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This story originally appeared July 10, 2003
| Thursday, Feb 15 2007 1:43 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Feb 15 2007 1:43 PM
Vincent Brothers' love life was rocky.
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He was married to three women and each relationship was marred by multiple breakups, court battles and at least one domestic violence conviction.
But Joanie Harper didn't show any signs of distress, according to family.
"If something was going on in her family, you wouldn't have known because she'd come in with a smile," said LeThuy Horton, Harper's hairdresser and friend. "You never would suspect anything at all."
And no one did suspect anything. Not friends. Not family. But Harper's relationship with Brothers was pushed to the forefront on Tuesday after her body and the bodies of her mother and three children were found slain in their central Bakersfield home.
Harper and Brothers' marriage was annulled, but some friends believed they were still married by the way they carried on.
And late Wednesday, a record surfaced that may explain that belief. Brothers and Harper were remarried Jan. 25, 2003 according to a certificate filed in Clark County, Nev.
But even many of their friends didn't seem to know about this latest marriage.
They initially met around 1990, working together at a group home for boys in Bakersfield.
"That's where she met that fool," said Pat Shiloh, Harper's basketball coach who also worked at the group home with the couple.
At that time, Brothers was finalizing his divorce from his first wife Angela Denise Richardson. Shiloh had few kind words for Brothers.
"She knew how I felt about him," she said. "He had a temper. He lied a lot."
Still, the two continued with their relationship. For a period of time, they both worked at Emerson Middle School, where Brothers was hired in 1989. And Harper would follow Brothers to Fremont School, when he took a job there as vice principal in 1996.
Two years later they had their first child, Marques. By the time he was 2, they'd decided to get married, but that didn't last.
In February 2000, less than a month after their wedding, Brothers had already filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences." While the couple were separated, Harper was pregnant with their second child, Lyndsey, who was born Aug. 5, 2000 -- the same month Harper transferred to her most recent job as a campus supervisor at Rafer Johnson Community Day School, school officials said.
The two separated and Harper would later file for an annulment on the basis of fraud, according to court documents. That annulment was finalized in September 2001.
Darren Dixon, 22, Harper's cousin, said he didn't even know Brothers' first name when they married.
"I knew there were, like maybe, little problems. Something like that," he said. "I thought it was just normal marital problems. Love spats, I guess."
The two continued to have an on-again, off-again relationship, according to family and friends.
Harper had legal custody of their two children, and they still saw each other regularly. And even though the marriage was legally over, the couple had a third child, baby Marshall, just six weeks ago.
Friends of Harper said they saw nothing but a "perfect marriage," although most admitted they really only knew Brothers in passing and rarely spoke to him.
"We never talked about anything personal at all," Horton said of Brothers. "He looked like a well-rounded person."
But he had a history of abusive behavior toward his wives.
Although there were no records of violence between Brothers and Harper, court documents show differently when it comes to Brothers' first two marriages.
Brothers followed Richardson to Bakersfield after she was recruited for a teaching job by then-school board member Irma Carson, now a Bakersfield city councilwoman. Richardson and Brothers both took jobs with the Bakersfield City School District.
Then in June 1988, Brothers was arrested on domestic violence charges. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation for three years.
Despite this, the two were wed by October 1988.
The conviction was erased from his record in 1990 after Brothers used a provision that allows for a misdemeanor conviction to be dismissed if the convicted person stays out of trouble.
That same year, Brothers' marriage to Richardson ended in divorce.
Brothers married his next wife, Sharon Glover, in January 1992. It would prove to be his longest and possibly most tumultuous marriage.
Over a six-year period, the two continuously broke up and got back together. In court documents, Brothers claimed that the couple separated more than four times. And he said some of the separations lasted for as long as five and six months.
The first year of their marriage they broke up after three months, with Glover claiming in a court file that Brothers was "violent and threatened to kill me." The couple would rack up three separate divorce files before they officially called it quits in 1998.
First Brothers filed for divorce in 1995. The two separated, but within a year Brothers claimed in court records that they were living together again.
Still, in a matter of months, Glover filed for divorce and got a restraining order claiming that Brothers was verbally abusive and she was afraid that he would become physically abusive.
"I'm afraid he will become violent," Glover said in the divorce files.
She alleged that Brothers scratched her daughter's car.
"I fear for my daughter's safety as well as my own," she said.
Brothers denied being verbally or physically abusive to Glover and also denied damaging the car.
"I'm very disturbed that (Glover) is attempted to damage my reputation and good standing in the community," Brothers said. "I'm a very respected individual and I would never place myself in such a situation that would jeopardize my position as vice principal for three years."
He blamed Glover and her daughter's "disrespect for his authority" for their failed marriage.
The divorce became final in August 1998 -- three months before Harper gave birth to Marques.
Views of Brothers and his marriage to Harper are mixed.
While friends of Harper and people who worked with Brothers saw a man who was humorous, kind and upbeat, some wonder if they ever knew him.
"You just never would expect it and I hope it's not the case," said James Tyson, a project director with Ebony Counseling Center. Tyson often worked with Brothers at Fremont's after-school program. "He did a great job working with the kids."
"I can't see this guy doing what he's accused of," said Pastor Donald Vereen, who also worked with Brothers through the after-school program. "He's an upbeat guy."
But Shiloh saw things differently.
"He was moody and just crazy," Shiloh said.
In these contradictions, for those who knew him, the real Vincent Brothers appeared to be shrouded in mystery.
"That's the thing," Dixon said. "Other than the people he worked with, maybe at the school or whatever, nobody really knew the guy. I've been asking around, too."