Richard Chavez was like a father to his girlfriend’s children, Aubrey and Stewart Newell. He was a fixture in their childhoods, they said, and they trusted him.
“He helped raise me and was a very important figure in my life,” said Aubrey, an articulate 15-year-old who seems wise beyond her years. “I am just so blown away.”
Chavez, 40, has been charged with killing Aubrey and Stewart’s mother, Deanna Dudley, 37, during an argument. Police say Chavez bludgeoned Dudley several times in the head at a Rose Acres Lane duplex in Felton on Feb. 28. The couple had moved there two weeks before.
The couple’s 23-year-old housemate returned home at about 8:30 p.m. to find Dudley unconscious and bleeding. Chavez asked him to call 9-1-1, and paramedics rushed Dudley to Dominican Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Sgt. Ian Patrick of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office would not disclose what weapon Chavez is thought to have used, but he said it has been recovered. Patrick also did not say what incited the dispute or whether drugs and alcohol were involved.
Chavez was arrested early Monday, March 1, on suspicion of murder and has been held since in Santa Cruz County Jail on $770,000 bail.
According to court records, Chavez has a minor criminal history but no reported history of domestic violence.
“It hasn’t set in yet,” said Stewart, who turned 17 two days before his mother’s death. “I wake up in the morning and forget it happened for a minute.”
The siblings sat in court Wednesday, March 3, for Chavez’s arraignment, but he did not enter a plea.
Public defender Jon Minsloff was appointed to represent him after Chavez, who is unemployed, told Judge Robert Atack he hadn’t worked in a year and was trying to get disability payments.
Atack granted Minsloff’s request for two weeks to review the evidence against Chavez before entering a plea. His next court date is set for March 18.
If convicted, Chavez faces life in prison.
In the courtroom, Chavez sat with his wrists and ankles cuffed and wore a yellow, prison-issued jumpsuit. When Dudley’s children walked into the courtroom, he put his head in his hands.
“It was really hard. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It was scary,” Aubrey said of the arraignment. “But I’m going to go to every single court date to take a stand for my mother.”
Her brother had a milder reaction to seeing the man he once viewed as a father figure in court.
“I kept trying to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t look at me. I’d like to talk to him at some point,” Stewart said.
The family story
The siblings shared a large, cushiony chair as they recounted the past few years of their lives, which have been filled with both hardship and strength.
Their mother’s death put an end to the strong hope they would all be under the same roof again.
Santa Cruz County Child Protective Services removed the teenagers from Dudley’s care in 2008 because she had a drinking problem. They have little contact with their biological father, and their nearest relatives live in the East Bay and Humboldt County, so they were placed in foster care with a close family friend.
Aubrey and Stewart lived in a Boulder Creek duplex until just before Thanksgiving, when an accidental fire started by a neighbor’s 6-year-old son gutted the home and their belongings.
After the fire, the Newells moved with their foster family to Brookdale, where they still live.
Stewart said Dudley lived in a sober-living home off Highway 236 until she and Chavez moved to the Rose Acres Lane duplex two weeks ago.
Despite not being in their mother’s care, the two saw her often. Stewart said he stopped by to hang out or eat dinner often and stayed with his mother for a time after the fire. Aubrey recalled spending hours lying in the sand at the beach with Dudley.
Following their mother’s death, the siblings said, they were able to collect some of their mother’s belongings from the Rose Acres Lane duplex — but not much.
“I got her cat,” Aubrey said.
Aubrey said her mother met Chavez in Santa Cruz before she was born. The two broke up for awhile but got back together about seven months ago and had planned to get married.
Chavez has three young children with another woman and has worked as a glazier, Stewart said.
He said Chavez had always been a drinker.
“He started slipping and couldn’t pick himself back up,” Stewart recalled.
Sheriff’s deputies said there was no reported history of domestic violence between Chavez and Dudley, but Aubrey said she recalled some incidents.
“But it was never like this,” she said. “I never thought it would come to this.”
Until the fatal day that left their mother dead, Aubrey said, she would call Chavez “Richie-Rich.”
“I can only call him Richard now. It’s weird,” she said.
Aubrey, who has her mother’s eyes, carried an old photo of Dudley in her sweatshirt pocket. The photo showed a young mother holding Stewart as a baby.
Dudley had worked in power plants and as a carpenter before her back started bothering her and she went on disability. Aubrey said she was just starting to get better.
“She was getting it together,” Aubrey said. “She was really trying, and I would’ve loved to be with her again.”
How to help
• A care account has been set up for the teenage children of Deanna Marie Dudley.
• To contribute: Liberty Bank, Account No. 02171205, 13233 Highway 9, Boulder Creek, CA 95006; or electronic transfer routing No. 121139122.
• Comment on this story at www.pressbanner.com.
