Judge Orders Medical Records Disclosed In Oxford Shooting Case

The lawyer defending an Oxford man accused of murdering his wife and injuring his mother-in-law in a shooting last year will have access to some, but not all records of a Beacon Falls marriage therapist who had counseled the couple.

The lawyer, public defender David Egan, is preparing a defense based on the mental state of his client, Scott Gellatly, at the time of the May 7, 2014 shooting of Lori Jackson and her mother, Merry Jackson.

Egan wrote in a motion seeking the records that it was imperative” that a Yale University psychiatrist who is evaluating Gellatly also have access to records of counseling sessions attended by Gellatly and Jackson.

Egan told Judge Frank Iannotti last month that he had already tried to get the records himself after having Gellatly sign a release, but that the counselor said that Jackson, not Gellatly, was her patient.

Click here for more background from a previous story.

On Thursday Judge Iannotti reviewed the records before ruling that Egan could see three pages of them, a court clerk said.

The records not given to Egan were set aside and marked as a separate exhibit, in the event that the case is appealed on the basis of the judge’s ruling.

The case was then continued to July 22. 

Gellatly has been jailed since May, when state cops said Gellatly shot and killed Lori Jackson in a home on Oxford’s Sioux Drive 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 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.

The case inspired a renewed effort to restrict the possession of firearms by people accused of domestic violence, but a new law drawn up in response stalled in the state senate, CT News Junkie reported Wednesday.

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