PANAMA CITY — The widow of a contractor shot to death at a Panama City Beach construction site had spoken with friends about a plan to deal with her abusive husband in the weeks before he was killed, according to recently filed court records.
Panama City Beach Police investigated the August 2010 slaying of Robert Ellison for three years before arresting Christopher Hyler, and they have continued to investigate as Hyler's trial approaches, according to evidence prosecutors turned over to defense attorneys in October, not long after police interviewed people who knew Stephanie Ellison, the victim's wife.
Transcripts from interviews with two of Stephanie Ellison's former classmates indicate she told at least one person that her husband was physically abusing her and she was scared to leave him. A few weeks before Ellison was shot several times at the site of First Baptist Church in Panama City Beach, Stephanie Ellison showed a classmate marks on her neck and said her husband "had me by the throat this morning."
Robert Ellison, the upset classmate replied, according to the transcript, "needs to be shot."
Stephanie Ellison then said, "I've got something in the plans, I've got something in the works, so I'm taking care of it."
The classmate said Robert Ellison was shot two or three weeks later, and Stephanie Ellison stopped coming to class.
She has never been charged in connection to her husband's death, and police have never publicly named her as a suspect. But police have said there are other suspects in the case and more arrests are possible, and Hyler's name was never even mentioned in the interviews with the former classmates. Instead the interviews focused entirely on Stephanie Ellison, who has moved away from the area, according to records.
Hyler has been held without bail since police arrested him in May 2013, and he's due at a hearing Monday to argue that his statement to police was coerced and should not be shown to a jury. His trial is scheduled to begin next month.