Lawyers posing insanity defense for wife killer Thomas Sudz
On trial for 2019 death of Beth Alsup-Sudz of Waterford
Attorneys for Thomas Sudz don’t deny he killed his wife of 15 years, Beth Alsup-Sudz, at their Waterford Township home in 2019.
But as the trial against the 74-year-old got underway Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court, the defense team made clear the assertion that insanity drove Sudz to murder — insanity that allegedly developed because of his wife’s infidelity and her repeated denial of it, as well as adverse effects Sudz experienced from psychotropic drugs prescribed by doctors to combat mood disorders he was diagnosed with several weeks earlier.
“There is no way Tom Sudz was in his right mind…At the time of the crime, Mr. Sudz suffered mental illness as legally defined, and as a consequence of the mental illness was legally insane,” attorney David Kramer said, addressing the jury in his opening statement.
Alsup-Sudz, 56, was found dead March 17, 2019 by police conducting a welfare check at the couple’s home on Lockwood Drive. Officers were sent there due to concerns from co-workers and family members
because she hadn’t shown up for work that day and wasn’t responding to phone calls or texts.
According to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office, Alsup-Sudz died from multiple blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries. She’d been stabbed multiple times and had major trauma to her head.
Officers also found Sudz in the home, unconscious from a drug overdose. Investigators believe the overdose was a suicide attempt. He was subsequently charged with firstdegree, premeditated murder. A few weeks after the slaying, 51st District Judge Richard Kuhn sent Sudz to the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry where he was evaluated for competency and criminal responsibility.
In defending him, Kramer and co-counsel Deanna Kelley are working to convince jurors that Sudz is not guilty by reason of insanity. Describing him as “a peaceful pacifist,” a loyal and honest family man with a strong
Christian faith and no history of substance abuse or violence, Kramer said Sudz would not have slain his wife if he “hadn’t been insane at the time of this unfortunate incident.”
He also told the jury to expect testimony from experts and others which supports that claim, adding that “things aren’t always what they seem to be.”
‘I didn’t trust him’
The prosecution, however, maintains that Sudz’s motive for beating and stabbing his wife to death is apparent: She was planning to leave him — and he wasn’t going to stand for it.
“She had met someone else,” assistant prosecutor Heather Brown said in her opening statement, adding that Alsup-Sudz and her daughter had talked about her moving out, with a date set.
“He was angry. She was leaving April 1 — but she never got to leave,” Brown said. “He killed her then. She didn’t get to leave on her own terms because he took that from her.
“This is about anger. This is about jealousy and rage. That’s what this case is all about.”
As seen via Zoom, Jenna Nordgren testifies in Oakland Circuit Court. Nordgren is the daughter of homicide victim Beth AlsupSudz. (Aileen Wingblad/ MediaNews Group)The first witness Brown called to the stand, Alsup-Sudz’ daughter, Jenna Nordgren, testified that she saw a decline in the couple’s marriage about five months before the murder. Sudz would call continuously when she and her mother were out together, Nordgren said. He was manipulative and controlling, she said, an “tried to make people feel bad for him.
“I didn’t trust him,” she said.
At one point, Nordgren said, she sent Sudz a heated email about how he was treating her mother.
“I told him my mom was not his property, he can’t cage a woman, that I was on to him and I thought he was manipulating her,” Nordgren said.
She further testified that she eventually found out mother was unfaithful to Sudz, and that she could stir up anger and frustration with her secretiveness and dishonesty. Nordgren also confirmed a statement she made to police following the murder that Sudz “did strange things” after he started taking his prescribed medication.
The trial continues Thursday morning before Judge Michael Warren. Due to COVID-19 restrictions at the courthouse, capacity is very limited in the courtroom and public viewing of the proceedings is available only by Zoom. Access the webinar via https://zoom. us/j/95811822031.