The Other Side of Paradise

Summary

Dateline NBC: The Other Side of Paradise

Episode Release Date: January 15, 2025
Host: Keith Morrison and Lester Holt
Duration: Approximately 44 minutes

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Introduction to the Tragic Case

In the gripping episode titled "The Other Side of Paradise," Dateline NBC delves into the heart-wrenching true-crime story of Sandra Gallus, a beloved mother and wife from Parad, a serene island community. Hosted by Keith Morrison and Lester Holt, the episode meticulously traces the twelve-year journey of Sandra's father, Larry Mendonza, as he relentlessly seeks justice for his daughter's unsolved murder.

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Sandra Gallus: A Portrait of a Loving Daughter and Mother

Sandra Gallus was a vibrant, multiracial woman who epitomized the American Dream in Parad, Arizona. Raised in a traditional Catholic household with her father, Larry, and mother, Toshi, Sandra excelled both academically and socially. As high school years passed, Sandra emerged as an accomplished athlete and a popular cheerleader, adored by peers and teachers alike.

Krista Hall (05:15): "She always had her hair nicely done, you know, she was always focused."

Her transition to adulthood was marked by ambition and dedication. Sandra pursued higher education, enrolling at Honolulu University after her father insisted she leave the familiar confines of Kauai. This move exposed her to new experiences but also led to feelings of isolation and homesickness.

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The Night of the Murder: Unraveling the Tragedy

On the morning of January 25, 2006, Sandra’s life took a tragic turn. After a tumultuous period marked by marital strife and infidelity, Sandra discovered troubling evidence suggesting her husband, Darren Gallus, was unfaithful. This confrontation led to their separation and Sandra’s determination to rebuild her life independently.

Sandra began working at the Beach House Restaurant, an iconic establishment on the island, where she met Ryan Shinjo, a charming chef with a shadowy past. Their budding relationship soon became a focal point of suspicion.

Larry Mendonza (00:59): "Sandra's been killed. As soon as she was killed, we all knew who did it."

On that fateful morning, Sandra was found strangled in her car. Initial investigations pointed towards Darren Gallus and Ryan Shinjo as primary suspects. Both men failed their polygraph tests, adding layers of complexity to the case.

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Initial Investigation: Suspects and Unanswered Questions

The police investigation initially centered around Darren Gallus, Sandra’s estranged husband, due to his lack of alibi and erratic behavior preceding the murder.

Roy Asher (02:00): "He didn't pass."

Despite suspicions, the case remained unsolved, leading to frustration and despair within the community. Darren’s subsequent dismissal by the authorities left Larry inconsolable, propelling him into a self-driven quest for justice.

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Larry Mendonza: From Grieving Father to Relentless Investigator

Larry Mendonza, a 68-year-old Air Force veteran and intelligence analyst, refused to accept the police's inability to secure a conviction against Darren Gallus. Utilizing his analytical skills and extensive local connections, Larry embarked on his own investigation to uncover the truth behind his daughter's untimely death.

Darren Gallus (02:28): "Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine what we're going through now."

Larry's persistence led him to discover critical information: Sandra had a scheduled appointment that morning which she failed to attend, and Ryan Shinjo, despite his alibi, had a dubious past involving drug trafficking. These revelations convinced Larry that Darren was responsible for his daughter's murder.

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Breakthrough: Touch DNA Evidence and Renewed Hope

In 2009, a pivotal breakthrough occurred when investigators extracted touch DNA from Sandra's clothing, linking Darren's genetic material to the crime scene. This scientific advancement provided the necessary evidence to indict Darren Gallus formally.

Larry Mendonza (21:27): "They got him."

Despite this significant development, the prosecuting attorney at the time, Shailene Aseri, hesitated to move forward, citing insufficient evidence to definitively exclude Ryan Shinjo as a potential perpetrator. This setback led Larry to continue his advocacy, maintaining that Darren was unquestionably guilty.

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Legal Struggles: Political Interference and Prolonged Delays

Larry's pursuit of justice was met with significant obstacles, primarily due to political interference. When Prosecutor Shailene Aseri lost her reelection bid, her successor, Justin Koller, challenged the case's validity, arguing that the investigation had not conclusively eliminated Ryan Shinjo as a suspect.

Justin Koller (32:45): "This case is the textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives."

Koller’s stance resulted in multiple trial delays, leaving Sandra's family in a state of perpetual limbo. Larry's determination, however, remained unshaken, driving him to persist despite the mounting challenges.

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Darren Gallus: Facing the Courtroom and the Verdict

After years of delays, in 2018, a glimmer of hope emerged as the prosecution felt confident enough to proceed with the case against Darren Gallus. However, instead of facing murder charges, Darren opted to plead no contest to assault, a decision that left the family feeling shortchanged.

Darren Gallus (34:09): "Kauai is a murderer's paradise. If you want to kill somebody, come to Kauai."

