A 71-year-old woman accused of shooting and killing her 75-year-old husband was granted bond Friday.
Freda Eugenia Drake was arrested Jan. 9 at the home she shared near Augusta with husband James Christopher Drake.
An assistant district attorney told Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet that Freda "had become fed up" with her husband's behavior, according to WFXG in Augusta. He said Freda indicated her husband "had a prescription pill problem," according to the Fox affiliate.
Freda reportedly shot her husband as he sat in his recliner, and she went to bed afterward, according to the Richmond County Sheriff's Office's investigation, the attorney said.
She later went to wake him, but he was dead, according to the attorney. Freda called her grandson, who then dialed 911, according to the state's attorney.
Though James Drake’s family was “in a state of shock,” the assistant district attorney said they were fine with Freda being granted bond, according to WFXG. The state reportedly opposed bond because of Freda's admission to the crime and because she provided no reasonable provocation for killing him such as self-defense.
Freda, a retired housekeeper, has lived in Augusta for more than 50 years and is from Dublin, Georgia, according to her attorney.
The judge set $50,000 bond for the murder charge and $20,000 bond for the charge of possession of a firearm.
Freda is not to possess a gun, will have a curfew and will live with her grandson.
The couple lived in Hephzibah, a rural town just south of Augusta, according to news reports and police accounts.
The Richmond County Sheriff's Office said the couple had been in a fight before the shooting, which happened about 6:25 a.m. Jan. 9 on Wendell Street in Hephzibah.
Police say a handgun was used.
Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen told CBS affiliate WRDW News 12 that James Drake had been shot once in the head.
He was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m., reports said.
Neighbors in the area told the station they didn't hear any gunshots in the predawn hours when the shooting reportedly occurred.
“I ain’t hear no gunshots at all,” one man told News 12. “I wish I did. I would have come outside. But I didn't hear nothing at all.”
Others in the neighborhood described the Drakes as “nice people.”
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