A Wisconsin woman faces more than a decade behind bars for poisoning her 71-year-old veterinarian husband, spiking his coffee with animal euthanasia drugs multiple times shortly after their wedding and ultimately putting him in a coma, police say.
Amanda Alicia Chapin, 51, pleaded no contest on Friday to a charge of felony first-degree reckless endangering the safety of Gary Chapin, per Wisconsin Circuit Court records. The charge was downgraded from first-degree attempted homicide in a plea deal with Lafayette County prosecutors last week.
Chapin allegedly put barbituates she stole from her husband in his coffee three times between July and August 2022. The couple was married in March of that year, after which the woman forged one of her husband's children’s signatures on a power of attorney document, according to a criminal complaint previously reviewed by Fox News Digital.
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This booking photo provided by the Lafayette County, Wis., Sheriff's Office, shows Amanda Chapin. Wisconsin prosecutors have charged Chapin with repeatedly poisoning her husband, Gary Chapin, during the summer of 2022. (Lafayette County Sheriff's Office via AP)
The woman also insisted that her husband amend the deed to his house to ensure that she would be the sole homeowner in the event of his death, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported. Two weeks after the deed was amended, Chapin allegedly began drugging her husband's coffee.
Chapin met the 70-year-old veterinarian online, The Monroe Times reported. Their relationship was "fairly stormy from the beginning," per the criminal complaint, and the man's family had suspicions that he was "just a 'sugar daddy' for Amanda."
The third and final dose of the drugs put Gary Chapin into a four-day coma, and his blood work found the same drugs he used to put animals down in his system.
Chapin reportedly waited three hours to call 911 when he wouldn't wake up. Only a few hours after he fell into a coma, prosecutors said Chapin logged into his personal email and began forwarding herself email conversations with his attorney and children.
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Amanda Chapin pleaded no contest to felony charges of reckless endangerment of safety in Lafayette County Circuit Court on Friday. (Google Maps)
Before the drugs were discovered in his father's system, Gary Chapin's son filed a restraining order against Amanda Chapin, suspecting that she had been the cause of her father's medical emergency.
According to the criminal complaint, Chapin violated the restraining order in September 2022 by emailing her husband a suicide note, saying that she decided to kill herself because her husband's children were trying to "destroy" her.
Gary Chapin was cared for during his coma at SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group. There, the barbiturates he used to euthanize animals were found in his blood stream. (Google Maps)
"The only thing I am guilty of is loving you SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH," the note, which was included in the complaint, said.
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Paramedics responded to her house and took her to a local hospital - the next day Gary Chapin filed for divorce.
Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Barbara W. McCoy ordered a presentencing investigation and scheduled Chapin's sentencing hearing for July 15, Law & Crime reported. She faces a maximum of 12.5 years in a state correctional facility.
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