 |
Who
Killed Juliet Alexander |
A few feet from her body lay Nigel Callender, 32, who was shot through the spine and left paralyzed. Callender had called 911 saying he and his "girlfriend" had been shot by aburglar.
But a few hours later, Callender's story changed. He said that Martin Peters, Alexander's Alexander's estranged companion had ordered him to carry out a hit on Alexander. He never could explain how he came to be shot, and has since refused to cooperate with detectives.
"We truly believe Callender and Peters were working together to murder Ms. Alexander," said a police source.
P
eters, 36, the father of Alexander's five year old
daughter Raneshia and 9-year-old son Randall, was questioned
and placed on modified duty. He has denied any wrongdoing."Anyone who thinks he had involvement in the homicide is wrong," said his lawyer, George Cerrone.
But NYPD sources suspect Peters killed Alexander with the help of Callender in an attempt to squelch the hefty child support payments he was making, sources said.
The day Alexander was slain, she had planned to apply
for additional child support for the children's Catholic schooling,
said her mother, Sylvia Garcia. Alexander died just as her life was beginning to blossom, Garcia said. She had a new boyfriend, Robert Allen, who adored her. She enjoyed her job and hoped to become a Secret Service agent. Her children were flourishing.
"It is hard for me to talk about my daughter," said Garcia, who is now raising her grandchildren. "Her children ask me every day where their mother is.
Alexander had met Peters in Trinidad when she was 14 and he was working there as an elementary school teacher. Garcia and her four children moved to Brooklyn 11 years ago; two years later, Peters followed.
He became a police officer in 1995, working in the 19th Precinct until he was promoted and became a supervisor in the Manhattan courts unit. He also took nursing courses.
Their nine-year relationship was a tumultuous one, marred by domestic violence and constant infidelities, her mother and friends said.
"She should have called the police so many times," Garcia said.
Anne Marie Thomas, 30, who has known Alexander for 17 years, said she, too, had urged her friend to get help.
"She used to come to me with bruises and crying, but she was scared calling the cops because he was a cop," Thomas said.
The problems escalated last year when Alexander successfully took Peters to Family Court to force him to pay child support, Garcia and Thomas said. The court awarded her just over $700 a month, money that was taken directly out of Peters' NYPD paycheck.
"Martin was mad at that," Thomas said. "He told her, 'This is not over yet.'"
Police ask anyone with information about the shooting of Juliet Alexander to call detectives at Brooklyn North Homicide at (718) 963-5374.