BANGOR, Maine — A woman who served nearly six years in prison for killing her husband and cutting his body into 13 pieces was back in court Friday morning, charged with stealing two bottles of baby powder — a violation of her probation.
Vella Ruth Gogan, 65, of Skowhegan appeared in Penobscot County Superior Court and was charged with violating her probation on the manslaughter conviction by stealing two bottles of baby powder from the Hannaford in Dexter on Saturday, Aug. 22.
She was released from Penobscot County Jail about an hour after Justice William Anderson set bail at $5,000 unsecured on the new charge. Gogan will not have to put up bail unless she fails to appear in court.
This is the second time since Gogan’s release from prison three years ago that she has been charged with violating her probation by shoplifting. She was arrested in December 2008 for the theft of Croc shoes and two water bottles from Olympia Sports in Waterville.
A condition of her probation is that she not commit any new crimes.
She served six months in jail earlier this year after being convicted of shoplifting and violating probation, according to Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, whose office prosecuted Gogan for killing her husband nearly 10 years ago.
With tears in her eyes, Gogan tripped over her shackles and fell to the ground as she entered the courtroom after consulting with her attorney. The thin, gray-haired grandmother sobbed intermittently throughout the proceeding.
Her court-appointed attorney, Peter Bos of Bangor, asked that Gogan be released on her own recognizance. He told the judge that she would have trouble paying any bail.
Michael Roberts, Penobscot County deputy district attorney, told Anderson that her probation officer had recommended Gogan undergo psychiatric evaluation and be held without bail because of the nature of the underlying charge and because two razor blades were found in the door handle of her car.
Gogan told the judge the razor blades were used to open the window of her car, but Roberts said she told police at the time of her arrest the razor blades were for picking scabs off her legs.
Anderson said he would not order Gogan be held without bail given the nature of her offense.
“What makes this noteworthy is that the defendant was convicted of manslaughter,” he said.
The judge said he probably would have set a higher bail had Gogan been brought in on a violent charge.
“Shoplifting is not that type of offense,” the judge said.
Anderson took over the case after Justice Michaela Murphy recused herself. Murphy and Attorney General Janet Mills defended Gogan when both attorneys were in private practice.
Originally charged with murder, Gogan pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March 2001. The next month, Justice Paul Fritzsche sentenced her to 15 years in prison with all but six suspended and six years of probation.
Gogan was released in summer 2006 from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham after serving more than five years in prison, which included time off for good behavior.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes, whose office prosecuted Gogan in the slaying of her husband, said Friday that he had not yet been contacted by the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office about the latest charges.
“This is now her second violation, it’s troubling, I don’t know why she’s doing it,” Stokes said of Gogan’s apparent penchant for shoplifting.
If convicted of the probation violation, she could be sent back to prison for up to nine years, the remainder of her sentence on the manslaughter charge. On the new misdemeanor charge of theft by unauthorized taking, she faces up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
“Obviously the amount of time that you ask on a revocation is going to increase the more violations you have,” Stokes said Friday. “The idea of probation is it’s a court order and we expect you to obey the court orders and as you continue to violate the law while you’re on probation the ante keep[s] going up.”
In pleading guilty to manslaughter in March 2001, Gogan admitted that she shot and killed her husband Gene Gogan, 62, while he slept in their Hartland home on Oct. 1, 1999. She then dragged his body to the couple’s truck, according to a story previously published in the Bangor Daily News, and drove to a remote area in Mayfield Township about 25 miles from the couple’s home where, she admitted, she cut him into 13 pieces.
Gene Gogan’s body was recovered a week later after Vella Gogan went to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office with her sister and confessed.
Vella Gogan’s attorneys told reporters covering the case that their client had been abused and controlled by her husband throughout their 37-year marriage. In the years before his death, the abuse became more frequent and more violent, Murphy and Mills said after the client pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Bangor Daily News reporters Judy Harrison and Diana Bowley contributed to this report.