A Fight For Survival - Swing Shift (Free Bonus Episode)

Episode #22 Part 1

[Shaun]

The judicial system doesn't always get it right, and that’s also true in domestic violence cases. We refer to people involved in these cases with words like victim and abuser, and sometimes “murderer”.  

[John]

The problem can arise when the domestic violence victim is pushed too far, forcing them to respond to a threat to their lives with a deadly outcome. The courts can't always seem to separate in that case who is a victim and who is the perpetrator. Standard rules like “stand your ground” no longer seem to apply.

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[Shaun] Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence. I’m your host, Shaun, and with me as always, is the one and only John.

[John] 

I am the only John in the room.

[Shaun] 

This week, we did something a little different. You and I each researched a case independently of each other. We decided we wanted to talk about self-defense in cases of domestic violence, and each of us found a case we wanted to talk about. 

I'll talk about my case this week, and next week you'll talk about yours. They have a lot in common but the experience with the judicial system for each of our victims was VERY different.

[John] 

I only know a little bit about the case you researched, so I'm interested to hear more.

[Shaun] 

Yeah, the case I researched has some frightening elements, and as we talk about these cases, I think we should keep in mind that these survivors were lucky enough to survive. But things don’t always turn out that way. Many domestic violence victims aren't so lucky, and of course, none of them should be blamed for their fates

There also might be some unanswered questions about these cases, and we can talk about that as well – so feel free to ask away. 

[John] 

Will do. 

[Shaun] 

The case I researched is the story of David Hudson and Tammy Lucero. Tammy killed David on May 24, 2012, nearly 12 years ago. 

David was born on March 3, 1977, and Tammy was a little bit older, having been born on June 15, 1976. Both of them were in their early to mid-30s when they started dating. 

Just like me, David and Tammy’s families both live in Las Vegas. David’s mom, a sister, a brother, and a sister-in-law all live here, and Tammy has her mom, a sister, and a niece. 

I know from experience that’s pretty convenient on holidays when deciding where to have dinner and where to have dessert.

In a statement given to the Las Vegas Sun in September 2012, David’s mother Katherine shared with the reporter that she was in an abusive relationship for 11 years, and David was exposed to that as a child. In a statement that feels oddly victim-blamey (you’ll understand why in a few minutes) she said that “she just left, with her clothing and her three kids”

[John] 

It seems like that’s going to be important later in the case, but my first reaction is that you would THINK that someone having experienced domestic violence for 11 years would empathize with the victim of domestic violence.. But I'm guessing that goes out the window when your son is the abuser.

[Shaun]

According to Katherine, David and Tammy knew each other because their parents were neighbors. It sounds like in some ways, Tammy was the girl next door. In that same interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Katherine told the paper that David and Tammy first met at the fence between their parents’ property. 

[John ] 

I’ve never told you this, but I had a “girl next door” crush as a kid. When I was growing up in Massachusetts, until I was about 10, we lived next to a family with a girl about my age who I was definitely going to marry.. So I get it. I was a much younger than they were.. But it seemed reasonable at the time

Katherine told the paper that David and Tammy began dating sometime in the summer or fall of 2011 and before long, the two had moved in together. They shared a studio apartment near Boulder Highway and Lake Mead in Henderson, which was just about as small as it sounds, with just  500 sq ft of living space.. I guess that would be like living in a two-car garage. We looked at the apartment on Zillow, and it is SMALL.

[John]

I lived in New York City for about 12 years, and my first apartment there was a 500-square-foot studio. It had two windows, one of which was painted shut, and the other had an ancient air conditioner in it. I lived directly above a Chinese restaurant that had great food, but living above it was a bit much. 

I was able to live in that space pretty well with my fold-down Murphy bed but I never really wanted to spend any time there because it was just too cramped. I cannot IMAGINE sharing a space that small with another adult human. 

They had only been dating for about 8 months when Tammy’s life changed forever on May 24, 2012. 

