Dallas County public defender's top investigator charged with stabbing wife to death
Jimmy Harold Spurger Jr., 54, was arrested Saturday after his wife was found stabbed to death in their downtown Dallas apartment. He faces a first-degree murder charge.
Chief investigator for Dallas Public Defender's Office arrested in wife's killing
Jimmy Harold Spurger Jr., 54, the chief investigator for the Dallas County Public Defender's Office, was arrested Saturday morning and charged with first-degree murder after his wife was found stabbed to death inside the couple's downtown Dallas apartment, fox4news.com reports, citing court documents released the same day.
Dallas Fire-Rescue first responders reached the apartment at 2323 North Akard Street at approximately 10:40 p.m. Friday after receiving a welfare check call. Personnel had to force entry into the unit — furniture had been placed behind the door to prevent access.
Inside, they found 52-year-old Maria Teresa Spurger lying unresponsive on a couch with a knife lodged in her neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers also discovered Spurger himself in the bedroom, seated on a bed and covered in blood, with a small knife beside him. Several empty pill bottles, also blood-covered, were recovered from the kitchen. Spurger did not respond to initial questions from first responders and was transported to Methodist Central Hospital after investigators suspected he had swallowed multiple pills.
Spurger was subsequently booked into the Lew Sterrett Jail on a first-degree murder warrant. Magistrate Jessica Warren signed the arrest warrant on Saturday and set his hold without bond, according to court records. He and his wife had been married for approximately 35 years, investigators noted.
Spurger had been in his role as chief investigator — heading the office's Investigative Division — for 11 months. Before that appointment, he spent more than 13 years with the Public Defender's Office, working primarily in the Capital Murder Division. His law enforcement career spanned more than two decades and included roughly ten years supervising investigations in the Child Abuse and Family Violence Division at the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)