Snapped: Women Who Murder - Angelina O'Mara
Episode Date: April 13, 2023In the fall of 2011, homicide detectives located in towns over 300 kilometres apart link two separate murders to one ruthless killer.Season 24 Episode 03Originally aired: September 9, 2018Wat...ch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal.
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After a relationship that spanned more than a decade, a new love came calling.
I think she wanted something more and something new.
She met him online.
I think he was younger than her and decided to start a life with him.
But a gruesome discovery threatens to destroy their dreams.
He was being abusive and she needed some more to stay.
Someone who came in and placed pills over him and shot him.
If your mind could only forget what your eyes have seen.
As the investigation heats up, detectives must decode a complicated love triangle.
I had both of these guys really loving on me and it's confusing and hard.
Rumors that they wanted to kill them, there were some threats. Before the pieces
fall into place, investigators will realize that love can have a dark side, where
the best outcome is heartbreak. The Founda body was jammed next to the door. She said
the hell's angels had burst into the hotel.
There could potentially be more victims forthcoming.
And he said, I'm gonna f*** Sock Rapids, Minnesota.
It's just after 11 a.m. in this scenic community situated near the headwaters of the Mississippi
River.
Larry J. Cole, the caretaker of the colonial apartment complex,
is checking into an unusual complaint.
I got a phone call.
I said, something smelled funny.
At first, I thought it was a mosa, it was a cat,
or it was something, but it just got worse than it was horrendous.
So then we called the landlord. And Larry come over.
I thought maybe somebody left for the weekend
or left their garbage by their door.
There was a little odor coming from the door.
It's the door to apartment 10,
the residence of 43-year-old James O'Mara.
Jim was a good renter.
As far as I know, his rent was always paid on time.
Never had any noise complaints or any problem.
Larry J. Cole knocks on the door, but James doesn't answer.
So I used to key and open the door and I hollered.
TV was on pretty loud. He was laying on the couch.
He had a pillow over the top of his head, and it's like I could smell right away.
Something was wrong.
As Larry approaches, it's clear that the man on the couch
is dead.
So then I backed out of the door and called
to soccer app, it's police department.
And I told him I had a dead body in the apartment.
I didn't see any blood.
I didn't know if it was overdose or heart attack.
Moments later, the first officers arrive at the scene.
They quickly determine the likely cause of death.
Jim Amara had been found in his apartment.
He had been shot in the head with a small caliber weapon.
While James Kelly O'Mara was living at the colonial apartments in sock rapids,
he was known as the friendly Irishman next door.
This reputation as a buoyant, happy, go-lucky guy had been with James since he was a child growing up in Minneapolis.
My brother's name is James Kelly Omira.
We've called him Kelly since the day he was born,
because he was an Irish little looking leprechaun
with big blue eyes and had an Irish twinkle.
We had a good life. My mom was a homemaker.
As soon as James became an adult, and Irish Twinkle. We had a good life. My mom was a homemaker.
As soon as James became an adult,
he was ready to start a family of his own.
He got into a serious relationship
with a woman named Carrie.
And they didn't get married, but they
were together for a while, and they had a son named Sean.
He was such a proud dad.
Unfortunately, his first attempt at love
left James with a broken heart and a son living
out of state.
That relationship dissolved when Sean was quite young and they moved to Iowa.
It was really hard on him, not to be a full-time dad.
Despite the heartbreak, James never lost faith that one day he'd find that special someone.
And when James was 25 years old, that faith was rewarded
when he met a striking young brunette named Angelina Luso.
She was tall, pretty.
She seemed like she had a lot in common with my brother.
Angelina Luso also grew up in Minnesota.
But unlike James, Angelina's childhood
wasn't marked by the memories of a loving family.
She grew up in a broken home
to her parents' got divorced when she was really young.
And I know she was very insecure about guys
because she didn't have a good relationship
with her real father.
But Angelina eventually overcame her insecurities
and blossomed into a vivacious, outgoing young woman.
She was smart, she was an extrovert, she could easily talk to people who was easy for her.
Still, when it came to relationships, Angelina always resisted commitment.
She did get serious with one guy, but when he asked her to marry him and move to Alaska, Angelina recoiled. He wanted to get married and have kids and settle down and my mom was
really young at the time and I don't think she wanted to. Angelina's attitude
changed when she met James Kelly O'Mara. They were attracted to each other because
they were both so fun out going down to earth people that just wanted to have fun with each other
and love each other.
