Bell Gardens

Photos, Voice Mail Paint Dark Picture of Bell Gardens Mayor's Marriage

Lyvette Crespo's attorney claims Daniel Crespo hit his wife with his fists and belts, and once snapped when his wife was looking at a photo of an elected official on the computer

Photos and a voice mail recording obtained by NBC4 on Tuesday paint a dark picture in the marriage of Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo, who was fatally shot by his wife during a confrontation last month.

Exclusive photos, given to NBC4 by Lyvette Crespo's attorney Eber Bayona, show Lyvette with a bruised right eye with cuts to her lip about two years ago -- injuries Bayona claimed are the result of longtime abuse by Daniel Crespo.

"From the time she was pregnant with Crystal at the age of 15, she endured his abuse," Bayona said.

Authorities say Lyvette, 43, shot her 45-year-old husband multiple times after he punched their 19-year-old son, Daniel Jr., in the face while inside the family's condominium on Sept. 30.

Bayona told NBC4 on Tuesday that Daniel Crespo hit his wife with his fists and belts, and once snapped when his wife was looking at a photo of an elected official on the computer.

"He took her face, smashed it into the computer and asked her if she found him attractive," Bayona said.

Bayona said he released the photos in a response to allegations made by Daniel Crespo's brother, William, at a news conference on Monday when announcing a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Lyvette Crespo.

The suit, filed on behalf of Crespo's mother, alleges that Lyvette Crespo threatened to kill her husband many times and used an unwarranted amount of force to kill him, concluding that she "is a cold blooded killer."

"She said she was going to divorce my brother when the kids turned 18," William Crespo said Monday. "The kids turned 18. My brother went and he got himself another girlfriend, and she got jealous and she was holding it all inside. I guess she just let it all out and killed him."

NBC4 on Tuesday separately obtained a voice mail allegedly left by a girlfriend of Daniel Crespo to his wife within the last year. The recording was confirmed by Lyvette Crespo through her attorney.

"Ly, answer me please. I know you don't want to talk because you said I was psycho whatever, but this is ridiculous," the woman can be heard saying in the recording.

"You act like he is an innocent man, and you know all the f------ s--- that he has done," the voice mail continues. "And I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me. I'm asking you to wake the f--- up."

NBC4 is not identifying the woman in the recording.

The night of the shooting, Daniel Jr. called 911 and told the dispatcher his mother "was defending herself" when she fatally shot her husband, according to a recording of the call obtained by NBC4.

Daniel Jr. and Lyvette Crespo were questioned by police for several hours, but both were released that night. Lyvette Crespo remains free as authorities investigate the shooting.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has not filed any charges as of Tuesday and declined to comment on the recording.

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