Today's Lufkin Daily News reports, "Jury sentences Saenz to life in prison for killing patients with bleach." It's written by Jessica Cooley who has covered the month-long trial daily.
After being sentenced to life in prison without parole, Kimberly Saenz was addressed by family members of the DaVita Dialysis patients she killed by injecting them with bleach in April 2008.
And:
In the sentencing phase, jurors heard testimony from a series of character witnesses to help them determine if the 38-year-old Pollok woman should be sentenced to life in prison without parole or death by lethal injection. She leaned her head to one side, listening intently as criminal defense attorney consultant Frank Aubuchon outlined for the jury what prison life will be like for Saenz. Aubuchon, a 26-year Texas Department of Criminal Justice retiree, said she will become one of 28 women serving life in prison without parole. Defense attorney Steve Taylor said the only way Saenz is coming out of prison is in a box, as Aubuchon nodded in agreement.
As a highly supervised inmate on a maximum security unit, Saenz will share a cell with another woman serving at least 60 years. There are also restrictions on what type of prison job she can have, Aubuchon said, adding she can only work in the kitchen, laundry or industrial factory.
"Life in prison for ex-nurse in 5 bleach deaths," is the AP filing by Michael Graczyk. It's via the Dallas Morning News.
"She's never getting out no matter what you do," Saenz's lawyer, Steve Taylor, said in his closing remarks, urging jurors to choose a life sentence. "Society is protected. You will never see her again."
Prosecutors failed to show Saenz would present a future danger for violence, one of the questions they must answer in deciding the death penalty, Taylor said. He reminded jurors she'd been free since her arrest and indictment and during trial.
"Kimberly Saenz has been out of jail for the last one, two, three, four years," Taylor said. "You've passed her on the stairs. ... If there was any possibility to create a future criminal act, the state would have her butt in jail. In the last four years, she has behaved herself."
Saenz's lead attorney, Ryan Deaton, indicated in court he would file for a new trial and seek appeals.
Earlier coverage of the case begins at the link. Related posts are in the trial index.
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