The Millionaire, the Model & the Hit Man
Produced by Judy Rybak and Greg Fisher
[This story previously aired on June 9, 2015. It was updated on Aug. 13, 2016.]
This week's "48 Hours," appropriately set in Los Angeles, is a twisted tale of greed and murder that, at times, may seem like a Hollywood blockbuster. Like any good thriller, it is one part romance, two parts Hitchcock. But in the end, it's all true.
"It wasn't a joke to him. It was very serious. Get it over with. Be bloody, be bad about it, and end it," Rick Fuhrmann told "48 Hours correspondent Troy Roberts. "He wanted her dead and he didn't care how it was done - beat her up, cut her head off put her in ditch."
In 2012, millionaire Dino Guglielmelli asked Fuhrmann to kill the mother of his children.
"Did you ever say ... 'how would the children feel if they lost their mother?" Roberts asked.
"More than once," Fuhrmann replied.
And what did he say?"
"He would say, 'They'll be much better off without her. ... I will find them a good mother. I'll even have you check her out first to make sure she's great and make -- get your approval,'" said Fuhrmann.
Just nine years earlier, this horror story was a love story. Monica Olsen, a small town girl from Canada, made it big as a New York fashion model and then moved to Los Angeles to try her hand at acting.
"Monica was working very hard towards ... being successful in modeling and acting," close friend Olya Banar said. "She was beautiful. ...She is very photogenic. ...if this whole thing wouldn't happened we would see her on the big screens right now, definitely."
Banar says Monica wasn't in Los Angeles for very long before she was swept off her feet by Dino, a charming "farm boy" from a big family in Walla Walla, Washington.
"We all grew up in the same house where my parents live currently," said Emilio Guglielmelli, Dino's brother.
Emilio Guglielmelli says Dino's first love was music.
"He's always been a musician, very, very interested in music," he said.
Dino dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles to be a rock star, but that's not how he would make his fortune.
Living in the land of health and fitness, Dino saw a need and capitalized on it. He started making and distributing vitamins and other dietary supplements.
"There's nobody in the world doesn't want to live longer. And so, he parlayed that into a great business," Emilio Guglielmelli explained.
Dino would eventually build the hugely successful multilevel supplement and skin care company, Creations Garden.
"Dino was a young, successful man with a lot of money and lot of power, and when he met Monica ... he wanted her and he knew how to get her," said Banar.
Six months after they met, Dino flew Monica to Italy and proposed.
"It sounds like a fairytale in the beginning, because he proposed to her in Venice," Banar continued. "I mean it was love at first sight. You don't hear those stories happened."
The couple was married just three months later and Dino's brother, Gino Guglielmelli, attended the lavish wedding.
"It was pretty fancy for me, the whole thing," he said.
Gino Guglielmelli says Dino's model wife seemed to complete his baby brother's transformation from farm boy to mogul.
"He had a successful business. He had nice cars. I think that just added to the image," he explained.
Asked what his first impressions of Monica were, Emilio Guglielmelli told Roberts, "I didn't care for her. ...I thought she was a gold digger, and ... had other motives. I don't know what it was, something about her I didn't really care for."
"...she wanted her lifestyle that wasn't sittin' at home. You know, her lifestyle was to go to Hollywood, and whatever they do in Hollywood," Gino Guglielmelli said. "They had nannies ... people with the girls, you know, all day long. ... So he's probably spent more time with 'em. Because when he'd come home from work, sometimes she wouldn't come back ... until later in the evening."
"I think she was a great wife and from what I saw of their life, I mean, they were perfect ... together," said Banar.
But Gino lived with his brother and Monica for six months early on in their marriage and says he saw trouble from the start.
"... just two people with the same kind of egos and ... I think she really wanted to have a career. And I think he wanted her to be a mom," he said.
Banar says Monica was a great wife and mother, but when she wanted more, their relationship changed -- and so did Dino.
