Gulf Coast Confidential: Unwanted Baggage

Most of us have heard of a “wicked stepmother;" a cruel, ruthless woman depicted in bedtime stories like Cinderella or Snow White. In some cases, though, these aren’t just fairytales. Investigators believe 11-year-old Gannon Stauch, had a stepmother who killed him, stuffed his body in a suitcase, then drove clear across the country to hide him, where her secret surfaced on Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Hi, I’m Mollye Barrows and I’ve been reporting on some of the saltier stories that surface in Northwest Florida for more than twenty years. Welcome to my investigative series, Gulf Coast Confidential.

In this next story, I dive into four murder cases where the accused killers claimed insanity as a defense. One woman who killed her son and nearly killed her daughter. Three sons who killed their mothers. All of these slayings happened in Northwest Florida in just the past nine years. So far three of the defendants have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. The most recent man charged with murdering his mother is pleading the same defense and is still awaiting trial.

For some victims’ families, the problem with that verdict is that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, especially when it comes to murder, because despite confessing, they’re no longer considered guilty. No matter how heinous or brutal the death, there often comes a time when the State of Florida opens the door for defendants acquitted of murder by reason of insanity to transition back into society. That’s already happening in two of the cases I mentioned above and the Florida Department of Children and Families is gearing up to make the same recommendation in the case of a Gulf Breeze teenager who so brutally attacked his mother on Christmas Eve of 2013, he nearly decapitated her.

Here’s, “Murder and Madness”

During a hearing at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse, on the morning of September 1, 2022, the court listened to a licensed psychologist give an update on the psychological progress of 26-year-old Brandon Aydelott. He has been in psychiatric care at Florida State Hospital for the criminally insane since 2016, when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity for brutally stabbing, beating, and stomping his mother, 48-year-old middle school science teacher Sharon Hill Aydelott, to death in the doorway of her Gulf Breeze home on Christmas Eve, 2013.

Dr. Ellen Resch, the licensed psychologist who is responsible for Aydelott’s care at his current dorm, a civil, non-secure unit on the FSH campus, told the judge she thinks Aydelott will soon be ready for conditional release.

Dr. Ellen Resch told the court by phone: “We ask that he remain hospitalized, but I am telling you if he remains on this trajectory then I see him in the next four to eight months rounding that corner and if he has completed enough steps to contemplate referring him to a highly structured and forensically sophisticated program in a community-based environment,” quote-unquote.

Resch said Brandon Aydelott has met most of their criteria for conditional release, like obeying their rules and regulations and completing milestones including programs such as the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Relapse Prevention class and life skills classes like cooking. He also has privileges like walking from building to building on the grounds without a staff escort and he was asked by staff to represent the forty-five peers in his dorm for things that need administrators’ attention like food or schedules.

Resch said: “He has taken part in all the activities we’ve asked of him. He has not initiated any aggression toward anyone nor expressed any thoughts of it nor given any appearance of trouble with impulse control. In fact, he got struck by someone here in maybe December and did not retaliate,” quote-unquote.

That is little consolation or reassurance to Sharon Hill Aydelott’s sisters, Patricia Hawkins and Pam Hill, who were in court for their nephew’s hearing. They remember how at 17-years-old, the Gulf Breeze High School honors student and baseball player killed his mother, unprovoked and without warning. They remember how he used multiple weapons on their baby sister, including a carving knife he brought from his father’s apartment and a baseball bat his mother bought him. They want him confined to psychiatric care for the rest of his life.

Sharon Aydelott’s older sister, Patricia Hawkins said: “Somebody asked me if I thought he’d do it again if he were to get out of Florida State Hospital. I said, ‘I didn’t think he’d do it the first time to a mother who loved and adored him. I feel like he has already shown us who he is. We never thought the 17-year-old honor student would do it. After being at Chattahoochee, yes, I think he’s capable of doing it again,” quote-unquote.

A doctor testified at Aydelott’s trial that he was schizophrenic which caused hallucinations and made him hear voices that drove him to violently kill his mother. It took three years before the state found him competent enough to stand trial. At first, Pam Hill said she thought the insanity plea was the best way to get justice for Sharon, who she believed would not have wanted her son in prison. Defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are remanded into the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families and are confined to secure psychiatric facilities.

However, it has now been seven years since Brandon Aydelott received the verdict and his case comes up for review every six months, not the outcome Sharon Aydelott’s sisters expected.

Hill said: “Insanity is not a pass to kill. We need to quit excusing that, because a human being had to pay the price for a person to practice murderous insanity. Act crazy and you can kill anyone you want,” quote-unquote.

Dr. Resch told the judge she would quote-unquote, “gladly,” update the court about Aydelott’s progress in six months, at which time she felt there was a good possibility they would recommend him for conditional release to a step-down transitional program, possibly in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Miami, or Central Florida. Despite his progress, Resch said Aydelott’s team wasn’t ready to do that just yet because he still hasn’t taken full responsibility for killing his mom.

