- CHESTER -- The last legal
hurdle before a trial date can be set in the murder case involving the
deaths of a Chester County couple at the hands of their then pre-teen grandson
could be cleared today.
-
- The Pittman case is one of about 100 that will be presented
to a Chester County grand jury, which will determine if enough evidence
exists for a trial, said 6th Circuit Solicitor John Justice.
-
- Few cases are ever deemed insufficient to move forward,
Justice said, and he doesn't expect the Pittman case to be among those.
-
- "The standard for the grand jury is whether there
is probable cause," Justice said. "There is certainly probable
cause in this case."
-
- The bodies of Joe Frank Pittman, 66, and Joy Roberts
Pittman, 62, were found in their burned home in western Chester County
early Nov. 29, 2001. Christopher Pittman, then 12, was charged with double
murder and arson.
-
- Investigators say the boy shot his grandparents each
in the head while they slept, then burned down their house.
-
- If the grand jury issues an indictment, Christopher's
trial could begin as early as February, said Justice and the boy's attorney,
Chester County Public Defender Yale Zamore. Chester County's first criminal
court sessions of 2004 will be held during the weeks of Feb. 9 and Feb.
23. After that, two-week sessions will be held in April and June.
-
- "If it went past April, I'd be very surprised,"
Zamore said. "It's already been two years. ... But that may be a blessing
in disguise."
-
- One of the defenses being explored in the case is the
potential adverse reaction of antidepressant medication in children. This
is what the boy's family believes caused his violent behavior. A review
and two public statements in recent months by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
concerning children and antidepressants has sparked increased media coverage
and public scrutiny of the issue. In the five weeks prior to the killings,
Christopher attempted to run away from his Oxford, Fla., home to get to
Chester. After being caught in a neighboring county the next day, he was
placed in a treatment center for three days and diagnosed as being clinically
depressed. Doctors there prescribed him Paxil, an antidepressant.
-
- Antidepressants prescribed
-
- He came to live in Chester a few days later, and a family
doctor there switched his medication to Zoloft, another antidepressant.
-
- Both Paxil and Zoloft are classified as selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Neither has been approved for treatment
of depression in people under 18. Prozac is the only drug approved to treat
depression in children by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, although
doctors routinely prescribe the others.
-
- The FDA has been reviewing SSRIs since June, when a clinical
study surfaced linking use of such drugs, specifically Paxil, to increased
episodes of suicidal thinking or behavior.
-
- On Oct. 27, the day The Herald concluded a two-part series
on the case, the FDA reminded doctors these drugs must be used with caution
and that labels for these drugs already carry cautions about the possibility
of suicide in depressed patients.
-
- In their release, the FDA noted "to date, that the
data does not clearly establish an association between the use of drugs
and increased suicidal thoughts or actions by pediatric patients.
-
- Nevertheless, it is not possible at this point to rule
out an increased risk of these adverse events for any of these drugs."
-
- The FDA also said more information and public discussion
is needed. An advisory panel will meet in Bethesda, Md., Feb. 2.
-
- To date, about 25 people have registered to speak, said
Anusia Patel, the FDA official helping to organize the meeting. The list
of panelist has not been completed. A finalized list will be available
the day of the meeting, Patel said.
-
- FDA accused of being too soft
-
- The International Coalition for Drug Awareness, a nonprofit
group pushing for more investigations into the affects of children and
antidepressants, blasted the FDA for being too soft in its latest statement.
Lisa Van Syckel, the group's New Jersey coordinator, said the federal agency
is "sugar coating" the issue.
-
- After reviewing much of the same material as the FDA,
the British government banned certain antidepressants, including Paxil,
from use in children.
-
- Zamore, the boy's attorney, believes more could come
from the FDA before the trial concerning these types of medications that
may help his case. "At least that's the impression that's being created
with all the media attention that's involving this," he said.
-
- Van Syckel doubts more will come from the FDA by then.
A major revelation, however, is expected out of Great Britain by then,
she said. A link between suicide and violence in adults being treated with
these drugs is expected by year's end, she said.
