A man recently acquitted of murdering his wife’s secret lover spoke to the media for the first time on Saturday.
Ralph Wald stood in front of the cameras outside his Brandon home for the first time since he was found not guilty.
“Oh it feels very good to be free. I recognized that immediately,” said Ralph Wald, acquitted of murder.
With his war medals from Vietnam by his side, Wald took questions about his time in jail, his acquittal, his relationship with his wife, and of course the night he shot and killed the man she was having an affair with.
“I didn’t know who it was, I didn’t know if he had a weapon or weapons with him when he, you know, all I knew was somebody was fornicating with my wife,” Wald said.
Wald admits he shot Walter Conley.
A jury agreed with him though that it was not murder.
He said he did it because he thought Conley was raping his wife Johnna Flores.
Turns out Flores was having an affair with Conley who was a neighbor.
Wald said he knew nothing about the relationship, and he trusted Flores implicitly before all this happened.
“And right now there’s not an awful lot of trust,” said Wald.
That’s something he said the two of them are working on because he said she’s dealing with a mental illness.
“I don’t think it would be honorable for me to bail on her and I’m not planning on it,” said Wald.
Wald said it’s not often you get a fresh start in your 70’s but he has and he said he’s not going to let it go to waste.
“I really want my marriage to work, I really do, and it’s going to take work on my part and it’s going to take some work on Johnna’s part,” said Wald.
Wald said the situation is sad.
He said Conley’s family has his sympathy, but the was honestly trying to protect his wife.