[Narrator] A loving husband and father
with so much to live for-
He did everything for his family.
He was an amazing daddy.
He loved life.
He loved to be happy.
[Narrator] Is ruthlessly gunned down at home
in front of his wife.
When he was laying there on the floor,
nothing can prepare you for that.
They stood over the victim's body with a shotgun
and delivered a fatal blow. [gun firing]
This wasn't just a random killing.
This was an assassination.
[Narrator] Police track down several suspects.
She was absolutely a possible person who was involved.
She had all the motive.
He began bragging about other involvements
that he had had with acts of violence.
And we knew that he and the victim
had some bad blood between 'em.
[Narrator] Just when police think
they might never catch the killer-
We were pretty frustrated
and the wind was kinda taken out of our sails.
[Narrator] The case takes a mind-blowing turn-
She sang like a songbird.
He had been in possession of the guns used.
Then law enforcement was pretty stunned by that.
[Narrator] To reveal a killer no one imagined.
This is unbelievable.
It was someone that if you passed on the street
would look as innocent as they come.
The darkest, blackest soul.
[soft suspenseful music]
[knife slicing]
[gentle music]
[Narrator] Known for its white-sand beaches,
Panama City lies on the Gulf Coast of Florida's Panhandle.
Our biggest industry is tourism,
with millions of people coming to enjoy the Gulf Coast.
The community is very tight.
You know most of your neighbors.
You know everybody that you do business with
on a personal name basis.
[Narrator] But in the early hours of October 6th, 1998,
the town's sense of safety is rocked by a chilling 911 call.
And at 3 o'clock in the morning,
there was a call from a woman
that her husband had been shot and killed.
There was a lotta shots. [gun firing]
I ran back to the bedroom.
The killer was in the house.
He was coming after us.
I literally thought everybody was gonna die
and I was so scared.
[Narrator] Police race to the home,
expecting to encounter an active shooter.
Their first thought is clearing that house,
making sure that the killer's not still in the house.
As the officer entered,
the first thing that he noticed
was the victim's body in the kitchen area.
When they started calling out
that they were the police and they were there,
the wife was in a bedroom.
She had retreated to seek safety for her and her children,
which were still in the house.
This is all just happening so quickly.
I don't know how I'm supposed to trust
that whoever's out there is not the killer.
[Narrator] Officers find no sign of the gunman
and assure Angeleka it's safe to come out of the bedroom.
The wife came out and she was very, very hysterical.
When they walked me back out,
when he was laying there on the floor, I knew he was gone.
You have somebody murdering your husband and shooting you,
all in seconds.
Nothing can prepare you for that.
[Narrator] Angeleka identifies the man as her husband,
30-year-old Ron Stovall.
The children were taken to Ron's parents' house.
They didn't live too far away.
And the victim's wife went to the police department
where we could talk to her.
[Narrator] With Angeleka and the children
out of harm's way, detectives can examine the crime scene.
As a responding detective,
I go in and start looking around.
Ron, the victim, he had been shot three times in the back,
once in the hip, and there was a shot
to the back of the head. [gun firing]
[Narrator] Investigators find an important clue
close to the victim's body.
There were some bloody footprints there on the floor.
Part of those footprints had what looked like the letter H,
two Hs kinda next to each other on the sole.
Whoever was wearing that shoe
had perpetrated at least part of the crime,
because they would have been standing in the victim's blood
and then exiting the residence following the homicide.
[Narrator] The Stovalls' front door
also reveals how the murder unfolded.
We could see her husband was shot outside,
and then the killer shot through the door
and he got into the house
and he had shot Ron in the back of the head.
[Narrator] As daylight breaks,
a forensic team scours the outside of the home.
They found a handgun projectile
out on the sidewalk near the driveway.
The killer shot what clearly looks like a handgun round
to the lower extremities
and then you have a shotgun round to the head.
This was overkill.
He stood over the body and delivered a fatal blow.
When you see that type of crime scene,
you're looking immediately for someone
that displayed some type of grudge
or emotional hatred for the victim.