James also gave Angelina a sense of security
that she had never felt before.
He and raised by four older sisters.
By the time he was able to date,
he was the most kindest, softest loving man there was.
He put Angelina on a pedestal.
He always wanted her to be happy, no matter what.
Then, in 1997, Angelina became pregnant.
She was thrilled by the news, as was James.
I know that my parents were so excited to have me.
My mom told me all the time and my dad
how much of a blessing I was that I was like an angel from God.
By 2006, the family had moved to the town of Rice, Minnesota,
where James worked as a maintenance man,
and Angelina took care of daughter Juliana
and tended bar on the side.
While life together felt almost perfect,
James believed there was still one thing missing.
He wanted Angelina to be his bride.
Angelina and Kelly were together for quite some time before they got married,
then I know he was really excited to make it official when he asked for it.
Angelina said yes, and the couple married in March of 2007.
But what should have been some of their happiest years together slowly began to sour.
There was times that they got along and there was times that they would fight.
Most of the fighting occurred when they were both drinking.
So my parents they had a drinking problem and they started drinking heavily on weekends.
My dad was a proud Irish guy so he loved to drink, loved to be around his friends
but sometimes when he would drink,
he would get a little lippy like any Irish man would.
As the drinking and the arguing escalated,
Angelina slowly withdrew.
She never wanted to spend with Kelly towards the end.
She was always gone, seemed like she had a secret life.
And to a certain extent, Angelina did have a secret life,
at least online.
She was meeting different men on the internet.
And I think she wanted something more and something new.
In 2010, Angelina met 35-year-old Michael Pies
on a dating site.
She was instantly intrigued.
Mike told her all these amazing things that he had a Mustang and that he had $10,000.
It's like, he told her all of these things and wrapped her in.
Before long, Angelina and Michael took their relationship from the chat room to the bedroom.
At first, Angelina believed the affair was just a fling, a welcome break from the tension that filled her home life.
But that all changed one weekend in the fall of 2010.
Angelina had left that weekend,
and she said she was going to be with her girlfriends,
and she came back on Sunday with Michael Pies in the car.
And she said she was pregnant.
My dad wanted to work out the relationship,
but my mom didn't, and so she kicked my dad out of the house.
James moved to a one-bedroom apartment in Sock Rapids.
Angelina moved Michael in with her and gave birth to their daughter Graceland
in April of 2011.
Realizing Angelina had moved on,
James decided the best thing for everyone
was for he and Angelina to be friends.
He was trying to repair some things.
And it was important for him.
It didn't surprise me that Angelina was back in his life.
By the fall of 2011, it seemed James and Angelina
had truly managed to strike a new balance
as friends and co-parents.
But on November 1st, the dynamic of the Omera family is forever altered
by the gruesome discovery police have made inside James' apartment.
James have been laying on the couch,
pillows have been placed over James and James had been laying on the couch. Pillows have been placed over James'
and James' had been shot.
We had reason to be concerned.
We felt that someone else could be in danger.
Coming up, a troubling clue gives way to a manhunt
and fears of a killing spree.
I heard rumors that they wanted to kill him.
I was fearful for her life at that time,
because nobody could find her, and nobody could find him.
By the fall of 2011, James and Angelina O'Mara
had put their messy separation, and Angelina O'Mara had put their messy separation and Angelina's affair
with Michael Pies behind them and managed to forge a new friendship.
My mom contacted my dad and my dad let her in because he still loved my mom.
They were both trying to make things right. I thought she would eventually go back to him
because she was starting to when he moved into the apartment in South Krab. It's going there, stay in the night.
But on November 1st, things take a tragic turn when James is found shot to death
in his apartment. Based on the level of decomposition, investigators believe that
James has been dead at least two days. They also suspect the weapon used was a small caliber gun.
It appeared as though a 22 caliber rifle
had been shot through the pillow into his head,
striking him and killing him.
Near the body, police find a few fast food wrappers
and beer bottles.
Aside from that, the apartment shows no signs of disarray.
As far as there being something out of place,
anything like that, there was nothing really out of place
with the crime scene that looked
that had been a struggle or anything like that.
In fact, it appears James had been lying down
at the time he was shot, perhaps unaware
that an intruder had entered his apartment.
It appeared as though he had been asleep.
The fact that James was shot while he was asleep
suggests the shooting wasn't random.
The door was fine.
The locks weren't broke.
