To Hatred Turned (44 page)

For Larry, that is a nightmare scenario. When Joy was arrested in March 1991, he gave a huge sigh of relief. It was the first time since Rozanne was shot in October 1983 that Larry felt he could breathe easily. Convinced from the day of Rozanne’s shooting that it had been a contract job, Larry was certain that he was next. As a result, he always was armed. In his truck, he carried a shotgun behind the seat and a pistol in the glovebox. From the time he moved into an apartment after his divorce from Joy until he married Jan Bell in January 1988, he refused to sleep in his bedroom because there were two large windows over the bed. It would have been too easy for a killer to blast him with a shotgun, he felt. As a result, he’d bed down each night on a sofa in the den. When asked if he felt safer with Joy in jail, his answer was succinct: “Absolutely.” Then he added, “But if she’s ever freed, I’m a dead man. She’s obsessed with destroying me.”

Despite all that’s happened over the years, especially the death of Chris Aylor—which Larry feels Joy was indirectly responsible for—Larry said he no longer loathes his ex-wife. “I hate what she did, but she’s a very sick person. She’s also very dangerous. I
know
she’s guilty and I’d like to see her get the death sentence.”

On the bright side, many of those involved in the succession of tragedies—those who are not in jail or facing criminal charges—have apparently managed to put their lives back together. Little Peter seems well on his way to recovering from the trauma he suffered in 1983. Rozanne’s sister and her parents appear to have adjusted to the situation. Andy’s ex-wife has begun a new career in a town many miles from Dallas and, according to her, their children have made peace with their father. Andy’s parents, largely through their unswerving devotion to their faith, have forgiven their son. And Larry, essentially the sole survivor in a once seemingly solid family of three, has started a successful new life in a distant state with a wife and two teenage children who support him.

Chronology of Major Events

1968

August 19—One week after her nineteenth birthday, Joy Davis marries Larry Aylor, a $40,000-a-year men’s clothing salesman.

1970

May 8—Larry and Joy have a son, Christopher. He will be their only child.

1977

Dr. Peter Gailiunas, Jr., a kidney specialist, marries a nurse he met at a Boston hospital, Rozanne Borghi.

1978

With encouragement from Joy’s wealthy father, Larry Aylor opens a homebuilding company. He oversees construction; she designs interiors. The company soon becomes very profitable.

1979

April 19—A son is born to Peter and Rozanne. He is christened Peter Gailiunas III.

1982

The Gailiunases hire Larry to build their $500,000 home in an exclusive Dallas suburb. Within months, Larry and Rozanne are involved in a torrid affair.

1983

June—Larry and Rozanne move out on their respective spouses to better continue their affair.

October 4—Rozanne is found gravely wounded but alive in the bedroom of the small home she shared with her four-and-a-half-year-old son.

October 6—Rozanne, age thirty-three, dies of her injuries.

1984

Larry and Joy attempt a reconciliation.

1986

Late winter—Joy learns that Larry had been having an affair with her younger sister, Liz. A divorce seems imminent.

June 16—In an apparent attempt to discuss their marital difficulties, Joy arranges to meet Larry at a ranch they own in Kaufman County, near Dallas. When Joy does not show up for the meeting, Larry leaves the ranch with a friend to return to Dallas. Driving through a copse of trees near the entrance to the ranch, the two are ambushed by riflemen. Larry’s friend is wounded in the elbow, but Larry escapes with minor cuts.

A few days later, Larry learns that Joy has been having an affair with the owner of a Dallas interior-renovation company, Jodie Packer.

August 19—Joy and Larry’s divorce becomes final, almost on their eighteenth anniversary.

October 4—Joy’s older sister, Carol, secretly marries a man she met through Joy, Bill Garland.

1988

May 26—Acting on information supplied by Carol Garland, Joy’s older sister, Joy and Bill Garland, Carol’s estranged husband, are arrested as suspects in the murder of Rozanne Gailiunas and the attempted murder of Larry Aylor. Arrests of several others soon follow.

July—An investigative chain leads to a former ministerial student, Andy Hopper, as a suspect in Rozanne’s death.

August 1—When investigators seem to be getting close, Hopper flees. He drops out of sight for four and a half months.

August 27—Two bumbling brothers, Buster and Gary Matthews, are arrested as suspects in the rifle attack on Larry.

September 19—Joy is indicted for capital murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit capital murder, and two counts of solicitation of capital murder. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death. Within hours, she is released on bond.

