A 51-year-old Nassau Bay man was sentenced this week to 25 years in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2020, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“This incident of intimate partner violence escalating to murder absolutely did not have to happen,” Ogg said. “This woman was a mother, a grandmother and a big part of her community who had so much life ahead, and it was all taken away by a jealous partner with a gun.”

Roger Wayne Douglas fatally shot 47-year-old Tanya Melton at his apartment in the 2000 block of San Sebastian Court in Nassau Bay in the early-morning hours of Aug. 1, 2020. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced Wednesday by state District Judge Brian Warren.

Witnesses, including the victim’s adult daughter, testified the couple had dated for about a year and Douglas had a history of being violent toward his girlfriend. They had broken up about four months before the shooting but were still friendly.

On the night that she was killed, Melton and two friends went to the apartment complex where Douglas lived to go swimming and have drinks with him.

Douglas went to his apartment and passed out. Melton and a mutual friend, who was a man, went into his bedroom and woke him up. When he arose, he said, “Where is my gun?” He picked up a 9mm semi-automatic pistol off the floor next to the bed and shot Melton in the head. The friend tried to wrestle the gun away from him and then fled to call police.

When Nassau Bay officers arrived, they found Melton dead of a single gunshot wound and Douglas sitting next to her. When emergency medical personnel asked what happened, Douglas said, “I killed her.”

Douglas later told detectives with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office who were assisting Nassau Bay that he and Melton had been arguing about her “cheating” and he shot her.

Assistant District Attorney Anthony Osso, who prosecuted the case, said Douglas and Melton had known each other since their youth and began dating after her marriage ended.

“Roger was a very controlling and jealous individual, and this built up over several months,” Osso said. “This was not sudden passion or an accident because of too much alcohol, and now he’ll spend a significant portion of the rest of his life in prison.”