FARMINGTON — The question of whether Dr. Robert Allen Weitzel murdered five elderly patients by giving them morphine will be decided by a jury.
After more than three hours of closing arguments Wednesday as part of a preliminary hearing, 2nd District Judge Jon Memmott advanced Weitzel's case toward trial on five first-degree felony murder charges.
Throughout three days of testimony last week and during Wednesday's closing arguments, testimony from physicians and family members was pitted against the carefully documented pages of the deceased patients' medical records filled out by Weitzel, hospital nurses and other consulting physicians.
Prosecutors charge Weitzel engaged in a "pattern of active euthanasia" when he ordered morphine be administered to five elderly patients under his care at the Geriatric-Psychiatric Unit at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton.
Prosecutors allege those doses caused the deaths of Ellen Anderson, 91; Judith Larsen, 93; Mary R. Crane, 72; Lydia M. Smith, 90; and Ennis Alldredge, 83, between Dec. 30, 1995, and Jan. 14, 1996.
Because none of the five patients suffered from chronic pain when they were admitted to the care center, Weitzel acted "intentionally or knowingly" or with "depraved indifference," when he prescribed the morphine, prosecutors say.
"Here you have the administration of a drug that is so dangerous and so insidious that in the course of its administration, if it's not handled properly, creates the same level of risk as pointing a gun at someone's head," prosecutor and Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson said.
After examining three of the five exhumed bodies, state medical examiner Todd Grey characterized only Larsen's death a homicide.
Dr. Bradford Hare, a University of Utah physician and pharmacology expert, said all five deaths were caused by morphine overdoses.
Defense attorney Peter Stirba characterized Weitzel's actions as "comfort care."
He argued the morphine doses were given after family members were notified of the declining health of their loved ones.
"This is not a case where Dr. Weitzel somehow shows up in the middle of the night . . . and somehow administers an illicit injection," Stirba said.
Stirba argued the nurses, who are charged with monitoring patients' conditions and, if necessary, withholding drugs, would have done something if the doses were becoming lethal. "This is not like a general saying to a private, 'Take that hill,' and the private has no choice," Stirba said.
He and Wilson, along with family members of the victims, declined comment after Memmott's ruling.
Weitzel will be back in court Feb. 10 for an arraignment.
He also faces 22 federal drug charges for allegedly ordering pain medication for patients but keeping some of the drugs for his own use. The state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing is also investigating Weitzel for failing to keep accurate prescription records for patients he had seen in private practice through the Red Butte Clinic near the University of Utah. The division suspended Weitzel's medical license in August.
Authorities in Bay City, Texas, are also investigating Weitzel in the December 1998 death of Laura Ware. Ware's family members told the Deseret News they believe Weitzel killed their mother by overdosing her with morphine.