FARMINGTON — A prosecutor Monday painted psychiatrist Robert Weitzel as an absentee doctor who routinely prescribed psychotropic drugs and morphine even when his elderly patients did not appear to be in pain.
During opening statements Monday in Weitzel's retrial on charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide, prosecutor Charlene Barlow also said Weitzel rarely saw some of his patients, often did not respond to pages or even visit despite the fact that he was calling in doses of potent medications for frail elderly patients.
"We trust doctors and nurses not to do harm, especially to the elderly — the most vulnerable of the vulnerable," she said. "None of these people said, 'Snow me with so many drugs that I can't breathe, tell my family I'm dying, and give me morphine.' " Barlow told jurors that by the end of the trial they would be convinced that Weitzel had prescribed massive doses of drugs that caused the deaths of five elderly patients.
In her opening statements, Barlow outlined a brief history of each of the five. Each seemed to follow a similar pattern of being relatively physically healthy but mentally troubled upon admission, then deteriorating rapidly and dying while under Weitzel's care. She also hinted at a level of malice in Weitzel, referring to one patient Lydia Smith, 90. After he told her family she was dying and had ordered morphine for her every three hours around the clock, relatives present heard Weitzel say under his breath, "She's a crabby old lady who shouldn't be allowed to live," Barlow said.
The second trial for Weitzel, whose first conviction was overturned, began Monday before a jury of three women and seven men. Defense attorneys were scheduled to make their opening statements Monday after press time.
Two of the jurors are alternates but won't be told of their status until the trial ends.
Jury selection was completed Friday after a painstaking process with potential jurors filling out lengthy questionnaires and being interviewed by attorneys for both sides in the chambers of 2nd District Judge Rodney Page.
Weitzel is charged with two counts of second-degree felony manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide. The charges stem from the deaths of five elderly patients who were under his care in December 1995 and January 1996 at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center's geriatric-psychiatric unit.
He originally was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, but a jury in 2000 found him guilty of lesser charges: manslaughter and negligent homicide. He was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and served six months of that term.
However, 2nd District Judge Thomas Kay, who presided over the first trial, overturned the verdict upon learning that prosecutors had withheld information about a key expert witness whose testimony could have influenced the outcome of the trial.
Prosecutors then charged Weitzel with manslaughter and negligent homicide, and a new trial was ordered.
The case had attracted national attention, was showcased on "60 Minutes" and has sparked debate in the medical community about physician liability, proper pain management and end-of-life care for elderly patients.
That attention given to philosophical debate has upset the families of the five people who died. The bereaved insist the case has nothing to do with pain management or end-of-life care but everything to do with a renegade doctor.
Weitzel, who has maintained his innocence, said overzealous prosecutors have victimized these family members by exploiting their grief and leading them to erroneously believe he killed their loved ones.
The people who died were Ennis Alldredge, 83; Mary R. Crane, 72; Ellen Anderson, 91; Lydia M. Smith, 90; and Judith Larsen, 93.
The individuals were not able to stay in various local nursing homes because their behavior had become disruptive and, in some instances even violent, due to mental disorders. The Davis hospital unit was intended to diagnose the mental ailments of elderly people and stabilize them on medication and various therapies so they could return to where they had lived before.
Prosecutors say Weitzel heavily dosed these five patients with psychotropic drugs and then caused their deaths with morphine overdoses.
Weitzel said he was addressing their mental-health needs and provided morphine to ease pain from physical health problems.
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