Husband kills wife's lover; wife charged
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Darrell Roberson came home from a card
game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another
man in a pickup truck in the driveway.
Caught in the act with her lover, Tracy Denise Roberson --
thinking quickly, if not clearly -- cried rape, authorities say.
Her husband pulled a gun and killed the other man with a shot to
the head.
On Thursday, a grand jury handed up a manslaughter indictment
-- against the wife, not the husband.
The grand jury declined to charge the husband with murder,
the charge on which he was arrested by police.
"If I found somebody with my wife or with my kids in my
house, there's no telling what I might do," said Juan Muniz, 33,
who was having lunch Friday with one of his two small children
at a restaurant in the middle-class suburban Dallas neighborhood
where the Robersons lived. "I probably would have done the same
thing."
Tracy Roberson, 35, could get two to 20 years in prison in
the slaying of Devin LaSalle, a 32-year-old UPS employee.
Assistant District Attorney Sean Colston declined to comment
on specifics of the case or the grand jury proceedings but said
Texas law allows a defendant to claim justification if he has "a
reasonable belief that his actions are necessary, even though
what they believe at the time turns out not to be true."
Mark Osler, a Baylor University law school professor and a
former federal prosecutor, said the grand jurors evidently put
themselves in the husband's place: "I can see one of them
saying, 'I would have shot the guy, too. I was just protecting
my wife.' "
The December night before the shooting, Tracy Roberson sent
LaSalle a text message that read in part, "Hi friend, come see
me please! I need to feel your warm embrace!" according to court
papers. LaSalle apparently agreed.
Darrell Roberson, a 38-year-old employee of a real estate
firm, discovered the two, his wife clad in a robe and underwear.
When Tracy Roberson cried that she was being raped, LaSalle
tried to drive away and her husband drew the gun he happened to
be carrying and fired several shots at the truck, authorities
said.
Darrell Roberson's attorney did not immediately return a call
for comment.
His wife also was charged with making a false report to a
police officer -- for allegedly saying she was raped -- and
could get up to six months behind bars on that offense. It was
not immediately clear whether she had a lawyer.
She had not been arrested as of Friday afternoon.
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