HOUSTON – Jurors are deliberating in the trial of a woman accused of poisoning a doctor who was a former lover. On Wednesday jurors heard from a friend of the accused and the assistant of the victim.
The jury deliberated for several hours Wednesday before adjourning for the day. The trial will not be held on Thursday, so jurors will resume deliberations Friday at 9 a.m.
In closing arguments on Wednesday, prosecutors said the evidence points to Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Angulo. She is accused of poisoning Dr. George Blumenschein's coffee in January 2013. He has permanent kidney damage and health problems caused by ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. They said he never knew.
"She is devious, diabolical and dangerously deadly," said prosecutor Justin Keiter in his closing arguments. "Poured directly into a freshly brewed pot of Colombian coffee."
The defense fired back saying the case is inadequate to send their client to jail. The defense claims witness testimony was flawed.
"I have to test the evidence in this courtroom and it is woefully short of what ought to be required to find someone guilty of a crime," said defense attorney Derek Hollingsworth. "Folks have come up here, sang a song, told a story to fit a conclusion that isn't even supported by their own evidence."
Defense attorneys said neither the evidence nor the witness testimony proved that the well-known cancer doctor should go to prison.
"That door, right there, is the door and portal into prison. That's what it is," said Hollingsworth. "The only verdict in this case that is just, that is constitutional, is not guilty."
Only days before the trial began, prosecutors tracked down Dr. Jennifer Litton, a co-worker and friend of Gonzalez-Angulo.
"She said I'm going to get in so much trouble for this," said Litton, an oncologist at MD Anderson.
She says she was concerned that she had ethylene glycol in her lab as did other labs at MD Anderson. Blumenschein did not like the coffee she made before he got sick.
"He was concerned it was too sweet. And she told him that she had Splenda in it and she was confused still and she had to remind him when they got to work that they were sipping out of the same to-go cup," Litton said.
Blumenschein's assistant said Gonzalez-Angulo told her that Blumenschein's longtime girlfriend, Dr. Evette Toney, could be behind Blumenschein's illness.
Prosecutors say Gonzalez-Angulo poisoned Blumenschein after finding out that he and Toney were trying to have a baby.
In court, prosecutor Keiter pulled out a big prop, a frame with a silhouette of a man and a giant "?" over the canvas. Keiter then pulled away the silhouette to reveal an empty frame. He used the frame and put it in front of Gonzalez-Angulo so her head was in the middle of the frame for the jury to see.
"It's her. It's a tiny female that's a doctor. And the difference in this frame, she put herself in it," said Keiter.
Prosecutors called 22 witnesses in seven days of testimony. Defense attorneys called no witnesses.
Gonzalez-Angulo faces up to life in prison if convicted.