TYLER (Texas) On Tuesday, a defense attorney representing a former nurse who was accused of murdering four patients in an East Texas hospital told jurors that the victim was just in the wrong place at wrong time. A prosecutor, however, called him a serial killer who had found the perfect hiding place.
William George Davis, 37 years old, from Hallsville is charged with injecting air into four heart patients who had undergone heart surgery at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital, Tyler. This led to the deaths of John Lafferty and Ronald Clark, Christopher Greenway, Joseph Kalina, and Christopher Greenway. Tuesday saw him plead not guilty to capital murder in Tyler.
"No one anticipates that this is going to occur to them, certainly not in hospital," Smith County District Jacob Putnam said to jurors during opening statements. We are going to ask that you find him guilty for capital murder because that is what he did.
Putnam observed that all four of the patients were in stable condition following their surgery, until they all experienced stroke-like symptoms. CT scans revealed abnormal cerebral spaces. He said that Davis was the only nurse present at the time.
Putnam stated that a hospital is the ideal place for serial killers to hide.
Phillip Hayes, defense attorney, described Davis as an innocent victim. Hayes claimed that strokes are not common in intensive-care units where all four patients were receiving treatment.
Putnam stated that testimony will resume Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.
