- I'm craig melvin,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
- Nothing in this case makes sense.
- They say doctors make the worst patients,
No matter how sick.
- She said, "is it high blood pressure?
"is he having a heart attack?"
- But this doctor wasn't just sick,
He was dying.
- No one knew exactly what it was.
- And then they found the crystals.
- It's a poisoning case, which are very are.
- But solving a medical mystery
Didn't solve the main mystery...
Who poisoned him?
- He took a drink of it and said,
"there's something wrong with this."
- Was money the motive, or was there another reason?
- Everything about this case is nuts!
It's sex, lies, and audiotape.
- Turns out this busy doctor also had a busy love life
At home and at work.
- She loved him.
- I think she loved doctor blumenschein.
- I said, "why?"
She said, "it was just sex, evette."
- Who wanted the doctor dead?
- Who has the motive?
It's the person who isn't getting what they want.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
George blumenschein was at the top of his profession.
Then, suddenly the doctor known for saving lives
Found himself fighting for his own.
The diagnosis? Poisoning.
Soon, police discovered a secret love triangle
At the center of this mystery,
And they needed to find out
Which of the good doctor's relationships might be lethal
Before it was too late.
Here's andrea canning with "fatal attraction".
- There's a place in houston, texas
They call the mecca of medicine.
Md anderson cancer center.
- Their goal is making cancer history,
And so the best and the brightest work there.
- A hive of top tier physicians researching,
Saving lives.
- I was never a number, I was never just a-a patient,
I was a human being.
- But what happened when one of their own
Became dangerously ill?
- I was shocked.
It's crazy things happening.
- I never imagined that that would happen to anybody
That I knew.
- Not with cancer, but still something lethal
And bizarre.
- It was the worst kept secret at md anderson.
- Hollywood couldn't write this script.
It's unbelievable,
And that's why it's true.
- It was around midnight, January 27th, 2013.
A 48-year-old man wobbled through the doors
Of md anderson slurring his words, disoriented.
- Keep in mind he didn't go to the emergency room
At a standard hospital.
- Ryan korsgard covered the story
For nbc station kprc-tv in houston.
- He went to a cancer hospital.
- Perhaps just where he felt safe?
- Perhaps. And his office was also there.
- Maybe he felt safe there because the sick man
Was george blumenschein jr.,
A doctor specializing in neck, head,
And lung cancer at md anderson.
Like many of his talented peers
Dedicated to researching and curing cancer,
Doctor blumenschein's life
Seemed to revolve around his work.
- The people who worked with him
Said he reveals very little about his personal life.
He didn't talk about anyone he was dating,
Anything along those lines.
- Now this very private man was at md anderson,
Not to be examined,
But to research his own symptoms.
Friends at the hospital urged him
To go straight to the e.R.
- And it sounded like it was tough even to coax him
Into the emergency room.
- George's girlfriend, evette toney, a scientist,
Shot this video on her cell phone
As they sat outside the e.R.
She wanted to show george that he wasn't acting normally,
And convince him that he needed to check himself in.
The video would later be crucial
To solving a mystery.
- To see the usually articulate doctor like this
Was a strange sight.
- Cindy molina is a friend and former assistant
Of george's.
- What's george like?
- Very charming.
He's a great guy.
- She says that george was professional, friendly,
And always had a good bedside manner.
- Was it just the way he greeted you, or...
- Yeah, just the way he greeted you.
I thought he was very respectful, caring.
Patients did call me and make comments about him
That, you know, he's a great doctor
And they're so glad he's their doctor.
- But now the doctor was the one in need of care.
George's research partner,
A doctor named ana maria gonzalez,
Was also with him outside the e.R.
Ana had seen him at the office that day,
And later at a business dinner.
That cell phone video documents her
Describing his symptoms.
- Finally, george agreed to be examined.
And in the small world of md anderson,
Word spread fast that one of their esteemed doctors
Had checked into the e.R.
- What's your gut telling you though
When you're thinking about what he could be sick with?
- The first thing is like, "oh my gosh,
"is it high blood pressure? Is he having a heart attack?"
Or, you know, what-- "what is it?
"is he stressed?"
- Doctors suspected george might have suffered a stroke,
But his mri was clear.
