An interview with Michelle Theer
Michelle Theer is serving a life term without the possibility of parole in a North Carolina prison. She was convicted in the slaying of her husband, former Air Force pilot Marty Theer. Authorities say that she manipulated her lover, John Diamond, also jailed for life, into killing Theer, execution style, on a frigid December night five years ago. U.S. News interviewed Theer for six hours this past summer in the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh, N.C (she was moved to the Southern Correctional Institution, Troy, N.C., this past September). She did not testify at her trial last year, and this is the only interview she has ever given.
"I feel like I have been silenced for too long," she explains, "and there is just some part of me that needs to speak out in my own defense." In summary, she says she had no involvement in her husband's murder. She claims that it is clear now that Diamond, an Army-trained sniper, killed Theer, believing that would permit them to be together. The interview was conducted in a small conference room. She was dressed in prison blues–a short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. She had her hair, brown with slight gray on the sides, pulled back. She did not shy from the toughest questions and occasionally seemed near tears when a sensitive subject was broached. Theer was very calm, sometimes fidgeting slightly with her hands. She was articulate, speaking in clear and precise sentences. Police investigators have described her as a very cool customer under fire. Following are excerpts from that interview.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Michelle Theer's Early Life
2. Marty–"He Was Really a Nice Guy"
3. A Deadly Mix
4. Night Falls–and Death Beckons
6. On the Lam
7. Michelle Talks About the Gun
8. Sex, Manipulation, and "Swing Clubs"
Editor's Note: For more information on this story, see an appeal brief filed by John Diamond with the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. In Diamond's brief, his appellate attorney, Donald Rehkopf, argues that Michelle Theer paid a $1,500 retainer to Diamond's trial attorney, Coy Brewer. Rehkopf says that Brewer disclosed the arrangement to Diamond's sister, Deborah Dvorak, and instructed her "not to tell anyone" that Mrs. Theer had paid the retainer. Rehkopf argues that the arrangement was a conflict of interest since Mrs. Theer was under investigation in her husband Marty Theer's murder. In an interview with U.S. News, Brewer said: "I have never received, to the best of my knowledge, any money from Mrs. Theer. . . John (Diamond) may have gotten the money from her, but I did not know that." As for Mrs. Dvorak's claims, Brewer says, "I did not do that."
Diamond Appeal: Part 1 (PDF)
Part 2 (PDF)
Part 3 (PDF)
Part 4 (PDF)
Part 5 (PDF)
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