Accused St Augustine murderer says she fired warning shot before killing her husband

The arrest warrant served on 65-year-old Jill Agonis last week, suspected in the murder of her husband, 81-year-old William Keefe, gives the best look thus far into previous incomplete and misstated details in St Johns County Sheriff’s press releases, on facebook, and reported in the media.

As Historic City News discovered the identities of Keefe, who lived at 976 Oxford Drive in Royal St Augustine, and Agonis, who resides at 76 Litke Lane off Datil Pepper Road in St Augustine, we learned that the couple was married in September, according to their marriage license.

The affidavit that accompanied the application for an arrest warrant explained that deputies responded to the Keefe home to perform a “welfare check” after the communications center received a frantic 911-call from one of Agonis’ relatives in Connecticut.

The caller said that they received a disturbing phone call from Agonis, saying that she shot her husband and was going to kill herself.  According to the report, on October 18, 2019, the caller repeated that Agonis “knew she shouldn’t have done it,” then threatened that she was “going to take her own life because she could not go to jail”.  The caller finally reported that they heard Agonis “scream and make a gurgling sound,” before they called law enforcement.

The warrant states that deputies entered the home and found Keefe with several gunshot wounds to the head and torso.  He was already dead, the warrant said.

• Agonis told investigators that she and Keefe were arguing that night, when he placed a gun on the table and called her “worthless,” according to an arrest warrant.  Agonis also stated that “she picked up the gun and shot a warning shot into the floor or ceiling and then shot Bill multiple times,” according to the warrant narrative.

• First responders found Agonis sitting in a car at the Keefer residence, suffering from self-inflicted lacerations.  Agonis said she “intended to use the firearm on herself,” but the handgun malfunctioned.

• Agonis was taken to Flagler Hospital, where she told a detective that she “did something bad,” that she had “ruined his life and everyone else’s life,” and that she watched “blood squirt everywhere”.

Agonis was arrested Tuesday, October 22, 2019 and taken to the St Johns County Detention Facility at the Neil J Perry Criminal Justice Complex in St Augustine, where she remains in custody and is being held without bond.