sort out and figure out how something like that could happen.

From law enforcement's perspective, when a wife is murdered, the first person they look at is a husband. Coming up, investigators go digging close to home and turn up trouble. He didn't seem emotional. He wasn't crying. He was calm.

Calm as a falling leaf. They found out that her husband had an affair. I can't even begin to imagine what he's thinking, to bring these two women together in a hotel room. She's started to tell George, look, I've got cancer, and I'm pregnant. Detectives in Lake Orion, Michigan are investigating the execution-style murder of a mild-mannered librarian.

Gail Fulton, when you look at her, she is the least likely murder victim you could ever find, really. This is a woman who had zero enemies. But even so, law enforcement is smart enough to know that even people with zero enemies, there's someone out there who doesn't like you. Detectives continue to question their only known witnesses,

Gail's co-workers who found her body at the scene of the crime. Speaking to her co-workers, they found out that her husband, George Fulton, he had an affair with a business woman in Florida. The co-workers say the woman's name is Donna Tripani. George met Donna at a bar, and the two of them just kind of hit it off, and it ultimately became lovers. 43-year-old Donna Tripani was the picture of success. She was a registered nurse with her own very lucrative business.

Donna Tripani was born in New Orleans. She was very smart. She graduated high school with a 4.0 grade average. Immediately excelled in college and wound up getting her nursing degree. And in 1989, Donna moved to the Panhandle of Florida, and that's where Donna really started her medical career as a nurse, and from there she decided to go into her own business. From there, she decided to go into her own business. It was a home care business where she had people working for her that she would send out for home care.

And at one point, she was doing a million dollar business. She was trying to set up some sort of computer system for medical billing or something along those lines. And George knew a lot about that. Donna hired George to help with some of her financial aspects of her business. George ultimately decided that he was going to leave his job and work for Donna. In May of 1998, George moved over a thousand miles away from his family to Florida. He told Gail it was a temporary move for work.

There wasn't any indication of any trouble. Nobody had filed for divorce. They were living what appeared to be happy life. It's just that George had this second life going on in Florida. But this secret mix of business and pleasure came with a cost. In October of 1998, after more than four months of George working and living in Florida, Gail finally realized her husband was doing more than business with Donna. Gail is at home wondering, something up with him and she finds out.

When Gail confronted him about the affair, George came clean. He confirmed that he had an affair with a woman in Florida. He spent several months with her. Despite the heartbreak, Gail worked hard to keep the marriage together. Gail is not going to get out of the marriage because she's Catholic and she wants to keep the marriage together. Gail is not going to get out of the marriage because she's Catholic and she wants to keep her marriage

intact. Those are situations that a lot of people just keep to themselves. A lot of times you can kind of read them between the lines, especially if you know somebody for so long. I just knew. I think that she thought that if she just hung on,

he would come to his senses. Gail would go to the church and say Rosary's every day for the sake of the marriage. Those prayers were answered when George came back to Michigan and said, I'm done. I'm sorry, Please forgive me. The affairs over. I want my family, and I want you back, Gail.

Now, six months after George's return from Florida, his wife, Gail Fulton, has been found murdered outside the local library. Detectives immediately bring George in for questioning. The sheriff's office went after George right away. He was already notified by Gail's co-workers that she was dead. The police were highly suspicious of George just because, you know, we all know when these things happen.

They usually happen because of somebody close to you. When asked about his whereabouts the night of the murder, George says he was at home with his son, 17-year-old Andrew. His son gave him an Isle of By that my dad never left. He was with me all night long. Obviously, he still doesn't rule out that George didn't have something to do with this. And when police asked George if there were any problems

in his marriage, he admits to the relationship with Donna but claims that the affair is over. The police were asking really probing personal questions and he was smart enough not to lie to the police. When asked about the last time he talked to Donna, George is upfront about that too. When he got the call that Yale was dead, he was on the phone with Donna talking about business.

If George insists he ended the relationship, why was he on the phone with his one-time mistress on the night of his wife's murder. We're looking at motives. She's a married woman and her husband had mental problems with her, left her for months for another woman in Florida. So maybe he's deciding, I'm going to get her out of the way. George swears the affair is over,

but he says a few months earlier, after he returned to his marriage, Donna gave him some stunning news. Donna started to tell George, look, I've got cancer, and I'm pregnant. According to George, upon hearing this news, he made a decision a few people could understand or explain. George gets the idea to bring these two women together in a hotel room somewhere in the area to let them talk this out. That, to me, was the most remarkable part of this case. That he put the lover and his wife together.

