Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Justin Levens and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Wednesday, December 17, 2009. An autopsy was conducted on Thursday but investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine if the deceased had used any drugs prior to their deaths. Yet, bloggers and writers are jumping on the steroid bandwagon blaming anabolic steroids as a potential culprit for the tragedy (”Justin Levens Suspected of Killing Wife and Himself,” December 18).
Wrestling is a sport that has brutal action, and often an even more brutal aftermath for fighters. Mixed martial arts, which is becoming a powerful alternative to wrestling, appears to be no different. Drugs, steroids and a bad mental state outside the ring may be just as prominent in mixed martial arts. That may have been the case for former competitor Justin Levens, who is suspected to have killed himself after killing his wife.
A few have approached the Levens murder-suicide tragedy without such steroid hysterics. Fightlinker thinks people need to stop focusing so much on steroids while ignoring painkillers which are a “bigger elephant in the room” (”Stop trying to disown Justin Levens,” December 19).
Levens was a mixed martial artist who was hooked on painkillers. Pain med addiction is a serious problem in our sport, and it’s only getting worse. What happened with Levens was obviously a rare and horrible outcome, and it’s not like we’re expecting James Irvin and Joe Riggs to go off like ticking time bombs any second now. But we might want to maybe consider looking into the painkiller issue. I don’t know what can be done, but at this point they’re a bigger elephant in the room than steroids are.
Sherdog makes note of several events that point to potential painkiller use/abuse by Justin Leven aka “The Executioner” Read more
David Jacobs, the convicted steroid dealer that murdered his ex-girlfriend and then committed suicide, continues to take people down posthumously. The lawyer for NFL football player Ryan Fowler, a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans, suspects his client faces suspension based on a so-called non-analytical positive arising from information provide by David Jacobs to the NFL. Jacobs previously publicly identified former Dallas Cowboys football player Matt Lehr as purchaser of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
I spoke with Bob Johnson of Posedown Magazine Saturday night at the 2008 NPC Lone Star Classic in Plano, Texas; he told me Jacobs behavior and actions were not a big surprise. Last night, Johnson told Jason Trahan of the Dallas Morning News that he is not surprised that Jacobs is hurting people in death as he did in life (”Plano steroids trafficker told newspaper he supplied Cowboys player,” June 10).
“I don’t believe anything Jacobs said. He died the way he lived his life – always taking somebody down with him.”
There is the likely possibility that David Jacobs could take down several more people posthumously. Before he died, he identified many names of individuals who allegedly purchased anabolic steroids from him; he shared the information with prosecutors, journalists, bloggers, and others who asked him about his involvement in steroid distribution. Earlier this year, Jacobs had told the Dallas Morning News that he sold anabolic steroids to football player Ryan Fowler.
Mr. Jacobs spoke to The News about his dealings with Mr. Fowler with the understanding that some details not be immediately published. After his death and after Mr. Fowler’s attorney linked the league’s action to Mr. Jacobs, The News decided to make some of the information public.
Mr. Jacobs said that with his help, Mr. Fowler, who played in Dallas from 2004 to 2006, went from making $400,000 as a Cowboy to signing a four-year, $11.5 million contract with the Titans, where he was a starting linebacker last season.
“After he got his big contract, he came back, knocked on my door and hugged me,” Mr. Jacobs said. “He said, thanks, I just got $12 million.”
Mr. Jacobs also divulged this information to federal prosecutors over the last year.
In addition, he turned over text messages, e-mails and other evidence of his dealings with Mr. Fowler and other players to the NFL in recent weeks in an attempt to “clean up” the game.
Jacobs showed no reluctance dropping names of “steroid customers” when I interviewed him earlier this year. There is no reason to suspect that he did not share the same information with prosecutors.
They asked me about a few people. They asked me about ********* and they ask me about *********. And for obvious reasons, I was in magazines and videos with them and everything like that so there was a very clear link and association. And they ask me straight up, “Has ********* ever been involved in distributing steroids?” And I said absolutely not, not in any way. As a matter of fact, he has been very adamant and not ever being involved in any of it. He has a good contract, he has an export business, and he has his own gym. The guy wouldn’t even need to think about doing anything like that. He is making great money on his own. Then they just said ‘ok.’ And that was the first and last time they ever asked about him.
[...]
