Dallas County chief investigator charged with wife's fatal stabbing after divorce filing
Jimmy Spurger Jr., chief investigator at the Dallas County Public Defender's Office, was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of his wife Maria, 53. He had filed for divorce weeks earlier.
Dallas law enforcement veteran charged with wife's murder after 35-year marriage ends in divorce filing
Yahoo.com reports that Jimmy Spurger Jr., 54, the chief investigator for the Dallas County Public Defender's Office, was arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of his wife, Maria Spurger, 53, at their Dallas home on the evening of Friday, 6 November.
Dallas Fire-Rescue declared Maria dead at the scene. According to the Dallas Police Department, officers took Jimmy into custody as part of their investigation, as stated in a Sunday, 8 November news release.
Jimmy's arrest affidavit, obtained by ABC affiliate WFAA-TV, states that Maria was found "lying on the couch with what appeared to be a knife lodged in her neck." Officers located Jimmy in a bedroom nearby, a small knife beside him and blood on his person. Pill bottles covered in blood were also found in the kitchen.
He was transported to hospital "due to him possibly ingesting multiple pills," according to the affidavit. Jimmy was subsequently held without bond at Dallas County Jail, per the Dallas Morning News.
Maria's death came roughly ten days after Jimmy filed for divorce on 26 October, following 35 years of marriage, according to court documents viewed by KDFW-TV.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins responded to the arrest via a Sunday social media post on X, stating he had acted immediately upon learning of the incident. "Upon notice of this tragic murder yesterday, I instructed Administration to place the employee on suspension and remove his access," Jenkins wrote.
Jimmy had served as chief investigator for the Dallas County Public Defender's Office for nearly a year at the time of his arrest, having previously worked in the office's Capital Murder Division. Before joining the Public Defender's Office, he spent more than 20 years in law enforcement, including a decade at the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, where he supervised child abuse and family violence investigations.
His online biography on the county's website described his role as encompassing "the supervision, training, and professional development of investigative staff while helping ensure that each case receives thorough, strategic, and client-centered investigative support." The biography was removed from the site by Monday, 9 November.
The Dallas Police Department said the motive for Maria's alleged murder remains under investigation. It was not immediately known whether Jimmy had retained legal counsel.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)