Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Family Tragedy Unfolds as Court Hears Testimony on Suicide Pact

A family tragedy unfolded last week at an Orange County Municipal Court preliminary hearing.

The court heard testimony about an alleged suicide pact between a Garden Grove husband and wife, both seriously ill. The effort led to the death of only the wife, Gladys McFadden, 61. The husband, Jay McFadden, 63, was at the court hearing to see if he will be tried for murder.

According to testimony, Gladys McFadden had suffered from progressive multiple sclerosis since 1976. Jay McFadden had been partially paralyzed and barely able to speak since a 1985 stroke.

The couple allegedly agreed to commit suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. When that failed to kill either of them, Jay McFadden’s attorney said, the husband and wife decided they would shoot themselves.

The attorney, Carol E. Lavacot, said that Jay McFadden held the gun, and his wife pulled the trigger to kill herself. After that, Lavacot said, Jay McFadden, because of his stroke, forgot what to do. He called police and was arrested on suspicion of murder.

“The law does not make any concession for mercy killing,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. S. Robinson said, as Jay McFadden’s jagged sobs echoed in the courtroom. “When the evidence was brought to our office, we had no choice but to file a murder charge. . . . “

But Lavacot, the public defender representing Jay McFadden, said that “the evidence is much stronger for suicide than murder. . . .”

The case was continued until Sept. 19 because a key defense witness could not be reached.