June 22, 2024 • 17 mins
Just before 7 AM on August 9, 2003, the Kleberg County Sheriff's office in Texas received a 9-1-1 from a man saying he had been shot. When police arrived at the scene of the man's home, they realized the victim was one of their own, Albert Benitez, a former police officer and border patrol officer who now spent his time training young police officers. He had been shot six times and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Reynolds had been kidnapped and taken away in Al's stolen car by the perpetrator. As details of the case came to light and another crime almost took Al's life once again, it began to become clear who really wanted to Al Benitez dead. Sources Murder Calls- Season 1 Episode 5- Death at the Door (info and audio source) Justia-ELIZABETH REYNOLDS v. THE STATE OF TEXAS--Appeal from 105th District Court of Kleberg County Snapped- Season 6 Episode 5-Elizabeth Reynolds
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dark-deeds--6216218/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, listeners, and welcome backto another episode of its crime Time.
On this episode, I chose acase I discovered on one of my favorite
shows called Murder Calls. This caseis a little different from the usual cases
I do, but I thought thisstory was a pretty wild one. I've
included a few snippets from Al speakingon the show Murder Calls, and I
apologize for the sound quality and everythingon those, but that's the only place
(00:23):
that you can find interviews from Al. This is the case of Albanitas and
Elizabeth Raynolds. All right, everyone, it's crime time. In August ninth,
(00:55):
two thousand and three, a nineto one one call was received just
before seven thirty am to the ClayburgSheriff's office by the victim of his shooting,
Albanitez. He had been shot sixtimes, with five hitting his lower
torsos such as his stomach in attestines, and one hitting his arm. Al
had been a police officer for manyyears. He spent years in border patrol
(01:17):
as well, and at this timehe had been in more of an instructional
role rather than on patrol. Hewas teaching young police officers, and this
role was a role that was lookedat as being highly respectable, and everyone
in law enforcement in the area knewwho Al was. Al's father had been
in the police force for forty fiveyears, and he was the first hispianic
(01:38):
officer on that force. Local officerswere the first to arrive unseen, as
I was waiting on a helicopter toarrive that would take him to a hospital
that could handle wounds of his magnitude. Officers say that when they arrived,
I was somehow still standing up despitebeing shot so many times. Al was
not the only victim in this case, as he informed officers that his green
nineteen ninety eight Crown Victoria had beenstolen and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Raynolds,
(02:02):
was kidnapped. She was put intohis car and the car was taken by
the assailant to make an escape.Officers immediately began searching for Al's car and
Elizabeth. Meanwhile, it was determinedthat Al had a lot of internal bleeding,
as he had shots to his liver, his spleen, bow, and
kidneys. Usually, they say peoplein this situation die within minutes from that
(02:23):
amount of internal bleeding, but officershad been there and waiting on the chopper
for around ten minutes at this time, and Al was still alive, but
his condition was grave. The chopperlanded in Al's front yard to pick him
up. Paramedics stated that Al wasvery pale from blood loss and he needed
surgery immediately or he was not goingto make it. At the scene and
(02:45):
on the way to the hospital,Al was more focused on finding Elizabeth than
on his own condition. Three yearsprior to this, Al and Elizabeth met
through OL's sister Linda at a party. Elizabeth had been from Kingsville and was
described as being just a small townwoman and she had a pet care business
babysitting pets while she was obtaining herpsychology degree on the side. She was
(03:07):
described as being pretty shy at thetime, and Al was described as being
the complete opposite of her. Hewas very charismatic, outgoing, he knew
how to treat women, and sothey kind of complimented each other in that
sense where he was really outgoing andknew how to talk to people and she
was kind of shy, and theystarted They started dating shortly after they were
(03:30):
introduced. The two had previously beenmarried, but they were separated from their
spouses. Technically, they were bothstill married to their spouses, and they
were both working on divorces at thetime of their meeting. A very large
man hunt was started to search forals cars so that they could rescue Elizabeth.
