possibility that your husband -- >> could have wanted him dead. police zeroed in on someone at work. >> he was pretty angry about that accusation? >> yes, he was initially angry, yes. >> angry enough to kill? >> who knows. >> was his new wife in danger, too? >> i am scared to death. >> brace yourself, because this killer was stone cold evil. >> wow, this is -- this has got me shaken. >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." here's josh mankowitz with "the devil in disguise." ♪ >> reporter: in this world we like to think that we can tell the difference between good and evil. but sometimes evil puts on a mask and comes to life's party as its opposite, a loved one, a friend, someone we think we can help. and by the time we figure out that we're wrong, it's too late. and so with that in mind, meet frank rodrigues, a guy who went looking for troubled souls. >> he was very drawn towards people that were broken, even though i don't have a lot i just want, you know, what i have, i want to give. >> reporter: frank gave a lot. did a lot of good in his life, until he ran across another soul who was not just troubled or broken, but pure evil. >> oh, god! >> reporter: frank grew up in rural illinois, one of six kids. he played football, loved baseball. his sisters carmen and shirley remember most that he loved kidding around with his siblings. >> dry sense of humor. he would say something and you're not sure if you're supposed to laugh, if he was joking. >> you know, funny jokes and little tricks and things. prankster is the word i'm going for. >> reporter: after high school frank joined the navy. it was around that time that he married a local girl, but that line about the sea being a jealous mistress is true. >> his first wife was tired of him traveling all over, being gone for six months at a time. after he got out, he was really kind of a lost soul. he just really didn't know what he wanted to do, and then she ended up leaving him anyway. >> reporter: after the divorce frank was at loose ends, different jobs, different relationships. he felt as if he were floundering until he found first religion -- >> is there any question? >> no, sir. >> reporter: and then a place called angelgate academy. >> he just loved that job. he loved working with the kids. >> reporter: angelgate was run by the california national guard from its base in san luis obispo on california's central coast. it was a military academy where city kids who were headed in the wrong direction learned order, discipline and respect. how was frank with the kids? >> frank was awesome with the kids. >> reporter: chad holloway was frank's supervisor and friend. >> i never met a person that was better around the kids. if they were acting out, he would kind of like get -- say things to get them to do the right thing. plus, he kind of like used me as a bad guy. >> reporter: good cop, bad cop? >> exactly, frank was always a good cop. >> reporter: as rewarding as it was for frank to help his students learn skills for a successful life, he also found it thrilling to take these city kids kayaking or camping, or just to hang out by the ocean, which many of them had never even seen. it also left him wanting kids of his own. >> i remember him talking a lot about he wanted to have kids. i mean he wanted kids really bad. he wanted to start a family. >> reporter: his sisters say frank thought his faith would guide him there. >> he was big into believing that god was going to give him signs of what was good for his life. >> reporter: and then one day at church, frank ran into a woman he worked with at angelgate. >> he called mom to tell her that he had met this woman, angelina, and she was his soul mate. hur m our mom was excited. oh, my goodness. she was so excited. she called me up. frank has met someone. >> reporter: her name was angelina morales. she also had been in the military. she was at devout a christian as frank. their romance was a whirlwind. >> there's my baby. >> reporter: you can hear the excitement about this new love in this video that angelina shot of frank. >> i can't wait to marry you. >> can't wait to marry you too, baby. >> reporter: they met in february and married in april. angelina had a nine-year-old daughter named autumn, so instant family. >> i liked frank. frank was a really good guy. seemed very down-to-earth. >> reporter: and good for her? >> seemed very good for her. >> reporter: tom fuller is autumn's dad and angelina's ex. >> reporter: usually a guy inner position, not too crazy about the husbands who come after him. >> with frank it was different. >> reporter: at the wedding, frank vowed to be a good husband and he made a promise to autumn to be a great stepdad. then frank, who loved working with kids, was offered a teaching job in los angeles. frank's life seemed to be coming together. that's how it seemed. >> reporter: when was the last time you saw frank? >> i saw frank the tuesday after labor day 2000. >> reporter: frank wanted to earn some extra money, and he agreed to chaperone a group of new students on their way to