Although this resident physician has always protested his innocence, he was convicted of murder, the alleged motive being lust.
Samson (which was soon shortened to Sam) Dubria was born in 1963 to Pat and Lourdes Dubria in Glendale, California. A bright child, he went on to study at Rochester University in New York and the University of California before attending the George Washington School of Medicine.
By 1990, Sam was resident physician at a veterans hospital in New Jersey. Many of the nurses were attracted to his oriental good looks but he fell for Jennifer Klapper, who worked in the medical library. The beautiful young librarian explained to him that she had a boyfriend so only wanted a platonic relationship. The doctor readily agreed to this and often met the twenty-year-old for drinks after work.
In the summer of 1991, Sam asked her to accompany him on holiday but Jennifer wasn’t sure if this was a good idea and asked her parents for their input. They said that she was a sensible young woman and that she should trust her judgement, so Jennifer decided to go.
Sam drove her to meet his parents, who lived near Los Angeles, and they stayed overnight then drove on to an inn near San Diego. During the holiday, Jennifer made a lengthy, loving phone call to her boyfriend, a call that her friend Sam was aware of. Later, the prosecution and defence would have very different views of what happened on that fateful night of 16th August 1991.
The first that the authorities knew of any problem was when they received a call from the doctor, stating that his girlfriend had died suddenly. Paramedics arrived to find him desperately doing CPR but it was already too late. Sam said that he and Jennifer had enjoyed a sex session and that, shortly afterwards, she had collapsed.
Jennifer’s body was autopsied by Dr Leona Jariwala. She noted that the girl’s ski-pants were inside out, there was semen in her body and some marks on her face. Subsequent toxicology tests showed traces of chloroform. Determined to get a second opinion, the doctor sent further bodily samples to an independent laboratory and they too confirmed the results – that Jennifer had died of chloroform poisoning.
When detectives confronted the doctor, he said that he believed he’d driven to California behind a chemical lorry that contained chloroform. He said he’d felt dizzy during the drive.
In March 1992, Sam Dubria was arrested and stood trial for Jennifer’s murder. The prosecution alleged that he had chloroformed her in order to rape her, and that she had died accidentally during the sexual assault. The defence said that the 28-year-old doctor had had consensual sex with Miss Klapper, and that her death was a tragic accident.
In 1993, the doctor – still protesting his innocence – was sentenced to life imprisonment. His family immediately began a campaign to have him released. In the summer of 2007, his attorneys asked for his conviction to be set aside, stating that Jennifer Klapper had previously made hospital visits complaining of a rapid heartbeat – information that had been withheld from the court. They also stated that the chloroform allegedly found in samples from her body could have come about through contamination in the laboratory.
Britain witnessed a spate of drugged rapes by a male nurse in the late 1990s, which ultimately led to a murder charge. Kevin Cobb, who worked in the casualty unit of St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, injected several female patients with midazolam, a tranquilliser that causes short-term memory loss. When they were unconscious, he raped them, often striking late at night when the hospital was quiet.
He was friends with another nurse, Susan Annis, whom he secretly lusted after. One day, when they were on a residential nursing course together, he slipped a date rape drug into her drink. He accompanied her back to her room and raped her after she lost consciousness – but Susan had a bad reaction to the drug and died. Kevin told his fellow nurses that he’d desperately performed CPR but had been unable to save her; the 31-year-old woman was found to have a minor heart complaint and her sudden death was attributed to this. Kevin wept copiously at her funeral and everyone felt sorry for the man.
Unfortunately his friend’s demise wasn’t enough for him to stop his criminal acts and he raped another patient, who woke up during the sexual assault and was able to notify the authorities. They found midazolam in her system and Kevin was swiftly arrested. Traces of the drug were found in his pockets, and two other women came forward to make rape allegations against him, although he continued to protest his innocence.
In May 2000, the 38-year-old was convicted of manslaughter, two rapes and four counts of administering drugs with intent to rape. He was given seven life sentences. Police later said that they were convinced he had raped other patients but that the drug had impaired their memory of events.