A woman whose estranged husband is facing felony charges on claims that he leveled a shotgun at her and fired it as she fled says she wishes she hadn’t been so nice for so long.
Alina Gaona wondered for weeks if her estranged husband Oscar Gaona had been stalking her.
She woke one morning to find her truck tire punctured with three identical marks. And just as she started to wonder if he’d been conspiring against her, he convinced her he would finally stay away from their apartment, baited her into going home, and fired a shotgun toward her, she said.
The evidentiary affidavit filed in Oscar’s aggravated assault case only tells a fraction of the story of what happened Oct. 9 when Sheridan County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Oscar at gunpoint, Alina told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
Deteriorating
The pair had been together for 14 years and married for nine. They’d been friends for 30 years, but their marriage started to deteriorate about 18 months ago, Alina said.
They separated in June, Alina said, noting that this is different from the affidavit’s claim that they were still “separating” on Oct. 9.
They lived separate lives and avoided staying together in their Sheridan apartment at the same time, she said. She stayed with her mother often. She didn’t know or consider where Oscar was staying when he wasn’t around, Alina added.
Finally in October, she started looking for a new home in the nearby town of Buffalo.
She said she wanted to welcome her daughter back home, after having sent the high-school-age girl to stay with her dad in the Sheridan city limits during Alina’s separation conflicts with Oscar, who is the girl’s stepfather.
But Alina said she tried to go gently, to be nice to Oscar and let him down easily. She tried persuading him to negotiate with her on a divorce, but she didn’t file one at that time. She worried for his financial and emotional well-being, said Alina, who described herself as the household breadwinner.
Now she regrets being so accommodating.
“I’m not victim-blaming myself. I just realize how many things could have changed the situation, and (made) it possibly not end up the way it did,” she said.
Now she has filed for divorce and gotten a protection order, but she still dreads the thought of Oscar being released from jail.
The Ghost Truck
For weeks as autumn chilled, Alina thought she saw Oscar’s truck drive past her work a lot, and coast by when she spent time with friends.
But she told herself that it was merely a truck that looked like Oscar’s and that everything was fine, she recalled.
The morning of Oct. 9, Alina was scheduled to go into work at a local bar and restaurant. She’s also worked as a property manager in Sheridan, she said.
The front driver’s side tire on her truck was flat. She called in late to work, lugged out a full-size spare and changed the tire. She took the flattened tire to an auto shop in town, where the workers told her they couldn’t fix it: It had three identical holes that resembled screwdriver punctures, they said, according to Alina’s interview.
The tread on the other three tires was wearing low and winter was on its way. Alina bought a full set of new tires.
Still, she was arguing with herself about whether the puncture marks could have had anything to do with Oscar, she said.
One Amazing Cheeseburger
She finally made it to work and busied herself cleaning the bar and restaurant, whereshe opened up to a coworker who is also a family friend.
“I told her, ‘I feel like he’s been following me,’” recalled Alina. “‘I feel like the times I’ve seen his truck it was actually him.’”
The woman and Alina both concluded that no one else in Alina’s life would have popped her tire with a screwdriver.
“I don’t have any other drama in my life, nobody that would wish me ill,” Alina said.
Alina got off work at 4:30 that afternoon. It was oddly warm in Sheridan, about 80 degrees, and Alina decided to visit an “amazing” food truck the Crazy Woman Saloon operates, and gather her thoughts over a mushroom Swiss cheeseburger.
She dodged a boisterous group of men chumming on the patio and took her burger inside, where the bar was quiet. She ruminated. She called her mom.
Alina tried but couldn’t grasp any sense of what Oscar could be thinking or planning, she recalled.
Just as she concluded that Oscar had been following her, he burst through the bar’s side door, shouting and demanding to know who she was there with, Alina said.
Alina countered saying she was eating alone; she said she asked Oscar to leave. The bartender also asked him to leave, and he did.
The cheeseburger didn’t taste the same after that.
“Every person that came in after that, I was looking at the door,” she said. She felt jumpy, so she went to a different restaurant to meet with some friends.
