Woman: Shooting was in self-defense
Witnesses say they heard calls for help before man’s death
A pregnant woman accused of killing her boyfriend after chasing him down in the parking lot of Willowbrook Mall told witnesses she acted out of self-defense, according to prosecutors.
Emily Rose Orbe, 32, could be heard screaming for help and telling bystanders to call police before the fatal shot was fired, witnesses told authorities.
“I didn’t want to do this; I didn’t want to kill him. I had to, though; I had no choice,” Orbe told one witness, crying hysterically, prosecutors on Wednesday told a judge in Harris County probable cause court.
Orbe is being held in the county jail on $100,000 bond.
Police say that Orbe and her 36year-old boyfriend, who medical examiners identified as Davin Walton, were fighting inside the mall in northwest Houston before the altercation spilled out to the parking lot. About 8:30 p.m. Monday at the mall, Orbe got in a Dodge SUV and chased Walton,
who was on a motorcycle, a prosecutor said in court.
She hit the motorcycle, causing Walton to fall off, authorities said. A witness said the victim got up, visibly injured, and walked to the Dodge, at which point someone inside the vehicle fired the shot, the prosecutor said.
The driver of the Dodge, identified as Orbe, also told the witness, “I was at school. He ripped my clothes, he broke my mirror, he took my phone, he took my wallet, he has my gun. It’s in my name.”
A third witness said they heard Orbe say she shot him because he punched her window and was robbing her, according to a police report. The man had gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
An officer saw a handgun and handgun magazine in the Dodge.
The prosecutor said that Walton did not have any of the property that Orbe described.
A public defender argued for lower bond, citing Harris County District Court records and saying that Walton had a “predisposition for violence.”
Witnesses in the parking lot said they could hear the man yelling back at Orbe. The defender said that about two weeks ago, Walton was charged with assault of a family member for an incident involving Orbe.
The public defender also said Walton had previously served between 10 and 12 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Orbe has been a longtime resident of Houston and now lives in Humble. She is five weeks pregnant and has four children between the ages of 1 and 11.