Door jam would not kick the inner broken
so the door wasn't kicked in.
Whoever killed James knew how to get into his apartment.
But who would want to murder James
in such cold-blooded fashion?
According to apartment manager Larry J.Cole,
James wasn't the kind of guy who made a lot of enemies.
He lived in the clonial apartments at least a year,
if not two years, so it wasn't like he just moved in
and all this trouble followed him.
He'd been there for two years, never had any problems.
Roxanne Huston, who lives next door,
tells investigators that James was a wonderful neighbor.
He's a very nice man.
I don't know anybody that didn't get along
with him in the apartment building.
He was quiet. He worked nights.
So he any kept to himself.
However, Roxanne also told police that she'd had a bizarre
exchange with someone who claimed to know James
on the morning of October 29th.
She had came that morning, and she said
that she had brought a burrito because he was going to be hung over.
The woman told Roxanne that she couldn't get James
to wake up and come to the door.
And then she asked if I had a butter knife
she could get in the apartment.
Roxanne loaned her the knife.
A few minutes later, the woman returned and said it didn't work.
She couldn't get in, and then she laughed.
She just reminded me of somebody that had some problems,
that she just wasn't all together, like mumbling to herself.
Before they can find out more about this woman,
investigators reach out to James' sisters
to inform them that the brother they affectionately called Kelly is gone.
I'm crying. I'm just talking to myself all the way to my mom's.
And I get there and the cops are there.
I couldn't believe it that he was dead.
Kelly was a loving, he was a people person.
He got along good with everybody.
When you hear somebody, like when you hear that your dad is murdered,
you don't know like word to start thinking or anything.
I just started screaming.
My brother was amazing. He had so much love.
He had love for God. He had love for God.
He had love for his mom, his children, his family,
and family was number one important to him.
Once James' sisters collect themselves,
detectives ask them if there's anyone
who'd want to hurt James.
From the moment I heard Kelly was dead,
I always thought it was Michael Pies that murdered him.
James's sisters explained that while their brother and his ex-wife Angelina had managed
to patch things up, there was still bad blood between James and Angelina's new boyfriend,
Michael Pies.
Kelly was always telling my mom and me
that Michael Pies was calling, threatening to kill him
if he didn't stop talking to Angelina.
It was often like every day, almost.
Michael Pies was threatening Kelly.
I think there was some threats maybe,
a text messaging in her cell phone.
And so we were bothered by that.
I just thought, you know, he just didn't want my brother
in the picture, and my brother was going to be in the picture
because he's the father of Juliana.
According to James' sisters, Michael Pies feared Angelina
might rekindle her relationship with James,
and that those fears had manifested themselves
in the form of physical violence.
Michael had tried to choke her and assault her.
She had told Jim that he was being abusive
and she needed some more to stay and Jim let her stay
at his apartment.
He brought her into his home and started taking care of my mom.
They seemed like they were happy,
and they were going to get back together,
and that my family was going to be back together again.
According to his sisters, James was glad to have Angelina back in his life.
I think he was looking for any hope to get back together with Angelina.
Kelly loved Angelina unconditionally.
At the end of the day that he just loved her and wanted to be with her.
But after just a few days with James,
Angelina patched things up with Michael.
Armed with this new information,
police are eager to speak with Angelina and Michael.
There's just one problem.
Michael Pies hadn't been heard from in a number of days,
and he was last known to be with Angelina Omara.
Even more alarming is that Angelina's daughter, 12-year-old Juliana,
had been left tending to the household alone.
My mom just disappeared.
Me and my sister, we had to go live with my best friend.
When I told her that I've been living at my house in Cold Spring by myself,
with my baby sister, she told her family, and they took me in.
My dad's side, the family, tried calling my mom
to tell her that my dad was dead,
and she didn't answer anybody's calls.
I really had no idea where she was or what she was doing.
I was scared.
Did Michael kill James and go on the run?
If so, has he taken Angelina with him against her will? I was thinking at the time, oh my God,
Michael Pies did something with Angelina.
Like, he heard her something like that.
I was fearful for her life, because nobody could find her,
and nobody could find him.
So I was thinking that Michael Pies maybe kidnapped her.
Coming up, investigators catch wind of a potential lead.
Oswars had been called because of a disturbance.
And a fresh tip leads to another horrifying discovery.
