Levi Chavez, a 26-year-old officer with the Albuquerque, New Mexico Police Department, at nine o'clock on the night of October 21, 2007 called 911 to report that his wife committed suicide with his department-issued Glock 9 pistol. Responding officers with the APD found 26-year-old Tera Chavez in the master bedroom with a massive exit bullet wound at the base of her skull. Next to her body officers saw the 9 mm Glock that still had a round in its chamber. Nearby lay the fatal bullet's spent shell casing and, detached from the handgun, its clip. It appeared that the barrel of the gun had been inserted into the dead woman's mouth.
Officer Chavez informed his fellow officers that he and his wife had been having marital problems for years and that on countless occasions the mother of two, who worked at a beauty salon as a hairdresser, had threatened to kill herself.
Because it was apparent that Tera Chavez had been dead for several hours the crime scene officers wanted to know the circumstances under which Mr. Chavez discovered his wife's corpse. In response to that question he said he last saw his wife on Friday morning, October 19 before going on duty at the APD. That night he decided to stay over at his girlfriend Deborah Romero's house. Romero was also a member of the Albuquerque Police Department.
According to Levi Chavez, on Saturday, October 20, 2007 his wife Tera called him 176 times. He ignored her calls by turning off his cellphone. Officer Chavez said he spent Saturday night with Romero, and the next day, when Tera didn't call him he began to worry. Later that Sunday evening Levi said his mother told him that Tera had not shown up for work that day at the beauty salon. At that point he rushed home to find that his wife had committed suicide.
In 2007 the Albuquerque Police Department, due to a series of questionable police-involved shootings and allegations of institutional corruption and departmental cover-ups of officer wrongdoing, was under investigation by the FBI. Shortly after Tera Chavez's sudden and violent death critics of the APD accused the department of helping officer Chavez cover up the murder of his wife by destroying crime scene evidence. Because the police department had such a bad reputation, and a police officer's wife had died under suspicious circumstances, Detective Aaron Jones of the Valencia County Sheriff's Office took charge of the homicide investigation.
Detective Jones, who suspected that Levi Chavez had murdered his wife eighteen to twenty hours before he called 911, had to back off when Dr. Patricia McFeeley, the state medical examiner ruled Tera's manner of death a suicide. In November 2007 Detective Jones showed Dr. McFeeley crime scene photographs that caused her to change Tera Chavez's manner of death to "undetermined." Despite Jones' efforts the homicide investigation eventually died on the vine.
In April 2011, three and a half years after Tera Chavez's death, following a cold-case murder investigation, Dr. McFeeley changed the manner of death in the case to "criminal homicide." Assistant Sandoval County District Attorney Bryan McKay charged Levi Chavez, who was no longer on the police force, with first-degree murder in his wife's death.
The Chavez murder trial got underway on June 3, 2013 before Sandoval District Court Judge George Eichwald. In his opening remarks to the jury lead prosecutor McKay presented the state's theory that the defendant had murdered his wife sometime between late Saturday night, October 20, 2007 and the early morning hours of Sunday, October 21. After shooting his wife in the mouth with the Glock 9 pistol the defendant staged a suicide by placing the gun, the shell casing and the clip next to her body.
Levi Chavez's trial attorney, David Sema, a lawyer well known in New Mexico for representing several high-profile criminal defendants, told the jurors that his client's wife had committed suicide over her husband's extramarital affairs.
Detective Aaron Jones took the stand for the prosecution. According to the Valencia County homicide detective the Glock magazine found next to the victim's body was "unseated." By that the witness meant it wasn't locked into the butt of the gun. This suggested that after the weapon had been discharged the shooter had pressed a button to release the clip.
DNA expert Alanna Williams, who in 2007 worked for the New Mexico Crime Laboratory but was now employed by the APD, testified that she had tested the Glock and a pair of sweatpants found in the Chavez home washing machine for DNA. Williams said she had found blood on the muzzle of the pistol that contained the victim's DNA. On the handgun's grip the forensic scientist found a mixture of Tera's and the defendant's DNA. The sweatpants, believed to have been worn by the defendant, contained DNA from the victim.
Dr. Patricia McFeeley, now the former medical examiner, testified that the death scene Glock had been inserted at least one inch into Tera Chavez's mouth. The fatal bullet vaporized the victim's brainstem. The forensic pathologist explained that the victim, after being shot, couldn't have pressed the button that released the magazine from the butt of the pistol.