Whatever was wrong, it was getting worse.
- He's deteriorating quickly.
His health is going downhill.
- Just a few hours after arriving at the e.R.,
The doctor was unconscious.
His organs failing,
And he was rushed to the icu.
- There seemed to be concern that he might not make it.
- Through the night, george lay near death
As his loved ones stood vigil outside the room.
Inside, the medical staff wondered,
Exactly how had their colleague ended up here?
And it wasn't long before police were wondering
The same thing.
- Coming up...
As doctors work to save one of their own,
Someone notices something strange.
- They started doing tests,
And that's when they found these crystals.
You're a doctor, you know everything
That goes into your body.
How was this introduced?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- In the early morning hours
After he was admitted to the e.R.,
Doctor george blumenschein lay unconscious.
He was in critical condition in the icu
Of the very hospital where he practiced medicine.
- I was worried about him.
- Were you just really praying
That he would come through this?
- Oh, of course.
He's a great person.
- No one was sure why this perfectly healthy man
In his forties was working one day
And on the brink of death the next.
- It was a race against time
Because no one knew exactly what it was.
They knew that there was kidney failure.
- Did they just start running a battery of tests?
- They started doing tests
And that's when they found these crystals.
- Crystals in his system?
That could be a sign of anything
From dehydration to kidney stones.
But looking at those crystals under a microscope,
One of george's doctors made a startling discovery--
An unusual chemical formation,
A deadly one.
It was ethylene glycol,
Most commonly known as the toxic ingredient
In antifreeze.
It damages the heart, attacks the kidneys,
And just half a cup can kill you.
-This must be just a shock to everyone
When they realize that this top-notch doctor
Has taken ethylene glycol.
- Absolutely. You're a doctor,
You know everything that goes into your body.
How was this introduced?
- George was in and out of consciousness
And being kept alive on dialysis.
Now that doctors knew what was making him sick,
They called in investigators to figure out how it happened.
- It's a poisoning case, which are very rare.
We don't see those very often.
- Nathan hennigan,
Then an assistant district attorney for harris county,
Has a background in science and medical crimes.
He and his partner at the time, justin keiter,
Had to consider every possible way
The poison got into george's system.
- He wanted to find out that this was all a mistake.
Maybe he just accidentally ingested something
Somewhere else.
He would have preferred that
Than to know that someone did this to him.
- Accidental poisoning was not so far-fetched.
In its pure form, ethylene glycol
Is used in labs all over md anderson.
It's colorless, odorless, and has a sweet taste.
But after checking out the accident theory,
It seemed unlikely.
George hadn't been in a lab recently.
- We couldn't establish that he had access
To ethylene glycol at all.
- Lieutenant max sosa was a university of texas police officer,
And part of the investigative team.
The former houston homicide detective
Took his job at the medical center
As a quiet retirement gig.
- You would deal with things like stolen lunches
From the communal fridge,
A missing dolly,
Not exactly houston homicide.
- They have their own forms of crimes,
But, uh, nothing on- on the same scale
As, uh, municipal law enforcement.
- Lieutenant sosa looked at george's case
And found it puzzling.
If this wasn't an accident,
There were still other possibilities.
Suicide came to mind.
- Did you ask doctor blumenschein,
"did you try to take your own life?"
- Yes. I mean, I asked him.
And there was no history of any mental health issues
Or conditions.
- He said no, I take it?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Satisfied that this was neither suicide nor accident,
There was only one conclusion left...
Someone tried to kill george.
- It's starting to look like
A prominent doctor was poisoned.
What's your gut telling you?
- At first the only thing that we can do
Is try to narrow down who was around the doctor.
- The first person they wanted to talk to,
Of course, was george's live-in girlfriend,
Evette toney.
- The woman in charge of the emergency room that night
Had concerns about evette toney,
And she told you that.
- She indicated that, um, we needed to look at evette.
She shared food with him, she shared wine with him,
Uh, the night before.
- Evette told lieutenant sosa she didn't have a clue
Why someone would want to hurt george.
She suggested that maybe it was a random act.
- She was throwing out all kinds of hypothesis
And hypotheticals.