Tammy’s 2-year-old niece was staying at the apartment with them and around 10 am, Tammy was getting ready to leave for the day. She was about to leave and happened to be wearing a black spaghetti-strap tank top. 

David saw her outfit and just freaked out. He got incredibly controlling, angry, and jealous over the tank top. He started pushing her and he grabbed the shirt and tore it from her body. He started hitting and beating her. He punched her in the mouth, grabbed her, and hit her face, and scratched at her eye. The fight was so intense that numerous items were knocked over and broken in the apartment. He shoved her down on the bed, got on top of her, and started strangling her with his hands.

He let up just as she was passing out, but then pressed down on her neck with his forearm instead. She was fighting back hard and was able to escape from under him and stand up. 

As we’ve discussed before, being strangled like that is terrifying and disorienting, and Tammy said she was (understandably) in fear for her life when she picked up a computer cord from the floor and started unwinding it. David took a look at the cable and moved toward the front door of the apartment, and he said “Go ahead, I’m a gangster. I’m not afraid to die.”  

She threw the cord over his neck crossed the ends of it, and tightened it by pulling each end in opposite directions. According to Tammy, David didn’t resist or try to stop her. At first, he put his hand between his neck and the cord, but he took his hand out and put his arm down. 

His face turned red and he was making gagging and choking sounds. Tammy then wrapped the cord around his neck a second time. He started reaching for what she thought was a knife on a nearby countertop so she pushed him down on the chair near the front door and kept strangling him until he turned blue.

Tammy said that she was afraid if she stopped choking him he would wake and murder her, so she climbed on his back and held him down. She didn’t stop until he stopped shaking. 

She later said, “I don’t know what happened,” “I just lost control.”

Tammy got her niece, who must have been terrified, put her in a stroller, and the two of them left the apartment. It was around noon, and the two walked down the street, over to a park.  She was afraid that David would wake up at any moment and come after her, and she wanted to get her niece out of the apartment. 

They waited at the park for about 20 minutes and finally went inside a rec center located nearby, telling the people working at the front desk that she had been the victim of a violent domestic violence incident and asked to use the phone. 

Tammy called her mom, who came and picked her up and drove her back to the apartment shortly before 1 pm. She went into the apartment alone and saw him still lying face down on the chair by the front door, and when she put her hand on his back she discovered he was not breathing. 

She quickly gathered a few of her personal belongings as well as items belonging to her niece and in about 10 minutes, she left the apartment, locking the doorknob lock and pulling the door shut behind her, leaving the keys inside.

[John]

This whole thing seems terrifying and traumatizing both for Tammy and her niece. I can't even imagine. Her returning to the apartment seems to indicate to me that she didn't know that he was dead, although I honestly have no idea why she would go back there again.

Tammy, her niece, and her mom went back to her mom’s house where they waited for her sister to arrive. Stephanie arrived around 2:30 p.m. and immediately took her to the St. Rose De Lima emergency room. 

Tammy told the ER nurse what had happened, and the nurse called 911. The nurse told police that Tammy had confessed to killing her boyfriend at their apartment during a fight. 

Officers were dispatched to the apartment as well as to the ER. 

When police arrived at the apartment, it was obvious that a struggle had taken place. There was a water bottle on the floor just as the officers walked in. A computer monitor was face down on the floor, the TV set was damaged; a piece of it was broken off. A trash can was knocked over, there was a frying pan on the floor, a broken watch, a blue polo shirt, prescription pill bottles, other water bottles and bags lying around, and ramen noodles spilled all over the floor as well. 

[John]

It sounds like it was a complete brawl and the apartment seems like it was completely trashed.

On the top of the kitchen trash can was a torn black tank top, just as Tammy described

David was lying face down across a futon-type chair, just inside the front door, wearing a short-sleeved sports top that said Los Angeles,  gray sweats, and gray sneakers, with the computer cord still around his neck. 

