Jay Allen Rotter; Leslie Lynn Hartman.Photo:Denton County Criminal District Attorney’s Office; Facebook
Denton County Criminal District Attorney’s Office; Facebook
The following day, the jury sentenced 30-year-old Rotter — who had been a Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy since 2005 and was a part of the narcotics division at the time of the murder — to 30 years behind bars for Leslie Lynn Hartman’s 2020 shooting death, according to the district attorney’s office.
At the time of the call, he said he had not been able to stop Hartman and that she was already dead.
But in a chatroom app, Rotter admitted to shooting his girlfriend himself, writing, per the warrant: “I just sent a 9 millie in this f—in' hippie.”
Leslie Lynn Hartman.Facebook
Investigators later linked the hippie comment to Hartman, noting in the warrant it was a reference to her “lifestyle as a person who is eco-friendly,” and as someone who was also a “nature lover” with a penchant for “her use of psychedelic drugs.”
At the crime scene, responding officers found Hartman’s limp body on the floor beside her wheelchair.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Investigators also found blood on Rotter and observed bloodstains scattered throughout the couple’s house in the hallway, bathroom and living room.
At the time of his girlfriend’s death, Rotter was also charged with felony drug possession and tampering with evidence,WBAP reported.
Jay Allen Rotter.Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office
In interviews with police, per the warrant, Rotter refused to give officers his cell phone, and, while alone in the interrogation room, reset his phone to original factory settings.
Even so, investigators ultimately seized his cell phone and computer, and those texts and other messages they eventually uncovered provided some of the lynchpin evidence prosecutors used in Rotter’s conviction last week.
And, in other messages on the chat room app Discord, where Rotter had admitted to killing his girlfriend, he had also documented other arguments, per the warrant, including one in which he claimed that Hartman was mad at him because he had shot a bottle of milk in their backyard.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
