Former TV Bailiff Renard Spivey, Acquitted of Murder, Breaks Down in First Interview: ‘I Live With It Every Day’
Renard Spivey spent years on national television as the courtroom bailiff on "Justice for All with Judge Cristina Perez." But on a July night in 2019, the former Texas sheriff’s deputy walked into a real-life drama that would shatter his career and family. Now, after a jury acquitted him of murder, Spivey is speaking out for the first time.
In a raw, tearful interview with "48 Hours" correspondent Natalie Morales — airing in an encore Saturday on CBS and Paramount+ — Spivey describes the moments that led to the death of his 52-year-old wife Patricia. He maintains that what happened inside their Houston home was a horrific accident, not a crime.
“I live with it every day,” Spivey says, his voice breaking. “That’s my wife. I loved her.”
On July 28, 2019, just after 3 a.m., police responded to a 911 call from the Spivey home. They found Patricia dead in a closet with multiple gunshot wounds; Renard, then 63, had a bullet wound in his leg. He told first responders the couple had been arguing over Patricia’s phone, that she confronted him holding his service weapon, and that during a struggle for the gun it discharged — three times.
Prosecutors and investigators were skeptical. Why, they asked, would a 6-foot-3, 290-pound man need to wrestle a 5-foot-6 woman for a gun? And how could a gun accidentally fire multiple times? “The multiple shots is definitely what gives everyone a lot of pause,” says Lisa Andrews, a CBS News consultant and former prosecutor. Renard was charged with murder.
But his defense — led by the prominent DeGuerin family, including legendary attorney Dick DeGuerin — argued that the shooting was unintentional. They demonstrated in court that the semiautomatic pistol had no external safety, meaning a slight trigger pull could cause a discharge, and that a close-quarters struggle could easily produce a rapid series of shots.
The case went to a jury in November 2023, more than four years after Patricia’s death. After 12 hours of deliberation over two days, the verdict came back: not guilty. “I fall to the floor crying. Boohoo crying,” Spivey recalls. “My attorneys help pick me up.”
Despite the acquittal, Spivey says he still cannot sleep. The judge barred him from attending Patricia’s funeral — a condition that he calls the cruelest part of the ordeal. “I just wanted to pay my respects,” he says. “That’s all.”
Spivey’s story highlights a broader conversation in the American justice system about how intimate-partner homicides are investigated and prosecuted, especially when the accused is a law enforcement officer. His not-guilty verdict drew sharp reactions from advocates who question whether his size and his role as a deputy influenced the outcome, even as his legal team insisted the evidence pointed to a fatal accident.
Now, back in Houston, Spivey says he tries to keep busy — spending time with family, exercising at the gym, going to church. But the memory of that night never leaves him. “Everything happened so fast,” he says. “You try to save your wife, and you’ve been shot.”
His interview, originally aired in May 2024, revisits the emotional toll of a case that turned a TV bailiff into a defendant — and a widower still searching for peace.