Shannon Gilday was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the 2022 murder of Jordan Morgan in Madison County.
In May, a Shelby County jury found Gilday guilty but mentally ill and recommended a life sentence, sparing the 27-year-old the death penalty.
Gilday, who’s been behind bars for four years, will be eligible for parole in 2047.
Outside the courthouse in Richmond Friday, Jordan’s father, former state Rep. Wesley Morgan, said he and Jordan’s mom, Lisa, will soon visit his daughter’s grave for her birthday. She would have been 37.
“We will be at her grave, placing flowers on her grave for her birthday. I do that every year. I think Lisa goes to her grave almost daily,” Wesley Morgan said, adding, “It makes me sick when I go out there, not because of Jordan, because of why she's there.”
Wesley Morgan, who was a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2017 and 2018, said he’d pursue changes to state law for sentencing in violent crimes. He had pushed for a death sentence for Gilday.
“It will only go so far until people's finally — they'll use vigilante justice,” he said. “And let me tell you, it is a good thing that they take custody of these murderers immediately and keep them, because I know I would have killed the guy if I could have got to him again.”
Morgan exchanged gunfire with Gilday in February 2022 when Gilday invaded his Madison County home. According to court testimony, Gilday was fascinated with an underground bunker there. Morgan has since sold the property.
Gilday shot Jordan Morgan, a 32-year-old attorney, to death in her bed. He also wounded Wesley Morgan and his younger daughter, Sydney.
Gilday was also sentenced to 17 years for attempted murder, burglary and criminal mischief.
He's set to serve that sentence concurrently with his life sentence, but Wesley Morgan said he’ll appeal to have Gilday serve the 17 years consecutively instead.
The trial was held in Shelbyville due to pretrial publicity around the case in Richmond. Morgan family members read victim impact statements Friday.
Morgan, 77, said he’d be 98 years old when Gilday is up for parole.
“You really don't understand it until it happens to you, and when it happens to you, it is the most horrible and tragic thing you'll ever see in your life,” Morgan said.
