Love Triangles, Poison, & an Innocent Plea – The Suspicious Death of Tom Kolman
31:12 Share

Hello, everyone, and welcome back. I'm so happy to have you here with me today to discuss yet another case. And if you're new and welcome, be sure to subscribe. So today we're going to be talking about a case that is still unsolved to this day. And I think you guys are going to have very mixed opinions on it.

I can't even decide what I fully think, so I definitely want to hear from all of you. But anyway, let's get started talking about the suspicious death of Tom Coleman. So he was born on March 22nd, 1967, to his parents Marie and Thomas Sr. in Queens, New York. And...

To be honest, there isn't much information available about his early life. I was able to learn that he had two brothers, Kenneth and Robert, and one sister named Wendy, and that he was a massive fan of the New York Giants. Tom got married to his first wife, Michelle Weber, and from the very beginning, it was always clear that Tom loved his children, that he was meant to be a father and cared more about his children than anything else in the world.

As they were growing up, he volunteered as a Little League coach. He was very involved in that. He tried to be as involved as possible in his children's lives while also maintaining his career as a physical therapist in Saugerties, New York. But sometimes life just doesn't go as planned, and that was the case for Tom and Michelle. I'm not sure exactly how far into their marriage the two decided to end things, but eventually Tom and Michelle

Tom's children went and lived with Michelle in Colorado, and he stayed in Socrates. But Tom did try to keep as much of a relationship with his kids as possible. He would talk to them pretty much daily, if not every week at least. And as the years went on, Tom began dating again, and eventually he met a woman named Linda, who

was also divorced and had a child from her first marriage, and it didn't take long for the two of them to fall in love, and eventually the two of them decided to elope in Las Vegas. They had a very small yet romantic ceremony, and Tom and Linda's parents were both invited, and in addition to both bringing kids into this new family, they also had a child together of their own. Linda says that she knew Tom would be happy no matter what, but when they had their son...

Tom cried tears of happiness. He was just overjoyed. Of course, he was going to be happy no matter what, but he was stoked to have a son. But by no means did he walk away from the family that he already created. His daughter Jillian says that it really did feel like they were just one big family rather than blending two different ones. Even though they were half

siblings, it never really felt like they were half family. And a lot of that was because of Tom. He wanted to make sure that everyone felt included, that everyone felt special. And he was just so dedicated to his family. And that left very little time for him to have his own hobbies. And

and to have his own friends. I mean, sure, he had friends, he had acquaintances, of course, but he was never that close to anyone outside of his family. That is until he met local dentist, Gilberto Nunez. Gilberto, or Gil, was also living in Ulster County, and he had a wife and a kindergarten-age son, and he was first introduced to the Coleman family at kindergarten orientation. Both of their sons were the same age,

They did karate together and they really liked each other. And obviously it's pretty common for parents to become friends with the parents of kids that their kids are friends with. Tom and Gil had a lot in common and they ended up becoming really good friends. And eventually Gil was as close to the Coleman family as he possibly could be. Seriously. Not only was he Tom's best friend, but he became Linda's boyfriend.

Yes, you heard that right. That was a pretty big jump forward in the timeline. So let me back up a little bit and explain how that all unfolded because Gil and Linda didn't start dating right away. So the three of them met in 2009, but it wasn't until late 2010 that Gil and Linda became more than friends. And it all started at their children's karate class. Linda would always take her son, Ryan. Gil would always take his son. And so during their practice, they would hang out.

and chat and eventually they start hugging goodbye. Eventually that hug turned into a kiss on the cheek goodbye and eventually it turned into a kiss on the lips and moved forward from there. One day he calls up Linda and tells her that he is crazy about her and eventually she finds herself hanging out at his dental practice and forming a relationship.

