← Serialously with Annie Elise
Serialously with Annie Elise
372: Millionaire Husband Tries To Kill His Wife Multiple Times | The Case of Sergio and Tatiana Pino
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- [00:01]
Annie Elise
The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit strayer.edu Jack WelchMBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chev and has many campuses including at 2121 15th Street north in Arlington, Virginia. From a picture perfect life in southern Florida to a messy divorce years in the making. There's a gun.
- [00:38]
911 Operator
There's a guy with a gun. What do you mean, there's a guy with a gun?
- [00:42]
Annie Elise
As a gunman approached to finish what the FBI alleges was to be a $300,000 contract on Tatiana's life. Those who could love passionately could hate passionately. Divorces may come with a heightened level of emotion. Now, nine men in total have been charged with various crimes related to this investig. We spoke to so many people today who knew him, who loved him, who respected him, and not one of them say they saw this ever coming. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serial as slee. Foreign. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to an all new episode of Seriously with Me. Annie Elise, I am coming to you in my tired era today. Or not tired, like comfy era. I don't know. For some reason, I woke up this morning and I chose violence against myself. I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna do anything, like, to get really ready today. I'm just feeling tired. I'm feeling like. I feel like my skin is clear for once. Like I'm not feeling dry or broken out. And I was like, let me just throw lotion on. No makeup. I don't feel like doing my hair. Let me throw it up in a bun. And that's where we're at. That's all we could do today. And that is okay. Okay. It's okay to be lazy sometimes and to just not want to have it all together. So that's where I'm at today. But what I like about that is that I feel like I'm just super comfy talking with you guys. And this case is a doozy that we are going to talk about today. I hate the word doozy. I really feel like I need to come up with a different word. What could it be? I don't know. Maybe I need. I do need that thesaurus after all. I can't even say that word anyway. Okay, so this is a wild one. And it's kind of going to be a lot for us to get through. You're going to be with me for a minute, so I hope you're ready for like all the twists and the turns and the roller coaster of it all. But I want you to imagine being married to somebody for 30 years, okay? You think that they love you. You think that they have your best interest at heart. You think that you can trust them with everything. But then you learn they're cheating on you. And not only that, even worse, you learn that they're actively trying to murder you. So this case involves all things that make a true crime case really stand out. I mean, tons and tons of wealth, millions of dollars in a fair, a professional hitman. I mean, you name it, this case has got it. So we have got a lot to talk about. Let's all start with one of the main people at the forefront of this case, and that is Sergio Pin. Sergio was born in Havana, Cuba in 1956, and he came to the United States with his family when he was just 12 years old. He ended up getting a part time job where he worked at the same laundromat as his mom. And his specialty was cleaning the hotel welcome mats. That's kind of what his focus was on. His mom worked at the laundromat and she was somebody who ironed all of the clothing. But that's not what he wanted to do with his whole life. He wanted to do more. He itched and yearned for more, and he just had a lot of ambitions. He. So when Sergio was 20 years old, he convinced his father to loan him $6,000. Now keep in mind, that was $6,000 back in 1977, which was worth a whole lot more back then than $6,000 would be today with inflation, which let's actually just see what that would be because I'm going to do. Okay, Siri, what would $6,000 in 1977 be worth today? I found this on the web. Oh, wow. Okay. $30,000. Okay. Go away, Siri. Thank you. Siri, how do I get out of you? Ah, okay, so $30,000. That's a big chunk of change, right? So that would be a lot for any family in context, but especially for immigrants who are working in a laundromat and just trying to make ends meet. It's a huge amount of money. But still, Sergio believed that he had what it took to make it big. And I really do think this also illustrates just how much his dad believed in him. His dad agreed to it. He just handed him over the cash. So anyway, Sergio ended up using that money to open a small plumbing supply business, which he called Century Plumbing. And in no time at all, it became massively successful. Sergio was right. He did know how to make it big. And his father had been completely right to invest in his son. The risk paid off. Eventually, Sergio decided that he was ready to try his luck again. He wanted to show it wasn't just a fluke that he had become so successful so quickly. He knew what he was doing. He was smart. He knew that he could be be successful again. So he decided to let his brother Carlos take over his plumbing business. And then Sergio decided he was going to move into the world of real estate development. Now, I don't want to make it sound like Sergio was just all about making money and that nothing else mattered, and that was all he was laser focused on. It wasn't just that. He was actually also very big on giving back. He joined various different business owner associations. He also gave a lot of money to charity as well. He even got appointed to serve on the Florida Department of Transportation at one time, which I know that kind of sounds pretty random, but I do think that it goes to show how trusted he was. And he kind of just became like this fixture in the community. Now, while Sergio was busy growing his business empire, a woman named Tatiana Liares was busy growing up. And I do mean that literally, because, spoiler alert, Tatiana would later go on to marry Sergio, but she was 12 years younger than him. So while he was making these major huge moves in the business world, she was literally still trying to finish high school for real. Now, Tatiana was a very good kid, and I mean that just my by like loose definition, right, because she kept a prayer journal. She belonged to a group called the Future Homemakers of America. She was just a very straight laced, good kid. And the reason that she was in that group of the Future Homemakers of America is kind of self explanatory. She was trying to learn the skills of just that. She was trying to learn how to sew and how to cook, how to take care of a household, because she really expected to get married and spend the rest of her life taking care of her husband, also taking care of the house, maybe any kids that they had together. So anyway, when she was in high school, she, for the most part, was single. She also focused on a job. Her parents owned a grocery store. So Tatiana would help out there, working as a cashier whenever she was done with school for the day. She would also help out there on weekends, and that's how she actually ended up meeting Sergio. The store was pretty close to his office, so Sergio would stop in from time to time, running errands, picking things up, things like that. So when Tatiana was a senior and about to graduate, that's when she officially met Sergio. Now, like I said, he was older than her, so he was probably about 30 years old or so. And before long, the two of them started dating. Now, I think it's safe to say that Sergio did whatever he possibly could to really sweep Tatiana off of her feet. He was making, at that point, something like a million dollars a year at the time, maybe even a little bit more.
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Co-host or Guest Commentator
So.
