00:00:04
[Music]
00:00:16
spencer doesn't want a divorce and if
00:00:18
there has to be one there will only be
00:00:20
one winner
00:00:24
do you understand
00:00:26
you don't win spencer
00:00:28
frank spencer had somebody else to
00:00:30
overcome his father-in-law rocco a man
00:00:33
with connections to the mob
00:00:36
i think rocco left him with the message
00:00:39
that any further disputes between him
00:00:42
and his daughter could result in frank
00:00:45
getting hurt or even killed
00:00:48
maria's threats to frank were so
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detailed so gnarly so disgusting saying
00:00:54
that she would cut off his hands that he
00:00:56
could never hold his children again this
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is the kind of thing that you learn from
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knowing a father who has roots in the
00:01:03
mafia
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detectives in hemlock pennsylvania were
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about to unravel the life and crimes of
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the sanuti family and the marriage of
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frank spencer and maria sanuti spencer
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[Music]
00:01:47
[Music]
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maria sanuti grew up in new jersey part
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of a large italian-american family they
00:01:57
were close
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maria spencer was one of four kids she
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had three siblings
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maria sanudi was
00:02:05
beautiful smart
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maria had attended a law school in
00:02:11
georgia an unaccredited law school
00:02:14
although she was barred and licensed to
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practice law in georgia
00:02:17
the law a profession chosen by a young
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woman whose father had chosen a life of
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crime
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maria's father was rocco franklin rocco
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was an individual who had
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essentially resided in state prison for
00:02:32
a majority of his adult life
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despite his prolonged absences rocco
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franklin was a big influence on daughter
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maria's developing personality
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i think in many ways maria may have
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learned from an early age that
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abuse and crime are things that are no
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problem that perhaps are even rewarded
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in the way that she grew up she's
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she doesn't have any problem with her
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dad being a tough guy
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after maria's mother teresa divorced
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rocco she and her children moved to
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pennsylvania where maria would
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eventually meet her future husband frank
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spencer
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they relocated to the selinsgrove
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area which is very close in proximity to
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where frank spencer grew up in columbia
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county
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frank and maria met in columbia county
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where frank and his family ran their
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junkyard business
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frank was instantly attracted to someone
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he found dynamic confident
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i think maria was a very
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type a personality maria seemed like an
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amazing person at first glance she was
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outgoing people liked her she
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was able to really bring out the best in
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people it seemed frank spencer had a
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very different personality he was
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popular in the central pennsylvania
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community where he lived frank spencer
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was just one of those really nice guys
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he had a lot of friends and they all
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considered him
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his best friend
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i think sometimes people are attracted
00:04:05
to people who maybe represent a part of
00:04:08
their personality they're missing or
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a part of their life that they're
00:04:11
wishing to have more of and i think
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certainly maria looked like that to
00:04:14
frank in the beginning because she was
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kind of exciting you couldn't really
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predict what she was going to do she was
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adventurous
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in 1997
00:04:23
they elope
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i think
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for maria it was something that she
00:04:29
would just typically do and for frank it
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kind of seemed exciting okay let's do
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this you know we're in love why not
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for frank it represented maybe this
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hopeful future where he would just have
00:04:38
this excitement for the rest of his life
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but in only a positive way over the
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years they have two children
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cyrus their son and frankie their
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daughter
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fast forward to the early noughties and
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maria and frank looked like they were
00:04:52
living the classic all-american family
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life
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they had two
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lovely children
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both of them very athletic and prominent
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in their community each of the kids had
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a great deal of friends
