Jury finds Dr. Anthony Garcia guilty on four counts of first-degree murder

Dr. Anthony Garcia was found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder by
a jury today at 1:30 p.m. and first death penalty phase hearing will start Friday

Of late, we have not been reporting a lot of positive and uplifting stories from the medical field in the Omaha area as we had originally intended when we first created this blog back in 2013.

The sordid stories of intrigue, controversy, and scandals coming out of the medical profession in Omaha in recent months simply haven't fit that bill for what we intended to highlight as the best aspects of the medical profession, especially for the community in a quiet and squeaky-clean Mid-Western town, like Omaha, Nebraska, nestled in the heartland of America.

Frankly, some of these disturbing stories reported in recent months have simply been black eyes on the medical profession in the Omaha metro area, but for better or worse, the it is what it is, and we still have to report on it.

A little over a month ago, we reported on an exclusive story on a brewing scandal inside the University of Nebraska Medical Center's (UNMC) newly founded physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) department which UNMC officials were apparently unaware of.

The murder victims tied to Dr. Anthony Garcia from his time as a pathology
resident at Creighton University have links to his superiors inside the dept.
through then pathology department chairman, Dr. Roger Brumback (one 
of the victims), and pathology residency director, Dr. William Hunter

Now, we are reporting on Omaha's other big scandal within the medical profession, the murder trial of Dr. Anthony Joseph Garcia, who was accused of committing two grisly double murders back in 2008 and 2013 in what is becoming widely known across the country as the so-called "Creighton murders."

This week, Dr. Garcia, a former pathology resident at Creighton University School of Medicine, concluded his more than 3 week long and highly-publicized murder trial. He was handed down a not-too-unexpected guilty verdict from a jury of his own peers today at 1:30 p.m. on four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of a use of a deathly weapon, and one count of attempted burglary.

The motives for the murders were thought to be out of revenge after being fired from Creighton University's pathology residency program back in June of 2001 by his then superiors at the hospital, Dr. Roger Baumback, the chairman of the department who was also one of the murder victims along with his wife Mary in 2013, and Dr. Bill Hunter, the residency director whose son, Thomas, was mysteriously murdered along with his housekeeper Shirlee Sherman at his Dundee home back in 2008.

Dr. Garcia was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence with almost no direct evidence tying him to the murders, but this kind of criminal conviction would not be unprecedented in the annals of the criminal justice system.

Anthony Garcia at the time of his medical school
graduation at the University of Utah in 1999

Garcia caught the ire of several of his superiors from numerous incidents of "erratic behavior" during his time as a resident at four different residency training programs, none of which he had the chance to successfully complete.

Before coming to Creighton University's pathology residency program in 2000, Dr. Garcia had been accepted into the family practice residency program at Bassett-St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, in Upstate New York, in July of 1999 after graduating from medical school at the University of Utah in 1999.

He resigned in December from that program to avoid a disciplinary investigation after he allegedly yelled at a radiology technician in a heated argument.

Garcia then transferred into Creighton University's pathology residency program in July of 2000, but only lasted a year there before being terminated by that training program.

Both Drs. Bill Hunter and Roger Brumback, who ran the pathology program at Creighton University as chairman and residency director of the department in 2001, respectively, were linked to Dr. Garcia as possible targets for revenge according to prosecutors, which eventually led to Dr. Garcia's arrest for the quadruple murders.

Prosecutors assert that both Brumback and Hunter had been the ones responsible for signing Garcia's termination letter from Creighton University's residency program, and later Dr. Hunter may have sent letters of condemnation to other residency programs and state licensing boards that prevented Garcia from sustaining gainful employment in another residency training program or attaining a medical license in several states. This was apparently the motive established by the prosecution for the revenge murders.

Another pathology faculty member whom Garcia had run-ins with at Creighton University, Dr. Chhanda Bewtra, had her home nearly broken into at 2:16 p.m. on May 12, 2013, just two days before Dr. Roger Rumback's and his wife Mary's bodies were found, but luckily, no one was at Bewtra's home at the time of the attempted break-in. The unidentified burglar was apparently frightened away when a security alarm at the home went off as the intruder tried to gain entry into the home.

