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Prosecutorsays slaying prompted'breakup’t*BY AMY CAHILLStaff ReporterMichael Gougeon’s fatal mistake was trying to break up with Glenda “Gail Robinette, chief deputy prosecutor Bryan Williams told jurors Wednesday.When Michael Gougeon was murdered Sept. 6, 1998, it was not a random murder, Williams said. “He died for a reason, he had just broken up with her.Williams said Gougeon had a new love interest and had decided to move out of the home he shared with Robinette.“Shortly after he made those decisions, she made hers,” Williams said. “She killed him,Robinette, 49, of Anderson, is charged with murder, criminal confinement and burglary resulting in bodily injury.Robinette’s defense attorney, Michael Alexander. said she was mentally ill when she shot her ex-boyfriend and was not responsible for her actions.“At the end of this case, you will have no doubt that this lady suffers from a mental illness and has for almost 20 years, and on the night that this occurred she was not responsible for her actions.” he said.Alexander said Robinette had a history of disappearing and becoming catatonic when life gotto be too much for her.In 1988, police officers found her scratching on the window of the police station and she was admitted to the Anderson Center of St. |ohn’s as a Jane Doe because she could not tell them who she was.In 1998, she began to have problems again, Alexander said.“For months prior to his moving out, the defendant had been deteriorating,” he said.Carrie Sherman, Gougeon’s new girlfriend, testified Robinette seemed calm and in control when Robinette broke into her home early in the morning Sept. 6,1998.“I was woke up by hearing my name, Glenda had said my name,” Sherman said. “1 hit Mike to wake him up.Sherman testified Gougeon jumped out of bed and flipped on the light, and began asking Robinette to give him the gun.“He asked her for the gun several times and finally she started shooting,” Sherman said.She said she could not tell where Gougeon was hit.bloodman testified.Sherman said Robinette then forced her out of the house at gunpoint.“She told me to get up, that she needed to go get a drink,” Sherman said.Sherman testified Robinette had her get in the front seat of Gougeon’s car on the floorboard and drove her to a nearby church.Once at the church, Robinette had Sherman get into the trunk of the car, Sherman testified.“She just told me to get in, 1 wasn’t going to argue with a gun, she said.Sherman said Robinette left the car in a park, where people heard her screaming and called the police.“It was in the afternoon time when 1 finally got out,” she said.Robinette’s daughter, Charlotte Robinette, testilled she lived with her mother up until a few days before the shooting and her mother was ill.She said Glenda Robinette had lost weight and was withdrawing from the world around«*1 was sure that she was not well,” she said.
Newspaper Details
Anderson Herald Bulletin
Anderson, Indiana, US
Thu, May 31, 2001
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Monroe C.
IN, USA 02 Feb 2021
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