Woman who killed ill husband indicted
A woman who police say shot and killed her terminally ill husband in a Daytona Beach hospital room as part of a murder-suicide pact was indicted Wednesday morning on lesser charges by a Volusia County grand jury.
Ellen Gilland, 76, was charged with assisted self-murder/ manslaughter, aggravated assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer and two counts of aggravated assault. She initially faced a first-degree murder charge.
Gilland, of New Smyrna Beach, is accused of killing her 77-year-old husband, Jerry, on Jan. 21.
Beginning around noon was a four-hour standoff between Gilland and police inside the AdventHealth Hospital during which she locked herself inside her husband’s hospital room, a police report said. She allegedly also pointed a gun at a health-care worker, a security officer and police.
A SWAT team used a nonlethal explosive device and unsuccessfully tried to stun her with a Taser, the report said.
Sometime during her arrest, she fired one bullet into the ceiling directly above her husband’s bed before dropping the gun.
Daytona Beach police have said Gilland told them she planned the shooting with her husband.
Chief Jakar Young previously told Orlando Sentinel news partner Spectrum News 13 that the pair had a conversation and “actually planned [the murder-suicide] approximately three weeks ago that if he took a turn for the worse that he wanted her to end this.”
Gilland, who has pleaded not guilty, has been denied bond at least twice since her late January arrest by a judge, citing her charges and additional ammunition she had in her vehicle.
As of Tuesday she remained in the Volusia County Branch Jail.
Her arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 28, and a pretrial hearing is set for March 22.