- [07:56]
Annie Elise
So again, count with inflation, that is like a lot of money. That's probably like two and a half million today. Just doing the rough math based on, you know, the equation that we did earlier. So he was always taking Tatiana out, whining her, dining her, bringing her to fancy parties. They even went on trips to the Bahamas on his yacht, like she was a young girl about to graduate high school and literally getting swept off her feet with this just crazy glamorous life, this older man who's taking care of her financially, everything that just felt like a dream come true. I mean, mean, talk about a real Cinderella story, right? Tatiana had been dreaming of being a good wife and taking care of her husband's home. And then along came this literal millionaire to show her all this glitz, this glamour, everything that she could dream of, making all of her dreams become a reality. Except Tatiana's parents were not exactly won over as much as she was. They definitely had their reservations, in part, yes, because of the age difference. I mean, that was a pretty major red flag right then from the get go. But also, they didn't approve of the fact that Sergio was divorced. See, he had already been married once, and that marriage did not work out. And think about it, back then, divorce definitely wasn't as common as it is today. He also already had two kids from the previous relationship, which, again, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with taking another shot at love or if it doesn't work out, leaving your, you know, your partner to pursue happiness elsewhere so that you both can be happy, you can get married and divorced as many times as you want, I don't care. But I think that it's safe to say it's hard for an 18 year old who has no life experience to just step into that kind of world and become a stepmom. And it just didn't seem like the right situation for Tatiana yet. She was in love. She was completely head over heels for Sergio, so she wasn't bothered by any of those things. She did fully understand where her parents were coming from. Yes, their concerns. So she said that she would be careful, and she wanted to be careful and take things slow. But she really loved him, so she did honor their wishes in a way. And she took things, like I said, pretty slow. She dated Sergio for five years before ever agreeing to get married. And by this time, she was 23 years old and he was 35 years old. So still, yes, an age gap, but not anything that is, you know, insanely alarming or wild. I mean, I guess, depend that subjective, right? Depending on how you look at it. For me, I. I don't know. I don't really view that as like that insane, maybe, I don't know, Whatever. So right before the wedding, Sergio surprised her with a very flashy and very exciting gift. He gave her a brand new car, a white Lexus, to be specific. And so even after all this time, after five years, he was still showering her with gifts. He was still doing whatever he could do to make her feel loved and special. The actual wedding itself was pretty small. It was just kind of like this private civil service that happened on April 9, 1992. But then about a month later, they invited all their friends and family over to where they could do a more traditional service inside a church, just more of a religious type service. And then, of course, after that came a very expensive honeymoon in New York. And once they were married, once they had their wedding, their dream honeymoon, they decided, you know, this is where our life is now going to start. We need to get a house, we need to start our life together. And so they moved into a huge mansion that had seven bedrooms, which it's probably exactly what you would expect when you picture marrying a millionaire, right? You're probably moving into this, like, mega house, this mega super mansion. Sergio and Tatiana eventually had two daughters together. The daughters had long, dark brown hair, dark eyes, just like their mom. They grew up and went to do on very amazing things. But the key here that I want to focus on is that Sergio and Tatiana stayed together for 30 years. And to all appearances, from the outside, those seemed like a very happy 30 years. Except a few people who were close to the two of them. They knew otherwise. See, beginning in 2017, rumors started flying and everybody was talking about Sergio and the sales and marketing director in his midtown office. More specifically, a woman named Nancy Pastor. Now According to all of the gossip, the two of them were definitely having an affair. Sergio and Nancy were sleeping together. And apparently they were doing a very bad job keeping it a secret because literally everyone who worked with them knew everybody was talking about it. And that included Tatianna, which you can't have that many people talking about your private business without eventually catching wind of the gossip yourself. So naturally, in no time at all, Tatianna was hearing all of the details, all of the gross, juicy, like, overly TMI details. She knew what her husband was up to, but she decided, for whatever reason, to just ignore all of the talk. And it's not clear to me what her mindset was. Maybe she figured, you know, you can't trust things that you hear second hand or third hand. Maybe she shrugged it all off as a lie that people were telling. Or maybe she did believe the rumors and she did believe that her husband was cheating on her, but she decided to forgive him. Maybe she didn't want to blow up her whole life, her 30 years of marriage, her two children. It could have been a denial thing, where maybe she just hoped if she pretended the affair wasn't going on, it would just go away on its own, or that she could live with it, she could stomach it. I mean, at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that people are complicated. Everybody responds to bad news differently. So Tatiana's first reaction was just to ignore all of the gossip, try to trust Sergio anyway. But the longer that things went on, the harder it became for her to do that. It became especially hard once Tatiana received an anonymous letter. In this letter, it said that Sergio was involved with Nancy. So by this time, it was just impossible for her to ignore. The evidence was literally right there in Tatiana's face. But still, she wanted to remain married. She wanted to work through this betrayal. So she decided to confront Sergio. But she also asked him what they needed to do to make things between them good again. So they went to several different marriage counselors. They sought help from their minister. Sergio claimed he called it off with Nancy and was going to focus on the marriage with Tatiana, that he was so remorseful and that it was all a big mistake. But Tatiana was now believing otherwise, that trust had been shattered. And her sister Aurora also did not trust Sergio. So Aurora was always encouraging Tatiana to be careful, to not take him back too quickly. You know, keep your eyes open, look for signs, and see if the affair is still going on. Just protect yourself. And as if that wasn't bad enough, In November of 2019, things took a turn for the worse in November of 2019. Tatiana had this good friend named Lisa Lorenzo. And every year, Lisa would throw this huge, big friendsgiving potluck. Everybody would get together, they would eat, they would bring food, they would kind of just catch up, talk, have a good time, just really enjoy each other's company. Well, that year, everybody who went to the friendsgiving was a woman. They had all left their husbands, their sons, their brothers, all the other men at home so that they could have like a ladies night out, a girl's night, a girls friendsgiving. So they sat down, started talking, started eating, drinking, just like usual. But then people started feeling very sick, like, really sick. Almost to the point where people were feeling like, okay, something is seriously wrong here. Why are all of us feeling so ill? They barely even made it through the main course before people were running to the bathroom, just, like, fighting nausea, getting stomach cramps, having all sorts of different terrible symptoms. And it wasn't just a little bout of food poisoning or maybe the meat wasn't cooked through all the way. 12 people ended up needing to leave in ambulances because their reactions to whatever was going on, they were so severe that they needed medical treatment immediately. And this was beyond weird. Okay? I mean, first of all, because it takes a while for food poisoning to really, like, set in and start getting bad. I will say firsthand, I am, like, so susceptible to food poisoning. That's if I'm being real with myself. That's probably because I doordash and postmate way too frequently, and it probably wouldn't happen if I would just, like, figure out how to cook. But I get food poisoning on average probably at least once a year. And so I know the exact onset. I know how to combat it. I know what I need to do. I know I need to go and get an iv, and that's what's going to make me feel better. I need Zofran in that iv. I. I need to then power through some Gatorade. Like, I know it's like. And you, like, throw up like clockwork. It's like every 30 minutes on the minute, it's. You're throwing up. So it's like. But it takes a while to set in, is my point in all of that. I don't know why I just overshared. But my point is it takes a while to set in, usually around 12 hours, until you're like, oh, shoot, something's wrong. I'm feeling sick. It's not like you take a bite of something and immediately the onset Happens, and you're just, like, violently ill. That's not how it works. But this is kind of how Thanksgiving played out. Everybody was, like, sitting, laughing, feeling great, eating, and then just like, bam, all of a sudden, they were all violently ill, feeling so sick. And it was almost like this food had been deliberately poisoned. Not in a food poisoning type of way, but actual