Town note
After the Second World War the Tucson area grew fast, and Oro Valley grew with it; owners of the citrus farms there saw more money in selling land than in growing fruit.
about 0:06:24The story
In August 2008 Lisa Berry was 25 and living in Oro Valley, Arizona, a wealthy suburb north of Tucson that its chamber of commerce marketed as the safest community in Arizona. She managed a Starbucks inside a Bashas' grocery store, was studying business at Pima Community College, and was raising two children, a son called Jeremy and a baby daughter. Her parents, Linda and Mark, had moved to Arizona from Delaware years earlier and had retired back east.
He was 35 and quiet. When she could not afford her two-bedroom apartment alone he moved in as a roommate, and the arrangement became a relationship. In 2006 they had a daughter. They never married: according to her family, Lisa did not fully trust him, but she stayed because they shared a home and a child. Over six to eight months she planned a move to Delaware, refusing her parents' offer to move in with them because she wanted to leave on her own terms.
Mark and Linda began arranging flights to get her and the children out. Billy Don called 911 and reported a domestic violence incident and an injured girlfriend. She was pronounced dead at hospital. Inside they found a paper grocery bag jammed in the flooded bathroom toilet, apparently used to wipe up blood.
The apartment showed she had been leaving: a suitcase lay half packed on the bed and her car was packed and backed in near the stairs. Jeremy, six, and his two-year-old sister were in the flat. Jeremy heard his mother saying, get off and leave me alone. The autopsy found she had been severely beaten, her head bashed in, and then strangled, probably while unconscious. He told police he had snapped because she was going to take his baby.
Four days later Jeremy turned seven. A week or so after the killing the Berrys held a press conference in Tucson: they wanted custody, but Child Protective Services would not process an interstate adoption, so they gave up their jobs, could not sell their house and drained their savings to move to Arizona. The children were placed temporarily with Mark's sister and brother-in-law.
Arizona law allows premeditation to be formed in seconds. The defence conceded the killing but argued manslaughter, a heat-of-passion loss of control after Lisa said she was leaving and taking their daughter. He described them shoving each other, falling on the bed and rolling into the bathroom, and said he beat and strangled her in profound emotion.
Jeremy, then eight, read his own statement holding a teddy bear and a photograph of his mother. The judge imposed life with the possibility of release after 25 years, $81,000 restitution and 525 days' credit. The same week the Berrys finalised the adoption of both children.
In April 2010 the Berrys sued him for wrongful death, also naming his father Billy Don and Billy Don's wife Georgina, alleging Billy Don failed to render aid. He was held at the Winslow Apache unit, working custodial and maintenance jobs.