Original article no longer available
Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
October 31, 2000
Author: Salem Statesman Journal
SILVERTON – A trial date of May 6 was scheduled Monday for a Silverton woman accused of gunning down her husband. Marion County Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond set the date for Suzanne Miles, 36, who has been in Marion County jail without bail on a murder charge since the shooting occurred Feb. 29. Silverton police said she walked into the station about 3:55 p.m. and reported she had just shot Matt Miles at Square Deal Lumber Co., where he was the manager. Defense lawyer Mark Geiger has filed notice that his client was suffering from an extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the shooting. Under that theory, she could be convicted of manslaughter, which carries a prison term of 10 years. Murder has a life term with a minimum of 25 years. Statesman Journal staff reports THE REGION IN BRIEF Section: Local Page: 2C Index Terms: Region In Brief Record Number: sal10240022073800 Copyright (c) Statesman Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Suicidal Wife on Paxil Shoots Husband
7/31/2000
Attached is a photo of my sister Suzanne and her family. They live in Silverton, OR. She married Matthew Miles @ 5 years ago and they had Maddie on October 13, 1997. Suzanne’s 2 older girls, Brittany, 17, and April, 13, are from previous relationships. Suzanne began taking Prozac quite a number of years ago (about 7) and everything was fine. Then last year she said it wasn’t helping anymore. Her doctor told her to double her dosage. It started making her feel crazy – twitching, anxiety attacks. So they switched her to Paxil. She began taking Paxil in mid-January 2000. On February 29th, she shot and killed her husband Matthew. He was just 31 years old. Maddie has lost her father. My nieces have lost their mother and is in jail for killing him. My sister says that she started feeling suicidal and went to her husband’s work to kill herself in front of him. She doesn’t know why but she shot him instead. She and Matt had recently separated and I know the DA is going to try to say that she was distraught over the breakup, but I know it’s the Paxil. After reading all of the emails sent by you and reading the articles on the internet, we now need to prove that it was the Paxil and not just a woman killing her husband for leaving her.
I hope that your lawsuit will help in the fight of changing how these drugs are prescribed. They are dangerous and should not be prescribed like they are in most cases – “Here – try this. See if this helps.”