LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Clearlake Oaks woman pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that she shot her boyfriend to death in early July, with a judge setting her preliminary hearing for next month.
Tammy Sue Grogan-Robinson, 57, appeared in Lake County Superior Court before Judge J. David Markham via Zoom from the Lake County Jail on Wednesday morning.
Grogan-Robinson is charged with killing 56-year-old Charles Vernon McClelland of Rohnert Park.
Deputies found the body of McClelland, Grogan-Robinson’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, in the Clearlake Oaks residence where she was living on the morning of July 7.
The discovery of McClelland’s body followed Grogan-Robinson going to the hospital to claim she had been sexually assaulted.
An autopsy would later determine that McClelland had been shot multiple times. The District Attorney’s Office said in its charging document that Grogan-Robinson used a handgun in the killing.
Investigators concluded the shooting was unjustified and premeditated, pointing to Grogan-Robinson sending texts to a friend the night before the killing, stating her intention to shoot McClelland.
She was arrested on Aug. 18 in Missouri, where she has family. Authorities extradited her back to Lake County, where she was booked into the jail on Sept. 11.
Concerns about public safety and Grogan-Robinson being a flight risk led Judge Markham to order she be held without bail at a Sept. 28 hearing.
During the brief Wednesday court appearance, attorney Mitch Hauptman — acting on Grogan-Robinson’s behalf — entered not guilty pleas to murder and assault with a firearm, and denied each of the special allegations, which include intentionally discharging a firearm causing death, personal use of a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury.
At Hauptman’s urging, Grogan-Robinson agreed to a time waiver that would not require her preliminary hearing to be held within 30 days of the plea entry.
Instead, the preliminary hearing has been set for 8:15 a.m. Nov. 17, in a department that will be assigned at a Nov. 12 hearing.
Also on Nov. 17, Hauptman is again asking that Grogan-Robinson’s bail be reviewed.
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Woman pleads not guilty to killing boyfriend; preliminary hearing set
- Elizabeth Larson