Weitzel prescribed potent doses from afar, prosecutors charge

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 new trial 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 the jury of three women and seven men.

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.

In her opening statements, Barlow outlined a brief history of each victim, who 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.

Defense attorney Walter Bugden, however, painted an entirely different picture of Weitzel — a compassionate and courageous medical professional who respected the living wills of all his patients and provided them with "comfort care" when their physical health deteriorated beyond cure.