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By Gina Edwards
Naples City Desk
State Attorney Steve Russell’s Office cleared female Naples Police Sgt. Amy Young of killing her live-in lover, Naples Detective Dave Monroig, and said crime scene evidence shows Monroig shot Young and then committed suicide.
The prosecutor’s office released its own summary and analysis of the investigative findings by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and said that the media would be granted access to investigative files next week after the State Attorney’s Office makes redactions to the public records. Naples Police Chief Tom Weschler told WINK News he would be reviewing the report files next week.
“She is relieved the investigation is over and the truth came out,” Donald Day, Young’s attorney, said in an interview with Naples City Desk.
The prosecutor’s investigative summary reports that a witness said Young was intoxicated after driving to her Estero home the night of the shooting where she fought with Monroig. The shooting took place inside the couple’s bedroom. Both officers were found shot in the head and barely alive by Young’s daughter in the early morning hours of July 9, the prosecutor’s office said.
Monroig, 37, later died at Lee Memorial Hospital. Young, 40, tested positive for alcohol and benzodiazapines, which are found in anti-anxiety medications like Xanax and Valium that are available as prescriptions but easily abused.
Day said he expects Young to be fully re-instated to her job with Naples PD.
“There was no evidence to suggest that she was driving under the influence,” Day said.
Monroig had also been drinking that night, but he had stayed at home with five of the couple’s children from previous marriages, the prosecutor’s office said.
The report says Young, after passing out from hitting her head and later regaining consciousness, pulled her gun on Monroig, who said: “Really, Amy?”
Prosecutors said Monroig had gunshot residue on his left hand and that crime scene evidence including gunshot residue testing, trajectory analysis and autopsy results, showed Monroig shot himself.
Young told investigators that she doesn’t remember being shot, the report says. Forensic evidence showed Young was shot in the back of the head just above her left ear and the bullet had a downward trajectory and exited through her chin, the prosecutor’s office said in its analysis. Young had extensive facial injuries to her jaw, teeth and ear canal, the report said.
A court appearance by Young in August in which Young’s healing facial injuries were visible and photographed by the media touched off speculation that Young had placed a gun under her own chin and fired upward in a botched suicide attempt.
Investigators said tissue and teeth were found on the bed, and that Young’s gun was not fired that night. Monroig’s Walther PPS 40 caliber semiautomatic gun was found near his body and the report said Monroig’s gun was the only weapon fired in the home.
Young was able to drag herself from the bedroom and out of the house where she was found by her daughter.
Assistant State Attorney Hamid Hunter concluded in his summary analysis that the evidence shows Monroig shot Young and then shot himself in the head.
Lee County Sheriff’s Investigators found that Monroig had been surreptitiously recording his telephone conversations and that evidence on the audio recordings showed that Monroig had become aggressive during calls to Young prior to her returning home that night.
“Florida Statute 934 prohibits disclosure of the contents of surreptitiously and thus illegally recorded calls, and therefore I cannot reveal the content of any of the recorded phone calls found on Monroig’s phone,” the prosecutor wrote. “It was clear; however, that Monroig sounded angry and became increasingly irate as time passed.”
In response to a question by Naples City Desk about the release of the phone audio recordings, State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said prosecutors would not answer any questions until the public record is ready for review, which she estimated to be early next week.
Barbara Petersen, First Amendment Foundation President who lobbies on behalf of media and the public for public records access, said the audio recordings are public if used in the investigation.
“The records obtained pursuant to the investigation, including the telephone recordings, are public records subject to disclosure absent a specific statutory exemption,” Petersen said. “To say that the records are being held because they were illegally made, doesn’t satisfy the disclosure requirements of the public records law. The state attorney must either cite a specific statutory exemption that authorizes the withholding of the documents or release them.”
Chief Weschler, in a press conference Thursday, said: "I'd like to offer my condolences to the families, it's a tragic event and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. I have complete trust in what they've done with this investigation. I'm hoping to next week sit down with them and get a review bit by bit of what actually took place," WINK News reported.
Contact Reporter Gina Edwards at 239-514-1336 or by email at ginavossedwards@gmail.com
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