Iraq war veteran charged with girlfriend’s murder

An Iraq war veteran accused of beating his girlfriend to death in his San Clemente condo was charged this morning with murder.

John Wylie Needham, 25, was arrested late Monday by Orange County sheriff’s deputies, who found his 19-year-old girlfriend, Jacqwelyn Joann Villagomez, in his bedroom severely beaten. She was died a few hours later.

Needham had answered the door naked and had to be subdued with a Taser after deputies responded to a report of an argument.

Needham, who was wounded in combat while serving in the Army in Iraq, returned with severe mental problems, his family said, including nightmares that left him screaming.

“I’m falling apart by the seams,” he wrote in a rambling post on his MySpace page.

Needham was awarded a Purple Heart for a combat injury in Iraq last year, which left him with shrapnel in his legs and back. He had been to the hospital, taken pain medication and seen therapists. Family members said they knew he was struggling but didn’t foresee him turning violent.

Villagomez was an aspiring model who grew up in Turlock, in the Central Valley, and graduated from El Toro High School in Lake Forest.

Needham is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 26.

tony.barboza@latimes.com