The first murders in the affluent Omaha neighborhood of Dundee in 2008 were
tied to Dr. Bill Hunter as the victims were Dr. Hunter's 11-year-old son,
Thomas, and the family's 57-year-old housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman

Back in 2001, Dr. Garcia is alleged to have blown-up at Dr. Bewtra in a heated argument. Dr. Hunter asked Dr. Garcia to apologize for his behavior to Dr. Bewtra, but he refused. Weeks later Garcia was out of the residency program, but it's unclear if this was actually the inciting incident that led to Dr. Garcia termination from Creighton or part of a growing list of complaints that were mounting against Dr. Garcia at Creighton. (See details below.)

Police later collected DNA on the doorknob that officials said couldn't rule out Garcia as the perpetrator, which, in and of itself, proves nothing.

But the timing of the attempted burglary and Dr. Garcia's previous run-ins with Dr. Bewtra did raise a number of red flags with detectives to tie that incident back in with the Brumbacks' murders through a common link to Creighton University.

Dr. Garcia's troubles at Creighton University began in February of 2001, during his first and only year of his pathology residency at that program, when he had left a cadaver face down overnight during an autopsy, resulting in a disfigurement of the cadaver's face before the body was returned to the funeral home for proper burial by the grieving family.

An infuriated funeral home director complained to Creighton's pathology department chairman, Dr. Roger Baumback, who upon hearing of the inexperienced trainee's stumbling faux pas wanted to fire Dr. Garcia on the spot.

The residency director, Dr. William Hunter, however, seemed more reasonable and decided to give Garcia a second chance, but not at Creighton. Hunter told Garcia that his contract would not be renewed, but he would help Garcia find a spot in another residency program. "Our idea was that, maybe in a different environment," Hunter said, "he would do much better."

On March 14, 2001, Garcia met with Hunter again, and he pleaded with Hunter to allow him stay at Creighton. Hunter relented and put Garcia "under review," which meant he had to achieve certain goals while at the program in order to continue working there.

The second set of murders were Dr. Roger Brumback, whom Dr. Garcia used to
work for as a resident at Creighton, and his wife Mary in their home in 2013

Garcia, however, was unable to stay out of trouble at Creighton for long, after officials accused him and a fellow resident of trying to sabotage a chief resident who was on leave of absence, studying to take a "high-stakes exam" on May 17, 2001.

Garcia was accused of having called the chief resident's wife that day, falsely telling her that her husband's leave of absence was not approved by the department; therefore, he was urgently being called back to the department to attend a conference, and if he didn't show up, he'd be fired.

The panicked wife called the department back and discovered the call had been some kind of hoax, as the chief resident was confirmed to have been approved for his leave of absence to take his exams. Garcia and another resident were later overheard by a faculty assistant talking about the crank phone call.

Garcia and the other resident allegedly involved in the crank call were then both summarily terminated by Drs. Hunter and Brumback on May 22, 2001 with the option to resign. This was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back in Drs. Brumback's and Hunter's eyes. Garcia appealed the firing, but an appeals committee upheld the decision, and the termination became final.

Composite sketch of a suspect released after the Dundee murders in
2008 did not resemble Anthony Garcia, so no one suspected Dr. Garcia
as a possible suspect in the murders until the second set of murders in 2013

Despite the firing, Hunter continued to assist Garcia by writing him a letter of recommendation when Garcia began applying to other residency programs. Soon after, Garcia was accepted into the pathology residency program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago (UIC) in August of 2001.

During his time at UIC, documents from the residency program showed that Garcia's supervisors were very concerned about his lengthy absences, apparently due to health problems he was suffering, and his failure to communicate with the hospital about those absences, so they too decided to terminate his contract in 2004 after only 19 months in the program.