angelgate. he rode with them on a bus from l.a. to san luis obispo where he met up with his old friend and boss chad. >> reporter: how did he look? >> frank looked absolutely terrible. >> four days later frank rodrigues was dead. >> what had happened to frank? when we come back, a warning from his wife. >> i said, please don't go. >> you believe there's a possibility that your husband was poisoned? >> who could possibly want to do him harm. >> he looked at frank and went, pow, dead on, high to eye. feeding. shushing. cuddling. swaying. kissing. changing. they might not be able to say it. so let us be the first. happy mother's day. (whispering dad) trust me, we are going viral.ing to work? (kids laughing) (whispering mom) lets send in max. (kids) max! max! now this, is internet gold! going viral? get scrubbing bubbles clean and disinfect. what? 20,000 views! sc johnson. heare you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. ♪ i don't think that's how they're made. klondike hooks up with tasty flavors... the best ice cream bars ever conceived. everand every day younkful promise to protect them. off! is here to help with proven protection against mosquitoes. trust our family to protect yours. sc johnson, a family company ltry align probiotic.n your digestive system? for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables. ♪ i dreamed... i did tequila... with the gods... and you gotta know they've got good tequila... ♪ this clean was like pow! everything well? my teeth are glowing. they are so white. step 1 cleans. step 2 whitens. crest [hd]. 6x cleaning*, 6x whitening*á i would switch to crest [hd] over what i was using before. ok honey you play with your monkey while i get your little brother cleaned up. daughter: uh oh. monkey swimming. irreplaceable monkey protection. detergent alone doesn't kill bacteria, but adding new lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria with 0% bleach. daughter: uh oh. lysol. what it takes to protect. ♪ >> it was cement of 2000. frank rodrigues was finally coming into his own. a new bride, a new family, a new job. but then after 3:00 a.m. after just five months of marriage, frank's new bride angelina found him unconscious on their bedroom floor and called for help. it was too late. frank rodrigues was dead. his family was stunned. he had been a healthy man. >> my mother called me after angelina called her on the day that frank died, and mom just said she lost it, she started screaming and just slammed the phone. it was -- it was horrifying. >> he was only 41. frank left behind a widow and a nine-year-old stepdaughter who whom frank had become very close. >> how did your daughter react to frank dying? >> she was devastated but she was also very confused. >> she wasn't the only one confused. the coroner's office found no obvious cause of death, natural or unnatural. no heart attack, no trauma, nothing. toxicology tests found a little vicodin in frank's system but not enough to kill anyone. his family was at a loss, especially his wife angelina who seemed to be groping for answers, trying to make sense of what happened to frank. >> she called me almost every day to talk about it. she thought he was killed and she thought he was poisoned. >> the idea seemed on the face of it crazy. who would want to kill frank? >> i just didn't know what to think. it was just such a shock. >> homicide detectives were called in, even though there was zero evidence of a homicide. >> any chance that this was going to turn out not to be a murder and that what frank died of was either natural causes or food poisoning or something like that? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> l.a. county sheriff's homicide detective says his squlob wjob was just to keep moving forward. >> we were dependent upon what the coroner's office was doing, what they would find or wouldn't find. but in the meantime you can't stop investigating. >> so a few days after frank's death, they spoke with angelina about her suspicions. >> we're here because we understand that you have some information or believe there's a possibility that your husband was poisoned. >> angelina had a lot to tell the detectives about frank's final days, about what she thought had happened to him and why. >> we're going to start from the beginning. >> angelina said that after his trip on the bus to angelgate frank got sick with what they both thought at first was stomach flu. >> it wasn't like a constant. it was like maybe once every half hour, throw a little bit up, a little bit up. >> but then frank got so sick that angelina took him to the er. the doctor said all frank needed was rest and fluids, and he'd get better. but two days later frank was dead, and angelina now told detectives she didn't believe it had been the stomach flu at all. she thought that something happened to frank on that trip to angelgate. >> was he feeling okay when he went up? >> oh, yeah. >> angelina told detectives she had urged frank not to chaperone those students and specifically not to go back to angelgate. >> did you tell him before