Boulder County prosecutors formally charged Traci Housman today with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of her husband, John Housman.
Housman, 36, faces 10 to 32 years in prison if convicted of the “heat of passion” murder charge. She remains in custody on $250,000 bond, and is scheduled to return to court Oct. 20 for a preliminary hearing.
When police arrived at the home of John and Traci Housman early Aug. 2, they found Traci Housman administering CPR to her husband, who was on the ground with a stab wound to his chest, according to an arrest report made public today.
“Traci told officers she had stabbed John after a physical altercation in another room, and after he had assaulted her,” Boulder police detective Chuck Heidel wrote in the report.
According to the newly released report, Housman told investigators that she and John Housman, 41, had been drinking beer at their Boulder home at 2994 23rd St. earlier in the evening, before the stabbing.
“She finished a bottle of wine, and John was drinking whiskey,” Heidel wrote in the report.
They decided to go to the Pearl Street Mall to meet some friends at the Colorado Brewing Co., and after drinking a while there, they went to a nearby sushi restaurant to sing karaoke.
They were drinking sake and singing when John began telling everyone, “I’m a gay guy,” according to the report. Traci Housman explained to detectives that John Housman had told her years ago that he was bisexual, and she had no problem with that.
But, Traci Housman told police, she told her husband that night “that it was disrespectful for him to announce this to everyone since they were married.”
They got into an argument about this, according to the report, and Traci Housman decided to walk home. When she arrived, John Housman was waiting, “and he was angry,” according to the report.
“He confronted her and was immediately in her face, stating, ‘You need to listen to me!'” according to the report. “She advised that she told him that he didn’t own her. At some point, John told her, ‘If you want to fight, lets fight. I’ll knock you out!'”
Traci Housman told police that John Housman grabbed her and pushed her into a wall and hit her head several times. He pushed her head into a glass framed picture, she told police, and she got away to grab a knife from the kitchen, according to the report.
“As she turned toward him, he had both hands down at his side in a fist,” the report said. “Traci said she poked out at John with one of the knives she had grabbed and he suddenly stopped his attack.”
Traci said she ran into the back yard, but “got an uneasy feeling because John was no longer yelling,” according to the report. She went back into the house to find a pool of blood. She administered CPR and called 911.
“I asked Traci what her intent was in stabbing John, and she said she was doing it to protect herself,” Heidel wrote in the report.
