When you meet your future spouse, something inside of you goes tingly. You want to spend the rest of your life with them. The love you have for each other is immeasurable.
Unless, of course, you're Maria Sosa. She decided that six years [was] plenty of marriage for her, but instead of agreeing to divorce, she chose to have her husband killed.
Maria filed for divorce on March 12, 2017, but after the initial divorce proceeding, Maria was unhappy with how things went. Maria and Ramon, her husband, both had children from other marriages, but none together. When a truck owned by her son was taken away was deemed as "joint property", Maria was not happy.
The Sosas were both into fitness and boxing, but it seems money was Maria's one true love.
"The Sosas had kids from other marriages but none of their own," said James R. Jones, Ramon Sosa's attorney. "It appeared to us that she wanted their house on Sundance Court and their fitness center, too. She also wanted his 401(k) from his second job with Federal Express as well as anything he gets from operating a nonprofit called Young Prospects Boxing that tries to help needy kids, and there was his life insurance."
Maria Sosa decided her only option to get all she wanted was for her husband to be dead. She hired a hitman to end his life, but she made one critical error in her process.
"I can just say that she reached out to someone she trusted and asked him to find someone to kill her husband," said prosecutor Kelly Blackburn.
Maria Sosa was willing to pay $2,000 to have her husband killed, and also agreed to throw in his truck as well. There was just one big problem: the man she approached to kill her husband, actually happened to be one of his friends.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the hired hitman then tipped the husband off to the plan, clearly not thinking $2,000 and a used truck was enough for murder. When Ramon found out about the murder-for-hire plot, he approached the police to see what they could do.
A sting operation was set up to catch Maria Sosa and bring justice for her crimes. The Texas Department of Public Safety, together with the Montgomery County Precinct 3, arranged for Maria Sosa to meet up with an undercover officer posing as a hitman. The officer offered to just "beat up" Ramon, to which Maria replied: "No, I want him dead. He's better use to me dead."
Maria paid the officer $1,000 as a down-payment for the murder, agreeing to pay the other $1,000 when she saw proof of Ramon's death. A few days later, the officer returned with pictures of Ramon's "death."
Maria Sosa was then arrested, and is now being held on $1 million bond in the Montgomery County jail on a charge of capital murder solicitation.
"Oh my goodness, it's been such a horrible shock. It's like a movie thriller," said Ramon Sosa, 48. "But I would not believe this was something that could happen to me in a million years."
Ramon Sosa believes Maria only wanted to marry him for a greencard. The Mexico native was not allowed to live or work in the United States otherwise.
"I helped not only her but her mother and her two children come here," he said.
As for what's next, Ramon Sosa only has one thing on his mind.
"I'm looking forward to getting back to working at my gym," he said. "It helps to relieve the stress."
It sounds like if anyone needs stress relief, it's him.