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Probation as Punishment for First Degree Murder

The story of Traci Rhode

By Sara WilsonPublished 3 years ago 14 min read
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Scott and Traci Rhode

On August 11, 2005 on what would have been Scott and Traci Rhodes 15th wedding anniversary, Traci was arrested for the murder of her husband.

On October 15, 2003, police were called to the home of Scott and Traci Rhode in Brownsboro Texas. Inside the home in the couples bed, cops found Scott laying with a hole through his head. He had been shot.

Traci and Scott were high school sweethearts, They met and dated in high school and eventually married in 1990. They both attended college, Scott to become an engineer, Traci to become a nurse specializing in labor and delivery of babies.

The couple had three children over the years. All boys. On the outside, they seemed like the perfect happy family. During the trial, Traci would say that everything was not what it appeared to be. She claimed Scott was insanely jealous. That he moved her across five different states during their marriage to keep her from making friends. She claimed he would constantly accuse her of cheating on him. She said it was destroying their marriage.

Traci claimed that Scott would constantly ridicule her calling her a slut or a tramp and a whore if she showed up just a few minutes late from work. He would yell at her for even washing her hands, asking what she was trying to hide. She claimed that he would even try to get the kids to call her names.

Friends of Scott say that none of that is true. That Scott was a loving husband and a doting father, but let's be honest. None of us really know what goes on behind closed doors. Some of what seem to be the best husbands or wives can often turn out to be some of the worst people. There is no true way of knowing how these people treated each other.

After several moves over thirteen years, the family finally settled in Texas in 2003. Tracy had no friends or family anywhere near her and it was said that Scott did that intentionally because he wanted her all to himself. She said she felt very secluded and lonely.

The only place she said she really ever went was to work. Traci was still working as a labor and delivery nurse and it was at the hospital where she actually did meet someone this time. His name was Shawn Michaels. Shawn was a unit secretary at the hospital. Often Shawn and Traci would flirt but Traci said that she always made it clear to Shawn that she was married to which he would reply that he was only joking.

Eventually all of the flirting led to a parking lot meeting between Traci and Shawn which ultimately led up to a kiss between the pair. Through out everything that would follow, Traci would maintain her innocence that she had never had a full on affair. She said the kiss was all that happened and she went home to her husband. When she arrived, he went into another one of his jealous rages accusing her of being a cheater and this time, Traci admits to kissing Shawn. She said they were falling in love and that he cared about her and didn't treat her like she didn't matter. Traci said that Scott just looked at her and told her, "You have no idea what you've done."

On the morning of October 15, 2003, Traci said she woke up early and went for a walk before coming home and showering. After she turned off the shower, she claims she heard a moaning sound. She went out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She rubbed her hand across her husbands legs and asked if he was ok. That was when she said she discovered what had happened. At this point, Scott was still alive but wasn't responding.

Cops arrived on the scene and Traci began walking around. They asked her why she didn't give him medical attention (she was after all a nurse) She claims it was because she was in shock. She did however pull it together long enough to call into work. Traci said she was shocked when the police asked her to go to the station. She claimed she had already told them everything she knew and had nothing else of value to add. She asked to go and be with her husband at the hospital because she knew he was dying. She said the cops just kept telling her they would let her go in a few minutes.

By mid afternoon, Scott was declared brain dead and before long, he was dead. The case went from an attempted suicide to a possible homicide. The cops again questioned why Traci as a first responder issued absolutely no first aid to her dying husband. She lashed out asking what she should have done. He was still breathing when she found him,. so it's not like she could give him CPR. They told her she could have atleast compressed his wound while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. She again stuck to what she had said before. That she was in shock. The cops however found it quite suspicious that she was too shocked to aid her dying husband but was of sound body and mind to call into work.

The cops then questioned Traci about something they had seen her do in the house. Washing her hands. They wanted to know why she was washing her hands.. was she trying to remove blood, gunshot residue, was she hiding something? Traci said that as a nurse, she was sensitive to the smell of blood and that since she had in fact touched her husband, her hands had the smell of blood all over them. So she rinsed her hands off with hot water.

