Wife killed dying husband of 53 years in hospital, Florida cops say. She’s sentenced
A 76-year-old woman shot and killed her terminally ill husband of more than five decades as he lay in a hospital bed, Florida authorities said.
A judge sentenced Ellen Gilland, now 78, to one year in prison after she pleaded no contest to charges of manslaughter with a firearm and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
McClatchy News reached out to Gilland’s attorney for comment Feb. 28 and did not immediately receive a response.
Ellen and Jerry Gilland met in the eighth grade and were married for 53 years before Jerry was hospitalized in late 2022, Ellen Gilland testified at her sentencing hearing broadcast by Court TV in Volusia County.
Jerry Gilland was admitted for sepsis and acute pancreatitis, then he underwent a a tracheotomy as his health continued to deteriorate over the next month and a half, according to court documents provided by Gilland’s legal counsel.
“My husband was a remarkable man,” Gilland testified. “He was kind, generous, funny and loving. We supported each other through wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful times.
Gilland said eventually her husband began asking her to end his life, and she had “no hope he would survive more time in the hospital.”
She got his gun from their home, cleaned it and brought it to the Daytona Beach hospital on Jan. 21, 2023, planning a murder-suicide, she testified.
She said she shot her husband, but then she became extremely emotional and engaged in a stand-off with hospital staff and law enforcement before she was taken into custody, according to testimony and court filings.
Hospital staff described entering the room only for Gilland to point her gun at them, according to an affidavit filed by the Daytona Beach Police Department. Some of the people in the hospital affected by the shooting testified at Gilland’s sentencing hearing.
“As everybody knows, this is not just a case about you and your terminally ill or very ill husband because we’ve heard from the testimony today that there are many other victims in this case,” judge Kathryn Weston said.
Weston added that nearly three dozen other patients on the floor may have been afraid for their lives and had their medical treatment interrupted during the incident.
“And by entering your plea you’ve admitted to having pointed a firearm at two hospital employees, you’ve admitted to having pointed a firearm at many Daytona Beach police officers as well,” the judge said.
She sentenced Gilland to a year in prison, with credit for 42 days served, and ordered her to write apology letters to the victims named in an indictment.
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Wife killed dying husband of 53 years in hospital, Florida cops say. She’s sentenced."