Police: Georgetown man faces murder charge after handcuffing, shooting estranged wife

Ricardo Quinones, 38, has been charged with murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife at her Georgetown home, police said. Officers found the body of Lindsey Whitman, 31, in the home Tuesday, according to police. She had been handcuffed to a bed and shot in the face, according to his arrest affidavit.

The couple's daughter escaped from the house through a bedroom window during the incident, police have said. They said officers were standing outside the house trying to negotiate with Quinones before they heard two gunshots and entered the home. They said Quinones escaped but was arrested several hours later in Columbus.

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Whitman's 13-year-old daughter later told police she was sleeping with her mother Tuesday when she woke up because Quinones was shining a flashlight in her face, according to the affidavit. Quinones was wearing a ski mask, but his daughter recognized him because of his voice, the affidavit said.

It said Quinones pulled Whitman out of bed and told his daughter to stay where she was. Whitman told her daughter to "listen to your dad" but also mouthed to her to call police, the affidavit said.

The daughter hid in the bathroom and first called her uncle and then 911 at 2:52 a.m. Tuesday, police said. Police arrived on the scene at 3 a.m., the affidavit said.

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Quinones heard his daughter on the phone and then pointed a gun at his daughter's dog and told his daughter to call her uncle back and tell him that she had made a mistake, the affidavit said. He also took his daughter's phone away, police said.

His daughter saw that her father had tied her mother up with ropes and also noticed that he had a knife in his pocket, according to the affidavit.

It said Quinones threatened to stab Whitman and to hit her with a gun. At one point, Quinones tried to cut the rope off Whitman's legs but cut her legs accidentally, causing her to bleed a lot, the affidavit said.

Whitman told her daughter to run away several times, but the daughter told police she was afraid to leave her mother, according to the affidavit. The daughter later escaped through a bedroom window at 4:16 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

She told police her father had a gun and was threatening to shoot her mother and her mother's new boyfriend, who was not at the house, according to the affidavit.

The girl also said her parents were in the middle of a divorce and that her father was holding her mother hostage, police said.

Police were standing outside the house when they heard two gunshots at 4:40 a.m. Tuesday inside the house, according to the affidavit. It said officers then entered the house and found Whitman dead inside. "She was laying handcuffed to the bed and had been shot in the face," the affidavit said.

Officers had been trying to negotiate with Quinones before he shot Whitman, police have said.

An officer outside the home fired a shot as Quinones was running away the house, but didn't know if he injured Quinones, police said. Quinones drove away in Whitman's Toyota truck, the affidavit said.

A license plate reader showed that Quinones was driving toward Houston, the affidavit said. Quinones has an ex-wife who called New Braunfels police on Tuesday to say she had received a text from him, according to the document. The message said that "he did something really bad and she would find out soon," the affidavit said.

An acquaintance of Quinones' also told Georgetown police after learning what happened that he had sold Quinones a SIG Sauer P320 handgun on Nov. 24, the affidavit said.

Police later found Quinones at an AT&T phone store in Columbus, where he was trying to buy a new phone, according to the affidavit. It said he initially told officers he had dumped the gun.

Quinones then said "it didn't matter anymore, he was going to prison anyway because he had lost his mind that morning and the gun was in his truck," the affidavit said. It said police found the gun in the truck.

Quinones was being held in the Williamson County Jail on Thursday with bail set at $1 million. The punishment for murder ranges from five to 99 years in prison.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Georgetown police: Man faces murder charge in death of handcuffed wife