murder for hire plots caught on camera. in north carolina, a preschool teacher asks a stranger to throw her husband into a power line. >> i know i am a cold hearted bitch, but life sucks. >> listen to her story, preschool teacher, married, kids, she's everyone's next door and in new york, a businessman tries to use murder to end his marriage.

>> only thing i could walk away saying, he was a jerk and wanted his wife dead. >> go deep inside faces few could imagine, if they hadn't been caught on camera. >> caught on camera presents the hit man tapes. >> tell me what i was thinking about doing, tell me what you think. catching him sometime when he's out in the country and shoot him with a high powered rifle. >> december 7th, 1992. 39-year-old phyllis is caught on surveillance tape with a stranger who promises to kill her husband.

>> making it look like a hunting accident. >> i know there are undercover roles that are very complex, difficult to do. >> cj is the man in the surveillance video. at the time, he is a special agent with the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, or atf. >> you don't ever want to blow one of these things by asking a question that takes them back and they say why are you asking me that question, that question sounds like a police officer. >> on this particular day, the woman seated beside him in a kmart parking lot in charlotte, north carolina is telling him more than he expects to hear. >> you really thought this thing through. >> seriously thought this thing through. >> you know we're talking about murder. >> i know we are. >> i know i am a cold hearted bitch, but life's tough. >> in late 1992, phyllis and her husband have been married two

years, live just outside the city in the town of matthews, where phyllis works in the preschool at the first baptist church. >> if you listen to her story, preschool teacher, married, kids, she's everyone's next door neighbor. >> phyllis' 40-year-old husband jimmy comes into the marriage with a job as a cable splicer at the telephone company, as well as a life insurance policy. >> based on her description of jimmy, he was a good, hard working guy, other than the fact she wanted the insurance money, and wanted to be away from him, had done nothing wrong. >> in '92, i was a detective with violent crimes taskforce. >> daryl price, a detective sergeant with the charlotte mecklenburg police department first learns about the plot from a street source. phyllis' 22-year-old daughter.

>> she was very young and i felt very sorry for her in a lot of ways because she didn't have a lot of parental guidance. >> in the course of cultivating his source, detective price has even met the young woman's mother, phyllis crowell. then, in november, 1992, the daughter tells price the mother is making inquiries about hiring a hit man. >> she decided a, she didn't want to see her mother murder her stepfather, and b, didn't want her mother to go to prison for murder. >> but price launches an investigation and contacts the atf about helping the police set up a sting. >> our vice unit at the time in 1992, there was just nothing. there was no technology. so we utilized the atf technology, which at that time was top of the line, top notch. >> phyllis' daughter gives her mother a phone number for cj hyman, describing him as a

willing assassin. >> today if i were about to hire a hit person, you can go online, run that person, you can see what have they been arrested for. if you been in prison for murder, chances are, you've done it before, you'll do it again. in '92, you had to take people at their word. there was not access to the internet. you would literally have to walk into a courthouse and look up cj's information and what a trail you're leaving then. >> detective hyman is deliberately given limited information about his target. >> sometimes when you're walking into an undercover job such as a murder for hire, if you know too much, you can actually mess up a lot easier than if you don't know too much. so basically what i would do is just give cj some background on phyllis and let him take it from there. >> on december 3rd, the two have their first meeting in the parking lot of charlotte's eastland mall.

while the support team positions itself nearby. >> the first meeting was hey, see what she has to say, see if she's serious about this or if this thing has been blown out of proportion. >> initially, agents restrict eavesdropping to audio surveillance. >> cj wore a wire, old style wire, has tons of wiring in it, it has batteries in it, the batteries will die, the reception is poor at times. you may or may not be able to record. you may or may not hear it clearly. >> okay, guys, i'm pulling in the mall now. >> i was trying to get those verbal queues over the radio to people that were in surveillance could tell where i was, what i was doing. all right. i see what i think is the van over there, i'm going to go on over there. >> she said the only thing i'm concerned about is being here in this parking lot. she just was scared she might run into somebody she knew there. >> how much you thought about this thing?