Garcia then entered into a psychiatry residency program at Louisiana State University Health Science Center (LSU) in Shreveport, LA in July of 2007. His stay at LSU was not long as Garcia was fired in February of 2008 for failing to disclose information about his previous disciplinary actions and firings on his medical license application, based on information that Dr. Hunter provided officials in some letters. Garcia was also denied a license to practice medicine in the State of Louisiana for the same infraction.

Seventeen days after his termination from LSU, Dr. Bill Hunter's son Thomas, 11, and the Hunters' housekeeper Shirlee Sherman, 57, were found murdered from an apparent stabbing attack in the Hunters' family home in the affluent Dundee neighborhood of Omaha by Dr. Bill Hunter on March 13, 2008 when he came home that evening from work.

The killer had apparently used kitchen knives found inside the home to stab both victims to death. Both victims died of stab wounds in the right side of the neck. The killer left the murder weapons behind at the crime scene still impaled in the victims, but left no other evidence for detectives to identify who could have been behind the two gruesome murders.

Dr. Bill Hunter of Creighton University was thought to be the real
 target of a murderer on March 13, 2008, but he was at work, so his
son and housekeeper took the brunt of a killer's rage at his home 

Neighbors of the Hunters had seen a silver crossover-style SUV, possibly a Honda CRV, with out of state plates during the time of the murders. Garcia, at the time, had owned a 2000 silver Honda CRV from 2007 to 2009, registered in the State of Louisiana.

A suspicious well-dressed male, 20-30-years-old with olive skin in a dark suit carrying a shoulder satchel, was also seen walking in the area. Neighbors said he appeared out of place for the area—whatever that means. (See composite sketch above.)

At the time, no one had a clue who could have committed the murders, so the case went cold for years, despite a $54,000 reward offered from Omaha Crime Stoppers for a tip leading to the arrest of the suspect(s) and a segment on the TV show "America's Most Wanted," until another similar grisly double murder shook the community of Omaha to its core again in 2013.

At the time of the Dundee murders, Creighton University pathology chief Dr. Roger Brumback, a family friend of the Hunters, told the Omaha World-Herald, "The biggest interest we have, what everybody was asking yesterday, is, 'Who could have done this and why?'" Little did he know he too would become a killer's victim, some five years down the line.

The last known time Roger and Mary Brunback were seen alive was at 2:40 p.m. on May 12, 2013
 in their home having a FaceTime chat with their daughter Audrey on Mother's Day (seen above)

On the morning of May 14, 2013, a piano mover hired by the Brumbacks made a grim discovery of two dead bodies inside the Brumbacks' home. The bodies were of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife Mary who were found brutally murdered in their own home in a savage attack eerily similar to the Dundee murders back in 2008.

Roger Brumback had been shot and stabbed multiple times. He died from his initial gunshot wounds while his wife was brutally stabbed to death. The knife wounds were again caused by household knives found inside the home, and the stab wounds were again on the right side of the neck of both victims.

The killer this time left more evidence behind for police. Detectives found parts of the gun—a 16-round magazine, a 3-inch recoil spring, and a retaining loop smaller than a dime—used to shoot Dr. Brumback inside the home that later matched parts used on a 9 mm Smith & Wesson SD9 VE handgun. Garcia had recently bought a handgun matching this exact model on March 8, 2013 in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he had been living.

Dr. Anthony Garcia at the time of his arrest in 2013 for murder

The frame of the broken gun was later recovered from the side of the road off an interstate on ramp by Sheriffs deputies in Illinois in August 2013, 16 miles from Garcia's home, where it had been apparently ditched. The serial number on the gun matched the one bought by Garcia.

It should be noted, however, that the upper slide and barrel of the gun, which is used to match the ballistics of the bullets to a particular gun, have yet to be recovered in this case.

The case, however, only began to point to Garcia as a prime suspect because of a common motive of possible revenge drew a connection between Drs. Hunter and Brumback and Garcia's termination from Creighton University back in 2001. Detectives somehow suspected that the Brumbacks' murders were tied to Dr. Bill Hunter in the Dundee murders back in 2008 through one common denominator, again, involving Creighton University.

