Fil-Am doctor gets life sentence for murder in Georgia

A jury in Georgia found Filipino-American doctor Noel Chua guilty for the murder of his assistant and was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus five years. Chua, 46, is accused of the murder of 20-year-old James Carter III, An American whom the doctor allegedly prescribed drugs more than the allowed dosage in 2005. According to First Coast News, the jury handed its verdict after almost eleven hours of deliberations in the five-day hearing. Chua was found guilty of murder and seven out of 16 counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substance Act which accounted for the five-year conviction. During the closing arguments on October 19, the prosecution, showed before the jury, a pile of painkillers that included pills, patches, and nasal sprays, kept inside zip-locks that Chua prescribed to Carter. "I can't stress upon you more than events could, the responsibility you have to be the conscious of the community, to tell Camden County if this behavior is what you want," said prosecution Attorney Stephen Kelley. . Carter, a stay-in filing clerk at Chua’s clinic, was found dead in the doctor’s bathroom. The Fil-Am doctor was said to be treating Carter of his severe migraine but was not told that the man was also taking other drugs that he did not prescribe. The St. Marys doctor was arrested in September 2006. Chua’s indictment apparently listed 10 narcotics he prescribed to Carter over a three-month period before his death. "The tangled web Dr. Noel Chua weaved, he, Noel Chua, caused all this and is the architect of all this misfortune, all of this," Kelley said, adding that the prescription Chua gave to Carter was enough for someone who was recovering after a surgery. However, Defense Attorney Don Samuel pointed out that if Chua truly intended to kill Carter, he wouldn’t have affixed his signature on the prescriptions. "If Dr. Chua was a murderer or a drug dealer why does he keep any record why does he write his own name on prescriptions and write Jamie Carter on prescriptions," stressed Defense Attorney Don Samuel. "If he had taken prescriptions as prescribed and followed what was written on the bottle and followed the prescription he would not have died," Samuel added. The Florida Times-Union described that Chua sat erect and displayed no emotion when the verdict of the five-woman, seven-man jury was read to him on October 20. Meanwhile, Carter’s relatives were relieved after almost two years since the case has been heard in court. “I can say Justice was served. We got blood, murder off the street, “ said James Carter Sr., the victim’s grandfather on First Coast News. “We think the court done real good," an emotional James Carter Jr. said on his son’s case, “ I think [the jury] made the right decision." Chua’s lawyers were quoted as saying that they would appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Doctor Chua was born in Caloocan City and graduated from Far Eastern University in Manila. As Dr. Paul Bisnar, Chua’s schoolmate recalled in his blogsite: “During my medical student years, Dr. Noel Chua had an excellent reputation of being a brilliant young physician. The moment I read this news that he was incarcerated for almost a year now in the United States for a crime that he didn't commit, I felt flabbergasted and his plight deserves attention from our fellow Filipino doctors. Chua also excelled in his class which landed him in the 11th spot of the 1992 Philippine medical board exam. He worked for a time as a Christian missionary doctor in Palawan before flying off to the United States to get his master’s degree in health care policy and management from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received the highest honors in his graduate studies. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV