BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The manslaughter trial for the former administrator of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills continued on Thursday.
Although 12 patients died at the Broward County nursing home following Hurricane Irma in 2017, Jorge Carballo was charged with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled person.
The state has more than 70 witnesses and 35 video clips to present to a jury of six people. With this evidence, they hope to show that the administrator was negligent.
Twelve deaths at the center had been ruled homicides.
The calls were made on Sept. 10, 2017, moments after Hurricane Irma swept through South Florida.
According to authorities, patients began dying at the rehabilitation center days after the devastating hurricane struck South Florida amid widespread power outages.
The state says the fault lies with Carballo -- an administrator and CEO of the center because he failed to act accordingly, getting the elderly residents the help they needed when temperatures rose to what witnesses said was more than 108 degrees.
The state says Carballo instead went home.
Investigators said the center did not evacuate patients as temperatures inside began rising, even though a fully functional hospital was across the street.
Emmanuella Destin, a CNA at Hollywood Hills Rehabilitation Center, testified on Thursday, telling the court that she complained to a staff coordinator that the conditions were too unbearable to work.
“I was telling (them) what they can do for her because it was so hot (and) we are sweating--that is not the condition that people should have to work,” she said.
Mark Miller, a maintenance worker at the rehabilitation center, appeared in court to describe how he placed portable air units throughout the first and second floors venting them into the ceiling.
While the worker believed he was helping, the defense argued that he may have been raising the temperature instead.
“Did you ever think that doing that was wrong? Vented it in the ceiling?” a prosecutor asked Miller.
“No sir. I did it before with them and that is how they do it,” he responded.
Jurors were also shown images of victims’ bodies at the scene, which were later examined by the Broward Assistant Medical Examiner at the time, Dr. Wendolyn Sneed.
“This patient has a temperature of 109.9 Fahrenheit,” she said.
With multiple elderly victims coming to her office from the rehabilitation center, Sneed learned that the center lost power to its chiller, information that she said assisted in determining the cause of death in several patients.
“My opinion is that this is heat stroke due to environmental heat exposure,” she said.
Carballo is facing nine counts of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly or disabled person.
If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison on each count.