Robert Diaz
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| Robert Diaz | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name: | Robert Rubane Diaz |
| Born: | July 31, 1943 Phoenix, Arizona  |
| Penalty: | Death |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 12 |
| Span of killings: | March 1981 through April 1981 |
| Country: | U.S.  |
| State(s): | California |
| Date apprehended: | 1981 |
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Robert Rubane Diaz (b. 1938) is an American nurse who was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murders of 12 hospital patients. He is currently still on death row.
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[edit] Early years
He was one of 13 children. He got married in 1961 but was divorced in 1972.[1]
[edit] Crimes
In early 1981, Community Hospital of the Valleys in Perris, California experienced an abnormally large number of deaths among its most elderly patients. To gather evidence, the coroner exhumed or intercepted all the patients who had recently died and he collected tissue samples from them. The coroner found that 11 patients had a supposedly lethal level of the heart drug lidocaine in their system. Investigators focused on Diaz, a male nurse, who worked at the hospital during many of the deaths. They also investigated his previous employment and came up with a 12th patient from another hospital whose exhumed body showed a supposedly lethal level of lidocaine.
High levels of lidocaine were not necessarily indicative of poisoning as hospital staff often used the drug on its patients. There was no direct evidence against Diaz. No one had seen him inject a patient with a fatal dose of anything. He had no apparent motive to kill anyone. An alleged “smoking gun” syringe filled with an especially high solution of lidocaine was found hidden in the Valleys hospital 7 months after it closed. It fit the prosecution’s theory of how the alleged murders occurred. However, it has been claimed that it was planted.[citation needed]
Following his arrest numerous pre-filled lidocaine syringes were found in Diaz’ home. At least two of these syringes contained 20% solutions of Lidocaine while marked 2% (i.e. 10 times the concentration marked). Also found in his home were vials of 20% Lidocaine and empty syringes implying syringes were being refilled with higher concentration than their labels indicated. Diaz explained only that these articles were mistakenly taken from the hospital when absent mindedly left in his shirt pocket. No explanation was given for the apparent tampering.
Diaz claimed the ability to predict patient seizures and encouraged coworkers to take meals/breaks early in anticipation of seizures that shift. In at least one case the predicted seizures (2) did occur. According to his wife, Diaz also spent time staring at the family cat trying to control it with his mind. These efforts were without effect but Diaz persists in these beliefs[citation needed].
Investigators from the public defender’s office found that the hospital’s care was lax[citation needed]. Employees were often unable to read heart monitors and other basic equipment. Doctors often failed to respond to emergencies. During the deaths Diaz reportedly blamed the doctors who showed up late.
It was not unusual for Code Blue alerts to occur nightly and these were not limited to Diaz’ employment tenure. However it was noted during the trial that the death rate at Community Hospital of the Valleys was less than one per month during the 12 months prior to hiring Diaz. During the 3 ½ weeks following Diaz’ employment there were 17 deaths; 14 of these patients were under Diaz’s direct care at the time of seizure and death. This is a monthly death rate of 19.43 per month.
Following standard procedures, Diaz’ defense would be extraordinarily costly to the cash strapped public defender’s office. A new administrator fired all the investigators and implemented a budget defense for Diaz[2]. At trial, Diaz’ defense took the unusual tactic of presenting its case before a judge rather than a jury. Jury trials average 18 months in length while trials before a judge can take a little more than half that time and save a considerable amount of money. This tactic was unusual because a judge would likely feel political pressure to convict a suspected serial killer[citation needed].
The judge convicted Diaz of 12 counts of first-degree murder. At sentencing the defense failed to present a single character witness; his five children and his wife did not make or were not permitted to make[citation needed] an appeal. Diaz’s wife believes her husband was responsible based on the evidence presented as well as her personal experiences with him[citation needed]. Initially, however, she supported her husband. The defense’s short plea for mercy was that Diaz had saved the state a considerable amount of money[citation needed]. The judge was not impressed and sentenced Diaz to die – the gas chamber, or ironically lethal injection, are Diaz’ current options.
Following Diaz’s conviction, his appeal attorneys located, in 1989, a study of 140 lidocaine patients done by the Coroner’s Office of Nassau County, New York. The study found that 24 of the patients had similar levels of lidocaine as Diaz’ alleged victims but none of them were suspected of being poisoned. The study concluded that there is a great difference in the rate at which different patients metabolize lidocaine. The assumption that Diaz’ alleged victims died of lidocaine poisoning may be unfounded but the study was not published nor subject to peer review and thus carries less scientific weight[citation needed]. Additional study has not been conducted to corroborate its findings.
Diaz has since exhausted his state appeals, but in 1998 a federal judge granted him an evidentiary hearing. Diaz remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison (6/2007)[citation needed].
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- American Justice: Lethal Injection
