Police say the 15-year-old Lincoln girl they arrested Monday for the killing of her father had planned it with her boyfriend for a week before she stabbed him.
Prosecutors charged Sallie Gilmer with first-degree murder, accusing her of killing 70-year-old Jesse Gilmer Jr. purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice.
She and her 16-year-old boyfriend, Isaac Honigschmidt, who is accused of aiding and abetting the murder, both made their first court appearances on the charges Wednesday afternoon via video feed from the Lancaster County Youth Services Center.
Family members hugged in the courtroom, consoling each other, before court started and in the hallway after.Â
Sherri Gilmer, Sallie’s mom and Jesse’s wife, declined to comment.
In separate hearings, Deputy County Attorney Eric Miller asked that Gilmer and Honigschmidt both be held without bond on the charges, which could get them life in prison if they're convicted.Â
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Lancaster County Court Judge Joseph Dalton agreed to the request, citing the seriousness of the charges and Nebraska's constitution, which denies bail on certain murder cases.
In an affidavit for their arrests, Lincoln Police Officer Jason Grager said Sallie Gilmer called 911 just after 4 p.m. Monday saying she had returned home from school to their apartment near South 40th and Nebraska 2 to find her father stabbed.
Grager said officers found Jesse Gilmer Jr. with multiple stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police took his daughter and Honigschmidt to the police station for interviews.
At a news conference Tuesday, Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins said a motive remained unclear.
"Obviously, a daughter killing her father is difficult to understand. And so we’re trying to piece that together. We don’t have a solid answer as of yet," she said.
In court records filed Wednesday, police gave new details. Grager said they believe the two started planning the killing a week earlier and decided earlier in the day Monday to carry it out after school.
Police believe Honigschmidt drove Gilmer home to stab her father, then they went to Lincoln Southeast High School for a short time before coming back to the apartment so she could "discover" him dead.
Grager said Gilmer allegedly was stressed out from her parents' constant fighting and his mental abuse.
He alleged she used a knife Honigschmidt had given her for her protection, and she gave it back to him after the stabbing.
Both Sallie Gilmer and Honigschmidt were students at Lincoln Southeast High School.
Jesse Gilmer Jr.'s death marks Lincoln's 10th killing this year and the 12th recorded in Lancaster County, where there were eight in all of 2021.