Now, Gil's dental practice was the most important thing in his life. And if you ask anyone who worked for him, they would say the same. People who are close with Gil would describe him as an incredibly kind and generous person, especially when it came to his work. He would often do free dental work on...

women from shelters and he would drive elderly patients to and from their appointments. He always went out of his way for people and he was just a very likable person. And it's these positive descriptions, positive things about him that have made people extremely confused about what would later be said. But in 2010, early 2011, all anyone knew about Gil is that he was Tom's best friend, he

and a good father. Tom and Gil spent a lot of time together. They loved watching the New York Giants, and they spent a lot of time having deep talks with each other. I mean, they were close. Meanwhile, Tom and Linda had kind of hit a rough point in their relationship right before she started having this affair with Gil. They were having financial issues, kind of just hitting that slump in marriage. You know, they're raising their child.

And things just weren't the same as they used to be. And I'm not sure if some of that, you know, played into Linda then forming this romantic relationship with Gil. And at the time, Gil was also in the process of separating from his wife. And Tom was...

fully there for his friend during that entire period. Meanwhile, Gil is sleeping with his wife. And for many months, it seemed like Gil was completely fine with what he was doing. It didn't seem like it was bothering him or causing him any regret and didn't feel like he had to do anything about it until one day...

he must have felt he did. In July of 2011, Gil purchases a burner phone with the intention of anonymously telling Tom what was up. Later on, he said that he did this because if he were in Tom's shoes, he would want to know the truth. Now, why he didn't just man up and tell him himself...

I don't know. So he gets this burner phone and he decides to pose as a woman named Samantha who has inside knowledge that Tom's wife was sleeping with a dentist. And even though he didn't directly say his name in these messages, he does say that

I mean, Tom obviously knew who it was. And this is when it gets even weirder because Gil didn't stop there. He starts texting Linda and tries to convince her that Tom is having an affair as well. And that part wasn't true. So I don't know what Gil's intention or purpose was when doing that, but it did lead to Tom and Linda having a discussion about these messages they got and

possible affairs happening. And as soon as they did, Linda just completely came clean to Tom, told him everything, told him how she had been sleeping with his best friend, Gil. And I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that Tom was deeply hurt by this. I mean, this was his best buddy sleeping with his wife. So he was hurt by both of them. And he spent the first couple of days being really angry at Gil and ignoring him completely. But

Eventually, what you will be surprised to hear is that he forgave Gil. And I don't mean just like forgive and then, you know, say, peace out. Let's never speak again. He fully forgave him. Gil begged and pleaded for his forgiveness on his hands and knees. And Tom decided to forgive him. And not only did he just forgive him, and this is when it gets very strange.

he decided to let him continue sleeping with his wife. He gave his blessing, essentially, to their affair. According to Linda, it seems like Tom was okay with her continuing this relationship because he wanted her to sort out her own feelings and make up her own decision. Now,

I am a little shocked by this, but they're adults. They can do whatever they want with their relationship. This continued for a while, and Tom would text Gil and say things like, your girlfriend is baking. And Gil would respond and say, I love her so much. Interesting. But at the end of the day, he wasn't going to force her to stay with him. He wanted her to...

see both of them and come to her own decision about who she wanted to be with. And it didn't take Linda long to come to that decision. In October of 2011, about three months after the affair was exposed, Tom and the kids went away on vacation to celebrate their wedding anniversary. And Linda says that it was on this trip that she realized how selfish she had been and how the only person that she wanted to spend her life with was Tom. So now she had to break this news to Gil and end the relationship.

