Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Vella Gogan, 61, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death and mutilation of Eugene Gogan in 1999 and was released from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham last summer.
She filed the necessary paperwork with the Somerset County Registry of Probate last month, according to documents.
Gogan's new name, if the petition is approved March 27 by Probate Judge John Alsop, will be Vella Ruth Pelletier.
"I want to go back to my maiden name," Gogan wrote in the application.
Contacted briefly by telephone Monday morning, Gogan declined to be interviewed.
Gogan originally was charged with murder in the Oct. 1, 1999, death of her husband, who was shot three times in the head as he slept in the couple's home on Route 43, Athens Road. The body of the 65-year-old man was cut into pieces and found six days later in the woods off Route 16 in Mayfield Township, north of Athens village and 25 miles from the couple's home.
Investigators recovered more than a dozen pieces of his body, including the torso and head.
Maine State Police detectives said the rest -- his hands, feet, parts of his legs and arms -- had been buried in shallow holes in the woods.
Vella Gogan said she had acted in self-defense against her husband of 37 years, who had been psychologically and physically abusive to her.
She said she feared her husband had planned to kill her. Two psychologists and two psychiatrists concluded she feared for her life and suffered from "battered-wife syndrome."
But the state prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson, called Vella Gogan's actions a virtual execution and "the ultimate act of domestic violence."
Family members of Eugene Gogan agreed with Benson, saying the charge should have been murder. In an angry and emotional statement to the court and to Gogan, Susan Estes, a niece, said she felt betrayed by the court system, which she said had gagged family members and treated Eugene Gogan's killer as the victim.
"There's been no justice for his death," she said at the time.
Vella Gogan pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2001 because she feared a jury might not agree that she acted in self-defense and convict her of murder, which carries a 25-year minimum sentence in Maine.
Gogan was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but six years suspended, and six years of probation.
A spokeswoman at the Department of Corrections said Gogan will be on probation until June 2012.
Cindy Dillon, clerk of the probate court in Skowhegan, said Gogan came in herself to file for the name change, a routine act by a widow or a woman who has been divorced.
"She does not have to come in for the hearing," Dillon said. "Adults changing their name don't have to come in unless a judge wants them to."
She said Alsop will review the petition March 27 and sign the order if it is approved and mail a certificate of name change to Gogan at her address on Middle Road, Skowhegan.
M. Michaela Murphy, a Waterville lawyer, along with lawyer Janet Mills of Skowhegan, represented Gogan in the manslaughter case. Murphy said Monday she has not had contact with her former client. Mills said she has spoken with Gogan and said she thought it was time to leave the case to history.
"I think the case is long over with and people should put it behind them," Mills said. "She has paid her dues."
Doug Harlow -- 861-9244
dharlow@centralmaine.com
Reader comments
Sort by: Oldest first | Newest First
A soldier is a good example--they are taught to kill and to defend themselves and they're honored and told to return to civilian life where the rules are back to "normal." It doesn't make them dangerous. Just like Vella isn't dangerous since the only threat to her life is gone now.
ALFD of Canaan, ME, I'm glad you're not smart enough to be in "authority" over anything but a blog comment because you'd probably have that poor old woman in the electric chair after her miserable life of abuse.
By the way, she's my aunt, but we've never met, so I'm not standing up for her specifically--just battered women everywhere. I actually just happened to be reading, and I have a special place in my heart for redneck morons and their propensity for using extra punctuation!!!!
Rivaled only by the belief that others will somehow benefit from their opinion or even be interested.report abuse
generations. My mother herself married a very abusive man. My sisters and I went on to marry abusive men also.I stayed with a phony man for over 20 years and suffered terribly before I found the strength to get away.The breaking away and the aftermath and struggles of getting away, were harder than if I had just stayed in the situation.My mother stayed with my abusive stepfather decades as he abused us children.everyone in the community loved my husband and everyone in my childhood community loved my stepfather. After all he was a priest in our church! everyone also loved Gene. My real father and his wife tried to save us from the abuse but nobody believed. Even my mother stuck up for my stepfather.Us kids were told what to say also. We all lived the sick lie. No one believed that my husband was physically and sexually abusing my children either. Even after my x husband was finally arrested for child abuse, some still did not believe, they loved him. That is how manipulative and charming these men can be. My x husband was also a boy scout leader. I married my stepfather just as Vella married her sick father. The patterns repeat over and over.She knew nothing else.No one can ever possibly know or even speculate on what THEY would do unless they were in the same situation.unless they lived through years of physical and psychological abuse.Murder is wrong but how much could YOU endure before YOU SNAPPED.report abuse
In all seriousness... so long as you don't marry her and then abuse her, or even think about abusing her, or have her even think you'rethinking about abusing her, you should be all set.
It's the same old song and dance... "Evil men", "Evil men", Evil men." Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Last time I looked you don't shoot people and cut them up in self-defense. Maybe shoot em... that I can see, even understand and nod my head to. Cuttin 'em up and scattering them around the countryside's a problem...
I'm sorry for everybody involved.report abuse
Show all 14 comments
You must be a registered user of MaineToday.com to post a comment. Register or log in.