[Narrator] A loving father is gunned down
just steps from his daughter's bedroom...
An individual walked in the room,
pulled a handgun out, and shot him.
His girlfriend was in bed with him at the time.
[Christine] It was just unbelievable.
And in such a ferocious way, too.
It was horrific.
[Narrator] Investigators search for a killer,
and uncover a deceitful past filled with possible suspects.
They lived a lavish lifestyle.
They always had a boat, nice cars, nice houses.
She believed that it was a Puerto Rican hit squad
that came up to kill him.
[Narrator] Or was the real danger
much closer to home?
His daughter said she had been a witness to a fight
that her father and a neighbor had earlier in the day.
He said to me,
And I was like, "Why would you ever say that?"
He had asked her, "What's gonna happen?"
And she said,
"You're better off if you don't know."
[James] All she could see was a figure,
and she heard a click.
And the shooter said, "This is your lucky day."
[music]
[Narrator] May 12th, 1997.
It's a quiet night in Middleburgh, New York,
a small rural town
nestled roughly 45 miles west of Albany.
At 11:50 PM, the peace is shattered when 911 operators
receive a shocking call.
A 911 call was made stating that...
subject had been shot.
[Narrator] The call came from a neighbor
of 31-year-old Nicole Braun.
Nicole Braun said she had just witnessed the murder
of her boyfriend, Frank Arroyo.
She wasn't alone with Frank that night.
She had Frank's 13-year-old daughter.
His girlfriend, who was in bed with him at the time,
had left the house in her nightgown.
Nicole ran out of the house and down the street.
She ran to some neighbors' houses,
and 911 was called.
[Jack] She said someone walked in the room,
pulled a handgun out and shot Frank,
turned around, and walked out.
[music]
[Narrator] With no time to lose,
New York state troopers race to the scene.
Upon arrival, they are met by Frank's 13-year-old daughter
and his 31-year-old girlfriend, Nikki.
His girlfriend, Nikki, was a bit hysterical.
[Jack] First responders, when they get there,
they have to clear the house, make sure that this person left.
They had to be sure that the, the house was clear and safe.
[James] The door was unlocked,
we didn't find any evidence of forced entry.
[music]
[Narrator] Troopers enter the home,
checking each room before finding Frank.
There was a victim shot multiple times.
There was no pulse, no breathing, no heartbeat...
Anything to indicate that he was alive at that point.
The police found some casings, some bullet casings,
but other than the body and blood splatter,
there was no evidence of a struggle.
There was no evidence of a robbery or burglary.
This was a straight-out shooting and that was it.
In a homicide like this,
the background of the, of the victim becomes important.
Who had a motive to hurt him? Who had a motive to kill him?
[music]
[Narrator] To his family,
Frank Arroyo always seemed larger than life.
[Amy] He was just awesome.
He was just always making you laugh,
always cracking a joke.
[Narrator] Born in Puerto Rico in 1948,
at age three, Frank moved to Queens with his parents
and three sisters.
[Christine] My aunt got really sick.
There was a really good doctor in New York.
So, they sold their chickens and their cows,
and they all moved to New York.
And they struggled a little bit.
You know, they weren't wealthy, but they were very loving.
Then when he graduated high school,
he went to the Army.
[Paul] He was cool.
He was a great guy, he loved life.
Very skilled, talented.
[Narrator] Family was everything to Frank,
and he couldn't wait to start one of his own.
And in 1971, at the age of 23,
he fell in love and married fellow Puerto Rican
Gladys Rentas.
[Christine] My mom came from Puerto Rico also,
when she was three years old.
Both of them ended up in Queens, in the same building.
My mom was a sweetheart, she was a doll.
And my dad was funny, he was a prankster.
I guess they were a little opposite of each other.
[Narrator] Though Gladys had a six-month-old son
from a previous marriage,
Frank welcomed her child with open arms.