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but appearances of family contentment
00:05:09
were deceptive
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frank and maria by all accounts had a
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very acrimonious relationship they were
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at odds with each other
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constantly
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making up and breaking up seemed to be
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the course of their marriage
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defense attorney christian hoy got to
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hear maria's take on the relationship
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just seemed that frank and maria's
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marriage was
00:05:32
really suffering from a great deal of
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bickering and infighting between them so
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it was a difficult marriage by all
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accounts
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frank's commitment to his job became a
00:05:44
source of conflict between the couple
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frank's father decides to retire
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in 2006
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and
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frank
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then at that point takes over the family
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business which is a junkyard
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and you know he's a good guy and he
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treats all the employees like family so
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this is this whole new family that's
00:06:05
coming into their world now and maria's
00:06:07
not so sure she likes it
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she's just not cut out for this
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[Music]
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this is not the life that she signed up
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for she pined for that life that she was
00:06:18
adventurous and risk-taking on a daily
00:06:21
basis now she couldn't do that as much
00:06:23
she had so many responsibility to tend
00:06:25
to children family matters
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and i think she grew increasingly
00:06:29
unhappy and blamed her husband for it
00:06:33
and when the spencers disagreed they
00:06:35
didn't do it calmly
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the police were called several times as
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this violence and a relationship
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escalated
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the local police had been involved in
00:06:49
numerous domestic disputes between the
00:06:51
two individuals property damage property
00:06:54
theft each one pointing the finger at
00:06:56
the other
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maria would later tell her defense
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lawyer that both sides were equally at
00:07:01
fault
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constant fighting between themselves
00:07:05
some issues regarding infidelity between
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themselves and both of them
00:07:10
but when it came to arguments maria
00:07:12
appeared to give as good as she got
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when these incidents would happen frank
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would call the police
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he wanted it on record but he didn't
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really want to press charges on her i
00:07:25
think frank definitely saw that this was
00:07:27
a pattern of escalation and i think he
00:07:30
started to fear more and more for his
00:07:32
own safety and that's why he wanted to
00:07:33
have the police document all of these
00:07:35
events and he still would call the
00:07:36
police and he would make them file the
00:07:38
reports
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because i think he really knew that
00:07:42
if he wasn't able to stop maria or if
00:07:45
she didn't desire the change herself
00:07:47
that eventually it was going to come to
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blows and that he would suffer those
00:07:51
consequences
00:07:53
in 2006 frank spencer decided enough was
00:07:57
enough
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he served maria with a divorce petition
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but he didn't leave her
00:08:02
the couple continues to live together
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they're trying to keep things as normal
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for the children as they can
00:08:08
frank is such a wonderful father that he
00:08:11
proposed this amazing
00:08:13
way to keep the children as stable as
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possible and that is for the children to
00:08:16
stay in the home and for the parents to
00:08:18
travel back and forth into the homes so
00:08:20
that they can have that stability that
00:08:22
children so desperately need
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as splits go it was far from
00:08:27
straightforward
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even though they they actually kind of
00:08:30
physically separated from each other
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there were many times where they
00:08:34
reconciled let's say between
00:08:36
you know 2007
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and 2010. there were many instances
00:08:42
where they'd reconcile maria would
00:08:43
return to the family home for months
00:08:46
they would have another disagreement the
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police might get involved they had many
00:08:51
of those make up break up reconciliation
00:08:54
moments
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according to her friends despite their
00:08:57
difficulties maria did not want to
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divorce frank
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a fact
00:09:02
which put his life in danger
00:09:05
she's told people over the years that if
00:09:07
he ever threatened to divorce her she'd
00:09:09
kill him well now she's talking more and
00:09:11
more openly about what she wants to do
00:09:16
frank first reported one of maria's
00:09:18
threats to kill to the hemlock police
00:09:19
department in 2007.
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yet maria sometimes managed to present a
00:09:24
reasonable face to the world and to
00:09:27
frank
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saturday february 6th at 3 57
00:09:34
p.m listen i know for some strange
00:09:37
reason you'll think that
00:09:39
i was attempting to threaten you or i
00:09:41
was attempting to
00:09:43
scare you back to me or i don't know how
00:09:46
your mind works but
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listen i
00:09:56
mixed signals from mrs sanuti spencer to
00:09:58
her husband frank still living together
00:10:01
would the divorce happen and if it did
00:10:04
what future if any did frank spencer
00:10:07
have
00:10:16
despite divorce proceedings franco
00:10:18
maria's on off relationship continued
00:10:20
punctuated by frequent violent incidents
00:10:26
in 2008
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maria is arrested
