Judge denies bail request for woman charged with killing husband

PALMER — Unless she comes up with quite a bit of cash, Lisa Donlon will most likely remain in jail until her trial.

Donlon, 38, is accused of murder for shooting her husband.

In October, a grand jury declined to indict her, likely due to evidence she had been abused and had acted in self-defense. Prosecutors said, however, that since that first decision, more information came to light showing the abuse, if it occurred, was not on the level of what Donlon described. That new evidence presented to the same grand jury resulted in murder charges just before Christmas.

On Tuesday, her attorney, Zachary Renfro, proposed two people to watch over Donlon if she is released and asked that bail be reduced to $1,000 or, failing that, to $10,000 and allow her to post cash or corporate instead of cash. Generally, that means the defendant only needs to post 10 percent of the bail amount.

Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen rejected both of the people Renfro proposed and declined to reduce Donlon’s bail.

Renfro, asked for clarification — did the judge mean she would not reduce that bail amount for any reason, period?

“Period,” Kristiansen said.

Prior to that ruling, Renfro made much the same argument he did at his client’s first bail hearing — that Donlon shot her husband because she was being abused and that therefore she was not a danger to the public since she was reacting to a situation that would not be replicated.

“I would be shocked and it would be preposterous if someone were to say, ‘I’m afraid Lisa Donlon is going to go out on the street with a gun,’” Renfro said.

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak reiterated the prosecution position — that the case was not a self-defense case since Donlon’s husband, Jason Donlon, was asleep when he was shot and that lowering bail in a murder case is improper.

In interrogating the two people proposed to watch Donlon, Kalytiak shed some light on some of what the prosecution knows about the case.

“Did she tell you that her husband was angry with her because she was in a relationship with a female?” Kalytiak asked Aimee Strange.

“Yes,” Strange replied.

Kalytiak asked Tandra Whitley, the other person volunteering to watch Donlon if she recalled a meeting between Donlon, Whitley, and a third woman in which Donlon was armed.

“’I’m not afraid of him, I’ll shoot him with this,’” Kalytiak quoted Donlon as reportedly saying at the meeting.

Whitley said she remembered the meeting and that Donlon was armed, but that she remembered her friend having the pistol to protect herself from bears, not from her husband.

Kalytiak said that since Whitley was at that meeting, she could very well be asked to testify, which would preclude her from being able to watch Donlon.

Kalytiak asked both women if they would have been willing to shelter Donlon if she chose to run from her husband. Both said they would have done whatever they could to help.

“I don’t believe she had that option,” Strange said, “because her husband was a strong-willed man and he wouldn’t allow it.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.