Alleged affair turns charges around

Husband cleared, wife charged in death

By Angela K. Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, March 31, 2007

ARLINGTON Darrell Roberson came home from a card game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another man in a pickup 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.

Darrell Roberson, a 38-year-old real estate firm employee 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, authorities said. Darrell Roberson drew the gun he happened to be carrying and fired several shots at the truck.

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.

[This message was edited by JB on 03-31-07 at .]

Is there going to be an intent problem? There may not be, but I'm throwing it out there for discussion. Was his shooting the guy a substantial risk she should've been aware of? It's interesting how we have to resort to stereotpyical ideas about jilted husbands in Texas to prove that.

Well, the mental state would be recklessness. Meaning she would have to be aware of but consciously disregard a substantial risk of her husband killing the person she claims raped her. That doesn't seem like such a stretch to me, particularly if you can prove she knew he carried a gun.

The fact that she lied, by crying rape, suggests she knew something bad was about to happen. Not to hard to imagine they had past conversations about affairs and such and the consequences.

The key testimony, I suppose, comes from the husband who did the shooting. He can fill in the blanks. This is a movie of the week.

And, of course, the Leg recently passed the "Castle Doctrine", encouraging the husband to shoot first and ask questions later. See how well that worked out?