And by 1977, they had grown to a family of five.
I was born in '74. And then Amy came along in '77.
[Narrator] Frank embraced fatherhood,
and loved taking family adventures.
My dad loved going camping, hiking, going to the beach.
He always loved playing his music.
He was always with his guitar and playing his songs.
Family man. His kids, his daugh...
He was raising his kids, take care of the family.
That was his life.
[Narrator] Frank worked as a handyman to make ends meet,
and eventually landed a job as a building superintendent.
[Paul He taught me how to put up ceiling fans,
installing air conditioners, buffing the floors.
[Narrator] Frank and Gladys seemed to have
the picture-perfect life together.
But all that changed when Frank met Donna Solerno,
a spirited New Yorker 11 years his junior.
My dad was a superintendent of a building,
and she worked for the management company
that was in charge of the superintendents.
There was a lot of flirting going on.
[Paul] Donna came into the picture.
When I first met her I told him, I said, "She's wild, bro."
Like, she did what she want, didn't care.
If she wanted to have fun, she's gonna have fun.
He was unfortunately so madly in love with Donna,
and taken by her for some reason.
She tore our family apart.
[Narrator] By 1982, Frank had divorced Gladys
and married Donna.
My mother was very resilient. It was hard for her.
But she, she bounced back and she raised three kids.
She did what she had to do.
And she did, did it on her own.
My mom and dad were fighting for custody of us.
I wanted to go home to my mom, I was a little girl.
[music]
[Narrator] Frank and Donna relocated to Florida,
where they started
a successful real estate venture.
[Amy] They were, like, selling properties.
They were basically flipping, flipping properties.
They lived a lavish lifestyle.
They always had a boat, nice cars, nice houses.
[Narrator] Frank and Donna eventually had a daughter
and son of their own.
And Frank loved getting all his children together.
We just visited them.
We didngt live the everyday life with them.
It was mostly fun whenever we got to see him.
We didn't really see him much.
Not as much as I would have liked to.
[Narrator] When the couple traveled to Puerto Rico
for real estate ventures,
they would bring the children along.
We went to Puerto Rico with him a few times.
I remember he taught me how to do the merengue dance.
[music]
[Narrator] In 1996, Frank and Donna's lavish life
went up in smoke,
when they found themselves in legal hot water.
Frank and his wife, Donna, had been involved in
some sort of scam in Puerto Rico,
in regards to some phony mortgages.
[Narrator] Donna and Frank were extradited from
Sarasota, Florida, back to Puerto Rico,
and placed under arrest.
[James] Frank was in jail for a short period of time.
That's when the marriage really went south,
when he got out of prison.
[Narrator] Frank was released after seven months in prison,
and shortly thereafter, he and Donna separated.
He moved back to New York
with the couple's 12-year-old daughter,
while Donna and the couple's 4-year-old son
stayed in Florida.
My dad ended up back Upstate New York, in Middleburgh.
He was coming around to our house lot in Staten Island.
Thinking about moving there. So, we were excited.
I was just so happy that he was around again.
[Narrator] By 1996, Frank and Donna's divorce was pending,
and both seemed to be moving on with their lives...
Donna was living on a 40-foot yacht in Florida
with her boyfriend, Cary, and her five-year-old boy.
My dad finally moved on. He finally met someone.
He found a pretty girl that he was happy with.
He would go to her house and play his guitar,
and he was happy as could be.
[music]
[Narrator] But Frank's third act is snuffed out in an instant
when he is gunned down on May 12th, 1997.
While a forensic team searches for clues inside,
New York State investigators speak with Frank's girlfriend,
Nikki Braun.
She just witnessed her boyfriend murdered right before her eyes.
She was extremely upset.
[James] Nikki said she was in bed with Frank,
and Frank was on the phone with his mother
at the foot of the bed, sitting up.
And she noticed someone come in through the bedroom door,
which was backlit, so all she could see was a figure.
