A Waipahu mother of three who was shot to death allegedly by her estranged husband Friday morning in a parking garage at Pearlridge Center had a protective order against him that went into effect two weeks before she was killed.
Family members of Theresa Cachuela, 33, gathered near the parking garage next to the Pali Momi Medical Center where she was shot and killed, embracing one another and comforting two of her children.
The father of one of her children told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that her current husband of 10 years and one month, 44-year-old Jason Cachuela, was the gunman.
Theresa Cachuela complained to family recently that he was tracking her every move through global positioning technology in her car and phone.
After an islandwide search by police, Jason Cachuela was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound behind a home in Waipahu, the Honolulu Police Department announced at 1:41 p.m.
A review of data from Theresa Cachuela’s car, phone and other devices and a review of the couple’s interactions with law enforcement before and after a protective order was put in place is part of the ongoing investigation.
Cachuela lived on Kamakana Street in Waipahu, was the owner of House of Glam Hawaii LLC and had three children. Her minor daughter was with her when the mother was shot. The girl was not injured.
“This was not a random act, as the victim and suspect were involved in a relationship,” said HPD Lt. Deena Thoemmes, speaking to reporters Friday at a news conference in front of HPD headquarters. “We do know that there was a TRO that was served on him, which is why this case was classified as murder in the first degree.”
Cachuela filed the initial temporary restraining order Dec. 8, and three days later, officers with the Specialized Services Division served Jason Cachuela with a TRO. At that time, the SSD officers recovered all five of his registered firearms.
The fatal shooting led to the lockdown of nearby Pali Momi Medical Center at 10:10 a.m. Friday. The Bank of Hawaii branch next to the parking lot where the shooting happened also closed.
Officials said that at about 12:46 p.m. the lockdown at the medical center and all nearby Hawaii Pacific Health facilities was lifted.
Nanci Kriedman, founder and retired chief executive officer of of the Domestic Violence Action Center, told the Star-Advertiser in an interview that the vast majority of TROs protect the victims who seek them.
Victims of domestic violence should remove any digital application or device that tracks and transmits their location to their accused abuser, she said.
“It is very important for people to reach out as soon as they experience any kind of abuse,” said Kriedman, who noted the tragedy faced by survivors.
“The children will forever experience the holiday season in the shadow of this death. That is unimaginable … but that’s real. That’s a different kind of a tragedy altogether.”
According to the petition for the TRO, Theresa Cachuela warned that her estranged husband owned “guns ” and that on Dec. 6 he “continued to make threats of killing himself in front of me, and my children were present.”
“He then took me alone to Waikiki and held a knife to his neck traumatizing me and scaring me,” she wrote. “The next morning he showed up to my house early in the morning to apologize. I tried to help him and talk to him but he kept threatening to kill himself again.”
Cachuela wrote that after talking to her husband Dec. 7, she left to pick up her cousin from the airport. Jason Cachuela accused her of not caring about him, “which made me want to save him,” she wrote.
“I went to his house to pray for him and help him. I told him that I need space and that he needs to relax, especially for his health. That night he started texting me pictures of rope, trees and trying to get me to come see him but I didn’t feed into it,” Theresa Cachuela wrote.
When she returned from dinner at The Cheesecake Factory that night, Jason Cachuela allegedly tried to break into her garage. The next morning, Cachuela was hiding under her car, and she called 911.
A police officer who responded to the call suggested she get a TRO.
“I am doing this to protect myself, my children, and to hopefully get him the help he needs,” she wrote next to a box she checked titled “extreme psychological abuse.”
Two days before she died, the Cachuelas appeared in court and agreed to keep the order in place for one year with a schedule for child visitation.
Jason Cachuela’s attorney in the TRO case, Michael Green, told the Star-Advertiser in an interview that there was never a threat of violence against Theresa Cachuela and her children from Jason Cachuela nor did he consider him dangerous at all. Green said the TRO was sought to help keep Cachuela from killing himself and that he had arranged for a psychological evaluation prior to the couple agreeing Wednesday on the terms of the TRO.
Cachuela worked as a truck driver and paid for his young daughter’s private-school tuition. Glowing notes of praise for his client’s parenting from Theresa Cachuela were authored as recently as the first week in December. Green said there was no “rhyme or reason ” to what happened.-