Henry Lucero Castro, 65, was admitted to Community Hospital of the Valleys in Perris on April 17, 1981, with chest, neck and arm pain; his physician suspected a myocardial infarction. Castro suffered a convulsive episode the night of April 17–18, was stabilized, and remained in the ICU. On the night of April 19–20 he began having violent seizures, went into respiratory and cardiac arrest, briefly recovered, then continued to have recurrent seizures and emergency interventions. He died at approximately 4:53 a.m. on April 20, 1981.

Afterward investigators found a preloaded lidocaine syringe with a far stronger concentration than labeled; MacDonald’s fingerprint was on the bolus. Testimony placed nurse Robert Rubane Diaz administering medication during Castro’s final hours and discarding a used syringe in an ordinary wastebasket. State experts concluded Castro received more than 1,000 milligrams of lidocaine shortly before death and a prosecution pathologist attributed the death to lidocaine poisoning; defense experts offered alternate medical explanations and contested the toxicology interpretation.

The case turned on competing expert opinions, the altered syringes, and witnesses about Diaz’s conduct that night. Does anyone have additional information about Castro’s final hours or the ICU staffing on April 19–20, 1981?