Prescription For Murder?

Did Zoloft Make 12-Year-Old Chris Pittman Murder His Grandparents?

(CBS)  But four days into the trial, the defense won a major battle. For the first time in three years, Chris was allowed out of custody. But how many more nights of freedom will Chris be able to enjoy? That was to be up to a jury.

Most of Chris' family was at his trial in Charleston – all except for his father, Joe. He was in Florida, where he lives and where his parents are buried.

"I'm sure when this is all said and done, we're gonna pick the pieces up and put them back together again, the best we can," says Joe.

On this day, Joe is thinking about the weapon his son used: a shotgun that, ironically, his own father had given to him as a child.

"The first gun he ever gave me was the .410, the .410 Christopher used to kill my mom and dad with," says Joe, who says the shotgun still holds sentimental value: "It's got special memories with it, with me as well. It's not the gun's fault. It's not the gun that did it. I mean, technically, yes it is, but the gun was just doing what it was told to."

Joe was not with his son because defense attorneys asked him to stay away. They were worried that if Joe took the stand, he would be repeatedly questioned about the way he disciplined Chris as a child. Joe denies abusing his son, but Chris told several people that his father beat him, and that was the reason he asked to live with his grandparents in Chester.

The issue of abuse is important because prosecutors argue it's what drove Chris to kill his grandparents. They say that after a lifetime of harsh discipline at the hands of his father, getting paddled by his grandfather was just too much for Chris to take.

But defense witnesses came to court with a very different theory. Lanette Atkins, a forensic psychiatrist, says that on the night of Nov. 28, side effects from Zoloft became so intense that Chris actually became "psychotic" and was hearing what she calls "command hallucinations" that ordered him to shoot his grandparents.

"I think he had no control over killing his grandparents," says Atkins, who adds that "the period of time he was psychotic may have been very brief."

Atkins says lack of emotions after the murder was yet another side effect of the medication. Atkins, who evaluates juvenile defendants for the state of South Carolina, usually testifies on behalf of the prosecution so her diagnosis took many of her colleagues by surprise.

"Everybody was telling me I was crazy. All my colleagues," says Atkins. "You know, ‘How could you possibly support that defense?'"

But she's not the only medical professional who testified for Chris at his trial. Dr. Richard Kapit, a scientist who worked for the FDA for 14 years, once approved Zoloft for human clinical trials. He now believes that the medication can drastically alter the behavior of some juveniles, causing a chemically induced anger.

But for every doctor who blames Zoloft, there's another who says Chris knew exactly what he was doing.

"There was no evidence that he wasn't thinking correctly. There was lots of evidence that he knew what he had done was wrong," says psychiatrist James Ballenger, who points to the story Chris told police. Blaming the killings on a black man, Ballenger says, clearly shows that Chris knew he had done something wrong.

Another psychiatrist, Dr. Julian Sharman, spoke to Chris just hours after the murders. "Asked if he loved or hated them, he responds, 'I loved them and sometimes I hated them,'" says Sharman. "Asked if he feels that they deserved what happened, he says, 'They asked for it.'"

Pfizer, Zoloft's manufacturer, does acknowledge their research shows some increased risk of aggression while on the drug. But Dr. Steven Romano, a psychiatrist and a vice president of Pfizer, told the jury there is no link to homicide.

"Any incidents of homicide, doctor?" asked Meadors.

"Absolutely not," said Romano.

The jury didn't hear from Chris himself. His lawyers, after much consideration, recommended that he not take the stand. But in an exclusive interview, shortly before his case went to the jury, Chris talked to 48 Hours.

He said he wanted the jury to know that the medicine made him kill his grandparents. "You just can't control yourself," said Chris. "It was just like you sitting there watching TV. I mean, everything that, you know, going on. It can't be stopped."

Chris says that as he lay in bed the night of Nov. 28, in his grandparents' home, he became overwhelmed by anger. "It's just like it all just exploded. I mean, just exploded," he says. "The littlest thing would set me off. I was like a bomb that was ready to blow up."

Chris told investigators that he had been angry because his grandfather had paddled him that evening. But he now says there was no discipline, and that he killed only because voices in his head told him to. "It's just like these voices in my head, just echoing in my head, getting louder and louder and faster."

What were these voices saying? "Kill," says Chris.

He says the voices were "strong enough so that I did it." Was he aware of what he had done? "I thought it was all a dream," he says.