William George Davis, 37, of Hallsville, Texas, has been sentenced to death for killing four patients after he injected them with air ‘for fun’

The serial killer, prosecutors said, murdered four patients ‘for fun’ by injecting them with air

Davis, an ICU nurse was found guilty of quadruple-homicide on Oct.19, after jurors agreed with prosecution that he injected air in the victims’ arteries as they were recovering from their heart surgeries.

He worked in the cardiovascular ICU wing at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas when he killed four patients between 2017 and 2018

Christopher Greenaway, 47, Jose Kalina, 58, Ronald Clark, 68, and 74-year-old John Lafferty were recovering from heart surgery when they became Davis’s victims

Davis injected air into their arteries and CT scans showed stroke-like symptoms and fatal brain damage

During sentencing, the prosecution claimed Davis killed three other people and tried to kill five more in addition to the four patients he was convicted of killing.

Davis, prosecutors said, is a twisted serial-killer caregiver who ‘enjoyed’ injecting air into vulnerable patients when no one was watching

A serial killer Texas nurse has been sentenced to death for killing four patients after he injected them with air for fun following their heart surgeries at a hospital in Smith County, Texas, four years ago. 
William George Davis, 37, worked in the cardiovascular ICU wing at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas – about 100miles east of Dallas – when he killed four patients between 2017 and 2018.
The Smith County jury, which was made up of 12 jurors, deliberated for just under two hours before deciding to condemn the ex-nurse to death. 
According to the Tyler Paper, the jury believed David could be a threat to society and found that there is no evidence that would have stopped them from making their decision.

The sentence was announced by 114th District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson a week after Davis was convicted of the capital murders of Christopher Greenaway, 47; Jose Kalina, 58; Ronald Clark, 68; and John Lafferty, 74.
Davis from Hallsville, Texas, was found guilty of the horrific killings on October 19 after he injected air in the victims’ arteries as they were recovering from their heart surgeries.
Doctors were puzzled as the patients’ conditions deteriorated after surgery. CT scans showed air in their brains and they reportedly suffered from unexplained neurological problems, according to The New York Times.
Doctors cited stroke-like symptoms and said that Davis was the only nurse on duty at the time. 
‘It turns out a hospital is the perfect place for a serial killer,’ Smith County district attorney Jacob Putman said during the trial.

Nurse William Davis is sentenced to death

Earlier on in the trial, which began on September 28, Putman said during opening statements: ‘No one expects this is going to happen to them – certainly not in a hospital.
In a three week stretch during trial, Smith County prosecutors led by DA Putman called dozens of witnesses over nearly three weeks from victims’ family members, surgeons and nurses, that treated the four victims who died.
In some instances the defendant’s transgressions went beyond patients in his care. In the case of one survivor, the patient Pamela Henderson, wasn’t in the care of nurse Davis. However, Davis claimed another nurse asked him to check Henderson’s fluids.
“I remember waking up and could not raise my head, and I kept saying, how come I can’t raise my head? It just felt like it weighed a ton,” Henderson told investigators.
Henderson survived the alleged attack, but suffered brain damage. “It went to other parts of my body, I couldn’t raise my arms, I was completely flat,” Henderson told the court.
Henderson the only one of Davis’ victims to testify, said that she had to start all over after the incident.

After the commencement Putman said ‘We’re going to ask you to find him guilty of capital murder because that’s what he did.’ 
Over the course of the next month prosecutors showed security footage from the hospital in the courtroom throughout the four-day punishment phase, which began the day after he was found guilty on October 19.
The videos showed Davis entering one of the patient’s hospital rooms. That patient’s heart monitor alarm sounded three minutes later and he died, as reported by The Times. 
Then on Friday a phone call Davis made to his ex-wife from jail was also played. The killer said he tried to find ways to prolong patients’ ICU stays so that he could work overtime and make more money.
After admitting to the slayings to his ex-wife he also reportedly berated the jury – which was made up of five white men, one Hispanic man and six white women – to his brother.  
Prosecutors reportedly portrayed Davis as a twisted serial-killer caregiver who ‘enjoyed’ injecting air into vulnerable patients when no one was watching and thus causing fatal brain damage.
‘(He) liked to kill people,’ prosecutor Chris Gatewood said during closing arguments. 
‘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,’ Gatewood added.  