>> off and on for a year. i have been trying to find someone to do it without being, raising a whole lot of suspicion. >> said he worked in remote locations out in rural north carolina, and worked alone, and that it would be easy to have access to him to carry out the murder. >> it don't really matter if it's accident, if you throw him into a power line, that's fine. >> what we didn't really realize is that the insurance policy had a double indemnity on it to where if he died in an accident, the insurance was double. that's why she wanted him murdered in a particular way. >> phyllis considers framing someone else for the crime, particularly her husband's ex-wife. >> i can give you the address if you shoot him and you want to plant the gun in her house. >> if there were such thing as a

perfect murder, it is a murder where someone else goes to prison for your crime, and by making it appear that his ex-wife is the doer, then you're off the hook completely. >> phyllis tells the undercover she's the sole beneficiary of her husband's insurance policy and expects to receive $200,000 after the murder. >> well, what are you willing to pay. >> i was going to leave that to you. i would be willing to go up to 100,000, that would be half and half. >> i'd do it for that. >> she made a pretty handsome offer, that kind of shocked us. we were thinking the offer was going to be more in the 5,000, $10,000 range, which i think is quite adequate, even today's standards, to have someone killed, but that figure really threw us off. >> what you got for collateral? >> collateral?

>> jewelry or something. >> she was surprised i asked for something up front. she said i have $30 in my wallet. >> she said this money is going to come through insurance, it will take awhile. well, not many hit men are going to go for that, not going to say okay, i'll do the job and you pay me when the insurance covers. >> you sure you want to do it. >> i'm positive i want to do it. >> we realized we actually did have a crime going on, sat down with the prosecutors, said look, this is what we have. at that point it was decided what we really need a little bit more, we need video and audio of this whole exchange. >> four days later, investigators will set up a second meeting in another parking lot, focusing their lens on phyllis as she expands on her plan. >> i been practicing getting all bent out of shape and everything. >> all right. >> she felt like she could just

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charlotte, north carolina, december 7th, 1992. >> if something comes up and can't happen before christmas, i understand. >> phyllis crowell, a preschool teacher at the first baptist church in the nearby town of matthews talks to an undercover agent about a time line for killing her husband, jimmy. >> i think we're both polite with each other, blame it on southern culture. i'm just a good old southern boy. cj heiman, an atf special agent

at the time, is posing as the hit man. >> you got two doors on the back. >> that's the way you're brought up, whether you talk about hey, can you fix my roof or can you kill my husband, it's just natural. >> we knew that if she did a, b, c, and d, we were going to make the arrest that day. >> charlotte, mecklenburg police detective sergeant is part of the taskforce with the atf, monitoring the meeting from other parts of the shopping center. >> we had a pickup truck parked with a camper shell on the back, there were several of us in the back of that truck with an old style vhs type camera. we didn't have hollywood technology. it was just old school using what you had to make the best of a tough situation. >> as phyllis crowell waits in her van, hyman puts the vehicle in the camera sight line. >> meeting with crowell in the

kmart supercenter in charlotte. >> he pulled up perfectly to see the entire front of the vehicle. >> hey there. how you doing. >> tired. >> i was calm, but i think i was a little thrown back when she was so forward, just like talking to your next door neighbor, just like talking to a casual acquaintance, never a stress in her voice, it was just a straightforward conversation. >> you thought about this thing some more? >> seriously, still have no inhibitions about it at all. >> you always deal with the issues in cases where you work undercover, is this really what you want to do. at that point it was no doubt in my mind she was serious. >> you and i are sitting at a bar talking, you just made the

comment you know, i'd really like for you to kill my wife, is that a violation of the law? no, it's not, because you're probably just talking. they actually have to take that first step. >> at the prosecutor's suggestion, hyman asked for a piece of jewelry as a down payment. >> what do you think it is worth? >> two grand. >> she hands me the diamond bracelet, you're trying to think what would i really do if i was doing this, i don't know jewelry, i don't know if it is the real thing or costume jewelry, so i felt like i should at least ask. >> is that real? >> it's real. >> you know i'm going to get it looked at. >> yes. if you didn't, i would be unhappy with you. >> i almost laughed when she said hey, i'd be disappointed in you if you didn't get it checked, almost like she was trying to bolster me up to say hey, you're doing a good job. >> how many people in there. >> his son, my daughter. >> how much does your son know?