"Monica was at home -- taking care of kids for a couple of years and it was time for her to ... be more independent," she explained. "I think Dino was scared of losing control over Monica ... Started being more aggressive, more controlling towards her."
By the time Rick Fuhrmann came into the picture, their marriage was in its final act.
"I knew that he was dating all sorts of girls... because he liked to brag about it," he said.
Fuhrmann and Dino were in business together, supplying vitamins and supplements to the military. Fuhrmann had served as an enlisted man years earlier and had contacts. He says that impressed Dino.
"You two became friends," Roberts noted.
"Close," said Fuhrmann.
And the closer they got, the more Dino confided in Fuhrmann.
"Dino told me that Monica was a very bad mother ... always gone all the time. And -- slept around with men, women -- drank too much, did drugs," said Fuhrmann.
After about seven years of marriage, Dino filed for divorce. Fuhrmann says he became consumed with the thought of losing half his assets and custody of his children.
"Dino is, for lack of a better word, a complete control freak and a game player," Fuhrmann told Roberts. "...he had to be one step ahead of everybody. ...he had to win at the end of the day."
Fuhrmann says when Dino was ordered to pay a whopping $55,000 a month in alimony, he hatched a plan to have his Canadian-born wife arrested and deported and turned to Fuhrmann for help.
"With my military background, Dino thought I was perfect," he explained. "He would like me to plant drugs in her car ... follow her around and ... call the police when she's drivin' erratically to see if she can get pulled over. ... I had Monica's house keys -- Monica's car keys -- Monica's credit card statements showing me everything that she's done, every place that she's been."
Dino filed papers showing his company was in trouble and alimony was reduced to $25,000. But Fuhrmann says it was still too much, too late.
"What was the final straw for him?" Roberts asked Fuhrmann.
"He got ... an email ... from his own attorney to him stating that ... he was just better off to give her the $25,000 a month and the credit card ... and just leave it alone. And that to him ... he just lost. His own attorney said, 'Dude, you just -- you-- you lost. Give it up. Just pay.' That's -- it's like asking him to stop breathing. He -- he can't do that," he replied.
"So what were his instructions to you?" Roberts asked.
"This has gotta end. She's gotta go. Get it -- get it done," Fuhrmann replied. "If I wasn't gonna do it, he was gonna find somebody to do it."
Fuhrmann told Dino he would "take care" of Monica and he did -- just not the way Dino wanted.
"Why are you still alive?" Roberts asked Monica Olsen.
"You know, I [laughs] I think Rick had -- did the noble thing," she replied.
"Monica is really lucky that Mr. Guglielmelli picked the wrong guy. Otherwise she'd be dead," said Deputy District Attorney Emily Cole.
A DARK TURN
"I remember the first time I saw him, he was smiling at me," Monica Olsen said of meeting Dino Guglielmelli.
When Monica married Dino, she was sure he was her happily ever after.
"He was persistent. He was charming," she said.
She never dreamed their story would end so tragically.
"You don't think that the person that you've created a life with ... can want to harm you and make you suffer," she told Roberts.
Monica is very intelligent and has a Master's degree in international finance. But, she says that like a lot of women, she was blinded by Dino's charm and the spoils of his riches.
"We went out on a date ... and he said, 'You know, I have two plane tickets, and I wanna take you to Paris,'" Monica recalled. "...throughout our marriage, he spoiled me."
But Monica says things began to change in 2008, when she decided she wanted to go back to work, and asked Dino to help her create a skincare line called "Skin by Monica."
"That was kinda my baby," she told Roberts.
But Dino took charge.
"Everything was kind of under his control," she explained. "And I was kept out of the loop. 'Don't ask too many questions.'"
Monica says the more questions she asked, the angrier Dino became. So she worked on reigniting her modeling career, but that just made Dino furious.
"There was a change in his personality," Roberts noted to Monica.
"Huge. He went dark. I mean, it was -- it was as if he was possessed," she said.
Monica says she was never the one sleeping around and doing drugs -- Dino was.
And at the height of that madness, he "created" his heavy metal rock band.