She actually tells detective sosa,
"well I don't know,
"maybe he was an unintended victim,
"and he, uh, was the victim of some psycho waiter
"that wanted to hurt a lot of people."
- There wasn't a psycho waiter.
None of evette's theories made sense.
Investigators wanted to know more about evette
And her relationship with george.
They found out that the couple dated on and off
For about a decade.
They'd lived together, then broken up,
And she'd recently moved back in.
- So doctor blumenschein
Is somewhat of a commitment phobe?
- Doctor evette toney said that she had real issues
With the fact he didn't wanna commit.
And she said that her remedy for that
Was they were going to have a baby.
- Now that they were trying to start a family,
George the bachelor was also talking about marriage.
Evette had once called herself george's common-law wife.
Investigators wondered if she had anything to gain
Financially if george was killed.
- How much is he worth?
- He's worth several million dollars.
And that fact alone is motive.
- They pressed that lead, pulled his insurance papers,
And requested george's will.
- Would she have been entitled to his money if he died?
- No.
This man didn't even have a will.
And everything was left on the insurance policies
To his brother.
- Dead end there.
Still, lieutenant sosa put in a request
To do surveillance on evette and george's house.
- Did you ask evette toney,
"did you have anything to do with this?"
- Yes, ma'am, I did.
- What response did you get?
- She said, "absolutely not."
She offered her financials,
She offered anything under the sun.
She offered to submit to a polygraph.
- She even turned over the bottle of wine
She and george drank the night before he got sick.
Tests on the bottle came up clean.
The lieutenant decided to call off the surveillance.
The cooperative, mild-mannered girlfriend
Hardly seemed like a killer to him.
So if not evette toney,
Who in the world wanted doctor george blumenschein dead?
- Did you worry there was somebody responsible out there?
- Yes.
And if they didn't succeed were they gonna try again?
- That's exactly what investigators were thinking.
They placed a guard at george's door.
- At that point we didn't know if anyone would attempt
To go into his room and try to do it again.
- You were concerned about his life?
- Yes, ma'am. Very concerned.
- A second murder attempt? - Yes, ma'am.
- Investigators were about to discover
This prominent cancer doctor
Had a private life full of secrets.
Did he also have enemies?
Coming up...
Behind closed doors at the hospital.
- The plot started to thicken.
- I think people started to realize
And put pieces together.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Two weeks after he was poisoned,
Doctor george blumenschein was still suffering.
His body ravaged by the toxic chemical ethylene glycol.
After digging around in his personal life,
Investigators were no closer to figuring out
Who wanted george dead.
So they turned their attention to his professional life.
But to the investigators' surprise,
Many of the brilliant scientists
At md anderson were less than chatty.
- These doctors who you were dealing with
Are very private people.
- They are.
- And very intelligent. - Yes.
- Were they eager, willing witnesses?
Did they want to be part of this?
- No. No one wanted to be a part of this case.
- Still, one of george's closest colleagues
Made herself available.
Doctor ana maria gonzalez, george's research partner,
The coworker who was by his side
As he checked in to the er.
A fellow workaholic,
Ana knew the details of george's life at the hospital.
- How often were they together working?
- Seemed like all the time.
I mean, they traveled together,
They worked either in his office or her office,
They were always on the phone.
- Doctor gonzalez, who was born in colombia,
Was a fast rising star in breast cancer medicine.
- I truly believe that she holds the cure for women
In the world.
- As patients like silvia lieber saw it,
Doctor gonzalez was nothing short of a miracle worker.
- She has this compassion and understanding
About the disease and about the women she treats.
- Doctor gonzalez also treated nadine ideman.
- You know, I was never a number,
I was never just a-a patient,
I was a human being who had a full life.
- Did she immediately put you at ease?
- She absolutely did.
You know, she's, um, really small of stature,
But she's feisty and she said,
"we're just going to go after this."
And I said, "yup,
"you and I are gonna get along just fine."
And we have.
- Ana met george years earlier
When she referred a patient to him.
Soon after, she invited him to collaborate
On a research project.
Multiple studies followed, they were invited to lecture
And travel around the world.
After working for george,
Cindy molina took a job assisting ana.
- I knew she was trying to get his career going.