And she heard a click, and the shooter said,
"This is your lucky day."
At that point, she thought this was a joke,
and I guess Frank did, as well.
And then she heard metal,
which was the shooter pulling back the slide
on the automatic and chambering the round.
And fired off four shots, which all of 'em hit Frank.
[Jack] Frank's daughter did hear the gunshots
and came out of the bedroom to see what that was.
An individual unknown to them shot Frank four times--
three times in the chest and one time in the head--
turned around and walked out.
[music]
[Narrator] It's a haunting story,
but investigators can't take it as gospel just yet.
When you have a, a murder like this,
pretty much everybody's a suspect.
[Narrator] Coming up...
Investigators look into Frank's new girl...
She just witnessed a homicide. Could she have set this up?
[Narrator] And they uncover a number of dangerous enemies.
He said he had gotten into a fight that day about money.
[Narrator] May 13th, 1997.
Puerto Rican native Frank Arroyo has just been gunned down
in his girlfriend's home by an unknown assailant.
New York State investigators study the crime scene.
He was shot multiple times, so there was a lot of blood.
He was found lying on his back,
like he had been sitting on the end of the bed,
talking on the phone.
[Narrator] Amidst the grisly scene,
investigators are also able to locate four shell casings.
The forensic team let us know what we were looking for,
and in this particular case, it was a .40-caliber weapon.
[Narrator] The casings are bagged and sent for processing.
[music]
There was nothing to suggest that this was a,
a robbery or burglary,
and we didn't find any evidence of forced entry.
The house was not broken into, door was unlocked.
[Jack] It seemed to be just a, a cold-blooded murder,
and the obvious question is
why someone would wanna murder him.
And on to the next question, of course, is, who?
[Narrator] Investigators circle back to Frank's girlfriend,
Nikki Braun,
the only eyewitness to the shooting.
You gotta handle her with kid gloves, so to speak.
She just witnessed a homicide, but she's also a suspect.
You know, could she have set this up?
She said she saw the outline of a person,
so she couldn't really see the, the shooter's face.
He was on the shorter side, you know,
between five and six feet tall.
Slender, but she couldn't tell colors in terms of
hair color or dress.
She was the only one in the room besides the shooter and Frank,
so you have to look at her pretty closely.
One way to do that was with a, with a GSR test.
[James] The shooter's gonna have residue on his or her hand.
We did do a residue test on her hands and clothing,
and actually found no residue on her hands
and nothing on her clothing, either.
[Diane] Because of her immediate cooperation with the police,
Nicole was dismissed quickly as a, as a possible suspect.
[Narrator] Next, investigators turn to Frank's daughter.
[James] Frank had custody of the 13-year-old unofficially.
She was in the house at the time of the shooting,
and she was asleep in another bedroom.
Nikki and the daughter corroborated each other.
[Narrator] She tells police that her mother,
37-year-old Donna Arroyo, lives in Florida,
but is currently visiting her grandmother
in Yonkers, New York.
[James] During the daughter's interview,
she said that her mom came up from Florida
to try to visit or see her daughter,
and tried to ask her daughter to come to Florida with her.
But she wanted to stay in Upstate New York.
She had a very good relationship with her father, Frank,
and had friends in Middleburgh, and relatives,
and just did not want to go to Florida.
[Narrator] Police take down Donna's phone number
from the teenager,
and they ask if she knows of anyone that would want
to hurt her dad.
She points to a neighbor, John Giakoumakis,
a family friend to both Frank and Donna.
John Giakoumakis, a friend of Donna's, and also knew Frank.
Frank's daughter said she had been a witness to a fight
that her father and John had earlier in the day.
[Narrator] Detectives immediately head
across the street to try and question John.
[Diane] The police went and spoke with John,
and he gave a statement to the police.
He said he had gotten into a fight that day about money
that Frank had lent to John,
and John basically had told Frank that day
that he didn't intend to repay him,
and it was worth about five thousand dollars.