They could smell the odor, which is very distinct of a decaying body. Hey, listener, it is me, Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast
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[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
It's been almost 24 hours since 43-year-old James O'Mara
was found shot to death in Sock Rapids, Minnesota.
Police have now discovered that James' ex-wife Angelina
had recently been staying with James
after an alleged domestic incident involving Angelina's
new boyfriend, Michael Pies.
Once James O'Mara was found and it was determined
it was a homicide, and then getting information
that Angelina had a boyfriend and that boyfriend,
we found out it was Michael Pies.
Obviously, you would want to look at the boyfriend also in this case.
Detectives believe Michael may be the trigger man,
and that Angelina might also be in danger.
It was important for us to locate Angelina as soon as possible
to make sure that she herself was not a victim.
On November 2nd, 2011, investigators put out a nationwide APB on Angelina's SUV.
When you're trying to find someone who may be in the win anywhere in the country, you put
information to NCIC, National Crime Information Center, and that goes through all the states.
It doesn't take long for the APB to yield results.
An officer 200 miles away in Ashland, Wisconsin
enters Angelina's tag number after responding
to a disturbance call at a local motel.
The Anderson motel is our little mom and pop motel
right on US2 on the west side of Ashland.
Very low crime, very few calls for service there.
Officers had been called because of a disturbance that was called in by the motel owner's daughters.
Said this yet a suspicious female that was there arguing with her. She wanted to re-rent the room
for the rest of the week and that the daughter was not re-rent the room to her. And the
daughter was explaining that she can not shed a weight for her parents to get back and that the daughter was not re-rent the room to her. And the daughter was explaining that she
cannot, she had to wait for her parents to get back,
and that she had called because the parents were gone
and she had been insisting.
When the responding officer engaged the woman
in the motel parking lot, she identified herself
as Angelina O'Mara.
She was really agitated, really in a hurry,
really push it.
She got in her vehicle.
She was by herself, and she left.
That's when detectives back in sock rapids
explained to the officers in Wisconsin
the reason for their inquiry.
They find and formed him what was going on,
why they were looking for Michael Pies.
That's when they went back and did a welfare check
at the motel.
When Ashland police arrive at the motel,
they speak to the owner who informs them
that Angelina checked into room 12 on October 29th.
He said when Angelina came to check in,
she came in by herself with a mail that we described
as Michael Pies sitting in her vehicle out in the parking lot.
If Angelina arrived with Michael, but left alone,
where is he? And where is Angelina now?
Officers asked to see room 12.
The officers responded to that particular room
and knocked on the room door.
Did not receive any answer.
The door, however, was unlocked.
They could smell the odor, very distinct of a decaying body.
And upon trying to make entry into the room,
they found a body that was jammed next to the door.
The body was covered up with some blankets, an up pillow,
and it was jammed between the bed and the front wall
next to the door.
But we did not know who the deceased was.
We did not know if it was a male or a female.
Careful not to disturb the crime scene,
investigators managed to move the body far enough away
from the door to gain entry.
Upon making further entry into the room
and upon examining the deceased,
we were able to determine that it was Michael Pies.
It was hard to tell initially what the cause of death was.
A lot of decaying had set in, a lot of discoloration,
a lot of blood stains on the bed.
After examining his body for some time,
we were able to figure out
that he had suffered a gunshot wound to his head.
There was some garbage, food containers, things of that nature,
so it was cigarette bites.
Nothing I had, nothing broken, nothing turned over.
It didn't appear to be any struggle.
We didn't believe that this was a robbery,
because Michael Pies, Wallet, and identification
were still present on the nightstand.
There's nothing in the crimes that suggest anything
other than the execution.
We have Michael Pies in a room with Angelina Amara.
He shot in the head while he's sleeping with a 22.
And James Amara, who has ties with Angelina, his shot in the head in his residence while he's sleeping.
Very similar methods, very similar crime scenes.
That night, investigators notify Michael Pies' father
of his son's death.
It's in that conversation,
investigators learn a disturbing new detail
about Angelina and Michael's relationship.
Talking to Michael Pi's father, it said that he had met her on the internet.
And that, um, since he meeting her, he kind of went sideways.
I just remember that Mike and my mom had two big things of boxes full of pills,
and they would just take them all the time.
of boxes full of pills, and they would just take them all the time. She didn't look healthy, and I couldn't fathom it,
but I knew something terrible and awful was going on.
The revelation of Michael and Angelina's alleged pill addiction
presents a slew of possible scenarios.