Dino dyed his hair and polished his nails black, and told Monica it was all for show. But she says she became terrified of him and started documenting his behavior.
"When Dino started behaving really badly -- Monica would record him on her cell phone," Olya Banar said. "...and showing these videos to everyone saying, 'Look, I don't know what happened to him. This is really crazy. He's behaving like a lunatic.'"
In one incident that was recorded, Dino fired a nanny who his children loved because she was too loyal to Monica.
After Dino filed for divorce, he had refused to move out. What Monica didn't know is that while Dino was living in the guest house, he was already planning to get rid of her, by paying his friend Rick Fuhrmann to do it.
"How did he want Monica killed?" Roberts asked Fuhrmann.
"That would -- depended on the day," he replied.
Fuhrmann says he tried to keep Dino happy and stall him through the divorce, hoping it would all end when there was an agreement. But things just kept escalating.
"She was definitely putting him through the wringer. And he wanted her to suffer," Fuhrmann explained. "So I came up with this idea of letting him know that she was infected with AIDS, 'and then in just a matter of time, Dino, it'll all be over. Don't worry about it.' And that worked for months."
"How did he react when you told him that you infected Monica with HIV virus?" Roberts asked.
"How big can you smile? It's not a joke. I mean, literally, how big can you smile, 'cause his was pretty big," said Fuhrmann.
Fuhrmann made it clear he never actually infected Monica with the virus. It was just a lie to stall Dino. But meanwhile, things at the Guglielmelli home were about to spiral out of control. It was the night of Jan. 16, 2012.
"He was getting in my face, right then and there in front of the kids," Monica told Roberts. "...my first thing was to get the kids removed."
Monica says she rushed the children into her room and locked the door, but before she could dial 911, Dino once again beat her to it, and accused her of assaulting him.
"He said that she wrapped her hands around his neck and it caused scratches. And that she hit him," said Deputy District Attorney Emily Cole.
Monica Olsen was arrested and Emily Cole was assigned to the case.
"The story was corroborated somewhat by their daughters. So the case was filed as a misdemeanor domestic violence case," Cole continued.
"So there was evidence that she had struck him?" Roberts asked.
"There were pictures," said Cole.
"He showed me a picture that his daughter or one of his friends took or something of this itty-bitty little cut. And I basically said, 'Man up,'" Fuhrmann said. "'I've cut myself worse shaving."
Still, Dino was able to get a restraining order against Monica, and was granted full custody of their daughters.
"I'm being given a restraining order to stay away from my kids, to stay away from the house, to stay away from my business," Monica told Roberts.
It all sounds too familiar to Leitia Devine - Dino Guglielmelli's ex-wife.
"Do you see parallels between your story and Monica's?" Roberts asked Devine.
"This is the same story almost," she replied. "At any given moment, he would do anything to make me lose my kids. That was his goal."
Devine says that during their divorce, Dino accused her of doing drugs and being abusive, and then took everything: their daughter, their home, and the business they started together, Creations Garden.
"The Dino I married was a caring and compassionate guy. The guy I divorced was callous, mean, calculating," Devine said. "The best way to describe it is Jekyll and Hyde."
"Looking back in hindsight," said Cole, "this is exactly what he did to his second wife. He brought up domestic violence charges. And he was able to get custody of their child then and that's exactly what it looks like he was doing with Monica."
Monica lost custody of her girls for 13 months, and then charges were finally dropped for lack of evidence. But that's when Dino pushed Rick Fuhrmann to execute the plan.
"The pressure was on to kill her. Three, five, seven, 10 times a week, phone calls at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, 'When's this gonna end? Are you sure you can get it done?'" said Fuhrmann.
"There's always problems, even in normal divorces with couples that fight over certain things. But you somehow make it work for the benefit of your children. There is no such a concept in his mind. It's all or nothing. It's 'The Hunger Games.' It's kill or be killed," said Monica.
