Doctor Gets Life in Wife's Murder

P A N A M A  C I T Y, Fla., April 17 -- A former medical examiner was sentencedtoday to life in prison without parole for at least 25 years forkilling his first wife with a lethal injection almost 10 years ago.

The jury that last month convicted Dr. William Sybers, 68, offirst-degree murder recommended the sentence, which the judgesaid he had little choice but to follow. The only other sentencepossible was death by lethal injection.

Sybers declined to make a statement before sentencing and showedno emotion when it was announced. His present wife, Judy, criedsoftly in the second row of the audience.

Circuit Judge Don T. Sirmons said by law a life recommendationmust be followed unless no reasonable person could agree with it.

After pronouncing the sentence, Sirmons told Sybers, "Good luckto you."

Sirmons denied a request by new defense lawyers, who also willhandle Sybers' appeal, to delay the sentencing. His prior defenseteam had announced plans for an appeal immediately after Sybers wasfound guilty.

'Well-Financed' Defense … And Appeal

A jury in Pensacola, where the trial was moved because ofextensive publicity in Bay County, convicted Sybers of killing hisfirst wife, Kay, 52, with a paralyzing drug on May 30, 1991, attheir home in nearby Panama City Beach.

Sybers, then the district medical examiner, ordered no autopsy,saying he was carrying out his wife's wishes. He reversed himselfthe next day when a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agentquestioned him, but the body had been embalmed and the autopsy wasinconclusive.

State Attorney Harry Shorstein, a governor-appointed specialprosecutor from Jacksonville, considers the decade-longinvestigation and prosecution to be perhaps the most difficult inFlorida's history.

"This case had every possible obstacle between the murder andconviction," Shorstein said when the jury made its sentencingrecommendation. "This was an unbelievably well-financed defense."

Sybers' family has acknowledged spending more than $2 million onthe case. Five new attorneys, including Harvard law professor AlanDershowitz, who was part of O.J. Simpson's legal team, have beenhired for the appeal.