A Shiawassee County man is accused of trying to poison his soon-to-be ex-wife.
The woman claims he slipped a drug mixture into her morning coffee.
Wednesday, Kevin Frank Fabus has a preliminary exam in Shiawassee County. That's where a judge will decide if there's enough evidence for this case to go to trial.
Police say the man may have gotten the drugs from the Lansing hospital where he works as a nurse.
The drugs allegedly in the drink were diazepam, verapamil, and spironolactone. Police say Kevin Frank Fabus put the cocktail in his wife's coffee, but she was suspicious and didn't drink it.
Experts tell me that if ingested, the combination can be deadly.
"Diazepam in particular, if the dose is high enough, and the amount you're getting. It can actually slow you're breathing to a point where it would stop," William Jackson said.
Dr. William Jackson, PhD. of the Michigan State Unversity Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology says that diazepam, or valium, in particular, is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world. It is prescribed for patients with anxiety, muscle spasms, or seizures. He says that it isn't uncommon for it to be misused.
"So you can kill, people actually take it for suicide," he said.
The Shiawassee County Sheriff's office says the incident happened in May as the couple was going through a divorce. Police say the victim was suspicious after her husband made her coffee, because he had never done that before, so she contacted police. Dr. Jackson says ultimately it depends on the dosage of each of the drugs, but that was the right move.
"If you mix all of those things together...it could be a lethal combination. Usually, combinations of drugs are worse than a single drug alone. They all have different effects, and so you mix those together and it's probably not a good thing," Dr. Jackson said.
The coffee was sent to a lab and it was confirmed there were drugs in the drink. A second test was unable to determine if there was an excessive amount, which would have allowed police to make a case of attempted murder.
FOX 47 reached out to the wife but did not hear back.
If Fabus is convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
