A 77-year-old retired dentist faces up to 30 years in prison if his lawyer is unable to convince a judge that it was purely by accident that he gave poison to two children in 2003, killing one of them.
Constantine Pitsas was hosting a party at his seaside home on Aug. 9, 2003, when guest Douglas Glynn asked Pitsas for water for his 2-year-old daughter, Morgan, and 4-month-old son, Benjamin.
Concerned that refrigerated water might prove to be too cold for the baby, Pitsas retrieved a container from his basement and provided the clear, odorless and tasteless liquid to the children.
Although there have been conflicting accounts of how the container was labeled, there seems to be no dispute about what happened after Benjamin and Morgan drank the liquid inside it. Both children became violently ill and vomited.
The children were taken to a hospital, where Douglas Glynn was urged to obtain the container for examination. Unable to reach Pitsas, Glynn raced back to Pitsas' home and located the container. To his horror, he learned that the container had markings to indicate that it contained a pesticide mixture that included the deadly toxin arsenic.
Benjamin died three days later after being removed from life support. His sister was hospitalized for 13 days, somehow managing to survive the effects of what prosecutors later said was enough arsenic to kill several grown men.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/pitsas/091905_background_ctv.html
Constantine Pitsas was hosting a party at his seaside home on Aug. 9, 2003, when guest Douglas Glynn asked Pitsas for water for his 2-year-old daughter, Morgan, and 4-month-old son, Benjamin.
Concerned that refrigerated water might prove to be too cold for the baby, Pitsas retrieved a container from his basement and provided the clear, odorless and tasteless liquid to the children.
Although there have been conflicting accounts of how the container was labeled, there seems to be no dispute about what happened after Benjamin and Morgan drank the liquid inside it. Both children became violently ill and vomited.
The children were taken to a hospital, where Douglas Glynn was urged to obtain the container for examination. Unable to reach Pitsas, Glynn raced back to Pitsas' home and located the container. To his horror, he learned that the container had markings to indicate that it contained a pesticide mixture that included the deadly toxin arsenic.
Benjamin died three days later after being removed from life support. His sister was hospitalized for 13 days, somehow managing to survive the effects of what prosecutors later said was enough arsenic to kill several grown men.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/pitsas/091905_background_ctv.html
