Jury finds Shannon Gilday guilty but mentally ill in murder of Kentucky lawmaker’s daughter

SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — A jury found Shannon Gilday guilty but mentally ill on all six charges connected to the murder of Jordan Morgan, the 32-year-old daughter of former Kentucky lawmaker C. Wesley Morgan.

Gilday was convicted of fatally shooting Jordan Morgan in her bed in February 2022 at her father’s Madison County mansion. Prosecutors said Gilday broke into the Morgan family home and shot Jordan in her bed.

The defense claimed he was in peak psychosis — gripped by delusions of an impending nuclear war — and trying to reach the family’s “doomsday bunker.”

In closing statements, Gilday’s defense attorney focused on mental illness, describing months of escalating paranoia she said reached peak psychosis the night of the killing.

Defense attorney Kim Green did not dispute the facts of the case but portrayed a young man consumed by delusions. She told jurors Gilday was convinced a nuclear holocaust was imminent, claiming “voices” from the government instructed him to find shelter to save his family.

“It’s hard to even imagine the nightmare he was living. In his mind, he had been told there is going to be a nuclear holocaust. Not just reading articles and thinking it’s going to happen, he is told it’s going to happen,” Green said.

According to the defense, Gilday studied nuclear war, researched bunkers, and believed he had no choice. One court-appointed expert called the case “textbook” for the insanity defense.

Green reminded jurors their task was not to make anyone whole again, but to reach a verdict on Gilday’s mental state.

“Jordan Morgan should not be dead, and we must remember her name. The question is why,” Green said.

“The question is why, and the answer to that question is mental illness to the point of insanity,” Green said.

Prosecutors urged jurors not to accept the defense’s argument. Commonwealth’s Attorney Todd Willard acknowledged Gilday’s mental illness but argued it did not meet Kentucky’s legal definition of insanity, which requires the defendant to be incapable of recognizing their actions as wrong and illegal.

Willard said the evidence proves Gilday knew exactly what he was doing, pointing to actions after the shooting: escaping the scene, trying to ditch evidence, and killing Morgan to stop her from calling 911.

“He knew it before, he knew it at the time, he knew it then,” Willard said.

The prosecution replayed the night’s events: planning the attack, climbing scaffolding to enter the home, firing through a door, and shooting Jordan Morgan with an AR-15, leaving 25 gunshot wounds and causing her to bleed out.

“We also know Jordan was awake when she was shot. The defendant fired the weapon through the door upstairs to get inside. We also know it because when he came inside, Jordan said, ‘please don’t,’ but he did it anyway,” Willard said.

In a final plea, Willard urged jurors not to leave their “common sense” outside the courtroom, using Jordan’s last words — “please don’t” — as his close.