(03:50):
The perpetrator was described as being alarge man at around six foot two
and over two hundred pounds. Thescene looked as if there was a struggle
and a chase. The assailant hadchased Al down while shooting him, as
there was a trail of blood found. The entire doorframe on the back door
had been destroyed. Inside the house, there was blood all over. Officers
said it looked as if five peoplehad died in that house and Al had
(04:13):
put up a big fight. Atfirst, it was thought that maybe it
was an enemy that Al had madeduring as many years as an officer or
a border patrol agent. So thatmorning, at around seven thirty eight am,
Elizabeth Reynolds arrived at the police department. It was confirmed that she had
not been injured, and investigators contactedthe local Texas Rangers to conduct an initial
interview with her about her kidnapping.She seemed to be horribly distraught and had
(04:38):
been worried that Al had died.Police informed her that he was in surgery
at that very moment. So theweird thing about this was Elizabeth was not
missing very long at all, Iwould say, just based on their description,
maybe thirty to forty minutes, andthen she just magically appeared at the
police station. Very interesting. Sothe night before, Elizabeth had spent the
(05:00):
night at Al's home and she hadto leave that morning to check on her
dog sitting business. When she returned, a man began banging on the door
to get into the home. Shewas told by How to go to a
bedroom and hide while he took careof the intruder. Elizabeth heard the struggle
take place, and when she didn'thear any more gunshots, she attempted to
go outside and check on Al.The intruder put the gun to her neck
and forced her inside Al's car toget away from the scene. He held
(05:24):
the gun to her as she droveaway. Elizabeth told officers that while she
was driving down the road, theypassed police officers headed towards Al's home and
she wanted to flag them down,but she couldn't do to the gun put
to her head. The gunman,she says, jumped out of the car.
She said the shooter was big.He was wearing all black with a
sche mask. He had on blacklong sleeved shirt, black jeans, black
(05:46):
boots, and a black ski mask. Law enforcement continued to look at it
from the angle of Al having enemiesfrom his time as an officer. Along
the highway, officers found a blacklong sleeve shirt with flames and the West
Coasts cross on the front, andElizabeth says that that looked like the shirt
the gunman was wearing. At thispoint, Al had been in a coma
(06:08):
and of course couldn't provide any furtherdetails to the police, so they were
kind of left with doing their investigationand taking Elizabeth's word or taking her side
of the story and trying to investigatebased on that. Alid died several times
on the table during surgery, butthree days after the shooting he finally opened
his eyes. Half of his colon, a third of his left kidney,
(06:29):
and half of his small intestine hadbeen removed. Al stated, quote,
I did fear that he was outthere and that he might come back.
End to quote. They weren't sure, but they were still speculating the attack
was by an enemy he made asan officer. Because Alid spoke of a
photo that was released in the newspaperof he and his canine, and there
were fifty thousand dollars bounties on hishead for he and his dog at that
(06:54):
moment. So we thought maybe itwas a hit on him that had been
planned by the Cortel because they knewwhere he was, they knew what he
looked like, and things of thatnature from that newspaper article and photo.
At this time, officers waited outsideAl's hospital room to deny visitors and of
course to check who was coming totry to visit him and to protect him
(07:15):
in case maybe whoever tried to killhim would appear at the hospital and you
know, try to essentially assassinate himagain. Elizabeth came to visit him at
one point, but she had tobe turned away, and she was pretty
frustrated because she was his girlfriend,she was his woman, and she was
a victim in this, she youknow, said, so she shouldn't have
(07:38):
been denied what she was that Soat that point they were still investigating and
they finally had the chance to speakto Al about the whole situation. So
Allen Elizabeth had been described as havingan on again, off again roller coaster
romance. They would break up andthey would get back together again. Elizabeth
(08:01):
was kind of clinging. She wantedmore out of the relationship, and Al
had been afraid to solely commit toher and you know, get married right
away because they both had trust issuesfrom their previous marriages. Well, at
least Al did for sure, whichI don't blame him. He went through
you know, divorce and everything.He just wasn't ready to get married right
at that moment, and he justwanted to take things s low with her,
(08:22):
and you know, like like mostpeople do, start a relationship,
take your time, and if hefelt that she was marriage material, he
would obviously ask her. But shewasn't about this. She wanted full commitment,
marriage, everything. She was very, very clinging and very you know,
infatuated with him, and she justwanted to do the thing already,
(08:46):
you know, get married and bewith him. Police had asked Al some
questions in the hospital, and hehad wrote out some answers to their questions.