The courtroom proceedings culminated in Darren receiving a ten-year prison sentence, the maximum allowable for the charge he accepted. While this verdict provided some closure, it fell short of the justice Larry had relentlessly sought for his daughter.

Keith Morrison (43:15): "Of Public Safety for imprisonment for a period of 10 years. 10 years, the maximum she could oppose."

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Legacy: Remembering Sandra and the Enduring Fight for Justice

Despite the legal resolution, the emotional scars endured by Sandra's family remain profound. Larry Mendonza continues to honor his daughter's memory through annual rituals and memorials, ensuring that Sandra's spirit remains a cherished part of the community she loved.

Krista Hall (43:36): "I believe that you'll always be my heart."

Larry's journey underscores the complexities and often frustrating nature of the justice system, especially in cases tangled with personal grievances and political maneuvering. "The Other Side of Paradise" serves as a poignant reminder of the lengths a father will go to seek justice for his child and the enduring impact of unresolved tragedy on a tight-knit community.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Larry Mendonza (00:59): "Sandra's been killed. As soon as she was killed, we all knew who did it."

• Darren Gallus (02:28): "Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine what we're going through now."

• Krista Hall (05:15): "She always had her hair nicely done, you know, she was always focused."

• Ryan Shinjo (17:06): "Then we hear that Ryan is gone to jail and we're like, oh my God, what did he do?"

• Larry Mendonza (21:27): "They got him."

• Justin Koller (32:45): "This case is the textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives."

• Darren Gallus (34:09): "Kauai is a murderer's paradise. If you want to kill somebody, come to Kauai."

• Krista Hall (43:36): "I believe that you'll always be my heart."

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Conclusion: A Journey of Loss and Resilience

"The Other Side of Paradise" encapsulates the emotional and legal labyrinth faced by Larry Mendonza in his quest to avenge his daughter's murder. Through unwavering determination and a deep-seated need for closure, Larry's story highlights both the strengths and flaws within the pursuit of justice. As the sun sets over Parad, the legacy of Sandra Gallus remains a testament to love, loss, and the enduring hope for truth.

Transcript

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[Larry Mendonza]

My friend called me and she was hysterical and she said, sandra's been killed. I was like, oh my God. As soon as she was killed, we all knew who did it. As the months went on, we just realized that this guy's gonna get off. How is this happening? Just keep praying. That's all we can do.

[Lester Holt]

There aren't a lot of murders in Parad. People still talk about this one.

[Larry Mendonza]

Just a darling girl with two darling children.

[Lester Holt]

It's a story Keith Morrison followed for more than a decade.

[Keith Morrison]

How?

[Darren Gallus]

When I got a call from her boss, said she hadn't showed up for work.

[Larry Mendonza]

They found her in the car.

[Roy Asher]

I saw in the back of her neck some literature marks.

[Larry Mendonza]

She just didn't deserve that.

[Lester Holt]

A small island, a small pool of suspects. Ryan, her lover with a past.

[Larry Mendonza]

I had no idea he was a drug dealer.

[Lester Holt]

And Darren, the soon to be ex husband.

[Roy Asher]

That morning he called in sick.

[Keith Morrison]

Was there a polygraph?

[Roy Asher]

He didn't pass.

[Lester Holt]

And the lover?

[Roy Asher]

He didn't do that good either.

[Lester Holt]

Without much else to go on, this case was growing colder by the day.

[Larry Mendonza]

Nothing. Just nothing happens.

[Lester Holt]

But a father doesn't forget.

[Darren Gallus]

I have to have justice for my daughter.

[Lester Holt]

After all these years, are there still secrets to uncover?

[Keith Morrison]

It's been quite a journey for you.

[Darren Gallus]

It is an over here.

[Lester Holt]

This father finally got his answer. But is it the one he wanted?

[Darren Gallus]

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine what we're going through now.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with the other side of paradise.

[Keith Morrison]

Wandering through this land, you wonder if you've been transported to the beginning of biblical time to A garden free of water, temptation or betrayal. Tropical paradise. And in a land so distractingly beautiful, tourists who ebb and flow like the tides could be forgiven for looking past this lone tormented father begging for help for a terrible reason, to solve the murder of his precious daughter Sandy.

[Darren Gallus]

I really appreciate it, Dave.

[Keith Morrison]

No, no, no.

[Darren Gallus]

Anything we can do, we're just takes time. We hope, we hope, we hope we get an arrest this year. This is how close they are. We are 90% there. Okay?

[Keith Morrison]

It's all good. We first came upon Larry Mendonza, well, on another dateline assignment way back in 2009, which is when we shot this video. He was 68 years old then. Alone, he worked handing out flyers, gruff and stoic, except when the pain was just too much.

[Darren Gallus]

Just that, you know. Three years.

[Keith Morrison]

Still rough. Larry took us to Sandra's grave. Told us how he promised to bring her killer to justice.

[Darren Gallus]

She won't be forgotten as long as I'm alive.