Writing more grants and helping him get promoted
And he wasn't the most organized person.
- So ana really had an impact on george's life?
- Yes.
- Was he very grateful for that?
- I think he was.
- How eager were you to talk to doctor gonzalez?
- Very eager.
Uh, she knew his habits, his schedule,
About the timeline that, uh, I needed information on.
- Ana provided valuable details about the day george got sick.
She told the lieutenant
She and george worked in their offices and md anderson,
Then attended a business dinner together that evening.
She witnessed his condition slowly worsen
And even followed george as he drove himself to the hospital
Around midnight.
- And every minute that you can account for
I would imagine helps you
Put together that crucial timeline.
- Yes, ma'am.
- What does she tell you?
- I asked her for, uh, an account of the week prior
To him going into the hospital.
- Ana told him all about george's week,
The details of his busy schedule.
She was sharing a lot.
But, as lieutenant sosa listened, he had a hunch
She might also be leaving something out.
So he went back and pressed george and ana's
Reticent colleagues for more information.
What was up with george and ana?
- Sosa starts to find out that there might have been
Something more than just a working relationship
Between, um, doctors blumenschein
And gonzalez.
- The plot started to thicken.
- I think people started to realize
And put pieces together.
- Even though the folks at md anderson
Weren't so keen to talk to investigators,
That didn't keep them from whispering
About george and ana among themselves.
- Did ana know that people were gossiping?
- I'm sure she did,
And I'm sure some of it got to her too.
But she and I never really talked about it.
- Lieutenant sosa asked ana point blank,
Were she and george having an affair?
She denied it.
He also asked george the same thing,
And george also said no.
But the investigator wasn't convinced.
The question nagged at him.
Now, weeks since he was poisoned,
George was out of the hospital,
Feeling stronger, and back at work.
The investigator decided to invite him out for a drive
Away from his girlfriend and colleagues.
In the car, george finally confessed...
He and ana were partners in more ways than one.
- Were these quick trysts that they were having?
Or was this a deep, emotional connection?
- I never got an indication from, uh, doctor blumenschein
That, uh, it was a deep connection.
It was just, um, a fling.
- George told the lieutenant the affair went on
For a year and a half.
He said it was a casual thing,
That sometimes when they traveled
To professional conferences they'd share a room,
A sort of coworkers with benefits arrangement.
In fact, the day he got sick
He'd stopped at ana's on the way to work.
- They go upstairs, they, um, have a sexual liaison.
- He carried her up the stairs,
That doesn't--
That sounds like something kind of romantic.
Not a casual, "I'm not into this".
- They were having some sort of a romantic--
A casual, sexual, romantic, uh, thing going on.
- And they split a shot of vodka
Before they left for md anderson.
- To investigators, this prestigious hospital
Was looking more and more like the setting
Of a soapy daytime drama,
Drama that changed the shape of the investigation.
- Anytime you have a love triangle,
The different points, the vertices of that triangle,
Are gonna be the ones you look at.
You have evette, maybe she's mad
Because she's got a cheating boyfriend
And she wants to get revenge.
And you have ana, who's the other woman.
- Poking around george blumenschein's
Professional life
Had led investigators right back to his private life,
Giving them a dramatic new theory of the crime.
- Coming up...
- Who has the motive?
It's the person who isn't getting what they want,
Who has to have what they know they can't.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin.
Who wanted george blumenschein dead?
The respected cancer doctor
Barely survived an attempt on his life.
Now investigators were focused
On a secret george had spilled,
His personal and professional lives
Were tangled in a love triangle.
Was it the key to cracking this case?
Soon, detectives would discover
That someone in this story had an obsession.
Once again, here's andrea canning
With "fatal attraction".
- The first big break in the investigation
Into who poisoned george blumenschein
Came when the doctor finally admitted he was a cheater.
He was carrying on an affair
With his esteemed research partner,
Ana maria gonzalez, while going home
To his girlfriend, evette toney.
Investigators went back to talk to evette.
- Evette did have a motive.
Her guy is having an affair with another doctor.
- The thing about evette
Is she didn't know about this affair
Until after blumenschein was poisoned.
