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New trial request centers on Zoloft

Oct 26, 2007 | SARAH PROHASKA | Palm Beach Local News

One of the most high-profile murder cases in Port St. Lucie's history was back in a St. Lucie County courtroom Thursday as attorneys for Victor Brancaccio - who claimed he was depressed and driven over the edge by the drug Zoloft - asked for a new trial based on information and warnings about the antidepressant his attorneys say have come to light since he was convicted in 1999.

Brancaccio was 16 when he beat 81-year-old Mollie Mae Frazier to death in Port St. Lucie. He's now 30. He was originally convicted of first-degree murder in 1995, but an appellate court overturned that conviction and ordered a new trial.

Miami attorney Roy Black defended Brancaccio in his second trial in 1999, saying Zoloft caused the already depressed teen to become involuntarily intoxicated, essentially temporarily insane, during the June 11, 1993, attack on Frazier.

Black on Thursday argued Brancaccio deserves another chance to take his murder case to a jury because of "newly discovered evidence" about Zoloft in children and teenagers.

That evidence, he said, consists of "new advisories, warnings, and publications of the Food and Drug Administration, other drug regulatory agencies and Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft" that the public first started learning about in March 2004. These documents and warnings, he said, "affirmatively show that aggressive, hostile, violent and impulsive behaviors that threaten harm to self or others are now recognized as known side effects of Zoloft" for adolescents and children.

He said testimony about the drug during the 1999 trial should now be considered inaccurate.

"No one in 1999 knew the truth about this," Black told Circuit Judge Gary Sweet. "Not the FDA, the lawyers or the experts in this trial."

Black stressed that in 2005 the FDA first issued a new "black box" warning about the group of antidepressants that includes Zoloft concerning its possible side-effects on children and teenage patients. It warns these side effects may be precursors to suicidal behavior or unusual changes in behavior, including irritability, hostility, aggressiveness and impulsivity, Black argued.

Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, a psychiatrist and clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, testified on Brancaccio's behalf, saying the black-box, which he described as the highest type of FDA warning, was "historic and momentous." He said these warnings contradict testimony during Brancaccio's trail that the drug is safe and effective in children and teens.

Besides testifying as an expert about the FDA warning and what led up to it, Glenmullen said he's personally seen some of these side effects in young patents.

"Once you've seen this, you cannot be convinced it does not exist," he said.

While prosecutors did not present an opening statement Thursday, Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler during his questioning tried to stress the warning does not say these antidepressants actually cause violence.

"The point of the advisory was depression and suicidality," Butler said. "Not to say it leads to violence and homicide."

Brancaccio is now serving a life sentence after the 1999 jury convicted him of first-degree murder and kidnapping in Frazier's killing. Prosecutors say he beat Frazier to death after they encountered each other along a Port St. Lucie road and Frazier shushed Brancaccio, who was singing rap lyrics. Brancaccio came back the next day and spray-painted Frazier's body red. The case attracted national media attention and the 1999 trial was broadcast live on Court TV.

Brancaccio's hearing requesting a new trial will continue this morning.