A 32-year-old Lunenburg man will spend over five years in prison after breaking into his ex-wife’s house and shooting at her and another person.

Robert Richard Moore Jr. was recently convicted of attempted malicious wounding, breaking and entering a dwelling with a weapon and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according Lunenburg County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Clement. Moore was convicted in Lunenburg Circuit Court.

The charges stem from an incident on Nov. 22.

Clement says Moore “… talked by phone with his 10-year-old daughter who was staying with her grandmother and expressed her desire to go home to her mother. Text messages from Moore to his ex-wife, from whom he had been divorced for two months, revealed he was angry when she would not respond to him, threatening to call the police to take his daughter, and ultimately showing his anger that his ex-wife must be with another man. …”

Clement says Moore rode a bicycle from Victoria to his ex-wife’s residence about 13 miles in the county, arriving there about 6 a.m.

“The victim said she heard a ‘boom’ at the door, and then saw Moore in her bedroom, yelling and cussing. She got up and he pushed her to the floor. She said he pulled out a handgun, later determined to be a 9mm Ruger SR9. She said she ran out the back door of the house onto the back porch, and went to jump down the steps and heard a shot, saying a glass vase or bowl next to her shattered. She hid under the porch, and heard another shot, apparently one shot out the front door at her friend as he fled in the other direction. She then ran, jumped over a fence, and went into the woods. She said Moore then took her car and drove around shining the lights in the woods. He finally left with the car, and she fled to a neighbor’s house.”

According to Clement, a male friend called 911, and a deputy sheriff picked him up on the road as he emerged from the woods. “This individual at first told police that Moore had shot at him in the house, but later said it happened outside in the front yard as he fled. Police found a 9mm cartridge next to the front porch. They could not find the second casing.”

Moore, said Clement, later came back to the scene with a relative, returning the victim’s car. “He admitted to police that he had shot twice, but only into the air to scare them. He told police he had hidden the gun at a relative’s residence inside another vehicle. He said the gun would hold 17 rounds, and when recovered, the gun had 15 rounds, consistent with his having shot twice.”

“The sentencing guidelines recommended a mid-point of six years, five months, and a range of five years, three months to nine years and four months.”

In addition to his active sentence, Moore also received 27 years and nine months suspended, Clement said. Moore is subject to conditions of good behavior for 30 years, supervised probation for three years, warrantless searches and no contact with the victim except as permitted by court order for visitation with the child.