Jennifer Anne Hall (Livingston County Sheriff’s Office)
A former respiratory therapist charged with murdering two patients decades ago now has a new attorney, and the defense lawyer claims the recently filed charges are built on sand.
“This is a case based on a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking,” Molly Hastings told KTVI in a Tuesday.
Defendant Jennifer Anne Hall, 42, was first charged in May 2022 for allegedly poisoning patient Fern Franco, 75, to death in May 2002 with the muscle relaxant succinylcholine. Experts in medical serial killers determined the victim’s death was homicide. Then, last week, authorities charged her with murdering patient David Wesley Harper, 37. As in the other case, the victim died in 2002. As in the other case, authorities claim that Hall used succinylcholine.
The drug can kill people by paralyzing the diaphragmatic muscles. Cause of death: asphyxia.
The patients had been attending Hedrick Medical Center in the city of Chillicothe, Missouri. Authorities said the facility experienced an alarming rise in cardiac collapse incidents while Hall worked there as a respiratory therapist from December 2001 to May 2002. 18 experienced the problem and nine — including Franco and Harper — died. Nursing staff believed Hall was responsible for the patient deaths because she had access to the patients, the potentially deadly drugs, and her discovery and method of telling staff of every person’s cardiac emergency, according to investigators.
Hall long maintained her innocence.
“Never,” she told The Kansas City Star in 2015. “No, never.”
“My name is just thrown out there, and it’s for horrifying reasons,” Hall said.
Hastings maintained her client’s presumed innocence.
“We have entered a plea of not guilty on all counts, and look forward to the opportunity to defend her against each and every one of these allegations,” Hastings told Law&Crime on Wednesday.
Hall’s longtime attorney Matthew O’Connor, who passed the case to Hastings because he retired, previously said the Franco case was based on “conjecture and speculation.”
“This case is based on the hindsight of people looking at issues in their own hospital and when Ms. Hall’s prior wrongful conviction came to their attention, they started pushing pieces toward her,” he told KCUR in a May 9, 2022 report. “They’ve tried for years to find evidence and it didn’t even rise to the level of a civil case, which is a much lower standard. The Missouri Supreme Court has thrown this case out at a civil level.”
He maintained his client did not have access to the drugs found in Franco’s body. By “prior wrongful conviction,” he was referencing how Hall was convicted in 2001 of setting a fire at another hospital, the Cass County Medical Center in Harrisonville, Missouri. She served a year in prison in beginning in June 2003. Her new representation in that case, however, argued that her trial lawyer failed to look into alternative causes for the fire, which caused $23,000 in damages. A defense expert determined the real cause of the incident was an old clock experiencing an electrical short in a cord. The defense successfully appealed on grounds of ineffective counsel, and her 2005 retrial ended in acquittal.
“They have no confession,” Hastings told KTVI of the murder charges. “They have a lot of folks kind of looking backwards and making assumptions, but I think that there is definitely a lot to work with from a criminal defense perspective.”
Jerry Lambe and Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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