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Rules Weitzel's Second Trial Will Be Held in Davis County |
Saturday, June 22, 2002 |
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THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE FARMINGTON -- Psychiatrist Robert Allen Weitzel's upcoming second trial on charges he caused the deaths of five patients with morphine overdoses will take place in Davis County, not Salt Lake County, a 2nd District Court judge ruled Friday. Defense attorneys requested a change of venue, claiming numerous news reports about the case will make it impossible to empanel an impartial jury in Davis County. Prosecutors countered that Weitzel himself generated most of the recent publicity by appearing on television programs such as CBS' "60 Minutes," telephoning reporters and creating a Web site at www.weitzelcharts.com, where patient medical charts and transcripts of the first trial can be viewed. Deputy Davis County Attorney Steve Major asked Judge Rodney Page to issue a gag order, calling Weitzel's actions "unconscionable." Page declined to gag trial participants, but warned: "The court does not look favorably on manufactured publicity prior to trial." On Friday, Weitzel added to the Website photos of three of the alleged victims, showing them upon admission to Weitzel's geriatric/psychiatric unit at the Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, appearing in obvious states of decline. At Weitzel's first trial in July 2000, prosecutors showed color portraits of all five patients -- some taken as long as six years before they died -- which depict the patients in good health. A key issue of that trial was the health of the patients at the time they were admitted to Weitzel's medical unit. Prosecutors argued the five were relatively healthy until Weitzel overloaded them with psychotropic drugs, followed by massive doses of morphine. Weitzel claims the patients were at death's door, and that he prescribed morphine to ease the pain of their final days. The judge said prosecutors may use the portraits again at Weitzel's second trial, which is set to begin Oct. 30, but the judge also will likely allow the defense to display the Polaroids taken at the hospital. The judge took under advisement a number of other pre-trial issues, including whether prosecutors can inform jurors of Weitzel's federal drug prescription fraud case, in which he has pleaded guilty to two counts of keeping portions of morphine and Demerol he prescribed to patients unrelated to the Davis Hospital. He has yet to be sentenced in the federal case. Page noted that the focus of the second trial will be different than the first because the charges are different. Weitzel was initially tried on five counts of first-degree felony murder. The jury convicted Weitzel of two lesser counts of second-degree felony manslaughter and three even lesser counts of misdemeanor negligent homicide. Judge Thomas Kay sentenced Weitzel to up to 15 years in prison, but then ordered a new trial after learning prosecutors failed to reveal knowledge of a pro-defense medical expert. Weitzel will now be tried on the lesser counts, and jurors will be asked to decide if Weitzel was reckless and negligent in the deaths of Ennis Alldredge, 85; Ellen B. Anderson, 91; Mary Crane, 72; Judith Larsen, 93; and Lydia M. Smith, 90. |