[Keith Morrison]

We had no idea then where this meeting would lead us. That our journey would last a decade. A case that would expose evil lurking in this garden paradise and bring Larry to the edge of his own mortality. Many on Kauai knew Sandra even watched her as a teenager dancing at a local marketing video. Later as a 20 something at the head of a parade float. Look at the beautiful palakka right over there, Jake. Like many here, she was multiracial, growing up in a household that was half Japanese, half Portuguese, all Hawaiian and a devout Catholic who attended St. Catherine's School with friends Alma Umala and Joni Morita. So when people ask you what was Sandy like? Good fella.

[Larry Mendonza]

How about you?

[Keith Morrison]

She was absolutely a go getter. Like she was teacher's pet.

[Darren Gallus]

Oh really?

[Krista Hall]

Perfect. She always had her hair nicely done, you know, she was always focused.

[Keith Morrison]

In high school, Sandra was an athlete, a cheerleader, very popular. She was a complete package. And her home life, old fashioned, traditional family, you know, Catholic, play by the rules type of people. Yeah, discipline, a very important thing to Larry. He the 20 year Air Force veteran.

[Darren Gallus]

I was trying to toughen her up, if you want to put it in that expression, to know what the real world was like.

[Keith Morrison]

That was why Larry insisted Sandra leave Kauai to go to college. She ended up in Honolulu, but for a small island girl, it felt as big and lonely as New York City. She missed Kauai, her family, and would come home as often as she could. That's when she got involved with Darren. And Darren was here. Darren was here. Darren Gallus, little older, made good money at his highway construction job. Sandra was crazy about him. And soon after, she moved home, they got married. Son Austin came nine months later, and Braden two years after that. So by the age of 24, Sandra was the matriarch of her own little clan.

[Darren Gallus]

She loved the boys to death. I mean, she, you know, they were the apple of her eye.

[Keith Morrison]

Life was good until April 2005, when Sandra came to her parents very upset.

[Darren Gallus]

As she told us, she was cleaning out her husband's backpack when two papers fell out. Two phone numbers. So she called the phone numbers, and it turned out to be two different married women.

[Keith Morrison]

Sandra confronted Darren.

[Darren Gallus]

He would never admit it. He just kept saying they were friends.

[Keith Morrison]

They were friends, and she knew otherwise.

[Darren Gallus]

She knew what it was.

[Keith Morrison]

By June, Darren had moved out and Sandra moved on, got a job at the beach house restaurant, an island landmark. It was a life changer.

[Larry Mendonza]

She was just a darling girl, you know, with two darling children.

[Keith Morrison]

Krista hall was a waitress at the beach house and saw firsthand Sandra's transformation from quiet island girl to young working woman.

[Larry Mendonza]

And she wore her hair back in a ponytail, and she was very prim and proper and very, you know, subdued. And then as soon as she got away from Darren, she was like, cut her hair in a bob, and it was really cute and stylish.

[Keith Morrison]

All of a sudden, Sandra started going out with friends, and as is pretty obvious in this concert video, she was enjoying her new life. But before too long, Sandra started getting friendly with one of the chefs, a recent transplant from Oahu named Ryan Shinjo.

[Larry Mendonza]

He wined and dined her and, you know, took really good care of her. And he was, I mean, he was really nice to her. I mean, they were always, you know, doing all kinds of fabulous things, Going.

[Keith Morrison]

On Honolulu shopping trips, for instance, where Ryan would lavish expensive gifts on Sandra like Louis Vuitton luggage. Larry and Sandra's mom, Toshi, knew little of this relationship, and on January 25, 2006, were in Dallas visiting their son when they got an odd call from Sandra's boss.

[Darren Gallus]

I said she hadn't showed up for work. Very unusual for her.

[Keith Morrison]

Hours later, the phone rang again. It was 3am A time when bad news comes calling. Larry's son answered the phone, and this.

[Darren Gallus]

Is basically how he goes. Hello, you know, oh, hi. Hi, cousin. No.

[Lester Holt]

When we come back, she was.

[Roy Asher]

Slumped to the right to the passenger seat, face down.

[Lester Holt]

Who wanted Sandra dead?

[Darren Gallus]

From what we're told, he went ballistic. He just flipped up.

[Keith Morrison]

She was beyond the Eden the tourists see, out of sight of the rich and Verdant estates of the wealthy few. She was in a neighborhood more working class suburbia than Polynesian paradise. In her own small ranch house, in her garage, in her car. She'd been strangled to death. It was Sandra's new boyfriend, Ryan Shingo, who called the police, that he found her that way.

[Roy Asher]

And she was slumped to the right to the passenger seat, face down into the seat.

[Keith Morrison]

Roy Asher was one of the original investigators. We spoke to him in 2009. This was three years after Sandra was murdered.

[Roy Asher]

I saw in the back of her neck some literature marks. We didn't find the cord itself. We have an idea what could have been used.

[Keith Morrison]

What?

[Roy Asher]

Thin, thin cord, like a fishing line.