I don't know what he was thinking and doing that. George says the meeting took place at a local hotel on the July 4th weekend, just three months before the murder. The three of them talked for a while, and then George left the room, leaving the two women alone. I'm sure that that was pretty strange for all of them. OK. But George was going to be responsible and help Donna.

Take care of the baby. It wasn't giving up his family. He was married to Gail for 25 years. He thought explaining the situation that they're in, it was a logical thing to do because she was going to have this baby. George says when Gail learned the details of the affair and the pregnancy, she immediately became upset and stormed out.

Gail just leaves there in tears. And George does console her, and he drives her home. But then he says, I'm going back to the hotel tonight. George admitted that that night he went back to the hotel after dropping his wife off, and had sexually relations with Donna. Now, three months later, with Gail murdered and George Alibide, investigators turned to Donna,

the only other person who seems to have a motive to kill Gail. They call her at her home in Pensacola. She admits to the affair, but denies having had anything to do with the killing. Donna says she has proof in phone records that she was nowhere near the crime scene. She gives him the times. The last time she was on the phone with George was right around the time of the murder.

She says, check my phone records. I've had nothing to do with this. I'm sorry that woman was murdered, but it's not me. Both Gail's husband George and his lover Donna appear to be ruled out. Less than 12 hours later, news of the murder stuns the town of Lake Orion and has worried residents looking for answers.

I'm getting in the car and my cell phone rings and it's my aunt. She said, Gail's been murdered. I just... I lost it. I lost it. I said, it can't be true. Who would want to kill her? Who?

The town is really living in fear. I mean, a woman, a housewife, a mother, a librarian, is executed. Was this a random act? Is someone going to start picking off people around town? People close their doors, put the shades down in their windows. I mean, this town was living in fear because there were no answers. Coming up, a surprise phone call gives the investigation a new life.

I'm listening to this guy. My ears are broken because he's giving me names. He says, I believe my ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, they killed Gail. Gail's story is about to end. Summer is finally here, which means the great outdoors are hotter, more humid, and filled with bugs.

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Visit Wondery.com or download the Wondery app to get started. Less than 24 hours into the investigation of Gail Fulton's murder, detectives believe there are only two people who might have a motive in the crime. Her husband, George, and his longtime lover, Donna Trapani. However, both George and Donna have rock-solid alibis. The police were running out of leads to use a cliché that the case was growing cold.

There was no evidence left at the scene, but the library's security system offers a potential breakthrough. There were cameras at that library, which is pretty important. The first law enforcement officer begins to look at that video and what does he see? law enforcement officer begins to look at that video. And what does he see? He sees Gail Fulton walk out of the library, walk up to her vehicle, she gets in, she starts driving, and it's clear she realizes I have a flat tire.

So she stops, she gets out to check the flat tire, and that's when you see another car, pull up near the van. You can see a car pull up near the van. You can see Cadean pull up. A man gets out. He appears to be an all dressed in black. And he approaches her and very quickly murders her right there in the parking lot.

His shoots are directly in the head. He walks over her execution style. He puts two more rounds in her, jumps back in that car, and they take off. The video is alarming. Investigators watch the footage over and over again, looking for some way to identify the shooter or the getaway vehicle. They're able to see some forms or shapes in the sedan that led them to believe there was at least one person and maybe two in the sedan when the man got out and murdered Gail. It's impossible to read the vehicle's license plate, but grainy still frames of the killers are released to the public, which results in a potential lead. Two people come forward right away and say, you know what?

I was driving by the library right at that time, and I saw that car pull out with three people in it. And this person verifies that the person driving was a woman. Unfortunately, they were not able to make out age or race just a silhouette of an individual. While detectives search for new leads, friends and family lay gale to rest. We went to the vigil, Cheta closed casket, and then had a huge, funeral, huge,

with lots of people. It's something this horrendous would happen to her. It's a situation you'll never get past. A month passes and there are no new leads. Finally, on November 19, 1999, detectives get an unexpected break. A man named Brian Miller calls from Florida and says I have some information about this murder and orientalanship. He says, I believe my ex-girlfriend, Zibel Pageant,

and her new boyfriend, Patrick, they killed Gailful. MUSIC Brian tells police that just a few days earlier, Sybil, his one-time girlfriend, told him she was involved in a murder in Michigan. In this case, when this tips her called in, he came in with some credible information.