So, they, they got into it, and there was a bit of a tussle.
[Narrator] When they ask John for his whereabouts
at the time of Frank's murder,
he tells them that he was at home all night
with his girlfriend.
[Diane] John Giakoumakis had a girlfriend named Tiffany.
Tiffany gave John an alibi, and she said he was with her.
But in any criminal investigation,
the police are going to take everything sort of with
a grain of salt until they get the full facts.
[Narrator] Detectives make a note to come back to John
once they have more information.
[music]
[Narrator] Officers escort Nikki Braun
and Frank's young daughter to the police station,
while investigators break the news
to the rest of Frank's family.
[Christine] I remember being asleep and my phone rang.
And I remember just jumping out of bed and right away,
we were in shock.
It was just unbelievable.
And in such a ferocious way, too.
He was murdered, like...
Y'know, they didn't shoot him once.
They shot him multiple times. It was horrific.
My mom and my older brother told me the news.
They were like, "It's your dad."
I just, obviously I was, you know, upset.
My little sister was in the house when it happened.
She was only 13 at the time.
So, we went and got her.
It was just heart wrenching, devastating.
[music]
[Narrator] Next, investigators call Frank's estranged wife,
37-year-old Donna Arroyo,
who had been visiting her mother in Yonkers,
three hours away.
She is shocked to learn of the shooting.
When we interviewed her,
she said that her relationship with Frank
was pretty good, they just grew apart.
She immediately denied any involvement in this.
She had just said she came up to visit her daughter,
and drove to Middleburgh.
Tried to ask her daughter to come to Florida with her.
She said her daughter, by choice,
did not wanna go to Florida, did not wanna leave with her,
and wanted to live with her father, Frank.
[Narrator] Donna's statement supports what her daughter
told police earlier,
and she's able to provide an alibi for the shooting.
Donna was pretty adamant that she's at her mom's
during the homicide,
and her mother did corroborate that.
[Diane] One of the key pieces of information
was that the shooter was a male.
We know this because Nikki heard him say,
and it was clearly a man's voice.
[Narrator] When asked about John,
Donna doesn't hold back.
She was saying that John and Frank did not get along,
and she thought that John could possibly have been
the one who did it.
[Narrator] When asked who else might want Frank dead,
Donna says the list of Frank's enemies is quite long.
[Jack] Frank had got involved in this land scheme in Puerto Rico,
for which he did get arrested.
But during that,
he had made off with some significant money,
and that she believed that it was a Puerto Rican hit squad
that came up to kill Frank over the money that he owed them.
[Narrator] Not only that,
Donna claims that Frank recently became involved with
the Puerto Rican drug trade.
[Diane] Because the shooting occurred
without another assault involved,
without a burglary,
police looked at the possibility that this could be a drug hit.
Some other type of retaliation for some other activity
that Frank may have been involved in.
[Narrator] Coming up...
Did Frank's criminal past make him a target for murder?
[James] I don't wanna disparage the dead,
but Frank wasn't an angel.
[Narrator] And later...
Bizarre details emerge about
Frank and Donna's tumultuous relationship.
Donna made her relationship with Frank
look a lot rosier than it really was.
They were fighting over the daughter.
Something had to be done with him.
[Narrator] It's been 24 hours since 48-year-old Frank Arroyo
was murdered in his Middleburgh home.
While awaiting forensic and autopsy results,
investigators dig deeper into Donna's allegations
about Frank's criminal past.
[James] I don't wanna disparage the dead,
but Frank wasn't an angel.
I would describe Frank as a small-time drug dealer,
drugs being marijuana.
But nothing that would rise to the level of
a drug deal gone bad,
or murder someone over a couple ounces of marijuana.
We also learned early on that Frank and Donna
had been involved in some sort of scam in Puerto Rico,
regards to some phony mortgages.
