Surprise — the Younger Wife Didn’t Do It
(“No Safe Place,” Forensic Files)
When unknown intruders commit a murder during a home invasion on Forensic Files, it’s a good bet that a family member who survived the attack played a role in orchestrating it.
Sometimes, the person who’s left unharmed or shot in the fleshy part of a limb is a child impatient to inherit the family fortune (Sarah Johnson, Dana Ewell) or a spouse looking to avoid a custody battle and costly divorce (Brenda Andrew, Brad King).
No good deed left unpunished. And the likelihood of evil-doing in the family skyrockets when the survivor is a glamorous woman with a story about masked assailants who murdered her wealthy older husband.
So, when portly oil-company millionaire Ronald Shaw was shot to death in his driveway, police were probably surprised to find out that Rosana Shaw had nothing to do with the crime.
The mastermind of the robbery-murder was not the beneficiary of a will or large life insurance payout. He was an outsider, someone Shaw didn’t know well but was trying to help.
Hard work and ambition. For this week, I searched for an epilogue for Rosana Shaw, who was in her mid-thirties and two months pregnant at the time of the murder. I also looked for background information on Ronald Shaw and the three teenagers who descended upon his house in Youngsville, Louisiana, in 1998. So let’s get started on the recap of “No Safe Place” along with extra information drawn from internet research.
Ronald Lee Shaw, born in 1945, originally came from San Antonio. He served in the Air Force for four years, then got a gig as an oil-field laborer in Louisiana and worked his way up to management. He started his own oil and gas drilling company in the 1990s and eventually co-founded MWD Services.
As his marriage to his first wife, Karen, was heading south, he met Rosana Staufert on a business trip to Mexico. She served as a translator for him. Ronald hired her as his assistant and frequently took her along when he traveled for work.
Trying to go straight. Shaw divorced Karen, married Rosana, and commissioned local general contractor Ernest Touchet to build a 5,000-square-foot love nest.
As a favor, Ronald gave jobs to two of Ernest Touchet’s grandsons.
The young men had legal problems in their pasts, and some honest work would help build their character, Ernest Touchet probably figured. (It’s not clear whether the entire favor was giving them temp construction jobs on the new house or Shaw also hired them to work at his oil-services company.)
Ambush awaiting couple. Unfortunately, instead of making grandpa proud, one of the boys, Shannon Scott Touchet, 17, used the blueprint of the Shaws’ house as a roadmap to a robbery plan. He told his buddies about a safe installed in the bathroom closet of the new house.
On March 18, 1998, after Ronald and Rosana returned from the supermarket, three young males in ski masks suddenly appeared from behind the garage of their house. Just outside the front door, Ronald, 52, who was holding two bags of groceries, was shot three times.
Then two males took Rosana in the house, threatened her with death, and forced her to open the safe. They took $7,000 and a box of jewelry.
Daughter killed. Rosana begged the home invaders to spare her life because she was pregnant. They locked her in a bathroom area, according to court papers, and fled without harming her. She escaped and called 911.
First responders found her kneeling next to her husband outside. He died at the scene.
Forensic Files didn’t mention it, but Ronald Shaw’s death came as the second tragedy for his mother, Dorothy Perdue. Her granddaughter, Sheri Lynn Shaw — Ronald’s daughter from his first marriage — died in a car accident a few years before the murder.
Heat on the law. The homicide shocked residents of Youngsville, known for Cajun food, friendliness, fun, and a low-crime rate, according to “Bloodshed on the Bayou,” an episode of the ID Network series Sins & Secrets.
Police felt tremendous pressure to solve the case quickly. An anonymous donor offered $10,000 for help finding the killer.
From the start, the police believed the robbery-murder was an inside job because the assailants immediately zeroed in on the safe. But, according to Rosana, a lot of people — friends, family, business associates — knew about the safe.
Business misdoings. Ronald Shaw’s grown son from his first marriage, James M. Shaw, suspected Rosana.
Others thought the hit resulted from bad blood over what the Daily Advertiser termed Ron’s “innovative” oil and gas company, which used GPS technology in drill bits. Ron had made a few bad moves at M.W.D. Services, and some of his investors lost money.
He had also rejiggered his finances to keep ex-wife Karen away from his money. She, too, was a suspect at first.
Troubled teens. But Karen’s mother reportedly told police that Ronald and Karen had patched things up and had even started hooking up romantically again, according to Sins & Secrets.
