AKA San Calamati
AKA Stanton By The Sea

Woman, 19, dies after apparent beating in condo
Sheriff's deputies find badly injured woman while responding to call about dispute.
By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER


SAN CLEMENTE – A 19-year-old woman died early this morning after apparently being found unconscious and beaten inside an upscale condo, authorities said.

What began as a call about a dispute Monday night is now a homicide investigation, said Lt. Hal Brotheim of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies were called to 15 Paseo Luna just before 11 p.m. Monday by a 19-year-old woman who said she was in a dispute with another woman inside the home and wanted to get her property, Brotheim said.

Deputies went up to the condo, knocked on the door and were met by 25-year-old John Wylie Needham, who answered the door naked, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

Friends, neighbors and family members said Needham had been in the military and served in Iraq, Amormino said.

Authorities said Needham was confrontational and combative and had to be restrained by the two deputies on the scene, Brotheim said.

Brotheim said the deputies fought with Needham and used a stun gun in order to apprehend him. More deputies were called to assist.

Deputies then began to search the home and found an unconscious 19-year-old woman who appeared to have been badly beaten, Brotheim said.

She was taken to a Mission Hospital, where she died at 12:15 a.m., Amormino said.

"Homicide is trying to sort it out now as we speak," Brotheim said.

The woman who called deputies to the scene has been interviewed and is not considered a suspect, Amormino said. The argument she had with the victim was verbal.

Authorities said the man lived in the condominium with his brother and father. The woman who died at Mission Hospital is believed to be his girlfriend, Amormino said.

Her identity has not been released because her family has not yet been notified, Amormino said.

Forensic investigators are going through the home looking for evidence, Brotheim said.

   No kidding Dr.Fridge.  That girl is close to my daughter's age.  

Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A short, turbulent affair ends in death
UPDATE: Iraq war veteran John Wylie Needham, 25, is accused of beating and killing a 19-year-old woman inside his home Monday.
By VIK JOLLY and SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register


SAN CLEMENTE – As this seaside town tries to come to grips with the story of an infantryman, wounded in action and judging from his own writing, mentally tortured by his military experience in Iraq, details continued to emerge about a strained relationship that ended in death.

““i hope you … overdose on sadness because you walked out on the only thing that cares about you more than themselves,”” wrote a 19-year-old woman, in a web page posting just three days before sheriff's deputies found her badly beaten and unconscious in the bedroom of the man to whom she was writing.

Deputies arrested John Wylie Needham, 25, who earned a Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantry Badge during his tour of Iraq, after he answered the door naked on Monday night.

Needham was confrontational, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department and deputies used a stun gun to apprehend him.

Jacqwelyn Joann Villagomez was found inside Needham's home, beaten and bloodied. She died of her injuries Tuesday morning in a San Clemente hospital.

Strained bond

Villagomez had stayed with friend Debbie Krecu for about five months while she was dating her son earlier in the year. The aspiring model babysat Krecu's 3-year-old nephew and kept in touch with her even after she moved and stopped dating her son, Krecu said.

Villagomez and her son stayed in touch and she would often call him and tell him about what she described as her tumultuous relationship with Needham, Krecu said.

"She called my son and said he tried to strangle her, choke her, and she left," Krecu said. "She came back and this is what happened."

"I had no idea she was in this situation or I would have done more," she added.

According to family members, Needham, who had been discharged from the military less than two months ago on a disability, had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was on several medications for pain and psychological issues.

Needham's arraignment hearing was rescheduled Wednesday to Sept. 26. He was being held at Orange County Men's Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

““I'm falling apart by the seams it seems the days here bleed into each other I have to find the will to live, man I miss my brothers,”” Needham wrote in a MySpace Web page post, apparently when he was in Iraq. ““These walls are caving in my despair wraps me in its web,I feel I'm sinking in,throw me a lifesaver throw me a life worth living.I'm a part of death I am death this is hard to admit but this getting old.I fall asleep and pray I die before I wake.””

Needham and Villagomez started dating in late June, about a month before he was discharged, after they met at a party.

Villagomez, whose mother died when she was young, in recent months had been staying at the homes of friends. She had been looking for another place to stay after the couple broke up. The two would argue constantly, the relative said.

““im the only one who cares enough to wipe your tears when other people laugh beacuse they only think you are just a crazy mental case war vet!!”” wrote Villagomez on Needham's Web page. ““your walking out on love and its obvious its a refelction of your self esteem and self love!! regret will take over your life until you are in so much pain that you take your own life! please dont cry to me when the pain doesnt go away.””

While there appear to be no direct responses to Villagomez on his MySpace page that also hosts some bizarre photos, a portrait of a man – or the way Needham wanted to portray himself – comes into focus.

““Anything that has to do with the mother earth,especially the ocean,"" he writes under his interests. ""I cherish every second with my guitar and strum out every emotion buried deep within me.I enjoy trying to capture life's beautiful random occurrences with a camera.I consider my self an artist.expression is my passion and I create through many mediums.””

Military distinction

Needham, who as a private second class received the rare distinction of getting the Army Commendation Medal, an honor generally not bestowed upon service members of ranks below that of a noncommissioned officer, posted at least two videos of himself on his Web page.

In one, armed with a gun and in Army fatigues, he asks the camera man to ““Gimme the go ahead” and then when told to go, moves from behind a wall and fires his weapon into the distance. In the end of the clip, Needham moves toward the camera, smiling, as the cameraman declares: “John Needham, man of law.””

In another video, his arms covered in tattoos, Needham is seen dancing to music and horsing around with another man, also in military fatigues, in what appears to be the barracks with a bunk bed in the background.

Fallout

The revelation of a beating death has rocked the Talega community in eastern San Clemente.

Mark Norris said he did the basic tenant background check when Needham's father, Mike, contacted him to rent the condo about six weeks ago.

“His son was returning from Iraq and had suffered a horrific explosion in service of his country and he was seeking to start fresh to reconstruct their lives,” Norris said he learned from Mike, himself a Vietnam War veteran.

In military friendly San Clemente, the Needhams seemed like a perfect fit.

Mike Needham, Norris said, was proud of his son, crying with relief that his son was coming home.

“This is a terrible trauma for any family to go through,” Norris said, referring to overseas military service and the toll it can take on families. “It affected them all terribly and his family as a whole. He said his family had been suffering and this was a chance to rebuild to their lives.”

In the aftermath of the weekend incident, a stunned Norris has received several harassing e-mails and telephone calls from neighbors of the Needhams asking him to evict the family.

“Honestly I feel great sympathy for the tragic loss of this girl's life,” said Norris, who owns a restaurant in town. “I am not unsympathetic to the neighbors … I cannot condone people phoning me to ask to evict these people based on the fact that they're fearful.”

“I am sure that majority of San Clementians will feel that this is a terrible tragedy and the solution to the tragedy I don't think lies in boycotting my restaurant. A solution might be to look at infrastructure to support boys that go over (to war) and come back as men,” he said.

In his Web post, Needham appears to be a man longing to return home.

““The heat is unbearable I wish this experience to wash from me to melt away with the quickness it came, I yearn for the pacific to cool me to refresh every positive ion in me … With every wish and prayer and every meditation I get closer to home i close my eyes and I'm already there,”” he writes.