WATERFORD TOWNSHIP (WWJ) -- Jury selection starts today in the trial of a Waterford man murdering his wife in 2019.
The suspect -- 73-year-old Thomas Sudz -- reportedly plans to argue he was "temporarily insane” when he beat his wife to death with a hammer while she slept.
Sudz’s attorney David Kramer, tells WWJ’s Charlie Langton that his client was “model citizen” before committing the violent act.
“He remembers some of the details and he does now understand,” Kramer said. “It’s important to note that in 70 years of his life, he had never exhibited any violent behavior to anybody, nor had he been in any trouble with the law.”
Police were called to the Waterford Township home on Lockwood Drive to perform a welfare check after Beth Ann Alsup-Sudz failed to show up to work that day.
Authorities then discovered the 56-year-old woman dead in the home from apparent blunt force trauma. Sudz was found unconscious at the scene from a suspected drug overdose.
Suez had been institutionalized for mental health issues just prior to the killing, and had apparently attempted suicide on multiple occasions.
If the jury finds Sudz was temporarily insane at the time of the murder, he will have to enter the state’s Forensic Center, which “conducts evaluations of both male and female Defendants that are charged with crimes that are allegedly mentally ill.”
Kramer says he will then be held there for a minimum of 60 days until it is determined he’s able to safely reenter society.
If found guilty but not temporarily insane, Sudz faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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