Eric Fagan

 

Late in the night of October 11, 1989 Cathy Paternoster and her boyfriend, Carl Fuerst were returning to their Spring Valley Lake, California home with two of their three children after a quick run to a local video store. As soon as Carl got out of their vehicle he was confronted with a man dressed all in black and sporting a beard. Before he knew it there was a hail of gunfire. When it was all said and done Cathy lay dead in the driveway of their home and he had suffered three gunshot wounds. One of his wounds had occurred after the gunman had started to come after him again and Carl lunged at him, knocking him to the ground and the gun discharged. The one good thing was that the struggle had apparently startled the gunman and he took off running. Despite his wounds Carl was able to get to a neighbors house to make sure the police were contacted. Almost everyone interviewed had the same suspect in mind... Eric Fagan.

Cathy Paternoster had three daughters. At the time of her death in 1989 they were ages eleven, five and four. It is unclear whether her two oldest, Lisa and Nicole had the same father but the father of her youngest daughter, Carla was her current boyfriend, Carl. It is unclear the reasoning but Cathy's mother, Betty had raised Nicole, the middle child most of her life. She would say that she had her from the time she was two or three months old. Betty had been dating and living with Chula Vista civil attorney, Eric Fagan for nearly two decades so he too had helped her raise Nicole. There never any sort of indication however that Nicole was disconnected from her mother considering it appears that Cathy and Betty remained not just close but also ran a business together. At some point Betty and Eric had discussed wanting to adopt Nicole but that apparently was not going to happen and I suspect this started the first bit of trouble between mother and daughter.

Cathy's sister, Nancy would later say that she felt that Fagan's relationship with Nicole was “peculiar” and that he was “obsessed with her.” “He had to be by her all the time.” It was not long after all of this that Nicole suddenly stopped wanting to be around Fagan, but still nothing was said just yet. In the process though Cathy had decided it was time to “transition” Nicole back full time in her home with her and her sisters. The problem was that Betty and Fagan resisted and fought back. Then one day Carl had saw Lisa and Nicole nude in a Jacuzzi while Fagan was sitting reading a book and things started to seem odd.

As 1989 came into view it appears that first Cathy's daughter Lisa reported to her Aunt Nancy that Fagan had molested her. Nancy confront her mother with this allegation and later Betty told Nancy that she had talked to Fagan and that he promised he “was not going to do anything anymore.” It was in the beginning stages of being investigated but when Lisa was interviewed with a social worker she back tracked and said she had not been molested. Soon after this, in February of 1989 Nicole informed Cathy that Fagan had molested her. Once again Betty allegedly confronted Fagan and within a day or two he moved out of Betty's home. While Betty convinced Cathy not to file a report with the police, Cathy and Carl no longer worried about transitioning Nicole to their home and “pulled” her from Betty's house.

Despite the fact that he had moved from her home Fagan and Betty remained close and apparently still together often. The couple kept trying to get Cathy to change her mind about Nicole being at Betty's home and sometimes those talks apparently turned into threats. Then Cathy caught wind that Betty and Fagan were looking into how they could legally get custody of Cathy's children. They really just wanted Nicole but if you know anything about the law, which obviously Fagan did, they likely knew that if they were going to try for custody of any of Cathy's children they were going to have to make her appear to be unfit and if she was unfit for one one child, she would be unfit for all. It would hardly look good for someone to go to court to gain custody of one grandchild claiming the mother was unfit but still willing to leave two other grandchildren in her custody. Cathy hired a private detective but it is unclear what they uncovered. Cathy did however tell her sister that at some point Fagan had offered her $100,000 for custody of Nicole. At this point even if Cathy thought she could handle things and had it under control Nancy apparently had enough and reported the abuse to the police in August of 1989. At this point Betty was only getting “monitored” visits with the children at Cathy's home.

In the summer of 1989 Fagan's son, Doug, was a law student working with his father. He would later say that one day during lunch they had gone to a costume store and his father had bought a fake beard. This beard looked very similar to the one that Carl and the girls would report after the murder, as well as a few other people who had seen a similar dressed person in the area. In fact, a day or two before the murder a friend of Cathy's saw a man with a “phony looking beard” and a black jogging suit walking down the road near Cathy's home. She told investigators she knew Fagan and knew right away it was him. Another witness had seen the gunman running from the area and described the cheekbones of the person and that too matched Fagan. Doug would also say his father had told him “If I have to, I'm going to take the kids so Betty can see them.”

It was also discovered that in both July and in August Fagan had bought guns, a .38 caliber and a .357. Cathy and Carl had been shot with a .38 but Fagan would later claim that his .38 had been stolen although he never filed a police report to prove this to be a fact and it was never found.

