Opinion ID: 3052167
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Daria testified:

Text: She and Butler married in 1989 and had two children together, Barbara and Laquan, prior to their divorce in 1993. Her fights with Butler had been physical in the past, and she had hit him on more than one occasion. Daria had obtained at least three restraining orders against Butler, and she and Butler had repeatedly ended their relationship. In the summer of 2000, they reconciled once again, and Daria drove to St. Louis to pick up Butler and bring him back to California. Several months after Butler’s return to California, Daria and Butler separated once more, and Daria obtained a restraining order against Butler, still in place at the time of the June 28, 2001 incident. The Butlers reconciled yet again in January or February of 2001 and were living together, with their two children, at the time of the assault. In 1977, Daria was in an abusive relationship with a different boyfriend. She obtained a gun and asked her boyfriend to meet her in an alley, where she shot and seriously injured him. At that time, she “didn’t have any knowledge of shelters or restraining orders or anything.” On the evening of June 28, 2001, Daria and Butler had a dispute about a letter she had received from another exhusband asking for help. Butler left the room; Daria “could tell that he was kind of getting upset.” Later in the evening, Daria tried to talk with Butler in their bedroom, but he left the BUTLER v. CURRY 6435 room, slamming the door behind him. Daria decided to sleep in the downstairs office, but soon after she had gotten into bed downstairs, Butler entered the office and began yelling at her about her ex-husband. He then turned and left the room. Soon thereafter, Daria decided to return to the bedroom, and Butler followed her there, “cursing and screaming” at her. Daria retrieved Butler’s suitcase from the bedroom closet; as she turned and placed it on the bed, she felt a blow to the back of her head and “the blows kept coming.” At some point during the attack, Daria realized that she was being hit with an iron. The attack left “blood spattered all across the room for several feet on the walls, the door,” and the fan. Daria began screaming for her children. Laquan testified that when he responded to his mother’s screams, he found his mother on the floor of the bedroom crying and “bleeding in the back of her head.” The police arrived shortly thereafter, and Daria was taken to the hospital, where she received six to eight staples in the back of her head. Deputy Calvo, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to investigate the case, confirmed that when he arrived at the scene he found a shattered iron.