[Narrator] While forensics wrap up their investigation
at the crime scene,
detectives head to the police station
to speak with Ron's wife, Angeleka.
We really took note how emotionally overtaken she was.
But she had been an eyewitness to this scene,
so she was critical in our investigation.
I can't even comprehend what's going on.
He was dead.
I did not wanna live without him.
[sentimental music]
Ron was truly amazing.
He was always full of life,
very kind, sincere, very real.
[Narrator] Born in Panama City,
Ron Stovall was one of four siblings.
He was very close with his family.
He was always out doing stuff,
doing stuff with school, doing stuff with the church.
[Robert] He was well known within the community.
Ron served almost four years in the Navy.
He had felt a commitment to his country
and enjoyed his naval service.
[Narrator] Ron always dreamt of having a family.
And in 1989, he met his first wife, Tina Trexler.
Tina and Ron got married and they had one child,
they had a daughter.
[Narrator] The marriage was a rocky one
and after six years it fell apart.
Soon after, Ron met single mom Angeleka
at a local beach bar.
He said he knew from the second he saw me
that he loved me.
Our first night, we went out on a date,
took me to the beach, to the ocean, put out a blanket,
listened to some Marvin Gaye, had Italian food.
It was very romantic.
He stole my heart, and I was never in love before.
I just fell right into his arms.
[Narrator] In 1997, the couple married.
Just like Ron, Angeleka had a child
from a previous relationship.
A year later, their family of four became five
when they had a daughter of their own.
Ron took on several jobs.
He worked as a waiter.
He worked as a delivery man for the UPS companies.
He was very dedicated
and he just got his massage therapy license.
He did everything for his family.
We were very happy.
[Narrator] Who would wanna gun down
this loving husband and father in cold blood?
At the station, Angeleka tells police
how the murder unfolded.
I was able to tell the cops everything I knew
and I didn't try to hold anything back.
Ron got up at about 3 o'clock every morning,
and I would get up and make his lunch
for him to take to work.
[Narrator] She explains how Ron left the house
and was suddenly ambushed.
There were some shots. [gun firing]
I didn't know what was going on.
[rising suspenseful music]
He collapsed on the ground
and the killer tried coming through the door,
so I was fighting with him.
He got his hand through, I grabbed the gun,
and he opened the door with his hand
and I looked down that barrel of that silver gun
and he shot it. [sobbing]
[Narrator] The bullet just misses Angeleka.
I ran back to the bedroom.
[Narrator] As Angeleka shares more details
about the deadly attack,
detectives gain important information about the killer.
She described him as a male, brown eyes, brown hair,
and he had some type of facial hair, possibly a mustache.
She indicated hearing the assailant say to Ron
as he was delivering the fatal gunshot wound,
"This is for her."
It sounded very evil.
[Narrator] Angeleka tells police
she doesn't know the meaning behind the killer's words.
We need to find out who "her" was
and we needed to find out
what made this so personal to "her."
This wasn't just a random killing.
This was an assassination is what it was.
[Narrator] Investigators ask Angeleka
who might want Ron dead.
Immediately she went to Tina, his ex-wife.
Miss Stovall indicated that the relationship
between Ron and his ex-wife was volatile.
There was a custody issue over their daughter.
Things got a little bit more sticky
with the custody setup,
and Ron was filing for full custody of the child.
[Narrator] Could the bitter custody battle
have turned deadly?
This was an enormous red flag for us as a team.
Whoever "her" was
may have in fact had to do with his ex-wife.
It's probably one of the worst situations
we ever deal with
is with a man and woman and children involved,
it would just about make a person do anything.
[Narrator] Coming up,
police uncover a key piece of evidence-
He brings out a shotgun round that is similar to the one
that we've recovered from our crime scene.
[Narrator] Leading to a disturbing plot-
The photo identification, that made him a prime suspect.
It was his eyes.
What I saw was the same person.
[Narrator] And a sickening betrayal no one saw coming.
They planned this whole thing.
None of us had ever worked a case like this.
I do not understand how somebody can have so much hatred.
