VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A woman in her 70s accused of fatally shooting her terminally ill husband at a Daytona Beach hospital has changed her plea from not guilty to no contest, News4JAX sister station WKMG reported Tuesday.
The sentencing date for Ellen Gilland has been set for Feb. 28 at 9 a.m. The change in plea was made during a hearing on Tuesday. In the plea agreement, the state agreed to waive the sentencing guidelines and place a 10-year cap on a possible prison sentence.
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Gilland was charged with assisting self-murder/manslaughter charges in the January 2023 shooting of her husband, 77-year-old Jerry Gilland. According to Daytona Beach police, the shooting, which took place in his hospital room, was part of a murder-suicide agreement. In a hearing earlier this month, a trial date was set for Jan. 6 but with the change in plea, there will not be a trial.
“The goal was for him to do it, but he did not have the strength, so she had to carry it out for him,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said during a news conference. “We were able to establish a dialogue with her, we used a distractionary device to get her to put that gun down long enough for us to hit her with less lethal (force) and get her into custody.”
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The fatal shooting at AdventHealth Daytona Beach led to a standoff between Ellen Gilland and police after she barricaded herself for four hours in her husband’s room. She told police she and her husband planned the shooting together three weeks beforehand.
Bodycam video showed Ellen Gilland engaging in a standoff with police before surrendering. At one point, police said she shot at them.
Part of the hospital was evacuated and some doctors, nurses and others took cover in locked closets and rooms. Ellen Gilland did not harm herself and nobody else was injured.
Gilland was also charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm.
Gilland was initially denied bond when she faced first-degree murder charges but later bonded out of jail in March 2023 when her charges were reduced.