Providence Village, TX: Details unfold in weekend shooting

Denton County Sherriff investigators have identified the victims in the alleged attempted murder suicide in a Denton County community over the weekend.

Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched at 11:17 p.m. to the 1300 block of Oakcrest Drive Saturday after receiving a 911 hang-up call. Arriving deputies heard gunshots from within inside the home, according to a sheriff’s report.

The accused shooter, Donald Benjamin Graham,48, shot his wife, Debra Cotton, 48, multiple times before shooting himself in the mouth, said officials working the case.

Cotton was found by deputies still alive surrounded by a pool of blood. Graham was found dead in the hallway of their home with a 38 caliber 6 round Taurus Revolver, said investigators.

 Cotton was CareFlited to Parkland Medical Center in Dallas and underwent surgery Sunday morning. “She is in critical but stable condition,” said Captain Tracy Murphree.

Murphee said the shooting looks to have come from a long-term domestic situation. The couple is believed to be common-law married.

Further investigation into the alleged shooting show Graham was in prison on a homicide charge for nine years, Murphree said.

“I believe it was a homicide charge out of Dallas County in 2000 and he received probation,” said Murphree.” His probation was revoked and he spent nine years in prison and just got out this summer.”

Cotton’s 23-year-old special-needs daughter, whose name is being withheld at this time, was at the residence at the time of the shooting and made the 911 calls. She was not harmed and is staying with family, said sheriff officials.

The shooting is the second such incident in Providence Village, a community north of US Highway 380 East, in less than two months.

On Nov. 5, Denton County sheriff’s deputies discovered the bodies of 29-year-old Nelson Rafael Rodriguez-Doran and 27-year-old Christina Marie Allen when they responded to a welfare concern at a house in the 10200 block of Lakeview Drive. They found the couple inside, both dead from apparent gunshot wounds.

Investigators believe Rodriguez-Doran shot Allen multiple times in the body and once in the head with a semi-automatic pistol before shooting himself in the head.

The bodies were found by sheriff’s deputies in the master bedroom. Allen was on the bed, and Rodriguez-Doran was on the floor, said officials.

Murphree said the investigation is still ongoing and he will talk to Cotton in the next few days when she is able.

The couple was renting and it’s unknown how long they have been living at their residence at this time, said Murphree.