The investigation soon turned away from Shaw’s family and business stakeholders.
General contractor Ernest Touchet mentioned to investigators that his grandsons, Chris Touchet, 16, and Shannon Touchet, 17, who had worked on the Shaws’ house, had run-ins with the law in their recent history.
Dental identification. The elder Touchet admitted to police that he was afraid that his grandsons had something to do with the home invasion.
Rosana Shaw had told police that one of the robbers had gold teeth — Shannon Touchet had gold teeth.
Once the police turned their attention toward Shannon, they were able to put their case together in a few months. The trio of sloppy killers left plenty of evidence.
Ammo the same. First off, footprints found outside the Shaws’ mansion matched a pair of Shannon’s Nike Air Jordans.
At Shannon’s mother’s home, police found .38-caliber bullets like the ones used in the murder.
Although Shannon’s girlfriend told police he was with her at the time of the home invasion, her claim didn’t hold up.
Eyewitnesses emerge. The elder Touchets were an honorable bunch: Shannon’s mother disputed his alibi. She told police he was out in a burgundy car with his buddies Reggie Basil and Ronald Benson, both 18 years old, on the night of the homicide.
Some of the Shaws’ neighbors had told investigators that they saw three young men hanging around a dark-red car parked not far from the Shaws’ house the night of the crime.
A red ski mask found near the scene contained Ronald Benson’s DNA.
Denouement time. Police arrested Shannon Touchet, Reginald Basile, and a friend of theirs named Nicholas Dominique.
Ronald Benson turned himself in.
Shannon cracked immediately, admitting he told his friends about the safe and had been planning the robbery for a couple of weeks. Reggie also confessed, giving a similar story.
But Shannon Touchet testified that he had no gun with him during the robbery and that he started “crying and whimpering” when he saw his accomplices shoot Ronald Shaw. Shannon also claimed that he begged them to spare Rosana’s life. During legal proceedings, Shannon expressed remorse and said he didn’t know the robbery plot would include a murder.
Quickie deliberation. In turn, prosecutor Keith Stutes argued that Shannon’s plan had always included homicide and that he was sorry he got caught, not that he set the crime in motion.
A jury took 30 minutes to convict Shannon of second-degree murder. “Touchet, dressed in a starched white shirt and blue pants, hung his head when the verdict was announced,” the Daily Advertiser reported in 2002.
Basile pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery and got a life sentence.
Borrowed getaway car. Benson tried a different tack from the other two. He clammed up and told the police nothing before going to trial.
But Benson had blabbed to a couple of cellmates who went on to testify against him. And Shannon Touchet, having made a deal for a sentence reduction from first-degree murder, ratted out Benson as well.
Still, Benson escaped the death penalty and ended up with a life sentence.
Dominique, who had lent the killers the car they drove the night of the homicide, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.
(Apparently Shannon’s younger brother, Chris Touchet, had nothing to do with the robbery-murder, despite that early on his grandfather worried he was involved.)
Wild claims. The next big development in the case happened in 2003, when a witness named Stacy Vasalle came forward to accuse construction company owner Ernest Touchet and his son, Dwayne Touchet, of committing the murder.
“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Ernest Touchet told the Daily Advertiser. “My blood pressure is going up just thinking about it.”
Dwayne Touchet said that Vasalle, an ex-girlfriend, was looking for revenge because of their breakup.
Ronald Benson requested a new trial based on Vasalle’s claims, but Judge Marilyn Castle declined, calling her statements “suspicious and incredible.”
Shannon Touchet lost a 2003 appeal.
Still a Shaw. As far as an epilogue on the trio of home invaders, now in their 30s, they are all serving their life sentences in Louisiana State Penitentiary, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections telephone information line.
What became of Ronald Shaw’s young widow?
Rosana remarried at some point — she was identified as “Rosana Shaw Little” on Forensic Files. Although she has since dropped the “Little” from her name, it appears that she still has a husband.
Cosmetics entrepreneur. It’s not clear whether she lives in the huge house she once shared with Ronald Shaw, but she has remained in the Youngsville area.
Now in her late 50s, Rosana works as a Mary Kay beauty consultant and apparently practices what she preaches. She looks the same today as she did in the Forensic Files episode, produced back in 2006.
In her spare time, she does volunteer work for her local Adopt a Grandparent organization.
Youngest descendant. Rosana has two children. One of them is the daughter from her union with Ronald Shaw.
She has fair hair like her late father.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
