Friends: Schmitz had years of depression

The Associated Press

PONTIAC, Mich. -- A man accused of shooting a fellow talk-show guest over the revelation of a same-sex crush had a history of depression and attempted suicides, friends and relatives say.

Jonathan Schmitz, according to a former girlfriend, sometimes became violent and abused alcohol when he was depressed. Employers said he was a model worker before the taping of "The Jenny Jones Show." In the segment, which never aired, Scott Amedure revealed he had a secret crush on the avowedly heterosexual Schmitz. Three days after the March 6, 1995, taping, Schmitz fatally shot Amedure. Schmitz had said he expected to meet a female admirer and that he wasn't told the show could deal with same-sex crushes. Amedure's family is suing the show, its production company, Telepictures Inc. and its distributor, Warner Bros., for $50 million. They claim the show drove the already unbalanced Schmitz to kill. Ed Glavin, the show's executive producer, testified Friday that producers avoided any guests they thought might be unbalanced. "We don't put people on the show who look like they have something wrong with them," he said. Schmitz's former girlfriend, Kristin Joyce, testified Thursday she and Schmitz met in 1989, when he was 19 and she was 20. They lived together for four years, she said. In their time together, she testified, Schmitz would have repeated bouts of depression. During the bouts, he would become suspicious of others, suspecting her of cheating and worrying that people were staring at him, Joyce said. While depressed, he would go on drinking binges and would smoke marijuana, she said. Schmitz also would turn violent -- punching or kicking walls and several times striking her, Joyce said. After a violent episode on Christmas Eve 1993, Joyce said she made Schmitz promise to get psychiatric help. The antidepressant Zoloft helped, but later he stopped taking the medication and she broke up with him in June 1994, Joyce said. "I wasn't mad at him -- I couldn't be mad at him -- because he was mentally ill," she said. Schmitz' sister, Jennifer Yeokum, testified he told her he hoped the admirer on the show was Joyce. She said she also feared Schmitz would try to kill himself -- something he had attempted three times before -- after being surprised by Amedure on the show. Schmitz, who worked as a waiter, was a punctual, efficient worker who, after the taping of the show, became withdrawn and absent- minded, according to the restaurant's co-owner, Kevin Downey. Schmitz, 28, was convicted of second-degree murder. His conviction was reversed on a technicality; his retrial is set for Aug. 19.

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