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Woman Takes State's Plea Deal In Slaying

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Peggy Sue Abbott's attorney advised her to take her first-degree murder charge to a jury. Two mental health counselors who have known her for years gave her the same advice.

Abbott would have none of it.

Thursday, she stood before a judge and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence. The state-offered deal guarantees that Abbott won't spent the rest of her life in prison, the penalty had she been convicted at trial.

"She said she was worn out and afraid that if she lost at trial on a murder one, she would die alone in prison," said her attorney, Keith Hammond. "With the offer, there is hope she'll get out by the time she's 62, as long as she gets her 15 percent off, and she knows she has a life expectancy of 78 years."

Abbott, 40, is one of two women charged in the March 2005 death of Jerome Selby. Selby, 47, was found dead in the Moon Lake home he shared with Abbott and Melody Samion, his girlfriends. He had been strangled, beaten and burned.

Investigators called Selby's slaying a menage-a-trois gone bad. He and Abbott had been in a relationship for years, and Samion had moved into their Clear Lake Drive home a few months before the murder, Hammond said.

Deputies were frequently called to the house for domestic incidents, and Abbott later told investigators that Selby beat her.

The abuse, coupled with Abbott's lifelong struggle with mental illness, made the three-way relationship the perfect mix for disaster.

On March 26, 2005, the women put eight 200-milligram Seroquel pills in Selby's beer, investigators said. Seroquel is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, two ailments Abbott has been diagnosed as having.

After Selby lost consciousness, they smothered him with a pillow and strangled him with a swimsuit string. They then hit him on the head with a pot, burned his chest with a cigarette and tied garbage bags over his head.

Authorities said the women considered burning his body in the backyard but decided the smell might attract attention, so they left him in the house.

Samion, 35, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Abbott was offered the same deal and begged a judge to let her plead guilty at a hearing last year.

But Circuit Judge Thane Covert declined because Abbott was emotional in court that day. Instead, he declared her incompetent to stand trial and ordered her into treatment at the Florida State Hospital.

Abbott returned to court Thursday after psychologists at the hospital deemed her competent. Abbott provided appropriate answers to Covert's questions.

"I find that she's in a completely different state of mind today," Covert said in finding Abbott competent. "When I found her incompetent, she was distraught and could hardly speak. Today, she is alert; she's aware of what's going on and of the circumstances she's facing."

The ruling cleared the way for Abbott to enter the guilty plea over Hammond's objections. Hammond told Covert that Abbott's case "was one of the best insanity cases I've ever seen."

"There's a history of extreme mental issues and Baker Acts," Hammond said outside the courtroom. "I mean extreme treatment. There's also a battered wife syndrome defense. If you have someone who has limited mental abilities and they are subjected to abuse and mistreatment, what happens is something like this."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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