A Florida woman who allegedly shot and killed her terminally ill husband in an apparent murder-suicide plot at a Daytona Beach hospital has been indicted.
The Volusia County grand jury indicted Ellen Gilland, 76, on one count of assisting self-murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer after she and her 77-year-old husband, Jerry Gilland, planned a murder-suicide plot at AdventHealth Daytona Beach on Jan. 21.
The indictment states that Ellen Gilland knowingly shot Jerry Gilland “without lawful justification and under circumstances not constituting excusable homicide or murder.”
Body-worn camera footage that the Daytona Beach Police Department released last month shows Gilland’s arrest after the shooting.
Volusia County authorities have charged Ellen Gilland, 76, with murder after she fatally shot her husband of more than 50 years, Jerry Gilland. (Volusia County Jail/Ellen Gilland Facebook)
“Drop the gun!” officers tell her repeatedly from the hospital hallway.
One officer observes that she is “sitting right beside the bed” in her husband’s hospital room.
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Another officer can be heard trying to get Gilland to talk and drop her firearm: “Tell me what’s going on. I don’t want to hurt you. We don’t want to hurt you. Tell me what’s going on. Just talk to me. Talk to me. What’s going on? Why can’t you drop the gun?”
Police negotiated with Ellen Gilland for four hours before eventually using a flash bang and Taser to get the 76-year-old woman drop her weapon, according to FOX 35 Orlando. (Handout/Daytona Beach Police Department)
Police negotiated with Gilland for four hours before eventually using a flash bang and Taser to get the woman to drop her weapon, according to FOX 35 Orlando.
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Gilland was “already in a depressed state” due to her husband’s illness “and knowing that the end was near” when she allegedly shot him, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said during a press conference at the time.
“They had a conversation about it, and they actually planned this approximately three weeks ago that if he continued to take a turn for the worst that he wanted her to end this,” Young said.
Ellen Gilland and her husband, Jerry, were together for more than 50 years before she shot him, apparently at his request, in a Daytona Beach hospital. (Facebook/Ellen Gilland)
In a July 2016 Facebook post, Gilland shared an old photo of herself and her husband marking their 47th anniversary.
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“Our 47th Anniversary today. This pic is from our 7th at Disney,” she wrote, along with the photo. “Still having a great time with one of the sweetest guys I have ever known. Lucky, lucky me. Happy Anniversary, Dumplin.”
Gilland is being held without bond at the Volusia County Jail.
Fox News’ Pilar Arias contributed to this report.
