39-year old Carla Tafoya testified this morning that she had a sexual relationship with Vincent Brothers no more than 2 months before the Harper family murders. Tafoya is principal at Franklin Elementary. Tafoya first met Brothers in 1997 while she was working at Hort Elementary. She went to Emerson school for a meeting and asked Brothers for directions. Brothers worked at Emerson as the vice principal. Soon they started a phone conversation, then a dating relationship. They went to the movies and to dinner. Between 1997 and 1998 she said they were having a sexual relationship. She would sleep over at Brothers’ house. At one point, his daughter Margaret lived with them. The three visited Magic Mountain and Universal Studios together. Tafoya introduced Brothers to her family once when they went out to east. She says her family didn’t really approve of their relationship. At some point, she says she did fall in love with him. At the time she says she was under the impression they were committed and not dating other people. They would occasionally have fights and in those situations, Brothers would ignore Tafoya or not talk to her for days. “It was like he didn’t know me,” Tafoya said. The longest fight lasted 1 or 2 months.
Tafoya heard through the grapevine at the school district that Brothers was seeing other women. She asked him about it. He didn’t admit to it. She first met Joanie Harper at a Christmas party. She doesn’t recall how Brothers introduced Joanie, just that he used her name. Tafoya also doesn’t remember if Brothers introduced her as his girlfriend.
When it came to kids, Tafoya said Brothers denied on multiple occasions that he was a father. But eventually he said he did have a son, Marques. She never met the boy. When asked why, Tafoya said Brothers once told her Joanie Harper didn’t want Tafoya to be around her kids.
Tafoya said she and Brothers did discuss getting married in 1998. They didn’t plan a wedding, but he asked her to marry him while they were shopping at the mall in Santa Monica. Brothers pulled out a ring that Tafoya would later wear. She never told her family, though. She gave the ring back, though, when she says she learned that Brothers was seeing someone else. She gave it back to Brothers, and the two broke off their relationship. Tafoya heard through the grapevine at the district again that Brothers had remarried Joanie Harper. He denied it multiple times, and even showed Tafoya paperwork showing that the marriage had been annulled.
Tafoya talked to Joanie over the phone. Joanie called her and asked if someone had scratched Tafoya’s car. When Tafoya said ‘yes,’ Joanie admitted that she had done it and offered to pay for the repair. They interacted once at Vincent Brother’s house. She saw a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Tafoya called it to see whom it was, because she believed it was another woman. A woman did answer the phone, and Tafoya in her best Brothers’ voice, tried to determine who it was. Neither side identified themselves. But Joanie Harper would show up at Brothers’ house a short time later. Tafoya said she left.
Brothers kept a birthday card that Tafoya said she gave him in 2002. She wrote, “Let’s get together for dinner,” in the card and “I love you.”
The relationship ended in August of 2002 because Tafoya says she was neither happy nor content. She saw Brothers a couple of times, including in 2003. Then in May 2003, Brothers sent flowers to Tafoya’s school. They went out for dinner and saw each other several times that month, and in June. At one dinner, Tafoya asked Brothers again if he was married. He denied it. He did mention other girls. So Tafoya said she asked Brothers to prove he was not married, since she had heard he was living with Joanie Harper on P Street. Brothers took her to his apartment on Real Road to prove he was living alone. The last time the two had sex was in late May 2003 at her house after dinner. The Harper family was murdered in July 2003.