So, while all of this evidence, although some came out decades later, pointed to Fagan investigators did not have enough to prove that Fagan had actually been the gunman that October night in 1989.

A few blocks away from the crime scene, on the only route that the gunman could have taken to get out of the neighborhood a latex glove had been found and collected. However, forensics in 1989 did not allow them to do much with it. They did know that the outside of the glove contained gunshot residue but that proved little. By 2008 things had changed and investigators were able to have the glove examined for DNA.

By this time it appears that Fagan and Betty may have not been together anymore nor was she financially dependent on him as she had been after he had moved from her house in 1989. I cannot say if the death of her daughter contributed to this, if it was the fact that it was apparent at the time of the shooting Fagan actually had another girlfriend or if something else happened to make their relationship collapse. But, by this time it appears that Betty not only saw things a little differently looking back, but she seemed less likely to make excuses or defend him. She would tell a detective that Fagan was “very emotional and attached to Nicole” and that he expected her to gain custody of her grandchildren upon Cathy's death. That did not happen and the girls went to live with their fathers. Betty told the detective that Fagan had a plan to kidnap Nicole, on the premises that she would take her but she could not recall if this plan was before or after the murder had taken place.

By October of 2009, twenty years after the attack investigators finally had enough to arrest Fagan. By now he was seventy-four years old. It does not appear that he was currently practicing law as according to the Stwiate Bar of California because he had not paid membership fees, nor was he in compliance with the “continuing education” that was required to keep his license. By this time he had also written book relating to Internet dating and actually considered to be an Internet dating “expert.”

While he was awaiting trial for murder and attempted murder Betty's daughter, Nancy found what was described as a “very meticulous plan to kidnap Nicole.” Among the items she found was information on how to disappear with a child and how to obtain new identification and social security numbers. Articles on the subject that she found with this information were dated in 1989.

Fagan's trial began in November of 2011. At the start of the trial Fagan was represented by a private attorney. Fagan had pleaded not guilty and continued to do so. The defense began arguing that Fagan had nothing to do with the murder of Cathy or the attack on Carl and that it had likely been committed by someone that was involved with drugs as they were alleging the couple were users and dealers. I was never able to determine if these drug allegations were ever proven in any way to be true or if they were simply alleged first to help Betty to retain custody of Nicole and the defense in 2011 ran with it.

A week after the trial began Fagan decided that he wanted to fire his attorney and represent himself. While he had obviously been an attorney for many years, he was not a criminal attorney. It was said that he had been involved with one criminal trial in a child molestation case but nothing beyond that. And, while we are on the subject there was no indication that the case involved him, nor did I ever hear that anything else was done back in the early 1990's involving the allegations against him involving at the very least Nicole. The judge in his criminal case held a hearing, which is common, to determine whether he understood the ramifications involved with representing himself. This is often done simply so the defendant cannot come back later and claim they had no idea what it would involve to represent ones self and use it in an effort to appeal any guilty verdict.

Throughout the trial the allegations of molestation involving Cathy's children was brought up extensively. The prosecution did this to establish a motive for the murder, whether it was to help him avoid prosecution, which apparently it did, or whether it was to hopefully ensure that Betty would gain custody of her grandchildren. For his part Fagan denied being involved in the murders or the molestation. He also argue that the prosecution theory that Fagan was trying to make it to where Betty got her grandchildren was unreasonable considering that the children would likely go to their fathers. I agree with the latter assessment but I also believe that what the prosecution alleged was completely right when it came to how Fagan likely felt in 1989. It is easy to say twenty years after the fact, and knowing that Betty did not gain custody of her grandchildren to say he knew what would happen and not what he expected or wanted at the time.

I would also like to say that while there is no proof that Betty herself was involved in any way when it came to the murder of her daughter, I believe that she too thought she would get custody of her grandchildren. Whether that thought was fed to her by Fagan I cannot say. Nor can I say for certain if her efforts to get at least Nicole after the murder was by her own wishes or those being pushed by Fagan. It was said that Betty had volunteered to take the children and when that did not happen she was known to have gone to Nicole's school on at least two occasions to “coax her” into leaving with her but thankfully her teacher would not allow it. She even went to court saying that she was Nicole's “bonding parent.” These actions by Betty also make me question her statement that she was unsure if Fagan's “plan” to kidnap Nicole took place before or after Cathy's murder.

Fagan's son Doug testified at the trial about his father buying the fake beard and comments that he had made about kidnapping Nicole. Betty's daughter, Nancy, testified about statements made and actions taken related to the molestation accusations that lead up to the murder.