[John]

Since the place was so small, the futon, the bed, the couch.. That’s all the same furniture. I was confused about that, but in a studio it makes sense

It also seems like the physical evidence lines up well with her account, which must come into account in the court case.

The left side of his head was resting against the kitchen counter behind the chair. A pair of scissors was nearby on the counter. 

Officers also went to the ER to interview Tammy, where she immediately agreed to speak to them, provided a DNA sample, & told them the details of what I shared here, all of which was documented in the officer's report.

Also, the medical personnel and the officers noted that Tammy had injuries on her throat and neck that were consistent with her story of what had happened – that she had been strangled. She also had additional older injuries that were in various stages of healing, which the officers noted indicated to them that Tammy had been a victim of prior abuse. 

The report reads that she fit the profile of someone who was a victim of domestic violence and that Tammy was afraid of David. 

Her willingness to talk to the police and offer a DNA sample also tell me that she has nothing to hide, and it likely telling the truth

Tammy told officers that she and David fought often and that he beat her several times a week. He had repeatedly threatened her life and her family members' lives. According to the arrest report, she told the officer that the beatings were getting worse and this time, when David choked her, she thought that this was finally it, that he was going to kill her.

She said that David had been awake for 3 days straight and had been using drugs, and she was in fear for her life. 

The police brought Tammy to a mental health clinic so she could speak to someone about her victimization and experience. 

The police conducted further investigation into both David and Tammy’s criminal history finding that while Tammy had some misdemeanors on her record, she had no violent crimes. 

David, however, had been arrested for domestic violence against Tammy in January 2012. He denied having struck her but Tammy was photographed with a red mark on her face and broken skin on the bridge of her nose. He ended up pleading guilty to domestic battery on February 14, 2012. 

[John] 

It seems pretty obvious that he was a habitual abuser. Between her claims, the physical evidence, his prior record, and the police reports, I'm not sure how there could be a question about that

About a week before Tammy killed him, he had stabbed her in the head with a knife. She required 13 staples to close the wound. Tammy told investigators that she had to plead with him to allow her to get medical treatment for the stabbing because he was certain she would report it to the police. He let her get care only after she promised she would say that she had hit her head and would not mention him at all. 

David told neighbors that her injuries were the result of a suicide attempt, which is a pretty unbelievable claim.

Stabbing yourself in the head isnt something you hear about a lot

Henderson police interviewed many of their neighbors, which gave them more insight into their relationship and helped back up Tammy’s timeline of events, as several neighbors had seen her enter and exit the apartment that morning. 

Also, several of their neighbors reported seeing or hearing the couple fighting on multiple occasions, though there was no clear consensus on who was the aggressor or victim, and that it seemed at times they both were. 

Their property manager said she knew the 2 had a violent history; She had seen Tammy with injuries that Tammy said David had caused. Several other neighbors reported that David had complained of injuries caused by Tammy.

One neighbor stated he had heard the couple fighting several times a week. He would hear them yelling and struggling through the walls of his apartment. He said he often had to bang on the wall to get them to stop. s

He said he heard Tammy yelling that around 10:30 that morning she wanted to leave; David asked why and she screamed that she didn’t have to tell him why. 

The neighbor said the screaming was so loud that he put on his headphones to try to drown out the fighting. 

He also said, that despite having his earphones on, he heard David shout “Just do it!” and Tammy replied “No, do it yourself!” around 11:30 that morning. He also confirmed that he had seen her leave the apartment with her niece around 12:20 pm. He said he asked her if she needed help and she told him she was fine and everything was okay. 

A neighbor’s teenage daughter told police that she had seen her in the park around noon that day and it appeared that she was hiding from someone. 

David’s sister-in-law was quoted in the Las Vegas Sun saying, “It’s apparent there was violence in their relationship. I just think that they were toxic to each other. They shouldn’t have been together.”

