Wife charged with murder says she doesn't remember

By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

They had it all, or so it seemed.

A nice house on a quiet Dacula cul-de-sac, a lucrative career in medical recruiting, a daughter in college.

But underneath the polished veneer, the marriage of Laurie and Kent Alexander was in tatters – rocked by adultery, lies, debt, prescription drug addiction and alcoholism.

It all came to a head on Dec. 8, 2007, when 44-year-old Kent Alexander, a former Chicago Cubs minor league baseball pitcher, was found dead of a knife wound on his kitchen floor. Laurie Alexander, 47, is on trial for murder in Gwinnett County this week, accused of stabbing her husband in the abdomen after she caught him sending text messages to a married lover.

"This case is about a marriage that was in turmoil," Assistant District Attorney Rich Vandever told the jury during his opening statements Tuesday.

Alexander told police she took two prescription anti-anxiety pills after arguing with her husband and went to bed. She said she remembered nothing until she came downstairs to find her husband dead on the floor the following morning.

No one disputes that Kent Alexander's life was spiraling out of control. He recently had been fired from his job as a medical recruiter after a supervisor discovered he was drinking on the clock and swapping prescription pills with co-workers. Defense attorneys say he drank as much as a liter and a half of vodka every other day.

He had a blood alcohol level of .341 -- over four times the legal limit to drink and drive -- - when he died, according to prosecutors. His wife also was heavily medicated much of the time, having suffered injuries in a car wreck about a year prior to the alleged slaying and having undergone two recent heart surgeries.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Sliz said there are many questions surrounding Kent Alexander's death. It could have been a drunken accident, a suicide or a case of self-defense, but it was not a murder, Sliz told the jury.

"My client is not guilty of any of these offenses," Sliz said.

Police who searched the home after the stabbing found numerous bottles of prescription pain and anti-anxiety pills. Bottles of vodka were stashed behind a living room couch cushion and underneath a bed.

Alexander had long suspected her husband was having an affair, but she hid her doubts  along with her concerns about her husband's alcoholism and drug abuse from most of the people they knew, defense attorneys said.

Vandever said the strain of those recent problems coupled with confirmation that Kent Alexander was cheating created "the perfect storm."

"And when that all came together, Laurie Alexander took a kitchen knife and stabbed her husband," Vandever said.