One of his friends who watched Corey at school that day described his actions to his father, Jay. "Cory was yelling" he said, "and then he just stopped, looked down and saw the gun in his hand and woke up."
Delnora Duprey is a grandmother who mourns the loss of the years since she has seen her grandson Christopher play ball, ride a bike, talk on the phone, or run in to ask, "hey, grandma, what's for dinner?"
According to Delnora, Chris is a tall, thin quiet boy, well-liked and respectful to everyone, "who loved his family dearly, and had hopes and dreams for a future."
After Christopher became depressed and threatened to commit suicide, he was hospitalized and put on Paxil. A short time later his father sent him to South Carolina to live with his paternal grandparents. By all accounts, Christopher liked living there and truly loved his grandparents.
When it came time to refill the Paxil prescription, his grandparents took him to their family doctor who had no Paxil and sent Christopher home with a bag of sample packets of Zoloft instead, and wrote the instructions for use on the outside of the bag.
For the record, in Pfizer's 2004 Annual Report, under product description, it says that Zoloft is not approved for treating pediatric patients. Christopher was a 12-year-old child at the time he was sent home with a bag of Zoloft.
He was never weaned off Paxil before the drugs were switched and Paxil has a well-documented history of side effects itself. When Christopher complained about how the medication made him feel, the doctor upped the dose to 200 milligrams
About 48 hours later the 6th grader shot and killed his paternal grandparents as they slept and burned the house down around them.
Christopher was tried as an adult, and despite testimony by two psychiatrists that he was "involuntarily intoxicated" on Zoloft at the time of the crimes, the jury found him guilty.
Prior to being placed on SSRIs, Christopher "was a sweet boy who never hurt himself or anyone else before," she added.
A child like Christopher could not have possibly known what he was up against in the courtroom, when it came to convincing members of the jury of his guilt or innocence depending on their understanding of the adverse effects of Zoloft.
Realizing how costly it would become if a jury were to blame Zoloft for the crimes, Pfizer got involved behind the scenes and provided the prosecutor with guidance on how to cross-examine expert witnesses like Dr Anne Blake Tracy and Dr Peter Breggin, who were scheduled to appear and testify on Christopher's behalf.
State Prosecutor, John Justice, admitted during a court hearing that Pfizer had provided him with information to help him prepare for the trial. As it turns out, the company had provided FDA reports along with instructions for their interpretation and presentation in court, in addition to records of previous testimony given in other cases by Christopher's expert witnesses.
South Carolina has a minimum 30 year prison sentence for adults who commit murder. Christopher's aunt, Melinda Pittman Rector, the daughter of his murdered grandparents, appeared at the sentencing hearing and begged the judge for leniency, saying that her parents would want the court to show mercy toward their grandson.
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