poison. However, it was really hard to say for sure because the police and other officials actually ended up testing all of the food from the dinner. I mean, not only had a dozen people gotten sick. Yes. And that's a huge issue in and of itself, but a lot of these people were like, major players. Rich women, powerful women, people who owned businesses, elected government officials. I mean, major power players. So this was a major, serious problem that everybody had become so sick. So they ran the tests and they checked everything out, but they found nothing. There was no hard proof that the food had ever been tampered with. But also, nothing tested positive for salmonella or any other diseases that you might actually expect in this kind of situation. What's the other one? Like, E. Coli or something like that? So the best guess that anybody could come up with while trying to figure out what did the sickness really stem from, what was the root cause of this was that it must have happened with the brussels sprouts. And the reason they thought that is because even though it didn't test as anything, the more brussels sprouts that people ate, the more sicker people became. It was almost like that was the trigger. So that became the working theory. Like, it must have been the brussels sprouts, because every time Mary or Sally or whomever ate it, that's when they got sick. I mean, it clearly wasn't the most scientific or airtight theory out there, but it was the best that anybody could come up with. And it's also worth mentioning that Tatiana was the one who brought the brussels sprouts to Friendsgiving. So if somebody did tamper with that dish in any way or deliberately try to poison someone, it must have happened inside Tatiana's home when she was preparing the dish. Today's episode is sponsored by Neurogum. Do you ever feel like you're running on empty around this time of year? I mean, between the time change, packed schedules, mid afternoon crashes, it's easy to reach for caffeine or another coffee that you then are going to regret later in the day. But I have seen this all over social media, and I have been so curious to try it. And neuro energy and focus. Gum and mints. 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It's a complete 3 in 1 formula with soluble fiber, insoluble fiber and prebiotic resistant starch that's designed to support the full gut health process, not just digestion. Because when your gut isn't dialed in, nothing else really works well either. And like everything Momentous makes, Fiber plus is science first. It's clean and it's independently certified by NSF for sport or Informed Sport. And if it doesn't meet their standard, it never hits the shelf. Right now Momentous is offering our listeners up to 35 off your first order with promo code ANNIE. Just head to livemomentous.com and use promo code ANNIE for up to 35% off your first order. That's livemomentous.com promo code ANNIE. So that all sounds pretty scary, right? I mean, you go out with your friends, you're expecting to have some innocent fun. A girls get together, friends giving. You're bonding over wine, over food, all of those things. But now it sounds like somebody's poisoned you. Well, after this whole friends giving dinner fiasco, Tatiana started getting sick all the time. And she was a relatively healthy person. She had never had serious issues like this before. And this lasted for years of just sickness after sickness. And over the course of three years, it was one thing after another. She kept going to the hospital. She was asking for tests, she was asking for doctors to figure out what was wrong with her. Could she get a referral to a specialist? Clearly there had to be A root cause for this. But they could never figure out what was making her sick. And to make things even weirder and more mysterious, it's not like her symptoms were always the same in all of these sicknesses. It definitely wasn't. And if she did have one big health problem that just went undiagnosed, you would think, okay, it's manifesting the same way. The symptoms always turn up the same. But that's not what this was. Tatiana, she would have breathing problems for a while, Then she would start fainting. There was one time where she even started foaming at the mouth, like, literally foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. And Tatiana saw a whole bunch of different specialists in the entire Miami area, but they all diagnosed her differently, saying they weren't entirely sure what's wrong, but their guesses were that maybe she had epilepsy. Maybe it was something with her heart. At one point, she even ended up getting a pacemaker put in because they were worried that it was her heart. That was sometime in 2020. But none of that fixed anything. Now, at this point, Tatianna was so sick that she just could not live her own life. All she could do at this point was sit around and just wait to feel terrible again. She couldn't go out. She couldn't have fun. She never knew when the next issue was going to start. And so she never felt comfortable leaving her home. And, I mean, this is how bad things got. One day In February of 2022, one of Tatiana's daughters came over to the house to visit. But when she went over to check on her mom, she found Tatiana on the floor, and her lips were completely purple, almost like she hadn't been breathing. At one point, Tatiana's best friend, Lisa, went to Sergio, and she was kind of just like, hey, look, we have got to do something. This is my best friend. This is your wife. I know you guys are seeing all the doctors. I know you're trying to do everything, but it's not working. So for Tatiana's sake, we need to find a different solution here. But Sergio kind of just shrugged her off. He was like, don't worry about it. We're seeing the doctors. Her situation's no big deal. We're figuring it out. We're getting it under control. And this really infuriated Lisa. They ended up arguing a little bit over it because she was trying to put her foot down and stand up for her best friend, Tatiana. Yet Tatiana's own husband was pushing back, telling Lisa she needed to mind her own Business. Let him worry about his wife's health, and he would figure it out for himself. But Lisa wasn't just gonna go quietly. Sergio could not tell Tatiana's friends what to do. So Lisa connected with Tatiana's sister, Aurora, and they ended up traveling to Baltimore, where there is a very good hospital called John Hopkins. You may have heard of it. So Tatiana showed up, and the doctors were immediately very, very concerned about her. They were so worried by what they were seeing, they actually ended up putting her on breathing machines six separate times during her visit. That's how concerned they were. She also got a ton of testing done. I mean, she got everything checked out. And then finally, finally, after so many years of feeling sick, not knowing what's wrong, feeling panicked and worried, the doctors finally realized what was wrong with her. She had fentanyl in her system. Fentanyl. Fentanyl. Like, how scary is that? Because Tatiana did not take drugs. She didn't take fentanyl on her own. Never in a million years. And Aurora and her best friend Lisa knew that as well. They knew that Tatiana would never do that. So the moment that the doctors said that she was on fentanyl, all three of the women were like, okay, well, how did she get it? How did it get in her system? Could she have been exposed by accident? What is going on here? It was all a huge mystery. However, the doctors, they didn't think that Tatiana had ingested this fentanyl by accident. And while they didn't come right out and say that it was possible that somebody might have been poisoning her, they did sort of hint at that as a possibility. They said that once she got out of treatment, once she got better, they suggested that she mix things up a little bit, not stay at home as much, not be around the usual people in her life. Kind of change up your routine and see if anything changes, see if you still get sick or see if maybe you don't. And I think it's safe to say that between this fentanyl situation and that friendsgiving poisoning from a few years earlier, Tatiana and her friends were feeling very suspicious. They thought that somebody might be trying to really hurt her, but they weren't sure who. I mean, seriously, who would do something like that to someone? So for safety, they called the police, and they told them everything that had been going on. They also got together all of Tatiana's prescription medication that she had been taking at that point for years. They said to the police, hey, can you do some testing on this? Maybe it's something in her prescriptions. Maybe the drugs are drugged. And sure enough, those prescription medications that she was on tested positive for fentanyl. So whoever had been doing this to Tatiana, it was somebody who had access to her medication. Somebody who could come into her home where she was feeling safe, get into the medicine cabinet or wherever she kept all of her things and poison her. Now, before she had left John Hopkins, the doctors there asked Tatiana and if she knew anybody who might want to do something like this to her. Did she have any enemies? Did she have anybody who might benefit if she died? And right away, Tatiana told them no. She couldn't think of a single person who would want to hurt her. But for some reason, the question that they had asked it stuck in her head. It made her feel a little bit paranoid. So now, every interaction that she had with anyone, a friend, a co worker, a colleague, anybody, every conversation she would ask herself, did this person poison me? Do they want me dead? And then one day, a very weird thought occurred to her. What if it was her husband? What if it was Sergio? Now, there was no particular reason for her to feel suspicious of Sergio. I mean, aside from that affair, which had been going on for a while and wasn't exactly new, their marriage seemed