Florida Man Who Fatally Shot Wife's Lover Found Not Guilty of Murder
It took Tampa jurors only two hours to return a not guilty verdict in the two-day murder trial of a retired Army lieutenant colonel who shot and killed his wife's lover.
The incident that led 70-year-old Ralph Wald to be charged with the second-degree murder of 32-year-old Walter Conley was impeccably described by the Tampa Bay Times as "a tragic and inimitably Floridian morality tale involving sex, liquor, self-defense law, erectile dysfunction and a man shot to death with his pants around his knees."
It was around midnight on March 10th when Wald woke up in his home in Brandon to find Conley, a resident of Lovers Lane in nearby Riverview, on the floor of his living room having sex with his wife, 41-year-old Johnna Lynn Flores.
Without disturbing the scene, Wald slipped back into his bedroom, grabbed a .38 revolver, and returned to the living room, where he shot Conley in the stomach and head, killing him instantly.
Though prosecutors attempted to describe Wald, a Vietnam vet with erectile dysfunction, as a man overcome with jealous rage at finding another man in his house doing something with his wife that he could not, the defense was more successful in arguing that Wald was simply "standing his ground" against an intruder he believed was raping his spouse.
"He is the kind of American who has made this country great," Wald's attorney Joe Episcopo said in his closing statement.
For her part, Flores claimed that she was "black-out drunk," and didn't remember getting together with Conley, an ex-boyfriend.
After being formally released from jail, Wald and Flores reunited and walked into a swarm of flashing news cameras together.
"My husband has forgiven me 100% but there are of course some trust issues and that's something we're going to go to counseling about," Flores told reporters outside the jailhouse.
She later added: "Because my husband puts me first, he's taking me to the Waffle House."