Monica was about to learn how right she was. Rick Fuhrmann couldn't stall Dino any longer and says he's no killer, so he decided to visit Monica's divorce attorney and spill the beans.
"We had quite a detailed discussion," Fuhrmann said. "I told him everything."
"You told him everything. That Dino wanted Monica dead," said Roberts.
"Absolutely," said Fuhrmann.
"How did your husband want you killed?" Roberts asked Monica.
"I mean, in a horrific way," she explained. "He wanted to make it look like a drug killing. ...like I had been kidnapped in Mexico. ...And he wanted me raped, and he wanted my head cut off.
"It's pretty horrific," said Roberts.
Monica's lawyer took Rick Fuhrmann's information to the district attorney's office and the case of attempted murder was assigned to none other than Emily Cole.
"I didn't automatically recognize the Guglielmelli name. It was his daughters names that I recognized from the domestic violence case," Cole said. "That's what clicked in my head, that I had met this guy before."
But before Cole could make an arrest, her investigators needed solid evidence.
"The detective said ... 'Would you be willing to wear a wire?' And I said, 'Sure,'" Fuhrmann told Roberts.
On Oct. 1, 2013, he did just that:
UNDERCOVER TAPE
Rick Fuhrmann: You're positive?
Dino Guglielmelli: That what?
Rick Fuhrmann: You want her dead?
Dino Guglielmelli: Oh, I'm...
Rick Fuhrmann: 100 percent?
Dino Guglielmelli: Why wouldn't I?
Rick Fuhrmann: Why wouldn't you? Good question.
THE STING
On the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2013, Rick Fuhrmann and Dino Guglielmelli did something they'd done many times.
"They were just gonna have lunch and this is where they usually went," Emily Cole said of the Thai restaurant.
But the prosecutor made sure that this time the tables were turned.
"The detectives in this case ... from the sheriff's department major crimes, they were sitting here, watching Dino and Fuhrmann have their lunch," said Cole.
"Was it nerve-wracking having that lunch?" Roberts asked Fuhrmann.
"Yeah. I was pissed. ...I was very angry," he replied. "I literally just wanted just -- grab and run off the -- other side of the table and just wrack his brain a little bit and go, 'Do you understand that you've got everything. You've got the friggin' American dream and you're just an idiot?'"
Instead, Fuhrmann set about catching a killer on tape:
Rick Fuhrmann: There's no going back when we get up out of this seat.
Dino Guglielmelli: I'll never go back.
"So what did Furman have to get out of Dino?" Roberts asked Cole.
"Well, first of all, he needed to give him an opportunity to say no ... to back out at all times. But he needed for Dino to understand that, at the end of this conversation, by the time they walked out that door, that there was no way that Dino was gonna be able to stop what he had put in motion," she replied.
Dino Guglielmelli: I'll be happy when it's all over ... that's when I'll really be happy.
"We did exactly the same routine as we've done for a year," Fuhrmann told Roberts. "It was the same conversation ... Nothing was changed. Nothing was embellished. Nothing was made up."
In a moment Fuhrmann calls typical, Dino is heard justifying his desire to have Monica killed, because she lied during a deposition in the domestic violence case against her:
Dino Guglielmelli: When she went into her deposition and lied and said that I scratched myself and set her up and that she never touched me and that all those scratches came from me going to the bathroom and scratching myself. She looked me straight in the eyes and said it. And that's when I knew that I wanted her to be gone. That I could never ever trust her or anything -- anything that came out of her mouth. I knew then that she would do anything to hurt me.
"This is a clip from the recording that was made that day at this restaurant between Dino and Fuhrmann," Roberts told Cole as they listened to the tape in the same restaurant where the recording was made:
Rick Fuhrmann: I-- I'll ask you a simple question. You're positive?
Dino Guglielmelli: That what?
Rick Fuhrmann: You want her dead?
Dino Guglielmelli: Uh-huh.
Rick Fuhrmann: 100 percent? And you're sure the girls are g -- they're fine?