>> not enough to -- casual statements like get me a gun, pete, i'll get rid of him. >> you're sitting there thinking how weird would it be if one of my parents came to me and my siblings and said hey, i want to kill the other parent, and it just sounded like day to day hey, i'm thinking about renting a movie, i'm thinking about killing your dad. >> i'll tell you what i'm thinking of doing, tell me if you're comfortable with it. catching him sometime in the country, shoot him with a high powered rifle, just like that. >> i think that was the first thing cj threw out, it would have been the simplest, the easiest. no, she wanted other things. she wanted it to appear as on duty work accident for him, that would have increased the insurance money. >> among her suggestions,

sneaking up on her husband while he's alone in the country, working for the telephone company, and pushing him onto a live power line. >> what's wrong, sick or something? >> yeah, got the flu. >> you taking care of him? >> of course. >> she grins when she talks about taking care of him, giving him tylenol. at some point i looked a little flabbergasted she was saying all this. >> we have a school play thursday and honor roll meeting friday. >> what about wednesday afternoon? >> wednesday afternoon, i can be at my father-in-law's. no problem. >> his father? >> i would say that's pretty airtight alibi, huh? >> she wanted to know when it was going to happen, so she could be with the in-laws exactly when the news came in.

>> i been practicing getting all bent out of shape and everything. >> all right. >> she says i can play the role of a bereaved widow for three months or so, then i'll slowly come out of my shell, get ready to come back into society. >> you know we're talking murder here. >> i know. i know i am a cold hearted bitch, but life's life. >> i remember when that was said, all of us in the truck looked at each other like wow. >> there's a point i look away, chuckle. again, it wasn't a funny situation, but it was all kind of flooring me that she was so matter of fact about this that she was saying. >> but phyllis crowell is about to realize there are serious repercussions to her cavalier remarks. >> i would say go ahead and take her. >> as soon as she saw me walk up knowing what i do for a living, she knew what was up. you total your brand new car.

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charlotte, north carolina, 1992. >> how tall is he? >> little over six. >> how much he weigh? >> about 205. >> preschool teacher phyllis crowell sits in a kmart parking lot describing her husband jimmy. >> she was willing to pay me 100,000 to kill her husband. >> cj hyman is the special agent posing as the hit man. >> you want it done soon? >> soon. >> in training, they have you role play. for a moment i thought i was sitting against a role play, seeing if they could make me react, crack up or laugh. >> how about your daughter, how is she going to handle it? >> she will handle it really well. >> she thought her daughter was really on board with it, and her daughter wasn't on board with it. >> in fact, it is phyllis' daughter that first tells the police detective daryl price about the plot.

not only does he know the young woman as a street source, he's also met her mother. >> i think she kind of saw herself as being this person that would go out in the evenings and meet with a hit man and do these dastardly deeds. people can be junkies to that type of adrenaline. >> i'm good. >> i don't want you to get too cocky. >> i know. >> she exudes confidence about receiving a hefty insurance payment after the crime and writing the hit man a check. >> i'm going to get four $25,000 checks. >> i'd rather not have checks. >> then i could cash them easier. >> why don't you do that. then you'll have cash for me. >> all right.

>> if i am a hit man, am i going to want a check, traceable, no, easy for the police to follow. i won't cash. >> i am going to try to do it this week. >> sounds good. >> he'll be dead as good as probably thursday afternoon. >> fine. >> all right? >> fine. >> give me about three weeks afterwards and i'll call you. don't screw it up. >> i will not screw it up. >> all right. >> he did everything a real hit man would have done. >> i wanted to make sure i got all of the things the prosecutor needed, if he can get her to say his full name, so there's no question about i was talking about somebody else, you misunderstood me, anything like that. >> what's his full name? >> james. >> she gives his full name. it was almost like it was relief for me, hey, i've checked off everything she asked me to get. >> it will be done. >> okay. appreciate it.