Dr. Resch explained to the court: “He needs to continue working with his individual therapist with the goal of having him more connected to that feeling of accountability, so that in the future he can help monitor his own risks, just like the people who monitor him now. We’re hoping to build his ability to do that. For some people it just isn’t easy for them to reflect back in a self-critical way and take a hard look at yourself, especially when your perspective on yourself, you were psychotic at the time but now with medicine you’re not actually psychotic anymore it’s really hard to reenter that psychological world you were in,” quote-unquote.

Even if DCF were to recommend conditional release for Brandon Aydelott, the court has the discretion to accept the recommendation or go another direction like denying it, suggesting a different placement or getting independent evaluations as whether to authorize conditional release. Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Jensen prosecuted Aydelott’s case and was at the hearing updating his mental health status. She said the State Attorney’s position is the same as it has always been, that Brandon Aydelott is a danger to the community, and they do not want him released now or ever.

Jensen said after the hearing: “He’s good now because he’s medicated and monitored and if he were to be released there’s no guarantee that behavior would continue. I understand the hospital has an obligation to treat and medicate him and it’s the state’s responsibility to protect the community and his family members,” quote-unquote.

At least two other defendants who received not guilty by reason of insanity verdicts have already been granted or recommended for conditional release. In February of 2022, the court ordered and adjudged that 50-year-old Janel Francis no longer met the criteria for involuntary commitment and she was granted conditional release to Chautauqua Health Services in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.

According to the facility's website, Chautauqua Healthcare Services of Lakeview is a private, not-for-profit community mental health center that offers different services including mental health, substance abuse treatment, outpatient counseling, adult residential services, prevention education, psychiatric treatment, crisis counseling, case management, screening and referral, and wellness programming for all ages.

In 2018, the Pensacola woman was acquitted by reason of insanity for stabbing her adult children. Police say the year before she attacked them in her mobile home with an 8-inch dagger, killing her 18-year-old son Devan Francis, and severely injuring her 24-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, who managed to get outside and call for help which authorities say saved her life.

Investigators testified that Francis confessed to stabbing them saying she believed she was being watched and the family was in danger, and she could save them by killing them.

Reports on Francis’ progress must be submitted every six months and she can’t be discharged from conditional release without further order from the court. Her next competency status hearing is December 22, 2022.

In 2018, a Santa Rosa County judge found U.S. Army veteran Chris Lynch not guilty by reason of insanity for savagely beating his mother and caregiver, 61-year-old Cheryl Lynch, to death with a metal rod on Mother's Day, 2016. His mother had long advocated for more services for her son and other veterans suffering from mental health issues and had spoken before Congress asking for more help.

Chris Lynch killed her on the front porch of her Pace home when he was allegedly off his medication. At his trial, several medical professionals testified the then 38-year-old man was psychotic and insane at the time of his mother's death due to a traumatic brain injury he suffered during military service.

In June, Florida State Hospital advised that Lynch no longer meets the criteria for involuntary commitment and proposed a plan of conditional release. According to court records, the judge appointed two doctors to evaluate Lynch regarding his continued commitment at Florida State Hospital or placement in another facility. His next hearing is set for September 27, 2022.

Both Chris Lynch and Brandon Aydelott were sent to Florida State Hospital in Chattahootchee, Florida, where they both progressed from high security facilities to less-secure units on the grounds. At one point they were in the same place and program together at FSH, although the two men already knew each other.

They became friends when they were placed in the same Santa Rosa County jail cell in 2016, after Lynch was arrested for killing his mom. Aydelott was also there for a hearing to determine if he was competent to stand trial for killing his. The two men hit it off and Hill discovered the relationship when they wrote her letters asking for care packages. She had Brandon moved to a different cell at the time, but these experiences have left her skeptical about the criminal justice system.

Hill said: “To me it seems like Chris Lynch and maybe even others are working the system and that’s what my other sister and I worry about with Brandon. We are sentenced to a life sentence because we don’t know what’s going to happen with Brandon. We know he wouldn’t even take his medication before when he was being frog-marched in chains. We know he tried to kill somebody while he was there, we know he said he isn’t through killing his family, we know he had a hit list. We know we have to live scared and we’re not killers. None of us will ever be safe if Brandon gets out,” quote-unquote.

Gulf Breeze resident and business owner Carol Joyner was also there for Brandon’s hearing. Her son and Brandon Aydelott had been friends since grade school and Aydelott even went on vacation with their family a month before he attacked his mother in 2013. Brandon Aydelott later said he had a “hit list” to kill others with “brown eyes” like his mom and that included Joyner’s son. He said he went by their house after killing his mom to kill him, too, but the Joyners weren’t home that Christmas Eve and the door was locked. Joyner says judging by how his case has gone so far, she is genuinely concerned he will eventually be back in the community.

Joyner said: “I don’t ever want him out. I know that Brandon loved us and he loved his mother six weeks before he killed her. If he would do that to her, he would do that to us and for him to turn around and threaten to kill us, the thought of him being out is terrifyin,” quote-unquote.