Text Wall
Also that afternoon, Oscar kept texting Alina, according to a screenshot of her text messages Alina sent to Cowboy State Daily.
“Had to come by the house,” he wrote. “No one home. I assume maybe you went for a walk?”
In another, he asked, “Or someone came to pick you up?”
He asked if they had Scotch tape anywhere, then added, “I’m done. Have a nice life.”
He told her goodbye and, “Your lack of response tells me everything I need to know.”
At 7:40 p.m., Oscar texted that he was going to town, according to the screenshot.
Alina was frazzled.
She felt that Oscar was baiting her into going home by insisting that he wasn’t there. She said she asked a male friend for a ride home, adding that she now wishes she’d called for a Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office deputy to meet her there instead.
Alina said she’d relay a request for comment to her friend, but declined to identify him by name since he’s also a victim in the case.
The friend did not contact the outlet by publication time.
No Truck Though
As her friend pulled into the driveway and dropped Alina off, Alina relaxed a little: Oscar’s truck wasn’t in the driveway.
Little did she know, his truck was parked behind the building, and Oscar sat waiting on the patio, she said.
He came out, confronted her, rushed up the stairs and shouldered a loaded shotgun with surprising swiftness, she said.
That’s Alina’s 12-gauge, which she’s kept under the bed of an unused bedroom. Her other guns — including a high-powered rifle and a double-barreled shotgun — had stayed locked in a safe to which only she has the key, during the couple’s earlier conflicts.
But she’d forgotten about the 12-gauge because she never kept it loaded, she said.
From the apartment balcony, Oscar pointed the shotgun at Alina’s friend’s truck, according to her interview and court documents filed in the case.
The friend, who had offered to stay and confront Oscar before Alina told him not to, had already shifted back into drive on the roadway and was completely oblivious, she said.
But she saw the gun, Alina added, and she ran.
A single shot sounded, court documents say.
Oscar emerged from the building, caught up to Alina and tried to drag her back into the house, she said. That’s a detail that didn’t make it into the affidavit because, according to her, she was stress-fried when she gave her police interview.
Alina kicked Oscar away and fled for an irrigation ditch behind a tree line. She believes Oscar lost sight of her as she hunkered into the running water.
On The Other Side Of The Door
Later, she noticed his truck lurking in the area as if he were searching for her. Once she lost sight of it she ran back to her apartment, locked her metal door and spoke with a 911 emergency dispatcher. Through the window, she watched the truck creep back toward the apartment, she said.
Though he still had a key somewhere, Alina said, Oscar was yelling, tugging and pounding at the door, demanding to talk to her.
“He’s on the other side of the door,” Alina told 911, she recalled, weeping. “He’s going to get through this f***ing door.”
Just then, Sheridan County Sheriff’s deputies converged on the home, found Oscar outside and confronted him with spotlights and drawn guns before arresting him, Alina said.
Sheridan County Sheriff's Deputy Shaun Pushcar unholstered his gun and had it at the low ready position for about 12 seconds, but didn't hold Oscar at gunpoint, Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez confirmed to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, after reviewing body camera footage of the event.
Oscar told deputies he didn’t mean to fire the gun, says the affidavit.
Alina does not believe that, she said.
Oscar kept texting Alina during either the alleged chase or the later investigation, according to a screenshot of texts he sent at 9:47 p.m. – six minutes after deputies arrived.
“I feel stupid for it,” he wrote. “I’m sorry. I would not ever point that at you and I shouldn’t have had it to scare anyone. I suppose I just ended it myself.”
The Pieces
Alina wept intermittently throughout her interview with Cowboy State Daily.
She misses Oscar’s children: she took herself out of the blended family’s group text after getting a protection order against Oscar, she said.
And she has no idea whether Oscar will be in jail, or prison, for very long. Each count of aggravated assault he faces is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but lesser sentences and probation can also be options depending on the case details and court’s findings.
Alina has moved to Buffalo. She keeps busy with work and has a great support network, she said.
Oscar's attorney Stacy Kirven did not respond by publication time Wednesday to a request for comment on the case and Alina's account of it.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
