Navy Reservist Paul Berkley was murdered by his wife, Monique Wallace Berkley, her teenage lover, and his friend in Raleigh, North Carolina on December 18, 2005. Paul was home for Christmas on leave from a deployment in the Middle East. Monique, Andrew Deshawn Canty, and Latwon Darrell Johnson were all charged with first degree murder. The motive was the $400,000 Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance payout. Monique pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The state announced it was going to seek the death penalty if Berkley had gone to trial. Andrew Canty pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Latwon Darrell Johnson pleaded guilty to second degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Johnson appealed his sentence claiming that it was too harsh given his role in the slaying and his cooperation with police and prosecutors.
Paul Berkley survived his deployment in the Middle East without any injury, but he couldn’t survive one week with his wife Monique. -Profiler Candice DeLong
Oxygen:
A military wife is caught in deadly love triangle. -Monique Berkley, Snapped, Oxygen (S8,E8)
Investigation Discovery:
The young and wild Monique Wallace is married to 40-year-old Paul Berkley, a navy reservist and father of two in suburban North Carolina. But with Paul leaving on a mission overseas, temptation and lust will lead them all down a dark path to murder. -Rules of Engagement, Scorned: Love Kills (S2,E7)
Some women like others to do their dirty work. A drama queen brings her love triangle to a permanent end; an intimate betrayal turns friends into deadly foes; and a loose woman will do anything to protect her freedom. -Murder for Me, Deadly Women (S9,E11)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Air Force SrA Andrew Witt murdered Airman Andy Schliepsiek and his wife Jamie at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia on July 5, 2004. According to reports, Andrew Witt made a ‘pass’ at Andy’s wife Jamie at a July 4th cookout. When Andy confronted Witt about the inappropriate sexual advance, he informed him that he would not only report the assault to their Commander but also that he was sleeping with an officer on base. This was motive enough for Andrew Witt to drive back on base and stab them to death in the early morning hours of July 5th. Another airman Jason King was also stabbed in the back as he was attempting to flee the scene. On October 5, 2005, Andrew Witt was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to the death penalty by a military court on October 13, 2005. After an appeal, the death sentence was overturned in 2013. In early 2016, the death sentence for Andrew Witt was reinstated. On July 19, 2016, the highest military appeals court ruled in favor of a new sentencing hearing for Andrew Witt. In July 2018, a military panel re-sentenced Andrew Witt to life in prison without parole. Witt also received a dishonorable discharge from the Air Force as part of his sentence. At one point, Witt was the only Air Force service member on military death row at Leavenworth in Kansas. He was joined by four other Army soldiers: Timothy Hennis, Ronald Gray, Hasan Akbar, Nidal Hasan. (Army soldier Dwight Loving‘s death sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017).
Army soldier Shaun Cleland was found guilty of the first degree murder of David Heinricht on October 2, 2005 in Ohio. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Summer Baldwin and Rosendo Rodriguez, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
On September 13, 2005, Summer Baldwin, 29, was found in a suitcase in a landfill in Lubbock, Texas. After an extensive investigation, authorities zeroed in on US Marine Corps Reservist Rosendo Rodriguez. In the course of the investigation, Rodriguez also admitted to murdering Joanna Rogers, 16, on May 4, 2004 in Lubbock Texas. Rodriguez was found guilty of two capital murders: Summer Baldwin and her unborn baby. Rosendo Rodriguez was sentenced to death in the State of Texas. Rodriguez appealed his death penalty conviction but a federal court denied the request in May 2017. Rosendo Rodriguez was executed on March 27, 2018. Rodriguez was never prosecuted for the murder of Joanna Rogers.
On September 13, 2005, the Lubbock Texas landfill discovered the dead body of a female in a suitcase. The horrified foreman called the police and they rushed to the scene. The police believed that any human being that can do this to another human being is the lowest form of life. Police were angered by the injuries and pain Summer must have suffered with. She most likely died 48 hours prior to the discovery of her body. Police noted the landfill is not a sanitary place and it makes it difficult to collect forensic evidence. Investigators had to turn to her body to find clues. The medical examiner found a tattoo ‘Summer’ on her wrist and they entered her fingerprints in the system in the hopes they could determine who she was. They learned the deceased individual was Summer Baldwin. The police now had the difficult task of informing her mother 200 miles away in Roswell, New Mexico.
Summer grew up in New Mexico. She studied cosmetology and eventually ended up in Lubbock, Texas near her Aunt Terri to make a life for herself. Aunt Terri shared that Summer was only in Lubbock for 3 or 4 days and that was the last time she saw her. Upon the examination of Summer’s body, it was noted there were very obvious injuries to her body and she fought back against her attacker. She was severely beaten before she died and was thrown out like garbage. It broke her family’s heart to learn that she suffered so much before dying. Anyone could have done it and police needed leads. They began with the garbage collection employees to determine which dumpster she had been found in. The police looked at CCTV but the footage was useless. The medical examiner also determined that Summer was about five weeks pregnant. In Texas, this was a double homicide.
