Murder By Selfridge

On Monday, April 29th 2013, a tragedy happened in the small town of Saratoga Springs, Utah.  On that night, a young life was cut short when twenty-nine year old Anna Faustin, pictured above, was shot in the head with a twenty-two caliber rifle.  It became apparent almost immediately that the person responsible for this senseless act was Miss Faustin's long time boyfriend, thirty year old Jay Hamilton, pictured below.

Forensic experts with the Saratoga Springs Police were able to piece together a lot of the details about this case in a quick manner.  Quickly the Utah County District Attorney's Office knew who did the crime, with what weapons, and how those weapons were utilized in the crime.  However, there was one question that was left unanswered in this case: Why?  Why would a young man with a promising future murder the woman he most cared for in a manner that left no doubt of his guilt?  It now appears that prosecutors have an answer to that question.

On Monday, August 26th, Utah County District Attorney Jeff Buhman, pictured above, filed papers relating to the case against Jay Hamilton in preparation for a preliminary hearing, to be held on September 5th.  Buried in those documents is a statement from psychiatrist Dr. Maurice Chavez.  In that statement, Dr. Chavez puts forth the theory that Mr. Hamilton's actions may be driven by depictions seen in an episode of the PBS series Masterpiece Classic on Sunday, March 31st.  March 31st is the day that Mr. Selfridge premiered in America.

Mr. Selfridge is a British period television drama series about Harry Gordon Selfridge and his London department store Selfridge & Co.  Mr. Selfridge stars Jeremy Piven as the title character, as well as Frances, O'Connor, Tom Goodman-Hill, and Zoe Tapper.  Mr. Selfridge does not include heavy depictions of violence, but rather contains many depictions of a London department store in the early 1900's.

The court filings submitted on Monday do not go into detail as to how exactly Dr. Chavez ties together the crime and the British period drama.  Calls to Dr. Chavez's office looking for a statement went unanswered, as well as calls to the Utah County District Attorney.  We did get a statement from the star of Mr. Selfridge.  Through his agent, Jeremy Piven is quoted as saying, "This is an outrageous claim to make.  What's next, a claim that this murder was committed because of Grand Theft Auto?"