May 25, 2008, 11:44PM
Wives forced to live with tragedy
Women linked by officer's death confront their own sense of loss


By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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Their husbands were their soulmates.

They intended to watch their children grow up, then grow old with their spouses.

If not for the fateful 2006 meeting of their husbands, Joslyn Johnson and Theresa Quintero likely would never have laid eyes on each other.

During a traffic stop, Juan Leonardo Quintero, a landscaper, shot officer Rodney Johnson, 40, seven times, killing him. A Harris County jury last week sentenced Quintero, 34, to life in prison without parole.

While Joslyn Johnson will mourn the loss of her husband for the rest of her life, prison bars will separate Theresa Quintero from hers.

It's not the way either imagined their lives would turn out.

In the courtroom, the two women always sat on opposite sides, just a few feet from one another.


Wrestling with emotions
Joslyn Johnson said the seething anger she managed to staunch before the trial resurfaced the moment she locked eyes with Juan Quintero.

"I just wanted to jump over there and choke him," she said.

Theresa Quintero wrestled with different emotions. She wanted to slap the man she married in 1997 but also embrace him.

"When we first met each other, that was it," she said.

On the second day of testimony, Joslyn Johnson viewed photos entered into evidence of her husband's bloody police cruiser, where Johnson died, as well as autopsy photos. While she testified, she sat face-to-face with her husband's killer.

"He sat there with a silly smirk on his face — he never showed any kind of emotion, or remorse," she said.

She and Rodney Johnson met during their Houston Police academy training in 1994 and married four years later.

"He was fun-loving and was a no-nonsense person," said Johnson, now a police sergeant, "especially when it came to police work."

Neither she nor Theresa Quintero said they ever heard an acceptable explanation for the shooting.

Joslyn Johnson said she believes Quintero, an illegal Mexican immigrant, just got angry because he was arrested and not simply issued a ticket. She thinks he also was upset that her husband told him to shut up during the arrest. Quintero said as much during his videotaped confession to police.


Anticipating death
Theresa Quintero, a security guard, believes that her husband was afraid and that he's now sorry. During the trial, the pair sometimes squinted their eyes at each other. It was their secret way of sharing an "I love you," Theresa said.

Juan Quintero pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, which Johnson viewed as far-fetched. She found relief in the guilty verdict, but the ordeal was only partly over.

Both women prayed for very different punishments, but both anticipated a death sentence.

So did Juan Quintero, who told his wife to give all his belongings to his brother.

After the verdict, Theresa Quintero said she shed tears for both her family and the Johnsons.

The life sentence was another blow to Joslyn Johnson.

"He gets to see his family, talk to his family, learn a trade," she said. "That's not fair. He doesn't deserve it. Why should taxpayers foot the bill?"

Johnson had a hard time with the apology issued by Juan Quintero at the end of the trial. She said the judge forced him to say something. She also doubts Theresa Quintero's sincerity.

"She hugged me several times," Joslyn Johnson said. "She always sounded like she was crying, but she never cracked a tear."

With his life spared, Theresa Quintero said, maybe her husband's soul can heal.

"Oh, heck no," Joslyn Johnson said about the comment. "I don't agree at all."

rosanna.ruiz@chron.com






http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5801597.html