good. She really thought that he cared about her, not to mention he said he broke it off with Nancy, that he was now devoted husband to her again, that he wanted to make things work, so there was certainly no reason for him to want her dead. Except once that thought popped into her head, she just could not shake it. The more time that went on, the more and more Tatiana became convinced that Sergio might have been slipping her Fentanyl after all. But she couldn't prove it. She had no evidence. But by now, she was not trusting Sergio at all. So she ended up moving out of the house that she shared with him, just like the doctors had recommended. Change up the routine, stay somewhere else. And then shortly after that, she filed for divorce. Now, as Tatianna and Sergio were working out the terms of this divorce, he ended up making her an offer. He said he would give her $20 million, and then, only then, they could consider their marriage over, which, let me just say, that is not a bad offer by any means, except Tatianna knew that she stood to make a lot more money. Different sources quote Sergio's net worth as being somewhere between $153 million or to $360 million. So not that 20 million is anything to, like, bat an eye at and be like, no, thank you. But she also knew that she was entitled to More than likely, probably like five times that amount, at minimum. And keep in mind, Tatiana had spent their entire marriage of 30 years as a homemaker. She was taking care of the house, taking care of the family, taking care of the kids, the husband, everything. So according to her, if not for her help and support, Sergio never would have been able to even build that empire. So in her mind, she was entitled to half of his money, especially because she technically owned half of all of the businesses. She didn't work for them or have anything to do with their day to day running, but they were hers and she wanted to make sure that she was getting everything that she thought that she deserved in their divorce. Well, once Sergio heard that, he was definitely not satisfied. He did not want to argue over money. He also didn't want to make any other multimillion dollar offer to her. So in his mind, Tatiana needed to die, he needed to be rid of her. She was the problem and he had to get rid of her. So Tatiana's new house was only a 20 minute drive away from where Sergio lived. However, I will say it was a very secure home. It had two separate security gates, it was kind of, you know, under lock and key, and that made her really feel a lot safer. Through all of things, she got away from her creepy cheating husband, her lying husband, her possible poisoning husband, and all of these security features really helped make her feel safe, thinking it was helping keep him away. So anyway, from the sound of it, Sergio just didn't want to let Tatianna go, and he especially did not want to let her go with such a big cut of his money. So for a long time, he had been possibly poisoning her with fentanyl, and that poisoning had made her very sick, but it hadn't killed her. And now with Tatiana living away from him, making it harder for him to get access to her medicine or to her in general. And with this ticking clock of this like looming divorce, it sounds like Sergio decided he needed some help. He needed to enlist the big guns. So there was this guy who worked for Sergio and his name was Baron Bennett. He worked on Sergio's yacht, and one of his job duties was making food and drinks for Sergio and for whoever else was on the yacht, kind of just like the chef or the cook or whatever you would call it. So now Sergio decided, you know what, instead of just being the chef, I'm going to recruit Baron to kill Tatiana. And the best way to do that unsuspectingly would be to have him put something in her food, possibly poison her Again. And get this. Baron agreed to do it, but he didn't want to work alone. So he reportedly brought in a whole crew of killers with him. He brought in somebody named Michael Dolfo, Jaron Howard, and Edner Etina. So the plan was to poison Tatiana this time once and for all, just like Sergio had allegedly been trying to do for years at this point. Except now, instead of just putting fentanyl in her medicine, they also wanted to give her cyanide, arsenic, and even a bigger lethal dose of fentanyl. Apparently, Sergio had this idea that the killers could inject her with all of these drugs, and when they did that, she would immediately die, and it would just look like a heart attack, that her heart just stopped, you know, beating or exploded or whatever would happen. Which, I gotta say, honestly, sounds like incredibly stupid to me. Which, let's be honest. Most murderers are not criminal masterminds. I get that. It's not like the movies. But did Sergio actually think that now that Tatiana knew that she had been poisoned and now that she knew that he was behind it, that nobody would be suspicious if she just dropped dead one day? I mean, obviously they would look at him, right? It makes the most sense. People look at the spouse and the partner as it is already. Now. You also throw into the fact that there's a contentious divorce, $350 million on the table. There's a history of poison. I mean, hello, Der. Everybody would look at the husband, right? Nobody would just hear that Tatiana died and be like, oh, wow. Well, it looks like she had a heart attack. I mean, hello? Hello? So it was a terrible plan, but thank God we love to see when that happens. We love to see when criminals are stupid because it makes it so much easier for them to get caught. Now, speaking of stupid moves that make it much easier to catch people, let's talk about what happened on July 2, 2022. Because that day, somebody actually set Tatiana's sister's cars on fire. The sister, Aurora, checked her home security footage the next morning after she found her cars destroyed and burnt in her driveway. And the footage showed that at around 3:20am somebody just kind of walks directly up her driveway to her Dodge Ram.
- [33:24]
Co-host or Guest Commentator
And.
- [33:24]
Annie Elise
And then within an instant, there's this huge orange flash of light like somebody set it on fire. Then, while the ram was burning, the person did the same thing to Aurora's Tahoe. And since he was standing right next to a fire, it was a little easier to see what he was doing because of the light that was shining on him. And he was holding this red fuel container, just dumping the liquid all over her Tahoe car. All over, like, the hood of it. Then he lit something, and it was pretty hard to make out exactly what it was, but I'm picturing it probably being a match or a lighter, maybe even a cigarette. And then he just put it right on that spot of the car where the windshield meets the hood after he had dumped all the gasoline on the hood. And before long, whatever it was that was lit on fire spread all over the entire car, and it was engulfed in flames. So to summarize, this idiot lit Aurora's cars on fires all while being caught on camera. I mean, we love to see it. And he was also filmed driving a Silverado to and from the scene. And it's worth mentioning that Michael, one of the members of that, like, hitman crew, the crew of assassins, he owned a Silverado that looked exactly like the one that was caught on this security camera footage. And thanks to cell phone records, we also know that Michael and another one of these hired guys, a guy named Jaren, were in that area at the time that this all went down. They were also on the phone with one another right before and right after the cars set on fire, which is like, how stupid can you be, right? Then a month later, on August 12, the exact same thing happened. See, Aurora had a third car. I don't know if it was maybe a replacement from the ones that had been burned, or maybe she always had a third car. I'm not exactly sure. But on that night, that car also got set on fire. And you might be wondering, okay, well, why go after Aurora? Why set her cars on fire? That seems like a really stupid thing to do. What made her such a threat to Sergio and so much so that she was now a target as well? Well, my personal theory, and this is just speculation, because it's not like Sergio ever explained himself, but I think he just wanted her out of his way. Aurora had been Team Tatiana this entire time. She's the one who kind of interfered in his plan of the poisoning all along and took Tatiana to the hospital and helped her realize that she had been poisoned. Poisoned? She was always protecting Tatiana, sticking by her side. She was a threat. She was getting in the way. So my guess is that Sergio knew that if Tatiana died and Aurora survived, that Aurora would complain to the police, that she would make accusations, and in theory, would make it harder for him to get away with murder. But if Aurora was either dead or maybe too intimidated to speak up, then she wouldn't be able to fight for justice for Tatiana, it would be a little easier for him to try and sweep the murder under the rug and make it all look like an accident. So after all of this happens, now it's August 30, 2023 and Tatiana had to go to court for a divorce hearing. And that was the day that Baron and his group of assassins decided they were going to try to kill her. You know, I am all about food and with now cold days and big goals and no time to cook and Factor makes eating healthy completely effortless. They have fully prepared meals that are crafted by chefs and designed by dietitians so you can eat well without the planning, the prep, the cleanup, the grocery shopping. None of it. Meals are always fresh, never frozen. And the best part? They're ready in about two minutes. So I can pop one in when I'm here at the studio in between recordings and I get like a yummy meal. I feel full. I know it's good. It's the best. They are always built with quality ingredients too. I mean lean proteins, colorful veggies, healthy fats and with over 100 rotating options