The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Defendant’s mom: It was an accident
Elyria woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend in 2014
Nicole Villegas’ mother maintained May 4 that no matter what troubles her daughter had with Lamar Capers, his 2014 shooting death at her daughter’s hand was an accident.
Karen Villegas was called to testify in defense of her 34-year-old daughter of Elyria after the prosecution, led by Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Pierre, rested its case earlier in the day.
Under questioning from defense attorney Jenifer Berki, the elder Villegas said her daughter lived a happy, middle-class life growing up and did not think she used heroin until she entered
into a relationship with Capers, 32.
Villegas said she began noticing bruises and marks on her daughter about the time the two entered the relationship. When Villegas asked her daughter about the injuries, she would only say it was her own fault.
When Karen Villegas asked her daughter if Capers worked, Nicole Villegas said he had a job and he also sold marijuana. She did not tell her mother he sold heroin.
The elder Villegas said when her daughter became pregnant she made a clear plan to get off of the drug. She went into treatment and began taking the doctor prescribed narcotic subutex, so the child she was carrying would not die of opiate withdrawal.
Once born the baby was being treated for dependence on subutex at Fairview Hospital, Villegas testified
she took her daughter to see the child.
According to Villegas, Capers never came along to see the child, which caused her daughter to get angry with him.
She said despite the drug dealing, physical abuse and the lack of visiting their shared child her daughter still loved Capers and would never harm him.
Under cross-examination by Pierre, Villegas said despite her daughter falling into drug addiction she was never disappointed in her; at one point saying her choosing to use heroin was not a destructive life choice.
Pierre produced text messages in the weeks preceding the shooting showing Villegas trying to convince Capers to stay in a relationship with her daughter and apologizing to Capers on behalf of her daughter.
Villegas claimed her daughter often tried to leave Capers.
“As a parent if it happened all the time that your child is, in your view, abused… and being manipulated all the time to use drugs, why in the world would you try to get them to stay together?,” Pierre asked.
“Because they were trying to work it out,” she replied.
The trial is set to resume May 5 in Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark A. Betleski’s courtroom.