NM - Tera Chavez, 26, found dead in her Los Lunas home, 22 Oct 2007 - #1

[calamityjane831]

Is Rachel Perea the wife of his partner? Isn't Perea the guy he was supposedly logging evidence with the weekend Tera was killed?

I missed the testimony but did one of the articles posted say Verizon showed calls made from LC to Perea when they were supposed to be working together that weekend?

omg what a great catch wow. I wish the PT would point that out!!! wow.

 

[NCEast]

Until I met my exes I was beyond naiive about men. I could have ended up like Travis A....its a miracle I didn't meet someone like JA. I started volunteering for a sexual assault crisis center and that was my biggest therapy....the formal helped but the SA crisis training was the best. Which turned into working in juvenile centers and psych centers....

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Good, so there were several silver linings. You are doing terrific!

 

[NCEast]

Well, we had another bad storm that knocked our power out for a couple of hours. It was 92 degrees just before then. So happy to have my a/c going again.
I have checked for RP here and there and can't find anything reliable just yet. I will continue in my quest tomorrow.

 

[calamityjane831]

And just where in the world have you been all day Miss Calamity!! You were missed!

I missed you all today this testimony was rockin. I sent you a msg NCEast did you get it?

 

[NCEast]

Well, we had another bad storm that knocked our power out for a couple of hours. It was 92 degrees just before then. So happy to have my a/c going again.
I have checked for RP here and there and can't find anything reliable just yet. I will continue in my quest tomorrow.

 

[NCEast]

I missed you all today this testimony was rockin. I sent you a msg NCEast did you get it?

Yes, I just responded. Glad all is well, we missed you!!

 

[NCEast]

My posts are spitting out duplicates so I'm going to take that cue and get off of here for the night.
I hope each of you has a great night and a terrific weekend!

 

[NCEast]

I went back this morning and re-read the civil Wrongful Death lawsuit brought by Tera's parents. It helped refresh me on several topics of concern. One of which was that Levi didn't file a claim for the life insurance policy until 6-08,,,,,,he married HC in 7-08. I bet she had something to do with his filing the claim at that place in time. Many of the trial facts have seemingly been distorted or discounted, or just plain old thrown out by Serna, the civil suit brought them all back together for me. Here's the link if anybody has not read it or wants to re-read it.
http://www.lawreport.org/pdf/Tera_Chavez_Lawsuit.pdf

 

[thefragile7393]

I went back this morning and re-read the civil Wrongful Death lawsuit brought by Tera's parents. It helped refresh me on several topics of concern. One of which was that Levi didn't file a claim for the life insurance policy until 6-08,,,,,,he married HC in 7-08. I bet she had something to do with his filing the claim at that place in time. Many of the trial facts have seemingly been distorted or discounted, or just plain old thrown out by Serna, the civil suit brought them all back together for me. Here's the link if anybody has not read it or wants to re-read it.
http://www.lawreport.org/pdf/Tera_Chavez_Lawsuit.pdf

Fascinating. My goodness what a sociopath..just...so callous

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

 

[calamityjane831]

This morning I tweeted the author of the news article about the 15 hour gap that they couldn't track Levi's cell phone usage during/around the time of Tera's murder. Below is what I just received from him. Apparently, Serna played a smoke and mirrors trick on me, maybe more people. At least the locals who read the article will come away more informed.

Jeff Proctor
@cjproctor74
Talking about everything in the records EXCEPT the 15-hour gap.

I remember during the second Jason Young Trial the time line of the night that he murdered her the defense tried to make that time line very murky and they did a good job of it until during closing the PT busted out with the awesome charts for visual aide so the jury could see the time line clear as day and it was such an incredible moment in the trial ... I got goose bumps. I pray that the PT does something like that in their closing because that 15 hour period of the phone being off is telling and even though I listened to testimony that day I did not hear that 15 hour gap at all, it was not until I read news reports and my fellow trial watchers here that I even got that. I kept thinking "how did I miss that?" but it is true... Serna really did do a smoke a mirror trick with it. Like I have said before Serna is a great attorney if you're a criminal.

 

[calamityjane831]

I went back this morning and re-read the civil Wrongful Death lawsuit brought by Tera's parents. It helped refresh me on several topics of concern. One of which was that Levi didn't file a claim for the life insurance policy until 6-08,,,,,,he married HC in 7-08. I bet she had something to do with his filing the claim at that place in time. Many of the trial facts have seemingly been distorted or discounted, or just plain old thrown out by Serna, the civil suit brought them all back together for me. Here's the link if anybody has not read it or wants to re-read it.
http://www.lawreport.org/pdf/Tera_Chavez_Lawsuit.pdf

Thanks NCEast, I went back and re read it too last night. Another thing I read about the deposition of LC that was played in court was that it was heavily redacted because Serna had LC evoke his fifth amendment right to the majority of the questions. Ugg so for the jury it sounded like LC was being cooperative for the most part. LC and Serna are so sleazy together!!!