[Narrator] However,
investigators find nothing to connect Frank's murder
to his time in Puerto Rico.
[James] We did look into the land scam in Puerto Rico,
and they all came up dead ends pretty quickly.
[Narrator] On the evening of May 13th,
detectives circle back to John Giakoumakis,
the neighbor that Frank argued with on the day of his death.
[Diane] John apparently didn't give a full statement
the first time.
That's not unusual in a criminal investigation,
especially one where there's a killer
still out in the public somewhere.
[Narrator] John confirms that he argued with Frank
on the day of his murder,
but reveals he wasn't the only one.
John gave the police information about a fight with Donna
that Frank had as well that day on the street.
He says she clearly knew that Frank had a new relationship,
and he was intending to move to Long Island
with their 13-year-old daughter.
And it became evident quite early on
that Donna was very unhappy about that.
Donna feared that Frank was
so-called abducting their daughter,
and she did not want that to happen.
John said Donna was just beside herself.
I mean, swearing, and yelling, and expletives, and...
And threatening Frank's life.
She was very, very angry at him.
Donna kept repeating that
she was gonna have her husband, Frank, killed.
[Narrator] John says that Donna eventually left.
Unable to shake the incident,
he called Donna later to check on her.
[Diane] He had asked her, "What's gonna happen?"
And she said,
you're better off if you don't know."
He heard in the background a male voice saying,
"Frank's going to get his effing brains blown out."
[Narrator] The call ended.
He didn't hear from Donna again.
[Diane] When the police get information
like what Giakoumakis gave to them,
they have to make the assessment whether
was it just that he was being...
maybe afraid to come forward with everything out at once?
Or was he trying to get the spotlight
taken away from him and put on somebody else?
[Narrator] Investigators turn to Frank's family
for more insight.
And they don't hold back when it comes to Donna.
[Amy] She wasn't a good person.
She was cheating on him for forever.
For the longest time.
She was bringing guys around in front of his face.
She had him, like, under her spell.
It was crazy.
[Narrator] Frank's family says when they heard
that Frank and Donna separated, it didn't come as a surprise.
[Amy] I stayed with him when he finally moved away from Florida,
and he was upset, very upset and said to me,
"I don't wanna die."
And I was like, "Why would you ever say that?"
He said, "Well, I don't trust her.
She's very manipulative and calculating."
He told me he thought Donna was gonna kill him.
He told me outright, like,
"I think she's gonna try to kill me."
[Narrator] It's clear to investigators
that it's time to pay Donna a visit.
[music]
[Narrator] On May 14th, two days after Frank's murder,
investigators track her down at her mother's house in Yonkers.
[James] We sent state police investigators
there to the mother's home to interview Donna.
[Narrator] Investigators confront Donna
with their suspicions,
and she shares some alarming new information
about her estranged husband.
Donna says she heard that Frank
was jealous because she had a boyfriend.
Donna believed Frank was putting a hit out on Cary.
She said Frank was connected to different things,
and he had the connections to have somebody kill him.
[Narrator] According to Donna,
in a desperate move to save her boyfriend's life,
she hired two men to teach Frank a lesson.
She said, "I didn't tell him to shoot him.
I told him to just come up and beat him up a little bit."
[Narrator] Despite Donna's stated intent,
someone did kill Frank that night.
However, Donna stops short of naming her accomplices.
She was arrested for criminal facilitation based on
what we knew at the time.
She was subsequently transported back up north
to Middleburgh, New York,
where she was remanded to the Schoharie County Jail.
[Narrator] Just as investigators begin looking into
Donna's past associates,
a call comes in that blows the case wide open.
The command post received a call
from an attorney out of Orlando, Florida.
[Jack] He said, "I have a client here in my office
"that was there. He did not take part in it.
"And he's looking for immunity.
But he can tell you who did it and how it all happened."
[music]
[Narrator] Coming up...