One of the defendant's mistresses, APD officer Regina Sanchez took the stand. In September 2006 she and Levi began an intimate relationship. A month later, Sanchez, believing that Chavez was in the process of divorcing his wife, allowed him to move in with her. After the witness received an angry call from Tera Chavez he moved out.
Rose Slama, another of the defendant's girlfriends, testified that he told her that when Tera shot herself he was in the house taking a shower.
After the prosecution rested its case on June 26, 2013, defense attorney David Sema put Dr. Alan Berman, a suicide expert who lived in Washington, D. C., on the stand. Based on Tera Chavez's diary entries, text messages, medical history and two notes in her handwriting found at the death scene, Dr. Berman said he believed she suffered from low self-esteem and self-hate due to her emotionally abusive relationship with her philandering husband. She had been, in the witness' opinion, depressed as well. According to the psychologist these factors combined to create what he called "acute risk factors for suicide."
Dr. Berman read several text messages Tera sent to her husband between August and October 2006. In one such message she wrote: "I am a loser. I've failed at everything, especially you. I want to die." In another text she had said, "I'm tired of being your dumb wife. You treat me like shit...please respect me...I have a job."
Prosecutor McKay, on cross-examination asked the "suicideologist" to read Tera Chavez's last diary entry, dated July 12, 2007, which read: "...so goodbye to the person I used to be. Welcome a new day. Happiness!" Dr. Berman testified that he did not believe this statement was inconsistent with a suicidal mindset.
On July 1, 2013 a crime scene reconstruction expert took the stand for the defense. In the course of demonstrating to the jury how Tera Chavez after shooting herself in the mouth with the Glock had pressed the button that released the magazine, failed to eject the magazine pursuant to his theory of what happened. In other words the demonstration failed.
Defense attorney Sema, on July 9, 2013, presented his star witness. Dr. Charles V. Wetli, the former medical examiner of Suffolk County, New York who had testified for the defense in dozens of high-profile murder cases. According to the forensic pathologist, had the defendant shoved the pistol into his wife's mouth he would have broken some of her teeth. According to Dr. Wetli, Tera Chavez, in killing herself, had turned the gun upside down and used her thumb to pull the trigger.
Prosecutor McKay's associate, Assistant District Attorney Anne Keener, on cross-examination showed Dr. Wetli a death scene photograph that appeared to show that one of Tera's lower teeth had been chipped. When asked if one of the dead woman's teeth had been broken, the forensic pathologist said, "It's possible." Prosecutor Keener asked Dr. Wetli if he visited the death scene or personally examined Tera Chavez's corpse. He said he had not.
The second major defense witness, the defendant himself, took the stand on July 11, 2013. In describing his discovery of his dead wife on the night of October 21, 2007, Levi Chavez said, "I turned on the light and it was like terror. I couldn't believe what I was seeing." The defendant told the jury that he blamed himself for Tera's suicide and felt that God was saying to him: "This is all your fault." Chavez assured the jurors that he had found religion and had not cheated on his second wife. At several points during his direct examination by attorney Sema the defendant broke down in tears.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Bryan McKay asked the former police officer why he had left his loaded department-issued gun "with a woman who was depressed and talked about possibly hurting herself. You had small children in the house."
"We had," the defendant replied, "an attempted break-in. A truck was stolen right out of our driveway when she was there. And yes, I had small children in the home, but this is exactly why I left the gun in the house. (Regarding the theft of Levi's 2004 Ford F-250 truck, Tera allegedly told her fellow beauty salon workers that he and his "cop buddies" had staged the theft as part of an insurance scam. Prosecutor McKay had attempted to get this information before the jury but Judge Eichwald suppressed it.)
On July 16, 2013, the jury, after ten hours of deliberation, found the defendant not guilty.
Officer Chavez informed his fellow officers that he and his wife had been having marital problems for years and that on countless occasions the mother of two, who worked at a beauty salon as a hairdresser, had threatened to kill herself.
Because it was apparent that Tera Chavez had been dead for several hours the crime scene officers wanted to know the circumstances under which Mr. Chavez discovered his wife's corpse. In response to that question he said he last saw his wife on Friday morning, October 19 before going on duty at the APD. That night he decided to stay over at his girlfriend Deborah Romero's house. Romero was also a member of the Albuquerque Police Department.
