Love Me or I'll Kill You

by Lee Butcher

  “He didn’t give me a lawyer, so there was no choice,” she said.

  “You could have stayed silent,” Pruner said. “You knew that; isn’t that true?”

  “I was confused. When he told me about the lawyer, that’s why I asked him if I needed one, and he told me that I couldn’t have none, so that’s why I spoke.”

  Paula admitted that her parents did a good job providing for her, and that she broke their rules before she ever met Chino. Paula said she ran away from home, took illegal drugs, skipped school, and got pregnant at age thirteen.

  “Each of these acts was a conscious choice that you made before you ever met Nestor DeJesus; isn’t that right?”

  Paula answered yes. Pruner asked, “And your parents decided to send you to Colombia because of your decisions and misconduct before you met Nestor DeJesus; isn’t that correct?”

  Paula admitted that. When she confronted Chino at Macy’s years later, Paula admitted, Chino had not threatened her for having security throw him out. Pruner asked if anyone in her family was hurt, or threatened, by Chino on the Thanksgiving when they had him picked up by the police. Paula again answered no.

  Pruner pounded away at incongruities in Paula’s testimony. Paula had broken up with Chino before he moved to Florida in 1994 through 1997; each year he had asked her to join him, and she said no. They had broken up. There were no repercussions. She felt safe when Chino was one thousand miles away in Florida.

  Paula said she had another boyfriend, but when he “dumped” her in 1997, she wrote to Chino in Florida.

  “You remembered how terrible it had been, how fearful you were, and you still reached out to him over the thousands of miles to initiate contact with him, didn’t you?” Pruner asked.

  Paula said yes.

  “You knew old Nestor DeJesus told [you] he was going to ‘love me forever and he would also be there for me’; isn’t that right?”

  “No.”

  “Isn’t it true that only after you had been dumped, you decided that the risk of communicating with this hot-tempered maniac was outweighed by whatever benefit you might get personally from the contact?” Pruner asked. “You made that decision, didn’t you?”

  “I wasn’t afraid of writing him. I thought he was here in Florida.”

  In fact, Chino had been back in New York for some time and had not even been in contact with Paula. “He was telling you he loved you. When you rejected him, he said, ‘Okay, I’m on my way out of here,’” Pruner said. “Isn’t that what happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “Never any threat of ‘I’m going to kill you; I’m going to kill your parents; I’m going to send demons down on you’ on any of those occasion over the four years he tried to get you to come with him?” Pruner asked.

  Paula agreed and said she decided to go back with Chino following the letter she wrote to him in Florida. The old feelings of love emerged and were rekindled, she said. But Pruner showed that Paula couldn’t stay at home because of the argument she had with her father, where she told him he had to leave his own house.

  “You threw an iron at him, didn’t you?” Pruner asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Because you have a temper, too, don’t you?”

  “Well, out there I did.”

  “That one isolated incident?”

  “I’m no angel. I got mad at my father.”

  “You got mad at your father to the extent that you told your mother that your father shouldn’t live in the same house; isn’t that correct?”

  The court called a twenty-minute recess before Pruner resumed his cross-examination. He picked up where he had left off, with the argument between Paula and her father. “Explain to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury where you believed, as a sixteen-year-old, that you had the power, authority, to tell your father that he has to leave his house?” Pruner asked. “What was your mind-set?”

  “I was very hurt that my father betrayed my mother. She had forgiven him, but I hadn’t—”

  “You wanted to hurt your father, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose to hurt him,” Paula said. “Just things got out of control that day.”

  But things didn’t go the way Paula had planned, Pruner brought out. Paula’s mother wouldn’t make her father move and Paula’s boyfriend had dumped her.

  “Who did you turn to?” Pruner asked.

  “Chino.”

  When Paula knew she couldn’t live with Felix, and she had burned bridges at home, she needed a place to stay. “You went back to your old standby, Nestor DeJesus, who, a few hours earlier, had left with the idea that things weren’t working. It was over, right?”

