Monday, January 24, 2011

Cypress TX: Convicted killer held in death of girlfriend

Woman was found shot dead in Cypress garage
By PAIGE HEWITT
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Jan. 24, 2011, 12:50AM


A convicted killer charged with a murder in Cypress last week was taken into custody on Saturday, a few days after his girlfriend was discovered in a pool of blood in her garage.
The woman's sister found Rhonda Scott shot dead on Jan. 14. An ankle monitor lay on the living room floor — apparently the victim's parolee boyfriend had cut off the device, according to court records. Scott's vehicle was gone.
Homicide investigators had been pursuing 53-year-old Joe Amos Shaw since the killing in Cypress. He is in the Harris County Jail with no bail and is due in court on today.
Shaw was charged with killing Scott on Jan. 17. He was on parole through 2026 for a capital murder conviction in Bell County in the summer of 1982 for which he was sentenced to 35 years in a Texas prison.
He is accused of shooting Scott in the head with a .25-caliber handgun before fleeing the scene, records show. Shaw told his ex-wife he believed Scott was romantically involved with another man, according to statements she made to investigators.
Family became concerned about Scott when she failed to make her routine bedtime call to her mother on Jan. 14.
Shaw's ex-wife told investigators that Shaw called her the night of Jan. 14 and showed up drunk and perhaps suicidal and driving the victim's vehicle, records show. She noticed his ankle monitor was missing.
The next day Shaw called his ex-wife again, saying "something really bad happened" to his girlfriend. Shaw called his ex-wife again on Jan. 16, asking whether police were at her home. She explained they were.
He asked her to tell his children he was sorry.
paige.hewitt@chron.com

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