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Supplemental Habeas Petition containing Two Orders
Supplemental Habeas Petition
Supplemental Habeas Petition Exhibits
Supplemental Habeas Petition Order
Supplemental Verified Habeas
Regarding Casora Toxicology
INTRODUCTION (for the complete Writ, a large PDF file, please click here.)
Petitioner, Sam Dubria, had a promising career ahead of him as a doctor who would help heal others; that is, until Jennifer Klapper's sudden unexplained death. Before the events that would change his life forever, Petitioner had dated Jennifer a few times while he was living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Just five days before the fateful event, Jennifer had boarded a plane from Ohio to California, and Petitioner picked Jennifer up at the airport in Los Angeles for a week vacation. They stayed at Petitioner's parents' home for the first few days, attending a Dodger baseball game, Universal Studios, sightseeing on Catalina Island, and attended a taping of the Johnny Carson show. While there, Petitioner's mother and cousin observed that Jennifer was very pale. Jennifer would be quick to chill after taking a shower, and developed purple blotches on her legs. She complained to them of headaches and vomited at least twice while staying with the Dubria family.
On August 15, 1991, Petitioner and Jennifer drove down the coast to San Diego County. They checked into the All Star Inn in Carlsbad after 11:00 p.m. According to Petitioner, they engaged in consensual sexual intercourse that night. Around 3:00 a.m., when Petitioner was in the bathroom, he heard a thud and found Jennifer on the floor. She had fallen out of bed; collapsed from what was later to be learned, a sudden cardiac arrest. Petitioner did everything he could to save Jennifer's life. He performed CPR and called 9-1-1 for help without delay.
The emergency rescue personnel and paramedics arrived at the motel room and performed aggressive CPR, attempting to save Jennifer's life. The rescue team promptly transported Jennifer to the hospital while she still exhibited a junctional heart rhythm at 80 bpm and 110 bpm before she arrived. Physioelectrical function was still present, but Jennifer was ultimately not revived and she was pronounced dead. There was no apparent medical explanation for her sudden cardiac arrest. The police and medical rescue personnel who arrived on the scene saw NO evidence of trauma, and did not smell any unusual odors. The police went to the hospital to view Jennifer's body. They found NO signs of trauma. The day after Jennifer expired, the Medical Examiner who performed Jennifer's autopsy, found NO cause of death.
As a physician, Petitioner felt helpless that he was unable to save Jennifer. Everyone, including Petitioner and his and her families, deserved a truthful objective medical investigation. After Jennifer died, Petitioner called Jennifer's family to ask if Jennifer had any previous medical problems. Jennifer's mother, Mary Lou Klapper,
replied no. She did not tell Petitioner that she had previously taken her daughter to an Ohio emergency room for rapid heartbeat (Tachycardia), that had begun while Jennifer was at rest. Neither did Mrs. Klapper tell Petitioner that Jennifer had experienced other episodes of sudden Tachycardia and Heart Palpitations. Petitioner was told that there was nothing wrong with Jennifer; that she was a normal, healthy young woman.
Several weeks after Jennifer's autopsy, and following a multitude of toxicology tests, a few toxicological samples tested positive for minute amounts of chloroform; not enough to kill Jennifer, but at most, to put her into a light anesthetic state, not unconscious and not enough to cause respiratory depression. The prosecution then
began a biased investigation to prove how the chloroform killed Jennifer. The prosecution's team searched the nation and outside the country to locate experts who would agree with their speculative hypothesis that the chloroform was "acute," since no chloroform was found in Jennifer's urine sample. Because there were such low levels
of chloroform, the prosecution speculated that Jennifer had to have succumbed when Petitioner administered the chloroform while she was asleep so he could "rape" her; Jennifer woke up, and a "struggle" ensued, causing an "autonomic imbalance" and an outpouring of adrenaline which killed her.
Before signing the death certificate as a homicide, the Medical Examiner failed to personally review and consider Jennifer's medical records. Petitioner was charged with the special circumstances rape-chloroform murder of Jennifer, even though (1) there was No evidence of rape trauma; (2) No one who assisted on the scene smelled any chloroform odor; (3) No one found any evidence of chloroform use or rags; and (4) No one observed any redness of Jennifer's skin, a symptom consistent with the prosecution's theory of forced chloroform inhalation during a struggle; and (5) No chloroform odor was noted in the emergency room and autopsy reports.
The San Diego Medical Examiner's Office, the Carlsbad Police Department, and the District Attorney's Office, agencies that are responsible for a thorough and objective investigation into Jennifer's death, began a zealous prosecution based on this most improbable theory - chloroform during a rape. They let Petitioner and the Dubria family down by their woefully inadequate investigation and biased prosecution. Sadly too, their rush to judgment, left Jennifer's family believing that her "mysterious" death was murder by a man that they had trusted with their daughter. No one was
encouraged to consider that there might be a medical reason for Jennifer's death.
Jennifer's family knew Petitioner. He had been to their home. Jennifer had met him at Good Samaritan Hospital in Ohio where Petitioner was a medical intern. In order to present their speculative rape-chloroform-murder theory, the prosecution withheld
critical medical record evidence - - evidence that Jennifer had previously suffered episodes of Tachycardia and Heart Palpitation, and had been chronically underweight. The prosecutor also allowed false testimony to be presented to the jury and permitted inferences to be drawn from that testimony that was material to Petitioner's conviction. The jury was falsely told that Jennifer's pants were observed to be on inside out when the Medical Examiner's investigator went to the hospital to retrieve Jennifer's body; that scratches and abrasions on Jennifer's face were caused by a struggle and could not
have been caused by CPR; and that Jennifer was a normal, healthy, young woman who died of NO apparent cause. That is because the prosecution woefully failed to consider an innocent explanation and another cause of death - - even though another reasonable cause of death was documented in Jennifer's medical records.
Most unusual and more than curious facts include the fact that the Medical Examiner files were sealed long before Petitioner's arrest and remained sealed until after he was convicted. Before Petitioner even went on trial, key prosecution witnesses who provided testimony became enamored in pre-trial publicity. They went on national television tabloid programs to discuss the case. Some of the same witnesses also
discussed the case with true crimes author, Wensley Clarkson, who published the Dubria story in his book entitled "Doctors of Death." Clarkson's book features a photograph of the Medical Examiner and describes her as: "Dr. Leena Jariwala, whose amazing skills as a coroner helped detect the chloroform in the body of Jennifer Klapper." After speaking with tabloid television and Clarkson, the prosecution
team had its theory, and no matter what, they would stick to it. The entire homicide medical-legal investigation lacked objectivity.
No prior court was made aware of Jennifer's Tachycardia/Heart Palpitation history. Fortunately for Petitioner, the legislature enacted Penal Code section 1054.9 in 2003, legislation which allows those under death penalty and Life without Parole sentences an opportunity to obtain post-conviction discovery. This allowed, for the first time, an investigation into the medical cause of Jennifer's sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Harry Bonnell was the Chief Medical Examiner who signed the autopsy report states:
"There was no mention in the Medical History portion of the report that the decedent, Jennifer Klapper, had an EKG [electrocardiogram of Klapper's heart] in 1989. It would have been important to have known about the EKG before autopsy and before signing off the autopsy report. It would have made a difference in how the autopsy was done and how a practitioner would testify."
During post-conviction discovery, on April 28, 2006, the District Attorney produced some of Jennifer's previous medical records that contained exculpatory evidence and a medical explanation for Jennifer's death. Petitioner was denied the right to a fair trial,
not by the good faith, unintentional or an unblameworthy mistake of a witness, but because those whose duty it was to see justice done neglected or ignored that duty.
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