Kimberly Saenz, former nurse convicted of killing five with bleach, awaits sentence

(CBS/AP) LUFKIN, Texas- Kimberly Saenz, a former East Texas nurse who killed five kidney dialysis patients by injecting them with bleach, will learn this week whether she receives life in prison or the death penalty.

A jury in Angelia County found the 38-year-old guilty of capital murder in connection with the deaths and of deliberately injuring five others at a clinic run by health care giant DaVita, Inc. Monday, jurors will begin hearing evidence to decide her punishment.

Defense lawyers called nine witnesses, most of them attesting to Saenz's participation in her two children's school work and athletics. All were questioned briefly except for the final witness, a prison consultant who described Saenz's potential restrictions as an inmate serving life without parole.

According to CNN, the deaths took place in April 2008 when Saenz was employed at the clinic in Lufkin which is 120 miles north of Houston.

Prosecutors said she killed five patients by injecting them with bleach. Five others survived. Two witnesses said they saw Saenz use a syringe to draw bleach from a cleaning pail and inject it into the IV lines of patients.

Saenz did not take the stand at the month-long trial. Her attorneys argued she was being used as a scapegoat by the clinic to explain the unusually high number of deaths that April.

More on Crimesider
July 16, 2009- Nightmare Nurse: Poisonous Injections Could Net Death Penalty