But for one specific reason, her and Tom decided that they would wait to tell him until after the holidays. And the reason they decided to do this was because of Gil's mental health. And let me explain. So going back to that burner phone where Gil pretended he was a woman named Samantha, he didn't want to admit that he was...

faking his identity to expose his own affair. He was embarrassed, so he lied about it for a few weeks. But eventually, Gil found out that Tom was planning to hire someone to figure out who this mystery Samantha person was. And so Gil decided to pivot to a new, even dumber plan. Rather than just admitting the truth to Tom and Linda, he decides to tell them that he is in the CIA.

and that he has a contact in the agency who could help figure out who was sending those texts. And I'm sure most of you know that impersonating a federal agent is a serious crime. And surprise, he was not in the CIA, so his genius plan was to...

pay someone he knew 500 bucks to pretend they were in the CIA and convince Tom and Linda that it was someone else sending these text messages from Samantha. Now, the details on this whole CIA thing vary a little bit from source to source. The important thing to know is that it never happened and that Gil ended up deciding to tell them the truth eventually. But here's where his mental health comes into the picture. During all of this, Gil...

calls Tom and leaves him a very cryptic voice message. And it sounded as if he was considering taking his own life. Of course, Tom was worried. He calls police and asks them to go check on him. And when they did, Gil kind of brushed the whole thing off as a moment of weakness.

And because of all of this, Tom and Linda were concerned that Gil might actually take his own life if she were to break up with him. So they decided she would maintain the relationship at least until after the holidays. And that was the plan. And then the unthinkable happened. So Thanksgiving of 2011 was like any other holiday for the Coleman's. They ate, they drank, they watched football. Everything was more or less the same as it always was. And Gil was around. He...

was under the impression that Linda was making a decision on their relationship, but says he didn't know what she had decided yet. So Linda is keeping up the relationship with Gil and also things are better for her and Tom. Now, many people say that it was very obvious from Linda's body language that she had already made her decision and that Gil may have possibly caught on that she was going to break up with him. But again,

There is nothing to confirm this. We have no idea if he knew.

And that all becomes very important soon because on Monday, November 29th, 2011, Tom Coleman was found unresponsive inside his car. That morning, Linda woke up to an empty bed as she did most mornings on the weekdays because Tom would go to the gym before heading to work. And this day was no different. But what was different was this day, Tom hadn't sent Linda any text messages. And this is something that he would do pretty much every day.

every morning while he was getting ready for work. While he was at the gym, he would send his wife a few texts. And so when he didn't, she began to wonder. And then she got even more concerned when someone called from Tom's work and said that he didn't show up that day.

And it was very unlike Tom to just not show up for work. So she got so worried, she got in her car and started to retrace his steps. And that's when she found Tom's car at the far side of the Planet Fitness parking lot in Kingston.

And when she looked inside, he didn't appear to be moving. And at first, she actually felt a little bit of relief because it looked like he had just fallen asleep. His seat was tipped back almost into a horizontal position and his pants were unbuttoned. So she opens the door thinking she's going to wake him up. They're going to laugh about it.

And then he didn't wake up and she knew something terrible had happened. Linda frantically called 911. And when EMS arrived, unfortunately, there was nothing they could do. Tom was already gone. And right off the bat, there was little concern that Tom's death was anything other than natural causes. I mean, he's in his mid 40s. He was a little bit overweight. So it seemed more likely than not that he had suffered a heart attack.

I mean, there was no physical sign of trauma. And the only so-called strange thing they noted was the fact that his car was at the back of the parking lot, which was a little weird. I mean, you'd expect someone going to the gym in the early morning would just park right up front. But again, that was the only thing that stood out at first. At the scene itself...

Linda appeared like any grieving wife. She was extremely distraught, and there was zero indication that she knew anything about his death prior to arriving at the parking lot.

There was, however, one person who seemed a little overdramatic when he showed up. And I'm sure you can guess who that was. When Gil got there, investigators said that he broke down on his knees and was hysterical that his best friend was gone, which seems like an understandable reaction to me. However, I wasn't there. And investigators say that his demeanor was a bit performative. So a few hours later, Linda goes to the station to answer a few questions about Tomlinson.