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when she causes a disturbance at the
00:10:32
school where her daughter attends she
00:10:34
goes to pick up her daughter and her
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mother-in-law shows up at the same time
00:10:38
and she gets in this scuffle with her
00:10:41
maria is charged with disorderly conduct
00:10:43
harassment
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and
00:10:46
endangering a child because she doesn't
00:10:48
buckle up the child in the car
00:10:50
eventually the prosecutor doesn't think
00:10:51
he can really make all those cases so he
00:10:54
arranges a plea deal and she pleads to
00:10:56
disorderly conduct and she pays a 600
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fine
00:11:00
during the scuffle maria had warned
00:11:02
frank's mother she would have him killed
00:11:05
not the first time not the last time
00:11:07
that she issued that warning
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[Music]
00:11:19
former homicide detective rod demery
00:11:21
suspects that at the time no one in
00:11:23
columbia county was too concerned by
00:11:25
maria suniti spencer's brash words
00:11:29
i think in hindsight you know obviously
00:11:31
people wish they had taken these threats
00:11:33
more seriously but the reality during
00:11:36
that particular time people are
00:11:37
listening and dismissing
00:11:39
and probably chalking it up to what they
00:11:40
did oh she's a black widow but not
00:11:42
really thinking that it would actually
00:11:44
happen
00:11:49
perhaps on her own maria would not have
00:11:51
acted on her threats but in early 2009
00:11:55
she gained a powerful ally
00:11:57
her father
00:12:00
rocco franklin was eventually paroled
00:12:02
from state prison in 2009 he relocated
00:12:06
to a town
00:12:07
about 70 miles away from where maria and
00:12:11
frank lived in columbia county it was
00:12:14
harrisburg pennsylvania which is the
00:12:16
capital of pennsylvania when rocco was
00:12:18
paroled
00:12:20
a number of threats and a number of
00:12:22
interactions between maria and frank
00:12:24
took place
00:12:25
namely maria suggesting that her father
00:12:29
rocco would cause him harm or hurt him
00:12:32
if there were any further domestic
00:12:34
disputes between maria and frank and she
00:12:38
often jokes to friends that you know if
00:12:40
if
00:12:40
my dad's out of prison you know maybe
00:12:42
frank will behave
00:12:44
voice mail messages recovered from
00:12:45
frank's phone hint at how maria was
00:12:48
using her father's freedom to play games
00:12:50
with frank i was surprised to find that
00:12:53
my father wants an apology
00:12:56
that wasn't a little thing
00:13:00
funny ways
00:13:02
just want you to say sorry and i got
00:13:04
nothing to do with it
00:13:07
it appeared from frank's interaction
00:13:09
with his friends that he was very
00:13:11
concerned about rocco franklin being
00:13:13
paroled from prison and being out and
00:13:16
available perhaps to
00:13:19
injure frank or cause him harm or
00:13:21
confront him over the difficulties he
00:13:23
was having with maria i thought i'd let
00:13:26
you know
00:13:27
because i care about you because i
00:13:29
wanted you back not because i wanted to
00:13:31
frighten you
00:13:33
anything i just wanted you to know
00:13:35
that he wanted an apology if you want to
00:13:38
be stubborn about it that's on you
00:13:40
take care
00:13:48
frank was
00:13:49
afraid deathly afraid of
00:13:51
rocco
00:13:52
maria on the other hand was pretty proud
00:13:55
that it was her father i think that gave
00:13:56
her a sense of power
00:13:58
maria probably had been whispering in
00:14:00
her father's years all these years when
00:14:03
he was in prison about how horrible
00:14:05
frank was and how they needed to ruin
00:14:07
his life and now that maria's father was
00:14:09
out of prison they could finally make it
00:14:10
a reality
00:14:12
in many ways maria's father was probably
00:14:14
looking for that chaos again looking for
00:14:16
that excitement and looking for a reason
00:14:17
to commit crime once again
00:14:20
despite the threats and frank's obvious
00:14:22
fear he and maria continued to swing
00:14:24
between blazing rows and passionate
00:14:27
reconciliations
00:14:28
until that is frank met someone new
00:14:33
frank started dating a woman named julie
00:14:35
dent very seriously and i believe that
00:14:39
really was the final
00:14:42
moment between the two that drove them
00:14:44
apart and drove them to getting the
00:14:46
final divorce decree in 2012.
00:14:49
when frank met his new woman julie dent
00:14:52
maria became really angry
00:14:54
probably for a sense of loss of control
00:14:57
or reality actually sitting in that they
00:15:00
were truly getting divorced
00:15:02
she would leave threatening messages and
00:15:05
and tell julie you know you don't really
00:15:07
think he loves you or things to kind of
00:15:09
shake her in the relationship naturally
00:15:12
once frank began to date julie dent who
00:15:16
by all accounts was fairly squared away
00:15:18
she had a home of her own she worked she
00:15:21
had a good job a well-paying job
00:15:24
she would often encounter the kids frank
00:15:27
would have custody of the children uh
00:15:29
julie would spend time with the children
00:15:31
and frank i think that was something
00:15:33
that naturally bothered maria and caused
00:15:36
a lot of problems between the parties
00:15:40
from text messages later discovered it
00:15:42
was clear that maria had become
00:15:44
increasingly paranoid about julie
00:15:46
spending time with the children
00:15:48
some of those text messages dealt with
00:15:50
everyday custody issues involving frank
00:15:53
and julie and maria's children
00:15:56
and a lot of them
00:15:58
frankly seemed legitimate from maria's
00:16:01
perspective she was protecting her
00:16:02
children she was inserting herself on
00:16:05
behalf of her children
00:16:07
hey julia taurian spencer
00:16:09
do me a favor don't watch my children do
00:16:12
not get between me and frank like you
00:16:15
and my children do you understand me
00:16:18
maria was upset about those events and
00:16:20
that created a whole separate set of
00:16:23
animosity between the the parties
00:16:27
on the 31st of october 2009 halloween
00:16:30
the harassment by maria and her father
00:16:32
rocco turned into a more tangible
00:16:34
criminal act
00:16:36
the first property crime involved a
00:16:39
breaking and entering into frank's
00:16:42
mother's property where the junkyard was
00:16:44
housed
00:16:45
and different financial documents were
00:16:47
stolen from the property but what's odd
00:16:50
is that the only thing that's taken are
00:16:53
business records business records that
00:16:55
you know could prove how much frank
00:16:57
actually is making
00:16:59
but nothing else is taken it was always
00:17:01
believed that those financial documents
00:17:04
related to custody and support issues
00:17:06
that were being played out in court in
00:17:09
2009 and 2010.
00:17:13
strangely the documents that were stolen
00:17:15
from frank's business showed up at
00:17:17
maria's doorstep
00:17:20
again very peculiar
00:17:23
they only benefited maria
00:17:26
the records were potential ammunition
00:17:28
for maria in the spencer's now
00:17:30
acrimonious divorce
00:17:32
and she made little secret of the fact
00:17:34
that they had been stolen for her
00:17:36
benefit
00:17:39
[Music]
00:17:46
shaken but not undeterred frank
00:17:48
continued dating judy dent
00:17:51
they are madly in love and and they they
00:17:53
don't want this to ruin that they even
00:17:55
book this romantic caribbean vacation
00:17:59
maria wasn't going to allow that to
00:18:01
happen
00:18:02
the night before they're to leave on
00:18:04
their vacation
00:18:06
maria calls frank and she she says you
00:18:09
know really i need to talk to you about
00:18:11
something
00:18:12
maria invited frank ironically to a
00:18:15
hotel in a neighboring town on the night
00:18:17
of january 23rd of 2010.