he went, were you concerned? >> oh, yeah. we -- we argued. i said, please don't go. >> she was worried that frank, who was so trusting, wouldn't be safe. >> i mean he looks for the good in everybody. you know, he thinks everybody can change. >> angelina then said why she was afraid. it turned out that when she and frank worked together at angelgate they became involved in something potentially dangerous. >> we were both very strong christians. >> okay. >> so we would pray together over the program. we were both very -- recognize and knew of situations there. >> the situations? angelina said she and frank became convinced a person working at angelgate was engaged in inappropriate behavior with some of the students. angelina said she'd reported the man to authorities and he now had a motive to hurt her or frank. >> this person had said if anybody jeopardized my job i will kill them. he looked at frank and he went like this and he went pow, right -- i mean dead on, eye-to-eye. >> despite her fears, angelina said that night when frank returned from angelgate everything seemed fine there. >> they were great. they walked up to me, they hugged me. you know, said they missed me, and somebody in the office said -- he didn't say who, but they came up. said somebody in the office said am i hungry or thirsty and gave me gatorade and cookies. >> now she wondered was there something in that gatorade. did that friendly welcome hide something much more sinister, because the man angelina said had offered frank food and drink was the same manage angelina had accused, the same man she said had threatened frank months earlier. >> my instincts are usually pretty right on. >> and your instincts right now are what? >> sergeant holloway, chad holloway, frank's former boss, frank's friend. >> coming up -- >> i was beyond mad. i can't even describe how angry i was. >> chad holloway, from friend to suspect? >> did you say you would put your gun to the person that was doing this? >> something to that effect i ♪ >> ten days after frank rodriguez died he was honored like a fallen soldier at the military cemetery in riverside, california. >> it was very hard to come out here for the funeral. >> angelina's daughter autumn who was in the house when frank died said goodbye in a way only a child could. >> autumn put a teddy bear in frank's coffin. she was a sweet little girl, she really was. >> that last goodbye was a struggle for frank's family. >> it was very hard on mom. she did go into a very deep depression after that. >> as the people who loved him mourned, detectives with the los angeles sheriff's department were trying to find answers. they drove 200 miles north to the rolling hills and small town charm of san luis obispo to angelgate to check out angelina's unsettling story, that she had accused frank's friend chad holloway of misconduct with students, that chad was furious over that, and that all of it might be the reason behind frank's unexplained death. >> they were asking us our opinion of who had access to frank. >> richard worked at angel gate at the time. he told police he hadn't noticed chad talking with frank, but he did remember how upset chad was about angelina's charges. >> chad was beside himself. i have never seen him that angry. >> chad holloway was very angry about that accusation and expressed to some people that he would like to deal very harshly with whoever had done that to him. >> yeah, he was initially very angry about it, yes. >> angry enough to kill? >> who knows. we don't know chad holloway very well yet. we get to know him. that's what we needed to do in this particular case. >> what detectives call getting to know you doesn't feel quite so friendly when you're a potential murder suspect. >> i was under the impression before they talked to me that they were so convinced i did this, that they had stopped at the sheriff's department, had basically told them to prepare to book me. >> you're in the cross hairs? >> i'm in the cross hairs. >> reporter: how did that conversation go? >> they come up and ask a lot of questions. >> before they ever met chad, detectives had already learned something important. that the misconduct allegations against him had been thoroughly investigated by local law enforcement and found to be completely baseless. but the detectives also knew a false allegation can still be a very good motive for murder. >> reporter: that's one of the worst things that a teacher or instructor can do to a kid under his or her tutelage or control. >> yes. >> reporter: and it is also one of the worst things to be accused of if you didn't do it. >> that was probably the scariest thing that had ever happened to me in life. i've been to war. i was in desert storm. a lot of things happened in combat. i had never in my life been that scared. >> scared, and he admitted angry. >> i was beyond mad. it's -- i -- i can't even describe how angry i was. >> reporter: did you say you would like to put your gun to the head of the person that was doing this to you and pull the trigger? >> something to that effect, i