Attorneys for Nebraska death row inmate want new trial

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Attorneys for a death row inmate say their client should get a new trial.

It’s not an unusual request, In fact, appeals are automatic in cases of the death penalty.

But this one stands out.

If you’ve been around Omaha in the last decade, you know the name Anthony Garcia. He’s the former doctor who got kicked out of the Creighton University pathology program and then sought revenge, killing four people.

He didn’t talk and barely moved during his trial and here in 2018 during his three-day hearing to see if he would get the death penalty. It often looked like he was asleep or unconscious. His Chicago attorneys said he had quit communicating with them.

His new attorneys called the old attorneys a nightmare and in November gave the Nebraska Supreme Court 130 reasons why his death penalty case should get another look.

While the Nebraska Supreme Court is still reviewing the appeal from November, a motion in district court was filed around the same time.

It explains that Garcia was getting oral anti-depressants and mood stabilizer medications, but attorneys are questioning whether his body was absorbing it correctly because he had gastric bypass surgery.

Garcia was convicted of killing four people in 2008 at a Dundee home; 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and the family’s housekeeper Shirlee Sherman were killed.

Thomas’ father had kicked Anthony Garcia out of Creighton. Five years later in 2013, Roger and Mary Brumbeck were murdered in their west Omaha home. Roger was also a Creighton pathology doctor.

Garcia was deemed competent to stand trial several times.

His newer attorneys handling the appeals, the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, say that in 2019 they got a report from corrections that after Garcia got psychiatric meds injected into his body, not oral meds, which was involuntary as well, he was now able to shower, eat and interact with staff, and not sleeping all day.

His attorneys believe there’s ample evidence Anthony Garcia who is 49 years old now should get a new trial.

The case is currently under review by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Copyright 2023 WOWT. All rights reserved.