SAN ANTONIO — A court- martial acquitted a former military nurse of murder Saturday after he was accused of giving lethal doses of painkillers to hasten the deaths of three terminally ill patients at the Air Force’s largest hospital.
Capt. Michael Fontana, wearing his Air Force uniform, showed no emotion as a military judge cleared him of three counts of murder, then collapsed into the arms of weeping family members inside a Lackland Air Force Base courtroom.
Military prosecutors had painted Fontana as a rogue and arrogant nurse who pumped patients full of fentanyl and morphine when they were not “dying quick enough.” After the ruling, Fontana said he never second-guessed his treatment or dosages.
“My intention the whole time was to take care of dying patients,” he said.
Fontana, 36, said he wants to return to nursing.
Seeing the verdict as a validation, Fontana said he hoped the ruling would serve as a lesson for others tasked with making sure the terminally sick are comfortable. One doctor testified in the court-martial that he worried the case would chill the use of painkillers on the gravely ill.
The hospital said Fontana will now undergo a clinical competency evaluation to determine whether he can return to being an Air Force nurse at the Wilford Hall Medical Center.
Fontana has been in the Air Force since 2006 and served a tour in Iraq in 2007.