Tom's health because at first this was seen as an open-shut case. She shared with officers that Tom had sleep apnea and high blood pressure and this alone seemed to confirm what they already believed. But because his death was what they called an unattended death,

meaning no one was there to corroborate what actually happened, they decided to perform a standard autopsy and toxicology. And while they awaited those results, some very shocking information came to light. Remember earlier how I mentioned how investigators thought it was strange that Tom was parked at the back of Planet Fitness? Well, when they looked at surveillance cameras from the area to get a sense of what may have happened, they noticed a car that wasn't Tom's pulling into the back of the lot around 4.30 a.m.,

Not long after that, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, Tom's car pulls right next to the original car. And keep in mind, this is a big parking lot with plenty of open spaces. The only reason Tom would have pulled next to this vehicle is if he knew who was in it and why they were there. And just take a guess who investigators believed was driving that first car.

none other than Gil. Even though the footage taken was extremely far away and very grainy, they believed that the car was a white SUV. And who did they see driving a white SUV into the parking lot the morning that Tom's body was found?

So three days after Tom's passing, Gil was also brought into the station for what investigators called information gathering. And I cannot make this up, but when he was speaking with detectives, Gil sort of just offered up all this information about the affair that he was having with Linda.

And he told them the truth, that not only did Tom know about the affair, but he was okay with it and allowed the two of them to continue to date after the fact. And he says he told them all that because he knew they were going to eventually figure it out and he didn't want to seem like he was hiding anything. And in this conversation, Gil also mentioned that he was aware that Tom had sleep apnea and that becomes an important detail later on. Now, as you can imagine, investigators were having trouble believing that

this affair was so drama-free and Tom was just cool with it. Obviously, it's not very common for a husband to find out that his wife is having an affair with his best friend and just accepts it and lets it continue. And yeah, that is actually what happened. But to investigators, that seemed super sus. And the white SUV being a possibility...

made them concerned. So they wanted to see if maybe the two of them were still together. So they decided to take a closer look. Gil said that he still loved Linda, but if they were acting all lovey-dovey and happy in the wake of this horrible event, it seemed possible to investigators that maybe he had something to do with it. But all of this really turned up nothing. Linda said that she and Gil were having an affair when she was confronted about it. And from everything the two of them were telling them, it seemed as if

Tom really was just fine with it. They searched their phone records, Gil's car was even tracked, and nothing suggested that the two of them were still dating. And the phone records also seemed to indicate that there really were no problems between Tom and Gil. Literally up until the day Tom died, the two of them were texting like they were best friends. There was no animosity, no jealousy, no anger, nothing.

But even with nothing solid to go off of, investigators kept looking deep because they couldn't shake the idea that they could be persons of interest. And by this point, there wasn't even a definitive cause or manner of death because the medical examiner said everything was undetermined pending toxicology reports. So investigators just had to wait. But finally, after two months, the results came in and they were shocking. The

The report showed that Tom had trace amounts of midazolam in his system. If you don't know, midazolam is a medication commonly used by doctors and dentists to help a patient relax or go to sleep before a medical procedure. And so, of course, alarm bells are now going off for investigators because midazolam

Gil is a dentist. Because there were no signs of a heart attack or an aneurysm, his cause of death was labeled acute midazolam poisoning. But the traces of it were very small, so how could it have killed him? Well, it turns out that even in small doses, midazolam can kill someone if they suffer from a condition such as sleep apnea. And we know that Linda and Tom were

both knew that he suffered from this. Now, Linda actually worked at a hospital, so investigators looked into the possibility that she was the one who had gotten the midazolam. However, she was quarantined

was quickly cleared of any involvement when it became clear that no midazolam was missing from the hospital that she worked at and they also couldn't find any evidence that she obtained it elsewhere so they kind of gave up on linda but they weren't ready to give up on gill in february of 2012 he was brought back in for questioning and for seven hours he was battered about his possible involvement in tom's death but at no point did he waver from what he'd been saying all along

he didn't do it. He was confronted about the fact that midazolam was found in Tom's system, and he denied knowing anything about it. He even seemed to be confused about what this drug was in the first place, but then he quickly acted as if he did know what it was. He's also asked about his car and if he was at Planet Fitness that morning, and again, he denies it. And investigators actually got pretty in his face about everything, but without solid proof, they really can't do much. So they were just

waiting around for the evidence to find them. And while this interview was taking place, two search warrants were taking place at his home and his office. And the hope was to find midazolam or anything connecting Gil to Tom's death. And investigators do find it, but the thing is...