 

[calamityjane831]

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/215870/news/how-to-kill-someone.html

‘How to kill someone’
By Jeff Proctor / Journal Staff Writer on Sat, Jun 29, 2013

Heather Chavez testifies on Friday during her husband’s murder trial in state District Court. She said the two didn’t begin having sex until after the death of Tera Chavez. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal

BERNALILLO – A deep dive into Levi Chavez’s personal laptop computer turned up an Internet search from November 2006 for “how to kill someone,” social media profiles of various women with whom he was having affairs and visits to websites, according to testimony in the former APD officer’s murder trial on Friday.

And six days before Chavez called 911 in October 2007 to say his wife Tera Chavez had shot herself in the head, “all of a sudden, there was a deletion of files,” said officer Michael Brookreson, a digital forensic investigator for the Las Cruces Police Department. “Somebody dumped the Internet history.”

Brookreson said there was no way to tell who was responsible for the activity on the computer, which in addition to Levi Chavez also appeared to have been used by Tera Chavez and possibly one or both of the couple’s two young children.


Las Cruces police officer Michael Brookreson testified on Friday about an Internet search on Levi Chavez’s computer for “how to kill someone.” (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
Brookreson also examined Chavez’s APD-issued laptop, according to his testimony.

Although he testified that someone had “altered” things on its hard drive, he was confident that one of the searches he uncovered had, indeed, occurred – a White Pages search that turned up the home address for Aaron Jones, the lead detective investigating Tera’s death for the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office. Brookreson testified there also were several Web searches for Jones.

Levi Chavez’s attorney, David Serna, will begin his cross-examination of Brookreson on Monday.

Prosecutors allege Levi Chavez shot Tera Chavez, 26, once in the mouth with his APD-issued Glock 9 mm pistol and tried to make it look like a suicide.

The defense contends she killed herself.

In an indictment filed in April 2011 that charges Levi Chavez with first-degree murder and evidence tampering, prosecutors say he killed Tera in the couple’s home near Los Lunas on Oct. 19, 20 or 21, 2007.

‘Mmmm detective Chavez’

Twenty-four days after the 911 “suicide” call, which Levi Chavez made around 9 p.m. on Oct, 21, 2007, a text message popped up on his cellphone suggesting that a new marriage wasn’t far off.

“Mmmm detective Chavez with homicide,” the text read.

Dated Nov. 14, 2007, it was from a fellow APD officer whose name, at the time, was Heather Hindi.

During testimony on Friday, she said she was referring to herself in the text.


Levi Chavez, left, looks at his wife, Heather Chavez, on Friday as the third week of testimony winds down in the murder trial against him. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
On July 5, 2008, half of the desire she expressed in the text came true. That’s when she married Levi Chavez and took his last name, according to testimony she gave Friday morning at the end of the third week in her husband’s murder trial.

The other half of Heather Chavez’s wish – a move to the APD homicide unit – never came to pass. She testified that she is currently assigned to the APD Crimes Against Children Unit. That’s also where she was working on Oct. 8, 2007, the first time she met Levi Chavez, according to her testimony.

He had come to the her office to schedule a time to “shadow” Heather, according to her testimony, meaning she would show him the ropes of detective work in the unit. Levi Chavez came back the following week and did exactly that.

Under often-contentious direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Anne Keener, Heather Chavez conceded that October 2007 wasn’t the first time she had ever spoken to Levi Chavez.

The two exchanged seven telephone calls on May 12 of that year, according to cellphone records investigators found under a mattress Tera Chavez’s body was lying on.

Heather Chavez said she hadn’t remembered those calls when she gave a deposition in a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tera’s family against Levi.

On cross-examination by David Serna, Heather Chavez said the two spoke on the phone that day because Levi had been dispatched to a child abuse call, and she was the on-call detective for Crimes Against Children.

Heather Chavez also testified that she never met or spoke to Tera Chavez.

But Keener pointed to more phone records that showed a call from Tera’s phone to Heather’s on Sept. 29, 2007. The call did not go to voicemail.

“I didn’t answer the call,” Heather Chavez said. “I didn’t speak with her.”

