it had to do with Paul. “Monica had a bruise on the right side of her face,” Downs said. “When I noticed the bruise on her face, that was the first time I had physically seen her. It had been common knowledge throughout the department, throughout the building I should say, that she and Paul were having marital difficulties. When she walked in the room, it was an assumption on my part the bruise may have been partially related to that.”
Her sister’s boyfriend accompanied Monica. On the occasion, Downs said Monica spoke for the first time of having suffered abuse at her husband’s hands and confided she thought he was taking steroids. Downs took photographs of her and gave her a domestic violence packet.
Downs said after Monica’s disclosures that he was concerned for her safety and her well-being. Monica hadn’t bothered to mention to Downs that the a few days before she had found in Paul’s truck a letter proclaiming his love for Anita.
But Monica was not always so upbeat. Her best friend, Vicki Maestas, who knew Paul because Vicki’s husband and Paul were casual acquaintances, said that Monica often came to work with tears in her eyes or eyes reddened from crying. Vicki worked with Monica for eight years and had been close to her during the time they were court clerks and even during Monica’s brief stint working for a bail bondsman. Monica told Vicki Paul constantly came over to the house to talk to her after she told him to move out and that he “harassed” her at home and work by calling or stopping by unannounced. “He was driving by, trying to find out where she was all the time and just constantly bothering her.”
Paul’s actions angered Monica. Maestas didn’t describe fear in Monica’s demeanor. Monica told Maestas she had snooped in Paul’s truck and found a letter Paul wrote to Anita. That they had had an affair was obvious. Maestas described Monica’s fury at finding out about the affair. Monica told her she’d made copies of the letter, keeping one and giving the other copy to her father.
One day at work, Monica seemed especially sad to Maestas. She and another co-worker decided to visit Monica at home after work. Paul showed up at the front door while the two clerks were inside. Paul and Monica spoke at the front door. Soon, Monica’s co-workers heard the two former lovers arguing over a document Paul needed. Maestas intervened, offering to get the document for Monica. In a moment, Maestas returned to the front door with the document. Maestas stepped outside and after handing the document to Paul, told him he needed to tell Monica once and for all if he wanted out of the relationship or not. Paul said he loved Monica, but he didn’t think he was in love with her anymore. Before Paul could say anything else, Monica came out of the house and told Paul to leave. He left.
As that stormy March spun by, a troubled Paul devoted himself to his children. He went to his and Monica’s house every Monday and Tuesday to see the girls. Just as he had done when he lived there, he did the laundry, cooking and bought groceries, which seemed to please Monica, who also went off one weekend to Las Vegas. And she seemed to have a good time when she went with Paul to a movie on Monday, March 29 and met him at a neighborhood pub on March 30.
Paul went to see Maestas and asked her who Monica had gone to Las Vegas with a few weeks earlier. Maestas said she didn’t know. Paul persisted.
“Am I going to have to look at this person every day? Do I work with him?” Paul asked.
Maestas repeated she didn’t know who Monica went to Las Vegas with. In that conversation, Paul also made reference to divorce and said he wasn’t going to “get screwed over” as he did in his first marriage. He didn’t get custody of April when he divorced his first wife. This time he would fight to get custody of Diane and Racquel.
On April 1, after filing divorce papers, Monica went out to lunch with Dusty Downs. That Friday, Paul stopped at Monica’s office and told her he’d pick up the girls Monday morning. He also planned to cut the grass, clean out the hot tub and go grocery shopping for Monica.
Monica’s mood darkened and became explosive on the night when she and her daughter, Amanda, followed Paul to Anita’s house. Perhaps she had been expecting that an obviously suffering husband would want to return home to her and his children.
Late in the day on April 3, Monica’s family had a barbecue at which Monica saw her friend Paula Jacquez, a nurse in Farmington whom she and her sister had known from their school days.
Paula and Monica had much in common as Paula explained. “I was kind of distraught over my husband. He and I had been separated for six months and my oldest son had gone out with a friend and had been away for a couple of hours. When Monica showed up at her uncle’s barbecue, she could tell I was worried. I explained to her how it was hard to gain control of a teenage boy whose dad isn’t around, and Monica and I got to talking and got to crying. We went off into the bedroom, and we spent probably two or three hours just, you know, discussing what breaking up is like after being married for so long. There was a lot of heartache and a lot of understanding between us.”
Paula went on: “There was a lot of time we were crying, and there were a few times we could smile, but Monica could talk and start something and I could finish her sentence and she could do the same for me.” Paula noticed Monica had lost a lot of weight. Monica complained that it was real hard for her to take care of herself physically as well as mentally. Paula explains, “I talked her into coming into my office and seeing my doctor and possibly getting something to help her sleep. Monica was concerned that Elaine, another nurse who worked for the same doctor and who was a friend of Paul’s, would get hold of her records and give them to Paul which would make a difference in the fight over custody of her children. I reassured her that I was sure my doctor wouldn’t let that happen.”
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
