Opinion ID: 1279824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Quarters and Quarrels.

Text: After the evening of Friday the 13th, March 1987, had been spent in moving furnishings from the apartment of Grace and Robert Garner in Hickman, Nebraska, the movers, namely, Terry Reynolds and his wife, Hazel Hassie Reynolds, Tina Walker, and the Garners, adjourned around 11 p.m. to drink a beer in the Reynolds apartment, which was located in the same building as the Garner apartment. Sometime after midnight, the group of movers obtained a case of beer and decided to play quarters, a game in which participants attempt to flip a coin into a glass of beer. The participant who is successful in that effort then selects another player to drink the beer from the glass containing the coin. All participants in the quarters contest drank beer, but Terry Reynolds and Tina Walker were also taking shots of whiskey. At the commencement of the quarters event, all players were friendly and getting along real well. The atmosphere changed when Terry Reynolds and Tina Walker began flirting with each other. When Hassie Reynolds took Terry Reynolds aside and chided him about his flirting with Walker, he responded that maybe I will get the orgy that I always wanted. After 3 hours of quarters, the game halted. As Terry Reynolds went into the bathroom, Hassie Reynolds followed and again expressed her displeasure over Terry Reynolds' flirting with Tina Walker. When the Reynolds argument waned, Hassie Reynolds emerged from the bathroom and encountered Tina Walker. Terry Reynolds, emerging from the bathroom in pursuit of Hassie, seized his wife by the throat, dragged her into the children's adjoining bedroom, struck her a number of times in the face, and pulled several clumps of hair from her head. Grace Garner entered the children's bedroom and attempted to stop Terry Reynolds from further injuring Hassie, but Terry Reynolds countered by shoving Grace to the floor. After Robert Garner intervened and the fracas had subsided, Hassie Reynolds assured the Garners that she was all right. Tina Walker, meanwhile, had left the apartment. Terry Reynolds apologized for his conduct, and the Garners left the Reynolds apartment. After Garners' departure, Hassie and Terry Reynolds went to their bedroom, where Terry demanded that Hassie sexually satisfy him. On Hassie's refusal, Terry Reynolds repeatedly struck her and grabbed her hair hard enough to pull [her] hair out. Terry Reynolds told Hassie that if she didn't sexually satisfy him that he would leave and that [she would know] where he was going. Hassie replied that she did not care where Terry went so long as he left her alone. Terry Reynolds responded by inflicting additional physical abuse on Hassie, tearing the phone from the wall, and walking out of the apartment. Reynolds, who had acted as a drug informant for law enforcement, always kept a loaded .38 revolver in his apartment and, in his words, I didn't go anywhere without my gun. As he was leaving the apartment, Terry Reynolds met Garners, again apologized to Grace Garner, said Hassie was fine, and gave Grace Garner permission to check on Hassie's condition. Terry Reynolds then meandered on foot through Hickman until the next thing [he] knew [he] was on or almost right in front of Tina's house. As recounted by Terry Reynolds, I was mad. I was hurt. I was mad at Hassie and I went up to Tina's house. Reynolds knocked on the door of the Walker house and was admitted by Tina's son, who had answered the door. On entry into the house, Reynolds found Tina asleep, removed his clothes, and shook Tina in an effort to awaken her for sexual intercourse. When she resisted, Reynolds struck Tina twice and choked her, but, for some reason, decided to terminate the episode and return to his apartment. As Reynolds was leaving the Walker house, he wiped the door handles on either side of the front door and told Tina to go ahead and call the cops because it was [her] word against his and who were they going to believe. While Terry Reynolds was on his trek to Tina's, Grace Garner went to the Reynolds apartment to check on Hassie, who, obviously, had been beaten. Subsequently, Heidi Cemer, the apartment manager, and her cousin, Shannon Warburton, arrived at the Reynolds apartment. On Terry Reynolds' return to his apartment, he found Hassie Reynolds, Grace Garner, Heidi Cemer, and Shannon Warburton and told everybody to get out of his home. When Heidi Cemer told him to calm down, Terry Reynolds picked her up from a chair, threw her to the floor, grabbed her while she was lying on the floor, and raised a fist as if to hit her. At that point, Hassie Reynolds approached Terry Reynolds from behind and jumped on his back. During the ensuing struggle, Terry Reynolds flung Hassie to the floor and then chased Heidi Cemer, who was attempting to leave and obtain help. Terry Reynolds chased Cemer and caught her outside the apartment, where he trapped Cemer near a stairway, pointed the .38 revolver at Cemer's head, and told her that if she called anyone, he would kill Hassie and whomever might appear in response to any summons for help. As Reynolds was threatening Cemer, Shannon Warburton approached. Reynolds pointed the revolver at Warburton, but allowed her to pass by when Warburton indicated that she wanted only to go to Cemer's apartment. During Reynolds' distraction, Cemer escaped. Terry Reynolds returned to his apartment, where he found Hassie in the living room, pointed the .38 revolver at her nose, and stated, [I]f anybody calls the law, I will kill you, I will kill Tabetha [Hassie's daughter who lived in the apartment] and I will kill the sheriff and myself. Immediately after these threats, Terry Reynolds and Hassie went to their bedroom, where Terry reminded Hassie what would happen if the law was called. Shortly afterward, Terry Reynolds awakened his stepdaughter, Tabetha, and brought her into the bedroom with Hassie. While Hassie and Tabetha were in the bedroom, Terry, with the .38 revolver in hand, began pacing around the bedroom. Some 10 to 15 minutes later, Reynolds heard a knock on the apartment door.