The Carthage Nursing Home Massacre Was Caused By Ambien?

💊When Robert Kenneth Stewart was a young boy, his family moved to Eastwood in Moore County, South Carolina. His father was a house painter, and his mother worked at an office of a paving company in Pinebluff. Robert dropped out of high school before graduating. Robert was known as a a quiet loner with a very bad temper every now and then.

💊In 1981, Robert married, but his marriage only lasted for a few months. 

💊In 1983, Robert was 18 when he married then 17-year-old Wanda Gay Neal, but this marriage failed within three years, due his extreme possessiveness, his drinking habits and his violent temper. Robert's mother in law stated that she had never seen Robert raise a hand to his wife or daughter, but "He had a rage, it would just explode over everything. He would be good and then something would just set him off."  Wanda Neal's 14-year-old daughter Jamie said that, as far as she knew, Robert had never hit her mother. In 1986 Robert married Sue Griffin and would often compare her to Wanda Neal and complain that "Wanda doesn't do it like that."

💊He served six years in the National guard before receiving an honorable discharge.

💊In 1995 he joined the Clay Road Farm Hunt Club in Moore County, but he wasn't popular there because of his drinking problem and his temper. He was eventually thrown out of the hunting club, after threatening Larry Allred, one of its founders, stating that "he wasn't scared of no damn Allred. He'd cut Larry Allred's guts out and watch."

💊Robert worked as a house painter like his father and had his own painting business, but had filed twice for bankruptcy.

💊In 2001, Sue and Robert divorced and Robert returned to Wanda Neal. He promised her that he would stop drinking and treat her well. And in 2002, they married for a second time.

💊Robert injured his back and leg in 2007 and had to stop working. 

💊Robert didn't change and he wouldn't let Wanda go anywhere alone. It was around March 15th, 2009 and Wanda finally left Robert after he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. After she left him, Robert began calling Wanda's family all all hours claiming there was an emergency and he needed to see Wanda and her parents. He also tried to contact Sue Griffin, through her family, telling them that he was suffering from prostate cancer, that he was preparing to “go away” and “was planning on leaving town to visit places he hadn’t seen.” The next week, Mack Hancock ran into Robert and he seemed very depressed, saying that “everything had gone to hell."

💊March 25th, 2009, Robert told a friend his wife had left him for "the last time."
💊March 27th, Robert was deeply depressed and attempted to see a doctor. The doctor wasn't there, but Robert saw a nurse who prescribed Lexapro and Xanax. That night, he went to his aunt's house because he feared he was going to hurt someone. 

💊March 28th, Robert was feeling better but became agitated that night because of the anti-depressants he was taking. He then took an extreme amount of Ambien, a drug that he had been taking for two years.

💊Before 10 a.m. on March 29th, 2009, 45 year old Robert dressed in a red shirt and bib overalls, arrived at the parking lot of a nursing home named Pinelake Health and Rehab Center.  He found Wanda's car and proceeded to fire several shots at her empty car, shattering its windows. Michael Lee Cotten pulled into the parking lot and Robert fired at him as well, the bullet hitting him in the left shoulder. Cotten, who later stated that Robert was "very calm...very deliberate" during the shooting, ran into the building and told the people inside what had happened. 
💊"I didn't know how bad I was hit, so I just decided to go in and try to alert the people," Cotton said. "When I told them there was a man with a gun coming in, they kind of looked at me like, 'This guy's crazy.'"
💊Nurse Jerry Avant Jr. screamed frantically in the intercom, "Lockdown!"

💊Cotton hid in a bathroom and called 911 as he heard more shooting.

💊Police received the first emergency calls at 10:00 a.m. 25-year-old police Cpl. Justin Garner, was dispatched to the scene.

💊Robert left the .22 caliber rifle, that he had been shooting with, atop a Jeep Cherokee and entered the nursing home armed with a handgun and a shotgun. 

💊Darlene Harris was working at the front desk when Robert came through the front door. She ran down a hall and jumped out a window. 

💊"I went through the gate and ran through the woods. Other employees were running. I ran to a house," Darlene said "I felt it was better to go somewhere that was crowded, so I ran to the McDonald's. I remember opening the door and getting into a corner. I just stood there."

💊In the chaos she managed to call 911. An ambulance picked her up because she thought she might have suffered a minor heart attack while running for her life.