According to Levi Chavez, on Saturday, October 20, 2007 his wife Tera called him 176 times. He ignored her calls by turning off his cellphone. Officer Chavez said he spent Saturday night with Romero, and the next day, when Tera didn't call him he began to worry. Later that Sunday evening Levi said his mother told him that Tera had not shown up for work that day at the beauty salon. At that point he rushed home to find that his wife had committed suicide.
In 2007 the Albuquerque Police Department, due to a series of questionable police-involved shootings and allegations of institutional corruption and departmental cover-ups of officer wrongdoing, was under investigation by the FBI. Shortly after Tera Chavez's sudden and violent death critics of the APD accused the department of helping officer Chavez cover up the murder of his wife by destroying crime scene evidence. Because the police department had such a bad reputation, and a police officer's wife had died under suspicious circumstances, Detective Aaron Jones of the Valencia County Sheriff's Office took charge of the homicide investigation.
Detective Jones, who suspected that Levi Chavez had murdered his wife eighteen to twenty hours before he called 911, had to back off when Dr. Patricia McFeeley, the state medical examiner ruled Tera's manner of death a suicide. In November 2007 Detective Jones showed Dr. McFeeley crime scene photographs that caused her to change Tera Chavez's manner of death to "undetermined." Despite Jones' efforts the homicide investigation eventually died on the vine.
In April 2011, three and a half years after Tera Chavez's death, following a cold-case murder investigation, Dr. McFeeley changed the manner of death in the case to "criminal homicide." Assistant Sandoval County District Attorney Bryan McKay charged Levi Chavez, who was no longer on the police force, with first-degree murder in his wife's death.
The Chavez murder trial got underway on June 3, 2013 before Sandoval District Court Judge George Eichwald. In his opening remarks to the jury lead prosecutor McKay presented the state's theory that the defendant had murdered his wife sometime between late Saturday night, October 20, 2007 and the early morning hours of Sunday, October 21. After shooting his wife in the mouth with the Glock 9 pistol the defendant staged a suicide by placing the gun, the shell casing and the clip next to her body.
Levi Chavez's trial attorney, David Sema, a lawyer well known in New Mexico for representing several high-profile criminal defendants, told the jurors that his client's wife had committed suicide over her husband's extramarital affairs.
Detective Aaron Jones took the stand for the prosecution. According to the Valencia County homicide detective the Glock magazine found next to the victim's body was "unseated." By that the witness meant it wasn't locked into the butt of the gun. This suggested that after the weapon had been discharged the shooter had pressed a button to release the clip.
DNA expert Alanna Williams, who in 2007 worked for the New Mexico Crime Laboratory but was now employed by the APD, testified that she had tested the Glock and a pair of sweatpants found in the Chavez home washing machine for DNA. Williams said she had found blood on the muzzle of the pistol that contained the victim's DNA. On the handgun's grip the forensic scientist found a mixture of Tera's and the defendant's DNA. The sweatpants, believed to have been worn by the defendant, contained DNA from the victim.
Dr. Patricia McFeeley, now the former medical examiner, testified that the death scene Glock had been inserted at least one inch into Tera Chavez's mouth. The fatal bullet vaporized the victim's brainstem. The forensic pathologist explained that the victim, after being shot, couldn't have pressed the button that released the magazine from the butt of the pistol.
One of the defendant's mistresses, APD officer Regina Sanchez took the stand. In September 2006 she and Levi began an intimate relationship. A month later, Sanchez, believing that Chavez was in the process of divorcing his wife, allowed him to move in with her. After the witness received an angry call from Tera Chavez he moved out.
Rose Slama, another of the defendant's girlfriends, testified that he told her that when Tera shot herself he was in the house taking a shower.
After the prosecution rested its case on June 26, 2013, defense attorney David Sema put Dr. Alan Berman, a suicide expert who lived in Washington, D. C., on the stand. Based on Tera Chavez's diary entries, text messages, medical history and two notes in her handwriting found at the death scene, Dr. Berman said he believed she suffered from low self-esteem and self-hate due to her emotionally abusive relationship with her philandering husband. She had been, in the witness' opinion, depressed as well. According to the psychologist these factors combined to create what he called "acute risk factors for suicide."
Dr. Berman read several text messages Tera sent to her husband between August and October 2006. In one such message she wrote: "I am a loser. I've failed at everything, especially you. I want to die." In another text she had said, "I'm tired of being your dumb wife. You treat me like shit...please respect me...I have a job."
Prosecutor McKay, on cross-examination asked the "suicideologist" to read Tera Chavez's last diary entry, dated July 12, 2007, which read: "...so goodbye to the person I used to be. Welcome a new day. Happiness!" Dr. Berman testified that he did not believe this statement was inconsistent with a suicidal mindset.