I'm up to listen to this guy. My ears are broken because he's giving me names. He's telling me a story that I can buy because there's a lot of information in that call. When the detector got off that call, man, they were hitting the computers, bringing these names up fast. The question now is, who is Sybil Paget?

A quick background check reveals a stunning connection to someone close to the case. Sybil was a certified nurse, and she worked for Donna for a year. She was one of the first employees she ever hired. Once they start putting all these pieces together, with all the dominoes falling, She was one of the first employees she ever hired. Once they start putting all these pieces together, with all the dominoes falling, there's one left. And that's Donna Tripani.

When detectives talked to Donna's co-workers, they learned that Donna was as hard on her employees as she was on herself. She had a lot of people working for, and people were a bit afraid of her. She was ambitious, but a difficult person to deal with. Employees said, when she walked in, you never knew who was coming in that door.

She could just fly off the handle like that at any little thing. Donna's co-workers claim Donna approached all her relationships with the same intensity. The relationship between Donna and George was very strange to me because he had this lovely kind of classy wife at home and Donna had some issues. She had a pretty volatile temper. And yet George was spellbound for over a year. There was a lot of back and forth, I think,

both Donna and George were pushing each other. It seemed like Donna was determined not to let him go. Investigators must now determine if Donna's infatuation with George led to his wife's murder. Detectives head down to Pensacola, Florida, to interview Donna. And immediately they notice a baby bump. She is pregnant. Deputies grill Donna, but she doesn't flinch.

It was a very lengthy interview, seven hours. She gave some information. She was pretty cagey about what she said and what she did. Again and again, Donna denies involvement in any murder plot and insists that if Sybil set out to kill Gail, she did it on her own. Donna tried to say, Syobled, notice this, knew how much I was in love, and felt that George was playing a game with me,

and not being completely honest, or loved her at one point, but decided to go back to his family, and siobled was upset with George over there. So that's Donna's explanation why Sybil would have gotten involved and tried to do something that she thought was helping Donna. She was shifting blame, left and right, not taking any responsibility. She denied, adamantly denied, everything.

Over the course of their interview, something unusual catches the detective's attention. While this conversation is going on, Donna's cat enters the room. It jumped on her stomach, and her stomach came in. That's called an investigative clue. I think it is that maybe you're not pregnant. It looks as if there's no baby in Donna's baby bond.

It's clearly a fake pregnancy. A woman's thinking of pregnancy is an awful thing anyway. But then to go to that extreme where you look like you're seven months pregnant, and you're not even very good at it. I mean, she must have stuffed the pillow up when the cops came. I mean, she wasn't wandering around with the pillow under her shirt 24 hours a day.

You have to ask yourself, why would Donna go to these lands? When the cops came, I mean, she wasn't wandering around with the pillow under her shirt 24 hours a day. You have to ask yourself, why would Donna go to these lands? Coming up, investigators believe Donna is lying about her pregnancy. But what does she really know about the murder? She shifted blame on to George. She claimed that George was the mastermind of this crime. The Detective's investigating the murder of Gail Fulton

have narrowed in on Donna Trapani as a possible suspect, but they lack the evidence for an arrest. So they track down Donna's employee, Sybil Paget, and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Patrick Alexander. When Sybil was interviewed, the investigators said, we have an arrest at you. We just want to ask you about the murder of Gail Fulton. She initially said, I just don't know what you're talking about.

Sybil continues to deny everything, but Patrick cracks right away. Patrick says the plan is which Donna comes up with, Sybil, you guys need to drive up. Not fly, drive a car from here to Michigan. Commit that murder, and then drive back. According to Patrick, Donna knew just how to motivate Sybil. Sybil Paget was not a good employee.