Of course, just because he hadwoke up from the koma, they
wanted him to walk them through themorning of the shooting. He says he
awoke at six o'clock am to shaveand shower, and when he was finished,
that's when he heard banging on thedoor. He thought it was one
(09:09):
of his buddies playing a trick onhim, simulating a drug rate or something,
which I'm not sure obviously if thisis a thing that happens, but
I guess from the fact that hementioned that, I would guess that it
does. So he thought, okay, you know, it's another officer or
something, one of my buddies playinga trick. They're banging on the door
really crazy, like an intruder.At first he thought that, but then
(09:30):
he answered the door and a manwas holding a gun to him, and
of course he didn't recognize this man, and he thought, all right,
this is real. This is definitelyan intruder. So he struggled to close
the door, but he finally gotthe door closed, and he thought the
man had fled, but the manhad somehow appeared behind him, and so
(09:52):
he appeared behind him in the houseand he shot him. The two ran
through the house, struggling while theshooter just tried continuing to shoot at al.
Al was then hitting the left armand he fell. He kept getting
up and he was shot three moretimes in the back in the Torso area,
and he was lying down when hesaw Elizabeth being taken away in his
(10:13):
Crown vic by the gunman. Andat this point this is when Al called
nine one one. When Al gavea description of the shooter, he stated
the shooter was Hispanic and he wasnot wearing a ski mask, and if
you remember, Elizabeth said that hewas wearing a mask. Elizabeth was interviewed
again at this point to be confrontedabout the discrepancy. She agreed to take
(10:35):
a polygraph test the next morning,but she didn't show up to the test.
She asked officers to meet her atthe office of her attorneys so she
could talk to them with her lawyerpresent. Elizabeth's lawyer tells officers Elizabeth had
actually misled them in a couple ofthe facts. He was not wearing a
ski mask, and he had notjumped out of the car well it was
moving, but he had actually gotout of the car at a traffic light.
(10:56):
She said she lied due to beingshaken up. No DNA evidence or
fingerprints were left behind from the shooter. I all had been released from the
hospital after being shot, so thiswas about a month after being shot.
He was finally released, and Elizabethhad been trying to take care of him
while he was going through his rehab. He said they rekindled their romance after
(11:20):
the shooting because he had seen heraround more now than before the shooting.
It's very difficult to go through reham. I had fragments in my spine and
so I had a lot of pain. She was a good, nice relationship.
I saw her more after the shooting. Now I was seeing her all
the time because it was important forme. As the two were trying to
(11:43):
rekindle their romance, they had evenplanned trips together and even went to Vegas.
They passed a wedding chapel in Vegasone night, and Elizabeth had brought
up upon getting married, but Iwasn't ready to get married yet, and
so he kind of was like,no, you know, no, I'm
not getting married yet. He hadmade that very clear that he just wasn't
ready. She was like actually jealous, she would, you know, ballistic
(12:05):
on me. After the night inVegas, Allen Elizabeth once again broke up
and decided to go their separate ways. But a few months later, Elizabeth
invited al over to her home fora dinner to see if maybe they could
reconcile, to see if maybe therewas some feelings there. Twenty minutes later,
fifteen minutes later, I'm in bed, shit, I don't feel good.
(12:28):
I got two of the writer's roomand passed out. You know,
the dodger told me that flatlined eleventimes. My heart stopped so like Al
had mentioned, about fifteen to twentyminutes into the dinner, he became deathly
ill and he was rushed to thehospital, and he had flatlined eleven times
in the hospital, but he wasresuscitated. Doctors informed Al that he had
(12:48):
been poisoned with rat poison. Althought that Elizabeth had poisoned him, and
he became convinced that she was alsobehind his shooting. Previously, it didn't
work, I used, She figuredhe I didn't get him this time.
I want to get him good therat poison that she wanted to do me
in. Investigators determined that Elizabeth hadbeen making repeated calls to a phone number
(13:11):
belonging to Francisco Perez. A photolineup was conducted for Al, as Francisco
had matched the description of the shooter. Al picked Francisco Perez out of the
lineup as being the one who shothim. Frankie Perez as everyone called him,
was brought in for an interview.The Texas Rangers presented him with the
evidence that he was a suspect inAl's shooting. They located a check for
(13:31):
two thousand dollars from Elizabeth to Frankie, dated for the day after Al's shooting.
Frankie told police that he met Elizabethtwo years earlier, during a time
when she and Al had been fightingand had been off at the time.
