At trial, the first line of defense was the presumption against the capacity for 12-year old Christopher to form criminal intent, and the second was “involuntary intoxication” from Zoloft.
According to his attorneys, there was no evidence produced at trial to rebut the presumption given to a child under 14. "Nowhere is there one whit of evidence to rebut the presumption," Mr Vickery says.
The prosecution introduced no evidence, he says, to show that Christopher was any different, mentally or otherwise, from any other 12-year-old child. However, Mr Vickery notes, there was evidence produced by the defense that supported the presumption.
Dr Lanette Atkins, a board-certified child psychiatrist with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, testified at length about the underdeveloped 12-year-old brain, the physiological and psychological differences between the developing brain and that of an adult, and specifically how those differences related to behavior and judgment.
In fact, Dr Atkins testified that Christopher was academically behind other 12 year-olds.
A prosecution rebuttal witness, Dr. Julian Sharman, described the Christopher he interviewed on November 29, 2001 as a “normal 12 year old.”
Another state witness, Detective Darrell Duncan, testified that Christopher was “a scrawny little boy,” “just a young boy,” “a young juvenile,” and said that he had acted as Christopher's “baby-sitter” while he was in law enforcement custody.
On the involuntary intoxication defense, during the trial, Keith Altman, a database analyst, testified about similar reports of adverse reactions to Zoloft and told the jury that FDA statistics showed that between 1997 and June 2004, there were 18 reports of children between the age of 12 and 17 who had adverse reactions to Zoloft that involved "hostility," and that 3 cases involved murder.
Dr Atkins told the jury that Zoloft caused Christopher to kill his grandparents. She said Zoloft induced a psychotic reaction that sent him into a homicidal mania. As for any statements made by Christopher during the interrogation soon after the crime, Dr Atkins explained that, "mania can last for months, particularly in children."
A former FDA psychiatrist, Dr Richard Kapit, told the jury during his testimony, that one could map the deterioration of Christopher's condition, day by day, starting with the ingestion of Paxil.
Even today, his attorneys say, Christopher does not begin to understand the events of November 28, 2001.
"When I was taking Zoloft," Christopher wrote in a letter, "I took the lives of two people that I loved more than anything, my grandparents."
Indeed, the fact that he adored his grandparents was backed up throughout the trial. From the first witness to the last, every person who knew this family described his relationship with his grandparents, particularly his grandfather, as extremely close, loving, and devoted.
His sister Danielle testified that Christopher “absolutely worshiped the ground my grandfather walked on.”
Christopher and his grandfather, who he called "Pop Pop," were like “two peas in a pod” and they were “glued” together, according to his aunt Melinda. He was even given the nickname “shadow” because of the close association he had with his grandfather, she told the jury.
At Christopher's sentencing hearing, even though her parents were the victims in the case, his aunt Melinda begged the judge for leniency, explaining that if her parents were alive, they would be asking for mercy for their grandson.
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