Local News in Brief : Mission Hills Man Gets Prison in Wife’s Death

A Mission Hills man was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years to life in prison for the shooting death of his wife.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne imposed the sentence on Eddie James Roberson, 47, who was convicted in October of murdering his wife during an argument in their apartment on Jan. 18.

Police responding that night to reports of gunfire in the 10000 block of Sepulveda Boulevard found the body of Lori Lynn Roberson, 27, in a parking lot behind the couple’s apartment. An autopsy determined she had been shot five times.

Roberson testified during his trial that his wife struck him during an argument and that he then remembered picking up his .22-caliber rifle and firing one shot at her. Police, however, recovered 13 spent shell casings inside their apartment, according to a probation report prepared for Roberson’s sentencing.

Although Roberson had no previous criminal record, he had been involved in some 25 fights in his life and was a “danger to society,” the probation report stated.