They met at a convenience store andFrankie liked her and he wanted to go
further into the relationship. She toldhim she could not be with him until
(13:52):
Al was gone. She explained thatAl was abusive to her and she wanted
him gone. She said she couldget Frankie a gun and some money,
and he wanted to be with herso bad that he would do anything,
including kill Al. Frankie was smittenby her. He was infatuated, he
was obsessed, and she had paintedthis big picture that Al was a complete
(14:13):
piece of crap guy. He wasabusive, tour and everything like that,
and that wasn't the case. Aldid not abuse her, but of course
Frankie didn't know Al and Frankie wasin love with her, so he believed
it and he wanted to be withher, and he thought, Okay,
if the only way to be withher is to kill her ex boyfriend,
I'm going to do it, andhe decided that's what he was going to
(14:37):
do. He was arrested during theinterview and Elizabeth was then taken into custody
that same night. Immediately, Elizabethhired a lawyer and refused to cooperate with
law enforcement any further. The pairwere both charged with attempted capital murder.
So the real story was that Elizabethleft Alic's home that morning, but not
to take care of her pet sittingbusiness. I actually went to pick up
(15:00):
Frankie. She brought him back toAl's home, telling him to wait outside
and come in after a while.With the gun, Elizabeth that opened the
laundry room door to let Frankie inafter Alix shut the front door. The
motive in this is still unclear becauseal had no life insurance policy, it
wasn't financial. They believed that itwas just because al wasn't one hundred percent
(15:22):
committed to her, like he didn'twant to marry her at that moment,
maybe you know, in the future, but he had went through that divorce
and he was taking things slow,and she, I guess believed that,
Okay, if I can't marry youand I can't have you, you won't
commit to me, then you're notcommitting to anyone else. So it's basically
that old saying of if I can'thave you, no one else can.
(15:45):
And that's basically what they've determined isher motive behind the shooting. Now it
also was probably the motive behind thepoisoning, but I believe her motive behind
the poisoning was probably, you know, to finish him off because she was
afraid that with al alive things mightcome to light, and obviously she had
a better chance of being caught,so she had to finish the job,
(16:08):
and of course she didn't succeed.Frankie Perez was then sentenced to sixty years
in prison in August two thousand andfive, and Elizabeth Raynolds was sentenced to
life in prison for solicitation of capitalmurder in September of two thousand and five,
and of course they both remain inprison to this day. And if
(16:30):
when she texts she's a fanatic.She's going to keep doing it. She
truly is a domestic terrorist ever sincethe morning. All right, everyone,
that concludes this episode of its crimetime. I hope you enjoyed, and
until next time,
Hello, listeners, and welcome backto another episode of its crime Time.
On this episode, I chose acase I discovered on one of my favorite
shows called Murder Calls. This caseis a little different from the usual cases
I do, but I thought thisstory was a pretty wild one. I've
included a few snippets from Al speakingon the show Murder Calls, and I
apologize for the sound quality and everythingon those, but that's the only place
(00:23):
that you can find interviews from Al. This is the case of Albanitas and
Elizabeth Raynolds. All right, everyone, it's crime time. In August ninth,
(00:55):
two thousand and three, a nineto one one call was received just
before seven thirty am to the ClayburgSheriff's office by the victim of his shooting,
Albanitez. He had been shot sixtimes, with five hitting his lower
torsos such as his stomach in attestines, and one hitting his arm. Al
had been a police officer for manyyears. He spent years in border patrol
(01:17):
as well, and at this timehe had been in more of an instructional
role rather than on patrol. Hewas teaching young police officers, and this
role was a role that was lookedat as being highly respectable, and everyone
in law enforcement in the area knewwho Al was. Al's father had been
in the police force for forty fiveyears, and he was the first hispianic
(01:38):
officer on that force. Local officerswere the first to arrive unseen, as
I was waiting on a helicopter toarrive that would take him to a hospital
that could handle wounds of his magnitude. Officers say that when they arrived,
I was somehow still standing up despitebeing shot so many times. Al was
not the only victim in this case, as he informed officers that his green
nineteen ninety eight Crown Victoria had beenstolen and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Raynolds,
(02:02):
was kidnapped. She was put intohis car and the car was taken by
the assailant to make an escape.Officers immediately began searching for Al's car and
Elizabeth. Meanwhile, it was determinedthat Al had a lot of internal bleeding,
as he had shots to his liver, his spleen, bow, and
