An argument with an elderly Stoneham man over his being drunk may have cost his common law wife her life.
Grimes County Sheriff’s Investigator Kindale Pittman reports deputies and Precinct Two Constable Blake Jarvis were dispatched to a home in the 14 thousand block of Rolling Acres Lane, near Stoneham, shortly after 5:30 when the woman making the call indicated she’d been shot.
Less than five minutes later, deputies arrived to discover a 74-year-old woman, later identified as Janet Marie Lester, lying on the front porch, dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Inside, deputies report finding an intoxicated 74-year-old man identified as Robert Thomas Buford, Junior, who they say confessed to retrieving a handgun and shooting Lester following a heated argument with her over his level of intoxication. Investigators also learned that Lester and Buford had resided together at that residence for many years in a common-law relationship.
While they were obtaining his arrest warrant, deputies took Buford to a nearby hospital for treatment of a previous, unrelated minor head injury. He was then taken to the Grimes County Jail on a charge of First Degree Murder, punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a 10 thousand dollar fine.
Lester’s body was transported to the Montgomery County Forensic Center where an autopsy ordered by Precinct Two JP Lester Underwood will be performed.
Meanwhile, Buford was last reported to be in the Grimes County Jail, on a one hundred thousand dollar bond.