If I were to tell them every single person that I sold steroids to, then half the IFBB would go away. That would just be ridiculous. That’s why people who know me and know who are my friends are and who I have been involved with, that’s why they still stand by me and say thanks for being strong and being cool because… As you can see ********** hasn’t been arrested. As you can see, ********* and *********, and all these other guys they haven’t been arrested. Nothing has happened to them.
[...]
I think ********* and ********* and ********* and ********* and all these guys who have not been brought in or anything like that attests to the fact that they are not targeting bodybuilders. And not only that, it attests to the fact that I didn’t do anything or say anything to get them in trouble.
The deaths of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs and Amanda Savell have been officially ruled a murder suicide. But the Plano Police Department fucked up made a mistake by failing to pass the investigation over to an independent agency.
Why was this the obvious call?
It gives the appearance of a conflict of interest when Plano Police are investigating the suspicious death of a convicted steroid dealer who could have ratted out police officers who purchased steroids from him not only in the Plano Police Department but also the Dallas, Garland, Richardson and Arlington Police Departments; not only that, but he told practically everyone that Plano P.D. stole $4500 and human growth hormone from him during the April 2007 raid of his residence.
Tanya Eiserer (following up on Jason Trahan’s story) called them out on their conflict of interest in the Dallas Morning News, yet Plano P.D. couldn’t see any reason why they shouldn’t investigate (”Steroid dealer David Jacobs’ death ruled a suicide,” June 6).
“The Plano Police Department will handle this investigation as we do with all of the others,” Plano Officer Andrae Smith said Friday. “The bottom line is there’s no reason to conclude that we shouldn’t investigate this.”
Furthermore, the circumstances of the death, specifically the uncommon case of multiple gunshots in the Jacobs’ suicide, make the death somewhat suspicious even in the absence of a clear conflict of interest by police. The Dallas Morning News reports that David Jacobs “died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to his stomach and head.”
How often do suicide victims turn up with multiple gunshot wounds? Steroid Nation found a paper to answer this question - according to the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology (1981 Sep;2(3):239-42), approximately 1.6% of firearm suicides have multiple gunshot wounds.
Grits for Breakfast asks what are the odds that an steroid dealer selling steroids to a major police department in Texas AND a pharmacist selling steroids to a major police department in New York both committing suicide with multiple gunshot wounds before they testify against any police officers (”Informant who accused Metroplex police of steroid use turns up dead,” June 6).
A similar case involving NYPD in January caught my eye, and made me wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes regarding steroid use in law enforcement. A pharmacist set to testify against NYPD police was found shot to death. As I pointed out previously, “his case was ruled a suicide, despite ‘gunshot wounds to the chest and head.’” Reacting to this news, I’d wondered “Have you ever heard of a suicide with two shots to the chest and the head? If the guy accusing Roger Clemens turned up dead under these circumstances, do you think there’d be a bigger media hoopla than the one-day story in passing that constituted coverage of this pharmacist’s death?”
Now we’ve seen informants accusing police of steroid use at two of the largest police departments in the country turn up shot to death within months of one another under suspicious circumstances before they could testify.
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe both cases were suicides, or perhaps one or both were killed by non-police customers or suppliers. I’m not so much speculating about likelihoods as acknowledging a dark, unhappy, but seemingly inescapable hunch. I’d certainly feel better if the FBI or somebody outside Plano PD took over the task of investigating David Jacob’s’ death.
The Plano Police Department should have learned from the “suspicious-looking” suicide in the Lowen’s Pharmacy steroid case.
The family, friends and loved ones of the deceased need some sort of closure in this tragedy. But the poor judgment exercised in the investigation of this case by the Plano P.D. will only provide fodder for conspiracy theorists to keep this story alive indefinitely.
Former professional bodybuilder Craig Titus has pleaded guilty to second degree murder, first degree kidnapping and first degree arson. Fitness pro Kelly Ryan, the wife of Craig Titus, also pleaded guilty days before their trial was scheduled to start. The plea agreement spares the sport of bodybuilding from a sensationalistic trial where anabolic steroids are likely to be demonized; we anticipated a “dumbbell defense” with the requested appointment of clinical psychologist David Schmidt of UNLV.
Local news stations have breaking news about the case and sentencing.
Once stars in the bodybuilding world, they are accused of using a stun gun, drugging and suffocating 28-year-old Melissa James in December of 2005. James burned body was found in a burned out Jaguar belonging to Ryan.
Details of Kelly Ryan’s plea agreement have not been released, but it appears that Craig Titus has been spared the death penalty.
Titus now faces a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years on the murder charge, 5 to 15 on kidnapping charge, and 2 to 15 years on the arson charge.
When Robert Sepe brutally murdered his girlfriend with a baseball bat, the media immediately speculated that anabolic steroids caused him to do it. The apparent reasoning was that the crime was so horrific that only an anabolic steroid user with roid rage would be capable of such violence. The “brutality of the crime” coupled with Sepe’s ownership of a supplement company apparently prompted the Journal News to write about a possible link between steroid abuse and murder.
New information suggests that Sepe was strongly against illegal and recreational drug use and likely even anti-steroid. He even abstained from alcohol and coffeee (”Cortlandt slay suspect told cops of ’surreal’ events,” April 29).
In discussing weighlifting, he went into great detail about how various vitamins and supplements could affect the body. He said he hated drugs and never used illegal substances such as cocaine and marijuana. He didn’t even drink coffee or alcohol, or eat meat, though he had once tried venison, he told them.
But he did admit to using prescription drugs Elavil and Zoloft to treat psychopathology and an undisclosed blood pressure medication.
During a five hour standoff, he started out by lying about his identify and eventually opened up and talked about some serious problems he said he was having. He told police he had been suffering from panic attacks, depression and insomnia in recent months, and that he was taking two psychotropic medications, Elavil and Zoloft, along with medicine to control high blood pressure; he mentioned he had one pill in his pocket. He claimed the various drugs were “contradicting each other” and that his psychologists and internists “didn’t know what each other was prescribing.”
Zoloft and roid rage? It doesn’t quite have the same sensationalistic impact as steroid roid rage; it is kind like prednisone roid rage. Yet there are various websites demonizing Zoloft suggesting it can cause normal invidividuals to turn into “homicidal maniacs“!
It seems that there is a natural tendency to ascribe a single cause for senseless events like suicide and murder. Anabolic steroids are the demon of choice in such events irrespective of the actual potential causes of such behavior. But if the media wants to blame steroids for the violent crime of Robert Sepe, the actual use of anabolic steroids by the perpetrator is a prerequisite for this unsubstantiated claim. This is unfortunate for the anti-steroid crusaders seeking to capitalize on the current trend of steroid hysteria in the media and popular culture.
Robert Sepe, owner of Healthy ‘N Fit supplement company, brutally murdered his girlfriend Janette Carlucci, beating her so badly with a metal baseball bat that she had to be identified through dental records (”Corlandt man charged with bludgeoning girlfriend gets new lawyer,” April 8 ).
Because of the brutality of the crime and the fact that Sepe’s company sells supplements such as Advanced Steroidal Complex, and Anabolic Muscle, observers have wondered whether steroid abuse was a factor.
The media is trying too hard to demonize anabolic steroids nowadays. Even in the absence of evidence of steroid use, the desire for a “roid rage” explanation has begun. The suggestion that the brutality of a crime likely resulted from steroid use is a reflection of the level of steroid hysteria in our society.
Never mind that there are no controlled scientific studies of “roid rage” and that the scientific evidence is mostly unsupportive of a relationship between anabolic steroids and aggression.
(Thanks to Inside Bodybuilding for story.)
Reporters from around the country have descended upon Houston, Texas pursuing their steroid witch hunt against anyone who may have used steroids or could have potentially provided anabolic steroids to Major League Baseball players e.g. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. The targets in their steroid investigation have expanded from fitness professionals Kelly Blair (of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness) and Shaun Kelley (of Shaun Kelley Weight Control) to at least one Houston-area physician.
In the absence of evidence connecting Shaun Kelley with providing steroids to Roger Clemens, speculation surrounds Lisa Routh, M.D. of Brainwaves Neuroimaging Clinic in Houston who worked with Shaun Kelley.
There is no evidence that Dr. Routh prescribed steroids to Roger Clemens or any major league baseball player for that matter but she was outspoken in her defense of the use of anabolic steroids in medicine. She admits to prescribing testosterone and growth hormone to policemen, professional wrestlers, and people who work out in an effort to improve their quality of life. Furthermore, Dr. Routh proposed that professional athletes be permitted to use performance enhancing drugs under a doctor’s supervision (”Houston-area gyms part of drug culture beyond sports scope,” March 16).
Interviews with Routh, of the Brainwaves Medical Center in Houston, and with eight former and current employees of Kelley, reveal a corner of the fitness industry where the same drugs that are stigmatizing professional sports are seen simply as a lifestyle choice for others.
