Joanna Hayes

This case has always intrigued me for several reasons. One of those reasons is because Joanna Hayes went to great lengths to disguise herself during the commission of her crime and while the disguise was seen to be just that, a disguise, she was unable to hide other mannerisms, such as the way she walked. Another reason this case intrigues me is the fact that the alleged motive behind the murder of Joanna's daughter in law was so that her son would obtain custody of the child he shared with the victim. That in and of itself is not interesting as we see spouses and even grandparents being involved in situations like this quite often actually, but what is interesting is that it appears that Joanna's son was not as interested in obtaining custody of his child as Joanna was.

Heather and Steven Strube were married in May of 2004. Their son Carson was born in September of 2007 but soon after the marriage began falling apart. It appears that the marriage failed because of Steven's infidelity. By April of 2009 their divorce was within just a few weeks of being final. It seems that initially there had been a fight over custody of Carson. The couple seemed to be splitting their time with their son fairly well it seemed but at least initially they each wanted to be considered for primary custody. One of the articles that I came across indicated that by this time Steven had agreed to give Heather primary custody and they were just waiting for that paperwork to be signed, however, it does not appear that information was known to everyone, and maybe not even to Joanna Hayes, Steven's mother.

On April 26, 2009 Heather and Steven were meeting in the parking lot of a Target department store in Snellville Georgia. It appears that during their divorce Heather had moved in with her parents in Conyers and Steven moved in with his mother and stepfather in Libertyville. Snellville was approximately half way for each of them. The couple met in the parking lot right about six that evening as their normal time as Steven was dropping Carson off to Heather. The exchange happened and Steven drove away while Heather put Carson, who was now eighteen months old, in his car seat.

Witnesses in the parking lot would later say that they saw a person who they described either first as a man, or sometimes a “strange” looking man, hanging around nearby as if waiting for Steven Strube to drive away. Once that happened the person walked up to Heather near her car. Some witnesses claim that Heather appeared to know the person and that a few words were exchanged before Heather appeared to be backing away from the person. Heather attempted to open the front door to her vehicle but the other person closed it. Just after that the other person put a gun to Heather's head, pulled the trigger and walked away at a fast pace but also in a strangely calm manner. The person would disappear behind the parking lot where a hotel was adjacent.

Of course considering the fact that the divorce and custody battle were ongoing issues investigators first had to look at that as being a motive. On the top of their suspect list was Steven Strube and his girlfriend. It would be the job of the investigators to inform Steven of his soon to be ex-wife's murder and they would say that he did truly seem surprised and distraught. I can only assume that had Steven in fact signed the papers giving Heather custody of Carson that he let the investigators know that fairly early on. But, to be fair the papers were not official yet and anything could have happened. Even still it would appear, at least to investigators that Steven had not had Heather killed in order to gain custody. Next officers wanted to talk to Steven's girlfriend. She had been the reason for the divorce but they wondered if she was upset that Heather may get custody of Carson and possibly wanted to raise the child with Steven. I have seen the video of her interrogation and while she seems almost ashamed to say it she admits that she did not necessarily want Steven to get custody of Carson and that despite caring for Carson she truly enjoyed the time the couple had when he was not around.

In the meantime investigators also obtained surveillance videos from the parking lot and other areas that showed the mysterious person just before and after Heather was shot. They were not at all sure this was a man who committed the crime. They thought the disguise was as others had described it to be... odd and the person had almost a feminine build and walk to them. In fact, the sketches that were developed by police based on witness identification showed the person as almost wearing a strange looking wig and fake mustache. It was such an odd disguise that it was dubbed the “Sonny and Cher” disguise as it did tend to look like Sonny Bono from the late 1960's and early 70's.

While investigators were interviewing people they also interviewed Steven's mother, Joanna Hayes. She told investigators that she had left the home before Steven had left to drop off Carson. She indicated that she may have done some shopping first but then headed to her parents' home that was more than an hour away. Once in the town she had gone to a post office and stopped at a Wendy's restaurant for a Frosty. She provided investigators with a receipt, still in her truck from Wendy's. They noted the time as being 7:19pm. It also seems that Joanna did not hold back on her distaste for Heather. She apparently made clear to the investigators that she did not like Heather and thought she was a horrible mother.

Two days after the murder a truck driver named Darryl Myers contacted the police department. He had been staying at the hotel that was next to the parking lot in which Heather had been shot. He informed them that on the day before the murder he had seen a white truck come into the hotel lot and park. It seemed the person was taking pictures and acted a little odd. Then on the following day, around the time of the murder, he again saw the same white truck. It appears as though he never saw anyone emerge from the truck but did see someone return. He described the person much like those who had witnessed the murdered. Myers claims that the person stared at him for a second and then seemingly took off in a hurry. Myers had very distinctively described the white truck right now to make and model and the color of stripe on the truck. Investigators decided to take Myers for a ride. They drove past Joanna Hayes' home where her truck was sitting outside. Darryl Myers positively identified that as being the truck that he saw on both occasions. At some point, although it is unclear when, Joanna's truck was seized and searched and there were small traces of gunshot residue found on the steering wheel and dashboard.