[soft suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Police investigating the cold-blooded shooting
of 30-year-old Ron Stovall are looking into his relationship
with his ex-wife, Tina Trexler.
We knew that there was an extreme amount of tension
between Ron and his ex-wife
and there was a custody battle that was forthcoming.
Ron and Tina originally shared custody,
but Ron had filed a petition basically saying
that he wanted full custody of the child.
Up to this point, Tina was that individual
that had the most to gain from Ron's death.
Perhaps she had not been the one on scene,
but it still doesn't eliminate her
as having some type of involvement.
This looked like
certainly an intentional and a premeditated killing.
Mighta been a killing for hire.
[Narrator] Detectives speak to Ron's friends and family
to get a clearer picture of the animosity with Tina.
When Ron remarried, it was okay, but not really okay.
Tina as well as her family did not like the new wife,
and the situation deteriorated between all of them.
[Narrator] As Ron and Angeleka's family grew,
Tina's behavior appeared increasingly erratic.
Tina began feeling that Ron
was trying to work Tina outta the picture as the mother,
and so that had really kinda amplified the rub
and the tension.
There was all this crazy fighting.
And it was too hard for his daughter.
We were just concerned.
This custody hearing was coming up
in about two or three weeks
from when this incident happened.
Tina was absolutely a possible person
who was involved in this murder.
She had all the motive.
[Narrator] Could the custody battle
have driven Ron's ex-wife to murder?
Investigators bring Tina in for an interview.
One of the things that was most alarming
when we sat down with Tina was that there was no remorse,
no emotional activity on her part
that she was even concerned that he was dead.
[Narrator] When investigators ask
about her relationship with Ron,
Tina's answer is surprising.
We knew there were a lot of hostilities.
But when Tina was interviewed,
she kinda painted that the relationship with them
was cordial, it was friendly.
It's a red flag for us as investigators
because she's already showing signs of deceit.
[Narrator] With suspicions raised,
detectives grill Tina about her whereabouts
in the hours leading up to Ron's murder.
She told us the night before the homicide
she had went to work at a local restaurant.
She was a bartender.
She got off sometime between 11:00 and midnight.
She had went home and sat and watched TV with her mother.
Then after that, she had went to bed
and at the time of the homicide itself,
she had been home asleep.
[Narrator] Before police can press Tina further,
the interview is interrupted.
Her mother had hired a lawyer for her.
The attorney made contact with Tina
and immediately ended the interview.
[Narrator] Unable to finish questioning Tina,
detectives look into her alibi.
Police were able to establish
that she had been at work that night 'til 11:30, 12 o'clock.
[Narrator] Investigators also speak with Tina's mother,
Ann Trexler.
She was the grandmotherly type
and was helping Tina get back on her feet
and help her get through this divorce.
Ann come across as a very down-to-earth nice lady,
a housewife, and she confirmed that Tina
had been at the house with her, watching TV.
[Narrator] Though Tina's alibi checks out,
police still theorize
that she could have hired someone to kill her ex-husband.
We conducted a preliminary investigation
into her financial records.
Everything was consistent
with that of just a working-class individual
making normal purchases.
[Narrator] One week into the investigation
with no concrete evidence pointing at Tina,
police look for other suspects.
They quickly discover Tina wasn't the only one
in a dispute with Ron.
Tina had a boyfriend.
His name was Adrian Harris,
and there had been some confrontations
between Ron and Mr. Harris
regarding the way Ron was treating Tina.
And in fact, at one point there had been some threats made
on Harris's part.
[Narrator] Had Adrian decided to confront Ron,
leading to deadly consequences?
As we begin looking into Mr. Harris,
whether he was paid to do it
or whether he did it on his own, we weren't sure.
But the concern was that he may have perpetrated this
to make good with Tina for the purpose of helping her.
[Narrator] Investigators track down Adrian
over 900 miles away, near Baltimore.
[Robert] When we talked with Adrian,
he did acknowledge that there was some bad blood
between the two of 'em,
but he really kinda downplayed the significance.
The day of the murder, he told us he went to work.
He had clocked in before 7:30,
and the time of Ron's death was 3:30 in the morning.
