After being shot several times at close range Wednesday morning, 63-year-old Merry Jackson fell to the floor next to her gravely wounded, 32-year-old daughter, Lori Gellatly.
Jackson’s head rested on her daughter’s leg. Gellatly wasn’t moving. State troopers couldn’t detect her pulse.
Meanwhile Jackson, although seriously injured, was conscious. Police asked Jackson who shot her.
“Scott,” Jackson said.
Then, not realizing her daughter was next to her, she added: “He took her! He is going to kill her!”
Lori Gellatly was pronounced dead a short time later at Waterbury Hospital. As of 2 p.m. Thursday, Jackson was listed in critical condition in St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury.
The details are from a state police arrest report released to the public Thursday at Superior Court in Derby, where Scott Gellatly — Lori’s estranged husband/Jackson’s son-in-law — faced a judge for the first time.
Gellatly is accused of murdering Lori and of trying to kill Jackson.
The report confirms what state police said in the first few hours after the shooting — Scott Gellatly was a suspect, immediately.
State troopers arrested Gellatly just before noon Wednesday in Winsted, about six hours after he allegedly forced his way into the Sioux Drive home where his wife and mother were staying and shot them as his 16-month-old twins slept in their cribs upstairs.
Gellatly stood silently next to public defender Jonathan Gable Thursday throughout the six-minute court proceeding in Derby, speaking up only to mutter “No” softly when Judge Karen Sequino asked him if he had any questions.
Judge Sequino set bond for Gellatly at $2 million and transferred the case to Superior Court in Milford, which handles more serious crimes. He will appear there May 13.
Three Phone Calls
State troopers were sent to 43 Sioux Drive home about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday after receiving phone calls from an alarm company alerting them to a possible break-in.
Moments later, Lori Gellatly called police to report that her estranged husband had broken into the house.
The call was quickly disconnected.
Then, a neighbor, as reported Wednesday, called 911, saying he heard gunshots and saw Scott Gellatly run away.
Troopers arrived, looked through the windows, saw the bodies and forced their way inside. The found the twin toddlers upstairs, unharmed.
Manhunt, Capture
A six-hour, statewide manhunt ensued.
Based on what Jackson had told troopers, police believed initially that Gellatly had abducted his wife. In the first few minutes after troopers arrived, authorities were working on the theory that the body next to Jackson in the kitchen was another relative, and that they were dealing with three victims — two in the house, one abducted.
The vehicle Gellatly allegedly used to flee the scene of the shooting was found about a mile and a half away about 8:15 a.m. Thursday, according to the police report.
But Gellatly wasn’t in it.
He was eventually found in the parking lot of a boarded-up restaurant off Route 8 in Winsted, sitting in a vehicle with a garden hose running from the tailpipe to the rear window — a suicide attempt.
Gellatly appeared unconscious.
But cops broke in and removed him from the vehicle, taking him to a Torrington hospital for treatment and then state police barracks in Torrington.
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Gellatly Probable Cause Report
He Doesn’t Remember
He wasn’t immediately charged with murder. Gellatly was initially charged on a warrant for third-degree assault and disorderly conduct in connection to an April 1 incident during which he allegedly twisted his wife’s arm and prevented her from leaving their home.
Speaking with state police Wednesday, Gellatly told the cops he didn’t remember the shooting.
“During the interview he stated that he has no knowledge of any weapons and that he cannot remember if he was at the residence of his wife … earlier that morning,” the police report says. But, “Gellatly stated that when he woke up on the morning of May 7th, he wanted to commit suicide.”
Investigators then charged him with murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault of an elderly person, and two counts each of reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor.
‘It Is An Understatement To Say He Is A Risk’
In court Thursday, a bail commissioner said Gellatly had no convictions on his record, asking Judge Sequino to set bond in the murder case at $2 million.
Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Paul Gaetano concurred, saying the allegations in the case merited the amount.
“It is an understatement to say he is a risk to the community,” Gaetano told the judge.
The judge ordered a mental health evaluation and put Gellatly on suicide watch.
In requests for protective orders filed last month Gellatly’s wife and Jackson, both said Gellatly had bipolar disorder and wasn’t taking prescribed medications. In another application, Gellatly’s ex-wife said he suffers from anxiety and depression and was off his medications.
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The twins are currently in the care of a relative, state police said Wednesday. Gellatly also has two children from a previous marriage.
‘He’d Give You The Shirt Off His Back’
After the proceeding, Tony Profeta, a Bridgeport resident who said he has known Gellatly for more than 20 years, told reporters he had been blindsided by the allegations against his friend.
“The Scott that did this is not the Scott I know,” Profeta said. “He was a very happy guy, a helping person who would give you the shirt off his back.”
Profeta said he met Gellatly through a Bridgeport church the two attended.
He said he didn’t even know Gellatly owned guns, or that he was taking medications for bipolar disorder.
Profeta said he knew his friend’s marriage was “strained,” particularly after Gellatly posted a 428-word message to his Facebook page April 6 alleging infidelity.
But he said he thought things had improved when he last spoke to Gellatly, on the phone about two weeks ago.
Gellatly said he was out of state at the time, Profeta said.
“I thought he was calmed down,” he said. “I told him to take a deep breath and relax.”
A video of Profeta speaking with reporters is below.
Tougher Laws Needed
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence released a statement calling on state lawmakers to beef up protections for people who seek protection orders in domestic incidents.
Last month Lori Gellatly had applied for — and been granted — two ex parte restraining orders which instructed Scott Gellatly to surrender any guns he owned and to stay away from his wife and children.
The first order was never served on Gellatly, and was dismissed at an April 17 hearing at Superior Court in Milford.
Lori Gellatly obtained a second protective order April 24, and a hearing was scheduled to take place in the matter Thursday.
Ex parte orders are temporary, put in place for two weeks until a hearing at which a judge considers whether to make them permanent.
“Of greatest concern is the fact that the period immediately following a victim’s application for a restraining order is the most dangerous time,” Karen Jarmoc, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said in the statement. “This unique circumstance calls for enhanced measures to immediately remove guns from individuals who allegedly exhibit violent behavior toward their intimate partner.”
The statement noted that Gellatly’s death is the sixth homicide of the year in the state stemming from “intimate partner violence.”
