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"The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now"
A former Florida medical examiner accused of
murdering his wife 10 years ago went on trial
yesterday, facing, if convicted, the same
lethal injection prosecutors say he gave his
wife.
Dr. William Sybers, 68, now retired in British
Columbia with his second wife, is accused of
poisoning his first wife, Kay, in 1991 in their
condominium in Panama City Beach in north
Florida. As the county medical examiner at
the time, Dr. Sybers was required by state
law to conduct an autopsy on his wife's body.
Instead, he had it embalmed within an hour of
her death. She was 52.
Dr. Sybers claims he was only respecting his
wife's wishes, that it was an honest mistake
made amid the grief of losing a loved one.
Investigators claim he was trying to cover up
a murder.
The case has taken a decade to make it to
trial after a series of twists that include
accusations of infidelity, the suicide of one of Dr. Sybers' sons and a
five-year court fight to have Mrs. Sybers' body exhumed for further tests.
It has followed Dr. Sybers to the idyllic retirement community of Eagle
View
Estates, perched atop Malahat Mountain northwest of Victoria, B.C., where
he
retired in the mid-90s.
"We just treat him like anyone else," said David Dougan, who developed
Eagle View and now lives in the estates. "Nobody holds anything against
him,
that's for sure."
His neighbours describe him as a pleasant man, but no one in Eagle View
Estates knows him as more than a casual acquaintance. People describe
seeing Dr. Sybers at the annual picnic or tending his garden. His home --
which one neighbour estimated is worth between $400,000 and $500,000 --
sits on four hectares atop a cliff overlooking Saanich Inlet.
It was May 19, 1991, when William and Kay Sybers went out for their last
dinner. He had pompano; she had prime rib; they shared a bottle of
Chardonnay. The waitress remembered the couple -- and their 50% tip --
they laughed and joked over dinner and seemed to enjoy each other's
company.
Next morning, Mrs. Sybers was dead.
Within hours, the body was being embalmed -- Dr. Sybers' lawyers note that
if he were guilty, he could have eliminated all the evidence by simply having
his wife cremated, but he told the funeral home he wanted the body
prepared for a viewing.
Investigators, however, were suspicious. They soon discovered the doctor
was having an affair with a nurse, Judy Ray, whom he later married -- and
had phoned her the day Mrs. Sybers died. Prosecutors believe Dr. Sybers
was eager to avoid a divorce that would have cost him half of the couple's
US$5-million in assets.
The State Attorney eventually ordered an autopsy, but the results proved
inconclusive. Medical examiners, however, found several needle punctures
in
Mrs. Sybers' arm. Dr. Sybers told investigators he had tried to take a blood
sample for testing because his wife had complained of chest pains, but he
"botched the job" and threw away the syringe.
The couple's son killed himself in 1993, lamenting to his girlfriend on
the
telephone that he could not live knowing his father had killed his mother.
Despite the mounting suspicions of police, the investigation stalled because
there was no cause of death. Prosecutors began a five-year legal challenge
in Iowa -- where Mrs. Sybers was buried -- to have the body exhumed for
further tests, against the wishes of Dr. Sybers and his wife's family, who
have supported him throughout.
State Attorney Harry Shorstein pushed ahead with a grand jury investigation
in 1997. It came back with an indictment charging Dr. Sybers with injecting
his wife with an "unknown substance."
Mr. Shorstein hoped further tests would strengthen the prosecution's case
that Dr. Sybers had used potassium chloride, the poison used in executions
by lethal injection. An unorthodox -- and unrecognized -- test had found
trace amounts of potassium in the original autopsy, and Mr. Shorstein felt
further tests could substantiate their theory.
But in July, 1998, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against exhumation, saying
the family's rights overrode Florida's "dubious proof" that further tests
would
be beneficial. Prosecutors were dealt a further blow when a Florida judge
prohibited testimony from the physician who discovered the trace potassium
because his testing procedures were not scientifically accepted.
In 1999, prosecutors discovered what they now believe was the true murder
weapon when separate tests turned up trace elements of another toxic
chemical in Mrs. Sybers' body -- succinyl monocholine, a derivative of a
muscle relaxant used in surgery. The chemical does not occur naturally in
the body and usually dissolves quickly, Mr. Shorstein said, but it had been
preserved, rather than erased, by the embalming.
"Succinyl monocholine could not be in Kay Sybers body but through murder,"
Mr. Shorstein said.
Defence lawyers say they will argue against the validity of the tests at trial.
Dr. Sybers was living in British Columbia at the time of his arrest, and
under
an unusual US$300,000 bail agreement, police allowed him to continue living
in Canada while his case proceeded to trial.
Eagle View residents recall the shock as details filtered out from newspaper
reports, but say Dr. Sybers remains well liked.
"He's been accepted very well here," one neighbour said. "As far as I know
from other people, no one thinks he did anything wrong.
"There's only two people who really know if he's guilty -- he and his wife."
Chief Circuit
Judge Don T. Sirmons ruled Tuesday that he
will preside over the first-degree
murder trial of Bay County's
former medical examiner.
About 24 hours
earlier, the attorneys for Dr. William Sybers
argued a motion for Sirmons'
disqualification as trial judge for the
case. Panama City attorney
Harry Harper and co-counsel Jerry
Crawford of Iowa argued
that Sybers has lost confidence that he
can get a fair trial before
Sirmons.
The attorneys
argued that special prosecutor Harry Shorstein of
Jacksonville improperly
contacted Sirmons to argue a motion
without the defense's knowledge.
And, they alleged, Sirmons acted
improperly by counseling
Shorstein on the selection of the foreman
of the grand jury that ultimately
indicted Sybers.
Finally, the
attorneys argued Sirmons has not taken a class
designed for judges who
handle murder cases and therefore should
pass the case on to a judge
who has taken that class.
About 2 p.m.
Monday, after hearing attorneys' arguments,
Sirmons said he would announce
his decision ``shortly.'' It was
filed in Bay County Circuit
Court at 2:57 p.m. Tuesday.
In his order
denying the motion for disqualification of the trial
judge, Sirmons found that
the defense's arguments concerning the
selection of the grand jury
foreman and any conversations the
judge might have had with
Shorstein were ``legally insufficient to
grant'' the motion.
Sirmons wrote
that the portion of the motion dealing with the
new rule requiring judges
to attend certain classes ``is legally
insufficient until the Chief
Justice (of the Florida Supreme Court)
declines to waive the requirement
of the rule as provided in the
rule.''
The rule pertaining
to the special classes for judges who handle
murder cases was enacted
shortly before Sybers' Feb. 18
indictment. The Florida
Supreme Court has indicated it will waive
that requirement until judges
have had enough time to go through
the class.
Sybers is scheduled
to stand trial for first-degree murder in the
death of his wife, Kay,
on May 30, 1991. No trial date has been set.
His next court appearance
is set for March 27, when he is
scheduled to be arraigned.
Sybers remains
free on $300,000 bond. As a condition of his
release, he must remain
at his rented residence except to attend
church, court proceedings,
meet with attorneys or go to the doctor.
© 1997 The News Herald
The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
Contact us for more information.
info@ccadp.org
"The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now"