In August 2012, Tammy was arrested and charged with murder and held without bail

For David’s family, this was much too long a period to wait for there to be justice for their brother and son. According to the Las Vegas Sun, his mother had stated that if the genders were reversed, if Tammy was a man, Tammy would have been arrested right away. From David’s mother and sister’s point of view, Tammy was the abuser in the relationship. 

[John] 

Again all her prior experience with domestic violence went out the window because it was her son who was the abuser.

On October 25, Tammy waived her right to a preliminary hearing and was prepared to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. At that time, the case was bound over to the 8th Judicial District for her plea and sentencing. 

There was some dispute between the defense and the State during the sentencing. There was information in Tammy’s Presentence investigation (PSI) that the defense wanted to be corrected before she was sentenced. 

The defendant’s motion was kept under seal, but the prosecution’s response corrects one mistake that they made – it looks like there was some confusion in the documents between the “victim” meaning David, and not the defendant; meaning Tammy – being arrested for domestic violence in January 2012. Which is an important correction to make. 

Ultimately, Tammy was sentenced to 4-10 years and served about 4 years. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have much information to update you about where Tammy is now or about David’s family. It’s evident from his family’s social media that he is missed. 

Tammy still lives in the Vegas/Henderson area, according to what I could find out, and I hope that she was able to access any counseling and support that she needed, after enduring such a horrific event. 

I will also say the same for David’s family, as of course his death and the circumstances that led up to it would be difficult to comprehend and find closure with. 

All in all, Tammy’s statements she made to the police were able to be substantiated by the evidence at the crime scene, the injuries she sustained, & through interviews with neighbors and family members. 

Even though the officers stated she was in fear for her life and a victim of domestic violence, she was still initially charged with murder. She was ultimately offered a plea deal to voluntary manslaughter, but she would still have to serve time in prison for the crime, despite the details of what she went through. Normally, self-defense would be enough to completely exonerate someone from a crime, but not for Tammy. 

One of the key facts of this case that I was hesitant to get into because I really try to balance being thorough about the relevant facts of the case & staying away from victim blaming or shaming. But while I think we agree that things like class and race can affect the experience someone has in the justice system, there was one other factor at play with this couple that I didn’t go into detail about, and that is that there are the allegations of drug use by both of them.

When the police searched the apartment, they did find 2 prescription pill bottles from Walgreens on the counter that did not have labels. There is nothing in the officer's report that states what the medications in the bottles were. 

A neighbor told police that David had recently gotten his hands on some prescriptions – the neighbor said for Klonopin and oxy, and that the drugs had affected David’s personality. Tammy had said something similar to police, that David had been up for several days and was using drugs. Some of their neighbors claimed that their arguments sometimes seemed to be about drugs; some claimed that Tammy would ask for pills and David wouldn’t let her have them

It’s not uncommon for drug abuse to be linked to domestic violence – the NIH had a study come out, around the same time that these incidents happened with Tammy and David — that stated that studies had shown opioid use was associated with more aggressive behavior. 

I am not sure if Tammy’s alleged history of drug use made her a less sympathetic defendant and if that was at least partially responsible for the sentence she received.

There was also some discussion that Tammy might have been able to leave the apartment. From what Tammy described, When she wrapped the cord around his neck, David was standing between her and the front door of the apartment. And her neighbor did hear her yelling that she wanted to leave. Based on what was in some of the court documents from the prosecutor they seemed to think she could have and should have left the apartment. 

[John]

It’s also possible and likely that after being stabbed in the head by him just a week earlier, and having gotten 13 staples in her head she was prescribed these pain meds (Oxy was very commonly prescribed at that time), and he was exhibition yet another pattern of abuse by denying her medication she needed for pain management.

Given all of the facts and circumstances, it feels like justice wasn’t really served. 

[Shaun]

Next week we are going to share two more cases of women killing their abuser in self-defense. We have another Las Vegas case that you researched & another case from the small town of Elko in Northern Nevada. Make sure you’ve subscribed to Sins and Survivors so you don’t miss it. 

[John]

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