did. >> detectives asked him about that. >> reporter: something along the lines of, you were the target of false allegations from the wife of a guy who's now dead, and you were pretty angry at the time those false allegations were made. >> i -- i don't remember -- >> nearly ruining your life over some phoney allegations, that's enough to make a lot of people angry enough to do violence. >> i guess it could be, yes. >> but chad holloway insisted to detectives and to us, whatever threats he made were out of anger and frustration and he would never have followed through. >> reporter: when you said that you wanted to take a gun and put it to the head of the person who made those accusations against you, you didn't know it was angelina you were talking about at the time? >> i did not. >> reporter: but once you found out it was angelina who made those accusations, i'm guessing you probably thought about putting your gun to her head. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: no? >> no. >> chad also said what angelina told detectives about frank's last visit to angelgate never actually happened. >> reporter: were you working in the office? >> no, i wasn't working in the office. >> reporter: when you last saw frank, did you offer him a gatorade or anything to drink? >> no. >> clearly someone was lying. the question was, who? >> coming up -- >> all i heard was ask them about anti-freeze. >> who and what had killed frank? investigators have a secret mission for sergeant holloway. >> you say i'm in? >> you better believe it. shushing. cuddling. swaying. kissing. changing. they might not be able to say it. so let us be the first. happy mother's day. (whispering dad) trust me, we are going viral.ing to work? (kids laughing) (whispering mom) lets send in max. (kids) max! max! now this, is internet gold! going viral? get scrubbing bubbles clean and disinfect. what? 20,000 views! sc johnson. heare you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® it's starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. ♪ i don't think that's how they're made. klondike hooks up with tasty flavors... the best ice cream bars ever conceived. everand every day younkful promise to protect them. off! is here to help with proven protection against mosquitoes. trust our family to protect yours. sc johnson, a family company ltry align probiotic.n your digestive system? for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables. ♪ i dreamed... i did tequila... with the gods... and you gotta know they've got good tequila... ♪ this clean was like pow! everything well? my teeth are glowing. they are so white. step 1 cleans. step 2 whitens. crest [hd]. 6x cleaning*, 6x whitening*á i would switch to crest [hd] over what i was using before. ok honey you play with your monkey while i get your little brother cleaned up. daughter: uh oh. monkey swimming. irreplaceable monkey protection. detergent alone doesn't kill bacteria, but adding new lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria with 0% bleach. daughter: uh oh. lysol. what it takes to protect. ♪ >> angelina rodriguez -- >> when her husband died suddenly, angelina rodriguez quickly shared her suspicions with detectives, that frank had been poison by a former co-worker who carried a grudge. >> chad holloway. >> but so far there was no solid evidence against chad. so detectives also looked at everyone who was close to frank, including his new wife. >> reporter: you talked to other people about frank and angelina's marriage? >> yes. >> reporter: and? >> we find some interesting things out. >> for one thing, frank was angelina's fourth husband, but not necessarily her first choice. people who worked with angelina and frank at angelgate said angelina initially had her eye on a different guy. >> she was interested in a gentleman that worked there also that was somewhat of a cowboy, wore cowboy boots, had a hat. all of a sudden she showed up with a cowboy bumper sticker in her car, a hat in the back seat. >> reporter: all of a sudden she is a bow girl. >> all of a sudden she is a cow girl. when he didn't want anything to do with her, she recognized frank who was a religious man. >> reporter: and next thing you know? >> she has a bible in her car and religious bumper stickers. >> to a lot of people it seemed angelina was shopping pretty hard for a man and would do what was necessary to get one. >> she was pretty much a chameleon based on some of the behaviors about her when she was working at angelgate academy. >> she learned after meeting angelina frank had become less close with many of his friends at angelgate. then when they moved south he seemed to cut off his own family. >> he called me in may on mother's day and said, i can't talk long, she is monitoring my calls. >> none of that fit the profile of a loving wife or later a grieving widow. when soon after frank's death angelina moved back up north and left behind some of frank's things. >> we found it very odd she took his dress shoes from the service and some of his uniform stuff, some of his medals and stuff like