A man who claimed his use of the anti-depressant drug Prozac caused him to kill his ex-wife's best friend has pleaded guilty to murder.
Joseph Charles Gardner, 33, had been charged with first-degree murder in the July 1990 death of Janice Fondren.He entered the plea Friday in 5th District Court, where Judge Philip Eves immediately sentenced him to life at Utah State Prison.
Washington County Attorney Eric Ludlow said Tuesday that as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped one count of first-degree felony aggravated burglary and will not seek the death penalty.
Defense attorney Alan Boyack said he will immediately appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. He had based Gardner's defense on his use of Prozac - a popular anti-depressant that is prescribed to an estimated 3.5 million people worldwide.
Boyack contends it was wrong for the Utah Legislature to eliminate an "irresistible impulse" clause from the state's murder statute in 1983, and he will make that argument with the higher court.
Boyack had said Prozac "involuntarily intoxicated" Gardner and caused him to kill Fondren. Her body was found in the southern Utah desert after Nancy Snow, Gardner's former wife, told police Fondren was missing and that she suspected her former husband.
The two women worked at a St. George nursing home where Fondren was the nursing director and Snow a receptionist.
Police found bloodstains on the carpet of Fondren's apartment, on the door and on the front porch. They found a bullet hole in the front window and a 9mm shell casing on the kitchen floor.
The kitchen window was open, the screen removed and a footprint of a man's tennis shoe was impressed in the dirt outside.
Before her death, Fondren had filed a complaint with the St. George Police Department claiming Gardner was harassing her and trespassing.
Police found Fondren's body shortly after Gardner was arrested July 25, 1990.