>> she got out of the car, it was as if she walked out of a mcdonald's, just finished a big mac, said thanks, i appreciate it. there's no doubt in my mind when phyllis crowell got out of the car that day, she thought her husband would be dead the end of the week. >> the undercover watches phyllis walk away, toward the department store, then signals the rest of the taskforce. >> i would say go ahead and take her. >> i'm already preplanning getting to her before she gets to the door of the kmart. >> we are not talking about a huge tactical take down. there were several agents as she's walk to go the entrance of the store, they walked up, identified themselves, basically arrested her on the scene. >> i know as soon as she saw me walk up, knowing what i do for a living, she knew what was up. >> authorities charge phyllis

with solicitation to commit murder. a group of officers are dispatched to deliver the news to her husband, jimmy. >> i was one of the ones that informed the husband. he did not believe us. he didn't want to believe us. he thought that we had set the whole thing up, that we coerced her into saying all the things that were said. >> if it's accident, if you throw him into a power line, that's fine. >> jimmy is so incredulous, he bonds out his wife for $35,000, while prosecutors begin examining the evidence in the case. >> you know, we're talking about murder here. >> i know we are. i know i am a cold hearted bitch, but life's life. >> a defense attorney probably looked at that tape and just told her how will i defend this? how can i defend you sitting there with an undercover atf agent, telling him you want to throw your husband into a high powered line and you know you're

a cold hearted bitch and you know we're talking about murder. i don't know of a defense attorney in the country that could have defended that. >> instead of going to trial, phyllis crowell pleads guilty to solicitation to commit murder. in august, 1993, she's sentenced to six years in prison. by the time she emerges less than four years later, she's estranged from her husband and daughter. >> to this day, i've never talked to her, never had contact with her. >> since her release, phyllis crowell was convicted of a number of misdemeanors, including writing worthless checks. she did not respond to msnbc's interview request. >> taking care of it. >> of course. >> watching the video, i get to critique myself. i don't know that i would change a whole lot, and again, not so much that i did such a great job, but so much of it she did herself. >> i been practicing getting all

bent out of shape and everything. >> sometimes the art is letting -- shutting up and letting the bad guy talk. >> still have no inhibitions about it at all. coming up. >> very anxious. >> in long island, new york, a businessman is so eager to end his arranged marriage, he is ready to bring a hit man to his house. >> he was very excited when i said i'm going to twist a knife in her heart. if you have moderate to severe

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politics is taking center stage on the independence day with a number of candidates appearing in new hampshire. also appearing in the key state, hillary clinton taking part in a parade. and a frightening start to a

holiday. at a fireworks show in avenu avenuon -- avon, colorado, where fireworks shot into a crowd. now back to caught on camera. let me tell you, jay, g, whatever your name is, telling you one thing. if you do this, this will be the biggest score you ever made. >> december 2006, he arrives to plan the murder of his wife. >> stick her in the cart to where she can't live no matter what, so she won't live long enough to talk. >> but the successful business man in the new york suburb of long island brought along an unexpected guest, his three and a half-year-old son. >> there is this disconnect.

he's talking about leaving his poor child without a mother. the coldness of it is mind boggling. >> okay, i'll give you guys $200,000. two bills. >> he was flashy, tried to prove he had this money to pay, because as a hitman, i want to get paid. >> this undercover detective is posing as assassin for hire. >> put me down as a person like you guys from the street, i am better than you are, drive $117,000 car, you know, if i was really a true hitman, i would have been having a problem. >> you're not dealing with a guy that lives the dream. >> he was trying to make friends with me, he was insulting me, he was all over the place. the only thing i can walk away saying about him is he's a jerk

