LAYTON — Authorities Tuesday will begin to exhume and autopsy the bodies of two women who allegedly died of morphine overdoses ordered by a Salt Lake psychiatrist three years ago.
Second District Judge Thomas Kay ruled Monday prosecutors may exhume the bodies of Ellen B. Anderson, 91, and Lydia M. Smith, 90, who died while in the care of Dr. Robert Allen Weitzel, 43, at the Geriatric-Psychiatric Unit of the Davis Hospital and Medical Center.
The bodies of three other alleged victims — Judith Larsen, 93; Mary R. Crane, 72; and Ennis Alldredge, 83 — who also died at the hospital between December 1995 and January 1996, have been exhumed and autopsied.
Attorneys for Weitzel opposed the motion to exhume the bodies during a two-hour hearing barred to media representatives Monday. Last month, Kay refused to seal the courtroom while attorneys argued over the need to exhume the two bodies, but he changed his mind when the hearing was continued Monday morning.
Kay later unsealed, however, the file containing the attorney's written arguments.
In a memorandum opposing the motion for exhumation, attorney Peter Stirba argued that "to permit the exhumation and autopsy of Anderson and Smith at this time would violate (Weitzel's) right to a fair hearing" because Weitzel already has had a preliminary hearing and a trial is scheduled for next month.
"This is not a case where new evidence has been discovered after the preliminary hearing and the prosecution seeks to introduce such evidence at trial," the memorandum states. "The state selected long ago to both charge (Weitzel) and to go forward with the preliminary hearing without any medical examiner determination as to the causes of Anderson's and Smith's deaths."
At the conclusion of a four-day preliminary hearing in February, Judge Jon Memmott ordered Weitzel to stand trial on five first-degree felony murder charges.
Stirba also pointed to the fact that Anderson's family had objected to the exhumation. In a letter to the court, Lloyd Anderson Poelman, Anderson's grandson, states that "the family will feel extreme sadness and grief if the grave of our mother and grandmother is disturbed by court order."
In rebuttal, prosecutors Melvin Wilson and Steven Major filed a brief arguing that "the decision as to whether a body is to be exhumed is left to the discretion of the county attorney."
"Given the cost and expense of an exhumation, as well as the effect it may have on the heirs and relations of the deceased, it would be expected that an exhumation would be reluctantly undertaken," the brief states. "Only after a complete investigation into the death has taken place and after it has been determined that the exhumation is necessary to the state's case would such an undertaking be requested.
But in another memorandum filed just before Monday's hearing, Stirba again argued that exhuming the bodies would violate Weitzel's rights to a fair trial because such action would "generate voluminous prejudicial pretrial publicity."
He also points out that of the three exhumations performed thus far, the cause of death was undetermined for two of the decedents.
Kay said he believed allowing prosecutors to proceed would be in the best interest of both parties. Nevertheless, he warned that the trial date will remain June 1.
You can reach Hans Camporreales by e-mail at hans@desnews.com