In Texas, a serial murderer nurse was condemned to death for killing patients by injecting them with air “for fun."

A Smith County jury condemned a former nurse at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances in Tyler, who was charged with killing multiple patients in 2017 and 2018, to death.

Davis, 37, was found guilty by a jury on October 19 of injecting air into Christopher Greenaway, 47, Jose Kalina, 58, Ronald Clark, 68, and John Lafferty, 74, while working in the hospital’s cardiovascular ICU section.

According to the New York Times, doctors were perplexed as to why the patients became more unwell following surgery, and scans revealed air in their brains.

The case, which had been delayed for years due to the pandemic, changes in counsel, and other factors, was prosecuted by Smith County District Attorney Jacob Putman, who took up the case after winning a contentious election in 2018. It’s likely the most high-profile trial in East Texas in at least a decade.

Prosecutors showed recordings of phone calls Davis made from jail immediately after the guilty judgment on Oct. 19 during the sentencing portion of the trial. Davis told his ex-wife that he would find ways to extend patients’ stays in the ICU so he could work more overtime and earn more money.

All four victims had evidence of air in their brains, which caused permanent damage, according to prosecution specialists. Davis was the last person to see the victim before his condition deteriorated, according to security video after the fourth death.

Mr Putman reportedly told the jury during the opening of the trial: “We’re going to ask you to find him guilty of capital murder because that’s what he did."

Prosecutors said Davis was a serial killer who “enjoyed” injecting air into patients without anyone watching.  “(He) liked to kill people," prosecutor Chris Gatewood said during closing arguments.

Gatewood added; 

“He enjoyed going into the rooms and injecting them with air. If you watch the video on (Joseph) Kalina, he sat at the end of the hall and he watched those monitors and he waited. That’s because he liked it."

The claim that the hospital had numerous problems and that Davis was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as the argument that the patients had underlying medical conditions and had shown signs of a watershed stroke, in which there is a lack of blood to the brain, were both dismissed by the jury.

The jury debated for only two hours, and Mr. Putman said following the sentencing on Wednesday: “I don’t know why they deliberated a short amount of time but if I had to guess it would be the case that the detectives put together was so strong. It didn’t leave a doubt in their mind."

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