An 83-year-old Venice man has entered a not guilty plea to a murder charge after telling investigators he shot his chronically ill wife because she begged him to end her suffering. Walter Lee Edgerton called 911 on Sept. 16 and reported his wife was dead. When paramedics arrived, they found her seated in a recliner with a gunshot wound to the side of her head, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Edgerton told deputies his wife had struggled with chronic illness since contracting Lyme disease in 1998, and that she had recently been hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer. The affidavit states he admitted to shooting her with a .22 caliber revolver, cleaning the blood from her face, covering her with a blanket, and then calling 911. He entered his plea on Sept. 19 in Sarasota County Court and remains in the Sarasota County Jail. A bond hearing is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 25.
The case raises uncomfortable questions that many Suncoast families know personally: the toll of caregiving, the long-term effects of Lyme disease, and whether a plea for relief can ever justify taking a life under Florida law. Whatever the courtroom decides, this story is likely to spark conversations at kitchen tables across Sarasota and Charlotte counties. What’s your take: should motive carry weight in a case like this, or does the law have to treat every killing the same? Share your thoughts with us on the air.