  “I turned to Chino.”

  “When you needed Chino, you decided that you would be with Chino, right?” Pruner asked. “This was your decision at the time and place when you wanted it, right? To be with him in any type of relationship. Because the motivation was all about Paula Gutierrez and what Paula Gutierrez wanted and needed. And when you had needs and you had wants, that’s when you reached out to Nestor DeJesus every time in your relationship; isn’t that a fact?”

  “No, no, no.”

  “Nestor DeJesus wanted you to live with him since 1994, but you determined when you went to live with him, right?”

  Paula answered yes.

  “And that was the same way it was after Ashley’s birth in 1999 in College Point, right?”

  Paula agreed again.

  The defendant admitted she knew that Chino shoplifted, that she enjoyed the items he stole for her, and that she was with him once when he got caught at Macy’s. Chino lost his job because Paula told his boss he had been arrested. Paula testified that Chino didn’t get angry with her.

  Pruner pointed out that Paula had testified that Chino didn’t want her to have a close relationship with her family after she moved to Florida. “But isn’t it a fact that you flew to New York from Florida to visit your parents so many times that you can’t recall a number?” Pruner asked.

  “I flew many times, yes.”

  “Did you pay for those trips, since you weren’t working?”

  “He paid for them.”

  “So, even though in your view he discouraged you from having a close relationship with your family, he never isolated you from your family, did he? He paid for your trips from Florida to New York in 1999, 2000, and 2001, correct?”

  “Not all those trips. Most of them.”

  Paula admitted that Chino had paid for her to take Ashley to New York to celebrate her first birthday with Paula’s family. She said he had encouraged her to go.

  “He sacrificed that time away from his daughter on her first birthday to help you with your depression,” Pruner said, “so you could be closer with your family; isn’t that true?”

  Paula said yes.

  No matter what else Chino had been, Paula said, she never doubted that he loved Ashley without reservation or limitation. Pruner mentioned that Paula said Chino threatened to kill her and her family in 2001 and that he had made many similar threats over the past seven years. Pruner asked if Chino had ever followed through on the threats. Paula said he had not.

  Pruner asked about the numerous times Paula chose to stay away from people, including Chino’s relatives. “You decided who you were going to spend time with, right?” Pruner asked. “Not Nestor DeJesus, this controlling and abusive man you describe in your testimony. It was you who made these types of decisions?”

  “Yes, I made the decision.”

  Pruner reminded Paula of her testimony about confronting Chino regarding pornography she found in his work van. “You accused him of having another woman in his life, didn’t you?” he asked. “You accused him of this even though you expected a strong, if not violent, response, right?”

  “I didn’t know . . . how he was going to react at the moment.”

  “Well, Miss Gutierrez,” Pruner said, “you’ve just told this jury a few hours ago how [Chino] reacted when you saw him lo
oking at other women while you were pregnant, and how he violently reacted. Now, are you telling this jury that you didn’t know what to expect when you confronted him with your suspicions that he was running around on you?”

  “It was just phone numbers—”

  “You didn’t think, in the world, he would become violent or argumentative with you, did you?”

  “Not that bad, no,” Paula said.

  “He told you, ‘Pack your shit and get out of here.’ He kicked you out of the house, didn’t he?” Paula answered yes. “Nestor DeJesus wanted you out of his life, didn’t he?” Pruner asked.

  “That day he kicked me out.”

  Paula said she went to live with her parents following this incident and stayed about five weeks. She said she felt safe. Chino started e-mailing her and telephoning almost immediately, Paula said, and then they went to videoconferencing so they could see one another while they talked. Paula said she refused Chino’s pleas to come back, for five weeks, before she finally agreed to return.

  “You had no fear that [Chino] was going to kill you or kill your family because you stayed up there, did you?” Pruner asked. “You had no fear . . . that he would use your mom’s Social Security number to find you and her and your father and kill you?”

