A California man will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole for his role in the deadly 2018 shooting of podiatrist Thomas Shock, reports say.
Robert Elmo Lee, 83, was found guilty nearly a year ago of hiring three men to help him commit the crime and was sentenced Monday.
"The doctor was fatally shot outside of his home by three men Lee paid in a murder-for-hire plot," Law and Crime News reports. "Co-defendant Mallory Stewart confessed to being the shooter and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with a weapons enhancement. Christopher Costello and getaway driver Raymond Austin Hassan Jacquett IV were also convicted for their roles in Shock’s murder."
Shock was found by police suffering from gunshot wounds to the chest, head and arm Aug. 1, 2018.
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Lee allegedly blamed Shock for the death of his wife.
"Investigators at the scene found a single page from a California Medical Board document near Shock’s body at his home in Lodi, which is located about 40 miles south of Sacramento. The document, which featured Costello’s fingerprint, concerned Lee’s wife, Bonnie Lee, going to Shock as a patient for an ingrown toenail in 2011 at the age of 73," Law and Crime News reported.
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Bonnie's foot was partially amputated in 2014. She died from an infection in her foot in 2016.
"Mr. Lee twisted a devotion for his late wife into a perverse obsession with Dr. Shock, one that led to inexcusable violence," District Attorney Ron Freitas said in a statement after the sentencing. "I want to commend former San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Edward "Ted" McGarvey for his tenacity in seeking justice for the Shock family, as well as the Lodi Police Department for their investigative skill."
