A Whitfield County, Ga., man charged with shooting his live-in girlfriend in the leg this week pleaded guilty in 2003 to dousing his then-wife in gasoline and threatening her with a lighter.
Police arrested Melvin Roberts, 55, after his girlfriend accused him of shooting her in the leg during an argument Tuesday morning at his house on Valley Point Drive, said Whitfield County Maj. John Gibson.
“He had accused her of having an extramarital affair and shot her,” Gibson said.
Roberts then refused to let Sara Denise Shinall, 47, an Emerson (Ga.) Police Department officer, call 911 but changed his mind after about 45 minutes, Gibson said.
Roberts was charged with aggravated battery with a gun, aggravated assault with a gun, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Gibson said. He remains in the Whitfield County Jail with no bond, authorities said.
Shinall was taken to Hamilton Medical Center on Tuesday with nonlife-threatening wounds. Hospital officials could not confirm her status Thursday.
This wasn’t the first time Roberts has had an outburst of violence, Gibson said.
In the 2003 incident, Roberts didn’t set his wife on fire but was charged with aggravated assault, Conasauga Circuit District Attorney Kermit McManus said. When Roberts pleaded guilty, his wife asked that he be sentenced to parole and not go to jail, McManus said.
Roberts was sentenced to five years on parole, which he completed in 2009, McManus said.
The request by Roberts’ ex-wife played a role in his sentence, but the ultimate decision to ask for parole was made by the district attorney’s office, McManus said.
“We made the proper disposition in 2004 based on the circumstance and facts,” he said. “Nothing we can do to alter or change that.”
McManus said he will evaluate Roberts’ new case once the sheriff’s office finishes its investigation.
Contact Joy Lukachick at jlukachick@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/jlukachick.
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Article: Whitfield County man remains in jail after shooting girlfriend