Murder Prozac 07/09/1990 Utah Man Shoots Young Woman
 
 Summary:<br><br><strong>DEFENSE WILL BLAME MEDICATION<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Deseret News&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />Friday, September 7,&nbsp; 1990<br /><br />TAG: 9009080286<br />EDITION: Metro<br />SECTION: <a href="news:&nbsp;">News: </a>PAGE: G22&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />LENGTH: Short:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 46 lines<br />HEADLINE: DEFENSE WILL BLAME MEDICATION<br />DATELINE: ST.&nbsp; GEORGE&nbsp; [AP]<br />TEXT:<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>The defense attorney for a man charged with capital homicide in the<br />July 22 death of a local nurse said he plans to prove that a popular<br />antidepressant drug made his client commit murder.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; Alan Boyack said Joseph Charles Gardner,&nbsp; 32,&nbsp; was taking the drug Prozac </strong>when he fatally shot Janice Fondren last July.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; An arraignment scheduled before 5th District Judge J. Philip Eves was<br />continued after Eves granted a joint motion ordering Gardner to undergo a<br />60-day psychiatric evaluation at the Utah State Hospital to determine if he is<br />competent to stand trial or if he was influenced by the drug.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;The hospital is going to see what effect the drug had on him at the time<br />of the alleged murder,&quot; Boyack said. &quot;It&#39;s going to be an interesting<br />evaluation by the state hospital.&quot;<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; Gardner, a former schoolteacher and one-time emergency medical technician, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Fondren. Her nude<br />body was found July 25 in a remote section of the Shivwits Indian Reservation<br />about 22 miles west of St. George.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; An autopsy found that she was shot in the chest with a 9mm weapon.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; Fondren,&nbsp; 30,&nbsp; was the director of nurses at the St. George Care Center. She was reported missing the night of her death by Gardner&#39;s ex-wife, Nancy Snow.<br />&nbsp; Snow earlier had driven Fondren to her apartment and later returned to find it in disarray. Court records showed police found blood in and around the residence.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; Gardner was arrested July 23 on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass<br />and one count each of lewdness and telephone harassment. Those charges were<br />dropped after he was charged in Fondren&#39;s death.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; After the hearing, Boyack said there were other cases pending including<br />&nbsp;those in Susanville, Calif., Flordia and Long Island, New York that will<br />attempt to use the so-called Prozac defense.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; He said the cases have not gone to trial.<br />&nbsp; This is the second time in as many years that Eves has considered<br />prescription drugs as evidence in murder cases.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1988, Ilo Grundberg of Hurricane was charged with killing her elderly mother while using the sleeping pill Halcion.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp; Eves eventually dismissed the murder charge and Grundberg has filed a federal court suit against Upjohn, the maker of Halcion.<br /> 
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