A Wisconsin woman faces more than 10 years in prison for poisoning her 71-year-old veterinarian husband shortly after their wedding, repeatedly spitting an animal euthanasia drug into his coffee, putting him into a coma, police said.
Amanda Alicia Chapin, 51, pleaded not guilty Friday to a felony charge of first-degree reckless endangering the safety of Gary Chapin. The charge was reduced from attempted first-degree murder in a plea agreement with Lafayette County prosecutors last week, according to Wisconsin Circuit Court records.
Chapin is accused of slipping barbiturates she stole from her husband into his coffee three times between July and August 2022. According to a criminal complaint previously reviewed by Fox News Digital, the couple had been married in March of that year, after which the woman forged the signatures of her husband’s children on power of attorney documents.
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This arrest warrant photo provided by the Lafayette County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Office is of Amanda Chapin. Wisconsin prosecutors have charged Chapin with repeatedly poisoning her husband, Gary Chapin, in the summer of 2022. (Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office via The Associated Press)
The woman also requested that her husband amend the title deed to the house so that she would become the sole homeowner in the event of his death. Fox 6 Milwaukee Two weeks after the deed was amended, Chapin reportedly began lacing drugs into her husband’s coffee.
Chapin met the 70-year-old veterinarian online. Monroe Times The complaint says their relationship was “quite tumultuous from the beginning,” and the man’s family suspected he was “merely a ‘patron’ to Amanda.”
The third and final dose put Gary Chapin into a coma for four days, and blood tests showed he had the same drug in his system that is used to euthanize animals.
When Chapin failed to wake up, they reportedly waited three hours before calling 911. Just hours after he fell into the coma, Chapin logged into the suspect’s personal email and began forwarding email correspondence between the suspect and his lawyers and children, according to prosecutors.
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Amanda Chapin pleaded not guilty Friday in Lafayette County Circuit Court to a felony charge of endangering safety. (Google Maps)
Before drugs were found in his father’s system, Gary Chapin’s son filed for a restraining order against Amanda Chapin, suspecting she was responsible for his father’s medical emergency.
According to the criminal complaint, Chapin violated the restraining order in September 2022 by emailing her husband a suicide note in which she said she had decided to kill herself because his children were trying to “destroy” her.
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Gary Chapin was being treated at SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group while in a coma, where barbiturates, which he used to euthanize animals, were found in his bloodstream. (Google Maps)
“The only crime I have committed is loving you so very much,” the note included with the lawsuit said.
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Paramedics responded to her home and took her to a local hospital, and the next day Gary Chapin filed for divorce.
Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Barbara W. McCoy ordered a pre-sentence investigation and scheduled Chapin’s sentencing hearing for July 15. Law and Crime ReportingShe faces up to 12 1/2 years in a state correctional facility.