Either she had something to do with this,
the death of Michael Pies, or she was also a victim as well,
and was now being held captive in one way or another.
So it was very important to locate her as soon as possible, to number one, ensure that she was safe,
or number two, find out what had actually transpired in that motel room with Michael Pies.
Investigators release another nationwide APB for Angelina and her 1996 GMC.
Within 24 hours, some 450 miles away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, police receive a 911 call
made by a truck driver who just had a bizarre encounter with a woman driving a 1996 GMC SUV.
Apparently she had stopped at a truck stop,
had met with a truck driver, and asked him
to help her load the 22 caliber rifle, which is a pretty odd
thing to do, and kind of prompt him to send her on her way
and call the police.
Local police responded to the call only to find
the woman had vanished and her GMC abandoned.
When they run the license plate,
they determined the vehicle is in fact registered
to Angelina O'Mara.
Her vehicle broke down in Sioux Falls,
and she tried to hitch a ride
with a trucker heading toward Washington.
According to the trucker, Angelina's mission
was to track down a person from her past.
She's trying to head to Seattle and then get to Alaska
to see her other ex.
For detectives, the trucker's statement strikes a chord of panic. Maybe Angelina's not on the run from a drug dealer.
Maybe she's on a killing spree.
Our concern as investigators was she was heading there
to possibly kill him also, because the two other men
in her life were deceased.
If Angelina is on a cross-country quest
to take out all of her former lovers, the question is. If Angelina is on a cross-country quest
to take out all of her former lovers,
the question is, why?
There could potentially be more victims forthcoming,
so it was important that we locate Angelina as soon as possible.
Coming up, police receive a tip that
adds another bizarre
layer to the case.
The hell's angels, they had burst into the motel room,
kicked the door open.
They pulled the gun out, and we're going to kill Angelina. In the span of less than 48 hours, authorities in two states had discovered the bodies of
Angelina O'Mara's estranged husband, James O'Mara, and her new boyfriend, Michael Pies.
Jim O'Mara had been shot in the head, Michael Pies. Jim Omira had been shot in the head.
Michael Pies, he had also been shot in the head
with a very small caliber weapon.
When we realized that Angelina was a suspect in not one,
but two homicides in two different states
and not knowing where she was anymore,
we had reason to be concerned.
After receiving a tip from a trucker
that Angelina was headed to Alaska to find an ex,
police fear that she might be on a killing spree.
Authorities in Sioux Falls issue a bolo
for Angelina to all of their officers.
At 2am on November 3rd,
one patrol officer spots a woman
fitting Angelina's description.
What's your name?
Angel?
Well, we're looking for something to take a look at, as long as you check out to not be here, everything's going to be alright.
We're her ID at Angel.
I don't know.
Do you have anything on you with the name on it?
No.
I'm being on it.
Angelina Omar. I've got a little bottle with her here on it. And Elena Omar, I've got killed bottled with her in a moment.
Opia is paying killers and muscle relaxers and stuff like that.
She had good amount of bottles in her purse with her maiden name, her married name.
Police immediately take Angelina into custody and notify the authorities in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
We had agents from the Minnesota BCA.
I believe detectives from Sioux Falls, PD had gone there.
And then my supervisor from the Ashton Police Department
went down to interview her.
All right, round the back of the car and towards that door.
Had investigators halted a potential killing spree?
When they asked why she was heading to Alaska and she was just going to be there. All right, round the back of the car and towards that door. Had investigators halted a potential killing spree?
When they asked why she was heading to Alaska,
Angelina denies any intention of going there
to see her other ex.
She was asked about that.
Angelina was and she never admitted that that was why.
She was heading that way.
Angelina is transported to the Sioux Falls Police Department.
The next morning, detectives ask Angelina
to paste them through the events of the last few days.
Angelina says that it all began on a romantic getaway
with her boyfriend, Michael Pies.
She just wanted to get away with Michael
and take a few days off, and they started driving.
There wasn't a set location that they were headed to
and just chose Ashland, Wisconsin.
They end up in Ashland, they find a hotel room,
and that's where they end up staying.
What Angelina says next throws investigators for a loop. She said Hell's Angels had burst into the motel room,
kicked the door open, and shot him.
But she was able to escape.
Investigators are skeptical.
Why would the Hell's Angels come after Michael?
According to Angelina, they were hired.
James told him that he knew the Hells Angels
and he was going to have him killed.
Who was going to have who killed?