Dino Guglielmelli: They're totally fine. All they need is their dad.
Rick Fuhrmann: All they -- all they need is their dad.
"So this is significant because ... this was a clear declaration that he wanted his wife dead?" Roberts asked.
"No matter the consequences," Cole affirmed. "...he wants her dead regardless of who it's gonna hurt."
Dino Guglielmelli: It's like a dream come true. Seriously. I mean, you know, she's done so -- she's tried so hard to hurt me for so long and done so much, you know, evil things.
"Three or four times I gave him the way out. ...'Are you sure you want her dead? When I get up out of this seat, it's done, it's over,'" Fuhrmann said. "I think his words were, 'It's been a long time, but why wouldn't I'"
Dino Guglielmelli: Why wouldn't I?
Rick Fuhrmann: Why wouldn't you? Good question?
"'But what are the kids gonna do for a mother?' 'Don't worry about it. I'll find a good one,'" Fuhrmann told Roberts.
Rick Fuhrmann: By the time we're out of lunch, it's already done. You just need to figure out how to pay me.
Dino Guglielmelli: Oh, I'll pay you. I--
Rick Fuhrmann: How much?
Dino Guglielmelli: You already told me how much.
Rick Fuhrmann: $80,000?
Dino Guglielmelli: That's what you told me.
Rick Fuhrmann says that in earlier conversations about killing Monica, Dino had made it clear he wanted it done while she was traveling abroad. So Fuhrmann told Dino that while they were at lunch, Monica was on vacation in Mexico, where she would die that day.
Dino Guglielmelli: Are you tellin' me it's gonna be done today? Are you serious?
Rick Fuhrmann: Yes, when I leave this room.
Fuhrmann convinced Dino that a hired assassin in Mexico would kill Monica before they had time to digest their lunch:
Dino Guglielmelli: I don't want to-- I don't want to know anything.
Rick Fuhrmann: Well, there you go. I'm not gonna tell you then.
Dino Guglielmelli: I'll read about it in the paper.
Rick Fuhrmann: Yes, you will. Mexican paper, maybe.
Painfully aware of the sting operation, Monica was hiding out in a hotel room in Beverly Hills. That night, Dino went home to his daughters, presumably thinking their mother was dead.
"The following day, the recording was brought to me. We listened to it and then I filed the case," Cole told Roberts.
Dino Guglielmelli was arrested at his home in Valencia, California, in front of his daughters, and was charged with attempted murder.
"They saw him being arrested," said Monica.
The girls were taken into protective custody and Monica had to pick them up at the jail.
"What I don't understand is why the hate?" Roberts asked Monica. "The deep-seated anger and hatred towards you?"
"You know -- that's a question for him," she replied.
It's a question Troy Roberts would eventually get to ask Dino over the phone.
THE WHY BEHIND THE HOW
The only way "48 Hours" correspondent Troy Roberts could ask Dino Guglielmelli why he wanted his wife, Monica, killed was via telephone. Dino is being held in a facility in Corcoran, California, which doesn't allow cameras.
"My first question to you is ... what mistakes did you make? What are you guilty of?" Roberts asked Dino.
"Well, I would say I'm probably -- I could say that ... I'm guilty of allowing myself to -- to be betrayed and manipulated. I'm guilty of working too hard. I'm guilty of trusting too much," he replied.
Dino says he is the victim here. He calls Rick Fuhrmann a master conman who Dino says convinced him they could make millions selling vitamins and supplements to the military. When that con started to unravel, Dino says Fuhrmann set him up for attempted murder.
"So you're not taking any responsibility for this?" Roberts asked.
"No. I'm -- I'm -- no. Ask Fuhrmann," Dino said, "Why did he do it? After two years in a manipulation on a military contract, and -- and all this stuff, why did he do that? He didn't have to. I wasn't going out trying to find somebody to knock off my wife."
Prosecutor Emily Cole confirms that Rick Fuhrmann did indeed con Dino into thinking there was a big contract coming his way.
