Jania Ashlynn
Jennifer Anne Hall has been accused of killing David Wesley Harper by “administering unprescribed pharmaceuticals” to the victim.
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Hall was previously a respiratory therapist. Authorities suspected that she was involved in nine different patient deaths suffered under her direct care. Recently, Jennifer has been formally charged with first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Harper.
Paper Trail
Court documents acquired by People outline some of the details of the case. The murder that Hall stands accused of took place over 20 years ago on March 21, 2002. He was admitted into Hendrick Medical Center on March 18, 2002, with a bout of bronchitis. Hall allegedly told her nursing staff that she went into Harper’s room and found him sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s alleged that Harper expressed to Hall that he wasn’t feeling well. He then fell backward on his went and went into “complete respiratory arrest.” He died soon after that.
According to the documentation, it’s alleged that Hall was found with a vial of succinylcholine in her pocket. That was not a drug that she was certified to administer.
The documents outlined more details of the incident. “The substance used to take Mr. Harpers’ life, succinylcholine, paralyzes the victim’s muscles, including the diaphragm, causing the victim to suffer a ghastly death from suffocation, while still maintaining full consciousness and awareness that they are unable to breathe and are dying. The rate of cardiac collapse incidents… rose alarmingly. These incidents were viewed as medically suspicious.”
Other Charges
Situations like this allegedly took place eighteen different times in the five months that she worked at Hendricks Medical Center. Nine deaths occurred. Before Hall’s tenure at the facility, only one cardiac collapse-related death happened each year.
This isn’t the first murder that Hall has been accused of. She was previously charged with the first-degree murder of 75-year-old Fern Franco, who was also one of her patients. She pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say that “Hall’s singular proximity to stricken patients, her access to pharmaceuticals which are deadly if misused, and her discovery of, and method of notifying staff of every patient’s cardiac emergency, nursing staff believed Hall was responsible for the patient deaths.”