[Keith Morrison]

Sandra's shirt and bra were askew. Her lip was split as if she'd been punched in the face. Ryan, the boyfriend, he's the one on the right of the screen, told investigators he discovered Sandra's body around 9pm but the cops could see she had been dead for a while by then, probably.

[Roy Asher]

Eight to 10 hours, which would have.

[Keith Morrison]

Put the time of death about morning. Could you get any more exact?

[Roy Asher]

No.

[Keith Morrison]

Given that the estranged husband Darren used to live with Sandra and Ryan was now dating her, their fingerprints could certainly be explained. Nothing suspicious there. But Ryan finding the body, well, that was potentially suspicious. Did he have an alibi?

[Roy Asher]

Yes.

[Keith Morrison]

Ah. And it checked out?

[Roy Asher]

Yes.

[Keith Morrison]

Do you remember what it was?

[Roy Asher]

He was at work.

[Keith Morrison]

So who else? Well, there was Sandra's estranged husband, Darren, of course. And this was interesting.

[Roy Asher]

That morning, he called in sick.

[Keith Morrison]

So in other words, he didn't have an alibi.

[Roy Asher]

No.

[Keith Morrison]

Based simply on that lack of an alibi, the police arrested Darren.

[Darren Gallus]

When they first said, you think her husband could have done it? And I said my first reaction was no.

[Keith Morrison]

But even as Larry tried to wrap his mind around that idea, a detective called him the following day, and he.

[Darren Gallus]

Says, we got to let him go. We don't have enough. We've talked to the prosecuting attorney, and we don't have enough.

[Keith Morrison]

Meaning what? Was Darren involved or not? Hit by grief and impatient for answers, Larry launched an investigation of his own.

[Darren Gallus]

It was like a. I don't know, a panic. I mean. I mean, you know, I've got so many things to do, and I've got to get it done.

[Keith Morrison]

Now, as a native Kauaian and veteran Air Force intelligence analyst, Larry had both the connections and the skills to piece together the details surrounding his daughter's murder. For instance, he found out that two days before the killing, Darren, while working on a road crew, saw Sandra and.

[Darren Gallus]

Ryan Together she goes driving by with her boyfriend in the car. And from what we're told for his co workers at the time, he went ballistic.

[Keith Morrison]

He just flipped on at that time. And this is important to the case. Sandra and Darren's shared custody of their two sons. But remember, she worked evenings at the restaurant. So the boys slept over with Darren. And at 6:00 in the morning, she would show up, pick them up, take them off for breakfast, get them ready for school and daycare. But Larry discovered that on the night before she was murdered, Sandra stayed over at Ryan's house. Her boyfriend, he dropped her off at her place at 6am and then the neighbors told Larry they saw her leave in her car soon after that, apparently heading to pick up the boys. And neighbors confirmed they saw Sandra's car return a short while later, but without the children. Larry learned through his contacts that Sandra had a 10 o'clock appointment that morning to get her nails done at a salon about 45 minutes away.

[Darren Gallus]

She never made the appointment. So this is how we narrowed down the time of death before about 9:00, where she would have had to leave to make her appointment.

[Keith Morrison]

The cops didn't tell him, but Larry learned from his own sources that boyfriend Ryan had an alibi. Well, husband Darren did not. All of which got Larry thinking the same thing as the police. Must have been Darren who murdered Sandra.

[Darren Gallus]

Right now, I'm driven by the case. I mean, I gotta get there.

[Keith Morrison]

Many of Sandra's friends, like Christa hall, also thought Darren was guilty.

[Larry Mendonza]

I think everyone thought that Darren would be arrested immediately and it would, you know, he'd be going to jail and the children would be going to the grandparents and or her brother and everything was going to be okay.

[Keith Morrison]

And exactly one year after the murder, there was indeed an arrest. But it wasn't Darren.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, a new theory about Sandra's murder.

[Larry Mendonza]

She may have been smuggling drugs and not even knowing it.

[Lester Holt]

And a threat from her father.

[Darren Gallus]

If I ever figure out a way to get away with it, it'll happen.

[Lester Holt]

When DATELINE continues.

[Keith Morrison]

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[Krista Hall]

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[Keith Morrison]

Kauai is unique in many ways, not the least of which is this. It's almost a media free zone. Most information spreads here, as it has for generations, by word of mouth, where facts, opinions and gossip all swirled together as one. And the news swept across the island like a rogue wave. Ryan Shinjo had been arrested, but not by the island cops, by the FBI.

[Larry Mendonza]

Then we hear that Ryan is gone to jail and we're like, oh my God, what did he do?

[Keith Morrison]

It could that.

[Larry Mendonza]

And then we hear, no, no, he went to jail for drug dealing, which none of us knew. He was a drug dealer. I had no idea he was a drug dealer.

[Keith Morrison]

Ryan, it turned out, was a player in a big money drug trafficking ring, running meth from the mainland to Oahu to Kauai. Well, when people found out about that, rumors started to fly. Was Ryan using Sandra as an unwitting drug mule when he took her to Honolulu? Was she bringing back meth with her?