each week including High Protein, calorie, smart Mediterranean, GLP1 support and the new MusclePro collection, there is literally something that will fit everybody's routine. So head to FactorMeals.com AE50OFF and use code AE50OFF to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. That's Factor meals.com ae50off Eat Like a Pro this month with Factor. Today's episode is sponsored by Willy's Remedy. If you are looking for a better way to unwind without the regrets, Willy's THC infused social tonic is redefining what a social buzz can feel like. It was crafted by Willie Nelson and it's this low calorie, low sugar alcohol alternative that delivers a fast acting, uplifting euphoric buzz but without the hangover. Available in 5mg and 10mg doses, each bottle is third party lab tested for accurate dosing and it's made with a unique blend of thc, cbd, CBG and L Theanine for a balanced, relaxed social experience. And get this, Willy's has sold out three times in the first six months with over 50,000 happy customers and they just restocked. Willy's also will ship directly to your doorstep in over 40 states. So order now@drinkwillys.com and use code seriously. For 20 off your first order, plus free shipping on orders over $95. That's drink willys.com code cereal for 20% off. Enjoy life in the high country. So on August 30, 2023, Tatiana was pulling up to her house and there was a flatbed truck that was pulled over at the curb right by her driveway. It looked like the truck had parked right outside of her house, except it wasn't actually parked. The driver was inside the truck waiting. When Tatiana pulled into her driveway. That flatbed truck then backed up, aiming right at the driver's side of her car where Tatiana was sitting. Now, the good news is that the driver of this truck was not the world's greatest hitman, not by a long shot. By the time he got the truck moving and got it into reverse, Tatiana was clear of him completely. He didn't even hit her yet. I will say he did come close, but he kept going. He cranked the steering wheel and backed around so that he hit her car on the other side. So he sort of looped around behind her and then hit her on the passenger side. Now, the good news is he didn't hit the car hard enough to seriously hurt or kill Tatiana. And if you watch the security camera footage, you can actually see her open the door and get out. She's completely fine. So then when the flatbed driver tries to get away, she even chases him a little bit in her car, leaving the frame. I mean, he was just like a complete moron. Like there was no way that he accomplished what he set out to do. And I've got to say, so far as attempted murders go, this one was so stupid, so dumb, because first and foremost, Tatiana survived. But also, there were so many witnesses. There was a mail carrier on the street while this was all going down, somebody who watched it all happened. There was also somebody walking by who ran over to check on everything after the crash. I mean, it was literally in broad daylight. And we of course, know all of this now because we're able to watch back the security camera footage. It was all caught on camera, which is like one more nail in this idiot's coffin right now. Some very eagle eyed, very detailed, very sleuthy people were also able to look at this footage and realize, hey, the driver of this car is actually wearing the exact same clothing of Edner, another member of the, like a little assassin group, the clothing he was wearing when he went to Home Depot and rented this truck. So, I mean, it's just how many receipts do you need against somebody Right. So when the police tracked the truck down, it was parked in a place that was less than one mile away from where Edner lived. And the rental agreement for the truck had been signed by another member of the killer team, Michael. So they're all working together, thinking that they're being smart and strategic, but saying, I'll rent the truck in my name, but you'll be the one that drives it. And this, that it's like. But no, you're not realizing that there's going to be a paper trail and even worse, a camera trail. My guy. So anyway, for a while now, Tatiana had basically been telling everyone, like, look, my husband is trying to kill me, 100%. I'm positive about it. However, people who knew both her and Sergio, they weren't so sure. At first, there just wasn't enough hard evidence to prove that Sergio was behind the fentanyl poisoning. But then after this hit and run, people started to believe her. They started coming around. Some officers called Barron, which was the head of that murder for hire plot team, the one from that was the chef on the yacht. And they brought him into the station to question him. And Tatiana, she was there for that interrogation. Right away, she recognized him. I mean, remember, he worked on her yacht. He made drinks for her countless times. So of course she knew who he was. She knew that he knew Sergio as well. There was a connection. So in her mind, this was just one more piece of evidence that clearly, obviously, Sergio was trying to have her killed. And even the police agreed. They even said, you know what? We're going to put a few extra officers to do more patrols around your house and around your neighborhood to keep you safe, because we do think something is weird here. They didn't have enough evidence to arrest Sergio or press charges, but they could at least keep an eye on her and be ready to step in and help if there was another attempt on her life. And in fact, a few weeks went by, and Tatiana ended up getting another anonymous letter in the mail. This letter said that she should watch out, and it also warned her that she should be afraid of one of Sergio's nephews. But Tatiana didn't think that the nephew was the problem. She thought that this letter was from Sergio or from someone who was working for him who was trying to scare her while also deflecting blame toward somebody else. You know, classic misdirection, so that she would kind of let her guard down and be looking in the direction of somebody else. And if you're like me, you might be wondering and asking Yourself in a very frustrated way. Why wasn't anybody arresting Sergio? I mean, clearly the writing was on the wall. So why weren't the police at least investigating him and seeing if they could find enough evidence to charge him with something? Well, the problem was, was that every time the police looked closely at Sergio, something bad would happen to him. Him, almost like he was being targeted as well. So he would just say, like, no, look, I'm a victim, too. They're not just after my wife. They're after me as well. Whoever's trying to hurt Tatiana is also trying to hurt me. And he almost made it sound like he was just this innocent victim who got, like, the wrong place, wrong time, got caught up in it. Like, these people, whoever they are, they're targeting Tatiana, and because of that, they're also targeting me. Not as though, like, it would be somebody targeting both of them for a business venture or something like that, more that he was just, like, you know, an innocent casualty in all of it. And let me just give you an example of one of those instances. So, back in 2022, his BMW had been vandalized. Then the next year, In September of 2023, his BMW was damaged again. This time, somebody literally set fire to it, just like Aurora's cars. Somebody set it on fire. And this all happened at the very beginning of September, just one week after the August hit and run, where Tatiana was almost killed in the driveway. So to hear Sergio tell it, he couldn't have been behind these attacks because he also was being attacked. According to Sergio, he also got a call one day that was very, very threatening. He didn't recognize the caller's voice, but he said that they had a Colombian accent and that they said, you better settle with your wife. We can't afford to be in a lawsuit. Then not long afterward, a car drove by Sergio's home and shot at it. Nobody was hurt, luckily, but it really seemed like he was a victim, too, that he. He was being targeted as well. Now, eventually, Sergio apparently just got sick of waiting for Baron and his, like, team of misfits to try to finish the job. He had hired them to kill Tatiana, yet his wife was still alive. And once it became clear to him that Baron and the others weren't going to cut it, they weren't smart enough, they weren't smooth enough. Whatever the reason was, he reportedly hired someone much more dangerous to pull off the job. At some time in the past, Sergio had needed some roofing work done. And one of those roofers that he had worked with was A man named Fausto Villar. And Fausto was already a convicted felon at that time. He previously spent six years in prison on armed robbery charges. And more importantly, he was someone who was all too happy to agree when Sergio came to him offering him money to kill Tatiana. The deal that Sergio offered him was similar to the one that he had worked out with Barron before. He wanted Fausto to build a team to get a bunch of people to help him commit this murder, and that the whole team altogether would make 150 grand for the murder. They would also get another 150 on top of that if they could pull it off without anybody suspecting Sergio, which I have a lot of thoughts about that. Okay, first, let's talk about these amounts. Sergio was a millionaire, a multi millionaire, and he was offering either 150 grand or $300,000, depending on if they did it or not. Pulled it off, like, without a hitch, as a bonus. And I don't think that there would ever be any amount that would make it okay for somebody to kill somebody. But I also got to say, in the grand scheme of things, that feels incredibly low compared to his net worth to be offering to pay somebody. Right, and let me just do the math on that. Let's go back to my good friend Siri. Siri, what percentage is $300,000 of $350 million? It's approximately 9 cents. No, no. Percent.
