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CNN Live Today

Texas Nurse Arrested for Murder; Interview with Tim Cole

Aired July 17, 2002 - 13:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: New details now are emerging in the case of a Texas nurse charged with killing four hospital patients. A short time ago, authorities unsealed the murder indictments.

CNN's David Mattingly joins us now from Nocona with the details -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, just a short time ago, getting our first official glimpse into the strange and mysterious case of Vickie Dawn Jackson, a former nurse accused of killing elderly patients at a hospital, the Nocona General Hospital, here in north Texas.

Now, two charges of capital murder. Death penalty cases, potentially, handed down yesterday by a grand jury. These coming from the January deaths of four patients at the hospital. One of them, the grandfather of Vickie Jackson's estranged husband.

Now those four are just part of the 20 suspicious deaths that occurred at the hospital during a three-month period, double normally what that tiny 38-bed hospital would see. Now, authorities have been slow in getting those indictments because of the difficulty of trying to find a key piece of evidence. They exhumed 10 bodies, looking for illusive traces of mivacurium chloride. Now that is a muscle relaxer that is given to patients so that it can relax them as they are given a breathing passage so that they are able to breathe. It goes into their lungs. But in large doses, it can paralyze the lungs and cause death.

With us now is District Attorney Tim Cole who will be prosecuting this case. This is just the beginning, so it is more than just four potential cases you are looking at.

TIM COLE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MONTAGUE COUNTY: That is right. We have the results of four of the autopsies, the initial four that have been completed. There are six others that are being tested at this time, and we expect to have results on those within the next three to four months. So potentially, we are looking at ten cases where we have exhumed bodies where we believe there may be, or will be evidence of mivacurium chloride in those bodies.

MATTINGLY: There were questions in the news conference today from reporters about this being mercy killing. Do you have any idea about a motive? COLE: Well, I have, of course -- I could speculate about those kind of matters. I have my own thoughts and ideas about that as a result of reviewing the file. I won't talk about that at this point, because those are matters that will be dealt with at trial. So I'm constrained to talk about those things, but suffice it to say that I do have theories about that, and I believe that will come out at trial.

MATTINGLY: You are not using the word "mercy killings," but you are using the word "serial killings."

COLE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Ten potential victims from this one woman. Is this the worst in this county's history?

COLE: Here again, that question was asked earlier. I am not going to compare one case to another, and call one worse than the other. It is certainly a serious case, a very unusual case, obviously, for a county this size. It is definitely one of the most unusual cases that we have dealt with.

MATTINGLY: Well, a county this size, a rural county, so many potential victims, so many families, people who know these families, a lot of people are personally affected by this case. What has been the response?

COLE: I think the response has been, actually, quite good. The law enforcement community, in this case, has responded incredibly well to put together this case, along with the assistance of the federal authorities, the FBI.

I think that the community here has responded as well as you could expect from something so serious and so frankly, frightening, to them as a result of their local hospital.

MATTINGLY: OK. Thank you very much. Tim Cole, district attorney here. It is spelled Montague, but pronounce it Montague County, Texas -- back to you in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: David Mattingly, thank you so much for that report.

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