00:18:21
on that night maria invited frank to
00:18:24
dinner and then to stay overnight in the
00:18:26
hotel
00:18:28
she sent a message to the new woman in
00:18:29
frank's life too her reasons for
00:18:31
spending the night with frank became
00:18:33
clear the following morning
00:18:35
when frank returned to his home on the
00:18:38
morning of the 24th he found a number of
00:18:41
fire trucks the fire marshal and local
00:18:43
police
00:18:44
surrounding his burned out building
00:18:48
frank's mother's home
00:18:50
burns down
00:18:52
luckily
00:18:54
she wasn't there and he wasn't there the
00:18:56
family dog is killed in the fire and the
00:18:59
house is destroyed
00:19:02
as the wreckage continued to smolder the
00:19:05
following morning the architect of the
00:19:06
attack made herself known
00:19:09
maria shows up and she clearly drives by
00:19:12
to be seen she's smiling and she
00:19:15
obviously wants people to know that she
00:19:17
had some involvement in this or control
00:19:20
over this particular crime
00:19:24
it was believed and argued by the
00:19:26
commonwealth that maria engineered that
00:19:29
fire using rocco franklin to set the
00:19:33
fire and destroy the property
00:19:35
maria sends frank these taunting
00:19:38
messages you know one of them is karma
00:19:40
is just a wonderful thing i mean since
00:19:42
you've just torn our life apart
00:19:44
you know yours your life just went up in
00:19:47
flames it seems fair doesn't it the
00:19:49
theory in court of course was that maria
00:19:52
was paying frank back for taking a
00:19:54
vacation with julie in january of 2010
00:19:58
and as a consequence the home was burned
00:20:00
to the ground
00:20:04
the fire is is determined to be an arson
00:20:08
but there's just not evidence to show
00:20:10
who's behind it so it remains unsolved
00:20:15
frank began to fear what his estranged
00:20:17
wife and her father would do next
00:20:21
it seemed for sure to be escalating over
00:20:23
time each act was worse than the last
00:20:26
and i think this is when frank really
00:20:27
became fearful for his life that
00:20:30
this is going to end in disaster and
00:20:31
possibly his own death
00:20:33
[Music]
00:20:49
in the summer of 2010 it was julie
00:20:51
dent's turn to feel the heat of maria
00:20:53
sanuti spencer's wrath
00:20:55
it began with a face-to-face threat
00:20:58
right after the bombing of
00:21:01
frank's mother's house
00:21:03
julie was confronted by maria at a game
00:21:07
and maria told her your house is next
00:21:12
then more vitriolic text messages
00:21:14
followed you better watch your julie you
00:21:17
know her life
00:21:19
is is about to to take some dangerous
00:21:21
turns too she's going to lose her job
00:21:23
she's going to lose you she's going to
00:21:24
lose everything so she's constantly
00:21:27
threatening this couple she's trying to
00:21:28
break them apart that she's really angry
00:21:32
no one took maria's threat seriously
00:21:35
in late summer she struck again
00:21:40
2010 another vacation had been planned
00:21:43
with julian frank
00:21:45
uh on august 25 of 2010 while julie dent
00:21:49
was asleep in her home
00:21:50
uh by herself her home was set on fire a
00:21:54
side window was smashed out
00:21:58
fluid was placed into the home and
00:22:00
ignited by a road flare
00:22:02
and the home suffered significant fire
00:22:05
damage julie thankfully was able to get
00:22:08
out of the home escaped
00:22:10
off of a roof and was able to escape
00:22:13
without being harmed nevertheless her
00:22:15
home was
00:22:16
completely destroyed by the fire
00:22:20
once again fire marshals investigated
00:22:22
what looked like a deliberate attack
00:22:24
when investigators are
00:22:26
investigating arson they look for a
00:22:28
point of origin to find out where the
00:22:30
fire actually started and kind of build
00:22:32
a theory from there
00:22:33
they want to find out if there were
00:22:35
accelerants used or or any other
00:22:38
materials to get the fire to start
00:22:41
a jack belonging to a nissan vehicle
00:22:45
once owned by mr rocco franklin was
00:22:48
found at the scene
00:22:51
believed to have been used to pry open a
00:22:53
window
00:22:54
to allow the accelerant to be put into
00:22:56
the homes to set the house on fire
00:23:00
carjack
00:23:01
a plastic jug a
00:23:04
partially used flare
00:23:07
a lot of physical evidence pointed to
00:23:09
rocco franklin for the firebombing of
00:23:12
julie dent's home on august 25th of
00:23:14
2010.
