Opinion ID: 3159836
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prior incidents of domestic violence

Text: Defendant and Clari met when they were both 14 years old. A few months later, defendant moved in with Clari‟s family, which included Clari‟s mother Bruni, Clari‟s younger brother David, and Clari‟s older, mildly intellectually disabled brother, Richard Montanez (Ritchie). Throughout their relationship, defendant and Clari intermittently lived with Clari‟s family. In December 1985, defendant and Clari had their first child, Vallerie. In 1987, while defendant, Clari and Vallerie were living in the City of Bellflower with Clari‟s family, defendant asked Clari, who was sleeping, to get him some water. When Clari told defendant to get the water himself, defendant pulled Clari out of bed, dragged her down the stairs by her hair, and began choking her. After he forced Clari to get him a glass of water, defendant choked her again until she blacked out. On another occasion when they were living with Clari‟s family in Bellflower, David, who was five or six years old at the time, began crying because Bruni had left to go to the store. Defendant told David he was a “momma‟s boy” and proceeded to punch and kick him. At one point, defendant stomped on David‟s head with his steel-toed boots. When Clari tried to intervene, defendant turned his attention to Vallerie. Defendant pulled Vallerie‟s legs over her head and compressed them into her body until her face turned blue. In January 1991, when defendant, Clari, and Vallerie were living in Signal Hill, defendant and Clari had an argument. Defendant pushed Clari into the bathroom, choked her, and yelled at her not to follow him around. She denied that she had been doing so, but defendant smashed her mouth against the bathtub, 3 cracking her tooth. Defendant told Clari, “If you want to play, then we‟ll play.” Clari understood this to mean that if she “messed with him,” he would “teach her.” In August 1991, during an argument about money, defendant choked Clari, pulled her hair, and pushed her face down onto the living room couch, trying to smother her. He then dragged her into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He pushed Clari to the floor and put the knife to her throat. Vallerie was present in the living room and kitchen, witnessing these events. Defendant dragged Clari into the bedroom, where he beat and choked her on and off for the rest of the night. Defendant told Clari, “You think I‟m playing with you but I‟m not, I‟ll kill you.” The next morning, defendant, seeing the injured Clari, told her, “You look fucked up, I fucked you up didn‟t I?” He threatened Clari that if she called the police to report him, he would kill Vallerie. In December 1994, defendant and Clari had their second child, Micky Jr. At this time, Clari was living in Perris with Vallerie, her mother, and her brothers. Defendant did not live with them at this time, but was still in daily contact with Clari. Clari had a new car that she bought for her commute to work. In January 1995, defendant came over one day and asked to use the car. Clari told him no. Defendant responded by starting to beat her. Clari ran outside, but slipped and fell in the grass. Defendant grabbed a brick and quickly jumped on top of her, hitting her in the face with the brick. Clari blacked out, and when she revived, there was a lot of blood in her eyes. She heard defendant say that he knew she would call the police. He told her that he was not going back to jail. Vallerie and David were outside during the incident. Defendant forced them, along with Clari and Micky Jr., into Clari‟s car. Dizzy and hurt, Clari begged defendant to take her to the hospital. Defendant said he would, but instead he drove around for hours. Clari saw in the visor mirror that her forehead was “flapping” and looked “like ground beef.” She used a diaper to mop up the blood; when the diaper was saturated, she 4 used her shirt. More than seven hours later, defendant finally drove to a hospital and let Clari go inside, after coaching her on what to say. He threatened that if she said anything to get him arrested, he would kill their children. Fearful of defendant, Clari claimed at the hospital that she had hurt herself by slipping at a store. Clari needed numerous stitches to close the wound to her forehead, the scar of which was visible at defendant‟s trial in 2003. Clari also lost her front teeth and had to visit an oral surgeon to attempt to realign her jaw. At the time of trial, Clari‟s mouth still did not close properly. It took six months to receive dentures to replace her teeth. On numerous occasions thereafter, defendant would throw her dentures away or hide them so that she would have to go to work humiliated. Twice, Vallerie had to go to the dumpster to retrieve Clari‟s dentures for her. After Bruni purchased a house in Moreno Valley, Clari and her children moved back in with defendant at an apartment a few miles from Bruni‟s house. One day, when Vallerie was 10 or 11 years old, she returned from school early and saw another woman sitting on their couch. Defendant “dared” Vallerie to tell Clari about the woman. When defendant found out that Vallerie had done so, defendant dragged Vallerie into the bathroom. Using clippers, he cut off all of her long hair, and made her go to school bald. When Clari bought a wig for Vallerie to wear, defendant took it from Vallerie and would not let her wear it again. Clari decided to leave defendant for good after he beat her with the brick. She began to secretly give money to her Aunt Lydia to hold for her, and she started to look for a new job and new apartment. Because her job hours were flexible, she was able to go to interviews either before work or during her lunch break. At first, she would change clothes at home, but defendant became suspicious that she was seeing somebody else. She started hiding the clothes she needed for her interviews. Defendant remained suspicious. He insisted on driving 5 to work with her. He became more and more aggressive. He would do things such as put sugar in her gas tank, shift the car into park while Clari was driving on the freeway, and tear up her paycheck and flush it down the toilet. He would not leave her alone with their children. He would not let her sleep, but would keep her up all night arguing. He told her that if she ever left him, he would first take Micky Jr. and then kill her, Vallerie, and her other family members, including her mother, Bruni. On the morning of October 15, 1998, a day Clari had a job interview scheduled, defendant again insisted upon driving to work with her. During the drive, Clari told defendant that there was not enough gas in the car for him to drop her off and pick her back up. Defendant grabbed Clari‟s purse to look for money; finding none, he threw her purse out of the car window and onto the freeway. Clari drove back and retrieved her purse. As soon as she had the purse, however, defendant again threw it out the window. When defendant asked if she was going to get it, she responded “no” and continued to drive to work. Clari decided at that point that she would take her children and leave defendant that day. Clari called Bruni, telling her she could not take it anymore, and was leaving defendant. She asked Bruni to pick up Vallerie and Micky Jr. and bring them to work. Clari then called Vallerie, told her they were leaving, and asked her to put clothes for the three of them in a trash bag. Clari told her boss she was leaving her job. Bruni picked Clari up from work with the children. Bruni arranged for her and the children to stay with a friend of hers until they could fly to Puerto Rico, where they could stay with relatives. Clari and the children left for Puerto Rico a few days later. Clari subsequently called her mother and her brother David from Puerto Rico. Both reported that defendant had been calling them. Defendant, who had obtained Bruni‟s work information, called Bruni at work several times. He also 6 drove through Bruni‟s neighborhood at least once a week during the weeks Clari and the children were gone.