Girlfriend describes slaying in Rohnert Park love triangle

Kayla Lindsay knew her relationship with her longtime boyfriend had soured and a new romance awaited with a mutual friend.

So she called her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Daniel Dieters, 26, of Rohnert Park, and told him she was leaving him for Roy “R.J.” Kauwe, 22, a man she met while working at Costco.

She hadn’t cheated on him, but they had shared their first kiss that afternoon, she told him.

“His voice raised an octave,” Lindsay testified Monday in a Santa Rosa courtroom. “But again, he didn’t say he was going to hurt anyone. Nothing alarmed me.”

Still, she decided to warn her new love interest, who lived two minutes away in another Rohnert Park apartment.

But her call to Kauwe was too late. He answered the phone as Dieters stood outside his front door, ringing his bell.

“What do I do?” Lindsay said Kauwe asked her.

He opened the door and the phone went dead, she said.

Fearing the worst, Lindsay ran to Kauwe’s home, went in and saw Dieters sitting on top of him. She saw blood on the ground and the knife she had given to Dieters for Valentine’s Day, she testified.

Kauwe’s face was blue and he wasn’t breathing, she said.

“He says, ‘I killed him,’ ” Lindsay told the judge. “And I scream, ‘Why?’”

Her testimony came in the first day of a preliminary hearing for Dieters, who is charged with murdering Kauwe on March 20 during a jealous rage. It is expected to continue Tuesday.

Dieters has pleaded not guilty to murder and a count of burglary. He faces life in prison if convicted at trial.

Sitting in court in a blue jail uniform, he looked away as Lindsay testified.

His former girlfriend said she met Dieters in their hometown of Fort Bragg seven years ago and the two moved to Rohnert Park where they shared a Laguna Drive apartment. He was a security guard at Graton Resort and Casino, and she worked at discount retailer Costco.

Late last year, her co-worker, Kauwe, broke up with his girlfriend and needed a place to stay until he found his own apartment, Lindsay said.

He moved in with Lindsay and Dieters for a few weeks and became their close friend, going to Applebee’s restaurant with them and playing video games, she said.

At one point, Kauwe helped her shop for the Valentine’s Day gift - a blue, curved-blade knife - that would later be used in his slaying, she said.

Lindsay said she realized she had romantic feelings for Kauwe after he moved out. She told Dieters in early March but the two stayed together to try to work things out, she said.

But it didn’t last. Ten days later, she broke up with Dieters for good, she said.

“We were trying to keep something alive that was already dead,” she said.

The two continued living in the same apartment for the next few days. The day of the killing, Lindsay told Dieters she was going to visit Kauwe and his sister and go out to dinner with them, she said.

She came home about 11 p.m. but Dieters was not there, she said. Another witness testified he talked to Dieters on his cellphone that night and Dieters said he was walking trails in the area.

At some point, Lindsay reached Dieters by phone. He insisted Kauwe didn’t love her. Then she told him about the kiss. “He asked if it was better (than his),” she said. “I said it was different.”

Dieters hung up.

Moments later, she walked in Kauwe’s door and saw Dieters on the kitchen floor, straddling the smaller man’s chest. He appeared to be punching him, she said.

Then she saw the blood and the knife. Dieters got to his feet and called 911, telling them, “I just killed someone,” Lindsay said.

He surrendered without incident when police arrived.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.