In 2010, a newly sober 31-year-old Karla Mendez Brada met and fell in love with 40-year-old Eric Earle, a fellow Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) member with 20 years of off-and-on sobriety under his belt.
Within six months, the two were engaged, and Karla was dead by asphyxiation.
Eric was nearly 10 years her senior and a common fixture on the sobriety scene. He had a criminal record whose details Eric would disclose to Karla only in pieces.
As both of their sobriety became tattered and torn, the violence escalated.
During the trial, the jury learned that Eric was known amongst his fellow AA members as a man who had a history of contentious relationships with several newly sober members of AA.
In addition, his ex-wife informed investigators that he would frequently batter the women in his life while intoxicated.
The "Thirteenth Step" is a colloquial term used to describe the potential for someone who has a lengthy period of sobriety to seek out sex or a romantic relationship from someone who has less than one year of sobriety.
Some Thirteen-Step behavior can look fairly innocuous when viewed through a certain scope.
Engaging with people of the gender you are........