DARLINGTON — The woman who moved to Wisconsin and allegedly tried to poison her elderly, veterinarian husband in Lafayette County has been sentenced to three years in prison in circuit court.
The sentence was handed down for Amanda Chapin, 51, on Friday, Aug. 2, by Circuit Judge Barbara W. McCrory, as part of an apparent plea deal with prosecutors. In addition to state prison, Chapin also was sentenced to three years of extended supervision and ordered to have no contact with the victim or his family.
Prior to sentencing, several victim impact statements were reviewed in court, according to court records, and the defendant was allowed to address the court.
Chapin also was found guilty after pleading no contest to a single felony count of violation of a person at risk restraining order. The sentence in that case appears to be a suspended one and limited to ordered civil and financial requirements.
She was initially charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide following her arrest in the case in Monroe. In a June hearing, Chapin pleaded guilty to a single charge of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, a Class F Felony, before Circuit Judge Faun Phillipson.
She faced potentially decades in prison if convicted on the more serious charge. But the maximum potential penalty for recklessly endangering safety, a Class F Felony in Wisconsin, is more than 12 years in state prison.
The incident with Chapin and her veterinarian husband began Aug. 21, 2021, when he was taken to the SSM Health Monroe Clinic, complaining of breathing issues. The victim, Gary Chapin, was later placed in intensive care at an area VA facility and slipped into a coma.
His blood reportedly tested positive for barbiturates — the same drugs he had on hand for pet euthanasia. But the veteran recovered after being treated at a SSM Monroe Clinic; and at the Middleton VA Hospital.
The couple married at the Lafayette County courthouse, despite the suspicions of the man’s family.
“Person 1 (in the criminal complaint) explained that victim 1 and Amanda had met over the Internet and the courtship was fast and that …after a couple weeks of meeting,” she moved into his home.
Not long after the wedding, Chapin allegedly forged the signature on a power-of-attorney document and then demanded her husband file a quit-claim on his house, leaving it to her. Then she is alleged to have begun poisoning him with the suspected barbiturates.
Gary Chapin awoke from his coma after a four-day stay at the VA hospital in Madison and began to talk to police. He alleged that his new wife poisoned him three times earlier that summer, culminating in his waking up in the hospital on Aug. 25. They are divorced.
She was arrested on Sept. 1, 2022 at the Super 8 Motel, where emergency crews were dispatched for a welfare check. They found her barely breathing, having apparently taken some over the counter medications attempting to kill herself. She left a rambling letter to law enforcement proclaiming her innocence.
“I chose to end my life because the law is not on my side…” the letter read, in part, according to the complaint.
Chapin later recovered at a local hospital.
According to court documents, the defendant eventually moved to an apartment on Fielder Drive in Madison. She will likely do her time at one of two women’s prisons in the state. According to the criminal complaint, she previously lived in Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois, had been arrested in the past; and had declared bankruptcy.