Who Didnt See This Coming?

By: Tommy ”Tj” Sotomayor

In the summer of 2011, a Sacramento County prosecutor sent Dameshlo Green off to prison with a warning in open court: He was on a dangerous course.

This was his fifth conviction for domestic violence, the prosecutor said, the most serious offense in a troublesome pattern of anger and disrespect toward women. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Harry hoped Green’s first trip to prison would be “the ultimate wake-up call.”

“So, I know that the victim is not here. She probably wouldn’t say anything if she were here,” Harry told the court after Green, now 34, pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon after the brutal beating and sexual assault of his then-girlfriend. “But I just think that on behalf of the victim, and the previous victims, that should be said, and he needs to hear it.”

But that woman was not Green’s last victim, Sacramento police allege. Today, he is back behind bars, accused of sneaking into another ex-girlfriend’s house and fatally shooting her at close range as she slept.

Tamisha Evette Ridge, a popular 31-year-old fashion designer and mother of three, was found dead in her bed Wednesday, a year after her mother urged her to move from Southern California to Sacramento to escape the ex-boyfriend she feared.

A Los Angeles County judge approved Ridge’s request for a temporary restraining order against Green in 2009, according to Superior Court records. Her mother, Tina Martin, said a restraining order remained in effect at the time of her daughter’s death.

Ridge’s three children – 2, 10 and 12 years old, one of them fathered by Green – were asleep upstairs when their mother was killed. Sacramento police allege Green entered the Woodbine Avenue home, not far from the Sacramento Executive Airport, through an unlocked door. Detectives arrested him on suspicion of murder and burglary after he turned himself in that afternoon to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department for an alleged parole violation out of Inyo County.

Green declined media interviews Thursday from the Sacramento County Main Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

His documented abuse against women dates back to 2002, when his then-wife alleged domestic violence in family court in July of that year. Two months later, he pleaded no contest to a battery charge – and two months after that, he filed for divorce, according to Sacramento Superior Courtrecords available online.

Green was twice convicted of domestic violence-related crimes in 2004, and again in 2008. In 2007, he pleaded no contest to a felony weapons charge. He never received more than one year in jail.

That changed in 2011, after a girlfriend he had been prostituting suffered a severe beating at his hands, according to court records. In a jealous fit, Green choked the woman, then 18 or 19 years old, to the point of unconsciousness and woke her with a slap. He kicked her between the legs, penetrated her with a broomstick and whipped her with an extension cord. When the beating resumed the next morning, the woman fled the home, naked, and sought help from a stranger.

That stranger later testified in court that the young woman was so distraught she couldn’t speak in coherent sentences and clung to the bystander’s sweatshirt with an unbreakable grip.

Sacramento police responded to the scene and later sought a warrant for Green’s arrest. In signing the warrant, Judge Gary Ransom added a handwritten note: “Extremely cruel.”

In a plea deal that resulted in the dismissal of three of the four felony charges against him, Green agreed to a four-year prison term. His conviction amounted to his first strike.

The judge also agreed with prosecutor Harry that Green should pay restitution to the victim. But none was ever ordered after the victim couldn’t be found.

Efforts by The Sacramento Bee to reach her and Green’s ex-wife were not successful.

It was not immediately clear Thursday when Green was released from prison. An official with theCalifornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said he was unable to respond to The Bee’s request by deadline.

Ridge’s mother, Martin, said her daughter had been in a troublesome relationship with Green that ended at some point when the woman was living in Southern California. Last year, Martin encouraged her daughter to move back to Sacramento, where she had grown up. Martin lived just down the street from Ridge’s new home and, worried for her safety, checked in with her and the children daily.

Once relocated, Ridge continued her successful online fashion venture. Over four years, she posted more than 300 “do-it-yourself” videos to her YouTube channel, “ DIYmeesha,” offering easy projects for the at-home seamstress.

Geana Bryant, a New Jersey resident, described a sisterhood of women around the world who have benefited from Ridge’s tutorials.

“We are devastated,” she said, noting that many viewers learned to sew with the help of the videos. “She was like a little sister to all of us.”

Although the women know each other only through the Internet, she said some of Ridge’s followers are trying to raise funds to aid the woman’s children.

Ridge posted her last video Tuesday. Dressed in a tank top adorned with Looney Tunes cartoon characters, her long, wavy black hair tousled, she shared her “Mother’s Day haul” and read handmade cards from two of her children. She introduced her “best cousin in the world,” who was in town to for a weeklong visit, and promised more videos soon.

“I’ll see you in a few days! Bye!” she said, smiling. “I love you guys!”

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