Devil in details of Carlsbad divorce case

A divorce between a Carlsbad couple that began in 2014 was interrupted by gunfire more than two years later. Diana Jean Lovejoy, 44, is set to go on trial tomorrow (October 17). She has pleaded not guilty of attempted murder after her estranged husband was shot in the torso on September 1, 2016.

On that night, after 11 p.m., Greg Daniel Mulvihill, now 47, was lured to an isolated location with promises of “dirt” on his not-yet ex-wife. Mulvihill got a mysterious phone call from an unknown man who promised to show him some pages of “information” for free, and then Mulvihill would want to purchase the rest. The anonymous voice said the sample pages would be attached to a power pole near Mulvihill’s apartment.

Mulvihill brought a male friend, a baseball bat, and a flashlight to the arranged location, off Avenida Soledad. They did not find any paperwork, but when Mulvihill looked around with his flashlight he saw an arm and a rifle barrel protruding from bushes there. Mulvihill was shot once. The bullet entered under his armpit and traveled through his ribcage. He survived the encounter after emergency surgery.

Weldon Kermit McDavid Jr., 50, is accused of being the man who phoned Mulvihill and then shot him. At that time, McDavid was working at Iron Sights, a popular indoor shooting range in Oceanside. A prosecutor alleges that Diana Lovejoy hired the man who sold her a pistol and then gave her shooting lessons, some months prior to the ambush. It is alleged that Lovejoy and McDavid made plans, including what to do with the body. The price for McDavid’s services was allegedly $2000, and he was paid $1000 upfront.

Investigators claim they have video of Lovejoy buying a “burner” cell phone two weeks before the shooting, and that phone was used to call her estranged husband to set the trap. It is alleged that Lovejoy picked up McDavid at a nearby park-and-ride; he brought his own rifle, and she delivered him to the area near the power pole. Lovejoy returned after the shooting, was informed that the target may have survived, and took her accomplice back to the park-and-ride. These allegations are found in court papers.

The bitter divorce between Lovejoy and Mulvihill began after she asked a judge to remove her husband from their Carlsbad home and place a restraining order on him; that was in July 2014. Lovejoy alleged her husband was abusing her and their son, who was not quite two years old then. The husband filed for divorce one month later; he checked the box for “irreconcilable differences.”

At first, court decisions favored Lovejoy: the father was allowed to see his son only for a few hours each week and only with supervision. In June 2015, a judge ordered Mulvihill to pay his wife $905 in monthly child support.

Diana Lovejoy was reportedly making $9583 per month as a “senior technical writer” while she lived in the family home on La Paloma Street in Carlsbad. Greg Mulvihill worked as a software engineer, making about $1500 less per month than his wife. He moved into an apartment in San Marcos.

In late 2015, a judge ordered the parents to share child custody 50/50, and Mulvihill would no longer have to be “supervised” when he was with his son.

Two months later, a judge ordered Diana Lovejoy to begin paying $113 per month child support to the father. Greg Mulvihill had complained from the start that his wife had the greater income. The new support payments were ordered to begin February 1, 2016. Some months later, Diana Lovejoy took shooting lessons from Weldon Kermit McDavid Jr.

At a “mandatory mediation” in June 2016, it was decided that Lovejoy would sell her condo in Encinitas to pay off her husband for his share of their family home in Carlsbad; that “equalization” amount was set at $120,000, and Diana would pay $100 per month child support to Greg. The agreement was signed on June 27, 2016.

Mulvihill was shot on September 1, 2016. Four months later, his divorce from Diana Lovejoy was declared official. The “dissolution of marriage” was dated January 4, 2017. The next week Mulvihill filed a civil suit against Lovejoy and McDavid, seeking damages. The civil suit is ongoing.

In May of 2017, a judge ordered that $230,000 from the sale of their Carlsbad home would go into a trust. The interest on that amount was figured to be $575 per month, this paid to Diana Lovejoy; and because of that monthly income there would be no suspension of her obligations to pay child support, health care, and daycare costs to her now ex-husband. Judge Kelly Mok stipulated $143 per month is to be paid to Greg Mulvihill, who now has his five-year-old son living with him.

Diana Lovejoy and McDavid, 50, both pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and attempted murder. They are each being held in lieu of $2 million bail. The jury trial will be in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse in Vista.