- Evette toney is so naive
And so clueless as to what's going on, she says,
"yeah, no, no, there's nothing funny going on--
"they're really good friends.
"I've asked him before and he's told me no."
She doesn't know what's going on.
- She told investigators that george only fessed up
About the affair
A few weeks after he was poisoned.
So with evette essentially cleared again,
Investigators turned to the other sharp point
Of this love triangle, doctor gonzalez.
And george had some interesting things to say.
As he told it,
In the weeks before his poisoning,
Ana's affections intensified.
She called and texted him constantly,
Showered him with gifts,
And even started buying the same things he owned.
- Buying the same type of car that he has,
Buying the same type of watch he mentions,
She buys herself the exact same luggage.
- After he was hospitalized,
George believed ana might be behind the poisoning,
But he kept his suspicions quiet
Until pressed by investigators.
George broke off the affair with ana,
But never told her why.
Instead, he decided to secretly record their calls.
- George later gave the recordings
To investigators,
And in those calls they heard a woman distraught
Over the lover she couldn't have,
And jealous of the woman who had him.
- You listen to that
And you can hear it in her voice.
She says, "she won. She won".
- She needed doctor blumenschein
To continue her research.
They had a special bond, why would she want him dead?
- Little did doctor blumenschein know
How special that bond was that she wanted.
Who has the motive?
It's the person who isn't getting what they want,
Who has to have what they know they can't.
That's her, she wanted more.
- And it turns out prosecutors thought
Ana had opportunity too.
She had access to ethylene glycol in her lab,
And she and george had been together
The whole day he got sick,
Giving her plenty of chances to slip him the poison.
On may 29, 2013, police arrested ana
On charges of aggravated assault.
Ana's patients didn't believe it.
- I didn't understand it.
That was devastating for me.
She was what held me together.
- She's incapable of that. She heals people.
- Ana's trial began in the fall of 2014.
The courtroom was filled with family and patients there
To support her.
- She is so highly accomplished.
She is about a hundred pounds,
She doesn't exactly look like a killer.
Did you worry that the jury would have a hard time
Convicting someone like doctor gonzalez?
- Worried about it every night and every day.
Holy smokes, this is a doctor,
Who in their right mind can look at her
And think this is someone that was capable
Of doing such unimaginable things?
- Prosecutors told the jury
How this so-called casual affair
With george blumenschein wasn't so casual to ana.
- And it led to her absolute obsession.
- A string of colleagues testified
Ana couldn't contain her feelings for george.
- It seemed like, um, ana was, um,
Very infatuated with doctor blumenschein.
- Whenever we discussed any topic really,
Within a few sentences george's name would come up.
- She loved him.
- I think she loved doctor blumenschein.
- The affair was the worst kept secret at md anderson,
According to this doctor.
- Were you ever under the impression
That there was more than just a work relationship
Between the defendant and doctor blumenschein?
- I had heard rumors, yes.
- The doctor also said she and ana
Weren't even close friends.
But that didn't stop ana from volunteering details
About the relationship.
- She told me a little bit information
About their, um, intimacy.
Basically, she-she said that they were seeing each other.
- Yes. - Another doctor testified
About a curious conversation with ana
The morning after george was hospitalized.
Ana told her that george was poisoned.
The only problem,
This was hours before doctors even confirmed it.
- She told me that george was very sick
And he was in the icu
And he had, um, ingested ethylene glycol.
- She told you that Monday morning?
- Monday morning.
- And the witness also recalled a conversation
With ana that sounded to her like a confession.
- She then told me, while quite tearful,
That, um, she had ethylene glycol in her labs.
As did most md anderson.
She said, "I'm going to get in so much trouble for this."
- Knowing the jury would wonder about the other woman
In this love triangle, the prosecution
Called evette toney to the stand.
She testified about how she only found out
About the affair after george became sick.
- I felt so stupid. I mean, I was--
I trusted her. I trusted him.
- The prosecution asked evette what everyone in court was thinking,
Why was she still with george?
- Because I know the affair with the defendant
Is not the sum of who-who he really is.
We're still working on our relationship.
It's-it's, um, it's a work in progress.
- Then, evette told the jury about what happened
When she confronted ana.
- Did she seem to care? - No.