00:23:17
there was mole
00:23:19
folks that responded to the fire saw a
00:23:22
corvette speeding away from the scene
00:23:25
rocco franklin owned a corvette at the
00:23:28
time
00:23:30
the evidence against rocco franklin and
00:23:32
maria was stacking up but no arrests
00:23:35
were made
00:23:36
it must have felt a frack like nothing
00:23:38
and no one could stop them
00:23:40
i think it made maria feel very powerful
00:23:42
to instill fear on somebody and to make
00:23:46
them feel powerless
00:23:49
almost two years after julie dent's home
00:23:51
was destroyed frank and maria's divorce
00:23:53
was finally granted
00:23:55
the parties were actually by law
00:23:57
divorced on june 8 of 2012 which becomes
00:24:00
an important date in the case
00:24:03
the divorce decree assigned ownership of
00:24:05
the family home on fairview drive
00:24:07
sullensgrove to frank
00:24:09
frank should have been relieved that his
00:24:10
ordeal was over but he told friends he
00:24:13
still didn't feel safe
00:24:15
a number of them had been confided in by
00:24:18
frank in the days and weeks leading up
00:24:20
to his death
00:24:22
wherein he indicated that he felt his
00:24:24
days were numbered that maria and her
00:24:27
father had something planned for him and
00:24:30
he had become very scared
00:24:33
on june 27th frank wrote to maria asking
00:24:36
her to stay away from the house
00:24:38
three days later news of the termination
00:24:40
of the spencer marriage was published in
00:24:42
the local paper
00:24:43
later that same day frank and maria had
00:24:46
a very public run-in
00:24:48
he had attended a baseball game for his
00:24:51
young son who was about 10 to 12 years
00:24:54
of age at the time and played in the
00:24:56
local little league
00:24:57
that evening maria likewise attended the
00:25:00
game and frank was seen harassing maria
00:25:03
at the game maria was a diabetic and a
00:25:06
very brittle diabetic at the time had
00:25:08
lots of neuropathy difficulty walking
00:25:12
and things of that sort and all of the
00:25:14
accounts of frank's friends who
00:25:16
testified at trial
00:25:18
suggested that frank was mocking her
00:25:20
publicly and kind of embarrassing her
00:25:22
about her limitations
00:25:24
did frank's mockery push maria over the
00:25:27
edge or had she always planned to take
00:25:29
final revenge on the husband who was
00:25:32
determined to leave her because soon
00:25:34
after
00:25:35
frank spencer was dead
00:25:40
that all occurred on the evening of june
00:25:42
30 2012.
00:25:44
it is believed from the forensic
00:25:46
evidence that he was killed about 12
00:25:48
hours later on the morning of july 1
00:25:50
2012.
00:25:53
46 year old frank spencer had been
00:25:55
killed but it would be two days before
00:25:57
the crime was discovered
00:25:59
on july third friends who hadn't heard
00:26:01
from frank since the baseball game went
00:26:03
to his home in selinsgrove to
00:26:04
investigate
00:26:06
when frank was found he was found in the
00:26:08
doorway of his home
00:26:11
in a pull of blood his arms were
00:26:13
stretched out above his head and it
00:26:15
appeared that he had been dragged
00:26:17
within minutes police arrived and
00:26:19
secured the scene
00:26:21
the police noted prominently a gunshot
00:26:24
wound to his head
00:26:28
the second shot was a closer shot
00:26:30
through the bicep and into the chest
00:26:32
cavity
00:26:34
was this the handiwork of maria and
00:26:36
rocco frank's friends were in little
00:26:39
doubt but detectives needed the evidence
00:26:41
to prove it
00:26:43
immediately on a
00:26:46
inspection of a crime scene of a
00:26:47
shooting
00:26:49
you're looking for
00:26:50
blood spatter where the blood may have
00:26:52
landed you're looking for
00:26:54
projectiles
00:26:56
that may have come from a bullet that's
00:26:58
entered the body or may still be in the
00:27:00
body you look for shell casings anything
00:27:02
that can kind of get you that firearm
00:27:04
information that you need and you're
00:27:06
looking for the angle or the trajectory
00:27:08
for where the bullet may have went in
00:27:10
also the the velocity of blood spatter
00:27:13
how fine the mist is on the wall or
00:27:16
there are a lot of different
00:27:17
things that make a shooting
00:27:19
different from any other murder
00:27:21
the blood evidence certainly told a
00:27:23
story
00:27:25
frank is found dead
00:27:28
on the front porch of his home
00:27:30
he's lying
00:27:32
in a pool of blood
00:27:34
and it looks as though the blood has
00:27:36
been like pushed with a a push broom or
00:27:39
something that would indicate that
00:27:41
someone may attempted to clean up the
00:27:44
blood or or wipe the blood investigators
00:27:46
take a a piece of the tile floor
00:27:49
and
00:27:50
they are able to lift from that a bloody
00:27:54
footprint and it matches to a size 11
00:27:58
dr scholl's escape model sneaker the
00:28:01
same
00:28:02
kind of shoe
00:28:03
that maria's father rocco is known to
00:28:06
have worn
00:28:08
it looked likely that rocco had been at
00:28:10
the scene but what about his daughter
00:28:12
maria
00:28:13
finally they found a rubber glove
00:28:17
located inside the home this was a glove
00:28:20
