Free Wasted by Suzy Spencer

Hartwell walked into Sadie’s. In the smoky, dim bar light, she spotted Joyce Cody. Regina called it love. Others called it obsession. Regina wanted Joyce Cody. So did Hope Rockwell. It was early April of 1992, and Cody was drinking with Rockwell. She was also flirting with Rockwell, who was flirting back. Hartwell tromped up to them and jerked Rockwell around. “If you don’t stop sleeping with Joyce, I’m gonna rip your head off and piss down your throat.”
     
     
    At four a.m., April 7, Joyce Cody was at home, asleep alone, when Regina Hartwell came calling. But Cody didn’t know Hartwell was there because Hartwell came calling through Cody’s unlocked bathroom window.
    Regina was detected only because a man named Calvin Pope caught her crawling out of Cody’s window as he circled the house, pounding on the doors and windows. Pope was trying to wake someone as he needed a place to sleep. When he spotted Hartwell, she spotted him and crawled back into the house.
    “Open the door,” he yelled at her. “Open the door.”
    She finally did.
    “Joyce’s roommate is here,” he lied to her.
    Regina left.
     
     
    Around noon that same day, Joyce Cody reported Hartwell for burglary. “She’s threatened me with bodily harm,” Joyce told the police officer. He searched the premises. Regina’s muddy footprints were found in Cody’s bathroom. “She didn’t have my permission to enter my house or take my property,” Cody continued. “I want to press charges.”
     
     
    On April 10, 1992, a criminal-trespass complaint was filed against Regina Stephanie Hartwell in Municipal Court of Austin, Texas. Six days later, at 7:10 p.m., Regina Hartwell was arrested and placed in jail. She listed her nearest relative and permanent contacts as Mark Hartwell, Amy Seymore [sic], her high-school friend from Pasadena, and Tammy Weeks and Amy Teykl, both from Austin. Teykl was a neighbor of Hartwell’s on Lambs Lane.
    Today, Teykl claims to have barely known Regina.
    Two hours later on April 16, 1992, Regina Hartwell was brought before Municipal Judge Celia Castro. Hartwell stated that she was an Austin Community College student and had lived in Travis County for three years. The judge ordered her to appear in Travis County Court of Law #1 on May 20, 1992, then released her on a $3,000 personal bond.
    On May 20, Hartwell’s case was continued to September because Calvin Pope could not be located. Court records speculate that he might have been in the Austin State Hospital.
    That fall, Hartwell’s attorney told her he didn’t think she needed to worry about anything—the police couldn’t find the witnesses.
    Regina grinned. “I know Joyce won’t testify. I tracked her down in Dallas, went there last weekend, and made up with her. She won’t testify.”
    The charge against Regina Stephanie Hartwell was dropped.
     
     
    On occasion, Amy Seymoure tried to talk Regina out of her gay lifestyle, not because she was concerned that Regina was gay, but because she was concerned about Regina’s nightlife—the bars, the partying, the friends who used her. Seymoure was worried that Hartwell was in danger and that harm would come to her—that big mouth on such a small person.
    “I just want you to be careful,” said Amy.
     
     
    Mike White, even though he was Hartwell’s roommate at the time, never knew a thing about her arrest. Neither did Anita Morales. Not many did. Regina knew what she wanted to talk about and what she didn’t want to talk about.
    On many occasions White tried to get her to talk about her mother. Regina flat refused.
    She did tell him, though, that she had received $6.5 million for her mother’s death and that her father had received three times as much. He knew from her reluctance to explain to people how she got rich quick, the way she referred to her cash as “blood money,” the way she called herself “rich, white trailer trash from Pasadena,” that Regina’s mother’s death still pained her