Serna, seeking on cross-examination to get details of Levi and Heather’s life on the record, asked her to describe the “blended family” that includes Tera and Levi’s two children, Heather’s child from a previous marriage and the couple’s 2-year-old son.

All the children are aware of who Tera was, Heather Chavez said, and they even celebrate her birthday.

“We’ve made it clear to them: ‘Tera’s your mother, and she loves you,’” she said of Tera and Levi’s children. “It’s not a taboo subject at all.”

According to her testimony, Heather Chavez was in Chicago with her parents the weekend Tera died. Upon returning to Albuquerque, she attended Tera’s funeral, she testified, as did many other APD officers. Not among them was APD officer Steve Hindi, to whom Heather was married at the time.

Heather Chavez said that, despite the appearance given in the text she sent Levi about taking his last name – and more than 400 calls between the two from Oct. 8, 2007 to Dec. 12 of that year – they did not begin a “sexual relationship” until “late November or early December.”

That would have been after she moved out of the home she shared with Steve Hindi, according to her testimony.

Keener pressed Heather Chavez on a statement she made during her deposition that her “sexual relationship” with Levi Chavez began in a car.

Heather Chavez’s statement in court today was that the couple only kissed in the car.

The exchange led to several objections from Serna, and eventually a full-blown shouting match between Serna and Keener. State District Judge George P. Eichwald instructed the two to “Quit arguing back and forth like kids.”

On Jan. 15, 2008, Heather Chavez gave an interview to then-Detective Jones of VCSO.

Jones showed Heather Chavez crime scene photos from Tera’s death scene and told her “people were worried” about her. He also told her “she should have more information.”

“I listened,” Heather Chavez said about the interview. “I wasn’t worried.”

Jones also told her Levi Chavez had numerous affairs while he was married to Tera, but according to Keener’s characterization of Heather Chavez’s previous statements, she wasn’t interested.

“That’s the past,” Heather Chavez said in court Friday.

Levi’s deposition

Also in court on Friday, jurors heard a heavily redacted recording of the deposition Levi Chavez gave in the civil case.

They weren’t told that tens of instances in which Levi Chavez’s attorneys asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination had been excised from the deposition. They also weren’t allowed to watch video of that deposition. Instead, only the audio position of the recording was played in court.

One revelation did, however, come from the deposition: Levi Chavez’s story has changed about the last time he was in Los Lunas before he called 911 to report his wife’s death.

He said in 2009 at the deposition that Thursday Oct. 18, 2007 was the last time he was there until Sunday night Oct. 21, when he says he discovered Tera’s body.

Attorney Brad Hall, who represents Tera’s family in the civil suit, asked whether Levi Chavez had loaned his cellphone to anyone.

Chavez said he hadn’t, and Hall asked whether he knew that cellphone records showed his phone in Los Lunas on Friday Oct. 19.

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Levi Chavez said.

Repeatedly throughout the trial – and again on Thursday – Serna has said Levi Chavez had last been in Los Lunas on Oct. 19.

 

[NCEast]

Thanks NCEast, I went back and re read it too last night. Another thing I read about the deposition of LC that was played in court was that it was heavily redacted because Serna had LC evoke his fifth amendment right to the majority of the questions. Ugg so for the jury it sounded like LC was being cooperative for the most part. LC and Serna are so sleazy together!!!

I have a hard time accepting anything that is considered too prejudicial to a client. If it's true and factual and happened, then in my opinion it should be allowed. If LC chose to attend the deposition dressed inappropriately and evoked his fifth, the jury should know it. If he acted like a jack , the jury needs to see it.
In the Brad Cooper trial, his entire video taped deposition was played for the jury, he was dressed in a suit, as far as I know he told the truth but the truth went against him tremendously in the criminal trial regarding his murdering his wife. The deposition was a civil action taken by his in laws who brought a lawsuit to get custody of the children after he was arrested for their mother's murder. Or maybe before he was arrested,,,,anyhow, the situation was much the same. Everything came in pertaining to the deposition, the good-the bad-the ugly. It should have in LC's case too.

 

[NCEast]

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/215870/news/how-to-kill-someone.html

‘How to kill someone’
By Jeff Proctor / Journal Staff Writer on Sat, Jun 29, 2013

Heather Chavez testifies on Friday during her husband’s murder trial in state District Court. She said the two didn’t begin having sex until after the death of Tera Chavez. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal

BERNALILLO – A deep dive into Levi Chavez’s personal laptop computer turned up an Internet search from November 2006 for “how to kill someone,” social media profiles of various women with whom he was having affairs and visits to websites, according to testimony in the former APD officer’s murder trial on Friday.

