In 1985 Coleen Batten killed her second husband, James Roger Batten, 46, with a shotgun blast to the chest at their home in Placerville, California. The body showed signs that he had been beaten. She was tried for murder but acquitted. She testified that the dead man had “threatened “to kill her and laughed about raping Harris’ daughter from a previous marriage.” The jury’s verdict was based on their opinion there was insufficient evidence she intended to murder her husband.
On January 6, 2013, Robert Harris, 72, a retired law enforcement officer well-liked and respected was found dead from a gunshot wound at the home he shared with wife Coleen Harris (formerly Batten), 70 years old. She was arrested Sunday, January 6, and held without bail. They are believed to have divorced in 2004 but later reconciled.
According to a Mountain Democrat article from 1985, Harris, known then as Colleen Batten, testified at trial that Batten “threatened to kill her and laughed about raping Harris’ daughter from a previous marriage.”
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Sources: [“Placerville woman charged with murder for 3rd husband’s death,” News 10 abc, Jan. 9, 2013]
[Rachel Quigley, “Woman, 70, ‘shoots dead her husband - 30 years after killing previous husband in the same house with the same shotgun,’” Mail Online (London, England),
