Girlfriend, Colleagues Defend Slain Doctor

HOUSTON -- The girlfriend of a doctor, who police say was gunned down by his own son, spoke to Local 2 Monday night about the fatal shooting.

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Friends Speak Out About Doctor's Fatal Shooting Taped Conversations Reveal Accusations, Allegations From Bitter Breakup

Kaye Dee Lutes, who says she dated 41-year-old Rick Lohstroh for two years, said he had driven to Katy on Friday to pick up his two sons at his ex-wife's home -- something she said was unusual.

"Normally, (the children) should have been picked up at the school. (He usually) picks them up from school, not at her house," Lutes told Local 2. "What happened Friday is a child that I do not know, that I've never seen before."

Colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where Lohstroh worked, said he was a man who loved his kids very much and would never hurt them.

"There is a hole. We never expected to lose Rick like this," UTMB Dr. Paul English said.

Police say Lohstroh was shot and killed Friday by his 10-year-old son while sitting in his sport utility vehicle outside his ex-wife's home in Katy.

A judge ruled Monday during a closed-court hearing in Houston to keep the 10-year-old boy in custody. Another detention hearing was scheduled for Sept. 13.

"I am very concerned. I love my son very much," the 10-year-old boy's mother, Deborah Geisler, said after the hearing. "He appears to be doing OK. He is eating, exercising, and is following the rules."

Geisler, through her attorney, reported her ex-husband repeatedly sexually abused the boy.

"I firmly believe that this young man was the victim of physical and sexual abuse, and that is something we are going to be investigating very, very seriously," Geisler's attorney said.

Lohstroh's divorce attorney, Kathleen Collins, said there is no evidence of abuse.

"There was a thorough investigation by two police departments," Collins told Local 2.

She said the allegations were leveled in the spring of 2002 during the couple's contentious divorce hearing. No charges were ever filed and both parents were awarded custody of their 10-year-old son and his 7-year-old brother.

Lohstroh's attorney said she believes many questions remain about what happened Friday.

"How did the child get the gun?" she asked before Monday's hearing, adding she isn't convinced the child acted alone.

Tritico said Monday after a juvenile court hearing that he expects a civil murder charge to be filed against the boy.

"This is a tragic case, a tragedy on all sides," attorney Chris Tritico said. "It is a breakdown of the system that resulted in the tragic loss of a human life. It is going to take a lot more work and investigation to prepare this case for the trial it is going to have to have."

Tritico says the boy was a victim of physical and sexual abuse by his father, allegations denied by Lohstroh's divorce attorney Kathleen Collins. Tritico also said he was looking into the role the boy's Prozac prescription could have played.

"I don't know enough about the effects of Prozac on a 10-year-old to know what, if any, role it played," Tritico said in Tuesday's edition of the Houston Chronicle. "That will certainly be one of the things we'll be looking into."

A psychiatrist prescribed Prozac for the boy in early August after he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, the boy's mother, Deborah Geisler, told the newspaper. He started with a 10-milligram dose and gradually moved to higher doses.

The week before the shooting, the boy started taking a once-a-week, time-release dosage of 90 milligrams, Geisler said. He took his second 90-milligram pill just hours before the shooting.

Bill Hawkins, head of the Harris County District Attorney's Juvenile Division, said a murder charge is among those being considered by prosecutors who have to review autopsy reports, offense reports and the boy's history before making a decision.

"There is all kinds of stuff we will look at before any charging decision will be made," he said. "The only thing I can confirm ... is because of his age, he won't be certified (as an adult). He's not eligible for certification so he will remain in the juvenile system."

Juvenile division officials said the boy could face a murder charge. If he were convicted, he would be placed in the care of the Texas Youth Commission until his 18th birthday. He would then be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where he could serve up to 40 years in prison.

The couple last year had finalized a rocky divorce but remained volatile, Collins said.

Lohstroh, who worked as an emergency room doctor in Galveston, had come to pick up his two children. According to a Harris County Sheriff's Department report, the oldest child retrieved a gun from his mother's bedroom, climbed into the back seat and began firing "through the back of the driver's seat striking his father."

"He then exited the vehicle and fired more times, striking his father's vehicle as well as a neighbor's car parked near the victim's vehicle," Sgt. B.E. Williams said in a statement. "He then returned to the house where the mother took the weapon from him and called 911."

Geisler did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press on Monday.

She told the Houston Chronicle in Sunday's editions the boy "was very angry with his father." She told the paper she did not know how the child got the gun, which she said she kept locked and unloaded in her home in Katy.

"He is acting as any 10-year-old would when you go through a tragedy such as this," Tritico said, describing the situation as "a horrific and scary event for a 10-year-old."

Child Protective Services has a history of involvement with the family, but that information is confidential because the state never took custody of the children and no criminal charges were filed, CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.

The couple married in San Antonio in 1988. They divorced last year, with Lohstroh receiving their $355,000 home in Friendswood, about 25 miles south of Houston. They also agreed to joint custody, with the children spending a week with each parent, Collins said.

Lohstroh met Geisler in college and the couple married during Lohstroh's first year of medical school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, said a close friend, Dr. Sumit Guha.

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