Husband Admits Guilt in Suicide Pact : Plea Accepted in Aiding Mate’s Death

A 63-year-old stroke victim who shot his wife in a suicide pact but then failed to turn the gun on himself pleaded guilty Friday to aiding and abetting in her death.

Jay Ward McFadden had been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his wife eight months ago but was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge. Attorneys in the case say he will probably be sentenced to probation when he returns to court Sept. 29.

Gladys and Jay McFadden of Garden Grove had been married 38 years. Last Jan. 15, they started recording a suicide pact, dictating their goodbys into a portable cassette recorder. Gladys, 61, had suffered from increasingly debilitating multiple sclerosis since 1976. Jay had been partially paralyzed and barely able to speak since a 1985 stroke.

Awoke After Taking Pills

On the Saturday night of Jan. 18, they divided the sleeping pills they had hoarded, swallowed them and lay down to die together--a plan they had been discussing for the last several years. But on Sunday they awoke.

So they pulled out Jay’s old Ruger handgun and tried again. According to Deputy Public Defender Carol E. Lavacot, Jay held the gun to Gladys’ chest and she pulled the trigger. She died. He dropped the gun, unable to complete the suicide pact.

In a panic, he called 911 and was arrested for murder.

Earlier this month, there was a preliminary hearing on the charges--three days in a Westminster courtroom that rang with Jay McFadden’s cries.

But on Friday the courtroom was hushed when Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey Robinson turned to McFadden to ask him: “With reference to this charge of aiding and abetting in the suicide of Gladys McFadden, do you plead guilty in this case?”

The defendant shook with sobs, unable to answer, until his attorney leaned over, gently put her arms around him and coached: “Say yes, Jay.”

“Ye-ye-yes,” he stammered, his head bowed.

“What a relief,” cried Lavacot, as the court session ended. “What a relief.”

With little evidence to prove that Gladys McFadden had assisted in her own death, the district attorney’s office had filed murder charges.

‘Unable to Carry Out the Task’

“The defendant has understanding of what has happened and was able to comprehend and understand what happened that night,” Douglas E. Harrington, a neuropsychologist who examined McFadden after the incident, said Friday. “But because of his physical and medical condition, he was unable to carry out the task without another human being being present, directing him.”

Before Friday’s announcement, Harrington met in chambers with Orange County Municipal Judge Alan N. McKone, Robinson, Lavacot and McFadden. According to Robinson, Harrington’s testimony and physical evidence that came to light during the hearing led his office to accept the plea of guilty on the lesser charge.

“From a humanistic standpoint, everyone in the D.A.’s office felt a great deal of compassion for Mr. McFadden,” Robinson said outside the courtroom. “Under the law we had no option but to file murder charges. But we found that Mr. McFadden does not necessarily act of his own volition.”

Lavacot and Kathy Ciccarelli, the McFaddens’ daughter, embraced tearfully after the hearing. “I’m so happy,” Ciccarelli said, as she sobbed on Lavacot’s shoulder.

“It’s not good for a woman attorney to cry,” Lavacot sniffed.

Once she regained her composure, Ciccarelli explained why the guilty plea was agreed to: “Anything to avoid a trial, to put my father through any more agony than he’s already gone through in the last three trial dates. Today he’s really bad, he’s very anxious, very emotional.”

Tomorrow will be better, Ciccarelli said. Her father will undergo physical therapy, she said. “Now, I just hope we can go on with our lives.”