After reviewing Creighton Medical School files, police learned Dr. Hunter and Brumback were responsible for firing Dr. Garcia from Creighton back in 2001 for unprofessional conduct, and Dr. Hunter later wrote, what Garcia may have perceived as, vindictive letters that kept him from being accepted into other residency programs and approved for medical licenses in other states.

A clear motive for revenge thus began to emerge, and a prime person of interest and lone suspect, by motive alone, was identified by Omaha Police detectives.

The police were also convinced the two sets of double murders were connected because of the similar method and manner in which all the victims were stabbed from what looked like the same assailant(s). Two months later, Anthony Garcia was arrested, and police began searching for evidence at Garcia's home.

Former Indiana exotic dancer, Cecelia Hoffman, testified
that Dr. Anthony Garcia may have given a 'strip club confession'
to her in 2012-13, stating he killed 'an old woman and a young boy'

Credit card purchases, made by Garcia two days before the Brumbacks' bodies were found, placing Garcia inside a Wing Stop restaurant at 72nd and Pacific at 2:26 p.m. inside Omaha, five minutes from Dr. Chhanda Bewtra's home, and at a Casey's gas station at 12:38 p.m. on the outskirts of town in Council Bluffs, Indiana on May 12, 2013. Garcia bought lunch and a case of Bud Light from those two locations.

A cellphone call to Garcia from his father at 5:18 p.m. on May 12, on Mother's Day, placed Garcia in Atlantic, Iowa, about an hour east of Omaha. That night, Garcia checked into a Motel 6 off Interstate 80 at 6:58 p.m. in West Des Moines, Iowa, which was nearly two hours away from Omaha.

The desk clerk of the motel, Yvonne Villalpando, stated she did not notice anything unusual about Dr. Garcia when he checked into his room, especially anything that would indicate he had just killed two people.

Police also discovered that Garcia searched for Chhanda Bewtra's home address using the whitepages.com website from a MacIntosh desktop computer on April 30 and on his Android tablet on May 10. He later looked up Roger Brumback's home address on his iPhone on May 12.

An employee from whitepages.com later confirmed in court that someone had searched for "Roger A. Brumback" at 12:57 p.m. in Omaha from an iPhone that day but stopped short of identifying much else about who could have made the online search.

The last known time that the Brumbacks were seen alive was around 2:40 p.m. on May 12, having a FaceTime video chat in their home with their daughter Audrey Brumback from San Francisco, on Mother's Day via the Brumbacks' iPad.

Their bodies were found by a piano mover just before 10 a.m. on the morning of May 14th. Dr. Roger Brumback had recently announced his retirement from Creighton University and was in the process of moving with his wife to West Virginia for his retirement.

Dr. Chhanda Bewtra, another faculty member in Creighton's pathology dept.,
 may have been on the killer's list as well, but was luckily spared by not being
at home and having a security alarm system at her home go off during a very
ominous attempted burglary on her home on May 12, 2013, within hours that
prosecutors contend that the Brumbacks were murdered in their home

The timelines are important to both the prosecution's and defense's cases.

Prosecutors contend that the Brumbacks were murdered in the narrow time window from 2:40 p.m. to some time after 4 p.m., but before 5 p.m. on May 12 to fit the timeline of Garcia's possible physical presence in the Omaha area; otherwise, if the Brumback murders occurred after this crucial time window, Garcia's whereabouts in the Omaha area could not have been definitively established to be in the area for the murders.

Neighbors who lived near the Brumbacks stated that they didn't hear any gunshots on May 12, between the hours of 3 and 5 p.m. when the prosecutors claim the murders occurred.

It's unclear from the forensic evidence when the Brumbacks were actually murdered, from 2:40 p.m. on May 12, the last known time they were seen alive, to the morning of May 14 when their bodies were actually discovered, which is a pretty large two-day time window for the murders to have happened.

In court, Garcia's defense attorney Jeremy Jorgenson suggested that the reason Dr. Garcia was in the Omaha area on May 12 was because he was trying to find a new job. On cross examination, Omaha Police Detective Nick Herfordt conceded that there was evidence of potential employers showing interest in hiring Dr. Garcia on his mobile devices from across the country.