and he wanted his wife dead. >> here's the photo santhosh provides of his wife tina, an accountant at a long island media company. >> they were actually an arranged marriage when they were both teenage, as is very common in the indian culture. their families were very close, culturally they were identical. >> his bank accounts did show a good amount of money, that he did have a mortgage company at the time. they were buying and selling houses. it was '06, there was a lot of properties to be bought up and resold quickly. >> apparently santhosh paul wants more, is caught on tape, saying his goal is disposing of his wife, and collecting on a million dollar insurance policy. >> he had an encounter with someone who introduced him to the concept of voodoo, and took steps to bury certain things in his backyard, that was supposed

to help lead to his wife's death, it never went anywhere, and he didn't leave it at that. he went to try to find someone else who could kill his wife. >> apparently he paid a person $2,000 to have him kill his wife, and that person scammed him for his money. >> the first guys he was going to hire said they were going to spray her with a special spray that's going to kill her. i never heard of any such spray. if you want somebody dead, you're going to have to kill them. >> santhosh continues making inquiries. >> actually somebody knew i was a police officer when i was getting my haircut came up, said somebody approached them about killing their wife. so i called my supervisor and told them to set up a meeting. >> on december 18th, 2006, the undercover arranges to meet him in this mcdonald's parking lot on busy hempstead turnpike, while the support team watches

from nearby. >> it is like being a set director, like doing a hollywood set, but you only get one take at this, only get one shot. >> detective lieutenant gregory detwiler oversees the sting. >> the undercover is the actor, he's the guy that has to sell this. >> there are street lamps that mcdonald's has at nighttime, there was enough to illuminate the area. i was in a van where we were shooting the video from across the street. >> the informant is told to make the introductions, then let the undercover do most of the talking. >> it had been prearranged that the detective was going to sit in the back seat. that gives him a little more control if two of them are in the front, he has a little better handle on what, if anything, would be going on with the two of them.

>> so you don't want her shot? >> no. >> maybe you could make it like a robbery. >> no. >> a car accident. >> he believed that a car accident would be less suspicious than a gunshot, it would be clean, no questions would be asked of him or anyone else. >> what guarantee, she could be a vegetable in the hospital the next ten years. people go into a coma, you know what i mean? >> have you ever done this before and can you do it? i don't want to be nosey in your business, but -- >> you wouldn't prep him to say i have a couple of bodies, you just knew that would be the right vernacular to use. >> a recurring topic, the ability to subsidize the hit. >> it is not like i live in a basement with my parents, i have a $600,000 home, drive a $90,000

home. i have the income to back it up. what else do you want, my tax returns? >> no. >> that's the world that santhosh paul works, he does mortgages, bring your tax returns, i have to know you can afford this. >> from the beginning, he has been arrogant but fidgety. then 30 minutes into the meeting turns paranoid. >> you're not a cop, are you? >> no. >> i'm getting nervous. >> you wearing a wire? >> seriously, no wire here. >> for some reason, paul said how do i know you're not wearing a wire, let's step out. >> we stepped out of the car and i lifted my shirt. he saw no wire. the wire was on my person, we don't like to disclose what we use, what it looks like, anything like that. >> one of our very experienced

detectives in the d.a. squad said to him you can't have your gun in your holster because bad guys don't keep their guns in nice, black, shiny holsters. you take it out, stick it in the front of your pants like a bad guy would. so when he picks his shirt up, that's what the defendant sees. >> the undercover has temporarily placated the suspect, whose behavior is erratic and unpredictable. >> gets out of the car to relieve himself, then his son gets out of the car. it was very bizarre when i saw that. ♪ every auto insurance policy has a number. but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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long island, new york. december, 2006. >> as a hidden camera records him in a mcdonald's parking lot, 31-year-old business man santhosh paul tries coming up with a timetable for his wife's murder. >> oh, going to a christmas party. >> where? >> at her job. >> the more we interacted with him, the more he really showed how bad he wanted her to die. >> gladston clark is the detective assigned to portray the hit man. >> if it would have happened that day, he would be happy. >> santhosh claims his motive is simple, receiving a million dollar life insurance settlement. he promises to pay the hitman when the money arrives, a wants