-
- "I'm hoping more breaking news will come out of
the United Kingdom because they are more honest and straightforward,"
Van Syckel said. "They are not trying to hide anything."
-
- Contact Jason Cato at 329-4071 or jcato@heraldonline.com.
-
- http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/3014784p-2758225c.html
-
- Tragedy Compounded?
- By Jason Cato
- 11-3-3
-
- A terrible incident in which a Chester County couple
were shot to death by their 12-year-old grandson, who then set their house
ablaze before fleeing, would be compounded if the boy were convicted for
acts that were a result of improper medication. The trial of Christopher
Pittman, now 13, may begin soon. Despite his tender years, he is to be
tried in General Sessions Court as an adult, rather than prosecuted as
a juvenile. By state law, a citizen charged with certain serious offenses
may be considered an adult at 16, but exceptions sometimes are made when
a younger defendant has been charged with an especially heinous crime.
-
- Although Pittman is not at risk of being sentenced to
death, he could receive a life sentence, which could result in his spending
at least the next 30 years of his life in prison. He would be transferred
to the general prison population when he turned 17.
-
- We grant some young people have become such hardened
offenders that trying them as adults is warranted. By law, a juvenile's
imprisonment may not exceed his 21st birthday, which is why prosecutors
often seek to try young offenders charged with serious offenses in adult
court.
-
- We wonder, however, whether justice is served when a
boy as young as Pittman is tried as an adult. Our concern was heightened
last week when the Food & Drug Administration issued an advisory urging
doctors to exercise caution when prescribing two antidepressants that Pittman's
father blames for his son's actions two years ago. Others, including the
boy's minister, back the father's claim that Christopher showed a dramatic
change in behavior after he began taking antidepressants.
-
- The FDA's team leader for psychopharmacological drugs
said the agency hasn't recommended banning Zoloft or Paxil, reportedly
prescribed for Pittman by doctors treating him for depression. They are
among eight antidepressants, classified as selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors, for which FDA issued its caution. At least one national group,
the nonprofit International Coalition for Drug Awareness, says the FDA
sugar-coated its warning and points to cases in which patients taking these
drugs have been accused of uncharacteristic violence. For example, they
say, the British government banned Paxil for use in children because of
increased suicide and violence.
-
- Certainly, justice should prevail in the deaths of Christopher
Pittman's grandparents, but we hope this family tragedy is not worsened
by punishing a boy for acts beyond his control.
-
- A caution by the Food & Drug Administration about
antidepressants may shed light on Chester murder case.
-
- http://www.heraldonline.com/opinions/story/2998708p-2745792c.html
-
-
- A Family's Tragedy
- By Jason Cato
- jcato@heraldonline.com
- From staff reports
10-26-3
-
- (Editor's note: This is part of a two-day series in which
The Herald will explore the events surrounding the deaths of a Chester
County couple allegedly at the hands of their then-12-year-old grandson
and issues involving juveniles in the adult criminal system.)
-
- After driving more than an hour in the crisp darkness,
the black Nissan Pathfinder pulled off on a gravel road parting a hunting
club in rural Cherokee County.
-
- A half-mile later, it veered to the right on an old logging
road. For the first few hours of Nov. 29, 2001, the driver hid in a grove
of pine saplings with Christy, his golden retriever mix, and a cache of
weapons, including the shotgun police say he used to kill his grandparents.
-
- Miles away, a neighbor reported a fire at 950 Slick Rock
Road just before midnight Nov. 28. Within hours, the bodies of Joe Frank
Pittman, 66, and Joy Roberts Pittman, 62, were discovered in the rubble
of their Chester County home. Onlookers noticed the Pathfinder was gone.
They soon discovered the couple's 12-year-old grandson, Christopher Pittman,
also was missing.
-
- Police issued word to be on the lookout for both. It
was the second time in five weeks such a search was needed for the boy.
-
- When he was found this time, the stakes would turn out
to be much higher. Police charged him with double murder.
-
- Christopher's troubles existed for more than a matter
of weeks, however. A state psychologist reported he was "a young man
who'd had difficulty with the adults in his life." He felt alienated
from others and reported a family history of emotional problems and mental
illness, she said.