[Larry Mendonza]

Who knows? She may have been smuggling drugs in her new Louis Vuitton suitcases and not even known it, you know?

[Keith Morrison]

And the final act of that story, Sandra found out about the drug ring and was killed before she could go to the police. But that was just a rumor in a sea of rumors. Police didn't seem any closer to finding Sandra's killer. Whoever it was, the case grew colder with each passing year. Larry still thought Darren killed Sandra. And it seemed wherever Larry went on this small island, there he was.

[Darren Gallus]

This is the house here with the boat and the truck in there. It's not easy giving by here and knowing that he's still running free. We've got to get this case solved.

[Keith Morrison]

On this day, Larry and Sandra's mom, Toshi, had to see Darren at grandson Austin's Little League game. That's Darren on the field coaching, and in the dugout with his girlfriend Shireen, a woman he'd known since before Sandra's murder. And it was at this point, 2009, three years after Sandra's murder, when Larry felt the time had come for him to go from investigator to avenger. He was seriously thinking about killing Darren.

[Darren Gallus]

If I ever figure out a way to get away with it, It'll happen.

[Roy Asher]

Almost 30 years.

[Keith Morrison]

Fortunately, the arrival of a new Kauai police chief put his plans on hold. Darrell Perry, a 30 year veteran of the Honolulu PD, agreed to meet with Larry and listen to his theories about the case.

[Darrell Perry]

He showed me the scene and he explained to me what happened and I could feel his grief.

[Keith Morrison]

I mean, it wasn't of any forensic value to you to be there to look at it, was it?

[Darrell Perry]

No, not at all.

[Keith Morrison]

It. The point was. What?

[Darrell Perry]

The point was I wanted him to realize that there is somebody there that's listening to him.

[Keith Morrison]

What'd you do next?

[Darrell Perry]

We went to her grave site. We stood there and what were you thinking about? I was thinking about the sadness in the loss of a child.

[Keith Morrison]

There's nothing, nothing like it. Nobody can understand unless they've been there.

[Darrell Perry]

Not unless you've lost a child.

[Keith Morrison]

Chief Perry was struggling to tell us that he did know what it was like to lose a child. He came out of retirement and took the job as head of the Kauai Police Department after the sudden death of his 26 year old son, Erickson.

[Darrell Perry]

I feel in a way that I'm working through him, that he motivates me. I believe that things happen for a reason. And in fact, I told Larry this. I told him there's a reason why we met. I don't know what the reasons are, but I'm here for you.

[Keith Morrison]

So after meeting with Larry, Chief Perry sent Sandra's file directly to a couple of friends in Honolulu. Investigators with the state Attorney General's cold.

[Darrell Perry]

Case unit, I asked them to see if they can find anything else that we may have missed.

[Keith Morrison]

And they did indeed find something. Using what was breakthrough science for that time, early 2009, cold case investigators extracted touch DNA from Sandra's shirt and bra. Chief Perry called Larry with the news.

[Darren Gallus]

And he said they got something. They rescanned her clothes and they found two. How did he put it? Two microscopic particles of a male origin coming up.

[Lester Holt]

Sometimes it's what you find and sometimes it's what you don't.

[Roy Asher]

Going through the calendar, it's pretty detailed from January 1st every day.

[Lester Holt]

But on the morning of Sandra's murder, you got nothing.

[Keith Morrison]

It took a scientific breakthrough to finally get Larry Mendonza the help he was pleading for. Touch DNA. Microscopic skin cells on Sandra's shirt and bra. There was a match. To Darren when that result came in. Tell me what your first thoughts were.

[Roy Asher]

We got him.

[Keith Morrison]

But Larry was wary.

[Darren Gallus]

It isn't over yet.

[Keith Morrison]

Because what seemed like great evidence to the cops did not to the newly elected prosecuting attorney, Shailene Aseri, for one simple reason. The DNA did not exclusively match Darren. It could have come from the two children. Larry, though, refused to be discouraged.

[Darren Gallus]

The driving force is to get this case solved and put my daughter to rest.

[Keith Morrison]

Because she isn't here.

[Darren Gallus]

Hopefully, it'll be this year. Hopefully, it'll be 2009. We're close.

[Keith Morrison]

But 2009 ended as it had begun, with the case in stasis. No breaks, no leads, no arrests. And 2010 was no different. Same for 2011. Nothing. It's fair to say Sandra's murder investigation was very much cold. So 2012, now, six years after the murder and three years after that DNA test, Chief Perry gave the case to a new detective named Bryson Ponce, who reexamined the physical evidence. Like Sandra's car, undisturbed since the day she was murdered.

[Roy Asher]

She was sitting down in the driver's seat, and from her waist up was pulled, slouched over into the passenger seat.

[Keith Morrison]

You said pulled. Did it appear that it had been yanked over that way?

