A veterinarian was sentenced for giving a friend injections of tranquilizers leading to her death in a ruling handed down by the Hsinchu District Court on Monday.
Ou Chien-yu (歐千愉), the veterinarian, was accused of giving a woman injections of two types of tranquilizers that killed her.
The deceased, surnamed Chen (陳), was a married woman living with Ou.
Prosecutors in May last year indicted Ou on homicide charges, but she was sentenced to three years, two months in prison on the charge of being an accomplice to murder.
The district court found that Chen’s fingerprints were the only ones on the syringe, which it said indicated that Chen administered the final injection by herself.
The district court said Ou is able to appeal the ruling to the Taiwan High Court.
The ruling said that Ou knew that Zoletil is an animal anesthetic which should not be used on humans and propofol is an anesthetic which should only be used professionally and carefully, but that between Aug. 10 and Dec. 14, 2012, Ou gave Chen about 1,000 50ml doses of propofol on the grounds that Chen could not sleep.
The ruling said Ou should have known that giving injections of Zoletil and propofol at short intervals could cause shock or even death.
Chen had said that she wanted to move out and return to her husband, and the two women had argued, the ruling said.
At 8:30am on Dec. 14, Ou gave Chen a Zoletil injection and five minutes later she injected propofol into Chen’s body, the ruling said.
At 10:30am that day, Chen received two further injections, the ruling said, and she later died.
The ruling said Ou had denied that she wanted to kill Chen, but she did admit that she did not want Chen to leave.
As there were only Chen’s fingerprints on the syringe that administered the fatal dose, it followed that Chen gave the last injection to herself, the ruling said.
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