- [46:53]
Co-host or Guest Commentator
What?
- [46:53]
Annie Elise
I didn't get that. Could you try again? Siri, what is the percentage of $300,000? Of $350,000,000? I found this on the web. Okay, this is a percentage calculator. This isn't helping. Whatever, guys. Okay, you get what I'm trying to say, right? It's a minuscule amount in comparison, especially when you break it down and figure out that each person involved in this team would get something like 30 or 60 thousand dollars for the murder. Again, not that any amount makes it right, but, like, I would just think that it would probably be more money than that. And let's also talk about that bonus. They would only get that bonus if the murder wasn't linked to Sergio, meaning he would have been okay getting caught with the murder and that he just would have only paid 150 instead of $300,000, which makes no sense to me. Like, you're saying, hey, here's 150. If I get caught, it's okay. But if I don't get caught and if no suspicion goes on me, I'll give you 300. Just seems weird. So, anyway, Fausto agreed to the terms, and he put a team together. It included Avery Bivens, who was coordinating and planning the whole thing. Avery brought in Clementa Johnson and Clementa's cousin Vernon, who would actually do the actual murder, actually shoot Tatiana. And then lastly, they brought in somebody named Dory. They were sort of like a backup support henchmen in all of this. Now, Sergio also gave this team a deadline. He didn't want them to just kill Tatiana. He also wanted her to be dead by a certain date, namely June 24, 2024. Well, two days before that deadline hit, on Saturday, June 22, Tatianna had plans to meet up with a friend at a resort in Key Largo, which is about an hour and a half away from where she lives. So she made the drive. And she didn't realize it at the time, but two of Sergio's goons, his little henchmen, were following her the whole time. They didn't try to do anything that day. They were just following her. But security footage showed a Dodge Ram in the resort's parking lot. And I want you to keep that in mind. The next day, on Sunday, June 23, Tatianna went to church in the morning. It was part of her routine. She went to church every single week. She sat through the service, got her chance to connect with God, and then drove home. She had no idea that the entire time she was in church, Vernon had been sitting out front of her house waiting for her to get back. And he was driving a Dodge Ram, the same kind of car that was at the resort's lot when Tatiana was there the day before. Then, the moment that Tatiana pulled into the driveway, Vernon ran up to her with a gun. Now, the good news is that Tatianna spotted him right away, and thank God she had already survived other attempts on her life, that she knew she needed to keep her eyes open. I mean, I say that in a weird ass backwards kind of way. It's like, thank goodness she was always watching her back, but also like, how awful is that? That she had to go through this so many times to where she still had to be watching her back. But she knew to be careful. So the second she saw Vernon coming towards her, she slammed her foot on the gas, and she drove all the way around her house into the backyard. And this whole. Whole time that she was driving, she was also just laying on the horn, making a ton of noise so that people would come out of their houses, they would start looking around, people would hear the commotion. She was hoping that if witnesses were Outside, Vernon wouldn't be able to do anything, and he wouldn't try to do anything. And it worked. See, Tatiana's daughter, Alessandra, was at the house at the time. She hadn't gone to church with Tatiana, but she heard those horns. And maybe she also heard the tire screeching, too. I'm not sure. But she did come outside. Now, unfortunately, one of the gunmen grabbed her arm and yelled at her to get back inside, but she was able to call for help in that time, in the midst of all of this, and her 911 call is truly chilling.
- [50:34]
911 Operator
Congress 911 with the address for your emergency. Okay, please, someone with a gun is here. Okay, ma', am, can you repeat the address one more time? And what's going on there, ma'? Am? There's a gun. There's a guy with a gun. What do you mean there's. You mean there's a guy with a gun? Yes, he just pointed a gun at me and they're still here. Okay, please, are they almost here? Yes, ma'. Am, we're sending officers on the way now. Okay, how many individuals are there? I don't know. It's just me and my dog, but I'm outside. I'm out there inside. Oh, ma', am, I need to calm down. Okay, how many individuals are there? Just me. Okay, how many are there, ma'? Am? Just me. Just me. It's just. No, how many individuals? Okay, but who pulled a gun on you? Okay, is he still there? Is he trying to break into your house? Or what is it that he's trying to do? Are they trying. Are they trying to break into your house, ma'?
- [51:38]
Annie Elise
Am?
- [51:38]
911 Operator
I don't know. I can't see. I don't know. Please. Okay, well, I'm gonna send Hop on the way now, okay? What is your name? Are they not on their way yet? Yeah, it's Ali. My name. What is your name, ma'?
- [51:53]
Annie Elise
Am?
- [51:54]
911 Operator
Al units, Special attention. Mention any alien there? Yes. Okay, is there anyone else there with you? No, I need to tell my mom not to come home. I think they might be looking for her. She. She's a victim. Okay, I hear. I hear a car. Can I call my mom, please? No, I need you to stay on the line with me, ma'. Am. We have officers on the way. Did you see if it was a white, black, Hispanic male? Blackmail. Blackmail. Was he wearing, like, a hoodie or something? My mom's here. They might have a father. Ma', am, what is your name? Ma', am? What is your name, ma'? Am? A, L, E, Ali. But my mom is here. They might have shot her. Okay, did you see what he was wearing? No, he just had a mask on. I'm persuasive. We sat. Why are they not here yet? They're. They're on their way there, ma'.
- [52:54]
Annie Elise
Am.
- [52:55]
911 Operator
No one's responding to that. Okay, did you see what he was wearing, Ma'? Am?
- [53:02]
Annie Elise
Now, clearly, Alessandra didn't know the full story of what had happened. She didn't see the entire confrontation. In fact, I've done a lot of research, and I'm not 100% sure exactly what happened next, because, honestly, it sounds like everything at the scene got pretty chaotic pretty quickly, and maybe even Alessandra, Tatiana, and Vernon had a hard time keeping track of what was going on. But the point is that Vernon didn't want to hurt Alessandra. She wasn't the target, but she was in the way. She was trying to protect Tatianna, and Tatianna was probably trying to protect her daughter like almost any mother would. And in all of the confusion with the police about to get there, Alessandra and Tatiana managed to escape without getting hurt or shot. Then, once they were away from him, Vernon tried to get away. But like all the others, he was not a smart criminal, which, I don't know if I've made that clear enough, guys, but these guys were complete morons. But the point is, he got caught driving away because he got caught on surveillance cameras. So the police knew exactly what kind of car he was in. And it only took them one day before they tracked his Dodge Ram down. And from there, it was just a matter of connecting the dots. Once the police identified Vernon, they also learned that Avery had been worked into this plot as well. Now, unfortunately, I don't know what evidence specifically tipped the police off about Avery, but the point is, they did learn of his identity. And the cops also learned that Avery, Deori and Fausto all had served time together in the same prison. That's how they all met. I mean, birds of a feather, right? They were all incarcerated together, so that was enough for the police to suspect Fausto. However, they didn't have enough information or evidence to arrest him on that. They couldn't press charges. They did listen in on his phone, though. And one day, he made a phone call to Avery, not realizing that the officers were recording the line. And everything that he said during that call was recorded. They talked very openly about the murder plot, about how they needed to protect their employer, all while calling him out by his name straight up saying it was Sergio Pino again. Real criminal masterminds we've got here now. In that same call, Avery told Fausto to delete his Instagram. He kept saying, delete, delete, delete. They even talked about the other murder crew, the first one that Sergio had hired. The ones that apparently couldn't cut it, so he had to replace them and hire them with a new crew. They were just outright talking about how hard Sergio was working to have his wife Tatiana killed. And if it wasn't such a depraved thing to do, this situation would almost be funny, because on this phone call, Avery and Fausto were saying things like, make sure the police don't find out about the other team. We don't want to get charged with conspiracy to commit murder on top of everything else in the meantime, like, they were literally laying out all of the evidence, even more than the police ever even knew about. So perfectly just right there on a silver platter. I mean, we love to see it, but, like.
