Examiner Guilty of Wife's Death

P E N S A C O L A, Fla., March 23 -- A jury found a former medical examinerguilty today of murdering his wife by lethal injection nearly 10years ago.

Dr. William Sybers looked down as the jury convicted him offirst-degree murder in the death of his wife, Kay.

Sybers' present wife, Judy, broke into tears, as Kay Sybers' twosisters hugged each other and cried.

During the trial, the governor-appointed special prosecutoralleged Sybers killed his wife on May 30, 1991 so he could marryhis mistress, which he did in 1994, and avoid losing at least halfof $6 million in joint assets through a divorce.

The 12-member jury began deliberating at 1:30 p.m. afterreceiving instructions from Circuit Judge Don T. Sirmons. The jurydeliberated less than six hours.

Reasonable Doubt Argument Fails

Defense lawyer John Daniel argued the case was riddled withreasonable doubt because of conflicting evidence over laboratorytesting, Kay Sybers' health and other facts.

"There's conflict after conflict after conflict," Daniel toldthe jury. "I'm asking you to see if there's a reasonable doubt.All it takes is one."

Sybers, 68, who has retired to Canada, was a district medicalexaminer and had a private pathology practice when his 52-year-oldwife died at their Panama City Beach home.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement began investigatingthe next day after a tip from a former colleague that Sybers hadordered no autopsy.

Sybers, who did not testify during the three-week trial, toldinvestigators he was abiding by his wife's wishes but subsequentlyagreed to an autopsy. By then, the body had been embalmed and theautopsy failed to detect a cause of death.

That changed in late 1999 when Dr. Kevin Ballard, director ofresearch and analytic toxicology at National Medical Service, aWillow Grove, Pa., laboratory devised a new way to find evidence ofsuccinylcholine, a drug used to paralyze patients during surgery,in embalmed tissue.

Paralysis Drug Detected 8 Years Later