Maria Sosa, a 43-year-old woman originally from Mexico, hired a hitman to kill her husband after he started to struggle financially. [Courtesy of Montgomery County District Attorney's Office ]
Ramon Sosa, a 50-year-old man from Houston, Texas, had a perfect life. He was married to the love of his life, Maria Sosa who is seven years younger than him, and he owned a boxing gym. However, he started to have financial difficulty after 2015 and it began affecting he and his wife's relationship. Maria told Sosa she wanted a divorce. He hoped that they would work it out eventually.
He then got a phone call from an old friend, Gustavo, who he coached before. Gustavo had "been in trouble in the past, but had turned his life around." Sosa thought Gustavo was joking "when he called and said he needed to see" him, "because someone wanted to kill" him.
Maria Sosa, a 47-year-old Mexican national, obtained the U.S. Greencard after she married Ramon Sosa. She offered a man $2,000 to haver her husband killed. [Courtesy of Montgomery County District Attorney's Office ]
Gustava explained Maria said the main motive she wanted her husband killed was "financial reasons". He told Sosa, "she was clearly serious and had held her fingers to her head, in a gun-firing gesture."
After the chilling call, Gustavo and Sosa began planning how to gather more evidence of Maria's murderous intention. This time they were prepared. Gustavo wore "a wire" and taped "her offering money to have" Sosa killed. Gustavo told Maria he knew two hitmen and she offered $2,000 to have her husband of 5 years killed.
After hearing his wife wanted to hire a hitman to kill him, Sosa was beyond shocked. The divorced father of three children, Mitchell, Mia, and Cris who are 26, 22, and 24, met Maria in a salsa club, Mi Luna, in 2007. Sosa was immediately dazzled by her beauty. It took them three years to get married. They finally got married in April 2010.
After the wedding, all of Sosa's friends were envious because Maria would give him "manicures, pedicures and foot rubs." She would give him massages. Everyone around him thought he met a woman of every man's dream. To Sosa, everything was just perfect, or so he thought.
Even when he was hit financially, Sosa thought it would all work out until Maria told him she wanted a divorce.
Learning what Maria devised against him, Sosa and Gustavo turned in the evidence to Montgomery County Police Department. Police and local FBI joined hands to pan out a plan to fake Sosa's death.
The authorities applied special makeup on Sosa to look as if he had been shot in the head. They then drove him to a remote desert and placed him in a shallow grave.
Sosa recalled the moment, "Lying in the dirt, pretending to be dead, was terrifying. When I first met Lulu, I certainly didn't expect our relationship to end like that."
Three days after taking photographs of bloody Sosa in a grave, an undercover officer who was pretending to be a hitman, showed the photos to Maria in a parking lot. Sosa later heard from the officer that his wife "laughed" when she saw the pictures of him dead.
Maria was arrested immediately after. She pleaded guilty to soliciting the murder of her husband Ramon Sosa. She was sentenced to 20 years in jail. The last laugh was on Sosa.
After the last court appearance, Sosa tried to live a normal life. He is now in a new relationship with a woman but he wished not to have her identity revealed. Everything with Maria Sosa is completely over but Sosa said, "still, it would be wrong to say this hadn't had a lasting impact on me. I'll never be the same man again."
Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
