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More Details Released In Jay Murder By Morphine Overdose
June 20, 2011
More details have been released in the manslaughter arrest of a Jay man in connection with the Christmas Day 2010 death of a woman that was reportedly injected repeatedly with morphine.
Michael Sanford, 45, was charged late last week with manslaughter for the death of Patsy Jean Wright, 55, who died December 25, 2010. Sanford remains in the Santa Rosa County Jail with bond set at a half million dollars.
The incident leading up to Wright’s death began Christmas Eve at Sanford’s home on Bullard Road outside Jay.
An autopsy was conducted and showed several needle marks present on Wright’s body. The cause of her death was listed as the combined effects of acute morphine intoxication, acute pneumonia and morbid obesity. The manner of death was listed as homicide.
Wright’s son, 32-year old Kevin Michael Thompson, told investigators that he went with his mother on her doctor’s appointment at Jay Hospital and accompanied her to Jay Pharmacy to have her prescription for 100 mg morphine tablets filled. They then drove to Sanford’s residence on Bullard Road so that Wright could get “shot up” with her morphine.
Thompson said Sanford retrieved a black tackle box with duct tape on top of it. It contained spoons, syringes and what was described as other drug paraphernalia. Sanford used the spoons and a liquid substance to dissolve the morphine into a liquid and place it into a syringe. Wright’s arms were tied to the legs of the chair with white cloth strips, as Thompson said he watched as Sanford injected the morphine into the veins on his mother’s hand. Wright immediately fell asleep about 2:30 p.m.
At 5:30 p.m., Wright was still asleep and unable to talk as Thompson watched Sanford prepare another morphine injection. Micheal Sanford’s father — Rufas Sanford — told Thompson that he had witnessed Sanford inject Wright three time prior to the 5:30 injection. Thompson told deputies that he begged someone to call 911 for his mother, but they had no phone and they were unable to find Wright’s phone.
Thompson said he left his mother as he went to town with Rufus Sanford to get something to eat about 4 a.m. the following day. He said Wright was still breathing at the time, but when he returned to the Bullard Road home he found that EMS had transported to his mother to Jay Hospital where Wright had already died.
Thompson said Sanford pulled his aside and told him “don’t tell anyone how I cook the pills, or shoot them up”.
At the hospital, Rufus Sanford told deputies about the morphine injections given by her son and Wright was unconscious at the time.
Another witness in the residence at the time of the injections, Rachel Crawley, described to investigators how Wright was passed out during the injections. She told deputies that Sanford burned all of the syringes, spoons, pill bottles and related paraphernalia in a burn barrel in his back yard.
Witness Jeremy Weeks told sheriff’s investigators that he went to the home on Christmas Eve to visit with Crawley. He said he observed Wright tied to a kitchen chair and that he moved her to a recliner. He said he told Thompson to take all of Wright’s medications and lock them in the trunk of his car. Weeks said Sanford was passed out during the time of his visit.
Sanford first denied that he ever injected Wright, but then admitted to Santa Rosa Sheriff’s investigators that he remembered injecting her twice after cooking down the morphine. He said Wright was awake and requested the injections each time. During a later interview, he admitted that he was also injecting himself during the incident, and that it was possible that he had injected her additional times.
Sanford told deputies, “As far as I know, I’m telling you the truth. I was was messed up too”, according to the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office report.
Comments
26 Responses to “More Details Released In Jay Murder By Morphine Overdose”
Wrong again, Joe. While they do make money off of premiums, they do not make money off of medications, at least not under workers’ comp. I’ve seen companies sell off their workers’ comp divisions because of losing money.
Neither does medicare make any money I am assuming.
A lot of people defraud these two entities (work comp & Medicare) at the expense of the people who really need it.
A medicare premium comes off my paycheck every pay period and again assuming some of it goes to cover the fraud of people who don’t really need it or deserve it.
I think all should be held for this for not doing anything to stop it, so there was no phone, but there was a way to go get something to eat, did not even consider going for help then, and they make a liquid form all she had to do was request this instead of the pill form, I think they all was shooting up and just gave this one an overdose, if they wouldn’t doing wrong themselves they would have gotten some help for this lady.
