Families destroyed by drug abuse continue to grow in number. On the week that convicted American “milkshake murderer” Nancy Kissel launched a challenge in Hong Kong to her life sentence for the death of her husband Robert in 2003, a Chinese doctor in Seattle was given a 49-year prison term for the murder of his long-time male partner and their child.
Seattle Times reported that Dr. Louis Chen got the maximum prison sentence on Friday for the death of his partner and their two-year-old son in August 2011. He knifed to death 29-year-old Eric Cooper and this son, Cooper Chen in their penthouse in Seattle.
Chen’s lawyers said the doctor suffered from mental illness which was worsened by his adverse reaction to medication, including a certain drug in cough syrup. But Don Raz, senior deputy prosecutor, rejected the argument and said the doctor was driven by rage and fear because of a possible separation and a custody battle for Cooper Chen.
Raz pointed out that Chen stabbed Cooper over 177 times and slashed the child’s throat from ear to ear. But the toddler did not immediately die from his wounds but instead fled the bedroom to the living room to seek help from Eric but found him dead instead.
According to medical experts who testified for Chen, the doctor’s depression and paranoia were worsened by dextromethorphan, a drug in cough syrup that the doctor often drinks as self-medication. However, when the drug builds up inside the body, it contributes to psychosis.
Chen’s lawyer, Todd Maybrown, sought to lower the sentence to 24 years on the ground that before the physician’s mental deterioration, he was a hard and dedicated worker, and a gentle, kind and thoughtful person, according to testimonies of Chen’s colleagues in the medical profession.
Chen, who migrated from Taiwan, was a medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine when he met 17-year-old high school senior Eric Cooper in Tinley Park, Illinois. They lived together in California, Washington and Minnesota and had a son conceived through IVF, using Chen’s semen and the egg of Taiwanese woman. The fetus was implanted in the womb of an Oregon woman who was their friend.
The family moved to Seattle in 2011 after Chen was employed at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Chen did not report for his first day of work on Aug. 11, 2011 and did not return the calls of his sister. When a hospital employee went to Chen’s penthouse, the doctor opened the door naked, covered in dried blood and admitted killing the two.
Investigators discovered the couple had a problem and was about to split. On top of that, Chen believed Cooper would report his prescription drug abuse which could work against the doctor in a child-custody battle.