Killer Nurse by John Foxjohn

Author:John Foxjohn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

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Trial preparations were a different process for both sides. Clyde Herrington, though he was the clear leader of the prosecution team, delegated areas of responsibility. Layne Thompson would handle all the questions about the water in DaVita, the expert witnesses, and everything to do with the water purification process. Chris Tortorice would handle the sciences and the medical experts in the case, and Herrington would handle all the rest of the witnesses. It was an equitable partnership of the humongous caseload.

While Herrington was taking care of the legal end, he gave a lot of credit to Sergeant Steve Abbott. “Abbott’s the most modest person I’ve ever seen,” Herrington said. “He’s quiet but very bright. Not only that, but he has the ability to get people to cooperate with him.” Herrington went on to say, “Abbott was able to work well with the different law enforcement agencies that were helping in the investigation. In a lot of cases, there are jealousies and rivalries with law enforcement groups, but not in this case, and Abbott was the reason.”

He also pointed to Abbott’s tireless work ethic. In January 2011, Abbott moved his office from the police department to the courthouse. Herrington said, “It was nothing for Abbott to work from seven in the morning to ten at night.”

By now, the DA wholeheartedly believed that Kimberly Saenz was a serial killer. The important thing to him was getting this person out of society so no one else died.

In Texas, the prosecutor is responsible for proving every one of the “elements of a crime” in order to convict the person charged. One of the hardest elements to prove in the Saenz case was that the victims had actually been murdered. In most homicides, that’s the easy part—a homicide victim’s cause of death is usually pretty obvious, like a gunshot wound. However, the death certificates listed Ms. Clara Strange’s, Ms. Thelma Metcalf’s, and Ms. Opal Few’s causes of death as natural. Two of the women had been dead almost a month before the witnesses saw Saenz inject the two other patients with bleach, and before anyone would even consider something like this was possible. Second, Herrington had to prove that these crimes took place on a certain date and time, and third, that Saenz had intentionally or knowingly caused the deaths, and finally, that these crimes happened in Angelina County, Texas, where he had jurisdiction.

Complicating matters further, Saenz wasn’t merely charged with murder—she was charged with capital murder. In other words, the prosecution had to prove all the elements of murder plus the fact that Saenz had killed more than one person in the same way. Usually only one of the elements would be in dispute, but in the Saenz case, they had to fight for each one of them.

Still, while the prosecution team’s preparations went like a greased pig sliding down a chute, the defense team at times seemed to be stuck in the slop.

Cheryl Pettry was a mitigation specialist brought in by Steve Taylor.

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