Surveillance images of Dr. Anthony Garcia buying a case of Bud Light with
his credit card at a Casey's at 12:38 p.m. in Council Bluffs, Indiana, on
Mother's Day May 12, 2013 not far from Omaha, Nebraska

Jorgenson also suggested that the reason Dr. Garcia was looking up contact information on his former supervisors at Creighton was because he needed possible references for job applications.

Omaha Police Detective, Derek Mois, admitted in court that landline phone records from the Brumbacks' home were not procured for the investigation, which could have established a latter date and time for the Brumbacks being alive. He also admitted under oath that this oversight could "potentially" be a big error in the case.

But the prosecution's most damaging piece of evidence may have been from an ex-stripper whom Garcia had regularly and frequently seen as a customer from 2012 to 2013 at a strip club in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Cecelia Hoffman, the former Indiana exotic dancer in question, testified during the trial that, around 2012 to 2013, Anthony Garcia was a regular customer of hers, and after a while, Garcia suggested to her that he wanted to be more than just friends.

Creighton University Medical Center

In an attempt to distance herself from his advances, she told Garcia one night that she liked "bad boys," and as a doctor, he shouldn't date someone like her because she had legal problems.

Parts of Anthony Garcia's handgun recovered off a highway
in Illinois

"I'm not that good," Garcia was purported to have replied back to Hoffman. "I've killed people before. ...it was an old woman and a young boy." Garcia went on to tell Hoffman, "Well maybe they didn't deserve it, but I had to, and I feel bad."

Hoffman thought Garcia was joking around or shooting the breeze and didn't tell police about Garcia's offhand remarks to her until Omaha Police detectives questioned her about the incident.

Under cross examination, Hoffman admitted she was an alcoholic and had done drugs at the time of the alleged strip club confession by Garcia. In an interview with a defense investigator, Hoffman also admitted she may have recanted her story. "I told him maybe I was drunk," Hoffman said, "and maybe I don't remember."

Hoffman's background is a bit curious and troubling to understand because she had previously been publicly listed as a "missing person" in the Tribune-Star (Terra Haute, Indiana's daily newspaper) by the Greene County Sheriff's Office around June of 2013, shortly before Omaha detectives questioned her.

She had apparently been seen screaming and crying in the middle of a cornfield before her sudden and mysterious disappearance, according to the Tribune-Star. We don't know what to make of that bizarre incident, but it certainly adds to the drama behind her background as a credible prosecution witness.

All in all, the jury had heard enough circumstantial evidence to make a decision in the case before them.

While there was little direct evidence tying Dr. Garcia to the murders and an unanswered question brought up by the defense on the police considering another possible suspcet who might have committed the murders whom Garcia's attorneys believe may be tied to another unsolved stabbing murder case on a victim named Joy Blanchard in a nearby Omaha neighborhood that occurred on November 3, 2007, it still only took the jury a day of deliberation to bring back a conviction against Dr. Garcia on all four count of first-degree murder.

Dr. Garcia could face the death penalty during the sentencing phase of the trial which is schedule to start Friday during the penalty phase of the murder trial.

No doubt, the medical profession in the Omaha area and the community of this quiet and sleepy town will never be the same again after this tragic and horrific series of events.

References:

