Mercy or murder? Marine vet who assisted ailing wife's suicide pleads guilty to manslaughter
WEST PALM BEACH — Stephen Kruspe lifted the gun, wondering if the sight of it might change his wife's mind. It didn't, he said. She looked him in the eye and said for the umpteenth time: "I want you to kill me."
He did.
Kruspe pleaded guilty to manslaughter by assisted suicide Tuesday, almost six years to the day that he shot his 61-year-old wife to death outside her assisted-living facility in Boynton Beach. Pamela Kruspe, his wife of 42 years, suffered from dementia and Alzhiemer's disease and had reportedly spoken about suicide for months.
"She actually smiled at me as life is leaving her body," Kruspe told a Boynton Beach police officer during his arrest on March 27, 2017. "She didn't flinch. She didn't move. She just went down."
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The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office charged Kruspe with premeditated murder, maintaining that Pamela Kruspe's disease "did not in any way diminish the value of her life." Mercy killing and euthanasia are not legal defenses to the charge of first-degree murder in Florida.
Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott agreed to Kruspe's guilty plea to manslaughter Tuesday, noting that DNA found on the barrel and grip of the gun, as well as gunshot residue on Pamela Kruspe's hands, indicate she may have held it against her sternum or pulled the trigger with Kruspe.
Pamela Kruspe was a marathon runner and an employee at the Delray Beach Clerk of Courts office. Kruspe, a Marine Corps veteran and the former keeper of the Jupiter Lighthouse, said his wife began to withdraw in 2012, shedding hobbies and relationships without warning. It frightened them both.
A neuropsychologist diagnosed Pamela Kruspe with Alzheimer's disease in February 2016, and by April, she'd begun deteriorating quickly. She sometimes threatened to kill Kruspe, he said, each time changing her mind and promising to kill herself instead.
She was hospitalized under Florida's Baker Act after each threat and was admitted into an assisted-living facility in July 2016. Kruspe told investigators that the anguish she felt there was unbelievable.
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She didn't feel safe at Parkside Inn, he said. She felt that no one loved her, that no one ever came to visit her, though Scott said Kruspe visited her nearly every day throughout her stay. She felt there were too many "crazy people" around her — that she was trapped, and would be forever.
"If I have to stay here, I'm going to kill myself," Kruspe said she told him. "I want you to kill me."
He'd do it if he loved her, she said.
Kruspe entered an open plea in court Tuesday, which means it was not a product of negotiations between Scott and Kruspe's defense attorney, Christopher Haddad. Without a plea agreement, Kruspe has no promise from the state as to how Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd will sentence him. He faces between 10 and 30 years in prison.
Kruspe's children and their spouses attended the hearing in person and on Zoom Tuesday, all in agreement with Kruspe's decision to plead guilty, Scott said.
None spoke, but the prosecutor said they will likely testify at Kruspe's sentencing hearing. He is scheduled to return to court on May 31 for a status check.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Marine vet pleads guilty to manslaughter assisting wife's suicide