Routh told The News that she regularly prescribed testosterone and human growth hormone for a large number of Boston policemen, who “get on a frickin’ plane and come down here twice a year, for frickin’ growth hormone and testosterone.”
She said she prescribes other hormones for menopausal women and professional wrestlers – all in the name of quality of life. Furthermore she argued for legalizing such drugs in professional sports, provided athletes have medical care.
“We pay them ridiculously, because we expect performance, and I think the bottom line is safety,” says Routh, who proposes allowing big-league baseball clubs to contract with five or 10 doctors in every city who would be the only league-approved providers of drugs. Players caught going elsewhere for their ‘roids would get hit with a fine.
“If someone wants to use human growth hormone or a testosterone product, they need to be under a physician’s supervision,” says Routh. “If they buy stuff off the black market or off some gym rat and they’re not under a doctor’s supervision, they should pay a penalty, and they should get the penalty that hurts, in the wallet.”
The Daily News also persists in its efforts to tarnish and incriminate fitness professionals in Houston. They continued their attack on 1-on -1 Elite Personal Fitness (even though Kelly Blair categorically denied their allegations) by reporting that co-owner Kevin Schexnider was prescribed testosterone cypionate and Anadrol by Revolution Medical Center in Phoenix several years ago; further Schexnider knew former bodybuilder Craig Titus who is awaiting trial on murder charges.
New York Yankees baseball player Andy Pettitte allegedly obtained human growth hormone from his father who obtained it from Kelly Blair who may have obtained it from pro bodybuilder Craig Titus. It has yet to be determined where Craig Titus obtained the growth hormone. Former IFBB Pro bodybuilder Craig Titus has been in jail awaiting trial in the murder of his personal assistant
Kelly Blair is the owner of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness in Pasadena, Texas. He attended Deer Park High School with Andy Pettite. Craig Titus is formerly from the Houston area.
According to the Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan Investigation website:
The Daily News reports some of the drugs came from steroid-user Craig Titus, a champion bodybuilder who is facing a murder trial in Nevada for the slaying of his former live-in assistant.
Kelly Blair is also allegedly linked to Roger Clemens son:
Also, Blair was reportedly seen working with Koby Clemens, the son of seven- time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who was involved in a heated congressional hearing this past week. However, the Daily News reports that Koby Clemens, who is now playing baseball in the minors, hasn’t been linked to any illicit activity at the gym.
The Los Angeles Police Department discovered former bodybuilding cosmetic surgeon Bruce Nadler, MD and his wife dead as the result of gunshot wounds on Monday, February 4, 2008. Authorities believe it is an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by Bruce Nadler.
Bruce Nadler called himself the “world’s strongest plastic surgeon.” He was probably the best known cosmetic surgeon catering to amateur and professional bodybuilders. He had performed over 700 gynecomastia surgeries in his career; “gyno” is a side effect of anabolic steroid use when antiaromatase and/or estrogen antagonists are not use concurrently.
After retiring from the practice of medicine in August 2005, Dr. Nadler, who called himself “the world’s strongest plastic surgeon,” wrote the “The Nip Tuck Workout: Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon” and subsequently moved with his wife to Los Angeles to reinvent himself in a new career as personal trainer with the opening of Nip Tuck Fitness LA in Beverly Hills.
Retired plastic surgeon and certified personal trainer Bruce J. Nadler M.D. has brought his Plastic Synergy training system to Los Angeles. As stated in his book, “The Nip Tuck Workout – Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon,” Dr. Nadler has created an exercise program based on the plastic surgical principles of proportion and symmetry. It combines careful analysis with an individualized exercise prescription.
Bruce Nadler, MD retired after the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct charged him with 29 specifications of professional misconduct in thirteen patients according to public records. Rather than fight the charges, Nadler submitted and consent agreement and voluntarily relinquished his medical license.
The specifications of professional misconduct were primarily related to prescribing a variety of anabolic steroids, growth hormone and ancillary medications used by bodybuilders including Saizen, Serostim, Genotropin, Androgel, Depo Testosterone, Delatestryl, Deca Durabolin, testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate, Nolvadex, Proscar, Clomid, tamoxifen, Arimidex, Finasteride and Viagra. In each case, he was accused of the following:
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Failure to obtain and/or note an adequate and complete medical history and/or history of current complaint from patient.
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Failure to perform and/or note a complete and appropriate physical examination of patient.