"Rick forged Department of Defense documents to lead Mr. Guglielmelli to believe that there was some big business deal. And Mr. Fuhrmann explains that he did that in order to keep Mr. Guglielmelli happy. Because a happy Dino doesn't wanna kill his wife," Cole explained.
"Is there a military contract?" Fuhrmann asked. "There's military contracts given every day. I particularly am seeking one for supplements. And I'm still working on it today, and that's really all I'll say with that."
"Our investigation-- brought forward the information that Mr. Fuhrmann ... only spent a year in the military ... he had a very basic military background ... he was honorably discharged on injury," Cole explained. "Rick Fuhrmann is a chameleon because he'll be whatever you want him to be."
And just like Emily Cole, "48 Hours" found Richard Fuhrmann hard to pin down.
"Are you a hit man?" Roberts asked Fuhrmann.
"No," he replied.
"Have you ever killed somebody?"
"Not on U.S. soil. That's it. Move on," said Fuhrmann.
"But you have killed someone, Roberts pressed.
"Move on," said Fuhrmann.
"He'll say and do ... what he thinks you want him to do," Cole said. "I think Dino and Mr. Fuhrmann were very similar in that respect. And I think that's why they got along so well."
But while it was obvious that Rick Fuhrmann was a phony, the conspiracy to kill Monica was very real:
Rick Fuhrmann: By the time we're out of lunch, it's already done. You just need to figure out how to pay me.
Dino Guglielmelli: Oh, I'll pay you. I --
Rick Fuhrmann: How much?
Dino Guglielmelli: You already told me how much.
Rick Fuhrmann: $80,000?
Dino Guglielmelli: That's what you told me.
"I've listened to the tape ... and it's very clear ... on the tape ... you wanted your wife killed and you were willing to pay $80,000 to make it happen," Roberts commented to Dino.
"Well ... the whole money aspect had come up numerous times about him wanting money and needing money, and I'd been paying him money for a long time. I dunno how much money I paid him. I think I -- in total, I-- I paid him probably $50,000 to secure the military contract. And it was always, 'Well, how are you gonna get me the money and where is the money gonna come from?' That was a question all the time," he replied. "...by the time an hour-and-a-half lunch was up and he asked me those questions -- I was-- you know, was it about killing somebody? I really didn't think anybody was going to be dead, I mean, I'm just answering the question ... I know what the tape appears to be like, but I didn't take any of it seriously, I really didn't."
Dino claims it was Rick Fuhrmann who wanted to get rid of Monica, because she was trying to sabotage his military contract.
"He convinces me that Monica is calling them and trying to kill the contract. So he's like, 'You know, I wanna get her out of the country, I want anything I can do ... to get rid of her.' I'm like, 'Richard, don't talk like that, just -- we'll just pay her when the contract happens.' 'No, no, no, we're not gonna get the contract, do you understand what she's doing? She's sending letters to them,'" said Dino.
"Are you saying to me, Dino, that Rick Fuhrmann was the one that proposed killing Monica?" Roberts asked.
"All the time, yeah. I never -" Dino replied.
"And you nev -- and you never said that?"
"No," said Dino.
"You never said that?"
"No."
The more Roberts pressed Dino about what he said on the tape, the more he blamed Rick Fuhrmann and the less his story made sense.
"Well, on the tape, it's very clear that you understood that once the lunch with Rick was over, there was no turning back, that he was going to kill Monica," said Roberts.
"He said that to me many times. 'There's no turning back once this happens.' He -- he would say, 'There's no turning back, we don't pay the people in the military contract, they're gonna kill both of us.' I mean, these were things that he used to say all the time. I didn't take any of it seriously. I mean, it's -- it was normal protocol for him to keep -- talk like that," said Dino.
But "48 Hours" listened to the whole tape and there is no mistaking what Dino and Fuhrmann were discussing. Even Dino's brother agrees.
"Did you hear the recordings between your brother and Rick Fuhrmann?" Roberts asked Emilio Guglielmelli.