To investigators, an unborn child meant there was a father out there and a potential suspect. The police started reaching out to friends and family to learn more about Summer’s life and the one name that kept surfacing was Margie Estrada. Police would learn the two were inseparable friends. After informing a shocked Margie that Summer was dead, she was quick to offer up a suspect, Laquincy Freeman. Summer and Laquincy were boyfriend/girlfriend and known for stints of verbal altercations. He was definitely someone police needed to question if they could track him down. Finally they obtained an address for him so they picked Laquincy up for questioning. At this point, he was considered the prime suspect. He seemed strangely calm about Summer’s death but he admitted they dated, broke up, and he moved on. He wasn’t anywhere near his ex at the time of her murder. Police ask him to take a lie detector test and he passed with no signs of deception. The police let him go.
After some time passed, Summer’s best friend Margie went back to the police station because she felt she left out an important detail. She said she spotted Summer at a 7-11 convenience store and she was with a man she had never seen before. But she was able to describe him as a light skinned Hispanic who was clean cut. Margie said Summer drove off with him and provided a scant description of the vehicle: a red pick-up. Police chased this lead and headed to the 7-11 convenience store to look at the CCTV video footage. They hoped it would help them determine who was with Summer that night and maybe even what he was driving. The detectives catch a break and spot the red pick-up truck at about 11:30 p.m.; they are able to determine it’s most likely a Dodge Ram but couldn’t see Summer or ID the driver.
Detectives next turned to the suitcase to see if they could find any evidence. They observed the suitcase appeared to be new as if it was recently purchased. They found a UPC code on the inside and hoped it was traceable. They learned Wal-Mart was the only store that carried that suitcase and there were only two Wal-Marts in Lubbock. They headed to the stores and learned that specific suitcase was sold a couple of times, one in the afternoon and one at 3 a.m., a couple hours after Summer was spotted at the 7-11. Detectives combed through the CCTV video footage at Wal-Mart and saw the suitcase being purchased in the afternoon but couldn’t see the person. But they were able to track down the purchaser via a Wal-Mart loyalty card. This person came back clean so they moved on to the suitcase purchased at 3:20 a.m.
When they were viewing the CCTV video footage, all the police could see was a Hispanic male with a military haircut purchasing a suitcase. But when they looked closer, this same person made a second purchase; they would learn via other video footage in the store that the second purchase was a box of latex gloves. This was consistent with someone who didn’t want to get caught. In hindsight, this was a chilling combination. Now they needed to tie this individual to a red truck so they used outside CCTV video footage to track his movements in the parking lot. They observed this man calmly walk out, dragging the suitcase in hand, and he headed towards a dark colored pick-up truck. They couldn’t make out the vehicle on his way out but they were able to determine the make of the pick-up truck on his way into the Wal-Mart parking lot. But the footage was too blurry to give them a license plate number. Police were certain they had their man.
The Lubbock police zeroed in on their new suspect. They had him on camera and observed he used a debit or credit card to make the suitcase purchase. The police had to get a search warrant for the bank so they could determine who owned that card. The card belonged to Rosendo Rodriguez, a 25 year old whose permanent residence was 400 miles away in San Antonio, Texas. The debit card also reveals Rodriguez made another purchase in Lubbock on the day of Summer’s murder. It was a purchase at the same 7-11 Summer had been spotted at prior to her murder. The video footage police collected was crucial because it proved that Rodriguez was in the general vicinity on the day of the murder. After getting a name, police learned Rodriguez was a Reservist with the US Marine Corps and his reserve unit was based in Lubbock, Texas. Police contacted the Marines and learn that Rodriguez did not stay on base because he normally stays at a Holiday Inn.
The Holiday Inn Rodriguez usually stayed at just happened to be across the street from the same 7-11 where he made a purchase the day Summer Baldwin was last seen alive. Investigators raced to the hotel but Rodriguez had already checked out but they were able to search his hotel room. The police called in the forensic’s team for assistance and they found a patch of dry blood, a Wal-Mart bag, and some latex gloves. Now, detectives were ready to arrest Rosendo Rodriguez. And it wasn’t hard because he was at his mother’s house. Once questioned, he talked and told a very self serving story. He admitted to taking Summer back to his room and having consensual sex with her. But then he claims they got into an argument and she pulled a knife out on him. In self-defense, he put her in a choke hold and she still wouldn’t drop the knife. Eventually she stopped fighting and dropped to the floor.
