Left inset: Monique Aldridge (KTVU/YouTube). Right inset: Vaughn Boatner (Hayward Police Department). Background: The California home where Monique Aldridge was killed by Vaughn Boatner after he slid under her partially open garage door and shot her (KRON/YouTube).
A 5-year-old boy who was at his California home watching "A Minecraft Movie" heard his pregnant mother get shot in the head by her ex-boyfriend — his father — after he slid under a partially open garage door and attacked her. "Is my mom okay?" the child reportedly asked the slain woman's new boyfriend, who was at the home, as the shooting unfolded.
"I need you to come in here with me," the boyfriend told Monique Aldridge's son, according to court testimony he provided at the preliminary hearing for her ex Vaughn Boatner, the East Bay Times newspaper reports.
Boatner, 36, was sentenced to 35 years in prison this week after he pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder as part of a deal with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. He had been charged with murder and child abuse, with both charges being dropped as part of the agreement.
Boatner was located in Seattle, Washington, in May 2023 after fleeing from California following the shooting, according to a police press release. He killed Aldridge and shot her boyfriend at her home in Hayward, California, on May 11, 2023, just days after Aldridge found out she was pregnant with the boyfriend's child.
Aldridge was shot in the head; her boyfriend was shot in the face and mouth, causing him to lose multiple teeth and part of his jaw. Aldridge's son "was also inside the residence and was found unharmed" by responding officers after the shooting, the police release says.
"During the investigation it was … learned that the 5-year-old boy at the scene was Aldridge's and Boatner's child," the release explains. "It is believed that Aldridge and the second victim were in a dating relationship and lived together during the incident."
Aldridge's boyfriend testified at Boatner's 2023 preliminary hearing that Boatner snuck into the couple's home and attacked Aldridge in their garage while her son was watching the "Minecraft" movie in an adjacent room, East Bay Times reports.
Aldridge and the boyfriend had gotten into an argument on May 8 after he failed to hold a door open for her at a restaurant, just two days after Aldridge found out she was pregnant. The 30-year-old told her boyfriend that she wanted to take some time to herself. Boatner found out about it and confronted Aldridge at a local park after asking her to meet.
Prosecutors said Boatner was concerned about his son's safety and was arguing with Aldridge at the park. She had the boy with her and "fishtailed" out of the parking lot without placing him in a car seat, which further worried Boatner, according to his aunt, who was with him at the time.
That same day, May 11, Boatner drove to the couple's home with his aunt and entered the garage to kill Aldridge and shoot her boyfriend. The aunt allegedly stayed outside.
After hearing Aldridge being shot, the boyfriend locked her son in a closet. "I took him in the room so I can make sure he was safe," the boyfriend testified, according to East Bay Times.
"The first thing he asked me about was his mom," the boyfriend recounted.
Boatner was sentenced on March 19 and is awaiting transfer to a state prison.
"This is a senseless thing that happened," Aldridge's uncle, Lorenzo Smith, told local Fox affiliate KTVU in May 2023 after the shooting.
"We're going to have a sit down with him, explain the circumstances and provide some counseling," Smith said about Aldridge's son. "It's going to be a long, hard road for us, naturally."
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