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Inset left: Denise Malcolm (Broward County Sheriff’s Office). Inset right: Rohan Malcolm (GoFundMe). Background: The house where Denise shot and killed Rohan (Google Maps).
A Florida woman will spend at least the next two decades behind bars for the murder of her long-cheating husband, court records show.
Denise Nicole Malcolm, 46, pleaded guilty this week to one count of murder in the second degree with a firearm, according to the plea agreement. She was subsequently sentenced to spend 21 years in prison with 285 days credited for her time spent in pretrial detention.
The victim, Rohan Noel Malcolm, 52, was shot several times at the couple’s home on Northwest 43rd Street in Coral Springs — a South Florida city located about 20 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale — after going grocery shopping for a Labor Day barbecue on Aug. 31, 2024.
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“She did not trust him and was at her wits’ end with his lies and deceit,” the Coral Springs Police Department wrote in an arrest report.
The since-condemned woman told police she knew about his “unfaithful” behavior for roughly two years prior to the violence and that the Sunday afternoon shooting came in response to the man’s claim that he was going out with “friends” after the shopping trip.
The woman did not believe him.
Denise Malcom went on to tell police she and her husband “slept in separate bedrooms and frequently engaged in heated altercations” due to his infidelity, which had all but broken up their marriage.
After Rohan Malcolm “unexpectedly announced that he was leaving to go to Port Saint Lucie with his friends,” a nearly hourlong “heated” argument ensued. The murderess suspected her husband was speaking in code — that his “friends” were actually another woman.
The end of the argument was punctuated by repeated handgun fire.
After the shooting, which occurred around 6:30 p.m., the couple’s then-14-year-old son dialed 911 after hearing what he described as “two or three loud bangs” while listening to music with headphones on. The boy then ran to his parents’ bedroom and saw his mom in the doorway toting a gun while his father had visibly been shot in the shoulder, according to the arrest report.
Five minutes later, police arrived.
After issuing verbal commands for the inhabitants to exit, two twin boys came out — but not the adults. Denise Malcolm was not finished.
Moments after officers arrived, a “loud bang” rang out — the shot believed to have finally taken Rohan Malcolm’s life.
As police shouted at her to come out empty-handed, Denise Malcolm considered taking her own life, but said she decided against doing so when her wounded husband “said something to her that made her stop her thoughts of suicide and shoot him for a final time.” After that last shot, she said, Rohan Malcolm “was not alive.” Denise Malcolm then placed the “dark-colored semi-automatic” murder weapon on the bedroom dresser and walked outside to be arrested.
Officers then entered the residence and found the victim “lying on his back in a bedroom with multiple gun shot wounds to his body” and “blood pooling underneath him,” according to the police report.
The boy who called 911 would later tell law enforcement that he considered his parents “estranged,” that they “slept in separate bedrooms,” and that the two “frequently argued” about his father’s “involvement with other women.”
In a now-closed GoFundMe raising money for the victim’s funeral, one of his friends remembered him fondly.
“Rohan was not just a friend, a brother, or a son; he was a beacon of light, known for his kindness, laughter, and unwavering support for others,” the online fundraiser reads.
The judge overseeing the murder case sentenced Denise Malcolm on Wednesday. As part of her plea agreement, she must also pay $23,500 in restitution and additional restitution to her children’s guardian — an amount yet to be determined.