  “No, not at that time.”

  Paula’s portrayal of herself as a woman dominated and terrified by Chino unraveled, thread by thread, under Pruner’s meticulous cross-examination: Who drove the Xterra SUV? Paula. Did Chino keep it spotless for her? Yes. Did he buy her a membership in a health club? Yes. Did he pay for Paula to have her hair done weekly? Yes. Were all of the credit cards in Paula’s name? Yes. Did she use the credit cards? Yes. Was the hair salon two blocks from the Bank of America? Yes. Did she make several trips to the bank to use the ATM? Yes. Who bought the MAC-11? She did.

  You like nice things, nice clothes, right? Yes. Your clothes are either Ralph Lauren or Polo, right? Yes. You and [Chino] lived beyond your means, didn’t you? Yes.

  Paula testified that it wasn’t a surprise that she and Chino were broke the day they robbed the Bank of America. Paula admitted that their belongings were packed and they intended to move permanently to New York. She was worried about the Xterra being repossessed, Paula said, because they planned on leaving Tampa as soon as possible.

  “Is it your testimony to this jury that you had no idea that Nestor DeJesus intended to commit bank robbery at the Bank of America until you found yourself in the parking lot?” Pruner asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You had absolutely no idea that this was where you were going to get money?”

  “Yes.”

  Alarmed at where these questions might be going, Athan got to her feet and objected. She asked if counsel could approach the bench. She was worried that the previous flower shop robbery was going to be introduced. If so, Paula wouldn’t be tried for that, but it could have an impact on the jury that would be devastating for the defense. Once they were huddled with the judge, Athan said, “I’m very cautious about not opening the door to anything else—”

  “You ought to be,” Padgett said.

  “I’m not sure where these questions are going. I don’t want to stop Mr. Pruner from asking the questions that are relevant.... However, I’m making an objection at this point. It sounds like we’re getting real close.”

  “Whatever happens happens,” the judge replied.

  “I’ll tell you where I’m going to go right now, so there’s no confusion,” Pruner said.

  “You don’t have to.”

  Pruner said he was coming to a stopping point, at which time he would ask the judge if they could have a conference outside the jury’s presence. “We believe the door has already been opened wide,” he said. “I’m not going there now.”

  Pruner continued cross-examination after the bench conference. Paula’s statement to Detective Black, Pruner said, indicated that Paula didn’t know where they were going the morning they robbed the bank.

  “Where did you think you were going when you left the apartment that morning?” he asked.

  “I was scared. I didn’t know where we were going.”

  Pruner zeroed in with surgical precision. Did you think you were going to Lissette Santiago to borrow money ? No. You didn’t think you were going to a day labor job, did you? No. You didn’t think you won the lottery, did you? No. Tell me what he gave you to wear inside the bank. A bandanna, a hat, a gun. Did Nestor DeJesus threaten you? No.

  Paula admitted that she knew they were robbing the Bank of America before they entered it. It was wrong, Paula said, and she didn’t want to do it. “When you’re terrified about somebody telling you we’re going to go do this, you know, I wasn’t thinking then.”

  Paula testified that she had the gun and waved it around inside the bank to cover Chino. They had the gun in the Xterra when they fled, Paula said. “You knew there was a possibility that the cops would pursue you?” Pruner asked.

  “No, I didn’t think about that.”

  “Not even after the dye packs go off and tear gas is spread in the Xterra?”

  “No. What I was thinking was that I was going to die because you can’t breathe.”

  Paula testified that she changed clothes in the Regency parking lot because Chino told her to, not to get out of her dye-stained clothing. Paula testified that she didn’t listen to Chino and his mother’s conversation when she picked them up, even though she told Detective Black that she heard him tell Lissette, “We robbed a bank.”

  Paula admitted under Pruner’s cross-examination that she had no intention of surrendering to the police until after Chino killed himself. But Paula denied knowing that the police were looking for them.

