A death in Durham shows that domestic violence victims need more protection

The story of how Victoria Amanda St. Hillaire died is terrifying and too familiar.

The 28-year-old Burlington woman was being stalked by a man she once dated. Since 2015, she had taken out three domestic violence protective orders against the man, Lequintin Ford, 33, who repeatedly violated the orders. The last was granted on Oct. 9 on an emergency basis, but that didn’t stop Ford from showing up that same day at the UNC Health Care clinic in Durham where St. Hillaire worked. Ford tried to force his way into her vehicle.

“I am afraid of what’s next,” she said at the time. What’s next came Monday when police say Ford confronted St. Hillaire outside the clinic, fatally shot her and then killed himself.

This scenario sadly unfolds time and again across the nation.. A woman afraid for her life begs for protection from authorities. They give her a piece of paper. It ends in tragedy.

The North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s website lists 51 domestic violence homicides this year. St. Hillaire’s death will make it 52. Of that number, nearly half of the killings were by boyfriends or former boyfriends. How many women — and it’s almost always women — must die before the legal system takes a stronger stance against those who make threats?

‘A piece of paper’

Jeffrey Marshall, a Raleigh family law attorney whose firm regularly seeks protective orders, said the orders are not of much use against people intent on harming someone. “The bottom line is that if someone is not behind bars and they are going to do something, it’s hard to stop that,” he said. “A piece of paper is not going to stop that person.”

To give such orders more power, Marshall said there needs to be an accompanying criminal charge, but that can be a difficult call. In domestic disputes, he said, baseless requests for protective orders are sometimes to get legal leverage. He said judges “get pretty good at deciding what’s real and what isn’t,” but they can’t impose a criminal charge “to prevent something they think might happen.”

While judges’ options are limited, the General Assembly could give them more. A 2015 N.C. Court of Appeals ruling restricted the ability of district judges to require that those subject to a protective order surrender their firearms. Legislation proposed this session to restore that authority failed to get out of committee. The judges’ authority should be restored. It would also help if the law’s language was amended to allow the judges to require that any weapons be “confiscated” rather than “surrendered.”

Red flag laws

Another change that could strengthen protections would be passage of a so-called “red flag law” that would allow authorities to confiscate firearms from people found to be mentally unstable and a danger to themselves or others. Red flag laws have passed in states where the legislature is predominantly in favor of gun rights, but a measure proposed in North Carolina failed to get out of committee.

State Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat and former district court judge, sponsored the red flag law. She said it “has more teeth than domestic violence protective orders” and the stronger protections may have helped in the Durham case. “These are the kind of gun crimes we can hopefully prevent,” she said.

The possibility of a violent death for Victoria Amanda St. Hillaire was long on the horizon. She saw it and sought help. Judges saw it and did all they could. North Carolina must grant judges broader powers to take firearms from people who are clearly threatening to harm others.

This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 10:00 AM with the headline "A death in Durham shows that domestic violence victims need more protection."