Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011
By JOHN WHARTON
An indictment by St. Mary's grand jurors charging Joanna Joyce Findlay with first-degree murder in her husband's death led to her spending a weekend in jail before her release Monday on a bond posted last year.
A prosecutor asked this week that Findlay be held without bond, which he said was in keeping with his office's stance for every first-degree murder case. But a judge concurred with Findlay's lawyer that she can remain free on a $100,000 district court bond, with pretrial supervision.
Findlay originally was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband last October at their Hollywood home. A series of conversations between St. Mary's 911 dispatchers and the couple occurred before police got to the residence and found Gary Alan Trogdon dead on the living room floor.
John E. Ray, Findlay's lawyer, has said that his client consistently maintains that Trogdon shot himself, and the lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on Findlay's behalf at Monday's brief proceeding in St. Mary's Circuit Court.
Ray said in court that Findlay has been attending her required pretrial supervision meetings with authorities since her release last December, and the lawyer said he learned of the new indictment last Friday from the county's state's attorney.
"She turned herself in [at the county jail], based on the phone call I made to her," Ray said.
The lawyer said that Findlay, originally from Scotland, has turned over her passport to the prosecutors' office and is living at the Hollywood residence with her mother, who also attended Monday's hearing.
St. Mary's Deputy State's Attorney Theodore Weiner acknowledged in court that Findlay has no previous record, including no history of assaultive behavior.
"I've had a lot of murder cases," St. Mary's Circuit Judge C. Clarke Raley said as he granted Findlay's release. "This kind of murder never happens twice."
Findlay, 40, and her 57-year-old husband lived on Little Cliffs Road, where St. Mary's State's Attorney Richard Fritz has alleged that the suspect was trying to overdose on drugs and was angry because Trogdon would not give her prescription medication to her.
Findlay, who worked as a college lecturer at the University of Maryland, College Park, first shot at Trogdon with a .22-caliber pistol, but the shot hit the floor and he took the weapon from her, Fritz alleged during a recent interview.
Findlay had called 911 dispatchers to tell them that Trogdon had assaulted her, according to court records, and Trogdon answered the phone when the dispatchers made a return phone call to the residence.
Trogdon told the dispatchers that he couldn't stay on the line, according to a recording of the conversation, because he had to make sure his wife wouldn't find any other guns.
Fritz alleged that Findlay eventually located a .357-caliber handgun and fired two .38-caliber rounds during a struggle over the weapon, one striking a sliding glass door and the other hitting Trogdon in the chest.
Ray repeatedly said at a district court preliminary hearing last November that the dispute between his client and her husband arose from her discovery that he was in possession of child pornography. Fritz has downplayed the relevance of that issue, and he recently said an analysis of the contents of Trogdon's computer has not been finished.
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