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MIAMI (CBS4) ― Thursday the prosecution presented a videotaped confession of the woman they say hired hit men to kill her boss, a Miami doctor, and his son, all for the sake of covering up money she was embezzling from his practice.

Maria Catabay faces two counts of felony first degree murder for the murder of Dr. Paul Jarrett and his son in 2003. In the video, prosecutors claim that Catabay confesses to a plan to burglarize Jarrett's home. They say that burglary led to the murders of the two victims.

But defense attorney Lorna Owens said Catabay was tired when she made the confession, saying, "coming to you within 24 hours, she'd only slept 2 to 3 hours, and then she spent 20 hours with you, so we know at least within a 40 hour period, she had only slept two to three hours."

Catabay was Dr. Jarrett's long-time office manager, and prosecutors said Wednesday in opening statements that she was trying to cover up the money she embezzled from him. She's allegedly sent her boyfriend, Juan Carlos Fernandez, and another man, Jose Barco, to kill Jarrett, 82, as he slept in July 2003. Investigators say Jarrett's son Gregg, 47, was also killed because he was in the home at the time. Both men were found in their beds shot in the head execution-style.

Investigators say Catabay wanted the doctor dead to cover up the fact that she had embezzled thousands of dollars from him.

"She was heavily in debt; she was about to lose her home, there was no way she could pay the doctor back, and the only solution was to knock the doctor off," Assistant State Attorney Carolina Corona told a Miami-Dade jury.

Prosecutors say investigators became suspicious of Catabay after learning of questionable checks she had written to herself on the doctor's bank account, to which she had access. Detectives' suspicions grew stronger when her boyfriend and Barco were arrested in an unrelated armed robbery case. The two men were allegedly in possession of a .22 caliber pistol that was used to commit the Jarrett murders. They also had a .9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol, registered to the doctor's murdered son and presumable stolen at the time of the murders.

In a statement she gave to homicide detectives, Catabay admitted writing a letter apologizing to Dr. Jarrett for having stolen from him. She said her boyfriend, Fernandez, told her that they should go to the doctor's house and retrieve the letter so that it could not be used as evidence to prosecute her for embezzlement.

Prosecutors acknowledge that Catabay was not with the men when the murders were committed, but they say she knew what was planned.

"Who goes looking to retrieve a letter in a house in the middle of the night with a gun with a silencer," if murder isn't the plan, asked lead prosecutor David Waksman. "Why not go in the afternoon when you know everyone is going to be at work?"

The defense told jurors Catabay might be a thief, but she's not a killer. "There is a difference between thievery and murder," defense attorney Lorna Owens said.

As for the incriminating statement Catabay gave investigators? It was coerced, Owens said. "She was tired, she was hungry, she was cold," after more than 20 hours of interrogation, Owens said. "There is plenty of psychological evidence that innocent people can be made to admit to a crime they did not commit.

Wednesday, jurors were shown crime scene photos from the double murders and a photograph of the silencer-equipped pistol used to kill the victims. Photos of the interior of the home showed every room ransacked, every drawer pulled out.

Barco was convicted of double murder in a jury trial last year and sentenced to life in prison. Fernandez, the boyfriend, has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.

Catabay's trial before Circuit Judge Stanford Blake is expected to last at least a week.

CBS4's Gary Nelson and Sharrie Williams Contributed To This Report

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