[Roy Asher]

It appeared that way, yeah. We believe that there was a struggle outside of the vehicle in the garage. And that's due to some evidence that was on the outside front of the vehicle. Smudge marks, some hair. When you look at how this homicide happened, it wasn't sexually motivated or it wasn't a robbery. It really was focused on anger.

[Keith Morrison]

And so Ponce circled right back to those original two suspects. Husband Darren, boyfriend Ryan. But which one? From the file, Ponce learned Ryan, in addition to being a drug trafficker, had also been convicted of domestic violence. And was there something fishy about how he found Sandra's body? He told the cops he went to Sandra's house. Doors were locked. Said he peered through these ventilation slats at the base of her garage wall. Said he saw Sandra in her car.

[Roy Asher]

And calling out, sandra. Sandra. And then he says that he couldn't get into the door. He called a friend to come and help him open the door.

[Keith Morrison]

Called a friend to help him find a body. Would be the first time a guilty party did that. And did Ryan remain here? At the scene. Wait for the police officers and talk to them there. Was there anything in the report about his demeanor that night?

[Roy Asher]

You know, initially, investigators thought that maybe he wasn't saying everything that happened.

[Keith Morrison]

He was holding back a little.

[Roy Asher]

Yeah, and maybe he was a little bit nervous.

[Keith Morrison]

But Ryan had an alibi, right? He was at work when Sandra was killed. Well, Ponce found out the estimated time of Sandra's death was really more of a rough guess, and that Sandra could just as well have been murdered hours earlier when Ryan wasn't at work. And then there were the results from Ryan's 2006 polygraph examination. What was the result of that?

[Roy Asher]

He wasn't viewed as past, which didn't.

[Keith Morrison]

Look good for Ryan. Except Darren's polygraph result didn't look so great either. How'd he do?

[Roy Asher]

He didn't do that good. He didn't pass.

[Keith Morrison]

Now, that was interesting. Both suspects failed the polygraph. So now Ponce looked at the evidence against Darren, who gave police two entirely different accounts of the morning of the murder. First, he said Sandra came by to get the kids, Then a minute later said she didn't. Now, remember, Darren and Sandra were going through a divorce and a heated child custody battle. So Darren apparently thought it'd be a good idea to take note of run ins with Sandra. Like the time she was late in picking up the boys, hoping it would one day help him in court.

[Roy Asher]

You know, going through the calendar, what I found really interesting is that it's pretty detailed from January 1st every day all the way up until the 24th is the very last entry. And on 25th, you got nothing.

[Keith Morrison]

Why is that important? Because Sandra was murdered that very morning, the morning of the 25th, about the time when she would have been picking up her sons.

[Roy Asher]

You would expect Darren to have wrote down in there that Sandra never showed up to pick up the boys, that he had to take off from work.

[Keith Morrison]

But he didn't. Nor did he call her to find out why she was a no show. Ponce theorized that Sandra actually did go to Darren's house to get the boys, but there was an argument of some sort, and she left without them. Darren, still angry, followed her home, parking his truck on a street behind Sandra cul de sac.

[Roy Asher]

This path, you know, basically leads to the cul de sac, and her house is just three houses down.

[Keith Morrison]

Right.

[Roy Asher]

When you come to the end of this walkway, very, very close, easy access.

[Keith Morrison]

So you think that Darren came up, followed her, had the confrontation there, killed her with a ligature, choked her to death. Then what did he do you know.

[Roy Asher]

I think after the incident happened over here, he went back is where he came and just took off and headed.

[Keith Morrison]

Back home and nobody saw him.

[Roy Asher]

You know, it was. It was still dark.

[Keith Morrison]

Ponce also found this email Sandra sent her lawyer just three weeks before her murder. Darren started asking me about my boyfriend, as he calls him Ryan. He got really upset and started swearing at me. He started shaking me, telling me to tell him the truth and don't ever call him again. Moncey worked the investigation for close to a year, and as he weighed and reweighed the evidence, he always came back to Darren, who lacked an alibi, who called in sick to work, who gave conflicting accounts about the morning of the murder, who left blank the diary entry for the 25th, who failed a polygraph, who was jealous of Ryan, who never called Sandy to find out why she didn't pick up the boys. Ponce delivered his final report to Chief Perry and prosecutor Isseri and a handful of fellow investigators. We all believed it was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the case was not going to get any better than what was we had. And prosecutor Aseri finally agreed to present the case to a grand jury. And in October 2012, the grand jury indicted Darren for Sandra's murder. So was Larry's quest for justice finally over? Oh, no. Not by a long shot. Coming up, we've got a problem here.

[Lester Holt]

A new prosecutor, a new delay.

[Darren Gallus]

Kauai is a murderer's paradise. If you want to kill somebody, come to Kauai.

[Lester Holt]

When DATELINE continues.

[Keith Morrison]

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[Krista Hall]

Where'd you get those shoes? Easy. They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com On October.

