An indictment has been issued in a fatal shooting that allegedly stemmed from a romantic tryst — not against the angry husband who fired the gun, but against his wife, who prosecutors say falsely claimed she was being raped.
Tracy Roberson was indicted on a manslaughter count Thursday in the death of Devin LaSalle. Legal experts said the argument for charging her and not her husband was unusual, but seemed reasonable.
"It certainly is different," George E. Dix, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "But the theory sounds perfectly acceptable to me."
Police said Roberson invited LaSalle to her suburban Arlington house in December with a text message that read, "Hi friend, come see me please! I need to feel your warm embrace!"
Roberson's husband, Darrell, arrived home from a card game to find his wife — clad in only a robe and underwear — with LaSalle outside in a pickup truck, prosecutors allege.
Authorities say that after Tracy Roberson told her husband she was being raped, Darrell Roberson fired four shots at LaSalle as he tried to drive away. One struck him in the head.
A Tarrant County grand jury declined Wednesday to indict Darrell Roberson, 38, on a murder charge.
Tracy Roberson, 35, faces two to 20 years in prison if convicted.