that would be typically worn by an
00:28:22
individual that was cleaning a toilet or
00:28:24
a sink or using some kind of industrial
00:28:27
cleaner in their home that glove
00:28:29
ultimately had
00:28:30
dna
00:28:32
belonging to maria spencer inside of it
00:28:37
while investigators were meticulously
00:28:39
processing evidence they noticed two
00:28:41
significant
00:28:42
absences frank's truck
00:28:45
and frank's dog
00:28:47
on the morning of july 1st 2012 the
00:28:50
police were able to gather
00:28:52
video surveillance from local stores and
00:28:55
businesses that operated along the
00:28:57
highways that surrounded frank spencer's
00:28:59
home they were able to piece together
00:29:02
frank's coming and goings from the night
00:29:05
before and the morning after the june
00:29:08
30th baseball game they figured that the
00:29:11
murder happened at about 8 30 in the
00:29:13
morning on july 1
00:29:15
because they saw his
00:29:17
harley-davidson pickup truck
00:29:19
leaving
00:29:20
along the highways adjacent to his home
00:29:23
in and around the
00:29:25
point in time
00:29:28
the quality of the video wasn't
00:29:30
sufficient enough to tell who was
00:29:31
driving the vehicle but one thing was
00:29:33
clear is that someone was driving
00:29:35
frank's truck from the crime scene
00:29:37
the ford f-150
00:29:40
harley-davidson vehicle was located in
00:29:42
sunbury township wherein maria spencer
00:29:47
her brother owns a bar so that was the
00:29:49
first piece of evidence found in that
00:29:52
vehicle was mr spencer's wallet which
00:29:54
was loaded with cash and credit cards
00:29:57
so the police eliminated robbery as a
00:30:00
motive for his killing pretty quickly
00:30:03
when the truck was found frank's dog
00:30:05
wasn't in it
00:30:08
as police continue their investigation
00:30:11
they get some help from an unlikely
00:30:13
source
00:30:16
about an hour away from frank's house
00:30:19
these two wedding planners are setting
00:30:21
up for a wedding
00:30:22
and all of a sudden this dog walks in
00:30:25
this this weimaraner and he's
00:30:27
happy and healthy and wagging his tail
00:30:29
and he's clearly somebody's dog he's not
00:30:32
a stray
00:30:34
and you know the couple doesn't know
00:30:36
what the deal is but they report this
00:30:38
dog you know
00:30:40
has just turned up at our place
00:30:42
as it turns out
00:30:43
this dog was frank's dog motley
00:30:47
the dog was found near a catering
00:30:49
facility about 10 miles away from the
00:30:51
home of rocco franklin
00:30:54
the wedding venue was on the north
00:30:55
susquahani trail at dofin 40 miles south
00:30:58
of frank's home and just a few miles
00:31:00
from harrisburg where rocco had lived
00:31:02
since his release from prison
00:31:04
so
00:31:06
the police concluded pretty quickly that
00:31:08
mr franklin's uh activities included
00:31:12
taking mr spencer's truck loading the
00:31:15
truck with mr spencer's dog
00:31:17
going to
00:31:18
the son's bar in sunbury and then making
00:31:22
his way back to his home where the dog
00:31:25
was left unharmed at a catering facility
00:31:28
and later recovered that day
00:31:31
as detectives were building a timeline
00:31:33
of events around frank spencer's death
00:31:36
he was in the mortuary in bloomsburg
00:31:38
what the coroner had found would offer
00:31:40
an even more revealing picture of how
00:31:43
frank spencer had died
00:31:45
as investigators determined that the the
00:31:47
first shot was from a rifle and possibly
00:31:49
a longer distance they expanded the
00:31:51
crime scene they went into the woods
00:32:04
frank spencer had been shot twice on the
00:32:06
doorstep of his family home but both
00:32:08
bullets had not come from the same
00:32:10
weapon
00:32:12
investigators determined that frank had
00:32:14
actually been shot by two guns
00:32:17
one was a rifle shot at a long distance
00:32:20
the other
00:32:21
was a close-up shot and that would
00:32:23
indicate something more personal
00:32:27
when
00:32:28
it's discovered that a shot may have
00:32:30
come from a rifle or a long-range weapon
00:32:33
we're going to try to determine where
00:32:34
that shot was fired from
00:32:36
they searched the area and it's it's
00:32:39
at this point of the year it's summer
00:32:40
time so the woods are all leafed out and
00:32:43
they're you know it would be easy for
00:32:44
someone to hide out in the woods
00:32:46
they went into the woods and they found
00:32:49
a tree that was y shaped
00:32:52
perfect for a bipod or a tripod type
00:32:55
steadying of a rifle for a shot
00:32:59
a
00:33:00
tree stand that was set up in a tree
00:33:02
about 150 feet up a hill
00:33:06
directly across the street from frank
00:33:08
spencer's home
00:33:10
they search this area where this tree is
00:33:13
and they find a spent bullet casing and
00:33:15
then they also find a soft case for a
00:33:18
rifle there they believe the first shot
00:33:21
came from rocco franklin who was perched
00:33:23
across the street in the tree stand
00:33:26
having used a long gun or a rifle to
00:33:29
shoot the first shot that they believe
00:33:31
went through
00:33:32
mr spencer's neck
00:33:34
what happened next is less clear
00:33:39
they think
00:33:42
