Jennifer Mulligan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after admitting she intentionally shot her 90-year-old father inside their shared home.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach woman who admitted deliberately shooting her 90-year-old father after describing years of abuse has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, closing a criminal case in which a judge weighed extensive evidence about the family’s history but rejected the idea that it excused the killing.

Jennifer Mulligan, 44, received a total sentence of 43 years, with 26 years suspended, after previously pleading guilty to second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the May 7, 2025, death of Woodard McClure. The plea reduced an original first-degree murder charge and sharply limited the legal dispute by the time Mulligan returned to court for sentencing Aug. 4. Circuit Court Judge Afshin Farashahi said he had considered the evidence offered in mitigation, including accounts from Mulligan’s relatives about abuse they said McClure inflicted on his children. Still, the judge emphasized that the law did not give Mulligan authority to kill him.

Farashahi made that distinction explicit as he prepared to send Mulligan to prison. According to reports from the sentencing hearing, the judge told her, “You got due process and your father got a bullet in his head,” and added, “That’s not how we do things.” His comments captured the central issue that had followed the case from its earliest hearings: Mulligan did not deny that she had shot McClure. Instead, much of the defense case focused on the circumstances that preceded the shooting and the long-term abuse Mulligan and other relatives said they had endured. Those claims became relevant to punishment and helped explain the defense’s position, but they did not erase Mulligan’s criminal responsibility after her guilty plea.

The killing occurred at the Rodney Lane home where Mulligan, McClure and other family members were living. Virginia Beach police said officers were sent to the 500 block of Rodney Lane at about 11:11 a.m. on May 7, 2025, after a report of a shooting. Inside the residence, officers found McClure suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. Police took Mulligan into custody without incident and initially described the case as a domestic-related homicide. Investigators with the department’s Violent Crimes Unit charged her with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Mulligan’s own statements quickly became a major part of the prosecution’s case. In the 911 call she placed after the shooting, she told a dispatcher, “I just shot my dad.” When asked whether the shooting had been accidental, she answered, “It was on purpose.” During the call, Mulligan also accused McClure of being a child predator and rapist and said he was not a good person. The recording was later played in court during a September 2025 preliminary hearing. A responding officer testified that McClure was already dead when police arrived, while evidence presented in court indicated the firearm had been in contact with his forehead when it was fired.

Prosecutors also presented a deliberate sequence leading to the shooting. At an earlier bond hearing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Talmage said Mulligan told investigators she had consumed about three beers that morning, went to the garage, obtained a gun and entered her father’s bedroom. McClure was in bed when he was shot. Prosecutors characterized the killing as an intentional act rather than a spontaneous defensive response to an attack underway at that moment. That evidence helped support the original first-degree murder accusation and remained important even after prosecutors later agreed to a plea to the lesser second-degree murder charge.

The defense, however, said the events of that morning could not be understood without examining the family history. Mulligan told investigators that McClure had physically and emotionally abused her and her siblings when they were children, and she also accused him of sexual abuse. Her attorney, Roger Whitus, said relatives corroborated significant parts of that account. At the sentencing hearing, two of Mulligan’s half-brothers testified about abuse they said they suffered at McClure’s hands. They also described abuse of Mulligan and said McClure had abducted her for a period during her childhood. Those allegations were presented as mitigation — evidence intended to help the judge assess why the crime happened and what punishment was appropriate.

The family’s recent living arrangement added another layer to that history. According to the defense, Mulligan and McClure had been estranged for years before reconnecting. When the Texas nursing or retirement facility where McClure had been living closed, Mulligan traveled to Texas and brought her father back to Virginia. He then lived in her home while she helped care for him. Mulligan’s husband testified at sentencing that she took McClure in because he was family despite what she and her siblings said had happened to them years earlier. The defense argued that caregiving placed Mulligan in sustained contact with the person she blamed for childhood trauma and that the situation eventually became overwhelming.

Mulligan herself gave investigators language that later came to define the defense’s explanation of her state of mind. Asked why she shot her father, she said she “did what I had to do to take care of the agony.” Whitus said after earlier proceedings that there were continuing problems in the household, including the way McClure allegedly treated Mulligan, other family members and their animals, as well as disputes over cleanliness and ordinary daily interactions. The attorney also pointed to the resurfacing of longstanding abuse allegations. None of those assertions changed the admitted fact that Mulligan intentionally obtained the gun and shot McClure, but they became central to arguments over bond, the eventual plea and sentencing.

The case changed significantly between Mulligan’s arrest and her sentencing. A lower court initially granted bond under strict conditions in 2025, but prosecutors appealed, and Farashahi ordered Mulligan held. The case proceeded through a preliminary hearing, where the 911 recording and testimony about the shooting were introduced, and it was then certified for consideration by a grand jury. By April 2026, Mulligan and prosecutors had reached an agreement under which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and the firearm offense. The Commonwealth reduced the murder charge from first degree, removing the need for a trial over whether prosecutors could prove the more serious offense beyond a reasonable doubt.

At sentencing, the plea agreement and the mitigating evidence gave Farashahi room to recognize the difficult facts without treating them as a legal justification for the homicide. He acknowledged that Mulligan had obtained what he described as a favorable result through the negotiated plea. Her relatives’ testimony portrayed a family shaped by alleged abuse and years of separation, followed by the unusual decision to bring McClure back into Mulligan’s household. The prosecution’s evidence, in contrast, stressed the intentional nature of the shooting: Mulligan retrieved a gun, went to the bedroom and fired at McClure while he was in bed. The final sentence reflected the court’s task of considering both sets of facts after Mulligan accepted responsibility for second-degree murder.

The 43-year sentence includes 26 years that are suspended, leaving Mulligan with 17 years to serve. Authorities said she must surrender her gun, avoid hostile contact with her siblings and comply with supervised probation after her release. The suspended portion of the sentence also means court-imposed conditions will remain significant beyond her active prison term. With the guilty plea entered and sentence imposed, the central trial-stage questions in McClure’s killing have been resolved, while the family testimony and the judge’s remarks remain part of the public record explaining how the court reached its punishment.

Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.