HOUSTON – Prosecutors opened testimony in the trial of cancer doctor Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, telling jurors she was involved in a love triangle with colleague that mimicked the movie, "Fatal Attraction."
"The defendant had a fatal attraction with Dr. Blumenschein," Assistant District Attorney Justin Keiter told the jurors in opening statements Monday. "The evidence is going to show you she became absolutely and totally obsessed with him and wanting him."
Keiter told jurors that Gonzalez-Angulo poisoned Blumenschein after he rejected her.
According to prosecutors and defense attorneys, Gonzalez-Angulo and Blumenschein became close while working together at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. They began a consensual affair, described by both the prosecution and defense as a "casual sexual relationship," while Blumenschein was still living with his girlfriend of more than a decade.
Lawyers said Blumenshein was not aware of the relationship, and that the couple were trying to conceive a child.
According to prosecutors, Blumenschein's live-in girlfriend was carrying twins in 2012 but miscarried. The prosecution said Blumenschein told Gonzalez-Angulo about the miscarriage in the fall of 2012. Soon after, the prosecution said Gonzalez-Angulo began making strange claims, telling the doctor she had been getting anonymous threatening phone calls and later, that she had been attacked outside of her home by a man and a woman.
On the morning of Jan. 27, 2013, the prosecution said the doctor left his home and went to Gonzalez-Angulo home, where the couple participated in a sex act and had a shot of vodka before they headed to work. Prosecutors said while at the house, Gonzalez-Angulo convinced him to have some of her special Colombian coffee, putting it in a travel mug for the doctor.
Once at work, Blumenschein complained that the coffee was too sweet, and according to prosecutors, Gonzalez-Angulo insisted on preparing another cup of coffee for him. Within hours, the doctor started to feel tipsy. Prosecutors said by the evening, he was so intoxicated that he cut himself while preparing a snack. The doctor eventually drove himself to MD Anderson, where doctors began running tests to determine what was wrong.
By the next morning, prosecutors said a kidney specialist was called and determined that Blumenschein had been poisoned, and performed dialysis to treat him. Prosecutors say he'll continue to suffer from effects of the poisoning for the rest of his life.
The defense countered, telling jurors that Gonzalez-Angulo and Blumenschein's relationship was consensual from beginning to end, and that the evidence doesn't support the charge.
Defense attorney Andy Drumheller told them, "It wasn't something that fits the description of fatal attraction, which I contend was complete hyperbole and exaggeration."
Drumheller told jurors that blood and urine samples taken at the hospital found no trace of ethylene glycol in Blumenschein's body, and that if that was the substance used to poison him, he could have ingested it up to two days before he began showing symptoms. Drumheller called the prosecutions evidence little more than guess work.
The first witness called by prosecutors Monday was Dr. Funda Meric-Bernstam, Gonzalez-Angulo' friend and a colleague of both her and Blumenschein.
On the stand, at least some of Meric-Bernstam's testimony buttressed the defense. She said Gonzalez-Angulo was a talented oncologist, well liked by her patients.
Meric-Bernstam also described several calls from Gonzalez-Angulo the night Blumenschein was stricken, describing Gonzalez-Angulo's mounting concern as Blumenschein's condition worsened.
Defense: "She's saying he won't go to the doctor. 'I'm trying to get him to go, and he wont go?'"
Meric-Bernstam: "That's correct."
Defense: "You, in fact, can hear Dr. Dlumenschein yelling, 'I'm not going, I'm not going?'"
Meric-Bernstam: "That's correct."
Gonzalez-Angulo faces up to life in prison if she's convicted. The trial is expected to last about two weeks. Blumenschein is expected to be called to testify.