And six days before Chavez called 911 in October 2007 to say his wife Tera Chavez had shot herself in the head, “all of a sudden, there was a deletion of files,” said officer Michael Brookreson, a digital forensic investigator for the Las Cruces Police Department. “Somebody dumped the Internet history.”

Brookreson said there was no way to tell who was responsible for the activity on the computer, which in addition to Levi Chavez also appeared to have been used by Tera Chavez and possibly one or both of the couple’s two young children.


Las Cruces police officer Michael Brookreson testified on Friday about an Internet search on Levi Chavez’s computer for “how to kill someone.” (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
Brookreson also examined Chavez’s APD-issued laptop, according to his testimony.

Although he testified that someone had “altered” things on its hard drive, he was confident that one of the searches he uncovered had, indeed, occurred – a White Pages search that turned up the home address for Aaron Jones, the lead detective investigating Tera’s death for the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office. Brookreson testified there also were several Web searches for Jones.

Levi Chavez’s attorney, David Serna, will begin his cross-examination of Brookreson on Monday.

Prosecutors allege Levi Chavez shot Tera Chavez, 26, once in the mouth with his APD-issued Glock 9 mm pistol and tried to make it look like a suicide.

The defense contends she killed herself.

In an indictment filed in April 2011 that charges Levi Chavez with first-degree murder and evidence tampering, prosecutors say he killed Tera in the couple’s home near Los Lunas on Oct. 19, 20 or 21, 2007.

‘Mmmm detective Chavez’

Twenty-four days after the 911 “suicide” call, which Levi Chavez made around 9 p.m. on Oct, 21, 2007, a text message popped up on his cellphone suggesting that a new marriage wasn’t far off.

“Mmmm detective Chavez with homicide,” the text read.

Dated Nov. 14, 2007, it was from a fellow APD officer whose name, at the time, was Heather Hindi.

During testimony on Friday, she said she was referring to herself in the text.


Levi Chavez, left, looks at his wife, Heather Chavez, on Friday as the third week of testimony winds down in the murder trial against him. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)
On July 5, 2008, half of the desire she expressed in the text came true. That’s when she married Levi Chavez and took his last name, according to testimony she gave Friday morning at the end of the third week in her husband’s murder trial.

The other half of Heather Chavez’s wish – a move to the APD homicide unit – never came to pass. She testified that she is currently assigned to the APD Crimes Against Children Unit. That’s also where she was working on Oct. 8, 2007, the first time she met Levi Chavez, according to her testimony.

He had come to the her office to schedule a time to “shadow” Heather, according to her testimony, meaning she would show him the ropes of detective work in the unit. Levi Chavez came back the following week and did exactly that.

Under often-contentious direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Anne Keener, Heather Chavez conceded that October 2007 wasn’t the first time she had ever spoken to Levi Chavez.

The two exchanged seven telephone calls on May 12 of that year, according to cellphone records investigators found under a mattress Tera Chavez’s body was lying on.

Heather Chavez said she hadn’t remembered those calls when she gave a deposition in a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tera’s family against Levi.

On cross-examination by David Serna, Heather Chavez said the two spoke on the phone that day because Levi had been dispatched to a child abuse call, and she was the on-call detective for Crimes Against Children.

Heather Chavez also testified that she never met or spoke to Tera Chavez.

But Keener pointed to more phone records that showed a call from Tera’s phone to Heather’s on Sept. 29, 2007. The call did not go to voicemail.

“I didn’t answer the call,” Heather Chavez said. “I didn’t speak with her.”

Serna, seeking on cross-examination to get details of Levi and Heather’s life on the record, asked her to describe the “blended family” that includes Tera and Levi’s two children, Heather’s child from a previous marriage and the couple’s 2-year-old son.

All the children are aware of who Tera was, Heather Chavez said, and they even celebrate her birthday.

“We’ve made it clear to them: ‘Tera’s your mother, and she loves you,’” she said of Tera and Levi’s children. “It’s not a taboo subject at all.”

According to her testimony, Heather Chavez was in Chicago with her parents the weekend Tera died. Upon returning to Albuquerque, she attended Tera’s funeral, she testified, as did many other APD officers. Not among them was APD officer Steve Hindi, to whom Heather was married at the time.

Heather Chavez said that, despite the appearance given in the text she sent Levi about taking his last name – and more than 400 calls between the two from Oct. 8, 2007 to Dec. 12 of that year – they did not begin a “sexual relationship” until “late November or early December.”

That would have been after she moved out of the home she shared with Steve Hindi, according to her testimony.

