Family's tragic story only gets worse

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The backyard tire swing had become Stephanie House's refuge.

"She would go out there to be by herself," said Bonnie House, her mother.

It gave Stephanie an escape from the pressures of a life that long ago had swung out of control, and one that now exists only by the grace of God and the machines at Memorial Medical Center.

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The 27-year-old Modesto woman's story is tragic in every respect, and her family has been left grasping for something good to come from it, for something to make sense.

Stephanie was shot in the head during what authorities say was a gang-related altercation in Modesto on June 13, 2004. She was with her boyfriend, Vince Ramirez, at the taco trucks at 14th and D streets in Modesto that night. They encountered some Sureño gangbangers who believed Ramirez was a rival Norteño, and one of them stabbed him in the shoulder. Stephanie punched her boyfriend's assailant and threw bottles at his cohorts.

When they drove off, Stephanie chased them -- the bleeding Ramirez and her niece Sierra with her in the car. One of the Sureños fired at her blue Daewoo sedan, the bullet hitting her in the head and permanently blinding her right eye.

She survived to testify twice against the man accused of being the gunman, Javier Mata. There were two mistrials, the most recent in September.

She lost her father, Dennis House, to cancer June 14 -- three years and a day after she was shot.

She endured bouts of paranoia and was on medication for psychosis, her mother, sister and friends said. Her behavior deteriorated and she became more erratic by the day, they said. She crumbled on the witness stand during the second trial, answering questions in a demeanor that left many in the courtroom stunned, family members and prosecutor Tom Brennan said.

Finally, she reached her breaking point. On Nov. 20, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and after bickering with a family member, Stephanie went out to her backyard swing. But instead of smoking a cigarette and calming herself, as she often did, this time she removed the tire and fashioned a noose from the rope. She stood on a stool, slipped the loop over her head and did the unthinkable.

Perhaps 20 minutes later, her mother came out of the house to check on her. Denise House saw her daughter hanging there. Paramedics revived Stephanie on the way to Memorial Medical Center, where she has been on life support ever since.

Now her family is grieving, though she's still alive. They're angry at a justice system they believe failed her. They're exasperated because of the many unfortunate decisions leading to the place where Stephanie now exists.

Dennis and Bonnie House were hardworking people who tried to raise their children well. Neither drank nor smoked. Yet their eldest daughter, Debbie House -- whom I profiled in November 2006 -- fell in with the drug crowd at age 14. She had three children with three men, spent time being homeless on the streets, and served two state prison stretches and some county jail time on drug charges. Bonnie and Dennis House raised Debbie's children and adopted them as their own.

Finally, after 11 years in the drug culture, Debbie extricated herself by going through Modesto Gospel Mission's New Life program and committing her life to God.

She blames herself for not being there as a daughter to her parents, sister to Stephanie and mother to her children.

Stephanie, meanwhile, began dating Ramirez a decade ago, when they were students at Johansen High School.