that that he had, and they were all in the trash can. >> reporter: she threw them away? >> the things in the trash were really shocking, things that you would think you would keep from your husband that you loved. >> all of that was curious, but there was one thing above all others that made detectives suspect angelina might be involved in frank's death, something straight out of homicide 101. it was the way angelina kept bringing up frank's life insurance. >> frank and i sat down when we got married and said, look, we need to cover our butts. if something should happen to either one of us, we need to take care of each other. >> how long after frank died did angelina called the insurance company to enter a claim? >> roughly within eight hours. >> reporter: so the same day? >> same morning. >> but now the insurance is like, well, they probably won't pay because it is so new until the coroner says what the cause of death is. well, what do i do? sit in my car? >> as the days went on and the coroner still didn't rule, angelina grew more and more impatient. >> i have a question. >> go ahead. >> did you guys get anything at all from the coroner? >> angelina kept calling and they kept recording those calls. >> no word from the coroner yet? >> well, they don't have anything yet. it takes time for this type of stuff. >> oh. >> unless they know what they're looking for. >> detectives saw an opportunity. remember, they needed the same thing angelina did, just for different reasons. >> we need a cause of death, and at this time we're thinking she knows what that cause of death is. >> they thought angelina might be telling the truth about one thing, that frank had been poisoned. and they also knew what frank's sister had told them, something very strange that angelina had said to her. >> she says, oh, there are lots of ways you could poison someone. she said, for instance we have a flower around here called oleander. >> it thrives in warm climates like california, it is only deadly in large quantities or if the poison is concentrated, and angelina seemed to know how to do it. >> she said, can you make a tea out of it, you can make a soup out of it. and we were riding in the limousine and she pointed out oleander bushes. >> detectives found oleander in another place, angelina and frank's backyard. they wondered since angelina was so eager to get a death certificate and collect the life insurance, would she slip up and say oleander is what killed frank? they spoke with her again and again, all the wile telling her they were gathering evidence against frank's co-worker, chad holloway. >> we kept asking her, angelina, what poison would chad have given frank? >> it could be anything. it could be the flowers on the road. >> flowers on the road? >> yeah. >> yes, those -- what the heck are those. you know, the -- they grow in the middle of the highway. i think they're azaleas. >> at this point we believe she knows exactly what it is. >> but she is trying to get you to say it? >> she would rather have us say it and we would rather have her say it. >> try as they might, they couldn't get angelina to say the word "oleander." still, she kept calling them about chad and one day delivered another clue straight to investigators. some one called her, she said, and told her something big. >> okay. uhm, it was about maybe five or ten after 8:00, because i was -- >> in the morning? >> yeah. >> uh-huh. >> because i was on my way back from dropping my daughter off at school. i would get this call and it was call -- it was blocked. they said they, uhm, they wanted to tell me what was going on because they had a lot of respect for frank but they couldn't tell me who they were because they know how holloway is. they said, you need to know a conversation i had with holloway. he had said, they do try and track down, they can't pin me because -- and they said -- >> they can't pin me? >> can't pin me. it started breaking up and all i heard was ask them about antifreeze. >> antifreeze, not oleander? >> anti-nfreeze, not oleander a this point. >> had antifreeze been on your scope at this point? >> no. >> but naming a new poison was only one interesting detail at this point. remember, angelina said the anonymous informant called her shortly after 8:00 a.m. >> reporter: you got her phone records? >> yes. >> reporter: and? >> lo and behold, there had not been any calls anywhere near, incoming or outgoing, to angelina 'phone at th angelina's phone at that time. >> in trying to implicate chad holloway, angelina implicated herself. now, detectives again went to see chad, this time to talk about angelina. >> angelina rodriguez, that was the last person that i ever wanted to see, ever wanted to hear her name, have anything to do with whatsoever. >> reporter: and then the investigators say to you, we want you to help build a case against her, and you say, "i'm in?" >> you better believe it. >> coming up -- >> he befriended her. went to her house. >> detectives devise a plan to trap angelina, but angelina has a plan of her own. >> wow, this is -- this has got me shaken. >> when "dateline" continues. shushing. cuddling. swaying. kissing. changing. they might not be able to say it. so let us be the first. happy mother's day. ♪ you don't even want to know protection detergent alone doesn't kill bacteria but adding new lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria with 0% bleach. lysol. what it takes to protect. i ...prilosec otc 7 years ago,my doctor recommended... 