[Keith Morrison]

31, 2012, Darren Gallus was charged with the murder of his wife Sandra. He pleaded not guilty, was released on bail. Six and a half months later, on May 15, 2013, Sandra's dad Larry and mom Toshi held this memorial dedication service outside Kauai's Domestic Violence Center. Chief Ferry was there, as was Bryson Ponce. But Darren stayed away, as did Sandra's two sons.

[Darren Gallus]

As most of you know that today is Sandy's birthday and this is why.

[Roy Asher]

It'S.

[Keith Morrison]

A very, very special day for us. Mahalo. At this point, Larry and Toshi thought they were in the home stretch. The Darren's trial was just months away. But the prosecuting attorney who indicted Darren lost her bid for reelection, defeated by this man, Justin Koller, who flat out accused his predecessor of bringing charges against Darren to make a splash and help her chances of re election though the case, he said, wasn't ready for trial.

[Justin Koller]

This case is the textbook example of why you do not insert politics into people's lives.

[Keith Morrison]

Gotcha.

[Justin Koller]

And into their families.

[Keith Morrison]

So now Larry's quest for justice was mired in a political battle with the new prosecutor saying he couldn't proceed because the alternate suspect, Ryan Shinjoe, had never been completely eliminated.

[Justin Koller]

If you've got cases where you have multiple suspects and you're going to charge one of those suspects, you better be sure you've excluded the other suspect.

[Keith Morrison]

Former prosecutor Shailene Asery fired back, saying the entire investigative team voted to seek an indictment. The team decided unanimously. It wasn't Shailene's decision, it was the team's decision. I definitely feel that there was more than overwhelming evidence to convict Mr. Gallus. You could have gotten that conviction. Oh, I definitely believe so. She's dreaming, said caller. She never would. So caller reopened the investigation again and delayed the trial again while his office tried to strengthen the case. And the result was one trial delay after another. And three years later, 2015 now Larry was one furious 74 year old man.

[Darren Gallus]

Kauai is a murderer's paradise. If you want to kill somebody, come to Kauai and you've got probably about an 80, 90% chance of getting away with it. And I firmly believe that there was.

[Justin Koller]

Never any point during this process where the file was just sitting on a shelf getting dusty. There's always Something that was being done, another piece of evidence that was being tested, another witness that was being looked for.

[Keith Morrison]

But you must have been ready to let it go at some point. You know, we can't do this, just forget about it.

[Justin Koller]

That conversation happened any number of times over the years, but at each time, we said, no, there's got to be a way to move this forward.

[Keith Morrison]

It was Larry's kind of constant input, part of the thing that kept you going here.

[Justin Koller]

Of course, I mean, none of us wanted to get that call saying, hey, Larry's Larry wants to see you right away, and he's not happy.

[Keith Morrison]

When we spoke to Larry in 2015, Darren's trial was on the calendar from March of the following year. And the odds Larry gave of that.

[Darren Gallus]

Happening, I would say probably a little better than 50, 50.

[Keith Morrison]

But even that was optimistic. The trial was delayed again until November 2016. But as that trial, the defense requested another delay, and the judge granted it. The case was continued to August 2017. And as that date approached, we look back on what Larry said to us in 2015.

[Darren Gallus]

Someday this is going to get going, to end one way or another, and maybe I can rest a little bit.

[Keith Morrison]

Early in the morning of the 14th of February, February 2017, Larry Mendonza, age 75, went out to play a round of golf, wasn't feeling well, called his son Lawrence in Texas and told me.

[Darren Gallus]

He was having a heart attack and he was going to the emergency room.

[Keith Morrison]

What was that like?

[Darren Gallus]

It was pretty intense. But being as stubborn as my dad is, oh, don't worry about it. I'll be fine. They're just going to put a stent in me. I'll be fine. I don't think he knew the magnitude of the situation I at the time.

[Lester Holt]

Coming up, a father fights for his life.

[Darren Gallus]

To see him in that hospital bed is tough, very tough.

[Lester Holt]

What will happen to his fight for justice?

[Justin Koller]

It's all about what you can prove in a court of law.

[Keith Morrison]

Ari mendansa didn't comprehend what was happening to him as he walked this fairway, played his round of golf. It was only later when the doctor intervened, rushed him by air ambulance to Honolulu. Heart attack, then quetuple bypass surgery, and then a stroke.

[Darren Gallus]

It was difficult for me to see how vulnerable he was at that time.

[Keith Morrison]

Because he'd always seemed like the invulnerable man.

[Darren Gallus]

Correct. I mean, he was superman to myself, my sister. And to see him in that situation, in that hospital bed is tough, very tough.

[Keith Morrison]

It was sheer cussedness, probably, that pulled.

[Darren Gallus]

Him back from the Brink, my cardiologist, says the whole thing was due to the 10, 12 years of stress.

[Keith Morrison]

Larry spent months in physical therapy to build up the strength to attend Darren Gallis trial, scheduled for the summer of 2000, 2017. But it was delayed yet again. And Darren, during all this time out and about this time, we found him at Sun Austin's soccer game. That's him wearing the black T shirt, gold chain, and wraparound sunglasses. And in the blue shirt, his wife Shereen. Larry and his wife Toshi were there at the soccer game, too. Always are. And what. What Larry felt in his chest was more rage than physical pain.