When it came down to evidence relating to the crime itself there were other witnesses and evidence that was difficult for Fagan to dispute, yet he obviously tried. First, there were those who had claimed to have seen him in the area of the crime within just a few days of the shooting. As mentioned above, one of them knew him and knew it was him who she saw walking down the street. The other saw a man running from the scene and while apparently they did not know Fagan they were able to identify him despite his attempt to use a fake beard. Then there was Carl Fuerst, who did not officially identify him but described what his attacker was wearing. Nicole also testified. She was now a grown woman but she was five years old when the shooting occurred. In 1989 she had claimed that the attacker had looked at her and said “Hi” or “Hey” but had left both her and her sister unharmed. She had said she did not recognize the voice. By 2011 she elaborated, which was questioned obviously, saying that the attacker did not just say hello but he had also called her by name. It is unclear whether she talked about the relationship she had with Fagan prior to that or if she addressed the abuse charges. Once again it appears Fagan was never charged in that case but it was said that within a few months after the murder she was taken to a doctor and examined. It revealed that Nicole did in deed have injuries to her vaginal area and the doctor concluded that it was “highly probable” that she had been previously abused. It is likely that they did address this with Nicole since the prosecution was really pushing the molestation allegations in the trial. Fagan would argue later that these allegations being brought into the trial was improper because he was never charged or convicted for them but from the prosecution standpoint it was very important. They fully believed that the murder had occurred because of the allegations, whether it was to prevent him from being charged, which obviously happened or so that Betty would have access to Nicole again, which in turn would give him access to her. In my opinion it was the former more than the latter for Fagan. As was discussed earlier it seems unreasonable to believe that upon her death Betty would have gotten custody of the children. I agree that since she had allegedly done much of Nicole's raising that she had slightly a larger edge than the ordinary grandparent would have had, but custody issues are never guaranteed and the fact that Nicole had a father in the picture would have played a huge role. I also believe that while Fagan never admitted his role in the murders that if he had ever done so or spoken of it at all he would have never mentioned the molestation charges as his motive. If he had to admit a motive I believe it would have been using the Betty angle because it would make him look “better” at least to those who knew him.

Then there was the issue with the latex glove that had been found. Gunshot residue was found on the outside and testing in 2008 had proven that Fagan's DNA was on the inside of the glove. For his part Fagan admitted buying some latex gloves at some point but claimed that he only used them installing a rock garden and possibly an oil change but that was all. His theory, or at least the one in which he expect the jury to believe was that the investigators planted that evidence to frame him. He continually insisted that he was not involved in the murder and had no motive, despite the proof given, to do so.

In the end the trial took just over four weeks to conduct but the jury only needed about two hours to reach a verdict. They found him guilty on all charges. In February of 2013 he was sentenced him consecutively (meaning one after another rather than all together) on all four charges. For the murder of Cathy he was given a sentence of twenty-five years to life; for the attempted murder of Carl he was given life with parole. In addition that that he was given a three year sentence for causing great bodily injury to another and a two year sentence for a firearm charge.

In 2014 an appeal was filed. The basis of the appeal was the issue that the molestation information had been entered into the trial and presented to the jury. There really was a fine line in the law that allowed the prosecution to bring that to the jury considering he had only been accused and never officially charged, let alone convicted. The law does not allow things like this into the court on the basis of showing the alleged character of the defendant. However, they can use such allegations when it thought that the allegations alone were motive for the crime. So, in this case the theory was that the motive behind the murder and attempted murder was based on the molestation allegations and the appeals court disagreed with Fagan, letting his convictions stand.

When I do my cases for this site I always go to the state Department of Corrections website to see if there is any interesting information on there. They are most helpful to determine if, and when, the person may or may not be eligible for parole. From time to time I will go to the site and be unable to find the prisoner. Some times this is due to the prisoner dying. In those cases I can generally find a record of that death either through another website or even sometimes I will find an obituary. From time to time I cannot find someone because they are being housed in a state other than the state they were convicted. When that is the case neither state will generally have them listed. This some times happens in high profile cases and generally for the safety of the prisoner. However, this case has puzzled me a bit.

I could not find Eric Fagan on the California Department of Corrections website nor did I find an article about his release, or his death, an obituary or any other grave information. My only other conclusion would be that it is possible that because of COVID-19 and the fact that California released many prisoners due to this that he may have fallen into that category. In 2009 at the time of his arrest he was seventy-four years old, which means that he was about eighty-five in 2020. It would also mean that if this was the situation Eric Fagan only spent about eleven years in prison.