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Post by Joanna on Sept 24, 2017 12:21:10 GMT -5
'Coricidin Made Me Do It' Says Man Who Killed Wife
Matthew Phelps sounded detached – and then progressively more distraught – when he called 911 in the early hours of Sept. 1 to say his wife, Lauren Hugelmaier Phelps, was dead. “I had a dream and then I turned on the lights and she’s dead on the floor,” he told the dispatcher. He proceeded to describe a grim scene: “I have blood all over me and there’s a bloody knife on the bed and I think I did it. I can’t believe this.”
In his version of events, captured in that 911 call, Phelps had gone to sleep the night before after taking too much cold medicine, then awakened after midnight to find his wife fatally stabbed in their two-bedroom townhouse in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before breaking down into audible sobs, the 28-year-old aspiring pastor explained why he believed he couldn’t recall what had happened. “I took more medicine than I should have,” he admitted. “I took Coricidin Cough & Cold because I know it can make you feel good. A lot of times I can’t sleep at night. So, I took some.”
Authorities arrived soon after the call to find Mrs. Phelps’ body as her husband had reported. He was arrested later that same day and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, a 29-year-old Sunday school teacher whom he married less than a year ago.
Although police have released few details about the headline-making case, investigators have expressed doubt about Phelps’ account of the stabbing, saying in a statement that “preliminary findings have established that the crime was not a random act.”
Phelps, who studied evangelism at Kentucky’s Clear Creek Baptist College, has pled not guilty and is being held without bail at the Wake County Detention Center in Raleigh. As the story continues to garner national attention, Phelps’ attorney is urging the public to avoid jumping to conclusions. “It’s a very tragic situation,” Joseph Cheshire said in a statement to People. “There’s a lot to this story I believe will be told in the future.”
It remains unclear how much Coricidin Cough & Cold – if any – might have been in Phelps’ system at the time he allegedly murdered his wife, or whether he will try to use his self-proclaimed overdose as a defense. Still, the story has stirred discussion among toxicologists and some in the legal community. One criminal attorney told People that a claim about the effects of cold medicine could be viable in court. “It sounds farfetched to the general public,” said Chris Beechler, of Beechler Tomberlin in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “But I will tell you, the idea that certain meds can get into your system and cause you to do things that you’re not aware of is completely possible.” Beechler, who has no connections to the case, explained that “in North Carolina, if a jury finds that a person did these things while unconscious … the defendant would have to be found not guilty of the crime.”
Some experts say that abusing Coricidin can induce unpredictable and dangerous side effects similar to those associated with the street drug PCP – however, one toxicologist noted he had “never seen a case like this, where someone commits murder under the influence of the drug.”
A spokesman for Bayer, the drug manufacturer that produces Coricidin, said, “There is no evidence to suggest” the drug is “associated with violent behavior. Patient safety is our top priority, and we continually monitor adverse events regarding all of our products.”
As officials work to solve the case, the family of Lauren Phelps works to come to terms with the death of the woman remembered as “sweet” and kind-hearted. “We’re just trying to deal with a lot of different emotions,” a family member told People.
Source: Char Adams, People, September 13, 2017; and WTVD, September 2, 2017.
Listen to 911 call: soundcloud.com/abc11-wtvd/170901-patuxentdr911call
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Post by natalie on Sept 25, 2017 16:47:16 GMT -5
Wasn't there a story some years ago of a man who had sleepwalking episodes and claimed to kill his spouse while sleepwalking?
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Post by jason on Sept 28, 2017 16:11:48 GMT -5
Phelps said, "I know it can make you feel good," which means that he had taken it before. If you've taken medication in the past, unless there is some king of drug interaction, it doesn't affect you any differently. I hope the police had blood drawn for a toxicology test.
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Post by jason on Sept 28, 2017 16:15:13 GMT -5
Wasn't there a story some years ago of a man who had sleepwalking episodes and claimed to kill his spouse while sleepwalking? There've been several cases in which men claimed they killed their wives while sleepwalking. One that I saw on some TV crime show stabbed his wife, then threw her into the swimming pool and drowned her. He claimed that he was asleep the entire time, but neighbors testified that they saw him in the pool holding her under the water. I think he was sentenced to life.
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Post by Joanna on Feb 5, 2019 22:24:48 GMT -5
Phelps Abandons Coricidin Defense, Pleads Guilty to 1st-Degree Murder
Matthew Phelps (above), the Bible college graduate who claimed a heavy dose of Coricidin Cough & Cold medication caused him to murder his wife, pled guilty to first-degree murder in October. The 29-year-old aspiring minister admitted to stabbing his wife, Lauren Ashley-Nicole Phelps, 123 times.
When Phelps called 911 in the wee hours of Friday, September 1, 2017, he told the dispatcher he had awakened from a dream and found himself covered in blood with his wife dead beside him and a bloody knife on the bed. He added he’d taken a heavy dose of Coricidin Cough & Cold syrup because “it can make you feel good and sometimes I can’t sleep at night.”
The cough syrup defense gained national attention, however, in court on Friday, October 5, 2018, prosecutors explained that while a blood test revealed the presence of the cough concoction in Phelps’ body, it wasn’t a toxic amount that could cause dizziness or hallucinations as Phelps claimed.
