Edward Judie Jr., appears in an image released by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
A former public school superintendent in Georgia charged with murder in connection with the 2019 death of his wife was released from a county jail Wednesday after posting a $220,000 bond.
According to a report from the Macon Telegraph, Edward Judie Jr., 66, was directed by the court to surrender his passport and is prohibited from having any contact with any family members of his late wife Joyce Fox Judie, 60, who authorities say he poisoned to death. Under the terms of his pretrial release, the former high-ranking Bibb County School District official who was in charge of student affairs is not permitted to leave his home in the Barrington Hall subdivision of northwest Macon unless he is going to see a doctor for a medical appointment, meeting with his attorney in connection with his case, or attending a court proceeding.
Judie had been behind bars since he was initially taken into custody on July 1 and charged with murder and felony murder.
Joyce Judie, who reportedly lived with dementia, was found dead of an apparent cocaine overdose in a downstairs bedroom at the couple’s suburban home at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2019. Edward told deputies that he believed his wife had fallen asleep after drinking too much.
The Associated Press reported that an autopsy done soon after showed that Joyce had “many times the lethal dose” of the drug in her system when she died. The autopsy reportedly determined that the cause of the wife’s death was “cocaine toxicity.”
Investigators with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said they also learned that on the night of his wife’s death, Edward Judie had purchased a sizeable amount of cocaine.
Deputies on July 1, 2021, interviewed Edward and presented him with evidence that appeared to contradict several earlier statements he made about his wife’s demise.
“During the interview, Edward’s story continued to change every time he was presented with evidence that conflicted with his prior statements,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
The husband was taken into custody the same day and processed at the Bibb County Jail.
The warrant for Edward’s arrest claimed that he intentionally poisoned his wife “by introducing into her system cocaine.”
The Macon Telegraph in July reported that a Superior Court Judge Howard Z. Simms denied a bond request from Edward’s attorney after prosecutors claimed that the defendant placed calls from the county jail in an effort to “hide” approximately $500,000 from his wife’s life insurance payout and attempted to “secure” his passport.
County prosecutor Sandra G. Matson told the court that prosecutors had several recordings of phone calls during which Edward can be heard “advising people to help him secure his passport.”
“He is also talking about committing an appraisal on a house to sell it to get money and cash. And he’s also (in the calls) referencing getting the life insurance proceeds from his deceased wife’s account to someone else, to get it out of his bank account into someone else’s to hide it,” she reportedly said.
Judge Simms granted Edward’s request for bond on Aug. 31.
[image via Bibb County Sheriff’s Office]
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