A Knife in the Heart. Michael Benson
located Joshua, read him his Miranda rights, made sure he understood them, and asked for his version of the incident. Joshua said the girls didn’t approve of his lifestyle, which involved as many women as possible, and they had been following him around. He’d been a passenger, at the time, in a car being driven by his friend Daniel McAndrews. Joshua admitted to hitting Sarah without being asked.
“I got so mad I hit her,” he said.
His story jibed perfectly with Erin and Sarah’s version—which didn’t happen often in disputes of this nature. Joshua agreed that Erin had argued in Sarah’s defense, but that he and Erin did not get physical.
Last, Galley spoke to Josh’s friend McAndrews, who said he stayed in the car and didn’t see anybody hit anybody. While Galley was still in the parking lot asking questions, Sarah’s mom arrived.
Gay Ludemann said she did not want to press charges, but she wanted to know how to keep Joshua Camacho away from Ludemann. The cop gave her a copy of the “Victims’ Rights” booklet and explained to her how to get an injunction for protection.
On Myspace there was a section called “About Me,” in which the account holder described herself. That July, on her page, Rachel described herself as:
Independent Girl, pretty simple with the occasional complicated thought. It really didn’t take much to make me smile.
She knew she sometimes came off as a bitch or intimidating, but the moment that folks started to get to know her, they could tell it was a “total misconception.” She really wished her laziness wouldn’t get the best of her, but it was something she was still trying to fight her way through. She had just recently noticed that she was a hopeless romantic and she dreamed of love like she saw in the chick flicks. A surefire way to win her over was to buy her Chinese food, Red Bull, or Starbucks. She liked to have a good time; and if it just happened to include a pocket filled with money and some alcohol, people shouldn’t be surprised if she took advantage of it. She loved her life and everyone in it. She wrote how she was:
Always down to meet new people, so be my friend. I swear I’m nice most of the time. J So go ahead and say hiiiyeee to me. Anything else, you can find out for yourself!;)
During the evening of July 28, Sarah drove by Rachel’s apartment on Belcher Road in Largo and shouted out, “Come fight me.” For all of the fuss, Sarah and Rachel had still only met face-to-face once, and that was back when Rachel was still with Nick.
A few hours later, on July 29 at three thirty-six in the morning, Rachel called Sarah’s phone and left a voice mail: “Why don’t you act your age, Sarah? Seriously, answer your fucking phone and don’t be a fucking pussy. You want to come through my fucking neighborhood and be a psycho bitch just like fucking Erin. Fuck with Josh’s car, and you are fucking with me when you fuck with his shit. Seriously, I’m letting you know now you are either going to get fucked up or something of yours is, so watch the fuck out or answer your fucking phone and stop being a bitch.”
The words were rapid-fire and almost sounded as if they were being read. The message lasted a mere twenty-two seconds.
Less than a day later, at 2:30 A.M., July 30, Rachel was driving through Pinellas Park with then-roommate Courtney Richards. During that drive, she called police, explaining they were in a white Chevy being chased and harassed by the occupants of a white Nissan. At that moment, they were in the vicinity of Seventy-eighth Avenue and Sixty-sixth Street. By the time police arrived, the two vehicles had moved four blocks up and two over. The Chevy stopped voluntarily. The Nissan was subjected to a traffic stop.
Responding to the call were Officers John Coleman and Scott Galley, along with Sergeant Anthony Motley. Coleman spoke first to Rachel, the person who had called. She said she was a passenger and her friend Courtney was driving. They were going home together after work at Applebee’s. They stopped at Taco Bell, and a car pulled in aggressively and followed them out of the parking lot. Rachel didn’t recognize the car, which followed them almost all of the way home. She did, however, recognize the driver, her archenemy Sarah Ludemann, with whom there was an ongoing dispute over a boy.
“I’m dating her ex-boyfriend,” Rachel said.
The chase grew scarier. Sarah pulled alongside Courtney, and then in front of her, cutting her off so that Courtney had to swerve. It finally got to the point where Courtney had to pull off the road. It was too dangerous. And what did Sarah do? Rachel said Sarah rear-ended her. Six angry people piled out of Sarah’s car. Rachel’s car was attacked with Silly String. Rachel and Courtney tried to lock all doors and windows. Courtney didn’t get the window closed fast enough. Two of the girls in the other car—Tiffany Mitchell and Danielle Larson—struck Courtney and kicked her car. They smashed an exterior passenger-side mirror, Rachel said.
Courtney repeated the story, but she left out the part about being rear-ended. In fact, in Courtney’s version, the cars pulled over to the side of the road together, and the Nissan was in front. She said she didn’t know the girls who attacked; and no, she did not want to prosecute.
The police made a list of the six girls in the Nissan. In addition to Ludemann, Mitchell, and Larson, Ashley Lovelady, Magen [sic] Fitzgerald, and Autumn Seville were also along for the ride.
Interestingly, Sarah said that it was Courtney who had rear-ended her vehicle, not the other way around, and the contact had been made in the Taco Bell parking lot. That was why they were chasing: they’d been rammed.
The police closely inspected the front and rear of both vehicles, and neither showed any evidence of a crash.
Determining that there was a probable cause to search the cars, both vehicles were searched. One of the cars yielded two seeds and part of a stem that might have come from a marijuana plant. But since nothing else was found, the stem and seeds were disposed of without analysis.
Parents were called. The Nissan belonged to Fitzgerald’s mom, and she admitted that she was using it without permission. In fact, Fitzgerald confessed, her parents thought she was home. She’d snuck out. Fitzgerald’s father did not want to press charges for theft, and Ashley Lovelady’s mother agreed to drive the Nissan back to the Fitzgerald house.
The next day, Sarah and Rachel formally accused each other of road rage. Rachel said she was chased. Sarah said she was rear-ended. Sarah told police that she chased the other car, only after it had bumped hers. Sarah said Rachel had once called her twenty times in two hours. Rachel said Sarah was sending her threatening e-mails.
During that summer, Sarah and Joshua were in New York City together for a few days. Joshua was visiting his relatives up there, and Sarah later joined him. Pictures of the two of them together were posted online, and—to make sure her rival saw them—Sarah sent Rachel taunting messages. Rachel looked at the photos and grabbed for her phone.
At 8:30 P.M., August 28, Pinellas Park police were called by Ramon Camacho—father of Jay and Joshua—complaining that his son Joshua’s ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, Javier Laboy, was harassing him and his family.
“Tonight, he threw an egg at my house,” Mr. Camacho said. In addition, Laboy drove by the house repeatedly, before and after the egg, yelling things, disturbing Ramon and his neighbors. Police contacted Laboy and “encouraged a peaceful resolution.”
At five o’clock on Friday evening, August 29, the players proved that they had shifting allegiances and could get into fights in any combination. Erin Slothower was the victim this time, and she was complaining about the tag team of Joshua Camacho and Sarah Ludemann. Erin was at her job as a server at American Pie Pizza. Trouble started when Joshua called Erin repeatedly and was insistent on starting an argument. Erin explained it wasn’t a good time, since she was working. She had to hang up on Joshua.
Next, Sarah showed up at the pizza place in person. Sarah started to verbally abuse Erin in front of customers, and the restaurant’s manager had to ask Sarah to leave. A police officer arrived, took statements, and made a short-lived attempt to get in touch with Joshua and Sarah. Since no battery was alleged, the matter was dropped.
A few hours later, still