Staff Report

A Dallas County grand jury indicted Vanessa Swindle Gill, 44, of Valley Grande last week on a capital murder charge in the March death of her husband, Marshall Gill.

Vanessa’s co-defendant and nephew, Curtis J. Cook, 25, of Wetumpka, was also indicted on capital murder charges, said District Attorney Michael Jackson, who deems Marshall’s demise as a “murder for hire.”

On March 25, Marshall was found bludgeoned to death outside his residence on Alabama Highway 22. Vanessa allegedly hired Cook to kill her husband and Cook allegedly blinded Marshall with lye solution and beat him several times in the head with a silver-colored baseball bat.

When Dallas County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Gill residence, they found Marshall lying in the driveway and Vanessa administering CPR.

Cook led deputies on a high-speed chase through downtown Selma before he was arrested. According to a previous report, law enforcement officials did retrieve a baseball bat covered with brain matter following Cook’s arrest.