VALPARASIO, Fla. —At 9:18 a.m. on April 9, 2015, Aaron Wanless sent an email to his psychiatrist’s office at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic at Eglin Air Force Base.
“This medication is killing me,” he wrote. “My brain is malfunctioning.”
At the moment he sent the message, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran was a fugitive, having spent the previous night eluding sheriff’s deputies following an armed altercation at his father’s house.
Shortly after sending the email, Aaron surrendered and was taken to jail, where he has remained for 17 months without bond as his case winds its way through the judicial system.
Under mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines in place at the time of his offense, Aaron faces the prospect of 85 years in prison without the possibility of parole — basically a life sentence.
That prospect terrifies his wife, Angela, who is desperate to find an alternative for her husband, whom she describes as “very, very ill” with post-traumatic stress disorder and bi-polar disorder.
“I’m trying to save my husband’s life,” she said. “He doesn’t belong in prison. He needs to be in a treatment center where can get the help he needs.”
