An interview with Michelle Theer: 'Night falls–and death beckons'
Q. So, then you talked to Diamond on Saturday, December 16?
A. I did. I talked to him several times. The next morning, I go outside, and my car is dead.
Q. The Corvette.
A. Yeah.
Q. Was that a 1977?
A. 1976. My mechanic that I normally went to is closed on weekends. I can't remember what–I think it was the starter. . .
Q. Did you call Diamond, rather than Marty, why not just have Marty do that?
A. Marty could barely be trusted to put the gas in the right part of the car. No, I didn't call Marty. Marty was there at the house. Marty helped me push the car out of the driveway. . . I called [Diamond] to ask his opinion. This is what the car sounds like when I put the key in and I turn it. Basically, what do you think it could be?. . . If it is just a starter, can I trust Pep Boys to replace the starter, or are they going to destroy my car? I am thinking if I have to wait until Monday morning to get it towed in to my mechanic, my car is going to be out of commission for two days, and here I've got back-to-back appointments from 8 o'clock Monday morning until 9 o'clock Monday night. . . I just couldn't afford to be without a car. So, I ended up calling him back several times asking his opinion about something, between Saturday and Sunday, I don't really remember. I ended up having it towed in on Saturday, but it was to Pep Boys... It was supposed to be fixed Sunday afternoon, and Marty and I were going to pick it up. . . but then [Pep Boys] actually called while we were on our way up to Raleigh [for Christmas dinner] and said that it wasn't done, after all, and wouldn't be ready to be picked up Monday. . .
Q. In terms of the events on Sunday, December 17, Tom Harbin testified that you had convinced him to invite Marty and Dominique Peterson, the boyfriend of Heidi Mougey, the office manager for the Harbin practice, to the office party?
A. He perceived it differently than I did. The year before, we had gone out for lunch, just the three of us [Michelle, Harbin, and Heidi Mougey]. . . And when Harbin brought it up, he said I thought we would go out for a nice dinner this year, and I said, OK. . . I assumed. . . that we are all going. . . but I realized. . . that he was suggesting that Marty was not invited. . . I was shocked to even realize that he thought I was going to drive, alone, on a Sunday night, an hour and a half [to Raleigh] to have dinner with him and his wife and our secretary. And I said to him, I don't want to go. . . I thought Marty and Dominique were coming. . .
Q. Harbin said he would invite the men.
A. Yeah. . .
Q. Is it true, as the police have alleged, that you told Diamond about this Sunday-night dinner at your lunch at Zorba's?
A. No. Well, if I did, it was inadvertent. I never, as a rule, I never talked to John about anything that Marty and I did together. It was, like, a taboo subject. . . John [said] that he knew I was going. Whether he saw that in my calendar because in my calendar it says, my Day-Timer, it says, something like, Christmas party, whatever time, I don't know. Whether he overheard, whether I got a phone call and he overheard me say something–
Q. Well, the cops say you schemed with him?
A. Well, of course they are going to say that.
Q. You are saying you didn't tell him you were going out on Sunday night.
A. I don't recall telling him that. . . John did tell the police that he knew I was going to Raleigh for a Christmas party that night. . . .
Q. You had a good time at the Fox and Hound. You went into the bathroom and called Diamond's cellphone as the party was leaving the restaurant that Sunday night to go back to Fayetteville?
