As previously reported, Tim Lambesis was granted a new bail review hearing last Friday in regards to his arrest for attempting to hire a hitman to kill his estranged wife. During the new hearing, the As I Lay Dying singer’s bail was lowered from $3 million to $2 million. However, the hearing also found Lambesis taking a different route in his defense, blaming the plot to murder his wife on steroid use.
Video reports from CBS and NBC’s San Diego affiliates can be seen below. However, while Lambesis’ former attorney Anthony Salerno was previously trying to spin the case as a “set up,” the singer’s new defense lawyer Thomas Warwick told the court that he became using steroids the more he became involved in body building and gym culture. “His thought processes were devastatingly affected by his steroid use,” Warwick reportedly told the court. The lawyer also claimed that he went from 170 to 220-pounds and the steroids caused “changes in his physiological and mental status.” “Was not the same person. He was irritable and lost God,” Warwick explained. “He was a very caring, gentle man [before taking steroids] and we need to get him back.” Lambesis is also reportedly going through steroid withdrawal and getting personal counseling from a jail chaplain, while in total isolation in jail for protection from other inmates.
However, the judge still declared Lambesis a danger to society and his estranged wife, and only lowered the bail by $1 million (Lambesis’ lawyer had hoped for it to be lowered to $250,000, and the singer will remain in jail since he still cannot afford bail). During the hearing (which was attended by many of the estranged wife Meggan’s friends, as well as Lambesis’ family), Claudia Grasso also gave additional insight behind the actual bust. She claimed in court that Lambesis had actually agreed to pay the undercover detective (not police officer as previously believed) portraying a hitman named “Red” a total of $20,000, giving him $1,000 as down payment at the meeting.
Lambesis is expected back in court on May 29, where he could serve up to nine years in prison if found guilty. While this whole ordeal is still mind-blowingly shocking, the fact that steroids altered Lambesis’ state of mind makes more sense than it being a set up. Just take one look at Lambesis, and it’s obvious that his physical appearance rapidly changed over the past two years. To see proof of this, check out a photo found by The PRP showing Lambesis dressed as Conan (in support of his Austrian Death Machine project) in 2009 and in 2013. At the same time, while steroid use might contribute to a changed thought process, there’s a big difference between acting out while on steroids and actually plotting and scheming to have someone killed. It seems a lot more premeditated than, for example, beating someone to death in a ‘roid rage.
Watch video news reports from both CBS and NBC below.
[additional details via Lambgoat]