The most recent man accused of killing his mother in the Pensacola area, 18-year-old David Allan Ohlson, has also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the charge of second-degree murder in May of 2022.

Ohlson has been in the Escambia County Jail without bond since he was arrested April 8, for shooting his mother 48-year-old, Adrianna Oholson with a shotgun. Ohlson admitted to Escambia sheriff’s deputies he shot her in the abdomen and told them quote, “of all the people he planned to shoot he did not expect his mother to be one of them,” unquote. He said he was upset because his parents had recently separated, and he believed his mother was going to leave.

Ohlson’s father, 43-year-old Aaron Ohlson, was there when his son shot his estranged wife and he called 9-1-1, reporting the shooting as “accidental,” quote-unquote. Ohlson told deputies he and his wife were separated, but he came to the house early that morning because Adriana Ohlson called him for help with their son who had a shotgun. David Ohlson said he had calmed down and unloaded the weapon by the time his father arrived, but when his dad got there, he loaded a round in the chamber and shot his mother.

In May, Ohlson's attorney, has filed a motion with the court of intent to rely on an insanity defense, saying Ohlson has diagnosed psychotic hallucinations and delusions, mood disorder, severely impaired mental processes, adjustment disorder, and reduced cognitive, emotional, and personality controls.

The murder shocked Ohlson’s longtime friend Zavian Johnson who said before the shooting Ohlson was normally a funny, positive person who loved his parents. However, Johnson said his friend had become more withdrawn since fall of 2021. Around that time, Johnson said Ohlson stopped being as active in their online chat group or playing video games. He said Ohlson was also stressed over the fact his parents wanted him to become more independent after he turned 18 in August of 2021.

Johnson recalled a conversation he had with David Ohlson around that time: “David said, ‘My parents have been getting on to me to find a good job, like a job in general, but I really don’t want to find a job.’ His family is a hard-working family and David, he felt like he couldn’t really do what he wanted to do, which I understand, but we’re not really kids anymore, we’re adults,” quote-unquote.

Tristan Michael has also known David Ohlson since middle school and said they were the best of friends until Ohlson’s defiant behavior got so bad Michael stopped spending time with him.

Michael said: “His mom did everything for him no matter what it was, she loved that boy. He would cuss his mom out and all that. It honestly sucks because that’s messed up. His mom is supposed to be his world and she was a great person,” quote-unquote.

In November of 2021, Escambia Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at Ohlson’s home in Bellview. According to the incident report, the Pine Forest High School student wanted to report child pornography he found online while searching on his smart phone for quote, “pornographic photos involving feces, which he states is his sexual fetish,” unquote.

Ohlson told the officer he clicked on an image of a “minor female child” so he could get the web address and report it, but when the deputy asked for the information, Ohlson couldn’t remember it and had cleared the browser history on his cell phone. No further action was taken.

Ohlson is still awaiting trial.

Many mental health advocates, like the non-profit Mental Health America, support the defense option of not guilty by reason of insanity saying it’s appropriate because the condition of criminally insane defendants makes them not criminally responsible for their actions. They also recognize that fears about the mental state of defendants don’t vanish with the verdict.

The organization’s website reads: “Concerns about public safety and the need for treatment usually remain after such an acquittal, but these concerns should be addressed through civil commitment -- involuntary treatment in mental hospitals until the danger has passed -- rather than through confinement in prison,” quote-unquote.

However, looking back, Sharon Aydelott’s sisters wished their nephew could have been found guilty by reason of insanity, but that is not an option in the State of Florida, or most states. Once the not guilty by reason of insanity verdict is in, regardless of a confession, defendants are acquitted of the crime. Their care and recommendations for their future are no longer entirely in the hands of the State Attorney’s Office, which focuses on crime and punishment, but rather with the Florida Department of Children and Families, which prioritizes treatment and often recommends transitioning defendants back into the community.

Hill said: “I feel like it’s all about money. It’s a lot cheaper to keep him moving out of the system than it is to keep him in a secure facility and not have to pay for the lifelong care of a young, physically healthy man. He’s already said he’ll kill again, and I think he means it,” quote-unquote.

Still the sisters aren’t giving up. They plan to be at every one of their nephew’s hearings to make their positions heard to the court.

Hawkins said: “Brandon’s smart enough to tell them what they want to hear. If he would do something like that to his own mother when he had everything going for him in life, he’s not going to be any safer after learning to be a criminal in the system.”

Thank you for joining me for Murder and Madness, on Gulf Coast Confidential.

There’s so much more to unpack about the killing of Sharon Aydelott. For more what happened with the family before Brandon Aydelott killed his mother be sure to check out the episode called “Confessions in the Fieldhouse,” on Gulf Coast Confidential.

Sharon Aydelott’s sister, Pam Hill, and I also dig into the issues behind Sharon’s death as well as other crimes on another podcast, Better Said Than Dead. You can find both on Better Said Than Dead and Gulf Coast Confidential on Spotify and YouTube.