Amanda Alicia Chapin (Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office)
A 51-year-old woman in Wisconsin is facing more than a decade behind bars for repeatedly poisoning her 71-year-old husband, putting animal euthanasia drugs in his coffee multiple times shortly after the two were wed and putting him in a temporary coma.
Amanda Alicia Chapin on Friday pleaded no contest to one count of felony first-degree reckless endangering safety of Gary Chapin, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Amanda Chapin had initially been charged with first-degree attempted intentional homicide in connection with the poisoning but pleaded to a lesser charge after reaching a deal with prosecutors in the Lafayette County District Attorney’s Office earlier in the week.
According to a report from the Wisconsin State Journal, authorities believe that Amanda Chapin used animal euthanasia drugs that she stole from her husband — a veterinarian — to spike his coffee at least three times between July 2022 and August 2022. The third and final dosing reportedly put Gary Chapin in a coma that lasted for four days.
The trouble began shortly after the couple married in March 2022. Authorities said that Amanda Chapin almost immediately forged the signature of Gary Chapin’s son to give herself power of attorney and then demanded that her husband amend the deed to his house to ensure that she would be the sole homeowner in the event he died, Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI reported.
Just over two weeks after her husband amended the house deed, prosecutors say Amanda Chapin began giving him the poison. Blood tests performed after Gary Chapin went into a coma on Aug. 21, 2022, reportedly came back positive for the barbiturate drugs he used in his practice to euthanize animals.
Per the Journal, Gary Chapin initially suspected something was wrong in July 2022 when he began experiencing symptoms similar to vertigo. Amanda Chapin tried to convince him that he was having a stroke. He had a similar experience about two weeks later. After the third poisoning, Gary Chapin reportedly told authorities that he only remembered having his morning coffee and then waking up four days later.
Amanda Chapin reportedly waited about three hours before calling 911.
Immediately following the coma, Gary Chapin’s son filed a restraining order against Amanda Chapin, suspecting she had been the cause of his father’s ailing health.
Investigators reportedly found that only a few hours after Gary Chapin fell into the coma, Amanda Chapin logged into his personal email account and began forwarding his conversations with his attorney and his children to herself.
Despite a court order prohibiting her from contacting her husband, Amanda Chapin on Sept. 1, 2022, sent Gary Chapin a suicide note via email in which she vehemently denied poisoning him, claiming his children were trying to “destroy” her.
“The only thing I am guilty of is loving you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH,” she reportedly wrote in the email.
Amanda Chapin survived the suicide attempt and Gary Chapin filed for divorce the following day, records show.
Following the plea hearing, Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Barbara W. McCoy ordered a presentence investigation and scheduled Amanda Chapin’s sentencing hearing for July 25. She is facing a maximum penalty of 12.5 years in a state correctional facility.
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