kidneys. Usually, they say peoplein this situation die within minutes from that
(02:23):
amount of internal bleeding, but officershad been there and waiting on the chopper
for around ten minutes at this time, and Al was still alive, but
his condition was grave. The chopperlanded in Al's front yard to pick him
up. Paramedics stated that Al wasvery pale from blood loss and he needed
surgery immediately or he was not goingto make it. At the scene and
(02:45):
on the way to the hospital,Al was more focused on finding Elizabeth than
on his own condition. Three yearsprior to this, Al and Elizabeth met
through OL's sister Linda at a party. Elizabeth had been from Kingsville and was
described as being just a small townwoman and she had a pet care business
babysitting pets while she was obtaining herpsychology degree on the side. She was
(03:07):
described as being pretty shy at thetime, and Al was described as being
the complete opposite of her. Hewas very charismatic, outgoing, he knew
how to treat women, and sothey kind of complimented each other in that
sense where he was really outgoing andknew how to talk to people and she
was kind of shy, and theystarted They started dating shortly after they were
(03:30):
introduced. The two had previously beenmarried, but they were separated from their
spouses. Technically, they were bothstill married to their spouses, and they
were both working on divorces at thetime of their meeting. A very large
man hunt was started to search forals cars so that they could rescue Elizabeth.
(03:50):
The perpetrator was described as being alarge man at around six foot two
and over two hundred pounds. Thescene looked as if there was a struggle
and a chase. The assailant hadchased Al down while shooting him, as
there was a trail of blood found. The entire doorframe on the back door
had been destroyed. Inside the house, there was blood all over. Officers
said it looked as if five peoplehad died in that house and Al had
(04:13):
put up a big fight. Atfirst, it was thought that maybe it
was an enemy that Al had madeduring as many years as an officer or
a border patrol agent. So thatmorning, at around seven thirty eight am,
Elizabeth Reynolds arrived at the police department. It was confirmed that she had
not been injured, and investigators contactedthe local Texas Rangers to conduct an initial
interview with her about her kidnapping.She seemed to be horribly distraught and had
(04:38):
been worried that Al had died.Police informed her that he was in surgery
at that very moment. So theweird thing about this was Elizabeth was not
missing very long at all, Iwould say, just based on their description,
maybe thirty to forty minutes, andthen she just magically appeared at the
police station. Very interesting. Sothe night before, Elizabeth had spent the
(05:00):
night at Al's home and she hadto leave that morning to check on her
dog sitting business. When she returned, a man began banging on the door
to get into the home. Shewas told by How to go to a
bedroom and hide while he took careof the intruder. Elizabeth heard the struggle
take place, and when she didn'thear any more gunshots, she attempted to
go outside and check on Al.The intruder put the gun to her neck
and forced her inside Al's car toget away from the scene. He held
(05:24):
the gun to her as she droveaway. Elizabeth told officers that while she
was driving down the road, theypassed police officers headed towards Al's home and
she wanted to flag them down,but she couldn't do to the gun put
to her head. The gunman,she says, jumped out of the car.
She said the shooter was big.He was wearing all black with a
sche mask. He had on blacklong sleeved shirt, black jeans, black
(05:46):
boots, and a black ski mask. Law enforcement continued to look at it
from the angle of Al having enemiesfrom his time as an officer. Along
the highway, officers found a blacklong sleeve shirt with flames and the West
Coasts cross on the front, andElizabeth says that that looked like the shirt
the gunman was wearing. At thispoint, Al had been in a coma
(06:08):
and of course couldn't provide any furtherdetails to the police, so they were
kind of left with doing their investigationand taking Elizabeth's word or taking her side
of the story and trying to investigatebased on that. Alid died several times
on the table during surgery, butthree days after the shooting he finally opened
his eyes. Half of his colon, a third of his left kidney,
(06:29):
and half of his small intestine hadbeen removed. Al stated, quote,
I did fear that he was outthere and that he might come back.
End to quote. They weren't sure, but they were still speculating the attack
was by an enemy he made asan officer. Because Alid spoke of a
photo that was released in the newspaperof he and his canine, and there
were fifty thousand dollars bounties on hishead for he and his dog at that
(06:54):
moment. So we thought maybe itwas a hit on him that had been
planned by the Cortel because they knewwhere he was, they knew what he
looked like, and things of thatnature from that newspaper article and photo.
