Jury Reaches Verdict After 26 Hours In Trial Against MWC Doctor Accused Of Running A 'Pill Mill'

A Midwest City doctor was found guilty of one out of five second-degree murder charges on Friday.

Dr. Regan Nichols was accused of killing her patients through a deadly mix of prescription drugs.

The Oklahoma County jury deliberated for more than 26 hours before reaching a verdict.

A sequestered jury went back to work on only a few hours of sleep. County officials said some of them fell asleep in the courtroom overnight.

They had a short break on Friday before returning to one of the longest running deliberations in the history of the Oklahoma County courthouse.

“They’ve never told us they’re deadlocked,” said attorney Tommy Adler. “They’ve just told us they want to keep working.”

Adler has been representing Nichols for four years. He was hired to fight the murder charges state Attorney General Mike Hunter brought against the physician for the deaths of five of her patients.

Prosecutors accused the doctor of running a "pill mill" and claimed she showed a pattern of overprescribing that turned her patients into addicts. Some of them were taking hundreds to thousands of highly addictive pills a month.

Adler told jurors Nichols was not a murderer and cared deeply for each of her patients.

“We obviously believe very strongly in our case, “ said Adler. “We believe very strongly Dr. Nichols was a legitimate doctor, treating legitimate patients with legitimate, serious medical needs. We hope she’s vindicated.”

He knows that is the jury’s decision to make. A verdict that could set a precedence.

“Again, I think we’ve got a fantastic jury,” said Adler. “Their families should be proud of them; their community should be proud of them. The way they’ve paid attention, the way they’ve listened to the evidence and their endurance in working on this is extremely rare.”

Nichols was sentenced to 10 years in prison.