Macaulay will also pay $1,200 to the court as part of his probation fees.
Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion previously told the Dayton Daily News said that the outcome of the court case was expected to have “minimal impact” on his client’s life, adding that Macaulay “has obviously been through a lot already.”
“This couple has been together for many, many, many years,” Rion said. “They were both in education, and both gave a lot to our community. They’re two wonderful people who tried their best in this life.”
Around 3:20 a.m. on March 28, Yellow Springs police responded to Aspen Court after Macaulay reported that his wife died from a nitrogen-induced suicide. He said she chose to end her life, according to a call log.
Macaulay, a retired Wright State University sculpture professor, told officers he had been with his wife. He said he did not participate in the suicide but that they had been planning it, according to the police report.
Inside the house officers found a suicide-type note on the table next to his wife’s recliner, and instructions on how to die by suicide through nitrogen gas poisoning, the report stated.
Ardis Macaulay retired as an art teacher from Mechanicsburg High School and previously taught art at Bethel and Tecumseh high schools, according to her obituary.
State law states that assisted suicide is “providing the physical means by which the other person commits or attempts to commit suicide” or; “participating in a physical act by which the other person commits or attempts to commit suicide.”
Dayton Right to Life reported to Cincinnati Right to Life that it was Ohio’s first assisted suicide case and that the Macaulays lived in a senior community. The organization chapters celebrated Macaulay’s indictment earlier this year, saying they are “proud of the research, work and advocacy that went into this legislation,” which went into effect in 2017.
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