A. Here's what really happened. They [the police] asked me if I had talked to John on Sunday. And I said, yes, that I had talked to him a couple of times. They asked me what time. I said I don't really know what time I talked to him. I talked to him a couple times from the house. And I wasn't sure what time it was, but that I knew it was before–I think I said 4 o'clock–because I knew that we had left the house at, like, 4 o'clock. . . . They said, let's go over everything that happened on Sunday. What time did you wake up? What did you do then? So, we are going through Sunday... I tell them that Pep Boys called [her] in the car, and we got to the restaurant. . . [Marty, Michelle, Heidi, and Dominique Peterson arrived at the restaurant before Harbin and his wife and were seated]. . . I got up, and I went into the bathroom, and as I'm going into the bathroom, I'm thinking about this phone call I got from Pep Boys maybe 15 minutes earlier, and about, God, you know, my car's not going to be ready, I can't go pick up my car tonight. Tomorrow morning, Marty's got to get up in the morning and leave at 4 a.m. because he's got a flight, first thing. And now he is going to be gone at 4 a.m., it's not going to be done until noon, I'm not going to have a car, how am I going to get to work? I am thinking about this. . . as I get up, and I am walking to the bathroom, and as I am standing in front of the mirror putting on my lipstick, and even as I'm doing this, I'm thinking I could call John and he could pick me up and take me to work. And even as I'm saying, God, no, I don't want to ask him for anything. . . I'm wondering if I should call. No, I'm not going to call. Yeah, OK, I'm going to call. So I pull up my [phone], and I dial his number and I call. Now, I don't know what time this is, but it's gotta be. . . like 6, 6:15. But that's when I made the phone call, or I should say I tried to make the phone call because I dialed his number and I think, you know, normally his phone rings like four times and then it goes to voice. So, I dial his phone number, and it rings three solid rings. Even as it is ringing, I'm still debating–oh, I shouldn't be asking him for a favor. So, it rings three times, and I hang up because I am not going to leave a voice mail because if I leave a voice mail, he's going to call me back. Do I want John calling me back when I'm sitting at the table in a restaurant with Marty? No, I don't want to do that. . . . So, anyway, that's what I told [Detective Ralph] Clinkscales that, oh, yeah, that's when I tried to call John, but I didn't talk to him.
Q. But the cops say you made this call as you are leaving the restaurant a couple hours later, as a signal to Diamond that your party was heading back to Fayetteville?
A. They say that. They say that later because that's when they want it, because that's what fits their theory.
Q. This is a big discrepancy between you calling at 6:30 or [three hours later]?
A. Yes.
Q. Diamond claimed that you were the shooter.
A. Right.
Q. How do you feel hearing something like that?
A. I was shocked.
Q. Do you know how to fire a gun? Have you ever fired a gun?
A. Uh-huh. I fired an M-16 two times.
Q. In the Air Force?
A. Yeah. . . Once in basic training, and once out at the Air Force Academy, I guess to prove that I was current.
Q. Have you ever fired a handgun?
A. Never, uh-uh.
Q. Do you think John Diamond killed your husband?
A. I do now. . . .
Q. Why do you think he did it?
A. Why do I think he did it? I don't know. . . I don't think there is a pat answer.
Q. John Diamond's proffer [his military attorney's offer of testimony to civilian prosecutors] puts it right on you. He said you had told him at Zorba's to meet you at your office at 11 p.m., and he got there, and that, as he approached, he saw this man on the ground, and he said that you had shot him, you were wearing latex gloves. Is this all fantasy?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. You are telling me he was obsessed with you–that you were trying to break it off, you weren't very successful. Why did he do it?
A. I think he just thought it was an easy solution to the problem, to what he saw as being in the way of our relationship. I told him that there [were] other obstacles. As a matter of fact, I remember, in one of the E-mails I listed numerous things, numerous reasons why we could not be together, and I very purposely did not include my husband as being one of those reasons because I knew that he wouldn't buy [that] as an argument, anyway, and I knew he would just say, though, you love me more than him, anyway, or, you know, I am better than he is, anyway. I knew that he would discount that. . . I gave him other, solid concrete reasons.
Q. Which were?
A. I don't even know that I can remember now. That E-mail was included in the evidence. . . . I was hoping that the jury would notice that I didn't say, my husband, the reason I can't be with you, because that would be something that you would think would be manipulative, saying I can't be with you because I have a husband. I can't be with you because I love him more than you. If he weren't around, then we could be together. But, no, I never said anything remotely like that. I gave him all the other reasons.
Q. That's what the cops laid on you–manipulating Diamond into this viewpoint that he thought the only way he could have you. As I read this proffer from Diamond, he is describing you as a coldblooded killer.
A. He's describing himself. I mean, I think even the police and the prosecutors know that there's no way I could have done what he says; otherwise, I'm sure they would have argued it.
