Florida woman claims self-defense after police said she shot girlfriend to death and let her body rot for a week

Florida police say a woman shot and killed her girlfriend and let her body rot for a week last year as the victim's family members frantically searched for her.

But attorneys for 45-year-old Shannon McCarthy filed a motion Friday to have the second-degree murder charge against her tossed out of court based on a self-defense plea according to the state's stand your ground law.

'I'm going to have you smell death.'

McCarthy is accused of shooting and killing her 43-year-old girlfriend, Heather Sheppard, at their home in June 2023, but McCarthy's attorneys claim she shot at Sheppard from the ground as Sheppard allegedly was threatening McCarthy with a shotgun. Sheppard's body was left to decompose on the front porch.

However, prosecutors said McCarthy texted threatening messages to Sheppard five months prior to the lethal incident.

"It's pretty vivid, of her saying, 'I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to have you smell death,'" said prosecutor Joseph Licando.

Prosecutors also argued against the application of the stand your ground law because they said McCarthy never tried to contact police about the shooting and tried to clean up the blood in order to hide evidence.

McCarthy also allegedly changed her story various times when questioned about the victim's whereabouts, even when a foul odor was coming from her screened-in porch.

McCarthy's attorneys argued that the angle of the gunshot wounds corroborate her self-defense claims.

"What does that tell you, why is that trajectory important? Because she said in the motion and they stipulated, that it creates connotation in the case that she was on the ground when she did the shooting and a shotgun being pointed down at her," defense attorney Charles Fletcher argued.

However, Sheppard's daughter testified that her mother was terrified of guns and had never even shot a gun.

The judge is scheduled to issue a decision on the self-defense motion Sept. 17.

WTLV-TV posted the news video report on YouTube about the motion.

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