TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A woman pulled a handgun and shot her chronically abusive ex-husband to death after he clubbed her in the head with the butt of a sawed-off shotgun and dragged her to his car, police said Tuesday.
An autopsy supported claims by Mary Robinson, 30, that Monday's shooting of Hurschel Robinson, 37, an employee of the state mental hospital in Chattahoochee, was in self-defense, said Phil Kiracofe, a spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department.
However, the case will be presented to the Leon County grand jury for review, he said.
'Justifiable homicide is how we rule it,' Kiracofe said.
The autopsy Tuesday showed Hurschel Robinson was shot three times in the right side of his head by a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol Mary was carrying in her handbag.
He also suffered a wound to his right instep from a 12-gauge shotgun pellet, apparently fired by accident as he pushed his ex-wife into his car and climbed in after her, Kiracofe said.
'It looked like he was prepared to definitely cause her some serious harm,' Kiracofe said.
'She told us he fired first, and this definitely supported that,' he said.
In the past two years, Hurschel had kidnapped Mary Robinson at gunpoint and knife-point, had beaten and raped her, and threatened to kill her and then himself, Kiracofe said.
They had been married and divorced three times. He had served prison time for kidnapping and beating her and was under court order to keep clear of her. Yet on Sunday, he had called and threatened her again.
He had made a similar warning to kill her and then himself Oct. 8, Kiracofe said.
Monday morning, Hurschel Robinson followed his ex-wife to a financial services office in a small shopping plaza and watched her go inside. Then, carrying a sawed-off shotgun, he followed her in.
Inside, he grabbed her by her hair, knocked her in the head with the butt of the weapon, and dragged the dazed woman by her hair to his car. He put the car in reverse and stepped on the gas.
At that point came the gunplay.
The car continued in reverse and did a loop across a busy highway before stopping in a ditch near a video store sign advertising 'Young Guns' and 'Die Hard.' It did not trigger any accidents, Kiracofe said.
She got out, went back into the office, laid her gun on the counter and said, 'I shot him.'
