ALFRED — The mother of the Acton woman accused of killing her ex-husband in front of their children Wednesday said her daughter was pushed over the edge by years of domestic abuse that went ignored by local police.

Linda Griffin of Acton said her daughter, Kandee Weyland, 46, was abused for years by Scott Weyland, 42, but that her daughter’s attempts to seek help were ignored because Scott Weyland’s mother is a retired Sanford police detective. Family members also alleged that the divorce proceedings were tilted in Scott Weyland’s favor because his mother knew the judge.

Griffin, during an emotional statement to reporters outside York County Superior Court in Alfred, where Kandee Weyland made her first court appearance Friday afternoon, said her daughter only sought to confront Scott Weyland at his mother’s house, where he was staying.

“My daughter is not a killer,” Griffin said tearfully. “She told me, ‘I need to go confront him to ask how can you do this to me, take everything from me?’ ”

Scott Weyland, in an August 2016 photo posted on Facebook. Photo courtesy the Weyland family

Griffin said she and one of Kandee’s adult sons tried to talk her out of the confrontation and to leave her children with someone else so she could rest.

“I said,’You go home and sleep,’ ” Griffin said. ” ‘That’s what you should do. If not, go to your counselor, your psychiatrist at CSI, tell them how you’re feeling, and that you need to be put in a hospital.’ And she wouldn’t do that. She didn’t do that.”

Police allege that Kandee Weyland killed Scott Weyland on Wednesday afternoon outside her ex-mother-in-law’s home after learning that a District Court judge in Sanford had awarded primary custody of the couple’s two children to Scott in their divorce. Gay Weyland, Scott Weyland’s mother, said police told her that her son was stabbed to death.

Their 11-year-old son called 911, Gay Weyland said.

An autopsy of Scott Weyland’s remains was scheduled for Thursday, but the state medical examiner’s office did not respond Friday to a request for the official cause and manner of death.

Both children, ages 11 and 7, had lived with their mother since April after the couple’s acrimonious separation, and were with her Wednesday before the killing. A Sanford judge finalized their divorce last Friday. The judgment was mailed to Kandee Weyland, triggering the fatal confrontation Wednesday, relatives on both sides of the family said.

During Kandee Weyland’s first court appearance on the murder charge Friday, Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas ordered her held without bail pending an indictment.

Weyland arrived in court dressed in a patterned blouse, dark pants and orange Crocs, and appeared forlorn during the brief proceeding. Her attorney, Molly Butler Bailey, waived a reading of the charges and said her client was likely to apply for a court-appointed attorney.

Douglas withheld bail on the homicide charge and set cash bail at $10,000 on a separate count of violating a protection order.

Griffin said that after she tried to talk her daughter out of confronting Scott, Kandee Weyland’s 11-year-old son called Griffin to tell her that his mother planned to go for a drive. But when Griffin heard emergency sirens, she suspected they were related to her daughter.

Kandee Weyland is led into the courtroom Friday for her first appearance before a judge in the killing of her ex-husband. Staff photo by Brianna Soukup

Scott and Kandee Weyland had competing protection from abuse orders against each other since April 2016 that forbade contact with the other.

The couple split that month after an argument that Kandee Weyland said turned physical. She alleged that Scott Weyland had pressed his finger into her throat, causing her to choke, and that he had hit her four times in the previous year and had attended a batterer’s intervention program in Sanford, according to court records.

She sought and was granted a two-year protection from abuse order on April 21.

Scott Weyland was granted his own protection from abuse order against his wife in May. Gay Weyland, Scott’s mother, was also granted a protection from harassment order against her daughter-in-law.

Gay Weyland said Kandee Weyland was issued three summonses for violating the two orders against her. One was dismissed, a second was awaiting an initial court date and a third violation was pending in Superior Court.

In an interview Thursday, Gay Weyland said her daughter-in-law had become emotionally manipulative and unreliable, making baseless accusations and using the children as pawns in the divorce proceeding. On Friday, Gay Weyland, 63, dismissed any notion that her son was abusive to Kandee Weyland or to their children, and said Kandee had been using allegations of domestic violence for years to gain sympathy and control.

“That’s not an excuse to murder someone, even if it did happen,” Gay Weyland said. “But it did not happen. I know my son. He would never lay his hands on a woman. She pushed him to the brink.”

Gay Weyland said that after the April argument, police offered Kandee Weyland opportunities to file a police report but she declined. Gay Weyland said that she knew the judge who presided over the couple’s divorce process in a professional capacity during her previous job as a law enforcement officer, and their past professional relationship was disclosed in court.

During the divorce proceedings, Gay Weyland said Kandee, who represented herself, did not produce any evidence of the multiple accusations she had made against Scott Weyland regarding abuse or neglect.

Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:

mbyrne@pressherald.com

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