[Narrator] Detectives check travel times
between Baltimore and Panama City.
There was not enough time to get to Panama City
from several states away to do the murder and go back home.
[Narrator] While Adrian is ruled out,
someone close by catches the investigators' attention.
We talked to his roommate, Guy McIngvale.
When the officers went to talk to Adrian's roommate,
they discovered the description of the killer
that Angeleka gave to the law enforcement,
the roommate fit it quite well.
Guy McIngvale had brown eyes, brown hair,
and he had a mustache.
Now we had another individual that we wanna look at.
Once we saw Guy fit the description
and he was a roommate with Adrian Harris
and we knew that Harris and the victim
had some bad blood between them,
we thought maybe he went there and killed him.
[Narrator] Is this the break police have been hoping for?
Investigators rush to confirm
if Guy is a true match for the gunman.
We got pictures of him to show the victim's wife,
Angeleka, see if he coulda been the one
that she saw that night.
[Narrator] Back in Panama City,
detectives include the picture of Guy into a photo lineup.
Angeleka was an essential witness.
She was a witness who can identify
the individual that did the crime.
Her photographic identification, it was surprising.
[soft suspenseful music]
[Narrator] It has been two weeks
since 30-year-old father Ron Stovall
was shot to death at home in front of his wife, Angeleka.
Now, detectives hope she can identify the shooter
from a photo lineup.
She picked out Guy McIngvale as being the killer.
It was his eyes.
There was something very, very similar.
What I saw was the same person.
There was an identification of Guy McIngvale
that made him a prime suspect.
We have Miss Stovall's positive identification of Guy
as the individual that was in front of their house.
There's a sense of relief
that begins to sweep through the unit
because you're finally onto a really developing hot lead.
We wanna now try to establish
what type of physical evidence do we actually have
between the victim, Ron, and Guy.
[Narrator] Detectives get a search warrant
and race over to guy's Baltimore residence.
They make a telling discovery.
We search his items,
and looking at me right square in the face
was a pair of shoes consistent with the shoe impression
that we had at the scene.
So, we're moving in the right direction.
[Narrator] Police bring Guy
to the local police station for questioning.
Although we still were missing the key pieces of evidence,
the guns and such as that,
we really felt like we're starting to put together
the edges of the puzzle.
In speaking with Guy, what he provided us for an alibi
was that he was in Maryland working.
At the end of work, he went home, slept.
The next day, he got up, went to work,
and so that was his alibi.
[Narrator] Detectives check out Guy's story.
We had had an opportunity to speak with Guy
at this place of employment
and we were able to collect some video
that correlated with his timeline of what he said.
There was physically no way possible
for him to have been here in Panama City
at the time of the crime.
It turned out that what Guy McIngvale
said to the police was correct.
Guy had an alibi.
[Narrator] Eager to further prove his innocence,
Guy volunteers to take a polygraph.
He successfully passed that,
so we were able to clear Mr. McIngvale.
[Narrator] For police, it's a disappointing setback.
We were pretty frustrated, and it's a roller coaster.
It's one of those now you're back in the lows again
and the wind was kinda taken out of our sails.
Angeleka wanted to help the officers along,
but her perception at the time of the event
was clouded by the terror,
the trauma of the incident itself.
I remember him being the same person.
It stuck in my head like that, but I was wrong.
It's difficult when you see something that quick
that you can say, "Okay, this is the individual
"that did the crime."
We thought we had this thing solved,
but you just gotta go regroup,
see what you still have to do,
and you just start from there.
[Narrator] Desperate for new leads,
investigators review Ron's autopsy report.
The autopsy confirmed two different weapons.
They told us that it was a .357 round
that he had been shot with, plus the shotgun shell.
One big thing we learned
was that shotgun residue got in his face.
We think that Ron was laying there on the floor
and this guy's saying, "This is for her,"
and then presses that shotgun to the back of his head
and Ron's looking at him when that went off.
[Narrator] The forensics report
contains another crucial detail
that could lead police to the killer.
These were close-proximity rounds,
and so we knew that this was something personal.
