Judge Orders Marriage Counselor To Disclose Shooting Suspect’s Records

The Oxford man accused of murdering his wife and seriously injuring his mother-in-law during a double shooting last year is preparing an insanity defense, according to court documents made public Tuesday.

A psychiatry professor from Yale University has been examining the man, Scott Gellatly, for the purposes of developing a defense based upon (his) cognitive state,” according to a motion from Gellatly’s lawyer filed last month.

The motion asked a judge to order a marriage therapist to turn over records of counseling sessions between Gellatly and his wife, Lori Jackson.

At the time of the shooting, Gellatly and Jackson were receiving counseling from Susan McDuffie, a therapist based in Beacon Falls, according to Gellatly’s lawyer, public defender David Egan.

In court Tuesday Egan told Judge Frank Iannotti that the psychiatrist currently evaluating Gellatly, Chandrika Shankar, is very close” to finishing her evaluation of Gellatly. She can’t complete her evaluation without the counseling records, Egan said.

Dr. Shankar is within weeks of completing her report,” Egan wrote in his April 29 motion. However it is imperative that before she does so, she review the records of the joint therapy sessions involving both the defendant and the late Ms. Gellatly.”

Egan’s motion asks for the records of the counseling sessions to be turned over to the judge, who would then review them privately before deciding whether or not they should then be turned over to Egan and the psychiatrist examining Gellatly.

The motion says Egan had Gellatly sign a release form to get the records, to no avail.

She has told us she has no files, she has no record of my client as a patient,” Egan said in court. She insists that her patient is the person named in the motion (Lori Jackson).”

State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor took no position on Egan’s request.

Judge Iannotti granted the motion, ordering the therapist to turn over records of any joint sessions attended by Gellatly and Jackson, as well as any sessions where only Gellatly was present.

The judge then continued the case to June 4 to see if the records are turned over or if the therapist hires a lawyer of her own.

What I assume is going to happen here … She’s going to comply or there’s going to be a motion to quash (the order),” Judge Iannotti said.

Gellatly has been jailed since May 7, 2014, when state cops said Gellatly shot and killed his wife, Lori Jackson, in a Sioux Drive home about 5:45 a.m. as the couple’s twin infants slept a floor above.

He also allegedly shot his mother-in-law, Merry Jackson. She 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 chicken restaurant.

Gellatly pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, home invasion, first-degree burglary, and first-degree robbery about a month after his arrest.

He remains held on $2 million bond in the case.

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