  “You get into your apartment and you immediately shower, don’t you?” Pruner asked.

  “Nestor was telling me to go shower and I go.”

  “You shower to get off all that bank dye?”

  “I don’t know if it was on. I just showered.”

  “You showered because you had bank dye on you, didn’t you?”

  “I had it on, but I didn’t do it because of that. I was just so out of it and he said, ‘Go shower,’ and that’s what I did.”

  Paula testified that in the shower she didn’t concentrate on cleaning bank dye off herself. “I just cried in the shower. I didn’t really wash up.”

  “You didn’t even have enough time to dry off fully, did you?”

  Paula said that was true.

  “You didn’t have time to even put underwear on before you and Nestor DeJesus left, right?”

  “True.”

  Paula said she didn’t know how long they were in the apartment, five or ten minutes. All she heard was Chino screaming, “Hurry, hurry, get dressed,” Paula said.

  “He was telling you, you need to get out of there because he heard the helicopters?” Then Pruner asked, “Isn’t it true that, even before this robbery, you and [Chino] had spoken or thought about how to deal with the police?”

  “No. He said he never liked cops, that he would never go to jail.”

  “That he would rather die?”

  “Yes. He always said that.”

  Paula said at no time did she think the police were pursuing them. When they left Lissette’s apartment, Paula said, Chino went first and she followed with the gun in a blue bag. When Chino was first pursued by Lois, Paula said, he didn’t have the gun.

  “Isn’t it a fact that the gun was still in the bag after [Chino] doubled back from the cemetery?” Pruner asked.

  “Everything happened so fast. I remember he came back and he got the gun and he ran across the cemetery with it.”

  “Isn’t it a fact that you told Detective Black that you started going upstairs, meaning to Mr. Kokojan’s, and you didn’t want to get between that, meaning Officer Marrero and [Chino]?”

  Paula explained that was two years ago and now “I remember it differently.”

  “The gun was still in the blue bag in the br
eezeway at the time [Chino] came running back from the cemetery, yelling, ‘Paula, Paula, Paula’?”

  “No, that’s not how it happened.”

  “You didn’t want to get between Officer Marrero and Mr. DeJesus because you didn’t want to get caught, right?”

  “No, I was just scared. He’s got the gun. She’s an officer.”

  Paula testified that she was not thinking of running from the police when Chino tried to open Mark Kokojan’s car. Instead, she was going to get into the car “because that’s what he wanted.”

  “Just a passive observer; is that it?” Pruner asked. Paula said no, she would have gotten into the car.

  Paula testified that she saw Lois take two or three steps after she was shot, even though the medical examiner had testified previously that Lois would have been paralyzed immediately. Lois was still holding the gun when she fell, Paula said, and told the jury she took it from her.

  “She was still gushing blood at that point, wasn’t she?”

  “Yeah. The blood was out, yes.”

  In the gallery Brenda Marrero, Lois’s sister, and Mickie Mashburn, her life companion, were white-knuckled and grim as they heard the testimony about Lois’s death.

  “You paced in that breezeway as [Chino] fired shots at officers after Officer Marrero was killed; isn’t that correct?” Pruner asked.

  Paula said she just started running after Chino. She didn’t remember pacing.

  But Paula said she didn’t run because she thought the police might be pursuing her or Chino. She answered no. “That thought never crossed your mind?” Pruner asked incredulously. No, Paula said again.

  “Are you telling this jury you didn’t have any concern that you may be apprehended by or pursued by police after a police officer was shot within a few feet of you?”

  “I was in shock.”

  Paula’s interview with Detective Black indicated that she entered Isaac Davis’s apartment with Chino. Now she testified, “He (Chino) threw me in there.”

  Did you see Isaac Davis running? Yes. Did you say, “He’s in here”? Yes. Were you still in shock? Yeah. But you had the presence of mind to alert Chino? Yes. Are you still in shock in this courtroom? Yes.