Jury: Doctor guilty of wife's cyanide death
CLEVELAND, OH
The jury heard weeks of testimony before returning the verdict
against Dr. Yazeed Essa, 41. His wife, Rosemarie Essa, collapsed
while driving Feb. 24, 2005, and crashed her car into another
vehicle about five miles from the couple's home.
Essa was an emergency room doctor in Akron but fled to Lebanon
after his wife's death. Last year, he gave up an extradition fight
and was returned from Cyprus to Ohio. With Friday's verdict, he now
faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of
parole after 20 years.
As the verdict was announced, family members of Rosemarie Essa
held hands. Some cried and one quietly said "Oh" when the verdict
was read. After jurors left the courtroom, the victim's family
hugged police and prosecutors.
Her brother, Dominic DiPuccio, said the family was delighted
with the jury's decision.
Deputies stepped forward and handcuffed the doctor. He turned to
his brother and other family members, and nodded. He flexed his
fingers of his cuffed hands as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge
Deena Calabrese set sentencing for Tuesday.
While leaving the courtroom, defense attorney Mark Marein said:
"We're disappointed." Essa's relatives would not comment.
Assistant Prosecutor Steve Dever said the state had a good case
and the jury accepted the circumstantial evidence. He noted that
the jury at one point requested to see one of the cyanide-laced
calcium pills.
"I think they wanted to get the pill to actually figure out how
you could do it, the mechanics of actually unloading the one
calcium pill then putting it together again so it wouldn't be
noticed," he said.
A juror who, with others on the panel, spoke to reporters after
the verdict said jurors were surprised by Essa's stone-faced
demeanor throughout the trial, especially when photos of his wife
and two children were presented. The doctor's reaction was "no
expression, no tears, nothing," she said.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Essa was trying to
escape a loveless marriage and wanted to live with his mistress.
The defense portrayed the doctor as easily moving between
mistresses and a storybook life with a wife, two children and
personal wealth. The defense claimed a mistress wanted to marry the
doctor and had a motive to kill his wife.
But Essa's brother, who had testified earlier that the defendant
denied poisoning his wife, returned to the witness stand later to
change his testimony, telling jurors the defendant admitted to the
killing.
Firas Essa said the admission came in 2006 at a Cyprus jail,
where Yazeed Essa was detained after fleeing the U.S. Firas Essa
said he changed his testimony to avoid the risk of perjury and
obstruction charges and potential prison time.
A nurse who was the defendant's mistress testified that Essa
asked before his wife's death if she would stay "if something bad
were to happen."
Essa wore his wedding band throughout the trial, but did not
testify, apparently changing his mind at the last minute after the
judge encouraged him to think it over.
Rosemarie Essa, 38, died after taking the calcium tablet and
crashing her SUV into an oncoming car near the couple's home in
Gates Mills. No one was injured in the other vehicle. Yazeed Essa,
a Detroit native whose family is from a Palestinian territory, was
an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center and fled
to Lebanon after police seized drug bottles at his home.