Re: “Sorry but the pharmaceutical companies & suppliers make the money. Insurance companies lose money in this situation.”
this is completely incorrect, if the insurance companies lost money they would no longer be in business. their entire purpose is to make money, not for the good of man kind.
They are a business’s not charities.
I am having a hard time with the people ther watching, especially the son! WTH! Doing drugs is bad enough but to watch as your Mother is “shot Up” and then not doing anything about it when she passes out and then —Thompson said he left his mother as he went to town with Rufus Sanford to get something to eat about 4 a.m. the following day.—–WTH?!?!?! Charge his his useless butt as well.
I know this is going to sound harsh but it is what it is. You can try and paint it and or turn it anyway you want but it is a drug problem and big time. It just happens so she had a RX for the drug and so where did she go immediately after getting the drugs? Riight to a flop house where that is all they were doing and not only that had it injected for her. I am sadened that she died from it but again you can not make it out to be anymore or less that what is was. And that is a buch of drug addicts doing drugs.
I can not blame insurnce companies or doctors there are fine lines there when the patient has a problem medically and the doctor is treating them. The doc does not have any way of knowing what there are doing after they leave his or her office. To say the insurance companies are making a fortune off the meds is absurd. They make no monies as someone pointed out in another response on here. The just get to pay for the meds. The supplier is the one who makes the monies. The insrurance company does however make money on the premium. But guess where the premium comes from “use” and in covering drugs and other abuses and so on. Then you wonder why you medical insurance cost so much. Wake up people get your heads out of the sand!
REGARDING:
“- – - it doesn’t sound reasonable to me that they would “kill the goose that laid the golden egg” intentionally – - – ”
On the other hand, if they were completely reasonable, they’d've never gotten on recreational drugs in the first place. Then when they were using them, they would’ve been even less reasonable. Much the same way as taking say a month’s supply of pain killers and using them in a single sitting isn’t completely reasonable, not unless the object was to end the pain permanently.
David in a sometimes unreasonable world
Sorry to disagree with you on the insurance companies, but especially in workers’ comp they have to try to keep the cost down. They pay on a fee schedule similar to medicare. How is driving the cost up helping the insurance company who has to pay for the meds? Sorry but the pharmaceutical companies & suppliers make the money. Insurance companies lose money in this situation. They make money on premiums that are too high, but not paying out on medical.
Oxycontin was available in generic form for a short while, but is now back to only name brand.
I’ve never seen a RX for name brand under $1,100.00 & can be as much as $1,600.00 for a months supply. This cost the insurance company pays. The supplier makes the money. That is a no-brainer. The cost can fluctuate by that much because the pharmacies have to get it from whatever pharmaceutical company/supplier has it available at the time the pharmacy needs it.
I don’t blame this doctor in this situation. I mostly blame the victim. She chose that path & it’s sad that it ended up where it did. But hopefully the remaining alive ones will go to jail.
If those druggies had someone that could go to a doctor and get morphine , it doesnt sound reasonable to me that they would “kill the goose that laid the golden egg” intentionally. They probably tied her up because they were stealing all her drugs and accidently OD’ed her, (by giving her what they thought was her “share”). I agree that they all should be charged. The storey sounds fishy.
The doctor can’t be blamed for what they did. Way too many times I see people in pain who are not adequately treated, mostly because doctors are frightened to prescribe because of these kind of problems. But on the other hand when the family goes to the doctor and tells him that someone is overdoing it or abusing he,the doc, needs to listen and investigate , use some common sense.
I also think that eab is right don’t believe anything from the insurance people, they will do what ever is cost effective for them including letting you have drugs that bring about your death quicker than if you tried to stay healthy, but lingered for another 40 years costing them money. And if you don’t believe it just look at what has happened with the pharmaceutical companies lately and how many drugs they have had to take back off the market. Big money DOES NOT have our best interests in mind.
So yes all that points to is cleaning out the gene pool and if you want to do drugs then you are just not high on the list of people who will survive.
eab you are right about end of life drugs being under prescribed. I had a friend with a very painful and terminal disease. The only thing that gave her SOME relief was oxycontin. But, in the last couple of months of her life the doctor took her off of it because he didn’t want her to be on it so long that she got addicted. Who Cares! She was dieing and because of their decision suffered a lot more than necessary. Why not use common sense?
whitepunknotondope said…”My Mother had terminal liver cancer and she was prescribed morphine by her oncologist so that she could bear the pain while choosing to die at home.