Q. Did you manipulate Diamond into killing your husband? Were you the so-called Black Widow that Tom Harbin made reference to in his testimony?
A. No.
Q. Did you ever describe yourslef as a Black Widow?
A. Not that I recall.
Q. Even in joking.
A. I don't recall that. . . .
Q. You're not capable of doing what Diamond says you did?
A. No, and I would have no reason. . . .
Q. You're telling me you are innocent.
A. Yes, you know this is one of the things that has just blown me away from the beginning is that people who have known me for years, all my life, who have seen that I am not a cold person. I don't hurt people. My whole life has been about helping people. . . I have been a volunteer since I was 15 years old. . . I can remember getting on the bus and riding the bus to go volunteer at Children's Hospital in Denver, and I did that for several years. . . .
Q. But some people suggest that you are a psychopath, that you showed no remorse.
A. Show remorse for what? I'm not guilty of–I mean how can I show remorse for a crime that I didn't commit? I loved Marty, and even if I, even if our marriage had ended, even if we had decided to get a divorce, even the times when we were having problems, there was never hatred there. And even the times when Marty and I disagreed. . . there was never any knockdown, drag-out fights. And, you know, that was part of the problem we had.
Q. You didn't communicate.
A. Even when we communicated, there was no passion. Even our arguments, there was no passion. . . We didn't hate each other. There was no hatred there. . . . It is so hard for me to understand people who knew us, who basically saw us grow up together, you know, how they could think that I would want to harm Marty. I mean. . . I don't understand it, I really don't. . . .
Q. What happened after the party and you drove back?
A. OK. . . Dominique [Peterson] and Heidi [Mougey] had driven up with us. . . . We got back to Fayetteville pretty quick–Marty drives fast–there's not a lot of traffic on the road. And, we pulled into the parking lot, dropped Heidi and Dominque, and we left, and as we were pulling out, I brought up to Marty, I said, we need to talk about what we are going to do tomorrow about the cars. Because the Corvette's not ready, they said not to plan on it being ready until lunchtime. . . . So, we are kind of talking back and forth, hashing out some different ideas, and Marty looks at the gas gauge and pulls over to get some gas. . . . I just said I will call a cab in the morning, since Marty had to get up so early. . . because he had a flight. I was going to get a cab to take me to work. I had two reports that I had worked on over the weekend–psychological evaluations, they are like 10 to 12 pages long. And one of them I had to have ready the next morning for, like, 8:30 was my first appointment. And I had almost finished it, there was just a little part that I hadn't done because there was a book that I had needed at the office. And, so I said, Marty, well, I'm worried, if I call a cab, what if they don't show up on time, what if I don't get to work on time, I gotta have this report done. . . . So, we decided to go back to the office and get this book that I needed. And, actually, I thought. . . there is another [report]. . . . I will get both of these reports, and I will stay up tonight and finish this. It was 10:30, which for me is pretty early. I'm a night owl. I'd rather stay up to 3 in the morning to get something done and only get five hours of sleep than to go to bed early and get up at, you know, 4 o'clock in the morning. It was only 10:30. We decided to go back to the office, I am going to get my books, and then we'll go home. He's, of course, going to go to bed, and I'll stay up late. So, we turn around–it's only, it's not very far, I thought it was only about a mile, but I guess it's actually 2 miles. And, of course, this time of night, there's absolutely no traffic, all the lights are on green, so it takes no time at all to get back there [to the office]. Marty pulls up behind the building, parks the car, I get out, I go upstairs, and, I don't think there's a light back there, there's a light off to the side.
