A Houston man has been arrested after allegedly shooting his girlfriend dead in front of her children.
Howard Devon Ruffin, 39, is charged with murdering Jackelyn Denesha Wilson, 32, on October 2 around 8.15pm, Houston police said in a news release.
Officers said they responded to a shooting call at an apartment complex and located an unresponsive woman with gunshot wounds in one of the units. Paramedics pronounced Wilson dead at the scene.
Ruffin later agreed to turn himself in and speak to detectives. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office charged him and booked him into the county jail, where he remains.
He has been charged with one felony count of murder. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Wilson’s children witnessed the shooting, ABC 13 reported. Two women in the complex spotted the children near their apartment after the incident.
“We were like, ‘Hey, you all missed the bus,’” the witness said. “Her little six-year-old was like, ‘I know, but he shot my mom.’”
The two women tried to help save Wilson, but she had already succumbed to her injuries.
Days before the shooting, one of the woman’s neighbors told ABC13, she heard Wilson’s boyfriend threatening her.
“The only one time I heard him, and I want to say it was within the last week, is when he said, ‘Okay b****, I’m going to kill you,” the neighbor told the news outlet.
On Monday, the neighbor said she saw Wilson throwing Ruffin’s stuff out of their apartment. One day before the shooting, she said she saw Ruffin sitting in the dark in the parking lot in a SUV.
“When he looked up and saw me looking at him, because I had to pass him, I just rushed away from him,” the neighbor said. “I can’t explain the feeling I got, but it wasn’t a good feeling.”
Police knew that Ruffin had previously been accused of assaulting Wilson. Three years ago, he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend by “impeding the normal breathing or circulation of the blood... by applying pressure to the complainant’s neck,” Harris County court records state.
When officers came into contact with Wilson on 15 October 2022, she reportedly had bruises all over her body. She told police Ruffin struck her multiple times in the face with his fists while he was driving. She said she tried to fight back, but then Ruffin started to choke her. She then jumped out of the car while it was in motion to avoid being assaulted, records state.
She flagged down passing motorists and requested emergency assistance. Wilson was taken to the hospital but declined medical attention and said she did not wish to participate in a police investigation. Police gave her a ride home. During that interaction, she again stated she did not want help but was in “trouble.”
The officer reported that he did not know what she meant but believed her to be in danger and requested an order of emergency protection, which apparently was never granted.
A year prior, Ruffin was convicted of assault in Walker County. The Independent has reached out to the Harris County Public Defender’s Office for comment. An attorney for Ruffin was not listed in court records.
Police are asking a judge to deny bail in the murder case.
