By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

BERLIN – Saying she feared he would kill her if he had the opportunity, Sandra Marisol Fuentes Huaracha, 25, of Berlin, pleaded to be protected from her husband in a domestic violence petition filed in April.

“He has abused me physically, psychologically and emotionally. I am extremely vulnerable and fearful that he may cause me further harm,” she wrote on April 25, hours after the attack.

“I believe he is capable of seriously harming or killing me if he has the opportunity. I am afraid for my life and my safety. I am so scared he will find me, hurt me again, or retaliate against me for seeking protection. I respectfully request that the court issue a restraining order immediately to protect me from further harm.”

While she obtained a restraining order against Michael Gleason Jr., 50, who was out on bail on three felony charges related to an attack on her, the state was not able to protect her.

She told the court he was trying to interfere with her immigration status as a Mexican with a green card, that he had stolen her money, her birth control, legal paperwork, jewelry and accused her of adultery. 

She told the court during the attack he called her “a whore” and told her he would treat her as such and would like to see her in jail, sexually assaulted by women.

Gleason was charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, kidnapping and theft by unauthorized taking, each of which are punishable by 7 1/2 to 15 years in jail.

Gleason was released on $5,000 cash bail with terms that he have no contact with his wife, possess no weapons nor consume alcohol or illegal drugs.

On July 6, as she went to her place of work with those orders fully in place, police believe her husband shot her multiple times behind the bar of the La Casita restaurant in Berlin and then killed himself.

The Attorney General’s Office reported it was a murder-suicide.

The case has shaken the state and leaders, including Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who are calling for a thorough look at the current domestic violence protections in the state. Ayotte said she will support changes to protect others from such a horrendous end.

In her petition for protection, Fuentes Huaracha noted she was not represented by a lawyer.

The home where she lived, 465 Hillside Avenue, was owned by Gleason and was purchased by him in 2007 for $57,000. He owned a landscaping business, Weedin and Seedin LLC and was represented by a lawyer.

In her handwritten plea, she wrote that she suffered medical losses, wages, and personal property as part of the assault. She said that he took $4,000 in cash, her cell phone, credit and debit cards, her green card and threw away clothing that he may have thought was given to her by a former boyfriend.

Even though she said it was her personal decision to wait before having a child, she indicated that by taking her birth control he wanted control over her reproductive rights and said that her rights to physical autonomy were being violated.

She said he would not let her have a house key and blocked a window which would have allowed her alternative entry.

She explains the attack in the documents.

Fuentes Huaracha said on Friday, April 25 she awoke in her bed at 7:50 a.m. and noticed that her husband was not in bed. Still tired, she turned back and slept in until about 9 a.m. when her alarm went off and headed into the shower to prepare for work.

“While I was showering, my husband suddenly entered the bathroom and began yelling at me, saying I (should) hate my own family instead of his, blaming my family” for various problems the two were encountering.

“I asked him multiple times to leave alone so I could finish getting ready for work,” she wrote.

“He refused to leave and continued yelling,” she said. 

The allegations are that he tore her towel away and threw her naked on their bed and sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her. She said he dragged her around the bathroom and berated her as she tried to get away but he overpowered her.

She said after about an hour and a half she was able to exit the building in shock and fear for her life.

The case was bound over from circuit to Superior Court on May 21 with a deadline of an indictment Aug. 20.

No such litigation will go forward due to their deaths July 6, but the state is not done looking at this case.

A call for Magistrate and Bail Commissioner Stephanie J. Johnson to step down came from a local state Representative.

Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, in whose district Fuentes Huaracha was a constituent, said the woman was a beloved member of the community and the bail decision was wrong and needs to be reviewed.

The state and Berlin police are also undertaking a review of the case and whether there are areas to improve the justice system and protections.

They indicated that there was a call to police to make a welfare check before the homicide based on statements made by Gleason that led them to believe she may have been in danger, but that report has not been released by Berlin Police. 

Also, a new committee is being formed by legislation which will look at domestic violence homicide cases. The committee members have not been named but officials from the Coalition on Domestic and Sexual Violence said there will be three of its members named.

Executive Councilors Kenney and John Stephen, R-Manchester held a roundtable discussion on the case, a portion of which was held in private on July 24.

Attending were NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, Attorney General John Formella and others.

One area officials are also looking at is whether she was also being coerced as it related to her immigration status.

Gleason filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” on May 21.

They were married less than a year, in Burlington, Vt. in November, 12 2024.

The day he filed for divorce was the same day his charges were bound over and headed to Superior Court from the circuit court due to the severity of the allegations. 

He was represented by Christopher West, a Plymouth lawyer in his divorce petition.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, Gleason was owner of Weedin and Seedin, a landscaping company that was established as a limited liability company in 2013 and according to his petition for divorce, he has been a resident of New Hampshire for 35 years.

The emergency order of protection, signed by Berlin Patrol Officer Joshua Cusson in April, indicates that the court order showed that firearms were to be relinquished by Gleason with the order reading “it may be unlawful for you to possess or purchase a firearm…”

The box where it states firearms were seized is notated with the letters “N/A” but there was no indication that the police seized or searched for weapons.

How Gleason came to have a weapon on July 6 is another area of inquiry.

The domestic violence petition, written by hand by Fuentes Huaracha, goes over a number of pages where she asks the court to restrain Gleason from further abuse, restrain him from possessing firearms, and allow her to remain in her home with their pet or pets. 

Together, they had no children and lived in a house which he owned, according to her documents.

Marrying a U.S citizen does not automatically make a person a U.S. citizen but it puts them on a path to being a lawful resident which can also lead to citizenship. If the marriage is less than two years, they can receive a two-year temporary green card which can lead to a permanent green card, by petition.

She mentions that he used her “immigration status” against her, and by filing for divorce, the process for permanent citizenship was jeopardized.

The court documents show she went to Berlin Police and saw Patrol Officer Joshua Cusson.

She wrote that during the attack, Gleason questioned her about what she had done the night before.

“There have been many incidents before this one. He would often become defensive whenever I sat near my friends” and said she should not be near men.

Fuentes Huaracha said at one time after a disagreement, he used very hurtful words and forced her to leave the house.

“I had to leave at around three o’clock in the morning, while the streets were heavily covered in snow. I had no safe place to go and I was alone in the freezing weather,” she wrote the court. “I ask for help.”

She also described another incident in which she went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday with others and called her husband to get a ride home.

“He became hostile. He started screaming at me about one of the men who was at the gathering. I am living in constant fear…for his controlling, threatening and abusive behavior.”

On May 22, Fuentes Huaracha also filed a motion for contempt, claiming that on April 28, Gleason sent a tow truck to the property and removed a black Chevrolet Camaro, a white truck and a trailer “without any notification or permission from law enforcement,” and that she had gone to the Berlin Police who said they would investigate.

“No action has been taken,” she wrote.

The next action the court took in her case was to vacate the domestic violence order July 7, the day after she was murdered.