Dad beats ex-wife to death, injures son (Lubbock, Texas)

Father ARTHUR SWAGGER beat his ex-wife to death and injured his son in the attack as well. With the death of their mother, the surviving 8-year-old and 5-year-old have been relegated to Texas foster care.

http://www.kcbd.com/global/Story.asp?s=10603520

6/26/09
Oklahoma man pleads guilty to the beating death of his ex-wife
Posted:
June 26, 2009 05:17 PM CDT

Oklahoma man pleads guilty to the beating death of his ex-wife
Source: Lubbock Co. Sheriff
By Katie Bauer - bio email

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - An Oklahoma man admits to beating his former wife to death in a Lubbock motel. Arthur Swagger, 38, pleaded guilty Friday morning. He also pleaded guilty to injuring his son during that assault.

Arthur Swagger, his ex-wife Joy, and their two children came to Lubbock for work last June. They stayed here at the Motel 6. During their stay, a 911 call came in from Arthur asking for an ambulance. "June 1st, 2008, an altercation happened, a domestic type of situation and 911 was called the early hours of June 2nd, 2008. Then she passed away six days after that," said Tray Payne with the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office.

On Friday, Arthur Swagger pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 42 years in prison. "This is a very difficult case, it had ties to Oklahoma, a lot of family in Oklahoma," said Swagger.

Arthur, Joy, and their two children traveled to Lubbock from Oklahoma and were staying at the Motel 6 on the corner of 66th and I-27. After the altercation, Swagger was also charged with injury to a child, because of his son's condition.

"He had a blackened eye - a darkened eye - so we filed a 3rd degree felony, which was 2-10 years in prison on that charge alone and he plead guilty to 5 years on that," said Payne.

Payne says the two children are now in the custody in of the state. "They are in foster care here in West Texas, to my knowledge they are not going to go back to Oklahoma. No family have been able to take them in, so you have a really sad situation where you got two kids who have know lost their mom and their dad," said Payne.

It's a case Payne says has a sad ending for the children who are now 8 and 5, but that justice was served. "I just felt like this is an appropriate sentence, he's almost 40 years old and we feel like this will be a life sentence for him which is what he deserves in this case," said Payne.

Payne says Swagger didn't have anything to say in the courthouse Friday morning, nor was there any family from either side.