Shed of murder rap, ex-examiner admits manslaughter, goes free
By Associated Press
Published May 13, 2003
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A former medical examiner accused of murdering his wife in 1991 was released Monday after the state decided not to try again to prove he killed the woman and hid the evidence by having her body quickly embalmed instead of autopsied.
Dr. William Sybers then pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Eight years was suspended and he was released because he has spent the last two years in prison from the first trial.
Sybers, who has cancer, had to pay $350,000 in court costs and will be on probation for eight years.
"I think I can go fishing and enjoy my family," Sybers said with a soft voice and tears in his eyes. "I had every intention of winning this case because I'm innocent. But I had to make a decision."
In a long-delayed trial, Sybers was convicted in March 2001 by a Pensacola jury of the first-degree murder of Kay Sybers with a lethal injection. The 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ordered a new trial in February.
State Attorney Harry Shorstein decided not to retry Sybers, even though pulmonary experts disagreed with a defense theory that Kay Sybers died from an asthma attack at their Panama City Beach home.
In a hearing Monday before Circuit Judge Don T. Sirmons, Shorstein said the plea agreement was in the best interest of the state, especially given the poor health of Sybers, 70 - he has bladder and lung cancer and heart problems.
"I believe as strongly as ever in the defendant's guilt," said Shorstein, of Jacksonville. "(But) I see the strong possibility that another ultimate court victory would result in little or even no incarceration, and I do not believe it is prudent to expend the state resources to win again at trial."
After his 52-year-old wife died, Sybers declined to order an autopsy until the body had been embalmed at a funeral home.
Sybers acknowledged to investigators that he caused two needle marks on his wife's arm but said they resulted from his attempt to take a blood sample because she was having chest pains. He said he threw the syringe away. It was never found.
Years later, a new laboratory procedure turned up what the state said was evidence of a lethal drug in tissue samples. The drug, succinylcholine, could have caused her to suffocate.
The original test was done by a private lab, then repeated by the FBI, which confirmed the findings but in only one piece of tissue.
However, the appellate court ruled the evidence was improper because the new test had not been verified by an outside expert.
Shorstein, a special prosecutor, told the jury Sybers killed his wife so he could be with his mistress, then Judy Ray, and avoid a costly divorce. The two wed in 1994 and lived in Canada.
"I don't understand what justice was done today, but at least he can go home," Judy Sybers said.
