A two year battle about financial exploitation of an elderly person linked to murder trial plea bargain may come down to written affidavits from two attorneys.
Circuit Judge John M. Madonia was supposed to hear arguments on motions to dismiss charges of financial exploitation of an elderly person against Joyce Gill and Jewell Maul yesterday in court. The judge has agreed to review witness affidavits written by witness after a motion by Special Prosecutor Matthew Goetten to speed up the trial. Madonia says he may still ask for live testimony at a future date if he feels that the written testimony still makes it hard to determine if an oral plea bargain given to Robert Gill in the 2015 murder of Andrew Maul, Jewell Maul’s former husband, was in force.
Robert Gill is serving 49 years for first degree murder and allegedly stipulated in his guilty plea with his attorney W. Scott Hanken and Special Prosecutor Ed Parkinson that no charges could be filed against Joyce Gill or Jewell Maul resulting from the investigation of Andrew Maul’s shooting death. The women are accused of pilfering over $39,000 from the bank account of 88 year old Norma Notson, Andrew Maul’s great aunt. The two women were allegedly Notson’s caretaker.
The plea bargain was originally dismissed by Madonia because he didn’t feel it was justified to hold one prosecutor to another’s agreement. However, Madonia re-admitted the plea bargain in November after Defense Attorneys Tom Piper and Carrie Magerl, who represent the two women, that in addition to Goetten filing the original financial exploitation charges against the women, Parkinson was also involved in the filing of the charges. The attorneys have until February 7th to file the affidavits with Madonia’s office with a possible ruling coming on February 28th. Madonia has said that if he cannot make a determination from the documents both attorneys, Hanken and Parkinson will be summoned for live testimony.