5 years ago, last week. just 1 pill each morning, 24 hours and zero heartburn. it's been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10... ...straight years, and it's still recommended today. use as directed. [hissing] uh- i- [sound of wrench] [intricate guitar riff] [engine starts] [guitar continues] ♪ i don't think that's how they're made. klondike hooks up with tasty flavors... the best ice cream bars ever conceived. ♪ i dreamed... ♪ i dreamed i did tequila... with the gods. ♪ and you gotta know they've got good tequila. ♪ this clean was like pow! everything well? my teeth are glowing. they are so white. step 1 cleans. step 2 whitens. crest [hd]. 6x cleaning*, 6x whitening*á i would switch to crest [hd] over what i was using before. so if you have a sink, and the ship is sinking, is it a sinking sink? scrubbing bubbles toilet gel, freshens and cleans with every flush. spend less time cleaning, and more time thinking about the important things. sc johnson ♪ >> for three months detectives had been talking with angelina, who was so eager to collect on her husband's life insurance that she'd let slip some tantalizing bits of information. first, that her husband may have been poisoned and that the poison might be what she called that flower in the road, or possibly antifreeze. finally the coroner's report came back. the finding, frank rodriguez was killed by ethylene glycol, the key ingredient in antifreeze. the tox screen also found oleander. now detectives felt they knew for sure frank had been murder. they knew how and they thought they knew who. not chad, but angelina. but to make this case stick they'd need a little more, so they kept angelina talking. >> we befriended her. we went in her house and first thing she did was offered us coffee. my partner and i kept kicking each other under the table, oh, no, no, no, we're good. thank you, we're good. >> from the beginning angelina tried to cast suspicion on frank's friend and co-worker chad holloway. chad, she said, was the killer, but detectives didn't believe her and instead enlisted chad to help set a trap for her. >> and the idea is what here? >> see what kind of mistakes she may make. >> they asked chad to call angelina while they listened in. she had done her best to put chad in the gun sights of law enforcement. now came his chance to return the favor. >> hello. >> angelina? >> yes. >> what did you tell the police that poisoned frank with antifreeze? >> who is this? >> my nan question, angelina, is how -- >> how did you get my number. >> i wanted -- angelina, i'm just wondering how in the world -- this could ruin my life. >> at one point you say, angelina, you're going to ruin my life, which actually -- although it's actually maybe part of the script for that call, it's kind of true given what she tried to do to you before. >> it was. but inside i knew that it is the other way around. you're not going to ruin my life anymore, it is your life that's going to be ruined because of this. >> you know what? you need to call the investigator. i'm ending this conversation. >> okay. angelina. >> then within a minute of chad hanging up, angelina called the cops and gave them quite a different version of the call they had just listened to. >> i just got a phone call from holloway. >> holloway called you? >> yes. >> he said, how can you -- the detectives just told me that they think i killed frank with antifreeze -- >> that's what we told him. >> and he says, uhm, you know, i wouldn't go spreading these things around. i'm like, what are you talking about? i said, i don't need to be talking to you. and he says, well, they'll never be able to catch me anyway. but, he says, you know, you just got to -- he says, you better watch your back. >> oh, god. okay, okay. >> i am scared to death. >> what angelina should have been scared about was that the cops were on to her two obvious lies, this one about what chad supposedly said to her and the previous phantom call about antifreeze. but angelina still hadn't admitted anything, at least not to detectives. then they found a good friend of angelina's, a confidante named palmer arks. who told them months after the marriage angelina was bored with her husband and cheating on him. >> as girls all do. >> as girls always do, my wife is probably doing right now. >> the friend quoted angelina as saying she didn't want to divorce frank because he had just bought life insurance. >> there's another conversation on the telephone with palmara, angelina told her she was making a milk shake for frank, a special milk shake for him, and palmara questioned if frank was sick, and angelina told her, not yet. >> not