A divorce can be a messy business, but once it has gone through the courts or arbitration, each party knows what they own and have a right to keep. But when a dating relationship breaks off, it is not always so cut and dry, especially if the former couple has been working on something together without a formal business relationship. If the business is illegal it can make a tricky situation nearly impossible.
That was the dilemma Anna Roseberry and her ex-boyfriend were facing. The pair were growing and harvesting marijuana on her good-sized property in rural Covelo, the inland Mendocino County community known as the home of the Round Valley Tribal Center. The property on Charlie Hurt Road, also known as Road 337D, must have earned the couple a pretty good profit when they were together. But they had broken up, apparently with promises to keep working the garden and sharing the fruits of their labor and the rich land, which lies in the valley between the Mendocino National Forest and the Coastal Range mountains.
Roseberry and her partner had a marijuana growing operation going on her property on Charles Hurt Road in Covelo.
Of course, when personal relations are strained, business arrangements may not be so easy either. The male partner, a 38-year-old also living in Covelo, had been at Roseberry’s home Sunday evening, July 19, to get his share of the profits from the sale of the harvested marijuana. Perhaps he wanted some of the product as well. But her estimation of the worth of his contribution apparently did not match his, and they began to argue. According to the Mendocino Sheriff’s Office, as the dispute became heated, at around midnight Ms. Roseberry pulled out a .38 caliber revolver and shot at her erstwhile partner, hitting him in the groin, and then shouted “Get off my property!”
A neighbor, hearing both the gunshot and shouting, called the Sheriff’s Office. Meanwhile, the man, no doubt scared and wounded, left the property, and headed east on Hurt Road, and then down Mina Road, which is also known as Highway 162. He must not have been hurt too badly, because he was able to walk over two miles in about 45 minutes, to the area of the Covelo Volunteer Fire Department, where he found a phone to call for medical help. It was 12:47 am when he made that call.
While deputies were responding to the scene of the shooting, Anna Roseberry decided to ask some of her friends to hunt around the area to see if they could find her wounded former partner. It was around 1:22 am when another call came in reporting an “unwanted subject” at a nearby property. The deputies collated the series of calls and detained Roseberry at her home. As the story was put together, and realizing the wounded man and unwanted prowler were all part of the same incident, Roseberry admitted to shooting the man, but claimed she shot in self defense as he had come at her with a knife. When pressed further, she admitted that he had in fact never pulled the knife on her.
The gun used in the shooting, along with another weapon, were located on the scene. Additionally, the couple’s marijuana farm was located, with 200 growing plants and several pounds of processed marijuana on the premises.
Anna Leland Roseberry, 34, was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail in charges of assault with a firearm, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant, being armed in the commission of a felony, and maintaining a location for selling or using a controlled substance. Her bail was set at $40,000. The wounded man was airlifted to the Mercy Trauma Center in Redding, where he was expected to make a full recovery.
