VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — The 76-year-old woman accused of shooting and killing her husband inside a Daytona Beach hospital last month was back in front of a judge Tuesday afternoon.
Ellen Gilland was set to be formally charged on first-degree premeditated murder and several aggravated assault wth a deadly weapon charges during her arraignment for the mercy killing of her husband Jerry, but that didn’t happen.
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Prosecutors said they need two more weeks to file the charges.
Gilland has been held without bond in the Volusia County Jail for the last 24 days. The judge last week would not grant her bond saying she posed a danger to the community, because despite this being a mercy killing, she endangered hospital staff at AdventHealth Daytona Beach and deputies who responded to the hospital by pointing the gun at them.
Channel 9 legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said the delay may just be logistical.
“It may just be a matter of getting this case before a grand jury to return an indictment of first-degree murder,” he said. “I doubt seriously that there’s any evidentiary problem or internal problem, just a matter of time before they do formally charge her.”
Read: Woman, 76, accused of killing her terminally ill husband at Daytona Beach hospital denied bond
Sheaffer said he doesn’t believe that prosecutors will reduce the charges when they formally charge her. He said they tend to go for the highest charge and then if there is a plea deal in the case, they can go down from there.
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