Who really killed Frank Arroyo?
I think he was in love with Donna,
but realized he had been manipulated.
She convinced him that the only way around it
was that Frank had to die.
[Narrator] And later...
Shocking details emerge about the master plan.
[James] She said, "Now, remember how I told you to do it.
I want it to make it look like a Puerto Rican hit."
[Narrator] After Frank Arroyo's estranged wife is arrested
for facilitation of murder,
New York State investigators receive a tip about
a potential informant in Florida,
Donna's home state.
We enlisted the help of the FBI and the FDLE,
Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
[Narrator] Within 24 hours,
New York State investigators touch down in Florida...
...and set up a meeting with the attorney and his client,
a frightened man named Steve Hannum.
[James] Steve was horrified in what had happened, his words.
He started to name names,
in particular, Donna's boyfriend, Cary McKinley,
and Daniel Edwards as being the participants in the murder.
[Narrator] Steve says he and Cary worked together
at a refrigeration company.
Steve knew a little bit about Cary's relationship with Donna
and knew that they had gotten engaged.
[Jack] Cary said he had to take a few days off
to go to New York, to settle some affairs
that he had going on up there
with his, involving his fiancée, Donna.
Steve offered to drive him up to New York.
He said, "I've never been to New York,
I'd like to see it."
[Narrator] On May 11th, 1997, Steve arrived to pick Cary up.
[James] On the way out of town, Cary said,
"Listen, my, my half-brother Daniel,
he's gonna come with us too, is that all right?"
And he goes, "Sure, he can share the driving and etc."
They picked up Cary McKinley's half-brother, Daniel Edwards.
And the three of them drove non-stop
from Florida to New York.
Steve said that McKinley was getting phone calls
from Donna Arroyo stating that things had gone sour.
That she was fighting with her ex-husband.
[Narrator] Steve says they arrived in New York
on the evening of May 12th.
The three of them got a motel room
about 40 minutes from Middleburgh.
And then Donna shows up about a half hour after
they're at this hotel.
That's when Steve meets Donna for the first time.
And she's telling Cary that Frank had been abusive,
that they were fighting over the daughter,
something had to be done with him.
And she wanted Cary to go head up to Middleburgh
and to beat him up.
According to him,
he wasn't privy to a lot of the conversations
because they would go into a different room.
[James] As the night wore on,
they said, "We're going back to Frank's house."
And since Steve had rented the car,
he said, "I'll drive."
The idea when they got there was for Cary to go in
and confront Frank,
and he was supposed to intimidate him
to leave Donna alone,
to let her take the daughter, Jamie, back to Florida.
[Narrator] But Steve says on the drive over,
everything changed.
[James] That's when the guns came out.
In particular, the .40-caliber murder weapon.
He said that Cary had handed it to his half-brother, Daniel,
and Donna said,
"Now, remember how I told you to do it.
"Shoot him in the head, I want it to make it look like
a Puerto Rican hit."
[Narrator] Steve tells investigators when he realized
what was going on, he felt sick.
When he was driving,
he got so upset he couldn't drive,
and Cary took over the wheel.
[Narrator] According to Steve,
once they arrived at Frank's house,
Daniel got out of the car and went towards
the house with the gun.
The three of them went and drove away,
and drove around the block once or twice.
And eventually, once they came around,
Daniel was out front by this time.
And he got in the car,
and they asked him what happened.
He said that, "It's all done. I took care of it."
[Narrator] Steve says the four of them then
went their separate ways.
Cary McKinley and Donna Arroyo went to Yonkers,
and Steve and Daniel drove back together
in a rented car to Florida.
[Narrator] Steve tells investigators
as he and Daniel crossed the Hudson River,
they made a pit stop.
[James] Daniel said to Steve, "Slow down, pull over.
"I'm gonna throw the gun out, the murder weapon,
over the bridge."
Which he did do.
That location on the Hudson, it's...
few miles wide, big current.
