Okay, I didn’t think I was going to do another post on the podcast, but oh my goodness is Patty Presba one of the dumbest criminals I can recall encountering in true crime.
I’m referring to the woman at the center of a plot to kill her husband, Ron Presba, as presented by Dateline NBC’s latest podcast series, The Seduction. Narrated by Keith Morrison (who else?), the podcast follows the events of how how Patty groomed Jaime Ramos, a younger man, into conspiring with her to kill Ron.
I already went over how Patty was moronic for talking to the police, thinking she could talk her way to being cleared of wrongdoing, but she somehow takes it to another level in the most recent episode (they release every Tuesday), “Prelude to a Double Cross.”
In this episode, we learn that Patty concocted a fake kidnapping scenario with Jaime — and she even roped her daughter into calling the police to report her missing, although I suppose it’s feasible she wasn’t brought into the plan, and really believed her mother to be missing — after already previously setting the seeds in her interview with the police. She told the police that Jaime would come back to town and kill her.
Forget for a moment that by concocting this plan she later conveys to the police (again, being stupid to do that!), it upends her previous explanations for Ron’s murder (that you were in the house at the time of his death to clean up poop; that it was the Mexican Mafia; and that you were the intended target, not Ron), on the face of it, it still doesn’t make any sense as a timeline of events.
As I understand the explanation she put forth to police, Patty said:
- She was asleep on her bed when someone wearing coveralls and a “creepy nylon stocking mask” grabbed her.
- She was taken to the floor and dragged throughout the house while the assailant is throwing things.
- She was somehow shutting doors and he was kicking doors down.
- She was able to break free, but the assailant chased after her.
- The assailant dragged her into the kitchen after grabbing her a second time.
- That is when Patty realized it was Jaime. [I guess his stocking slipped off? Or some other sign gave it away?]
- Jaime then confessed to being the one who killed Ron by hitting him in the back of the head … as Ron held a puppy? [What is up with the puppy details?!]
- Jaime then tried to stab Patty with a big kitchen knife, and sliced her arm.
- She fled to her bedroom, grabbed her revolver, locked herself in the bathroom, and after he broke in, that is when Patty shot Jaime three times with a .44 Magnum.
- Patty then ran outside and down the driveway.
- Jaime somehow was still able to function, get outside, and was able to catch up to Patty.
- He dragged Patty into his car and told her to start driving, and they drove across the Nevada desert.
- They stopped at three different service stations.
- Police asked her why she never made a run for it while at any of these stops, and she said she was too afraid.
The best part about this whole wild scenario? Apparently, Jaime, who has been shot three times, is likely near death, and is also still controlling Patty, but also, one would assume, in a hurry to get away in the car, had time to craft a clearly fake and ridiculous ransom note using letters cut out of magazines. If real criminals do that, I will eat the fake ransom note. That is largely movie fiction (and is the inspiration for what they did). I mean, I guess, if you believed Patty’s entire scenario, Jaime could have brought the note with him and had the presence of mind to leave it at the house.
But still, this whole scenario is absurdity baked into stupidity, and again, she’s a moron for laying it out to that police, and for thinking it would work.
We later here Jaime’s version of how this all played out: That it was Patty’s idea, and he went along with it, still caught in her web of deception. There were two parts of the plan he was not privy, too, however: a.) that Patty would shoot him; and b.) that he would be taking the entire fall for Ron’s murder.
Unfortunately for Patty’s plan, Jaime survived the three gunshots, somehow. Now, even if he had died, I still don’t think the police would have bought her story as this heroic woman who was able to defend herself against her husband’s murderer and would-be kidnapper. She was already caught lying multiple times to the police. They were already suspicious of her. And again, the entire scenario she presented to them was so clearly fake. They even laughed at the ridiculousness of the ransom note!
You know what the lesson from Patty’s idiocy? Don’t kill your husband. At least not without a good follow-up plan (I kid, I kid).
Which brings us back to the primary question that remains unanswered: Who killed Ron?
I don’t believe Patty that Jaime did it.
Milam's Musings 