-
- His family does not deny that. This was the culmination
of painful experiences and a life quickly spun out of control, they say.
-
- "This was a lifelong progression of sadness and
depression, of being let down and a lot of loss from those he loved and
trusted," said his maternal grandmother, Del Duprey of Wildwood, Fla.
-
- Some say his personal problems don't justify killing
his grandparents, an act portrayed by the prosecutor as cold-blooded.
-
- Though they may describe the act, that characterization
does not apply to her grandson, Duprey said.
-
- "To me, in my world, there are no 12-year-old monsters,"
she said.
-
- Troubles in his life began with his parents, Joe Dolphas
Pittman and Hazel Jones Pittman. A family member called the relationship
doomed from the beginning.
-
- They met in 1986 at Wildwood High School in central Florida
and quickly fell in love. Joe was a sophomore, Hazel a freshman.
-
- Their daughter, Danielle, was born the next year. Hazel
was 16.
-
- Joe graduated the following year and joined the U.S.
Army. He began boot camp at Alabama's Fort McClellan on May 11, 1988. Eleven
weeks later, he and Hazel were married.
-
- It would be his first in a string of failed marriages.
-
- On April 9, 1989, the young couple's second child, Christopher
Frank Pittman, was born in Huntsville, Ala. Six weeks later, he'd experience
the first of a half-dozen family splits, divorces and separations when
Hazel left Joe and returned to Florida.
-
- By October 1990, she'd given birth to another son by
another man and Joe was deployed as part of Operation Desert Storm.
-
- Hazel left the family while Joe was away, leaving the
children with Duprey, her mother. It'd be a decade before the children
would see their mother again.
-
- "They had no relationship with their mother, and
that was her choice," said Duprey, who adopted Hazel's third child,
Christopher's half-brother, and raised him as her own son. "My daughter
left them when they were born, basically."
-
- Joe returned from the Middle East in March 1991 and moved
with the children back to Alabama, where he was stationed. When he was
discharged that December, they moved in with his parents in Oxford, Fla.
-
- Joe remarried in 1992 but was separated again a year
later. He and the children moved back in with "Nanna" and "Pop-Pop,"
as his parents were called.
-
- "My mom and dad were really like their parents,"
Joe said.
-
- Joy cooked for the family and washed the children's clothes.
She drove Danielle 40 miles round-trip to dance lessons in Ocala, Fla.
Every morning, she took Christopher to North Sumter Primary School, where
he went to class and she worked as a receptionist.
-
- Around the house, the kids played on the 5-acre property,
swimming in the pool or taking rides with their grandfather on his Allis
Chalmers tractor.
-
- Joe and the kids eventually got their own place a few
miles away, but the children still saw their grandparents daily.
-
- Christopher and his grandfather were especially close.
They shared a middle name, Frank, and many of the same passions, including
hunting, fishing and taking things apart.
-
- "My dad was his hero," Joe said. "He (Christopher)
was under his feet constantly, waiting to learn from him."
-
- In 1997, the grandparents moved to South Carolina, building
a house in rural Chester County.
-
- Joe Frank Pittman was born in 1935 in a mill village
in Lando. He and his wife often visited family there. In the 1980s, the
couple bought 20 acres deep in the woods off Slick Rock Road, where they
long planned to retire.
-
- The move devastated the grandchildren they'd helped raise.
Christopher, then 8, took their departure especially hard.
-
- "I did, too, to be honest," his father said.
-
- Life goes on
-
- A maintenance worker with the Sumter County, Fla., school
district, Joe, now 35, did all he could to give his children normal lives.
-
- Christopher liked playing video games and played centerfield
for his youth baseball team. He was nicknamed "Bug" because of
his love of insects.
-
- Described as quiet and reserved, Christopher was whippet-thin.
Family photographs, some salvaged from his grandparents' burned house,
depict his chestnut eyes and hair and a smile stretching to the edges of
his narrow face.
-
- Although Joe Frank and Joy had moved nearly 500 miles
away, their grandchildren visited often. Christopher became friends with
many of the boys in the area.