Keener pressed Heather Chavez on a statement she made during her deposition that her “sexual relationship” with Levi Chavez began in a car.

Heather Chavez’s statement in court today was that the couple only kissed in the car.

The exchange led to several objections from Serna, and eventually a full-blown shouting match between Serna and Keener. State District Judge George P. Eichwald instructed the two to “Quit arguing back and forth like kids.”

On Jan. 15, 2008, Heather Chavez gave an interview to then-Detective Jones of VCSO.

Jones showed Heather Chavez crime scene photos from Tera’s death scene and told her “people were worried” about her. He also told her “she should have more information.”

“I listened,” Heather Chavez said about the interview. “I wasn’t worried.”

Jones also told her Levi Chavez had numerous affairs while he was married to Tera, but according to Keener’s characterization of Heather Chavez’s previous statements, she wasn’t interested.

“That’s the past,” Heather Chavez said in court Friday.

Levi’s deposition

Also in court on Friday, jurors heard a heavily redacted recording of the deposition Levi Chavez gave in the civil case.

They weren’t told that tens of instances in which Levi Chavez’s attorneys asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination had been excised from the deposition. They also weren’t allowed to watch video of that deposition. Instead, only the audio position of the recording was played in court.

One revelation did, however, come from the deposition: Levi Chavez’s story has changed about the last time he was in Los Lunas before he called 911 to report his wife’s death.

He said in 2009 at the deposition that Thursday Oct. 18, 2007 was the last time he was there until Sunday night Oct. 21, when he says he discovered Tera’s body.

Attorney Brad Hall, who represents Tera’s family in the civil suit, asked whether Levi Chavez had loaned his cellphone to anyone.

Chavez said he hadn’t, and Hall asked whether he knew that cellphone records showed his phone in Los Lunas on Friday Oct. 19.

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Levi Chavez said.

Repeatedly throughout the trial – and again on Thursday – Serna has said Levi Chavez had last been in Los Lunas on Oct. 19.

Thank you for posting this CJ. It points out several huge things. I know the jurors are not supposed to read, etc. but in this trial I hope they are breaking the rules because otherwise they won't know what they heard in court--sitting just a few feet away. Serna must have been Houdini in his previous life because he sure can wiggle out of everything, making it appear to be something else entirely.

 

[Jewels53]

O/T

For those who watched the Seacat trial they tore down the burnt house on Thurday 6/27/13. I bet the neighbor's are happy about that. Brett will be sentenced on 8/5.

 

[geevee]

I remember during the second Jason Young Trial the time line of the night that he murdered her the defense tried to make that time line very murky and they did a good job of it until during closing the PT busted out with the awesome charts for visual aide so the jury could see the time line clear as day and it was such an incredible moment in the trial ... I got goose bumps. I pray that the PT does something like that in their closing because that 15 hour period of the phone being off is telling and even though I listened to testimony that day I did not hear that 15 hour gap at all, it was not until I read news reports and my fellow trial watchers here that I even got that. I kept thinking "how did I miss that?" but it is true... Serna really did do a smoke a mirror trick with it. Like I have said before Serna is a great attorney if you're a criminal.

I wish the PT would as well but they seem so hesitant, as if they're only prosecuting him because they have to. Maybe that's how DAs feel about cops, one of their own and not very determined to convict them.

I can see why her family filed the civil suit, without it and the family's investigation, it doesn't seem any charges would have been filed.

 

[NCEast]

I wish the PT would as well but they seem so hesitant, as if they're only prosecuting him because they have to. Maybe that's how DAs feel about cops, one of their own and not very determined to convict them.

I can see why her family filed the civil suit, without it and the family's investigation, it doesn't seem any charges would have been filed.

GeeVee, I have wondered the same thing as well. Had Tera's family not brought the civil suit I have a feeling the criminal charges would have never been. It would have all probably been swept under the rug, along with Aaron Jones.

 

[geevee]

'Morning everyone! Hope it's a good week for video transmission. Is the defense expected to start their CIC after this witness?

ETA: It just occurred to me that the 4th is Thursday, will the court be off Thur. and Fri.?

 

[Jewels53]

'Morning everyone! Hope it's a good week for video transmission. Is the defense expected to start their CIC after this witness?

ETA: It just occurred to me that the 4th is Thursday, will the court be off Thur. and Fri.?

Good Morning! I know it is a very short court week, maybe just a couple of days. Someone else maybe can remember exactly what the judge said.

I am very curios to watch Serna cross this expert witness on forensic computer analysis. I hope things go smooth today.

 

[Jewels53]

The feed is up! I am wondering if we are starting early this week, like 9 MDT?