[Darren Gallus]

Someday I might lose it all. I really don't know what I'm going to do. You never know till it happens.

[Keith Morrison]

Then, late 2017, a breakthrough. The prosecutor felt his investigators had finally and fully eliminated Ryan as a suspect, which now only left Darren in their sights.

[Justin Koller]

We had done some work over the years that had made the case somewhat better. Maybe Darren looked himself in the mirror and said, I know I did it. I don't know.

[Keith Morrison]

But they said, we'll plead, but plead guilty to murder? No. Darren agreed to plead no contest to assault. You had a murder case here. No contest to assault. Sounds like not very bad.

[Justin Koller]

Well, we may think we have a murder case. We may know that he did it. But it's all about what you can prove in a court of law.

[Keith Morrison]

And on January 29, 2018, 12 years after Sandra's murder, we were with Larry outside the courthouse just an hour before the plea hearing. And as you might have guessed, he wasn't happy.

[Darren Gallus]

There's no. No justice.

[Keith Morrison]

What are the chances that thing could fall apart over there this morning?

[Darren Gallus]

There's a possibility. I'm told he can change his mind at any given time, up to the time he is sentenced.

[Keith Morrison]

But what happened here, you know, drawing your attention to the no contest plea form, as Darren formally changed his plea from not guilty to murder two to no contest to assault. Juan, thank you. Was not final resolution, but more delay. The court granted Darren four more months of freedom before sentencing. And Larry.

[Darren Gallus]

Well, I'm very mad. I'm very upset.

[Keith Morrison]

There was once a time, just after Sandra's murder, when Larry and Toshi were hoping to raise Sandra's boys.

[Darren Gallus]

But now he's been working on them for 12 years. He's been brainwashing them. They hate their mother. They hate their grandparents.

[Keith Morrison]

As he left court, Darren was protected by a phalanx of friends and relatives, which included the two grandsons. Darren declined to speak with us, but his defense Lawyer Michael Green did stop to talk. There's a big difference between pleading no contest and pleading guilty. It certainly suggests he did something to her. Well, he assaulted her that very day, but he didn't kill. He doesn't admit that he assaulted her. No contest means he neither admits or denies the charges. But now for four months, uncertainty. Because the judge had the power to sentence Darren to anything from 10 years in prison to probation.

[Darren Gallus]

What I foresee at sentencing, they're going to ask for leniency.

[Keith Morrison]

Do you think he could actually avoid going to prison altogether?

[Darren Gallus]

At this point, I wouldn't put anything past them.

[Keith Morrison]

On May 30, 2018, we were back outside the courthouse with Larry Mendonza. This time he was the one surrounded by supporters. A 12 year investigation now reduced to just an hour in court. That felt a stressful and tense as any jury trial. Would Darren be carted off to prison or will the judge give him probation and send him home? Darren's lawyer, Michael Green, reminded the judge there had been an alternate suspect. This guy sends you who was a person of interest the entire time. Then he told the judge to remember this was not a murder case. There's an agreement that my client will plead guilty to. Nothing. Nothing. He's offered to plead no contest to an assault charge. And then Larry got his chance finally to let 12 years of pain pour out, starting with that first awful night when he broke the news to Toshi.

[Darren Gallus]

How do you tell a woman that the baby she had once nursed fallen asleep in her arms, played on her lips, skipped off to school clutching the lunch that she had made for her, was now dead? We received a life sentence full of pain, sorrow, agony and frustration. A life sentence with no parole. Syndicate. Eternity.

[Keith Morrison]

Darren stoically sat through it all. And then what sentence would the judge impose? She began by quoting Darren's attorney. And that is that he pled no contest to the charge of assault in the first degree. That's what this sentencing is about. Larry's stomach started to tighten and my.

[Darren Gallus]

Lawyer reached over and she said, this doesn't sound good.

[Keith Morrison]

And then six minutes into her ruling, finally here it was. You are hereby ordered committed to the.

[Larry Mendonza]

Custody of the Director of the Department.

[Keith Morrison]

Of Public Safety for imprisonment for a period of 10 years. 10 years, the maximum she could oppose. And with that, the Mendonza family's 12 year quest for justice came to an end.

[Darren Gallus]

That was my graveyard promise to my daughter. I fulfilled it.

[Krista Hall]

I believe that you'll always be my heart.

[Keith Morrison]

Larry and Toshi follow a series of rituals on the anniversary of Sandra's death. They bring flowers to her memorial outside the ywca, have lunch at the beach house restaurant where Sandra once worked, and they pray by her graveside at Holy Cross Cemetery, where she is surrounded by her and the ancestors. Sandra, so homesick when away from this island she loved, is now forever a part of it.

[Lester Holt]

That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

[Krista Hall]

Where'd you get those shoes? Easy. They're from dsw, because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between, because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com.