yet? >> not yet. >> of course, angelina had no idea what the cops knew. she thought they were still investigating chad and she was still happy to help them do that. for example, detectives told angelina they couldn't figure out how chad knew when frank was coming to angelgate. he would have had to know when, they told her, so he could have his poison ready. >> and then miraculously? >> miraculously a fax shows up. >> it was an angelgate roster for the day of frank's visit with frank's name conspicuously written in. >> this is the fax that came to sheriff's homicide? >> correct. >> that was convenient. >> very convenient. >> the fax did not include the sender's name, but it did send a clear message. >> this is a cover sheet to the fax that was received anonymously at the sheriff's homicide. why is chad still free? >> chad never knew how hard angelina had pushed the cops to arrest him. >> wow, this is -- this has got me shaken. >> five months after her husband's death, police dropped in at angelina's house. >> good morning. how are you? >> angelina thinks their next stop will be chad's place. it won't. >> holloway -- holloway -- >> for the next 35 minutes, he and his partner try to get angelina to give it up. they layout the facts. >> the only information, the only person that's supplied any information that frank was poisoned was you. no one else knew that frank was poisoned, only you. only you knew oleander, in addition to that antifreeze. nobody in this entire investigation told us about antifreeze. >> they tell her the poisons were still in frank's stomach, which meant he ingested them days after his return from angelgate, and within hours of his death, meaning angelina is the only one who could have given them to him. detectives tell her that all along while she thought she was playing them, they were playing her. >> this entire time we have used everything you said and followed up on everything you've done and said and, quite frankly, it is hard to remember all those lies. >> angelina told them they were wrong. >> i didn't kill my husband. >> okay. stand up. >> are you arresting me? >> yes, you are under the arrest for the murder of frank. >> no! i didn't kill my husband. oh, no! >> we have a warrant for your arrest. >> i swear i didn't kill my husband. >> angelina, we can prove that you did. >> angelina rodriguez might seem beaten, but she had a few more punches left in her. just wait. >> oh, god, please, i didn't kill my husband, i swear. >> coming up -- a secret plan from inside prison and another undercover sting. >> something's happening to your friend. >> then a haunting question from deep in the past. had angelina kil ♪ >> angelina rodriguez was charged with the murder of her husband frank. it turned out that might not be the worst thing she'd ever done or ever would do. >> you think that if they made it look like a suicide they would be bright enough to figure -- figure a way to do that? >> what you're hearing is the wheel of a mind turning. that's angelina in jail, speaking through the air vents with her neighbor in solitary. >> can do it, robbery gone bad or they can make it look like the boyfriend. >> angelina apparently believed the statements of her friend palmara about how angelina was bored with frank and wanted a life insurance payout with the most damaging evidence against her. so it seemed angelina made a decision, hire someone to get rid of her friend. >> this is angelina inside the county jail trying to set up a hit on palmara outside? >> correct. >> reporter: to keep her from testifying? >> correct. >> the inmate angelina was talking with turned her in and soon detectives were recording angelina's conversations. >> i think it's cyanide then, you know, that would do it real quick. you know what i'm saying? >> if that sounds cold blooded, consider this, angelina made clear she'd help care for palmara's children, after that is she had their mother killed. >> if it came down to it, i would adopt her kids. that's how much i love her kids, but i don't love her anymore. does that make sense? >> you would take care of the kids but she got to go? >> yeah. that was what i was thinking. >> police told palmara what angelina was up to and asked for her help. this time they got really creative. >> basically staged her death. we had her on her bed in her house with a fake bullet hole and fake blood. >> the picture is pretty convincing. >> it is very convincing, yes. >> they sent an undercover cop posing as a bad guy with pictures in hand to visit angelina in jail. >> something's happened to your friend. >> who? what? >> okay. >> where did you get those from? >> you need to contact her family, okay. >> oh, my god. >> angelina's initial response was, oh, my god, oh, my god, i was only kidding. >> i was only kidding. >> shortly thereafter it was, oh, my god, i am going home. >> i am so ready to go home. >> reporter: you believe she killed her husband? >> no doubt. >> reporter: and she tried to kill a witness against her? >> correct. >> reporter: anybody else? >> her baby. >> in the course of their