Lufkin Nurse’s Capital Murder Trial Set for September

The capital murder trial of a Lufkin nurse accused of killing five dialysis patients by injecting them with bleach is set for September in Angelina County District Court.

Jury selection for Kimberly Saenz’s capital murder trial begins August 9th, and it's expected to take the entire month.  Because the death penalty is in play, all 12 jurors and alternates selected for the trial must be capable of returning a death sentence if they find Saenz guilty.

That means opposing attorneys will have to spend a great deal of time questioning people called in for jury duty in the trial.

The charges against Saenz grew out of a federal investigation of an unusual number of patient deaths and illnesss at the DaVita Dialysis center, where she worked for eight months.
Two witnesses told Lufkin police they saw Saenz fill a syringe with bleach and inject it into two patients’ dialysis lines.  Both those patients survived.  Police linked Saenz to some of the complications when they charged her with aggravated assault. When five Da Vita patients later died, the charges were upgraded to five counts of capital murder.

Texas law defines capital murder as murder committed in the act of committing another felony.

The trial will be heard in District Judge Barry Bryan's court.

via Capital murder trial of Lufkin nurse set for September - The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State.

Lufkin police have not offered a motive in the case.  Saenz's attorney says she had no motive for committing any of the crimes with which she is charged.