Jurors disagreed with the argument of defense attorney Phillip Hayes that the hospital had issues and that Davis was a scapegoat who was only charged because he was there when the deaths occurred.. 
Hayes claimed that the deceased patients all showed signs of a watershed stroke – which occurs when vulnerable border zones of the brain supplied by the three main cerebral arteries don’t receive enough blood.
He also noted that they each had underlying medical conditions and suggested that Davis was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘I don’t know if there’s any evidence to show that it was foul play,’ the defense attorney said at the trial. 
Putman noted that the hospital has yet to even change any of its procedures but hasn’t had any similar incidents since Davis left. 
Davis remains in custody at the Smith County jail on a $8.75million bond.
Putman said after Wednesday’s sentencing trial when asked about why the jury only took two hours to reach a decision: ‘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.’

Prosecutors showed security footage from the hospital in the courtroom throughout the four-day punishment phase, which began the day after he was found guilty on October 19.
The videos showed Davis entering one of the patient’s hospital rooms and that patient’s heart monitor alarm sounded three minutes later.
At trial, District Attorney Jacob Putman also noted that the hospital has yet to even change any of its procedures but hasn’t had any similar incidents since Davis left.
During opening statements on September 28 Putman asked the jury to find Davis guilty of capital murder.
A spokesman for Christus Mother Frances Hospital, where Davis worked, said in an email statement today, according to The Times: ‘The jury’s decision brings with it a range of emotions for our associates and – most especially – the people and families harmed by Will Davis.’
‘We pray for our community and all involved, and hope that the jury’s verdict helps bring some closure to those harmed,’ it added, noting that the hospital’s top priority was to ‘extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ’.
Davis was fired from his job at the hospital in February 2018 and was arrested that April after police learned that Davis was the only employee consistently around each of the four patients who experienced stroke-like symptoms. 2018:

During sentencing, the prosecution claimed Davis killed three other people and tried to kill five more in addition to the four patients he was convicted of killing.
Among the evidence presented at trial was recorded conversations between Davis and relatives from jail while after he was arrested. Tyler police Detective Jeff Roberts, who interviewed Davis during the police investigation in 2018, was on the witness stand as the recorded calls were played.
In one conversation between Davis and his now ex-wife, Davis told her what happened to one victim, Joseph Kalina was an accident. When asked about the other deaths, he said those were also accidents.
“You’re a nurse,” she said. “You’re supposed to help people, not prolong their stay just for your (expletive) benefit.”
Davis then said he’s had a long time to think about what he did.
“I’ve repented to God for this,” Davis said on the call.
“Your whole mindset is evil. This is not what God would want you to do,” she responded.
When he said he screwed up because he was stupid. She reminded him that he almost had a job as a nurse practitioner and that would have helped them financially.

During sentencing hering the prosecution played footage showing that nurse William Davis was in victim’s hospital room three minutes [ tampering with patient’s IV], three minutes before alarm sounded

She asked him to take the stand and apologize to the families of the victims: “The victims’ families — they deserve more sympathy. You need to give these families an apology,” she said.
Davis seemed to hysterically cry on one of the calls and quickly transitioned into speaking normally.
“I know it was (wrong). I’ve asked God for forgiveness,” he said.
She then asked him to write a letter to their kids to give them when they’re older: “You put that burden on all of us,” she said. “You’re going to be the one who has to answer for this on Judgment Day.”
Asked if he when he felt a sense of guilt, Davis responds that as a nurse, he’d gotten used to tragic events and became detached from his patients: “I was more worried about work,” he said.
Davis maintained that not all of the patients mentioned in the first phase of the trial were victims of his actions. ‘I didn’t do anything intentionally to hurt [Joseph] Kalina,’ he told her.
Davis who said he felt like his actions were sudden impulses, added that he never had any thoughts about those actions until about 2017.
He mentioned a 96-year-old woman, who was in the Neurological ICU in 2016, as the first time his actions caused a death.
He didn’t know why his thought process went toward prolonging patient stays to get paid more, Davis said in the call.
The prosecution also presented a phone call Davis made to his brother. During the call, Davis said he’d rather get life in prison and “die on God’s timing.” The statement was followed by a chuckle.