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Texas Woman Sentenced To 20 Years For Hiring Carnival Worker To Kill Her Son And Daughter-In -Law
Ruth Ann Comer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for solicitation of capital murder. Prosecutors say she hired carnival worker Charles Grube to kill her son and daughter-in-law in 2013 to tie up loose ends in her boyfriend's murder the year before.
A Texas woman who prosecutors said paid a carnival worker to kill her son and daughter-in-law to tie up loose ends in her boyfriend's killing a year earlier was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for the failed murder-for-hire plot.
Ruth Ann Comer, 69, allegedly solicited Charles Grube to kill Jacob Thomas, her son, and his wife Kristina Moore in 2013. Bexar County Court prosecutors argued that Comer was trying to cover up her alleged involvement in her late boyfriend's 2012 murder, according to local news station KSAT.
The San Antonio woman was written into her 68-year-old boyfriend Jerry Augustus Collins' will. Collins was found on Jan. 28, 2020 with his throat slit and a knife by his side in his trailer home. Comer stood to inherit $500,000 upon the hardware store owner's death.
A 2014 wrongful death suit levied by Collins’ family alleges Comer took his will to a bank and tried to withdraw money from his accounts just two days after he was found dead, according to NBC affiliate News 4 San Antonio.
Comer was considered a person of interest in Collins' death, but to date, no one has been charged for his murder.
According to a 2018 arrest affidavit reviewed by KSAT, Comer paid Moore $10,000 to find and pay someone to kill Collins, then sought another hitman to kill Moore.
Grube told police Comer first asked him to kill Thomas and Moore in April of 2013.
"I want Kristina gone, and if you have to, kill Jacob," she told allegedly told the carnival worker, providing him with a .32 caliber revolver.
When Grube inquired about payment, Comer allegedly told him, “when I get my money, anything you want,” according to the affidavit.
Grube handed over the gun to police and agreed to record future interactions with Comer. A later conversation between them at his home on Aug. 16, 2013 led to her arrest. She was caught on tape giving Grube the address of the couple's trailer park, the precise location of their trailer and a description of Moore's vehicle.
She was initially arrested in 2013, but charges were later dropped against her while police investigated further, KSAT reported.
The case was reopened in 2017 and, after questions in court about the woman's competency to stand trial, Comer was indicted in 2018. A grand jury handed down her conviction for solicitation of capital murder on Dec. 9, 2022.
"This is about Ruth making a request and Ruth making a promise. And we all agreed that there are times where we're just talking about a verbal crime or a preparatory crime because we know that an actual murder did not occur here because Charles Grube did the right thing and went to the police,” Bexar County Prosecutor Lauren Scott told jurors in her closing arguments, according to FOX 29.
An error in court paperwork postponed 290th District Court Judge Jennifer Pena's sentence, which was scheduled for last month. After serving half her sentence, Comer will be eligible for parole. according to KSAT.
