Woman Is Killed in Courthouse Hallway; Bailiff Then Shoots Her Alleged Attacker

A woman was killed and a man wounded in a shoot-out in a courthouse corridor here Friday.

The incident began early Friday morning when Jane Romo, 39, was sitting on a bench in the Contra Costa County Courthouse with her mother, whose name has not been released. The mother recent1819877480her ex-husband, George K. Lee, 51, to settle a property dispute.

They were scheduled for a family law hearing, but the judge was delayed by a dental appointment and had not yet arrived, said Family Law Commissioner James Libbey.

“I was told that he (Lee) just walked up to the woman, seemed friendly, exchanged a few words and then started firing and emptied his gun,” Libbey said. “Then the bailiff came over and stopped him with one shot.”

Both Lee and Romo were taken by ambulance to Merrithew County Hospital in Martinez. Romo was pronounced dead on arrival. Doctors removed bullet fragments from Lee’s stomach and he was in stable condition, a hospital spokesman said. He is in police custody at the hospital.

Last year there were two other shootings in Bay Area courthouses.

In San Rafael’s Marin County Municipal Court, Silvia Tolson, 68, shot and killed her former son-in-law, David LaFont, 36, in a dispute over child custody. After killing LaFont, Tolson shot herself to death.

And in San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, Jack Spiegelman attempted to avenge the murder of his 17-year-old daughter by shooting a defendant, Daniel Morgan, accused of killing the girl and wounding a companion in Golden Gate Park. Morgan, who survived the shooting, later was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison for the murder of Spiegelman’s daughter. Spiegelman was placed on five years’ probation and sentenced to 5,000 hours of community work.