Florida jurors saw the videotape where Emilio Nunez shot his ex-wife Maritza Martin Munoz to death.

				Nunez Murder Trial
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Court TV) — A stunned jury saw Emilio Nunez shoot his ex-wife to death on tape Wednesday as Florida prosecutors tried to prove that the slaying of Maritza Martin Munoz was premeditated first-degree murder, not a sudden act of passion.

Nunez's defense has suggested that emotional distress over his daughter's suicide — and a Spanish-language television network's manipulation of those emotions — drove him to kill his ex-wife in front of a TV crew on January 18, 1993.

Nunez blamed Martin for their daughter Yoandra's 1992 Thanksgiving suicide. Nunez was so despondent over his daughter's death that he contacted the Spanish-language network Telemundo and agreed to be interviewed about the suicide at the cemetary where Yoandra was buried.

However, when Martin suddenly showed up at the cemetary, prosecutors say Nunez retrieved a gun from his car and shot her 10 times at point-blank range in front of the television crew. As the camera rolled, Nunez stood over his ex-wife and fired repeatedly at her head as she lay in a fetal position.

Florida prosecutors introduced the videotape of the killing through the testimony of former Telemundo reporter Ingrid Cruz, who conducted the interview at the cemetary. Cruz testified Nunez never indicated that he was planning to kill Martin. She admitted that after interviewing Nunez, she suggested that he go to his daughter's gravesite and give them B-roll shots of him placing flowers at her grave.

When Nunez placed flowers at Yoandra's grave, Cruz said, he noticed Martin's car on the other side of the cemetary and pointed it out to her and her cameraman, Jorge Delgado. With Nunez accompanying them in his car, she and Delgado went to Martin's location. Cruz claimed that she had not contacted Martin before that time — she had a phone number for her that had been disconnected. Cruz saw this meeting as an opportunity to get an interview with Martin about Yoandra's suicide.

Cruz noticed that Nunez blocked Martin's car with his, but she did not know whether he planned to block the news van. On the tape, Martin initially stayed in her car and refused to answer Cruz's questions. She then got out of the car and appeared to be writing Nunez's license plate number on paper. [Because she was focusing on getting comments from Martin, Cruz said she did not know what Nunez was doing or where he was as she was pursuing his ex-wife.]

Then, as Martin began walking away, with Cruz following behind, Nunez struck. On the tape, jurors see Nunez nudge Cruz out of the way and fire his 9mm pistol point-blank at Martin's head. Nunez continues firing at the fallen Martin as Cruz and Delgado started running. Nunez is seen driving away in his red Jeep Cherokee.

Ingrid Cruz, the reporter who witnessed the shooting, said she was unaware of any plans Emilio Nunez had to kill his ex-wife. (Court TV)

Delgado yells at Cruz and makes sure she gets in their TV van.

"She's f___ing dead! Son of a bitch I saw it. The [expletive] killed her!" Delgado says. Delgado calls 911 for help.

"He's [Nunez] psychotic, man .... I don't know where we are ... Queen of Heaven Cemetary. I'm staying away from him, man. I'm driving away ... I'm driving. He's white, he just killed his ex-wife, and he's strong, very strong," Delgado says.

At the end of the tape, jurors hear a shaken Cruz crying, saying repeatedly, "He killed her ... he killed her. Oh my God, I can't believe it."

Cruz may return to the stand Thursday. Nunez's attorney, Reemberto Diaz, wants access to Cruz's notebook on her interview because he believes that she and Telemundo set up Nunez for a volatile situation. The defense has suggested that it was more than a coincidence that Martin was at the cemetary at the same time he was placing flowers at their daughter's grave. Diaz told jurors that Telemundo wanted to get a reaction in its interview with Nunez — and the defense has suggested that the television network may have contacted and planted Martin at the cemetary to get that reaction. But Cruz and Delgado have denied these allegations, and no evidence proving this theory has emerged in the seven years since the killing.

After jurors were dismissed for the day, Nunez himself urged the judge to reconsider a prior decision to keep Cruz's notebook out of evidence due to journalistic privilege. Through an interpreter, he told Cruz, "You know what you did. You set me up like a toy."

Still, despite Nunez's accusations against Telemundo, a prosecution witness who sold him flowers at least three weeks before the shooting indicated that the killing was premeditated. Claudia Garcia testified that Nunez told her before the shooting that she should remember his face because it would soon be everywhere after he killed his ex-wife. According to Gonzalez, Nunez made this vow after buying flowers from her and noticing her daughters. Nunez, Gonzalez said, told her that she must take care of her daughters — his own daughter had committed suicide and it was his ex-wife's fault.

"He took off his glasses and said, 'Look at me very good. You're going to see me again very soon on the TV because I'm going to kill my ex-wife because she is guilty of my daughter's suicide.'" Garcia said.

Garcia also noted that Nunez pointed to his car and said it was full of weapons he would use on his ex-wife. The witness said she recognized Nunez's face on the news later on, but never reported her information to police. Garcia explained that, being new to the country at that time, she had never been in that kind of situation before and didn't know what to do.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Diaz noted Garcia's failure to report the conversation with Nunez to police and noting her broken English, suggested that she could have misunderstood the defendant. But Garcia explained that she and Nunez spoke to each other in Spanish.

Nunez could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

— Bryan Robinson