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Failure to obtain and/or note appropriate and medically indicated laboratory studies on patient including: prolactin, TSH, LH, hepatic and renal function, and assays for estrogen levels and HCG.
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Failure to properly diagnose patient’s condition and/or rule out underlying disorders.
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Inappropriately and without medical idnication and/or justification, prescribing and/or maintaining patient on various medications.
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Failure to maintain a medical record for patient in accordance with accepted medical standards which accurately reflects his care and treatment of the patient.
Bruce Nadler’s beliefs regarding anabolic steroids and bodybuilding were controversial for physician. He explained his own steroid use and his willingness to prescribe steroids and growth hormone to his patients in an interview with Testosterone Nation:
I’m my own test laboratory in that respect because, in the last two years, I’ve been taking 6 to 8 IUs a week of growth hormone, and I alternate between 200 mg a week of deca and 200 mg of testosterone cypionate the next week. Instead of going super physiological, I believe in just going to maximum natural levels to that of a man in his twenties. In this way, there are no side effects.
Nadler was also critical of the steroid hysteria in the U.S. and the political posturing surrounding anabolic steroids:
I’ve always felt that politicians always have to make the majority of the electorate think that they’re doing something? So they inconvenience a small, unimportant group, like bodybuilders. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Somebody hands them a speech, and they go! They took something that could have been done safely and sent it to the black market and all of the inherent dangers that go along with dealing with that element. Will they ever be legal again? I hope so.
The man that pro bodybuilder Craig Titus hired to kill witnesses has been found guilty on three counts of solicitation to commit murder. Nelson Ronald Brady, Jr. was an obsessed bodybuilding fan of Craig Titus who told investigators that Titus asked him to kill Anthony Gross, Megan Pierson Foley and Jeremy Foley. These three witnesses offered incriminating testimony against Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan during grand jury proceedings. Titus and Ryan are charged with killing their personal assistant, Melissa James, in December 2005.
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Hidetada Yamagishi has retained one of the top Hollywood defense attorneys, Shawn Chapman Holley to defend him in his legal case involving steroid possession and steroid distribution; Holley is a uber celebrity attorney with an impressive resume defending celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Richey, rapper The Game and Michelle Rodriguez.
Shawn Chapman Holley is a Partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP, the chief legal correspondent for E! Entertainment Television, the former Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office of the Cochran Firm, former head of the Cochran Firm’s national Criminal Defense Section.
She is probably best known as a member of O.J. Simpson’s defense team, aka the “Dream Team,” in Simpson’s criminal murder trial. She has extensive legal experience in high-profile cases:
Ms. Holley successfully defended Sara Jane Olson in her highly-publicized cases involving crimes committed by the Symbionese Liberation Army more than twenty-eight years ago. Her clients have included Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, actors Stan Shaw and Nia Long, and NBA basketball stars Larry Johnson and Byron Scott. She was also a member of the defense team which successfully represented celebrated Black Panther leader Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt in a highly-publicized hearing which resulted in his release from prison after more than twenty-five years and the reversal of his murder conviction. Ms. Holley is Chief Legal Correspondent for the E! Network, providing on-air commentary on topical legal issues concerning entertainers and the entertainment industry. She was on-air legal analyst for KABC Eyewitness News in Los Angeles for several years and appears frequently on the Today Show, Good Morning America, PrimeTime Live, The O’Reilly Factor, Court TV, Fox News and CNN. She was a featured lawyer on Fox TV’s Power of Attorney for two seasons and was most recently featured as an on-air legal analyst on the E! Network’s nightly international coverage of the Michael Jackson trial.
With the benefit of Shawn Chapman Holley, Hide may able to get out of jail next week on reduced misdemeanor charges with time served, avoid deportation, and continue to compete in IFBB pro bodybuilding contests in the United States.
Ron Nelson Brady, Jr. is accused of attempting to hire an undercover police detective posing as a hitman to kill three witnesses testifying against Pro Bodybuilder Craig Titus. Brady was described in court as a bizarrely obsessed fan of professoinal bodybuilder Craig Titus; muscle hero worship was cited as the motive behind his participation in the assassination plot that prosecution witnesses in the Titus-Ryan murder trial.
Craig Titus and wife IFBB Pro Fitness competitor Kelly Ryan were charged with murder, third degree arson and attempting to avoid prosecution in the homicide of Melissa James. The bodybuilding couple has been incarcerated since their arrest in December 2005. Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan are set to go to trial on June 2, 2008.
