Domestic Violence Case After 18 years of physical and psychological abuse, Wendy Maldonado decided that the only way to be free from her abuser, Aaron Maldonado, was to murder him. She told their 16-year-old son, Randy, her plan and he decided that for her safety, that he would join his her in the murder of his father. Together they beat him to death, while he slept, with a hatchet and hammer. Both were convicted of manslaughter and sent to correctional facilities. Wendy met Aaron when she was 15 years old, shortly after she dropped out of high school. The two were soon wed when Wendy was 17 years old. At this early stage in their relationship, Aaron was kind to Wendy, often showing her affection and referring to her as “Cutie.” After they wed, Wendy stated that Aaron became controlling about the words she was allowed to say and who she spent time with. However, this did not seem to upset or insult Wendy. Soon she gave birth to the first of their four sons, Randle “Randy” Maldonado. After Randy was born, that’s …show more content…
Her husband used multiple strategies to abuse Wendy and their four children. I also chose to apply this diagram to this case because of how power and control intertwines with Wendy’s abuse (Loseke, Gelles, & Cavanaugh, 2005). Meaning Aaron used not only his powerful strength, but other forms of psychological abuse to control Wendy. While applying this wheel, I noticed that there is proof that Aaron used seven out of eight sections within the wheel. The section in which there is not enough evidence to support that he used is economic abuse. I believe there is not suffocate support that Wendy suffered from economic abuse as she did not explicitly state why she did not have employment. Though she was unemployed, she did obtain her GED while dating Aaron in her teen