SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Jury selection in the murder trial of Sherry Fitzpatrick started Monday in Seminole County.
Prosecutors said Fitzpatrick, 58, shot and killed her husband, Timothy Fitzpatrick, July 2021.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these charges are more commonly known as first-degree premeditated murder,” Judge Donna Goerner explained.
At first, investigators said Fitzpatrick told them she and her husband got into a fight and she woke up to find him unresponsive at their Casselberry home after having an argument the night before.
Officers said no weapon was found near the victim, but a handgun was found in a nightstand drawer in the bedroom.
In August 2021, Fitzpatrick provided a revised statement to investigators and claimed she shot her husband out of fear.
Earlier this year, her attorneys filed a motion to dismiss her case under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, claiming the victim verbally and physically abused Fitzpatrick during the argument.
Fitzpatrick is charged with first-degree premeditated murder.
“This is not a death penalty case,” Goerner said.
State prosecutors told Goerner they have hours and hours of video for the case.
Both defense attorneys and prosecutors have witnesses they plan to call to the stand for the trial this week.
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