Twisted Love: The Monique Johnson Story

Murder in Memphis

By Alicia Cruz

Yahoo News-Associated Content

Story Highlights

* The State of Tennessee's definition of Reckless Homicide

* Snapped Videos of Monique's Version

* A jury of 7 women and 5 men took 5 hours to find Monique not guilty of First Degree murder

*Comments on Monique Johnson's conviction

A NEW LOVE

In April of 2005, 36-year-old Monique Johnson, a matron at the Shelby County men's jail in Memphis, Tennessee, met Tony Hayes, a handsome young Memphis police officer while he was moonlighting as a security guard in her old apartment complex in East Memphis. 

The euphoria in their relationship began to fade as quickly as it started when Monique says that Tony began acting very jealous and possessive. She became suspicious of his behavior and began checking him out. 

She learned that Tony had not lied about how many times he had been divorced, but he was lying to her about his current marital status. Tony Hayes had married his third wife only three months prior to meeting Monique.

Once learning from Tony's current wife that they were, in fact, separated, Monique decided to continue seeing Tony, despite her reservations. For a few months, things were fine, but their relationship grew volatile.

LOVE GONE AWRY

Monique says that Tony became possessive and abusive and that their arguments were filled with accusations of infidelity. She said there was sexual abuse, lies and that Tony infected her with an incurable STD. Monique responded to Tony's constant infidelity, lies and abuse by vandalizing his furniture, clothes and cars. She cut power cords to his televisions, carved an obscenity on his bed's leather headboard and cut up every single piece of his clothing. She filled his dress shoes with baby oil, cut-up his mattress and then headed to the garage where she scratched his convertible Corvette and Mercedes Benz. 

On the roof of the Mercedes she carved an obscenity. When Tony contacted police he told them that Monique was mad he'd gotten a phone call from another woman. 

No charges were filed against Monique, but a restraining order was issued. Like so many other times, Monique claims she tried to end her relationship with Tony, but often gave in to his pleas and empty promises to do the right thing. This time was no different. Despite destroying his clothes and vandalizing his vehicles, and a restraining order, they reconciled.

BAD RELATIONSHIPS

Monique's relationships prior to Tony had also been rocky. One was so bad that her former boyfriend, Kendall Young, alleged that he wasn't' surprised when he heard she confessed to killing someone. 

"I turn on the television and my ex-girlfriend is on television for murdering a police officer. I knew she was crazy, but not that crazy," said Young. 

Whether there was any infidelity or abuse in her relationship with this particular boyfriend is unknown, but Young stated that he had filed a restraining order against Monique after an incident at a Wal-Greens in Fox Meadows.

"She pushed me out of the car, backed up and hit me and tried to hit me again," remembers Young. He says that this incident prompted him to file a restraining order against Monique immediately. Once there, he learned that Monique had filed one against him that same day.

Young stated that his relationship with Monique was so arduous that she pulled a gun on him more than once. "I'm more than certain she did it [killed her boyfriend] because she pulled a gun on me more than once," said Young, who

described the relationship as a "bad episode" in his life that he is thankful he lived to tell about. 

Police reports appear to lend credibility to some of the claims Young made that painted an unflattering picture of Monique as a mentally unstable woman who became vindictive and physically violent when she felt rejected or threatened. Both Young and Monique filed reports against each other claiming verbal and physical abuse. Many times the reports read like two different versions of the same event. 

Young says the straw that broke his back came after the March 2005 Wal-greens incident which led to Monique's arrest. Later that same day, the boyfriend alleges he received a telephone call from an unknown individual stating, "If you keep messing with my family, you keep messing with Monique and I know where your mother lives in California. " The threats didn't stop there. Two days later, Young says he opened his mailbox to find a bullet inside.

HER EMPLOYERS NEVER KNEW

"You know, the whole thing is a tragedy," said Steve Shular, spokesperson for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department. According to Shular, no one in the department had a clue that one of their deputy jailers was experiencing such serious personal problems. 

"When we don't know a situation exists," said Shular, "We really can't be held responsible for it. In other words, we did not know this matter existed." 

Shular said the Sheriff's Department didn't know because the Memphis Police Department never informed the agency about Monique's arrest or the vandalism incident at Tony' home.  MPD spokesperson Sgt. Vince Higgins told Eyewitness News in 2006 that, when someone is charges with a crime, it is reported to the appropriate people, but in Monique's case, she was never charged.

CHARGES NEVER FILED

There were no records or reports made to Monique's employer because Monique was never charged in any of these other alleged incidents. Her victims chose not to pursue legal action.