💊Darlene was terrified as she was being taken to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital because she feared the gunman might have gone to the hospital as well.💊"I didn't want him to see me. I begged them, 'Please, cover my face!' I didn't want him to shoot me too," she said.💊As Robert went down the hall apparently searching Wanda, he started shooting everywhere. Wanda who had been reassigned to the Alzheimer unit that morning, heard the shots and hid in a bathroom. She instantly knew who the shooter was.

💊Upon realizing that his wife wasn't where she usually worked Robert headed to the area for Alzheimer's patients which was secured by pass-code protected doors. As he walked through the hallways of the nursing home, still firing his weapons, Robert killed seven residents, two of them in their wheelchairs, while the staff tried to bring the patients to safety. 

💊Wilean Fletcher, a nursing assistant, heard a commotion in the center but didn't hear the announcement clearly. A few minutes later, she said, she was in a hallway with Jerry when Robert aimed a shotgun at them. She ran to the laundry room to hide while Jerry ran towards Robert.

💊"I immediately ran behind the washing machine, and I heard a gunshot," she said. "It seemed like forever to me (as I hid)."

💊Michael Gillis and his family were inside visiting his grandmother when they heard gunfire. Gillis told his family to hide in the bathroom and his oldest son to guard the door while he went into the hallway. He saw his grandmother's nurse, Jerry,  on the floor bleeding. Gillis asked Jerry what he could do to help, to which Jerry replied, "Nothing. I'm going to die." He told Jerry "No, you're not. We're not going to let that happen". As the rampage continued, Gillis' family could hear a man shot in the room next door, "whimpering as he took his last breath."

💊Nursing assistant Denise McLeod was working in the Alzheimer's unit and helped gathered the patients into a room that she and others barricaded by jamming a chair against the door.

💊Police Cpl. Justine Garner confronted Robert in the hallway at about 10:05 a.m. After refusing several orders to drop his weapon, Robert lowered his shotgun and fired a shot at Garner, hitting him in the leg and foot. Garner returned fire and hit the Robert in the shoulder, incapacitating him. The only thing that Robert said was "Kill me, kill me."

💊After hearing the all-clear announcement, Wilean went to check on her patients and found a horrific scene.💊"I saw a resident sitting there with a bullet hole in her chest,” she said. "I went down the 200 hall, and I (saw) another dead – about two more dead residents – and I broke down.”

💊Jill DeGarmo, a nursing assistant and Jerry's fiancee, crouched beside him and prayed as he lay dying on the floor with the two dozen bullet wounds. 

💊When the shooting was over, six people were dead and five others, including Robert, were taken to a nearby hospital. Two of the wounded died the same day. One of those two people was Jerry, he died in surgery after his heart stopped the second time.

 💊In the hospital Robert told a nurse that he had taken six “nerve pills” and did not remember anything about the shooting. Robert said that he wouldn't shoot anyone in the hospital, but he wanted to shoot himself. He also never asked the condition of his victims.

💊Robert Stewart was charged with eight counts of murder.

During the Trial

💊Robert's attorney showed the results of Robert's blood test following the shooting. It showed that he had 12 times the therapeutic dose of Ambien in his system.

💊Robert admitted in open court that he killed seven patients and a nurse at the center, but he doesn't recall what happened the day of the shooting. His attorney claimed that he shouldn't be held responsible for the shooting because of the Ambien and other drugs in his system.

💊Justine Garner said Robert's speech wasn't slurred when he took him into custody.

💊Moore Regional emergency room nurse Rebecca Powell treated Robert. She testified that he was "very alert" and his speech wasn't slurred. Although Robert had a blank stare, he didn't appear to have overdosed on sedatives, she said.

💊The Moore County Assistant District Attorney said Robert entered Pinelake Health and Rehabilitation Center that day "with a specific reason"  to chase down his estranged Wanda, who worked there. She said Robert had called his Wanda's parents repeatedly prior to the shooting but got no answer. She also said that this was not a random act and when Wanda wouldn't go to him he went to Wanda. Robert brought four guns and a bag of ammunition with the intent of creating mass casualties. 

💊"He didn't stop after he shot up his wife's car. Instead, he entered the facility and reloaded after every three shots," she said.

💊Several witnesses testified that Robert was deliberate in his actions during the rampage, saying he took time to reload while walking the halls.

💊Prosecutors also argued that Robert was abusive and controlling of  Wanda, prompting her to leave him in the weeks before the massacre. He went to Pinelake, where she worked, to track her down and was so heavily armed that nothing was going to stop him, prosecutors have said.