And the shotgun shell was paramount.
It was a unique round.
We would be able to identify it,
so that was a plus in our corner.
[Narrator] Detectives share details of the firearms
with local law enforcement,
hoping to track down their owner.
We work so closely
with the different police departments in the area.
We talk to them all the time in case something turns up.
[Narrator] As investigators continue
to search for answers,
Ron's loved ones struggle with their grief.
The best thing in my life [sniffling] was that life.
I didn't think I was strong enough
to go through anything [sniffling] without him.
He was always full of life.
Losing your soulmate,
you can't even explain how much pain that was.
It still is.
It'll never go away.
[Narrator] Three weeks after Ron's murder,
the investigation is threatening to grow cold.
But then police receive a tip that reignites the case.
We got a call
from the Panama City Beach Police Department.
They had a home invasion out there on the beach.
During that arrest, they recovered two handguns
and a short-barreled shotgun.
They knew from the investigation of the crime scene
where Ron Stovall was killed that a shotgun had been used
and that a handgun had been used.
That coincides with what we're looking for.
We wanted to go over the evidence they had
and the circumstances.
[Narrator] Could these be the weapons
connected to Ron's murder?
The gentleman that they arrested,
we started looking into him
and looking at his background and everything,
and he had a pretty lengthy criminal history,
had actually been linked to some murders in the past.
He really caught our attention.
This turned out to be a big break.
[soft suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Police in Panama City
are investigating the cold-blooded homicide
of husband and father Ron Stovall.
They now believe the missing murder weapons
were used in a home invasion robbery
less than 15 miles away.
When meeting with this investigator
from the Beach Police Department,
what he produced from his crime scene was this:
a handgun and a sawed-off shotgun.
That coincides with what we're looking for.
Then he brings out a shotgun round that is similar
to the one that we've recovered from our crime scene.
We have everything that meets the parameters.
Now we really believe we're on the right path.
[Narrator] The weapons are sent off to the crime lab.
While detectives await the results,
they dig deeper into this new lead.
At the Beach Police Department,
they identified the individual as a Tony Alberto Perez.
He went by Tony.
He had an extensive criminal history.
There was some acts of violence in his past
and some drugs in his past.
They really felt like he was a pretty violent individual.
[Narrator] Another detail catches their attention.
Tony had brown eyes, brown hair, and facial hair.
He looks just like our guy.
He met Miss Stovall's physical description to a tee.
[Narrator] Investigators head to the nearby jail
where Tony is being held for the home invasion.
He come across as a kind of a likable guy.
He was laughing and cutting up.
But the more he talked, more red flags went up.
He began bragging about other involvements
that he had had with acts of violence.
He was completely nonchalant about it.
[Narrator] Detectives turn up the heat
and ask Tony if he killed Ron Stovall.
Tony totally denied any involvement, any knowledge of Ron,
any knowledge of anything
that may have happened on that date,
and basically told law enforcement, "It's not me.
"I'm not the person."
[Narrator] Despite Tony's denials,
investigators believe he's withholding information
and they obtain a search warrant.
Tony Perez had items that he owned
stored at the landlord's house.
And we're searching through Tony Perez's items over there,
and then we find a pair of work-boot-type shoes.
[Narrator] While inspecting the footwear,
detectives notice a key detail.
Those work boots had what looked like the letter H,
two Hs kinda next to each other on the sole.
It looked like what we had found at the crime scene.
We got those sent right off to the lab.
[Narrator] As police hunt
for more incriminating evidence against Tony,
the ballistic results come back.
And we actually got confirmation
from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
that the guns collected that Tony had been in possession of
matched perfectly ballistically
to the rounds that we had recovered from our scene.
That evidence right there
is one of the biggest things you could have
in any murder case.
If you can find the weapons
and find the person who has the weapons, that's major.
So, now that we can put Tony,
at least the guns at the scene,
that gave us the ability to change gears with Tony.
We had the information and ammunition that we needed
to confront Tony about what really happened.
[Narrator] Detectives head back to the jail
to interview their prime suspect.