"Had we known, we could have talked to her," said Shular. "Not only could we have talked to her about the allegations that were being made in the case, it might have led to other help we might have provided her through our employee assistance program." Instead, the Sheriff's Department found out about Monique's tumultuous personal life the day she was arrested for the murder of Officer Tony Hayes. It was then, and only then, that a Memphis Police Department employee hand-delivered a file to the Sheriff's Department's Internal Affairs Bureau that included copies of Monique's earlier run-ins with the law.

THE DAY OF THE MURDER

The day before Tony Hayes' murder, Monique said she and Tony spent the night together at his home. It was just before the Labor Day holiday. As she prepared to leave the next morning, she heard her boyfriend's cell phone receive an incoming text message.

 She looked at it and found that another woman had sent him a text referring to Tony as "baby". Monique admits that she became angry and took Tony's phone as she left the house. While driving Monique admitted to calling the woman from Tony's cellphone. When she answered, the woman said, "Hi baby." Monique responded, "No, this is baby's girlfriend," and the two women began talking.

As she was headed into her subdivision, she noticed Tony following her in his vehicle. She pulled into her garage and Tony approached her car. He began "tugging at the door," said Monique and demanding that she step out of the car so they could talk. 

At some point the couple entered Monique's home, and an argument ensued. Eventually, they moved the fight to her master bedroom, then her bathroom. Monique says she tried to get away from Tony in the room but he followed and hit her. She begged and even demanded that he leave, but he allegedly refused. Monique said at that time, she made it to the safety of her closet where she kept a gun hidden for protection.

Sometime after that, six shots were fired...all at Tony Hayes. He was dead.

Monique has maintained all along that she shot Tony in self-defense after he struck and threatened to kill her as they argued. At trial, Monique cried when her attorney asked her if wanted to kill Tony. 

SIX SHOTS WERE FIRED

Medical reports showed that the six bullets hit Tony in the head, his back and one in his side. After the shooting Monique stated she panicked and enlisted the help of her son in removing the body and Tony's vehicle. After cleaning up the scene and removing the body she tried to go on as if nothing happened. She said that she never called police out of fear of what might happen to her because Tony was a police officer. That evening she and her son went out to dinner and then caught a movie, "Snakes on a plane."

MEMPHIS POLICE LOOKING FOR THEIR OWN

Tony's mother became suspicious when her son failed to show up at her home for a Labor Day barbecue. His son tried reaching Tony by phone and received no answer. At the suggestion of Tony's former wife, L'Tonya Reid, Tony's mother called his police station that day and filed a missing persons report. Initially, everyone thought Tony may have left for the weekend and just did not contact anyone, but when he failed to report for work, everyone feared he'd met with foul play, perhaps due to his undercover work with the Memphis Police Department.

At that point, 72-hours had passed and Memphis police began a thorough investigation. Family members, and Tony's former wife, L'Tonya Reid said that they suspected Monique of killing Tony immediately. Tony was a ladies man, Reid admitted, but she, friends and family also said he was a caring, punctual father and never an abusive husband. 

"It was just too far out of the norm for me," said Reid, a flight attendant now living in the Los Angeles area. "I told her (Monique) 'I think he's dead and that you had something to do with it.' Then I hung up."

As police searched for the missing officer, Monique initially denied knowing anything about his disappearance. Police described her as being "defensive" and "uncooperative" when being questioned in her home about Tony. For almost a week they claim that Monique made phony calls of "concern" to family and friends, lied to police and led them on wild goose chases in order to stifle their investigation. Monique admitted she lied about the shooting when first questioned, but said she did so out of fear.

THE CONFESSION

Finally, on September 9, Monique confessed to murdering Tony and led Detectives to his pearl-white 1999 Lexus in the parking lot of the Lynnfield Place apartments in East Memphis where she had left it four days earlier, but not before texting her son to tell him to "get rid of the gun," a .40-caliber pistol.

The following day her then 16-year-old son, Donald Wallace, led police to the discarded gun in a Hickory Hill dumpster. For his part in the crime, Donald Wallace was charged as an accomplice for helping his mother remove the body and dispose of the gun.

THE TRIAL

Monique Johnson's trial began in February 2008. In his opening statement, her defense attorney, Arthur Horne, pulled a chair in front of the jury, sat down and assumed the persona of his client. "My name is Monique Johnson," Horne told jurors. "I'm a mother of two and a grandmother of one. I'm a victim of domestic abuse...I shot him defending myself. For the first time, I stood up to him. I was scared. I didn't know what to do."