and have argued at trial that a second
00:33:45
shot occurred after frank dropped at the
00:33:48
front door after the first shot made
00:33:51
contact with him
00:33:52
they believe that second shot came from
00:33:54
a handgun
00:33:55
they recovered a bullet from the body of
00:33:58
mr spencer and it was indeed later
00:34:00
traced back to a handgun they believed
00:34:03
the second shot was discharged from a
00:34:05
handgun at close range and actually
00:34:07
killed frank spencer
00:34:11
but detectives couldn't prove who had
00:34:13
fired the shots forensic evidence placed
00:34:16
maria and her father at the scene
00:34:18
but that didn't prove they were killers
00:34:21
so
00:34:22
a couple of months go by and
00:34:24
when police are trying to get them to
00:34:26
talk
00:34:27
they call maria in for questioning and
00:34:29
she refuses
00:34:32
they call rocco in and he's okay
00:34:35
so he goes in and he agrees to talk to
00:34:38
investigators and they ask him
00:34:40
so where were you on the day of uh and
00:34:43
rocco is
00:34:45
you know he loves this kind of cat and
00:34:46
mouse game while i went there i you know
00:34:48
i was home all day i didn't leave
00:34:50
and during that interview rocco said
00:34:52
that he had not left his home in
00:34:54
harrisburg
00:34:56
but detectives knew differently
00:34:59
cell phone evidence is is awesome
00:35:02
it provides
00:35:03
investigators not only communications
00:35:05
and in conversations but points of of
00:35:09
where they were in their travel
00:35:12
it's gotten advanced enough to
00:35:14
actually make animated maps of someone's
00:35:16
movement on a crime
00:35:19
the cell phone
00:35:20
contacts
00:35:22
that mr franklin had showed him at or
00:35:25
near the catering location in harrisburg
00:35:28
where the dog was found they also
00:35:30
located him in and around the sunbury
00:35:33
township area where the f-150 had been
00:35:36
found
00:35:37
questioned about the presence of his dna
00:35:39
and fingerprints at the crime scene and
00:35:41
on frank's truck rocco franklin told a
00:35:44
far from credible story
00:35:46
and when they say you know we know
00:35:49
you were at frank's house
00:35:51
oh you know that's right i forgot i went
00:35:53
um i went to frank's that day to you
00:35:56
know to clean i was doing some laundry
00:35:58
and um and i used a push broom to sweep
00:36:02
the floors
00:36:04
this from a man who could not stand his
00:36:06
daughter's estranged husband a man who
00:36:08
had for months made frank's life hell
00:36:11
and he
00:36:12
said that at one point he wanted to
00:36:15
test drive frank's truck
00:36:17
and purchase it and
00:36:20
frank's response to him was i'll wrestle
00:36:22
you for it so obviously you can see that
00:36:24
he's trying to put together
00:36:26
a
00:36:27
a reason why his dna would show up at
00:36:30
the scene
00:36:32
and he's enjoying every minute of it
00:36:34
circumstantial evidence was slowly
00:36:37
stacking up
00:36:39
in august 2013 13 months after frank's
00:36:41
murder prosecutors convened a grand jury
00:36:44
to determine if there was enough
00:36:45
evidence to charge maria sanuti spencer
00:36:47
and her father rocco franklin
00:36:50
so in the months leading up to the
00:36:52
indictment of maria and rocco maria and
00:36:56
rocco were asked to come to testify
00:36:59
before the investigating grand jury in
00:37:01
pennsylvania
00:37:02
ultimately she went before that grand
00:37:04
jury as did rocco and gave statements
00:37:08
that were obviously under oath
00:37:11
maria
00:37:12
in her testimony just goes on and on and
00:37:14
on she she barely stops talking she
00:37:17
denies of course everything she denies
00:37:19
terroristic threats and everything else
00:37:22
but
00:37:23
the authorities have the evidence
00:37:25
and so they filed charges on her they
00:37:28
filed charges of
00:37:30
12 counts of perjury
00:37:33
more than a dozen other charges and most
00:37:35
importantly the murder of frank spencer
00:37:40
in a process fraught with delays maria
00:37:42
was not arrested until july 28 2014
00:37:46
two years after frank's death
00:37:49
detectives go to arrest maria and she
00:37:52
freaks out
00:37:54
on the same day authorities also issue a
00:37:57
warrant for ronco's arrest but he is
00:37:59
nowhere to be found he has flown the
00:38:02
coup
00:38:03
it turns out
00:38:04
right after his grand jury testimony he
00:38:06
boarded a plane
00:38:09
nobody knows how he got there but he
00:38:11
ended up living in argentina
00:38:14
and he was
00:38:16
living in argentina undiscovered
00:38:19
for an extended period of time
00:38:21
ultimately he was located he was
00:38:23
detained and he fought extradition
00:38:26
during the time that
00:38:28
he was fighting extradition the trial of
00:38:30
maria spencer commenced
00:38:33
it was november 2015. maria stood alone
00:38:36
in the dock to answer for frank's death
00:38:40
motive was the government's biggest
00:38:42
piece of evidence they had
00:38:45
piles of text messages
00:38:47
piles of police criminal reports
00:38:50
piles of circumstantial evidence of her
00:38:54
involvement in property crime she had
00:38:56
the motive she had the anger she had the
00:38:59
ability
00:39:00