Q. Was it dark?
A. It was dark, but there's a streetlight. . . . I go up there [up the outside stairway to the second-floor back entrance], I open the door, I go in. The office doors are locked. I turn on the hall light. I open the door to my office, I go in, turn on the lights. One of the little booklet things that I need [is] in my file folder. They are there in the office–I get those. And then I go over to the other side of the suites–sort of like U-shaped, with the stairs in the middle–go around to the other side, open that door, and one of the books–the book that I was getting was actually one of Tom's [Harbin's] books–so I have to look for it a minute, it's in his bookshelves. I get that book. . . go into my office, and I'm sort of standing there for a minute. . . [and] thinking to myself, is there anything else that I need to finish these two reports while I'm here? And I'm pausing just for a few seconds. I have been in there, I don't know, maybe two minutes. You know, it's hard to judge time when it's a brief period of time like that. And I heard a noise. And the way I remembered hearing it was hearing one noise and then a pause, and then a series of noises, that's the way I remembered hearing it. And in the police notes, that's the way one of the witnesses says that he heard it was one, and then a series.
Q. That's how Ramsey Lewis describes it, deliberate shots. What did you think it was, a gun, or a car backfiring?
A. It didn't sound like to me what I thought a gun sounds like. . . . To me, it sounded more like a popping sound. And the first thing, really, that I thought of was those little popper things, those little snappers that you throw on the ground. That's actually what it sounded like to me, which I really felt more at a subconscious level than a conscious level, but I heard a noise, you know you have these thoughts, a hundred things in one second, and I remember kind of thinking, what was that? That wasn't a car backfiring, that doesn't sound right, sort of this thought process that happened in an instant. And I walked to the back door, and I pushed the door open, and I looked out, and I didn't see anything that way, and I looked downstairs and I saw Marty laying at the bottom of the stairs, and I ran down. . . the stairs, and really I remember seeing at first. . . the blood on his forehead. And I thought, Marty fell down the stairs and hit [his] head. And, he was breathing, and his breathing was very ragged sounding. He had a lot of phlegm or something in his throat. And I remember wiping the blood off the front of his forehead and saying, "Marty, Marty, Marty, are you OK?" His eyes were open, but he wasn't looking at me. He was just looking straight ahead. . . . He was breathing, but it sounded very ragged. . . it sounded like he had a lot of phlegm in his throat.
Q. Did you realize he had been shot then, or what did you think?
A. I just remember thinking, I kept looking at the blood on the front of his forehead and wiping it away and thinking that he had fallen and cut his head. But when he wouldn't answer me, I kept thinking something's wrong. And, of course, this is all happening in about three seconds. And for some reason, which I still don't understand, because it seems illogical if somebody's breathing, but I put my head down on his chest to check his heartbeat or something, I guess, I don't know, but of course I couldn't hear anything because my own heart was pounding in my ear. And I remember telling him, telling him, it's going to be OK, it's going to be OK, I'm going to go get help. I got up and I saw–I was at the bottom of the stairs, and I was facing the building next to us, and the lights were on inside [that] building, and there was a light on at the back of the building and then there was a car parked there–actually there were several cars parked.
Q. On the same parking lot?
A. In the building next to ours. . . . There were several cars parked. . .
Q. Was there anybody in these cars?
A. No, but I will say that it looked like somebody was there because there were lights in the cars, I guess. And all I could think was, somebody help me, somebdy help me, somebody help me. And that's what I told Marty, I am going to get somebody to help. . . [she says she ran across the back of the parking lot and banged on the doors of commercial buildings]. . . There were doors all along the back. . . and nobody answered. [She says she then ran through an alley out onto Raeford Road, the thoroughfare that runs in front of her office building. She says she tried to flag down passing cars, but none stopped. Then, she ran several blocks along Raeford Road, losing a shoe, and reached the Video Hut.].
Q. Were you pretty hysterical?
A. Yeah. . . . I started screaming, I don't know what I was screaming: "Is anybody here [at the Video Hut], somebody help me please, somebody, is anybody here?" And this woman walked out. . . and when I said the words, it was like somebody else was saying them. It was like it was the first time I realized this–that somebody shot my husband. . . . I don't think I really realized until that moment that I knew what happened. And she called 911. I know that at some point she gave me the phone, I could hardly hear what the operator was saying, it felt like they were–I remember I had to keep saying the address over and over again. It seemed like they couldn't understand the address. . . .
Q. At the time you got there, it dawned on you that Marty had been shot?
A. I don't even remember even putting together [the words]. It was like the words came out of my mouth on their own. . . .
Part 5: A lovers' confrontation