Robert Elmo Lee Lodi, California man, 83 found guilty of murder for hire plot of podiatrist, Dr. Thomas Shock after wife’s botched foot treatment.
An 83 year old California man has been convicted of killing a podiatrist whom he accused of botching the treatment on his wife’s ingrown toenail — leading her to have her foot partly amputated and then die.
Robert Elmo Lee, 83, of Lodi was found guilty of first-degree murder Thursday over the 2018 shooting death of Dr. Thomas Shock, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
Lee plotted to have Shock killed after blaming the podiatrist for his wife Bonnie Lee’s death, prosecutors said.
After Shock was shot dead in his Lodi home in August 2018, cops found a California Medical Board document next to the victim’s body that referenced the treatment of Lee’s wife the Stockton Record reported.
Bonnie had been treated by Shock for an ingrown toenail in 2014. She eventually had to have part of that foot amputated — and then died in 2016 of an infection.
Murder for hire plot
The doctor, who retired in 2018, had been disciplined by the Medical Board of California, in regards to Bonnie’s treatment. The podiatrist was sanctioned prior to Bonnie’s death.
Prosecutors said Lee hired several hitmen to kill the podiatrist.
The gunman, Mallory Stewart, 27, was also found guilty of first-degree murder and will be sentenced in May. Fellow cohorts Christopher Costello, 26, whose thumbprint was found on the document, and Raymond Jacquett IV, 26, who drove the getaway car, were found guilty last year over their roles in the deadly scheme and sentenced to 15 years to life in 2019.
Lee will be sentenced on May 16.