💊Aaron Morris, who did some work on the Robert's home, testified that Robert verbally abused Neal and threatened to kill her if she left him.

💊In order for him to carry out the shootings, Robert would have had to take four guns from his home, three of them from a locked safe, as well as multiple rounds of three kinds of ammunition. He then drove 20 minutes from his home outside of Robbins to the nursing home in Carthage. Once there, he found his wife's PT Cruiser in the parking lot and fired multiple rounds into the windows and the headrest. Prosecutors said these were complex actions that could only have been carried out by a man on a mission.

💊A forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense testified that Robert was "sleepwalking" during the shootings because he was suffering the side effects of Ambien.

💊Ambien has been reported to cause strange behavior in a small number of users. Some people can do complex things in their sleep and Ambien has been known to makes things worse, especially if you already have a history of sleepwalking. People have been known to drive, eat and have conversations while asleep.

💊Jurors deliberated for two days. While they also found Robert guilty of other assorted assault charges, they found him not guilty of attempted first-degree murder for shooting Carthage police officer Justin Garner.

💊The trial moved into the sentencing phase and the Moore County Superior Court Judge James Webb heard from family members of the victims.

💊"That man killed my mom like she was a roach," said Linda Feola, whose mother, 98-year-old Louise DeKler, died in the attack

💊Judge Webb sentenced Robert to 189-236 months on each murder count for a total of 126-157 years in prison. Robert also received another 16-22 years on the other charges.

💊The defense gave notice it intended to appeal.

💊Many family members said they were upset Robert was not convicted of first-degree murder. But they said they were relieved he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
💊Strickland, the prosecutor, said he still believed Robert's crimes warranted the death penalty and was somewhat disappointed with the second-degree verdict.
💊If jurors had convicted Robert of first-degree murder, he could have faced the death penalty.

🏵Victims🏵

Jerry Yi Avant Jr.

🏵He was born on May 5th, 1969 in South Korea to Jerry W. Avant  Yon Suk Yi. He was a studious young man who graduated from Richmond Senior High School in 1988, then attended both Richmond and Sandhills community colleges. His interest was in electronic technology. Jerry served ten years in the Coast Guard and while there, he was involved in aircraft electronics at several Coast Guard bases. When he left the Coast Guard, he entered the medical field and wished he had gotten into the medical field in the beginning. He was getting his degree in nursing and was preparing to take his board exams to become a Registered Nurse. Jerry would have given you the shirt off his back and he couldn't have picked a better profession. It seemed to be his calling. He was a Licensed Practical Nurse and was about to take the exam with the Board of Nursing. Jerry was engaged to be married to another member of the staff at the facility, Jill DeGarmo. He attended Cornerstone Baptist Church. He was shot 26 times and killed while trying to shield others from gunfire during a shooting rampage. He gave his life in the protection of others, and his heroism leaves both a great sense of pride and sadness in all those who knew and loved him. 

Louise B. Vocht De Kler

🏵She was born on March 6th, 1911 in Amsterdam, Amsterdam Municipality, Noord-Holland, Netherlands to Joseph J. and Anna C. Vocht. Louise came to the United States from Holland in 1928. She moved North Carolina 4 years before her death. Louise was a homemaker and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels in Morris County and a member of Brookside Seniors. She also enjoyed bowling. She was living on her own, in a New Jersey apartment on the fifth floor. She carried her own groceries, and she always took the stairs. When she went down to the first floor to do her laundry, she'd hang out in the rec room while the washing machine ran. She had her own pool stick and a boom box. She used to go down there with her pool stick and wait for the young guys to come and play. She was a bowler, too, with an average score of 150. Then she had a stroke when she was 94. She had to leave her apartment and into Tara Plantation a nursing home. She had just begun to adapt to the limitations of this new life. She loved the bingo games at Tara and worked all the puzzles. Then just before her 98th birthday, she had a second stroke. When she came out of the hospital, she went to Pinelake Health and Rehab to recover. She only agreed to it because a boyfriend, John Goldston, 20 years her junior, was there, and the living arrangement was to be temporary. She and Goldston were in different wings, but they ate together almost every day, and high-fived one another when their wheelchairs passed in the halls. She was killed at age 98 when Robert gunman shot them both. 

