Prescription For Murder?

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

(CBS)  But seeing the evidence in court day after day has made the dream all too real. "The judge called us in the at the end of the day, and started to explore possibilities the case could be resolved on a plea," said Vickery.

The offer? Voluntary manslaughter. The sentence? It's up to the judge, from two to 30 years. But a confident Vickery turned down the deal. "We just can't conceive of 12 people, unanimously finding this boy guilty," said Vickery.

Something as simple as eating pizza with his family is what Chris said he'll be most afraid of losing if he's convicted of murder. "The hardest thing I have is not being with my family," said Chris. "I don't really have a problem being in jail. It's just being away from my family."

And the one family member Chris hasn't seen in months is his father. But two days before his case went to the jury, Chris' dad showed up. Instantly, whatever bad blood was had been between them was gone. "As I've gotten older, I realize that he's made a lot of mistakes that I can forgive him for," says Chris. "He didn't know how to discipline us. He did what he thought was right."

But was Chris' anger toward his father the spark that led to the killings, a spark inflamed by medication?

In his closing argument, Vickery told the jury that Chris would never have killed, had it not been for Zoloft: "There is no rational explanation. This wasn't a bad kid. He wasn't in trouble in school. He was a good boy."

The last words, however, came from Giese, who provided a powerful demonstration to remind the jury how Chris killed his grandparents. "That's as malicious a killing and a murder as you're ever going to get," said Giese.

If the jury believed that Chris is a cold-blooded killer, he could get life in prison. But if they believed the anti-depressant he was taking turned him into a killer, they could set him free.

Does Chris think he's paid enough of a price for the crime he committed? "Yes and no. Yes, in a way," said Chris. "But no in a way, too, because in a way I feel I should be in jail for the rest of my life. It was me, but it wasn't me."

Meanwhile, Danielle worries about her brother's future: "I honestly think he should come home. He's gonna have to go through and live with the fact that he did this the rest of his life. I think that's punishment enough."

But did the jury agree? After seven hours of deliberation, there was a decision. The jury found Christopher Pittman guilty of the murders of his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman.

"I felt just devastated. That ripped my heart out," says Vickery, who was not surprised by the sentence. Under South Carolina law, the most lenient sentence allowed is 30 years and that's what the judge gave Chris.

Immediately, Chris' bail was revoked and he was whisked back to a holding cell, to begin serving his sentence. "I don't understand how a jury in two weeks can think that they know someone well enough to convict him guilty of this kind of crime," says Chris' sister, Danielle.

One juror, Steven Platt, said he and others simply couldn't accept the defense claim that a drug could cause a person to kill: "A million people take it every day. Why would he be the only one that reacts like this?"

"The State of South Carolina has completed this comedy of horrors by inflicting one last crime upon this man. None of it makes sense," says Paster Snelgrove, who now questions whether destroying a third life, Chris Pittman's, really equals justice.

"We have been left with a question we must resign ourselves that we will never have the answer to, of how this could happened and why. And we have to be content that we're not going to have the answer for a long, long time."

Pfizer, Zoloft's manufacturer, agreed with the jury's guilty verdict for Chris Pittman, saying "Zoloft didn't cause his problems, nor did the medication drive him to commit murder."

Unless he wins an appeal or a new trial is ordered, Chris Pittman will be
in prison until he's 42.