The punishment phase has started in the capital murder trial of an East Texas nurse who could go to death row for killing five kidney dialysis patients by injecting them with bleach.
Jurors who convicted 38-year-old Kimberly Saenz on Friday began hearing evidence Monday to decide whether she receives life in prison without the chance of parole or lethal injection.
Saenz was convicted of killing the patients and deliberately injuring five others at a clinic run by Denver-based health care giant DaVita Inc.
She was fired in April 2008 after a rash of illnesses and deaths at the clinic in Lufkin, about 125 miles northeast of Houston. Her lawyers argued Saenz wrongly took the blame for the clinic's sloppy procedures.
Bleach is a commonly used disinfectant at the clinic.
