East Texas ex-nurse sentenced to death for killing patients – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

A Smith County jury on Wednesday sentenced a former Texas nurse to death for killing four patients by injecting air into their arteries following heart surgery.

After debating for about two hours, jurors sentenced William George Davis to death. The 37-year-old Hallsville man’s verdict will be automatically appealed.

The verdict came a week after the same jury found Davis guilty of murder.

Jurors agreed with the allegations that Davis killed four patients at a Tyler hospital in 2017 and 2018. John Lafferty, Ronald Clark, Christopher Greenway and Joseph Kalina suffered unexplained neurological problems and died while recovering from their heart surgeries on Christus Mother Frances Hospital.

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William George Davis, mugshot, inserted.

During the sentencing phase of the trial, prosecutors played for the jury’s recordings of phone calls Davis made from prison shortly after the Oct. 19 sentencing. In a call to his ex-wife, Davis – a nurse in the hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit – said he would find ways to extend patients’ intensive care stays so he could work more overtime and make more money.

Prosecutors testified that all four victims showed signs of air in their brains causing irreparable damage. After the fourth death, the security video showed Davis was the last person to see the victim before the man’s condition worsened.

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