Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess [Florida] Saleha Huuda

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A Little Less Mess [Florida] Saleha Huuda · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

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  Hey for one. Welcome to bless Us Mess of the True Crumb podcast.
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  I'm Kara, Jess Kara. Welcome to a little less Mess. It's our
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  regular episodes without all the banter and humor and opinions that we have that's anyways
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  that some people hate. So we're offering this as well, where you just
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  get the story, no banter, no anything. If you would like to
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  hear all that. We do have regular episodes each week. They are the
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  ones that are numbered in our feed. You can go check those out and
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  follow us on the Instagram, the Facebook, like our subscribe, review rate
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  on iTunes. We really appreciate it. If you'd like to support the podcast,
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  check us out at patreon dot com, slash Blesses Smeth podcast. And
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  I think that's about it, So let's get into this episode. Out of
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  Florida, Celia Hooda was born on May twenty seventh, nineteen eighty nine.
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  Her family moved from Ghana in the nineteen nineties. Slee's parents wanted more opportunity
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  for Slee and her siblings. Slee was described as energetic, fun and a
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  social butterfly. She excelled in dance and cheerleading. She loved to move anytime
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  she heard music. Now, Celia would attend the p K. Young Developmental
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  Research School, which is a K through twelfth school affiliated with the University of
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  Florida. After graduation, she attended Santa Fe College, graduating and moving on
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  to the University of Florida in Gainesville to pursue her bachelor's degree. She decided
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  to move out of the family home, which her parents were not happy about.
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  She wanted to have some freedom and just be closer to campus. Now.
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  While attending college studying Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Celia became a
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  cheerly for the Florida Gators and was on a dance team called Urban Essence.
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  She was thriving, making friends and finding her independence. On December twenty ninth,
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  twenty ten, Celia was supposed to meet her friend Indy to go dancing
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  that night. She calls Indy and tells her she will be stopping by later.
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  Now, Indy never saw Selia that night. She texts her the next
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  day but never heard back. Indy was not too concerned. Seleia had gone
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  without responding before, so it wasn't that unusual. She just figured she was
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  enjoying her winter break from school and she would see her at some point.
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  Two days go by and nothing from Celia. Indie thought nothing of it until
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  Selia's mom called, asking if she had heard from her. Indy tells her
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  no, but Indy still was not alarmed. Shan, Celia's sister, tries
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  calling and texting Celia with no answer. She checked her Facebook and showed she
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  had not been active for dates. On January second, twenty eleven, Celia's
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  family reaches out to law enforcement to port her is missing. They walked through
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  the last time that they saw Celia, which is around four pm on December
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  twenty ninth. They were immediately concerned due to the fact that Celia normally keeps
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  in contact with their parents and especially her sister. They go to her apartment
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  to do a welfare check, and when there is no answer, they enter
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  the apartment. The apartment is in normal order, but there is no sign
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  of Celia. They enter the bathroom where they find Seleia's dog, Vegas,
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  curled up in a bowl. Terrified, her family and friends know immediately something
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  is wrong with Celia. She loved her dog and would never abandon him like
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  that. They have no apparent clues in the apartment, but they do note
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  her car is missing. They know Celia has not gone missing on her own
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  accord, so they set out to investigate further. Meanwhile, a different investigation
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  team is working another case involving a burned body. On December thirtieth, police
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  and Fire responds to a call about a brush fire on Racetrack Road, which
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  is a desolate area with no buildings or homes nearby in the Gainesville area.
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  They believe they are just putting out a simple fire, but as flames recede,
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  they see the shape of a body. They call in investigators. They
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  can tell that the person was doused and gasoline, as you could smell it
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  on the burned body. Most of the body was unrecognizable except to a small
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  part of the face. They could tell the victim was a black female,
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  but that was about it. When observing the scene, they knew whoever disposed
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  of the body would have had to a park for some time. As the
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  body was found about twenty feet off of the roadway, They began collecting anything
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  they can from the crime scene. It hopes that something will lead them to
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  identify their victim, including in what they found was a tissue in the grass
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  a paper towel on the side of the road and a partially burned flier.
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  They get a break when the body is sent to the medical examiner and he
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  was able to pull a fingerprint from one of the fingers. He was also
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  able to determine that the victim was dead prior to being burned. They run
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  the prints and find out the victim is Celia Hooda, a twenty one year
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  old college student. The pieces of these two investigations are finally fitting together.