Assistant District Attorney General Karen Cook disagreed. She felt the killing was planned. "She still kept on shooting and stuffed him in a trunk and backed it up to a dumpster. That's not passion! No! Sorry!" Dean De Candia, the prosecutor, agreed and described Tony's murder as "An execution and evasion."

Depending on who you ask, Monique killed Tony because she was either an uncontrollably jealous woman or a victim of domestic abuse fed up with being abused and decided to defend herself. Relatives and prosecutors claim that Monique was no victim, but an emotionally unstable woman with a jealous streak and a hot temper who plotted Tony's murder as revenge for the restraining order and his breaking off their relationship.

TESTIMONY FROM MONIQUE JOHNSON

Monique readily admitted that while she did have fits of jealousy due to Tony's infidelity and lies, she eventually just grew tired of the instability and drama within the relationship, not to mention Tony's abuse. She wanted to leave, but didn't know how. She tried joining the Army, a statement corroborated by a local Army recruiter.

A family member of Monique's testified that she saw the mother of two with "finger marks" around her neck and "bruises on her legs" on different occasions. The relative advised Monique to leave the relationship if she was being abused. The advice fell on deaf ears. 

During her trial, Monique claimed that not only had she been physically and sexually abused by Tony, but that he intentionally infected her with Herpes, lied to her about his marital status and cheated on her with several women. Yet he refused to end their relationship and dared her to end it. On one occasion Monique stated that when she told Tony it was over, he threatened to dig up the charges against her for vandalizing his home. She stayed.

THE VERDICT

After all the testimony, evidence and witnesses, it took a Criminal Court jury of seven women and five men, five hours of deliberation before announcing a verdict shortly after 7 p.m. on the evening of February 16, 2008: Guilty of reckless homicide. 

Monique had been facing life in prison if convicted of the first-degree murder charge, but when she was sentenced on March 27, 2008, Judge Paula Skahan gave her credit for time served (she had been in jail for 17 months awaiting trial) and four years probation. Monique Johnson left jail that day a free woman in... one sense.

Here were the conditions of Monique Johnson's Probation:

She must get counseling from a psychiatrist.

Monique has to perform 150 hours of community service.

She will also have to take a program on moral behavior.

Monique will have to undergo random drug screenings.

Here's the state of Tennessee's definition of Reckless Homicide:

Under Tennessee law reckless homicide is the reckless killing of another.

"Reckless" refers to a person who acts recklessly with respect to circumstances surrounding the conduct or the result of the conduct when the person is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the accused person's standpoint. The mental state of reckless is somewhere between negligence and intentional conduct under the law.

Again, depending on who you ask, Monique is either a cold-blooded killer who got away with murder, and made a mockery of "actual domestic violence victims" and the judicial system. To others, she's a lucky and brave woman who fought back and was fortunate enough to get out of a violent and psychologically abusive relationship with a married womanizer, alive.

Monique's defense attorney said according to the State guidelines for Reckless Homicide, "Her sentence was very appropriate for what she was found guilty of." 

But the District Attorney's Office maintains that Monique got away with murder - First Degree Murder. They believe the problem stems from people's perception of domestic violence. A perception that usually has the woman as the victim and not the man. When the victim is a man, experts say it's much more difficult to prove. According to the D.A.'s office, they may not have won that case, but the real losers will be future victims.

Comments on "The Rant" About the Trial

1. Someone That Knows The Truth

February 18, 2008 at 7:11 pm

This is to the men or women that made a comment about Monique Johnson's case. It is very evident that you were not in the court room to hear the evidence. You should only comment on things you know are true. It has always been said that when you assume something that you always make an ass out of yourself. If the Memphis Police Department had of prosecuted Tony Hayes when he beat his third wife, he would not have been on the streets of Memphis to do it to another woman.

 Instead, he made a phone call and the case went away. If Memphis Police Department had of gotten him help for his anger issues when he used deadly force on a suspect, instead of a three day suspension maybe he would have been here today. Before you comment make sure you have the facts before speaking ill of anyone. The only judge is God and not you.

2.13 Someone That Knows The Truth

February 18, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Also, the prosecution lost the case because they did not have facts, they only had the word of a drug dealing fugitive named Kendall Young. If anyone sees Kendell ask him "why did Monique have to bring him toilet tissue to wipe his ass and food for his empty refrigerator?" The prosecution did not bring Kendell in as a witness, because they knew he was gong to perjury himself, like he did on the news. If there was a bullet in his mailbox, it was a message from the people he ran from in California. The news need to investigate their sources before they put them on TV. When they put false statements and fugitive informants on, it only makes it obvious that they do not report the truth only sensationalism. Click here to read more comments

DONALD WALLACE

As for Monique's son, Donald Wallace, well he plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was placed in a  judicial diversion program until January 2011. So long as he avoids new arrests his record will be cleared and as of 2009, it looks like he's doing just that.