investigation into frank's death detectives found out that in 1993 angelina's daughter alicia choked on her pacifier and died. they also learned that angelina sued the pacifier manufacturer and settled for more than $700,000. what's more, she collected life insurance on her 13-month-old baby just as she had tried to do with frank. detectives reviewed the evidence and came to believe alicia's death was no accident. >> you were confident after an investigation that that pacifier was tampered with, that that baby didn't do it and it didn't come apart naturally? >> absolutely. >> tom fuller, angelina's ex, was alicia's father. >> i went ten years thinking that alicia's death was an accident. so it was like reliving her death all over again. >> angelina says she did not kill her baby and she was never charged with that. she did stand trial for the murder of frank rodriguez where a prosecution expert testified that angelina poisoned frank at least twice. first with oleander which made him sick enough to go to the er but not to kill him. then when she was giving him those fluids the doctor ordered, she was dosing them with antifreeze, which was fatal. the jury found angelina guilty of first degree murder for financial gain, but couldn't reach a verdict on whether she tried to kill that witness. and in the sentencing phase, the judge allowed the jury to hear evidence implicating angelina in her daughter's death. then the jury agreed on a sentence. >> she shall be put to death. >> even while facing a death sentence, angelina seemed unfazed. she addressed the court but admitted only to some errors. >> i broke and made a few terrible, stupid mistakes which i regret very much. we all make mistakes. i just picked the wrong time to make mine. but murder is not on that list. >> frank rodriguez thought angelina was the god fearing woman of his dreams. he was wrong. tom fuller thought she was a nurturing mother who would protect their daughter. he'll never know for sure if he was lured into a terrible mistake. but chad holloway understands. he knows now just how close pure evil came to him. he says he's let it go with the gratitude that unlike his friend frank he at least survived with his reputation and his life intact. >> people need to know how evil angelina was, how many lives she ruined to try to get a little bit of money, and she wasn't going to stop at nothing until she got what she wanted. and i want angelina to know, you didn't ruin me. you didn't ruin me at all. >> in the bible we are warned that satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and sometimes he's pretty good at it. >> reporter: that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. james comey. why did president trump do it? and why now? was it based on a justice department recommendation? the administration said this -- >> because of the actions that the deputy attorney general outlined -- >> the president accepted the recommendation of his deputy attorney general. >> but then, president trump said this. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> did it have to do with the russia investigation? the administration said this -- >> you want this to be about russia when this is about, quote, restoring confidence. >> this has nothing to do with any investigation into russia. >> that's not what this is about. >> but then, president trump said this. >> the russia thing with trump and russia is a maid-up story. what's the real story? joining me are secretary of state rex tillerson. lindsey graham and chuck schumer. and new words on our poll about what a skeptical public is thinking. and west wing shakeup watch. a report this morning says a frustrated president trump is considering firing many of his top white house aides. we'll get the latest. joining me for insight and analysis are -- nbc news chief white house correspondent, hallie jackson. "washington post" columnist eugene robinson. bbc anchor, katy kay. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, celebrating its 70th year. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. happy mother's day to all the moms out there. after the firing of the fbi director james comey, conflicting administration explanations and open disagreement about what comey and president trump said to each other, at what is now an infamous dinner. what happened on friday feels like a capstone to a whiplash week. president trump tweeted james comey better hope there's no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. are there tapes? here's what the president told fox news. >> i won't talk about that. all i want is for comey to be honest. >> just something else for congress to try to subpoena. all of which leads us to our brand-new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, that just finished overnight. 29% we polled said they approve of the decision to fire james comey. roughly one third says that they tonight have enough to say which means the story hasn't penetrated the national consciousness. 6% say it's given them a more vo

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