"Yes," he replied.
"What did you make of it?"
The recordings kind of speak for themselves," Emilio Guglielmelli said. "... they had a conversation about killing Monica."
"Dino made it clear more than once that he wanted her dead," Roberts noted. "And he was willing to pay $80,000 to have it done."
"Yes, yeah," Emilio said. "Yes. Yes, he did."
"Does that surprise you?"
"Yes, it does surprise me. And ... I truly believe, though, the whole situation snowballed out of control," Emilio told Roberts. "I believe, in my heart, there may be -- you know how guys talk, everybody gets mad, you say things and whatever. ...he could say, 'I wish she was gone.' Somebody'd say, 'Oh, I can get rid of her for you if you want.' ... the guy -- was a real blowhard, and -- and I could see the situation where he'd say, 'Oh, I can take care of that. No problem -- I can do that do that for you. Sure, go ahead.'"
"Richard told me the whole time, 'I don't know Monica, but I hate her guts.' 'What she's done to you and those children, she should be deported, she should be this, she should be that,'" Dino told Roberts over the phone. "I mean, to the depth of the deception here. ...I'm not lying. I'm telling you the truth. Yeah, I fell into a military contract where I was blinded by that ... I just kind of ignored it, because that was my focus. And that was wrong. ...it does show a weakness in me being greedy. I should have recognized what was going on, and I'll never forgive myself for that..."
But to Emily Cole this wasn't about a phony military contract or Rick Fuhrmann. This was a clear-cut case of murder for hire by Dino Guglielmelli:
Rick Fuhrmann: And you're sure the girls are g-- they're fine?
Dino Guglielmelli: They're totally fine. All they need is their dad.
Rick Fuhrmann: All they n-- all they need is their dad?
There was just one problem: Cole's star witness was an alleged conman.
"Were you concerned about putting Rick Fuhrmann on the stand?" Roberts asked Cole.
"To an extent," she replied. "He had his own credibility issues. And that was brought forward in the preliminary hearing. There were a lotta things that the defense attorney brought up that didn't make him look great."
The defense portrayed Fuhrmann as a fraud who manipulated Dino with a fictional multimillion-dollar military contract for supplements. Cole knew that would happen again if Fuhrmann was called as a witness in front of a jury.
"But the case wasn't Mr. Fuhrmann. It was the tape," she said.
But would the tape be enough to convince a jury?
A PROSECUTOR'S DILEMMA
Nine months after Dino Guglielmelli was caught on tape and charged with attempted murder for trying to have his wife killed, prosecutor Emily Cole was preparing for trial. The evidence from the tape had the potential to send Dino Gugilemelli away for life.
"When Mr. Fuhrmann tells him that when he leaves this room, he can't change the fact that Monica's gonna be killed and Mr. Guglielmelli agrees to that, that is Mr. Guglielmelli pointing the proverbial gun at Monica," said Cole.
Dino Guglielmelli: And there's no way for them to, like, come track it back to me, right?
Rick Fuhrmann: No, that's why I asked you about the money.
Cole had solid evidence on that tape, but she also had a problem: Rick Fuhrmann himself. Just before trial, she decided she wasn't going to take any chances, and made a stunning decision. She offered Dino a deal: plead guilty to attempted murder in the second-degree and serve only nine years in prison.
"He had never spent a day in jail previous to this incident. He didn't have a record. ...Mr. Guglielmelli didn't commit violence on anyone either," Cole explained. "And I think this was a fair sentence."
"I think my life is worth more than that," Monica told Roberts. "To me ... the intent shows the criminal mind. ... The intention. So if I try to kill you and the bullet misses you by half an inch, am I less of a criminal because I don't have a good aim? Is he less of a criminal because Richard came forward?"
Asked if she wanted the case to go to trial, Monica told Roberts, "Yes. Absolutely.
"I was shocked. I remember calling asking them, 'Why are you offering him a plea?'" Fuhrmann said. "What I got back was, 'Don't worry about it. He'll never take it. ... Don't worry about it. He's going away for life.'"
