Lawyer for Ohio doctor accused of giving 14 patients lethal doses of fentanyl says his client was providing 'comfort care'

• An Ohio doctor who faces 14 murder charges maintained his innocence in court Tuesday.
• Dr. William Husel, whose medical license was suspended in 2019, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

An Ohio doctor who prosecutors say gave patients lethal doses of fentanyl, killing over a dozen people, maintained his innocence at the start of his criminal trial Tuesday, rejecting a last-minute opportunity for a plea deal.

The trial of Dr. William Husel, 46, began Tuesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus. He is charged with 14 counts of murder and previously pleaded not guilty.

Husel faces a life sentence if convicted of any of the 14 counts. Before opening statements began Tuesday, prosecutors offered Husel a possible plea deal, in which up to 10 of the counts could have been lessened to reckless homicide. Through his attorney, Husel declined, maintaining his innocence.

The patient deaths took place between February 2015 and November 2018. Husel, who worked at the Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, was pulled from patient care in 2018 and fired, NBC 4 reported.

His medical license was suspended in January 2019, according to NBC News. Following initial investigations into the fentanyl overdoses, the CEO of the Mount Carmel Health System stepped down, and nearly two dozen employees were fired, according to the report.

"What happened was tragic, and we've made a number of changes designed to prevent this from ever happening again in our health system. This situation does not reflect who we are as an organization or who our employees and physicians are," a Mount Carmel spokesperson said in a statement to Insider.

Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Janet Grubb said that while the patients varied in ages and medical conditions, Husel was the one common thread in their deaths.

"Several of them were not sick enough that they were destined to die during their hospitalization. They all had one thing in common," Grubb said.

"William Husel was the nighttime ICU physician who ordered lethal levels of drugs or a combination of drugs with a removal from a ventilator after their loved ones made the excruciating decision to withdraw care and remove them," she added.

Husel was initially charged with 25 counts of murder, but 11 charges were dismissed last month at the prosecution's request, according to WBNS 10, which reported most of the remaining 14 charges were related to patients who received at least 1,000 micrograms of fentanyl.

Husel's attorney, Jose Baez, said in his opening statements on Tuesday there is "no such thing as a medical murder case," adding that the case was "100% about comfort care."

"This is not a murder case, and it's far from it. William Husel was exercising compassion to his patients and tried to free them from pain and let their last moments on earth be ones of peace," Baez said.

Baez's office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

"Pain management in the living is very different from pain management in the dying," Baez added. "You have to get ahead of the pain as a person dies. You don't want to see them suffering and then address the issue."

The trial is expected to last for nearly two months, WBNS 10 reported.