CONCORD, NH – The first meeting of the revived New Hampshire Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, created by legislation this year, will hold its first session Thursday.
The meeting to organize the committee will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m., Thursday, at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, 1 Granite Place South. The meeting is an organizational one, according to a news release from the state Department of Justice, and no cases will be reviewed.
When the committee starts its work, the first case it will look at is that of Marisol Fuentes, of Berlin, who was shot to death by an ex-boyfriend who was out on bail awaiting trial on charges he assaulted and stole from Fuentes.
Other than her case, the committee’s work and the cases it reviews will be confidential, one of the requirements in the new law. Fuentes’ case was referred for review by Gov. Kelly Ayotte and confirmed for review by Attorney General John Formella before the committee’s membership was in place or work began, the DOJ said.
The law creating the committee was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor in July. It codifies the panel, which was created – twice – by governor executive order over the past 26 years and has been increasingly inactive over the past two decades.
“Each year, domestic violence devastates families and communities across New Hampshire,” Formella said in a Thursday news release. “Every domestic violence-related fatality is a tragedy that touches more than just those directly affected. This committee is committed to examining these cases, identifying gaps in our systems, strengthening responses, and building the trust and collaboration needed to develop practical solutions that can save lives and prevent future tragedies.”
Formella said that about half of the state’s homicides annually are related to domestic violence.
New Hampshire doesn’t publicly issue a list annually of homicides and whether they are domestic violence-related, like neighboring Maine, does, but its violent crime statistics webpage, which is pulled from the FBI’s crime stats, breaks down homicides by relationship. The page shows of the state’s 14 reported homicides in 2024, 57.1% of victims were in an intimate relationship or were a family member of the offender. [The state uses the term “murders,” but Associated Press style calls for using “homicide” until there has been a conviction, since “murder” is a legal judgement of a type of homicide].
The FBI defines domestic violence as “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force, or a weapon; or the use of coercion or intimidation; or committing a crime against property by a current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim; a person with whom the victim shares a child in common; a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim as a spouse, parent, or guardian; or by a person who is or has been similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim.”
The weapon used in 60% of New Hampshire’s 2024 homicides was a firearm.
The Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee was originally created in 1999 by executive order of then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Her order came six years after the Governor’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence was created under Gov. Steve Merrill. In 2022, Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order reviving the Governor’s Commission on Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking, which released one report, in 2023.
The bill to codify the committee was sponsored by Sen. Regina Birdsall, R-District 19 (Derry, Hampstead and Windham), at the request of the New Hampshire Department of Justice.
It was formed “to conduct multidisciplinary, confidential reviews of domestic violence fatalities to identify gaps in services, systemic challenges, and opportunities for prevention,” and will examine “the complex circumstances surrounding domestic violence deaths and develops recommendations to improve law, policy, and practice statewide.”
The law requires the committee’s work to be confidential. Cases under review will not be publicly confirmed, and recommendations will be non-identifying to protect privacy and encourage open participation, according to the Department of Justice.
The only exception will be “the deadly, heartbreaking case” of Fuentes, the release said.
Fuentes, 25, was shot to death July 6 in La Casita restaurant, where she worked, by Michael Gleason, Jr., 50, who then shot himself.
Fuentes had previously been in a relationship with Gleason, and got a protection order against him in April after he assaulted her. He was arrested and charged with felonious sexual assault, kidnapping, and theft, and released on bail with the condition he not return to the home the two shared, and relinquish his weapons.
Despite several hearings regarding the case, Gleason did not surrender his weapons to the Berlin Police Department and the city prosecutor did not ask that his bail be revoked. This despite the fact that Fuentes had testified Gleason’s firearms and other weapons were “everywhere in the house (,) in the trucks (,) in the cabinets … literally in every part of the house,” according to court records. A 17-year-old girl testified in June that Gleason had sexually assaulted her and that he had access to guns and knives “wherever he’s staying.”
The previous committee released its first annual report in 2001, and then released reports yearly through 2006. After that, it released reports in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2023.
The committee’s makeup is dictated by the new law. It includes Formella and:
- Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie Duval
- Mike Donati, bureau chief, Bureau of Community, Family and Program Supports, DCYF.
- Katja Fox, director, Division for Behavioral Health, DHHS.
- Detective Sgt. Sean Smarz, NH State Police Troop F, assistant troop commander.
- Ellen V. Christo, administrative judge, NH Circuit Court.
- Janet Carroll, program director, NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
- Sgt. Kevin O’Meara, Manchester Police Department’s Domestic & Sexual Violence Unit.
- Sgt. Mike Mosher, Jackson Police Department.
- Jessica Erazo, director, Domestic Violence Advocacy Project, NH Legal Assistance.
- Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public affairs, NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
- Peggy O’Neil, executive director, WISE, Lebanon.
- Shanna O’Rorke, assistant county attorney, Cheshire County.
- Cristina Brooks, assistant county attorney, Merrimack County Attorney’s Office.
- Ryan Grogan, victim witness advocate, Portsmouth Police Department.
- Deanna Campbell, managing attorney, NH Public Defender (Stratham Office).
- Scott Hampton, director, Ending the Violence (Batterers’ Intervention Programming).
Investigator Bob Frechette of the Strafford County Attorney’s Office will be special advisor to the committee.