with her father having been out on
00:39:02
parole and that she was the driving
00:39:04
force
00:39:05
to get her father behind the property
00:39:07
crimes the arsons and ultimately his
00:39:15
you don't win spencer
00:39:18
maria's conviction looked likely because
00:39:20
of her own words written and spoken over
00:39:23
the course of the previous 15 years
00:39:26
one of the more prominent statements
00:39:28
attributed to maria took place at a
00:39:30
football game uh shortly after frank
00:39:33
spencer's murder where she allegedly
00:39:36
said to one of his friends that she was
00:39:38
responsible for the murder and that he
00:39:41
might be next if he steps out of line
00:39:44
with maria and rocco
00:39:46
one of frank's friends
00:39:48
comes up to maria you know just wants to
00:39:50
be safe and he says you know maria
00:39:52
i would never
00:39:55
i would never do anything to you know in
00:39:57
front of your kids
00:39:58
i would never do anything to disrespect
00:40:00
you
00:40:01
and she looks at him and she says
00:40:03
that's why you're still alive
00:40:07
but then she goes on
00:40:09
and she says you know
00:40:11
the last thing he saw before he died was
00:40:14
me
00:40:18
this said prosecutors placed maria
00:40:20
firmly at the scene of frank's death and
00:40:22
may even have proved that she fired the
00:40:24
bullet that killed him
00:40:26
the government argued that maria was the
00:40:30
perpetrator of the second fatal shot in
00:40:33
other words she was the first individual
00:40:36
onto the decking after mr spencer was
00:40:39
shot by mr franklin from the tree stand
00:40:42
across the street and that she
00:40:44
approached mr spencer as he lied in
00:40:47
blood outside his front door on the
00:40:49
porch deck
00:40:50
and administered so to speak the kill
00:40:53
shot with a small handgun
00:40:56
maria and her lawyers refuted that
00:40:58
version of events
00:41:00
lots of physical evidence electronic
00:41:02
data based evidence suggested that mr
00:41:05
franklin was the sole perpetrator of the
00:41:07
crime we still believe that and we still
00:41:10
think that maria didn't have the
00:41:11
physical or mental capacity to do what
00:41:14
they claim she did
00:41:17
would the jury agree on november 18 2015
00:41:20
they retired to consider their verdict
00:41:25
i think a jury and injury deliberations
00:41:28
are always nail biters because they're
00:41:31
humans and no two humans are alike so
00:41:33
you can have a room with 12 people and
00:41:36
10 could be thinking the same thing with
00:41:37
the other two
00:41:39
don't
00:41:40
after eight hours of deliberation the
00:41:42
jury comes back
00:41:44
maria spencer is found guilty on all
00:41:48
charges
00:41:50
the murder of frank spencer
00:41:52
12 counts of perjury arson conspiracy
00:41:56
terroristic threats they sentence her to
00:41:59
life without parole plus 50 years
00:42:04
if you're convicted of first degree
00:42:06
murder the sentence the only sentence
00:42:08
you can get is a mandatory life sentence
00:42:11
she received additional time for some of
00:42:13
the additional offenses she's currently
00:42:16
housed in a state correctional
00:42:18
facility in pennsylvania and will be for
00:42:20
the rest of her life
00:42:22
in the event that her appeals are
00:42:24
unsuccessful
00:42:26
in october 2018 after a lengthy
00:42:28
extradition process maria's father
00:42:31
returned to face justice despite the
00:42:34
slew of forensic evidence he denied
00:42:36
everything
00:42:38
two years later her father rocco goes on
00:42:40
trial and he too is found guilty he's
00:42:44
guilty of frank's murder
00:42:47
arson
00:42:48
and burglary the jury sentences him to
00:42:51
life without parole plus 45
00:42:56
years how did maria saluti spencer come
00:42:59
to join her father in a life of violence
00:43:02
and criminality
00:43:04
she grew up with a criminal dad she
00:43:06
learned a lot of her worst behaviors
00:43:09
from him and so she knew how to
00:43:11
intimidate people she knew how to carry
00:43:13
out her threats and she didn't cover her
00:43:15
tracks very carefully because this is
00:43:17
not what an impulsive person does an
00:43:18
impulsive person isn't all that
00:43:20
thoughtful and planful about the crimes
00:43:22
that you're committing you just commit
00:43:24
the crimes and it probably gave her a
00:43:25
sense of a high in many ways they enjoy
00:43:28
this idea of playing god being able to
00:43:30
take out somebody's life and i think
00:43:32
they really wanted to see that suffering
00:43:34
up front they wanted to see the blood
00:43:36
they wanted to see him take his last
00:43:37
breath they wanted to see him suffer and
00:43:40
that really points the way to
00:43:42
maria and her father being the worst
00:43:44
kind of psychopath that we usually would
00:43:46
know of
00:43:48
some continue to believe that maria is
00:43:50
innocent but it was shown in court that
00:43:53
she was a woman who made vows to kill
00:43:55
who terrorized frank spencer in an
00:43:57
escalating campaign until she committed
00:44:00
the ultimate crime against the man
00:44:02
she had once vowed to love
00:44:05
until death parted them
00:44:12
[Music]
00:45:09
[Music]
00:45:19
you