Rosendo’s statement to the police did not match the medical examiner’s findings whatsoever. The police deduced Rodriguez was just a liar. Rodriguez even had an excuse for the blood at the scene; he claimed Summer had a nose bleed. Everything Rodriguez said was inconsistent with the forensic evidence. In March 2008, Rosendo Rodriguez went on trial in Texas for two capital murders: Summer and her unborn child. Shockingly, Rodriguez also admitted to killing Joanna Rogers. She was someone that had been missing since 2004 and it appeared that he murdered Joanna and Summer in the same way. Rodriguez had an excuse for Joanna’s murder too. He claimed she started raising her voice so he put his hands around her throat and choked her. On April 1st, 2008, Rosendo Rodriguez was found guilty of two capital murders in Texas and sentenced to death. Summer’s mom is devastated by the loss and said she was patiently awaiting the execution date. Rosendo Rodriguez III was executed by the State of Texas on March 27, 2018.
When a young woman is found dead in a Texas landfill, detectives race to discover the killer behind the brutal crime. With no leads, police turn to their only witnesses: video cameras that captured the murderer’s chilling attempt to cover his tracks. -Last Look of Summer, See No Evil (S3,E6)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Full Episode: The wife of an Air Force officer was found dead in her bed, with a plastic laundry bag near her face. At first glance, it appeared she’d been doing laundry, fell asleep, rolled onto the bag, and suffocated. But further investigation proved that the scene had been staged. Her death wasn’t an accident; it was cold-blooded murder. -Strong Impressions, Forensic Files (S10,E11)
Editor’s Note: Full episodes of Forensic Files are available on a variety of media platforms. Forensic Files Channel features full episodes of Forensic Files on YouTube. You can also find full episodes of Forensic Files on both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. On Netflix, the seasons are grouped as collection 1-9. On Amazon Prime Video, you can find Season 1-10 here; Season 11; Season 12; Season 13; Season 14; Season 15; Season 16; Season 17; Season 18; Season 19; Season 20; and Season 21. Start bingeing and see for yourself why Forensic Files is such a hit!
When the wife of a serviceman was brutally murdered in the Philippines, the Air Force Office of Special Investigators swung into action. Clues led to the victim’s husband, but he insisted he was innocent. Investigators would have to do something unprecedented: Reassemble a 5 1/4 inch computer disk which had been cut to pieces with pinking shears. -Shear Luck, Forensic Files (S10,E9)
Editor’s Note: Full episodes of Forensic Files are available on a variety of media platforms. Medical Detectives Channel features full episodes of Forensic Files on YouTube. You can also find full episodes of Forensic Files on both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. On Netflix, the seasons are grouped as collection 1-9. On Amazon Prime Video, you can find Season 1-10 here; Season 11; Season 12; Season 13; Season 14; Season 15; Season 16; Season 17; Season 18; Season 19; Season 20; and Season 21. Start bingeing and see for yourself why Forensic Files is such a hit!
Editors Note: Need to get up to speed quick with the unsolved case of Fort Campbell Army Pfc. Lavena Johnson, please check out Episode 40 on the Military Murder Podcast.
Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson, 19, died of non combat related injuries in Balad, Iraq on July 19, 2005. Pfc. Johnson was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom on behalf of the Army’s 129th Corps Support Battalion in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Unlike most, the Department of Defense did not announce that LaVena’s death was under investigation in their press release. The Army Criminal Investigation Division later determined that Pfc. Johnson’s cause of death was suicide by self inflicted gunshot wound. The Army tried telling the family that LaVena used her own M-16 to commit the suicide. The family immediately suspected foul play and ordered an independent autopsy for LaVena. LaVena was not depressed and showed no signs of suicidal ideation. As a matter of fact, she was happy and bubbly and looking forward to going home for Christmas. After the family saw LaVena’s body and obtained investigative documents from the Army, they quickly realized that LaVena did not die by suicide, she was raped and murdered.
According to the family, the Army never investigated LaVena’s death as a homicide nor did they do a rape kit test or autopsy. The family gleaned from the paperwork that Army investigators first considered LaVena’s death a homicide and recorded that in their paperwork, but within a short window of opportunity were suddenly ordered to cease their investigation and reclassify her death as a suicide. Ten years later, LaVena’s father, Dr. John Johnson, continues to fight for justice for his daughter. And, although he has had struggles getting media coverage, he has forged out on his own to speak the truth for LaVena. Dr. Johnson is featured in a documentary called The Silent Truth which presents the heartbreaking story of his daughter LaVena. Pfc. LaVena Johnson was betrayed by the very people she depended on for her life, and the military industrial complex who would rather silence the truth then harm their reputation.
