Adriana Camacho was surprised when her ex-husband tried to rekindle their relationship after getting out of prison in 2007.
She told him she had trust issues they needed to work out. That's when he told her he had once killed a woman.
Camacho wasn't scared away. Instead, she reported him to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
"Why did I step forward?" Camacho asked. "Justice. I pictured my daughters' faces and that gave me courage."
On Friday, the DA's Office honored her and four others with Citizens of Courage awards at the Westin Horton Plaza Hotel.
"They keep people from being revictimized," District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said.
Camacho, who is from Tijuana, helped solve a 19-year-old murder case.
Dwayne Johnson, her ex-husband, is serving a 16-year-sentence for the 1988 murder of Gail Shea, 42, whose body was found in a canyon behind a museum at Balboa Park. She had been stabbed and strangled.
Camacho was briefly married to Johnson. Authorities had found his DNA on the body of Shea but could not connect him with the murder. Larry Davis, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office, reopened the case in 2005 and contacted Camacho to see if she knew anything. Camacho said she didn't but two years later she did and she went to the DA's Office to tell Davis that her ex-husband had confessed to killing someone.
Camacho agreed to work with the DA to put him away and got him to meet with her in a hotel room where he was taped confessing to Shea's murder.
She said she was scared but got the courage to do it after she learned that Shea had a 10-year-old daughter. That's when she started thinking of her daughters, Lorena, 22, and Dilva, 20.
Ten members of Shea's family joined her on stage Friday to personally thank her for helping to bring her killer to justice.
The other recipients of this year's Citizens of Courage awards were:
Viola Contreras: She is a developmentally disabled woman who was attacked by a man after she got off a bus. She testified against the man, who acted as his own attorney in court.
Malissa Sorn: She is a Chula Vista girl who was abducted by a sex offender while walking to school and forced into his van. She got away after biting and scratching him. The DNA from the scratches led to his arrest and conviction.
Mary Brugger: She is an elderly, retired nurse who fought off a carjacker but was badly injured. She testified against him at trial.
Candace Torian: She reported multiple sexual assaults by her father's caretaker, years after it happened.
Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com