At this time, officers waited outsideAl's hospital room to deny visitors and of
course to check who was coming totry to visit him and to protect him
(07:15):
in case maybe whoever tried to killhim would appear at the hospital and you
know, try to essentially assassinate himagain. Elizabeth came to visit him at
one point, but she had tobe turned away, and she was pretty
frustrated because she was his girlfriend,she was his woman, and she was
a victim in this, she youknow, said, so she shouldn't have
(07:38):
been denied what she was that Soat that point they were still investigating and
they finally had the chance to speakto Al about the whole situation. So
Allen Elizabeth had been described as havingan on again, off again roller coaster
romance. They would break up andthey would get back together again. Elizabeth
(08:01):
was kind of clinging. She wantedmore out of the relationship, and Al
had been afraid to solely commit toher and you know, get married right
away because they both had trust issuesfrom their previous marriages. Well, at
least Al did for sure, whichI don't blame him. He went through
you know, divorce and everything.He just wasn't ready to get married right
at that moment, and he justwanted to take things s low with her,
(08:22):
and you know, like like mostpeople do, start a relationship,
take your time, and if hefelt that she was marriage material, he
would obviously ask her. But shewasn't about this. She wanted full commitment,
marriage, everything. She was very, very clinging and very you know,
infatuated with him, and she justwanted to do the thing already,
(08:46):
you know, get married and bewith him. Police had asked Al some
questions in the hospital, and hehad wrote out some answers to their questions.
Of course, just because he hadwoke up from the koma, they
wanted him to walk them through themorning of the shooting. He says he
awoke at six o'clock am to shaveand shower, and when he was finished,
that's when he heard banging on thedoor. He thought it was one
(09:09):
of his buddies playing a trick onhim, simulating a drug rate or something,
which I'm not sure obviously if thisis a thing that happens, but
I guess from the fact that hementioned that, I would guess that it
does. So he thought, okay, you know, it's another officer or
something, one of my buddies playinga trick. They're banging on the door
really crazy, like an intruder.At first he thought that, but then
(09:30):
he answered the door and a manwas holding a gun to him, and
of course he didn't recognize this man, and he thought, all right,
this is real. This is definitelyan intruder. So he struggled to close
the door, but he finally gotthe door closed, and he thought the
man had fled, but the manhad somehow appeared behind him, and so
(09:52):
he appeared behind him in the houseand he shot him. The two ran
through the house, struggling while theshooter just tried continuing to shoot at al.
Al was then hitting the left armand he fell. He kept getting
up and he was shot three moretimes in the back in the Torso area,
and he was lying down when hesaw Elizabeth being taken away in his
(10:13):
Crown vic by the gunman. Andat this point this is when Al called
nine one one. When Al gavea description of the shooter, he stated
the shooter was Hispanic and he wasnot wearing a ski mask, and if
you remember, Elizabeth said that hewas wearing a mask. Elizabeth was interviewed
again at this point to be confrontedabout the discrepancy. She agreed to take
(10:35):
a polygraph test the next morning,but she didn't show up to the test.
She asked officers to meet her atthe office of her attorneys so she
could talk to them with her lawyerpresent. Elizabeth's lawyer tells officers Elizabeth had
actually misled them in a couple ofthe facts. He was not wearing a
ski mask, and he had notjumped out of the car well it was
moving, but he had actually gotout of the car at a traffic light.
(10:56):
She said she lied due to beingshaken up. No DNA evidence or
fingerprints were left behind from the shooter. I all had been released from the
hospital after being shot, so thiswas about a month after being shot.
He was finally released, and Elizabethhad been trying to take care of him
while he was going through his rehab. He said they rekindled their romance after
(11:20):
the shooting because he had seen heraround more now than before the shooting.
It's very difficult to go through reham. I had fragments in my spine and
so I had a lot of pain. She was a good, nice relationship.
I saw her more after the shooting. Now I was seeing her all
the time because it was important forme. As the two were trying to
(11:43):
rekindle their romance, they had evenplanned trips together and even went to Vegas.