On July 1, 2013 a crime scene reconstruction expert took the stand for the defense. In the course of demonstrating to the jury how Tera Chavez after shooting herself in the mouth with the Glock had pressed the button that released the magazine, failed to eject the magazine pursuant to his theory of what happened. In other words the demonstration failed.
Defense attorney Sema, on July 9, 2013, presented his star witness. Dr. Charles V. Wetli, the former medical examiner of Suffolk County, New York who had testified for the defense in dozens of high-profile murder cases. According to the forensic pathologist, had the defendant shoved the pistol into his wife's mouth he would have broken some of her teeth. According to Dr. Wetli, Tera Chavez, in killing herself, had turned the gun upside down and used her thumb to pull the trigger.
Prosecutor McKay's associate, Assistant District Attorney Anne Keener, on cross-examination showed Dr. Wetli a death scene photograph that appeared to show that one of Tera's lower teeth had been chipped. When asked if one of the dead woman's teeth had been broken, the forensic pathologist said, "It's possible." Prosecutor Keener asked Dr. Wetli if he visited the death scene or personally examined Tera Chavez's corpse. He said he had not.
The second major defense witness, the defendant himself, took the stand on July 11, 2013. In describing his discovery of his dead wife on the night of October 21, 2007, Levi Chavez said, "I turned on the light and it was like terror. I couldn't believe what I was seeing." The defendant told the jury that he blamed himself for Tera's suicide and felt that God was saying to him: "This is all your fault." Chavez assured the jurors that he had found religion and had not cheated on his second wife. At several points during his direct examination by attorney Sema the defendant broke down in tears.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Bryan McKay asked the former police officer why he had left his loaded department-issued gun "with a woman who was depressed and talked about possibly hurting herself. You had small children in the house."
"We had," the defendant replied, "an attempted break-in. A truck was stolen right out of our driveway when she was there. And yes, I had small children in the home, but this is exactly why I left the gun in the house. (Regarding the theft of Levi's 2004 Ford F-250 truck, Tera allegedly told her fellow beauty salon workers that he and his "cop buddies" had staged the theft as part of an insurance scam. Prosecutor McKay had attempted to get this information before the jury but Judge Eichwald suppressed it.)
On July 16, 2013, the jury, after ten hours of deliberation, found the defendant not guilty.
Here are some things that need fixing if you want your blog to be truthful:
ReplyDelete#1: there was no exit wound. #2: if the gun's magazine was detached from the gun, Det. Jones made no mention of it in his reports until several years later. #3: Det. Jones didn't have to 'back off' from OMI. He had the manner of death changed to unknown by simply announcing he was 'investigating it'. #4: Dr. Berman actually testified during the state's case in chief due to scheduling difficulties.
The state would have you believe contradictory things: that this woman was too depressed to be left around firearms, and at the same time was happy and ready to move on with her life.
On a purely psychological note, if this woman did kill herself, he is 100% responsible. He absolutely tortured her! He disgusts me.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take a genius to figure out that Levi Chavez committed the murder of his wife and mother of his children. He's a murderer, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteThe evidence was telling. His poor character, his charm--all point to narcissism, and the narcissist is always "innocent"--they deflect blame. Colossal miscarriage of justice. It is a shame she did not get out of there before she told anyone about the truck insurance scam. The whole thing speaks poorly of the Albuquerque Police Department--one expects more of law enforcement.
DeleteHe did it but I don't blame the jury for their decision.
ReplyDeleteI saw no "reasonable doubt"--after all, he was the last person to see her alive.
Delete65% of all shooting deaths are suicides and half of all suicides are by gun. So she could have killed herself.
ReplyDeleteBodies spasm and make noise after death so the magazine could have been released.
He Killed the mother of his Children! ! And Got away with it, sickening!! I dove in and researched this case. Such a tragedy for her family and her kids. Who know’s what they do or do not know. You aren’t a killer if you commit infidelity but you are when you leave your service weapon at home..(Supposedly she isn’t stable) and your wife dies of “supposed suicide” and the placement of the gun..and the magazine..oh and it was said she was right handed not left!!
ReplyDeleteI believe he shot her, because he was tired of her, and because she reported his insurance scam, and because she wanted to leave him.
DeleteScumbag got away with murder. Hopefully, karma is a bitch.
ReplyDelete