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  They now know what has become of Celia. They contact her family and they
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  are devastated. Police question them on Salia's life, who her friends were,
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  did she have a boyfriend, did she have enemies or anyone that might went
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  to hurt her. The first person that comes to mind is Antonio Drayton.
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  Antonio was Celia's boyfriend. They had an up and down relationship and the family
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  had also suspected that Antonio had been abusive. Salia's family had noticed some injuries
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  on Slia that just didn't make sense. Celia was very agile, and one
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  time she came home with a dislocated shoulder that she said happened when she failed
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  during dancing. Now she also had additional injuries that would become more visible and
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  then leading up to a June twenty ten incident where Salia's boyfriend attacked her and
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  started choking her. She was able to get away from him and call nine
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  one one. He was arrested and charged with domestic battery, burglary, and
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  larceny. However, nothing would be done as Celia chose not to pursue the
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  charges and without her testimony, they did not really have anything to go on,
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  so those charges were dropped. After the incident, Selia became more secluded
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  from her family. Police are ready to talk to Antonio, however, he
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  beats them to the punch and calls them. He offers up a DNA sample
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  and agrees to be questioned. He tells police he met Celia about two years
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  ago at a party and she messaged him on MySpace. They asked him if
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  they were exclusive, and he needs clarity on that term now. They asked
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  him if they were the only one seeing each other, and he says no,
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  I was with other women, but she took it as I was her
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  boyfriend, so basically he was cheating on her. They questioned him about the
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  abuse and he said that he slammed her and pushed her, but he would
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  never punch her. They keep talking to him and he starts speaking real fast,
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  telling them them that he's thinking too fast and he got caught up being
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  sneaky. Those are his words. They flat out asked him if he kills
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  Leah, and he says he did not, and he does not know who
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  killed Selia. So they asked him about where he was at the time of
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  the murderer, and he says he was at home with a girlfriend, forty
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  two year old Cassandra Kimbro. Cass as Antonio called her, did not seem
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  to care about his cheating ways. She would hang around him and knew about
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  the other girls and would not say anything. Antonio then starts talking about his
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  new girlfriend, Angela Owens. Now, Angela and him did not get were
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  not on the best of terms because she already thought Antonio was a liar.
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  She believed Antonio was texting Celia, and Antonio denied this to Angela. Now.
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  During this time, Antonio also spoke to a local reporter. He was
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  questioned about the incident back in June of twenty ten, where he was arrested
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  for abuse. He says he did not remember that incident as he was drunk,
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  but he might have pushed her, but he did not choke her.
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  So please go to look into Angela and cass. They find that Angela and
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  Celia did have a history. Angel and Celia were fighting over Antonio and things
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  came to a head one night at a club. Celia and Angela got into
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  a physical fight, and Angela took out a restraining order against Celia. After
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  this, Celia was still focused on trying to get back together with Antonio.
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  About a month before Celia was murdered, she goes to his apartment to try
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  and work things out. As she enters the apartment, she sees Angela standing
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  there. Her and Angela got into it immediately, and Celia ends up being
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  arrested and taken off to jeb. Celia at this point realizes how far this
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  has gotten out of hand. She makes a decision to move on from Antonio
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  and get back to focusing just on her schoolwork now. In January fifth,
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  please bring Angela in for questioning. Angela is very calm when retelling the story
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  of her and Selia's encounters. She tells police that four days before the murder,
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  Celia actually contacted her and apologized for things getting out of hand and for
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  getting into a fight with her. Angela accepts the apology and they seem to
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  make it true. At this point, police get Angela's alibi. She says
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  she was at work and the DNA sample as well, and they let her
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  go After speaking with her. It did not seem that she had any ongoing
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  issues with Celia. After they spoke just before the murder, they seem to
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  both be moving on with their lives and Antonio while waiting for DNA samples to
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  come back, they begin reviewing gas station footage from around where the body was
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  found. On one of the videos, they see Celia's silver Nissan pulling into
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  a gas station around one am to get gas, and this is on the
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  day of the murder. The person who's getting the gas walks into the store,
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  but you can tell that it is not Celia. They're wearing blue pants
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  and a large blue jacket with the hood pulled up. Police are thinking this
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  might be Angela, but is very hard to tell. The person pays for
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  two dollars worth of gasoline to put in a gas can and then walks out
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  of the store back to the vehicle. At this point, police believe that
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  Celia was most likely dead or detained in either the backseat or the trunk.