They passed a wedding chapel in Vegasone night, and Elizabeth had brought
up upon getting married, but Iwasn't ready to get married yet, and
so he kind of was like,no, you know, no, I'm
not getting married yet. He hadmade that very clear that he just wasn't
ready. She was like actually jealous, she would, you know, ballistic
(12:05):
on me. After the night inVegas, Allen Elizabeth once again broke up
and decided to go their separate ways. But a few months later, Elizabeth
invited al over to her home fora dinner to see if maybe they could
reconcile, to see if maybe therewas some feelings there. Twenty minutes later,
fifteen minutes later, I'm in bed, shit, I don't feel good.
(12:28):
I got two of the writer's roomand passed out. You know,
the dodger told me that flatlined eleventimes. My heart stopped so like Al
had mentioned, about fifteen to twentyminutes into the dinner, he became deathly
ill and he was rushed to thehospital, and he had flatlined eleven times
in the hospital, but he wasresuscitated. Doctors informed Al that he had
(12:48):
been poisoned with rat poison. Althought that Elizabeth had poisoned him, and
he became convinced that she was alsobehind his shooting. Previously, it didn't
work, I used, She figuredhe I didn't get him this time.
I want to get him good therat poison that she wanted to do me
in. Investigators determined that Elizabeth hadbeen making repeated calls to a phone number
(13:11):
belonging to Francisco Perez. A photolineup was conducted for Al, as Francisco
had matched the description of the shooter. Al picked Francisco Perez out of the
lineup as being the one who shothim. Frankie Perez as everyone called him,
was brought in for an interview.The Texas Rangers presented him with the
evidence that he was a suspect inAl's shooting. They located a check for
(13:31):
two thousand dollars from Elizabeth to Frankie, dated for the day after Al's shooting.
Frankie told police that he met Elizabethtwo years earlier, during a time
when she and Al had been fightingand had been off at the time.
They met at a convenience store andFrankie liked her and he wanted to go
further into the relationship. She toldhim she could not be with him until
(13:52):
Al was gone. She explained thatAl was abusive to her and she wanted
him gone. She said she couldget Frankie a gun and some money,
and he wanted to be with herso bad that he would do anything,
including kill Al. Frankie was smittenby her. He was infatuated, he
was obsessed, and she had paintedthis big picture that Al was a complete
(14:13):
piece of crap guy. He wasabusive, tour and everything like that,
and that wasn't the case. Aldid not abuse her, but of course
Frankie didn't know Al and Frankie wasin love with her, so he believed
it and he wanted to be withher, and he thought, Okay,
if the only way to be withher is to kill her ex boyfriend,
I'm going to do it, andhe decided that's what he was going to
(14:37):
do. He was arrested during theinterview and Elizabeth was then taken into custody
that same night. Immediately, Elizabethhired a lawyer and refused to cooperate with
law enforcement any further. The pairwere both charged with attempted capital murder.
So the real story was that Elizabethleft Alic's home that morning, but not
to take care of her pet sittingbusiness. I actually went to pick up
(15:00):
Frankie. She brought him back toAl's home, telling him to wait outside
and come in after a while.With the gun, Elizabeth that opened the
laundry room door to let Frankie inafter Alix shut the front door. The
motive in this is still unclear becauseal had no life insurance policy, it
wasn't financial. They believed that itwas just because al wasn't one hundred percent
(15:22):
committed to her, like he didn'twant to marry her at that moment,
maybe you know, in the future, but he had went through that divorce
and he was taking things slow,and she, I guess believed that,
Okay, if I can't marry youand I can't have you, you won't
commit to me, then you're notcommitting to anyone else. So it's basically
that old saying of if I can'thave you, no one else can.
(15:45):
And that's basically what they've determined isher motive behind the shooting. Now it
also was probably the motive behind thepoisoning, but I believe her motive behind
the poisoning was probably, you know, to finish him off because she was
afraid that with al alive things mightcome to light, and obviously she had
a better chance of being caught,so she had to finish the job,
(16:08):
and of course she didn't succeed.Frankie Perez was then sentenced to sixty years
in prison in August two thousand andfive, and Elizabeth Raynolds was sentenced to
life in prison for solicitation of capitalmurder in September of two thousand and five,
and of course they both remain inprison to this day. And if
(16:30):
when she texts she's a fanatic.She's going to keep doing it. She
truly is a domestic terrorist ever sincethe morning. All right, everyone,
that concludes this episode of its crimetime. I hope you enjoyed, and
until next time,
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.