TRINIDAD, Colo., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A Colorado lawyer whose second wife has been charged with shooting him dead was also shot by his first wife.
Ann Tatum has been charged with the second-degree murder of her husband, Jim. She was released on bail this week.
Dick DeGuerin, a Houston lawyer who represented Tatum's first wife in the couple's divorce, told The Rocky Mountain News that Elizabeth Tatum shot her husband in the arm. Tatum ran naked from the couple's bedroom into the street, seeking shelter with a neighbor.
"His death is 27 years overdue," DeGuerin said. "He was slapping her around, and she reached for a gun. Unfortunately, she got a .22 instead of the 9mm next to it."
DeGuerin said if Elizabeth Tatum was charged with the shooting she was never tried or convicted.
Tatum was a prominent lawyer in Houston in the 1980s, known for wearing cowboy boots. DeGuerin said that on one occasion Tatum came to a deposition in blue jeans and with spurs.
Ann Tatum allegedly shot her husband in the kitchen of their home in Trinidad in front of a Las Animas County deputy.
