Clearlake Oaks woman convicted of killing ex-boyfriend

A Lake County woman on Thursday was convicted of first-degree murder for the July 2021 shooting of her ex-boyfriend.

Tammy Sue Grogan-Robinson, 58, of Clearlake Oaks, was found guilty of shooting and killing Charles Vernon McClelland, 56, of Rohnert Park.

Grogan-Robinson faces 25 years to life in prison for the murder conviction and an additional 25 years because she used a firearm. She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12 in Lake County Superior Court in Lakeport.

Thursday’s verdict was handed down after a four-week jury trial, Lake County Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson said Tuesday.

Authorities found McClelland dead with gunshot wounds in Grogan-Robinson’s home on Island Circle in Clearlake Oaks, located on the extreme southeast of Clear Lake, after she reported the killing, prosecutors said.

Grogan-Robinson and McClelland had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for five years, court records showed. She initially told police she had shot McClelland because he had sexually assaulted her the previous day while holding a gun to her head.

McClelland had entered her room the morning of July 7 and “fearing for her life, she shot him,” Mitchell Hauptman, a Lakeport attorney who represented Grogan-Robinson in court, told The Press Democrat in September 2021.

A rape kit conducted on Grogan-Robinson did not detect any identifiable male DNA, Watson said, and none of McClelland’s DNA was found on the gun Grogan-Robinson said McClelland pointed at her during the alleged assault.

Texts were then discovered on Grogan-Robinson’s phone in which she told a friend she was going to shoot McClelland, Watson said.

Further in the text conversation, she asked her friend to delete those messages, Watson said.

A request for comment from Grogan-Robinson’s attorney was not immediately returned.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. Her Twitter is madi.smals.