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  They could not see in the car from the angle of the camera. Going
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  on the hunch that it was Angela getting fueled that night, they subpoena for
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  her cell phone records. They want to see if she was near the gas
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  station that night, but the records confirm her alibi. She was at work
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  and then at her home the whole time Sleia was being murdered and disposed of
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  This rolled out Angela and they were back to their main suspect, Antonio.
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  During this whole investigation, they still had not located Sleia's missing vehicle. They
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  finally catch a break when they get a call saying it had been found in
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  an apartment complex parking lot. When searching the vehicle, they get a strong
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  smell of gasoline. It seems to be mostly coming from the floor mat in
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  the back. They find a comforter and two pillow cases in the trunk.
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  It's the same material that was found on Seleia's body. They are out of
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  leeds, so they released the video footage from the gas station, hoping they
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  can find out who the mystery woman was a family member of Cassandra's calls in
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  stating that they recognized the clothing and that it was Cassandra, So now they
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  have Sandra Antonio's side woman getting out of Celia's vehicle. They also get the
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  DNA test back at the same time, and they find Antonio's DNA on the
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  piece of tissue they found near the crime scene. With this information, they
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  got into rest morant for Antonio and Cassandra. They are placed in separate rooms
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  and are confronted with the evidence police have found. Antonio starts blaming Cassandra immediately.
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  He says that Cassandra went to Celia's apartment that day and confronted her about
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  some money she owed to Antonio. Antonio says he did not know anything about
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  Cassandra's plans to go over there that day. He says Cassandra came back to
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  Antonio's and tells him she killed Celia. Antonio starts crying at this point and
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  tells the police that he was spooped and did not want to hear any more
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  about what had happened. Police knew immediately he was lying, as they had
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  already obtained the entrance records on Sleia's apartment. It was operated by Keycard,
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  and no one had ever entered Selia's home that day, so the moderate murderer
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  could not have happened in her apartment. With this information, he quickly changed
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  this story and amidst the murder o'card at his home, he begins walking police
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  through what happened that day. He says, Celia came over to his house
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  and Cassandra was there. They got into an argument and Cassandra hit Celia over
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  the head with the fire extinguisher and she appeared to be dead. He says
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  he told Cassandra while she's dead now, he tells them that he had nothing
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  to do with the murdering of Celia. Police are not quite buying this,
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  so they speak to Cassandra. She keeps not wanting to talk about it,
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  but she finally starts crying and says everyone is going to think bad of me.
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  She says she did not know anything had happened to Celia when Antonio called
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  her to come over that day, she said when she walked in, she
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  sees Celia lying there lifeless. Antonio says they got into it and she was
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  going to call the police on him, so he had to kill her.
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  Cassandra said she was afraid of Antonio, so she did what he said and
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  helped wrap her up and put her in a trunk of the car. She
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  then drove the car to a relatives of Antonio's and he came back out to
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  the car with a shovel and a gas ken. They then went to the
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  gas station and then on to the dump site. Cassandra said he made her
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  port the gasolene and light the match. Cassandra says she prayed for Celia and
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  then they left. Police charge Antonio with first degree murder and Cassandra with accessory
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  to murder. In June of twenty twelve, police cut a deal with Cassandra
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  and returned for her testimony against Antonio. She would go to jailford just two
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  years and then be on probation for eight years. Seeing the riding on the
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  wall, Antonio also takes a plea deal and on May third, twenty twelve,
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  Antonio sentenced to forty five years in prison. To this day, police
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  do not know how Celia died. Antonio never explained in full what happened to
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  her or really why he killed her. He was abusive and they believe it
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  was an argument that turned physical and escalated to murder and then he strangled her.
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  And that's our episode out of Florida. So if you enjoyed this,
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  go back and check out some of the other ones. If you'd like to
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  know my opinions on this Antonio, I have quite a few opinions on him.
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  Um you can go check out our regular episodes as are numbered in the
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  feed. And I guess we will see you next time. By everyone,
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  don't you know it's bye to be superstacious by nothing else is working s