Attorney-at-law Chris Maruca said a protection order is only as good as the paper it is written on.
"If they want to get to you, unfortunately, they will," Maruca said.
Murder suspect Robert McLaughlin has a history with his alleged victim, Stacey Sutera, 40, of Canfield. He is accused of shooting Sutera to death in Wednesday morning in the parking lot of her Carriage Hill townhouse apartment complex as she was getting ready to leave for work.
McLaughlin had been convicted in late 2010 of stalking Sutera. Last November, he was convicted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of pandering obscenities and weapons charges from the same incident. He spent some time in jail, but was sentenced to probation and ordered to complete an anger management program.
When authorities searched McLaughlin's home in 2011, they found pictures of Sutera, dozens of guns and other obscene materials.
McLaughlin had also been issued a civil protection order and wasn't allowed to own weapons or have any contact with Sutera.
"There's no way you're going to be able to protect somebody 24-7. Could she have taken precautions? Sure, and if she took every single precaution, there's no way she's going to be able to defend herself against somebody carrying a gun," Maruca said.
Someplace Safe is the domestic violence agency in Trumbull County. They encourage victims to document all stalking incidents, save any letters or voice mails and safety plan for their lives.
"Often times it's a matter of sometimes changing the route that you go to work, where you park," said Linda Baer, a legal advocate supervisor with Someplace Safe.
Baer made a chilling discovery when looking at a suit Sutera filed last year against McLaughlin.
"She had filed a civil lawsuit on him Feb. 8,2011, and today is Feb. 8, 2012," Baer said.
Baer said stalkers often focus on certain dates or occasions, but Maruca said you can't predict what a sociopath like McLaughlin might do.
"Either he's going to surrender, because he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, or he's going to go down guns a-blazing," Maruca said.
Baer tells women and victims of domestic violence to document, document, document. The bigger and longer the paper trail, the better the case can be built against a stalker in court.
Maruca and Baer agreed that most people follow restraining or protection orders and are deterred by criminal charges, fines and jail time. But as Wednesday's incident shows, there are always going to be some people out there with no regard for the law, and no respect for human life.
