Ending the cycle of domestic abuse

“God, please don’t let him kill me. Let me live” were the words 24-year-old Shaqera Wallace prayed while enduring a torturous beating at the hands of her then-boyfriend Kelly Raymond on April 15, 2007.

Looking back on the abuse two years later, Wallace regrets subjecting herself to the level of violence she experienced at Raymond’s hands during their three-year relationship.

“If I had known that he would actually try to kill me, I would have grabbed my baby and ran away a long time ago,” she said.

Wallace and Raymond, 28, have a three-year-old daughter, Kellyion Wallace. The child, who was home the night of the abuse, knows her father is in prison, serving 14 years for assaulting her mother.

Wallace also has a daughter, Shiyah Wallace, 6, from a previous relationship. The girl lives with relatives in Larose and wasn’t present the night Raymond attacked Wallace.

Reliving the Abuse

Wallace admitted that she thought the April 15, 2007, fight would be like any other argument. “I thought we would fuss, throw a few licks at each other and it would be over,” she said. “I didn’t expect the situation to go that far. I thought I was going to die. All I could do was pray.”

A native of California, Wallace moved to Larose at age 17 to live with her father’s family. She began dating Raymond two years later.

The abuse did not begin immediately, she said. It was not until the couple and their daughter moved away from her family to Raceland that the domestic altercations began.

“We would argue about something and he would hit me and I would hit him back,” she said. “But that was it. We went round for round sometimes, but nothing to point where one of us could have been killed.”

The altercation two years ago started when Raymond accused Wallace of cheating with another man. Wallace denied the accusations, but Raymond did not believe her.

“I told him that I was not seeing someone else,” she said. “But he told me I was lying. Then he grabbed me by my throat and pushed me against the wall and started punching me in my stomach.”

Wallace said Raymond kept insisting that she tell the truth about her alleged affair.

“He kept saying, ‘Tell me who your boyfriend is,’ and I kept saying that I wasn’t seeing anyone else,” she said. “He didn’t believe me. He grabbed a knife and started poking me in my chest, my neck and my arms and legs, causing small puncture wounds on my body.”

Still not satisfied with what he was hearing, Wallace said Raymond forced her into the bedroom and made her plug in a hair-curling iron.

“He told me to plug up the curling iron and let him know when it got hot,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was going to do with it. But I was so scared at that point that I did what he said.”

According to Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office reports from that night, Wallace told deputies that once the curling iron was hot, Raymond took it and held it inches from her upper left leg demanding that she tell him who her boyfriend was.

Wallace said she pleaded with Raymond, but he applied the curling iron to her legs.

“I screamed and he put the curling iron on my leg again,” she said. “He said all I had to do was tell him who my boyfriend was. But, I told him that I was not seeing anyone but him.”

When the abuse failed to elicit the response he sought, Raymond threatened to burn the couple’s one-year-old child, who was sleeping in the room.

He soon began beating her backside with a metal rod. Then, he tried to set her hair on fire and later poured alcohol on her burns.

“Before he left, he told me he would kill me if I left. I was in so much pain.”

Afterward, Raymond apologized and took Wallace to work. There, she was able to seek refuge with a friend. Her children stayed with relatives.

When the pain became too much to bear, Wallace’s aunt took her to the hospital at Ochsner St. Anne Medical Center in Raceland for medical treatment.

Wallace’s injuries included several puncture wounds to her neck, chest and arms, five burns to her upper left leg and four to her upper right leg.

Reporting the Abuse

Many women are afraid to face their attacker, said Tamara Joseph, a domestic abuse advocate with Metropolitan Center for Women and Children.

With Joseph’s help, Wallace obtained a protection order against Raymond. She reported the abuse two days later. When Lt. Karla Beck, who heads the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Police Social Services Division, arrived to take a statement, Wallace’s wounds were clearly visible.

Beck said Wallace’s case is one of Lafourche’s more severe domestic violence incidents in the last decade.

“Shaqera is a remarkable woman,” Beck said. “She endured a lot and is still able to come out of it with a smile on her face. He may have bruised her body, but he didn’t put a damper on her spirit. First off, she came forward to report the abuse knowing that her attacker was still out there. That right there is a feat within itself.”

Raymond managed to avoid arrest for several months. He was finally apprehended in Terrebonne Parish on an unrelated offense.

Prosecutor Diane Sanders used the habitual offender law to convict Raymond on the charges of domestic abuse battery by child endangerment, two counts of aggravated battery, aggravated second-degree battery and false imprisonment.

Raymond’s violent history of domestic abuse spans over eight years – including six past arrests.

District Judge Bruce Simpson handed down a 14-year jail sentence in February 2008.

Throughout the court proceeding, Wallace was present in the courtroom. Prior to the verdict, Wallace was asked to give a victim impact statement.

Too overwhelmed with emotion, she opted to have Simpson read a letter aloud in court.

“I wanted the judge to know just how I felt about the situation,” she said. “I did not want (Raymond) to ever get out of prison. I have to live with what he did and so should he.”

The Aftermath of the Abuse

Wallace has not participated in any counseling services. However, she does still communicate with Joseph occasionally.

“She made it through this ordeal without any counseling, that’s very impressive,” Joseph said. “I talk with her from time to time to make sure she is OK. She seems to be handling things very well. We are all so proud of her for standing up and taking action when the time came.”

Wallace’s cousin, Melissa Caine, said, “Shaqera is strong, and she didn’t let Kelly break her. She keeps moving forward daily.”

Wallace’s family is also thankful she survived the attack. “We worried about her constantly through the whole relationship,” Caine said. “We tried to warn her that (Raymond) had a history of domestic abuse against women, but she didn’t listen. I am so glad that she made it out of the situation alive because he could have killed her.”

Wallace now lives in Larose with her family. She has been putting her life back together piece-by-piece since the brutally attack at her Raceland home in 2007.

“I just prayed about it and asked the Lord to give me the strength to get past what happened,” she said. “I am never going to forget the abuse and the torture, but I am not going to hold onto it either because, in the end, it will only hurt me.”

“I don’t want my daughters to go through what I went through,” Wallace added. “The cycle ends with me.”

Shaqera Wallace, 24, of Larose, survived a night of torture that left her burned, stabbed and beaten by the father of her youngest daughter. “I don’t want my daughters to go through what I went through,” Wallace said. “The cycle ends with me.” * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN