Cancer doctor's girlfriend describes poisoning
HOUSTON — The girlfriend of the cancer doctor allegedly poisoned by his fellow physician lover took the witness stand Tuesday and walked the jury through the day Dr. George Blumenschein was poisoned.
"I was frantic," Blumenschein's longtime girlfriend, Evette Toney said.
She thought he was heading straight to work when he left in the morning and said he seemed normal, until he called her that afternoon.
"'I'm calling because if something happens I want you to know my speech is slurred and I'm not feeling well,'" she said he told her.
Toney said she tried to get Blumenschein to go the hospital, but he waited until that night when his kidneys were already failing.
The jury saw new video of Dr. Blumenschein sitting outside the hospital, right before he was admitted to the emergency room. Blumenschein was resisting going inside, saying he didn't need emergency medical help.
Toney said she took the video to show to Blumenschein to try to convince him he was very sick. In the video his words slur heavily as he says, "I've gotten progressively discoordinated."
Dr. Ana Gonzalez is sitting next to Blumenschein in the video. From just off camera, she's heard saying, "He looks like he had a lot to drink and he hasn't, trust me. He's been working, he was working with me."
In fact, prosecutors say Gonzalez had slipped a dangerous chemical into Blumenschein's coffee because of jealousy over their love triangle. Then they she let him drive to the hospital, in his disoriented condition.
"He could barely walk. He was leaning against the wall just to advance a few feet," said Toney. "I thought he was dying. I actually thought he's dying in front of me."
Gonzalez, finally told Toney what was wrong.
"'It's ethylene glycol.' And I said, 'Is that good or bad?' because I didn't know what it was. And she said, 'It's poison.'"
When Blumenschein woke up, he told Toney the coffee he'd had at Gonzalez's house that morning tasted strange.
"He said, 'Evette she poisoned me. I'm 100 percent sure. Do not say anything to her. I'm afraid she's going to do something to you, and I'm afraid she's going to do something to me.'"
Before long, Blumenschein admitted another bombshell: He'd been having an affair with Gonzalez, his colleague at MD Anderson.
"I trusted her, I trusted him. I felt so stupid. It was more than anger. I felt betrayed," Toney said.
In a final blow, Toney learned Gonzalez had been pointing the finger at her for the poisoning.
"You did this didn't you?" the prosecutor said to Toney on the stand, mimicking the defense's stance.
"No I did not, absolutely not," Toney answered.
"You wanted his money so you poisoned him?" said the prosecutor.
Again Toney answered, "No I did not."
The prosecutor added, "Well maybe you were jealous over the affair."
Toney replied, "I did not know the defendant was having an affair until after he was poisoned."
Instead, prosecutors said Gonzalez was the only one with the motive — jealousy — and the opportunity to slip poison in Blumenschein's cup of coffee.