A stranger in her bed

Aug 21, 2016 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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– What if you woke up one morning to find that your husband was not the man he claimed to be?
By Michael Jordan
It was just before dawn on Friday, March 22, 1996, that Linda Jairam and her husband, Gregory Grayson, were rudely awakened by banging at the front door of their Almond Street, Queenstown home. The persons who were making the

racket identified themselves as ranks from the Guyana Police Force and demanded that the occupants open.
Grayson, an American citizen, eventually opened and several policemen entered.
“Are you John Anthony Diaz?” one of the policemen asked.
Grayson said that he was not.
“Are you Gregory Grayson?” the officer then asked.
When Linda Jairam’s husband confirmed that he was indeed Grayson, the officer said: “That’s the person we want.”
Linda Jairam then listened incredulously as the policemen informed Grayson that they had an arrest warrant for him for murder.
How could this be?
Before all this, life could not have been better for Linda Jairam. She had two wonderful children. And she had also met and married a wonderful man.
She had met him in November 1993, when the US citizen, who introduced himself as Gregory Grayson, visited her Almond Street home.
Her first impression of the stranger with the bodybuilder’s physique was that he was quiet and pleasant. They fell in love and married shortly after. She would later reminisce that he was a very good father to her two young children.
Grayson gained employment with an advertising company and in his spare time, he lifted weights at a Georgetown gym.
In hindsight, Linda Jairam would remember a conversation she had with her new husband.
While participating in a local call-in programme, she had indicated that she favoured the death penalty for murderers.
For some reason, her remark had upset Gregory.
What Linda Jairam did not know then that her newfound husband had every right to be concerned.
His real name was John Anthony Diaz, and he had killed someone back in America. A young white woman named Dawn Brown.
Back in the summer of 1991, John Anthony Diaz was living in Cape Cod with his mother and was employed as a physical therapist aide while attending Springfield College.
During this time he started dating a young Caucasian woman named Kimberlee Brown Goldstein.
But in the spring of 1992, Diaz’s girlfriend told him that she wanted to break off the relationship, but would like to remain his friend.
In May of 1992, the ex-girlfriend began dating another man who she would eventually marry. By September of 1992, she started a job in New York City and moved to New Jersey. Later that month, Diaz telephoned her.
The conversation went pleasantly until the young woman told Diaz that she was dating someone else.
Diaz then reportedly called her a ‘f—ing bitch’ before hanging up.
It is believed that from then, an obsessed John Anthony Diaz began to plot revenge against the girl who had jilted him.
What he did next seems to confirm later suggestions that Diaz had become mentally unbalanced after the breakup.
First, he took steps to change his identity. From the records in a local library, Diaz obtained information about a dead child, who would have been Diaz’s age had he lived.
In early 1993, he obtained the child’s birth certificate and received an identification card, driver’s licence, social security card and passport under the name Gregory Grayson.
Diaz also sought advice from a friend about firearms and “man-stopping” ammunition.
On May 11, 1993, he purchased a Glock .40 calibre semi-automatic handgun and Black Talon ammunition.
On July 10, 1993, the ex-girlfriend, Kimberlee Brown Goldstein, held her bridal shower at her mother’s home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Also in attendance was Kimberlee’s sister, Dawn Brown. That evening, the sister went out for refreshments and ice cream with her boyfriend and her teenage nephew.
The three returned at around 23:00 hrs.
Around the same time, Diaz, who was apparently stalking his girlfriend, was also outside the premises.
On spotting the blonde-haired woman, Diaz stood a foot away from the victim, pointed his Glock semi-automatic handgun at her head, called out her name, and fired.
Leaving the mortally wounded woman on the ground, Diaz drove his vehicle to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Using the false passport and $10,000 he had obtained from credit cards, the killer boarded a flight, and eventually arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
On July 13, 1993, from his hotel room in Malaysia, he telephoned a friend who lived in Hyannis, Massachusetts, to confirm whether his ex-girlfriend was dead.
It was then that Diaz received a shock. The friend told Diaz that Kimberlee was very much alive.
Kimberlee’s sister, Dawn Brown, had recently dyed her hair blonde.
That blonde hair made Dawn Brown look just like Kimberlee, the sister with whom Diaz was obsessed.
John Anthony Diaz had killed the wrong sister.
On being told of his mistake, Diaz reportedly told the friend: “I am not fit to live.”
Now a fugitive from justice, Diaz left Malaysia and traveled though several countries before arriving in Guyana on September 30, 1993.
And that was how he met and married Linda Jairam. He got a job. He made friends, among them some members of the Guyana Police Force with whom he trained at a weightlifting gym.
For almost three years, Linda and the man she knew as Gregory Grayson lived happily in Almond Street with Jairam’s two children.
But on one fateful night in March 1996, the producers of the popular television series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ aired a story about a woman who was mistakenly slain by her sister’s ex-boyfriend.
A photograph of the killer identified him as John Anthony Diaz.
The programme was broadcast on a local television station and someone who was watching it recognised the photograph as that of Gregory Grayson.
The Massachusetts State Police were informed of Diaz’s whereabouts and notified the Guyanese authorities of his presence in the country.
On March 22, 1996, after obtaining an arrest warrant, ranks from the Guyana Police Force swooped on the Almond Street home where Diaz was staying and arrested him.
On March 23, 1996, two Massachusetts State police officers flew to Guyana to interview the defendant.
A local attorney was appointed to represent him and extradition proceedings commenced.
On March 25, 1996, Diaz’s local attorney successfully filed an injunction that restrained the Attorney General of Guyana and then Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis from expelling “Greg Grayson” until completion of the extradition proceedings.
A faithful Linda Jairam attended court to be by her husband’s side.
But on April 19, 1996, a local magistrate found that Diaz had entered Guyana on a false passport. He ordered that Diaz be deported before his extradition hearing was completed.
In the early hours of April 22, 1996, Diaz was transported to the Timehri Airport, and turned over to the Massachusetts State Police.
They then boarded a flight to Miami. During a stop in Trinidad, Diaz attempted to flee but was quickly apprehended and placed in shackles at the request of the airline. He was then transported back to Massachusetts, where he was arraigned on the murder charge.
During the trial, Diaz’s attorneys argued that the killing was not a deliberate act, since the accused was mentally ill at the time.
According to the defence, after learning that his ex-girlfriend was dating someone else, Diaz had become depressed, did not return to school, quit his job as a physical therapy aide, and was contemplating suicide.
In the spring of 1993, the defendant told a friend that he thought the breakup with the victim’s sister was caused by her father’s racism.
Some of Diaz’s friends provided similar testimony. His mother also stated that, from January 1993, to the time of the murder, the defendant rarely left their home.
A psychiatrist also testified that at the time leading up to the shooting, the defendant was suffering from severe depression that left him unable to think rationally and prevented the defendant from deliberately premeditating the killing.
The defence also claimed that, because Guyana deported him rather than waiting for the extradition process, he did not receive the process he was entitled to under the treaty between the United States and Guyana.
Despite a strong defence, a jury eventually convicted John Anthony Diaz of murder in the first degree. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. An appeal for a retrial was denied.

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