As Tony began to kinda spin his version
of what happened to Ron,
now he acknowledged having a little knowledge of it.
But he said that he had loaned his guns to someone else
and that he didn't know what they did with 'em.
He didn't have any involvement in it,
but what he says is that he had heard Ron was dealing drugs,
and that's why he was killed.
We had already done a thorough background on Ron.
We knew Ron was not involved in any drug business.
We had talked to too many people.
He was a happily-married man trying to make it in life,
that's what Ron was.
Then, Tony gave us information that would kinda put us
on some individuals that might be involved,
and we tracked those individuals down
and we were able confirm 100%
that they had nothing to do with Ron's death.
People sometimes when they are being questioned,
especially when the police have some of the goods on them,
will make up stories, and that's what Perez did.
As far as the police could determine,
that was a total concoction by Tony Perez.
[Narrator] Detectives believe Tony is lying,
but wonder what motive he could have to kill Ron.
We were still kind of struggling
to establish how Tony would have came into Ron's life.
Going through Tony's belongings,
we found some cell phone bills there,
and they were linked to the name of Kim Miller.
Kim Miller turned out to be Tony's girlfriend,
so we went to talk to Kim.
[Narrator] Kim Miller is the owner
of a Panama City hair salon.
Tony and Kimberly,
they had been in a romantic relationship for several months.
We were told by Kim that Tony,
he was doing odd things for her.
He would come around the hair salon
and he would actually shampoo customers' hair, clean up,
sweep up the shop, things like that.
[Narrator] Investigators look for a connection
between Tony and Ron Stovall.
Kim was familiar with the Stovall homicide.
She claims that she first heard about it
because she had a customer that had called in
and canceled her hair appointment,
saying how her ex-son-in-law had been murdered.
[Narrator] When detectives ask Kim
for the customer's name, they receive a startling response.
The connection kinda came out of nowhere
and almost as a surprise.
Kim's client is Ann Trexler,
who happens to be Tina's mother; Tina, Ron's ex-wife.
[gun firing]
[soft suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Police believe husband and father Ron Stovall
was shot and killed by criminal Tony Perez.
They're now exploring a potential link
between Tony and Ron's ex-wife, Tina Trexler.
When Kim Miller indicated that she styled
Tina's mother Ann Trexler's hair,
then law enforcement was pretty stunned by that.
[Narrator] Ann Trexler is the mother
of Ron's ex-wife, Tina.
We knew of the ongoing hostilities between Ron and Tina.
When we talked with Kim Miller,
we asked her if she had ever met Tina, his ex-wife,
and she had met her on of a couple of occasions.
Tina's mother Ann, however, was a regular client,
was in there on a regular basis.
[Narrator] With Tina previously eliminated
from the investigation,
detectives ask Kim more about Tina's mother,
52-year-old Ann Trexler.
She told us Ann's talking to her
and telling her about these problems
with her daughter going through this custody battle
with her ex-husband, and she was upset about it.
She's afraid she's gonna lose her grandchild.
Ann had told Kimberly
the Trexlers had to get a second mortgage on their home
to provide legal assistance to Tina.
[Narrator] Could the custody battle
be the motive behind Ron's murder?
At that point, we were trying to determine
exactly who she was.
She hadn't really been on our radar at all.
We knew that she was Tina's mom.
We knew that she was Tina's alibi at the time of this crime.
Ann Trexler, no criminal history,
supposedly a wonderful grandmother and fine Christian lady
who would never be involved in something like this.
[Narrator] Investigators contact Ron's wife, Angeleka,
and learn his custody dispute with Tina
brought out a different side to his former mother-in-law.
Apparently, they had a good relationship
when Tina and them were married,
but it was just a constant, constant battle
over visitation rights, always just such a fight with her.
[Narrator] Looking to see if Ann
could have anything to do with Ron's murder,
detectives bring her in for an interview.
When we talked to her,
she stated to us that there was no way
that she had anything to do with killing.
She did not want him dead.
Matter of fact, she said she loved him.
And then Ann Trexler wanted a lawyer.
And once they get a lawyer, you're done talking.
