by Donna J. Wade
  
To say John Wesley was livid about the termination letter from Mary Stewart would be an understatement comparable to characterizing Hurricane Katrina as a spring shower. After Mary derailed his gravy train, Wesley became determined to take over Giant Computer, the last of Mary's assets to which he had access. To get it, he used every tactic his sociopathic brain could conjure, including character assassination.
 
On September 28, 1992, John Wesley forced his way past a security guard hired to protect Giant's premises. A large, physically intimidating man, he threatened Giant employees, who left the premises to avoid imminent physical violence. The Wesleys changed the locks, brought in a guard dog, then occupied the premises day and night, prohibiting Mary and two Giant investors to enter.
 
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?
 
Mary appealed to the Sheriff's Dept. to evict the Wesleys from Giant, but, according to Mary, Captain Sayre instructed his deputy not to intervene, even though Mary had documents to prove she was Giant’s CEO and the lease was in her name. Wesley then began a campaign to ruin Mary's reputation, telling anyone who would listen that she was a slut and a lesbian, who had murdered her own daughter. He left scathing, threatening messages on Mary's answering machine promising revocation of her psychotherapy license, fraud and murder investigations, and the destruction of Mary's standing in the community. In October 1992, Mary and the other investors filed a civil suit against the Wesleys.
 
CUSTOMERS THREATENED
 
Wesley coerced some Giant customers into paying their rental contracts directly to him. Those who could not be cajoled into paying him were subjected to physical intimidation and verbal threats. According to the sworn statement of Kelli Harding, a former Giant client, the day after she received a letter from Stewart's attorney advising her that the Wesleys had been fired, five men came to her home unannounced. Among these men were John Wesley and Giant employees George Watson and Robert Palmer.
 
The men demanded that Harding pay Wesley her monthly rental payment. When she refused, Wesley threatened to call the police to remove the computer from her residence, but one of his associates suggested they just push past her and take the computer by force. Alone with her small children and fearful of Wesley's menacing behavior, Harding telephoned her husband for help.
 
Prior to Mr. Harding’s arrival, Wesley continued his verbal harassment, calling Mrs. Harding a "bitch" and "white trash". Once her husband arrived, Wesley became less aggressive. He stated that Mary Stewart was attempting to steal Giant from its rightful owners, and if the Hardings refused to pay Wesley, they would be sued. Mr. Harding gave Wesley $200 cash to make the men go away. Approximately three weeks later, Wesley returned to the Hardings', and, using similar threats, coerced Mr. Harding into an additional $100 cash payment.
 
THE 911 CALL
 
In early October, the Wesleys began removing inventory and furnishings from the Giant premises, but when Mary Stewart called 911, the responding deputy protected the Wesleys. The deputy advised Mary and Giant's legitimate employees that they must leave Giant's premises, and if they returned, or made further 911 calls, they would be arrested.
 
By the end of the month, the Wesleys had removed $58,000 in Giant inventory and office furnishings from the premises and collected more than $25,000 in accounts receivable, which they used to start a  new business. Using the name Five Star Computer Group, Wesley hired Judy Wagner to finish Terese Stewart's accounting software program. In a sworn statement, Judy Wagner stated that John Wesley told her that he feared being questioned as a suspect in Terese's death, because he was the last to see her alive. According to Wagner, John Wesley voiced these fears almost daily.
 
WHO IS JOHN WESLEY?
 
Another surprise awaited Mary when she cancelled the $250,000 life insurance policy payable to Giant Computer. According to the agent, John Wesley's policy never went into effect because the application contained a false social security number and other untruths. According to the application, Wesley claimed to be the major stockholder in Giant, with a net worth of over $14 million.

JURY AWARDS $1.9 MILLION

On January 28, 1993, a Riverside County Superior Court judge granted Mary a temporary restraining order which prevented the Wesleys from acting as agents of Giant. None of Giant's assets were ever returned.

On October 12, 1994, a Riverside Superior Court civil jury awarded Mary Stewart and Giant $1.9 million for compensatory and punitive damages. The jury further recommended that the case be referred to the Riverside District Attorney's office for criminal filings. During this time, five other victims filed suit, and the Wesleys were excommunicated by their church.

POWER OF THE PRESS?
 
In an article in The Californian (a local newspaper) following the jury verdict, Wesley repeated his accusations that Mary was the real criminal and was involved in the murder of her own daughter. When Mary asked the reporter why she included defamatory statements which had been ruled slanderous by the civil court, the reporter indicated it was because Wesley "was adamant" that those comments be included.

After the trial, the Wesleys closed their business in Temecula and disappeared.
  
After reading about the fraud judgment against the Wesleys in the newspaper, a CPA revealed that he had clients who lost $14,000 to Wesley scams. He provided the DA's office with the Wesleys’ unlisted phone number.

THE CRIMINAL CASE

In January 1996, the Wesleys were arrested and incarcerated. John told the arresting officers that around 8:40 p.m. on the evening of Terese Stewart's murder, Mary summoned him to her home because something "happened to her daughter." Wesley claimed that, upon his arrival, Mary stated "I didn't mean to do it."
 
On April 23, 1996, under terms of a plea bargain, John Wesley was sentenced to 1 year in jail; Lynn Wesley to 120 days, served on weekends. John was released on parole on July 10, 1996.
 
After John Wesley's release, Mary began receiving "no person there" phone calls at her home and office. Assisted by the Murrieta Police Department and GTE, a "call trap" was placed on her home phone line, an effort that proved unsuccessful because the calls originated from different area codes through assorted carriers.

JOHN CALL ME
 
Mary's son Shane reported similar phone calls, as well as other suspicious activity at his residence when he was away, such as the motion sensor at his front door being unscrewed. Neighbors reported that their dogs signaled someone had been outside his home in the middle of the night. Shane returned home to find screens removed from windows and a dart from his dart set stuck in the front door. The intruder apparently decided not to break into Shane's home when he noticed security alarm sensors on the windows. Shane immediately went to a friend's home and called North Hollywood police, who met him at the house the next morning. The police officer noted that the intruder had scratched a message into Shane's front door with the dart, "John call me."
 
The Stewarts expressed their fears and concerns to Wesley's parole officer twice. After police left a message on the Wesleys’ answering machine for John to come in to be questioned about the attempted burglary of Shane's residence, the suspicious activity ceased.
 
As the civil and criminal cases worked their way through the system, private investigators hired by Mary developed voluminous evidence that Terese had indeed been murdered…by John Wesley.
  
Donna J. Wade is an ex-cop and freelance writer in Lake Gregory, CA. Send her your comments at donnajwade@gmail.com.

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