UPDATE

Fast forward to May 2008, almost three months after Monique's trial, and the headlines of myeyewitnessnews.com read: "Woman who Killed her Memphis Police Officer Boyfriend is Back in Jail."

Monique had her probation revoked by the same judge that sentenced her three months earlier and was placed back in jail for failing to abide by conditions of her probation. Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan ordered Monique jailed on $100,000 bond and set a violation-of-probation hearing for June 26, 2008. According to her attorney, she was supposed to start counseling, find a job and pay court costs, but did not.

When I contacted the Shelby County Corrections Center on March 25, 2009, employee Ana Davis confirmed that Monique Johnson was currently incarcerated at the Shelby County Correctional Center. She was denied parole at a November 10, 2008 hearing, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections' web site. Her projected date of release is scheduled for April 2009.

OPINION

Research this story and the comments vary. Some call Monique Johnson a cold and calculating killer, others say she was a victim who fought back and won. 

Ask me and I say there was one body, but there were three victims including the son of the deceased who has to grow up without his father.

What Monique Johnson did was wrong. Was she actually beaten and sexually abused? I don't know. I wasn't there. None of us were present behind the closed doors of her or Tony Hayes' homes. Only Monique Johnson, Tony Hayes and God really know what happened.

Tony Hayes and Monique Johnson were victims of one another. Obviously, these were two conflicted, confused and wounded people trying to maintain a relationship that was created on a bed of deceit.

How you begin something more than likely dictates how it will be and how it will end. Forming any relationship with games or secrets then trying to solidify it with lies, and empty promises almost guarantees a fast and bad ending.

Hurt people will always hurt other people. Let's remember that Tony Hayes obtained a restraining order against Monique Johnson four months prior to his murder yet they were allegedly spending the night together before she shot him. No doubt the actions of two confused, conflicted people. You don't spend an intimate (or any type of night) with someone you have a restraining order against and have accused of being violent and mentally unstable.

But, it's not that strange when you're just as unhealthy (emotionally) and probably just as volatile as the other person. Did Tony Hayes' alleged infidelities and lies justify his death? Absolutely not.

But they were contributing ingredients for an explosion. Not knowing firsthand whether Monique was actually sexually abused and beaten, I can only speak on what she has admitted to and others have spoken about. 

Tony Hayes was described as a "ladies man" by friends and family. He was married, but having a relationship with Monique and other women. This obviously upset and hurt Monique especially if she was infected with an incurable STD as claimed.

Not once during any testimony or statements did I hear anyone from the Hayes camp denounce the type of lifestyle Tony was living: carrying on with different women (although he had a wife), and still having a relationship with Monique.

Monique had a right to be angry and hurt. She had a right to feel jealous. There's not one of us who can honestly say we would not have shared the feelings Monique experienced if it were us in her shoes. None of this justifies her killing Tony Hayes or vandalizing his home. 

If life in these humiliating and painful instances were perfect, she would have walked away and stayed away from Tony Hayes. However, if she was actually battered - emotionally or physically - those things made it much harder for her to walk away. 

In a perfect world, we walk away and stay away the very first time someone abuses, mistreats or disrespects us. In the reality, some of us don't know when to walk away until it's too late.

Tony Hayes is a victim, yes, but so is Monique Johnson. In the end the bad decisions and irresolution cost both of them their lives. Monique Johnson's life will never be the same and I'm sure that if she could tell it, she'd say that she feels like she's living in a hell on earth. There were no winners in this tragedy, only losers and the sad part is that there are children involved. 

With her conviction of the lesser charge, Monique Johnson did not get away with anything. Trust me. It's wrong for any of us to judge her actions past or present, but we're human and judge we will. Not one of us are exempt from having a past or having made really bad decisions. Whether those mistakes or decisions are public or private, is of no consequence. We all of us have pasts. We've all done things we cringe over when we recall them. Remember that before judging or calling out another.

We've all done things we hope and pray don't get out to others. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Just remember that there but for the grace of God go you or I.

The Monique Johnson's, Mary Winkler's and many other women and men in these situations are no exceptions here. They made bad choices and had to live with their decisions. This doesn't make them monsters, it makes them human. No matter what, in the end, they will have to face their maker and answer for their decisions and crimes just as all of us will. 

Perhaps your sins are not as grave as theirs, but you've sinned nonetheless. Pray that God heals them and has mercy on them come their judgment day just as you hope he will have for you come your own judgment day.

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