James was going to have...
Michael?
Michael killed.
Because this has been going on for months.
She was explaining to me that James and Michael did not like each other.
She explained it was James wanted Michael deceased.
That's when detectives tell Angelina it wasn't possible for James to hire the hell's angels to kill Michael
Is James okay?
James I don't think is okay. It's all in one way is James not okay. Well, what I heard James is dead
my husband
Have you run
No
Okay
When I told her James James was deceased, she paused.
And I believed he'd up a little bit and wanted a minute.
Despite Angelina's tears, investigators
aren't buying the idea she had no knowledge of James' murder.
Nor do they believe her story that the hell's angels killed Michael.
There was nothing substantial.
She was reaching pretty hard.
I was talking with her.
She said, well, tell the truth.
I wanted to lay it all out and put it out there.
And these come out.
This time around, Angelina states that it all started
on the morning of October 29th,
when she visited her estranged husband James at his apartment in
Sock Rapids. If James went out to have drinks or something like that she always brought him over
Burger King in the morning and checked on him. I brought him Burger King he was laying him coach.
Okay. He drank a lot that made me four and couldn't get in.
She went back to the apartment, asked a neighbor for a butter knife to get in
because James was sleeping and went wake up.
You couldn't get in. How did you know he was laying on the couch?
So I opened up the window and he was laying there and then I just put it on the coffee table.
At that point, when I asked her, how did he look?
And she said he looked fine.
According to Angelina, she dropped off the fast food
and left the apartment.
But when she returned home to Michael later that day,
he was irate to learn where she had been.
Michael Pies was jealous of the time she was spending
with Jim O'Meara, and he did not appreciate that.
She said, Michael goes over to James's
at five in the morning, Saturday morning,
and comes back and says, I blew James's head off.
Angelina tells police she didn't believe him.
She went to call to anybody, because she
did not really believe what he was saying was true.
Thinking Michael was just trying to frighten her,
Angelina suggested that the two of them make up by getting
out of town for a few days.
Michael agreed.
But according to Angelina, once they
arrived at the hotel in Ashland, it was clear that Michael
was still upset.
Michael was drinking in the hotel,
and they got into an argument,
and Michael then pulled the gun out,
and said that he was gonna kill Angelina.
So what happened during that show?
He pulled out the gun, and said,
was really angry about me spending time with my ex.
OK.
And he said, I'm going to f***ing shoot you two bitch.
We were struggling with the gun.
And then I took the gun from him and then I went bang up
and hit him.
Angelina admits to shooting Michael Pies,
but claims that was an accident.
When I asked Angelina if she had, you know,
bothered to check to see if Michael Pies was still alive,
she said no.
I asked her if she felt for a pulse.
She said no.
I asked her if she called repulsed. She said no. I asked her if she called 911.
She said no.
She just laid down on the bed next to him
and went to sleep.
The next day when she was ready to leave,
she tried to move the body.
At that time, it slid off the bed
and a small space between the wall and the where the bed was.
Even though she swears she's telling the truth,
investigators aren't buying Angelina's new story either.
Michael Pies, he was a very big man
that I believe could have easily overpowered Angelina.
And she's telling me that she was able to wrestle
this long rifle weapon away from him in that small motel room.
And there was no indication whatsoever
that a struggle had even taken place.
Her stories just weren't adding up.
Coming up, investigators tried to catch Angelina in a lie.
She'd basically told a few truths, a lot of obvious lies.
And friends and family doubt if justice will ever be served.
Probably anyone's natural reaction.
I hate her.
38-year-old mother of two, Angelina O'Mara, is being questioned about the murders of her estranged husband, James O'Mara, and her current lover, Michael Pies.
While she has confessed to killing Michael in an act of self-defense, she still maintains
that she is not responsible for James's death.
But when investigators ask Angelina to again walk them
through the timeline of events, she gets tricked up
in the details.
Michael had told her that he was mad at James
and that he had killed James five in the morning on Saturday.
Angelina had went over to James' apartment, however,
after five in the morning with the Burger King,
says he looks fine with everything else that she's saying.
That story did not make any sense to me.
Investigators press Angelina to explain
what she did with the gun after she shot Michael.
She had taken the gun, wrapped it in the blanket,
drove it out, and wrapped it in the blanket,
drove it out, and threw it in an area which she couldn't describe.
She had to have a map to see it.
And she'd previously stated that, but it was false.
