Navy Reservist Paul Berkley, 46, had been proudly serving his country in the Middle East in President George W. Bush's war against Iraq since January 2005, when he left his family and their Clayton, North Carolina home for a tour of duty that was based out of Bahrain. According to his daughter, Becky, 18, Berkley had served in the Middle East "for months and months" without ever getting shot, only to return home to presumably safer turf where he was ironically shot down in a public park while on a picnic with his wife, Monique, twenty years his junior, in what appeared, at least on the surface, as a bizarre, bungled robbery.
What Berkley didn't know when he returned home was that shortly after he had left for Bahrain, Monique had begun an affair with an 18-year-old man, Andrew Canty, who promptly moved in with her after Paul's shipped out. Canty, raised in Brooklyn and Queens County, New York, the police later learned, had attended the same high school as Becky Berkley and her brother, Zeke, Paul Berkley's two children from a previous marriage. Canty, it turned out, had moved out of Monique's place prior to Berkley's homecoming on December 14, 2005—but not before engaging in a secret murder plot with Monique to kill Berkley so that they could collect his $400,000 life insurance policy.
Paul, after spending time with his daughter and son upon his return home, agreed to a romantic picnic outing that Monique had suggested for December 18, 2005. Although it was cold and damp that evening, she packed a basket with wine, chocolates, and other goodies, and the two headed out for what Berkley thought would be a quiet time at a park in nearby Raleigh. However, when they arrived, Canty and another man, Latwon Johnson, were already there, hiding out with a gun and waiting for the right moment.
Canty, according to his and Monique's murderous plan, soon crept up behind Paul and shot the unsuspecting serviceman in the back of the head as he walked with his wife down a narrow path. Afterward, he shot Monique in the shoulder. The idea, according to Raleigh Police Department spokesperson Jim Sughrue, was to "make it look like a robbery." After she was certain that Canty and Johnson had fled the scene, Monique, kneeling by her dying husband, called 911 from her cellular phone.
Things just didn't add up regarding Monique's story about a robbery, and police soon suspected foul play. It didn't take long for the cops to learn about the insurance policy on Berkley's life and Monique's affair with Canty, either. Confronted with the investigators' suspicions, Monique confessed to the murder plans, and the Raleigh homicide detectives, already on to Canty, arrested Canty and his pal, Johnson. Each of the suspects was promptly charged with murder.
Canty pleaded guilty to murder in September 2007 and was sentenced to life in prison. Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Johnson will likely spend 13 to 16 years in prison. Similarly, Monique Berkley pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
"My dad was in the Middle East for months and months and didn't get shot," Becky Berkley said in a written statement. "Then he came home, where you'd assume he'd be much safer…and then all this happened."
