When Ismeal Rodriguez strolls into a Florida prison, he really will be a dead man walking.
The 45-year-old former restaurant owner was sentenced to five years in Florida prison Wednesday for faking his own death to cash in on his insurance policy.
Rodriguez's wife, Maria, was also in on the scam and was found guilty of fraud.
The couple, who owned restaurants in Pensacola, travelled to Mexico in 2008 on "vacation," but really planned to use the country with the notorious reputation for kidnapping Americans as the perfect cover for a murder plot.
Maria Rodriguez called relatives during the vacation claiming her husband had been kidnapped and murdered by bandits, prosecutors told jurors.
After going through with the charade, which included a death certificate from Mexico, the wife contacted the couple's life insurance carrier to make a claim on the $2 million policy.
Investigators discovered that during the same time Maria Rodriguez was claiming her hubby was deceased, he was actually crossing the border.
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Now the death knell tolls for the couple's freedom. Maria Rodriguez will be sentenced next month.