December 20—Andy Hopper is arrested at a friend’s house and held for investigation in connection with Rozanne’s death.

1989

February 27—As a result of questionable tactics by investigators, Hopper confesses to attacking and shooting Rozanne.

November 30—Carol Garland is indicted for solicitation of murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder in connection with the attack on Larry.

December 26—Joy and Larry’s son, Christopher, is fatally injured when a 1987 Corvette Joy gave him for Christmas runs off the road and smashes into another vehicle. He dies of the injuries several hours later. Joy is joined at the hospital by her new lover-to-be, former prosecutor and defense attorney Mike Wilson. Joy and Larry fight bitterly over possession of Christopher’s body.

1990

March 21—Mike Wilson is arrested at a north Dallas motel by DEA agents. In his possession is a bag containing twenty pounds of cocaine. Another twenty-six pounds of the drug is found in the room he has just visited.

May 4—Almost two years after she was arrested as a suspect in Rozanne’s death and the attempted murder of her then-husband, Joy is ordered to appear in court for a conference on how her trial will be conducted. Her bond earlier had been raised to $140,000.

May 5 or 6—With both their trials looming closer, Joy and Wilson flee to Canada. Joy allegedly has $300,000 in her purse.

June 7—A nervous Joy leaves Wilson in Canada and flies to Mexico using identification issued in the name of Jodie Packer.

June 11—A despondent Wilson, feared by a friend to be suicidal, is tracked down and arrested by Canadian authorities.

August 6—Larry Aylor wins a $31.2 million default judgment in a damage suit against Joy stemming from her alleged attempt to have him killed. Since Joy is a fugitive, Larry’s testimony against her is undisputed.

A Dallas woman, responding to media reports on the case, tells police she recognized Joy as a woman with whom she shared a room while attending a Spanish-language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

September 17—Joy evades a police trap at the Mexican school. She disappears.

November—Joy’s one-time and future lover Jodie Packer allegedly applies for a passport in the name of a long-dead uncle, Donald Averille Airhart.

December—A woman calling herself Elizabeth May Sharp moves into a villa on the French Riviera, near Nice.

1991

March 16—Following an accident in a rental car, Elizabeth Sharp is arrested in France and identified as Joy Aylor. At the police station, she tries to commit suicide.

March 21—The Dallas district attorney says he will abandon plans to seek the death penalty against Joy if the French courts will extradite her to Texas.

April 2—Jodie Packer is arrested at the home of Joy’s parents near Austin and charged with passport fraud.

April 30—Mike Wilson is convicted on drug charges.

July 23—Jodie Packer fails to appear in court to answer the charges against him. He is declared a fugitive.

October 15—In response to a suit against Joy, Judge Dee Miller awards Donald J. Kennedy a $20 million default judgment for injuries suffered when the Matthews brothers shot at Larry and hit him instead, wounding him in the elbow.

1992

January 27—Andy Hopper goes on trial before Judge Patrick McDowell on charges of murdering Rozanne.

March 2—A five-woman, seven-man jury convicts Hopper of Rozanne’s murder.

March 16—The same jury that found Hopper guilty of murder sentences him to death by lethal injection.

December 18—Jodie Packer is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of violating federal financial reporting laws while collecting a large amount of cash to help finance Joy’s flight.

1993

January 20—French prime minister and minister of justice sign a document ordering Joy’s extradition. However, the decision can be appealed.

Gallery

LEFT
: Prosecutors believe that Rozanne Gailiunas’s affair with Dallas builder Larry Aylor ultimately proved fatal.
RIGHT
: Rozanne and her son, Little Peter, at a party just six months before she was brutally murdered. (Images Courtesy of Judge Pat McDowell, Dallas Criminal District Court #5)

Rozanne’s husband, Dr. Peter Gailiunas, Jr., shown here testifying against Andy Hopper, the man convicted of killing his wife. (Gary Edwards)

LEFT
: Dallas socialite Joy Aylor’s love for her husband turned to hatred when she learned he was planning to leave her for Rozanne Gailiunas. (Courtesy of the Dallas County Sheriffs Office).
RIGHT
: Larry Aylor at Andy Hopper’s trial. (Gary Edwards)

LEFT
: Mike Wilson’s infatuation with Joy led him to believe he could outsmart the law. (Courtesy of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office).
RIGHT
:Jodie Packer, another of Joy’s lovers, is currently being sought by authorities for allegedly helping Joy escape and concocting an elaborate passport fraud scheme. (Courtesy of the U.S. Marshal’s Office)