The ex-husband of Tabatha Gonzalez, wife of the Patrick Gonzalez, Jr, was convicted of trafficking cocaine in September 2004. Judge Linda Nobles sentenced him, Brandon Anthony Fausti, to two years of community control supervision and four years of probation.
I reviewed Fausti’s case file and found an interesting narrative from him on how his life spiraled out of control and led to his arrest in December 2002. The narrative was part of a motion to mitigate his sentence and terminate the remainder of his probation of supervision, dated August 21, 2006. The motion was denied by Judge Nobles.
Fausti, a Naval Academy graduate and U. S. Navy pilot, blames his fall from grace on a “series of devastating events” — which include fire, his wife leaving him and her abandoning their four children.
12/28/01 House (5699 Pine Oak Avenue, Milton) catches fire and is totaled.
1/7/02 Wife (Tabatha) leaves him and takes his four kids.
Fausti is unable to see his children for the next six months as divorce proceedings begin. He becomes suicidal and is taken off flight duty at HT-8, NAS Whiting Field, Milton. He checks himself into a mental institution and later undergoes psychiatric treatment for major depression at NAS Pensacola, AVMED Department.
That Spring, Fausti claims that he was offered a career opportunity with Snowden-Pencer to sell surgical equipment that would pay him $500K annually, but the Navy refuses to release him from his service commitment.
Later that Summer, Tabatha Fausti violates a court order protecting the children, according to Brandon Fausti. The children are placed in foster care. Tabatha leaves the country for several months fleeing prosecution and missing several court dates.
9/30/02 Fausti is honorably discharged after 16-year career.
November 2002 The children are placed in the care of Fausti’s parents.
12/5/02 Fausti believes that he will win custody of his kids at court hearing, only to have Tabatha attend the hearing and win custody.
Fausti writes that he is “jolted and becomes suicidal again.” Within days, he buys “copious amounts of cocaine, is living out of his car, and has become a danger to himself.”
He claims to have survived an overdose and was arrested while selling all of his remaining cocaine “in an effort to distance himself from his abuse and seek treatment†at a rehab center in Atlanta.
Tabatha Fausti married Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. on July 2003 – six months after the arrest.
Fausti is now living in Georgia. Tabatha still has their four children.
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The interesting part is the four or five months Tabatha spent out of the country. We’ve heard several rumors of Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. working in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. Was Tabatha Fausti traveling with Gonzalez?
One of my researchers did find an AP article, dated May 1999, that tells of a Navy sailor that was demoted and given a reprimand letter for a punch that killed a hotel clerk in Ecuador. The report also states that a Navy helicopter pilot, Lt. Brandon Fausti, was cleared of manslaughter but convicted of battery in the case for manhandling the clerk during the argument but not causing his death.
Could this be the same Fausti? Read more.
Definitely seems to be several Central American/South American connections with some of the people in the Billings case.