Prosecutors and investigators would say that Joanna was not immediately arrested because there was more to do in the investigation, including looking at all other tips. Defense attorney's would later argue that they did not arrest Joanna because they did not have the evidence against her and that “tunnel vision” was involved in the investigation.

The investigation and case was sent to a grand jury and Joanna Hayes was indicted in October of 2009. She was arrested and charged in Heather's murder in December of that year. It appears that prior to her arrest Steven had been shown the surveillance videos that had been recovered in the case and when asked who it looked like he openly admitted that it appeared to be his mother, right down to the distinctive “stiff” walk that she had. After watching the video Steven called his mother while the investigators listened. Steven confronted her about the video but she did not fully incriminate herself.

Joanna Hayes went to trial in May of 2011. She maintained her innocence. The state called Steven to the stand but by this point he apparently had decided that the police had convinced him at the time that the person in the video looked like his mother but he had since decided that it was not her and she was not involved. At some point, on a Sunday, the officers involved decided to take a trip from the where the murder occurred to the Wendy's near Joanna's parents' home in which she had provided a receipt. They were sure the defense would argue there was no time. The officers were able to do so in the exact time needed.

A former co-worker testified that Joanna had once said she could commit the perfect murder and described how she would do so. She allegedly told the co-worker that she would obtain an unregistered revolver “because they don't jam” and would get it from someone likely at one of the construction sites she worked near. I have to be fair in saying that this conversation apparently occurred more than a year before the murder and seemingly before Steven and Heather had filed for divorce seeing as at the time of the conversation Joanna was helping Heather out at her floral shop.

The two most damaging witnesses however to the defense, at least in my opinion were both named Steven Strube, Junior and Senior. Although, as I said earlier, Steven (Jr.) testified on the witness stand that he did not believe his mother was involved in Heather's murder, his interview with police in which he did identify her was shown to the jury. They also played the recorded telephone conversation. But, then there was Steven Strube Sr. Over the years Joanna has mentioned in several appeals that his testimony should not have been allowed entered into the court as it was prejudicial. The courts have disagreed but I will let you decide for yourself on that matter. First I should point out that while a murder weapon was never found, ballistic testing was done. The investigator testified that Heather had “probably” been shot with a .38 Rossi or Taurus revolver, but that was as far as they could go. This is where Steven Strube Sr. comes in. He and Joanna had divorced in 1991. He testified that through their divorce at some point she had placed a .38 Rossi revolver that she constantly carried with her, to his head and threatened to pull the trigger. Now, the problem with this testimony could be two-fold. First and foremost, Strube never reported this to the police and it seems unclear as to when he did first tell someone of this alleged occurrence. Secondly, I am not sure that the prosecution was able to find anyone else to speak about if they knew about or had seen the alleged gun Strube testified to. It appears that Joanna and Steven Sr. had more issues than one would normally have when it came to an ex-spouse. While it seems, at least through his testimony, the marriage was at least at some time violent and did not end well it was likely compounded by the fact that in 2008 Steven Sr. married one of Joanna's sisters. Of course the defense brought this to light and explained that their relationship was an odd one and there obviously seemed no love lost. For their part the prosecution pointed out that Strube's marriage to Joanna's sister occurred nearly twenty years after their divorce.

On May 17, 2011 Joanna Hayes was convicted on the charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. She was given a sentence of life in prison with the chance of parole after thirty years. Joanna, along with all of her family continue to maintain her innocence. Joanna has attempted, at least to the media and the court, to soften her thoughts on Heather and has often maintained that she loved Heather and would have never done such a thing. Prosecutors saw that as a lie considering her first interview with investigators and see it only as attempting to divert attention away from her.

Then there is the side note that involves Steven Jr. and his son Carson. As I said early on it appears that Steven had intended to give Heather primary custody of Carson prior to her murder. However, upon her death he was the only parent Carson had left. It was not clear as to what it was, but apparently in 2008 Steven had gotten into some legal trouble that had placed him on probation. It is also not clear what he may have done to violate that probation. I can say that at the time of Joanna Hayes' arrest Steven was serving time for the probation violation. The Department of Corrections website in Georgia only shows current inmates and does not show a criminal history of anyone who has served time there. Some of the information I found stated that Heather's parents obtained temporary custody of Carson in August of 2009 but other information stated that they were granted that temporary custody almost immediately after her death, meaning it seems that Carson never went to live with his father, at least not before Joanna was arrested and charged with Heather's murder.

I do believe that Joanna Hayes was the perpetrator in Heather Strube's murder. Whether I believe all of the evidence presented at her trial should have been may be another story. But what I find interesting is that this was done in essence to prevent her son from losing custody of a child he had allegedly not only already signed papers granting Heather custody but seemingly was not interested in full custody for himself. I am left to wonder if he ever really wanted custody or if the custody battle had not been more for the sake of Joanna than anyone. Then, even upon her death Steven was not given custody of the child. The taking of another life is rare worth the cost (and I only say rarely because every case is different), but in this situation it was for absolutely nothing considering none of the events Joanna believed or wanted to take place happened, and on top of that she gets at least thirty years in prison to reflect on that.