Harris County shooting: Husband sentenced for wife's murder in Spring in 2020
HOUSTON - A man was sentenced to 50 years in prison this week for his wife’s murder at a Spring home in 2020, officials say.
According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Ralph Leroy Cooper, 42, pleaded guilty just before his trial was set to begin in January, and he was sentenced after a hearing this week.
Ralph Cooper (Photo: Harris County District Attorneys Office)
Cooper was charged in the deadly shooting of 43-year-old Rhonda Rochelle Williams on the night of Aug. 25, 2020.
According to the district attorney’s office, Cooper had been living in Rosharon with his wife and their 3-year-old son but moved to Spring to stay with relatives.
On that August night, officials say he asked his wife to come to the Spring house where he was with his son and other relatives. They argued, and he chased her around the house with a gun, shooting her several times once she got outside, the district attorney’s office says.
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"She was running for her life, trying to get away," said Assistant District Attorney Kelly Marshall. "Once they got outside, and she was trapped between two houses, the defendant walked up to her and shot her in the head while she begged for her life. After she fell, he shot at her two more times and walked away nonchalantly."
Marshall is assigned to the Domestic Violence Division at the district attorney’s office and prosecuted Cooper.
According to Marshall, Cooper had two prior convictions for assaulting two other women before he married Williams.
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"No child should lose their mother to domestic violence, and that is why we take any case of violence against women so seriously," District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "We know that violence escalates, like in this case, where the defendant committed at least two other assaults before killing an intimate partner."
According to the district attorney’s office, Cooper has to serve at least half of his sentence before he can be eligible for parole, and he has charges pending in Brazoria County that could add time to his sentence.