And Donna used that leverage to go to Sybil and say, listen, I'm going to fire you. But if you can find me someone to get rid of this problem I have, I'll let you keep your job. And you know what? I'll even pay you $5,000. And I'll pay whoever you get $5,000. Donna had provided Sybil and Patrick with a map of the,

where the library was located, where the Fulton House was located, and a picture of Gale. Patrick says on September 13th, he and Sybil drove to Michigan to kill Gale Fulton. During a confession, Patrick spoke about their first trip to Michigan to kill Gail Fulton. During a confession, Patrick spoke about their first trip to Michigan. They sat outside for several hours. They absorbed her, and they discussed what they wanted to do.

But what happens is, they chicken out. They don't have the guts to go through with this. According to Patrick, Donna wasn't ready to put the murder plot to rest. And eventually, Donna found someone who was willing to pull the trigger. Her former roommate's fiance, 32-year-old Longha trucker, Kevin Ulet. They're looking for somebody to help them out, kill somebody. And that's where Kevin's in, came in. Kevin says, you know, I'm not doing this alone.

If I'm doing this, you're going to be there. You're driving the car, and you're going to be with me. Patrick says he, Cible, and Kevin drove to Lake Orion and set the murder plot in motion on the night of October 4. I believe they were waiting in the back of the parking lot, and right before Gail was supposed to get out of work because they know the exact time, they drive up and they slashed the tire,

and then they drive away. They drive out of the parking lot around the block a little bit, and then they come back when they know she's out. They drove up in a car while she was attending to her car. Someone in the back seat gets out, kind of clad in black, and just walks up to Galeful and executes her. Gets back in that car, takes off. The killers head back to Florida, convinced they've pulled off the perfect murder. But there was one problem.

They didn't know there was surveillance video of the library. Patrick's story of the murder matches up perfectly with what's on the surveillance video. When investigators confront Sybil with Patrick's version of the murder matches up perfectly with what's on the surveillance video. When investigators confront Sybil with Patrick's a version of events, she folds. She was very distraught, very emotional, and it seemed like she unburdened herself with her involvement, in this case,

or alleged involvement. Sybil, you know, she came up with her own story about Donna, me, Nipulator, held everything over her head. She worked with Donna. She was afraid that Donna was going to have her child taken away. She said we did it. Kevin jumped out of the car and shot her.

We did it for the money. She was very remorseful crying. I don't know if she was remorseful because she'd gotten caught, or if she was remorseful because she had been involved in first-degree murder. Both Cible and Patrick are arrested and charged with murder. Two days later, on December 2nd, the FBI gets a tip that Kevin O'Lette is in Connecticut.

Kevin O'Lette was a long haul truck driver, so, you know, I think he was making his way up 95. We formed up a perimeter around the vehicle, a big 18-wheel truck. We called him out via a bullhorn, and he came out in a compliant manner, and we transported him in a Connecticut state police cruiser.

It did go down by the numbers. He was booked in the local jail. I think he knew that he was really caught, and he knew why, and that showed on his face. And he proceeded to confess to the crime of murder for hire of Martha Gail Fulton, and that he was hired by Donna Tripani. With identical accounts from each of the three suspects in custody,

all signs point to Donna as the mastermind. But investigators need proofs, so they start by conducting a search of Sybil's home. The police obtained a search warrant on Sybil's house and found a picture of Gail, the map of the pertinent locations in Orient, a handwritten schedule of Gail's hours. The most incriminating piece of it, I thought was there, was a map. This was before GPS is on cell phones, so I think there was actual paper map of the Lake Oranica. Both the Fulton Home and the library are circled.

Detectives also find what appears to be a fake suicide note, made to look like it's written from Gail to George. After they compared the suicide note for handwriting exemplars and fingerprints, both of those analysis came back to Donna. They were able to determine that Donna had written the notes about Gail's schedule, and then they also found Donna's fingerprints on a lot of the material.

It's like she provided all the evidence you need, really, to convict her. With a mountain of evidence against her, investigators have one last unanswered question. Did Donna plot alone? I think the police initially were trying to make sure that George didn't plant this idea in anybody's head, didn't pay anybody.

