‘Haunted’ husband, 83, is jailed for life for orchestrating the revenge killing of the podiatrist who treated his wife’s ingrown toenail only for her to lose her foot and then die of an infection.
- Robert Elmo Lee was convicted of the murder of a doctor who treated his wife
- Lee’s wife, Bonnie Lee, died after Shock failed to treat an ingrown toenail
California widower Robert Elmo Lee, 83, has been jailed for life for organizing the murder of a doctor who unsuccessfully treated his wife.
Dr. Thomas Shock, 67, was shot and killed in front of his home on August 1, 2018 after Lee hired hitmen to hunt him down.
Lee was wronged when his wife, Bonnie Lee, died after losing her foot to an infection following doctor’s treatment for an ingrown toenail.
Having been convicted of first degree murder last year, he was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Robert Lee (pictured left) was found guilty of the murder of Dr. Thomas Shock (right)
Lee (third from left) is seen with the men he hired to kill his wife’s podiatrist in August 2018.
Bonnie Lee began seeing Shock in 2011 for treatment of an ingrown toenail.
When the doctor was unable to fully treat the condition, Bonnie had her foot partially amputated.
In 2014, the doctor was charged with gross negligence.
The California Medical Board found “repeated negligent acts” on the part of the doctor.
Lee’s wife succumbed to a foot infection in 2016 and died at the age of 73.
There was no evidence that Shock’s actions caused his death.
Shock admitted to the allegations against him and resigned his podiatrist license after an investigation.
He also retired from Lodi Podiatry, which he had founded in 1985.
Still devastated by the loss of his wife, Lee hired Christopher Costello, then 26, to kill Shock.
Costello introduced Lee to Mallory Stewart, then 27, and to Raymond Jacquett IV.
In August 2018, Jacquett brought Stewart to Doctor Shock’s home and shot the man dead.
His wife, Nancy, had gone to bed around 9:30 p.m. and fell asleep listening to a podcast after coming home from dinner with Shock.
She said she did not hear the three shots reported by a neighbor at 9:54 p.m.
Police found a shocked man lying on the ground with gunshot wounds to the arm, chest and head.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Near the body, police found a single sheet of paper detailing the California Medical Board report.
The paper had Costello’s fingerprint on it, which led to his arrest.
A search of Lee’s home turned up other pages of the medical board document.
Lee’s friends claimed that he blamed Shock for his wife’s death and that he had organized the murder in revenge.
But the retiree had denied any involvement in the podiatrist’s murder.
However, he later told detectives that he was “glad” the doctor was dead.
Christopher Anthony Costello was found guilty for his role in the murder of Dr. Shock in 2021
Raymond Jacquett (left) was hired as the getaway driver for the killer, Mallory Stewart (right)
Lee and the three hitmen were arrested in September 2018.
Jacquett was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2019.
Costello was found guilty for his role in 2021.
Stewart pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, as well as a weapons charge for shooting Shock, in February 2022.
