PANAMA CITY — The Lynn Haven man charged with killing his wife will attempt to convince a judge he was insane at the time and couldn’t understand the crime was wrong.
Gary Wesley Tennyson, 36, was hallucinating aliens, “energy people, time travel and science” in the months leading up to the slaying of his wife, Glenda Tennyson, according to records Gary Tennyson’s attorney filed last month. Glenda Tennyson was 28 and pregnant with twins when her body was discovered in a shed behind the couple’s Lynn Haven home in May 2012.
He had been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment under the Baker Act at least once before his arrest, and there was a pending court order authorizing deputies to Baker Act him when Glenda Tennyson was killed.
Kim Jewell, Tennyson’s attorney, will argue Gary Tennyson was suffering a nonspecified psychiatric disorder at the time of the killing. She’ll rely on medical records and testimony from members of the staff at Florida State Hospital, where Tennyson received treatment to restore his competency to stand trial.
His friends and family say Tennyson began to act differently in his early 20s, but his behavior became more bizarre during the year leading up to his wife’s death, according to records.
Jewell declined to comment because the case is pending.
Police reports indicate both Tennysons had used methamphetamine in the days before the killing. He was making “nonsensical statements” when police found his wife’s body.
Tennyson’s case won’t be presented to a jury; he has opted instead for a bench trial before Judge Michael Overstreet. The trial is scheduled for January.