Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Reston, VA: Reston man charged with murder in girlfriend's shooting death

A Reston man was arrested Saturday and charged with murder in the October shooting death of a woman inside his apartment, Fairfax County police said Monday.

Karen Deck, 42, of Reston, was found on Oct. 24 shot to death in the "upper body," meaning anywhere from her head to her stomach, inside the apartment of her boyfriend, Ronald Robertson, on Winterthur Lane in the Hunters Woods area.

According to court records Robertson, 45, had called his parents to report that "he had accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend," and his parents called 911.

Robertson. (Fairfax Police)
Police officers who arrived at Robertson's apartment "heard banging coming from inside," according to an affidavit by Fairfax homicide Detective Brian S. Colligan. The apartment door was closed but unlocked, Colligan wrote, so officers entered and found Robertson inside, along with Deck and a weapon on the floor.

Robertson was not charged immediately with the homicide, but he was charged four days later with being a violent felon in possession of a gun, court records show. A preliminary hearing in that case was held last week, and the charge was sent to the grand jury for possible indictment.

Court records show that Robertson pleaded guilty in 1989 to shooting at an occupied vehicle. He received a five-year suspended sentence.

-- Tom Jackman

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