OMAHA, NEBRASKA — A former doctor was sentenced to death on Friday for the revenge killings of four people related to a Nebraska medical school over two decades ago.
The convicted was 45-years old Anthony Garcia. He appeared in the courtroom in a wheelchair in the courtroom and slept through the hearing as the judge panel sentenced him to death.
In 2016, convictions were made against Garcia for two attacks that occurred five years back. Prosecutors argued the killings were motivated by Garcia’s rage over being fired in 2001 by Dr. William Hunter and another Creighton pathology doctor, Roger Brumback.
According to investigations, Garcia fatally stabbed 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman at the family’s home in an Omaha neighborhood. At the time, police couldn’t find the suspect due to shortage of the evidence.
The case was suspended in the following years. But that changed with the 2013 Mother’s Day deaths of Brumback and his wife, Mary, in their Omaha home. Police recognized similarities in the 2008 and 2013 killings. Garcia was immediately viewed as a suspect and was arrested two months later.
Prosecutors presented a large amount of evidence about that Garcia was planning to attack another Creighton medical school faculty member in 2013.