TV Production Crew Shoots “Yuma Murder for Hire”
The Susan Renteria Sting – A Current Affair Story
As a TV Production Crew, Mark and I shot interviews and B-roll for many segments on A Current Affair.
It was a television tabloid news magazine series similar to Inside Edition. A Current Affair, like Hard Copy, focused on news and crime rather than Hollywood entertainment.
Tim Green
In this particular edition, Former Atlanta Falcons defensive end and lawyer, Tim Green, spins the story about Susan Renteria, the young woman who wanted to take a contract out on her Marine husband’s life.
Consequently, Susan got herself trapped like a fly in a spider’s web during an elaborate sting operation in Yuma, Arizona. It is one of the most chilling stories with which we have ever been involved.
Yuma Interviews
The Crystal Pyramid Productions TV production crew interviewed the detective who had sat in a car with Ms. Renteria in an empty K-Mart parking lot. That’s where she confirmed with him that she wanted her husband’s life ended. We also interviewed a Yuma attorney and the judge who decided to send Ms. Renteria to prison. Director of Photography, Mark Schulze, was the videographer, and Patty Mooney was Sound Technician.
After videotaping the interviews at the police station and courthouse, the crew drove by the apartment complex where the couple had lived. And then past the Yuma Marine Corps Air base to gather footage. We never met nor spoke with Ms. Renteria herself.
Mexico
This was a full-day shoot. So when we wrapped up, the producer said he would like to treat the TV production crew to dinner in Los Algodones, Mexico. It was just a few miles southwest of Yuma.
Most of the shops and eateries were closing down except for one small cafe. There we enjoyed a margarita and tasty seafood dinner together before going our separate ways.
The following video clip is from the old Current Affair series. The original footage shot on Betacam SP format with a $30,000 Sony camera was pristine; this is a digital copy of a VHS copy from the broadcast.
Children of God
Another sensational story on which we served as tv production crew for A Current Affair in San Diego was about a Religious Cult
It is a story that is still controversial today, about the “Children of God” cult and Ricky “Davidito” Rodriguez, the son of the cult founder who killed his nanny and then took his own life.
Our crew attended a memorial service for Ricky and videotaped interviews of two people who had been in the cult and known him. They escaped and renounced the cult, and expressed how they cared about Ricky who they felt was a pawn in the movement. They felt that because he had been sexually molested as a child and was also being groomed to take over the cult after his father passed away, Ricky was conflicted and felt that his only way out was to commit suicide.
San Diego Nudist Colony
The last but not least story we produced for A Current Affair in San Diego was a light-hearted one.
A cascading series of events occurred when a local San Diego nudist club tried to book an evening of fun at an ice skating rink in Santee, a town located about 20 minutes northeast of downtown San Diego. At first it looked like the nudes would be able to skate around to their heart’s content. But then a formerly gay christian guy got involved. And then the Santee mayor got involved. The story, featuring reporter Tina Malave, follows in this video.
