The 12-year sentence for a Bell City woman who fatally shot her husband in 2023 after he yelled at her for not putting away his hunting gear will stand.

Yvette Gragg Logan shot her husband, William, twice on Jan. 22, 2023, and immediately called 911 to report it. She initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but in November, pled guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter. She was sentenced in 14th Judicial District Court to 15 years at hard labor with credit for time served.

Logan filed a motion to reconsider the sentence, urging it was “excessive in light of Mr. Logan’s harsh and abusive treatment during their marriage.” On April 1, 2024, the motion was granted after the Logan children and other family members made victim impact statements to the trial court. Logan was then re-sentenced to 12 years imprisonment at hard labor.

Logan filed a timely motion for appeal of the new sentence, stating her husband had inflicted “merciless and sadistic physical and emotional abuse on their family and her” during their almost 30-year marriage. She claims she finally “snapped” during one of her husband’s “abusive tirades,” and urged the court to reduce her 12-year sentence “given the unique circumstances created by Mr. Logan’s own cruelty.”

The marriage was the second for both Yvette and William. Her children lived with them; his children lived with their mother. The couple had one child together.

During a hearing for the motion to reconsider her sentence, Logan claimed her children moved out of the family house as soon as they could because her husband was “a very harsh man whose punishment of their children for small infractions would be considered a form of torture by many.”

She said that as William aged, his eyesight deteriorated so much that he was considered legally blind. He also had other physical conditions that together with his blindness limited his independence and heightened his “already harsh nature.”

Logan said on the day of the shooting, the pair had been at his mother’s house most of the day painting it and preparing it to be sold. On the way home, they stopped for dinner.

She said when they returned to their home, he began screaming and calling her names because his rifle and gear had not been put away. She said William then screamed at her to bring him his pills. She said she grabbed a handgun instead that was stored next to the television.

She said he laughed when he saw her with the gun and asked what she was going to do with it. She said she walked out of the room as he “cussed” and “cut her down.”

“I turned. I didn’t aim. I just fired. I just fired out of aggravation. I didn’t aim,” Logan told the court. “I wasn’t intending to kill him. I just fired out of pure aggravation. He turned around and he said, ‘You shot me.’ He said, ‘You shot me.’ I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ I said, ‘Let’s just call 911.’ I said, ‘Let’s just call the hospital.’ ”

She said he then grabbed for the gun stating he should shoot her. She told the court that she told him, “Let’s just put it up. I will call the cops. It fired the second time.”

Logan said she did not know how the gun fired and did not know if he had the gun, she had the gun, or they both had the gun when it fired.

During victim impact statements given by two of their children, two of William’s brothers and one of William’s sisters, it was revealed William would punish the children for poor grades, failing to obey and minor infractions. His punishments included kneeling on rice for hours at a time, eating meals and drinking water from the floor, doing without food and water at times, keeping the pantry locked, and having snacks for himself but not others.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal has rejected Logan’s appeal stating she was not in imminent danger of losing her life or suffering great bodily harm when she shot her husband. The justices ruled the trial court recognized her law-abiding life, age, testimony from her children and the harsh treatment she endured by her husband when it reduced her sentence.

“We have reviewed the evidence in the record together with the trial court’s reasons for sentencing Ms. Logan and find the trial court did not abuse its broad discretion in sentencing her to 12 years, which is less than one-third of the 40-year maximum sentence for manslaughter,” the court ruled. “We recognize Ms. Logan is a first-time offender who has shown genuine remorse for killing Mr. Logan. However, like the trial court, we are also mindful of the seriousness of her offense and the fact that she was not threatened with or subjected to physical harm before shooting him. Instead of walking away, as she had done previously during their many years of marriage when Mr. Logan ridiculed or berated her, Ms. Logan shot and killed him.”