Tuesday, February 15
The Twinkie guy was more convincing.
Jurors in Boy's Murder Trial Consider if Zoloft Is to Blame

CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 14 - A teenager on trial for killing his grandparents when he was 12 and taking the antidepressant Zoloft can be found not guilty of murder if he was "involuntarily intoxicated" by the drug, a judge told jurors after closing arguments Monday, offering them an option to acquit him without finding him insane.

The teenager, Christopher Pittman, now 15, confessed to the killings, but his lawyers have argued that Zoloft made him manic and violent. After shooting his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, in their bed, he set fire to the house and fled in their car, then claimed to have been kidnapped. Prosecutors say the boy's actions prove that he was aware that what he had done was wrong.

He later said of his grandparents, who had taken him in when he was having trouble at home, "I'm not sorry. They deserved it," according to his confession to investigators presented during the two-week trial.

He got in trouble for trying to choke a second grader on the school bus, and prosecutors argue that when his grandfather disciplined him, he became angry. That night, he killed the Pittmans with a shotgun that had been a gift from his father.

Um...yeah. It was the Zoloft. Riiiiiigggghhht.
 
posted by Jessica at 9:09 AM | Permalink |