Records: Woman helped husband’s mistress flee

A Chandler man’s mistress, whom he’d kidnapped, beaten and brought to his home, escaped the home aided by his wife, Maricopa County court records show.

The wife told Chandler police the episode began the night of May 11, when her husband, identified by records as 30-year-old Derrick Robert Buford, sent her a text message reading, “I can’t let her live,” referring to the mistress, a 22-year-old woman with whom he’d had a “romantic relationship,” records show.

Records, which include a probable cause statement submitted by police after his arrest, say the man brought the mistress to his family’s house, on the 4900 block of West Joshua Boulevard, southeast of Rural and Ray roads, in Chandler.

The mistress told police she and Buford had argued shortly after the man picked her up around 9 p.m. that night in Mesa, documents state.

When she asked him to take her home, he became violent, the court documents state.

Records show he struck her about five times with his closed fist while driving and choked her several times.

Once at the house, records show, the man barricaded the door, pressed a handgun against the mistress’s head, and asked her, “Do you want to die?”

Later, after the man had fallen asleep, his wife gathered their children, who records show were home at the time, awakened the battered woman and told her “they needed to leave and call the police,” records state.

After the women and children left the house, Chandler police, including the SWAT team, arrived and tried to arrest Buford, who refused to leave the house, records state.

Police had learned Buford previously said he wanted to die by “suicide by cop,” documents show.

Part of the neighborhood was evacuated, and police negotiated with Buford through the night. They arrested him at 10 a.m. May 12. Records didn’t specify whether the man came out of the house voluntarily or whether police went in after him.

Buford faces multiple charges, including kidnapping, aggravated assault, and threatening to kill the mistress, court records say.

His preliminary hearing is at 8:45 a.m. May 29; his bond is set at $100,000.