YELLOW SPRINGS — A Yellow Springs man convicted on an assisted suicide charge in connection to the death of his wife has learned his sentence.
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78-year-old Thomas Macaulay was sentenced to five years probation on Thursday, according to Greene County Common Pleas Court records.
As previously reported on News Center 7, his wife, 75-year-old Ardis Macauley, died in their home in a Yellow Springs retirement community last March.
A police department investigation took weeks and did not detail Ardis Macauley’s health problems. Their report did confirm Thomas Macauley was in the home and that he told them it was a nitrogen-induced suicide.
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Officers discovered Ardis on a lazy-boy type recliner with an inflated, translucent clothing bag over her head, connected to an air tank.
Greene County Prosecutor David Hayes told News Center 7 that his office is sensitive to end-of-life situations but had to follow the law.
Macauley’s lawyer, Jon Paul Rion, previously told News Center 7 that one count against Macauley was dismissed as part of the plea deal.
Macauley to plead guilty to one charge of assisting suicide in September, according to a previous News Center 7 report.
“Mr. Macauley didn’t want to use this as an example to take a political position, that’s not what this was about. This was about something between him and his wife and really nothing more,” Rion said.
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