Nineteen year-old Army PFC LaVena Johnson, was found dead on a military base in Balad, Iraq in 2005. The U.S. Army ruled Lavena’s death a suicide, but an autopsy report and photographs revealed Johnson had a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot wound that seemed inconsistent with suicide. LaVena’s father, John Johnson, shares his family’s fight to get answers from the military about his daughter’s death. -Protect Our Defenders (July 14, 2012)
Pfc. LaVena Johnson died in Iraq on July 19th, 2005 and her family needs your help. -Unsolved Mysteries (September 26, 2014)
Many have heard about the efforts for justice in the case of Army PFC LaVena Johnson. In 2005 after only 6 weeks of her deployment in Iraq, PFC LaVena Johnson was found dead. The Army says suicide, but after close evaluation and discovering a plethora of discrepancies in the Army’s report, LaVena’s father Dr. John H. Johnson began the fight for justice for his daughter. On this episode of The Rock Newman Show our special guest are LaVena’s father, Dr. John H. Johnson and attorney Donald V. Watkins. We warn our viewers that this episode of The Rock Newman Show goes into deep detail concerning the evidence and death of PFC LaVena Johnson. Dr. John H. Johnson and Donald V. Watkins contend that by no means is this case a suicide, and say they even know the name of the culprit. -The Rock Newman Show (February 11, 2016)
“The sergeants and fellow soldiers in A Co., 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, Ft. Wainwright, AK began tormenting and threatening one of their own. A portion of his unit even paid a visit to one of Nick’s friends from college, threatening to beat him up if he did not stop associating with Nick. He was an injured, isolated soldier who wanted to serve his country however he could. He would have done anything in his power to remain one of the elite. But he was no good to his unit and they saw him as an easy target. He feared for his life several times. It became hell for him and Nicholas saw no way to survive other than to leave.”
“Nick went AWOL for the month of February 2005. He was set up by an acquaintance and caught by his company commander and the MP’s. It was reported to me that he was not taken in easily. The MP’s turned their backs while the unit beat him up. It was soon after this that Nicholas attempted suicide. I’ve been told that the mental ward was where my son felt safe. After a couple of weeks he was returned to his unit. In April he left again, this time flying to his home town in West Virginia. He stayed with some friends, got a job and enrolled in college. But Nick was a patriot and knew the commitment he had made. He decided to return to the Army, hoping that he would not be sent back to his unit in Alaska.”
“He was taken to the US Army Personnel Control Facility (PCF), US Army Armor Center, Ft. Knox, KY. The day he arrived. near the end of May, he signed paperwork for a dishonorable discharge in lieu of a court martial. Somehow, the abuse he suffered in Alaska found him at Ft. Knox. On June 15th he was admitted to a hospital in Radcliff, KY for another suicide attempt. Again, he chose the safety of the mental ward. On June 27th his discharge was approved. Nick was released from the hospital on July 12th. He made arrangements to go home on the 14th but he never made it. Nicholas was murdered in the latrine and hung on the back of a latrine door in the 7pm hour of July 13, 2005.”
Hundreds of suspicious deaths occur within our military branches each year. Our military kills their own soldiers to satisfy their needs.
Be careful: if you see too much, they’ll kill you.
If you struggle with something, they will kill you.
If you ask the wrong questions, they’ll kill you.
If you are in the wrong place… even simply by chance… they will kill you.
You are not protected by the government you serve. The people who “stand behind you” are the ones who will stab you in the back. They will give the order to have you killed.
Kim Slapak-Smith
If you have any information about this case, please contact me through this website.
A man riding a bicycle was fatally injured, and police believed he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Tiny clues found at the scene created a picture of the vehicle which struck him and led police to its driver. -Plastic Puzzle, Forensic Files (S10,E3)
Editor’s Note: Full episodes of Forensic Files are available on a variety of media platforms. Forensic Files Channel features full episodes of Forensic Files on YouTube. You can also find full episodes of Forensic Files on both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. On Netflix, the seasons are grouped as collection 1-9. On Amazon Prime Video, you can find Season 1-10 here; Season 11; Season 12; Season 13; Season 14; Season 15; Season 16; Season 17; Season 18; Season 19; Season 20; and Season 21. Start bingeing and see for yourself why Forensic Files is such a hit!
Army Sgt. Ronna R. Valentine, 28, was found shot to death in her Fayetteville, North Carolina home hours after she returned stateside from Iraq on May 21, 2005. The Fayetteville Police Department said Sgt. Ronna Valentine was shot by her Army spouse, James Valentine, 42, who then turned the gun on himself. Reports indicate police received a call from a man who said he just shot his wife and was about to turn the gun on himself. When officers arrived at the apartment, they found the couple dead inside. Sgt. Ronna Valentine’s home of record was listed as Brandenburg, Kentucky and she was an equipment records and parts specialist for the 327th Signal Battalion of the 35th Signal Brigade at Fort Bragg. Sgt. Ronna Valentine enlisted in the Army in 1997 and deployed to Iraq in November 2004; she was home on leave when the murder-suicide occurred.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 