It wasn't only Traci's strange behavior that were making the police suspicious. It was also things they were finding out during the investigation. Things they had found out about the final hours of Scotts life, which were marital problems. They learned that Scott had hired a divorce attorney the day before he was shot. Scott had taken Traci there and completely caught her off guard. The divorce attorney, Nat Perez, told Traci that Scott would receive custody of all three children but Traci would have liberal visitation rights. It was said that this really upset Traci. She said she was a great mother and she would not be ok with a plan where she didn't get her boys. Perez then told her if she decided to fight the terms, they would use Shawn against her.

Traci said she didn't care. That she deserved her kids. She was a good mother and do whatever she had to do for them and told Scott they needed to go home and further discuss details before she stormed out of the office. Back at home, they began actually communicating according to Traci. They agreed that neither one wanted to put the kids through a custody battle and that they should have joint custody. Things were fine until Scott flew into another rage, according to Traci.

Traci claimed that Scott brought out a baseball bat and demanded to know where Shawn lived because he was going to go bash his head in. He screamed at Traci and then allegedly got physical with her. She said he grabbed her by the throat and threatened her with his balled up fist. He said he was gonna knock the S*** out of her and she allegedly told him to do it if it would make him feel better.

She said he let her go and she went to pack a bag. She yelled that she was going to go to a hotel and he begged her not to. He asked her to come to bed and lay with him. She said there was no more anger, just a couple trying to work out their problems. The next morning Scott would be found dead by an apparent suicide.

It would take two years of investigating before the police would finally find a solid piece of evidence tying Traci to the murder. On August 11th, 2005, Traci was finally arrested for Scotts murder.

The gun and it's location were the biggest disputes in this case. Traci said that she had found Scott with the gun in his hand on the bed. She never changed her story. One of the prosecutors said that a pillow was used to muffle the sound of the gun shot and that Traci had used it to prevent any back splatter from coming back at her or getting on the gun. They also said she used it as a way to disassociate herself from him. The prosecutors claimed there would have been no way for Scott to place a pillow over his face AFTER shooting himself in the head.

The Forensic blood expert who looked over the police photos taken at the scene said he knew right away that this was not a suicide. One of the first officers on the scene said that he removed the gun and when he did, the handle had been resting on Scotts left hand and the barrel on his right. He said there was no blood on Scotts hands and that the gun didn't come into any contact with any of the blood on the bed, however there WAS blood on the handle and a thick glob of it in the mechanism of the gun.

The blood expert later was able to point out exactly what he felt had happened. Using the blood stained carpet swatch that had been taken as evidence, he showed where he believed the gun and holster fit into the blood pattern on the floor. He claimed that Traci had put the gun to Scotts head with a pillow covering it, she shot it, and then she dropped it on the floor. She realized after the blood was on the floor that she had made a mistake. This was supposed to a suicide.. and if it was a suicide, the gun should be in Scotts hand. Not on the floor. So she picked it up and placed it in Scotts hands.

To this day, Traci's story hasn't changed at all. She swears that she never laid a finger on the gun. That she never had an affair. That the gun had always been somewhere on the bed, never on the floor. She says that she saw the gun laying in a pool of blood on the sheet when she had first lifted up the pillow and that is why there was blood on it.

Forensic criminalist Richard Ernest seconds Tracis story. He also studied the evidence and believes that the gun was lying in a pool of blood on the bed. Scott's hands were washed in the hospital. There are no photos of him at the crime scene. There were not only blood stains on the bed, but feathers as well. Ernest believes the feathers and the blood on the gun came directly from the bed. According to Ernesto, blood and feathers were found on the gun, if Traci had moved the gun, why weren't her finger prints on it?

There was a palm print on the handle of the weapon, but it was never identified as belonging to Scott, Traci, or the detective that removed it from the scene.