• Medicine of Omaha—Defense argues Dr. Anthony Garcia should be spared the death penalty because of severe mental illness and 'profound burden of failure' in death penalty sentencing hearing (6/13/18)
• Medicine of Omaha—Death penalty hearing for Anthony Garcia delayed again until May (3/1/18)
• Medicine of Omaha—As Anthony Garcia's quadruple murder case is featured on another TV show, Judge dismisses Garcia's motion against the death penalty (2/13/18)
• Medicine of Omaha—Death penalty hearing for Dr. Anthony Garcia in complete chaos and delayed until March because trial Judge decided to replace his lawyers during the sentencing phase (11/19/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—Anthony Garcia's Chicago-based lawyers ask to be removed from the 'Creighton killer' case (8/6/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—CBS News '48 Hours' features Dr. Anthony Garcia's quadruple murder case (5/7/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—Dr. Anthony Garcia ruled to be competent for death penalty sentencing, but court then grants defense a last minute postponement (3/29/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—Dr. Anthony Garcia's death penalty hearing likely delayed after Judge orders mental competency exam for 'Creighton Killer' (3/13/17)
• Medicine of Omaha—Jury says 'Creighton killer,' Dr. Anthony Garcia, eligible for death penalty (10/28/16)
• CBS News—Verdict for former doctor in "revenge" killings tied to Omaha medical school (10/26/16)
• ABC News—Jury Convicts Man of Killing 4 Tied to Omaha Medical School (10/26/16)
• NBC News—Fired Doctor Anthony Garcia Found Guilty of Four Revenge Murders (10/26/16)
• KMTV—Jury finds Garcia guilty on all counts of first degree murder (10/26/16) with video
• KETV—Garcia found guilty on all counts in Creighton revenge killings (10/26/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Prosecutors in Anthony Garcia case relieved by guilty verdicts; defense team promises to appeal (10/26/16) with video
• WOWT—Guilty: Jury convicts Anthony Garcia of murder (10/26/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Timeline: The Anthony Garcia Case
• KETV: Defense argues murder connection, attorneys rest (10/24/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Motel clerk says Anthony Garcia seemed like a typical guest on day prosecutors say Brumbacks were slain (10/23/16)
• Omaha World-Herald—Timeline: Major events leading up to the Anthony Garcia trial (10/21/16)
• KETV—Prosecution's cell phone records under sustained attack by defense expert (10/21/16) with video
• KMTV—Defense argues other suspects, gun disparities (10/20/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—In Anthonty Garcia's home, detectives find evidence of a man trying to make his old life disappear (10/20/16)
• Omaha World-Herald—Firearms expert testifies that gun magazine found in Brumbacks' home showed extensive wear (10/20/16)
• Omaha World-Herald—In opening of defense, Anthony Garcia's attorneys take aim at DNA tests linking him to Creighton doctor's home (10/20/16)
• Omaha World-Herald—In Anthony Garcia's home, detectives find evidence of a man trying to make his old life disappear (10/20/16)
• WOWT—Prosecutors conclude case in murder trial of Anthony Garcia (10/19/16) with video
• Kearney Hub—Anthony Garcia's attorney suggests Garcia was in Omaha as part of effort to find a new job (10/18/16) with video
• Kearney Hub—Omaha detective tells jurors how Anthony Garcia went from being a name on a file to the prime suspect (10/17/16)
• WOWT—Focus returns to homicide scene - Garcia murder trial logs second week (10/14/16) with video
• KMTV—Fmr. stripper details alleged Garcia confession (10/13/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—After dead woman’s face was disfigured, attempt to sabotage medical resident was last straw for Garcia at Creighton, witness says (10/12/16)
• Omaha World-Herald—Gun found on Illinois roadside might be linked to Brumback slayings in Omaha (10/7/14)
• KETV—New details revealed in case against Dr. Anthony J. Garcia (8/15/13) with video
• Chicago Tribune—Checkered past of doctor recently charged in 4 killings fell through the cracks in Illinois (7/31/13)
• Omaha World-Herald—Why fired resident Anthony Garcia didn't emerge as a suspect in 2008 (7/21/13)
• KETV—Timeline tracks Garcia's steps (7/18/13) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Suspected serial killer appears in Illinois court; family claims mix-up (7/16/13)
• KETV—Police arrest Creighton murder suspect in Illinois (7/15/13) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Former Creighton resident arrested in connection with 2 Omaha double homicides (7/15/13)
• Omaha World-Herald—Coroner: Creighton U. prof was shot, wife stabbed (5/30/13)
• Omaha World-Herald—Double slaying: Piano mover saw unlocked door and gun clip (5/14/13)
• WOWT—Dundee murder case on America's Most Wanted Friday (8/3/12)