Both bottles are in an emergency kit that is completely untouched inside his office. Now, based on the information I gathered, it sounds to me like what detectives were finding in this search was also being relayed to the person interviewing Gil in real time. And I say this because during the interview, the two bottles of midazolam that were found in his office are brought up in conversation by the detective. And Gil kind of wavers on whether or not he had it. But finally, he says that yes.

He had this drug in his office. And he also explains that his fingerprints are going to be found on the kit and on those bottles because he is the one who fills the emergency kit. Now, here's what's interesting. By saying that his fingerprints were going to be on the vials suggests that he knew that they would find them there. If he said they wouldn't be there and then they were found, that would make him look really bad, obviously. But the opposite happened.

There were no fingerprints found on the vials. And even if we consider the possibility that he wore gloves when handling the vials, it doesn't matter because neither vial was used. And not only that, but everything else they tested came up empty. They really had nothing against him. I mean, none of his DNA was found at the scene. The surveillance footage was fantastic.

fuzzy and they couldn't confirm it was his car all he really had was a hunch that maybe he was involved

So they decide to turn to Linda in hopes that she can tell them more about Gil. And at first, Linda didn't seem to think that Gil had anything to do with her husband's death. But little by little, as time went on, she began to wonder. And she eventually came to the conclusion that he was responsible. First of all, there were those strange text messages from Samantha. And it just didn't sit right with her or investigators that Gil was trying to secretly break them up.

And then they learned that these text messages weren't his only attempt at trying to end their marriage. It turns out Gil once sent Linda an email posing as his own mother, trying to convince her to stay with her son. Then there's what investigators find on Gil's computer. During the search executed at his home, Gil's computer was seized, and on it they found a fraudulent CIA ID card and report. And Linda told investigators that she actually knew about it, but...

believed it at the time. She explained that Gil told her that he was in the CIA and that he had a friend in the agency who could figure out who was sending those texts from Samantha and could

also proved to her that Tom was having an affair as well. And looking back, Linda says that she feels extremely foolish for believing him, but we know that manipulative people can be extremely convincing. And the CIA stuff is a crime, and they do eventually go after him for that, but they wanted to get him on charges of murder.

And at this point, it was obvious that the only way they could make this happen was by connecting Gil to the car seen on surveillance. And in the time since investigators found the first set of surveillance footage with the white SUV, they went out looking for more. Obviously, the car had to come from somewhere, so they pulled footage from stores all around the surrounding area until they could find a cleaner image.

image. And they do find several tapes, including this mysterious white SUV. But unfortunately, they don't find anything with much better clarity. They don't see a license plate or any defining characteristics that would make it easy to say that this is for sure Gil's car. Gil's car also had emergency lights inside them because he was a volunteer firefighter, and they'd hoped they'd be able to see that in surveillance footage. But again, they didn't.

So they decide to bring in a forensic video analyst and hope that he can make the connection. And this analyst ends up determining that the vehicle is a Nissan Pathfinder, the same car that Gil drives, but what it ultimately boils down to is the car's headlights.

The analysts noticed how the light beams coming out of the car's headlights cast a specific shadow downward, and it wasn't the shadow that all Nissan Pathfinders would have. It almost looked as if the light was damaged in some way in order to make it like that. And so investigators tracked down Gil's old Nissan, which he had sold a few weeks after Tom's death.

