Watch a clip from this weeks episode of the reality series “Snapped” on Oxygen.
Episode Summary: National Merit Scholarship finalist Monique Berkley was always headstrong. Barely out of high school, she moved to California from Tampa to live with a lesbian lover she’d met online and became a gay marriage activist. Then, she met 40-year-old Navy veteran Paul Berkley. Berkley not only had the kind of wild, fun-loving personality that attracted Monique; he also had a very attractive salary.
They soon wed, and in 2003 they moved to North Carolina, where Monique settled into her role as stepmother to Paul’s two kids. When the Navy Reserves called Paul to Bahrain in January, 2005, Monique became a full-time mom. She was actively involved in her stepchildren’s activities, and their home became a hangout for the kids’ friends. On December 18, 2005, three days after Paul got back from Bahrain, Monique made a frantic 911 call: she had been shot by two men while strolling in a Raleigh park at 3 a.m. It took the 911 dispatcher several minutes to discover that the groaning noise in the background was Paul, who was dying. Paul had been shot in the head. The investigation quickly circled back to Monique and two 18 year-old boys: Lawton Johnson, the ex-boyfriend of Paul’s daughter, and high school student Andrew Canty.
Police said Paul’s home had become more than just a hangout. Canty had become Monique’s live-in lover while Paul was away. Police also claimed Monique confessed to masterminding a plan to obtain her husband’s life insurance. As part of the plan, the two teen boys were supposed to kill Paul and beat her up a little; the plan had gone a little awry and she ended up with a bullet in the shoulder. At her arraignment, Monique’s attorney told the grand jury she only confessed to a love affair with Canty, not to plotting Paul’s murder. Monique pleaded guilty in September, 2007, and was sentenced to life in prison.