There's no way you're gonna put divers
into that kind of situation.
Daniel was calm, cool, collected, according to Steve.
They drove back, straight back down to Florida
and just parted ways immediately.
[Narrator] Now investigators need to determine if Steve
really was an unwitting witness...
or is he just trying to save himself?
Within a week of the murder,
they go down to Florida, and they find Daniel Edwards.
[James] Steve told us where we might find Cary and Daniel.
We actually went to a work location that
Daniel was doing an HVAC install.
When we arrived at the convenience store
to arrest Daniel, he made a spontaneous statement,
"I was expecting you guys to show up."
[Narrator] Authorities locate Cary next.
We arrested Cary at a, in his motel room
where he was residing in Florida.
[Narrator] Both men are arrested and taken to
a temporary field office,
where they are separated and interviewed.
First, investigators speak with 29-year-old Cary McKinley.
[James] He was very emotional, he was...
I think he was in love with Donna,
but realized he had been manipulated.
[Narrator] Cary tells investigators
he met with Donna in Florida only six months earlier.
She was there near a job site that he was working at,
and they became friends.
And then next thing you know, they became lovers.
[Narrator] Cary says Donna always told him
that her ex was dangerous.
Donna provided him with a lot of information that concerned him,
to say the least.
That Frank was gonna abduct the 13-year-old daughter
and take her away.
[Jack] She wanted Cary to come to New York
and intimidate Frank,
and scare him and try to force him into
allowing the daughter to go with her.
[Narrator] Cary admits that he asked his friend Steve
and his half-brother Daniel to come along.
But when they got to New York, things spiraled out of control.
She told Cary that Frank had ordered a hit.
In other words, a contract on Cary's life.
[Jack] She was saying, "The only way you can get out
from underneath that contract is that he has to be killed."
[Narrator] Cary says he had brought
his .40-caliber handgun for protection.
[James] Cary did everything but pull the trigger.
He was up to his ears in this. He just couldn't do it.
[Narrator] Cary tells investigators
his friend Steve is completely innocent.
[Jack] Cary's interview was substantiating
what Steve had told us,
that he had no part in the planning
of what they actually did.
[Narrator] Next up, investigators speak with
Cary's half-brother, 26-year-old Daniel Edwards.
He said he wanted to watch his brother's back.
And he was led to believe there was an actual hit
on his brother, Cary.
Donna convinced him that the only way around it
was that he had to be killed.
So, Cary couldn't do it or wouldn't do it,
but Daniel said,
"I'll take care of it. I'll do it."
He was just there for the ride and there to pull the trigger,
and didn't get too emotional about the whole thing.
Pretty cold.
[Narrator] According to Daniel, on the night of May 12th, 1997,
they drove to Frank's house with one intention.
After Daniel shot Frank, Donna said,
"Did you do it as I told you?"
And he said, "Yes, I think I shot him twice.
I, I can't remember."
Everybody in the car said Donna was happy, relieved,
like a weight off her shoulders.
[Narrator] After Daniel and Cary's interviews,
Steve is officially cleared of any wrongdoing.
We felt that he was there solely as an unwitting participant,
and would be better served as a witness.
[Narrator] Cary McKinley and Daniel Edwards
are charged with murder
and transported back to New York.
Donna's charge of facilitation
is officially bumped up to murder in the first degree.
[James] Once you arrest someone for murder,
the work doesn't end there.
In fact, you gotta put as much effort into
the prosecution in proving it,
and beyond a reasonable doubt.
[Narrator] As predicted,
the murder weapon is never found.
However, investigators are able to verify that Cary purchased
a .40-caliber firearm March 2nd, 1997,
just two months before Frank was killed.
We did a search warrant on his 40-foot Bayliner boat,
which was essentially his residence.
And we found .40-caliber ammunition.
We didn't find anything of relevance other than ammunition.
