A man charged with aiding his wife’s suicide says he never wanted her dead. He said he tried to take back the noose he gave her when they were fighting but investigators are not buying it.
Nick Ellis made the noose his wife used to hang herself, but he said he never thought she would use it.
“I, in no way, assisted my wife with killing herself,” said Ellis. “Now, I am sitting in jail because of this.”
Police said he helped his wife, Jessica, do just that.
“I have never seen anything like this and we have never charged anyone like this,” said Brian Seldon with the Kokomo Police Department.
“I had come to terms that my wife would one day kill herself,” said Ellis. “I am a very empathetic person, when people talk to me and tell me how they feel, I feel that.”
Nick and Jessica Ellis had been married almost nine years. Nick said his wife had severe mental issues. She had even tried to kill herself before.
“Some days she would be alright, other days she would not,” said Ellis.
The couple fought a lot. During their final confrontation, Nick took some rope and tied a noose, telling Jessica she could “use it on herself if she wanted to.”
“It was in a fit of anger that I did what I did,” said Ellis. “As soon as I came to my senses, I did everything I could to keep her from getting hold of it.”
Jessica Ellis was found hanging from the rafters of a shelter at Darrough Chapel Park by a man out walking his dog. Nick said his wife chose to die there because the park held a sad significance.
“When she was a kid she witnessed a suicide there,” said Ellis. “That park was known as ‘Suicide Park.’”
Nick Ellis was in the process of leaving his wife. He was already seeing someone else. Now, he knows there is little hope for life getting back to normal.
“I have got a feeling that I am going to get stuck on this and the details are not going to matter too much,” said Ellis. “I have got a feeling I will end up screwed on this.”
Nick Ellis faces two to eight years in prison if he is convicted.
