The Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her terminally ill husband at a hospital was released Friday on a $150,000 bond.
Ellen Gilland’s release comes after the 76-year-old was indicted Wednesday on lesser charges of assisting self-murder/manslaughter and aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer.
She was originally charged with first-degree murder for firing a single, fatal shot to the head of her 77-year-old husband, Jerry Gilland, on Jan. 21 in what Daytona Beach police called a murder-suicide pact.
“Apparently because he was terminally ill, 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 worse, that … he wanted her to end this,” police Chief Jabari Young said in January, according to The Associated Press.
“Apparently the goal was for him to do it, but he did not have the strength, so she had to carry it out for him,” he added.
Authorities said Ms. Gilland apparently couldn’t bring herself to take her own life and began a four-hour standoff with police that ended when they used flash bangs and a Taser to disarm her. She did fire a single shot into the ceiling before dropping the weapon, authorities said.
Ms. Gilland was taken into custody immediately. No one else was injured in the standoff.
• This report is based in part on wire service reports.