[Narrator] Investigators find no evidence
that Frank was abusive toward Donna,
or that he had taken out a hit on her new man.
[Carol] That was a lie.
I don't think there was any thought in Frank's mind
to kill anybody.
And Cary believed it, because he was in Donna's web.
[Narrator] Coming up...
More details emerge about Donna's deadly scheme.
Money had been mentioned, that Donna would give them
$100,000 each from life insurance.
[Narrator] And one of the alleged killers walks free.
I thought that was disgusting.
I don't think any of them should have gotten off.
[Narrator] New York State investigators have charged
Donna Arroyo, Cary McKinley, and Daniel Edwards
for their roles in the murder of 48-year-old Frank Arroyo.
With trials quickly approaching,
Donna decides to take a plea deal.
When she plead guilty to murder in the second degree,
that took off the table of her going to trial
and being convicted of murder in the first degree.
Custody can be and is a motive,
motivating factor to crime,
and in this particular case, I think it led Donna
to have her husband killed.
She knew what she was doing, and she had a mission.
And she was gonna see that mission through.
And she did.
[Narrator] Donna concedes that she had even offered
the brothers a share of
her husband's life insurance policy as payment.
[James] Money had been mentioned,
that Donna would give them
$100,000 each from life insurance.
Which there was no life insurance
that we're aware of.
Donna was giving them lies and false information.
[Narrator] Donna is sentenced to 25 years to life.
[music]
25 years to life,
which means after serving your 25 years minimum,
you'd be eligible for parole.
[Amy] I don't feel like justice was served, to be honest.
Because she gets to come out and enjoy her children.
My dad didn't get to see his children grow up.
Daniel Edwards pled guilty to murder in the second degree,
for intentionally killing Frank Arroyo.
[Narrator] Daniel Edwards is also sentenced to 25 to life.
I think that he's a terrible, horrible person,
and I wish that he would've gotten more time, also.
[music]
[Narrator] As for Donna's boyfriend, Cary,
in November of 1998, he takes his chances at trial.
[Diane] He was charged with conspiracy in the second degree,
criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree,
as a, as an aider and abettor.
[Carol] His lawyer was crying.
Saying his man, his guy, his client was innocent.
He didn't know what Donna was going to do.
[Narrator] Cary takes the stand and renounces
his earlier confession with law enforcement.
Not only that, but Cary denies being in the car
during the crime,
and says that the murder weapon wasn't even his.
Since we don't have the gun, we couldn't prove it either way.
[Narrator] And on December 7th, 1998,
the jury comes back with a shocking verdict...
Not guilty.
[James] I was disappointed, to say the least.
I think one of the contributing factors
to Cary's acquittal was the fact that the jury
did not think much of Donna's credibility,
and they were placing most of the blame on Donna.
I thought that was disgusting.
I thought that they should have all been held accountable
for what they did.
I don't think any of them should have gotten off.
[Narrator] Donna and Frank's two children are placed
in the custody of Donna's mother.
[James] The sad thing about this is
the kids lost both the mother and the father.
One going to prison for 25 to life,
and the other being dead.
[Narrator] Roughly 25 years later,
in the spring of 2022,
Donna is released on parole,
along with her co-conspirator, Daniel.
It's horrible.
It's not fair, you know.
He's, he's gone, and she gets to walk around.
[Amy] She gets to go, come out now and,
and stay with her daughter and her son,
and meet the grandkids, and...
And live this happy life at only 60 something years old.
And my dad never got that. How was that justice?
[Narrator] In spite of everything,
his daughters do their best to keep their dad's memory alive.
He's gonna be remembered by...
that he was just so happy-go-lucky.
He was so fun to be around,
was always singing with his guitar,
and just the life of the party.
He was so kind, and he was just a great guy,
and he didn't deserve to go out like that.
[Christine] I think of him often.
We do get together every year
for a family reunion in his memory.
To honor him.
[music]