When we searched, there was nothing found in any areas.
She basically told a few truths, a lot of obvious lies.
She gave me enough of a confession
that I believed our prosecutor would charge her
with first degree intentional homicide.
On November 3rd, Angelina is charged
with the first degree murder of Michael Pies
and the second degree murder of James O'Mara.
Word of her arrest makes its way back to Minnesota.
The detective called and said that they had apprehended her.
Her name was almost a sigh of relief not knowing
if she's gonna kill another person.
My reaction to Angelina being charged with murder
was probably anyone's natural reaction.
I hate her.
I was shocked because I was like, was probably anyone's natural reaction. I hate her.
I was shocked because I was like, why are they arresting my mom?
I don't feel like my mom could have killed my dad,
and that was probably the hardest thing never go through.
Though detectives are fairly certain Angelina killed both men,
they need more evidence to ensure a conviction.
both men, they need more evidence to ensure a conviction.
Two weeks later, that evidence lands in the lap of Ashland investigator Gerald Kachka.
I get his phone call from the jail where she's being held.
And it says, Angelina Amara, I want to talk with you.
Angelina, it seems, has reached a breaking point.
Sheeps us. I shot him.
We'll ask him where you're alone.
Yes, I was by myself.
So she crawled through window,
went in while you were sleeping and shot him.
Angelina also admits that she shot Michael Pies
in a similar fashion, not in self-defense
as she'd originally claimed.
She went in detail and talked about how she
waited from the fall asleep.
She and Michael were in the room, eating food,
drinking some beer, and then when he fell asleep,
she executed him.
Shot him in the head with a 22-gallon rifle.
I used to sleep.
And then I asked her, so why did you kill Michael?
Why did you kill James?
She was, I'm not going to tell you.
So why did you kill Michael? Why did you kill James?
She was, I'm not going to tell you.
With her latest most believable confession in hand,
prosecutors in Minnesota have what they need
to take Angelina's case to trial.
The trial was held in Benton County, which is in Minnesota.
They were showing videos when pictures
of things that they found and the evidence that they found
and some pretty gruesome stuff came up.
In pretrial motions, Angelina's lawyers
had sought to throw out her prior confession,
but the judge overruled them.
And Angelina's confessions are played in court.
What shocked me the most when I saw the interrogation
was first and foremost, she acted like she didn't know about it.
She was just shocked to hear my brother was dead.
And immediately went into hell's angels.
She blamed all kinds of people.
That was really hard to see.
You're just shocked by those answers.
Even more anticipated that Angelina's confession
is the hope that her motive will finally be revealed.
But before Angelina can take the stand, her attorneys make an unexpected announcement.
When all the witnesses in, we're in the waiting room waiting to get sequestered, getting her
recalled in. And right in the middle, she please guilty.
My mom still had probably a couple more days or maybe even weeks left of her trial.
And as soon as my grandmother died her mom, she was fighting cancer.
She just pleaded guilty because that was my mom's only support system.
The evidence was overwhelming.
The stories that she had initially told.
We were able to fill full of holes.
Angelina came to the realization of what she had done.
She had pled guilty to the case in Minnesota,
and that she was also going to plead guilty to the case in Wisconsin.
Angelina was sentenced to serve life without parole.
However, as part of her plea deal, Angelina doesn't have to explain her motive
for murdering either James or Michael.
What could Jim Olmara and Michael Pies have done to her to drive her to actually kill both of them?
I was never able to get that answer. To this day, I will reflect back on that case
and still wonder why she did what she did. Those who knew Angelina believe that her rapid descent
into addiction certainly played a factor. I'm sure that attributed greatly to whatever was going
on in her life and the decisions that she made.
Family and friends also wonder if Angelina's addiction
put the custody of her children in jeopardy as well.
She was afraid that Michael was gonna go after custody
for Gracie and that James was gonna go after custody
for Juliano.
They were gonna take their kids away
because it seemed like a better place for them.
I think also her depression and anxiety just all built up and I think she just went crazy
one day.
She's an evil person as far as I'm concerned and she knows what she's doing and maybe
she may not relate to everything.
It's not crazy, that's cunning.
That's why this whole story is so sad because I had the perfect family and it just doesn't
make sense.
But I do believe that she deserves to be in there because she did take two innocent people's lives.
Angelina is serving her life sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in
Shackupy, Minnesota. The divorce between Angelina and James O'Mara was never
finalized.
finalized.