So, we're kind of getting a heightened sense of concern
as far as her involvement in the case
because she decided to basically not cooperate
with the investigation.
[Narrator] Having hit a wall with Ann,
detectives get a breakthrough when forensics results arrive.
We got confirmation that Tony's boot was consistent
with the shoe impression that we had at the scene.
Also, Tony had been in possession of the guns used.
Now you've got a personal item
putting him at the crime scene.
At that point, we knew we had our shooter.
That's a big piece of evidence right there.
[Robert] We were able to go back to Tony
and present him with what we knew.
He admitted killing Ron.
His very words were, "Okay, I did it."
It's the shortest confession to a murder
I've ever taken in my career.
[Narrator] Investigators push Tony
to reveal how the crime unfolded,
and what he tells them is shocking.
Tony told us that Ann Trexler
wanted to have her ex-son-in-law killed
and was willing to pay to have it done.
When we found out Ann Trexler
wanted to hire somebody to kill Ron, I mean, this just...
This is unbelievable.
Ex-mother-in-law gonna get involved
and pay somebody to kill her ex-son-in-law?
He had met Ann at the hair salon.
She was complaining about Ron
and that the two of them had worked out a deal
for Tony to kill Ron in exchange for about $10,000
to be paid to Tony.
[Narrator] On November 10th, 1998,
Tony is charged with the first-degree murder of Ron Stovall,
but the case is far from over.
Detectives turn their attention
back to alleged mastermind Ann Trexler.
Searching for answers, detectives pull Ann's phone records.
The phone records were a treasure trove of information.
They showed a lotta phone traffic
between Kim Miller and Antonio Perez and Ann Trexler.
It clearly looks like Kimberly
was the middle person between Ann and Tony.
There were phone calls
between the Trexler House and Kim Miller
at strange hours of the night for strange amounts of time
that could not be explained away by saying,
"We're setting up our rinse-and-set."
Another thing, we were able to show that Ann Trexler
received a phone call from Kim Miller
the morning right after Ron's death.
So, there were links to tie
Ann Trexler to this plot,
but there was no hard concrete connection
of evidentiary value.
We needed something else that would show that Ann
in fact had hired Antonio Perez
to kill Ron Stovall.
Tony Perez, he says that he had come to an agreement
with Ann Trexler: Kill Ron for $10,000.
[Narrator] Detectives scour Ann's financial records
for any signs she had commissioned Ron's murder.
We have withdrawals from her bank accounts
that coincide with when Tony says he was paid
and the amount that he was paid.
So, now we have proof that what Tony's telling us
is accurate regarding being paid.
With regards to Ann,
none of us had ever worked a case like this,
so it was kind of a shock that all of these pieces
were kinda lining up to support
she is the motivation to this entire crime.
But we felt like we still could not make the case
against Ann Trexler.
We needed someone to corroborate what Tony Perez said.
We needed somebody else that can draw the line
between the money and the murder of Ron Stovall.
We have to go back to the middleman in the case,
which is Kim Miller.
She's the whole key to this thing.
She was looking at criminal charges.
But without her, we're not going to get Ann.
She is the only way that we're going to have
true accounts of what happened.
We went and picked up Kim Miller and brought her in.
Kim Miller, she stonewalled.
She said, "No, I'm not talking to you.
"I'm not telling you anything."
[soft suspenseful music]
[Narrator] Investigators working the Ron Stovall homicide
have charged shooter Tony Perez with murder
and believe the mastermind
is Ron's former mother-in-law, Ann Trexler.
But to build an ironclad case,
they need Tony's girlfriend and go-between, Kim Miller,
to share what she knows.
However, Kim is refusing to talk.
It really wasn't until we actually laid out
in front of her the phone records
and drew the lines between Ann and her and her and Tony
that we were able to convince her
to cooperate with the investigation.
We let her know she was gonna be charged
with accessory to the murder
and she's facing life in prison.
[Narrator] Prosecutors offer Kim a deal:
a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying
against Ann Trexler.
Eventually, Kim takes the deal.
Kim sang like a songbird.
