Milford State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor told a judge Tuesday that he’ll make a plea offer to accused Oxford killer Scott Gellatly.
Gellatly appeared briefly before Judge Frank Iannotti in Superior Court in Milford, where Lawlor said he had discussed the plea offer in general terms with Gellatly’s lawyer, public defender David Egan.
Lawlor asked the judge to continue the case to Sept. 15, at which time an offer will be put on the record. Just how much prison time Gellatly could face was not discussed in open court Wednesday.
That could happen next month.
Typically, once an offer is placed on the record in open court, a judge will then continue the case for an “accept or reject” date at which the defendant will either accept the deal or indicate he’ll take the case to trial.
In the meantime, Lawlor said, Egan will discuss the plea offer with Gellatly, and he’ll discuss it with the family of Lori Jackson, who Gellatly is accused of shooting to death May 7, 2014 in her parents’ home on Oxford’s Sioux Drive.
He also allegedly shot his mother-in-law, Merry Jackson, who survived the attack.
The shooting set off a statewide manhunt, with state troopers eventually finding Gellatly trying to poison himself with carbon monoxide in the parking lot of a defunct Winsted restaurant.
Gellatly has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, home invasion, first-degree burglary, and first-degree robbery.
He remains held on $2 million bond in the case.
Last month Judge Iannotti ordered the partial disclosure of a Beacon Falls therapist’s notes from her sessions with Gellatly and Jackson, who had sought counseling.
In court filings seeking the records, Egan had indicated he is preparing “a defense based upon (Gellatly’s) cognitive state” at the time of the shootings, and that his client was being examined by a Yale University psychiatry professor for that purpose.
