KY prosecutors say Shannon Gilday should get the death penalty. Jurors deliberate
A Shelby County jury is out to decide the sentence a man will face for the 2022 deadly home invasion that killed a young lawyer who was sleeping inside a Richmond mansion.
Around 11 a.m., the jury — made up of six men and six women — went back to deliberate the sentence of Shannon Gilday, 27, who was convicted of murder, three counts of attempted murder, burglary and criminal mischief. Gilday was found guilty but mentally ill on all counts.
Prosecutors said Gilday’s actions were deserving of the death penalty, which jurors were asked to consider as a sentence.
“There are certain crimes that deserve the death penalty,” said special prosecutor Todd Willard. “This is one of those.”
Their decision will bookend a month-long trial that stemmed from charges placed in February 2022 when Gilday shot and killed Jordan Morgan in attempt to access her father’s massive survival bunker built under the family’s Richmond mansion.
Gilday’s defense attorney openly sobbed during his opening statements, and said Gilday was deserving of a second chance. They originally asked a jury to find Gilday not guilty by reason of insanity.
Jurors found Gilday guilty but mentally ill last week after two weeks of testimony. This week, they heard additional evidence to determine a punishment. Gilday’s possible sentences include the death penalty, life in prison without parole, life in prison with parole eligibility or a 20 to 50-year sentence.
Jurors to consider mitigating, aggravating factors
As part of the penalty phase for a death penalty eligible case, jurors are tasked with considering certain factors that can either enhance or lower a potential sentence.
In order for the jurors to sentence Gilday to life in prison with or without parole or the death penalty, prosecutors must prove that he committed an “aggravated” offense to escalate his punishment. In this case, they say Gilday was in the act of a burglary before he shot and killed Morgan.
“He left behind a trail of destruction, misery and death,” Willard said Thursday morning.
But jurors are also required to consider mitigating factors, or information that would lessen his punishment. These include his age at the time of the crime, previous criminal history, whether he was emotionally disturbed at the time, moral justification, or whether he failed to appreciate the seriousness of his crimes due to mental illness.
Willard said the jury could determine whether these factors carried weight, but implored the jurors not to consider a sentence that would permit parole.
The defense asked the jury to give Gilday a second chance by sentencing him to prison with parole eligibility.
“I can’t think of something more of a waste than to see Shannon be locked up forever,” cried Tom Griffiths, Gilday’s attorney.
He said while the death penalty is a sentencing option, it should not apply to Gilday, but to the worst offenders such as 9/11 terrorists, the Boston Marathon bombers, or serial killers.
“Not Shannon,” he said.
Like in his openings, Griffiths emphasized to jurors that the whole case was about mental illness and that the crimes would not have occurred if Gilday’s mental illness had not “burst out unexpectedly.”
“The Morgan’s didn’t deserve this,” Griffiths said. “But you are here to judge and sentence Shannon. The real Shannon. ... Just because someone has a disease doesn’t mean they are disposable.”
