Physician convicted on wife’s murder

An Ohio doctor accused of lacing his wife’s calcium supplement with cyanide so he could be with his mistress was convicted Friday of aggravated murder.

Jurors deliberated about 18 hours over three days before reaching a verdict in the case of Yazeed Essa, who was accused in the cyanide death of his wife, Rosemarie.

The courtroom in Cleveland, Ohio, was packed with Rosemarie Essa’s family members, many who broke into tears when the verdict was announced shortly after 1 p.m. ET.

Essa was an emergency room doctor in Akron but fled to Lebanon after his wife’s death. Last year, he gave up an extradition fight and was returned from Cyprus to Ohio. With Friday’s verdict, he now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

During deliberations, jurors asked Judge Deena Calabrese if they could break open a calcium capsule to determine whether that required any special skill or knowledge–a request the judge granted.

The trial included testimony from more than 60 witnesses who told the story of a philandering doctor, his many mistresses and an international manhunt that crossed three continents and ended with his arrest in Cyprus in October 2006, some 18 months after his wife’s death.

Defense attorneys pointed to a lack of physical evidence linking Essa to the tainted supplements and urged jurors not to convict him for his playboy lifestyle.

Two of Essa’s mistresses testified, one saying she never loved Essa and another saying she believed him when he promised to be her soul mate.

Rosemarie Essa’s friends said the 38-year-old mother of two and former nurse believed she was in a happy marriage. She was driving to the movies in the family Volvo when she felt ill, passed out and hit another vehicle before rolling to a stop against a curb.

She died at a hospital. An autopsy revealed more than four times the lethal amount of cyanide in her system. Nine cyanide-laced capsules were found in her calcium supplements.

Before she crashed, Rosemarie Essa called a friend from her car, prosecutor Anna Faraglia told jurors in her closing argument. Essa told the friend, Eva McGregor, that she was beginning to feel sick to her stomach and wondered if a supplement her husband had given her was making her ill.

McGregor testified for the prosecution. So did the two mistresses: Marguerita Montanez said that they often trysted at a local Motel 6 but that the relationship was just about sex, and Michelle Madeline said that she fell hard for Essa and that he appeared to be in love with her.

Essa’s defense suggested that other women were responsible for his wife’s death, but Essa did not not take the witness stand during the trial.

Another prosecutor, Steven Dever, played a video clip for the jury of Madeline testifying about how Essa said she’d fit into his family.

“He had spoken to me, and he had said, ‘You will be the only mommy that they remember.’ He said ‘Rosie’s parents will come to love you as a daughter.’ ”

Madeline also testified that she and Essa remained intimate after his wife’s death, even while she took care of his children.

Dever said the testimony clearly showed Essa’s motive.