Four years after Scotts death, Traci went on trial. Everyone who knew the couple and even those who didn't were divided. Some say Traci was guilty of murder. Others say she was only guilty of infidelity. Her relationship with Shawn became the prime focus of the case. On the stand, Shawn admitted that they had a mutual attraction but that they never had sex. The jury continued to label Traci as a cold blooded murderer and a cheating wife.

Traci continued to maintain her innocence on both counts. She swore that for one, she did NOT murder her husband and that for two, Shawn was not even a factor in their marital issues. That it had been nothing more than a small fling, not the big affair that the prosecutors had been making it out to be.

Another prosecutor called Traci out for her lie. He said that 10 days after Scott was dead, Traci and Shawn checked into a motel. Traci said that it wasn't meant to be sexual, they had only met there to talk but things went further than planned. They then had a two and a half year on and off again relationship.

Some friends and family say they weren't surprised at all with the news that Scott had killed himself. They said he was constantly paranoid and was deeply troubled. He believed people were plotting to get him fired from his job. Some said they believed he was manic depressive or bipolar. Others talked about how he was too much of a loving father to take his own life.

The prosecution gave the theory that the gun had been on the floor and that Traci was the one to place it into Scotts hands after shooting him. Traci again denied ever having touch the gun.

The jury took two days to deliberate and then they finally reached a verdict. Traci was found guilty or first degree murder. She was locked away in a holding cell to await her sentence. This is where Traci got real lucky.

In Texas the defense has the option of allowing the jurors to decide the sentence as well as the verdict. Traci finally took the stand. She told the jury and everyone in the court that she did not kill her husband and that she did not agree with the verdict. Her two oldest sons also testified on her behalf. These were boys that loved their father, but they also adored their mother. Her oldest boy was quoted as saying, "She didn't do this. She needs to be with us. We need her and she needs us."

Two days later, the jury had the verdict. Apparently her sons testimony had pulled on the heart strings of the jury and Traci got NO JAIL TIME. She walked away with ten years probation. She also had to pay a $10,000.00 fine. Per terms of her probation, Traci is not allowed to leave the county and has an 8 p.m. curfew. She was also fired from her nursing job for a short time, but was able to return.

On March 22, 2009, the court dismissed Traci's appeal. In the end, Traci ended up having to spend six months in jail. The fact that Traci had been found guilty but only sentenced to probation did not sit well with the Cameron County District Attorney’s office nor most of the general public. Rhode decided to stop her appeal in early March and appeared in court for formal sentencing. That sentencing led to her receiving 180 days in jail and 10 years probation.

Still, a small price to pay for taking a life.

Upon doing my own individual unreported investigating, I found many MANY comments for people saying they knew both Scott and Traci, most of those claims were the same. Scott was a very good man and Traci was actually the one with strange behavior. Many stated that they knew Traci would have alot of the fits she claimed Scott would have and that she was actually the insanely jealous one. One person stated that she was known to bulge her eyes out and purse her lips up in anger during normal conversations and that she kept Scott on a very short leash. Many of the claims said they never once heard Scott utter one bad word against his wife, but elaborated on how often they did hear him say how much he loved his wife and his family.

One woman said she was disgusted by the fact that Tracis mom was always creating fund raisers for money towards Tracis case and fine. She was also surprised that Traci became a nurse because she "didn't have one compassionate bone in her body". All of them claimed that the way Traci portrayed her husband as a monster left them feeling sick to their stomach and that it was one sided. They talked of how fake her tears were during all of the interviews and how they can't believe she got off with only probation. They expressed fear for the next man she may meet.

I also came across this.

Everything I have come across is indicative of her still living in Brownsboro Texas. This is the most recent picture I was able to come across.

Traci Rhode

In my opinion, this woman is GUILTY. No questions. Proof of the justice system failing yet again.

guilty
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About the Creator

Sara Wilson

Lover of the strange and unusual. I write mostly horror or true crime. I occasionally publish other things, but try not to write only for the sake of having content. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated!

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