Pierce County woman who shot and killed husband has been sentenced
A woman convicted of shooting her husband to death in January at their Parkland home has been sentenced. Court documents say she shot the man after finding text messages sent between him and another woman.
Lisa Hurlburt, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Pierce County Superior Court earlier this month for the death of 33-year-old Thomas Combs. On Friday, Hurlburt was sentenced to 18 years in prison, the high end of the standard sentencing range for such cases.
Hurlburt called 911 about 12:25 a.m. Jan. 29 and said she shot her husband 20 to 30 minutes prior. During that call, she told the operator she’d looked at Combs’ phone that night and found text messages exchanged between him and another woman, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause.
“I see there are messages and he’s seeing someone else and they love each other,” Hurlburt is quoted saying in the call, according to the probable cause document. “I went to confront him and when he got out of the shower ... I don’t know what happened.”
Deputies arrived within two minutes and found Combs dead in a back bedroom. He was shot three times, and a Glock was found at the foot of the bed.
After Hurlburt was arrested, she told deputies in an interview that she was sitting on the bed waiting to confront her husband about what she’d seen on his phone when she saw the gun case and retrieved the weapon.
Months later, in June, Hurlburt told a psychologist she couldn’t remember the shooting, according to a psychological evaluation requested by her defense attorneys. Hurlburt said she and her husband had spent the evening watching television and eating a pizza she’d picked up on her way home from work.
Then Combs went to the gym, and she played games on her laptop while she waited for him to come home. Hurlburt said she didn’t know what happened after that, and all she remembered was waking up in a jail cell.
Defense attorneys noted in their sentencing memorandum that Hurlburt had a history of mental health issues dating back to childhood.
The psychologist diagnosed her with major depressive disorder and noted that Hurlburt’s description of the last several years of her life indicated she was experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder prior to the shooting and after. In the fall, she started presenting new symptoms and the psychologist diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.
The defendant’s attorneys also wrote that she and Combs had experienced difficulties in their marriage before, and that by the end of 2020 the relationship had become strained. The two started dating at 16 and were married when Hurlburt was 24.
Hurlburt’s mother told detectives the couple discussed getting a divorce.
In a letter of support written to the court, she asked for leniency in her daughter’s sentence.
“There is no way to erase this from our lives,” Rosemary Bachman wrote. “The hurt and pain it has caused will last forever and the price for atonement will be her burden for the rest of her life.”