- [55:58]
Co-host or Guest Commentator
But like, where the first guys up? Hey, wasn't this. Why would you. If you get pinched, look at how this becomes now a conspiracy. Now you can't shake the rap. Your two boys now or whoever, the. They can shake the rap. Yo, we just went to try to instat. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. Yeah, there's no proof. Yeah. Boom. Okay. But if they start saying oh, no and oh, no, boom. And they pointed and you now it becomes now they don't really gotta prove much because the conspiracy is a conspiracy is not hard to prove. You don't even have to prove it. You don't even have to prove it. Like, you just gotta go ahead and show all this guy know this guy and this guy know this guy. That's it. You done? L. Ch. But anyway, anyway, today, tomorrow, whenever you have a chance, I will scope out, like, if they're on you do that for me. Erase that today. And then I'm gonna go zero door 30 on the night for a while. Dark. Hey, we gotta wait and see. G. Next. Next month, next two months, three months. I don't know how long it's gonna take. Listen, I'm gonna tell you quickly. We need a plan where, let's say God forbid, they knock on your door one day or. Or like, whatever the case, someone's gonna let me know through. Through here. Hey, like a code or something. Yo, what if you know? So I don't know who you want to tell that to, and it's through here. But this Want to listen. I want to turn it. Yeah. You know where I stand. I know where you stand. You know what bread can be from you, which is. Yeah. And done. Let's keep this time. It might be a month, it might be two, it might be three. Hopefully it's even less. But, G, I need you just do what you can do. I know you're a gay. You know how to deal with. Deal with your people. And I promise, when it's all said and done, even though at the end of the day, it was. It's gonna cost. If you got it. If you got. I'm not saying this, but if you got it, and I can tell you, either you go to prison for 20 years or you got to give me half an hour or you don't melt. I think that you go. I. Give me a break. Point. So at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, I'm sure that. That there will be a little gift for me and. And. And like, for you. So let's just. Let's just do what we got to do. Gene, I'm sorry. Yeah. You just gotta. You. You gotta take care of your boy, though. I know that as soon as he sees the. That the school clears, that's when I. That's when I can tell them, hey, here, bro. You know, let me get that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Now, it all depends on how we move, G. It's. It's all on how we move. I got you.
- [59:23]
Annie Elise
So from there, the investigators got a warrant to search Sergio's phone. And sure enough, it showed that he had made several phone calls to Fausto. They were definitely in contact, but he insisted that he was innocent. He was still trying to say that he had nothing to do with this murder plot. At one time, he even wrote his family a letter where he said that all of these suspicions and all of these allegations against him were just entirely false. It wasn't true. He also talked big in public, saying that he was actually happy that the police were investigating him, because, according to Sergio, he had nothing to hide, and the investigation would prove that he was completely innocent. And he was still saying that when the police raided his house. On the night of Monday, June 28, an FBI squad stormed his $4.2 million home, searching it for any evidence that they could find. And at that exact same time, another team was at his office, checking to see if there was anything suspicious at Sergio's work. Now, the agents who were at Sergio's home were fully prepared for resistance or for violence. They showed up in full SWAT gear. They had armor, they had shields, helmets, everything. And instead of just knocking on the door and asking to come in and search, they set off flashbangs, those big explosives that make a lot of light, a lot of sound, where it's either meant to, like, drive Sergio out of the house or to get his attention. And after doing that, somebody then got on a megaphone and told Sergio that he needed to come out immediately. They said they had a warrant, that they were going to search the place whether Sergio liked it or not. And, I mean, it was a huge, noisy, like, showy production. The neighbors saw everything. They saw the FBI agents, they saw drones hovering over the house in the backyard. I think the drones were trying to make sure that Sergio didn't try to, like, flee on foot. But it was a whole thing chaos. I mean, a full scene. And for three hours, the teams were at Sergio's house and also at his workplace. But they never publicly said what they found found, if anything. But I do know that they found plenty at Tatiana's house because at the exact same time that they were going through all of Sergio's things, a group of police officers went to her house to collect evidence from her, too. There were so many squad cars on the street. I mean, they had their lights flashing. They had the road blocked off. So much so that some of Tatiana's neighbors thought that something had happened to her, that maybe she had been killed or hurt. Maybe Sergio's murder plan had finally worked out. Today's episode is sponsored by Better Help March is a reminder that strength and resilience don't mean doing everything alone. Therapy offers space to reset, reflect, and take care of your emotional well being, especially when life feels heavy. I've been very honest with you about my therapy journey. I believe it is such a great resource and tool for whoever feels like they need it. I personally use it to check in regularly and just, like, regulate and kind of like put myself in check. And better help connects you with licensed therapists who follow a very strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US with over 30, 000 providers and more than 6 million people served globally. They make it simple to find support that fits your needs. And if your match isn't right for you, that's totally fine. You can switch it anytime. But the truth is, your emotional well being matters. So find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com ae that's B E T-T E R H E L P.com ae. Well, the truth was, Tatiana was fine. Better than fine, actually. This was now her opportunity to hand over her ring camera footage, her clips from her security cameras, and everything else that she had that could prove that she had survived multiple attempts on her life. There might have also been other evidence that she was able to give as well. I'm not sure, because when different reporters reached out to her to ask her what was going on, she just declined to comment. Sergio also stayed silent. Whenever the press asked him for a statement, all he would say one way or another was that he was innocent. Well, then there was a second raid. On July 16, 2024, a huge SWAT team got together outside of his house right before dawn. It was right after 6am they let him know that they were there, and they told Sergio, look, you need to come out, you need to surrender. Yet Sergio refused. He was not willing to give himself up, which is really interesting when you break it down, right, because this whole time he had been on this, like, innocence campaign, saying he was a victim, too. He had nothing to do with anything. Yet now he's refusing to come out of his house. Well, three and a half hours went by with no progress either way. Sergio wouldn't come out. The police didn't want to go in and get him. Maybe it was because they weren't sure if he would be armed. They weren't sure if it would be dangerous and it would escalate the situation. But along the way, they started setting off those flashbangs in Sergio's house, just like they had done before. And while all of this was going on, everybody was trying to call Sergio and they were trying to convince him to just give himself up. And I'm talking professional hostage negotiators. They were calling him, his family, his friends, even the woman who he allegedly had been having that affair with, Nancy. They were all trying to call and reason with him. Sergio was talking to his lawyer through all of this. And at one time, the lawyer went to the police and said that Sergio was willing to turn himself in. He wanted to surrender peacefully. He didn't want to see this whole hostage situation blow up any further and become more intense than it already was. But it's hard to say if that was true, if the lawyer was accurately describing the situation, and if Sergio was being honest about his actual mental state. Because around 10am, after many hours, several loud banging noises came out of the house. They weren't the flashbangs that the police had set off. This was something else. And they were Loud enough that everybody could hear them outside. One bystander even caught the noise on camera and tweeted it afterward. The police knew exactly what those sounds meant, exactly what had happened. But still, to be safe, they brought in the fire department and the ambulances. And then everyone went into Sergio's house around 10:20am the ground floor was empty, so they headed up to the second floor. And there in Sergio's bedroom, they found him. He was dead of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound. So Sergio took his own life rather