(Chuck Muth) – As noted at the end of Part I of this series, “Sid” did time in federal prison for attempting to strangle his then-girlfriend on a Southwest Airlines flight. The woman wrote and submitted a letter to the court detailing the terror she suffered at his hands during their stormy nine-month relationship.
I’m including this account for context, as much of this woman’s experience was repeated after “Nancy” got involved with Sid a couple years later after he got out of jail. Some excerpts (I’ve deleted identifying references) …
“In the beginning he painted a picture for me that he was eager to move to the east coast with me and build a life with me and be close to his daughter but he has done absolutely nothing to work towards that goal and he actually went backwards and has proven that he is not only proud of his life of crime but he has no intentions of giving up such a sad delinquent lifestyle.
“The issues began when he moved out of the halfway house and rented a room in his friend’s house. We spent our first night together there and all was well at first but quickly turned sour when I started noticing a change in his attitude and he was becoming angry and aggressive; so I decided that I wanted to get my belongings and take an Uber back to my mother’s house where I was living at the time. When he realized I was leaving he stood up, pinned me against the wall by my arms and told me to take off all of my clothes and proceeded to try and remove them for me but I was fighting it.”
The roommate and his girlfriend came home and broke up the fight.
“(Sid) then went into my purse and took my cell phone, debit/credit cards and my cash totaling $1,800 and told me now I can go and ‘good luck leaving’. Even though he took my things I tried to leave the house anyway and he grabbed me by the neck, forced me back into the room, threw me on the bed, got on top of me and wanted me to apologize to him for screaming and making a scene to his roommates by performing oral sex.
“Since I had no choice to leave I had to stay the night and he apologized in the morning and blamed what happened on how much alcohol he consumed and how many of his pain killers that he snorted. I told him that he needed to seek help and consider taking medication for his behavioral issues and of course he nodded and said yes but he never did anything about it.”
Continued altercations resulted in the couple being evicted and they moved into another friend’s house.
“This is pretty much when things went from bad to worse. He started to become involved with heavier drugs and even selling his prescription pain killers. He once again had used needles all over this house, used cotton balls he used to filter his IV drugs all over the floor, has track marks all over his arms and slept in the bathroom because he would pass out in there after injecting himself.”
She also suspects he pawned her wedding ring from her estranged husband and used the money to buy drugs. He also wanted her to sleep with one of his friends “and then extort (him) for money threatening to tell his wife if he didn’t pay me.”
And the violence continued…
“As far as the violence goes it became so much worse than I was prepared for or even thought he was capable of. On one occasion he grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the wall so hard that there is now a giant hole/indent in the bedroom wall of the house we were renting and he told me that I cannot leave him because he would beat me and cripple me so bad that no man would ever want me again.
“Another occasion he threw me onto the bed, got on top of me and put a knife to my neck telling me that he would kill me and he doesn’t care if he gets caught for it and once again told me I have no choice to leave him because the only way out of my relationship with him would be for him to kill me.
“The most recent incident that happened was when we got into an argument and he picked up my cell phone throwing it full force at my face causing my lip to swell up and split open on the inside and then he also picked up a hammer and jabbed me with it in the face and kept pressing it against the side of my head resulting in a black eye.”
At this point, one might wonder why she didn’t just leave him. Easier said than done…
“After this day he told me that I wasn’t leaving him and that I needed to call off of work so that I couldn’t escape from him and he monitored my phone use so I couldn’t call anyone and I also wasn’t allowed to leave the house because he didn’t want anyone to see my face.
“Later on this week I noticed his hostility, aggression and anger quickly escalating so I went with my instincts and told him I was going to take a shower and I managed to sneak my cell phone with me. While in the bathroom I texted my best friend to call 911 and send them to (address deleted) and tell them I was being held against my will.
“I had the shower running for approximately 15-20 minutes and there were still no officers to show up and I knew he was going to get suspicious and break into the bathroom so I continued to let the shower run while I slowly and quietly opened the window above the shower, pop off the screen and jump out where I then ran down the street and hid behind a car until I saw the police cars arrive. I then walked over and let the officers know what happened, they took my statement, photos of my face and took (Sid) into custody.
Despite clearly being a career criminal and posing a risk to the woman, as well as the community at large, the system kept letting Sid out. And he knows how to scam the system to stay on the street.
“He continuously lies and makes up excuses to his parole officer claiming that he accidently missed calling the drug testing hotline and missed showing up for the testing because he uses baking soda and other forms of detox’s to try and clean out his system and sometimes he drinks so much water before testing on purpose so the levels come back too low.”
Fortunately, the woman survived her ordeal and Sid moved on to his next relationship with Nancy. But like a horror version of “Groundhog Day,” the scene repeated itself.
Which I’ll get to in Part III. Stand by…
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“(Latoshia) Johnson said she was with her boyfriend on Feb. 16 at her central Las Vegas apartment, and the two argued about jewelry worth roughly $1,200. … After that, Johnson said, ‘I don’t remember anything.’
“Johnson’s son found her badly beaten and unconscious in her bedroom the next morning. She spent three days at University Medical Center with multiple facial fractures. Her eyes were still so swollen a week later that she could barely open them. Doctors told Johnson she will require surgery in March, and she likely will have limited vision the rest of her life.”
– Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2/26/21
“It is an incredibly scary situation for any survivor to have to live through, and unfortunately, we have way too many victims of domestic violence who don’t live through it and become homicide victims.”
– SafeNest CEO Liz Ortenburger
Mr. Muth is president Citizen Outreach a non-profit grassroots advocacy organization. You can get free updates and breaking news on this issue by going to: stopcatchandrelease.com