That answers your question.”
I said…Thank you for sharing that. It is true that a lot of drugs are over prescribed in this country. Sleeping pills, pain pills, whatevr the drug de jure happens to be at the moment. We use alcohol to excess, nicotine, caffeine and many others.
I am in the medical field myself and one place I do not believe drugs use or prescribing is overdone is with end of life issues. A person who has come to the end of their time should be able to get what they want/need for their pain. This is actually an area where I believe meds are under prescribed if anything.
I also gotta say it’s not my intention to upset anyone but I would not take the word of an insurance company for *anything* when it involves a payment they are responsible for.
It’s hard to believe some people actually choose to live their lives this way.
This death was tragic and preventable. The Jay I remember would have run these people down hwy 4, the Jay I knew would not abide by this. There is a lesson here.
jayeducator: “Who was the doctor who prescribed the morphine tablets and why would anyone outside of a hospital setting need them?”
My Mother had terminal liver cancer and she was prescribed morphine by her oncologist so that she could bear the pain while choosing to die at home.
That answers your question.
I totally agree with Teri S. all are guilty and most of all the doctor,there ruining so many lives and the family. We deal with the same problem with a family member and we’ve sent letters to the doctor and called and talked to him and nothings been done and he is perscribing way to much meds. for any one person without OD-ing!!! Where do you get the help to stop the doctors?
This is a very bizarre story. It seems like a lot of facts are missing or are being witheld for various reasons. I agree with many here, that all those present are guilty to some degree.
this is a very bizzare scenario…..one, out of MANY, things that perplex me is: why was it necessary to tie the deceased to the chair?….very fishy story…hhmmmm
.
I work in insurance claims and see a lot of people get morphine pills. I would not venture to guess why this woman would be getting the morphine pills, but obese people generally have back problems and/or blown out knees and they get it for the pain.
Medications are overly prescribed and overly used, but once they get hooked on it they don’t want off of it.
Most of the time if they really cared about their health they would try to lose weight, think about the damage to their liver, etc.
I once had a doctor tell me that a claimant was not an “addict” because he was not trying to get the drugs on the streets. REALLY??!! More than a few of “addicts” are on prescription medications & paid for by insurance.
A lot of fraud and at the expense of people trying to maintain insurance for the right reason, the cost goes up.
Who was the doctor who prescribed the morphine tablets and why would anyone outside of a hospital setting need them? We have doctors prescribing way too many pain prescriptions and creating these situations.
I hate to see this kind of waste. As for the son of this woman and his
actions, how would a kid turn out who was raised by someone like this.
This whole CHRISTMAS incident is a disgrace to the human race.
Everyone there should be very proud of themselves.
I hate to say it, but not one of those people understood the meaning
of CHRISTMAS. I hope they all go to jail DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL.
All guilty including the woman who went there and asked to be shot up……I believe since she wanted to go there for that reason she must have been somewhat lucid when she asked and more than likely was not the first time….
Joe;evidently there was no one at the house at the time that were in their right mind.All of them who witness this should be held accountable as to her death.When you are in a car with someone who commits a robbery you are also guilty.Jeremy Weeks must be a big guy if he can move an obese dead weight person from a chair to the recliner! They are all guilty here as well as the doctor who prescribed the morphine.
What a shame, what I would like to know why would any doctor prescrip morphine for someone who only had a case of acute pneumonia and was morbidly obesit.
Let all these people “shoot ” each other up with drugs and get out of the gene pool and off my tax dollars!!!
Each person that witnessed this and did nothing should be charged
my only question is out of all these people that witnessed him injecting her multiple times, why did no one do anything? and the son said he asked people to call 911 and then they went to town to eat…hello what restaurant/store doesn’t have a phone? or they could have stopped ANYWHERE to make and emergency call??? surprised the witnesses haven’t been charged with neglect!!! They should be quilty for not doing anything!!
who in their right mind takes their mother to get “shot up” with drugs?
who in their right mind would leave her there to go to town to eat?
these people need some serious help, and all of them should be charged as Accessories as any of them could have stopped it and or called for help and possibly prevented her death.