An upset Monica also told Jacquez, “I went to Anita Harris’s place and saw Paul’s truck there.”
“It was there,” Paula says, “she showed me a place on her elbow and on her side where she said she had been thrown into a mirror and broke it. She described the situation as him being a Jekyll and Hyde type of person. One minute he was the loving man that she married, the next minute it took next to nothing to make him fly off the handle.” At one point, the two women laughed bitterly over the fact that it is okay for a man to go off and have a relationship with another woman, but when the woman tries to get on with her life, it’s not okay; she’s wrong to do it. “We shared the same belief that in society it is okay for your spouse to screw around, but if you go out to dinner with somebody, then it makes you evil.”
Later, when Paul stopped by Monica’s house to drop off some Easter treats for the girls, he gave Diane and Racquel a dollar and Amanda five dollars. Monica said she also needed some money, so without counting it, he handed her the rest of the cash from his wallet.
All seemed peaceful for the moment between the two former lovers, but it was the calm before the storm. Paul had heard that she was depressed. Of course, what he didn’t know was the trigger had been Monica seeing him at Anita’s. Paul asked Monica if he could come into the house for some water. At first she was reluctant, asserting he could get a drink anywhere and wanting to know why he felt the need to come into her house for that. But then she gave in. As they walked through the house, Paul asked how work was going on the remodeling of the master bedroom. He quickly entered the room with Monica nervously trailing behind. When he noticed the master bathroom door was closed he approached and tried to open it, but Monica jumped in front of it. Her quick movement knocked down a mirror hung on the door and it broke. Later, Paul admitted he tried to get to the bathroom to see if a man was hiding inside, but Monica blocked his way. Paul left after the mirror broke and didn’t see Monica until Monday. He didn’t know Monica had seen him at Anita’s.
“You don’t care. He hurt me and you don’t care.” She repeated the words but would never explain who hurt her. Paul got the impression that she was raped on the trip she had made to Las Vegas unbeknownst to him. In his rage and frustration about her being raped and refusing to name her attacker, he punched a hole in the wall. He had no idea at the time and would have thought anyone crazy who said Monica had to get herself bruised somehow if she was going to make the battery theory fly and set him up for murder.
That Easter Saturday, Monica called her friend Vicki Maestas around 8:30 P.M. Monica blurted out that “it” happened again. Maestas asked Monica why she didn’t call the police about Paul’s abuse. Monica said Paul threatened to kill her if she reported his violence, because he risked losing his job. “She was very afraid of Paul. She was scared. In our conversations, she was scared.”
Monica told Vicki she had a domestic violence packet and she planned to file charges against Paul on Monday, despite the threats. She said she was scared about what Paul would do once he was notified about the charges, Vicki said.
Monica never talked to Maestas about suicide, not that night and not before.
On Easter Sunday, Monica paged Dusty Downs while he was at church and he called her back.
Downs commented, “Monica seemed distraught, somewhat upset.” They arranged to meet at the police department around noon. Monica arrived with Rick Jacquez, her sister’s boyfriend.
“She advised me that there had been an incident on the previous day and she now wished to go ahead and proceed with filing charges and a formal report. I explained to her again, uh, what would happen by the filing of this, this offense report would automatically start an administrative investigation. And I wanted her to be aware of that, that these people would be contacting her, uh, interviewing her in regards to that. I wanted (her) to be aware of that. I also informed her of her own personal safety that she needed to seek the civil remedy which is the domestic violence petition which would restrain Paul from any further contact with her. I even provided her with what we call the Domestic Violence Package to facilitate that.”
Downs explained she would have to file the papers in court. Monica promised to do so. She asked Downs to call her early Monday to ensure she didn’t back down.
But that never happened. Instead, the last explosive episode between Monica and Paul intervened.
On that Monday, at 5:30 A.M., Paul left Anita’s house and went to his apartment to change and get some cereal and milk for his daughters’ breakfast. He arrived at his former home about 6:40 A.M., just as Monica was backing out of the driveway with the girls in the van. Monica saw Paul and pulled back into the driveway.
“What did you expect me to do with three dollars?” Monica demanded as she left the car. The girls remained inside the van, Diane wearing her Catholic school uniform.
“I didn’t know I only had three dollars left when I handed you the cash.” Monica told him she was taking the girls to their grandmother’s house before she went to work. This puzzled Paul after the plans they’d made for him to watch the girls.
He got the girls out of the van, and they all followed Monica into the house. The girls started eating the cereal Paul poured for them. Monica asked Paul to dispose of some spoiled meat in the refrigerator and he did as he was told.
When Paul had finished the task, Monica made her angry announcement that she was filing charges against him.
Guilt-ridden and grief-stricken, Paul surveyed the bloodstains from Monica on the walls and furniture. He tried several times to pick Monica up, but the gushing blood made her body slippery—blood yet another barrier between the one-time lovers. After one of those desperate moments, he looked up to see his fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, Amanda, wet hair dripping from her shower. Hatred loomed at him, her arms tightly crossed around her towel-wrapped body.
“What did you do to my mom?” she demanded.
“Nothing!” Paul cried hoarsely. “She just shot herself. Call 911! Don’t let the babies back here!”
Amanda slammed the door. Diane was already calling 911, something her kindergarten teacher had just taught the class. Amanda took over the call. She told the dispatcher exactly what Paul had told her.
Finally, Paul half-dragged, half-carried his wife as he tried to race through the house. But he moved as though every step forced him to pull his shoes out of sucking quicksand. He tried to ignore the wide-eyed horror in the little girls’ eyes as they watched their death-soaked mother and determined father. In the garage, Paul tried to put his wife in the van, but she slipped out of his arms a final time. He felt her body shudder and knew he had no time to head for the hospital. He had to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Amanda kept the girls away from the garage, where she stationed herself. Her suspicious eyes took in Paul’s every move.
After what seemed like hours, sirens roared in the air and an ambulance turned into the driveway. Emergency medical technicians took over CPR and tried to stop the bleeding as much as possible for the quick ride to the hospital. At that point, Paul didn’t notice the blood all over his hands. “She died in my arms,” he murmured over and over. What