Deputy Arrested for Murder After Killing Girlfriend
Tarrant County Deputy Arrested
(TX) – Jay Allen Rotter, a deputy with the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, has been arrested for Murder and Tampering with Evidence. On August 26, Deputy Rotter made a 911 call stating that his girlfriend, Leslie Lynn Hartman, had killed herself. According to Rotter, he and Hartman, who is paralyzed and used a wheelchair, were hugging when she shot herself. 46-year old Leslie Lynn Hartman was dead by the time any help arrived. No mention has been made of where the gunshot wound was.
I can’t find any articles that say Rotter claimed she was depressed but investigators, naturally, looked for any information or evidence that would have indicated depression to see if it supported the possibility of it being a suicide.
Evidence Points to Murder
The Medical Examiner has not yet made a determination but it appears that investigators were skeptical of Rotter’s version from the start. According to the Dallas News,
“…evidence at the scene didn’t match Rotter’s story, and authorities found chat logs Rotter sent the night of the shooting that indicated he shot Hartman, according to the affidavit.
When Denton police interviewed Rotter, a detective asked whether he could take Rotter’s phone to download its contents. Rotter declined, and when two detectives stepped out of the interview room, he took his phone out of his pocket and set it back to its factory settings, according to the affidavit.”
It’s unbelievable that Rotter thought that no one would know what he had done. Most interviews are taped nowadays. The tape runs even if the investigators leave the room. And it’s also crazy that he didn’t think they would try other means to get information. Police took the obvious next step and got a search warrant for Rotter’s computer where they found his Discord chats. One imparticular was extremely damning. From the Dallas News, (who by the way, did an excellent job on this story. We recommend you read their article), “I just sent a 9 millie in this [expletive] hippie.”
Jay Allen Rotter
According to 21 CBS DFW, “Rotter has been employed with the Sheriff’s Office since 2005 and is assigned to the narcotics division. The 36-year-old was taken into custody on September 14 and charged with Murder and Tampering with Evidence. He is being held on a $1.15 million bond.”
The Star-Telegram interviewed Christie Wood, a friend of Hartman’s. According to the article, “About a month before her death, Hartman said she had a new boyfriend.” This is really sad. The couple was barely together for any significant length of time but rather than leave a relationship he was not happy in, he chose to kill her.
Leslie Lynn Hartman
Leslie Lynn Hartman was a 46-year old woman who had been confined to a wheelchair after “she was involved in an automobile accident when she was younger.” According to her friend, Christie Wood, Leslie did not let her lack of mobility bring her down or inhibit her artistic side. Ms. Hartman was a stained-glass artist with her own studio and she also designed and made jewelry. She had been an active part of the Denton art community.