- March 12, 2025
William Carson Merrill, a Palm Coast man charged with shooting and killing his wife with an AK-47, pled no contest Monday to charges of manslaughter with a firearm, a first-degree felony.
Merrill, 33, called 911 Feb. 21 and told the dispatcher that he had shot his wife in the chest after shining the laser light of the gun on 30-year-old Stefanie Merrill, and pulling the trigger.
He didn’t think the gun would fire, he said, because he never left it loaded. He said he’d been talking to his wife about how bright the laser was right before he shot her.
The couple’s 3-year-old daughter was taking a bath in the same room at the time of the shooting.
Responding paramedics responded pronounced Stefanie Merrill dead on the scene. A bullet entered her chest and exited her back. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Merrill stood in court before Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano, his hands cuffed behind his back, his body clad in an orange inmate jumpsuit and his voice even as the judge asked him how he pled, and he responded with two words: “No contest.”
After the Feb. 21 shooting, 20 firearms were removed from the couple’s Covington Lane home, although Merrill was not allowed to own any guns. He was already a convicted felon, charged in 2007 with grand theft.
Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon against Merrill per a plea agreement.
Merrill faces up to 30 years in prison, though there is no minimum sentence for the charge against him. Sentencing guidelines recommend a term of 10.5 years in prison.
A sentencing trial is scheduled for Oct. 29 at 2 p.m.
