A North Carolina man who claimed a large dose of cold medicine caused him to brutally stab his wife to death pleaded guilty to her murder on Friday.

Matthew Phelps, 29, was arrested at his Raleigh home on Sept. 1, 2017, after he called the police to report that his wife, 29-year-old Lauren Phelps, had been murdered and that he may have killed her.

"I have blood all over me and there's a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it," Phelps told a 911 dispatcher at the time. "I can't believe this."

Phelps also told authorities that he had taken Coricidin Cough & Cold medicine because he was having trouble sleeping and that he could not remember what happened that night.

The body of Lauren Phelps was discovered in the fetal position inside of the recently-married couple's home, and a later autopsy report revealed she had been stabbed 123 times in her face, neck, torso, arms and jugular vein.

Court documents from April 2018 revealed martial problems between Phelps and his wife, Raleigh's the News & Observer reported. Friends told investigators that the couple often argued over Phelps' spending habits and that Lauren had planned to end the marriage.

Prosecutors said on Friday that prior to the 911 call, Phelps had made a "calculated effort" to clean up his wife's blood, which they say discredits his theory that he was mentally incapacitated by the cold medicine.

A blood test also revealed that the levels of cough medicine chemicals in Phelp's blood on the night of the murder was not high enough to cause hallucinations.

Phelps originally pleaded not guilty to his wife's murder, but changed his plea on Friday "to avoid the possibility of death," his attorney, Elliot Abrams, told the News & Observer.

He will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.


http://www.yahoo.com/news/husband-claimed-cold-medicine-made-161922026.html

this is like a horror story. I do wonder what other evidence they had. I think to stab someone that many times shows alot of rage and takes alot of energy, not to mention the blood would make the knife very slippery and cause the killer to probably cut themself a few times, I wonder if they found knicks on the husband or defensive wounds, or if he just had held the weapon maybe after he woke up ...

my writer's mind at work, I guess.

You aren't supposed to drink alcohol when taking cough meds. Cough meds can be danger when given to babies. Some have died.

The cough medicine manufacturer posted a comment after this guy was arrested
they said:
While our product can produce some side effects, murder is not one of them

This guy used the Med as a cop out to a savage murder.

That is possible and likely. The ineteresting thing is the potential for him to be telling the truth, not that the meds made him do it, but that the meds may have caused him to not know what happened (slept through it). That would depend on the cut that killed her and how quickly it happened though, I imagine as long as she was alive, it would have been a noisy confrontation.

What is against him is it was certainly something personal, that is ALOT of energy and strength to do such a thing.

He stabbed her 123 times?...with force... pretty hard to do when you are sleeping. From what I remember of that article there was not many errand stab marks around the body.. meaning.. he was looking at who he was stabbing and he aimed at her.

And who sleeps with a knife?

Good points, green eyes. 123 times? That must have taken a long time.

Yeah, it wasn't the cough syrup or alcohol.

It's the psycho he is.

A long time and a lot of energy.. a lot. Could you imagine how tired you would be if you stabbed a piece of meat with bone in it 124 times...hard stabs..you would be exhausted. It would be very hard to do.

No way in the world he did that in his sleep or drugged.

I agree Galaxy and greeneyes.

I'm proudly calling him guilty before he's tried.

This a case where the jury should just sit down in the jury box in the beginning of the trial and the foreman tells the judge

"Your Honor...we the jury had a 5 minute conversation on the way up the elevator and we believe this chump is guilty has hell".

Do what you want with him.

Hell they should put him in jail just for coming up with such a lame alibi..

the cough syrup....... should have gone with the standard "demons made me do it" reason.

This.