It’s been just six weeks since double murderer Michael Domingues was released from prison, but in that time he has already been arrested and accused of violating his parole.
His marriage is also on the rocks and his wife now thinks he does not deserve to be out of prison after witnessing his post-release behavior, which she said included him threatening another woman.
Domingues, 49, was freed March 23 after being granted parole and spending his entire adult life behind bars, including years on death row. He was re-arrested April 20, according to jail records.
It is not clear exactly what kind of violation he is accused of committing; a spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Parole and Probation Division declined to comment on the circumstances of it. The department also rejected a public records request.
Attorney Lisa Rasmussen, who represented Domingues in post-conviction litigation, said she was not aware of the alleged violation and had not spoken to him.
Domingues declined an interview request through the Metropolitan Police Department, which runs the Clark County Detention Center.
The mother and grandmother of his victims said she was pleased that Domingues was in jail.
“Make(s) my heart happy,” said Tawin Eshelman. “I’ve been so down. I’ve been hurt.”
Domingues strangled 24-year-old Arjin Pechpho to death and fatally stabbed her 4-year-old son, Jonathan Smith, in 1993. Before stabbing the child, Domingues unsuccessfully tried to electrocute him in a bathtub with a hair dryer, evidence at trial indicated.
He was previously sentenced to death in 1994. At the time, he was 17 and the youngest person in modern Nevada history to receive a death sentence.
He won his release through a series of alterations to his sentence, which were facilitated by changes to the laws for juvenile offenders.
Wife stood by Domingues
Through much of his incarceration, his wife Tammy Domingues stood by him.
“I knew Michael was special from the moment I met him,” she wrote to a judge before he was resentenced in 2020. “He has been and still is consistantly (sic) patient, kind, forgiving, respectful, honest and loving in his relationships with myself and my family. I am Christian by faith and I believe the Lord blessed me with such a wonderful man, a man deserving of a second chance in life.”
Since his release, Domingues’ wife has changed her tune.
“I know I’m his wife, but given everything that I’ve seen and heard, I don’t think he deserves to be out,” she said in a recent interview.
She said she was in the Army when she met Domingues via a pen pal site for inmates. She served in Afghanistan, she said.
He was on death row at the time and she was serving in a combat zone and facing death, she said. She liked what she perceived as his honesty, and thought he was a good writer.
‘A distant relationship’
They became friends, then their relationship turned romantic. She said he was kind to her, which she said needed at a time when she had trouble getting close to people.
“Because of what I had been through in the war, I really isolated myself,” said Tammy Domingues. “I really became withdrawn. I stopped talking to people. And it became safe, a distant relationship, someone that I was able to talk to, but not close, if that makes sense.”
She said she had also previously suffered abuse and “didn’t want anybody to have access to put their hands on me.” She believed he would never leave prison.
She said that early on, she had no interest in the crime and didn’t ask him about it.
When they talked about the murders later in their relationship, Domingues told her he was innocent and she had no reason to doubt him, she said.
Now, she said, “I would like to still believe that he’s innocent.”
Tammy Domingues said she and Domingues married in 2011, when he was at the Lovelock Correctional Center. She said she wore a wedding dress and he wore his prison uniform. Their families did not attend, she said, and her family opposed the marriage because of his murder conviction.
Problems after release
Domingues became more erratic around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, said his wife.
At Domingues’ parole hearing, Commissioner Sandy Schmitt noted that Domingues had an extensive history of using intoxicants, including a June 2025 intoxicant infraction.
Domingues said, “It was a discrepancy in the process. Me and my cellie were not both written up for it. Only I was written up for it and held responsible, despite it being found on his bed and him admitting to it.”
“It says in the violation report that you were found positive for intoxicants,” the commissioner replied.
Domingues claimed the violation was reduced “because I had not tested that month and they didn’t want to deal with it.” He also said he had not used drugs or drank for decades.
“I’m not that stupid,” he said.
He stayed at Samaritan House, a halfway house and transitional housing facility, after his release.
“He was good while he was here,” said director Kevin Denny, who did not know the basis of the parole violation.
Tammy Domingues spent time with her husband after his release and “thought it was perfect,” she said, but discovered he was seeing another woman.
“He’s such a liar about everything,” she said.
She said she found out he was seeing the other woman from a phone bill.
“I noticed the same number 132 times,” she said.
She confronted her husband. “He said that he only talked to her, that he’s never seen her and they were just friends,” she said.
She said she made him do a three-way call with the other woman. The conversation was heated and Domingues threatened the other woman’s life, according to his wife.
“If they send him back, I think they’re going to keep him there longer,” said Robin Wynkoop, a longtime friend of Domingues. “I don’t think he’ll be up for parole ever.”
As if addressing Domingues directly, she added: “You did all of this to yourself. Everybody that wanted to help you, you didn’t care about it.”
Tammy Domingues said she now sees no future with Michael Domingues and plans to eventually file for divorce.
“I guess I was fooling myself,” she said.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
