Chris Benoit’s Doctor Sentenced to 10 Years for Illegal Prescriptions

In June of 2007, 40-year-old professional wrestler Chris Benoit hung himself after strangling and killing his wife and their seven-year-old son. Many people believe that a combination of the drugs Benoit took, including steroids and testosterone, and the multiple concussions he suffered during his wrestling career led him to commit this heinous act.

Tests showed that Benoit’s brain was so severely damaged that it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient, and damage was found in all four lobes of the brain and brain stem. Xanax and hydrocodone were also found in Benoit’s system.

Benoit’s wife Nancy was also said to have abused prescription drugs, and she was found with normal levels of hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and Xanax in her system. Xanax was also found in their son Daniel’s system, leading investigators to believe that he was sedated prior to the murders.

After the murders, attention turned to Dr. Phil Astin, Benoit’s personal doctor, who allegedly gave him steroids. Though this was never proven, today Astin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally prescribing painkillers and other drugs to patients.

Though not connected to Benoit, two of Astin’s patients died of drug overdoses while under his care—a female overdosed on hydrocodone and other drugs obtained through Astin, and a male overdosed on medication prescribed by Astin and had also taken Soma, a muscle relaxer.

Astin, 54, pleaded guilty in January 2009 to 175 counts of writing illegal prescriptions to known drug abusers. “I take full responsibility,” he told the judge during his two-hour sentence hearing. “I am sorry I hurt so many lives. I was thinking that I was looking after my patients.”

Investigators found that Astin wrote prescriptions without conducting physical exams, and sometimes gave patients as many as four simultaneous prescriptions for Percocet. He also prescribed “cocktails” of highly addictive drugs such as Percocet, Oxycontin, Vicodin, and Adderall. Nineteen patients were included in the indictment, but were only identified by their initials. Two of them were C.B. and N.B., likely referring to Chris Benoit and Nancy Benoit.

Assistant US Attorney John Horn said it was clear that Astin knew what he was doing. “He knew that these people were addicted to drugs, and yet he continued to prescribe the drugs.”