Jury says ex-Hanford biologist injected a woman with insulin to rape her

A Pasco man is going to prison for at least 12 years after a jury found he injected a woman with a high dose of insulin and then violently raped her while she was incapacitated.

Jurors struggled through the deliberation process, but in the end dismissed James E. Bernhard’s claim that the insulin was given with her permission.

Bernhard, 41, was convicted Wednesday in Franklin County Superior Court of second-degree rape and second-degree assault with sexual motivation.

The jury, which had deliberated for about 20 hours since getting the case Friday afternoon, was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on a charge of first-degree assault. It is not known how they voted.

Judge Alex Ekstrom declared a mistrial on that count.

Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Astley can re-try Bernhard on the first-degree assault, but said it is highly unlikely that will happen.

The case is back in court Feb. 4 for a possible decision and to schedule sentencing.

Ordered held without bail

Bernhard was a wildlife biologist working at the Hanford nuclear reservation at the time of his arrest in April 2016.

He first faced a jury last fall, but the trial ended before testimony was done because three jurors had to be excused for different issues. That left only 11 jurors when the standard panel in a criminal case is 12.

This trial started Jan. 6 in the nearly 4-year-old case.

Bernhard had been out of custody on $100,000 bond, but was ordered to jail immediately following his convictions on the sex crimes.

“I respect the amount of time the jury deliberated on this case,” Astley told the Tri-City Herald. “I’ve never seen a jury spend 20 hours coming to a conclusion on any case that was not a homicide.”

She credited the guilty verdicts to the Pasco firefighters and paramedics for their emergency response that morning, the Kadlec Regional Medical Center doctors and nurses who cared for the victim and the Pasco police for their thorough investigation.

“I would say this is the most complicated and challenging case of my career, without hesitation,” added Astley.

She explained it was challenging because of “the nature of the parties involved, the fact that (the victim) was uncooperative, the fact that it was a circumstantial case as far as the physical evidence was concerned, and the conflicting stories from different individuals. There were a lot of different variables in this case.”

Woman testified for her attacker

The woman initially told police that she was in “great fear” of her attacker. But she later denied Bernhard did anything wrong, and testified on his behalf during the trial.

Paramedics responded to a home at 3:30 a.m. April 11, 2016, to find the woman in the shower bleeding profusely with bruises on her face and head.

Her blood-sugar level reportedly was so low that it did not register on a paramedic’s meter.

What initially was believed to be a diabetic episode led to emergency surgery to stop the bleeding after Kadlec doctors discovered severe sexual assault cuts.

Medical staff said she lost about half of the blood in her body.

The woman told investigators at the time that she believed she was injected with an excess amount of insulin while sleeping. That left her vulnerable and defenseless in a coma-like state, said Astley.

Blamed diabetes and alcoholism

Defense attorney Shelley Ajax described it as a “medically complex case” and told jurors in opening statements that all they really knew was the woman had a seizure while in the shower.

She said what led up to that or what happened is the unknown.

Ajax told jurors the woman failed to take care of herself, with her diabetes, alcoholism and other medical issues.

The lawyer declined to comment to the Herald after the verdicts.

On Tuesday, the third day of deliberations, jurors sent a note to Judge Ekstrom saying they were at an impasse.

Ekstrom was about to bring the panel into the courtroom and ask if they were hopelessly deadlocked when the jury sent another another note they were going to continue.

The second-degree assault conviction is for the actual insulin injection, while the first-degree assault was for intentionally causing a near-death situation.

4 years mandatory

Astley said the jury met with the judge after the verdicts were read, but did not stay to speak with the lawyers.

Her interpretation of the decision on the two separate assault charges is the jury believed Bernhard intended to inject the woman, but did not intend to hurt her as bad as he did.

Bernhard is facing 12 to 15 years in prison for the second-degree rape, and three years for the second-degree assault. The time will be served together.

However, since he was convicted of committing the assault with sexual motivation, he faces a mandatory two years on each count.

That four-year term will have to be served without any credit for good time before he completes the rest of his sentence, said Astley.

She did not yet know how much time she will recommend at his sentencing.

This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 4:20 PM.