-
- "He (Christopher) was well-rounded, well-liked,"
said the Rev. Chris Snelgrove of New Hope Methodist Church. "He was
as normal and carefree of a little boy as there was."
-
- In Chester, Christopher enjoyed swimming in creeks, camping
and playing in the woods, his father said. He loved riding his grandfather's
four-wheeler. Neighbors said he also enjoyed driving the family car up
and down the long, dirt driveway -- something they say his grandfather
often allowed.
-
- Life in Florida changed in 1996, when Joe remarried once
again. This one brought more children, two daughters. Their arrival, however,
had a negative effect on Christopher, a state psychologist reported.
-
- The boy's father said those effects were no different
than what many other children experience. "There are a lot of things
that affected Christopher, just like they would any child," Joe said.
-
- Christopher and his sister were held to high academic
standards. In March 2001, Christopher was chosen to participate in a Florida
program that would provide four years of college after graduation.
-
- Like his own father, Joe was loving but strict; and Christopher
got into trouble at times that brought spankings or being restricted from
watching television, using the computer or playing video games.
-
- He once wore his father's Army fatigues for Uniform Day
at South Sumter Middle School. When a boy took his hat, Joe said Christopher
"jumped on the kid" to get it back.
-
- Another time, he and a friend shot up a mobile home with
a pellet gun. And there was an instance when he chased after his sister
with a baseball bat.
-
- "Taken out of context, it sounds terrible,"
Duprey said. "It was just kids being kids, though."
-
- Mother returns
-
- Joe and his third wife split in 2001. Later that summer,
Christopher and Danielle got something they'd always wanted: a chance to
get to know their mother.
-
- "They'd been through two stepmothers and naturally
wanted their own mother," Duprey said.
-
- The reunion proved bittersweet.
-
- Hazel came to Florida for a two-week vacation a few months
after giving birth to her seventh child. The stay ended up lasting months,
Duprey said.
-
- Hazel told her mother and Joe she'd changed and wanted
to get to know her other children.
-
- As the stay got longer, Hazel rented a mobile home near
Oxford and brought her four children who were living with her down from
Virginia. Her husband was to follow, Duprey said.
-
- Hazel and Joe, however, began to rekindle their old relationship.
-
- "She told Joe that she and her husband were separated,"
Duprey said.
-
- As the romance grew, so did the relationship between
Hazel and her first two children, Duprey said.
-
- Hazel and Danielle shared clothes. She met her daughter's
friends and even took her to register for high school, Duprey said.
-
- Christopher and his mother also shared things, Duprey
said. Both are shy by nature.
-
- "He seemed very happy around her," Duprey said.
"They both were. They thought it was wonderful. They finally had a
mother -- their mother."
-
- By October, though, Hazel's husband threatened to take
custody of their children.
-
- The next time Joe and the children came by her mobile
home, Hazel told them to get their things, Duprey said. "She told
them to leave and don't come back. She said she wasn't going to lose custody
of her children over this. ... She hurt them all over again."
-
- Within days, Christopher decided he'd had enough, Duprey
said.
-
- Running to Chester
-
- He ran away from his Sumter County, Fla., home sometime
after 11 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2001, taking a back pack and $70 cash. Deputies
in neighboring Marion County picked Christopher up at an Arby's restaurant
along Interstate 75 the following day, according to a sheriff's office
report.
-
- A day earlier, he'd asked his sister which way was north.
He was planning to run away to his grandparents' home in Chester.
-
- Life at home had grown unbearable. Bad grades had Christopher
on restriction -- no television, no video games. The relationship with
his father was strained from arrival of his two new siblings and the dwindling
attention coming his way, a state psychologist later explained.
-
- Christopher reported his father had beat him, but an
investigator from the Florida Department of Child and Families determined
the claim wasn't true. That night, the boy threatened to harm himself.
-
- He was committed to Lifestream Behavioral Center in Leesburg,
Fla., for a few days, his father said. Doctors diagnosed him as clinically
depressed and put him on Paxil, an antidepressant widely used to treat
depression in adults but not approved for people under 18.