him and the informant that introduced him to drive him home to look at the policy. >> you want to come to my house, come to the house and see. >> you're very anxious. >> i been trying to do this. >> calm down. when you act like that, you make me nervous. just calm down a little bit. >> convinced he's finally close to realizing his goal, santhosh arranges to continue the conversation with the undercover the next night, without the informant, in the same mcdonald's parking lot. >> santhosh paul begins to walk away, almost runs back, leans in the passenger window. talking to the detective. it almost seems like he's afraid they're going to drive away and it's not going to happen. >> all right. bye-bye. >> all right. >> the importance with having as many meetings as you can have is to establish that this is clearly the intent of the person

that you're pursuing, will they have the same conversation the next day or will they come back and say you know what, i don't know what i was thinking, i don't want this to happen. >> santhosh's resolve remains unshakeable. >> target is on the set, silver mercedes. >> but when surveillance cameras catch him driving his mercedes into the lot for the second meeting, police are shocked to discover he is accompanied by his three and a half-year-old son. >> let him play and we can talk. >> i said now i know what your kid looks like, now he knows what i look like, that's a problem. better be no problem with my money. >> shouldn't have him seeing me, though, bro. >> he is only three and a half. >> you got to think the way i look at this thing, man, we go to mcdonald's, we're together. >> the two quickly reach a consensus.

santhosh leaves the boy in the mercedes, and enters the detective's vehicle to discuss the murder. for much of the interview, cars pull in and out of the lot, blocking the lens. >> the best thing we had going was the audio feed, it comes through live. every detective that's in the area in his own car is hearing what's going on. >> if you need anything, i can help you out. i got connections. i used to be a trader on wall street. >> he is trying to convince the hitman this is going to be the best relationship he entered into. >> tell me how you feel about it. follow her a few days, see her schedule. if i can catch her with the car walking, i'm driving 50, 60 miles per hour, i hit her, and i take off. that's one way. the second thing that i'm thinking about doing is run up on her like i'm trying to get her pocketbook, jump in her car

and drive away, robbery gone bad with a carjacking. you understand what i'm saying? >> yes. >> you know, she going to be down, you know, dead people don't talk. >> suddenly santhosh comes up with what he thinks is an even better idea. assaulting his wife during a day trip to new york city. >> she's going to manhattan. downtown manhattan to the indian embassy. >> okay. all right. that's even better. >> yeah, new york city. >> it is kind of amusing when he was so excited to remember she was going to manhattan. suddenly he had figured it out, that's the place to do this because all the bad things happen in manhattan, not out here. >> i'm gonna stick her in the heart, because that way she can't live no matter what, won't live long enough to talk. >> he was very excited when i said i am going to twist a knife in her heart. he is like why? i said that way she will bleed out fast. he was very excited about that.

this is the deal. usually i charge ten grand up front. you show me your bling, you have a nice car and house. >> i'm not some show off, man. >> yeah, he is, if you listen to the undercover tape half the time, he's telling me about his stuff. >> stop calling me bro, listen to me, bro. >> i hate being called bro. he kept calling me bro. i finally had to address that with him. >> you just called me bro, man. >> he was irritating me with the bro stuff. he wouldn't be somebody i would be friends with, i'll just say that. >> still, the undercover maintains his composure and police believe an arrest is imminent, until santhosh paul does something no one anticipated. >> he put the brake lights on

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december 19th, 2006. undercover detective gladston clark poses as a hitman, gives new york business man santhosh paul one more chance to back out of the murder for hire plot. >> it is up to you, man, you can walk. >> let me tell you j, g, whatever your name is, you can do this. this will be the biggest score you ever made. >> when you hear his voice, it becomes very clear that this is not a situation where he is being led down a path he does not want to go down.

