Dallas, Texas: Public Defender's Chief Investigator Charged With Murder in Wife's Stabbing Death

The chief investigator for the Dallas County Public Defender's Office has been arrested and charged with murder after his wife was found stabbed to death inside their downtown Dallas apartment on Friday night, according to an arrest affidavit reported by FOX 4 Dallas.

Jimmy Harold Spurger Jr., 54, was taken into custody on Saturday morning and booked into the Lew Sterrett Jail on a first degree murder warrant. A magistrate signed the warrant on Saturday and ordered him held without bond, court records show.

What firefighters found inside the apartment

Dallas Fire-Rescue crews went to the couple's apartment in the 2323 block of North Akard Street at about 10:40 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, for a welfare check, the affidavit says. Nobody answered the door, and crews forced their way in past furniture that had been placed behind the door to block entry.

Inside, first responders found Maria Teresa Spurger, 52, lying unresponsive on a couch with a knife lodged in her neck. She died at the scene. Officers who arrived at about 11:13 p.m. found her husband sitting on a bed in the bedroom, covered in blood, with a small knife lying next to him. The affidavit says several empty pill bottles covered in blood were found in the kitchen, and no one else was inside the apartment.

Spurger did not respond to questions from first responders. Police suspected he had taken multiple pills, and he was taken to Methodist Central Hospital. Investigators said they were unable to question him there.

A career spent on murder cases

The arrest puts a longtime investigator on the other side of a murder case. Spurger had led the Public Defender's Office Investigative Division for the past 11 months. Before that, he spent more than 13 years with the office, most of it in the Capital Murder Division, where investigators review evidence and interview witnesses for defense teams in death penalty cases.

Before joining the public defender's office, he worked more than 20 years in law enforcement, including a decade supervising investigations in the Child Abuse and Family Violence Division of the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. The couple had been married for about 35 years.

Court records show Spurger filed for divorce on Oct. 26, less than two weeks before the killing. The case was still open, and a Nov. 3 entry in the file indicated that Maria Spurger had not been served with the papers.

County suspends him as the investigation continues

Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said on Sunday that he had ordered the employee suspended and his access to county systems revoked. "After being notified of this tragic murder yesterday, I directed Administration to suspend the employee and revoke his access," Jenkins said in a statement carried by Fox News.

Dallas police have not released a motive, and the department says the investigation is still active. Police ask anyone with information to contact Detective C. Johnson at 214-671-3584. A murder charge is an allegation, and Spurger is presumed innocent unless he is convicted in court.