A Virginia Beach woman who admitted to shooting her father told a 911 dispatcher that she acted “on purpose” because he was a “rapist and a child predator,” according to evidence presented in court this week.
Jennifer Mulligan, 44, made the call on May 7 after shooting her 90-year-old father, Woodard McClure, inside her home in the Avalon Hills neighborhood. A recording of the eight-minute call was played on Tuesday in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
“What’s your emergency?” the dispatcher asked. “I just shot my dad,” Mulligan replied calmly at first. When asked if it was intentional, she paused before answering, “It was on purpose.” She later added, “He is not a good person,” as her voice grew more emotional.
Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Talmage introduced the recording, along with testimony from two police officers. Judge Timothy Quick ruled there was sufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury, according to a report from The Virginian-Pilot.
The first responding officer testified that he found McClure lying on his back in bed with a gunshot wound to the forehead. An autopsy later determined the gun had been pressed directly against his skin.
Detective T. Lyons, the lead investigator, testified that Mulligan claimed her father’s room “smelled horribly” and was littered with urine and feces. She told him her father had kidnapped her as a child and was physically and emotionally abusive to her and her siblings.
According to Lyons, Mulligan had two or three beers that morning before retrieving a gun from the garage, walking into her father’s room, and shooting him. She allegedly told investigators she felt she needed to “take care of the agony.”
McClure had been moved into Mulligan’s home two years earlier after his nursing facility closed, leaving him with nowhere else to go, per a report from Portsmouth NBC affiliate WAVY.
Outside the courthouse, defense attorney Roger Whitus said he was arranging psychological evaluations for Mulligan. He suggested that “longstanding abuse” she suffered as a child was coming to the surface at the time of the shooting.
Mulligan has been held without bond at the Virginia Beach City Jail since her arrest. Judge Quick initially granted her bond earlier this year, but prosecutors appealed to the Circuit Court, which revoked it. No trial date has been set.
Several of Mulligan’s family and friends stood with her attorney outside court, a quiet show of support as the case now heads toward a grand jury.