Tacoma residents are still scarred by an incident from six years ago, when a man named Dominick Maldonado strolled into the local mall and started firing indiscriminately, then took four hostages in a standoff with police that lasted several hours. Miraculously, no one was killed, but seven were seriously wounded. Maldonado — who had planned the rampage for weeks and told a police dispatcher minutes before to "follow the screams" — was sentenced to 163 years in Clallam Bay Prison. He's back in the news because of a botched escape attempt earlier this month, during which he held a guard hostage with a pair of scissors while his friend and fellow inmate, Kevin Newland, plowed a forklift through the wall of the prison garment shop where they worked. Newland was shot to death, but Maldonado, somehow, made it out unscathed once again. Basically, not too much to like about this guy — but not according to Quynh Maldonado!

And who's she? She was the girl who was hopelessly smitten with Maldonado the moment she first saw his face on the news six years ago, when she was only 17. In her defense, his original mugshot had a certain Ponyboy allure to it. The relationship began with Quynh sending love letters and topless photos, and continued to blossom, with the two marrying this year in a small ceremony at Clallam Bay. In a new interview, she told KOMO News:

"There was just something about him when I saw him on TV. ... I felt just right then and there that he is the one. ... I'm just like crazy in love with him"

She says the escape was in order for Maldonado to see her, as their marriage has consisted only of "photos, phone calls, letters and occasional face-to-face visits." (No conjugal visits are permitted in the first three years.) As one might imagine, Quynh has become something of a community pariah, but stands by her man. Her man was transferred this week to Stafford Creek Corrections Center, where he remains in maximum security. [komonews.com, screengrab via KOMO]