A Houston man was moments away from pleading guilty to killing his wife when he suddenly collapsed in front of the judge and never got back up.
James Paul Anderson, 37, was expected to accept a plea deal Friday that would send him to prison for 35 years for the murder of his wife, 34-year-old Victoria Anderson.
Instead, he suffered what officials described as a “medical emergency” shortly after arriving at the courtroom in Houston’s Criminal Justice Center.
A bailiff administered naloxone, a drug used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses, and Anderson was transported to Ben Taub Hospital where he was pronounced dead, prosecutors said in a statement.
Witnesses told KHOU that just before he collapsed, Anderson spoke to his attorney and asked for a few moments alone. When he returned to the courtroom, he allegedly spit something into a trash can, the witnesses claimed.
Moments later, Anderson began vomiting and became visibly ill before collapsing.
Anderson had been out on a $300,000 bond while awaiting trial for the murder of his wife on September 24, 2023. That night, Victoria Anderson called 911 from the couple’s Kingwood-area home and told a dispatcher her husband was threatening to shoot her. Moments later, the dispatcher reportedly heard a gunshot.
When officers arrived, Anderson barricaded himself inside the house, but allowed the couple’s three-year-old son to leave safely. Prosecutors said they believed the child may have witnessed his mother’s killing. He was not injured.
A tense standoff lasted for hours before Anderson surrendered. Inside, police discovered Victoria dead from a gunshot wound.
Court records show Victoria had filed for divorce just one month before her death, and authorities noted previous reports of domestic strife at the residence, KHOU reported.
Anderson, a former chair of the Special Education Department at Santa Fe Middle School, had been placed on administrative leave following his arrest.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death.