Kimberly was very adamant
that there was a deep-seated hatred for Ron
on Ann Trexler's part.
She indicated that on many occasions
Ann Trexler ranted and raved about Ron Stovall,
how bad he was, that he was gonna remove her granddaughter.
She wished that somebody would take him out,
and it got more and more.
Finally, Kim said, "Okay, if you're really serious,
"I know somebody who might help you."
Kim lets her know that her boyfriend, Tony Perez,
will get rid of him for $10,000,
and that's how the deal came about.
[Narrator] Kim then reveals how,
in the early hours of October 6th,
Tony drove to the Stovall house to lie in wait for Ron.
About 3 o'clock in the morning,
when Ron went out to his vehicle,
Tony took a shot at him with a pistol.
And Ron ran inside and slammed the door behind him
and Tony Perez fired more shots,
which struck Ron in the back.
[Narrator] To finish Ron off,
Tony tried to force his way inside the house.
Angeleka, she tried to hold the door,
and Tony Perez fired a shot, it almost struck her.
She ran to the other room to call 911.
Tony Perez came in and he found Ron on the floor
and walked up with a shotgun, said, "This is for her."
Boom.
He killed Ron Stovall right there.
When he made the statement, "This is for her,"
it's our belief that Tony was doing this on Ann's behalf.
Tony came there to do one thing,
and that was to kill Ron Stovall.
Once he had made his getaway,
he was able to reach out to Kimberly and make notice to her
that in fact the job had been done.
And then, of course, she notified Ann.
[Narrator] Kim swears Ron's ex-wife, Tina Trexler,
wasn't involved in their murderous plan.
Law enforcement looked at Tina Trexler.
Her mother, Ann, may have confided in her,
but no one could get to that much evidence
to put Tina in the situation of taking Ron's life.
Ann Trexler, she tried to be the grandmotherly type,
but she planned this whole thing.
Ann Trexler's thought pattern was,
"Ron Stovall is getting ready
"to take my only precious granddaughter away from me,
"and I won't have visitation.
"And he left my daughter, he married somebody else.
"He should not be able to get away with this."
From an investigator's perspective,
Ann carried just as much weight as Tony.
Without Ann, Tony would not have even known
who Ron Stovall was.
[Narrator] On February 15th, 2000,
Ann Trexler is formally charged
with the murder of her former son-in-law, Ron Stovall.
And the cops called and said, "Got her, she's in jail."
She is morbidly evil.
The darkest, blackest soul ever.
And then she'll put on a face like she's just Miss Innocent.
The killer, he didn't know Ron.
Ann knew Ron.
I do not understand how somebody can have so much hatred
in their body, in their mind, in their heart.
[Narrator] In court, shooter Tony Perez pleads guilty
and is sentenced to life without parole.
In February 2000,
Kim Miller is sentenced to five years probation
as part of her deal with prosecutors.
Finally, in 2001, Ann's trial begins
and she pleads not guilty.
Ann Trexler took the stand.
She testified about not being involved.
She testified about her concerns of her grandchild
and the fact that she had absolutely no involvement.
[Narrator] On May 14th, 2001,
the jury finds Ann Trexler guilty of first-degree murder.
She's sentenced to life in prison without parole.
There's a little peace.
I'm in a little peace in this horrible thing.
A little justice, I guess.
Gets a little emotional sometimes.
It's not just me.
You know,we're a whole team working this thing.
We celebrated, I'll just say that.
We celebrated this one.
[Joe] The most striking thing to me
is that these are all ordinary people.
And it's a little bit frightening
to think that people who are walking around
living everyday ordinary lives would be capable of this.
The one that initiated it all was someone
that if you passed on the street
would look as innocent as they come.
[Narrator] For Ron's family,
his loss continues to be deeply felt.
[somber music]
I miss him and I love him so much. [sobbing]
My poor daughter, she never got the honor that she deserved.
She never got her daddy.
We celebrate his life all the time.
He loved life, he loved to be happy.
And I'm trying so hard to keep his memory alive,
very much so.
I will never forget how amazing Ron was.