An 83-year-old Florida man is facing a second-degree murder charge after authorities say he admitted shooting his chronically ill wife inside their Venice home after she pleaded for her pain to end.
Walter Lee Edgerton III called 911 around 8:35 p.m. on Sept. 16 and told the dispatcher that his wife had died, according to a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office probable cause affidavit cited by local media. He allegedly told the dispatcher that CPR would not help because she was already dead.
When paramedics arrived, they found Sandra Edgerton seated in a reclining chair with a blanket covering her head and upper body.
After removing the blanket, first responders discovered a gunshot wound to the right side of her head. She was pronounced dead at 8:47 p.m.
Edgerton initially declined to speak with investigators without an attorney, but authorities say he later agreed to give a recorded statement.
According to the affidavit, Edgerton told detectives that Sandra had been suffering for about 45 minutes and had repeatedly begged for the pain to stop.
He allegedly said he placed a .22-caliber revolver against the right side of her head, rubbed her head with his other hand and pulled the trigger.
Investigators say he then wiped blood from her head, covered her with a blanket and called 911.
The affidavit also describes a long history of health problems.
Edgerton told investigators his wife had been diagnosed with Lyme disease nearly 30 years earlier and had suffered from chronic illness since then.
More recently, Sandra had been hospitalized at Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice after vomiting blood and undergoing surgery for a bleeding ulcer, authorities said. She later developed serious breathing problems and was allegedly in constant pain after returning home.
Those circumstances may explain what Edgerton says led up to the shooting, but they do not eliminate the criminal charge.
Florida law defines second-degree murder as an unlawful killing caused by an act considered imminently dangerous and showing a “depraved mind” regardless of human life, even when prosecutors do not allege a premeditated plan to kill. It is a first-degree felony that can carry a sentence of up to life in prison.
Edgerton was booked into the Sarasota County Jail early Sept. 17 and was being held without bond, according to local court reporting and sheriff’s office records. His arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 16 unless it is waived.
A public defender has been appointed to represent him, and a not-guilty plea has been entered on his behalf, according to local reporting.
