Fort Worth man arrested in wife’s death first told police she shot herself, warrant says
A 29-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his wife in a domestic homicide early Saturday originally told police that she shot herself at their east Fort Worth apartment, according to court records.
Robert Holbert was arrested Saturday on unrelated traffic warrants and now faces a murder charge, according to jail records.
Someone called 911 around 2:45 a.m. Saturday and said a man was banging on their door saying his girlfriend was about to die. The caller told police the man was covered in blood, according to a copy of Holbert’s arrest warrant obtained by the Star-Telegram.
Officers responded to the 500 Flats Apartments in the 600 block of Woodchucker Drive and found 29-year-old Paris Holbert with a gunshot wound inside one of the apartments. The victim died at a hospital less than an hour later. Robert Holbert told police that his wife had shot herself and the gun was still in the apartment, the arrest warrant said.
Police found a rifle on the floor of a back bedroom closet. They also noticed that Robert Holbert’s right forearm was injured from a cut or gunshot wound, but he refused to explain how it happened, the warrant states. He was taken to a hospital but refused treatment.
At the hospital Holbert was combative with the officers, according to the warrant. A homicide detective talked with him and he refused to say what had happened other than that he and Paris Holbert had been alone in the apartment during the shooting. Robert Holbert was arrested on traffic warrants, and the homicide detective obtained a warrant to search the Holberts’ apartment.
Officers found signs of “an intensive altercation” at the apartment, the arrest warrant said. A Glock handgun with a fired casing stuck inside was lying on the living room couch, several knives were scattered on the floor and a large candle had been broken.
The homicide detective learned from a medical investigator that Holbert’s arm had been grazed by a bullet, according to the arrest warrant. A doctor at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office told the detective that Paris Holbert was killed by a single bullet that struck her right breast and passed into her chest.
“Based upon the location of the gunshot wound, it does not appear that she could have shot herself,” the affidavit states.
Paris Holbert’s manner and cause of death is listed as pending Tuesday afternoon on the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office website.
On Tuesday, Robert Holbert was in the Tarrant County Jail with bond set at $400,000.
