Friday, April 1, 2005 | 11:15 a.m.
The 30-year-old woman who was shot to death by her estranged husband Wednesday night had told Metro Police on Sunday morning that he was stalking her, had broken into her apartment with a gun and had told her he was going to kill her.
But the day before she was gunned down on a busy valley street during rush hour, police had closed their investigation into her allegations, citing insufficient evidence.
Police said Metro domestic violence detectives following up on her report left several messages for Monica Medrano, asking her to come in to give a more detailed statement so an arrest warrant could be issued against 33-year-old Jose Cruz Medrano.
The only number for her on the police report was a cell phone number, and she had told police that her husband broke her cell phone March 19.
It was unclear this morning whether her police had been trying to contact her only on her cell phone or whether she had replaced or gotten it repaired prior to their calls.
For whatever reason, she never called back, and police closed the case Tuesday.
"The last call said that if we don't hear from you within two days we are going to close the case, and when they didn't hear from her they closed it," Officer Jose Montoya, police spokesman, said.
"It looks like she just wanted to report it but didn't want him arrested," Montoya said. "There's no doubt in my mind,, this being a Hispanic family, that she felt threatened and felt that he was going to retaliate" if she had him arrested.
"We need the victim to want to prosecute," he added. "For many victims, that's their worst nightmare."
In domestic violence cases police also explain a victim's options, which include a stay at a shelter or a temporary protection order, but Monica Medrano apparently didn't take advantage of those forms of help.
She had called police Sunday after her husband allegedly phoned her with this directive: Say goodbye to your family because you are dead.
She also told police that her husband told her, "Everything is going down tomorrow." She believed he was going to try to kill her, the police report notes.
Monica Medrano told officers that she had moved into her own apartment March 5 to get away from her construction worker husband of 14 years, and since then he had been following her, showing up at the Office Max warehouse where she worked and continually calling her.
The police report also notes that she told them that "last Saturday" she had come home to find him parked outside her new apartment with her two children in tow. She said he followed her to her door, forced his way into her apartment with a gun, broke her cell phone and pushed her to the floor.
Montoya said if she had come in for an interview with detectives, an arrest warrant would have been issued. But she might have felt intimidated by the thought of having to go to court to testify against him, and the prospect of him coming to get her after his release.
"Being Hispanic and working in the Hispanic community, I know domestic violence is prevalent, not only in this community but across the board," Montoya said. "The husband is the man of the house and you do what he says or else. If not you will suffer the consequences."
Apparently, that was Monica Medrano's fate.
About 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, witnesses reported seeing a man with a gun chasing a frantically-screaming woman from a silver sport utility vehicle at Cheyenne Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard.
He gunned her down in the median. then killed himself.
Fifteen percent of Metro's homicides were related to domestic violence. in 2003, the most recent year for which data is available.
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