After Navy Reservist
Paul Berkley got home
from the Middle East,
his young wife Monique
suggested they go for a romantic
picnic in the park.
But when they got there,
two thugs crept up on them -
fatally shooting Paul in the head
and wounding Monique in the
shoulder.
It looked like a badly botched
robbery...but was it?
"It's all just so ironic,
isn't it?" Paul's distraught
teen daughter Becky wrote
in her blog.
"My dad was
in the Middle
East for months
and months and
didn't get shot.
Then he came
home, where
you'd assume
he'd be much
safer...and then
all this happened."
Monique, 26,
was 46-year-old
Paul's third wife.
They got married
in 2001, and
Monique moved
in with her new
husband and his
two children from
a previous marriage
- Becky, now 18, and
Zeke, 20.
In January 2005, Paul left
their home in Clayton, N.C., to
begin a tour of duty based in
Bahrain.
But shortly after he left,
Monique began an affair
with Andrew Canty, then 18,
and he moved in with her.
He went to the same high school
as her stepchildren, Becky and
Zeke.
Canty moved out just
before Paul returned home
on Christmas leave on Dec.
14, 2005. Paul, unaware of his wife's cheating, went to his
son's high school and listened
with pride as Zeke sang the Star-
Spangled Banner.
"Zeke came up to the microphone
and welcomed me home,
which was sweet," he noted in his
own blog.
Happy to be back, Paul also
told of going to the movies with
Becky and enjoying pizza with
her.
But Monique and Canty had
been secretly plotting for weeks
to kill the devoted dad - to get
their hands on his life insurance
money, said prosecutor Susan
Spurlin.
On Dec. 18, Monique packed
a picnic basket with chocolates,
wine and candles for the couple
to enjoy at a park in nearby
Raleigh.
"She persuaded paul to
go for a romantic evening at
the park," Raleigh police
spokesman Jim Sughrue told
The ENQUIRER.
But when they arrived, Canty
and his pal Latwon Johnson were
waiting with a gun,
said Sughrue.
Canty sneaked up
behind them, fired a
shot into the back of
Paul's head and then
shot Monique in the
shoulder. "The idea was
to make it look like a
robbery," said Sughrue.
After Canty and
Johnson fled, Monique
knelt by the dying Paul,
and called police on her
cell phone.
Fortunately, cops were
able to connect the dots...
the life insurance policy...
the affair...the fake
robbery.
Monique quickly recovered
from her wound.
Cops soon busted Canty
and Johnson and charged
them with murder.
"Monique confessed,"
says Sughrue.
This past Aug. 27, Canty
pleaded guilty to murder
and was sentenced to
life in prison. Johnson
has appealed his conviction
after being sentenced to a 23-year
term.
Monique pleaded guilty and is
also serving life in prison.
