Update: 'Coricidin Made Me Do It' Says Man Who Killed Wife

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.