Lillian Eugenia Nall Dunn

🏵She was born on December 23, 1919 in Moore County, North Carolina. She had surgery to try and repair her knees, but she refused to do the exercises her doctors and therapists recommended. Eventually, Lillian got so she couldn't get around by herself and  she decided on her own to go live at the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center. She had been living at Pinelake for about a year, where she could plant a garden and can tomatoes, she was comfortable there. Lillian had been doing especially well and her family visited her often. Her son and his wife visited and the three of them watched a Clint Eastwood movie on the big-screen TV. She had would drop in on recreational activities and especially liked to go hear singers who came to the nursing home to entertain residents. Before she retired, Lillian had worked in a textile mill. She raised five children, three of whom survive. Her hobbies included quilting, canning fruits and vegetables, and cooking meals for her family. She still longed to go back home where she had lived in the same white house, with more than a dozen flower beds of red and yellow. Lillian was killed at age 89.

Tessie Garner

🏵Dozens of mourners file into Smyrna Methodist Church near Robbins to remember Tessie. She was born March 27th, 1934. She was a native of Moore County and was a retired poultry farmer. Tessie was 75 years old when she died at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital after being shot by Robert.

John Walter Goldston

🏵He was born on April 7th, 1930 in Chatham County, North Carolina to Walter H. and Irene (Brower) Goldston. John "Sonny"  was retired and a member of Tyson Creek Baptist Church. After suffering several debilitating strokes he relocated to Tara Plantation and during that time, nearly five years, they became his extended family. He loved putting puzzles together and rooting for the Carolina Tarheels. In January 2009 John was transferred to Pinelake Health and Rehab. He was 78 years old when Robert shot and killed him.

Bessie Elizabeth Hedrick 

🏵Bessie was born April 15, 1930 the daughter of Roy Frank and Annie (Brooks) Hedrick. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Siler City, where she sang in the choir. She attended UNCG and graduated with honors from Sandhills Community College with a degree in Human Services. She was a Compensatory Education Instructor for Chatham Trades, and also worked as a hairdresser and had taught cosmetology. Bessie was an active member of the Democratic Party. She loved to travel, sing and play the piano. Bessie was a loving mother. She had entered the home a few months before after breaking a hip and experiencing symptoms of dementia, but she seemed to be improving. She was a loving mother and a grandmother. She was 78 years old when she was shot and killed by Robert.

Margaret Peoples Johnson

🏵Margaret was born on September 14, 1919 the daughter of James Henry and Hannah (Paschal) Peoples. She was a native of Guilford County and a homemaker. She was a member of Sapling Ridge United Methodist Church and the Alpha and Sunshine Sunday School Class. She was married to Otto. She and her family operated a small farm in Silk Hope, a little community in Chatham County.  Her granddaughter, Tammy Morris, who lives in Chatham County, said that her grandmother was a "wonderful woman." Margaret was 89 years old when she was shot and killed by Robert.

Jesse Vernon Musser

🏵He was born on September 20th, 1920 in Crockett, Wythe County, Virginia to Vernon and Mabel Musser. He was retired from the Virginian Railroad after 41 years of service. Jesse was a talented and avid woodworker and gunsmith, he loved the outdoors and hunting and was a lifetime member of the NRA. He lived life in a quiet, humble manner and was a devoted father and husband. He was a lifelong member of Highland Ave. Baptist Church and for a time served as a deacon. He moved to North Carolina with his wife, Melba in 2003 to live with, Holly, one of their two daughters. For the past 2½ years, she had employed nurses and aides to help care for her father, who had gone blind. The couple were both afflicted with Alzheimer's. Jesse also suffered from Parkinson's disease, was deaf and confined to a wheelchair. The retired railroad mechanic was a quiet and humble man and a devout Christian. He was artistic, talented and during his life. Jesse loved woodworking and built himself a violin that was thirty years in the making. He was also a gunsmith in his free time. Jesse had lived at Pinelake Health and Rehab Center for only six weeks. His wife, Melba, has dementia and lives at the same facility and had been there two and a half weeks. He was 88 years old when Robert shot and killed him. Melba was unharmed. Each night, the staff at Pinelake Health took Jesse from his room to the Alzheimer's unit to visit Melba. But that night there was no visit. On the next day, the family decided it was best to tell Melba that her husband had died. But they could not bear the thought of her reliving the violent events endlessly for the rest of her days. So they told her that he had passed peacefully, in his sleep. She wept, then she slept. Melba suffers from short term memory loss. And when she awoke the next morning, she looked at her granddaughter and asked, "Where's Daddy?" And they had to tell her again.