LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) – A Richmond family has learned as of Friday morning, that they will have to wait two years before their daughter’s accused killer heads to trial.
Authorities said one year ago, Shannon Gilday broke into a Richmond home in the middle of the night. He is now charged with murdering 33-year-old Jordan Morgan, after shooting her at least eleven times in her sleep.
Jordan’s father Wesley Morgan said, “He murdered my daughter in cold blood. He wanted to kill. All he would have had to do is walk into that room, stuck that gun to her and say, ‘get up and go downstairs.’ And we would have let him have the whole house.”
Morgan said the courts need to act swiftly because this tragedy can happen to anyone.
However, Gilday’s defense lawyer, Tom Griffiths, is trying to prove how this tragedy is due to how mentally unwell Gilday is.
Griffiths said, “There’s no question about Shannon’s mental state. He is profoundly mentally ill. He needed to be evaluated to see if he was even competent to stand trial.”
Griffiths also added that Gilday was so mentally unwell that he needed to see his family.
“He hadn’t seen his family for months and that was part of the problem,” Griffiths said. “He had reached a point where he was so bad off- he didn’t believe they were real, and he thought when he saw them on the tablet that they were robots.”
Prior to Friday, the court ordered Gilday to be sent to the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center (KCPC) for a mental health evaluation.
On Friday, Griffiths requested Gilday to have a defense expert present when he’s evaluated.
“We want to make sure it is done correctly and that the court and the defense and the Commonwealth, get the most out of an evaluation,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths said KCPC’s backlog is another reason why the trial date was pushed out so far.
However, Morgan believes the court is wasting precious time on a technicality.
“They’re trying to justify cold-blooded, calculated murder,” Morgan said. “A Kentucky statute just passed that says you have to be adjudicated mentally ill, before the crime, not after the crime. But when the crime is so heinous, now we’re just playing games in the courtroom. It’s been over a year, now we’re looking at three and half years.”
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Griffith said the defense never intended for Gilday’s case to go to trial.
“For what purpose? We already know the conclusion we know the answer, the only question is, what happens to Shannon,” Griffiths said.
Judge Cole Maier still set a trial date for May 5, 2025, and Gilday’s next pre-trial conference will be on May 26, 2023.
