A Golden woman who shot her husband after becoming enraged by a letter from the IRS was sentenced to 18 years in prison today.
Tamara Palumbo, 46, and her husband, Steve, were going through a divorce but living together in their Coal Creek Canyon home last May when she shot him with his .44 Magnum.
Her temper had flared after she opened a letter from the IRS, said Pam Russell, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County district attorney’s office.
The letter said the agency was keeping a refund she was due in order to pay off a federal student loan that she had used to attend nursing school.
Palumbo began screaming at her husband and then opened a second letter.
“Then she found a notification from an attorney that her husband had paid a retainer to coordinate their divorce. She wasn’t unhappy about the divorce, but she was unhappy that he had money for a lawyer but wouldn’t give it to her to pay off her loan,” Russell said.
She shot him in the arm, severing an artery.
The couple’s two children, ages 8 and 6, were in the house at the time of the shooting.
A jury found Palumbo guilty last month of attempted murder and first-degree assault.
Tamara Palumbo wasn’t working at the time of the assault. She had earned a nursing degree, but Russell said it was revoked after she was caught stealing medication from patients and a hospital.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