than face justice, rather than face the consequences for trying to kill his wife, Tatianna. And even though the things he did were horrible, and let's be clear, I think this guy was a truly horrible wannabe killer, there were people who loved him and they're grieving him now. That said, the people who are grieving him are doing it in private. And as of this recording, his Facebook profile still has not been converted to a memorial page yet. In fact, his account is private. Which I gotta say, it makes a little bit of sense because it would be weird to ask people to write nice, you know, eulogy messages or rest in peace kind of messages for somebody who died only because they were about to get caught for attempted murder. That's like asking people to write nice things on Brian Laundrie's page before his body was found, right? Nobody. No, no, no, no. That's not how it works. Yet still, one of his companies, Century Home Builders, put out this public statement on their Instagram. It is with great sadness that we continue to mourn the loss of our founder, Sergio Pino. In light of this difficult situation, we want to assure you that Century Home Builders Group remains strong. And we are committed to serving you with the same dedication and excellence that you have come to expect from us. And while I would expect a post like that from a company because they're not going to get into the nitty gritty drama of it all, it kind of seemed like that was the tone that carried through. Almost like a lot of people were trying to dance around the truth of what Sergio really did. For example, on one of the posts in his obituary online, it read, sergio, you were a good friend, always ready to join me on an adventure, and always honest, faithful and full of integrity. We both learned a lot from each other. I hope God understands the desperation you were driven to. I wish you well on this next journey. Now, I'm just glad that Tatiana had people around her to help her and support her, because I don't know if she would have survived all of this if it weren't for people like her best friend Lisa and her sister Aurora. They were the ones who got her to the hospital and got her diagnosed in the first place with that fentanyl poisoning. Now, yes, her sister ended up getting a target put on her back for her efforts, but she did the right thing and she very likely saved her sister's life. Tatiana even appeared on Lisa's podcast, Faith with Friends, where she gave her take on all of this. And that really just, just breaks your heart. But God is close to the brokenhearted, it says in the Bible. So I, I, I, I turned to friends, I turned to family, and, and ultimately God was the one who just mel, kind of mended my heart. He mended my, my wounds. And, and, and there's going to be suffering. And I've gone through not only relationship suffering, but I've gone through physical suffering. And, and again, Jesus was there. Now, you can probably tell from the dates that I've thrown out there that this case is still active. The investigation is ongoing. None of the people who Sergio allegedly hired to kill his wife have gone to trial yet, but I can tell you that all nine of them have been indicted. Now, I will say this too. Sadly, even though Sergio is dead and technically he shouldn't be able to hurt Tatianna anymore, he's still making her life difficult from beyond the grave. Because just one day before he took his own life, probably knowing already what he planned to do, he changed his will. He made it so that she would inherit nothing, sort of his final, like, f off to his wife. And he didn't just update his will. He got all of his affairs in order. He moved money around to different accounts. He signed paperwork naming other people as the new owners of different businesses and different accounts. And he literally calculated how much he would owe on a bunch of different bills in the next couple of months. Then he set that money aside so that whoever inherited his money after his death would be able to keep everything running smoothly. He also changed the documents for his companies so that instead of co owning everything. 5050 with Tatiana, he, he was the sole owner. It was so cold and so calculating from a man who was literally less than 24 hours away from taking his own life. His main goal was to just shut his wife out of everything. And I don't know exactly how all of that works. I would imagine that even with your business, it's like a bank account. If you're 50, 50 on something, doesn't the other person have to sign it or acknowledge It. Or be able to, like, you know, counter that. I don't. It just some. Maybe there's some other inner workings that I don't know about where she is fighting this, but it doesn't seem like somebody can just change all of their stuff to be the sole owner and, like, ice somebody out without their knowledge. Right. And in fact, her lawyers are fighting this, and they're trying to use the evidence of him trying to have her killed as part of this saying, like, look, this was all part of his master plan, his. His whole thing to attack her, to leave her with nothing. And they're going, you know, through all the courts, all the laws, all the motions, all the things, trying to fight this. But it is a pretty messy situation. If they own property jointly, you know, as tenants, by the entire. As husband and wife, then what would happen is the wife would automatically be entitled to all of the assets that were owned in that fashion. A judge today said deciding what they held together or separately is for another day. First she'll appoint someone, see the assets while lawyers square off. Now, here's a big twist and something that kind of, like, made my jaw drop. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, you might have seen that there was a woman sitting next to Tatiana in court just now. She was about an arm's length away from her. And if you're listening to the podcast, I mean, consider hopping onto YouTube later to watch this clip because it is interesting, because that woman who was sitting right next to her, it was Nancy Pastor, Sergio's mistress. Now, as for all of the money, the 350 million, we know he tried to ice Tatiana out of that, but he also tried to have his brother Carlos control the estate, saying that the money should go to his kids. Here's how it's going to be divvied up with the business owners. All of these things, however, some. There was some sort of wrinkle in that. And there was also allegations that Carlos, his brother, was involved in the whole murder for hire plot. Although I'll be clear, that is all allegations. It has not been proven, but it's just making everything really messy. So as of right now, the whole inheritance thing is still wrapped up in the courts. Nobody knows who's getting what money, when it's going to happen, what goes where. And frankly, the whole case is just a mess, every single part of it. But one thing that I still wonder about even now, after everything we know, is why did Sergio allegedly poison Tatiana in the first place? A lot of the news coverage said that he wanted to poison her and kill her because the divorce negotiations were going so poorly and she was going to try to take half of everything. However, when you think about it, the friends giving Brussels sprouts incident and the fentanyl poisoning were all from way before she filed for divorce. Before any negotiations could go bad. So was it because he really did want to be with his mistress, Nancy, and that's why she was at that court hearing too? Like, did he want to be with her, but he didn't want to divorce Tatiana, so he wanted to kill her. Then when she was going to divorce him, then it was like, game on foot, on the pedal. I really need to kill her. I don't know, I just. I can't figure out what his motive was. Or was he telling the truth when he said he had absolutely nothing to do with it? Was somebody else targeting Tatiana the entire time? Could it have been the brother Carlos, as people are alleging? I mean, I. My personal opinion is a big fat eye roll to that. I think. No, I think the writing is on the wall. But I'm curious to know what you guys think. In any event, it's kind of like, again, these greedy, greedy, wealthy people just get a divorce. I know you don't want to give up 150mil. I got it, I get it. Just do it. Because now you're dead. Your kids don't have their father. You tormented this woman who you were with for 30 years, like, to what end? Like, how did you win in this? Did the ends justify the means? I don't know. It just makes no sense to me. So I'm curious to know what you guys think the motive was behind all of this. Like, because again, the first poisoning that went on for years was years before the divorce. So what was the purpose of that? Why? And was he trying to kill her whole friend group with the Brussels sprouts? I mean, what. What the heck, right? So definitely let me know what you guys think. Thank you for tuning into another case. I will be back on the mic with you on Thursday with headline highlights where we are breaking down everything this week in the true crime world. Alright, guys, thanks for tuning in. Make sure to follow the podcast if you're not already, so that you don't miss these episodes in the future. And until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, don't join any cults and just get a divorce. All right, bye. Sa.