And it turns out it has the same type of shadow. So they drove it down the same street at the same time of night to make sure all the variables were the same and the light pattern was a match, which gave investigators their only semi-solid evidence against Gill. So as investigators are compiling their findings and gathering everything they need to make an arrest,

everyone was starting to move on with their lives. Gil actually met a woman on Match.com and got married. Linda began dealing with the pain of this loss, and Tom's children worked on moving forward as well. Tom's first wife, Michelle, if you remember who had moved to Colorado with the kids,

had to tell them what happened to their father and neither of them were the same since. Jillian had a hard time grasping that her father was killed and Brad had some very serious mental health issues after this and sadly he ended up taking his own life at just 18 years old.

Time was moving forward, but nobody had forgotten Tom, especially not investigators. And finally, in October of 2015, Gil was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID card. He only spent one month in jail before posting his million-dollar bail, and then in May of 2016, his trial began.

Now, if I haven't made this abundantly clear so far, investigators did not have much tying Gil to Tom's murder. The best piece of evidence they had was that the forensic video analyst said Gil's car was a match to the car seen on surveillance, but this was circumstantial at best. They had no DNA. They had no incriminating texts.

They had nothing. All the prosecution really had to go on was the idea that Gil was an obsessive, jealous man who wanted Linda all to himself. Emails between the two were read in court that detail how much Gil loved Linda, emails that made him look aggressive. One of them read, I'm not leaving you, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. The prosecution would argue that Gil realized Linda was not going to choose him after the holidays were over and rather than accept defeat-

he took out his competition. Of course, they pointed to the fact that he had posed as a woman named Samantha and also his own mother in an attempt to break Tom and Linda up. And they suggested that because these efforts didn't work, Gil resorted to murder. They said that he knew about Tom's sleep apnea and that midazolam, even a small dose, could be fatal for him.

The forensic video analyst testified, and the hope was that everything combined was enough to convince the jury. And of course, the defense had plenty of reasonable doubt on their side. They argued that anything Gil had tried to break Tom and Linda up was all just a joke, and that he never would have actually resorted to murder. Plus, if Tom, his supposed best friend, was totally fine with him dating his wife...

why would he need to kill him? And probably one of the biggest arguments for the defense was that a lot of potential evidence was ignored. Remember how I explained that Tom was found lying down in his car with his pants unbuttoned? Well, data from his phone showed that he had recently received an email from the website Be Naughty. The defense argued that the police never considered the possibility that he met up with someone from that website and died as a

of that interaction. They argued that they zeroed in on Gil from the beginning and actively ignored evidence that went against their theory. Now, the prosecution would refute that and say you'd be crazy to believe that Tom was killed with midazolam by someone who happened to drive the same car as Gil and happened to know that he had sleep apnea and who happened to work for this Be Naughty website. And it was also brought up in trial that investigators found text messages between Tom and Gil that were deleted from Tom's phonebook.

phone. And of course that sounds suspicious, but it turns out these text messages were just about football. It's unclear why they were deleted or who deleted them, but they weren't anything incriminating. An

And in the end, after three weeks of testimony, the jury came back after just a few hours with their verdict. And Gilberto Nunez was found not guilty on the charge of second-degree murder. He was, however, found guilty on that charge of felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID badge. Now, Linda was visibly upset leaving the courtroom and to this day believes that Gil is responsible for her husband's murder. And many people believe that he is,

And many people believe that he isn't. And when it comes to my opinion, like I said in the beginning, I just don't know. I don't think there's enough evidence either way. Gil was also later convicted on charges of insurance fraud and perjury for two unrelated cases and sentenced to two and a half to seven years in prison. He was released from prison on all charges in September of 2018 and is on parole until October of this year.

The decision that the jury made that day haunts Tom's family, friends, and supporters. They believe that Gil got away with murder. His license to practice dentistry was revoked, but they don't feel like that's enough. All we for sure know is that Tom was a loving father, a good neighbor, a kind person, and that he didn't deserve what happened to him. But we may never know what actually happened. ♪

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.