- Did that hurt worse? - Yes, it did.
- What did you say?
- I said, "why?"
She said, "it was just sex, evette."
- But the prosecution thought it was about
Much more than that.
- Everything about this case is nuts!
You couldn't write this script in hollywood,
It's sex, lies, and audiotape.
- The jury was about to go on a wild ride
Full of wicked plots and homicidal obsession.
- Was the affair at the center of this case causal,
Or something more?
The very private doctor blumenschein
Was about to air his dirty laundry under oath.
- Coming up...
Ana is the one on trial,
But george is the one in the hot seat.
- I was wrong. It was the wrong thing to do.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Make no mistake about this...
She is devious, diabolical, and dangerously deadly.
- To the prosecution in the trial of ana maria gonzalez,
The defendant was an increasingly unhinged lover.
- She became absolutely and totally obsessed
With him and wanting him.
- They argued that ana, the successful doctor,
Had been on a downward spiral
Doing crazy things to stir up trouble
In george's relationship with evette.
Things like sending evette an unsigned letter
Declaring that ana and george
Were having a baby together.
- The anonymous letter she's dropping off,
This is all an attempt to manipulate george
Away from evette.
- The prosecution said the manipulation didn't end there.
Ana told george that evette was behind a series
Of threatening phone calls she received at her office.
According to the prosecutor,
Those phone calls never happened.
- Md anderson has an incredibly sophisticated
Phone system that tracks every single call,
And we have all those records
And there ain't any anonymous phone calls.
- And strangest of all, the prosecution contended,
Just a month before the poisoning,
Ana staged an assault on herself.
She told anyone who would listen
That evette orchestrated the whole thing.
- She said she worked with a private investigator
To try to find out who it was.
She said that they traced this person back to louisiana,
And he was a relative-- I believe she said,
A cousin of evette toney.
- But investigator sosa told the jury he thought
Her wounds were actually self-inflicted.
- Are you telling this jury
You felt that they were inconsistent
With the attack-- supposed attack that happened?
- That's correct.
- The person who'd seen ana's apparent obsession
Up-close was the object of it.
A reluctant george blumenschein took the stand.
- Are you a private person? - I would say yes.
- How private?
- Very private. This is not easy.
- The prosecution needed george
To rehash their relationship.
How casual sex turned into something
That almost killed him.
- It's hard saying no to her.
She doesn't accept no.
- Would you often tell her that this was a bad idea?
- Um, regularly.
- George recounted how ana initiated their affair
One day in his office.
- At some point she sat on my knee and said,
"just-just shut up.
Let me sit on your knee, it's not a problem."
She started to kiss me on my neck.
I remember what she said.
She said, "I'm gonna eat your ear."
- But the prosecution didn't pretend their victim
Was an angel.
- Well you didn't stop her. - I didn't, no.
- You cheated on evette.
- I did. I cheated on evette.
It-it was a wrong thing to do.
- George said he was always clear with ana.
He wasn't leaving evette.
But ana was still demanding.
- She accused me of not returning phone calls.
- Ana, according to george,
Went over the top with fancy gifts
Like gold jewelry from colombia
And a $5,000 watch.
- She bought herself the ladies' version of it,
And then said, "well, I can get you the guys' version.
"wouldn't you like it?"
And I'm like, "you know I don't want that.
"that's too expensive, I don't want it."
And then suddenly,
"I bought it for you, here it is."
- And, he said, she forced him to accept
A $1,000 suit.
- ...I'm like, "ana, I don't want a suit
"that I haven't seen."
"no, no, no, you need a suit."
I was like, "fine.
"if that's what you want to do,
"go ahead and do it."
I ended up giving it to goodwill.
And I felt like it was, again, pushing a boundary.
- What finally pushed ana over the edge,
Claimed the prosecutors, was when george and evette
Started talking babies and marriage.
George recalled ana made this bizarre offer...
- She said, "you know what?
"I'd have a kid with you."
I'm like, "well that's kind of you to say."
"no, no, no. I can have a kid with you
"and I can move to europe for a year
"and I could come back, and you can be the uncle."
And I was like, "no, thank you.
"that's not what we wanna do."