-
- A temporary move
-
- Hoping it would help, Joe agreed to let Christopher temporarily
move to Chester.
-
- "When he left here, he was thrilled," Duprey
said. "He was going to live with Nanna and Pop-Pop."
-
- Christopher was enrolled at Chester Middle School and
attended New Hope Methodist, where Joy played the organ and Joe Frank sang
in the choir. He was also taken to a family doctor, who switched his medication
to Zoloft, an antidepressant the family blames for causing the deaths.
-
- Church members knew Christopher had problems and that
his grandparents were working with him, the Rev. Snelgrove said.
-
- It was clear the boy had changed from prior visits. He'd
become withdrawn and mouthy, Snelgrove said. "It was a noticeable
difference that everyone could see."
-
- Family members in Florida also noticed a change, though
in a different way, when Christopher and his grandparents visited Florida
for Thanksgiving. He was happy but hyperactive, something that was out
of character, they said.
-
- "He never did anything in 10th gear," Duprey
said. "He was always so laid back."
-
- Joe said his oldest daughter first noticed the change
but didn't think much of it because he was so happy. Joe remembered his
son couldn't wait to take his medicine.
-
- "He was almost like a drug addict," Joe said.
"I thought it was odd but thought he was trying to be responsible."
-
- Within days of returning to Chester, that would prove
to be terribly off-base.
-
- Losing control
-
- On the way home from school on Nov. 27, 2001, Christopher
began picking on a smaller, younger boy, according to another child who
was on the bus.
-
- All three boys got on and off at the same bus stop, said
the boy, now 11.
-
- Near the end of the 45-minute ride, Christopher pinned
a then-9-year-old boy's head against the window and choked him using two
fingers. "It began by him playing around," said the boy, who
was sitting between the two.
-
- The younger boy soon began crying, and the third boy
said he tried to break it up. When they got off the bus, Christopher told
the boy he'd kill him if he told anyone. The boy dismissed it as nothing.
-
- The next day, the parents of the boy who was choked reported
the incident. School officials called the Pittmans.
-
- The boy's grandfather picked Christopher up and told
officials he'd "handle it when he got home," Chester County Sheriff
Maj. James McNeil said. Investigators later said the grandparents demanded
that Christopher write a letter of apology. They also threatened to send
him back to Florida if his behavior didn't improve, the state psychologist
reported.
-
- That night, the couple attended rehearsal at church.
Christopher went with them. Witnesses, including the boy who'd tried to
break up the fight, reported that Christopher was extremely quiet. He sat
alone while other children rehearsed for a Christmas play.
-
- The Pittmans left around 8 p.m., and everything seemed
fine, a witness said. They were going home to help their grandson with
his homework.
-
- Within hours, a fire was reported on Slick Rock Road.
People first thought the woods were burning because of the intense red
glow in the night sky. As firefighters and dozens of neighbors arrived
at the scene, they realized it was the Pittmans' house. Most thought no
one was home because the car was gone.
-
- Combing through the rubble, investigators discovered
two bodies. Labeled as Jane and John Doe until they could be positively
identified, everyone knew they were the bodies of Joy and Joe Frank Pittman.
They were found side-by-side on the remnants of a mattress in an upstairs
bedroom.
-
- When a third body wasn't found, police issued an all-points
bulletin for Christopher and the Pathfinder.
-
- Solving a mystery
-
- Terry Robinson hadn't heard the news by daybreak when
he saw the Pathfinder while hunting near Thicketty Creek in Cherokee County.
The off-duty firefighter said no one was inside.
-
- His hunting partner, Roland Pennington, soon came across
Christopher in the woods. The boy was wearing camouflage and carrying a
rifle, Robinson said.
-
- Christopher's dog, Christy, was barking nearby.
-
- The boy told the men there was "a bunch of money
and guns in the car," Robinson said. "He said some guy had him
down in the woods. He claimed he'd been kidnapped."
-
- The three walked about two miles to the Corinth Volunteer
Fire Department. Robinson took investigators back to the site. Christopher
stayed at the station, watching cartoons and eating cheeseburgers, Robinson
said.