"I went all the way to the last second before I took the deal. But my mom -- my whole family pleaded with me to take the deal ... I wasn't going to." Dino told Roberts by phone. "I thought a 1/5 chance was really worth taking the risk, and I told 'em all that. I didn't think a jury was going to find me guilty. But after my mom said, 'Please, just take the deal,' I took the deal."
Dino is serving his time at a state prison in Corcoran, California. He will be eligible for parole in 2021.
"He will get out angry. He will get out vengeful. And he will get out thinking that the game still needs to be won," said Rick Fuhrmann.
Despite suspicions that Fuhrmann is a conman, he has not been charged with any crime. His biggest fear is when Dino is released.
"That's what's scary for me," he said. "There's isn't any doubt in my mind that ... my life would be in danger."
And Monica fears for her safety as well.
"I know that my husband's very resourceful. He may have asked Rick, but he could have asked many other people too," Monica said. "He had a lot more than $80,000 at his disposal to have me killed."
"So do you believe ... money will be waiting for him when he's released?" Roberts asked.
"If he has control over it from prison then absolutely, he will have access to -- several millions," Monica replied.
Dino's brother, Gino, insists there is no money left.
"She claims that there's four-and-a half million dollars overseas. OK. Go find it. His second wife, 'Oh, there's $20 million overseas.' Go find it. How come nobody's finding it? Seriously ... Where is it?" Gino Guglielmelli said with a laugh. "Honestly, the guy's in prison. Can't somebody go get it?"
"Do you have any sympathy for Monica?" Roberts asked Emilio Guglielmelli.
"No. I think she -- I think she pretty much brings on all of her misfortune herself. But -- I didn't like her before, so I'm certainly not gonna like her now," he replied.
"What if your brother was actually associating with a real hit man? Monica could be dead today," Roberts noted.
"I guess, by the tape, it's probably true. But, I believe that my brother, in his business world, probably knew more capable people, if he wanted something like that done, than Richard Fuhrmann. That's why I think it was just a -- something said between two guys that spiraled out of control," said Emilio Guglielmelli.
"Does Monica have any reason to fear for her safety after you are released from prison?" Roberts asked Dino.
"Of course not. I just want ... to take care of my kids. I want to pay child support. I want to be a good, providing citizen and a good, providing father," he replied.
But Dino might have a hard time with that. Monica is now back is proceeding with the divorce -- fighting for the house and whatever money is left. She has full custody of their daughters.
"How do you make them adjust to a new life, knowing that their father's alive, knowing that their father, you know, is in prison?" said Monica.
"Do they know why he's in prison?" Roberts asked.
"Yes. They saw him being arrested. So, they were -- they were very present that morning," Monica replied. "Vendela, my youngest, she said -- she said, 'You know, Mommy, God gave Daddy a timeout.'"
But Dino still claims he is the victim.
"I've been criminalized, Troy,," he said. "It's just -- destroyed my life. And -- I don't get it, I don't understand why everyone wants to attack me, and this guy set me up."
"Monica is lucky because, in the end, Rick Fuhrmann is not a killer. He is someone that might bend the truth or omit the truth, but he's not a killer. And that's what saved Monica," said Cole.
Monica's main concern now is her children.
"I know his intention is to reunite himself with the kids and ... take those children away from me. I know that that's --" said Monica.
"Is that one of your greatest fears?" Roberts asked.
"Do I think about it? Yes. Am I gonna live in fear every day? No. I'm not gonna allow this man to do this to me. No," she replied. "I intend on really making something of my experience and not shying away from what happened, because I think that if somebody can look at my life and what I've been through and learn from it, then I've done something right."
"Anything else you want to say?" Roberts asked Dino before a recording interrupted the call with a warning: "You have 30 seconds remaining."
"You know, its 15 minutes of fame has turned into 30 seconds of fame," he replied.
Because Dino took a plea deal, he cannot appeal his conviction.
