Weitzel won't face a new murder trial
Friday, June 29, 2001
Davis County plans to retry psychiatrist on lesser charges
By Angie Welling
Deseret News staff writer
LAYTON — Davis County prosecutors have abandoned their efforts to
retry Dr. Robert Allen Weitzel on five first-degree murder charges after
interviewing the eight jurors who last July convicted the embattled
psychiatrist of lesser charges.
The announcement came just one day before both sides were scheduled
to be in court to argue whether retrying Weitzel on the original charges,
as the state intended, would constitute double jeopardy. Instead, that
hearing was suspended and Weitzel, 45, pleaded not guilty to the five less
serious charges of which he was convicted: two counts of second-degree
felony manslaughter and three counts of negligent homicide, a class A
misdemeanor.
"This is not a murder case anymore," defense attorney Walter Bugden
declared.
Prosecutor Steven Major said interviews with jurors revealed they
unanimously rejected the murder charges stemming from the deaths of five
of Weitzel's elderly patients who died within a 16-day period in December
1995 and January 1996.
"It's a concession," Major said. "We conceded that based on how the
jury functioned we would be unable to secure a murder conviction."
The state did not concede, however, that it would be double jeopardy
for Weitzel to stand trial a second time on the original charges.
"If it hadn't been for the jury, we would be arguing that today,"
Major said. "And I'm confident we would have won." *
Bugden sees it differently. In his mind, 2nd District Judge Thomas
L. Kay obviously ruled in the defense's favor.
"I am convinced that we are absolutely correct in the position we
have asserted," Bugden said. "It couldn't be more clear that the state had
absolutely no basis, certainly no good-faith basis, to go forward with the
murder charges against Dr. Weitzel."
Following his eight-week trial, Weitzel was sentenced to serve up to
15 years in the Utah State Prison. He was released, however, when Kay
ruled the prosecution failed to notify defense attorneys of an expert who
might have testified on the defense's behalf. The judge vacated the
convictions and allowed Weitzel to be released pending his new trial.
Today, Kay lowered Weitzel's bail by $10,000. Bugden argued the
existing $25,000 bail was too high for the charges Weitzel is now facing.
Weitzel said the money will be returned to members of his church who
helped raise funds to pay the cash-only amount.
At the time of the deaths of Ennis Alldredge, 83; Ellen Anderson,
91; Mary R. Crane, 72; Judith Larsen, 93; and Lydia M. Smith, 90, Weitzel
was serving as the head of the Davis Hospital and Medical Center's
geriatric-psychiatric unit, where the patients had been transferred after
they reportedly exhibited disruptive behavior at other long-term-care
facilities.
Prosecutors allege Weitzel overmedicated the otherwise healthy
patients with lethal doses of morphine. Weitzel maintains he offered
adequate end-of-life "comfort care" to the ill patients.
© 2001 Deseret News Publishing Company
*It should be
made abundantly clear that the state's argument, that the claimed "jury poll" was relevant,
is a complete falsification. The relevant law
was clear from the outset; this was another delaying tactic from
the state lawyer/bureaucrats.