he is very emphatic about what he wants. >> for the second night in a row, santhosh has been trying to engineer the death of his wife, tina, a 29-year-old accountant. the meeting takes place in the undercover's vehicle in a busy mcdonald's parking lot, while the couple's three and a half-year-old son plays nearby in the suspect's late model mercedes. >> listen, i'm, i'm for real. >> you're the real deal. >> if i didn't know you, you like straight up like a cop. >> we always tell the undercovers inevitably in these cases, they always ask if you're a cop, or you look like a cop, and they just kind of have to react to it. >> i look like a cop. you're the first person to say that, bro. >> soothed by the detective's response, santhosh changes topics, boasting he has the resources to finance the hit. >> i want you to know i am a credible person, you're dealing with a credible guy, not some

schmuck. >> well, he was, he was a schmuck. he sold himself like he is so respectable, he's this community guy. but the bottom line is he's just a dirt bag. >> even the undercover is startled by the suspect's next move. >> what are you going to go to the car? >> tells me he has to pee, he starts paying on the bush right next to the turnpike. you know, a cop is driving by, now we are going to be stopped, talked to, now we're together. i'm looking at this guy, this guy is such an idiot. >> and his son gets out of the car, it was very bizarre when i saw that. >> it was incredible, you know. i didn't shake his hand after that, i tell you that, too.

>> santhosh drives away, promising to come right back with a down payment for the execution. >> we did follow him. he did go to the citibank, and another small corner store to use the cash machine there also. >> still, santhosh promises there will be an even larger payment once he receives his wife's life insurance settlement. to substantiate his claim, he drops his son off at home and returns to mcdonald's with the policy. >> this was the final nail so to speak in the coffin as far as closing this case. >> but santhosh's unpredictable nature will thwart their police efforts to make a quick arrest. with the rest of the support team helplessly looking on, the undercover enters the suspect's mercedes, as santhosh drives out of camera range.

>> i had to get in the car with him at one point, which we really don't like to do, but i felt i was safe and i was in control of the situation, so you know, the boss wasn't happy i had to go in the car, but i did. >> he moved out of the parking lot onto the side street and parked basically in front of my vehicle. we have an obstructed view of the vehicle through the camera lens. but we had plenty of detectives surrounding the area to watch every move. >> you can't make a mess. >> i could see him shift the transmission as if he was going to pull away again. i have an undercover detective in the passenger's seat. we don't know if santhosh pulls on at this point, this is the time to make the arrest. >> get your hands up, now! shut it off, shut it off! >> they blocked him in, before

they were in the car, i was out of the car and gone, like houdini. it felt good we got a job done. but i felt even better when i drove that nice car of his back. really enjoyed that. it was a nice car, really was. >> santhosh paul is charged with solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder. >> we knew about the one insurance policy, the one he brought to the detective. in the weeks after his arrest, we found out there were actually three more additional policies, and he was going to come into $4 million, instead of $1 million we originally thought. that for me capped the greed. this was all about money, nothing else, money. >> nonetheless, after learning of the charges, tina paul chooses to surround herself with her husband's family, rejecting all overtures to help the prosecution. >> in this case we didn't need her to go forward, we had the crime committed on the tapes.

>> you didn't rob her, somebody else had to get beat up, too, you know what i mean? >> rather than face a jury, santhosh throws himself on the mercy of the court, pleading guilty to solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder, receiving a sentence of 5 to 15 years. >> there's always a fascinating dichotomy of someone that's done so well in life yet to be so stupid to think they can get away with something like this. >> from prison, santhosh paul said he wasn't interested in speaking to msnbc unless we paid him. we declined his offer. >> very anxious. >> in all the undercover work i've done, he was one of the most irritating persons i had to work with. just want to put that out there. >> you see again -- >> sometimes people think they're smarter than the person they're dealing with, but i guess this case shows who's the smart one, and that's it.

murder for hire plots caught on camera. >> she's disgraced everything. disgraced herself, her family, me, you. >> in virginia a quiet real estate agent is captured on video after asking a friend to kill his wife. >> i don't know why he didn't consider divorce instead of murder. he looks completely satisfied and completely focused that his wife needed to be eliminated. >> and in new york a wife of four hires a h man to stage