THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240478
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Mental illness and an overdose of pills led a man to attack a 34-year-old Churchland woman with an ax in January, his defense lawyer told jurors Tuesday.
Michael Coker, 37, who admits to the assault, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to aggravated malicious wounding.
During his opening argument, defense lawyer Michael Rosenberg told jurors that Coker had been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was taking injections of prolixin - an anti-psychotic medication - and another drug, cogentin.
An overdose of the drugs can cause painful side effects, Rosenberg said.
On Jan. 13, the day of the attack, Rosenberg said, Coker took two 10-milligram tablets of cogentin, which caused him to hear voices and experience nausea, cramps, dizziness and blurred vision.
``He had to get rid of the demons,'' Rosenberg said.
``He couldn't control himself.''
It was later that morning, police say, that Coker crossed the parking lot of the Town Point Square shopping center brandishing an ax and struck Tammie L. Wainwright in the back of the head five times, exposing part of her brain.
The Churchland mother of two, who now suffers from memory loss and hearing loss, headaches and problems with her speech, was on her way to Food Lion to buy food for her three cats.
Coker, who is expected to testify during the trial, would not always take his medication regularly, Rosenberg said, and would sometimes hoard pills for emergencies when he experienced spells of body tremors.
On the day of the assault, Rosenberg said, Coker had experienced severe body tremors and took too much medication. Still suffering from the tremors, he took the ax from the home he shared with his brother's family and went outside to cut some wood.
He then went to the Food Lion for some cigarettes, assaulting Wainwright in the parking lot, Rosenberg said.
Coker, a convicted felon, could face life in prison if convicted.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL AGGRAVATED MALICIOUS WOUNDING by CNB