- The prosecution argued if ana couldn't have george,
No one could.
- The defendant had a fatal attraction.
- Is doctor gonzalez glenn close?
- She fits the role without a doubt.
- She's a bunny boiler.
- And then the prosecution had george tell the jury
About the day he almost died.
- ...And the only thing that, um,
Had been strange was that the cup of coffee,
The coffee that I had on Sunday.
- And that was the key to the prosecution's case.
Ana served george coffee during their morning rendezvous.
It was the only thing he said he drank that day
Before he felt sick.
- When you started drinking it,
Did you notice anything strange about it?
- It was incredibly sweet.
- Ethylene glycol has an intensely sweet flavor.
George told the jury ana served the sweet coffee
At her home
And then brought more of it in travel mugs
To the hospital.
Within hours of drinking it,
He was lightheaded and slurring.
- I couldn't even remember who I was talking to
Or why he was there.
- And by night, he was in the icu.
- Well what's so hard about reliving this part?
- Because I almost died.
- To button up their case,
The prosecution called a leading expert
In ethylene glycol.
- Based on the timeframe for when symptoms appear,
I would, um-um, conclude that he had ingested
The ethylene glycol on Sunday morning.
- The only thing he drank that morning was the coffee.
And it was the coffee
That strangely tasted sickeningly sweet.
- According to the prosecution,
Ana spent the day with the man
She was trying to kill, watching him deteriorate,
And following him as he finally drove himself
To the hospital.
- The prosecution entered that cell phone video into evidence,
And told the jury to take a good look.
Ana was right there next to george, smiling,
Pretending to help when she knew full well
What was wrong.
- Coming up...
Now it's the defense's turn.
The case against ana?
- Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Nada.
- Will the jury see it that way?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back.
Doctor ana gonzalez was on trial
For poisoning her ex-lover, doctor george blumenschein.
The prosecution portrayed her as an unhinged paramour
In a toxic love triangle enraged over george's plans
To have a baby with his longtime girlfriend, evette.
Now, it was the defense's turn,
And they would argue the wrong woman
Was charged with this crime.
Here's andrea canning with the conclusion
Of "fatal attraction".
- As the case against doctor ana maria gonzalez
Unfolded, she stood stoic
In a suit that seemingly overwhelmed her frame.
Nadine ideman, her former patient and now friend,
Came to court with ana each day.
- She just held onto her emotions
'cause she didn't want to fall apart
In front of her family.
But we'd get back in the car and we would cry,
We would pray, we would-- I'd scream.
- But now it was ana's defense team's turn
To hit back.
Derek hollingsworth, andy drumheller,
And billy belk were ana's attorney's.
- They called her "devious", "dangerously deadly",
"diabolical", "fatal attraction."
Do you think that that started to stick with the jury?
- Well I mean, that was clearly what their goal was.
I thought that the prosecutor's theory
Of the case, this diabolical killer,
Was a bit of an overreach.
- Certainly, the defense told the jury,
Ana cared for george,
But not in the outrageous homicidal way
The prosecution claimed.
- This case is about a consenting,
Consensual relationship between two peers.
It's not a case of fatal attraction.
- The defense argued ana wasn't obsessed.
She bought george gifts because she was generous.
All those alleged plots were just sheer speculation.
And under cross examination,
George had positive things to say about ana.
- She was a dear friend and somebody I cared about.
- As for ana becoming increasingly unhinged?
George told the jury how in the days leading up
To his poisoning, their casual relationship
Showed no signs of trouble.
- This wasn't a relationship that was in any kind of crisis
On the week of January 25th, was it?
- Uh, no.
- In fact, nothing had changed in your relationship
With doctor gonzalez at this point in time, had it?
- No.
- In fact, on the morning the prosecution said
Ana tried to poison george, he came on to her.
- You actually carried her up the stairs to the bedroom
She has upstairs, did you not?
- Uh, I did.
- Surprise, you all have a romantic encounter
When you're there, right? - Yes, sir.
- And it was one that you initiated,
Not one that she initiated that day, right?
- Yes, sir.
- In fact, everything that happened in your relationship
With this woman was consensual, wasn't it?
- Um, yes, it was consensual.
