Killer wrestler's doctor jailed for 10 years

The personal doctor to a professional wrestler who killed himself, his wife and their seven-year-old son was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for illegally distributing prescription drugs to patients.

Dr Phil Astin (aged 54) had pleaded guilty on January 29 to a 175-count federal indictment in Newnan, Georgia.

Prosecutors said Astin prescribed painkillers and other drugs to known addicts for years.

They said at least two of Astin’s patients died because of his lax oversight of what medicines they were taking.

However, the indictment was unclear about whether Chris Benoit, a wrestler for Connecticut-based World Wrestling Entertainment, was one of the two.

“I take full responsibility,” Astin told the judge today.

“I am sorry I hurt so many lives. I was thinking that I was looking after my patients.”

US District Judge Jack Camp said there was no doubt Astin tried to help hundreds of patients at his western Georgia clinic.

However, the judge said he could not overlook the fact that at least two patients died as a result of Astin’s misconduct.

A federal investigation found Astin wrote prescriptions without conducting physical exams and sometimes gave patients as many as four simultaneous prescriptions for Percocet.

He also prescribed “cocktails” of drugs like Percocet, Oxycontin, Vicodin and Adderall.

“Medical doctors know that after a period of time, if the prescriptions are not working, you get them off,” Assistant US Attorney John Horn said during the hearing.

Investigators cited one case in which an unidentified female patient began receiving a combination of drugs that included Xanax from Astin in 2002.

She died in June 2007, the same month authorities discovered the bodies of wrestler Benoit, his wife and son in their Atlanta home.

Police said Benoit strangled his wife and son and then hanged himself.

A medical examiner could not say whether the steroids Astin prescribed for Benoit played a role in the deaths.

Astin’s sentence was lighter than the recommended 11 to 13 years in jail.

More than 50 of the counts against Astin each carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a US$1 (€733,608) fine.