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State: Death penalty off the table in 2012 murder

Eric Cravey
Posted 3/28/18

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – In her 16-year relationship with Jerry Ray Bullard Sr., Jacquilla Morgan Bullard, 35, tolerated more than her share of abuse and suffering.

They first met two years after he …

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State: Death penalty off the table in 2012 murder


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – In her 16-year relationship with Jerry Ray Bullard Sr., Jacquilla Morgan Bullard, 35, tolerated more than her share of abuse and suffering.

They first met two years after he had been charged and arrested for attempted murder in Indiana where, police said, “he allegedly shot his cousin in the back after an argument over clothes on October 14, 1995.” However, the charges were dropped “due to lack of cooperation by the victim of the shooting,” court records show.

His Florida arrest record began in April 2001 when he was charged with grand theft and, while those charges were dropped, a month later, he was arrested for aggravated battery. He entered a plea agreement for misdemeanor battery, but two months later, he picked up where he left off in July 2001 with an arrest for battery during a burglary, charges that were also later dropped, according to court records.

In June 2001, he was charged with kidnapping the mother of one of his children from Indiana. Police said that on June 27, 2001, he held the woman at gunpoint and threatened to kill her if she fled while he drove them to Florida. The case was later dropped due to lack of victim cooperation. It is not clear whether Jacquilla was the woman held at gunpoint.

At each arrest, each charge, each run in with law enforcement, Jacquilla Bullard remained in a relationship with Jerry Bullard.

However, court records show his life of crime continued to escalate with him in and out of courtrooms – in March 2002, throwing or shooting a deadly missile, possession of marijuana with intent to sell in May 2003, domestic battery in October 2003 for going to Jacquilla’s job and physically attacking her in front of her co-workers. In September 2008, he was arrested for felony fleeing and child neglect.

And despite Jerry Bullard’s extensive public record of crime and violence, not every act of violence ended up in an arrest.

For example, in August 2010, the couple got into a verbal argument over social media messages. According to court documents, Jerry Bullard “threw her off the bed and punched her in the stomach.” Two of Jacquilla’s children heard the disturbance and told court officials they remember her yelling, “That hurts!” to which Jerry replied, “It’s supposed to hurt!”

Fast forward to August 4, 2012, when the couple was living in a modest neighborhood in the Oakleaf community. This is where their relationship took a dark turn.

Jacquilla Bullard got into an argument with Jerry – who was 35 at the time – after she told him she did not want to have sex with him because he had previously given her a sexually transmitted disease. The argument turned into physical violence.

Court records show Jerry Bullard grabbed Jacquilla by the arm and neck, pulled her hair, pushed her down and began verbally abusing her – a fight that continued into the bedroom. Jacquilla was able to break away and go into the garage where she retrieved a gun and returned to the bedroom. Both testimony and court records show she crouched down across the bed from Jerry and shot him once.

Police reports said, he got up from the bed and asked, “What have you done to me, girl?” She fired a second shot, left the bedroom and went into a bathroom until “she did not hear any movement from the bedroom,” according to court documents.

A day later, she was arrested and booked into the Clay County Jail where she has been held going on six years. However, Jacquilla Bullard’s case is just weeks away from an April 12 hearing after she entered a new plea agreement.

Now, instead of facing a possible death sentence based on her original August 22, 2012 indictment for first-degree murder, and the state’s notice of intent to seek the death penalty it filed on September 28, 2012, her case has changed course.

A six-page report documenting a review of the case by Assistant State Attorney Jonathan Sacks that also contains information from Jacquilla Bullard’s defense attorney was released Monday by State Attorney Melissa Nelson. The report states that Bullard “seeks to plead guilty to manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony, to be sentenced to 15 years in Florida State Prison.”

In reducing the charge and the penalty, court officials considered the years of abuse Jacquilla Bullard faced along with other factors.

“Together, all of these specific acts of violence contributed to an ongoing pattern of physical, psychological, and [redacted text] and would directly support a Battered Wife’s Syndrome defense at trial,” states Sacks’ report. “Based on these aggravating factors, combined with Defendant’s mitigation and potential affirmative defense, it is unlikely that the State of Florida would receive a unanimous, 12-0 jury recommendation for death.

“Accordingly, based on the mitigation and the totality of circumstances regarding the relationship between the Defendant and the Victim, a waiver of death penalty is warranted, regardless of whether this case proceeds to trial as currently charged.”

According to Sacks’ memo, Jerry Bullard’s family originally supported use of the death penalty, however, the family is now agreeable to waiving the death penalty after numerous discussions about the case.