-
- The boy told firefighters, like he would later tell Chester
County and State Law Enforcement Division investigators, he'd been sleeping
in his grandparents' house when he heard a noise outside. He said he looked
out the window of his first-story bedroom to see a black man enter the
house from the front porch.
-
- Christopher told officers he ran outside and hid, because
he was afraid of the intruder, Chester County Sheriff's Detective Lucinda
McKellar said during a June court hearing.
-
- Christopher told authorities he heard four shots fired
before the man came outside and ordered him to get the keys to the Pathfinder.
The man then used a gasoline can to set the house on fire before forcing
him into the car and taking him to Cherokee County.
-
- When asked about the dog, however, investigators got
suspicious. The boy said Christy followed him. "That's when the red
flags went up," McNeil said.
-
- Information about the fight on the bus came in around
the same time and McKellar's approach changed. Christopher became a suspect.
He was read his rights and taken to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
That's where investigators say he confessed.
-
- Details from the boy's father and testimony given by
a state psychologist, a SLED fire investigator and McKellar at June's family
court hearing revealed many details of what really happened that night.
-
- After returning from church, Joy went straight to bed.
She was exhausted because of the stress caused by Christopher's troubles
at school. The boy and his grandfather stayed up for a while, watching
a nature program on television in the living room of the ranch-style house.
-
- They both eventually went to bed, Joe Frank in the loft
upstairs and Christopher to his bedroom at the bottom of the staircase.
-
- Sometime later, the boy got up and went into the living
room. From the gun cabinet tucked beneath the stairs, he removed the pump-action,
.410-gauge shotgun his grandfather had given his father for his 10th birthday.
-
- Joe gave the gun to his son at Thanksgiving, something
he says he now regrets.
-
- With the shotgun loaded with bird shot, Christopher climbed
the stairs to the dark loft. He turned left at the top landing and faced
the side of the bed where his grandfather was likely sleeping. Without
turning on the lights, he fired at least two shots -- one into his grandfather's
open mouth and another into the back of his grandmother's head.
-
- He found candles in the medicine cabinet of the upstairs
bathroom. He placed lit candles around the house and set a blaze with lighter
fluid and gasoline from a can for the four-wheeler.
-
- Making sense of it all
-
- The confession led to charges of double murder and arson.
Though he was 12 at the time of the killings, a family court judge agreed
to waive the boy up to adult court in June. John Justice, 6th circuit solicitor,
requested the move, citing the "absolute cold-bloodedness" of
the crime.
-
- The death penalty was not sought. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme
Court set 16 as the minimum age for capital punishment.
-
- Now 14, Christopher could get 30 years to life in prison
if convicted. The case may go before a grand jury within the next few weeks
for an indictment to go to trial. The defense and prosecution could also
reach a plea agreement at any time and avoid a trial altogether.
-
- His family, however, isn't interested in a plea agreement.
They don't doubt that Christopher pulled the trigger but feel he doesn't
deserve to spend a day in adult prison. He may have committed the act,
but he is not criminally responsible, they say.
-
- They blame the medication.
-
- Though he suffered from depression, Duprey said antidepressants
changed her grandson.
-
- "Until that point, he was still Christopher,"
she said. "Then you bring medication into the equation, and it changed
this quiet boy. And all of this happened in a very short period of time."
-
- Instead of jail time, the boy's father believes his son
needs extensive therapy. "He'll need that just with the trauma of
having to live with this the rest of his life."
-
- Christopher just wants this all to end, Duprey said.
"He wants closure. He wants answers to what he's facing. It's been
two years."
-
- The answer, however, could bring years -- possibly all
he has left -- in prison.
-
- Duprey hopes that doesn't happen. She doubts the criminal
justice system could punish her grandson as much as he'll punish himself.
-
- During a recent conversation in Columbia, Duprey said
Christopher told her, "Grandma, I know God forgives me. I know my
grandparents forgive me. But I don't think I'll ever forgive myself."
-
- Contact Jason Cato at 329-4071 or
jcato@heraldonline.com.
-
- http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/2979629p-2730571c.html
|
