Florida woman Ramona Lund, 86, was arrested Monday on a manslaughter warrant after she allegedly beat her 89-year-old husband Francis Lund to death with a walking cane, but a prosecutor plans on taking an admittedly odd step. He says he wants to work with the defense in having a competency hearing for the suspect, and determine if she can actually stand trial.
“It is unusual, but I have an obligation to seek justice, and it became clear to me and my office that this woman had significant indications of confusion, and I felt it was important on my office to take an unusual approach,” Florida State Attorney Bill Eddins said in a press conference. He said he spoke with the public defender about this.
Deputies were called to the Lund residence on Saturday at about 10:45 a.m., Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters. This was a medical emergency call at first. Authorities discovered Francis Lund dead on the property, Johnson said. He argued that evidence showed that this was homicide. The victim had sustained blunt force trauma to the head, and there was a murder weapon at the scene: a walking cane. A manslaughter warrant was put out on wife Ramona Lund, and she is being monitored at an infirmary pending the results of the competency hearing, Johnson said.
The Office of the Public Defender did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
Eddins described her behavior at the scene as “confused,” based on the observations by investigators and other personnel at the scene. Johnson said Lund was the oldest homicide suspect they ever had in the county.
The prosecutor added that a motive was unclear at this time.
[Mugshot via Santa Rosa County Jail]
