Paragraphs 6 & 7 read: "The defense pleading included information from a doctor who treated Mrs. Bell for several years showing she took prescription drugs, including the controversial antidepressant Prozac. "

"In late 1992, she was prescribed another antidepressant, Zoloft, which she was taking at the time of the Jan. 21 shooting. "
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NEWS
Report Recommends Suspending Most of Bell's Sentence
Julie DelCour
416 words
3 November 1993
Tulsa World
FINAL HOME EDITION
N4
English

Barbara Bell's attorneys on Tuesday urged a Tulsa judge to follow a pre-sentencing report recommending most of a 20 year-sentence be suspended.

Bell was convicted Sept. 30 of second-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband, orthopedic surgeon David Bell. She will be sentenced Wednesday by District Judge Clifford Hopper.

A filing Tuesday by attorneys Allen Smallwood and Patrick A. Williams states they have no objection to the report, prepared by the Department of Corrections.

Attorneys urged Hopper to follow the report's "recommendation of suspending the majority of the sentence imposed, and placing Mrs. Bell on probation for most of that term."

The report, prepared to aid Hopper in setting punishment, was unavailable and might not be released publicly.

The defense pleading included information from a doctor who treated Mrs. Bell for several years showing she took prescription drugs, including the controversial antidepressant Prozac.

In late 1992, she was prescribed another antidepressant, Zoloft, which she was taking at the time of the Jan. 21 shooting.

Mrs. Bell also took, on a needed basis, headache medication, a sleep aid and antihistamines.

The defense took issue with information supplied for the report by the victim's brother, John Bell, an emergency room physician in Oregon.

"The defendant categorically denies that she ever said she is the `Leona Helmsley of Tulsa.'

"The most spurious allegation made by John Bell is that the defendant has obtained indirectly over $5 million as a result of David Bell's death.

"The truth, of course, is that his death cost her about $5 million, which once again flies directly in the face of the defendant possessing any financial motive to cause her husband's death and can be documented by agreements reflecting the entire proceeds from insurance premiums have gone directly to her children, not her."

Attorneys claim John Bell chose to conceal the fact that he and his brother had not spoken for 25 years and only united in 1991 because of the urging of David Bell's son, Carter.

"Most, if not all of the communication between John Bell and his brother was accomplished through Mrs. Bell, not through David Lloyd Bell.

"The allegation Mrs. Bell thrives on preferential treatment, has a litany of lawsuits and runs off bill collectors with a burglar alarm is utterly unsubstantiated and flies directly in the face of the financial condition of the Bell family," the pleading states.