- Ana's attorneys attacked the investigation,
Charging that investigators dismissed
The most obvious suspect too quickly.
- There can be no doubt that doctor evette toney
Would be a natural person of interest.
And the fact of the matter is,
She was never, ever investigated.
- The defense wasn't buying evette's story
That she had no clue about the affair.
- You're a smart woman, right?
- Thank you for saying that.
- Aren't alarm bells going off in your head?
- I asked him the few times that I thought
Maybe something was going on and he said no.
There's nothing I can do if someone's lying.
- Did you ever follow him? - No, I wouldn't do that.
- Did you ever think about it?
- No. It's just ridiculous
- It never crossed your mind? - No.
- Then, the defense flipped evette's cell phone video
On its head,
Said it made her look suspicious.
- When she finally sees the man that she is in love with
And wants to have children with,
She takes a cell phone video.
She's not sitting next to the guy
That she's been worried about all day,
But with her arms around him trying to comfort him
And make sure he's okay. She's videoing it.
It's just weird.
- And when it came to ana's behavior on that tape,
The defense said she did something
Only an innocent person would do,
She told the doctors about the coffee.
- Don't people who commit crimes
Run away from the crime scene?
Don't they clam up and be quiet?
But she's on a video talking about
What happened that day.
- But the defense's biggest target was the science;
Or lack thereof.
They went after the investigation
For what they thought was a huge mistake,
Never testing the coffee cups.
- There's no scientific evidence,
There's no scientist who came in here
Out of their 22 witnesses that talked.
That's the most-- look, if they're right,
Then I-I guess you'd call this the murder weapon, right?
If they're right, then this is the weapon,
The deadly weapon,
That doctor gonzalez used in this case.
And you don't bother to test it?
Give me a break.
- So they grilled that expert who testified
That george could only have ingested the poison
Sunday morning.
Turns out, george had been drinking wine and vodka
In the days before his symptoms surfaced.
The defense got the expert to concede a big point--
Alcohol, or in technical terms, ethanol,
Could throw off his findings.
- If it was demonstrated that he had been consuming
A large amount of ethanol over a long period of time,
That would probably change my opinion.
- In their final words to the jury,
Ana's lawyers drove it home.
- What is the state's case missing?
I don't-- this is overly simple,
But one shred of direct evidence.
And there's nothing.
This is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,
Nothing, nothing. Nada.
- After eight long days of testimony from experts,
Friends, and the well-respected doctors
Of md anderson,
The case against doctor ana maria gonzalez
Was now in the hands of the jury.
Both sides paced the halls of the courthouse waiting,
Hopeful, and anxious.
- Everyone be seated.
- Then, after five hours of deliberation...
- Mr. Foreman,
I understand that the jury has reached a verdict?
- We, the jury, find the defendant,
Ana maria gonzalez-angulo,
Guilty of aggravated assault of a person
With whom the defendant had a dating relationship,
As charged in the indictment.
- She's innocent.
She didn't do it.
She's a good person.
- In texas, a defendant can ask the jury
To determine sentencing, as ana did.
- She was extremely kind.
- Ana's patients filed in with pleas for leniency.
- She saved my life,
And she's gonna--
I always felt like she's gonna save
A whole lot of people's lives.
- Ana's punishment could have been up to 99 years in prison,
But her character witnesses had an affect on the jury.
- You are sentenced, in accordance with the terms
Of the jury's verdict, to ten years
In the texas department of criminal justice.
Go with the bailiff.
- Ana, once among the top breast cancer doctors
In the world,
Was now just another convict in the texas prison system.
- The medical community has- has definitely lost a giant.
But not just us, but future generations.
- Doctor blumenschein went back to md anderson,
Treating patients and researching cures
For lung cancer.
In prison, doctor gonzalez began helping cancer patients
In a support group,
But she surrendered her medical license
After the trial.
- She took an oath to not hurt anyone,
To do no harm.
In the hipaa-cratic oath, it actually says,
"you shall not administer poison."
She violated that in the worst possible way.
She spun a web of lies, of deceit, of manipulation,
And in this case now, she's paying for it.
- That's all for this edition
Of "dateline: Secrets uncovered".
I'm craig melvin. Thank you for watching.