A doctor charged with murdering four people in Omaha, Nebraska, one of which fired him in 2001, was arrested in Illinois Monday and says he will not fight extradition.
Dr. Anthony J. Garcia, 40, is being held in a county jail in Southern Illinois and will return to Nebraska to face the charges of four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of use of a deadly weapon.
Garcia was a pathology resident at Creighton University in Omaha until Dr. Roger Brumback and Dr. William Hunter fired him in 2001 for erratic behavior. He is now being charged with murdering Dr. Brumback and his wife, both 65, in May. He is also charged with killing Dr. Hunter’s son, 11-year-old Thomas Hunter, and their housekeeper, 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, in 2008.
According to Chicago Tribune Garcia has not lived in Omaha since he was fired in 2001, but police have reason to believe that he has visited the area around the time that the killings took place. Police also say he fits the description of the serial killer.
After his residency at Creighton, Garcia started and soon after withdrew from a residency at University of Illinois at Chicago. He claims his reason for leaving was chronic migraines.
Garcia was also having trouble receiving a state medical license, which he needed to work anywhere else. The Louisiana board of medical examiners rejected his application in Feb. 2008, weeks before Thomas Hunter and their housekeeper were slain.
Denver Post reports that Garcia and his attorneys, Bob and Alison Motta, still claim he is innocent.
“My client steadfastly professes his innocence," said Bob Motta.
The Motta’s also say that Garcia did not fight extradition because he thought it could take weeks and he wanted to prove his innocence and move forward.