In excess of 50 people – most from Hope Lutheran Church in Wake Forest – packed the courtroom to show their support for Lauren Phelps. Some wore buttons featuring her image and others T-shirts reading “#LaurensLight.” Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said he had never seen so many supporters. For more than three hours, individuals stood and tearfully described how Lauren was drawn to the needy, especially children, and that she taught Sunday School and volunteered to help with the church youth. Her nieces and nephews called her “Aunt Mimi,” and as family members extolled her kindness, some shuddered and covered their faces with their hands.
“The thoughts of all her little body endured at Matthew’s hands are what my nightmares are made of,” her mother, Laurie Hugelmaier, said. “Heaven doesn’t have phones, computers or social media. Lauren will live on in my memory.”
Many friends and relatives suspected Phelps initially attracted Lauren by pretending to be vulnerable, triggering her Good Samaritan impulse. The family welcomed him at first, but many noticed a darkness envelope his character and encouraged him to seek therapy.
Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire V claimed his client had suffered severe depression and anxiety since childhood, adding that he [Cheshire] shared the condition. “I fight it every day,” he told those in the courtroom. “It’s a demon that comes into your body.”
Marital difficulties. Phelps grew up without a father and his mother, who was only 17 when he was born, handed him over to her parents to raise, Cheshire explained. The father of one girl Phelps wanted to date forbade his daughter to go out with a boy who was “illegitimate.” In high school, the lawyer continued, Phelps began abusing cold medicine, which led to his expulsion.
Matthew and Lauren Phelps met in middle school in Kentucky and many years later, he sent her an Instagram message. She did not recognize him at first, but they began dating and married in November 2016.
“Lauren and the defendant had a tumultuous relationship,” ADA Kristen Fetter advised. She described Lauren as thrifty, a woman who hoped to start a Hallmark store, an outgrowth of her work selling Scentsy candles and fragrances. Matthew Phelps, on the other hand, did not work or contribute to the household finances, spending thousands of dollars on iTunes cards and Xbox subscriptions, forcing his wife to work more than one job.
According to court documents, by April 2017, Phelps and his wife were having marital problems though the pair had been married less than six months. Friends told investigators the two often argued and a detective discovered that Lauren had taken “drastic steps” to curtail her husband’s spending and planned to end the marriage. Also in April, search warrants indicated Phelps was obsessed with the movie American Psycho, a black comedy in which a rich investment banker (Christian Bale) lives a normal life during the day and turns into a serial killer at night. One detective noted that Phelps posted photos of himself dressed as Patrick Bateman, the main character, on Instagram, and told a friend he wondered what it would be like to kill someone. Phelps kept a separate, secret Instagram account under the name “Marty Radical” and told a neighbor – who had a concealed carry permit – he often thought of taking the gun and shooting people and himself.
According to his defense attorney, Phelps’ fascination with video games grew out of a need for acceptance. “In that place, people wanted him on their team,” he told the courtroom audience.
Then ‘he snapped.’ Prosecutors countered by revealing Phelps had been married before and behaved violently toward his first wife, dragging her down a hallway by her hair on one occasion, the final straw that led to their divorce.
Cheshire, however, claimed accounts differed as to what ended his first marriage and, in fact, his wife left Phelps for another man she met on a mission trip. The idea of Lauren’s leaving him shook Phelps, who did not want to suffer another failure, the attorney added. “He snapped that day and what happened, happened,” Cheshire explained.
As part of the plea deal, Matthew Phelps will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole. “He’s pleading to spend life in prison to avoid the possibility of death,” one of his attorneys, Elliot Abrams, told The News & Observer.
Cheshire praised members of Lauren’s family for allowing the plea and life sentence, adding that he hoped his client would find redemption behind bars.
Family members admitted it was a struggle to overcome their hatred and live as Lauren would have wished. They appeared most anguished as they described the crime’s effect on young children in the family. The mother of one child tearfully proclaimed, “I will see Mimi again in heaven when the bad guy comes to kill me, right?”
Beth Agner, the child’s mother and Lauren’s sister, faced the bearded, long-haired man in the tan jail jumpsuit who looked nothing like the clean-cut young man she had known. (Cheshire said Phelps had grown his hair and beard to appear older in prison.) “Matt, prison is a scary place,” she reminded him. “But being separated from God is worse and his judgment is harsher than anything this court can give.”
The defendant stood and faced his dead wife’s family and apologized for the senseless act he said he hadn’t believed he was capable of committing. “I feel like a monster,” he conceded. “One of the wretched. Part of the darkness we don’t speak of.” He continued, saying he regretted taking Lauren from her family, friends and himself – “the least of these.” He paused and added, “I will have to live the rest of my life with these hands as a constant reminder.”
Sources: Josh Shaffer and Thomasi McDonald, The Raleigh News & Observer, October 5, 2018, and Jeff Truesdell, People Magazine, April 3, 2018.
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Post by catherine on Feb 6, 2019 3:56:39 GMT -5
So the son-of-a-bitch was lying from the beginning. He was so stupid he didn't even take enough to cause any side effects.
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Post by asixxdionysia on Sept 5, 2021 4:54:55 GMT -5
So the son-of-a-bitch was lying from the beginning. He was so stupid he didn't even take enough to cause any side effects. Had the asshat taken enough, the cops would've noticed he was high from the beginning. So glad no one fell for his bullshit.
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