A Florida woman accused of killing her terminally ill mother in Cape May County pleaded guilty to stealing the woman's Bible and lying about it.
In exchange for her plea, the murder charge against Josephine Scheid was dropped.
Scheid, now 38, was accused of using drugs to kill her 58-year-old Gabrielle Michaelis, who died Oct. 31, 2018.
Despite her arrest about year later, Scheid insisted her mother died of the cancer that put her in hospice care.
She had been ordered held in jail, but was released in September, after her attorneys presented new evidence in the case, including a report by nationally renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who agreed it was the cancer that killed Michaelis.
Attorneys John Zarych and Brenden Shur also pointed to the findings that supposedly implicated their client, including a blood draw that took several stabs to the body to obtain and then was held in an unsecured refrigerator for 28 days before it was mailed to the lab.
The attorneys said the chain of custody cannot be proven and called the evidence “problematic.”
The defense also attacked the use of Scheid’s search history that included suspicious searches of the drugs used and how to kill with them was done after her mother’s death.
The murder case officially came to an end Friday, when Scheid pleaded guilty to theft and hindering, both third-degree crimes.
While she could face as long as 10 years in prison on those charges, the prosecution will recommend probation, under the plea agreement.
Scheid admitted that she took her mother's Bible and then lied about it to investigators.
"You knew if it was part of the estate of your mother it could have been sold or given to someone else," Zarych asked his client, who replied yes.
As executrix of her mother's estate, Scheid could have dealt with that property in court, Zarych pointed out.
"But you didn't want to take a chance of doing it that way," Zarych said to Scheid, who agreed.
In addition to the recommendation that she do no jail time, the state will also not object to any moves to have Scheid's record expunged.
She has also requested civil reservation, meaning Scheid's guilty plea would not be able to be used in any civil court proceedings. That decision will be at Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury's discretion when he sentences Scheid on Oct. 15.
Arguments in the case have indicated discord between Scheid and her brother and his wife.
A Florida woman is jailed in the killing of her mother, who died a year ago in Cape May County.Josephine Scheid is accused of using drugs to kill 58-year-old Gabrielle Michaelis, who died Oct. 31, 2018.That December, the New Jersey State Police Homicide South Unit received information about the suspicious death of the Belleplain woman, … Read more
A Florida woman jailed accused of killing her terminally ill mother in Cape May County has been released after her defense presented new evidence.Josephine Scheid is charged with murder for allegedly using drugs to kill 58-year-old Gabrielle Michaelis, who died Oct. 31, 2018.It took nearly a year to charge Scheid, who was arrested in November.She … Read more