Coming up, a killer comes clean. He testified in court, and that was really chilly. He said, I did it for Donna. She had this personality almost like cult life. A mounting pile of evidence and the confessions of three accomplices indicate that Donna Tripani promised them $15,000 for the murder of Gail Fulton. Law enforcement moves in on Donna Tripani,

and they put her in cuffs. Her reaction to that is, I had nothing to do with this. Those people acted on their own. When they patterned her down and cuffed her up, they found like three towels underneath her shirt. Donna was not pregnant. All lies, all manipulation. She was playing this pregnancy scenario, I guess, to her grave, if you will.

After her arrest, if you will. After her arrest, investigators bring Donna to the station to question her again. Donna admits faking the pregnancy, but claims it has nothing to do with the murder. She's saying, well, it's because I love George, and I was pregnant and lost the baby. And I wanted him to know that I cared about him and wanted him to still show the love that he told me he had for me. So that was her explanation on that stuff.

As for her claim about having terminal cancer, medical records expose the truth. There was nothing really in the medical records saying she had cancer. As questioning continues, Donna attempts to use George as the scapegoat this time. Donna shifted blame onto George. She claimed that George was the mastermind of this crime.

By the time the warrant had been authorized, but time you looked in the discovery, it was clear that George didn't have involvement in it. She stuck to her gun. She, you know, right down the line, she flat out refused to confess or to even acknowledge she had anything to do with it. You know, these three people drive 1,000 miles

to kill a librarian because of this, you know, todary affair this woman's having with George Fulton. People were sort of mesmerized by it because it had a soap oper quality to it. Before the trials begin, Patrick Alexander accepts a plea deal. He agrees to testify against Donna and his girlfriend, a civil pageant. In exchange for his testimony, Patrick Alexander

was sentenced 22 to 40 years in prison. Next up is Kevin Ulet. I flew all the way out there, and then maybe an hour before I was set to testify, and he pled out, he pled guilty. He also cuts a deal with prosecutors to testify against Sybil and Donna if he's allowed to serve his sentence

at a federal prison in Maine close to his family. Kevin O'Leat is convicted of first-degree felony murder. He gets life without parole in prison. You don't often hear somebody testify to going up and shooting somebody in the manner that he did. Upon Donna Tripani's will, I think the jury thought that was pretty compelling. With two guilty pleas, prosecutors

turn to their remaining suspects, Sybil and Donna. Mr. Cluzin, I tried Tripani and Paget together, and we had separate juries to decide the case. In Michigan, most states have a similar statute. Even if you are aware that a crime is being committed, if you are just there, then you can't be found guilty of that crime. And so that was my argument, was that even though there was an acknowledgment

that Sibyl knew what was going to transpire, that simply being in the car was not sufficient. On December 11, 2000, a jury reaches a verdict on Sibyl Paget. It was guilty as charged on both the conspiracy and the first green murder. But I can't say that I didn't see it coming. I'm not sure that Sybil was surprised by it either. Sybil is sentenced to life without parole. She has expressed remorse for her part in the crime,

but still blames Donna. Sybil, she just felt like Donna had this personality, almost like cult like where she could just dominate her will, if you would. Despite Donna's claims of innocence, prosecutors believe she displayed a clear motive. She wanted George back, and she didn't want Gail the way. For the jury, it's difficult to ignore three conspirators with virtually identical stories of what happened and a surveillance tape that verifies their claims. Well, three of them all made fairly consistent confessions. All of those statements they overall there was some deviation.

But they overall matched. Donna Trapani is also found guilty of first degree murder and gets life without parole. I think if you call Donna Trapani up on the Michigan Department of Corrections, she would tell you she's innocent today. I was not surprised with the verdict in this case. The evidence, if you step away and look at it, was pretty overwhelming.

Everybody loses in a murder case. George Fulton was found to have no role in his wife's murder, but even supporters agree. His affair ultimately led to Gale's death. You know, I never spoke to him about it. I never, never, even at the funeral. He was there. I was too angry. And I was angry at him. And he brought this evil person into their family. I'll never get over it. Donna's motive was to live happily ever after.

That George would never know what happened to Gail if everybody kept quiet. He thought this was going to be the best way to get what she wanted. I was going to be the best way to get what she wanted. Doninger Pony and Cibbl Paget are both serving their life sentences at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ipsilanti, Michigan. Kevin Willett is serving his life sentence at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Michigan.

Patrick Alexander is serving his life sentence at the McComb Correctional Facility in Lennox Township, Michigan. He's up for parole in November of 2022.